ROUND OUNDUP www.theroundupnews.com
Woodland Hills, California
A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION
Volume 116 - Issue 5
April 11, 2012
One copy free, each additional copy 50¢
Health Center fears new bill Brent Spector bspector.roundupnews@gmail.com Pierce College may lose the Student Health Center due to a trailer bill within the California State Budget Bill. Approval of this bill would allow students to vote on removing the health center’s fee. Beth Benne, director of the Student Health Center, made this announcement during an Academic Senate meeting March 26. “Students who don’t know [what the bill means] may say ‘Oh ya, I can save money on fees,’ but it goes beyond that,” Benne said. The center provides services that are the cheapest in the country. “It will limit the services we provide for students if the health fee changes,” Student Health Center Assistant Loralyn Frederick said. “It’s already difficult to run on the [funds from the] fee.” A trailer bill is a bill that is attached to the state’s budget, and is not held to the same legislative processes as regular bills, allowing it to pass much quicker than usual. California students pay the health fee due to a bill passed as part of the 1986/87 budget, all of which supports the operating costs of the Student Health Center, Benne said. The 1986/87 bill did not affect Pierce College, which at the time did not have a health center, but in 1992 when the Los Angeles Community College District allowed students across all nine campuses to vote on the matter, the students chose to erect the fee to establish a health center. The bill is believed to have originated in the governor’s office, but the sponsors, California Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield and California Senator Mark Leno, are most only on it because they are a part of the Budget Committee, according to Benne. If the bill is passed, and students do vote to remove the fee, the Board of Trustees may shut down the Health Center.
Helping hands: Dean Jose Luis Fernandez feeds the cows and sheep and to check on their general well being at the Pierce College Farm in Woodlands
Ava Weintraub
Community provides farm aid
Professors and local children offer help to the struggling farm
Melissa Trahin
mtrahin.roundupnews@gmail.com Faculty and community members at Pierce have been volunteering and donating to the farm in hopes of helping it. Department Chair of Agriculture Leland Shapiro has raised $11,000 of donations from faculty and people around the community and four months worth of volunteers. Though many of them have been professors, further information about the volunteers could not be obtained without their permission. According to Shapiro everyone volunteering will be feeding the animals, watering the pasture and cleaning the cows. Considering the fact that the farm has only two working men but one
on sick leave, the job is undoubtedly impossible for one person to do everyday for consecutive hours. “People don’t understand why we have to clean the cows once a day, its cruel to keep animals in a confined area and only clean once a week,” Shapiro said. The U.S Department of Agriculture sets standards that include all aspects that go into maintaining the farm correctly. If violated the department can be fined $10,000 they don’t have. The volunteers will help prevent those kinds of incidents. The college administration has influenced decisions that could indeed further the farm successfully but without their permission Shapiro is out of luck.
One of the main factors about the farm closing is the cost of feed and though many would use the $11,000 raised towards that, Shapiro didn’t. He used $1,555 from last years farm walk money to buy seed to create three permanent pastures that would allow animals to be in larger areas where they could move freely. With the $11,000, he bought three water wheels that diminish labor in watering the pastures. “With three pastures it would probably cut my feed bill by half, it is more humane to have animals grazing in a pasture and you don’t have to clean as often,” Shapiro said. “For us to be successful and go into vet school, we have to work on the farm,” said Agricultural Ambassador of pre-vet club Jennifer
Artinian. “And this is the only program out here.” Two kindergarten schools have been involved with donations to the farm. Letters were sent to Shapiro with details on how the idea came about and what they are doing to raise money. Haynes Street School in West Hills and The Center for Early Education in West Hollywood plan to attend the Farm Walk where they will present the donations. “The kids are doing chores at home to earn the money,” Mindy Levine, a teacher at Haynes Street Elementary, said in the letter written to Shapiro. “Our goal is to raise $50, but I think with all the enthusiasm we will exceed that.” said Levine.
The kindergarten classes have attended the farm and Halloween festivals for the past seven years according to Janet Lee teacher at The Center for Early Education, . ‘The trip has been one of the highlights of our fall curriculum and we were devastated to learn you might have to close,” Lee said. In an attempt to save the farm, the children will be making “farm illustrations” that will later become postcards and be sold for $5 the donations could add up to $500 by the time they present them to Shapiro. “The fact that children are trying to raise money shows how the farm doesn’t only have an impact on our school but the community as a whole,” Maria Sance, 20, Pierce student said.
Lights may go out for writing lab in the fall Another student service may be canceled due to budgetary decline
Kevin Perez
kperez.roundupnews@gmail.com
Jeanine Brown sat next to the disconnected phone at her desk in the Writing Lab. She hasn’t had a working phone there for a year. “I’ve been told there’s one person who’s responsible for all the phones on campus,” she said. “One person.” She has tried to track that person down before, but had little luck. She relies on communication mostly through email on her personal laptop now. She used to have her own office computer, but not this semester.
This is only a small part of the broader effects the budget cuts have had on the Writing Lab. Jeanine Brown, the Writing Lab’s only staff member, is set to retire in the fall. Due to the administration’s decision to freeze hiring at Pierce. There will not be a staff member to replace her, and the Writing Lab will most likely go with her. Brown first started her work at Pierce in 1989, and she taught for three years before working in the Writing Lab. In 1993 she became part of the permanent staff, she said. Her former colleague, Bonnie Rapp, retired last year after teaching
at the Writing Lab for 30 years. Due to the hiring freeze, Rapp was not replaced, and Brown now runs the Writing Lab herself. Her partner’s retirement has put a strain on her, she said. “I love the work, but it is a two person job,” she said. Richard Follett, professor of English, teaches an English 28 class and asks many of his students to get help at the Writing Lab. Coupled with the announced elimination of student tutors, he believes students will have fewer resources if they want to improve their writing. “They’ll have to rely on each other, and I don’t know how that’s
Weekly Weather Wed. April 11 Fri. April 13 61/48 57/45 Thu. April 12 Sat. April 14 62/48 63/47 Courtesy of Sean Clemmons
going to work,” Follett said. While Brown believes that students can definitely learn from each other, it’s not as valuable as professional tutoring, she said. “You’re talking about the difference between someone who’s trained and someone who isn’t,” she said. With basic English classes more full than ever, she believes students need more one-on-one time with instructors. Last semester, the Writing Lab took on 65 workshop appointments and 189 one-on-one appointments, she said. “It seems to me that the students who need the help the most, are
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getting less support,” she said. Adding to the increasing need is an increasing number of students taking on more work. She hasn’t seen so many classes before in which students work full-time, often to support their family, and still find time to go to school and tutoring, she said. “A lot of the people that I see here are very serious, or they wouldn’t be coming here,” Brown said. Brown also speculates on whether the Writing Lab could return to its original setup, where it Sonia Gurrola was entirely run by professors who Pointers: Jenine Brown helping donated their time. students in the writing lab.
-InsideA new Moodle system has been activated. For more details, see page 3.
Did you know?
Student government elections will take place April 16 and 17.