el DonS A N T A A N A C O L L E G E

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2010 • VOLUME 87, ISSUE 6

OPINION: Forget unity, the only country worth rooting for is the one you are from when it comes to the much hyped winter games.

STYLE: Bust out of those hot overcoats and scarves and jump into pastel sundresses and Grecian flip-flops with the spring fashion guide.

SPORTS: Dons baseball coach, teammates andfamily remember athlete James Wernke after his future is cut short by a tragic accident. 6 11

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By Kathie Espinozael Don Editor in Chief

Please see SIGN, Page 5

CAMPUS: Campaign employees continue to mislead students into signing petitions around school

Campus officials and student leaders are working on new ways to deal with aggres-sive petitioners who make their way on campus and attempt to register students to vote without consent. As many as 16 solici-tors have been counted in the quad between the library and the Fine Arts Building at one time, each asking students to sign a peti-tion. Issues addressed in the petitions range from saving local parks and beaches to pediatric cancer research. “It’s annoying and it’s inconvenient because I don’t have time to stop and talk, and if I do I have to explain to the rest of them that I’ve already talked to one guy way on the other end of the quad,” Amanda Gomez, a SAC student, said. Once a solicitor asks to have a petition

Officialsmonitorsolicitors

Deeply rooted

in music by artist Joshua

Lawyer is just one of the many works in the Main

Art Gallery.

Bus no longer easy ride for passengersPlans for next year’s budget include a shortfall of $1 billion from public transportation to add to the already reduced service.

BUS FACTSlOCTA will have to cut another 400,000 hours of service for 2010.

lIn order to save money Bus Books are no longer being printed.

WHAT IT MEANS

Photo courtesy of OCTA

ARTSHOW

After waking up at 7:30 a.m. to reach the bus stop by 8, astronomy major Doria Ramos travels two hours on the bus to get to campus. The trip used to take her an hour and a half, but due to recent mandatory cutbacks several bus routes have been

changed and Ramos has had to adjust her schedule in order to get to and from school. Changes include increasing the time between buses, elimi-nating certain trips and routes, ending the bus schedule early or starting later and creating more short turn trips where buses do not cover the entire

length of the route. These modified routes and schedules make it difficult for some passengers who fre-quently ride the bus to get to places they need to be. “I take the 60 bus for school, the 51 to get to my bank, and the 71 to get to a family friend’s house who’s legally blind,” said Ramos. “The 60 used to be 10 to 15 minutes now it’s 15 to half an hour, sometimes longer.”

5

16

BY THENUMBERS

Dollars paid to petitioners for

every voter registration obtained.

Cents petitioners are paid per

signature.

15Number of

petitioners on campus at one time.

COUNTY: Transit Authority Budget cuts mean fewer routes, slower commutes for riders

By Felipa Penalozael Don Staff Writer

Please see OCTA, Page 4

Please see STYLE, Page 7

NEWS2 SANTA ANA COLLEGE el Don • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2010

CAMPUS, LOCAL & STATE

News You Can Use

The Workplace Learning Resource Center at Rancho Santiago Community College District offers several three-hour workshops that teach necessary job skills. These include basic computer skills, writing, time management and sexual harassment pre-vention. The workshops start at $35 and are avail-able to all members of the community. RSCCD is located at 2323 N. Broadway, Suite 328. For more information visit www.rsccd-wplrc.org or call (714) 564-5520.

WOrk SkiLLS

A female walking near the intersection of College Avenue and Martha Lane was stopped by a sus-pect with a knife who demanded her gold necklace Monday, Jan. 25, at about 3 p.m. The victim refused to give up her necklace. Security officials described the suspect as a Hispanic male, about 25 years old, 6 feet tall and about 200 pounds, with tattoos on both arms, riding a green and purple moun-tain bicycle. To report crimes or suspicious behavior call (714) 564-6330.

CAMPUS SAfETy

rESOUrCE HELP

The Bristol Marketplace, located across from Santa Ana College, will begin towing non-customer vehicles soon. Students and faculty may park in the marketplace lot only while patronizing a Bristol Marketplace business.

BriSTOL MArkETPLACE LOTS There are just a few days left to file PASS/NO PASS for classes. The deadline is Feb. 26 for the first 8-week courses and March 12 for full-semester courses.

TO PASS Or NOT TO PASS

TEXTBOOKS

If you need help with health care, govern-ment assistance, or other human services, resourc-es may be available—but how will you know who to call? Dial 2-1-1 from any phone. This toll-free service for Orange County residents con-nects you with a qualified, multilingual referral spe-cialist who is trained to match your needs with community programs.

