Investigation: Deep dive shows PCC left Aquatic Center to degrade for years

Hey Lancers! Welcome to the final Courier newsletter for the Spring 2024 semester, thank you for following along this year and keep your eyes out for the newsletter in the fall.

In the final edition for the semester, the Courier had its busiest week in every other section, but news. Stories included several opinions, a short feature on the Courier’s outgoing news editor, and many reviews of shows and movies to watch over the summer.

As always. don’t forget to check out pccourier.com for this final publication of the semester and much more!

News

In News, News Editor Seamus Bozeman finally published his final story with the Courier: a long anticipated investigation into why PCC’s Aquatic Center has been closed since the pandemic. The report dives into why it was damaged, and why the college let repair costs increase from $700,000 to fix issues in 2014, to an estimated $2 million to $5 million in 2024. It is also not clear when the pool will be open again. Other Courier editors and staff writers contributed to this report.

Opinion

In Opinion, Assistant Lifestyle Editor Monet Ayala wrote about Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and the “upside-down flag” controversy and how those on the Court, but especially Alito are above the law. Read the full story below!

Features

In Features, Staff Writer Mercedes Rodriguez wrote about how the Latine graduation showed the importance of PCC as a Hispanic Serving Institution and how it “sends an encouraging message to the rest of the Hispanic community, to pursue their career dreams and keep striving to overcome the education barriers that are many times placed on the Latine community.” Read the full story below.

PCC Sports

In Sports for the final week of the semester we have a double feature on the Men’s and Women’s athletes of the year.

For the men’s feature, Sports Editor Le’Raun Peron wrote about Myles Watkins and his journey from the balance of academics, and his growth on the Basketball court. Read the full feature below.

For the women’s feature, Assistant Sports Editor Samantha Ortiz and Staff Writer Alexandra Ruiz wrote about how Charlie Gallardo, again worked to balance the pressures of social life, academics and sports to win the award. Read the full story, and thoughts directly from Gallardo below.

Lifestyle

In Lifestyle, Editor-in-Chief Samuel Valencia dove into the newly released “The Acolyte” which was one of the most interesting narratively told Star Wars projects in a long time. From its commitment to reality, compared with other Star Wars shows.

Podcast

In his final episode hosting Let's Talk, David is joined by editor-in-chief Sam to go over a few stories from each section this past semester. On top of highlighting staff writers, they discuss what it was like being at The Courier and the things they will miss most about being in the newsroom.

Social Media

Here is a link to all of our social media pages, with a weekly TikTok and other content: https://linktr.ee/pcccourier