NEWS

NEWS BRIEFS

Important Dates

Classes are scheduled to begin Aug. 23. The last day to drop without a “W” is Sept. 5. The last day to drop a course with a “W” is Nov. 12.

COVID-19 Safety

It is important that, when returning to campus, students continue practicing wearing masks, handwashing and minimizing contact with others. Stay informed about changes within the community. To see the latest updates regarding COVID-19, visit rccd.edu/return.

2021 California Recall Election

Beginning Aug.16, mailin ballots were scheduled to be sent out to every voter in California. The official election will be held Sept. 14. Find out more information at https:// www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ upcoming-elections/2021ca-gov-recall.

Parking is Free

RCCD students and employees do not have to pay for a 2021 fall semester parking permit. Starting Aug. 18, students and faculty should use Web Advisor and follow the normal process to receive a fall semester parking permit.

LGBTQ+ Association for Student Success and Equality Mentor Program

RCC’s LASSE Program will be accepting applications for the upcoming fall and spring semesters starting Sept. 6. Students of all genders and sexualities are welcome. For more information about the program, contact Sharice. Fox@rcc.edu.

All of these dates are subject to change due to possible regulations to come involving the containment of the coronavirus.

To stay up-todate on upcoming campus events, visit the Viewpoints calendar listed at viewpointsonline.org.

If you have events happening on campus that you want featured on the calendar, send information about the event to viewpoints. news@gmail.com.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ | VIEWPOINTS Various Viewpoints articles and photos that showcase the publication’s many iterations across the years laid out across a counter. Viewpoints celebrates its 100th volume

DANIEL HERNANDEZ INTERIM MANAGING EDITOR

This ‘Back to School’ issue offcially marks the beginning of our 100th volume.

Viewpoints is honored to have informed our readers of the crucial events happening in and around our college, from the construction of the campus to the many accolades that Riverside City College has received or to the unprecedented events that have affected our community. Our reporters have been at the forefront of it all.

Our program would not be where it is today if it wasn’t for the hard work and passion that our journalists have shown throughout its existence. That is why we wanted to celebrate this momentous occasion by showcasing some of our program’s highlights throughout our 100 volumes at the college.

Most of our research about the program can be found in a book titled “A 65 Year History,” which details the events of Riverside City College from 1916 to 1981. The author attributes the college’s many publications as one of the primary sources he used while researching for the book.

For this article, we will focus on journalism’s humble beginnings at the college until the early 1930s and will continue this series throughout the fall and spring semesters.

Although Riverside Junior College first opened its doors in September of 1916, the frst student-run publication didn’t get published until 1918. The 65-page annual, or yearbook, named Kollej-Koed was made out of three sections: the literary section, which contained original works from students, a calendar giving a chronological order of the year’s events and an alumni section meant to keep track of the lives of recent graduates.

Then, in 1920, the name was changed to Tequesquite (pronounced Ta-kees-kees-ta) where students continued to produce the annual but increased production to 100 pages.

According to “A 65 Year History,” the name Tesquesquite is derived from the arroyo which was a prominent feature of the campus at the time.

For context, an arroyo is “a steep-sided gully formed by the action of fast-fowing water in an arid or semi-arid region, found chiefy in the southwestern US.”

Tequesquite is “a natural mineral containing compounds of sodium chloride, sodium carbonate, and sodium sulphate, used in Mexico since preHispanic times mainly as a food seasoning.”

During this time period, there still was not an offcial college newspaper. However, students were provided a column in the Press Enterprise aptly named Junior College Notes. Student journalists like Florence Stone, Dorothy Dunbar and Robert Patton were regular contributors to this column.

In 1922, another studentrun publication named XYZ was started. However, this publication ran bi-weekly instead of annually and thus created RCC’s frst newspaper.

Later that same year, the publication changed its name to Jay See and then once again to The Junior Colleger in the fall of 1923.

The name “The Junior Colleger” would stick around for five more years until the publication changed its name once more to “The Arroyo” on January of 1928.

Throughout this time, journalism at RCC remained as an extracurricular club until an alumnus of the college, named Robert Patton, returned as a faculty member in 1931.

A year after his arrival, a practical newspaper class was added and thus inspired a new era of journalism within the college.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ | VIEWPOINTS Riverside City College will resume in-person education for partially or fully vaccinated individuals on Aug. 23. Online classes will be available for students who are unvaccinated. Students’ opinions on returning to campus

In-person is a weight lifted off the shoulders of some and disrespectful for others

JENNIPHER VASQUEZ

INTERIM ASSISTANT LIFE EDITOR

As students prepare for the return to campus on Aug. 23, some are reluctant to follow the recently implemented mandates by the Riverside Community College District.

The RCCD Board of Trustees passed a resolution Aug. 10 requiring all students, staff and faculty to provide proof of partial vaccination no later than Aug. 19, and proof of full vaccination by Sept. 30.

The resolution also requires the use of face coverings indoors and outdoors with minor exceptions.

Riverside City College student Sophia, who wished to be identifed only by frst name, has opted not to return to inperson classes due to the Board’s decision.

“I’m not going because of the mandates,” she said. “I decided last month because they previously said they were going to mandate the vaccine and then they retracted their statement in July.”

Sophia stated that she is not willing to wear a mask and decided to drop from the biology class she had already registered for. She said she will only be taking online courses this semester.

“The way RCCD announced the mandates is very unprofessional and is honestly very disrespectful,” she said. “A lot of people are unhappy and we will be showing our concerns, we’re going to be showing that we’re unhappy, all of this is just wrong.”

Sophia and other students from RCCD formed the group Students Against Tyranny as a response to the vaccine and mask mandates and argues that the timing of the resolution doesn’t allow students enough time to consider transferring to another college if they choose not to continue their enrollment at the district.

