UnionT h e

eccunion.comApril 3, 2014

Torrance, California

NE

WS

LI

NE

University Transfer Fair

On April 10 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., there will be a Univer-sity Transfer Fair on the Library Lawn featuring dozens of repre-sentatives from campuses all over California. For more information, call the Transfer Center at 310-660-3593, ext. 6137.

Keeping up with Congress and its money

The Political Science Depart-ment will host a film and discus-sion about where money to run Congress comes from and what it buys. “Priceless” is scheduled for April 10 at 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the East Dinning Room. For more in-formation, call Wendy Lozano at 310-660-3595, ext. 5735.

Scholarship Award Ceremony

Attend the Scholarship Award Ceremony on April 16 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., as $1.4 million is awarded to approximately 650 students. The ceremony will take place in Marsee Auditorium. For more information, call Nancy Tonner at 310-660-3593, ext. 6039.

CSU Long Beach Tour

Students interested in transferring to California State University, Long Beach can take advantage of a campus tour April 4. Reser-vations are required in order to attend this event. To sign up, visit the Transfer Center located in the Student Services Building, first floor.

EC employees protest amidst little progress

However, even as the El Camino Clas-sified Employees (ECCE) and El Camino College Federation of Teachers (ECCFT) walk in their self-named “solidarity marches,” substantive negotiations be-tween the unions and the district remain in contrasting gridlock.

“We had our first mediation meeting March 13,” Luukia Smith, president of the ECCE, said. “The mediator said that neither of us are in a place where we can come together on anything, so we only met for half a day and then left.”

At present, all three groups are still standing by wildly dif-ferent propositions. The EC district is proposing a 5 percent raise spread over three years while the ECCFT and the ECCE are negotiating for a 5 percent raise every year for three years and a singular, 6 percent raise respectively.

“While [state] appor-tionment decreased, the unrestricted fund balance increased, and so did the president’s sal-ary,” Gary Turner, vice president of po-litical action for the ECCE, said. “Those are the kinds of facts we’re dealing with when you talk about laying out whether [a raise] is sustainable.”

Turner points out that employees got a 3 percent raise in 2007-08, a year before apportionment funds peaked at $111 mil-lion and began steadily dropping to $104 million in 2012-13. Despite this raise and the subsequent decrease in revenue, in those same years, the district’s ending balance grew from $13 million to $20 million.

“If you want to talk about sustainabil-

ity, here’s historical evidence that a raise, at the onset of the Great Recession, was sustainable,” he said. “If during that time a 3 percent raise was sustainable, why, with an improving economy and a reserve balance four times what it’s required to be, would you question the sustainabil-ity?”

The district, however, views its reserve funds in a wholly different light.

“There is no requirement or obliga-tion to be looking at that ending bal-ance,” Spencer Covert, the district’s chief negotiator, said. “No one says ‘There’s

money left over in your checkbook so you have to spend it.’ The only time you’re going to consider reserves is if the district is saying we’re financial-ly strapped and we can’t pay a comparable wage.”

The issue of compara-bility, how similar posi-tions at similar districts are paid, is central to the district’s position. Covert describes it as the metric

by which either side will appeal to the state’s mediators, and if a compromise cannot be reached, the panel that will de-cide upon a formal recommendation.

“It really doesn’t matter whether a union wants a 5 or 6 percent increase. Because they could just as easily want 10 percent,” he said. “It’s not what a union wants which will be considered signifi-cant. It’s going to be what salaries do we have, and how do they compare with other neighboring community colleges?”

[See NEGOTIATIONS, Page 2]

Their chants rounded the Administra-tion Building and spilled onto Crenshaw

Boulevard, floating ahead of a body of 50 dis-gruntled teachers and classified employees. Many carried signs emblazoned with “5%,” a clarion call for the raise they believe is long overdue.

Eric HsiehNews Editor@ECCUnionEric

EL C

AM

INO

C

OLL

EGE

John Fordiani/ UnionThe El Camino Classified Employees are asking for a 6 percent raise over the current, 3-year district proposal, while the El Camino College Federation of Teachers are asking for a 5 percent raise.

Rigo BonillaStaff Writer@ECCUnionRigo

Up to $5.5 million will have to be paid back to the California Community College Chancel-lor’s Office (CCCCO) by the EC Compton Center (ECCC) due to contractual errors with instruc-tors in the cosmetology program.

“Obviously any school losing $5 million hurts budget-wise, but it doesn’t all have to be paid back right away,” Barbara Perez, the

Compton Center’s vice president, said. “We don’t have to pay it back in a lump sum, so we’ll set up a payment schedule with the Chan-cellor’s office. The final amount has not been determined.”

The ECCC has been preparing for the possibility of having to pay back the money for some time.

“We knew we were going to have to pay the Chancellor’s Of-fice back some money, so we ac-tually had put aside $1.2 million out of our budget this year,” Perez said.

While the final liability is still undetermined, it is expected to have little effect on the everyday functions of the Compton Center, and none at all for the Torrance campus.

“[The payment] is not going to affect class offerings at all,” Perez said.

The exact repayment is still be-ing negotiated with the CCCCO.

“We’re still working with the Chancellor’s Office to determine the liabilities for the district,” Keith Curry, CEO of the Comp-

ton Center, said. “That’s the rea-son I can’t give a dollar amount, because they don’t know.”

Curry said that any money being returned will be coming strictly from the Compton Center and will not have an effect on the Torrance campus’s money.

The reasons for the payback were contract issues with ECCC’s third-party beauty school.

“The Compton Community College District has two Instruc-tional Service Agreements cur-rently in place providing educa-

tion to students,” according to a 2010-11 audit, section 2011-25. “One of the agreements, Univer-sal Beauty School, was found by the district to not have all the required elements within the contract as required by the State Chancellor’s office, as well as not having the required contracts with the instructors of the courses offered.”

Because of these contract is-sues, some funding received for full-time estimated students will have to be returned.

EC Compton received fund-ing for 197.30 full time estimated students under the Instructional Services Agreement in 2009-2010 and 265.51 in 2008-2009, accord-ing to the 2010-11 audit report.

As of now, the Compton Cen-ter no longer offers cosmetology classes.

“We had a contract with Uni-versal College of beauty, which was a part of the audit finding, and we did not continue that con-tract for this current year,” Curry said.

John Fordiani/ UnionEnglish professor Mary Ann Leiby protests with other faculty members on March 25 over salary negotiations. The “solidarity marches” are organized by EC’s faculty and classified employee unions every Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Compton Center loses $5.5 million over contract issues

“ No one says ‘There’s money left in your checkbook so you have to spend it.’ ”

Spencer Covert,

district chief negotiator

/ElCaminoUnion

@ECCUnion

/ECCUnion

Joel LeonStaff Writer@ECCUnionJoel

EC students were not the only ones on break two weeks ago, but also the MyECC portal, which underwent maintenance and remained unaccessible to students.

Scheduled downtime was set for March 18, but students who attempted to access MyECC for a week after that date were un-able to, which raised concerns.

“Our [maintenance] expecta-tion was one day,” Mr. William E. Warren, assistant director of Information Technology Servic-es, said. “Our vendor explained that’s all it really needed.”

However, the planned date for maintenance failed due to vari-ous causes.

“It took a week because we had to find all the bumps in the road and document those,” War-ren said.

According to Warren, the maintenance was also prolonged due to staff illnesses.

“Things happen. Our staff became ill and they weren’t able to come in for a day,” Warren said.

