TheINQUIRER

Student Voice of diablo Valley college

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

New tale of woe: Drama instructor Nicole Diestler brings a new look to “Romeo and Juliet.”

Sound of music: DVC music performance classes perpare for upcoming shows.

Volume 78 No. 2 Copyright © 2011 The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College www.TheInquirerOnline.com Thursday, September 22, 2011

DVC now offers a transferable associate of music degree for students who intend to major in music.

Fifteen years ago, DVC cut all Liberal Arts degrees and combined them together to create one "Liberal Studies" degree.

With the Liberal Studies de-gree no longer in effect there are degrees transferring again, including an Associate of Arts Degree in Music.

Owen Lee, professor of Music Theory and conductor of the orchestra, is the man behind getting the news degree.

"The bureaucracy was a challenge and mak-

ing sure it met all the requirements," Owen said.

Lee filled out numerous forms, went through different committees and, finally, getting it

through the state chancellors, who had a lot of requirements that had to be met.

Another huge challenge was making sure that his degree could transfer to as many schools as possible and met many different four-year institutions requirements for junior level transfer students.

DVC student Max Brody, who plans to transfer to the Musicians Institute in Los

Angeles, says he is extremely happy about the

The face of change

“Actually I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that at all. ”

~SAAD KAMRAN Business

“It sucks. If you have to drop, you have to drop. It’s a community college after

all.”~GERI STEFANOVAME

Undeclared

“Where I’m from in West Africa, you can’t [contin-aully repeat classes]. They have to kick people out to let people in, I under-

stand.”~ABRAHAM TOLMO

Political Science

“That’s bullshit. You should be able to take

it again.”

~ERIKA BOUEYPsychology

DVC students will only have three chances to pass their courses beginning sum-mer 2012.

On Sunday, Sept. 11, the California Community Col-lege system’s Board of Gover-nors voted to restrict students’ options for repeating general curriculum courses through revisions to California’s Title V education code

The state issues apportionment funding to cover some of the cost of community college classes. The amended code limits dis-trict apportion-ment to funding three attempts at completing a class, with one additional try possible with an appeal.

Before the latest Title V amendments, stu-dents were able to repeat a class a maximum of seven times with state apportion-ment.

“This is not an efficient use of limited re-sources…and does not serve students well,” states Linda Michalowski, vice chancellor of student services and special programs and Barry Russell, vice chancellor of academic

affairs in an analysis presented to the state board of gover-nors.

After three repeats of a class, students are forced to take the class at a community college outside the district.

The changes are retroactive, meaning they will include any previous course repeats.

“It all counts from the time a student was first enrolled within the district, the state will not pay the district for more than three attempts. It’s up to the colleges to decide if they are going to allow students more [repeats],” said Paige Maratt-Dorr, director of communications for the State Chancellor’s Of-fice.

Additional changes restrict students from retaking a class if they received a C grade or bet-ter within a three year period.

Local reaction to the news of the changes was mostly negative.

“We’re throwing the baby out with the bath water,” said Tomi Van de Brook, vice president of the Contra Costa Community College District

DANIELLE BARCENAPhotography editor

MIKE ALFIERINews editor

DVC students brace for state’s new decision to limit class repetition

TITLE 5, Page 3

Need to Know

Students who receive a C grade or better can’t repeat a class within a three-year period.

The changes apply to all class repeats on stu-dents transcript, no matter when they occurred.

After three class repeats, if no appeal is granted students must take the class outside the district.

Budget cuts will handicap the goals,pursuits of highereducation

ZULI MOHAMMEDStaff writer

Transferable music degree broadens students options

MUSIC, Page 2 ALEX BRENDEL / The Inquirer

Student Jordan Friday

plays piano in the music

practice room. He is pursuing the new Music

Associatedegree.

“The bureaucracy was a challenge and making sure it met

all the requirements.”

~OWEN LEEProfessor of Music Theory

THERESA MARIEStaff writer

CHANGE, Page 2

In response to a crum-bling economy, Califor-nia lawmakers have been struggling to develop ways to cut costs while meeting the needs of the people. Such efforts have resulted in Title 5 changes and the SB 1440 bill. On the sur-face, these bills appear to impose limits on repeating classes and make it easier to transfer from community colleges to the CSU system, respectively. But a deeper examination of the implica-tions of these bills reveals a changing educational ideol-ogy – one that threatens to undermine the Higher Ed-ucation Opportunity Act of 2008.

“There’s definitely a bar-rier to getting an educa-tion,” said DVC English major Jon Balza, 20.

The current cuts that have been proposed for California’s 112 Commu-nity Colleges add up to $400 million. Should an all-cuts budget pass, these cuts could double to $800 million.

In a meeting between Public Higher Education Leaders and Governor Jerry Brown, Calif. Com-munity Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott told Gov. Brown that cuts in previous years have resulted in 140,000 students being denied ac-cess to community college

H2O report: DVC water polocompeted well in Indianapolis.

New sports: Check the Inquirer’s new sports twitter page. Check out dvc_athletics on Twitter.

Vikings win: DVC football team continues to win after their sceond game.

2 Thursday, September 22, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

NewsCALENDAR

POLICE BEAT

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Mills College Representative Visit

11 a.m.

Transfer Day

10 a.m.

College Council Meeting

2 p.m.

UCLA Information Session

2 p.m.

President’s Drop-In Time

3:30 p.m.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Culinary Arts Norseman Restaurant opening

11 a.m.

ASDVC Board Meeting

2 p.m.

Faculty Senate Council

2 p.m.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Jazz Rock Concert

8 p.m.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Budget Committee Meeting

9 a.m.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Free E-Waste Recycling in Pleasant Hill

9 a.m.

September 6, 2011

Four maintenance vehicles were broken into and robbed. Two of the vehicles also had their gas lines cut.

September 7, 2011

A student was caught with a flask of whiskey on campus. He was referred to the Dean of Student Services.

A student claimed that she was fondled on the bus.

September 13, 2011

A student reported that their iPhone was stolen from their back pocket while in the humanities building.

Later that day, another student reported that their iPhone was stolen from their backpack while it was left unattended in the bookstore.

September 14, 2011

A student lent their cell phone to another student, who walked away with the phone.

A student hit another student in the back of the head, which caused a fight to break out in the lower quad of the Student Union.

M A K I N G T H E W O R L D M O R E . . .

Oakland, CA admission@mills.edu

www.mills.edu

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Diablo Valley — The InquirerSize: 6.959” x 6” • Insertion date: September 22, 2011

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*upon successful completion of all program requirements

new program.Brody said "the big-

gest benefit from this new degree is that it protects certain classes, that would otherwise be dropped."

