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OAK L E A F Santa Rosa Junior College’s Student Newspaper

Volume CXXVI, Issue I

Faculty group seeks new union Benjamin Gruey Layout Editor A group of SRJC adjunct and fulltime professors are trying to replace the All Faculty Association (AFA) as the union representing SRJC instructors.

The United Faculty Santa Rosa Junior College (UF SRJC) is currently passing out signature cards to call an election to decide who will represent the SRJC faculty. The Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) would call, and oversee, the election if UF SRJC gathered signatures from at least 30 percent of the faculty. The election would be through a secret ballot, likely through the mail.

The UF SRJC evolved from the Adjunct Caucus and the Faculty Alliance for Equality. The Adjunct Caucus was concerned with the way AFA handled the budget cuts in the 2009/10 school year and members claimed the AFA council did not fully represent the make-up of faculty at SRJC. They wanted the council to change from 13 full-time and six part-time (adjunct) to a 50/50 split between full time and adjunct faculty.

As full-time faculty joined, the group changed its name to the Faculty Alliance for Equality. Now in its third installment the group is calling for a disbandment of AFA and a new union with the backing of the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) to be set up. The CFT is California’s branch of the American Federation of Teachers based in Washington, D.C. AFA has been SRJC faculty’s main bargaining unit for more than 20 years. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) tried to represent SRJC faculty twice before. The first time was at the creation of AFA. The second time it outspent AFA three to one, but PERB did not get enough signatures from AFT to call an election.

The new UF SRJC union would “have the best of both worlds,” said Michel Kaufmann, an adjunct English as a Second Language instructor.

The new union would be autonomous, run by and for SRJC faculty, but would also have the backing of the larger affiliate CFT. The organizers of UF SRJC went to CFT; CFT didn’t come to SRJC, Kaufmann said. “We liked what we saw statewide and in different districts.”

Kaufmann said he wants more transparency in a bargaining unit representing faculty at SRJC than AFA has shown in the past. He would also like respectful distance between

Continued on page 4

February 7, 2011

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Police Chief on leave after workplace complaints Jerome Janairo News Editor The new police chief at Santa Rosa Junior College has been put on formal administrative leave as of Jan. 21. The decision came after members of the SRJC District Police force approached top SRJC officials with grievances about the chief ’s performance and later signed a hostile work environment complaint, according to sources within the SRJC district police.

Police sources said many officers

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working under Chief Christopher Wilkinson felt they were operating in a “climate of fear,” and that several began searching for employment with other law enforcement agencies.

SRJC Vice President of Business Affairs, Doug Roberts, could not comment on Wilkinson’s administrative leave citing “personnel confidentiality issues.” Two sources within the district police department said the president’s office has instructed department staff not to publicly speak about the issue.

SRJC Emergency Management Coordinator Don Silverek, a veteran

police officer for the SRJC district police who retired in fall 2010, said that SRJC officers have told him that they work in “an environment of people looking over each other’s shoulders.”

Silverek said that the officers were “very apprehensive,” especially when talking about Wilkinson.

A source within the SRJC police said that officers were afraid of retribution from the chief. He said that on Jan. 20 the Police Association, a union for SRJC district police, approached top SRJC officials and demanded administrative action regarding Wilkinson, or that they would hold a no-

Egypt through our eyes

confidence vote. They also signed a hostile work environment complaint at Human Resources the same day.

The same source said problems with Chief Wilkinson stemmed from his “failure to get to know the culture of SRJC and its police department,” and that he didn’t seek input from anyone in the department, making it a “my way or the highway” situation.

One example he gave was the chief ’s plans to acquire new uniforms and furniture, despite the lack of funds in the district police budget.

Continued on page 4

Dr. Agrella warns of grim budget Jerome Janairo News Editor

Photos courtesy of Tim Stewart

For days the whole world watched Egypt’s epic struggle for democracy. Though tens of thousands of miles away, it profoundly affected 3 people with connections to SRJC: two instructors—one with family left behind in Egypt, another caught in the chaos—and a student bearing witness to a people’s revolt.

A Week in Liberation Square SRJC Professor proud of Michael Shufro Contributing Writer Dawn Lukas watched a Cairo walkway in disbelief on Jan. 28 as she wandered home from her brother’s apartment, only minutes from Tahrir Square.

Burned out vehicles, overturned guard stations and strewn debris everywhere plagued the streets, she said.

Fire and black smoke spewed out of windows from a building high above.

A surreal traffic jam of military tanks filled the desert city, as flocks of protestors surrounding them demanded change.

Lukas made it safely to her apart-

ment, six blocks from Tahrir Square, where she had moved in just the day before. The same day, a citywide blackout cut off Internet access and phone services for nearly everyone in Cairo.

Arrival Lukas, an SRJC English instructor, considered the trip to Egypt after a friend of her brother mentioned a job opportunity working for Spread Your English, an organization that teaches English to Egyptian students. Apart from a spring semester of teaching an online English 1A course, her schedule looked free. She could grade papers over the net, help educate the

Continued on page 2

protesting family in Egypt Quinn Conklin

Co-Editor-in-Chief Every year Dr. Heidi Saleh travels to Egypt to visit family. Last January, the SRJC art history professor walked the Egyptian streets; this year she is watching them on the news.

Saleh keeps in touch with family via mobile phone and Facebook.

On Jan. 26, the Internet went down all across Egypt, but Saleh still kept in contact. Her cousin was able to circumvent the blockade through his job with Vodofone, one of the largest

Continued on page 2

Hard times are on the horizon for SRJC and students this semester as the college prepares to deal with additional cuts and massive revenue losses with the release of Governor Brown’s proposed state budget.

In a memo sent by SRJC President Dr. Robert Agrella to faculty and staff members, Agrella explained the possible outcomes for SRJC with the governor’s state budget. In it, he stated: “The picture for the community college system, and therefore SRJC, is grim.”

The state budget for the fiscal year of 2011 to 2012 details a plan to bridge a $25.4 billion budget gap by calling for $12.5 billion in spending cuts and $12 billion in revenue extensions. The revenue extensions will continue current state tax rates set to expire at the end of the 2010 fiscal year and require approval by the State Legislature in early March to be presented on the ballot for voters. A special election on the tax measures will be on June 7 and must have twothirds majority vote by the electorate to pass.

According to the State Chancellor’s Office, California community colleges have three budgetary scenarios depending on the results of the June special elections, as described by Agrella’s memo. However, in all three scenarios the California community college system will deal with “net losses” of hundreds of millions of dollars.

“These are the decisions we are having to look at, and none of them are pleasant,” said Doug Roberts, SRJC Vice President of Business Service.

The “best case scenario” is based on the approval of revenue exten-

Continued on page 3

February 7, 2011

NEWS

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An American student in Egypt Jerome Janairo News Editor The chaotic scenes from Tahrir Square in Cairo couldn’t be more distant from the calm, quiet suburbs of Windsor. However, for former SRJC student Tim Stewart, the violent clashes between anti-government protesters and pro-government supporters rocking Egypt for the past several days is now part of his everyday reality.

Stewart, 21, attended SRJC from Fall 2007 to Spring 2009 after graduating from Windsor High School. He traveled to the Middle East in the summer of 2009, visiting Egypt where he learned Arabic. After attending the Fall 2010 semester at SRJC, he returned to Egypt this time as a student of the American University in Cairo, studying Middle Eastern History.

Weeks later, the streets of Cairo erupted with the call for revolution and democracy, with hundreds of thousands of Egyptians demanding the immediate removal of President Mubarak and Egypt’s political establishment.

Stewart, the tall American from Windsor, now found himself witness to history in the making, documenting the protests and reporting it to the Press Democrat.

“I originally sent my dispatch to the PD as soon as things here started to heat up only because I didn’t see hardly anything in the papers on the West Coast about the riots,” he

wrote in an e-mail.

Immersed in the widespread rioting across the country, Stewart took photographs and marched alongside protesters, dodging tear gas canisters launched by riot police.

Immediately after his reporting was published by the Press Democrat, Stewart was flooded by emails and requests for interviews.

U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Nate Long, a Windsor High School graduate and former SRJC student, describes Stewart as “shy and intelligent”.

“He’s a smart kid,” Long said, recalling his days as a high school student with Stewart, where they were both members of the school swim team in 2006. “He’s usually quiet but he’s always got something funny and smart to say whenever we hung out.”

For Stewart, the attention he’s getting has been overwhelming.

“Frankly the fame is hurting my head,” he wrote in an email. “I’ll be glad when this is all over and I can get back to normal.”

But that didn’t stop friends and family from posting messages of support on Stewart’s Facebook page. One commenter summed up the importance of his reporting to people back home: “I’m following your posts with great interest. Funny, I was certainly interested in the events in Egypt before, but knowing someone who’s there makes it even more real.”

Lukas

Proud

Continued from front page

Internet providers in Egypt.

According to Saleh, the protests and violence in Egypt did not come out of nowhere.

Tensions have grown for the last decade, but the people have felt helpless. The Egyptians’ dissatisfaction rises from the inequality between the rich and the poor.

“The economy was booming, but only very few elites profited from it, while the rest of the country lived below the poverty line (at about $2/day!),” she said in an e-mail. “The future for young Egyptians has been grim, with most college-educated graduates who speak English and/or French unable to find work.”

The Government used the people’s fear of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic fundamentalist group, to keep them from rising up.

“That was the general message that the government was sending: if we go, the Brotherhood will take over,” Saleh said. “I think the Egyptian people realized that the threat of the Brotherhood was overplayed by the government, and that it was time for change regardless of the consequences.”

Miriam Saleh, Heidi’s cousin, a graduate student at the German University in Cairo, said “Please tell them that Egyptians will never stop until Mubarak and his regime leave.”

She also added, “Nobody in Tahrir accepts Mubarak’s offer to leave in September. People want him and his regime to leave; not only to leave, but to be sentenced to death.”

Heidi says she is proud of her relatives who

have taken to the street. “Most are my collegeage cousins, but my aunts and uncles are hitting the streets, too. I know that I have an aunt in her late 70s who joined the protests as well,” she said. She also said she is surprised because her family has lived comfortably. However, they recognize that things are unfair the way they are.

While Heidi is proud of her relatives in Egypt, Miriam reports the Egyptian people are disappointed in the American response.

“Egyptians don’t like the Obama administration reaction. They were expecting the U.S. to be on the people’s side.” Miriam said.

In the first days of the protest people felt safe taking to the streets. Heidi shared the sentiments of her family when she talked to them on Facebook. “Those participating in the protests feel incredibly proud and they feel safe in the crowds,” she said. “However, some of the moms, who have chosen to stay at home with their young children, feel helpless and scared in the midst of chaos and instability.”

While the protesters have been peaceful, Miriam says that forces loyal to the government have not. “The demonstrations have never been more civilized and well organized.”

Miriam said. The protesters were searched as they came in to Tahrir Square to make sure no one was armed. “So what’s happening right now is that Mubarak’s supporters are using violence against the protesters, the Egyptians, who have nothing to defend themselves. The army is being very passive; they can see people being injured and killed and are doing nothing!”

out.”

Two days later Lukas was settling Continued from front page into her new place when an explosion world, and spend her time off exploring near- of tear gas swept through large gaps by pyramids and ancient tombs. Diving into in two of the apartment windows, fillthe unknown, she booked a ticket one week ing her room. Lukas said you couldn’t before her flight, ready to spend the next see the gas, but you could feel it in the three months in Egypt. She landed in Cairo room. “My eyes stung like I had sand International Airport on Jan. 24 at midnight, in them.” Lukas described the taste as without the slightest notion that a national an acrid, metallic flavor festering at the back of her throat. uprising was underway.

The following Saturday, when hunOn her first day in Egypt, Lukas went to dreds of thousands of protestors had Liberation Square where small protests had filled the streets, Lukas took a second begun slowly growing in size as locals from trip to visit her brother. Twisted metal Cairo called for President Mubarak to resign barricades guarded by rows of armed immediately. “The danger level was so low I soldiers blocked every roadway that felt secure as a spectator,” Lukas said. led to her brother’s home.

Lukas was taking photographs with her There was nothing to do but go iPhone when a man she described as “weirdly intense” approached her. He was one of back to her apartment.

New blockades barricaded the way Mubarak’s henchman dressed in civilian garb.

She slid the phone into her pocket. “The to her home. The guards wouldn’t let police don’t want you taking pictures,” the her pass. Lukas headed to the Ameriman scowled, and walked away. Lukas can Embassy, where she found a man, kind enough to walk her home. This reached in her pocket; the phone was gone.

“The ministry of defense stole my iPhone!” time, the guards gave her entry.

Getting Out Photo courtesy of Dawn Lukas Lukas said with a hint of humor in her voice.

People power: SRJC instructor Dawn Lukas watched first hand as Egyptians took to It was Sunday.

It was time to go.

No Suddenly, she said, “There were explothe streets in protest, angrily defying President Mubarak’s 30-year rule. one at the airport was taking calls.

