PCC Courier, December 10, 1982

DECEMBER 10. 1982 PASADENA CITY COLLEGE. PASADENA. CALIFORNIA VOL. 54, NO. 13 HARD WORKING STUDENTS — Two Building students begin construction on a new house which Construction 230 students finish up a wall is later sold to the highest bidder. skeleton before mounting it in place. Each year, — Courier photo by Jerome Gibson PCC Survey Supports PE By Linda Mulligan Staff Writer The importance of maintaining the physical and health education unit re¬ quirements for an associate of arts degree will be stressed today at the Board of Governors meeting in Sacra¬ mento. A survey was conducted on every community college campus throughout the state during the first week of October. Due to major cutbacks in the number of physical education courses available to students, "We simply are trying to avoid more cutbacks," said JoAnn Zwanziger, chairwoman of the women's physical education depart¬ ment. More than 3.000 students partici¬ pated in the PCC survey. Of those By Bill Noertker Assistant News Editor "Student government is not moving as quickly as I had hoped," said Paul Kelly, AS president. "This is due partly to slow correspondence, and ineptitude on my part as far as the filing system goes," said Kelly. AS government recently bought a computer system to counteract the disorganized state of their files. The system includes a computer, monitor, printer, disc drive and a software package. The cost to student govern¬ ment was $3,313. AS government is seeking a secre¬ tary to take notes, input data in the computer files, assist AS members with the computer, and type the weekly minutes and agenda. The secretary would be available six hours a week. Wage proposals range from $5 per hour to arrangements with the college work study program. surveyed, 1,639 were male and 1,380 were female. Approximately 98 per¬ cent believed physical education should continue as a part of the total com¬ munity college curriculum. The majority of the classes, 408, were cut in the women's physical education department, while only 83 were deleted in the men's department, said Zwanziger. "I don't think we had enough classes offered for students to take an interest. Several students did not enroll in the program due to the lack of selection this semester.” The object of the physical education survey, said William H. Sandstrom, chairman of the men’s physical educa¬ tion department, was to identify the kind of students taking physical educa¬ tion and the reasons for the classes, whether physical education is an inte¬ Dr. Henry Kirk, vice president of student personnel services, questioned AS attempts to have department chair¬ men select academic commissioners. “It is a conflict of interest for the "Commissioners should reflect the students' choices, not the administration's choices." —DR. HENRY KIRK administration to pick student govern¬ ment people to represent the student body,” said Kirk. ‘‘The new constitution must be put to work through implementation of an adequate mechanism for selection of commissioners,” said Kirk. “Student government is for students. Thus, com¬ missioners should reflect the students’ choices, not the administration’s choices.” Kirk recommended a subcommittee to look into the commissioner selection gral part of the total curriculum, and whether it is important to the perpetua¬ tion of society. “The cancelled classes were chosen at random. Because of this our gym is completely open. It isn't even being used this semester,” said Sandstrom. “It should be up to the individual college which classes should be drop¬ ped since every college has its own needs.” For more than three years the physi¬ cal education department has con¬ ducted a health survey, consisting of 648 students who completed health education 2F (nutrition and sexuality) and 44 (contemporary health issues). From this survey 86.4 percent felt health education should be required as a separate general education course for graduation. AS Progress process. Jennifer McKinney, student activities adviser, said “I think the interest is out there. Student govern¬ ment needs a campaign to stir it up." John Gee was nominated and selected as a member of the supreme council. Gee campaigned earlier this semester for the office of vice presi¬ dent of business affairs but was not elected. Kelly said, “John has been consistent and is definitely interested in student government." AS Lance “All Lance articles were supposedly due today, however our editor (Doug Brown, vice president of student serv¬ ices) wasn’t here last week,” said Kelly. “Apparently, very few AS mem¬ bers have turned in their articles,” said Hugh McTeague, vice president of academic affairs. "Obviously we won’t have a Lance out before vacation,” said McTeague. Student Government Purchases Computer Poor Filing System Slowing Forensics Team Places Sixth in Tournament The PCC forensics team placed sixth in the Pacific South West Forensics Association fall championships last weekend at Los Angeles City College. Competing in the tournament were all public and private colleges, univer¬ sities and community colleges who chose to attend. PCC beat out UCLA, University of