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Volume 160, Number 3Wednesday, March 25, 2009
C
Th Stdt Vic f Ls Als City Cll Sic 1929LoS AngeLeS
 By Jonathan Velasquez 
Clouds covered Sacramentoskies, but did not stop a groupof 20 City College students fromraising their voices along withthousands more at the “March inMarch Rally” at the State CapitalMarch 16. They marched to pro-test against the recent budget cutssigned by Gov. Arnold Schwar-zenegger.Buses full of students andtheir supporters began to arrivefrom all across the state at Ral-ey Field, Sacramento’s stadium,from 8 a.m. They carried signsfrom San Francisco City College,from De Anza Community Col-lege, San Jose, Fresno and L.A.Pierce College. They kept arriv-ing, and joined in with decisivesteps and words of disapproval.By 10 a. m. they began the shortwalk to the Capitol.“It is important to make surewe address issues and budgetcuts,” said recently appointedASO President James Zetinowho was part of the City College
group that ew to Sacramento.
Although the cuts affect
 By Mars Melnicoff 
James Trent studies lm
at Los Angeles City College(LACC), but by semester’s endwill have completed four of the
classes required to fulll the Ko
-rean A.A. degree.
Trent’s interest in Korea be
-gan four years ago with a ran-dom phone call. A voice on theother end of the line asked if hewould be interested in teaching
computer skills in Korea. Trent’s
main source of income comesfrom teaching computer courses,though he also works as an actor.Two weeks later he was on a plane to a U.S. Military Base inDaegu (pronounced day-goo).He spent one and a half yearsteaching a computer programcalled A+ to Americans. Trentfell in love with the country, theculture, the people and the his-tory. Now he’s back at LACC.“America is a baby comparedto the years of culture and historythere,” Trent said.
 By Jamie Hong additional reporting by Tim Carpenter 
More than 50 students andfaculty members gathered on aFriday morning at the Facultyand Staff Center at City Col-lege to learn how to tame thedemons that pursue passion, pleasure and pain with Dr. JayPhelan.“Mean Genes: From Sex toMoney to Food: Taming our Primal Instincts” is a high-tech million-dollar gift, pack-aged in a simple wrapping, andserves as an “owner’s manualfor the brain” on how to bridleimpulsive behavior.One of the topics Dr. Phel-an addressed at City Collegeon March 20 in his presenta-tion “Mean Genes” was why people love fat and hate to ex-ercise.“It comes down to onething, laziness,“ Phelan said.“However, we need to changeour thinking about laziness.Stop thinking exercise is goodand that laziness is bad.” Hesuggests these mind tricks andother clever ways to promotehealthy living.Phelan described the bridge between our genes and our be-havior and how to effectively
Budget Cuts Bring Student Protests to Sacramento
mostly K-12 students there are
still serious issues that could af-fect community college studentsin the near future. Gov. Schwar-zenegger wants to increase tu-ition to $30 per unit and to elimi-nate Cal Grants and cut other  programs such as EOP&S.Most of the marchers heldsigns and chanted. They calledon the governor to stop the morethan $11 billion cut in educationfunds.“Our future! Our nation! Wewant education,” the studentsshouted as they walked along
Capitol Avenue toward their nal
destination a few blocks away.As the sky cleared up andmost students reached the end of the march at the Capitol, a groupof students gathered at the stepsand started to play music whilethe rest continued their chant. No one from inside the buildingcame out to say a word.Minutes later, advocates took the stand and spoke as loud asthey could in an attempt to maketheir voices go beyond the closeddoors at the State Capitol.
Students rom all across Caliornia gathered at Raley feld in Sacramento on Monday, March 16 to protest againstthe education budget cuts signed by the governor on Feb. 20.
Walk through the door o opportunitywith an A.A. in Korean.
“I have a tattoo ... Andit captures the essenceof what I am saying … Ifeel like I have to battlewith these genes.” Dr.Phelan commenting on hisdragon-like tattoo.
