Sac City Express

Staff and administration feedback on March 4 student protests

Chris Geanakos — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:23:06 +0000

Podcast produced by Christopher Geanakos

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SLIDESHOW: March in March protest, Capitol

Online Editor — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:34:04 +0000

Photojournalists Jose Gonzalez, Cyrette Smith and Jesse Charlton of the PHOTO 350 attended the Capitol portion of the March in March protests that came to ahead on Mar. 4.

Kitties kitties everywhere!

Jamie Santiago — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:02:25 +0000

Holly Kivlin proudly shows off her Kitty Committee success stories. Left top and bottom: Faith, Right from top: PJ, Faith , Sam and Stripe. Photo by Kristen Stauss

They hide in the bushes, watch students walk to class, live on the campus and have the ability to multiply. They’re cute, furry and sneaky. They are the cats of the City College campus.

Although the Kitty Committee has been an on-campus organization since 2003, most students and faculty members don’t know of its existence or what the cause of this organization is all about. Holly Kivlin is an admissions and records clerk at City College and the woman behind the nonprofit Kitty Committee. Back in 2003, Kivlin formed the committee to regulate the feral cat population and help care for them.

“Different students and staff were feeding them over the years and a complaint was made that the cats were peeing in one of the team’s locker rooms,” says Kivlin.

So she decided to do something about it. Before the committee started, Kivlin was trapping and feeding the feral cats on campus and later found journalism professor Janis Haag at the opposite end of the campus taking similar measures to help the feral cats. Both women joined up and presented a plan to the administration that would monitor the population of cats while also keeping the campus cats healthy and happy.

“You know, if you have a hundred kittens running around campus and they’re dying, and people always say, ‘What are we going to do about it? Someone should do something about it. And so I decided to take that on,” Kivlin says.

Haag helps care for the feral cats alongside Kivlin and thinks the work of the committee is important.
“Holly Kivlin is the reason that the feral cat population at City College is under such good control that these cats are well taken care of for their lives…there are far fewer of them than there were years ago…,” Haag says. “I am one small part of this committee. Holly is the heart and soul of the committee quite honestly.”

Cat lover and child development major Enid Olwell supports the cause of the Kitty Committee and believes the feral cats, along with other unwanted animals, need to be properly cared for.
Kivlin says that although most people who do cat rescues seem to be women, she thinks it’s important for both women and men to be helping the community in any way.

“Whether it’s helping children or animals that are suffering or the environment, I think everybody whether, they’re man or woman, should make some contribution to their community.”

The Kitty Committee gladly accepts donations and help from student volunteers.

Hidden tracks: The rise and fall … and second rise of the music video

Ian McDonald — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:44:57 +0000

When MTV debuted it 1981, the network played music videos around the clock. Now it’s common knowledge that MTV caters to the more vacant minded with shows like “Jersey Shore” and “The Real World” that glorify getting blackout drunk and behaving like a complete shithead.

The music video had gone the way of the dinosaur, until the Internet used some sort of Jurassic Park science to resurrect the lost art form.

The groundbreaking treadmill choreography in the video for OK Go’s “Here It Goes Again” was instrumental in bringing on the rebirth of the music video and became essential viewing for any YouTube user.

With the success of OK Go’s video and the rise of streaming video, millions of people have taken to the Internet to find videos from their favorite artists. YouTube has leveled the playing field for bands that tour in beat up passenger vans and survive on five-dollar foot longs, and bands that sell out Arco Arena.

The nostalgia factor is prevalent as well. I mean, who hasn’t gone online to watch Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Devo’s “Whip It” or any number of hilariously campy hair metal videos.

MTV may have turned its back on the music video, but fans are still holding on.

Now for a list of clips that will tickle your funny bone or take you on a stroll down memory lane, and some are just plain awesome.

1. Michael Jackson – “Thriller”
Not only is “Thriller” one of the greatest pop songs ever, it comes complete with one of the coolest videos ever. I mean, come on. Zombies!

2. OK Go – “Here It Goes Again”
Shot in just one take, “Here It Goes Again” became the video streamed around the world. OK Go are now known for their videos almost more than they are for their songs. Their latest clip, “This Too Shall Pass,” already has almost 6.5 million hits.

3. Devo – “Whip It”
No clip represents the golden age of music videos more than Devo’s “Whip It.” Nothing so absurd would fly on MTV (if they still showed videos) today.

4. The White Stripes – “Fell in Love with a Girl”
I’ve always been on the fence when it comes to the White Stripes, but the all-Lego video for “Fell in Love with a Girl” definitely scores some points for them.

