Vintage is back again

Flea market comes to Pierce once a month

CHELSEA WESTMAN Reporter @chelsea_spero

The last Sunday of every month brings hidden treasures to the table tops.

From intricate jewelry to shabby chic furniture, the Topanga Vintage Market at Pierce College has it all.

Vintage clothing, art, antiques, food trucks and live music is just the tip of the iceberg, having over 180 vendors in the small market selling a plethora of unique items.

Vendors Bob Backus and Leilani McDaniel have been coming to the vintage market for five years. The pair commutes from Palmdale and sells vintage items ranging from classic cars to handcrafted stone necklaces.

“I come to sell, she [McDaniel] comes to buy,” Backus said. “She collects antique dishes. I look for stuff too, but most of the time I just sell.”

McDaniel said she used to live in Topanga and transferred from Pierce to California State University,

Northridge. She said she was familiar with the area when the vintage market migrated to Pierce.

“We come here because we knew about it before when it was at the Promenade, then we were coming here and decided to sell because we have so much stuff,” McDaniel said.

Backus said he tumbles crystals, which is a technique used to polish rocks, to sell and his favorite aspect of the market is finding old boat models.

[see VINTAGE on pg. 3]

The technological issues on campus are once again a topic of discussion.

The Pierce College Council meeting on Oct. 25 centered around advances on campus including better Wi-Fi, more surveillance cameras and an updated school website.

Buckley said when he first arrived at Pierce, he was surprised by the lack of Wi-Fi connection. Fixing the technological infrastructure has been a priority for Buckley and he does not want to delay fixing this problem.

“What we need is a multimillion dollar infrastructure change, but we need to do something now to fix the Wi-Fi,” Buckley said.

Buckley said the school has the ability to increase 75 percent of total coverage on campus with an emphasis in the Library / Learning Crossroads and the classrooms both north and south of the Mall.

Rolf Schleicher, vice president of administrative services, said the problem with the Wi-Fi are the access points, roughly 140 of them. He said it is going to take $150,000 to fix all of them.

Schleicher thinks a realistic goal is six weeks to increase coverage, but Buckley is optimistic and thinks they can do it in four weeks or less.

Eddie Tchertchian, the department chair of mathematics, is ecstatic about the improvements coming to the wireless internet.

“We have been reeling for this and it’s been years that we have been waiting for such an improvement to come and it would be really great to see what happens within four to six weeks so I am very excited about it,” Tchertchian said.

There is also a campuswide security camera project that has already been put in place. According to College Project Director Ed Cadena, the installation of these cameras are going to be fully installed possibly before the holidays. They will be placed in areas such as the Student Store, the Library / Learning Crossroads and in classrooms.

Mission College currently has 200 cameras on campus. The plan is for about 175 cameras at Pierce, with 140 active.

There were some concerns about faculty and staff privacy following a report from a staff member in the Admissions and Records office.

According to Will Marmolejo, the dean of student services, said the staff member felt uncomfortable because the camera was installed directly over her work space.

President Buckley reassured that the cameras are for security and to ensure liability. They will not be focused on workspaces and not be utilized as an evaluative tool for employees.

Tchertchian was relieved to hear the cameras are being used for campus safety rather than to keep an eye on faculty.

“I just wanted to make sure and get reassurance that we are using these cameras for security purposes, not for evaluation purposes and the President reassured us of that, which was great to hear,” Tchertchian said.

Buckley also mentioned that they are in a position to renew the front page and some prioritized second pages of the Pierce website. His goal is to successfully revise certain aspects of the webpages by the end of this semester and has taken full accountability for this project.

“I am putting myself out as someone accountable for this,” Buckley said. “If all goes well, thank Rolf. If it doesn’t work, you can blame me.” nmartinez.roundupnews@gmail.com

Pew Trusts did a survey and determined that only six percent of unregistered voters were asked at school about voter registration.

The school doesn’t have a steady year-round promotion of where or how you can register to vote, which every person is given the opportunity to partake in, or at least be aware of. There also isn’t information about who is running and what propositions are present on the ballot.

Millennials are now as large of a political force as Baby Boomers according to an analysis of U.S. census data from the Pew Research Center. They define Millennials as those who were born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 22 to 37 in 2018), and anyone born from 1997 onward will be part of a new Generation Z.

The Silent/Greatest Generation (ages 71+) is roughly 12 percent of the vote and Generation X (ages 36-51) make up about 25 percent. Millennials and the Baby Boomers both make up 31 percent of the vote.

So if we are make up a big percentage of the vote, and people in that demographic aren’t represented, the results will generally not lean in the interest of the younger generation.

In fact, according to NPR, Millennials and Generation Z continue to have the lowest voter turnout of the age groups. Only 46 percent of Millenials group voted in the last presidential election, which means they are terribly under-represented. This comparing to a 76 percent voter turnout for those 60 years of age or older.

With all the current controversy, it was thought that the youth would be compelled to register and use their voices, but a recent Vox poll stated that only 28 percent of young voters were “absolutely certain” that they would be voting in the midterm elections.

A huge factor of why the youth doesn’t vote is because they aren’t even sure or aware of how to register, which creates a lack of interest. If Pierce and other colleges could assist their students, or at least give them the

-Corrections-

Volume 129, Issue 7:

Front:

In the funding model story the sentence that reads "One way to put on emphasis on adult enrollment if through Outreach programs" should say: One way to put an emphasis on dual enrollment is through Outreach programs. See any errors we missed?

Email us at: newsroom.roundupnews@ gmail.com ith such an important midterm election coming up, one would think that a place that is supposed to encourage knowledge and consciousness, would be sharing voter registration information and awareness with the demographic that votes the least.option to obtain that information, it could have a big impact on the elections to come.

The age difference brings a new and fresh perspective to the laws and decisions being passed.

So how can Pierce College improve it’s voter awareness without infringing on students day to day routines?

For one, Pierce could post the online registration website link on our website, giving students a quick and easy way to get directed straight to the voter registration. Pierce could also have posters in designated areas on campus that give instruction on where and how they can go about the process, just to see these things on campus might spark the drive to want to do so. They should also include who is running and what propositions are up for vote. They could even go as far as creating voter awareness workshops, since there are already a variety of workshops that the campus provides for students.

The Center for American Progress reported that almost 92 million eligible Americans did not vote in the 2016 presidential elections, that is a abundant potential for a change in elected officials.

Pierce College should do it’s part in encouraging the youth to exercise their rights as Americans, and help them put the people they want in office and the propositions they agree with approved.

According to the California Secretary of State website, after the 15-day prior registration deadline, which has already passed, in most elections any individual may conditionally register to vote and cast a provisional ballot by visiting their county elections official. Midterm elections will take place on November 6 of this year. You can find your polling location at https://www.headcount. org/find-your-polling-place. newsroom.roundupnews@gmail.com