INSIDE
Jan. 26, 2015
lavozdeanza.com
Steve Jobs biopic Filming at De Anza College starts Monday. See next week’s issue
New club “Spectrum” to open The Blank Club owner and staff moving to new venue in downtown San Jose.
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Features p. 4
P.E. teacher, author, fundraiser
Longtime P.E. instructor and former basketball coach Gary Zarecky retiring next quarter. Sports p. 7
Vol. 48 | No. 11
Students flock to quad for Club Day Cooper’s mom’s advice:
‘Follow your bliss’ Elizabeth Rodriguez
“A mob attacked and they were encouraged to attack reporters and some guy came up to me and CNN news anchor Anderson punched me in the face.” Cooper Cooper spoke about his affluent said describing the encounter. “It could have been much worse upbringing, reporting in war zones where one crew and gave advice member got about pursuing stabbed in the personal and back with a academic goals to screw driver.” a crowd at the De Cooper has Anza College Flint won eight Center Wednesday, Emmy awards Jan. 21. and has been C o o p e r the lead anchor discussed his of CNN, host of affluent upbringing “60 Minutes,” as the son of “Anderson Live” artist and denim and “Anderson jeans designer Cooper 360,” all Gloria Vanderbilt, COURTESY OF MARION HOHLFELD without having a and author and journalism degree. screenwriter Wyatt Emory Cooper. Cooper graduated a semester At age 10, his father died during open-heart surgery and at age 22, early from The Dalton School in Cooper’s brother committed suicide. New York, then embarked on a trip Cooper credited his passion to Africa. He went on to attend Yale for journalism in overcoming the tragedy. Through his work he University where he studied political has immersed himself in real-life science and graduated in 1989. Aside from describing his dangers, and has reported live from war zones, violent protests, natural successful career, Cooper retold disasters and political events in over when he went to his mother for advice about higher education. 70 countries. He asked what he should do “It really shaped my desire to go to war and the way I deal with after graduating high school, looking for a clear answer and people,” Cooper said. He said anchoring allowed him to his mother responded by saying, walk in other people’s shoes while “Follow your bliss.” Cooper concluded the event with being able to show and inform the public about events that are words of his own directed at college students and today’s younger happening around the world. Cooper said his most dangerous generation. “Out-hustle everyone else around assignment was covering the Egyptian revolution in 2007 when you,” he said. “Work harder than the he and his crewmembers were shot person next you.” at and physically attacked. STAFF WRITER
ADRIAN DISCIPULO| LA VOZ STAFF
ADRIAN DISCIPULO | LA VOZ STAFF
BAMBI NGUYEN| LA VOZ STAFF
Top: K-pop Dance Club gather after dancing to Korean pop songs at Club Day in the De Anza College main quad on Thursday Jan. 21. Left: Lesslie Verduzco, 20 , engineering major (left) and Angel Arce, 20, biology major (right) perform a traditional Mexican dance. Right: Business major Michael Pay, 24 welcomes students to the De Anza Networking Club.
Auto tech students: No chance to fight for 4-year degree Samantha Lopez NEWS EDITOR
De Anza college auto tech students are disappointed the program was not considered for a pilot study of four-year community college degrees. Xavier Silva, 26, and Venkat Apparao, 22, both auto tech majors attended the California Community College board meeting at De Anza Nov. 17, 2014 but never got a chance to speak. The item before the bachelor degree program on the meeting agenda was City College of San Francisco fighting to stay in business. That issue took so much
time and patience from the board of governors that when representatives from CCSF were finished, the meeting ended 30 minutes early. Apparao and Silva did not get a chance to express their concerns to the board of governors. “There was no clarity about what we could do as students to be able to protest or make any changes,” Silva said. “It seemed like it had gotten so far that we actually had no more power to overturn this. It was almost as if the decision was made way before we even found out about this opportunity. By enrolling in a bachelor’s degree program as a community college, students would save money
in tuition and be given chances to pursue other educational avenues that would not be possible with a two-year degree. With strong community outreach relationships and higher career opportunities than institutes such as Wyco, Silva and Apparao said De Anza auto tech program deserved an opportunity. For many De Anza students, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in auto tech means completing general education requirements at De Anza then transferring to a fouryear college to obtain a bachelor’s degree. The closest university with a bachelor’s degree in automotive tech is Idaho State University.
Under the pilot program, the community college chosen Jan 20 to offer a four-year auto tech degree was Rio Hondo College in Whittier. Also among the 15 colleges chosen to pilot a four-year degree program was Foothill Community College in Los Altos, offering a degree in dental hygiene. Silva said that over all he felt frustrated and disappointed that there were so many unclear actions, none of which allowed the students to be heard by college decision makers. “I am married, I can’t really move when my family is situated here,” Silva said. “And there’s a lot of people in this situation,
where they come back to get an education in automotive technology, but are limited to getting an associates degree.” Apparao said many workers in the field cannot advance because they don’t have a bachelor’s degree in auto tech. “The job requirements are increasing,” he said. “Mechanics now need higher education because car mechanisms are only getting [more] complex.” Why De Anza’s auto tech program was not considered for the four-year degree program is still unknown, and auto tech students are left with questions, demanding an explanation.