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Volume 132 - Issue 8
A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION
Friday, May 22, 2020
One copy free, each additional copy $1.00
Fall semester plans detailed
VP of Academic Affairs leaves Pierce
Updates discussed in student forum
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Community College District, have been keeping in contact with one another. Topics the group have discussed include updating one another to see how other programs have been coping with the quarantine, and staying informed about any new regulation changes that stem from the pandemic. “The big thing right now for us is May 29, the day when the CCCAA Executive Board will be meeting to decide what will be happening in the fall,” Armenta said. “A lot of us are trying to unite and really push to have a playing season, as well as figuring out what it would take to even have that.” As for what the upcoming fall season may hold, Armenta remains hopeful. “We want the season, and if there are restrictions, we want to have a scenario that is still fair and safe for everyone involved,” Armenta said. “We were told that any option can be considered, whether that may be a shortened schedule or postponing the start of the season.” For now, Ryan, Swain and many other student-athletes will have to continue with a sense of uncertainty with their playing careers and where their next academic homes will be.
all semester classes will be offered online and the cost will remain $46 per unit, said Vice President of Academic Affairs Sheri Berger in a Zoom meeting on Friday, May 8. Around 130 Pierce College students and faculty joined the We Are Here For You: A Student Forum to have their questions answered regarding summer and fall classes, online communication and virtual graduation. Berger said some classes will have live instructions and others will not, and students can know the class type by searching the notes under the class listing. Most classes have been assigned a time, even if there is no live instruction to avoid conflict with synchronous learning. If the system says there is a scheduling conflict but there is no live instruction, students can contact the Admissions and Records office through Cranium Café or by email to resolve the issue. There will be no life science courses offered over the summer. Chemistry labs will be offered and will use virtual lab programs Labster and Beyond Labs. Dean of Student Engagement Juan Carlos Astorga began the first “We Are Here For You” forum answering student-submitted questions. He said he hoped to give students an idea of how the college will be moving forward and give an update on how it has transitioned. Vice President of Student Services Earic Dixon-Peters addressed how difficult the transition to online may be to some and how the pandemic may have affected students. He encouraged students to continue communication with academic counselors, faculty and the Student Health Center. All resources provided by Pierce College are still available online. Dixon-Peters said anyone who missed the May 10 deadline to receive an excused withdrawal (EW) must submit an email to the Admissions and Records office to petition to receive an EW. Associate Vice President Bruce Rosky said that students who receive an EW on their transcripts will also receive a refund for the course.
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Sheri Berger takes job at Compton College beginning June 15 BY ANGELICA LOPEZ
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ice President of Academic Affairs Sheri Berger announced through an email that she has accepted a similar role at Compton College and will leave Pierce in June. Berger worked for the Los Angeles Community College District for 21 years. She took her current position at Pierce on Sept. 2, 2014. Prior to that, she was the dean of Academic Affairs at Los Angeles Valley College. She also served as acting president for a brief period, after former Pierce College President Kathleen Burke took a position as the chancellor of the South Orange County Community College District. In her open email announcement, Berger wrote that while it was a difficult decision to make, she was excited to accept the offer. She said she will remember her time at Pierce. “As I move on to this next phase of my career, I will look back at my time here with fond memories, and appreciating all I have learned and the relationships I have made,” Berger wrote. Berger said June 9 will be her last official day at Pierce. This story is ongoing and will be updated. alopez.roundupnews@gmail.com
Photo by Katya Castillo / Roundup Bailey Swain, goalkeeper for the Pierce College soccer team, stands in front of her apartment in Woodland Hills, Calif., on May 20, 2020.
Athletes uncertain about game plan Players forced to find new ways to stay active with cancelled season
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BY PABLO ORIHUELA
or many high school senior and collegiette-level student athletes, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a state of uncertainty for their playing futures. That same reality can be felt by baseball player Dirk Ryan. “When the season got canceled, coaches couldn't even talk to us anymore,” Ryan said in a phone interview. “There wasn’t really any plan of where to go after this season.” In the wake of the pandemic, local state and national health officials introduced multiple regulations in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. Such regulations that have impacted Pierce student athletes include the cancellation of the spring season, and an indefinite ban on faceto-face recruiting among schools within the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA). According to the CCCAA website, the recruitment ban is extending until the Safer at Home order is lifted. Given the decision, it didn’t take long for players like Ryan to realize what that would mean for their own academic and athletic careers. “The biggest thing is nobody can talk right now,” Ryan said. “Nobody can reach out to anybody and we’re
locked down. There’s no way of getting out there right now. ” Bailey Swain, goalkeeper for the soccer team, said the current circumstances have placed her in an uncomfortable situation since she has already decided to transfer to UCLA in the fall. “It changed my plans,” Swain said in a phone interview. “I probably won’t move out since the first quarter will be online” Swain and Ryan also play sports during alternating seasons, meaning they’re training year-round. Women’s collegiate soccer is a fall sport, so Swain’s season wasn’t impacted, but her spring training was. “What we do now is, we have assigned running and conditioning that we need to do,” Swain said. “We do training on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Coach Perez watches us do some drills as well.” For Swain, the struggle doesn’t come from losing a playing season, but rather from adjusting to her new virtual academic reality. “I didn't understand how hard it was to work from home,” Swain said. “I’m still making the same grades, but it is so hard to keep the same grades and stay disciplined while I’m at home.” For players like Ryan, the pandemic left a harsher impact.
