A FIRST AMENDMENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF LAS POSITAS COLLEGE MARCH 13, 2019
VOL. 30 ISSUE NO. 6
FIRST COPY FREE; ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS EACH
Spiritual Ground School creates a space for students to pray, meditate Page 6
Photo illustration by Timothy Cech and Jennifer Snook
Geology department brings augmented reality to LPC
Page 8
"The Drowsy Chaperone" makes a splash on opening weekend Page 11
2 NEWS Editorial Board
lpcexpressnews.com
Potential bill would expand financial aid for California Community Colleges By Nick Despotakis
Editor-in-Chief Emily Forschen Managing Editor Kirstie Burgess Sports Editor Devin Bradshaw Opinion Editor Arion Armeniakos Editorial
and Production Staff Ruben Banuelos Sean Brooks Timothy Cech Nicholas Despotakis Thiha Naing Adam Vanderhoofven
Adviser Melissa Korber Business Manager Marcus Thompson II Technology Manager Jeff Bennett Lead Design Mentor Brianna Guillory Design Mentor Jennifer Snook Director of Events/Social Media Mentor Christina Vargas
© 2018 Express.* Reproduction in any form is strictly prohibited. The Express is a First Amendment publication of the students of Las Positas College. It is published most Fridays during the academic year. The students who staff the Express run an editorially independent newsroom. Unsigned editorials reflect the collective opinion of the editorial board. Other opinions express the views of individual writers and artists are not to be considered the views of the publication’s staff, editorial board, advisors, the associated students, the college administration or the board of trustees. *Students retain copyright ownership of the content they create, including words, photographs, graphics, illustrations, cartoons and other work. The Express retains copyright ownership to advertisements the Express creates. The Express retains the right to use all material in all forms in perpetuity.
Letters to the Editor The Express is a public forum newspaper that seeks to encourage robust discussion among members of the college community. Letters to the editor, editorial and opinion pieces, freelance articles and photographs may be sent via e-mail or U.S. mail. Pieces must be typed and signed and include contact information, including a daytime phone number. Anonymous submissions will not be printed. All submissions are edited for space and clarity, and upon publication become the property of the Express.
@NICK_DESPO
n Feb. 14, 2019, California State Senator O Connie Leyva D-Chino introduced Senate Bill 291. If it passes, eligible students
at Las Positas College will be assessed for financial aid based on entire costs of living and attending, opposed to just tuition costs. “Senate Bill 291 recognizes that tuition alone isn’t the greatest obstacle for our students, and that the total cost of attendance must be considered when calculating and awarding financial aid to the neediest lowincome students. We can’t meet California’s workforce and civic needs without creating a far more equitable system of financial aid. SB 291 is a necessary investment in California’s future,” said, Larry Galizio, President & CEO of the Community College League of California. Only 46 percent of community college students receive need-based financial aid compared to nearly two-thirds of UC and CSU students. One study even found that in nine regions in California, community college was never the least expensive option. In seven of those nine regions, it actually costs less to go to a UC or CSU. Leyva wants to see that change. “The true cost of attending college is clearly more than tuition,” Leyva said. “When non-tuition costs like housing, food and textbooks are considered, community college is often more expensive for our lowest-income students to attend than other state universities. SB 291 addresses the issue by creating a financial aid program that helps to cover a community college student’s whole cost of attendance.” Kellie Williams, Student Trustee of the California Community College Trustees Board said, “I’m excited about SB 291 because it finally offers CCC students the same support a four-year university receives. This would bring equity to the financial aid system by ensuring we have money for textbooks, transportation to classes or food to eat while studying and pursuing our degree.” Should it pass, this bill is going to change how college is paid for in California drastically. California’s popular gift aid program, the Cal Grant, gives less to community college students than UC and CSU students. Just 5 percent of community college students received a Cal Grant last year, compared to nearly 40 percent of undergraduates at UC’s and 36 percent at CSU’s. California community colleges enroll about two-thirds of the state’s undergraduate students, but they only receive just 7 percent of Cal Grant funds. California Community Colleges currently offer the least expensive tuition rates in the country, but for students who don’t live with their parents, annual costs become more than $20,000 when you include housing, transportation, textbooks and personal costs. The average student receiving the maximum amount of financial aid still faces a deficit of more than $6,000. A small amount of community college students qualify for financial aid that covers the cost of living, transportation and textbooks which leads some students to take
Photo courtesy of WikimediaCommons California State Sen. Connie Leyva, pictured above, in 2015. She created potential bill, Senate Bill 291, which expands financial aid opportunities for California Community Colleges.
fewer courses, accumulate debt or drop out of school. “Far too often community college students are left out of the conversation of equity especially when it comes to financial aid,” said Alexander Walker-Griffin, the voting student representative on the Community College Board of Governors. “With the cost of living rising in California and the need for a college degree becoming more of a requirement for financial stability, it is imperative that we give every student the financial ability to achieve their goals.” Many people are wondering how California will come up with the huge amount of money they need to support this ambitious plan. The legislature wants to enact future legislation that would appropriate money for the purpose of CCC Student Financial Aid Programs. Awards would help cover expenses not being addressed by a student’s family contributions, employment and other aid, such as Pell Grants and the Cal Grant program. If SB 291 passes than students eligible for this financial aid must be a resident of California, have not received a grant for more
than two academic years and have made satisfactory academic progress. There are many students at LPC that live independently and are affected by the high cost of living in California. People cannot afford to work less hours in order to take a full load of classes at LPC. This makes it very difficult for them to complete their courses, and for most students, transfer to a four-year school at the rate they would like to. SB 291 would help numerous students at LPC by allowing them to transfer at a proper rate without taking on debt. The bill would also benefit LPC by rising the transfer and graduation rates. Due to a California law that prevents nonemergent bills from being heard within 31 days of its introduction, it cannot be heard by the committee until at least March 17. SB 291 is co-authored by state senators Ben Allen, Steven Bradford, Hannah-Beth Jackson and Scott Weiner who are all Democrats. It is co-sponsored by the California Community Colleges and the Community College League of California who hope to see this bill passed in the future.
