spring 2015 - issue three

ISSUE 33/12/15-3/25/15

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INSTAGRAM@thecrcconnectionStudent voice of CRC since 1970

New Art Exhibition Comic book themed exhibit

opens at campus galleryFeatures, Page 7

VaccinationsThe importance of making

an informed decisionOpinion, Page 8

Women’s Basketball Season ends on a low note

due to lack of leadershipSports, 1

Math TutoringProgram being

underutilized by studentsNews, Page 3

See Page 2

Student activists march on the Capitol

Stephanie Lopez | The Connection

March 12, 2015

>>News

California students march for education

As students and fac-ulty from commu-nity colleges all

over California gathered for the annual March in March in downtown Sacramento, some-thing was amiss.

The usual pre-march ral-ly in Raley Field’s parking lot did not take place. Instead, students trickled onto the state Capitol’s doorstep, gath-ering into a small crowd that prepared to march on the Cal-ifornia Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

A march that, because of several hurdles, almost didn’t happen at all.

“It was a rash decision made by the student council to decide not to have a march,” said Keith Montes, president of the Associated Students of Diablo Valley College. “Unfor-tunately, because word did get out that there was no march, attendance, the turnout, is the lowest I’ve ever seen. It’s diffi-cult to call something a March in March, and try to get people to understand that there’s no march in a March in March.”

The cancellation was caused by the state defund-ing specific preparations that would have made the march possible, as well as the Student Senate for California Commu-nity Colleges deeming a rally at the Capitol more viable than a full march, Montes said.

“It was a specific line item towards this march,” said Mary Valdemar, a library sec-retary for San Bernardino Val-ley College.

“So we’re very saddened to hear that support is not in place from the chancellors and that the board of governors is not demanding that,” she said.

Despite the cancellation of the march, Montes pushed to put one together.

“I got word that the SSC-CC was no longer facilitating a march,” Montes said. “So that was disheartening … but I was able to still organize a march today.”

Students said they were pleased the march did end up taking place, and some said they’re looking for change that they feel is needed at the com-munity college level.

“I’m just hoping we can get our point across as stu-dents to get some change to come along,” said Jose Gar-cia, 19, a journalism major at

American River College. “Because we need some

change, it’s time to improve things,” he said.

Kimberly Miller, a 42-year-old human services major from SBVC, agreed and said that she just wanted leg-islators to hear out student is-sues.

After marching to the CCCCO building, students from all over took turns shar-ing their educational expe-riences and the things they hoped to see changed.

“I’m here because even though we have a Board of Governors fee waiver, which is extremely useful for paying for student tuition, I’m paying over $200 for my class text-books,” said Cameron Weav-er, senate director of public relations for ARC.

“How is that public tui-tion going to help me when I’m shelling out a fortune for class materials,” he said.

Vice Chancellor of Califor-nia Community Colleges Paul Feist came out to speak to the chanting crowd.

“The people in this build-ing, in the chancellor’s office, advocate every day on be-half of students,” Feist said. “When you people come from six hours away, and you show

Nick Valenzuela | The Connection

By Stephanie Lopez & Nick [email protected]

Students hold various signs in support of education as they march downtown for California’s annual March in March event on March 2. The march was noticeably smaller than other years.


Robert Espinoza, of Santa Monica College, delivers a passionate speech in front of the California Community College Chancellor’s Office in down-town Sacramento, the first stop during the March in March.

up in the lawmakers’ of-fices there, they see your face [and] it’s a very powerful mes-sage.”

After Feist’s speech to the crowd, Montes led a march back to the Capitol, where students were told how to push California’s legislatures to make educational reforms.

“I want to bring up ethnic studies and how that pertains to higher education,” said Ja-son Martinez, history major at SBVC. “[In Los Angeles,] they didn’t just make it possible, they made it mandatory for people to graduate, for people to take ethnic studies. I think that’s what we need through the state of California.”

Speakers addressed topics as broad as overall education-al funding reform as well as specific issues many individ-uals had faced, including re-

form of Proposition 13 to help disabled students and finan-cial aid reform.

“The tuition for your classes is too high,” said Cathy Johnson, 40, an occupa-tional therapy assistant major at ARC.

“If you want to keep your students you have to make it

so that people can afford to go. I know people that want to go back to school, but won’t because it’s too high,” he said.

The lesbian, gay, bisexu-al, transgender, questioning, intersex and asexual caucus was also there advocating for transgender rights at the com-munity college level.

“Today what we’re doing is [promoting] trans rights and we’re visiting with legis-lators this afternoon especially one of the newest ones,” said Gary Walker, 38, the director

of advocacy of the spectrum caucus.

“We’re meeting with Sen. Ricardo Lara, Assemblymem-ber Susan Eggmen and As-semblymember Evan Low,” he said.

Though the crowd was smaller than prior years, Mar-tinez praised the students who did come together.

“We didn’t need permits, we didn’t need months of planning,” Martinez said.

“We made a march in about five minutes and I want everyone here to be proud of themselves for that,” he said.

As the attendees prepared to leave, Montes had one last piece of advice for students looking to make a change.

