spring 2009, edition 5
DESCRIPTION
The April 14 edition of the Student Voice.TRANSCRIPT
Hannah CoyleStaff writer
More than $24,000 is available to students though the Moorpark scholarship office, all with one application and workshops.
The workshops will give advice on how to write a winning per-sonal essay, obtaining good letters of recommendation, the impor-tance of volunteer work as well as other helpful advice for making education more affordable.
Also at the scholarship office is the Moorpark Foundation Schol-arship Program, which has more than 40 scholarships available with only one application. The application, which is due April 16, requires a personal statement, one letter of recommendation, and an un-official transcript.
The scholarship workshops will be run in a conversational and personalized setting, orga-nized and run by Margaret Ra-mos, the head of MC’s scholar-ship office.
Because the essay is such a vital factor in the application process, Ramos stressed the fact that the essay has to stand out by showing who you are and be-ing something that will catch the donor’s eye.
“If it’s going to be difficult to read they are going to throw it out. Show passion–it’s especially important with scholarships,” said Ramos.
At Moorpark’s scholarships office students can sign up for a free newsletter email as well as individualized help with scholarship plans.
Ashleigh Norman, fine arts major, who plans on transferring to UCLA, thinks the scholarship office is a great benefit to students.
“It’s great, it’s awesome and always friendly. I go there because I need someone to tell me what to do,” said Norman.
Moorpark also offers a unique honors program, which offers stu-dents priority to many prestigious colleges and universities. And it can also prepare students for transferring into another college.
“You take honors classes and they are actually a better class,” says Ramos. “They are more challenging and better prepare you to transfer.”
One of the important parts of receiving a scholarship is the essay, which Ramos says is the key part to winning a scholarship from a donor.
“The donors get to know you through your statement–you want something personal,” said Ramos. Volunteer work is also an impor-tant to show who you are to the donor.
“The office is very good, they had a lot more than I expected.” Says a satisfied Nick Fabry, an Engineering student at Moorpark.
For more information, visit the scholarship office in the Admin building or call (805) 378-1418.
ScholarShip workShopS, deadlineS faSt approaching
Drunk driving seminar draws VC crowd
Franz Tinio-LopezOC Bureau editor
Oxnard College held a semi-nar to help counselors and staff learn to meet the needs of vet-
erans and military service mem-bers.
Members of the counseling departments of Ventura County Community College District were invited to an orientation on the Ventura Soldiers Project at room LA-19. With the expected influx of returning combat vet-erans to college campuses, the project plans to raise awareness
of the peculiar needs of the stu-dents and their families.
Recently, the GI Bill which allows funding for school for vet-erans and active-duty military, has allowed for more money to pay for college.
Coordinators for the Soldiers Project Carol Tanenbaum, Judith Broder and Yasmin Attar where all on hand to instruct the nearly
40 counselors that attended the seminar.
Broder says the main goal of Soldiers Project is to provide free and confidential counsel-ing to veterans and their family members, as well as active duty service members.
See GI BILL on page 3
Returning military will have more college options
Ken McWaidStaff writer
In a packed Ventura College classroom, students listened at-
tentively while a former addict explained how drug addiction destroyed his life and hurt his family and loved ones.
Outside, beneath a row of
trees, booths lined up, filled with information on addiction and substance abuse.
Beer cups strung from branch to branch, each differently col-ored, and on those cups were names of those caught in the vi-cious cycle of drug and alcohol addiction. One color in particu-lar, red represented those who have died due to substance abuse or driving under the influence.
Michael Jaurez, a former meth addict, discussed the real life affects of addiction.
“Sobriety is beautiful, but not the first year,” Jaurez said. “You have to disassociate from what is essentially your life.”
See THNK on page 5
Photos by Randy PhenningTouch ups–Wanda Buczkowsi, above, works on a mural in the LMC building at Moorpark College. What started off as a simple design contest for science students has turned into an ongoing project for art students and faculty. Since 2006, art instructors have collaborated with science faculty to produce a dynamic landscape picture representation of science fields that include anthropology, anatomy, micro-biology, marine-biology and bio-technology. Art instructor Erika Lizee, who is now in charge of assigning students to certain sections of the mural, appreciates the frequent input of science instructors who teach upstairs in the LMC building, where the mural is located. The Mural spans a wall that is 142 ft., 6 in. long and 8 ft. high. “We want to make sure that everything is accurate and representative of what they feel is essen-tial in those areas,” Lizee says. “It’s great to have the technical expertise of the science faculty.” Students in Lizee’s art classes take one semester to focus on the design of the wall, and the other half to contribute to it. A different perspective, below, of the mural.
OC hosts seminar on veterans issues
District student governments lobby in Washington, D.C. for school issues
Photo courtesy Johnny Garcia-Vasquez
From staff reports
The associated student gov-ernments of Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura Colleges took the fight for better education fund-ing to Washington D.C. in a grassroots lobbying campaign last week.
The Legislation Conference, or LegCon, invited student gov-ernments to lobby their local Congressional representatives to support affordable college edu-cation and other issues affecting
community colleges.Moorpark College AS Presi-
dent Sara Yakhi said the confer-ence went well, meeting with Senators Diane Feinstein, Barba-ra Boxer, representatives of Con-rgressman Elton Gallegly and others.
“Elton Gallegly is a republi-can, so he isn’t always in favor of education,” Yakhi said. “Overall, I think the conference was amaz-ing. They had a great lineup of speakers. I was really impressed with Jillian Biden, the secretary
of education and Ralph Nader.”Oxnard College AS President
Johnny Garcia-Vasquez and his board met with Congresswoman Lois Capps, as well as Feinstein.
Both presidents agreed that the Republican party was a tough lobby in DC.
Vasquez said, “The Republic Party needs to understand that students who graduate with the knowledge obtain from a higher education can help improve the countries economy by entering stable jobs in the work field.”
RepResenT–The Oxnard College Associated Students met with Congreswoman Lois Capps during the Legislative Conference in Washing-ton, D.C. last week. All three schools were in D.C. lobbying for community colleges.
–Foundation
ScholarShip–>
$24,000available
deadline
april 16applicationS
1
Greek comedy iSactually Funny
Story paGe 7
Greek comedy iSactually Funny
Story paGe 7
Science and the artS collide
vc and mc throw
down in
extra inninG
Story paGe 8
vc and mc throw
down in
extra inninG
Story paGe 8
Courtesy MADD
William DerrickVC Bureau writer
Snails, camping, musical in-struments, an obstacle course and many other activities taught children who attended Family Fun Day at the Child Develop-ment Center on March 22.
The event was held in cel-ebration of National Week of the Young Child.
Much of Fun Day is to en-courage children who attend the center and other youngsters who just went to the event to play.
But the event is not just for playtime. The VC students who work at the center are responsible for making observations of the activities while the event takes place.
This year’s attendance was smaller than those of years past due to heavy winds with chilly temperatures.
“Considering the weather, we are happy with the turnout,” said Robin Douglas, the center’s supervisor.
The center raised $620 with the event. All profits will go to-ward new playground equip-ment, as well as supplies for the center, Douglas said.
The center does not receive general funding through the state which makes it tough to keep supplies stocked, Douglas said. With the economy in rough shape, many parents are having a hard time paying for their chil-dren to attend the Child Develop-ment Center; that is also hurting the funding, Douglas said, add-ing that events like Family Fun Day make the Development Cen-ter function on a daily basis.
For more information on the Child Development Center con-tact Robin Douglas at (805) 648-8930.
Ventura College2Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
Children, students learn from each other
VC Bureau writers
The best lawns in the Ventura County educational system are at risk, according to Jerry Chilcott, Ventura College locksmith.
The fiscal belt-tightening go-ing on in the rest of the county has spread to the landscaping and maintenance workers at Ven-tura College.
“We’re spread real thin,” Chilcott said.
Over the past year the Main-tenance and Operations Depart-ment has experienced staff cuts that have almost halved the num-ber of employees.
Currently there are two su-
pervisors, two general mainte-nance workers, one plumber and one locksmith to deal with the 112-acre campus.
Most of the employees are doing jobs that are outside of their area of expertise due to the staff shortages, said Martin Mar-tello, 46, a Ventura College me-chanic who also cuts the lawns on a riding lawnmower.
Equipment upkeep is also expensive, such as the $4,000 pair of brakes needed for the campus utility tractor.
The Maintenance and Opera-tions office is responsible for the general upkeep of the campus in its many forms: maintaining elec-
trical wiring, fixing pipes, cutting the lawns, repairing vehicles, tak-ing care of trash and removing the ever-present graffiti.
Even with the increase in workload, many employees have high spirits.
“This is a great campus,” said Martello. “I get good hours and the college is rich in tradi-tion. It’s the best college in Ven-tura County.”
But there is more to keeping the campus green than just trim-ming the hedges.
“Ventura College is trying to do green initiatives, such as finding plants that are native to this area that tend not to need as
much water,” said David Keebler, VC’s vice president of business services, and “ trying new en-ergy management, recycling, waste management and water management.”
That means a little more work out of the maintenance and operations staff.
At least one student hasn’t seen any changes in the appear-ance of the campus.
“I haven’t noticed anything different,” said Ben Sayet, 18. “Everything’s fine right now.”
-Tyler Miller, Ara Ortiz, Shawn McKenzie, Eric Perez and
Rachel Clafflan
Alia TsangVC Bureau writer
Members of Ventura’s Bahá’i community completed their month of fasting last week.
Observers abstained from food and drink from sunup to sundown starting March 2 and ending on the spring equinox, which was March 20 this year.
Bahá’is with health problems, pregnancies and other complica-tions are excused from fasting.
Bryce Adolphson, 26, a vi-sual journalism major at Brooks Institute, said that the fast helps build fortitude and character and prepares Bahá’is spiritually and physically for the coming year.
“[It] helps you understand you can get through things, like physical discomfort.”
0The end of the fast is the Bahá’i New Year, or Naw Ruz, which bahai-library.org calls one of nine holy days in the year. It
is generally celebrated by gather-ing together for a feast after sun-down on the last day of the fast. Adolphson said feasts are held every 19 days and can include a shared meal, prayer, socialization and dancing.
Cliff Vigé, assistant secretary of Ventura’s Local Spiritual As-sembly, said that there are about 50 adult Bahá’is in Ventura and close to 550 in Ventura County. The Ventura Local Spiritual As-sembly has been active since 1960 and was the first in the county.
Adolphson said there are no clergy in the Baha’i faith. Baha’i officials, such as the officers in the Local Spiritual Assemblies, the Bahá’i faith’s smallest unit of organization, are seen more as administrators. Dietrick de-scribed their role as facilitating discussion rather than declaring rules. Both said that one of the main focuses of the Bahá’i faith is community building.
Maintenence department ‘tightens the belt’
Fun through learning–From front to back, Golnaz Kamali, 4, Fiona Cross, 4, and friend Lila play at the camping role-play activity during Family Fun Day at the Ventura College Child Development Center March 22.
Photo by William Derrick
Bahá’i membersend month of fasting
William DerrickVC Bureau writer
Snails, camping, musical in-struments, an obstacle course and many other activities taught children who attended Family Fun Day at the Child Develop-ment Center on March 22.
The event was held in cel-ebration of National Week of the Young Child.
Much of Fun Day is to en-courage children who attend the center and other youngsters who just went to the event to play.
But the event is not just for playtime. The VC students who work at the center are responsible for making observations of the activities while the event takes place.
This year’s attendance was smaller than those of years past due to heavy winds with chilly temperatures.
“Considering the weather, we are happy with the turnout,” said Robin Douglas, the center’s supervisor.
The center raised $620 with the event. All profits will go to-ward new playground equip-ment, as well as supplies for the center, Douglas said.
The center does not receive general funding through the state which makes it tough to keep supplies stocked, Douglas said. With the economy in rough shape, many parents are having a hard time paying for their chil-dren to attend the Child Develop-ment Center; that is also hurting the funding, Douglas said, add-ing that events like Family Fun Day make the Development Cen-ter function on a daily basis.
For more information on the Child Development Center con-tact Robin Douglas at (805) 648-8930.
Ventura College2Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
Children, students learn from each other
VC Bureau writers
The best lawns in the Ventura County educational system are at risk, according to Jerry Chilcott, Ventura College locksmith.
The fiscal belt-tightening go-ing on in the rest of the county has spread to the landscaping and maintenance workers at Ven-tura College.
“We’re spread real thin,” Chilcott said.
Over the past year the Main-tenance and Operations Depart-ment has experienced staff cuts that have almost halved the num-ber of employees.
Currently there are two su-
pervisors, two general mainte-nance workers, one plumber and one locksmith to deal with the 112-acre campus.
Most of the employees are doing jobs that are outside of their area of expertise due to the staff shortages, said Martin Mar-tello, 46, a Ventura College me-chanic who also cuts the lawns on a riding lawnmower.
Equipment upkeep is also expensive, such as the $4,000 pair of brakes needed for the campus utility tractor.
The Maintenance and Opera-tions office is responsible for the general upkeep of the campus in its many forms: maintaining elec-
trical wiring, fixing pipes, cutting the lawns, repairing vehicles, tak-ing care of trash and removing the ever-present graffiti.
Even with the increase in workload, many employees have high spirits.