Lusions. POW! POW! POW! It sounded like kas called her husband, Eddie Lukas, gunshots.” Then, Lukas spotted several policeFinally home ers of violence. When they saw Lukas taking men in the crowd throwing tear gas canisters. after several failed attempts to get in touch photos they surrounded her building. They After her plane landed at 6 p.m. on Tues“Billows of smoke [were] coming towards us. with airlines, praying a phone call from Amer- had wooden sticks and big kitchen knifes, day, Lukas headed home to Redwood Valley I couldn’t see… I was crying too hard to see, ican soil might get through. It worked. While and were yelling in Arabic for Lukas to put for a little post-revolution relaxation and reholding onto my brother who was guiding me her husband worked out final arrangements her camera away. She could hear them rat- flection on her experiences. “It makes it seem to get his wife on a commercial airplane, F- tling the grate in front of her door shouting like a movie, when you have these two differ16s roared just “No. No picture!” It was time to go. ent realities,” she said. above her 11-sto“I have a whole new regard for the conveLukas packed all of her belongings in two ry apartment suitcases; one with her most treasured be- niences of American life and a disregard for building, circling longings and the other, OK to leave behind. the inconveniences. I was changed by being a Liberation Square.

Then, she jumped in the back of a cab part of this… I’m now connected to a global Two different early Monday morning and headed for the awareness.” worlds. “The noise airport. The military forced the cab to turn Since returning home, jogging with her was deafening,” back twice, resulting in a half-hour trip tak- dogs and shopping for groceries—things we she said. ing more than two and half hours. often take for granted—have filled Lukas with For the last Crowds upon crowds swarmed the air- a deep gratitude for life’s simpler pleasures. time, Lukas port. “I had to shove my weight through “The grocery store there was the size of a livstepped onto the them just to get in,” Lukas said. Men dressed ing room, and it was a competitive sport to balcony to cap- in uniforms from the government and mili- get food. The grocery store here is enormous.” ture snapshots tary were everywhere. She could overhear Lukas plans to continue teaching her onof a revolution talk about the pilots not coming to Cairo. Re- line course and hopes students on campus in progress. Be- calling those squished beside her, Lukas said, can just become aware of what’s going on and low, a large self- “We made instant friendships. We were like understand what the Egyptian people are goassembled gang sardines being bumped on all sides—that was ing through. “My brother is still there, and of anti-Mubarak our joke waiting to board the flight. Everyone I’m concerned.” protesters protect- applauded when the plane took off. They gave She hopes stories like hers can help proPhoto courtesy of Dawn Lukas ed activists from us twice as much alcohol when we ordered vide awareness for Americans and support to Aftermath: the wreckage of cars that burned through the night littered police and incit- drinks.” the Egyptian people. the streets as chaos and violence swept through the cities of Egypt.

NEWS

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Fresh & Natural cuts hours, raises prices Craig Couden

Co-Editor-in-Chief Beginning this semester, Fresh and Natural reduced operational hours and increased some menu prices in an attempt to offset rising food costs and remain financially viable on campus.

“We got together with the administration, and we asked them what would be appropriate,” said Josh Kang, Fresh & Natural’s general manager for the Santa Rosa campus.

Kang and the Fresh & Natural management team met with SRJC officials to discuss ways to save money. According to its contract, Fresh & Natural can approach the district with changes twice per year, in April and November. It was the first request for price increases in 18 months.

The price of coffee was one of the highest increases, going up by 10 percent. Coffee prices have increased worldwide, and with the increased cost of transportation, the cost to SRJC’s supplier, Peet’s Coffee, has gone up as much as 40 percent, Kang said.

“One of the things that has been a concern is that Fresh & Natural, at the very least, covers their costs,” said Doug Roberts, vice president of Business Services. “If they are running in the red, they will not stay here. One of the district’s concerns is that we have food service, not only here at Santa Rosa Junior College, but at Petaluma as well. It was pretty obvious from their profit and loss statements that they were still operating in the red and had come to the district to try to come up with a way to make this work.”

Yogurt parfaits and fruit cups increased

Mental Health Services consolidate under one roof Opinion Editor Santa Rosa Campus students will have to access Student Psychological Services (SPS) in a different room this semester. SPS has moved to Plover Hall, room 559.

The move merges all mental health pro-

Budget

Continued from front page

sions at the June special elections. For the California community college system, this will result in a revenue reduction of $290 million.

If the revenue extensions fail to pass, “bad to worse” scenarios are to be expected, according to Agrella’s memo.

The “bad” scenario is that community colleges will be funded from 40 percent of the state’s general fund—the minimum percentage allotted for education—as mandated by Proposition 98. This will result in a $490 million net loss.

In the event that the minimum percentage of funding for education is suspended, a $790 million revenue loss will follow for the community college system, according to the “worse” scenario.

According to Roberts, the uncertainty as to how the revenue extensions will turn out makes it difficult for the school administration to figure out how to deal with the revenue losses.

“Unlike other budgetary years where we can go ‘Well, they’ve come out with this and we’re going to see how things are.’ We know we’re going to lose money, it’s just a question of how much,” Roberts said.

The State Chancellor’s Office proposed cost reductions to be done through “workload reduction.” This means that the State’s funding for Full-Time Equivalent Students (FTES) will remain at the same rate, but that each individual school district will have to reduce the number of students the State funds. In other words, the state will not reduce funding per student, but reduce the number of students funded.

For Roberts, this creates a dilemma. He says that the reduction of the number of fulltime students the State is willing to fund could affect the college’s choices of which classes to cut.

“One of the things you have to look at is, do you really want to spend this money on courses to generate FTES for which the State won’t pay us?” he said.

Agrella’s memo outlines the SRJC projected FTES reductions and the costs of such reductions, which he again divided into “best,” “bad” and “worse” scenarios.

In the “best case scenario,” the district reduces 1,138 FTES and will have a $4.9 million loss. The “bad” scenario consists of a 1,923 FTES reduction and an $8.3 million loss, and

grams and services provided by SRJC’s Student Health Services into one room, giving students easier access to everything from psychological counseling to drug abuse counseling.

“Student Health Services is still one department, but we are split up into mental and clinical services,” explained health services assistant Lauren Petersen. “Mental health programs are here in Plover; it’s kind of a more

around 10 percent, while hot breakfast items saw no change. The salad bar increased from 35 cents per ounce to 38 cents, deli sandwiches made to order went from $4.50 to $4.95 and grab-and-go sandwiches increased by 25 cents, according to Roberts. New menu items, like quesadillas, and daily specials increased as well. However, at the request of Associated Students, meal items for under $5 are still available, and Fresh & Natural is continuing to work towards sustainability.

In addition to raising prices, Fresh & Natural also trimmed hours from the Kiosks at Bailey Field, Barnett Hall and the Library cafe by one hour, and the kiosk at Emeritus is now open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. According to both Roberts and Kang, operational hours were cut during the least busy times.

“Hardly anybody was coming,” Roberts

said.

SRJC also instituted a $3.50 minimum for credit card purchases that includes food services and the bookstore. Prior to the minimums, Fresh & Natural would lose money on smaller transactions, like buying a single banana with a credit card, because the credit card fee cut into the profit on the sale, Roberts said.

Finally, both Fresh & Natural and the district reduced the commissions they receive from food sales as another cost-cutting measure. Instead of rent, the district receives a commission, which goes towards facility maintenance and extra funding to the school.

It’s difficult to cut any revenue source with the current and looming budget worries, but the district wanted to minimize the effect on students, Roberts said.

discreet and private spot, very peaceful.”

Clinical services will remain in the Race Building.

SPS provides individual psychotherapy, drop-in counseling, group therapy and psychiatric consultation to SRJC students at no cost.

This semester, it offers stress and anxiety management groups and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Intersex (LGBTQQI) group therapy.

Student Health Services will also house new Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on campus Tuesdays noon to 1 p.m. beginning Feb. 1

for anyone with a desire to stop alcohol or drug use.

SHS will also hold a Healthy Relationships event in Plover Hall Feb. 10 with information tables from Sonoma County’s Rape Crisis, Intervention, Prevention & Counseling Center.

Future events include Mental Health Awareness Week in March, National Alcohol Awareness Day in April and Stress and Sleep Awareness Day in May. Daily drop-in services are at 2 p.m. and appointments can be made by phone at (707) 524-1595.

the “worse” scenario reduces 3,101 FTES, re- generated by taxes are low. In keeping with and reductions, he will “remain committed to sulting in a loss of $13.3 million. In other Governor Brown’s plan to cut state spending, the principle of not resorting to layoffs of reguwords, SRJC could face 5 percent, 8 percent or the college might have to reduce state subsidies lar college employees.” It added, “It will take all of us, working together, to get the district to the cost of education.

13 percent cuts to the school budget.

Agrella’s memo stated that despite the cuts through the next several years.”

According to Agrella, FTES reduction means that academics are once again facing additional cuts.

N A T I O N A L U N I V E R S I T Y® “It’s not a question of whether course sections will be reduced, but rather a question of which ones,” Agrella stated in his memo. He added that the college is planning for a 10 percent FTES reduction for the Fall 2011 semester.

SRJC “will be looking at every aspect of college operations to mitigate the revenue loss and unavoidable expense increases,” Agrella said.

Budget reductions would most likely come from faculty salaries, which make up 85 percent of the college’s budget. “There’s not a whole lot of money elsewhere left to take,” Roberts said.

The state’s Legislative Analyst Office made suggestions on how to reduce expenditures, such as limiting the total number of community college units a student can have, restricting the number At , >> Streamlined admissions of times a student can repeat a class and cutting “recreational we know you can’t sit in class all >> No enrollment fee items” like music classes. Anday or lock yourself in a library – you’ve other suggestion was raising >> Flexible scheduling the tuition rate of students got work, family, and friends. You’re >> Unique one-course-per-month who have more than 100 coltransferring because you want to fi nish lege credits to $175 per unit. format Raising tuition fees from $26 your degree and move on into a new per unit to $36 per unit was >> Scholarship programs career. National University makes that also suggested.

One reason for fee increaspossible with. . . es is that current tuition does not cover the actual cost of education per student. Most of the cost is subsidized by state funds, which come largely The University of Values from local property and sales taxes. With the dismal housing market in California and 8 0 0 . N AT. U N I V | getinfo.nu.edu/transfer decreased spending in the current economy, the funds

Transferring?

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Armando Torres-Garcia

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National University

February 7, 2011

NEWS

4

AFA

Continued from front page

the district and faculty and a “healthy dialogue questioning the Board of Trustees.”

Kaufmann said it was impossible to know what the future will hold and couldn’t give any specifics on what UF SRJC would do if it managed to de-throne AFA. He claimed UF SRJC “will not be in the business of concessions, but we are realists.”

Michael Ludder, adjunct political science instructor, said the signature cards are only to support an election. “I think it’s in the faculty’s best interest to have an election, to give them a choice.” Ludder claims part-time and full-time faculty who support AFA have signed cards asking for an election to give the wider faculty a chance to vote.

Currently AFA dues are .55 percent of an instructor’s salary. An affiliation with the CFT could increase dues to between .9 and 1.4 percent, the UF SRJC Frequently Answered Questions stated.

Virtually all money from AFA dues stay at SRJC, AFA President Warren Ruud said. AFA and 12 other community colleges pool money for common concerns in the California Community College Independents (CCCI), an association supporting and providing a formal voice for independent bargaining units in California community colleges.

CCCI members also use the same lawyer in labor disputes. “One of the best in state,” Ruud said.

An e-mail from AFA stated the American Federation of Teachers, which is CFT’s national affiliate, failed twice to decertify AFA. Both times AFT spent huge sums, the e-mail stated, and failed. These attempts left AFA reserves drained. The e-mail urged faculty members not to sign the card so AFA can spend money on SRJC faculty instead of on defending its place as the union at SRJC. When asked about the on-going AFA issue, Ruud said. “The perception is [it’s] there because it gets repeated over and over again.”

Before the Spring 2010 semester, the District adjusted salaries for full-time faculty at SRJC to be ranked 10th in the state. When California set up categorical to increase adjunct pay in 2002, SRJC defined “parity pay” to be at 87.5 percent of what a full-time faculty member would make for the same amount of time in a classroom. Other community colleges in the state defined parity pay as low as 60 percent.

AFA and the District negotiated cuts in faculty pay over the past year. Currently full-time faculty is ranked below rank 26, while adjunct faculty is around rank six in the state.

While PERB is involved in this issue at SRJC all negotiations between the District and AFA will halt until the election is over or called off. This means if the decertification process is still active when the Fall Semester’s classes need to be scheduled, the District will have to draw them up at the current faculty salaries. With the dismal looking budget for the 2011/12 school year, the most substantial way to cut costs will be to cut sections.

“We will try to expedite the matter,” said Les Chisholm, the division chief of the Office of General Council at PERB. “But there isn’t any way to know how long it will take.”

If PERB gets 30 percent of the faculty’s signatures AFA represents, faculty will have an opportunity to bring additional issues to PERB’s attention. After the additional issues are sorted out, PERB will try to work out a time and a method for an election with AFA, UF SRJC and the SRJC District.

The language on the signature card is written to comply with PERB’s regulations, Chapter 1, sub-Chapter 6, 32700 A1 that states the card “shall clearly demonstrate that the employee desires to be represented by the petitioning employee organization for the purpose of meeting and negotiating or meeting and conferring on wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment.”

Though the wording on the signature card endorses UF SRJC, it will be the election that decides who represents SRJC faculty, Chisholm said.

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Say goodbye to bad grades David Anderson Staff Writer Making bad grades better just got easier.

SRJC recently implemented a modified version of the repeat policy, allowing students to turn an “F” into an “A.” The modified policy allows students to alleviate a substandard grade of D, F, no credit or no pass twice as opposed to once.

The substandard grades and credits will continue to be disregarded in the computation of grade point averages once the student has received a better grade in the same course. However, the permanent academic record will still be annotated in a manner that all work remains legible to ensure a true and complete academic history.

