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Volume 76 Number 5 Copyright © 2010 Diablo Valley College - The Inquirer

Thursday, May 6, 2010

www.theinquireronline.com

See Title IX, page 6

Scott BabaStaff writer

Christohper C. LongStaff writer

Scrawled names like “Oats” or “Karne,” or even, “Jewels,” seem light-hearted, even innocuous. But they can be a warn-ing of gang activity and require hours of scrubbing to remove.

An Inquirer reporter and a former mem-ber of the Norteño street gang recently toured the DVC campus and found more than 90 separate incidents of graffiti not yet erased by the buildings and grounds department.

Prime pieces of real estate for such “tagging” included trash cans, tables, benches and utility boxes, particularly outside the Math building, the Library and the incline that leads to the buildings atop “Cardiac Hill.”

DVC’s official crime reports reveal few such incidents, but that is because most go unreported to campus police, said Lt. Tom Sharp of district police services.

In many cases, tags seen on The In-quirer’s campus tour appeared to be sketched over previously drawn tags.

Such graffiti can be a sign of turf com-petition, said Detective Bradley Giacoba-zzi of the Concord Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit. The MCU is charged with investigating gang activity.

See GANGS, page 6

Ariel Messman-RuckerEditor in chief

See ASDVC, page 6

Chris Knight holds up signs made by Students for a Democratic Society in defense of Brian Donovan, vice president of legislative affairs-elect, during an Election Committee meeting on April 29.

Courtney Johnson / The Inquirer

Frank Runninghorse fights charges against the Progressive Demo-cratic Student coalition because of his actions during the election.

Courtney Johnson / The Inquirer

ENTERTAINMENT Page 3

OPINIONS Page 5Voter Apathy Plagues Campus

Lack of interest in ASDVC election leads to lowest voter turnout in years

FEATURES Page 3

Summer VacationBetty’s

Hits theatre box office

‘ ‘Rec]ordingIn Progress

Behind the scenes of the DVC brodcast program

[

Brian Donovan, above, awaits the de-cision of the Election Committee at the April 29 committee meeting. Katerina Schreck, right, addresses the commitee.

As campus police stood guard and supporters of the accused waved signs defending free speech, an Associated Students of DVC committee found three candidates in the recent student govern-ment elections guilty of an Elections Code violation.

In a unanimous decision April 29, the Election Committee ruled that Francisco Hinajosa, Nick Holmes and Brian Dono-van – all members of the Progressive Democratic Students coalition – violated section 7.04 of the Elections Code, which states candidates are “responsible for the actions of the campaign committee, whether authorized or not.”

The committee was expected to rule May 4 on two additional alleged violations against the same candidates, as well as hear two against the opposing coalition, UAID (Uniting ASDVC, the Inter Club Council and DVC), too late for The Inquir-er’s press deadline.

All of the allegations against the three were brought forward by Adrian Briones, current ASDVC activities coordinator and the losing candidate for the position of webmaster in the recent elections. He ran on the UAID ticket opposite the PDS can-didate.

Briones’ complaint stems from a leaflet handed out during the election by Frank Runninghorse, a DVC student and mem-ber of Students for a Democratic Society, a club to which both Donovan and Hol-mes belong.

In the flier, Runninghorse endorsed the PDS coalition and criticized the oppos-

DVC may have violated Title IX with its plan to shut down several sports pro-grams because of budget cuts, according to complaints filed with the Contra Costa Community College District and the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights.

One of the two complaints, head tennis coach Peter Benko, said Tuesday he had received a message from the OCR say-ing it was expanding its investigation to Los Medanos and Contra Costa colleges, in addition to DVC.

The Inquirer was unable to reach OCR investigators by its press deadline.

Benko and Daniel Cruz, head track coach, allege the elimination next year of men and women’s track, cross country, and tennis will drop the proportion of fe-males in DVC athletic programs from 39 percent to 38 percent.

Sports possiblysaved byTitle IX

Code vs. free speech ‘Unauthorized’ flier violates ASDVC code,

group claims violation of free speech during electionGangs and ‘wannabes’ stake claims