PCC Courier, December 06, 1990

OPINION FEATURES | NEWS FEATURES Surrogacy ‘The Elephant Man’ Friendly notes Notetaker brings the color of life to a student’s quiet world Page 3 A pro and con on the much debated issue of surrogacy Page 2 The theater arts’ production of Bernard Pomerance’s ‘The Elephant Man ’ summons emotions viewers would rather not face Page 4 Pasadena City College Pasadena, California Vol. 72 No. 13 "'COURIER Thursday December 6, 1990 Over the top Will Lester /The COURIER Ostell Miles (34) leaps overthe Riverside defense to score the touchdown that gave Miles was named the Most Valuable Player. The matchup between Riverside and PCC its 29-28 victory. After rushing for 1 60 yards on 23 carries and one touchdown, PCC proved to be the best game of the year for the Lancers. Funds for instructional computing are not priority in college NEWSLINE A CHRISTMAS PARTY The college’s Cross-Cultural Cen¬ ter will host its first PCC Christmas party on Wednesday, Dec. 12. It will be held in conjunction with the PCC faculty party, and all PCC clubs will participate. “Each club will make decorations to help with the party,” said PCC Cross-Cultural coordinator Cayndis Berhane. The entire second floor of the Campus Center will exude a Christ¬ mas atmosphere, she added. In addition to decorating the Cam¬ pus Center, plans are being made to have a giant “mall-like” Christmas tree placed in the Student Lounge. Although the celebration is a club and faculty sponsored event, all PCC students are invited. The exact time and other details concerning the party will be released soon, Berhane said. HUMAN RIGHTS WEEK Human rights will be the talk of the college from Dec. 9 to 14 when the AS launches Human Rights Awareness Week. The event will feature many pres¬ entations and activities geared to in¬ form the public about world human rights issues. A Human Rights Fair to be held on Dec. 9 will kick off the week-long event. The fair will be held in the Quad from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will focus on several issues such as death penalty and refu¬ gee rights. Besides guest speakers, several movies and videos will also be available for viewing. Worldwide organizations such as Amnesty International, the African National Congress and the National Organization for Women will be par¬ ticipating in the event. For schedule of various lectures, please see Page 2. A FACULTY EXHIBITION The works of more than 30 mem¬ bers of the art department are now on exhibit in the PCC Art Gallery. Called “Personal Choices,” the exhibit showcases the paintings, sculp¬ tures, photographs, drawings and other works by PCC’s own. The show will continue until Jan. 1 1 . The art gallery is open Monday to Friday from noon to 4 p.m. and also Monday to Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. Page Nyn is not afraid of pistons, gas filters, brakes and suspensions. She’s one of many women who’ve ventured into the territory of auto mechanics. Page 5 INDEX Opinion 2 Editorial 2 News Features 3 Features 4,5 Sports 6 By P.J. O'MALLEY Staff Writer The budget ax has fallen on operating expenses for the instructional portion of PCC’s computer system to the tune of 131 percent since the fiscal year of 1987-87. According to official PCC budget figures, current annual expenditures dropped to $21,930, compared to $50,551 just three year$ ago. At a time when school enrollment has reached record levels and demand for com¬ puting capability is outstripping the supply, allocations are not keeping pace. The over¬ all budget for the entire system has in¬ creased $591,351 over that period to $1.9 million. Administrative increases, however, have exceeded instructional by almost 3-to- 1. “Administrative” refers to school-wide costs, such as registration, payroll, and gen¬ eral expenses. “Instructional” means the actual teaching of computer use. Robert Cody, assistant dean for instruc¬ tional computing services, commented on the school’s commitment to continued computerization. “We need to be able to plan for a curriculum to take students into the 21st century.” Cody pointed out the accreditation team’s recent visit to PCC. ‘ ‘They voiced concern over lack of planning and long-term commitment in the computer services area,” he said. There are approximately 280 computers operating on campus. Most are linked to a network system - that is, they are supported by a central computer that serves as the nerve center. Thirteen additional IBM com¬ puters, at a cost of $32,600, are being pur¬ chased for student use in the Instructional Computer Center (ICC) lab, and will be installed in 6-8 weeks. How does PCC stack up against local two-year colleges