Inquirer 12_8_11

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Student Voice of diablo Valley college

• NEWS 1, 2 , 3 • SPORTS 4, 5 • OPINIONS 6, 7 • EDITORIAL 6 • ARTS & FEATURES 8, 9, 10 • CAMPUS BUZZ 6 • STAFF INFORMATION 6 •

Check this out:Athletes of the Season: The Inquirer chooses Iwaugwu and Magarin as the best of fall 2011.The Inquirer’s latest Arts & Features and Opinion

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Volume 78 No. 6 Copyright © 2011 The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College www.TheInquirerOnline.com Thursday, December 8, 2011

Although students have been pro-testing budget cuts and tuition in-creases for years to no avail, the recent adoption of “Occupy” tactics may be forcing administrators to take notice.

On Monday, Dec. 5, University of California President Mark G. Yudof, announced his appointment of 12 members to lead the task force to in-vestigate the pepper spraying incident at UC Davis. The task force will act af-ter Knoll Consulting Firm completes its investigation of the events. The 12 members of the task force are made up of a diverse group of Davis com-munity members, including students William McKenna and Tatiana Bush, who spoke during a Nov. 28 UC Re-gents meeting at UC Davis.

“My intent in forming this task force is to allow the UC Davis community to take a fair and uncompromising look at what happened on Nov. 18 … and also to make any recommendations it deems appropriate,” Yudof said.

His proposal may not satisfy all stu-dents.

“President Yudof is putting the foxes in charge of guarding the hen house,” Rachel Taylor, UC Davis student said during Regents meeting. “[the investigation panel] are privately contracted to represent and serve the regents, not the university commu-nity…We demand a truly independent investigation into these incidents.”

UC Davis is only one of the many California campuses that have joined the “Occupy” movement.

Students at San Francisco State University joined the “Occupy” move-ment on Dec. 1, after their President refused to listen to their pleas for a re-lief on fee increases. They set up tents in Malcolm X plaza and say they plan

on staying there until they see change. At UC Santa Cruz, students protest-

ed budget cuts and campus police vio-lence by occupying the Hahn Student Services building on Nov 28.

That same day, students across the state took control over a teleconfer-ence meeting held by the Regents of the University of California. The col-lege community voiced their opinions at UCLA, UC Davis, UCSF and UC Merced during a People’s meeting that postponed the Regents’ original-ly scheduled Committee on Finance agenda item.

Over 50 people were allowed one minute each to address the Regents via microphone that broadcast the

College students grab hold of ‘Occupy’ to help spread message

Students Occupy

Danielle BarcenaPhoto editor

STUDENTS, Page 3

Mike Alfieri/ The Inquirer

Nathan Brown, Associate professor of English, holds a teach-in at Dutton Hall at UC Davis during a state wide protest against fee hikes during the UC Regents meeting on Monday Nov. 28.

Danielle Barcena / The Inquirer

A student finds limited space to sleep inside of Dutton Hall at UC Davis. Fresh ink dries on posters created by Occupy supporter “J.P” on Monday Nov. 28 at UC Berkeley.

Coming summer of 2012, students who have attempted a course more than three times will be prevented from taking the course in the future.

According to DVC’s Vice President of Instruction Susan Lamb, this means if you received a D or an F or withdrew from the class, you’ll only have two more chances to succeed here. After your third unsuccessful attempt, you’ll have to go to another community college district to try again.

“If students want to be successful, they’ve got to take that course in the spring,” said Lamb when explaining that next semester will be the

REPEAT, Page 2

Teachers prepare students for class changes

Brian DonovanCopy Editor

Websites like Yelp, Angie’s List and Urban Spoon allow consumers to share opinions on the services they pay for, be it the quality of a crepe, the beauty of a painter’s work, or the atmosphere of an Asian bistro.

However, one website which allows students to review the services of the professors they put their tuitions toward has stirred up unmatched controversy.

The ability to tell fellow students, as well as the professors themselves, how well they teach, how difficult their material is and how attractive one considers them to be is surely being taken advantage of. Over 13 million reviews have been written.

RateMyProfessors.com has been criticized as inaccurate and as little more than a tool used to fulfill the “vendetta” of a disgruntled student; the site says that “well over half of the ratings” are positive.

“I use it every semester for every class that I’ve taken,” said DVC student Derek

ONLINE, Page 2

Social Media allows student voice to be heard

CECILY TROWBRIDGEManaging editor

• NEWS 1, 2, 3 • SPORTS 4, 5 • OPINIONS 6, 7 • EDITORIAL 6 • ARTS & FEATURES 8, 9, 10 • CAMPUS BUZZ 6 • STAFF INFORMATION 6 •

Holiday frenzy

induces headachesGiving thanks:

The Inquirer Editorial Board of-

fers a sincere ‘thank you.’

Thoughtful protest:

Staff writer Tom Rizza has found

a suitable mission statement for the

Occupy movement. See Page 7.


This time last year, student Wayne Yoo could walk

from the Performance Arts Center to the Physi-

cal Science building in fifteen minutes. He never

thought it was a problem. The ability to walk di-

agonally through the quad made it fast and con-

venient. This semester, however, moving from one end of the campus

to the other has proved difficult.

“What used to be a five-minute

walk has now turned into ten,”

Yoo said. “To get to my classes,

I have to walk around the entire

campus. Everything is blocked off

so I can’t go through.”

The ‘New Commons Project’

began July 15 and will not be com-

pleted until 2014. By the end of

the process, students will be pre-

sented with a new and much im-

proved campus. The construction

started with the demolition of the quad on July 15.

The quad allowed for easy access of all buildings across cam-

pus and was a place where students could sit in between classes.

With the quad completely blocked off, students are forced to

find different and longer routes to campus.

Chrisanne Knox, director of marketing and communications,

said that while the construction may be inconvenient, it just isn’t

a good enough reason not to do it.

CHRISTA BALINGIT

Arts & Features editor

“The new project

is very much

focused on meeting

the needs of our

students.”

~CHRISANNE KNOX

Director of Marketing

and Communcation

CONSTRUCT, Page 8

Constructionahead,still

As the first semester

of construction ends,

DVC has mixed feelings

It’s only the second week of December and I’m al-

ready absolutely sick of the holiday season.

Due to the efforts of the retail industry, the holiday

season began the week

before Halloween, which

means that since then ev-

erything has been domi-

nated by all that “Ho, ho,

ho” garbage.

I mean everything: ad-

vertising, Diet Coke, tele-

vision and my thoughts.

The popularization

of Black Friday made

the holiday season be-

gin even earlier. As ma-

jor big box retail stores opened at midnight on Black

Friday, Kmart outdid everyone else by being open on

Thanksgiving.

Bland bubbles: A new

Boba tea shop finds its way in

the area. See Page 9.

Different

age groups

disagreeabout fee

increases

FEES, Page 8

In 1984, DVC announced that they would start

charging tuition in the fall.

Full-time students, who took six units or more,

paid a flat fee of $50 while part-time students,

who took less than six units, paid $5 per unit.

This move not only affected students at DVC,

but community college students in the entire

state of California.

An Oakland

Tribune reporter,

Virgil Mibert, was

quoted in the stu-

dent newspaper –

called the Enquirer

at the time – as

saying, “The only

other thing that

community college

students can be as-

sured of is [some

form of] tuition in

the fall semester.”

While the only

thing community

college students

could be certain of

was some type of

tuition, students to-

day are only certain

that the fees will in-

crease. On Dec. 15, the

Calfornia Legis-

lature will decide

whether mid-year

budget cuts are nec-

essary. According to a Sept. 8 statement from the Cal-

ifornia Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office,

fees will increase to $46 per unit if legislators an-

nounce the need of mid-year cuts.

Currently, classes are $36 per unit. For non-

California residents the fee is $231, which con-

sists of the $36 fee plus a $195 out-of-state

charge.Habib Simab, a DVC student during the late

1980s and early 1990s, remembers that the fees

were around $10 per unit.