NEWS 3
March 13, 2019
New air quality resolution drafted by LPC student By Nick Despotakis @NICK_DESPO
as Positas College is sponL soring an air quality resolution plan, created by LPC Student
Government Student Trustee Garrett Culbertson, that provides LPC and Chabot College with N95 respirator masks for staff and students when air quality conditions are considered unhealthy. Poor air quality caused by wildfires poses a huge risk on the health of students, faculty, classified professionals and administrative staff. The health, safety and education of students is the most important thing on a community college campus. The ability to learn is impacted heavily when a wildfire occurs. This air quality resolution plan will protect the health and education of students and employees at LPC. I had the opportunity to sit down with Culbertson and ask him some questions about his air quality resolution plan. I asked him when LPC can expect to have respirator masks at hand for students and staff. “Wildfire season typically starts around mid-summer and goes into the fall, so as long as
we have those supplies before the end of this spring semester I am going to be happy,” Culbertson said. “Student government plans on buying some during this month and the Board of Trustees is going to be deciding on when they are going to be buying the masks.” Two organizations are primarily going to be paying for it: Student Government and the Board of Trustees. Student Government gets its money from the student activity fee students pay when they register for classes. “We’re going to be buying not as many as the entire school would need, somewhere between one and two thousand, but the Board of Trustees, which is the organization that oversees the majority of bigger school purposes, is going to be the ones in charge of purchasing this,” said Culbertson. I asked Culbertson how much the estimated costs of the masks would be. “The price estimates we’ve looked at so far are approximately $13 for 20 masks. Since we have a little less than 20,000 students at both Chabot and LPC it would come out to approximately $13,000, but it’s a small price to
PACE RETURNS AT CHABOT
C
habot is now accepting applications for the PACE Degree & Transfer Program for Working Adults. PACE is a program designed for students with nine-to-five jobs who want to complete their higher education. To qualify, students have to have anywhere from zero to 20 units completed.
D
TECH MANAGEMENT SPEAKER COMING TO LPC
avid Rowley, chief technology officer of the Ask Media Group, is coming to LPC to speak on entrepreneurship and how coding has influenced his business. The seminar will be located in room 2420 on Tuesday, Mar. 19 from 6 p.m. to 6:50 p.m.
Corrections The Express would like to amend an error in the last issue in order to maintain accuracy. On page two of Volume 30 Issue 5, in a photo caption in the article “Third time is a charm,” we misstated the “What’s Right at LPC Award” was given to faculty when usually it is given to classified professionals. The Express regrets these errors and apologizes for any inconveniences.
Archives/Express Pictured center is LPC Student Government Student Trustee, Garrett Culbertson, taking notes during a meeting.
pay considering the significance of it,” Culbertson said. Culbertson is confident that the Board of Trustees will act on this proposed air quality resolution. “Our Board of Trustees can
choose not to act on it, but from my conversation with them they all seem to agree it is a very good idea and are very supportive of it,” said Culbertson. There is also a chance of this air quality resolution being involved
in all California Community Colleges. The Student Senate of California Community Colleges is voting in about a month on a series of resolutions and one of the resolutions will be the air quality resolution.
4 SPORTS
lpcexpressnews.com
Hawks lose to Bear Cubs in playoffs for second straight year
Photo Courtesy of Alvin Jornada of The Press Democrat Las Positas lost to Santa Rosa Junior College in the first round of the CCCAA Men’s Basketball playoffs despite strong efforts from Goose Persin (18 points) and Michael Hayes (25 points).
By Arion Armeniakos @ARIONARMENIAKOS
Santa Rosa, Calif. – The Las Positas College men’s basketball team suffered post-season defeat at the hands of Santa Rosa for the second year running as the Hawks bowed out in the first round of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) playoffs on Friday, Mar. 1, 2019. The Hawks got off to a sloppy start, gifting Santa Rosa the ball on numerous occasions with their turnovers in the opening minutes. Coach James Giacomazzi’s men managed to stay in the game though through resilient defense and by paying careful attention to the Santa Rosa star Skylar Chavez, limiting him to just 12-points at the half. The Hawks stayed within striking distance despite their early struggles thanks to an effective start from Wesley Burse, who got five points on the board early to keep the Hawks in the game until star guard Michael Hayes joined in on the action. Hayes didn’t get his first basket until the five-minute mark in the first half, but once he saw the ball go down, he followed it up with three more, including
a three, to bring his tally up to nine points at halftime. While playing some good basketball throughout the first half, the Hawks looked set to experience some adversity as Hayes was later forced to sit out a significant part of the half with two fouls. Sophomore guard Goose Persin had other ideas though as he entered the game and immediately went 3-3 from beyond the arc, 4-5 overall, notching up 12 points at the half and at one point guiding the Hawks to a 10-point lead. The Hawks’ urgency on the defensive end and efficiency on offense left the game wide open at the half with the Hawks trailing 39 to 43. In the second half, the Hawks came out strong and carried over their defensive effort during a quick 6-0 run which helped them tie the game quickly after the break. Some key plays on both ends of the floor from sophomore forward Alafia Oluwsogo pushed the Hawks out of the gates and allowed them to gain some momentum from the get-go. The game then turned into an offensive back and forth with Santa Rosa’s danger man Chavez gradually coming into his own and finding a lot of success
and picking his shots midway through the second half. The Hawks wouldn’t back off and stayed in the game as Hayes was able to find a lot more space in the second period and Goose Persin continued to deliver with his hot hand from beyond the arc. Persin finished the game with 18 points after adding two more long-range makes in the second half. Down the stretch, the two stars of the show began to shine for their respective teams as Hayes and Chavez traded baskets with the game heading into crunch time. After hitting a three a piece, Chavez converted twice at the free throw line, and Hayes came right back down the other end with a flashy Euro step to tie the game at 75-75 with fewer than five minutes to go. The momentum was shifting between the two teams on each possession, but eventually it was claimed by the hosts from Santa Rosa as they made some crucial defensive plays and went on a 9-0 run before Giacomazzi was forced to take a timeout with about a minute remaining. That run ended up being the decisive factor in what was a very close game for the best part of the 40 minutes. The Hawks were not able to get the ball back