The MyECC portal is now up and running and, with students’ feedback, the new and rede-signed MyECC portal features a “much more user-friendly” system that not only has an im-proved performance, but also a new architecture, Warren added.

“It has a cleaner look,” Pete Marcoux, vice president of aca-

demic technology for the Aca-demic Senate, said.

Since Windows XP will be going out of date on April 8, Windows 7 has now been pro-grammed to many of the com-puters, he said. This creates some problems for some users who try to access MyECC.

For students who are still hav-ing problems with their MyECC, Warren recommends they delete their unnecessary cookies.

“It’s storing that old informa-tion from the old portal and it doesn’t work with the new one,” he said.

Warren also added that EC staff were warned about the scheduled maintenance several weeks in advance.

Despite MyECC going dark for a week, students and staff who were denied access are now able to see their portal.

“We typically, if it’s a planned maintenance, choose where it least impacts students,” Warren said. “It just seemed most logi-cal during spring break.”

Celine WestStaff Writer@ECCUnionCeline

Four of EC’s top debaters tackled the merits and demerits of a 5 percent faculty pay raise at the Campus Theater on March 31.

The entire auditorium was filled for the sold-out perfor-mance, with both students and faculty members listening intent-ly to the team debate this contro-versial issue.

“The event was organized to demonstrate a policy debate. It was a demonstration to present it fairly and not to slant it in any-way,” Francesca Bishop, director of forensics, said.

The government team, which supported the 5 percent raise, and the opposition, who pre-sented the opposing side, each illustrated the validity of both perspectives.

“Faculty have been required to do hundreds of hours of addi-tional work without being com-pensated for it,” Brooke Matson, government team debater, said during the debate. “If you have extra work, you have to be com-pensated for it. We think faculty have had an increase in work load without any kind of increase in pay, and if there was, it was barely a cost of living adjust-ment.”

While the government team aligned itself with the faculty union, the opposition team ar-gued the differently.

“Our faculty gets paid the highest in the first few years [compared to] other colleges ac-cording to a Santa Rosa study,” Nicholas Bishop, opposition team debater, said during the de-bate, “Faculty are hired to teach class and serve on committees. It was always part of their job de-scription. They have to be able to

uphold the educational process, but provide the best education that they can.”

Afterwards, debaters from both sides expressed that their collective goal was to provide people with information from both viewpoints so they can be-gin to think more independently about the issue.

“The point of this is to edu-cate students on this one prob-lem, so that other people start thinking about it,” Frank Masi, 19, international relations major,

and debater for the opposition team, said. “I think it definitely opened some people’s eyes. I hope it allowed some people to see that both sides have a certain level of merit.”

The performance offered stu-dents a greater understanding of the topic and many came away with some newfound knowledge.

“It gives me more informa-tion and a deeper understanding. I saw the signs, but I didn’t know as much about it before,” Taylor Meyer, 21, computer science ma-

jor, said.Other students echoed Mey-

er’s appreciation for the way the debaters framed the issue.

“I came in with an opinion al-ready. I feel everyone in general has an opinion, whether or not they have information. I think they did a good job presenting both sides,” Areli Navarro, 18, criminal justice major, said.

The opposing team concluded their argument with a compro-mise that offered faculty more than what the district had of-

fered.“I think it is interesting that

the opposition wanted to do the 5 percent for the first year, then the 1.5 percent and so on. Nobody on the debate team supported what the district was offering,” Francesca Bishop said. “I think it should come up from what the district is offering. The fact is we are 13th paid of 16 community colleges. We are three from the bottom.”

neWs2 El Camino College Union April 3, 2014

POLICE BEAT

Grand theft leaves Coca-Cola flat out of business

March 19, 11 a.m.—A grand theft report was made at the sta-tion. A representative of the Coca-Cola company stated that a vend-ing machine was missing from an area of the field house. There are currently no witnesses to the theft.

Driving fumble leads to nasty tumble

March 27, 10:50 a.m.—Of-ficers responded to a traffic col-lision report on Redondo Beach Boulevard, just west of the bridge. A male student stated that he was driving west bound on the periph-eral road by Lot H when his gas pedal became stuck, and he lost control of his vehicle. The ve-hicle swerved left, drove over the embankment, and landed in the middle of the number two lane of Redondo Beach Boulevard. In the process, the car flipped, landing driver-side door down. Paramed-ics were called, but the driver did not suffer any significant injuries, and was released.

Alleged burglar screws up

March 24, 5:30 a.m.—Offi-cers responded to the auditorium regarding a suspicious circum-stances call. A pair of female cus-todians noticed lights on near the ticket box office that should have been off. When officers arrived to investigate the scene, they ob-served pry marks in the wooden door to the ticket box office, along with wood chips on the floor be-neath it. The door had been pried open. A second set of doors be-hind the first that lead into the ticket box office proper, also had pry marks, but had not been suc-cessfully opened. Another office in the vicinity also had obvious pry marks, along with fresh wood chips beneath it. Officers observed an unattended bike in the north patio, that was not locked. Officers moved the bike to another area of the north patio, and secured it with handcuffs. While they con-tinued to search the area, officers observed a male subject attempt to mount the bicycle and leave the area. Officers detained the subject, who was a non-student. Officers confirmed that the bike belonged to the subject, and conducted a search of the subject, where they discovered a screwdriver in his possession. The subject refused to speak with officers, and was arrested with probable cause on suspicion of commercial burglary, and transported to Torrance Po-lice Department for booking.

Student issues restraining order against ex-boyfriend

March 24, 10 a.m.—Officers responded to the Student Activi-ties Center regarding a possible stalking report. A female student had recently broken up with her boyfriend, and had issues with him off campus. She supplied ECPD with a temporary restrain-ing order in case the ex-boyfriend attempted to come on campus. Officers advised the student of the emergency phone system on campus, as well as the number to directly reach ECPD dispatch.

Slamming the breaks on bike scavengers

March 17, 9:30 a.m.—Officers responded to the bicycle racks near the Humanities Building re-garding a suspicious person call. Officers contacted a male student who was attempting to remove a part from a bicycle that was locked to the rack. The student claimed that the bike was abandoned, and that he was attempting to remove the crankshaft to install it on his bike later. The officers informed the student that taking pieces from the bike, even if it appeared aban-doned, was illegal, and released the student with a verbal warning.

John Fordiani/ Unionnicholas Bishop, international relations, argues against the faculty union’s salary proposal in the Campus Theater on March 31. The eC debate team held the event to frame the ongoing negotiations between the district and teachers.

Policy debate gives both sides weight

Lorilynn LomeliStaff Writer@ECCUnionLorilyn

In 1911, a roaring fire de-voured the lives of 146 women, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fac-tory became their coffin.

This tragic-yet-pivotal event birthed important 20th century social and economic changes. So for Women’s History Month, Sue Dowden, sociology profes-sor, organized a showing of the documentary “Triangle Fire” on March 25 in hopes of teaching EC students about the event’s significance.

“If we forget history, it’s bound to repeat itself,” Dowden said.

This documentary directed attention towards gender in-equality 100 years ago. It dem-onstrated that the Triangle Shirt-waist Factory owners’ concerns dealt chiefly with profits and not with the safety of their workers.

“[The owners] spent a lot of money to stop them from union-izing, to stop the women from [getting] their voice heard,” Luukia Smith, president of the El Camino Classified Employees, said, speaking on behalf of union workers after the film.

This exploited them as both women and employees, she add-ed.

Viewers couldn’t help but to be reminded of stark parallels between the 1910s and now.

