The Connection

The Sacramento City Coun-cil voted 7-2 on March 6 in favor of a nonbinding term sheet to fi-nance a new sports and entertain-

ment complex in the old railyard on the north side of downtown Sacramento.

The term sheet provides the financial responsibilities between the city, the Sacramento Kings and Anschultz Entertainment

Group–the arena operator–for financing the $391 million arena.

Under the term sheet, the city will contribute $255.5 mil-lion from parking monetization and land sales. The Kings will be required to pay $73.25 million,

while AEG will contribute $58.75 million.

“I was happy, excited and very emotional,” said Adriana Ortiz, a 24-year-old psychology major at Cosumnes River College. “I’ve

The community college sys-tem in California is already in the midst of a budget crisis, and now they’re facing an additional $149 million in cuts part way through the semester.

The unexpected mid-year cuts come after property taxes and student enrollment revenues were lower than expected, ac-cording to the Community Col-lege League of California’s website.

The $149 million cut comes after January’s $102 million “trig-ger cuts” and the $313 million

cuts initially made for the 2011-2012 school year, bringing the total amount to $564 million, ac-cording to the CCLC budget page.

The Los Rios Community College District has had a total of about $26.3 million in cuts, with $6.8 million of the cuts coming from the “February Surprise,” ac-cording to the same website.

Cosumnes River College’s Vice President of Instruction and Student Learning Whitney Yama-mura said that Los Rios will not be affected this semester.

“Los Rios has a long reputa-tion for sound fiscal management,”

Thousands of California stu-dents and citizens marched to the Capitol on March 5, where a rally

was held to protest budget cuts to education, increasing costs to ed-ucation and college accessibility.

Students chanted and shout-ed for most of the day and held up signs, demanding lawmakers

to restore funding to colleges. In the 2011-2012 state budget, com-munity college funding was cut by $400 million, and in Dec. 2011, mid-year trigger cuts reduced funding by an additional $102

million, according to a press re-lease by the California Commu-nity Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

“Fund our future is the mes-sage we’re trying to send,” said

Volume 58, Issue 1 www.thecrcconnection.comVolume 59, Issue 3 march 15, 2012

Students protest against cuts and rising tuition costs at colleges across California at the March for Higher Education on March 5. Since 2008, California has cut $809 million from community colleges, and tuition costs are set to increase to $46 per unit this summer.

Ian Graves | The Connection

Amidst budget cuts and rising tuition costs, students march to

the state Capitol in favor of...

Higher Education

By Ian Graves & Imran MajidConnection Staff

Protestors rally against increasing costs to education and demand funding

See PROTEST, Page 8

Community colleges face unexpected crisis

By Stephan [email protected]

See BUDGET, Page 8

Sacramento City Council approves arena proposalBy Vince Schwede

[email protected]

See ARENA, Page 2

Get connected.Stay connected.Scan this QR Code with your smartphone or visit thecrcconnection.com to read the latest CRC news, vote in our poll, view photos and more!

Get Connected

See Page 6

CRC hosts basketball state championshipsThe top men's and women's basketball teams competed for the state title at Cosumnes River College on March 9-11. Find out who won and why the event was significant to CRC.

See Page 8

Community college chancellor announces retirementJack Scott will end his 58-year career in higher education on Sept. 1. Read about his accomplishments and why he was significant to community colleges in a time of budget cuts.

Ceremony delivers hardcore punk album

See Page 4

Underground punk band Ceremony released their third album "Zoo” on March 6. The band continues to experiment with the sounds of post punk. Read more about this throwback album.

Vocalist Ross Farrar

March 15, 2012 | campus news | 2 www.thecrcconnection.coM

Telephone: (916) 691-7471Fax: (916) 691-7181Website: www.thecrcconnection.comE-mail: [email protected]

The ConnectionCosumnes River College8401 Center ParkwaySacramento, CA 95823

It is the duty of The Connection to report all news with the highest accuracy, brevity and clarity as possible. All feedback regarding stories and photos should be sent to [email protected].

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Like The Connection on Facebook and follow @CRCconnection on Twitter to stay up-to-date with all the latest CRC news, trends and stories.

The ConnectionEditor-in-Chief: Imran MajidCampus News Editor: Imran MajidOpinion Editor: Takara CampbellLifestyle Editor: Ashley BoucherSports Editor: Jon WilsonOnline Editor: Tammi KolesinskiCopy Editor: Stephan StarnesFaculty Adviser: Rubina Gulati

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The Connection is an award-winning newspaper published bi-weekly by the Journalism 400 newspaper production class. Editorials and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the students, staff or faculty of CRC or Los Rios Community College District. The Connection is a member of the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC).

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

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Hawk's EyeCRC hosts music events

Student musicians have been rehearsing for several programs in March and April. These events will be held in the Recital Hall.

March 15: College Chorus and Chamber Singers

March 20: Jazz BandApril 25: Composition Club All performances are open

to the public and begin at 7:30 p.m.

Elk Grove Sports Bar & GrillAlso known as The Sporty,

EG Sports Bar & Grill has something to do for everyone. Catch a show by Styx tribute band Renegade on March 24 or get on stage Sunday nights with Family Karaoke Night. Tuesday Bluesday also offers an open mic night from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Visit www.egsportsbar.com for more information.

Get involved Want to get involved in

Sacramento’s future? Attend City Council meetings every Tuesday night at 6 p.m.

