Vol. LXI • No. 5 • May 8, 2012 Los Angeles Harbor College Wilmington, CA What’s inside Ads. PG 2 Demonstration. PG 3 Cal State freeze. PG 4 Art cuts. PG 4 Online classes. PG 5 Fire the deans. PG 5 Campus comments. PG 6 Financial aid. PG 6 Budget cuts. PG 7 Sports cuts. PG 7 J.K. Rowling. PG8 Wrath of the Titans.PG 8 On the web May day video Smoking ban Denim week Brown bag lunch More buildings, fewer seats With classes being cut, LAHC now feels more like a place to kill time rather than get an education. Los Angeles Harbor Col- lege has seen a huge de- crease in its funding over the last few years. With numerous classes being cut and a freeze on construction being some of the things students and faculty have had to deal with, this semester has had a greater effect on campus. The front page of this edition is not covering any stories happening on campus or anything tak- ing place in our neighbor- hood. Above, you will see a picture of our school with the word “closed” writ- ten over it. If these budget cuts continue this school will basically be that. There is no need for a school if it can’t even of- fer basic classes needed to transfer or graduate. So who is to blame? The answer is the administra- tion, the district and the state, who have constantly cut the budget and forced students to spend years at community colleges with no end in sight. Students trying to get out of this school will find it even more difficult to do so if classes keep being cut and more unnecessary administrators are being hired. There is no need for a community college with so little funding to have seven deans and four vice presidents on its payroll. The Harbor Tides has had its budget cut many times over the years leav- ing practically no money for us to publish this pa- per. We have had to scrape up whatever we could just to publish this edition and were still not even able to afford color, so we bring you this grey copy of what may very well be the last issue of The Harbor Tides ever. This issue is not to just raise awareness of what has happened to our jour- nalism program, but to raise awareness of what has happened to our cam- pus. Harbor has become nothing more than a vast wasteland where students fight each other for class- es. Harbor has become the place where students fresh out of high school come to die. Once you’re in you never get out. If these cuts continue there is no telling what Harbor’s outcome may be. – Joseph Valdez Editor in chief
Transcript
Vol. LXI • No. 5 • May 8, 2012 Los Angeles Harbor College Wilmington, CA
What’s insideAds. PG 2
Demonstration. PG 3
Cal State freeze. PG 4
Art cuts. PG 4
Online classes. PG 5
Fire the deans. PG 5
Campus comments. PG 6
Financial aid. PG 6
Budget cuts. PG 7
Sports cuts. PG 7
J.K. Rowling. PG8
Wrath of the Titans.PG 8
On the webMay day video
Smoking ban
Denim week
Brown bag lunch
More buildings, fewer seatsWith classes being cut, LAHC now feels more like a place to kill time rather than get an education. Los Angeles Harbor Col-lege has seen a huge de-crease in its funding over the last few years. With numerous classes being cut and a freeze on construction being some of the things students and faculty have had to deal with, this semester has had a greater effect on campus. The front page of this edition is not covering any stories happening on campus or anything tak-ing place in our neighbor-hood. Above, you will see a picture of our school with
the word “closed” writ-ten over it. If these budget cuts continue this school will basically be that. There is no need for a school if it can’t even of-fer basic classes needed to transfer or graduate. So who is to blame? The answer is the administra-tion, the district and the state, who have constantly cut the budget and forced students to spend years at community colleges with no end in sight. Students trying to get out of this school will find it even more difficult to do so if classes keep being cut and more unnecessary administrators are being hired. There is no need for a community college with so little funding to have seven deans and four vice presidents on its payroll. The Harbor Tides has had its budget cut many times over the years leav-ing practically no money
for us to publish this pa-per. We have had to scrape up whatever we could just to publish this edition and were still not even able to afford color, so we bring you this grey copy of what may very well be the last issue of The Harbor Tides ever. This issue is not to just raise awareness of what has happened to our jour-nalism program, but to raise awareness of what has happened to our cam-pus. Harbor has become nothing more than a vast wasteland where students fight each other for class-es. Harbor has become the place where students fresh out of high school come to die. Once you’re in you never get out. If these cuts continue there is no telling what Harbor’s outcome may be.
