<p>On Monday, November 27, the Associated Students Board at Santa Monica College voted unanimously in favor of a $500,000 proposal to build a Social Justice and Gender Equity Center (Gen-C) in the A.S. Cayton Student Center building on campus. This is the largest amount of money the A.S. has ever chosen to spend on a single item. The price tag includes an allocation of $84,800 for new furniture and $18,000 for a new paint job.</p>
<p>This Gen-C was <a href="http://smc.edu/ACG/DistrictPlanningPolicies/Documents/District_Planning_and_Advisory_Council/2016-2017/MPE%20Update%202016-2017Final.pdf">included</a> in the 2016-2017 Santa Monica College Master Plan for Education, and has even <a href="http://smc.edu/StudentServices/StudentLife/Gender-Equity-Social-Justice-Center/Pages/Senate-Resolution.aspx">received support</a> from the Academic Senate. This begs the question why no resources were offered or even hinted at by the school, considering that it was included at the forefront of the annual master plan for the college. Focus groups conducted by the administration demonstrate a continuous belief that the center is unnecessary and have repeatedly reached the conclusion that students feel safe and accepted on campus.</p>
<p>This leads one to assume that the administration has ulterior motives for the proposal of Gen-C. If there is no serious need for a program that will cost half a million dollars, then why propose it? One could reasonably assume that they are looking out for their own best interests and leaving the hefty bill to the students. After all, a new Social Justice Center will give the school much needed publicity.</p>
<p>Details surrounding the proposal have revealed a troubling lack of transparency and corruption on behalf of the Santa Monica College Administration. The proposal was submitted to the A.S. Board by Dr. Nancy Grass, Dean of Student Life at Santa Monica College, and then quickly and quietly rubberstamped by the brand new A.S. Finance Committee. The pushing of such a large proposal in the fall semester by an administrative member to a new A.S. Board, while not illegal, suggests blatant exploitation of a governing student body that is still &#8220;learning the ropes.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Associated Students of Santa Monica College is an independent body with its own bank account consisting of student donations provided in exchange for A.S. services. Annually, the A.S. raises approximately $2 million in funds to spend in the best interest of the students it represents. Unfortunately, the one-year term in office does not give students much time to &#8220;learn the ropes.&#8221;</p>
<p>The fact that multiple reports have shown no serious need for a program that will cost half a million dollars should be and was of concern to multiple students during the meeting in which the proposal was voted on. Ben Kolodny, the student who initiated a petition against the Gen-C &#8212; which garnered over 400 signatures over a holiday weekend, was ejected from the meeting after challenging the board on the basis of parliamentary procedures. The board had repeatedly refused to allow Kolodny and others to exercise their right to ask questions and make comments throughout the meeting. Police officers attempted to bar Kolodny&#8217;s re-entry.</p>
<p>Additional dissenting views, many from former A.S. board members, including former A.S. president Jesse Randel who called the board out on their lack of transparency, were immediately written off as personal attacks against DACA and LGBTQ students. Randel was also ejected from the meeting.</p>
<p>Kolodny promised to continue fighting the policy. Action will also be carried out regarding the substantial violations throughout the duration of the Monday meeting.</p>
<p>Read more about the ongoing battle at <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.savethecaytoncenter.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1512427247632000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHLv-wWR2mTcxRlZD9tsUQR-CD93g" href="http://www.savethecaytoncenter.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.savethecaytoncenter.com</a>. </p>


College’s Social Justice And Gender ‘Safe Space’ Center Raises Transparency Questions

California

Education

LGBTQ

Social Justice

<p>SJWs at Pepperdine University have scored a victory as the <a href="http://pepperdine-graphic.com/students-protest-columbus-statue-on-columbus-day/">controversial Christopher Columbus statue</a> on the Malibu campus is now scheduled for relocation to the Florence, Italy campus.</p>
<p>In an e-mail sent to all students, President and CEO of the university, Andrew K. Benton states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>For years the story of Columbus and the fascinating exploration that brought him to the new world was taught in schools across America. It was heroic and exciting. Later, as the impact of the arrival of explorers was assessed more fully, especially as those impacts related to indigenous people, a different view formed. Today, for many, including those within our campus community, stories of conquest and the art associated therewith are painful reminders of loss and human tragedy. </em></p>
<p><em>Those who offered the gift of the statue depicting Christopher Columbus meant to honor the good attributes of his life. They did not mean to offend I am sure, for I know many of those good men and women who supported us then, in 1992, and who still support us today. After careful reflection and in consultation with many stakeholders, I have decided to relocate the statue to the Pepperdine campus in Florence, Italy. The process of relocation will take some time but has begun.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Benton then proceeds to invite students to a community forum where they will discuss other &#8220;national issues relevant to diversity on [their] campuses.&#8221; </p>
<p>However, the removal of this statue sends the message that Pepperdine University does not invite true diversity, diversity of thought. Earlier last year, a mural in the cafeteria depicting Native Americans was <a href="http://pepperdine-graphic.com/wooden-mural-removal-sparks-hope-for-change/">removed</a> after many students protested and complained.</p></p>