To watch past meetings or to see the agenda for future meetings, visit www.cityofsacramento.org/

Will Bouzeneris, Carlo Dela Cruz, Cody Durham , Demitri Fellines, Mike Hendrickson, Tracy Gilkerson, Ian Graves, Zachary Hannigan, Erik Juarez, Josh Lee, Ben Levy, Alex Mosqueda, Jon Peralta, Vince Schwede

Women's History Month continues at CRC

On March 16 , a presentation titled “You’ve Come a Long Way Babe: Women in the Workforce Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” will be held in BS 129 from 10:45 a.m. to 1:50 p.m.

For a complete listing of all remaining Women's History Month events, visit our website at www.thecrcconnection.com.

Arena: Approval allows for series of votes to begin construction

been fighting for a year.”Ortiz said she attended ral-

lies, wrote letters to city council members and distributed fliers that she made herself.

She said she took her dad’s words to heart: to always believe in something and fight for it, re-gardless of the odds.

City Hall was at full capacity, as people filled the main cham-ber, the lobby, the upstairs area and the old City Hall. There were several notable guests, including Kings co-owner Gavin Maloof and Kings rookie point guard Isa-iah Thomas.

Attendants who were against the arena spoke first, arguing that the proposal was too risky for a financially-strapped city and that money should be spent on other things, such as education and community centers. They also argued that the public should vote on the issue, since they are the ones bearing the majority of the financial burden for the new arena.

One of the speakers, Kim Sloan, 22, said that the city’s mon-ey shouldn’t be used on a “special interest” project, such as Sacra-mento’s basketball team.

“There’s so many things that [the city’s money] could be help-ing: education, the homeless issue here, poverty,” Sloan said.

“Wake up, people. This isn’t okay,” she said.

Those in favor of the arena spoke next, arguing that the are-na is bigger than basketball and that it will revitalize Sacramento’s economy and provide jobs.

CRC counselor Mike Tavares said he turned down a job offer in Anaheim to stay in Sacramento and support the new arena.

“I could’ve easily left and be-come an Anaheim Royals season ticket holder and bought season passes to Disneyland,” Tavares said.

“Instead, I decided to stay here and fight for what I believe in because I love Sacramento so much," he said.

Tavares talked about his experience visiting the Staples

Center in Los Angeles and seeing families having a great time.

“In a way, I was jealous of what that city had, and I wish we had it here too,” Tavares said.

When the vote was tallied, the audience cheered and chanted

“Sacramento.”CRC student Gurpreet Singh,

20, a sociology major, said that the council’s decision was a huge accomplishment for Sacramento.

“That was the biggest hurdle and we got over it,” Singh said.

Singh said that a new arena means more jobs and a better economy for Sacramento.

“That’s the first thing and most important thing because that affects common and regular people more than millionaires and billionaires,” Singh said.

“I think it’s going to give Sac-ramento a new image,” he added.

The approval for the financ-ing plan allows the council to make a series of votes needed to begin construction in 2013.

“It’s a huge investment in our future,” Ortiz said.

Continued from page 1

Sacramento City Council approved a nonbinding term sheet on March 6 that provides the financial re-sponsibilities for financing a $391 million arena in Sacramento. Fans cheered and chanted “Sacramento.”

Jon Wilson | The Connection

Student Government revamped after district-wide requirement

Effective May 31, the Asso-ciated Student Government will become the Associated Students of Cosumnes River College, after two and half years of planning.

Other changes in its struc-ture will be added to the ballot during this year’s spring elections.

“The Clubs and Events Board and Student Senate are now two components of the student asso-ciation at CRC,” said ASG Advisor Winnie LaNier.

The changes come in the middle of a district-wide order for restructuring. CRC’s revision was in compliance with Chan-cellor Brice Harris, who said the Board of Trustees requested a re-view of the student constitution at each Los Rios College in order to create consistency across the dis-trict.

The Inter-Club Council,

which previously served as the voice of student clubs and orga-nizations, will be replaced by the Clubs and Events Board. The Joint Budget Committee will also be created from the Clubs and Events Board and Student Senate, LaNier said. The Committee will decide on funding for the student association, according to the re-vised constitution.

Not everyone feels that the constitution needed to be changed.

“I was a little bit uneasy about the situation,” said ASG President Christina Alvarado. “I was run-ning for vice president at the time. I wasn’t really sure what the heck was going on.”

Under the new constitution, 20 seats will be available for stu-dents to run for. Sixteen will be senator positions and four will be commissioner positions.

Instead of officers being elected from within the ICC, as

is currently, the Clubs and Events Board will be elected by the stu-dent body during the upcoming election.

Candidate hopefuls, such as 18-year-old classics major Giselle Obergin, have already read through the restructured consti-tution and know what is expected of them.

“It’s a little unorthodox, but I think it is a great learning experi-ence and it will serve our school well,” Obergin said. “It definitely divides out the responsibilities more clearly than the previous structure.”

LaNier stressed the impor-tance of student participation that is necessary to make this move a success. She suggests that anyone who wants to get into something important on campus should get involved.

Packets containing more in-formation are located in the Stu-dent Development Office.

By Demitri [email protected]

Free income tax preparation for eligible students

Students who have $50,000 or less income may be eligible for a free income tax return preparation.

Staff is available every Friday through April 13 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in BS 140 to assist students with the process.

Elk Grove Fine Arts CenterThe Elk Grove Fine Arts

Center is offering workshops and classes for the artistically inclined.

David Lobenberg is teaching Gestural Portraits on March 17 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information, visit www.elkgrovefineartscenter.org.

More greenThe CRC Green Scene will

present the GreenSCREEN film "The Future of Food" on March 15 and "Gasland" on March 27. The films will be shown in SCI 106 and will begin at 3 p.m. and end at 4:30 p.m.

