Vol111 issue 08 by Santa Monica College Corsair Newspaper

CORSAIR

MAY 11, 2016 | VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 | SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

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WHOSE LABEL IS IT ANYWAY? BREAKING DOWN GENDER AND SEXUALITY LABELS (P.10-11)

INT'L STUDENTS CLASH OVER COUNSELING (P.4)

MEET THE SMC OPERA CLUB (P.5) MEN'S VOLLEYBALL YEAR IN REVIEW (P.9)

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CONTENT

VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 • MAY 11, 2016 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

EDITORIAL STAFF nik lucaj

.................................... Editor-in-Chief

corsair.editorinchief@gmail.com

bailey peraita.......................... Managing Editor

corsair.managing@gmail.com adam robert thomas

corsair.news@gmail.com

.................... News Editor

...............Health & Lifestyle Editor corsair.lifestylepage@gmail.com alissa nardo

grace gardner

...........................Opinion Editor

corsair.opinionpage@gmail.com

......... Arts & Entertainment Editor corsair.calendarpage@gmail.com jacob hirsohn

............................... Sports Columnist

josh shure

corsair.sportspage@gmail.com

............ Multimedia Editor corsair.multimediadept@gmail.com alexander melendez

jose lopez

....................................... Photo Editor

corsairphotoeditor@gmail.com josue martinez

.............. Assistant Photo Editor

corsairphotoeditor@gmail.com ramses lemus

..................... Social Media Editor

socialmedia.corsair@gmail.com

alissa nardo................................ Design Editor

corsair.designteam@gmail.com

CORSAIR STAFF Daniela Barhanna, Ryanne Mena, Daniel J. Bowyer, Michelle Ayala, Troy Barnes, Luis Baza, Julia Bergstrom, September Bottoms, Siena Deck, Adriana Delgado, Jessica Dupree, Jerome Harris, Apostol Kanev, Ashleen Knutsen, Leyla Leiva, Ka Leong, Brian Lewis, Sebastian Mayorga, Chris Monterrosa, Manuel Portugal, Joseph Silva, Kyle Toelken, Julia Westman

The Los Angeles Police Department was prepared for protesters to get rowdy outside of the Hillary Clinton Rally at East Los Angeles College on May 5. The police were divided and spread out, some on horseback, others lined up on foot with tear gas guns behind caution tape. Brown Berets stood in between officers and protesters to ensure everyone remained safe and calm. Things remained calm and it was a non-violent protest. (September Bottoms)

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

FACULTY ADVISORS saul rubin

NIK LUCAJ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

............................ Journalism Advisor

gerard burkhart.........................Photo Advisor

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FRONT COVER Photo by Daniel Bowyer Design by Alexander Melendez Graphic of a person covered in labels, meant to symbolically illustrate the number of identification terms used in the queer community.

Los Angeles is an incredibly diverse city. People from all over the United States and all over the world come here for a host of different reasons. The perception outside California is that people come here mainly for one thing: to work in the movie industry. But this is an incredibly myopic point of view. Once somebody gets here, they quickly realize there’s much more here than show business. There are fantastic schools, a thriving tech and startup industry and a dense enough population to support businesses of all kinds. This diversity extends far beyond just professions and career goals and into ethnicities, religions and sexual preferences. For someone coming from parts of the country with less variety, this can lead to culture shock. For myself, coming from an area just outside of Detroit, I experienced some culture shock when I arrived. With my hometown being mostly homogenous, it took a while to adjust to Los Angeles. But once I got used to it, it was a refreshing reprieve from the monotony of the suburban Midwest. The diversity opens up entirely new worlds of ideas and perspectives that can be of great benefit to a young, creative mind trying to figure out exactly what the hell is happening on this planet. Seeing that there are more than just a couple choices when it comes to choosing your path in life makes the world feel much bigger than one could imagine and, at the same time, very small when you find shared beliefs between you and somebody from halfway across the earth. This week’s issue reflects that diversity as the stories cover wildly different subjects. The theme of this issue is that there is no theme, not just because I hate themed content, but because the mix of people we have on this staff all have different things on their minds. Our cover story touches on the diversity in genders, gender identities and sexual preferences. For myself and other heteronormative people, it can be difficult to get a grasp on the wide array of labels when it comes to those subjects. As our Opinion Editor Grace Gardner found, there are more than 40 different labels available for sexual preference and gender identification, and these can get pretty specific, with many of them overlapping. Grace attempts to break them all down and

