Long Beach City College will be installing new vending machines that offer healthy meals at an $8 to $9 price point in the upcoming weeks.
The meals, provided by the Farmer’s Fridge company, will come in recyclable jars and contain foods such as salads, yogurts and wraps that offer a full serv ing of fruits or vegetables.
The vending machines are arriv ing in response to the recent feedback students have given about the school’s other food options that they claim are either too expensive or not nutritious enough.
These machines will be located in side the E building at the Liberal Arts Campus and the GG building at Pacific Coast Campus.
— Jeanette LemA suicide prevention workshop will be hosted through Zoom by The Healthy Viking with Long Beach City College on Nov. 1 2022.
According to Sergio Grimaldi, the Healthy Viking coordinator, this pro gram is provided to promote mental health and medical care awareness.
“The goal of the Healthy Viking pro gram is to destigmatize mental health and increase access for all students,” Grimaldi added.
The Healthy Viking hosts semes ter-long workshops on stress, anxiety, depression and more.
— Veronica TowersWendy Koenig, an influential art history professor and curriculum chair at Long Beach City College, died on Oct. 10 at 56-years-old.
After an eight-month battle with co lon cancer, she is survived by her wife, Christine Badowski Koenig.
A memorial is scheduled to be at the Liberal Arts Campus on Nov. 10 open to all student and faculty.
Seven supporters of Trustee Virginia Baxter, took the stand for public comment at the Board of Trustees meeting to call on Trustee Uduak-Joe Ntuk to give a public apology to Baxter. Some even asked that he step down from his position after accusing Baxter of being a supporter of QAnon and replacement theory in an email to the Long Beach Post.
Dana Buchannan was the first out of the seven to take the stand opening with a letter written by the hall of fame inductee, John Malvo, who is President of the Long Beach Central Area Association.
Buchanan followed this letter saying,“I am appalled and disgusted at the politiciza tion of your position Uduak, shame on you for maligning her good name.”
Ntuk told the Long Beach Post, “In my opinion, on multiple occasions Virginia Baxter has made comments about QAnon conspiracies, including replacement theo ry, vaccine skepticism, and our ethic stud ies/critical race theory courses are bad for LBCC students.”
“I don’t even know what QAnon is,” Baxter said in response to the initial accu sations.
Baxter laughed when she said she had to look up what these terms meant in a phone call with The Viking. She followed with, “I didn’t mean to laugh, maybe people are serious about it.”
Although Ntuk did not elaborate on his accusation of Baxter being a QAnon sup porter, he did explain why he believes she has created dysfunction on the board.
Ntuk said to the Long Beach Post, “I do not have an apology and certainly not a resignation for speaking truth to my lived experience with my colleague.”
“She pushes the idea that ethnic studies
classes corrupt students when really they’re quite helpful and should be a graduation requirement,” Ntuk told The Viking.
Baxter sent dates to Viking News to prove she has been an advocate for ethnic studies unlike what Ntuk has said. She vot ed in favor of the motion towards ethnic study classes on Oct. 28, 2020, Dec. 21, 2020, and Mar. 24, 2021 in board meetings.
Her running opponent, Juan Cepe da-Rizo, said that he agrees with Ntuk’s suggestion that she creates dysfunction on the board.
Baxter was also accused of “hispan dering” by her challenger, Cepeda-Rizo. Hispandering is used as a modern term to combine ‘pandering’ and ‘Hispanic.’
“She also asked why this scholarship was not offered to Hispanic students,” says Cepeda-Rizo, “and I know that she was trying to pander to the Hispanic commu
nity because she was running against me… Sometimes comments like this leak out and show us a glimpse of the real person.”
As Ntuk is not Baxter’s opponent in this election she finds it fascinating that he would take the time to publish these state ments about her character.
She believes some of the accusations from Ntuk stem from her opposing vote in the firing of ex-faculty member, Kashara Moore.