Sacramento Public LibraryThe Sacramento Public

libraries have many programs, mostly free, to choose from. Knitting, story time, tax help, book clubs and Lego block parties are only a few events to choose from.

For more information, visit www.saclibrary.com.

BandtasmicBandtasmic Community

Event Showcase will feature the Harriet Eddy Middle School and Laguna Creek High School Bands. The event will be in the Gym at LCHS on March 17 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Families are welcome and admission is free.

OpiniOn | March 15, 2012 | 3www.thecrcconnection.coM

Hawk Talk

“You'll sign one petition and then another one will come up and ask you to sign their petition.”

Abu Bah, 19Liberal Arts major

How do you feel about petitioners collecting signatures on campus?

“They need to chill out a little bit. I feel like we're being harrassed, almost.”

Amos Washington, 20 Psychology major

“Personally they don't bother me, it's very easy for me to say no.”

Robin Bell, 39Social Services major

Violence in school is caused by ignorance

Compiled by Tammi Kolesinski.Photos by Ian Graves.

Violent crime in schools hasn’t gotten worse. They’ve got-ten more attention, which is a step in the right direction.

From third graders bringing handguns to class for protection to teens opening fire on a crowd of students they were having is-sues with, students are using violence and guns to solve their problems.

A teenager at a suburban Cleveland high school opened fire on a group of students, ulti-mately killing three and injuring two others on Feb. 27.

While reading the many accounts on the Internet, and as the mother of two teens, I had déjà vu.

Violence occurs in schools so frequently, it seems to take a high body count for us to pay attention. We’ve seen it all.

We’ve become a calloused and desensitized nation.

But we wept for those we didn’t know in 1999 when two misguided teenagers at Colum-bine laid siege to their high school.

They killed 12 students and one teacher and wounded 21 oth-ers before killing themselves.

I can still picture the parents and friends of the dead weeping inconsolably on the television.

We learned about those stu-dents who died. They weren’t just nameless faces. They became people we knew.

It made us realize what hap-pened at Columbine could hap-pen anywhere, even to our chil-dren in our schools.

Though there have been oth-er deadlier school tragedies since Columbine, such as the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, every-thing else pales in comparison to the heartbreak at Columbine.

The most recent data col-lected by the School Associated Violent Deaths Surveillance Study was from July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010. During that period,

there were 33 school-associated violent deaths in elementary and secondary schools in the United States.

After Columbine you might think that nothing so horrendous would ever happen again, yet the violence continues.

Since the shooters were bul-lied, the event spawned cam-paigns against bullying.

In a study the Secret Service conducted a year after Colum-bine, they found that of 37 school shooters up to that time, roughly two-thirds had suffered from some sort of bullying.

But blame was pointed in ev-ery direction after Columbine.

Music, violent films, teen use of anti-depressants and vio-lent video games were among the scrutinized culprits.

Video games already had a rating system in place for five years before the “Doom” video game players went “Mortal Kom-bat” on their classmates. Movies and music had rating systems

long before that. “Dark” bands like Rammstein

and Marilyn Manson were espe-cially ripped apart in headlines as devil worshippers.

Our family has never com-mitted a violent crime and we love those bands.

There have always been bullies. There have always been mind-boggling, senseless crimes with and without guns.

In fact, one of the top four massacres at a school took place in 1929 when a disgruntled school board member blew up an elementary school in Michigan. He was upset about losing his farm. This was long before video games and death metal.

I'm often reminded of Man-son’s quote on Columbine, “This tragedy was a product of igno-rance, hatred and an access to guns.”

We need to continue to pay attention and educate. Ignorance is not bliss; it’s a massacre waiting to happen.

Passive protests won't resolve issuesEditorial

More than 10,000 stu-dents and demonstrators marched to the State Capi-tol on March 5 to protest the ongoing cuts to educa-tion. Speakers blasted law-makers and demanded funding for colleges.

The fourth annual March in March for Higher Education took place in the midst of yet another fiscal crisis.

California Commu-nity Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott announced on Feb. 21, that community colleges will suffer an un-expected $149 million bud-get cut this year, according to a press release from the chancellor’s office.

The press release also stated that the state govern-ment cut $400 million from community colleges in the 2011-2012 budget.

An additional $109 million was slashed by trigger cuts. These cuts were automatically

enacted when the state falls short of its expected rev-enue.

Thousands marched, held up signs and ex-pressed their disapproval of this abysmal and broken system.

Speakers at the rally criticized the ongoing cuts, along with rising tuition costs and fees. Community college fees are increasing from $36 to $46 per unit this summer.

It’s a scene that's famil-iar to those following the miserable state of Califor-nia in recent years.

Budget woes and the subsequent protests began in 2009 when the Univer-sity of California and Cali-fornia State University sys-tems approved an increase in student tuition, while community college fees in-creased by $6 per unit.

The upheaval sparked outrage all across Califor-nia, as infuriated students

rioted and protested the unprecedented changes to higher education.

It’s only getting worse. Each year, the amount of angry students, dissatis-fied with legislators and the state government, is con-stantly growing.

As a direct result of this image, desensitization to budget cuts has occurred. Because of the ongoing cuts to education in recent years, the term budget cuts no longer carries any meaning.

These slashes in fund-ing have become mundane, as the amount of money cut is simply an abstract num-ber.

It’s a repetitive cycle of inefficiency and frustration.

An understanding of desensitization and a sub-sequent shift in thinking must occur.

Protesting at an annual event is not an active solu-tion.

The images of angry

mobs are too worn out. Claiming to be part of the 99 percent is not a solu-tion either. The Occupy movement fails to have a unified message, and its participants fail to realize that their outrage is already recognized by legislators.