into Michael Hayes’ hands or knock down any more attempts in the final minute and suffered defeat in the first round of the playoffs for the second time in as many years. The game finished Santa Rosa 88, LPC 75. Chavez put up 27 points for the hosts while Hayes poured in 25 points for the Hawks. After the game, Giacomazzi expressed his satisfaction with his team’s performance despite the defeat and explained that the loss came down to small details that ended up going against his side and the solid defensive shift that was put in by Santa Rosa down the stretch. “We had the right game plan, and I thought we played a good game,” Giacomazzi said. “We just messed up a few of the rotations. Those mistakes happened early and also late on, and those few mental lapses and costly turnovers ultimately cost us the game.” And also, they (Santa Rosa) just made plays. We tried to get the ball into Mike’s (Hayes) hands or into any of the guys who can score hands, and they just did a good job at denying us.” Also reflecting on the game, Hawks standout performer Hayes, who finished the regular season third in scoring in the
state of California, put the loss down to failing to remain calm down in the final moments of the game. “We we’re kind of rushing our possessions, we weren’t really taking our time and we kind of felt like we had our backs against the wall and panicked a little bit,” Hayes said. “We should’ve been calmer down the stretch and worked as a team,” he added. Despite being disappointed with the loss, Hayes did not forget to praise his teammates and the overall performance of the team throughout this season. “Overall, we had an amazing season. We lost a lot of guys and ended up finishing the season with nine guys strong. Winning as many games as we did with just nine guys I think is amazing. The coaching staff and my teammates held their own, and I think we had a pretty good season,” Hayes said. Despite the premature finish to their post-season, the Hawks put up some historic numbers during their regular season campaign. They notched up an overall record of (21-7), while going (9-3) in the stacked Coast North Conference. The nine conference wins ranked as the most in North Coast Conference history.
March 13, 2019
Las Positas swimmer sets tone for rest of the team Photo courtesy of Alan Lewis Las Positas sprinter Esteban Perez Del Rio has started the year on fire. He has won numerous races placing top three, seven times in the meets Las Positas has participated in this season. He is also part of the Las Positas relay team that has placed first multiple times this season. Perez Del Rio and the Hawks hope to keep up their steady swimming moving forward.
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SPORTS 5
FEAT
6 lpcexpressnews.com By Emily Forschen @EMILYSCHEN
The student government office on any given Tuesday is bustling with conversation. LPCSG members are in there working, socializing and meeting with each other. Mahdi Totah is not in student government, but when walked in, no one batted an eye. They knew what he was there for. He’s there twice a week at the same times of day. Totah was searching for a place to pray. An orthodox Muslim, he finds alone time with Allah five times a day. He’s only on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays and has three prayers that fall during the time he is on campus. He just needs a quiet space where he has enough room to kneel, facing towards Mecca. On this particular Thursday, he entered the room, laying his jacket down on the ground in lieu of a rug. He made room in a corner, pushing two swivel chairs out of the way as he began to pray. Prayer, or Salah, is one of the pillars of his faith. Five times a day, he must find a clean place and follow the routines. He’s here for the third prayer of his day, known as salat al-‘asr, which takes place in the late afternoon. He doesn’t rush. He has six hours until his next class, and six hours before his next prayer. Ultimately, student government offered him a quiet room with a closed door. There were loose papers and pens scattered on the table. But it would do. This conference room with seating for twelve became Totah temporary mosque. He wasn’t the first to use the room, and he won’t even be the last today. Other students who had come before him had stopped by to use this conference room for prayer. So, student government began that push to convert this conference room into an official interfaith space. This process has revealed a void at Las Positas College, perhaps one that should have long ago been filled.
The school offers plenty of student services. The veterans center. The international students program. Educational communities based on cultural backgrounds, like Puente and Umoja. What it doesn’t seem to offer is any sort of sanctuary room for faith-based students. Proponents for a spiritual space have been waiting for months. That fact that the lone dedicated area is a crowded conference room in the student government office have some frustrated. There have been repeated requests for a faith center in the new building plans, and yet still, no sign of one. Is the lack of the space a product of religion being too taboo or a lack of demand from a demographic decreasingly interested in God? For whatever reason, at this picturesque campus that seems to keep adding to itself, the only place Totah and others can go, officially, is a conference room in the student center. Some officials on campus are determined to change that. One of those officials is Alejandro Buenrostro, Director of Communications. He heads the Safety and Equality Committee, which he formed in January. In their first meeting, he proposed a dedicated interfaith-meditation space. Buenrostro became aware that it was necessary when more and more people started showing up and asking for the room. “It was really apparent that these people felt really uncomfortable,” said Buenrostro, “The tone of their voice, their body language, demeanor.” He set to work immediately, knowing he needed to do something. “I was repulsed that (they felt like) they needed to be shy or timid, even scared for something that’s super normal,” he said, “So I think that’s a big driving factor of how this got brought up.” Totah first came to pray in the conference room in February, but he had a more roundabout way of ending up there. This is his first semester at Las Positas, but he previously attended Cal State East Bay, where an inter-
41%
Where is the space f
Timothy Cech/Express
Mahdi Totah prays in the conference room in room 1643 on Mar. 7, 2019. He is in a corner of the room, far from the door, be
faith center was always open. “I just started asking around to see if there was one,” he said nonchalantly. When no students had the answers, he went straight to Interim President Roanna Bennie. He sent her an email, asking if there was a space available, and Bennie then sent the email to LPCSG President Lylah Schmedel. Schmedel then met with Totah, and it was that day that he used the room for the first time. He had no idea that Buenrostro had already begun
of people ages 18-29 say they pray at least once a day
the movement to establish that room as even a temporary solution for a much larger predicament. A Pew Research Center study found that 36 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 are entirely religiously unaffiliated. It also found, however, that nearly half of this age group say that they pray at least once a day. Alicia Thach-Kim, president of the Christ In Action club at LPC, acknowledges the statistics, but doesn’t think that
29%
should cause any hesitation in administration. “I think it’s important to let students have that opportunity,” she said, “I feel that I have a sense of peace after I pray that may have not been there before.” Thach-Kim says the Christian club prays twice weekly together in a classroom in the 1700 building, and she was unaware that there was a prayer room available on campus. Totah also says that he disregards the numbers. He thinks young people are drifting away
of people ages 18-29 say they meditate at least once a week
TURES
MARCH 13, 2019
for the faith-based?