Music seminar, a class which requires an audi-tion to get in, is one of the classes that is a degree re-quirement.

The new transferable music degree is a huge leap forward for the music de-partment. Surprisingly, not many students know about this degree.

Philip Jenkins, 27, is one of the students who has just learned of this pro-gram.

“This is very exciting for all music majors because DVC has one of the best music programs and the teachers really pass down all the knowledge they have making the learning worth-while,” Jenkins said.

Jordan Steer, 20, said “looking into the Associate of Arts Degree in Music makes me realize I don’t want to pursue a degree in music, but I will still continue to take classes because DVC’s music de-partment is incredible.”

Lee says that is because the new degree has just come out online and the word if still spreading.

There will be much more news coming throughout the semester for students and those who are interest-ed in pursuing this degree.

Mark Steidel, direc-tor of media, said people shouldn’t confuse the new transferable degree with the vocational one DVC should have within a year and is currently in the works. Students who have earned the vocational de-gree will be able to help students enter the work force in their chosen field.

The upcoming voca-tional degree will be going through the same process that the new transferable one has as well.

That means going through the curriculum, administration, governing order, and lastly state chan-cellors.

MUSICFrom Page 1

Contact ZULI MOHAMMED at zmohammed@TheInquirerOn-

line.com

CHANGEFrom Page 1

“It is really hard to get financial

aid these days. I barely got a Pell Grant.”

~Keri JonesTechnical Theater

“A degree is essential for

life in this day and age. You can’t get a job with out one.”

~Lisa Underwood, 18Undeclared

classes in the state.A press release revealed that

if the all-cuts budget were im-posed, another 400,000 stu-dents would not have access to the classes that they need in order to achieve their educa-tional goals.

At a recent district meet-ing, possible scenarios for proposed mid-year cuts were discussed.

Judy Breza, Director of Fiscal Services of the Contra Costa Community College District said, “It’s pretty lousy when that’s your best case,” in reference to her perceived best possible option.

The SB 1440 bill creates an associate degree for transfer which guarantees that a stu-dent can enter the CSU sys-tem as a college junior; this cuts down on the amount of classes that a student needs to take in order to earn their degree.

The Title 5 changes are concerning a students’ ability to repeat classes. Students will only be able to repeat a class three times (as opposed to the seven times that they were al-lowed to repeat a class in the past).

The Title 5 changes are retroactive. This means that they will apply to people who repeated classes before the changes even go into effect.

Perhaps these changes are benign – practical policy changes that will encourage students to be more degree-oriented and increase conse-quences for students who may not be academically applying themselves while saving the state money.

But these changes reveal threats to some of the princi-ples that the California Com-munity Colleges were founded upon.

While budget cuts are forc-ing community colleges to make changes, the found-ing principles of California’s Community Colleges should not be on the cutting board.

In 1960, CA lawmakers adopted the Master Plan for Higher Education.

They wanted to ensure that California residents had access to exceptional educational and vocational programs so that the state’s workforce and economy would be strong and competitive.

A major feature of this Master Plan is known as the Differentiation of Functions. Simply put, this is the part where it is acknowledged that UC’s, CSU’s, and Com-munity Colleges have differ-ent purposes.

A document from the UC Office of the Presi-dent shows that while all three systems strive to pro-vide students with access to higher education, the Community Colleges are also to provide: “… reme-dial instruction, English as a Second Language courses, adult noncredit instruction, community service courses, and workforce training ser-vices.”

This means that one of the major goals of Califor-nia’s Community Colleges is to allow students to take ex-ploratory classes and engage in lifelong learning.

Such opportunities are es-pecially helpful to students who seek a higher educa-tion, but are not yet sure of what they would like to spend their life doing.

But, in times of fiscal des-peration, the opportunity to take these classes may seem like more of a luxury than a necessity.

To many, the Title 5 changes and the SB 1440

bill appear to be incremental steps towards changing Cali-fornia’s community colleges from institutions that support academic exploration and life-long learning to becoming in-stitutions that promote a more linear educational path (with the ultimate priority being to obtain a degree).

Ted Wieden is not only DVC’s Interim Senior Dean of Curriculum and Instruc-tion but the accreditation Lia-son Officer.

When asked about the im-pacts that possible cuts to lifelong learning and/or ex-ploratory classes may have, Wieden said, “Lifelong learn-ing is one of the principles of the Calif. Community Colleg-es. When the Master Plan was drafted, lawmakers recognized that a more well-informed so-ciety carries with it many in-tangible benefits. People tend to be more productive. They are more engaged as a com-munity. Crime rates go down. You can not always directly pinpoint the benefits, but they are there.”

DVC counselor Dennis Franco added, “For example, if a person took P.E. classes or health education oriented classes for their own benefit

(and not for the benefit of earning credits toward a de-gree or certificate), these class-es would contribute to the overall health of that individu-al. Society sees the benefits in lower health care costs. They are physically and emotion-ally more healthy. They miss less days at work. In this way, these ‘nonrequired classes’ benefit the individual, his or her employer, and society as a whole.”

Regarding lifelong learning students, Franco said, “[Giv-ing] people outlets for en-joyment or broadening their horizons creates a more pro-ductive worker. It creates op-portunities for stress release in a positive manner. That is something that our culture and society has a hard time recognizing – the value of these positive outlets.”

Yet, the conflict remains – how can community colleges support such programs when the budget cuts are making it difficult for students to get classes that they will need in order to earn their degrees?

“As much as I am against cutting exploratory and life-long learning classes, the cir-cumstances of the budget cuts make me lean toward it,”

said Rene Juarez, a 21-year old English major.

“I have seen people who show up one early for the first day of class and put their name into a hat, hoping that their name will be drawn so that they can occupy one of the three available spaces for that class. They need this class in order to transfer. But, many of them are unable to get it because the class is filled with people who are retaking it for the fifth time or just for fun. The times are different. I want classes to be more avail-able to students who need that space.”

At a recent district meeting, Helen Benjamin, Chancellor of the Contra Costa Com-munity College District, said, “Right now, there are no hy-brids of courses for lifelong learners. There is no current authority in the district [to differentiate between lifelong learners and other students].”

News editor Mike Alfieri and Managing editor Cecily Trowbridge contributed to this story.

Contact THERESA MARIE at tmarie@TheInquirerOnline.com

News 3The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, September 22, 2011

M A K I N G T H E W O R L D M O R E . . .