The solution to desen-sitization lies within mak-ing ourselves seem tangible to lawmakers.

Lawmakers know that enrollment at community colleges has shrunk by 10 percent since 2009, accord-ing to the chancellor's of-fice.

Instead of taking the time to point out the dis-parity, call your legislator or write a hand-written let-ter about how the issue af-fects you.

Make your situation seem more real to those who will ultimately decide your future.

It’s better than being a face in the middle of an an-

at a glance

The Issue: The March for March unites students

and protestors as they call for state

legislators to better fund schools

Our View: Lawmakers are desensitized to

the annual march. A better method to cause change is to contact your

lawmakers directly.

Agree? Disagree?Send comments to

[email protected]

“I don't believe what they're doing is going to get what they want on the ballot.”

Emily Zavala, 19English major

By Tammi [email protected]

If you’re looking for a nice warm bowl of noodle soup on a rainy or windy day or want a refreshing fruit smoothie on a warm sunny day, check out Hoa Viet. Hoa Viet recently opened right across the street from the Cosumnes River College cam-pus.

The Hoa Viet located at 8251 Bruceville Road, the newest one out of many Hoa Viets in the Sacramento area, had its grand opening on Feb. 7.

Once customers walk in, they are immediately greeted with smiles and cheerfulness and seated in a nice Vietnamese-themed restaurant.

The spaces between tables are a bit close to each other so it’s hard to get out of the seats. Other than that, Hoa Viet has a com-fortable atmosphere.

Hoa Viet specializes in Asian-styled noodle soups called pho and has a menu filled with different varieties. Pho is rice-stick noodles with a chicken broth base along with customers’ choice of meat. There is also veg-etarian pho, meeting the prefer-ence of customers.

If you’re not looking for pho,

don’t worry. Hoa Viet also offers a variety of rice plates that come with different types of meat, fried noodles and different types of ap-petizers like spring rolls, egg rolls and fried wontons.

The restaurant has different types of Asian condiments, such as sriracha sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and peppers, allowing customers to add any ingredients to appeal to their preference. The condiments are refilled immedi-ately after customers leave, giving the next customers full bottles.

The menu also offers bev-erages such as soda, tea, fruit smoothies, as well as desserts like tapioca.

A large bowl of beef ball noodle soup, fried wontons and a plate of Chow Fun gave me a great first experience. They were perfectly prepared and satisfied my craving for Asian food.

The best part was the prices. The proportions were fulfilling and definitely worth the money. Most of the food is under $10, being affordable for anyone on a budget.

Hoa Viet provides fast and great service. Waiters and wait-resses immediately refills drinks before customers’ beverages get to the bottom. The workers and manager provide a comfortable

environment with friendly smiles and greetings. It’s a great place to go with big groups or for a casual date.

Joanne Tran, the manager of Hoa Viet, said it gets good business because it’s right across from the college and right off the freeway.

So if you’re looking for a fast and friendly place to eat with great food and service, Hoa Viet is the place to go.

March 15, 2012 | LifestyLe | 4 www.thecrcconnection.coM

Bay Area band Ceremony broke out of the underground punk scene for their angst-filled intensity, but they ventured off for a more mature and focused sound with their newest album

Fans of Ceremony know that Ceremony gradually changed their sound. They evolved their sound, with every album by looking back at older variants of punk rock.

Originally, they were known for songs filled with very fast drumbeats and guitars along with destructive vocals similar to the blunt powerviolence bands of the 1990s. By the release of their third album “Rohnert Park,” Ceremony embraced a more nostalgic sound similar to 1980s hardcore punk bands, like Black Flag and Circle Jerks.

Despite the divisive fan base when “Rohnert Park” released, Ceremony continued with the framework to help create “Zoo,” which also sounds much differ-ent than their predecessors. They have been aiming at being multi-dimensional in presentation.

This time around, the band embraced the era of punk where it was transitioning between the ex-perimental sounds of post punk to the early stages of hardcore. Cer-

emony is able to evoke the nostal-gic tone.

Songs like “Repeating the Circle,” “Hotel” and “Video” easily capture the isolating and hypnotic nature that recalls bands, such as Wire and Joy Division. The songs lack the straight forward nature of what the band recorded for their

previous albums and instead pur-sue detailed song writing.

Instead of the one-minute bursts characterized in their al-bums “Violence, Violence” and “Still Nothing Moves You,” the songs in “Zoo” have a more gen-eral song length. Ceremony lets the music flow instead of forcing the songs to last a certain length.

Vocalist Ross Farrar in previ-ous albums sounded angry while discussing topics like his jail sen-tencing or how fed up he is of the static nature living in his home city of Rohnert Park. With “Zoo,” he is able to pull off a cleaner voice

while still sounding raw and dis-cussing his personal observation of how people live in the modern world.

Even if they sound light in comparison to their earlier re-leases, there are still some raw and heavy songs, like “World Blue” and “Ordinary People”, that people

can mosh to.Another aspect that makes

Ceremony’s music unique is that it sounds appropriately rough and defies the norm of trying to be crystal clear. The dirty indie-rock production compliments the songs in “Zoo.”

Fans of Ceremony’s older

records will unfortunately have some trouble listening to “Zoo,” but those who have an open mind or like older punk music will enjoy this satisfying album.

"Zoo" is now available on Matador Records. For the latest news and tour dates, log on to www.ceremonyhc.com.

