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CLARION citrus college
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ccclarion.com VOL LXXV • Issue 4
October 5, 2021
Haugh turns 50 BY SKYLR SCOTT
NEWS EDITOR SSCOTT@CCCLARION.COM
In 1971, then-Superintendent/ President of Citrus College Robert D. Haugh achieved a dream 11 years in the making: opening a performing arts center at Citrus College. On Oct. 13, the Haugh will celebrate its 50th anniversary. It was renamed the Robert Haugh Performing Arts Center or Haugh in 1981 to honor the retiring superintendent/president. The Haugh website said it has 1,400 seats, a black box theatre and classrooms, keeping the building busy while hosting 200 performances annually before COVID-19. Throughout the years, the Haugh has added a recording arts and video studio, a dance and piano laboratory, dressing rooms, a state-of-the-art sound system and a new stage light system. “The Haugh is a theatre for the community,” Dean of Visual and Performing Arts John Vaughan said. Vaughan said he is proud of the college for maintaining up-todate technology and continually renovating the Haugh. “When you walk into the Haugh it feels very much state-of-theart,” he said. Although the Haugh can be rented out to showcase anyone’s work, it is dedicated to spotlighting performing artists at Citrus. Many of the performances
Accrediting team to visit virtually
ARCHITECT’S RENDERING FROM CLARION FILE; CURRENT PHOTO BY JUSTIN GEORGE
An early architect’s rendering of the Citrus auditorium, left, is blended with a current photo of the Haugh Performing Arts Center.
are presented by the Citrus College Visual and Performing Arts Department. Tiina Mittler, who has been with Citrus for four years and is currently the director of the Haugh, said, “Not only is this
PHOTO COURTESY OF PIXABAY
STAFF REPORT
Important Dates
Citrus College is preparing for an accreditation visit from Oct. 12 to Oct. 13. Accreditation is a huge deal for the college, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Accreditation Liaison Officer Joumana McGowan said. Without it, the degrees students earn would be invalid. Accreditation also ensures the public that the college is providing quality education, as well as enables access to federal financial aid funds. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges or ACCJC will conduct its site visit virtually via Zoom meetings. In a presentation at convocation, McGowan explained the three stages of accreditation. Self-Reflection A primary goal of accreditation is to ensure continual improvement and satisfaction of standards at the college,
Welcome: 9:30 a.m. Oct. 12
CONTACT@CCCLARION.COM
Open Forum: 2:45 p.m. Oct. 12 Exit Report: 2:45 p.m. Oct. 13
McGowan said. As a method of self-reflection, Citrus puts together its Institutional Self-Evaluation Report or ISER, which includes evidence that the college satisfies all accreditation standards. Institutional Self-Evaluation Report Teams comprised of various Citrus College employees evaluate the college using four standards: n Mission, Academic Quality and Institutional Effectiveness n Instruction, Library, Learning Support and Student Services n Physical, Technological, Financial and Human Resources
Read Visit, Page 4
a stage for world class artists, it’s also a stage for theater professionals who are starting their career.” Mittler said overseeing the logistics of the rental program, the staffing, programming and
everything that goes into the Haugh is “an absolute pleasure” and that “It is so much fun. It is challenging in all the right places.” She said that because there is nothing like the Haugh nearby, it draws attention from across the
region and highlights the college and its performers. The Haugh has appeared in the 2017 movie “The Circle” starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks,
BY MIRANDA PALMAS
Last year, groundskeeping wasn’t the same, Cable said. “Without our students the grounds seem lonely,” Cable said. “We are very happy to see some have returned and we look forward to the time when COVID will be over and we can get back to normal.” The college normally has 14 groundskeepers, however, there are currently 12. “That number fluctuates for retirements and various other reasons,” Cable said. “Three positions are currently being advertised.” New protocols have been implemented to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, including social distancing and mask wearing, Cable said. Hand sanitizer is also available throughout campus. Like all other employees and students on campus, groundskeepers have to adhere to mandatory COVID-19 testing and
daily pre-screening. With minimal students and staff around, animals have moved onto the campus. “A lot of rodents and small animals, such as skunks, coyotes, possums, [and] squirrels have moved in,” Cable said. More students and staff are present on the campus now, although during the pandemic “many homeless folks have left messes on campus that we clean up,” Cable said. Besides the lack of people on campus, Cable said groundskeeping hasn’t changed too much. “The trash collection is very minimal but for the most part the work maintaining the grounds is the same whether or not students are on campus,” Cable said. He mentioned that the groundskeepers miss interacting with staff and students and welcome friendly interaction in passing.