Oakland, CA admission@mills.edu

www.mills.edu/transfer

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Apply by October 15 for spring to receive special expedited admission benefi ts.

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Diablo Valley — The InquirerSize: 6.959” x 6” • Insertion date: September 22, 2011

Ad #11DREAM04

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None of the candidates to be DVC’s next president made the final cut, and the recruitment process has stopped, an e-mail from the chancellor’s office said Monday.

DVC has been in the process of recruiting a president, and on March 15 the finalists were supposed to appear at a public forum.

A 15-member committee screened the applications that were submitted, and interviewed 10 applicants last week, according to the e-mail.

The committee concluded that there were not enough well-qualified candidates to be forwarded for final interviews, and Chancellor Helen Benjamin wrote that she has made the decision to stop the recruitment process at this point.

Benjamin wrote that she is figuring out the next steps and will confer with the Governing Board at its meeting on March 23.

The DVC Transfer Center is holding Transfer Day in the Library Quad from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 67 colleges will send representatives to talk to potential transfer students. Among the colleges, every UC will attend as well as representatives from CSU Chico, San Francisco State, Arizona State University, Mills and FIDM. DVC will also have booths for the counseling center, financial aid, and scholarships.

Wind band will have upcoming performance

Transfer day returns to DVC

At 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 there will be a Jazz and Rock Concert at the Performing Arts Cen-ter. The performance will feature Rory Snyder’s Night Jazz Band as well as his DVC Jazz Ensemble, who will perform music such as bebop and swing.

Also featured are Last Minute, The Pajammers and The Ejector Seats, three ensembles from Steve Sage’s Rock, Rhythm and Blues class. The tickets cost $8 in advance and $11 at the door.

Jazz and Rock Concert

News in brief

The DVC Drama Department is holding auditions on October 3 and 4 for its stag-ing of “Stand and Deliver.” The auditions will be held in the Arena Theater. The play, which will be directed by DVC student Alex Guerra under the supervision of Beth McBrien, is about a math teacher at a high school in East Los Angeles who challenges his students to succeed academically. The play will run from December 2 to 11.

Students can stand and deliver

The school restaurant, The Norseman, is opening on Tuesday, Sept. 27. The restaurant will be open on Tues-days, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The restaurant will feature food prepared by Advanced Cuisine students. The Norseman Express, which is in the cafeteria and features food from Beginning Cuisine students, is open as of the time of writing, every Mon-day through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Norseman returns

Board of Governors, during a meeting last week where they discussed the changes.

Elizabeth Hausecarriague, dean of outreach, enrollment and matriculation issued a report on the possible effects of the changes to DVC students. In the report she noted that 1300 students in the math department are already repeating classes, with 400 of those students having repeated 3 courses.

“It has huge implications,” said Ted Wieden, interim senior dean of curriculum, said at the department chair and deans meeting on Sept. 9. Other faculty members at the meeting rec-ognized the gravity of the changes, with one saying, “students will not go district to district, but will just drop out of col-lege.”

Judy Myers, English department chair, said, “We can’t keep passing the buck [to the students]”.

One DVC student put it even more directly. “It’s bullshit,” said Erika Bouey, 23, psychology major.

Geri Stefanova, 24, undecided, echoed similar concerns: “If you have to drop you should be able to take it again. It’s a community college after all.”

Many of students interviewed on campus didn’t like the thought of being stuck with a C or D. “I think it’s unfair if you want a better grade,” said Stephanie Seltzer, 19, environ-mental science.

Nicole Bhachu, 20, a behavioral health major, pointed out “[certain] majors have to have an A if they hope to transfer.”

Although some local students were unhappy, Mark Valen-zuela, representative for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, told the state board of governors that his group supported the measure because it “maximizes the number of students being able to access class.”

Some students on campus also understood the need for

the changes. “Where I come from in West Africa, you can’t [continually repeat classes],” said Abraham Tolno, 21, political science major. “They have to kick people out to let people in, I understand.”

The changes come as California community colleges are confronting $419 million in further cuts to education in the 2011-2012 state budget. The state board of governors viewed the changes to Title V as necessary in order to serve students best under the budget cuts.

According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, hundreds of thousands of students will not be able to enroll in 2011-2012 because of the fiscal cuts.

Official notice of the proposed changes was published April 28. Public comment was invited through June 16, though only three comments were received. A public comment from Les-lie Smith, associate vice chancellor of government relations at City College of San Francisco, said, ‘the last thing they want to do is to no longer be able to serve those students who are still committed despite hardship.’

The changes will go into effect 180 days from their filing date with the secretary of state. Students can expect to be affected by the changes beginning in the 2012 summer semester.

said, ‘the last thing they want to do is to no longer be able to serve those students who are still committed despite hard-ship.’

The changes will go into effect 180 days from their filing date with the secretary of state. Students can expect to be affected by the changes beginning in the 2012 summer semester.

TITLE 5From Page 1

Contact MIKE ALFIERI at malfieri@TheInquirerOnline.com

“[Title 5 limits are] really bad for

people in this area. DVC’s really good for helping poor people.”

~GAVIN WATSONUndeclared

Contact DANIELLE BARCENA at dbarcena@TheInquirerOnline.com

In a heated debate, the district governing board was divided over the details of a proposed project labor agreement. Private contractors and union represen-tatives bickered in public forum over the matter. The board has been discussing the issue for more than two years, but have postponed a vote for at least another month till their next meeting.

Divided governing board

4 Thursday, September 22, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Arts & featuresNew filmdisgraces typicalworking mother

I hate to say this, but I’m sick of seeing the over-ex-aggerated working mother on the big screen.

Sarah Jessica Parker stars in the Douglas McGrath film “I Don’t Know How She Does It” as Kate Red-dy, a mother who juggles life and work.

At home, she deals with her husband (Greg Kin-near) and two kids. Also, she puts up with stay-at-home “Momsters” who spend six hours at the gym and bake everything perfectly.

At her Boston-based fi-nancial management firm job, Reddy’s latest project leaves her working closely with successful British banker Jack Abelhammer (Pierce Brosnan) while dealing with her office rival Chris Bunce (Seth Meyers).

She finds herself at-tempting to manage bake sales and to throw her chil-dren birthday parties while traveling to attend business meetings.

The audience follows Reddy through her attempt to find balance and calm-ness between her two lives, until she realizes something has to change.

Watching Reddy struggle with comical situations pro-vides a smile easy enough. Sometimes, though, it seems overdone.

While the movie empha-sizes the difficulties work-ing mothers face, it seems to imply that Reddy is the only working mother out there.

