Collegian

MORE THAN $30,000 IN SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS

LOS ANGELES Los Angeles SEE PAGE 5 $ $
WEATHER FORECAST $

$
WEDNESDAY 81°/63°
81

$ $$
THURSDAY 84
84°/64°

$
FRIDAY 80
80°/63°

$
SATURDAY 78
78°/63°
$
SUNDAY 78
78°/62°
Wednesday, September 19, 2018 Volume 181 Number 1 The Voice of Los Angeles City College Since 1929

GOING, GOING, 85%

of incoming community college
NEWS BRIEFS students arrive unprepared for

GONE
college level work in math.

70%
BY TRISSEAN MCDONALD

Transfer Day to Bring of students arrive unprepared

Recruiters to Campus for college -level English
Jump-start your transfer

40%
by meeting admissions
representatives from prestigious
colleges and universities like of students go on to complete
Loyola Marymount University, a degree, certificate or transfer
Pepperdine University, Otis in six years.
College of Art and Design and
Syracuse University.
Nearly 50 colleges will be Sources: the Student Success Scorecard and the California Community
available to chat with students Colleges Chancellor’s Office
from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m on

Placement Tests, Remedial Courses Under the Knife

Thursday, Sept. 27 on the Quad
next to Student Services.

Join Game Show, Win Big

Do you want a chance to win
cash, exotic vacations, cool
electronics, the latest fashions
and possibly even a car?
Your chance is here, because
FremantleMedia is casting college
students and professors to join
special college tapings for popular
game shows like “Family Feud”,
“The Price is Right” and “Let’s
Starting fall 2019, students have the right to
enroll directly into transfer level courses for
both math and English. Placement testing will
be a thing of the past.
In its place will be non credit ‘supplemental”
courses, embedded tutoring and other
classes.
“voluntary.”
In the latest quest to ensure student success, lawmakers
have crunched the numbers and created Assembly Bill 705
(AB 705). They concluded that a student’s high school GPA
can be a better predictor of success in college than assess-
ment tests. Authors of the bill say it will speed up the trans-
fer and graduation rate.
Gov. Jerry Brown approved AB 705 in October 2017. Au-
thors of the legislation say this will help fast track students
who are enrolled in 114 community colleges in California.
An April 2016 study from Multiple Measure Assessment
Project (MMAP) hints at problems for certain populations.
The study showed only a small percentage of students of
color enrolled in transferable courses. Data also suggest a
large percentage of international students or students en-
rolled in English as a second language are people of color.
According to the Student Success Scorecard, 70 percent
of students who enroll directly into college level courses
transfer or graduate. Only 40 percent of students go on to
complete a degree, certificate or transfer in six years.

Make a Deal.” Apply online at
Fremantlecasting.com or call 818-
666-3606 for more information.
Explore Campus Life at Club
Rush
Phi Theta Kappa, LACC
Literature Society, Chemistry
Club, LACC Astronomy Club,
Ladies First and Martin Luther
King Jr. Law Society are just a
few of the campus clubs that will
recruit new members.
Associated Student
Government (ASG) will host the
M
BY TANYA FLOWERS AND MELISSA CRUMBY
ore than 150 math and English
basic skills courses populate
the online class schedule for fall
semester. Next year, it will be a
different story.
California community col-
leges across the state are saying
goodbye to assessment testing.
By fall 2019, courses like “Math
110,” “Math 121,” “English 28,” “English 67” and “English 97”
will no longer be offered for credit. These courses will be
Their data show many students tested into remedial cours-
es and dropped out before they ever enrolled in a transfer-
able course.
“The spirit of this law is about one really leaning into stu-
dents’ capacity and if the students are eager to learn, our
job is to really develop the traditions that will support them
best,” said Laura Hope the executive vice chancellor for ed-
ucational services and support from the academic affairs
office at California community colleges chancellor’s office.
“And then secondary, we need to rethink the way we are ap-
proaching developmental education, so that if a student has
a learning gap, like not knowing how to multiply a fraction
we need to get that to you just in time, rather than making
you take a whole course.”
“The intent of [AB] 705 is that you are able to get out of
math and English in a year,” said Vice President of Academ-
ic Affairs Dan Walden. “Instead of coming in and having to
take four or five math courses, you only at most have to take
two. But you wouldn’t even have to take it. You have the op-
tion to go directly into [math] 227 and while taking 227 you
can take 158. And in one semester you get out.”
Across community colleges in California,170,000 stu-
dents enroll in remedial math a year and 110,000 drop out.
Some educators say there is a correlation between the skills
acquired in high school and success at the college level.
SEE “AB 705” PAGE 6

CHEMISTRY 3 CEILING SEALED

event from Sept. 24 – 26 on the
Quad.

