Tccd The Collegian February 8, 2023

TCC closes districtwide due to winter storm

TCC had to close campuses for four days due to an ice storm that swept the state of Texas.

On Monday Jan. 30, TCC issued a notice that all campuses would be closing at 1 p.m. that day due to inclement weather. The initial notice stated that the closure

CONNECT

would extend to the next day. Over the week, additional notices letting students and faculty know the status of the district were sent out until the district reopened on Friday at 10 a.m..

According to director of emergency management Kirk Driver, the weather over the week is classified as a winter storm and requires extensive monitoring from the winter weather team here at TCC.

“What we do as the winter weather team, it kind of starts with the department of emergency management and our relationship with the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth,” he said. “They integrate a lot with emergency managers across the region, and they provide us a level of detail for weather events. That would help us make it easier if we have to decide on a change of operations

for our organization.”

The winter weather team involves the department of emergency management, the police department, the chief operating officer, the vice chancellor for external affairs and communications and then the chancellor, Driver said. They are the ones who consider the reports given by the weather service as well as communicate with surrounding districts to determine

whether to close the campuses or not. In this case, the forecast that had come out on Sunday regarding the initial impact of the ice storm was not correct for the conditions that were seen on Monday, and that is when Driver had to have conference calls with the weather service and relay that information to the rest of the weather team. See Freeze, page 2

Navigating Valentine’s Day as a broke college student

as the only gift he is concerned about is his mother’s birthday which coincidentally falls on Valentine’s Day.

The FAFSA is here to provide numerous financial aid opportunities for high and low-income students across the nation.

Applying for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a great way to qualify for financial aid through things like work-study positions or federal grants. With the price of college growing steadily over time, knowing where to go in order to seize the chance to reduce the cost of education is important.

Consulting someone like a

counselor on campus who specializes in financial service is one of the best ways to start a FAFSA journey. TCC has dedicated financial aid offices with their own unique contact information available to all students.

“It’s [FAFSA] definitely important, and although some may not need it – it’s still very useful,” TCC financial aid representative Angelleana said.

Despite the handful of financial benefits, there seems to be a lack of information about it making the rounds. Not very many students know what the FAFSA specifically is or what it offers.

Connect student Alexie Uribe

said she is vaguely familiar with what the FAFSA is, but not yet familiar with what exactly it can provide.

“I am aware of it in general, but I do not really know the details of how it works and how to get it,” she said. While detailed information about financial aid isn’t quite as widespread on campus as it could be, Uribe still believed that it is valuable to college students.

“Higher education is important and not everyone can afford it,” she said. “It allows more people to have more opportunities.”

Connect student Caleb Wallen See FASFA, page 2

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, TCC students have weighed in their opinions on the day of love.

Initially, Valentine’s Day was created to honor Saint Valentine, the patron saint of love. The holiday has since evolved to celebrate love in its entirety. SE student Brendan Wilkins believed the holiday was a proper way to celebrate love.

“I think it’s a nice way to show appreciation to the person you love,” Wilkins said. “There’s a holiday for literally everything so it only makes sense for there to be one for relationships.”

In recent decades however, some feel that the holiday has commercialized. With corporations such as Hallmark and Hershe capitalizing on the holiday to sell romantic cards and chocolates respectively, many felt the holiday has lost its meaning, including NE student Jason Glover.

“I think it’s a glorified holiday,” Glover said. “Because when you think about it, Valentine’s Day is supposed to be a time where you spend with loved ones, and it’s been glorified to where everyone has to spend tons of money or else you don’t love your significant other.”

According to the National Retail Federation, Americans plan to spend $26 billion this year for Valentine’s Day. $2 billion more than in 2022.

Despite the statistic, the pressure to spend excessive amounts of money has never fazed Glover

Glover finds compromise on spending on a significant other with mutually budgeting $20 for Valentine’s Day and purchasing pricier gifts on birthdays.

“I feel no pressure whatsoever,” Glover said. “The only thing I do is buy a birthday gift. Whenever I am dating someone, I do buy a Valentine’s Day gift. But, it’s not gonna be an exuberant amount.”