JOHN KESLER

ZULI MOHAMMAD

Staff writers

JOHN KESLER

Staff writer

HOLIDAY, Page 7

“I’m willing to

bet that by 2052

one will see stores

open every day

at midnight with

amazing deals on

HDTVs.” Rock it: Bay Area band

Modern Day Kids, finds its new

front man at DVC.

Need to Know

DVC started to

charge fees in 1984

at $50 for full-time

status, six units or

more, and $5 per

unit for part-time

status.

On Dec. 15, the

State Legislature

will decide whether

or not to increase

fees in Summer

2012 due to ongo-

ing budget cuts.

While younger

students see fee

increases as a

necessary evil,

older generations

are appalled as they

see fees increasing

over $36 per unit.

Arts & Features

OpinionsTHE INQUIRER, STUDENT VOICE OF DIABLO VALLEY COLLEGE

and

Mike Alfieri / The Inquirer

2 Thursday, December 8, 2011The Inquirer - Diablo Valley College

News

Leung. “The first couple of years, my grades weren’t that good because of my teachers. But, since I’ve started using Rate My Professors, my grades have improved because I’ve been able to find professors who teach in a style that I can learn to.”

Critiques regarding accuracy include this statement from The University of Alabama’s Office of Information Technology: “While some teachers may have taught thousands of students, they may only have 90 comments. So, what does this mean for the margin of error?”

Rate My Professors was the first in this decade’s growing emergence of student-centered social media sites which includes Reddit.com and Facebook.

Reddit consists of a collection of pages which focus on topics like “Today, I learned…” “WTF” and “Atheism.”

The site has a history of being the home of social rallying as in 2010, members put forth an initiative that Stephen Colbert “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” which was responded to and held in Washington, D.C. Rate My Professors is used as an instructor/campus-reviewing system whereas Reddit supplies message boards so that students can communicate with one another. Students share sentiments such as which bathroom at school they favor most, what graffiti they’ve noticed and, “What’s with that statue in front of the library?”

DVC’s personal Reddit page is home to these questions and more, as well as being the home of a few displeased students’ complaints.

One student writes, “The sign [in the Admissions office] reads that DVC wants to provide outstanding service with a ‘students first’ philosophy. There is only one window open, with only one person working at which priority is given to staff. I asked if there is only one person working and staff ‘snarkly’ confirmed this.”

The student proposed that officials “Take down that sign and stop pretending or hire some people and stop wasting your student’s valuable time.”

Although many students consider the raiding of Rate My Professors a valuable strategy when choosing instructors for their courses, the reliability and accuracy of reviews has been widely questioned. The argument that one of the key categories instructors are rated on, “Easiness,” fails to target the facets of teaching that are most important has led many to write the website off as a mecca for angry students, searching for a place to rant about the unfairness of life. In factuality, the site comes up with a rating based only on “Clarity” and “Helpfulness.” “Easiness” is a category that was added purely due to its interest to the students.

In a recent study published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, researcher April Bleske-Recheck, associate professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire and student Amber Fritsch found that not only were the number of reviews indifferent to the overall rating of the professor but that there was “strong student consensus about instructor quality...Trends in student

ratings on RateMyProfessors.com mirror those found on traditional student evaluations of teaching (Coladarci & Kornfield, 2 0 0 7 ; Sanders et al., 2011)....Rate My Professors is providing u s e f u l f e e d b a c k a b o u t ins t r uctor quality.”

B l e s k e -R e c h e c k has 42 total ratings on the site with an overall rating of 4.2, while her easiness is 2.5. In contrast, of the 961 professors rated for DVC, the majority of the 5.0 ratings (the best score possible) are due to the fact that only one review has been written for that professor.

Two of the top-scoring professors (with the highest number of ratings in relation to score) are Patty Leitner, Mathematics and Kimberly Taugher, Biology, who both stand at 5.0. They’ve each been rated 11 times. When asked what about her teaching style she thought students were responding to, Leitner said she makes an effort to “explain things clearly” and “tries to make sure that every single student really gets it - not just the ones that are naturally good at math.”

Psychology instructor M. Akiyama has 47 ratings with an overall score of 4.7 while John Freytag, Science, has

45 written reviews, a score of 4.6 and an easiness scale of 2.3.

In 2008, University of South Florida i n s t r u c t o r S c o t t G r i z z a r d , who teaches Economics, wrote a p e r s o n a l r e s p o n s e “to the

one person who gave me a not-so great review on RateMyProfessors.com.”

“All of the other instructors I have talked to have told me not to obsess about student ratings,” he writes, “but I view my class as my product like a small business owner views his product, and you are the customer. I care about customer experience and satisfaction.”

He then goes on to address the student directly: “I am sorry you had a bad experience in my class. You have to work hard at economics, and most students don’t realize how tough the subject is.”

While some professors have taken to “obsessing” over their reviews as Grizzard has, The University of Alabama’s Office of

Information Technology says that, “an instructor has the option of removing any posts believed to be slander.”

In an article from Wired Magazine, founder of Rate My Professors, John Swapceinski who created the website when he was himself a student at San Jose University, is quoted as stating that he receives lawsuit threats “pretty much on a weekly basis.”

Business Professor David Mease of San Jose State University received the number one spot in the “Professor Top Lists” for the 2010-2011 year.

Bay Area four- and two-year schools received a number of the honors; Anna Marie Hibble of San Francisco State ranked number three “Hottest” professor, Diane Pirtle of Cerritos College at number nine was best “Junior College Professor” overall and the University of California, Berkeley received number six “Highest Rated University.” DVC’s student consensus seems to be clear.

“It’s a pretty valuable tool ‘cause it lets everybody’s voice get heard...for the most part,” said Criminal Justice major Nick Barton.

Staff writer Theresa Marie contributed to this article.

ONLINEFrom Page 1

last one where a student can complete a course they have repeated more than three times. This is all the result of the state Legislature recently reducing the amount of times a student can repeat a course from seven attempts to only three in an on-going effort to cut the education budget.

According to Lamb, students who are at risk will be notified that spring semester is their last chance to succeed. In the future, students who fail or withdraw from a course twice will have an intervention by a DVC counselor.

According to DVC instruction office numbers, there are 390 students who have attempted English 122 more than three times while 420 students for Math 120, making them the classes most impacted by this policy.

“It’s not fair for the students,” said Jose Daza, who represents the Latino Student Alliance on the Inter-Club Council. “It doesn’t feel good being told you are a failure and that is what this policy does.”

Longtime DVC student William Medrano said that students face unforeseeable circumstances that can cause them to fail a course. “No matter how hard you try, life gets in the way,” Medrano said. “Who makes these decisions without my permission? This is not what I pay taxes for. I pay taxes to allow students to succeed.”

Communications major Claudia Aguas said, “Why eliminate advancement when someone is willing to take something more than three times?”

While students are mostly either against or aren’t yet aware of these changes, some faculty and administrators are looking forward to what they and students can do to get prepared.

“Maybe the good way to look at this is that it helps students be successful the first time,” said Lamb. “We need to make sure that they have the resources to be successful the first time whether through tutoring, study groups, cohorts and/or counseling.”

Math Department Chair Despina Prapavessi said, “We are trying to create alternatives for our students to be successful.” She said those alternatives include new courses like Math-110E Elementary Algebra in study skills and Accelerated Algebra for Statistics. English Department Chair Judy Myers had advice for students who needed to take their impacted class next semester.

“If you get into the class that you need to complete, be smart about how many units you are taking. Take a lighter load, go visit your teacher early and often,” Myers said.

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REPEATFrom Page 1

DVC Psychology Professor M. Akiyama has maintained an overall rating just .3 points from perfect despite his 47 unique reviews. Below, mathematics Professor Patty Leitner has one of the highest overall scores at DVC.

Source: RateMyProfessors.com

Contact BRIAN DONOVAN at bdonovan@

TheInquirerOnline.com

Contact CECILY TROWBRIDGE at ctrowbidge@


“Since I’ve started using Rate My Professors, my

grades have improved because I’ve been able to

find professors who teach in a style that

I can learn to.”

