A Weekly First Amendment Student Newspaper October 26, 2012 (Vol. 24 No. 07) First copy FREE; additional copies 50 cents each

A 2011 General Excellence Newspaper — Journalism Association of Community Colleges

Angelica EstacioSTAFF WRITER

Student leadership is perhaps one of the most sought after advocacy in many universities and community colleges such as Las Positas.

However, not all students real-ize that as enticing as holding a leadership position may be, the responsibilities that come along with it might be more than they can handle.

This particular dilemma is perhaps why Johnny Romero had to step down as a senator from

The Associated Students of Las Positas College (ASLPC).

In a student senate meeting held on Oct. 19, ASLPC Vice President Christina Aboud pre-sented a letter of resignation from Romero.

The letter merely stated that the former senator has officially left the student senate as of the day before.

Romero’s resignation did not come as a surprise to his col-leagues and to ASLPC advisor Cynthia Ross.

ASLPC, page 2

PHO

TO ILLU

STRATION

/ALEX LO

PEZ/EXPRESS

Jason LeskiwSPORTS EDITOR

Looking towards an eighth season working as the coach of the Las Positas College basketball team, Tony Costello stands on the hardwood of the Nest observing several new recruits. A thinning scalp and a stature that most would not consider towering, he shouts orders and his players respond in kind.

Everything was normal this mid-July afternoon. Las Positas College men’s basketball coach Tony Costello was being his usual dominant self. With his thinning scalp and pencil thin frame, he shouts orders to recruits working out at The Nest.

A mild, yet uncomfortable stomach pain, that had been plaguing him for a week, got a little more intense this day. He finally decided to heed his wife’s wishes and see a doctor. He left practice, turned over the reigns to his assistant coach and heads to Walnut Creek.

He wound up spending three

days in the hospital, having lesions of tissue in his lower stomach and pancreas investigated.

“They diagnosed me mid-July, I thought it was appendicitis,” men’s basketball coach Tony Costello said. “I thought I’d be back for my six-o’clock class, but I didn’t make it.”

Head Coach Tony Costello was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and will not be coaching this season.

Though he will not be directly at the helm of the team, he has been around the gym complex and has been conducting back-ground work along with interim coach Ward Farris.

When he is on the campus of Las Positas College, he comes off as chipper and lively, as if it’s just another day. He seems to shine over an internal battle he is fighting with the help of doctors, surgery and chemotherapy.

Costello, page 6

Cancer forces Hawks coach to miss season

ASLPC senator resigns from position

How to perform

self-exam

for breast cancer

Page 3

President defends his tenureBekka WiedenmeyerSTAFF WRITER

On Oct. 12, the Express Newspaper released an article that voiced the concerns of some faculty and administra-tors concerning President Kevin Walthers’ management of LPC.

The article was described as being “excessively harsh and unfair” by Walthers himself, and other unnamed school officials also made similar claims.

For the benefit of students, however, Walthers wishes to focus on what is important: helping students as best he can. This includes expanding enroll-ment for future LPC students, reinforcing infrastructure on campus that will better serve students and providing more classes for students to take in order to graduate and move on.

“(The article) is not some-thing I want to dwell on because it doesn’t help students and it doesn’t help morale on campus,” Walthers said. “We need to make decisions that are in the best interests of helping students. I come from a background that is essentially if you take care of the students, the rest of the stuff will take care of itself. My focus is on doing what’s best for students.”

Previously, Walthers was employed in West Virginia as the Vice Chancellor of the state system.

Before that, he worked at the College of Eastern Utah and was a policy analyst for the Utah state legislature. While California and West Virginia differ in their rules and regulations, Walthers believes that the core mission of community colleges is the same.

“The core of what a com-munity college does is educate

students and train the workforce and provide basic skills,” he said. “(That) is the same when you go across the country.”

One of the tasks that he and others at LPC have been work-ing on is providing students with more classes. Given the recent budget cuts and the financial cri-sis that the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District is facing, students have been hard-pressed to find open classes in which to enroll.

One opportunity to remedy the situation is the Foundation 55 program.

Geared towards students looking to graduate, the pro-gram adds one course session to the catalog for each $5,500 it raises.

“The nice part is that it’s com-pletely faculty-driven,” Walthers said. “The faculty come in and say these are the courses we need, these are the courses where we see students have long waiting lists. I’m really proud of that program, and it’s going to be fantastic for the students here.”

Since its introduction to the LPC Foundation in July, five classes have been added to the course schedule. These are not including classes that have been added due to grant funds—these are purely the results of dona-tions from around the commu-nity.

Another contribution that has been made to students has been the recent updates made to campus infrastructure, par-ticularly with the new Science Building and the impact it has on students involved with the science program. Despite bud-get cuts made to this project, there are still resources left over

to continue updating the infra-structure at LPC.

