Do ll u a h yo s: ot s u h (8 co av 18 o e ) 7 p? 10 -4 11 5
Page 5:Applied Music Program
Page 7: Pierce beats Bakersfield
Ca
Page 4: Rick Rose opens photography studio
www.theroundupnews.com
At-a-glance news
Pro/Con declaring a major pg. 2 English Scholarship pg. 3 Discover Pierce pg. 3 Media arts goes to JACC pg.7 A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION Woodland Hills, California
Vol. CXXVI - Issue 5
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
One copy free, each additional copy $1.00
Nobody puts free speech in a corner
Student questions why 'a rbitrary' free speech is limited on campus VANESSA ARREDONDO News Editor @V̲anana
P
ierce student Kevin Shaw filed a lawsuit on March 28 against the college, stating that not only is the Free Speech Zone too small, but the policies enforced are “arbitrary.” Shaw is being represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) as the first lawsuit in its Million Voices Campaign. Its goal is to “free the voices of 1 million students by striking down unconstitutional speech codes across the country.” Pierce College President Kathleen Burke and other Pierce College administrators being sued had no comment and redirected all inquiries to Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) officials. Vice Chancellor of the Finance and Resource Development Robert B. Miller said in an email that because the investigation is ongoing and litigation is still pending, he could only repeat what LACCD has been providing media inquiries. “The Los Angeles Community College District firmly stands behind every student's right to free expression. We have no further comment on the lawsuit at this time,” Vice Chancellor of the Finance and Resource Development Robert B. Miller said in the email. Shaw was confronted by administration last fall as he handed out Spanish-language copies of the
Budget decrease
About $65 million was spent on staff during the 2015-16 school year KAREN RUIZ Reporter @KarenRuiz11 The college’s budget has dropped from $8 million to $1 million causing administration to analyze prior money spending decisions. According to Vice President of Administrative Services Rolf Schleicher, the last few years there has been so much stimuli in the economy, and it’s been relatively good, but it’s getting more negative again. “Our costs are going up, but enrollment, which is our revenue generation, isn’t changing much,” Schleicher said. Student body growth is necessary to obtain new revenue. If the number of students enrolling at Pierce is not rising, neither is the capital, according to Schleicher. “We do get paid additional money for growth, but when we can’t grow, it means that everything is static
RUONLINE?
US Constitution on the Pierce Mall, seeking to recruit students for Young Americans for Liberty, a political organization with chapters on college campuses across the US. “It was during the election that we had Republicans and Democrats saying nasty things to each other, fighting and being disrespectful,” Shaw said.
“My main intention with starting the club was to show there was a middle ground.” Shaw was told that he could not distribute literature outside of the Free Speech Area, and to distribute within the area, he would have to fill out a permit. “We are paying for access to the
in terms of new revenue. However, our costs continue to go up because people get raises, our utility bills go up and services go up,” Schleicher said. According to Schleicher, contributing factors for why the $8 million reserve dwindled down to $1 million could be that some of the school’s equipment had to be replaced and staff needs to get paid. “All the electric cars that run around the school were getting old and really decrepit, so they went through and replaced a lot of them. We are talking about a lot of money,” District Academic Senate Representative Joe Perret said. “With things like that, it began to eat up the budget.”
You can buy many cars for one year, and that is your budget for that year, but when you hire people, you now have them forever because we are mostly a labor organization,” Perret said. “That will impact the budget for this year and the next and so on.” According to the Pierce College Historical Perspective Chart, during the 2015-2016 school year, there was about $65 million spent just on staff and about $9 million on equipment, supplies and electricity. “Of the amount of money that we pay, most of it is for teachers and people who process admissions and financial aid and all those things,” Associate Vice President Bruce Rosky said. The new budget doesn’t go into effect until July 2017, but there are already plans being made to stay above that required 5 percent. “We are trying to market better. We are trying to make the classes more relevant to draw more students in, and on the expense side, we are looking at what areas we can save money on,” Schleicher said. Although this is a concern, it was clarified by Perret that the future of Peirce is not at risk. “The future is not at risk at all,” Perret said. “It’s just a bump along the road. We’ll get through it.”
“[...] our costs continue to go up because people get raises, our utility bills go up because people get raises ”
-Rolf Schleicher
Vice Preident of Administrative Services
He also said that the budget is impacted by the amount of new hired staff. “The main thing that, in my opinion, we haven’t paid close enough attention to is the recurring expenses.