It’s as if she is doing something no one has ever done before, and rivals like “the Momsters” and Bunce are just waiting for her to fail.

The movie remains most-ly predictable which takes away the humor in most of the situations. From con-stant food-stained clothes to inadequate hygiene due to lack of time, many of the scenes seem sloppy.

It’s as if there was a hole in the film and the director decided to slap in a scene and hoped it would be funny.

It’s easy to sympathize with Parker’s character. The struggle and conflict-ing emotions she has to go through are only a few of the dilemmas working mothers have to face.

However, the film doesn’t offer anything new or origi-nal. Nearly every situation has been portrayed before. Most of the laughs came from Reddy’s sarcastic as-sistant, Momo (Olivia Munn), who makes it very obvious that she doesn’t see the charm in Reddy’s life.

Ultimately, the message is clear: women can have suc-cess in both their careers and at home with their hus-band and kids.

The primary problem with this movie, though, is that the message is blunt from the very beginning and doesn’t go anywhere after that.

CHRISTA BALINGITArts & Features editor

Contact CHRISTA BALINGIT at cbalingit@TheInquirerOn-

line.com

Practice makes perfectIan Cowell practices bass guitar. He, like every other student, recieves constructive feeback on his progress from Steve Sage.

Photos by DANIELLE BARCENA

Music instructor guides student bands to hone skills for performances

Philip Liborio Gangi, far right, regularly takes photos of the bands in Steven Sage’s music performance classes.

Ben Briggs, left, rehearses with his band, Shock and Awe. This group is one of 24 others formed in this semester’s music performance classes.

Tim Allen, below, sings with his band, Pajammers. He has taken Steve Sage’s classes six times.

Students looking to per-form, get experience and re-cieve advice from a music ex-pert will get just that in Steve Sage’s music performance classes.

“At the end of the semes-ter, I want my students to be better musi-cians,” Sage said.

This se-mester, Sage teaches Mu-sic 105 which focuses on blues, rock and R&B performance. Also, he teaches Music 107, live pop-ular concert performance and produc-tion.

Students form bands in the beginning of the semester and spend the rest of the time practicing to perform outside of school.

These performance-based classes meet once a week.

Bands get up in front of their peers every class ses-sion and perform while Sage watches and offers advice.

Twenty-four bands have been formed this semester; each one of them will have the oppor-tunity to perform in 16 different shows.

This year, bands will per-form at the Wal-nut Festival on Saturday, Sept. 24 at the Heath-er Farm Park & Community Center in Walnut Creek.

Sage, who has toured with art-ists such as Little Anthony and The Imperials, uses his experience in music to guide his students.

He doesn’t expect his stu-dents to have knowledge or talent before joining the class.

“You just need a strong de-sire to perform,” Sage said.

His students have come to respect the class and value the

insight he offers. For example, DVC student

Tim Allen has taken his class six times.

“I like that I’m given the op-portunity to play at gigs,” Al-len said. “I get real-life experi-ence in this class.”

Both first-time and repeat-ing students agree that Sage has been the driving force behind the class.

From learn-ing about the music indus-try to honing a desire for music, Sage’s class helps students in a variety of ways.

Kerri Jones, granddaugh-ter of highly acclaimed drummer Jo-

seph “Zigaboo” Modeliste, said that Sage has taught her about the music business.

“I’m learning a lot in this class that my grandfather didn’t tell me about,” Jones said.

Business major Ashley An-dreatta has taken Sage’s class three times. “Music is just something I love,” she said.

“This class specifically al-lows me to socialize. You

make a lot of con-nections. And the whole point of music is to bring people together,” Andreatta said.

Philip Liborio Gangi, photo edi-tor for neighbor-hood newspaper The Richmond Review and The Sunset Bacon, has made a hobby of taking pho-tographs of this class during prac-tices and shows.

“They’re young and you get a lot

of exciting energy,” Gangi said. “It’s also one of the few times you get a performing class who goes out and rep-resents the school in public gigs.”

“At the end of the semester, I want my students to be bet-

ter musicians.”

~STEVE SAGEMusic instructor

Contact CHRISTA BALINGIT at cbalingit@TheInquirerOnline.

com

CHRISTA BALINGITArts & Features editor

Need to Know

Sage teaches Music 105 (Blues, Rock, and R&B per-formance) and Music 107 (Live popular concert performance) this semester.

Students will perform Sat-urday, Sept. 24 at the Walnut Festival.

Tommy Been, left, plays the harmonica while prac-ticing with his band, Bad Karma.

Arts & features 5The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, September 22, 2011

Contact JOHN KESLER at jkesler@TheInquirerOnline.com

‘Romeo and Juliet’ returns to DVC stage after a decade

Ryan Gosling proves to be more than just a pretty face in his new movie “The Drive.”

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, “The Drive” is more than just an 100 minutes of non-stop car chasing. The film has much to offer to all groups of people.

There is action, romance, dra-ma, and a fair amount of blood-shed going on.

Gosling, who plays the main character, is simply known as “Driver” throughout the film.

His character plays an intro-verted automobile Hollywood stuntman by day and becomes a getaway driver for criminals at night.

He becomes friendly, and eventually falls in love, with his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulli-gan) and her son Benicio (Kalen Leos).

Things are going well until Irene’s husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac), returns from jail.

A group of dangerous crimi-nals start harassing Standard for unpaid debts, and, in order to keep Irene and her son safe, Driver is quick to try to help.

Naturally, things get compli-cated and extremely violent.

Driver finds himself fully en-gulfed in something he isn’t quite sure how to get himself out of.

“The Drive” is an intense film. It’s the type that explains itself without the need for tedious dia-logue.

Gosling performs the part of the lonely driver well. He is apa-thetic, intense, and happy when he needs to be, without overdo-ing any of it.

It does not simply focus on any specific theme, instead allow-ing the viewer to experience dif-ferent moods depending on the situation.

The good guys still have bad qualities, while the bad guys sometimes show a ray of good.

The plot will have you, at times, rooting for Driver.

At others, you wonder how he got himself into certain situa-tions, and why he makes some of his choices.

Though many aspects of this movie are well done, and the plot different from those you see in

modern movies, it tends to be slow-paced.

Some movies require it, as it raises suspense and people tend

to pay better attention. In this movie, however, some scenes seemed to drag on for too long. Then, out of nowhere, some ma-jor action scene would play, and then all would be quiet again. While suspenseful and entertain-ing, the wait doesn’t seem worth it.

“The Drive” hints at a movie that is all action, specifically car racing action, but while that’s where the movie starts and ends, there is a lot that happens in be-tween.