For those not looking to break the bank or who prefer a more sentimental touch, many websites have articles dedicated to DIY gifts — such as date coupons or origami flowers. A student who requested to remain anonymous contended that creating homemade gifts for a significant other has more sentimental value than a purchase.

“It just shows you put the time and effort into that person rather than just buy and say ‘here you go,’” the student said. “I like to know the person put effort into our relationship.”

And if all fails, be creative and don’t resort to the box of chocolates.

“What is overdone on Valentine’s Day is the box of chocolates,” the student said. “The roses are overplayed, but I would rather accept that than the chocolates.”

Though not in a relationship, Wilkins has instead decided to designate the day of love for selfcare.

“For this upcoming one, I want to take myself out for a ‘me day’ so I’ll probably have a big budget,” Wilkins said.

Shewanda Riley Author, podcaster and associate English professor

ALEX HOBEN editor-in-chief alexandra.hoben@my.tccd.edu

XAVIER BOATNER campus editor xavier.boatner@my.tccd.edu

Alex Hoben/The Collegian

A man shovels ice off of his car when the snow and ice started to melt off. The storm began on Monday and caused the district to close down through Friday morning.

NINA BANKS campus editor nina.banks@my.tccd.edu

Joel Solis/The Collegian

NE student Gem Smikle uses the financial aid office in NADM speaking to an associate.

TCC students discuss the significance of financial aid, FAFSA

“Things just kind of amped up a little bit more for the Metroplex there Monday morning,” Driver said. “As soon as that became apparent then it was quick to have the winter weather team get together, review the information and see what’s going on. Then find out from our community partners and then let’s not waste any time and have conditions you know get worse for us.”

The report on Monday came out at 8:30 a.m., Driver said. Afterwards, the team met up and went over the data to determine if the school would be closing down. He said this was a difficult situation, especially choosing the timing, because there were already students and teachers on campus for classes and they were anticipating more coming in for midday classes, as well.

“So when is the best time? You really just don’t have a best time to say, ‘Now we’re going to close,’ it’s so many different moving elements there,” he said.

NE student Jadha Ragland said TCC didn’t respond quickly enough. As a student worker she would have to be on campus by 8 a.m., and when she looked at the conditions Monday morning, she could already tell that most roads wouldn’t be safe to travel on and had noticed most schools had already closed.

“It was disappointing because I imagine there are a lot of students who don’t have the resources to make an unnecessary trip to campus, myself included,” she said.

NE student Bronwyn Beasley shared this sentiment and said on Monday morning

she had already chosen to stay home because she thought that’d be the safest for her.

“But if I had attempted to travel for class and then had to turn back around, I would’ve been very disappointed and in danger of the hundreds of students simultaneously leaving campus,” Beasley said.

Ragland said that she was worried about the road conditions in her neighborhood and how it would affect her family, specifically her husband whose work didn’t close on Monday or Thursday that week.

“I was highly concerned because he works from 3 p.m. to roughly 3 a.m., which is the coldest time, and ice is less visible in the dark,” she said. “It made me realize how companies will quickly replace you in case of significant injury or death.”

Driver said that the Fort Worth office of the weather service has been a great help in situations like these, and the tools they provide as well as the reports and conference calls were essential in ensuring the TCC community was safe and informed during the storm.

“The number one factor is the safety of our students, faculty and staff if they’re going to have to leave their homes and then come into campus,” he said. “So that really is the number one decision for us as to what we do. But you know there are just so many different factors that we look at.”

said “I think it [FAFSA] is very important due to the rising costs of education,” Wallen said. “It has become a necessity for the majority of students to pay for school on their own.”

When asked whether or not she thinks enough students know about the FAFSA, Uribe said, “No, not really. I think they may know a little bit about it, but not enough to

avenues colleges and financial aid services could take to nudge students in the right direction in an unintrusive way.

“I think campuses could advertise better by creating a link for it in Canvas or in Web Advisor that is clear to see and easily accessible,” he said.

