NEWS

NEWS BRIEFS

Eight-week Late Start Classes Began Oct. 18

The final day to add classes is Oct. 27. The final day to drop with a “W” is Nov. 2 and the final day to drop without “W” is Nov. 4. The final day to drop with a refund is Oct. 24.

UC Application Workshop

Oct. 26 5-6 p.m. UC questions and answers Zoom link: https//bit.ly/ UCAppWk UC application link: https://admission. universityofcalifornia.edu/ apply-now.html

Application Deadlines

The UC Fall 2022 application deadline is Nov. 30. Some CSU campuses have extended their priority application period past Nov. 30. For extended deadlines check the Priority Deadline Application page at www. calstate.edu/apply/transfer

2022-2023 FAFSA

The FAFSA application window opened Oct. 1 and will close June 30, 2023. For more information visit studentaid.gov/h/apply-foraid/fafsa.

LGBTQIA2+ Virtual Town Hall

Oct. 25 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. RSVP for Zoom via tinyurl.com/10252021.

LGBTQIA2+ Community Meet and Greet

Oct. 27 from 3-4 p.m. over Zoom (ID: 947 0327 2209) and from 4-5 p.m. at the Nursing Outdoor Garden.

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

To stay up to date 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 “The Tiger Times” issues from 1964 exhibit news about homecoming Oct. 19. history of viewpoints

‘The Tiger Times’ era

DANIEL HERNANDEZ MANAGING EDITOR

Under the new “Tiger Times” banner came an era in which the biweekly paper as well as the other student publications at Riverside City College fourished once more.

A college that once had a dying newspaper and yearbook the decade prior now had six different publications rich with information for the students to read. The six publications were called Tiger Tales, Tequesquite, Tiger Times, Expressions, Nightimes and Tiger Talk.

Robert Patton advised Tequesquite, the student-run yearbook, until 1956 when Art Knopf took the reins. During this time, it earned numerous honors and was considered to have high quality designs and imagery.

Tiger Times had a similar repertoire but was also considered highly infuential and controversial due to its activist editors at the helm.

An activist Tiger Times editor named Mel Guantz was a standout character for his involvement in successfully advocating for changes at RCC.

Guantz was on the RCC Associated Student Body cabinet in addition to being an editor at the paper and he was considered to be more infuential than the ASB president. He successfully pushed for the creation of RCC’s Alma Mater and led the campaign that changed the college’s name from Riverside College to Riverside City College in 1957.

After Guantz lobbied for an Alma Mater, the composition’s creation was then handed to another Tiger Times editor named Vince Lawton and music instructor Don Stone. They publicly presented the musical piece for the frst time on May 24, 1971.

Not everything that Tiger Times editors did on campus was highly revered. The paper was also considered controversial. Outside and on-campus groups often showed their disdain for the paper’s editorials and columns.

“A 65 Year History,” a book that breaks down RCC’s history, described how multiple on-campus groups stormed the student-run newspaper’s offce and lobbied for the administration to intervene. An off-campus group appealed to the Board of Education to terminate the adviser’s contract and for more control of the publication.

These events caused multiple editors to resign but ironically the paper was notifed that it won an award for being one of the top four publications in the state a week later.

Along with the growth of many new student-run publications, the Journalism curriculum at RCC also underwent considerable changes.

Journalism was separated from the English curriculum into its own branch and implemented an introduction into Journalism class and a news writing class to the college. Beginning photography and publication photography were also added to the Journalism curriculum.

Knopf, who also took over the leadership of the Journalism curriculum, created an internship program with the local press that gave students employment opportunities. recommends the contract to the Board of Trustees,” Agah said. “The goal here is that once we receive requests for statements of qualifcation we will review them extensively and analyze the fnancial metrics, the total cost of ownership, return on investment and bring the successful contract that meets or exceeds the RFP requirement and achieve the mission for this project.”

He added that the fnancial analysis presented to the Board on Feb. 2 by Rod Oathout, Global Energy Services Leader from the DLR Group, were numbers based on assumptions and estimates. The district is set to present accurate, larger numbers in the near future.

“We’re in the business (of) understanding what potential costs are,” Oathout said. “For rooftops arrays, for arrays that are part of car ports, for standalone canopies that might be on your parking structures, ground mounts and battery storage.”

He said monetary assumptions were made based on potential costs for those factors, including operation and maintenance costs for solar battery equipment all based on kilowatt or watt basis.

Oathout presented a map of possible locations for solar panels on each RCCD campus.

