Eastfield Et Cetera February 5, 2020

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Eastfield College

Dallas Women’s March celebrates 100 years of the 19th amendment See page 5 ➤ Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Continuing the Dream

The Rev. Peter Johnson has kept the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. alive in Dallas for the last 50 years See page 12

Volume 51, Issue 8

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District changes name to Dallas College

By SKYE SEIPP Editor in Chief @seippetc

The Dallas County Community College District will change its name to Dallas College as a part of the move to “one college.”

None of the Board of Trustees members were enthusiastic about the names presented during Tuesday’s work session.

“It’s not exciting,” Trustee Charletta Rogers Compton said. “It’s not at all,” Chairwoman Diana Flores added. The comment drew laughter from some attendees of the meeting.

Trustee Philip J. Ritter said he was for the name Dallas College. Trustee Monica Lira Bravo said she was surprised the name wasn’t already taken and the district should capitalize on the opportunity to use it.

The name was chosen after a presentation from Patty ArellanoTolotta, chief marketing officer with DCCCD, and Justin Lonon, executive vice chancellor. They presented two names, Dallas College and Dallas County College, which rose to the top among a survey of students, employees, community members and alumni.

“Dallas College makes more sense from a marketing standpoint,” Arellano-Tolotta said. She added that the name Dallas is globally recognized and that people from outside of the city limits, like Mesquite, identify by saying “I’m from Dallas.”

Lonon agreed and said the name means they don’t have to completely switch the brand they’ve established since the district started 54 years ago.

The name had to be changed because the accreditors, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, doesn’t allow the term “district” in the name.

And the term “community” is considered outdated, Arellano-Tolotta said.

All seven colleges are currently accredited separately by SACSCOC Single accreditation will mean the campuses will receive their credentials from SACS together or as “one college.”

New structures The change to “one college” will also bring new jobs and a reorganized structure.

Chancellor Joe May sent a video and email to employees in late January outlining some of the new ad-

DCCCD Chancellor Joe May.

ministrative positions. These positions will create a new hierarchy of reporting for faculty, staff and administrators.

This new hierarchy will also create new roles for college presidents to be responsible for “community engagement, campus culture, student experience and business operations,” according to May. The board was given a presentation yesterday about using a talent pool to fill positions internally. Flores said the names of who will be filling the roles will not be announced until after SACS makes their decision on June 11.

The district has also presented a new academic structure that will feature a set of new “Schools of ” that each academic program will be aligned with. The details of where current programs will go has not been unveiled.

May said the distribution of classes across the campuses won’t change, and the goal of the new structure is for students to have better access to academic programs and for faculty to have better support.

“It’s really designed to create within the structure … those programs that need to work together, collaborate and coordinate with each other,” May said in a phone interview with The Et Cetera. “I don’t anticipate there [to] be a lot of shifting around of people, but certainly this structure will make it easier if we have a shortage [of faculty] at one location to figure out how we cover that at another.”

He said faculty work together across the district now, but the new

ET CETERA FILE PHOTO

academic structure will give them an organizational lead to collaborate within their programs across the campuses.

This new organizational lead will feature new administrative positions, including a provost, vice provost, vice chancellor of student success, vice chancellor of workforce advancement, an executive vice chancellor of operations and an academic incubator.

Being a single accredited college also means the early childhood development bachelor’s degree offered at Brookhaven could be available at other campuses, May said. And he guaranteed Eastfield will offer the classes. Eastfield was one of the colleges originally considered for the baccalaureate program, but it was awarded to Brookhaven in October 2018.

May has said sports teams and mascots will remain at each campus and added student clubs and organizations to the list of programs that make campuses a unique place. May said he would be against getting rid of campus student media organizations.

“Part of what we want to make sure is that whatever is unique to Eastfield that makes it a special place to … students, that we do our best to keep that,” he said. “We really want to be thoughtful about that and not cause something that’s unintended in the process.”

May initially submitted a plan for “one college” to the board in August.

He said the move to a single accreditation will help “swirl students” —

people who take classes at multiple colleges — graduate.

Currently, under SACS guidelines these students have to complete 25 percent of their credits from one college in order to graduate.

“I know just from listening to people that have [not been able to graduate due to the requirement], that they feel pretty defeated,” May said.

“There was some benefit in being able to transfer with those courses, but at the same time, not able to get the degree doesn’t leave them feeling real good.”

At a Jan. 17 board meeting, May said 1,356 students couldn’t graduate from 2016-18 because of the 25 percent rule.

These degrees then count toward a community college’s “success points” with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which influences the amount of funding public colleges in Texas get.

Degrees and certificates count for more points per student than any other milestone in the success points model. Degrees range from 2 to 2.25 depending on the type of degree, according to the coordinating board’s “success points data flow,” which was revised in October 2019. All other milestones — except transferring to a university — are either 1 or 0.5 points.

The good and bad Faculty Association President and history professor Liz Nichols said in addition, the different experiences at each campus can be a barrier for students.

“It’s too cumbersome how we operate now,” she said. “There’s too many different processes, and nothing is done similarly. But we all share the same students.”

Nichols supports the initiative and said she meets once a month with the chancellor and vice chancellor to discuss the process.

People across the district have voiced concern and unease since the changes were proposed in August.

Dean of Arts and Communications Courtney Carter Harbour said since the new positions were posted, she and other academic deans have wondered if they will still have jobs.

She said the work done at the district office is different from the operations and duties on campuses and said the transition could be a “mess” due to the district’s large size.

“There’s a lot of nuances that un-

less you have worked on a campus for a good amount of time, you just might not be aware of,” she said. “And most people in higher ed will agree that the academic deans’ job is the hardest job, and they’ll even say that at the district office.”

She said there are some community colleges under a single accreditation model without academic deans.

May said the new positions emerged because the district has to look like one college organizationally. He said faculty, supervisors and deans will manage daily activities on campus.

Carter Harbour hopes single accreditation will fix some of the inconsistencies around the district, but said the lack of information about the organizational change has created a lot of questions from faculty members and herself.

Some departments on campus have already begun planning for the switch to “one college.”

Marketing has been taking an “operational” approach to the forthcoming changes and preparing for instances like the removing of “college” from Eastfield’s name, Eastfield Marketing Director Donielle Johnson said.

Members of Marketing and Creative Services have also been working with the district to consolidate all of the websites into one.

Johnson welcomes the change, though. She said it’s an opportunity for a new start and a chance to build a college everyone can be proud of.

“I am an advocate for change,” Johnson said. “From a marketing perspective, it [single accreditation] gives us an opportunity to build campus experiences that our students deserve.”

She said “one college” is the biggest change DCCCD has undergone in 50 years and added that new programs like guided pathways or a different website have been met with pushback.

Johnson said the district’s history of resisting change could impede marketing’s ability to rebuild the campus.

“I do believe in Dr. May’s insistent [message], driving home that our students deserve for us to have a clear pathway to their goals,” she said. “In order for that, you have to start, stop and pause things … to get to that clear pathway … and have the same See One College, page 6 ➤

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Sexual harassment reporting policies increase

By HUNTER GARZA Social Media Editor @HunterTateETC

College employees could lose their jobs or be charged with a misdemeanor for failing to report cases of sexual misconduct under a new Texas law.

On Jan, 1, Texas Senate Bill 212 went into effect, increasing requirements of sexual assault reports by colleges and universities.

The bill requires a college’s Title IX coordinator to submit a quarterly report to the institution’s president, which they then submit to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board on an annual basis. Failure to comply could result in fines up to $2 million and administrative penalties.

Title IX is the federal statute that says no one shall be discriminated against based on their sex.

Senate Bill 212 takes these requirements a bit further by now enforcing consequences for not following protocol.

Individual employees could face criminal charges. The law could make the consequences tougher for those who fail to report than for those who actually commit an assault.

Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Success

Make Walker’s top priority is making sure the people who report to the Title IX coordinator are educated on their responsibilities.

“We need to be aware,” Walker said. “We need to understand our own roles better in taking care of this very serious problem. We need to be held accountable.”

State Rep. Victoria Neave, a former Eastfield student, said that this is the reason she introduced a House bill that mirrored SB 212 by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston.

Title IX allows for confidentiality in certain jobs, like mental health counselors and health care providers.

They still are required to report, however they do so without providing a name or any identifying information.

Neave said victims’ wishes should be respected if they want to remain anonymous.

The punishment for nonconsensual sexual contact against an adult that does not involve penetration or physical injury is a class C misdemeanor — the least severe crime category in Texas.

“The big thing is that most people don’t come forward,” Neave said.

“And even if they do, very few cases ever get prosecuted or convicted.

This sends a message to women that even if they come forward that noth-

ing may happen or that no one will believe them, and we want to change that.”

Neave has used her platform to raise awareness on issues that disproportionally impact women and has even put together a sexual violence task force that meets at Eastfield. The task force includes police officers, nurses and members of rape crisis centers to come up with legislative solutions to combat sexual assault.