“I want actual change and I want it today, I want it now and don’t try to censor me,” Montes said. “We want it now. Don’t get pushed around and [you] don’t always have to be polite to make a change. We demand. Power is never giv-en, it’s only taken. Take back the power, power to the peo-ple.”

thecrcconnection.com

Campus crime brief

Scan this QR code to check out our March in March video.

“ I want actual change and I want it today ... We want it now. Don’t get pushed around and [you] don’t always have to be polite to make a change. We demand. Power is never given, it’s only taken. Take back the power, power to the people.”

-- Keith MontesAssociated students of Diablo Valley College president


Keith Montes stands at the doorstep of the California State Capitol building as he gives a speech to marchers about demanding change from representatives. Montes’s speech was met with applause from attendees.

Students must pass math courses in order to graduate from college. Unbeknownst to many students, Cosumnes River College offers a math tutoring service for students regardless of major or educa-tional goal.

Drop-in tutoring is of-fered in the Math Center in room 205 and is located in the Learning Resource Center on campus. Tutoring is available Monday through Thursday 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Fridays.

What makes this tutoring service so helpful is that it is run and mostly supervised by students, so all of the tu-tors are students’ peers. Each tutor teaches up to their com-fortable level of math and is also trained by other math instructors on campus, said Phuong Le, a math professor at CRC.

“I always encourage stu-dents of any level to make a habit of studying in the math center,” Le said. “I always recommend students come regularly.”

Students who regularly attend the math lab show im-provements over the semester on their quizzes, homework and exams, but a problem oc-curs when students neglect the service all semester long

and only attend tutoring days before an exam, Le said.

“There are especially a lot of students around midterms and finals,” said Hung Vu, a 23-year-old computer science major and math center tutor. “It is better to get an early start and not wait until an exam or test to get help.”

Students of one of CRC’s Math 100 classes said work and other priorities take up a lot of valuable time. Many said they do not have the time during the day to attend the set tutoring hours but they would like to attend more reg-ularly if the service proved to be helpful.

“Sometimes, younger students work more, so their schedules won’t allow them to attend,” Le said.

On average, most stu-dents attending the math cen-ter’s tutoring hours are over 30 years old, said Vien Bui, a 22-year-old mechanical engi-neering major and tutor.

“I would say about seven out of every 10 students I help are older than 30,” Bui said. “The lab is open for everyone. Sometimes younger people understand or can figure it out for themselves, the older people need more help under-standing.”

For now, the tutoring ser-vice is being used by enough students on campus to keep it around.

By Tim [email protected]

Campus tutoring goes underutilized

Cosumnes River College police are on the lookout for several suspects following two separate incidents.

According to a crim bul-letin released March 10, a student was assaulted and robbed at 8:20 p.m.

According to the bulletin, “a student was approached by four Black males and one East Indian male.”

The suspects pushed the victim to the ground, kicked him and stole his shoes, cell-phones and wallet.

In a separate incident, ccording to a crime bulletin released by the police depart-ment on March 4, a male sus-pect slapped a female in the face following an argument at

7:10 p.m.The suspect was described

as an African-American male who is “approximately 5- feet- 8 inches tall and weighing about 120 pounds,” and was last seen wearing a black and white pom-pom beanie and a bright colored backpack, ac-cording to the crime bulletin.

The police department advises students travel with another person and walk and park in well-lit areas if they must travel at night, accord-ing to the bulletin.

Students who have any information regarding this incident are encouraged to contact the Los Rios Police Department at (916) 558-2221.

The CRC police could not be reached for comment at the time of the article’s publica-tion.

By Nick [email protected]

THECRCCONNECTION.COMPAGE 4

The stroke rate is rising among young adults, even higher than that of people of advanced age, according to an article from the Sacramento Bee.

Statistics show that strokes are declining by more than 25 percent for people older than 45, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention.

However, from 1994 through 2007 it is shown that the rate of ischemic stroke went up by 47 percent for men ages 33 to 44 and 37 percent for women of the same age. For men in their ear-ly 20’s it boosted up to more than 50 percent.

The causes of the ischemic stroke, the most common kind of stroke, all point to the same causes such as high cholesterol and blood pressure, diabe-tes and obesity.

“High blood pressure increases your chances of not only a stroke but a heart att ack, kidney disease and oth-

er life-threatening illnesses,” said Fran Koschesk, a nurse at Cosumnes River College. “Anyone can get it.”

Koschesk said that the pill can also cause strokes.

“Taking birth control pills will in-crease their risks of a stroke. The hor-

mones are aff ected and can cause blood clots, but it is rare,” said Koschesk.

Ischemic strokes account for al-most 87 percent of 795,000 strokes that Americans suff er each year, according to the CDC.

According to the American Stroke Association, stroke is the number four leading cause of death in the United

States, killing nearly 129,000 people per year with someone dying every four minutes.

“People should change their di-ets,” said Kathy Mendoza, 22, a history major. “It [strokes] can happen to any-one.”

Mendoza said she recommends students go vegan to help prevent such health problems.

While research has found out what causes stroke, students may not have the time to reduce the chances of hav-ing it.

“I feel kind of sad that younger people are gett ing it, but most of it is

on how we eat,” said Kimberly Vang, 18, an undeclared major.

“We are tight on schedule so we wouldn’t have the time to exercise,” she said.

While the numbers seem very high and alarming, there are other factors that play into obesity and other illness-es that could lead to a stroke.