 
Protest
on page 9
New A.A. iN KoreAN
on page 9
MeAN GeNes
on page 9
With dog bowls that communicate via cells phones, and astrong foothold in industries such as banking, Korea and itsnative language are becoming more and more relevant in to-day’s global marketplace. An A.A. in Korean opens a doornot only for learning more about a rich culture, but also forgetting a leg up on some exciting career choices.
New A.A. in Koreanto Offer Practical,Unique Opportunity
Prof. tames 'MeanGenes' a Ciy College
This semester, for the rst
time, LACC students may beginstudy toward an associate degree
in Korean. It is the only such
A.A. offered at any communitycollege in California. Professor Mickey Hong worked tirelesslyfor the last two years to make this program possible.
"The Soloist" InspiresReaders. City Collegeannounces “The Soloist,”as a must-read thissemester.
Pag 5
Child Care ServiceAvailableState of the artchildren’sfacility available forstudents, faculty and thecommunity.
Pag 6edal Pag 2opnn Pag 3, 4N Pag 5, 9Fa Pag 6, 7A Pag 8& enanmnCamp Pag 10Hghlghsp Pag 11, 12
INDEX
move back and forth to ultimate-ly improve our lives.“If you investigate the evo-lutionary history of humans andvarious traits that were favored,it can help you with insights andinformation into what we dealwith today,” Phelan said in a tele- phone interview. He proceeded todescribe how our ancestors usedto gather food to survive and ateit immediately so that it wouldnot spoil and go to waste. Phelansaid this is why we struggle to-day with dieting.He also offers an effectiveway to save money and resist thetendency to spend that paycheck right away.“What I use, and it actuallyis a method that works very wellfor me, is I have my money sentsomewhere,” Phelan said. “AndI don’t even know how to accessit.”These are some of the mecha-nisms Dr. Jay Phelan and co-au-thor Dr. Terry Burnham suggestin their original book, “MeanGenes.” “Mean Genes” is morethan an ambiguous self-help book that recommends recit-ing affirmations. It resembles aguidebook, which appears to begrounded in scientific fact onhow to battle against one’s ownmean genes and effectively nur-
S what stdts arcarryi i th baChildcar Ctr abi hit with arts ad kidsLACC rady tr at Crrits,Califria Rlays
FeATuReSFeATuReSSpoRTS
pa 7pa 6pa 12
ture self-control.“What we do—using thelens of evolutionary biology— is sift through that haystack of advice that is out there al-
Photo by Jonathan Velasquez/ 
LA Cllia
A diverse group of students traveled to Sacramento to join thousands of California Community College studentswho hope to head off proposed tuition hikes.
I  l  l   u s  t  r  a t  i   on b  y L i  l  i   t  A  t   s h  em y  an/  
L A C  ol  l   e gi   an
Photo by Virginia Bulacio/ 
LA Cllia
 
Mdia Arts Dartmt, Chmistry 208Ls Als City Cll855 n. Vrmt Av., Ls Als, CA 90029editr-i-Chif:
Theresa Adams
Maai editr:
Jamie Hong
nws editrs:
 Tim Carpenter, Steve La, Matthew Lopes
oii editr:
Frank Elaridi
Srts editr:
Mars Melnico
pht editr:
Jorge Ponce
Arts & etrtaimt editr:
 
Monica Olosson
Distribti Maar:
Collegian
Advrtisi:
Theresa Adams, Tim Carpenter
grahics:
Beatrice Alcala, Ester Castanho, Ashley Gonzalez,Derek Villanueva
Rrtrs
 Theresa Adams, Lisette Alvarez, Virginia Bulacio, Frank Elaridi, LaTijeraGrifth, Jamie Hong, Matthew Lopes, Mars Melnico, Jessica Rivera,Victoria Saarian, Anthony Suncin
phtrahrs
Jordan Angulo, Virginia Bulacio, Salvador Chavez, Jesse Gantt, JorgePonce
Cartists
 Lilit Atshemyan, Ester Castanho, Ashley Gonzalez, Derek Villanueva
Faclty Advisr:
Rhonda Guess
email:
lacollegian@yahoo.comEditorial / Advertising ofces: (323) 953-4000, ext. 2831(Mon. and Wed., 1-4 p.m.)