CLOSE PArkiNg

Students, like Linda Kumar, are set to save hundreds with book rentals.

Avoid agonizing over parking spots and being late to class by partici-pating in the Associated Student Government parking raffle Feb. 26. Purchase a $5 ticket at the Student Lounge and enter to win a parking spot in lot six in front of Dunlap Hall. Funds from the raffle go to the Summer Session Rescue Fund to help save summer classes this year.

Need money for units, books and other college necessities? Stop by the SAC scholarship office located in S-201 for a scholarship application book. It contains over 80 different scholarships ranging in amounts from $250 to $5,000. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, March 3. Recipients’ names will be announced May 20 at the Scholarship and Awards Ceremony.

SCHOLArSHiPS

Celebrate Black History month at SAC by watch-ing the film The Color Purple. The film is based on the novel by Alice Walker, which focuses on black females and their hardships in the 1930s. History professor Charlene Riggins will be the guest speaker. The event will be held at the Spot Feb. 25 from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., food and refreshments will be available.

BLACk HiSTOry

DAVID DERIDDER el Don

BOOK RENTAL BEGINS IN FALL Pilot program benefits students, district

-Felipa Penaloza

-Allison Lujan

-Michelle Wiebach

-Lourdes Serrano

-Felipa Penaloza

-Meg Faulkner

-Michelle Wiebach

Textbook costs keep rising but now students can save money by renting books, an emerg-ing trend in college stores across the nation. Competing companies also offer text book rental services via the Internet. A pilot program with the district’s book wholesaler, Nebraska Book Company, will begin in fall semester 2010, establishing book rental stations in both Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College book stores. Unlike online competitors such as Barnes and Noble and Chegg.com, the pilot program is designed to keep money coming back into the school. Director of Auxiliary Services Rhonda Langston said the book rental sta-tions would be a way to save students money and benefit the two-college district. Each year the two book stores generate a combined $200,000 in net profit that is chan-neled back into programs at both campuses. Here’s how it works on a typical textbook rental site: Students log on and search for their books by title, ISBN, or the author’s name. Customers can choose to rent their books for 60 days, a quarter, or an entire

semester. When the rental period is over students return to the site, print out a return form and mail the books back at no additional cost. Some students at SAC have already tried a text book rental service. Cynthia Camacho, an art major and a Chegg.com customer said, “I would have spent between $200 and $215 for my books if I bought them. I only paid $112 and saved $120 by renting them.” Psychology major Jessica Padila spent $75 on one textbook and said, “I would have rented if I knew about it sooner.” The new pilot program, called the NBC textbook rental solution for college stores, re-places a small rental program offered on this campus for the past two years, but only for Math 60 and English textbooks. The current pilot program was funded by a basic skills grant, Langston said. Now that college bookstores face increasing outside competition for textbook rental busi-ness, more effort is being made to promote campus stores. “We also added Facebook to both college stores,” Langston said.

By Anthony Baileyel Don Staff Writer

-Michelle Wiebach

SANTA ANA COLLEGE el Don • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2010NEWS

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Commission reaffirms college accreditation

After placing the college on warning last year, the commis-sion in charge reaffirmed Santa Ana College’s accreditation ear-lier this month. “It is critical that the col-lege be accredited,” Norman Fujimoto, vice president of academic affairs, said. “Other institutions and some employ-ers require that course work is done at an accredited institution.” Last February, SAC was placed on a warning status by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. This was the first time in the school’s 95-year history that it had been placed on warning. Schools go through the accreditation process every six years. In the Western Region there are currently 121 colleges with accreditation and 19 with a warning or probation status. Both ACCJC and WASC ensure the quality of the institution and encourage improvement, according to their website.

Accreditation is necessary for colleges to grant degrees and receive federal funding. It is also needed for students to receive credit for classes when transferring to a four year col-lege or university. SAC President Erlinda Martinez explained in an e-mail that the panel gave the col-lege four recommendations for improvement. These included planning and budget alignment for the school and district atten-dance accounting and Board of Trustee self-evaluation. In October 2009, four task force groups were created to address the recommendations and submit a follow-up report. After the issues were corrected, Santa Ana was taken off warning status. Santa Ana must submit anoth-er follow-up report by October 2010 to address one final dis-trict recommendation. Martinez said she was con-fident that the issue will be resolved and SAC will maintain its status in the future. “The goal of accreditation is continuous improvement,” Martinez said. “We want to be the best because our students deserve the best.”

President Erlinda Martinez supports Women’s softball by throwingout the first pitch of the game.

