The Telescope 67.14 by The Telescope

UPCOMING EVENTS

Palomar Baseball player Dillan Smith

Summer 2014 Registration • April 29 Intersession• May 20 - June 13 Spring 2014 Political Economy Days • April 16-17 8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. @ San Marcos Campus Love on a Leash • April 23 10 a.m. @ San Marcos Campus

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Palomar College’s Independent Newspaper

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Project “P” • April 25 8 a.m. @ Lot 9

Vol. 67, No. 14 • Monday, April 14, 2014

HOW IS YOUR MONEY SPENT? Key differences exist between Palomar College and other California community colleges when it comes to processes and procedures regarding the student activities fund. Each college has discretion in how funds are procured and administered.

Student Ashley Cobbe holds up her student activity card in front of the Wellness Center on April 9. Cobbe thinks funds raised by the card go towards campus beautification • Yolanda Granados/ The Telescope

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RALPH CHAPOCO THE TELESCOPE

Palomar College, like many other community colleges, offers benefits for those who purchase a student ID card or activities card. The benefits range from complimentary printing and food to transportation discounts and specialized event incentives. The revenue generated from the cards goes into the OSA student activities fund. A portion of the funds provide for the benefits advertised by the OSA and for various events on campus. Additionally, faculty and staff can request for funds out of the student activities budget for their own purposes simply by filling out a form and submitting it to the Office of Student Affairs. Once a funding request has been submitted, Sherry Titus, director of the OSA, in consultation with her colleagues in the office, will decide whether or not to fund the event. At Palomar, students play no role in the decision process. This makes Palomar different from the other California community colleges, where students are the primary arbiters in determining if events are to be funded. At San Diego City College the ASG votes on each and every proposal during its meetings. The proposal is put on the agenda, discussed, and voted upon. At Mira Costa College, there are two mechanisms; the first is an open enrollment period where various groups can submit proposals and the ASG will debate and vote on all proposals to determine whether or not it wishes to fund the various events. The second mechanism operates similarly to San Diego City College; a proposal is submitted and the ASG will discuss and vote on each proposal at the meeting.

Saddleback College will decide to disburse its funds at the beginning of the academic year by fielding requests from various groups on campus. The ASG will then decide whether or not to fund an event and will aggregate all of those events to lay out its budget for the coming academic year. Furthermore, the Saddleback’s ASG allocates funding to the different academic departments and faculty can obtain funds by simply asking their respective department heads.

Palomar on average will sell 11,000 cards every academic year, yielding $165,000 in revenues.

Not surprisingly, the amount of revenue generated from the sale of the card differs as well. According to Titus, Palomar on average will sell 11,000 cards every academic year, yielding $165,000 in revenues. Contrast that with Saddleback, which sells 6,500 cards at $10 per student, yielding $65,000 per academic year. While Mira Costa sells 2,600 cards at $5, generating $13,000 worth of revenue. Palomar’s revenue numbers dwarf those of Saddleback and Mira Costa, but it is the administrative costs that make Palomar stand out.

JUMP TO OSA PAGE 7

ASG Vice President lobbies for smoking areas

CLIFF IRELAND THE TELESCOPE

Associated Student Government Vice President Shant Soghomonian plans to introduce a new bill to revise Palomar College’s prohibition on smoking. Soghomonian wants to bring back designated smoking areas that were banned when The Governing Board approved policy BP 3570, Smoking and/or Other Tobacco Use in July 2011. The policy states there shall be no smoking or use of tobacco-related products on Palomar Community College District Property. According to former Palomar Police Chief Anthony Cruz, the ban starts the minute you enter the front entrance of Palomar all the way into

the entire campus including parking lots. Soghomonian acknowledges that smokers ignore the policy and can be seen smoking in former designated smoking areas such as in front of the library. As an environmental studies major, that is one of the reasons he wants Palomar to have official designated smoking areas. “My issue is they just don’t smoke there, they smoke all around it too,” Soghomonian said. “There’s people who climb on top of the rocks and stuff and they smoke up there so all that plantation around is being trampled by those people just hanging out.” As a smoker for 20 years, Soghomonian considers himself to be the smoker’s representative on campus

because it was a group of smokers who helped him get into ASG. “When I decided to join the ASG in the latter part of Fall 2013 semester, I required 50 signatures from currently registered students, the majority of my “votes” came from the community of smokers…,” Soghomonian wrote in an email. One solution he is considering presenting is assigning a smoking section in the parking lot. He suggested having four to six parking spots possibly fenced in with a canopy, benches and ashtrays. Soghomonian said that having a smoking area on asphalt would be easier for clean up reducing time that is needed by facilities when smokers throw their butts in the landscape in front of the library.

