Vol. 64, Issue 2, Feb. 27, 2026

La Voz News

Four DASG senators resign

District policy keeps trustee seat vacant, senate to internally elect other positions

By Wylder Robison LA VOZ STAFF

Three De Anza Student Government senators resigned from the senate at its meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 25 in the Student Council Chambers.

Chair of Events Joey Hua, 19, aerospace major and both flea market liaisons, Benjamin Vahidi, 18, biology major and Lakshya Saini, 19, computer science major, stepped down from their positions.

“Growing commitments in my professional endeavors … require a greater share of my time and focus,” Saini wrote in his resignation letter, which Chair of Administration James Nguyen, 19, electrical engineering major, read on his behalf.

Hua wrote that he resigned over personal complications.

“I have learned a lot from being a part of DASG senate,” Hua wrote.

“I’m grateful for the memories and time we spent together.”

Vahidi did not leave a resignation letter for Nguyen to read and was absent from the meeting.

DASG also formally removed Elora Zhu, computer science major,

from her post as student trustee.

Despite her resignation and subsequent removal as student trustee, Zhu continues to run for reelection.

Zhu resigned on Feb. 11 over “ongoing personal circumstances and my current situation.”

Budget Analyst Jacob Kao, 26, data science major, volunteered himself to fill Zhu’s gap on the board,

but Nguyen and DASG President Jayven Huang, 19, computer science major, already planned for an internal appointment on the senate’s agenda.

Originally, the senate planned to approve Election Commissioner Francesca Cacchione, 21, computer engineering and mechanical engineering major, to serve as an interim student trustee, but district policy

Ensemble builds club community

Music club prepares for performance

By Taylor Kim LA VOZ STAFF

From first time performers to seasoned musicians, students from the De Anza Music and Volunteering Association gathered on Friday, Feb. 6 to rehearse for the annual De Anza College Flea Market performance.

The club features singers and musicians of different musical skill levels who use the performance as an opportunity to express themselves.

Club secretary Nimiksha Thummalapalli, 18, biochemistry major, led the group’s rehearsal to the song “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay.

“This performance means much more than a stress reliever,” Thummalapalli said. “A lot of people like to perform and we like to offer those opportunities.”

See “Music” on page 2

prevents it from filling the position without the board’s consent.

“I found out from the chancellor’s office that the board of trustees has to approve (DASG filling) the vacancy (Zhu left behind),” faculty advisor Hyun-Chu Yi Baker said.

Yi Baker also said the board will appoint the upcoming trustee at its March 9 meeting, the meeting that

Cacchione would have filled in for.

Because of this, there will not be a student trustee representing the student body at De Anza at the board’s upcoming March 9 meeting.

“If you all would like to go and sit in the audience as a member of the public, those (district board) meetings are open just like ours,” Yi Baker said.

DASG executive officer elections will wrap up on March 4 by 6 p.m., with the administration committee certifying the election on March 6.

Cacchione declined to comment.

Events Coordinator Ryan Yi will succeed Hua, with the senate appointing him as Chair of Events during its March 4 meeting at 4 p.m.

The senate will appoint Yi and the two flea market liaisons’ replacement in an internal election next week.

Huang said Saini and Vahidi’s replacements will be chosen through midterm elections.

In an internal election, including midterm elections, the senate interviews interested candidates and votes to appoint the best candidate.

While internal elections for next year’s senate will be open to the public, the senate only considers committee interns for midterm elections.

“It is a very difficult situation, and I understand your reasons for leaving,” Huang said. “I want to send you off with one round of applause for all the work that you put in.”

PHOTO BY MARY ARSLAN

DeHart Library has physical copies of OpenStax’s biology and psychology textbooks. OpenStax has also made its textbooks free to access online.

Faculty rolls out free textbooks

By Jonathan Nguyen-Au LA VOZ STAFF

Several educational departments at De Anza College have developed Open Educational Resources content plans to reduce costs for students. These plans are underway thanks to a $1.6 million budget through acceleration grants for the Zero Textbook Cost Degree Grant. ZTC is a government-funded program that lowers textbook costs at California community colleges

by creating OER materials and resources like LibreTexts and OpenStax. The program started in 2016, with an initial $5 million budget. This later accumulated to $115 million in 2021, with expectations of full implementation by either this fall or the deadline, Jan. 2027.

“Our classes are supposed to be affordable and approachable,” said James Perla Adams, instructional librarian and OER coordinator.