“This issue, especially in this era of #MeToo, has helped open the door for us to pass more legislation to fight back against sexual harassment,” she said. “It’s an issue that’s been ignored for a really long time and we still have a lot of work to do.”

Dean of Student Success and Wellness Katy Launius said that when the initial federal Title IX legislation was passed in 1972, the interpretation was that gave equity in intercollegiate activities.

It said that colleges and universities could no longer restrict athletics to male dominated sports and had to give equal opportunities for women to play.

During the 1990s, there was a lot of attention on violence against women, which led to President Bill Clinton signing into law the Violence Against Women Act and a shift in the

interpretation of Title IX. Title IX has a wide definition of sexual harassment that includes what most educational institutions often refer to as “the big four.”

These four are sexual harassment, stalking, dating and domestic violence and sexual assault, which can include non-consensual sexual contact and rape.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, over 13 percent of college women report that they have been stalked. Of these, 42 percent were stalked by a partner or former partner. And 43 percent of dating college women reported experiencing abusive behaviors from their partner.

“I think the issue of sexual assault happening both on and off campuses is a problem that some folks try to turn away from,” Neave said. “But we can’t, and I have a duty as a woman of the legislature to do everything I can to protect women on college campuses.”

Since 2011, the government has conducted over 500 investigations of colleges for possibly mishandling reports of sexual violence.

At this point there have been over 200 colleges and universities that have had an open investigation under Title IX enforcement.

One of the most prominent is the University of Montana at Missoula, in which the university, along with the local police department, were working together to silence victims to delay or avoid prosecution predominantly of athletes who were committing repetitive sexual assaults.

The 2016 independent investigation of Baylor University determined that football staff did not report claims of sexual assault by players to administrators. The scandal cost the football coach and the chancellor their jobs.

Launius said there has been an increase in the number of sexual misconduct reports at Eastfield.

She attributes this to Eastfield doing a better job of letting students know that there is a policy regarding sexual misconduct and resources available if they have been affected.

These improvements were made possible by the grant awarded to the school by the Office on Violence Against Women.

“This is an issue that impacts every person regardless of demographic or socioeconomic background,” Neave said. “We want to try and prevent that situation from happening again and we are trying to break barriers to make it easier for victims to come forward.”

Food pantry extends hours, adds service at Pleasant Grove

By HARRIET RAMOS Copy Editor @HarrietRamosETC

Eastfield’s Honeycomb Cupboard food pantry is moving to a new location on campus where it will have more space and a refrigerator, President Eddie Tealer announced in his Jan. 16 convocation address.

The new location has not been made public, but Tealer said it would be soon.

He also reported that the North Texas Food Bank mobile pantry would begin providing service to the Pleasant Grove campus starting Feb. 18.

“That’s the best news I could have received,” said food pantry coordinator Danae Bass.

“With more space comes more variety, more options, more food. We’ll have more of an opportunity to get new items out there.”

Due to space restrictions and lack of refrigeration, the pantry currently stocks only nonperishable items such as boxed milk, rice and canned vegetables.

The new refrigerator, which will be purchased by the college, will allow the pantry to provide fresh milk and meat. The North Texas Food Bank mobile pantry began once-a-month

RORY MOORE/THE ET CETERA

Service coordinator Danae Bass hands out produce from the mobile food pantry.

service to Eastfield’s main campus in the spring of 2018. The on-site food pantry was added in March of the following year.

Javier Olguin, executive director of the

Pleasant Grove campus, said there were several challenges that hindered them from making a food pantry available until now.

“We’re a satellite campus,” he said. “We’re a skeletal crew, so it’s hard to bring in services.”

The Pleasant Grove campus does not have enough space for an on-site pantry, Olguin said, and the North Texas Food Bank did not have a mobile unit when they began negotiations with them 10 years ago. Now that the mobile food bank service is scheduled to begin, Olguin said he might face a different type of challenge.

“How can you get a very proud student who is already a full-time worker somewhere barely making ends [meet]… to think that it’s OK to get a little help once in a while?” he said.

Bass, who works in the college’s Center for Equity, Inclusion and Diversity, sees Eastfield’s food pantry as an important part of helping students succeed in their classes.

“If someone has to make a decision on food or books, I don’t really want that to be something that they have to make,” she said. “A lot of the services that I provide here are to try to keep students in school, so they don’t have to make decisions with some of their basic needs.”

Bemy, who is working toward an Associate of Science degree, said that she was especially

grateful to see the hygienic products that the pantry offers. She asked that her full name be withheld for privacy.

“Thank God I don’t have to stress myself about little things,” she said. “There’s help here.”

The pantry relies on employee and student volunteers to serve those who come through.

Bass said that a minimum of 40 volunteers are needed on a weekly basis and that number will likely increase with the expansion of the pantry.

Charlesetta Evers, an administrative clerk in the president’s office and food pantry volunteer, said it is rewarding to help students get what they need.

Evers, who underwent a heart and kidney transplant in 2015, said volunteering at the food pantry is a way for her to give back.

“You just never know who’s hurting and who needs that help,” she said.

Bass said she knows the pantry is making a difference in the lives of Eastfield students.

“Without the pantry they may not have any food that week,” Bass said. “So, going back to the expanded services and the expanded space, … [I’m] just thinking we can make an even bigger impact and hopefully reach even more students.”

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Terror in Iran hits home for Eastfield professor

from her school to see where they worked after college. She found that two previous graduates worked at Eastfield, so she decided to apply.

When she was hired, Zeinab worked as an adjunct faculty member until becoming full time in 2019. Jess Kelly, the executive dean of STEM, said having Zeinab at Eastfield plays an important role in welcoming students into an environment with a multicultural faculty.

“Having the breadth of diversity within our division is critically important not only to us, but to who we serve,” Kelly said. “We have a great faculty base, but she is special. Sometimes you just find a diamond in the rough ... I feel very blessed to have her in our division.”

He said Zeinab lights up when interacting with students.

“You can see her drive and passion,” he said.

“She comes here every day ready to engage with students, and that’s not something that can be taught. That’s a talent.”

Luz Ramirez, a former student of Zeinab, said her biased opinions of Iran were debunked after taking her class.

“The way Iran has been presented in my life was bundled with the Middle East and has led to false assumptions,” she said. “But professor Zeinab is just a teacher. She assigns homework, teaches her class and helps her students. She isn’t the person the media makes an Iranian out to be.”

By LINDSEY CRAFT Life & Arts Editor @LindseycraftETC

For months, Zeinab had been planning a trip to Iran to see her family. It’s been seven years since she left home and she was eager for her parents and brother to meet her 4-year-old son for the first time.

On Jan. 3, those plans were shattered.

Zeinab, a math faculty member at Eastfield, had just put her son to bed and sat down at the dining table to get some work done when she received a phone call from her husband urging her to check the news.

She went online and saw the report that President Donald Trump had ordered an attack that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani the night before.

She laid awake at night for days checking the news wondering what was going to happen to her family in Iran, and herself, here in the United States.

“I’m not only worried about them surviving during a missile attack,” she said. “They’re also going to suffer from a shortage of food and medicine.”

Due to the rising tension between the U.S. and Iran, Zeinab canceled her trip. She feared she may not be let back in the U.S. just because she is Iranian.

She doesn’t know when she will be able to see her family again.

“My parents always wanted me to live with them or be around them, so it’s upsetting to know that I will never be able to go back to Iran,” she said. “I’m hoping I can get them here, but with the way things are going, my vision is that I won’t be able to see them for the next 20 years.”

For fear of her family’s safety, The Et Cetera agreed to publish only her first name.

According to the New York Times, a month since the attack, college students returning from Iran for the spring semester have been detained at U.S. airports. At least 13 students have been turned away despite having a valid visa.

‘Tied to sadness’ Zeinab is no stranger to war. She was born in the middle of the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War between Iran and Iraq and grew up just two hours east of the frontline of battle in Kermanshah Province, Iran.

“My mom would always put me under the kitchen table so that if a bombing were to happen, we would survive,” she said.

Although she doesn’t recall experiencing any bombings of her own, close relatives were not so lucky. Some of her earliest memories are the constant grief her family went through following the war.

“Most of my childhood was tied to sadness,” Zeinab said. “Three of my uncles and 17 of my distant cousins were killed in the war.”

Her family members who died in the war weren’t in the military. They volunteered them-

‘He just needs to be a kid’

SKYE SEIPP/THE ET CETERA

Zeinab, a math professor at Eastfield, moved from Iran in 2013. After the recent killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, she has been worried about her family’s safety.

selves to keep their families safe.

“Most of the people involved don’t approve of what’s going on,” she said. “They just have to protect the people they love.”

Once the war died down, Zeinab’s father decided to go back to school and study law. Her family moved from the small town she was raised in, to Tehran, the capital of Iran.

Zeinab attended the University of Tehran, where she often protested against the Iranian government. One protest started with just her and six friends and after an hour over a thousand people had joined in.

During that time there was a law that prevented officers from being able to enter the campus, so Zeinab thought she was safe.

Her confidence in safety vanished when officers raided the protest.

