OHLONE COLLEGE
MONITOR
THURSDAY OCTOBER 22, 2015 Vol. L No. 5
A shark researcher will speak in Newark on Friday. Read the story on Pages 4 and 5.
FREMONT, CA OHLONEMONITOR.COM
Lawmakers introduce affordable textbook bill BRIANNE O’SULLIVAN News editor
IVAN VARGAS / MONITOR
Engineering Club members demonstrate robotics to middle school students during the Night of Science on Saturday in Newark.
Hundreds attend Night of Science AGNES MADRIAGA Features editor An estimated 500 people packed the Newark campus for “A Night of Science” on Saturday. The free event, which started at 6 p.m. and ended well after the scheduled 9 p.m., included a variety of interactive science exhibits, manned by volunteers. “This is so awesome,” said Jennifer Jovel, an Ohlone staff member who came with her husband, Rafael Padron,
a seventh-grade science teacher in Fremont, and their two children. “It’s amazing to see all the students.” The first floor had many interactive exhibits while the second floor had the Lego and robotics displays. Two companies were invited to display their products: Octave, a 3D printing company, and Compuchild, which taught using Lego blocks. A snow cone stand, a cotton candy maker and a pop-
IVAN VARGAS / MONITOR
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Students volunteer to help “mad scientists” with an experiment.
Earlier this month, a group of legislators introduced the Affordable College Textbook Act to the U.S. Senate and the House. The bill, introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin, Al Franken and Angus King and Reps. Rubén Hinojosa and Jared Polis, aims to lower textbook prices by creating a grant program that encourages the growth of the “open textbook.” Open textbooks are available to students, teachers and anyone else who would like to use them online and in print, for little to no money, because they fall under an open copyright license. Many educators consider them to be the best approach to combat high textbook prices. “One thing is clear: the traditional publishing market isn’t delivering the materials students need at prices they can afford,” Ethan Senack, a higher education advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said in a statement. In recent years, college affordability has become an ongoing and heated debate. However, the skyrocketing cost of textbooks has often been overlooked in the conversation. “When buying a textbook becomes a barrier to education, you know something has to be changed,” Hinojosa, D-Texas, said in a statement. “And that’s exactly what we want to achieve with the Affordable College TextContinued on Page 3
Professor speaks about Artist explores population growth `Paradox of Masculinity’ AGNES MADRIAGA Features editor
SAM CAMPBELL Opinions editor Professor Nicholas Chivers, in conjunction with the Communication Department, gave a talk Oct. 9 titled “The Paradox of Masculinity.” In his hourlong presentation, Chivers spoke about masculinity as a social construct, the struggles that face individual men, and male privilege. “As a social construct, we all play a part in creating
masculinity as an identity category, its challenges, privileges, and power alike,” Chivers said. Chivers explained how masculinity is something that really is not ingrained in our identity, but is a part of the way we perform our identity. A good portion of his talk revolved around Paul Kivel’s “Act like a man box,” a diagram showing how we push masculinity on others. On the outside of the box are examples of verbal and Continued on Page 3
Kevin Chen describes his work as a “collection of drawings and sculptures investigating the rapidity of human population growth and how it manifests itself.” The pace of population growth has expanded exponentially in the last decade, he explains, and he plans to do a similar project in the future. Chen’s project, “Scale Up/Scale Down,” will be on exhibit in the Louie-Meager Art Gallery in the Smith Center on the Fremont campus until Nov. 4. A reception and artist’s talk was held Oct. 12 at the gallery. Chen’s use of miniature buildings comes from his interest in architecture. He finds that architecture is reflective of the culture that it comes from. Although the miniature buildings may seem familiar, he states that all the structures are purely fictional with some Continued on Page 3
LAURA GONSALVES / MONITOR
Kevin Chen’s artwork is on exhibit until Nov. 4 at the Louie-Meager Art Gallery.