~DEREK LEUNGDVC student

PABLO CABALLERO / The Inquirer

News 3The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, December 8, 2011

STUDENTSFrom Page 1

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Speaker of the California Assembly John A. Perez D-Los Angeles, addresses reporters outside of the UC Regents meeting Nov. 28 at UC Davis.Photos by MIKE ALFIERI / The Inquirer

UC Davis ChancellorLinda Katehi and class president Adam Thongsavat listen to the demands of students that took control of the UC Regents meeting on Monday Nov. 28 at UC Davis.

At UC Davis, student Mayra Aguilar holds up a sign at the Regents meeting. A list of demands is written by occupiers at Dutton hall where Davis Fire Chief Nate Hartinger discussed fire code with the tent setup.

er over a PA system and the phone that connected the teleconference to the other campuses. Students voiced their concern with education-al leaders ignoring their pleas for accessible education. Many students in the UC Da-vis audience held signs saying “Resign Katehi.”

UC Davis Chancellor Lin-da Katehi has faced much scrutiny since campus police pepper-sprayed students dur-ing a peaceful protest against fee hikes. Katehi has refused to resign, but has initiated an investigation on the police response. Some students are still unsatisfied, however.

“When the Chancellors’ salary is above $400,000 and professors have to buy pa-per, that is a system that is not working…and when the UC Davis chancellor doesn’t know the practices of her own police force, that means she’s not doing her job,” said Puneet Kamal, UC Davis un-dergraduate student.

John A. Perez, speaker of the California State Assembly, who attended the meeting on the UC Davis campus, called the violence a “clearly unac-ceptable police response to a clearly peaceful assembly.”

Recent campus police re-sponse to peaceful protest-ers, like the Davis incident and the student beatings at UC Berkeley, has garnered national attention and media coverage. During a time when the world has focused its eyes on the “Occupy” movement against economic inequality,

students trade in their pre-vious rallies and sit-ins for tents.

Following the Nov 28 re-gents meeting, students at UC Davis held a General As-sembly in Dutton Hall and unanimously passed UC Da-vis English Professor Nathan Brown’s move to occupy the hall for the following two weeks, through to the end of the school’s semester. The assembly agreed on the oc-cupation.

“The proposal…is to stop administrative functions [and] establish control over the building.” Brown said.

Protesters set up tents in-side of and in front of Dut-ton Hall to supplement the encampment that has been present at Davis for weeks prior. While other Occu-py movements have faced tough criticism by onlookers for what some see as a lack of coherent demands, stu-dent protesters hold onto to the demands that they have voiced the past few years.

“Our educational leaders must support the public edu-cation system, they should not be collaborating to priva-tize the system,” said Jordan Carol, UC Davis PhD student during the Regents meeting.

UC Berkeley students con-tinue to keep an intermittent presence in front of Sproul Hall, where the beatings took place on Wednesday Nov. 9.

Contact DANIELLE BARCENA at dbarcena@



Sports

Diablo Valley’s soccer team had more success this year than they have had in quite some time. It was their first winning season since 2009 when they were only over .500 by one game. A lot of returning players and excellent coaching led to this. The biggest contributor however wasn’t a sophomore or coach of the year Cailin Mullins, but a first year Freshman Wendy Magarin. Magarin led the team in goals, with 11, and was tied in total points with 28.

“We had really good possessions, and when chances came I stepped up,” Magarin remarked on how she was so successful this season.

The Forward is the only member of the team coming from Mt. Diablo High School and was recruited by DVC to score goals.

Coach Mullins said, “We recruited her hoping that she could come-in and be a goal scorer for us because this was an area we were lacking last year.”

Her impact showed as the team scored 20 more goals than a season ago in only one more game. In 2010 DVC scored a total of 30 goals in 21 games compared with 2011 when the team scored 50 goals in 22 games.

Mullins went on to say “As the season

went on, she became more comfortable and productive in that role. She is a tal-ented soccer player who is very skillful and deceptive with the ball which makes her difficult to defend.”

Magarin has played soccer since her dad got her into it at four years old.

Having played so long she knows all the ins and outs of the game and has overcome a lot to make it to this point in her career.

“I get mad a lot, and have to overcome my frustration,” said Magarin.

Magarin received two yellow cards this season but never let her frustration com-pletely take over; she never received a red card. Magarin’s anger doesn’t get in the way of her goal scoring; she was seventh in the conference in total points scored and goals scored. She was 28th in the state in points.

Mullins is excited about having as skilled a player as Magarin back for a sec-ond year. “She has shown a desire to con-tinue to improve as both an athlete and a soccer player, and as a result I anticipate that she will be an even more threatening goal scorer next year.

Magarin just wants “to be a leader, and win conference next year.”

Contact SCOTT ANNIS at [email protected]

It was a brilliant season for the DVC Vi-kings who finished 8-2.

There were four-year prospects on both sides of the ball and Coach Darr’s team of coaches deployed them with tact and effi-cacy.

However, there was one player that particu-larly and incessantly impressed The Inquirer’s sports reporters; and that’s why Dozie Iwaug-wu was unanimously selected as Player of the Year.

The only contro-versy that could have surfaced was over the mere fact that this Vi-kings team was seep-ing with talent.

Dozie Iwaugwu transferred to DVC after play-ing his first year with Sierra Col-lege.

After finding the environ-ment to be lacking, he opted to come back to the east bay and play for the Vikings.

There is, indeed, an enchant-ment that comes with observing Iwaugwu run the football.

He is a rare breed of running back that can play any role asked of him.

During a weight room competition put on by the coaching staff, it was determined that Iwaugwu was pound-for-pound the strongest man on the team.

“We knew he was strong coming in this year, we could tell by his explosiveness in the weight room,” said Coach Darr. “But, I don’t know if anybody expected him to squat 500 pounds.”

Iwaugwu’s season numbers give clarity to his play. He was second in the Golden Gate Conference in scoring and all-purpose yard-

age and third in the conference in rushing. Statistically, Dozie did more with the ball in

his hands than any other back in the confer-ence.

While squatting nearly a quarter-ton may not be a prerequisite for playing DVC foot-ball, it certainly paid off.

Part of the fun of watching Dozie Iwaug-wu run is not just his speed, but the way he runs straight through tackles.

One might be led to believe that coach Darr has been spending late evenings in the Viking locker room coating Dozie’s pads with

WD-40.However,

tradition and clout tell us differently about DVC sports.

Evidence shows that when Doz-ie is sur-rounded by predators, he effortlessly moves his feet with the speed and gyration of a bakery-grade egg beater which, in turn, allows him to scam-per for larger gains.

This makes it im-portant to not ever, un-der any cir-cumstances, make the dreadful as-sumption that Dozie is down and the play is over.

He’s not that kind of player, and the Vi-kings aren’t that kind of team.

Iwaugwu has received offers from

D-1 schools including Cal Poly and Sacra-mento State.

“I surprised myself at Sierra with the re-sults I could get conditioning, and I just brought that same mentality to DVC hoping that it would carry over.” said Iwaugwu.

“And I think it will, I want to take football to the highest possible level I can,” he said.

Look out. He’s off to a fast start.

GRIFFIN HENNINGStaff writer

Contact GRIFFIN HENNING at [email protected]

Anatomy of an Athlete

MIKE ALFIERI/ The Inquirer

Wendy Magarin shoots on goal while practicing at Viking stadium. She leads the team this season in goals and points.

Wendy Magarin

Dozie Iwaugwu

Dozie Iwaugwu runs with the ball during DVC’s game against Santa Clara College. Iwuagwu had 806 rushing yards this season, and 935 all purpose yards.

STEVIE CHOW / The Inquirer

SCOTT ANNISSports editor

The Inquirer chooses Dozie Iwaugwu, above, and Wendy Magarin as the Vikings’ finest of the season

GRIFFIN HENNING / The Inquirer

Sports 5The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, December 8, 2011

The newspaper production lab is waiting for those who are interested in news media for a future career.Hop into JRNAL126: an open-entry, 1-3 unit class.