“Expansion of fast food and the low cost of junk food” seems to be a huge factor, said Alan Vu, 21, a health major.

Koschesk suggests students have a healthy diet, drink water, get plenty of sleep, avoid drinking alcohol and smoking because the problem that causes stroke comes from the common problems of obesity and high blood pressure

Vu echoed Koschesk’s sugges-tions, and said a balanced diet is im-portant to keep students healthy.

“It is almost impossible to stay away from junk food, but at least bal-ance it out with fruits and vegetables,” Vu said.

Health: campus nurse and students talk balanced diets as stroke rates rise in youth

By Fransisco [email protected]

“High blood pressure increases your chances of not only a stroke but a heart attack, kidney disease, and other life-threat-ening illnesses. Anyone can get it.”

-- Fran KoscheskCosumnes River College nurse

Get involved! CRC 2015-16 Student Elections Looking for passionate & spirited individuals determined to make a difference.

“It’s time to be part of the solution. Run for ASCRC’s 2015-16 Student Governance”

Plan great campus events Improve your leadership skills Help develop student life on campus Influence college decisions that affect students Make an impact with community involvement

Open Positions Student Senate Clubs and Events Board President Commissioner Vice President Vice Commissioner Secretary Secretary Treasurer Director of Finance Director, Legislative Affairs (10) Representatives (11) Senators

Application Deadline: Tuesday, March 24 Campaigning: Tuesday, April 7—Wednesday, April 15

Online Voting: Tuesday April 14—Wednesday, April 15 Nomination Packets Available: Student Development Office, Room L-103.

As the future leaders of the world, there's no better place to start doing your job than here.

There are various pro-grams locally and statewide that aim to help students transfer to four-year institu-tions, but only one of them is celebrating 10 years at Cos-umnes River College: the Pu-ente program.

Puente, originally found-ed in 1981 as an educational support system for Latino stu-dents, works with students of all backgrounds, 25 of them currently at CRC.

Within the state of Cali-fornia, there are more than 61 community colleges, as well as various high schools, that incorporate Puente into their curriculum, said Puente coor-dinator and counselor Estella Hoskins.

“It’s our 10-year an-niversary of having it here and being successful,” Hoskins said. “It’s huge, be-cause we have that support that typically in high school and grammar school Lati-no students don’t have. Anyone that r e s e m b l e s them not only in the class-room but in their readings, it’s difficult to find that. That’s what we’re trying to incorpo-rate in Puente.”

The main goals of Puente are to provide educational support for students with the goal of transferring to four-year institutions at a more di-rect pace and for these Puente alumni to return to the com-munity as mentors, Hoskins said.

Students that are part of the program are enrolled in two English classes as well as a career development course as part of a three phase pro-gram Hoskins said.

Each student also receives a counselor and a mentor to aid in their success while at CRC.

“We can be a little more flexible,” said Priscilla Han-sen, an English professor for Puente. “We consider the class more as far as where they’re at, whether I need to slow down

or speed up. It allows for me to adjust to them more so that I’m able to teach them and connect with them better.”

Hansen said that she teaches the same Puente stu-dents for two semesters, al-lowing her to build a bond and connection.

That connection is felt among Puente students and staff alike.

“It makes me feel more comfortable with the class-room already because I al-ready know people in there,” said 18-year-old Alejandro Villalobos, a kinesiology ma-jor who is in his second phase of Puente. “I know I can ask them for help if I’m struggling with something or anything I need, I know they’ll be there for me.”

Puente has made huge strides over the past 10 years with about a 70 to 90 percent success rate with trans-fer students, Hoskins said.

H a n s e n said she has seen about five former students in the past 10 years that have returned as mentors and positive figures within

the community.Villalobos and other stu-

dents in the program said that they felt very grateful for the program and what it rep-resents.

“I think it means an op-portunity because that’s what Puente gives people,” Vil-lalobos said.

Information about the Pu-ente program, including con-tact information and how to join can be found on the CRC website.

When asked about the feeling of celebrating 10 years, Hansen said she was very thankful.

“I’m very grateful that ad-ministration has been so sup-portive of it [Puente] because that has not been true of many campuses,” Hansen said. “They have been very sup-portive of Puente and making sure they can provide this for our students for 10 years in a row, which is amazing.”

>>FeaturesMarch 12, 2015

Program celebrates a decade of successBy Taylor Gomez

[email protected]

Americans eat 100 acres ofpizza each day.

Keep learning at nu.edu/transfer

That’s 2,400 pizzas a minute. 350 slices a second. Delicious. Learn even more earning a bachelor’s degree from National University. Online. On campus. Non-profit.

Don’t think you have time to learn something new? You just did.

Sacramento Campus10901 Gold Center Drive(916) 855-4100

© 2015 National University NU15_2073

NU15_2073_CC_MAR_PIZZA_PRINT_SAC2_5p94x8_K_1P1.indd 1 2/25/15 4:05 PM

Nick Valenzuela |The Connection

Members of the Puente Program are placed into the same classes so that they can build a community and so they can receive support as they progress through the program and the school.

“It makes me feel more comfortable with the classroom already because I already know people in there. I know I can ask them for help if I’m struggling with something or anything I need, I know they’ll be there for me.”

