Photo by Patrick Padilla FRIDAY May 18, 2007 Protest Students rally against increas- ing gas prices. Page 3 In This Issue News.................2-11 Features..........12-13 Entertainment......15 Calendar.............18 Opinion................19 www.elvaq.com The Griffith Park fire on May 8 consumed an estimated 817 acres of land. Students and faculty voice their concerns. See story, pages 10-11. Volume 91 Number 6 Student Art Show Art gallery exhib- its the best stu- dent work. Page 15 Peña Club raises funds for undocumented students. Page 5 E L V AQUERO E L V AQUERO Glendale College Photo by Ismael Reyes Photo by Richard Kontas
Transcript
Photo by Patrick Padilla
FRIDAY May 18, 2007
Protest
Students rally against increas-ing gas prices.
Page 3
In This IssueNews.................2-11Features..........12-13Entertainment......15Calendar.............18Opinion................19
www.elvaq.com
The Griffith Park fire on May 8 consumed an estimated 817 acres of land. Students and faculty voice their concerns.See story, pages 10-11.
Letters may be reproduced in full or in part and represent only the point of view of the writer, not the opinion of El Vaquero or Glendale Com-munity College and its dis-trict. Letters must be signed and typed and include the full name and address of the writer. El Vaquero is a First Amendment publication.
editor in chief
OlgaRamazstaff members
Graig Agop Susan Aksu Kara Aranas Tamara Baskin Vida Djaghouri Sose Frankyan Richard Kontas Vartanoosh Kiourktzian Lenin Lau Anita K. Marto Rachel Mills Diana Petras Ismael Reyes Jennifer Tinoco
design adviser
Charles Eastman
El Vaquero accepts story ideas in news, features, profiles, sports and entertainment from the public. To submit an idea or an article, e-mail the editor at [email protected] or call (818) 240-1000, ext. 5349.
College faculty, staff and stu-dents have recently found
their cars vandalized and dam-aged in hit-and-run incidents that have become a widely reported problem on campus.
Since the beginning of the year there have been 268 reported hit- and-run incidents in Glendale, including three on campus.
One month ago Rob Liddi-ard, the language lab supervisor, found his car’s driver’s side mir-ror torn off and skid marks on the side of the car.
“I had parked my car on the fire access road between the two entrances to the construction site and left plenty of room on each side of the driveways, but found my car wrecked,” said Liddiard. “It was obvious a construction truck hit my car because of the marks on my car,” he added.
California Vehicle Code Sec-tion 20002 defines a hit and run as the “driver of any vehicle in-volved in an accident resulting in damage to any property, includ-ing vehicles and persons and flees the scene.”
“What is frustrating is that the mirror was put back on the car so that when I opened the door it fell off,” added Liddiard. “There was no note left on the car and there were no witnesses to the inci-dent.”
Hit and runs can either be a misdemeanor or a felony. If there are no injuries involved to the parties then it is a misdemeanor. An injury to the victim is classi-fied as a felony hit and run.
“If you are involved in a traffic collision with anything, whether it be a fire hydrant, a car, or a build-ing, you have to somehow attempt the best way you can to contact the responsible party for the ve-hicle or item,” said Glendale Po-lice Officer William Frommling.
“If you look around and don’t see anybody, then leave a note with your name and contact number so they can contact you.”
According to campus police Captain Nidal Kobaissi, “The most common hit and runs on campus happen in the parking lots.”
A similar incident happened with Henan Joof, the outreach coordinator at the Student Out-reach Services. After work on April 10, he found his new car rear-ended and scratched.
“I had left enough space for the car behind me and I am sure it was not done on purpose, but it is the prin-ciple of taking responsibil-ity for one’s own actions,” said Joof.
Accidents happen and according to Joof, a for-mer student president who feels a sense of community and family on campus, “if I had hit someone’s car I would have left a note saying I am sorry with my contact information, because I re-spect other people’s property.”
“It is very upsetting to find out that things of such nature hap-pen on this campus,” said stu-dent Lusine Mikaelyan. “I park my car in Lot B, but always fear
that something will happen to my car,” added Mikaelyan.
According to college police ca-det Sevan Sarkisyan, “the frustrat-ing thing about hit and runs are that most of it goes unreported and we never even find out about it.”
In another incident, Trudi Abram, on the faculty of Visual and Performing Arts, discovered her car intentionally keyed on the driver’s side.
“It is very disheartening to come and find your car vandal-ized in some way, particularly when it is very special to you,” said Abram.
The car had a new custom paint job and redoing the paint job will cost Abram approximately $3,000. The incident happened before spring break and Abram thinks that it had nothing to do
with retribution but “simply some student making a poor decision.”
One month ago, student Nonia Zargarian found her car about 15 feet away from where she had originally parked it before attend-ing class.
“I returned to my car after class and found two Glendale police officers near my car,” she said. “I thought I was getting a ticket, but then realized that the left side of
my car was completely de-stroyed and shriveled up,” said Zargarian.
“It took over three weeks for the body shop to fix my car, and luckily my insurance paid the cost of the damage, which was $9,500,” she added.
Kobaissi suggests that anyone involved in a hit- and-run incident, and it does not necessarily have to be a severe accident,
should leave a note with contact information for the owner of the damaged vehicle.
“It is a lot easier to deal with it that way then flee the scene and have a witness report to the police and have the police come after you,” said Kobaissi. “It is also the moral thing to do,” he added.
Photo Courtesy of Nonia Zargarian A Student’s car is seriously damaged and moved from where it was originally parked in a hit-an-run incident.
Professor J.C. Moore’s Sociol-ogy 101 students took their
frustrations to the streets May 7 in a protest against rising gas prices at the Mobil station across the street from campus.
“Bush got his oil war. Why are we paying more?” chanted about 30 Glendale students who were, along with Moore, positioned at all four corners of the Mountain Avenue and Verdugo Street inter-section, holding up banners and waving signs, while passing cars honked in support.
Moore, who had never ar-ranged such a protest at Glendale College before, said it was not a class assignment, but that the pro-test was something the students chose to do themselves, using the class as a catalyst to do so.
“I’m losing my voice but I don’t care!” shouted student Ge-rardo Chicas, across the intersec-tion. “We got no money!”
According to Chicas, the so-ciology student, the protest cen-tered around awareness. “We’re just trying to get a message out there and make a difference and let people know this isn’t going to stop.”
Thestudents planned it all themselves. They arranged the date and time (during one of their class sessions), made banners,
and proceeded to demonstrate “man-made social change,” a top-ic covered in the course.
“These kids are intellectuals and they have class conscious-
Photo by Richard Kontas Fatima Castaneda (left) and Yajira Cervantes participate in the May 7 pro-test, actively encouraging passing cars to honk in support.
Photo by Richard Kontas GCC Professor J.C. Moore facilitated her Sociology 101 class exercise in protesting against high gas prices.
ness,” said Moore. “They are go-ing to be the supreme outstanding leaders of this country and that’s why this country has hope. I be-lieve in these kids.”
The students were learning about corporate power in class when the issue arose.
“Someone started discussing gas prices and how it’s affecting everyone and one person said, ‘we should do a protest against high gas prices,’” said Oralia Di Nico-la, a full-time nursing student and a single mother of two children from the sociology class.
A c c o r d -ing to Moore and her stu-dents, the skyrocketing gas prices and the pro-test were not solely an economi-cal issue, but rather a po-litical one. Many of the banners and chants were directed toward President Bush “because Bush has friends in Saudi Ara-bia… The Iraqi war is his war and his war is an oil war. We cannot depend on oil anymore. We have to find alternate fuels.”
Moore said that such overlap-ping issues are typical and they demonstrate some of the theories
of Max Weber, one of the found-ers of modern sociology. “Max Weber said that religion, politics, and economics go hand in hand, said Moore.”
