University of Oregon Hosts the Dalai Lama

Nine years ago, The Sakya Center for Wisdom and Compassion first opened their doors to the Eugene community and their main goal was to bring His Holiness to their Buddhist center. It took nearly a decade to get His Holiness to Eugene, but on May 10, 2013, he finally made it.

Upon his arrival, he was awarded University of Oregon’s 2013 Presidential Medal and talked to an auditorium of more than 11,000 of his “brothers and sisters” about “The Path to Peace and Happiness in the Global Society.”

The event opened with a documentary titled “Building an Enlightened Community” in which a video was shown of a woman, Lady Jangchup Palmo, and was about her journey fleeing from Tibet and how she became a highly accomplished Buddhist practitioner.

Lady Palmo has written numerous letters to His Holiness’s representatives at the Office of Tibet every month. Since doing so, she was able to meet His Holiness several times and talk to him about the Sakya Center. Without this woman’s efforts, the Dalai Lama would not have traveled to Eugene.

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, speaks to crowd during a luncheon at the University of Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena, in Eugene, Ore., May 10. Members of the Oregon National Guard’s 102 Civil Support Team worked with law enforcement to help secure the event and ensure public safety. (Photo by Staff Sgt. April Davis, Oregon Military Department Public Affairs)

After the documentary, the Dalai Lama was introduced by U of O’s President Michael Gottfredson. His Holiness then began speaking, mostly of his childhood growing up in Tibet and about the importance of family.

“My mother used to carry me on her shoulders, even when she was working in the field. I would hold my mother’s two ears and if I wanted to go left, I would move her head that way. If I wanted to go right, I would move her head that way,” laughed His Holiness. “If my mother didn’t follow my instruction, then I would shout!”

 

The Dalai Lama had very insightful things to say.  His Holiness believes that there will be a female Lama one of these days and that she will do great things for humanity. He believes that women have more compassion than men and would more likely be able to make the world a happier, peaceful, non-violent place to live.

 But, in order for this planet to achieve any of that, parents must teach their children right from wrong. According to His Holiness, it’s the parents that have the ability to teach the children of the 21st Century as they’re the future. He added that a child that isn’t loved is more likely to be hateful and will try to destroy the world.
  
“Please provide maximum affection towards your children and spend more time with your children. That’s very important,” insisted the Dalai Lama.

He believes that any child, aged 30 and younger, are what this world needs. He is certain that today’s youth are going to be the ones to turn this world around and make it what it was designed for; a home. A home that anyone, and everyone, is welcome to live on. A home where no one has to worry about violence. A home where people are happy to live. He believes that the way for the 21st Century youth to do so, is to have more compassion and talk to each other, rather than fighting about it.

“The 21st Century must be a century of dialogue. It is important that we talk about controversial topics and listen to one another. It is also essential to recognize that some people may have different perspectives than we do based on their life experiences,” said Mark Urista, LBCC Communications instructor. Peace and prosperity requires each of us to discuss the problems we face with empathy, compassion, and sound reasoning.”

At the end of his speech, His Holiness sat down in a very comfortable looking chair, which was donated for this event by La-Z-Boy, and answered the questions that followed.

On a side note, as people were leaving the Autzen Stadium, as people that drove had to park there and take a shuttle to the Matthew Knight Arena, everyone seemed to have forgotten where we just came from. Instead of being full of happiness, peace, and being polite and courtesy towards other, they were full of annoyance and hate because traffic was bad.

Remember people, think like the Dalai Lama and embrace the worst of things and make the best out of every situation.

Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller Sends Message to Vice President Biden

“We didn’t think it’d get this kind of reaction…” But it did.

“Is it too late to stop it?” Linn County Sheriff Mueller asked detective and computer forensics investigator Mike Smith, shortly after uploading his now nationally shared letter.

“Yeah, it’s way too late. It’s out,” said Smith.

 

Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller with his Letter to Vice President Biden. Photo by William Allison.

On Jan. 14, 2013, Mueller wrote a letter to Vice President Joe Biden telling him that he was not going to enforce President Barack Obama’s executive order “offending” the American people’s constitutional rights.

Mueller decided to write his letter to Biden, who was appointed by Obama to head the Gun Violence Task Force, as there would be a bigger chance of the letter getting read because Biden doesn’t get as much mail as the president. However, it’s not just Mueller that has voiced this opinion to both the president and vice president of America. About 380 sheriffs around the country, several of whom reside in Oregon, have decided to speak up and take a stand on this matter.

Mueller and Smith uploaded the letter onto Linn County Sheriff Office’s Facebook. They had a feeling that it would be popular in Linn County, where he is receiving much praise. However, what was not expected was for the entire country, even some of the world, to agree with Mueller’s words. Before he knew what was happening, calls came in from all over the country at all hours of the day from people wanting interview after interview. “It was like watching the national debt ticker,” said Mueller.

Prior to the letter being uploaded, the LCSO Facebook page had 324 likes; it now stands just shy of 14,000. The letter itself has racked up nearly 60,000 shares and well over 50,000 likes from people all around the globe. Mueller’s main goal was for Linn County residents to see where he and his deputies stand, and considering that many Linn County residents have now seen the letter, Mueller has reached this goal.

However, not everyone agrees with Mueller’s decision to “ignore” Obama’s executive order. In fact, Benton County Sheriff Diana Simpson has been quoted as saying, “It isn’t up to sheriffs to choose what laws of the land they enforce.” Though Simpson felt Mueller did what he thought he had to given his constituency, it wasn’t something she felt the need to do herself.

While Yamhill County Sheriff Jack Crabtree did not write a letter to Biden, he did write one to his citizens, encouraging them to “exercise your right to communicate with all your county, state, and federal elected officials.”

“The Oregon State Sheriff ’s Association tries to get all of the sheriffs on the same sheet of music. Well, that’s like herding cats,” joked Mueller. “My office is not going to make honest citizens into criminals; this is a civil problem, and we’re going to handle it with a civil process.”

Even though not everyone agrees with Mueller’s decision, each county sheriff represents their own constituency, which means that the county residents elected the sheriff of that county as their sheriff. According to the Supreme Court, if the government forces an unconstitutional regulation, the sheriffs are operating outside of the constitutional oath.