Baxter admitted that Ntuk has never made attacks during previous meetings or work settings. However, in regards to the him making threatening remarks outside of work, she responded that she was unable to comment.
“I’m distressed, but not for myself,” said Baxter, “This is a poor reflection of the col lege. I’m just focused on helping the stu dents.”
A panel of students from California State University Long Beach’s FUEL Club (For Undocumented Empowered Leaders) were warmly received by a crowd of stu dents on Monday, with questions answered about a variety of topics from universi ty life, made connections, and advocated work as undocumented student leaders.
Wendy Koenig, was described by her colleagues as “innovative” and an educator that always put the stu dents needs first.
Photo Courtesy of Chrsitine Badowski koenig
Luis Luna, Jafet Ortega, and Althea Ro ble were all members of the panel, sharing their varying experiences living, working, and studying as undocumented students.
“Growing up I always knew I was from Mexico but I didn’t know what undocu mented meant. It wasn’t until high school that I realized…,” said Luna.
Founded in 2007, FUEL was originally called the AB 540 Club with AB 540 being the code designated to the California Non resident Tuition Exemption Act, which al lowed many eligible noncitizens in Califor nia to attend and pay tuition to the state’s public universities.
It was a club meant to advocate for un documented students on campus and it was them that advocated for the creation of the DREAM Center at CSULB.
Ortega, a student leader of FUEL, spoke about the importance of getting involved on campus, especially as an undocument ed student, “If you put in the time you can find a community that can help you grow professionally and personally.”
“It’s about getting the opportunity to grow and build your resume, if you’re look ing for a space to find friends or grow pro fessionally just put yourself out there,” said Luna, building on the idea of college being a place for growth, regardless of status. “If you try to build that community, you’ll find someone, just reach out.”
— Maisie VilchisniCk eismann LBCC Board of Trustees Virginia Baxter (left) and Uduak-Joe Ntuk (right) stand together for a group photo to recognize Disability History & Awareness Month on Oct. 19.
“Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve things because of my situation… but there is hope for everyone.”
— Althea Roble CSULB FUEL club member
Free childcare is now being offered to student parents courtesy of Long Beach City College’s new partnership with the Boys and Girls Club.
The program is set to run Monday through Thursday, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the T-building at the Liberal Arts Campus.
Parents will also have the option to enroll their children at the Boys and Girls Club site, which is adjacent to the Pacific Coast Campus. This site operates Monday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
LBCC does have other childcare ser vices that were offered prior to this, but those services are focused on providing care for children ages two to five or chil dren whose parents face housing insecuri ties.
The only eligibility requirement for this new program is that a parent be enrolled as a part-time or full-time student at the college.
“A lot of our students have school-aged children and they have limited care options for them if they want to continue to go to school,” President Mike Munoz said on the program.
This program aims to alleviate the stress of students who struggle to find the time for their academic work because of their parental responsibilities.
Bibiana Chatman is a mother of two boys ages 12 and 14, who is obtaining her nursing degree at LBCC while also working full time to support her family.
“I want to be a full-time student so I can finish a little bit faster but I don’t have the flexibility because of my kids and work schedule,” Chatman said. “With this childcare program, my sched ule would be open and I could take more classes and have more study time.”
Joann Weston, another student parent,
is interested in the program for a different reason. Her daughter is homeschooled and hopes that the program will engage her daughter in afterschool activities. `
“When I saw that they had this program available with the Boys and Girls Club, I signed up right away.” Weston said. “My daughter doesn’t have any activities and I want her to have some. But activities cost money, and as a single parent it is a lot harder to pay for those things.”
Students like Chatman and Weston will be able to use this program to fit their in
dividual needs. Each parent faces unique challenges, and this program will be able to reduce some of the stress levels and diffi culties they face.
This childcare service also intends to implement new features as the program runs along to continue to have a wider va riety of options for children and parents.
President Munoz mentioned plans to partner with the Long Beach Unified School District to set up a transportation system that would escort children to the care sites if parents are not able to.
