ROUNDUP Los Angeles Pierce College
www.theroundupnews.com
Woodland Hills, California
Volume 128 - Issue 6
A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Racking up wins Tennis surpasses combined wins from previous three years
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oming off a winless schedule last season, tennis has turned around and improved dramatically. With a combined five wins in the previous three years, the team has already surpassed that in 2018. Tennis has a 7-4 overall record, 6-2 in conference. Tuesday's game solidified the second seed in the Western State Conference with a 7-2 win. Long Dao was assistant coach of the program since 2010, before he took over as head coach in 2015. Dao said he has scouted years for his current team, working to recruit local players from Los Angeles to help develop a bond between the teammates, creating a more solid team. “Everyone’s local. A lot of these players know each other and are all friends prior to even joining the team,” Dao said. “I think I and the players around here take pride in the fact that all the players on this team are essentially locals.” The team has eight players on the roster, which is the minimum number of players for a team. Dao said that the last time tennis was in the WSC Tournament was two years ago. During that season, the team did not win any dual matches. When playing in tournament, schools are allowed to enter eight single players and four double teams. “Tennis is a little different in that the WSC becomes an individual tournament as opposed to a team event where each player is playing in an effort to advance to the Ojai Tournament, the “state” tournament,” Dao said. Siraj Dail, player, said he can see a difference between this season and the last. “It’s a new team. We have fresh players that are a lot better then what we had last season, so the level of the team is a lot higher than it was,” Dail said. (see tennis match page 8) [see Tennis on pg. 8]
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Guided Pathways unguided notions Academic Senate members don't think enough time was given for a vote DAVID ZAYER Reporter @DavidZayer
Shae Hammond / Roundup
Gavin Dail win his match against Santa Barbara City College's player on March 6, 2018 at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Calif.
“I like to build up the confidence so at the end of the match, when it’s all done, I’ve won for the team instead of myself.”
-Rafeal Fogo’schensul Player
Blood Wedding pg 4 and photo essay pg 6
Pierce Academic Senate members have to make a vote to approve this year’s plan for the Guided Pathways program by March 30 or they will lose $1.8 million for funds, according to Vice President of Academic Affairs Sheri Berger. During the Academic Senate meeting on Monday, members were concerned that they didn't have enough time to speak among themselves to make a decision about whether or not to vote on the Guided Pathways plan. Professional Development Representative Maria Perser said the College Professional Development Department needs more staff. “I was advocating for more staff because there is only one person in there right now,” Perser said. “We can not put together a comprehensive professional development program without fully staffing that office.” Despite Perser’s concerns, the Academic Senate voted against using money from the budget to pay for the extra staff required by Guided Pathways. The senate suggests to get funds elsewhere. Vice President of Curriculum Margarita Pillado said the senate did not have enough time to fully comprehend the plan. “We have to make a decision at last second,” Pillado said. “If we make the wrong choice, we are constantly
going to have to fight for reassigned times.” Although the plan for Guided Pathways is already made, some senate members are relieved that the plans can be changed every year. A decision was made to suggest some changes to the wording. Senate members suggested to include Student Learning Outcomes into the Guided Pathways program. Another issue that the senate was concerned with was whether the college had a plan to evacuate the college if needed. In a recent semesters, including just this month, the campus was evacuated due to wildfires and possible threats. Treasurer Angela Belden wants there to be a uniform plan as soon as possible. “With the possibility of a natural disaster or possible school threat, we need to have a plan to evacuate the school quickly,” Belden said. “Last time, it seemed liked some people didn't even know the school was being evacuated.” District Safety Manager William Ramirez, campus sheriff and administration met to discuss safety procedures. Administration is working to decrease the time of emergency evacuation while beating traffic, Berger said. Berger also informed the senate that email and text templates were made and are ready to send in mass as precautions. dzayer.roundupnews@gmail.com
Implementing safet y Admin works with law enforcement and district RANDI LOVE Editor-in-Chief @Randi̲Love29 The country’s youth are walking out, marching and standing up for their lives after the shooting in Parkland, Florida. Locally, students at Pierce participated in the National Walkout on March 14. It included a march down the Mall to protest gun violence, a week after Pierce had a credible threat of a possible shooter on March 7. Once they were informed of the perceived threat, administration decided to immediately evacuate the campus. Vice President of Administrative Services Rolf Schleicher said that security cameras would be a beneficial addition to campus security. “If there is a threat on campus, the ability to get Intel and to address the threat and subdue that threat quickly is even more important than how you evacuate,” Schleicher said. During the Pierce College Council meeting on Thursday, March 22, college President Kathleen Burke said that it wasn’t a “wait and see situation.” Burke wrote in an email that emergency preparedness is an ongoing series of decisions and/or recommendations made by herself and forwarded to the appropriate location. “There has been a plan to install security cameras throughout the campus that goes back a number of years,” Burke wrote. “We are
Photo by Brian Caldera/ Roundup
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waiting for the building program oversight at the District to execute that plan. Other emergency preparedness activities are handled strictly on campus, such as the decision to place regular and ongoing emergency training in the Office of Professional Excellence.” Burke wrote that the incident was not related to tensions on the campus. “To the best of our knowledge, the threat was not made by a student and not tied to any particular ‘political climate’ or ‘ideology,’” Burke wrote. While the campus evacuated, a traffic jam formed, causing major concerns about the quickness of future evacuations. According to the PCC, the Los Angeles Police Department was not called in and issues with traffic are being accessed in case of future incidents. “While we could open up additional lanes of traffic to exit the campus, for example the inbound lanes could temporarily be made outbound lanes, there is still only a certain amount of traffic that can be accommodated on the surrounding city streets at any one time,” Burke wrote in an email. The California Highway Patrol said that in case of a future emergency, they should be contacted for evacuation assistance. The Sheriff's Department is not staffed for emergency evacuation. There are not enough people, officials reported at the meeting. [see safety on pg. 3]
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