SJW Victory:  ‘Offensive’ Christopher Columbus Statue Kicked Off Pepperdine Campus

<p>By now everyone knows of the Women&#8217;s Marches that took place across the United States on January 21, which drew large crowds of liberal women who came to lament the inequalities that women face in the United States in the 21st century.</p>
<p>There is only one problem with that: women in the United States have all the same rights as men. I recently encountered an article that has been making the rounds on the internet titled &#8220;<a href="http://medium.com/@dinachka82/about-your-poem-1f26a7585a6f#.81solo64c">You Are Not Equal. I&#8217;m Sorry</a>,&#8221; which insinuates that women who don&#8217;t call themselves feminists are ungrateful to women who have made actual significant contributions to society, such as Susan B. Anthony and Eleanor Roosevelt. This completely disregards the fact that these women fought for legitimate equality and rights that were supposed to be protected by the Constitution. Since those early feminist pioneers who helped ensure equal rights for women, bringing American women to the peak of feminist progress, the movement has flown off the edge into regressive third wave feminism.</p>
<p>Women in the United States have the right to work, vote, own land, drive, speak, protest, and make their own choices. But somehow, that&#8217;s not enough for regressive feminism. Negative rights are now necessary to attain true equality. They demand free healthcare, free tampons, free abortions while repeating the same falsehoods that have increasingly characterized the movement.</p>
<p>But facts don&#8217;t care about your feelings, and here are the facts:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Men and women are equal in the United States. Always remember: True equality is equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. Any shortcomings are the fault of the individual or tough circumstances, like negligent parents, that big government simply can&#8217;t fix.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It is horrific that feminism now embraces the mass murder of unborn children as one of its main goals. Yet, despite the fact that being in the womb does not negate humanity, <em>Roe v. Wade</em> has made abortion practically untouchable by law. So, yes, feminists, you have the completely immoral ability to kill your baby in the United States. An ability which, I would like to point out, men don&#8217;t have. Your partner can&#8217;t force you to get an abortion, even though it takes two to tango.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Stop lamenting the tampon tax and realize that everyone pays taxes on everything. That&#8217;s the issue with big government. It is also not &#8220;sexist&#8221; that you have to pay for tampons and pads. Men aren&#8217;t demanding free razors.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Rape is illegal in the United States. No one is legitimizing anything and no one is teaching their boys to rape. &#8220;Rape culture&#8221; is not a real thing. All decent human beings agree that it is one of the most heinous and evil crimes that can be committed. However, the beauty of our judicial system is that all defendants are innocent until proven guilty; those accused of committing the abhorrent crime of rape included.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Let&#8217;s get one thing straight: Paid maternity leave is not a right. I repeat, paid maternity leave is not a right. Your boss was not involved in the making of your baby, so why should they be forced to pay for your life choices?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Yes, women can be physically and emotionally abused by their partners. However, this isn&#8217;t solely a &#8220;women&#8217;s issue.&#8221; Men can also be physically and emotionally abused by their partners; they are just statistically less likely to report it. This abuse is highly illegal and there are a plethora of organizations designed to help victims of it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Young girls are told they are beautiful before they are told they are smart because physical attributes are noticed much sooner than intellectual attributes are. This is also the case with young boys who hear things like &#8220;you look so much like your dad/or mom,&#8221; etc. </p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The &#8220;gender wage gap&#8221; is a fabrication and has been disproven time and time again. In fact, it is illegal to pay men more than women for equal work on equal jobs that are performed under the same conditions under the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Studies commissioned by the Department of Labor have shown that pay discrepancies are often due to individual choices made by both male and female workers.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Under the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, women have the right to bear arms. If you conceal carry a firearm, there is no reason that you should feel unsafe while walking alone at night.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Women&#8217;s equality is defined differently in third world countries such as the Philippines, Cuba, Rwanda, and Jamaica. Are women more equal to men? Sure, they&#8217;re all equally poor and miserable.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>In the United States, women have the fundamental rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Constitution of the United States doesn&#8217;t discriminate based on race, gender, or religion. So, dear feminists, keep repeating your non-sequiturs. Keep marching while sporting explicit costumes of our genitalia. Keep demanding that all women fall into your line of thinking. Just keep in mind that I, along with countless other women, don&#8217;t buy your regressive ideology. We know how far women have come and we know how blessed we are to have been born with the rights that we have. But most of all, we know that we are not &#8220;systematically oppressed.&#8221; How can you say that when we have two women serving on the Supreme Court, when we have 104 women serving in Congress, when 60 women have flown into space, when women are CEOs of companies like Lockheed, General Motors, Yahoo? </p>
<p>We don&#8217;t just feel that we are equal, we know that we are equal, and we have actual facts to back us up. We have the opportunity to be anything we want to be, as long as we put in the hard work. After all, we live in the greatest country in the world &#8211; a country where it is really great to be a woman.</p>
<div> </div>


