TheINQUIRER

Student Voice of diablo Valley college

• NEWS 1, 2, 3 • SPORTS 4, 5 • OPINIONS 6, 7 • EDITORIAL 6 • ARTS & FEATURES 8 • CAMPUS BUZZ 6 • CALENDER 2 • POLICE BEAT 2 • STAFF INFORMATION 6 •

Viking midterms: Delivery downlow: Inquirer staff look for the area’s best delivery food. See page 8.

Life and death: The Inquirer Editorial Board discusses gay bullying. See page 6.

Check out what’s happening with DVC sports up until this point. See page 4.

Volume 78 No. 4 Copyright © 2011 The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College www.TheInquirerOnline.com Thursday, October 27, 2011

Beyond pink

As national awareness of breast cancer becomes mainstream, advocates push to take action

Stephanie Newblanc, 39, in the “Making strides against breast cancer” walk on October 23. She was diagnosed in July 2011.DANIELLE BARCENA / The Inquirer

Once a dirty word, breast cancer now finds itself rolling off the tongues of the public language as pink culture proves to be the trending social movement

of the moment.Events stressing the importance of breast can-

cer awareness have grown and expanded across the nation.

Awareness has crossed over from advocacy groups, to teen clothing suppliers, to pink wrist-bands worn by NFL linebackers.

“Back in the seventies [breast cancer] wasn’t discussed at all until Betty Ford talked about her struggle with breast cancer,” said Margaret Stauffer Vice President and Program Director at the Cancer Support community San Francisco

Bay Area.Although awareness has gained

popularity, talking about the dis-ease can still arouse strong emo-tions among cancer survivors.

“It’s really difficult to say the words, to say you have breast can-cer,” said Pam Taylor of Concord, a breast cancer survivor. “It’s not necessarily a death sentence, most people survive with it now.”

Taylor stressed that surviving breast cancer is more than just not dying and that optimism helped in the ordeal. “Where else can you get a boob job and a tummy tuck covered by insurance?” said Taylor about her mastectomy.

Research by the University of Oregon released in August exam-ined more than 30 years of cancer registry data.

The study showed that advocacy efforts had improved screenings for breast cancer and its

discussion.“So much has changed from

1987 when only 30 percent of women reported having a mam-mogram,” said Katheryn H. Ja-cobsen, associate professor of epidemiology at George Mason University, who worked on the study. “Communities come to-gether…and screenings among the target group increased to 70 percent in 1999.”

Over the weekend, thousands of people gathered for the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides against breast cancer” walk in San Francisco.

Students from Crocker Middle School organized fundraising ef-forts to support their teacher,

Stephanie Newblanc, who was just diagnosed

MIKE ALFIERINews editor

DANIELLE BARCENAPhotography editor

PINK, Page 2

Board might favor union labor

Tempers ran hot as close to 100 people packed into the tiny board room in the George R. Gordon Education Center in Martinez to negoti-ate a Public Labor Agreement for Measure A funded proj-ects throughout the district October 15.

If passed, the PLA would dictate which construction companies would be able to work with DVC on any future projects.

“This agreement ensures decent jobs and apprentice-ships for our young people,” said proponent Barb Johnson. “PLAs just use good business sense.”

After a long and conten-tious debate, the Board came to a decision to amend the resolution before them and vote on the agreement itself in November.

These amendments includ-ed exempting projects under $2 million from the agree-ment, and requiring bidders to provide apprenticeships and emphasize local and vet-eran hiring.

Union members spanning the district were in attendance in support of the PLA, as well as reps from state officials such as Assembly Members Nancy Skinner, Joan Buch-anan, and Susan Bonilla, state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, and Congressman John Garamen-di , who all showed their sup-port for the agreement.

Sen. Lois Wolk addressed the public in support of the agreement.

“There are three top pri-orities in our society today:

‘Occupy’ rallies affect thoughts on student futures

TOM RIZZAStaff writer

UNION, Page 3

Some call it a political movement. Some call it a social movement. Within just a few weeks, what was once known as “Occupy Wall Street,” has now be-come an international movement with many DVC students participating in local demonstrations.

From New York to Athens, Madrid to Rome, people have set camp near banking and government infrastruc-ture refusing to leave until their voices are heard and their demands are met.

“This is the first time I’ve slept on the street,” said DVC student Tyler Darling who attended “Occupy SF.”

“I hope that protests like these will change the political culture in this country, going from electorally based to more direct activism.”

While the Occupy movement is ad-dressing many of the societal woes that the participants attribute to cor-porate greed, the issue of whether or not college graduates will be able to find a job is one that weighs heavily on many students’ minds.

Robin Parker, 46, is returning to DVC after having completed a bach-elor’s degree at Sacramento State Uni-versity years ago. Parker sees a definite difference in current employment prospects for college graduates com-pared to the way things were when she

United Educators

of San Francisco

cross the bridge to

show their support in

the Oak-land rally

on Oct. 21, 2011.

ALEX BRENDEL / The InquirerOCCUPY, Page 3

BRIAN DONOVANCopy editor

THERESA MARIEStaff writer

Need to Know

One out of every eight women will get breast cancer in their lifetime.

in 1987, only 30 percent of women reported having had a mamogram. By 1999, it was 70 percent.

Sources: Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure and University of Oregon.

2 Thursday, October 17, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

NewsCALENDAR

POLICE BEAT

Advertisement

PINKFrom Page 1

Contact MIKE ALFIERI at malfi-eri@TheInquirerOnline.com

Contact DANIELLE BARCENA at dbarcena@TheInquirerOnline.

com

Saturday, October 29Model-A-Thon Drawing MarathonArt Building, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., $20

Monday, October 31ICC / ASDVC Halloween BashStudent Union Quad, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tuesday, November 1Club DayLibrary Quad, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Student Honor Choir RecitalM-101/PAC, 8 p.m., free

Wednesday, November 2Job FairLibrary Quad, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Tuesday, November 8“The Decline of the Middle Class in America” Panel DiscussionTrophy Room, 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Wednesday, November 9DVC Rock, Rhythm and Blues PerformancePAC, 8 p.m., $7 in advance, $10 at door

10/13/11A student’s car was stolen from Lot 8.10/15/11Two students were found trespassing in the Engineering building. They were caught hiding from the police.10/19/11A student in the Math building suffered an asthma attack and refused medical treatment.10/21/11High school students had a melee in Lot 1. The instigators were not identified.10/12/11A student came to police services upset over incidents involving an estranged fiance. The incidents were civil instead of criminal and an information report was taken.10/20/11 A female student said that a male student kept pestering her by touching her while they were speaking.10/21/11A driver made a left turn into College Park High and hit a student cyclist who was in the bike lane.

DANIELLE BARCENA / The Inquirer

Stephanie Newblanc, above, teaches at Crocker Middle School. Her students organized their peers to attend the “Making strides against breast cancer walk” and raised over $15,000 in donations. Participants and supports make their way towards the start line.

with breast cancer in July.“I learned about [New-

blanc’s] breast cancer and wanted to get the school in-volved,” Maddy Schilling, 13 said. Maddy, along with the other students, raised over $15,000.