All the students from Moore’s Sociology 101 course attended the protest, although several were hesitant at first.
“I think it’s successful because students that were not very ex-
cited about doing it did get into it and they did learn some-thing,” said Di Nicola. “We still have the power. We still could make a dif-ference and I think a lot
of times people lose that because we get so busy and so involved with our own little worlds. And if two or three people that were not aware of it learned it, then it was a success.”
Photo by Richard Kontas The Mobil station at the corner of Mountain Street and Verdugo Road was the sight of a Sociology 101 class protest over the high price of gasoline and the Bush administration policies.
“Bush got his oil war. Why are we
paying more?” —Students at the Mobil
station protest
4 Friday,May18,2007 www.elvaq.com
NEWS
Off Campus Classes Prove Beneficial to StudentsBy Diana PetrasEL VAQUERO NEWS EDITOR
Students and professors in about 15 classes meet at off-
campus locations because of lack of facilities available at GCC. According to Vice President of Instructional Services Dawn Lindsay, the allocation of classes to an off-site location like Glen-dale High School is a way for the college to meet the needs of the students in the community.
“There are times when we have a demand for more classes than we have classrooms available,” she said. “In wanting to meet the goals of the students, we have to look at outside locations. So we use the classrooms because they are already developed with teach-ing tools. It’s more of a conve-nience for students.”
Students may have noticed that several classes are located at Glendale High instead of GCC. They are all alloted classes that have been set off campus to make up for the needed classroom space. “They are all in the bun-galows next to the main parking lot,” said Lindsay.
“They’re really nice classrooms and we prefer to have the classes within the proximity of each oth-er,” she said. “We [the school] pay an administration to stay on the campus so it is easier for them to manage and make sure that ev-erything is alright”
Yet, from a student perspective, some students may be hesitant about registering for a class set off-campus like Sharon Obsatz’s Tuesday Journalism 102 class at Glendale High. She said that stu-dents may not want to take her class or any other allocated class because “there’s a stigma [mainly among recent high school gradu-ates] about ‘I just came out of high school and I don’t want to go back to a high school.’ ”
“[However], students choose if they want to take the class placed off campus,” said Lindsay. “They are not high school classes. It’s an image we have to overcome. We have to do better campaigning on what classes are available where and why.”
“Those classes are really de-signed for the students’ con-venience and our growth [as a school],” she said. “We want ev-eryone to be involved and those classes are open to anyone who
wants to take the class.”For Obsatz’s journalism course,
she said she has a total of 13 stu-dents. “My class is small,” she said. “[The students] are dedicat-ed, which is good, but it is defi-nitely challenging.”
Although, according to several students in her class, there are no negative aspects in taking a class off-site. Environmental Science student Brittney Reid said that was pretty reluctant about taking a class located at a high school. “I needed the class and I didn’t know it was here,” she said.
“I figured that I could drop it if it didn’t work out,” she said. “I live in Atwater Village and I work at Silver Lake. There’s no park-ing frenzy for me after work and I’m not stressed when I walk into class because of parking. I would have to say it’s better because it’s so much quicker for me to come here [at Glendale High] than to GCC.”
“I just found out that the class was at Glendale High [when the semester started],” said Broadcast Journalism student Allan Marka-tian. “I live about a block away from here [Glendale high] and it
Photo by Anita K. MartoGCC EnglishTeacher Kristen Jones interacts with students during her class in the Glendale High School bungalows.Students, from left, are Camila Cleere, Julio Rodriguez, Kathlyn Wolgast and Elen Pirijanyan.
was a convenience for me. There aren’t any negatives [about go-ing to an allocated classroom] for me.”
Journalism student Edgar Kar-apetyan lives in Sunland and said that the parking is better. “I don’t have to leave my house earlier
and [the class’s location] has been a positive for me,” he said. “There are no cons. It’s great. It’s not too crowded, it’s like high school.”
However, Media Arts student Jeff Davis said that “you don’t even realize you’re at a high school unless you have to use the restroom. Then you see all the school stuff written all over the walls.”
“I didn’t even know the class was off campus until I signed up for it,” said Davis. “I like it [the class] off campus, the parking is better and it’s closer to home. I could walk here.”
Although, opting to sign up for a class that was set aside to a site off campus is the student’s choice. If they do not realize that the class is not located on cam-pus, Lindsay said that “it could be an issue that they don’t know how to read the schedule. It happens to everyone.”
“There are plenty of benefits,” she said. “It’s finding what’s more convenient for the student. It’s really about choices and choos-ing whether they want classes on campus or go off-site.”
Photo by Anita K. MartoSeveral GCC classes are being held off-site at Glendale High School due to lack of facilities. Many students find the location convenient.
www.elvaq.com Friday, May 18, 2007 5
NEWS
Students Organize to Raise Scholarship Funds
Photo by Ismael Reyes Two folkloric dancers from the group “Tierra Blanca” perform for Peña guests on May 12.
Photo by Ismael ReyesPeople who attended the Peña took the time to purchase a variety of Latin American jewelry, art and clothing.
By Olga RamazEL VAQUERO EDITOR IN CHIEF
Adorned with colorful papel picado (tissue paper ban-
ners) and miniature piñatas, Plaza Vaquero lent itself to an evening of Latin American music, food and friendship on May 12 in an effort to raise book scholarship funds for undocumented students at the spring Peña, event spon-sored by the Association of Latin American S t u d e n t s ( A L A S ) , in conjunc-tion with Voces del Mañana.
“In the past Peña has sup-ported a number of other edu-cational causes, like schools in Nicaragua and other places,” said Greg Perkins, an Extended Op-portunity Program and Services (EOPS) counselor and adviser for Voces del Mañana. “I think that ALAS and professor [Car-los] Ugalde decided that there is a strong need right here [on cam-pus] where we have so many stu-dents that are struggling…trying to get an education but they are denied financial aid benefits.”
The students that Perkins is re-ferring to are the AB-540 students (undocumented students). Their legal status in this country makes it impossible for them to receive
any financial assistance which then makes it difficult for them to complete their educational goals. However, Perkins believes that there is a bigger problem facing these students.
“It’s not just the scholarships,” said Perkins, explaining how “empty” it would be to just fo-cus on monetarily enabling these students to get degrees when they are not going to be able to use them for jobs.
An estimated $1,300 was gen-erated at the Peña.
A por-tion of the funds will be used to host a con-ference on c a m p u s , happening on June 1 in Kreider Hall, in support of the pas-
sage of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act).
According to the National Immigration Law Center, the DREAM Act addresses the situa-tion faced by young people who were brought to the U.S. years ago as undocumented immigrant children who have since grown up, stayed in school and kept out of trouble.
Passage of the DREAM Act would allow for these students to obtain a legal status in this coun-try.
Yazmin Moreno, co-president of Voces del Mañana, expressed
her gratitude with ALAS for taking an interest in the club’s cause.
Guest Rosario Ibañez shared Moreno’s sentiment and said that ALAS’ interest in Voces del Ma-ñana’s cause was “perfect.”
“Promoting education is the best thing one can do,” she said. “Education should be accessible for everyone, regardless if they are undocumented.”
According to Moreno, ALAS approached Voces del Mañana with the idea of organizing a Peña in benefit of AB-540 students. Both clubs divided the work-load needed to make the event a success.
“[Holding a Peña] is extremely important, not only because financially we get to help each other, it’s important because it shows that two clubs can come together and work on an event,” said Moreno. “People can learn from each other and set the example to better the Glendale College community.”
Guests at the Peña were treated to an as-sortment of Latin fla-vors. From food and music, to hand crafted jewelry, people were given an opportunity to take in a dash of Latin American cul-ture.