See “Textbooks” on page 2

2 FEATURES

Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief

Wylder Robison

Managing Editor

Ann Peñalosa

News Editor

Gavin Rust

Sports Editor

Ashritha Chand

Opinion Editor

Laila Zedan

A&E Editor

Meryem Sezgin

Features Editor

Jamie Watt

Multimedia Editor

Sango Levonian

Graphic Design Editor

Yosselyn Garcia Rodas

Social Media Editor

Gordon Yang

Staff members

Eli Darom Ben Dror

Jonathan Nguyen-Au

Hayden Rush

Ariel Alvarez

Jason Huang

Cris Li

Katherine Fritz

Reymond Castañeda

Mary Arslan

Taylor Kim

Daenielle Tuico

Godwin Taborada

Damian Renteria Mata

Michael Gonzales

Simona Sun

Nello Puelles

Chloe Park

Aamna Farooqui

Schiera Ventura

Xitlaly Martinez

Orly Bryan

Frank Mayers

Faculty Adviser

Farideh Dada

Office Managers

Xitlaly Martinez

Dicanio Darren Liong

Ruben Pasaribu

About us

De Anza College students have written and published La Voz News since 1967.

Student access to La Voz is partially funded by the De Anza Student Government. La Voz News is printed by the Folger Graphics Company.

All rights reserved; no part of La Voz News may be reproduced without permission.

Staff editorials reflect the opinions of the majority of the editorial board and not necessarily the views of the entire La Voz Staff. Contact us

Send letters to the editor lavozdeanza.com lavoz@fhda.edu

+1 (408) 864-5626

Students say ‘ICE out’

Organizers demand college works with Rapid Response

By Sango Levonian LA VOZ STAFF

Several dozen students held a protest and vigil outside the Hinson Campus Center on Feb. 11 to honor people killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since 2026 began.

Participants spent two days prior designing signs in the Higher Education for AB540 Students/Vasconcellos Institute for Democracy in Action centers in the East Cottage before holding the event.

DASG Equity and Diversity

Officer Dali Guerrero Fernandez, 19, political science major and HEFAS member coordinator, said she hoped the vigil would encourage students to both care for each other and demand campus leadership to do the same.

“Students, we’re here to stand with each other, and to also call to action for our (college) administration,”

Guerrero Fernandez said. “We want (De Anza College) President Omar Torres to stand 10 toes behind us.”

The protest came partly out of the college’s response to “Libs of TikTok” admin Chaya Raichik’s call for an ICE raid on campus in early January.

“Students were scared of going to

Music cont. from page 1.

Brody Lee, 20, radiologic technology major, who has played clarinet for 10 years, said he is happy the club allows him to continue performing after high school.

“You don’t have to be professional,” Lee said. “You can just play what you want without needing the consent of everyone.”

Joseph Duong, 21, computer science major, performed with the club for the first time.

“It’s going to be my first performance in a while,” Doung said.“It’s fun to do group activities.”

Ben Le, 19, computer science major and the club’s event coordina-

class,” Guerrero Fernandez said. “We saw no action from our administration ... students had to step up. We were the ones that contacted the (Santa Clara) Rapid Response Network.”

In the wake of Raichik’s post, Torres restated campus protocol and updated posters around campus. College administrators also labeled classrooms as non-public areas in the following weeks.

DASG Public Policy School Liaison Gabe Manglona, 19, political science major, said the updated posters’ addendum didn’t sit right with him.

“The protocol is fine, it’s just that addition ... ‘Even if ICE is breaking the law,’” Manglona said. “It implies ICE usually doesnt break the law.”

Faculty Association PAC intern Sabrina Moore, 19, political science major, said that while she doesn’t want people to interfere with ICE, she hopes people educate themselves on their constitutional rights.

“The lack of knowledge is being used against citizens and non-citizens (alike),” Moore said. “We need to make sure all of us (students) are educated, know what to do in these situations and know what our rights are.”

Moore also said the perspectives she

tor, has been playing piano since he was four years old.

“I’m glad I get to meet new people here at De Anza,” Le said. “This is one of the clubs where you can meet a lot of people, because everyone’s interested in music.”

Thin Thida Soe, 18, business administration major, said that while the performance is an opportunity for members to showcase their talents, music also serves as a way to vent emotions and build new connections.

“Music is something that helps me escape from reality,” Soe said.

”When I’m stressed, if I sing a song that has strong feelings like shouting, it would help me feel better.”

gained at the vigil stuck with her after.