“We’re here so we can find a cure…I don’t want to be here 20 years from now supporting my students,” Newblanc said.

The keynote speaker at the event, Dr. Kim Mulvihill from CBS5, spoke about the impor-tance of community involve-ment in improving research.

“People are out here walk-ing for their daughters and their granddaughters,” Dr. Mulvihill said. “Until we find a cure, we need to prevent it so we don’t have to treat it.”

Making Strides wasn’t the only na-tional event to highlight breast cancer.

The Hard Rock Café in San Francisco held the kickoff event for the walk the night before as part of their Pinktober fundrais-ing.

Bands Bobby Jo Valentine and Welcome Matt played pro bono to help bring in crowds and donations for breast can-cer research.

Not all of the national events that partook in fund-raising efforts this month were completely concerned with breast cancer awareness.

Organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure are con-cerned with the statistic that 1 out of every 8 women will get breast cancer in their lifetime.

Nordstrom on the other hand focuses its concerns with helping them adjust to changes after surgery.

“We want to give a fun, normal shopping experience. The alternative is shopping in a medical supply store,” Harp said about helping to maintain a normal lifestyle for cancer survivors.

“We have certified fitters that fit for women who have had a mastectomy or lumpec-tomy year round.” Harp said. One of the customers appre-ciated the specialized services. “It’s the only department store that does this,” said Molly, who declined to give her last

name. “I had a mastectomy.” Awareness has also sparked

local grass roots fundraising. In Martinez, Bubbles for

Boobies was put on by the Friends of Faith Foundation.

The foundation honors Faith Fancher, a reporter for KTVU2 who passed away due to breast cancer.

“Everyone has been touched by breast cancer,” said Sean Andrade, who helped organize the event. All of the proceeds from the event go to helping low in-come women in the Bay Area who lack resources.

Noel Meza, who attended the event, said “men should

be involved too, realize this can hap-pen to a guy as well.”

One of the more evident examples of breast cancer awareness hitting the mainstream is the “I heart boo-

bies” bracelets worn often by teens.

“We probably sell 5-10 a

day, mostly to kids in middle school,” said Kyle Rose, as-sistant manager at Tilly’s in Walnut Creek.

“Most don’t realize what it’s for, they just want something that says boobies on it,” he said.

But still wearing and see-ing the bracelets helps aware-ness says the Keep-A-Breast Foundation that creates the bracelets.

“If a kid buys [a bracelet] simply for the slogan, some-

one will mention it and it will create conversation that helps awareness,” said Kimmy McAtee, PR and marketing at Keep-A-Breast.

McAtee elaborated about the importance of youth awareness, “There has never really been a resource for young people…young people can really create a change.”

Some contend that aware-ness has reached a pinnacle and some of that attention should go towards prevention

and cures. “We think we are past the

point of awareness,” said Kim Irish, P.R. manager for Breast Cancer Action. “Everyone is aware enough, what we need now is research into the causes and prevention.”

“Everyone is aware enough, what we need

now is research into the causes

and prevention.”

~KIM IRISHPublic relations manager for

Breast Cancer Action

News 3The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, October 17, 2011

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Diablo Valley — The InquirerSize: 6.959” x 6” • Insertion date: October 27, 2011

Ad #22DREAM11

OCCUPYFrom Page 1

Mary Ann Irwin, a part-time history professor at DVC since 1996, won the Eisenstein-DeLacy Prize for the best published article by a member of the National Coalition of Independent Scholars.

She won the prize for “Sex, War, and Community Service: The Battle for San Francisco’s Jewish Com-munity Center,” which was published in the “Gender and the City” issue of “Frontiers: A Journal of Wom-an’s Studies.”

As quoted on the DVC website, Irwin said, “An award like this confirms that I can be part of the aca-demic community, even as an adjunct.”

Part-time instructor wins award for article

News in brief

ASDVC will have a Halloween festival on October 31. The festival will be in the Student Union Plaza from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The festival will feature such things as a haunted house, a pumpkin pie eating contest, palm reading, games sponsored by the ICC, a photobooth, and free candy.

ASDVC Halloween Bash

graduated years ago.Robin Parker says, “I think that

there is a perception of ‘I’ll have a job waiting for me when I graduate.’ But there are no guarantees anymore; except for the guarantee that if you don’t have a bachelors (and, prefer-ably, a master’s degree), you can’t get a decent job.”

Parker adds, “I think there is a cer-tain naiveté amongst college students who think that their education means that they will end up with a promised job. That doesn’t exist anymore.”

“I definitely think that this is un-fair,” said Hina Nabi, 19-year-old DVC student. “There are studies that show that if you go to college, you make more money. Students take out loans, thinking that they are investing in their futures. But these days, they are just getting more and more in debt. It makes other people not want to go to college because they’re like, ‘What’s the point’?”

Technical theater major Kate Vasi-lyeva, age 20, says, “The government is funding businesses that make things worse for us. They should be funding the schools, which train people for jobs. Instead, they gave big businesses bailouts, saying that if the big busi-nesses went under, it was (suppos-edly) a slippery slope and everything

else would go under. “History major Juan Venegas sees

a direct link between the government funding corporate interests and college graduates who are unable to find em-ployment “Ameri-cans are paying taxes, which are being used to bail out rich cor-porations, who take the taxes, pay their CEO’s fat bonuses, outsource jobs to other countries, cre-ate massive layoffs in America, and result in increasing our un-employment rate. It’s a rip off. And college students are wonder-ing why they can’t get jobs.”

The Occupy Move-ment is a very diverse group; liberals, Ron Paul supporters, dis-turbed working peo-ple and radicals like Anarchists and Socialists are taking part.

“We accept everybody plain and

simple and in the end, why not?” said Billy Jean.

“Occupy Oakland” which started on Octo-ber 10, is even larger and more complex than Oc-cupy SF as it has literally transformed Frank Oga-wa plaza, now renamed Oscar Grant plaza by oc-cupiers, into a commune with over 200 tents and many more inhabitants.

They have the Raheim Brown library, a child day care center, a fully op-erational kitchen, medical center, a garden, supply center, an amphitheater for public meetings, a projector screen for mov-ies and 24-7 security.

As of October 17, Occupy Oakland has ex-panded to Snow Park with about 25 tents and is next to Wells Fargo. “New York is fighting the front-lines headfirst and we’re kicking the feet out from under them (Wall Street),”

said Dax Perrault, an Occupy Oak-land Snow Park organizer.

Last Saturday, Occupy Oakland had

their first official rally and march with at least 1,000. Regardless of the march being unpermitted and protesters oc-cupying a Chase Bank for five min-utes, the Oakland Police Department guided traffic and were cooperative.

Occupy Oakland is not without problems. Conflict does exist between people as occupiers from different ra-cial, cultural and political backgrounds are still trying to get to know one an-other and build a community.

Here’s what Shae Walsh, a gay ac-tivist, had to say about it when ad-dressing the General Assembly: “This isn’t utopia…we are trying to undo sexism, racism and oppression here that has been ingrained into us for thousands of years.”