“I started thinking about the comparisons. I didn’t really feel empowered. I felt depressed [because of] the similarities be-tween what happened 100 years ago and what’s happening now,” Sarah Musnicky, 21, English ma-jor, and a member of the panel that helped organize the docu-mentary showing, said.

According to “Triangle Fire,” the women workers, on the cusp of social change, unionized in attempt to do away with horren-dous and unfair working condi-tions: 14 hour work shifts, a daily pay of $2 or less, and an expec-tation to sew 3,000 stitches each minute.

Workers would often have to pay for their mistakes, electric-

ity, and thread.“That’s wrong. [If] they go

home with no money, they are starving their family,” Laquisha Radford, 26, sociology major and attendee, said.

Despite the plummet in morale immediately after the tragedy, a strong middle class emerged as a result of the conse-quent reform.

“This history is very impor-tant and if we can show it to your generation today, maybe they will understand what it takes to do what those people did,” Dowden said, “to make it a bet-ter workplace.”

Modern-day unsafe work-places, mines for example, still bother Smith. As of 2000, there

are still an estimated 255,000 sweatshop workers in the U.S.

“Some of this still goes on to-day, even though we have laws,” she said. “The government agen-cy that is supposed to be moni-toring safety [has] been cut. So they don’t have enough inspec-tors to go around and check. That’s where unions come in to be the watchdogs.”

The number of unions is de-creasing, however, which takes power away from the workers, according to Dowden.

“LA Unified took a 10 percent pay cut,” Dowden said. “I mean excuse me. They took a 10 per-cent pay cut. Who does that to teachers? Well, this world today does that to teachers.”

neGOTIATIOns, Continued from Page 1

However, what they see as a plentiful reserve isn’t the unions’ only talking point. They argue that their claim to a higher raise is supported by forecasts for increased funding.

“We’re already getting more apportionment money this year than we did last year and the economic forecast is improving daily,” Turner said. “The state now has $965 million, almost a billion, more than they fore-casted they would have. That’s on top of them already antici-pating some extra money.”

In the upcoming years, that sort of increased revenue will come to represent the norm and not the exception, he said.

“The Legislative Analyst’s Office put out a report at the end of February which forecasts, on average, a 7 percent growth for the next four years in state rev-enues,” Turner added. “By vir-tue of Prop. 30, a percentage of those increased revenues have to be funneled to education.”

While the unions point to-ward encouraging news for the future, the district still has a few qualms about claims they’ve heard made about the past.

“The faculty continue to be

paid automatic step increases. Last July, 118, a little over one-third, of the faculty received an automatic percentage increase,” Covert said. “There’s a differ-ence between saying 64 percent of teachers haven’t received a raise and saying nobody has re-ceived a raise.”

Those automatic step in-creases, a means for the district to reward employees for their continued loyalty and work, amount to increases between 2.2 and 3.45 percent.

“You’re not being prudent if you say that on top of that, we’re spending another 5 percent,” Covert said. “Because where you’re getting 1.5 percent more [in COLA] money, you’re go-ing to be increasing someone’s salary by as much as 8 percent. That’s not prudent and it’s not comparable.”

Through the opaque fog of opposing evidence, claims, and sometimes accusations, it seems there’s only one thing everyone can agree to: they’ve been stuck for quite some time.

“My feeling is that if we can’t, in two meetings of media-tion, have conversation to work something out, then I think we say ‘mediation isn’t working’ and the next step is fact-find-ing,” Smith said.

“ We typically, if it’s a planned maintenance, choose where it least impacts students. It just seemed most logical during spring break. ”

William Warren,

assistant director ofInformation Technology

Services

An absentee MyECC

Visiting the Triangle Factory Fire a century later

EC’s portal goes down for maintenance and a redesign.

Lorilynn LomeliStaff Writer @ECCUnionLorilyn

Light polluted-Los Angeles can often make it difficult to see the stars. Be-cause of this, it’s easy to forget that there is a whole universe surround-ing us. The Planetarium on campus

allows us to see the starry sky in absence of light pollution as well as simulated astronomical events including moon orbits and supernova explosions.

Astronomical shows - free and open to the public - are shown at the Planetarium monthly. The topics are wide-ranging including dark holes, exploding supernovas, death of massive stars, and current astronomical news.

The upcoming Planetarium shows are April 11 at 8 p.m. and May 17 at 3 p.m.

Susan Stolovy, physics instructor, who pres-ents the shows with astronomy lecturer Shimonee Kadakia.

Another show was about “stars like our sun, which are not massive, and have very different end states. It will become a different kind of star eventually. It will be a red giant and then a white dwarf and then it will just kind of slowly burn out,” Stolovy said.

At one of the 3 p.m. shows, students looked safely at the sun through a special telescope. They were able to see sunspots and other features of the sun.

The most recent show on March 15 was on the spring equinox.

Kadakia said “on equinox, the sun rises directly east and sets directly west [which] causes the sun to be out for 12 hours and to be gone for 12 hours, so we get equal day and night everywhere in the whole world. It shows the starting of spring.”

The Planetarium hailed back to the early ‘60s, Jessica Asbell, astronomy aide and graduate stu-dent, said. She assists both Kadakia and Stolovy with the shows.

“We used to do Planetarium shows here for the public a while ago and then they stopped,” Kadakia said. “Professor [Vincent] Lloyd would do shows every once in a while.”

Kadakia said they started the shows again a year and a half ago.

She was inspired to begin them since EC has this “great facility” and she wanted to spread astronomy. After talking to the dean of sciences, Kadakia was able to start the shows again. Stolovy and Asbell

later helped her orchestrate the events.Stolovy, Kadakia, and Asbell all raved about the

technology, especially the projectors, that students have access to.

“We have two different sky projectors in the Planetarium. One of them is the traditional star projector. It projects the sky onto the dome and you can set it to any date and any time on any location in the world, and it will show you the sky very ac-curately,” Asbell said. “Most recently, we acquired a digital projector which is a little bit different in its function. It runs high resolution digital video. You can actually simulate astronomical events as seen from outer space like a moon orbiting a planet or a supernova explosion.”

All students are welcome to join in on view-ing the shows. Although there are some amateur astronomers who “know the sky like the back of their hands, we also have people who have never been in a Planetarium and never did anything with a telescope before,” Stolovy said.

Asbell encourages students to take advantage of this resource. She was majoring in communications as a student at EC; however, her primary academic interests shifted when she took an astronomy course.

The shows have continued to procure viewers. “For the past eight or nine shows it’s been a full house,” Kadakia said.

“[It has] been great,” Kadakia said. “People are always happy with it and they thank us for putting [the shows] on, but honestly, we are so happy to do it. As much astronomy as we can spread, we will spread it.”

featuresApril 3, 2014 El Camino College Union 3

“ People are always happy with it and they thank us for put-ting [the shows] on, but hon-estly, we are so happy to do it. As much astronomy as we can spread, we will spread it.

“

Shimonee Kadakia,

exp ring the

Upcoming Planetarium

shows:

April 11 at 8 p.m.

May 17 at 3 p.m.

night sky

TOP: Photo by Trayvon Stinnett on an Astronomy Club trip last spring. ABOVE: CHRONOS, a projector used to view stars in the Planetarium, is used regularly in as-tronomy classes on campus. Photo by John Fordiani. HEADLINE: Moon photo by Charles Ryder.

astronomy lecturer

College athletes are students, they are not professional athletes and should not be given similar treatment that professionals receive.

They are amatuers using college to further their education as well as improve their craft.

Making it to the big leagues is a guiding factor in how they choose their institution of choice, but the quality of education also plays a part.

