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By Staff Editorial
By Staff Editorial
In the Aug. 23-29 issue of Inland Empire Weekly, 10 journalists compiled a review of colleges in the Inland Empire, including Riverside City College. The outcome was a tactless degradation of many accessible colleges.
In case some new students happened across this article, we’d like to show you the truth and fiction behind the review, which refers to RCC as a college with a “world-famous delayed adolescence program.” RCC is made out to be a refuge for students looking to “put off ‘real school,'” and who will eventually “stumble out” to become “Red Lobster assistant managers.”
No offense to Red Lobster; it has delicious food at affordable prices. But we digress…
First off, IE Weekly described RCC as a “party school because the students have no foreseeable future to blow.” This couldn’t be more false. Students at RCC are some of the hardest working students in the community college system, often working full time while they attend.
Not only is our marching band one of the most famous (world-famous, even), but many students every year graduate and move on to prestigious universities.
There are countless reasons for RCC students to take pride in this school. One of which being our stellar women’s water polo team, which went to the state championships last year. Another successful program is our model UN team, which has won numerous national awards for their work across the country.
Viewpoints has a wall of awards for our work in Journalism, and even surpassed Harvard University in 2005 to win the National Newspaper Pacemaker award. We could literally fill this page with awards from all of RCC’s outstanding programs, awards that are won by promising student year after year.
After that meaningless insult, IE Weekly describes how affordable the school is, with its cost per unit being only $20, “leaving you plenty of scratch to spend at the Tiger’s Den snack shop.”
While we have to agree that RCC’s enrollment fees are a great selling point to families that aren’t as well off as those of University of Redlands attendees, there is one minor discrepancy: to the dismay of some older students, the Tiger’s Den no longer exists.
To the new students: the Tiger’s Den was a snack shop/hang-out spot in the A.G. Paul Quadrangle, complete with a lounge atmosphere and arcade games. Since the Quadrangle began construction nearly two years ago, students bid farewell. We can only assume that IE Weekly missed that memo… or didn’t bother looking into the college that much.
IE Weekly’s next objection was the parking at RCC. In past semesters, parking was notoriously frustrating. With the new parking structure, however, there is not much left to complain about.
IE Weekly also complained about the Digital Library. IE Weekly considers this our “new” building, despite it being open for business for four years.
“…It looks like someone parked a spaceship in front of Yale or Harvard,” the article read.
That can almost be taken as a compliment. But if the reporter was to look inside the library, they would have no right to deem the person who approved it “Lord of the Tacky.”
The final word of the excerpt let’s students know that they wouldn’t be the only kid to go to RCC so their parents don’t kick them out of the garage.
IE Weekly has taken this accessible source of higher education and done its best to turn students away from it.
In the world of journalism, there is something called accountability, and the IE Weekly should be held accountable for trying to argue students not only out of attending RCC, but universities that are known to help students in need as well, such as Cal State San Bernardino. It was also berated for several paragraphs with a jump-off point not being a great “party school.”
IE Weekly is definitely not the place to turn for information, or even any actual journalism. These tasteless critics have no room to tear down people with problems. At least we are making progress in our lives, instead of being one step away from publishing fliers for a local emo band.
With the application of our talents and attention to our goals, RCC students have consistently proved people like the IE Weekly wrong.
As with most of your information, IE Weak-ly, I guess it just hasn’t caught on. See you in the funny papers.