An area outside of the Palomar College library that is often used by students for a smoke break. Smoking on campus is prohibited. • Cliff Ireland/The Telescope

JUMP TO SMOKING PAGE 7

2 • NEWS

Monday, April, 14 2014

BRIEFS Politcal economy lectures offered on campus

Palomar College will be holding its semi-annual Political Economy Days, a series of talks on political, economic and historical topics from April 16-17. The talks aim to educate participants in the topics and applications of political, economic and historical thought. Each lecture will be presented by experts in the fields of economics, history, anthropology, political science, philosophy, law and multicultural studies. Everyone is invited to the free event, although each talk is limited by room capacity. The talks go from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the MD and SSC buildings. Exact locations and times can be found at www.palomar.edu/ehp.

into UC (University of California) schools. On Friday, April 25, the Transfer Center will be taking a bus up to the University of California Los Angeles campus for the 15th annual UCLA STOMP transfer conference. The conference consists of financial aid workshops, academic preparation for upper division classes, graduate school information and much more. There will also be a tour of the UCLA campus. Transportation is free, and lunch will be provided. In order to sign up, go to the transfer counseling office (SSC building) or the ASG office (SU-102 and SU-104) as well as register online on UCLA’s STOMP website. The bus leaves Palomar at 6:45 a.m. and will return around 5:30 p.m.

STEM hosting student event at Cal State San Marcos

Celebrating the civil rights movement on campus

If you are a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics student looking for research opportunities at Cal State San Marcos, then the STEM program has the event for you. The Palomar STEM program is hosting its HSI STEM Student Symposium on Friday, April 18, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. in room NS-139. At the symposium, you can connect with current student researchers, experience the research that current CSU San Marcos undergrads are producing, find out what student programs and STEM majors exist at CSU San Marcos, as well as take advantage of the opportunities to increase your awareness of student research opportunities at the school. Lunch will be provided at the event.

Transfer conference being held at UCLA

The Transfer Center wants to assist Palomar students with getting

Palomar College’s Multicultural Studies Department will celebrate the Civil Rights Movement on Wednesday, April 16, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Civil Rights Festival will take place at the free speech area near the San Marcos campus clock tower. Students, staff and faculty are encouraged to attend the free event. The event will include guest speakers, live music and food for those in attendance.

Finding your niche in graphic communications event

Palomar’s Graphic Communications department would like to welcome all students to its 17th annual Graphic Communications Career Day. On Tuesday, April 15, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., you can meet professionals, learn job search strategies and network with other companies. The event will be held in the lower level of the MD building. For a complete list of speakers.

5.6 TRILLION cigarette butts are deposited into the global environment each year

Cigarette butts are NOT biodegradable. The earth is your future, not your ashtray! Please join us in celebrating

Earth Day on April 22nd at the quad and help us promote a healthier environment on and off campus. To learn about our Smoking Cessation Program, please call the Health Center at (760) 744-1150, extension 2380. #TobaccoFreeEarthDay ©2014, Department of Public Health.

Members of the Associated Student Government travel to Washington D.C., March 15 - 18. (L-R) Senators Salvador Orozco, Carlos Araujo, Katelyn Morikawa and ASG President Genesis Gilroy at the Capitol. Photo Courtesy of Genesis Gilroy

Student leaders advocate for student financial relief CHRISTINE FORONDA THE TELESCOPE

Palomar College’s Associated Student Government, along with representatives from various community colleges from around the nation, traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the annual American Student Association of Community Colleges conference March 15-18. President Genesis Gilroy and Senators Carlos Araujo, Katelyn Morikawa and Salvador Orozco, accompanied by Advisor Sherry Titus, went as Palomar College representatives to the ASACC conference, which is a national student advocacy conference. “Every year ASACC gets all the community colleges together and they present the most hot topic issues that are relevant to students and affect students that year,” Gilroy said. According to Gilroy, the purpose of the event was to learn leadership skills by attending workshops and seminars. They also went to advocate to congressional offices three proposals: increase of Pell Grant funding, Development, Relief, and Education

for Alien Minors Act, also known as the DREAM Act, and the Student and Family Tax Simplification act. Gilroy said that the first proposal was to increase Pell Grant maximum and reinstate eligibility for certain low-income students. “Every year Pell Grant gets an increase of $85 per student,” she said. “We asked all of our congressional offices to support the proposed increase and restore eligibility for students.” She added that if the Pell Grant increase helps pay for textbook prices and other fees, more students would be able to afford their classes. The second proposal the ASG advocated for was the DREAM Act. According to an ASACC document, the DREAM Act is to help undocumented students enroll and pay for college and find employment by giving them legal resident status. “These (students) are undocumented because their parents brought them across the border so they didn’t have a choice,” Gilroy explained. “This act allows them avenues to become legal faster and easier so they can begin attending school.” The third issue the ASG support-

ed involved a relatively new piece of legislation called the Student and Family Tax Simplification Act. The document provided by ASACC stated that this act “makes much needed improvements to programs that were designed to help students and their families pay for higher education costs.” Gilroy said when filing taxes, this act assimilates three different tax returns (Hope Tax Credit, Tuition and Fees Deduction and Lifetime Learning Credit) into “one simple easy thing during your tax filing so it’s easier for people to get these benefits.” She said she believes that if this act passes it would greatly help the demographics of students at Palomar College. Gilroy described learning and advocating these proposals to the offices as the bulk and objective of the trip. “I am so excited to go advocate in offices and here now that I know it’s not scary,” she added. “I think that we really got our point across and I’m really excited to see easier money in student’s hands.” CFORONDA@THE-TELESCOPE.COM

