Human trafficking, fake students suspected in financial aid and enrollment scams; El Camino conquers Cuyamaca to become men’s soccer state champions
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NEWS
Human trafficking, fake students suspected in financial aid and enrollment scams
El Camino College joined a growing list of community colleges that have been defrauded by what education officials believe could be a human trafficking ring. The college lost $110,298 in financial aid last academic year to scammers who pretended to be students. The stolen money was disbursed to 77 successful Pell Grant recipients in the 2022-2023 academic year. The amount released to scammers ranged from $128 to $3,448, officials said. Read more.
International students bring billions into U.S.; after COVID-19 exodus, colleges want to lure them back
By: Nasai Rivas
After months of lockdowns and online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, international students are slowly returning to El Camino College and bringing in substantial revenue. International students at colleges and universities make billions of dollars for the U.S. and California and millions for El Camino. There are some concerns about an increase in competition from other colleges. Read more.
Statewide bachelor’s degree pilot programs offer underserved students targeted occupational opportunities
By: Emily Gomez
First launched in August, the respiratory care bachelor’s degree is a new program at El Camino. However, the planning efforts began eight years ago, as soon as the Academic Affairs Division of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office started seeking program applications. El Camino is one of the few California community colleges offering a bachelor’s degree program. Read more.
El Camino College leads the charge in single campus lactation rooms in SoCal
By: Erica Lee
As more colleges across Southern California install on-campus lactation rooms, El Camino is emerging as a leader in the trend. El Camino currently has the most lactation rooms on a single college campus compared to other institutions across Southern California. Other colleges may have more lactation rooms in total but there are in separate campus locations. Read more.
High frustrations, little progress on campus vandalism case
By: Olivia Sullivent and Isabelle Ibarra
Vandalism targeting El Camino College’s faculty union and its president are no longer being investigated by the police department, despite union and college officials saying they may know the identity of the suspect. Following up on the vandalism earlier in the semester, new information was revealed that might identify who vandalized the El Camino Federation of Teachers’ office in the Communications Building. Read more.
Number of unhoused students at El Camino has increased this semester
By: Nick Geltz
According to surveys by CCCApply, 151 El Camino College students said they were unhoused in the 2023 spring semester. This semester 198 students said they are unhoused. Some unhoused students have been sleeping on campus and are allowed to do so by the El Camino Police Department. Read more.
Annual crime report reveals consistent multiple motor vehicle thefts both on and near campus
By: Nick Geltz
There have been consistent reports of motor vehicle theft and drug abuse violations at El Camino College and off campus, according to this year’s Clery Act Report which was released in early October. The Clery Act Report is a federally mandated record of on-campus crimes that colleges and universities are required to submit. The document divides crime incidents into three categories: on-campus, non-campus and public property. Read more.
Police Beat Nov. 28 to Dec. 4
By: Emily Barrera
Learn about five crimes that have been reported around the El Camino College campus since the last police beat update was published on Nov. 28. Read more.
Union-backed Modular Village bid to cost El Camino more money than original offer
By: Kae Takazawa and Angel Pasillas
A $5.9 million construction project bid was tabled by the El Camino College Board of Trustees and was replaced with a bid double in price which included a union-backed agreement. The board approved the bid to construct the new Modular Village, which includes new academic facilities, in parking Lot L during the Oct. 16 Board of Trustees meeting. The bid was submitted by Los Angeles-based Woodcliff Corporation, which came in at $11.4 million and was approved with a Project Labor Agreement. Read more.
SPORTS
The Warriors conquer Cuyamaca College in historic victory to become men’s soccer state champions
By: Johan Van Wier
El Camino men’s soccer defeated Cuyamaca College 4-0 in the California Community College Athletic Association State Championship, to claim their fifth title program’s history, and first since 1993. The Warriors were also awarded as the 2023 National Champions by the United Soccer Coaches of 3C2A, the second time a team has been awarded this in the history of all of El Camino’s sports teams. They finished their historic season with a 24-1 record and a point differential of 113-13. Read more.
