PCC Courier, April 25, 1975

MECHA Festival Opens Monday By Wayne Woods Staff Writer A weeklong celebration leading up to Cinco de Mayo (Mexican In¬ dependence Day) starts Monday, April 28, and concludes Monday, May 5. The weeklong festivities are for all students to become aware of Chicarios and their culture. Chicano high school students from eight area schools will be invited to attend the daily events. Schools invited are Blair, Muir, Pasadena, Rosemead, El Monte, Arroyo Seco, Mountain View and Foot¬ hill. According to Lupe Vela, co-chair¬ woman of MECHA, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated as a reminder of the vic¬ torious small Mexican army that defeated the French in 1867. Chicanos and Mexicanos also celebrate to show their pride in their history, culture and language. Ms. Vela says that the celebration profits will be used to pay back a loan MECHA received from the ASB. The remaining money will be used for scholarships. Daily events are as follows: Mon¬ day, April 28, Mariachi Uclatlan, noon to 1 in the free speech area; Tuesday, April 29, a MECHA presentation by Lupe Vela and Ana Huizar, co-chair¬ woman for MECHA. There will be a speaker from Occidental College, Frank Reyes, and a dance group and skits from Azusa high school students. Rio Hondo Ballet Folklorico will be in the free speech area from noon to 1 on Wednesday, April 30. A political forum on immigration, deportation and forced sterilization will be held on Thursday, May 1. Antonio Rodriquez, president of CASA (an organization that works with immigrant workers and Mexicans); Antonio Villar, a representative of Comite Estudiantil del Pueblo; and Lucy Arguelles, a Chicano feminist will be the speakers. Other community leaders are also invited. The forum will be held in the U Building. Lee Ma Lama karate exhibition will be held Friday, May 2 in the free speech area from noon to 1. A Chicana award will be presented at a dinner in the student dining room that evening from 6 to 9. A dance will start at 9 p.m. in the student lounge, and a dance contest, with a cash prize, will high¬ light the evening. Admission is free. Presentation of the Cinco de Mayo queen and court will be on Saturday, May 3. This will be in conjunction with a dance with two bands, and another dance with a cash prize. Admission will be $2. Chicano Olympics will feature track and field games, and a boxing exhibi¬ tion with celebrity boxers on Horrell Field starting at noon Sunday, May 4. Cinco de Mayo is the culmination of the festival. The PCC Ballet Folklorico will perform in the free speech area from 11 to noon, followed by a play, “Teatro de los Barrios,” in the free speech area from noon to 1. That evening, in Sexson Auditorium, a movie, “A La Brava;” Chicano-style modern dances; “Los Vendidos— El Teatro Campesino,” which is a film; and David Gomez, author of “Somos Chicanos, Stranger in Our Own Land,” will be featured. The library will also have a display that week of some Mexican art loaned by Long Beach City College. There will be brochures on the fiesta available around campus. For more information you can call the Comite Del Cinco de Mayo in the Chicano Affairs Office at 578-7486. ANCHORS AWEIGH — Dancers from the sailor segment of the Orchesis Club practice their saluting before the May 2 show. The girls, top row from left, are Barbara Dorsch, Pam Hydson, Mae Sue Ibeas, Sharon Winans, Cathy Reilly, Dannalou Oakes and Denise Daniel. Kneeling, from left, are Teresa Burke, Mary Johnson and Shari Lorenz. -Courier Photo by Robert Vance Modern Dance Students Offer Annual Concert What do a Renaissance belly dance, a “whodunit” and a spaceship journey into the future have in common? They are all part of a dance concert entitled, “Methinks I’ve Been Here Once Before,” to be presented by the PCC Coufiieb Modern Dance Production class and Orchesis Dance Club on Friday, May 2 at 8:30 p.m. in Sexson Auditorium. This annual concert, under the direction of Adele Tingey of the Women’s PE Department, will feature 30 dance students. Each student has designed his or her own costume and has choreographed and worked out all of the theatrical details of each dance. The program will include three viewpoints, with a look at history, people, and a look at where we are today. The opening segment will be a look back into the Renaissance era, and will feature Sandy Biery, Shirleen Staffer and Laurie Jennings. This will be followed by traditional European dances performed by two dance groups. The historical view will end with an American tap dance. The People segment of the concert will show how we, as individuals, are affected by different forces surrounding us. It will demonstrate how each of us looks back and reflects upon the past, and our reaction to our¬ selves and to those around us. The finale will be a look at where we are today, and asking if we have really learned from the past. What we have already seen and experienced will be shown. A tearjerker and a “whodunit” will be featured. The concert will close with a look into the future, a