Freyja Pereira, director of Academic Records and International Admissions, helped oversee and implement the revisions.

“It’s a win-win situation. The college now gets funding for the third attempt, and the student also benefits from being allowed three enrollments,” she said.

Also, a student may now petition for one additional repeat of the same class in which he or she received a substandard grade (D, F, NC, NP), however only a maximum of two substandard grades can be replaced.

These changes should help students increase their GPA, which will increase their chances of being admitted to the school of their choice.

The second major change to the current repeat policy allows students to repeat a course in which he or she received a passing grade after a significant lapse in time or due to extenuating circumstances such as acci-

Police Chief

Continued from front page

However, officers didn’t question Wilkinson’s positions on several issues, fearing they would be “pushed out” of the force.

Silverek said that Wilkinson was doing “too much, too soon and too quick.”

According to Silverek, who worked under Wilkinson during his last months in the police force, Wilkinson’s management style “isn’t working out” for the SRJC police department.

“I don’t think he is a good fit for this college based upon his management style,” he said. “I am sure there is a college, university or a police organization where his abilities, expertise and management style would be absolutely welcome, but I just don’t see his management style as an ideal fit here.”

A SRJC district police source said that officers were relieved to hear about Wilkinson’s administrative leave.

Chief Wilkinson was hired in July 2010 as SRJC District Police’s second chief after Terry Stewart retired last spring. Wilkinson could not be reached for comment.

Wilkinson will continue to be paid his monthly salary of $8,876 and more than $17,000 in benefits.

Previously Wilkinson worked as police chief at Yuba Community College. Al Alt, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services at Yuba Community College said, that Wilkinson “did a great job as Chief of Police,” and that the college “will be glad to have him back.”

dents, illnesses or any circumstance beyond the student’s control. Once approved by the Admissions and Records office, the student may repeat a course, whether the grade was passing or not.

Before the revisions, students were unable to receive a better grade after passing, and their GPA was permanently scarred.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

www.theoakleafnews.com

5

SRJC’s “Voice of the Prairie” enthralls with turn of the century magic Heather Frendo Staff Writer I’m not going to lie. I wasn’t excited about “The Voice of the Prairie” at first. Knowing little about it, I read the synopsis, which basically described a down home folk tale complete with live blue grass music. Honestly, the promise of folk tales and Blue Grass together at one time made me panic like a trapped badger. I expected ear-gouging, nasal blue grass, unbearable banjo plucking and a vast expanse of boredom from curtain to curtain.

Then, none of that happened.

I loved this production in all of its sweet

simplicity, child-like hopefulness and the sense of adventure it inspired.

When the cast marched out onto the simple set to a cozy gathering of nearly 50 SRJC theater students, their luminous stage presence and powerful voices took over the auditorium. They instantly gripped the audience with hilarity as they sang a bright and irresistible plea for all to turn off cell phones and temporarily abandon today’s technology—texting, Facebook, Twitter—and return to “the magic of the ether.”

It was an endearing first impression that smacked me out of former expectations and gladly enticed my full attention. The humor, suspense and entertainment of a sweet roller

Photo courtesy of SRJC theater arts department

Digitally-aged photo slides set the stage for theater arts’ trip back in time.

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coaster of a folk tale followed, superbly acted by SRJC’s theatre department and directed by John Shillington.

Moving back and forth between 1859 and 1923, Nebraskan farmer David Quinn, played by Gregory Skopp, captivates radio listeners when his penchant for storytelling is discovered by the slightly crooked, unlicensed radio broadcaster, Leon Schwab, played

by Dana Hunt.

Skopp makes humble innocence palpable in the role of David. He reels lisPhoto Courtesy of SRJC theater arts deptarment teners in as he weaves Grant Tambellini and Nikki Lyon play young Davey Quinn and nostalgia from his Frankie, the freight train-jumping duo in “Voice of the Prairie.” childhood adventures (starring a younger stage presence made her an inspiring and be“Davey” played by Oscar Gomez) with his freight-train-jumping lievable firecracker.

The collectively phenomenal performance first love, Frankie. of all cast members spun energy of a time Frankie, played by Melissa McClure, was when radio was fresh and mysterious, and the quite possibly the reason my mouth hung technology to send voice across the airwaves wide open for the play’s entirety. Blindness from a single location had people stoked with would seem difficult to keep realistic, but the power of storytelling via broadcast radio.

McClure knocked it out fiercely. Her facial expressions, truth to character and vigilant

February 7, 2011

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

6

IN THE KNOW

Feb. 9 Jazz at the Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis Wells Fargo Center 8 p.m./ $49-$89/ no children under 5 Genre: Jazz

The Pick-Me-Up Music Review with Jason Webley and The Crux Last Day Saloon 7:30 p.m./ $7/ all ages Genre: Folk Feb. 10 Writing an Effective Cover Letter SRJC Career Center, 3rd Floor, Bertolini Student Center 1:30 p.m./ free/ all ages Genre: Seminar Abhor, Plan for the Mutiny, Intangled Last Day Saloon 8 p.m./ $10/ 21+ Genre: Rock Feb. 11 Vespertine Dreams Arlene Francis Theatre 8 p.m. / $20 / $12 students and seniors, 12 and under free Genre: Circus

History and environment highlight “Printmaking” show Quinn Conklin Co-Editor-in-Chief “Prints by Northwest Artists” opened Friday afternoon at the SRJC art gallery located on the first floor of the Frank P. Doyle Library. This show, subtitled “Significant Impressions in Printmaking from Oregon, Washington and Montana,” drew a crowd of about 40 art teachers, art students and art lovers to the gallery.

The show uses the geography of the gallery effectively, laying a visual crash course in the history of print making in the first room. The second room opens up to reveal a collection of contemporary works showcasing a variety of themes.

Kevin Fletcher, the show’s curator, also teaches printmaking at SRJC. He lived in the Pacific Northwest for many years, and still shows work at a gallery in Portland. He worked with contacts there to hand select pieces for the show.

From the entrance the most striking piece is a small press used to print etchings. The machine sits in the middle of the first room, flanked by a case containing the chisels and other tools used in the print makers’ craft.

Surrounding these tools and filling the front room of the gallery are prints from Fletcher’s personal collection. These pieces showcase the use of printing in books from an era before photography.

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back room you have flora and fauna,” Fletcher said. The themes progress as one travels counterclockwise around the second room. From flora and fauna the pieces shift from nature to a collection of prints that depict human endeavor, which then transitions to human relationships.

The show is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Monday through Thursday and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and runs through March 12.

Mischa Lopiano/Oak Leaf

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“There is work that is illustrational from newspapers and books prior to photography being used,” Fletcher explained.

The second room is split into multiple themes exploring first the world around us and then moving on to look at the inner landscape formed by our interpersonal connections. “There is a theme of urban life that gives way to the great outdoors which moves on to weather and climate. In the

The new show explores different themes including the world around us, our inner lanscape and human endeavors and relationships.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Cinema Series connects students with filmmakers Lee Sandwina Staff Writer Foreign, classic and new independent films featuring several guest filmmakers and Oscar nominees take over Carole L. Ellis Auditorium Wednesday nights at the SRJC Petaluma campus in the Petaluma Film Alliance’s (PFA) fourth Cinema Series season.

The first month of the 15-week season is aimed at developing an advanced appreciation for film, followed by a systematic look into such essential aspects of film-making as sound, acting, editing, cinematography and production design. The final five weeks will examine special topics such as film festivals, film noir and animation, said Michael Traina, director of PFA. Lectures by guest filmmakers, Oscar nominees and Traina will precede each film. Postfilm discussions invite attendee participation and contribution. “We have created an open forum, similar to a book club, where people can share ideas about important contemporary and classic cinema,” Traina said.

Attendance consistently tallies 150 people, even more when special guests like Oscarnominated Bay Area director/writer Frederick Marx are in attendance. On Feb. 9 he will present his new documentary “Journey from Zanskar,” which relays the journey of 17 children led by two Tibetan monks whose quest is to secure the education of these children and preserve the ancient Tibetan language from extinction.

“Getting back to Sonoma always feels good, like a piece of home,” Marx said. One of his favorite things about sharing his work with audiences is hearing them describe their

Turn gaming skills into cash with MLG Jeremy Hoskins Contributing Writer David Walsh and his team, Final Boss, make $60,000 each year for playing videogames. This is no game of luck; all of the players who compete in Major League Gaming, rely on hours of practice and pure skill.

Competitive play has existed in videogames since the beginning of the videogame era, but Major League Gaming takes it to the next level. Consisting of teams of players from all walks of life from day laborers to college students, aspiring professional gamers gather sponsors from Red Bull to local markets, and compete in competitions online and eventually all over the country to prove themselves worthy of the title of Pro Gamer.

“MLG’s 8th Pro Circuit [2011] Season will feature more than $1 million in prizes and player stipends, making this the largest season in our history,” posted Kyle Magee of MLGpro.com Wednesday.

The MLG Pro circuit features Starcraft 2 on the PC, Halo:Reach on the Xbox 360, and Call of Duty: Black Ops for the Playsation 3 this season. Registration for the first competition, in Dallas on April 1-3, will open March 1 and will feature 208 Halo teams and 272 Starcraft 2 players. The details for Black Ops are yet to be released but it’s estimated to have a turnout of over 190 teams.

“Whether Dallas 2011 will be your first or 50th Pro Circuit Live Competition, we want your jaw to drop when you walk into the venue,” Magee says.

New and improved set-up and bigger venues are promised from the MLG this year for the competitions with the regular season consisting of five events and one final eightteam showdown. So grab your controller and get ready to look at competitive gaming like never before.

reactions and interpretations to him. “I’m always delighted when I hear new things, learn new interpretations of my own films.”

Jacqueline Zünd will present and discuss her new documentary, “Goodnight Nobody,” March 16. The film peers into the constant waking state of four insomniacs from around the world whose line between reality and dreams remains blurred.

Oscar-winning film and sound editor Walter Murch, who worked on acclaimed films such as “Apocalypse Now,” “Ghost,” “The Godfather” and Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil,” will present “The Conversation,” a Francis Ford Coppola film.

Murch’s extensive sound and film editing knowledge will make for a great presentation and post-film discussion on April 13.

Lectures introducing each film begin at 6 p.m. and the films begin at 7 p.m., with a post-film discussion in an open format closing out the night around 10 p.m.

The lecture and discussion are not mandatory; anyone unable to make the introduction or wishing only to see the film may do so. However, attending both is recommended for an enhanced viewing experience.

“Pre-film lectures are designed to enhance the audience’s appreciation and understand-

ing of the film by examining the film’s production history, learning about the players that brought the picture together, and examining the film techniques that will be showcased in the feature,” the PFA website says.

Admission is free to Associated Students members, $4 for seniors and PFA members, $5 general admission. An individual Cinema Series season pass costs $40, and a season parking pass $20.

Additionally, PFA will again produce the highly successful Petaluma Film Fest that hosted more than 1,000 people and sold out prime-time shows at the historic Mystic Theater. All are welcome and encouraged to submit entries.

The Film Fest exclusively exhibits films that remain undistributed, “films you can’t see anywhere else,” Traina said.

This year PFA will attempt to add a special morning program for kids and families.

For more information or questions regarding the Cinema Series or the Petaluma Film Fest, visit PetalumaFilmFest.org.

The Santa Rosa Junior College Student Film Festival’s call for entries ends March 1.

It is open to all Sonoma County students and the top high school and college films will be considered for entry into the Petaluma Film Fest.

7 Smoov-E The Phoenix Theater 8 p.m./ $15/ all ages Genre: Experimental Earl Zero, Militia of Love, DJ Jacques Last Day Saloon 9 p.m./ $10 (advance) $13 (day of event)/ 21+ Genre: Reggae Feb. 12 Victim of Society, Narcissistic The Phoenix Theater 8 p.m./ $8/ all ages Genre: Punk Feb. 11-13 Stars over the Land Down Under SRJC Planetarium 7 p.m./ General $5, Students and Seniors $3/ all ages Genre: Planetarium Feb. 18 Nosebleed Acadamy, SemiEvolved Simians, Midway & Box Office Poison Arlene Francis Theatre 7 p.m. / $5 Genre: Rock

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Valentine’s Day Ten inexpensive ideas for Valentine’s Day by the numbers Olivia Smith

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Contributing Writer

Valentine’s Day is right around the cor1,317 - number of U.S. manufacturing ner! How can you make this Valentine’s Day establishments that produced chocolate and awesome and memorable without having to cocoa products in 2008, employing 38,369 spend a ton? Read on. people. California led the nation with 146, followed by Pennsylvania with 115.

1. Pack some BBQ supplies and a bottle of wine (if you’re of age) and go camping. What’s 422 - number of U.S. establishments that more romantic than sitting by a fire and talkmanufactured non-chocolate confectionary ing about sentimental times? products in 2008, employing 16,860 people.

2. Find a new recipe. Have one person California led the nation with 47 establish- make dinner and the other make dessert or ments. vice versa.

3. Tango dancing. At Ellington Hall in $12.2 billion - total value of shipments in Santa Rosa, tango dancing is offered on Mon2008 for firms producing chocolate and co- days at 7:30 p.m. (V-Day falls on a Monday coa products. this year). Classes are $15 per session.

24.3 pounds - per capita consumption of candy by Americans in 2009. $359 million - the combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut flowers in 2009 for all flower-producing operations with $100,000 or more in sales. California alone accounted for three-quarters of this amount. $18,000 - The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut roses in 2009 for all operations with $100,000 or more in sales.