Ceremony travels back to punk roots

New Hoa Viet delivers genuine Vietnamese cuisine

By Joshua [email protected]

Thai basil, lime, sprouts and chilies are served with pho. Patrons will also find Sriracha, jalapenos gar-lic, hoisin and chili flakes in oil at every table. Condiments are quintessential to the pho experience.

Ben Levy| The Connection

By Carlo Dela [email protected]

A warm bowl of Beef Ball Noodle Pho topped with Srirachi, hoisin, and thai basil. Generous serving sizes make Hoa Viet a steal.

Ben Levy| The Connec-Author’s score is out of

five stars.

“This time around, the band embraced the era of punk where it was transitioning between the experimental sounds of post punk to the early stages of hardcore.”

Carlo Dela CruzConnection staff writer

Guitarist Anthony Anzaldo entertains the wild crowd along with vocalist Ross Farrar, guitarist Ryan Mattos and bassist Justin Davis at their record-release show at 924 Gilman in Berkley, Calif. on March 10.

Matt Gill | Special to The Connection

All-you-can-eat pizza, pasta and salad bar at a bargain price is the draw to Pizza Pleezz, a fam-ily restaurant that opened on the corner of Bruceville Road and Elk Grove Boulevard Jan. 1 of this year.

Dinner costs $4.99 plus a drink and kids under seven eat for $2.99.

Diners were greeted with a smile and given friendly service by cashier Ashley Weiss at the cash register.

“We have 15 to 20 kinds of pizza,” Weiss said.

They are happy to make what-ever kind of pizza you’d like us-ing their more than nine pizza toppings.

If you don’t see what you want on the buffet, ask and Pizza Pleezz will create your own style of pizza that you do desire.

The Hawaiian and pepperoni pizzas were fresh with lots of crisp crust bubbles and the friend-ly employees often replenished the offerings with fresh pies from the oven.

Even though they weren’t tossing their pizza dough in the air like a traditional pizzeria, Weiss said the dough is made on premises.

While the salad bar was small and only had seven items to choose from, along with a big bowl of mixed iceberg lettuce, it was clean, fresh, full and regu-larly attended to.

They also had five salad dress-ings including a home-made ranch dressing.

The pasta was slightly over-cooked, though it wasn’t mushy. It was nice to have two choices: plain penne pasta or penne with garlic, Parmesan and basil.

The basic red-sauce was most likely from a can and doctored with Italian herbs and seasonings. It was nice and thick and flavor-ful, and a little sweeter than Nana used to make.

The garlic bread was soft and buttery.

For dessert, they even had a cinnamon and sugar pizza to sat-isfy the sweet tooth.

In addition to the dine-in buf-fet, restaurant-goers could choose between the buffet or filling up a to-go container for $4.99.

They have a 12-inch Deli Pizza sandwich on the menu for $6.99 and whole pizzas to-go from $4.99 for a plain 12-inch cheese pizza and up to $6.99 for an all meat, vegetarian or special.

Pizza Pleezz has a very plain yet clean dining room with two flat screens tuned to ESPN. There are some logos painted on the walls and a long Pizza Pleezz banner over the pizza bar.

They don’t serve beer or have video games, but Pizza Pleezz’s food is fresh, and the price is right for the budget-conscious family or starving student.

On March 7, the Indianap-olis Colts officially released 14-year veteran quarterback Peyton Manning after a neck injury put him on the dis-abled list for all of last season.

“His skill set is varied,” 18-year-old business major Greg Nabong said. “It’s messed up, and it’s going to be costly to the Colts.”

MTV’s Snooki, from “Jer-sey Shore,” and her new fiance, Jionni are expecting their first baby. With the popular star’s party image, the news stirred comments. However, Viorica Poteras, 38, accounting major said, “She is nurturing. There’s something about her that’s nur-turing. “I think she’ll be protec-tive.”

The campaign is to make the Lord’s Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony, famous by raising awareness about him and the LRA’s actions.

“I feel it’s wrong we aren’t doing more than we are,” said Dayanand Selvaraj, 23, a digi-tal media major.“We could easily take him down.”

LifestyLe | March 15, 2012 | 5www.thecrcconnection.coM

Trending Now

Compiled by Cody Durham, Josh Lee, Carlo Dela Cruz. All photos

are courtesy photos.

Share your thoughts at thecrcconnection.com

I’d like some ‘Pizza Pleezz’

Street Fighter X Tekken was released on March 6 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The new game features charac-ters from both Street Fighter and Tekken series.

“The game is simple where players of all skill levels can try it out and learn the fun-damen-tals,” said 23-year-old David Davis, a psychol-ogy major.

Street Fighter X Tekken

Snooki

Peyton Manning

Kony 2012

By Tammi [email protected]

Author’s score is out of five stars.

“If you don’t see what you want on the buffet provided, just ask and Pizza Pleezz will create your own style of pizza that you do desire.”

Tammi KolesinskiConnection staff writer

Will Dyer, Pizza Pleezz pizza maker, creating a custom pizza upon a customer’s request. Below, a customized olive and mushroom pizza.


This issue’s gift card winner is... Bao Lee!

The Cosumnes River College women’s basketball season came to an end after a loss to Foothill College on Feb. 29.

The Hawks finished the sea-son with a 21-8 overall record, made it to the third round of the Northern California regional playoffs and finished second in the Big 8 Conference.

“This was the best season I have had since I’ve been here,” head coach Coral Sage said.

The Hawks closed the book on its 2012 season, as the team contended for the conference championship all the way up to the final game of the regular sea-son.

Although they didn’t come home with the top spot, their sec-ond place finish is their best ever in conference.

They were able to play and

win at a high level despite inju-ries to players such as appendi-citis, a broken wrist and multiple sprained ankles.