She was pushed to the ground and beaten, along with many others.

“They used tear gas and were hitting people in the head and body,” she said. “It was chaos, so we ran for our lives.”

This experience paused Zeinab’s activism.

She was haunted by the ear-piercing screeches of her friends as officers beat them.

“I survived,” she said. “But I kept thinking that next time I might not.”

‘Diamond in the rough’ After graduating she planned to come to the U.S. to further her education and have access to better opportunities. She took the Englishlanguage exams and ended up getting a scholarship to the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada. She accepted the scholarship in 2013, putting her one step closer to getting to America.

While in Canada, Zeinab met and married her husband. Together they applied to come to the United States in 2014. Her application was approved before her husband’s. She was accepted into the University of New Mexico and decided to leave without her husband while he waited for approval.

“Before coming to America, I was scared from what I’d seen in the news,” Zeinab said.

“There are a lot of gun control issues, and there is a bad history between America and my home country. I was worried about being accepted as an immigrant.”

After a year apart, her husband was finally approved for a visa and met Zeinab in New Mexico. Zeinab earned her Master of Mathematics and Applied Statistics degree from the University of New Mexico in 2017. After graduating Zeinab did research on graduates

Zeinab considers herself a progressive Iranian American, although she’s not a U.S. citizen on paper. She converted from Islam to Christianity and doesn’t agree with the radical religious and political beliefs of Iran’s governing system, or the laws requiring women to wear a hijab.

Zeinab doesn’t wear a hijab, but she’s still had to deal with profiling and racism from people when she speaks Farsi.

“I remember I was talking on the phone with my family, waiting for the bus, and a man next to me told me I was speaking in an animal language,” Zeinab said. “I don’t get upset or mad.

I believe people who lash out are having a hard time within their own mental state, and it has nothing to do with me.”

However, she does with that people’s views of Iran weren’t one sided.

“I feel so bad that the U.S. do not see Iran for the way it really is,” she said. “Yes, there is a group of extremists, but outsiders always overlook the people who are dying in the street while protesting against the government.”

Zeinab’s desires do not stray far from that of the average American.

She wants her son to be able to play, go to school and see his grandparents, like any other kid his age.

“As a kid I watched the news to see how the war was going, and politics were a common topic in my household,” she said. “My son is only 4 he doesn’t need to worry about the issues of the world. He just needs to be a kid.”

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Clockwise from top, Attendees of the 2020 Dallas Women’s March on Jan. 19 walk through downtown. A participant cheers during the Dallas Women’s March.

Eastfield professor Joanna Cattanach, who is running for the Texas House, talks with campaign volunteers in the St. Paul United Methodist Church parking lot before the march begins. Charlie Hermes, a philosophy professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, walked with the group Code Pink.

PHOTOS BY BAYLIE TUCKER/THE ET CETERA

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Dallas Women’s March celebrates voting rights Thousands of women, men and children participated in the fourth Dallas Women’s March on Jan. 19. This year the march celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which was ratified to the U.S. Constitution on Aug. 18, 1920, and gave women the right to vote. State Reps.

Victoria Neave of Dallas, Mesquite and Garland and Rhetta Brown of Garland have been organizing the event since 2017. The march started at St. Paul United Methodist Church and ended at Dallas City Hall, where multiple people spoke to a crowd about voting, racial injustices and other political and social issues.

—Skye Seipp

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‘One college’ not approved by all Continued from page 2

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Attendees of the Day of Action last September hold frames of bees at the University of Texas in Dallas beekeeping area.

Coming soon: Community beehive in campus garden

By ESON FELLERS News Editor @EsonFellersETC

Ametuer and experienced apiarists are invited to contribute to a beekeeping area opening near the community garden on campus in May. The wooden structures that will be used as beehives have already been received and are waiting to be assembled to allow roughly three pounds of bees to live inside.

Michael Iachetta, a government professor, is involved in the community garden and is the faculty sponsor for the self-sufficiency club.

He said specific goals for the beehives include honey production, studying bee ecology and gaining an overall more in-depth knowledge of these helpful little pollinators.

“Our main focus during this first year is just keeping the bees alive,” Iachetta said. “I don’t really think you want to open those hives up too much during that period.”

Iachetta said wildflowers will be laid out to support the bees, which will aid the community garden.

“I think it goes deeper than honey production,” Iachetta said. “I think it would be fun for us to do,

especially considering our mascot.”

Once the bees are established, students are welcome to check out the apiary, and professors are invited to incorporate it into their curriculum.

Eastfield’s Day of Action last September raised awareness for bee sustainability, and allowed students to take a trip to the University of Texas at Dallas’ beekeeping facility.

Scott Rippel, the UTD campus beekeepers and biology professor, came to Eastfield and advised locations and safety considerations involving the beekeeping, which have been looked at by risk management.

Rippel said a big concern is safety, experience and education.

“Human safety, or building safety, plays a larger role than the bees themselves,” Rippel said. “Yes, they are important for the environment, but there’s a balance there.”

Chris Schlarb, a civic engagement coordinator at Eastfield, began Day of Action events in fall 2018.

They said the series was created to examine a social issue and design an action around it.

“It’s bees and food justice,” Schlarb said, “so we’re looking into the role bees provide in food production and what is contributing

to the reduction of bees as pollinators.”

Bees help provide food for humans, birds, fish and other insects by pollinating plants so they can reproduce.

There are roughly 350,000 types of flowering plants, which according to Palomar College, is almost 90 percent of the plant kingdom, and nearly all of these plants require bee pollination to survive.

Bees are dying at an alarming rate due to pesticides and colony collapse disorder. Colony collapse disorder is a phenomenon where nearly all worker bees leave the hive and simply don’t come back.

The bees will leave the queen, young and food behind. This has been a recurring and unexplained trend for colonies everywhere.

According to a study from Science News partnering with Bee Informed, from 2018 to 2019, the total winter loss of honeybee colonies in the U.S. was 45 percent, which is 20 percent higher than what’s considered an acceptable winter loss.

One study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said no single bee is the cause of colony collapse, as the structure of a colony as a whole is more important than a singular bee.

barriers removed wherever you are. Our students and communities deserve that.”

To get feedback on single accreditation, the district began a series of “world cafes” with staff, faculty, administrators and students last semester. These events featured roundtables with various people from different campuses. Each table answered the same three questions by writing their responses on a piece of poster board.

The questions touched on several topics. The first was based on a hypothetical future Dallas Morning News story. Participants were asked how they would describe DCCCD to someone moving to Dallas and what the DCCCD’s greatest contribution is.

Each table was asked, “What do you most want to hear about us in the answers?”

Question two asked, “How are we getting in our own way?” And question three was a follow-up to the second: “What can we do to change that?”

Communication was the biggest way students said the district could improve during the student leader world I on Jan. 24.

John Kwong, a biology major and treasurer for the Student Government Association at Eastfield, said the move to “one college” could have benefits and pitfalls. He said a benefit is that students across the district could have access to more programs at each campus. However, he said this transition could impact the pride students take in their selected campus.

“There’s a stigma that goes around … that because I go to a community college, it’s not that special because it’s a community college,” he said. “Having individual campuses allows us to take pride in our certain campus and where we’re from.”

Kwong said the district should have communicated to students what was taking place earlier, so he could begin preparing for what these changes mean to SGA and other student clubs and organizations.

Biology professor Jessica Kerins oversees the honors program at Eastfield and said single accreditation could be beneficial for the program.

She said the requirements for each honors program are different at each

campus, and students who want to transfer between honors programs can’t.

“It’s a barrier for students right now,” she said. “The whole idea of single accreditation from a student standpoint is to remove some barriers and make it easier to get the classes you need no matter where [you’re] going to take those classes.”

Anticipating change, she said honors program coordinators have been meeting to figure out what the programs will look like under single accreditation.

As a faculty member, Kerins said “one college” brings some concerns, most of them because no one can answer their questions about the new academic and organizational structures.

The new school structure will include a School of Creative Arts, Entertainment and Design, School of Manufacturing and Industrial Technologies, School of Law and Public Service, School of Education, School of Business, Hospitality and Trade, School of Nursing and Health Sciences and a School of Engineering and Technology.

Kerins said the new system is still open ended and not being able to see the outcomes of this new design makes it hard to accept the change.

“The district is thinking we need to implement [this], because … more often than not, district will make decisions that make sense from a business standpoint,” she said. “I believe that they do have the students’ best interest in mind. But I think a lot of times they don’t realize how those decisions affect faculty. And it would be nice if they could find that out before those decisions were set in stone.”

The district will submit their plan to become “one college” to SACS on March 15. A council will decide to approve or deny the motion in June.

If approved, SACS will visit campuses in the fall and will have another council meeting in December to address the next steps and possibly plan another visit.

The district has setup a SharePoint portal site for faculty, staff and administrators at dcccd.sharepoint. com/sites/onecollege. This site cannot be accessed by students. Questions or comments can also be sent to the email onecollege@dcccd.edu.