He also mentioned that the program would like for students who are studying child development to be involved.
Students studying childcare would be hired by the school and supplement their learning under the supervision of the licensed caretakers of the Boys and Girls Club.
From free childcare to supplemental learning, this program intends to provide multiple levels of support. This service is yet another step in the direction of ensuring all students have the resources they need to succeed.
Former journalists Maurice Roper and Heather Allan spoke to a room full of student journalists on Oct. to share their emotional experiences of working in war-ravaged countries.
Allan was first to speak, describing how she had gone from not knowing what to do with her life after college to running news operations in places like Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
“It was about safety, food, and getting people in and out of dangerous areas,” Al lan said. “We would calm the locals—wives whose husbands were off fighting and wouldn’t make it back in time for holidays.”
Allan had witnessed and lived through
many distressful scenarios of war, but she knew her work to inform the public was important.
“It can be very emotional and sad,” Al lan said, “but it’s worthwhile when you get a story out that needs to be told... there’s nothing like being there and seeing it, it stays with you and adds layers to your life.”
After Allan concluded her speech, Maurice Roper stood from his chair, hold ing a script in his hands. Unlike Allan, who told her stories while facing the au dience, Roper spoke in a softer tone and mostly looked down at the paper in front of him.
Roper began his story in a war-torn city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He had stumbled upon a worn-down building,
and through the open doors he saw a lady crouched over a single fire on a cracked wooden floor.
“I don’t know what possessed me to walk into the room, but I smiled at her, then I saw five girls ages ten to eighteen looking at me,” Roper said.
Roper and the women in the room did not speak the same language, but they had been able to communicate with one anoth er without words.
He recalled how the young girls mar veled at his white teeth since their’s had been missing or blackened with decay. Lat er, he would find out that all of the men in their family had been killed.
“After my time there, I always won dered what happened to that family,” Roper
remarked. “I would come back from these trips exhausted and confused. As my flight approached L.A., I looked down from the plane to see freeways and people moving around like nothing…it was a mind bender for me.”
For all Roper and Allan had been through, their passion and curiosity for journalism had never dimmed.
“My career has certainly affected me,” Roper said. “I can’t deal with violence now, but I will always treasure life and the en vironment because these are important things to me.”
As journalists Roper and Allan had the duty to inform the public on the wars they covered but in doing so their stories also conveyed the human elements of life.
The Clothesline Project was bustling at the Wellness Fest Wednesday at Long Beach City College’s Pacific Coast Campus where students made t-shirts, asked questions and came together to promote awareness for sexual and domestic violence month.
Students were greeted by balloons, colorful t-shirts, blasting music from Power 106 FM, and free breakfast ca tered from Corner Bakery which ran out quickly.
“The Clothesline Project is an interactive workshop and opportunity to help connect our students to the re sources they or someone they know may need,” said Sylvia Garcia who works with LBCC’s student life team and was in charge of the project.
Several student resources were at the event, such as the Young Women’s Christian Association, one of the largest networks in the U.S. to help with victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse.
“Crisis intervention is what we will do at these outreach events immediately. We’re there and talking to them, it’s what they need so it’s what we’ll do,” said Yisel Lopez Mu noz who works for the L.A. YWCA.
“This event is fairly successful because it’s eye-catching, it makes people stop,” she said before continuing to answer questions from curious students.
Several students stopped to make t-shirts throughout the event in support of the cause as well as spin a wheel at the table across from the clothesline for free prizes like a tote bag or water bottle.
An NBC article from 2020 showed that in the same year there was roughly a 20% increase in domestic violence.
Students can find many resources on campus if they are a victim of sexual violence during their time at LBCC.
“Direct services offered include the Title IX team and student health team. We want to provide workshops to help address sexual assault and violence on campus,” said Garcia when asked about what students can expect from the college.
Title IX is an Education Amendment that prohibits
sexual harassment, violence, and sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools.
