ourierontine.com
Pasadena City # Col
Mario Aguirre
Staff Writer
Richard Quinton /Courier
Kenny Lawler signed a contract to be PCC's football head coach, despite having
to fend off accusations that his off season hiring violated school hiring policies.
Kenny Lawler, has taken over as
the new coach of PCC’s football pro¬
gram and is working to get his team
ready for the season. As the team
gears up to take the field for its first
game, a cloud of suspicion still
hangs over Lawlers’ selection as
head coach.
Written statements by former
PCC players have surfaced indicat¬
ing Lawler may have been hired long
before he and others went through
the colleges official hiring process.
Lawler, who spent the past several
seasons as an assistant at Mt. San
Antonio College, had been seen on
the PCC campus since February
when he told the football team that
he would be the new head coach,
players confirmed.
Although the hiring process did
not begin until April, Lawler
announced himself as head coach to
several players in a closed door meet¬
ing in late February. That was one
month before the hiring committee,
which is suppose to select and
approve potential applicants, ever
saw his formal application.
“In the last week of Feb. 2006, I
attended a football meeting where
Skip Robinson introduced coach
Lawler as the new head coach of the
team,” said former PCC player
Christian Sandoval.
Some of the players on the team
didn’t even know that Lawler’s
announcing he was going to be the
head coach prematurely set things so
that the hiring committee would rig
the hire in his favor.
“I’m not really familiar with the
rules and regulations [of hiring a
coach],” former PCC player Bran¬
don Grahagan said in a written state¬
ment. “But I do know that it is a
‘MAJOR’ violation of policies.”
In early May, the board of trustees
voted 6-1 in favor of Lawler, with
Beth Wells-Miller being the only per¬
son to vote against him. “I couldn’t
support this hire because I felt the
process was flawed,” Wells-Miller
said at the time. “And I stand by
that.”
During the first week that Lawler
moved into his campus office, the
Courier requested an interview with
him. Lawler rejected the interview,
citing that PCC athletic director Skip
Robinson had specifically instructed
him not to speak to the campus
paper.
These allegations are coming to
the football program as Robinson is
facing sexual harassment charges by
a former student who worked for
him.
She alleges he made several
unwanted advances toward her. The
student, who later became an
instructor in the physical education
department, had her classes taken
away when Robinson became aware
that others knew about his conduct
with his female assistant.
Was it Rigged?
Слгтлг п1о\/лго
_
Former players
state that new
head coach was
aware of illegal
procedure prior to
his hiring; leaked
memos reveal
News Brief
Nathan Solis
Feature Editor
Two PCC football players were
indefinitely suspended from the
ham for shoplifting at a local
sporting goods store.
The two students were arrested
before the start of the fall semester
and prior to the official start of the
season.
Coach Kenny Lawler confirmed
that the students were players on
his team and they will not be play-
tng pending the outcome of the
police investigation.
Neither Lawler nor the Pasadena
police department would release
the names because the case was
still under investigation.
Security officers at Chick’s
Sporting Goods declined to com¬
ment.
PCC’s football team has had a
history of run-ins with the law.
During the 2005 fall semester an
altercation occurred in the campus
quad where a football player was
arrested on charges of battery.
Lamar Reed, 24, was accused of
spitting in the face of a woman and
strangling her. During that time
Reed was on parole for manslaugh¬
ter.
During the 2004 season, police
had to turn out in riot gear to quell
a brawl between PCC’s football
team and Mt. SAC’s.
The fight occurred after the
game when PCC players discov¬
ered that their visitor’s locker room
had been ransacked and personal
items stolen. Pasadena’s players
felt Mt. SAC’s team provoked
them but Mt. San Antoino Col-
lege’sadministration blamed PCC’s
team for the incident.
The official Lancer football sea¬
son begins Sep. 2 @ home versus
LA Valley College.
Diversity Lost As Foreign
Enrollment Plummets
Federal restrictions on student immigration
since
9/11
continue to prevent PCC and
colleges around the nation from the
benefits of foreign investment.
Don Martirez
Editor in Chief
PCC, like many other colleges
across the nation is continuing to
lose millions of dollars from post-
91 1 legislation, which makes it diffi¬
cult for students to come from
abroad and study in the U.S. reveals
research compiled by the office of
Institutional Planning and Research
and the International Student
Office.
Despite no significant change in
overall enrollment, there are fewer
international students going to PCC
since the fall of the twin towers in
2001, according to Stuart A. Will-
cox, dean of institutional planning
and research.
New VP Quickly Hired to Keep
the Wheels of PCC Churning
Nathan Solis
Feature Editor
Due to the departure of Peter
Hardash, former vice president of
administrative services, a void was
left in that position. Retired com¬
munity college veteran Dr. Jim
Albanese has filled that void.
Albanese, who has served the
community college system for 35-
years, was placed as interim vice
president of administrative services
during the summer semester.
“I have a lot of experience in the
administrative services and other fis¬
cal policy levels,” said Albanese who
is coming out of retirement to assist
PCC with the VP position.
“I was Vice Chancellor of fiscal
policy at the state level and I’m try¬
ing to come up to speed as of right
now. Whatever I can do to help and
relieve some of the stress for [the
president] is what I’m here for,” he
said.
“[He] is a very experienced
administrator,” said PCC president
Dr. James Kossler.
Albanese served for three years as
a member of the Accrediting Com¬
mission for the Community and
Junior Colleges and before that
served as interim vice chancellor for
the San Mateo Community College
District.
More On Page 3
Nursing Students Are Still Waiting for the
Release of Complete Schedule of Classes
Don Martirez
Editor In Chief
Four days before the first day of
classes, the nursing program was
unable to release a complete and
official class schedule, keeping most
nursing students annoyed and still
waiting to plan out their lives for the
upcoming semester.
The schedule on the campus web¬
site www.pasadena.edu revealed
that out of 16 class sections in the
nursing program, 14 of those class
sections were tagged- “TBA.” Most
Inside
ьпьгюЕ
students in the program don’t know
where or when the class is going to
take place. Many of the nursing stu¬
dents fear that the schedule would
not be ready until after the semester
starts.
“The program teaches us to keep
our schedules flexible from 6 a.m. to
1 1 p.m., and I am ready for that, but
I can’t afford to keep a babysitter on
call for that long because someone
can’t finalize the class schedule,”
said a nursing student who wished
to remain anonymous because she
fears retaliation.
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