PCC Courier, December 09, 1977

,By Steve Johnston Associate News Editor The Communication Department has begun to evaluate proposals aimed at a more effective use of PCC’s tele¬ vision facilities, according to Com¬ munication Department Chairman William B. Shanks. However, there is apparently disagreement among some department faculty members con¬ cerning the manner in which the proposals were arrived at as well as confusion concerning the intent of the proposals. At the center of contention is a survey of students' attitudes toward PCC-TV’ conducted in October by Telecommunications 21, the broadcast management class. Seventy per cent of students responding said they did not watch the cafeteria TV monitors. But 90 per cent said they would watch if. according to the survey, “the proper programming were offered. " Based on survey responses, the class submitted to Shanks a number of recommenda¬ tions. including removal of TV monitors in the cafeteria and faculty lounge, increased broadcasting of student productions and implementa¬ tion of promotional advertising. DECEMBER 9, 1977 TV Survey Raises Doubts Recommendations Stir Faculty Disagreement The survey originated with a request from Shanks to Telcom 21 instructor Dr. George Vinovich to reevaluate PCC-TV. The recommendations submitted by the broadcast manage¬ ment class as well as the manner in which the survey was conducted has drawn mixed response from Com¬ munication Department faculty members. “The survey seems fair,” said television production instructor Anthony Georgilas. Joseph Keane, also a television production instructor, said he had not been informed of the survey until it was brought to his attention by the Courier last week. “I don't understand why my input was not asked for concerning the production side of PCC-TV," Keane said. "We in production got nothing out of this survey because it doesn't pin down anything." he said. “The survey looks to be too general." Keane offered other criticisms of the survey. “Ninety per cent of the PCC- TV program day is made up of com¬ mercial television and yet the recommendations include more commercial television. The kinds of questions asked by the survey suggest they don't even know what’s on PCC- TV. “I don't think this constitutes a survey. The method of research just doesn't seem to hold water.” Keane concluded. Telcom 21 instructor Dr. Vinovich defended the survey, saying it was as reliable as possible given the number of students in the broadcast manage¬ ment class. Each student in the class was told to solicit a "random sample of responses," according to Dr. Vinovich. About 300 students were questioned in the survey. The survey’s recom¬ mendations were arrived at through discussions of the responses in the broadcast management class. “The survey wasn't meant to be a scientific measuring device," Dr. Vinovich said. "Its purpose was just to give feedback to the department chairman. No hard decisions will be made on the basis of the survey, but it does give the department some direction," he said. However, Department Chairman Shanks said his next step would be to make the survey's recommendations known to PCC administration, “and then, where feasible, budget money to accommodate the recommendations.” Shanks said he intended to have the proposals completed by January so they can be included in the budget for the next school year. PCC-TV facilities were completed in 1975. Since that time, there has been dissatisfaction among faculty and students concerning the use of the system. Part of the problem, ac¬ cording to Shanks, who is in his second year as Communication Department chairman, has been a lack of con¬ tinuity in the department’s ad¬ ministration. The department operated under an acting chairman for one year before Shanks assumed the post. Shanks said another obstacle for PCC-TV came in the form of a new copyright bill passed last year by the U S. Congress. That bill prohibits taping of copyrighted television programs unless royalties are paid, a financial impossibility for PCC-TV. “We are no longer able to tape the Channel 28 programs,” Shanks noted. Last year, $15,000 was taken out ’of the Communication Department budget to purchase videotapes in an effort to counteract the new copyright law. "Still, PCC-TV has been tem- — Continued on Page Eight WILLIAM SHANKS PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA VOL. 44, NO. 14 JOSEPH KEANE GEORGE VINOVICH MIKES OF GOLD— Walter Dannheiser, Marcy Winograd and Anne Neprude display the two Golden Mikes won for KPCS’ 5:30 news program. The awards were the second and third Golden Mikes to be won by the station in the last two years. The Golden Mike is the most coveted of broadcast honors in Southern California. —Courier Photo by Marcus Wilk Resource Center Acquires Instructional Computer By Mike Phillips Feature Editor A new computer for use as an in¬ structional tool was delivered to the Instructional Resources Center Monday. James Tuedio, a computer sciences instructor, has been approved by the Board of Trustees as Supervisor of the Computer Resources Center, a new position to coordinate the use of the computer. The machine, a Hewlett-Packard 3000, should be installed and operating early next week according to Dr. David A. Ledbetter, dean of in¬ structional services. The mini computer will be the first one designated for use on campus as an, instructional tool. “We've had limited access to the college computer but now we will have on-line service.” Dr. Ledbetter said. The Instructional Resources Center will use the computer for many facets of instructing, including student “hands on" use. “It has