CO U R I ER Pasadena City College
Serving PCC Since 1915
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM
JULY 7, 2016 VOLUME 114 ISSUE 01
Metro ditches ITAP program John Orona Editor-in-Chief
PUNDITS CLASH AT POLITICON pg. 6
Budget threatens campus future
John Orona Editor-in-Chief
The Board of Trustees has adopted a new tentative budget for the 2016-2017 academic year, and although the over $159 million in appropriations is in line with last year’s historically high budget, the details may foreshadow future fiscal frustrations. In December the sales tax portion of Prop 30, the school-funding measure also known as the Educational Protection Act (EPA), will expire costing the college over $1 million. This is just the beginning of the affect the cessation of the EPA
will have on school budgets as the entire act is set to sunset the following year barring a voter extension. As Executive Director of Business Services Joe Simoneschi explained, “the difference of a little over a million dollars [between this year’s budget and last year’s] is primarily related to the reduction in funding because of the sales tax component of prop 30 ending in December of 2016.” Additionally, the school went without the $12.5 million in state-mandated one-time funds it was gifted last year. “[O]ur budget must accommodate an additional $12.4 million in ongoing expenses over and above
Katja Liebing/Courier Fireworks go off during the Americana Fest in Pasadena.
what we carried last year,” Simoneschi said. The largest driver of these new ongoing expenses is the recent deluge of new hires on campus. The over 50 new hires and their associated health and employer-mandated costs account for over $6 million in ongoing expenditures, which is almost half of the new expenses. To try to offset this, the school will reduce funding for adjunct instruction by nearly $2 million. “By bringing 50 new full-time faculty members onto our team, it is anticipated that we will not need to spend as much money on adjunct instruction during fiscal year 2016/2017,” Executive Director
of Strategic Communications and Marketing Alex Boekelheide wrote in an email to staff explaining the cost saving plan. “Division deans have been asked to adjust their teaching plans to reflect this reduction,” Boekelheide said. “We will also continue to refine our enrollment management efforts to ensure the most effective use of instructional funds.” According to Boekelheide, the college has also overspent on student workers and assistants for the last three years. In response, funding for student workers and college assistants has been extremely limited,
Brian Chernick Staff Writer
and documents, much of which were incorrect or out of date,” an overview of the new website states. “In addition, the site itself was using outdated technology, requiring a patchwork of fixes to keep it afloat.” The overview presented by the SCM team goes into detail on how the redesign required bringing together departments, students, faculty, and administrators to create a cohesive experience with accurate, up-to-date and accessible information. Alex Boekelheide, executive director of SCM, states that the need for an entire rethink was fueled by sentiments and criticism shared by students and faculty on the difficulty of navigating the now older website. “We had heard numerous times that the previous iteration of the site was difficult to navigate and hard to understand, with informa-
PCC’s popular Institutional Transit Access Pass (ITAP) program, which allowed students access to all Metro services throughout the semester for a one-time $30 fee expired May 31. In a Board of Directors meeting May 26 Metro voted to replace the old program, which was designed to increase student ridership while remaining revenue neutral, with the new Universal College Student Transit Pass (U-PASS) pilot program. Under this new program, possibly beginning Fall 2016, students with eight or more units will be able to purchase a tamper proof transit chip, like the ones used in regular TAP cards, that attaches to their student ID for no more than $43 per month. PCC is currently reviewing a plan to provide students with U-PASS chips for $85 per semester. The plan, although more expensive than the previous ITAP program, would save students with eight or more units over $200 every academic year and would save students with eight or fewer units over $600 every academic year compared to the
UPASS page 2
BUDGET page 2
New school website a decade in the making
It has been over a decade since Pasadena City College’s website had its last revision, but after four years of development the source for all things PCC received more than just a fresh coat of paint. The new site launched June 28 and boasts a new visual look, a refined user interface, additional features, new content, and a more responsive design that fluidly adjusts based on the size of the screen from where the site is being viewed. According to the department of Strategic Communications and Marketing (SCM), the overhaul included a massive cleanup, sifting through tens of thousands of pages and documents, getting the content up to date or, in a lot of cases, removed entirely from the site. “By Spring of 2016, the [PCC] website had over 33,000 pages
WEBSITE page 2
BADMINTON WINS STATE Badminton team struggles in doubles, excels in singles page 7
FRESH PASADENA PIZZA The Pizza Press offers pie right around the corner page 6
2 COURIER
BUDGET
Continued from page 1 with employees being terminated and only re-hired on a need basis, saving over $600,000. With a goal to save over $12 million, the school has also stopped interviewing for some positions that they were previously filling,
UPASS
Continued from page 1 monthly bus passes offered by Metro. The proposal would cost around $250,000 per semester for the school, however the plan does not fund the winter intersession, meaning the school may have to pay for students using the U-PASS chip during winter intersession at a cost of $0.79 per boarding. Additionally, students will have to purchase their pass by the third week of school in order to take advantage of the offer. Because U-PASS is a two-year pilot program there is flexibility to experiment with the parameters as the program moves forward,
WEBSITE
Continued from page 1 tion often stored in hard-to-find pages in obscure corners of the site,” Boekelheide said. “We looked at website analytics and user input to learn what information was sought by most users most frequently, and then worked on rewriting and redesigning pages to put that information in easy-to-find places.” While many students visit the website only to sign-up for classes, get their schedule and check email, many others found important information such as school events and how to acquire financial aid to be either difficult to understand, find, and in some cases impossible to use due to the lack of accessibility features for those who are hard of seeing. PCC’s in-house web team, in collaboration with creative agency Mackey Creative, condensed those 33,000 pages down to roughly 1,480 pages, revising outdated information
NEWS
“A number of open classified positions across the campus will be left unfilled, and some newly approved management positions will not be funded or filled,” Boekelheide said, which should save $2.7 million. There have been a few interesting positives, however, with revenues for programs like Workforce and Career Technical Education and Deferred Maintenance and Instruction
Equipment increasing by close to $4 million each. Although the budget is still tentative and may change, with these additional expenses and the perennial cost drivers of CALSTRS and CALPERS programs adding over $2 million in ongoing expenditures, future PCC budgets will need to be monitored very carefully.
