BIG SHOTS
INSIGHT
SPORTS
NIGHT SCHOOL:
A photo spread
exposes what
goes on after
hours
FASHION SHOW:
A preview of the big
night. Student designs
will be featured as part
of the festivities
MEN'S TENNIS:
The team clinched
a share of the SCC
title with a win
over El Camino
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PASADENA CITY COLLEGE
http://www.geocities.com/ ~ pccnewscourier/
VOL. 83 NO. 24
PASADENA , CALIFORNIA
Courier
THURSDAY
APRIL 9, 1998
Faculty Agrees on Grading
Policy: FSB approves record keeping
procedure to avoid future disputes
By DANIEL ARCHULETA
Courier Staff Writer
Is there a better way to keep records
of grades? Faculty senate members
argued about the proper way to save stu¬
dent grade information only to later agree
that the current method is the best one.
The dispute arose during Monday’s
faculty senate meeting. On one side,
some instructors believed that all
records, including scantrons, should be
saved for two years. Others felt that they
should continue to follow the procedure
that has been practiced for years.
Ellen Ligons, FSB president, said that
the overriding problem lies in the fact
that the faculty handbook needs to be
rewritten. Dr. James Kossler, college
president, agreed to help rework the
resource by the next school year.
Text from the faculty handbook out¬
lining the grading policy states, "Each
teacher should assure that students are
properly enrolled in classes, encourage
regular class attendance and keep accu¬
rate records of attendance on the white
sheets provided with the class roster.
These sheets must be submitted to the
records office with required date at the
end of each semester except that full¬
time staff members may agree to hold
their records at least two years for refer¬
ence.”
"At least two years,” proved to be the
words that set-off the heated debate.
Some felt that the wording was too
ambiguous.
"It’s open to interpretation,” said
Denise Barber, fine arts representative.
“Some of you are puzzled by this, I’m
sure,” Ligons said when introducing a
motion that would have sent the matter to
the senate’s rights and responsibilities
committee for a conclusive finding. The
proposal eventually was struck down.
Some members in attendance were con¬
cerned that because the matter is spelled
out in the faculty handbook, it did not
need to be investigated further.
“We’re not going to poll faculty on
the matter, we just want to check to see if
there’s a policy in place,” Ligons said.
Kossler initiated the discussion in the
form of an agenda item. It read, “Direct
the rights and responsibilities committee
to conduct an investigation to determine
whether or not instructors are failing to
maintain official academic records by not
keeping test scantrons, homework
assignments, reports, quizzes, etc., and to
present their findings to the executive
committee by Monday, April 13, 1998.”
Kossler introduced the motion in
response to a grade dispute that occurred
last year between a student and Gregory
Lee, associate professor. The student
wrote a memo to Lee and lambasted the
instructor for not keeping adequate
records.
Kossler called Lee’s behavior unpro-
Please see FSB, page 8
ZACH ROSEN /THE COURIER
Dr. James Kossler specified that two copies
of grades be turned in to the district.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE JENNINGS AND JUSTIN ROBERTSON
/
THE COURIER
WARNING: When the year 2000 rolls around, most PC’s will think it’s back in the old days.
Is Your Computer Safe?
"When the millennium comes , most systems
will think it's 1900 again
By ]ASON KOSAREFF
Courier Staff Writer
Many people fear that millennium will bring us many
highly anticipated and dreaded events, the apocalypse, the
coming of the antichrist, world domination by the EU,
plague and nuclear holocaust. But perhaps the event most
likely to louse up your day will be your computer thinking
it’s a return to the horse and buggy era.
It has long been common practice to write programs
using two digits instead of four. After the millennium,
computers could yield incorrect results when working with
arithmetic calculations, comparisons or sorting data fields.
The problem will occur when computers read "00” at the
end of the date and assume it means the year 1900.
