ROUND OUNDUP www.theroundupnews.com
Woodland Hills, California
A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION
Volume 117 - Issue 8
November 14, 2012
One copy free, each additional copy $1.00
Class mourns student death
Answers sought after Prop. 30 approved
Monica Velasquez/Roundup
Nick McNamara/Roundup
Asieh Kahkouli killed in apparent murder-suicide, police say Campus reacts to upcoming changes mvelasquez.roundupnews@gmail.com
nmcnamara.roundupnews@gmail.com
I
t had been four years since Pierce student Asieh Moradi Kashkouli had seen her parents who lived in Iran, and friends say that she had a count-down, eagerly awaiting their arrival. However that day never came. Kashkouli died one day before her parents arrival. Kashkouli, 25, was found dead– along with Bahram Varahram, 29– in a residence on the 7100 block of Canoga Park’s Farralone Avenue on Nov. 2, according to a Daily News article. The Daily News spoke with Officer Rosario Herrera of the Los Angeles Police Department and Lieutenant Fred Corral of the coroner’s office. “When officers arrived and entered the residence they found two victims with gunshot wounds,” Herrera said. Varahram shot Kashkouli and then turned the gun on himself, Corral said. Early investigations by the Topanga Area Homicide Detectives appears that the two were dating, according to the Los Angeles Police Department Media Release. Craig Kramer a Professor of English, had Kashkouli in his English 84 class. He sat in his office remembering how he found out about the death of one of his students. “I came in and it was obvious by the look on some students faces that something terrible had happened, and I basically found out through my students,” Kramer said. Family and friends gathered on Thursday, Nov.8 at the Forest Lawn Memorial- Mortuaries, Hollywood Hills to remember Kashkouli. There were about 30-40 people, and most of the ceremony was in Farsi, according to Kramer, who attended the memorial. “Her parents were there, her mother and father– they were actually coming out to visit her and she was really looking forward to that,” Kramer said. “The day before
Proposition 30 passed last Tuesday in the general election, which led some on the Pierce College campus to express joy, while others expressed disappointment. Dr. Denise Robb, assistant professor of Political Science, was optimistic about the outcome of the vote. “It’s not going to make things amazing, it just means we’re not going to have more cuts,” Robb said. Proposition 30 passed with the final results being 53.6 to 46.4 percent of voters in favor of the ballot measure. “It looks like the voters finally said that they’re willing to pay for education, which astounded me,” Robb said. “And it’s because young people voted.” Robb attributed this increase in youth voters to the new ability to register online, rather than the previous process of filling out the paper and mailing it in. 18 million voters were registered in California, up from the previous record of 17.3 million according to Robb. “This is historic,” Robb said. But not everyone was pleased with the outcome, such as student John Lubran, who said the proposition will not solve the
“crisis with education.” Lubran said that Proposition 30 will only be a minor, temporary fix that people will find ways to get around. “[People] will buy less and spending will slow down, and therefore the income received by taxes will decrease, overall decreasing the amount of funding given to schools,” Lubran said. “Instead of an increase in funding there will be a decrease in funding and schools will hurt even more.” Lubran also said that he expected another bill to be needed in the future to remedy the results he said would be seen as a result of proposition 30. “I’m guessing the answer is going to be the same as last time, which will be even more taxes,” Lubran said. Somewhere in between the two was Irvin Rojas, a Mechanical Engineering major. Rojas voted for it because he said it would directly benefit him, but still found issues with the ballot measure. “More of that money has to go through our state government, and for a while now they haven’t been doing such an awesome job,” Rojas said. “So, are we going to trust them with more money to do what they say they’re going to do?” With the new policies to be applied from Proposition 30, Pierce can only wait to see which camp is correct.
Photo courtesy: Maryam Baharanch Pierce College student, Asieh Kashkouli, was killed in apparent murder-suicide Friday, Nov. 2 in Canoga Park, police said.
she was murdered, in class she wrote an essay about her father, and how her father was her best friend.” Kashlouli’s essay was given to a family friend by Kramer the day of the memorial and in turn it was given to her father the day of the funeral, according to Kramer. He now faces the task of having to continue teaching the rest of the semester without Kashlouli.