Ibañez’ husband,
Vladimir, has been attending Pe-ña’s since his childhood, but this was the first time he attended an ALAS sponsored Peña.
“It was very well organized [and you have to] give credit to the people that made the Peña possible,” he said.
According to Ugalde, profes-sor of Latin American Studies and adviser for ALAS, said that the credit for the success of the Peña goes to those in attendance and ALAS members, past and present, who continue to doing a “great job” supporting and orga-nizing the event.
Before the evenings end, Ugal-de presented Elisa Felix, ALAS president, and member Cindy
Sanchez with the Arnulfo Garcia Scholarship and the Teresa del Rio Scholarship, respectively, for their display of “wonderful lead-ership among their peers.”
Ugalde believes that Peña was a success and reiterates the impor-tance of supporting noble causes.
He said, “we are not going to change the world with only ALAS, but we can do something inside the college to help our un-documented brothers and sisters continue their education without the stupid obstacles of borders, and the stupid ethics of this gov-ernment.”
Photo by Ismael ReyesA variety of Latin American dishes which included, chicken in mole, rice, horchata and agua de jamaica, was served at the Peña which was sponsored by ALAS.
Student services fees help fund many activities and pro-
grams around campus, some of which may not be readily visible to the campus community.
Each session, including full semesters and winters and sum-mers, students pay a voluntary $12.50 fee for student services. Out of these fees, the Associated Students of Glendale Communi-ty Colleges administers a budget this year of $264,798.
According to Dean of Stu-dent Affairs Paul Schlossman, the student services fee is “like a student activities fee that stu-dents pay.”
At first thought, some students don’t see the value in it.
“At first I wanted to waive the fee since I assumed that I do not benefit from it, but in the long run the benefits are valuable,” said student Gayane Panosyan. “I did not want to give up the scholarship opportunities.”
Some of the services offered to the students in return for their
student services fee include, AS-GCC-sponsored scholarships, use of computer labs, use of the math and science centers, and participation in all varsity athlet-ics (for both women and men).
“The fee makes up a large part of the operating budget for the ASGCC, the official student government organization, each year,” said Schlossman.
The services fee amount is de-cided by the Board of Trustees, but it is ASGCC that allocates the money to variety of activi-ties and groups on campus. The ASGCC uses the budget to help pay for intercol-legiate awards, maintenance of the Baja field studies facility, El Vaquero, the Associated Student Newsletter, the Forensics Pro-gram, the health services office, campus relations, the music de-partment, national field studies, scholarships and loans, student government, the theater depart-ment, transfer center, dance pro-duction, cheer squad, and many more programs.
According to student trustee and ASGCC president David
Arakelyan, “Last year the Associ-ated Student Legislature decided to donate $2.50 for the next two years from the student services fee to the parking structure con-struction project. The goal is to help keep the parking fees down.” From the remaining $10, $5 goes to the ASGCC budget and $5 goes to the college general fund.
“I find the services provided by the ASGCC very helpful, es-pecially the scholarship program and the Learning Center and do not understand why somebody would waive their rights to such beneficial services,” said student Linda Perez.
Waiver petitions are available through the business office at the bookstore to those students who wish to waive the fee.
Students may fill out a waiver form, said Schlossman, but if they did so “they would not be eligible for the services.”
Non-credit students along with students who have waived the fee are excluded from partici-pation in most of the programs and activities provided by the ASGCC.
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Many of these activities in-clude all varsity athletics, public address systems, personal check cashing, use of the tutorial center, student government assemblies, and intercollegiate awards.
“We provided a big chunk of that budget to the athletic pro-grams to help them pay for vari-ous competitions, meals for their trips and so on,” said Arakelyan.
In addition, ASGGC allocates approximately $25,000 every semester to various clubs. There are over 50 clubs this semester on campus and many of the clubs apply for funding for different projects for their clubs each se-mester.
“Maybe some people think they could do without the fee and decide not to pay the fee and they don’t really care, but there is a lot of proof that states that student life makes the student experi-ence an extraordinary one,” said Arakelyan. “It really gives a nice addition to student life.”
“I like to be involved with dif-ferent clubs and activities and can’t see myself not being part of different organizations,” said
student Armine Hakopian. The good thing about the fee
is that “it is the same price re-gardless of residency status,” said Schlossman. AB540 (un-documented students) and inter-national students pay the same amount for student services fee as do California residents unlike tuition fees, which are higher for non-residents.
“As an undocumented student I cannot receive any financial aid from school, but I participate in clubs such as Voces del Manana, which offers scholarships for AB540 student and I get these benefits with only paying $12.50 in student services fee,” said an AB540 students who wished to remain unidentified.
According to Arakelyan, “We have been very successful keep-ing students involved on campus.”
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Debt is one of the biggest problems college students
face today, and paying for a com-munity college is no exception.
Just because a junior college is cheaper than a university does not mean that financial problems do not become an issue. Debt can get in the way of a student’s edu-cation and may cause problems for their future if no solution is found.
Students stumble across this obstacle in community colleges and at times feel that they find no relief from it.
One incident happened to Ar-men Sarkisyan, a business major, when he registered for his classes. He had signed up for a math class, which he needed in order to trans-fer, and was unable to pay within the seven days required in order to be enrolled. As a result of not being able to pay his fees on time, he was dropped from the class and was not able to enroll again by the time he could afford it be-cause it was full.
“I was frustrated but what could I do?” said Sarkisyan. “I just had to wait until the following semes-ter to take the class again.”
Sieyouneh Ziraky, a returning student who is currently work-ing on her bachelor’s degree who faced a similar problem said, “I think it is completely unfair be-cause students like myself who are unable to pay for classes on time should still be able to get in by the time school is in session.”
Ziraky suggested that there should be a “grace period” grant-ed for those who cannot pay their tuition on time. “If I’m not able to pay [the tuition], it becomes a hassle to wait for the next semes-ter the class is offered and it ex-tends the amount of time I would have to spend [at GCC] and delay my transfer.”
Unknown to most students, there are remedies to their prob-lem. College students do not al-ways have the means to pay for the classes essential to their edu-cation and at times need some type of payment plan established to help them. It is inconvenient for those already enrolled to have a class dropped because the amount
Photo by Richard KontasShauna Murray pays her fees to Sandra Fleischer, part-time tuition office employee, at the fee drop window.
due cannot be paid on time. Luck-ily, there is a solution.
A payment plan is made avail-
able to all students that cannot pay by the tuition deadline. Director of Financial Aid, Pat Hurley ex-plained, “The college contracts a program called FACTS that allows students to pay their fees over the semester.” She explained that it is an online payment option where students can pay their dues in installments. The information for this plan can be found online on the college’s home page.
A n o t h e r option when facing a prob-lem is to talk to the Dean of Admis-sions, Sha-ron Combs. When asked what the col-lege does to help students who are un-able to pay for their tu-ition, she ex-plained that there is a certain amount of money that a student needs to owe before he/she is stopped from being enrolled in a class. “I don’t think I want that amount published,” said Combs. Although she did not want to re-veal the amount, she claims that situations such as the ones previ-ously mentioned do not usually occur because the school tries to accommodate each student’s situ-
ation. She added that if a student came to them and explained the predicament, then they would try to help them out.
Amir Nour, District Accoun-tant for Glendale College tried to clarify how the admission tries to work with students who are li-able.
“For each individual basis we try to see what the problem is,” said Nour. According to Nour, the
school tries not to turn any student away and that it tries to help them through the individual d i f f i cu l t i e s they experi-ence.
He added that it is the same with all students, including in-t e r n a t i o n a l
students. Even though Combs mentioned that there was a cer-tain amount needed before they stopped a student from register-ing, Nour said that there is no established limit and again reit-erated that the school tries not to “turn students away.”