“No matter what came up, we just kept moving forward,” Sage said.

The season held many mem-orable moments but was high-lighted by a 60-59 win at the buzz-er on Jan. 27 against fifth ranked Santa Rosa.

“Beating Santa Rosa was a first for CRC women’s basketball,” freshman forward Nikki Gordon said. “We were down by two and Natalia Gibson hit the game-win-ning three-point shot.”

Gordon added that a bar was set for next season as the team continues to improve each year.

“Last year the Hawks made it to the first round [of the playoffs]. This year we made it to the sec-ond round, and next year we hope to make it even further,” she said.

One key asset to the Hawks

success this year was the produc-tion of sophomore guard An-draquay Quinnine.

The California Community College Athletics Association named her to Second Team All-State. In addition, Quinnine was also named CRC’s Student-Ath-lete of the Month in November.

Quinnine’s teammate, soph-omore forward Natalia Gibson, also received the Student-Athlete of the Month honor in January.

Gibson averaged 13 points and nine rebounds during the month.

Although the season's over and a new crop of players will come and go, Sage said this sea-son will go down as one of the Hawks’ best.

“Finishing second in the Big 8, a 21-8 record and third round of the state playoffs, this in itself speaks for what we did this year,” she said.

Cosumnes River College hosted the California Commu-nity College Athletic Association State Championships for men's and women's basketball on March 9-11.

This was the first time CRC has ever hosted the state champi-onships.

The event brought several benefits for the college.

“[There were] many good comments on how well it was run and how nice our facility is,” CRC Dean of athletics Liz Belyea said in an email. “We had five TV sta-tions here and got good press on the event as well as the plight of athletics in the budget crisis.”

Belyea also commented on the privilege of hosting the state championships.

“It is a great honor to rep-resent CRC, the Big 8 confer-

ence and also the event host, the California Community College Athletic Association,” Belyea said. “It helps us to have visibility and positive exposure as a college and department.”

Looking for a spot in the championship game on March 11, the top four women’s teams competed on March 9, and the top four men’s teams competed on March 10.

The men’s championship game came down to Fresno City College and Yuba College.

The women’s championship game came down to Mt. San An-tonio College and Foothill Col-lege.

Both winning teams out-scored their opponents by 10 or more points, as Fresno City won 77-62 and Mt. San Antonio pre-vailed 68-58.

“This is our fifth state cham-pionship but we haven’t been here in a while,” Mt. San Antionio

head coach Brian Crichlow said. “It’s been about three years so it’s bringing us back, putting us back on the map. Hard work and deter-

mination pays off.” “Win it, we were going to win,"

Fresno City head coach Ed Madec said. “That’s what our mindset

was. We were coming here to win a state championship. We said that before we got here that was our goal and carried out the plan.”

March 15, 2012 | SportS | 6 www.thecrcconnection.coM

Both men's and women's basketball teams wrap up season in third round of regional playoffs

CRC hosts community college championships

Cosumnes River College men’s basketball brought its sea-son to an end with a loss to Santa Rosa Junior College in the third round of the Northern California regional playoffs on Feb. 29.

This is the second straight year the Hawks lost in the third round of the regional playoffs. They finished with an 18-13 re-cord.

“We started off really well. Then all of a sudden we couldn’t buy a basket,” head coach James Giacomazzi said about the playoff loss. “They were the better team that day.”

Although the Hawks fell short of its state championship goal, the team was able to play competitive basketball all year, beating five ranked teams.

The Hawks could have easily

won a handful of game this sea-son.

Six of the team’s 13 losses came by five points or less, in-cluding two losses in overtime.

“We could have easily been a 20-win team,” Giacomazzi said.

“However we were a little snake-bit in those games.”

Out of the Hawks’ 18 wins this season, only seven came against teams in its Big 8 confer-ence.

Different colleges have won the conference championship in the last three years, proving that the conference is competitive.

Sophomore forwards Tony Gill and James Tillman played well all season, and were named to the First Team All Big 8 Con-ference, with Gill also being named to the First Team All-State.

“That definitely means a lot,” Gill said. “Just to be recognized with those other players is defi-

nitely an honor and something I’m very grateful and thankful for.”

Sophomore forward Ryan Salmonson, who has only been playing basketball since his fresh-man year in high school, received an honorable mention for the All Big 8 Team.

“It’s huge,” Salmonson said. “To come this far, it shows that all my hard work is paying off.”

While the season held many memorable moments, both Gia-comazzi and Gill said that beating Santa Rosa on their home court was the most memorable.

Santa Rosa had been unde-feated in conference play until the Hawks beat them 90-64 on Feb. 16.

The Hawks look to rebuild in the offseason, as only two fresh-men will return next year.

“We are going to go in and try to get ourselves ready to win a Big 8 Conference Championship,” Giacomazzi said.


Jessica Leary | The Connection

Sophomore guard Andraquay Quinnine goes for a layup against a Hartnell defender. Quinnine was named Second Team All-State.

Sophomore forward Tony Gill led the team in scoring and was named First Team All-State and First Team all Big 8 Conference.

By Ian Graves & Jon WilsonConnection Staff

By Cody [email protected]

Women's team has one of its most successful seasons ever

Men's team ready to regroup in hopes of winning title next yearBy Cody Durham

[email protected]


Mt. San Antonio head coach Brian Crichlow celebrates with his team after winning the state title at CRC on March 11. This is Mt. San Antonio's fifth California Community College State Championship.

Cosumnes River College baseball player Austin Ales will take the ultimate leap of faith. The freshman pitcher is putting his beloved baseball career aside to follow his religion.