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Wednesday, February 5, 2020

K Building transition causes mixed emotions

By SKYE SEIPP Editor in Chief @seippetc

Qualifying students and members of the community can now get free child care at Eastfield through the ChildCareGroup.

Three Eastfield students were signed up for services as of Jan. 28, according to John Owen, vice president of philanthropy and communications at CCG. He said there were 12 available slots.

Owen said CCG has capacity for 36 children in the Early Head Start Program and 35 in the Head Start Program for a total of 71, which is an additional 44 slots from what was being offered when Eastfield ran the program.

In September, President Eddie Tealer told staff of the Eastfield Children’s Laboratory School they would no longer be employees of the Dallas County Community College District after Dec. 31, and that ChildCareGroup was expected to take over in January.

A contract was signed with the district and CCG after the DCCCD Board of Trustees approved a one-time payment of $25,000 to CCG during their Dec. 3 meeting. The payment allows parents who were using the then Children’s Laboratory School on a tuition basis to stay through Dec. 31, 2020.

Tuition rates for those parents will go up after June 1 by a rate “not to exceed 15 percent,” according to the contract.

“I think at a very high level, our organizations are both aligned with the understanding and recognition that parents have to have access to safe, affordable quality child care in order to go to work or school,” Victoria Mannes, president of CCG said. “It’s an issue for so many students in the DCCCD district population.”

Employees were offered the same pay as before but lost their district benefits, which included free health insurance.

In spring 2019, Eastfield had 1,176 total students who expressed interest in learning more about child care programs, according to a district survey, which is 7.1 percent of the 16,487 students enrolled at Eastfield last spring.

The services are offered to anyone who qualifies for CCG’s program, which uses the federally funded Early Head Start and Head Start programs to provide free child care to families with low incomes. CCG has open enrollment until spaces are full, after which people can get on a waitlist.

Mannes said income is not the only criterion used to determine eligibility. Active or former military members, children in foster care and homelessness are some other factors.

“Generally, when a student is trying to go to school and maybe work part-time, their income is lower, and we generally find that they would qualify for this program,” Mannes said. “We are doing … whatever we can do to … serve the students of the district. That is our aim to this program.”

Moniqua Queme, a mechanical engineer major, had been looking at day care services for her 3-month-old son, Mojad. She found services for $400 every two weeks before an adviser told her about the free child care offered at Eastfield. “[My parents] work and I go to school, so I wanted to take that burden off their backs,” Queme said. “I just want to do the best by him, by the family. … I was just looking for a day care to be able to go to school and to be able to not put the burden on my family.”

Since starting school she’s been able to quit her job as a dishwasher at Mi Cocina and said she plans to focus on her studies and getting involved on campus. She said it relieves her worries knowing he’s close to her, and having free child care allows her to take more classes.

“I would have been [taking] just like straight core classes, and that’s it,” Queme said. “I would have to have rushed straight home to take care of him.”

Things could have stayed the same or changed, but they decided to cut their losses. That’s what frustrates us all, because we could have still had students and people from the community with lower incomes come to the same center.

—Marla Ponce ChildCareGroup teacher Theater professor Dusty Reasons-Thomas has been using the Children’s Laboratory School since 2015 and is staying for now.

She said there hasn’t been a lot of major changes since CCG took over, but that empty classrooms are filling up, which she said was needed.

Thomas said some other changes include how late CCG stays open. The Children’s Laboratory School used to close 6 p.m., but now it’s 5:30 p.m., and once a month on a Wednesday CCG closes early for training. The Head Start program also shuts down in the summer months for children ages 3 to 4.

As a kid, Thomas attended college with her mom. She said this gives her empathy for the struggles of student parents trying to work, take classes and raise a child.

Last year she paid almost $24,000 for child care for her two kids and said when she was right out of college working for $10 an hour, that price would have been unattainable.

“If I would have had a child, I would have been stuck,” Thomas said. “This opportunity for students is great.”

She wishes there was a way for the current tuition-paying parents to stay with the program, though. And she said it could be beneficial for everyone to have a “diverse balance” of kids.

Marlen Perez, an accountant with KPMG and Eastfield alumna, has used the Children’s Laboratory School for both of her children since 2013.

Her daughter is out of the program now, but her 3-year old son is still enrolled in the multi-age room. Perez is not happy with the transition to CCG and the negative impact she said it’s had on the teachers.

She said parents who stayed were not told about the new closing time of 5:30 p.m. or the one Wednesday a month CCG closes at noon until after they decided to stay. And added that there’s been no indication their tuition will be prorated for the time their children aren’t in the facility.

Perez continued by saying the new food options aren’t the same quality as what were offered by the Children’s Laboratory School.

“My kids might as well be eating barbeque beans and honey buns,” she said. “We have an onsite kitchen at Eastfield, and that was a major selling point for a lot of parents.”

Math professor Tina Giraud decided to take her 2-year-old son out of the Children’s Laboratory School in January rather than stay for the transition.

She said better communication at the beginning would have made the change better.

“I also liked the fact that a lot of my co-workers had their kids there too,” Giraud said. “It was like a big little family there and the other day care, … there are double the amount of kids.”

Thomas and Giraud both said when the Children’s Laboratory School was still running, parents would list each other as emergency contacts, so in case their child was sick and that par-

ent was busy, they could help each other out.

Giraud said now she doesn’t have that, and if she gets a call about her child, she has to leave immediately to pick him up within 30 minutes.

“I understand why it happened,” she said. “I know serving the community is one of the aspects that we’re doing here at Eastfield. … It was just a shock.”

Marla Ponce worked as a teacher with the Children’s Laboratory School for 19 years when she found out she was getting laid off. She planned to retire with the district in another 10 years, but now that opportunity is gone.

She said when they first moved to the K Building 10 years ago, they thought something like this would happen, but after a decade, they weren’t expecting to lose their jobs. “[I’m] disappointed, but at least we still have the children, we have most of our staff here,” Ponce said, “We got new children, and it’s OK. It’s not what we wanted.”

Currently, she works with children who transitioned from the original program.

She said it’s upsetting losing some of the kids they had worked with for years and others who had siblings go through the program, like Giraud, whose oldest son graduated from Children’s Laboratory School.

Ponce said there have been programs in the past that helped families with lower incomes get affordable or free child care with the Children’s Laboratory School.

She said those programs were likely cut due to budget concerns and because the center went through multiple directors over a span of 10 years.

“Things could have stayed the same or changed, but they decided to cut their losses,” she said. “That’s what frustrates us all, because we could have still had students and people from the community with lower incomes come to the same center. But I don’t know if they didn’t do their homework or they just didn’t really want to mess with having to revamp everything and try to … get back on the programs again.”

She said the transition has brought on new paperwork and added cost to employees, mainly in health insurance, which before was paid in full by DCCCD. Ponce said CCG is still a “great organization,” with the same level of instruction for children that were offered by the Children’s Laboratory School.

The instruction for the children is still accredited by the National Association of Education for Young Children and Early Childhood Development, and students will continue to use the facility as a learning lab. Mannes said all CCG locations are NAEYC accredited.

CCG also offers other services to parents through their “second generation” approach to child care. Parents in need can be set up with a “family advocate,” which Mannes said can guide the parents to help with housing, food and other basic needs.

Children in CCG are also assessed within 45 days of enrollment to spot any sort of “developmental delay,” Mannes said. If a child gives any indication of a delay, she said the parents are notified, and with permission CCG brings in a therapist or “inclusion specialist” to their building.

She said both of these services are free with admittance to the program.

“This is a very holistic model that delivers not only very highquality early childhood education for the children in our program, but it also provides this holistic wraparound network of services for the parent, because … we understand that children live in the context of families,” Mannes said. “And if we’re going to make gains for the children in our program, we also have to be concerned about helping the parent succeed.”

People wanting to apply are advised to visit the K Building or call 972-860-7195 to discuss options.

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Wednesday, February 5, 2020

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With the Oscars right aroun ginning to debate who will win performances were scorned. man,” several impeccable mo snubbed by Academy voters movies that should have recei

Portrait of a Lady on Fire Directed by Céline Sciamma, this enchanting film is based on Héloïse, a recalcitrant bride-to-be in the 18th century, who’s secretly observed every day by the painter Marianne in an effort to paint her wedding portrait without Héloïse knowing.

The film’s characters go from strangers to friends to lovers during a church-dominant time where homosexual relations were forbidden, which makes this film even more enticing.

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” could have held nominations in categories such as Best Picture, Best Actress and Best International Film of the Year. The film lost its international film bid due to France choosing “Lés Miserables” as their official selection.

Uncut Gems Rocketman Coming up at the top of the list is “Rocketman,” directed

by Dexter Fletcher.

“Rocketman” is described in the Wall Street Journal as “striking” and “irresistible.” The movie has won over 15 awards, including the People’s Choice award for favorite dramatic movie, but the only recognition it got from the Oscars was for best original song.

Julian Day, the head costume designer for “Rocketman,” designed over 80 costumes for the Elton John character.