Angelleana said there are flyers strung up across TCC campuses to help point students in the right direction, but she believed the best way to spread the word is simply by word of mouth. She said a good place to start looking for more information is on the Tarrant County College webpage or the Federal Student Aid webpage.

“One of the best ways is for students to talk to each other,” Angelleana said.

Joel Solis/The Collegian

Joel Solis/The Collegian

Silver truck driver passes by on the icy roads in Arlington during the 2023 Texas winter storm in the beginning of February.

Gem Smikle uses the financial aid office located on NE campus in the NADM building to help with her financial needs this semester.

Love has become romanticized in media

Humanity is loving, and there is no doubt showing love the way Valentine’s Day intended is beautiful.

February’s first two weeks are a whirlpool of brilliant reds and pinks, saturated in the smell of candy behind wrapping in isles of goods. Though, it does seem stores start a little earlier on the marketing each year.

The aesthetic is vibrant. It’s cute, capitalizing and bold. It’s love!

But it’s also love that gets misheard, misused, misled.

People want to see and experience the love they recognize from what’s around them, and why shouldn’t they? What’s around people is influence wrapped in cellophane, branded as what you need and what people want.

The media’s influence on love makes it something enchanting, like it was chance and otherworldly influences that brought a pair together – no work needed.

It’s the kind of influence that told people that soulmates are the finale and the happy ending is right around the corner with just about any stranger. Don’t waste time! Or it’s the kind of influence that labels aggression, pain and disrespect the first step right before undying love as long as the other party endures it for long enough.

So, when the world grows up with the media in front of them displaying certain roles and expectations of grandeur, people

VIEWPOINTS

look for it to translate in their own life.

Real life has a different tune.

Love takes time, and there seems to be an emphasis on finding the one before it’s too late. There’s plenty of movies and shows out there, like the Netflix series “The

Kissing Booth,” of teenagers and young adults experiencing love right then and there. For watchers, suddenly it seems like it has to happen the way we watched it at the age it all happens. People find out eventually that the period after “The End” is

Public displays of affection is going too far for society

have a hand on theirs or holding onto their arm makes sense, people shouldn’t feel bad for that.

But in extreme cases that just brush the penal code, it is a matter of decency and respect for the people existing.

While it’s not a person’s job to cater to everyone else around them, it takes no effort to save certain things for anywhere that isn’t a public setting.

actually a comma and love is hard, rewarding work.

Unfortunately, relationships don’t start at the drop of a book in a high school hallway after crashing into someone. There is time that goes into starting the journey. The “talking stage” as we know it is

compressed into 20-ish minutes on screen that really should translate to maybe three months of getting to know someone before bigger decisions are made.

Trust and communication are arguably the foundations of a relationship. Love is not instantaneous. There is no cheat code to immediately unlock the “partner” achievement. Media is borderline lackluster showing the mechanisms of a relationship because it is not easy. It is earned. There is responsibility, consistency, honesty, words that have actual meanings and genuinely affect a relationship and may be a lot to grapple with, but relationships are a team. And when you love someone, the team isn’t a chore. Because love in the real world makes the hard work worth every second. Because at the end of every hard day, there is support and devotion to the person you love because of the way they are, their unique traits and the trust you put in them.

That is real, and sometimes real life is scary. Sometimes, people want to resort to an option that is safe, that changes the person in front of them so it soothes a desire inside to find that perfect person that will come without the work. Growing up is realizing that life is no Disney movie, and loving someone is no longer about the next world-ending event but how to grow with someone and foster a love that is enriched.

Extreme public displays of affection are a hop, skip and a jump away from being so weird it could encroach on certain federal laws given the right grounds.

It’s an extreme statement, but there’s only so many times one can simply exist in public and get hit with a blatant, wound up gut punch of PDA before a viewpoint has to be written. It’s been enough times – truth be told.

Call this the statement of an unreasonably angry hater, but if that’s what it has to be then this ball will roll regardless because the hate train departs soon and there’s no getting off once becoming a witness to a couple in the middle of a library with a weird issue with PDA.