NEWS • 3

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Financial aid disbursement discussed at meeting CHRISTOPHER BULLOCK THE TELESCOPE

Palomar student Juan Lopez hangs a poster of Chesar Chavez during Palomar’s Cesar Chavez Day.•Yolanda Granados / The Telescope

Cesar Chavez event features speech from former colleague RALPH CHAPOCO THE TELESCOPE

In honor of Cesar Chavez Day, the MEChA Club invited Ken Seaton Msemaji, political director of Sheet Metal Workers Local 206, to speak about the civil rights activist. For over 30 minutes, he spoke and commemorated the man who he says changed his life. “I was fortunate enough to work with him, be trained by him, educated by him for almost a few decades,” Msemaji said. Msemaji looked back fondly on the time that he spent with Chavez and mentioned that he learned a lot in the time spent with him. He said he remembers Chavez as one of the most determined people he ever met. He described how Chavez only had an eighth grade education, how he always read books and how he had to educate himself about the world around him. “After a while he was probably more educated than people with Ph.D.s,” Msemaji said. He also described how resilient Chavez was and how he could take any situation and circumstance and turn it into a positive situation. In terms of his personality Chavez was soft spoken and was not a “firebrand” and some have criticized him for that. During Msemaji’s speech he spoke to students about what made

Guest speaker Ken Seaton Msemaji speaks to students about his time spent working with Cesar Chavez at the Student Quad, March 31. •Yolanda Granados / The Telescope

Cesar Chavez such a great person to be around: Chavez’s ability to look at others with compassion, how to make a difference and how to disagree without being disagreeable. “He wanted to get the working poor organized in a way to empower themselves to improve their quality of life,” he added. In what some have described as his most memorable line he said, “Don’t try to get even, instead of getting even just simply be a better person.“ When he is not at speaking at Palomar College, Msemaji is working with local businesses to try and get them to hire unionized workers.

He said he believes in unions and in how they try to enhance the lives of their members. Overall, the speech was received well by students in attendance based on their reactions. “What I learned from Ken is that you need to learn to work with people instead of arguing with them,” said Ric Costellano, the president of MEChA at Palomar College. Another audience member, MEChA’s Treasurer Adrian Alvarez said,” I think the point is not to give up. If you set your goals high then you will achieve them.” RCHAPOCO@THE-TELESCOPE.COM

Progress and controversy was the name of the game at the most recent Governing Board meeting. At the April 8 board meeting, Vice President of Student Services Adrian Gonzales, outlined the initial plan for a new form of financial aid disbursement. The financial aid and fiscal offices are currently working with student services on possibly dispersing financial aid through a debit card. “A lot of schools have moved toward essentially a debit card, where your financial aid gets distributed electronically and you can withdraw funds through a special ATM at the school,” Gonzales said. Initially, trustees Nancy Chadwick and Mark Evilsizer had a couple of questions regarding the issue of hidden fees and other options of disbursement. When asked about that, Gonzales was adamant about being open and transparent. “Legislation has now been coming out and saying ‘you can’t have locked in fees.’ You have to be very transparent in how you process this: we want to make sure that these students have an option that if they want their check to be distributed electronically through their own checking account...that it will be perfectly fine,” Gonzales said. Later in the meeting, Palomar Faculty Federation co-president Shannon Lienhart talked about her attendance at the first annual Net-

work for Public Education conference in Austin, Texas, last month. The conference was put together to place a focus on stopping the corporate takeover of public education. “We’re really focused on what we consider the ‘big battle’ right now, a group called California Competes (a group funded by the same people who fund ACCJC, the Lumina Group, etc.), they filed a lawsuit a year ago which would have repealed AB-1725, taking away faculty senates from community colleges,” Lienhart said. She added, “We’re keeping a close eye on that.” Toward the end of the meeting, the board and its trustees voted to approve a resolution on SB-850, which would allow a number of community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees in specific majors. While trustees Chadwick, Evilsizer and Nancy Ann Hensch agreed to the resolution, student trustee Genesis Gilroy voted no, which drew a bit of shock from Governing Board president Paul MacNamara. “I’d like to know why you say nay, but we are beyond discussion so I’ll just talk to you after the meeting,” MacNamara said. He added, “I’d like your thoughts on that and wish you had brought that up in discussion.” With that, they ended the meeting and looked toward the next special meeting on April 22. CBULLOCK@THE-TELESCOPE.COM

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4 • OPINION

Monday, April 14, 2014

Divided California

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To divide or not to divide? That is the question. A venture capitalist wants to divide the state into six and the issue will be up for a vote. PAIGE HARVEY

Focused On Palomar

THE TELESCOPE

Monday, April 14, 2014 Vol. 67, No. 14 Palomar College, San Marcos, Calif.

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. If you ever thought about getting a California silhouette tattoo, you might want to reconsider. A proposal to split California into six different states is going to be available to voters in November. California, the nation’s most populous state, offers the best of all worlds, and splitting into six different states would be a huge mistake. The master behind this idea is venture capitalist, Tim Draper, and his idea is flawed. The vision is to divide the state by region; the new states would be Jefferson, followed by North California, Silicon Valley, Central California, West California and South California. Draper says the reason behind splitting the states is so decisions can be more relevant to the population, and each state can start fresh. Draper received approval from the state to start collecting petition signatures to qualify the proposal for the ballot. He needs about 800,000 signatures by mid-July to make the cut.