Mueller does not believe that assault rifles should be banned, which he defines as a weapon capable of selective fire; a semiautomatic or fully automatic gun. One example of an assault rifle would be the one used in the Dec. 11, 2012 Clackamas Town Center shooting, where gunman Jacob Roberts used an AR-15 to gun down three victims. What was not overly publicized by media outlets was the concealed handgun holder, Nick Meli of Portland, who had his gun’s sights set on Roberts. Some believe that without Meli confronting Roberts, the massacre would have continued and more lives would have been lost.

In order to carry a concealed weapon in Oregon you have to have a concealed handgun license, which requires that you show that you’ve had safety training. It doesn’t matter how old the safety training certificate is, just as long as you can prove that you’ve had safety training of some kind.

Some people feel that teachers should be allowed to carry a gun of some kind in their classes, just in case something like the situation in Newtown, Conn. were to happen again, they would be able to protect their students.

Mueller believes that it all depends if said teacher is capable of pulling the trigger. He thinks that just because a person has a gun doesn’t necessarily make them the right person to have it. Opposed to it, Simpson said, “If this were to occur, I would expect teachers to receive the same use of force and tactical gun training that law enforcement has.”

If teachers were allowed to carry guns in class, and something did happen, then the police don’t know who the “real shooter” is.

Additionally, many people think that they will be able to take someone’s life, but until it comes down to that very moment, no one knows for sure if they can or cannot. If they are unable to pull the trigger, there will then be another firearm that could potentially be used against them and the others in the environment.

There are some schools in the state, such as those in Sweet Home, Ore., that don’t prevent teachers from having handguns in the classroom. Mueller doesn’t disagree with that, but he thinks that there should be serious training that the teachers have to take in case something were to happen.

Mueller has said that he is 100 percent behind Obama’s 23 Executive Orders; the only one that he said he has a problem with is doing background checks on private sales. He, like many others, doesn’t see how they will be capable to enforce such a thing because they will not be able to track every single private sale.

Even if the private gun sales do run background checks, there is a part on the form that asks if you have any mental health problems. Simpson felt strongly about this. “[There should be] more extensive background checks and strict limitations on people with a history of mental illness,” she said. Regardless, just because they run a background check doesn’t mean they will be able to find every little thing that is wrong with the buyer. Mueller also feels that there is a serious issue with mental health in America and the people that need the help the most aren’t capable of receiving it due to uncertain reasons.

When these people don’t receive the help they need, horrible things can come from it, like the recent events at Sandy Hook Elementary School and Clackamas Town Center, as well as many other similar tragedies. “We limit the number of available chambers for shotguns and rifles for wildlife hunting, yet we do not put the same value on human life,” said Simpson.

While Congress does not always, Mueller does agree that they should be the ones to decide what is necessary and why it isn’t.

“The president did the right thing. He issued his executive orders and he put the other piece of it, back on Congress and that’s the way it should be,” said Mueller.

Alice Sperling Retiring

Alice Sperling. Photo by William Allison.

“I was really angry.”

“I don’t have the energy to give to LBCC anymore.”

These are the statements of many, if not all, of the faculty, both classified and non-classified, that are being let go, either by forced early retirement or just let go entirely.

 

Alice Sperling was one of those people.  Instead of being let go permanently, she was told to take an early retirement two to three years early than expected.  According to Sperling, a lot of the people that were let go are older people and since the people being let go, most of them are not going to be looking for other work.

“This has been a really good place to work and I am sorry to see the direction it has to go,” said Sperling.

Sperling has been employed by LBCC for the past 18 years.  She started out as a classified employee for the GED and ESOL (English Speaker of Other Languages) programs.

You know those evaluations students fill out for instructors towards the end of term?  Well, that is Sperling’s primary job: She works with the college staff to make sure what they’re doing is right when they’re supporting students.  If a teacher gets bad evaluations from their classes, then Sperling is brought in to work with that faculty member. Primarily, what she does is work with faculty and teaches them on how to be a teacher different teaching strategies.

Not only was Sperling angry over having to take an early retirement, but she was angrier about the closing of The Center for Teaching and Learning.

“If they would have said that when you retire, then we’re going to replace you,” said Sperling.  “I don’t think that I am essential to The Center, but I think that The Center is essential to running the college.”

Sperling believes that The Center is in a good place, as of right now, and that if faculty would have approached Sperling or others working in The Center that they could have helped with the transitions.  If instructors or staff of any kind are looking for help with their transitions, please go and talk to Alice Sperling.  She has served on committees and boards and is a good communicator and facilitator. Sperling is very willing to help anybody with the difficult conversations that they’re not able to have by themselves.

Though Sperling and others are either retiring or being laid off, there are others who lost their original job and are transferring. Vicki Keith, as of July 1, will be working in the Admission’s Office. Before this, Keith worked at LBCC for 14 years as a classified employee.

“I feel very fortunate and blessed that I do have an option and I greatly appreciate having that option,” Said Keith.  “Wherever I end up, I am still going to be who I am.”

Once Sperling retires, she plans on keeping herself busy by spending a lot of time outdoors in her garden on her half acre of land. She is also going to look into further educating herself by maybe enrolling in iTunes U, and wants to enroll in free online classes.

Sperling’s retirement becomes official on May 31.

“This has been the most wonderful place to work,” said Sperling.  “I have the best friends.  These are the most committed faculty and staff and they are so committed to students and staff.  That’s what we’re here for.”

Reasons for Raising Tuition Prices

Many students seem upset about all the budget cuts LBCC has proposed, and some take effect as soon as June 30.

Several students from SLC have conducted polls, surveys, and forums on the proposed cuts to gather input regarding student opinions and how they feel about the budget cuts.

School enrollment has been down for roughly three years if not more. During the end of winter term is when the numbers for student enrollment came in for fall term, and they didn’t look good. Even though enrollment has returned to pre-recession levels, it still seems low.

“We have experienced a decline in enrollment this year that is generating tuition revenue of about $1.67 million below what was budgeted,” said Jim Huckestein, vice-president of Finance and Operations. “The college is facing a projected budgetary shortfall of over $3 million dollars for next year.”

Rather than just raising tuition alone, 25 positions were cut from the college’s budget. Eight employees are retiring and 17 are being terminated. Overall, this keeps tuition increases at $3 more per credit instead of a higher amount.