Those patient enough will find it rewarding, if not completely satisfying.

CHRISTA BALINGITArts & Features Editor

Once again, aliens have tak-en over the planet and human-ity is an endangered species in Insomniac Games’ stellar new Playstation 3 title, “Resistance 3.”

The latest entry in the Resis-tance series, “Resistance 3” fol-lows Joseph Capelli, a former special forces member, as he is asked by a former officer to protect him on one final mis-sion to destroy a wormhole the aliens have opened over New York City.

Mechanically, the game is a shooter like “Call of Duty.”

The twist comes with the game’s arsenal of 11 weapons,

all of which upgrade through use and are distinct from each other.

These weapons include a sniper rifle that can also fire a laser. It explodes enemies and a pistol that fires spores and painfully turns enemies into explosive blobs.

Many of the weapons will appeal to your inner sadist and, obviously, are definitely the best part of the game.

The single player’s greatest weakness is the plot. While the overall journey held my inter-est for the game’s five-to-seven hour length and there are some nice plot twists, the character-ization is awful.

In particular, the game seems to try to make the player care about Capelli as he may never see his wife and son again.

However, his family ap-pears on screen for about half an hour total and they barely speak. While Capelli cares, I found it hard as a player to care about his extremely underde-veloped family.

Otherwise, the single player is really fun and never boring.

Luckily, the game has nice variations encountered throughout the campaign. These switch-ups include be-ing on a boat besieged by aliens or hunting a giant monster in a mine.

Since this is a modern shoot-er, there’s also a progression-based online multiplayer mode, which has been scaled down from “Resistance 2.”

A two-player co-operative version of the single player mode returns, and the compet-itive mode has been dropped from 60 players in “Resistance 2” to 16 players, more in line with “Call of Duty: Black Ops.”

The smaller multiplayer is definitely less chaotic, and the weapon selection is more bal-anced than in “Resistance 2,” which let combatants choose to start a match with a mini-gun or a rifle that shoots through walls.

The multiplayer is great but I don’t see it winning people over from “Black Ops.”

Still, this is one of the best games on the PS3.

The interesting visuals, the refined online mode, and the extraordinary arsenal are barely bogged down by the uninvolv-ing-yet-interesting story.

JOHN KESLERStaff writer

Contact CHRISTA BALINGIT at cbalingit@TheInquirerOnline.

com

‘Resistance 3’ mixes aliens and boring characters

Photos by SEAN WILKEY

Cyle Swanstrom, top right, and Atessa McAleenan-Morrell, bottom right, prepare for the struggle scene between Romeo and Tybalt with Dennis McCaffrey, top left, and James Udom, bottom left.

DVC director brings back the classic story and adds a new twist

Contact CHRISTA BALINGIT at cbalingit@TheInquirerOnline.

com

After over a decade, Romeo and Juliet will once again make their appearance at the DVC the-atre.

“Romeo and Juliet,” directed by Nicole Diestler, is the first production to take place this semester. Diestler has directed eight productions out of 30 that have taken place in her last six years working at the college. The last time “Romeo and Juliet” was done, it was set in a very contem-porary style. Nicole, however, plans to stray away from that.

“I’m going for more of a re-alism perspective,” Diestler said. “I want to tackle the relationship dynamics. It will allow students to experience multifaceted re-lationships.”

The play is one she is very familiar with. Although it’s a piece that’s rec-ognizable by a large amount of people, Diestler is going to portray it in a fashion that not many are familiar with.

The play will be set in A.D. 8 when the world is transition-

ing with the rise of Christianity. During this time, Jewish people were under the Roman Occupa-tion and are getting caught up in their personal desires, choices, and earthy distractions. Ultimate-ly, they are losing their focus on God.

“I’m trying to go back in time and still keep it plausible,” Dies-tler said.

The Montagues and Capu-lets are both Jewish families; the Capulets are trying to be accept-ed by the Romans to preserve peace and safety.

“I set the play during a time where people are going through the realm of placing people above God,” Diestler said. “Romeo and Juliet are to be sacrificed. Both

winding up dead was God’s way of claiming these two in-nocent lov-ers as sacri-fice.”

Romeo will be played by James Udom and the part

of Juliet will be performed by Josette Canilao.

Udom, who is currently in his third year at DVC, originally

wanted the role as Tybalt.“The production team saw

something in me that I didn’t,” Udom said. “I’m extremely grate-ful toward them.”

Josette Canilao was just as excited to be assigned her own part.

“Who doesn’t want to be Ju-liet?” Canilao said. “She dies twice. She gets to fall in love. There are so many good things about the part.”

Diestler was extremely pleased with the casting choices. “I want

to see students who are up for the challenge and are willing to meet the bar,” Diestler said.

Diestler herself sets up a fun atmosphere for everyone in-volved in the production.

Maiya Corral, who plays the part of Rosaline, performed with Diestler last Spring semes-ter for the production “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot.” She was thrilled to get the opportunity to work with Diestler again.

“I love performing,” Corral said. “Everyone is so passionate.

Nikki takes a personal stance on the plays and it’s so much fun working with her. We all love the craft. We’re a big family.”

The show opens Oct. 14-Nov. 6. The performances will be ev-ery Friday and Saturday at 8p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Staff writer Zuli Mohammad con-tributed to this article.

CHRISTA BALINGITArts & Features Editor

McCaffrey, left, practices for the role of Tybalt and spars with Swanstrom, right, for-mer student and “Romeo and Juliet” fight director.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

New film ‘Drive’ fails to be fast or furious

“I want to see students who are

up for the challenge and are willing to

meet the bar.”

~NICOLE DIESTLERDrama instructor and “Romeo and

Juliet” director

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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

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“‘Dragon Ball Z’ had a great plot and story line, an epic show. Very action

packed.”

Andre Pippins, 20Radiology

“‘Rugrats’ was an odd show but I really enjoyed watching it with my sister ‘til five in the morning.”

Tim Toupin, 18Business

“‘My Cousin Skeeter’ was one of those shows that

I’d watch with friends and we’d become closer as we

grew up.”

Rein Pulido, 18Computer Science

“‘Lizzie McGuire’ was good when I was young.

My friend and I related to Lizzie and Miranda.”

Kelly Fortner, 17Undeclared

“‘Friends’ was funny and reminded me of my

friends as well.”

Rachel Schuester, 19Microbiology

Opinions

In David Lynch’s 1997 film “Lost Highway,” the main char-acter Fred, played by Bill Pull-man, is asked if he owns a video camera.

“No,” he says. “I like to re-member things my own way...not necessarily the way they hap-pened.”