including the possibility of lowering the eligibility requirement to just six units if the program does well in the first six months. Although the final price set by each participating school independently has not yet been determined, Metro has set a floor for the passes meaning they cannot exceed the $43 Metro charges for its traditional monthly Collegiate/ Vocational passes. The change from ITAP to U-PASS is a result of the initial program far exceeding its costs, according to Metro, which claims it must receive $0.74 every boarding to remain revenue neutral. According to Metro, with the ITAP program PCC paid on average just $0.28 per boarding in fiscal year
2014, and $0.27 in fiscal year 2015. The per boarding figures may be so low because students with ITAP were able to use their cards without restriction for the entire semester – on weekends, to the movies, at the beach – driving up boarding totals. Since the U-PASS applies to parttime students with eight or more students while the ITAP program was only available to full-time students, the increased ridership along with per boarding fees means the school likely far exceed the $200,000 it already spends from the Student Activity Fee to pay for Metro services. Associated Students board members will meet with Dean of Student Life Rebecca Cobb Friday to discuss the proposal.
and cutting obsolete or irrelevant pages, some of which had been around for nearly 20 years. Boekelheide also mentioned that much of the time and energy was focused on deploying a comprehensive content management system (CMS) that hopes to improve the workflow for faculty, staff and students in managing online documents, adding forms to different pages, submitting news bulletins and posts and features greater checks on the accessibility of the content provided throughout the website. Pasadena.edu has moved away from Adobe’s Contribute web publishing software to OU Campus, a system marketed as being developed specifically to meet the needs of higher education websites, developed by OmniUpdate. The costs for the development is said to be difficult to put an exact price tag on, according to Boekelheide, due to the work being completed by both PCC employees and outside consultants. The cost for outside consultants were met by budgeted college-funding lines
and were passed through regular contract approval processes. Boekelheide says that he and his team are happy with the results and that so far the feedback about the website has been generally positive. As of the time of this writing, the new site is not entirely working, as some links, such as the 2016-2017 Fall calendar PDF, return a 404 error stating the file could not be found, possibly due to the current migration to the new site. The overview states that they are working as quickly as they can to address problems and encourage users to report bugs and issues using the ‘Report a Website Issue’ link found on the bottom of the PCC website. In the meantime, the old website is still accessible in an archived form allowing students and staff to access features or files that are more readily familiar to visitors. The SCM states this is to help ease users into the new website, but they are confident that visitors will find the new site much easier to navigate and are planning to shut down the older site by the start of the fall semester.
we had about 30 or 35 faculty left,” English division dean Amy Ulmer said. In Ulmer’s department, there will be forty full-time instructors, as well as five new tenure-track English instructors. Tenure-track instructors are full-time employees that have four years to get granted a permanent position. In addition to the new dean hires, there was a change in the learning model from schools to divisions, which unfortunately left some departments without a dean. The Board of Trustees has switched the learning program back to divisions after an unsuccessful run under the schools model, which lasted less than three years. Under the schools program, the deans and faculty had to tackle a number of related subjects clustered under one “umbrella” in order to cater to the students’ needs. This won’t be the case under the divisions program; students can be at ease knowing they can go directly to the department in their respective field of study and get help. In turn, it will be beneficial to the deans because the “umbrella” is broken down into smaller departments, making it convenient for the deans
and faculty to engage with students due to their immediate needs. Terry Giugni is one of the new executive hires from Napa Valley College, who now holds the Assistant Superintendent/VP of Instruction position. He will be presiding over twelve division deans and their instructional operations. Giugni is looking forward to better understanding the culture of the campus, as well as increasing its popularity and making it a better college than it is now. “I want to know what made Pasadena City College such a great college… it has been a great college for many years, and I want to better understand that,” said Giugni. “I want to identify things that we have done well, and to improve and increase that so that we can be even better than we are right now.” Another one of the new hires for the dean position is Natalie Russell, as Dean of Language and ESL from Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada. “I would like to maintain the vibrancy and richness of the programs (Language & ESL), making sure that we have efficient use of resources… and I’m offering the right classes that students are taking.”
