PCC Courier, April 21, 1981

Financial Aid Issue Ranks First at Lobbying Conference in Washington By Monique Meindl News Editor Indications that student activism could sway Congress to oppose student financial aid cuts outlined by the Re¬ agan administration, are apparent on Capitol Hill, according to Edward Razor, sophomore class president. Razor recently represented PCC at the 12th Annual Lobbying Conference in Washington, D.C., and will address the Student Body next Thursday at noon in Harbeson Hall. The conference, sponsored by the United States Student Association held April 10-14, worked to stimulate stu¬ dent leaders to start campaigns at colleges around the nation which would emphasize issues affecting students. Financial aid is the primary issue, according to Razor. Leadership Skills “The conference emphasized leader¬ ship skills needed to help initiate pro-- grams on campuses,” Razor said. The common feeling among approx¬ imately 500 student leaders attending the conference was that proposed fi¬ nancial aid cuts would cripple higher education. The USSA, therefore, is working to secure funds for such pro¬ grams as the National Direct Student Loan Program, PELL Grant Program, and the Guaranteed Student Loan Pro¬ gram. “Writing to congressmen does work,” said Razor. “Congressmen take a direct stand from what consti¬ tuents relay to them as their needs. Writing has a great deal of influence, but it depends on the number of letters received.” Razor, who heads the ASB’s Student Financial Aid Committee, took 35 let¬ ters from PCC students concerning the cut to Congressman John Rousselot’s office in Washington, D.C. Contrary to popular belief Reagan is not decreasing federal spending but increasing it, according to Con¬ gressman George Brown. “Reagan is taking $43 billion out of education and social programs and putting $46 billion into military spending,” Brown said. People believe Reagan is decreasing spending to curb inflation in order to stabilize the economy, however, this is not true, he added. “Congress is going on what they believe is popular opinion because they do not hear from constituents,” said Razor, “this is why writing is so important. “Congress is getting input from the conservative Republican Party line which is for the cuts. If they don’t hear from us then they will go with the party line,” Razor said. Information is the lobbyist’s stock and trade, according to Razor. “The lobbyist is an information source. He must know both sides of an issue, but show his side is better. Lobbying Congress “To lobby I had to go to con¬ gressmen’s offices and make appoint¬ ments to speak to them. If the con¬ gressman was not in I got in touch with persons handling the budget issue. In all I went to five offices,” Razor said. Razor’s strategy was to first find out what stand the congressman took and then discussed the issue hoping to influence a possition in his favor. “As a whole I became extremely inspired at the conference,” said Razor, who is planning to re-form the letter writing campaign on campus. He feels that the cuts can be curtailed if there is enough student input. “The Congress is aware that there is only so much money and that everyone has to take cuts, but the proposed cuts are going to be crippling,” Razor said. “A significant amount of money can be saved by changing administrative forms of implementation of govern¬ ment programs in general.” Status Quo The USSA’s platform suggests that there has been a change in the status quo of administration of the Guaran¬ teed Student Loan Program because President Reagan is using the example of a small percentage of students tak¬ ing advantage of the program’s benefit for non-educational purposes as prece¬ dent for massive cuts to the program. Most financial aid programs dis¬ tribute money on a monthly or quarter¬ ly basis. However, the GSL program gives the money in a lump sum which is (Continued on Page 6) PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA APRIL 24, 1981 Senate Proceedings Stop Impeachment INTERNATIONAL DAYS — International Club cele¬ brated International Days April 20, 21 and 22. Students dressed in native costumes to attend a special reception — Courier photo by Kim Glidden in the Free Speech Area Tuesday. The festivities included a bake sale, an international book display in the library, and special Cafeteria food. Speech-Language Services Expanded By Julien Orow Associate News Editor Impeachment proceedings against Mike Valentine, Student Senate first vice president, were dropped in Tues¬ day’s Student Senate meeting, unless new charges are brought. “If anything is to be continued from here on, it’s like starting back at square one,” said Jennifer McKinney, student activities adviser and Senate Parliamentarian. There was also discussion as to whether Associated Student Body Board members could vote on Senate issues. ASB Board members were ex¬ cluded from voting on the ratification of the Supreme Council, but were al¬ lowed to vote on the impeachment issue. Conflict of Interest “I think it would be a conflict of interest if the ASB Board members vote on ratification of the Supreme Retiring Vice President Is Honored By Rosemary Cameron Staff Writer Dr. Irvin G. Lewis, vice president of Student Personnel Services, will be honored at PCC’s Speech-Language Clinic and Counseling Center’s official opening to be held April 29 at 3 p.m. “Dr. Lewis has been very supportive in helping to develop the clinic,” said Kathleen M. Peters, certified speech and language pathologist. Through his concern and interest in college and community speech language needs he has enabled us to expand our facilities and services, Mrs. Peters said. The official opening, held in C222, will include hanging a plaque engraved with Lewis’s name on the clinic wall. Community leaders as well as faculty from speech and language programs in neighboring universities have been in¬ vited, Mrs. Peters said. “We are hold¬ ing the opening in the clinic rooms so everyone can see our facilities,” she Two Sessions Offered For Summer Schedule By Lisabet Seek Contributing Writer This summer, for the first time since the passage of Proposition 13, PCC will offer two six-week summer school ses¬ sions. The first session begins on June 22 and runs until July 31. The second session will last from Aug. 3 to Sept. 11. A limited number of selected classes from the various departments of the school will be offered. The variety and number of classes is greater for the first session than for the second ses¬ sion. Classes and times are now posted in D200. In order to avoid chaos and confusion during registration, the priority number system will be used. On April 27 continuing students can see their counselors to obtain a permit to register which can be exchanged for a priority number. The priority num¬ bers, which