Read Haugh, Page 4
COVID-19 affects groundskeepers STAFF REPORTER MPALMAS@CCCLARION.COM
Citrus College has a total of 12 groundskeepers that maintain the campus. Despite the absence of students in the past year, they showed up to do their jobs. Due to COVID-19, the campus was shut down four weeks into the spring 2020 semester and all classes were moved online, but the empty campus still needed to be maintained. Citrus College Grounds Supervisor Randy Cable shared his experience of how COVID-19 impacted groundskeeping on campus and what changes had to be made because of the virus. “Our goal is to give our students the best campus we can,” Cable said. “We strive to keep the grounds well maintained, clean, safe and inviting so students can focus on their studies.”
SUMMER 2022
KYOTO, JAPAN JUNE 24 – JULY 23, 2022
Enroll in 3-6 CSU/UC transferable credits next summer!
STUDY ABROAD WORK TOWARD YOUR DEGREE OVERSEAS! Visit www.citruscollege.edu/studyabroad for up-to-date program information and meeting dates.
FALL 2022
LONDON, ENGLAND SEPT. 8 – DEC. 2, 2022
Enroll in 12 or more units of CSU/UC transferable credits next fall!
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CLARION
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 3
‘Our Town’ teaches value of community Citrus theatre students return to the stage with an American classic BY JUSTIN GEORGE
MANAGING EDITOR
JGEORGE@CCCLARION.COM
After over one year of silence and darkness at the Haugh Performing Arts Center, action has returned to the stage—outside the Haugh. The Haugh Performing Arts Center hosted three outdoor performances of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” by Citrus College theatre arts students from Sept. 24 to Sept. 26 in the VPA courtyard. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play follows the lives of the residents of Grover’s Corners, a small town in New Hampshire. While the characters navigate their daily lives, they encounter the challenges of love, belonging, purpose and community. The Gibbs and Webb children, first introduced as neighborhood study buddies, eventually marry, have relationship challenges, grow old and experience loss. The milestones in their lives are contained within the show’s two-and-a-half hour runtime and remind the audience that the precious moments in their lives pass by quickly and should be savored. The stage manager has the unique role of keeping the audience engaged while also participating in the plot. He is an overseer of both the daily lives of the families in Grover’s Corner and the audience’s experience. The cast had been preparing for the show for about three months, said Ricardo Estrada, who played the stage manager. Due to health concerns, the show was repeatedly postponed but was quickly resurrected when it was safe to do so. “During the entire process, we stayed healthy, we followed regulations, we did everything to code, we didn’t have any hiccups in the fact that this group is able to be so connected after such a long period of being disconnected from one another,” Estrada said. The stage crew controlled lights and sound from a tent behind the audience, some bundled in blankets as they worked in the cold. They set up the stage and lighting in just one week, stage crew member Justin Gomez said. “I really miss this,” Gomez said. “I really wanted to do it throughout COVID, but because it was online, it was much harder to do.” He is grateful for the friends he’s made and opportunities to learn and teach skills in the Emerging Theatre Technologies program at Citrus. As the last rays of sun set over campus, stage lights illuminated the courtyard, audience members shuffled in and the play was introduced by director Jason Buuck. ADVERTISEMENT
JUSTIN GEORGE - STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Citrus theatre student Ricardo Estrada, performing as stage manager, delivers a monologue in the VPA courtyard at the Sept. 26. performance of “Our Town.”