“This is a great campus,” said Martello. “I get good hours and the college is rich in tradi-tion. It’s the best college in Ven-tura County.”
But there is more to keeping the campus green than just trim-ming the hedges.
“Ventura College is trying to do green initiatives, such as finding plants that are native to this area that tend not to need as
much water,” said David Keebler, VC’s vice president of business services, and “ trying new en-ergy management, recycling, waste management and water management.”
That means a little more work out of the maintenance and operations staff.
At least one student hasn’t seen any changes in the appear-ance of the campus.
“I haven’t noticed anything different,” said Ben Sayet, 18. “Everything’s fine right now.”
-Tyler Miller, Ara Ortiz, Shawn McKenzie, Eric Perez and
Rachel Clafflan
Alia TsangVC Bureau writer
Members of Ventura’s Bahá’i community completed their month of fasting last week.
Observers abstained from food and drink from sunup to sundown starting March 2 and ending on the spring equinox, which was March 20 this year.
Bahá’is with health problems, pregnancies and other complica-tions are excused from fasting.
Bryce Adolphson, 26, a vi-sual journalism major at Brooks Institute, said that the fast helps build fortitude and character and prepares Bahá’is spiritually and physically for the coming year.
“[It] helps you understand you can get through things, like physical discomfort.”
0The end of the fast is the Bahá’i New Year, or Naw Ruz, which bahai-library.org calls one of nine holy days in the year. It
is generally celebrated by gather-ing together for a feast after sun-down on the last day of the fast. Adolphson said feasts are held every 19 days and can include a shared meal, prayer, socialization and dancing.
Cliff Vigé, assistant secretary of Ventura’s Local Spiritual As-sembly, said that there are about 50 adult Bahá’is in Ventura and close to 550 in Ventura County. The Ventura Local Spiritual As-sembly has been active since 1960 and was the first in the county.
Adolphson said there are no clergy in the Baha’i faith. Baha’i officials, such as the officers in the Local Spiritual Assemblies, the Bahá’i faith’s smallest unit of organization, are seen more as administrators. Dietrick de-scribed their role as facilitating discussion rather than declaring rules. Both said that one of the main focuses of the Bahá’i faith is community building.
Maintenence department ‘tightens the belt’
Fun through learning–From front to back, Golnaz Kamali, 4, Fiona Cross, 4, and friend Lila play at the camping role-play activity during Family Fun Day at the Ventura College Child Development Center March 22.
Photo by William Derrick
Bahá’i membersend month of fasting
Oxnard College 3Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
Ventura County Community College District
CALL FOR CANDIDATES
2009-10STUDENT ELECTIONS
Associated Students
Elected Positions at MC, OC and VC
VCCCD Student Trustee
Represent students District-wide
orRun forRun for
Hannah DaveyStaff writer
With the women’s skirts flowing and the men leading their partners in a fluid hypnotic motion, the Ballet Folklorico Mes-tizo de Oxnard College preserves traditions of Mexico through mu-sic and dance.
On Sunday, April 5, the Bal-let will help celebrate local La-tino artists at the 16th Annual De Colores Art Show and Festival in
Ventura.The festival was established
by Chicano musician and artist Xavier Montes to honor the work of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and their contributions to the Latino community.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Montes. “We have a nice gal-lery in one of the most beautiful areas around. To have a tropical place like the Mexican Coast is ideal.”
“It’s very exciting, it’s always
been a great activity for us,” said Sanchez. “We’ll be dancing with the ocean as our backdrop.
“It will be beautiful.”The 16th Annual De Colores
Art Show and Festival will be held on April 5 from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Artists Union Gallery at 330 South California Street.
The festival will be on the California Street Plaza and Prom-enade just outside the Gallery.
The Ballet Folklorico Mestizo
de Oxnard College will be danc-ing traditional folkdances from the Mexican states of Jalisco and Veracruz at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.
However, if you miss their performance at the De Colores Art Show and Festival , they will be dancing 24 different numbers from six regions in Mexico at their Spring Dance Concert on April 24 and 25 at The Forum (LA-6) at Oxnard College.
Photo Courtesy of Mati SanchezDance– Vanessa Calderon and Sal Vasquez dance in the Ballet Folklorico Mestizo de Oxnard College at De Colores Art Festival in Santa Paula.
Folklorico to perform at art festival
Former OC dean honored by facultyMathew CliftStaff writer
After 29 years of service to the Ventura County Community College District, Oxnard College will honor the memory of Cheryl Shearer.
On April 1, at 9:00 a.m. near the Letters and Science Clock Tower building, staff and stu-dents alike will hold a memorial for Shearer, who passed away July 15, 2008 after battling ovar-ian cancer.
She was one of the founding faculty members of Oxnard Col-lege, joining during the 1975-1976 academic year and working until her retirement in 2005.
Shearer had served as a dean of business, technology, public services, and health occupations at Oxnard College, as well as having been in charge of the cu-
linary program, dental hygiene program and business services.
“She was always very dedi-cated to the students,” said Mary Jones of the Student Health Cen-ter, who organized the memo-rial. Jones was a long-time friend of Shearer, knew her before she started working at Oxnard Col-lege, and attended as well as spoke at her funeral.
After being diagnosed, Shearer continued to go to work while dealing with chemothera-py treatments.
Jones commented that it was surprising to be able to fund the memorial entirely from volun-tary contributions, a testament to Shearer’s impact on the campus.
President of Oxnard College Richard Duran will be there to say a few words as well as any-one who wishes to do so.
GI BILL: Soldier’s aidContinued from page 1
Tanenbaum joined the or-ganization, which is a program of the Ernest Lawrence Trauma Center of the Los Angeles In-stitute and Society for Psycho-analytic Studies, four years ago after having her eyes opened thanks to a theater production called “The Sandstorm.”
“So I joined up with Dr. Judith Broder, and we are now 150 psychotherapists through-out Southern California,” said Tanenbaum.
Many of the veterans and active serving military members are able to attend thanks to the GI bill, a measure put in place to ensure that ensures them at least 36 months of education benefits.
Attar, who is a social psy-
chologist, felt that the seminar matched her expectations.
“I feel it was very successful in answering the questions and issues around a veteran coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan, and also helped us learn what to do next,” said Attar.
The orientation was present-ed by the OC Organizational and Professional Development office to let the counselors, faculty and staff know the injuries of the veterans may not be visible, and some behavior patterns are a re-sult of TBI that may cause them difficulty in their classes.
The presenters included George Compton of Ventura County Veterans Services Office who repeated that there are ser-vices available for the veterans to help them recover and go on with their lives.
Moorpark College4Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
“Night Before Nationals” to demonstrate team’s award winning skillsTravis PerkinsStaff writer
Champions again for the sixth time, the Moorpark Col-lege forensic team won the state championship last weekend and will be presenting the annual fundraising showcase “Night before Nationals” tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the PAC.
The showcase will be an ex-position of the team’s speech and argument skills. At the beginning of each exposition, one of the team members will come out and explain what each event is.
“We’re still deciding on the acts, but all of them will have
won something in the state cham-pionship,” said Rolland Petrello, the longtime coach for the team. “Right afterward, we’re heading
to the national championship.”At the state championship,
Moorpark won with 342.5 points to Orange Coast College’s 275.
Taking home the Outstanding Speaker Award by winning four gold medals in the state was Moorpark College’s own Justin Harris. All 16 of the team’s mem-bers won medals in the competi-tion.
Harris won the gold medals in the parliamentary debate with his partner, Chris Maciel, Lincoln Douglas, extemporaneous and Impromptu Speech. He will be demonstrating extemporaneous speaking at the showcase.
“Students should attend to see a showcase that will display a wide variety of talent,” said Har-ris. “There might be something there that will interest them and if not, their supporting their fel-low students.”
The Forensics team has been to the nationals 37 times, and has been the champions eight times over.
Tickets are $8 at the box of-fice, which may be contacted at 805-378-1485.
Ryan KrebsNews editor
The Career and Transfer Center has found a new home in Fountain Hall.
Fountain Hall’s classrooms will soon be moved into the new academic center currently under construction near the library, and Fountain Hall will become main-ly student service offices.
The Career and Transfer Center is the first department to move from the Administration building to Fountain Hall, ac-cording to Career Education Spe-cialist Karen DuBois, who said she is excited for the move.
“We want to be here at the new hub of student services,” said DuBois. “It’s all in the fu-ture, but we, the pioneers, are here now.”
This will be the second time that Fountain Hall, the former li-brary, has been renovated.
The old library was renamed Fountain Hall and opened for classes in Fall 2007.
The spacious center offers students the opportunity to ob-tain information on jobs and transferring. Catalogs from many colleges and universities line the center’s bookshelves, which are packed with job fliers on top.
The brochures range from job opportunities with the Coast Guard to opportunities at Six Flags. A plethora of flyers are available which detail the trans-fer process as well. Career and Transfer Center coordinator Judi
Gould says that the relocation of the center
was not only in the bricks-and-mortar fashion, as the center is now able to post jobs and intern-ships online. Gould also has new plans for the center.
“We are in the process of having a transfer honor wall, to celebrate transferring students,” Gould said. “We will also be holding a Transfer Social on May 2.” Gould and DuBois encourage students to stop by at the new center, which opened March 23. They said that anyone is more than welcome to use the center’s computers, and that they can help students find a job.
The center is located in Foun-tain Hall 110, and it is open from 8 a.m. through 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays. Differ-ent hours will apply during the summer semester.
For more information on the switch, contact the Career and Transfer Center by phone at (805) 378-1536.
Debate takes state–Moorpark’s debate team won the state forensics competition and will travel to the national championships in Portland, Oreg. this month.
MC Forensics team crowned state champs
Career and Transfer center moves over to Fountain Hall
Schmootourscounty
Photo by Randy PhenningRelocation-The Career amd Transfer Center has moved to Fountain Hall. The move is part of a gradual process of converting Fountain Hall class rooms to ad-ministrative departments that formerly occupied the admin building.
Hannah CoyleStaff writer
One of EATM’s stars went on tour last week to Ventura to perform for area elementary and middle school students.
Moorpark College Zoo’s sea lion, Schmoo, balanced a ball on her nose and barked on command, delighting a group of sixth-graders at the Channel Islands Marina on March 20, giv-ing them an up close and person-al view of ocean life in promotion of the Exotic Animal Training and Management’s (EATM) Spring Spectacular.
Schmoo showed off dozens of tricks, or in EATM terms, “be-haviors” as she performed for the students.
Schmoo’s performances in-cluded balancing the ball on her nose, clapping, barking, and of course, posing for the camera, all of which received lots of ap-plause.
The students from Oxnard’s Haycock School listened intently to EATM trainers who described sea lion behavior at the marina as they readied for their boat trip out to Santa Cruz Island.
Schmoo, the 31-year-old female California sea lion, has quite a story on how she came to the zoo, said Gary Wilson, Direc-tor of the Marine Department at EATM.
“Schmoo has been with us since she was a baby,” Wilson said. “She came to us because she didn’t learn how to hunt. She came up on the beach, basically starving to death.”
The Moorpark College Zoo took her in and now she has be-come a special member, being the only marine mammal that pro-vides EATM the opportunity for vital experience with ocean ani-mals. Kelly Folkdedahl, a second
year student at EATM says that Schmoo is a definite favorite.
“She’s the only marine mam-mal and a lot of people want to be marine mammal trainers,” Folkdedahl said. “They want to go off and work for organiza-tions, work with dolphins and sea lions.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to work with her to gain that experience.”
Schmoo went to the ma-rina not only to bring a fun and unique slice of educational enter-tainment to the students, but to promote the Spring Spectacular.
The children who saw Schmoo were a part of a program called Bay Water Shed Educa-tion and Training that provides for students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade tthe opportunity to learn about the islands firsthand, said Cataharine Reznicek, the Education Technology Specialist for the Ventura County Office of Education.
“What we do is provide students with an opportunity to learn about the islands in the classroom and then go out and visit them,” Reznicek said. “The kids love, love, love it! They are excited-most of them have never been on a boat before so this is their first opportunity and they love it.”
Photo by Hannah Coyleschmoo’s show–Schmoo the sea lion performs for a rapt audience at the Channel Islands Marina on March 20.
Photo courtesy of Rolland Petrello
Moorpark College4Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
“Night Before Nationals” to demonstrate team’s award winning skillsTravis PerkinsStaff writer
Champions again for the sixth time, the Moorpark Col-lege forensic team won the state championship last weekend and will be presenting the annual fundraising showcase “Night before Nationals” tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the PAC.
The showcase will be an ex-position of the team’s speech and argument skills. At the beginning of each exposition, one of the team members will come out and explain what each event is.
“We’re still deciding on the acts, but all of them will have
won something in the state cham-pionship,” said Rolland Petrello, the longtime coach for the team. “Right afterward, we’re heading
to the national championship.”At the state championship,
Moorpark won with 342.5 points to Orange Coast College’s 275.
Taking home the Outstanding Speaker Award by winning four gold medals in the state was Moorpark College’s own Justin Harris. All 16 of the team’s mem-bers won medals in the competi-tion.
Harris won the gold medals in the parliamentary debate with his partner, Chris Maciel, Lincoln Douglas, extemporaneous and Impromptu Speech. He will be demonstrating extemporaneous speaking at the showcase.
