TheINQUIRER

Student Voice of diablo Valley college

• NEWS 1, 2, 3 • SPORTS 4, 5 • OPINIONS 7 • EDITORIAL 7 • ARTS & FEATURES 6, 8 • CAMPUS BUZZ 7 • CALENDER 2 • POLICE BEAT 2 • STAFF INFORMATION 7 •

Goddard speaks up: A Virginia Tech shooting survivor is coming to DVC to talk about his new documentary. See page 6.

Foam fight: The Inquirer Editorial Board discusses the lack of communi-cation during the “switch-to-biodegrad-able” discussion. See page 7.

Volume 78 No. 3 Copyright © 2011 The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College www.TheInquirerOnline.com Thursday, October 13, 2011

Vikings vs. panthers: DVC football beat Sacramento City College 51-3. See page 5.

CECILY TROWBRIDGEManaging editor

This semester, a resolution that has been in the works for over five years has been set in stone. The faculty and students of DVC are now reaping the benefits of non-polystyrene food containers, but the process of transition-ing has not been simple.

DVC’s Sustainability Com-mittee has consistently been encouraging the college to dump toxic polystyrene food containers (better known by the brand name Styrofoam), in favor of a recyclable, healthy alternative made of corn or paper materials.

The decision to transition was made after the Sustain-ability Committee went to ASDVC to ask for support in the endeavor.

“I’ve heard from a lot of students that they were in fa-vor of it,” ASDVC President Katerina Schreck said. “In the long run, it’s having a better ef-fect on not just us but people that will be here in the future. Women especially; the toxins released from Styrofoam can be harmful to the reproduc-

SWITCH, Page 2

Dream Act provides immigrantassistance

MIKE ALFIERINews editor

Illegal immigrants in California are now able to receive state-funded aid and scholarships at state universities.

On Saturday, Oct. 8, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the second half of the California Dream Act, joining Cali-fornia with only a handful of other states that have similar laws in place.

“Going to col-lege is a dream that promises in-tellectual excite-ment and creative thinking,” Gov. Brown said during the signing of the bill at Los Angeles City College. “The Dream Act ben-efits us all by giv-ing top students a chance to improve their lives and the lives of all of us.”

The first half of the bill was signed in July, and allowed for illegal immigrants to apply for private scholar-ships and aid.

AB 131, or the Dream Act II, as it was re-

DREAM, Page 2

Need to Know

Undocumented students must have been brought to the United States by the age of 16.

25,000 students who graduate high school every year are estimated to be undocumented.

Illegal immi-grants must wait till all other non-immigrants to apply for aid before being considered.

Evacuation of campus leaves mixed reactions

DVC was evacuated on Thursday, Sept. 29 as a result of a gas leak near campus. However, opinions on how the evacuation went have been mixed.

As previously reported by the Inquirer staff and posted online, a three-inch gas line on the corner of Viking and Ruth was accidentally cut. According to Director of Marketing and Communications Chrisanne Knox, the leak made a loud hissing noise that could be heard on the southeast corner of campus, over by the football field.

Student Maria Gusenkov noticed that there was something amiss around 2:45. “I saw the football team running away from the field. I thought it was just a routine, but they were yelling and some of them had bandanas or

their shirts over their mouths.” At 3:03 p.m., Gusenkov got a text from a

friend who was an architectural engineer, who told her that there was a gas leak and to shelter in place. Around the same time, DVC’s Twitter page retweeted a post from the Contra Costa Times with a similar message.

An email from DVC President Peter Garcia informing staff of an evacuation was sent out at 3:22 p.m. According to him, “police, safety monitors, and a group of managers, classified, and students working out of the President’s office” began to evacuate students towards the north end of campus around this time.

At 3:40 p.m., DVC’s Facebook and Twitter page both reported that classes had been can-celed for the rest of the day.

However, official information on the inci-

EVACUATION, Page 3

JOHN KESLERStaff writer

DANIELLE BARCENA / The Inquirer

Student Philip Jenkins asks a Pleasant Hill police officer about the gas leak. DVC faculty and staff are discussing how to streamlineemergencyevacuation.

Gun rights and stu-dent safety have crossed paths in California, where this weekend open-carry rights for gun owners were re-voked by the state legis-lature for the first time in state history.

Some people on cam-pus were in support of the notion of a state wide ban for open carry rights.

“I don’t want to live in a society where ev-erybody is armed,” said Mathew Morrissey, de-partment chair of ad-ministration of justice at DVC. “I’m not op-posed to people having firearms… but people who are untrained and carry firearms, there we have a problem.”

But the National Rifle Association is gathering support for a bill which would allow students to carry guns on college campuses across the

Point. Blank.MIKE ALFIERI

News editor

GUNS, Page 3

Changes to open-carry laws prompt a debate over student gun rights on campus

Going green has ahefty price

Sweet sweets: The baking program students show off their tasty talents. See page 8.

Graphic Illustration by DANIELLE BARCENA & JULIUS REA

2 Thursday, October 13, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

NewsCALENDAR

POLICE BEAT

Contact MIKE ALFIERI at malfi-eri@TheInquirerOnline.com

SWITCHFrom Page 1

Contact CECILY TROWBRIDGE at ctrowbridge@TheInquirerOn-

line.com

tive system so when women hear that, they’re more in fa-vor of it.”

George Delfabro, Director of Food Services, said he has been forced to raise prices be-cause of the material change. It is currently 25 cents per container at the Basement Cafe.

On average, the price would be about 18 percent more on biodegradable Spudware, a product currently being tested by Food Services, than polystyrene utensils.

Spudware is comprised of 80 percent potato starch and 20 percent soy oil, and is 100 percent biodegradable and compostable.

Students and faculty have been affected by the changes.

“I just got back to school. I took two years off to work full-time,” student Lindsay Davis said. “It sucks. It’s just another thing. I never had any notice of the price raising. So far, I’ve just accepted it and paid it.”

Delfabro said Davis’ feel-ings seem to represent the general consensus.

“I’m getting some com-ments from students that aren’t too happy about it. We haven’t gotten too much posi-tive feedback.”

DVC President Peter Gar-cia said that he supported ASDVC and was confident in their leadership on the issue.

“It’s hard to be in favor of students paying more given the tough economic times,” Garcia said. “If you consider the future costs of clean-up for all citizens, I believe we’ve made a positive change that is worthwhile.”

However, the campus-wide reaction to new “green” food containers has been motley.

Dr. John Freytag, oceanog-raphy professor and member of the Sustainability Commit-tee, has been a part of the res-

olution from the beginning.He said his research shows

that “they could break even or even make a little bit of money for as little as an addi-tional 5 cents per container.” But so far, Food Services has struggled.

“It’s a lot more expensive than it was,” Delfabro said. “We sustain ourselves inde-pendently with the revenue that we make. The cost has to be absorbed somehow.”