ehind a chair as he says his third prayer of the day around 4 p.m.
from organized religion because of a lack of clarity. “It’s going to provide them the privacy and the basic right that they’re asking for under the first amendment. I’m not doing this for me personally, I’ll pray anywhere,” Totah insists, “I’m doing this for the people who come after me.” In 2016, a bill passed allowing Las Positas to receive 950 million dollars for rebuilding. The initial building plans were revealed to the public in a meeting on Feb. 6, 2019, and to the
annoyance of some proponents of the space, there was no evidence in the plans for an interfaith space. Buenrostro, however, is trying to go one step at a time, trying his best to get the temporary solution up before he thinks about the permanent buildings. There’s one big issue, and it’s right under everyone’s noses. There’s a table in the middle of the room, and it’s a bigger obstacle than anyone at first glance would have anticipated. Buenrostro’s committee has
just passed a motion to remove the table, but it’s taking a while because it’s wired with audio and video connections for the television in the room. “I just need the table out and a divider in,” Totah said multiple times when discussing the room, “It’s not complicated.” “It’s not a table that you can just like, pick up or fold over,” said Alisha Shaik, Director of Public Relations for LPCSG, “A lot of stuff needs to be figured out.” Shaik also uses the room to pray daily and is an advocate
Source: 2014 Religious Landscape Study by the Pew Research Center
for it. Now that the motion of the table removal is the issue mainly of Maintenance and Operations (M&O) at the college, he’s mostly concerned about the language of the dedication. Buenrostro has other things on his mind, as well. He doesn’t think the space necessarily needs to just be for religious students, since he thinks it will be more accessible if it includes meditative practices. He doesn’t consider himself a religious person. He, in fact, said he thinks his parents might be “the Mexican branch of Catholic.” He does, however, meditate. “It tailors to or caters to students who don’t have a specific religion,” he says. Totah doesn’t think that’s how it will realistically play out, however. “The majority of the people are going to be Muslim,” Totah said with a chuckle, “I know it’s interfaith, but… it’s mostly going to be Muslim students.” In addition to the language and the table removal, Buenrostro’s other big obstacle is something that he has minimal control over: M&O. Buenrostro said he’s still trying to work this out, but it’s taking a long time because his requests keep falling to the bottom of the pile. The prioritization of what are labeled “academic requests” take priority, which have left the room repurposing on the bottom of the stack. In other words, Buenrostro is emphasizing that the conference room in 1643 is definitely just a temporary solution until a better option can be made available. Ideally, he says, the room should open when the campus opens and close when the campus closes, instead of when the student government members leave. The student government office, located in room 1643, closes at 5 and when no one is in the room to monitor, the prayer room also has to close. He is focused on making this space something much more permanent, much great-
7
er than just a meeting room that LPCSG uses sometimes for smaller group meetings. Until then, though, he’s just waiting for the green light for this meeting room to become a small shelter for those looking to congregate. It frustrates him that it’s taking as long as it is, and he’s not alone. Although it was his choice to take the time to rework the language of the dedication, Buenrostro has taken immense steps towards helping a community that he doesn’t even identify with– the faith-based student body. He believes that with more publicity, the room will become an integral part of Las Positas’ identity, much like it has on other campuses in California. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Totah is here all day. He works on the other weekdays, so when he’s here, he has to say his three midday prayers on campus. His choice location when 1643 is closed? Building 1000. He says he goes there because the bathrooms are clean. He has to wash up before he prays. It was recommended to him, he says. It bothered him that everyone prayed in a different corner of the campus. Some said the library, some said Building 1000, some said in their cars. Every answer was a blaring reminder that there is a need that is just not being met. He likes the warmth that the building offers, but sometimes the classes are loud, he says, and it’s difficult to focus. He doesn’t mind that people are watching because he says he likes to talk about his religion and teach others. However, his mindset isn’t necessarily the same as everybody else’s. Shaik used to have her friends watch her backpack and keep an eye out while she prayed in the parking lot. She felt unnerved, she says, because of the things shown in the news and the prejudice she fears others carry. The space that’s been made available, as makeshift as it is so far, is something Shaik is grateful for.
