The Advocate 11-6

Page 1

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW B

CMYK

CMYK

VOL. 101, NO. 9

SINCE 1950 12 PAGES, ONE COPY FREE

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 6, 2013 ACCENTADVOCATE.COM

THE STUDENT VOICE OF CONTRA COSTA COLLEGE, SAN PABLO, CALIF.

Construction obstructs parking edit orial Parking problems hurt students

Closure of parking spots force students to park farther away from campus.

page 2

By Brian Boyle NEWS EDITOR

bboyle.theadvocate@gmail.com

Parking at Contra Costa College is set to become even more competitive, as Lot 5 was closed on Oct. 31 and Lot 7 will be closed in about two weeks. The parking lots are being closed in order to house the construction being done for the new three-story classroom building and student activities center by Lathrop Construction, Inc. The affected lots are all adjacent to the construction site. “We lost 17 spaces, all staff parking, with the closure of Lot 5,” Buildings

and Grounds Manager Bruce King said. “We’re going to lose 26 spaces, 19 regular and seven handicap spaces, when Lot 7 closes in two weeks.” King said that 15 spaces in Lot 3 will be converted from regular, student accessible parking to staff parking. “We’re also looking at converting a few spaces in Lot 6 to additional handicap parking,” he said. Parking at CCC is already hard to come by, with students often competing for parking spaces in order to get to class. Behavioral science major Jorge Raya said, “I already have to park far from campus. I’m going to be forced to park

Lots to be closed Lot 5 was fenced off on Thursday, Lot 7 will close in two weeks, and Lot 8 won’t exist at the completion of construction.

Q SEE PARKING: Page 3

INFORGRAPHIC BY GEORGE MORIN / THE ADVOCATE

Car stolen from Lot 1 elevates concerns

A SECOND CHANCE

Police Services push for increased presence By George Morin EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

gmorin.theadvocate@gmail.com

fell behind and then it snowballed out of control. Some of the students that come here start to earn straight A’s.” The program is a part of the national Gateway to College program, which was started by Portland Community College in 2000 as a way for the education system to reconnect with high school dropouts. According to the Gateway website, since its creation, the program X Gateway has evolved to exist in to College 23 different states and recruits focuses not only on students in dropouts but those at danger of risk of not graduating not graduatas well. ing from high “We’re basically a school. continuation school, but we’re different,” X The proCamacho said. gram has Like the other con- been at tinuation schools in the Contra Costa area, such as Gompers College since or North Campus, stu- August 2012. dents who come to the Gateway program often have discipline issues. “We have access to their old records,” Camacho said. “I can’t tell you how many times you read: punished for cussing out teacher, fighting or truancy. But, at least in the group I oversee, we’ve seen more than a 90 percent reduction in instances like that.” Camacho attributes this change in behavior the students exhibit to the clear expectations the program outlines for them, the stability the program’s structure

A dark blue two-door 1992 Honda Accord was stolen from Lot 1 adjacent to the Student Services Center on Oct. 22. At 5:57 p.m. that evening the juvenile male student reported his vehicle stolen to Police Services. Police have not identified the juvenile student by name and his age was not provided to the press. Since the beginning of the fall semester there have been four vehicles stolen from campus. Contra Costa College Police Services Lieutenant Jose Oliveira “We didn’t said the victim told police the really student drove to campus that morning and parked his car in have Lot 1 around 8 a.m. and did not much realize his vehicle was missing until the time of his report when clear he was done with his classes for informathe day. The vehicle was recov- tion about ered by the Emeryville Police Department on Oct. 26 with no the vehicle report of damages or items missto put out ing from the vehicle. A problem that occurred a bulletin during the investigation of this for it.” vehicle theft was the juvenile student just recently purchased Jose Oliveira, the vehicle and did not know the Police Services vehicle identification number or lieutenant the license plate number, Lt. Oliveira said. “The student also left the pink slip and other important information that should have been brought to the Department of Motor Vehicles in the vehicle,” Oliveira said. “The person (who stole the car) could have taken that information and filled in themselves as the owner of the vehicle.” Oliveira said due to the lack of information on the stolen vehicle, aside from its color and make, there was not enough information to issue a police bulletin. “We didn’t really have much clear information about the vehicle to put out a bulletin for it,” he said. On Oct. 25 the father of the juvenile student gave Police Services the license plate number of the stolen vehicle and the police were able to put out a bulletin about the vehicle being reported stolen. “Once we got the message out to other police departments, the vehicle was found literally the next day,” Oliveira said. The vehicle was recovered by the Emeryville Police Department on Oct. 26. There are currently no leads to who may have stolen the vehicle as of press time on Tuesday. “This wasn’t the first vehicle theft of the year,”

Q SEE GATEWAY: Page 3

Q SEE THEFT: Page 3

JANAE HARRIS / THE ADVOCATE

Showing concern — Gateway to College counselor Mel Collins (left) listens to Gateway to College student Aaron Nuila talk about his classes in AA-217 on Oct. 16. The program helps students turn their lives around.

GATEWAY

A to opportunity By Brian Boyle NEWS EDITOR

bboyle.theadvocate@gmail.com

Nestled on the second floor of the Applied Arts Building, the Gateway to College program offers high school students at risk of not receiving a high school diploma a second chance. The program, which has been at Contra Costa College since August 2012, is one that focuses on addressing the needs of high school students with a GPA of 2.0 or lower and who are at risk of not graduating, or have dropped out of high school altogether. Gateway to College Director Karl Debro said, “It’s easy to fall through the cracks at a traditional high school. A lot of our students are people who just fell through the cracks.” And Gateway is anything but traditional. The program is designed to appeal to students that have non-academic issues that affect their performance at school. Gateway to College resource specialist Joseph Camacho said, “We deal with a lot of teenage pregnancy or teenage parenting issues. We help with access to childcare. We also deal with students on probation, as well as foster youth.” The program couples students with a resource specialist who provides the students with additional one-on-one coun-

“(The Gateway to College program) is great. We’re surrounded by teachers that have been through what we’ve been through. They’ve been down the same path we were on and were almost dropped from school.” Alejandra Del Toro,

Gateway to College student

seling time, in order to better connect and tailor the program to their individual needs, Camacho said. Much like the Middle College High School program (also on the CCC campus), Gateway gives high school students a chance to dual-enroll, and earn both high school credits and units at the college level. Gateway to College student Jada Brown said, “It’s better than normal high school. Everything is more stable, which makes it a lot easier to focus on school.” Debro said there is a negative attitude directed at the types of students Gateway aims to help — the students who need it most. He said the students are hit with a stigma telling them that they are stupid or lazy, which is not the case. “When you work with these students you often hear the same story,” he said. “They fell in with the wrong crowd, they

scene X page 7

Lou Reed leaves legacy

The Velvet Underground frontman dies at 71

in brief

campus beat X page 5

Center

Community walks for vets

sports X page 10

Hurtado strikes

Forward leads team with versatility

CMYK

Students receive second chance at educational lifestyle

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW B

CMYK


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.