With all of our names and much of the crucial informa¬
tion pertaining to our lives on data bases, the year 2000
problem,” as it is being called, is a pressing problem. The
disadvantages pertain to all of us, for example credit card
accounts may appear delinquent as soon as the date
changes.
However, the college is prepared. By the summer the
college will have computer upgrades for the school’s net¬
work systems in place, obviating potential trouble after the
clock change, according to Robert Cody, assistant dean of
computing services. Cody also said the consequences of
the clock change would not have been entirely detrimental
to the college’s networks.
Dale Pittman, director of management and information
services, said 90 percent of administrative software has
been converted already, and though the project was time
consuming, it was not necessarily complicated. The entire
project should be completed by early 1999. Pittman
assures that the date change "is not an obstacle,” between
students and records prior to the year 2000.
While the college seems to have tilings under control,
Please see 2000, page 8
VANDALISM REPORT
‘There’s Not a Building
That Escapes’ Graffiti
By LUIS E. REYES
Courier Staff Writer
Graffiti on drinking fountains, in restroom
stalls, on ceilings, light fixtures, some even
etched in glass; vandals are costing the college
thousands of dollars to clean it up. There was
even reported instances of graffiti written in
excrement on a men’s bathroom stall door.
“Every single day, we have to go out and clean
graffiti,” said Linda Ruff, accounting clerk.
“There’s not a day that goes by. There’s not a
building that escapes.”
The college is paying close to $10,000 annual¬
ly in graffiti clean up costs, and this, Ruff said is
a “conservative” estimate.
Maintenance crews do what they can to mini-
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
mize the impact of graffiti on campus.
"If we see graffiti, we clean it up.” said painter
Alax Zywicki. "But we can’t be in every elevator.
We can’t be in every stairwell.”
Zywicki said that crews scmb away graffiti for
a couple hours every day. At least three days a
week, they spend half of their eight-hour shifts on
graffiti clean up.
There are days in which tire two-man painting
crew spends hours diligently trying to get rid of
carving. To cover this type of vandalism requires
more than painting over. First, the carving must
be filled, then, it needs to be sanded.
The graffiti on campus is not limited to simply
“tagging.” Racial, homophobic, sexist and other
Please see TAGGERS, page 3
Water Main Ruptures
Causing Campus Outage
Emergency: Library only building left with service
By MANDANA TOWHIDY
Courier Staff Writer
Thousands of students and
faculty members could not find
a working restroom after a con¬
struction mishap caused a water
main to break in the Sculpture
Garden last Thursday morning.
The college’s campus bul¬
letin informed faculty that the
school was in the same situation
that it would be in had there
been an earthquake. The
episode resulted from an acci¬
dent that occurred at about 9
a.m.
As bulldozers plowed
through the mud in the
Sculpture Garden construction
site, one ran over a three quar¬
ter inch sprinkler-like pipe, or
riser. Unfortunately, the pipe
was connected to a major water
line that had been undisturbed
for years when the site was a
parking lot.
Don Holthaus, facilities gen¬
eral manager, said "the pipe
was so old that the threads on
the regular bands [used to stop
the water flow] wouldn't hold.”
He added that even a large break
like this wouldn’t shut the cam¬
pus down, because the water
lines are on a “loop system” that
runs between Colorado
Boulevard, Del Mar Avenue,
and Bonnie Avenue.
However, the only campus
building that actually had water
after the break was the Shatford
Library. Snack bar soda
machines were "out of order,”
and even showers in the physi¬
cal education department were
useless for most of the day.
Holthaus said when the col¬
lege separated from the
Pasadena Unified School
District years ago “a lot of the
drawings were never transferred
over.” They don’t have them
ZACH ROSEN /THE COURIER
The damage was repaired
before the day was over,
anymore. So, this college sits
on a jungle of abandoned pipes
and utility lines. Basically when
it comes to most of the con¬
struction on campus, it’s a hit or
miss type of situation, he said.
"Once we get a hole open,
we get someone in to draft plans
Please see BREAK, page 8