“We’re going to have $21 mil-lion in bond funds left over for additional technology and infra-structure upgrades,” Walthers said. “We’ve been very wise in how we allocate those funds.”

While Walthers had no addi-tional comment in response to the article, the claims still stand.

One criticism that has been made involves the differing atmospheres between commu-nity colleges on the West Coast and the East Coast. The work cultures in California and West Virginia community colleges are different.

“I think their concerns were valid,” Sarah Thompson, Academic Senate president, said in reference to the article. “(President Walthers) perhaps isn’t the best fit for our particular work culture. He has a history of employment and a history of accomplishments, so obviously, given the right atmosphere, he can really excel, but this perhaps was not the right atmosphere. Some of it may be because in his experience in other states, things were done differently.”

While the current financial situation at LPC is tentative, it is obvious that there are issues at hand. Many opinions are being presented about the solu-tions to those issues, and not all agree. However, both faculty and administration consider the best interests of the students at LPC to be paramount.

“We can sit by and do noth-ing, or we can do something innovative,” Walthers said. “If we can’t serve students, then we need to find a way for students to get served. It will all get itself worked out.”

Cancer fundraiser in honor of late LPC student, See News page 2

Kendrick Lamar album brings back West Coast rap, See A&E page 3

2 Las Positas College Express NEWS October 26, 2012

Deceased student remembered through scholarship and fundraiserBekka WiedenmeyerSTAFF WRITER

While attending LPC, Roanne Cairel was diagnosed with and had a five-year battle with colon cancer. Even after moving on from LPC, she is still remem-bered. Fliers emblazoned with “Roanne’s Race” can be found all around campus. A dance scholar-ship is found under her name in the LPC dance department.

Most importantly, Roanne’s impact on the lives of people still remains.

“She was the thread that kept everyone together,” LPC student Leslie Paiz said. “Everyone loved her.”

Roanne graduated high school in the spring of 2005 and began attending LPC the following fall semester. Soon after, she began experiencing major abdominal pains, and at the age of 19, she was diagnosed with colon cancer.

“She told me (about her can-cer) over the phone while I was at work,” said Ryan Cairel, brother of Roanne and current student at LPC. “I went on break when she called me, and I was devastated.”

Over the next few months, rounds of chemotherapy began. The results were always up and down — she would get better, and then she would get worse.

“It was just a roller coaster ride for her,” Ryan said. “It would be good news, and then it would be bad news. They would get rid of the cancer, but it would always come back.”

Despite the cancer, Roanne continued to attend LPC, partic-ularly LPC’s dance department. She was there until 2007, always dancing, even though there were times her situation made it dif-ficult to continue doing so.

“She would have her chemo treatment basically attached to her, and she would tuck it in and still dance,” Ryan said. “(Dancing) was definitely her passion, and she didn’t want to stop.”

About two and a half years after her diagnosis, Roanne into her parents’ home to make driv-ing to the hospital easier. It was then that she decided to stop the chemotherapy.

“It was her decision to stop chemo and to just be at home for the rest of her time,” Ryan said. “She hated going to the hospital all the time and then having to sit there for hours … then coming home feeling all groggy.”

A few months after the deci-sion was made, Roanne passed away at home. It was the day after Christmas and a month before her 25th birthday.

The Roanne Cairel LPC Dance Scholarship began that December. Created by LPC’s for-mer dance instructor Victoria Frye, the scholarship is designed to provide additional opportuni-ties for LPC dance students.

At the beginning of 2012, “Roanne’s Race” was founded. The idea first began with friends and family of Roanne, and then it spread. It is a 5k/10k/run/walk event held at Robertson Park on Nov. 3, sponsored by compa-nies such as Dethrone Royalty Clothing and, more locally, Marcel Orthodontics in Livermore.

“Anything to keep her memory going,” Paiz said. “It’s so impor-tant because she touched a lot of people’s lives so everybody wants to be involved.”

Over 170 people have signed up, and over $6,000 has been raised through donations and sponsors. Funds will go to the Colon Cancer Alliance, which specializes in research studies and education for colon cancer.

“They normally suggest that people over 50 get colonosco-pies for colon cancer screenings,” Ryan said. “(Roanne) was really young, and it’s starting to become more common in young people.”

Roanne is still touching lives today, both through her memory and through her race. Go to roan-nesrace.org to register, donate, sponsor or learn more.

Seminar to focus on cancer

treatment breakthrough

The second seminar of the Third Annual LLNL and LPC Science and Engineering Seminar Series is getting under way.

“A Compact Accelerator for Proton Therapy for Cancer” will be covered by speakers George Caporaso and Steven Hawkins. The accelerator is an upgrade over existing x-ray technology.

The seminar is scheduled for Nov. 8 at 6 p.m. in room 2420. It is free and open to the public.

‘Fools’ coming to LPC campus

LPC’s Black Box Theater will be presenting “Fools,” a roman-tic farce written by Neil Simon.