Warning lifted after task force

groups address

issues

By Allison Lujanel Don Staff Writer

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OCTA: Online resources help announce route changes

DAVID DERIDDER el Don

Fewer stops along bus routes like the 57, which run along Bristol St. directly in front of the college, would mean impacted schedules for most commuters who ride the bus regularly.

Beginning March 14, the Orange County Transportation Authority will be making more cuts to the already dwindling bus services. Because of budget shortfalls OCTA has already made several cutbacks in the last year, includ-ing eliminating 145 drivers and 17 service workers in the last year. By next month OCTA will have to lay off another 191 drivers and 20 service workers due to lack of funds. “Bus service is vital to the nearly 200,000 passengers we serve each day,” said Will Kempton, OCTA Chief Executive Officer. “We know these cuts will significantly impact those who depend upon our buses, and OCTA is continuing to look at ways to minimize the impact to our customers.” Fares went up Jan. 1, 2009, from $1.25 to $1.50 for one trip and $3 to $4 for a one-day pass, adding up to an extra $365 a year for one passenger who rides the bus daily. But not all riders seem to be affected by the changes. “It’s usu-ally one bus that I take to work or school,” said computer science major David Rico. “The 57 is really consistent, always 15 to 20

minutes every time.” OCTA’s online trip planner JustClick, helps riders with the constant changes to the bus schedule . Passengers input a start point, destination and time of departure or arrival and the program calculates the most effi-cient routes. Google Transit also provides this service through the Google Maps Web site, as well as through cell phone applications for BlackBerry and iPhone users. Recently OCTA has begun utilizing micro-networking techniques to keep their rid-ers informed, including the OCTABusUpdates Twitter account, which posts tweets about changes and detours to routes. Also known as OCTAGO, “Text 4 Next”, OCTA’s newest program lets customers receive via text the next three scheduled times that the bus will arrive at their stop. “OCTA2GO — that I use now so I can see how long I have to wait for the next bus,” said Ramos. Several public meetings have taken place to discuss the current budget crisis and future changes. The next meeting will be held March 8 at OCTA Headquarters on 550 S. Main St. in Orange.

Continued from page 1

SANTA ANA COLLEGE el Don • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2010NEWS

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Visiting petitioners like, Nancy Urschel, encourage students to sign petitions and then complete voter registration cards to confirm information they have provided.

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signed, they fill out a voter registra-tion card for the student and ask them to sign it. One student was told that although she was registered she needed to re-register to verify that the information she provided was accurate. “Students trust who we’re letting on campus and ASG has a responsibility to ensure that students aren’t being misled. We have to inform students of their rights and let them know when these petitioners are crossing the line,” Associated Student Government President Alex Flores said. Many students have signed petitions and cards without reading the fine print — not checking what political party they’ve been registered into or what cause the petition is supporting. “They have a legal right to be here under freedom of speech laws, but I’m concerned about them disrupting and misrepresenting themselves to stu-dents. Students also have to be aware. You wouldn’t sign a blank check — if you sign something you haven’t read all the way through — be prepared. Students have to accept a certain amount of responsibility in this also,” Sarah Lundquist, vice president of stu-dent services, said.

Administrators are reviewing the conditions under which solicitors are allowed onto campus. Plans are under way to educate students on their responsibilities and legal rights. Some officials want to require that petitioners be made aware of voter laws and etiquette before gaining access to campus. ASG has suggested that since petitioners are paid for every signa-ture and registration card they gather, that they should be registered as ven-dors rather than solicitors, requiring them to pay a $250 fee for every day they are on campus. That money goes directly to campus facilities and is then distributed to school-sanctioned clubs. “We are a public institution and are held to the highest standards in terms of freedom of speech. We have to allow these people on campus and charging them a fee would infringe on their right to speak freely,” Lundquist said. For now, both ASG and the SAC administration are embarking on campaigns to educate students on voter rights and ways to register through a third party. A registration drive is in the works for later this semester, officials said.

Lieutenant Nathan Kaspar and son Cole, a St. Jude patient

Fight childhood cancer. Support St. Jude.

©2009 ALSAC/St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

800-822-6344 • www.stjude.org

Lieutenant Nathan Kaspar and son Cole, a St. Jude patient

“Cole would not be here with us today if

we had not come to St. Jude. One day it

may be your kids or someone you care

about in your military family. When you

give to St. Jude, you are helping kids all

over the world.”

–Lieutenant Nathan Kaspar

Continued from page 1

Sign: Administrators plan to educate solicitors