potential for use in every department of the college,” Dr. Ledbetter said. Instructional needs have been ser¬ viced in the past by the administrative computers, but student experience with these has been limited by security precautions which require students to work through an operator rather than directly with the computer. Dr. Ledbetter said that jobs that had taken up to 24 hours to process through the administrative computers can now be done by students in only a few minutes. The Hewlett-Packard 3000 is a new line of mini computers that can be expanded to handle 64 “stations" simultaneously, although initially there will be only about five. “But that will expand very quickly," Ledbetter noted. The machine will be connected with Caltech's computer for which the college will pay a set rate, determined in terms of micro-seconds of actual use. "We have access to their com¬ puter and library,” Dr. Ledbetter said. PCC has had a working relationship with the Caltech computer during the summer, hand-carrying jobs to the nearby facility. Plans are underway for a two-year curriculum in Computer Sciences in arrangement with Caltech. The new computer can also be connected to the administrative computer system on campu^. "It does have the capability of interfacing with the Burroughs (the administrative computer ) . The main purpose of that is so that students can have experience with more than one computer,” Ledbetter said. PCC crews have been preparing room D115 to house the $300,000 computer for weeks. The decision to purchase the machine was made during the summer in consultation with a citizen advisory committee. The price tag includes supplies and peripheral equipment and will be paid for over a five-year period. Tuedio’s position was approved at the December 1 Board meeting in an executive session. Tuedio is a staff adviser to the North San Gabriel Valley Data Processing Consortium, which is housed on campus. He has been teaching computer sciences since 1965, and will continue to instruct advanced students in his new position. Tuedio called the installation of the computer an exciting moment for the college, and said that it would provide a valuable service to students. He is training at Fullerton under the in¬ struction of Hewlett-Packard for the supervisorial post. Drama Group Presents a Tennessee Williams Play “The Glass Menagerie" opens tonight in the Little Theater, C130, at 8 p.m. Tennessee Williams’ drama will be presented by the Communications Department and directed by Bruce Gill. Other performances this weekend are tomorrow evening at 8, and Sunday at 2 and 5 p.m. The play will also be presented December 16 at 8 p.m. and December 17 at 2 and 5 p.m. The four-character play revolves around three members of a family during the early part of the Depression. Amanda Wingfield, the mother, is a talkative, domineering woman who constantly reminisces about the days when men came to visit her. Her daughter, Laura, lives in her own world of glass figurines and little social contact. Tom, the son and brother, doubles as narrarator and warehouse worker who wants to be a writer. Jim O'Connor, a co-worker of Tom’s, comes to dinner at the Wingfield resi¬ dence. and is maneuvered into being Laura’s gentleman caller. Gill describes the play as being a dream show, giving the appearance of reality. Each character, excluding O’Connor, lives in a dream world of his own. Two characters, Tom and Amanda, will be played by two actors on alter¬ nating evenings. John Holcombe and Peter Licassi play the role of Tom. Amanda is portrayed by Stephanie Coumoutso and Melinda Bob. Lisa Davis is cast as Laura and Ron Lake as O’Connor. Most of the actors have had no ex¬ perience performing before an audi¬ ence and therefore have acquired no bad habits, explained Gill. He said that the group has been beautiful in that it works well together. KPCS-FM Wins Two Golden Mikes Campus radio station KPCS-FM has won two Golden Mike awards for its 5:30 p.m. news program. The honors were for the categories Best Newscast and Best Newswriting taking over 15. minutes of air time. The program, which was produced and principally written by former News Director Marcy Winograd, was judged best in its category, which includes stations with five or less full- time employees in the news depart¬ ment. Ms. Winograd was assisted on the program by staff member Edwin Lewis III and student interns William L. Cooper. Walter Dannheiser and Ann Neprude. There were 208 entries in the com¬ petition for the most coveted of broadcast awards in Southern California. Honors were made at the 28th annual Golden Mike Awards at the Beverlv Wilshire Hotel Thursday, Dec. 1. "They (the awards) are an in¬ dication of what students can do here," commented an elated Dr. John Gregory. KPCS station manager. "The award was won for us by students in competition with commercial stations." The two awards bring the station's collection of Golden Mikes up to four. three of which have come in the last two years. The station has received more than 17 national awards since 1971. including Billboard Magazine's College Radio Station of the Year. One member of the news team. Bill Cooper, commented on winning the award, "The award not only belongs to the station, but to the faculty, classified staff and students. If my small contribution had anything to do with it. I am very proud.” Cooper, who currently broadcasts a morning news program, was also highly complimentary of Ms. Wino¬ grad. calling her a true professional. Board Member Critical of the Use of Tax Dollars on Campus Editor’s Note: Well-known for his outspoken views. Board of Trustees member