At a joint meeting on No-vember 16 of last year, after Delfabro expressed his con-cern regarding the financial burden the change would put on students, Freytag stated that “the Sustainability Com-mittee would help to find a cost-effective way to pay for the costs of switching to bio-degradable containers.”

“I felt like if I could do the groundwork, then it would be up to DVC Food Services to follow through on the imple-mentation,” Freytag said. “I have nothing to do with the ordering, but I did most of the additional research and groundwork to help with the transi-tion.”

However, research and data Freytag collected in preparation for the transi-tion has not been utilized by Food Ser-vices.

Potentially subsidizing the added cost was also consid-ered at the meeting, but has so far not been carried out by any of the involved groups.

Since the implementation of the switch, Freytag has had regular contact with the DVC Administration but said he doesn’t know if DVC Food Services has used any of the

data he had come up with.Hotel and Restaurant Man-

agement and Food Services are separate departments that provide food to students and faculty on campus; the two are independent of one an-other. Hotel and Restaurant

Manage-ment made the transition from Styro-foam prior to Food Ser-vices. Efforts made by The Inquirer to get in touch with HRM were unsuc-cessful.

“The Norseman had already switched over before we started working with Food Services,” Freytag said. “I don’t know specifics about the products that they’re us-ing.”

The effects of polystyrene surpass health hazards and are detrimental on a more global scale.

“Styrofoam is not only harmful to us but to the ocean. It contains known car-cinogens, does not degrade and has an extreme impact on aquatic ecosystems,” Freytag said.

As of June 10, 2011, sty-rene was announced as a new “known human carcinogen” by the U.S. government and is especially dangerous when subjected to particularly hot substances like coffee due to its tendency to leech into food and drink. According to Garcia, Chris Leivas, vice president of finances and ad-ministration, and Delfabro were not only in charge of operational changes but were responsible for the “numer-ous analyses” regarding price changes and getting the mes-sage out that prices would be growing across campus.

But when asked how much more the biodegradable products cost compared to Styrofoam products, Leivas responded with, “I am not sure about this. You would need to check with George

Delfabro.”Setbacks impeding the

change have also occurred, such as the process of dis-covering materials that are conducive to the food itself. Issues such as the melting of products when subjected to heat have arisen. Schreck said ASDVC is happy with the progression, but would like to take it a step further.

“Our next big thing will be recycling. I think that’s some-thing a lot of people want to see on campus, and we don’t have our own program yet,” Schreck said.

For now, however, DVC’s student population will be contributing to the commu-nity of the globally conscious, via one small, biodegradable container at a time.

“I believe that it is a good investment in our commu-nity’s effort to become more environmentally friendly,” said Garcia.

The Basement Cafe is currently charging 25 cents per compostable container.DANIELLE BARCENA / The Inquirer

ferred to, will require immi-grant students to meet the same standards as all other students who apply for finan-cial aid.

However, illegal immigrants will only be considered for aid once all non-immigrant stu-dents have applied.

Other stipulations mandate that the students must have been brought to the U.S before the age of 16.

Rus Gurvits, co-founder of the DVC club Young Ameri-cans for Liberty, disagreed with the new law. “I under-stand the challenges of immi-gration; I’m from the Ukraine originally.…We should help people go to college, but it shouldn’t come from taxpayer money.”

The law is different from the contentious federal Dream Act that has been on and off the floor of congress for the past decade.

The latest version of that bill, introduced by Senate Ma-jority Leader Harry Reid, pro-vides a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in college or university.

The new bill in California is seen by some as a response to the hard-line approach taken by states like Alabama and Georgia with illegal immigra-tion.

Alabama passed new leg-islation this year that allows police to question anyone sus-pected of being in the country illegally during a traffic stop, and hold them without bond if no proof of citizenship is provided.

Pew research estimates that

DREAMFrom Page 1

there are as many as 2.7 mil-lion undocumented migrants in California alone.

Each year nearly 25,000 high school graduates in Cali-fornia are illegal immigrants.

The California Department of Finance estimates that 2,500 students will qualify for Cal Grants as a result of

the California Dream Act at a cost of $14.5 million.

$1.4 billion is spent annu-ally to fund the Cal Grants, so roughly 1 percent of all funds will be impacted.

Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, first spon-sored the bill in 2006 and was approved by the state legisla-

ture. The bill was however ve-

toed by then Governor Ar-nold Schwarzenegger.

Cedillo was also present at the signing of the bill on Sun-day. “The signing of now both parts of the California Dream Act will send a message across the country that California is

prepared to lead the country with a positive and productive vision for how we approach challenging issues related to immigration,” Cedillo said at the bill signing.

“I believe that it is a good investment in our community’s effort to become

more environmen-tally friendly.”

~PETER GARCIADVC President

Friday, Oct. 14

Women’s Volleyball

Gymnasium, 6:30 p.m.

Drama: Romeo and Juliet

Performing Arts Center, 8 p.m.

(also on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 16 at 2:30 p.m.)

$10 for students, $15 for staff and seniors, $20 for general

Tuesday, Oct. 18

College Representative Visit

CSU East Bay - Transfer Center, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Faculty Senate Council Community Conference Center, 2 – 4 p.m. (also on Tuesday, Oct. 25 from 2 – 4 p.m.)

College Success Workshop: Writing Your College Application Letter

Student Union, 5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.

(also on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 2 p.m.)

Wednesday, Oct. 19

College Representative Visit

University of Idaho - Transfer Center, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Whistling Vivaldi Project

Film: “Not In Our Town – When Hate Happens Here”

Trophy Room, 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.

9/22/11Officers responded to a suspicious vehicle in front of the old warehouse. When officers arrived, it was determined that the occupant had an outstanding warrant. He was taken into custody and sent to Martinez Detention Facility.

9/27/11A man was contacted by police for threatening to harm people if they didn’t give him cigarettes.

10/5/11Two juveniles were caught trying not to pay for food at the bookstore. Their mother was called and she paid for the items.

10/6/11A student’s tires were slashed at around 9 a.m.

10/6/11A female student was experiencing chest pains in the Humanities building. She was transported to Kaiser in Walnut Creek.

News 3The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, October 13, 2011

-dent at the time was scarce. Math professor Patty Leit-ner expressed her frustra-tions in an email sent out to DVC faculty. She noted that instructors were notified of the problem via email and thus were left out of the loop if they were busy teaching.

“There was nothing of-ficial,” Leitner said. “I just heard [about the gas leak] third-hand from another teacher and I went back to my class to stay with them.”

Leitner also noted that around 3:25 p.m., a police officer “briefly burst into my classroom and told us to leave the campus, giving one sentence of directions that were spoken so quickly that we couldn't understand him.”

