Live your emu phase out at Dell’Osso
Tough start for men’s soccer
The Collegian ENTERTAINMENT, PAGE 3
Issue 2 • Friday, Oct. 8, 2021 •
SPORTS, PAGE 4
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POURZANJANI OUT, LAWRENSON IN BY DAVID VICTOR Editor-in-Chief
Assistant Superintendent/Vice President of Instruction Dr. Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson assumed the role of acting superintendent/president after former Superintendent Omid Pourzanjani’s resignation was approved by the Board of Trustees on Sept. 28 during a special board meeting. “On behalf of the Delta College Executive Cabinet, we would like to thank Dr. Pourzanjani for his leadership and service to the campus. We wish him well in his future endeavors,” said Lawrenson in a letter she sent out to the
college community. Lawrenson is meeting with campus leaders this week after assuming her new leadership duties to discuss campus initiatives, as stated in the letter she sent out following the board’s decision to put Pourzanjani on leave. The letter also advised the community to watch for an invitation to an open forum in which the community can ask campus leaders about how Delta will continue moving forward after the change in leadership. The forum was scheduled to take place on the morning of Oct. 8. Before coming to Delta College in
2020, Lawrenson was a professor at South Puget Sound Community College and an executive administrator at American River College and Cosumnes River College. Lawrenson admits she never thought she would become Delta’s superintendent/president, but is looking forward to taking on bigger responsibilities to help students. “I’m truly honored to serve as acting superintendent/president. When I was a student at American River College I could never have imagined that I would someday be the acting president at Delta,” said Lawrenson. “But I am
Delta rolls out vaccine mandate
POURZANJANI LAWRENSON thrilled to be in this position. Helping students harness their strengths, skills and expertise and then guiding them through their educational journey is
See LEADERSHIP, page 3
Climate change to be analyzed at world summit BY ARIANA MALLERY Staff Writer
Director of Information Technology Dr. Chelsy Pham and Director of Marketing and Communications Alex Breitler show an example of these contract tracing lanyards. PHOTO BY JAHDAI SPIKES
BY JASON DIEZ Staff Writer
Delta College is quickly approaching an Oct. 15 vaccine mandate set in August by the board, which will impact students and staff. Ambiguous only a few weeks ago, details have emerged on the “how” since the Sept. 21 Board of Trustees meeting where contact tracing was also discussed at length. The plans stem from an Aug. 17 meeting where the eight-member board voted to mandate the Covid-19 vaccination for all students and employees. The process involves vaccinations, contact tracing, testing, and ongoing reporting after Oct. 15. “We’re going to be contracting
with ReturnSafe case management for students,” said Director of Information Technology and Data Center Services, Dr. Chelsy Pham during the Sept. 21 board meeting. “This allows us to automatically understand who is a contact as defined by the CDC, which is 15 minutes in a 24-hour period.” The tracing tool resembles an ID badge attached with a lanyard, which traces the surroundings of people within 15 minutes that automatically updates their profile if the person came in contact with Covid-19. Information about getting a badge was sent to staff on Oct. 8. There are plans for student distribution events Oct. 11 through
Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Danner Hall. Students are being encouraged to wear the badges, particularly since the technology allows users to be informed if they are exposed to Covid-19. “We’re going to be using them very soon after this is going to start to get implemented once it’s approved by the board,” said Pham. The contact tracing has been talked about since summer. “We paused on actually executing on that because that was when during like the June 15 period where we thought Covid was going to go away,” Pham told the board. “And then we didn’t execute
See VACCINES, page 3
October is usually synonymous with cool weather, autumn and warm drinks. Something seems noticeably different this year, though. The crisp chill in the air isn’t yet here, but the temperature runs deeper than just a lack of #SweaterWeather — it’s climate change. Climate change has long been a controversial, yet increasingly relevant issue, especially with the frequencies of major climate disasters rising within the past decade. The annual United Nations Climate Summit, organized by the World Climate Foundation is slated for Nov. 8 in Glasgow. Now in its 26th year, the event sees world leaders coming together to implement measures to help combat climate change. Students have similar ideas of what they want to see come out of the event. “I want to see a draft of a plan for what everyone has decided to do together. I don’t want to just see what the United States is doing, or what Russia is doing. I want to see what all the leaders are doing collectively for climate change,” said student Delainey Bright. “World leaders need to come together and treat this as a broad issue more than an individual issue.” Middle College High School senior Dan Vo was definitive in what he was hoping would come out of the event, dubbed “COP26.” “Actually some change. They always talk about change, saying we’ll do this, but in the end, nothing comes out of it,” said Vo. The event takes on greater significance in light of a Oct. 3 pipeline burst off the coast of Huntington Beach caused more than 126,000 gallons of oil to pour into the ocean — the largest in the state’s history — resulting in beaches to be closed as remnants of the spill continue to wash up on shore and devastate local wildlife, including the fragile coastal wetlands of Orange County. Amplify Energy, the company that owns the pipeline could face a class-action lawsuit because of the oil spill. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), which has been found to be the principle cause of many fatal fires including the 2018 Camp Fire which killed 86 and devastated the
See CLIMATE, page 3
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