Issue 2 10/13

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PALO ALTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT PALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL 50 EMBARCADERO RD. PALO ALTO, CA 94301 NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE

PAI D PALO ALTO PERMIT #44

The Campanile

Vol. XCVII, No. 2

Palo Alto High School • 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301 • www.palycampanile.org

Monday, October 13, 2014

Conner Harden/The Campanile

Clockwise from bottom left: Guest speakers David Kelley, Shelby Coffey, Arianna Huffington and interviewer Kara Swisher will attend the ceremony hosted in the Media Arts Center (middle).

Media Arts Center to host Grand Opening

Series of educational events to be held at new media arts building to celebrate opening after four years of construction Maggie Rosenthal

staff writer

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fter four years of construction, the Media Arts Center (MAC) opened for use at the beginning of this school year. In celebration, the new MAC will have a series of events for its grand opening, from Oct. 16 through Oct. 18. “It’s a major grand opening for the largest media arts building for a high school in the country,” Esther Wojcicki said, a journalism teacher at Palo Alto High School. The first event is to be held on Thursday, Oct. 16. It will include a

viewing of the building as well as a panel of guest speakers who will be interviewed in front of the audience. The speakers include Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post, David Kelley, founder of IDEO and Shelby Coffey, the vice chairman of the Newseum. These guest speakers will all be interviewed by Kara Swisher, an American technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal and an author and commentator in the Internet. Attendees of the event will then have the opportunity to ask questions to any of the speakers. The question and answer portion of the evening aims to make the event more interactive for guests.

This event is invitation only, and invitations were extended only to those who were directly involved with the building of the facilities, because of the limited space available.

This grand opening is a celebration of the efforts of many people to show the power of journalism as a curriculum for the 21st century.

Esther Wojcicki Journalism teacher

“The people that were invited are people that are somehow responsi-

ble or directly impact the program,” Wojcicki said. On Friday, Oct. 17, an open house will be held for for anyone in the community who is interested in coming to see the completed facility. “[The event is] especially for parents, alumni and taxpayers,” Wojcicki said. “The idea is to give people an opportunity to see the building and to meet [Paly’s publications’] staff.” Actor and Paly alumnus James Franco will be in attendance at the final event of the grand opening on Saturday, Oct. 18 and will be debuting his artwork at the event. The paintings feature student life at Paly. These pieces will be hung all around the Paly campus including in

the MAC and in the library on the day of the event. “We are very grateful to James [Franco] for doing all of this wonderful art for us,” Wojcicki said. The event will be open to all students for a fee of $5 and adults will be charged $20. There will be screenings of the Global Lives Project, a film project that aims to show the lives of individuals in different situations around the world in five to fifteen minute videos. They will be shown in the MAC during all three days of the opening. The link for the online ticket store can be found online at palycampanile.org and palyvoice.com.

Oregon senator visits Paly, discusses Internet safety Ron Wyden calls roundtable discussion with technology leaders, speaks on government surveillance policies Coby Parker

Editor-in-chief

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regon Senator of 18 years Ron Wyden visited Palo Alto High School on Wednesday, Oct. 8, to talk with students and the community about issues facing the nation, namely the mass surveillance by the government of the technology industry. Wyden called a roundtable discussion with technology leaders to discuss a type of surveillance known as “dragnet”, which collects information from all sources on all people, those accused of terrorism as well as lawabiding citizens. Wyden’s collaborators in the roundtable included technology giants from companies such as Google, Facebook and Dropbox, among others. As head of the Senate Finance Committee as well as a member of the Intelligence Committee, Wyden hopes to use his influence

to end the practice of dragnet surveillance. “Silicon Valley, like the Silicon Forest in my home state of Oregon, is the launching pad of the new digital economy,” Wyden said. “In the digital economy, the American Brand merits innovation, open communication, economic opportunity and American value, except when it doesn’t. It’s clear that the global community of internet users doesn’t like to be caught up in the US surveillance dragnet any more than the American people. They’ve embraced American technology, but they don’t like it being turned against them in a way that doesn’t increase anyone’s security.” The roundtable guests, Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google, Brad Smith, the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Microsoft, Colin Stretch, General Council of Facebook, Ramsey Homsany, General Counsel of Dropbox

and John Lilly, a Partner at Greylock Partners all agreed with the premise set forth by Wyden that the type of surveillance enacted by the government hurts business. “You are entitled to the legal protection [of your information] under our constitution and our laws,” Smith said. “We will not rebuild trust [with foreign consumers] until our own government fundamentally recognizes that moral principle. That’s the reason we absolutely need Congress to [provide reform].” Before the roundtable, Wyden sat down with Paly publications for an interview on his policies and his time at Paly. The senator voiced his support for a transparent college application process in which colleges publish all information, including their graduation rates, average debt upon graduation and average income cont. on palycampanile.org

Dami Bolarinwa/The Campanile

Senator Wyden discusses technology and the safety of its utilization in government.

Homecoming theme announced; School board candidates call for improvements in diversity and special education in schools Spirit Week structure changed ASB sets date and theme for Homecoming dance; Candidates discuss minority achievement gap; agree on the need for improvement in special education and more focus on socioeconomically disadvantaged students Spirit Week rules adjusted to be more inclusive Rachel Farn

staff writer

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alo Alto High School’s Associated Student Body (ASB) set a date and theme for this year’s Homecoming dance and has begun preparing for Spirit Week, which starts on Oct. 27. ASB plans to make changes to include more students with different interests by planning a variety of games.

he Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) school board candidate meeting held on Sept. 20 discussed the need for more efforts towards the improvement of programs and resources dedicated towards minorities and students in special education. The debate was hosted by two Palo Alto parent groups that specifi-

cally represent the interests of special needs students and students of color. All five school board candidates— Jay Cabrera, Ken Dauber, Gina Dalma, Catherine Foster and Terry Godfrey — agreed that there needs to be advancements made to address the achievement gap, to ensure that every student receives the same opportunities and to hire a more diverse staff. Although as a whole, all PAUSD schools excel in test scores compared to other schools in the state and

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Like previous years, this year’s homecoming is set the weekend after Spirit Week on Nov. 1. ASB has decided that the theme of the dance will be a black and white ball. The dance will be formal, and students are encouraged to wear black, white, silver or gold. This year, ASB is focusing on inclusion and planning activities for Spirit Week that will welcome stu-

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Masha Konkov

staff writer

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country, the district’s population of Hispanic and African-American students fall behind other minority students in California. This is referred to as the achievement gap, which observes the imbalance of educational performance in groups of students, primarily defined by their socioeconomic status and race. “What we have here with the

School board

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