“For each individual basis we try to see
what the problem is; we try not to turn
students away” — Amir Nour GCC District Accountant
Although recycling is not vis-ible on campus, an outside
contractor, the Materials Recov-ery Facility (MRF) collects GCC trash and later recycles it at its site.
Everything from bottles and cans to paper and plastic is in fact recycled by MRF. But many here on campus are not aware of what is being done with our trash since there are no recycling bins available for students and faculty members.
Dan Padilla, Manager for Maintenance and Facilities, ex-plained that there has been some form of recycling done on cam-pus before.
“There were bins next to the trash cans for bottles and cans in most places but people kept throwing trash in them instead. This method just did not work,”
said Padilla. Maintenance decid-ed to get rid of the bins since it was a lot harder on the custodi-ans to separate the trash.
Some custodians, however, are not aware if anything is be-ing recycled at all. A janitor who preferred to remain anonymous said that she has no idea if the school is recycling.
“I feel bad throwing away all these bags filled with recyclables because of the environmental is-sues,” she said. “I am not noti-fied to separate the trash and I really do not know if there is any recycling going on.”
Communications major Jes-sica Bourse, 19, said “ I feel evil throwing away my water bottles here at school. But you really can’t help it since there aren’t any special bins for [recycling] on campus.”
Special bins for paper were also located inside the offices and computer rooms but some faculty members did not feel
comfortable with student work-ers going into their offices to col-lect the paper. That idea was also
terminated. But Director of Facilities Lew
Lewis said, “ever since governor Wilson proposed the AB 79 bill five years ago, Padilla was right on top of it. We were five years ahead of schedule with our recy-cling program here.”
MRF has been collecting our trash since the bill passed in early 2002. The company uses single stream technology at their own facilities to automatically sort out paper, plastic, cans and glass from the school’s trash.
GCC does not get reimburse-ment for recyclables, MRF deals with it so they get the state re-fund.
Although it costs about 24 per-cent more in dumping fees for MRF to dispose the college’s trash it helps maintenance work-ers, who don’t have to take the extra time to separate recyclables and aren’t exposed to possibly hazardous materials.
“It is hard and dangerous work to sort out recyclables because you have to dig through piles of bacteria-filled trash and broken glass,” explained Padilla.
State law requires the facility here at GCC to recycle a mini-mum of 50 percent, “but we recy-cle a little more than 65 percent, including paper usage and furni-ture,” said Padilla.
Web sites have made a huge difference on paper usage. For example, the college Web site makes it easier for students to view the information they need and print out only what is impor-
tant to them. Therefore paper us-age is reduced.
GCC also uses Property Re-utilization, a method in which chairs, tables and other furniture is reused. And the state seems to really like this, according to Pa-dilla.
“We also use the latest lawn mowers that cut the grass so fine that we end up throwing away less grass,” said Padilla. “The artificial turf on Sartoris Field also saves more energy since we do not have to worry about mowing it.”
The California Intergrated Waste Management Board is in partnership with GCC to help manage an estimated 88 million tons of waste each year by reduc-ing and regulating the handling, processing and disposal of solid waste.
Another energy-saving feature on campus is waterless urinals, which “save a lot of water; one flush takes up about a gallon and half of water,” said Lewis.
Griselda Calito, 18, a Criminal Psychology major, was another student who said “I am not aware of any recycling methods here at school and sometimes I feel like we should be doing something about it.”
“Now that I’m aware of how the recycling method works here, I definitely feel less guilty about throwing away my empty soda cans,” said Bourse.
Photo by Ismael ReyesThe absence of recycling bins on campus leave GCC students with no other choice but to throw away recyclables into regular trash cans.
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www.elvaq.com Friday, May 18, 2007 9
NEWS
Changes in Bus Routes Looks to Benefit Community, StudentsBy Lenin LauEL VAQUERO SPORTS EDITOR
Transportation Division to the Beeline will increase bus transportation to Glendale College and provide bus trans-portation from south Glendale to the College.
The proposed changes, ap-proved by the Division of Traffic and Transportation, will be brought before the Glendale City Council for fi-nal approval on June 1.
The new routes include changes to Route 3, elimina-tion of bus Route 7 and the ad-dition of two new bus lines.
Under the new proposal, Route 3, which originates at the Glendale Galleria and ends at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, would start at the Glendale Metrolink Sta-tion and travel north on Brand
Boulevard to Broadway, and end at Glendale College.
The new route 3 would al-low students who live south of Broadway Boulevard and live on the Glendale-Atwater border to get to school without having to take an additional bus ride.
Also, Route 7 would be elimi-nated and replaced by the new Route 9.
The new route would begin at the Glendale Galleria on Central Avenue. It would then circle southbound around the galleria to Pacific Boulevard, then travel north past Glenoaks Boulevard, where it would resume the path originally donned by Route 7.
In addition to these changes, an entirely new bus route will be added: Route 8.
Route 8 will begin at Glendale Avenue and San Fernando Road and continue straight up toward Verdugo Road via Glendale Av-enue. This route will stop at the college but will continue up to
north Glendale before return-ing back the same route.
“I think its a good idea that the Beeline will change,” said Glendale Student Paul Levera, “because many stu-dents have to take more than one bus to get to school and this can be a hassle.
These improvements are not without a price.
If the new proposal were to be approved, the Beeline fare would increase from 25 cents to 50 cents in order to offset the costs incurred by the ad-dition of these new routes.
“Every five years we look at our transit system,” said Jano Baghdanian,Traffic and Transportation Administrator of Glendale, “and we look at our service levels and try to increase efficiency.”
Graphic design major Michael Allisen, 17, left, and history major Ian Jankowski, 20, race fiercely to the end of the obstacle course on May 17.
Voces del Mañana club member, Francisco Guzman, 22, manhandles Japanese club member and computer science major Levon Solakian, 19, during the semifinal sumo match at Plaza Vaquero on May 15.
Students Take Time to Enjoy Lighter Side of College Life
Photography by Graig Agop
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10 Friday,May18,2007 www.elvaq.com11
NEWS
Story by Tony Alfieri, Robert Nigoghossian and Julio Rodriguez
Fire I g n i t e s reactions on campus
“It’s like watching fireworks,” said Tina Juarez, as helicopters and planes doused the sizzling mountainside.
Michael Giron of Atwater shook his head when he recalled discovering the blaze.
“I stepped out, “Giron said, “and there was just a huge mushroom cloud of thick, brown smoke.”
Onlookers and cell phone photographers, in awe of the fiery elements, paused on the Verdugo Road footbridge to capture the glowing devastation.
“The ashes got in my hair,” said student Michael Serot. “It made my eyes tear up, and red.”
Classrooms were no sanctuary for people sensitive to the drizzling ash and drifting smoke.
“When we opened the classroom door, ashes came in,” said psychology student Serine Uguryan, rubbing her eyes. “It was more of an inconvenience rather than a health problem.”
Meanwhile, the home of GCC professor and Griffith Park historian Michael Eberts was under the flight path of helicopters refilling at the Silverlake Reservoir.
“It was like a flying bucket brigade,” Eberts said. “The firefighters fought a little war on behalf of the park and the neighborhood. They were great.”
Peter Deranja, 22, of Los Feliz, chronicled the encroaching conflagration in his Student Development current events project.
“There were firemen in our backyard,” Deranja said. “When the electricity went out, we really got scared. Then we were evacuated.”
Campus police cadet Mike Arakian said that the school has an emergency plan that maps safe evacuation routes in case a fire comes close to campus, but conditions were not extreme enough to cancel classes that day.
“The station was flooded with phone calls all day, mainly asking about traffic conditions,” said Arakian.
Closures on Interstates 5 and 134 and streets bordering the park delayed traffic throughout the week, which meant lengthy drive times and late arrivals for those traveling through the area.