“Students should attend to see a showcase that will display a wide variety of talent,” said Har-ris. “There might be something there that will interest them and if not, their supporting their fel-low students.”
The Forensics team has been to the nationals 37 times, and has been the champions eight times over.
Tickets are $8 at the box of-fice, which may be contacted at 805-378-1485.
Ryan KrebsNews editor
The Career and Transfer Center has found a new home in Fountain Hall.
Fountain Hall’s classrooms will soon be moved into the new academic center currently under construction near the library, and Fountain Hall will become main-ly student service offices.
The Career and Transfer Center is the first department to move from the Administration building to Fountain Hall, ac-cording to Career Education Spe-cialist Karen DuBois, who said she is excited for the move.
“We want to be here at the new hub of student services,” said DuBois. “It’s all in the fu-ture, but we, the pioneers, are here now.”
This will be the second time that Fountain Hall, the former li-brary, has been renovated.
The old library was renamed Fountain Hall and opened for classes in Fall 2007.
The spacious center offers students the opportunity to ob-tain information on jobs and transferring. Catalogs from many colleges and universities line the center’s bookshelves, which are packed with job fliers on top.
The brochures range from job opportunities with the Coast Guard to opportunities at Six Flags. A plethora of flyers are available which detail the trans-fer process as well. Career and Transfer Center coordinator Judi
Gould says that the relocation of the center
was not only in the bricks-and-mortar fashion, as the center is now able to post jobs and intern-ships online. Gould also has new plans for the center.
“We are in the process of having a transfer honor wall, to celebrate transferring students,” Gould said. “We will also be holding a Transfer Social on May 2.” Gould and DuBois encourage students to stop by at the new center, which opened March 23. They said that anyone is more than welcome to use the center’s computers, and that they can help students find a job.
The center is located in Foun-tain Hall 110, and it is open from 8 a.m. through 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays. Differ-ent hours will apply during the summer semester.
For more information on the switch, contact the Career and Transfer Center by phone at (805) 378-1536.
Debate takes state–Moorpark’s debate team won the state forensics competition and will travel to the national championships in Portland, Oreg. this month.
MC Forensics team crowned state champs
Career and Transfer center moves over to Fountain Hall
Schmootourscounty
Photo by Randy PhenningRelocation-The Career amd Transfer Center has moved to Fountain Hall. The move is part of a gradual process of converting Fountain Hall class rooms to ad-ministrative departments that formerly occupied the admin building.
Hannah CoyleStaff writer
One of EATM’s stars went on tour last week to Ventura to perform for area elementary and middle school students.
Moorpark College Zoo’s sea lion, Schmoo, balanced a ball on her nose and barked on command, delighting a group of sixth-graders at the Channel Islands Marina on March 20, giv-ing them an up close and person-al view of ocean life in promotion of the Exotic Animal Training and Management’s (EATM) Spring Spectacular.
Schmoo showed off dozens of tricks, or in EATM terms, “be-haviors” as she performed for the students.
Schmoo’s performances in-cluded balancing the ball on her nose, clapping, barking, and of course, posing for the camera, all of which received lots of ap-plause.
The students from Oxnard’s Haycock School listened intently to EATM trainers who described sea lion behavior at the marina as they readied for their boat trip out to Santa Cruz Island.
Schmoo, the 31-year-old female California sea lion, has quite a story on how she came to the zoo, said Gary Wilson, Direc-tor of the Marine Department at EATM.
“Schmoo has been with us since she was a baby,” Wilson said. “She came to us because she didn’t learn how to hunt. She came up on the beach, basically starving to death.”
The Moorpark College Zoo took her in and now she has be-come a special member, being the only marine mammal that pro-vides EATM the opportunity for vital experience with ocean ani-mals. Kelly Folkdedahl, a second
year student at EATM says that Schmoo is a definite favorite.
“She’s the only marine mam-mal and a lot of people want to be marine mammal trainers,” Folkdedahl said. “They want to go off and work for organiza-tions, work with dolphins and sea lions.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to work with her to gain that experience.”
Schmoo went to the ma-rina not only to bring a fun and unique slice of educational enter-tainment to the students, but to promote the Spring Spectacular.
The children who saw Schmoo were a part of a program called Bay Water Shed Educa-tion and Training that provides for students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade tthe opportunity to learn about the islands firsthand, said Cataharine Reznicek, the Education Technology Specialist for the Ventura County Office of Education.
“What we do is provide students with an opportunity to learn about the islands in the classroom and then go out and visit them,” Reznicek said. “The kids love, love, love it! They are excited-most of them have never been on a boat before so this is their first opportunity and they love it.”
Photo by Hannah Coyleschmoo’s show–Schmoo the sea lion performs for a rapt audience at the Channel Islands Marina on March 20.
Photo courtesy of Rolland Petrello
News 5Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
Open University enables members of the community to take regular course offerings on a space-available basis without going through the formal admission process. Those enrolled in Open University attend regular day or evening credit courses, participate side-by-side with degree-seeking students, and enjoy the same intellectual challenges and rewards. Students may select from the hundreds of University classes offered in Summer 2009. Credits earned through Open
University can be applied to degree work and transferred to other Cal State universities.
Enhance your professional skills Prepare for a career change
Become more competitive in today’s job market Jump start your college career
Accelerate your move toward graduation Improve your grade-point average
Cost: $230 per lecture unit (most courses are 3 credits)
For more information, call The Tseng College, California State University, Northridge (818) 677–CSUN or visit our Web site: http://tsengcollege.csun.edu/openuni.html
Increase your competitive edge with easy access to
Cal State Northridge
Classes Begin Tuesday, May 26
SeSSioN DaTeSSession 1: May 26 – August 18Session 2: May 26 – July 7Session 3: July 8 – August 18
Registration Begins April 14.
Open University
Summer 2009
VCC_
StdV
oice
_1/2
pg.in
dd
POLICE BLOTTER
3/17/09 - 10 a.m.-An unknown suspect passed a coun-terfeit $20 bill at the Oxnard College Student Business Office. The suspect used the bill to pay for student fees. Employee did not have any suspect or witness information. Report tak-en.
3/17/09 - 1:30 p.m.-Petty theft of book from Moorpark College in parking lot A. Victim was sitting at the A-lot en-trance and left her book on a bench for approximately 1 min-ute as she was hugging a friend. Victim did not see who took it. No suspects; report taken.
3/17/09 - 1 p.m.- Oxnard College student receiving un-wanted attention. A female student reported she felt uncom-fortable when a male student who has been attempting to date her for approximately a month, called her out of class to ask her about her daughter’s clothing size. She told the male not to worry because her daughter was fine. The male interpreted this as a sign that she was not interested in him and told her, “I have a bad background and you don’t want to mess with me.” He also said, “I get paid to beat people up, and your gay friend over there, I can beat him up.” She then reported the incident to the OC Campus Police Station.
3/18/09 - between 10:30-11:30 a.m.-Petty theft occurred in the VC Fitness Center. The victim left a pink iPod, wrapped in a towel, in the storage area by the north wall. When she re-turned to get her belongings, the iPod was gone. No suspects; report taken.
3/18/09-approx. 1 p.m.-Officers responded to a verbal domestic dispute in a vehicle parked in the Oxnard Col-lege C-lot. A male student and a female student were in the female’s vehicle, when the two started to argue. The female asked the male to leave the vehicle and when he refused to exit the vehicle, police were called. Report taken.
3/25/09 - 2:30 p.m.-MC police officer arrested a suspect for burglary, resisting arrest and battery on a police officer. 2 suspects dashed into the MC book store, grabbed several books, and ran. One suspect was arrested later off campus, after he assaulted the officer and resisted arrest. The second suspect is still outstanding. Investigation continues.
3/26/09 - 8:30 a.m.-Graffiti in the men’s room in the 2nd floor of Moorpark College’s Technology building. Unknown suspect used black marker to deface mirror & wall. No sus-pects; report taken.
3/29/09 - 6:45 p.m.-Petty theft to vending machines in the N-lot at VC. Unknown suspects broke into the vending machines and removed money. No suspects; report taken.
David LopezSports editor
It’s one thing to live your life with no knowledge of your heri-tage, but for Martin Espino that is not an option and that’s what he stressed to roughly 100 students in the Clock Tower Auditorium at Oxnard College March 18.
“Most people know some-thing, but not a lot,” said Espino, an expert on Ancient American music.
“We need to spend time knowing some things about our ancestors.”
Espino and his sound of Ancient Americas presentation, which included a solo concert of ancient music, were brought to Oxnard by the Oxnard College Literature, Arts and Lecture Se-ries fronted by Shelley Savren. The series is an ongoing event with weekly speakers.
Along with being an expert on ancient music, Espino also brought a comedic aspect to his lecture.
“People were laughing at his jokes,” Savren said. “I could see that the students loved what he was saying, and were very inter-ested.”
Espino told stories of how he gained the knowledge of his heri-tage. When he was 9 –years-old, he was watching a TV add that stated “who are you?”
He said that advertisement made him start asking questions about his heritage.
The art of music had always
been around Espino. He used to play the guitar,
but he made the transition to playing his percussive instru-ments.
According to Espino’s web-site (www.martinespino.com), Martin has been teaching and working with students since the age of 13.
“About age 9, I was inquisi-
tive with spiritual thoughts,” Es-pino said.
“I think that spiritual things are the deeper thoughts that you have.”
Students were not the only ones who saw the benefits in his lessons; professors were also on hand to hear Espino’s advice.
“I think education happens in and out of the classroom,” said
Cecilia Milan, a Spanish profes-sor at Oxnard College. “This lec-ture gives us a chance to expand on ideas that come up in class, it makes whatever we are studying in class come alive.”
For more information on up-coming Oxnard College Speaker Series events, contact Shelley Savren at [email protected], or at (805) 986-5800 ext. 1951.
Musician brings a love for heritage to OC
Photo by David Lopez The music man–Martin Espino plays one of his many instruments to an OC crowd. Espino lectured the importance of family heritage.
Continued from page 1
On Friday March 26, the Ventura College Psychology Club hosted THNK, an event designed to raise awareness and help prevent drunk driving and substance abuse.
President of the Psychology Club Brianna Huntsinger
explained that with spring break around the corner students need to be safe.
“Think before you act,” said Huntsinger.
Psychology major Emily Johnston, 20, originally presented the idea to the club. Johnston explained how she came up with the idea.
“I have a friend that was affected by alcoholism,” said Johnston.
“He is now in coma due to an accident involving drunk driving.” Johnston said.
Johnston hopes that Ventura College will do this every year before spring break.
Faculty adviser and
psychology professor Lucy Capuano-Brewer said anyone with questions or looking for help can contact Capuano-Brewer by email at [email protected] or call at (805) 654-6400 ext. 1395.
According to the conference, with spring break around the corner students need to be safe and responsible.
THNK: Responsibility discussed at Ventura
Arts and Entertainment6Student Voice • VCCCD •April 1, 2009
Mind and body become one at Nia Fusion classKatie YatesA&E editor
The atmosphere of Katherine deWet’s Nia Fusion fitness class at Moorpark College is one of high energy where students kick off their shoes, get up and move to their own beat of the music.
Students with stressful lives can soon learn that Nia is more than a simple exercise class.
“Nia is a great way to in-crease fitness for both body and mind, build self-esteem and re-duce stress,” said deWet, instruc-tor of Nia. “Nia teaches you to become more sensory aware, and to move your body in a way that is pleasurable.”
Nia combines movement from the healing arts or yoga, martial arts and dancing. Music is played during to get the body up and moving.
“In Nia, the music is raw or unchanged, so there is a direct relationship of movement in mu-sic,” said deWet.
A student of deWet’s, Heath-er Duvan, 22 likes the selections of music, “The song she picks
make you want to move.”Nia is a newly created class
on campus that a select few have stumbled across but many still don’t know that it is being of-fered. “The course was assigned a number in the catalog that placed it in the incorrect area,” said deWet. “It is difficult for pro-spective student’s to learn about this course.”
Nia offers support and some-thing for everyone who want to enjoy exercising. “This support-ive environment allows more effective conditioning for the whole person, not just the physi-cal body, and adds to the pleasure of the experience,” said deWet.
Nia has a low impact on the body and joints, and has three levels of intensity so one doesn’t push oneself over the limit. “Maybe today my knees don’t feel like doing it, so I don’t have to go to the last level,” said Don-na Cramer, 60. This allows all to move at their own pace and time, but people still find that the class moves in unison.
Nia began in the 1990s by Debbie and Carlso Rosas, and
since then the classes have be-come extremely popular. Both avid exercisers, they understood the pain and burnout of exercis-ing. According to “The Nia Tech-nique,” “traditional aerobics had an injury rate that hit 76 percent of teachers and 44 percent among students.” So they came up tech-niques to get people moving.
Because of the word “exer-cise,” many are put off and have become inactive.
“About 80 percent are not getting enough moderate to vig-orous activity,” said deWet.
Though many don’t know about this class until they happen to stumble across it, deWet wants students to know how wonderful it can be for them. “All of this is good news if you are a student at Moorpark College, as you have several on-campus fitness classes including Nia Fusion Fitness to help you condition both your body and mind.”
Nia will be offered summer 2009, Monday through Thursday, and fall semester. For more infor-mation regarding Nia visit, home.earthlink.net/~niakreative.
