Chairman of Assembly Higher Education Committee to hold news conference on campus

By Kellen Brauer

Marty Block

GROSSMONT COLLEGE- Marty Block, chairman of the Assembly committee on higher education, will be participating in a campus news conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday ,  Sept. 27,.

“A  panel of questioners will include Russ Lindquist, editor of the GC Summit; Marc Arizmendez, news director of Griffin Radio; and Sue Gonda, the president of the Academic Senate,” said the organizer,  Journalism Instructor Donald H. Harrison.  “He will be welcomed to the campus by both the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Chancellor Cindy Miles and Grossmont President Sunita Cooke.”

The first half hour of Block’s presentation will be questions from the panel while the second half will open up questioning to the floor.

Block, a Democrat representing San Diego, chairs the committee in the Assembly to which all legislation concerning colleges and universities is initially referred.  Before his election to the Legislature, he served for eight years as the chairman of the San Diego City College Board.   Prior to that he was a member of the San Diego County Board of Education.

“I will be asking questions that either I came up with or that the Jounalism class (MCOM 132) crafted together and decided,” said Lindquist. “I figure that I will get a whole lot of information from him that is useful for me but also useful for our readers.”

“I am going to be asking basic general questions,” said Arizmendez. “Hopefully I am going to get together with Russ and Mr. Harrison and come up with some good hard hitting questions.”

“I am looking forward to it [the conference] because the economy is shaky in general, so I look forward to getting some real practical advice from this legislator for the sake of making the right choices upcoming as I move onto a University,” said Lindquist.

Gonda was not immediately available for comment.

Arizmendez said the press conference will be a good way to present Grossmont College’s problems to Block, whose role is key to higher education in the state.

“Hopefully we get the answers that people want to hear,” said Arizmendez.

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Brauer is a student in Media Comm 132.  He may be contacted at kellenb@gcsummit.com

The ins and outs of Wi-Fi on the Grossmont campus

By Issac Jeitler

GROSSMONT COLLEGE – Keeping up with cutting edge technology, the Grossmont College Campus offers free Wi-Fi to students using laptops, tablets and other wireless devices.

“Wi-Fi” is, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is  an abbreviation of Wireless Fidelity, a group of technical standards enabling the transmission of data over wireless networks.

Certain areas around campus are considered dead spots, mostly due to newly constructed areas with thicker walls and electrical interference. However, even with the limitations, the free-to-use service has  sufficient campus  hot spots to enable a wide variety of uses for Grossmont students.

Marc Arizmendez, an aspiring Media Communications student and news director for Griffin Radio, spends ample time on his laptop doing class work and research for the radio department.

He commented that Wi-Fi on campus enables  social interaction with people off campus, and  it’s convenient to use “without having to be inside the tech mall.”   However, he said, in newer buildings he has had trouble receiving a signal,  and that wi-fi service seems to bog down in the tech mall, perhaps because it’s a main hub for other students using the same service.

There is no password requirement for using the system. Simply find the Grossmont College network on your wireless device and connect to it for free Wi-Fi service.

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Jeitler is a student in Media Comm 132.  He may be contacted at issac.jeitler@gcsummit.com