La Verne and Cal Poly Pomona. The forensics team also received five superior certificates, including Mark Haddix and Diana Gomez for duo interpretation, Lora Dukes for per¬ suasive, Margie Gear for impromptu and expository and Todd Brown for speech to entertain. The forensics team also received six excellent certificates for these areas of competition: speech to entertain with David Leatherberry, persuasive with Gear, impromptu with Mike Bozeman, duo interpretation with Brown and Mike Cocoris, duo interpretation with Brown and Gomez and expository with Mei Chinzi. “We did very well in competition,” said Anthony Georgilas, forensics coach. “Several people received certificates and several made it to the semi-finals.” Semi-finalists include: Brown, Cocoris, Haddix and Gomez for duo interpretation; Gear and Bozeman for impromptu; Dukes and Leatherberry for persuasive; Brown and Gomez for oral interpretation; Leatherberry and Brown for speech to entertain and Chinzi and Gear for expository. “This was the fall championships,” said Georgilas. “One of the most im¬ portant tournaments of the year and we placed sixth. The competition was fierce, but PCC not only rose to meet it, we surpassed it.” Georgilas explained that although this was fall championships, it is not the end of the forensics season. “There are still many more tournaments to go,” said Georgilas. “With the results of this last tournament so high, I don’t see why we can’t do as well in the upcoming tournaments. I was most pleased with the results of the fall championships.” —Doug Brown Committee Seeks Stiffer AA Units A recommendation to upgrade the associate in arts degree will be sub¬ mitted for approval to the board of trustees Thursday. The proposed guidelines include four additional units for the general education require¬ ment. A new category, language and rationality, will replace the current learning skills requirement. In addition AA candidates must meet “proficiency requirements” and dem¬ onstrate “competence in reading, in written expression and in mathematics, ’’according to the recom¬ mendations. The proposed distribution, which would only affect students entering PCC under the 1983-84 catalogue, con¬ tains a three unit minimun each in the social, behavioral and natural sciences (including a laboratory class), the hu¬ manities, business and American in¬ stitutions categories. It calls for two units each in health and physical educa¬ tion regardless of the student’s age. The new category, language and ra¬ tionality, would require nine units (in¬ cluding three units each of English composition, oral communication and mathematics or critical thinking). “We’re not trying to do any harm to anyone with this,” said Steven A. Cerra, vice president for instruction. “What we're trying to do is provide them with help in terms of their educa¬ tional development. “It’s not imposing demands, it’s a matter of saying ‘In our professional estimation, you need this introduction to general education,”’ Some trustees, however, wondered at a board presentation last week if the proposed requirements may be “too much, too soon,” Cerra said. Trustees voiced their concerns whether such requirements as the English and mathematics proficiency would be too difficult for in-coming high school stu¬ dents. “I’m for upgrading any educational program,” Trustee Walter T. Shatford said, “I wish we could do it for everyone. We may be going into ov¬ erkill and there’s been too many kids coming up from high school without those basic skills.” The board also felt a “transition period” may be needed until high school students come to PCC with a higher level of skill in those areas. “We hear public outcry for students without those basic skills,” Shatford said, “but we can’t do it right away.” The proposal presented to the trustees last week provided no transi¬ tion period and recomended a grade of “C” or better in English 1A and Mathematics 1 to demonstrate profi¬ ciency in those areas. The proposal to come before the board next week will include “several options,” Cerra said. “We could go with English 1A to satisfy the written expression requirement. We could go with English 100 and 1A, "noting English 100 would only meet the proficiency requirement as a transition period. AA Change By John Pierce Opinion Editor Darryl Grimaldi, an alternate to the student council curriculum committee, and several concerned students, will petition the board of trustees against the proposal raising associate of arts degree minimum requirements from the present 24 units to a possible 28 units of general education. The petition will be presented at the Dec. 16 board of trustees meeting when trustees are expected to consider the proposal. The proposal to increase the min¬ imum requirements came from the school curriculum and instruction com¬ mittee, said Dr. Michael Finkenbinder, chairman of the faculty senate cur¬ riculum and instruction committee and member of the school’s committee. According to Finkenbinder, the school committee “felt more units were needed to provide a better base in basic skills, such as language, critical think¬ ing, mathematics . . . . ” Title V of the