CLIFF IRELAND EDITOR IN CHIEF MARISSA MILLOY MANAGING EDITOR CHRISTINE FORONDA NEWS EDITOR CHRISTOPHER BULLOCK NEWS EDITOR JAVIER PEREZ OPINION EDITOR LLOYD BRAVO A&E EDITOR SUSAN WHALEY SPORTS EDITOR RALPH CHAPOCO FOCUS EDITOR SCOTT COLSON ONLINE EDITOR STEPHEN DAVIS PHOTO EDITOR YOLANDA GRANADOS PHOTO EDITOR WENDY NELSON ADVISER DEB HELLMAN BUSINESS MANAGER STAFF WRITERS ARIANNE ANTONIO, LOTTIESHA BLANDON, MEGAN BUBAK, PAIGE HARVEY, STEVE KIRCH, JASON KLINGERMAN, JOSHUA LAPORTE, MICHAIL MARININ, REBECCA PETERS, JOSHUA RAY, DAVID SHRUM, JUAN ZUNIGA

PHARVEY@THE-TELESCOPE.COM

Illustration By Javier Perez /The Telescope

PHOTOGRAPHERS JOSEPH DAVIS, STEVE PORTER, LUCAS SPENSER, LUCY WHEELER ADDRESS THE TELESCOPE PALOMAR COLLEGE 1140 W. MISSION ROAD, SAN MARCOS, CA 92069 PHONE / 760-891-7865 NEWSROOM / MD-228 WEBSITE/ WWW.THE-TELESCOPE.COM FACEBOOK/ SEARCH “THE TELESCOPE” TWITTER/ @TELESCOPENEWS EMAIL/ EDITOR@THE-TELESCOPE.COM AD EMAIL/ ADS@THE-TELESCOPE.COM THE TELESCOPE WELCOMES ALL LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. LETTERS MUST BE TYPEWRITTEN, UNDER 300 WORDS AND INCLUDE THE AUTHOR’S FIRST AND LAST NAMES, MAJOR AND PHONE NUMBER. PHONE NUMBERS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. LETTERS SHOULD BE EMAILED TO EDITOR@THE-TELESCOPE. COM. THE TELESCOPE RESERVES THE RIGHT TO EDIT LETTERS FOR SPACE AND GRAMMATICAL ERRORS AND NOT TO PRINT LEWD OR LIBELOUS LETTERS. LETTERS MUST BE RECEIVED ONE WEEK PRIOR TO THE NEWSPAPER’S PUBLICATION TO BE CONSIDERED FOR INCLUSION. THE TELESCOPE IS PUBLISHED 8 TIMES PER SEMESTER. OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THE NEWSPAPER ARE THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL WRITERS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THOSE OF THE ENTIRE NEWSPAPER STAFF, PALOMAR FACULTY AND STAFF MEMBERS OR THE GOVERNING BOARD TRUSTEES.

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“California residents would be better served by smaller governments,” Draper said. What he doesn’t realize is that six new states means six new governments, six new state constitutions and six new state supreme courts. No one would be willing to give California 12 Senate seats. It is obvious that California is home of rivalries, Chargers or 49ers, Dodgers or Giants. Where the water goes, etc. But the state has proven resilient against attempts to split it apart since its founding in 1850. California is as diverse demographically as it is geographically, but still, everyone takes pride in being a Californian. We don’t only have to provide great culture here, but we spread it around. Thanks to Hollywood, California has the biggest collection of internationally recognized household names. California also has some of the most photographed places, including Yosemite and Death Valley. California has faced tough times since the financial crisis, but it is not broken. It doesn’t make sense to throw away the past one and a half centuries of success the state has had as a whole because of one man’s need to live in a less populated state. There is Wyoming for that.

What Facebook is not sharing JOSHUA LAPORTE THE TELESCOPE

Facebook has failed its users. Updates and overhauls to Facebook’s user interface have caused a commotion in the past, but new changes are going beyond that and are absolutely destroying Facebook’s function as a social networking site. Facebook is creating problems that are causing users to suffer and in a devious move are trying to sell the populace on a ‘solution’ that only makes the problem worse. Behind the guise of Facebook’s crackdown on follower fraud, the site and the click farms in question are both growing and pocketing the money of unsuspecting social media users. Almost everyone on Facebook has followers who they would rather not have to deal with. Creeps who follow silently, don’t like anything and probably aren’t even real friends. Usually they are easy to ignore, but not so much anymore. Most people are familiar with click farms; favored monetization

scam of the deepest dredges of the Internet. These people will do mundane or tedious tasks online for money, including ‘liking’ Facebook pages. Because this activity is illegal, and the morals of workers being paid a single dollar for every 1000 likes are questionable at best, Facebook has tried hunting them down. In response, click farmers will cover their tracks by also liking pages that aren’t paid for. This means that anyone on Facebook can be a victim of bogus followers. And there is no way to get rid of them. This becomes a problem because Facebook uses your followers to judge how to promote content on the site. Whenever a post is made, Facebook sends it out to a fraction of the user’s followers to gauge their reaction. The more interaction the post receives, the more it is distributed, but the system works in reverse as well. Not surprisingly, click farmers and fake followers don’t really care about