Ground mounts and carports are mapped out to be used at the Moreno Valley campus and mostly ground mounts at Norco College with few rooftop locations. Riverside City College, however, would have a combination of canopies, ground mounts and carports. The district offces in downtown Riverside along with the Ben Clark Center would each potentially have canopy and rooftop solar panel arrays.

Following the findings of the Board of Trustees and final contract agreements, the execution stage of the project is predicted to begin in April 2022 and continue through April 2024.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ | VIEWPOINTS During the frst week of classes, Riverside City College implemented check-in booths that required students to showcase their blue or green CLEARED4 passes before entering campus.

Displeasure over COVID-19 software

Students and faculty have mixed opinions on implementation of CLEARED4 system

JOHN MICHAEL GUERRERO STAFF REPORTER

Two weeks before classes were set to begin, the Riverside Community College District Board of Trustees implemented a vaccine mandate and contracted CLEARED4 to handle the vaccine verifcation process.

“Our platform is very easy to use,” Ashley Heather, CLEARED4’s chief operating offcer said during the Aug. 10 meeting. “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.”

However, some students and faculty have complained that the implementation of the CLEARED4 system was anything but easy.

Check-in booths, run by faculty and students, were set up throughout the Riverside City College campus to verify a student’s vaccination status during the frst week of in-person classes. Students received a wristband after showing the blue or green pass that appeared on the CLEARED4 website. Following the frst week of the fall 2021 term, the booths were removed and instructors were given a roster of cleared students, as well as administration having access to the CLEARED4 database.

According to Chancellor Wolde-ab Isaac, the color-coded wristbands at RCC disappeared as a result of the CLEARED4 database having vaccination records of all students enrolled in face-to-face or hybrid instruction, eliminating the need for the wristbands and check-in booths at RCC. He further explained that a major issue behind having the wristband system at RCC was a lack of “security” and being able to ensure every person entering the campus was checked and verified to be vaccinated and COVID free.

“Riverside is very porous, you can get into the campus through multiple entrances,’’ Chancellor Isaac said. “They did not have ‘checkpoints’ at every entrance point (at RCC), there could be 12, 13 or even 15 different places you can come into campus.”

Many professors had mixed opinions about removing the check-in booths, although they also understood the complex planning needed to upkeep the system throughout the fall term.

“Having to check every student in cuts into my time a little bit since I have back-toback classes,” Angie Burkhart, communication instructor, said. “I do realize that takes extra manpower on campus to hand out wristbands.”

Students and faculty have also expressed mixed opinions on the CLEARED4 system. Many have pointed out how students might decide to breeze through the questionnaire rather than taking the survey seriously.

“I think it would be easy… it depends on how the person answers those questions… it’s self reporting, so there is obviously going to be some kind of problem there,” Patty Golder, English instructor, said. “If people are honest, I don’t see any problem there.”

Students and faculty also pointed out the issue of knowing if and when a person has been in contact with COVID due to the disease’s dormancy period.

“Students just can click ‘no’ when they might feel symptoms (of COVID),” Ashley Rojos, nursing major, said. “I don’t think it would be fair to students on campus… we are risking our health.”

Despite its rocky start this fall term, CLEARED4 will continue to be used throughout RCCD and continue to serve as a database of all partially and fully vaccinated students and faculty.

“(CLEARED4) is easy for everyone to use, one of the frst (tracking systems) out there, and it has maintained (the safety of) all students and (faculty on campus),” Virginia Blumenthal, Board of Trustee member, said.

Colleges grapple with pandemic

BOARD from page 1

courses that allow students to get full unit education in a shorter time. However, Isaac said these late start classes failed to increase the numbers.

Anderson told the Board that RCC created a new dean position whose focus will solely revolve around equity, engagement and inclusion. He said the position stemmed from RCC’s strategic planning after an equity audit of the college.

The position is expected to be flled by July 1 after a recruitment search and a clear job description is established.

Moreno Valley College and Norco College have been attempting to boost enrollment in different ways.

Moreno Valley’s academic senate created a work group involving the Financial Aid Department to figure out how to effectively prevent students dropping classes mid-semester through adjusted grading methods.

Norco College is attempting to assist student veterans by utilizing the Military Articulation Platform. The program allows student veterans to gain college credit from time spent in the military. Norco College will open its new Veterans Center in November.

Moreno Valley College also appointed Mark Anthony Diaz, a retired Marine, as the Veterans Services Coordinator.