The college newspaper is published as a learning experience, oered under the college journalism instructionalprogram. The editorial and advertising materials published herein, including any opinions expressed, are the responsibilityo the student newspaper sta.Under appropriate state and ederal court decisions, these materials are ree rom prior restraint by virtue o the FirstAmendment to the United States Constitution.Accordingly, materials published herein, including any opinions expressed, should not be interpreted as the positiono the Los Angeles Community College District, Los Angeles City College, or any oicer or employee thereo.© 2003 Collegian. No material may be reprinted without the express written permission o the Collegian.
 
Next issue:
April 15
Editorial deadline:
April 8
For all submissions includingletters to the editor and publicityreleases.Advertising deadline:
April 8
Send materials to Collegianofce: Chemistry 208
In response to“Keep Church andState Separate”
Editorial:
 By Frank Elaridi 
T
here is an old Chi-nese proverb that ex- plains, “teachers openthe door, but you must enter yourself.” At Los AngelesCity College, we have accessto countless instructors andvarious classes that can openthe door to our futures, but wemust take the initiative to walk through that door ourselves.“Never doubt that a smallgroup of thoughtful, commit-ted citizens can change theworld. Indeed, it’s the onlything that ever has.” Thoseare the powerful words of thelate American Anthropologist,Margaret Mead.Earlier this month, an im- pressive number of commu-nity college students, faculty,and administrators rallied in protest at the state Capitol’s North Steps, against the moveto raise student fees in com-munity colleges across theGolden State.These movements are nec-essary and crucial to the con-tinued existence of communitycollege campuses, because itshows that we will stand up asone and protect our rights, tu-ition, campuses, and students.If nothing else, the demonstra-tion planted a seed of thoughtin the governor’s head on hisway home in his private jet,which alone could pay for hundreds of thousands of col-lege tuition.With many students al-ready unable to afford thehefty price tag that goes alongwith a college education, howmany more students would be left behind due to finan-cial difficulties if tuition israised? Some of us are for-tunate enough to have collegefees easily taken care of, butmany of our future doctors,attorneys, nurses, architects,and others, need a helpinghand right now, as the nation’seconomy continues to deterio-rate.At LACC, numerous stu-dents are also full-time em- ployees, contribute to their family’s income, pay bills,have children, help pay thefamily mortgage, and so on.With higher tuition, many of these diligent students that wetake pride in, would be forcedto spend less time in schooland more time working to pay for necessities. A collegeeducation is supposed to be aninvestment for the future, a ve-hicle toward an easier life, sowhy make it harder and moreunattainable by burdening stu-dents with a higher costs?Greek philosopher, Epicte-tus, said it best when he wrote,“We must not believe themany, who say that only free people ought to be educated, but we should rather believethe philosophers who say thatonly the educated are free.”If only the educated are trulyfree, then we need to gather asa society and fight for our free-dom to be educated withoutfeeling the heavy burden thatforced many students to dropout.It is our hope that tuitionwill not be raised, and lower income California CommunityCollege students will be ableto continue their higher educa-tion. However, the possibilityof higher tuitions is here, andit is something you must faceand conquer.If the government is dis-couraging you with higher fees, let us encourage you,not with money, but with the promise of a better future witha college degree. Work twiceas hard now, and find a wayto pay the tuition, so that youand your family can have aneasier journey in the future.Run now, so that you can walk later, sweat now, so you canrelax later, and budget now, soyou can splurge later. None of us are sure of whatthe future holds for collegetuitions or life in general, butyou have control of your des-tiny regardless. You are onyour way to the life you wantto lead. Onward!Dear Editor: 
T
his is an open let-ter concerning your most recent Colle-gian publication, drawing spe-cific reference to the articles
“Keep Church and State Sep
