Santa Monica College
Superintendent and President of Santa Monica College
PROFILE
Chui Tsang
Guest
FROM Chui Tsang
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Santa Monica College Wakes Up from a Nightmare Just after noon last Friday, John Zawahri, was shot to death by police in the library at Santa Monica College after a shooting spree which began in a nearby neighborhood and during which he killed five other people -- three on the campus. As the campus was evacuated, students, faculty and staff were marched passed his body lying on a sidewalk. Two of those who were shot were the long-time groundskeeper, Carlos Franco, and his daughter, Marcela, who was on campus to pick up textbooks for summer school. Franco was best known on campus for maintaining a popular rose garden off the main quadrangle. The college has set up the Carlos Franco Family Memorial Fund . (Donations may also be mailed to Santa Monica College Foundation, 1900 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405.) Among those responding to Friday's shooting was the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department x The Army, which also responded, may have been in the vicinity because of President Obama's appearance at a Santa Monica fundraiser Santa Monica College Police Chief Al Vasquez addresses the press Students and community quickly set up memorials to those killed Photos by Jenny Radelet and Saul Gonzalez. Special thanks to Shako Liu for help on tonight's program.
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Brown Promises Money and Tough Love for Community Colleges After passage of Proposition 30, which raised taxes last year, Governor Brown said he'd use some new money to help the state's 112-campus system of community colleges. His new budget proposes some $200 million in new funding, along with reforms designed to speed students through a process in which many get lost. We hear more from Kathy Baron, who reports for EdSource, an online news site covering California's education process, and from Santa Monica College President Chui Tsang.
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Protesters Pepper Sprayed at Santa Monica College Last night at Santa Monica College — where this radio station is located -- about 100 protesters crowded a hallway outside a meeting of the Board of Trustees. Video of the incident has been posted on YouTube by the Corsair, Santa Monica College's newspaper. College President Chui Tsang says that when bystanders overran the door "there was one discharge of pepper spray by a [college] police officer… [and] a number of bystanders were affected." He also said that the incident is being investigated, but that the college will pay the medical bills even of those it feels were breaking the law. No arrests were made, but the protest itself raises the broader issue of declining funds for public education in California. NOTE: Two days after this discussion, the Santa Monica College trustees agreed to postpone the two-tier fee plan .
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Santa Monica College to Adopt Tiered Pricing System Faced with state funding cuts, Santa Monica College can't keep up with student demand. So the governing board has approved a plan to provide extra classes after the regular ones are full. There's a catch. Regular classes will cost $46 a unit, but the extras will be $180 . We hear more from SMC President Chui Tsang and from SMC student trustee Joshua Scuteri, who cast his advisory vote against the two-tier pricing plan. Note: Santa Monica College owns the license for KCRW, and provides space on the campus for this radio station.
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