Bored Now? Go Watch
Faculty Jump in the
Pool at Noon Today.
AGS’s ‘Sink-a-Scholar’
Art Students
Compete for
Cash Prizes
VOL. 87 NO. 24
www.pcc-courieronline.com
APRIL 18,2002
Mikyl Nutter/Courier
Arson suspect Marcin Swiacki is led away to an await¬
ing police car for transport to the Pasadena city jail
c where he was booked on seven counts of arson.
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Annual Diversity Forum
t Conference will feature UC
Berkeley Professor Marcial
Gonzalez, on at 11 a.m.
Teachers are encouraged to
bring their classes to hear the
discussions. Today in the CC
Lounge from 9 a.m. to 4:30
p.m.
Michell Ireland-Galman, PCC social sciences professor and
Athena Wait, director of teacher education at UC Riverside
College Enters
Into Partnership
for Education
By Terrance Parker
Staff Writer
Starting next semester students can take advantage of a unique
partnership between Pasadena City College and the University of
California, Riverside. Students can begin at PCC, transfer to UCR
as a junior, and earn bachelor’s degree or even a master of educa¬
tion degree under this program.
In a ceremony held on campus Monday Dr. James Kossler, PCC
president, and Dr. Satish K. Tripathi, UCR interim executive vice
chancellor, signed an agreement establishing the program as
administrators and faculty from both colleges looked on.
“If you ask around our campus you will find many students who
would like to go into teaching but are not sure how to get fiom
thinking about it to doing it,” said Dr. Kossler. He said this program
# see PARTNERSHIP, page 4
Suspect Arrested for
Campus Arson Fires
By Matthew Robinson
Editor in Chief
After nine fires in four days that disrupted classes and
forced hundreds of students to evacuate buildings, campus
police got a break and made an arrest.
PCC student Marcin Swiacki, 20, was arrested early
Monday morning on suspicion of arson and criminal threat.
A cadet who recognized the suspect from witness descrip¬
tions, observed him walking across the quad early Monday
morning and alerted officer John Hynes. Hynes then made
contact with the suspect and placed him under arrest.
The first fire was discovered last Wednesday when Hynes
responded to a fire alarm on the second floor of the R build¬
ing where he discovered a blaze inside the men’s restroom.
The fire was quickly extinguished and the incident was clas¬
sified as an accidental fire. “We thought it was a careless
smoker who discarded their cigarette in the trash can,” Hynes
said. The following day, however, the campus police learned
that Wednesday’s fire was no accident.
The police, facilities and the entire PCC community was
disrupted during the noon hour on Thursday when five trash
can fires were discovered throughout the campus set minutes
apart. The fires caused students to be evacuated from the
women’s gym and the R building. The Pasadena fire depart¬
ment and an arson investigator responded to the fires on
Thursday and Saturday.
On Saturday a facilities worker was cleaning inside C257
and observed a message written on the chalkboard, “PCC
will bum on April 20.” That date marks the second anniver¬
sary of the tragic attack on Columbine High School. Swiacki
is suspected of being responsible for that threat too.
One student who was in the R Building on Thursday when
one of the fires filled a first floor restroom with smoke. He
took matters in his own hands and extinguished the flames
himself. Dennis Trerotola was in the art gallery when he
smelled smoke. Since it was noon, he ran
into the sculpting area because there are
ovens in there. “I automatically went in
there because I figured everyone had
probably left for lunch,” he said “When I
didn’t smell anything there, I went back
into the R Building and walked through
the double doors. A student pointed
towards the men’s restroom and said, ‘It’s
in there.’”
“When I walked in, there were flames
four to five feet high in the air,” said
Trerotola. “I went back outside and told
one person to call campus police and
another to call 911.1 then went back in.”
Seemingly unconcerned with his own
safety, Trerotola attempted to stem the
quickly spreading flames.
“The wastebasket was next to the sink
so I started throwing water on it until I
could cool it down enough so I could pick
it up and put it in the sink,” said Trerotola. “Art Division
Dean Alex Kritselis came into the men’s room. The smoke
# see FIRES, page 5
Into the Mind
of an Arsonist
Arson is clearly a socially and
legally unacceptable behavior that
impacts on people, property and the
environment. According to fire offi¬
cials, there’s no set profile for an
arsonist. Fire-setters, as officials call
them, tend to be white males, but not
always, and tend to be in their 20s and
30s. They can even be firefighters.
Low self esteem, confidence and
respect are core areas which contribute
to the boredom that causes someone to
# see ARSON, page 5
From left:
Trash cans were removed
from the R Building and
booked into evidence.
Lieutenant Brad Young of the
PCC police department uses
a megaphone to evacuate
students from the building.
Once the all-clear bell
sounded, students returned
to classes.
Basketball Player Gets A Lot
Less Than
Bargained For
By Jake Armstrong
Sports Editor
Editor’s note: Sam Sikes, a play¬
er from the 2001-2002 basketball
team recently alleged wrongdoing
on the part of the Lancer coach¬
ing staff. In a recent newspaper
article answering the allegations,
athletic department officials
labeled him as a disgruntled play¬
er lashing out at the coach over a
lack of playing time.
Players on campus have blasted
him for spurring an investigation
into the college’s Work-Study pro¬
gram. The Courier thought
Sikes’ story deserved a closer
look. The Courier also invites the
athletic department to tell their
side.
Even before he put on a Lancer
uniform, Sam Sikes got the feeling
that the season ahead of him was
going to be a rough one.
Maybe it was the mustard sand¬
wiches he and his teammates sur¬
vived on, maybe it was the cold
showers they took when the gas to
their apartment was shut off.
But whatever it was, it left
Sikes, an outspoken 18-year-old
freshman guard from Reno, NV,
$800 in debt and with a bad taste
in his mouth.
A Rocky start
Except for an obscure refer¬
ence in
л
song he once listened
to, Sikes had never heard of
Pasadena before he was invited
to play for Bill “Rocky” Moore
on the Lancer basketball team.
While playing in a tourna¬
ment at Azusa Pacific University
last summer, he learned about
PCC and the Lancer basketball
program from Alex Ovies, the
former junior varsity basketball
coach at Sikes’ alma mater,
Galena High School, in Reno.
Ovies had just taken a posi¬
tion as an assistant to Moore. He
introduced Sikes, then 17 years
old, to Moore after the tourna¬
ment.
Sikes said he was promised
rent-free living and $20 a week
for gasoline, so he started mak¬
ing arrangements to attend PCC
and play for the Lancers in the
fall.
When he visited the school,
he was impressed with the size
and beauty of the campus.
When he laid eyes on the
multi-million dollar athletic
complex, he thought it resem¬
bled a Division I facility. So he
let the coaches take it from
there.
“I was like ‘I’m finally in col¬
lege. These guys know what
they’re doing. I’m going to lis¬
ten to them,”’ Sikes said. “I lis¬
tened to them, and this is what
happened.”
Sikes, who recently accused
team officials of forging his
name on the rental agreement
and utility service contract for
an apartment he and several
teammates lived in, said the
school’s attractive exterior
fooled him.
Ф
see SIKES page 7
Jake Armstrong/Courier
Sam Sikes, a freshman point guard for men’s
basketball who claims that team officials
forged his name on a rental agreement, plans
to attend Citrus College in the fall.