The crafted designs brought flare to the characters on screen. This film should have been a shoo-in for achievement in costume design if not more for its production design and cinematography.

The brother director duo Josh and Benny Safdie were not only snubbed by the Oscars, but by the Screen Actors Guild Awards also.

Jennifer Aniston gave Adam Sandler a shout out for his performance during her acceptance speech at the SAG Awards.

“Your performance was extraordinary buddy,” she said. “And your magic is real.”

Contrary to the lighthearted and comedic films audiences are used to from Sandler, “Uncut Gems” is a crime and mystery drama with dark comedic relief.

Sandler gave an outstanding performance as a New York City jeweler merchant and compulsive gambler who acquires a rare gem he purchased in order to pay off his debts, which leads to a plethora of issues.

Sandler could have easily been up for best performance by an actor in a leading role.

LIFE&ARTS

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eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Us

nd the corner, people are ben what. But a lot of films and From “Hustlers” to “Rocketovies and performances got s. Here is my list of the top ived a nomination.

The suspenseful thriller written, co-produced and directed by Jordan Peele, was one of the box offices top hits in 2019, which is no surprise considering Peele’s last movie, “Get Out”, was an award-winning movie still talked about a year later.

Some may have thought this film was just another typical thriller where masked strangers come to kill a family, but Peele puts an interesting twist on the story by having the killers be an underground society of dopplegängers, making it even more consuming for viewers.

Lead actress Lupita Nyong’o has been nominated for seven awards separate from the Oscars for her performance as Adelaide Wilson, a seemingly normal wife and mother, and Red, the creepy dopplegänger of Adelaide. It’s appalling to know she wasn’t considered for a nomination.

­—Lindsey Craft

Hustlers The movie is based on true events that were first published in New York Magazine in December 2015 under the title “The Hustlers at Scores.” It’s a story about two women, Ramona and Destiney, who come up with an elaborate scheme following the economic crash of 2008 in order to continue living their lavish lifestyles.

The movie is strong in female empowerment and does not depict the leading female characters in a derogatory way because of their occupation.

This year’s nominations once again lacked in diversity of race and gender. Excluding a female dominant film featuring women of color and based on true experience is disappointing.

A lot of people thought Jennifer Lopez’s spot for best supporting actress was locked in after getting a multitude of nominations in other award ceremonies. Lopez was outranked for the award by actresses such as Laura Dern in “Marriage Story”, Scarlett Johansson in “JoJo Rabbit” and Margot Robbie in “Bombshell.”

The Farewell Once again, a comedian has been overlooked for a performance that highlights their sweeping talents. In LuLu Wang’s “The Farewell” actress Awkwafina plays the role of Billi. This multicultural family drama takes Billi and her family back to China to say goodbye to Nai Nai, who is the only one who doesn’t know she only has a few weeks to live.

This film is emotional and heartwarming but sparks an ethical question: How do you spend your last days with a loved one that doesn’t know they’re dying, and not tell them?

“The Farewell” was raved by critics but fell short in box office sales.

Although she won the Golden Globe for best actress in a comedy or musical, Awkwafina was snubbed for a chance at her first Oscar.

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Wednesday, February 5, 2020

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Tragic loss drives Rodriguez to master music

By LINDSEY CRAFT Life & Arts Editor @LindseycraftETC

Gabe Rodriguez’s greatest loss has led him to his greatest achievements.

He picked up the bass clarinet in middle school band so he could get out of class for band competitions and field trips.

That changed after his mother died.

He was only a sophomore in high school when it happened. He immersed himself into learning how to play a multitude of instruments including the flute, saxophone, clarinet and trumpet.

“I started learning everything from scratch to distract myself from the loss,” Rodriguez said.

“Losing my mother was a dramatic change. I’m very much a man of routine, and I panic when I lack control over the things that are happening to me or around me.”

Rodriguez is now a music major, student worker and music theory tutor at Eastfield.

He hopes to follow in his mentors’ footsteps by becoming a music educator.

His job includes making program pamphlets, setting up and breaking down recitals and monitoring music labs.

At a young age Rodriguez recognized his struggle to “fit in” with others. He enjoyed playing puzzle games and kept to himself.

In one of his favorite games, he would pick two words and figure out the train of thought that connected the two.

“In hindsight, it was a weird game

BAYLIE TUCKER/THE ET CETERA

Gabe Rodriguez plays his saxophone on Jan. 30 in room F-114.

to play,” he said. “Granted, I was very socially awkward as a kid, so I learned to play games by myself.”

Rodriguez has learned how to manage feeling socially awkward over the years.

“It’s not going to get any better unless you work at it,” he said. “Making eye contact has always been a challenge for me, but in music and everyday life you have to be able to have conversations and sustain eye contact, and that’s something I’m still working on.

When Rodriguez first started attending Eastfield, he was eager to

learn. Little did he know, his excitement for knowledge also taught his professors some lessons.

“What I’ve learned from Gabe is when students express interest in multiple things, I have to find a way to focus that curious energy into things that are going to be practical for them,” guitar and music theory professor Eddie Healy said. “That way they know things that they can back up with skill.”

Healy said Rodriguez has become a well-rounded musician during his time at Eastfield. He’s learned a lot about the totality of his responsibil-

ity as a musician: to become a better player, a better composer, to develop a better ear and to understand more of the tools upon which he can draw when he plays music.

“What sets Gabe apart from other students is that he has learned how to love putting himself outside of his comfort zone,” Healy said. “His curiosity and desire to get better are things that have propelled him to greater heights and will continue to do so.”

Even upon completing his music theory class with Healy, Rodriguez continues to build his skills.

He pops into Healy’s classes from time to time to ask if they’re taking a test, so he can have a copy to freshen his memory.

On Dec. 4, Rodriguez played the baritone saxophone for the last jazz ensemble of his graduating year.

Rodriguez regularly battles preshow jitters that can sometimes be severe, but for this show he was focused and calm, with a confident look in his eyes. He said it was the most comfortable he’s felt performing.

Rodriguez was dressed for the occasion in his posh black pants and shirt, and topped it off with a newsboy cap.

The mood was classy and smooth as the sounds of the instruments produced a funky melody that transported listeners to a dimly corner of a 1920s speakeasy.

The jazz band played a variety of songs including “Isn’t She Lovely” by Stevie Wonder and “Uptown Funk”

by Bruno Mars. The performance ended with a standing ovation.

Though he rarely gives himself

credit, Rodriguez reminisced on the moments during his time at Eastfield.

“I’d say I’m proud of all of my firsts that happened here at Eastfield,” he said. “For example, I actually wrote my first song that got performed by the band while I was here called ‘Sirena.’”

Last summer Rodriguez created a songbook that he wants to leave behind when he graduates. He wrote 42 songs before deciding he wanted others to contribute to the book so people can see the progression and diversity among the musicians at Eastfield.

“He’s done so much to help students who have not yet progressed as far as he has,” Healy said. “I would love to see him hone those teaching skills and see him as an educator.”

Music Program Coordinator Oscar Passley said Rodriguez’s songbook is a great idea for Eastfield’s music department.

Passley has mentored Rodriguez throughout his time at Eastfield.

“It always helps to see people doing things that you want to do and be mentored,” Passley said. “I think to be successful in anything you need to see it, which is one of the reasons I made him a student worker because I know he has plans to do what I’m doing.”

Passley said he expects to see great things from Rodriguez in the future.

“I encourage him to maximize his potential in the things he likes to do to a high level,” Passley said. “He has shown a lot of resiliency towards things in life that has happened to him, so I know that’s going to take him far.”

Artist uses children’s books to create cerebral work

By ESON FELLERS News Editor @EsonFellersETC

Paul Greco’s exhibition “Social Intercourse,” invites viewers to accept dark humor involving serious topics through collages built of bits of paper cut from children’s books and magazines.

The exhibit is on display at Eastfield’s Gallery 219, in room F-219C, until Feb. 21.

Greco says he will work on a piece for a month to four months straight in his studio, which is stacked high with bins containing the cut paper images, all organized by their characteristics.

Greco is partially colorblind. He has a harder

time determining warmer tones like red, leading him to a more unique approach to layering pieces in his art.

“I go by … values more than anything,” Greco said. “I can really tell the color more by its value than by its actual color.”

Value is the lightness or darkness of a color, allowing it to appear brighter or deeper.

Greco uses intense and divisive color schemes, as well as deeply emotional historical portrayals both past and present.

The pieces, such as “Arctic Seals Greeting Polar Bear Refugees, Hudson Bay 2020” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” involve divisive topics such as global warming and Nazism.

Iris Bechtol, gallery director and adjunct art

professor, said the pieces are controversial but important for viewers to help open their minds.

“I think they’re very powerful when one really attempts to engage in the visual imagery of them,” Bechtol said. “I wanted students to see the possibilities of utilizing paper cutouts from other sources to create a rich narrative that illuminates socio-political issues that affect us all.”

While these topics can seem abrasive, Greco said that he draws inspiration from the realworld experiences and trauma he faced as a retired Houston Fire Department paramedic.