To me, Fred’s thoughts are similar to my thoughts on pop cultural nostalgia.

Last summer, Viacom made some buzz by announcing that their cable channel TeenNICK would deviate from rerunning Drake vehicle “Degrassi: The Next Generation” to air a late-night block called “The 90’s are All That!”

The block consists of pro-

gramming from the early to mid 90’s, featuring shows like “Doug,” “Clarissa Explains It All,” and of course, “All That!”

The block seems to be suc-cessful, proving that Nickelode-on can literally sell us nostalgia.

This is all good, but I’m going to avoid it.

Firstly, some things are just better off in my memories.

When I was 7, “All That!” was pretty funny. Now I’m 21 and that was two-thirds of a lifetime ago. I doubt the show will still be as funny as it was back then, on account of the fact that I grew up, but the writing didn’t.

I suppose this is probably an-other form of escapism, but the difference is that this emphasizes

immaturity and safety. Instead of watching shows

like “Star Trek: The Next Gen-eration” or “Mad Men,” which would challenge your mind in an entertaining manner, this nostal-gic train of thought leads one to watching simple children’s fair like “The Angry Beavers.”

I should note here that I am a hypocrite in a sense, because I like to sit around with my bud-dies watching “Blue’s Clues” or “Dora the Explorer” late at night.

I would like to think that my case is slightly different because I get more enjoyment from ap-proaching the show as an adult in a snarky manner as opposed to approaching the show as an

adult going down memory lane, which is where the problem lies.

Mainly, my deal with ventur-ing into nostalgia is that it ruins memories.

Memories are awesome be-cause they’re affected by each of our own perceptions, and the beauty is that we can remember memories incorrectly.

Take my experience with “Blue’s Clues,” for instance. Be-

fore I started watching it again this summer, I remembered the show more as images than a co-herent whole: the dog, Steve, the cut-paper style.

However, now that I’ve seen it again, my memories are ruined. All I associate “Blue’s Clues” with is a bad drug trip.

In the end, venturing into nostalgia restricts your personal growth. I find it safe to assume that being adventurous with your entertainment choices will lead to you being a better person overall.

Leave your memories as mem-ories. Let’s see what’s out there.

Contact JOHN KESLER at jkesler@TheInquirerOnline.com

JOHN KESLERStaff writer

Of Mice and Masculinity in 2011

Nostalgia is great, but let’s move on

6 Thursday, September 22, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Opinions

“To stay, or to flunk out...”“To stay, to flunk or to take

a ‘W’?” As October nears and the semester gets further along, students begin to ask themselves this very question as classes get harder and work schedules change.

Changes to Title 5, the state Education Code, will limit the number of times a community college student can repeat a class. Previously, students were allowed seven chances to pass a class with a grade of C or better before the state cut off funding; now the magic number is re-duced to three.

According to the publication California Watch, limiting the times a student can enroll in a single class to three will save the state an estimated $235 million dollars.

Yes, the new limitations will create a sense of urgency among the student body to stick with a class, instead of withdrawing, and pass it within the first couple of tries.

Yes, the new limitations will put end to “student shopping,”

in which a few students enroll in a large amount classes, knowing they can take a “W” if need be.

Yes, the new limitations will save the state money, potentially allowing more funding to go to the expansion of classes and programs.

Yes, the idea of saving mil-lions of dollars and space in critical classes is appealing.

But these changes will cause vast inequities.

The first inequity is that the assessment testing process for incoming students is flawed.

Many students are placed in English or math classes that are either too remedial or too hard for their skill level.

According to a report done by the independent research organi-zation WestEd in San Francisco, less than half of the 112 com-munity colleges in the state pro-vide practice tests for students and the remaining colleges often do not inform students of this valuable resource.

When students are unprepared for their assessment tests, it puts

them at huge disadvantage to be placed in the correct class.

In a study conducted by Cali-fornia State University, Sacra-mento in October of 2010, re-

searchers found that poor class placing was one reason why only 30 percent of community col-lege students working toward an

associate degree or transferring to a four-year university achieve their goals within six years.

A second reason students retake classes is a learning dis-ability. With the influx of budget cuts to Disabled Student Servic-es, assistance for students who need extra help is very limited. DSS also helps students identify learning disabilities that they may not have ever realized were hold-ing them back. Many students struggle for a long time before they realize that they need help.

Without a grandfathering clause, the changes to Title 5 are retroactive and will prevent students who have already taken a class three times from taking the class again starting summer 2012. Students who have with-drawn from a class three times will not be allowed to take key classes for transfer, also prevent-ing them from earning an associ-ate degree.

Limiting the number of times a student can repeat a class is yet another example of California community colleges venturing

away from their motto, “lifelong learning.” Changes turn students away from furthering their edu-cation and taking classes for self-enrichment. Though in these economic times saving money is always good in theory, the state needs to take into consideration how students will be affected.

Title 5 saves money yet creates inequities

Masculinity is a religion that most men adhere to at one point or another. As I recall, at the age of 8, I was mesmerized by men who danced around in leotards and giant transforming robots on my TV; thus my concept of manhood was born.

My father, amused by my childish notions of masculin-ity, nurtured this love of per-formance art until he felt it was time to propagate the “correct” concept of masculinity. A con-cept of masculinity, in its many incarnations, that leaves its prac-titioners with a lack of identity.

We, as DVC students, see this inadequacy of identity in culture mediums, ranging from language to profession. According to soci-ologist Jackson Toby’s hypothesis on “Violence and the Masculine Ideal,” at the core of these char-

acteristics, lies a deep seated fra-gility; masculinity, among men, is defined not by what you are, but what you have done.

No matter how many touch-downs, no matter how many one-nighters you pull, no matter how amazing your interior designs skills; in the end, none of these actions or “achievements” truly last in the eyes of our peers.

In other words: the ladies, gentlemen, are not impressed.

Most advertisements, pop songs, and culture of our gen-eration; how we do, Imma be, Old Spice slogans that capitalize on the enduring quality of men to adapt to a constantly chang-ing environment, all are clever ploys to exploit and profit off of a man’s inclination to feel “man-ly.” For most men, this fragility is often shielded by aggressive

displays of asserted dominance. I remember my first experience with bullies, the names, the ha-rassment, the wedgies to glean from me the last of my lunch money.

This alternative of aggres-sive action, as explained by The Messerschmidt Theory, becomes an acceptable approach if other methods are not initially success-ful. These aggressive displays of dominance (false confidence), are attributed to men considered as “tools.”