Music student Neill Cas-tro was concerned with what other students were doing during the evacuation. “Out-side I saw some peo-ple smok-ing, which I thought was pretty stu-pid.”

DVC stu-dent and photogra-pher Gusta-vo Vasquez was leaving his photog-raphy class at around 3:30 p.m. when he saw students who were evacuating in the parking lot. “[The evacuation] didn’t seem organized to me,” he said. “People had cars on the other side of campus, and people were outside when they were told to be inside.”

The emergency siren did not go off during the gas leak. According to Knox, this had to do with the deci-sion to evacuate rather than to shelter in place.

“Since the gas leak hap-pened off campus,” Knox said, “we were responding [to other groups] rather than deciding [what to do].”

According to Knox, the siren is used only to alert people to shelter in place. In the end, the college presi-dent and the police depart-ment decided to evacuate the campus rather than to have students shelter in place (on the advice of the Pleasant Hill Police Department), and so the alarm did not sound.

When asked for comment in regards to the evacuation, the campus police were un-available for comment.

There were also concerns over traffic. Gusenkov said that she “got caught in the worst traffic ever. There were people walking around which didn’t help manners.”

Student Jorge Alvarado

posted on the DVC Face-book page that DVC should “reconsider” their evacua-tion plan. “It should not take over 20 minutes for students to get in their car and find a way off of campus. Imagine if something worse had hap-pened.”

However, DSS Testing Accommodation Coordina-tor Ron Tenty did not have traffic issues. He was told to clear the building and “got [off campus] in 10 minutes.”

He only heard about the traffic jam the next day.

Castro’s car was in the mu-sic parking lot, over by the gas leak. He decided to relax instead of evacuating. “I got my backpack and went over to the park by Safeway. I got a text from my mom saying it was all clear and then I left.”

DVC President Peter Gar-cia said that traffic was bad, but there was a reason. “The

gas leak eliminated 25 percent of our nor-mal road-ways for exit. Half of Viking was closed. … In this evacua-tion, walk-ing rather than driv-ing would have been a more ef-

ficient manner to distance oneself from the most dan-gerous area.”

President Garcia believes that “on many levels…we were successful, but our on-going challenge will be to improve our plans for the problems that have been noted like traffic jams and uneven communications.”

In response to feedback, Garcia said that “we need to better coordinate our various phone, internet, and face-to-face efforts to avoid redundancy and accomplish complete coverage [of infor-mation].”

He also noted that in or-der to do this, “we will need more DVC responders for this effort. … Every employ-ee should eventually have a role and understand what we expect of them in every situ-ation.”

Also, he was working on a “staff development and communication plan” to ac-complish this. In addition, Knox is working on logistics to “make the president's of-fice a more effective center for directing communica-tions and coordination” in his words.

Advertisement

EVACUATIONFrom Page 1

Contact JOHN KESLER at jkesler@TheInquirerOnline.

“There was nothing official. I just heard [about the gas leak]

third-hand from another teacher and I went back to my class to stay with

them.”~PATTY LEITNER

Math instructor

nation. The new open carry ban will be a hurdle the NRA will have to face.

A public advocate for the right to carry firearms on campus, Amanda Collins was raped at the University of Nevada, Reno campus in 2007. In an interview with the NRA Collins stated, “My inability to carry allowed [her attacker] to continue assaulting women, and ultimately he mur-dered one too.”

DVC’s Lt. Chad Wehrmeister dis-agreed: “Personally speaking, I think we are safer as a college community when we have less weapons on campus…the less weapons the safer for students.”

The right to open carry a firearm in public has been allowed in California since the state’s inception in 1850. How-ever, the right had not translated over to college campuses and schools. Even before the recent open-carry ban, guns could not be carried at all on school cam-puses, which are deemed gun-free zones.

Attacks like those at Saint Mary’s Col-lege in Moraga where there have been two unsolved cases of rape in Septem-ber in a span of only a few weeks have sparked debate over public safety both on and off campus.

At DVC there has had no reported sex related crimes from 2008-2010 and a sharp decline in motor vehicle theft in the same time period. “We have found that most of our violent crimes are carry-over incidents from off campus,” said Lt. Wehrmeister

Specific laws already prohibit the car-rying of weapons, including guns on campuses. “There is a much higher ex-pectation for students and staff to be safe on college campuses and schools in general,” said Wehrmeister of police ser-vices for the community college district.

Last week, Sha-reef Allman shot and killed three people and injured six others at his place of em-ployment, a limestone quarry in Cupertino, before he was shot to death the following day by police.

Some believe that if there had been citizens armed in Cu-pertino the shooting could have been pre-vented.

“If someone would have been openly carrying, they could have stopped him at the door… one, maybe two [deaths], but not six,” said Treytal Yan, owner of City Arms, a gun dealership across the street from DVC. “It’s a right for people to carry; it’s not the wild west”

Roman Kablan, part owner of City Arms, echoed similar thoughts: “Prevent-ing people from openly carrying guns will not reduce crime in any way, because people who carry guns are law abiding citizens.” Kablan believes that there

would be “a drop in crime” if students were allowed to carry guns on campus.

One of the most infamous shootings in school history, the Virginia Tech shoot-ing took the lives of 32 students in 2007. Colin Goddard, who survived being shot four times, now speaks out in favor of

tougher gun regula-tions for the Brady Campaign. He makes a stop at DVC on Oct. 18 to talk about this experience.

“I’m not com-ing in to take every-one’s gun away, I’m just advocating for background checks,” Goddard said in a phone interview. “Once I realized what we don’t do [with gun regulations] in this

country, I could not believe it.”Other gun legislation approved this

weekend by Gov. Jerry Brown calls for the same records on rifle sales as hand-gun sales. This bill, along with the open carry ban, will go into effect Jan. 1 next year.

Editor-in-chief Julius Rea contributed to this article.

GUNSFrom Page 1

Contact MIKE ALFIERI at malfieri@TheIn-quirerOnline.com

“Personally speaking, I think we are safer as a college commu-

nity when we have less weapons on campus…the less weapons the safer for students.”

~CHAD WEHRMEISTERDVC Lieutenant

After a six-year hiatus, DVC students can again travel to Cuba as part of study abroad dy tour set up by anthropolo-gy professor Dr. Lenore Gal-lin. She arranged five previous trips to Cuba and had recently received approval to hold the trip from Dec. 27 to Jan. 11.

The last trip to Cuba was in 2005, after which the Bush administration placed a ban on travel there. “When the US government took the license away from colleges,” Gallin said, “I added another trip just before the license expired. I took two trips that year.” The ban was lifted in January, al-lowing her to arrange another trip to the island.

In response to why she was holding the trip, Gallin said she felt “strongly in us living up to our ideals as a society, such as freedom of speech,…(freedom from) censorship, and free travel, (all of which) had been thwarted by the em-bargo and the travel ban.”

