EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Dec. 7, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
The Gymnasium had a postseason feel to it Thursday night.
Fans, athletes and police filled the arena's blue bleachers and erupted with applause when the Contra Costa College women's basketball team came onto the court.
The game against intra-district rival Los Medanos College would finish the first night of the 18th annual Comet Classic tournament and was the home opener for the Comets.
All the bodies in the crowd — from college President McKinley Williams to a number of former and current Comets of various CCC teams — were there to support the Comets and try to make up for the absence of one man.
The 0-2 home team was about to enter the tournament with thoughts more important than getting its first win of the 2011-12 season.
This game was about rallying support for a team trying to rebound from heavy loss.
It was the team's first game since the Comets lost consecutive games at the Mission College on Nov. 11-12.
It was the first game since guard Jamie Capoot's father was killed on Nov. 17.
And it came just one day after Officer James Capoot's emotional funeral service at Vallejo High School, where he coached the girl's basketball team to a section championship.
Capoot, a 19-year veteran of the Vallejo Police Department, died Nov. 15 when a bank robbery suspect shot and killed the 45-year-old former Marine.
Jamie said her dad was not only her biggest cheerleader, but also taught her how to play ball at 10 years old.
"It was totally different," Capoot said Friday after the Comets were eliminated from the tournament after losing two games. "My dad was my biggest fan. For him not to be here is really tough."
Capoot led the Comets all weekend, finishing with 27 points against LMC and 30 against the Saints. She shot 14-20 from the free-throw line against the Mustangs and 16-19 on Friday.
Because of those performances, she made the all-tournament team.
The Comets lost both their games this weekend, however. The Mustangs went on to the semi-finals with a 64-47 win over CCC and Mission beat the Comets in the consolation bracket, 88-69.
But the outcome was merely secondary to the emotional battles the Comets have been going through since ending practice two weeks ago with news of the death of Capoot's father.
And as she left campus after Friday night's loss to the Saints, ending the Comets' play in the tournament, she cradled the blue and gold all-tournament trophy she won in her left arm and fought back tears after an emotional three days. She then smiled while talking about being able to get on the court again.
"Considering the circumstances, (playing) was fun," Capoot said wearing one of the many memorial T-shirts made since her father's death. "It's outstanding how much support my family's had the last two weeks."
CCC women's basketball players, and close to 50 former Comets and coaches, stood side-by-side stretching across the baseline during a pregame ceremony to honor James Capoot, many wearing shirts with "RIP Jim Capoot VPD 497" on the front to honor the badge number Capoot wore.
There were signs honoring him on both ends of the court, including a hand-painted sign that read, "Ooh-Rah Capoot!" one of the family's favorite U.S. Marine Corps yells, hanging under the American flag, appropriately enough.
This is a favorite slogan of his middle daughter Jamie, 21, who ended her statement at her father's memorial on Wednesday, "Semper Fi, devil dog. Ooh-rah."
For the women's basketball team, this season has become about more than wins and losses.
This year, with a six-player team and starting the season 0-4, making the playoffs is improbable.
This season is now about a team staying together through each game and not giving up on each other.
These Comets, with a championship pedigree, are held to a high standard and this obstacle for the team is immeasurable. But, as they say in the Marines, "No excuses, sir."
It was an attitude Jim Capoot taught his daughters.
The team is going to stick it out and charge on, Jamie Capoot said, "Like my dad always told me to."
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Bond funds GA lift project
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Dec. 7, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Installation of an elevator in the 40-year-old Gym Annex Building is scheduled for next year, finally making its second floor accessible to students with disabilities.
Half a million dollars from the 2002 Measure A bond will go to putting a prefabricated lift in the northwest corner of the GA Building, by the tennis courts, district Projects Manager Burl Toler said.
He said it's been an idea floating around for years, but only in the last five to six months has it been seriously considered.
"Finally we've had an architect do design work," he said.
Contra Costa College Buildings and Grounds Manager Bruce King said the all-in-one elevator unit will be "easier to shove in" on the side of the building by the tennis courts and have the project completed before fall 2012.
The GA Building is the only two story building on campus without an elevator and one classroom on the top floor, GA-50, is used by the physical education department to hold lecture-based classes needed to transfer or graduate.
Yasuko "Sue" Abe, disability support services manager, said two Health Education 120 courses, required for transfer to UC and CSU, were relocated this semester because GA-50 was inaccessible.
"I don't think there should be a barrier just because you have a physical disability," said ASU President Rodney Wilson, who serves on the Measure A Citizen's Oversight Committee. "You have the same rights as someone fully able-bodied."
This has been an issue since the college began holding classes in the building, but the number of the courses held in that room has been changed to accommodate mobility-impaired students.
In fall 2007, six of the eight health education sections at CCC were held in GA-50.
As an alternative, the course is held in other large lecture rooms, including LA-100 and in the Music Building.
However, the M Building is under construction this semester and its sections were moved to the Humanities Building left vacated by student services moving to its new building.
"We didn't have a choice (in classrooms this semester)," Abe said.
Physical education department Chairperson Beth Goehring teaches one of the two courses moved from GA-50 and said the installation of an elevator in the building will be wonderful.
"I've been requesting one (elevator) for at least 10 years," she said. "We have a classroom we are using for lecture for health, but it is difficult for some students to make it up the stairs without an elevator."
Goehring said most offices in the building are located on the second floor as well, increasing the level of difficulty for students to reach their professors during office hours.
Interim Vice President Donna Floyd said there is more to getting the elevator installed than just shoving it into place, but remains optimistic it will be completed on schedule.
She said the steps to completion include a bidding process, approval by the Governing Board and then construction.
"I'm hoping that it is a little bit more than just the elevator," she said. "But I don't think we have the budget to support the design that includes a redesign of the building the elevator will be on."
These plans include architectural changes to the GA Building to extend the current roofline to accommodate the elevator shaft as well as a ramp into the building.
"It is important that we provide access for all of our students and make the building more accessible," Floyd said.
Installation of an elevator in the 40-year-old Gym Annex Building is scheduled for next year, finally making its second floor accessible to students with disabilities.
Half a million dollars from the 2002 Measure A bond will go to putting a prefabricated lift in the northwest corner of the GA Building, by the tennis courts, district Projects Manager Burl Toler said.
He said it's been an idea floating around for years, but only in the last five to six months has it been seriously considered.
"Finally we've had an architect do design work," he said.
Contra Costa College Buildings and Grounds Manager Bruce King said the all-in-one elevator unit will be "easier to shove in" on the side of the building by the tennis courts and have the project completed before fall 2012.
The GA Building is the only two story building on campus without an elevator and one classroom on the top floor, GA-50, is used by the physical education department to hold lecture-based classes needed to transfer or graduate.
Yasuko "Sue" Abe, disability support services manager, said two Health Education 120 courses, required for transfer to UC and CSU, were relocated this semester because GA-50 was inaccessible.
"I don't think there should be a barrier just because you have a physical disability," said ASU President Rodney Wilson, who serves on the Measure A Citizen's Oversight Committee. "You have the same rights as someone fully able-bodied."
This has been an issue since the college began holding classes in the building, but the number of the courses held in that room has been changed to accommodate mobility-impaired students.
In fall 2007, six of the eight health education sections at CCC were held in GA-50.
As an alternative, the course is held in other large lecture rooms, including LA-100 and in the Music Building.
However, the M Building is under construction this semester and its sections were moved to the Humanities Building left vacated by student services moving to its new building.
"We didn't have a choice (in classrooms this semester)," Abe said.
Physical education department Chairperson Beth Goehring teaches one of the two courses moved from GA-50 and said the installation of an elevator in the building will be wonderful.
"I've been requesting one (elevator) for at least 10 years," she said. "We have a classroom we are using for lecture for health, but it is difficult for some students to make it up the stairs without an elevator."
Goehring said most offices in the building are located on the second floor as well, increasing the level of difficulty for students to reach their professors during office hours.
Interim Vice President Donna Floyd said there is more to getting the elevator installed than just shoving it into place, but remains optimistic it will be completed on schedule.
She said the steps to completion include a bidding process, approval by the Governing Board and then construction.
"I'm hoping that it is a little bit more than just the elevator," she said. "But I don't think we have the budget to support the design that includes a redesign of the building the elevator will be on."
These plans include architectural changes to the GA Building to extend the current roofline to accommodate the elevator shaft as well as a ramp into the building.
"It is important that we provide access for all of our students and make the building more accessible," Floyd said.
Opinion: Fat dependency
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Dec. 7, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Happiness only costs $1.
It can be found under the golden arches with over a billion served, and is available in all flavors.
Ice keeps it chilled and if there is not enough to quench one's thirst, there are free refills.
And customers can never have enough as they walk away feeling temporarily euphoric and satisfied. But they'll be back.
The quick smile from that first hot, salty french fry becomes a look of disgust as fast food addicts wonder why they continue to shove the potato sticks down their gullet.
The craving may have started as an annual treat, but a craving becomes a habit and, before long, it becomes an addiction.
Tasting, chewing, and smelling specific flavors release certain chemicals in the brain, creating a chemical dependence similar to drugs like cocaine.
The salty, fatty, sugary instant regret that is fast food is a key contributor in childhood obesity not because of the toys it offers with its kids meals, but because the grease-soaked dish with the iced sugar water is received in the brain as a happiness meal.
As humans evolved, grazing their ways across the continents, their tongues also adapted to different flavors.
The tongue has a particular affinity for salts, sugars and fats.
When ingesting food with these particular flavors, John Hopkins University neuroscience professor David Linden wrote earlier this year, the brain's pleasure centers overload with dopamine when eating energy-dense, fatty and sugary foods.
This is the same reaction from stimulants.
These pleasure signals are received as highly rewarding and, in turn, become addicting.
It has become so easy to get that fix, it is no wonder childhood obesity and diabetes has increased in recent years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Not only do adults go out for a quick Coke and fries before bed, but some will bring their children along.
When that kid's meal comes out, though, it has major affects on that child's development.
Not only does the meal provide no nutritional benefit, it reinforces the addictive behavior, especially when combined with a caffeinated drink, another stimulant drug.
The high sugar content in the soft drinks, food and condiments, create a chemical dependence.
When a person habitually drinks caffeinated beverages or eats foods high in fat or sugar, one can experience withdrawal symptoms, including headache and irritability within 12 hours and they can last up to five days.
Introducing children to these chemicals at a young age is dangerous.
Whether it is fast food, candy or sodas, refined sugars have a negative impact on a growing body and mind.
Raising children in a world of late-night drive-thru pleasure windows is positive reinforcement of addiction.
The nutritional benefits are non-existent, but it also creates a culture of conditioning.
Instead of eating a piece of fruit or a vegetable, which has the nutrients all humans, young and old, need to survive, drive down to the local burger shack for a milkshake because it will make one feel better.
Although natural foods have natural sugars, glucose, in them, the flavors taken in provoke a response greater than the purest honey could aspire.
Fast food addiction has a number of health risks attached to it.
Obesity, diabetes and heart issues are the most prominent, but depression, withdrawal and acne also surface as a result of the addiction.
These are contrary to the environment in which children should be raised.
Fast food has become an American staple and its industry knows how to attract and retain new customers each day.
They keep showing up younger each day because the price of happiness is cheap and the result is so sweet.
Happiness only costs $1.
It can be found under the golden arches with over a billion served, and is available in all flavors.
Ice keeps it chilled and if there is not enough to quench one's thirst, there are free refills.
And customers can never have enough as they walk away feeling temporarily euphoric and satisfied. But they'll be back.
The quick smile from that first hot, salty french fry becomes a look of disgust as fast food addicts wonder why they continue to shove the potato sticks down their gullet.
The craving may have started as an annual treat, but a craving becomes a habit and, before long, it becomes an addiction.
Tasting, chewing, and smelling specific flavors release certain chemicals in the brain, creating a chemical dependence similar to drugs like cocaine.
The salty, fatty, sugary instant regret that is fast food is a key contributor in childhood obesity not because of the toys it offers with its kids meals, but because the grease-soaked dish with the iced sugar water is received in the brain as a happiness meal.
As humans evolved, grazing their ways across the continents, their tongues also adapted to different flavors.
The tongue has a particular affinity for salts, sugars and fats.
When ingesting food with these particular flavors, John Hopkins University neuroscience professor David Linden wrote earlier this year, the brain's pleasure centers overload with dopamine when eating energy-dense, fatty and sugary foods.
This is the same reaction from stimulants.
These pleasure signals are received as highly rewarding and, in turn, become addicting.
It has become so easy to get that fix, it is no wonder childhood obesity and diabetes has increased in recent years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Not only do adults go out for a quick Coke and fries before bed, but some will bring their children along.
When that kid's meal comes out, though, it has major affects on that child's development.
Not only does the meal provide no nutritional benefit, it reinforces the addictive behavior, especially when combined with a caffeinated drink, another stimulant drug.
The high sugar content in the soft drinks, food and condiments, create a chemical dependence.
When a person habitually drinks caffeinated beverages or eats foods high in fat or sugar, one can experience withdrawal symptoms, including headache and irritability within 12 hours and they can last up to five days.
Introducing children to these chemicals at a young age is dangerous.
Whether it is fast food, candy or sodas, refined sugars have a negative impact on a growing body and mind.
Raising children in a world of late-night drive-thru pleasure windows is positive reinforcement of addiction.
The nutritional benefits are non-existent, but it also creates a culture of conditioning.
Instead of eating a piece of fruit or a vegetable, which has the nutrients all humans, young and old, need to survive, drive down to the local burger shack for a milkshake because it will make one feel better.
Although natural foods have natural sugars, glucose, in them, the flavors taken in provoke a response greater than the purest honey could aspire.
Fast food addiction has a number of health risks attached to it.
Obesity, diabetes and heart issues are the most prominent, but depression, withdrawal and acne also surface as a result of the addiction.
These are contrary to the environment in which children should be raised.
Fast food has become an American staple and its industry knows how to attract and retain new customers each day.
They keep showing up younger each day because the price of happiness is cheap and the result is so sweet.
Tuition jumps evident as state raises fees
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Dec. 7, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
For decades, higher education in California was seen as a right to its residents.
Students graduated from high school, which they went to for free, and went on to one of the two four-year university systems in the state paying low tuition fees, or they could go to a two-year college before transferring, cost free.
But those days are long gone as the cost of attending college continues to climb year-to-year.
Community college fees are presently at $36 a unit and will likely be raised to $46 by summer 2012, and this year, for the first time, California State Universities received more funding from student tuition than state allocations.
This trend began during a dip in the state economy in 1983, five years after California's tax revolution and the passing of Proposition 13 in 1978, when the state Community College Board of Governors started exploring ways to fill the revenue gap.
The quick solution was to charge all the students coming to the classroom an emergency fee until a turnaround in the economy.
Art department Chairperson John Diestler, who has been in the California community college system as a student and professor since before the fee implementation, said everyone looked at California and wanted its system in their states.
"We were the envy of the country, but it wasn't sustainable," he said. "It was a nice plan, but we couldn't hold to it. This is what we have now."
Nearly 30 years later, the state, its system and students are in a similar situation: Jerry Brown is the governor of California, again, trying to expand a receding economy, again, and lawmakers are closing a monetary gap by digging into the pockets of students, again.
"California has always been considered the land flowing with milk and honey. California was the place to go to dream big," Contra Costa College Interim Dean of Students Vicki Ferguson said. "Now California is having to live within its means."
Dec. 10, 1982
As part of the state's Master Plan for Higher Education signed into law by Gov. Edmund Brown, Jerry's father, in April 1960, student tuition was banned, allowing all Californians to attend its community colleges free of charge.
But in 1978, voter-approved Proposition 13 was enacted, capping property taxes at one percent, which over the next five years turned a $3 billion budget surplus into a $3 billion deficit by 1983.
As Gov. Jerry Brown was preparing to leave the Capitol in 1982, community college programs were cut trying to fill the fiscal vacuum left by Proposition 13.
The Board of Governors, at a meeting in San Francisco on Dec. 10, 1982, voted 14-1 to, for the first time in the state, make students pay for courses at two-year colleges.
According to the Board of Governors policy recommendation, a flat $5 fee was to be imposed and "limited to (the) 1983-84 (academic year) on an emergency basis" to make up for the state's $1.5 billion deficit that was predicted to double by the end of that fiscal year.