“The bus route I take from Hollywood to come to Glendale College was changed due to the closeness of the flames to where I live,” said student Gary Roberts.
Inessa Babalyan, 23, left from Reseda hours before class on the day of the fire because she was uncertain about conditions.
“I debated not coming,” Babalyan said, “but there was a quiz.”Concern for the fire was unanimous. “I’m worried about the animals living in the forest, people’s health
and people with asthma,” said student Rebecca Wong, 22. “It’s just not good.”
Brittany Reid, 27, saw the flaming trees and brush from her office across the Los Angeles River. A frequent hiker, Reid said she and her boyfriend were upset by the destruction.
“We really love the park,” Reid said. “It’s a nice place for people without spending money. It’s sad to see it like this.”
Kristina Otto, 18, a native of Big Bear, echoed Reid’s sentiment. “I love these mountains,” Otto said. “They remind me of home.” Still, the colossal inferno bypassed the attention of some. Edvin Karimi was in the music lab since the early morning and didn’t
go outside until evening. “I wasn’t aware of any fire,” said Karimi. “What fire?”The last smoldering tree stump in the park was extinguished Sunday
after an estimated 817 acres were charred, according to the Griffith Park Recreation Center office.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said the source of the fire is under investigation and no suspects are in custody.
Photos by Patrick Padilla, Special to El Vaquero Cover: a cul-de-sac on Vaselic Street, Los Feliz. The Griffith Park fire is seen dangerously close to the Los Feliz Diner, top left. Aircraft drop water and flame retardants on the brush fire, bottom right and left. The fire rims the hillside bordering the 5 Freeway, right, near the zoo and golf course.
Students on campus expressed disbelief at the sight of writhing flames and churning smoke as Los Angeles’ largest fire in more than three decades, ripped through Griffith Park on May 8.
12 Friday,May18,2007 www.elvaq.com
FEATURE
Cafeteria Opens Healthy New Food OptionBy Tamara Baskin EL VAQUERO STAFF WRITER
After the sudden closing of Subway in the fall, students
were left with one less option for food on campus. That is until the spring opening a new sandwich stand, which promises to be a healthier food alternative for stu-dents.
According to Larry Serot, Vice President of Administrative Services, the college decided to choose a new alternative after Subway Corporation began de-manding renovations that the school could not afford. Some of the renovations included chang-ing the look of the overall stand. Because of such demands, GCC opted to discontinue working with the franchise.
The new alternative, according to culinary arts instructor Nancy Jordan, is a joint venture by a number of staff and faculty mem-bers, including the cafeteria staff.
Serot, and Andrew Feldman, the department chairperson of the culinary arts department, were inspired to open the stand after visiting a few popular upscale healthy food restaurants.
“I visited different sandwich places around the area and found that people like the idea of having quick and healthy food as an op-tion,” said Feldman.
The new alternative, which is located in the downstairs caf-eteria in the place of the former Subway stand, allows students to make their own customized sand-wiches. According to Jordan, the ingredients used at the stand are very healthy.
The combinations include choices of breads which are, wheat, sourdough and white. Along with choices for breads, the menu also includes choices for meats which are turkey and chicken. Cheeses and other top-pings are available to be mixed and matched. Not only does the sandwich stand include cold cuts as part of their menu, but a salad of the day and soup of the day are also featured as menu choices.
Although the sandwich stand has only been open this semester, food stand worker Ani Vadgaryan said that it already doing well.
“We see a good amount of stu-dents a day, although I feel that low enrollment and parking this semester has had an effect on the amount of students that eat on
campus,” said Vadgaryan. “Prob-ably if we didn’t have that prob-lem, then we would have even more customers.”
According to Jordan, although
Photo by Anita K. Marto A food service worker creates a turkey sandwich for a customer at the new cafeteria sandwich shop.
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the food stand receives a large number of customers, she does feel that better publicity could eventually bring in even more customers.
“It is being received very well by the students and faculty on campus. We are looking to in-crease the signage to bring more attention to that area,” said Jor-dan.
Not only does the stand provide stu-dents with a variety of choices, but they are also a f f o r d a b l e . Menu items range from $2 to $6.
Along with providing the student body and faculty with healthier food options, future plans may allow culinary arts students the opportunity to display their talents.
Although at this time the sandwich stand is being run by the cafeteria staff under the di-rection of Jordan, there are plans in the next two to three years to involve culinary arts students to work the stand.
“It is our [future] vision for the
culinary arts students to complete their program with classes held in the cafeteria that will focus on real-life food service production, producing various food selec-tions.” said Jordan. “Everyone will benefit from a program mod-el such as this.”
At this time, the sandwich stand is not receiving any separate
funding from the school, and all rev-enue goes to the cafeteria. Future plans are to some day allow “a monetary benefit for the cafeteria as well, narrow-ing down our profit and loss margin,” said Jordan.
For now those that
are involved in the develop-ment of the food stand have plans to continue to expand the menu to broaden its appeal.
Jordan said suggestions from students and staff are wel-comed. She can be reached via email at [email protected].
“I visited different
sandwich places around
the area and found that
people like the idea of
having quick and healthy
food as an option.”
— Andrew Feldman Culinary Arts
www.elvaq.com Friday, May 18, 2007 13
FEATURE
Alumnus Finds Niche in Special CollectionsBy Tony AlfieriEL VAQUERO STAFF WRITER
Lifelong Glendale resident George Ellison, 60, received
a sudden surplus of spare time when his parents sold the family appliance parts business.
“The [new] owners didn’t want me around,” he said. “It was a blessing in disguise.”
Free to indulge his curiosity about the origins of his home-town, Ellison became an assis-tant to then librarian Barbara R. Boyd at the Glendale Central Library’s Special Collections Room. He earned his Library Assistant certificate from GCC and for the past 25 years, he has overseen and archived materials on subjects ranging from local history to California missions to Abraham Lincoln and to a sub-ject that Ellison never imagined he would become an expert on: cats.
The library houses one of the world’s largest collections of all things feline.
Largely, through donations from the now-defunct Jewel City Cat Club, the collection includes
information on breeding and lineage, cat-themed art and an-tiques, even tarot cards to fore-see a furry one’s future.
“A lot of people feel good about the collection and like to come here and commune,” says Nora Goldsmith, the Library Ac-cess Services Administrator at the Glendale Public Library. “It’s an outstanding collection.”
Ellison gently opened the deeply varnished and ornate lat-tice cabinets that line the Special Collections Room’s reading den to reveal the crème of the cat collection. Here one can browse rare periodicals, books as big as ones head, and others as small as ones palm.
Perfectly arranged between finely crafted ceramics and rows of guilded volumes are a set of pulp detective books with cats as the protagonist. The latter, Elli-son admits, are not his favorite.
“I like animals,” he explained, “but I’m not one of those ‘cat people’.”
If Ellison had only one subject to collect and preserve, it would be memorabilia from the Pacific Electric Railway system that carved through Los Angeles and
its vicinity. Ellison recalls the brightly col-
ored trains, the original names of local schools and hospitals, and reminisces about natural land-marks long since replaced by strip malls and asphalt.
“George is the most knowl-edgeable person here when it comes to Glendale history,” said Patricia Zeider, Senior Li-brary Supervisor. “He’s the go-to guy.”
If there’s a substance gap, El-lison has been known to donate personal items to the collection, including early photographs of Glendale College.
Ellison cannot remember the last time someone asked to view one of his glossy classics or many of the other treasures tucked away in the Special Collections Room that also contains a set of discontinued GCC yearbooks.
Usage has decreased in recent years, especially with the cat col-lection.
Daily visits by researchers have dropped to weekly visits, said Ellison, as he dusted off his favorite book of cat engravings, which dates back to 1897. Elli-son attributes the drop to a rise in
Photo courtesy of Charles WikeGeorge Ellison has become an expert on cats, one of the many subjects found in the Special Collections Room at the Glendale Central Library.