“If a student were to file a report with Title IX, they would be referred to an advocate. I believe in immediate support and we’ve been highly effective. We try to make it as seamless as possible, she said in conclusion.
The Clothesline Project was just one aspect of the broader Wellness Fest. The event had some other partners
present who do offer assistance in these sexual assault and domestic violence, but it is not their only purpose.
The LGBTQ Center’s tent was across from Power 106 FM where River Edgren shared what the center is for.
“Whatever people want to bring in, we give them a safe place to do so and guide them. Whether they want to know if they should come out to their employer or peers, or if they really shouldn’t, we’re here,” said Edgren.
Since the start of the pandemic, LBCC’s art gallery has been closed with the last art show taking place from February to March 2020. This fall semester, the art department will be getting their first two art gallery exhibitions since 2020 in a completely re vamped art gallery.
Karla Aguiniga is LBCC’s new full-time art gallery director and curator. Aguini ga is a Latinx artist and educator who has
worked for museums, commercial galleries as well as for-profit and nonprofit organiza tions in the art world.
When asked how she is settling into her new position Aguiniga said, “The space has really been neglected for a long time, so I’ve been trying to make improvements and re ally advocate for the space.”
When asked how has it been to get the art gallery ready Michol Loeffler, a student working for Aguiniga in the art gallery said, “Right now we’re just doing all the
gritty work, like cleaning up and getting the frames and everything ready to have the space ready for the art gallery’s reopening.”
The art gallery is in a somewhat hidden area, located in building K at LAC with the entrance to the gallery on the inside of the building instead of the doors being located on the outside.
Aguiniga said she is working on trying to make the space more inviting with hopes to have the main entrance be on the outside of the building where there is more foot
traffic instead of its current location where it’s mostly art students that frequent that on side of campus.
She wants features added to the gallery to give a better experience when visiting.
“I’m trying to add audio guides for the exhibitions, where you can scan a QR code, put on headphones and learn about the art works,” Aguiniga said. “From an accessibil ity standpoint, I think it would also engage visitors and make the experience more im mersive.”
Crowds of children with face paint dressed up as characters like Miguel from Coco is what Day of the Dead looks like for many across the U.S., a Pixar retelling and commodification of an indigenous holiday that is centered around community, family and honoring one’s ancestors.
Most people from Southern California have had exposure to the holiday before the Pixar movie debuted. The large population of latinos being present the tradition has persevered and evolved from its indige nous roots to the celebrations we see today.
Milo Alvarez, a history professor at LBCC, shared the history of the holiday. He said, “it was a time of growth, a time of coming together, you have a harvest going on, a gathering of ancestors and everything combined with the idea that we’re people of maíz, people of corn.”
As time passed, colonization settled in, catholicization came and waves of immi gration brought Latinos, reinforcing their
Read about more Day of the Dead events at lbccviking.com
culture here in the U.S. The celebration morphed from a year-long act of honor ing ancestors to a weekend festival of sug ar skulls, altars, pan de muerto (a type of Mexican sweet bread for the holiday), face painting, food markets and music.
With the prominence of Coco and events like Hollywood Undead, or Dia de los Muertos Halloween Time at Disney land, it is important to remember the local events that give back to the community and the people that they bring together.
A majority of these local events are fun but also focus on their community and pro moting culture, education, and giving back.
All the following events are free to at tend and are filled to the brim with ven dors, food, drink and performances. Some just started more recently and others have been going on for 20-40 years.
Here at LAC on Nov. 1 the school will have a Dia de los Muertos family film show ing from 4-6 p.m. and a procession from 6-8 p.m. across the campus. Also on Nov. 5 in downtown Long Beach on Pine street, the first Day of the Dead parade will be held and students can sign up to be in the parade and will receive an event t-shirt.
In downtown Long Beach on Oct.30 ,the Museum of Latin American Art will have an all day event with performers, ven dors, and guest speakers like Emmy award winner Jorge R. Gutierrez, a Mexican ani mator that helped create The Book of Life and El Tigre, The Adventures of Manny Rivera.