New full-time hires call PCC home Eric Haynes Staff Writer
At the end of the spring semester, the Board of Trustees hired a new batch of full-time faculty members, deans, and counselors. In addition, changes in the learning model from ‘schools’ to ‘divisions’ have immediately taken effect. There are close to 60 faculty members that currently hold positions with the school, including five deans, seven counselors, and three executives – all holding permanent positions. Some of these hires started last month, while others had their first day on July 1, 2016. There were deans that held these positions on an interim basis and then had to switch to new ones until all of the positions were recently filled permanently. The reason for this surge in numbers of faculty is due to a formula that the state uses, called the Faculty Obligation Number (FON). PCC is required to hire a number of full-time faculty (at least 75%) based on a number of students enrolled, among a number of things. “We didn’t have enough full time faculty, only because we had major retirement about a year ago where
July 7, 2016
OPINION
3 COURIER
July 7, 2016
Why the Sanders revolution Berned Out Amber Lipsey Staff Writer There are 124 days until the general election and while each major party has chosen their nominee, there is a small faction that refuses to give up the ghost for failed primary challenger Bernie Sanders. Sanders campaign, or as I like to call it, “The Little Revolution That Wasn’t,” was a textbook guide for what not to do when running for the nomination of the Democratic Party. His biggest mistake was his decision to discount the Democratic base in favor of white working class voters, who tend to lean Republican or Independent. In March, an article in The New Republic by Heer Jeet explains that Bernie’s “revolution” was “too white to win.” “Clinton is winning a multiracial coalition that includes large numbers of whites, African-Americans, and Latinos. Sanders by contrast is winning largely in states which are overwhelmingly white,” Jeet wrote. “One of the key divisions in American politics is that the Republicans are an overwhelmingly white party, while the Democrats are a multiracial one.” Broken down by demographics, Clinton consistently outpolled Sanders when it came to minority and female voters. Sanders only outpolled Clinton when it came to younger, non-partisan or independent voters. Sanders’ supposed path to the nomination with the white vote was further explained by Kyle Cheney in an article for Politico in which he wrote, “Sanders’ goal was to emerge from Super Tuesday with a viable comeback path. But it’s unclear how he envisions proceeding from here. His team has sketched a strategy that involves running up margins in the predominantly white states that have responded better to his message.” His campaign consistently ignored studies showing that the Democratic Party was not only more diverse and multi-cultural, but that this trend has also increased each year. He continued this tone-deaf behavior by discounting Clinton’s big wins in southern states. During an April debate with Clinton, Sanders remarked, “Look, let me acknowledge what is absolutely true: Secretary Clinton cleaned our clock in the Deep South, no question about it. That is the most conservative part of this great country. That’s the fact. But you know what, we’re out of the Deep South now. And we’re moving up.” This comment not only ignores that the south has a large population of the black democratic vote, but his comments about the south being conservative has no correlation in a primary election. His supporters touted the
COURIER Editor-in-Chief John Orona
argument that, “Clinton is winning in states that will vote red in the general election,” while ignoring that Sanders also won states that vote red in a general such as Idaho and Oklahoma. The problem here is that primary voters and general voters are two completely different electorates. Primaries are about voters within a political party voting for their own nominee. Discounting an entire section of the country in an election where you’re trying to win the primary is not a smart move. Sanders has never owned the fact that he simply did not sell his message well in the south, nor did he try and remedy the problem when it was brought to his attention. He decided that he didn’t “need” black voters, the very base of the party for whom he was attempting to become its nominee. His discounting of southern black voters is indicative of a candidate who clearly doesn’t know that he needs those voters for his “revolution” in order to flip house and senate seats, as well as governorships and control of statehouses. A smart candidate need only look at the state-level GOP obstructionism that affects people who need healthcare, abortion access and legal justice to know that discounting an entire section of the country as unnecessary is not the tactic of a serious presidential candidate. This wasn’t the beginning of Sanders problems with black voters. In late 2015 at Netroots Nation, he appeared before a crowd who began chanting “Say Her name,” a reference to Sandra Bland, whose recent death after being pulled over by a Texas cop was still fresh in everyone’s psyche. Sanders responded with, “Black lives of course matter. I spent 50 years of my life fighting for civil rights and dignity, but if you don’t want me to be here, that’s okay. I don’t want to out-scream people,” then pivoted to talking about economic inequality. Attendees took umbrage with his response, as not only white-splaining but also ignorance that black and white poverty occur at disparate rates. Sanders attempt to lump the consequences of structural racism under the banner of a simple
Serving PCC since 1915 Online Photo Editor Eric Haynes
Managing Editor Amber Lipsey
Lifestyle Editor Taylor Gonzales
Photo Editor Katja Liebing
Sports Editors Christian Rivas
News Editor Angelique Andrade Online/Opinion Editor Daniel Larson Online/Features Editor Timothy Mably
Staff Writers Kristen Luna, Hannah Gonzales, Eric Hayes, Ahmad Akkaoui, Grace Ting
economic issue was not well received and spurred the hashtag #BernieSoBlack on twitter. Sander’s campaign not only botched reaching out to the Democratic base, they also began peddling conspiracies of voter fraud and voter suppression in any state in which he didn’t win. Sanders and his supporters flooded social media with claims of the primary process being undemocratic and biased against him, with reasons ranging from closed primaries to superdelegates. Sanders is on record stating that he believed the use of superdelegates was undemocratic. However after the New York primary where Clinton won, his campaign manager stated that they would appeal to those so-called “undemocratic” superdelegates at the convention to overturn the will of the voters.