Actor and activist Danny Glover spoke at Oscar Grant plaza on Octo-ber 15 when the progressive organi-zation “Move On” held a rally there. “We’re sick and tired of being sick and tired and that’s why we here,” said Glover. “We’re not only talking about taking back our government, taking back our democracy, we are also talk-ing about taking back our humanity.”

Need to Know

Occupy Wall Street began on Sept. 17, 2011 with 1,000 people in New York City.

Occupy Oakland began on Oct. 10, 2011 with over 100 people. It has grown to include over 500 people.

85 people were ar-rested by Oakland Police on Tuesday morning when they raided Occupy Oakland. Occupy move-ments have now spread to over 1,000 cities worldwide.

‘Occupy’ protesters post signage, such as this one, and change it on a daily basis. There is no group decision as to what the sign will read each day. If a sign is unpopular amongst the occupiers, it will be changed sooner.

ALEX BRENDEL / The Inquirer

Contact THERESA MARIE at tmarie@TheInquirerOnline.com

Contact BRIAN DONOVAN at bdono-van@TheInquirerOnline.com

educating young people, building public infrastructure, and putting people back to work,” she said. These three points provided the backbone for the union’s argument.

The PLA would stipulate that a certain percentage of workers on a given job must be hired locally, in an appren-ticeship program, on unem-ployment and veterans that have sought work through Helmets To Hardhats.

The support from the unions dwarfed the more critical population which was carried by the non-union con-tractors present at the meet-ing. Esther Hoekster, an in-terior designer who contracts non-union labor, claimed the message was unbalanced.

“You look in the room and you see they [in referring to unions] were all prepared well ahead of time, while the other side was unaware,” said Hoek-ster. “I just got the email about the issue this morning.”

Matt Heavey, a local non-union worker, believes the agreement would be discrimi-natory and equated it to Rosa Parks’ “back of the bus” ex-perience almost 60 years ago.

“PLAs take liberty away from us,” said Heavey.

After the public comments were up, things got choppy as the Board went on to make amendments to the resolu-tion. When the negotiations seemed to lag, city council member John Márquez said his piece.

“With all due respect, we’ve been talking about this since 2006 and we’re still talking about this now. That’s a long, long time. We need to cut the talking out and either approve or disapprove this resolution,” he said.

The amendments had non-union supporters in an up-roar, driving one man to ask if making such amendments to the resolution at the meeting was a violation of the Brown Act. The council lawyer, how-ever, assured that everything being done was legal.

After adding some finishing details, the Board would vote to pass the resolution 5-1, only President John Nejedly would vote against. The de-ciding vote for the Public La-bor Agreement will be held at the Board’s next meeting in November.

UNIONFrom Page 1

Contact TOM RIZZA at trizza@TheInquirerOnline.com

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4 Thursday, October 27, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Sports

DVC teams build strength as they head into conference

If you have gone to a DVC sporting event this season you had a 75 percent chance of seeing a victory. Overall Vi-king sports are a combined 58-19, and most of the teams are continuing to gain strength and push towards the confer-ence championships.

The soccer team is 11-1-2 and is ranked second in state behind only Santa Rosa (who they tied earlier in the sea-son).

“Our consistency in the back has been the best,” said head coach Cailin Mullins about her defenders. “(When) playing against really good teams our strength is in our defending.” DVC is ranked first with a perfect 6-0 record within the Big 8 Conference.

“We’re winning because everyone is playing a part. We know we’re good enough to win conference, and we expect to,” Mullins said. The biggest challenge facing the soccer team is the pressure of being the favorites going into the conference championships.

The women’s water polo team is fifth in state with a re-cord of 17-3. With only one match left until the champion-ships, DVC has already locked up the number one seed for the tournament.

Head coach Rick Milling-ton had similar views on his team as Mullins, saying, “We need to work on consistency (but) we have the best goalie in [Northern California.]”

The team is very fast and,

with strong defensive play, should expect to do well in the playoffs. “If we don’t play well on offense, we are (always) solid on [defense],” he added.

Football is second in con-ference after a disappoint-ing loss to Chabot for their first loss of the season. The team is now 6-1 with three games left in the regular season.

“We had high expecta-tions coming into the sea-son, and we’ve lived up to them for the most part,” Head coach Mike Darr said. He believes his team needs to be more consistent as well. He added, “We need to execute for four quarters.”

The offense is the fourth best in northern California, thanks in part to surprise offensive standout Dada Richards.

The offensive lineman has been the most consistent and best pass blocker. Ac-cording to coach Darr, “He has done everything right.”

The team still has a good chance to make a bowl game. “We need to control what we can control,” he added.

Lacrosse is 5-1 and head coach Jon Skinner said, “Our team hasn’t hit on all cylin-ders, we haven’t come to our potential.”

The team is focusing on toughness for their final eight games, while looking to gain chemistry with each game. “(The) team needs to click, we got together pretty quick-ly,” he said.

The team has a lot of talent

and is focusing on hustling and the little details. Skinner went on to say, “We’re going to be the toughest team on the field no matter what the scoreboard says.”

Keeping with winning teams the men’s water polo team is 13-3 and ranked third in the

state. In those 16 games they have more than doubled their opponents scoring output. This includes teams in Los Angeles, and Pennsylvania.

The team is undefeated within the conference win-ning all four of their games. Their regular season is over and they will be the num-ber one seed expecting to win conference. The Big 8 conference tournament is in Stockton on Nov. 4-5.

The Volleyball team is 6-10, and 2-5 within one of the best conferences in Northern California. The team is good but has a confidence issue.

“We have played teams in the pre-season and in con-ference that we know we are better skilled but have come up short against them,” head coach Jackie Ponciano-Babb said.

The team is very young with only three sophomores, and nine freshmen.

Sandra Foster is a fresh-man standout who has a good all-around game. Pon-ciano-Babb said, “I came into this year knowing that Sandra would be success-

ful offensively for us.” The team is a long shot to

make a splash in the confer-ence or state championships but Ponciano-Babb is opti-mistic.

“Qualifying for play-offs and possibly for the state

championships have always been our goal each year. How-ever, we know that there is a long road ahead and we’re fo-cused on being successful one match at a time,” she said.

Having completed the reg-ular season, the cross country teams are looking forward to the conference championships on Oct. 28 in Sacramento.

At the MJC Invitational, the men’s team placed second out of eight teams, while the women’s team placed fourth out of seven.

During the invitational, Eric Brooks placed sixth out of 66 racers, and had the best time of any man running for DVC.

Carmen Martinez led the women coming in fourth out of 50.

These runners will look to build on their success and help DVC place highly at the conference championships.

DVC sports are performing well now and might continue to the rest of the season.

With all the success these teams are having it is no won-der why they are getting all the support they are.

Fans are coming out in groves and cheering on their beloved Vikings. They have been, and should continue to see their teams win.

SCOTT ANNISSports editor

Contact SCOTT ANNIS at san-nis@TheInquirerOnline.com

STEPHEN LANGSAM / The Inquirer

Kym DeGuzman throws the ball up in an attempt to serve. DeGuzman is a first year defensive setter for the DVC volleyball team.

Sharks slow out of gates

This was supposed to be the team that would not be slow out of the gates going into the regular season.

