College Students

"Financial Aid Eludes the Poorest Students" (July 11) identifies the tip of the iceberg. Discussions about access to higher education for all Californians must begin by admitting that the real cost of community college is more like $100 per class than $33. Below the surface of $11-per-unit tuition are the necessary books that routinely double or triple the cost of each class. Waiting for payday to purchase books, students routinely struggle through the first weeks of the semester without them and inevitably fall behind.

The recent arrest of a UCLA student in the brutal stabbing of a classmate in a campus chemistry lab has again focused attention on an issue that gripped the nation after the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech: the mental health of troubled college students. The Virginia Tech shootings, which left 32 victims and the gunman dead, raised difficult questions about how a disturbed student could have been allowed to remain at the school despite danger signs. Since then, campuses in California and around the country say they watch their students ever more closely for signs of possible mental illness or other problems.

Moorpark College is seeking participants for a literacy program that will place 25 college students in east county elementary schools as reading and writing tutors. Meetings on AmeriCorps' Teacher Education at Moorpark program will be held at Moorpark College from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and 6 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 7. AmeriCorps is a national service organization that promotes voluntarism. Eligible applicants must carry 12 or more units at Moorpark College, have at least a 2.

More than 150 Occidental College students staged a daylong sit-in Thursday at the Eagle Rock campus after administrators canceled a free rap concert and graffiti art show organized by student minority groups and fraternities.

Police have issued an arrest warrant for a Buena Park college student they said killed a Downey teenager in a gang attack. The suspect is 19-year-old Peter Woon Park, a student at Cypress College, Huntington Beach Lt. Dan Johnson said. "He is a gang member and should be considered armed and dangerous," he said. Park's arrest warrant accuses him of murder, Johnson said, and bail is set at $1 million.

More than $50,000 in scholarships was awarded to Irvine Valley College students recently, more than double the amount raised last year. This is the first year that the Irvine Valley College Foundation has pitched in to raise scholarship money. Last year, the scholarship program passed out $24,000. "We recognized that we had a larger need, noting that the number of scholarship applicants was up 20% from last year," said Donald Rickner, foundation director.

Police gunfire killed three college students as they were protesting the alleged sexual molestation of fellow students by officers on a train in eastern India, students and officials said. A crowd gathered at a station in Salakati after students on a train telephoned friends and said police had molested female students, a student leader said.

A Long Beach jury recommended Friday that a gang member be executed for killing two college students during a San Pedro carjacking, a crime that made headlines in Japan. Raymond Oscar "Mugsy" Butler, 20, faces sentencing May 7 for the 1994 murders of Takuma Ito, 19, a Japanese citizen, and Go Matsuura, 19, a U.S. citizen born in Japan.

Two male Long Beach City College students were shot in the head, one fatally, as they pulled into a driveway to visit friends, police said. Sophy Ouk, 19, who was driving, died en route to a hospital, said Long Beach police spokesman David Marander. So Phay Chum, 18, was hospitalized in critical condition. Ouk and Chum pulled into the driveway in the 1000 block of Hoffman Avenue about noon Saturday, police said. "The suspect approached and shot both of the teens in the head," Marander said.

In addition to their annual food drive, Fullerton College students will host a Thanksgiving banquet for low-income families this year. The banquet, sponsored by Moviemiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, will include a free Thanksgiving meal, live music, a dance performance and entertainment for children. The event is designed not only to help those in need but also to bring Orange County families together. All are welcome. The banquet will be at 6 p.m. Nov.