Retrospective review: El Camino’s fall 2023 athletics achievements
By: Tommy Kallman
With all of the sports taking place in the Fall semester coming to an end, besides basketball, The Union reflected on the achievements and the outcomes of all the sports seasons at El Camino College. Read more.
ARTS & FEATURES
From crayons to curator: Student senator uses art to educate and engage
By: Ruddy Lopez
El Camino College Art Gallery’s art curator Dulce Stein was volunteering at her children’s school when she realized the art supplies were being thrown out at the end of the school year, so she spoke to her children’s teacher, saved the used workbooks and crayons and taught children to express themselves through art. Read more.
El Camino celebrates the start of December with Holiday Choral Extravaganza
By: Joseph Ramirez
It’s December and it’s time for the Holiday Choral Extravaganza! Music professor and Lebanese immigrant Joanna Medawar Nachef has led the annual event for over 25 years now. El Camino College’s three choir groups– Concert Choir, Women’s Chorus and Chorale–performed this year. Read more.
See, hear and speak: Final play of the fall season tells the story of Helen Keller
By: Emily Gomez
The El Camino College Theater Department closes the Center for the Arts fall season with the Tony Award-winning play “The Miracle Worker.” The three-act play by William Gibson tells the story of Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan. The all-student cast from El Camino took two months to rehearse the play. Read more.
From home improvement to self improvement: El Camino woodworking classes inspire TV producer
By: Emily Gomez
“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” television producer Sabrina Mar became intrigued by the work of the construction workers building things for the show. Now, Mar is an El Camino College student studying cabinet making and fine woodworking. Her woodwork was recently on display in the Schauerman Library. Read more.
Social Justice Center hosts ‘Reservation Dogs’ table talk to close out Native American Heritage Month celebration
By: Ivan Gonzalez
The Social Justice Center hosted a table talk on “Reservation Dogs” to close out El Camino College’s Native American Heritage Month celebration. “Reservation Dogs” is a half-hour comedy show that follows the life and times of four Indigenous teenagers living inside a reservation community in rural Oklahoma. Read more.
EDITORIAL
El Camino and the First Amendment
By: Editorial Board
Humanities 113 on the ground floor of the Humanities Building houses The Union newsroom. It is a place of learning. On Thursday, Nov. 9, students learned a valuable lesson about journalism and freedom of the press from an unlikely source
Check out our latest editorial involving the First Amendment and what independent student publications can do to protect their rights. Read more.
OPINIONS
Young voters hold a very powerful weapon
By: Nasai Rivas
Union copy editor Nasai Rivas ponders the power his generation yields in terms of voting. With younger voters coming of age and with high profile issues becoming more prominent, Rivas shares his thoughts on what matters to younger voters today. Read more.
Why college students should take a gap year
By: Angela Osorio
Last spring, Union reporter Angela Osorio made one of the scariest but best decisions of her life: she moved to New York for six weeks. Read her opinion piece on why gap-years can be valuable to students and learn about her journey of personal growth. Read more.
WARRIOR LIFE MAGAZINE
The Union’s sister publication, Warrior Life Magazine is set to published before the end of the semester. Filled with profiles, personal pieces and more enjoy this sneak peek of whats is soon to come from Warrior Life.
An El Camino trustee’s dedication to ‘The City of Champions’
By: Khoury Williams
Brett Roberts, the newest member of El Camino College’s Board of Trustees is a proud Inglewood resident. Learn about Roberts’ many hats and how they’re all tied to the city that he loves. Read more.
Carl Turano: a story of a cat caretaker looking after 9 lives
By: Erica Lee
Carl Turano is a warehouse stock clerk who has been working at El Camino College since 1999. A tall, wiry man of 62 he can be spotted around campus from time to time in a bright sunflower yellow Taylor Dunn utility buggy. His mission on campus, inherited from former physical education instructor Mary Semeraro, is to care for the college’s campus cats Read more.