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present them in a comprehensive and digestible manner. News Editor Adam Thomas updates the situation with the often overlooked empty space in the cafeteria where The Bread Factory used to be. Now empty for over two years, the school will look to open it up for bidding this summer, but only if the bidding businesses meet certain criteria. Staff writers and international students Daniella Barhanna and Julia Westman look to expose the lack of complete information provided in the counseling given to international students that may be costing them a lot of money as well as points on their GPA. Difficult math classes and another course with a hazy requirement status can make the move to Southern California more difficult than it needs to be for many students. In A&E, Jacob Hirsohn profiles SMC’s Opera Club, highlighting an art that seems to be getting more and more obscure as time goes on. You rarely see it embraced by the younger generations, but as you’ll see in Jake’s piece, a young group of students at SMC have taken it upon themselves to keep the art form alive by performing whenever they get the chance. He takes us inside their meetings and inside the heads of the club’s members. Prolific Staff Writer Ashleen Knutsen attended a talk at the SMC Planetarium where an astronomical historian broke down the mission of the Juno spacecraft as it aims to explore the mysterious world of Jupiter and its moons and figure out the composition of our solar system’s biggest planet. The giant spacecraft is set to reach Jupiter’s orbit on the 4th of July and will give scientists a glimpse into one more stellar enigma. She explains the importance behind this mission and why the information it yields can give us clues to our own origins. In other news, it’s News Editor Adam Thomas’ birthday today, so I want to give him a printed happy birthday to commemorate the day he arrived in this world. It’s a day cursed by some, but the work he saves me from doing myself makes me fairly happy that it happened. Aside from that, we are down to two issues left before the semester ends and the current version of the Corsair staff rides off into the sunset. We’ll do our best to leave something to savor going forward. Enjoy.

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NEWS

VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 • MAY 11, 2016 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

FORMER BREAD FACTORY SPACE TO RISE AGAIN Bidding to open for the empty cafeteria space this summer ADAM R. THOMAS NEWS EDITOR Every day, SMC students pass through the Cafeteria on the Main Campus in search of a hot meal, a cup of coffee, a place to sit and catch up with friends or play a few rounds of “Magic: The Gathering.” Most students are familiar with all the sustenance the cafeteria has to offer: the Eat Street food emporium, the Campus Kitchen, and the TCBY Coffee Spot. But there used to be another option available that many students have never even heard of: The Bread Factory, which used to operate in the cafeteria before owner Soo Jeong Pak was evicted for not paying rent in 2014. The former home of The Bread Factory is now just a counter covered in Torani signs and boarded up with drywall that sits across from Eat Street. Most students pass by the vacated kiosk without paying any attention to it — the former prominence of the eatery forgotten after two years of abandonment. All of this is about to change this upcoming summer, as officials at SMC are moving forward to open up the space once occupied by The Bread Factory to bids from vendors who may want to build a new eatery on campus. Meanwhile, students have been petitioning to get their own choices considered with school officials. At the District Planning and Advisory Council (DPAC) meeting on Wednesday, April 27, SMC’s Chief Director of Business Services Chris Bonvenuto updated the attending constituencies about the college’s plan for the space.

Bonvenuto explained that while SMC intended to move forward with announcing the space as open to bids this summer, the school needed to obtain a waiver from the Board of Governors in order to have more control over which potential vendors could apply. "So we've applied to the Board of Governors for a waiver from the current code that would require us to take the highest bidder," Bonvenuto said. "Because we're leasing land, and we don't want to just open it up to the highest bidder and be stuck with McDonald's.” This was confirmed by the Vice President of Student Affairs Mike Tuitasi, who explained the reason for the requested waiver was so the school could prioritize healthier eating options with potential vendors who may want to use the space. Tuitasi said, “[Without the waiver] the District would have little ability to ensure that the vendor is responsive to student’s needs. For example, one of the criteria we require is that a healthy, low-cost meal option is included on the menu for students… another is that all cleaning materials are certified ‘green.’” While the Board of Governor’s had not put the waiver on their agenda by the time Tuitasi responded to The Corsair’s inquiries on May 5, both Tuitasi and Bonvenuto had confirmed that the school’s plan was to move

Students pass by the now vacated kiosk where The Bread Factory Cafe was once located in the SMC Main Campus cafeteria. The space will be open for bidding in the summer. (September Bottoms)

forward with announcing the space as available this summer, even without the waiver. The current plan would be to limit potential vendors to a 5-year lease, though both Tuitasi and Bonvenuto warned that this would likely limit the number of potential vendors who would apply. In the meantime, some students at SMC have been petitioning local businesses to get involved and make bids for the space once it is officially announced this coming summer. Lina Lopez, a co-founder and former president of the Corsairs for Animal Rights

& Ethics Club, said she had been working with students to petition Samosa House, a Los Angeles chain which serves vegan and vegetarian Indian food, to put their hat into the ring once the bidding opens. “Honestly, I just like going there, and then I talked to the owners about seeing if they had any interest in being on campus, considering we had that empty space," Lopez said. "They were for it, and I feel like they would sell a lot and it would work out for the students because I feel like they would get a good price from them.”

"SMC EVERYWHERE" CONNECTS STUDENTS WITH ALUMNI GRACE GARDNER OPINION EDITOR People attend SMC with the intention of leaving SMC. Most come to transfer, and many others try to get in and out with an associate's degree in order to get into the job market as quickly as possible. This temporary nature doesn't necessarily foster a sense of community or school pride — a common trait of community colleges. Hosted by the SMC Alumni Association and the Future Alumni Club, the SMC Everywhere event on Tuesday spun this in a positive light. "We're letting them know that no matter where your next step is, we're still going to be engaged," said Alex Abramoff, an alumnus who transferred to UCLA two years ago. The purpose of the event was to emphasize the importance of the SMC alumni network. "It's all about building that network and staying connected," Abramoff said. "Everybody who comes here as a student, we want to let them know that your presence matters. Even as a student, but especially as an alumni."

in brief Tragedy at SkeptiCamp When Guest Speaker Suffers Heart Attack During the SkeptiCamp conference held in HS 165 on Saturday, May 7, Gregory Bart Jr. from the Center for Inquiry, and part of the greater Los

