Lending a helping hand Free programs and services on campus provide students with some much needed assistance

With the current budget crisis causing panic and anxiety among staff and students alike, support programs and free services on campus are needed more than ever.

Pierce College has done very well by its attendees in trying to retain programs that aid student life.

Unfortunately, budgetary issues have forced administration to cancel some of the programs that it has offered in the past, such as cuts in services provided at the Child Development and Job Centers.

However, the campus still offers various programs and services on campus that are very helpful such as the free shuttle bus and food trucks.

Pierce College has and continues to offer health services for the low fee of $10 per semester that would cost them so much more anywhere else. These services go from basic check ups to blood work. They even offer free condoms and tampons.

The Health Center, that is located in the second floor of the Student Services building, also hosts H.I.V. Awareness week, raising awareness and providing prevention methods.

This program is hosted once each semester, during which free H.I.V. testing is offered to anyone who attends.

Another part of this program involves classroom presentations by members of “Being Alive”, an organization that teaches what it’s like to live with H.I.V. and explains that living with H.I.V. is no longer a death sentence.

Pierce College also harbors the Campus Violence Response Team (CVRT). This committee’s purpose is to help staff and students who have been abused in any way.

Victims of abuse can visit any member of this committee that provides help by finding ways to put an end to abusive treatment as well as counseling in how to deal with their own feelings after such traumatizing events.

The CVRT team leader, Kathy Oborn, can be reached by email at obornkm@piercecollege.edu.

Through the CVRT comes educational events hosted at Pierce College such as the Clothesline Project that is conducted twice on campus each year.

The first of the two events is Domestic Violence Awareness month in October, and the second is Denim Day hosted in April.

This semester the CVRT added one additional event called Take Back the Night. This march had its first go around the block May 10.

Team members along with students and staff met at the bull statue in the middle of the Mall area and marched around the campus to raise awareness that nighttime is not safe for women.

events are hosted for students who have suffered from domestic violence or sexual abuse to let them know

Pierce College also offers career counseling to help students who are working toward their major but are unsure how to go about taking The Career Center offers assistance to students by helping them findi internships, as well as teaching essential job skills and researching methods for

Career Center Directors Joanna Zimring Towne and Sunday Salter also host many msalvador.roundupnews@gmail.com

These programs are of great assistance to many at Pierce College and we at the Roundup would like to commend and thank the administration for not only offering these programs but also for allowing other organizations and clubs to host helpful programs on campus.

An amendment prohibiting samesex couples the right to domestic partnerships and civil unions was voted into law on May 8, 2012 in North Carolina.

The amendment, known as Amendment 1, declares that a marriage shall only be held between a man and a woman and is the only domestic union that will be recognized in the state of North Carolina according to the Associated Press.

This legislation brought nearly half a million people to vote during North Carolina’s state primaries and continued to attract large sums of voters to the end according to AP.

The amendment passed with close to 61 percent of voters supporting the amendment and 39 percent against it. according to the North Carolina Board of Elections.

Even though voters have spoken by cast of their ballots, it is unreasonable for an entire group of people to be treated differently on the grounds of their sexual orientation.

This isn’t even the first time North Carolina has passed a prohibition against same sex marriage. There had already been a pre-existing law banning gay marriage, but legislators supporting this amendment expect for it to finalize the state’s debate on same-sex marriages.

Some may not know that this amendment will not only affect the gay community, but also may apply to more than 150,000 unmarried straight couples that have domestic legal unions.

Aurora Ramirez aramirez.roundupnews@gmail.com

Things may have ended differently if voters were given until general elections in November. This additional time would have given civil rights activists time to better explain the amendment to voters.

Voters against the law fear that the approving of this amendment will interfere with domestic-violence protections, undercut child custody arrangements and jeopardize hospital visiting rights according to protectncfamalies.org.

It wasn’t long ago that people denied these same domestic legal unions to inter-racial couples that wanted to be married. Regardless of what sex the couple may be, it is unconstitutional for an individual to deny any their freedom rights.

In a study made by the Census Bureau in 2010, they acknowledged that there are about 228,000 North Carolina couples in domestic partnerships and 12 percent of those were same-sex couples.

As voters we have to right to make a conscious decision of what we feel is best not only for ourselves but our community, and our country as a whole, but at the same time consider others rights and their freedoms.

Corrections

As the evening dimmed into the night May 10, students and faculty readied their signs as part of their plan to march through campus and raise awareness for sexual assault and violence at Take Back the Night.

The Campus Violence Response Team (CVRT) and Feminist Club collaborated on this event to raise awareness for victims of sexual violence and promote vigilance, intentionally during the nighttime, to reduce sexual assault and harassment.

Holly Hagan, a textbook buyer at the Pierce Bookstore and co-lead for the CVRT, participated in Take Back the Night.

“We’re trying to take back the night to a time where it was a little bit safer for women, especially to be able to walk at night alone, without having to look behind their shoulder,” she said.

The demonstrators met at the Bull sculpture on the Mall at 7:45 p.m., and began the march at 8 p.m.

The route took the marchers down Brahma Drive to Winnetka Avenue, Victory Boulevard, De Soto Avenue, El Rancho Drive and back to the Bull sculpture at Pierce.

Michelle Borsco, the cofounder of the Feminist Club, said that she has felt anxious about travelling alone at night in the past. So she made sure to walk within groups.

But when attending her evening class Monday nights, none of her other friends are available during that hour.

“It’d be nice to be able to walk to your car, something as simple as walking to your car,” she said.

Similarly, April Henry, the other cofounder of the Feminist Club, said that she would love to enjoy a simple nighttime walk around her neighborhood. Stories of sexual assault though, sometimes even having happened to her own friends, have made her wary, she said.

“Sometimes you want to take a load off, walk around your neighborhood without worrying,” she said.

Women are not the only ones in danger, Bernard Hanamichi, a member of the Feminist Club, said. In men’s cases, the fear of being mugged or provoked into a fight can occur.

“We have this fear in our society of being mugged, especially in a lowsocioeconomic area,” he said.

Hagan saw this firsthand a year ago.

Her son was exiting a store with her when a man accosted him, repeatedly shouting, ‘What’s up?’

“You can’t walk out the store with your mom without someone trying to start a fight with you,” Hagan said.

Hanamichi agrees though, that men need to come to an understanding on what sort of behavior constitutes harassment. Verbal abuse could be considered harassment just as much as inappropriate touching, he said.

James McKeever, professor of sociology and advisor to the Feminist Club, believes that for men to better respect for women, they should view women as they would view their own mothers, daughters and sisters.

“Men need to sit down and put themselves in the position of women,” he said.

In his own life, McKeever knows of eight different women and two men who have been raped.

Henry believes that in addition to providing counseling to victims, steps should be taken raise awareness over rape and assault to prevent it.

She feels that victims of sexual awareness need the support and aid of the community, and that the community should provide it to them.

“It’s something that’s lasting and heartbreaking to someone else for the rest of their life,” she said.

Sheriff’s Blotter

Compiled by Lior Haykeen

Vandalism:

May 8 - The vehicle of a 20-year-old male student was scratched in Parking Lot 7. The suspect remains unknown.

Disturbance of the peace:

May 9 - A female student called the sheriffs because a male student in her class was staring at her, and would not stop after she had told him to. This took place in room 3252 of the Business Building.