OHLONE COLLEGE
THURSDAY
MONITOR
APRIL 10, 2014 Vol. XLVII No. 6
Ohlone College Scene Shop provides a blast from the past. See story on pages 4 and 5
FREMONT, CA OHLONEMONITOR.COM
ASOC
Student government holds open house With elections approaching, meet-and-greet held in Building 7 MONITOR STAFF
LOUIS LAVENTURE / TAM DUONG JR. / MONITOR
Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Jason Manella, an Ohlone College student, won the 2013 Army Non-Commissioned Officer of the Year award.
LOUIS LAVENTURE Editor-in-chief You might think you have little in common with the 2013 Army Non-Commissioned Officer of theYear, but you’d be wrong. He’s a student at Ohlone College. Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Jason Manella picked up a slew of awards last year, including Army Non-Commissioned Officer of theYear. He also became the first reservist to nab the Army Best Warrior Competition in November, making his student status even harder to fathom. “You put down schooling for a year and a half,” Manella said. “It’s not easy to pick up some of those fundamentals that are supposed to carry over from semester to semester.”
Coming from a very military, trained standpoint where everybody does what they’re supposed to be doing, to showing up where kids are complaining about a test being on Monday. Manella, 27, of Hayward has served two tours of duty in Iraq – from 2005 to 2006 and from 2008 to 2009 – and one in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012. Manella started attending Ohlone in 2006, after his first tour of duty. Those long absences from school to serve his country have made for a tough transition process for the awardwinning reservist. “Going from combat to calculus is tough,” Manella said. “Coming from a very military, trained standpoint
where everybody does what they’re supposed to be doing, to showing up where kids are complaining about a test being on Monday.” Ohlone College Board President Garrett Yee, a brigadier general in the Army Reserve, was impressed with Manella. “Jason is a remarkable young man,” Yee said. “The transition process that he continually goes through and his commitment to everything that he does are truly inspiring.” Yee can relate to the pro-
cess; he is set to deploy to Kuwait for a tour of duty in May. Manella said Ohlone’s Veterans Affairs Office and many of his professors have helped make his transition back to civilian life a much smoother one. “I am extremely blessed to have Ohlone College help me on the way,” Manella said. “It’s not easy being a veteran student at Ohlone. A lot of duties that you have cause you to end up missing a lot of school.” Manella grew up in Fremont and joined the Army Reserve the summer before his senior year atWashington High School. He graduated from basic training in 2004 and shipped off to Iraq the following year. “I was 19 years old, so I wasn’t even legally old Continued on Page 3
The Associated Students of Ohlone College held an open house Tuesday and Wednesday, the week before student government elections will be held. ASOC members and candidates met one another, and other students, during the two-hour meet-andgreet Wednesday in Building 7. “This is an open house where everybody gets to know who their student government is, and we also get to know who the students are,” ASOC candidate Bert “Bubba” Manzo said. Polling will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, in the cafeteria on the Fremont campus and in the lobby on the Newark campus. Students also can vote online on the ASOC website at www.ohlone.edu/org/ asoc/onlinevoting.html. The ASOC’s role is to act as a liaison between the college administration and the student body, and expresses students’ opinions and concerns. For more information, contact Student Activities Coordinator Renee Gonzales at rgonzales@ohlone. edu or 510-659-7311.
FRONTAGE
Bids received on Fremont campus frontage proposal
LOUIS LAVENTURE Editor-in-chief The Ohlone College Board of Trustees received two written bids and one oral bid to develop the frontage property along Mission Boulevard, by Wednesday’s deadline. Clark Realty Capital LLC and Carmel Partners each submitted a written bid, and Carmel Partners later submitted an oral bid as well. The deal involves nearly 15 acres of land along Mission Boulevard at the front of the
Fremont campus. All of the deals included a lease of the property for 60 years with an option to extend the lease for another 30 years. The base rent to the college would be $600,000 a year paid in monthly installments for the duration of the lease. Clark Realty would develop nearly 300 multifamily units of rental housing and 20,500 square feet of retail space, while Carmel Partners would develop 314 housing units and 25,000 square feet of retail. Financially, the two writ-
ten bids were identical. After the two written bids were presented, Carmel Partners representative Mark Garrill submitted an oral bid offering “an additional $200,000 rent in month 60 in the form of a one-time cash payment.” The bids met with a mixture of positive and negative reactions during the public comment portion of the board meeting Wednesday evening. “This is something that will be great for not just Continued on Page 3
RYAN PARCHER / MONITOR
The Ohlone College Board of Trustees accepted bids to develop the frontage property on Mission Boulevard on Wednesday evening.