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The dwindling numbers does not mean less work for Ellison. Thousands of items wait to be or-ganized and archived. Towers of musty digests and dormant media dwarf Ellison’s lanky frame as he shuffles through the maze-like storage area behind the reading room.
Ellison hunches over a dozen boxes of “cat-alogs” stacked
neatly on the floor, then stops to reflect: “Sometimes I wonder, ‘Why I am doing this? How did I ever wind up here?’”
Despite the endless undertak-ing – he also volunteers as an ar-chivist for First United Methodist Church in Glendale – Ellison is firm about setting aside one day a week purely for personal time be-cause, he believes that, “you have to live in the present.”
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www.elvaq.com Friday, May 18, 2007 15
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
‘Show Us Your Best’ Presents Array of Student WorksBy Olga RamazEL VAQUERO EDITOR IN CHIEF
From photography and ceram-ics, to drawings and paintings,
only the best student art work is on display in “Show Us Your Best,” the aptly titled student art show which runs through June 7 at the Glendale College Art Gal-lery.
According to Gallery Director Roger Dickes, students on cam-pus were given the opportunity to “self jury” their own bodies of work by submitting what they felt was their best artistic endeavour.
“I’m very excited about this show,” said Dickes. “There are incredibly strong works [on dis-play] here.”
Photography and ceramic works are strongly represented, leading the way in submissions.
Enrique Lopez’ ceramic piece titled “Warrior of Cosmic Knowl-edge,” depicts an Aztec warrior, boldly outlined in black paint and contrasted on a bright red back-ground.
The process in creating the piece, according to Lopez, was tedious, but well worth it.
“It feels good to have people admire your work,” he said.
Ceramics instructor Rob Kipler shares in Lopez’ sentiment and believes that “it is worth for stu-dents to see their work on display at the gallery.”
“[When you take the artwork], put in on a pedestal, and then put a spotlight on it...what better feel-ing than that?,” he added.
Kipler was among one of the many instructors within the art department that encouraged their students to submit works for the art show.
A total of 91 pieces comprise the current exhibition.
At the artists reception, held on May 17, Superintendent/Presi-dent Audre Levy was at hand to not only view the art, but to pur-chase some of the artworks in an effort to decorate her office.
“I should be displaying student work so that people can see what we [the campus] have to offer,” she said. “I’m always looking at ways to market the college.”
The pieces that appealed the most to Levy were those that contained words, and that were abstract in nature. She hopes to adorn her office walls with a blend of photography pieces and drawings.
Although space in the gallery is limited, Dickes and the gallery
Photo by Ismael Reyes
President/Superintendent Audre Levy admires a couple of photography pieces during the artists reception on May 17.
Photo by Ismael Reyes
Students in Trudi Abram’s art history class stopped by the artists reception on May 17 to analyze some of the pieces on display.
staff made an effort to accommo-date all of the pieces that were submitted.
Working odd hours to make the show possible, the gallery staff sorted through the art and placed them in their correspond-ing spots.
“I have to give props to my
student workers,” said Dickes. “They worked really hard to set up the show and they ended up doing a great job.”
Although the current exhibition just opened, Dickes is already thinking ahead to the next student art show, scheduled for the fall semester.
The goal for the next student show is to spawn a collaboration between the Gallery Committee, as well as the individual art de-partments.
Names of students will be sub-mitted to the gallery and from there, the Gallery Committee will select the “scholarship level” stu-dents by allowing them to submit
artwork and/or create exclusive pieces for that particular exhibi-tion.
Dickes believes that this format enables the students to face the “prospect” of having their piec-es displayed in a more intimate showcase.
“Show Us Your Best” runs through June 7. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. For more information on the Glendale Col-lege Art Gallery, visit www.glen-dale.edu/artgallery
After a 22-year hiatus due to budget cuts that forced the
men’s team to be eliminated in 1985, the GCC golf program is reemerging with an experienced coaching staff for the men’s and first-ever women’s team and a lot of enthusiasm on campus.
The golf program is being rein-stated after a proposal was made by GCC alumni Mike Haney, during his Athletic Hall of Fame induction speech in 2006. Haney played golf for GCC in 1970 and 1971 and was later an All-Ameri-can for USC after transferring.
Thanks to the fund-raising ef-forts of Haney and a committee from the Glendale College Foun-dation including board member and alumni Dave Greenbaum, the Vaquero Golf Club has success-fully raised funds to help the team with some of its equipment costs and course fees.
The men’s golf team and first-ever women’s team is in the pro-cess of forming, with the help of coaches Kirt Kohlmeier and Greg Osbourne, both of whom attended Glendale Community College.
Kohlmeier, who also teaches physical education at Toll Mid-dle School, will be coaching the women’s team, which will begin practicing in mid-August and will compete in the Western State Conference in the fall.
“Golf develops character, self esteem and prepares you for the rest of your life,” according to Kohlmeier, who hopes to develop his team into Division 1 golfers.
Kohlmeier says because of the advantages it could have for their futures young women should be involved in sports as much as they can.
“[Sports] can be such a great equalizer in society. It gives them an advantage over girls who don’t play sports,” said Kohlmeier.
Aside from teaching physical education at Toll and taking on the coaching role for GCC, he had also coached Hoover High School’s basketball and softball teams for 20 years. However, his love of golf took him to work in Indiana as a golf instructor at Hoosier Links Golf Course.
“Glendale has some of the top golf courses in the United States; the world is wide open to the stu-dents,” said Kohlmeier.
Courtesy of Kirt KohlmeierNew GCC golf coach Kirt Kohlmeier looks forward to coaching the women’s team to success.
Photo by Graig AgopGreg Osbourne will be coaching the reinstated Vaqueros men’s golf team.
After transferring to Cal Lu-theran University from GCC, where he played football and golf for the Vaqueros, Osbourne was an All-American at Cal Lu as well as being named team MVP.
Osbourne will be coaching with the assistance of Oscar nominated actor James Caan, also a frequent golfer, whom he works with on NBC’s television show Las Vegas. Together they hope to recruit and have a successful men’s golf sea-son and look forward to working with students in advance and in-tercollegiate golf classes, weight room training and visual aids through computer simulation.
“You have to work out mentally and physically. It’s a tough league and we need to be competitive,” said Osbourne.
The golf teams will practice at the Oakmont Country Club, De-Bell Golf Course, Industry Hills and Scholl Canyon as well as other local courses.
Osbourne, a 20-year PGA of America member and golf in-structor at DeBell Golf Course, is looking forward to working with the college in building a solid golf program that will save students and their parent’s money for college when they are ready to transfer.
“My main goal is to work with them for two years and get them
ready to transfer to a four-year school on a scholarship and pos-sibly save their parents another $80,000,” said Osbourne.
Kohlmeier and Osbourne have been visiting local high school teams to promote the golf pro-gram and have talked to many student-athletes about attending GCC. They are also encouraging current GCC students who have an interest in golf to be a part of the program as well.
“GCC is a great place to get undergraduate work done and to play a sport,” said Kohlmeier.
He added that many of the high school golfers he has spoken to have already decided to attend four-year schools, but are not go-
ing to continue to play golf. Com-petitive golfers have many schol-arships available to them and he feels that students interested in golf should take advantage of them and go forward with their golf skills at GCC.
Kohlmeier said he feels fortu-nate to be hired as the women’s golf coach in college with a great sports program.
“I want to bring a league cham-pionship to the college their first year,” Kohlmeier said about the women’s team. “The more [golf-ers], the merrier.”