When masculinity is rec-ognized for its more positive qualities of independence and confidence, it will stop being as-sociated with violent, insecure behavior?

Qualities that can be ex-pressed through nonviolent methods that allow men to be

respected rather than ostracized for their behavior. Exactly why, when discussing with my man friends, or “mands,” the trials and tribulations of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice trilogy, that I can express my own interests whilst the conversation inevita-bly careens to a no-holds barred verbal jousting of whether or not the Giants will take the season if Brian Wilson shaves his beard.

To avoid ostracism and exploi-tation, men and their masculinity

deserve, as stated by Andrew Romano of The Daily Beast, a “reimagining of what [men] should be expected to do in the two realms; home and work”; to liberate themselves from condi-tioned roles and professions to pursue opportunities that arise in the changing environment.

Not that wielding a makeshift shotgun whilst spouting obscen-ities and dressing like a cultural sociopath is not “manly.” I love Bruce Campbell as much as the next guy. But masculinity should be less of a religion and more of a belief, a belief that men are born men with enduring quali-ties of independence and con-fidence that women everywhere can have faith in.

Contact SEAN WILKEY at swilkey@TheInquirerOnline.com

SEAN WILKEYStaff writer

“Yet another example of California

community colleges ven-turing away from their

motto, ‘life-long learning.’”

~The Inquirer

SPORTS 7The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, September 22, 2011

Vikings stay strong

Quarterback Spencer Van Brunt tucks the ball and runs up field at Contra Costa College. Photos by STEVIE CHOW

In their second game, DVC beat CCC 31-26

It wasn’t pretty, and the Vi-kings had to use all three of their quarterbacks, but DVC came away with a 31-26 win over Contra Costa College on Saturday.

“They tell me to always be ready,” back-up quarterback Quinn Kaehler said. “I just wanted to come in and do my job.”

After starting quarterback Spencer Van Brunt was pulled midway through the second quarter, Kaehler came into the game with DVC trailing 13-7.

He made quick work of the Comets defense throwing a 57 yard touchdown pass to Cam-eron Rowland on his second drive to tie the score.

It was Rowland’s first catch of his college career. He said he was, “really nervous. We’ve been working all summer to-gether, I came in a little late but it’s good to be on the same page with the quarterbacks.”

Kaehler threw one intercep-tion but was aided by running backs CJ Best, Vince Ferrante, and Dozie Iwaugwu who each had a rushing touchdown.

Andre’ Lewis had two beau-tiful catches to set up these scoring runs.

At halftime, DVC led 19-13 and of-fensive line coach Da-vid Garcia said, “We need to hang onto the ball in the second half. The penalties are killing us.”

On DVC’s first drive of the second half, after missing two extra points, DVC chose to go for it on fourth down.

They had a turnover on downs, but didn’t give up an-other for the rest of the game, leading to two touchdowns.

The defense was the story once again though, holding Contra Costa to 45 rushing

yards while accumulating five sacks, including Morgan Bres-lin’s game ending sack.

The defense forced Con-tra Costa to punt on ten of their 14 possessions, and gave up only 13 points in the first half and only six points in the second. CCC scored another touchdown on a botched snap during a punt attempt.

Head Coach Mike Darr said of the game, “Unfortunately we made some mistakes early, made the game much closer than it should have been.

Our guys showed a lot of char-acter, com-ing back from early adversity, on the road…”

DVC has now won their two games by a combined score of 73-26.

The team is off to a fast start and will have teams gun-ning for them the rest of the season.

They will know this heading into Sierra College this Satur-day.

Runningback Vince Ferrante runs the ball in for a touchdown at the Sept. 17 football game.

SCOTT ANNISSports editor

Runningback Dozie Iwaugwu runs up field in the second game of the season. Iwaugwu got a running touchdown during the game against the Contra Costa Comets.

Contact SCOTT ANNIS at san-nis@TheInquirerOnline.com

Sports in Brief

Bears score Neu coach

Cal’s athletic department decided it was time to bring aboard a pitching coach who would consistently lead the Golden Bears to the College World Series.

The Bears didn’t have to scour the conferences seek-ing a coach from a competi-tive NCAA program.

In fact, they were able to acquire a gifted young coach who had a stellar background in develop-ing quality programs built around pitching.

Cal found its gem much closer to the Caldecott tun-nel.

It was Diablo Valley Col-lege’s head baseball coach Mike Neu.

Neu had a history at DVC, having led the Vi-kings to an 87-41 record during his three seasons in Pleasant Hill. He also add-ed two Big 8 Conference Titles to a Vikings baseball program already acquainted with talent.

His influence was widely appreciated amongst the players he coached.

“A real great guy, always taught us how to behave on and off the field. He taught us how to present ourselves. He prepared us for the ad-versities of life. He was one of the better coaches I’ve ever had,” said Matt Burks, the Vikings center fielder.

Burks’ sentiments are a fine testimony to Neu’s dedication and coaching philosophy.

“I think a lot of these athletes choose DVC be-cause they know they can transfer easily and continue towards their goals,” Neu said as he considered his time at DVC.

Cal’s decision to go with Neu was based on its belief that he could build on a res-urrected program. It would be a fragile task, indeed, for the former Vikings skipper. Neu, however, is enthused about the challenge.

“This has been a great move for me,” he said. “I have great memories from DVC. I had wonderful re-lationships there with the players and staff. But I’m really excited about the op-portunity to coach at Cal.”

Neu’s transition to UC-Berkeley is similar to the journey many DVC stu-dents make when they transfer to Cal.

It involves the same ex-citement and uncertainty.

The process bears the same responsibility; allow-ing access to vast resources that absolutely must be treated and used with rev-erence.

It is a delicate balance for one to strike, but is parallel to an element that seems to be abundant in the person-ality at DVC.

It’s why Cal recognizes DVC as the talent pool that it is.

It’s why the Bears enroll droves of the DVC student body.

And it’s why Cal offered the job to Neu.

Contact GRIFFIN HENNING at ghenning@TheInquirerOn-

line.com

GRIFFIN HENNINGStaff writer

The Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers both lost this weekend, the second week in the 17-week football season. The Raid-ers played the upstart Buf-falo Bills led by Harvard graduate Ryan Fitzpatrick. While the 49ers played their long time foe, the Dallas Cowboys.

Offensively the Raiders were excited. quarterback Jason Campbell threw for 323 yards including a 50-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Denarious Moore to give the Raiders the lead in the fourth quar-ter.

The running game for the Raiders was dominated by Darren McFadden, who rushed for 72 yards. He was also a key factor in the passing game, having seven receptions for 71 yards. He had 143 all purpose yards with a touchdown both as receiver and a runner.