2
NEWS
MONITOR APRIL 10, 2014
On the Road with
JACC
NEWS BITES Slam poet to deliver keynote
MITCHELL WALTHER
Faking it for real So a while ago I went to APE. For those who don’t know, that stands for the Alternative Press Expo. For those who still don’t know what that is, basically it’s a place where a lot of inde pendent artists (comic books, novels, crafts, etc.) get together and put on a huge convention of their stuff. It’s held in two large warehouses, packed out booth after booth. Now at first it was overwhelming. I’m not a huge comic book guy, though I know my fair share of trivia and I own my fair share of comics. But I was still in for a huge learning curve. After the shock and culture overload finally passed, I realized just how inspiring the convention truly was. Here were thousands of people, all together for one reason: to show off their passion. They had their dreams on display for all of us. We fuel our dreams with an interesting gasoline. A mixture of hope and passion pushes us forward, giving us the grit to go for the goal, and the wide-eyed wonder to believe we can do it. This world is so large, and to believe that you are going to be one man to get what you want is crazy, yet each one of us does it, again and again, generation after generation. Life doesn’t pander to us, it’s hard and grueling. And life is never fair; thankfully it’s not our master, though. We aren’t forced to take what comes at us. We can turn it around and build our problems into solutions. So don’t disbelieve in yourself, or you’ve already failed. It’s crazy just how far confidence can take someone. I guess it’s the idea of faking it until you’re doing it for real.
TAM DUONG JR. / MONITOR
This photo of “Jesus Christ Superstar” performer Cliff McCormick won Monitor Photo Editor Tam Duong Jr. a first-place award for feature photo at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ State Convention in Burbank, held April 3 to 5.
Monitor wins nine awards at state event MONITOR STAFF The Monitor newspaper won nine awards last weekend at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges’ State Convention in Burbank, including four first-place finishes and the coveted General Excellence award. The convention, held Thursday through Saturday at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, brought together 545 delegates from 43 community-college newspapers around the state. Students participated
in workshops, meetings and on-the-spot contests for writing, photography, design, social media and other skills. Prizes also were awarded for work in student publications. In the Publication Contest, Photo Editor Tam Duong Jr. won first place for feature photo, and Duong and Editor-in-chief Louis LaVenture won first place for inside-page layout. In addition, LaVenture won second place for sports game story, and LaVenture and Duong won third place for front-
page layout and third place for informational graphic. Competing in on-thespot contests, Duong won first place for sports photo and second place for news photo, and LaVenture won first place for sports writing. JACC is a nonprofit educational corporation dedicated to communitycollege journalism in California. Students and faculty from around the state take part in two regional conferences and a statewide convention every year.
OHLONE FOR KIDS
Summer classes offer fun, learning SHANNON SORGE News editor Registration began April 1 for the Ohlone for Kids Summer Program and Youth Sports Camps. The summer program, which includes both academic and special interest courses, is designed for students in grades 4 through 11. The program, being held for the 25th year, runs as three sessions of courses from June 23 through July 31 at Mission San Jose High School and Newark Memorial High School. Teachers from local K-12 districts and colleges around the Bay Area will run courses on everything from math to nutrition and culinary arts. The program encourages students to participate in hands-on activities that can spark interest in fields such as science or engineering. So far, one of the most popular courses is the
LEGO Robotics, languages, and animation and filmmaking classes. In addition, the Ohlone College Athletics Department is offering Ohlone Renegades Youth Sports Camps for children ages 6 to 18 in grades 1 to 12. For more information, go to www.ohloneforkids. com.
Correction Coding Academy Using Scratch, which teaches students the basics of computer programming. More advanced students can take coding classes in Python, Java, PHP and MySQL. Another hit is The World of Minecraft course, which will teach students the basics of the popular Minecraft program, and create, explore and problem-solve with storyboarding and level design. Other courses include Fun with the Ukelele,
Pete Noga’s name was misspelled in a story and photo caption in the April 3 issue, about students from Ohlone and local high schools who came to Brenda Montgomery’s class to discuss their experiences with bullying.