The decision drew hundreds of protesters and the meeting in San Francisco had to be shut down because of the overflow crowd.
Then-Contra Costa Community College District Chancellor Harry Buttimer told The Advocate after the 1982 announcement, "I think it would be unlikely that the tuition-free system would return. Once fees are in, I think the best we can hope for is that they won't go up."
He was half right.
He was correct to be skeptical of the board's one-year recommendation for fees and expectations of a rebounding economy.
Twenty-eight years after the implementation of an "emergency fee," costs continue to climb.
Current Chancellor Helen Benjamin said California residents expected higher education, at least at the two-year level, to be free.
"People in state see it as a broken promise," Dr. Benjamin said. "It's a promise the state has not been able to keep."
By the numbers
There have been 11 fee changes since the implementation of the $5 fee in 1983-84, and they are now up to $36 per unit.
State Vice Chancellor for Communications Paul Feist said legislators and Gov. Brown decided before this year's budget passed that if a certain revenue level was not met by Dec. 15, the Department of Finance could impose a $10 increase to community college fees as well as make a $102 million "trigger" cut, having a mid-year impact on the spring budget.
"The probability is high we don't have the revenue to avoid triggers," he said.
The $10 increase would be the ninth fee increase in 12 changes that appear to come sporadically.
"It creates an uncertainty about your future, which creates additional amounts of stress on students," CCC ASU President Rodney Wilson said. "If our Legislature would make the certain decisions — they may not be the best political decisions — but if they make these decisions, it would (create) certainty in our future."
The flat $5 rate increased to $6 per unit in 1991 and it has increased more often than not ever since.
The only three decreases in fees were in 1998-99, 1999-2000 and in spring 2007. Fees dropped one dollar in each of the '98 and '99 school years from $13 per unit to $12 and again to $11 before the new millennium.
The $11 per unit fee stayed for four years until it jumped in 2003-04 to $18.
Fees have doubled since then, despite a reduction in 2007.
In 2004-05, a year after they increased nearly 64 percent. Fees jumped up again to $26 per unit before dipping to $20 in 2007.
Since that last bottoming out, there have been increases of $6 and $10 per unit, respectively, in fall 2009 and 2011.
The increases from $11 to $18 and again to $26 per unit in 2003-04 and 2004-05 were the largest increases from year-to-year.
"When fees doubled, almost doubled, it seemed to be without rhyme or reason," CCC President McKinley Williams said. "(Access to) education is being nickel and dimed (away). I think there is something really wrong about that."
Bargain price
Although California's fees continue to rise, they are still the lowest in the country and well below the national average.
According to the College Board, public two-year colleges charge, on average, $2,963 per year in tuition and fees.
The state allocates between $4,000 and $4,500 per Full-Time Equivalent Student to colleges from its general fund each year. One FTES equals one student taking 12 units.
Ferguson said when she moved to California in spring 2003, when fees were $11 per unit and ready to jump to $18 in the fall, students were getting ready for a march on Sacramento to protest the fee hike.
As a newly hired adjunct counseling professor, she said people from around campus would ask her about the situation in Alabama, her home state.
"It was cheaper to live in Alabama, but college was $70 to $80 a unit," she said.
Diestler said even as fees creep toward $50 per unit, even if it doubled to $72 per unit, California would still be the cheapest deal in the country and still would not significantly contribute to bringing the state back into the black.
"It's a drop in the bucket," he said. "They'll (students) never pay for what they get until it's in the thousand dollar (per unit) amount."
For decades, higher education in California was seen as a right to its residents.
Students graduated from high school, which they went to for free, and went on to one of the two four-year university systems in the state paying low tuition fees, or they could go to a two-year college before transferring, cost free.
But those days are long gone as the cost of attending college continues to climb year-to-year.
Community college fees are presently at $36 a unit and will likely be raised to $46 by summer 2012, and this year, for the first time, California State Universities received more funding from student tuition than state allocations.
This trend began during a dip in the state economy in 1983, five years after California's tax revolution and the passing of Proposition 13 in 1978, when the state Community College Board of Governors started exploring ways to fill the revenue gap.
The quick solution was to charge all the students coming to the classroom an emergency fee until a turnaround in the economy.
Art department Chairperson John Diestler, who has been in the California community college system as a student and professor since before the fee implementation, said everyone looked at California and wanted its system in their states.
"We were the envy of the country, but it wasn't sustainable," he said. "It was a nice plan, but we couldn't hold to it. This is what we have now."
Nearly 30 years later, the state, its system and students are in a similar situation: Jerry Brown is the governor of California, again, trying to expand a receding economy, again, and lawmakers are closing a monetary gap by digging into the pockets of students, again.
"California has always been considered the land flowing with milk and honey. California was the place to go to dream big," Contra Costa College Interim Dean of Students Vicki Ferguson said. "Now California is having to live within its means."
Dec. 10, 1982
As part of the state's Master Plan for Higher Education signed into law by Gov. Edmund Brown, Jerry's father, in April 1960, student tuition was banned, allowing all Californians to attend its community colleges free of charge.
But in 1978, voter-approved Proposition 13 was enacted, capping property taxes at one percent, which over the next five years turned a $3 billion budget surplus into a $3 billion deficit by 1983.
As Gov. Jerry Brown was preparing to leave the Capitol in 1982, community college programs were cut trying to fill the fiscal vacuum left by Proposition 13.
The Board of Governors, at a meeting in San Francisco on Dec. 10, 1982, voted 14-1 to, for the first time in the state, make students pay for courses at two-year colleges.
According to the Board of Governors policy recommendation, a flat $5 fee was to be imposed and "limited to (the) 1983-84 (academic year) on an emergency basis" to make up for the state's $1.5 billion deficit that was predicted to double by the end of that fiscal year.
The decision drew hundreds of protesters and the meeting in San Francisco had to be shut down because of the overflow crowd.
Then-Contra Costa Community College District Chancellor Harry Buttimer told The Advocate after the 1982 announcement, "I think it would be unlikely that the tuition-free system would return. Once fees are in, I think the best we can hope for is that they won't go up."
He was half right.
He was correct to be skeptical of the board's one-year recommendation for fees and expectations of a rebounding economy.
Twenty-eight years after the implementation of an "emergency fee," costs continue to climb.
Current Chancellor Helen Benjamin said California residents expected higher education, at least at the two-year level, to be free.
"People in state see it as a broken promise," Dr. Benjamin said. "It's a promise the state has not been able to keep."
By the numbers
There have been 11 fee changes since the implementation of the $5 fee in 1983-84, and they are now up to $36 per unit.
State Vice Chancellor for Communications Paul Feist said legislators and Gov. Brown decided before this year's budget passed that if a certain revenue level was not met by Dec. 15, the Department of Finance could impose a $10 increase to community college fees as well as make a $102 million "trigger" cut, having a mid-year impact on the spring budget.
"The probability is high we don't have the revenue to avoid triggers," he said.
The $10 increase would be the ninth fee increase in 12 changes that appear to come sporadically.
"It creates an uncertainty about your future, which creates additional amounts of stress on students," CCC ASU President Rodney Wilson said. "If our Legislature would make the certain decisions — they may not be the best political decisions — but if they make these decisions, it would (create) certainty in our future."
The flat $5 rate increased to $6 per unit in 1991 and it has increased more often than not ever since.
The only three decreases in fees were in 1998-99, 1999-2000 and in spring 2007. Fees dropped one dollar in each of the '98 and '99 school years from $13 per unit to $12 and again to $11 before the new millennium.
The $11 per unit fee stayed for four years until it jumped in 2003-04 to $18.
Fees have doubled since then, despite a reduction in 2007.
In 2004-05, a year after they increased nearly 64 percent. Fees jumped up again to $26 per unit before dipping to $20 in 2007.
Since that last bottoming out, there have been increases of $6 and $10 per unit, respectively, in fall 2009 and 2011.
The increases from $11 to $18 and again to $26 per unit in 2003-04 and 2004-05 were the largest increases from year-to-year.
"When fees doubled, almost doubled, it seemed to be without rhyme or reason," CCC President McKinley Williams said. "(Access to) education is being nickel and dimed (away). I think there is something really wrong about that."
Bargain price
Although California's fees continue to rise, they are still the lowest in the country and well below the national average.
According to the College Board, public two-year colleges charge, on average, $2,963 per year in tuition and fees.
The state allocates between $4,000 and $4,500 per Full-Time Equivalent Student to colleges from its general fund each year. One FTES equals one student taking 12 units.
Ferguson said when she moved to California in spring 2003, when fees were $11 per unit and ready to jump to $18 in the fall, students were getting ready for a march on Sacramento to protest the fee hike.
As a newly hired adjunct counseling professor, she said people from around campus would ask her about the situation in Alabama, her home state.
"It was cheaper to live in Alabama, but college was $70 to $80 a unit," she said.
Diestler said even as fees creep toward $50 per unit, even if it doubled to $72 per unit, California would still be the cheapest deal in the country and still would not significantly contribute to bringing the state back into the black.
"It's a drop in the bucket," he said. "They'll (students) never pay for what they get until it's in the thousand dollar (per unit) amount."
Police Services cancels safety workshop
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published on AccentAdvocate.com on Nov. 17, 2011.
Police Services Lt. Jose Oliveira paced up and down the Fireside Room alone at 1 p.m. Wednesday waiting for anyone to walk through the door.
The walls of the empty room echoed the conversations and occasional shrieks coming from the Amphiteatre and Student Dining Room and Oliveira canceled the unattended "Playing It Safe" workshop at 1:15.
"People really do feel safe on campus," said the lieutenant who has covered Contra Costa College for 16 1/2 years. "If there was a lot of concern and outcry people would be here."
This was the second safety seminar Oiveira has hosted this semester and he said the two covered the same material – robberies.
Four students were robbed by Oct. 5, and that number has not increased, near campus so far this semester. Oliveira also said the number of laptop thefts were higher at other campuses in the district than at CCC.
Less than a dozen total people came to the first workshop of the semester, which was only advertised through an email sent through the campus email, InSite Portal, on Oct. 4.
Notification for this month's event included an email sent out last week as well as signage across campus posted by Student Life Coordinator Kelly Ramos and student police aides, Oliveira said.
Oliveira said Police Services will have more of these events in the spring, starting with three seminars during the third week of the semester and one a month afterward.
"That time of the semester there are a lot of people on campus used to going to orientations," Oliveira said. "Better luck next time."
Police Services Lt. Jose Oliveira paced up and down the Fireside Room alone at 1 p.m. Wednesday waiting for anyone to walk through the door.
The walls of the empty room echoed the conversations and occasional shrieks coming from the Amphiteatre and Student Dining Room and Oliveira canceled the unattended "Playing It Safe" workshop at 1:15.
"People really do feel safe on campus," said the lieutenant who has covered Contra Costa College for 16 1/2 years. "If there was a lot of concern and outcry people would be here."
This was the second safety seminar Oiveira has hosted this semester and he said the two covered the same material – robberies.
Four students were robbed by Oct. 5, and that number has not increased, near campus so far this semester. Oliveira also said the number of laptop thefts were higher at other campuses in the district than at CCC.
Less than a dozen total people came to the first workshop of the semester, which was only advertised through an email sent through the campus email, InSite Portal, on Oct. 4.
Notification for this month's event included an email sent out last week as well as signage across campus posted by Student Life Coordinator Kelly Ramos and student police aides, Oliveira said.
Oliveira said Police Services will have more of these events in the spring, starting with three seminars during the third week of the semester and one a month afterward.
"That time of the semester there are a lot of people on campus used to going to orientations," Oliveira said. "Better luck next time."
Destined for success
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Nov. 16, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Jonathan Wheat had to trade in his football cleats for books to realize the importance of practice.
From the athletic arenas to speech and debate stages, the 21-year-old political science major at Contra Costa College has let little keep him from reaching his goals. But he, so far, may have been his own biggest obstacle.
"I was born into a successful environment," said the Salesian High School graduate and the youngest of four athletic siblings. "At first, I took it for granted — that I can do it without hard work."
But, like he learned running sprints as a wide receiver for the Pride football team and its basketball team's guard, practice is preparation for game time.
"You practice to get ready for the game," he said. "In school, I didn't always make that happen."
Now, as he appeals to transfer to Cal State-Sacramento in the spring, Wheat appreciates the time it takes to prepare before performances.
"Practice, hard work and preparation; it takes dedication to your education to be successful," he said.
Wheat played football for a year at College of Marin before hurting his back. While he was focused on school, but traveling to COM from El Sobrante, Wheat came back to CCC in 2010 and shifted his focus from the playing field to the classroom.
"It was the first time I wasn't playing sports or involved with sports. I didn't have that competition in my life," Wheat said. "I channeled that competitive energy into school."
After a year away from competition, Wheat joined the speech and debate team this semester, but brought the same competitiveness, leadership and dedication he had for sports.
"In sports, you've got to have practice. (Wheat) knows how to practice," said Alfredo Serrano, Wheat's debate partner. "He gives time to the speech team and when it gets to the game or tournament, he's ready. His dedication rubs off on you."
At this semester's first tournament at Santa Rosa Junior College, a first for many competitors on the team, Wheat won first place in extemporaneous speech and was recognized as top speaker.
Wheat joined the team after taking a speech class in the summer. He said professor Marie Arcidiacono, convinced him to join the team and he thought it would help him eventually get to law school.
Michele Escalada, who has been on the team for three semesters, said she first saw Wheat make an impromptu speech earlier this semester and knew he needed to be on the team.
"Little did I know he already was (on the team)," Escalada said. "I saw something in Jonathan we could really go into competitions with. I really believe in Jonathan."
She said Wheat joined the team for personal reasons — growing his knowledge base and improving his speaking and critical thinking abilities — but he also wants to help the team.
"He is on the team to be a part of the team," she said. "He can do a lot of stuff on his own because he has talent, but he has a strong sense of community."
And although she has been on the team longer than the older Wheat, Escalada said he is a leader during preparation for and while at tournaments.
"He pulls us together as a team to win it together," she said. "In terms just of going against other schools, he represents CCC very well."
It was this reason one of Wheat's professors recommended he speak at All College Day in August.
As one of four students invited to speak to all staff, faculty and managers from CCC, Wheat articulated the concerns and thanks of the college's students.
Wheat met college President McKinley Williams before the day and left an impact.
"I was impressed with him. He clearly cares about people," Williams said. "He understands the trials and tribulations on students; he's empathetic.
"I don't see anything standing in his way of being successful."
The largest obstacle currently is transferring to a four-year college.
Wheat applied to CSUS and the University of San Francisco for the spring 2012 semester, but is now appealing to get into CSUS.
He has to show he has a skill enhancing the CSUS environment. His thesis is communicating past religion, ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Being on a team with a variety of ages, races and religions, in addition to growing up in West County, Wheat thinks that is one of his strong suits.
After he gets his degrees, Wheat said he wants to embark on political or corporate law, but finish his career working for nonprofit organizations to help low-income youth sports leagues.
"I think sports teach a lot of people," he said. "I found it really easy to connect with people (through sports)."
And his teammates support him all the way.
"Jonathan Wheat is someone who is going places," Escalada said. "Not only for himself, but for his family, career and education. It has been good knowing him because of that."
Jonathan Wheat had to trade in his football cleats for books to realize the importance of practice.
From the athletic arenas to speech and debate stages, the 21-year-old political science major at Contra Costa College has let little keep him from reaching his goals. But he, so far, may have been his own biggest obstacle.
"I was born into a successful environment," said the Salesian High School graduate and the youngest of four athletic siblings. "At first, I took it for granted — that I can do it without hard work."
But, like he learned running sprints as a wide receiver for the Pride football team and its basketball team's guard, practice is preparation for game time.
"You practice to get ready for the game," he said. "In school, I didn't always make that happen."
Now, as he appeals to transfer to Cal State-Sacramento in the spring, Wheat appreciates the time it takes to prepare before performances.
"Practice, hard work and preparation; it takes dedication to your education to be successful," he said.
Wheat played football for a year at College of Marin before hurting his back. While he was focused on school, but traveling to COM from El Sobrante, Wheat came back to CCC in 2010 and shifted his focus from the playing field to the classroom.
"It was the first time I wasn't playing sports or involved with sports. I didn't have that competition in my life," Wheat said. "I channeled that competitive energy into school."
