Clarion 3/14/23

Charged up:

BY ABIODUN COLLINS STAFF REPORTER ACOLLINS @ CCCLARION.COM

The non-resident tuition fee for Citrus College students is set to increase in the coming 2023-2024 academic year.

The Citrus College Board of Trustees on Feb. 21 2023 voted to set the non-resident tuition fee for the 2023-24 school year at $360 per unit.

An additional fee of $7 per unit will also be charged as a capital outlay.

This new fee increase will take effect for all course terms beginning or ending on or after July 1.

The non-resident tuition has steadily increased over the past five years. This is opposed to instate tuition fees, which are free for California residents.

The change in the fee for nonresidents was based on the use of district expenditures for credit classes and the two-year inflation factor of 1.097%

The non-resident fee will jump from $332 in the 2022-2023 session to $360 in the upcoming 2023-2024 session.

This new fee shows an 8% increase in tuition prices.

The agenda of the meeting of the board of trustees said the law regarding non-resident tuition allows the district to charge up to its calculated per-unit capital outlay rate plus one of the following perunit rates:

n The statewide average rate of $414

International community college students to bear

brunt of increased college expense in the upcoming academic school year

n The district computed rate of $360

n Up to the level charged by the neighboring college district

n The highest statewide average rate for the succeeding year, current year, or prior four years-$414

n Up to the preceding fiscal year average rate of 12 comparable states based on the cost of living

Even though the price of nonresident tuition is going up at Citrus College, it is still lower than the non-resident fees charged by half of the neighboring public community colleges.

International students are classified as non-residents and are thus required to pay non-resident tuition fees.

Lorenzo Desiderio-Giampiccolo, a theater and film major, is an international student from Italy who is in his first year at Citrus.

Desiderio-Giampiccolo said he thinks that the non-resident fee “is way too expensive” given the fact that international students are required to enroll in at least 12 units.

Desiderio-Giampiccolo said he can’t get any financial aid and that it is a lot to bear the burden of a tuition increase.

He understands the effect that inflation has on the tuition increase but it still doesn’t change the price he has to pay.

He also said that he is not eligible for a residency reclassification which allows him to pay in-state tuition because only students with work visas can become residents.

Owls fall short of state championship

The Citrus College men’s basketball season ended in the California Community College Athletic Association championship semifinal at the Golden Eagle Arena in Lemoore on Saturday.

After a 67-65 win over the College of the Sequoias Giants in the quarterfinal, the Owls suffered a 9084 overtime loss in the semifinal to defending champion City College of San Francisco Rams.

The Owls ended their season with a 28-4 record.

During the game, Citrus College’s Chris Chiles and Jayden Johnston led the team scoring 14 points each. Jamal Briscoe and Uriah Foster came off the bench to score 12 points each while Aibigho Ujadughele came up with 12 rebounds and four steals. The Owls led the game 38-35 at halftime but the Rams scored two clutch 3-pointers with less than 30 seconds remaining in the second half, tying the game and moving it into overtime.

San Francisco scored the first nine points of overtime and outscored Citrus 16-10 in the extra period. Five of the Citrus men’s basketball team won all of the Western State Conference-South postseason honors.

Report shows aging water supply system

To ease minds, Clarion reporters tested drinking fountains around campus and found reassuring results

BY ABIODUN COLLINS STAFF REPORTER ACOLLINS @ CCCLARION.COM

A 2020 report published by Citrus College says the campus’s water supply system needs improvement because it is old.

The findings reported in the 20202030 Educational and Facilities Master Plan says the “campus’s potable water supply system is aged and requires upgrading.”

This has great implications because an old water supply system may reduce the protective barriers to potential contaminants.

Utilities can carry a high risk of contamination and harmful elements if not properly maintained. With that in mind, Citrus Clarion reporters tested the drinking waters at Citrus at 10 different locations to determine how clean it is.

The tests were conducted with the use of water testing strips and confirmed the presence of varying safe levels of mineral substances that are below contamination limits.

In an email interview, the director of facilities and construction, Fred Diamond, said that the “water supply system drinking water safety is unaffected” by an aged supply system.