After he stares down batters for a season with the Hawks, Ales will set his sights on a two-year mission trip.

Growing up, Ales balanced his love for baseball and involve-ment in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Ever since I was a little kid my dad started me in baseball, around 4 years old,” Ales said.

“I’ve always kept with it. I love the game.”

Ales religion also was intro-duced to him at a young age and he still follows it to this day.

“My parents were in the church before, so we kind of grew up in it,” he said. “But now that I’m older, I’m keeping with it and I want to be involved in the reli-gion still, I want to be living it.”

With a 14-year baseball ca-

reer in the books, Ales will hang up his cleats and leave in the fall for a trip to an unknown location.

“I won’t know where I am go-ing until the end of April,” he said.

However, Ales said he had no problem choosing his religion over baseball.

“I’m fine with it,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to do this ever since I was a little kid. It’s not going to be a downer on my life. Baseball will still be here when I come back. I’ll just start where I left off.”

Still, Ales does admit he will miss baseball when he’s gone.

“I probably won’t get to play at all, so I’ll be missing that a lot,” he said.

The goal of the trip is to in-troduce and spread his religion to others.

“I’ll be preaching my Gospel out there,” Ales said. “I’m just try-ing share what I know with oth-ers.”

Ales plans to continue play-ing baseball with CRC when he gets back. He expressed interest in it as a possible career.

“If I get the chance and was lucky enough to go somewhere, I would definitely love to go play baseball professionally,” he said.

Ales is averaging more than nine strikeouts a game to go with an earned run average below two in the 2012 season, according to the CRC Athletics website.

Although Ales is putting up those numbers, he knows this trip is something he needs to do. Even if Ales was drafted into professional baseball this year, he would not miss out on helping his religion.

“I would go on my trip,” he said. “It will be worth it in the long run.”

The Cosumnes River College Hawks lost their second straight game to the Sacramento City College Panthers 6-3 on March 8, dropping to a 5-8 overall record and a 0-2 conference record.

The baseball game was played at Sac City, even though CRC was the home team.

“Obviously the first inning is what cost us,” CRC head coach Tony Bloomfield said. “They got five runs on no hits. We came back and fought back and had our chances and just didn’t execute the hits when we had our chances to score more runs.”

The Hawks scored three runs on eight hits, while the Panthers scored six runs on four hits.

“It’s a good win, but we still haven’t played very well,” said Panthers assistant coach Deska-heh Bomberry, who took over when head coach Andy McK-ay left the game due to illness.

“There’s a lot of areas to improve on. They handed us a few things, and we took advantage of them, but we need to play a lot better if we want to keep being successful.”

Panthers’ sophomore pitcher A.J. Quintero got the win, pitch-ing seven innings and giving up three runs and seven hits, while Hawks’ freshman pitcher Alec Miramontes got the loss, giving up five runs on no hits through one inning.

“I know I didn’t have my

best stuff today,” Quintero said. “When you don’t have your best stuff, all you got to do is compete and hopefully it turns out your way.”

The Panthers took advantage of five walks and two errors in the first inning and jumped to an ear-ly 5-0 lead. CRC freshman pitcher Blake Harrison relieved starting pitcher Alec Miramontes in the first inning.

Harrison gave up two hits and no runs in the next four in-nings.

With three hits and a couple of throwing errors by the Pan-thers in the fourth inning, the Hawks scored three runs to get back into the game.

Hawks’ sophomore left field-er Wil Gilliland, who stepped to the plate with two on and one out, bunted the ball towards the right side of the infield. Quintero grabbed the ball, sprinted to first, dove and tagged Gilliland. The first base umpire called Gilliland safe, but the home plate umpire overruled the play by calling him out.

“It relieved a lot of stress off me,” Quintero said. “It just got my mind back to focus on the next pitch.”

In the next at-bat, sopho-more center fielder Colby Brenner grounded out to second base to end the inning.

Although the Hawks got run-ners on base in the seventh and eighth innings, they hit into two inning-ending double plays.

The Panthers added one more run in the eighth inning off a wild pitch by CRC sophomore pitcher Paul Hendley.

With two down and the bases loaded in the bottom of the

ninth, Hawks’ sophomore catcher Shawn Wheeler hit a foul ball that was caught by the first baseman to end the game.

“We had our chances,” Bloom-field said. “We just didn’t execute there at the end.”

Coach Bloomfield said his team needs to play “the full nine innings consistently” and stop

making costly errors. “They got to clean up their

act,” Bloomfield said. “This is the Big 8. You can’t play that way in the Big 8. You’re going to lose in the Big 8. You got one bad inning, and you get crooked numbers up in the scoreboard, you’re going to lose games.”

SportS | March 15, 2012 | 7www.thecrcconnection.coM

Baseball player will leave mound for mission trip

Early walks and errors cost the Hawks against rival

By Vince [email protected]

Scan this QR code with your smartphone for more Connection sports stories online.

Freshman pitcher Austin Ales will put baseball career on hold and leave CRC for two years



Sophomore second baseman Jake Schu fails to recover a wild throw by pitcher Paul Pendley.

By Zachary [email protected]

Hawks give game away in first inning and fail to get key hits late in game

“Soccer is a team sport. It takes everyone in every position to get the job done.”

Katie UlanFreshman

forward

Upcoming GamesOpponent- Diablo Valley- Sierra- Sierra- Sierra

PlacePleasant HillRocklinRocklinRocklin

Date03/16

03/2003/2203/24

Freshman pitcher Austin Ales is averaging over nine strikeouts a game and has an ERA below two.