– Joseph Valdez Editor in chief
Harbor Tides
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2 May 2012
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Editor in Chief:Joseph Valdez
Assistant Editor-Web:
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Paul McLeod
Reporters:
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Students gathered out-side the Northeast Aca-demic Hall on May 1 in protest of the recent budget cuts hitting Los Angeles Harbor College and other Los Angeles Community College District schools. The demonstration which was led by Jorge Herrera, 19, business, started t 8:00 a.m. and went strong for over an hour. Students chanted and banged pots and pans as they marched around the campus and met up outside the NAH building to discuss the problems the college is facing. “There is no shortage of injustices here, tuition is on the rise, classes are constantly being dropped, there’s no sum-mer or winter sessions available, fewer instruc-tors,” ASO President elect, Mario Lacy, 35. “A new state legislation is being written to limit students and their ability to transfer to CSU’s.” The protestors began to march around the col-lege once more, bang-ing harder and chanting louder, trying to get their message across. Their signs were held high reading things like “we say fight back” and “stop budget cuts” as Herrera led the students through the halls of the NAH building. The crowd was cut off by campus police as they walked out of the NAH
building and back to the quad. The protest was not to take place inside the buildings. “Originally they were not supposed to do that,” said Deputy Darren Inana. “We’re working with student leaders to redirect them to the free speech area. As long as they don’t enter the buildings they’ll have a successful demonstra-tion.” The protest made its way to the free speech zone in front the Se-ahawk center as close to 100 protesters gathered to listen to what Herrera had to say. “We’re doing this to take a stand,” said Herre-ra. “We were told not to walk in the buildings, but in order to make change we must break rules.” The focus switched over to political science instructor, Jim Stanberry, who stood in the middle of the crowd and gave heartfelt speech where he talked about the finan-cial situation that LAHC and California is in and his views on the protest put on by the students. “When stuff doesn’t work, you have to do things along the lines of Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Stannberry. Students and faculty looked on as the protest-ers chanted and spoke about the issues that had affected each of them individually. Petitions were handed out in or-der to increase taxes on those who make more than $250,000 a year for
the next 7 years to pay for education. “Low income families attend this college and they can’t afford it,” said Herrera. The recent budget cuts have affected all aspects of the college and have even caused some stu-dents to spend more time in a community college than they needed. “These budget cuts are
ludicrous, it’s taken me three years just to trans-fer,” said EOP&S Presi-dent Jenny Brown. “My science classes were cut and I am not happy.” The demonstration packed a visual punch with the incorporation of a casket, which repre-sented the death of edu-cation where students and faculty could sign the petition, but no hand-
outs or paperwork were handed out with figures on what the budget cuts are directly hurting. “I prefer facts on what the budget cuts are do-ing,” said Academic Senate President, Susan McMurray. “I can’t be-lieve there weren’t hand-outs or anything.” A report was filed after the protest to keep re-cord of the incident and
the organizers were let off with a warning not to disturb classes in the future. With these cuts still looming over Harbor, the future is uncertain. If the new legislature doesn’t pass, $23.9 million will be cut from the budget, adding on to the $126.3 million that has already been cut since 2008.
Students protest the recent increase of budget cuts
Photo by: JosePh Valdez
pRoTesT: Jorge Herrera, 19, leads a group of student protesters in cHants at tHe recent May day protest.
