Football
University
Bound
Jerome
Harrison signs
with
Washington
State
Film Review
Tad Hamilton didn t
win at the box office
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The Courier has been
SERVING THE PCC AND
Pasadena community
since 1915.
On this date...
"The Oregon Spectator,"
based in Oregon City,
BECAME THE FIRST NEWS¬
PAPER PUBLISHED ON THE
Pacific coast in 1846.
Three College
Computers
Recovered in
Hotel Search
Priscilla Moreno
Managing Editor
A suspect is
in custody,
charged with
felony theft
after officers
found three
laptop com¬
puters worth $2,000 each that
were stolen from the D building
last November.
Pasadena police offices arrest¬
ed PCC student Fredd Mays Ochoa
on Dec. 12 at the Vagabond Hotel
across from the campus on
Colorado Boulevard.
Ochoa, who was living in a
sober-living facility on Fair Oaks,
tried to sell one of the computers
to a fellow tenant for $500.
When the man took a laptop
home to show his wife before pur¬
chasing it, he found various PCC
files on the screen.
He called campus police inves¬
tigator Steven Lester about what
he saw.
"The tenant said Ochoa had
three of them, and he gave me his
room number," said Lester.
The next day, Lester, Lt. Bradley
Young and campus police trans¬
portation director Peter Benson
contacted the manager of the Fair
Oaks facility for permission to
search the premises.
The officers looked around the
room but did not find anything.
They were informed that Ochoa
had been evicted and was now
staying at the Vagabond.
The following day, Lester and
Officer John Hynes went to
Ochoa's hotel room and asked for
permission to search his room.
"Because we're not armed, we
contacted the Pasadena police
department and had them have an
officer respond with us, just in case
the guy was armed," Lester said.
When the officers arrived they
talked to the manager, but he
would not grant them access to the
room.
He said he would ask Ochoa if
he could check the room. However
Ochoa was not there, so
the manager opened the
door and
found a See Pa9e
computer AlTeSt
4
JPL and PCC Celebrate Mars Landing
Part of the
panoramic view
as Spirit pre¬
pares to explore
the crater it
landed in on
Jan. 3. Images
are relayed
from the rover
to the Mars
_ Global Surveyor.
^ Those images
? are then sent to
| mission, control
3 at JPL.
JPL And PCC Celebrate Historic Event
Andrea Carone
Contributing Writer
On the night of Jan. 3, a spacecraft land¬
ed on Mars and that event created excite¬
ment, anxiety and wonder at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory and all over the
world. It was the night that the first of two
Mars Exploration Rovers was to land on the
Martian surface. Would Spirit arrive safely
and smoothly, as the MER team hoped and
prayed? Or would they be stuck with an $820
million defunct project on their hands? Only
time would tell.
As the moment of truth crept nearer, a
hush fell over the lab's Von Karmen
Auditorium. With only 10 minutes remain¬
ing, the audience was aware that the events
that were to unfold that night would affect
the whole world.
When signals came through that the
rover had entered Martian space and would
be landing within minutes, the room began
to fill up with reporters from all around the
world. Andrea Carone, Courier reporter, was
among them. Soon mission control reported
that they had word that the rover bounced
onto the surface, as anticipated.
At that point, a loud cheer filled the
control room. Directors, managers, and
team members alike exchanged hugs and
jumped for joy, not to mention relief. Even
the press got out of their seats, applauding
and shouting.
A repeat of the suc¬
cessful Mars landing
events unfolded again
two weeks later as
Spirit's twin,
Opportunity, landed
safely. But this time,
PCC got a piece of the
action.
On Jan. 24 and 25,
1,700 friends and fami¬
ly of the MER team
and PCC students and
staff filled Sexson
Auditorium for their
own special viewing of
the landing. Because of intense MER activi¬
ty, team members had to give up much of
their personal time, and more often than
not, worked late into the night. JPL made it
up to their loved ones by inviting them to
observe on a theater screen the events tak¬
ing place in the control room.
There, they were finally able to see what
it was that demanded so much time of their
mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, etc.
Everyone held their breath
as mission control counted
down the final moments
before touchdown.
The auditorium explod¬
ed into cheers when it was
obvious the mission was a
success.
It was especially excit¬
ing when the audience got
to see the scientists shake
hands with Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and for¬
mer Vice President Al
Gore, who dropped by the
control room to congratu¬
late the team.
Soon after, vivid pictures of the
Meridiani Planum, Opportunity's landing
site, came through and completed the
exhilarating evening.
Cal Grants Free and up for Grabs
Fee Increase For Spring
Linda Rapka
Entertainment Editor
Free money for college is up for
grabs in the form of Cal Grants.
Awards as large as $1,500 may be
awarded to students and do not
have to be repaid.