Alex Pader, former president of the Student Senate for California community colleges. “Making sure that education remains ex-cisable, affordable and of a high-quality.”

The march ended at the steps of the Capitol building, where speakers addressed the impor-tance of higher education and the growing barriers of college entry associated with increasing cuts.

“We need to do something dramatically differently and that’s really what I hope today repre-sents,” said Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom. “A willingness of people to step up and step in to this de-bate and put a face on these cuts, and make the case to the legisla-tor that ‘you’re not representing us and you’re not doing justice to the future of this state.’”

“You need to hold us account-able to those words and actions,” Newsom added.

Occupy movement protest-ers also participated in the event in support of the Millionaire's Tax of 2012. The tax, which was also a rallying point for student pro-testers, proposes placing an ad-ditional tax on Californians who make more than $1 million annu-ally. The revenue would be used

to fund public education.“I like that it was peaceful and

everyone was in control,” said Cosumnes River College student Alexandra Oster, a 20-year-old anthropology major. “I felt like that got the message across clear-er than it would of if people were getting hectic and out of control.”

Tuition costs are set to in-crease at California community colleges from $36 to $46 per unit in the summer. Newsom stressed that lawmakers care and that

“we’re not doing justice to our re-direct.”

“It’s not just about the stu-dents and their family,” Newsom said. “It’s about business and labor coming together. There’s no more important issue for the business community than higher educa-tion because we’ve always con-veyed the best and the brightest minds from our system.”

March 15, 2012 | Campus News | 8 www.thecrcconnection.coM

PAY OFF YOUR EDUCATIONTuition costs shouldn’t stop you from reaching your goals in life. By joining the Army National Guard, you’ll receive the money you need to help pay for college as well as the skills and training you need to get the career you want. If you’re looking to get through college, with the Army National Guard, you can!

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California community colleges chancellor announces retirement

Protest: Occupy protestors join in to support Millionaire's TaxContinued from page 1

“There's no more important issue for the business community than higher education because we've always conveyed the best and brightest minds from our system.”

Gavin NewsomLt. Governor

Budget: $149 million in cuts will be deferred until 2012-2013Yamamura said in an email. “Be-cause the surprise is so late in the fiscal/academic year, and because we are fiscally sound, we will de-fer the impact of the cuts to next year (beginning July 1st).

“Over the course of next year, the college will cut its scheduled offerings by 2 percent. There will be other measures in an addition to the schedule cuts to make up for the shortfall in revenue,” he said.

Of the $149 million in unex-

pected cuts, $107 million of the shortfall is because of a “dramatic increase” in students receiving the Board of Governors Fee Waiver, according to a media statement from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

Jason Newman, a history professor and Los Rios College Federation of Teachers CRC President, argued against the fee waiver being bad.

"I do not think that the budget shortfall stems from community college students using the BOG fee waiver,” Newman said. “But

I would argue that the BOG fee waiver is now subject to potential cutbacks because of the shortfall in state revenues."

Los Rios Chancellor Brice Harris talked about the impact of the cuts in an email sent to all Los Rios employees.

Since the beginning of the budget situation, classes were cut and staff health benefits were re-duced. Other areas of the budget were cut and the district reserves covered the rest, Harris said. Oth-er cuts for the 2011-2012 year, ending June 30, are not planned,

he said.“However, these mid-year

cuts and the possibility of an ad-ditional $12.3 million in reduc-tions in the coming year if a tax initiative does not qualify and pass in November will certainly require even more drastic mea-sures,” Harris said in the email.

“We still do not see layoffs in the future, but a more significant im-pact on students and employees is likely unless our funding begins to be restored soon.”

Harris also said that “long-

range planning” for the crisis will extend through the 2013-2014 school year.

CRC President Deborah Tra-vis said students must also take responsibility for their goals.

“We will continue to make it a priority to provide the core class-es students need in our programs,” Travis said. “We are doing every-thing we can to ensure access for students, but these are difficult times and students will need to be proactive in their educational pursuits.”

Continued from page 1

Speakers at the March for Higher Education on March 5 addressed the importance of higher education in California.


After a 58-year career in higher education and public ser-vice, California Community Col-leges Chancellor Jack Scott an-nounced on March 6 that he will be retiring from his position on Sept. 1.

“I have greatly enjoyed my work since becoming chancellor on January 1, 2009,” said Scott in a statement sent statewide to all community college systems. “It is true that it has been a tough time for community colleges because of the financial difficulties of the state of California.”

“But I have been received warmly in Sacramento and on college campuses by trustees, fac-ulty, staff, administrators and stu-dents. I have proudly represented our colleges before the Legislature, the governor and many other au-diences,” he said.

Scott oversaw the improve-ments made to many technical education programs and strength-ened services for veterans pursu-ing higher education. Scott was an advocate for the increase in in-vestments and supported transfer process from community colleges to California State Universities. In

addition, he supported the addi-tion of the Associate Degree for the Transfer program, according to the chancellor’s office press re-lease.

“Chancellor Jack Scott has been committed to the effective-ness of California community colleges and the success of the students they serve,” said Co-sumnes River College President Deborah Travis in an email inter-view. “In these challenging times Dr. Scott's leadership has been strong and constant, providing vision and advocacy.”

“His knowledge, passion and perspective on the importance of public higher education in Cali-fornia will be missed,” she said.

By Alex [email protected] “Chancellor Jack Scott

has been committed to the effectiveness of California community colleges and the success of the students they serve. In these challenging times Dr. Scott's leadership has been strong and constant, providing vision and advocacy.”

Deborah TravisCosumnes River College

President

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