The play is about a young teacher who landed a job in a small Russian village, but finds the town has been cursed with stupidity for the past 200 years. He must break the curse within 24 hours or fall victim to it.

Show times will be Nov. 2, 3, 9 and 10 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 4 and 11 at 2 p.m. General tickets are on sale for $12. Tickets will also be available for students, seniors and LPC faculty and staff for $8.

Tickets are available for pur-chase at the door.

LPC staff offers Helping Hand

The Helping Hands program has come to LPC. The goal of the program is to provide stu-dents with “safe zones” where they can talk about personal issues they may be facing in a non-judgmental and supportive environment.

Twenty faculty and staff members have volunteered to be a part of the program. Red hand signs on office doors or windows will also indicate par-ticipation in the program.

Benefit Concert to be held at LPC

On Oct. 27 at 8 p.m., at the Mertes Center for the Arts, the LPC Music Department will be hosting a benefit concert fea-turing Richard Glazier.

Glazier will be perform-ing “Gershwin Remembrance,” a performance focusing on the works of George and Ira Gershwin who were considered musical royalty.

Tickets are on sale for stu-dents for $10 and the public at $25. Both will be available at the door.

During the aforementioned meeting, Aboud disclosed that Romero was up for impeachment or removal from the senate due to failure to perform tasks.

According to ASLPC bylaws, which were signed in April of this year, senators are expected to perform assigned tasks — such as submit committee reports and senator reports — in a timely manner. Senators are allowed only two unexcused absences per semester to scheduled meetings or events.

Romero, who became sena-tor on Aug. 21, failed to abide by these and therefore became eli-gible for impeachment. His deci-sion, however, was to voluntarily give up his leadership position.

And although his service may be short-termed, Romero’s con-tributions are still appreciated by everyone he worked with.

“He seemed to be an inter-ested student, and somebody who really wanted to give back to the campus,” Ross said. “Sometimes incoming freshmen don’t real-ize the amount of work that’s required at college level and they think they can do everything,”

Ross said that although this may not be the exact case with Romero, it remains a common cause for students who drop out of the student senate.

Absenteeism plays role in senator’s impeachment

PHOTO COURTESY RYAN CAIREL

Roanne Cairel’s memory will be celebrated during “Roanne’s Race,” which will be held on November 3 at Robertson Park in Livermore.

October 26, 2012 NEWS Las Positas College Express 3

1 Stand in front of a mir-ror. Put your hands on your hips and stand up straight.

Check your breasts to ensure they are their usual size, shape, and color. Any swelling or visible distortions should be noted.

The following changes will warrant a visit to the doctor:

•Dimpling, puckering, or bulg-ing of the skin

•A nipple that has changed position or an inverted nipple (pushed inward instead of stick-ing out)

•Redness, soreness, rash, or swelling

•Fluid coming from the nip-ples whether it be milky, bloody, watery or yellow

2 Next, raise your arms. Look at your breasts and look for the changes men-tioned above.

3Now lay down. Breastcancer.org states “Feel your breasts, using your right hand to feel

your left breast and then your left hand to feel your right breast. Use a firm, smooth touch with the first few finger pads of your hand, keeping the fingers flat and together. Use a circular motion, about the size of a quarter.”

Check your entire breast using this method. Cover the entire breast from top to bottom, side to side, i.e. from collarbone to the top of the stomach, then the base of the arm to the cleavage fold.

“Be sure to feel all the tissue from the front to the back of your breasts,” states the website.

4Finally, feel your breasts while you are standing or sitting, preferably while they’re wet. As described

above, cover the entire breast.

Self-exams good for early detectionOctober is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the American

Cancer Society estimates that in 2012 there will be about 39,510 deaths from breast cancer. That is about half the population of Livermore. In recognition of that, many organizations are moving to publicize how women can be their very own first line of defense in the fight against breast cancer.

Below is a brief explanation of how to perform a breast self-exam. Much of the information was compiled from the website breastcancer.org.

For more information on breast cancer self-checks, symptoms and treatments, visit breastcancer.org

Maintain healthy weight throughout lifeAdopt physically active lifestyleEat healthy diet, with an emphasis on plant souLimit alcohol intake1. Balance calorie intake with physical activity

2. Adults should engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate vigorous physical activities3. Limit intake of processed and red meats4. Eat !ve or more servings of a variety of vegetables and fruits each day5. Women should drink no more than one alcoholic drink per day

American Cancer Society Guidelines for Nutritional and Physical Cancer Prevention

4 Las Positas College Express ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT October 26, 2012

Joshua BasraiA&E EDITOR

The Las Positas Theatre 5 class showcased their last public show-ing of ‘Looking Glass Land’ on Oct 19 and 20 to a large crowd of children, LPC faculty, LPC administrators, students and family members of the cast.

