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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
the telescope
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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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the-telescope.com
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.
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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
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