—Alejandro Villalobos18, Kinesiology Major


While I’m quite knowl-edgeable about pop culture past and present, I’ve never seen any episodes of the clas-sic 1970’s sitcom “The Odd Couple” nor the play it was based on.

The basic premise is some-thing I know though; two po-lar opposite roommates butt-ing heads leading to hilarity.

So when it was announced that CBS was remaking the show with Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon in the lead roles of Oscar and Felix, it was an easy sell.

While Perry has had a hard time finding TV projects that will stay afloat since his days on “Friends,” his come-dic timing and chops remain the same as they were back then. Which is good news as his portrayal of Chandler was one of the best on that series.

Since “Friends,” most of his characters have been on the loveable jerk side of the equation rather than the love-able goofball, and Oscar is very much the loveable jerk.

Lennon on the other hand has had a variety of roles and guest spots since his most fa-mous role on “Reno 911,” in-

cluding producing and direct-ing many projects such as the highly popular Comedy Cen-tral show “@Midnight.”

His portrayal as Felix Un-ger is very believable, as he’s played characters similarly neurotic in the past and nails it once again.

And though she’ll be

missed on the cult favorite “Community,” Yvette Nicole Brown fits in perfectly as Os-car’s sassy and exasperated assistant.

Wendell Pierce, formerly of “The Michael J. Fox Show,” and Lindsay Sloane, who has mostly had minor roles on TV since her time on “Sabrina The

Teenage Witch,” round out the main cast quite well.

Perry, Lennon and the rest of the cast are quite funny but the show does have its faults. The jokes can be predictable and the studio audience can be annoying at times.

That being said, the show is still quite funny. Too many

times critics are looking for shows to be something new and different, to push the boundaries of their respective genre.

Not all shows have to be completely original to be en-tertaining. “The Odd Couple” is like comfort food, it just feels good to watch.

It hits all the right notes like comedies before it while not pretending to be some-thing edgy or hipster. It owns what it is.

There is nothing worse than a show or film that is too pretentious and tries to be more than it is. This could be Perry’s first shot at a long running gig since “Friends,” as long as the show remains true to itself.

“The Odd Couple” airs Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. on CBS following “The Big Bang The-ory,” and episodes can also be watched through Amazon In-stant Video.

There’s nothing odd at all about CBS’s new comedyBy Scott Redmond

[email protected]

#TrendingNowCompiled by Ceejay Willis

All photos are courtesy photos

SF G

iant

s Curse

The San Francisco Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012 & 2014 but not 2011 or 2013, so many fans claim the team is cursed in the odd years.

“We have just as good of a chance to win this year as any team. The curse supersti-tion is just that. If we play hard, and stay consis-tent, we got it for sure,” said Amanda Joy, a 32-year-old engineering major.

New

iPho

ne Emojis

Members from the University of Oklaho-ma chapter of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraterity were recently caught on video engaging in a racist chant that has led to their chapter be-ing shut down.

“It amplifies the notion that prim-itive views on race and culture are still here. Rac-ism is something that we all hope eventually leaves but I fear it won’t,” said Colin Williams, 28, a kinesiology major.

Rac

ist F

raternity

In an effort to bring more diversity to their emojis, Apple announced on Feb. 23 that they would be including emojis of six different skin tones in the next iOS update coming out sometime later this year.

“I feel that the emojis are good concept wise, but are executed poorly. There are serious racist feelings that they can give off,” said Monique Lichen, 21, an art major.

Courtesy Photo

Drake’s new mixtape“If You’re Reading This It’s

Too Late”

By Taylor Gomez

AMC’s newest hit from Vince Gillgan

“Better Call Saul”

By Tim Taylor

Connection Reviews:

Check out these other reviews on our websitethecrcconnection.com

For more TV reviews, visit thecrcconnection.com or follow

the Connection on Twitter @crcconnection

Score out of 5 stars


Ceejay Willis |The Connection

Students, faculty and guests were able to check out the artwork of the four illustrators featured in the art gallery’s third exhibition, titled “Visions,” during the opening reception on March 6. Each of the local artists were on hand during the reception and attendees were able to speak to them about their artwork and their careers.

While the first two shows of the Cosumnes River Col-lege Art Gallery played host to different exhibitions of art-work from campus faculty, gallery curator Yoshio Taylor went in a different direction for the third show.

The new collection, called “Visions,” highlights the work of local comic illustrators and runs from March 6 through April 24.

The opening night recep-tion on March 6 allowed stu-dents and guests to interact with all four of the featured artists and talk about the piec-es they were showing.

Taylor, also an art pro-fessor on campus, was intro-duced to Thomas Yeates, one of the comic illustrators, and said he knew right away that he wanted to make a comic il-lustrator exhibition.

“I’ve always respected their skill as an artist,” Taylor said. “So I asked my colleague Jeff Kimbler to search for ad-ditional local graphic artists. He came up with Robert Love who lives in Elk Grove, Mel

Rubi and also C. P. Smith.”The artists all have differ-

ent backgrounds and inspira-tions that brought them to the field.

Love, a former CRC stu-dent, said he was a self taught comic artist and illustrator, while Yeates said that he has a sister who inspired art among his family.

Smith, a story develop-ment artist, said in a joking tone that bills were what in-spired him.

Those in attendance said that they noticed the differenc-es in the artists’ works.