Since the National Collegiate Athletic Asso-ciation (NCAA) was founded in 1906, student ath-letes have never formed a union.

That’s 108 years.Northwestern University football players are

looking to make collegiate history after Peter Sung Ohr, regional director of the National Labor Rela-tions Board in Chicago, ruled on March 26 that the athletes are university employees and therefore entitled to an election that will determine whether they can form a union according to an article on ESPN.com.

But what are the costs of this move if they suc-ceed?

Since the inception of the NCAA, the organiza-tion has been committed to giving young people an opportunity to learn, play, and succeed accord-ing to NCCA.org.

Allowing college athletes to unionize will ef-fectively take away the essence of college sports and the balance the NCAA has tried to keep be-tween education and sports.

According to a Chicago Tribune article, col-lege football players are compensated in the form of scholarships, which are about $76,000 per aca-demic year if the player enrolls in summer classes.

Scholarships are a contract between the college and athlete. It is an agreement that the athlete will play their sport of choice for the college and in re-turn receive a higher education.

Along with scholarship money, most athletes are also provided with paid tuition, housing, and food plans while they attend their college.

As of right now the athletes are only asking for better working conditions and better health prac-tices.

But if college athletes officially become union-ized, what will stop them from to asking for mon-etary compensation?

Unions are formed to voice the majority of a group of people.

If the issue is only working conditions and safe-ty, these athletes have the avenue to skip out on college athletics and head overseas.

There are plenty of alternatives for athletes that are concerned about how the NCAA treats them.

A number of athletes choose this option for a few years and then head to the National Basketball Association (NBA).

This a valid option for students that don’t like the way the college system is operated.

Northwestern University is a private institution that may not have the same resources as a college like University of Alabama or University of Southern California (USC) where the colleges are already accommodat-ing the students in the way Kain Colter and his fellow teammates would like to be treated.

Pat Haden, athletic director at USC, stated in a press release that after looking at the demands of the players at Northwestern, most of the those demands are things that players at USC are already receiving.

For instance, USC does not yank scholarships from players and they happily pay former student-athletes to come back and complete their de-grees, according to Haden’s press release.

These athletes chose Northwestern University for a reason and if they didn’t like the environment they encountered while visiting, they have have the option to find another college to go to.

Forming a union is not the answer to the current treatment athletes receive.

If college athletes want to be treated like a professional, they can find it elsewhere, but not in an educational institution where they are getting a free ride to play a sport while receiving an education.

College is college for a reason, it’s an institution that provides students with an education to help them in the future.

Allowing athletes to form unions would be a cheap way to get a pay day for athletes who, in most cases, won’t make it at the professional level.

EDITORIAL

Associated Collegiate Press Regional Pacemaker Award1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2012

California Newspaper Publishers’ Association General Excellence Award1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005

Journalism Association of Community Colleges General Excellence Award1991, 1992, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012

The Union is published Thursdays by Journalism 11 students at El Camino College, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, CA 90506, and is free to the student body and staff.

Unsigned editorials and cartoons are the opinion of the editorial board and do not reflect the views of the student body, staff or administration. Letters to the edi-tor must be signed and must be received one week prior to publication in the Union office, Humanities Building Room 113.

Letters are subject to editing for space, libel, ob-scenity and disruption of the educational process. Sin-gle copies of the Union are free; multiple copies can be requested through the Union.

Editor-in-Chief .......................................................................Matthew SimonNews Editor .................................................................................... Eric HsiehOpinion Editor ...........................................................................Russell LewisEditorial Editor....................................................................................Angela YimFeatures Editor ......................................................................Jessica MartinezArts Editor .................................................................................. Nadia BasichPhoto Editor ................................................................................Amira PetrusMultimedia Editor ..............................................................Sebastian Spencer Copy Editor .............................................................................Thomas Schmit Copy Editor ............................................................................ Rachel Oatridge Distribution Manager .........................................................Lorenzo Gutierrez Advertising Manager .................................................................Liliana LopezAdviser .................................................................................Kate McLaughlinPhoto Adviser...................................................................................Gary Kohatsu

Vol. 68, No. 5April 3, 2014

E-mail: eccunion@gmail.comNewsroom: (310) 660-3328Advertising: (310) 660-3329

UNIONEL CAMINO COLLEGE

UNIONIZE FOR WHAT?

Weaving the budget dryDespite their obvious benefit to society, running a public school is

always an expensive prospect. In addition to having all of the typical business expenses, employees, insurance, maintenance, etc., schools must provide supplies and resources to thousands of students, many of whom can’t afford to shell out the big bucks that students attending a private school might have access to. That’s why it’s so important to make every dollar count.

While Gov. Brown’s Prop 30, passed in 2012, has helped cushion the meager government funds that public schools rely on, we’ve seen first hand here at EC the struggles and tough choices that schools are forced to endure in the face of limited funding. In that light, the $5.5 million of government funding that the EC Compton Center will have to return is a major blow to the school.

While officials have assured us that the funds owed, in light of the contracting issues with Compton Center’s cosmetology program,

won’t affect the day to day running of our sister school, that’s really only a short term view of the problem. While the school won’t have to pay the sum back immediately, it’s still a major burden on the Compton Center’s resources.

To put the issue in better context, the Compton Center only ex-pected to receive about $25 million in state funding in the 2013-14 school year, according to a budget provided on the Compton Center’s website. That’s one fifth of the school’s annual revenue gone without good reason (though yes, it won’t have to pay it back all at once, that’s still a large sum of money).

For anyone still scratching their heads, $5.5 million is the same amount of money that divorcees Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom put their house on the market for, the annual salary for Miami Dol-phins Cornerback Cortland Finnegan, and the same price that you can get a 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake for.

However, with all of that said, what’s done is done. No amount of finger pointing and recrimination will bring that money back. We’ve been told that the funds owed by the Compton Center won’t affect the Torrance campus, but that’s only from a fiscal standpoint. The fact is, when EC took the Compton Center under its wing, we made them a part of our community, and in times of crisis and misfortune, it’s important for a community to stand together.

There’s a way for every student and employee at EC to help out, whether that means donating used textbooks instead of selling them, volunteering to help out on the Compton campus, or even just drop-ping by a board of trustees meeting to show support. Our community can make a difference if it tries, if it motivates itself to care about its neighbors.

And if anybody happens to have a spare Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake laying about, the school could probably make use of that too.

4 El Camino College Union April 3, 2014

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

This letter has to do with the editorial on the March 13 issue of the EC Union: “May we have some more please.”

I found the editorial very informative and well written. I fully support pay raises for EC educators and classified employees.

The condition that EC Union’s edito-rial describes for the Torrance campus is also a microcosm for California, the US and perhaps the entire planet.

Living standards for educators and education workers are falling together with real wages for all workers, while CEO pay shoots up and a financial oligarchy be-comes richer and richer.

California’s wealthiest individual, Larry Ellison, a man with so much wealth that he could have resolved California’s fis-cal deficit singlehandedly by just writing a check, saw his income shoot up 22 percent in 2012 to over 96 million.

He was part of an exclusive club. In June 2013, the New York Times reported that the 200 highest paid CEOs at US pub-lic companies with revenue above $1 billion received a median compensation package of $15.1 million in 2012, 16 percent higher than the previous year.

It recently came out that, if the Com-cast-Time Warner merger goes through, recently appointed Time Warner CEO, Robert Marcus, will receive a payout of $80 million, for two or three months work, roughly $1 million dollars a day; $650 dol-lars a minute.

In contrast, conditions for public col-leges worsen.