18,509 - number of florists nationwide in 2008.

26,683 - number of jewelry stores in the U.S. in 2008. $2.4 billion - dollar amount in merchandise sold by jewelry stores in February 2010.

2.1 million - number of marriages that took place in the U.S. in 2009. That’s nearly 5,800 per day.

108,150 - the number of marriages performed in Nevada during 2009. So many couples tie the knot in the Silver State that it ranked fifth nationally in marriages even though its total population in 35th among the states.

28.2 and 26.1 years - median age at first marriage for men and women, respectively.

54.1 percent - overall percentage of adults who reported being married in 2010.

4. Go Ice Skating. Snoopy’s Ice Arena has special extended skating hours for Valentine’s Day, 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Skates are $12 for adults. If you want to celebrate early, you can get an even better deal: Saturdays are $5, which includes admission and skates.

5. Age permitting, visit a winery. Many different wineries around the area have specials going on for Valentine’s Day. Robledo Family Winery in Sonoma has a wine tasting and chocolate pairing for just $5.

6. Pack a picnic, drive out to the ocean, Spring Lake, or an outdoor place that is special to you and your significant other.

7. Buy a heart-shaped cake mold and fill it with cookie dough. Follow instructions for the cookie recipe, then decorate your creation together.

8. Do a combination of some of these ideas: dance and dinner? A drive out to the

ocean, then back home to cook dinner for two?

9. Okay, enough about couple’s ideas. If you are single right about now, you are probably rolling your eyes. Get a group of friends together and spend the night in. Rent romantic movies, indulge in chocolate and do a “Secret Valentine.” Like “Secret Santa,” but for Valentine’s Day. 10. Don’t feel like staying in? Get a group of single friends together and go out. Pick a friend’s house where everyone can help each other get ready for a night on the town. Have one friend do makeup, one friend do hair, one responsible for taking the pictures, etc.

Whatever you decide to do for Valentine’s Day, remember: it’s the person you’re with, not how much you spend, that counts.

Top five best and worst date DVDs 1. “Human Centipede” — Riding on the coattails of torture-porn films like “Saw” and “Hostel,” this film ups the grotesquery by surCo-Editor-in-Chief gically attaching people from the lower intes1. “Sleepless in Seattle” — For a movie tine of one to the mouth of another. Try kisswhere the leads rarely share screen time, it’s ing your date after that. hard to deny the charm of Tom Hanks and 2. “Teeth” — The teenage spokeswoman Meg Ryan together. Just ignore the stalker for a teen abstinence group discovers she has premise. teeth in her lady bits. At least three penises 2. “Amélie” — Show some class with this get bitten off during the course of the movie.

French charmer about a quirky Parisian girl ‘Nuff said.

Craig Couden

who finds true love while performing ran3. “Tetsuo, The Iron Man” — This surdom acts of kindness. Don’t shy away from real film from underground Japanese directhe subtitles; they’re part of the experience. tor Shinya Tsukamoto features a man slowly 3. “Up!” — The love story might seem turning into a collection of machines after finished after the first 15 minutes, but the he and his girlfriend commit murder. If the theme reverberates throughout the adventure violence doesn’t kill the mood, the disturbing, story that follows. If you both aren’t brought machinery-themed sex scene will. to tears by Pixar’s excellent storytelling, you need to re-examine your life.

4. “Singin’ in the Rain” — Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor dazzle in this god among classic musicals. Even if you hate musicals, you will love this movie.

5. “Shortbus” — The explicit nature of the film may not be for everyone, but the underlying narrative is heartfelt and speaks to a multitude of modern relationships. If you can watch this movie, your bond is rock solid.

4. “Antichrist” — Lars Von Trier’s controversial film is about a couple (Willem DeFoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) dealing with the death of their young child. There’s no way to salvage this one, since the baby dies in the first few minutes while the couple has sex.

5. “Shortbus” — The explicit nature of the film can spell death for a budding relationship. The supremely uncomfortable 10 minutes before you shut off the movie will be followed by another 10 minutes of awkwardly ending the date.

50 percent - A little more than half of currently married women had been married for at least 15 years, as of 2004.

6 percent - the percentage of currently married women who had been married for at least 50 years, as of 2004.

393 - number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2007. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed 3,125 people and pulled in $927 million in revenue.

19 percent - percentage of people married twice among those who have ever married as of 2009. Five percent have married three or more times. By comparison, 75 percent of people who have ever been married have made only one trip down the aisle.

Seven great ideas and one terrible idea for singles this V-Day Craig Couden Co-Editor-in-Chief

1. Watch the least romantic movie pos8 - average length in years of first mar- sible — Get away from all that lovey-dovey riages ending in divorce. nonsense with a straight-up action or horror movie. Dollar for dollar, it’s hard to beat the 3.5 - the median time in years between di- powerhouse of action movie giants in “The vorce and a second marriage.

Expendables.” Dolph Lundgren AND Sylvester Stallone in one movie!

52 percent and 44 percent - the percent2. Watch the most romantic movie posage of currently married men and women, sible — Drown your single-status sorrows respectively, among adults 25 and older who by living vicariously through your favorite were divorced at some point. on-screen couple. They found true love, and

someday, so will you.

3. Hit the town — Plenty of singles will be out and ready to make some new friends. You probably won’t find your soul mate, but then again, maybe you don’t need to.

4. Throw a singles-themed party — Forget about trolling through bars, get the singles to come to you! Invent a theme, promise food or beverages and get ready to mingle. You don’t have to check Facebook to see who’s single at this party.

5. Guys’ night in — Gather up to four friends and relive those glorious after-school deathmatches with “GoldenEye” for Wii. Forget your lovelorn tears of sadness as you gloat

to your friends in person about your video game prowess.

6. Girls’ night in — Invite your girlfriends over for a glass of wine, classy martinis or the non-alcoholic drink of their choice. Stay in your PJs, forget the make-up, curl up on the couch with plenty of blankets and relax. You can play “GoldenEye,” too, if you really want to.

7. Mani/ Pedi/ Massage — It’s been a stressful few weeks with the incessant talk of love and dating swirling around you. Relax and treat yourself with a little “me” time.

8. Sleep — It’s Monday! What else are you going to do? As an added bonus, it’s free!

Does online dating work? One online dater’s failed quest to turn an e-attraction into a real-life connection Hi, my name’s Craig. I’m an English student and I work for a catering company on the side. Ultimately, I’d like to get into book editing, and I’m trying to do anything that I can to get experience, including co-editing the SRJC school newspaper, interning with a book publisher and dabbling in a little web design.

I’m a genuine guy, laid-back and easy-going most of the time. I value strong friendships and look for the same in others. It also helps if you have a good sense of humor, because I laugh all the time! Over silly things, too. It’s so much more fun that way. I’m very comfortable with who I am and all the nerdiness that entails :-P But, I think there’s always room to grow. I can be on the shy side, but the more outgoing you are, the more outgoing I tend to be.

I’m looking for someone intelligent and funny, who doesn’t necessarily take herself too seriously. Points for being a reader. I love talkMischa Lopiano/Oak Leaf ing about books, but don’t often get the chance.

Oak Leaf Co-Editor-in-Chief Craig Oh, and board games are totally sweet!

Couden has a deadline for love.

Craig Couden Co-Editor-in-Chief As much as I’d like to pretend that my online dating experience began two weeks ago when I took this story assignment, and as much as I’d like to say that the dating profile printed above was slapped together in a matter of minutes rather than tweaked, for better or worse, over the course of many months, I can’t. I’ve been wading through the depths of online dating off and on for about a year, and though the potential for meeting someone online seems great on paper (or more aptly, the screen), my outlook is grim.

I moved back to Petaluma after getting my bachelor’s in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara a few years ago and

found almost immediately that meeting people here was much more difficult that it had been in college. My normal avenues—friends, classes, parties—were a thing of the past. Most of my friends still lived down south, and the friends who I reconnected with here slowly started to move out of the area. I was never successful meeting people at bars, and after somewhat recovering from an amazingly bad relationship, I decided to take a risk and see if online dating could work for me.

I signed up with a free dating site called PlentyofFish.com, which I heard about from a friend.

The name is based on the saying that “there are plenty of fish in the sea” when it comes to finding a partner, which is a remarkably pessimistic attitude for a dating website, yet probably not far from the mark.

T h e

glorified e-mail client and not very effective.

He often felt that his e-mails were lost amidst crammed inboxes.

“You construct an e-mail, and then that rains down as [part of] a deluge of douche, and then there’s you in the middle,” Sheridan said.

However, after using eHarmony for a month and a half, Sheridan feels that he’s found a better fit. eHarmony has 20 million registered users, according to its website, and in a 2009 poll conducted by Harris Interactive for eHarmony, polling showed that on average, 542 marriages per day originated on eHarmony. That’s five percent of new U.S. marriages, according to eHarmony’s website.

Instead of focusing on emails right away, eHarmony sends Sheridan five to 10 matches per day, which he can respond to with a set of pre-selected questions. The exchanges build up to actual conversation so that each has an idea of what the other is looking for.

“By the time you write an email, it doesn’t feel like it’s going off into the abyss,” Sheridan said.

So far he’s been happy with his success. Because of the price and because of the website’s reputation, “people are more inclined to be serious,” Sheridan said. “People at eHarmony are looking for more than [hookups].”

Price was a deal-breaker for my SRJC student budget. Although uploading a profile is free at both Match.com and eHarmony, performing other actions, like messaging the cute brunette who likes my favorite author, requires a subscription that doesn’t come cheap. Match. com charges $34.99 for a one-month membership, $19.99 per month for three months and $16.99 per month for six months. eHarmony charges $59.95 for a one-month membership, $39.95 per month for three months, $29.95 per month for six months and $19.95 per month for a one-year membership, which totals around $340. However, there is a benefit to pay dating sites: I’m fairly certain that the people there are serious, which is a quality severely lacking in the free sites that I tried.

One of the drawbacks of online dating is that the subtext of a conversation is diminished or disappears completely. Users have to go by what is written on the screen and can’t rely on facial expressions or body language to determine meaning. Does “lol” actually mean she liked what I said? Or was it polite online etiquette? Uh oh. Did she get my sarcasm, or did she take what I said literally? I can’t know; I can only guess at whether the person on the other end is engaged or just passing the time.

I’ve had plenty of interesting, silly and personal conversations through PlentyofFish, but the sticking point always comes from the transition to an in-person meeting. The girls I’ve met just won’t do it, and more often than not will completely ignore that I suggested the date at all. It’s fine if a person doesn’t want to meet in person, but my primary reason for online dating is to go on dates. I get the impression that either people aren’t serious about the experience, or that they are too specific in the qualities they look for. It can take weeks to get a feel for someone online that would take 15 minutes in person. I don’t need perfection in a person to go on a date with her, but eventually, talking about dating should turn into actual dating.

Recently I joined OkCupid.com, another free dating site, to contrast my PlentyofFish experience. The administrators of OkCupid certainly have a better sense of humor than other dating sites, and the site has an addicting question system that contributes to matching singles, but the overall package feels familiar.

For better or worse, potential is at the heart of online dating. There’s always the potential of meeting someone new, and hey, if nothing comes of it, just move on to the next person.

And there’s always another person.

The websites make a business of providing a continuous stream of new names and faces to make users feel like their perfect match is just around the corner. But what dating websites can’t influence is when the possibility of a match ends and reality of attraction begins. Reality is OkCupid.com up to us.

name implies failure and previous, if not current, rejection.

It’s a basic picture-and-a-profile site that is based mostly on looks. PlentyofFish users are bombarded by pictures on every page, and profile information rarely shows up until one clicks on a picture to visit a user page. There’s a cursory attempt at determining personality traits through questionnaires, but the results from profile to profile are barely distinguishable: everyone has high self-confidence, is family oriented and is open-minded to artistic concepts and creative thinking. Bottom line: your profile pic had better be banging, or nobody is going to care.

I knew when I started that online dating had a stigma attached to it. Despite becoming a mega shopping hub and social media destination, the Internet still carries the taint of pedophiles and serial killers when the topic of meeting strangers arises. Chris Hansen and the Dateline crew still make a living exposing the dangers of online predators, and the Craigslist Killer gave a face to fears extending beyond the intimate ads of which he allegedly took advantage. I wasn’t particularly worried about meeting serial killers, but I was aware that the people I wanted to talk to might be less than forthcoming about personal information.

To be honest, PlentyofFish felt a little shady, but I was willing to take the chance that the Internet was not full of creepers looking to prey on the naive, but was instead filled with people like me trying to make a connection. Besides, I knew an online connection was possible because my friend Yvonne Volz met her current boyfriend of over a year through Match.com.

“It was a way to meet people I wouldn’t have otherwise,” Volz said. Although Volz had to deal with a number of unwanted advances in the three months that she was active on the site: “There were lots of old creepy guys. ‘Oh hey, I’m 50. Let’s talk!’ Uh, no.”

Match.com, which began in 1995, boasts “One in five relationships start online,” and that most of them start on Match.com. According to the website, Match.com serves people in 24 countries and territories in 15 languages.

Eventually Karl Thorson sent a message her way. “It was more than just a ‘Hey,’” Volz said.

Thorson emphasized their mutual interests, and e-mails led to a face-to-face meeting, which eventually led to moving in together.

However, Thorson is slow to praise the site. “It doesn’t work until it does,” Thorson said. “You meet loser after loser after loser until you meet someone cool. It worked for us. Took me awhile.”