Send us letters to the editor to share your experiences on how this budget cut has affected
you, whether it be classes being cut or your financial aid being reduced. We would like to hear
Cal sTaTe sChools fReezing enRollmenT leaVes CommuniTy College sTudenTs wiTh liTTle To no opTions foR TRansfeRs nexT spRing
By Jamie andRews
Assistant editor
Any students plan-ning to enroll in any of California State Uni-versity’s 23 campuses next spring will be de-nied as the threat of se-vere budget cuts loom shortly. At Cal States, officials are hoping to ebb the tide of crushing finan-cial debt by reducing enrollment since the unfortunate news of the $750 million cuts in funding. The drastic move will come with the harsh reality as thousands of students hoping to pursue their academic goals will be put on
hold till the fall semes-ter. When fall does come around, those students will have to join the hemorrhaging list of students waiting to en-roll. The news doesn’t get any better for the en-rollment freeze as the campuses are not only trying to cope with the current cuts. But the additional $200 mil-lion if a newly pro-posed tax increase is not supported by the voters. However, having the dire news of postpon-ing student’s educa-tion is the state’s risky maneuver to gain favor for the tax initiative. The tax increase, backed by Jerry Brown, hopes to pre-vent any more threat-ening budget cuts to the state’s colleges and universities. Eight of the 23 cam-puses facing the ad-mission cap, will still accept a small number of students from com-munity colleges for the 2013 spring semester. These campuses; Channel Islands, Chi-co, East bay, Fuller-ton, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, San Ber-nardino and Sonoma will surely see a daunt-ing surge as students will try to gain access to their classes. To put this into per-
spective, out the 70,000 applicants who apply for the spring semester, only 16,000 students enroll. And for the fall semester, 700,000 students en-
roll but only 90,000 will get in. However, as the ap-proaching admis-sion cap hangs on the prospect of the tax in-crease, these numbers
are bound to fluctuate dramatically as more students will be anx-iously wondering if they will be denied en-rollment
Cal State U. to freeze enrollment in spring, 2013
Photo courtesy of goldenwestcollege.edu
Cal sTaTe: students will not be able to transfer to any cal state scHool next spring.
haRBoR’s aRT depaRTmenT has suffeRed gReaTly in The lasT few yeaRs
By Jose soloRzano
Tides staff writer
Ron Linden has been working for Los Ange-les Harbor College for more than a decade now. Working under the fine arts department, he has seen a number of stu-dents that carry great tal-ent and have the capabil-ity to do great things. However, with the re-cent financial decisions of the College Board, those talented students don’t appear to have a chance to chase their dreams.
“With record-high en-rollments and demand, community college dis-tricts have responded by increasing tuition, slash-ing faculty and reduc-ing class offerings,” said Linden. Even without the bud-get cuts that Linden will be facing for the fine arts department, he also has to raise money in order to keep things running. Last fall, he was able to raise over $8,000, which went straight into run-ning art shows, creating flyers, as well as other things that pertained to the art gallery in the Fine Arts building. It is obvious that the fine arts, which include visual, theatrical, and musical art forms, are suffering due to the re-cent budget cuts. Linden also mentioned
that, currently, the fine arts are in the process of being categorized under “recreational” classes, meaning that the school can adjust the price to whatever they wish it to be. With the frustrating sys-tem of processing classes with the counseling cen-ter and financial aid to fit within certain majors, many of the students will simply look over the fine arts classes all together. It also strikes down the view of the fine arts on a different level. Listing the classes under “recre-ational” is like placing it under a category deem-ing it “meaningless” and “unneeded” when that’s not the case whatsoever. Fine arts are the ground work of humanities; they can open up a student’s creativity and helps them
become better students in general. Where would society be without gifted story tell-ers of the past passing on their tales of wisdom of morality? How empty would life be without the idea of music? Without an apprecia-tion for visual art, would many of the things that people take for granted on a daily basis even be here today? Although it is taken for granted, art is something that plays a big role in the lives of society to-day. While many higher ups are glad to take a pay raise while there are budget cuts that need to be made, there are those who are truly suffering for the love of art.
Art department suffers a major blow due to cuts
Photo by Jose solorzano
aRT: decrease in linden’s art departMent.