Roger Gertmenian was interviewed because of recent com¬ ments he has made at Board meetings concerning the special centers on campus, budget cuts and the Tuesday Evening Forum. By Mary Glenn Crawford Staff Writer “I'm very critical and hard to get along with." explained Roger Gertmenian, a seven-year member of the Board of Trustees. He questions everything that comes before the Board and usually votes no on subjects until all his questions are answered. "I ask tough questions. I do that a great deal of the time until all questions are answered," said Gertmenian. Questions went unanswered pertaining to the Women’s Center last year when costs were reviewed according to Gertmenian. The administration confused the issue by not explaining the costs in full. “I was the only one who didn’t want the Women's Center there in the first place," he said. Gertmenian considers the Women’s Center, along with the Pan Afrikan Students Alliance, MEChA and the Asian Af¬ fairs Center as “frills” on campus that are not directly related to anything dealing with the educational process. “They (the people at the centers) believe what they are doing is fulfilling a need and 1 question it. As far as centers go I’ll bring it up again to have them discontinued, I don’t think they are necessary,” said Gertmenian. “They pull people apart rather than bring them together. “If we can’t eliminate centers and I’m going to propose to, I’ll demand a racial ratio of each minority on campus. Everyone will have a special counselor, maybe we could have three working Orientals that work a third of a day, one Japanese, one Chinese and one Vietnamese,” said Gertmenian. He believes his one-to-one counseling for students theory would be a better alternative to the centers. His main opposition to the centers is that the taxpayers have to pay for them. If Gertmenian ’s plans are put to the test, the counselors now coor¬ dinating the centers will work in other areas of the campus. He is opposed to anyone losing his job. Gertmenian views the Women’s Center as a political forum. It is his opinion that the theory and practice of the center are two different things. "I don’t like any particular branch of the school cranking out its own cheap political jargon." said Gertmenian, referring to the newsletter that was produced last year by the Women’s Center. He added that he thinks PCC should be nonpolitical. The centers would be more ef¬ fective off campus, according to Gertmenian. He commented that if the four minority centers merged they would constitute a majority. As the centers are organized now, according to Gertmenian, certain minorities are not included. Gertmenian voted against the showing of the South African film on November 15, because he is “opposed to the Tuesday Evening Forum altogether.” “The Tuesday Evening Forum is not a big point with me,” he said. "It is in the middle of what I would consider as appropriate for tax¬ payers to pay for in public education. Personally, I don’t see it as a part of PCC’s mission,” said Gertmenian. As a Board member, there are two major responsibilities to fulfill ; appointing a president- superintendent to PCC and reviewing and approving the school budget. Board decisions usually reflect the opinion of the administration’s input according to Gertmenian. He said that Dr. E. Howard Floyd, president-superintendent of PCC, is a very strong proponent of the ROGER GERTMENIAN . . . board member student centers. "He (Floyd) continually tells Board members not to put the centers down. He and I argue like cats and dogs over the centers," said Gertmenian. The 1978 budget will be analyzed as never before, said Gertmenian. His plan of action is to look through each item in the budget, and if he doesn't approve of it. he will make a motion to cut it out. “I was accused of never going to the Women s Center and I plead guilty. I haven’t gone through it totally yet. but I certainly will before the budget comes up. I will be there a lot. I will continue to put pressure on them (the centers), or plan a complete reevaluation of where we are with the centers," said Gertmenian. Gertmenian plans to prepare a case of facts and figures applying to the centers, “as a lawyer would,” and present it to the Board. Gertmenian did say that he may be wrong about the centers after he completes his investigation of their activities. He may come to the conclusion that he “was prejudiced and would be the first to admit it.” When asked whether he was ignoring the needs of the people involved with the centers, Gert¬ menian refused to comment. Gertmenian would like to see more money being used for faculty salary increases. He views himself as “teacher oriented.” Being a teacher himself, he thinks teachers are the most important part of schools. Last year he proposed a 10 per cent salary increase. Administrators at PCC are paid twice as much as teachers, ac¬ cording to Gertmenian. He believes this practice to be wrong and would like to see fewer administration personnel conducting procedures. At one time there was one president and one vice president. At that time, things ran more smoothly and answers were easier to get, ac¬ cording to Gertmenian. A workable solution to his con¬ cern would be for the ad¬ ministrators to return to the classroom, suggested Gertmenian. “This would do two things: It would reduce student to faculty ratio and it would mean that the administration will have to work a little harder,” said Gertmenian. People have avoided bringing projects such as a child care center to the attention of the Board an¬ ticipating Gertmenian’s opposition. Explains Gertmenian, “I only have one vote.”