A system that in 1967 was intended to be truly public, taxpayer funded and dedi-cated to the democratic, and inalienable right that every Californian has to a quality university or vocational education, is under attack and being replaced by two systems, one for the poor, and another for the rich.

This was at the core of the attempt to impose a two-tier tuition system at Santa Monica College two years ago, and the en-suing student protests of April 2012.

It was also at the core of the student protests at UC Davis and UC Riverside in 2011 and 2012 and at San Francisco City College on March 12 of this year.

The response by the Community Col-lege and UC managements to these protests was the heavy hand of the campus police.

The title of your editorial “May we have some more?” should serve as a sharp warning.

Could it be that Dickens famous phrase from Oliver Twist is not just a reminder of how things were in the past, but a nightmar-ish omen of the future?

Gerardo NebbiaEconomics Instructor

Christopher LeeUnion Columnist

@ECCUnionChris

Tom Fallo is a pretty swell guy. Nobody can deny that he’s done a lot of good for EC. He’s helped to get two major construction bonds passed, and on a campus full of busy administrators with scarcely predictable schedules, he’s made the effort to keep his office open to anyone who’d like to speak to him. He’s also one of the most highly paid community college presidents in California.

When Fallo renegotiated his contract last year, he was given a

$40,000 raise, along with a yearly 5 percent increase to his salary for three years. In contrast, the faculty and classified employees of EC have not received any sort of raise since 2008, and the increases proposed by the board of trustees roughly translates out to a net salary increase of five percent after three years.

Now, It’s not that Fallo didn’t deserve a raise, or that EC should be handing out $40,000 to every landscaper, painter, and teacher on campus. However, it’s important to remember that these are the people who ensure the day to day running of EC. They clean our bathrooms, fix our buggy computers, and teach our classes.

If you’d like to think about it in sports terms, Fallo is EC’s coach, and giving the coach a nice bonus is perfectly fine. However, without the team’s players, the faculty and classified staff who actually carry out the plays, who sweat and bleed for EC on a daily basis, it’s pretty damn difficult to win the game. When you consider it that way, only forking over the bare minimum mandated by the state feels a little thankless.

Now, some might be tempted to argue that by virtue of his position, Fallo was more deserving of a raise than some of the other EC employees.

However, take a look around campus and see if you can find anyone with an “easy” job. Picking up trash doesn’t sound difficult until you have to pick up after 22,000 students. Heck, some students have trouble remembering the names of all the other students in even one class, but many of the faculty are responsible for the educational outcome of hundreds of stu-dents at once.

Yes, there will always be money issues, and EC is right to want to conserve as much of the budget as possible. In this instance though, EC might have to bite the bullet and spend some money in order to ensure that it can actually keep mak-ing money.

Show appreciation for our unsung heroes

UP FOR DEBATETara Henderson,

20, linguistic anthropology “I wouldn’t be where I am today

academically without the help of my professors, so I think more than anyone here they definitely deserve

an increase in their pay.”

Kelly Humphreys, 22, liberal studies

“A compounded 5 percent, that is a lot for a general scale. .I do think

that teachers are underpaid. And as I am a liberal studies major and I want

to be a teacher I would, of course, love to think that there is going to be

better benefits for them. I do think that teachers lay out the foundation

for everyone else, so it would be important for them to feel like they

are being well taken care of. I think it should really be based on individual

growth.”

Aiden Berndt, 18, English

“The teachers deserve like a good amount of pay regardless, but like 5 percent every year that’s... a bit

much, you know. Like 5 percent for like 3 years or so and then reduce it

back down to 1.5 or so.”

CampuS viewpointS

Thomas SchmitCopy Editor

@ECCUnionThomas

Anissa Pol, 20, Radiology

“I think they should get an in-crease, because the teachers do a really good job of teaching their subject and helping the students when they need

help.they should definitely get a raise.”

think realistically, 5 percent per year is too much

In the battle of negotiation, pos-sibilities are endless, although rare-ly realistic. This isn’t an argument of whether teachers deserve a 5 percent raise, as most would agree that compared to professional ath-letes and Hollywood stars, teachers are much more essential and influ-ential. But we have already set the status quo for how much teachers are paid, and though it is consider-ably lower than a doctor or lawyer, (careers that also require lots of ed-ucation) the state still doesn’t have

enough roles for teachers. A cost of living increase is a totally reasonably proposition, but to increase a teacher’s salary 5 percent annually for 3 years is unlikely to swing.

First of all, its important to mention that the ECCFT (El Camino College Federation of Teachers) agreed to the current terms that they are under, and they are simply attempting a renegotiation. They are protesting to start a ruckus, but they are unable to go on strike due to the agreement that is already in place. The Board of Trustees is simply offering what was agreed upon by the state. The 5 percent figure, inspired by the EC President Tom Fallo’s personal raise, is basically used as a symbol of respect.

I believe most teachers think that 15 percent over three years is unrealistic, and most teachers would be happy with a deal somewhere in the middle. Fallo is paid very handsome-ly, but he is a single person who received an increase, which isn’t the same as the entire teacher’s board. There isn’t enough money in the budget to currently hire more teachers, let alone pay the lucky ones who have a job already.

As a student, I’m not sure how a pay increase for teachers would affect me. Is that 5 percent really going to make my teachers better? It shouldn’t, pay increases should come from excellent performance, not inspire it. It’s difficult to set a merit meter for a professor, as it’s much easier to find negatives than positives. Rateyourprofessor.com, a website where students can rate and review other professors to guide future students, has worked for me at EC, but the Board of Trustees shouldn’t use it since the website can be very biased. I would like to be-lieve that students use the survey given every semester (where we critique the class) intelligently, as those could be used to better distribute the funds.

Depending on whose side you are on, either you believe the teachers are under appreciated or they are just arguing be-cause they can. But no matter which side you are on 5 percent is a ridiculous figure.

April 3, 2014 El Camino College Union 5OPiniOn

My time here at EC is coming to a close. After this se-mester, I will

transfer to a four-year university to complete my undergraduate education. Not that you care, wink, so far I’ve been accepted to University of California, Santa Barbara and wait to hear from a few other schools.

As I look to what I’ve done at EC in retrospect and to what I will do in the future, I want to discuss the status of our current system in all aspects as a sort of dissertation, a conclusion that surveys all of the courses I have taken at EC.

While it is the job of the jour-nalist to report the news rather than to speculate and offer solu-tions, as a bad one, I will support my overall argument by what I feel is the cause of the problem rather than reveal the symptoms and results of, “to journalize,” which to some may be more convincing.

As the first in a series in this article, I want to focus on the big picture I’m introducing the thing that we have created since the formation of capitalism and argu-ably longer.

All countries no matter what type of government, have created an unsustainable world by relying on other nations to self sustain each nation.

The major flaw of capitalism, the definition of such a reliance, is that it is contingent upon im-provement.

Take the United States for example. The US is founded upon the talents of individuals who have the foresight to take their dreams and aspirations and turn them into reality.

Our nation seeks to raise these individuals in order to create the best products in every sector, in art, fashion, literature, sports, sci-ence, news, technology, military, and much more, for the most part regardless of race, sexuality, gender, or class.

Ideally, these individuals cre-ate new sectors of the economy to make improvement exponential.

Through these products and sectors, whether we realize it or not, we seek to improve and ap-pear to have improved our own lives by improving the lives of others, which is the fundamental principle of capitalism.

To put this into perspective, someone who produces food improves the life of someone who builds cars, who improves the life of someone who teaches, who improves the life of so on and so forth.