inform his supporters of this fact in enough time, then called foul when he lost both states. The final nail in the coffin of Sanders hypocrisy was his appeal to the superdelegates to clinch the nomination. Arguing that he was the more electable candidate over Clinton, Sanders urged superdelegates to switch sides, thereby overriding the will of the voters and hand him a nomination that he lost by every possible metric. Jamelle Bouie wrote in an article for Slate, “When he looks for ways to nullify Clinton’s popular vote and pledged delegate majority, when he touts his support among working-class whites and dismisses (predominantly black) Southern Democrats and their votes, Sanders is attacking the coalition that elected Barack Obama—the coalition that arguably made his progressive movement possible— whether he realizes it or not.” As if Sanders’ ineptly-run dumpster fire of a campaign wasn’t doing enough damage on its own, his supporters didn’t help him make his case by any means. In an article for the NY Times, Charles Blow wrote about the rise of what has come to be known as “Brocialists.” Brocialists are white, typically male supporters of Sanders who are self-proclaimed progressive liberals who put class issues over race and gender issues and have a habit of condescendingly explaining to black people why they should vote for him, and harassing Illustration by Katja Liebing them when they refuse. Condemning closed primaries, Typical comments from brocialSanders stated, “Today, 3 million ists range from, “Don’t you all know people in the state of New York Bernie is in your best interests?” to who are independents have lost their “Bernie marched with MLK, what right to vote in the Democratic or has Hillary done for you?” Republican primary. That’s wrong.” Blow described it as, “Tucked What he ignores is that each party among all this Bernie-splaining by makes their own primary rules and some supporters, it appears to me, has since the beginning. Choosing is a not-so-subtle, not-so-innocuous to register as an independent means savior syndrome and paternalistic that you are forfeiting your right to patronage that I find so grossly ofhave a say in another party’s primary. fensive that it boggles the mind that New York, as well as California, such language should emanate from also had specific deadlines in which the mouths — or keyboards — of to change your party affiliation if supposed progressives.” you wanted to participate in the Taking that point of view further, Democratic primary. Sanders camhidden beneath this “Bernie-splaining” is the not-so-subtle hint that paign dropped the ball and failed to
Staff Photographers Hannah Gonzales, Samantha Molina, Guadalupe Alvarez Faculty Adviser Nathan McIntire Photo Adviser Tim Berger Advertising Manager Daniel Nerio
The Courier is published bi-weekly by the Pasadena City College Journalism Department and is a free-speech forum. Editorials and comments are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the institution and its administration, student government or that of the Pasadena Area Community College District. The Courier is written and produced as a learning experience for student writers, photographers and editors in the Journalism Department.
black people “owe” white progressives a Sanders presidency as repayment or a “tit-for-tat” for voting in Barack Obama. The refusal of black voters to fall in line for their candidate has led to an all out temper tantrum from progressives, some so bad that they mirror the same insults and rhetoric that is typically seen from far right conservatives. These same brocialists proclaim that they will vote for Trump in the general election as a middle finger to the democrats who refused to roll over and give them what they wanted. This scorched earth style of politics is not indicative of what the progressive ideology is supposed to be, but rather of a spoiled, privileged demographic who would suffer the least, if at all, under a Trump presidency. Sanders truly believes that he started a revolution. The problem is, you cannot have a revolution full of people who need a revolution the least. His white base was really an uprising of white populism, people who desperately want to re-center white identity in the Democratic Party. This is why it was so easy for his supporters to throw their support to Trump. They believe that their lives and interests have come second to minorities and women, which ignores the fact that black people were left out of the New Deal for 25 years while whites moved to the middle class. Sanders, knowingly or unknowingly, built a movement of people who ignore the concerns of the Democratic base because they don’t appeal to the white working class, and he never condemned the racist, sexist rhetoric that came daily from his supporters who deemed black people or women “too dumb” to know what was in their best interests. He plowed ahead with only one thing in mind, clenching the nomination. The problem is he plowed over every demographic that he needed to achieve this, and has resorted to a spoiled, privileged temper tantrum, still believing that he deserves a nomination that he lost by every possible metric, and is on his way to Philadelphia to demand that mommy and daddy give him what he wants “or else.” What he doesn’t know is that his “or else” no longer holds any power. Clinton has officially clinched the nomination and only 8% of his supporters polled now say they will not vote for her. With the entire country having pivoted to the general election, Sanders is now the old curmudgeon left out in the cold. He had a chance to end this primary with dignity. Instead he chose his own self-interest, and his non-revolution is now in a pile of ashes, right next to his campaign.
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SCE
4 COURIER R
Ka Taylor Jenkins is eating onion rings while her dad annual Sierra Madre 4th of July Parade on Sierra M Monday, July 4, 2016.
Daniel Valencia/Courier Katja Liebing/Courier 7KUHH IRXQWDLQ ƓUHZRUNV DUH VHW RII LQ IURQW RI WKH 5LRōV IDPLO\ Anna and Bailey Cooper jump rocks in Sierra Vista Park after the annual home in Boyle Heights. Sierra Madre 4th of July Parade.
Residents greet eachother on Sierra Madre Boulevard during the annual Sierra Madre 4th of July.
Katja Liebing/Courier
Fireworks go off d
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Lieb Li e ing/Courier Katja Liebing/Courier Charlie, a participant in the annual Sierra Madre 4th of July Parade, takes a break in the midle of Sierra Madre Boulevard. Daniel Valencia/Courier $UPDQGR 5LRV OLJKWV Ć“UHZRUNV ZLWK D WRUFK LQ IURQW RI KLV KRPH LQ %R\OH Heights.
Kids watch the annual Sierra Madre 4th of July Parade.
uring the annual Americana Fest at the Rosebowl in Pasadena.
Katja Liebing/Courier
Katja Liebing/Courier A little girl is carried by a member of the local Search & Rescue team during the annual Sierra Madre 4th of July Parade.