With the off-season addi-tions of Martin Havlat, Mi-chael Handzus and Brent Burns, the San Jose faithful and the Sharks were ready for a strong 2011-2012 season.

So far the opposite has hap-pened. With Anti Niemi out for the first few games and Antero Nittymaki out for the foreseeable future, third string goalie Thomas Greiss was placed into action early this season.

Greiss, who has been a backup for the Sharks over the last few years, has never had to face opponents on a day in day out basis at the NHL level, and was forced to be the ev-eryday keeper for the first four games.

After the 1-3 start the Sharks were not looking so good, but after winning their first two games of the road trip things are starting to look up. “The biggest thing that is hurting the Sharks right now is the scheduling,” said Ryan Co-vay. “It’s not their offense, the Sharks lead the league in shots on goal per game with 38.”

Martin Havlat did not suit up or play in the first four games. But when Havlat did return he was an instrumental part of their scoring against New Jersey.

While Brent Burns is having a mediocre start to his career with the San Jose franchise, many fans and hockey enthusi-asts are looking for answers to why the Sharks are starting off so slow. “They haven’t made a name for themselves this year. No one is scared of the San Jose Sharks in a everyday matchup,” said Ryan Hilton.

The Sharks to me look like a two or three seed in the West-ern Conference again.Facing the likes of the Vancouver Ca-nucks and Detroit Red Wings throughout the season will be the true test of fortitude for the San Jose Sharks.

The Sharks will turn things around, and by April fans and skeptics will have all but for-gotten this mumbo jumbo about the Sharks starting off slow. “I’m hopeful things will turn around, they are starting to get their act together,” said Mike Beamen.

Hopeful is the right word for Sharks fans. Rooting for a team that has lost in each of the last two Western Confer-ence Finals has its hardships.

For more information you can read Ryan Covay’s blog at www.thefeedingfrenzy.word-press.com

STEPHEN LANGSAMStaff writer

Contact STEPHEN LANGSAM at stlangsam@

TheInquirerOnline.com

“It’s not their of-fense, the Sharks lead the league in shots on goal...”

~RYAN COVAYSharks blogger

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Alex Warner attempts to scoop up the ball while defenders chase him during the Vikings green and white game. White won 7-6.

STEPHEN LANGSAM / The Inquirer

Upcoming Vikings gamesCross CountryMens/ Womens

Friday Oct. 28 - Big 8 conference at ARC campus in Sacramento - All day

Friday Nov. 4 - NorCal Championships at West Valley high schools in Cottonwood - 10:00 a.m.

Football

Saturday Oct. 29 - West Hills College at Coalinga - 7:00 pm

Saturday Nov. 5 - Merced College at Merced- 7:00 p.m.

Soccer

Friday Oct. 28 - Sacramento City College at Sacramento - 3:30 p.m.

Tuesday Nov. 1 - Modesto junior College at DVC Viking Stadium - 3:30 p.m.

Volleyball

Friday Oct. 28 - American River College at DVC Gym - 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday Nov. 2 - Santa Rosa JC at DVC Gym - 6:30 p.m.

Water PoloMens/Womens

Fri.-Sat. Nov.. 4-5 - Big 8 conference tournament at Stckton - All day

Fri.-Sat. Nov. 11-12 - NorCal championships at San Mateo - All Day

Lacrosse

Saturday Oct. 29 - Notre Dame De Namur tournament at Belmont - All day

Wednesday Nov. 2 - CSU Maritime Academy at DVC Viking Stadium - 7:15 p.m.

Advertisement

Sports 5The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, October 27, 2011

Advertisement

DVC dominates De Anza DonsThe De Anza Dons came to Pleas-

ant Hill Friday night hoping to compete against the Viking’s football team.

Instead, they were greeted by what would otherwise have qualified as the Vi-kings track team.

The Dons could not find an answer for the green Ferrari known as Dozie Iwaugau.

Iwaugau found his way to the open field more often than not as the Vikings set him up with superb blocking. Iwau-gau’s odometer spun like a slot machine as he gobbled up the acreage of Viking Field.“The O-Line was great, those guys were outside for me all day,” said Iwau-gau.

Spencer Van Brundt exhibited surgical precision in his reads while working out of the spread formation for the Vikings. Van Brundt’s speed is often overlooked because of his prowess when he stays in the pocket. He was elusive and able to scamper for significant gains when his team needed it most, and his speed un-doubtedly had the defense convinced as he charged the goal line alongside Iwau-gau for a pair of option TD’s.

Van Brundt also found wideout Cory Fischer for a beautiful 20-yard passing touchdown. He timed his throw perfectly for the fade route, and Fischer was able

to leap above his defender and come down with his feet in the corner of the end zone.

The key for the Vikings in this game wasn’t the offensive beast they unleashed; it was a collective effort on both sides of the ball to play every single down. The Vikings played 4 quarters of football and kept their foot on the gas. This tends to be a theme of successful football teams. Typically, the team that can play for four quarters on both sides of the ball with-out lapsing in effort or intensity will come away victorious as the Vikings did Friday night in their win over De Anza College 35-20.

“This is really a fantastic team; we have a lot of talented and devoted people. We have guys in the weight room 5 days a week, every week,” said Iwaugau of his supporting cast.

It is that same brand of commitment and leadership that adorns every success-ful football team. And it explains the Vi-kings’ record of 6-1.

The Vikings are shackled to the highly competitive Nor-Cal Conference, which is widely recognized as one of the most difficult junior college conferences in the nation. The crux of the deal is that the Nor-Cal Conference doesn’t even begin its league matchups until week five of the season, which can become quite precari-ous for a team that falls victim to injury early in the season.

Fortunately for the Vikings, it is a com-bined effort.

That’s why it was no surprise that the Vikings’ fearsome defensive line con-tained a truly mobile quarterback in De Anza’s Nick Marra.

“We worked hard not to let them con-vert big third downs,” said Coach Mike Darr. “We had to get a little creative with some of our packages in sending people through the gap, but our defense execut-ed well.”

Darr’s creativity paid off as the Vi-kings seemed to find their way into the backfield on every possession.

It wasn’t long before Morgan Breslin tied the current state lead for sacks with 12; he would have two on the day.

“We expect to hit quarterbacks on ev-ery play,” said Darr, as he aptly summed up the defensive emphasis.

They certainly do a good job of that.They finish every play and make con-

tact with every assignment. To put it sim-ply, the Vikings want it more than the other team, and it shows in the way they hold every block, tackle crisply and ex-ecute the fundamentals.

When you have those elements work-ing fluidly in unison on the gridiron, you can expect an exciting football team rum-bling towards the playoffs.

STEVIE CHOW/ The InquirerDozie Iwaugwu (22) hurdles the defense on his way down the field in the Vikings 35-20 domination of the De Anza Dons. Iwaugwu had two rushing scores.

GRIFFIN HENNINGStaff writer

Viking nation revved up by Dave Garcia

STEVIE CHOW / The Inquirer

Spencer Van-Brunt looks downfield ready to throw a pass in the vikings 35-20 win over De Anza.