Klint Sheridan also used Match.com, but recently switched to eHarmony.

For Sheridan, Match.com was a

After answering a series of questions, OkCupid designs a flowchart detailing what it takes for others to meet the user’s criteria.

February 7, 2011

FEATURES

10

Students find family and history with Study Abroad Isabel Johnson Features Editor Adjusting to a new culture is enough to make anybody’s heads spin. SRJC students Ryan Joseph and Lauren Martin participated in the Study Abroad program’s trip to London last fall.

From the strangeness of living in a big city after living in Sonoma County, to being told “don’t be a idiot” instead of “you’re welcome,” they had an enlightening and sometimes intimidating experience while taking classes on the University of London’s campus.

“It was something where there’s posters all over the school for it. I saw it my first year here and thought that would be something really cool to do,” Joseph said. “I finally decided to major in English and that just sort of, sealed the deal.”

Martin’s family encouraged her to participate, wanting her to have the experience. “I was actually not very excited about it at first,” she said. “I was really nervous, I thought it was going to be scary, and didn’t know what to expect.”

Martin participated in a pre-tour where the program took students to a few places of interest around Europe such as Paris and Brussels. She recalled the piles of paperwork that had to be filled out before she could even get on the plane.

She set out for San Francisco at 5 a.m. She was nervous about leaving behind her boyfriend and her younger siblings, “I knew I was going to miss them.”

Just getting through the airport was fun with 40 students and their luggage, Martin remembered. At the hotel they were given the option of napping before the evening tour or staying up.

“I had not slept a wink on the plane, not at all, so it had been like 20 hours and I hadn’t slept.”

She chose to stay up, of course, for 36 hours before she went to bed. “This other guy on the trip did too, and we started falling asleep walking down the street and we went on a boat tour on the river that was really great. We were just falling asleep like everywhere. But it was really

awesome, and it actually helped a lot with the jetlag.”

The next day was intense with a tour and a few hours exploring on foot. “We got lost a dozen times,” Martin said. “We kept thinking there was a sign for the pharmacy it was a green plus sign. We were like, ‘OK, we’re going to use that as a landmark.’ We didn’t realize there was one on every street.”

Joseph chose not to go on the pre-tour, but arrived in England just days before his classes began. “There’s the massive 14-hour flight where the in-seat entertainment saved my life,” he recalled, saying that he watched all the movies he’d missed because of homework. “Basically just 14 hours of vegging.”

Touching down in Heathrow was strange.

The airport wasn’t foreign in appearance like he’d expected. “You look around Heathrow and you’re like, ‘Did I really leave?’ because all the airports look the same.” The last thing he wanted was to sit back down, but there was a bus waiting for the newly arrived students just outside the airport. After they started on their way to the apartments where they’d be staying it started to sink in that they were really in London.

“We all show up at our lovely little apartment building and haul our luggage up the flights of stairs to our apartment because the elevator holds about two people, not including luggage,” Joseph said. “That was fun because we’re all carrying 50 pound bags, because that was the max limit, and you’re just like, 50 pounds is a lot more than I remember it being earlier today.”

Martin arrived by a different route. “We took the train over from Paris to London, under the Chunnel,” Martin said. “I liked the apartment.

We’re used to so much more space over here, so the rooms, like our bedrooms were tiny, but we had a living space. I actually shared the apartment with three other girls.” She got along well with her roommates. Students can be moved to another apartment if there are problems with roommates, and coordinators ask questions such as whether they’re a smoker or mind living

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SRJC student Lauren Martin with members of her newly discovered Brittish family.

with a smoker before assigning roommates.

“It was serviceable,” Joseph said about his apartment. “It was what I expect from what amounts to a dorm setting.” He and his roommate shared a bedroom with two single beds about a foot and a half apart.

The three days after settling into London apartments included a whirlwind tour of the main tourist sites and a quick lesson on how to use the tube to help get the students oriented in the new city. “The first thing everybody does is buy a cell phone,” Martin said. “We’re all like, we need to call home, we need to call each other, we’re going to need cell phones. Everybody went together to get a cell phone; everybody had the same phone, so it was really funny. Somebody’s phone would start ringing and we’d have no idea whose it was.”

Martin and her roommates went shopping

for extra supplies for their apartments at a Primark. “It’s this huge kind of like Walmart, it’s crazy. All these British people yelling at each other,” Martin said. “Really cheap, really cheap place to shop is at Primark.” Two of them got mattress covers, they needed a bathmat, towels and kitchen supplies.

Joseph recalled going grocery shopping in London for the first time with his roommates.

“We were all geared up to buy American style.

I’m going to buy everything I need for the week,” he said. “And then you realize you have to carry it all three blocks back to your apartment and then up your stairs. Then you realize that your little mini-fridge is not going to hold a week’s worth of groceries.”

When classes started, the students rode the tube, which is London’s underground railway,

Continued on page 11

Re-entry students brave college one more time Heather Frendo Staff Writer I wanna be a fireman! An astronaut! A princess! Shout it out for all to hear, no dream is too big or too wild. Remember in kindergarten when grown-ups asked what you wanted to be when you grew up and there wasn’t anything you couldn’t be? And changing your mind was no big whoop.

Fast forward through elementary and high school. It’s senior year. You’re graduating; time to be pragmatic and driven. Time to be what you want to be. College begins after summer vacation and real life begins after college.

Right? Well, maybe for some. But the straight and steady path leading from college to career is scenic for some and challenging for others.

Meet the following college graduates: Rachael Smith, Alan Parker and Steve Hartmann.

Smith, 29, has a B.A. in English. Parker, 37, has a bachelor’s in Fine Arts (painting) and a master’s in Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

Hartmann, 44, has an A.A. in Behavioral Studies.

They went to college. They worked in their fields. They reevaluated. Now what? Continue to work assorted jobs? Stay in a soul-sucking sector of the job market? Maybe try again?

These reentry students opt for the latter. They’re in college. Again.

Take a look around; not all classmates are recent high school graduates. According to statistics on the SRJC website, the mean age on campus is 37, and of the 36,000 students attending, last year 10,000 were prospective and reentry students over the age of 25.

With a B.A. in English, Smith worked for wineries doing sales, promotion, advertising and event coordination. The writing skills she developed in college, she says, contributed immensely to her success.

After college graduation, Smith spent five

years doing the work she thought she wanted to do and had no idea that someday she might completely change tracks. No single event led her to change careers, but she is now in the nursing program. Work experience after college helped redirect her. “Experience opened my eyes to a profession I’ll be better suited for that will also be more fulfilling,” Smith said.

Similarly, Parker returned this semester and is headed toward health care. “[At this point in life] I pictured myself famous in some aspect.

It’s weird; I have always felt like I had that capacity within myself. I wanted several things over the years. Now I just want to move on from my current work and make better pay,” Parker said.

Despite two degrees, Parker contends with lack of work opportunities in both of his fields.

When he finishes at the SRJC he will have a certificate in Ultrasound Technology and the opportunity to spring into what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls one of the most promising fields: health care.

He advises first-time college students, “Choose your career path wisely. Look at the shifting trends and what will be needed in the future. There is nothing worse than doing a lot of study and not finding gainful employment in your chosen field. Work hard for what you want though, and don’t stop until you get it.”

Hartmann returned to the JC to obtain a vocational degree in Phlebotomy and is learning how to take blood. This, he feels, is the first rung of his professional ladder that will lead to a lifetime of personal growth and workplace security.

He decided to go back to school after working as a physical therapy aide. “I found the prestige and respectability of being a healthcare professional very pleasing to me. I recognized a very satisfying motivation of coaching people back to health as a feeling incomparable to money. I was and still am, very good at what I do and I feel I continue to grow in my effective-

Continued on page 11

www.theoakleafnews.com

FEATURES

11

Astronomers and astrologers disagree: who knew?

Armando Torres-Garcia Staff Writer Horoscope fans all over the world are dealing with an identity crisis. Recent allegations that a person’s horoscope sign may not be theirs at all is leading many to question their romantic compatibility with other signs and ask, what does love really have to do with it?

Professor Parke Kunkle, an astronomer at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, sent lovers into a whirlwind when he announced to NBC that, “The signs you are born into now, are different than they were long ago.”

Kunkle argues that the earth has wobbled on its axis since the zodiac signs were arranged, making them inaccurate compared to the sky today. Although he is correct, his suggestion to reform astrology in terms of astronomical calculations sparks great debate.

The controversy began when Kunkle intro-

duced a new sign, Ophiucus, that sits between Scorpio and Saggitarius.

Using Kunkle’s system, a Gemini is no longer a Gemini, but a Taurus.

With Ophiucus in place, all signs move back one month.

Maggie Coshnear, 18, a former Scorpio and new Libra, doesn’t follow astrology seriously, but says, “I would still be bummed because Scorpio is a rad astrological sign, and it fits me well.”

Some astrologers believe that Kunkle is overstepping his boundaries as an astronomer by trying to reform their discipline that has existed longer than astronomy itself.

“The astronomer got two things wrong; there are two types of zodiacs that we use: the tropical zodiac and sidereal zodiac. They both have 12 signs each,” says professional astrologer Rio Olesky.

No time for love in the datebook:

Tropical astrology is the common practice in the west, whereas Sidereal is practiced in Hindu astrology. Tropical astrology fixes signs based on the seasons, which depends on our position to the sun. The Sidereal Zodiac organizes its signs based on the fixed stars. For this reason, not all the signs align with their corresponding constellation. The difference between the two types is 25.5 days. For example, Aries starts Mar. 21 in the Tropical zodiac and on April 15 for Sidereal.

Olesky, founder of www.starwatcher.com, has been practicing astrology since 1967, has been featured on television and offers a sixweek course on astrology through Community Education in Santa Rosa. He is outraged that Kunkle received such publicity last month.

“The idea that there are 13 or 14 signs is an idea that no astrologer agrees with,” Olesky says.

The sun passes in front of 13 constellations throughout the year: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Ophiucus, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.

However, in astrology all signs are constellations, for example Scorpio, but not all constellations are signs.

The cosmic disturbances caused by Kunkle’s remarks have even inspired people of different professions to side with astrologers.

Fenwick Rysen, a chaos magician says, “The supreme irony is that the astronomers who bring the issue up owe the foundation of their very science to the work of early astrology.”

From an astrological point of view there is no need for people to reinvent themselves or remove that embarrassing horoscope tattoo from their body. Lovers may rest easy this Valentine season and can keep counting their lucky stars.

With the stuggle to balance work and education, students at SRJC with busy schedules push relationships to the side

It should go without saying that many college students possess carefully thought out priorities, and it appears that, for at least some, dating is not high on the list. But that’s not the only thing that gets in the way of asking someone out, according to Spagnola.

“I guess the hardest part is just gauging the other person’s intentions, or their views. You might be setting it up as a date, but you don’t know what they’re thinking,” he explained.

“You never know if someone just wants to find another friend, or if they’re interested in an actual relationship.”

Personal insecurities serve as a roadblock as well, according to SRJC sophomore Roxanne Squires. “Everyone has insecurities when it comes to getting to know someone intimately,” she said. “I’ve had bad experiences with other guys. Past experiences can get in the way of pursuing a new relationship.

I think that’s pretty typical.”

Despite having been dealt a bad hand in the past, Squires seems to be at peace and remains confident that a relationship will form naturally. “I have a lot of close friends who are in long-term relationships, so I know it’s possible,” she said. “I’m young and it’s going to take time. I have other priorities.”

Despite a heavy workload, some students do find the time to date. According to SRJC sophomore Allison F., engaging in conversation with fellow classmates can be a poten-

tial path to dating. She admits, however, that finding mutual interest is key; a task that can prove difficult in the classroom. For Allison, finding someone with a common interest is more likely to happen at a concert or music festival. Bars are the last place she’d look. “I go to bars, but I try to avoid dating people from there,” she said. “It seems like everyone at the bar turns out to be crazy.”

Austen Berry, a junior attempting to work her way into the SRJC nursing program, expressed a similar sentiment towards the bar scene. Despite meeting her current boyfriend at a bar, she credits the introduction to a mutual friend. “I feel like the bar never really works,” she said. “It wouldn’t have worked with a stranger, but because we had a mutual friend, it did.”

Michael Palumbo, an SRJC sophomore, also made a connection through a mutual friend. Him and his girlfriend both attend SRJC, but didn’t realize it when they met. “We didn’t plan anything,” he said. “It just kind of happened.”

Though he wasn’t looking for a girlfriend at the time, the couple became exclusive a month or two after meeting. Despite the unexpected relationship, Palumbo is more than content. “I was happy where I was at, but now I’m even happier,” he said.

After getting a feel for the SRJC dating scene, I wanted to go further and find out

if any of the people I talked to had used or ever considered using the less traditional approach of online dating. After all, according to the popular Match.com, 1 in 5 of today’s relationships begin online. To my surprise, I encountered a real lack of enthusiasm for this approach.

Kevin Martinez, a sophomore at Sierra College, uses Facebook, but only to keep in touch with people he already knows. “I’m not against online dating services,” he said. “I just haven’t ever tried them.”

Squires purposefully avoids sites like Match.com and eHarmony. “No, I don’t do that,” she said. “I don’t trust the Internet to meet people. You can pretend to be someone else online, so you can never really know who you’re talking to.”

Imagining I would discover a variety of insider strategies for landing dates, I originally hoped to use the information to my advantage and try certain tactics out myself.