Nearby, in Los Alamitos on Oct. 29 the St. Isidore Historical Plaza will be holding an event with vendors and an altar display competition. The altar display competi tion is a $35 buy in and the winners will be judged by a panel and the local community.
Tanya Barraza, the vice president of the board said, “Dias is one of our biggest events, it’s a labor of love and a grassroots effort but every dollar of profit from the event goes into paying off the mortgage for the plaza.” Which shows exactly why sup porting and attending smaller local events in your community is so important.
Moving up north, The Olvera Street Merchants Association has been throwing a multi day festival in DTLA for 35 years, with this year’s celebrations occurring from Oct. 25 to Nov 2. One of the only events in the area that span over the course of nine days, their celebration starts and ends with a Mayan blessing and is lined with altars made by the community.
Long Beach City College offers students a chance to make nonviolent actions look dangerous and real through on-stage com bat in Theatre Arts 5A, an acting course rooted in teaching safe stage fighting.
The course is taught by combat instruc tor Collin Bressie who has been teaching at LBCC since 2017 and was a student at the college over 20 years ago.
“There is nothing more glorious than great moments of violence that you can create through theater and I hope to pave that forward to my students each class,” said Bressie.
Each student is developing how to pro cess information through body movements based on different combat scenarios.
Every class starts off with Bressie lead ing his students in stretches to get every
one’s muscles loose to avoid injuries.
In class students perform a number of combat practices that include cross-swings, jabs, upper-cuts, hooks, breathing tech niques, quick reactions, moving in tight spaces and much more.
Although class activities may look dan gerous, one of the biggest goals in class is to keep a safe environment at all times which includes the use of face masks as well.
The class is made up of about half expe rienced students and half completely new students but expectations are high for ev eryone since they use so much class time on repetition and hands-on training.
Students have developed a chemistry between one another that allows everyone to work with anyone where they each ex pect full effort from their peers since the practice they get in class depends on every one’s participation.
A former Laker Girl now operates as a full time professor at Long Beach City College. But dancing for Los Angeles’ most popular NBA team was just one stone in her mountain of success.
LBCC’s sociology professor Karyn Daniels, danced with the Los Angeles Lak ers between 1999 and 2001 through the years of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant dominating championships together. She even holds an NBA championship ring to show for it.
Daniels was one of only two sociology professors at LBCC when she started ded icating her additional 20 plus hours to the Lakers.
She lived in a world of dance, but also in a world determined to grow her education and to educate others. Although dance was one of her passions, she never prioritized time with the Lakers over time with her ca reer as a sociology professor.
“I never gave up anything from work for the Lakers, which in retrospect maybe I should have. But at the time this was my career and I really owed my students,” said Daniels.
Her students and her degree were of the utmost priority. These priorities shine through in her bachelors degree from UCLA and her masters degree from Yale University.
Daniels recalled a handful of times when she had to miss certain events and parades for the Lakers to continue to teach and be there for her students.
There was one specific parade that she missed in order to focus on her work and her students.
Daniels remembered hearing the an nouncers on the radio note that one of the Laker Girls was missing from the group. They described her as being ‘the Laker Girl that graduated from Yale.’
ever, after a Christmas party she attended with one of her fellow Clipper’s teammates, she saw her plans shift.
Her teammate’s brother planted the idea that she apply to Yale’s graduate pro gram, as he had attended and spoke so highly of the college. She had only seven days to apply at this point, and that she did.
Two years later she came home to her same waitressing job in Orange County.
Daniels admitted, “I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was in a PhD, but I left it because I was just very unhappy on the East coast.”
She then joined the Clippers again, where she experienced a camaraderie that she hasn’t had since.
“Even to this day I still dream about having been on because the connection with the other women was amazing….It’s just people who were dedicated to dance, who were dedicated to excellence in what ever they do,” said Daniels.
she decided she was going to do that some day.