The trip will visit locales all over the island, including

Che Guevara's tomb in Santa Clara, Havana, and the “living museum” city, the UNESCO-protected Trinidad.

One of Gallin's goals is to challenge previously held ideas about Cuba.

“The Cuban people feel a great deal of affection to-wards us even though our government has been rude,” said Gallin. “They treat us

with such warmth, such open arms, and our people really re-ciprocate that.”

Student Judith Pemberton, who went on the 2004 trip, had her perceptions changed: “I thought ... the people would be quietly despairing and unfriendly to the people whose leaders are responsible for the embargo that is a large cause of (their) deprivation.

Instead, the people are being very creative at eking out a liv-ing and there are artists in the parks and music everywhere.”

Students interested in the trip will need to fill out an ap-plication included with a bro-chure on DVC's website and file it by Nov. 27.

Contact JOHN KESLER at jkesler@TheInquirerOnline.com

JOHN KESLERStaff writer

Cuba study abroad returns to DVC

Lenore Gallin, DVC professor of Anthropology, is organizing the trip to Cuba.MIKE ALFIERI / The Inquirer

DVC’s senior academic and student services manag-er Nicola Place was elected to serve on WACAC’s ex-ecutive board and as a national delegate for the group. According to DVC’s website, Place represents the in-terest of California’s community college students on the board. Place said that she hopes to use the position to expand the knowledge of high school students in regards to using community colleges to obtain a bach-elor’s degree.

Nicola Place gets elected

Students and facility still cannot access the DVC website’s Events Calendar from campus. The page can be accessed from off campus.

DVC Calendar does not work on campus

News in brief

4 Thursday, October 13, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

SportsBreslin strikes fear into the hearts of his opponents

Students fail to realize Al Davis’ contribution

Fear is one of the first feelings running through the opposing quar-terback’s head as they take the field against the DVC Vikings. Pain is a close runner-up.

The Vikings are 3-0 to start the sea-son due in large part to their outstand-ing defense, led by starting defensive end Morgan Breslin.

Breslin is in his second year as a Vi-king and is committed to play football for UCLA with a full-ride scholar-ship, hopefully starting in the spring semester.

During his time at DVC he got offers from ten schools, including nationally-ranked foot-ball programs such as Boise State, but for Bres-lin UCLA was an easy decision. “They were the best choice academically,” he said.

UCLA is getting more than a hard worker in the classroom. Breslin is an explosive player, with seven sacks in the first three games of the season.

The numbers, however impressive, don’t mean much to Breslin. “I don’t care about sacks or tackles for a loss,” said Breslin. “As long as the team is winning that’s all I care about.”

That explosiveness reminds many people, including Defensive Line Coach John Morales, of another Vi-king; albeit a purple one from Minne-sota, NFL Defensive End Jared Allen. “He definitely has that motor in him,” said Coach Morales with a chuckle.

Although Breslin’s career at DVC has been highlighted by success, it was not always that way.

In the start of his freshman season, he faced a huge set back with torn liga-ments in his foot.

The injury sidelined him for the entire season. “It’s hard to be in the stands,” said Breslin. “You want to be on the field to help your teammates.”

Having dealt with adversity, noth-ing can be done to hinder Breslin’s

progress. “If there is one word I could use to describe Morgan, it’s determination,” said Coach Morales. “He didn’t let it [the injury] slow him down.”

“If you’re worrying about being injured, then you’re not play-ing the game right,”

said Breslin. “You have to go hard the whole time and do the best you can every play.”

Along with that determination, Breslin is known for his extreme work ethic. “The guy is a real hard worker,” says Mike Darr, the Vikings Head Coach. “He deserves everything he gets.”

With so many accolades at such a young age, it’s easy for some men to lose their heads.

Not so for Breslin, who had these parting words: “I need to thank Coach Morales for teaching me everything I know. It’s because of him most of us on the D-Line have Division 1 schol-arships this year. The whole team this year is stacked on offense and defense

Morgan Breslin, No. 8, makes a tackle against a Shasta College runnningback in DVC’s first game of the 2011 season.

Stevie Chow / The Inquirer

Viewed by many as contro-versial and hard-headed, the long-time owner of the Oak-land Raiders organization, Al Davis, passed away Saturday.

Many young fans were turned away from rooting for the storied local National Football League franchise because of Davis’ numerous courtroom dramas and ques-tionable personnel moves.

Raised by a lifelong, diehard Raider fan, I never questioned rooting for them. Times have been rough in Oakland since the Raiders’ last Super Bowl appearance in 2002, but my family always reminded me of all the great accomplishments Al Davis made.

Because of the team’s re-cent futility, many people in my generation drew conclu-sions about Mr. Davis without realizing all of his pioneering and progressive contributions.

You cannot tell the story of the National Football League without Al Davis.

A few weeks ago, I learned just how uninformed young people are about the legacy of Al Davis. I gave an informa-tive speech to my Speech 120 class here at DVC about what it means to pledge allegiance to the Raider Nation. I figured this would be the best topic for me since my senior super-lative in high school, besides worst driver, was “Most Likely to Bleed Silver and Black.”

Prior to writing my speech, I handed out a detailed survey for my class to answer about the history of the Raiders and Al Davis. Despite having seven Raiders fans in the class, I did not receive one positive response about Al Davis.

I started my speech by asking everyone to put their prejudgments aside about Al Davis and went on to tell the story of passion, dedication, innovation and progression.

The Raider Nation, argu-ably the most passionate fan base in sports, did not happen by mistake. The passion of the fans is a direct reflection of the passion the owner had for the team. Times have been tough, but the fan base is still as strong as ever.

Al Davis was ahead of his time on issues of racial and gender equality. Al Davis was the first owner to hire a La-tino head coach in Tom Flores and the first to hire an African American head coach in Art Shell. Mr. Davis was the first to recruit out of Historically Black Colleges in the 1960’s and refused to take his team on the road to Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans because of segregation in the area. The first and only woman chief executive officer, Amy Trask, was hired by Al Davis.

To add to the list of his ac-complishments, as commis-sioner of the American Foot-ball League, Mr. Davis played a major role in merging the AFL and NFL, creating the National Football League as we know it today.

They did not realize how greatly Al Davis has shaped the NFL in a positive way. He was a scout in the NFL, an as-sistant coach, coach, commis-sioner and owner, making an impression every step of the way.

As rapper Ice Cube put it: “It’s a sad day for anybody wearing Silver & Black. He was the Frank Sinatra of foot-ball. He’s going to be missed.”

Vikings even with No. 1 team in state

When division rivals face off against each other, tempers flare and goals are scored in amazing fashion.

On Friday, Oct. 7, DVC’s soccer team, now ranked No. 3 in the state overall, faced off against the No. 1 overall team, Santa Rosa Junior College. The result of the game was a 2-2 tie.