After a year away from competition, Wheat joined the speech and debate team this semester, but brought the same competitiveness, leadership and dedication he had for sports.
"In sports, you've got to have practice. (Wheat) knows how to practice," said Alfredo Serrano, Wheat's debate partner. "He gives time to the speech team and when it gets to the game or tournament, he's ready. His dedication rubs off on you."
At this semester's first tournament at Santa Rosa Junior College, a first for many competitors on the team, Wheat won first place in extemporaneous speech and was recognized as top speaker.
Wheat joined the team after taking a speech class in the summer. He said professor Marie Arcidiacono, convinced him to join the team and he thought it would help him eventually get to law school.
Michele Escalada, who has been on the team for three semesters, said she first saw Wheat make an impromptu speech earlier this semester and knew he needed to be on the team.
"Little did I know he already was (on the team)," Escalada said. "I saw something in Jonathan we could really go into competitions with. I really believe in Jonathan."
She said Wheat joined the team for personal reasons — growing his knowledge base and improving his speaking and critical thinking abilities — but he also wants to help the team.
"He is on the team to be a part of the team," she said. "He can do a lot of stuff on his own because he has talent, but he has a strong sense of community."
And although she has been on the team longer than the older Wheat, Escalada said he is a leader during preparation for and while at tournaments.
"He pulls us together as a team to win it together," she said. "In terms just of going against other schools, he represents CCC very well."
It was this reason one of Wheat's professors recommended he speak at All College Day in August.
As one of four students invited to speak to all staff, faculty and managers from CCC, Wheat articulated the concerns and thanks of the college's students.
Wheat met college President McKinley Williams before the day and left an impact.
"I was impressed with him. He clearly cares about people," Williams said. "He understands the trials and tribulations on students; he's empathetic.
"I don't see anything standing in his way of being successful."
The largest obstacle currently is transferring to a four-year college.
Wheat applied to CSUS and the University of San Francisco for the spring 2012 semester, but is now appealing to get into CSUS.
He has to show he has a skill enhancing the CSUS environment. His thesis is communicating past religion, ethnicity and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Being on a team with a variety of ages, races and religions, in addition to growing up in West County, Wheat thinks that is one of his strong suits.
After he gets his degrees, Wheat said he wants to embark on political or corporate law, but finish his career working for nonprofit organizations to help low-income youth sports leagues.
"I think sports teach a lot of people," he said. "I found it really easy to connect with people (through sports)."
And his teammates support him all the way.
"Jonathan Wheat is someone who is going places," Escalada said. "Not only for himself, but for his family, career and education. It has been good knowing him because of that."
Committee discusses safety issues
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Nov. 9, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Each set of eyes on campus sees it with a different view.
Faculty members see dangers students do not. Students spot those missed by managers.
Utilizing the different perspectives of all the constituencies at Contra Costa College to solve safety concerns is the goal of the Safety Committee.
"It's a higher priority than anything — safety on campus," Buildings and Grounds Manager Bruce King said. "Everybody is committed."
ASU Sen. Corri Maloney, who represents students on the committee, said she joined to help spread information on safety.
"People don't really know what they (the Safety Committee) are doing, but they see violence going on," the 19-year-old political science major said.
She said students can take measures to reduce their exposure to robberies on campus.
"Violence-wise, so you're not so vulnerable to robbers, keep your heads up and walk in pairs," Maloney said.
"For night classes, use the (police aide) escort service," she said. "A lot of people don't ever use it."
But whether it is crime prevention, emergency preparedness or the risk of tripping on a crack in the floor, it comes up at the Safety Committee's monthly meetings.
Police Services officers, managers, members of the faculty, classified staff and students each have a voice in the shared governance committee, as per Assembly Bill 1725.
"Get as many view points in the room as possible," Academic Senate President Wayne Organ said. "We are very dedicated to that concept."
The committee does not reach decisions by majority. Its members do not vote on resolutions, but have to reach a consensus.
Once all dissenting opinions are satisfied, suggestions and recommendations are passed on to the College Council, of which the Safety Committee is a sub-committee.
The Safety Committee has so far focused on holding evacuation drills in different buildings each month this semester, Organ said.
Because of the different perspectives on the committee, he said, its members decided department chairpersons should be notified before evacuation drills.
"Department (chairpersons) need to know what's going on," Organ said.
It would be uneconomical to hold a drill, for instance, when students are in a lab handling materials meant for a one-time use.
Stopping the lab for a drill would leave the department with incomplete assignments and wasted instructional tools.
A district voice was on the committee until budget cuts in July eliminated Police Services Officer Teddy Terstegge's districtwide emergency preparedness coordinator position.
Although still employed with the district, covering Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, some of Terstegge's responsibilities "fell through the cracks," Police Services Lt. Jose Oliveira said, when his position was cut.
One drill in which Terstegge planned for the district to participate was the Great California ShakeOut on Oct. 20.
No one at CCC participated in the organized drill on the same day two earthquakes centered in Berkeley shook the East Bay.
The epicenters of the magnitudes 4.0 and 3.8, respectively, sat just west of the Hayward Fault, which runs though the CCC campus.
"In hindsight, we should have (participated in the drill), regardless of the earthquakes or not," Safety Committee Chairperson Mariles Magalong said.
Each set of eyes on campus sees it with a different view.
Faculty members see dangers students do not. Students spot those missed by managers.
Utilizing the different perspectives of all the constituencies at Contra Costa College to solve safety concerns is the goal of the Safety Committee.
"It's a higher priority than anything — safety on campus," Buildings and Grounds Manager Bruce King said. "Everybody is committed."
ASU Sen. Corri Maloney, who represents students on the committee, said she joined to help spread information on safety.
"People don't really know what they (the Safety Committee) are doing, but they see violence going on," the 19-year-old political science major said.
She said students can take measures to reduce their exposure to robberies on campus.
"Violence-wise, so you're not so vulnerable to robbers, keep your heads up and walk in pairs," Maloney said.
"For night classes, use the (police aide) escort service," she said. "A lot of people don't ever use it."
But whether it is crime prevention, emergency preparedness or the risk of tripping on a crack in the floor, it comes up at the Safety Committee's monthly meetings.
Police Services officers, managers, members of the faculty, classified staff and students each have a voice in the shared governance committee, as per Assembly Bill 1725.
"Get as many view points in the room as possible," Academic Senate President Wayne Organ said. "We are very dedicated to that concept."
The committee does not reach decisions by majority. Its members do not vote on resolutions, but have to reach a consensus.
Once all dissenting opinions are satisfied, suggestions and recommendations are passed on to the College Council, of which the Safety Committee is a sub-committee.
The Safety Committee has so far focused on holding evacuation drills in different buildings each month this semester, Organ said.
Because of the different perspectives on the committee, he said, its members decided department chairpersons should be notified before evacuation drills.
"Department (chairpersons) need to know what's going on," Organ said.
It would be uneconomical to hold a drill, for instance, when students are in a lab handling materials meant for a one-time use.
Stopping the lab for a drill would leave the department with incomplete assignments and wasted instructional tools.
A district voice was on the committee until budget cuts in July eliminated Police Services Officer Teddy Terstegge's districtwide emergency preparedness coordinator position.
Although still employed with the district, covering Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, some of Terstegge's responsibilities "fell through the cracks," Police Services Lt. Jose Oliveira said, when his position was cut.
One drill in which Terstegge planned for the district to participate was the Great California ShakeOut on Oct. 20.
No one at CCC participated in the organized drill on the same day two earthquakes centered in Berkeley shook the East Bay.
The epicenters of the magnitudes 4.0 and 3.8, respectively, sat just west of the Hayward Fault, which runs though the CCC campus.
"In hindsight, we should have (participated in the drill), regardless of the earthquakes or not," Safety Committee Chairperson Mariles Magalong said.
Chevron boosts sciences
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Nov. 9, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Banking on the future of science careers in West County, Chevron Corporation donated $100,000 to the Contra Costa College Foundation to serve science education in local secondary schools.
Six East Bay nonprofit organizations, including CCC's 20/20 Vision for West Contra Costa County Unified School District students, received oversized-novelty checks totaling $1 million from the Richmond-based energy company on Monday.
College President McKinley Williams opened the ceremony in a filled Fireside Room before introducing district Chancellor Helen Benjamin, both lauding local science efforts.
"Jobs in these various fields will be most abundant," Dr. Benjamin said. "(This grant) contributes to our future and the future of our young people. It makes a difference in the lives of our students and the community."
The 20/20 Vision program allows WCCUSD students to take science and math courses otherwise not available to them at their own middle or high schools, Center for Science Excellence Director Joseph Ledbetter said.
Dr. Ledbetter, who wrote the grant proposal with others in the CSE, including Dr. Seti Sidharta, estimates 150 WCCUSD students will complete two college science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses and 50 will pass the California High School Proficiency Exam by the end of 2012.
"The key is getting students prepared to go into college level courses and not have to take any remedial courses (when they get to college)," Williams said.
The CSE began nearly 15 years ago from a Department of Defense grant to increase the numbers and success rate of low-income students in the STEM field.
"CSE focuses on students at Contra Costa College. I've always felt CSE has an outreach," Ledbetter said. "Chevron has given us a chance to do some of that outreach."
The Chevron California Partnership began investing in local economic development three years ago and split its donation to include education in the STEM fields overtime.
The other organizations to receive a slice of the million-dollar pie were the West Contra Costa Unified School District and the Contra Costa Economic Partnership, which Chevron donated $200,000 to each. Solar Richmond, Catholic Charities of the East Bay and The Stride Center also received at least $159,000.
"Economic growth and education go hand-in-hand. We are happy to contribute $1 million," said Chevron Vice President Nigel Hearne, pausing for applause, "to some terrific organizations on many levels in our community."
Although most people came to the event to celebrate and relish in Chevron's donations, a group of fewer than 10 protesters from the Richmond Progressive Alliance protested the event.
Standing outside the front door of the Fireside Room, the small group demonstrated and handed out fliers pointing out Chevron made nearly $8 billion last year and is presently pursuing a lawsuit to receive a $100 million refund from Richmond and Contra Costa County.
Banking on the future of science careers in West County, Chevron Corporation donated $100,000 to the Contra Costa College Foundation to serve science education in local secondary schools.
Six East Bay nonprofit organizations, including CCC's 20/20 Vision for West Contra Costa County Unified School District students, received oversized-novelty checks totaling $1 million from the Richmond-based energy company on Monday.
College President McKinley Williams opened the ceremony in a filled Fireside Room before introducing district Chancellor Helen Benjamin, both lauding local science efforts.
"Jobs in these various fields will be most abundant," Dr. Benjamin said. "(This grant) contributes to our future and the future of our young people. It makes a difference in the lives of our students and the community."
The 20/20 Vision program allows WCCUSD students to take science and math courses otherwise not available to them at their own middle or high schools, Center for Science Excellence Director Joseph Ledbetter said.
Dr. Ledbetter, who wrote the grant proposal with others in the CSE, including Dr. Seti Sidharta, estimates 150 WCCUSD students will complete two college science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses and 50 will pass the California High School Proficiency Exam by the end of 2012.
"The key is getting students prepared to go into college level courses and not have to take any remedial courses (when they get to college)," Williams said.
The CSE began nearly 15 years ago from a Department of Defense grant to increase the numbers and success rate of low-income students in the STEM field.
"CSE focuses on students at Contra Costa College. I've always felt CSE has an outreach," Ledbetter said. "Chevron has given us a chance to do some of that outreach."
The Chevron California Partnership began investing in local economic development three years ago and split its donation to include education in the STEM fields overtime.
The other organizations to receive a slice of the million-dollar pie were the West Contra Costa Unified School District and the Contra Costa Economic Partnership, which Chevron donated $200,000 to each. Solar Richmond, Catholic Charities of the East Bay and The Stride Center also received at least $159,000.
"Economic growth and education go hand-in-hand. We are happy to contribute $1 million," said Chevron Vice President Nigel Hearne, pausing for applause, "to some terrific organizations on many levels in our community."
Although most people came to the event to celebrate and relish in Chevron's donations, a group of fewer than 10 protesters from the Richmond Progressive Alliance protested the event.
Standing outside the front door of the Fireside Room, the small group demonstrated and handed out fliers pointing out Chevron made nearly $8 billion last year and is presently pursuing a lawsuit to receive a $100 million refund from Richmond and Contra Costa County.
Minimum enacted for credit
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Nov. 9, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Summer Cayton went into the Bookstore for a snack on Monday.
The nursing major picked out an iced tea and an energy bar, took them to the register and read her total: $2.58.
But because she never carries cash and due to a new policy on credit card purchases in the Bookstore, Cayton left the line and grabbed another energy bar to bring her total above $3 — the store's new minimum for credit card purchases.
"I don't think there should be a minimum," Cayton said. "I don't think people should control the amount we want to spend on our card."
Since Nov. 1, the Contra Costa College Bookstore enacted a policy to only accept cash on purchases less than $3 to offset card usage fees the store has to pay anytime a card is used.
Nick Dunn, Bookstore supply buyer, said the minimum is to make up for the 23 cents charged to the business for each card swipe.
"I've got no choice," he said. "The buck is being passed on to (the Bookstore)." He said regardless of the quantity of items or dollar amount bought or sold, each time there is a credit or debit card transaction, the Bookstore is charged a fee.
"We sell Scantrons for 23 cents plus tax. We make nothing," Dunn said. "Essentially, this (minimum) will offset that fee."
There was a similar fee five to six years ago, he said, but it was not enforced. House Resolution 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, took effect in July 2010 and allows payment processors to establish a purchasing minimum of $10 for credit transactions.
"It was initially $5, but I thought $3 was fair enough," Dunn said.
Dunn and textbook buyer Darris Crear said they sympathize with those trying to buy a Scantron, blue book or pencil before a test, but said others come in to the Bookstore several times a day for small purchases, like candy or soda, throughout the day and always charge the items.
"It's a bit ridiculous," Dunn said.
There is an ATM in the Student Services Center, across Martin Padilla Plaza from the Bookstore, but Dunn said most either ignore or are unaware of it.
"Options are there, but people don't want to use it," Dunn said.
Notices of the policy change were posted throughout the Bookstore in October, but that caused confusion over how and when the policy switch would affect patrons.
Some worried the policy was in place a month early, others thought it was a $3 charge to use their cards, cashier Colleen Garland said.
"When they realized that wasn't the case, I got a lot fewer comments," she said.
After reading the policy, Garland said, some threatened to never return to the Bookstore.
"I (was helping a customer and) pointed at the sign and someone said, ‘That's terrible. I'm never coming back here again,'" she said. "‘You're charging me $3 to use my debit card?'"
Dunn said it is a common misconception to confuse the minimum for a transaction fee.
Summer Cayton went into the Bookstore for a snack on Monday.
The nursing major picked out an iced tea and an energy bar, took them to the register and read her total: $2.58.
But because she never carries cash and due to a new policy on credit card purchases in the Bookstore, Cayton left the line and grabbed another energy bar to bring her total above $3 — the store's new minimum for credit card purchases.
"I don't think there should be a minimum," Cayton said. "I don't think people should control the amount we want to spend on our card."
Since Nov. 1, the Contra Costa College Bookstore enacted a policy to only accept cash on purchases less than $3 to offset card usage fees the store has to pay anytime a card is used.
Nick Dunn, Bookstore supply buyer, said the minimum is to make up for the 23 cents charged to the business for each card swipe.
"I've got no choice," he said. "The buck is being passed on to (the Bookstore)." He said regardless of the quantity of items or dollar amount bought or sold, each time there is a credit or debit card transaction, the Bookstore is charged a fee.
"We sell Scantrons for 23 cents plus tax. We make nothing," Dunn said. "Essentially, this (minimum) will offset that fee."
There was a similar fee five to six years ago, he said, but it was not enforced. House Resolution 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, took effect in July 2010 and allows payment processors to establish a purchasing minimum of $10 for credit transactions.
"It was initially $5, but I thought $3 was fair enough," Dunn said.
Dunn and textbook buyer Darris Crear said they sympathize with those trying to buy a Scantron, blue book or pencil before a test, but said others come in to the Bookstore several times a day for small purchases, like candy or soda, throughout the day and always charge the items.
"It's a bit ridiculous," Dunn said.