Contact GRIFFIN HENNING at ghenning@TheInquirerOnline.com

Not every college football team is so fortunate to have all of the drums, bells, whistles and sirens that create the am-biance we know to be synony-mous with the college football tradition.

Many college football pro-grams rely on the school’s band to ignite harmony and encouragement from the masses.

The Vikings count on Dave Garcia.

Garcia can be found at ev-ery Vikings football game with his pom-team paraphernalia. Usually standing in the front row, offering his encourage-ments vocally, or with one of the many musical instruments with which he serenades the Vikings towards success.

He has been attending foot-ball games on behalf of his three sons since they began their football careers at Col-lege Park High School. Gar-cia’s boys went on to play for nearby Los Medanos College, where the family would even-tually be introduced to DVC’s Head Coach, Mike Darr.

“I envision this dream, where all three of my boys are playing side by side together

on the O-Line,” Garcia said.Two of his sons currently

coach for the Vikings Football team, which is now 6-1 un-der their guidance in tandem with the supporting staff and Coach Darr.

“I love the game of college football. I try to stay support-ive and positive, but I also let the refs know when they missed a call. Hey, this is the Viking Nation,” Garcia said as he expanded on his vocation.

Mr. Garcia supports this program with such enthusi-asm because he appreciates DVC football as the wonder-ful program that it is.

“I want these kids to know when they turn around and look behind them from the sideline, they know I got their backs,” he said. “They know we’re behind them.”

Garcia’s passion engages him in a beautiful commit-ment as he savors and relishes the tradition of college foot-ball; a commitment that only a loving fan could dedicate himself to.

It’s because Mr. Garcia shares a paternal love for his sons and a prolific love for the game that he feels compelled to adorn every sideline with his inspirational show. “As long as my boys are coaching,

STEVIE CHOW/ The Inquirer

Dave Garcia had a lot to cheer about during the vikings 35-20 win against De Anza.

I’ll be there.” said Mr. Garcia as he briefly gazed onto the field before berating an official for a missed call. That's what the Viking Nation is all about: support, unity and dedication.

Contact GRIFFIN HENNING at ghenning@TheInquirerOnline.com

GRIFFIN HENNINGStaff writer

STAFF WRITERS Griffin Henning, John Kesler, Theresa Marie, Zuli Mohammed, Vanessa Muniz, Tom Rizza, Sean WilkeyPHOTOGRAPHERS Alex Brendel, Pablo Caballero, Stevie ChowDESIGNERS & ILLUSTRATORS Kristiana Britanik, Yaeko Takada

INSTRUCTIONAL LAB COORDINATOR Ann StenmarkADVISER Mary Mazzocco

EDITOR IN CHIEF Julius ReaMANAGING EDITOR Cecily TrowbridgeNEWS EDITOR Mike AlfieriOPINIONS EDITOR Lisa DiazSPORTS EDITOR Scott AnnisARTS & FEATURES EDITOR Christa BalingitPHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Danielle Barcena COPY EDITOR Brian Donovan

Editorial Board Staff

• Phone: 925.685.1230 ext. 2313 • Fax: 925.681.3045 • Email: inquirer@dvc.edu • Website: www.TheInquirerOnline.com • Printed Every Two Weeks •

What do you think of gay bullying?

EditorialBuzzTh

e

THE INQUIRER

Diablo Valley College321 Golf Club Road, H-102

Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

The Inquirer is published Thursday mornings during the school year by the journalism students of Diablo Valley College. All unsigned articles appearing on the opinions page are editorials and relfect a two-thirds majority opinion of the editorial staff. All signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the writer or artists and not necessarily those of The Inquirer, Diablo Valley College or Contra Costa Community College Disctrict

Interviewer & photographer: Vanessa Muniz

“I feel it’s wrong and hurt-ful for gay people. People are people and everyone is different and should be

repected.”

CANDACE LUCHETTI, 20Liberal Arts

“I don’t feel bullying is right and it’s a personal preference. I’m against

discriminating homosexuals; that’s their

choice not ours.”

CHAZZ GRIFFITHS, 19Undeclared

“Just because people may be different from

you, we have no business bullying them.”

ASHLEY TREVIZO, 20Psychology

“Any type of bullyingis wrong in my opinion

and people should accept people for their differences.”

EDWIN LAU, 20Business

“I disagree. That’s who they are. They don’t

choose to be that way. It’s as if [bullies are] going back to the times of

racism and people can’t seem to find some

common ground to get over themselves.”

DANIELLE LABARRE, 19Sports medicine

Letters to the editor

I came across the article, “Transferable Music De-gree Broadens Students' Options,” and was very in-trigued with the information and quotes provided.

I think it is wonderful that the DVC Music Department is now offering a transfer-able associate degree in music because there are so many talented artists attend-ing this school that want to pursue music.

The Music Department provides an atmosphere for every type of musician; ranging from classical, met-al, jazz, rap, techno, etc.

Music is a dying art in the entertainment industry.

To know that DVC is pro-viding a greater, affordable chance for these stu-dents, gives me hope as an artist.

From my own per-sonal back-ground, I wanted to pursue music for a long time.

I have taken mu-sic classes for certain requirements to-wards my associate degree.

I have taken classes “His-

tory of Jazz” and “Introduc-tion to Classical Music” at

DVC. Both of these

classes gave me a greater appre-ciation towards the uprising of music.

Although I have chosen a different major, it is a good feel-ing to know that the music has not died.

Despite all the budget cuts,

DVC is making every effort they can to provide a chance to those students’ future in

the music industry.The more we acknowl-

edge this issue, the greater chance community college students have making their educational goals into their own musical careers.

The only concern of mine from reading the article was the amount of information I felt was missing.

I felt as though you had more quotes than facts about the DVC Music Department and what this degree could do in the long run. These are a few things to possibly con-sider for your future news-gathering assignments.

-Katie Lewellyn, student

Cuba study abroad needs a rethink

Students requirebreadth

New degree helps artists

I must comment on the article about professor Le-nore Gallin's trip to Cuba.

While Gallin is critical of the travel ban and embargo, she apparently chooses to see no evil in the Castro regime. Perhaps she should have sought out the "Ladies in White" while on her last visit.

The "Ladies in White" is an opposition movement in Cuba consisting of wives and other female relatives of jailed dissidents. The wom-en protest the imprisonment of their loved ones by wear-ing white dresses to Mass.

Why would they do such a thing in a country that abounds in love, peace, and

equality for all? Because during the Black Spring of 2003, the Cuban govern-ment arrested, tried and summarily sentenced 75 human rights defenders, in-dependent journalists, and independent librarians to terms of up to 28 years.

I would have far more respect for Gallin if her

purpose for visiting Cuba was to assist the "Ladies in White".

Instead, she seems to have been seduced by Marx-ist dogma and prefers to ig-nore the repression and real human suffering inflicted by the Castro regime.

-Michael Clarke, student

“DVC is making every

effort they can to provide a

chance to those students’ future

in the music industry.”

All the subjects in our college are important.

But it is important to keep the G.E. requirements available without trimming them back so that the students get exposed to a wide range of intellectual alternatives for more personally fulfilling lives, as well as getting marketable skills.