“It was a good game for us… we would rather have a win, but it is still good to tie,” said Christina Worsely, DVC athletic director.

The first half started with a bang when Maria Bella-fronte scored a goal on an assist from Wendy Margarin in the first minute. “I just got the ball, shot it to the far corner where the goalie wasn’t,” said Bellafronte. “We played really good against a tough team, but we have an-other tough week ahead.”

After DVC took an early one-goal lead, San-ta Rosa struck back with back-to-back goals in the first half from Cara Curtin.

But DVC would not be let down, as Ana Torres struck for a goal with less than five min-utes left in the first half to knot the game up at 2-2. “It was nice to score, but it was the pass from Kayla (Turkovich) that set me up,” said Torres.

The goal keeping for DVC was good. Sam Liubicich played keeper in the first half and al-lowed two goals, but had a few good saves to keep the score tied going into half.

When the second half started, Desiree Mortensen took over the keeper duties and did well, not allowing a second half goal and mak-ing great saves of her own.

“Both of our keepers Sam and Desiree played well, both had a good game, with good decisions,” said head coach Cailin Mullins. “We are a better team with both.”

The game was physical to the last whistle. Margarin took the only card of the game, giv-

en out in the second half with 32 minutes left.

“We need to improve physi-cality, but we handled the chal-lenge well,” said Mullins. “We need to continue to improve game by game.”

DVC played well together as a unit and head coach Mullins reiterated that sentiment: “We

played well collectively. It wasn’t the best game, but collective success and team effort gave us strength to tie the game.”

DVC soccer’s next game is against 21st-ranked American River College in Sacramento on Oct. 14. The next home game is Tuesday, Oct. 25, against 16th-ranked Cosumnes River College.

STEPHEN LANGSAMStaff writer

Contact STEPHEN LANGSAM at stlang-sam@TheInquirerOnline.com

Raina Saunders (24) steals the ball away from Santa Rosa Junior College’s leading scorer Cara Curtin during their Oct. 7th match. The game ended in a 2-2 tie.

Stephen Langasam / The Inquirer

“We played well collectively.”

~CAILIN MULLINSHead soccer coach

Upcoming Vikings games

Cross CountryMen’s/ Women’s

Friday Oct. 14 - Jim Middleton Invitational at West Valley HS Cottonwood - 3:30 p.m.

Friday Oct. 21 - Toro Park Invitatioinal at Toro Park, Salinas - 3:00 p.m.

Football

Saturday Oct. 15 - Chabot College at DVC Viking Stadium - 7:00 p.m.

Friday Oct. 21 - Deanza College at DVC Viking Stadium - 7:00 p.m.

Water PoloMen’s

Fri.-Sat. Oct. 14 - 15 - Concordia Invitational at Irvine - All day.

Fri.-Sat. Oct. 21 - 22 - Golden West Tournament at Newport Beach - All day.

Water PoloWomen’s

Wednesday Oct. 19 - Fresno City College at DVC Pool - 3:30 p.m.

Wednesday Oct. 26 - San Joaquin Delta Collge at DVC Pool - 5:00 p.m.

Soccer

Friday Oct. 14 - American River College at Sacramento - 3:30 p.m.

Friday Oct. 21 - San Joaquin Delta College at Stockton - 2:00 p.m.

Volleyball

Friday Oct. 14 - Consumnes River College at DVC Gym - 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday Oct. 19 - San Joaquin Delta College at Stockton - 6:30 p.m.

Lacrosse

Saturday Oct. 15 - UC Davis Tournament at UC Davis - TBA

Wednesday Oct. 19 - UC Santa Cruz at DVC Viking Stadium - 7:15 p.m.

TOM RIZZAStaff writer

LISA DIAZStaff writer

Contact LISA DIAZ at ldiaz@TheInquirerOnline.com

and the only way we’re moving is up.”

Breslin is a leader with his play, but it’s this kind of team-first phi-losophy that has given the Vikings their first-half strength.

You can see Morgan Breslin and the rest of the undefeated Vikings face off against Chabot College on Oct. 15 at Viking stadium.

“He deserves everything he

gets.”

~MIKE DARRHead football coach

Courtesy of DVC Athletics

Morgan Breslin, No. 8, stands and listens to coaches with teammates during a game.

Contact TOM RIZZA at trizza@TheInquirerOnline.com

Stephen Langsam / The Inquirer

Kayla Turkovich assists on Ana Torres’ goal late in the second half of DVC’s tie against Santa Rosa Junior College on Oct. 7th. The tie propelled the Vikings to be ranked third in the state.

Sports 5The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, October 13, 2011

Courtesy of DVC AthleticsEd Hall offers crucial instruction to his Viking players. Hall coached at DVC from 1983-1994.

Ed Hall leads class of 2012 into Hall

This year’s DVC Hall of Fame inductees prove that the number of players with professional-grade skills who choose DVC to launch their athletic careers is immense.

Ed Hall, the longtime Vikings head football coach (.658 winning percentage), is among the headliners, as is softball legend Angela Graham and football lineman Tom Greerty.

Hall coached the Vikings to two Golden Gate Conference titles and three bowl appearances during his career as head football coach from 1983-1994. His record (79-9-2) makes him the winningest football coach in DVC history.

“All of the people I had a relationship with -- and that starts with the president of the college back in 1983 -- to the administration, faculty and staff members, it was always a great relationship,” he said. “They made my time at DVC quite pleasurable, and were an enabling factor in our ability to provide an opportunity for these kids to succeed.”

Graham had similar sentiments about her days as a pitcher on DVC’s softball team.

During her sophomore season in 2000, Graham was the Bay Valley Conference’s (BVC) most valuable player and was selected to the All Nor-Cal team. She later played pro-fessionally in Italy, striking out United States Olympic slugger Crystl Bustos in all three of their head to head meetings.

“Whether it was Division 1 or professional ball,” Graham said, “I always find myself comparing them to the coaches and teammates I had at DVC.”

Graham said her time at DVC was highlighted by the quality of coaching she experienced, starting at the top with former head coach Theresa Flores-Lowery. “Coach Flo was fantastic,” Graham said. “A great coach is the catalyst for a team’s personality. She made me the pitcher that I was.” Dur-ing her sophomore season, Graham led the state in strikeouts with 212. She racked up a 16-10 record and posted a tidy earned-run average of 0.96.

The final inductee, Tom Greerty, also had experiences dur-ing his years as a DVC lineman that he now regards as life-long memories. Greerty was a defensive end and left tackle for the Vikings from 1964-65.

His career highlights include a tackle against a young O.J. Simpson, who was playing for the national junior college champion, City College of San Francisco. “We knew they liked to run him to the outside because of his speed, so we switched a couple personnel around and on his first touch I ended up sitting him down in the backfield.” said Greerty, speaking of his early clashes with Simpson, who would be held to under 100 yards rushing during DVC’s game against City College in 1965.