“It was packed,” said Janet Brehe Johnson, director and instructor at LPC. “I mean people were standing.”

The play captivated the minds and hearts of children, and unleashed the inner-child for all adult viewers. The show itself is made for children, but hilarity ensued for all ages. Despite hav-ing some miscues, absences and technical difficulties on the Oct. 20 show, the group persevered and put on a show for everyone. Even with the technical difficul-ties the show was a success.

Before they performed on Saturday, the cast and members of the production experienced several scares. Their sound guy didn’t show up, they dealt with static and their camera man didn’t show up. Luckily, despite having these problems, they persevered and put on a comical, laugh-out-loud performance.

“The performance on Saturday was not our best. We had such technical difficulties,” Johnson said.

Despite all the technical dif-ficulties on the Saturday showing, the members of the cast executed really well. Quirky voices, musical instruments, choreography and line execution made the audience

forget entirely about the technical difficulties.

The play, which is essentially a sequel to “Alice in Wonderland,” begins with Alice playing a game of chess. She goes down a look-ing glass mirror to a land where everything is filled with chess

pieces and everything is back-wards

Children throughout the audi-ence were cackling with laugh-ter. At one point, a child left his seat and hugged a cast member. Ultimately, the theatre class’s goal is to keep the children in mind

before every production. Despite obviously being for

children, adults in the audience still rejoiced. With word-play, jokes only adults can understand and a quirky rap, the produc-tion did an overall good job at unleashing the inner-child in

older audience members. “The best thing about doing

this show is seeing the response from the kids we perform for. They honestly make it worth the while,” said Sarah Kellner, who plays Alice.

“Regardless if we dropped lines or had awkward pauses they are our biggest fans. I seriously had a little girl come up to me and say ‘Alice!! I’ve seen all your movies! This was the best!’ they actually think the cast is the characters. So I make sure to keep that in mind and really play to the children.”

All of the costumes were designed by their actors, and they all had a unique style. Humpty Dumpty stole the show with one of the most creative costumes and immediately became an audi-ence-favorite.

The show concludes with a sort of a cliffhanger. You don’t truly know if it was a dream, a true story or a figment of imagi-nation.

Is the looking glass real? Was it all a dream? How did Alice get back? This befuddles most of the adult members in the audi-ence, but kids generally overlook the cliffhanger. This is another area where the play proved that it could be for all ages.

After the performance ended, children ran to the stage as if it were the end of a Justin Bieber concert, something that these actors will always treasure.

With their public showings ending, the class will spend the remainder of their performances on the road visiting several Tri-Valley elementary schools.

‘Looking Glass’ play survives despite technical difficulties

Actors take part in their last performance for “Through the Looking Glass Land.” IMAGE COUTESY OF MICHAEL FURUYAMA

October 26, 2012 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Las Positas College Express 5

Martin GallegosSTAFF WRITER

Look inside my soul and you can find gold and maybe get rich. Look inside of your soul and you can find doubt, it never exists.

Sounds like words from a poetry slam right? Well it’s not. These words were spoken by a young man who grew up in Compton. Kendrick Lamar has brought that creativity back to rap that has been missing for so long.

The west coast hasn’t made this big of an impact in the rap game since Dr. Dre’s “2001.” Lamar’s major-label debut album, “good kid, m.A.A.d city” has brought the west coast back. It is more of a short novel than an album, which makes it so great.

Lamar keeps it real. He is a west coast rapper, but his style is not just confined to the west side. This is something that all hip-hop heads will love. His style is a refreshing change from listen-ing to 2 Chainz rap about making it rain in a strip club or Drake’s narcissism.

These days, most rappers only worry about having three or four top 40 hits on an other-wise lackluster album. Lamar is more focused on telling a story, and his ability to do this would make even the greatest storytell-ers like Nas and Ice Cube proud. Throughout the album there are skits depicting struggles that

Kendrick was faced with growing up in Compton.

Lamar plays K Dot, a teen-ager who borrows his mother’s mini van to ride around with his friends. They soon encounter the good and evil that “The Hub City” has to offer.

The Compton rapper is not alone in this 15 track journey. Dr. Dre, who has been criticized for getting a little soft with recent pop-like songs such as “I Need a Doctor,” goes back to his Death

Row Records roots in “Compton” and “The Recipe”.

Legendary rapper MC Eiht brings his usual gangsta-rap flow to “m.A.A.d city.” The beat will have you head bopping as you hear Lamar and MC Eiht rap about the killings going on left and right in the mad city of Compton.

Top Dawg, Interscope and Aftermath Records labelmate Jay Rock is featured on my favorite track, “Money Trees.” This track is a throwback to the

era of west coast dominance in the rap game back in the 1990s with many catchy lines that will stay in your head for days.

Even the aforementioned Drake gets in on Kendrick’s love story about his girl Sherane in “Poetic Justice.” This sam-ple of Janet Jackson’s “Anytime Anyplace” will be very popular in bedrooms all over the country.

