Pasadena City College
Pasadena, California
VoL 75 No. 1
COURIER
Thursday
February 18, 1993
Debate stalls parking solution
Commentary
Students
must be
neighborly
By ENRICO PIAZZA
Staff Writer
Those new toPCC will have
noticed by now that driving a
car to school is pretty easy, but
finding a parking spot is an¬
other story.
That’s old news for return¬
ing students. But new students
need to know that parking is a
delicate and complicated is¬
sue. It involves many people
and many institutions: PCC ad¬
ministrators, students, the city
of Pasadena and its citizens.
It’s a problem that could
get worse.
The school believes that a
five-level parking structure will
Please see “PARKING,”
page 4
□ Students, residents,
administrators and
city officials have yet
to see a clear path to
solve the ongoing
parking dilemma.
By ALFREDO SANTANA
News Editor
A meeting aimed at solving park¬
ing congestion in neighborhoods
around PCC ignited a bitter — and at
times heated — debate about how
the problem should be solVed.
On Feb. 8, city officials, college
administrators, students and city resi¬
dents verbally grappled with the issue
during a
2-1/2
hour discussion over
a proposed ordinance that would im¬
pose parking fees for parking on the
college’s surrounding streets.
Residents complain that the col¬
lege admits more students than it
should, and as consequence, the school
is not able to provide adequate park¬
ing for them. Neighbors say that
students who park their vehicles on
the streets “trash the streets,” and
create “safety” and “traffic prob¬
lems” in the area.
“The quality of life is diminish¬
ing, and the enviromental impact the
neighborhood is suffering is due to
that many cars,” said Dan Kealew, a
Pasadena resident.
Some neighbors accused the col¬
lege of “doing nothing” and waf¬
fling on the parking situation. Resi¬
dents say that the parking dilemma
goes back to 1974, when students
started to flock to surrounding streets
in search of parking spots.
“I’d like for the [college] people
to stop being fuzzy about this park¬
ing issue. I’ve been talking in vain
for a long time,” Kealew said.
He pointed out that students often
block driveways, and some students
park their cars in front yards.
College officials have said that a
$13 million parking structure to be
built on what is now parking lot 14
will add an estimated 2,000 parking
spaces to the 2,700 PCC currently
has available for student parking.
Officials expect to start the five-
‘The quality of
life is diminishing,
and the
enviromental impact
the neighborhood
is suffering is due
to that many cars.’
Dan Kealew,
Pasadena resident
level construction after completion
of the new library, which will be
finished this spring.
However, residents are strongly
pushing the passage of a city ordi¬
nance that, if approved by the Board
of Directors, would create a permit
parking zone around the college that
would allow only a limited number
of parking spaces for students.
The proposal calls for a zone that
will include the 210 Freeway on the
north, Craig Avenue on the east,
California Boulevard on the south
and Wilson Avenue on the west.
Under the plan, residents living
within those boundaries would have
to buy parking permits, whereas a
limited number of permits costing
between $20 and $40 would be avail¬
able for college students.
If approved, the college would
sell the street permits, and the money
collected would be used to support
shuttle transporation. Time limits on
the streets will also be modified.
“There are some students who
cannot afford to pay $20 for a park¬
ing permit,” said Student Trustee
John Robinson.
“Some are barely making their
way through college, and to put
another burden would be unfair.”
“As students, we are also resi¬
dents of this area,” said Elizabeth
Contreras, Interclub Council vice
president. “We cannot permit the
city to charge for parking on the
streets.”
But John Bailess, a Pasadena
resident who owns a house close to
the college, said the time has come
for students who want to park their
cars close to the college to pay.
“There’s no free lunch,” he said.
“I think it is very naive not to ask to
pay a fee for parking on the streets.”
Councilman Bill Thomson, who
is runnning for re-election next April
also suggested that if students “don’t
want to play the game that way, we
are going to play it differently.”
While Thomson said this, Robin¬
son accused him of “threatening”
college students with implementing
the measure.
“You can take it any way you
want,” rebuted Thomson, who said
the ordinance has a good chance of
being approved.
But a controversial part of the
ordinance that would phase out stu¬
dents’ permits to park on public streets
in a three-year period sparked angry
reactions from Kossler.
“If the students eventually get
kicked off the streets, we not only
will oppose the ordinance, we are
going to strongly fight against it,” he
said.
More public hearings about the
parking issue will be held in the
following weeks before the City Board
of Directors votes on the ordinance.
Semester opens
with no change
in enrollment
By ANISSA VICENTE
Editor in Chief
Looming fee increases, reduced
number of classes and a $301 mil¬
lion state budget cut did not affect
enrollment this semester, a college
official said.
Despite a reported decrease in
community college enrollment,
22,360 students attended the first
day of classes, Dr. Stuart Wilcox,
associate dean of admissions and
records, said.
Last spring, 22,307 students were
enrolled in credit classes. These
numbers are in stark contrast to the
pictures of declining enrollment in
California community colleges as a
whole.
The Faculty Association of Cali¬
fornia Community Colleges, Inc.
(FACCC) announced that approxi¬
mately 60,000 students with bache¬
lor’s degrees dropped out of the
community college system, the larg¬
est decline since 1984.