There is an ATM in the Student Services Center, across Martin Padilla Plaza from the Bookstore, but Dunn said most either ignore or are unaware of it.
"Options are there, but people don't want to use it," Dunn said.
Notices of the policy change were posted throughout the Bookstore in October, but that caused confusion over how and when the policy switch would affect patrons.
Some worried the policy was in place a month early, others thought it was a $3 charge to use their cards, cashier Colleen Garland said.
"When they realized that wasn't the case, I got a lot fewer comments," she said.
After reading the policy, Garland said, some threatened to never return to the Bookstore.
"I (was helping a customer and) pointed at the sign and someone said, ‘That's terrible. I'm never coming back here again,'" she said. "‘You're charging me $3 to use my debit card?'"
Dunn said it is a common misconception to confuse the minimum for a transaction fee.
Distant athletes converge
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Oct. 26, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Finding players for the football team, even those from the East Coast, has been relatively easy for Alonzo Carter.
"They all kind of recruited each other," the second-year Comet coach said in his office browsing through emails from players who want to play for him at Contra Costa College.
"They made first contact," he said. "They reached out."
Phadrae White, one of 24 out-of-state players on the Comet 2011 roster, wanted to keep playing football after finishing at Boca Ciega High School in Florida.
The St. Petersburg native said leaving his home and traveling 3,000 miles to come to Contra Costa College under coach Carter was his best opportunity to play football and continue his education.
"He (Carter) was my best opportunity to go to a good college," White said.
So when White heard about Carter's successful 2010 season (4-6 overall, 2-2 in the Bay Valley Conference), White and two of his Boca Ciega teammates, defensive backs Avion Brown and Jovonte Johnson, notified Carter they wanted to play at CCC.
Now living in a San Pablo house within walking distance from CCC, White found a new home in the Bay Area.
"Basically everybody on the team all grouped together," White said in his southern tone. "It's a brotherhood. We all bonded together and turned into one big family."
The Comets are 5-2 overall in 2011 and won their first conference game with three more left to finish the season.
Although players agree there was tension when all they first came together, the common goal of winning games and seizing the opportunity to play college football became a common goal for the 70 players on the team.
"We all mesh pretty well, but it took a second," said sophomore defensive back Isaac Goins, who grew up in Hercules and went to El Cerrito High School. "People from here looked at the people from over there and asked, ‘What are they here for? What are they about?'"
He said some players from the East Bay wondered if the out-of-state players would take their starting positions or if they would eventually take over the entire roster.
"Contra Costa is supposed to get Contra Costa players first," he said.
But in October, a few games into the season, Goins said the players learned more about each other and their playing styles and those worries disappeared.
Sophomore quarterback Jeffery Anderson, who almost went to American River College in Sacramento before committing to CCC, said it does not matter where his teammates come from as long as they focus on the same goal — winning.
"It's more people, more talent with out-of-state (players)," the Dixon High School graduate said. "They ain't coming all the way out here to not do something."
They came to CCC to contribute to the newfound Comet football tradition of winning.
"They're finding a way to help us win week in and week out," he said.
Playing for a successful team under a coach who can get them to the next level is a high selling point for those from out of state.
Carter's ability to turn around a wretched program that won four games last year, matching the win total of the four previous seasons combined, increased the number of athletes recruited from out of state to 22 this year from just two in 2010.
"(Winning) helps a lot," Carter said. "Everybody wants to be affiliated with something positive. There has been nothing positive affiliated with the football team in a long time."
Carter's abilities to send players to the next level also piqued interest with many of the players. Eleven players from last year's team were recruited to Football Bowl Subdivision and Division I universities.
He also had 14 football players on the Dean's List for keeping a high grade point average.
Running back Rashad Hall, who committed to University of Colorado out of Oak Ridge Military Academy in Virginia, came to CCC this year because his SAT scores made him ineligible to play in the NCAA.
"(The coaches at Colorado) mentioned Contra Costa with Carter," he said.
"I felt pretty bad about the SAT thing," Hall said. "At (CCC) I have a second chance to get my grades up before going to Colorado."
Transferring students is a main goal for Carter.
When Carter first met with college President McKinley Williams and Athletic Director John Wade they told him they didn't care if the team finished seasons 1-9 as long as students graduated.
Carter has more than held up his end of the deal and exceeded expectations for wins. As Williams plans to end his 21-year career on campus in December, Carter said he told him, "I kept my promise and we're not going 1-9. I don't do that."
By raising CCC's reputation throughout the state by establishing a program that can win games, Carter also boosted its recognition across the country.
Whereas these recruits from Florida, North Carolina and throughout the South and East would have gone to City College of San Francisco, College of San Mateo or Laney College in Oakland, Carter's 2010 second-place finish in the BVC helped him gain attention from students who, for one reason or another, did not go to a four-year university for school or to play football.
"There's no junior college (football) in Florida, but there's football, " Carter said. "A lot of young men on the East Coast want to play at the best junior college in California."
More out-of-state players came to CCC from Florida than any other state, with five. Four players came from North Carolina and three came from Alabama, Louisiana and New Jersey.
"Down South and on the East Coast there is no junior college football. They have prep schools," Carter said. "There are a bunch of guys from Florida looking for somewhere to go."
Competition for out-of-state players is fierce and CCC is not the only team in the BVC with a significant percentage of its roster from outside the Golden State.
College of the Redwoods, which the Comets beat 42-13 in their first conference game this season, has more out-of-state recruits, 38, than its 33 players from California.
Shasta and Yuba colleges, who CCC finishes its season against, have 22 and 29 players from out of state, respectively.
Solano Community College, where the Comets play their second conference game on Saturday, hosts the fewest out-of-state recruits in the conference with five, including one player from Tonga.
Comets like freshman wide receiver White, sophomore line backer Tate Mustin, the only Comet from Tennessee, and change-of-pace quarterback Lamar McKnight, one of three players from Jersey City, N.J., all came from states with different time zones, but have adapted to the changes.
"There are lots of Southeastern guys," Hall said. "We all bond, we have the same accent."
Finding players for the football team, even those from the East Coast, has been relatively easy for Alonzo Carter.
"They all kind of recruited each other," the second-year Comet coach said in his office browsing through emails from players who want to play for him at Contra Costa College.
"They made first contact," he said. "They reached out."
Phadrae White, one of 24 out-of-state players on the Comet 2011 roster, wanted to keep playing football after finishing at Boca Ciega High School in Florida.
The St. Petersburg native said leaving his home and traveling 3,000 miles to come to Contra Costa College under coach Carter was his best opportunity to play football and continue his education.
"He (Carter) was my best opportunity to go to a good college," White said.
So when White heard about Carter's successful 2010 season (4-6 overall, 2-2 in the Bay Valley Conference), White and two of his Boca Ciega teammates, defensive backs Avion Brown and Jovonte Johnson, notified Carter they wanted to play at CCC.
Now living in a San Pablo house within walking distance from CCC, White found a new home in the Bay Area.
"Basically everybody on the team all grouped together," White said in his southern tone. "It's a brotherhood. We all bonded together and turned into one big family."
The Comets are 5-2 overall in 2011 and won their first conference game with three more left to finish the season.
Although players agree there was tension when all they first came together, the common goal of winning games and seizing the opportunity to play college football became a common goal for the 70 players on the team.
"We all mesh pretty well, but it took a second," said sophomore defensive back Isaac Goins, who grew up in Hercules and went to El Cerrito High School. "People from here looked at the people from over there and asked, ‘What are they here for? What are they about?'"
He said some players from the East Bay wondered if the out-of-state players would take their starting positions or if they would eventually take over the entire roster.
"Contra Costa is supposed to get Contra Costa players first," he said.
But in October, a few games into the season, Goins said the players learned more about each other and their playing styles and those worries disappeared.
Sophomore quarterback Jeffery Anderson, who almost went to American River College in Sacramento before committing to CCC, said it does not matter where his teammates come from as long as they focus on the same goal — winning.
"It's more people, more talent with out-of-state (players)," the Dixon High School graduate said. "They ain't coming all the way out here to not do something."
They came to CCC to contribute to the newfound Comet football tradition of winning.
"They're finding a way to help us win week in and week out," he said.
Playing for a successful team under a coach who can get them to the next level is a high selling point for those from out of state.
Carter's ability to turn around a wretched program that won four games last year, matching the win total of the four previous seasons combined, increased the number of athletes recruited from out of state to 22 this year from just two in 2010.
"(Winning) helps a lot," Carter said. "Everybody wants to be affiliated with something positive. There has been nothing positive affiliated with the football team in a long time."
Carter's abilities to send players to the next level also piqued interest with many of the players. Eleven players from last year's team were recruited to Football Bowl Subdivision and Division I universities.
He also had 14 football players on the Dean's List for keeping a high grade point average.
Running back Rashad Hall, who committed to University of Colorado out of Oak Ridge Military Academy in Virginia, came to CCC this year because his SAT scores made him ineligible to play in the NCAA.
"(The coaches at Colorado) mentioned Contra Costa with Carter," he said.
"I felt pretty bad about the SAT thing," Hall said. "At (CCC) I have a second chance to get my grades up before going to Colorado."
Transferring students is a main goal for Carter.
When Carter first met with college President McKinley Williams and Athletic Director John Wade they told him they didn't care if the team finished seasons 1-9 as long as students graduated.
Carter has more than held up his end of the deal and exceeded expectations for wins. As Williams plans to end his 21-year career on campus in December, Carter said he told him, "I kept my promise and we're not going 1-9. I don't do that."
By raising CCC's reputation throughout the state by establishing a program that can win games, Carter also boosted its recognition across the country.
Whereas these recruits from Florida, North Carolina and throughout the South and East would have gone to City College of San Francisco, College of San Mateo or Laney College in Oakland, Carter's 2010 second-place finish in the BVC helped him gain attention from students who, for one reason or another, did not go to a four-year university for school or to play football.
"There's no junior college (football) in Florida, but there's football, " Carter said. "A lot of young men on the East Coast want to play at the best junior college in California."
More out-of-state players came to CCC from Florida than any other state, with five. Four players came from North Carolina and three came from Alabama, Louisiana and New Jersey.
"Down South and on the East Coast there is no junior college football. They have prep schools," Carter said. "There are a bunch of guys from Florida looking for somewhere to go."
Competition for out-of-state players is fierce and CCC is not the only team in the BVC with a significant percentage of its roster from outside the Golden State.
College of the Redwoods, which the Comets beat 42-13 in their first conference game this season, has more out-of-state recruits, 38, than its 33 players from California.
Shasta and Yuba colleges, who CCC finishes its season against, have 22 and 29 players from out of state, respectively.
Solano Community College, where the Comets play their second conference game on Saturday, hosts the fewest out-of-state recruits in the conference with five, including one player from Tonga.
Comets like freshman wide receiver White, sophomore line backer Tate Mustin, the only Comet from Tennessee, and change-of-pace quarterback Lamar McKnight, one of three players from Jersey City, N.J., all came from states with different time zones, but have adapted to the changes.
"There are lots of Southeastern guys," Hall said. "We all bond, we have the same accent."
Opinion: Term unfairly labels objectors
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Oct. 19, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Define what it is to be American. The description begins and ends at "one who lives in America."
Anything beyond that is an individual characteristic.
To be American is definitely not based on one's race, ethnicity or heritage. Based on the Constitution and its First Amendment, it is not defined by religion or speech.
Political actions at home and abroad contradict the ideals of the perfect American.
Since there is no ideal, catchall definition of an American, there is no such thing as being "un-American."
To be un-American is not to be anti-American, but perhaps it is to not be in line with norms and what some call "acceptable" behavior.
But it is a term politicians and newsmakers throw around, even with the phrase's tarnished history.
It is how Republican presidential nominee Herman Cain recently called the now national Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. At the same time, Jim Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, also used the term to describe U.S. corporations outsourcing jobs.
One uses the phrase to describe American companies and their tactics while another uses it to refer to the protest of said practices.
This is the contradictory rhetoric that makes one's head nearly explode, especially when Cain and Hoffa share the goal of keeping American jobs in this country.
But painting with broad strokes disagreeable actions as "un-American" has deep-seeded roots in this country and its government.
Go back to the 1917 Russian Revolution, the First Red Scare.
In 1918, the U.S. Senate established the Overman Committee to investigate German and Russian activities associated with communism after World War I. This was a precursor to the 1938 establishment of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
HUAC was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist ties.
Although not directly tied to Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin), HUAC engaged in and contributed to his crusade for democracy over communism in the 1950s, known fondly as the "Red Scare."
Two years after McCarthy died and known notoriously for his groundless investigations of Hollywood filmmakers, oppressive censorship and violations of due process, former President Harry Truman denounced HUAC.
According to Stephen Whitfield's "The Culture of the Cold War," in 1959, 14 years after ordering the dropping of two atomic bombs in Japan to end World War II, Truman called HUAC the "most un-American thing in the country today."
But there it is again.
To be labeled "un-American" is not to be taken lightly and should not be used to shame or invalidate dissent.
Instead, from the tea party's disapproval of lawmakers on Capitol Hill to the protestors on Wall Street, wear this scarlet letter proudly and celebrate the patriotism in dissent.
Define what it is to be American. The description begins and ends at "one who lives in America."
Anything beyond that is an individual characteristic.
To be American is definitely not based on one's race, ethnicity or heritage. Based on the Constitution and its First Amendment, it is not defined by religion or speech.
Political actions at home and abroad contradict the ideals of the perfect American.
Since there is no ideal, catchall definition of an American, there is no such thing as being "un-American."
To be un-American is not to be anti-American, but perhaps it is to not be in line with norms and what some call "acceptable" behavior.
But it is a term politicians and newsmakers throw around, even with the phrase's tarnished history.
It is how Republican presidential nominee Herman Cain recently called the now national Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. At the same time, Jim Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, also used the term to describe U.S. corporations outsourcing jobs.
One uses the phrase to describe American companies and their tactics while another uses it to refer to the protest of said practices.
This is the contradictory rhetoric that makes one's head nearly explode, especially when Cain and Hoffa share the goal of keeping American jobs in this country.
But painting with broad strokes disagreeable actions as "un-American" has deep-seeded roots in this country and its government.
Go back to the 1917 Russian Revolution, the First Red Scare.
In 1918, the U.S. Senate established the Overman Committee to investigate German and Russian activities associated with communism after World War I. This was a precursor to the 1938 establishment of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
HUAC was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist ties.
Although not directly tied to Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin), HUAC engaged in and contributed to his crusade for democracy over communism in the 1950s, known fondly as the "Red Scare."
Two years after McCarthy died and known notoriously for his groundless investigations of Hollywood filmmakers, oppressive censorship and violations of due process, former President Harry Truman denounced HUAC.
According to Stephen Whitfield's "The Culture of the Cold War," in 1959, 14 years after ordering the dropping of two atomic bombs in Japan to end World War II, Truman called HUAC the "most un-American thing in the country today."
But there it is again.
To be labeled "un-American" is not to be taken lightly and should not be used to shame or invalidate dissent.
Instead, from the tea party's disapproval of lawmakers on Capitol Hill to the protestors on Wall Street, wear this scarlet letter proudly and celebrate the patriotism in dissent.
Cellphones provide benefits, distractions
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Oct. 19, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Cellphones provide a connection to the world with the tap of a screen.
But they also draw attention away from the immediate environment, which is why many professors do not allow use of any mobile devices in their classrooms.
"They're a distraction, a major distraction," English professor Judith Saunders said. "If (students) are (texting) they're missing out on what's being said."
Having grown up with cellphones, most students are used to the general etiquette of using phones at school and do not make calls during class, but the accessibility to people outside of the classroom can be tempting.
"People are obviously not talking (on phones in class)," Saunders said. "Texting under the table is possible."
Texting is one method of communication, but students have another way of checking and updating news: social media.
"Most likely it's Facebook," undecided major Pon Boonpeng said.
But cell phone use in the class is not all bad. It has its benefits, at the right time.
"I know professors ask if someone has a smart phone or Blackberry or whatever to check up on statistics," Boonpeng said.
The nearly endless uses of current phones include calculators, word processing and dictionaries – all tools for the classroom.
"iPhones today have a lot of apps," English as a second language professor Ellen Smith said. "One is a dictionary, either bilingual or English/non-English dictionary. I do see students using the apps in class. That's OK."