PAGE
5 May 2012
sTudenTs seem To Be floCk-ing TowaRds online Classes due To The deCRease in CouRses of-feRed and The Rise of sTudenT enRollmenT
By liliana ulloa
Tides staff writer
It seems like when the economy started to de-scend, many students had to get a second job to cover the cost of classes, books, trans-portation, and to cover the extra $10 increase per unit. With the difficulty
of working more than one job or more hours, a new problem comes up. If a student had to work eight hours dur-ing the day, when would they have time to attend school and get homework done? It would obviously be quite difficult for stu-dents to excel in all their classes that way. Luckily, they have the option of online classes, which only re-quire about three hours of online work per week which is conve-nient for students who have hardly any time to do anything. A lot of students have praised this method and continue to do great in college be-cause of them, but
are online classes as awe-inspiring as they sound? The truth is, it is up to the person. If stu-dents are responsible and have the ability to do most things on their own or without much help, these on-line classes will most likely be a breeze. If students usually need one on one help with the teacher on class or aren’t the most responsible or reliable person then online classes are probably not the best way to go. Online classes how-ever, are not always so convenient and like everything else, they always have a down-side. As many may know, online classes require
students to have their own computer or have access to one with in-ternet connection, but what happens if the internet connection doesn’t work and are
unable to turn in an as-signment on time, or if there are problems log-ging in to the portal? All these problems which are out of one’s control can have a se-
rious impact on the grade a student earns and may affect the to-tal outcome of their fi-nal grade or gpa.
OpiniOnAre online courses really the best way to go for students struggling financially and academically?
Photo by: Margyus slaughter
online: students searcH for classes online for tHe next seMester.
It’s quite obvious that the administra-tion is balancing the budget onthe backs of the stu-dents. So here’s a simple solution: It’s time to eliminate all the mid-dlemanagement, fire all the deans and vice presidents. In the last couple of years our school has seen budget cuts roll throughand decimate our edu-cational dreams, with cancellations of 7,000 classsections and hun-dreds of thousands of dollars slashed from schoolprograms. The out-look for thousands of students finishing theiracademic goals has become less and less of a certainty. While it is to be expected that admin-istrators have had to make difficult deci-sions, in any opera-tion that is supposed to have shared gover-nance (which LAHC does not appear to embrace) it is time for
students to stand up for themselves and demand cuts from areas other than instruction. Benjamin Ginsberg, author of The Fall of the Faculty: The rise of theAll Administrative Uni-versity and Why it Matters, points out that today ad-ministrators and their support staff far outnumber full-timeequivalents (aka in-structors). In the last 40 years, Ginsberg writes the number of adminis-trators nationwide has increased 85 percent and their support staff (sec-retaries, aides, as-sistants, and office staff) 240 percent. In 1975 the ad-ministration to stu-dent ratio was one to 84. In 2005, that haddropped to one ad-ministrator to 68 students. In the same period the ratio of instructors rose to one for ev-ery 21 students, Ginsberg wrote. The Harbor Tides sees this as outra-
geous. Here on campus, things are no different, how-ever. Since 1992, Harbor’s administration has vir-tually quadrupled from two deans to seven. The
college had a single vice president when it opened in 1948. It now has four. That’s 11 mid-level ad-ministrators for every seven full-time instruc-tors on our campus. Meanwhile, despite a
dwindling list of classes being offered, the in-come of Deans, Vice Presidents and other administrators has seen disparate growth. Ac-cording to Ginsberg, college vice presidents
and deans regularly make lucrative six-figure salaries. And what exactly does a Dean do? Well, he or she is a person of author-ity who overlooks a specific academic - a manager really. But the budget doesn’t just cover their sal-ary. It also has to cover the costs of the additional staff members who are needed to help the deans’ deal with the a lot of needless pa-per work. While administra-tors could easily de-fend class cuts due to cuts inthe state’s budget, the college campus and, the Los Angeles Community College District board needs to understand that the main reason we are here is to edu-cate, not adminis-trate.
And here’s where us as students need to ad-vocate a position. Recently, an addi-tional $600,000 has apparently been ap-proved to the col-lege budget. If this is true, we at the Harbor Tides demand that this money be used to in-crease the number of classes available and not spent, or held in reserve. The college presi-dent, however, wants to hire new teachers. But what will they teach if there are no new classes to teach? Additionally, two deans are said to be retiring at the end of this semester. They should not be replaced. The Harbor Tides would like to see fac-ulty senate, and the ASO lead the charge towards administra-tive reform. It’s time for students get the education they pay for and not let a bloated administra-tion empty our pock-ets.
drawing by: noah litzinger
seahawk: too Many adMinistrators are costing students big tiMe.