“Everything is going to seem so trivial in comparison, talking about noun clauses, and writing paragraphs and such it just seems so unimportant at this point, but I know I have to move us forward,” Kramer said. His English 84 class was canceled on Thursday, Nov. 8 for the memorial. Beth Benne, Director of the
Health Center, spoke to his class about grief on Tuesday, the first class meeting after the memorial. Benne arranged for there to be group and individual grief counseling with clinical phycologist PSY.D Niaz Khani starting at 5:30p.m. in the Student Health Center. [See DEATH, pg. 3]
Danny Duarte/ Roundup The Board of Trustees of Los Angeles Community College District sign the approval of Agreement Between the LACCD and the AFT College Staff Guild Local 1521A during the LACCD board meeting at Pierce College on Wednesday, Nov. 7.
Roping in the rodeo Digging for recyclable treasure
Receptacles around campus searched in hopes of finding reusable items Violet Canelo/Roundup vcanelo.roundupnews@gmail.com
Fariba Molavi/Roundup Joe Tubbs cuts one of the calves from the herd. Pierce College Equestrian Science program is hosting its second annual Ranch Sorting and Team Penning weekend, November 10-11, 2012, a weekend of western riding open to participants and spectators. This community event is the second fundraiser for the Equine Science program this year at Pierce College,Calif.on Sunday, Nov.11. For the full story visit the www.theroundupnews.com.
RUONLINE? www.theroundupnews.com
twitter.com/roundupnews facebook.com/theroundup youtube.com/roundupnews
The Los Angeles Community College District has placed receptacles for recyclables around Pierce College in an effort to make the community college an environment-friendly campus, but what happens when outside civilians poke through the these bins to take out recyclables? Students and faculty have noticed people who come onto campus with trash bags, and leave with them filled with various recyclable goods, which have been taken without permission from administration or plant facilities. One of the issues that Pierce faces with this trend is that the
P I E R C E The Pierce College Weather Station has provided meteorological data to national agencies since 1949. Information for this week’s report comes from meteorology student Kevin Gabriel, who volunteers at the station.
Wed.– Nov. 14 High: 81° Low: 50°
college loses money from the people who take these items from the separate bins labeled specifically for recycling. Although many students do cooperate with the cause to separate trash from plastic bottles, cans and paper, many students place trash into the recycling bins. This has also affected the revenue Pierce College generates from recyclables. Associate Vice President Bruce Rosky said the college does not encourage random civilians to take away these recyclables. “Director of Facilities is required to achieve a certain amount of recyclables,” Rosky said when asked about the revenue the college makes from paper and plastics.
“People who take away the college’s recyclables make it difficult for Plant Facilities to reach its goal of a certain amount of paper, bottles and cans that should be given to recycling centers from the campus.” Director of Plant Facilities Paul Nieman said the school is also losing money from students putting garbage in the recycling bins. “We aren’t getting revenue because people put trash in the containers,” Nieman said. “They charge us because they have to separate that.” Faculty at Pierce are also concerned with the health of the people that go through the campus’s trash. “I think we should encourage people to not go through the cans
W E A T H E R Thur.– Nov. 15 High: 76° Low: 51°
Fri.– Nov. 16 High: 69° Low: 49°
Mostly Cloudy Mostly Cloudy Partly Cloudy
Sat.– Nov. 17 High: 70° Low: 48°
Sunny
from a health stand point,” Rosky said. Associative Vice President, Larry Kraus, is a staff member who does not encourage this recent trend. “Its tolerated, but it isn’t acceptable,” said Kraus. Several employees feel that people should stop going through the campus’ trash and that students should make an effort to actually use the recycling bins correctly rather than just throw trash in the wrong receptacles. “What can we do to stop them?” Nieman said. “There is no way to really stop it”. Students are encouraged to avoid taking trash out of the bins due to various health risks.
R E P O R T
Sun.– Nov. 18 High: 70° Low: 49°
Mon.– Nov. 19 Tues.– Nov. 20 Wed.– Nov. 21 High: 68° High: 69° High: 72° Low: 50° Low: 50° Low:58° Partly Cloudy Scattered Partly Cloudy Mostly Cloudy
T-Storms