-arate as well as Freedom of Speech on School Grounds.” Ithink that this is an extremelyimportant issue and that many people are missing some key points. First off, some may feelthat this issue has surfaced as aresult of the recent publicity sur-rounding Jonathan Lopez’s suitalleging discrimination by theLos Angeles Community Col-lege District and more specifi-cally his speech instructor, JohnMatteson but that’s not true. Thisdates back to a long history atLACC where students feel op- pressed and restricted to speak their minds for fear of intimida-tion by law enforcement person-nel as well as retaliation by theschools administrative faculty. Not to long ago we can recallsuch intimidation and harass-ment taking place with one of your very own journalists by thefood truck. So in essence, Mr.Lopez suit is not surprising butthe problem we have here is thefamous double standard clause,such that is prevalent in our soci-ety as a whole.I’m not religious by anymeans, for me, religion is noth-ing more than a manipulativetool to keep people oppressed byforcing lies rooted in hope andultimately attempting to shapeculture and behavior. It is the“new doctrine” of so called ap- propriate social norms. Havingsaid that, we must look at the key points that many are failing tosee. Mr. Lopez was in a speechclass, there were no restrictionson chosen topics and he decidedto comment on his views of samesex marriage based on his mor-als and beliefs, there is nothingwrong with this. In response, hisinstructor did not allow his to fin-ish his speech, called him a fas-cist bastard and told him to ask God for his grade. Well, I willdefend the instructor that we hadevery right to call him a fascist bastard, because that is his rightto free speech. However, he didnot have the right to not let thestudent finish his presentation or not issue a grade as the assign-ment was completed. The articlecomments on how some peoplefelt insulted and should not have been exposed to Mr. Lopez opin-ion. This is the problem, if some people feel insulted does thatmean that the speech of the op- posing party must be silenced?If so, then that would apply tonearly every area of our com-munications rendering our popu-lous mute. If you think about itnearly anything and everythingcould be construed as an in-sult, from your appearance,to your speech patterns, to thevery nature of what makes youan individual. The outcome isthat people will be offended,insulted and divided on theissues but that is what makesour society a democracy. Youdon’t have to like or agree witheveryone but you should allowthem to express their views. Iam deeply against Proposition8 but I would never take awaythe rights of my foes to ex- press their opposition. LACCis an extension of the Ameri-can culture, a culture filledwith rage, helplessness andstruggle, so we have a choiceto make, either we embraceour differences for the bet-ter, adopt a “live and let live”mentality and promote toler-ance or we go into a violentwar. Conflict and differenceswill never cease, but our tol-erance for each other will bedirectly dependent on our free-dom to breathe and live freely. Respectfully, JustineDear Collegian; 
T
hank you for thequality work you doon each and every is-sue of the school newspaper.I really enjoyed your cover-age of the late Meggan Pan-dy, it was a stark reminder of how short life is and howwe must live each moment as itwere our last.I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing Meggan but had felt the pain expressed by her family.To some Meggan was astranger. For others she was afriend, but to her family she wastheir blood, an extension of them-selves and a miracle that dared todream. Meggan dreamed of beingan artist and dreamed of votingin the past election. In my viewshe achieved both. Her dreamsof passion will resonate in thehearts and minds of all potentialart majors and her face will for-ever grace the walls at Los An-geles City College. My deepestcondolences go out to her lovingfamily. I hope that Da VinciHall will honor her life witha portrait assembled by thetalents of LACC Art stu-dents. Regards,Alexander Dear Editor,
I
was shocked to readabout the censorshiplawsuit against LACC. Iwas in that classroom whenthe incident occurred, frontand center, and I can’t be-lieve it’s being taken that far.We were instructedto present an informativespeech, it wasn’t just someloose speech free-for-all. Infact, John Matteson gave avery clear lecture on the dif-ferences between informa-tive and persuasive speech.He also advised us to avoidhot topics such as abor-tion or the death penalty because of the likelihoodthat it would crossover into persuasive territory. He re-minded us that we shouldhave fun with our topics. Iremember his examples for informative topics being assimple as “Bees”. Manystudents did end up present-ing excellent, interesting,INFORMATIVE speecheson topics ranging fromdrums to candy corn.On the day that JonathanLopez gave his speech hestood up and preached JesusChrist as the savior and pro-ceeded to compare homo-sexuality to incest and pe-dophilia. It was some of themost offensive garbage I’veever had the misfortune of hearing.. I was so angry andfrustrated that I had to leavethe room. I stood in the hallshaking and in tears. Mr.Lopez was telling us thatwe needed to be saved andgiving us his disturbing jus-