what you have to say. The more of them a user has, the less publicity their posts get, even within their own circle of friends, as the phoneys bog down the system and make content look boring and uninteresting. To help combat this downward trend of fakes ruining pages, Facebook has offered customized, paid advertising, rather than fixing their system to look around fakes. For a small fee, users can have Facebook use targeted ads for content to reach people who care. Derek Muller, who uses Facebook to advertise his channel Veritasium on Youtube, did just this in an experiment. He created Virtual Cat, a page devoted to providing only the most pointless and mindless content, that only an idiot would follow, as he said in the page’s description. Muller then paid for Facebook ads, targeting places that didn’t have click farms, and watched as over the course of few minutes as the budget vanished entirely for 39 likes. Muller followed this with a post

explaining the issue, and asking the followers to explain why they clicked like. Eight users saw the post, zero responded. On closer inspection, all the followers were click farm fakes. Even with targeted advertising from Facebook itself, users are often followed by a multitude of bogus click farm likes. When this cuts down on the engagement on ones page, the solutions boil down to dealing with the issue and struggling to work around by hand, or paying for advertising to reach more people, including the fakes. Facebook is making money just by the mere existence of click farms, and thus far has utterly failed to do anything significant about the problem. Forget your Ex from high school and the unceasing flood of annoying FarmVille invites, Facebook is charging just to do what everyone signed up for in the first place. Unless Facebook puts and end to this money grabbing scheme, there is no hope for the future of the site. JLAPORTE@THE-TELESCOPE.COM

OPINION •5

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Women deserve place in sports world reporting REBECCA PETERS THE TELESCOPE

Most people associate sports and athleticism with men. However, there is reluctance to women sharing the same spotlight as men. More women are making groundbreaking achievements in the sports world, such as the first women’s ski hill jump in this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi. More women are showing up to sporting events to catch the game’s best hit or scoring play, not just as fans but also as reporters. However in a society that deems itself as anti-discriminatory, women in the sportscasting industry are still being viewed as the ‘Barbie dolls’, regardless of their education, athletic background, knowledge or passion for sports. They’re underpaid, undervalued, underestimated and overworked. One case involved Lisa Olson of the Boston Herald who found herself surrounded by a group of New England Patriots making aggressive and vulgar comments at her. Her home was later burglarized, her car tires were slashed and she received death threats. A study done by Walter Gant and Lawrence Wenner in Men, Women and Sports: Audience Experiences and Effects, surveyed just over 700 people, 50 percent of the men expressed that they were considerably interested in sports. Close to 24 percent of the women said the same. Even though more men show invinterest in sports than women, there’s no reason why women shouldn’t be able to obtain the same opportunities as men in a career of sports broadcasting. Even though there are currently more women being employed in the industry than ever, approximately 90 percent in the industry are white men. In 2013, the Women’s Media Center released a report titled “The Status of Women in the U.S. Media” showing the percentages of men and women working in the industry. The report found 94 percent of sports editors were men, 90 percent of columnists were men, and 89 percent of reporters were men.

Editorial Cartoon

To make matters worse, that small percentage of women in the industry will have a career that will last no more than 10 years and most of them won’t reach a management position. Not only are the percentages of men over women in the industry deplorable, the experiences that women have behind the scenes are mind blowing. Women don’t hold employment for more than ten years because of the pressure to look younger and better than their competition. At the age of 46, Leslie Visser, who was a host for ABC’s Monday Night Football, was replaced by Melissa Stark, who was only twenty-six. Donna De Varona, another ABC host and former Olympic swimmer, filed a $50 million age and gender discrimination lawsuit against ABC. De Varona believed that replacing a woman because of her age takes away the public’s ability to watch women grow into seasoned sports journalists. Newsrooms are bombarded with emails about a reporter’s hairstyle or outfit, yet men don’t receive any of this negative attention. Not only are women hassled from the newsroom but they’re harassed by the athletes in locker rooms too. This evidence shows that women are being hired as sports broadcasters for other reasons besides their knowledge in sports. It’s alarming that 90 percent of the industry is men. Yet even when a report card is provided proving that these broadcasting networks are failing at being fair toward race and gender year after year there is still nothing being done to make it better. If women can’t be a reporter for more than 10 years then they should at least be given the opportunity to work in a management position, where their lipstick and heels are not required. Unfortunately this is a problem that has been swept under the rug for years and it looks like women are going to be the ones expected to clean up the mess.

“Over 30 years and I am still here? HAHAHAHAHA!”