Treat yo’ shelf to the top 5 most checked-out graphic novels at the Schauerman Library
By: Brittany Parris
With a massive collection of 76,259 books and two floors of resources at students’ disposal, the library at El Camino College offers tutoring, study rooms, a vast database and an archive of the school’s history. Whether you’re an avid bookworm or just searching for a new title, these top checked-out titles will get you on the right track. Read more.
PHOTOS OF THE WEEK
By: Elsa Rosales
El Camino College Warriors men's soccer Head Coach Mike Jacobson is carried and tossed into the air by the team in celebration of their 4-0 win over the Cuyamaca College Coyotes at the 3C2A State Championships at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut on Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023. Jacobson was named the South Coast Conference-South Division Coach of the Year in November.
By: Juan Garcia
El Camino College student Ena Dubnoff works on her bowls during her woodworking class on Wednesday, Nov. 29. Here Dubnoff prepares to start spinning one of her bowls on a lathe.
The fifth issue of the fall semester is here!
The Union’s fifth and final print issue of the fall 2023 semester is now available across El Camino College. Make sure to pick up a copy, conveniently found across multiple campus news racks.
The Union Vol. 78, No. 5 features a front-page investigative story about college enrollment and financial aid fraud with ties to human trafficking, coverage of the El Camino men's soccer State Championship game against Cuyamaca College, a story exploring the El Camino respiratory care bachelor program and much more.
A digital version of our newspaper is available here.
This concludes The Union’s print publications for the fall 2023 semester. Look out for our final newsletter of the semester set to be released next week.
Letter From The Editor
Print today, gone tomorrow
Well, we're finished. It's done.
By the time this newsletter comes out, delivery of our final print issue of the fall 2023 semester should be reaching our newsroom. From there our intrepid reporters and editors will deliver copies across the El Camino campus, ready to (hopefully!) be read by our campus community.
This final 12-page issue is jam-packed full of stories our reporters and editors worked hard to produce and publish. It was this news teams last print week.
I feel a strange mix of relief and melancholy.
Relief because these stressful times full of deadlines, corrections and worries that make up a regular print day are coming to an end.
Forlorn because these exciting times full of ideas, camaraderie and inspiration that also make up a regular print day are also coming to an end.
I am extremely proud and infinitely grateful for the opportunity and responsibility our team had this semester to help better inform our campus.
I’m proud of our news team. A scrappy group of overworked but excited students who joined together this semester to create something, we hope, is seen as a service to our community.
Contrary to many people's popular beliefs we here at The Union love El Camino. I am personally grateful to El Camino College for the opportunities they afforded me and this program.
That's why we take our role so seriously.
To us, caring about El Camino means celebrating achievements and positives, yes, but also acknowledging shortcomings, mistakes and even topics some might see as negative. Our aim is to inform the public.
By covering the whole of El Camino our hope those in charge keep continually working and improving to make and keep this college the amazing place we know it can be.
Critique is not disdain.
Acknowledgement is not disrespect.
The Union will continue to cover all of El Camino as long as we are able. That is the role of journalism after all.
As my time as Editor-In-Chief comes closer to an end, I will cherish the opportunity and responsibility this role has meant.
Until next time.
Delfino Camacho
Editor-In-Chief
About The Union
The Union is El Camino College’s student-run newspaper and the only local source of news for its college community. Everything published by The Union is done by student journalists. The Union is proud to present the El Camino College community with weekly newsletters delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday morning.
The Union will commit to covering stories that deliver the truth and highlight diversity, equity and inclusion on campus at El Camino College and its surrounding community in Torrance, California.
If you have any comments or questions about this issue of The Union’s newsletter or any of the stories you’ve read, please contact Editor-in-Chief Delfino Camacho by emailing him at delfino_camacho@elcamino.edu. If you feel satisfied with what you read today, let us know by sharing this newsletter and tagging us on X, Facebook or Instagram.
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