The final track features Mary J. Blige in “Now or Never.” The upbeat flow in this feel-good track serves as a perfect end-ing to show that the “good kid” Kendrick Lamar was able to sur-vive the “m.A.A.d city” and his hard work is finally paying off.

There will never be another Tupac or Notorious B.I.G. Jay-Z and Nas are all-time greats at the end of their careers. We are wit-nessing the beginning of another rap leg-end with Kendrick Lamar.

He is a throw-back to what made rap so special back in the day. His diverse flow is rarely seen in the new era of MC’s.

With greatness comes higher expectations. This is the album of the year so far and certainly has me expecting nothing but greatness from Kendrick Lamar from here on out. However, as Kanye West showed us after his 2004 album “College Dropout,” some rappers tend to get complacent after they’ve made it.

Let’s hope Kendrick Lamar is better than that.

A-“Kendrick Lamar, the new

king of west coast rap”

Every year around this time, friends huddle together, pop in DVDs and try to scare the bejesus out of

each other.As Halloween approaches,

people watch more and more horror movies. For every “Night of the Living Dead” or “The Shining” that everyone has seen, there are many scary movies which go under-the-radar.

These are a few for-gotten masterpieces of the genre, each with a different take on the things-that-go-bump-in-the-

night. So check these out and have your pop-

corn, beverages of choice and vomit bags nearby. You

might also want a friend’s arm close, to clutch when things

get too scary.BLACK CHRISTMAS (1973)

Before there was a Nightmare on Elm Street, before Friday the 13th, before even the immor-tal Halloween, there was this underseen gem from director Bob Clark. The same Bob Clark who filmed 1983’s “A Christmas Story.”

The plot of this film is the complete opposite of little Ralphie’s quest to obtain a Red Ryder BB-gun.

It’s Christmas time at a soror-ity house and someone is mak-ing disturbing prank calls. At first the girls think it’s a joke, until they begin disappearing one-by-one.

The holiday season is sup-posed to be a safe and joyful time. This film plays with that

expectation, instead presenting the bright lights, snowfall and Christmas carolers in the most oppressive, frightening manner possible.

While not overly violent, it’s still suspenseful, frightening and for my money, the scariest movie of all time.INSIDE (2007)

This French film is not for the faint of heart. You may think I’m kidding. I’m not.

Expecting mother Sarah is involved in a car crash which claims the life of her husband. One night, while still recovering from the accident and very close to giving birth, a strange woman appears at the door and is hell-bent on getting Sarah’s child. By any means necessary.

Despite its minimalist plot, this movie wrings all the blood, gore and suspense out of its premise as possible. It’s mean, unrelenting and nasty. For hor-ror geeks, it’s heaven. For every-one else, it’s h-e-double-hockey-sticks.SUSPIRIA (1977)

This one features the most intense opening sequence in horror history, a pulse-pounding soundtrack and unforgettable imagery.

An Italian film, it definitely sports that country’s oper-atic sense of staging, colors and melodrama but one must be sure of their tolerance for on-screen violence before watching this.LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008)

Vampires are definitely ‘in’

right now, but they don’t sparkle in this film.

Set in the snow-covered country of Sweden, Oskar is a bullied middle school student who meets Eli, a girl his age who nevertheless seems much, much older. She also has the bad habit of luring strangers into the forest and drinking their blood.

While this film is violent, it’s also a very sweet, romantic film about outcasts who form a very unlikely bond.

The writing, acting and direc-tion are all spot-on. For the peo-ple who like their bloody movies with a little sugar, this film is the ideal choice.CABIN FEVER (2002)

Five friends go to an isolated cabin the woods to engage in

drinking, drugging and fornica-tion. Things go wrong. Sounds familiar, right?

Except this film is anything but your run-of-the-mill teens in danger movie.

The group contracts a highly contagious strain of the flesh-eating virus and one-by-one they all begin to see their flesh wither away from their bodies. Paranoia spreads and things begin to go from bad to really bad to worse to oh-my-god-that-is-disgusting.

While this sounds like the typical gross-out movie, it also has a deliriously off-kilter sense of humor that honestly works best as a comedy that just hap-pens to feature extensive bodily damage. You’ll cringe, you may puke but you’ll be laughing hys-terically the entire time.

Kendrick Lamar takes us to Compton

Five scary movies you’ve never seen

6 Las Positas College Express SPORTS October 26, 2012

Points: Cody Hoster Gerado Garcia Jesus Carriedo

Goals: Cody Hoster Gerardo Garcia Juan Meza

Assists: Gerardo Garcia Jesus Carriedo Cody Hoster

Points: Melissa Aboud Sarah Felicitas Gleiziani Fonsesca

Goals: Melissa Aboud Sarah Felicitas Gleiziani Fonsesca

Assists: Michelle Moncada Melissa Aboud Rachel Sampson

17 pts.11 pts. 7 pts.