It’s not even that they are in a relationship. It’s that people with PDA problems are in a relationship, and it’s become everyone else’s problem.

Because it should be said, people don’t need to be policed. Hold hands with people, that’s fine! Hug, highfive, kiss someone— probably someone you have kissed before— it is a free country, or free enough to where loving someone publicly is within a person’s right.

The love language of physical touch is valid. Wanting to just be near a person and

Sometimes all it takes is putting oneself into another’s shoes and ask, “Is this considered to be extreme for a public setting?” Or “Would I want to see other people doing this in a public setting?” Or even, “Should this be done where people and children read books?”—just to name a few things.

There is always a time and place. It’s not reasonable to force every other unconsenting party to just be okay with it because it’s in the moment. Why is the moment happening in public at all? Wouldn’t it be better if the moment were in a private place that would make it more personal and individual?

Also, it’s just awkward.

Standing in lines shouldn’t induce these certain reactions—one would think—and the fact that it would for some couples brings up a lot of awkward questions nobody wants to ask. Living in your own world isn’t so bad until others are standing maybe a foot away from said world. It’s got a distance-decay effect because now everyone in the vicinity has to acknowledge what’s going on.

In short, couples don’t need to feel like they are in a PG-13 rated movie but at the very least should respect the spaces around them because it’s everyone’s world to live in. It’s a little more bearable when everyone has enough respect for each other to the point where some things can just wait.

Finding a partner has its ups and downs. For Black women, it’s especially challenging.

According to Pew Research Center, Black women are the least likely to get married when it comes to demographics. With Eurocentric beauty standards influencing those who live in the western world’s view on attraction, this can leave women of color, and specifically Black women, feeling undesirable.

Darker skin and kinkier hair have been seen in a negative light for decades, but what does this mean for Black people, and Black women when it comes to finding a partner?

In an age where those who are seeking connection can just download a dating app on their phones and swipe right, the disparities can be even more apparent.

Black women not only have to learn how to love their features and embrace their true selves, but they also have to face stereotypes that may hurt their chances of romance.

The “angry Black woman” stereotype may negatively influence potential love interests into thinking that Black girls are just difficult or confrontational.

Also, they don’t tend to be associated with some of the hallmarks of femininity, such as being seen as delicate, gentle, and frail. Oftentimes in the media Black women are portrayed as being manly, aggressive or

even animalistic. Cartoons drawn of Serena Williams are an example of this. Racism plays a part in every facet of a Black person’s life. Romance is no exception. While it’s natural to wonder if a partner’s family and friends will be accepting of a new relationship, Black women have to consider whether or not that person’s family and friends will be willing to actually understand them. This is a reality for those dating outside of their race. Just because a partner makes them feel seen or heard, doesn’t mean their family will. What if they aren’t as accepting? What do you do?

On top of the friction that already tends to be created when two people are building such an intimate relationship with one another, now the couple has to consider how race affects their relationship. Connections tend to be built off of common interests, relatability, and familiarity. However, when it comes to dating, Black women may already have a disadvantage if they’re in a predominantly white space. Colorism is also a reality that Black women face. A woman’s proximity to whiteness may equate to her desirability in regards to romance, adding another layer to consider. Being the “pretty Black girl.” The one who may have lighter skin, lighter color hair and eyes, as well as a looser curl pattern. All of these factors create hurdles for Black women to do mental gymnastics when it comes to trying to attract a partner.

It’s important for Black women to know that they are pretty and desirable, just the way that they are. The right partner for them will not only know this, but be there to remind their Black wife, girlfriend, or partner when they’re not feeling confident in their own skin one day.

Tj Favela/The Collegian

TCC CHAIR MEMBER SHEWANDA RILEY SHARES HER EXPERIENCES AS A BLACK WOMAN IN EDUCATION

Teaching and sharing people’s stories, including her own, is an important part of best selling author, podcaster, associate English professor and TCC chair member Shewanda Riley’s life.

Riley didn’t know it at the time, but experiencing heartbreak after the end of a relationship put her on a course to not only grow as an individual, but progress in her career as a writer.

