OPINION
FEATURES
SPORTS
STUDENTS TAKING REMEDIAL
CLASSES ARE NOT AT FAULT
Unified school districts need to do something
to ensure that students are graduating with —
the necessary skills to succeed in life 2
REVIEW ON ORCHESTRA
CONCERT
The PCC Community Orchestra
perform works by Beethoven, _
Weber and Mozart j
BIG HITS SPARK LANCER
COME BACK AGAINST
CERRITOS FALCONS
Softball team beats SCC s
rivals 5 -3 on the road ^
• CANDIDATES
PRESENT THEIR
PLATFORMS
Elections
for Faculty
Senate are
heating up
By RACHEL URANGA
Courier Staff Writer
Promises, promises, promises.
There were plenty of them as
candidates running for Faculty Sen¬
ate offices presented their platforms
in the Forum last Friday. Whether or
not the promises will be kept is yet
to be seen, but on April 12 the
election results will determine who
will have the chance to follow
through on their proposals. About
50 people showed up to hear the
speeches and ask the candidates
questions.
There are five elected positions
on the faculty senate board, but only
one, the president’s seat, is being
contested by two candidates. Candi¬
dates are running unopposed for
vice president, treasurer, and secre¬
tary. Only full-time faculty mem¬
bers can vote, which amounts to
about 300 people eligible to cast
ballots.
Both candidates for Faculty Sen-
atepresident Anthony Georgilas and
Ellen Reynolds Ligons addressed
the issue of technology. Question¬
ing incumbent president Georgilas,
a student asked what he had done to
improve technology in the class¬
rooms. Georgilas said he advocated
a form of funding, no longer used by
the senate, that allowed the senate
direct allocation of money for stu¬
dent services and organizations. “I
wish we could go back to the old
form where we were able to distrib¬
ute monies to the students,” said
Please see FACULTY, Page 6
REPELLING OF OFF ROBBINS
ANDREW ZIMA
/
THE COURIER
A memberof the Sierra Madre Search and Rescue T earn scales the R building in a simulated rescue during
the college’s Health and Safety Fair held yesterday in the Quad. More than 300 students showed up.
• STUDENT AFFAIRS OFFICE RELEASES
NAMES OF ELIGIBLE CANDIDATES,
SIX STUDENTS DISQUALIFIED
Only one office
contested in AS
Board elections
By JOSE INOSTROZ, Courier Staff Writer
The Office of Student Affairs announced last Tues¬
day evening a final list of eligible candidates for the
Associated Student elections to be held on April 17 and
18.
Twenty-six students picked up applications by the
March 29 deadline, 17 returned them on time, and 15
were listed as eligible by 4 p.m. last Monday.
By 5 p.m. Tuesday, nine official candidates who
began campaigning yesterday, remained on the list.
Six candidates were disqualified on Tuesday for not
returning a candidate’s written statement as required in
the election packet by the 11 a.m. deadline. This became
an issue last year when the Courier learned that most of
the candidates had not turned in a statement, causing a
week’s postponement of elections.
Of the nine candidates this year, three will be compet¬
ing for AS president while the rest willbe running for five
positions unopposed leaving the office of vice-president
of business affairs and coordinator of cultural activities
without candidates.
Darrell Price, Tess Coleman, and Forrest Poindexter
will be vying for the AS presidency. The rest of the
candidates are: Ben Bushnell for executive vice-presi¬
dent, Frank Fernandez for vice president of academic
affairs, Catherine Hazelton for coordinator of external
affairs, Levi Jackson for coordinator of campus activi¬
ties, Leila Jerusalem for coordinator of publicity, and
Jody Wymar for student trustee.
“As president, my goals are to provide increased
services to students, to be an effective liaison between
students and faculty, to promote a cohesive and progres¬
sive leadership within the student government body, and
to ensure that students have the necessary access to
educational resources to become (the) essential leaders
of tomorrow,” wrote Coleman in her written statement.
She will be incorporating her experience as coordina¬
tor of cultural affairs, a post she has held since early
♦September. “As a seasoned student leader, students can
Please see ELECTIONS, Page 4
“I wish there
were more
students
involved in
the election.