For water to be considered safe, it must have a low concentration

of harmful contaminants such as bacteria, acidity and other substances.

An article by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that “drinking water that is

not properly treated or that travels through an improperly maintained distribution system (pipes) may also create conditions that increase risk of contamination.”

The tested water fountains,

which were in nine different buildings on campus (Owl Cafe, Hayden Library, LB, PS, VA and TC building, Math/Science, Life Science, and the outside of performing arts building) revealed the following results at the time of the testing:

n A high level of water hardness: Hard water is caused by hot weather, lack of rain and the presence of minerals. Drinking hard water is not dangerous, but it can still be an inconvenience as it leaves stains on hard surfaces if left for too long. It also benefits a person’s health as it contains minerals like calcium and magnesium.

n A high pH level: The pH level of water is used to measure how acidic or basic water is. A high pH level indicates acidity. The testing result revealed that a high number of water fountains at Citrus have a high pH level ranging from 7.8 to 8.4. The human body has a pH level of 7.4 and needs to take in water that has the same amount of pH level as the body. However, an article by UCLA Health said that “there had been no evidence of harm found in drinking water with a pH level between 7 and 8.5.”

n A high alkaline level: The testing showed that six of the ten water fountains had high alkaline levels, which to some

degree is beneficial to the body as it helps neutralize the acid in the bloodstream.

n A low level of free and total chlorine: Chlorine is a disinfectant that kills bacteria. The testing revealed that most of the water from the drinking fountains had low chlorine levels. However, as an outlier, the water fountain on the second floor of the Math/Science Building revealed a high level of chlorine at the time of testing that was ideal for a swimming pool. However, this might be due to the recent addition of chlorine before the testing was conducted.

Diamond said the question of how often the water is tested for contaminants is one for the water purveyor, Azusa Light and Water, which is a utility company responsible for the supply of water to the city of Azusa and portions of Glendora, which includes Citrus College.

Azusa Light and Water in its 2021 Drinking Water Consumer Confidence Report said that “drinking water may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of contaminants” because as “water travels, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and in some cases radioactive materials.”

the

ROBERT DAVIS- STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Clarion reporter Abiodun Collins uses a water testing strip to test a drinking fountain at the PC Building on Jan 30.

Chicken wars round 2: Battle of the South

BY ROBERT DAVIS STAFF REPORTER RDAVIS @ CCCLARION.COM

Kentucky vs. Louisiana, Colonel Sanders Vs. Popeyes Annie. The biggest rivalry in Southern fried chicken has arrived. KFC vs. Popeyes is upon us and the second battle of the Chicken Nugget Wars is here!

Last semester in the Chicken Sandwich Wars, the battle between KFC and Popeyes was razor close and was decided by just one half of a point. This battle is just as even of a matchup as last time. Will the returning champion Popeyes pull it off once again? Let’s find out.

Popeyes showed its strength in the crispiness section. The breading on the Popeyes nuggets was about as far from soggy as a nugget could be, earning a perfect 10.

The KFC nuggets were not nearly as crispy. Although they were slightly above average, they were not nearly as good as the Popeyes nuggets, earning a 6.

Popeyes was not as dominant in the juiciness category. The nuggets seemed like they were made fresh and then placed under a heat lamp for an hour, completely driving out any juice from the nuggets. The uncharacteristically dry nuggets were a disappointment coming from what is usually a reliable fast-food stop for some juicy chicken, earning a 5.

The KFC nuggets were the first nuggets in the chicken nugget wars to come through with some actual juicy nuggets. Although the nuggets from Jack in the Box were juicy, they were borderline soggy. These

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3 Nugget King

point automatically deducted from the sauce category, but it gets worse.

The sweet heat sauce was godawful. It tasted like someone mixed some Aunt Jemimas with Frank’s RedHot in an unhappy marriage that will likely end in a divorce in your stomach. Popeyes and the not so sweet heat sauce earn a 3 in the sauce category.