Although Daniels marvels at her time with the Lakers, she admits that the job came with serious requirements and anx ieties when it came to managing the team’s weight requirements. She said, “They told us, ‘this is the weight I’m hiring you at and this is what you’re staying at.’”
That sort of pressure weighs on any per son, and for a perfectionist like Daniels it weighed on her more than others. She ad mits that she would oftentimes find she was underweight because she was scared of the scale their coach would pull out from time to time.
Through all of this she remained a re markable teacher for her students everyday.
Hearing this made her laugh because people were unable to picture a cheerlead er and Yale graduate as the same person. These terms were supposed to be separate and accomplished by two seperate women, but in fact, Daniels did it all.
She worked with the Clippers Spirit for three years, two while attending UCLA and one year after she graduated as she took a ‘gap year’ before attending a graduate pro gram.
During this transition year she was sure that she would choose her alma mater, UCLA, for her graduate program. How
At 26, Daniels started teaching part time at LBCC. The following year, the school offered her a full time position and naturally she accepted. Now, Daniels has worked with LBCC for 25 years.
“It felt like home,” Daniels said.
Three short years later, the night be fore the Laker Girl tryouts, she decided she would jump in with both feet and audition. Sure enough Daniels obvious talent and dedication to hard work landed her a spot with the L.A. Laker Girls.
Daniels shared that as a young girl she watched the Laker Girls dance on T.V. and
Brian Garcia, former student and cur rent English professor at LBCC, attests to that, saying, “I remember once she told me that I needed to work on my follow through because I wasn’t pulling my weight as a stu dent. I think I had been floating through school on natural ability for a while and I wasn’t putting enough effort in… and she was right.”
He proudly admits that she was one of his top three most influential teachers.
Daniels suggestion to anyone looking to try something they might fear is to, “take advantage of the weird opportunity you would have never thought of. If you can walk in, then you can walk out.”
Even after all the years that have passed since her dancing days have ended, Dan iels still does eight kicks on each leg in the morning to make sure she’s ‘still got it.’
Photos By shelBy tiefenthaler (Above) Former Laker Girl, and current sociology professor at Long Beach City College, Karyn Daniels, looks back at her Laker Girls memorabilia, which is combined with her current office desk at the Liberal Arts Campus. (Below) Daniels holds an exact replica of the 2001 Championship ring she had received with the Lakers.After missing the first three games of the season due to lacking the required units needed, LBCC men’s sophomore soccer player Jesus Moreno would put in the effort to ensure he could show up for his team and guarantee that his presence would be known.
Due to a low grade in one of his classes Moreno was told to put in an early with drawal form which was recommended by his counselor.
This ended up taking the units that he needed away. Moreno contacted his profes sor to get the grade put into the system and was able to bring his units back up to the eligible amount needed to play.
Moreno’s impact would be shown as soon as he started his first game against An telope Valley College during the pre-sea son, scoring a goal and an assist that led the Vikings to a 2-0 win.
During his time playing at Millikan High School, Moreno was moved up into the varsity team as a sophomore, playing three years in the starting eleven and win ning one Moore League title.
LBCC head coach of men’s soccer Jorge Reyes would soon notice him through his connections with the coaches at Millikan.
Most of Moreno’s standout perfor mances were heavily influenced by coach Jorge Reyes who was a substantial motive for Moreno choosing to attend Long Beach City College over Golden West College.
“I came to LBCC, because of the head coach. I was going to go to Golden West but I ended up talking to him for an hour and he was telling me about the players he was bringing in who were big for the team,” said Moreno.
Moreno’s first year playing at LBCC consisted of him scoring seven goals and getting six assists in 19 games and saw the
Vikings beat Cerritos and Mt. SAC in the season but were knocked out early in the playoffs for the conference title.
This season the Vikings have a talented and hungry group of players eager to win the conference and state titles with Moreno playing an important role.