Slam poet Javon Johnson will be the keynote speaker April 18 at this year’s Communication Colloquium Series on the Fremont campus. Johnson, an assistant professor of communication studies at San Francisco State University, earned his doctorate in performance studies from Northwestern University. He was back-to-back national poetry slam champion in 2003 and 2004, and has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, BET’s Lyric Café, and TVOne’s Verses & Flow. Johnson has written for Our Weekly, Text & Performance Quarterly and The Root. He co-wrote a documentary, “Crossover,” which aired on Showtime, in collaboration with the NBA and Nike. The event will be from 1 to 2:30 p.m. April 18 in the NUMMI Theatre. Admission is free.
Lecture to discuss South African caves Dominic Stratford will present some of the latest research being conducted at the Sterkfontein Caves in South Africa during a free lecture Friday on the Fremont campus. The lecture, titled “Sterkfontein Caves: The fossils, frustrations and fun,” is sponsored by Ohlone’s Math, Science and Engineering Division and the Associated Students of Ohlone College. It will be from noon to 1 p.m. in Room 3201. Stratford, a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, is the research coordinator at the Sterkfontein Caves, 50 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. The caves are the richest source of Australopithecus fossils in the world.
Easter egg hunt Wednesday The Student Activities department will hold an Easter egg hunt from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday at the bottom of the stairs in front of Building 1 on the Fremont campus. The event will include free prizes and photos with the Easter bunny. – Compiled by Monitor staff
NEWS OHLONE COLLEGE
MONITOR
MONITOR APRIL 10, 2014
3
SINGING AND SIGNING
STAFF: Editor-in-Chief: Louis LaVenture News editor: Shannon Sorge Features editor: Louis LaVenture Sports editor: Louis LaVenture Opinions editor: Louis LaVenture Photo editor: Tam Duong Jr. Online editor: Shannon Sorge TAM DUONG JR. / MONITOR
Advertising coordinator: Sujin Park
Top: Laura Green, left, plays piano to accompany students
in Janet Holmes’ voice class during a sign-along and booksigning Tuesday afternoon in the cafeteria on the Fremont campus. The students signed copies of a new music book for Ohlone vocal students, “11 Folk Songs Plus One,” arranged by Green. Left: Holmes sings during the sing-along and book-signing. Below: Students from Holmes’ voice class sign copies of “11 Folk Songs Plus One” in the cafeteria on the Fremont campus on Tuesday afternoon. The book includes photos by Monitor Photo Editor Tam Duong Jr.
Monitor Staff: Erika Heredia Magdalena Jurys Sruthie Kondamoori Alizaib Lodhi Hung Ngyuen Ryan Parcher Adviser: Rob Dennis Printer: FP Press
California Newspaper Publishers Association
Journalism Association of Community Colleges
General Excellence Fall 1994 Fall 2000 Fall 2004 Fall 2005 Fall 2013 Spring 2014
CONTACT US: Offices: Room 5310 Call: 510.659.6075 E-mail: monitor@ohlone. edu Read: facebook.com/ Ohlone.Monitor www.ohlonemonitor.com
Tricky transition for student veteran Continued from Page 1 enough to drink a beer,” Manella said. “I was 130 pounds or something. I was rail thin. I looked like I was 12. … It was scary. You’re young. You don’t really know what you’re walking into.” Manella, a civil affairs specialist with the 445th
2012, Manella survived multiple improvised explosive device blasts that led to concussions, dizziness, confusion, disequilibrium and short-term memory loss. His training for competitions grew out of the exercises he did as part of his rehabilitation.
To d a y, Ma n e l l a h a s returned once again to Ohlone, where he is majoring in accounting. After recently returning from a trip to Washington, D.C., Manella is back on campus, trying once again to make the difficult adjustment back to the student lifestyle.
Frontage property bids reach board Continued from Page 1
Opinions expressed in the Monitor are those of the respective authors and are not necessarily those of the staff, the college or the Associated Students of Ohlone College.