Man Flashes Student during

Summer Session
Los Angeles County Sheriffs are
seeking information about a man
suspected of exposing himself to
a female student who was waiting
for a class to begin in a Franklin
Hall classroom on Thursday, July
19 at 5:20 p.m.
The suspect then ran out of the
building. The man is described
as a Hispanic male, 6 feet tall,
190 pounds, with short curly or
wavy hair.
He has a beard and a mustache
and appears to be 27 to 30 years
of age, according to a special
bulletin from the L.A. County
Sheriffs. If you have more
information about the incident,
please call (323) 953-4005.
Students Save with Free
Software Downloads
Currently enrolled students are
eligible to download free software
from LACC. Microsoft Office 2016
OFF FROM SQUATTERS
BY MATTHEW ALI a point where I don’t know some-
thing should be done it shouldn’t
Chemistry 3 may have someone get to that point, right?”
or something living above the heads LACC Sheriffs are currently
of students in the photography de- conducting an investigation to
partment’s lecture hall. Unless Spi- get to the bottom of the issue. Al-
der-man is registered for classes though there is definite concern,
on campus, foot prints ascending a the sheriff ’s department seems to
classroom wall are unusual. have a plan of action.
Maintenance workers and cam-
pus sheriffs have taken steps to
ensure who or, according to sher- “THE SUB-
iffs a possible, whatever has been
CONTRACTORS ...
squatting between the basement
and first floor of Chemistry 3 no
longer has access to that area.
The back wall of Chemistry 3
SUSPECTED THAT
had about 4 feet of foot prints that
scaled the wall up to an opening in
THERE WAS A
the ceiling where a panel is miss-
ing and the upper area was ex-
PERSON OR PERSONS
PHOTO BY TANYA FLOWERS/COLLEGIAN posed. Someone potentially could
have used this as an access point
THAT WAS SLEEPING
Collegian staffers pull up Grad Guru on their smartphones. The app is intended to help students keep track
of academic deadlines, financial aid and college transfer requirements. to break into other rooms and of-
fices in the Chemistry Building. IN THE CEILING OF
“I found out this week from the
THE LECTURE HALL IN
STAY ON TRACK: sub-contractors that are working
in the Chemistry Building to give
us Wi-Fi access that they suspected CHEMISTRY 3.”

There’s an App for That

365 Suite, Mathematica, and Read
& Write Gold are supplemental
learning materials that help
students with producing work,
writing and math.
Students may visit LACC’s
website and click on the “For
Students” tab for download. Be
sure to have your @student.laccd.
edu or @faculty.laccd.edu email
address to access downloads.
BY NICK MORELAND
Hidden among the now mil-
lions of IPhone and Android apps
is one made specifically to help
you stay on track and meet cru-
cial deadlines in your academic
with a smart phone. Everything
you need to know about what’s
happening at L.A City College is
presented on this app.  Deadlines,
news, tips, reminders, even re-
wards for attendance and grade
point average. These are just some
ly surveyed, only three had even
heard of Gradguru.  Only two had
actually downloaded and used it
among the three. Turns out that
of the roughly 20,000 students en-
rolled at L.A. City College less than
500 have downloaded Gradgu-
that there was a person or persons
that was sleeping in the ceiling of
the lecture hall in Chemistry 3 and
the evidence was that there were
footprints on the wall of people go-
ing in and out,” said Daniel Marlos,
vice-chair visual and media arts.
“It’s kind of circumstantial evi-
dence that we have, I don’t know
that anybody has actually seen
anybody in the ceiling but there’s
a lot of room between floors here.
It is theoretically a place where
-DANIEL MARLOS, VICE-CHAIR
VISUAL AND MEDIA ARTS
“At this point we’re still trying to
determine exactly what was going
on in the Chemistry Building, but
it was reported to us last week that
they heard sounds either like in
the air conditioning vent or on the
roof,” said L.A. County Sheriff ’s
Department Deputy, Ryan Rou-

INDEX
career.  And the chances are, you
probably don’t even know about it.
As of the first quarter of 2018,
Android users have roughly 3.8
Opinion & Editorial 2-3 million apps to choose from and
Apple users about 2 million.   It’s
Campus Life 4 no wonder some apps may fall
through the cracks.
Scholarships 5 LACC became one of the many
community colleges to provide the
News 6-7
Gradguru app to its students this
Sports 8 fall semester.   This useful tool is
free and available to any student
of the features of Gradguru. Too
bad it’s underutilized.
The college sent out a newslet-
ter informing students of useful
resources available to them a few
weeks before the fall semester of-
ficially started.   Included on this
list was the app Gradguru yet
few seem to have seen that email.
There’s also a banner on the LACC
website promoting the app, but
that didn’t do the trick either.
Of the 53 students informal-
ru.  That’s less than three percent.
These are truly unfortunately
statistics since the app does have
much to offer.
Freshman Japanese and theater
major Kelesa Higgins was one of
the two that who had used Grad-
guru.   She said she heard about
it from the newsletter that the
school sent out.
SEE “HIGHER EDUCATION” PAGE 7
someone can squat.”
Students seem uneasy at the
thought of someone living above
their heads while they are learn-
ing. Some are concerned for the
safety of whoever may be up there
and are sympathetic to the plight
of possible squatters.
“I think it’s just like upscaling
the fact that we do have … a home-
less problem,” said Cassandra
Munoz, an art major. “I feel like
it’s just gonna keep escalating to
zan. “At this point we have con-
tacted facilities. [They are] gonna
try to make it sealed and secured a
little bit better regardless of what
it is and then the sheriff ’s depart-
ment is going to up our patrols
over there to ensure that it’s not
people that are going in there and
at this point that’s all we know.”
Campus sheriffs still do not seem
entirely convinced of it being an ac-
tual person who is living up there.
Their investigation is ongoing.