Instead, I seemed to encounter only students who have too much going on in their lives to date. Among those I interviewed, the consensus seems to suggest a “go with the flow” approach. If something happens, it happens.

Between studying, working, exams, and all the other stresses of college life, perhaps going with the flow is all we can afford right now.

Culloch of SRJC. She took the students to the Globe Theatre to see how Shakespeare was meant to be performed.

Continued from page 10 “The Globe…the Globe is amazing,” Joseph said.

“But actually seeing Shakespeare staged to and from the University of London’s camthere is just, you kinda sit there like, ‘no I haven’t pus, where they took classes like Introduction actually really seen Shakespeare before, this is to Shakespeare, which was taught by Janet Mc-

Shakespeare. Now everything makes sense.’”

On days without classes, students could travel as they wished. Some made excursions to other countries over weekend breaks, or took part in the pre planned Friday trips with the group. Within the first couple weeks they’d gone to Stonehenge and Salisbury. “I went on the Scotland trip, it’s something I recommend for must see, must go to for anyone who goes on the England trip, is to do the tour to Scotland,” Martin said.

Martin contacted her family members in England, visiting with people she’d never met before but who made her feel welcome right away. She discovered family she never knew she had and met her great-grandmother. “They lived sort of near Derbyshire; it was in the mid-

dle of England,” Martin said. She visited Bath with her family but did not see any Jane Austen characters wandering the streets.

“I really got to experience British people in the country, because my family lived in the country,” Martin said. “They are so warm. I’d never met any of these people, and they threw a party for me and got everybody together and cooked for me.” She felt that the more standoffish attitude of Londoners was just a big city attitude, not an English thing. “I think that it’s just the mentality of being in a city. If you go to New York, you feel like people in New York are stand-offish; if you go to LA you feel like people in LA are stand-offish. I really do not think it’s a British thing, I think it’s a London thing.”

Re-entry

keep making them. The thing about college is you can always go back. If you first get a BA in underwater basket weaving and you find yourself uninspired and underpaid, guess what? You change. Life circumstances change. You get to make new decisions that best fit your life.

“Trust your instincts about the pursuit you’re well suited for. If what you’re majoring in doesn’t fit anymore, change it. It’s your life.

College is where you really get a chance to take hold of the rudder and steer your own course.

In the end, what you do needs to be for you,” Smith advises.

Counseling Department: (707) 527-4451 or visit Bertolini Student Center, 2nd Floor.

Art Dickenson Contributing Writer Dating. The concept seems simple enough.

Yet many of us struggle to find a compatible match. But what is the cause of this struggle?

Or is it a unique and personal pessimism that has led me to this unfounded conclusion? I decided to seek answers from fellow college students. My goal was simple yet challenging: to explore dating among those of us racing tirelessly to educate ourselves; to find out how people “tread the waters” and whether their tactics prove successful.

One of the first responses I got wasn’t all that shocking: students don’t have time to date. Paul Grijalva, an SRJC nursing student, expressed his disappointment in being too busy to actively date. “I am single, but I just don’t have time to date. Being in the nursing program, I’m studying all the time,” he said. “I practically live at the JC and because of it, my social life takes a big hit. It’s a drag.”

SRJC sophomore Randy Spagnola expressed a similar sentiment. “To be honest, I’m not actively pursuing. If something comes along, that’s cool. If it doesn’t, I don’t worry about it,” he said. “I’m at the JC for school. I can’t afford the emotional swing or the time of a relationship.”

London

Continued from page 10 ness with each class I take,” Hartmann said.

When he began college in 1984, he pictured himself as an author or celebrity. “Perhaps I thought I might make a great performing singer or actor…definitely thought I’d have finished my schooling by age 40,” he said.

Hartmann’s advice passed down from his dad: Go to school. “(An education) is something no man, no bank and no employer can take away from you.”

The thing about decisions is that you get to

February 7, 2011

OPINIONS & EDITORIALS

12 Quinn Conklin Co-Editor-in-Chief

Let’s get digital In the tough economic times we face today saving money is important. When saving money can save us time and natural resources as well, there is that much more of a reason for change. At SRJC, our teachers have a mostly untapped resource that can accomplish these tasks: the class website.

Some teachers use this tool effectively, placing syllabi and other documents on the site, using it to share links to class materials or to allow students access to their grades.

However, this adoption of new technology is not uniform among the faculty, costing the school money, wasting student and teacher time and consuming vast amounts of paper.

Look at the typical class syllabus as an example. A teacher with a four-page syllabus and three classes of approximately 30 students each will have to print 60 pages per class. This assumes that the teacher prints double-sided documents and only makes enough for a full class. How many classes are more than full on the first day? How many classes have wait lists? How many people cannot register but still want in? The maximum class size is the minimum number of syllabi a teacher can print.

Each page a teacher prints costs money.

Each page is an expended resource. The teacher must also spend their time having the pages printed, collated and stapled. All this work, all this energy, all this money put into producing papers that if lucky, will see students through to the end of the semester.

Most likely they will be lost, mutilated or doodled into uselessness.

By posting digital copies of these documents teachers can save the school money and time while reducing waste. This will also reduce excuses. If students can find the lesson plans online they have no excuse for not knowing when an assignment is due.

There are those who will argue that not every student has access to a computer. However, we have libraries on both the Santa Rosa and Petaluma campuses filled with computers. This is in addition to the laptops available to borrow from the circulation desk and the computer labs scattered across campus. Each one of us can find a computer to use at school.

If we must have a copy of a handout we can print them, store them on a flash drive or put them on our iPod or other such gadget.

Each class comes with web space and the energy to run the computers is used whether the teacher creates a page for the class or not.

Even if professors are unwilling to stray from the tried and true format of handouts, they should still make the digital copy available to students who want to move away from reliance on dead trees to store their information.

The space is there but maybe it is not used because navigation is difficult. Class websites are outdated, ugly and annoying to navigate.

What we need to do to make the information readily available to students is overhaul myCubby. myCubby knows what classes I am taking.

If class info and assignment lists are available online, why not have myCubby pull up the info when I log in. I can click my Math class and see the assignments due next week. Did my English teacher want all papers doublespaced? Let me check the syllabus. Currently you have to dig through links and section numbers, bookmarks and search results to find the information. Imagine if you could just log in to myCubby and find a Facebooklike wall where your only friends are your classes and all they invite you to do is your homework.

Editorial

Put down the iPhone, find love and enjoy it Like great democratic nations and married couples, we at the Oak Leaf rarely agree on anything, doubly so with Valentine’s Day. For some of us, Valentine’s Day is a time to rejoice in love and express it freely for all to see. For others, it’s a day that reminds us of past heartbreak and current romantic disappointment. Instead of hashing out an editorial through petty arguments and the withholding of precious pizza access only to reach an uneasy standstill, we agreed to disagree.

The Sad Singles Valentine’s Day is upon us again, the day when lovers across the U.S. take time to express their appreciation for each other by buying Hallmark cards and stressing over what price tag says “I love you” more. And the single people among us? At the Oak Leaf, we singletons just wish we could participate.

We’ve tried looking on campus and one intrepid editor even waded into the murky depths of online dating. Yet, for the dateless, dating seems harder every day.

Shouldn’t it be the opposite? We are connected in so many ways. Through marvels of technology—Twitter, Facebook, cell phones and any number of online blogs—we can find out what others are doing in New York

or LA.We can hear the voices of the Egyptian people in real time as they struggle for a new political reality; but how many people can you name sitting next to you in class? The number of students with their faces glued to computer screens, with ears plugged by ear buds and shuffling like zombies as they text to some invisible, ethereal entity is staggering.

As much as technology can bring us together, too often it reinforces the real world barriers that separate us. It’s harder to start a conversation, because for many it means interrupting another conversation. Someone has to put down the phone or turn off an iPod. Seeing a person zoned in on technological device as he walks to class sends a clear instant message of being unapproachable.

What we propose is more high-fives and less Wi-Fi. Let’s face it, a smile says more than a colon and a closing parenthesis ever could.

The Happy Couples Not everybody at the Oak Leaf is sad and single for Valentine’s Day. We encourage our coupled readers to indulge in happy-couplesmugness as much as they want this Valentine’s Day. Nothing strengthens a relationship better than showing your partner how blissfully happy you are to have them at your side.

We’ve seen the couple walking down the street, too scared to even hold hands, let alone kiss each other in public. We’ve heard the awkward first-date dinner conversations in restaurants. Maybe we’ve been that couple or experienced such awkwardness. But this Valentine’s Day, don’t be ashamed to flaunt your happy relationship. Hold hands like letting go would kill you. Be disgustingly sweet and mushy to each other, and ignore any angry divorcees who give you a stink-eye for daring to be in love.

While we don’t encourage taking part in any displays of affection that could get you arrested for public indecency, we do encourage displays that make everybody around you jealous of the perfection of your better half.

This Valentine’s, don’t buy a cheap bunch of flowers and corny card before going on a cliché date; embarrass yourself horribly by admitting just how much you care. If you really love someone, you can never say it often enough. Say she looks gorgeous when you answer the door, repeat it so often that she is blushing and smiling the entire date. Valentine’s Day is the one holiday when nobody can deny you the right to be flattered shamelessly and return the favor with your partner.

Student on the street

What is the way to your heart?

Daniel Doughty “Spending time with someone and becoming intimate.”

Kim Lamp Ariel Thomas-Urlick “Conversation, and the “Someone who way they hold you.” respects my needs and how hectic my life is.”

Carol Bracco “Romantic dinner, champagne, and…”

Javier Rivera “Humor. Without humor in life, you have nothing.”

EDITORS Editors-in-Chief: Craig Couden and Quinn Conklin oakleaf-editor@santarosa. edu A&E Editor: James L. Alban Features Editor: Isabel Johnson News Editor: Jerome Janairo Opinion Editor: Armando Torres-Garcia

along with like a best long as there is a bond.” friend.”

The

Oak Leaf

Copy Editor: Isabel Johnson

CONTACT THE OAK LEAF

Photo Editor: Mischa Lopiano

Address: 645B Analy Village Santa Rosa Junior College 1501 Mendocino Ave. Santa Rosa, CA 95401

Web Editor: Craig Couden Advertising Manager: oakleaf-ads@ santarosa.edu

J. Olsa “Food!”

Cristian Benitez Ryan Maples Carlos Heredia “Attention, communica- “Mutual understand- “Someone with similar hobbies, as tion and love.” ing, someone I get

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Corina Grant “A good sense of humor, and plays a lot of video games.”

STAFF WRITERS Lee Sandwina, David Anderson, Heather Frendo, Clair Tillinghast

LETTERS Send letters to the Editor to: oakleaf-editor@santarosa.edu or to the Oak Leaf office. They should include your first and last name and be limited to 300 words. Letters may be edited for style, length, clarity and taste. Libelous or obscene letters will not be printed.

The Oak Leaf is published six times per semester by the Journalism 52 newspaper practice class at SRJC. Editorials do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the students, staff, faculty or administration.

Newsroom: (707) 527-4401 Editor Line: (707) 535-3773 Adviser, Anne Belden: (707) 527-4867 abelden@santarosa.edu Visit us on the web at: www.theoakleafnews.com

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OPINIONS & EDITORIALS

13

Middle East problems both bigger and smaller in person Michelle Peirano Contributing Writer As an American student with little knowledge of Israel or Jewish culture, I boarded an airplane on Dec. 27 to participate in the Project Interchange’s campus media seminar in Israel, an educational program through the American Jewish Committee.

Before leaving on the trip I knew little and had no opinions about Israel. I knew that Israel was created after WWII to give the Jewish people a place to call home and to prevent anything like the Holocaust from ever happening again. I knew my grandma ferociously defends Israel, explaining that the Jewish people have faced ill fortune after ill fortune throughout history; that in a place where they are surrounded by countries who hate them, they are forced to defend themselves. I had also seen a documentary from a Palestinian point of view on the Gaza strip.

I half expected to land on the tarmac to find tanks pushing rubble and skinny Arab boys throwing stones.

I was shocked to find Israel is a westernized country that looks as if it were never struck by missiles. It is culture rich, peaceful and much like New York City hyped up on Turkish coffee. Everyone has a function, a place to be and an opinion.

People may get along in their daily lives without any catastrophes, but Israel is a conflicted place, the threat of missiles is a daily concern, and times of war are the norm.

However, hate is not the driving force. The complicated bouquet of issues that plagues Israel is more mundane. While many Israelis aim to preserve their culture and keep Israel as a strictly Jewish state, conflict with the surrounding countries boils down to civic issues

Other Curious Things

such as water, immigration and urban sprawl.

Looking down on the West Bank the Jewish settlements inch their way closer to Palestinian territory. It looks as if the buildings themselves are having a standoff; in some parts only the wall separates them. The whitewashed suburban settlements twist toward the rickety buildings of Palestine racing slowly to the few small hills that separate the two.

I had imagined a fast paced, high-stress battle constantly raging in the West Bank , with daily missiles and stones being thrown over the wall. School children do throw stones at cars over the wall and sometimes the settlements are struck with missiles, but in times of peace Israelis living in the settlements and Palestinians just across the border coexist in a civil fashion, says Bob Lang on the future of Jewish settlements. He believes in a twostate solution where Palestinians and Israelis can cross the border freely yet remain living in their respective territories. Some Palestinians already do cross the border daily to go to work in the settlements and, according to Rulah Salmeh, a journalist in Palestine, there have been instances where a Palestinian and an Israeli fall in love and marry.