THERE ARE NOCLOSED CLASSES at theMount, so you can take what you need to graduate withease. In fact, you could get your Bachelor’s Degree in onlytwo years if you transfer 60 units. �at means you can �nda job and start earning a good salary sooner.
Helping You With TuitionWhen you transfer to Mount St. Mary’s College with a GPAof 2.4 or better, you can receive a scholarship ranging from$8,000 to $14,000. If you have at least 60 transferable units,you may receive an additional $2,500 if you’re one of the �rstten students who transfer. Best yet, these scholarships don’tdecrease the amount of federal and state �nancial aid youcould receive. Call us to take a personalized tour of campus!
At �e Mount You Can:
for every 18 students
Call Jenny Galvez To Find Out More Today:
1-800-999-9893www.msmc.la.edu/transfer
Get your Bachelor’s Degree in just two years a�ertransferring to Mount St. Mary’s College.
Japan’s journey to democracyKenneth Redublo Shoaib NajmuddinContributing writers
From rice fields to family traditions, Japan’s difficult journey with democracy was the topic of discussion at a lecture at Moorpark College on March 18 at noon.
Political Science Professor Steven Pfeffer lectured on Japan’s current government and the his-tory of Japanese politics and its transformation into modern day democracy.
The successes of democ-racy in Japan can help America through its use of teamwork and thriving economy, according to Pfeffer.
“[Japan is] the second great-est economy in the world, and
we can learn from their successes in order to spread democracy to other countries,” Pfeffer said.
His talk was part of the con-tinuing series of lectures for the year of Democracy at Moorpark College.
“I am happy to do my part for the Year of Democracy,” said Pfeffer. “My hope is that by un-derstanding foreign democra-cies, students will have a greater understanding of our own de-mocracy.”
The lecture took place at the TV Studio inside the Communi-cations Building and was held from noon to 12:50 p. m.
Pfeffer said that even though there were struggles and hard-ships, Japan has still thrived with democracy.
“Though there were many
flaws and late starts, Japan has still been successful,” said Pfeffer. “Through the successes of other countries, Japan has become one of the few success stories.”
Pfeffer’s background in Jap-anese government has spanned back from his father’s influence, who studied Asian cultures and governments.
Pfeffer has also lived and studied in Japan.
Nate Stewart, 19, said the talk was enlightening.
“His coverage of the history between periods of Japan gave me a more understanding for why democracy failed or was successful,” said Stewart.
“He was very thorough.” For more infor-mation on the Year of Democracy, go to moorparkcollege.edu
“Twilight” community comes together for highly anticipated DVDHannah DaveyKatie YatesStaff Writers
Overheated bodies packed like sardines in a line, impatiently anticipating. The echoes from the high ceilings so loud, noting can be understood. When the clock strikes midnight, all hell breaks loose. These are some of the char-acteristics of a midnight release. The most recent midnight re-lease occurred on March 21. The worldwide phenomenon known as “Twilight” hit the stores.
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past four years, “Twilight” is the firs book in a series by Mormon author Stephanie Meyer. The film came out on Nov. 21, 2008 and the greedy executives at Summit Entertainment rushed the release
onto DVD to late March.Meyer’s story tells of high
school junior Bella Swan and her fated romance with a vam-pire, Edward Cullen. Strangely enough, while Anne Rice and the “Underworld” series have beat-en the vampire theme to death, “Twilight” is a hit.
This may be because that Meyer wrote Bella Swan as a hal-low figure that young girls can project themselves into and pre-tend to fall in love with a vam-pire. That’s bestselling writing for you. Candice Valadez, 21, enjoyed the “Twilight” book and movie and brought her 11-year-old cousin, Hailey Guzman, to the midnight release at Borders of Oxnard.
“I read it when it first came out in 2005,” said the Ventura Nursing major. “It was a random
pickup and I loved it.”As you can see, “Twilight” is
not just for tweens.“I would let Edward bite
me,” admitted Christine Laplant, 21, undecided major from Moor-park. “To be honest…. I’d bite him.”
Those who love “Twilight” go by many names: Twilighters, Cullenists, Fanpires, or our per-sonal favorite, “Twilight” Ob-sessed Freaks. But despite it’s juvenility, it’s undeniable that “Twilight” brings people togeth-er.
Natasha Kennedy of Moor-park College waited in line for the DVD at the Thousand Oaks Borders.
“It’s crazy how books and movies bring people around.” The 21-year-old Psychology ma-jor observed. “The love of “Twi-
light” brought me here. Edward is calling me through the books.”
Many of the girls we inter-viewed while researching for this article expressed the same
animosity towards men as if they were in a secret sisterhood: The Sisterhood of “Twilight.” Girls try to encourage boys to read and watch “Twilight,” but they are al-ways rebuffed.
“I think they have a lot to learn from Edward,” said Ken-nedy. “Guys nowadays need chivalry, like how Edward treats Bella.”
Guys would gain much from Edward Cullen: how to act, how to dress, how to treat a lady. To put it plainly, if a guy read or watched “Twilight,” they would be the ultimate stud muffin.
As far as the movie, critics gave it mixed reviews, but Rotten Tomatoes.com, which gave the film a 49 percent, explained the situation perfectly: “Twilight” will please it’s devoted fans, but do little for the uninitiated.”
While the film was well cast, Kristen Stewart’s portrayal of Bella Swan was dry, full of angst and unemotional. Bella was not described as a depressed teen-ager in the book, but as a person somewhat pleased with her life. However, when Stewart took the role, she molded the character into the “emo” stereotype that is popular right now. Or it could be us being extremely jealous of her.
Either way, buy the movie.You can look at Robert Pattinson any time you want then.
He’s pretty.
“”
I would let Edward bite me...
I’d bite him.
- Christine Laplant
Photo by Hannah DaveyPatiently waiting– Natasha Kennedy, 21, Phychology, and Christine Laplant, 21, undecided, looks over the last book of Ste-phenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, “Breaking Dawn” while waiting for the midnight DVD release of “Twilight.”
Photo by Stefanie KatzHiya!– Kari Cramer, 28, prepares for a high kick of energy in Katherine deWet’s Nia Fusion Fitness class. The class is in ses-sion Mondays and Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
Arts and Entertainment6Student Voice • VCCCD •April 1, 2009
Mind and body become one at Nia Fusion classKatie YatesA&E editor
The atmosphere of Katherine deWet’s Nia Fusion fitness class at Moorpark College is one of high energy where students kick off their shoes, get up and move to their own beat of the music.
Students with stressful lives can soon learn that Nia is more than a simple exercise class.
“Nia is a great way to in-crease fitness for both body and mind, build self-esteem and re-duce stress,” said deWet, instruc-tor of Nia. “Nia teaches you to become more sensory aware, and to move your body in a way that is pleasurable.”
Nia combines movement from the healing arts or yoga, martial arts and dancing. Music is played during to get the body up and moving.
“In Nia, the music is raw or unchanged, so there is a direct relationship of movement in mu-sic,” said deWet.
A student of deWet’s, Heath-er Duvan, 22 likes the selections of music, “The song she picks
make you want to move.”Nia is a newly created class
on campus that a select few have stumbled across but many still don’t know that it is being of-fered. “The course was assigned a number in the catalog that placed it in the incorrect area,” said deWet. “It is difficult for pro-spective student’s to learn about this course.”
Nia offers support and some-thing for everyone who want to enjoy exercising. “This support-ive environment allows more effective conditioning for the whole person, not just the physi-cal body, and adds to the pleasure of the experience,” said deWet.
Nia has a low impact on the body and joints, and has three levels of intensity so one doesn’t push oneself over the limit. “Maybe today my knees don’t feel like doing it, so I don’t have to go to the last level,” said Don-na Cramer, 60. This allows all to move at their own pace and time, but people still find that the class moves in unison.
Nia began in the 1990s by Debbie and Carlso Rosas, and
since then the classes have be-come extremely popular. Both avid exercisers, they understood the pain and burnout of exercis-ing. According to “The Nia Tech-nique,” “traditional aerobics had an injury rate that hit 76 percent of teachers and 44 percent among students.” So they came up tech-niques to get people moving.
Because of the word “exer-cise,” many are put off and have become inactive.
“About 80 percent are not getting enough moderate to vig-orous activity,” said deWet.
Though many don’t know about this class until they happen to stumble across it, deWet wants students to know how wonderful it can be for them. “All of this is good news if you are a student at Moorpark College, as you have several on-campus fitness classes including Nia Fusion Fitness to help you condition both your body and mind.”
Nia will be offered summer 2009, Monday through Thursday, and fall semester. For more infor-mation regarding Nia visit, home.earthlink.net/~niakreative.
THERE ARE NOCLOSED CLASSES at theMount, so you can take what you need to graduate withease. In fact, you could get your Bachelor’s Degree in onlytwo years if you transfer 60 units. �at means you can �nda job and start earning a good salary sooner.
Helping You With TuitionWhen you transfer to Mount St. Mary’s College with a GPAof 2.4 or better, you can receive a scholarship ranging from$8,000 to $14,000. If you have at least 60 transferable units,you may receive an additional $2,500 if you’re one of the �rstten students who transfer. Best yet, these scholarships don’tdecrease the amount of federal and state �nancial aid youcould receive. Call us to take a personalized tour of campus!
At �e Mount You Can:
for every 18 students
Call Jenny Galvez To Find Out More Today:
1-800-999-9893www.msmc.la.edu/transfer
Get your Bachelor’s Degree in just two years a�ertransferring to Mount St. Mary’s College.
Japan’s journey to democracyKenneth Redublo Shoaib NajmuddinContributing writers
From rice fields to family traditions, Japan’s difficult journey with democracy was the topic of discussion at a lecture at Moorpark College on March 18 at noon.
Political Science Professor Steven Pfeffer lectured on Japan’s current government and the his-tory of Japanese politics and its transformation into modern day democracy.
The successes of democ-racy in Japan can help America through its use of teamwork and thriving economy, according to Pfeffer.
“[Japan is] the second great-est economy in the world, and
we can learn from their successes in order to spread democracy to other countries,” Pfeffer said.
His talk was part of the con-tinuing series of lectures for the year of Democracy at Moorpark College.
“I am happy to do my part for the Year of Democracy,” said Pfeffer. “My hope is that by un-derstanding foreign democra-cies, students will have a greater understanding of our own de-mocracy.”
The lecture took place at the TV Studio inside the Communi-cations Building and was held from noon to 12:50 p. m.
Pfeffer said that even though there were struggles and hard-ships, Japan has still thrived with democracy.
“Though there were many
flaws and late starts, Japan has still been successful,” said Pfeffer. “Through the successes of other countries, Japan has become one of the few success stories.”
Pfeffer’s background in Jap-anese government has spanned back from his father’s influence, who studied Asian cultures and governments.
Pfeffer has also lived and studied in Japan.
Nate Stewart, 19, said the talk was enlightening.
“His coverage of the history between periods of Japan gave me a more understanding for why democracy failed or was successful,” said Stewart.
“He was very thorough.” For more infor-mation on the Year of Democracy, go to moorparkcollege.edu
“Twilight” community comes together for highly anticipated DVDHannah DaveyKatie YatesStaff Writers
Overheated bodies packed like sardines in a line, impatiently anticipating. The echoes from the high ceilings so loud, noting can be understood. When the clock strikes midnight, all hell breaks loose. These are some of the char-acteristics of a midnight release. The most recent midnight re-lease occurred on March 21. The worldwide phenomenon known as “Twilight” hit the stores.
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past four years, “Twilight” is the firs book in a series by Mormon author Stephanie Meyer. The film came out on Nov. 21, 2008 and the greedy executives at Summit Entertainment rushed the release
onto DVD to late March.Meyer’s story tells of high
school junior Bella Swan and her fated romance with a vam-pire, Edward Cullen. Strangely enough, while Anne Rice and the “Underworld” series have beat-en the vampire theme to death, “Twilight” is a hit.
This may be because that Meyer wrote Bella Swan as a hal-low figure that young girls can project themselves into and pre-tend to fall in love with a vam-pire. That’s bestselling writing for you. Candice Valadez, 21, enjoyed the “Twilight” book and movie and brought her 11-year-old cousin, Hailey Guzman, to the midnight release at Borders of Oxnard.
“I read it when it first came out in 2005,” said the Ventura Nursing major. “It was a random
pickup and I loved it.”As you can see, “Twilight” is
not just for tweens.“I would let Edward bite
me,” admitted Christine Laplant, 21, undecided major from Moor-park. “To be honest…. I’d bite him.”
Those who love “Twilight” go by many names: Twilighters, Cullenists, Fanpires, or our per-sonal favorite, “Twilight” Ob-sessed Freaks. But despite it’s juvenility, it’s undeniable that “Twilight” brings people togeth-er.
Natasha Kennedy of Moor-park College waited in line for the DVD at the Thousand Oaks Borders.
“It’s crazy how books and movies bring people around.” The 21-year-old Psychology ma-jor observed. “The love of “Twi-
light” brought me here. Edward is calling me through the books.”
Many of the girls we inter-viewed while researching for this article expressed the same
animosity towards men as if they were in a secret sisterhood: The Sisterhood of “Twilight.” Girls try to encourage boys to read and watch “Twilight,” but they are al-ways rebuffed.