Patrick McCallum, executive
director of FACCC, attributed the
enrollment drop to other factors as
well, including the fee increase from
$6 per unit to $ 1 0 per unit, the lifting
of the fee cap and the fact that some
students believed the proposed $30
per unit fee was already in effect.
That PCC seems to suffer no such
decline in its enrollment is caused
also in part by administrative plans
to level off the student population
and bring that number closer to the
amount the state pays the school.
Currently, PCC is paid for only 17,520
students, 4,840 over the cap.
The average numbers, however,
is not an indication that students
have less competition for classes
and enrollment slots. Wilcox said
his office is ready to implement a
new telephone registration system,
due to operate in the summer.
With 30 phone lines, the system
will alleviate another staple of col-
Please see “NUMBERS,” page 4
Storm Watch
Photo by KATRINA TEN
/
The COURIER
As Southern Californians braced for yet another round of wet
weather, cumulus clouds hover over PCC on Wednesday.
Student files suit after being hit by cart
□ The student claims
that PCC officials
ignored her
complaints after the
Jan. 20 accident.
By RODNEY MITCHELL
Staff Writer
A PCC nursing student who was
hit by an electric utility cart in front
of the cafeteria on Jan. 20 has filed
a civil lawsuit against the college in
Pasadena Municipal Court, accord¬
ing to campus officials.
The plaintiff, Deborah McCon¬
nell, said she considered taking le¬
gal action after two weeks of re¬
questing financial assistance from
the college to pay for her medical
bills.
She also said that the college
ignored her. “No one contacted me
to see if I was dead or alive.”
Sherry Hassan, administration
services director, said that the col¬
lege had not dealt with many serious
accidents of this kind. She refused to
comment further on the incident.
According to campus police re¬
ports, McConnell was walking from
the cafeteria heading east toward the
library when an electric utility cart
traveling northbound rolled over her.
Campus police officer George
Winovitch, who attended the scene
of the accident, observed injuries to
McConnell’s hip area and to the left
side of her face.
McConnell said she sustained mul¬
tiple injuries to her upper torso and
injury to the right wrist and to the
‘No one contacted
me to see if I was
dead or alive.’
Deborah McConnell,
who filed a lawsuit against
PCC after a cart ran
over her on jan. 20
left side of her face.
She also said that as a result of the
accident, she suffers from memory
loss and is afraid to walk around the
campus.
Her medical bills amounted to
more than $7,000.
Tashann Swayne, who witnessed
the accident, told the police that she
heard the impact and saw the cart
run over her.
Swayne said that McConnell rolled
from the impact.
The driver, Stanley Brown, a
campus employee, said a woman
appeared in front of him as he was
traveling north bound toward Colo¬
rado Boulevard.
He contends the momentum of
the cart pushed her side ways. “I
never felt a bump or any indication
that I rolled over McConell,” he
said.
Officer Winovitch said the maxi¬
mum speed of the carts is between
1 1 and 13 mph. He added that driv¬
ers traveling at unasafe speeds would
be cited.
Winovitch also said that students
should be more aware of carts and to
let the carts pass on crowded campus
sidewalks.
Staff members
robbed; bandits
are still at large
□ A gang of armed
thieves steal
employees’ wallets
and valuables at
gunpoint on Feb. 3.
Campus Police
continue to search
for the assailants.
By RODNEY MITCHELL
Staff Writer
A PCC physics instructor and a
lab technician fell prey to a gang of
armed bandits on campus who robbed
them of their wallets and valuables
at gun point on the third floor of the
E building on Feb. 3, campus police
said.
The victims were not harmed in
the incident, campus police reports.
The incident was the first armed
robbery on campus this year.
At approximately 6 p.m., five to
six men entered through the door of
a stock room, one of them brandish¬
ing a large caliber automatic pistol
and demanding money from the
victims, Ken Cheney and William
Roth, who were working inside he
building.
The assailants accosted Cheney
and Roth and immediately began to
snatch the telephones out of the walls.
Cheney and Roth were told to turn
away and not to look at their robbers
. The assailants collected their wal¬
lets and valuables and ordered Ch¬
eney and Roth to lie face down.
One of the victims said, “At this
point I thought I was going to die.”
The assailants were seen fleeing
the campus, heading north across
Colorado Boulevard. Due to their
direction of travel, campus police
suspect that the bandits were a gang
from the northside of town.
One victim said the bandits did
not appear to be students. However
there was a call five minutes prior to
Sgt. Vince Palermo
the robbery, reporting a group of
suspicious acting men congregating
in front of the D Building. They fit
the description of the robbers.
Sgt. Vince Palermo, who was the
first officer on the robbery scene,
said that despite the extreme high
risk of unarmed officers responding
to armed robbery calls, campus po¬
lice always respond without hesita¬
tion.
After the incident, a special bul¬
letin issued by campus police was
posted throughout the campus in¬
forming students and staff members
to take precautions.
Palermo said that students and
staff should be aware of their envi¬
ronment during off hours.
For staff who work late, he sug¬
gested that they avail themselves of
campus police, letting the officers
know what room they are in and
when they plan to leave.
He also recommended that stu¬
dents and staff members utilize the
campus police escort service. Pal¬
ermo said that students and staff
members should travel together af¬
ter dark hours.
As of late Wednesday, campus
police officials said they are still
looking for the men.
.4