Katja Liebing/Courier
FEATURES
6 COURIER
July 7, 2016
Politicon draws hardcore politics junkies Amber Lipsey Staff Writer
What do you get when you take pundits like Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, Sally Kohn and James Carville and put them in a room together for two days? The answer is not quite what one might think. Political junkies united at Politicon, a wonky nerdfest in Pasadena on June 25 and 26 with a blowout first day that included a one-on-one showdown between progressive CNN pundit Van Jones and conservative darling Ann Coulter. The event saw over 8,000 attendees over the two-day convention filled with people from every side of the political aisle, no doubt motivated by the current election year. Proud Trump supporters lined the halls wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats while Bernie Sanders supporters sported their “Feel the Bern” t-shirts. Despite the wide range of differing opinions, many of the debates and panels were very civil, with Ted Cruz supporters laughing it up with Hillary Clinton supporters in the seat next to them. The Jones/Coulter debate drew such a large crowd that it had to be moved to a bigger room to accommodate the overflow. The line of people snaked so far around the hallways that the event began 30 minutes late. Both debaters came out strong, though Jones was welcomed with a deafening cacophony of cheers, while Coulter entered to mild applause and boos. Coulter came out swinging, interesting enough, agreeing with Bernie Sanders. “Bernie Sanders is right to challenge Clinton on the corruption of money in politics,” she said. “Both parties are serving the rich and not serving the voters.” Coulter also echoed the belief that the recent Brexit vote would lead to Trump being elected president here in America. Coulter later received her usual “boos” when she wrong-
ly claimed that Cesar Chavez was the one who coined the term “wetbacks” to describe Mexicans crossing into the U.S. illegally. Jones and Coulter continued to debate immigration, the black vote and the upcoming election without ever coming to blows. Supporting panels and discussions also included a discussion about Brexit polling with FiveThirtyEight pollster Nate Silver, “How To Get To
rights and distance herself from the republican machine that she was previously the face of. “Why is Trump winning?” Palin asked. “Why do we see these floating heads still not grasping this movement? It’s so obvious. Voters are really sick and tired of betrayal.” She further took shots at the Republican establishment by calling them Republicans Against
Katja Liebing/Courier Lisa Hines, Jasmine Abdullah Richards and Melissa Harris-Perry during Black Lives Matter panel at Politicon in Pasadena on June 28. Mars” with scientist Bill Nye and a Saturday night comedy hour with Larry Wilmore, James Carville and SNL cast member Jay Pharoah. Sunday was another blowout day with the arrival of former Governor Sarah Palin. With one panel where she delivered a prepared speech to her supporters, and a second oneon-one with CNN’s James Carville, Palin used her time to stump for Trump, defend gun
Trump. “Or RAT for short,” she quipped. “They’re not all bloodsuckers, they’re not all bad .. I’m kidding, they are.” The tone took a somber turn later during a Black Lives Matter panel moderated by Melissa Harris-Perry. Panel members included Black Lives Matter LA members Dr. Melina Abdullah and Jasmine Richards. Richards has been hailed as a hero and political prisoner while facing four years in
state prison after she was convicted of a rarely used statute in California law originally known as “felony lynching.” Under California’s penal code, “felony lynching” was defined as attempting to take a person out of police custody. Jasmine was arrested and charged with felony lynching last September, after police accused her of trying to de-arrest someone during a peace march in Pasadena on August 29, 2015. Richards was openly emotional during the panel and received a standing ovation from the audience. Abdullah commented on the charges saying, “Her conviction is not only about punishing Jasmine Richards, but also is the lynching,” she said. “So it’s really disgusting and ironic that she’s charged and convicted with felony lynching, when the real lynching that’s carried out is done in the same way it was carried out in the late 19th, early 20th century, where it’s supposed to punish those who dare to rise up against a system.” Another much-anticipated debate happened between conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and CNN contributor Sally Kohn. While Kohn and Shapiro found common ground on their dislike of Trump, the debate finally heated up when the discussions turned to sexism, immigration and sharia law. At one point, moderator Jon Macks had to step in and ask both parties to refrain from personal attacks and keep the debate on topic. While things stayed tense throughout the hour-long debate, both parties shook hands at the end and took a photo together. The second day of Politicon rounded out with another comedy hour, this time with SNL alums Jay Pharaoah, Darrell Hammond and MSNBC’s Toure, which gave the perfect opportunity for everyone to come together after a day of tense debates and just laugh together.
Delectable pies served up hot off the Pizza Press ed ice cream sandwiches, beer on tap, and free pizza if they signed up online prior to the event. “We’re thrilled to be opening Students of PCC are spoiled this pizzeria in such an amazing when it comes to food options location,” said Weijun Jang, owner surrounding the school. In every of the Pasadena franchise. “There’s direction, one can find a burger already a great joint that fits selection of the budget of a dining options college student. in this area, and But how many we are so happy of those places to contribute are worth going to the variety back to after the of unique first post-final restaurants that guilt meal? Pasadena has to Around offer.” the corner of Dunham Colorado and hopes that her Bonnie is one location can of PCC’s newest strengthen ties neighbors, and to the PCC they are making community speheadlines with cifically; she is their Pulitzer pie even considering winning pizzas. sponsoring one Now nearing of the Lancers’ its sixth month sports teams. In open for business, The Pizza Samantha Molina/Courier the meantime, Press is quickly Publish Your Own Pizza from the Pizza Press in Pasadena on July The Pizza Press has done their becoming a fan 1. due diligence favorite due to annual Rose Parade takes place. On by making strides to build their its fun 1920s, newspaper theme and its grand opening on February 4, clientele. how fast the pizzas are “published” students were lined down the block “The Pizza Press has seven staff through their pizza press. to get a taste of the rapidly growing members that are currently students “Usually when you go to a franchise. at PCC, and has also partnered with normal pizza place, it takes about “We had the largest turnover The Animal Awareness, Armenian 20 minutes for the same size pizzas event for the grand opening,” said Student Association and The Salsa you’re getting here,” said general Dunham. “So out of all of the PizClub to do fundraisers,” wrote manager Camille Dunham. “As za Presses we actually had the most assistant account manager of BAM soon as it hits our oven, it takes 3 Communications, Brenda Manea, minutes and 45 seconds when it hits people come out to our location.” The inaugural event featured in an email. “The restaurant offers the oven and it’s cooked perfectly!” a “Great Pizza Giveaway,” where a discount on fountain drinks (30% The most popular pizza, according to Dunham, is the “Publish guests were able to enjoy handcraftoff) for all PCC students and staff
Christian Rivas Staff Writer
Your Own,” where r-eaters can hand-pick their toppings to make a one-of-a-kind pizza. Popularity hasn’t been an issue with The Pizza Press, considering its location on Colorado Blvd., the same street where the famous
members, and has a special where people can ‘tag’ The Pizza Press on social media posts to receive a free freshly baked chocolate cookie. While The Pizza Press offers free Wi-Fi to everyone, it’s easy to see how students benefit from this perk a little more by having a place to finish their homework while grabbing a quick bite to eat. One can also find a surplus of plugs for their devices both underneath the booths and on the walls around the restaurant. “The 2,400 square foot space
accommodates more than 50 guests and features several areas for students to study, such as a community table that is ideal for groups to gather and work on their homework and projects,” The Pizza Press stated in a press release. Whether you’re in a time crunch to get to class or looking for a place to hang during a long break, The Pizza Press is worth the subscription.