8 Campus Life
lpcexpressnews.com
Geology department builds new worlds in a digital playground By Timothy Cech @CECHTIMOTHY
aves of people crowded W the display. Bright, colorful and intuitive, it invited the
inquisitive minds to manipulate a standing box of artificial sand with little trowels. Aside from engaging the tactile senses, they were also subconsciously absorbing geologic concepts. As they built new hills and valleys, refreshed overlays of terrain illuminated and reconfigured, replacing the sand’s blank canvas with something seemingly alive. Where once there were exhumed holes and beige mounds, there were now lakes sloshing with water and vibrant colors highlighting red mountain peaks. Carol Edson, Las Positas College geology lab technician, first saw the high-tech sandbox at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, built low to the ground and surrounded by children. Even as an adult, Edson found the effect mesmerizing, like magic made real. It translated futurist writer Arthur C. Clarke’s philosophy, that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, into the language of computer code, digital projectors and the movement of a hand. The truth is, this alchemy is all augmented perception— experimented, documented and continually iterated upon online. As the software renders the landscape in the augmented reality (AR) sandbox, the project itself paints a picture of the digital frontier, where the synthesis of analogue and digital technologies is contrasted with organic human drives of play and imagination. And, it seems, not meant only for children. UC Los Angeles has one, and so too does UC Santa Barbara. Using resources posted on UC Davis’ official project website, hundreds of AR sandboxes have been built throughout the United States and abroad. The future is attainable, and comes with instructions. Now, the future has been constructed at the Las Positas College geology lab. In October 2018, a team of five LPC students and three faculty members completed a functional AR sandbox, a complement to geology department courses at Las Positas College, after 18 months of work. The finished AR sandbox superimposes real-time visualizations of topography, contour lines
Timothy Cech/Express Geology lab technician Carol Edson demonstrates the augmented reality sandbox in room 1824 on Jan. 28, 2019. The AR sandbox generates and displays real time projections based on formations in the artificial sand.
and flowing water onto low-dust particulate. Full-time geology professor Ruth Hanna said, students “can build in three dimensions. As they build it is going to constantly update the map lines in real time. It’s color-coded, so it’s very visual, very interactive.” As a user interfaces with the AR sandbox with plastic utensils, pushing sand into mountains and carving channels for rivers, the system generates and projects terrestrial alterations. Water flows into divots, and color delineates the flat little world’s new elevations, all while the physical user plays digital god. There is also a mode enabling the hand as a substitute rain cloud and, as it hovers, digital cerulean rain pours into the superimposed transparency. “What we have found is it’s this thing that people want to touch,” Hanna said. Mounted on an aluminum rail above the sandbox is a Kinect video game peripheral, which maps the sand, and a short throw digital projector, for casting the graphical imagery. A Linux-based computer runs open-source software developed at UC Davis and generates the geographic facsimile displayed on the sand. “It’s tech wizardry, not pure
magic,” Edson says. On May 6, 2012, a video demonstrating an AR sandbox was posted to YouTube by Dr. Oliver Kreylos, and has since gone viral with over 2 million views. Kreylos, with UC Davis’ W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences, helped develop this project to bolster environmental science learning objectives. A National Science Foundation (NSF) grant funded the project. Upon its completion, both the software and detailed instructions on how to build one were provided free on Kreylos’ website to anyone motivated to build their own. One viewer of the “Augmented Reality Sandbox with Real-time Water Flow Simulation” YouTube video was LPC professor Hanna, and she wanted one. “At the time you couldn’t just buy them. You had to build them,” Hanna said. But she had little time to spearhead such a project. Having interacted with one already, geology lab technician Edson offered to get the LPC build on the ground running, and, with assistance from physics instructor Travis White and physics lab technician Andrew Lozano, recruited students from engineering club. “Because we’re a two-year
school, and this took almost two years to bring together, the number of students that started, contributed, and had to move on was half of the build team,” Edson said. William Kossow is one of only three students, including Yosef Mirsky (now attending SJSU) and Ashley McDaniel (now attending UC Riverside), involved in the build from impetus to conclusion. The other two official members, Kyle Minchokovich and Zero Hanami, left LPC prior to completion. Still, there remain more unlisted members who helped along the way. “One of the very first students to help us but then ended up transferring too soon was Calvin Smith. He had seen this on the internet, and as an art major it spoke to him. We marry art and science,” Edson said. The project required four separate grants, including an LPC Foundation Cycle Grant, to cover the Sandtastik artificial sand, the BenQ MW632ST projector, the woodworking material and the custom computer built by Kossow. The Kinect was donated. On the market, a pre-built one costs $6,800 to $9,000 through companies like Topobox, but Edson and the team knew it could be done for much cheaper, with-
out sacrificing any aesthetic value or performance hits. “The whole system that these students built, we did for about $1900,” said Edson, “I told them, I won’t build with you. I will cheer you on, and I will get you all the money you need.” LPC’s AR sandbox took a year and a half to construct and calibrate into the fully functioning tech toy it is today. It isn’t without peculiar technical difficulties and more work maintaining, troubleshooting and operating the device remains. It is known to operate strangely, always requiring a full system reboot in order to power up. Since powering down risks burning out the uninterrupted power supply, back-up power remains a challenge in the event of a schoolwide power outage. Such surges have the potential to fry any of the three primary operating devices (between the projector, the computer and the Kinect), so Edson always has contingencies available. “It makes me feel pretty good that we have electrical protection, dual projectors, an extra hard drive (and) an old monitor at home,” she says. The LPC build, as well as the AR Sandbox itself, exemplifies a remix mindset— an innovative game of leapfrog happening within the internet message board hive mind. True to a playground mentality, inquisitive minds continue to collaborate, dismantle and reconfigure these components, always building upon the iterative nature of the project. Since the software is opensource, modifications are in development by developers, engineers and digital artists. Recently, University of Iowa physics and astronomy students were awarded an NSF grant to develop a model incorporating gravitational force, dubbed the “Gravbox.” Once completed, they intend to release the software free-to-use, just as Kreylos had for the sandbox. Kossow is also imagining his own iteration of this technology. “I’m thinking about the equivalent of a drone that can map, but as a robot with wheels. Something that can map out rooms,” he said. As with any colorfully advanced tech toys, almost indistinguishable from magic, the sandbox is another intersection on the path toward the next technological breakthrough, whatever that may resemble. It only requires a curious mind to build on uncharted digital shores.