INQUIRERThe

Mt. Diablo grows up to 5 mm a year due to plate tectonics. How about you?

Mt. Diablo grows up to 5 mm a year due to plate tectonics. How about you?

Another exciting season of fall sports has come and gone and once again DVC athletics has shown that it is all around one of the best programs in the state. Five sports going on to playoff berths.

The winning tradition kept on going for the water polo program, with both the men’s and women’s teams sweeping their respective di-visions.

The men’s team cashed in on their fourth NorCal championship in a row and their 3rd place finish in the state championships is the best they’ve ever placed. After losing to West Valley twice this season, DVC had the last laugh with a their 13-10 win in the 3rd place match at the State Championships. Ori Raz led all scorers in the game with 5 goals and earned All-State honors, and the Vikings keeper Aleksander Garvic had 9 saves.

“I think it’s good to show how successful you can be as a team when you do it the right way,” said head coach John Roemer.

The women’s team did just as well, winning another NorCal championship and finishing in 3rd place in the state championships. The Vikings faced off against Merced, which handed DVC one of their five losses in a 4-10 match in the early goings of the season. But in the post season, it was the Vikings who got the win when it mattered, edging out a 9-8 thrilling overtime win.

The biggest turn around this year would be the DVC soccer team, which improved from their 6-12 record last year to a 15-4 record

this year, earning a playoff appear-ance. The Vikings won their first round playoff match against Sierra 1-0, with Wendy Magarin register-ing the only goal of the game and goalkeeper Desiree Mortenson holding the shut out.

The Vikings would fall in the second round in a close fought 2-3 match, losing to Modesto Junior College. Coach Cailin Mullins still views the season as a big step for-ward.

“The biggest difference for us from last year to this year is the amount of returning players and the leadership that we had from those returning players this year. We had 11 returners who worked hard in the spring and summer to become better soccer players and better leaders for this season,” said Coach Mullins. “This made a sig-nificant difference in our ability to be competitive with the top teams this year.”

The Vikings football team fin-ished strong this year with an 8-2 record, lead by a defense that was ranked number one in the confer-ence. Their consistent play earned them an appearance in the Both-man Bulldog Bowl against their ri-val the San Mateo Bulldogs. Once again a bowl win eluded the Vi-kings with a 62-24 loss.

The Vikings are going to lose a lot of players to 4-year programs next year, especially with the entire defensive line receiving scholar-ships to D-1 programs. The team’s recruiting is going to be a big fac-tor in their success next season.

The Vikings’ volleyball team had a tough season this year, af-ter losing most of their team last year to recruiting or ineligibility.

Although their record this season was abysmal, 2-12, the young Vi-kings brought their effort to each game. The experience will come in handy next year with seven players returning.

“I have been out scouting high school matches and tournaments looking for potential student-athletes that are wanting to come to DVC to continue their educa-tion as well as athletic career,” said Coach Babb. “We have a good core of players to work with over the off-season and hopefully with the new additions that I hope to secure we’ll have a much better season next year.”

The DVC cross country team earned success in the Big 8 confer-ence championships this year. The women’s team finished 5th overall led by Freshman Carmen Martinez in a season best time of 19:45. This earned her an All-Conference First team. The men’s team finished 2nd overall and were led by Freshman Greg Garcia who was 7th overall and made the All-Conference First team as well.

Although the team saw success in the conference championships, the NorCal and state champion-ships were a different story, with the team finishing 27th. The team, although young, looks to add onto their improvements this year and turn it into success next year.

Overall it was another exciting season for fall DVC athletics. The spring teams have big shoes to fill for the Vikings faithful hungry for winners. Until then Vikings fans, stay tuned!

Vikings fall 2011season in review

ALEX BRENDEL / The Inquirer

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TOM RIZZAStaff writer

Contact TOM RIZZA at [email protected]

Carolina Socha takes a successful shot in DVC’s 16-2 win against Fresno City College. DVC’s womens water polo team took first in NorCal and third in state.

SEAN WILKEY / The Inquirer

Alec Pica rushes for a touchdown in the third quarter against San Mateo in the Bothman Bowl. The DVC football team finished with a record of 8-2.

Water polo finishes seasons with revenge

DVC Water Polo is looking at an-other successful year, ending with the men’s team spiking a win at con-ference for the fourth consecutive season, placing 3rd in state after a brutal victory against West Valley. Women’s water polo placed 3rd as well against Merced and won first in conference.

Getting there wasn’t easy either; last year women’s water polo placed 4th in conference and 5th in Nor-Cal. “Overall, our sophomores im-proved and we received a large influx of freshmen which strengthened our team,” observed women’s head coach Rick Millington. Five made All American, among them, Tay-lor Henry, who made All State and Katie Campbell, who also made All State and is ranked as the best goalie in Northern California.

The road to victory in State wasn’t easy either; the Lady Vikings were constantly haunted by Merced for not just the State, but NorCal as well. Originally the Vikings lost to Merced in overtime in NorCal.

The Vikings got vengeance for this defeat in the match for third place in state. Merced turned up the heat for a fierce game leading to sud-den death. Thankfully, Katie Camp-

bell kept up the saves until the spot was clear for a decisive victory.

That break was made by none oth-er than All American Nicole Meyer who passed to All State awarded Taylor Henry, for the game winning goal.

Men’s water polo also placed third in state against a similar NorCal nemesis, West Valley. Leading 5-3 at the half, but ultimately losing 5-11 in NorCal. They had their revenge after taking home 3rd in state after win-ning in a 13-10 struggle.

Victory for Vikings’ Water Polo is reflecting in not just their training; it’s reflecting on them as students. Of all sports teams, DVC Water Polo teams have a team roster with an average GPA exceeding 3.0, and offers for students from various 4-year universities. “Expectations are always clear,” explains men’s head coach John Roemer, “Every student is immediately made aware of what he has to do in order to be a part of the DVC team.”

A DVC team that is building a community, through wins against teams from all over the nation; DVC Vikings Water Polo has played more 4-year schools than any other junior college in California.

SEAN WILKEYStaff writer

Contact SEAN WILKEY at [email protected]

Mullins wins coach of the yearThe 2011 winner of the California Junior

College women’s soccer coach of the year is DVC’s Cailin Mullins.

The team finished 15-4-3 and took second in the Big 8 conference behind only the top ranked team in state, Santa Rosa. After win-ning their first round playoff game against Si-erra College 1-0, DVC fell to Modesto 3-2.

After a disappointing sixth place finish in the Big 8 conference a year ago and a 6-12 record DVC was looking to turn things around.

“The biggest reason for our success is our leadership,” Mullins said.

One of the leaders on the team was Wendy Magarin, a starting forward on the team who is happy for her coach saying, “Having not so good of a season last year and then getting sec-ond in conference was really good for her.”

Mullins began her coaching career as an as-sistant at Stanford before coming to DVC in 2001.

After having only three winning seasons since 2003, Mullins needed to change things up saying, “I hope what we did this year is the new standard for the future.”

They finished this season ranked seventh in state, and the huge turn around led to Mullins winning coach of the year. Magarin in her first year of eligibility led the team in goals with 11.

Ana Torres did her part with 10 goals and eight assists.

“You don’t win an award like this by your-self. This is a team win,” Mullins said.

As humble as she is Mullins isn’t going to stop now. “I hope to end my career here at DVC,” Mullins said. She will have many more years to build on this years success.

SCOTT ANNISSports editor

Contact SCOTT ANNIS at [email protected]

RYAN DALEY/ The Inquirer

Cailin Mullins talks to the team during a game in 2009. Mullins won coach of the year in 2011 after leading the team to a 15-4-3 record.