"It's a wider net than the people that you see most often or the people you think by title would be able to help you," said SMC's Superintendent President Dr. Kathryn Jeffrey. While the event served its function of emphasizing a sense of school pride, there was still the classic SMC focus on the "next step." Before entering onto the quad where the activities were held, one had to fill out a note card with information like educational goal and transfer school of choice. "When we have new students who are transferring to those universities, you can say, 'oh this person went here,' or you can meet up with that person," SMC alumna and UCLA student Aurelia Rhymer. "We can build a network around the world and then possibly when you're looking for a job, the person will see on your resume that you went to SMC... so that's kind of the basis of the whole event." There were plenty of booths and tables set up to hand out memorabilia and encourage students to enjoy themselves, including a table with buttons sporting arrows pointing from SMC to various 4 year schools. There was also an AS booth, a resource for students

to learn more about student opportunities to get involved, which according to Abramoff "inevitably lead to better transfer schools." Aside from the serious stuff, free food and drink were available as well as photo

arrived on the scene to render further assistance.

tions Officer, Diego Marquez of the Ecosexual

weekend for candidates for a new position to be

Though paramedics arrived on the scene to trans-

Club as Vice Chair, and Daniel Kaitel as Chair.

added to the force: Campus Safety Officers. The

port Bart to the hospital, he was unable to recover

Kaitel will be returning as Chair after coming into

unarmed Campus Safety Officers will patrol the

and tragically died shortly thereafter.

the position earlier in the 2016 Spring semester

campuses on bicycles and be able to assist the

due to all three of the leadership positions being

SMCPD and the SMC community in enforcement

vacated over the course of the Winter semester.

and assistance duties, and the SMCPD is seeking

For the full details of this story, go to the Cor-

to fill six positions after a lengthy certification

ICC Elects New Leadership at Final Meeting of Semester After the hour-long, final Inter-Club Council

Angeles community of skeptics, collapsed after

(ICC) meeting of the school year, the ICC kept with

giving a presentation questioning the results of

tradition and elected their leadership positions

the OJ Simpson Trial.

Student gets suited up in a velcro suit to take a jump at the velcro wall at the SMC Everywhere event held on the Main Campus quad on Tuesday. (Apostol Kanev)

sairOnline.com

period over the next two to three months. there were four positions being filled for police over the course of the year. Said Adams, “We’re

for the 2016-2017 school year on Thursday. The

Emergency medical aid was immediately pro-

SMCPD Expanding as Campus Safety Officers Enter the Force

three ICC leaders for next year are Anna Eyfer of

According to SMCPD Chief Johnnie Adams, a

vided to Bart by attendees, and the SMCPD quickly

the Chabad Jewish Student Club as Communica-

series of physical ability tests are starting this

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booths, a high striker and a velcro wall. "It all starts with SMC, and I love that — SMC Everywhere," Jeffrey said. "I kept saying you know, from SMC you can go anywhere."

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In addition to this, Adams also confirmed that officers, and three positions available for sergeants working hard to get to full staffing.”

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NEWS

VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 • MAY 11, 2016 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

OUTCRY OVER COUNSELING Inconsistencies in international counseling classification concerns students

SMC international students Pelin Oezan (left) and Alejandro Diaz de la Torre (right) discuss a book on the stairs of the Letters and Science Building. They are two of many international students who come to SMC to pursue a higher education. (Ramses Lemus)

DANIELA BARHANNA & JULIA WESTMAN COPY EDITOR & STAFF WRITER At only 17 years old, Alejandro Diaz de la Torre decided to move from his home in Madrid, Spain, to the U.S. As the son of a diplomat, he has lived in many different countries in his life, but decided that Los Angeles is where he would be pursuing his education. After spending one year at Kaplan, an English language school in Westwood, Diaz de la Torre decided that his English was strong enough to begin his higher education, and he enrolled at Santa Monica College. "I chose SMC because I wanted to start out at a community college, and I had heard great things about the school," he said. While SMC has a high population of international students, some recent developments regarding classes recommended to or required of these students has left them questioning whether the school has their best interests in mind and whether counselors are being completely open about all their options. Prior to completing enrollment for their first semester at SMC, international students are required to take a math assessment test, and the outcome of that test determines what level of math the student will be placed into. Students who major in Liberal Arts or any of the Social Sciences, for example, need to pass a college level math class in order to be eligible for transfer. UCLA Extension, a continuing higher education provider, offers a college level math class called Introduction to Statistical Reasoning XL 10, which is equivalent to Math 54 at SMC, and satisfies the requirements for transfer without the need of any prerequisites. The class was at one point even taught at SMC’s Bundy Campus via UCLA. Diaz de la Torre, who was a liberal arts major at SMC, placed into a math class below the required level for transfer, which resulted in him being forced to pass two math classes to become eligible. “The only Cs I ever received while attending SMC were in my math classes,” he said. ”They contributed to lowering my GPA a lot.” In addition to adding time and pressure, the price per unit is significantly higher at

