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Issue 10 • Friday, March 6, 2015 • deltacollegian.net
INSIDE
JH
Mother of Oscar Grant speaks to students Urges audience to take a stand against hate crimes deltacollegian@gmail.com
Parking smart on campus saves you from a ticket PAGE 3
Art gives students creative campus outlet PAGE 5
On Feb. 19, 2015, the African American Employee Council hosted an event called “Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter” with keynote speaker Wanda Johnson. Johnson is the mother of Oscar Grant III, an unarmed 22-year old man shot and killed in Oakland by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in 2009. Johnson spoke about the event that took place on the day her son was killed to a diverse, packed crowd in the South Forum. Grant was returning home from a night of being with friends on New Year’s Eve. They were coming from a celebration in San Francisco when a fight broke out on the BART train he was on. Authorities pulled Grant aside at the Fruitvale Station, restraining him and pinning him to the ground while bystanders captured the event with their cellphones. “I’m the one who told him to take the BART, thinking he would be safe,” said Johnson. “I didn’t want them out there drinking and driving.” Mehserle was convicted of killing Grant in 2010 and served less than a year. Grant leaves behind one daughter.
Johnson said the event affected her because he will never be able to see his daughter grow up. “It has affected me dearly. It’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Oscar and his daughter. How his life was robbed, he will never get to see his daughter graduate, get married or have children,” she said. “He will never see that. So it’s very painful, but the pain has turned into a fight. To say that, whoever I can help and encourage when they have to face situations like this. I’m there to do that it’s just something in me.” She also spoke on equality and how important it is to vote. “…There’s still no laws that have changed and until we begin to change the laws and begin to hold officers accountable for their actions, we’re still going to be in the same situations that we’re in,” she said. Johnson said we shouldn’t allow jealousy and envy fester inside of us. “Number one, we have to begin to love one another and see ourselves as special, unique, intelligent kings and queens and royal priesthoods, so that we can begin to teach that, so that a change can take place,” she said. Johnson noted similarities between her son
PHOTO BY ARMEL HENDEROSN
By Armel Henderson
See GRANT, Page 8
SPEAKING UP: Oscar Grant’s mother speaks about the trials and tribulations of the loss of her son.
Trustees hold special meeting to explain program error By Brian Ratto
Lady Mustangs swim into new records PAGE 7
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UPCOMING Baseball vs. Santa Rosa Jr. College @ Nick Cecchetti Field, 2:30 p.m. March 10 Stockton Symphony Classics Series IV: Symphony in Space, March 14
FIND US
PHOTO BY BRIAN RATTO
LOOKING AHEAD: Dr. Kathy Hart, president/superintendent of Delta College, speaks at the close of the meeting on Feb. 26 inside the Atherton Auditorium.
Delta College Board of Trustees held a special meeting on February 26 regarding an over reporting of Full Time Equivalent students (FTE). FTEs are a tool used by college and universities to measure the enrollment level of full time students to earn funding from the State of California. A FTE Student is a student enrolled in 15 units in a semester or 30 units during year, according to Matt Wetstein, Dean of Planning, Research and Regional Development. “We need to remain calm and rational, there is no need to speculate or to panic,” said Kathy Hart President/ Superintendent of Delta College, at the opening of the meeting. “There is no one to blame in this situation.” In early January there was a miscalculation of the FTEs to the California Community College Chancellors Office. “We can weather this issue without cutting instruction and classes, as well as continue to do the deferred maintenance,” said Elizabeth Maloney, Delta College’s California Teachers Association President and Psychology Professor.
PLANS MOVING FORWARD • • • • •
Finish the reprogramming Meet and discuss the resolution to the error Work with the auditors on the FTE calculations Set internal protocols to prevent unchecked changes to the programing Revamp the way the class schedule is published to show actual class times
The calculation of contact hours in partial hour classes is the cause for this over reporting. The hour and a half long course that meets on the Tuesday, Thursday schedule are partial hour classes. “[In 2012] there was a programming change that started to estimate and add into the hour and a half long course what’s called the passing period,” said Wetstein. The calculation error was counting the ten-minute passing period as in-
See TRUSTEE, Page 8