STAFF WRITERS Griffin Henning, John Kesler, Stephen Langsam, Theresa Marie, Zuli Mohammad, 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 Rea

MANAGING EDITOR Cecily TrowbridgeNEWS EDITOR Mike AlfieriOPINIONS EDITOR Lisa DiazSPORTS EDITOR Scott AnnisARTS & FEATURES EDITOR Christa BalingitPHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Danielle Barcena

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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

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Letter to the Editor


Opinions

Thank you

Being here for two and a half years, I’ve realized that many minority is-sues are under tremendous attention, such as injustice imposed on African Americans, Latinos, women and gays. But international students are easily ignored.

In the 2008-2009 academic year, 671,616 international students came to the U.S. to study. Most of the in-ternational students came to the U.S. literally without knowing anybody.

Although they have been learning English, they are not fluent at it. On top of that, they need time to adjust to American culture.

According to the Bing Dictionary, the definition of minority is a “small-er socially defined group; a group of people, within a society, whose mem-bers have different ethnic, racial, na-tional, religious, sexual, political, lin-guistic or other characteristics from the rest of society.”

International students are usually not considered a minority. Maybe be-cause minority usually associates with

disadvantages, but international stu-dents are considered rich by many.

International students who come to America are definitely privileged compared to peers in their home country.

But the truth is that Americans see one side of the story.

Community col-leges like DVC only charge $195 per unit for out-of-state stu-dents. So for many of the middle class families, community college is their first and only choice.

When they needed to demonstrate their financial abil-ity to study in America to the U. S. Embassy, many of them borrowed money from friends and relatives then save money in their bank account and show some documents to the U.S. Embassy.

In fact, quite contrary to many peo-ple's belief that international students

are rich, these students with middle-class family backgrounds are living a very frugal life in the U. S.

The rationales behind the notions of African Americans being criminals and international students being rich are the same to me.

When one person or many people from a group does some-thing or shows one quality, we tend to assume all the peo-ple from that group does that thing or has that quality.

We don't even re-alize that we are la-

beling people. I have come to realize that DVC

doesn't care about international stu-dents' well beings in general.

All they care about is money. We are only here to be exploited.

The only time the school ever sent an email to international students ex-clusively is when they demand and

threaten us to pay the health insur-ance on time, or we will be dropped from our classes and forced out of the U.S.

There is no surprise that the U. S government wants more international students to study in America under this kind of economic condition. In fact, international students contribute an estimated $17.8-billion to the U.S. economy a year.

The same with all the other people who first came to the U.S., interna-tional students face many challenges and injustice.

However, with more international students awakening to the fact that we can be treated better than just money machines, the issues about in-ternational students will come to at-tention.

Only when we see an individual through his or her own characteristics and not through a stereotype about the group this person belongs to, will we have a fair society.

International students: the new minority

“But the truth is that

Americans only see one

side.”

Being a journalist can suck.

And, in some aspects, be-ing a college journalist can suck even more.

During the Nov. 29 AS-DVC meeting, Francisco Hi-nojosa, Inter Club Council president and district student trustee, directed complaints with the Inquirer’s news cov-erage towards a staff reporter covering the meeting.

He began to try to rally the ASDVC Board to take direct actions against The Inquirer while criticizing the reporter’s work this semester.

During this rant, members of the ASDVC board stood up to say that Hinojosa was out-of-line; some even de-fending the victimized reporter, The Inquirer and the Free-dom of Press.

Traditionally, an editorial is a space where an editorial board can assess a situation affecting its community and suggest a solution to any problem.

In this editorial, however, The Inquirer Editorial Board would like to thank the mem-bers of ASDVC who fought for the Inquirer and the First Amendment rights of college

students. Over this semester, new

Inquirer staff members have struggled to cope with the environment of a college newspaper and the responsi-bilities of being a journalist on the Diablo Valley College campus.

At the same time, the pa-per has witnessed staff mem-bers gassed and arrested.

While covering the Sep-tember BART protests in San Francisco, Inquirer copy editor Brian Donovan was wrongfully arrested with a

group of re-porters and protesters af-ter an ill-com-municated dis-persal order.

A few months later, news editor Mike Alfieri and photog-raphy edi-tor Danielle Bárcena were in the midst of tear-gas and non-lethal

rounds while covering Oc-cupy Oakland.

And as 2012 approaches, California community college journalists have witnessed what can happen when a stu-dent newspaper has little or no support.

Earlier this semester, So-lano Community College’s student newspaper, The Tempest, covered the death of a black football player, Ennis Johnson, while mis-

takenly printing a comic strip that “references a group of black women stating that they should get rid of all black men,” according to a Daily Republic article.

Soon after print, The Tem-pest participated in a group discussion on their campus which soon turned into a public reprimand.

According to a Tempest ar-ticle, “heated remarks ensued as several audience members demanded to know how this cartoon was able to be placed in the paper and published.”

One student, Marion Lee, was quoted asking Phillip Temple, the black cartoon-ist who created the comic, “Aren’t we tired of being a whipping post? What were you thinking?”

The journalism program is being considered for elimina-tion.

In Spring 2011, the Cali-fornia Scholastic Journal-ism intiative reported on the shutdown of Modesto Junior College’s student newspaper, the Pirate’s Log, while dis-mantling its communications department.

Altogether, the college eliminated journalism, broad-casting and film departments.

Rich Cameron, the Cer-ritos Community College journalism adviser, released a statement recalling the sus-pension of West Valley Col-lege’s journalism department in the mid-‘90s.

He said that even though the newspaper was reinstated, “it is not the same voice for

students and training ground for future journalists as it once was and it likely never will be again with its on-again, off-again status.”

College journalism is shaky at best.

Get past all of the editori-als, retractions, interviews and newsprint floating around the campus. The Inquirer is a teaching tool and its staff are simply students learning the foundations of journalism.

College journalists have a heavy burden being the “stu-dent voice” for their cam-puses.

At The Inquirer, the edi-torial board is relieved that there are at least a few people who are willing to stand up for a right to report, and our right to learn.

The Inquirer Editorial Board appreciates members of the DVC community that support journalism

TOM RIZZA / The Inquirer

“The editorial board is relieved that there are at

least a few people who are willing to stand up for

a right to report, and our right to

learn.”

Opinions 7The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, December 8, 2011

’Integrity’” is kind of a fun-ny word for food,” is Mexican food chain Chipotle’s current choice motto.

Yes, Chipotle, personify-ing quesadillas is bizarre. But since I was a small food en-thusiast, I have enjoyed your righteous and simple ingredi-ents frequently.

The concept of develop-ing a sustainable food system is one that I support and re-spect.

However, as of late, an in-creasing number of quirks have been illuminated within the realm of what it truly means to be a virtuous bur-rito.

One of these being that McDonald’s owns Chipotle.

But this little nugget of food-culture gossip isn’t true, at all. In factuality, McDon-ald’s was involved with Col-orado-born Chipotle from 1999 to 2006 as its primary investor, owning 87% of the burrito Mecca’s common stock, according to chipotle-fan.com.

McDonald’s no longer has anything to do with Chipotle; regardless, this information came as a shock to me when I came across it. McDon-ald’s equals deep-fried while Chipotle touts itself as being synonymous with wholesome. So what gives?

Before you begin picketing at your local Chipotle, know this: McDonald’s has had a role in a lot of businesses.

Primarily restaurants, Mc-Donald’s also played a part in the development of fast food/deli-verge Boston Mar-ket.

The idea that highly criti-cized grease giant McDonald’s has had any part in a restau-rant so dead-set on providing people with quality meats and vegetables is a disturbing one. You can’t trust anyone these days, right?

Consider the situation this way:

You, budding entrepreneur, have a passion for the edible entities that your life revolves around, and decide to open a business. You need funding. “Hmm…” you ponder. “Who has money to spare that will believe my restaurant to be a valuable investment?”

Ding! “Ohhhhh.” Yes, fer-vent food monkeys, you must proposition the food giants, which is exactly what Chipo-tle founder Steve Ells did.

Golden-wrapped burri-tos, and award-winning 3D commercials are a couple of Chipotle’s most recent efforts to keep the chain unique and progressive, and I must admit that I’m buying it. For now.