CAMPUS LIFE 9
MARCH 13,2019
LPC lacks student involvement due to lack of efforts
Archives/Express Two women participate in Club Day in the fall of 2018 at Las Positas College. Club Day is a day where clubs recruit new members in the quad of the LPC campus.
By Arion Armeniakos @ARIONARMENIAKOS
here has been an ongoing issue at Las Positas T College regarding the coopera-
tion between the college and its students. There are a number of instances that come to mind when considering this failed cooperation.
Keeping the school open during the alleged active shooter on campus incident or again keeping the school open during the Camp Fire wildfires despite a petition signed by over a thousand people to have the school closed due to poor air quality. Also, the introduction of the proctoring system, “Proctorio,” that took place with-
out much discussion between the board and the students. Those are some examples of the strained student-college communication that exist at Las Positas and one can only wonder, why that is the case? The Las Positas College Student Government Director of Public Relations, Alisha Shaik,
linked the struggles in studentcollege communication to the student’s reluctance to participate in events that take place around the college. “I believe that the lack of student participation does have an effect on student voice because it makes it harder to gather student opinions,” Shaik said. “The lack of this cohesive student participation makes it a lot harder to get students informed about things like Proctorio among other issues within the school,” Shaik added. Well, why is it that students don’t get involved within the college? Shaik hints that it may be related to the sense of community, or rather the lack of it around campus. “It’s difficult to get students to participate in clubs, surveys and events due to the lack of community feeling within the school,” Shaik said. “Often, students take classes at LPC and then go home (due to various reasons) and therefore there is a lack of that school spirit that can be seen in many high schools for example.” “As we’ve seen in high schools, what motivates students to attend club meetings, events and provide feedback is the school spirit and therefore, encouraging students to represent and support LPC’s sport teams in games and celebrating successes in sports and beyond would rally more
people to be more involved in the school,” Shaik added. The lack of that school spirit, community feeling as mentioned by Shaik is evident and can be seen particularly during on campus events like the club days during which all of the college’s clubs gather in the quad to present their work and recruit more people to sign up and participate. During those events, students rarely stop by club tables on their way through the quad and show a general lack of interest in what is going on around campus. This general lack of interest to take part in college activities could be a major factor in the college board choosing to overlook student voices during their decision-making processes, realizing how difficult and unlikely it will be that students take part. Shaik believes that is the case and suggests that perhaps the only way that will change is if the stigma regarding community colleges only being pit stops on the way to a four-year college is changed. “I believe that a place to start is to advertise and encourage clubs and students to show up at school sport events, to build school spirit,” Shaik said. “But beyond that, encouraging students to get involved requires a deconstruction of the stigma against community colleges.”
From Livermore to Livermorium: LPC and LLNL collaborate again By Thiha Naing @LPCEXPRESSNEWS
t was packed elbow-to-elbow in the I spacious lecture hall of 2420. Some audience members had to kneel on the
floor, while the overflow needed to view the seminar telecasted in another room. With pens and notebooks in-hand, students and faculty awaited keynote speaker Dr. Dawn Shaughnessy to illuminate their minds with the history and advances of the elements of the periodic table. On Mar. 7 2019, Dr. Dawn Shaughnessy, a nuclear physicist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, hosted a lecture called “Behold Livermorium: A Quest for New Elements” to a sold-out crowd at Las Positas College. The timing and place could have never been more coincidental, the United Nations declared 2019 as The International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. It was in the very city of Livermore that a new element called Livermorium was created. For the first time this semester, and for nine years running, the collaboration between LLNL and LPC has seen esteemed scientists, engineers and research technicians share their stories, experiences and research with young minds. All these seminars and valuable meetings are accredited
to Nan Ho, Dean of Science, Engineering, Math and Public Safety as she envisioned this way if to inspiring students and build ingconnections with one of the most advanced research labs in the entire country. “She (Nan Ho) wanted to bring the weekly seminars she got to attend at LLNL while on sabbatical to the campus to foster a culture of science inquiry and research,” says Adeliza Flores, chemistry faculty and guest speaker for Behold Livermorium. “In addition to helping organize these talks and coordinate with LLNL folks, it was also Nan’s idea to bring science and engineering students for the opportunity to interact with the speakers before and after.” Flores started the seminar with a shout out to all the participants important to this event, as well as a brief history on the periodic table. Flores would later give the microphone to Shaughnessy, she was ready to give the attending students a lecture like none other. Shaughnessy, initially having trouble talking due to her allergy medicine, propped open her PowerPoint and began her lecture on the history of the periodic table. She went back to the brilliant minds who innovated the table of known elements on Earth, and up to the present day of how radio-activity surrounds and plays a role in our lives and to the future of how
cutting edge technology has paved the way for new man-made elements, one of which was Livermorium. While giving her talk, Shaughnessy proved to be an excellent lecturer. She not only garnered the crowd’s undivided attention, she was also quick to use humor to rile the crowd. One of the most memorable was during a technical issue when a picture of her daughter and “Harry Potter” actor Matthew Lewis was shown on the projector, causing widespread laughter from the crowd. “She was able to connect the audience with a very complicated process in a way that made the underlying physics and chemistry very approachable,” said Patrick Darrow, President of the Engineering Club and attendee. “How do they keep finding new elements?” Shaughnessy asked at the end of the presentation. Her answer: “I don’t know.” While technology has been advancing, it is also getting harder to break down elements into smaller elements. However, as long as one little atom among countless others can make its way through a particle accelerator, there is always room for development. With this, Shaughnessy’s finale was greeted by a flurry of applause and a session of questions and answers with attendees still curious for more.
Timothy Cech/Express Dr. Dawn Shaughnessy, a nuclear physicist from Lawrence Livermore Naitional Laboratory discusses history of the periodic table.