SMC than it is at UCLA Extension. class was really hard and that it would be a Currently, the cost per unit at SMC for time consuming process to go through.” an international student is $335. Because Despite the counselor's advice, Kucuthe math classes that satisfy the requirements kali decided to enroll in the class and received for transfer are usually three units, interna- an A. tional students have to pay $1,005 to enroll Diaz de la Torre said, “Even when I transin one of these classes, compared to UCLA ferred to Pepperdine University and took the Extension’s three unit STATS XL 10 being same statistics class that I took at SMC, I priced at $765. The tuition price at SMC received an A. I find that to be kind of ridoes not include AS, student ID, health, diculous.” parking, and, for international students, Another international student who placed mandatory insurance fees which cost $600 low on her math assessment test is Pelin per semester. Oezan from Sweden. She was faced with After all of these fees, and due to a having to take four math classes at SMC to minimum unit completion requirement of be eligible for receiving an AA degree. 12 units per semester (a requirement for The widespread unawareness of SMC's International students in order to maintain international students prevails because the a valid F-1 Visa status), your average inter- information about the Extension course is national student's sum minimum total cost only spread through word of mouth. But is over $9000 per year now an increasing at SMC — a high cost number of them are "TWO MATH CLASSES considering students on reaching out in hopes an F-1 visa are not that the counselors at AND A ONE-UNIT allowed to work outside IECC will also begin COUNSELING CLASS MAY the their own campus. spreading the word. Because of this, an NOT SOUND LIKE MUCH In an email to The increasing number of Corsair, Gail Fukuhara, TO THE ORDINARY students are encouragFaculty Program AMERICAN COLLEGE ing counselors to advise Leader at the Internastudents to take the STUDENT, BUT...THE SUM tional Education CounUCLA Extension seling Center (IECC), COST OF THESE course, as it may help wrote, "We prefer stuCLASSES IS $2,345.” them save money. dents take their courses “If international at SMC when available, students know that this is an option, they since SMC provided them with the necessary can save a lot of money and possibly avoid documents to bring them into the U.S. with lowering their GPA so drastically,” Diaz de the intent to study full-time at our school. la Torre said. However, we understand that there are situWhen asked why new students at SMC ations where students would find it more were mostly unaware of this option, former conducive to take it elsewhere." SMC transfer student Priscilla Darosa said, In addition to the math at SMC, interna“That is like Coca Cola recommending buying tional students are expressing concern about Pepsi if the store is out of Coke. Of course another course they are being told is a re[SMC] won’t promote [STATS XL 10].” quirement that, according to contradictory When asked how she finally found out evidence, is not in fact a requirement. about the course, Darosa said, “A student According to the Santa Monica College told me. Then I asked around about it, and International Students Admissions Applicathen [asked international] counseling and tion Requirements found online, it is dithey [confirmed it]. Probably only because rectly stated that new F-1 students are "reI had talked to others before them.” quired to enroll in the course Counseling 11 Mert Kucukali, an international student - 'Orientation to Higher Education.'" The from Turkey, was also recommended the description for this course states that it “incourse by a friend. troduces higher education and the Master “When I talked to a counselor about this Plan for higher education in California.” class," Kucukali said, "I was told that the Despite it being a stated requirement on

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the application, when students view any of the course catalogs currently available online, it is listed as only "recommended for F-1 Visa Students." During one of the introduction seminars that are held for newly admitted international students, guidance counselors assist the students in enrolling in classes. Diaz de la Torre said that during the seminar he attended, students were told that Counseling 11 is a requirement for all international students. He said, “Because I was told it was a requirement, I didn't think about it much.” He enrolled in the class and didn't find out until later that, though the course is transferable, it is not a requirement for transfer. Sanna Gunnarsson, a former student at SMC, was also told to enroll in the course at the introduction seminar, but she decided not to after she found out it was not required for her major. When asked how she found out, she said, "Through friends and other students." Oezan, who was also told she had to take the course, said, “The counselor [at the seminar] said it was a requirement, but I didn't enroll in it because I thought it was a waste of money. A student told me that SMC wants international students to take it, but that in reality it's only a recommendation.” "We have always made it a requirement for our new F-1 students," Fukuhara said about the counseling course. "In the past, before online enrollment existed, we could more easily enforce this policy as our International Admissions staff enrolled students into their classes. Since online enrollment began, while the course is required and strongly recommended, we rely on students to enroll into this class on their own as a condition of their admissions. We realize though that some students have not abided by what they had signed and agreed to." Two math classes and a one-unit counseling class may not sound like much to the ordinary American college student, but with the high per-unit-price for an international student at SMC, the sum cost of these classes is $2,345. While the high cost of tuition is something that international students are aware of before they sign up, that doesn't mean that throwing away money is a luxury they can afford.

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VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 • MAY 11, 2016 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