Greerty was a first-team All-Golden Gate Conference (GGC) selection in 1965. He later played at Oregon State, here he has already been inducted into the OSU Hall of Fame.

Greerty has been an attorney for the past 30 years and was named Martinez Man of the Year in 1993. “It’s all about fraternity and friendships,” Greerty says. “Skills on an athletic field beget relationships that last long after playing days have ended and glory has evolved into memories.”

Other inductees in the DVC Hall of Fame:

Len Chaplin – Head Water Polo Coach at CCC and DVC, 1974-2005. Chaplin con-tinues to lend his insight to the Water Polo team and remains a crucial figure for DVC’s aquatic sports.

Kevin Searls – All Conference Cross Country and All Nor-Cal selection in 1976

& 1977. Searls would go on to transfer to Humboldt State where he would become a two-time All-American in both Track and Cross Country.

Scott Goucher - Only baseball pitcher in school history to earn All-American honors and win 10 or more games in both years at DVC in 1996-1997. Goucher holds the conference career record for innings pitched with 201. Goucher was also selected to DVC’s All Half-Century team in 2000.

Kelly McCabe - All-American Water Polo player in 2002 and 2005, All-American Swimmer specialized in breaststroke in 2003 & 2004, and All-Conference Basketball selection in 2003-04 season. McCabe is the youngest inductee in this year’s class.

GRIFFIN HENNINGStaff writer

Contact GRIFFIN HENNING at ghenning@TheInquirerOnline.com

“I always find myself compar-ing them to the

coaches and teamates I had at

DVC.”

~ANGELA GRAHAM DVC hall of fame

inductee

Vikings rout Sacramento City Panthers

It was a crisp, clear night under the Viking Stadium lights as DVC opened its three-game home stand with a blow-out win over the Sacramento City College Panthers, 51-3.

The staggering 48-point differential is the largest of this season, and only con-firms DVC’s dominance.

“We came in here and knew what we had to do. Last year we lost a game, but this year our goal is to go undefeated,” said wide receiver Kevin Moss. “We never lose on this field.”

The Vikings estab-lished themselves in the first quarter by forcing the Panthers to go three-and-out on the opening drive.

The offense thanked the defense for their hard work by marching down the field on the ensu-ing drive and scoring a touchdown on a quar-terback Spencer Van Brunt fade pass to wide reciever Andre Lewis in the corner of the end zone.

“We knew we had to get everyone in-volved on offense,” said Lewis with a smile. “So when the coaches called my number, I knew I gotta make a play.”

The Vikings stuck to this philosophy, as the following six touchdowns were all scored by different players.

Van Brunt would connect with wide

receiver Cory Fisher for a touchdown on the next drive in the first quarter.

After establishing ownage in the air, Van Brunt would give it up to running backs Dozie Iwaugwu, Vince Ferrante and Alec Pica, who each had a touch down run in the second and third quarters.

The fourth quarter saw a meltdown on the Panthers offense and special teams as the Vikings scored on two consecutive series.

One score was a muffed punt recep-tion recovered by linebacker Luke Walton for a touchdown. The otherwas a 65-yard interception returned for a touchdown by defensive back Turon Walker.

The blowout perfor-mance brought praise from head coach Mike Darr: “Earlier this season we had trouble finishing off a full game.”

After five games DVC has outscored their op-ponents 216-84. The de-fense is led by Morgan Breslin who leads the state in sacks with nine.

The Vikings will try to carry over the success of this win to the next game as they host Chabot Col-

lege on Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. at Viking Sta-dium.

Our goal in practice this week was to put four quarters of complete football together, and tonight we did that,” Darr said.

Stevie Chow / The Inquirer

Dozie Iwaugwu runs over Raymond Bautista in DVC’s 51-3 rout of Sacramento City College on Oct. 7.

TOM RIZZAStaff writer

Contact TOM RIZZA at trizza@TheInquirerOnline.com

“We came in here and knew what we had to do. Last year we lost a game, but this year our goal is to go undefeated.”

~KEVIN MOSSWide reciever

Pirates prevail over Vikings in close contest

Advertisement

DVC’s volleyball coach, Jackie Ponciano-Babb, emphasizes the importance of confidence every week to her Vikings.

For Friday night’s match against Modesto Col-lege, Ponciano-Babb asked the girls to bring their favorite inspirational quote to share with their teammates be-fore they began warming up.

The hope was that the moti-vational sentiments being shared would become contagious, and that the Vikings would develop the vigorous swagger they will need to compete with the stron-ger teams in the Big 8 Confer-ence.

The Vikings certainly dis-played a courageous resiliency throughout their five-game bout with Modesto, eventually falling short 15-10 in the forced final game of the match.

The first game went to Modesto 25-21, but the Vikings countered in the next with a 25-18 battering of the Pirates that electrified the crowd in Pleasant Hill.

The third game was the most crucial of the match and proved to be a defining momentum shift.

It remained tight through the finish as the two

teams swayed and substituted in hopes of finding an advantage to expose. The Pirates would eventu-ally hold on to snare a close one 27-25.

Freshman middle Maggie Fishbaugh was out-standing for the Vikings. She passed the ball with adept finesse, and provided the tough, critical serves that kept DVC in the fight.

Michelle Galli came in as a clutch substitution and was “very effective” according to Ponciano-Babb.

The sophomore outside-hitter performed admirably with mali-cious serves and sprawled out to dig a scoring attempt from Modesto.

“That comeback in the second game was really big for us,” said Jessica Atkins, a sophomore at the libero position for the Vikings. “There was a lot of effort and we performed well under pressure… It’s an uphill climb, but we’re fight-ing.”

DVC staved off defeat in the fourth game and managed a 26-24 win over the Pirates, forcing a fifth game tiebreaker.

The Pirates, however, endured the siege and were able to outlast the Vikings in the fifth game and take the match.

GRIFFIN HENNINGStaff writer

Contact GRIFFIN HENNING at ghenning@TheIn-quirerOnline.com

“That comeback in the second game was really big for

us. There was a lot of effort and we

performed well un-der pressure… It’s an uphill climb, but

we’re fighting.”

~JESSICA ATKINSLiberio position

6 Thursday, October 13, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Arts & Features

Advertisement

As the snow gently fell and the wind whis-tled outside the window on a crisp April day in 2007, Colin Goddard was one of 16 college students participating in a French class discus-sion with their professor.

What seemed to be a normal day of attend-ing classes was suddenly interrupted with a bang.

Goddard and his classmates believed the loud noise came from the building next door, which was under construction.

Bang.After a second, much louder

noise, it was clear that this was not the sound of the construc-tion next door, but the ear-piercing sound of gun shots, and the shooter was getting closer.