5. Refused – “New Noise”
The clip for “New Noise” doesn’t reinvent the wheel by any means, but it very successfully captures the life-changing intensity of every note from the band’s final record, “The Shape of Punk to Come.”

LRCCD receives 5 million in nursing grant

Jack Remson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:16:03 +0000

City College's nursing school celebrating their fall graduation in December of last year. Photo by Cecilio Padilla

The Los Rios Community College District received a $5 million nursing grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a press conference held by Congresswoman Doris Matsui at Cosumnes River College.

The grant, of which the LRCCD is one of fewer than 60 recipients, was given through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The money will be used to fund a training program in nursing called the HealthForce Institute. Organizations working with the LRCCD will include Sutter Health, BloodSource, the UC Davis Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente and Catholic Healthcare West.

“Our community will see enormous benefits as we address the critical shortage of well-trained, qualified nurses,” said Matsui on a press release after the conference.

Nursing students who have graduated from a Los Rios campus will be offered a one-year training program. After the program’s completion, they will be given the opportunity to get jobs through Sutter Health and BloodSource.

The scheduled start date for preparations was March 1.

“We are still in the ‘forming’ stages,” said Louise Winkelblack, project director for the new program. “We have not set definite timelines yet.”

Raquel Arata, director of grants and contracts for Los Rios, said the program will train students in specific areas, including digital medical record keeping

“A good chunk” of the funds will go to new equipment, primarily medical lab technology at Folsom Lake College and ultrasound equipment at Cosumnes River College, Arata said. Most of the program will be run from existing facilities,

“The money will be mainly for SET (Sacramento Employment and Training) faculty and personnel,” Arata said. “It will pay for recruiting and placing students, placing faculty to run the programs and placing instructors.”

Those preparations will occur over the summer, and students will hopefully be placed by the fall semester, Arata said.

“We’re really happy to be recipients of this grant,” Arata said. “It will affect real people, in a good way.”

DiverCity Records changing with the music industry

Jerome Wilson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:55:57 +0000

Instructor Gabrielle Beatrice discusses how to write a press release for an upcoming album release with students in the Divercity Records class. Photo by Cyrette Smith

Students of DiverCity Records on the City College Campus adapt to vast changes in the music industry, as 2010 progresses with no halt.

DiverCity Records, the City College record label for students, and DiverCity Music and Productions Club (D.M.A.P.) have been promoting and raising money together for City College students to pursue a career in the music industry for 7 years.

With support from the SCC Foundation and the Music Department, it’s been a success thus far according to Music business instructor Gabrielle Beatrice. D.M.A.P. is a music club that puts on concerts and raises money for the record label. You don’t have to be pursuing a career in music to be part of D.M.A.P. The club teaches students about promotion and networking in the music industry. Both DiverCity Records and D.M.A.P. are student run organizations. D.M.A.P. provides students with a taste of how the business is run, complete with twists and turns along the way.

“If there are no mistakes made, students don’t learn very much,” says Beatrice.

CD sales, and the music industry have been hurting since 2000 when Napster, a downloading site for digital music burst on to the scene. Soon after many other similar web sites joined the trend. Does this damage the careers of the students who are apart of DiverCity Records? Not as bad as one would think. Since the rise of social networking, the Internet has proved to be a valuable resource for artists to gain exposure. Despite the resourcefulness of the internet, artists must continuously adapt to a constantly changing business.

While Divercity Records students focus on the learning the business side of running a record label, several are recording their own music in the SCC studio (shown) or in their home studios, which have quickly become the norm in the quickly changing music industry. Photo by Cyrette Smith

“We are losing the value put on the art,” said Travis Cook, President of D.M.A.P. and music major. It cost lots of money and time producing art and promoting for concerts. “In the music business there’s change, you have to adapt to your audience.”.

With CD sales in a slump, some say that there are other ways to gain new fans.

“A new approach to exposure is having a song featured in a movie or T.V. show,” said Beatrice.

“The Internet has changed music by creating overnight sensations. Anyone can make a song with the Internet.”

It’s a woman’s world at City College

Camille Anglo — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:52:34 +0000

Kathryn Jeffery is the current president of City College and was awarded the Education Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women presented in 2009

James Brown once sang the lyrics, “This is a man’s world,” but for the month of March, that’s not the tune that women are singing.

March is Women’s History Month, a celebration of the strong female influences throughout history and of course at City College.