With minimal props and stage design, actors filled the stage in 1900s attire to the tune of “Spiegel im Spiegel” by Arvo Pärt. Most of the character’s actions were mimed, with no props (but some chairs) for any of the objects they interacted with, but it wasn’t the material things that were important—it was the moments the characters shared on the stage. Estrada, the stage manager, previously played Simon Stimson,
the town church’s choir director, in a production of the play at his high school. “That was the first show I ever did, and got me into acting,” Estrada said. “It kind of was, just, a full circle, which is nice.” He said the play reminded him of the “things that we should be happy about that we just tend to miss” in our own lives. “There’s definitely a lot that connected with me personally.”
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4 Tuesday, October 5, 2021 Haugh from Page 1 hosted the Gumby fest in 2015, had Charo perform in 2011 and has been in episodes of “Glee”. Mittler said one of her favorite memories at the Haugh was having Latinx group La Santa Cecilia and La Marisoul debut their award winning show right before the pandemic hit and almost sold out. “It had exceptional energy in the audience and it was a fantastic opportunity to be able to debut a new show at the Haugh with an artist that I admire and so many people love,” Mittler said. A week later, Mittler said, La Marisoul came in to talk to poprock students at Citrus. Around the time when Mittler first joined Citrus, she recalls experiencing her first sold-out show, The Temptations. Usually the Haugh is busy, but the stage hasn’t seen action in a while. “It’s been over 19 months that we have not had a show
Visit from Page 1 n CEO, Board, Decision Making Roles and Responsibilities Peer Review The ISER is reviewed by a visiting team of faculty, managers and executives from other California community colleges. “We peer review each other because we know what work we do,” McGowan said. From the report, the visiting team will develop core inquiries to present during the visit. Core inquiries indicate questions and
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CLARION CITRUS COLLEGE
CLARION Lucy Argaez Editor-In-Chief Justin George Managing Editor Skylr Scott News Editor Emily Beltran Circulation Manager CLARION FILE
The Citrus auditorium in its final stages of construction. Photo from the Sept. 14, 1970 issue of the Clarion.
on our stage and that’s been tremendously hard on our whole team,” Mittler said. “We thrive on an aggressive production schedule.” Through COVID-19, the Haugh has transferred to a more onlinecentered approach. Over the summer, they made a Spotify playlist to celebrate Elvis and gave birthday shoutouts to prominent performers. Instead of honoring the Haugh’s 50th anniversary with a more
traditional celebration, Mittler said, the Haugh will debut its next season, starting in January 2022. The two featured headliners next year will be Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Los Lobos, Mittler said. The Modern Gentlemen, a musical group composed of Citrus alumni, will also perform. In the spring, they will be working with the musical theatre workshop program to produce Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.”
potential areas of improvement from the ISER. In a normal site visit, all 12 members of the team would be present. The new virtual focused site visit only requires five members to visit, which is more efficient and safe during COVID-19. “It’s the same, it’s just nicer,” McGowan said. “You don’t have to have a group of 12 people coming. Five, I think is a nice group.” Affirmation After the site visit, the peer review committee writes a report
of their findings and makes a recommendation to the ACCJC to grant the college full accreditation. Last visit, the commission accredited the college, but made several recommendations in its follow up. Follow-ups are normal, McGowan said, but recommendations, not so much. The commission’s recommendations pertain to Citrus’ complaint procedures and sexual harassment policy. The college provides evidence of improvement in its ISER. ADVERTISEMENT
Staff Reporters: Aaron Del Castillo-Gutierrez Ashlee Tulk Jesse Rivera Anthony Rossi Christopher Jaregui Mina Hunley Miranda Palmas The Clarion is produced by journalism students and is distributed every other Wednesday during the semester. Ads are not endorsed by the Clarion. Editorials are the opinion of at least 75% of the Editorial Board. All other 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.
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