Krystal Brooks

HELPING
Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger

Rarely would I ever speak positively of our public education–killing governor. However, this week he has managed to earn my praise and potentially alter my negative feelings of him.

Schwarzenegger signed SB 1440, the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, which requires that students who obtain an associate degree at a community college be granted admission into the CSU system with junior status. Before this went into effect, students would often have to haggle their way into the CSU system due to sudden changes in coursework and transfer requirements.

This is pivotal in our continued fight against education budget cuts and ensuring the completion of higher degrees for those who initially begin at the junior college level. A better alignment of coursework will be most beneficial and fiscally attainable for the student and will help close the gap between the CSU and community systems.

NOT HELPING
Matthew Francis
and Christopher Orlando

At a time when we should be constantly asking ourselves what we can do to make the world a safer, more tolerant place for future generations, it deeply saddens me to see the cruelty of hate crimes continue to take place.

Authorities are charging Staten Island residents Matthew Francis and Christopher Orlando with assault as a hate crime and attempted robbery after Benjamin Carver, a gay man, identified the two as the ones who severely beat him in the men’s bathroom of The Stonewall Inn in New York.
The Stonewall Inn became a monument of the gay rights movement after an iconic clash between NYPD and locals happened in front of the bar in the 1970s.

The growing intolerance of minority groups lately is highly alarming. This sad event is another in a string of anti-gay violence that has recently plagued New York.