VOLUME 109 ISSUE 11
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM
April 17, 2014
COURIER
EDITORIAL
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OSCAR WINNER LOSES SPEAKING ROLE
Christine Michaels
Editor-in-Chief
After being placed atop a
Board approved short list of po¬
tential commencement speakers
earlier this semester, the college
decided against selecting Oscar
winning screenwriter and PCC
alumnus Dustin Lance Black
because they feared sexually
explicit photos of Black that
surfaced on the internet in 2006
would tarnish the school’s repu¬
tation, according to administra¬
tion officials.
Black was the first of eight
potential candidates to make
himself available as a speaker,
but the Board of Trustees were
made aware of nude pictures
found on the internet of him
with a man having unprotected
sex and he was dismissed as a
candidate because the board
thought his actions might
inflame the college’s own sex
scandals.
“With the porno professor
and the sex scandals we’ve had
on campus this last year, it just
didn’t seem like the right time
for Mr. Black to be the speaker,”
Board President Anthony Fellow
said. “We’ll be on the radio and
on television. We just don’t want
to give PCC a bad name.”
The college recently went
through two scandals involving
professor Hugo Schwyzer, the
“porno professor” who admitted
to sleeping with students, and
journalism instructor Warren
Swil, who admitted to showing
nude photos of himself to a
student.
The administration decided
to go forward and invite a safer
pick: Pasadena Director of Pub¬
lic Health Dr. Eric Walsh, who
accepted and is confirmed to
be the commencement speaker,
according to Robert Bell, a com¬
mencement committee member
and vice president of academic
affairs and student services.
The problem, however, is
that Black accepted what ap-
SPEAKER page 3 ►
Courtesy of Neville Kiser
Academy Award winner
Dustin Lance Black won't be
speaking at commencement.
Barney Soto/Courier
Simon Fraser, Student Trust¬
ee, states his opposition to
the BOT's decision.
TWO ARTS BEAT AS ONE
Krystal "Tree" Herrera, left, holds up one of her paintings and her twin sister, Karen, holds up her guitar in the PCC Amphitheater
on Mar. 31.
Center for the Arts goes for LEED gold
Jessica Arceo
Staff Writer
When the Center for the Arts officially
opened in January, President Rocha stated
that it would “transform the landscape of
the PCC campus and ultimately transform
the lives of our students.”
By designing a building that is well on its
way to being certified as a premier example
of sustainability and energy efficiency, the
center is on the road to achieving the mes¬
sage of those words.
To prove its seriousness in providing a
center that was innovative both artistically
and environmentally, the school was deter¬
mined to go above and beyond the mandat¬
ed budding codes and become an LEED,
or Leadership in Energy & Environmental
Design, certified building.
Those buddings that have been LEED
certified have been recognized as “best-in¬
class budding strategies and practices,” and
have truly transformed the way projects are
approached, according to the U.S Green
Budding Councd.
GOLD page 2
Speaker
policy to
be revised
Philip McCormick
Managing Editor
After miscommunication
issues arose about who has the
final decision regarding who the
commencement speaker will be,
the Board of Trustees decided
to take a closer look at its policy
Wednesday night.
“It needs to be an orderly
process,” Trustee Jeanette Mann
said. “And it really isn’t. As it is,
this policy ready isn’t a policy.”
Superintendent Mark Rocha
agreed, saying that the current
policy wasn’t working and that
there is no official decision
maker.
“What’s absent in the current
policy is that there is no final de¬
cision maker,” Rocha said. “The
Board needs to have a decision
maker about who commence¬
ment speaker should be and
then instruct me on what to do.”
The miscommunication came
when Student Trustee Simon
Fraser formady invited Oscar
winning screenwriter and PCC
alumnus Dustin Lance Black
POLICY page 2 ^
SPEAK OUT!
Should Dustin Lance Black be the
commencement speaker ?
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