“I think they have a lot to learn from Edward,” said Ken-nedy. “Guys nowadays need chivalry, like how Edward treats Bella.”
Guys would gain much from Edward Cullen: how to act, how to dress, how to treat a lady. To put it plainly, if a guy read or watched “Twilight,” they would be the ultimate stud muffin.
As far as the movie, critics gave it mixed reviews, but Rotten Tomatoes.com, which gave the film a 49 percent, explained the situation perfectly: “Twilight” will please it’s devoted fans, but do little for the uninitiated.”
While the film was well cast, Kristen Stewart’s portrayal of Bella Swan was dry, full of angst and unemotional. Bella was not described as a depressed teen-ager in the book, but as a person somewhat pleased with her life. However, when Stewart took the role, she molded the character into the “emo” stereotype that is popular right now. Or it could be us being extremely jealous of her.
Either way, buy the movie.You can look at Robert Pattinson any time you want then.
He’s pretty.
“”
I would let Edward bite me...
I’d bite him.
- Christine Laplant
Photo by Hannah DaveyPatiently waiting– Natasha Kennedy, 21, Phychology, and Christine Laplant, 21, undecided, looks over the last book of Ste-phenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, “Breaking Dawn” while waiting for the midnight DVD release of “Twilight.”
Photo by Stefanie KatzHiya!– Kari Cramer, 28, prepares for a high kick of energy in Katherine deWet’s Nia Fusion Fitness class. The class is in ses-sion Mondays and Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
Arts and Entertainment 7Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
© 2
00
9 N
atio
nal U
nive
rsity
7
48
0
The University of Values
The band’s newest documentary leaves fans wanting moreDavid LopezSports editor
Green Day has been gracing stages since 1986, but it has become a fairly new phenomenon to take what the band is doing and document it.
On March 25, Green Day’s new-est documentary “Heart Like a Hand Grenade,” made its world debut at the Egyptian Movie Theatre in Los Angeles.
Green Day’s most loyal fans flocked to the scene, coming from as far away as Germany. Surprisingly, fans ranged in age from the lowest age being 18, all the way to the tops of 45.
The documentary was created by John Roecker, and leaves much to be de-sired to anyone who calls themselves a
fan of the punk rock band Green Day.Grumbles from fans consisting of
“There go two hours of my life that I will never get back,” really described the overall feeling of discontent, when the documentary came to an end, and fans trickled out of the theatre.
The documentary took you into the recording session of the band’s most re-cent album “American Idiot.”
For the average fan this may sound like the best documentary to come out but Roecker did an awful job of execut-ing the behind the scenes look of the actual band. The word awful could be used to describe this because whenever Green Day is actually playing music, it is the CD recording dubbed over the live sound. So essentially, a fan could just lis-ten to the CD and save him or herself a two hour chunk of life.
But that was not the worst part. Roecker seemed to feel compelled to bring an aspect of his art into the project. All throughout “Jesus of Suburbia” there are clips of dancers doing some obscure
dancing which is beyond labeling with a category. So fans are left with a bitter distaste of Green Day, random dancers,
Green Day, random dancers, Green Day and then back to random dancers to fin-ish off the tune.
If those two things don’t seem to bother you, then here is one more fact that may keep you at home and allow you to just listen to the CD.
The documentary could have, and should have ended in about three plac-es. There are points in the film that just leave you begging that the movie will come to an end but it all turns out to just be a tease and it kicks back in again and keeps on going.
So if those three things don’t faze you all that much, then congratulations, this documentary may be right for you.
If there is one part of the documen-tary that Roecker does get right, I would have to say it is the following around of the band of Green Day just being them-selves in the recording studio.
Another benefit to the concert would have to be the fact that you did get to see some the creative side of Green Day’s music making. In some scenes you go to
see Joe going through and working out lyrics and shifting them through to find the perfect fit for his song.
Punk-rock fans who have been fol-lowing Green Day since the early days are still debating whether or not they need it is still worth keeping an eye on them. A live show would be
Without a doubt Cool confirms the stereotype that he is in fact the wackiest member of Green Day, while fans get an inside look at what it is that Durnt and Armstrong do to contribute to the at-titude of the Green Day that fans have come to know today.
A trip through the recording of “American Idiot” sadly came up short and failed showing fans the story of how a concert got recorded. Hopefully Green Day will be able to do it again next time and do it better with the next concert that is on the way title “21st Century Break Down.”
For more information on other Green Day release dates and concerts, visit www.GreenDay.com.
Green Day’s Heart Like a Hand Grenade lets super-fans down
Moorpark’s sexual Ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata packs a punchJeremy ZellerManaging editor
Taking a Greek comedy and attracting a student audience is a tough task, but the direc-tor and cast of Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” have done an excellent job.
When the curtain rises, the audience mem-bers are taken back 2500 years ago to ancient Greece, and we find out that the nations of Ath-ens, Boeotia, Corinth and Sparta are locked in a bitter civil war.
The Moorpark College Theater Arts depart-ment’s interpretation led by Director John Lopri-eno does a good job of making the ancient play relevant as well as keeping the themes of Aris-tophanes.
The play begins with a monologue from the lead character Lysistrata, played by Brooke Fiss or Sarah Schindler, depending on which night you go. That fact makes for the largest blunder.
Both actresses are amazing in their roles, and as a director you want to get as many people involved, which is why you double cast some-thing.
However, for an audience member, you ei-ther have to go twice to the show, or leave won-dering if you saw the funnier cast, or the better cast, or even wondering what the other cast is like.
Loprieno took advantage of some of the great voices in his cast, and added a few musical numbers, which added a nice touch. Blaire Strong led the singing chorus of Oracles and has a beautiful tone that fills the auditorium with musical bliss.
As the play begins, we find out that the women of Greece are ban-ning together to withhold cuddling, kissing, felatio and sex from the men to encourage them to bring peace to their nation.
The women swear an oath on a falic-linned bowl and hold to it. In
the process, the women torment the men of Greece by taking over the Acropolis and tempting the men without giving in.
The guys of the cast do a great job showing their frustration, and could have done without the four-foot dildos protruding from their boxers.
They were good for a laugh, but the men of the cast including Dan Rosales and Dave Wright who have an especially intimate scene involving the gi-ant penises, wear their blue-balls on their sleeves for everyone to see.
The lighting and sound design were well co-ordinated, and although there weren’t many cues, there were no issues.
The set was a well-constructed masterpiece, an overwhelming labyrinth that didn’t get stale like some other one-set shows.
If you’re under 14, this show will be the shock of your life, and you may have questions for your mom and dad including, “why was the lady strok-ing the man’s purple thing?”
However, for those of age to see R-rated mov-ies, you are in store for one of the best shows of your life, and by far the best Greek play out there.
The acting is magnificent and the story zooms right along, leaving the viewer sad after 90 minutes that the fun is wrapping up.
Go to StudentVoiceOnline.com for a video and a slideshow of the actor’s processes from make up to clean up.
Lysistrata continues in the Moorpark College Per-forming Arts Center on the Main Stage April 2, 3 and 4 at 8 p.m. and April 5 at 2 p.m. For tickets go to www.moorparkcollege.edu/pac or call the box office at 805-378-1485.
Photo by Paul RoushGirl power– From left to right, Francesca DeCaro, Blaire Strong, Jen Richards, Jenna Gillespie, Kire Horton play the Oracles who narrarate the tale of “Lysistrata.”
Award winning writer spoke at The ReadLauren LewowContributing writer
Libraries are traditionally safe havens for quiet but on March 18, Moorpark College was filled with talking, laughter and even singing as The Read’s speakers delivered poetry to their audience.
The intrusion of human nois-es and the award winning read-er’s words were received by the library’s third floor at 5:30.
Between the learning center and the back window of the li-brary, which framed the setting sun, the audience of approxi-mately 40 people gathered.
The Read featured Douglas Kearney, a Whiting Award win-ning writer, and Moorpark’s own Professor Hart Schulz and was organized by Professor Sandra Hunter.
Kearney was selected to read because of the topics his poetry spans and his honesty.
“If you remember, he men-tioned how he occasionally reads porn,” said Hunter.
“This is a tremendous confes-sion to make in front of students and faculty!” she continued.
“He writes lyrically about difficult topics, such as Hurricane Katrina and the place and soul of the young black man in modern America.”
Kearney preformed a poem about the African American ex-
perience entitled “Tallahatchie Lullaby” and several about Hur-ricane Katrina from his “Flood Songs” collection.
The Read gives the students of Moorpark and its community members a chance to experience poetry outside of an academic setting.
The Read is held monthly on the library’s third floor and features a guest poet as well as a poet affiliated with Moorpark College.
The Read has hosted other award winner’s in the past such as Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, who won the White Pine Press Poetry Prize.
The organizer emphasized the power of poetry outside the classroom and inside individual expression.
“Poetry is like no other liter-ary animal,” said Hunter.
“And the really cool thing is the audience is so supportive.”
“Some of my favorite mo-ments [are during the writing workshop] when students stand up for the first time at open mic and read their work.” she ex-plained.
This installment of The Read was entitled “Manna for the Mind!” The Moorpark College poet was selected from the fac-ulty.
Schulz’s work has been pub-lished in several editions of the Moorpark Review, the college’s
creative arts magazine. Schulz read his poem “Driv-
ing Home Alone,” which filled the library with laughter.
Going up before the award winning Kearney, Schulz felt intimidated, “It was like being the opening act for the Rolling Stones.”
Kearney’s performance was impressive to Schulz as well as students.
“I found the keynote pre-senter, Douglas Kearney, to be the most entertaining,” said An-drew Garcia, a 19-year-old busi-ness major at Moorpark College.
“His unique and emotional style kept me engaged.”
“I found The Read to be a worthwhile experience and look forward to the next opportunity to attend,” said Garcia.
The next opportunity for Moorpark College students and community members to experi-ence The Read is April 15.
The featured poet will be Persis Karim, who explores her Iranian heritage in her poetry.
The event begins at 5:30 on the 3rd floor of the Moorpark College Library.
To attend a complimentary Poetry Workshops held prior to “The Read,” contact Professor Sandra Hunter (805) 378-1400 x1866.
For upcoming events for The Read, please visit moorparkcol-lege.edu.
Ventura film festival in VenturaFranz Tinio-LopezOC Bureau editor
Many volunteered and watched movies for free at the Ventura Film Festival. March 26-29, 2009.
The Ventura Film Festival kicked off with a reception on the evening of Thursday, March 26 at 6 p.m. at the Elks Lodge building on 11 S. Ash Street, corner Main, Ventura, CA.
The opening movies were screened at 7 p.m. featured “Thy Will Be Done” by Jacob Cunning-ham.
Two theaters had been set up in the historic Elks Lodge build-ing.
Volunteers from the Ventura and Oxnard City Corps did a great job in repainting the rooms that had not been used by the Elks since 2005 when they moved to their new building.
“We hope the students at the Community Colleges can attend if not volunteer,” festival director Lorenzo DeStefano said.
“This would be a great op-portunity to see films that are lo-cally produced and of interest to the community of Ventura Coun-
ty.” DeStefano added. “But the experience of meet-
ing other people who are passion-ate about film can’t be bought. Being a volunteer at the festival gives you this opportunity to ask your questions and network with those who may share your cre-ative drive.” he continued.
By working two, four-hour shifts, a volunteer gots an All Ac-cess Pass to the opening night and all the film screenings.
For more information about the festival, visit website: http://www.venturafilmfest.com/Pag-es/Films.html.
Sports8Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
Rebecca BorgioliAntioch University Santa Barbara(805) 962-8179 [email protected]
antiochsb.edu
All qualifiedtransfer applicants
accepted.Transfer up to 80 semester units to AntiochBoost your employment potential by getting your BA
No math requirement to transferSmall, personalized classesFlexible schedulingFinancial aid available
Accepting applicationsnow for SPRING,
SUMMER, and FALL ’09
Application fee waivedif you mention this ad!
Complete your Bachelor’s Degree inSanta Barbara
SANTA BARBARA
SKYDIVE TAFT* Over 20 years experience. * Excellent safety record. * State of the art equipment. * Personalized video of your skydive. * Open 7 days a week, year round. (weather permitting) * Tandem and Accelerated Free Fall available.* BBQ, bunkhouse, camping & showers on site
Discount Rates for students,
birthdays, military, fire and police.
www.skydivetaft.com
661-765-JUMP500 Airport Road
Taft, CA 93268
Moorpark and Ventura battle on the softball field David LopezSports editor
It was the bottom of the sev-enth inning, Jenny Juarez stepped up to the plate, and Ventura was down by two runs; one swing of the bat had the chance to tie the game.
Juarez loaded up and hit a shot into the right field corner and that was enough to score the two runs Ventura needed to push the game into extra innings.
But not even an inside the park home run was enough to foil Moorpark’s chances to be on top of the WSC by themselves, as they defeated Ventura 10-9 in ex-tra innings.
Ventura and Moorpark both came into the game tied for first place, but in the end Moorpark had just a little bit left in the tank to outlast Ventura.
The offensive explosions for both teams started in the second inning, when Moorpark scored eight runs to take the lead.
“We knew it was going to be the slugfest it was,” said Susan Johnson, Ventura College’s head coach.
“After the mishap in the sec-ond inning we came back. It was a well fought game.”