SMC'S BEST SINGERS APPLY THEIR TALENTS TO OPERA CLUB JACOB HIRSOHN ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR As the SMC Opera Club set up a piano, two microphones, and a few speakers, preparing to perform at Club Row, a man stepped up to his turntables about 100 feet away. He welcomed everybody to the event, and began to play dance remixes of Top 40 pop songs — loudly, to compete with the already high level of crowd noise. The Opera Club members traded glances, and chuckled nervously. They weren’t discouraged though. They continued to go about their business. As they seemed almost ready to perform, the DJ played a particularly bassy remix of “Hello” by Adele, maybe the most popular song of the last ten years. Club President Julio Santizo stepped up to the microphone and introduced himself, his club and their performance. He did this about five more times before the performance actually started. Once the club members began to sing, none of this seemed to matter. The false starts, the DJ’s music, and the various distractions of other clubs faded away. It wasn’t the best performance they would ever have — I don’t think SMC’s quad is competition for the Sydney Opera House, acoustically speaking — but they drew the attention of many students through just how different they were from, not just the competing music, but the competing clubs as well. This is the key attribute of the SMC Opera Club, a club populated mostly by members of the Applied Music program, which was co-founded by Club President Julio Santizo three years ago — their unique talent makes them distinctly noticeable. In their club meeting, every Thursday in room 115 at the Performing Arts Campus, they’re much more in their element, but remain just as unique. In front of a piano, a formally dressed Marcia De Vere — in her second semester with the Opera Club — performed a song from “La bohème,” an opera by Giacomo Puccini. She didn't behave like it was a rehearsal in a classroom populated by seven other people. She performed like she was on stage, her face falling into a smile whenever she paused. “I got started with contemporary [music] and musicals like ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’ And to me, I thought that was opera, even

Marcia De Vere passionately performs a song from "La Boheme" at a meeting of the Opera Club on the Performing Arts Campus. (Ramses Lemus)

though my mother used to have these Maria Callas and Placido Domingo recordings,” said De Vere. “I never thought I could sing that. I only thought I could hear it. Then I started with 'The Phantom of the Opera’ and I thought, 'Okay, I can do this. I can sing a little opera.’” Singing opera in 2016 is a little bit like speaking Latin. But when talking to the young, passionate members of SMC’s Opera Club, there is an air of normalcy about their hobby. They aren’t out of touch or old-fashioned people, but they seem unaware of just how unique their hobby is. “You just get to put so much of your emotion into it. It just really calls to me,” said Courtney Marsh-Ankerfelt, who will be taking over public relations for the club in the fall. “You have to work really hard, and I'm a hard worker.” “The technicality of the music itself... there's a lot more things going on [than most music]. There is definitely a different beauty in it,” said Tomas Juarez, who will be club president come next semester.

After helping to bring the program to life, Santizo has now been president of the club for two years. At the end of their meeting, he realized it had been a while since he sang. He performed a brief song, noting to the pianist at the end that they were off-key. Santizo has quite the opera voice himself, but his singing doesn’t seem to be his primary concern. He seems more passionate about being a leader, and showing off the rest of the club he has spent so much of the last three years building. “Doing our full performance, when we did the Broad Stage, because, of course, it's the big stage — that's one of the best experiences with Opera Club,” said Santizo. “We did everything: costumes, staging, music, of course, lighting, the super-titles. The whole thing. It was a whole experience, hands-on. We did a whole opera ourselves.” Santizo could talk about opera for an eternity. He has an endless list of people he has performed with and opera companies he has worked with, or hopes to work with soon. His eyes light up when mentioning the names

of significant opera musicians the layman has never heard of. Like many of the Opera Club’s 25 members, Santizo was put on to opera through the SMC Applied Music program, when a teacher of his told him he had a voice for it. “People who come to Santa Monica College know that Santa Monica College has a big reputation for their music department,” he said. “People love classical music. It's hard to believe that there's that many people, but there are a lot." Many members of the club speak of how they were recommended by the Applied Music program faculty to join Opera Club, and they all speak highly of its results. “I joined the Applied Music program as a classical singer, and they told me it was a good idea to come into Opera Club to get more interest, and more understanding of the opera itself,” said Juarez. “It's made me a better singer.” For many members, Opera Club is more than just a hobby. “I'm learning so much from a club, maybe as much as my Applied Music classes," said De Vere. Marsh-Ankerfelt, also a member of Applied Music, said, "It's such an amazing outlet, because you really just get to throw everything you have, every emotion you have. And it actually takes a lot out of you, because you really just get to really go for it. It's fantastic." The club's singers are inspired not just by the beautiful and unique music opera has to offer, but the theatricality of it as well. They speak excitedly of the costumes they get to wear, the characters they get to play, and the stories they get to tell. Each member was asked what made opera so different from the contemporary music most singers are attracted to. They had a lot of positive things to say about opera, but little to say about modern music. In a world full of inconsiderate DJs and their weak remixes of Adele, members of the SMC Opera Club aren’t afraid to stand out for being a bit old-fashioned. It’s a promising trend within a promising program at SMC.

To watch video of the Opera Club, go to thecorsaironline.com Chinatsu Kiyama (right) rehearses her voice during an Opera Club meeting. (Ramses Lemus)

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PHOTOSTORY

VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 • MAY 11, 2016 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE Right: Cars line up along Culver Boulevard to join in the festivities.

Below: A man guards his Cadillac while a guest walks down Culver Boulevard.

Right: Kids race RC cars around a mini track.

HOT WHEELS

Culver City comes together for 13th Annual Car Show PHOTOS AND STORY BY KYLE TOELKEN Los Angeles is known for a lot of amazing things. Sunshine, celebrities, sandy beaches — the list goes on with so many things that, when added up, show what a great city LA is. One of the best aspects of the city is the car scene. Some of the most unique and expensive cars in the world are all right here in LA. On Saturday, some of those cars were on display at the 13th Annual Culver City Car Show. Hosted on Main Street in downtown Culver City, the streets were packed with hundreds of low riders and muscle cars, as well as a few cars from the big screen. There were more than just cars to enjoy this year. Quite a few local vendors had booths set up selling merchandise, along with plenty of delicious food. Even the Culver City Fire Department opened the doors to its downtown station for people to tour and enjoy. Guests also grooved to the vintage sounds of the 1960s, played live on the main stage in front of the Culver City Hotel. Several bands including “The Red Surf Band” and “Luis and the Wildfires” put on live performances. This was the first year the car show happened without famed automobile customizer George Barris. Famous for designing the Batmobile and the Munster Koach in the 1960s, George Barris passed away in November at the age of 89. His memory lives on, both through the big screen and at the Culver City Car Show.

