VOLUME 111 ISSUE 3
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM
February 5, 201 5
100 YEARS
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Photo by Erica Hong /Illustration by Nagisa Mihara
Alex Mashikian gives his best mad scientist pose at night in the commons at PCC on Sunday.
Former student returns
after successful career
for one last romp.
Mick Donovan
Online Editor
As a child, he would dance and sing
Weird A1 Yankovic songs on top of the
coffee table for his family. In middle
school he tried out for his first musi¬
cal ‘The Music Man’. He just got back
from a sold out house Off-Broadway in
New York with his comedy group. And
now he’s back one last time for PCC’s
production of Mel Brooks’ Young
Frankenstein’.
PCC doesn’t have Gene Wilder or Mel
Brooks, but it does have Alexander Ma¬
shikian leading what is said to be a very
talented cast. With an impressive resume
including training with the Groundlings
and the chemistry between himself and
the rest of the cast, it is little wonder that
Mashikian was cast as Frederick Von
Frankenstein.
“Alex has done a lot of musicals,” said
Whitney Rydbeck, the director of the
production. “He has an incredible voice.
And he’s a very talented actor.”
Mashikian was not always certain
about theater. That all changed when he
discovered musical theater.
“When I was litde, I didn’t like the¬
ater,” Mashikian said. “I loved movies, I
loved music more. I used to perform for
my family on top of the coffee table. I
would sing Weird A1 Yankovic songs. I
didn’t know what I was doing, but that
was as far as my performing went.”
It was in middle school that he discov¬
ered his love for the stage.
“I tried out for my first musical, which
was ‘The Music Man’, in middle school
having absolutely no prior experience in
theater, nothing.” said Mashikian, “I liked
having a reaction from an audience, from
when I was little on the coffee table. I
guess that’s where it started.”
For Mashikian, it’s the rush and adren¬
aline an actor gets from the energy of an
audience that always pulls him back to
the stage.
“I love getting reactions from audi¬
ences, just the live energy, making them
FRANKENSTEIN page 6 ^
Board, Rocha
deny violating
state open
meeting law
Philip McCormick
Editor-in-Chief
The Board of Trustees and former president
Mark Rocha deny violating open meeting laws
and are asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed
by a nonprofit group seeking a reversal of Ro¬
cha’s $400,000 severance package.
Californians Aware, the group
that filed suit against the school
in September, claims that the
Board hid the discussion of the
severance package under the ti¬
tle of “anticipated litigation” on
its closed session agenda items.
However, Rocha and the
Board both claim that they
were able to use the term
“anticipated litigation” because there was a
threat of litigation.
“The subject matter of the board’s meeting
relative to Rocha was not compensation, but
rather, negotiated terms for a settlement which
would include his retirement and a general
release of claims,” the board states in its answer
to the suit. “At all times during these precedent
negotiations, with the threat of litigation, Rocha
was represented by counsel as was the board.”
In both the board and Rocha’s response to
the suit, they are requesting that the suit be
dismissed, claiming that they didn’t violate any
laws.
“The petition in its entirety and each and ev¬
ery claim fail to state a claim upon which relief
LAWSUIT page 2
File Photo
Mark Rocha
Hiring process underway for
Justin Clay and
Kristen Luna
Staff Writers
With faculty and senate
officials agreeing to hire 36 new
full-time faculty for the college
by September, the long process
in attaining that number has
begun.
A Faculty Hiring Priorities
Committee is formed by the
Academic Senate to assess all
requests for new positions,
and the process is supposed to
be put into motion during the
beginning of the fall semester,
according to the Pasadena Area
Community College District
Policy.
“We try to make the decision
by late fall because January is
a big hiring time and there are
a lot of job fairs so we try to
know what we need, so different
faculty or divisions need can go
to those job fairs and recruit,”
said Kristin Pilon, Academic
Senate Vice President.
The committee meets and
asks each department what their
hiring needs are and why.
“There’s all these questions
that they need to answer,” said
Academic Senate President Edu¬
ardo Cairo. “Then the commit¬
tee compiles all the data, score
it, then we combine our scores
and based on the scores, we get
the top 1 0 or 1 5 we are going to
hire.”
The committee forwards the
college president their recom¬
mendations for hiring priorities.
Then the division dean and
another committee prepares
job descriptions and minimum
requirements.
The college’s equal opportuni¬
ty officer then reviews and
HIRING page 2 ^
36 new faculty jobs
Information Graph by Daniel Valencia/Courier
LUNAR NEW
YEAR
Hearts and Flowers
exhibit to open at
The Folk Tree
Check out the
story and photos on
SCENE
PACE
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