What More ‘Equality’ Do Women Want?

Feminism

Gender

Sexism

<p>Hysteria has swept across United States college campuses following the election of Donald Trump, and Santa Monica College is no exception. On Wednesday November 9, students at the college staged a walk-out to protest the election results, failing to realize that abandoning their education brings more harm to them than to Donald Trump. However, the taxpayer-funded professors were more than accommodating, some even cancelling classes so students could attend the protest. Students gathered in the quad where a podium was graciously set up by the Associated Students so that students and faculty could gather around to share their irrational fears.</p>
<p>Following this gathering in the quad the students marched down the campus chanting &#8220;Donald Trump is not my President,&#8221; amongst other catchy cries that will have no effect whatsoever on the outcome of the election. The students and faculty took their march down Pico Blvd. for a few blocks before returning on campus and gathering in front of the library to continue their chants.</p>
<p>The college&#8217;s reaction to an impending Donald Trump presidency extended far beyond the Wednesday protest. Each of my professors has taken time out of their classes to let the students talk about our feelings. On Thursday November 10, one of my professors even passed around a paper on &#8220;dealing with election stress.&#8221; Among those solutions listed was &#8220;limit political debate and argument&#8221; which is the close-minded mentality that got us to this point in the first place. Later that morning Santa Monica College hosted a &#8220;supporting our SMC community&#8221; event on the football field which featured immigration attorneys, bilingual psychologists, LGBTQ support services, and lots of tears. </p>
<p>Throughout the day different students could be spotted walking around campus holding signs which read &#8220;Dump Trump&#8221; or &#8220;Love Trumps Hate.&#8221; All of the Associated Student members had a piece of paper stuck on the back of their shirts that read something along the lines of &#8220;Need support or compassion? Talk to me.&#8221; Of course, I&#8217;m sure that&#8217;s only applicable to those who didn&#8217;t support the President-Elect.</p>
<p>No doubt protests will continue throughout the weeks to come, whether they be in the form of obscenities scrawled in a bathroom stall about Donald Trump (pictured below) or students walking around with signs reading &#8220;I&#8217;m Still With Her&#8221; (seriously, get over it). That&#8217;s what happen when everyone gets a participation trophy as a child, they grow up to think that throwing tantrums will always make things go their way.</p>
<div> </div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" height="441" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/fxMApe6EQ-cevEx5NpuScYuUbaEVbt2a8w5UuggTaghkLq4ueiDGHONwg0xnIrtdUcDOjQ8nXho8p_9cUULprgVyhZVGpUtBGLPL9EAqyNVD-_nudfddqlxS-1HNDWA06ocMZ90T.jpeg" width="662" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" height="441" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/rRJevOkRVTUvw8Kl2DBhvrUTEj9CuOqexieAAsKB2iS9iMuXCVXZtdV3fmJLfziyIMundBvFoXpuYP0PQYX6uwmd2D2ZIBvPh8zPnBVrGvYE9sgkfTW_tFGeE2HSuVMBfYmfO2Zx.jpeg" width="662" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" height="497" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/l_t4Hd7c8Eh4LM0GMH372HHw3NGiz8hPZMhyYELb5MP-ll247nqi6xcBt8rbr1QCDVA58f6e8Z5910_kYduiW2nylh0u7vhl5XiiAtipXvDX_CZh44PcHjQzuy-n3i-Rvdd22lQE.jpeg" width="662" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" height="719" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/TpU2rgneAKPAmOjY-vlxIoCYOSBmLZg-u7VKlpbqADQakqpIEjxKUEBLQicXC_aGZlQnUGf4mqXZNEkgXa02nHtQRABv09LxUr7nhTl6uxcxigqYlWGO5hreeL2nGkp6a3dzQwF2.jpeg" width="662" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" height="504" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/XMB0EhzkwPHW6Z8tq8mmM-A0Ir24pRSKfRZjJZg4G_wW1v89BDjLrYn7EtTJ88Cn_I6vRdLh3Ao4iFDT27sA9Fq9KmKDpMxRJAOMh1TsWGGF9m4zp2Oh9PXOTAVVTSxLQWUAkwZr.jpeg" width="662" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt class="media-element file-default" data-fid="13890" data-media-element="1" height="960" src="https://dw-wp-dev.imgix.net/2019/09/email.jpg" width="540" /></div>
<p><em>Top image (Getty Images): Thousands of people protest in the streets against President-elect Donald Trump in Los Angeles, California on November 12, 2016.</em></p>
<div> </div>