The KFC sauce was unfortunately not much better. The selected sauce was Classic Ranch, but when I think of classic, I do not think of the ranch I received. The ranch was unnaturally fatty and tasted more like mayonnaise or old butter with pepper than ranch. Paired with the overtly peppery taste of the nuggets and this sauce added up to a disappointment. KFC earns a 3 for this sorry excuse for ranch.

nuggets were juicy for the sake of the juice, earning an 8. Both nuggets left something to be desired in the tenderness category. Both nuggets were clearly made from actual whole pieces of chicken instead of a ground chicken mixture, which set them above the other nuggets in the competition. However, they were still slightly tough, both earning a 6.

Popeyes was a bit of a letdown in the flavor category. The nuggets didn’t taste particularly bad, but they tasted of mostly nothing. What flavor did come through was delicious, but compared to the flavor in the chicken

sandwich, the Popeyes nuggets were subpar, earning a 7.5.

The KFC nuggets introduced an interesting dilemma to the flavor category. The 11 herbs and spices KFC is known for definitely came though, but the issue was that those spices were all that came though, especially pepper… lots and lots of black pepper. Although this was not necessarily a bad thing depending on personal preference, this battle is not a battle that will be decided on the taste of pepper. This battle will be decided on the status of chicken, which was nearly absent in the KFC nuggets.

The spice blend left the impression that it was trying to hide something by masking all the other flavors in the nuggets. And since this is a chicken nugget battle and not a spice nugget battle, the KFC nuggets earn a 6.

The sauce category was an absolute disaster for Popeyes, which shot itself in the foot due to the mistake of an employee. The Popeyes nuggets came with two sauces, and the sauces selected for this battle were Ranch and Bayou Buffalo. Despite this, the sauces that were in the bag were both sweet heat. For ignoring the demands of the chicken master, Popeyes will have 1

KFC earns a massive 2 price points as the KFC I went to apparently doesn’t even have size on their nuggets, they just hand out a whole box chock full of them. After a careful nugget count, KFC gave me 48 individual nuggets in my order, which was astounding especially considering I only paid $7. However, the KFC nuggets were only about a quarter of the size of their Popeyes competitors.

This brings the scores for this battle to 31 for KFC and an incredibly close 31.5 for Popeyes! Although the record is currently 2-0 in Popeyes’ favor, the close score in both battles ensures that the rivalry will live on.

Catch the next issue of the Clarion to see who will win the next battle of the nugget wars between Chick-fil-A and The Habit!

Professor plans retirement

BY GWEN RYAN STAFF REPORTER GRYAN @ CCCLARION.COM

Tasha Van Horn, Citrus speech professor of 25 years, is planning to retire at the end of this spring semester.

Van Horn said in an email she knew she had a career destiny right from the start of her studies.

“It was in my heart, soul, and destiny to become a community college professor.”

Van Horn is a California State University Fullerton graduate, with a bachelor’s in communication and master’s in speech communication. However, that was not where she started, spending a few years at Fullerton College before transferring to CSUF. At both colleges, Van Horn was a prominent student, finding mentors among her professors and earning multiple scholarships.

Van Horn said she wants students to know that professors want to mentor them.

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“Realize that the education your professors and others are sharing with you could change your life!” Van Horn said. “Be responsible and respect their efforts to educate you! Know that our administrators, staff, and faculty are a team!”

Van Horn is one of these professors who changes the lives of many such as former student Aaron Cadore who wrote in an email to Van Horn about how he uses the same public address skills Van Horn taught him 20 years ago to be successful in his current job.

However, Van Horn became much more than just a professor at Citrus College. She advocated for many additions to their programs, developed Citrus College’s Distance

course, worked with Gerald Helm to add speech tutors in the Citrus College Learning Center, founded the Citrus College Speech Club, advocated and taught for the Citrus College Honors program and founded the Citrus College Speech Lab alongside Helm.

“She was instrumental in creating the speech lab here at Citrus College,” Helm said, “It’s helped out a lot of students.”

After two and a half decades of advocating for her students, Van Horn said they will be what she misses the most.

“There’s no question about it,” Van Horn said. “I’ll miss my students. I’ll miss the excitement of walking in the classroom and having them come up and say questions and just the interaction in the classroom among the students.”

Former Professor Melanie Anson wrote nothing but praise for Van Horn in an email.