The shooter, a mentally un-stable student and longtime victim of bullying, entered the Virginia Tech classroom, in Blacksburg, Va., killing nine of Goddard’s classmates and Goddard’s professor. Goddard survived after being shot four times.

Goddard’s physical recovery went well. He is able to do everything he could do before. His mental recovery followed.

Still, after Goddard graduated from Virginia

Tech and began working in local politics, he was not ready to talk about his experience.

This changed two years later, on April 3, 2009, when Goddard turned on the news and watched the shootings in the Binghamton American Civic Association immigration cen-ter in New York City unfold.

Seeing the abundance of flowers, prayer vigils and burning candles — images God-dard associated with his own experience at Virginia Tech — motivated him to call the

Brady Campaign, a non-profit gun violence prevention organization in the United States, that night.

Goddard now works as an advo-cate for the Brady Campaign, lob-bying for stricter federal gun laws on Capital Hill and traveling the country, speaking out to spread awareness and get young people motivated to change legislation.

“It took me nearly losing my life to understand the reality of what gun laws in this country are,” said Goddard. “I turned my experiences into a film to educate, advocate and do something about gun violence in America.”

Goddard’s compelling story has been featured on Oprah, in the New York Times and in a docu-mentary produced by Maria Cuomo

Cole and directed by Kevin Breslin, “Living for 32,” which was screened during the Sun-dance Film Festival.

Goddard’s next stop: Diablo Valley Col-

lege.In an event sponsored by the Model United

Nations Club on Tuesday, Oct. 18, there will be a screening of “Living for 32” in the DVC Forum that will be followed by a discussion with Goddard about the film and his experi-ences.

“Even if your political views are different from those of the Brady Campaign,” said Bryan Humm, the Model United Nations Club participant who is organizing the event. “From the human psychological standpoint to listen to Colin’s story and understand his re-silience in overcoming such a horrific event is phenomenal. It gives the audience the chance to form a new perspective.”

Goddard’s mission is to minimize gun vio-

lence through federal legislation that requires records to be put into the system and back-ground checks performed for all transactions that involve guns.

Stricter federal legislation will eliminate gun trafficking between states.

“Background checks are a five minute in-convenience against the inconvenience of getting shot by someone who should not have a gun,” Goddard said. “And I’m alive. Many families lost their loved ones during the Vir-ginia Tech shootings and you can’t even call that inconvenience.”

LISA DIAZOpinions editor

Contact LISA DIAZ at ldiaz@TheInquirerOnline.com

Photos courtesy of KAREN ARNTZEN, BRADY CAMPAIGN ADVOCACY COORDINATOR

Colin Goddard as depicted on the cover of “Living for 32,” produced by Maria Cuomo Cole. Goddard will discuss the film at DVC on Oct. 18.

Survivor speaksGun law advocate will discuss Virginia Tech experience at DVC

Goddard, Brady Campaign advocate, leads a discussion about “Living for 32,” a documentary about his experience after getting shot four times.

Need to Know

Colin Goddard was shot dur-ing the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007. He will be talking at several universities and colleges in Cali-fornia.

“Living for 32” will be presented at 4 p.m. on Oct. 18 in the DVC Forum.

Icelandic musician Bjork’s latest project, “Biophilia,” is definitely not for everyone. It’s not a lot like anything I’ve ever heard before.

Björk’s first album since 2007’s “Volta,” “Biophilia” is a concept album about human-ity’s relationship with nature.

In addition to featuring songs about na-ture, Björk also pens songs that make human things like love sound scientific.

I have heard quite a bit of Björk’s discog-raphy, and I feel safe in saying that “Biophilia” is unlike most of the music she’s made.

“Biophilia” reminds me of a symphony.

None of the songs really stand out, and the listener has to pay a lot of attention to the music in order to reap enjoyment from it. It is not background music.

Part of the reason has to do with Björk’s vocals.

This has been the case with all of Björk’s music to me, but I find with her more than anyone else I have to zero my attention in to her vocals, due to her accent and delivery.

In addition, a lot of the songs are really weird too.

The production is spacey and quiet. Half of the songs have barely any percussion ei-ther.

“Biophilia” mostly lacks things like catchy

hooks or driving percussion. Many of the songs are in non-standard time signatures

The end result is a soundtrack to spacing out in a planetarium.

The album’s major flaw is also uniquely its own. “Biophilia” is also being released as a series of iPad Apps which expand upon sub-jects touched on in the songs.

I cannot comment on the digital aspect of this album, as I do not have a smart phone or tablet computer.

This leads me to feel as though “Bio-philia” left me out of its digital art party.

Snubs aside, the music on “Biophilia” feels diminished in light of it being the soundtrack to a mul-timedia project.

I feel like dropping the visual accompani-ment takes away part of the meaning.

Another gripe I have with the album

is the ending. The final song is really

good, but it seems to simply end the album in an abrupt fashion. It feels like having the TV turned off while playing a video game.

Despite my laundry list of gripes, I still believe that “Biophilia” is rather good. The album is extremely daring, even for Bjork, but it still works.

It is just rather difficult to recommend.

JOHN KESLERStaff writer

Contact JOHN KESLER at jkesler@TheInquir-erOnline.com

Björk newest album bombs

Courtesy of ONE LITTLE INDIAN / WARNER / UNIVERSAL

Opinions 7The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, October 13, 2011

Editorial Board Staff

• Phone: 925.685.1230 ext. 2313 • Fax: 925.681.3045 • Email: inquirer@dvc.edu • Website: www.TheInquirerOnline.com • Printed Every Two Weeks •

What could be done to improve

the quality of your education at DVC?

EditorialBuzzTh

e

THE INQUIRER

Diablo Valley College321 Golf Club Road, H-102

Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

The Inquirer is published Thursday mornings during the school year by the journalism students of Diablo Valley College. All unsigned articles appearing on the opinions page are editorials and relfect a two-thirds majority opinion of the editorial staff. All signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the writer or artists and not necessarily those of The Inquirer, Diablo Valley College or Contra Costa Community College Disctrict

Interviewer: Vanessa MunizPhotographer: Alex Brendel

“Smaller class sizes; more availability, especially with

getting into classes. It’s hard to get into classes at

DVC.”

BRIANA PIERSON, 23Nursing

“Lower the number of required classes.”

BRIAN FOGG, 20Undeclared

“It’s been a very good ex-perience, aside from more

funding.”

YO-EL EREZ, 18Undeclared

“Smaller class sizes. The instructor has better

control, and can tailor the classes better.”

KYLE PAQUIN, 18Business Management

“More hours for studying and using the library and

resources.”