tications for supporting the
 ban on same-sex marriage.He actually said, “What if Iwanted to marry my grand-mother? Should that be le-gal?” As if marrying ones’own grandparent is the samething as two people of thesame gender, who love eachother, getting married. Hewas trying to persuade us.He completely failed tomeet the assignment criteriaand instead chose to use theclassroom as his forum for hate speech!And now he wants com- pensation for “damages”?! Idon’t think Jonathan Lopezunderstands the meaning of damage, and he certainlylacks respect for free speechand its power. If he wants tospout his hate speech in thequad, by all means, go for it man. But to do so in theclassroom was completelyinappropriate. I commendJohn Matteson for the re-straint he showed duringthis incident. Not once didhe ask Jonathan to stop, buthe did allow other studentsto leave if the subject mat-ter was troubling for them.He was defending his class-room and the students in it.I think he’s an excellent in-structor, truly one of the bestI’ve had. I hope this messdoesn’t affect his future hereat LACC, that would be ahuge loss for this college.Honestly, I felt like your ar-ticle on this issue was slight-ly one-sided and failed to paint a clear picture of whatreally took place that day.Hopefully the samedoesn’t happen in the court-room..Regards,Inez Parra
I
think it is an unfair opinionto say that “religious duty”leads to terrorism. Loresto’sopinion was uncalled for in a re-sponse to Jonathan Lopez’s suitagainst the Los Angeles Commu-nity College District.A speech class is a place for  people to learn how to properlycommunicate opinions and in-formation in all types of envi-ronments. It is required of theteacher to inform the studentswhat are acceptable topics. Thereis no need of a teacher who be-littles students when they expresstheir opinion.It is true that students shouldnot talk about religion in a mathor science class. However aspeech class is aimed at teachingstudents how to speak in front of an audience. If a speech class al-lows a student to present a per-suasive speech on any topic, thena student should be free to speak on religion to at least evoke aresponse from the class. Thatwould ultimately make that stu-dent successful.Speaking on religion does notmean speaking on violence or  prejudice. The schools requirethat the students and teachersdo not express racism or preju-dice for the protection of other students and teachers. However,speaking out against same-sexmarriage is really a political ac-tion against a proposition thatcan still become a law.Honestly, I do not know whatJonathan Lopez said. If he feltthat same-sex couples should beharmed, then of course he is be-ing extreme. I am not condoningor agreeing with Lopez for thesimple reason that I never heardor read his speech.The real point I am trying toconvey is that it is uneducatedto compare the separation of church and state to this one caseand then link it to terrorism. Theseparation of church and stateshould be focused on lawmaking,not educating. Also, religiousduty does not lead to violence. Icould make the same argumentthat Loresto’s beliefs lead to thesenseless killing of Christians,however that would be a logicalfallacy and unfair in response toMarc Loresto.Religion does not need to beseparate from school grounds.Religion does not need to be ta- booed or feared because it is de- batable. There should be a free-dom to learn all types of religionsand beliefs for all people and aschool should be the number onesource of that information. (If notsecond to a library).The real objection is keepingreligious opinions outside of theclassroom environment, which isalready solved. All teachers arerequired to provide a syllabus of rules that outline that protectionof students' rights and liberties.With regards to that, studentsshould be allowed to give an in-formative or persuasive speechon their own religion.Amy
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Stop Tuition Hikes
 
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
City College Differentfrom the Rest?