Uniformity is an important fac-tor in building team confidence, according to Osbourne. The team will be provided with new
uniforms. They’re going to be a sharp looking representation of a Glendale College team,” said Osbourne. “You can’t play in the Masters unless you’re dressed to play in the Masters.” He feels that the majority of the teams that win are the most unified because they feel a sense of pride for their school and team.
Students who are interested in being a part of the golf teams should contact Kohlmeier for the women’s team by email at [email protected] or Os-bourne for men’s at [email protected].
Golf Program Information:
* For information on the mens team, contact: Kirk Kohlmeier at [email protected]
* For information on the womens team, contact: Greg Osbourne at [email protected]
*For information on Vaquero sports visit www.glendale.edu/athletics
Dylan Kim ended his re-markable career as a Vaquero Saturday by winning the state championship in singles at Ca-brillo College in Aptos. Kim became the first state tennis champion in school history by beating Francis Yoshimoto from College of the Desert 6-3, 6-1 in the finals. Kim end-ed his Glendale career with a record of 30-1, his only loss coming when he defaulted in the semifinals of the Ojai Invi-tational last month because of leg cramps. He also advanced
to the state tourney in doubles with partner Norik Otuzbiryan and they made it to the semifinals before falling to Santa Barbara’s John Sappabon and Mattias New-man 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
TRACK & FIELD
Freshman Tove Berg continued to re-write the Vaquero record books Saturday at the South-ern California regional finals at U.C. San Diego. Berg, who had previously qualified for the state meet May 18-19 in San Mateo in the 10,000 meters, broke the school record in the 5000 meters
Saturday with a winning time of 17:06.79. Berg set the previous mark of 17:12.43 at the Azusa Pacific Invitational on April 13. Berg has set new school records this year in the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 meter runs. Lili Hernandez was also a double qualifier with a second place finish in the 3000-meter steeplechase in 11:29.78. and a fifth place finish in the 5000 meters in 18:30.80. Desiree Ruiz qualified for the state finals by finishing fifth in the 3000-meter steeplechase in a personal best time of 11:57.78. Non-qualifiers included Brenda Santana, who finished seventh in the 3000- me-
ter steeplechase in 12:13.12 and Desiree Ruiz, who finished 10th in the 5,000 meters in a personal best time of 19:09.35. The top six finishers in each event qualified for the state finals.
For the men, Chris Lopez fin-ished eighth in the 10,000 meters in the Southern California prelims May 5 in San Diego to qualify for state as did the as did the 4 x 400 relay team of Troy Huizenga, Ricky Davis, Cecil Menifield and Chris Marshall that finished third Saturday in 3:15.52. Non-qualifiers included Chris Lopez in the 5,000 meters with a seventh
place in the 5,000 meters in 15:20.5, Michael Flowers finished eighth in the 3000-meter steeplechase in 9:48.28 and the 4 x 100 team of Lucas Williams, Davis, Marshall and Huizenga in 43.5 to fin-ish ninth. Alonzo Menifield finished seventh in the javelin with a throw of 171-feet and James Poet finished seventh in the hammer throw with a throw of 148-feet.
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Academic Decathlon
Come and enjoy the...
Today from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Verdugo Gym
Sponsored by the ASGCC
SupportEL VAQUERO!
GCC elections will take place Wednesday and Thursday in Pla-za Vaquero. For more informa-tion contact Carolina Yernazian at (818) 240-1000, ext. 5601.
Summer Registration — Open registration for the summer inter-session continues through June 14.
University Representatives — Representatives from Cal State Northridge will be in the Transfer Center from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Baja Field Studies — Applica-tions for the summer 2007 class-es in Baja are now available in AA 1B, the counseling office and from the class instructors. Go to www.glendale.edu/baja for more information. Classes fill early. Scholarships are also available.Memorial Day — The campus
exhibition
Annual Student Art Exhibi-tion — GCC students showcase their works in the annual student art show which runs in the Col-lege Art Gallery through June 7. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. For more information contact the gallery director Roger Dickes at (818) 240-1000, ext. 5663.
decathlon
Academic Decathlon — Support student organizations as they do battle in the Academic Decathlon today, starting at 5 p.m., in the Verdugo Gym.
academic news
Student Elections — The AS-
will be closed on May 28 in ob-servance of Memorial Day.
music
Glendale College Commun-nity Orchestra— Conducted by Theodore Stern, the Glendale College Community Orchestra will perform several pieces from De Falla, Mussorgsky, Hovha-ness and Debussy. The perfor-mance will take place in the au-ditorium on Sunday, starting at 4 p.m. Tickets are $7 general ad-mission and $5 for students and seniors. For more information call (818) 240-1000, ext. 5621.
Concert Singers Spring Per-formance— Led by Peter Green, students will showcase their vocal talents on Sunday, in performance held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, located at 1020 N. Brand Blvd. The con-cert will begin at 4 p.m. Admis-
18 Friday, May 19, 2007 www.elvaq.com
C a l e n d a rOn Campus
sion is $10 for general admission and $7 for students and seniors. For more information call (818) 240-1000, ext. 5621.
lectures
“The Secret of Naked Mol-lusks”— A part of the Science Lecture Series, Angel Valdes will be the speaker for “The Se-cret of Naked Mollusks,” pre-sented on Tuesday at noon in Santa Barbara, room 243. Val-des is the curator of malacology at the L.A. County Natural His-tory Museum.
“Orator/Competitor/Enter-tainer”— Members of the award-winning GCC Speech and Debate Team will demonstrate their skills during their pre-sentation of “Orator/Competi-tor/Entertainer,” on Thursday. This presentation is a part of the Humanities/Social Science
Lecture Series. The lecture will take place at noon at Kreider Hall. Admission is free.The Speech and Debate Team has collected several awards in cat-egories such as interpretation of literature and persuasive and in-formative speeches.
dance
Dance Performance 2007— Directed by Lynn McMurrey and featuring GCC student dancers and choreographers, Dance Per-formance 2007 will be presented from May 29 through the 31 in the Dance Theatre located in the Sierra Nevada Gym. The perfor-mance gets underway at 8 p.m. Admission is free, but seating is limited. Children under five are not admitted.
Around Town
theater
“Romeo and Juliet” — A Noise Within presents Shake-speare’s classic tale of romance and death, “Romeo and Juliet,” through May 25. Tickets range from $26 to $58. A Noise Within is located at 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. To make reservations call (818) 240-0910, ext. 1. For additional information, visit www.anoisewithin.org
“No Time for Sergeants” – Glendale Center Theatre pres-ents a comedy about a hillbilly joining the United States Air Force. The play ends tomorrow. Tickets are range from $18.50 to $21. The Glendale Centre The-atre is located on 324 N. Orange St. For box office information call (818) 244-8481.
exhibitions
“Some Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses” – Pacific Desgin Cen-ter, located at 8687 Melrose Ave., Design Plaza G102, West Hollywood, presents “Some As-
sembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses,” which runs until Sunday. This exhibi-tion features the work of several of today’s leading designers of modular dwellings and explores the considerable range in con-temporary prefab construction, from houses that individual owners assemble from a kit of parts, to those that arrive fully intact. For more information on this exhibition: (310) 289-5223.
“First Freedoms: The Los An-geles Times and the Right to a Free Press, 1881–2006” – is being held now through June 2 at 8p.m. at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. The event will commemmerate 125 years of The Los Angeles Times and will display the first issue. The Huntington Library is located on 1151 Oxford Road, San Ma-rino. For more info call (626) 405-2141.