“What I really loved about the artists is each has an individual style that comes through when you look at them,” said photography Pro-fessor Kathryn Mayo.

Taylor Johnson, 20, an un-declared major said she agreed about the differences.

“It’s pretty incredible. I love comic book styled art so this is right up my alley,” Johnson said. “All the styles are so unique.”

James Burton, 37, said he had his own reasons to attend.

“I saw Mel’s and C. P.’s work at a con and got intro-

duced to their work there,” Burton said. “I found out that they were doing an art gallery, so I wanted to come down and look at more of their subject matter.”

Love said he had a reason for the pieces he chose.

“I like originality. I think that’s very important in art whether it be in comics or whatever,” Love said. “I think what I picked back there speaks for original.”

As with the previous shows, Mayo said the artwork

displayed is meant to serve as an example of the possibilities available to art students.

“It’s great because our students can see this, and see [that] what they’re doing can lead to something like this,” Mayo said.

By Stephanie [email protected]

New art show brings world of comics to campus

Ceejay Willis |The Connection

Illustrator and former CRC student Robert Love (left) was one of the four artists contacted by art Professor Yoshio Taylor (right) to take part in the third show for the new CRC Art Gallery.

In a world where communicable diseases pose an ever-present threat, misinformation is our greatest enemy.

According to an article on the website of Forbes magazine, the United States is currently in the midst of the worst measles outbreak in 20 years. Finding correct information about measles can be a diffi cult task, especially with the anti-vaccine movement polluting every forum and article with groundless claims.

So where is the correct information?Here are some measles facts courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:Before the vaccine was developed in 1963, 3 to 4 million people in the U.S. were infected

with measles each year. By 1998, only 100 cases of measles were reported in the U.S.With the rise of the anti-vaccine movement since then, 644 cases were reported in 2014. In

2015, 170 cases were reported between Jan. 1 and Feb. 27 alone.Notice a trend?To make a long story short, the movement began when a British doctor named Andrew

Wakefi eld published a study about the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in The Lancet in 1998. He claimed his study found a causation between the MMR vaccine and autism, though it didn’t.

His claims have since been discredited, his study retracted from The Lancet and his license to practice medicine revoked.

Unfortunately, the fallout from the spread of his claims continues, and we are seeing the damage now. Our herd immunity is being compromised as people continue to make poor vac-cination choices.

Though it will take time, there is a solution that will help restore the U.S.’s immunity rates to what they once were.

Several institutions, including the University of California system, are implementing more strict mandatory vaccination policies.

The UC’s plan, which will be phased in over three years, will require incoming students to be vaccinated for “measles, mumps and rubella; meningococcus; varicella (chicken pox); and tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough)” in addition to the current hepatitis B vac-cination requirement, according to the UC website.

California Sens. Richard Pan and Ben Allen are also introducing legislation that would pre-vent parents from opting out of vaccinating their children due to personal beliefs.

If we are to prevent the unnecessary spread of easily preventable disease and suff ering, adoption of these policies must become uniform, including here at Cosumnes River College.

There is no reason the U.S. should still be seeing outbreaks of measles and whooping cough, and there is no reason we should be forced to spend massive amounts of resources to treat such outbreaks.

Our greatest weapon against misinformation is proper knowledge. Take some biology classes, inform yourself, support this legislation and protect the herd.

The simple fact is that vaccination is our best defense against disease.If you can not see that, your opinion is dangerous and you are wrong.

PAGE 8 MARCH 12, 2015

>>Opinion

E D I TO R I A L

Agree? Disagree? Let us know at [email protected] thecrcconnection.com

Vaccination requirements are a must to protect against disease

HAWKTALK

Bryan Saelee18, art

“I’m not well informed about measles but it would de� nitely help if the campuses

required us to get vaccinated just to help prevent the spread of the disease.”

Logan White18, undeclared

“People should be able to opt out of it just because of any medical needs or not do the vaccination if they are allergic to

the vaccination.”

Should a measles vaccination be required at community colleges?

Compiled by: Ceejay Willis & Bobby Bishop

Scan this QR code with your smart phone to submit a letter to the editor.

Technology has become so integrated into our modern world that as a result we rely on it on a daily basis just to accomplish the simplest of tasks, from completing homework or work on the job to even just making purchases.

Unfortunately, that means that hackers have become an even bigger threat because of this.

Hackers are experienced individuals who utilize computers to gain unauthorized access to data, which in theory could even the playing fi eld between powerful companies and consumers. Some groups of hackers claim to be freedom fi ghters of sorts, carrying out these att acks on companies to raise awareness of their fl aws and mistreatment of their customers.

While these groups may claim to be freedom fi ghters out for the greater good, they’ve proven to be nothing but an annoyance and a threat.

Sony Entertainment’s Playstation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Network were both brought down over the holiday season by a hacker group calling themselves Lizard Squad. The group claims

they initially intended to raise awareness of the faults in the companies, particularly in their online securities.

Their weapon of choice was a Distributed Deni-al of Service, which overloads servers with multiple requests. In spite of multiple warnings from Lizard Squad, Sony and Microsoft failed to prevent the att acks.

The att acks undoubtedly inconvenienced millions of Sony and Microsoft customers and it is safe to say no one was happy about the disturbance. No no-ticeable good came out of this att ack at all.