Illustration by Javier Perez / The Telescope

RPETERS@THE-TELESCOPE.COM

Time to expose the CIA’s ‘dark side’ LOS ANGELES TIMES MCT CAMPUS

Cartoon by Nate Beeler / MCT Campus

More than a year after it approved a report critical of the CIA’s interrogation and detention policies, the Senate Intelligence Committee has voted to make a part of the document public. It’s now up to President Obama to ensure that the agency doesn’t mount a rear-guard attempt to censor or sanitize the committee’s findings in the name of national security. Thanks to news reports and a report by the CIA’s inspector general, Americans long have been aware of both the broad outlines and some abhorrent details of the Bush administration’s mistreatment of suspected terrorists after 9/11. We know that suspects were transported for questioning to “black sites” abroad, and that two suspected al-Qaida operatives, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, were subjected to waterboarding. And we have read the memos in which Bush administration lawyers used contorted reasoning

to justify torture. But the Intelligence Committee’s 6,200-word report, based on a review of millions of pages of documents, contains additional accounts of abuse, including (according to a Washington Post report) the alleged repeated dunking of a terrorism suspect in tanks of ice water at a site in Afghanistan. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the Intelligence Committee chairwoman who aggressively has sought its declassification, said the report “exposes brutality that stands in stark contrast to our values as a nation.” More important, those who have read the report say it concludes that waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” yielded little valuable intelligence that couldn’t have been obtained by other means. Of course, torture wouldn’t be justifiable even if it “worked”; but if there is evidence that the use of inhumane methods was ineffective as well as immoral, that constitutes another indictment of a policy former Vice President Dick Cheney

described as operating on “the dark side.” Last week the committee voted to declassify the report’s 480-page executive summary along with 20 findings and conclusions, but that represents only the beginning of the disclosure process. The executive branch will now determine which portions of the document must be redacted to protect sensitive national security information. The Central Intelligence Agency has promised that it will do its part to ensure that the declassification review proceeds “expeditiously.” But the agency complained that a previous version of the report contained serious errors _ a charge echoed by the committee’s Republican vice chair _ and it has a vested interest in suppressing information that would sully its reputation. That is why the president, who has sent mixed signals about the importance of confronting the abuses of the past, must make thorough and timely declassification of this report a personal priority.

6 • NEWS

Monday, April 14, 2014

Studio dedicated in loving memory Being at Palomar was a great fit for Jonathan. He found himself here and found himself at this radio station. This is where he blossomed and realized that he had skills and talents and could take his enthusiasm and sense of humor that got him in trouble through out his school years, all of the sudden there was a positive place for it Mary Curran-Downey

Mary Curran-Downey and KKSM Manager Zeb Navarro embrace while holding Johnathan Downey’s plaque in the KKSM studio on April 1. • Photo courtesy by Serena Reid

MARISSA MILLOY THE TELESCOPE

It was a joyful and somber celebration for Palomar’s radio station KKSM. The station celebrated its 18 year anniversary on the air April 1, while also honoring one of its own. KKSM dedicated one of its studios to former student and Palomar alumnus Jonathan Downey.

Downey died suddenly from a heart attack in July 2012, he was 22. A plaque with Downey’s photo will now hang in his memory outside of Studio A at the station, which was rededicated as the “Jonathan Downey On-Air Studio,” according to the KKSM Facebook page. Downey’s mother, Mary Curran-Downey, was present for the revealing and hanging of the plaque.

“I was so touched, I just thought it was the nicest thing in the world for the people to do this. They are a real radio family and it is a perfect thing. Jonathan is just smiling now and loving it and I had to see these folks again,” Curran Downey said. Downey graduated from Palomar in Spring 2012 with two associate degrees in radio and television, and university studies. He worked for several years in both the Palomar radio and television departments. Downey co-hosted multiple KKSM radio shows including his own personal broadcast “Downey Fresh,” a show that played heavy rock and metal chosen by Downey. “Being at Palomar was a great fit for Jonathan. He found himself here and he found himself at this radio station. This is where he blossomed and realized that he had skills and talents…,” Curran-Downey said. MMILLOY@THE-TELESCOPE.COM

Congress allows Veteran’s benefit to expire DAVID SHRUM THE TELESCOPE

Over 72,000 veterans are scrambling to find funding for their educational pursuits after Congress failed to extend the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program, part of the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act of 2011. The VRAP, which ended March 31, was a program that offered up to 12 months of training benefits to unemployed veterans age 35 to 60. The VA no longer accepted applications to the program after October 31, 2013, and is continuing to pay educational benefits to those currently enrolled until June 30. “I think it’s definitely a big mistake,” said 62 year-old Palomar College student veteran Steven Crooks. Crooks noted that he is past the age limit to enroll in the program, but said he finds it unsettling that another veteran benefit is taken off the table. “(Veterans) are very capable people, they’re very trainable people, and they’re also patriotic people and to squander them is really just shooting yourself in the foot,” Crooks said. In a White House blog post by Colonel Rich Morales, Executive Director for Joining Forces, and Curtis L. Coy, Deputy Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for the Office of Economic Opportunity, the VRAP program was enacted after Congress passed the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act of 2011. According to the post, the “VRAP was specifically designed to cover veterans who are not eligible to receive G.I. Bill educational benefits.” According to the VA website, veterans must be unemployed at the time of application for VRAP and must attend full-time training courses in order to receive educational benefits that pay out $1600 a month.

