Holding rein

Horse trainer to Director of Equine Science

KRISTINA VILLAMIL Reporter

@KrisVillamil

Sitting atop a shaded picnic bench, Patricia Warner recalls a moment in her career when a colleague asked her, “Do you know how blessed you are?”

Warner is Director of the Equine Science department at Pierce College. The Equestrian Center that lies west of campus is widely untouched by students who aren’t part of the animal science program, but Warner has been working with the students and horses there for quite some time.

The exact details of how long

Warner has been working at Pierce are lost on her, but what she knows for certain is that she loves her job.

“I’ve been blessed. Not many people can say they have a job they love and I just love it,” she said.

According to Warner, she’s been with the college for about 1015 years. Former director of the Equine Program Ron Wechsler, had asked Warner to teach the training class some years ago. The class worked perfectly into her schedule, Warner said. Prior to teaching at Pierce, Warner was a full-time horse trainer who participated in exhibitions and shows.

[See EQUINE, pg. 6]

New America Media, the Pierce College Media Arts Department, and the Pierce Health Center will hold a forum for media and the community on struggling with depression as a college student.

The forum will include results of a Pierce studentled survey of their peers on depression, stigma, and mental health treatment, students speaking about their own depression, as well as depression among their peers and within their families, as well as a panel of mental health experts including Dr. Niaz Khani, Pierce Health Center’s clinical psychologist.

Lunch will be provided for those in attendance.

The event will be held in the Great Hall at Pierce College on Thursday, Oct. 22 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

For more information, contact Julian Do at jdo. labeez@gmail.com or (714) 366-6669.

What’s your favorite study tool?

“I feel like the most useful study tool is working in pairs or a small group. If you don’t understand something you can ask the people around you, or either in pairs you can help each other out. I think study groups help out a lot.”

Cynthia Moreira, Child development major

“I start writing down notes of anything I think is very important. I also write down things I would like to remember like important dates. Study groups help a lot too. I feel you can capture the information, because you get to talk about it and it helps you remember things better.”

Allison Peña, Child development/ psychology major

“Myfavoritestudytoolishomework. I look back over it and I do more practiceproblems.Organizednotes help me a lot too.”

Jared Dorsch, Mechanical engineering major

Pierce College sits on 426 acres of land and provides an education to over 20,000 students. Yet for an unknown reason, there are only two ATMs on campus. Pierce College needs to add more of these machines around campus in more convenient locations.

One machine on campus is located in the student store, while the other is in the business office. These two are next door to each other. Students with classes in the Village that need to take out money are out of luck and need to allot time to make the walk to the student store.

Last week, the ATM in the business office was out of money and students were not able to take out money from it. That left only one functional ATM on campus. That is an ATM for every 20,000 students if you have been keeping up with the math.

Candy Van, assistant manager of the Student Store, says that some days both machines run out of money at the same time.

These machines at Pierce charge students $3 for every successful withdrawal. A portion of that fee is given to whoever houses the machine while the rest goes to the ATM company. You don’t get charged the fee if you withdraw money from your FAFSA card, but the $3 charges begin to add up for everyone else.

There are free ATM placement services available that will deliver and set up the machines in locations that have a high volume of customers. The college would benefit by having extra machines in the Library / Learning Crossroads, Sheriff’s office and the village. The placement company will then continue to do all the work for the life of the machine.

Pierce would not be involved with repairs or regular maintenance and would be making money off of the machines for the price of losing floor space in the corner of a room.

There are also negotiations you can make with banks to get bank specific ATMs on campus that won’t charge students for using their bank’s ATM. Van says the Student Store has been pushing to bring bank specific machines to campus.

If there is no financial or logistical reason to not have more ATMs at Pierce, then having them available in different spots of the campus should be a viable option.

A survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International in 2014 showed that about 10

Pro/Con: Dating in the classroom

significant other, it is just as effective as someone who studies to impress the teacher or parents.

“My favorite study tools are index cards. I write everything down on the index card, and flip it over. I do it repeatedly until I memorize it well, and it gets stuck in my brain.”

Jackelyn Muñoz

Undecided major

GARETT CECIL gcecil.roundupnews@gmail.com @Garettsfeed

Many students can relate to being bored in class or while studying. Maybe a student gets in 10 good minutes of studying alone at her house, and then she remembers that she needs to catch up on her favorite television show. Having a willing and reliable study partner can help students stay focused and commit to achieving passing grades.

Generally, people who are dating enjoy spending a lot of time together. Whether they plan to go get dinner and a movie, or stay at home, as long as they are together they are happy. This idea goes hand-in-hand with the idea of having fun while studying.

–CORRECTIONS–

Having a study partner with romantic relations can be a lot of fun.

Dating a classmate can be extra motivation to learn. At the beginning of most relationships, the people involved want to impress each other. One way of doing this is by being well educated and committed to excellence.

This can lead to suggested study sessions, in which the student involved feels obligated to work much harder, to be much smarter. Although this person is working hard to impress their

Not all minds think alike. Dating a classmate can help students think outside of the box. If a student is struggling to think of an idea for their final in an art class, they have someone to go to for help. Students who work in groups can help create multiple ideas for each other.

Setting aside the educational aspect of school, dating a classmate can be beneficial in other ways. Carpooling saves money and is good for the environment. Dating a classmate guarantees a carpool partner for school.

Dating a classmate also provides a safer environment, especially for night classes. Having someone to walk to and from classes with provides backup for any unfortunate circumstances.