Library Vandals atLACC Need to Grow Up
 By Joe Faulstich
L
os Angeles City Col-lege is my third at-tempt at a higher edu-cation in my college career and I just want one thing, andone thing only; my degree.I am a 23 year old, Los An-geles Caucasian native, andthe only American dream my parents had for me is to getthe best education their mon-ey could buy. So what couldLACC have to offer me af-ter going through private el-ementary and middle schools,a re-awakening of Califor-nian-bred boarding school,and two private universities?
The rst thing I noticedat LACC was the efciency
with which the school operat-ed. The speed at which I wasable to apply and get into classes
without even mailing an of
-cial transcript from my previous
school was pleasing. The rst
week of classes I had the samefeelings of doubt that I think ev-eryone has when starting at a newschool. I had not been on campus
very often, so when I rst walkedin to go to my rst class, I hadto use the kiosk map to gure out
where I was, and where I was go-ing.I signed up to take an eclec-tic group of classes that trans-lated into a great schedule for theweek. It was a schedule thatI could enjoy for the wholesemester, and not worry aboutmissing classes because of my pre-arranged meetings and
other activities. For the rst
time in a long time, I am excit-ed about learning new things.Since this journey has begun,I have taken it upon myself toget the education I deserve. Iam making things happen andto me it was worth the waitand a good thing for a 23 year old living in the middle of arecession.
Frances O’Hara
L
os Angeles City Col-lege’s new librarylooks amazingsince it has been remod-
eled. Two oors with
computer access andnew restrooms are avail-able to students. Bookscan be used for up toone hour and the copymachines cost a dime per page of a black andwhite copy. The atmo-sphere is nice and quietand cell phones are pro-hibited. Ever since therestrooms have been paint-ed, there has been a lot of vandalism, including graf-
ti, drawings, and engrav
-ings in the metal plates thatseparate the stalls.Barbara Vasquez, thechair of the Library Depart-ment has noticed a lot of damage not only in the men’srestrooms, but in the women’srestrooms as well. She has evenfound a vodka bottle in the trashinside one of the women’s rest-rooms.“I am not sure, but I may havea suspicion that visitors are en-tering the library and creatingthese problems,” Vasquez said.“It is certainly not inexpensive toreplace metal plates, since theycannot be painted over like thewalls.”Since the library’s openingon June 23, 2008, vandalism
 began within the rst month of 
operations. Even though liquor is strictly prohibited on campus, beer cans have also been found inthe trash cans at the library.“Many years ago, the stallswere taken off in the men’s rest-room and it can be done againif necessary,” Vasquez said.This does not only happenin the library; there are alsoother areas on campus where
grafti has been spotted around
City College. Cameras have been installed around campus, but that does not prevent graf-
ti painters from crafting their 
masterpieces.Sheriffs who patrol the li- brary say they see gang moni-kers, curse words, and other foul thingswritten and en-graved on thewalls aroundcampus.Althoughthere are a fewcameras aroundthe library,I think thereshould be muchmore, becauseIt is sad to see people destroysuch a beautiful new library.It is totally unacceptable toruin and destroy public prop-erty and one can only wonder at the thought process of thesevandals. If you don’t knowyour reasoning for doing this,there are resources on campusto help you.
 By Lisette Alvarez 
A
ll of the SouthernCalifornia Commu-nity Colleges haveone thing in common – theneed to teach. However, whatdo Riverside, Glendale, Har- bor, Santa Monica College,Moorpark, Mt. Sac, East LosAngeles College, and LongBeach all have that LACCdoes not? Cheerleaders.
Maybe it is a scal issue
or maybe it is that the student body does not care. Either way, couldn’t the athletic
City CollegeLacks Cheer
 By Steve La
I
t has been about 106 dayssince Gov. Arnold Schwar-zenegger declared a specialsession with the legislators todeal with California's economiccrisis. The weeks of arguments,threats, political posturing, and
nally compromises, resulted in
a budget that Schwarzenegger signed into law on Friday, Feb.20.Both republicans and demo-crats had to make concessionsand pass a budget that most leg-islators deemed a necessary, but
 painful step to avoid a nancial
collapse of California’s economy.While it is commendable thatsome lawmakers decided to putaside partisan differences in ex-change for the greater good, it istroubling that during a recession, public higher education always
seems to be the rst casualty inthe struggle for nancial stability.