“These stories really need to be uplifted,” Moore said. “It was powerful to hear people’s personal testimonies of coming to America.”

The vigil’s organizers also said

they hope students use the resources available to them.

“Drop by the East Cottage. Anyone can show up,” Manglona said. “You don’t have to be part of HEFAS (to come in).”

Textbooks cont. from page 1.

“OER was developed to be open and collaborative with other instructors, but free for students.”

Throughout the month the math, biology, kinesiology and communication departments have finished implementing OER material, or are finishing up production.

Fatemeh Yarahmadi, a math instructor and department coordinator, said developing OER material takes a lot of work, which includes complying with institutional requirements and converting the format to instructional ones.

“Developing a full course structure using OER can require substantial front-loaded effort, often comparable to writing extensive original material. It requires both subject expertise and careful instructional design,” said Yarahmadi. “That said, once built, the materials are sustainable and continuously improvable.”

Yarahmadi said creating free resources for students allows instructors to curate their curriculum to be more flexible instead of following a “fixed publisher sequence,” allowing for “better alignment with course learning outcomes.”

Faculty members working on the ZTC program hope students will use the materials they created.

“Instructors ensure students have affordable materials,” Shagun Kaur, ZTC grant coordinator, said. “They (faculty) sit down for hours to write materials for their students.”

OER and ZTC materials are accessible on De Anza’s website and instructors also provide them through Canvas.

AJ Ordoñez, 18, business administration major, said OER materials are more convenient because you don’t have to create multiple accounts or get a physical copy.

“It makes the process easier for registering for classes,” Ordoñez said. “You can just jump right into the assignments and not have to worry.”

Adams said the quality of OER and ZTC materials varies from course to course because of funding.

“I have instructors come to me, and they say, ‘There’s no representative text I can find that is zero textbook cost for my discipline,’” Adams said. “That’s a very real desire from instructors here on this campus to make OER.”

Faculty members have shown interest in expanding ZTC if the program receives more funding.

“I hope ZTC evolves beyond cost savings into a model of faculty-driven, equity-centered curriculum design, especially in rigorous sequences like calculus, linear algebra and differential equations,” Yarahmadi said.

Beyond the initial grant of $180,000 for one ZTC pathway in March 2023, acceleration grants are optional. This shows how much is being done to improve a student’s learning experience.

“If students are less stressed, it helps teachers push students to succeed,” Kaur said.

Joji album a mixed bag

‘Piss in the wind’ sandwiches bangers between bland filler

Joji’s doppelganger, who the internet has lovingly nicknamed “Joe. G” or “Jijo,” isn’t fooling anyone. Maybe that’s the point.

By Wylder Robison LA VOZ STAFF

Joji’s highly anticipated fourth studio album “Piss in the Wind” is a hodgepodge of powerful, unique Joji sound and hard-hitting tracks with short, unremarkable “vignette-style” interludes in between.

The buildup to the 21-track album’s release on Feb. 6, about three years after his third album, “SMITHEREENS,” was entertaining in itself. Joji, aka George Miller, kept a minimal public and almost completely silent social media presence after “SMITHEREENS” dropped.

As the release date drew nearer, Joji started posting on his Instagram more frequently, using a doppelganger and passing him off as himself — even going as far as changing the background photo on his Spotify account to a picture of the doppelganger, who the internet has dubbed “Joe. G” or “Jijo.”

The album starts strong with “PIXELATED KISSES.” It hits you in the face with a heavy beat featuring a loud, distorted bassline. The track has a catchy melody and well-written lyrics. It is a strong opener and the album’s most streamed track on Spotify, with over 110 million listens as of Feb. 15.

The track’s lyrics, “Pixelated kisses got me goin’ insane / Replicate this moment from a million miles away,” describe the difficulty of loving someone through a screen in a long distance relationship.

The second track on the album, “Cigarette,” is a quick-tempo hiphop beat with a lot of hi-hat. The singing is a combination of Joji rapping paired with harmonizing background vocals, a style the artist

honed on his third studio album.

The album’s momentum carries into “Last of a Dying Breed,” one of the album’s stronger tracks.

The track opens with a pleasing dark synth melody, followed by the same fast, hi hat-filled beat. Joji delivers a beautiful performance of vocal harmonization paired with his unique baritone melancholy singing.

“LOVE YOU LESS” is the album’s longest song, clocking in at 3:21. “LOVE YOU LESS” takes the listener into a completely different sound from the previous three tracks. The track features a slower tempo using real drums and guitar rather than the synth and drum machines from previous tracks.

