Protest Brahma Queer Collective organizes sit in at The Great Hall to voice concerns over campus issues

Can too many messages drown out a protest?

JOSHUA MANES Spotlight Editor @TheManesEvent

Protests on college campuses are a long-standing tradition. It is an act often portrayed as a rite of passage and a means of shaping a maturing identity.

Demonstrations, walk-outs and marches have grown in coverage and frequency in recent years. The Women’s March and #Enough were national movements.

While the protest held Thursday was on a lesser scale, the voices of those involved and the concerns they share are no less important.

They spoke from the heart, uncensored, and were heard by administration and ASO.

Many of the concerns that were expressed are real issues that much of the student body, faculty and administration might agree with.

However, their message may have been lost by bringing up every problem at once.

If there is no clear message, is there one at all?

Seven students marched down the Mall carrying white signs, shouting their discontent through a megaphone, then proceeded to sit on the ground in front of the Great Hall and voice their concerns and demands to improve community and academic conditions for Pierce College students.

The Queer Brahma Collective spoke against college administration during a sit-in protest at the Great Hall on May 10.

Protesters said administration is ignoring student needs by devaluing clubs and events and prioritizing faculty and staff.

Gabriella Castleberry-Gordon, the president of the Queer Brahma Collective, said the protest was organized to inform and create change.

“Our main goal was to raise awareness to the faculty, staff, and administration about some of the issues students face just trying to go to school here,” Castleberry-Gordon said.

Nate Mendoza, a member of the Queer Brahma Collective, said administration was “all talk” and no action. Mendoza said their demonstration was necessary and successful.

“I actually feel very empowered by the fact that the Queer Brahma Collective were able to pull this off and get together,” Mendoza said. “It took a lot of bravery, organization and resistance. We’re really proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

ASO President Efren Lopez said he was surprised that the flier circulated by the Queer Brahma Collective about the planned demonstration listed ASO as a contributor to the overall problems at Pierce College.

“I was confused because ASO has had all these talks about the administration and the district too,” Lopez said. “And we funded them for their first Pierce Pride event, but I think it’s a good thing that they did this right away.”

ASO senator Gisela Tarifa asked to speak during the protest. She said she’s had trouble promoting events on campus that she thought should have occurred.

Tarifa said that sometimes she didn’t receive answers and she felt as though she was overlooked. She said that she understood how that could happen, although it was infuriating to her.

“Doing a lot of things on campus this entire year has been really tough, really hard to get a lot of help and a lot of faculty and administrative support,” Tarifa said. “Sometimes I didn’t get my emails responded to, sometimes I wasn’t even informed, sometimes it was as if they didn’t even exist when I had it months and months planned.”

Mario Macias, the co-adviser of the Queer Brahma Collective, said he supports student clubs and understands the concerns they might have.

“I’m aware of some of the bureaucracy, and I can understand the frustration with the pace of the system,” Macias said. “But sometimes, it’s a systemic problem rather than a one-person or one-department problem.”

Dean of Student Engagement Juan Carlos Astorga was a witness to the demonstration. He said it is important that administration know the student perspective to solve college concerns.

“It’s upon us to take a step back and be able to listen, hear critically what they want us to know, and be able to work on those things and give them an update on what we’re currently doing, what we’re trying to do and bring back some of the feedback,” Astorga said.

[see PROTEST on pg. 9]

-Gabriella Castleberry-Gordon President of the Queer Brahma Collective

For an on-looker, it may be difficult to connect with a protest if they don’t have a clear idea of what is being protested. How can they get behind it, if they only agree with half of the message and disagree with the rest?

Administration issues, ASO funding decisions, Wi-Fi, campus materials and prices on campus were just some of the things brought up that covered the campus as a whole.

This is not a problem that is unique to Thursday’s protest. During the protest held on campus following the Presidential election, a plethora of concerns were raised, and some took the opportunity to express their feelings regarding issues that were indirectly linked to the election, like feminism. While those feelings are real, and no less deserving to be expressed, it took away from the overall message.

Thursday, the overall message was that, to put it bluntly and oversimplified, things suck. But there is no one entity to blame. Issues with the district, the campus, administration and ASO can’t all be solved by one group.

However, Thursday’s protest may be the beginning of getting these seen by the eyes that can make a change.

jmanes.roundupnews@gmail.com

BRIEF:

Gender

the Village

JOSHUA MANES Spotlight Editor @TheManesEvent

Last week, two existing bathrooms in the Village were converted to gender inclusive bathrooms. These two join the staff bathroom in the Center for the Sciences as the only three inclusive bathrooms currently on campus. jmanes.roundupnews@gmail.com

The issue of Pierce’s dropping enrollment rate has cropped up repeatedly this semester. Administration and faculty have offered varied opinions explaining why potential students might be disinclined to attend Pierce, but this lull may be due in part to a simple lack of appeal.

The commercials running on TV and cursory searches over the internet don’t paint an enticing picture of Pierce College. What can be seen is all rather generic, and doesn’t capture the quality of education offered here. The college needs to cultivate a more inviting image, and it needs the resources to do so.

Pierce should allocate funds to an advertising budget that would allow the college to produce more creative and effective means of reaching potential students.