Although a tale of love and a planned solution lends some hope in the Middle East, conflict is a daily stress in the settlements.

Also, conflict between Israelis and Arabs is not the only conflict in Israel. Several elements of Israeli life compete with one another constantly, says Jossi Shan, professor of political science at Televiv University. Israelis are conflicted about the settlements and Israel’s sheer existence. Orthodox Jews don’t believe in the Zionist movement because it goes against the basic rules of Judaism. Orthodox do not serve in the military and do not live in the settlements. The rules that Orthodox Jews live by emphasize not pushing into a society

where they are not wanted.

This train of thought makes sense to me.

Israel continues to build settlements to accommodate the huge influx of immigrants from all over the world. Wanting to live in a place where you are surrounded by your culture and like-minded individuals is understandable, but not at the cost of another person’s wellbeing or at the cost of your own and your children’s. Although many of the immigrants come from Russia or Africa, where life makes braving missile attacks and mandatory military service a piece of cake, many come from democratic countries such as Britain and the United States. A Jewish cab driver in Jerusalem, born and raised in Israel, passionately gave me his opinion that the Zionist movement should stop encouraging immigration to Israel. He empathized with the Palestinians and assured me that Israel was becoming overcrowded.

In Sderot, the closest city to Gaza, people are often struck by missiles. Playgrounds double as bomb shelters. When an alarm sounds, seven seconds is allotted to find shelter. At the Lebanese border, Israeli soldiers are constantly in the line of fire from Hezbollah. Looking out over Lebanon, I was informed that Hezbollah probably had a target on me. Ramallah is scattered with rubble and people stand on the garbage-littered streets with grim faces.

When in such close proximity to human realities, it is hard to say who actually belongs on a piece of land. All I can say is that the reality is too much to pay for space. I still don’t have a solid opinion about Israel or the Arab nations, and I certainly don’t have an answer.

After a week-long intensive seminar in Israel, the only idea I can agree to with conviction is something that Tal Becker, former policy advisor to Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, says, “Peace is a very annoying word.”

By Quinn Conklin

Support groups send the wrong message to LGBT students Quinn Conklin Co-Editor-in-Chief Santa Rosa Junior College is trying to reach out to gay and lesbian students by offering a support group. Sorry guys, but this misses the mark. A support group sends the wrong message. It gives the Lesbian Gay Bi Transsexual Queer Questioning Intersex (LGBTQQI) students of SRJC the idea that being anything other then straight requires us to seek professional help.

Coming out is hard. Dealing with political agendas that seek to deny you the full rights of citizenship is hard. Not knowing where to find others who are going through the same thing is hard. Being alone is hard.

Being told the way to deal with all this

hard stuff is therapy sends the wrong message. The message we need to hear is “You are OK, what you feel is OK. You are not alone.”

The place to hear that is from friends; the place to hear it is in their laughter, in a hug as they greet you or their heckling as you tell them about your last date.

A support group has its place. Some have had such a traumatic experience coming out and coming to grips with who they are that they need a quiet, safe place to rest. The problem is when this is the only option for meeting other LGBTQQI people, it says you’re not normal, you are not OK, you are weak and you need special care.

Screw that.

We don’t offer support groups for our straight students, or our Latino students,

or even those students who have gone into combat for our country and live with the emotional scars that service during wartime brings. But those gays, they need a special place to meet.

We do not need to be supported, we need to be socialized. Give us a place to meet to see we are not freaks. Give us a place to plan dances to meet each other with out the stigma of meeting in a support group.

We need to build community for those people wrestling with issues of their own sexuality. We need a place where we’ll will feel accepted, not analyzed, welcomed, not counseled. We need a place were we can lose the shame society has told us we should feel.

The campus needs a Gay, Straight Alliance.

Armando TorresGarcia Opinion Editor

Life In Hi-Def Recently, a good friend and I went on a hike up to Hood Mountain’s summit at Hood Mountain Regional Park in Santa Rosa. Needless to say the scene was beautiful. Luscious landscapes that stimulated my dopamine levels and the crisp air that fueled our hike was just a portion of what kept us aiming for the heavens.

Once we reached the top, Gunsight rock provided us with a view that knocked our breath back into the atmosphere. We spent about two hours at the top of the world on the highest peak between Sonoma and Napa Counties.

Here, we got into a deep philosophical conversation about our lives and it dawned on me that I never wanted to come back down.

There is a unique energy within nature that is available to all of us on this planet.

Undoubtedly, we have all had a moment in our lives when we feel overcome with awe or inspiration when observing Mother Nature.

It could be a sunset, a sunrise or one of the beautiful landscapes that Northern California has to offer. Whatever it is, we feel it to our core and it shakes up our senses into an explosion of admiration and purpose.

John Muir had the same feeling when he said, “There’s something about nature, that makes you change your nature.” However, we live in an era of technological renaissance. Technologies like the television are being refined to push the limits of a person’s entertainment experience. This box now offers the best picture quality and the clearest sound to fill up your four corners with decibels that will blow you away faster than you can re-spawn in “Call of Duty.” We, as humans in the 21st century spend so much money on high definition, when all we have to do is go outside.

It’s not necessary to throw away our television sets; even I enjoy some “team deathmatch” every now and then. The natural high only requires that we go outside, listen and be present in the moment. If we do this, we instantly immerse ourselves into the depths of our being, the earth’s energy will overcome the senses and the deconstruction of the ego can begin. Nature has all of this and more to offer for those who are willing to try.

On our descent back to the car we stopped at a small stream that runs right through the trail and washed our faces off with the cool water. My Panasonic couldn’t begin to attempt to show me how refreshing this was. What was more astonishing were the giant redwood trees that surrounded the water. These were huge solid trees that had thick bark and an awesome smell. I couldn’t help but think about how those trees will be there longer than I will exist.

As a 20 year-old, I understand why the majority of my generation is disconnected with nature. Why go outside when you can YouTube scenes of Discovery Channel’s Planet Earth, listen to music on Pandora, and flirt with my valentine on Facebook? We have all these cool toys to keep our minds zoned out. What I will remember when it’s time to enter the next plane is the moments I truly felt alive, not the coolest status updates I posted. I will remember the fresh air on Hood Mountain while hanging over the edge just to see the view.

Although technology may come close, nothing can provide us with the experience that nature provides. In order to feel the delicacy of a plant, we need to get our hands off the remote and into the dirt. Life in the highest definition exists outside of Wi-Fi zones and zombie infested levels. Take a hike, garden outside and indulge in what Mother Nature has given Northern California.

February 7, 2011

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14

SRJC Swim and Dive teams aim for nothing less than state championships Spencer Harris Sports Editor The SRJC women’s swim and dive team received back-to-back Big 8 Conference championships in 2008 and 2009, while the men’s team has finished in the top five in state for the past six seasons. In 2011, both squads are aiming for state championships.

Anything less than a state championship would be considered a failure for either team.

“If you can’t believe it and state it, then it can’t happen. Both teams have stated their goals and are making no excuses. They want a state championship,” Coach Jill McCormick said.

For the past seven seasons, the SRJC swim and dive teams have dominated conference and state competitions, although the men’s

Photo courtesy of Jill McCormick

Women’s swim team dives into the spring 2011 season hungry for competition.

team has never won a state title.

The main reason for the Bear Cub swim and dive teams’ recent success is McCormick. McCormick begins her 11th season as head swim and dive coach and head water polo coach for both the men and women.

She received the California Community College Women’s Swim Coach of the Year five out of the last six years. McCormick also earned back-to-back Big 8 Conference Coach of the Year honors for both men and women’s swimming in 2008 and 2009.

The 2011 season is looking bright for both swim and dive teams. The women’s squad is returning nine swimmers from last season, which is half of the team. Jillian Clark and Caitlin O’Rourke, All-Americans in 2010, Photo courtesy of Jill McCormick along with sophomore SRJC Men’s swim and dive team sets high standards for performance this season. diver, Vanessa Giosso, were voted team captains each other to be better,” McCormick said. thanks to great recruiting,” McCormick said. by their teammates. O’Rourke was a member Lauren Bugglin, another All-American Matt Stuhr, Nick Johnson, and Justin Loof the 2009 state championship team, and in 2010 and current SRJC record holder in mas are the three team captains selected by Clark is one of the strongest all-around swim- the 50m backstroke, is vital if the Lady Bear their teammates. Stuhr and Johnson were Allmers on the team.

Cubs want another state championship. In ad- Americans in 2010, with Stuhr also earning Since the women have exactly 18 swim- dition, freshmen swimmer Jessica Crawford the Big 8 Male Swimmer of the Year. Stuhr mers, a high level of commitment from each has turned into one of the team’s most reliable currently holds six different varsity records at swimmer is essential. “There’s a strong sense swimmers in only her first year on the squad. the SRJC, while also achieving national chamof purpose throughout the team this year. All Since the men’s team has never earned a pion in the 100m fly in 2010. the swimmers are competing for spots daily state championship, the team made it their Lomas, in only his first year on the team and it brings out motivation. Everyone pushes personal mission to bring a state title to SRJC has made an influential impact on his teamthis year. “The guys are extremely concen- mates and earned their trust. All-Americans trated and motivated. Anything except a state in 2010, Dan Crase and Devon Jones, are rechampionship this year would be a let down,” turning this year and expect to help a lot.

McCormick said.

The men’s team has more than enough talThe men’s team has 10 players returning ented swimmers and divers. The real burden from last season. The recruiting class this year falls on McCormick’s shoulders. “We have so proved to be substantial, with the men’s team many options; the important thing I have to totaling 35 swimmers and divers. do is make good decisions. I have to make tacFreshmen divers Dalton Berncich, Jesse tical positioning decisions, putting the right Guidi and Daniel Coxon are huge assets and swimmer in the right event,” McCormick McCormick cannot wait to see their full po- said. Both of the teams have their next swim tential this year. “The men’s team is loaded meets on Feb. 11 against San Joaquin Delta in with a lot of freshmen talent, especially divers, Stockton.

All-American soccer player Tyler Hurst focuses on the future Lee Sandwina Staff Writer

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Under the lights in Madison, Wisconsin Tyler Hurst slides for a low, driven cross during double-overtime, touching the ball past a diving goalkeeper to win the National Premier Soccer League Championship. The crowd erupts as the television cameras focus on Hurst sprinting to his onrushing teammates.

“That moment I put the ball in the back of the net, four or five years of Sonoma County Sol went through my head in a rush. I celebrated with the guys I had worked so hard with the entire year, jumping up and down, chanting and cheering ‘Sol! Sol! Sol!’ There is nothing better,” Hurst said.

Sol made it to the national championships the last three out of four years, but Tyler’s goal captured the team’s first ever national championship. His many years with Sol challenged him and the year following the National Championship, Hurst re-entered Santa Rosa Junior College to play soccer after a six-year hiatus.

This year the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) awarded Hurst All-American honors for his 20-goal, 15-assist

season with the SRJC Bear Cubs. Hurst led the team to the quarter finals of the state championship. He said it felt amazing to receive the honor, but that he would trade it in a second for a state championship title.

Hurst’s exuberance and desire to win led to his request to change positions early in the season after the team got off to a rocky start.

SRJC head coach Marty Kinahan accepted Hurst’s request and his flexibility led to an explosion of goals and assists.

“The best thing, or rather, the worst thing I could say about Tyler is he enjoys soccer more than any kid I’ve ever coached,” Kinahan said.

As a youth Hurst played for the Santa Rosa United Heat, a local legend soccer team, which captured six state cup victories consecutively; a feat shared by only three teams in the entire U.S. He loved the intense, competitive atmosphere that sometimes led to fights between teammates at practice.

Through his integral role as a central midfielder, Hurst directed others and controlled the game. During the 2001 State Cup Championship, Hurst scored two goals, ensuring a trip to the regional tournament and landing Heat a number three national ranking. The Heat’s

Continued on page 15

SPORTS

www.theoakleafnews.com

15

Student concussions Season looks strong for worry coaches and staff Lady Bear Cubs Basketball SRJC medical staff implements new detection and treatment methods David Tedla Contributing Writer The football field was muddy as SRJC sophomore Kevin Hernandez ran towards a linebacker during practice before a match against San Francisco City College. Instead of lighting up the linebacker, Hernandez slipped and took a hard hit to the head.

“Thinking back the next day, practice was like a blur. My whole day that day I couldn’t really concentrate. People tried to talk to me and my mind was just wandering.”

Hernandez had a minor concussion that lasted for a few days. But those few days were not easy for the 6-foot-3-inch lineman. “The first few days after the concussions classes were really hard because of the lights. I was getting bad headaches. I was going through the motions. I wasn’t really learning anything in class because it was too hard to concentrate on stuff like that.”

Hernandez is one of 24 SRJC athletes who had a concussion during the fall. That is four more than last year.

Concussions have become a subject of deep concern in the sports world and many doctors and athletic trainers are trying their best to prevent head injuries. The Santa Rosa Junior College medical staff has been working with student athletes on this issue.

Monica Okubo is entering her fourth year as SRJC’s head athletic trainer and has been working with Dr. Nancy Chinn from the Disability Resource Department on the concussion issue.

A concussion is defined as a complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain, induced by traumatic biomechanical forces. According to the American Academy of Neurology, concussions occur three million times a year in the United States. Among people aged 15 to 24 years, sports are now second only to motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of traumatic brain injury.

Chinn has worked at SRJC for 11 years, and in the first 10 years she saw zero student athletes come to DRD with a concussion injury. Chinn said, “I had not had any referrals of student athletes with concussions until this year, until Monica and I started collaborating on this program.”

