Wednesday, October 12, 2022 – Volume 36 • Issue 8
@tccthecollegian • collegian.tccd.edu
DISTRICT
Student's opinions about voting system ALEX HOBEN
editor-in-chief alexandra.hoben@my.tccd.edu
Some TCC students are not confident in the voting system right before midterms. With early voting starting in Texas on Oct. 24, students are discussing the way votes are submitted and how it will affect this year’s election. Due to the scrutiny the voting process has faced in recent years, especially following the 2020 presidential election due to misinformation spread about mail-in votes, some students have expressed concerns about the upcoming midterm cycle. SE student Matthew Jewell said he’s been discussing the election with his peers and the main thing they’ve noticed is the influx of new voters who are ready to participate in this voting cycle, but may not have done the research about the candidates. “It scares you because many citizens are coming to the polls uninformed,” he said. Jewell said that the voting process should change so it is less restrictive as a whole. “I understand online voting is not used due to security reasons, but we have so many who are unable to vote because of a myriad of reasons,” Jewell said. “The voter suppression in states like Texas are very restrictive and cause us to not vote.” Jewell said his main distrust is because of how long the registration process takes to be able to vote, and how the importance of the different elections has shifted. He said that while the presidential and midterm elections garner more attention, the local ones will have more of an impact. “The smaller county elections are more for our citizens to work and have their voices heard,” Jewell said. NE student Joseph Broadway
Joel Solis/The Collegian
SE student Jerrick Edwards at the SE voter’s registration booth on Oct. 3, it was part of the Voter Education Week held on SE. says that while the voting system isn’t perfect, it is fine as it is for now and what really matters is the election itself and its impact. “Since 2016, influencers, money-makers, and power seekers have been driven to take command of our democracy in both parties and suck all that makes this nation great dry. Every election is important, but this will decide the fate of our democracy’” he said. SE student Sev Lohse is worried about how difficult it has gotten to go to the voting booth.
“It’s gotten unreasonably hard,” he said. “With all the barriers imposed last election, if you can’t take a day off work or school for this, you just don’t get to vote.” Lohse also said that he is questioning whether the voting has any importance in the first place. He said that he sees voting as more of a data collection system for politicians to analyze rather than a way to figure out how they’re supposed to act for the public. “I think it does give elected officials an idea of what the general
populace wants, but it also gives them the chance to completely ignore that and do whatever they want,” Lohse said. Lohse said that since the politicians aren’t made to enforce the wants of the community there isn’t much use in it other than the data, but he thinks that voters should have a more direct impact. “In an ideal world, it’d change just about everything,” he said. “We’d be able to actually propose issues instead of just voting on a bunch of watered-down pre-made
ideas. But in reality, I think they know how to swing whatever vote they get in their favor.” Despite all of this, Lohse still encourages those who are able to vote to go participate in the midterms. “There aren’t any perfect options, and voting for the lesser evil does hurt, I know, but expressing our preferences on the local level is how we move upward, as slow as it’s going to be,” he said. “Nobody will blame you if you physically can’t vote, but please do try your best.”
SOUTH
NORTHEAST
South program’s podcast TRIO vibez says ‘tune in’
NE Campus event shows LGBTQ history XAVIER BOATNER
campus editor xavier.boatner@my.tccd.edu
IRENE DOMINGUEZ
campus editor irene.dominguez370@my.tccd.edu
Every Thursday four TRIO students meet in the TRIO lab to record a podcast about what it means to be a modern student at TCC. This podcast is called TRIO vibez. The TRIO program at South Campus was established 25 years ago through a federally-funded grant. The program serves firstgeneration college students from income-eligible families and students with disabilities. “We are a one-stop shop,” South Campus TRIO student support services coordinator Eliana Thomas said.
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Ariel Desantiago/The Collegian
TRIO vibez hosts Lo Dominguez, Ana Ledezma and Johnny Sifuentes stands in front of the TRIO sign at the South campus.
She connects students with anything they might need including career counseling, mentoring, tutoring and financial literacy. “The goal of the program is to help students be successful through advising, academic tutoring and
cultural enrichment,” says South Campus TRIO programs director Trichele Davenport. She said she doesn’t just want to help students academically but wants to build leaders that can connect with the community. “I wanted to give the students a voice,” Davenport said. She sent out a QR code to invite TRIO students to sign up and the podcast was born. South students Ana Ledezma, Johnny Sifuentes, Lera McDaniel and Lo Dominguez are the students who currently host the TRIO vibez podcast. This was a new venture
for all of them. “The only experience I had with podcasts was just listening to them endlessly,” Dominguez said. She said the whole experience was new to her so she had to learn on her feet. “I learned that I actually love public speaking a lot more than I thought I did. I found different strength in myself figuring that out,” Dominguez said. “I used to be nervous, one of my personal goals was to be able to talk to anyone about anything,”
LGBTQI+ Identity 101 South Campus holds an event discussing LGBT identity Page 2
TR piñata making event TR Campus celebrates Hispanic heritage with craft. Page 3
“Hocus Pocus 2” Disney resurrects old spooky classic Page 4
We want students w h o a re l i s t e n i n g to think ‘I wanna do what they did.’
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Johnny Sifuentes South student
See Podcast, Page 2
NE Campus celebrated LGBTQ history by talking about representation in media and school. NE associate History professor Karen Wisely and her friend IT operative and LGBTQ event Carla Goodrum hosted an LGBTQ history month event on Oct. 5 where they shared experiences as allies and discussed LGBTQ representation. Wisely said this was the first time she had done something like this in-person on campus and hoped students would be able to walk away from the event interested in LGBTQ history and un-
derstand how far the community has come over the years. “I had them virtually because I started work here in 2019,” Wisely said. “My first year I didn’t do anything. I was just trying to find where everything was. My second year was 2020—we did it virtually. We’ve been doing virtual events all along and last fall we did a National Coming Out Day. It was an LGBTQ history event that was virtual and this year we wanted to, you know, bring it to campus.” The discussion began after watching “The Puppy Episode” from the 1994 sitcom “Ellen” starring Ellen DeGeneres. This episode was significant because
See LGBT, Page 2
Joel Solis/The Collegian
NE students Maseo Daniels, Melissa Brown and Adam Abdulla watch “The Puppy” episode Ellen show aired in 1997. Media murderer mayhem Dahmer special calls into question true crime ethics Page 5
Bisade A student, boxer, real estate agent and rapper Page 6