The guitar solo beneath Joji’s vocals swells into an emotional crescendo that leaves the listener wanting more.

Unfortunately, the previous four tracks’ momentum quickly falls off with “If it only gets better.” The track isn’t bad, it’s just boring. It’s Joji getting back to his roots with his lo-fi beats melancholy sound, but doesn’t match the album’s energy.

Tracks six, seven are also boring and largely feel like filler just to get to track eight, “Hotel California.”

Joji’s singing in this track is unpolished and detached, almost emotionally numb in a good way. The lyrics are superb, which gives the song a satisfyingly hazy, lonely feel.

From this point out, the album’s pattern emerges: two or three unremarkable, short tracks followed by a strong one, then two more unremarkable tracks.

Track nine, “Tarmac,” has a decent beat and lyrics but is boring.

Track 10, “Forehead Touching the Ground,” kills the momentum. Track 11, “Past Won’t Leave My Bed,” though, is one of the album’s strongest and most beautiful tracks.

We have to suffer through two more sleep-worthy songs before track 14, “Sojourn.”

This track earns its place as the album’s emotional and sonic peak, where Joji stops hinting and just delivers. “Sojourn” is hands-down the album’s best song, feeling complete with fantastic energy.

Musically, the track has a saturated, noisy soundscape with structural switch-ups, which makes it feel like an explosion out of nowhere compared to the mostly subdued vignette-style tracks in the rest of the album.

Disappointingly, after “Sojourn’s” powerful artistry, tracks 15 to 20 are weak and unremarkable, with the exception of track 17, “Silhouette Man,” which delivers decent vocals with an “easy-to-nod-to” beat. “Dior” ends the album on a semi-high note. The track opens as a familiar Joji ballad before switching halfway through to an aggressive, haunting beat.

Just when the intensity seems to be building, “Dior” ends, leaving more questions than answers for the album as a whole: Was this the emotional payoff we were waiting for? Was this really the best Joji could offer after three years away?

Overall, Joji did an OK job with this album, but it was not his strongest work. I’m looking forward to Joji’s return to the musical scene and excited for what comes next.

Rating: 3/5

‘Wuthering heights’ album skippable

Charli xcx soundtrack can’t seem to stand out

By Ariel Alvarez LA VOZ STAFF

Pop artist Charli xcx’s album for the movie “Wuthering Heights,” by the same name, is a “background noise” album; something to listen to while completing tasks or hanging with friends without paying attention to it.

Charli’s album featured her signature hyperpop, electronic pop sound for the period piece film. The mix of sound stirred many questions among audiences that brought curiosity to the film.

As expected, it sounds like a standard Charli xcx album. It holds her classic hyperpop sounds with great production design.

The violins, harps and piano sounds added throughout the songs create a “sweet” sounding album.

Nothing about the album stood out to me. I didn’t enjoy any song more than usual but didn’t dislike one. If I really had to say, my favorite songs are “Alters” and “My Reminder.”

“Alters” starts off soft and Charli xcx sets up a marriage story; when the chorus starts, the listener realizes Charli’s singing about someone she loves that doesn’t feel the same about her, similar to what she sang about in “party 4 u.”

The chorus builds intensely with loud violins, but the song switches back to a soft sound in the bridge; the listener feels how Charli contrasts both the softness and anger that comes with love.

The other standout song, “My Reminder,” is very upbeat and cheery in comparison to the rest of the album. I loved the lyric “You’re always my reminder, from where I started from.”

The song’s message can be seen as both a positive and negative in a relationship.

You can look at it as looking at your partner and seeing how far you have come, or seeing your partner and thinking how much you’ve grown since being with them.

The song reminded me of the complications that come with being in a relationship and growing at the same time.

My least favorite songs were “House” featuring John Cale and “Eyes of the World” featuring Sky Ferreira.

I didn’t like “House” because of all the “I think I’m gonna die in this house” memes. The memes share that clip of the song and usually show a silly jumpscare of some sort.

As a result, I couldn’t take it seriously or even picture myself ever listening to it in my down time, even though the song is decent.

“Eyes of the World” sounded a bit cheesy. I didn’t care about the chorus and the production to me seemed a bit messy. I also didn’t enjoy Ferreira’s part on “Eyes of the World.”

Overall, it’s not horrible — I added some songs to my playlists — but I also skipped a lot of them.

The album was produced well and I loved the romantic take on electronic pop, but nothing really stuck with me.