7 goals3 goals3 goals

5 assists5 assists3 assists

34 pts.10 pts.12 pts.

15 goals5 goals4 goals

4 assists4 assists3 assists

Fri Oct. 26 at Evergreen Val-ley College (San Jose) 6:30 p.m.

Mon Oct. 29 vs. Fresno College 6:30 p.m. Tue Oct. 30 vs. Mission College 6:30 p.m.

Conference Standings

Tue Oct. 30 at Cañada College (Redwood City) 4 p.m.

Fri Nov. 2 vs. Mission College 4 p.m. Tue Nov. 6 vs. City College of San Francisco 6:30 p.m.

Conference Standings

Early doctor visit cited as a major plus in battling Costello’s

pancreatic cancer

When asked if there was something he wanted people to take from his experience, he had one simple piece of advice.

“Get checked out,” said Costello. “In my case, pancreatic cancer is hard to detect, but it is possible. I would urge everyone to get checked out regularly.”

This example he sets, that life must go on and while obstacles can arise at any given moment, there can be a tomorrow if you make it that way.

According to the Mayo Clinic, pancreatic cancer spreads rapidly and is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.

“Pancreatic cancer begins in the tissues of your pancreas — an organ in your abdomen that lies horizontally behind the lower part of your stomach,” the Mayo Clinic website says.

“Your pancreas secretes enzymes that aid digestion and hormones that help regulate the metabolism of sugars.”

Doctors told Costello that sur-vival rates for patients with pan-creatic cancer hovers around four percent.

In his case, they are optimistic since the cancer was caught so early on.

Upon hearing of the discovery of cancer in Costello’s pancreas, his boss, Athletics Director Dyan Miller, was taken aback.

“I didn’t foresee it coming. He didn’t look sick, it was shocking,” Miller said. Tony’s a great guy, I was thinking ‘what is it that I can do.’”

Miller, who has been the ath-letic director at LPC for the past six years, also said that they, along with others, have sup-ported Costello and his family in other ways, from sending cards and flowers to even having food catered to his house.

A father of four, Costello also would put in long hours between his regular classes and the basket-ball team.

He’d stay until 11 p.m. watch-ing film and planning for upcom-ing games, backed by Miller. Last year’s team finished within two games of competing for the state championship.

The chances of him return-ing for this season following the 2012-2013 don’t seem too far out of reach, probably thanks to the advice of his wife.

“It’s an asymptomatic cancer,” Costello said. “Usually when the symptoms show themselves, it’s already spread to different parts of the body. The survival rate for pancreatic cancer is very, very low because most people don’t realize they have it until it’s too late. If I hadn’t gone in to get checked, I’d still be walking around with it.”

On August 10, Costello had surgery. Doctors removed three-quarters of his pancreas, along with his entire spleen.

They ran more tests and were unable to detect any further spreading of the cancerous tis-sues.

He is currently undergoing chemotherapy, not to be con-fused with radiation treatment, a process that will take six months

to complete. “There’s different types of che-

mothereapy, the one I am on goes through six cycles,” Costello said. “I’ll go in once a week for three weeks and then take a week off. For me, it was hard the first time. I was nauseous, but now it’s really severe fatigue for me personally.”

The side effects of the treat-ment will progressively get worse until the process is completed.

He laughed optimistically when he spoke of the end of treatment.

“Hopefully I’ll be back to nor-mal (after the treatment), which may not be a good thing, normal,” he said as he laughed. “It depends who you talk to.”

Cheerful and not too far from normal looking, he has hardly missed a beat with his day-to-day routine.

He watches football on Sunday and checks his work email regu-larly.

He waves hello to anyone he knows when he arrives to campus and seems to smile even more than before the discovery.

Costello went from being on campus quite awhile to being mostly confined to his home and other simple activities, something that Miller suggests may be a cause for him to come to the LPC campus as much as he does.

“He’s kind of a 24/7 type of guy,” Miller said. “With him not here as much, it’s not really quiet-er, but you definitely feel it. Tony mentored Ward (Farris) really well and I felt really comfortable with him stepping up and so did Tony. I think he (Costello) gets a little stir crazy at home, there’s only so much TV you can watch.”

While Farris will remain at the

helm for the entirety of the sea-son, Costello will surely be there in the background watching tape, looking at the roster or planning for the upcoming schedule.

Between listening to his body and also minding his wife, Costello may have taken the most significant action of his entire recovery process and will ideally be able to return for the following season.

Miller shared Costello’s sen-

timent regarding regular check ups, but had a few more words of wisdom.

“Most coaches will tell you that their best recruit is their partner, their wife or husband,” Miller said.

“A person to push you and say ‘hey, let’s get this checked out.’ Listening to that person. I think he listened to his wife when she said let’s get this checked out.”