On a personal note, when I first enrolled in San Jose City College as a student I had no idea what it was about.

When a counselor asked my major, I said it was business.

He then enrolled me in phi-losophy which I never had been exposed to previously and had no idea what it meant.

I thought it was great and took two more philosophy classes.

I believe it is essential for stu-dents to continue to be exposed to a wide range of general edu-cation requirements in order to develop critical thinking abilities and a grounding in intellectual understanding.

-Jerry Cross, part-time in-structor

LGBT bullying is murderTyler Clementi, Brad Fuglei, Seth

Walsh, Raymond Chase, Jamie Hub-ley, Ryan Halligan, Jamey Rodemeyer, Billy Lucas, Asher Brown, Justin Aab-erg, Cody Barker, Harrison Brown, Caleb Nolt, Chantal Dube.

The 14 teens listed above are all dead - not as a result of disease or ac-cident. They committed suicide.

Each did so as a result of the se-vere harassment they endured which has become such an acute epidemic that it has garnered itself its very own genre: gay bullying. The pass-ing of National Coming Out Day has inspired remembrance of the surplus of suicides that has occurred over the past ten years.

Perpetrators of this atrocious style of tor-ment choose to do so in their own creative ways,: posting anti-gay slurs online, os-tracizing classmates at school and video-recording the sexual exploits of their homosexual roommates to share with the public.

Recently, 15-year-old Jamie Hubley, a Canadian teen, committed suicide after being bullied as the single openly gay student at his school. The following is an excerpt from his final blog:

“I don’t want my parents to think this is their fault either… I love my mom and dad : ) It’s just too hard. I don’t want to wait 3 more years, this hurts too much. How do you even know it will get better? It’s not .... Re-member me as a Unicorn :3 x) Maybe in my next life I’ll be a flying squirrel :D I’ll fly away.”

Hubley was a hero; he was brave enough to share with his peers a very

personal preference. As a result, he was harassed to the point that he didn’t want to live anymore.

The word “bullying” doesn’t cut it anymore - this torment has evolved to be a very slow form of murder.

“Teenagers who are gay or bisexual are more than three times as likely to attempt suicide as other youth,” ac-cording to a study from The Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.

We’re looking at a deadly epidemic, if every single one of us doesn’t take action.

It’s tempting to blame certain groups or organizations for sponsor-

ing and teaching the hatred that leads to this bullying.

Instead, The Inquirer would like to remember the kids who felt no support while remind-ing the rest that there are millions of people who believe in a per-

son’s right to freedom. Encourage homosexual classmates

to feel comfortable and stable coming to school, as many haven’t in the past.

In September 2011, the New York Times reported on Jamey Rode-meyer, another teen who committed suicide after “constant taunting from the same people over and over.”

Furthermore, he had previously posted a video online as a part of the “It Gets Better” campaign.

Through the project, members and supporters of the LGBT commu-nity send messages “to show young LGBT people the levels of happi-ness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years,” according

to its website.A recent LA Times article reported

that actor Zachary Quinto came out in response to Rodemeyer’s death.

“In light of Jamey’s death — it be-came clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly ac-knowledging it is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality,” Quinto said.

A strong, positive attitude or the latest celebrity coming-out statement

is not enough. Everyone in the DVC community needs to help create a hate-free campus to contribute to a hate-free world.

The Queer Straight Alliance of DVC is one group that not only provides a safe place for the LGBT community to foster support but encourages members of any sexual orientation to take part.

If you see someone bullying some-one else, speak up. The only thing you have to lose is the life of a class-mate, friend or family member.

KRISTIANA BRITANIK / The Inquirer

6 Thursday, October 27, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Opinions

“The only thing you have to

lose is the life of a classmate,

friend or family member.”

In The Inquirer’s last issue, we covered DVC's container switch to using biodegradable containers. But what about my ecosystem-killing enemy, single-use plastic bags?

I was in a drugstore recently buying nothing more than a can of shaving cream. The ca-shier, without saying a word, put the can in a plastic bag.

“Oh I don't need a bag, thanks,” I said before I paid for the Barbasol and left.

After, I pondered the ridic-ulous routine bred into many cashiers: bag anything that comes across the scanner. I'm not blaming the clerks, but a single can of shaving cream?

It's obvious that anyone with at least one hand would be able to walk somewhere without the single can of shav-ing cream getting in the way.

That got me to thinking how many people walk around with an extraneous plastic bag, filled with a single stick of de-odorant or candy bar, only to throw it away or stow it away to pick up pet droppings and then sent to a landfill?

Plastic bags are the second-most common type of ocean refuse behind cigarette butts; every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.

A single plastic bag de-grades between 20 and 1,000 years, when in a landfill where, big surprise, most bags reside.

With America alone pro-ducing 100 billion bags per year, the once revered plastic bag has turned into a pandem-ic. What must be done?

Leave it up to our progres-sive San Francisco neighbors to become the first American city to pass a plastic bag ban back in 2007.

It's not a complete ban, in that it only includes large su-permarkets, but it was an un-precedented step.

I don't agree with it because both the recycled paper bags and the oh-my-God-it's-a-miracle biodegradable bags do not address the consumption of single-use products.

Recycling and development of biodegradable materials for single-use utilizes the same amount of resources as the production of plastic.

Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have promoted the sale of reusable fabric bags while the larger grocers have fol-lowed.

But in the end, it's on the consumer to purchase these bags while, now this is the hard part, remembering to bring them to the store.

It's the AM/PM stations, the 7-11's and the Walgreens stores that haven't adopted this policy. This is where aver-age students find themselves awaiting to buy their energy drink or bag of Doritos.

It is in that moment that you must stop the clerk and remember you don't need a plastic bag, because you have a big one strapped to your back. Oh, and don't even get me started on fast food receipts.

TOM RIZZAStaff writer

Peopleforget a greenlifestyle

Contact TOM RIZZA at trizza@TheInquirerOnline.com

Last year, my desktop com-puter caught a virus and be-came unusable.

While this doesn’t amount to the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria, it sure felt like that for me.

Gone was every paper I wrote in high school and all of my music that I obtained over the previous five years.

I’d say that this incident cemented my love of physical media over digital formats.

Primarily, if I have some-thing an album on disc, it’s mine for life.

For example, if my Play-Station 3 ever broke down, I could buy a new unit and then play “Mass Effect 2” on that.

Even 15 years from now, I can play the same game on my ancient PS3.

At the same time, “Mass Effect 2” is available for download from Sony’s online service, the PlayStation Net-work.

If the PSN is taken offline, the data would be deleted and no more “Mass Effect 2” for me.

I’ve also heard stories from Reddit of users of a popular online video game distributer, Steam, losing access to all of their games because they vio-lated Steam’s terms of service by attempting to sell some of the games.

Another thing physical me-dia has over digital media is the ability to sell it.

A friend of mine bought Lil Wayne’s newest album, “Tha Carter IV,” on CD.

However, after listening to it twice and seeing that music review website Pitchfork gave it a 6.2 out 10, he decided to sell the album.

Now imagine if my friend had bought it off iTunes.

How would he be able to recoup his poor investment?