Ventura battled around af-ter falling down in the ditch 8-0. Ventura turned to the bullpen, which was able to keep the score down.
“I was nervous, but I tried to focus because I knew it was one of those times when I need to focus,” said relief pitcher Shelbi Stallings.
“I wasn’t going to try and do it all by myself. We couldn’t have done it without the entire team.”
Despite Moorpark’s sloppy defense, the team only had one error.
The errors were exactly what allowed Ventura a chance to get back to the game after being down 8-0.
Moorpark also poured on the offense, as every player on the
team that played came around to score.
Ashley Dasnoit led the way for Ventura, batting 3 for 4 with two RBIs.
Moorpark’s Taylor Neumann went 4 for 5 to lead Moorpark of-fensively, hitting two doubles and a triple. Fittingly, Neumann went on to hit the game winning double in the top of the eighth in-ning.
Moorpark has not stopped its tear against local rivals. Moor-park defeated Oxnard 1-0 and 9-3 Wednesday afternoon.
Bonnie Ward went the dis-tance in the first game in the double header. She pitched an impressive four hitter and tossed eight strike outs. Ward moves to 13-5 overall and 6-1 in WSC con-ference.
Tara Hale came up in the top of the seventh and hit in the game winnning RBI, as she knocked in Cayla Nelson.
In the second game Moor-park’s bat came alive for 13 hits and nine runs. Kristen Torres went 3 for 4 and scored two runs, while Michelle Zakosek went 2 for 3, including two runs and three RBIs.
Taylor Neuman picked up her third win of the season.
Moorpark also took care of Cuesta in a double header on March 19, against Cuesta Col-lege.
Taylor Neumann led the way for Moorpark as she went 2 for 4 including a homerun and four RBIs.
Jamie Yaller also went 2 for 2, while she had one run scored.
Taylor Neumann got the win as she went a complete game game and gave up just six hits.
Moorpark moves to 20-8 on the season and remains the team to beat in the WSC.
Moorpark will move on to face off against Santa Barbara City College Thursday afternoon in a double header. Games are set to start at 1:00 p.m. and the next game set for 3:00 p.m.
Moorpark baseball struggles against VC
Only at Baja MOOrpark
Photo by Christian Randolph
Game winner–Moorpark’s No. 21 Taylor Neumann hit’s a double in the top of the eighth inning against Ventura scoring the game winner.
Josh Saylor Staff writer
Moorpark College lost a close fought battle Tuesday afternoon, 9-8 to the visiting Alan Hancock Bulldogs.
Alan Hancock came into Tuesday’s game with a 7-4 record in the Western State Conference-North and 14-11 overall, while Moorpark college came in with a 5-7 record in conference and 9-13 overall.
Every time one team went ahead the other teams would tie
the game back up during their next at bat. This game was decid-ed by the innings in which Moor-park College left a few runners in scoring position.
The starting pitcher for Moorpark Matt Montgomery went 5 innings giving up 3 runs . Allan Hancock’s starting pitch-er, Chance Daskaukas, was also shaky giving up 2 home runs, 6 runs, while throwing one wild pitch and hitting two batters.
First basemen Skyler Ellis also stood out going 2 for 3 with two doubles in the game.
Sports8Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
Rebecca BorgioliAntioch University Santa Barbara(805) 962-8179 [email protected]
antiochsb.edu
All qualifiedtransfer applicants
accepted.Transfer up to 80 semester units to AntiochBoost your employment potential by getting your BA
No math requirement to transferSmall, personalized classesFlexible schedulingFinancial aid available
Accepting applicationsnow for SPRING,
SUMMER, and FALL ’09
Application fee waivedif you mention this ad!
Complete your Bachelor’s Degree inSanta Barbara
SANTA BARBARA
SKYDIVE TAFT* Over 20 years experience. * Excellent safety record. * State of the art equipment. * Personalized video of your skydive. * Open 7 days a week, year round. (weather permitting) * Tandem and Accelerated Free Fall available.* BBQ, bunkhouse, camping & showers on site
Discount Rates for students,
birthdays, military, fire and police.
www.skydivetaft.com
661-765-JUMP500 Airport Road
Taft, CA 93268
Moorpark and Ventura battle on the softball field David LopezSports editor
It was the bottom of the sev-enth inning, Jenny Juarez stepped up to the plate, and Ventura was down by two runs; one swing of the bat had the chance to tie the game.
Juarez loaded up and hit a shot into the right field corner and that was enough to score the two runs Ventura needed to push the game into extra innings.
But not even an inside the park home run was enough to foil Moorpark’s chances to be on top of the WSC by themselves, as they defeated Ventura 10-9 in ex-tra innings.
Ventura and Moorpark both came into the game tied for first place, but in the end Moorpark had just a little bit left in the tank to outlast Ventura.
The offensive explosions for both teams started in the second inning, when Moorpark scored eight runs to take the lead.
“We knew it was going to be the slugfest it was,” said Susan Johnson, Ventura College’s head coach.
“After the mishap in the sec-ond inning we came back. It was a well fought game.”
Ventura battled around af-ter falling down in the ditch 8-0. Ventura turned to the bullpen, which was able to keep the score down.
“I was nervous, but I tried to focus because I knew it was one of those times when I need to focus,” said relief pitcher Shelbi Stallings.
“I wasn’t going to try and do it all by myself. We couldn’t have done it without the entire team.”
Despite Moorpark’s sloppy defense, the team only had one error.
The errors were exactly what allowed Ventura a chance to get back to the game after being down 8-0.
Moorpark also poured on the offense, as every player on the
team that played came around to score.
Ashley Dasnoit led the way for Ventura, batting 3 for 4 with two RBIs.
Moorpark’s Taylor Neumann went 4 for 5 to lead Moorpark of-fensively, hitting two doubles and a triple. Fittingly, Neumann went on to hit the game winning double in the top of the eighth in-ning.
Moorpark has not stopped its tear against local rivals. Moor-park defeated Oxnard 1-0 and 9-3 Wednesday afternoon.
Bonnie Ward went the dis-tance in the first game in the double header. She pitched an impressive four hitter and tossed eight strike outs. Ward moves to 13-5 overall and 6-1 in WSC con-ference.
Tara Hale came up in the top of the seventh and hit in the game winnning RBI, as she knocked in Cayla Nelson.
In the second game Moor-park’s bat came alive for 13 hits and nine runs. Kristen Torres went 3 for 4 and scored two runs, while Michelle Zakosek went 2 for 3, including two runs and three RBIs.
Taylor Neuman picked up her third win of the season.
Moorpark also took care of Cuesta in a double header on March 19, against Cuesta Col-lege.
Taylor Neumann led the way for Moorpark as she went 2 for 4 including a homerun and four RBIs.
Jamie Yaller also went 2 for 2, while she had one run scored.
Taylor Neumann got the win as she went a complete game game and gave up just six hits.
Moorpark moves to 20-8 on the season and remains the team to beat in the WSC.
Moorpark will move on to face off against Santa Barbara City College Thursday afternoon in a double header. Games are set to start at 1:00 p.m. and the next game set for 3:00 p.m.
Moorpark baseball struggles against VC
Only at Baja MOOrpark
Photo by Christian Randolph
Game winner–Moorpark’s No. 21 Taylor Neumann hit’s a double in the top of the eighth inning against Ventura scoring the game winner.
Josh Saylor Staff writer
Moorpark College lost a close fought battle Tuesday afternoon, 9-8 to the visiting Alan Hancock Bulldogs.
Alan Hancock came into Tuesday’s game with a 7-4 record in the Western State Conference-North and 14-11 overall, while Moorpark college came in with a 5-7 record in conference and 9-13 overall.
Every time one team went ahead the other teams would tie
the game back up during their next at bat. This game was decid-ed by the innings in which Moor-park College left a few runners in scoring position.
The starting pitcher for Moorpark Matt Montgomery went 5 innings giving up 3 runs . Allan Hancock’s starting pitch-er, Chance Daskaukas, was also shaky giving up 2 home runs, 6 runs, while throwing one wild pitch and hitting two batters.
First basemen Skyler Ellis also stood out going 2 for 3 with two doubles in the game.
Sports 9Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
Tim WeisbergStaff writer
The Moorpark College Raid-ers volleyball team pulled out the brooms and started sweep-ing, defeating Santa Barbara City College in three sets (30-24, 33-31, 30-21) Wednesday night at Moor-park Pavilion.
Coach Steve Burkhart was very pleased with his team’s per-formance tonight on the hard-wood.
“I’m proud of the way the kids responded,” Burkhart said. “We did a great job out there against an athletic team that did not quit.”
After tonight’s performance, Burkhart had every reason to be pleased with a team who came out to play. Sophomore leader and middle blocker Sean Martin had an outstanding performance with 19 blocks, along with six kills to lead the Raiders, while setter Adam Quinn had 26 assists and one ace.
Santa Barbara City College’s Max Acker deOliveira added seven kills and five blocks for the Vaqueros (4-7, 0-4 WSC) in a los-ing effort.
The Vaqueros had some fight in them, forcing the Raiders to spark comebacks in games one and two respectively. In game
one, SBCC took a 14-11 before the Raiders outscored them 13-7 to take a 24-21 lead. The Raid-ers sealed the deal with Chris Trauger’s block on a kill, win-ning the first match 30-24.
Moorpark College was put to the test in the second match, with Santa Barbara quickly gaining a 16-11 lead on Moorpark.
Once again, however, Moor-park stormed back cutting the lead to 17-16, and eventually ty-ing the game at 22 apiece. Adam Quinn’s tip-back over the net put the Raiders up 27-25, and an SBCC kill sailed out of bounds giving Moorpark a 33-31 victory in the second match.
In the third match, the Raid-ers stepped up their game, and did not hesitate to pull out their brooms and start sweeping. Moorpark jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead in the early going, but SBCC still had some fight in them.
The Vaqueros cut the lead to 17-13 and 20-16 respectively, but were never able to climb back any closer, falling 30-21 in the third match on a Jacob Haines kill.
Martin played a key inside presence, blocking many Santa Barbara attacks on the net.
The 6’ 9” Buena High gradu-ate was the first to compliment solid back row play for his suc-cess up front.
“The back row dug lots of balls for us,” Martin said. “We were able to pick it up in game three and pull out with the win.”
Burkhart noticed the brutal schedule coming up for Moor-park, which includes two road games at conference rivals Long Beach City College and L.A. Pierce, and feels this will be Moorpark’s true test for the sea-son.
“We have a brutal schedule coming up,” Burkhart said. “We have to respond and do a good job, which allows us the oppor-tunity to hopefully do the right things.”
Moorpark’s sweep over San-ta Barbara City College improved their record to 10-1, including a 3-1 mark in WSC play.
The Vaqueros lost their fourth straight game, falling to 4-7 on the season and still winless (0-4) in WSC play.
The Raiders begin their bru-tal schedule next week by travel-ing to Long Beach next Wednes-day, March 25, hoping to avenge their only conference loss of the season.
MC Volleyball has the upper hand
Geek Culture: Geek tries to write sportsBrennan WhitmoreNews editor
Yes, you read correctly. The resident geek, Brennan Whit-more, is writing the sports col-umn.
For the April edition of the Student Voice, we decided to switch up the writers of the two columns, so yours truly is ana-lyzing this strange and wonder-ful beast called “sports.”
The “sport” I tried to get through is called “Base-ket-ball,” this particular game being be-tween the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns.
I was surprised to see that,
in addition to once being a me-diocre rapper and Oscar worthy actor, Shaquille O’Neal tried his hand at professional “Base-ket-ball.” From what I can see he was pretty good, and even made a free throw shot. Apparently this only happens once every new moon usually, so good for him.
Shaq was, as sport journos say, “dominating” the competi-tion by driving it to the “hole” repeatedly.
You could also say that this was directly related to them win-ning the game with a score of 118 to 114, possibly even contributing to that score. It’s hard to tell, and the world may never know.
The rules to “Base-ket-ball” seem to be a variant of soccer, ex-cept with the goals suspended in the air and a strict rule against the use of feet, as opposed to soccer’s hatred of hands.
I’m told several sports are similar to soccer, particularly hockey.
This confused me greatly, as I mistook hockey for the sport where men on horseback attempt to lasso midgets and then stack them, with the team that creates the tallest midget totem achiev-ing victory.
This sport, as it turns out, doesn’t exist, and for that the world is a poorer place.
Going back to the game, I was drawn in to the final moments, with the two teams desperate to drive it to the “hole.” The display of ferocity and pure athleticism was exciting, and I found my-self rooting for Utah to “drive it home” and take the game.
They lost, and with that de-feat I took a moment to reflect on this crazy experiment.
I don’t have any clue what happened, and I don’t even know if I enjoyed it, but either way I can respect David Lopez even more for regularly making sense of this insanity.
The Student Voice makes the call on who will march home championsDavid Lopez
I sit here today debating about which is the most qualified team to take home the national title.
What it really comes down to is who is willing to to play the best basketball when it counts at the beginning of April.
To me it is very obvious that University of Connecticut is go-ing to over power Michigan State and that North Carolina will take out Villanova.
I think the game to watch is going to be North Carolina and Villanova only because UConn is going to take care of Michigan State with no real problem.