“Ruth Weisberg Unfurled” – The Skirball, located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los An-geles, presents “Ruth Weisberg Unfurled” through July 29. The
exhibition presents three de-cades of painting and printmak-ing by celebrated Los Angeles artist, Ruth Weisberg, Dean of the Roski School of Fine Arts at USC. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $7 seniors and full-time students and children two through 12 pay $5. For more in-formation call (310) 440-4500. Or visit www.skirball.org.
music
“A Tribute to Benny Good-man” – The Glendale Brand Library presents “A Tribute to Benny Goodman will be held at the Glendale Brand LibraryArt Galleries on May 19 at 2 p.m. with jazz scene journalist John Tumpak. The Brand Library is at 1601 W. Mountain St., Glen-dale, for more information call (818) 548-2051.
Macy Gray – Macy Gray will be performing at the Key Club on May 24 at 7 p.m. Tickets are available for $25. The Key Club is at 9039 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. For more info call (310) 274-5800.The Chariot – The Chariot will
be headlining at the Troubadour on May 27 with performances by Misery Signals, the Hu-man Abstract and I Hate Sally. Doors open at 7 p.m, with tick-ets costing $12 in advance. The Troubadour is located at 9801 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hol-lywood.
film
“A Prairie Home Compan-ion” – Based on Garrison Keil-lor’s real life radio institution, “A Prairie Home Companion” imagines the St. Paul based show as if it is their final broad-cast. With an eccentric cast of country singers, bawdy cow-boys and delusional detectives, including Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Tommy Lee Jones and Lily Tomlin, this film take radio to a new level. The film will be screened on Tuesday at the Glendale Cen-tral Library, located at 222 N. Harvard St., at 2 p.m. in the library auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information call (818) 548-2030.
book reading
“Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys” – Tom Dolby and Melissa De La Cruz will be reading from their book fol-lowed by a book signing session at the Book Soup on May 23 at 7 p.m. The Book Soup is at 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. For info call (310) 659-3110.
dance
“An Evening of Balanchine” – The Los Angeles Ballet’s Summer Season, “An Evening of Balanchine,” will showcase three very different masterpiec-es from the greatest choreogra-pher of the 20th Century. Come and experience the beauty of “Serendade,” “Apollo,” and “Rubies” on May 26 at the Alex Theatre. The Alex Theatre is lo-cated at216 N.Brand Blvd. The performance starts at 7:30 p.m. and ticket prices range from $35 to $95. To purchase tickets call (818) 243-2539.
www.elvaq.com Friday, May 18, 2007 19
OPINION
Gun Control Laws Are a Joke in the United StatesBy Vartanoosh KiourktzianEL VAQUERO ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Guns do not kill people, people who are allowed to
buy guns without permits killpeople. The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech University, got me thinking about gun control in this country.
Countries such as Japan and France have extremely strict gun laws. In Japan, a country of 127 million people, there were only 53 shootings report-ed in 2006. In the U.S. there were 29,569 shooting-related deaths last year. In France, pri-vate ownership of handguns is banned and it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon. However, in the U.S. it is a right, and with a quick background check, any citizen of age can purchase a gun.
In California, traveling with a gun is legal. Anyone over the age of 18 can keep a gun in their car as long is it is un-loaded and stored in a locked container, but of course there is no way of monitoring this. At any moment, anyone can pull a gun out of the car and kill someone, hence the high num-ber of drive-by shootings oc-curring just in the Los Angeles area. In fact, California does not require a permit to pur-chase rifles and shotguns nor does it require a registration of the firearms, much like the rest of the country.
In Virginia, where student Cho Seung-Hui shot and killed
32 people at Virginia Tech Uni-versity, there is no license, regis-tration or permit required to pur-chase a handgun.
No permits aside, even those declared mentally unstable like Seung-Hui are able to purchase firearms.
Seung-Hui was declared men-tally ill in 2005 and was ordered to outpatient treatment where his doctor said that he was a danger to himself and those around him.
How did he somehow man-age to buy weapons? According to Virginia state law, Seung-Hui should have been denied when he went to purchase a weapon due to his mental instability but, it never came up when he was buying guns. This is frightening be-cause anyone declared unstable can purchase a weapon as long as it does not show up on their re-cord.
How is it possible that infor-mation like this cannot appear on ones record?
This is information that can stop someone from purchasing a deadly weapon that they may use to harm themselves or others.
It is clear that the second amendment is being taken advan-tage of.
Yes, this country allows the right to bear arms, but to what extent?
The second amendment was written in the 1700s when people feared the British coming into their homes and taking their land and/or money. Is that really still a fear?
Of course there is the inevitable
fear that someone can break into our home in the dead of night in an attempt to rob us, and by all means one should be allowed to have a gun. But to allow ownership without a permit or regis-tration is downright regressive.
The country is fighting a war in Iraq and Afghani-stan to protect the safety of their citizens, but what about passing gun control laws to protect Amer-ican citizens?
Not only are gun regulations sub-par, but purchasing bullets
does not require a permit either. Therefore, anyone can purchase ammunition without showing a permit to own a gun. Even sup-
posed family oriented stores like Wal-Mart sell ammunition
like pieces of candy. Gun control laws
in this country are appalling and it is unfortunate that even a 32-person massacre still has not awak-ened the country.
I guess the second amendment is more important to some people than the safe-
“I think we need more laws for gun control, especially after Virginia Tech. Eighteen year olds shouldn’t be able to buy guns.”
Andrey Seas21UNDECIDED
“I take a liberal view, access to guns and weapons should be more limited.”
GaryHackett31MARKETING
“I think gun control is important,
but I don’t know how effective it is.”
John CravenEMERITUSINSTRUC-TOR
“I was raised in England so I think it’s a good idea to have people regulate guns. I don’t see people holding on to guns increasing safety for the country.”
— Compiled by Vartanoosh Kiourktzian and photographed by Anita K. Marto
“Even supposed family oriented stores like Wal-Mart sell
ammunition like they would sell pieces of candy.”
Photo courtesy of NBC News Cho Seung-Hui, a troubled Virgina Tech student who killed 32 people, expressed his rage in a video.
20 Friday,May18,2007 www.elvaq.com
VAQUEROVIEWS
NewConstructionSite:ClockIsTicking!Although there are currently two
major construction projects on campus, the Allied Health and Sciences building and the new parking structure with an elevator tower and pedestrian bridge, the big question on everyone’s mind is, “When can we use the parking structure?”
Director of Business Services, Bill Taylor said, “the current agreement with the contractor is to have ‘provisional occupancy’ of the structure on August 6.” This means that the college will be able to park vehicles on the lower levels on that date.
The structure will be partially opened at the start of the fall semester. The City of Glendale has agreed to allow limited access via right hand turns both in and out of the structure until a new traffic light is installed on Mountain Street.
There will be a considerable amount of construction on Mountain Street to accommodate parking entry. Work will
begin on both the north side of the street and east of the new entrance road, this week. Major construction will begin June 1, limiting traffic to one lane in each direction. The road work is anticipated to last less than 60 days.
The new Allied Health and Sciences building is nearing completion as well, though there have been some delays.
“The furniture and equipment have been ordered,” said Taylor, and “they are expected in June.”
There will be some Nursing and EMT classes held in the building during the second summer session and full occupancy is expected by the start of fall classes.
Dave Jones, a math instructor on campus said that the new building is “looking good. I like the design. It will be a welcome addition to the campus.”
— Photography and Story by Richard Kontas
The new Allied Health and Sciences building will be open for limited Nursing and EMT classes this summer and full occupancy in the fall.
Rental equipment vendors, Jim Finnie, left, and Paul Ortega assemble scaffolding to be used on the new parking structure construction site.
The elevator tower and bridge will make life much easier for both students and faculty and it will also be a welcome replacement for the aptly named “cardiac hill” staircase.
![1 Surajya Sarvangin Vikas Prakalp [SSVP] Vijay Shivale, Project Manger 18-May-2007.](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/5697bf761a28abf838c8107b/1-surajya-sarvangin-vikas-prakalp-ssvp-vijay-shivale-project-manger-18-may-2007.jpg)