Having someone to hang out with in between classes is also beneficial. Being alone for hours in between classes can be tiring and unmotivating. Some students may even go home because they would rather not wait for their next class.

With a significant other in the same class, planning entertaining events in between classes can be easy.

Even if it is something as simple as having lunch together. The couple may even be compelled to take a trip to the library to study together. Dating classmates can help students succeed in school.

The idea of walking to class hand in hand with your significant other may be a pleasant thought until things go awry in the world of love. Lets face it. It’s hard to help who you come to like. Emotions sometimes get the best of us. However, it is exactly this reason why students should not date their classmates.

Some of you lovebirds out there may be thinking, “What if things in my love world are going great? It might be nice to have someone in class who I like to share my time with.”

Did you ever think for a moment that you might be missing an opportunity to get to know the people around you? This is not even in the romantic sense.

I’ve often seen couples in classrooms very engaged with each other. So much so that they aren’t engaged with the class. We don’t come to college to learn out of a textbook. Professors have wonderful things to say and so do the students around them. A moment of unique insight, expression or valuable information that is being shared can be completely lost if you’re not paying attention.

When two people are more focused on each other, rather than percent of Americans don’t carry any cash on them daily. On the Pierce College campus, that would be about 2,000 students who do not have cash on them. with what is going on around them they are missing out. It isn’t done on purpose but it’s a side effect. At times they don’t realize that they are cutting themselves off socially and intellectually because they are too busy talking or passing notes to each other.

Students rely on vending machines for drinks and snacks throughout the day. If students happen to be without cash between buildings 8100 and 8200 and want to use their debit or credit card on those machines, they may be leaving upset when they get charged to their card but don’t receive their purchase. Other machines on campus do not allow students to use their cards at all. By adding more machines around campus it will make students’ money more accessible to them, it will make a profit for Pierce College and will give students more options if the last working machine goes out of order.

In situations where dating is not going well emotions can be all over the place. Hormones can get in the way of learning. They play a huge role in affecting behavior and mood. Thinking logically does not mean you will act logically.

Even if a student’s desire is to pay attention and do well in a course, it can be hard if there is a human being who is also physically there affecting their mental state of mind. Once again a student’s focus lies somewhere else outside of the classroom.

A semester at here at Pierce is 16 weeks long. Do you really want to sit in a class feeling uncomfortable because of the person sitting next to you for that amount of time? How can one learn the subject material if they are emotionally compromised and the reason for it is unavoidable? It’s awkward not only for those two people involved but possibly for other students in the class. School is work in itself. We are all here because we want to gain some knowledge and move forward in life. Why should we make this process more difficult by adding drama to it? Los Angeles is the second largest city in the country, go out there and meet the people who live in it.

Librarian aims to cut book costs

Workshop to show professors how to slash price of required texts

ZAC GROFF Reporter @ZGroffNews

A workshop offered through the Pierce College Library / Learning Crossroads will teach professors to use free or low-cost materials to create customizable electronic textbooks to ease the burden rising costs have placed on students.

The two-day workshop is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 26, and Monday, Nov. 9, in Library / Learning Crossroads 5212 from noon to 1 p.m. both days. It will be taught by Pierce librarian Clay Gediman, who said the high price of printed books may damage student achievement.

“Textbooks have gotten pretty expensive and they are not that flexible in the faculty use of them,” Gediman said. “Student success goes down if they don’t purchase the textbooks.”

Gediman said he aims to help teachers on campus take advantage of incentives provided by AB 798, the College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015. The bill is aimed at decreasing the costs students must pay for textbooks by increasing the use of Open Educational Resources, defined by Gediman as “free or very low-cost materials.” A similar bill has been introduced in Congress but has not been signed into law.

“It’s not just our school, it is a nationwide program,” he said.

The workshop will teach professors where to find free or inexpensive OER materials and how to compile them for use in classes. Not all materials are available for free, however, so it will not entirely eliminate the cost of books.

“There are free textbooks out there, which are copyrighted,” Gediman said. “Some information just is not free. Modern literature is still under copyright.”

According to Gediman, materials available come in several forms, which gives professors options when creating their selection of texts.

“Some textbooks are all online, some are PDFs and some are hybrids” he said. “You can mix and match what you like.”

Not all professors are willing to cease using their own materials and switch to OERs. Philip Stein, professor of Anthropology, has been using his own textbook for over 40 years and said doing so “allows for a more personalized teaching method.”

“Using one’s own book is nice because the book and lecture fit together,” Stein said.

Ashley Tejada, a musical theater major, said that the lower cost of these electronic textbooks may encourage students to take more difficult courses.

“I would definitely take a harder class if the textbook was free or much cheaper than the $160 textbooks,” Tejada said.

Gediman acknowledged that the program may not be a cureall for the high cost of attending college, it can ease some of the more painful expenses.

“There is a cost to education,” Gediman said. “But we can take some of the burden out of the textbooks.”

News briefs

The Drop-Off drop-off

An unidentified male suspect was arrested in the Student Drop-Off Zone on Brahma Drive at about 12:30 p.m. Monday for allegedly attempting to sell narcotics to students.

Deputy Al Guerrero of the Pierce College Sheriff’s Station said the suspect was reported for acting suspiciously.

One witness, Pierce student Issa Suelto, said she saw security officers approach the suspect and ask if he was selling drugs.

According to Guerrero, a search of the suspect revealed he was in possession of unspecified narcotics. The suspect was arrested and taken from the campus in handcuffs.