“Nene (Moreno) is an important player for the team and has shown it this season with him scoring goals when we needed them most and setting up for others. He runs a lot, works hard, and brings a lot to the team,” said coach Reyes.
The Vikings this season have an overall record of 6-3-4, scoring 25 goals and con ceding 14 goals, with Moreno scoring four of these goals with five games started.
“It’s all up to the whole team, we obvi ously have guys who are more talented than others but the goal for the team is we make it for us to bind together and work hard as a team. You know top teams, individuals don’t win games, don’t win titles. It comes down to the team coming together and working hard as one in order to compete,” said Moreno.
For the last 2 years coach Reyes has had an impact on his overall game and the teams.
As claimed by Moreno, he is one of his favorite coaches because of the knowledge and experience he has that contributes to Moreno’s improvement on the field and picking out the small details that he does not notice to work on.
“He has so much knowledge and we learn from it which is big learning from a coach like that. It adds stuff to our game that we never thought we had,” said More no on the importance of coach Reyes. “He has taught me a lot and sees stuff on the field that I’ve never noticed and he brings it up to me.”
As motivating as this season has been, Moreno and the team have endured ob
Marco HaynesJesus Moreno has been a key player this season for Long Beach City College’s men’s soccer team despite missing the first three games of the season due to ineligibility
stacles amongst the squad with their egos playing a significant role but the team made sure the problem did not go unnoticed.
“Sometimes our egos get in the way but
we talked about it. When we had that 2-2 tie against L.A. Mission, we talked in the locker room for about an hour and figured stuff out,” said Moreno.
“We knew their quarterback running the ball was going to be an issue,” said the Vikings head coach after East Los Ange les College quarterback Terrance Gipson dominated the field with 105 rushing yards that gained the Huskies a victory at home with a final score of 20-14 over the Vikings on Saturday.
The game got off to a slow start with no points scored in the first quarter. The Hus kies led the quarter in passing with sever al complete passes from Gipson, but they could not gain footing to make it to the end zone as the Viking’s defense managed to hold their line back but struggled to gain yards with a weak offensive game.
“We got off to a terrible start offensively
and dug ourselves into a bit of a hole… we just didn’t get it done on the offensive side of the ball primarily,” said head coach Brett Peabody of the Vikings.
Things picked up in the second quarter as it began to rain and both teams scored a touchdown and threw interceptions. Gip son threw two picks and Qeanu Campbell of the Vikings threw one. The Huskies gained the first touchdown of the game with Gipson making a complete pass to Trejan Bridges.
Shortly after, wide receiver Trennel Ridgely rushed 17 yards to the endzone and gained the first touchdown for the Vikings with kicker Mario De La Tor making the kick after ELAC was penalized for rough ing the kicker on the first attempt.
Within the first five minutes of the third
quarter, Huskies running back CJ Tanny hill rushed 19 yards to the end zone gaining them a touchdown with a successful kick from Ethan Rodriguez bringing the score to 14-7.
With 28 seconds left on the clock the Huskies quarterback rushed 15 yards to an other touchdown at the end of the quarter to make the score 20-7.
Things began to look bleak for the Vi kings as the Huskies kept slipping through the gaps in their defense and they struggled to pull ahead with their offensive plays.
That was until the end of the last quar ter when Vikings quarterback Will Madon na completed a pass to Ridgley, scoring a touchdown followed by a successful kick from De La Tor.
The score was now 20-14 with two min
utes and 25 seconds left on the clock.
The Vikings managed to spin the game in their favor by recovering De La Tor’s kickoff. This gave the Vikings one last chance at victory.
The Vikings kept the ball for six plays but the Vikings quarterback could not manage a complete pass to tie the game and lost the ball with one minute left on the clock.
When asked about the team’s perfor mance, tight end Talin Cooper who was in jured from fatigue during the game said, “It starts at practice, the way we come out, the way we think of this game, a lot of people’s heads weren’t on straight…”
The Vikings now hold a record of 4-4-1. They will face off against Bakersfield Col lege on Oct. 29 at 6:00 p.m. at Bakersfield.