The cost of employee retirement plans also factors in to why tuition will increase.
Since healthcare keeps rising, the school has to keep increasing the employees’ retirement in order to balance everything out.

“The cost of the Public Employees Retirement System is increasing dramatically, as is health insurance, in addition to inflationary increases,” said Huckestein. “The level of state support for next biennium has not been determined, but is unlikely to provide enough resources to balance our budget.”

With the $3 tuition increase and the differential surcharge on certain lab classes of approximately 20 percent, it is expected to bring in around $750,000.These budget cuts do have a silver lining. Pell grants are not currently on the chopping block and are not expected to have any changes for the 2013-14 academic school year.

Students interesting in hearing what school officials have to say may attend the meeting where the proposed cuts are presented to the Board of Education on April 17 at 5 p.m. at the college’s Lebanon Center.

Use Your Turn Signals

   

Photo by Cian Ginty. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

You know those two bulbs covered in plastic right above your break lights? Those are called turn signals. Maybe using turning signals is like learning how to walk again. You forgot that you have legs and just don’t know how to use them anymore.
How many times have you been inside of a car where you, or whoever the driver is, yells at the car in front of you for not using their turn signals?

I think what irks me the most is when you see a cop not use their turn signal, yet if the cop saw you do that, he would flip-a-bitch and pull your ass over, just to give you a $500 ticket for not using your blinker. The Society of Automotive Engineers followed 12,000 cars and observed when the car did and didn’t use their blinkers, and they came to the conclusion that 48 percent of the time, drivers fail to use their turn signal from lane to lane. Meanwhile, 25 percent of the time, drivers fail to use their blinker when turning.

According to the SAE research, nearly two million crashes each year occur because the driver didn’t use the proper turn signal or use a turn signal at all. They also found out drivers ignore their blinker approximately two billion times a day.

Many people believe that a turn signal isn’t needed for every little thing you do; I used to be one of those. I never knew that in order to even pass a vehicle on a two-lane road going in opposite directions, that a turn signal is needed when you are behind the vehicle and decide to turn, and then when you pass the vehicle to get back into your lane. According to Oregon state law, a turn signal is needed during a lane change, passing another vehicle, and when deciding to turn.

Not only does getting a ticket for not using a blinker affect you and your bank account, but it also affects your car insurance too. Your car insurance premium could go up by 25 percent and you could lose your “Good Driver Discount,” if you had one to begin with, according to MSN Money.

Now, if you were to somehow get into an accident due to not using a blinker, your insurance could reduce your claim.

If failing to use your signal puts you at more than 50 percent at blame for the accident, your claim can either be denied or could be reduced, according to Penny Gusner, the consumer analyst at CarInsurance.com.

Who wants an expensive ticket with the possibility of your insurance rate going up? So, wherever you go, please make sure to use your blinker, not just for you, but the people around you, too.

ACP Journalism Conference

  

Trolley in San Francisco. Photo by William Allison. (For more photos of San Francisco, see our photo gallery.)

      

Clang, clang, clang went the trolley, Ding, ding, ding went the bell.

That’s the sound of The Commuter staff in San Francisco for the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) Journalism Convention.  The Commuter was there from Feb. 28 to Mar. 4.

  

 

 

While the trip in general was very interesting and fun; traveling to San Francisco was all about learning how to improve writing skills, photo skills, and everything else in between.

The ACP convention had a variety of sessions for students in media to attend, such as how to improve your photography skills, how to be more authoritative, and how to make boring things to write, more interesting.  Sessions for the ACP began on Fri. Mar. 1.

Some of the sessions that our staff attended were Why Journalism Needs You, Chicken Salad, and Shoot? Or Don’t Shoot?

Why Journalism Needs You was about learning how writers need to align with the changing demographic and the evolution of our media to engage the people in the conversation about their community.  Nick Raynor helped with pointers on how to achieve this.

Chicken Salad, unlike its name, informed journalists what to do when hours away from deadline and they don’t know what they’re going to do to make that award-winning article.  Michael Koretzky took apart articles and papers and redesigned them all in a matter of minutes.

 

Shoot? Or Don’t Shoot? described where photographers are allowed to shoot and not allowed to shoot.  Public property is fair game and doesn’t invade privacy.  Frank LoMonte showed photos and described what is an appropriate and inappropriate thing to shoot.

Sun. Mar. 4 the last keynote speaker was Mark Fioré, 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner for political cartoons, and he was followed by the award ceremony where The Commuter did great and won 6th place in the category “Publication Website Large School”, which is the first ACP award that The Commuter has won since 2011.

There were many interesting things that happened during the trip; the most entertaining on was our very own Ian Butcher, arts and entertainment editor, somehow managing to “break Twitter”.  How?  Well … by posting way too many times and making it to where he couldn’t tweet anything.

Keep an eye out for the changes the Commuter will be making!

2013-15 Kitzhaber Budget Places Burden on Students

 

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Photo by Jonathan Maus. [Creative Commons]

Guess what time it is? Yep, you guessed it; it is time for an update on Oregon’s very own Governor John Kitzhaber. So, what has he done now that has the media buzzing? Well, nothing more than “creating” jobs and raising tuition, of course!

Back in Nov. 30, 2012, Kitzhaber unveiled a new 2013-15 state budget that would allow schools to hire 500 more teachers, end furlough days for state workers, boost spending on at-risk children and families and still leave money on the table for emergencies. At first glance that doesn’t seem too bad, but in allowing all of this to happen, he wants to make controversial changes to public pensions and to prison sentences, as well as, ask lawmakers to make a legislature to extend a tax on hospitals.

According to Gail Rasmussen, head of the Oregon Education Association, the statewide teachers union, the school districts can’t rely on the proposed PERS changes and instead “leaves them facing another budget that won’t alleviate overcrowding and other “crisis-level” conditions.”

Kitzhaber is planning on saving more than $800 million with this new budget. Kitzhaber is hoping to limit cost-of-living increases to the first $24,000 income for Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) as well as eliminating certain tax benefits that out-of-state PERS receive. Kitzhaber expects any limit on cost-of-living increases to be challenged in court, but he said he expects to win.

Kitzhaber’s new budget plan will stall spending millions of dollars to build and operate new prions, due to the fact that he will be making dramatic changes to Oregon’s sentencing requirements. This part of the proposal is drawing controversy from the ire of law enforcement and victim groups.

Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote disagrees with Kitzhaber’s new budget proposal. “You’re not going to fix the state’s budget by whacking away at prisons,” said Foote.

Kitzhaber is also planning on filling “a big hole” in the Oregon Health Plan. He will be filling this hole by creating a tax on hospitals. Of course, hospitals said they are ok with the tax increase because they will end up getting most or all of it back in the form of higher Medicaid payments.

What is Kitzhaber’s reasoning behind this new budget? Well, he is under the assumption that these changes will allow Oregon to leave behind an era of short-term fixes and move toward a more reliable growth rate.

According to Kitzhaber, “The $16.5 billion general fund budget represents a 10 percent increase from the current two-year $15 billion budget. It carves out $8 billion for education, including $6.2 billion for K-12 schools. That’s an 8 percent increase from the current spending.”

But where does that leave the current college student?

It will raise tuition and eliminate services.

While on paper this budget shows a small increase over the course of two years, it is in fact distracting us from the bigger picture; higher tuition, lower quality services, and financial aid programs that will not cover most Oregon students in need.

The average Oregonian student leaves college with $25,000 in debt. Even though Kitzhaber has increased funding to the Oregon Opportunity Grant; eight out of ten qualified Oregon students don’t receive this grant, due to being ineligible for certain unknown reasons. The Governor’s budget does not fully fund support for universities and community colleges, which means tuition increases and employee and service are due to be cut. This will only continue to push low and middle income families out of higher education.

So, thanks, but no thanks, Governor Kitzhaber.

LBCC Enrollment Decrease

Did you hear that enrollment for LBCC has been down slightly for the past year?  It’s not surprising since tuition is now at $96 per credit and it’s likely that tuition will continue to increase until everyone’s money situation starts to get better.

Throughout the state all community colleges have seen their numbers decrease over the past year.  Most people can’t afford to go to school because even financial aid has had to cut their funding too.

LBCC enrollment this term is down seven percent for both credit and non-credit classes, but there has been an increase in full-time students, so I guess it you could say it is a toss up at the moment.

According to LBCC Admissions director, Danny Aynes, enrollment is down due to more students working, an increase in graduates, and poor performance in classes.

“If students are doing poorly in their classes, they are notified three terms sooner than what we were doing before,” said Aynes.  “Since we’re notifying students sooner of their poor performance and poor grades, we have a higher drop rate, which also decreases enrollment.”

What with the low enrollment, LB is trying to makes things easier for students by assigning an academic advisor for new students and having them take the Destination Graduation class.

LB is always accepting new students and wants as many people, young and old, to attend and get their degree.

Cyber-bullying

wentongg/ flickr.com

Cyber-bullying  is one of the newest forms of bullying that teenagers/bullies are using.

It is much easier to remain anonymous and still be able to have freedom of speech. Since these online bullies have found new ways to get to their targets, there have been more teenage suicides than in previous years. According to the CDC, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC.

Nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying, and 160,000 kids stay home from school every day because of fear of bullying. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it.

According to studies done by Yale University, bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. The ones more at risk of suicide are 10 to 14 year old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide.

Some of the warning signs of suicide can include:

• Signs of depression, like ongoing sadness, withdrawal from others, losing interest in favorite activities, or trouble sleeping or eating.
• Talking about or showing an interest in death or dying.
• Engaging in dangerous or harmful activities, including reckless behavior, substance abuse, or self injury.
• Giving away favorite possessions and saying goodbye to people.
• Saying or expressing that they can’t handle things anymore.
• Making comments that things would be better without them.
Well now there is help for this dilemma, and most of that help is on the internet.
To get up to date information on things like:
• The common forms of cyber-bullying.
• How it harms students and warning signs that a student may be the target of cyber-bullying.
• How educators and parents can prevent or intervene in cyber-bullying situations and what responses may actually worsen the bullying problem.
• When cyber-bullying becomes harassment and the legal responsibilities of schools to protect and intervene in harassment situations.

I think that every school in America, and in other countries where bullying is a problem, should have seminars/become better aware of the problems that any kind of bullying causes.  If schools were more apt to the problems with there students, then they would be able to stop most of the suicides that are happening now with teenagers.

Why not try and save the lives of these teenagers while there is still time?

Please visit sites such as, www.stopcyberbullying.org; www.cyberbullyhelp.com; www.stopbullying.gov; and www.stompoutbullying.org, or talk to a professional if you have seen some of these signs in anyone that you know. The first step to getting better is by receiving help of any kind.

Facebook IPO

It’s a good thing that Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg  is worth well over $17.5 billion dollars, because his newest Facebook scheme isn’t panning out quite how he thought. The new Facebook initial public offering (IPO) was created and made public on May 17.

The Facebook IPO has been called many things, and a success is not one of the words used to describe it. In fact, it has been called the “Gigli” of IPOs (meaning that it is a huge flop).

Why didn’t Facebook do as well as they originally thought?

One of the main reasons that ruined the IPO is the price. It was priced way too high, at around $42 per share. Since the first day of the IPO being made public, shares have dropped to about $31 per share, with an initial loss of $17.16 billion. Originally investors were told that the initial value was around $104 billion.

Apparently, the company is only worth about $7.50 per share, according to moneymorning.com. Revenue is already slowing and the company does not and cannot possibly dominate the mobile markets that are becoming the preferred channel for millions of people.

Not only is Facebook getting hit hard with the IPO debacle, but companies have started pulling their advertisements. Companies like General Motors (GM) are deciding not to renew their advertising. This is going to hit Facebook to the tune of $10 million a year for the loss of GM alone.

That’s not all that is going on with Facebook. They’re also being sued over their IPO.

According to techradar.com, Facebook is being sued by their shareholders over inconsistent IPO forecasts.

The shareholders are claiming that Facebook, along with the company’s key underwriters, mislead investors about the company’s growth forecasts.

The lawsuit addresses the fact that just before Facebook went public, the principal underwriters reduced their estimates for the company’s second quarter growth without telling some investors about new key information. The lack of that information, the suit claims, inflated Facebook’s IPO price and caused losses from investors not “preferred” by Facebook.

The lawsuit specifically targets Facebook and their principal underwriter Morgan Stanley, as well as underwriters Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Merrill Lynch.