Rating: 3/5

DRENCHED

Over two inches of rain hit campus

By Frank Mayers LA VOZ STAFF

Rain, hail and high winds battered De Anza College in a string of thunderstorms that swept through the Bay Area causing minor flooding, power outages and even snow on top of the bay’s highest peaks.

Basketball gets its revenge

Mountain Lions blow out Skyline by 43 in final game, avenge earlier 83-79 upset

By Damian Renteria Mata

LA VOZ STAFF

The Mountain Lions carried a final win of the season defeating the Skyline College Trojans 91-48 at the De Anza College Main Gym on Feb. 20.

This flipped the script on the basketball team’s 83-79 loss to the Trojans in January.

The team started the game strong, dominating the Trojans, scoring multiple two-pointers only allowing a couple points to get through. By the end of the first half, De Anza was up 43-28.

Minutes into the second half, Guard-Forward Dasan Poston, 19, psychology major (De Anza No.

15), laid up the ball into Skyline’s hoop then guard Mehki Thomas, 20, political science major (De Anza No. 2), followed suit with a 2-pointer.

The Mountain Lions kept the pressure going and scored more on the Trojans, with Theo McDowell, 19, business administration major (De Anza No. 24) scoring both of his free throws in minute 15 and rebounding the ball in minute 14.

Before the Trojans could call a timeout, forward Isaac Sisay, 18, kinesiology major (De Anza No. 40) and Thomas both laid up the ball into the hoop, marking 13:28 minutes with De

Anza widening its lead to 59-35.

A timeout gave both teams the opportunity to switch out its starting players for the benched team.

The Mountain Lions ended their season on a high note with this 40-point blowout.

“The main ones (challenges) were focusing on the little things. Not just scoring, but boxing out and defense, playing together as a team, extra passes,” McDowell said. “In this game, we did it all and that’s why we won by 40 points.”

Assistant coach Parick Gallmann said he is “very pleased” with the fi-

nal win for De Anza and that the team had to fight through the season.

“The goal was to get 6 kills, that’s 3 stops in a row and we got 8 kills,” Gallmann said “That leads to fast breaks and that’s where we are the best, on open court.”

The team ended its conference with a 5-9 conference record, 11-17 overall, going 5-7 at home and 6-9 away.

It will not be heading to the California Community College Athletic Association playoffs, which have already started. Foothill College will face off with City College of San Francisco away on Saturday, Feb. 28.

Cabrillo defeats baseball 26-7

12-run inning seals the deal

By Reymond Castañeda

LA VOZ STAFF

TThe De Anza College Mountain Lions lost to the visiting Cabrillo College Seahawks 26-7 moving to 2-11 overall record on Feb. 20.

A 12-run fifth inning put the game out of reach, moving the team to a 2-11 overall record by the end of that game. This game put the team 0-7 at home and 2-4 away.

Cabrillo opened up the game scoring two runs. Designated hitter Lawson Darthard (De Anza No. 40) 19, business major, hit a two-run homerun in the first inning to tie the game.

“At the start we came right back. Answered when they scored, we scored,” head coach Don Watkins said. “Just tip your hat to the other team and move on. They just played better than us today.”

Cabrillo retook the lead in the top of the second inning, scored four runs in the third inning which went unanswered by the Mountain Lions.

Cabrillo did most of its damage in the fifth inning, forcing the Mountain

Lions to use three relief pitchers, Tyson Paganini (De Anza No. 21), Chris Smith II (De Anza No. 12) and Zack Trujillo (De Anza No. 34), who gave up 12 runs combined..

Shortstop Ellis Lubiens (Cabrillo No. 6) who went 5-for-7 in the game, hit a three-run homerun against Trujillo.

De Anza used nine pitchers in the game, including position players Vince Garcia (De Anza No. 4) and Keanu Hennings (De Anza No. 17) 20, kinesiology major, with a tired bullpen coming off their third straight game.

“It was a taxi game (extra players needed). Three in a row, three long games, it’s rough,” Watkins said. “It’s rough we competed in them, that’s two out of three competed in and today was just a game, we played baseball.”

Hennings went 1-for-4 with two RBIs including a ninth inning pitching appearance, striking out two Seahawks.

“We did not play to our best abilities at all but it’s just one game,” Darthard who went 3-for-4 said, “We have more games to come.”

Catcher Jordan Maske (De Anza No. 23) 20, communications major, said, “The potential and talent’s there, things just need to fall in the right place for us and good things will happen.”