You can’t sell MP3 files. He would have been at a loss.

While physical media gives you rights that digital media denies, it takes up a lot of space.

If you were to see my shelf, you’d think I have a hoarding problem.

It’s literally overflowing with video games, movies and music.

Let’s just say that Sonic Youth is next to Led Zeppelin, Lady Gaga and beneath Waka Flocka Flame on my shelf.

Meanwhile, my external hard drive on the opposite side of the room currently holds about four times as much music as my shelf and takes up very little space.

The hard drive also orga-nizes things too.

Waka Flocka Flame is above Weezer, which is fitting be-cause “Flockaveli” is a better work than anything Weezer has done since 2000.

Despite the space issues, I much prefer a physical library over the “Great Library of Kesler.”

JOHN KESLERStaff writer

Digitial age takes people back to analog

Contact JOHN KESLER at jkesler@TheInquirerOnline.com

Celebrating death

Former Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi was killed last week in the last loyalist stronghold in his hometown of Sirte.

I am not a big fan of Gadhafi, since any form of dictator-ship can’t work without having a mo-nopoly on state-sanc-tioned violence.

But what troubles me, just as it did for the death of Bin Laden, is how the corporate media basically celebrated his bloody demise rather than acknowledging that the Libyan Rebels violated the Geneva Convention.

My definition of corpo-

rate media is any media out-let controlled by big busi-ness, such as NBC, which is owned by General Electric.

The Bay Area News Group, which owns the Contra Costa Times, reported Gadhafi was

dragged from a drainage pipe while hiding.

Their front-page article, “Gadhafi Era Ends” depicts his death as such, “Within an hour,

he was dead, but not before jubilant Libyans had vented decades of hatred by pull-ing the eccentric dictator’s hair and parading his blood-ied body on the hood of a truck.”

A photo of his bloody

face was captioned, “Death of a tyrant.” The article con-tinues “The outpouring of joy reflected the deep hatred of a leader who had brutally warped Libya with his idio-syncratic rule.”

But according to rebel leader Mahmoud Jibril, who is now imposing Sharia Law, Gadhafi died “when [Gad-hafi’s] the car was moving, it was caught in crossfire between the revolutionaries and Gadhafi forces in which he was hit by a bullet in the head.”

Why are there two different stories and why is the corpo-rate media only covering the

version that makes Gadhafi look more cowardly?

Remember that there were also two different stories on how Osama Bin Laden alleg-edly died.

The first account pushed by corporate media of his death was that he used his wife as a human shield before SEAL-Team-6 shot him.

It was later confirmed that he was unarmed with his hands up before he was murdered.

What version of these sto-ries make these “evil doers” look more sinister?

We must ask ourselves, who benefits from these al-ternative accounts, average people trying to get the full story or corporate media with an agenda?

Remember Libya has a lot of oil ready to be privatized.

BRIAN DONOVANCopy editor

Contact BRIAN DONOVAN at bdonovan@TheInquirerOnline.

com

Corporate media turns coverage on Gadhafi’s death into a party

Candle lit Jack O’ Lan-terns glare at us through their triangle-carved eyes, battery-powered fabric ghosts scream at us at every turn and images of monsters swirl through our minds, as we are bombarded with frightful images as we get closer to Halloween.

The abundance of Hal-loween décor has yet to faze me because, for me and a few thousand other Diablo Valley College students, this time of the year is far more frightening for a different reason: it’s college applica-tion season.

Like many of my peers, I contemplated where I should spend the next two years of my life by looking at the re-quirements, grade point av-erages and offered majors of California’s public schools.

When weighing my op-tions, I could not help but wonder how the ghoulish tales I heard around campus about geographic impacting will affect my application. Geographic impacting is when a California State Uni-versity campus outlines their “service area” and gives pri-

ority to those who live within the boundaries.

Horror stories of students with 3.9 GPAs getting re-jected to make room for lo-cal students with 2.0 GPAs scared me much more than a plastic, battery-powered ren-dition of Frankenstein.

As taxpaying residents of California, our hard-earned dollars are distributed equally between the 23 CSU campus-es, which means as students, if we adequately meet the re-quirements, we should have equal access to all of the 23 state colleges we pay for.

Checking the validity of this spooky story was like going through a corn maze.

First, I checked the CSU Mentor website. Given that this may have a drastic effect on thousands of California community college students,

I was surprised to find that the information is nowhere visible. Then, after typing in the words “geographic im-pacting” in the search engine, I saw the words mentioned with no further explanation.

I continued on to the DVC Transfer Center, where I asked various ques-tions about impacting, all of which will directly affect my future, as well as the future of everyone who intends on sending in an application to a CSU this fall.

Apparently, some of the CSUs give grade point av-erage bumps to students apply-ing from their service area. Even the Transfer Center has trouble finding access to exactly how much the grade point average bump is be-cause the information is not readily accessible.

The Transfer Center de-nies that it is as drastic as the ghoulish tales indicate, esti-mating that there is about a

.2 grade point average bump for those in the service area.

According to the Califor-nia Postsecondary Education Commission, 287 students transferred to California State University, East Bay and 198 transferred to San Fran-cisco State from DVC, which is far more than any other state school. The numbers indicate that students are be-ing driven toward their local

state schools and options are being lim-ited.

If we all pay the same amount of taxes to each school, then why are we not all part of the service area? Each school

and community offers a dif-ferent learning environment and students pay for the op-portunity to find one in this vast state that fits them best. We pay for the options, we deserve to have them.

LISA DIAZOpinions editor

Contact LISA DIAZ at ldiaz@TheInquirerOnline.com

CSUs give unfair GPA bumps

“...some of the CSUs give grade point

average bumps to students

applying from their service

area.”

“We must ask our-selves, who benefits

from these alternative accounts, average people trying to get the full story

or a corporate media with an agenda?”

Opinions 7The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, October 27, 2011

Courtesy of SCOTT BABA

8 Thursday, October 27, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

Arts & Features

With the dawning of the new se-mester, ASDVC continues to prioritize student concerns in order to develop a more comfortable campus.

Most recently, these concerns involve the creation of a student health center and the strengthening of non-smoking rules across campus.

“Some students may not know where to go to get health coverage and not all people have access to it. It’s important that we help students regarding health issues,” said Amit Randhawa, ASDVC Public Relations Officer.

Many community colleges across America provide health services to stu-dents as a part of their tuition, taking a small portion per student each semester so that free coverage can be provided.

Services may include flu shots, sex-ual health support and mental health evaluation.

“I think it’s great,” said Rein Pu-lido, a computer science major. “Some people don’t have health coverage or dental coverage, and it’s good to know that ASDVC wants to help for people who need those benefits. I believe it’s a beneficial idea.”

Often, community colleges have nursing stations on campus which pro-vide access to medications such as the morning after pill.

Along with implementing changes on campus for the enhancement of student life, ASDVC has organized and sponsored a 9/11 Memorial, the Mo Festival, the creation of an engineering-inspired spaghetti bridge during einge-neering week..

One upcoming event is the Hallow-een Bash that will be held Oct. 31 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the student union building.

ASDVC asks that students attend to participate in fun activities and to enjoy music, food, and prizes.