Hasheem Thabeet is def-finately the reason behind this. UConn’s 7’3’’ center really gives any team a struggle.
He is simply way too big and strong for the rest of the league. This helps give UConn the domi-nance.
I do think that North Caroli-na is going to battle it out against Villanova but in the end North Carolina will be stronger and faster paced behind All-Ameri-can Tyler Hansbrough and point guard Ty Lawson.
It will be interesting to see how the Tar Heals can hold up if something were to happen to him.
I predict that the UConn Huskies will go home national champs. They are an extremely well rounded basketball team and basketball program which is built around a solid big man game.
The Huskies are 31-4 go-ing into the final four and I have them leaving the tournament be-ing 33-4.
Tim Weisberg
The University of Con-necticut basketball team remains among one of the elite programs in college basketball.
Led by legendary coach Jim Calhoun the UConn Huskies are certainly the team to beat in this year’s Final Four.
The Huskies look to recap-ture the title, which is something they have not done since future NBA star Omeka Okeafor lead the team to a title in 2004.
The Huskies run a power-ful offense under All-Big East guard A.J. Price, and have one of the most feared shot-blockers at Center, 7’ 3” Tanzanian Hasheem Thabeet.
With the double-threat on offense and defense the Huskies look better overall to the other teams in the Final Four.
The main concern for them would be North Carolina who have the potential to be danger-ous with a healthy Ty Lawson and Senior All-American Tyler Hansbrough.
North Carolina has been in-consistent over the past few tour-nament games however and has proven they play much worse without Ty Lawson at the helm.
Surprisingly the past two years have seen all the number one seeds advance to the Final Four with the exception of 3-seed Villanova and 2-seed Michigan State.
March Madness will not be an upset city like it was in recent years.
At 31-4, the Huskies look better than ever and will further prove their conference was the strongest overall. They deserve to be .the best team in college.
Josh Saylor
The NCAA Tournament is down to the final four teams: Michigan State, North Carolina, Connecticut, and Villanova.
All four of the teams are ca-pable of beating any college team on any given day, though one team seems to stick out as the team of destiny.
The number three ranked Villanova Wildcats seem to be the team that no one has had any answers for and the way they play will present a matchup nightmare for any of their future opponents.
Villanova will be taking on the number one seeded North Carolina Tarheels this Saturday in the Final Four.
Despite the fact that Presi-dent Obama has picked North Carolina to win the champion-ship Villanovais the team that will put the final dagger into the President’s bracket.
North Carolina’s one major weakness is their lack of defense which could potentially end their season.
Villanova is going to run, run, and then run some more.
Anyone who watched the Phoenix Suns a few years back when Steve Nash was winning the MVP awards will be familiar with the style that Villanova will bring to the court.
No one can keep up with Vil-lanova by running along with them.
I am going to take the high road and be the only one out of the three to not pick UConn and go with Villanova to be the team raising the NCAA trophy for the first time since 1985. It will be a solid finish.
Photo by Randy PhenningGoinG up–Moorpark volleyball No. 12 Chris Trauger spikes the ball against SBCC.
Sports10Student Voice • VCCCD •April 1, 2009
The WBC will become a staple for the sport in timeDavid LopezSports editor
Uruguay hosted the first FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in 1954, and the cup has become a staple in any soccer fans life.
But some sports don’t have their world-wide tournament, but we can take baseball off of the list.
The World Baseball Classic started 2006, when the inaugural WBC was won by Japan. Three years later, at Dodger Stadium, Japan claimed the world cham-pion once more, making them a dominant force in the baseball world. But for some reason fans are still bickering and saying that this system isn’t good enough for them.
All I want to do is shed some
light on why this boring sport needs this classic for its benefit.
Baseball has just been taken out of the Olympics, and there is nothing that can be changed about that.
If you ever found the time to sit through an Olympic base-ball game then you know what I’m talking about when I use the word mediocre to describe the level of play.
But you can’t blame the MLB for not wanting to give up their players. They are chasing the playoffs and something that re-ally matters for something. With the ridiculous amount of money that general mangers are paying for their players there is no way that a team will send their player off in the middle of the summer while they are in the hunt for a playoff berth.
The WBC really does benefit the teams though if you look at it from an outsider’s perspective. Players are now allowed to get back into the swing of things on a competitive baseball field instead of hitting off a little soft toss.
The WBC is not a joke and it
does not hurt teams. I think it is about time that people take a step back and realize that this classic is a benefit for not only the MLB but for baseball as a whole.
If you got a chance to watch the championship match up fea-turing Korea and Japan then you got to see how loud Dodger Sta-dium really was.
The thunder sticks did con-tribute a lot, but between shots back to the stadium in the South Korea game, it was then that I realized that this was so much more then just a game.
T h e W o r l d B a s e b a l l Classic can and will grow into a baseball t o u r n a m e n t rivaling the likes of the World Cup, and I am excited to watch it grow.
World Baseball Classic: Good for the game or not?The WBC does not reflect the best of the best in baseballJosh SaylorStaff writer
The World Base-ball Classic was
hoping to bring a display of
the world’s g r e a t e s t p l a y e r s and com-petition, in the s p o r t known as America’s
pass time.T h e
problem is that the World
Baseball Clas-sic was developed
to display the top talent
from every eligible country in the world.
However, we still have not seen the best players in baseball, and we will never see the top players grace us with their pres-ence in the WBC.
It is simple to understand why baseball would want a na-tional tournament.
The World Baseball Classic is struggling to attract the top tal-ent that each nation has to offer, which is especially obvious in the American roster.
For example, pitchers C.C. Sabathia and last year’s Ameri-can League C.Y. Young Award winner Cliff Lee had no desire to participate in the tournament.
It is understandable that baseball needs a world tourna-ment, especially after being ex-iled from the Olympics.
The problem is that at least in the Olympics the players have something to prove.
Most of those players are trying to impress Major League teams in order to continue play-ing baseball.
The World Baseball Classic
is only a competition which is taking away from these players getting ready for their respective seasons.
The WBC and spring train-ing are two different activities.
The problem is the WBC is used as spring training. If a player is not ready to play, they should not be playing in a world competition.
Davey Johnson, the manger for team USA this past classic, did just that.
He would put players into the game just because they need-ed their work.
This is not a sign that win-ning is the main goal. If you want to win a tournament you treat it like a World Series.
You play the individuals who give you the best chance to win.
The World Baseball Classic is loved by nations like Japan and Korea. Here in America, the World Baseball Classic is the World Series.
After all, we invented the game of baseball we do not need to win a tournament to show our contributions.
The Ventura Fusion makes preparations for a new seasonBrittany Remnet Nina LoCelso Patrick Moreno William DerrickVC Bureau writers
With the semi-professional men’s 2009 soccer season starting in one month, Ventura County’s resident team is stepping up its
practices and getting ready to set its roster for the season.
The Ventura County Fusion, one of ten teams in the Premier Development League’s South-west Division, practices in VC’s new stadium.
The team’s goal is to have its home games all held at VC by next season, said Brian Nowa-kowski, the team’s assistant gen-eral manager.
The third set of tryouts for the upcoming soccer season was scheduled for March 20 and 21 at the college, but was canceled due to weather conditions.
The players signed up for those days will be invited to join the team in the first practices of March 31 and April 7 Nowa-kowski said.
The National Collegiate Ath-letic Association (NCAA) rules state that no players from NCAA colleges and universities can practice or be assigned to teams until May 1, just after the season begins, Nowakoski said.
Due to the NCAA rules, key players were absent in the team’s charity game against Chivas USA on March 1, said Ross Greaney, one of Fusion’s assistant coaches
and Oxnard College’s head soc-cer coach.
All of the game’s proceeds went to the Michael Hoefflin Foundation to fight children’s cancer.
“That’s the best part,” said Greaney. “Whatever we can do to help, everybody wins.”
Chivas USA brought out its first string in the game and won 4-0.
“There were roughly 3,000 people and between $12,000 to $15,000 revenue, though the foundation has yet to make an official statement,” Nowakoski
said, quoting a source from in-side of the foundation.
The team’s roster will be set right before the first game, with about 20 to 25 players on the training squad.
Fusion can activate any 18 players for each game.
“The 18 can vary depending on the week and how well each player performed during the practice,” Nowakoski said.
There can be a total of 26 players on the team roster, and Nowakoski said Fusion can add and drop players at any point throughout the season.
Fusion officials expect to have 11 to 12 returning players this season.
A couple of players are re-turning from other years be-cause they were cut from a Major League Soccer team after the past season.
Bryan Byrne formerly played for the New England Revolution and Johnny Alcarez of Westmont was formerly with the Houston Dynamo.
Anthony Hamilton, who was with Chivas USA, is also consid-ering returning to the world of Fusion soccer.
Semi-pro team calls VC a home away from home
–Pro–> –Con–>
Sports10Student Voice • VCCCD •April 1, 2009
The WBC will become a staple for the sport in timeDavid LopezSports editor
Uruguay hosted the first FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in 1954, and the cup has become a staple in any soccer fans life.
But some sports don’t have their world-wide tournament, but we can take baseball off of the list.
The World Baseball Classic started 2006, when the inaugural WBC was won by Japan. Three years later, at Dodger Stadium, Japan claimed the world cham-pion once more, making them a dominant force in the baseball world. But for some reason fans are still bickering and saying that this system isn’t good enough for them.
All I want to do is shed some
light on why this boring sport needs this classic for its benefit.
Baseball has just been taken out of the Olympics, and there is nothing that can be changed about that.
If you ever found the time to sit through an Olympic base-ball game then you know what I’m talking about when I use the word mediocre to describe the level of play.
But you can’t blame the MLB for not wanting to give up their players. They are chasing the playoffs and something that re-ally matters for something. With the ridiculous amount of money that general mangers are paying for their players there is no way that a team will send their player off in the middle of the summer while they are in the hunt for a playoff berth.
The WBC really does benefit the teams though if you look at it from an outsider’s perspective. Players are now allowed to get back into the swing of things on a competitive baseball field instead of hitting off a little soft toss.
The WBC is not a joke and it
does not hurt teams. I think it is about time that people take a step back and realize that this classic is a benefit for not only the MLB but for baseball as a whole.
If you got a chance to watch the championship match up fea-turing Korea and Japan then you got to see how loud Dodger Sta-dium really was.
The thunder sticks did con-tribute a lot, but between shots back to the stadium in the South Korea game, it was then that I realized that this was so much more then just a game.
T h e W o r l d B a s e b a l l Classic can and will grow into a baseball t o u r n a m e n t rivaling the likes of the World Cup, and I am excited to watch it grow.
World Baseball Classic: Good for the game or not?The WBC does not reflect the best of the best in baseballJosh SaylorStaff writer
The World Base-ball Classic was
hoping to bring a display of
the world’s g r e a t e s t p l a y e r s and com-petition, in the s p o r t known as America’s
pass time.T h e
problem is that the World
Baseball Clas-sic was developed
to display the top talent
from every eligible country in the world.
However, we still have not seen the best players in baseball, and we will never see the top players grace us with their pres-ence in the WBC.
It is simple to understand why baseball would want a na-tional tournament.
The World Baseball Classic is struggling to attract the top tal-ent that each nation has to offer, which is especially obvious in the American roster.
For example, pitchers C.C. Sabathia and last year’s Ameri-can League C.Y. Young Award winner Cliff Lee had no desire to participate in the tournament.
It is understandable that baseball needs a world tourna-ment, especially after being ex-iled from the Olympics.
The problem is that at least in the Olympics the players have something to prove.
Most of those players are trying to impress Major League teams in order to continue play-ing baseball.
The World Baseball Classic
is only a competition which is taking away from these players getting ready for their respective seasons.
The WBC and spring train-ing are two different activities.
The problem is the WBC is used as spring training. If a player is not ready to play, they should not be playing in a world competition.
Davey Johnson, the manger for team USA this past classic, did just that.
He would put players into the game just because they need-ed their work.
This is not a sign that win-ning is the main goal. If you want to win a tournament you treat it like a World Series.
You play the individuals who give you the best chance to win.
The World Baseball Classic is loved by nations like Japan and Korea. Here in America, the World Baseball Classic is the World Series.
After all, we invented the game of baseball we do not need to win a tournament to show our contributions.
The Ventura Fusion makes preparations for a new seasonBrittany Remnet Nina LoCelso Patrick Moreno William DerrickVC Bureau writers
With the semi-professional men’s 2009 soccer season starting in one month, Ventura County’s resident team is stepping up its
practices and getting ready to set its roster for the season.
The Ventura County Fusion, one of ten teams in the Premier Development League’s South-west Division, practices in VC’s new stadium.
The team’s goal is to have its home games all held at VC by next season, said Brian Nowa-kowski, the team’s assistant gen-eral manager.
The third set of tryouts for the upcoming soccer season was scheduled for March 20 and 21 at the college, but was canceled due to weather conditions.
The players signed up for those days will be invited to join the team in the first practices of March 31 and April 7 Nowa-kowski said.
The National Collegiate Ath-letic Association (NCAA) rules state that no players from NCAA colleges and universities can practice or be assigned to teams until May 1, just after the season begins, Nowakoski said.
Due to the NCAA rules, key players were absent in the team’s charity game against Chivas USA on March 1, said Ross Greaney, one of Fusion’s assistant coaches
and Oxnard College’s head soc-cer coach.