destination unknown. Tickets for the dance concert are now available in the College Bank for $1. General admission at the door will be $1.50 and 50 cents for children under 12. VOL. 39, N0.10 PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA U Building Evacuated APRIL 25, 1975 Physical Sciences Professor Saves Suffocating Woman Bomb Stare Causes Major Alarm By James Kevin Ahern Staff Writer You are a campus security officer, responsible for the safety of students and faculty members, and you hear a bomb threat has been made, citing a heavily occupied building as the target. What do you do? PCC administrative and security personnel were placed in that spot Monday morning, April 14. At 9:09 a.m., Maeda Hall, a switchboard operator, took a call. An unidentified man told her there was a bomb in U Building, scheduled to detonate at 9:30 a.m. After copying down on paper precisely what he said, she notified security. Campus security head Gil Robinson, and Dean of Student Activities John Eikenbery immediately responded. The entire security force was amassed, and the building was evacuated at 9:15. The Pasadena Police, already notified, arrived within minutes and took charge of the search operations. False Alarm No explosion had occurred by 10 a.m. No bomb was found, it was a hoax. The students had been kept from class for 45 minutes. Bomb threats, usually uncommon at PCC, are of great concern to officials of all schools. What is done in the event one occurs is of utmost priority, because lives are at stake. The first step in a bomb scare is the switchboard operator’s procedures. Each is trained to stall the caller as long as possible, using the time to copy down exactly what he says, and writing down anything notable about his voice. This material can be used later by the police to aid them in their investigation." Police withheld Mrs. Hall’s information pending appre¬ hension of possible suspects. Eikenbery and Robinson both face a difficult decision when a bomb threat is received: “Is it, or is it not, ahoax?” Eikenbery says, “If we have any feelings it is not a hoax, we will im¬ mediately evacuate the building until we think it is safe to re-enter. We will cordon off the building and secure the doors until we are sure it is safe.” At one point, following the Monday evacuation, several students tried to leave the parking lot and re-enter the building for their own reasons. They almost did, because one entrance had not been locked. “Some buildings,” says Eikenbery, “are more difficult to conduct a bomb search in than others. U Building is one of the more difficult. With all those halls, side rooms, nooks and crannies, it is like a rat maze, and cannot be covered quickly.” Time Loss Eikenbery is concerned with the cost-in-education-loss caused by a bomb hoax. “If you multiply the 45 minutes those students were kept out of class by the educational content of the classes in that building, all that heavy biology, anatomy, nursing, the educational loss is tremendous. He makes it clear, though, that the primary concern is that of student and faculty safety. Security officers take that position, too. One officer says, “You cannot ignore any of these threats. You must always assume there is a bomb, even if you have never found one before. “You cannot base the present on your past experiences. If you said, ‘Well, it is just a false threat, so let us go get a cup of coffee, and forget about it . . . ’, that may be the one time there really is a bomb.” Though the members of campus security have police and military By Jill Boekenoogen City Editor “During the past months several thefts have occurred on campus which could have been avoided if more pre¬ cautions were taken,” said Gil Robinson, district director of security and parking services. “What usually happens is that crimes on campus follow what is happening in the community. When community crime is relatively low, it also is on campus. But when there is high unemployment in a community, you will find a rise in crime on cam¬ pus,” said Robinson. “At least more than half occurs when people make it a habit to go from campus to campus to steal.” Recently there were two thefts, one at the observatory and the other in Sexson Auditorium. “Both occurred on weekends when security is limited to one person a shift. It is difficult to have good campus surveillance when limited to this kind of security,” said Robinson. “There has also been an increase in personal losses, too.” Women’s purses are a prime target. “Students’ pocketbooks are taken from restrooms and the library when students are careless. A student gets up to get a book and leaves her purse on the desk; a second later it is taken into the restroom, the money taken out and the rest dumped. “With all the equipment on campus, like typewriters and sewing machines, we are being more alert to unauthorized persons in areas in which they should not be. We have found wire on doors to rooms with expensive equipment. Security is a never-ending problem.” Recently Robinson sent a list of pre¬ cautions to