As a result, Ryan has been forced to find other methods to stay in condition while in quarantine. “My dad has a gym set at home. We got it all cleaned and fixed up,” Ryan said. “That’s pretty much the only thing that has been keeping my sane.” Ryan and his brother also go to their neighborhood batting cages, two or three times a week to practice. Despite the end of his season, Ryan said his sacrifices are for the better. “I know I'm fine with what I’ve been doing, given that I’ve followed regulations,” Ryan said. “I’m following orders making sure to protect my family since they’re more at risk.” Pierce College Interim Athletic Director, Susan Armenta, said in an interview via Zoom she has done what she can to help out during the pandemic. “We've helped give athletes referrals to people like Joseph Roberson, the Pierce College Athletics Counselor,” Armenta said. “We've been helping give information that has been out there to the coaches and students, and giving them direct links, as opposed to trying to figure out and navigate the website.” At the start of the pandemic, Armenta and other athletic directors throughout the Los Angeles
BY MAYA GARIBAY
"BlacKkKlansman" screenwriter talks about film David Rabinowitz said a secret to his success is accepting failure T
BY PETER VILLAFANE
he red carpet at Cannes Film Festival is packed with photographers on either side. Celebrities are lined up getting their photos taken. Spike Lee, Adam Driver and the rest of the cast from “BlacKkKlansman” are lined up, posing for the photographers. Behind them, trying to get in the photos, are screenwriters David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel. Their heads peak through behind the cast. Rabinowitz may not be as recognizable as the famed director and A-list actor, but his star as a top writer
is on the rise. That's because he and a team of screenwriters won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on “BlacKkKlansman” in 2019. He discussed his life and career in a Zoom event organized by the Media Arts Department and the Pierce College Film Club on May 18. Rabinowitz said his advice for screenwriters is to not give up and concentrate on the process of making something rather than hoping for a specific result. “If it's focused on a result, then you're just going to be in a constant state of failure until you reach that milestone,” Rabinowitz said. “If you
Screenshot taken by Alejandra Aguilera / Roundup Screenwriter David Rabinowitz spoke about his work in the Oscar-winning film "BlacKkKlansman" during the Film Club's movie screening and Q&A event through Zoom on May 18, 2020.
do happen to reach that milestone, you're going to move the goalposts and you're going to create something else and then you’re a failure once again.” The Cannes audience tends to either praise a film or boo at it, according to journalism instructor Sean CollinsSmith, who arranged the event. “BlacKkKlansman” received a standing ovation. Communications professor Barbara Anderson wrote in an email that she enjoyed how Rabinowitz described what it was like at Cannes. “I felt like we could all identify with how surreal that must have felt for him, and by extension, how our students could have a similar surreal, dream come true,” Anderson wrote. After “BlacKkKlansman” won the Oscar, Rabinowitz said he was overwhelmed with shock. “I kind of blacked out between that moment and getting up on stage and I was very thankful that I didn't have to say anything,” Rabinowitz said. He said it was good that he had no expectation of winning an Oscar while writing the script. “I'm glad I had no idea that was going to come because it would have paralyzed the process,” Rabinowitz said. “BlacKkKlansman” is not the first script he wrote, but it is the first one that he sold.
He said he and Wachtel took some creative liberties when writing the script. “Real life isn't structured in three acts and can't be properly summarized in two hours,” Rabinowitz said. “You have to make some choices right off the bat and you have to make it honestly. There's nuance to this, but I feel like your responsibility as a filmmaker is to the film, not necessarily to the true events.” Rabinowitz started creative writing during second grade and eventually started writing scripts when he was around 17. He then worked in the video department of the Wall Street Journal before moving to Los Angeles with Wachtel in 2012. “I decided to load up my 1997 Toyota Corolla with everything I owned, and drive across the country,” Rabinowitz said. Wachtel was the one who found Ron Stallworth’s memoir “BlacKkKlansman.” He and Rabinowitz made a “handshake deal” with Stallworth to get permission to turn the biography into a script, Rabinowitz said. “We basically put our trust in him, and he put his trust in us,” Rabinowitz said.
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Screenshot taken by Peter Villiafane / Roundup Carl Jacobs holds a sign reading “#HOPE #LOVE #MUSIC” in a video about the Encore classes. See more on Page 4