I hope it’s a
positive
campaign
and a clean
election, ”
Rebecca
Cobb,
Student
Affairs
adviser
• COMMUNITY COLLEGES TO RECEIVE $325 MILLION
Proposition 203 passes, school awaits funds
• PCC OFFICIALS CHALLENGE
FEDERAL FINANCIAL
AID CLAIMS
College may be
excluded from
financial aid
By ARDA HAMALIAN, Courier Staff Writer
PCC is challenging federal financial aid officials who
claim that 22.5 percent of PCC students who received
loans for their education in the 1993 school year , have
not paid them back as agreed.
If a college’s default rate exceeds 25 percent, the
school may face being excluded from all federal finan¬
cial aid programs. If the rate exceeds 20 percent for three
consecutive years, a school may be subject to limitation,
suspension, or termination from the programs.
PCC is formally appealing the U.S. Department of
Education figures, because officials believe they are
based on “flawed calculations,” according to Karla
Henderson, assistant dean of student financial aid and
scholarships.
Borrowers are required to start payments on their
loans following a six to nine month grace period, after
they have graduated or dropped below six academic
units.
Delinquent borrower reports are sent out by the
California Student Aid Commission (CS AC), as soon as
a student misses a payment. This allows the school 120
days to notify the borrowers that they are in danger of
defaulting. Henderson said that the CS AC never notified
PCC about 1 1 students who were considered delinquent
borrowers.
“We could have gotten some of those students out of
Please see DEFAULTS, Page 3
By KEN WOO, Courier Staff Writer
Like many aging Hollywood stars, PCC will soon be
getting a face lift. With the recent passage of Proposition
203, California community colleges will receive $325
million for upgrading or building educational facilities.
PCC will receive more than $28 million to complete
the college’s Master Plan. The plan calls for the old
library being converted to a student service center and
the building of a new maintenance building. The college
will also build a new, state-of-the-art physical education
complex which will house a new swimming pool and
athletic field. The projects had been already approved
by the Chancellor’s office even before the proposition
was passed. The money will go solely to restructuring
and rebuilding facilities. The proposition did not provide
money for teachers salaries.
A total of $3 billion will be given to state schools from
grades K-12 to community colleges and the Cal-State
and UC schools. The Faculty Association of California
Community Colleges released a newsletter revealing a
backlog of projects totalling $1.3 billion.
With the money from the proposition, schools can
now buy new computers and other technologically ad¬
vanced equipment to bring them up to a higher caliber
level. California schools currently rank last in the nation
in terms of computer to pupil ratio.
The state Department of Finance estimates a 600,000
increase in student population over the next five years.
The demands for the funding was justified by the increas¬
ing student population and by the needs to modernize
and update the facilities.
Improvements are expected to start as soon as this
year and are to last for the next two years according to
professor Anthony Georgilas, who has been a big propo¬
nent for Proposition 203 .’“lam so grateful for everyone
that voted in our favor,” said Georgilas.
The only problem that Georgilas foresees is logistics.
He explains that they have to find a place to house the
students while improvements are made to the buildings.
Many groups on campus rallied behind Proposition
203 including the Faculty Senate and ASB.
RECENT SURVEY REVEALS ALARMING FIGURES
Date Rape
By ARDA HAMALIAN
Courier Staff Writer
Date and acquaintance rape has
been an increasing problem in the
United States, especially on college
campuses. Recent studies have shown
that one woman in three will be
sexually assaulted inher life. In 60 to
77 percent of theses cases, the per¬
petrator is an acquaintance, friend,
or date of the victim.
Accordingto Richard Beyer, PCC
counseling psychologist, many
women don’t realize that being co¬
erced, persuaded, and intimidated
into having sex constitutes date rape.
“Women think that if they have
unconsented sexual relations with
someone they know, it is not rape,”
he said. “They think that they need to
be dragged down by an unknown
person, which, many times, is not at
all the case.”
In a recent PCC survey, 34 per¬
cent of 50 women questioned, be¬
lieved that if a woman is coerced into
having sex with an acquaintance or a
date, even if she doesn’t want to, it is
not considered rape. Beyer also said
that the younger a woman is, the
more likely she is to be naive about
what is considered date rape. He
said: “Older women have more life
experience, therefore, they know
when they’re in a situation that
doesn’t feel good.”
More than 15 percent of college
men have reported having sex with a
woman against her will. In addition,
more than 60 percent of college men
have reported using some type of
coersion in sexual involvment, in-
cludingpersuasion, physical restraint,
Please see DATE RAPE, Page 6 ,
ILLUSTRATION BY BEATRIZ VALENZUELA