“This is not about being pro or anti-vaxx, it’s about freedom of choice,” she said. “We feel that our freedom of choice is being taken away as students and that’s not fair to us.”

Other students are eager to return to campus after more than a year of distance learning.

Second year student Nancy Hillig, 19, said the opportunity to return to in-person classes should be seen as a privilege.

Hillig acknowledged that she was able to get through the year of virtual learning with support from close friends and family.

“Being online made me really underestimate how much I appreciate interacting with students, staff members,” Hillig said. “Being online for an entire year and not having that interaction took a toll on my mental health and my overall effort into working on my classes.”

Hillig disclosed that she lost her grandfather earlier this year due to COVID-19.

She feels getting vaccinated and wearing a mask on campus is the least she could do in order to return to campus and take in the full college experience that she wanted from the beginning.

“It’s not something I’m going to take for granted. Despite everything that’s happened, I’m glad that we can all go back,” Hillig said. “We have to really appreciate being able to physically be there because I know for some this took a more drastic effect on them.”

PROTEST from page 1

Mandate makes students furious

have generated speculation behind COVID-19 and the intentions behind the mask and vaccine mandate.

“The FDA’s approval is 100% a red herring and completely irrelevant,” student Marcus Villa Lobos said. “I don’t really wanna hear about the FDA’s approval. The FDA approves so many things that even the European Union and European countries fnd unacceptable.”

Frustrated students decided to voice their opinions on social media, which led to a group named Students Against Tyranny to plan a protest outside of Riverside City College Aug. 16.

“We immediately started reaching out and asking them, ‘are you interested in a protest

DANIEL HERNANDEZ | VIEWPOINTS Students and community members protest near RCC after being rallied by an Instagram page on Aug. 16. against these mandates? Will you be willing to join a group chat,’” the event organizer, who wished to only go by Sophia, said. “Some of them said ‘yes’ and a lot of people are here.”

At the protest, many students shared similar skepticism about the legitimacy of the vaccine and the governing bodies that are recommending it.

“There’s no part of this since the initial news reports that were not suspicious up until RCC getting funding to do what they’re doing right now,” Andy Garcia, a flm major, said. “It’s almost like forcing people to get it. They didn’t give us time to go to schools that aren’t mandating it. Maybe announcing that mandate a month ahead would’ve been better but even then announcing that mandate is messed up.” Student trustee Jack Harris says these strong disagreements and protests could have been avoided entirely. “I think that the 80% inperson classes and 20% online classes were not enough from the get-go,” he said. “And that by, adding more online classes would have avoided a lot of the strife.” Although he expressed that his opinions may differ from those protesting, he doesn’t think others’ opinions should not be considered. “We are a college, we are a critical thinking institution, people here come here to improve their thinking and to improve their life skills,” he stated. “And to improve your life skills you need opposition and you need to be able to make a choice for yourself.” The Board expressed their reasoning behind this rapid change for the mandate in the meeting on Aug. 10. “We were considering to have both vaccinated and unvaccinated attend together with the unvaccinated going through weekly testing, as also a standard means, as is done in many of the universities today,” Chancellor Wolde-Ab Isaac said. “But with the advent of the rapid spread of the delta virus, we felt that that is not doable.” To stay updated on future Board meetings, as well as to make public comments in them, please visit the Board of Trustees page at rccd.edu or watch the live streams from the Riverside City College youtube channel.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ | VIEWPOINTS The RCCD Board of Trustees listen to the community’s public comments that were left from the previous meeting as well as the ones that were sent in before the meeting on Aug. 10.

VACCINE from page 1

District wide vaccine mandate

was illegal.

University of California and California State University systems have implemented mandatory COVID-19 vaccination programs for the fall term.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an Emergency Use Authorization for the PfizerBioNTech, Moderna and Janssen COVID-19 vaccines.

According to an Aug. 9 email from the California School Employees Association (CSEA) Negotiations Team “the district has the authority to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine – even under emergency only authorization.”

Also, on July 27, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s office urged all local districts to exercise their authority to adopt vaccination mandates.

The Board discussed their concerns after the public comment ended.

Tracey Vackar grew concerned after seeing the number of cases resurge and urged the Board to work more closely with legislators.

Student trustee Jack Harris said he cannot support the resolution until there is a viable step-by-step procedure for implementing the resolution policies.

“We were considering (having) both vaccinated and unvaccinated attend together, with the unvaccinated going through weekly testing ... as is done in many of the universities today,” Chancellor Wolde-Ab Isaac said. “But with the advent of the rapid

” “ “My best friend died on New Year’s Eve because of this virus and I strongly believe if there had been a vaccine, maybe she would have had a little bit better of a chance of not passing away.” - MARY FIGEROUA

spread of (the) delta virus, we felt that is not doable.”

Ashley Heather, chief operating officer of CLEARED4, presented their vaccine verification system. According to Heather, the technology is HIPAA and FERPA compliant and will allow the college to implement health surveys, vaccine verification, COVID-19 test integration, contact trace reporting and provide clearance passes.

The service is internet-based and a phone is not required for access.

“Our platform is very easy to use,” Heather said. “Your team has already been trained on it so I think we’re at as good a place as we can be given the circumstances.”

Heather also said CLEARED4 will begin running tests of their program Aug. 11 and hope to have the system operational by Aug. 12.

The Board then moved to approve the resolution while taking into consideration variables due to the COVID-19 delta variant.

“I’ve lost a lot of family, I’ve lost a lot of friends,” trustee president Mary Figueroa said. “My best friend died on New Year’s Eve because of this virus and I strongly believe if there had been a vaccine, maybe she would have had a little bit better of a chance of not passing away.”

Stay updated on district COVID-19 updates at www. rccd.edu.

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