SPORTS
7 COURIER
July 7, 2016
From tears to triumph in state championships Grace Ting and Sage Murthy Staff Writers
The badminton team lost the 2016 California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) State Team Championship to Fresno City College (FCC) on May 12, despite cruising through the South Coast Conference (SCC) all season. However, Pasadena’s Rebecca Tzou placed first in the 2016 CCCAA State Individual Championship on May 13-14. Going into the CCCAA State Team Championship, the PCC Lancers had just seized the championship title of the SCC with a winning streak of 12-0. “Our goal was to win the State Championship this year as a team,” said PCC head coach Jennifer Ho. PCC’s top players, Rebecca Tzou and Sandra Maw, defeated FCC’s top players, Lucy Lor and Panhia Vang, in both singles and doubles. However, Fresno
was able to defeat PCC’s lower ranked players and the Lancers fell 11-10 at home. Fresno clinched their first statewide team championship title. “It was a tough game. I was playing more than 100 percent of myself,” said Maw. “My right thigh muscle was pulled and my toe nails were bleeding.” In the CCCAA State Badminton Individual Championship the next day, PCC’s Tzou and Maw were the defending 2015 doubles champions. Due to injury suffered by Maw, the duo did not get to play. Both Maw and Tzou were in tears. “I was really sad because I was really banking on doing a repeat of last year’s championship,” said Tzou. “It really hurt that I could not defend my title.” For the doubles finals, East Los Angeles College’s Jean Buenaflor and Serena Lieu defeated FCC’s Lor and Vang to win the double’s championship, 14-21, 21-11, 21-16. PCC’s pair of Eugenia Mendez and Ana Espinoza won the consolation doubles title, beating
De Anza’s YuYu Hsuan Liu and PanYue Liao, 21-17, 21-12. “I had to win,” Tzou said. “We had to win somewhere. We had been this close but we never got there.” Despite underperforming as a team, Tzou crushed her opponents and won the singles championship with a perfect 33-0 season. Tzou rallied to defeat Cora Tanuwidjaja of Irvine Valley, 18-21, 2110, 21-15. “This gold medal was not just for me. It was for my team and my partner Sandra, who was in pain,” said Tzou. “The gold medal was shared by my teammates and passed around.” Tzou’s teammates ran on to the court to bear hug her from every direction. “When Rebecca won the runner-up singles title last year, I knew that she had the chance to be number one this year,” said Ho. “In addition to skills and endurance training this year, we mentally prepared her to work under pressure.”
File photo by Guadalupe Alvarez/Courier
Kinesiology and health department names new dean
served as the head coach. With the help of a Junior College All-American, Miller turned a struggling women’s basketball team upside down. Her success at Hartnell College led to a full-time instructing and coaching position at Glendale Community College, which lasted almost 10 years. After talking to other coaches through the years, she decided to go back to school and get her second Masters degree, this time in Sports Management. In between teaching and coaching, Miller managed to make time for night classes at Long Beach State. She was one of the first graduates in the school’s new program. “I’d teach all day, have my practice, get out of practice at 3 o’clock and drive to Long Beach,” Miller said. Miller said her experience as a teacher made it slightly easier for
her at Long Beach because she felt like she knew what her teacher was looking for. After Glendale, Miller returned to Hartnell College to serve as the Dean of Kinesiology, Health and Wellness as well as the Athletic Director. She applied for the job at Hartnell thinking she wouldn’t get it in the end. “Well, what will it hurt? I can at least gain the experience of interviewing for it and it’ll prepare me for when I’m ready,” Miller said. After four years running Hartnell’s athletic department, she decided to take a similar position at Las Positas College, where she overlooked much more. During her seven years at Las Positas College, Miller was the Dean of Behavioral Science, Business and Athletics, on top of serving as the Athletic Director. She overlooked the academics of many separate divisions within the majors and “wore tons of hats.” As she settles in at PCC, she gets back to her passion, but she faces a new obstacle she isn’t used to: not being the Athletic Director. Miller believes that her relationship with Athletic Director Tony Barbone will be crucial to her success. “This is a new role for me. When I was at Hartnell, I was the dean and the athletic director. When I was
at Las Positas, I was the dean and the athletic director,” Miller said. “I don’t want to overstep my grounds, step on his toes, and cross into his job. For me, it’s a little bit harder because I’ve had both hats. I think Bones and I will work great together. There will be a lot of communication and a lot of trust. We both come with a lot of different types of experience.” As the dean, she will still oversee athletics, but not to the same extent as Barbone. Instead, she will focus on the academic side in making sure the department is compliant. Barbone said the hiring of Miller is great and it follows a successful formula from the past. “I think that this is all part of the college’s reorganization plan and it brings this department back into some similar structures of the past, where Miller will be the dean of the instructional part as well as overseeing athletics,” Barbone said. “That brings everything in-house, we are all in the same building, and it unifies a little bit. I think it’ll strengthen the camaraderie of instruction and athletics and how it comes together.” Her agenda, for now, is to get to know the faculty and student-athletes. She hopes to get their input on the department before she implements any changes. “I think the biggest thing is
getting here, getting to know everybody, and asking them what they want and where they see their program going while creating a vision with them instead of for them. I want to have a shared vision, not my vision,” Miller said. “We can do it better when we are all on the same page. I definitely don’t want to impose anything on anybody. I want to ask everyone where they see their program, where they see themselves, and where they see our department while seeing what the best way to get there is. I want to take a team approach to it.” One clear change she spoke to Barbone about recently is a change to the athletics website and trying to fit Presto Sports into it. Executive Director of Strategic Communication and Marketing Alexander Boekelheide, who is working on the changes alongside Sports Information Specialist Robert Lewis, said the changes to the site should be ready to go by the Fall semester. “Presto is a system that helps keep things more organized and revitalizes the site,” Boekelheide said. “It is a revamp on the contents side … It gets stats, highlights, and stories up quicker and is easy to use.” Miller maintains the idea that the student-athletes come first and she plans on attending as many sports games as possible.
