ROUND OUNDUP theroundupnews.com
Woodland Hills, California
A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION
Volume 115 - Issue 10
To find your professor’s salary go to www.theroundupnews.com
November 30, 2011
One copy free, each additional copy 50¢
LACCD salaries save money Public records show professor salaries for 2010 Coburn Palmer
cpalmer.roundupnews@gmail.com Occupy: A tent city has sprung up at East Los Angeles College as students camp out to protest against California budget cuts and rising tution costs.
Javier Zazueta
Students Occupy college campus ELAC students camp out on campus to protest rising costs and budget cuts Eduardo Razo
erazo.roundupnews@gmail.com With education cutbacks some students at East Los Angeles College (ELAC), one of the nine schools in the Los Angeles Community College District, have formed Occupy ELAC. For the last four weeks students have been occupying a space that is known as Tent City by the Occupiers, which is between the Administrations Building and the Student Services Building. The students are protesting to try and lower the cost of education and stop the budget cuts. The Pierce College Associated Students Organization (ASO) president wasn’t in favor of the Occupy movement at ELAC. “For Pierce I am not so sure it will work,” said Ruiz. “The whole Occupy movement is getting chaotic … and rather than associating ourselves with that we rather get appointments with people who we can talk about the budget.” ASO Advisor Brad Saenz isn’t in favor of the protest at ELAC either. “They shouldn’t protest the budget issues because that’s not set by the school; they should protest course offering because the school controls that,” said
Saenz. The Occupiers have until Jan. 1, when the area that they are located will no longer be safe because of the construction going on behind them. Also the students are legally bound to stay in that area until the set date, but after that the school can call the police and have them removed. “I have been heavily involved in student activism ever since I got to East Los Angeles College,” said Mike Sanchez, 22, communication studies major. “What we are doing here encompasses far beyond what a student is … funding is crucial to a student’s success because services and programs do get cut which has an adverse effect on student transfer.” The first week was a challenge for the occupiers as due to the rain. They had to scramble to add wood and cardboard under their tents. However, with the rain out of the way they spread their cause by handing out flyers to students and inviting classes to Tent City to explain their cause. “The toughest part has been not being home of course,” said Luz Juan, 22, a political science major who has been at Occupy ELAC from day one which was Oct. 31. “Most of the administration here on campus has been pro because it’s a student movement.” The Occupy ELAC movement is an
off shoot of the national movement in which large groups of protestors have camped out in downtown areas across the country claiming to represent 99 percent of Americans. “It’s been a little rough I am not going to lie it’s been pretty rough,” said Keanujr Paar, 19, engineering major, who has been camped at the Occupy ELAC location for the last three weeks. “We have a few lobbyist and we were able to get Calif. State Senator Ed Hernandez down here and gave us his input, so I consider that a victory.” It hasn’t been all about protesting during the four week occupy movement at ELAC. Students have had to manage with rationing their food, which is provided by parents and private donations, having a tent with electricity to study and learning to live together with other students. “The time that we’ve been here we’ve developed certain relationships that feels like a community,” said Mike Sanchez. “Even though everyone has their own tent there is a familiar feeling there might have been people you might have not known in the past, but all of a sudden you emerge into this new sub-culture.” Javier Zazueta
Boots: Student shoes left outside ELACʼs tent city.
I-TAP remains absent Transit pass program can’t be subsidized by students Michaia Hernandez
mhernandez.roundupnews@gmail. The recent cancelation of the Institution Transit Access Pass (ITAP) program, which exclusively gave qualified students across the district low-cost transit passes, has prompted student representatives to take it upon themselves to set up their own version of the program. Leading the efforts to establish an agreement with Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transpor-
tation Authority (LACMTA) is Andrea Bari, vice president of finance for Los Angeles City College’s student government. Bari has been trying to negotiate a deal with the transit company since the spring of this year, he said. The problem, according to Bari, is money. “We cannot afford to pay the amount that they’re asking,” he said. According to Bari, another hindrance to any progress with the new deal is an educational
code that limits the amount of money students can be charged for transportation to $70 a semester. For their side of the agreement, LACMTA is asking students to pay $8.31 weekly. For a 16-week semester, each student would be paying $132.96. “We cannot ask students for that kind of money,” Bari said. “The rest of the lump sum has to come from [somewhere else] like ASO (Associated Students Organization) or the college. No one has that money.”
Wed. Nov. 30: Partly cloudy; High 70, Low 43
Sat., Dec. 3: Sunny; High 63, Low 41
Thu. Dec. 1: Partly cloudy, windy; High 62, Low 45
Sun., Dec. 4: Sunny; High 65, Low 40
Fri., Dec. 2: Partly cloudy; High 59, Low 40
Mon., Dec. 5: Sunny; High 68, Low 42 Tue., Dec. 6: Sunny; High 68, Low 42
LACMTA does offer a discount to Transit Access Pass (TAP) cards for college and vocational students, where approved applicants only have to pay $36 monthly. Regularly priced 30-day passes amount to $75. Bari, however, is looking for a “different type of program,” one similar to the now-defunct I-TAP. See ITAP page 2
Inside Section Opinion page 2: Should police use pepper spray News page 3: Recap of I-TAP Features page 4: Nursing Department A and E page 5: A look at the Side Show Photo Essay page 6: Recap of semester sports Sports page 7 and 8: Volleyball advances
California’s budget crisis, and the subsequent slashing of government institutions, such as public universities, have caused an increasingly watchful eye to be turned towards public employee salaries. During an investigation into public employee compensation, the Roundup acquired the salaries, before taxes, of all non-classified faculty and staff members employed by the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) during 2010. Professors teaching in the LACCD have the opportunity to join the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union. Union members have not received a pay raise in recent years, according to Don Sparks, union representative. The last raise given to union members occurred in 2008 and was .64 percent, according to Sparks. “A lot of teachers could be making more money working in industry,” said Elizabeth Cheung, professor of industrial technology, describing the pay cut she took to work as a professor. “I felt like I wanted to do something that was more rewarding.” Richard McMillan, instructor of history, has been teaching at Pierce for the past 15 years and said he enjoys the benefits that come with being a tenured professor. “I had the responsibility of a family,” said McMillian. When non-classified employees are hired by the district they are ‘rated-in’ to determine the amount of their salary. Several factors are considered during this process including the amount of time, spent teaching in the district and the amount of time spent in the profession. Employees can move higher in the rating scale by remaining in the district longer, taking more classes and completing degrees. They are also paid more when taking on extra assignments such as becoming chair of a department. Most professors are paid for 10 months of work, while administrators are paid for 12 months of work. Community college professors are not the only professors able to join unions, however. The average salary of a state university professor is $95,652, according to Mike Uhlenkamp, spokesman for the state university chancellor’s office. “In the history of this country, the unions made the middle class of this country,” said Don Sparks, AFT chapter president. “Everybody needs a job and needs to put food on the table, unions guarantee a decent living.” See salaries page 2 to find your professor’s salaries go online to www.theroundupnews.com
Volleyball vs. Orange Coast won 3 sets to 2 Men’s Basketball vs. West LA won 87-78 Womens Basketball Pierce Tournament won 1 game lost 1 game