Zuckerberg doesn’t seem too concerned over these allegations, as he has been seen out and about in his normal jeans, flip-flops, and his hoodie.

In fact, a Facebook spokesperson has been quoted as saying “We believe the lawsuit is without merit and we’ll defend ourselves vigorously.”

 

How Community College Journalism can Thrive Amid Cannibals and Zombies

“To be living in interesting times, is to be cursed.”

This is the motto for the community colleges that are losing, or have lost, their school newspapers.

Zombie by Rodolpho Reis on Flicker. Click to view source.

It just so happens that out of 29 community colleges in Washington State alone, over half of those schools have lost their papers. It is due to reasons such as: budget cuts, cutting journalism programs, no student interest. The question that they were asking everyone is “Who’s your zombie?”

According to Andrea Otanez, Everett Community College instructor, the “zombies” are a vast array of many different topics. Some of these topics include: not keeping journalism relevant at community colleges, a campus that doesn’t fully support the paper, fast-moving technology, web and print, training for jobs, and community colleges are only two-year institutions.

How can students and staff make it to where these “zombies” don’t come onto every community college campus, totally wiping out the school newspaper and the journalism program?

Jeanne Leader, dean of Everett Community College, seems to think that the enemy is within the campus. She also thinks that since journalism is cheap to have around, and that newspapers always seem to do better with a journalism program, schools need to keep papers on the budget.

“There are certain community colleges that get bad press from the students and the staff about certain articles that were written,” said Leader. “We’re here to inform the community about what is happening, not about people’s hurt feelings. If they don’t like what was written, then they shouldn’t have said anything. Our challenge is to engage the community, and if stories are not relevant, then how will we inform the community and move forward as a student newspaper?”

Leader suggested offering students anywhere from $10-$20 for just one article. That way they are making the students get more involved. Leader also said that every paper is about quality or quantity. It doesn’t matter if your paper is a few pages long. As long as the articles are well written it doesn’t matter.

Leader suggested that to get students more involved, to try holding a booth with “swag”, such as free food, games, or free merchandise with the paper’s logo. It is all about underselling and over delivering.

Aaron Alan, a community college student, said that his school no longer has a student newspaper because there was no budget for it and the students weren’t very supportive of the paper in the first place.

 

 For more information on what is happening to today’s newspapers
visit www.WhoNeedsNewspapers.org.

“My school has been without a print newspaper for about four years now,” said Alan. “We were told that the reason why it got cut was because of certain articles that were written, and that they were not very suitable for the students to know. Students have the right to know everything, and if the only reason why they shut us down is because we wrote about a staff member that was doing something illegal, then I know we’re doing our job right.”

Alan and some fellow students have created an online edition of their old newspaper, and are continuing their journalism endeavors, informing the students about the community.

Recycling on Campus: Part Deux

Image via Wikipedia

Recycling on campus has just completed their second full term. To help support the recycling program, the bookstore has been selling specific merchandise, e.g. t-shirts, hoodies, water bottles, and lanyards. Since September, they have sold $2,915 of merchandise and have profited $1,422.

“We are discussing right now, how we want to expand the merchandise selection, and maybe get a little more creative with the clothing designs as we build the brand and move towards 2nd generation merchandise,” said Lawrence LaJoie, LBCC Bookstore Manager. “The great thing right now is that the merchandise is simple yet unique, and universal to everyone.”

Throughout the entire Albany campus, there are four locations, the Courtyard Cafe, in front of Takena, in back of Takena, and at the bookstore courtyard, with orders for two more locations for Spring Term. In order to run each station, it costs $300 each term.

The recycling program has been very successful the last two terms and according to Lajoie, they will continue the program.

“We plan on continuing this program for the foreseeable future to cover all campuses with stations, estimating we need a total of approx 30 stations,” said Lajoie. “After that, we’ll focus on internal areas of campus as well, getting more concentrated on workspaces and classrooms.”

The response from students and staff has been very supportive, and along with the Bookstore’s efforts, they will be able to add more bins each year. The blue recycle bins in the main building hallways are placed and taken care of by college facilities and janitorial staff. They are well marked as to what goes in them.

The new set of recycle bins that the Bookstore has purchased from sales of their “green” merchandise will look different than the hallway bins, and serve the outside areas like the courtyard, the Bookstore atrium and in front of Takena Hall. They will include a bin for composting food items and biodegradable food and coffee drink containers from food services on campus.

“The issue has been education. Since we have new students coming in each term, we are always looking for ways to let new students know what can be recycled and composted on campus, and how to recycle,” said Lori Fluge-Brunker, Master Recycler and an active member of the Sustainability Committee. “We do often find trash in the recycle bins, which can cause the recycle to be treated, in essence, as trash. So educating people about recycling is important.”

In order to help bring awareness to recycling on campus, the Green Club hosted a “Know What you Throw” recycling table during fall term to answer recycling questions.

Along with that event, the Green Club will be hosting a “Waste Audit” where they collect trash from around campus, then sort and weigh the trash to see how much is actually garbage and how much could have been recycled or composted. This will be held March 13 at 1 p.m. and will be made visible to students and staff in the courtyard.

Most students and staff are interested in recycling and in doing it right, it’s just a matter of making it easy and clear for them to do it.

What Exactly Is Recycleable?

Most people don’t know the right ways to recycle, let alone what can be recycled. Linn-Benton Community College now has a recycling program on the Albany campus and now has two locations, outside Takena Hall and in the Bookstore Courtyard.

The recycling trash bins are color coded with a sign right up above the bins that helps direct people to the right bin. Green is for glass, blue is for co-mingle (paper, plastic, and aluminum), and black is for compost and then for trash that isn’t either of these there are trashcans located right next to them.

What exactly is recycleable?

According to the Allied Waste website plastic shampoo bottles, liter bottles, and milk jugs are recycleable plastic. For glass, just about everything goes, except for ceramics, mirrors, and plate glass. For the recycleable metal, all of the food and beverage containers are. Of course all newspaper, catalogs, and magazines are recycleable, just make sure not to place them in bags or bundle them together. The same goes for junk mail, cardboard, and mixed household papers.

Now what isn’t recycleable?

Allied Waste states that butter tubs, containers with an openings as large as the container, no bottles that have contained oil or petroleum by-products, and of course no aluminum foil. Always make sure to not place any tissues, wet paper, paper contaminated by food products into the recycle bin.

