November 14 the CLPCCD Board of Trustees met for the sixth open session meeting since the three senates of Chabot formally expressed the need to become a sanctuary campus. Las Positas’ response to their solidarity with Chabot came in the form of a resolution of their own. “We started with Chabot Colleges’ resolution…Then we made adjustments to it to fit our needs here at Las Positas,” said Ashley Young, an LPC faculty member involved in drafting their resolution. Students and faculty from both campuses were present, expressing support for a sanctuary district.

Among other agenda items and concerns from both colleges, Chabot faculty members like Carolyn Arnold came to speak, “in support of the vote of no confidence,” for Chancellor Jackson and her office. Directly addressing Chancellor Jackson and Vice Chancellor Johns, Arnold continues, “you’ve brought in a top-down approach to our district that does not fit the culture of our colleges. This management style doesn’t respect the will or the wisdom of our colleges, and instead seeks to control our direction by overriding our decision about our budgets, our programs, our hiring, and in many other areas.”

As Arnold wraps up, going just over the three-minute time limit set by the board, in the middle of her sentence, the microphone suddenly cuts off. Referring to a police officer overseeing the security of the meeting, a member of the public shouts, “he said to turn it off after three minutes.” As members of the public begin to lash out, board chair, President Hal G. Chin states, “keep it on at all times. Don’t turn it off.”

“Some things don’t change,” says longtime Chabot faculty member Adolf Oliver. “I would hope that someday the district can hire administrators who pull us together and don’t tear us apart,” says Oliver.

Referring to the LPC sanctuary resolution, Young says, “Is it perfect? No. We could spend another thousand hours working on this, and still not have it be perfect … it says everything we want it to say in a way that we’re happy with, and more importantly, it doesn’t inadvertently say something that we don’t want it to say. I really want to urge you to act quickly, not rashly, but quickly, as it is better to say almost exactly what you wanted to say at the right time than to say exactly what you want to say when it’s too late.”

Districtwide support for a sanctuary status is undeniable. Las Positas Student Kirsty Burges says, “I’m here in support of the passing of the sanctuary campus resolution … Some people think of this campus as a home … everyone should feel safe at their home.

Angela Vasquez, “a proud DACA student,” at Los Positas comes from the heart of personal experience telling the board to, “put yourself in their shoes. I was nine when I came to the United States,” pausing for a brief moment trying to gather her emotions tears began to be shed, “not knowing what was going to happen to me next…11 years later, getting an education for myself, not only getting the best grades I can, but also being involved in Las Positas student government, I’m also on the speech team and working really hard with the undocu-allie task force for those students that, just like me, want to feel safe. I want to be that voice of those people that really feel ashamed of where they come from…I am proud of where I came from. I want to be safe in this school because I love this school.”

Are you an artist? Most of us are and may not even know or at least acknowledge it. Art is not only drawing or painting, but it has a wide array of creative activities such as music, poetry, literature, dance, graphic design and more. Some may even debate that being a bartender or mixologist, and even making a sandwich can be considered art. I’m not here to argue that, however, I do make some mean sandwiches that would teach your taste buds some creativity.

Oxford dictionary defines art as, “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.” But, what does it mean to be an established or published artist? How do we take our art to the next level? What does it take? Is it practice, patience and putting yourself out there?

I had the privilege of speaking with artist Valerie Liu, a former Chabot student whose artwork has been featured in previous issues of the Spectator. She also, created the logo for the Bullet Cast, a Spectator-featured podcast that highlights the world of professional wrestling.

“Honestly, it was intimidating initially, to have my artwork as the face of a wrestling podcast (since I know nothing about wrestling) but, since doing the artwork and listening to the podcast a couple of times, I am glad I did it! I love the guys from The Bullet Cast, and I really like doing art for them!” said Valerie.

“I’ve been an artist since childhood; art was something that I just had a knack for since I was a kid. It wasn’t until high school that I realized that I wanted to pursue art seriously,” declared Valerie.

Her Instagram account is filled with expressive and impressive drawings. A few of my personal favorites include portraits of President John F Kennedy and Eleven from the Netflix original series, “Stranger Things.”

“I love sharing my artwork, I am seriously so thankful to The Spectator for giving me the opportunity to have my art in the paper, it is really rewarding to see my art on campus,” Valerie humbly stated. Along with her love for art, Valerie also enrolled in classes at Chabot to strengthen her ability, “My favorite piece I have drawn is a self-portrait in graphite for Art 1A, it really pushed me to do more realistic art, and It was fun to see how well I could render my own face.”

It is never too late to start practicing. With such persistence, Valerie expressed, “I post art daily on my Instagram, but I’ve also been trying my hand at comics. Mostly, I am just working on expanding my audience and working on expanding my skill as well.” She is also, working diligently on her portfolio with hopes to transfer to Art School.

Be on the lookout. You may see her work in the near future! For now, you can check out her artistry on her Instagram account @Valerie.Liu. For all artists, don’t be afraid to put your stuff out there. The only person who can deny your art is yourself.

On Thursday, November 2, the President’s Twitter account was deleted by a rogue employee at the company causing President Trump’s account to be down for over 11 minutes.

In a scramble that very night the account was eventually recovered and brought back. The initial thinking was that it might have been a mistake, but it was found that a contract employee on the last day of his job had caused the deletion. This made it even more difficult for the company who regularly relies on contract employees to fill in positions.

The President later tweeted out that day, “My Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee. I guess the word must finally be getting out- and having an impact.”

Twitter plans on increasing security and putting more scrutiny on its employees after the incident. In a tweet by Twitter’s government account on the 2nd of November, they conducted a full internal review.

According to The New York Times, often the deletion of accounts are “an easy two- or three-step process, according to current and former Twitter employees. Certain teams at the company — including trust and safety, and operations — have access to all accounts including the highest levels.”

However, “Twitter customer support does not have any access to the accounts of people, nor can they tweet on behalf of other users,” citing that there is very limited access to accounts according to The New York Times.

“I think it’s pretty funny how his account just disappeared like that, it’s almost as if your words have real-world consequences,” says Rico Rodolfo, Chabot Student. “He gets away with saying a lot of things online, but when it catches up to him, I think it’s hilarious.”

It remains unclear as to how the rogue employee was able to delete the president’s account.