Sony fell victim to a much higher profi le and highly pub-licized att ack in November. North Korea was reportedly behind the att ack, funding a hacker group who call themselves the Guardians of Peace.

The group behind the Sony breach acquired a substantial amount of data from the company including, but not limited to, personal information about Sony employees, executive salaries and even

unreleased Sony fi lms. All acquired data was leaked onto the internet for all to see.

These recent hacks have shown litt le sign of any help for the general public. Some Americans even took the Sony hack as an act of aggression against the United States.

This is just the beginning as hackers are gett ing smarter and more of a serious threat.

We have a lot to worry about considering a lot of us store very personal information online, on our

computers and even cell phones, all of which are up for grabs for a skilled hacker. It raises cause for concern in the minds of many.

On the one hand, these hacker groups have the capa-bility to do some real good in the world and become a voice

of the people. If these groups worked together with the general population at large they could help infl uence companies to carry out policies that work in the consumers’ favor. However, the potential chaotic power of these groups is frightening to say the least.

THECRCCONNECTION.COM PAGE 9

By Tim [email protected]

Hackers: doing more harm than good

“This is just the beginning as hackers are getting smarter and more of a serious threat.”

Courtesy Photo

CYBE

RAT

TACK

S 15% of social network users reported someone had hacked into their pro� le and pretended to be them.

31% of cell phone users received a text message from someone they didn’t know requesting they click on an embedded link or dial an unknown number.

Information from a 2012 Norton Cybercrime Report.

MARCH 12, 2015

>>Sports

Injuries don’t stop student athletes from playing

The Season in a Second

“We’re looking all right. We’ve had a couple injuries, but we’re holding together. We have about 20 healthy players now and things are looking good. We’re 9-4, our ace is doing a good job on the mound.”

—Brad Kilbyassistant coach

“Nine of our last 10 games are W’s [wins] so we’re starting to � gure it out. We just came together as a team, [and] everything’s going pretty good right now.”

—Tyler Blakesophomore � rst baseman

“It’s looking good. We started out kind of rough, but we’ve been playing pretty well since then so heading into league we’re looking good.”

—Brett Elginfreshman pitcher

BaseballCompiled by Bobby Bishop & Stephanie Lopez

CLUBS AND EVENTS BOARD PRESENTS

Club Activities Fair “BUILDING THE SPIRIT OF CRC”

Wednesday March 25, 2015 10AM - 1PM

FOUNTAIN STAGE & QUAD

BE ABOUT IT!

For the club with the most spirit!

FUN GAMES & MORE

Club Activities Fair

Men’s Basketball Season Wrap-UpAfter winning their fi rst playoff game 69-60 during a home

match against Butt e College on Feb. 27, the Cosumnes River College men’s basketball team advanced to the next round. The team played on March 4 at Marin College and were eliminated after losing 79-72.

Ceejay Willis | The Connection

Hawks sophomore guard Mitchell Love making a shot at the team’s � rst playo� game against Butte College on Feb. 27.

THECRCCONNECTION.COM PAGE 11

Every year around this time baseball fans start gear-ing up for the season. For San Francisco Giants fans, 2015 is once again spark-ing conversation about the team’s supposed odd-year curse.

On March 5, right fi elder and focus of a series of meme-style fan signs Hunter Pence was drilled by a pitch thrown by Chicago Cubs pitcher Corey Black. Pence made it to fi rst base after gett ing hit by the pitch, but that was it for him in the game as the pain in his arm soon was revealed to be a fractured bone in his fore-arm.

A trip to the hospital and an x-ray confi rmed the team doctor’s diagnosis and Pence was put on the Dis-abled List for 6-8 weeks. It was then that the curse talk began to ramp up.

It had already begun when team manager Bruce Bochy was taken to the hos-pital in mid-February soon after spring training began with some issues with his heart. After two stents were placed, Bochy was back at what he does best.

A root canal for catch-er Andrew Susac, a knee contusion after gett ing hit with a ball for pitcher Santi-ago Casilla and a stiff neck for outfi elder Angel Pagan whose 2014 season was ended after a back injury all added to the cry of the curse.

The ridiculous curse comes from the fact that the Giants have won three World Series Champion-ships in the last fi ve years, but only during the even years.

In 2011 the Giants were eliminated from entering the postseason, most claiming that catcher Buster Posey’s

season ending injury con-tributed to their season not coming together. 2013 was much the same, just without the Posey injury.

So clearly because they didn’t make it in 2011 and 2013, the Giants must be doomed in 2015 right? Not even close.

The fan’s focus on this supposed odd-year curse is defeatist talk. It’s basi-cally writing off the Giants’ chances to go anywhere this year.

The curse means noth-ing, just looking at 2014 prett y much can negate this curse. While they won the World Series in 2014, the Giants almost didn’t make it that far.

They only made it to the postseason as a wild card team, just like their World Series opponent the Kansas City Royals interestingly enough, and faced the Pitt s-burgh Pirates in a make it or break it match.

If they had lost that one match, that would have been it for them in 2014. Instead they won and continued on. Of course, those that believe the curse will just claim that they made it to the Wild Card game and beyond be-cause of the luck of an even year.