California Adminis- After that, only English 1 A would meet the requirement. “The same is true of the math requirement.” Cerra said. A lower level mathematics class may be of¬ fered to provide the transition in that area. Students may also meet the profi¬ ciency requirements by “testing out,” Cerra said. Tests would be developed to prove a certain skill level in reading, written expression and mathematics." At the board presentation, trustees also wondered if the new requirements would be "unrealistic" to students whose only pursue an AA only to meet some job qualification, such as those required by police and fire depart¬ ments. The board must implement new re¬ quirements by July 1, 1983. The Califor¬ nia Community College Board of Gov¬ ernors approved rules governing the new guidelines last March. Not Wanted trative Code establishes 18 general education units as the accepted min¬ imum for an associate of arts degree. The PCC administration had previously set 24 units as being the accepted minimum at the college. Sixty units are necessary for the degree’s completion and a maximum of 70 units may be transferred. Grimaldi initiated the petition be¬ cause he “had many students come up to me with complaints" that such a move would hinder future students in their pursuit of an AA. The increase under consideration proposes changes as to which classes would be retained as minimum requirement classes. The petition states: “We believe it is unnecessary to dictate to students a course of study which is above the 18 units mandated by Title V. It is our contention that inflexibility of the proposed changes will force students to take courses that have no direct bear¬ ing on their educational goals in order to pursue the AA.” (Continued on page 6) 'Twas A Busy Week for The Board . . . Trustee Hand May Resign Due To Money Woes L. Jeremiah Hand Dr. Gary B. Adams Student Trustee Learned Jeremiah Hand may resign his position on the board of trustees due to “extreme financial difficulties” and his other school activities. “I can’t afford being on the board at this time, as well as taking classes, being on the forensics team and still trying to get good grades,” Hand recently told the Courier. Hand was elected student trustee last May by less than 1 percent of the student body for a term of one year. According to the policies of the board of trustees of the Pasadena Area Community College District, “If the office (of student trustee) is vacated due to ineligibility, resigna¬ tion or other reason, the dean of student activities will schedule a spe¬ cial election within 25 calender days after the board of trustees declares the vacancy ... if the student trustee office is vacated the position of acting student trustee shall ecrue ... to a student holding an AS office in the following order of succession if stu¬ dent trustee qualifications are met ... AS President and AS Vice Presi¬ dent.” According to Hand, he will make a decision during the Christmas break on whether to “drop school or the board.” He said that if “something dosen’t come through in the next few weeks, I'll have to drop” his position as student trustee. According to Hand, being the stu¬ dent trustee takes up “about 30 hours a week,” and because of this and his other involvements, he has “no time to work.” —Sheryl Mee No Changes in Trustee 'Reorganization' Little change occurred at the board of trustee’s annual reorganization meeting last week. Board president Dr. Gary B. Adams was reelected, as were vice president John H. Martin, clerk Walter T. Shatford II and secre¬ tary Dr. Richard S. Meyers. “I was honored the board would elect me again,” Adams said. “We are going to face troubled times in the future. I hope the board can ac¬ complish what we have to do in the upcoming year.” Trustee Joseph E. Sargis opened the meeting by nominating Martin as board president. Martin thanked Sargis and withdrew his name, how¬ ever, “due to items before the board,” he said. The board also reappointed Martin as its representative to the Los' Ange¬ les County School Trustees Associa¬ tion, Shatford to the County Commit¬ tee on School District Organization and Adams to the California Com¬ munity College Trustees Association. Martin was also appointed as a representative to the California Com¬ munity College Trustees Association. Trustee Dr. Richard H. Green, who previously represented the board in that association, is now a CCCTA board director and felt he could not serve in both positions concurrently. Authorization was given to the board president, clerk and secretary to sign contracts, warrants and docu¬ ments. Meyers was also given author¬ ization to sign contracts as super¬ intendent-president, as was Bonnie R. James, vice president of business services. Purchasing director Robert D. Burns and Richard S. Hollingshead, financial and risk management serv¬ ices director, were authorized to ex¬ ecute contracts less than $12,000 for work and $16,000 for materials and suplies. Buyer Ernie Church and Sandra Williams, senior purchasing clerk were also authorized to sign contracts not exceeding $3,000, in the extended absence of the purchasing director. —Alex Spada