“You’re a full-time student, you’re unemployed and then halfway through the semester the benefit ends... they’re kind of between a rock and a hard place,” said Palomar College Veterans Service Technician Ryan Williams about veterans nationwide. According to Williams, there are approximately 70 veterans in Palomar College that are currently receiving educational benefits from VRAP. “I know that in previous semesters it’s been over 100 and if you looked at a calendar year it’s probably closer to 200,” Williams said about the amount of Palomar College veterans enrolled into the program in the past. According to Veterans Services Technician Jessica Horn, the ramification of ending the VRAP program means that there are going to be some veterans who will not be able to utilize the full 12 months of benefits the program used to offer. She added that for those who haven’t prepared the impact is going to be substantial. “They’re going to have to figure out some way now to pay for college or to make it through to finish whatever they have left in their degree program,” Horn said. Horn also mentioned that the Veterans Services office has been preparing its VRAP recipients for the impending cancellation of the program and has been encouraging veterans to apply for alternative methods of financing their education. “Something we strongly encourage all of our veterans to do regardless of whether or not they’re in the VRAP program is to look into financial aid, because if they qualify for the Pell Grant, then that’s additional support for them to go through college,” Horn said. DSHRUM@THE-TELESCOPE.COM

NEWS • 7

the-telescope.com CONT. FROM PAGE 1

Lindsay Kretchman, Palomar’s student activities coordinator, is paid directly out of the revenues generated from the sale of these cards. Out of the $165,000 the optional fee generates, $91,000 goes to pay Kretchman’s salary and benefits. Another $20,000 to $30,000 goes to pay student workers. In total nearly 75 percent of the revenues that were generated goes to administrative salaries and benefits. But at Saddleback and SDCC salaries are paid from an alternative funding source. “Myself and the administrative assistant are paid from the college itself; the office assistant is paid from our contract revenue that comes in, that other funding source. And then we have a number of student assistants in the office and they are either paid by federal work study or from contract revenue,” said Audra DiPadova, the director of student life at Saddleback. Mira Costa does pay for one classified staff member, the ASG secretary, out of its student activities budget. But Mira Costa’s student senate authorized for that salary to be paid out of the budget. Unlike Palomar, students at Mira Costa chose where their money was going. Furthermore the type of benefits and the magnitude of these benefits can differ widely from one community college to another. At Saddleback, for example, purchasing a card affords students priority status during social events that the college organizes. This status provides students with free food as well as priority seating at plays and concerts. Like Palomar, Saddleback gives discounts for purchasing the card, but the discounts offered by Saddleback are far greater than that of Palomar.

SMOKING CONT. FROM PAGE 1

Even though smoking on campus is not allowed, some smokers do not appear to be afraid of the policy at all. When asked if he was nervous about being cited for smoking on campus, student Zach Johnson seemed unfazed. “Obviously not,” Johnston said while smoking in front of the library. “Maybe once I get a ticket though.” Even Soghomonian who smokes in the same area said that he’s not afraid of a ticket. Instead, he’s more afraid of inequality. Even Cruz said that despite the fact it is a law, it is the student’s prerogative on whether they smoke or not. Palomar College’s Public Information Officer Laura Gropen said that although the Police Department has the authority to issue tickets for smoking on campus, they would not. “Just because we have the abil-

“The discount booklet is worth over $400 in local discounts,” DiPadova said. That is double the amount that Palomar’s more expensive card offers. “It also includes discounts on athletics events and fine arts events at the college,” DiPadova added, “they get 10 percent off their cafeteria purchase, 10 percent off their coffee cart purchase at the campus, and 10 percent off nontextbook, non-software items.” According to Jim Gonzales, Mira Costa’s director of student services, their card provides discounts as well. It also provides for social events throughout the semester. The college hosts cultural events on campus where students can learn more about its student body and enjoy free food and drinks as they take in the sights of the event. Michael Wong, the dean of student affairs at SDCC, confirmed that its students receive a complimentary planner at the beginning of the semester and other supplies that aid in their success. Additionally, students can receive a free copy of their transcripts. Despite these differences, Palomar College defends its current practices. Kretchman’s salary is paid out of the students activities budget because she is the one responsible for making sure the events run smoothly and the student workers are needed to administer the ID card program. They are also available for cleanup after an event has been completed. And as far as student input is concerned Titus responded with the following: “No, and again why should they? This (showing the card’s benefit pamphlet) is what they’re funding right here … It doesn’t say that you’ll have assistance with determining outside funding for projects that is in excess of what we need,” Titus said. RCHAPOCO@THE-TELESOPE.COM

ity, doesn’t mean we use the ability. We have the ability to issue tickets to students for smoking on our campus. It’s the law. The law allows us to do it. We don’t nor are we going to,” Gropen said. ASG President Genesis Gilroy said she supports whatever Campus Police decides to do in regards to issuing citations. “I believe that PCPD is entitled to use their discretion regarding the enforcement of student body conduct,” Gilroy said Soghomonian admits that trying to get official designated smoking areas is going to take a lot of work and time. “I just have to write a bill and it really has to be like all encompassing,” Soghomonian said. “It has to incorporate the needs and the wants to the smokers, the non-smokers, of faculty, of staff, both smoking and non-smoking.” CIRELAND@THE-TELESCOPE.COM