EXPRESS FILE PHOTO

CHANGE YOUR FUTURE. TODAY.

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The bachelor’s degree completion programs at JFK University offer the fl exibility and support you need to earn your degree—today.

Hawks coach takes season off to battle cancer

Head Coach Tony Costello shouts during a game from a past season

October 26, 2012 FEATURES Las Positas College Express 7

Teshayna Mitchell, ASLPC’s director of events, shares her cares, fears and despairs

Describe your most embarrass-ing moment in life.

Was at an A’s game with my dad and I got so embarrassed about him cheering that I slapped him.

Who would you play in a movie?That high maintenance good-

looking girl that no one likes then at the end of the movie they real-ize she’s cool.

What is the weirdest food you’ve ever tried?

Caviar, I love it! Its really weird but I like it.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

“Be yourself.” Simple as that.

How long would you survive in a zombie apocalypse?

I would be the first one down. I would be the dumb one going “huh” then dead.

What’s the most embarrass-ing song on your playlist?

Nothing’s embarrassing, but I’ve got the “Rugrats” theme song.

If you could do one thing, anything you wanted with no repercussions, what would it be?

I would steal money from every bank and give it to everyone. Then through some sort of magic the banks would get their money back.

Who is your celebrity crush?Mila Kunis. She’s sexy.

Who’s one famous person dead or alive you would punch in the face?

Donald Trump. He annoys me … I love his building, though.

What is your biggest fear?Demons. I’m scared of the

dark and sleep with my com-puter on.

Photographer Aditi Jhanwar photographs Club Day from the inside of the Fire Science program’s ambulance.ADITI JHANWAR/EXPRESS

EDITOR IN CHIEF

ARETHA WELCH

MANAGING EDITOR/ OPINION EDITOR

Travis Danner

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Joshua Basrai

SPORTS EDITOR

Jason Leskiw

PHOTO EDITOR

Alex Lopez

COPY EDITOR

Ben Castro

WEB EDITOR

Ramona Peterson

EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION STAFF

Andrew Barber

Travis Burnett

Diana Calva

William Charuhas

Justin Edrington

Angelica Estacio

Martin Gallegos

Genessis Gonzalez

Aditi Jhanwar

Richard Jimenez

Eric Ocasio

Jeffrey Parkinson

Dennis Poag

Kavi Poag

Cressy Tylavsky

Rebekka Wiedenmeyer

ADVISORS

Melissa Korber

Roger Novales

BUSINESS MANAGER

Marcus Thompson

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3000 Campus Hill Drive Livermore, CA 94551-9797 tel.: 925.424.1240 fax: 925.606.5317 e-mail: LPCExpress@laspositascollege.edu web: www.expressnewspaper.org newsroom: Room 2409

8 Las Positas College Express OPINION October 26, 2012

This is a letter to the Editors and Staff of The Express. Please share with all of those students who contribute to the publica-tion. If you would like to include this in The Express Newspaper, we request that it be included in its entirety.

Respect and responsibilityLast Friday The Express wrote

a news article regarding President Walthers facing criticism from various factions on campus and his announcement that he will be seeking a job elsewhere. The news article discusses some of the conflicts experienced this past year with varying degrees of accuracy; it should be noted that not all faculty agree with the article.

We are facing obstacles that are unprecedented in our dis-trict and conflicts have arisen that have left us frustrated and demoralized but we are continu-ing to think through ways of mak-ing the seemingly impossible pos-sible.

The president of a college

is our advocate during district meetings regarding resource allo-cation, our representative in the greater community and provides the leadership to ensure consis-tency in the student experience.

The person in this role car-ries a lot of responsibility and requires respect in order to be successful. It is a journalistic duty to report on issues and conflicts. To do this takes courage. To do it in a balanced and respectful way is challenging, but essential if the integrity of the press is to be preserved.

How an article is written can undermine the work of any future president, of any college leader (faculty and classified too) and may deter future candidates from wanting to work at our school.

Let it be noted that while five presidents have come and gone at Las Positas in the last 9 years, faculty are constant and faculty are the institutional memory of this college.

As Las Positas faculty, we strive to communicate our concerns on any topic in a respectful, con-

structive manner, and we hope that this tone sets an example for our students and community.

We support free speech and commend you on covering some very important issues facing our campus this year, such as how LPC layoffs have created transfer problems and highlighting our specialized 1440 degrees that offer a fast track for students to four year colleges.

As a newspaper that is read by many on our campus and in our surrounding community, you have a unique opportunity to highlight the obstacles students face and the efforts to continue to improve our students’ experi-ences in a way that compliments the values of Las Positas College.

These are issues that our stu-dents and community need to be aware of and what a powerful way to get the information out there. We need to constructively work through conflict and con-sider what impact our actions will have. Our time and resources are valuable, rare and powerful. When focused, what power they

unleash – both positive and nega-tive – is up to us.