He mentioned during a lecture at the gallery opening that he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.

“Anything with prejudices and discrimination always shows in my work,” Greco said. “A

lot of it is just seeing everybody’s struggles and seeing how people are working really hard. I’ve seen that. I have proof of that. So that’s probably one of my biggest drives.”

One of Greco’s pieces, “The Color Purple,” depicts loveable Sesame Street characters and Muppets helping firefighters drench a burning building with a hose, while other characters further from the building go about their lives, smiling and waving at the viewer.

Abraham Mendoza, a student who viewed the exhibit at the opening, said he found the pieces layered with meaning, especially considering Greco’s choice of materials.

“It’s amazing how many messages you get and how vivid those messages can be,” Mendoza said.

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Over the hill

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Looking back at the changes Eastfield has made over the past 50 years

By ANDREW WALTER Special Contributor @TheEtCetera

Eastfield College has seen some of the top names in entertainment and politics since opening its doors in 1970. Visitors have included actress Lily Tomlin, comedian George Carlin, the Dixie Chicks, musician John Cage and even President Barack Obama in 2011.

Karla Greer was a student at Eastfield in the ‘70s and saw Tomlin on the Performance Hall stage.

“I loved Lily Tomlin,” Greer said.

“She had been on ‘Laugh-In.’ … I was really happy when she came here because she was just as funny here as she was [on TV].”

Greer graduated from Skyline High School in 1975 and was a student at Eastfield until spring 1978, when she transferred to Texas Woman’s University to pursue a degree in library science.

She began working for the library almost immediately after enrolling and is now Eastfield’s executive dean of academic support as the college prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary this year.

The anniversary will feature events throughout the year, including Founders Day on April 3, a float in the Mesquite Rodeo Parade on April 4, a 5K run May 30, a golf tournament Oct. 2 and a gala party Nov. 12. Eastfield is also trying to raise $50,000 for scholarships and student programs.

The land Eastfield was built on was bought by the Dallas County Community College District for $970,552 in 1966. It was previously farmed by the Motleys, and their family cemetery remains on the campus grounds.

Two years after opening, the college was bathed in political activity.

The 1972 presidential race between Richard Nixon and George McGovern was heating up, and political officials and candidates regularly visited campus to speak to classes and larger groups of students.

“It looked an awfully lot like the democratic process at work,” said Jerry Henson, a former Eastfield administrator who wrote “The PersonCentered College,” a history of the college published in 2000.

Some of these visitors included Texas’ only female member of the

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DCCCD

Top, Eastfield’s first dean, Byron McClenney, left, and another man look out at construction of campus in 1970. Bottom left, Linda Gosdin, Eastfield’s first enrolled student, and Gary Finney, Mountain View’s first enrolled student, pose for a photo while holding school pennants. Aerial photo of campus in 1971.

state Legislature, Frances Farenthold, and Myrlie Evers, widow of murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers. They came to campus in February 1972 to push for the involvement of women and minority groups in politics.

Many students who attended these political events and visits were visibly opposed to the Vietnam War. In fact, many of the students had fought in Vietnam. They came to the college as part of the GI Bill.

Before she became the library administrator, Greer started out as a work-study library aide and has worked in nearly every position the library offers, from the circulation desk to evening librarian.

“I started here after high school and within a month or two, I started working in the library as a workstudy student,” Greer said. “So, I’ve been here, even in the library, forever.”

Eastfield had a designated time

that did not conflict with classes for clubs to meet and students to socialize from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for many years, according to Henson’s book.

When not in classes such as sociology with professor Jane Penney, Greer liked to hang out in the Pit (now called the Hive) with friends and classmates.

It was popular to go there to socialize and smoke cigarettes, back

when smoking was allowed on campus grounds, she said. The Pit was filled with cigarette smoke during the activity period.

Smoking was eventually banned on campus because of the burn marks left on many of the chairs, tables and on the railings on the second floor of the C Building. Some walls around campus had to be repainted because of the stains as well.

Students would go to the Pit during activity period and play card games like spades and rummy. If someone was playing a game and they had to leave for class mid-game, somebody else would swap in for them, keeping games going for hours and sometimes days, Greer said.

There was also a student lounge with a pool table, arcade games and game consoles, and materials for crafting and working on school projects, although Greer said she rarely used it.

When the activity period was discontinued, economics professor Bob Felder said there was a noticeable drop in student engagement. Felder said that while he misses the activity period and believed that it helped students stay active on campus, it would be quite the challenge to implement today. Felder is one of four faculty members who have worked at Eastfield since its opening.

“I had my eye on Eastfield even before it was constructed,” said Felder, who was hired at El Centro in 1967 and transferred to Eastfield upon its completion.

Originally from East Texas, Felder had taken a short break from teaching but wanted to go back to his favorite profession at a community college. When he heard about Eastfield being constructed in the late ‘60s, he specifically applied to El Centro to have his foot in the door to be hired at Eastfield.

During Eastfield’s first semester in fall 1970, many buildings and offices were still under construction.

Felder said that even with the problems created by the unfinished campus, he and other faculty loved it at Eastfield because it was new, exciting and it felt like a real personcentered community.

“When you say person-centered, that includes everybody,” he said.

“The student body, the faculty, maintenance, administration, everybody.”

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MLK’s protégé to speak on campus about voting

By JORDAN LACKEY Staff Writer @TheEtCetera

The Rev. Peter Johnson stood behind Martin Luther King Jr. at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963.

Johnson, then a college student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, had led the Louisiana delegation across the south to the nation’s capital to protest inequalities faced by African Americans.

The sky was clear, but his mind was clouded, troubled by the turmoil he’d witnessed on his journey. He was unable to truly appreciate the magnitude of the situation transpiring just a few feet away from him as King addressed the crowd.

King was about halfway through his speech when he looked back and over his shoulder at gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

“Martin!,” she shouted. “Tell them about your dream, Martin!”

King closed his leather binder, put both hands on the podium and leaned back like an old preacher.

“Dr. King is getting ready to take us to church now,” King’s chief of staff, Wyatt Walker, whispered in Johnson’s ear.

Then the powerful words “I have a dream,” boomed through the National Mall.

Those words wouldn’t be taught in schools today if it wasn’t for Jackson’s loud voice and influence, Johnson said in a recent interview.

“That wasn’t supposed to be a part of that speech,” he said.

It became one of the most famous orations in history.

Johnson has been an activist in Dallas since moving here in 1969. He teaches at the University of North Texas and will speak Feb. 12 at Eastfield for Black History Month.

As a student leader at one of the largest black schools in the country, Johnson was often responsible for gathering student protestors.

“Everyone depended on the students,” he said. “The students were the foot soldiers of the civil rights movement. Without students, you can’t have a civil rights movement.”

He said it was no big deal to gather eight busloads of students at any given time.

“They didn’t want to go to class anyways,” he said laughing.

After several senior community leaders were put in jail due to civil disobedience, including the principal and pastor of his hometown, Plaquemine, Louisiana, Johnson became solely responsible for organizing the state’s delegation for the March on Washington.

Johnson said the participants made a pact not to follow “the American apartheid system.”

If they encountered “black” or “white only” signs, they would purposefully use the wrong facility. He said the biggest problem was finding money to bail them out of jail afterward.

ANTHONY LAZON/THE ET CETERA

The Rev. Peter Johnson points out some of the photos in his Dallas office with people such as President Barack Obama, Cesar Chavez and Hank Aaron.

The day of the march, that responsibly weighed heavily on his conscience.

“It fell on the shoulders of the students to organize the Louisiana leg of the march on Washington,” he said. “Between Louisiana and Washington, D.C., I had kids thrown out in jail all over the South, because every time we stopped somebody went to jail.”

During his visit to Eastfield, Johnson plans to speak about the importance of voting and appreciating the sacrifices made to attain that right.

“Most of us shed blood for the right to vote,” Johnson said. “It didn’t come easy. It took years and years. …The right to vote has a long, sacred, bloody history for us. ... I’ve got friends in the graveyard for the right to vote. ... The right to vote is stained not just with blood but with funerals.”

Johnson said this mentality applies not only to federal elections, but state and local elections as well. History professor Liz Nichols, who teaches an African American history course, agreed.

“It’s not that the presidency is not important,” Nichols said. “But sometimes we’re just so far removed from what happens at the federal level, you need to kind of concentrate on what’s happening in your state. Who’s running your state, and who’s running your city? ... Study the issues, look at some objective or multiple sources and make an informed decision.”

Brynndah Hicks Turnbo, co-chair for this year’s Black History Month committee, played

a crucial role in booking Johnson to speak.

“When I saw the theme was African Americans and the Vote, I really got excited about it because it’s an ongoing history lesson for us,” she said. “We were looking for a walking history book. That’s how we came about finding the reverend. ... He has an incredible story to tell.”

Hicks Turnbo hopes this month’s events will educate and inspire people to get out and vote.