“This talk reinforced how much there is yet to study and discover in science, from probing very small particles like atoms to exploring the outer reaches of the universe,” says Flores, “Most importantly, I think it is great to get and keep students excited about science through these seminars.”
10 Campus Life FIRESIDE CHAT WITH HARIEL COLCOL
Updates with the VP of LPCSG
lpcexpressnews.com
NOSY NICKEL
Five questions. Five answers.
What show on Netflix did you binge watch embarrassingly fast? The Vampire Diaries with my daughter. That was horrible.
What is your favorite season? Why?
Jean O’Neil-Opipari LPC-CTE Prof. Specialist
Archives/Express
To my Las Positas College constituents, During my time at Las Positas College Student Government (LPCSG), I have never once forgotten the responsibility we have to address salient issues and promote student equity and representation. I am proud to announce that along with our services of providing testing materials, hosting student events and continuing programs such as The Market, we are now opening up one of the first Interfaith Safe Spaces at Las Positas College. Located in the Student Life Office, room 1643, this designated room shall be open to all students to safely practice their beliefs. The room is open to individuals of differing faiths or none at all, ultimately providing a place for meditation, contemplation, or prayer. As we settle the logistics of the room, feel free to stop by the Student Life Office for more information! Furthermore, LPCSG is currently hosting their elections for the Executive Board Positions for the upcoming LPC 201920 academic year. LPCSG is a great opportunity for students to build their college experience, professional experience, advocate for student equity and rights and participate in the many opportunities found at LPC. The following positions are available for application: President, Vice President, Director of Legislation, Director of Events, Director of Communication, Inter-Club Council Chair and Student Trustee. Don’t forget to vote and support your peers! For more information, please follow the Election Schedule outlined on the LPCSG website. Along with elections and the
Interfaith Space, LPCSG is also commencing several lobbying projects in Washington D.C. and Sacramento. We are sending some of the most incredible people to undertake principal issues at conferences for the American Student Association of Community Colleges as well as for the Student Senate of California Community Colleges. Through these conferences, we will promote resolutions addressing the Green New Deal and green energy on campus, decriminalization of marijuana, immigration and the continuation of DACA, securing Net Neutrality, rising debts of student loans, workforce and employment for community college students and transportation and housing for community college students. With incredible opportunities to promote comprehensive reform, make sure to bring your concerns to LPCSG and get your voice heard! Through LPCSG, I had the opportunity to grow as an individual and become this catalyst for change. With many more projects underway, I am ecstatic to see where LPCSG shall be in the next few months. I also wanted to take some time to reflect and highlight the contributions women have made in our society. Happy Women’s History Month, and I hope everyone has an amazing day. Kind regards, Hariel Colcol Vice President, Las Positas College Student Government
What’s the best gift you’ve ever been given? My wedding ring.
Fall, because it’s not too hot and not too cold. It also has pretty colors.
Who’s your favorite cartoon character and why? Bugs Bunny because he’s so irreverent.
What is a weird fact about you? I am afraid to fly.
CAMPUS LIFE 11
MARCH 13, 2019
‘Drowsy Chaperone’ overcomes glitches
Emily Forschen/Express The cast of “The Drowsy Chaperone” performs “Toledo Surprise,” a full company number before intermission on March 9, 2019. The opening weekend of the show concluded on Mar. 11. The show will continue to run on Mar. 15-17.
By Emily Forschen @EMILYSCHEN
prayer is spoken as the A lights are still down, as the show begins. The unnamed nar-
rator of “The Drowsy Chaperone” explains to the audience what he prays as he enters a theater. He asks, begs, even implores God to not let the actors break the fourth wall. He pleads, asking that the actors keep the audience out of the show. Ironically, when the lights come up, the narrator (credited as “Man in Chair,” played by Kyle Burgess) immediately addresses the audience, breaking the fourth wall before the audience has even had time to build it. The show opened on Mar. 8, 2019 and ended its opening weekend on Mar. 10, 2019. Directed by Ken Ross and produced by Titian Lish, “The Drowsy Chaperone” is a delightful, expertly satirical
show staffed by a brilliant cast and a nimble crew. The show runs cohesively, but still faces a few setbacks. Ultimately, “The Drowsy Chaperone” performs what it preaches. It takes audiences through the whimsical worlds of classic musicals, teasing old clichés through outlandish characters and commentary from Burgess’ narrating character. It is as close to a perfect satire as can be achieved, with the caricatured settings and plot wittily accented by the quick dialogue and playwithin-a-play structure. The sets are complex, with multiple set pieces being flown in on the rig, a seamless way to transform a stage if a crew is able enough. Luckily for LPC, this one is. Directed by Ken Ross and produced by Titian Lish, the show is overall a charming experience that suffers from only one major setback– it is as close to a perfect
satire as can be achieved for a very particular audience. For the frequent viewer of a Broadway show, it plays as a 90 minute wink and a nudge to the tropes that shows often fall into. For the more reluctant theatergoer, it might play like more of an extended feeling of sitting right outside of the joke. The show opens with Man in Chair who is feeling what he describes as “blue,” the setup as he dives into the escape he gets from a good live show. He represents a modern audience, remaining on stage throughout the entirety of the show, responding and quipping the way that a listener would. He begins to play the record of his favorite show, called “The Drowsy Chaperone.” In the show’s universe, the musical was released in the 1920s and features an ensemble cast. The story begins with a successful actress named Janet (Riley
Hyde) on the day of her wedding to a man she very recently met, named Robert, played by Taylor Hendricks. However, Janet’s producer, Feldzieg (played by Kody Forbes), doesn’t want her to give up her career, so he conspires to cancel the wedding. As you could infer, chaos ensues. Organized chaos. The ensemble cast structure enables each cast member to truly shine, and each one seizes the opportunity. Mathew Glynn is a standout actor as Adolpho, a dim-witted European seducer whose place in the show seems so absurd, it’s perfect. The facial expressions and ridiculous, overdramatic movement elicited bursts of laughter and applause from the audience mid-scene. Veronica La is another breakout with her debut principal role as Kitty, the up-and-coming actress desperate for Feldzieg to cast her as a replacement lead.