According to the New York Times, California would make$14.8 billion in budget cuts in programs such as public transit,health care and schools. Califor-nia’s two largest public univer-sity systems, the University of California and California StateUniversity, have already madeconsiderable reductions in en-rollment.This is alarming news for thethousands of transfer studentshoping to attend any one of theseinstitutions. When demand for 
department benet from having
a spirit squad of their very own?Times are tough, so who would be against any form of support?Granted, we have a mascot, butthat is kind of like having a dresswithout a woman in it.Maybe it is that the fans them-selves can be seen as cheerlead-ers, and the sport is the mainattraction, whereas cheerlead-ers can be seen as a sideshow. Nevertheless, cheering itself is asport. It takes leadership, extremeathletic ability and concentration.It’s not just about looking cute ina skirt, but having the guts to putone self out there and demandcooperation from the fans.The element of a cheer squadat LACC could bring lots of opportunities to students whowere not there before, such asa new physical outlet, motiva-tion, and scholarship possi- bilities to cheer for a team at atop four-year college.This is not to say that acheer squad would not begreat to cheer someone on, ontheir next anatomy exam, butif that is the case, just look inthe mirror and repeat to your-self, “Go get’em, Tiger!”enrollment is highest at commu-nity colleges, why is education
always the rst to get hit with
 budget cuts?Perhaps the reason that edu-cation is not a high priority for many lawmakers, is that the
 benets are not readily apparent;There is no instant gratication,
and no immediate return on in-vesting in educating others.What many don’t realize,includ-ing mostrepubli-cans in theCaliforniaassembly,is that bud-get cuts tocommunitycollegeswould ul-timatelyharm the state in the long term.Los Angeles City College, oneof the 108 community collegesin California serves thousandsof students and allows them theopportunity to gain needed skillsto contribute to California’s jobmarket.The state needs individualssuch as artists, writers, engi-neers and teachers to contributetheir talents to California. The
Los Angeles lm industry is a
 prime example of innovation di-rectly contributing to California’seconomy. While not all of Hol-lywood’s talent originates fromour education system, many writ-ers, directors, actors, and others,have graduated from such publicuniversities like UCLA and U.C.Berkeley.Education contributes direct-ly to the economy by providingcritical thinkers who could helpsolve many of the state's prob-lems, including the budget crisis.
It takes engineers to x our crum
- bling roads and bridges, teachersto train the next generation, andCEOs such as Eric Schmidt of Google, who graduated from UCBerkeley, to keep our state on thecutting edge of technology anddevelopment.California’s access to the pool of innovators provided bythe publiceducationsystemwould begreatly di-minished,if cuts toeducation becamea perma-
nent x
-ture inany budget negotiation.Jack Scott, the chancellor of the California Community Col-leges, advocates the vital role thatthe community college system plays in our economy.During an Oct. 27 visit toLACC last year, Scott called theCalifornia community collegesystem an essential part of Cali-fornia’s economy.“Education is an investment,not a cost. For every one dollar invested, the state gets back threefrom the earning power of theseindividuals who are successfulin our community colleges ... thefuture of our state economy andeven the California dream aretied to those who enter and com- plete their college education,” theChancellor said.Those in Sacramento shouldheed Scott’s views; Californiacan no longer afford to ignore it.
Lawmakers Finallypass a Budget
“Many years ago, the stallswere taken off in the men’srestroom and it can be doneagain if necessary,” 
“Education is an investment,not a cost. For every one dollar invested, the state gets back three from the earning power of theseindividuals who are successful inour community colleges...
”
“ The element of a cheer squad at LACC could bring lots of opportunities to students who were not there before, suchas a new physical outlet, motivation, and  scholarship possibilities to cheer for ateam at a top four-year college.
”
“I am a 23 year old, Los Angeles Caucasian native, and the only American dream my parents had for me is to get the best education their moneycould buy.
”
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