Students know not to use a phone in class and some speak out to make it a rule to ban them from the class.
"On day one we make rules together. What we need to do to have a comfortable learning environment," Smith said. "Students say turn off cell phones, so that's one of the rules."
Furthermore, students know when they will be punished for using a phone in class and try to hide it, but their body language draws attention to their distraction.
Smith said she usually can tell who is using a phone for class and who is talking to someone outside of it.
"Usually when someone is texting, it is on their lap or under their desk," she said. "A dictionary, it's right in front. They're not trying to hide anything."
But some teachers, even those who recognize the benefits of smart phone technology, disallow it all together in their classrooms.
"My policy is cell phones turned off before entering the classroom," English professor Fritz Pointer said. "The greater the use of communication devices (and) technology, the (more) grades suffer."
Pointer, who has an iPhone, said the new technology is a powerful tool, but needs to be used appropriately.
"I'm sympathetic. There is a use for it — a dictionary, Google — they are very useful tools when used in the appropriate setting. The classroom is not an appropriate setting," he said.
"The new iPhone takes dictation and will print documents. That's serious technology and could be of help to students," Pointer said. "But knowing when to use it and not disrupt the professor (is important). Students have a hard time detaching from it."
Pointer said he thinks of a poem when referring to students using social media and communication technology at school.
"Amiri Baraka, the poet, said, ‘Though your mind may be somewhere else, your ass ain't,'" Pointer said. "Your behind is in the classroom, pay attention and listen."
Cellphones provide a connection to the world with the tap of a screen.
But they also draw attention away from the immediate environment, which is why many professors do not allow use of any mobile devices in their classrooms.
"They're a distraction, a major distraction," English professor Judith Saunders said. "If (students) are (texting) they're missing out on what's being said."
Having grown up with cellphones, most students are used to the general etiquette of using phones at school and do not make calls during class, but the accessibility to people outside of the classroom can be tempting.
"People are obviously not talking (on phones in class)," Saunders said. "Texting under the table is possible."
Texting is one method of communication, but students have another way of checking and updating news: social media.
"Most likely it's Facebook," undecided major Pon Boonpeng said.
But cell phone use in the class is not all bad. It has its benefits, at the right time.
"I know professors ask if someone has a smart phone or Blackberry or whatever to check up on statistics," Boonpeng said.
The nearly endless uses of current phones include calculators, word processing and dictionaries – all tools for the classroom.
"iPhones today have a lot of apps," English as a second language professor Ellen Smith said. "One is a dictionary, either bilingual or English/non-English dictionary. I do see students using the apps in class. That's OK."
Students know not to use a phone in class and some speak out to make it a rule to ban them from the class.
"On day one we make rules together. What we need to do to have a comfortable learning environment," Smith said. "Students say turn off cell phones, so that's one of the rules."
Furthermore, students know when they will be punished for using a phone in class and try to hide it, but their body language draws attention to their distraction.
Smith said she usually can tell who is using a phone for class and who is talking to someone outside of it.
"Usually when someone is texting, it is on their lap or under their desk," she said. "A dictionary, it's right in front. They're not trying to hide anything."
But some teachers, even those who recognize the benefits of smart phone technology, disallow it all together in their classrooms.
"My policy is cell phones turned off before entering the classroom," English professor Fritz Pointer said. "The greater the use of communication devices (and) technology, the (more) grades suffer."
Pointer, who has an iPhone, said the new technology is a powerful tool, but needs to be used appropriately.
"I'm sympathetic. There is a use for it — a dictionary, Google — they are very useful tools when used in the appropriate setting. The classroom is not an appropriate setting," he said.
"The new iPhone takes dictation and will print documents. That's serious technology and could be of help to students," Pointer said. "But knowing when to use it and not disrupt the professor (is important). Students have a hard time detaching from it."
Pointer said he thinks of a poem when referring to students using social media and communication technology at school.
"Amiri Baraka, the poet, said, ‘Though your mind may be somewhere else, your ass ain't,'" Pointer said. "Your behind is in the classroom, pay attention and listen."
Brown ratifies aid bill
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Oct. 19, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Although they grew up here but were not born in the state, undocumented California college students had been excluded from public financial aid.
But with Gov. Jerry Brown's Oct. 8 approval of Assembly Bill 131, thousands of undocumented Californians will be eligible for the first time to receive Board of Governors fee waivers and Cal Grants, neither of which need to be repaid to the state.
"That's good. It's better than nothing," psychology major Oscar Gonzalez said, with his cousins from El Salvador in mind.
"My cousins have been here, they're working three jobs per unit," culinary arts major Arnoldo Lopez said. "It's been really hard for them. They've been working their asses off at their jobs. Every little bit you can get helps a lot."
The California Dream Act, a two-bill composition, allows for undocumented students who attended a California high school for three years to receive public financial aid.
The first half of the bill, AB130, allowed for undocumented students to receive privately-raised scholarships through their colleges. Gov. Brown signed this half of Assemblyman Gilbert Cedillo's (D-Los Angeles) Dream Act on July 25 and it will take effect Jan. 1, 2013.
The most recent bill approved by the governor, AB131, makes all public financial aid available to undocumented students considered California students under AB540.
AB540, signed by Gov. Gray Davis in October 2001, waived out-of-state fees for students who attended a California high school for three years and graduated.
Undocumented students must be AB540 eligible to receive the benefits of the Dream Act.
Director of Admissions and Records Michael Aldaco said the difference in cost because of AB540 is nearly $200 per unit.
International students and undocumented students, both non-residents, pay $231 per unit while California residents pay $36 per unit.
Aldaco said the passing of the California Dream Act allows access to students who need financial aid to get the biggest costs out of the way through BOG fee waivers.
"In terms of fee waivers, right now, if you are a low-income student and qualify for the BOG fee waiver, they get $36 per unit paid for," he said. "It opens up the same level of support (for residents and undocumented students)."
All low-income students eligible for the fee waiver are allowed the chance to receive state support, regardless of residency. But Cal Grants will be handled differently.
Instead of all applicants receiving equal consideration for Cal Grants, undocumented students will have to wait for documented residents to first receive their aid.
"(Undocumented students) get to sit at the table after everyone else is done dining," Aldaco said.
The Department of Finance reported 2,500 of 42,000 undocumented students in California qualify for financial aid with the signing of AB131. This one percent of the student population of higher educational institutions up and down the state would require an estimated $14.5 million of the total $1.4 billion total in Cal Grants allotted each year.
None of the three bills regarding fees or financial aid, however, grant residency to undocumented students, Aldaco said, but it makes it more affordable for them to attend colleges in the state.
This sets the California Dream Act apart from a federal proposal of the same name.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which was introduced in 2001 and again this May, would provide a pathway to national citizenship through education or military service.
Although they grew up here but were not born in the state, undocumented California college students had been excluded from public financial aid.
But with Gov. Jerry Brown's Oct. 8 approval of Assembly Bill 131, thousands of undocumented Californians will be eligible for the first time to receive Board of Governors fee waivers and Cal Grants, neither of which need to be repaid to the state.
"That's good. It's better than nothing," psychology major Oscar Gonzalez said, with his cousins from El Salvador in mind.
"My cousins have been here, they're working three jobs per unit," culinary arts major Arnoldo Lopez said. "It's been really hard for them. They've been working their asses off at their jobs. Every little bit you can get helps a lot."
The California Dream Act, a two-bill composition, allows for undocumented students who attended a California high school for three years to receive public financial aid.
The first half of the bill, AB130, allowed for undocumented students to receive privately-raised scholarships through their colleges. Gov. Brown signed this half of Assemblyman Gilbert Cedillo's (D-Los Angeles) Dream Act on July 25 and it will take effect Jan. 1, 2013.
The most recent bill approved by the governor, AB131, makes all public financial aid available to undocumented students considered California students under AB540.
AB540, signed by Gov. Gray Davis in October 2001, waived out-of-state fees for students who attended a California high school for three years and graduated.
Undocumented students must be AB540 eligible to receive the benefits of the Dream Act.
Director of Admissions and Records Michael Aldaco said the difference in cost because of AB540 is nearly $200 per unit.
International students and undocumented students, both non-residents, pay $231 per unit while California residents pay $36 per unit.
Aldaco said the passing of the California Dream Act allows access to students who need financial aid to get the biggest costs out of the way through BOG fee waivers.
"In terms of fee waivers, right now, if you are a low-income student and qualify for the BOG fee waiver, they get $36 per unit paid for," he said. "It opens up the same level of support (for residents and undocumented students)."
All low-income students eligible for the fee waiver are allowed the chance to receive state support, regardless of residency. But Cal Grants will be handled differently.
Instead of all applicants receiving equal consideration for Cal Grants, undocumented students will have to wait for documented residents to first receive their aid.
"(Undocumented students) get to sit at the table after everyone else is done dining," Aldaco said.
The Department of Finance reported 2,500 of 42,000 undocumented students in California qualify for financial aid with the signing of AB131. This one percent of the student population of higher educational institutions up and down the state would require an estimated $14.5 million of the total $1.4 billion total in Cal Grants allotted each year.
None of the three bills regarding fees or financial aid, however, grant residency to undocumented students, Aldaco said, but it makes it more affordable for them to attend colleges in the state.
This sets the California Dream Act apart from a federal proposal of the same name.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which was introduced in 2001 and again this May, would provide a pathway to national citizenship through education or military service.
Deal explored to obtain property at entry of campus
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Oct. 19, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
For years, college and district administrators have been negotiating terms for the property rights of the Army Reserve staging area sitting at the south entrance of the college.
Contra Costa College President McKinley Williams said, however, he hopes to have negotiations for a real estate exchange for the Army Reserve Second Medical Brigade property done by the end of the academic year.
"It is critical for (the) college to own that property and control what our front door looks like," Williams said.
"I know that the way (the Army property is) currently configured with the fence, barbed wire and blocks, it doesn't look like you're coming onto a college campus," he said. "It doesn't add to our ambiance at all."
For the past 10 years, Williams said, the college has been in discussions with the Department of the Army and the Army Corps of Engineers to reach a land deal resulting in the district owning the $3.7 million property across the street to the Gym Annex Building on Castro Road.
Neither the district nor the college, however, can simply pay for and buy the property. Instead, district Chief Facilities Planner Ray Pyle said the district and Army have to exchange real property.
"The Army has the ability, through federal law, to exchange real property with other organizations rather than buying or selling property," Pyle said. "They don't really have the authority to buy and sell, but they can do real property exchange."
A real property exchange is when two buildings or pieces of property of equal value are traded.
"What we're looking at possibly doing (is) using our funds, and the source of the funds (are) not identified 100 percent, to build the Army another building, probably on Mare Island (in Vallejo)," Pyle said.
Although Williams is hopeful the negotiations can be finalized by the end of the academic year, Pyle said it would take up to three years to design and construct a building of equal value.
For years, college and district administrators have been negotiating terms for the property rights of the Army Reserve staging area sitting at the south entrance of the college.
Contra Costa College President McKinley Williams said, however, he hopes to have negotiations for a real estate exchange for the Army Reserve Second Medical Brigade property done by the end of the academic year.
"It is critical for (the) college to own that property and control what our front door looks like," Williams said.
"I know that the way (the Army property is) currently configured with the fence, barbed wire and blocks, it doesn't look like you're coming onto a college campus," he said. "It doesn't add to our ambiance at all."
For the past 10 years, Williams said, the college has been in discussions with the Department of the Army and the Army Corps of Engineers to reach a land deal resulting in the district owning the $3.7 million property across the street to the Gym Annex Building on Castro Road.
Neither the district nor the college, however, can simply pay for and buy the property. Instead, district Chief Facilities Planner Ray Pyle said the district and Army have to exchange real property.
"The Army has the ability, through federal law, to exchange real property with other organizations rather than buying or selling property," Pyle said. "They don't really have the authority to buy and sell, but they can do real property exchange."
A real property exchange is when two buildings or pieces of property of equal value are traded.
"What we're looking at possibly doing (is) using our funds, and the source of the funds (are) not identified 100 percent, to build the Army another building, probably on Mare Island (in Vallejo)," Pyle said.
Although Williams is hopeful the negotiations can be finalized by the end of the academic year, Pyle said it would take up to three years to design and construct a building of equal value.
Statewide curricula revamped
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Oct. 12, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Two departments altered their curricula to become compliant with a statewide mandate to streamline California community college students to CSU campuses next fall.
Contra Costa College's administration of justice department and speech and communications department now match statewide mandates and course descriptions to meet requirements of California Senate Bill 1440.
Approved last year and set to take effect in fall 2012, SB1440 is a transfer agreement guaranteeing admission and giving priority to students transferring to a local CSU.
The Student Transfer Agreement Reform Act establishes statewide curricula for designated majors, awards associate degrees to eligible transfer students and provides GPA bumps for transfers to non-impacted majors or local California State universities, said Kenyetta Tribble, CCC articulation officer and matriculation services coordinator.
SB1440, written by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Van Nuys), requires each of the 112 community colleges throughout the state to offer at least two majors from a list of 16 uniform programs.
Of those courses and majors offered, students will need to take 60 units at a community college and another 60 at the CSU to graduating with a bachelor's degree in four years.
"The primary (focus) was to make the transfer process as seamless as possible," Padilla's communication director John Mann said. "It allows for as many students who can meet requirements with CSU to be able to do so."
Administration of justice department Chairperson Rick Ramos said SB1440 makes students taking particular courses evaluate them from different perspectives.
"Although it's a department, it's a program thrown together from a multidiscipline approach," Ramos said.
Criminology and research and planning, for instance, would also be looked at from a sociology standpoint, he said.
Part of this, he said, is to appease CSU professors who have different instructional focuses.
"Some CSUs were not particularly happy they were forced to take courses," Ramos said.
His advice for them was, "Just follow the law."
Ramos said he has been working with other department chairpersons to bring their departments in line with the recent law to affect more students.
History major Alfredo Serrano, a member of the CCC speech and debate team, said he would consider changing his major to speech and communications, a new program of study since the act, when SB1440 takes effect at CCC next year.
"There are more benefits by having it, by having that elective," he said. "Guiding you to another place, it's guidance, it's helpful."
There are fears with SB1440, however, which Serrano's teammates vocalized.
"You get kind of pigeonholed and I wouldn't think it promotes diversity," political science major Jonathan Wheat said.
"I appreciate the opportunity to go to whatever school," he said. "Maybe you lose those majors in arts and sciences."
Although SB1440 only addresses transfers to CSUs, Ramos said the University of California system will come into the conversation eventually.
A third member of the debate team, Ariel Silva, said she is waiting for similar legislation to be passed for the UCs before her interest is piqued.
"If it were offered to Berkeley or UCLA, more people would think about that decision," she said. "It would be way more competitive."
Two departments altered their curricula to become compliant with a statewide mandate to streamline California community college students to CSU campuses next fall.
Contra Costa College's administration of justice department and speech and communications department now match statewide mandates and course descriptions to meet requirements of California Senate Bill 1440.
Approved last year and set to take effect in fall 2012, SB1440 is a transfer agreement guaranteeing admission and giving priority to students transferring to a local CSU.
The Student Transfer Agreement Reform Act establishes statewide curricula for designated majors, awards associate degrees to eligible transfer students and provides GPA bumps for transfers to non-impacted majors or local California State universities, said Kenyetta Tribble, CCC articulation officer and matriculation services coordinator.
SB1440, written by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Van Nuys), requires each of the 112 community colleges throughout the state to offer at least two majors from a list of 16 uniform programs.
Of those courses and majors offered, students will need to take 60 units at a community college and another 60 at the CSU to graduating with a bachelor's degree in four years.
"The primary (focus) was to make the transfer process as seamless as possible," Padilla's communication director John Mann said. "It allows for as many students who can meet requirements with CSU to be able to do so."
Administration of justice department Chairperson Rick Ramos said SB1440 makes students taking particular courses evaluate them from different perspectives.
"Although it's a department, it's a program thrown together from a multidiscipline approach," Ramos said.
Criminology and research and planning, for instance, would also be looked at from a sociology standpoint, he said.
Part of this, he said, is to appease CSU professors who have different instructional focuses.
"Some CSUs were not particularly happy they were forced to take courses," Ramos said.
His advice for them was, "Just follow the law."