Editorial: Fire the deans
Harbor Tides
Harbor Tides
Campus life May 2012
PAGE
6How have the budget cuts
affected you?
soMe of tHe classes i need were cut, sucH as tHe adMinistration of Justice classes.Josh B, 21, CRiminal JusTiCe
basically, it Just kind of Makes it really Hard to finisH on tiMe if tHey are capping classes.Tiffany BlaCkwell, 28, adminisTRaTion of JusTiCe
i couldn’t get into an art class because it was dropped, My teacHer told Me to vote at tHe next election because it will give Me More details of wHat’s going on.anThony gaRdneR, 26, CommuniCaTions
By Joseph Valdez
Editor in chief
Financial Aid Direc-tor, Sheila Millman and everyone in the financial aid office has been working hard on making the financial aid process much eas-ier for students to get their money. With the budget cuts affecting every part of Los Angeles Harbor College it’s no surprise that students’ financial aid has also been af-fected. More and more stu-dents are applying for financial aid now and the financial aid office has to work harder to try and get everything settled so that the stu-dents can get their aid and attend Harbor. “We can show a steady increase in the number of students who are applying and we have been locked in with the same staff so we have the same staff with an increasing number of students,” said Mill-man One way the financial aid office is doing this is by making almost the entire process pa-perless, meaning it’s all done online rather than having to fill out a stacks of paper. “I think as long as I don’t have to bring in any more paperwork,
it’s good,” said Sa-mantha Harrison, 24, liberal arts. Financial aid only covers a student’s costs for six years and there are some students who have been at Harbor longer and are no lon-ger eligible to receive their financial aid. Fee waivers stop one a student has attempt-ed to take 110 units. Once the 110 units are attempted, students are no longer able to re-ceive a fee waiver and must pay it on their own. “I feel I should get more, but as long as I get my fee waiver I’m happy,” said Harrison Though it is more than enough time to go through commu-nity college, there are people who fall behind and end up in this situ-ation. “That is enough time to go through two years of community college in two years, but we have folks who are still here and it ends without a lot of notice that this was going to happen and that’s the scary part,” said Millman. Though the financial aid office wants to help out all the students and make sure they get the money they deserve, it is getting harder with all the cuts surround-
ing the Los Angeles Community College District. There have been cuts left and right over the years and financial aid is no exception. “Always, financial aid has either grown or some years it kind of froze, but there was no kind of falling back and all of a sudden for the first time we’re seeing it go back,” said Millman. “It’s begin-ning to constrict, we’re getting less aid and they’re trying to find ways of saving mon-ey.” Along with finan-cial aid, the student loan process is also changing. Students were able to wait six months after complet-
ing school without and interest being piled on their loan. Now the in-terest begins as soon as a student is done with school and subsidized loans for graduate stu-dents have been elimi-nated all together. “They’re talking about all the debt that people are getting into in loans, this will make it worse,” said Mill-
man. The student work study has also been af-fected by this. There’s not much money in the budget and out of the over 6,000 students that apply, only about
100 will be accepted for work study. Though the cuts have decreased the amount of money a student may get, Millman and the financial aid staff are working to make sure whatever money a student can get is easy to obtain. They have sent out thousands of emails informing students of
what needs to be done in order receive their aid in the 2012-2013 year. Millman has spent a lot of time fixing the fi-nancial aid site for Har-bor in order to make it more user friendly. The website at www.lahc.edu/finaid helps students by answering frequently asked ques-tions about the finan-cial aid process and gives you a tutorial on how to fill things out and it’s all done with videos that are found on the site. Along with the vid-eo section on the site there is a cash course section that teaches students how to man-age money, work with their budgets and teach them financial literacy. “The message I’m trying to send out to
students is don’t dod-dle, don’t spin your wheels while you’re here,” said Millman. “Use time well and know your deadlines and don’t waste time. If the trend is towards no financial aid, take advantage of it while it is still available.” It is obvious that the time where a student could just add any classes on the first day of school and then fill out their financial aid paperwork is over. Gone are the days where all a student had to do was show up and take a seat. Millman is working hard in order to help the students of LAHC get their aid in times where anything con-cerning school is very unclear.