cross country South Coast Conference Championships and the other left for another coaching position at East Los Angeles College. The lack of access to a proper coach is harmful to an athlete’s career, which was why PCC was eager to hire Innocent Egbunike, someone who could bring his experience and stability to a floundering team. More than 30 years ago Egbunike helped the Nigerian relay team win a bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics. He then went on to participate in several more Olympic Games and coach a number of athletes, including Angelo Taylor who won a gold medal in the 400 meter hurdles during the 2008 Olympics. Egbunike is now eager to see the cross-country team succeed in the upcoming season, but he knows that building a relationship between himself and his new team is first
and foremost. “We’re trying to reach out to everybody right now to make sure we establish that good foundation because that’s key,” said Egbunike. Egbunike has big plans for this season, including placing at state, but he also understands that it’s a process. Right now, Egbunike is focused on building a strong team of new and continuing athletes. “The future is bright, but right now we’re taking it step-by-step to get there,” Egbunike said. Egbunike’s concern for his athletes extends beyond the track. The former Olympian understands the value of a good education and is eager to see his athletes succeed in the classroom. “He’s a hard-working person and he looks out for the athletes,” former 1988 Olympian teammate and current PCC employee Grace
Apiafi said. Apiafi isn’t the only one eager to see Egbunike continue his coaching career at PCC. Keith Marshall was excited when his son Kalen Marshall, who is a track and field athlete, decided to attend to PCC. “When they hired this coach, coach Innocent, I was really so thrilled. I know that now not only do they have an Olympian on their hand who understands what it takes to get to the top, but he also coached the Olympics,” Marshall said. Egbunike participated in four Olympic Games as an athlete and then another four as a coach. His extensive record includes winning a silver medal in the 400 meters at the 1987 World Championships in Rome and working as the head coach of Nigeria’s Olympic team
for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Egbunike also worked for Mt. San Antonio College as an assistant coach from 1991 to 1995. However, Egbunike does not look to his accomplishments for recognition, but rather to his ability to give back. Egbunike started off playing soccer and if it weren’t for prodding from mentors and coaches he wouldn’t have begun a career as a track and field athlete. “I look back to when I was in college and what my coaches and instructors did for me, and to me it’s an opportunity to give back,” Egbunike said. “To give back to these young men and woman and to be able to help them reach their goals.” Egbunike’s hiring will be made official this month at the Board of Trustees meeting.
Ahmad Akkaoui Staff Writer
The newly combined department that was reorganized by school officials has been criticized publicly by student-athletes. In hopes of leading the department in the right direction, PCC hired Dyan Miller, who intends to make the department more inclusive. Miller started school at Moorpark College where she played basketball and noticed that’s where she was most comfortable. From Moorpark, she transferred to the University of Nevada, Reno before changing her mind and going to Chino State, where she graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in Communications and Media Studies with the goal of becoming a sports broadcaster. However, just before graduating, she realized coaching was her true passion. She continued her schooling at Chino State and finished with a Masters of Arts in Kinesiology for Teaching and Coaching, a degree she was more alined with. After a few years teaching and coaching at different levels with various schools, she got back to where her passion was: community college athletics. While her first stint at Hartnell College in 1995 only lasted one year, she changed the culture of the women’s basketball team when she
Photo contributed by Dyan Miller
Former Olympic medalist hired as new cross country coach
Photo by Hannah Gonzales/Courier Hannah Gonzales Staff Writer In less than a year the cross country and track and field team has gone through two head coaches. One was terminated before the
LIFESTYLE
8 COURIER
Nightmarket transforms Santa Anita Park
Samantha Molina/Courier Melty Cheese Pork Buns from Nikuman-ya Steamed Buns made at the 626 Night Market at Santa Anita Park on Saturday. Taylor Gonzales Lifestyle Editor Santa Anita Park was once again transformed into the largest Asian-themed night market in the country as the 626 Night Market celebrated its five-year anniversary. Dozens of live performers, a vast array of Asian culinary selections, and crowds as far as the eye could see were among the festivities as the 626 Night Market raged into the late hours of the night this past weekend. A stage stacked with talent throughout the weekend held performances from local artists and DJs including the Top Shelf Brass Band, Michael Barnum, and DJ Ladidadi to name a few. Crowd favorite Brandan Ly performed a medley of acoustic covers where the entire audience sang and swayed along as he took on hits by Drake and Christina Aguilera and put his own spin on them. Ly had never performed for such a huge event, and said he could
feel his nerves taking over, but no one in the audience could tell as he effortlessly sang Ed Sheeran while playing his guitar. Ly found out about performing at the Night Market through an Instagram post stating they needed performers. Recalling looking out into the crowd Ly referred to the audience as “Amazing and heartwarming.” One member of the amazing audience, Joel Lopez, traveled all the way from San Fernando Valley to attend the Night Market. “As always Brendan killed it,” Lopez said of Ly’s performance. The entire Night Market was lined with booths selling accessories, clothing, art, and a multitude of other Asian culture trinkets. Booths such as Spirit Spa Soap, Succulent Heaven, and Beyond Party Supplies had lines of people checking out what they had to offer. One of the most popular booths was The Animal Box, which sold custom t-shirts with food related expressions on them.
