ROUNDUP Los Angeles Pierce College
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Woodland Hills, California
Volume 128 - Issue 4
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A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
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Pierce says #ENOUGH
Problems arise from proposed Clubs and organizations to participate in national walkout schedule changes ROSA ORTEGA Reporter @RosaGabOrtega
O
ne month after the Florida school shooting, and days following the “credible threat” to Los Angeles Pierce College, students, staff and faculty will stand in solidarity with the victims during the nationwide walkout. The Resist Club, the Pierce College Democrats, the Associated Students Organization and others invite students to participate in the #ENOUGH walkout today, March 14, to protest against gun violence. Students will walk out of their classes and meet in front of the Great Hall at 10 a.m. for a 17-minute moment of silence, commemorating the 17 victims killed in the Parkland shooting. The recent school shootings can bring fear to many students and educators nationwide.The walkout is a call for action to improve gun regulation. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 34 mass shootings in the United States since Jan. 1, all of which resulted in multiple injuries and/or deaths. Shootings on a school campus made up 13 of the 34. Co-President of the Pierce College Democrats Bella AguilarRosil said a walkout can help educate and inform people about the present state of gun control. “Knowing that we’re making a conscious effort to try to stop this, to try to create more regulations and restrictions to obtain guns, just instills a sense of security in some
people,” Aguilar-Rosil said. Aguilar-Basil said the hashtag #ENOUGH will be used on signs during the march. It has been placed on flyers and will be used in social media to create awareness that not enough regulations have been made, and people are tired of not seeing a change. Resist Club member Xochitl Medina said Pierce isn’t the only local college participating in the walkout. Medina said Valley College and Mission College are also interested in joining the walkout. She said that for the walkout to be effective, they will need a large amount of participants. Medina said she expects students to join the protest to fight for their future safety on campus. “I hope. I really hope there will be a lot of students coming out, walking out of class because this is really important,” Medina said. “I know this is not affecting us right now, but you never know. This is a campus, and you never know what will happen.” Last Wednesday, a “credible threat” against Pierce was reported, and the campus was evacuated while police searched for the suspect. A man was arrested and the investigation is ongoing. ASO president Efren Lopez said he was shocked that there was a threat of a shooting at Pierce. “A lot of people don’t realize that it might happen to them, until we get this kind of evacuation order. It feels like a fantasy when it actually starts happening,” Lopez said. Lopez said the walkout is necessary to make a difference. “We shouldn’t even have to
Instructors debate new passing period DAVID ZAYER Reporter @DavidZayer
Shae Hammond / Roundup
Pierce College students show signs for the national walkout to end gun violence on March 13, 2018 in Woodland Hills, Calif. The walkout is in solidarity with other schools across the country that are participating to show support.
go through these kind of drills or evacuations,” Lopez said. “It shouldn’t be a thing to begin with. We shouldn’t have to be afraid or even be thinking about a mass shooting happening in our colleges.”
Aguilar-Basil said her club reached out to local high schools such as Taft, which confirmed that it will also participate in the walkout. Medina and Lopez said there will be speakers and another
demonstration at the Van Nuys Civic Center from approximately noon to 2 p.m. It will be a joint rally with other San Fernando Valley schools. rortega.roundupnews@gmail.com
Dramatic story unfolds in 'Blood Wedding' Federico Garcia Lorca's play gets a Pierce twist from a seasoned director Preview:
DANIELLE PADILLA Reporter @dcxpadilla Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Blood Wedding” takes the audience back to 1930s Spain on the dramatic eve of a wedding. The play is directed by Valorie Grear, a returning director to Pierce, who has done productions including “Born Yesterday,” “An Enemy of the People” and “Fences.” Under Grear’s direction, this season’s show will bring an element of innovation to Lorca’s classic play. Grear said she goes beyond the scope of a traditional setting of a “rural Spanish tragedy.” She said the vision for the play’s set is minimalistic, as the structures are all white with a textured floor and few furnishings. The set would be similar to a “Greek tragedy with the emphasis on the language and not so much the props or the setting. They’re still natural in their behavior when the mother and the son are talking – they sit, they cross, they embrace all of those things, but it’s just not cluttered in the naturalistic environment,” Grear said. Grear said the set’s simplicity
RUONLINE?