What is most importantly standing out to me, how-ever, is that unlike many self-proclaimed well-intentioned fast-food chains, it seems that Chipotle sincerely stands be-hind what it preaches.

I appreciate ingenuity in all aspects of my life. Kudos to Chipotle, born from a differ-ent initiative, which has stayed, so far, on the right track.

Contact CECILY TROWBRIDGE at ctrowbridge@


CECILY TROWBRIDGEManaging editor

If asked about what sets America apart from the world, many people would say the right to free speech is its strength. Others would respond that it’s our overall dominance of the world, with a crazed “USA USA USA.”

I struggled with this ques-tion as well, until I was en-lightened by an opinions col-umnist for Salon.com named Glenn Greenwald.

His book “Liberty and Jus-tice for Some” discusses the Rule of Law: the idea that no one is above or below the law, that everyone stands equal ground under the blind eyes of Lady Justice.

Somehow this ideal has be-come a mirage. For whatever reason, we’ve come to abide the two-tier justice system that says that if you are a nor-mal citizen, you are subject to receiving the maximum pen-alties for your crimes; but if you are a famous actor, ath-lete, banker or politician, you are exempt from the harshest punishments and in some cas-es pardoned from your wrong doings.

It so obviously violates the Rule of Law to the very core. Greenwald sites a report enti-tled The Rule-of-Law Revival written by Thomas Caroth-ers, a leading official with the World Bank.

Carothers states that the most crucial aspect of es-tablishing the Rule of Law is that “above all, government officials must refrain from in-terfering with judicial decision making and accept the judi-ciary as an independent au-thority. They must give up the habit of placing themselves above the law.”

And there is a myriad of examples of America not following this policy, from pardoning Nixon to not in-vestigating the Bush Adminis-tration for illegal wiretapping and war crimes, not investi-gating Goldman Sachs and the others on Wall Street.

Thinking about this, it seems that this would be the obvious message of the Oc-cupy movement: reestablish the Rule of Law. But it isn’t.

Instead, when you research Occupy, you’ll often find that their “mission statement” in-stead reads more like a gro-cery list of demands.

This petulance only bol-sters the stance that Occupy is a stratified group of hip-pies and anarchists that would rather see the system burn than make progress.

Stop. Stop waving ironic signs and shouting rhyming phrases, stop bashing in win-dows of businesses who have no fault in our plight, stop vandalizing public property in the name of revolution.

In order to reestablish the Rule of Law, we must use the law itself. Instead of voting for President in 2012, let’s sue him.

Contact TOM RIZZA at [email protected]

Occupy needs ‘Rule of Law’ forclarity

TOM RIZZAStaff writer

In fact, according to an article by Stephanie Clifford for the New York Times, the midnight openings were so successful that they’ll prob-ably become the norm from now on.

At the rate things are go-ing, I’m willing to bet that by 2052 one will see stores open every day at midnight with amazing deals on HDTVs.

Besides the trample-a-thon known as Black Friday, another aspect of the holi-day season that annoys me is definitely the slew of holiday specials and advertising that carpet bomb the networks.

These things are the worst. Many of them are about people overcoming tough times to discover that “The True Meaning of Christmas” isn’t about greed or obtain-ing mass amounts of wealth, but instead is about family and love.

Now don’t get me wrong:

I feel like these qualities are good, and they really should be encouraged. There are just a few problems with this.

For one, these specials go about en-couraging such good qualities the same way Bono does: by beating me over the head with such mes-sages until I get turned off and eventually find them extremely annoy-ing.

The other thing is that so-ciety doesn’t even embrace these messages. That people are more important than things is a good message to share, but for the other 10 months of the year, we fla-grantly violate this maxim

and act like we’re allergic to broke.

Speaking of broke, this is the worst time of the year to be. Even though our culture

emphasizes “The True Meaning of Christmas” as not being about greed or wealth, I still feel like I’m expect-ed to get my friends nice things.

There’s just one is-

sue: like the protagonist of a holiday special, I’m broke and unemployed.

Even though I have some friends who I can negotiate non-present purchasing con-tracts with, there are some people who just deserve a present. I know homemade gifts are the best, but sadly

I lack any sort of crafting prowess. This, of course, leads to a situation in which I either have to borrow money to save face or look like a horrible person.

It’s even worse when a friend buys a present and I have completely neglected to reciprocate. This happened last year and it only succeeds in making me feel like the worst person in the world. Who says the holidays are not about presents?

There’s just so much wrong with the holiday sea-son. It begins too early, the sentiments are obnoxious, and in practice nobody even takes the morals to heart.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go. I have to start preparing for next Christ-mas.

Contact JOHN KESLER at jkesler@


Paper over pwning

I will never forget that feeling as I woke up at 6 on Christmas morning and sprinted towards the Christ-mas tree in my special, sea-sonal Looney Tunes paja-mas.

The anticipation was high; I could not wait to see what good old Santa managed to squeeze down the chim-ney and place underneath my homemade paper orna-ments dangling from the proudly decorated Christ-mas tree. Was it the 5-foot tall Barbie’s dream house with a functioning elevator and hot tub?

Though I did manage to outgrow the early morning wind sprints, cheesy letters and crafty decorations, I still look forward to Santa’s yearly arrival. Don’t worry, I don’t still ask for Barbie ac-cessories at 21.

During this wonderful time of the year, many of us browse websites and cruise the mall looking for gift ideas to give to others and, of course, preparing hints to drop to our loved ones.

This holiday season, I urge you to change up your shop-ping routine. Swiftly walk past the electronic tablets, game consoles and expensive handbags to a place where there are rarely crowds and people do not get trampled or stabbed: the bookstore.

Ask Santa for a good read and don’t hesitate to return the favor to those on your special Christmas shopping list.

Reading is not valued as much in our generation as it was in previous genera-tions, nor as much as it should be.

Not only will you be helping out poor San-ta’s thou-sand-year-old back by lightening his present load, but you will keep more hard-earned cash in your wallet. In a survey conducted by the School Research Jour-nal, a book reviewing publi-

cation, the average cost of a hardcover adult fiction book is around $25.

Compare a durable, time-less hardcover novel to the leading item on many Christ-mas lists this year: “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.” Spend $59.99 on Amazon.com for the popular game, only to have to use half of your paycheck next year on “Modern Warfare 4.”

Cost aside, getting lost in a good book is not only more intellec-tually stimu-lating than playing video games, but there is no dorky head-set required.

There are count-less benefits to reading a good book: it improves your writing, which in turn will boost

your grade point average, it allows you to become more informed and best of all, reading takes you on a jour-

ney into another world, one which you would not other-wise be exposed to.

“Just like muscles, the brain benefits from a good workout.” Dr. Ken Pugh, a researcher from Yale-affil-iated Haskins Laboratory, said in an Oprah.com article. “And reading is more neu-robiologically demanding than processing images or speech. As you’re absorb-ing, say, this article, parts of the brain that have evolved for other functions—such as vision, language, and as-sociative learning—connect in a specific neural circuit for reading, which is very chal-lenging.”

As you exercise your brain through reading, you escape into another world, free of the everyday stresses of work, school and relation-ships.

On the Mental Health Well-

ness Week website, reading is encouraged as a healthy way to distress. A healthy way to de-stress is always appeal-ing; anything to get me away from eating a whole pint of Ben and Jerry’s “Half-baked” when life gets rough.

Solely focusing on brain exercises and the economics of buying a book is leaving out not only the most valu-able, but the most intriguing benefit of trading in the game controller for literature.

There is no better feeling than getting lost in a good book. When reading some-thing you truly enjoy, it’s as if the words jump off the page and illustrate the story all around you, forbidding you from putting the book down.

You can travel back in time, around the world or transform yourself into the mind of a famous movie star or crime detective with the flip of a page, expanding your mind every step of the way.

Dear Santa, a book is nothing short of the perfect Christmas present.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go. I have to start preparing for

next Christmas.”