“It’s an ongoing job having to determine what is important,” she said. “Or how to bring awareness to an issue that may never cross our minds until it is humanized and bleeds into the heart of our conscience.”

Johnson originally came to Dallas to plan the premiere of a documentary about the works of King and to help raise money for the King family shortly after his assassination. The assignment was expected to last a few months, but after being asked to help Fair Park residents get fair market value for their homes, he decided to stay.

Johnson’s activism has gotten him arrested for breaking into buildings so the homeless would have a place to sleep. He was held at gunpoint for picketing a segregated doctor’s office.

He’s taken the city of Dallas to court on multiple occasions to fight for homeowners’ rights and fair working conditions for the Dallas sanitation department. He even went on hunger strike for 18 days on the steps of old City Hall to protest poverty and hunger as part of Operation Breadbasket.

“We forced the nation to do something

about hunger and malnutrition,” Johnson said.

“For me, this was not a program for black people. It was a program for hungry people, for people missing meals, for people who couldn’t feed their children. … Out of all the stuff I’ve done, for me that’s the most precious.”

Johnson, now in his 70s, is still a big player in the activist community on both a local and national scale.

He is petitioning to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, after Congressman John Lewis, a representative for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District and a civil rights activist who was beaten by state troopers on the bridge in 1963. Pettus was a Confederate Army officer and grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

Johnson also has plans to march with King’s son Martin Luther King III in April near the Mexican border and deliver supplies like food and feminine products to refugees.

For three years, Johnson has been a lecturer and course planner at UNT and has insisted that a number of seats remain open for members of the community to attend his class, free of charge.

He hopes to ignite the passions of the younger generation as King did for him when he was a student.

“Don’t give up,” Johnson said. “Don’t accept the norm. You can change it. We did. Don’t give up and don’t despair. ... The ball is in your generation’s court. ... I have a tremendous amount of faith in America’s youth. ... Speak out. Silence is a sin.”

Sports The Et Cetera

Feb. 12 Basketball vs. Mountain View Feb. 14 Baseball vs. Kansas City Kansas Feb. 15 Baseball vs. Kansas City Kansas

6 p.m.

1 p.m. noon

13 eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Harvesters lose first place, look ahead to playoffs

By SAZOUN GRAYER Sports Editor @sazoungrayerETC

With less than five games left, the Harvesters are gearing up for the postseason.

These last few weeks were a swing of emotions for the team. Following a huge win over the then No. 1 Richland Thunderducks on Jan. 15, the Harvesters leaped to the top of the national rankings.

Confidence was at a high for the players, especially after beating a team they had lost to in their previous four meetings.

As the new No. 1, the Harvesters knew they had a target on their backs and would get every team’s best shot. “[We can’t] take games lightly,” sophomore guard Mike Aranda said. “Everybody the rest of the season is going to give us their best, but they’re going to get our best too.”

His words couldn’t have been truer. On Jan. 25, the Harvesters met a North Lake squad that came ready for a fight. It was a tight game to the end, but Eastfield missed some clutch shots in the closing moments. With no choice but to foul, North Lake would drain their following free throws and pull way to upset of the top-ranked Harvesters 101-95. It was their first loss to any Division III opponent all season.

“We were disappointed in losing,” guard Ta’Marcus Butler said.

“But we also know that we can’t win every game. We’ve got to improve off the loss and take care of the little things.”

Despite the setback, the Harvesters are still in a very good place heading into the postseason. They are now 21-4 on the year and ranked No. 4 in the nation, while averaging 99.8 points per game and also posting 45.4 rebounds and 19.7 assists per game.

Coach Anthony Fletcher is pleased with how the year has gone so far but he isn’t satisfied yet. He wants more.

“Anytime you win 20 games, it’s a really good season,” Fletcher said. “[But] we want it to go from good to great to special to history.”

Freshman Calvin Williams has been leading the way for the Harvesters this season. He has been named Dallas Athletic Conference player of the week twice while leading the team in points per game (18.8) and three-point percentage (41.9).

Forward D’Angelo Smith continues to be a force, posting a 55.7 field goal percentage and earning DAC player of the week honors as well. Freshman Kyree Rogers has been a weapon off the bench, shooting 53.1 percent from the field.

Even though the Harvesters have had an impressive season, Fletcher wants his players to stay focused on the bigger picture, traveling to Minnesota and competing for a national championship.

“We’ve got to be ready to come out and give everything we got,” Fletcher said. “Play our hardest, dive on the floor, get loose balls, take charges, defend and get steals. Not just score a basketball.”

Fletcher has stressed to the team the mentality that he wants his guys to keep as they near the finish line for the regular season. “[We have to] lock in every day,” Fletcher said. “Games, practice, all of that; every time [the players] see me they’re going to keep hearing ‘lock in.’ You have to go in and prove to somebody that you’re better than them every single day.”

Currently, the Harvesters sit at the top of the conference standings alongside 18-2 Richland. Fletcher and the Harvesters understand that every game could potentially play a role in whether they get to the national tournament or not. A pivotal rematch tonight on the road at Richland will be a deciding factor in where they stand headed into the postseason. The Harvesters finish regular season play Feb. 15 at North Lake.

RORY MOORE/THE ET CETERA

Clockwise from top, D’Angelo Smith, left, and Ta’marcus Butler play defense against Richland at home Jan. 15. Tyrese Davis shoots a free throw to help Eastfield beat the Thunderducks 84-75. Calvin Williams evades a Richland defender. The victory against Richland moved the Harvesters to first place in the national poll. But after a Jan. 25 loss to North Lake, they fell to fourth place.

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SPORTS

The Et Cetera

eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Harvesters look to returning players as new season begins

By SAZOUN GRAYER Sports Editor @sazoungrayerETC

Harvester baseball is back for 2020 and they have their sights set on their first conference title since 2016.

Eastfield is trying to bounce back after last year’s disappointing 26-22 season that ended with a playoff loss to North Lake. Harvesters opened play Jan. 31 against North Arkansas.

They go on the road to Blinn College Feb. 7.

The Harvesters will look to their 11 returning sophomores to lead the team this season after losing 12 from last year. First baseman Keylon Mack and outfielder Gabriel Vasquez are a couple of key pieces coming back after making the All-Star game last year. Vasquez led the Harvesters in multiple categories last season including hits (50), home runs (10) and RBIs (52).

He believes this year’s team is primed and ready for a great run.

“Everyone on the team can hit, for sure,” Vasquez said. “Defensively, we’re a lot better this year too. We have more depth in pitching, our infielders are a lot better and our outfielders feel more confident this year as well. …This year I think we’ll be better and stronger, and we’ll definitely go farther.”

Mack, who ranked second on the team in home runs (4) and RBIs (33) last season, believes the returning sophomores can make a difference with the experience they bring to the team.

“Last season we didn’t come out like we wanted to, we came out really flat,” Mack said. “The whole season we battled ups and downs and we just didn’t do what we needed to do. We didn’t execute when it came time to execute and ultimately, we lost.”

As a team last season, the Harvesters scored 340 runs and hit a respectable 38 home runs. However, they managed to post just a .266 team batting average. Consistency was a struggle last season, allowing some important games down the stretch to get away from them.

This fall, improving at the plate has been a main focus point for Martin. The Harvesters have had some high intensity practices leading up to the start of the season.

A few players mentioned that a lack of team chemistry was another problem that held back the team last season. So, this year the players participate in team chemistry-building activities that forces them to work together every Thursday. They play games together, go out to eat together, and the team have bonded more because of it. Vasquez and others agree that now they feel closer as a team.

Outfielder Travarus Ansley, infielder Brady Robinson and pitcher Jared Tipton are a few more returning sophomores who are looking to make a play a big role in this experienced lineup.

Ansley ranked second on the team in runs (40), hits (49) and walks (33) last year. The Harvesters will need him to continue to get on base fre-

quently to create scoring opportunities. Ansley says the guys have been ready to get out and start playing for some time now.

“We look great,” Ansley said. “I think we’ve got a good chance to do something special this year. We’ve been waiting. We’re licking our chops.”

The Harvesters will also look to some of their new additions to make an impact this season.

Freshman first baseman Angel Rodriguez out of Tyler, Texas will add a big bat to the lineup. Braxton Briones from Iowa Park, Texas is another freshman that has shown promise in practice.

The Harvesters’ lineup will be more versatile this year. Many of their players play multiple positions around the diamond, including several freshman like Ethan Jeske from Tyler, Chris Dickens from Iowa Park and Carlos Lopez out of Dallas.

Thanks to an influx of new players, 13 freshman and 1 sophomore transfer, who can be called on for different tasks and situations, the Harvesters boast a deep roster this season.

Two-time national championship winning coach Michael Martin feels confident about the team’s chances in his 19th season.

“We’re excited about the opportunity ahead of us, and I think we got a good chance to compete at the top of this conference like we have every year,” Martin said. “We look forward to this year and we have some kids that ought to lead us to the opportunity of winning the conference.”