Frank Gore of the 49ers was less then spectacular again this week, but did manage a touchdown and 47 yards on 20 carries, and three receptions for 17 yards.

The defenses of both teams played very well in the first half. The Raiders defense only allowed three points going into the third quarter. While the 49ers de-fense only allowed a single touchdown.

The 49ers didn’t allow as many points as the Raiders and forced over time against America’s team (The Cow-boys). During overtime the 49ers were forced to punt and the Cowboys took the ball into the redzone and kicked a game winning field goal to win 27-24.

Considering both teams lost their matchups, the Raiders loss to the Bills in Buffalo, New York was less detrimental to the team for the rest of the season. “Its tough but I like the Raiders chances more,” said Tim Hughes, a Raiders fan.

The 49ers loss to the Cowboys at home was backbreaking. To lose in overtime is tough. To lose in overtime after leading almost the whole game at home is even worse.

“They both don’t know how to finish, it’s like a baseball team with no closer,” said Ryan Hilton, a 49ers fan.

The biggest factor be-tween the losses this week-end is that now the 49ers have only six home games remaining this year, while the Raiders have all eight home games remaining.

“The Raiders looked much better than the 49ers this weekend,” said James Odell, a neutral fan of both teams. On the upside, both the 49ers and Raiders are 1-0 in division.

Contact STEPHEN LANGSAM at stlangsam@TheInquirerOn-

line.com

STEPHEN LANGSAMOnline editor

“Our guys showed a lot of character, com-

ing back from early adversity, on the road.”

~MIKE DARRHead Coach

Water polo thrives in the waterAt the American River College Beaver Invitational, the men’s cross

country team had a good showing placing three guys in the top 25. The men had to run a four mile track on Sept. 17. Eric Brooks placed 15th with a time of 22 minutes 24 seconds. In 17th place Greg Garcia had a time of 22:27. The team came in fourth out of six schools.

The women’s Cross Country team competed at the ARC Beaver Invi-tational as well. Their race was three miles long and began at 11:15am. The team did excellent with two women in the top 15. Carmen Marti-nez came in seventh with a time of 20 minutes and 33 seconds. Jessica Reed had a time of 21:35 to give her a 12th place finish. The team came in fourth out of five teams.

Cross Country continues to placeThe men’s water polo team had a tournament at Cuesto College

where they won three matches but lost to Golden West College 17-6. Their team chemistry continued to grow as they beat UC Riverside,

LA Valley and Ventura. The women’s water polo team went to the West Valley tournament Sept. 16-17, and finished with two wins and two losses. They beat West valley 20-3, and Ohlone 10-3. They lost to Merced 10-6, and Cuesta 6-4. Merced is among the top teams in the state and DVC played them tight the whole match. Megan Duckworth played outstanding in goal for the Vikings.

For more Sports in Brief, check out theinquireronline.com

Bay Area teams fallout

8 Thursday, September 22, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Sports

The lacrosse team holds up their sticks

during the Sept. 14 scrimmage. The team

plays against four-year schools for pride.

Uncrowned kingsLacrosse continues to

reign over 4-year teams

The clang of sticks hit-ting pads and plays being screamed from the sidelines echoed through Viking Sta-dium as the DVC Lacrosse club kicked off the season with their “White and Green” scrimmage on Sept. 14.

The audience experienced pure excitement while watch-ing the state’s top-ranked community college Lacrosse club. In fact, DVC has the only community college team in California, making it one of the most unique clubs on campus.

In late 2008, advisor Terry Armstrong, staff coordinator Al Boyce and five dedicated players sat in a cramped coun-seling office and drafted ideas on how to form the club.

The first challenge was be-ing able to fill a 20-man roster in order to lock up field time. After signing up 19 players in total, the team was one mem-ber short.

“We needed the field time,” Boyce exclaimed. “So I told Terry to put my name down on the roster as a fourth string goalie. We didn’t even have a third string goalie, it just meant we had to pull someone from the stands be-fore I suit up.”

Since then, word of mouth and the club’s individuality helped the club explode into what it is today; they are field-ing a 48-man roster. “The team is really starting to come together as a family,” said first year midfielder Octavio Mar-tinez, “we have a lot of po-tential to do great things.”

“A lot of high schools in the East Bay have good pro-grams, but as far as college programs go there is a big gap for talented players to get on teams. We are happy to fill that gap,” coach Jon Skinner said.

Since the DVC Lacrosse team is the only community college team in the state, they are not allowed to play in the spring during the official Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse As-

sociation, or MCLA, season. Although they won’t be

playing for a championship, the Vikings play for some-thing bigger: pride. The La-crosse club is one of the only DVC teams that regularly competes with four-year uni-versities. Not only do they compete, but they win. Since it’s inception, the team has pulled in victories against schools like Stanford, UC Davis and San Jose State.

“We love to surprise them,” Armstrong said with a smile.

Furthermore, every time a Viking Lacrosse player takes the field, their opponent is effectively scouting them. In the past three years, 20 play-ers have transferred on to four-year programs at UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and University of Nevada, Reno.

“We take pride in good re-cruiting,” Boyce said. “Some of these guys might have had a bad game at a tournament in high school or have made

a leap in improve-ment since be-ing scout-ed, and we’re able

to provide them a second look.”

As the club moves for-ward, they continue to brain-storm ways to get a chance at a championship.

“What we’re trying to sug-gest to the MCLA is a com-munity college league with the creation of other clubs in Northern California, but that’s a ways away,” Arm-strong said. “They still don’t know what to do with us.”

Although they aren’t af-forded that chance for glory, it doesn’t discourage the team on the field. In the press box at the first scrimmage, Boyce sat back in his chair and said, “We’ll play anybody.”

The Vikings are looking forward to a season better than last year as they prepare to show off their grit and intensity on the field against University of Pacific at 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at Viking Stadium.

Midfielder Louis Jacobus dodges players. He is one of 48 students on the lacrosse team this semester.

Lacrosse players wait and prepare for the first

scrimmage of the year.

Midfielder Chris Banks cradles the ball on Sept. 14. He is one of

the many students waiting to play against four-year schools.

Terry Armstrong, lacrosse club advisor, stands in the announcer’s box watching the team. He started

the club with Al Boyce and 20 students in 2008.

TOM RIZZAStaff writer

Contact TOM RIZZA at trizza@TheInquirerOnline.com

“We take pride in good recruiting.”

~AL BOYCELacrosse staff coordinator

Photos by DANIELLE BARCENA