July 7, 2016
Samantha Molina/Courier Chris Ouk, WikidCanvas, paints at the 626 Night Market at Santa Anita Park on Saturday.
“Oh kale yeah!” “I’m all that and dim sum.” The main reason people were flocking to the Night Market was the food. From The Enseymada Project and its butter buns to Ramenology with its squid ink ramen, there were treats for every type of Asian-food enthusiast. Doicissimo Bakeshop was selling French Macaroon Ice Cream sandwiches to the masses with unique flavors including Circus animal and French toast. Miister potato had what seemed to be an endless line of people waiting to get their hands on a stick with a potato strung around it. Food trucks offering diverse dining from funnel cake to lobster provided an alternative to the dozens of Asian-themed food stands The later the night got, the longer the lines grew, and the harder it was to find anything or anyone you were looking for. This year’s event covered a smaller amount of the park grounds, causing lots of traffic jams and frustration between people
wondering where one line started and another line ended. The area near the carnival games was a little more spread out, as kids were playing Bank a Ball and tossing ping pong balls into floating cups hoping to win a giant minion stuffed animal. The booths selling original artwork were another huge part of the Night Market. One booth that seemed to be drawing the most attention was the booth of Noah Sturm. Sturm described his 3D shadowbox artwork as “pop culture mash-ups and references,” saying the “ideas just come to me when I see something I think is funny.” Sturm wasn’t the only one who found these references funny, as people crowded his booth to get a glimpse of his shadowboxes featuring lovable characters from well known movies and TV shows such as The Simpsons, Star Wars, and The Lego Movie. The 626 Night Market was quite the celebration over the weekend, bringing out thousands of people to
experience a night of Asian-themed culture. Its five-year anniversary boasting enormous crowds showed how big the event has grown over such a short amount of time, but also revealed areas that could use improvement, such as space The 626 Nightmarket has events coming up in August and September as well. For more information visit www.626nightmarket.com.
Taylor Gonzales/Courier
A giant red cube placed at the entrance of the 626 night market.
Pastry chef opens cafe to satisfy Pasadena’s sweet tooth
Samantha Molina/Courier An assortment of muffins available at Moyo in Pasadena on June 30. Angelique Andrade Staff Writer Since its grand opening nearly four weeks ago, Pasadena’s newest cafe Moyo has the potential to become one of the city’s several renowned sweet spots. The cakery/cafe is slowly but surely building a glowing reputation with its additive and preservative-free delicacies, as well as its peacefully picturesque atmosphere. Moyo’s owner, Grace Pham, prides herself on the quality food she serves to her customers. She offers a wide variety of cakes, cookies, macarons, pastries, tarts and cupcakes; all made onsite at the cafe with fresh and seasonal ingredient, causing the menu to often rotate. There is also an appealing array of organic
coffee and tea, which come all the way from Guatemala and are delivered on bike by Bicycle Coffee, a fair trade delivery service. Before opening her own cafe, Pham was making her way as a well-to-do pastry chef at various luxurious locations, such as the Montage Hotel in Laguna Beach. Having lived in Pasadena for several years, she came back to the city to start her business. As a past resident, Pham has a special place in her heart for Pasadena, which she expresses through her catering to multiple local school fundraisers and weddings. The name Moyo comes originates from Pham’s cultural background. In Korean, it means to gather, encompassing all that Pham intended her cafe to stand for. She envisions it as a serene spot in which friends and family to come spend time together, sharing a savory slice of cake while drinking their favorite cup
Samantha Molina/Courier Larry Lee cuts a slice of Triple Berry cake at Moyo on June 30. of coffee. Pham wishes to satisfy the sweet tooth of the people of Pasadena in the healthiest way possible, and hopes to soon provide vegan options in the near future. During my visit to the cafe on a Thursday afternoon, I treated myself to several of its popular choices, varying from cakes to cookies to coffee and tea. My favorites were among the several cake choices available that day. The triple berry, a satisfying combination of cream and fruit on pound cake that connected with my sweet tooth without leaving me feeling like I might get a cavity. and the double chocolate, which contained the perfect amount of dark chocolate, leaving a harmoniously bittersweet taste in my mouth. I also very much enjoyed the cold brew hazelnut coffee, which I was informed by Moyo
employee Larry Lee took a cool 18 hours to prepare. The bitterness of the coffee mixed with the subtle sweetness of the hazelnut and almond milk made my taste buds very happy. Confident in both her chef and businesswoman skills, Pham is already planning to open two more Moyo cafes in the city in the future. Based on the great customer service and food that I received at Moyo, there is no doubt that this sweet little cafe will soon prove itself to be a valuable to addition to the culinary melting pot that is Pasadena.
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