are available in D200, indicate the earliest day and time a student can register. New and re-entering students can get a permit to register beginning April 30. Students should indicate which ses¬ sion they are planning to attend when they request a permit to register. Because of the limited number of classes offered, students wishing to attend a certain class should try to obtain a permit to register as soon as possible. added. Prior to September 1980, the clinic operated from a small room in D Building with little equipment. A speech pathologist was in attendance for only 15 hours each week, according to Mrs. Peters. The clinic then moved to C Building where facilities were extended to sev¬ eral rooms including a group therapy room. A speech pathologist is now on campus for 80 percent of the time, Mrs. Peters said. “Extra room enables us to have graduate students from speech pathology university programs work with our speech and language handi¬ capped students,” Mrs. Peters said. “We are now able to serve far more students than we were previously.” The clinic helps students with a variety of speech and language prob¬ lems that inhibit communication. Some of the difficulties dealt with include stuttering,, where sounds or words are excessively repeated, and articulation, a pronounciation problem. Abnormal voice disorders such as words spoken too loudly or softly are also corrected. Mrs. Peters said that Lewis has also encouraged the campus to provide pub¬ licity for the clinic.” This has greatly helped our outreach program,” she said. “A lot more people know about the services we provide now.” Also recognized at the opening will be the Pasadena Lions and Kiwanis Clubs, for gifts of equipment they have given to the clinic. The Lions Club donated an auditory feedack unit that works like a tape recorder. The high fidelity machine enables students to clearly hear speech defects, said Mrs. Peters. The Kiwanis Club gave a delayed auditory feedback machine which can be used for fluency and other com¬ munication disorders, Mrs. Peters said. The opening, which is planned to coincide with Lewis’s birthday, will be followed by a reception for Lewis in the Board Chambers in C201. Everyone is welcome to attend both the opening ceremony and the reception. Community Concert Band Presents Spring Music Festival Performance By Heather Corrie Staff Writer The PCC Community Concert Band will perform their Spring Music Festi¬ val on Sunday, April 26, at 3 p.m. in Sexson Auditorium. This marks the band’s first concert of the second semester. Directed and conducted by Robert Ferrington, PCC’s music in¬ structor, admission is free. The 55-piece band, made up strictly of percussion and wind instruments, with membership primarily from the Tuesday evening class called Com¬ munity Concert Band. However, there are many members in the band who are simply community members who felt a need to audition for the school band and did so. “The class is open to all members of the community, as well as music majors, and full time students,” Ferrington said . “We get some of our finest musicians by word of mouth.” Featured in the production will be pieces from “A Chorus Line,” as well as Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Procession of the Nobles,” and Juleus Rusick’s “Florentine March.” Ferrington, who offers the Concert Band course every semester including summer, wishes to encourage all stu¬ dents who can’t make it to the per¬ formance but are nevertheless in¬ terested in music to audition for the band and join up in the class. “We offer a lot of different types of music. That way people who are in¬ terested in things like Broadway shows such as ‘A Chorus Line,’ or other types of music may get the opportunity to enjoy that as well as the classical pieces.” For those who are just interested in the viewing side of the musical sphere Ferrington said to “<r’f>nie and see the concert on April 2i Council because it would be dealing with whether or not they vote per¬ manently in the Senate,” said John McTeague, senator-at-large. Barry McGowan, Student Senate president, read the definition of im¬ peachment, saying, “I’m not sure that everybody knows it.” The definition is, “To accuse a public official before an appropriate tribunal of misconduct in office; to challenge the credibility of.” “When you impeach somebody, you don’t throw them out of office, you are in essence putting them on trial,” he said. In the Constitution the proceed¬ ings against Valentine are technically referred to as recall, McTeague said. There was debate as to whether the committee that made the impeach¬ ment report last week was official. “It states in Robert’s rules that the president or chairman can appoint a committee without a vote by the Sen¬ ate. In that respect the committee was official. However, since there were no charges ever brought against Mike Valentine, the committee was out of order in that respect,” said Barte Masciarelli, ASB vice president and senator-at-large. “There was an informal discussion, but never a formal committee,” said McTeague, who was named as being on the committee, along with Masciarelli and Larry Conover, senator-at-large. However, McTeague said, “I have nev¬ er formally attended a committee meeting.” During committee reports, McGowan said, “It’s a debatable com¬ mittee, and I’m not going to recognize it.” Bob Carroll, Student Trustee and senator-at-large, objected. He said, “You recognized it in the last meeting as being a committee.” There were charges made last week that the committee was biased. “Peo¬ ple seem to feel that this is a personal vendetta on my part. That’s a total fallacy from A to Z,” said Masciarelli. However, he feels that this is “a fairly important issue” and intends to bring it up again next week. “I don’t intend to compromise this issue,” he said. Senate Progresss There was a feeling among several senators that the issue had gone far enough, and was just delaying other Senate matters. “Now that the objec¬ tion to consideration is passed, it effec¬ tively allows the Senate to progress constructively,” McTeague said. “What we have done is gotten it out of the Senate. It was causing too many problems,” McGowan said. Masciarelli is now circulating a let¬ ter which reads, “We the undersigned, feel that Mike Valentine, first vice president of the Senate, is not fulfilling the duties of his office.” Masciarelli feels that the absence of the Parliamentarian at last week’s meeting added to the confusion. McGowan agrees that having a parlia¬ mentarian present “would have made (Continued on Page 6) —Courier photo by Davis Barber PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE — Dana Hobart, ASB president, takes time during Tuesday's Student Senate meeting to look through Robert's Rules of Order, a guide to Parliamentary Procedure.