“I kept a journal, because I didn’t want to throw a brick through his car window and get arrested, or slash his tires,” Riley said. “You do a lot of things when you’re in love. You get devastated and hurt. It’s about what I ended up doing – which is turning those journals into a book.”

She never thought she’d write “Love Hangover: Moving From Pain to Purpose After a Relationship Ends”, but when the opportunity presented itself she told her story, became involved in educating others and ended up helping those interested in telling their own stories.

“I would answer the phones, help them with a little bit of coffee, as well as writing and editing,” Riley said. “I was only in high school, so they would never give me a big story, but I remember that experience led me to really thinking, ‘Okay, I think I want to do this professionally.’”

Along with her teaching and writing career, Riley also utilizes her radio background in her podcast, The Chocolate Auntie.

“I love my nieces and nephews,” Riley said. “I did research to see that there aren’t a lot of podcasts that deal with the experience of the African American aunt.”

With her experiences and desire to share her love of being an aunt, she developed a podcast focused on the importance of the role.

“My hope with the podcast is for people to see the value that aunts bring to the family structure,” Riley said. “I especially want African American aunts to be seen as the pivotal figures and roles that we play within the African American community.”

Learning how to exist and thrive in predominantly white spaces taught Riley how to show up authentically and passionately, greatly impacting her relationship with herself and her future projects, like The Chocolate Auntie.

“It could be challenging because there were times when your opinion wasn’t valued,” Riley said. “There were times when your abilities were not appreciated. Even though the space itself may have been uncomfortable, it was very important for me to be authentic. Even if the people around me didn’t get it, that was okay. I’ve learned that you just have to be authentic and true to yourself.”

Riley’s involvement at TCC is important to her as well. Her love for working with students has been the foundation of her time on campus.

“My first ten years at TCC, I was just teaching because I love dealing with students,” Riley said.

“That experience of getting dumped led me to do something I never thought I’d do –write a book. Which then led me to do other things like teach college English,” Riley said. “I wasn’t teaching English at the time, even though I wanted to, I was doing radio fulltime, but that one experience led me to being a writer now for a newspaper in Dallas that I’ve done for over 20 years – Dallas Weekly. I do writing workshops and I’ve helped other people get books published by coaching them through the process.”

Sharing her story with others was important to her and felt like the right thing to do.

“I really felt led by God to put my story out there, because it would then help other people, so that’s what I did,” Riley said.

Riley, the product of a military household, was able to experience the vastness of the world, and develop important parts of who she is today. It helped her to develop a love for travel, and created a sense of curiosity for the world around her.

“It was interesting being able to travel to different countries, and then hear my father talk about his experiences, because it allowed me to see how big and wonderful the world is,” she said.

Editor of her high school newspaper and yearbook staff, Riley wanted to gain experience in what she calls “the real world”.

Asst. English professor Annette Cole said Riley incorporates the skills she’s gained in her journalism career in her teaching at TCC.

“She’s innovative and seeks ways to engage her students,” Cole said. “Her teaching composition classes affords her the best opportunity to bring in her journalistic experience and her awareness of issues that face our students.”

Aside from the knowledge Riley is able to share, Cole said her influence is of great value as well.

“Dr. Riley has encouraged me to be more positive and accept that the challenges in our lives are there to strengthen and refine us,” she said.

Riley also serves as a TCC chair member. She’s a member of the JCC, joint consultation committee, where she is able to do something she loves – helping others.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself in terms of my own leadership, vision, and my leadership values, it’s a lot of fun,” she said.

Riley’s book also led her to an important realization about her service to others.

“In the end, the book helped and continues to help people deal with the devastation and disappointment of a romantic heartbreak, but then it also allowed me to realize that there’s a legacy that I leave behind with words that I write,” she said.

Photos by KJ Means/The Collegian NE associate English professor and TCC chair member Shewanda Riley poses on a swinging bench on NE Jan. 27. Her office is in NFAC.

KEYLA HOLMES campus editor keyla.holmes@my.tccd.edu

I’ve learned you just have to be authentic and true to yourself.

Shewanda Riley