PCC celebrates centennial with cakes, concerts and candy

Share: A red, rectangular piñata that reads “PCC 100” hung outside the bridge between Lancer Pass and the Quad inside Pasadena City College. Children lined up in a single file to pull down the piñata with thinned strings instead of a bat, with each child pulling a string one at a time for the trap door to open. As the bottom fell out, the children ran towards the floor to pick up as much candy as possible.  “This is Latin Heritage Month as well. So …

‘La Reina de HSIs’ teaches colleges how to reign with ‘servingness’

Share: Outside of PCC’s Westerbeck Hall a group of predominantly Latine staff, faculty, and students gathers. As the crowd becomes larger, event organizers encourage newcomers to scan QR codes for the nearing presentation. As they do, attendees help themselves to food and drink including conchas—traditional sweet bread rolls common in Latine households, and an emblem of the “servingness” Dr. Gina Ann Garcia teaches. A visiting professor from UC Berkeley, Garcia’s keynote address is a homage to PCC’s observation of Hispanic Heritage Month and a reflection …

Love triangles aren’t tired, they just aren’t in the best shape

Share: Love triangles have been one of fiction’s most common tropes for years now. From the likes of “Twilight” to the new generation’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” many writers default on this trope to engage their audiences and the trope isn’t tired, it’s just often done poorly.  Take Jenny Han’s hit series “The Summer I Turned Pretty” (TSITP) for instance. The series follows its main character Isabel “Belly” Conklin and her romances with the Fisher brothers: Conrad, her first love, and Jeremiah, her childhood …

Colleges struggle to CAPTCHA fake students scamming millions

Share: Hackers have been using artificial intelligence (AI) bots to pose as college students in online classes for years, in an attempt to scam colleges out of financial aid money. Schemes like these have been tracked as far back as even the early 2000s.  Kim Rich, a former deputy sheriff and professor of criminal justice at Los Angeles Pierce College, has been investigating these online bots since 2006. “If a given student received $3,000 in financial aid, and 40,000 bots have infiltrated a given district, …

It Ends With Blake Lively: Hold celebrities accountable for their bad behavior

Share: In a scandal that’s recently taken over the internet, Blake Lively has been under fire for her promotion of her new film “It Ends with Us” and understandably so as the actress has put more effort into her wardrobe than educating herself or her audience about domestic violence.  “Grab your friends, wear your florals,” said Lively in an ad for the movie. This is just one of the many tone deaf comments Lively has made during the film’s media tour and it doesn’t reflect …