According to the fall 2009 census for City College, women make up the majority of our campus with a 57.7 percent compared to the 41.5 percent of men. Back in the day, when women fought for equal rights to an education to gain leadership positions in the workforce, it would be hard to imagine decades later that more women are enrolled in college than men. During the early 1900s, Belle Cooledge, one of the major administrators of City College, was already a leader in so many ways.

Cooledge started as a mathematics professor at Sacramento Junior College and was promoted to dean of the college in 1920. She served as the school’s dean and first administrator for three years and organized the necessities for the fledgling college. Retiring after 20 years as dean and vice president of Sacramento Junior College, Cooledge was elected the first female mayor in Sacramento in 1947.

Holly Piscopo is a City College history teacher and hopes to inspire her students like her past teachers inspired her.

Since then, Cooledge paved the way with her strong leadership skills for other strong City College women, such as the current City College president, Dr. Kathryn Jeffery.

A former guidance counselor and part-time music teacher for City College from 1981-1991, Jeffery felt that the joys of teaching is a source of female and individual empowerment.

“The true empowerment of teaching comes when knowledge I have shared with someone else empowers them and adds meaning to their life,” Jeffery says. “In other words, the empowerment of teaching for me would be when a subject I know well can be shared with someone else and as a result, that person’s quality of life is enhanced.”

Not only does teaching and sharing one’s knowledge make a strong woman, according to Jeffery, she also feels that relationships around them also help.

“Women are strong because of a tendency to value relationships more than they value things,” says Jeffery. “I believe a woman’s strength is in her ability to build meaningful relationships, and through these relationships, women build strong communities and businesses.”

Cindy Lee, a City College student, feels that a strong woman is someone who is driven and persistent. She finds women like Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, inspiring.

“I think a strong woman is someone that knows what she wants in life,” Lee says. “I think the CEO of eBay is influential. She seems very powerful and capable of running a company.”

City College student Cindy Lee feels that one of the most inspiring women out there is the former CEO of eBay, Meg Whitman.

City College history professor Holly Piscopo feels that the strongest women are the ones that inspire people.

“To me, a strong woman is a person who acts upon her own truth and usually someone who is able to inspire others,” says Piscopo. “The strong women in my life have inspired me with their intelligence, leadership, boldness, humor and independence.”

Piscopo, who was a former journalism major, changed paths when her former history professor got her into history.

“I had this young female history professor and she was excited and passionate, so she shook things up a bit,” Piscopo says. “To me, she was inspiring.”

Strong women continue to influence those around them and they also are able to change the world one woman at a time.

Just like James Brown said: “This is a man’s world…but it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.”

Pocketful of sunshine

Jamie Santiago — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:52:33 +0000

When I was 5 years old, I remember excitedly walking in the local Toys-R-Us or F.A.O. Schwarz store, clutching my mother’s hand. Instantly, I was in heaven.

I jumped into the fluffy piles of life-sized stuffed animals. Wide-eyed, I stared in awe at the moving toy monkey on the ceiling. I wanted my mom to buy me all the different BarbieTM dolls on the shelves. Toys were a hallmark of my childhood because it created a world of simplicity and make-believe.

My childhood was spent playing with BarbieTM dolls, collecting TY Beanie Babies™, making up dance routines to the BarbieTM workout theme, riding the go-carts at Paradise Island and mustering up the courage to ride the merry-go-round at Arden Fair Mall. There were no such things as “Hannah Montana,” the Jonas Brothers, or “High School Musical.” Miley who?

One of my favorite toys was Polly Pocket, a plastic, 1 inch-tall, cute and simple doll who lived in a compact-sized foldable playhouse. I collected the different miniature playhouses she came with and carried this conveniently sized doll around in my pocket wherever I could take her.

Polly Pocket was first created in 1983 by Chris Wiggs for his daughter. Wiggs created Polly Pocket by using a make-up powder compact to create a pocket-sized doll in a miniature house. In 1989, England’s Blue Bird Toys took the concept and began distributing Polly Pockets in stores. Polly Pocket gained popularity throughout the 1990s. Not long after Polly’s debut, Mattel contracted to distribute the doll and eventually purchased Blue Bird Toys, taking over the concept of Polly Pocket and launching the spin-off, Fashion Polly.

Polly is no longer the pocket-sized doll I loved and enjoyed. Now, Polly has realistic-looking features, including long eyelashes and long, blonde hair. She is slightly larger and doesn’t exactly fit in my pocket anymore. The smaller Polly was deemed hazardous for young children and is not in stores anymore. Worst of all, Polly is materialistic and comes packaged with clip-on fashion accessories and clothing.

