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Bazaar VOL. 23, NO. 4 The student publication of Washtenaw Community College
A NATIONAL PACEMAKER AWARD NEWSPAPER
MONDAY, OCT. 10, 2016 www.washtenawvoice.com
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
STUDENTS PROTEST RACIAL SLURS
WCC group hosts ‘Dear White People’ movie screening and discussion Aims to create an open dialogue about race
by Ivan Flores
Staff Writer
Students and community members march across Eastern Michigan University’s campus in solidarity for change after hate speech graffiti was found at King and Wise halls. PHOTO COURTESY ADAM KARR | THE EASTERN ECHO
by Chanel Stitt Contributor
On Sept. 20, hundreds of protesters from Eastern Michigan University and other parts of Ypsilanti gathered. The protesters walked through all of the buildings on EMU’s campus. They yelled, “No justice, no peace,” all the way to Washtenaw Avenue. Traffic had been stopped at the intersection of Washtenaw Avenue and Hewitt Road and Eastern Michigan Police rushed to clear it. One car attempted to drive through the protesters, no one was injured. Racial slurs had been spray painted on a wall in the Julia
Anne King Hall courtyard which displayed “KKK” painted in red, white and blue; and also painted was the phrase, “leave n****rs.” Many people gathered at the Eastern Michigan University President’s home right outside of campus. University President James Smith spoke out to all the students and also allowed people to share their opinions. He talked about the removal process of the graffiti as well. “I understand that removing something doesn’t mean that somehow it doesn’t exist,” said Smith. “The atmosphere was very enthusiastic and loud. You could tell that everybody that was there was passionate about the message,” said Jazzlyn
Robinson, a student at Eastern Michigan University. On Sept. 21, it happened again. And this time, in a staircase of Wise Hall. Wednesday’s incident read “n****rs” on the side of a brick wall. “The slurs made me beyond mad. It made me think, ‘how can someone be so careless to do something like that?’ This is a diverse school,” said Deandre Webster, a protester and student at Eastern Michigan University. The night of Sept. 23, the EMU students united under the Black Lives Matter movement at their football game. The students walked onto the field, held up their right fists and chanted, “We stand up, we
fight back, when black lives are under attack.” The football players were not let on the field during the national anthem due to safety precautions. “We strongly defend the right of students to peacefully demonstrate about issues important to them,” said Smith. The peaceful protest at the football game was supported by the campus and posted all over Facebook and YouTube. There has already been protesting happening in cities across the nation for the Black Lives Matter movement. People have different views on what Black Lives Matter means to them. “To me, Black Lives Matter
is a movement for the black community to raise awareness about how we are tired of being oppressed, senselessly murdered by police, and not receiving equal treatment as other races. It’s a movement that will not rest until something is done about these issues,” said Webster. “People believe Black Lives Matter is a violent segregation movement, which just isn’t true. The vocal minority outshine the peaceful majority,” said Marc Anthony Davis, a student at Washtenaw Community College. “We’re fed up with the grotesque amount of numerous See PROTEST, A5
Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan were recently in the spotlight for racist incidences that occurred on campus. Buildings at EMU were vandalized with racist graffiti, and white supremacy flyers were distributed on U of M campus. In response, Justin Teague and Nagash Clarke invited students and faculty from Washtenaw Community College, EMU and U of M to have a discussion about race on college campuses. Teague and Clarke are both WCC faculty. Teague, a WCC behavioral science instructor and Clarke, a WCC chemistry instructor hosted a showing of “Dear White People” at Towsley Auditorium. The screening was followed by a long conversation about the movie and racism on college campuses. “Dear White People” is a satirical comedy set in a fictional Ivy League school called Winchester University. The main characters are black. They struggle to reconcile the color of their skin and their sexuality with the cultural expectations on campus, as well as an administration that is oblivious to their needs. The story climaxes when a fraternity decides to host a “blackface” themed halloween party, leading to a confrontation between minority students, their white peers and the administration. The turnout for the the movie was not large. News of the event was spread mostly through word of mouth and flyers. The discussion after the movie lasted more than a halfhour past the allotted time See MOVIE, A5
WCC looks into replacing Compass test Staff Writer
A group of instructors from varying departments, lead by Dean Kristin Good, announced their plans to redo WCC’s placement tests Washtenaw Community College’s Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 27. “To give you a sense of how many students need a placement test, of the about 3400 students who come to Washtenaw each year, about two-thirds of them need some sort of placement,” Good said as she began the presentation. Since 1999, WCC has used the compass test to give students base level scores in reading, writing, English as a Second Language (ESL) and math, along with assessments of ACT/SAT scores and high school GPAs. “We got word really about a year ago that Compass made a statement that said, ‘Compass doesn’t work. Compass does
not accurately predict success in college,’” Good said. Customer feedback and post secondary trends have shown the Compass is no longer an effective placement test. In Autumn of 2015, shortly after the state of Michigan announced the switch from ACT to SAT testing for high schoolers, each academic area went to work to find an individualized, ‘best practice’ way to going about placement testing. WCC instructors Jessica Hale and Julie Kissel lead off with reading and writing. The text chosen was the Accuplacer. “There is not a nationally accepted standard for, or something that everyone is using for, these Accuplacer tests, and there are other tests out there, but we felt that the Accuplacer based on its national and state usage is the best fit for where we are at WCC, ” said Hale. Hale and Kissel compiled data about the Accuplacer’s test scores and success data,
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by Brittany Dekorte
NATALIE ALLINGER | WASHTENAW VOICE
and compared it to classes at WCC. The Accuplacer is changing soon, but they plan on doing a test run with the newest version.
“The test isn’t perfect by any means, but hopefully this new version will fit our needs better,” Kissel added. Representing ESL was
instructor Heather Zettlemaier, discussing the chosen Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments (CaMLA). “The test works off of listening, grammar, and reading, but there are a few small differences. That it is a timed test, 60 minutes, and unlike the Compass where they could take each part separately, they must take the full 60 minute test,” Zettlemaier said; CaMLA is already used by many of WCC’s sister institutions, and is very flexible. “CaMLA is put out by a local business in downtown Ann Arbor, who we have worked with in the past, and they have made nationally and internationally acclaimed tests for English as a Second Language,” Zettlemaier said. The final placement test that was presented was for mathematics; Professor Lisa Rombes spoke about ALEKS, which stands for Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge
Spaces. “The test works on Knowledge Space Theory, which can figure out what the student knows in 30 questions or less.” Rombes said. “This ALEKS test includes five placement tests, and all of the material ends with ‘you just took a placement test, it is not final.’ Included in their placement test is 314 topics in a pie chart that they can work on to improve next time they take it. No one’s placement in that is final.” The ALEKS test will be paired with a one credit hour class, Math 099, and they will have access to the ALEKS tests and practice modules for up to six months. According to Rombes, WCC will be one of the first two year schools to jump into the ALEKS test. “Our goal is to keep moving the needle on what improves student success,” Good said at the conclusion of the presentation.