THE UNION
Established 1946
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eccunion.com
SEPT. 12, 2019 Follow us @ECCUnion
TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA
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Campus-wide power outage caused by equipment failure Elevators out of service restored the following day Merritt Ryan Albin Copy Editor @merritt_media
Rosemary Montalvo/The Union Roxann Toshiko Tomiyasu heads over to the Schauerman Library to do homework for her classes Monday, Sept. 9. Tomiyasu is homeless and slept in Parking Lot F but was asked to leave by El Camino police last summer.
Proposed law addresses housing insecurity If passed, homeless students would be allowed to park on campus overnight News Editor @omarsrashad
F
AND
Jose Tobar
Senior Staff Writer @ECCUnionTobar
or 65-year-old El Camino College student Roxann Toshiko Tomiyasu, her car serves as the last refuge from the many dangers that of homelessness and sleeping on the streets. After receiving associate degree in automotive technology last spring, Roxann was allowed to sleep in her vehicle overnight in one of the campus parking lots but was eventually asked to leave by campus police who cited safety concerns over wild coyotes. Assembly Bill 302 (AB 302), also known as the safe lot bill, has been making its way through the California State Legislature. If passed, AB 302 would mandate California community colleges to allow homeless students to park their vehicles on campus lots and sleep in them overnight. Tomiyasu told The Union she was hopeful the bill would pass because it
could improve the living situation of students impacted by homelessness. Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto), the author of AB 302, has expressed dissatisfaction following a set of amendments made by the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) to the bill Friday, Aug. 30 and decided to place it on hold until the California Legislature reconvenes in January 2020. Since AB 302 was first introduced in January, the bill received bipartisan support from state legislators and non-profit organizations and garnered opposition from dozens of community college districts, including the ECC District. Berman said the idea for this legislation came from trying to find solutions to basic insecurities and homelessness among students in California. As Chair of the Select Committee on the Master Plan for Higher Education in California, Berman held hearings in Sacramento, San Jose, [See Safe lot bill, page 5]
Construction workers extinguish second-floor fire Group of students and faculty smelled smoke, alerted work site personnel, official says Copy Editor @ryanefarrell
New budget approved
Storming the art world
One gamble leads student journalist on a whirlwind year with The Union and helps to reaffirm her passion for journalism.
Retired art professor gets his first art gallery exhibit at El Camino College.
One gamble leads student journalist on a whirlwind year with The Union and helps to reaffirm her passion for journalism.
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ARTS
Taking risks
NEWS
OPINIONS
Ryan Farrell/The Union A construction worker welds a metal beam at the Pool and Classroom Building construction site Thursday, Aug. 29. Welding was the cause of a small fire on the building’s second floor on the second day of the fall semester.
Construction workers put out a fire that occurred on the second floor of the Pool and Classroom Building construction site on Tuesday, Aug. 27 after being alerted by students and faculty, a construction official said. A group of El Camino College students and faculty smelled smoke coming from the construction site, which sits adjacent to the Student Activities Center, and alerted two construction workers with Tilden-Coil Constructors Inc.; they used a fire extinguisher to put out the smoldering plastic insulation, President of Tilden-Coil Constructors Inc. Brian Jaramillo said. “Debris started to burn, students and staff noticed and [construction workers] Syed Jafri and Luis Bautista put the fire out with an extinguisher,” Jaramillo said. Hot drips of molten metal from welding, known as slag, landed on plastic insulation, causing it to burn and release smoke, Executive Director of Facilities and Planning Services Jorge Gutierrez said. “Welding sparks fell and hit
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plastic that caught on fire. There was no structural damage, just melted plastic,” Gutierrez said. After welding, company safety procedures require construction workers to remain on-site for 30 minutes to verify that slag or sparks do not cause a fire at the construction site, Jaramillo said. The smell of smoke was reported to construction workers after they had already waited the mandatory 30 minutes, Jaramillo added. When alerted, construction workers extinguished the fire before the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACFD) arrived on scene and no injuries were reported, LACFD Captain Ernie Lopez said. The building was in no danger of burning down since it’s composed of concrete, metal studs and drywall, which are noncombustible materials, Jaramillo said. Robert Brobst, assistant director of Facilities and Planning Services, said the fire was unrelated to the power outage that occurred the same day. Gutierrez said that he is still confident in the safety procedures of Tilden-Coil after the construction site fire.
FEATURES
Ryan Farrell
Wireless internet upgraded and network name changed
Signal strength at dead spots on campus improved Juan Miranda
Staff Writer @ECCUnionJuanM
El Camino College’s Wi-Fi networks are set to be renamed Monday, Sept. 9 as part of a project to upgrade wireless internet coverage on campus. “This is part of a bigger project on the campus, in terms of dealing with the dead spots on campus and trying to upgrade the technology and infrastructure for students,” Vice President of Administrative Services Iris Ingram said. The current campus Wi-Fi networks, ECCWireless and ecc_ staff, was going to be renamed as Warrior1 and Warrior2 on Monday Aug. 26, the first day of the fall 2019 semester, according to an email that was sent out by administration on Thursday, Aug. 22.
“We originally talked about Warrior1 and Warrior2, but then decided that maybe that wasn’t distinct enough in terms of people remembering which is which,” Ingram said. A second email sent out by administration revealed that the Wi-Fi renaming project would be postponed, and, instead, would be implemented on Monday, Sept. 9. A third email sent out on Friday, Sept. 6 explained the new Wi-Fi network will be known as Warriors, along with a link for those who may need assistance. “We pushed back the roll out date because we wanted to make sure everything worked seamlessly,” Ingram said. The delay mostly had to do with district-issued computers and ECC administration wanting to make [See Network changes, page 4]
Rosemary Montalvo/The Union Students work on essays during their English 1A/1AS class Thursday, May 9. El Camino College wireless networks’ signal strength were improved Monday, Sept. 9 and were renamed Warriors.
A world of adventure
Men’s soccer undefeated
Geography professor sets his sights on traveling to all 195 countries in hopes of sharing experiences with students.
Warriors’ men’s soccer team outlast Glendale College with penalty kick in 90th minute to move them to 3-0-1 on the season.
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SPORTS
Omar Rashad
A Southern California Edison (SCE) equipment failure caused a grid-wide power outage that affected El Camino College at 2:50 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27, authorities said. SCE restored power to the ECC campus at 3:40 p.m. by rerouting electricity from a neighboring SCE power grid for temporary use, Assistant Director of ECC Facilities and Planning Robert Brobst said. The power grid that normally services electricity to the ECC campus was restored at 5:42 p.m. SCE spokeswoman Taelor Bakewell said the power outage was caused by an equipment failure at one of their sites. She said she could not comment on the specific details of the incident other than that it was an equipment failure. Bakewell could not comment on how many people the outage impacted but said it affected 1,959
customers which SCE defines as facilities it services. Bakewell added that SCE records stated the power outage began at 2:34 p.m. During the power outage, elevators in six different buildings sent out emergency distress signals and returned to the ground floor of their respective buildings according to the ECC Facilities and Planning Department. Chief of the El Camino College Police Department (ECCPD) Michael Trevis confirmed that one elevator entrapment occurred in the library due to the power outage. The passengers in the elevator were evacuated by Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACFD) firefighters who arrived on scene shortly after the initial report according to the ECCPD. The elevators in all six buildings were out of service until the following day at 2:30 p.m. when technicians approved the elevators to return to service after performing safety tests and maintenance, Brobst said. [See Power outage, page 4]
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