fxMApe6EQ-cevEx5NpuScYuUbaEVbt2a8w5UuggTaghkLq4ueiDGHONwg0xnIrtdUcDOjQ8nXho8p_9cUULprgVyhZVGpUtBGLPL9EAqyNVD-_nudfddqlxS-1HNDWA06ocMZ90T

Anti-Trump Hysteria Seizes Santa Monica College: School Brings In Immigration Attorneys, Bilingual Psychologists

Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton

Immigration

Race

Racism

<p>Conservative student organization <a href="http://www.tpusa.com/">Turning Point USA</a> was forced to take down its recruitment table at Santa Monica College and told that their attempt at exercising free speech was a &#8220;violation of the school Constitution.&#8221;</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, three conservative activists set up a table on the Santa Monica College campus to recruit members for student organization Turning Point USA when they were approached by members of the Associated Student Body, who told them they had to take their table down because they were not an official club. </p>
<p>In video taken of the encounter (below), one of the student body representatives warns the conservative organization that tabling on the public school campus prior to being instated as a club could jeopardize their chances of becoming an official club &#8212; a policy which is not stated anywhere in the school Constitution. The same student tells the activists that they cannot even collect signatures if they take down the table. </p>
<p>&#8220;They need to know the Constitution,&#8221; a student says, in reference to the SMC Inter-Club Council Constitution. She later retracts this point by saying that the conservative group<em> can</em> collect their signatures, but only in another area of campus, not where they&#8217;re currently located.</p>
<p>&#8220;So free speech in one area of campus but not the other,&#8221; one conservative activist replies. </p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s not what I&#8217;m saying,&#8221; the Associated Student Body representative retorts, as the other two jump in, growing increasingly contentious with the conservatives.  </p>
</p>
<div class="media_embed"><iframe height="480px" width="640px"></iframe></div>
</p>
<p>The Santa Monica College <a href="http://www.smc.edu/StudentServices/EmergencyPreparedness/Documents/Freedom%20of%20Speech%20Rules.pdf">Freedom of Expression Policy</a> seems to indicate that the conservative activists were within their rights to gather signatures:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>&#8220;Santa Monica College has many outdoor areas where students may gather for discussion, communication of ideas, distribution of literature, and collection of signatures on petitions. These activities do not generally require prior approval by the College. In engaging in such activities, all laws must be complied with, such as not blocking pedestrian passageways (Penal Code Section 647c) and not disturbing the peace (Penal Code Section 415).&#8221; </em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>More importantly, according to the California and United States Constitution, freedom of speech is a right. Especially on a taxpayer-funded, community college campus.</p>
<p>The activists for Turning Point USA took down their table but remained on campus recruiting members. </p>


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Karina Lopez

College’s Social Justice And Gender ‘Safe Space’ Center Raises Transparency Questions

SJW Victory: ‘Offensive’ Christopher Columbus Statue Kicked Off Pepperdine Campus

What More ‘Equality’ Do Women Want?

Anti-Trump Hysteria Seizes Santa Monica College: School Brings In Immigration Attorneys, Bilingual Psychologists

VIDEO: Conservative Group Blocked from Recruiting Students at Santa Monica College