“She was known to exclaim on

numerous occasions: “I just love my students,” Anson said. “Professor Tasha Van Horn is the consummate teaching professional… She always found time to help individual students with their speech concerns and needs.”

While her plan is to “have no plan,” as Van Horn wrote, she continues with her drive to help others. Lady, her dog that she adopted in 2020 (and was named by her students), is a registered emotional support dog. She said that she “pray(s) for opportunities to let Lady use her gift to comfort others in need.”

She said that she is humbled, honored and grateful for the opportunity to be with Citrus College and her students for the last 25 years.

“Citrus has never been just a job or paycheck to me; rather, it is the chance to carry the legacy of my former professors who generously passed on to me their legacy,” she said. “Now I pass their torch to our future educators and students.”

PHOTOS COURTESY TASHA VAN HORN

Professor Tasha Van Horn with her emotional support dog, Lady.

ROBERT DAVIS - CLARION

Naloxone now present on campus

Newly enforced Naloxone mandate aims at reducing the risk of opioid-related death

BY ABIODUN COLLINS STAFF REPORTER ACOLLINS @ CCCLARION.COM

Pursuant to Senate bill 367, Citrus College now has in its possession, the overdose-reversal drug called naloxone.

The Senate bill, which was passed last August, charged Cal State Universities and California community colleges to set up naloxone distribution to their population.

By Jan. 1 this year, the campus health centers of community colleges were required to apply to use the statewide standing order issued by the State Public Health Officer and to apply to participate in the Naloxone Distribution Project administered by the State Department of Health Care Services.

They were also required to be ready to train people such as students and staff for using naloxone, and to distribute it to them after they have been trained.

Naloxone is a federally approved opioid overdose reversal medication.

In an interview with the Student Health Center physician, Ann Walker, naloxone is an opioid antagonist. It reverses the effect of various opioids like fentanyl, codeine and morphine.

Walker said that when naloxone is administered, “it is rapidly effective at knocking opioids off the receptors that suppress the respiratory activities of an overdose victim.”

Naloxone is the generic name for the popular overdose-reversal drug brand named Narcan. It comes in different forms. It can be delivered through a nasal spray, injection and through the veins.

The naloxone that Citrus College has on campus comes in the form of a nasal spray. This makes it easy to deliver, said walker.

Before the introduction of naloxone, health officials, campus safety officers and other public safety people were trained in CPR, which is a large part of what is needed to keep alive someone who has an overdose.

Walker said that if no naloxone is

around, providing enough breath through CPR to an overdose victim is enough to wake them up.

Walker also said a person won’t be hurt in any way if they injected or ingested naloxone, even if the reason for them not breathing is not due to an overdose.

She said people need to be taught how to identify an overdose and how to respond immediately by calling 911 so that paramedics will get to the scene sooner rather than later. She said people also need to be taught how to administer naloxone and CPR.

Symptoms that suggest an opioid overdose– and the things to focus on– are the unresponsiveness of a person while laying in an awkward position, the inability of a person to be roused by voice or external rub, inadequate breathing and pinpointing pupils.

She said blue lips, ashen skin, and cold and clammy skin are symptoms that suggest one has waited for way too long.

After a suspected overdose victim has been identified, one should call 911, spray them with the naloxone, roll them up into a recovery position, so that if they vomit it doesn’t go down their throat, and then wait. Walker calls this the spray-and-pray approach to opioid overdose.

Walker also said that police are considered first responders and thus know how to stabilize things pending the time paramedics arrive.

She said a naloxone spray lasts for up to 60 to 90 minutes, but a

person with a high overdose might need more than one dose.

She said that all campus safety officers are trained in how to use naloxone and will have it available with them, and when someone is not looking good, that is who usually gets called first.

A campus safety officer confirmed that Narcan is available in their first aid kit, ready for them to use in case of an emergency.

The school nurse, Shauna Bigby also confirmed in an email that the school has ordered 58 doses of Narcan.

She said that the last opioid training was conducted on Feb. 2 and that the dates for future training this semester is being confirmed.

What Walker said she wants is to see naloxone available in every bathroom because those are the places where one is going to run into people who need it.

“The librarians need to have it,” she added.