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Cars and car fa

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VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 • MAY 11, 2016 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

PHOTOSTORY

Car enthusiasts enjoy a beautiful day at the 13th Annual Culver City Car Show on Main Street in downtown Culver City on Saturday, May 7.

The Three Stooges line the inside of a Volkswagen Beetle.

anatics line both sides of Cardiff Avenue. People come from all over Los Angeles to view over 400 car entries in the show.

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HEALTH & LIFESTYLE

VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 • MAY 11, 2016 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

JUPITER: THE NEW FRONTIER Juno spacecraft aims to discover the mysteries of the solar system's largest planet

Juno, the spacecraft which launched towards Jupiter in 2011, is projected to arrive at the planet on July 4. (Courtesy of NASA)

ASHLEEN KNUTSEN STAFF WRITER Dressed in a scarf patterned with stars, pants covered with planets and hair adorned with pencils and plastic stars, guest lecturer and astronomical historian Shelley Bonus took over the John Drescher Planetarium on Friday night. To a crowd of nearly 30 attendees, she spoke about what we know about our solar system’s largest and possibly oldest planet Jupiter and its moons. In an hour-long presentation consisting of a variety of videos and images captured by professional and amateur astronomers, she discussed the activity on the surfaces of the moons, Jupiter’s famous red spot and the temporary impact scars left by comets and asteroids that have been easily observed in the upper atmosphere. “It was the first planet that we witnessed being hit by a comet,” said Bonus. After its discovery by Carolyn and Eugene M. Shoemaker and David Levy in 1993, the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet collided with Jupiter in 1994. “Telescopes all around the world captured this comet breaking up and impacting Jupiter,” Bonus said. She also highlighted NASA’s proposed orbiter mission to the moon Europa, which is thought to contain briny oceans capable of supporting life. “It’s going to be a very exciting mission,” said Bonus. “Europa is icy and the ice is cracking and we see venting coming from the cracks. While this mission is scheduled for some

time in the 2020s, a mission to Jupiter has The entire spacecraft is about the size of a been underway for the last five years and is professional basketball court, with each of reaching its climax this summer. the three solar panels the size of a shipping In Roman mythology, god of war Jupiter container. In January, it broke the record for veiled himself in clouds to conceal his mis- farthest traveled solar powered object. chief. It took his wife, the goddess Juno, to Scott Bolton, the mission’s Principal look beneath his facade and discover what Investigator, told JPL’s news media, “We he was hiding. Similarly, as part of their New are achieving these records and venturing Frontiers Program, so far out for a reason NASA has sent a space— to better understand craft, aptly named Juno, the biggest world in our to uncover the mysteries system and thereby "WHILE THIS MISSION IS solar underneath the cloud better understand where SCHEDULED FOR SOME we came from.” cover of Jupiter. “There’s a lot we Jupiter is thought to TIME IN THE 2020S, A don’t know about be the first planet to form. MISSION TO JUPITER Jupiter,” said Steven It is more than twice the HAS BEEN UNDERWAY mass of all of the other Levin, Project Scientist of the Juno Mission team planets, comets and asFOR THE LAST FIVE working at the Jet Propul- YEARS AND IS REACHING teroids in our solar sion Laboratory in Pasasystem combined. ThereITS CLIMAX THIS dena. fore its gravity will affect SUMMER." “We look at it, we see everything else that these belts and zones, formed after and it is less stripes in its atmosphere likely to have altered as that are jet streams much as the other, moving at hundreds of miles an hour. We smaller planets when hit by comets and assee the bright red spot which is a storm twice teroids. Discovering its origins will help us the size of the whole earth. And we see the to understand our own. planet rotating every 10 hours — 300 times While Jupiter consists of mostly hydrogen the mass of the Earth and rotating more than and helium, the oxygen content, and theretwice as fast. But we don’t see beneath those fore water content, is unknown. Scientists clouds in the upper atmosphere.” also believe that the pressure inside Jupiter Launched on August 5, 2011 from Cape is around two million times the pressure here Canaveral, Florida, Juno is scheduled to on Earth, creating an ocean of liquid-metalreach Jupiter on July 4 and begin its orbit. lic-hydrogen that produces the planet’s large

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magnetic field and bright auroras. “So we’re sending a spacecraft to try to understand what the interior is made out of, how big is that core, how much water is there, how did the planets form – because the water… and the core tells you a lot about how it formed,” said Levin. “We’re using the magnetic field to figure out how planetary dynamos work — how do you make that giant magnetic field out of an ocean of swirling metal.” The spacecraft is equipped with several scientific instruments intended to help scientists answer these questions as well as one instrument with another purpose entirely. “There’s a camera on Juno called JunoCam. It was put there, really not for science, it was really put there for education and outreach,” said Levin. On their website, www.missionjuno.swri. edu/junocam, amateur and professional astronomers alike are encouraged to upload their photos of Jupiter and participate in discussions on which sites NASA should take images of. Bonus, an amateur astronomer herself, can attest to the attraction to the fifth planet from the sun. “The colors are amazing,” she said. “On a good night you can see these belts and zones and their colors.” She ended the talk with a video of an insightful 9-year-old boy named Evan talking about ants walking on a patio. “The human race is sort of like that,” he said. “After they discovered what’s up there, they know they’re only a little part of the huge galaxy.”