A total of 11 student athletes have seen Chinn in the DRD this year.

SRJC freshman soccer player Christian Reyes also suffered a concussion last fall during a game in Stockton against Delta College. In the

first half of the game, Reyes was going for the ball and was kicked in the forehead by his opponent. Reyes played all but five minutes of the game.

“I was asking the guys what the score was and where we were. I didn’t know who we were playing and what the score was,” he said.

Reyes was happy with the help he received from the medical staff. “The help we got from these guys was really good. Monica was here most of the time. I came here on a Saturday during a football game and she took care of me.” The only problem Reyes had was trying to focus on an English paper he had to write.

The way the SRJC training staff finds out whether an athlete has gotten a concussion is by doing an on-the-field evaluation with a Sports Concussion Assessment Tool 2 (SCAT 2). A SCAT 2 is a tool that represents a standardized method of evaluating injured athletes for a concussion. Okubo said that before the season she and her staff educate the coaches and players about concussions and perform a baseline computer test. Among other things, the baseline test measures reaction time and the ability to differentiate shapes. This gives the medical staff a report on the athlete’s cognitive function.

“Without a baseline how are we supposed to know what we are going to compare it to?” Okubo said.

Okubo and Chinn are both teaching their athletes about concussions and what to do when they get one. “The number one thing we try to tell them is don’t hide it. If you notice your buddy got hit in the head or something report it.

We’re really trying to make sure people are aware and take it seriously,” Okubo said.

Okubo said the support from the coaches has been a big help. “We couldn’t do it without their support. They have been very responsive, very positive in terms of wanting the best healthcare for their athletes and wanting to protect their brains and deal with these brain injuries in the best way possible.”

Ignoring a concussion can be fatal if it is not reported immediately. Second impact syndrome is caused when an athlete suffers repeated mild brain injuries over a one-to-two-day period as a result of multiple concussions. These recurring injuries result in brain swelling and bleeding in the skull. New research suggests that even small hits to the head can lead to brain deterioration.

Luckily none of the athletes at the SRJC had anything that serious. But NFL athlete. Chris Henry, the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver who died in a traffic accident last year, had

“I was asking the guys what the score was and where we were. I didn’t know who we were playing and what the score was.”

-Christian Reyes

Spencer Harris Sports Editor Last season the SRJC women’s basketball team cruised to first place in the Big 8 Conference and earned a state final four appearance. This season is looking no different.

The team compiled an overall record of 26-7 last season and 13-1 in conference. The Lady Bear Cubs are dominating conference play again this season with an undefeated record of 7-0. Their overall record is 17-5.

Whenever you’re discussing Lady Bear Cub basketball, you have to mention coach Lacey Campbell because of her influence towards the team’s recent success. Coach Campbell is in her fifth season as head coach

Hurst

Continued from page 14

premier achievement came from playing an age group up, winning the State Cup Championship by an astounding score of 3-0.

Between the ages of 14 and 16, Hurst garnered more recognition for his talent on the California State Team, comprised of the top players in the state and only two steps away from tryouts with the U.S. National Team for his age. Hurst regrets not training harder to make the most of the opportunity. He did not make the National Team tryouts.

Hurst believes his soccer knowledge and ability ranks high enough to play professional soccer, but feels he lacks the athleticism. “His knowledge surpassed my own in some areas, and he never stopped surprising me,” Kinahan said.

Teammates on Sol echo Kinahan’s support.

Former Under-18 England National Team captain Lee Summerscales and Chris Daly, former team captain of National Champions SSU, both feel his work ethic and technique make Hurst an essential asset to any team.

Though Hurst’s career is undoubtedly successful, he regrets not working harder in

chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a form of degenerative brain damage caused by multiple hits to the head.

According to his Bengals team doctors and his college team doctors at West Virginia, he never suffered a concussion. But doctors examined Henry’s brain and discovered that if he were to live longer, he would have had severe brain damage.

When student athletes gets concussions they may become sensitive to light and sound. They also have headaches, difficulty concentrating and trouble doing multiple things at once, such as listening to a lecture and taking notes.

Student athletes with concussions are affected both on and off the field. They cannot participate in sports and cannot focus in the classroom.

They may request a note taker and have the lecture recorded.

“They may be going in and out, in terms of their concentration, missing bits and pieces,” Chinn said. “Allowing them to wear sun glasses diminishes the effect of that. When they are having these symptoms, like sensitivity to light, difficulty in concentration, the more they exert their cognitive energy, the worse their symptoms can get.”

She added that the student athletes who have had a concussion take their exams to a quiet room because they often get distracted after a concussion. Students will also get more time on an exam because cognitive processing often slows down after a concussion, and it takes longer to think things through.

Chinn said when student athletes come to her office with concussions she educates them on how to manage. “I really reinforce the imDavid Tedla/Contributing Photographer Christian Reyes (left) and Kevin Hernandez (right) suffered concussions playing soccer and football. portance of not just resting physically after a

and is seeking her third straight Big 8 Conference Coach of the Year Award. Last season she was also selected the CCCWCA (California Community College Women’s Coaching Association) Coach of the Year.

Mia Greco and Krysten Copeland are the only returning players from last year’s Big 8 Conference championship squad. However, Lauren Rudy, Michaela Halpin and Chelsea Williamson returned after redshirting last season and should provide great experience for the younger players.

“The redshirters from last season have really stepped up this year. They’re doing everything that’s asked of them and more,” coach Campbell said.

Greco, along with freshmen starter Jen

Continued on page 16 school. “I think if I had buckled down and done better at school, I could have gone Division I out of high school,” Hurst said. “It has always been hard for me to balance the really difficult classes with five days a week of soccer and a job.”

With Hurst’s years of high-level soccer numbered, he has only two wishes: to capture another national championship with Sol and to play at Sonoma State next fall with his brother Trevor Hurst. Trevor made the NSCAA Division II All-Region team this past fall after transferring from SRJC. Tyler said he would do anything and everything to make that possible and SSU head coach Marcus Ziemer expressed interested in Hurst. “He’s a great player and would strengthen our team if we could get him here,” Ziemer said.

Should Hurst not gain admittance to SSU, he hopes to receive offers from other Division II colleges for the upcoming season.

Hurst appreciates all the coaching he received over the years, and now the next soccer generation can expect to benefit from his knowledge—Hurst coaches for Santa Rosa United. He would like to help kids develop good training habits and instill in them his love for the game. concussion, but resting cognitively after a concussion,” she said. “That means limiting time on the computer. They may need to sleep more at night.”

Athletes are in an environment where they are usually pushing through injuries. It is one thing to push through an ankle injury, but the ramifications of pushing through a concussion can be significant to the athlete and lengthen the recovery time.

With helmet prices at an all-time high, the best products demand hefty prices. Large college football programs and NFL teams can afford the top of the line helmets, but junior colleges and high schools can’t. A 2000 study by the American Journal of Sports Medicine identified the concussion rate in high school football at 5.6 percent. A decade later the rate has increased to 8.9 percent, but an estimated 50 percent go unreported.

Blair Bavuso, the SRJC equipment technician, said that there has never been a helmet that prevented a concussion. The Bear Cubs’ football roster had a total of 70 players at the start of the year. Even with a small budget of $3,400 for 2010 and a large football team, Bavuso said, “Everything we buy is pro quality. That’s all I buy.” The prices of helmets are very high and Bavuso said that they are pricing themselves out of business.

Bavuso buys the Schutt DNA helmets that cost $220 and the players are satisfied with them.

Head football coach Keith Simons said, “I think 15 years from now you are going to have space age equipment on these players, that the number one thing is to maintain what’s up here with these guys and help eliminate those concussions.”

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February 7, 2011

Reality show is bad Men’s Basketball primed for success Women’s Basketball Continued from page 15 play for Giants Taku has tremendous potential already aver- nifer Tsurumoto, have stepped into the team Spencer Harris David Anderson Staff Writer The 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants have officially committed to starring in their own reality show, which will air on Showtime in collaboration with MLB Productions. The show is rumored to be previewed during the opening week of the season, and will begin scheduled episodes during the second half of the 2011 season.

Showtime’s President of Entertainment, David Nevins, announced the news on Jan. 14, before the team’s upper management had even finalized the deal.

“We’ve already begun filming at home with some of the key characters in the off season and we’ll continue to embed with the team over the course of the next 10 months in an attempt to capture the entire organism of the club,” Nevins said in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune.

The SF Giants are under immense pressure to remain at the top of the MLB and defend their well-deserved World Series title. Now they have to deal with the stress of multiple cameras monitoring their conversations, performances, jokes and inevitable arguments.

Not only will the players be filmed, but Showtime has also indicated they will include the players’ wives, girlfriends and parents. All of this sounds like a potential boiling pot for controversy and inner-team turmoil, which is most likely needed for the show’s success.

After all, if the show was nothing more than an hour-long series of the players leisurely practicing and cracking jokes, it would be more of a documentary than a reality show.

Yes, of course it will be nice to watch Brian Wilson celebrating and smiling in the locker room after a win over the L.A. Dodgers, but what about the episodes after a string of losses or after a dramatic 11th-inning defeat? What if the team we love soon regrets the signing of this contract, will that frustration translate onto the field? The possibility that this show could negatively affect the players’ ability to perform is not only bad for the franchise, but also neglectful of its fans. Nearly every person I’ve asked has told me that they think this is a terrible idea, and I strongly agree.

The main reason I’m opposed to this idea is akin to Aubrey Huff ’s reasoning for wearing his “rally thong.” The only reason he didn’t take it off was because whatever they were doing was working. He didn’t want anything to throw off the team’s stride. Well, last season everything was working great, so why do anything to jeopardize that?

Staff Writer

aging 11.7 ppg and 4.9 rpg.

The Bear Cubs average 72.6 ppg and are second in conference with 1,670 total points scored. The team seems to have the offense settled, however the defense needs improvement. “We’re good enough to beat anybody on the schedule, we just need to work on consistency on defense,” coach McMillan said.

The team’s next home game is Feb. 8 against Sierra.

The Big 8 Conference is highly competitive this season, and the SRJC men’s basketball team is looking to keep up with the competition.

The Bear Cubs are currently in fourth place in the Big 8 Conference with a 15-7 overall record and 5-3 in conference games.

With five games remaining on the schedule, the Bear Cubs have already achieved as many wins as they earned all of last season when they finished 15-13 and didn’t make the playoffs.

Coach Craig McMillan in his 11th season as head coach has experienced success and downfalls during his tenure, but is always pushing his players to become great people. “They’re student-athletes before athletes, so I try to ready them in more ways than becoming a basketball player. There’s more important things and I understand that,” coach McMillan said.

The team strategy this season is to play from the outside in, meaning the players spread the floor early with the three pointers to soften the defense, then push the inside to the post. “Since the competition is tough night-in night-out, we try to find our match-ups every game, but mostly we do play the outside game early to post up,” coach McMillan said.

Lorenzo McCloud, a transfer from Panola College in Texas, is a pleasant surprise for the Bear Cubs, leading the Mischa Lopiano/Oak Leaf team in scoring with 19.1 points per Lead scorer Lorenzo McCloud works on free throws game. McCloud also leads the team during practice at Tauzer Gym before the season. in assists with 3.8 assists per game.

McCloud has provided solid defense, while showing leadership on and off the court.

The team has two players returning from last season, starting point guard Matt Raivio and sharp shooter Tim Oswald. However, freshmen guard Michael Santos redshirted last season and sophomore guard Robby Burroughs returns after sitting out all of last season with an injury. Burroughs was the starting shooting guard his freshmen year. His maturity and leadership will be essential for the younger Bear Cubs.

Henry Gill and Sama Taku’s contributions will also be crucial to the team’s success this year. Gill only played one season of high school basketball his freshmen year before sitting out two seasons, but he decided to rejuvenate his basketball career and join the Bear Cubs. Gill is one of the best all-around athletes on the team scoring 9.0 ppg and averaging 5.1 rebounds per game.

Taku is the youngest player on the squad at age 17, but is definitely finding his groove.

leadership roles because of their strong work ethics and positive attitudes. Greco and Tsurumoto are currently the leading scorers, with Greco averaging 13.9 points per game and Tsurumoto averaging 13.6 ppg.

Coach Campbell thinks the team has the quickest guards in the league, which provides many opportunities in transition. “The guards with the outside shooting and the team’s communication are probably all the strengths,” said coach Campbell. Coach Campbell also wants the team to push the ball inside and post up because it would spread the floor for the shooters.

Ashley Morgan, Marie Sweet and Copeland are the top post players for the Lady Bear Cubs. Morgan leads the team in rebounds with 8.3 rebounds per game (rpg) and has a staggering 123 total defensive rebounds.

Morgan averages 9.1 ppg and her versatile offense is a huge asset. Along with her post presence, she can spread the floor with her three point shot, sinking 30 this season.

Copeland and Sweet are the hard working post players using their size and length to disrupt the inside. Copeland averages 8.3 ppg and has racked up 34 blocks. Copeland also averages 6.5 rpg.

Coach Campbell said she’s impressed with the contributions from all the players and enjoys the depth of the team.

The Big 8 Conference is highly competitive this season, and if the Lady Bear Cubs want to make the same type of run they did last season, they have to stay concentrated.

“Five out of the top 15 teams in the state are in our conference, so the players have to take the season game by game and stay focused,” coach Campbell said.

The team’s next home game is Feb. 8 against Sierra.