Ramos said he has been working with other department chairpersons to bring their departments in line with the recent law to affect more students.
History major Alfredo Serrano, a member of the CCC speech and debate team, said he would consider changing his major to speech and communications, a new program of study since the act, when SB1440 takes effect at CCC next year.
"There are more benefits by having it, by having that elective," he said. "Guiding you to another place, it's guidance, it's helpful."
There are fears with SB1440, however, which Serrano's teammates vocalized.
"You get kind of pigeonholed and I wouldn't think it promotes diversity," political science major Jonathan Wheat said.
"I appreciate the opportunity to go to whatever school," he said. "Maybe you lose those majors in arts and sciences."
Although SB1440 only addresses transfers to CSUs, Ramos said the University of California system will come into the conversation eventually.
A third member of the debate team, Ariel Silva, said she is waiting for similar legislation to be passed for the UCs before her interest is piqued.
"If it were offered to Berkeley or UCLA, more people would think about that decision," she said. "It would be way more competitive."
Working overtime
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Oct. 5, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
John Christensen committed the day he was hired full time at Contra Costa College to memory.
"It was Aug. 22, 1988," the former employment development specialist said.
More importantly, however, Christensen remembers the day his 22-year career at CCC ended.
Effective June 30, district Director of Communications Tim Leong said 68 positions across the district, including its office in Martinez and its three campuses, were eliminated or reduced, resulting in employees taking retirement incentives, being laid off or relocated to another campus within the district to close a districtwide $21.3 million budget gap this year.
"We're trying to run this organization in a fiscally prudent manner," he said.
When Christensen, who took a similar job opening at Diablo Valley College, returned to CCC on Thursday for the unveiling of former night and weekend supervisor Martin Padilla's memorial bust on campus, he peeked into where he worked in the Student Services Center.
"I went back to my old office and the Transfer Center was basically dismantled," he said. "It looks like a study area now."
The college administration cut hours to the Transfer/Career Center among other student services and staffing positions to make up a $3 million shortage for the year.
State allocations continue to drop during the global economic recession, but further cuts to the college's operating budget forced the elimination of nine positions and the reduction of another seven at CCC.
Christensen said the jobs in the SSC were reduced to essential services: Admissions and Records, counseling, financial aid, Disabled Students Programs and Services and EOPS.
"Transfer was eliminated and absorbed by counseling," he said.
The responsibilities of the employees impacted by the cuts were passed off to other departments on campus, regardless of similarities or experience solving those issues.
Printing and copying is now done within each academic division or in the Bookstore with the elimination of the reprographics department, an automated recording replaced the switchboard operator to direct the college's incoming calls and President McKinley Williams, who is retiring at the end of December, added Foundation director to his list of responsibilities as head of the college.
"Everybody is doing more than one thing," Williams said. "We're looking at being efficient any way, every place we can. It's not business as usual."
Another department picking up the slack left from the district shake up is the custodial staff sorting and delivering mail.
The three day-shift custodians bear the load of getting mail to five locations on campus. This change has people waiting longer for their mail since Sheri Hintz transferred to DVC's San Ramon Center in the summer.
"I don't know how, but some of my mail is being delivered to the Business Office (in the Applied Arts Building)," Liberal Arts Division secretary Arceli Juarez said in her office on the bottom floor of the Liberal Arts Building.
"Before (Hintz left) we didn't have to worry about it being delivered to the right person," she said.
Custodial services Manager Darlene Poe said all the mail that arrives gets delivered.
"I give them what I get," she said. "We do what we have to do and students are our first priority."
Cuts impacted her department as well, which is down from 17 to 13.
Custodian Jeryl Landers said he and his team do what they can to keep the college running like when Hintz was here, but additional responsibilities means reduced freedoms.
"Sheri could go off campus and pick up mail," he said. "That's the No. 1 issue. We can't go. If somebody throws up (in a classroom), a toilet overflows or there's an event, we can't leave campus because of our responsibilities on campus."
But, Landers said, the custodians are fixing the problems with the delivery system.
"Rain, sleet, snow or toilets," he said.
Juarez said the extra work and stress put on the custodians is shared across the campus.
"With all the cuts, the custodians are trying to do their best, but are still mixing up the mail," she said. "People have more work to do and less time."
John Christensen committed the day he was hired full time at Contra Costa College to memory.
"It was Aug. 22, 1988," the former employment development specialist said.
More importantly, however, Christensen remembers the day his 22-year career at CCC ended.
Effective June 30, district Director of Communications Tim Leong said 68 positions across the district, including its office in Martinez and its three campuses, were eliminated or reduced, resulting in employees taking retirement incentives, being laid off or relocated to another campus within the district to close a districtwide $21.3 million budget gap this year.
"We're trying to run this organization in a fiscally prudent manner," he said.
When Christensen, who took a similar job opening at Diablo Valley College, returned to CCC on Thursday for the unveiling of former night and weekend supervisor Martin Padilla's memorial bust on campus, he peeked into where he worked in the Student Services Center.
"I went back to my old office and the Transfer Center was basically dismantled," he said. "It looks like a study area now."
The college administration cut hours to the Transfer/Career Center among other student services and staffing positions to make up a $3 million shortage for the year.
State allocations continue to drop during the global economic recession, but further cuts to the college's operating budget forced the elimination of nine positions and the reduction of another seven at CCC.
Christensen said the jobs in the SSC were reduced to essential services: Admissions and Records, counseling, financial aid, Disabled Students Programs and Services and EOPS.
"Transfer was eliminated and absorbed by counseling," he said.
The responsibilities of the employees impacted by the cuts were passed off to other departments on campus, regardless of similarities or experience solving those issues.
Printing and copying is now done within each academic division or in the Bookstore with the elimination of the reprographics department, an automated recording replaced the switchboard operator to direct the college's incoming calls and President McKinley Williams, who is retiring at the end of December, added Foundation director to his list of responsibilities as head of the college.
"Everybody is doing more than one thing," Williams said. "We're looking at being efficient any way, every place we can. It's not business as usual."
Another department picking up the slack left from the district shake up is the custodial staff sorting and delivering mail.
The three day-shift custodians bear the load of getting mail to five locations on campus. This change has people waiting longer for their mail since Sheri Hintz transferred to DVC's San Ramon Center in the summer.
"I don't know how, but some of my mail is being delivered to the Business Office (in the Applied Arts Building)," Liberal Arts Division secretary Arceli Juarez said in her office on the bottom floor of the Liberal Arts Building.
"Before (Hintz left) we didn't have to worry about it being delivered to the right person," she said.
Custodial services Manager Darlene Poe said all the mail that arrives gets delivered.
"I give them what I get," she said. "We do what we have to do and students are our first priority."
Cuts impacted her department as well, which is down from 17 to 13.
Custodian Jeryl Landers said he and his team do what they can to keep the college running like when Hintz was here, but additional responsibilities means reduced freedoms.
"Sheri could go off campus and pick up mail," he said. "That's the No. 1 issue. We can't go. If somebody throws up (in a classroom), a toilet overflows or there's an event, we can't leave campus because of our responsibilities on campus."
But, Landers said, the custodians are fixing the problems with the delivery system.
"Rain, sleet, snow or toilets," he said.
Juarez said the extra work and stress put on the custodians is shared across the campus.
"With all the cuts, the custodians are trying to do their best, but are still mixing up the mail," she said. "People have more work to do and less time."
Quick searches
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Sept. 21, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
As technology increases, students' research abilities decrease.
"People don't know how to find a book in the Library because they just Google everything," Contra Costa College librarian Judy Flum said.
To prepare students for their classes at CCC and after they transfer, the college began requiring them to show library and computer competency skills in 2006.
CCC is the only college in the district with such a graduation requirement, Flum said. Diablo Valley College has a watered down test and different library studies courses, she said, and Los Medanos College never established a requirement.
Around 30 other California community colleges have similar requirements, she said.
The Library Studies 110 and 110A courses teach students to find authoritative information and good sources, Flum said.
Students can fulfill the requirement by testing out of the class, but half the students fail it and some are unaware of the requirement and its options.
"It makes a big difference," she said. "It's one little course and it's a pain in the butt, but it really helps people."
Spanish major Charrell Sherman took the class and said it had highs and lows.
"I felt more comfortable taking the class than taking the test," she said. "Some of it was useless information. It's kind of a waste."
She said the class repeatedly went over how to use the college's five databases, which was helpful to a point, but then became redundant.
Going over basic, elementary skills also turned her off.
"Oh my god, how to find a book in the Library, read a call number, what a reference book is," she said. "How do you not know what it is?"
Flum said the English department linked the library studies courses with English 142B for two years before it was dropped in 2008.
"It was the first time (some students) figured out how to find books," Flum said. "They were surprised to find other books in the same subjects."
Some professors make sure their students know the resources available at the Library and Learning Resource Center.
Devon Powell came to the Library with his Expository Writing class, taught by English department Chairperson John Gregorian.
Powell said the walk through brushed off some cobwebs and the requirement makes students show they can properly research topics.
"I know how to use databases. I know how to search documents and different things like that," he said. "It's a crucial thing in life."
As technology increases, students' research abilities decrease.
"People don't know how to find a book in the Library because they just Google everything," Contra Costa College librarian Judy Flum said.
To prepare students for their classes at CCC and after they transfer, the college began requiring them to show library and computer competency skills in 2006.
CCC is the only college in the district with such a graduation requirement, Flum said. Diablo Valley College has a watered down test and different library studies courses, she said, and Los Medanos College never established a requirement.
Around 30 other California community colleges have similar requirements, she said.
The Library Studies 110 and 110A courses teach students to find authoritative information and good sources, Flum said.
Students can fulfill the requirement by testing out of the class, but half the students fail it and some are unaware of the requirement and its options.
"It makes a big difference," she said. "It's one little course and it's a pain in the butt, but it really helps people."
Spanish major Charrell Sherman took the class and said it had highs and lows.
"I felt more comfortable taking the class than taking the test," she said. "Some of it was useless information. It's kind of a waste."
She said the class repeatedly went over how to use the college's five databases, which was helpful to a point, but then became redundant.
Going over basic, elementary skills also turned her off.
"Oh my god, how to find a book in the Library, read a call number, what a reference book is," she said. "How do you not know what it is?"
Flum said the English department linked the library studies courses with English 142B for two years before it was dropped in 2008.
"It was the first time (some students) figured out how to find books," Flum said. "They were surprised to find other books in the same subjects."
Some professors make sure their students know the resources available at the Library and Learning Resource Center.
Devon Powell came to the Library with his Expository Writing class, taught by English department Chairperson John Gregorian.
Powell said the walk through brushed off some cobwebs and the requirement makes students show they can properly research topics.
"I know how to use databases. I know how to search documents and different things like that," he said. "It's a crucial thing in life."
‘Silly’ Bailey, 19, murdered
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Sept. 21, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Rashad Bailey's football coaches at Richmond High School called him "The Prankster" and said he was always good for a laugh.
"He always had a joke, something to lighten the mood and get the whole team laughing," former Oiler coach Jeff Tyner said. "Rashad was a really likable guy. He didn't have an enemy on the team.
"Silly Rashad."
But on July 3, one of the deadliest days Richmond has seen in recent memory, gunmen killed the 19-year-old with a high caliber assault rifle, Detective Tim Gray said.
"(Bailey) was a different type of victim," Gray said. "He wasn't specifically targeted because he was Rashad Bailey. He was targeted because of where he was."
Bailey, a Contra Costa College student, was the 13th of 24 homicide victims in Richmond this year.
The murderous Sunday night started on Ohio Avenue around dusk when one person survived a shooting. Soon after, another person was shot as retaliation in North Richmond. Gray said immediately after those shootings, there were two more and one person died in North Richmond.
This triggered another retaliation shooting in Richmond and resulted in Bailey's death.
Another shooting happened in North Richmond after Bailey was killed and then, 8 to 10 minutes later, the last homicide occurred.
Six people were shot, three of whom died, that night.
"It was back and forth type of retaliation," Gray said. "He got caught up in that."
He said Bailey stopped in front 3203 Center Ave. less than 20 minutes after getting off work at Denny's in San Pablo. As he opened the door to get out of the first car he ever bought, a 1997 four-door Chevy Lumina, a car drove up and shot him multiple times with .223-caliber bullets, typically used with military assault rifles.
"The door opened, he stepped out," Gray said. "That's it."
The Richmond Police Department detective said Bailey stopped at the house to listen and work on music, for which he had a passion, and to hang out with friends.
"He wasn't involved with criminal activity that led to his death," Gray said. "Nothing like that. He was a man working multiple jobs, going to school."
Charles Johnson, campus security officer in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, knew Bailey as an RHS student and member of the 21st Century Mentors Foundation and said the class of 2009 graduate was the last person he expected to hear involved in trouble, let alone killed.
"He was willing to help anybody. He had a kind heart," said Johnson, who Bailey called "Uncle Charles."
"It's a total loss," he said. "I'm (in shock over) it."
Rashad Bailey's football coaches at Richmond High School called him "The Prankster" and said he was always good for a laugh.
"He always had a joke, something to lighten the mood and get the whole team laughing," former Oiler coach Jeff Tyner said. "Rashad was a really likable guy. He didn't have an enemy on the team.
"Silly Rashad."
But on July 3, one of the deadliest days Richmond has seen in recent memory, gunmen killed the 19-year-old with a high caliber assault rifle, Detective Tim Gray said.
"(Bailey) was a different type of victim," Gray said. "He wasn't specifically targeted because he was Rashad Bailey. He was targeted because of where he was."
Bailey, a Contra Costa College student, was the 13th of 24 homicide victims in Richmond this year.
The murderous Sunday night started on Ohio Avenue around dusk when one person survived a shooting. Soon after, another person was shot as retaliation in North Richmond. Gray said immediately after those shootings, there were two more and one person died in North Richmond.
This triggered another retaliation shooting in Richmond and resulted in Bailey's death.
Another shooting happened in North Richmond after Bailey was killed and then, 8 to 10 minutes later, the last homicide occurred.
Six people were shot, three of whom died, that night.
"It was back and forth type of retaliation," Gray said. "He got caught up in that."
He said Bailey stopped in front 3203 Center Ave. less than 20 minutes after getting off work at Denny's in San Pablo. As he opened the door to get out of the first car he ever bought, a 1997 four-door Chevy Lumina, a car drove up and shot him multiple times with .223-caliber bullets, typically used with military assault rifles.
"The door opened, he stepped out," Gray said. "That's it."
The Richmond Police Department detective said Bailey stopped at the house to listen and work on music, for which he had a passion, and to hang out with friends.
"He wasn't involved with criminal activity that led to his death," Gray said. "Nothing like that. He was a man working multiple jobs, going to school."
Charles Johnson, campus security officer in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, knew Bailey as an RHS student and member of the 21st Century Mentors Foundation and said the class of 2009 graduate was the last person he expected to hear involved in trouble, let alone killed.
"He was willing to help anybody. He had a kind heart," said Johnson, who Bailey called "Uncle Charles."
"It's a total loss," he said. "I'm (in shock over) it."
Muslims victimized by stigmas
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Sept. 14, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Barbara Smith came to campus Monday with the 10th anniversary of the greatest terrorist attack on American soil still fresh in her mind.
She saw an Arab cab driver dropping someone off at the college and she thought, "Thank God we got through Sept. 11."
She took a moment as her eyes watered and her throat closed.
"It's hard stuff," she said.
Smith, a 59-year-old registered nurse, came to terms with her prejudices — and thoughts many Americans share since nearly 3,000 people died that Tuesday morning — regarding a connection between Islam and terrorism.
"It bothered me because I put the two together," she said. "I need to let go."
This was not Smith's first encounter with Muslim stereotypes and her preconceived notions of their religion. Smith spent three days in a hijab, traditional head coverings worn by Muslim women, after being asked to wear it at last semester's Club Rush.
"I decided to walk through my own prejudices," she said. "Obviously I didn't look Middle Eastern, but some white people are Muslim. All kinds of people are Muslim."
Islam is the second largest religion in the world with 1.3 million followers, most of whom live outside of the Arab world. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 20 percent of the world's Muslim population is Arabic-speaking.
The three major religions of the world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, share central stories and stem from the teachings of the prophet Abraham.
"There is a close link between Judaism, Christianity and Islam," humanities and philosophy department Chairperson David "Dejarah" Houston said. "It's all the same thread."