Maybe the Giants won’t be able to defend their World Series crown this year, but it won’t be because of it being an odd year.

Every other MLB team has a shot to get to the World Series, just like the Giants.

Everyone who is part of the Giants organization, from owners to the man-ager, coaches and players all have faith they’ll make it and have a shot in 2015. It’s time for fans to let this curse nonsense go.

Let’s make 2015 a year for the orange and black.

By Scott [email protected]

There is no such thing as an odd-year curse

Editor in Chief: Heather KempFeatures Editor: Scott RedmondNews Editor: Nick ValenzuelaOpinion Editor: Johny GarciaSports Editor: Heather KempVisuals Editor: Ceejay Willis Faculty Adviser: Rubina Gulati

Sta� : Bobby Bishop, Omar Chan, Taylor Gomez, Nicole Goodie, Stephanie Lopez, Tierra Palumbo, Francisco Rodriguez, Tim Taylor, Jasmine Teng

The Connection is an award-winning newspaper published bi-weekly by the Journalism 410 & 411 media production class. Editorials and opinion pieces do not necessarily re� ect the opinions of the students, sta� or faculty of CRC or Los Rios Community College District. The Connection is a member of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges and California Newspaper Pub-lisher’s Association.

Letters to the Editor must be typed, signed and include the � rst and last name of the author and a phone number. They must be 200 words or less and may be edited for length, clarity or taste.

The ConnectionCosumnes River College

8401 Center ParkwaySacramento, CA 95823

Telephone: (916) 691-7471Fax: (916) 691-7181

[email protected]

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#CRCcampus

With only two wins out of 14 conference games, the Cos-umnes River College wom-en’s basketball team had an array of odds stacked against them this season, including having only seven players.

A lack of players was just one issue that the team faced in a season that didn’t go their way.

“Overall, it was not the season we had planned,” said head coach Coral Sage. “When we fi rst started out, we thought we were going to do really really well and then we had some injuries [and] we had some girls decide not to play. It ended up being prett y rough towards the end and we fi nished with seven girls and six of them were freshman. Our best player tore her ACL in December so that hurt a lot, too.”

Sage said that a lot of mis-takes were due to not having enough fresh players on the court.

“You’re playing against teams that typically carry any-where from 13 to 16 players,” Sage said. “So there was quite a few times where, you know, we have six, seven players out there playing the entire game and they’re just rotating fi ve in at a time so they get a whole fresh new fi ve bodies in the game and I’ve got girls that have been out there for 30 minutes that you know at that point their legs are starting to go.”

Injuries were a big breaking point for the team. They lost their leading scorer because of an ACL injury.

Due to a knee injury, freshman shooting guard Sa-mantha Stinson said that this season she was not herself and that she played cautious-ly because of her knee.

Stinson also said that the team’s lack of proper peer leadership was a factor in their tough season.

“I think we worked hard in general but we just didn’t click,” Stinson said.

But the team wasted no time post-season to begin making necessary improve-ments.

“I’m excited,” Sage said. “Right now we’re doing a leadership academy with our freshman who are going to be sophomores and teaching them how to be leaders be-cause they really missed out on that from when they were freshman. They didn’t really have leaders teaching them, and so as coaches we’re taking them through a leadership program which I’m really excited about.”

Freshman guard Alyna Kanae was redshirted this season because of a hip injury, but that didn’t stop her from being a part of the team and noticing where improvements were needed.

Although the team started strong in pre-season, Kanae said that “as the season pro-gressed, there wasn’t a lot of actions behind the leadership to follow.”

She is one of six play-ers who are participating in Coach Sage’s leadership program.

As the only one on the bench, Kanae said she noticed that the extra players on the bench are needed to boost

team morale.“Even having a bench

be there to cheer the players on that are playing is a huge factor in it,” Kanae said.

The freshman got a ton of experience this year whether they wanted to or not.

“For these guys, they were thrown right into it so they had to learn basically on the fl y,” Sage said. “Now that they’re going to be coming into being sophomores they have that extra experience, so I think that’s going to play out for us in the long run.”

Sage said this was her fi rst unsatisfactory season since she started coaching at CRC 11 years ago.

“Its been a huge learning experience for me as a coach,” Sage said.

“It was an opportunity for me to look at myself, too, and get bett er as well,” Sage said.

Sage’s positive att itude and drive to perform bett er next season can be seen in her players as well.

“It was defi nitely a learning experience for sure even though our record was bad, I felt like I learned a lot,” Stinson said.

Stinson said Sage was an experienced and helpful coach because of her time playing college basketball.

Sage said that she is pay-ing more att ention to detail when recruiting to make sure future players fi t their system.

“It’s not for everybody and unfortunately sometimes we learn that too late,” Sage said.

“We really want to make sure from the get-go that we have the players that fi t our system,” Sage said.

By Nicole [email protected]

Di� cult season feeds women’s basketball team’s leadership


In order to be successful every team needs more than just skilled players and a drive to win, they need a coach who can inspire and lead them to that success.

For the last five years that coach for the Cosumnes River College softball team has been Kristy Schroeder.

Schroeder said that she believes in coaching her team with the philosophy of follow-ing the game fundamentally, mentally and playing with high energy all the time.