staff personnel. These should be taken to prevent thefts of equipment and personal belongings. These include such things as not leaving offices unattended, keeping an accurate and current record of all property under the office’s super¬ vision; making a record of any equip¬ ment removed; not leaving any money or valuable items in desks; not loaning keys to anyone; and asking for identi¬ fication from any repairmen who attempt to remove equipment. “Several weeks ago two unknown men approached a teacher in her office and tried to pass themselves off as book salesmen, but in conversation she became suspicious and reported it,” said Robinson. “Monday a student saw a person with a coat hanger by a car and reported it to us. It tufned out to be a student trying to retrieve keys he had locked in his car. Let us (security) determine any basis for apprehen¬ sion,” concluded Robinson. training, including, in some cases, a small amount of bomb-disposal training, they always relinquish authority in bomb scares to the police. If a bomb is found, the “Bomb Squad” can move in to dispose of it. “We will always let the police ex¬ perts handle explosives,” says one officer. “We are not heroes.” One more thing. What does an in¬ structor do if a bomb hoax disrupts an exam in his class? Richard Peirce, a biology instructor, says, “I told my students, ‘If this should ever happen again, grab your tests, run down to the parking lot, and take your tests using the nearest car hoods for desks.’ None of them thought that was funny.” While dining at nearby Bob’s Restaurant, Harry Lawrence, assistant professor of physical sciences, rushed to the aid of a choking woman, saving her from suffocation. Noticing a woman who had just walked out of the restaurant gasping, Lawrence dashed out to help the woman, yelling while a number of people clustered by the door. The in¬ cident occurred on the Wednesday before spring vacation. Dr. Norman Juster and Mrs. Alice Corey, also physical science Lecture on Space Exploration To Launch Journalism Day E.G. Ted Cook, manpower resource manager at JPL, will be the guest speaker at the annual Journalism Day, to be held on campus on May 1. Cook is to speak on “What on Earth Are We Doing In Space?,” a presentation of past space explorations and achievements and NASA’s plan for future missions. The free lecture is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. in R122. Approximately 25 high schools from the San Gabriel Valley area have been invited to send students to compete in various writings contests. Past par¬ ticipants have often expressed great satisfaction in Journalism Day. Students see it as an opportunity of a high competitive gathering of jour¬ nalists from different schools, com¬ bined with positive PCC recruiting of journalism majors. Professor of Geophysics To Lecture on Cause of Calif. Earth Tremors Safeguards Proposed by Chief of Security By Ernie Aldrich Staff Writer The San Andreas Fault is a valid concern for those of us living in Southern California, said Richard Orbohm, PCC geology instructor and lecture series organizer. A noted authority on earthquakes and the San Andreas Fault in particular, Dr. Clarence Allen, will speak on these subjects Thursday night at 7:30. This is the third in a series of four campus Forum lectures presented by the geology sub-department. Dr. Allen, Caltech professor of geophysics and geology, did his doc¬ toral dissertation on the San Andreas Fault. He is also involved with the seismological laboratory at the school. According to Ohrbom, the work done by Dr. Allen in his field was one of the reasons he was chosen to go to mainland China last fall. In China he toured the seismological and geological facilities and discussed the problems of earthquake prediction with Chinese scientists. China has a fault that is over 504 miles long. This fault makes the San Andreas only the second longest in the world, at 420 miles. The San Andreas Fault runs from Bodega Bay, above San Francisco, to the head of the Gulf of California, just below the Mexican border. Many of the earthquakes in California occur along this fault and related faults. The most noted earthquakes that have occurred on the San Andreas Fault were:. -one between Cajon and Tejon passes in 1857, with maximum movement along the fault of 20 feet, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 with a maximum movement of 21 feet and the earthquake of 1941 near the Salton Sea which had an 11-foot maximum movement. Dr. Allen will discuss the history of this great fault, show slides of in¬ teresting fault segments, and tell what might be expected from the fault in the future. The lecture is free and parking for 50 cents is available. According to Belinda Busteed, PCC journalism major and chairman of the event, Journalism Day gives a chance to different instructors and students to meet and exchange information about the journalism curriculums being offered at area high schools and PCC. After a welcoming speech by PCC President Dr. Armen Sarafian, students competing in the news, editorial