MARIA TALAVERA, 22International Business

Letter to the editor

Opinion

STAFF WRITERS Griffin Henning, John Kesler, Theresa Marie, Zuli Mohammad, Vanessa Muniz, Tom Rizza Sean Wilkey PHOTOGRAPHERS Alex Brendel, Pablo Caballero, Stevie ChowDESIGNERS & ILLUSTRATORS Kristiana Britanik, Eko Takada

INSTRUCTIONAL LAB COORDINATOR Ann StenmarkADVISER Mary Mazzocco

EDITOR IN CHIEF Julius ReaMANAGING EDITOR Cecily TrowbridgeONLINE EDITOR Stephen LangsamNEWS EDITOR Mike AlfieriOPINIONS EDITOR Lisa DiazSPORTS EDITOR Scott AnnisARTS & FEATURES EDITOR Christa BalingitPHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Danielle BarcenaCOPY EDITOR Brian Donovan

‘It’s not easy being green’The cafeteria, Basement

Café and Crow’s Nest on campus provide stressed-out Diablo Valley College students and faculty places to purchase a meal or a snack, allowing a chance to refuel between classes.

It is apparent that these dining areas are going through a rocky transition from using polystyrene (also known as Styrofoam) to more environmentally sustainable “to-go” containers, and customers are paying the price.

Whether or not patrons are aware of the change, Food Services recently increased prices in light of the mandated switch. While the prices have been raised, communication with students about the changes has been stifled to say the least.

The recent price increases and lack of student knowledge about the situation are the direct result of the confusion between administration, Food Services and the Sustainability Committee.

Concerned by the negative financial effects of eliminating polystyrene, Director of Food Services George Delfabro raised the prices of food items in the cafeteria in order to protect his department, which is completely self-sustaining.

The change from polystyrene products was

mandated during the spring 2011 semester by a committee made up of the Associated Students of Diablo Valley College, the Faculty Senate and the Classified Senate, and was led by the crusade of the DVC Sustainability Committee.

The resolution has one simple element: No polystyrene products.

Dr. John Freytag, oceanography professor and member of the Sustainability Committee, did calculations from three different suppliers that showed that the switch from polystyrene to sustainable, compostable containers should not cost a student more than an additional six cents to seven cents.

Freytag found that charging students an additional five cents per container would allow Food Services to break even, or even make a small surplus.

“I felt like if I could do the groundwork then it would be up to DVC Food Services to follow through with the implementation,” Freytag said about smoothing the transition.

“I have nothing to do with the ordering, but I did most of the additional research and groundwork to help with the transition,” he added.

Freytag says he provided the research for the use of

Food Services, but Delfabro does not recall Freytag’s research. Although the possibility of subsidizing the cost of the switch was discussed in last November’s meeting, Delfabro says the price has not been subsidized by any group.

That financial burden, and the ensuing confusion about the prices and container

material switch, is now placed on the students.

It is difficult for anyone to see what is going on because since the meeting, there has been no public notice of the goings-on. Still, we shouldn’t be looking to point fingers.

Instead, we, as a college, should be working toward better communication campus-wide.

If the establishments on campus are going to raise prices, the campus populace needs to be informed of the process that has led to the mandate and the increase, not to mention the details of what they’re paying for.

But before that happens, all involved parties need to start discussing the problems openly.

Courtesy of ALEXA LEIGH RUBIN

There are more than 20,000 students enrolled in DVC this year.

Most of the students usu-ally drive to school in Contra Costa County.

However, have you ever waited for more than 15 min-utes to find a parking space even though you got a park-ing permit?

The parking fees were in-creased $5 more for cars and

motorcycles at DVC since May 2010.

Although the parking fee was increased and the over-flow parking lot was made, we still find numerous cars waiting for parking spaces on campus during the class times.

Therefore, I believed the parking permits are not equal to the available parking spac-es in DVC.

William Fu is a DVC stu-dent. During the first day of class in Spring 2011, he had been dropped from a class because he couldn’t find a parking space for almost an hour. Classes are become lim-ited since DVC is experienc-ing budgeted cuts.

Based on the parking is-sue in the college, the parking fees should be fair and sched-uled based on the number of

units that students take in the current semester.

DVC is constituted by full-time and part-time students. Full time students should pay a regular price of $40, and students who are taking short-term courses during the full-term semester should only pay half the price.

Furthermore, students who are taking online courses and only have a couple meet-

ings at campus should need to pay only a one-day parking permit.

This can also help the traffic problems inside the campus since students may choose to ride the bus rather than drive their car to school when they notice that parking fees have increased.

Sincerely,Yan Yi Tai

Parking fees need to be fair to part-time students

BRIAN DONOVANCopy editor

Contact BRIAN DONOVAN at bdonovan@TheInquirerOnline.

com

Have you ever asked your-self if General Education actually helps develop your interests, or just gets in the way?

Astromony major Paulo Mandile claimed that he got interested in his major at an early age and thinks that “GE is a bunch of classes to fill in a bureaucratic requirement, nothing more.”

Aiden Herrick, undeclared, said, “Why should I spend ex-tra money on classes I don’t care about?”

Not all students see Gener-

al Education as an obstacle. “General Ed expands my

view to other corners the world,” said art major Mingjie Zhang. “I want my art to re-flect the whole world not just the art world.”

It is interesting to note how many American students make it all the way to college before they figure out what to major in.

In China for example, mid-dle school students take an exam to determine whether they continue to high school or go to a trade school to de-

velop blue collar skills. Also, South Korea and the

United Kingdom also have similar systems where their futures are determined at an earlier age.

Instead of being forced to choose a profession at an early age, students should be encouraged to develop their majors and talents.

What if we made high school more like a college environment where students with their parents decide which classes to take?

Rather than having a small

menu of skills that No Child Left Behind focuses on, schools should have a broad range such as English, sci-ence, life management, col-lege prep, critical thinking and applicable math, along with

courses which developed or help discover the student’s unique talents.

Leaving that responsibility to the state has resulted in the failure of the K-12 system.

With students being al-lowed to think more inde-pendently and develop their interests earlier, there would be less of a need to require IGETC for every college stu-dent.

Re-evaluate ‘general’ education

8 Thursday, October 13, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Arts & features

Carol Phillips, left, sprinkles flour onto dough, while Jackie

Contreras, right, operates the forward-

reverse clutch.

Confection,convection

DVC culinary students perfect

baked goods before selling in the DVC pastry

shop.

Jose Castillo, left, squeezes a pastry bag to make éclairs in his first semester of culinary arts. Walter Medina, center, cuts into his lemon meringue. He is pursuing a culinary arts certificate. Anthony Najera, right, make incredibly true to life-like carrots for trimming a carrot cake.

A student loads cheese twists on a baking sheet into the oven.

Instructor Chris Draa demonstrates dough handling techniques to his students.

Photos by ALEX BRENDEL

Carrot topping sits atop a ready-made cake prepared by stu-dents.