The problem with this system is that to sustain it we must con-tinually improve the system, to make it bigger and better, because that is the nature of a capitalis-tic economy. This is part of the reason why Apple comes out with a new iPhone every year.

Throughout the course of time, we have heard from dissenters, who have seen the end of this conundrum, that a system based upon perpetual improvement is impossible to sustain.

Enjoying the ride to the end, we have ignored and continued to ignore its warnings. When growth ceases, all order will fall into dis-order, and so will this constructed world.

Illustration by Eugene Chang/ union

By: Lorilynn LomeliStaff Writer

@EccUnionLorilynn

Capital Gains

Join the conversion online at www.eccunion.com

The views expressed in this column are those of the author. They do not represent the views or opinions of the Union, its staff, editorial board or advisers.

Russell LewisOpinion Editor

@ECCUnionRussell

Should the teachers get a 5 percent increase or less?

Teachers:5 percent or

less?

Photos By: John Fordiani@EccunionJohn

arts

Dance department’s Spring Dance Concert at Campus Theater

The annual Spring Dance Concert performed by students and faculty will be at the Campus Theater April 3-6. The concert showcases different dances choreographed by students and faculty. Tickets can be purchased at the Campus Theater for $15.

“Under the sea, darling it’s better, down where it’s wetter...”

Take a trip under the sea with Ariel and friends in “The Little Mermaid,” which will be per-formed Friday April 4 at the James Armstrong Theater at 7:30 p.m. For more information and tickets call 310-781-7150 or visit www.tor-ranceca.gov.

Los Angeles Music Ensemble performs at Marsee

Harp performance by former EC dean of fine arts will be a part of the Music Ensemble on April 6 at 8 p.m. in the Marsee Auditorium. Los Angeles musicians will be playing very unique orchestral music with the harp, strings, horn and many more. Tickets are $22 and can be purchased at the Marsee Audito-rium or by calling 310-329-5345.

Cabaret, “the sexiest musical of the American theatre”

The musical “Cabaret” is based on a book about a group people of different backgroundeds who find out their future is uncertain when Nazis try to over throw the gov-ernment. The first show date is on April 18 at 8 p.m. For tickets and other show dates visit EC’s Center for the Arts website, purchase tick-ets at the Campus Theater for $25.

Student “Light and Shadow” exhibit displayed in Schauermanw

EC Student Photography Exhibi-tion will be at Schauerman Library displayed all month long of April The “Light and Shadow” exhibit will have a reception April 4 from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. for the campus com-munity.

6 El Camino College Union April 3, 2014

On The

Scene

While the majority of EC stu-dents attempt to shake off spring break fever and get back into the semester groove, the dance department prepares for hell week, the final week

of rehearsals and costume adjustments before opening night.

The semesterly event the dancers have worked hard toward, toughed through endless hours of late night re-hearsals, scraping every body part and countless missed meals, will all pay off tonight.

“Some of the pieces have storylines, some are the-matic, and some are just simply abstract dances,” Daniel Berney, dance professor, said. “There’s really a potpour-ri of dance styles that are presented. There’s something for everybody that comes to the concert.”

An eclectic group consisting of faculty and student choreographers and a guest choreographer, who all have complete license to choose their own music, style of dance, and their dancers. As one of the three directors, along with Pam Santelman and Liz Hoefner Adamis, Berney is expectant of a phenomenal show.

“What you get with the students in the spring is a longer period of time, to develop some of their choreo-graphic projects, so we a get a refined and higher level of presentation than we get initially in the fall,” Berney said.

The momentum continues from the success that EC had at this year’s American College Dance Festival As-sociation (ACDFA), earlier this month at Arizona State University, some performances that were presented there will be shown at this concert – one by the newest full time dance faculty, Liz Hoefner Adamis.

Adamis presents an 11-minute piece, excerpts from “The Arabesques of a Blind Mind” which is based on the writings of human right activist and poet Breyten Breytenbach.

“I have three set pieces, these huge boxes that Bryan Bates made, [that] the dancers use throughout the piece,” Adamis said. “The name of the book is the Confessions of an Albino terrorist, it’s based on his (Breytenbach) time in the South African prison system from 1975-1982, two of which were in solitary confinement.”

Showcasing her work for the first time, student cho-reographer and last semester’s Rising Star Alisa Carre-ras’s piece titled “Sleepwalking” is the second on stage following Berney’s opening piece “Cannon in D.”

“It’s a lyrical modern piece – about falling out of love [and] there’s no resolution,” Alisa Carreras, 20, dance major, said. “This is my first time choreographing, it’s been an entirely different experience – being the one to be responsible, getting everyone to rehearsals on time – it’s coming [together] the way I wanted so I’m happy with it.”

Unlike the Fall Dance Concert that takes place in the Campus Theater, the Spring Dance Concert takes place in the substantially larger Marsee Auditorium. Eight faculty choreographers, four student choreographers, split into two acts, thus creating one amazing show, but for Santelman – her last show.

Closing the concert, one final time, will be Santel-man’s piece titled “Hovering,” that was made possible by the engagement from the students in the choreographic development of it.

“She really worked as much as a facilitator as much as a choreographer,” Berney said. “We are just going to miss her dearly, unfortunately that faculty position of another retirement was not renewed so this will whittle our full time faculty staff down to two positions, and we feel we will be dramatically impacted and have a hard time sustaining the quality of the program it’s been with [Santelman] here.”

Sam TedlaStaff Writer @ECCUnionSam

Wielding diligence in one hand and creativity in the other, Tyler Gonzalez, 21, graphic design major, may have created the logo for the next big thing.

Gonzalez created the logo for the Three Zerohs Col-lective (TZCo). A collection of musicians, photogra-phers, videographers, designers, and journalists, TZCo represents people being who they want to be and achiev-ing goals of which they’re passionate about.

“Zeroh is about your passion. Zeroh is your wildest dreams and reaching for them, but it’s not about looking into the future. It’s about creating and cultivating your talent now,” Gonzalez said.

TZCo won IVI Vision and Rob Dyrdek’s promotion Get Busy Living in Aug. 2013. Gonzalez and his crew was one of more than 3,000 contestants worldwide com-peting for $10,000, a lifetime supply of IVI Vision sun-glasses, and invaluable business advice from Dyrdek and his associates.

“Meeting Rob and listening to what he had to say put our ideas and goals into perspective of our day to day life,” Jesse Hernandez, 23, audio technician for TZCo and former EC student who worked with Aaron Carter in his

2013 tour said. After finishing his coursework at EC, Gonzalez plans

on transferring to California State University, Los Ange-les, which his graphic design professor, Andrea Micallef had recommended him for their graphic design program to more refine his skills.

“I love graphic design. I want to pursue it and see how far it will take me,” Gonzalez said.

Hernandez and other TZCo members see him going

far.Luis Trajillo, 27, photographer for TZCo and a former

EC student who has worked with Jennifer Lopez concurs.“Tyler is very adamant about getting it done right. He

asks a lot of questions, does his work, goes home, and continues to learn more. He is a very apt student for someone in this field. He can do anything,” Trajillo said.

Fighting to give farm workers stable wages and proper working conditions, Michael Pena gives an invigorating performance as civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.

“I’m angry that we live in a world where a man who picks food can’t feed his family,” actor Pena said in the newly released film.

This movie showed the perse-verance and sacrifices made by Chavez in his 5-year journey to sign a deal with California crop growers. A deal that would give farm workers fair wages and bet-ter working conditions. Chavez’s journey included boycotting grapes, a 25-day strike, and go-ing to London to raise global awareness about “La Causa.”

