monitor
ohlone college
ohlonemonitor.com
Vol. XLV No. 2
Fremont, California
#ocmonitor
February 28, 2013
Transfer Chinese New Year Parade Online rules bullying change affects associate students degree programs By LOUIS LAVENTURE News editor
By MANIKA CASTERLINE Senior editor
The process of transferring from a community to a CSU is going to become easier, thanks to two new degrees options that are being rolled out to students across the state. Officials from the California Community Colleges and the California State University informed student journalists from across the state on Feb. 20 on the progress of the degrees being implemented. SB1400 is a bill that requires community colleges to offer associate degrees for transfer in popular majors, the Associate in Arts (AA-T) or Associate in Science (AS-T). It promises to streamline the transfer process for the 22 most popular majors and candidates might receive a GPA boost in their major, according to the information website that has been created to increase knowledge about the degrees. “[It would] bump the degree student even if another student has the same credentials,” said Ephraim Smith, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer for CSU. “The initiative aimed at making our transfer system better,” said Deputy Chancellor of Community Colleges Erik Skinner. According to Ohlone Academic Affairs Vice-President Jim Wright, Ohlone has four Chancellor Office-approved degrees in communication studies, mathematics, psychology and sociology. Degrees in business administration, English and kinesiology are in the pipeline for approval. Faculty is aggressively pursuing degrees in anthropology, geography, history, music, philosophy, physics and theater. The Chancellor’s Office plans for 80 percent of degree majors to be approved by fall 2013 and by fall 2014 be at 100 percent degree major implementation according to Skinner. For information about these degrees, visit adegreewithagurantee.com.
LOUIS LAVENTURE / MONITOR
Performers dazzled the crowd at the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco on Feb. 23. See story page 5
Solo performance portrays struggles of sex and race
CELIA FREIRE/ MONITOR
Thao Nguyen, a solo performer, acts scenes from her show “Fortunate Daughter” on Feb. 22. Nguyen’s work is inspired by her life experiences as she focuses on social issues suh as sexual orientation and race. See story page 3
Remember when bullying meant someone taking lunch money? With the advent of the Internet and social media websites, bullying has taken on an entire new meaning. Literally. Cyberbullying is a fairly recent term that has been introduced to the human lexicon primarily because of sites such as MySpace and Facebook, where this practice is commonly used. According to a 2011 survey done by Google, 72 percent of the people surveyed admitted to either cyberbullying or being the victim of cyberbullying. People can log in and say whatever they want to pretty much whoever they want with few repercussions because of the gray area created by our constitutional right to freedom of speech. Some Canadian college students decided to take action against cyberbullying by creating a Facebook compliments page, which is only for positive and uplifting comments. “The original compliments page that was started in Canada has over 4,000 friends and more than a thousand compliments,” said Shairon Zingsheim, associate vice president of human resources and training. “There is a real gray area when it comes to free speech that borders on hate and bigotry.” Ohlone Vice President Jim Wright tagged Zingsheim to head a group of faculty members to look in to this and see if it was something that is possible to do here at Ohlone College. Cyberbullying has been linked to several suicides worldwide, including some here in the United States. According to Bullyingstatistics. org several suicides have been linked directly to cyberbullying through social media websites. The page would create a safe haven for students as well as faculty. “We can have all the laws we want about anything but until you really get people to understand, things will never change,” Zingsheim said. Cyberbullying is an issue even here on campus where Continued on Page 2