of similar size? Santa Monica Community College has neither a computer lab center for instruction nor a networking feature like PCC’s. But according to Gary Kidney, director of insti¬ tutional computing, the school has approxi¬ mately 300 computers on campus. Kidney said his instructional computing budget for the fiscal year 1990-1991 is ap¬ proximately $2.5 million. “It has remained at the same level for the past two years, but the budget has jumped from only $1 15,000 in 1985-86,” he pointed out. Although the college has no formal plan, Kidney charac¬ terized it as having “a very strong commit¬ ment to institutional growth.” Close to home is Mt. San Antonio Col¬ lege in Pomona, which has a total computing budget of $2.2 million, two-thirds of which is administrative. The college boasts about 700 terminals and personal computers, with 500 of these designated for instructional use. budget In spite of these figures, Hal Roach, director of instructional services was not satisfied with his college’s plan for growth. “The technology is changing too fast,” he said. “All of our three-year projections were out of date in a year and a half. But we are committed, no question about it.” Dollar figures were not available from Glendale Community College because its approach to computing is too diversified. Virginia Lashley, coordinator of instruc¬ tional computing, said the college had no comprehensive planning or budget, since each division makes its own expenditure projections. Glendale has approximately 225 administrative-type computers, plus 144 for instructional purposes in its computer center for students. The college plans to add an additional 44 computers by the spring. Despite apparent lack of funds, PCC has managed to take a leadership role in innova- Please see Comparison, Page 3 i Abortion is topic of debate in latest forum By BECKY ROUSE Editor-in-Chief “It’s been an agonizing six months trying to put together a well balanced presentation,” said Barbara Phillips Turner, associate professor of social science, in her opening remarks at the Social Science forum on Wednesday. That her presentation inspired some thought-provoking questions from the audience is an indication that her prepa¬ rations paid off. Given the topic, “Pro-Choice/Pro- Life: Are There Real Differences?” it’s easy to see why Phillips Turner found it difficult to compile material for the is¬ sue. Abortion arguments run the gamut from multi-faceted emotional and psy¬ chological factors to religious and politi¬ cal arenas. Instead of focusing on the reasons why the abortion debate is such a touchy one, Phillips Turner delved into the po¬ litical and social contexts of the issue. She described how growing concerns about women’s health arose in the early 19th century, when the death rate in New York City for women who had surgical abortions was 30 percent. This compared to the death rate of three percent for women during childbirth. The American Medical Association, formed in the mid- 1800s, lobbied for government regula¬ tions to prevent unsafe abortions, and the country entered its first period of abor¬ tion legislation. The church, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, advocated restricting abortions when advances in sci¬ ence revealed the nature of the fertilization process. After discussing the increasing number of children bom with birth defects, as well as a changing social attitudes about births re¬ sulting from rape, Phillips Turner touched upon the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to allow women to have abortions. It was widely believed that abortion would play a major role in the 1990 elections, but that never happened. According to Phillips Turner, ‘ ‘campaigners decided the issue was still too controversial.” She doesn’t expect the abortion battle to heat up again until the “new” Supreme Court is challenged. The three justices who were on the court when Roe vs. Wade was decided are now in their eighties, she said, and with Reagan’s three appoin tments, and now w i th В ush ’ s appointment of David Souter, it’s a whole new court. The first question that Phillips T umer addressed from the audience was “is it possible to achieve a moderate position politically?” She responded with a dif¬ ferent question, asking “is it possible to be a little bit pregnant?” But Phillips Turner’s most emphatic remarks came when she was asked about society’s role in the abortion debate and in sexual education in schools. She said that she would like to see a society that faces up to the hypocritical attitude of denouncing sex for the young, while at the same time selling it, bartering it, and forcing it in all aspects of life.