LISA DIAZOpinions editor

Contact LISA DIAZ at [email protected]

“As you exercise your brain through reading, you

escape into an-other world, free of the everyday

stresses of work, school and

relationships.”

As Christmas approaches, gift-givers need to drop the video games and hit the books

HOLIDAYFrom Page 10

TOM RIZZA / The Inquirer

Chipotle supports ‘real stuff ’

“Is it inconvenient?” Knox said. “Definitely. But the proj-ect is carefully designed to minimize disruption as much as possible. It will be much bet-ter for our students when it is all done.”

By the end of the construc-tion, two of the oldest build-ings will be replaced. Student services will no longer be sepa-rated, but will be placed in a new building altogether.

After the second phase, the campus food services build-ings will be replaced.

Lastly, the culinary building and cafeteria will be torn down to make more room for the new quad. Though students are going to be given an im-proved campus, some find that it isn’t completely worth it. Ser-ena Padilla, who is in her third year at DVC, said she sees the construction as a big inconve-nience.

“I understand that they want a better campus,” said Padilla. “But having the quad blocked off makes walking to classes twice as long. I mean, it’s great for people who are still going to be here; I won’t be here by the time construc-tion is over, so to me it’s just troublesome.”

Student Fa-biola Ramirez is interning with Flintco Constructive Solutions, the company that is responsible for managing the construction.

“People may complain about all of the construction,” Ramirez said. “But you have to give up something to get some-thing. Look at the end result.”

Other students, such as Eddy Castenada, said they think the project will greatly improve the campus.

“Personally, I think it’s go-ing to look great,” Castenada said. “I mean, I won’t be here

when the construction is done, but I think DVC needs to kind of upgrade their look. It does cause some issues in between classes, but honestly, they don’t really have much of a choice. There’s no way to get construc-tion done without some kind of annoyance.”

Students and professors are having to exercise a certain amount of patience. Reynolds Phish, a psychology major, said that his professors have been very understanding.

“Actually, I’ve been getting a lot of leniency in all of my classes,” Phish said. “A lot of my professors allow us to be at least ten minutes late before it gets counted as an absence.”

Sophomore Killian Holck, alternatively, found that his teachers were only lenient in the beginning.

“My teachers went easy on us the first two weeks,” Holck said. “Now, they’ve been re-ally strict. The fact that there is construction going on is not an excuse.”

As construction takes up more space and causes more con-gestion, stu-dents are starting to accept it. Others are choosing not to let it affect them.

Lance Gegner, who

is in his first semester at DVC, said that the construction hasn’t bothered him.

“Current students here won’t see what it is like [once construction is complete] un-less they come back to visit,” Gegner said. “But it might be worthwhile for future stu-dents.”

While students have mixed reactions regarding the con-struction, most professors around campus state that while it may cause some issues, the

improvement to the school is necessary. Sheree Lin, who teaches Chinese, said that the only disadvantage is that it is extremely inconvenient.

“I think it’s interesting that they chose to do it,” Lin said. “But it is improving the school.”

With the actual completion date three years away, each phase will be done separately so students will be able to see progress along the way.

“I want to see the place progress for the students,” said professor Kent Haldan, who teaches American History at DVC.

Even though three years may seem like a long time, the benefits of the construction will last much longer.

“The new project is very much focused on meeting the needs of our students,” Knox said. “We unfortunately cannot help the fact that construction is inconvenient. It always is.”

Staff writers John Kesler and Zuli Mohammad contributed to this article.


Arts & FeaturesFEESFrom Page 10

CONSTRUCTFrom Page 10

The DVC quad, above, in 2009. Students and staff have mixed feelings about its ren0vation while admitting there is no way around it.

Contact CHRISTA BALINGIT at cbalingit@


Contact ZULI MOHAMMAD at

[email protected]

“I won’t be here when the

construction is done, but I think DVC needs to kind of

upgrade their look.”

~EDDY CASTENADADVC student

STOCK PHOTO / The Inquirer

A worker, above, looks on over the former quad. Left,a crane waits to be used again.The entire project will be completed in 2014.


According to the UC Davis website, the tu-ition alone for the 2011 school year is estimated to be $13,860.

When compared to an estimated $1,080 for DVC’s tuition, commu-nity college comes out to be an attractive op-tion.

Students like Lorri Budesa agree that it is still cheaper to go to community college first, but it’s still expensive compared to the days where it was free.

“They keep cutting classes and hiking fees. It isn’t fair,” Budesa said,

Maraccini, 20, is trans-ferring to UC Davis next fall after completing her general education cours-es at DVC.

She believes that it was cheaper than doing the same courses at a four-year university.

“While $36 per unit is a bit much, I know that I ended up saving more by attending DVC first,” Maraccini said.

According to a Leg-islative Analyst’s Office report on community college fees for the 2011 - 2012 school year, Cali-fornia could eventually increase the fee to $60 per unit but even then “fees would remain low-est among the country.”

Zakia Nabi took class-es at DVC in the late ’80s as well and thought that the $9-$10 per unit was absurd.

Three of her chil-dren have also attended DVC, two of whom have transferred to UC Berkeley. All of her chil-dren began DVC after the ’90s. The fees per unit varied from $19 to $26 with each child.

Her children, at the time, thought it was costly. Now, it seems tame compared to the $36 per unit fee.

“It will probably go to $46 per unit next semes-ter,” Nabi said.

Students will have to wait until until Dec 15. to figure out when ex-actly the fee increase will occur.

Nabi’s daughter, Maryam, attended DVC from 2004 to 2006 be-fore transferring to UC Berkeley and thought of the fees $26 per unit at the time as a small bur-den.

She, like many other students, noticed it was much cheaper going to DVC first.

Even people going back to school have been surprised at the recent increase of the tuition fees. Cecilia Ortiz, a mother of two, decided to come back to school a couple of years ago.

She was also shocked by the fee hikes since she attended DVC be-fore the introduction of community college tu-ition in 1984.

Now, she has realized it is no longer 1984.

“Times are changing and so are the prices,” Ortiz said.

Contact JOHN KESLER at jkesler@



PABLO CABALLERO / The Inquirer

Engineer-ing majors Fabiola Ramirez and Chris Mason, left to right, discuss the project in the construc-tion zone in the middle of campus on Dec. 1, 2011. Both are interns for Flintco, the prime contractor of the $52 million project.

Arts & Features 9The Inquirer - Diablo Valley CollegeThursday, December 8, 2011

Heck, I haven’t had a bub-ble tea in five years.

Let’s start now. After one negative expe-

rience with the drink over five years ago and the recent opening of Boba Hut, I put my apparent dislike aside.

I mean good food is good food, right?

After walking in this quaint shop - in the Safeway shop-ping center next to campus - and asking the waitress/barista/cashier to surprise me, I was given a lychee tea with jelly.

Surprisingly, I tasted the happiness in the creamy, com-forting and cold lychee tea on an even colder winter morn-ing.

Suddenly my mouth was attacked by a barrage of jelly squares that were previously floating at the bottom of my cup.

I understand that the tapi-oca pearls usually found in bubble tea can be swapped with jelly, but I can’t forgive a mouth full of tasteless, squishy caviar-like jelly mess-ing up my lychee tea.

And then there was the co-conut croissant with a hint of almond.

Compared to fantastic res-taurants with homemade food in the area like Flora’s Hot-dogs and Gyros, Chef Burger, The Spot Coffee Shop and even the DVC Bakery, the hut’s store-bought pastries might not cut it.

I returned later to try a reg-ular bubble tea before I com-pletely wrote off Boba Tea.

Lucky for me, the mango tea with tapioca bubbles was its saving grace and I finally understood boba.

I understood when I tasted the first shot of fake mango flavor mixed with the tapioca and vanilla rising from the pearls at the bottom.

And then I tried my first tapioca pearl in five years.

Was it gummy? Yes. Did it taste like traditional tapioca? Yes. Was it delicious? It was good enough.