Civil Affairs Battalion, worked to bring schools, electricity and other services to civilians. “It’s definitely rewarding,” he said. “Seeing a child who has electricity or clean drinking water for the first time ever. Definitely an amazing moment.” In late 2011 and early
Ohlone College, but for the city as we l l ,” f o rmer Fremont planning commissioner Rakesh Sharma said. “I urge you
to approve this.” While several speakers supported the development deal, others opposed the proposed frontage changes. “It is the same two bid-
ders from Day One,” said John Weed, who served on the Ohlone College Board of Trustees for 34 years. “The deal is for double the amount of time that the buildings will last. You’re
going to be left with some real junk on the front of your campus.” Trustees voted to table their discussion of the bids until their next meeting on April 16.
4
MONITOR APRIL 10, 2014
FEATURES
Ohlone College Scene Sh
Photos by Ta Story by Ali
The Scene Shop at Ohlone College the college’s theatrical productions a props, scenery, you name it – is bas “Students get to work with differe wood,” designer Fred Alim said. “Yo Alim and Matt O’Donnell, the ent instructor, are currently working w Connected,” in which dancers exp social solitude. The walls in the show will be cov how electronics are packed in boxe The show, whose artistic director 8 p.m. April 24 through 26. Tickets
Top: One of the walls in the Ohlone College Scene Room is filled with items from past performances throughout the years. Left-middle: Director of Entertainment Design and Technology Matt is too bright. Bottom-center: Scenic artist Stephen Wathen works on a painting in the Scene Room on Wednesday for an upcoming Ohlone College performance. Bottom-right: Theatre Arts Te
FEATURES
MONITOR APRIL 10, 2014
hop brings fantasy to life
5
am Duong Jr. izaib Lodhi
e’s Smith Center is where the sets for are produced. Everything – lighting, sically done here. ent kind of tools, but primarily with ou can learn welding skills as well.” tertainment design and technology with students on a show called “Displore how technology has created
vered with Styrofoam, representing es. r is Janel Tomblin-Brown, will be at cost $12 to $15.
t O’Donnell, right, shows Ohlone College student Fernando Ornelas how to program lights. Bottom-left: Ohlone College student Chris Higareda helps look for “hot” areas where the lighting echnician and Designer Fred Alim stands in his office Wednesday in the Ohlone College Scene Room, surrounded by props.
6
OPINIONS
MONITOR APRIL 10, 2014
Student government leaves me wanting more
LOUIS LAVENTURE Editor-in-chief All I want my student government to do is advocate for things that I think are important. The two most important things to any college student, not just myself, are tuition and book prices. Associated Students of Ohlone College President Mat Weber told me last semester that ASOC could not change these things. “Everybody pretty much has the same idea of what they want changed,” he said. “The stairs, book and school prices, but we just don’t really have the ability to change those things.” I am not naïve and I completely understand that ASOC members can’t change these things on their own. However, there are some things that they can do to initiate the process. I am tired of seeing Pinterest parties and cupcakes in the cafeteria when we should be seeing picket signs and protests in the Quad. What Weber and the rest of ASOC does not understand is that if you want students involved in a passionate, non-superficial way, then you need to go after things that really mean something and are more than just a fun time. If ASOC actually organized or rallied against book and tuition prices, people would eventually take notice. A little bit of pressure can really go a long way, and the higher-ups who actually make the pricing decisions would definitely feel the pressure from a united front of students at one of the best community colleges in the state of California.
LOUIS LAVENTURE / MONITOR
Members of the Associated Students of Ohlone College held a meet-and-greet in Building 7 at the Fremont campus on Tuesday and Wednesday. The ASOC elections will be held on April 15 and 16, and voting can be done online or in person at both campuses.