Judaism was the first of the three monotheistic religions founded and is, in a sense, more traditional, Houston said. Christianity, the most populous religion in the world, followed and embraces the Old Testament. Islam, Houston said, embraced all of Judaism and Christianity when it was created.
"It all comes from the same place," he said. "Muhammad (Islam's central prophet) said Jesus (from the New Testament) is one of the prophets and Abraham (from the Old Testament) is one of the prophets."
Psychology major Ali Riz, an immigrant from the Fiji Islands, said in his home country, religion is a personal choice and disputes over it are rare.
"We don't have any race wars over there like they do here," the 31-year-old Muslim said. "It's pretty neighborly. I had Buddhist and Catholic baby sitters.
"As long as you believe in a higher power and be a good person," he said, "that's all that matters."
The use of imagery, scapegoats and fears of ideological differences, however, continue to perpetuate the stereotype of Muslims as terrorists.
Economics major Zadia Saunders, 20, called it religious profiling.
"If you see someone who looks like this, be scared, your life is in danger," she said cynically. "It's horrible."
Farooq Syed was born and raised in Concord. The 30-year-old speaks English elegantly, cuts his hair short and worked as a manager at AT&T before his new job at Fry's Electronics.
But his Pakistani name and thick black beard make him a target at airports.
"It really saddens me," the engineering major said, wearing a collared shirt, khakis and a black shoulder bag to carry his computer. "There is still a lot of intolerance in this country."
He said the lessons he learned growing up in the Bay Area taught him to accept all people and their beliefs, but in areas without diversity, like the Southeastern United States, intolerance is evident.
Syed also said a poll he saw showed Americans' views on Islam and violence vary according to age.
A Pew Research Center poll released in March said 58 percent of people ages 18-29 said Islam was not more likely than other religions to encourage violence. Contrarily, 46 percent of those polled who are 50 and older said it was more likely.
Politics also played a part in the poll. Sixty-six percent of those who identified as conservative Republicans responded affirmatively to the question and 61 percent of liberal Democrats disagreed.
Syed said corporate media reinforce stereotypes of Muslims to divert opposition to the white-collar criminals on Wall Street.
"The media does a really good job brainwashing its audience of who their enemies are and aren't," Syed said. "They're focused on people who look like me, like I'm more of a threat than the people responsible for the crisis in this country.
"The economic disaster we're going through has nothing to do with (Osama) bin Laden or al-Qaida," he said. "It's the Wall Street bankers. People need to wake up and realize that."
The war on terror, Syed said, is a new age Red Scare.
"It was communism 50 years ago. The new enemy is Islam," he said. "Whatever suits the military industrial complex is the convenient enemy."
The Sept. 11 attacks directly resulted in American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in the search and fight against bin Laden. It took 10 years to find the head of al-Qaida, but American special forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2.
In addition to the killing of bin Laden, Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein was found and killed as a result of the American invasion of the country and a search for weapons of mass destruction, which were never found.
These American military operations, which Syed called adventurism in the Middle East and Africa, only "add fuel to the fire."
"If you go around the world killing people, you make a lot of enemies and payback is a bitch," he said.
"Most Muslims around the world are victims of terrorism," he said. "To name the victim the culprit is a very big injustice."
Barbara Smith came to campus Monday with the 10th anniversary of the greatest terrorist attack on American soil still fresh in her mind.
She saw an Arab cab driver dropping someone off at the college and she thought, "Thank God we got through Sept. 11."
She took a moment as her eyes watered and her throat closed.
"It's hard stuff," she said.
Smith, a 59-year-old registered nurse, came to terms with her prejudices — and thoughts many Americans share since nearly 3,000 people died that Tuesday morning — regarding a connection between Islam and terrorism.
"It bothered me because I put the two together," she said. "I need to let go."
This was not Smith's first encounter with Muslim stereotypes and her preconceived notions of their religion. Smith spent three days in a hijab, traditional head coverings worn by Muslim women, after being asked to wear it at last semester's Club Rush.
"I decided to walk through my own prejudices," she said. "Obviously I didn't look Middle Eastern, but some white people are Muslim. All kinds of people are Muslim."
Islam is the second largest religion in the world with 1.3 million followers, most of whom live outside of the Arab world. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 20 percent of the world's Muslim population is Arabic-speaking.
The three major religions of the world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, share central stories and stem from the teachings of the prophet Abraham.
"There is a close link between Judaism, Christianity and Islam," humanities and philosophy department Chairperson David "Dejarah" Houston said. "It's all the same thread."
Judaism was the first of the three monotheistic religions founded and is, in a sense, more traditional, Houston said. Christianity, the most populous religion in the world, followed and embraces the Old Testament. Islam, Houston said, embraced all of Judaism and Christianity when it was created.
"It all comes from the same place," he said. "Muhammad (Islam's central prophet) said Jesus (from the New Testament) is one of the prophets and Abraham (from the Old Testament) is one of the prophets."
Psychology major Ali Riz, an immigrant from the Fiji Islands, said in his home country, religion is a personal choice and disputes over it are rare.
"We don't have any race wars over there like they do here," the 31-year-old Muslim said. "It's pretty neighborly. I had Buddhist and Catholic baby sitters.
"As long as you believe in a higher power and be a good person," he said, "that's all that matters."
The use of imagery, scapegoats and fears of ideological differences, however, continue to perpetuate the stereotype of Muslims as terrorists.
Economics major Zadia Saunders, 20, called it religious profiling.
"If you see someone who looks like this, be scared, your life is in danger," she said cynically. "It's horrible."
Farooq Syed was born and raised in Concord. The 30-year-old speaks English elegantly, cuts his hair short and worked as a manager at AT&T before his new job at Fry's Electronics.
But his Pakistani name and thick black beard make him a target at airports.
"It really saddens me," the engineering major said, wearing a collared shirt, khakis and a black shoulder bag to carry his computer. "There is still a lot of intolerance in this country."
He said the lessons he learned growing up in the Bay Area taught him to accept all people and their beliefs, but in areas without diversity, like the Southeastern United States, intolerance is evident.
Syed also said a poll he saw showed Americans' views on Islam and violence vary according to age.
A Pew Research Center poll released in March said 58 percent of people ages 18-29 said Islam was not more likely than other religions to encourage violence. Contrarily, 46 percent of those polled who are 50 and older said it was more likely.
Politics also played a part in the poll. Sixty-six percent of those who identified as conservative Republicans responded affirmatively to the question and 61 percent of liberal Democrats disagreed.
Syed said corporate media reinforce stereotypes of Muslims to divert opposition to the white-collar criminals on Wall Street.
"The media does a really good job brainwashing its audience of who their enemies are and aren't," Syed said. "They're focused on people who look like me, like I'm more of a threat than the people responsible for the crisis in this country.
"The economic disaster we're going through has nothing to do with (Osama) bin Laden or al-Qaida," he said. "It's the Wall Street bankers. People need to wake up and realize that."
The war on terror, Syed said, is a new age Red Scare.
"It was communism 50 years ago. The new enemy is Islam," he said. "Whatever suits the military industrial complex is the convenient enemy."
The Sept. 11 attacks directly resulted in American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in the search and fight against bin Laden. It took 10 years to find the head of al-Qaida, but American special forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2.
In addition to the killing of bin Laden, Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein was found and killed as a result of the American invasion of the country and a search for weapons of mass destruction, which were never found.
These American military operations, which Syed called adventurism in the Middle East and Africa, only "add fuel to the fire."
"If you go around the world killing people, you make a lot of enemies and payback is a bitch," he said.
"Most Muslims around the world are victims of terrorism," he said. "To name the victim the culprit is a very big injustice."
New bill delivers benefits
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Sept. 14, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
Signs and shirts inside the Student Services Center emphasize the accessibility of college with a simple slogan: "I can afford college."
But for roughly 42,000 of California students, college is unaffordable because they are undocumented citizens.
"Everyone should have the opportunity to be a student and go to school," Contra Costa College nursing major Karla Palma said.
"Some have the opportunity and don't go. Others want to and can't," the 23-year-old UC Berkeley transfer said. "There should be a Dream Act to give them that opportunity to become what they want to be."
Assemblyman Gilbert Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) wrote two bills, both approved by the Legislature, to provide undocumented students the access to affordable college classes, exempting them from nonresident tuition.
Assembly bills 130 and 131, known together as the California Dream Act, allow undocumented students who migrated with their parents to collect scholarships and financial aid through the institution.
The children of undocumented immigrants brought to this country and raised in communities up and down the state, grew up identifying as California residents. But because they are not on record as citizens, they are not allowed the same access to affordable education.
"If you were brought up here, your friends are here, your work is here, your life is here," La Raza studies professor Agustin Palacios said. "It is unfair to punish them for a choice they did not make."
Conrado Terrazas, Cedillo's communication director, said, "There are thousands of students who do hard work to go to college. They are qualified but can't go because of the high cost of college."
Undocumented residents, however, must have gone to a high school in the state for at least three years and acquired their diploma or its equivalent, as defined by AB540.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB130 on July 25 and AB131 is waiting for his signature by Oct. 9.
"Passing these bills is an advance of civil rights in California," CCC Admissions and Records Director Michael Aldaco.
The state's Dream Act differs from its national counterpart of the same name, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, which was introduced in 2001, and again this May.
The federal act provides a pathway to national citizenship through education or military service. The state bills only address the cost of education.
AB540, the California Immigrant Higher Education Act, signed in October 2001, allows for undocumented students who attended high school in the state for at least three years and graduated with a diploma or its equivalent.
Students need AB540 eligibility to take advantage of AB130 and 131.
"AB540 waives non- resident tuition. It sets the price," Aldaco said. "AB130 allows these students to receive privately raised scholarships. AB131 opens the door to state financial aid."
Terrazas said undocumented students make up less than 1 percent of students at each of three higher education institutions in the state, but 30 percent of students eligible for AB540.
Undocumented students previously could not receive any funds passed through institutions, such as the Financial Aid Office.
Since the passing of AB130, all AB540 eligible students can apply for scholarships on Jan. 1, 2012.
AB131 proposes to take this notion a step further by allowing the opportunity for AB540 students to receive public financial aid.
The second half of the Dream Act would allow undocumented students to apply for the Board of Governor's fee waiver and they could apply for competitive aid, like Cal Grants, after all California residents received their aid.
"The Board of Governor's fee waiver is the biggest program," CCC financial aid assistant Lizette Ponthier said.
"For our population, it could have a potential impact, specifically here," she said. "They are already our students performing academically."
Signs and shirts inside the Student Services Center emphasize the accessibility of college with a simple slogan: "I can afford college."
But for roughly 42,000 of California students, college is unaffordable because they are undocumented citizens.
"Everyone should have the opportunity to be a student and go to school," Contra Costa College nursing major Karla Palma said.
"Some have the opportunity and don't go. Others want to and can't," the 23-year-old UC Berkeley transfer said. "There should be a Dream Act to give them that opportunity to become what they want to be."
Assemblyman Gilbert Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) wrote two bills, both approved by the Legislature, to provide undocumented students the access to affordable college classes, exempting them from nonresident tuition.
Assembly bills 130 and 131, known together as the California Dream Act, allow undocumented students who migrated with their parents to collect scholarships and financial aid through the institution.
The children of undocumented immigrants brought to this country and raised in communities up and down the state, grew up identifying as California residents. But because they are not on record as citizens, they are not allowed the same access to affordable education.
"If you were brought up here, your friends are here, your work is here, your life is here," La Raza studies professor Agustin Palacios said. "It is unfair to punish them for a choice they did not make."
Conrado Terrazas, Cedillo's communication director, said, "There are thousands of students who do hard work to go to college. They are qualified but can't go because of the high cost of college."
Undocumented residents, however, must have gone to a high school in the state for at least three years and acquired their diploma or its equivalent, as defined by AB540.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB130 on July 25 and AB131 is waiting for his signature by Oct. 9.
"Passing these bills is an advance of civil rights in California," CCC Admissions and Records Director Michael Aldaco.
The state's Dream Act differs from its national counterpart of the same name, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, which was introduced in 2001, and again this May.
The federal act provides a pathway to national citizenship through education or military service. The state bills only address the cost of education.
AB540, the California Immigrant Higher Education Act, signed in October 2001, allows for undocumented students who attended high school in the state for at least three years and graduated with a diploma or its equivalent.
Students need AB540 eligibility to take advantage of AB130 and 131.
"AB540 waives non- resident tuition. It sets the price," Aldaco said. "AB130 allows these students to receive privately raised scholarships. AB131 opens the door to state financial aid."
Terrazas said undocumented students make up less than 1 percent of students at each of three higher education institutions in the state, but 30 percent of students eligible for AB540.
Undocumented students previously could not receive any funds passed through institutions, such as the Financial Aid Office.
Since the passing of AB130, all AB540 eligible students can apply for scholarships on Jan. 1, 2012.
AB131 proposes to take this notion a step further by allowing the opportunity for AB540 students to receive public financial aid.
The second half of the Dream Act would allow undocumented students to apply for the Board of Governor's fee waiver and they could apply for competitive aid, like Cal Grants, after all California residents received their aid.
"The Board of Governor's fee waiver is the biggest program," CCC financial aid assistant Lizette Ponthier said.
"For our population, it could have a potential impact, specifically here," she said. "They are already our students performing academically."
Opinion: Protecting privates
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Sept. 14, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
A second wall of separation needs to be erected.
This protective barrier needs to shield children from those who have the greatest influence on their lives — their parents.
San Francisco resident Lloyd Schofield tried to prevent the city's youngest and most vulnerable from their gripping rulers, but his efforts were cut down before the climax of election season.
Schofield, 58, proposed a law making it illegal to "circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the whole or any part of the foreskin, testicles or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18 years."
The federal government outlawed female circumcision, or female genital mutilation, in 1996 and the World Health Organization classifies the act as a violation of human rights.
"The practice also violates a person's rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death," according to the WHO website.
If the mutilation of one child's genitals is universally recognized as a violation of human rights, it is a violation to mutilate any child's genitals.
But male circumcision is not only accepted, it is promoted for religious and social reasons with insignificant medical benefits.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi ruled in July that Schofield's proposed ban violates state law — cities have no authority to regulate medicine or its practice.
Schofield's "intactivism" movement to end male circumcision rubbed people the wrong way, however, and caused legislative backlash.
Giorgi's ruling and analysis quickly inspired a pair of Southern California lawmakers to ban circumcision bans.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) introduced legislation preventing the criminalization of circumcision to their chambers in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento, respectively, in response to Schofield's proposition and Giorgi's overruling.
According to Assemblyman Gatto in the headline of a press release, Assembly Bill 768 prevents "frivolous attacks on religious, parental and medical choice."
But interfering with the right to choose is common practice for lawmakers. Oklahoma voters approved a ballot measure last November banning American judges from considering Islamic or international law when ruling. In April, the French enacted a nationwide ban of burqas. California voters justified voting against Proposition 8 three years ago, citing religious and cultural taboos.
Gatto's bill passed Sept. 7 and awaits Gov. Jerry Brown's signature. Sherman's House Resolution 2400, "Religious and Parental Rights Defense Act," is in the introductory phase of legislation, being reviewed by the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The eight-term congressman's bill not only boasts exaggerated and unfounded medical claims, but also exploits two of the world's largest religions to deflect opposition and dissent.
The first finding in Section 2 of HR 2400 says, "Male circumcision carries significant medical benefits, including lower risk of sexually transmitted diseases, certain kinds of infection, and overall improved hygiene."
This is a blatant lie and asserts unfair assumptions.
The medical benefits of circumcision are scientifically proven to be minimal, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"Benefits are not sufficient to recommend all infant boys be circumcised," said its website, HealthyChildren.org.
The WHO, on the contrary, supports circumcision to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.
However, the WHO, the United Nation's authority on global health, emphasizes, "Male circumcision should be considered an efficacious intervention for HIV prevention in countries and regions with heterosexual epidemics, high HIV and low male circumcision prevalence."
The WHO promotes circumcision as only one element of a comprehensive package for fighting HIV/AIDS, which includes more significant preventions — exposing more men to safe sex practices, prevention and counseling.
All measures to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS across the world are important and should be discussed, but the WHO is not referring to America when it suggests circumcision to prevent HIV.