These funds would be independent of the LACCD’s District-Wide Marketing Budget, which is listed in the 2017-2018 LACCD Final Budget. Though this budget states that a reserve of more than $588,000 is available for marketing purposes, not a cent of it was listed as having been allocated to any of the nine college within the LACCD, and no comprehensive marketing campaign is outlined in the document.

Santa Monica College, which boasts in its 2016-2017 Annual Report that its ad campaign “has led to SMC’s 26th consecutive year as number one in transfers to the UC system,” outlines in its Tentative Budget Report that 10 percent of a reserve of over $13 million is to be spent on advertising. The Annual Report also includes a comprehensive marketing strategy that “[uses] the messaging mediums of broadcast radio and their associated digital properties, outdoor transit posters, and select local publications.”

Pierce could use SMC’s ad campaign and breakdown as inspiration for its marketing strategy. SMC’s track record of attracting and retaining students merits

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Email examination, at the least. With a reserve of advertising funds that aren’t divided among eight other schools in some vague, district-wide attempt at attracting students, Pierce could create highquality media that is focused and interesting.

The college could begin by detailing what makes the Pierce experience worthwhile. Multimedia pieces could capture the creative events organized by the students at the Pierce farm, or the talent of those in the Theatre Department as they put on their various productions.

Pro: Internet access the day away

DAVID ZAYER Reporter @DavidZayer

With technology becoming even more apart of humans lives and being integrated into classrooms, internet access becomes more of a necessity.

Students have begun to rely on technological devices to complete homework assignments, and some classes even require that class and homework be done only online. For example, MathLab is an online portal that assigns and collects student work. Without access to the internet, students are unable to complete these assignments.

Over the internet, teachers can access the homework assignments in class and give students feedback right away. This helps the students and teachers stay up to date on grades.

But internet access does more than just help with homework.

Nobody wants to lug around heavy books when they could have all the information at their fingertips in the form of their phone or tablet. Physical textbooks cannot be updated with the speed and efficiency of electronic books. A new edition would have to be made, distributed and purchased by students. With e-books, the buyer only ever pays a one time fee and has access to the book forever. Having internet access helps students learn from the most recent academic findings.

Being able to access e-books in class through Wi-Fi provided by the school would help students access class material more easily and affordably. dzayer.roundupnews@gmail.com

According to trends. collegeboard.org, the average cost of books are $1,200 a year throughout community colleges and universities. The cost of e-books are significantly lower.

According to Mill City Press, e-books cost an average of $2.99 per book. With accessible internet access, students can buy, download and use these more affordable options whenever they are needed.

Internet access is also a necessity because it gives students the power to research any type of document on the spot. Students can share a document via the internet through various apps, such as Google Docs or Canvas. They can even share the app through texting.

The internet provides a lot of free resources. In addition to multiple apps and websites, YouTube is the perfect resource for lectures. Sometimes instructors have difficulty communicating a certain topic to students, which is when an educational video for instructional use can come in handy. If classrooms did not have a strong Wi-Fi connection, this would be impossible.

Overall, internet access in class helps students on their journey to become successful. It makes things more accessible, affordable and effective.

There’s no shortage of attentiongrabbing functions and characterbuilding programs at Pierce, but they need to be given the proverbial spotlight for potential students to be drawn in.

The quality of education and the variety of pastimes available

GLORIA BECERRA Reporter @gloriab75636814

When a student is focused on a lesson that their professor is teaching and automatically becomes distracted by the student sitting next to them, giggling at a phone screen, it throws away all concentration.

Internet access within classrooms draws students’ attention away from the lecture given by their professors and directs it to their phone screens instead. Professors might as well teach their lessons to dogs since they would pay more attention than addicted tweeters and instagrammers.

The few times that I've brought my laptop to class and had it on my desk specifically to take notes, I got bored and ended up checking my email and logging into my Instagram and Twitter accounts because of the free internet access available to me in class.

If students didn’t have access to Wi-Fi in class, they couldn’t disrupt themselves and others.

Along with the distraction internet access can pose to students, it also opens a door to cheating.

According to the U.S. News article, “One Third of Teens Use Cellphones to Cheat in School,” author Zach Miners wrote about the findings of a poll that was given to students regarding the

Cartoonist: at Pierce makes the college unique among other schools both within and outside the district . But Pierce needs to show that to prospective students, not just parrot it in uninspired commercials and bland pamphlets. newsroom.roundupnews@gmail.com amount of students who have cheated at their school. The poll found that one third of teens in school use their cell phones to cheat with the help of internet access. gbecerra.roundupnews@gmail.com 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.

"IjustboughtaSwitch, whichisagameconsole, andI'vebeenonitway too much. I think the portabilityisreallycool.

“Two thirds of responders to the poll–which surveyed 1,013 teens in late May and early June– say others in their school have cheated with cell phones. More than half admit to using the internet to cheat,” Miners wrote. Thanks to internet access and phones, it is beyond easy to cheat in class. Students can cut and paste text from online papers and use them in their own in class papers, go on Quizlet for answers to a quiz they are about to take and can look up any form of information needed for any subject. Internet access takes the job away from professors, which is to teach and inform.

Cellphones are already bad enough with wireless internet access, but if a school gives free internet access to students, it only speeds up the process of being able to google a Quizlet before a pop quiz. Free internet access in classrooms fuels the inclination to cheat.

Students should turn off their phones, leave their laptops at home and pay attention to their professor’s lectures. Internet access is a disturbance to those who use it.