All of the game’s proceeds went to the Michael Hoefflin Foundation to fight children’s cancer.
“That’s the best part,” said Greaney. “Whatever we can do to help, everybody wins.”
Chivas USA brought out its first string in the game and won 4-0.
“There were roughly 3,000 people and between $12,000 to $15,000 revenue, though the foundation has yet to make an official statement,” Nowakoski
said, quoting a source from in-side of the foundation.
The team’s roster will be set right before the first game, with about 20 to 25 players on the training squad.
Fusion can activate any 18 players for each game.
“The 18 can vary depending on the week and how well each player performed during the practice,” Nowakoski said.
There can be a total of 26 players on the team roster, and Nowakoski said Fusion can add and drop players at any point throughout the season.
Fusion officials expect to have 11 to 12 returning players this season.
A couple of players are re-turning from other years be-cause they were cut from a Major League Soccer team after the past season.
Bryan Byrne formerly played for the New England Revolution and Johnny Alcarez of Westmont was formerly with the Houston Dynamo.
Anthony Hamilton, who was with Chivas USA, is also consid-ering returning to the world of Fusion soccer.
Semi-pro team calls VC a home away from home
–Pro–> –Con–>
Opinion 11Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
Timothy WeisbergStaff writer
In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s current budget plan that cuts another $4 billion in education, it sure makes it difficult to offer programs at community colleges outside of the general education curriculum.
According to financial re-ports, the Ventura County Com-munity College District alone had to cut an estimated $7.8 mil-lion for the Spring 2009 semester, which also meant a 2% cut in classes offered at the colleges.
Students are now offered fewer programs outside of the general education curriculum.
The price of tuition remained the same, because that is a state government decision, said Exec-utive Vice President of Moorpark College Brenda Shubert.
Despite the cuts in funding, Shubert was confident in the fact that VCCCD colleges would con-tinue to offer programs that are outside of the general education curriculum.
“We will continue to work on our program development that
will support the needs of our stu-dents and the community,” Shu-bert said.
Although general educa-tion courses will continue to be offered, classes with low-enroll-ment that could meet the needs of students in terms of their career may be cut, denying students the opportunity to gain experiences in the field.
Many classes that were non-academic in nature were cut from all three schools in the spring 2009 semester.
A late-start work experience class, four beginning golf classes, and both the beginning and in-termediate martial arts classes at Moorpark College were cut.
At Oxnard College, there were cuts in Occupational Edu-cation programs that helped pre-pare students for menial labor jobs, cutting an automotive brake systems class and an air condi-tioning and refrigeration class.
Ventura College cancelled a fundamentals of yoga class, which was another non-academ-ic class cancelled due to low-en-rollment.
Students aware of the recent
cuts feel that they come at an in-opportune time, when there is a large pool of students seeking the same education.
Melissa Diaz, 19, is an unde-clared major who feels the situa-tion is unfortunate.
“I think it is a bad situation in terms of the recent budget cuts,” Diaz said. “People are go-ing to be out of some classes they want.”
Cameron Calderon, 18, is an undeclared major at Moorpark College who believes the recent cuts will motivate students to sign up for classes early, know-ing there is a higher demand for them.
“People are going to be less hesitant on registering for class-es,” Calderon said. “With less classes offered, more people are going to be motivated to pick out their classes ahead of time.”
Although Moorpark College has taken strides to continue to offer students general education classes that meet transfer re-quirements, students are forced to take an initiative in register-ing for classes, knowing there are fewer classes available.
Budget cuts galore
Student Voice7075 Campus Rd.
Moorpark, CA 93021phone: 805-378-1552
fax: 805-378-1438
EditorSean Greene
Managing editorJeremy Zeller
News editorRyan Krebs
Brennan Whitmore
Ventura Bureau chiefJack Sanchez
Opinion editorMichael Fields
Features editorEric Lee
A&E editorKatie Yates
Sports editorDavid Lopez
Photo editorRandy Phenning
Editorial artistRobbie Eich
Staff writersMatthew CliftHannah Coyle Hannah DaveyStefanie Katz
Rochelle LeahyKen McWaidRob Ortega
Travis PerkinsJosh Saylor
Franz Tinio-Lopez Tim Weisberg
PhotographersJonathan Castillo
Paul RoushEric SenzigTony Sintic
Advertising [email protected]
AdviserJoanna Miller
In Print and OnlineStudentvoiceonline.com
Send letters to:[email protected]
Video games aren’t for sports guysDavid LopezSports editor
I should preface this column with the cold hard facts: I know nothing about video games, and I have absolutely no desire to change that.
But how closed minded would it be for me to shun the idea of not trying something new, so I am throwing caution to the wind and trying out this game that our crazy News Edi-tor, Brennan Whitmore, gave to me.
He is more commonly known as the resident geek.
He gave me the option of three games I could try and this game, Katamari Damacy, caught my attention immediately.
I think it might have had something to do with the fact that there were cows sitting on the cover, with a massive ball of random things piling on top of each other, and to top it off a rain-bow stretching over a mountain covered with snow at the tip.
So, when the game started it went through the regular Play-Station start up process, but then something unfamiliar happened.
A video started and it didn’t have sports or anything. It had something completely to the con-trary, a drug trip.
I find it hard to describe my true emotions of what went on.
All I can really remember is the video takes place in the sky, and then there is something with cows and then a big wrecking ball of city comes through a farm, which now that I think about is much like the front cover of the game.
Ridiculous is all I can really say about that. But I get to what I thought was the main menu, and it starts. With no warning I was already playing the game.
Maybe I am asking just a lit-tle too much for wanting a little heads up before I get into wast-ing away my youth.
So it takes me immediately into a game tutorial, where some guy with a crown pops up and tells me that I have to roll a ball around and pick up random things.
I somehow got through the tutorial and thought to myself, “ok maybe the game will get bet-ter.”
As I’m sure you have figured out by now I had no such luck.
I played the game for five minutes and could not figure out what I was supposed to be do-ing.
In anguish, frustration and defeat I was forced to put the controller down, I could no lon-ger continue.
I don’t know how some of you get pleasure from this. You know what?
I’m going to go play Mad-den NFL. Maybe that will treat me better.
YouTube to fight copyright infringementRyan KrebsNews editor
When I am completing my homework and surfing the web, I like to listen to some music to pass the time.
I quite often like to listen to songs on YouTube. Hey, it’s free. However, when trying to find some songs under the Warner Bros. label on the site, none came up. It turns out that YouTube, with Warner Bro’s. urging, has removed all videos they deem “copyright infringements” with their songs on the video site. Even videos of say, someone dancing
with a Warner Bros. song in the background, or a user-made re-mix of a song via Warner Records are infringements in the label’s eyes.
The violating videos have been either removed from You-Tube or have been stripped of their sound. I think that this is unfair for many. I bet that many, if not most artists under the War-ner Bros. label do not care one way or another if their music is on YouTube.
For one, being on the video site generates more publicity. Many of the most viewed videos on YouTube are music videos,
with over 100 million views.When one listens and sees
these videos, they will most like-ly want to either buy a CD of the band, or purchase the songs on iTunes, generating revenue for the artist and Warner Bros. And
if those out there get their songs off of LimeWire or file-sharing sites, the newly-minted (thanks to YouTube) fans will probably buy band merchandise, and/or see the artist on tour. This in turn creates more revenues for the la-bels.
Therefore, although Warner Bros. may loose money in the short run by allowing their artist’s songs to be on YouTube, they will most likely make more money in the long run due to the forms of revenue mentioned above.
As the cliché goes, we are en-tering a new age of multimedia, and record labels must go with
the flow. Just because the music is no longer available on YouTube does not mean that fans will opt to pay for their music. Many will find other ways to get their tunes for free.
I challenge Warner Bros. to allow their videos to remain on YouTube, for the sake of the fans, and for creative rights of those who use these songs to make other videos. Indeed, many other labels have their music videos on the site, and they have millions of views.
It may even bring the labels some extra revenue in the pro-cess.
Dear Editor,
I found your 18 March editorial “Student Gov’t: Be careful what you run for” to be appallingly inaccurate and embarrassing betrayal of an organization that has contributed over $5000 to your newspa-per and its staff this year. Furthermore, this article is riddled with unbelievably basic mistakes: Director of Budget and Finance Andrew Garcia is reported to be the “Director of Business and Finance”, and Director Rachna Arhi’s name appears fully three times in the article as “Ari”. The article’s authors, whose names are mysteriously miss-ing, have managed to convince themselves that they are writing a fair article by injecting half a column of praise in the middle of a six-col-umn berating of the Associated Students’ officers and advisers. I will never know what has possessed you to allow such a vicious attack of one of the newspaper’s biggest backers over the last few years to be printed, but I hope you understand the long-term ramifications it may have.
Regards,
James H. PilkingtonVice PresidentAssociated Students
Please attach my name to this letter when you publish it; unlike the “journalists” authoring this article, I stand by my words.
–Letter to the
editor–> CorreCtionsIn the March 18 editorial, “Student Gov’t: Be careful what you run for,” the Director of Student Organizations Rachna Arhi’s name was misspelled. Andrew Garcia, Director of Budget and Finance, was incorrectly identified as the Director of Busi-ness and Finance. In the article, the A.S. was characterized as performing “inadequately” when it should have said “satisfac-tory.”
In the March 18 story “Moorpark Associated Students ‘dropped the ball,’” A.S. President Sara Yakhi’s name was misspelled.
The Back Page12Student Voice • VCCCD • April 1, 2009
Life
Aft
erD
eath
Kicking the bucket, buying the farm, taking a dirt nap, turning into worm chow, a deep deep deep deep coma, sleeping with the fishes, becoming a future potential zombie. Whatever you want to call it, it is certain that all of us will die. But what is uncertain, is what happens after we die.
Artwork by Jacob Whitmore
Afterlives, etc...If you could choose your afterlife what would it be?
chillin’ in heAvenAccording to Christian dogma, lead an honest life and maybe you’ll be kickin’ it with Morgan Freeman.
Burnin’ in hellBut watch out because if you screw up, you’ll go to Hell where this guy is your boss.
wAkkA wAkkA wAkkAMaybe spending eternity as a ghost is more your style. But it isn’t all fun and games. When the yellow pizza eats the big dot, get outta there as quick as you can.
recycling soulsSometimes you come back as a gerbil. Sometimes you come back as a badger. Sometimes you’re better off dead.
nothingNothing. Absolutely nothing.
ometimes death sneaks up on us like a fuzzy, little kitten and then pounce. Other times, it will slam on the door,
shout and huff and puff it’s way in. But what’s certain is that until my vigilant search for the Foun-tain of Youth pays off, we will all die. And for as long as we’ve been dying, our creative little minds have come up with fun little stories about what happens after we die. Whether those sto-ries are true is debatable and is a cause for a lot of the squabble in the world. But nobody can argue that death is universal and some version of an afterlife is apparent in all cultures.
“The idea that individual con-sciousness perishes with death is resisted by the human mind, and, of course, many people be-lieve there is evidence that some aspect of a human being does survive death,” said Dr. Linda Kamaila, anthropology professor at Oxnard College. “Whatever it is that survives death is talked about with respect and, often, awe or fear in most cultures.”
In such a diverse world, peo-ple have come up with all sorts of theories as to what happens in the afterlife, ranging from re-incarnation to absolutely noth-ing. Professors from all fields and students have differing views on what happens in the afterlife even in this post modern society where religion has somewhat tak-en a less important role in many American lives to be replaced by Tom Cruise and American Idol.
“I believe in reincarnation, I guess,” said Kelley Warren, 18, an undecided major. “I just think it’s a good philosophy, and I also feel like I’ve been here before, like I had other lives, I guess.”
According to Kamaila, the view of reincarnation is the most common. Which makes you wonder; what would it be like to be reincarnated as a tapeworm? I think it’d be kind of cool. There’s a very backwards and quiet pride in being a total mooch and com-pletely living off another person.
The second most common is that there are other worlds and dimensions that a soul goes to. This is most relevant in this country as the form of Christian-ity and the belief of heaven and hell. In this after death scenario, our souls will have the chance of chilling with Gandhi, Moth-er Theresa and Superman. But watch out because you might be punished with the experience of eternal jury duty or reaching for a cookie jar just out of reach for the rest of time. But even in Christi-anity, there are debates about the specifics of heaven and hell. For example, whether all dogs go to Heaven or not is still a subject of heated discussion.
Others have an even more transcendental view of life after death.
“I believe there is a conscious-ness that is universal,” said Nick Moya, 22, a global studies major. “ [When you die] you release a universal resonance, and you be-come one with the universe.”
In this post-modern era, less and less people believe in an af-terlife. According to Kamaila, we may try to, but find it difficult.
“Your body begins to decom-pose. I just believe that is biologi-cally what happens,” said Ryan Gerrard, 21, a psychology major. “I haven’t seen or read anything to make me think otherwise.”
Whether or not a belief in an afterlife is necessary or unneces-sary in today’s world is a source of debate. Even those that believe in an afterlife argue over the spe-cifics. But it doesn’t matter. The fact that humans have a spiritu-ality makes us unique from the rest of life on Earth. We are imag-inative enough to question what happens after death and that is just one of the many mysteries of this universe that humans won-der about.
SBy Eric Lee