/theroundupnews
kruiz.roundupnews@gmail.com
@roundupnews
Illustration by Victor Rodriguez school. I thought the free speech zone was for outside people, non-students,” Shaw said. “You see people there with bibles, people handing out movie tickets. I didn't think students were also required to apply for a permit.” The Free Speech Area is a 616 square foot area located on the Mall. According to FIRE, the area makes up
.003 percent of a 426-acre campus. “If Pierce College were the size of a tennis court, the area where students are allowed to exercise their constitutional rights would be smaller than a standard iPhone,” FIRE stated in a press release. Arthur I. Willner, of Leader & Berkon, LLP, is part of a network of outside attorneys in the US who work with FIRE for cases in Southern California. He has worked with FIRE for the last ten years. “Once they described what the issues were in the case, I was in disbelief that the same issue is coming up yet again,” Willner said. “You would think at this point schools would understand that these rules are unconstitutional, and they need to change them.” According to Willner, as a public institution, Pierce College is legally obligated to uphold the First Amendment rights of its students, and it is not. Brynne Madway is an associate attorney for FIRE and began working on freedom of speech cases with the Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project. “The Supreme Court has made it very clear that the First Amendment applies on college campuses,” Madway said. “By restricting students to these really tiny spots on campus, students aren’t able to really speak with their peers. All of the outside areas should be open to free speech just like a public park.”
see free speech pg.3
#Piercewire See anything interesting on campus? Tag us @Roundupnews on Twitter
Graduation petitions Students wanting to
graduate and walk across the stage in June will need to submit petitions on or before Friday, April 14, to the Graduation Office.
Tech talks from Professionals
Google, JPL, and the Aerospace Corporation will be here on Thursday April 13, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Great Hall. Students interested engineering, technology, or computer science are encouraged to attend.
English Scholarship deadline
Applicants for the English scholarship must submit their work to Professor M. Kraemer’s faculty mailbox (#630) by Friday, May 26, 2017. Students interested in applying must follow these requirements to be considered. Students should include a cover page with your name, identification number and email address along with an English essay from a class within the past academic year.
Wine-ing OK'd on campus Free LA Alcohol will be served at this year’s faculty awards dinner
DANI NOVASKI Reporter @DNovaski No alcohol on campus. However, faculty will be able to enjoy beer and wine at this year’s awards dinner on May 12. “The faculty awards dinner has been awarded a permit that will allow beer and wine to be served,” said Angela Belden treasurer for the Academic Senate. Director of the Student Health Center Beth Benne said there was agreement among the committee that serving alcohol would commemorate the culmination of another term. “Some people on the committee thought it would be a nice way to celebrate the end of the semester,” Benne said. To receive an alcohol permit by the Board of Trustees from LACCD, the Faculty Senate Association had to adhere to specific guidelines, according to Events and Recognitions Committee Chair Jennifer Moses. She specified that this was not a college or district-sponsored event. “This event is of the Faculty Senate Association, which is a separate entity,
/roundupnews
with its own charter and bylaws,” Moses said. “Additionally, the event is not open or advertised to the public.” She compared this event to those run by the Art and Architecture Department which serve alcohol. Those events are sponsored by an outside entity. Moses said the committee received written approval from the chancellor to serve beer and wine. No district employees are permitted to be involved in the sale, transfer or dispensing of alcoholic beverages. “Two non-Pierce employee volunteers will be purchasing, transporting and serving the beer and wine,” Moses said. In addition, the Faculty Senate Association was required to purchase $5 million worth of insurance for the event. Benne said that there was some apprehension about having alcohol at such an occasion. “We had some mixed feelings in the meeting,” Benne said. “There was uneasiness that people might overimbibe, and we didn’t know how to approach that.” dnovaski.roundupnews@gmail.com
/roundupnews
HI-TECH workshop Students interested in careers in arts and entertainment, media arts, graphic design and multimedia can learn how to market and gain skills and also develop an online portfolio. The workshop starts on Wednesday, April 12, from 3 to 6 p.m. through May 17.
Discover Pierce
On Friday, April 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. the campus will be open to the community and high schools in the area to explore Pierce. Events and food will be provided while prospective students learn about the Los Angeles College Promise.
Taxes The last day to file the 2016 taxes is on Thursday, April 14.
/roundupnews