thecollegian
Issue 12 • Friday, May 5, 2017 • deltacollegian.net
DELTA LOOKS AHEAD
Master Plan forums provide info, answer questions By Francina Sanchez Feature Editor
Delta College has undergone some renovations in recent years, the campus has seen a complete overhaul since its building at the current location in the 1970s. Now Delta is looking 20 years into the future. On April 25, Vice President of Instruction, Dr. Matt Wetstein, introduced the Comprehensive Master Plan (CMP) during a presentation held at the West Forum on campus. The CMP was developed by a group of 28 participants who consulted faculty and students to plan the needs of the campus and campus life. The master plan project is aimed to address needs down the road. “Think of the college 20 years from now… what would the campus look like?” said Wetstein. The planning process involved steps to cohesively develop educational planning and facilities planning with the main focus of promoting student success. “The main campus features buildings that are now 45 years old and need of refurbishment,” according to the draft of the CMP. “The original layout makes people feel un-
safe on campus,” said Wetstein. With new buildings, technology, specific facilities for different needs, students would be provided with the materials and support to be successful on any Delta campus, as well as feel safer. Accessibility on and off campus would be simplified. Danner Hall would remain, but turned into a student union. “Danner would be a true student center with support centers and a place for students to hang out,” said Wetstein. Delta College under its charter is a vocational school but has a small number of facilities specific to Career Technical Education (CTE) programs. The redesign would have more CTE facilities to improve the connection of students to the community. “All of this effort is being made on a redesign and it doesn’t look to me like they’re trying to develop the connection of this campus with the extended community that the campus is supposed to serve,” said Bob Bentz, former veteran counselor. The redesign would make smaller work spaces in some areas that aren’t being utilized. Faculty like Bentz see potential of the campus to provide much more than it does. He graduated in 1972 from Delta College and 1980 from California State University, Stanislaus in 1980 by attending only one class on that campus during his time there because Delta offered classes for four-year schools.
See MASTER PLAN, page 8
Dr. Matt Wetstein points out the new layout, master plan, which discusses Delta’s future. PHOTO BY FRANCINA SANCHEZ
‘Free’ doesn’t mean free in tuition Copy Editor
As the call for tuition free education has gained momentum in recent months, so have the questions surrounding how to pay for “free” education. “The money has to come from somewhere,” said Marc Thomason, owner of Thomason Navigations, a financial aid consulting business in Linden. “Nothing is really free.” Some politicians think the answer is to raise taxes to subsidize tuition. Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) introduced Assembly Bill 1356, which would add a one percent tax on household incomes of $1 million or more.
The revenue from the tax increase If it doesn’t pass, there’s still a would be set aside in a special fund chance California could pursue tuiand used in conjunction tion-free college. with existing financial aid There are currently eight colprograms to cover the cost leges in the United States that ofof tuition for in-state stufer tuition-free education, and, in dents. some cases, provide materials and “Shifting the burden lodging as well. from the student to the taxRather than rely on governpayer doesn’t really address ment subsidies, these colleges the true cost of college,” said THE require students to work at the Thomason. “When [finanschool (usually 10-15 hours per cial aid] loans became easier week), which keeps staffing to get, colleges started raisand administrative costs low. ing their rates because they These lower operating costs are could. Making taxpayers covered by donations and enpay for it won’t change EDUCATION dowments. that.” “I’d work at a school if it If AB 1356 passes through the meant I didn’t have to pay for it,” said legislature it will go on the ballot for voters in 2018. See TUITION, page 8
COST FREE
OF
By Mark Larks
COLLEGE
/deltacollegian
Trump’s first 100 marked by limited victories, big defeats By Killian Barnhart News Editor
President Donald Trump celebrated the completion of his first 100 days during a rally in Pennsylvania on April 30. Trump used the opportunity to once again slam the media as the White House Correspondents Dinner was being held, stating it was nothing more than celebrities and Washington media “consoling” one another in a ballroom party. Trumps first 100 had a few massive successes, such as the nomination of Neil Gorsuch, once again swinging the Supreme Court to the Republicans with a 5-4 majority. However, this doesn’t mean the time period has been a constant stream of achievements. Trump failed to meet the goal he set at the start of his 100 days, which revolved around Read an extended version keeping cam- of this story at paign promises deltacollegian.net such as: getting the wheel turning in regards to the border wall, enacting a travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries and repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. All of these promises came with political fights. The Republicans refused to fund the wall, the “Muslim Ban” kept getting tangled up legally and the government narrowly avoided a shutdown over repealing and replacing the ACA. “This is only the first hundred days, only three months, we still got nine months, let’s say healthcare goes down a second time… that’s why Paul Ryan said ‘no, we don’t have anything yet’ attempting to slow down the White House. This is all Trumps doing… once he was elected he didn’t have to continue the 100-day campaign... He could’ve tempered the rhetoric and he would be in much better shape politically,” said Delta Political Science Professor Joel Blank. Trump’s first 100 days have seen noticeable pivots from his promises during the campaign, such as naming China a currency manipulator and pivoting on Syria the same week Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said “the... longer term status of president Assad will be decided by the Syrian people,” on March 30 during a press conference with the Foreign Minister of Turkey. “When he (Trump) ran, he had a very good platform: the nationalist-populist rhetoric,” said Delta Political Science professor Cirian Villavicencio. “But this idea of putting America first, making America great again, from what I’ve seen in his last hundred days really hasn’t been consistent with that.” Trump’s campaign painted the image of an isolationist country that avoided a conservative foreign policy of intervention and regime change. He said he would try to reimagine various trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement. “He is ultimately governing and learning at the same time,” said Villavicencio. “We saw this clearly when Xi Jinping started teaching him that what’s happening in North Korea is more complex than how he’s framing it. It tells me he may not necessarily understand how complex domestic and foreign policy is, and maybe lacks understanding of what his role and responsibilities are as president.”
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