“If you can do those three, you are going to give your-self the best chance to win,” Schroeder said. “These are the things in the game that we can control. We can control doing things mentally sound, we can control being mentally fo-cused and we can control hav-ing high energy.”

Schroeder said that seeing her players succeed and take the techniques that she was able to teach them is what she enjoys about coaching.

Much of what Schroed-er brings to coaching at CRC comes from her own experi-ences playing softball.

During her studies at Uni-versity of California Los Ange-

les, Schroeder was a four-year starter at shortstop for two na-tional championship teams in 1990 and 1992.

Schroeder also played for the Bruins women’s soccer and tennis teams, and is the only female three-sport let-ter-winner in UCLA history, according to her biography on the Hawks website.

Schroeder graduated in 1994, earning her bachelor’s degree in sociology with an emphasis in psychology.

She previously served as the head coach for University of California Santa Barbara’s softball program from 2002-2007, collecting 173 wins while turning the Gauchos into an annual contender for postsea-son play. Schroeder led UCSB to a 34-22 record, the best overall record in school his-tory and earned the Big West Conference Co-Coach of the year honor in 2002, accord-ing to her biography on the Hawks website.

“I really enjoy the coach-ing part,” Schroeder said. “The player-coach develop-ment part with my girls.”

Sophomore pitcher and third baseman Amanda Hor-basch said that Schroeder’s success inspires her.

“If she was able to do it while playing softball, that lets me know there’s a chance,” Horbasch said.

Kaitlin Pires, a freshman second base and shortstop, said that for her first year play-

ing college ball she really ap-preciates Schroeder’s coaching style.

“She is really close with all of us and understands us all,” Pires said

“She connects with us not only on the field, but she al-ways tries to help us with our personal lives as well,” Pires said.

Pires said that she likes the fact that as much as Schro-eder is her coach, she is also someone that she can go to to talk about anything.

Schroeder said that she has a rewarding personal life in addition to her coaching ca-reer.

“I have two kids, and I am really involved in their lives,” Schroeder said. “I coach my daughter’s softball team and help my son out with his base-ball team, where my husband coaches. I love watching my kids play their sports.”

When she isn’t spending time with her family, Schroed-er said she has other pursuits.

“I enjoy painting when I get the chance,” Schroeder said. “I haven’t had the time recently, but I do enjoy it. Also traveling. My husband works at [University of the] Pacific and he takes his students ev-ery year to Europe, and I am able to go with him.”

By Tierra [email protected]

Softball coach balances life on and off the field

Coach Kristy Schroeder, third from left, talking to the softball team on the mound during their Feb. 27 game.

Scott Redmond | The Connection

Cosumnes River College’s men’s tennis team spent a warm spring afternoon battling it out against Sacra-mento City College at a home game on March 10.

The Los Rios sister schools both put in a good effort, but after two and a half hours the Panthers won 7-2.

“It was decent. We played well, we could have done bet-ter,” said freshman player Ian Fong. “There was a couple of critical points that we lost that we probably could have kept going, but it just is how it is.”

The team of five faced some adversity with inju-ry-plagued players like fresh-man Ricky Lam.

“Today I couldn’t really play well since my rotator cuff was stressed out, but if it wasn’t stressed out I would have done well,” Lam said.

Head Coach Matthew Emmett said that the doubles matches followed a pattern that is common for the team

of starting strong, but losing focus towards the middle and not being able to bring the score back up. He said the singles matches were more competitive than those of the past and that he was proud of the entire team.

“It was nice to see Cesar Chavez [freshman player] and Daniel Gonzales [soph-omore player] get their first victories,” Emmett said. “Everybody else also put in a good effort and a good fight.”

Fong said that he thought the Panthers were a fair match for them.

“It was pretty even, we could have taken some more wins, but we got two so that’s not bad,” Fong said.

Lam said CRC and Sacramento City are evenly matched.

“They’re not really below us, but they’re aren’t really above us either,” Lam said. “Just the way we play, we can keep up with them and they can keep up with us.”

Panthers sophomore Russell Spence said his team

learned from their past matches with the Hawks to gain the upperhand.

“We played them when they came to us and knew what we needed to do and improve on from last time and so we capitalized on what we had learned,” Spence said.

Spence said that he thinks the Hawks are a good team, but need to work on their individual game.

“For the most part they are very well organized,” Spence said. “Just individual-ly they each need to get a little better.”

The Hawks next match is on March 13 at Modesto Junior College.

“We have until Friday to get ready for our next game. We’ll bring our best, but you can only do what you can do with what you have,” Fong said.

Lam said that he is feeling good going into the rest of the season.

“Moving on, I feel pretty comfortable,” Lam said. “The main thing is if we lose we

just need to learn from it and just improve on our game and if we win we also have to be able to pull something from that as well.”

Emmett said that in up-coming games he is looking to continue to improve on the team’s ability to stay focused and intense throughout entire

matches.“What I’m looking for is

similar to the goal I set for this match,” Emmett said. “The continued goal going into our next match is being able to physically and mentally bring our best consistent play across the match from the first ball to the last.”

By Heather [email protected]

Tennis loses match against Sac City, remain optimistic

Ceejay Willis | The Connection

Ricky Lam, freshman player for the Hawks playing in his singles match at the team’s March 10 match against Sacramento City College.

spring 2015 - issue three

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