and feature writing contests will attend Cook’s lecture. Writers competing in the sports category will view a film of a Blair High School football game, then write about it. Participating schools are also ex¬ pected to submit copies of their student newspapers, which are to be judged in the ■ Best High School Newspaper contest. TED COOK . JPL lecturer ASB Senate Votes to Limit General Account Allocations DR. CLARENCE ALLEN .... earthquakes The ASB Senate voted to approve a revision to the ASB financial code limiting allotments of funds to in¬ dividual organizations from the General Account. Allocations shall not exceed $700 per year or $350 a semester, so that available money may be spread through all organizations. The amendment for loans or grants or both stated that active organizations may request money to defray no more than 40 per cent of real or estimated debts which they may incur by sponsoring campus or community activities. Tim Fuller, Senate historian, said, “If a group wants an activity they should pay for it, because they are sponsoring it.” Any club or organization wishing to have more money may request a waiver by petition, which has to be signed by 10 per cent of the total enrollment before being presented to the Senate and ASB presidents. ‘We used to accumulate $60-80,000 in the general fund in past years,” continued Champion, “much of it from student body cards. And even then, only 24 per cent of the students bought them. “Next semester we will have about $1300 from the cafeteria and $1000 from other funds. That makes about $8000 and a good working fund is at least $5000. “We have to look at the problem realistically, unless the students can come up with a way to make money,” concluded Champion. The amendment was approved by a 14-to-ll vote. At last Friday’s emergency Senate meeting, the financial request for $1824 by the Pan Afrikan Students’ Alliance was discussed. The Alliance needs the money for its Black Cultural Week. The Senate approved $1000 only, then sent the request to the ASB Board, which voted a $600 grant and $300 loan to PAS A. professors, were eating nearby before teaching evening classes. According to Mrs. Corey, when Lawrence ran to help, the lady’s face was turning purple. Lawrence carefully began to slap her on the back, then reached into her throat and pulled out a chunk of lettuce. The lady straightened up, thanked Lawrence, and walked back into the restaurant to eat. Dr. Juster, who also witnessed the incident, explained that “restaurant syndrome” cases are becoming more common. Juster mentioned that while persons eat, something can get caught inside their windpipe, causing them to choke, keel over and sometimes die. It is sometimes mistaken by doctors as heart attack, Juster said. Thousands have choked to death on food in the last two years, and many could have survived if a special plastic tweezer or small, hand-operated vacuum pump had been used by the restaurants. Some parts of the state are or will be requiring that special devices such as these be made available. When asked how a person could help someone in this kind of trouble, Lawrence emphasized careful removal of whatever is blocking the victim’s throat. “She had a narrow escape,” com¬ mented Juster. “I have the greatest admiration for Professor Lawrence’s alertness, corret diagnosis of the problem, and speedy action.” Bike Expert To Conduct Workshop An all-day bicycle workshop is planned for May 17, on the PCC campus. It will be a 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. seminar which will be directed by Mike Iannone, photo-journalist, lec¬ turer and international bicyclist. All people coming are invited to bring their 10-speed bicycles. Cost will be $2 for adults and $1 for everyone under 18 years of age. There will be lunch in the cafeteria at noontime, but before and after this the day will be full of information about bicycles, bicycle equipment and its use, and places you can go with a bicycle. There will be thousands of dollars worth of bicycles and equipment on display. Ten-speed bikes will be repaired free of charge, and there will also be spare parts available to buy if needed. Also on exhibit will be touring bags, tents, tools, clothing, food, lubricants and cooking gear used in touring. Iannone will show film highlights of visits to 43 states and 11 foreign countries. There will be an indoor roller training exhibit, and preparation for weekend and long¬ distance cycling will be discussed. Experienced cyclists will represent local racing and touring clubs. They will answer questions, and give in¬ structions on bicycle touring. Iannone has spent the last four years conducting bicycle workshops in junior high schools and universities. He says that he wants to help people satisfy the universal dream to see the world. The first part of the seminar will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Sexson Auditorium, and the second session will be in the quad from noon until 4 p.m. More information can be obtained by calling the college at 578-7261.