Emily Forschen/Express Riley Hyde takes the stage as Janet, a successful Broadway actress about to retire because of her impending marriage to Robert, played by Taylor Hendricks.
La’s fearless performance makes a barely likeable character on paper into a lovable, sympathetic one with her boundless energy. The show suffered from a few technical errors. At one point, a spotlight failed to follow an actor for nearly two seconds after the actor had walked away. On multiple occasions, the microphones cut out or had delayed entry, which were the only issues that took the audience out of the show. However, the errors did serve to underscore how incredibly complex the entries and exits of the dialogue was. “The Drowsy Chaperone” is a clever satire with many laughout-loud moments that many will read as a tip of the hat to classic theater and its shortcomings. This show will certainly be one you don’t want to miss. The show’s closing weekend will be Mar. 15-17, each show on 8 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday.
12 OPINIONS lpcexpressnews.com Celebrities should be held accountable
By Arion Armeniakos
EDITORIAL
Homeless students should be allowed to sleep on campus
@ARIONARMENIAKOS
C
elebrities should absolutely be held accountable for what they say and how they act on social media, purely because of the platform that they possess and the high regard that they are looked at by society. Whether it’s by choice or not, celebrities are more often than not looked up to as role models by many people, and mostly the youth who are very impressionable and therefore, celebrities should be held accountable to a higher degree than a regular person in regards to what they say and do on social media. Now, that’s not to say that they are not allowed to voice their opinions or live their lives, but also, they should not be surprised when the way they are judged is more magnified and if their actions are met with more scrutiny than a regular person’s due to their elevated platform. There have been instances in the past in which an athlete’s old tweets resurfaced from when they were kids. In those tweets the athletes often voiced opinions on topics that today more than ever, are regarded as controversial or touchy. In that case, despite it not being an excuse, it is more understandable when the person is given more benefit of the doubt as they were a child that was likely unaware of what they were posting on the internet. And of course, kids learn the rights from the wrongs as they get older and mature. But, there have also been instances when athletes have made derogatory remarks as adults and have been punished
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Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Comedian Kevin Hart was the latest celebrity put under scrutiny over his controversial social media posts.
accordingly. In England, two famous soccer players had their old tweets containing derogatory remarks towards the LGBTQ community resurface and different actions towards them were taken based on the ages when those tweets were published. For Mason Holgate, a soccer player of Everton, although his old tweets were met with a lot of criticism and scrutiny, no action was taken to punish him as he was 16-years-old at the time of the tweets. For Andre Gray, a soccer player of Watford, his derogatory remarks towards LGBTQ community resulted in him being suspended for four league games and being fined $33,000. Therefore, athletes or other celebrities who are adults and are consciously voicing their opinions or making remarks in regards
to those controversial or touchy topics, should be held accountable and rightly face repercussions. Of course, people can grow, change, evolve, all of those things. But the average citizen excuse is not being a child who may be unaware of what they are saying at the time. Adults who are consciously voicing their opinion or making a remark on a touchy subject and whatever they say, will be met accordingly by a reaction from the public. Another example of this instance is comedian Kevin Hart, who in 2009 voiced his opinion and made derogatory jokes regarding the LGBTQ community on social media. FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, GO TO LPCEXPRESSNEWS.COM
YOURSELF
The Bay Area is one of the most high cost living areas in the country. Minimum wage jobs here cannot support someone living on their own. In Alameda County, the current minimum wage is $11 and the current living wage for one adult is $17.47, according to MIT’s (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Living Wage Calculator. In a recent survey, over 57 California Community Colleges, 60 percent of student responses said that they have faced housing insecurity and 19 percent said they have faced homelessness in the past year. At the upcoming SSCC (Student Senate for California Community Colleges) General Assembly, one of the resolutions that is being proposed is “S19-A-R-04 Resolution of Overnight Parking.” In this resolution, student senates would encourage their college to provide overnight parking on an as-needed basis at their school. At LPC, there is a strict rule where your car cannot be parked on campus past 11 p.m. or you will get a ticket, unless you get a special permit for a conference or something related to that effect. If this resolution gets passed, it would be Las Positas College Student Government’s job to advocate towards campus safety because they are in charge of the parking. Instead of being worried that they will be fined or arrested, our students will be able to sleep in a safe environment. You may think homelessness doesn’t affect our students, but it does. That is why we have an entire office dedicated to helping students facing these issues. Obviously this isn’t a long-term solution to students facing homelessness or being at risk of being homeless, but this will at least help these students temporarily. Even if this resolution doesn’t get passed at the general assembly, we think that LPC should still implement it. In the values statement that LPC preaches, “Demonstrating civic, social and environmental responsibility,” this would be our college demonstrating their social responsibility instead of turning a blind eye to student issues. We as an Editorial Board feel that this resolution will highly benefit our students who are at risk of being homeless or are currently homeless. This would give them a safe place to sleep because there is always someone on duty at campus safety, even after hours.
Did you have a New Year’s resolution? How is it going?
My New Year’s resolution was to quit and it has not worked out for me as I still do it.
My New Year’s resolution was to develop better time management things and so far I have stuck to it as I have been trying to schedule stuff to in order to get things done.
My New Year’s resolution was to improve my grades in college and so far I am on track to do so.
My New Year’s resolution was to put more effort into all things family and college related and so far I have managed to keep myself in check.
I didn’t have a New Year’s resolution because I believe that if you wanted to change then why not change right now?
– Carl Aznoe
– Tricia Villanueva
– River Lee
– Naomi Hanan
– Chad Tichane