A safer campus for all Senate prioritizes security with future events

RICHARD ESPINOZA Reporter @Richard65157819

Public safety, sexual assault, a safe zone workshop and upcoming events were the issues that were discussed during Monday’s Academic Senate meeting in the Great Hall.

The idea behind the Safe Zones is to allow an area for students, staff and faculty to meet and discuss issues of gender and sexuality free of judgement and harassment, according to the Safe Zone Project’s website.

“It's important to have these safe zones on campus,” said Maria Perser, a member of the Professional Development Committee. “Especially for the LGBTQ community to feel like there are faculty who support them and have allies here.”

The workshops are meant to train faculty to be an ally, according to Perser. A number of other LACCD campuses have similar programs, such as Los Angeles Mission College, East LA College and Harbor College.

The senate announced that Pierce College will feature a documentary called, “The Hunting Ground” on Oct. 27, 2016. This film documentary talks about the impact and raises awareness of sexual assaults on campus.

According to Director of the Health Center Beth Benne, all schools and colleges are enforced by Title IX, where by law all school administrations have a responsibility to respond promptly to any sexual harassment or sexual violence that creates a hostile environment. They must take immediate action by reporting it to the proper authorities that handle these cases.

“The main issue is how various colleges across country have responded or not responded to the allegations of sexual assault that students have made,” Benne said.

According Perser, it is important for the campus to show this documentary.

“It is necessary to have a dialogue on this issue and to know what our obligations are and to know who our Title IX coordinator is,” Perser said.

/ Roundup might say Ramirez was the most valuable player, but she made it clear that's not the case.

“This is not about me, this is an entire team effort,” Ramirez said.

Brianna Jacobo had an easy night, only having to save the ball once with no other intense plays coming at her.

The Brahmas have a BYE game before they play against Santa Monica College at home on Friday, October 28 at 4:00 p.m.

Pierce Stats

Goals: 4

Shots on target: 9

Yellow cards: 1

Record: 10-3-1

Conf. record: 3-1

Goals (Assists)

46' Leslie Ramirez (Adriana Sosa)

55' Leslie Ramirez (Sara Hernandez)

57' Sara Hernandez (Leslie Ramirez)

85' Destiny Brandstetter (Kathrine Castillo)

Vice President of Student Services Earic Dixon Peters addressed the senate about the serious consequences of sexual assault.

“The importance of what we know from research and documentation is that one out of four women have been sexually assaulted on a college campus,” Peters said.

“If you look at that statistic, it is alarming that should you or anyone walk down campus and count one, two, three and four, that fourth person could possibly be a victim of sexual assault.”

According to Peters, the documentary will bring awareness to the prevalent problem of sexual assault.

-Sarah

“When I used to be in my old neighborhood, me and my family members would always go trick-or-treating. But we would also be rebellious and liked to go egging and a little bit of teepeeing peopleʼs houses.”

-Adolfo Torres, 22, Biology

The Roundup newspaper encourages our readership to vote “Yes” on proposition 55 on this year’s election ballot.

Prop 55 is essentially an extension of proposition 30, which was passed in 2012. The measure seeks to continue the temporary personal tax increases on individual income over 263k, and 526k for joint income. Half of the money allocated will go to public schools at a rate of 89 percent for K-12 schools, and 11 percent for community colleges, respectively. The rest will go towards healthcare, debt repayment and savings.

Since the approval of prop 30 in 2012, $6 billion have been raised each year for California schools, according to ballotpedia.org.

In laymen’s terms, if proposition 55 does not pass, California schools will begin to lose the funds they have been relying on for the past four years.

Teachers will be laid off, increasing the unemployment rate, an untold number of sections will be cut from community colleges, and they’ll be left with barebone budgets which will reduce community colleges to nothing more than general education factories.

K-12 schools will most likely have to cut their already dismally funded arts programs. Community colleges may also see tuition hikes.

Prop 55 is a measure that does not raise taxes for anyone. Our wealthiest residents will only temporarily continue to pay the increased tax rate until 2030.

“I went trick-or-treating and one of the doors had those mail box openings so I looked and they started throwing eggs. So they were pretty much trashing their own house but they were still throwing eggs at me.”

-Michael Ortiz, 19, Psychology

“I went bobbing for apples when I was seven years old and I accidently snorted up a bunch of water. I was coughing and crying but everyone felt bad for me so I got all the candy I wanted and now Iʼm addicted to candy because of it.”