------------------------------------------“They’re talking about all the debt that people are getting into in loans, this will make it worse” -Financial Aid Director, Sheila Millman-------------------------------------------
Financial aid makes big changes to help students
Photo by: JosePh Valdez
finanCial aid: students wait in long lines to figure out tHeir financial aid status.
May 2012
Harbor TidesPAGE
7 news
By sTeVie domingo
Correspondent
Facing a $5 million shortfall, the college cut 22 three-unit course sec-tions this spring, saving approximately $110,000.But coming this fall, an additional eight percent cut of classes is in store, on top of years and years of course cuts. “If I were a student, I’d be here too. I’d be con-cerned too, no classes!” A statement directed to-ward a row of students by Vice President of Academic Affairs, Luis Rosas, just as the budget committee meeting took place on the Tuesday be-fore spring break. According to Rosas, it was an order from the district that this many units be cut - reducing the excessive college unfunded Full-Time Equivalent students and workload reduction. With so many classes
missing, there are only two transferable majors now available to students who wish to transfer to CSU colleges under the SB 1440 requirements.Those majors are media arts and kinesiology. Be-ginning in spring, 2013, CSU colleges have said, with some exceptions, they will only accept students that have com-pleted these degrees, which require 18 units in a specified major and all general education classes. Some of the cuts hit departments hard by making it virtually im-possible to create 1440 degrees. Eliminating the basic news writ-ing course in journal-ism, for example, leaves the department just two classes. That won’t cut it in regards to creating a transfer degree.The rumored section cancellations of sports teams such as girl’s vol-
leyball or softball are said to be untrue accord-ing to Division Chair of Physical Education, Health and Wellness Na-beel Barakat. The ath-letics department needs $250,000 in order to stay afloat and have began to help raise money to fund their activities, but as of now no cuts have been made. “From now until next semester, I don’t know, but the teams still remain until further notice,” Ba-karat said. When students were asked how all of this has affected them and what their game plan is, an-swers were hazy. “I honestly have no idea what I’m doing now,” said Reed Hasty, 20, Un-decided.Some have it easier than others since many stu-dents are undecided on what their goals are.“Most undecided majors feel more at ease, consid-
ering their plans aren‘t entirely mutilated,” said Christina Menes, 18, Un-decided, “For now I’m okay. When next semes-ter comes, my plans will be on hold.” The full-time, non teaching regular admin-istration made a salary of $2.9 million in the2010-2011 school year and with recent budget statements, it is docu-mented that their salaries have gone up to $3.5 mil-lion for the 2011-2012 school year. The part-time salary of teachers were at $6.2 million in the 2010-2011 year and is now at $4.1 million during 2011-2012 with the part time teaching staff cut by one third. These interesting facts make one look at the deficit of the school year, $1.6 million, which would initially be cut in half if the non-teaching administration had not received such an in-
crease in salary during this budget crisis. The main concerns of class and budget cuts af-fecting the students and administration have cre-ated a big mess as Rosas stated. With an operat-ing plan of $25 million for the upcoming year
the long hours of faculty and staff adjusting and working toward the suc-cess of LAHC making it through the year with this extreme budget cut continue.