And, after the jelly disgrace I’d tried earlier, I was content.

But still, I question what makes this shop different than Quickly, the resident bubble tea joint, or Mocha Boba, the previous bubble tea and crepe shop that was located in Boba Hut’s current residence.

I find myself with the age old dilemma of driving around with my friends searching for the closest “Golden Arches” and saying “Let’s not go to that McDonald’s. Let’s go to the good McDonald’s.”

Boba Hut houses a hodge-podge of odd decor and av-erage food with at least one gem.

Besides a slight price de-crease over its competitors, I’m not 100 percent sold on their drinks.

But I have found a new ap-preciation of bubble tea.

So I’ll head back over to order from the area’s newest bubble tea shop, but I’ll skip the pastries.

Contact JULIUS REA at [email protected]

JULIUS REAEditor-in-chief

Bubble tea shopcreates average, decent tastes

Advertisement

DVC student Kyle Paquin has found himself as the newest front man of Bay Area alternative band Mod-ern Day Kids.

Despite the pop-punk and alternative rock sound of MDK, Paquin’s person-al main inspiration comes from God.

"He gave me the ability to sing, write songs and per-form for people,” he said. “I am inspired to give a little back to him by develop-ing these talents."

Paquin started singing while in his church's youth wor-ship band.

It wasn't until later, when he was pre-sented with his first 1982 Les Paul Ultra guitar in eighth grade, that he started getting serious about music.

"I wanted to start a band after I realized I wasn't very good at writing church mu-sic," Paquin said. "Six years later and I'm in a slammin' band."

Besides Paquin, San Ra-mon-centered Modern Day Kids consists of bass player Matt Salavitch, drummer Keller O'Rourke and guitar player Nick Hays.

After letting go of their previous lead singer, Sala-vitch, O'Rourke and Hays called Paquin after seeing him perform at a local show in Martinez.

The rest is history.The love the band has

for their music is shown through their dedication of practicing 10 or more hours per week. They feel an ob-ligation to play and create great music for their fan base that is growing.

While Modern Day kids are classified as pop-punk, many of their influences

aren't. Vocalist Paquin lists

bands like Led Zepplin, John Mayer Trio and May-day Parade as some of the band’s influences.

Currently, the band is working on a music vid-eo – directed and ahot by O'Rourke's father, Kevin – for their song "Her Poison," written by Hays.

"While it sounds evil, the song has a positive connota-tion," Paquin said. "Every-one has diverse styles which makes our music sound dif-

ferent."Hays

said, “As all of us are getting older and maturing, our lyrics are too.”

The band's fa-vorite show happened to be at the Discovery Counseling Center in

San Ramon.They said, "We had a

lot of technical issues but overall had our own dress-ing room and people threw themselves towards the stage, it was super strange but really cool."

Later tour dates are going be released on their Face-book page.

“I see the band evolv-ing into something greater for reaching more fans within the next few years,” O’Rourke said.

As Paquin looks towards future MDK tour dates, he said it will "rock your face and will blow your soul into a better direction."

Information about the band can be found at www.mdkrocks.com.

Editor-in-chief Julius Rea contributed to this article.

‘Kids’ RockDVC student fronts Bay Area band, looks at musical past

Courtesy of MODERN DAY KIDS

Modern Day Kids, from left to right, is made up of drummer Keller O’Rourke, lead guitarist Nick Hays, frontman Kyle Paquin and bassist Matt Salavitch. The band recently acquired Paquin as their new lead singer.

ZULI MOHAMMADStaff writer

Contact ZULI MOHAMMAD at zmohammad@


“I wanted to start a band

after I realized I wasn’t very good at writing church music. Six years

later and I’m in a slammin’ band.”

~KYLE PAQUINModern Day Kids Lead Vocalist

DVC student Kyle Paquin, front, plays with Nick Hays, fellow Modern Day Kids band member. Paquin’s musical interests changed from Christian music to alternative rock as he started to pursue music seriously.

Courtesy of MODERN DAY KIDS

• NEWS 1, 2, 3 • SPORTS 4, 5 • OPINIONS 6, 7 • EDITORIAL 6 • ARTS & FEATURES 8, 9, 10 • CAMPUS BUZZ 6 • STAFF INFORMATION 6 •

Holiday frenzy induces headaches

Giving thanks:The Inquirer Editorial Board of-fers a sincere ‘thank you.’

Thoughtful protest: Staff writer Tom Rizza has found a suitable mission statement for the Occupy movement. See Page 7.


This time last year, student Wayne Yoo could walk from the Performance Arts Center to the Physi-cal Science building in fifteen minutes. He never thought it was a problem. The ability to walk di-agonally through the quad made it fast and con-

venient. This semester, however, moving from one end of the campus

to the other has proved difficult. “What used to be a five-minute

walk has now turned into ten,” Yoo said. “To get to my classes, I have to walk around the entire campus. Everything is blocked off so I can’t go through.”

The ‘New Commons Project’ began July 15 and will not be com-pleted until 2014. By the end of the process, students will be pre-sented with a new and much im-proved campus. The construction started with the demolition of the quad on July 15.

The quad allowed for easy access of all buildings across cam-pus and was a place where students could sit in between classes. With the quad completely blocked off, students are forced to find different and longer routes to campus.

Chrisanne Knox, director of marketing and communications, said that while the construction may be inconvenient, it just isn’t a good enough reason not to do it.

CHRISTA BALINGITArts & Features editor

“The new project is very much

focused on meeting the needs of our

students.”~CHRISANNE KNOXDirector of Marketing and Communcation

CONSTRUCT, Page 8

Constructionahead,stillAs the first semesterof construction ends,DVC has mixed feelings

It’s only the second week of December and I’m al-ready absolutely sick of the holiday season.

Due to the efforts of the retail industry, the holiday season began the week before Halloween, which means that since then ev-erything has been domi-nated by all that “Ho, ho, ho” garbage.

I mean everything: ad-vertising, Diet Coke, tele-vision and my thoughts.

The popularization of Black Friday made the holiday season be-gin even earlier. As ma-jor big box retail stores opened at midnight on Black Friday, Kmart outdid everyone else by being open on Thanksgiving.

Bland bubbles: A new Boba tea shop finds its way in the area. See Page 9.

Different age groupsdisagreeabout fee increases

FEES, Page 8

In 1984, DVC announced that they would start charging tuition in the fall.

Full-time students, who took six units or more, paid a flat fee of $50 while part-time students, who took less than six units, paid $5 per unit.

This move not only affected students at DVC, but community college students in the entire state of California.

An Oakland Tribune reporter, Virgil Mibert, was quoted in the stu-dent newspaper – called the Enquirer at the time – as saying, “The only other thing that community college students can be as-sured of is [some form of] tuition in the fall semester.”

While the only thing community college students could be certain of was some type of tuition, students to-day are only certain that the fees will in-crease.

On Dec. 15, the Calfornia Legis-lature will decide whether mid-year budget cuts are nec-essary.

According to a Sept. 8 statement from the Cal-ifornia Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, fees will increase to $46 per unit if legislators an-nounce the need of mid-year cuts.

Currently, classes are $36 per unit. For non-California residents the fee is $231, which con-sists of the $36 fee plus a $195 out-of-state charge.

Habib Simab, a DVC student during the late 1980s and early 1990s, remembers that the fees were around $10 per unit.

JOHN KESLERZULI MOHAMMAD

Staff writers

JOHN KESLERStaff writer

HOLIDAY, Page 7

“I’m willing to bet that by 2052

one will see stores open every day

at midnight with amazing deals on

HDTVs.”

Rock it: Bay Area band Modern Day Kids, finds its new front man at DVC.

Need to Know

DVC started to charge fees in 1984 at $50 for full-time status, six units or more, and $5 per unit for part-time status.On Dec. 15, the State Legislature will decide whether or not to increase fees in Summer 2012 due to ongo-ing budget cuts.

While younger students see fee increases as a necessary evil, older generations are appalled as they see fees increasing over $36 per unit.

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