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The Bride (Emely Chavez) and Leonardo (Michael Messiha) argue about her getting married to another man in the Dow Theatre Arena at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Calif. on March 3, 2018.
emphasizes something greater-the play’s dialogue. Lorca’s writing and the actors’ portrayal of it is meant to be the focal point of the show. Emely Chavez, who plays the Bride in the production, said that the play follows the Greek tragedy set up. “The whole story revolves
around the bride’s marriage. So a lot of the time, I am center stage and I am open to everybody,” Chavez said. “That’s a style that Greek tragedies follow.” Bryan Rojas, who plays the Bridegroom, said Lorca’s language is important to the play because this helps the audience understand the complex emotions.
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Rojas said his character has a very complicated family history that has resulted in a feud between his family and the bride’s ex-lover Leonardo and his family. The dialogue between the Bridegroom and his mother allow the audience to feel a deep sense of empathy for the family members he lost, resulting in the feud.
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Michael Messiha, who plays Leonardo, said the audience can expect a family feud backdrop, a love triangle and a theme that exhibits resistance. “With the bride, she doesn’t know if she should resist the flames of Leonardo or if she should follow her new journey with the Bridegroom,” Messiha said. “It’s all about resisting and the outcome of what happens if you don’t resist.” Grear said the three leads are acting on the stage for the first time. She said that while choosing her cast, she decided to select younger and less seasoned actors. Despite its challenges, the importance of this decision is what added to the narrative and realism in the play’s adaptation of Lorca’s work. “When you’re using younger actors, there’s a lot of just working and teaching acting as you’re going,” said Grear. “But I’m very proud of them, they’ve worked so hard and have dug deep to understand the play.” “Blood Wedding” will run from March 23 to April 1 at the Dow Arena Theatre. You can reserve your tickets now at brownpapertickets.com. dpadilla.roundupnews@gmail.com
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Though they are rushing to class, students may not make it from the Art Hill to the Village in time. But starting next semester, the college is mandating a passing period, recommended at 10 minutes, so that they can make it across campus in between classes. Instructors have to figure out how to incorporate a passing period into the schedule without overlapping or cutting into other courses, while also commedating the new college hour block. At the Academic Senate meeting on Monday, members discussed adjusting class schedules to turn in to the district. “We need to have a 10-minute passing period and it really boils down to attendance counting. It is how we correct the portion of it with the clock hour and college hour,” said Professor Adrian Youhanna, the Department Chair of Anthropological and Geographical Sciences. Second Vice President of Curriculum Margaret Pillado said students only have five minutes to get to class and sometimes the classes overlap. “We need to update the schedule so at least we have a minimum of 10 minutes during passing period,” Pillado said. “For many years, we had this practice and it worked relatively well, but now that we have a software, it does not allow for those overlaps. We need to clean everything up and reorganize it.” Instructor of Kinesiology Susan Armenta recommended cutting night classes to have more time to schedule classes and the passing period. Some professors that teach at night opposed this recommendation. Adjunct instructor Mark Levick said he was not going to stop teaching his classes if the Pierce president did not approve of schedules. “I don’t care what she says. I’m still going to teach my classes,” Levick said. “They’re trying to fix something that isn’t broken.” Levick said the the Physics Department has struggled with the schedule changes. “The folks is physics say that by having classes start ten minutes earlier than usual, at 6:50 p.m., they wouldn’t have a full schedule,” Levick said. “I been teaching classes at night from 7-10 p.m. for years without a problem.” Chairman of Psychology/ Statistics Maria Perser said that the schedule would not affect her curriculum, but may affect others. “It needs to be fixed because it can affect other departments,” Perser said. “We are trying to accommodate as many scheduling issues that have been bought up to the senate and hopefully we will be able to share it public with them.” An agreement was made to have an administrator attend a meeting to settle things. dzayer.roundupnews@gmail.com
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