Director Diego Luna did a great job of not trying to change the perception of Chavez into a saint, but instead showed him through the lens of a father, brother, husband and leader. He stuck to the essence of what Chavez’s cause was about as op-posed to “hollywoodfying” his story and turning a biography into an entertaining drama film.

One of the California crop growers, Bogdanovich Senior, played by actor John Malkovich, was riveting in a film that lacked depth in overall acting. He has an interesting character in that he is a Croatian immigrant. He is torn between feeling sympathy for the migrant farm workers, and still trying to keep his farm profitable.

Chavez used different tactics to fight against oppression with nonviolence. Chavez reflected a lot of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Ghandi due to revolts against authorities in a peaceful manner.

Pena is even maddened by the protestors after they beat up a man who runs through the crowd with his car. He says to the fol-lowers of his movement that he will not eat until they vow not to use violence as a means to re-spond to their opponents.

The film was released just a couple days before Cesar Chavez Day, to remember not only what he did for farm workers but the precedent he set for future union workers.

Pena will have you want-ing to say, “Huelga” and “Sí, se puede” as his fellow union members once chanted as they marched and protested in front of the fields and across the state of California.

The film didn’t have as much Spanish, but it served an even larger purpose being in English because it will help give those who are oblivious to the impor-tance of a chapter in Chicano-American history.

The cover of the film has a quote that explains the journey of fighting for a cause and how it doesn’t happen over night.

“History is made one step at a time.”

Pena gives life to civil rights activist Cesar Chavez

Movie Review

amira Petrus/ Union

Angela YimEditorial Editor @ECCUnionAng

amira Petrus/ UnionCannon in D, choreographed by Daniel Berney, co-director of the spring Dance Concert, shows Catherine Chavez, 22, dance major, on pointe.

John Fordiani/ Uniontyler Gonzalez, 21, graphic design major is the lead graphics designer for the three Zerohs Collective and has been part of the collective since Feb. 2013

EC student wins Rob Dyrdek’s cash prize contest Chris LeeStaff Writer @ECCUnionChris

Disclosure, choreographed by Christina Morales, 23, dance major, features Catherine Chavez, 22, dance major, and alisa Carreras, 20, dance major. this dance will be showcased in the spring Dance show, thursday april 3 in the Marssee auditorium at 8 p.m.

Open ended for interpretation

Features April 3, 2014 El Camino College Union 7

Fashion charms the Fast Lane

above: Dressed as a gangster’s moll, Peggy DiVill, 65, Orange County, entered her 1930 Ford Model-A Tudor hot road, complete with a mock machine gun mounted to the passenger-side mirror. After having purchased the Ford last August in Big Bear, her daughter, who took mechanic courses in Michigan, helped rebuild the car’s engine. The all-girls car show was presented in celebration of Women’s History Month.

Left: Possibly the youngest entry in the show was Jessa Meza, 18, senior at San Pedro High School. She is the second owner of a classic 1964 -1/2 red Mustang, which she said has logged 674,250 miles in its lifetime. Meza’s dad handles all of the Mustang’s maintenance. Her mother is a former EC cosmetology student.

Known affectionately as “Red,” Cindy Campos of Riverside, in her mid-30s, belongs to the Double Dames Car Club of Puente Hills. Campos doubles as a housewife, mother of three, and a full-time car enthusiast, entered her 1956 Cadillac Coupe de Ville in the show, top etched with green flames.

Patricia Fairchild, Automotive instructor, hosted the “All-Girl Car Show and Vin-tage Fashion Exchange” March 15. The inaugural event was part of Fairchild’s Sat-urday Girls in the Garage series with the theme of “how fashion and car design have changed over the years.” The next Girls in the Garage workshop is April 12. There will be over 50 participants, over 200 in attendance, and over a dozen vendors, in-cluding various fashion clothing vendors, and various EC clubs. For more informa-tion email pfairchild@elcamino.edu.

Vicki Groves dubbed her 1992 BMW 850 CSI V-12 “Louie the White Knight.” Since devot-ing full-time to restoring Louie, Groves, 59, said that Lupas has gone into remission. The Palmdale resident has put about $7,000 into upgrading her German classic since its purchase in 2010. Girls in the Ga-rage, a series of monthly workshops, aims to teach women auto maintenance and repair in a non-threaten-ing, hands-on environment.

By: Amira Petrus/Union

8 El Camino College Union April 3, 2014Union

URtheSpokesperson.com

There is no spokesperson with a catchy phrase to remind the driver to slow down, stop eating, quit messing with the radio or pay attention to the road. There’s Only You. Speak Up.

April 3, 2014 El Camino College Union 9SportS

Freshman left fielder Alex Turner stepped up the batter’s box, in the bottom of the 7th, with a chance to give the Warriors base-ball team the lead in a 1-1 game against El Camino Compton Col-lege.

With a runner on third, and no outs, Turner hit a line drive single into center field, which gave the Warriors the go ahead run to pull out a 3-1 victory over the Tartars.

“I had two strikes on me, and he threw a fastball low and in,” Turner said. “It was a nice pitch, one that I liked, and I just drove it up the middle to get that run in.”

The Warriors have swept the series against the Tartars this sea-son, including a dramatic walk-off by freshman shortstop Fred Smith in the opening game. There al-ways seems to be an extra sense of competitiveness between these two teams.

“Both of us have El Camino in front of our names,” freshman center fielder Keyon Allen said.

“We know some of the people on that team, so we take it as brag-ging rights.” The Warriors bats stayed hot, as the team racked up 12 hits and is now slugging .333 with a .372 OBP, but one lingering

issue is leaving men on base. The Tartars held a one-run lead

through eight innings, despite be-ing outhit, but luckily sophomore starting pitcher Andy Burschinger was able to come back from one of his worst outings to pitch eight ex-cellent innings. Burschinger only allowed four hits, and no earned runs.

“I wanted to come out and prove to my teammates that I can bounce back from a rough start,” Burschinger said. “Just being mentally tough and keeping things simple.”

The Warriors would tie the game up in the bottom of the 7th, after sophomore second baseman Joseph Cortez scored on a wild pitch.

Another insurance run would be added in the bottom of the 8th, thanks to a single deep center by Allen to give the Warriors a 3-1 lead.

“It’s not the situation you want to be in (down), but there is a con-fidence that we’ll be able to score when we need to,” coach Nate Fernley said.

The Warriors are now 17-8 overall, 9-3 in conference and have won eight of their last ten

to move into a first-place tie with East L.A. College.

The upcoming series with East L.A. will be crucial in deciding

who wins the conference champi-onship. The first two games will alternate in location, before wrap-ping up this Saturday at East L.A.

“We want to take two out of three but our mindset is to sweep them,” Cortez said. “We’ll do whatever we can to win confer-ence.”

turner lands hit for go ahead run

Gilberto Castro / UnionFreshmen outfield-ers Keyon Allen, Alex turner, and Jeremy Barth celebrate after last Saturday’s game against Compton. the Warriors battled back from a tough start to win 3-1.

Kyle Borden / UnionECC Compton Center player attempts to tag Warrios Joey Notch at Saturday’s game. ECC won 3-1.

A Higher Degree of You bschool.pepperdine.edu

The Bachelor of Science in ManagementEncino, West LA, Irvine Graduate Campuses

Attend an Information Session: April 16th in Encino

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO

change everything.

