The Citrus College Rocket Owls chose to continue participating in an eight-month-long competition hosted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, despite being barred from the final launch in Huntsville, Alabama.
The final milestone and awards ceremony of the NASA Student Launch Program takes place in April in Alabama, one of the eight states to which California has banned state-funded travel to. Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas are also blacklisted. AB 1887 bars state funded travel to states which have passed laws considered discriminatory against lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender people.
California Community College Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley released a statement in August 2017 expressing his support of AB 1887 and its creator, State Attorney General Xavier Becerra. “As a matter of policy, the Chancellor’s Office will not approve requests from our local community college districts to travel to an AB 1887 restricted state, regardless of the funding source for the proposed out-of-state travel,” Oakley said in a statement. However, Oakley tweeted Jan. 18 that he did not prevent the Rocket Owls from participating.
Austin Langrehr, Leader of the six-person Rocket Owls team, is an electrical engineering major. He said building rockets is one of the last things he thought he’d be doing, but he has made the Rocket Owls a priority over his job and other academic plans.
“The intent is understandable and the cause is just, but the implementation is questionable,” Langrehr said referring to AB 1887.
Dr. Patricia Rasmussen, President of the Citrus College Board of Trustees, said the Rocket Owls cannot travel to Alabama regardless of the source of funding because it is a civil rights issue.
“Faculty were alerted (in August) that they could not travel to the states in question,” Rasmussen said via email.
Citrus College Superintendent/President Dr. Geraldine Perri said “We really felt that it was important to look at human rights.”
“We want to protect people and ensure they are not discriminated against.” Perri said.
Of the other five California schools accepted into the program, UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley have confirmed they are attending.
“We have not experienced any problems with being unable to compete.” UC Berkeley’s CalSTAR Outreach officer, Adam Huth, said, “Technically, I believe teams in California are allowed to compete, they may just be unable to receive funding for the trip itself.”
Cal Poly Pomona’s team is not attending the final launch.
The other universities accepted into the program that have not confirmed their attendance to the Alabama launch are CSU Long Beach and UC Davis. CSU Long Beach’s team is currently attempting to gain sponsors and fundraising in order to travel by private funds.
The Board of Trustees released a statement that aired Jan. 16 on ABC7 that said it supported AB 1887 and, “As an alternative, the Rocket Owls will be participating in a rocket competition sponsored by Friends of Amateur Rocketry/Mars Society to be held in Mojave, California.”
Mathematics professor Paul Swatzel is not associated with the Rocket Owls but has been one of their supporters; he donated $500 to the group when he thought they could travel by independent funds.
Via text, Swatzel called the alternative “a ridiculous comparison … they are not even remotely in the same league.”
Swatzel attended the Board of Trustees meeting Jan. 16 to ask the members of the board to allow the Rocket Owls to travel to Alabama because he said he considers it a unique opportunity for community college students to gain experience alongside Ivy League schools, from professionals at NASA. He described the opportunity as “priceless” and that this would “open many doors for students.”
Swatzel was interviewed on ABC 7 and KFI News speaking out about the importance of giving college students learning opportunities.
Swatzel started a petition on Change.org directed at Oakley in attempt to help the rocket club go to Alabama. The petition is near its goal of 2,500 signatures.
The Rocket Owls posted a statement to Facebook stating they did not need the money people had been donating; they have their own private funds gathered by grants.
Of the 60 schools accepted into the program, the Citrus Rocket Owls were one of the two groups representing a community college. The other is Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The Rocket Owls’ adviser, Professor Lucia Riderer said she has received phone calls and emails from people offering the team money to travel to the event.
“We have the money,” Riderer said, “many, many people from all over the state really do offer not only money but support.”
Riderer said she thinks the students are taking the news better than she is; she has seen the Rocket Owls engaged in the NASA program for five years in a row. Her last two teams won the Educational Engagement Award from NASA for their community involvement.
Riderer said the Rocket Owls passed their last NASA milestone “with flying colors.” Their next milestone is March 5.
Langrehr and other members of the Rocket Owls addressed the Board of Trustees during the public comments section of their meeting Feb. 6 in attempt to convince them to allow the club to participate in the Alabama launch.
“Compared to other schools, the Rocket Owl’s team have had the disadvantage of having fewer resources, significantly smaller teams, and not being as far in their education as our competitors, however despite this the Rocket Owls teams have been able to successfully qualify year after year,” Langrehr said during the meeting.
Asaad Marcha, Rocket Owl’s payload specialist and Syrian refugee, also spoke at the meeting in attempt to change the Board of Trustees’ decision.
“Two wrong actions do not make a right.” Marcha said.
Even after making their emotional appeal, Langrehr said he does not think their team has a chance of going to Alabama, but future Rocket Owls should.