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SPORTS

VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 • MAY 11, 2016 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

CINEMATIC SEASON DOESN'T STICK TO SCRIPT SMC Men's Volleyball year in review Lost in State Championship

Lost in Semifinals

2014

2015

2016

2017

(Lost to Orange Coast)

(Won State Champs)

(Lost to Orange Coast)

SC W SF ?

Graphics by William Miguel

JAMES POWEL CONTRIBUTING WRITER The 2016 Santa Monica College Corsairs Men’s Volleyball season reads like a film script. After reaching the state championship the past two years — losing in 2014 and winning the title last year — the team had to band together under a new coach to carry on the legacy of blood and thunder they inherited, and defend the team's title. In the movie version of their season, the team would get off to a rocky start, find a way to overcome obstacles and win the title. While the regular season followed that script, the postseason would deviate, with the Corsairs' season ending at the hands of the Orange Coast College Pirates, confirming the fact that we live in reality and not in a movie. And yet, in the fashion of modern Hollywood, this ending is the perfect set up for a sequel. Much like the team of 2014, the majority of the 2016 team's rotation mainstays will return. In fact, that's not the only way the most recent volleyball team resembles the 2014 squad. A large group of freshmen carried both teams to the final weekend of the season. In 2014, the freshmen mixed with the leadership of the upperclassmen brought them to the final game of the season. What does this mean? In 2014, with six sophomores on the team, and four in the regular rotation, the team was precise and quick but fell short to a superior Orange Coast College Pirate team. In 2016, what was once a group of fresh-faced youngsters matured into a formidable, if flawed, unit. The flaws of youth showed whenever the team faced an opponent of equal or better measure. In both meetings against the eventual state champion Long Beach Vikings, the Corsairs committed 23 errors. Against the second place finisher, Orange Coast, they committed 21 errors in their pre-conference meeting, and 34 in the playoff ousting. Here is where the 2014 team was markedly better. That edition of the blue and white had six games of more than 20 errors on the entire season, and only one game north of 30 errors while the 2016 group went above 20 errors 15 times and over 30 on four occasions.

Going into next year, the team will be without its locker room leader and decision maker on the court, Joseph Mayer, who was responsible for over 92 percent of the Corsairs' assists in the regular season. It will also lose one of its most thunderous front line players in Max Nua. Though he was fourth on the team in kills — attacks that are not returned by the opposing team — with 92, simply having the sophomore outside hitter step to the backline changed the tenor of many games, with him scoring 22 service aces on the year, second only to Mayer. Fortunately, the Corsairs already have multiple options to take on the role of the powerful match changer in their other outside hitters Richard Yu and Roscoe Nelms. Yu lead the state in kills with 292, and was the most efficient player in the state posting a 4.56 kill per set average. Like Nua, Yu can start a rally with a spiking serve, and also demonstrated a tough float serve in the first playoff game against San Diego Mesa. Nelms could blossom into the role of captain with a quiet demeanor and efficient play, posting a 3.06 kills per set rate. However, Nelms and Yu will have to clean up their mistakes on the score sheet after committing 110 and 136 errors respectively. The biggest factor in the Corsairs' 2017 success will be the availability of middle blocker Junchen “Paddy” Pan. In 2016, the “old man,” as his coach calls him, was only available for nine matches due to recurring problems with his lower back. In those nine games, Pan recorded 50 kills and 19 blocks, and forced the offenses on the opposite side of the net to work the ball around him. While to extrapolate stats from such a small sample size is irresponsible, it is fair to conclude that if Pan is able to expand his role for the blue and white next season, he can take the team to new heights. To close the book on the 2016 volleyball season, one must recognize that satisfaction is a product of expectations. At the beginning of this season, the Corsairs were a team of almost unknown players with a coach taking his first college head coaching job. In a vacuum, a playoff appearance would be considered a playoff surprise. But due to the

added weight of a title defense, their ideal script would have ended with a better result. By being eliminated in the semifinals, coach Metichecchia and his men fell short of their cinematic expectations, but put on a promising display, suggesting the possibility of an ongoing franchise. Next year, it will be up to them to decide whether the sequel will be The Godfather 2 or Spiderman 3.