DVC’s student government has the responsibility of representing the stu-dent body, taking notice of student consensus and implementing changes the populace would like to make.

One recent project was the eradica-tion of Styrofoam at the Crow’s Nest and Basement Café in favor of paper containers that are biodegradable, thus reducing the likelihood of damaging toxins en-tering the body.

ASDVC also impacts student lives in various ways through its co-operation with various campus committees.

However, finding stu-dents willing to serve has been a challenge.

“We didn’t have enough students ad-vocating from college committees like district governing, grade appeal committee, and student shared governance. The student government didn’t have students rep-resenting [or attempt-ing] to have their voice heard,” said Randhawa.

One of ASDVC’s most important goals is raising campus-wide awareness of opportunities available to students.

Educating students on their resourc-

es is a priority because students can be involved in the process of the decisions and implemen-tations that effect their educa-tion.

The hope is that students are more likely to succeed at DVC because they’ve played a larger part in developing it.

“My main goals are [mak-ing] statements in community student accessibility, transporta-tion for students, health issues and health centers on campus,” said Alex Silva, Vice President of Legislative Affairs.

Recently, there have been disputes regarding the appli-cation of a fine for smoking on campus in non-designated areas.

Some ASDVC board members have been discussing potential conse-quences and many students agree that this is a neces-sary change.

“I think people who do smoke need to be consid-erate towards those who don’t,” said Angie Pierce, a business major.

“That’s why there are designated areas. I person-ally feel there aren’t enough consequences for people

who smoke on campus. I smoke any-where I want but make sure people around me don’t mind, and if they do I get up and go elsewhere.”

Another issue ASDVC is currently

focusing on is the recent rash of chang-es to class repeatability.

“Each course you take can only have 3 enrollments and students can only drop with a ‘W’ the first 2 times. By the third enrollment, you must pass the course,” said Beth Hauscarriague, DVC dean of outreach.

These changes should be effective the summer of 2012.

Previously, students were given seven chances to enroll.

ASDVC welcomes anyone who’d like to be involved to attend meetings, join committees, or contact members.

“We want students to be aware that there is a tremendousw amount of op-portunities at community colleges,” said Randhawa. “When I first came to

DVC, I didn’t know of anything to do. There was so much misconception that you go to classes then you go home. Once I got involved, I found opportu-nities to grow not only as a person but as a student.”

Members of the public can also at-tend meetings every Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the student union building.

Managing Editor Cecily Trowbridge con-tributed to this article.

ASDVC focuses on health issues

Contact VANESSA MUNIZ at vmuniz@TheInquirerOnline.com

Delivery Downlow: food that comes to campus The fraction of students with issues

finding time to cook will be glad to know that there are at least three res-taurants that deliver fast and satisfying food, sure to please even the pickiest eater. Inquirer staff members Christa Balingit and Julius Rea set out to dis-cover the most satiating dishes from the best delivery restaurants.

Ming’s is a Chinese restaurant lo-cated in Pleasant Hill. They serve a va-riety of foods including poultry, fried rice, fried noodles and tofu.

The honey walnut prawns were defi-nitely the winner out of all the dishes. It’s a dish that includes deep-fried shrimp in a creamy sauce, accompa-nied by glazed walnuts spread out over it. The dish was crunchy without being over done. It didn’t have to be chewed ten times before it felt sage enough to swallow it.

The balance of ingredients was pleasing. There wasn’t one taste that over-rode the others.

The honey walnut prawns also avoided what many other Chinese dishes suffer from when being served in sauce—the soggy texture that devel-ops from over-saturation.

It was a nice contrast from the mango chicken, which was a little too sweet. The family deluxe tofu had an interesting quality to it. While it, too, tasted too soggy due to the fact that is was sitting in the sauce for too long, it had spices added to it, which gave it more flavor compared to the typical

blandness of regular tofu.The honey walnut prawns went the

fastest. The other dishes, including the chow fun, was good, if just a little too greasy. One the other hand, the sweet and sour chicken tasted a little too wa-tery for chicken and seemed to lack a certain something. The honey nut prawns were easiest to remember, and definitely reason enough to visit the restaurant again.

· 2653 Pleasant Hill Rd, Pleasant Hill, CA, 94523 (925) 934-9393

Sargam Indian Cuisine, an Indian restaurant located in Walnut Creek, of-fers dishes for everyone. They use fresh ingredients, balance flavor effectively and even offer vegetarian dishes.

The prawn spinach (sagwala), a dish comprised of prawns cooked in spiced cream spinach, was definitely a favorite. While the look of it doesn’t seem that appetizing, all thoughts of appearance were forgotten after the first bite.

The texture was great and the en-tire dish was extremely flavorful. It also had a spicy aftertaste. Not enough for someone to require a glass of water next to them, but enough to spice up the entire dish. Even those who are not a big fan of spinach will find the in-gredients placed in the prawn spinach a nice twist.

Other dishes included the Indian chicken tikka masala, a dish that could have been better had the texture not been as watery. The naan also had a rubbery quality to it. While naan can usually be eaten in conjunction with any of the dishes, it seemed as if the prawn spinach and Chicken tikka masa-

la stood better on their own. The naan only made the rest of the dishes more difficult to eat together. Regardless, the naan didn’t seem as offending while sit-ting next to dishes like the prawn spin-ach and chicken tikka masala curry.

· 140 North Civic Drive, Walnut Creek, CA, 94596

· (925)937-2700Mingles Pizza, located in Martinez,

is a close-by restaurant that offers fast delivery and good prices.

When eating pizza, a single slice normally leaves grease stains on your cheap paper plate and makes some less inclined to pick up a second piece. Min-gles makes pizza that isn’t as greasy as other places while the pie itself is soft and the crust crunchy—exactly how a pizza should be.

Bocci bits, fresh dough balls filled with garlic butter and topped with Par-mesan cheese, was the stand-out. While they could have been crunchier, they will definitely go quickly among broad demographics.

It was a simple ball of bread with marinara sauce on the side. Surpris-ingly, it wasn’t greasy or heavy. Rather, it was a tasty appetizer dish that will leave you wondering how they make it, and whether or not it is something you could make at home.

· 5860 Pacheco Blvd, Pacheco, CA, 94553 (925) 288-0588

Contact CHRISTA BALINGIT at cbalingit@TheInquirerOnline.

com

Chicken tikka-masala curry, sagwala ( prawn spin-ach), rice and naan from Sargam’s.

Danielle Barcena / The Inquirer

“Once I got involved, I found op-portuni-

ties to grow not only 2 as a person

but as a student.”

~Amit RandhawaASDVC Public Relations

Officer

VANESSA MUNIZStaff writer

Danielle Barcena/ The Inquirer

Alex Silva, center, Vice President of Legislative Affairs, anticipates the start of the 9/11 memorial while DVC President Peter Garcia, right, greets Amer Araim.

Danielle Barcena/ The Inquirer

Combination pizza from Mingles restaurant.

Danielle Barcena / The Inquirer

Nick Holmes, political science major, discusses the Dream Act at a regular ASDVC meeting.

CHRISTA BALINGITArts & Features Editor