My niece has recently turned 9 years old and has never owned a doll. Instead, her Christmas list consists of an 8GB iPod, cute clothes, a digital camera, and a Nintendo DS. She loves listening to Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A,” and watching YouTube videos of Beyoncé and re-runs of her favorite Disney shows. She prefers trips to the shopping mall over trips to the toy store.

I remember fondly being content just playing with Polly and her friends in Pollyville. The simplicity of this tiny doll and travel-sized playhouses reminds me of the simplicity of my childhood. Nowadays, a little girl’s childhood is filled with electronic devices and grown up things.

Sometimes I wish kids wouldn’t grow up so fast. I wish we could go back to stuffed animals, trips to theme parks and pocket-sized dolls named Polly.

No longer a man’s world

Lovelle Harris — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:52:32 +0000

While a March 2009 study published in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Bulletin suggested that women are underrepresented in science and math-intensive fields in the labor force, City College women are making their mark in traditionally male-dominated careers.

“By nature, I ask a lot of questions and am insatiably curious, which did not always make me an easy kid to handle in school or at home. I moved away from considering the sciences as a major when I did not easily take on math during junior high and by high school,” said Carmen Hirkala, a biology lab technician at City College. “It was not until I took a few classes in anthropology at Fresno City College and took professor David Wyatt for environmental science here at SCC that I really regained my confidence that I could succeed in a science-oriented career.”

According to Anne Licciardi, dean of the City College Mathematics/Statistics and Engineering Division, close to 50 percent of the faculty in her unit is made up of women.

“I do believe that faculty plays a key role in how students choose to continue their education,” Licciardi said. “Mostly when someone’s decided to major in math, it’s because they were inspired by someone. So we just need to be more inspirational and encourage some people to cross over and try it.”

As jobs in the technology sector continue to grow, so does the need for a work force proficient in science and math, and women are making an effort to be a part of this sector of

employment. According to The National Academies’ Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine, 283,035 master’s degrees in science and engineering were granted to women in 2002.

“Do your homework,” Licciardi said. “Ask questions, don’t be intimidated [and] get a good background in the basics.”

As women try to make their way into jobs in technology, it ultimately comes down to education and community support.

“Certainly the sciences are underrepresented with women, but I had a female Ph.D. adviser, so she was really supportive,” said Kathryn Stanton, City College professor of geology and earth sciences.

While many on campus foster and encourage female students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, some stereotypes persist.

“I have had many experiences in class where I felt that my male partners weren’t really listening to me,” said Veronica Kaufman, a computer science major. “I’ve even been told that I should try a different path because I’ll never get far in a man’s field.

Tardiness plagues City College

Garrett Valenzuela — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:52:29 +0000

“I think a lot of the time kids are tardy here is because this parking is so bad,” said City College student Parker Stewart. Photo by Kristen Strauss

While many students at City College are committed to their education, getting to class on time can be an exercise in frustration, leading to tardiness and class disruptions.

Many on campus cite the parking situation as a contributing factor to tardiness. With a student population of more than 24,000 and can be complicated.

“I think a lot of the time kids are tardy here is because this parking is so bad,” said City College student Parker Stewart.

Parking is not the only contributing factor to tardiness on campus. Students who elect not to purchase a parking pass for the semester must rely on the $1 daily parking permits. However, this process is further complicated when the machines malfunction because of constant use.

“I didn’t even want to buy a permit,” said Michael Krebsbach, journalism major. “I financially didn’t need to, and it didn’t make any sense to, except for the fact that so often those machines are broken that I have to spend extra time running around the parking lot to find a machine that actually works.”

While many students who use the light rail to commute to campus enjoy the convenience of the City College station, some also experience the inconvenience of scheduling and train delays.

“I take the light rail to school so it’s kind of frustrating sometimes, trying to catch a train on time and doing all that stuff,” said City College student Bailey McCann. Photo by Kristen Strauss

“I take the light rail to school so it’s kind of frustrating sometimes, trying to catch a train on time and doing all that stuff,” said City College student Bailey McCann. “But I think in the end I feel that I know what time I have to be in class, and so if I am not in class at that time then that’s on me.”

Some students feel that getting to class rests solely on the shoulders of the student and parking and such shouldn’t be a factor.

Tardiness does not only affect students but instructors as well. Many professors feel that students are losing part of the lecture and find it disruptive when students arrive tardy.

“When I was in College I was tardy sometimes too, and I never thought about it,” said Paul Frank, a political science professor. “But now, I understand that it wasn’t benefitting me. It’s not benefitting other students or the professor, and you will miss stuff.”