President’s office has new art on walls – Page 5
Entries in Valentine’s art contest – Page 5
Softball dominates Mission – Page 8
Fremont, California
Vol. XXXVI No. 5
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Enrollment stabilizes after last year’s dip By MORGAN BRINLEE Staff writer
Sally Bratton and Matt Martinez are fully prepared for Valentine's Day: armed with roses, condoms, and each other. Photo by Wayne Chow
Enrollment rates for Ohlone College’s Spring 2006 semester are flat-lining. On Feb. 6, the census date for all full-length semester classes, enrollment was reported as being down .34 percent from this time last year considerably less ‘ I think than one point. However, enwe will rollment data make from the 15-week our tar- long semester gets...’ classes has not yet been reported, --Ron and is expected to Travenick possibly increase enrollment rates from that of last year. The 15-week semester classes do not reach their census date until Feb. 24. “Enrollment at Ohlone for this year appears to mirror last year and we are on our way to meeting our targets for the year,” said Director of Admissions and Records Ron Travenick. Measuring enrollment is more than just counting the heads of students; enrollment is determined by comparing the current year’s
number of full-time equivalent students to the number gathered at the same time last year. “Overall for the year I think we will make our targets, but understand that we are doing all we can to meet those. We’ve been working hard all year to make those targets and it seems like it’s paying off,” said Travenick. After a huge drop in enrollment last year, faculty at Ohlone began to brainstorm ideas on ways to raise enrollment. The number of online classes has doubled since last year, a waitlist option was added to web advisor, learning communities have been built to help students and the number of 15-week semester classes was increased, all in an effort to improve enrollment. Additionally, Ohlone will be moving to a 16-week semester next fall in an effort to not only raise enrollment, but to please students overall. “Right now we are going to try to grow next year [enrollment] to the tune of about 2 1/2 percent,” said Travenick. Last Friday, Travenick presented the 2006 enrollment report to the College Council, and is expected to present the report again to the Continued on Page 3
low-cost birth control options, and they are completely anonymous,” said Wendy Espitia, “And we also offer free HIV testing. “If you guys come down and get tested you get a five dollar gift certificate to places to eat like Starbucks, Jamba Juice, In and Out.” Martinez continues to go around from school to school - from middle schools to high schools, teaching
students about safe sex, birth control and abstinence. “It’s a little embarrassing sometimes and intimidating,” said Martinez. He suggested visiting the clinic with a friend and taking a tour of the place. Teen Clinic Center hours are: Mondays-Thursdays noon to 7 p.m. and Fridays noon to 5 p.m.
Sex Responsibility Week starts with a bang By IRA LAZO Staff writer There’s a man with a gigantic condom on his head strolling about Ohlone. Most students have seen him around, sometimes wearing a predominant condom hat, sometimes conspicuously not, passing out condoms and spreading the word
about birth control and other such topics that are easily ignored day to day. The guy with the odd hat is Matt Martinez and he is a part of the team of people who had visited Ohlone College on Valentine’s Day, to promote Sexual Responsibility Week. The team is from Tri-City Teen Clinic Center, and is only one of the
three teenagers who were there to hold the fort and remind teenagers, that being safe is not only recognized only one day of the year. The booth in front of the library was stocked full of little goodies and freebies, such as free condoms, lubrication, small grab bags with both, and little key chains and information about the clinic. “The teen clinic offers free or
Digital privacy on campus a thing of the past? By CHRIS MARSHALL Staff writer With the latest news about search engines turning over individuals’ search results to the government, many are becoming increasingly concerned about their privacy in the digital realm. “The digital privacy of students is one of our major concerns,” said T.J. Webb, former applications and systems administrator for Ohlone College.
Webb said the school’s privacy policy, when it comes to personal documents and records stored by the college such as those held by Admissions and Records, is defined by the state. The policy of Admissions and Records, available at http://www.ohlone.edu/org/admissions/records.html, said “All official records of the College are held as confidential and no record of information regarding a student will be released without prior writ-
ten authorization from the student.” According to the policy, there are some exceptions, such as those pertaining to college officials as well as possible subpoenas. “We take a lot of precautions to uphold a student’s digital privacy,” said Webb. “However, we don’t have a specific policy for digital privacy.” According to Webb, on the wired networks where students can store files, only those Continued on Page 3