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Volume 98, Issue 14
“The Independent Student Voice of PCC. Serving Pasadena Since 1915.”
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Environmental Pledge Signed
PCC President Perfumo
Commits College to
Sustainable Actions
Allan Santiago
Opinion Editor
A new platform for bringing sustainability to PCC
was set by President Paulette Perfumo when she signed
the American College & University Presidents Climate
Commitment on Tuesday.
“I’m proud to say that I’m happy to be on this journey
with all of you ... I am the president of this institution,
I am the leader of this institution. I would be remiss in
not having us be committed to this very important
endeavor,” Perfumo said.
The big turnout for the event had students, Pasadena
residents and administrators talking freely about the
kind of prospects PCC holds.
“There is this sense that we are, some people say, a
green campus. I think we’re a greening campus,” said
Hilary Bradbury-Huang, soon to be vice president of the
Board of Trustees.
Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard made an appearance
and described the signing as a "turning point” for PCC.
The event seemed to fit well with Pasadena's own com¬
mitment to reaching sustainability, he said.
Duane Waliser, a senior research scientist at Caltech
and adjunct professor at UCLA spoke about the effect
climate change has on snow pack ice and how it could
disappear, a take that would affect energy-generation
and water storage.
Continued on Page 2
Steven Valdez
/
Courier
Members of the Sustainability Task Force, the Green Team and the AS show their support after PCC President Paulette
Perfumo signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment on Tuesday.
AS VP Impersonated as Bigot on Fake Blog
Jacob Matthes
Staff Writer
Vice President of Public Relations for
Associated Students, Marshall Roe, has been
poorly impersonated in a hate-infested blog, as
well as in the Courier Web edition.
A blog entitled "America’s Messenger” host¬
ed by the site www.blogger.com disguises itself
as being written by Roe. The subject matter of
each blog entry attempts to profile the AS mem¬
ber as an intensely bigoted human being.
In a particularly hot-blooded late October
post, the unknown author writes, “Americans
should find a way to destroy homosexuality,"
and goes on to say “We should not allow
[homosexuals] to live.” The author also men¬
tions, “The only punishment that fits the crime
of being [homosexual] is burning at the stake.”
Other posts villainize President-elect Barack
Obama as an Islamic terrorist and make liberal
use of the “N-bomb”.
Roe says he’s known of the blog for a couple
of months, but he thought it had been deleted.
On Wednesday, it was back up,
and the motive or writer remains
unknown.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it
was someone who has access to
my office," said Roe.
To those who know Roe,
these malicious comments could
not be farther from capturing his
true character.
“It is completely out of char¬
acter for Marshall. He isn’t a
racist. Most of his friends are of
a different race. The blog also
points him out as a homophobe
when he isn’t at all like that,”
said vice president for cultural
diversity Cristina Abadia.
USC student Ben Myers, who will be running
for a Pasadena City Council seat with Roe as his
campaign manager, seemed to agree that the
blog was uncharacteristic of the Roe he knows.
“I have known Marshall for 10 years and I
can say that he is definitely not a racist or a
homophobe. The blog itself is just really disgust¬
ing,” said Myers.
Roe made repeated mention of
an ongoing personal dispute
between himself and Adam
Michael Kratt. Kratt was the vice
president of public relations
before Roe.
“A friend of mine talked to
Kratt about the blog once, and
that was when it disappeared.
That is why I thought the blog
had been pulled.”
When asked about the blog for
the first time Kratt replied:
“I knew about a blog a couple
Marshal Roe °f months ago, but I was under the
impression that it had been deleted.
I remember that as it was happening, me and my
friends discussed it and mutually decided that it
couldn’t have been written by the real Roe.”
A comment on the Courier website posted in
late October by a user named Adam Michael
Kratt reads:
“Ever wonder what the real feeling of the
republican Party are? perhaps you should read
what Marshal Roe the Chair of the PCC
Republican Part has today”
At the end of the comment is a URL similar,
but not identical, to the blog. It gives the impres¬
sion that Kratt thought Roe was behind the blog
at first, and wanted to generate some publicity
for it. After attention was brought to the com¬
ment, Kratt made adjustments to his story.
“I did post that when I first came across the
blog, because when I first saw the blog I thought
it could very well be Marshall,” Kratt said.
Regardless of who it was that created the
blog, one fact remains evident. In a break from
blogger.com’s content policy which stipulates
that all blogs are forbidden to contain hate
speech or impersonations, someone has appar¬
ently stolen the identity of a PCC AS member to
deliver dubious and misconstrued information.
"I just want to say that this blog was clearly
not me. I don’t even like the picture of me it
uses. I am not a strong social conservative," said
Roe. “I am not a member of the religious right.
I am a fourth Japanese. I have a mixed back¬
ground. I am a very firm believer in America as
‘The Great Melting Pot.’ ”
Opinion:
Editorial: Making
Community College
Work for you. Page
5»
Entertainment:
Improv: PCC comedy
club debuts on
campus. Page
9»
Lancer Life:
Shoes: Sneaker culture
reaches those who
can afford them.
Page
6»