Opponents argue that forcing the rich to bare the brunt of the state’s taxation will eventually have them looking to move to states where there are no, or lower income tax rates. But like most economic problems, there’s a certain ebb and flow.

Before the passing of prop 30, as the nation was coming out of the great recession, California’s unemployment rate was at 10 percent. As of April 2015 it has shrunk nearly in half to 6.3 percent.

Many groups criticized prop 30 for focusing first on lowering income area schools rather than spread the funds evenly. Think of our education system as a set of building blocks, you have to start with a strong foundation before worrying about the middle, least of all the top.

Prop 55 includes measures that require school districts to separately identify how the funds will be spent, so we know where the money is going.

In a liberal state such as California, many voters are willing to adopt a ‘stick it to the rich’ attitude, but we are all well aware that these tax hikes are temporary. Those affected in the upper tax bracket are quick to denounce the need for it, but one extension does not a pattern make.

So, for just a little while longer, we’re asking the 1 percent to help the other 99, we’re no longer looking to survive, but to thrive.

Should students have the day off for Halloween?

BRIAN CALDERA Reporter

@BTVCaldera

Halloween is like Christmas for college students. A time to let go of all the stress built up over the course of the semester and completely lose yourself in the night. The next day, you’re ready to come back to class refreshed and ready to drudge through the rest of the school year. However, this day is unfortunately cursed with the burden of responsibility. There is no vacation time allotted to students or staff during holiday.

VANESSA GONZALEZ Features Editor @itsvane1

Why is this so? Why do students not get a break during one of the country’s most celebrated holidays?

The average college Halloween party is a cesspool of debauchery and every type of depraved act known to mankind, and god bless them for that. College life is meant for making those types of memorable mistakes. Hedonism is needed every now and again to give a little spice to life.

which is why Halloween is one of those nights that needs to be experienced in excess. With so much noise and distraction going on throughout the day, do you expect anyone to be paying attention during a professor’s lecture? It simply isn’t going to happen. Students shouldn’t have to choose between academic success and the occasional day of leisure. There should be a certain amount of time allotted to students to not have to worry about grades and test scores; it’s too much to be concerned about for months at a time. The spring semester usually has 11 days off, while fall only has four days spread sparsely around four months. It’s a release valve for stress and constant time management and is good for a student’s mental wellbeing to relax every now and again. Besides, an additional day or two off wouldn’t be the end of the world.

-Avi Nelson, 21, Marketing Cartoonists: dressed up and laughing at what everyone was wearing, and it’s still pretty fun in college. You also are allowed to eat in college classrooms, meaning you can actually eat candy during lectures, while dressed in your costumes.

Canceling classes for Halloween just so college students can stay home seems somewhat unnecessary. As a college student, missing class time to stay home and watch movies isn’t ideal.

Although this is a very celebrated holiday, there are still many people that don’t celebrate it due to religious reasons or simply because they’ve just outgrown it. Since various people don’t celebrate Halloween, they would rather just stay home and lay on their couch, which is wasted time that could be used to finish a chapter in class.

Even if a session gets cancelled, the next class meeting, the professor is usually in a rush to cover information because they could be running short on time, which typically occurs near the holidays.

Another thing to consider is the fact that people don’t usually begin to celebrate until nighttime and many kids don’t go trick-ortreating until the sun begins to set.

All in all, Halloween is a day for children to dress up in funny or scary costumes and go door to door, asking for candy. A day where part of the fun is wondering what everyone will dress up as. It is not, however, a day for adults to miss class time.

Most of the school year is spent reading, studying and testing, with a few breaks of excess sprinkled throughout,

Besides, Halloween is mostly for children and, as a child, what added to the fun of Halloween was actually going to school that day. I enjoyed getting the chance to see my classmates bcaldera.roundupnews@gmail.com vgonzalez.roundupnews@gmail.com call Matt at (818) 710-2960 masthead, and columns are the opinions of the creators and not necessarily that of the Roundup. The college newspaper is published as a learning experience under the college journalism instructional program. The editorial and advertising materials published herein, including any opinions expressed, are the responsibility of the student newspaper staff. Under appropriate state and federal court decisions, these materials are free from prior restraint by the virtue of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Accordingly, materials published herein, including any opinions expressed, should not be interpreted as the position of the L.A. Community College District, the college or any officer or employee thereof.

This holiday is neither religious nor historical, which is why I don’t see a need to cancel classes. Halloween is fun, but it shouldn’t be the reason students miss class time.