Category: Campus

  Sarah Fecht Reporter   At his recent State of the Union address, President Barack Obama proposed free community college for those who qualify. Obama said he hopes the proposal encourages more Americans to attend college and to remove the financial burden that prevents many from enrolling. “Our high school graduation rate has hit an all-time high,” Obama said. “More Americans finish college than ever before. … By the end of this decade two in three job openings will require some higher education, two in three. And yet we still live in a country where too many bright, thriving Americans…

  Kira Hays Co-editor-in-Chief   Getting a college education is expensive. Sometimes financial aid and loans just don’t cut it. Fortunately, there are myriad scholarship opportunities available for students. One example is the QEP Essay Contest that was held at Del Mar College in the fall of 2014. The QEP, or Quality Enhancement Plan, and the Vikings Alumni Association put together this scholarship opportunity for students. The students who participated in the contest were required to write a 300- to 500-word essay on the usefulness of algebra concepts in non-math classes. Numerous students took part in the contest, all vying…

  Kaliegh Benck Reporter   For collectors and enthusiasts of vinyl, good news is on the horizon. According to data released in January by Nielsen Soundscan, more than 9.2 million vinyl records were sold in the U.S. in 2014 alone, marking a 52 percent increase from 2013. Digital downloads of albums have plummeted, however. For a generation of cloud-based listeners the rise in vinyl sales seems almost backpedaling. While music streaming sites such as Spotify and Pandora have increased in users, Nielsen revealed that digital downloads dropped 9 percent for albums and 12 percent for songs in 2014. So why…

  Vivien Sanchez Co-editor-in-chief   Del Mar College Guy Watts called the college a “sea of mediocrity” that is swamped by “unprepared students” in an October letter to the editor in the Island Moon newspaper. His comments, especially a proposal to place the so-called unprepared students, or those in remedial and GED classes, on West Campus while “restoring the central campus as a center for academic excellence for prepared students,” were heavily contested at the December Board of Regents meeting. Watts said, “prepared students” largely come from the more affluent areas of the city, including Padre Island, Flour Bluff and…