To qualify for a Cal Grant,
applicants must have at least a
2.0 grade point average and
meet certain financial eligibility
criteria. Students who plan to
enroll in college in the fall of
2004 have until March 2 to apply
for these cash awards.
Filing is easy. Students need to
fill out a free form called the
Free Application for Federal
Student Aid. The FAFSA can be
submitted either online or by
mail. The FAFSA is available in
the financial aid office in the L
building, room L1 14, or online at
fafsa.ed.gov. Only one FAFSA
form needs to be filed each year.
Seven types of Cal Grants are
offered every year by the state of
California through the California
Student Aid Commission.
Students awarded Cal Grants
will receive a notification letter
from the California Student Aid
Commission within six weeks of the
application deadline date.
Community college students
are also eligible for Cal Grant A or
В
competitive awards. The appli¬
cation deadline for these grants is
Sept. 2. However, since
the number of awards
available in September is
limited, gee page
students
are strong- Grants
Women's Basketball Ranked
Second in Southern Conference
Jaynita Carney
Sports Editor
The Pasadena City College women's basketball team has domi¬
nated the courts throughout the winter intersession, winning 20 of
the 21 games played.
In the Jan. 31 game against the Los Angeles City Cubs, the
Lancers defeated them 81-60. The Lancers 3-point game was on
as freshman guard and All-State candidate Dionne Pounds hit 6-
for-10 to score a game high 18 points.
In second place for the night was teammate Megan Okui who
nailed four 3-point baskets for 12 points.
Forward Monique Diaz may have come in third with 11 points
scored, but she led with six assists, six steals, and tied with reserve
sophomore center Le Raye Wilson with six rebounds.
This leaves the Lancer record at 20-1 overall and 3-1 in the South
Coast Conference North Division. The Lancers hold the No.
2 spot just under the Mt. San Antonio Mounties who bare¬
ly beat the Lancers 56-54.
The Mounties put a stop to the Lancers §ee page
winning streak on Jan. 28. This game provid- U. II
ed Lancer fans with non-stop excitement as DdSK6LU3ll
4
Jamie Caslaneda/Conrier
A 19-game winning streak
pushed the women's team
Governor wants more money out of students' pockets.
Suzy Hogtanyan
Contributing Writer
t Community
college stu¬
dents will soon
be facing a
steep increase
in tuition if
Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger has his way. Fees
are expected to go from $18 to
$26 a unit.
Although the date of the tuition
increase has not yet been deter¬
mined, community colleges will def¬
initely be faced with the second
increase in tuition in one year.
In September 2003, prices were
hiked from $1 1 a unit to $18.
Dr. James Kossler, president of
PCC, said, "We hope that this
time we know far enough in
advance so that we can imple¬
ment the new fees at the start of
a new semester, instead of trying
to collect them retroactively.
What is not clear is whether the
new fee structure will start with
the summer session or the fall of
2004."
Some students were not sur¬
prised by the governor's proposal
to raise community college tuition.
Jeremy Leslie, 23, biology
major, agreed with the governor's
decision.
"There is no way to cut the
state's deficit just by cutting car
taxes. It's hard to budget for the
entire state. I know I couldn't do
it," said Leslie.
Johanna Solrzano, 18, nursing
major, said, "I applied at a commu¬
nity college so I wouldn't have to
pay the extra expenses. I might as
well have applied to a four-year
college."
Accreditation Progress Report
Shows College is on Schedule
Mitchell Wright
Editor-in-Chief
The administration presented a
progress report to the board of
trustees on Jan. 21, outlining how
the college is following up on the
recommendations the accredita¬
tion team made in 2002.
"We've always been fully
accredited," said Dr. Stuart Wilcox,
dean of institutional research and
planning. "Now the teams want
more accountability. The accredi¬
tation agency has changed how
they do things. It used to be a col¬
lege would have to be really bad
not to get accredited. Now they've
really tightened up."
The team wanted the college
to promote widespread under¬
standing of its mission statement,
link the planning and budget
processes, complete and imple¬
ment a comprehensive program
review for all areas, empower
constituents though the gover¬
nance process and lastly, provide
evidence that all campus con¬
stituents are working to restore
collegiality and integrity in their
relationships.
Wilcox said the college is meet¬
ing all of the recommendations on
schedule, but the last recommen¬
dation left a question in his mind.
At the time, the
СТА
was con¬
ducting intense picketing, and he
thinks that the team had the idea
that there was dissension within
the campus community.
"When they say 'restore colle¬
giality and integrity,' how do we
know when we've gotten back to
whatever we had before?" he
asked. "I think it's one of those
things that sounds good, but it's
so fuzzy. ..how do you really do
it? I think you may have to step
back a little bit and observe that
people need to be working
together more cooperatively.
That's the underlining theme."
So far, the college has
rewritten its mission state¬
ment, which the board of
trustees gee p3ge
adopted in
2002 Progress