Brian CamachoStaff Writer@ECCUnionBrian

SportS10 El Camino College Union April 3, 2014

Men’s Volleyball:

Warriors 3 (12-4), long beach 1

Men’s baseball: Warriors 3 (17-8),

el Camino-Compton Center 1,

WoMen’s softball:

Warriors 4 (15-15),l.a. Harbor 11

FOR MORE SPORTS

ACTION GO TO OUR WEB-

SITE,ECCUNION.COM

WARRIORS SChEdUlE

Men’s baseball: today vs.

east lost angelesCollege

2:30p.m.

WoMen’s softball:

today vs. Mt. san antonio

College3p.m.

Men’s Volleyball:

friday at santa barbara City College

6p.m.

Men’s & WoMen’s sWiM & DiVe:

fri-sat at Pasadena City Collegeinvitational

all day

Men’s & WoMen’s traCk & fielD:

tomorrow at orange Coast invitational

Boxed-in anxiety filled the throwers ring. On deck to throw, the opposing team spun to meet her next mark. She then lost her grip and the shot put launched into the crowd of athletes. Frightening giggles grew in that moment.

“It happens,” Tina Farley, freshman sprinter, said. “That is why we have rules. We walk facing the throwers so that we can see what’s going on.”

Farley placed sixth in the women’s shot put with a mark of 7.75 meters [around 25 feet].

The Warriors track and field team faced competitors at Pasadena Games on Friday March 28. Throwing and running events split between California Institute of Technology and Pasadena City College.

Even EC alumni ran unattached at the invitationals. Many in the athletic community say “once a Warrior, always a War-rior.”

“They have untapped raw talent,” Climonte Blackmen, 22, EC track alumni said. “They run with so much passion which makes me proud to be from El Camino.”

While alumni came to support, the men and women repre-sented for their team. Haley Heinemann, freshman distance runner placed second with a time of 19:17.87 in the women’s 5,000 meter.

For the men’s team Khalil Flemister, freshman sprinter placed first with a mark of 13.71 meters [a little over 44 feet] in the triple jump.

“It’s a pretty mellow meet,” Flemister said. “I tend not to worry about big marks. I just try to build on whatever mark I had from the previous week.”

As some prepared to better their scores, Raynisha Frank-lin, freshman, has been adapt her skills as she changed from sprinters to a mid-distance.

Franklin placed sixth in the 1,500 with a time of 5:08.86 and placed seventh in the 800 at 2:32.38.

“When the coach put me in the 800 and the 1,500 I was like ‘wow this is something new,’” Franklin said. “I didn’t choose the 800, the 800 chose me. So I guess it was destined to be.”

Reo Miranda-Lavertu, sophomore distance placed sixth in the 800 with a time of 1:57.60 later returned to win second in the 5,000m at 15:47.48.

The Warriors will attend the Orange Coast Classic Invita-tional Friday April 4 at Orange Coast College according to information provided by Dean Lofgren, track and field coach.

Cynnamon BakerStaff Writer@ECCUnioncBaker

Gilberto Castro / UnionSophomore Baubak Soltanikhah competing in the Men’s 400 meter dash last Friday at the 2014 Pasadena Games. Soltanikhah finished in 3rd place in his heat and in 18th place overall out of a field of 23 runners with a time of 56.16 seconds.

EC’s home crowd cheered for a late comeback as freshman third-baseman, Reina Trejo smashed a hit to right field and made it to sec-ond base. Regrettably, the eleventh hour fight was not enough as the Warriors softball team (13-12,6-7) slumped to a 5-0 home loss to Cerritos on Tuesday.

“We kept making mistakes we weren’t proud of so that was the talk we kept saying ‘let’s come back, lets start fresh, lets start now,’” coach Elaine Martinez said about the late rally. “That was our mindset.”

Cerritos crept into the lead one inning at a time scoring three runs by the fourth and leaving the War-riors ruing their leaky defense.

“Defensively we didn’t play as good a game as we know we’re ca-pable of,” Martinez said. “We have to do a better job of executing with runners in scoring positions.”

The latter part of the game showed a glimmer of hope for EC as Trejo’s double gave the War-riors a lifeline. It was her only hit from EC’s five.

“We could all hit off of that pitcher,” Trejo said. “It just didn’t come through when we had the runners on. I almost thought we had it.”

Cerritos are at the top of the South Coast conference stand-ings and their prior meeting was a heavy away loss for EC that ended 11-1.

The Warriors were unfazed by the rankings heading into the game.

“To be honest, it’s anyone’s day. We know we could’ve beat them,” freshman pitcher Danielle Bonsky said. “Obviously they beat us by more last time and we know we could do a lot better and get the hitting in.”

Trejo, who usually pitches for portions of the game, was unable to do so against Cerritos due to a slight injury on her right hand.

The thirdbaseman hurt her pitching hand during training be-fore the game but said it was noth-ing serious and that it should heal within a week.

Bonsky completed all seven innings as pitcher earning one strikeout and allowing 11 hits. The Warriors’ are now 6-7 in the conference and 13-12 overall.

In the Warriors’ next game freshman pitcher Samantha Lauro threw her first no-hitter when the team defeated L.A. Harbor on Tuesday, 4-1.

Freshman catcher Miranda Aguilar had 2 hits and scored one run in the victory.

Reina Trejo also went yard in the game hitting her fourth home run this season.

The team will look to continue its winning ways when it travels to face Mt. San Antonio College today.

After lossLauro goes the distanceRocky Rivera Staff Writer@ECCUnionRocky

“Lets Go ElCo! Lets Go!” A packed gym, filled with roaring fans at the edge of their seats, cheered on for EC, to keep the pressure and defense on.

On Friday night the men’s vol-leyball team swept a strong Long Beach City College side that came in search of revenge, after El Camino had defeated them in their home side in their first en-counter.

“Coming out of the loss against Santa Monica, we wanted to bring that fire again,” Errol Basconcil-lo, sophomore player, said. “We just stayed focus the entire game.”

Santa Monica stopped EC’s long streak of wins, and EC knew it was important to be resilient af-ter a tough loss.

“We just came in today fire up,” sophomore and captain, Roy Powell said. “We weren’t going to take a loss.”

The strong Long Beach side were 6-1 before facing EC and they started off the game ag-gressively and were rewarded by clutching the first set by the score of 26-24.

“We let up. Took the foot off the gas,” Head Coach Richard Blount said. “We had that prob-lem in the past and hopefully we’re growing out of it.”

The second set saw the War-riors pushing harder for every point and limited their errors, taking the set easily by the score of 25-14.

“The only way that we were able to take that is just to kick them all the way down,” Powell said.

Powell had another stellar night providing the team with 18 kills and10 digs.

“The guys came out here with the biggest hearts in the word,” Powell added. “I couldn’t ask for anything different.”

The third and fourth set were intense; both sides fought for ev-ery point, but in the end, EC took both sets by the scores of 25-20 and 25-21.

“Our guys really responded to-night,” Coach Blount said.

The entire team synchronized on Friday night. Errol Bascon-cillo had a great game providing with 22 digs, as well as Brandon Hiehle who provided with 16 kills, and Nick Williamson who provided the team with an incred-ible 57 assists.

”We couldn’t have done it without everyone,” Basconcillo said. “We owe it all to them.”

EC are now 8-1 in the season, and their next opponent is Moor-park. The Warriors will look to maintain their high performance as Playoffs creeps near.

“We swept probably the best team in the state. We beat them in their place and we beat them in our place,” Coach Blount said. “That’ll tell everyone else, “Hey! We’re here to play. We’re not go-ing anywhere.”

Warriors bounce backJoel Leon Staff Writer@ECCUnionJoel

WARRIORS SCOREBOARd

taking stride