Richard Yu Kills

292

(1st in State)

Kills/Set

4.56

(1st in State)

Errors

136

(1st in State)

Joseph Mayer Assists

823

(2nd in State)

Assists/Set

11.12

(1st in State)

Service Aces

(5th in State)

Kill Leaders R. Yu

292

R. Nelms

193

K. Skinper

146

THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE

REDEFINED Santa Monica Medical Offices Opening May 2016 kp.org/santamonica FOR EXTENDED COVERAGE VISIT US AT THECORSAIRONLINE.COM •

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OPINION

VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 • MAY 11, 2016 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

THE CULT OF CLASSIFICATION: GENDER AND SEXUALITY LABELS 101 GRACE GARDNER OPINION EDITOR With the legalization of gay marriage and the overall normalization of homosexuality, queerness is becoming a greater part of everyday life. With this newfound acceptance of falling somewhere outside the realm of heteronormativity, people are finding themselves increasingly in touch with their “inner selves” in a way people never really had been before. To be fair, they may have been in touch with themselves in the same respect, but they sure didn’t put a label on it. Today is a different story. Where 20 years ago a woman may have described herself as just not being particularly feminine, today

she identifies herself as androgynous. What people thought of as gender is now sex — style is now gender expression. These notions will probably seem foreign to you. This is a heterosexual, heteronormative world, after all. The majority of us were born feeling like our gender is more or less in line with our sex, and that the opposite sex are our lovers of choice. A little cocktail of cultural conditioning and biology have, for the most part, ensured that these things will come naturally to us, and we chalk most of our identity up to our job or passions. As a result, we don’t spend much time thinking about how we identify or who we are attracted to. But for queer folks, or people who spend enough time hanging out with

Demisexual Someone who is only able to be sexually attracted to someone when they have an emotional attachment to them.

queer folks, this is entirely normal. The queer community was established based on the value of self exploration. Similar to how the Alaskan Inuit have over 20 words for snow, the queers have a word bank of over 40 words to potentially describe themselves. To people outside this community, this whole identification process can seem illegitimate and even out of control. Most think somewhere along the lines of “Who cares if you’re Asexual? Don’t have sex,” and don’t find any particular need to attribute that to one's identity. But in a generation of people raised sucking the teat of individuality and specialness, it makes sense why we feel the need to classify and establish ourselves so spe-

Straight (Heterosexual) Being attracted to people of a different gender or sex.

Queer An umbrella term used to describe anyone who is not traditionally heterosexual or heteronormative.

Gyrosexual Used to describe individuals who are sexually attracted to women, sometimes also including feminine people.

Aromantic Someone who does not experience romantic feelings towards other.

Asexual Someone who does not experience sexual attraction towards others.

Gay (Homosexual) Used to describe people attracted to the same gender or sex. Usually used to describe homosexual men, but is also used to describe woman-loving-women. Can be synonymous with queer.

Sexual Orientation

The specific genders or sexes that an individual is attracted to.

Androsexuals To be sexually attracted to men.

Stem (Chapstick) Lesbian that expresses some but not all masculine qualities.

Pansexual Someone who is attracted to people without discrimination of sex, gender identity or gender expression.

Skoliosexual Someone who is potentially attracted to non-binary people.

cifically. That’s not to refute the legitimacy of queers. Hell, I’m one myself. But even considering my involvement with the community and the fact that many of my friends fall under this category, I can’t help but chuckle when looking at our list of more than 40 terms of identification and wonder how on earth a person who hasn’t had the exposure I’ve had could possibly navigate the maze of sexual orientation and gender identity. To this end, we've created a graph in an attempt to peel back the labels so you can better understand this cult of classification.

Sexually Fluid Someone who is only able to be sexually attracted to someone when they have an emotional attachment to them.

Lesbian Used to describe women who exclusively date other women.

Butch / Bull Dyke / Dyke / Diesel Lesbian / Stud Dominant, masculine, or aggressive lesbians who generally dress in traditional male clothing.

Femme (Lipstick) Feminine lesbian.

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Where sexuality and gender expression meet

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OPINION

VOLUME 111 ISSUE 08 • MAY 11, 2016 • SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

Cross Dresser Individual who identifies as one gender, but wears the clothing of the other gender. The PC way of saying transvestite.

Male Someone born with male genitalia i.e. penis, testicles, lack of breasts.

Sex

Identifies sex organs one has.

Female Someone born with female sex organs i.e. vagina, ovaries, breasts.

Allgender Someone who identifies themselves as being all genders.

Gender Nonconforming (Gender Bender) Individual who doesn’t accept traditional gender norms for their own personal gender expression.

Drag Queen/King Person who dresses up as the other gender for the purpose of entertainment. Metrosexual Heterosexual/ masculine man who has an expressed interest in their own aesthetic.

Gender Expression

How someone outwardly shows their gender with clothing or behavior.

Transexual Someone who has surgically altered their sex organs to align with the opposite sex.

Gender Normative (Cisgender) Someone who outwardly shows their gender as being the same as the sex they were when they were born.

Transandrogyny/ Androgyny A form of gender expression that isn’t predominantly masculine or feminine.

Intersex Someone born with ambiguous genitalia. Bigender Someone who identifies themselves as both a man and a woman, often with the ability to shift between a masculine and feminine role in any particular context.

Man

Polygender Someone who identifies themselves as multiple genders.

Gender Identity

How someone identifies themselves on the inside in terms of gender, not limited to their biological sex.

Woman

Gender Queer Someone who identifies as outside the gender binary.

Two Spirit A Native American person who has both masculine or feminine qualities.

Transgender Umbrella term for those whose gender differs from the one designated at birth.

Agender Someone who identifies themselves as having no gender.

Third Gender A gender identity that is not a man, woman or androgynous.

Fluid Someone whose sexuality fluctuates between more than two genders. Graphics by William Miguel

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