In order for the recycling program to take off, the LBCC Bookstore is partnering with the Sustainability Committee and is helping them create more locations and earn more money for their program.

When the Sustainability Committee first created this recycling program, they had no funding, but once they started to partner up with LBCC Bookstore they will start to see funding come their way. The Bookstore has come up with an idea to sell recycled merchandise at a low price. They will be selling lanyards and water bottles at $5.00, t-shirts for $10.00, and hooded shirts for $20.00 and all of the proceeds go back to the program.

“We’re trying to create products that both men and women will like and are trying to make the recycled merchandise a different feature in the store and not have it be related to the LBCC merchandise.”, said Lawrence LaJoie, manager of the LBCC Bookstore.

One of the hardest things about these programs is maintenance, finding facilities that are willing to participate, and making sure the bins aren’t over the contamination level. If the level of contamination is over the limit then Allied Waste can cancel the program.

Their over-all goal is to create more locations is Albany as well as expand to the other LBCC locations, but that could take years before this program expands that much. But, in order for this program to take off, they need your help.

Feel free to wander over to the bookstore and browse through the recycled products.

Occupy Portland Shuts Down Main Street

Occupy Portland by eliduke/flickr.com

After several hours of deliberations, the ’Occupy Portland’ demonstrators have voted to keep Main Street closed with the exceptions of buses, emergency vehicles, and bikes. This decision came from 90 percent of the people who are participating, all of whom have been camped out at Chapman Square for the past week. However, police officials have not responded to this decision. But Mayor Sam Adams asked the protesters to consider reopening the downtown street.

“We don’t want a confrontation. We just want to get the street reopened,” said Adams.

The majority of many demonstrators said that they would like to see the street reopen, as well, out of concern for public safety and city businesses. However the other demonstrators that don’t want the street reopened say it is closed for a reason. The sections of the street that are closed off are between Third and Fourth Avenue. In order to pass any kind of proposal, Occupy Portland needs to have 90 percent of the vote to reopen or to keep the road closed, is needed since they’re operating on a consensus model.

One demonstrator, who refused to give his name, said that the general assembly needs to be respected.

“When you say this is dragging on, well when there’s a problem that needs to be decided in Washington, how long does that take? It can take weeks and weeks, months and months,” the demonstrator said.

Main Street did reopen briefly on Wednesday morning because some of the protesters removed the barricades that were being used to block the street. But some of the other protesters felt that the street needed to remain blocked and returned the barricades after being opened for about an hour and then sat down in the street. It’s not known how long the demonstrators will be there.

According to John Mackin, one of the Occupy Portland demonstrators, they plan on being there well past winter.

“It’s going to be a long while before people are out of here,” Mackin says. “Definitely over the winter. It’s going to take awhile. No one is in a rush. A lot of people don’t have anywhere to go.”

For the most part, the demonstrators have been quiet peaceful, apart from the few activist that spray painted the word ‘PIG’ on the back of a police officer’s patrol car that was parked near their camp. A member of the Occupy Portland financial committee says they’re working to pay the Portland Police Bureau for damages.

The ‘Occupy Demonstrations’ are now happening throughout the entire world. Many people believe that if they protest what is going on with the government, I.e. the financial crisis that just about every country is going through, then the government will start to make changes with the way they are running things and with what they say should be cut/who should be taxed more.

Sally Moore Appointed Division Dean

Sally Moore, Division Dean,

Linn-Benton Community College

Congratulations, Sally Moore, the new Divison Dean at Linn-Benton Community College. Moore was one of three candidates.  The other two were Chris Breitmeyer and Ron Engeldinge.

 

Moore completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at University of California in Santa Barbra and went on to a teaching job at University of California. She taught there for six years before transferring to UC-Davis, where she taught for four more years. After moving to Oregon, she taught at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. She came to Linn-Benton Community College after Lewis and Clark, and she has been here ever since.

While she was at UC-Davis she created a peer advisor program that helped incoming students who were lost and didn’t know what classes they should take. Apart from the peer advisor program, she has worked alongside the Division Dean of LBCC and acted as an Associate Dean of Academic Development, Communication Arts and Mathematics for one year. Moore’s goal is to bring the staff and the faculty together and connect them more strongly than they are now.

What exactly is a Division Dean?  A Division Dean is someone that makes the jobs of faculty a little bit easier.  The Division Dean takes all of the different departments throughout the division and unites them and makes that part of the college function.  Without the Division Deans, LBCC, or any school really, would be in utter chaos because nothing would organized and nothing would be getting taken care of.

Moore says that there are three things that affect students in a bad way and if people don’t address these problems then how are students going to get better? The three things that she mentioned are 1.) money, 2.) external demands, and 3.) lack of academic preparedness.
Moore noted that 50 percent of students can’t apply for financial aid, and 20 percent need financial aid but don’t think they will receive it and so don’t apply. All-in-all 45 percent of students going to LBCC receive financial aid.  As well as lacking funds for school, most students are full-time at both work and college.

“Eighty to ninety percent of students test into at least one developmental area, one-third test into all three [reading, writing, and math],” said Moore. “We have a responsibility to our students to make sure they are moving forward academically.”

According to Moore, schools to need to re-evaluate placement tests and make sure that students are getting the help that they need. She also thinks that study skills are critical. She doesn’t want to add more classes to the student requirements, but she thinks that the study skills class is a must for every student at LBCC.

One of the first things that a student asks when starting a new school is, “Do I matter?”  Moore is here to tell students that yes you do matter, that LBCC is a very welcoming environment, and that the faculty, no matter what department, are here to help. This is one of the reasons Moore created Welcome Day, which is Sept. 21 and is in its second year at LBCC.

Evil Dead The Musical Review

          

Click here to visit Evil Dead: the Musical's website.

 

“Good … bad … I’m the guy with the gun “

The “Evil Dead Musical” combined both “Evil Dead” movies, all of which star Bruce Campbell and directed by Sam Raimi and it is because of these wonderful men that we have this cheesy, awesome, musical play about zombies coming to life.

The play is about five college students going on a random road trip and ending up taking shelter at an abandoned cabin in the woods where they find a book down in the cellar and, of course, they read from the book.  Well, you know what that means … they’ve unleashed an evil spirit that will turn them all into zombies if they don’t kill the evil spirit by morning.