Recent budget cuts hit students and faculty hard
By Raymond nagano
Sports editor
Unless the athletic department is able to fund-raise a combined $250,000, Los Ange-les Harbor College may have no other alterna-tive other than suspend-ing some of its sports programs. As a result, young athletes in the sur-rounding area who had planned on participat-ing may have to find an-other school in order to compete in their sport of choice. “We’re getting funded at half the level that we were funded before.” said Dean of Student Life Nina Malone. “We’ve fund-raised before, but never to the extent that we are asked to do now.” With the stripping-down of the community col-lege budgets all through-out the state, it is now mandatory for the com-munity college sports programs to be more self-sufficient than ever. This forces colleges like Harbor to reach out to its Alumni, local business owners and residents for more assistance. “We’ve never done a job on Alumni relations
because we’ve never had to,” said Malone. “We being a state institution have never had to be re-sponsible for that. We were just kind of given the money.” Although knowingly venturing across the frontier of fund-raising, Malone thinks the envi-ronmental conditions are positive due to the local culture of San Pedro and its resident’s tendency to stay within the area for long periods of time. She believes that this need for funds provides an opportunity for the program to connect and build relationships with the community. LAHC sponsors foot-ball, baseball, soft-ball, men’s basketball, women’s volleyball, and men’s as well as women’s soccer. Each program has different fund-raising goals to meet because the amount to sustain each program is different. Malone is especially frightened that softball will have a harder time generating funds than the others for two reasons. First, because the program is relatively new being three-years old, financial
support from alumni is non-existent. Second, Head Coach Jeff Evans is not from the local area, a convenient attribute to have when looking to raise money locally. “The surrounding com-munity has counted on Harbor College for the last 60-plus years and I think it would be a dev-astating blow to the lo-cal kids who get a shot at playing at the next level that aren’t picked up at the division one schools or four-year universi-ties for various reasons,” said Malone.” This is their only shot to play. We get a lot of local kids that do really well here and transfer with schol-arship opportunities. We’re grassroots. We pride ourselves on taking the talent from the local community.” To assist with the help of fund-raising, an ath-letics advisory commit-tee consisting of Malone, athletic director Nabeel Barakat, LAHC founda-tion board member Juan-ita Naranjo, Alumni and parents of current ath-letes. The committee has planned a dinner with a live and silent auction at the Doubletree Hotel in
San Pedro, Calif. on July 14th at 5:00 p.m. with the price per plate being $100. Items and expe-riences being auctioned includes vacation trips, flying lessons and signed Los Angeles Lakers Memorabilia by Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace and Phil Jackson. Attending the event will be Petros Papadakis, San Pedro native as well as a television personality and radio co-host of the
Petros and Money Show on AM 570 Fox Sports Radio. Papadakis has al-ready been seen sporting a Harbor College foot-ball t-shirt on his televi-sion show and has also announced the need for help on his radio show. Another source of fund-raising being discussed is the collection of dona-tions through text-mes-saging at a rate of $5, $10 or $20. Although the $250,000 price tag seems stagger-
ing just for community college athletics, Malone feels positive about the goal being met. “I think we’ll be suc-cessful because I know the energy is there and the need is there,” said Malone. To contact a represen-tative from the LAHC foundation, contact ath-letic director Nabeel Barakat at [email protected]
Sports on the cutting block unless it raises 250K
Photo by: rayMond nagano
spoRTs: will tHe baseball teaM still be around next seMester?
Photo by: JaMie andrews
CuTs: classes Have been cut drastically in tHe past.
entertainmentHarbor Tides
PAGE
8 May 2012
By Jose soloRzano
Tides staff writer
Wrath of the Titans ap-pears to be just a stan-dard action movie. It continues the story the 2010 remake of “Clash of the Titans.” The story centers on the half-god, half human Perseus, played by Sam Worthington, as he tries to live a calm, normal life after the events of the first film. It is obvious that some time has passed between the end of the first movie and the beginning of this one, where his wife has died and he is left to take care of his young son. Perseus’s father, The God of Thunder, Zeus, played by Liam Nee-son, to tell him that the gods are losing power due to the lack of faith the humans have for them. Perseus declines to aid his father, but he is later thrown right into the middle of the fight when monsters from the Underworld come to the real world. The biggest merit for “Wrath of the Titans” is in its special effects. With every battle se-quence throughout the film, it is incredibly de-tailed and visually strik-ing. Early in the film, Per-seus’s town is attacked by a chimera, which showcases an amazing chase scene as well as an incredible battle between the two. It is obvious that a lot of hard work and detail went into all the special effects. The sequence where they are in a labyrinth is much like a spectacu-lar roller coaster, filled with twists and turns and filled with adrenaline. The entire film looks fantastic. However, one may find the movie rather dull when there is no action. The plot for the movie feels very thin and some-what forced. The story is much stronger than its predecessor, but it still does not feel very strong. Everything about it was predictable and uninven-tive. Greek mythology, with which this film is based