PHOTOS BY BAYLIE TUCKER/THE ET CETERA

Clockwise from top, Vincente Castillo hits a ball against North Arkansas on Jan. 31 at Poteet High School. Landon Roberts throws a pitch in the Harvesters 9-1 vicory over the Pioneers on Jan. 31.

Keylon Mack swings at a pitch during the first game of the season against North Arkansas.

opinion Etera Award-winning member of: • Texas Intercollegiate Press Association • Texas Community College Journalism Association • Associated Collegiate Press • College Media Association

Eastfield College 3737 Motley Drive Mesquite, TX 75150 Phone: 972-860-7130 Email: etc4640@dcccd.edu Editor in Chief Skye Seipp Creative Director Anthony Lazon News Editor Eson Fellers Social Media Editor Hunter Garza Life & Arts Editor Lindsey Craft Multimedia Editor Marisol Ramirez Photo Editor Baylie Tucker Sports Editor Sazoun Grayer Copy Editor Harriet Ramos

Senior Photographer Rory Moore Staff Writer Jordan Lackey Graphic Artists Margaret Tamez Jessica Martinez Cartoonists Eric Santos Jesus Madrid Photographer Sirgio Ruvalcaba Editorial Assistants Marie Garcia Publication Adviser Elizabeth Langton Student Media Manager Sarah Sheldon Digital Media Adviser Sandra Evans Faculty Adviser Lori Dann

The views expressed on the opinion pages and other opinion pieces and cartoons in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of The Et Cetera, Eastfield College or the Dallas County Community College District.

The Et Cetera is published by a student staff.

Each member of the college community is entitled to one free copy of The Et Cetera.

First Amendment Right Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Letters to the Editor Letters must be typed, signed and include a phone number. Letters will be edited for profanity and vulgarity, Associated Press style, grammar, libel and space when needed. The content will remain that of the author. Letters should be no longer than 250 words.

ABOUT THE COVER Illustration BY ANTHONY LAZON

15 eastfieldnews.com

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

OUR VIEW

‘One college’ will move DCCCD forward We support the Dallas County Community College District’s single accreditation initiative.

Students and the district have been negatively impacted by a separate accreditation system for too long.

In August, Chancellor Joe May announced his plan for the district to become “one college” by having all campuses be accredited together by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. This move was proposed to align the district on inconsistencies found at different campuses and will help swirl students — people who take classes at multiple campuses — graduate without having to meet the rule that forces students to complete 25 percent of their credits from one of the seven colleges in DCCCD. There’s no reason students should have such a hard time drifting from various campuses, especially when campuses have different programs.

The move to “one college” will address these issues and more. The time for change is now.

Skepticism is understandable. An abrupt change of this magnitude isn’t easy, and there are not a lot of answers to questions regarding what

these new academic structures will mean.

We want answers, but they’re not there and it’s nerve wracking. However, if we put off change so the district could study every little issue that may arise from adding new administrative positions or having a different school structure, the discrepancies will grow.

Change shouldn’t be opposed, but rather championed at an institute of higher learning.

As the city of Dallas increasingly becomes a hub for tech giants, it’s up to the DCCCD to ensure the populace isn’t losing out on jobs and can meet the growing demand. Dallas had the second largest number of people in Texas move from outof-state to its county in 2018 with 46,474 people, according to a recent report released by the Texas Realtors Association.

Office jobs in Dallas grew by 5.7 percent in 2019, a report by real estate firm CBRE found.

That’s more than any other city in the United States. The “one college” initiative is supposed to grow the DCCCD’s number of partnerships with Dallas businesses.

This will propel students to upward economic mobility, which is necessary for a city that’s pov-

erty rate was 20.5 percent and 14.2 percent for the county in 2018, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Both numbers are higher than the national average of 11.8 percent.

It’s up to the one community college system serving Dallas County to bring these numbers down. And that means transforming operations, like the accreditation system, that have been in place since 1965.

Then there’s the issue of campus identity.

The one college initiative isn’t some Orwellian nightmare that will force every campus to assimilate into an empty shell of lifeless classrooms.

No one at the district offices has made any remarks that suggest clubs, sports teams or student organizations like The Et Cetera are going away, and May has said campuses will keep mascots and sports teams. Hanging on to little bits of pride does nothing but stop progression. Let it go.

District leaders owe this change to the taxpayers. After being awarded a $1.1 billion bond, that money can’t be wasted on upgrading deteriorating buildings while neglecting to fix internal problems. The system has failed, and the revolution has begun. Embrace it.

At home tattoos cost more in the long run At-home ink-slingers spit in the eye of everything so many rabblerousers and mischief-makers have literally bled for to build.

Tattoo culture is comprised mostly of heathens and rule breakers. To say there are a few cardinal rules that must be followed may sound a bit odd, but even the most degraded of subcultures must have a general code of ethics to adhere to.

This isn’t a matter of a misspelled tattoo or a blown out line. These mistakes are forgivable in the heart of your average god-fearing heathen.

This concerns the one unforgivable sin in tattoo society. Thou shalt not buy a machine online and call yourself an “artist.”

Tattooing is one of the most difficult lines of work to break into. One cannot simply walk into a shop and ask for an application. The only way to get into the business is through an apprenticeship under an already established artist. A process that is easier said than done. Many artists aren’t so keen on the idea of handing out hard earned secrets of the trade to any kid that wants to learn. You must first establish “shop presence.”

Jordan Lackey @TheEtCetera

That simply means hanging around the shop regularly, getting tattooed, spending money and establishing a friendship with the artist.

Then one day, pick up a broom and start cleaning shop. If nobody stops you, then congratulations, you might have a shot at an apprenticeship.

It’s a slow process. Dues must be paid and the opportunity earned.

This is the way of the ink-slinging world. But a new breed of morally bankrupt halfwits have evolved to the foreground of modern tattooing.

The at-home “tattoo artist.”

It seems like everyone has a cousin, or “knows a guy,” that can do a full sleeve for $150 in the back of their garage or van.

These are the same people that are ignorant of common-sense variables like the amount of detail you’re looking for in a tattoo. A decent sleeve usually starts at a minimum of one

grand and can raise much higher depending on these variables and who your artist is. It takes a special kind of stupid to allow one of these idiots to put a needle in your skin.

You deserve the staff infection you’ll most likely get and no one in tattoo society will have an ounce of sympathy for you.

However, the one that really deserves the staff infection is the do it yourself chicken-scratch “master” that bought a cheap tattoo machine online and decided to call themselves an “artist.”

Tattoo machines (not a tattoo gun) are an art-form all by themselves. Many artists even go as far as taking up metalwork so they can make their own machines.

They constantly trade out parts like baseball cards with each other.

It’s sacred, and the fact that some idiot can order a junk machine from Amazon is disgusting. This is the same breed of moron that will clean a fresh tattoo with straight rubbing alcohol then proceed to wipe it town with cheap toilet paper. As you may imagine, not a fun way to treat a fresh wound.

But the do it yourself tattoo dunce may not know any better, one could argue. They don’t know because they never bothered to learn.

You’ll often hear the argument, “they have to start somewhere.” I completely agree. Start in a shop.

Like the dope that cuts to the front of a line, ignoring everyone waiting behind. They ignore the structure of society. Thinking that the rules don’t apply to them, till they finally get hit in the head with a brick because they cut in front of the wrong guy. To skip the processes, is to get yourself hurt.

But there is a hidden silver lining when it comes to the do it yourself ink-slinger. Inevitably, someone will have to fix or cover up that Jackson Pollock nightmare of a tattoo. And cover-ups aren’t cheap. They cost double the price on average due to the doubled labor of the artist to cover up someone else’s mistakes.

In the end, the real artist will always get paid. Save yourself the time, money and trouble, get it done right the first time.

—Jordan Lackey is a staff writer and journalism major

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WRAP-UP

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

eastfieldnews.com

Mudpuffy Comics By Jesus Madrid

The Et Cetera

Spring into a semester

Oddball Scribbles By Eric Santos

RORY MOORE/THE ET CETERA

Taylor Mack plays Chinese checkers in The Hive during zodiac jeopardy on Jan. 24.

New exhibit in gallery F219

Oddball Scribbles By Eric Santos

NEWS

Briefs

Black History Month begings Eastfield will be hosting an array of events for Black History Month with many focused on the theme “African Americans and the vote.” Visit eastfieldcollege.edu/blackhistory for more information.

Literary Competiton open Students can enter into the annual literary competition for a chance to win a cash prize and get published. Eligibility is open to stu-

dents enrolled in fall 2019 or spring 2020. For more information on the competition, visit eastfieldcollege.edu/licontest.

Staff member wins LGBTQ award Chris Schlarb, program coordinator with the Center of Equity, Inclusion and Disversity, received the LGBT Chamber of Commerce’s 2020 Community Excellence Award on Jan. 31. Schlarb was recognized for their efforts in building Eastfield’s service-learning program and creating a more inclusive campus.

BAYLIE TUCKER/THE ET CETERA

Artist Paul Greco explains the artwork from his exhibit, “Social Intercourse” in F-219C on Jan. 23.