Some students are able to retain and empathize with subject material by looking at pictures and reading texts in literature, but after-graduate success is proven to be greater for those who seized study abroad opportunities.
The emotions that run through a per son when they touch real tombstones, con nect with locals in the market, taste cultur ally authentic food, or are able to feel how deep the grooves are in hieroglyphics help bring about a deeper understanding to any lesson.
Students who take advantage and ex plore norms outside of American tradi tions and familiarity are better prepared for what is to come after they earn their degree.
These sort of experiences are just a few reasons why Long Beach City Col lege should prioritize bringing back study abroad programs.
Studies show that students who explore what the world has to offer outside of the United States have higher starting salaries and will find jobs quicker than their peers who did not seize the opportunity to travel during their schooling.
A survey conducted at the University of Merced showed that 97% of study abroad participants found employment within 12 months after graduating. That is almost double what their other college graduate peers found, with only 47% securing jobs one year after graduation.
UC Merced also reports that 100% of study abroad students found a GPA in crease, and 90% were accepted into their first or second graduate program of choice.
Unfortunately, LBCC hasn’t run a study abroad program since before the pandemic in 2019, when the group traveled to Paris.
If LBCC wants to continue to help their students reach higher success, higher sala ries, and obtain a more well-rounded sense of the different individuals that surround them, then it is vital the school makes study abroad programs one of their top priorities.
City College’s parking structure is
for the students and staff that utilize it and LBCC has not taken enough safety measures to better control the flow of traffic in this area.
2018-2022 (2021 has been omitted due to campus closure during COVID-19) eight acci dents were reported in the structure alone accord ing to the Long Beach Police Department.
Within this time frame, three accidents oc curred in the G and H parking lots behind the C and D building and four accidents occurred in the Veterans Stadium Parking lot (one took place during a motorcycle meet).
There are less accidents in the three parking lots mentioned combined than in the J structure.
When the LAC parking structure gets con gested, it becomes increasingly dangerous, with cars rushing down the structure, turning through blind narrow corners that can hardly fit two cars.
Not to mention, students are forced to walk through the crowded narrow roadways since there are no sidewalks, crosswalks, or safe ways to the staircases that lead to the exit of the structure.
The floor of the parking structure reads “SLOW” yet there is nothing implemented within the parking structure to encourage this.
There are several low cost solutions available that the school could add to make the parking sit uation safer for those attending LBCC.
Safetysign.com offers four different solutions to make parking lots safer. Those being: con trolling the flow of traffic, designated parking areas (the structure already has this), controlling speed, and creating safe sidewalks.
To better control the speed of traffic, adding speed bumps at the turns going up the narrow driveway will force drivers to slow down and re main vigilant at blind corners.
Speed bumps can be purchased for as little as $80 each and the installation process can be easily done in a day.
Flexible delineators which go for under $40 dollars each on most websites are also a great way to divide the traffic at narrow turns to avoid head on collisions and prevent people from making turns that are too wide.
Some of the staircases students take to exit the structure lead directly to the structure’s car en trances and exits which doesn’t allow for students to exit the parking structure safely.
Students have to cross this to get on campus with no signage, designated crosswalks, or traffic spikes to slow down drivers at the entrance.
On each floor there are two different lanes you can take and at the moment none of them have a controlled flow. At the end of these lanes there are no stop signs or any other signs that warn you to merge and the traffic is expected to converge when reaching the next level.
The school plans to conduct a safety audit sometime soon which the parking lots and struc ture will be a part of.
A project to add signage, speed bumps, and lane dividers would drastically make the parking lot safer and would not cost more than $50,000.
For a school that claims to put their students first, the safety of the students should be one of their top priorities. $50,000 out of the schools budget is a minor sacrifice to prevent harm from happening on campus and possible lawsuits.
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