Sedillo voted by peers as Palomar Employee of the Year LLOYD BRAVO THE TELESCOPE

Every year Palomar choose a faculty or staff member and present them with the Employee of the Year award. This years winner went to Information Services Support Specialist Robert Sedillo. Sedillo was humbled when hearing the news of his award, and only a single word came to mind when asked about his feelings. “Honored is the best word,” Sedillo said. The nominations for the award Classified Employee of the Year Robert Sedillo. • Lucy Wheeler/The Telescope are given to a diverse group of faculty and staff members around the cam- his career at Palomar. one word.”too dramatic - need a betpus, Sedillo was very surprised about “I have been here since I was ter transition here.” the nomination and especially after eighteen years old. As a student I “Empathy. I was a student here the win. networked with everybody. I like ev- starting, I have dealt with services de“It’s nice to be recognized and it eryone I work with and I try to treat partment and I stated servicing stumeans a lot,” Sedillo said. them with respect,” Sedillo said. dents and did well in that because I Recognition seems to be in line Assistant Superintendent and knew what it felt like not getting the “unclear”for the tremendous amount Vice President of Human Resource service you need,” Sedillo said. of work that Sedillo and his co- Services John Tortarolo only had reFor the future, Sedillo is currently workers do for Palomar. To most, spect for Sedillo and was happy with working on his Masters Degree in Inbeing a information services support his achievement. formation Technology, and inspires specialist can seem complicated and “He is a very collegial, very cour- to be in management, before paying overwhelming, but it makes more teous and friendly person. He will his dues a in a technician level posisense as Sedillo breaks down. do anything he can to help his col- tion. “It is called tier one support for e- leagues, no matter where they are or Palomar College has been an exservices, network, technical services, what they need in terms of informa- cellent stepping stone for Sedillo as computer, laptop, website issues and tion services support,” said Tortarolo. he only has respect for the school that you wouldn’t believe what else kind “I thoroughly enjoy working with has molded him through the years. of calls we get,” Sedillo said,“we re- him and l think he is a terrific guy “I’m a product of Palomar colfer to ourselves as help desk, but we and the award for what he does for lege and I love Palomar College and do a lot of different things. We run the college is well deserve. I one of I think its a great institution,” said the switch board operator as well as his customers, friends and colleagues Sedillo. the help desk for primarily staff and and he is a magnificent person,” TorWhen asked what he was lookfaculty but students as well because tarolo added. ing forward to after the award he anthey’ll have issues with email or eThere are many emotions that go swered, “it will be nice to read about services.” with such an accomplishment, how- myself in The Telescope.” It’s not hard for Sedillo to relate, ever, Sedillo takes the award with considering that he has spent most of humility and describes his feeling in LBRAVO@THE-TELECOPE.COM

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8 • SPORTS

Monday, April 14, 2014

Playing it smart, on and off the field Dillan Smith follows his childhood dreams while balancing school

Palomar College Outfielder Dillan Smith poses at Myers Field on April 8. • Stephen Davis / The Telescope

PAIGE HARVEY THE TELESCOPE

alomar Baseball player Dillan Smith started playing baseball when he was just 3 years old. His parents said the first thing he picked up was a plastic baseball bat. After trying every sport, he decided at age 10 that it was only baseball that really interested him. Smith, 19, has successfully mastered balancing school and his leadership role out on the diamond. “He is pretty much a coaches’ dream,” Head Baseball Coach Buck Taylor said. “He is a great student, I know that, but also a quiet leader who does what he should without being told.” Smith is in his second year at Palomar College. He came to Palomar directly after finishing high school at Temescal Canyon in Lake Elsinore. Smith is now a kinesiology major with a love for all sports, but has a knack for baseball. Smith has achieved many accomplishments

in his baseball career, such as offensive player of the year for his varsity team. Smith has zero errors in his fielding percentage for the 2014 season. Smith is one of those players that loves to practice the game. “A day off from practice makes it hard to come to school,” Smith said. “I like coming to school knowing I’m going to get to play in the middle of the day.” According to Taylor, Smith’s academics don’t suffer due to the amount of hours he puts in to practice or at games. “Dillan represents what a student athlete should be, I’m not worried about him wearing a Palomar baseball jacket around town,” Taylor said. Smith is motivated by baseball, not only on an athletic level, but academics as well. “Scholarships aren’t just about the sport, you have to be academically well off too,” he added. His main drive to keep doing the best he can is because of his dad. “My dad got hurt and wasn’t able to play,” Smith said.

“My dad motivates me to play as much as I can and as hard as I can. We practice every aspect of the game together until I can master it to my highest ability,” Smith said. “I feel like I’m living both our dreams,” Smith said. “My dad calls me after every game to talk about what I did well and what we can work on.” Smith said he knows that he will continue to play for as long as long as his body will allow him. “I’d love to keep playing as long as I can, and after that I’d like to coach a team,” Smith said. Smith is talking to coaches right now from a few Division 2 schools, but is really pushing toward playing at the Division 1 level. Smith isn’t an average community college baseball player, he shows his leadership and responsibility for the sport. “It doesn’t matter what division I play for as long as I can play at the highest level that my ability will let me,” Smith said. PHARVEY@THE-TELESCOPE.COM