America is nowhere near experiencing an HIV epidemic on the same scale as other countries, voiding Sherman's first finding to Congress and making HIV prevention an insufficient reason to promote circumcision.
The California Medical Association supports AB 768, citing a disruption in the doctor-patient relationship.
It is true that government's role is not to regulate or limit medicine, from therapy to abortion or medical marijuana, and doctors should perform whatever procedure they think is best for patients.
However, in the aforementioned instances, the decision makers are the doctor and a conscious, consenting adult. This is the not the case for infant circumcision, a procedure more cosmetic than medically necessary.
When combined with the fact that most babies receive either insufficient anesthesia or none at all, contemporary medicine cannot justify circumcision practices in their current form.
The second finding in HR 2400 explains, "Male circumcision is an important part of many world religions, including Judaism and Islam, and observers have safely embraced its practice for generations."
Religious superstitions and rituals should never be the sole basis for medical laws, and this situation epitomizes an obvious cherry-picking mentality for separation of church and state.
Sherman says Jewish children must be circumcised within eight days of birth, save for medical emergencies.
But a medical emergency should be the only reason to perform that operation.
Additionally, HR 2400 protects the parents' right to choose to raise their child according to a particular holy book and its references to a child's family jewels.
But there is no mention of the child's choice.
After the location, time and name of a newborn, religion is one of the last lifestyle choices decided by parents. If that boy's parents are Jewish or Muslim, he has — and, as Sherman suggests, deserves — no choice in his circumcision.
Scriptures calling for circumcision contradict the notion that God created humans in His image. Theology also asserts thousands of years of human assumptions as wiser than millions of years of primate evolution. In fact, the foreskin is not a superfluous body part.
The two concerns regarding circumcision are medical and traditional, yet neither provides an undisputed, significant benefit for circumcising infants.
Binding a child to the laws of a religion he did not choose and cutting his body in the name of said religion is callous and appalling.
If by the time a person reaches the age of consent for a tattoo, piercing or other forms of body markings and mutilation and wishes for a doctor or religious leader to perform a circumcision to feel closer to God or for any reason beyond immediate health concerns, that is a different matter.
But children represent the most vulnerable among the population and infants have no say in the choices of their parents, which, in this case, can literally leave a lifelong scar.
A second wall of separation needs to be erected.
This protective barrier needs to shield children from those who have the greatest influence on their lives — their parents.
San Francisco resident Lloyd Schofield tried to prevent the city's youngest and most vulnerable from their gripping rulers, but his efforts were cut down before the climax of election season.
Schofield, 58, proposed a law making it illegal to "circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the whole or any part of the foreskin, testicles or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18 years."
The federal government outlawed female circumcision, or female genital mutilation, in 1996 and the World Health Organization classifies the act as a violation of human rights.
"The practice also violates a person's rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death," according to the WHO website.
If the mutilation of one child's genitals is universally recognized as a violation of human rights, it is a violation to mutilate any child's genitals.
But male circumcision is not only accepted, it is promoted for religious and social reasons with insignificant medical benefits.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi ruled in July that Schofield's proposed ban violates state law — cities have no authority to regulate medicine or its practice.
Schofield's "intactivism" movement to end male circumcision rubbed people the wrong way, however, and caused legislative backlash.
Giorgi's ruling and analysis quickly inspired a pair of Southern California lawmakers to ban circumcision bans.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) introduced legislation preventing the criminalization of circumcision to their chambers in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento, respectively, in response to Schofield's proposition and Giorgi's overruling.
According to Assemblyman Gatto in the headline of a press release, Assembly Bill 768 prevents "frivolous attacks on religious, parental and medical choice."
But interfering with the right to choose is common practice for lawmakers. Oklahoma voters approved a ballot measure last November banning American judges from considering Islamic or international law when ruling. In April, the French enacted a nationwide ban of burqas. California voters justified voting against Proposition 8 three years ago, citing religious and cultural taboos.
Gatto's bill passed Sept. 7 and awaits Gov. Jerry Brown's signature. Sherman's House Resolution 2400, "Religious and Parental Rights Defense Act," is in the introductory phase of legislation, being reviewed by the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The eight-term congressman's bill not only boasts exaggerated and unfounded medical claims, but also exploits two of the world's largest religions to deflect opposition and dissent.
The first finding in Section 2 of HR 2400 says, "Male circumcision carries significant medical benefits, including lower risk of sexually transmitted diseases, certain kinds of infection, and overall improved hygiene."
This is a blatant lie and asserts unfair assumptions.
The medical benefits of circumcision are scientifically proven to be minimal, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
"Benefits are not sufficient to recommend all infant boys be circumcised," said its website, HealthyChildren.org.
The WHO, on the contrary, supports circumcision to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.
However, the WHO, the United Nation's authority on global health, emphasizes, "Male circumcision should be considered an efficacious intervention for HIV prevention in countries and regions with heterosexual epidemics, high HIV and low male circumcision prevalence."
The WHO promotes circumcision as only one element of a comprehensive package for fighting HIV/AIDS, which includes more significant preventions — exposing more men to safe sex practices, prevention and counseling.
All measures to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS across the world are important and should be discussed, but the WHO is not referring to America when it suggests circumcision to prevent HIV.
America is nowhere near experiencing an HIV epidemic on the same scale as other countries, voiding Sherman's first finding to Congress and making HIV prevention an insufficient reason to promote circumcision.
The California Medical Association supports AB 768, citing a disruption in the doctor-patient relationship.
It is true that government's role is not to regulate or limit medicine, from therapy to abortion or medical marijuana, and doctors should perform whatever procedure they think is best for patients.
However, in the aforementioned instances, the decision makers are the doctor and a conscious, consenting adult. This is the not the case for infant circumcision, a procedure more cosmetic than medically necessary.
When combined with the fact that most babies receive either insufficient anesthesia or none at all, contemporary medicine cannot justify circumcision practices in their current form.
The second finding in HR 2400 explains, "Male circumcision is an important part of many world religions, including Judaism and Islam, and observers have safely embraced its practice for generations."
Religious superstitions and rituals should never be the sole basis for medical laws, and this situation epitomizes an obvious cherry-picking mentality for separation of church and state.
Sherman says Jewish children must be circumcised within eight days of birth, save for medical emergencies.
But a medical emergency should be the only reason to perform that operation.
Additionally, HR 2400 protects the parents' right to choose to raise their child according to a particular holy book and its references to a child's family jewels.
But there is no mention of the child's choice.
After the location, time and name of a newborn, religion is one of the last lifestyle choices decided by parents. If that boy's parents are Jewish or Muslim, he has — and, as Sherman suggests, deserves — no choice in his circumcision.
Scriptures calling for circumcision contradict the notion that God created humans in His image. Theology also asserts thousands of years of human assumptions as wiser than millions of years of primate evolution. In fact, the foreskin is not a superfluous body part.
The two concerns regarding circumcision are medical and traditional, yet neither provides an undisputed, significant benefit for circumcising infants.
Binding a child to the laws of a religion he did not choose and cutting his body in the name of said religion is callous and appalling.
If by the time a person reaches the age of consent for a tattoo, piercing or other forms of body markings and mutilation and wishes for a doctor or religious leader to perform a circumcision to feel closer to God or for any reason beyond immediate health concerns, that is a different matter.
But children represent the most vulnerable among the population and infants have no say in the choices of their parents, which, in this case, can literally leave a lifelong scar.
Attacks trigger new police policy
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Sept. 14, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 revealed not only national and international policing weaknesses, but also those at the local level.
After 3,000 people died on the opposite side of the country, law enforcement agencies across America updated their procedures to respond to future attacks.
"It affected the psyche," district Police Services Chief Charles Gibson said. "It had a profound impact on the community and nation as a whole."
Colleges were seen as a safe haven until the attacks 10 years ago, he said.
"Gangs, terrorism, everybody else wouldn't mess with college campuses," he said. "After 9/11, we felt vulnerable."
Campuses became what Gibson called soft targets, which have large numbers of people in a generally small area.
"Since 9/11 we began to increase on the amount of other sorts of training," district Lt. Chad Wehrmeister said. "Our officers trained in recognizing terrorist activity.
"One thing we learned post-9/11 was that terrorist activity can and does in fact happen in our country," he said. "When you have a situation, whether it is the Oklahoma City bombing or New York City with the Twin Towers, there is a municipal agency responsible at the local level.
"These agencies have to train to respond to this type of thing," he said.
Contra Costa College administration of justice department Chairperson Rick Ramos said police officers are taught to connect bits of evidence, like GPS directions and maps, and draw a conclusion quickly about the possibility of a terror suspect.
"When you have one plus two plus three and it adds up to six, know that," he said. "Be aware of what can possibly happen."
A lesson learned after Sept. 11 was the inability for different agencies to communicate with one another, Wehrmeister said.
"The quality (of communication) has improved in the last 10 years to be able to be in contact with agencies at the federal and state level," he said.
Since 2002, all officers in the district need to refresh on perishable skills: safety and policy procedures regarding traffic stops, arrests and critical incidents.
As a result of the Sept. 11 attacks and domestic terrorism attacks, including the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007 and the Ft. Hood shooting in Texas in November 2009, the district added to its police force an emergency preparedness officer and a terror liaison. Neither Teddy Terstegge nor Tom Holt returned calls requesting interviews.
Ramos said the two lone shooters in those incidents, Seung-Hui Cho and Nidal Malik Hasan, changed how departments train for active shooters.
He said before those gunmen killed 32 and 13 people, respectively, police would surround, barricade and wait for them to give themselves up or for a tactical team to strategize a solution.
Now, however, waiting costs lives.
"If you wait, they'll kill a bunch of people," Ramos said.
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 revealed not only national and international policing weaknesses, but also those at the local level.
After 3,000 people died on the opposite side of the country, law enforcement agencies across America updated their procedures to respond to future attacks.
"It affected the psyche," district Police Services Chief Charles Gibson said. "It had a profound impact on the community and nation as a whole."
Colleges were seen as a safe haven until the attacks 10 years ago, he said.
"Gangs, terrorism, everybody else wouldn't mess with college campuses," he said. "After 9/11, we felt vulnerable."
Campuses became what Gibson called soft targets, which have large numbers of people in a generally small area.
"Since 9/11 we began to increase on the amount of other sorts of training," district Lt. Chad Wehrmeister said. "Our officers trained in recognizing terrorist activity.
"One thing we learned post-9/11 was that terrorist activity can and does in fact happen in our country," he said. "When you have a situation, whether it is the Oklahoma City bombing or New York City with the Twin Towers, there is a municipal agency responsible at the local level.
"These agencies have to train to respond to this type of thing," he said.
Contra Costa College administration of justice department Chairperson Rick Ramos said police officers are taught to connect bits of evidence, like GPS directions and maps, and draw a conclusion quickly about the possibility of a terror suspect.
"When you have one plus two plus three and it adds up to six, know that," he said. "Be aware of what can possibly happen."
A lesson learned after Sept. 11 was the inability for different agencies to communicate with one another, Wehrmeister said.
"The quality (of communication) has improved in the last 10 years to be able to be in contact with agencies at the federal and state level," he said.
Since 2002, all officers in the district need to refresh on perishable skills: safety and policy procedures regarding traffic stops, arrests and critical incidents.
As a result of the Sept. 11 attacks and domestic terrorism attacks, including the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007 and the Ft. Hood shooting in Texas in November 2009, the district added to its police force an emergency preparedness officer and a terror liaison. Neither Teddy Terstegge nor Tom Holt returned calls requesting interviews.
Ramos said the two lone shooters in those incidents, Seung-Hui Cho and Nidal Malik Hasan, changed how departments train for active shooters.
He said before those gunmen killed 32 and 13 people, respectively, police would surround, barricade and wait for them to give themselves up or for a tactical team to strategize a solution.
Now, however, waiting costs lives.
"If you wait, they'll kill a bunch of people," Ramos said.
Opinion: Nation’s principles subverted by laws
EDITOR's NOTE: This article originally published in The Advocate on Sept. 14, 2011. To view original post, visit AccentAdvocate.com.
The basis of the American justice system is the assumption of innocence, but fear has overwhelmed the minds of many who would trade their freedoms for security.
For 10 years, the image of the two planes crashing into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and watching them collapse, burying almost 3,000 people has haunted Americans and defined a generation.
Furthermore, the killers are different than us. They come from another part of the world, they dress differently and pray to another god.
That can be a scary thought, one of vulnerability and powerlessness.
But these are reasons to stand behind the founding principles of this country, not to circumvent or blatantly ignore them.
Written less than a month after the Sept. 11 attacks with a title to scare dissenters, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act of 2001 passed both chambers of Congress with ease.
The Patriot Act, signed by President George W. Bush on Oct. 26, 2001, gave the federal government the right to suspend the Bill of Rights.
Although the original proposal was scheduled to end in 2005, Bush approved a Congressional reauthorization bill in March 2006.
President Barack Obama also signed an extension of the bill this May allowing for roving wiretaps, searches of business records and the investigation of individuals without a connection to a known terrorist organization.
These provisions, allegedly to keep Americans safer, are not exclusive to foreign combatants; they can be applied to citizens.
Presidents Bush and Obama, however, are not the first to fight international enemies by limiting the freedoms of their own.
After World War II, fears of the spread of communism and dictatorships drove President Harry Truman and Sen. Joseph McCarthy to wage war on Americans' ideologies. If someone disagreed with the company line, they were labeled un-American and blacklisted.
Twenty years later, the FBI sent agent provocateurs — undercover officers who intentionally entice someone to commit an illegal act — to California to disrupt the Black Panther Party and Chicano movement at UCLA.
Today, the enemy is another group of brown people with a different perspective than the lawmakers and anyone going against the status quo, even lawful U.S. citizens, can be refused an attorney following arrest, imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay and subjected to torture.
Since Sept. 11, the illusion of increased national security is promoted by extra security measures at airports and the elongated waiting times in those lines.
Procedures on record, however, continue to remove the promises made to every American since the country's founders declared independence from their tyrannical English rulers.
The freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights and endless ideological wars waged by the federal government are conflicting interests, as they should be.
But self-expression and due process are pillars on which American policy should proudly stand, not avoid.
The basis of the American justice system is the assumption of innocence, but fear has overwhelmed the minds of many who would trade their freedoms for security.
For 10 years, the image of the two planes crashing into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and watching them collapse, burying almost 3,000 people has haunted Americans and defined a generation.
Furthermore, the killers are different than us. They come from another part of the world, they dress differently and pray to another god.
That can be a scary thought, one of vulnerability and powerlessness.
But these are reasons to stand behind the founding principles of this country, not to circumvent or blatantly ignore them.
Written less than a month after the Sept. 11 attacks with a title to scare dissenters, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act of 2001 passed both chambers of Congress with ease.
The Patriot Act, signed by President George W. Bush on Oct. 26, 2001, gave the federal government the right to suspend the Bill of Rights.
Although the original proposal was scheduled to end in 2005, Bush approved a Congressional reauthorization bill in March 2006.
President Barack Obama also signed an extension of the bill this May allowing for roving wiretaps, searches of business records and the investigation of individuals without a connection to a known terrorist organization.
These provisions, allegedly to keep Americans safer, are not exclusive to foreign combatants; they can be applied to citizens.
Presidents Bush and Obama, however, are not the first to fight international enemies by limiting the freedoms of their own.
After World War II, fears of the spread of communism and dictatorships drove President Harry Truman and Sen. Joseph McCarthy to wage war on Americans' ideologies. If someone disagreed with the company line, they were labeled un-American and blacklisted.
Twenty years later, the FBI sent agent provocateurs — undercover officers who intentionally entice someone to commit an illegal act — to California to disrupt the Black Panther Party and Chicano movement at UCLA.
Today, the enemy is another group of brown people with a different perspective than the lawmakers and anyone going against the status quo, even lawful U.S. citizens, can be refused an attorney following arrest, imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay and subjected to torture.
Since Sept. 11, the illusion of increased national security is promoted by extra security measures at airports and the elongated waiting times in those lines.
Procedures on record, however, continue to remove the promises made to every American since the country's founders declared independence from their tyrannical English rulers.
The freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights and endless ideological wars waged by the federal government are conflicting interests, as they should be.
But self-expression and due process are pillars on which American policy should proudly stand, not avoid.
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