“You’re going to be dead by dawn.”

So who else to save the day then an ordinary guy who works at the local S-Mart?  Mr. Ash Williams, of course.  Along with him he has his shot gun in one hand and a chainsaw in the other.

This play follows the first movie pretty closely and then after intermission they go take things from the second “Evil Dead” with bits and pieces of “Army of Darkness.”  From the horny trees that rape Cheryl to Ash singing and dancing to “Look Who’s Evil Now” with the zombies in S-mart.

The woman that played Cheryl definitely stole the show.  Everything from her do-gooder attitude in the beginning to the witty dialog she says from the cellar all throughout the entire play.

The cast did an amazing job and were a major hit with the sold-out crowd.  The only thing that I didn’t like about the play was that no one got “splattered” in the splatter zone.  The audience was very disappointed about paying the extra money to get sprayed with blood, or in the middle row’s case … a condom that burst open on them!

“Usually our audiences are COVERED in blood.  We literally have buckets and buckets full of fake blood that we make ourselves, but this theater was too nice and we didn’t want to make it un-nice!” said Chance, who plays Ash Williams.

The musical numbers that they sang were just spectacular.  Their singing was a bit off-key, but it was all done on purpose because these movies are B-rated and so for the performances they wanted B-rated.

For their dance numbers they did the Time Warp, Thriller, the Macarena, the Sprinkler, the Robot, and the Dishwasher – all backwards.  They also made references to the Fonz “Heey (and brushing their hair)” and with Zombie Land “Rule #2: Make sure to always double tap”.

All-in-all this play was AMAZING and I would definitely recommend everyone to go and see it.  This play will keep you entertained and have you laughing the entire time.  The only thing I recommend is to make sure they are playing at a theater where they aren’t afraid to get the place dirty and you definitely need to wear a white shirt!

Cast Q and A:


Commuter: How do you guys identify with your characters?

Chance Newman (Ash Williams We were all HAND selected…because we ARE our characters!

Commuter: How long have you guys been together?

Chance: Well, this crew has been together since January 2011.  This is actually our second show that we’ve done.  The first one was in Bellingham.

Commuter: How did you get inspired to play your character?

Chance: Well, I was in Vancouver at the time and I saw this exact play and next thing I knew I was auditioning for the role of Ash.

Commuter: What is the biggest mistake that you’ve done onstage?

Dale Sharp (Ed Getley): Well…mine was, I fell off stage onto a girl in the audience, so I “died” on her and took her face in my hands and told her that I didn’t want to leave her and then I died!
 
Cassidy (Annie Knowby): I’ve slipped, tripped, fallen, and eaten shit onstage.  I’ve done it all.  I promise I don’t randomly rip my clothes off in public!

Commuter: Ok, since we’re at VooDoo Doughnuts too, what kind of doughnut did you order?

Dale: I just had to order the Maple Bacon Bar.  I mean come on…a doughnut with bacon, what could be wrong?
 
Cassidy: I definitely had to go with the Captain My Captain.  I just love Captain Crunch.

Dale: Now I have a question for you, what was your favorite part of the play?

Commuter: Honestly?  You were my favorite part.  Your acting was amazing and you did a great job…even if it was just a “bit” part!

Congress Needs a More “Green” Future

It’s no secret that the climate keeps changing every year.  Just look at this year.  Us Oregonians haven’t had much of a hot summer this year.  According to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. it is because of media and congress.

Kennedy Jr. blames the media because instead of reporting newsworthy things, journalists keep writing about how crazy Charlie Sheen is and are wondering what he will do next.  Kennedy Jr. thinks that journalists need stories that actually matter and that will make a difference in the world.

Kennedy Jr. also thinks that congress is to blame because they are cutting the tops off of mountains and mining there and that they should follow the EPA and put a price on carbon and mercury from coal plants.

“Then the administration needs to help construct a national grid system that functions as a marketplace for renewable power. We need a marketplace that turns every American into an energy entrepreneur and every home into a power plant, that powers our country on what Franklin Roosevelt called “America’s industrial genius.” We need a national program like Eisenhower launched in the 1950s and 60s to reconstruct our highway system and have it reach every community in the country.”, said Kennedy Jr., “Right now we have a marketplace for energy in this country that is rigged by rules that were written by the incumbents to favor the dirtiest, filthiest, most poisonous, most destructive, most addictive fuels from hell, rather than the cheap, clean, green, abundant, and wholesome fuels from heaven.”

Kennedy Jr.’s outline for getting America more “green” is:
1.) Immediately implement a carbon cap and trade system to diminish carbon emissions.
2.) Invest in a new backbone high-voltage, power-transmission grid so that it can deliver solar, wind, geothermal, and other renewable energy across the country.

Senator Bernie Sanders agrees with what Kennedy Jr. has to say.

“We have the potential to create millions of good-paying jobs in energy efficiency, in wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, when we finally have the courage to say there is something absurd about bringing into this country 350 billion dollars with foreign oil every single year, which makes us vulnerable from a geopolitical point of view, does not give us energy independence, and as Senator Merkley said, makes the Saudi Royal Family — one of the richest families in the world — even richer.”  states Sanders.

If America wants to get out of debt then congress needs to quit spending money on pointless things, for example reconstructing Lady Liberty and spending $15 million to do it.  America can’t afford to pay their bills, but somehow can find money to reconstruct Lady Liberty?  Makes Americans wonder what congress is really doing with tax payers money.

For questions or comments, call up your senators and let your opinion be known.  Let congress know how you feel about how your tax dollars are being spent on pointless things when just weeks ago congress was debating whether to cut social security, military pay, and welfare.  Let congress know how disappointed you are in them.  They are our elected leaders and instead of finding a way out of the hole, they just keep digging us deeper and into the hole.  Tell congress what you want your tax money spent on.

(Image via Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig of HikingArtist.com. [Creative Commons])

Will Congress Cut College Aid?

Cartoon by Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig via Flickr. Click to view source.

Well, the representatives in Congress are back to arguing over money … again.  This time they have to cut $3 trillion dollars over the course of two years and the issues on the table this time are Social Security, military funding, welfare, and financial aid for students.