off of, is filled with fam-ily drama. This movie does try to capture the spirit of that with the in-troduction of Zeus’s oth-er son, the God of War, Aries, played by Edgar Ramirez, but that falls flat. By the end, their epic conflict is reduced to pitiful sibling rivalry between Aries and Per-seus. While the film’s focus is on Perseus’s journey, there are cuts to where Zeus is held prisoner by his brother, The Lord of the Dead, Hades, played by Ralph Finnes, in or-der to revive Kronos. When the two of them are together on screen, there is an obvious ten-sion between the two that makes them interesting. The chemistry between these two characters felt very believable. Neeson’s character mo-tivation is no longer schizophrenic, as it was in the first film. Zeus does not have much to do in the film though; he is now more of a mentor character for Hades than anything else. Hades himself is much more memorable here than in “Clash of the Titans.” His character completely transforms
from a paint-by-numbers antagonist to a fallen an-gel who seeks redemp-tion. The same cannot be said for Worthington’s por-trayal of Perseus though, who is supposed to be the main focus of the story. The acting felt very shallow, and it was ob-vious he simply did not fall into character. His character had no focus and eventually became uninteresting and boring. “Wrath of the Titans” is an improvement over the previous film, though not too much. For those who go to movies for deep char-acter exploration and intense plot lines, this will not be the movie for them. That’s not how this movie was sold though. From early trailers, it was obvious that the stu-dio was selling an epic action movie with amaz-ing visuals. On that, they definitely deliver in heavy loads. It’s a prime example of an edge of your seat, popcorn movie that’d be a real experience to watch in its theatrical run.
Wrath of the Titans is predictable and boring
Photo by: wrathofthetitans.warnerbros.coM
TiTans:Movie poster for wrtaH of tHe titans
By Jose soloRzano
Tides staff writer
Fans of the creative mind behind the “Har-ry Potter” novels, J.K. Rowling has recently announced her newest book. Those who were just learning to read at the time her first novel, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (changed to “Sorcerer’s Stone” in the United States) was released would now be in their early twenties. It appears that Rowling knows her audience very well be-cause this new book will be directed at adults in-stead of the children/young adults’ audience that she is used to. Hype for her new book started all the way back in 2007 in the T.V. doc-umentary titled “J.K. Rowling - A Year in the Life.” The documen-tary looks into a single year into the writer’s life, which includes the events of finishing and releasing the final “Har-ry Potter” novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” as well as the premiere of the fifth movie, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoe-nix.” At a point in the film, she says that she is work-ing on a new novel, and
it will be different from the “Harry Potter” se-ries. When asked about details, Rowling only described it as a “politi-cal fairy-tale.” Now that it’s 2012, Rowling is finally able to announce her newest novel, which has been titled “The Casual Va-cancy.” This new book will be published in-ternationally by Little, Brown and Company instead of Bloomsbury (and Scholastic in the United States) that pub-lished her seven Harry Potter books. The book is scheduled to be re-leased in Sept 2012. The story does appear to stick to Rowling’s prom-ise of making the story a “political fairy-tale.” According to Rowling’s official website; “When Barry Fair-weather dies unexpect-edly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. “Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. “Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not
what it first seems. “And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the big-gest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revela-tions? “Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first nov-el for adults.” Rowling has also kept her promise of not writ-ing another book in the Harry Potter universe, at least not any time soon. It is, however, noted that Rowling has expanded the universe in her notes after writing the novels. Also noted in the docu-mentary, Rowling jolted down character trees of the surviving characters of the final “Harry Pot-ter” novel, going into great detail of what hap-pened to each character. That expanded universe of witchcraft and wiz-ardry will soon be re-leased to the full public in Pottermore, a website that Rowling announced in 2011. The site will al-low fans of the novels to have a more in-depth experience with Rowl-ing’s characters from the “Harry Potter” novels. Currently, only a limited number of beta testers have been allowed to use the site, being only lim-ited to the events of the first novel. It has gone through nu-merous renovations and has even pushed back its release date multiple times. The last update that the site had officially announced was in June, saying that the site will be made open to the gen-eral public in early April.It appears that for no matter what the project is, Rowling has a loyal fan base that is willing to give every new idea a chance. In return, Row-ling wishes to reward those fans with some-thing that she put her heart and soul into.
Author of the Harry Potter Sets out on New Literary Adventures
