Where is your school spirit?

Times are tough, and during these tough times there is one place where we can all come together, school.

However, the truth of the matter is that many of the students at Pierce are indifferent, or simply do not care, about the school they go to.

This reality should be worrisome.

School pride is very important because our school provides us with so many opportunities, even with budget cuts.

Pierce College students are able to get a good education.

Pierce is home to some of the most elite educators in the state, and many make themselves available for students and provide guidance when asked.

Students at Pierce are also able to receive job training, which gives students who take advantage of this opportunity a running head start.

There is something unique that Pierce offers that some tend to overlook.

Pierce gives students the opportunity to be around likeminded and goal-oriented people.

As a junior college, many students at Pierce eventually hope to transfer to a 4-year institution.

This common goal should bring us all closer together as a student body, but it is not enough for some.

As students, we are quick to complain about something about our school, whether it be how difficult it is to get classes or how messy parts of the campus are.

Thumbs up & Thumbs down

Frankly, as students, we have to start taking responsibility for our school, and take some pride in the place where we all come to learn.

We are not children, so we should not expect to be treated as such.

It is not the school’s fault that we are running low on classes, nor is it the school’s job to ensure we pick up after ourselves on campus.

These are things we should know, and even for those who do not necessarily like the school itself for whatever reason, there are still little things you can do to make your school a better place.

One could attend the sporting events held on campus, for example.

According to Athletic Director Bob Lofrano, out of the 19,000 students on campus, less than 500 actually show up to the football games, and, at best, merely 80 to 100 attend the volleyball and swimming events.

That’s less than one percent of the school population supporting their fellow students at most sporting events.

Lofrano jokes that “people have better things to do on a Friday night, like going out and watching movies.”

Paying ones fees on time is also a way to help improve the school.

If Pierce students paid all of their course fees on time, the college would have more money readily available and students can register earlier for their classes, decreasing the hefty number of “crashers”.

Students at Pierce College can do many more things to show school spirit, like attending lectures, functions, shows, or even organizing a homecoming.

College is what you make of it, and at the end of the day, if we don’t care about our school, nobody else will.

Indeed, Prop. 38 would bring in an estimated $10 billion, $6 billion of which would go to education, the rest going towards the State debt or child care and preschool programs.

But what is continuously not mentioned is the most important part of the proposition: Where does this money come from?

It comes from everyone. Or everyone with an income over $7,316 a year, rather.

All people who pay income taxes will have their taxes raised by from .4 percent to 2.2 percent.

With poverty at an all-time high, according to Think Progress, this cannot be considered a “good idea.”

Most people are not millionaires, they are working class.

Smelly smell that smells

A big stinky thumbs down to the pile of manure next to the Village. The thick smell is nauseating.

The permeating stench floats around campus making students feel faint, especially on hot and windy days. Get rid of it, please!

Nick McNamara nmcnamara.roundupnews@gmail.com

There are many working class people struggling out there who are worrying about how to pay for necessities– tuition, how to pay rent, how to pay for electricity–who cannot afford higher taxes on their income.

Yet Molly Munger, who personally funded more than $30 million in favor of this proposition, believes that this is the correct way to improve our schools.

Students cannot be expected to get the full value of their education if they are worrying about how they will survive from day to day.

How will K12 students be able to focus on their work when they see their parents struggle?

How will college or university students be able to study for classes if they have to work extra shifts?

Furthermore, this proposition would not stop the automatic cuts anyway, and would still fail to add one cent in funding to schools for 18 months, according to the Press Telegram.

Proposition 38 harms exactly who it aims to help, and does a disservice to the workers of California.

Workers should oppose this proposition in favor of one of the other two tax initiatives on the ballot.

You have as much power as you are willing to exercise.

“Not a light bulb shines, not a telephone rings, not a wheel turns without the kind permission of the working class,” as Alan Woods once said.

Support education, oppose worsening conditions for workers. There is always an alternative.

Opinion Corrections

Volume 117 - Issue 3

Features [Page 4] -Harper Lee is the author of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” not Maya Angelou.

By Austin Faber