 

Congress has been debating whether to raise the debt ceiling and they have until Aug. 2 to come to an agreement.  Neither party can come to an agreement over the many issues that need to be either reduced, or cut down to the bare minimum, or even just to be cut out entirely.  (For Rep. Peter DeFazio’s take on the issues about money being cut for schools, look below.)

More than 8.5 million undergraduate students have received Pell grants and three-fourths of those families made less than $30,000 a year.  The Pell grant is one of the issues on the table and it is unclear what they have in mind for it so far.  Without the federal Pell grants, what are students going to do?  They have many choices, but most may consider dropping out of school or taking out a loan and creating a debt that they won’t be able to afford.  Which do you choose?

What about military veterans?  One in three veterans that go to school receive a Pell grant.  They fought  for this country and this is how we treat them?  By taking away their financial aid and saying “I’m sorry, but you can’t go to school anymore because America can’t afford to pay for it.”  That’s not very fair to them.

Over the next couple of years, it will be even harder to either finish school or to even get into college.  The Oregon Legislature has cut state support for higher education by 16 percent, or $132 million, for 2011-13 as part of a series of recession-triggered budget cuts.  Tuition is going to keep going up, with the possibility of less financial aid for students.

Without education, how far are we going to get?  We are one of the smartest countries in the world, but we have a spending problem.  Instead of pointing fingers and arguing over everything and not taking blame for anything, why don’t we try and fix the problem in a timely manner?

How about instead of cutting things from low-income families, the people that can barely afford to live, how about if the government asks the public what they think should be cut?  Why not have a nationwide poll on what America thinks we should keep and what we think should go?  We do after all have a freedom of speech and are free to petition the government.

It’s time to stand up, Congress, and see what the average American has to say.  I urge each and every one of you to contact your senator and representatives and tell them what you think.  Tell them not to cut financial aid, or Social Security, welfare, and to leave the military budget alone because they are fighting for our country and we’re not going to take away their paychecks just to “save” the economy.  Let your opinion be known.

Q&A with Congressmen Peter DeFazio:

The Commuter: What do you think about Congress cutting money for schools?

Peter DeFazio: I think it is really stupid.  I think that we need to reduce federal spending and invest money back into the economy.  In order to grow and get money and to save America, we have to do two things.  First, we need to invest in infrastructure.  We need better building and better roads.  Then the second one is to invest in education.  We have some of the brightest kids in today’s society and without proper education, how far are they going to get?  The Tea Party have all agreed and said that Congress is not cutting enough money out of schools.

T.C.: How much of school aid is getting cut?

P.D.: At first they said that we needed to cut $3 trillion dollars from the budget and Congress has decided one of those things will be financial aid for low-income students, but along with the $3 trillion, they have also decided that an additional $17 billion more needs to be cut.  The goal is to have at least the $3 trillion cut from the budget by 2013.  HR1 is going to attack the Pell grants and financial aid for low-income students and I think it is stupid to do that.

T.C.: Any alternatives for low-income students?

P.D.: Other than the Pell grants, I don’t think so.  See, the Pell grants are meant for low-income students and the student loans are for students that have a higher income than the average student.

T.C.: What about military students?  Is the G.I. Bill or the spouse program being reduced?

P.D.: I am not aware about this question, so far it has not come up.  As far as I know, we’re not going to do anything with the G.I. Bill or the spouse program.

T.C.: Do you know of another financial aid fund?

P.D.: The only one that I am really familiar with, is my program.  I award 10 scholarships per year and they are all need based.

T.C.: How do students access it?

P.D.: The normal way…through a scholarship program.  I believe the scholarships are called ‘DeFazio Scholarships’ and they are all highly competitive and are all need based.  I only had them out to four schools in my district, plus one on the border of my district.  All of my scholarships either go to low-income, as needed, students, or to Veterans trying to go back to school, or to the unemployed and are going back to school to get a job/career or are training for a new job/career.

(Cartoon by Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig. (Creative Commons))

LBCC Budget Includes Tuition Increase

Once again the LBCC tuition is changing.  When LBCC was established in 1966, tuition was $60 per term for a full-time student. Currently, tuition is $91 per credit, clocking in around $1,092 to be full-time for one term.

Jim Huckestein,

Vice President,

Finance and Operations.

Tuition increased $7 starting this summer term.  According to Jim Huckestein, vice-president of finance and operations, it is expected that tuition will increase an additional $5, once the 2012 summer term starts.  Many students are asking how this will affect them. Some individuals receiving financial aid may be wondering if financial aid will increase with the tuition rise.

Huckestein  said LBCC Financial Aid calculates their financial aid budget by factoring expenses such as room and board, tuition, fees, books and supplies. In turn, if tuition increases than the budget will as well.  However, not everyone will qualify for an increase in their financial aid. Certain types of financial aid are at a  fixed amount, such as the Pell grant, while loans, on the other hand, are subject to change.



Carol Schaafsma,

Executive Vice President,

Academic Affairs and Workforce

Development.

In order to cut back on costs, the LBCC board has decided to reduce teacher wages and to suspend some classified employees.  The faculty costs were reduced by eliminating positions and by leaving certain positions vacant. The faculty positions that were eliminated were in the counseling office, math, education/family studies, and the business technology department.  However, some of those classes will still be offered only to part-time employees.

Classes saw a cut as well, with reductions in Automotive Technology, Business Technology and welding classes.  They have decided to terminate the Emergency Medical Technician program, which will not be available next year.

“Several programs were asked to look at the classes required to complete their two-year degrees and to reduce requirements to total 90 credits,” said Carol Schaafsma, executive vice-president of academic affairs and workforce development.  “We had many majors that required more than 90 credits to complete the degree.”

 

Greg Hamann,

 President.

Huckestein reported that the state funding for community colleges has been declining, while enrollment continues to go up.  For the 2007-08 fiscal year, it was estimated that the state would pay $3,117 for each student, which has now dropped to $1,700 along with increased costs that LBCC has little control over, such as the teacher pensions and the cost of health insurance. “If we were prudent in building our budget for the 2011-12 year, stabilize enrollment over time through the pursuit of things like “Student Success and Completion,” and able to rein in escalating costs, then we can look forward to future years that are much more fiscally stable than the one we just ended… and this will be very good indeed,” said Greg Hamann, president of LBCC.

Throughout the next school year things should start looking up for students, which could mean the lowering of tuition in the coming years.