We have a choice about what our legacy will be. As a newspa-per that is read by many on our campus and in our surrounding community, you have a unique responsibility to figure out how to use that voice and what your legacy will be.

Sincerely the following faculty,

Kristine Woods, Colin Schatz, Debbie Fields, David Everett, Craig Kutil, Barbara Zingg, Terry Johnson, Richard Grow, Ashley McHale, Bill Paskewitz, Angella VenJohn, Bob D’Elena, Joel Gagnon, Heike Gecox, Teresa Henson, Keith Level, LaVaughn Hart, Moh Daoud, Adeliza Flores, Gerry Gire, Scott Miner, Mike Ansell, Jane McCoy, Mark Tarte, Christina H. Lee, Jim Gioa, Brian Owyoung, Greg Daubenmire, Randy Taylor, Barbara Morrissey, Cindy Keune, Ruchira Majumdar, John Gonder, Jason Morris, Eric Harpell, Thomas Orf, Lisa Weaver, Rajeev Chopra, Elizabeth Abril, Gilberto Victoria.

At least 40 teachers at Las Positas College believe that a president “requires respect” and hard-working student journalists do not.

On Oct. 12, we at the Express published an article entitled “President Walthers on his way out.” Since its publication, the article has become the subject of a campus-wide controversy mostly because it uncovered a controversy brewing among school officials.

In response, we received the letter published above. Not only do we strongly disagree with the majority of its points — we feel it represents a lack of true under-standing about the role of the student press and of journalism in general.

We understand that “not all faculty agree with the article.” That is a fair, yet expected point to raise.

But, the problem is that there is nothing for faculty to disagree with the article about. Our reporting on this issue was sourced from statements made at public meetings and from an interview with President Kevin Walthers himself.

In no way was the articled fabricated or embellished. In the above letter’s first paragraph, reference is made to “varying degrees of accuracy” contained in the article. No examples of inaccuracy are presented.

To make this charge is not only wrong, it is dangerous. To accuse journalists of inaccura-cy is to call into question their competence, their character and their integrity.

Reporters who worked on this story not only conducted them-selves professionally but also with great care to put forth the most accurate version of events possible. That included allowing president Walthers the oppor-tunity to comment on the alle-gations made by the Academic Senate — an opportunity which he did not take full advantage of.

If taken at face value, the let-ter would lead one to believe that we at the Express have done something malicious. Perhaps it is implied that we have purpose-fully distorted events to paint a public figure in a bad light. Or maybe it’s being suggested that we have hindered the college’s ability to hire another president.

Which brings us to the most upsetting portion of the let-ter — the idea that a president “requires respect in order to be successful.”

Woodward and Bernstein did not let Richard Nixon slide because it was disrespectful to publish stories which painted him in a bad light. Bill Clinton’s sex life was the subject of tele-vision news every day during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Fox News Channel personali-

ties regularly refer to President Obama as “the worst president of all time.”

Title does not and should not shield a public figure from criti-cism. It’s not what the American media is about and it is not what the Express is about.

Freedom of the press is one of our country’s core liberties. Our founders thought enough of it to include in the very first amendment to the constitution. The challenging and questioning of authority figures is at the heart of this freedom.

Sometimes the truth is hard and cold. But it must still be told.

To not report on such a seri-ous matter would do the entire campus a tremendous disservice. The students, faculty and staff of this school deserve to know any information that affects the cam-pus so comprehensively.

Holding public figures to account is what allows our democracy to thrive. It is what the students at the Express are learning to do with increasing proficiency.

At the same time, in the letter we are admonished for not per-forming our jobs in a “balanced and respectful way” and that this is “essential if the integrity of the press is to be preserved.”

The article was balanced — President Walthers was allowed to comment. Balance in jour-nalism is often, incorrectly,

assumed to mean a story has equal amounts of positive and negative quotes. In the article, the Academic Senate had their say as did President Walthers. That is a balanced story.

Finally, we are asked to “figure out how to use (our) voice and what (our) legacy will be.”

We do not believe it is our job to paint the school in the best possible light.

That job belongs to the school’s leaders — its president, its administration and its teach-ers. Our job is to report on how well those factions carry out that task.

We hope our legacy in regards to this article is this — we cov-ered a difficult topic, an impor-tant topic, and we covered it accurately.

We did not shy away from impending criticism.

We didn’t fudge the truth or become complicit in deceiving our readers.

As student journalists, we should hope that our lasting leg-acy is that we continue to hold ourselves up to these highest of standards.

If 40 teachers disagree with us, we completely respect their con-stitutional right to free speech.

As long as they remember, the freedom of the press is con-tained in the same constitution-al amendment that guarantees them the right to that speech.

Shying away from controversy not an option for student press

LPC faculty: Express article on Kevin Walthers undermines ‘the work of any future president’