May 1, 2014
Opinion
El Camino College Union 5
Campus viewpoints By: Rigo Bonilla @EccUnionRigo
Photos By: John Fordiani @EccUnionJohn
Excited for summer school?
Rigo Bonilla
Union Columnist @ECCUnionRigo
First, let me take a selfie
I
nstagram recently surpassed 200 million users. The point of Instagram? To brag about all the great things you
do. Get a new car? Instagram. About to pay the rent in cash and have a bunch of $100 bills? Instagram. (Make sure to forget to mention that the money is soon to be gone.) Six-pack, nice butt or new clothes? Instagram! It might have been the great philosopher Aristotle who said, “If you go to a sick show and you don’t Instagram it, did you really go?” Or maybe that was Nietzsche. But let’s not condemn our vivacious Instagram sisters and brothers. After all, it has legitimately become human nature to document our lives via cell phone camera and social media. (Credit Freud with that one.) Apps like Instagram went from non-existence to being in millions of pockets in the course of a few years. It makes sense that it would change how modern humans function in this society. It fulfills a basic human need to document our journey through life. Not only is it nice to remember fun memories, but the likes. Nobody can deny that the likes feel good. There’s nothing wrong with creating a highlight reel of your best moments, but that’s exactly what it is: a highlight reel. Don’t believe the hype. Even the golf highlights on “Sportscenter” are pretty entertaining. It’s easy to get caught up comparing yourself to your peers, especially in the college age. Most of us aren’t settled yet. Our lives are still up in the air. For most of us, it’s still possible to attain our wildest dreams and become successful, or live under the 405 sporting finger-less gloves. There’s no worse insecurity than the one that comes with the uncertainty of life. It can get bad if you’re constantly comparing the mundane moments of your life with the perfectly-angled lightfiltered selfies of others. Be fair to yourself. Realize that her selfie only looked good after 12 attempts and that his new car severely depreciated the second it left the lot. But really, it’s easy to get discouraged seeing others get great internships and acceptance letters while grinding it out here at community college. It’s a big world out there. With University of California at Los Angeles graduates out there struggling to find jobs, it can seem bleak for an EC student who might not even know what major to choose. Two-year schools are a chance for many to get everything straight before moving on to become functioning members of society. It’s like purgatory, except with more alcohol, drugs and social anxiety. It’s important to recognize individual strengths and realize that we’re all going through this life just trying to figure it out, no matter how together some of our peers might appear. Now, enough of this mushy positive stuff. When does this article come out? You better believe it’s going straight on Instagram. Have fun at summer school Warriors and keep those cell phones ready. Follow @ECCUNION and tag us in any pictures that share your EC experience.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author. They do not represent the views or opinions of the Union, its staff, editorial board or advisers.
Karen Lopez, 22, biomedical engineering major “The classes are shorter, so it’ll go by faster and you’ll be able to take more classes. I think it’s a good thing.”
Illustration by Eugene Chang/ Union
UP FOR DEBATE
Michael Marquez, 29, fire tech major. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for students because summer is their time to take a break and travel and go do family stuff. Summer is a shortened semester so people don’t want to take important classes with a lot of material. You need more time to absorb the material.”
Is the new summer session going to work? Winter is dead, bring on the longer summer
Stick with the crowd, bring back winter
Who takes classes during winter sessions anyway? Good riddance, if you ask me. I for one was never a fan of rushing back to school right after the holiday season. Students are still trying to get that extra time in with the family rather than sitting in the same class for hours on end. You’re waking up to freezing Jean-Paul Udeh weather, thinking about your bed and Staff Writer @ECCUnionJean that new pair of holiday pajamas your mother got you for Christmas. You’re mad that you’re in class for four days straight for the next six weeks. Wishing you actually took the time off readjusting your brain before it goes into school overload and end up bombing all your classes. This three-separate summer session schedule will not only revolutionize the community college school system, but the university level as well. I see EC being the “Hallmark” of the academic calendar. Students now have the opportunity to take a serious break from classes right after the spring semester and still have a chance to take classes in the summer. Let’s be honest, two weeks between semesters just doesn’t even cut it. Rather than showing up for classes May 21, students could choose to come back for either the eight-week session that starts June 16 or the six-week, which starts July 7. The summer session is so spread out, that for the first time student are able to add a bucket load of classes. Take it from me; I’m already registered with 18 units for this upcoming summer. Eliminating the winter session is not only in the best interests of students, but it will also save the school lots of money. Not to mention that’s one less catalog the school has to print out, talk about being environmentally friendly. The consensus from students around campus is that they’re happy with the new academic calendar. The idea of having an early start for the summer should win over anyone. I can’t think of any good reason for El Camino to reinstate the winter session, could you?
There’s something to be respected in most trendsetters. Those who are brave enough to break away from the established pack, and try to do things their own way. Of course, trendsetting comes with an inherent risk; sometimes, the trend doesn’t catch on, and the trendsetter is left alone in the cold. Or in this case, in a stuffy classroom in the middle of summer. Thomas Schmit In theory, the idea of cramming Copy Editor @ECCUnionThomas three different sessions into a single summer doesn’t sound like such a bad plan. Transfer students can get their last few requirements in before the fall semester, and incoming high schoolers will be able to sign up for summer classes. That’s important, because EC is going to be in desperate need of those high schoolers. The reason the fresh students are so needed is that in order to make room for these new summer sessions, EC has had to mangle it’s scheduling so hideously that it’s almost completely incompatible with those of other colleges in the area. Once upon a time, if a class wasn’t offered at EC, students could spend the winter or summer at another college before coming back for spring or fall, and vice versa. Now students are pretty much left with the choice of attending only EC, or being able to attend everywhere else. Now, with the flow of students from other schools seriously curtailed, it’s EC’s wallet that will feel the sting. Less students in our classes means less money from the state, and despite all of the fees students pay, the funds from the state is where the majority of the school’s money comes from. That couldn’t be a problem though, right? Of course, it’s not like anyone took winter classes anyways. Well, other than those athletes who have to spend their summers in training. I’m sure the EC hockey team wouldn’t mind if it actually existed. There’s also those crazy folks who would rather be sitting in class during the gloomy, cold parts of the year, rather than during the height of the world famous California summer. I’m sure they’ll be fine if they just pray to get classes in a relatively new classroom, rather than in ovens like those in the Administration Building. On second thought, how about EC just goes back to following the crowd?
Roy Buchanan, 22, psychology major “I feel like there should be one section in the winter and one section in the summer. School should be year-round. It’s like jam packing everything into summer. There should be more of a balance.”
Adam Rudow, 20, computer science engineering major “I think we should just let it go, but then again families of the people who were on board the plane want closure, so it’s good that they are keeping up to date on it.”
Karen Carrillo, 22, undecided major “I don’t know, I think it would have been better to make one big summer session. I think it’s bad that there’s no winter session because now people won’t be able to get out of school faster.”