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Día de Muertos comes to Pima
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Día de Muertos comes to Pima

By JOE GIDDENS  and ANGEL CANEZ It was a celebration of life and death at the Pima Community College West Campus Nov. 1 with the Pima Native American Student Association’s first celebration of the Day of the Dead. It was a fundraising event with an array of activities including face painting, music, photo booths and “altares de ofrendas” also known as offering altars.  The Student Social Services Organization and ARC Pantry also attended the event to solicit donations for their food pantry donation box, but the main attraction was the University of Arizona folklorico dance group Grupo Folklórico Miztontli.  “I wanted to start Native American Heritage Month,” said NASA president Alexandra McKenna. “By sharing with the community, the indigenous roots of the holiday many people know toda...
Tucson looks to help residents thrive
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Tucson looks to help residents thrive

Photo and story by JOE GIDDENS The “Thrive in the 05” initiative was formed last fall to revitalize the Oracle corridor, an area from the Pima Community College Downtown Campus going north to Miracle Mile and bounded by I-10 to the west.  It’s an area that is steeped in indigenous history with some of the Pascua Yaqui’s Tribe’s earliest residences.  The area saw a boom with the advent of the automobile’s arrival in the American West as the northern gateway to Tucson. The route followed Miracle Mile; then turned on Oracle Road; then turned onto Drachman Street and went Downtown before exiting the area on South Sixth Avenue.  The completion of Interstate 10 in 1961 left residents facing a number of challenges with their customers routed elsewhere. Presently, this area of Tucson has roughl...
Pima College increases security measures
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Pima College increases security measures

Photo and story by JOE GIDDENS Security at Pima Community College is an ongoing concern but several initiatives are in place.    Text Alerts Mass alerts from Pima Police go out by email and text alerts. About 70,000 people in Tucson get the emails, but 7,000 to 9,000 get the text alerts because people must volunteer their numbers for the alert system, according to Pima Police officer Michelle Nieuwenhuis.   Pima Police wants to increase the number of people receiving text alerts, because people are more inclined to check texts than they are email. Plus, there won’t be the issue of messages accidentally ending up in the spam filter.  Students’ information will be entered into Omnilert, which is Pima’s text alert vendor and people will then have the ability to opt out if they don’t want to...
Women in Industry Summit convenes Downtown
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Women in Industry Summit convenes Downtown

Photo and story by JOE GIDDENS Christina Koch and Jessica Meir made history Oct. 18 with the first all-female space walk to replace a power controller on the International Space Station. Some 254 miles below at the Downtown Campus, Pima Community College hosted its first Women in Industry Summit. The goal of the event was to promote women in STEM fields and in fields that have been historically male-dominated.  The event was organized by Pima program adviser Anthony Hinckley. He had several female students inform him of difficulties they’ve faced and their concerns about entering into these types of fields.  “It all kind of boiled down to ‘Am I going to be OK in a male-dominated industry?’ ” The students’ issues were not so much about breaking into these fields. Instead, they were a...
Arizona starts to eye the 2020 election
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Arizona starts to eye the 2020 election

Photos and story  by JOE GIDDENS  The national spotlight has come to Tucson as both parties compete for Arizona’s potential swing state status in the 2020 election.  Mike Pence Arrival   Vice President Mike Pence, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Sen. Martha McSally arrived at Tucson International Airport Oct. 3 to stump for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. The USMCA is the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement.  The agreement hasn’t yet been put to a vote in Congress because of the Democrats’ concerns with its enforceability and on labor matters.   Pence’s other objective for this visit was to campaign for McSally ahead of her expected matchup next year against Democratic frontrunner candidate Mark Kelly. The most recent poll by OH Predictive Insights in August had M...
Arizona combats teacher shortage
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Arizona combats teacher shortage

By ELLIANA KOPUT The state of Arizona is still working to fight a disheartening shortage in public educators, one of the many issues identified in the “Red for Ed” movement.  Many thoughts are unfolding in search of the means to attract new and committed teachers to the K-12 system.  “I’m looking for the best and brightest to commit to teach in Arizona public schools,” Gov. Doug Ducey said in his 2017 State of the State Address. “If you make that commitment, we’ll make this commitment; your education will be paid for, a job will be waiting and you will be free of debt.”   The Arizona Board of Regents developed a plan for the Arizona Teacher’s Academy, which, according to the Arizona Office of Education, is “a unique and innovative strategy to improve public education.” In April 2018,...
Pima Police take carjacking suspect into custody
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Pima Police take carjacking suspect into custody

By JOE GIDDENS Pima Community College Police took a person into custody this afternoon around 5 p.m. at Grant Rd. and Stone Ave. This carjacking suspect damaged six vehicles before wrecking according to Tucson Police Department.
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Earn to Learn partners with Pima Community College

By COREY McMULLEN On Oct. 2, Pima Community College announced its new partnership with “Earn to Learn.”  Pima is the first community college to partner up this program, said Pima Chancellor Lee Lambert during a recent press conference. Earn to Learn is a national organization formed in 2013 that operates the largest matched savings program in the country. Its efforts are designed to help low- and moderate-income students graduate from colleges with little-to-no student debt.  The program is open to current students that are new to higher education. Students should go to earntolearn.org, and the deadline to register is Oct. 25. Students eligible for this program save up to $500 and become eligible for matching funds up to $4,000 - an 8:1 match - to help with tuition, fees and any other ...
Chapman Auto gives Pima a jumpstart
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Chapman Auto gives Pima a jumpstart

Story by ANGEL CANEZ and JOE GIDDENS Additional interviews  by JOUSHA SHAVER Pima Community College is investing over $500,000 in upgrades to its athletics facilities in as a cost-saving measure and to attract recruits. The athletics department also has signed a $210,000 sponsorship deal with the Chapman Automotive Group for three years.  However, despite both of these events, there’s consideration by Pima administration to terminate additional sports programs. Golf, tennis and track are the most commonly discussed.  This comes near the end of the first year of the Jim Monaco era of Pima Athletics.  Monaco took over the job from former Athletic Director Edgar Soto, who held the position for 11 years and now serves as Desert Vista Campus vice president. Soto also will remain as dean o...
News

PCC Offers First Autonomous Driving Certificate Program

By KYLE KERSEY Pima Community College and autonomous semi-truck company TuSimple announced the creation of the first autonomous driving certificate program for commercial truck drivers on June 13. The certification program, named the Autonomous Vehicle Driver and Operations Specialist program, consists of five classes and 12 credits. Those classes are Industrial Safety (AIT 100), Electrical Systems I (AIT 125), Introduction to Autonomous Vehicles (AUV 101), Computer Hardware Components (CIS 136) and Transportation and Traffic Management (LGM 106). The program is geared towards current truck drivers and requires a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) for completion as well as the safety class, though this can be waived if the driver has their OSHA 10 card. However, any of the five classes ma...