She also said she wants to see it in visible places in each building, so everybody knows how to find it, and would also love for a broad swath of the campus — staff and students — to be trained in how to use it.

“You need to make the tools available to the people who might most likely find them,” she said.

People can make mistakes and can overdose, such as those who are on an opioid prescription for painkillers.

“Anybody who gets prescribed narcotics medication should also

Requirements to be student trustee have changed

The Citrus College Board of Trustees recently changed the requirements to be a student trustee.

To stay in touch with student’s perspectives, the board consists of five members, one of which is a

Report from Page 1

In the report, two contaminants, trihalomethanes — a byproduct of chlorine — and nitrates, measured by Azusa Light and Water in their distribution system, were said to be below the contamination limit set by the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Sam Brennecke, a math major at Citrus College, said he does not directly drink from the water fountains; he only uses the water bottle fillers, which are sparsely located around campus such as the library, Owl Café and the Math/Science building. These

student trustee who serves a 1 year term beginning June 1.

The requirements of being a student trustee were changed on Feb. 21 2023 from requiring the student to be enrolled in five units to requiring the student to be enrolled in six units during their service. Another change was requiring the student to have a

water bottle fillers have a filtration system, but the fountains don’t.

Brennecke also said he understands why chlorine was high in the Math/Science Building, as chlorine is used as a disinfectant to kill bacteria. However, at the same time, he said he feels that “it is probably not healthy” as one should never drink pool water that contains high levels of chlorine meant for disinfecting.

Nowadays, students are seen with their refillable water bottles, thus reducing the need for a drink from the fountains.

Gareth Osborne, a preengineering major, said that he

have a dose of naloxone and be taught how to use it, and they need to tell a family member how to use it,” she said.

“ …People need to know this is very simple,” she said because “...it can make a tremendous difference. The speed at which the brain dies due to lack of oxygen is distressingly quick. One will hate to lose somebody just because they didn’t get something one could have if they have had the appropriate training.”

Walker urges people to consider taking a CPR class. She said there are two types of CPR — Mouthto-mouth CPR and hands-only CPR. The hands-only CPR comes in handy for those who are uncomfortable with mouth-tomouth contact.

She said taking these classes helps one to evaluate if a person is breathing and when to apply the necessary actions.

Walker said she hopes that the naloxone training that is done at Citrus will give enough of a sense of rescue breathing that people will be willing to try it.

She also said that training could be as simple as watching an 11-minute video from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, in-person training is ideal because it engages the trainees.

As of recently, Bigby said “the Student Health Center has not observed or treated any student overdoses.”

Staff Reporters

Abiodun Collins acollins @ccclarion.com

Gwen Ryan gryan@ccclarion.com

Jacqueline Gomez jgomez@ccclarion.com

Robert Davis rdavis@ccclarion.com

Kalin Greene kgreene@ccclarion.com

Zac Quintanilla zquintanilla@ccclarioncom

Designers

Heily Garcia hgarcia@ccclarion.com

Derryl Thompson dtompson@ccclarion.com

Nicole Jalaane Villanueva nvillanueva@ccclarion.com

Clarion Adviser Patrick Schmiedt pschmiedt@ccclarion.com

cumulative grade point average of at least 2.5, which was changed from having a GPA of at least 2.5 in the classes the student was enrolled in through their one-year term.

The Citrus College Board of Trustees establishes policies, programs and educational plans at Citrus.

usually never drinks from the water fountain because he usually packs water and that having his water bottle to drink from is less “gross” than drinking directly from a water fountain.

Diamond also said in an email that the “filters are changed when they are full, which is predicated upon frequency of use.” He said the manufacturer indicates as a generality that a typical filter lasts for about one year, but that is still “predicated upon actual usage.”

He also said concerning the sanitation routine of the drinking fountains that “custodial operations are done nightly.”

The Clarion is produced by journalism students and is distributed every third Tuesday during the semester.

Ads are not endorsed by the Clarion. Published opinion is that of the writer. Views expressed do not represent those of the adviser, faculty, administration, Associated Students of Citrus College and/or CCCBOT.

ABIODUN COLLINS - STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A picture of Narcan box taken at Student Health Center on March 1.