Don’t get mad. I get it, I really do. Student government can’t lower tuition or book prices, and this is a fact. However, picketing, protesting and a united front of students would encourage a lot more support toward ASOC, not to mention possibly cause a reaction from some of these entities that are responsible for the pric-
CAMPUS COMMENT
ing of units and textbooks. I have attended countless numbers of events put on by ASOC, all of which are fun, yet there seems to be a lack of understanding that you don’t have to change things. Most students know that ASOC can’t change pricing, but what we do not know is why they do not advocate for a cheaper cost of school-
ing for us. So if you can’t lower the cost, that’s fine, but show me that you hear me. Fight for what I want and I guarantee the amount of support and involvement in student government would multiply exponentially. For openers, you might get more students voting than the 278 who cast ballots in the last ASOC election. If ASOC were
at least attempting to apply pressure, it would feel a lot more like a governing body and less like a group that throws social gatherings for Ohlone College students. Hopefully, the new elected officers will listen to their constituents and create a passionate following for the Ohlone student government.
Will you vote in the ASOC elections? Why or why not? RAYMUND CHIU Electrical engineering
“That’s this year? Probably not. I don’t know enough about it to make a decision” PHWAY AYE Accounting
“No. I’m not interested, either” CORY CALL Psychology
“No. I don’t know where it’s at” FRANK ANUMUDU Computer science
“Naw. For some reason I’m just like, ‘Naw.’ I’m not interested enough”
KAMONI WELLS X-Ray
“No. Just no interest”
SPORTS
MONITOR APRIL 10, 2014
7
SWIMMING
Ohlone team dives into championships
TAM DUONG JR. / MONITOR
Members of the swim and dive teams from City College of San Francisco, Ohlone and Las Positas College look on during a meet at the Fremont campus last month. The Ohlone College swim and dive team participated in the Coast Conference Championships over the weekend at Chabot College in Hayward.
8
MONITOR APRIL 10, 2014
BASEBALL
SPORTS
Renegades fall to West Valley
Got Me Feeling Some Type of Way with LOUIS LAVENTURE
Experience
HUNG NGUYEN / MONITOR
Ohlone College hurler Jaramy Jacobs fires a strike to catcher Josh Egan during a 7-6 conference loss to the West Valley College Vikings on Tuesday on the Fremont campus.
Vikings end Ohlone’s threegame winning streak, 7-6 LOUIS LAVENTURE Editor-in-chief Riding a three-game winning streak, the Ohlone College baseball team had reason to be confident. The visiting West Valley College Vikings put a damper on that confidence, though, leaving Fremont with a 7-6 Coast Conference triumph on Tuesday. The Renegades are now 22-7 overall and 11-6 in conference competition. West Valley improved to 17-12 overall and 9-7 in conference competition, keeping them mathematically alive in the postseason hunt. Next up for Ohlone is another conference home game against the visiting Gavilan College. Gavilan comes in to the contest 11-18 overall and 5-12 in conference play. “Losses are tough to deal with, but it is a lot easier when we all keep each other up and positive,” catcher Josh Egan said. “We play close games. We win, we lose it doesn’t matter as long as we do what we know we are capable of and stick together like the team that we are.”
HUNG NGUYEN / MONITOR
Renegade Brock Pradere makes it safely back to first during a 7-6 loss at home to West Valley on Tuesday.
The University of Connecticut men’s basketball team did a great thing for college basketball on Monday evening. They won the National Collegiate Athletic Association National Championship, defeating the University of Kentucky 64-60, becoming the first No. 7 seed to capture the title. Huskies point guard Shabazz Napier bucked the rising trend of leaving school early to cash in with the National Basketball Association, and it paid off in full. Napier guided his team to the ultimate prize, cementing his legacy and that of fairly new coach Kevin Ollie. Ollie is no stranger to the bright lights, having played in the NBA for more than 10 years with a plethora of teams. Ollie replaced legendary Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, whom Ollie also played for. He spent years as a journeyman guard, most notably backing up Philadelphia 76ers legend Allen Iverson, and came close to a championship before falling to the Los Angeles Lakers, led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. The experience of having an NBA veteran – primarily a bench player, yet productive and reliable – and a senior point guard leader with a ton of talent has proved to be priceless. It was a recipe for success from the day it began, and it all came to fruition Monday night. These two factors really seem to have enabled the Huskies to capture a title. While I don’t believe that you need to be a former pro or a senior to win, I firmly believe that it helps.Experience over no experience is always going to be a major contributing factor between wins and losses in my book. Freshman-laden Kentucky was not able to overcome the experience and leadership of the newly crowned 2014 college basketball champions. While the one and done mentality is becoming more relevant every year, it was nice to see a senior rewarded.