PCC Courier, February 19, 1969

AS В Off iters Fail to Make Grades x>(# i Cornier Deficiency of Officers Leaves Positions Open to Applicants Vol. 31, No. 1 Pasadena City College, Pasadena, California February 19, 1969 'Welcome- Dr. Sarafian Dr. Armen Sarafian, president of PCC, greeted students of the spring semester with promises that the school and its faculty members will offer the finest education possible. ‘We are dedicated to help the student strive for excellence — - moral, intellectual and physical,” stated Dr. Sarafian. He went on to say that PCC offers a better education for less. “Junior college students are get¬ ting not only an education at bar¬ gain prices, but quality teaching and courses as well.” The campus is already under¬ going a planned eight-year devel¬ opment program. Approximately $7 million will be spent for the building and remodeling projects in the attempt to improve the educational facilities at PCC. Many of the students will be happy to hear that air condition¬ ing is being installed in some of the buildings. One of these will be Harbeson Hall, which will un¬ dergo modernizing also. BLACK HEROES — Larry Payne (left) addresses audience at Har¬ beson Hall as he and other members of the Black Student Union portrayed various black heroes in a special presentation last Thursday during “Negro History Week." Others are Romona Terry and Mfanya (Donald) Tryman. Blatk Culture Advocate Addresses Croup, Wunts Intellectual Liberty Robert L. Brooks, the man re¬ sponsible for initiating black cul¬ ture courses in the Los Angeles School District, spoke to PCC’s Human Relations Commission last Tuesday. Brook, who describes himself as a Black nationalist, is the founder and president of the Self Determination Committee. His organization has submitted a suit in the United Nations charging that the black people of the U.S. are a colonial people and that this country is therefore responsible, under the UNESCO charter, for the teaching of black culture to them. It is Brook’s contention that due to their history as a slave people, the black people of this country are still under colonial subjuga¬ tion. He traced this history for the group. They became slaves when taken against their will from their homeland. This continued When they were sold in America. Slav¬ ery became a legal institution un¬ der the Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment did not, he says, make black people free. This was because they had no choice in adopting a culture. They were thrust into a foreign culture, and thus became a colon¬ ial people. Until the black man is made aware of the fact that he has been robbed of his culture and forced into his present one, he is a slave; that is, he does not have intellec¬ tual freedom, according to Brook. Brook said that government is now acting on black culture courses because it knows it will be taken to court if it does not. He does not particularly favor the teaching of Swahili as a black culture course because it is a “slave-trader language.” It was used by the British to communi¬ cate with the Africans for slave trading purposes and is corrupt¬ ed by English culture; therefore, it is not suitable for the purpose of providing blacks with their long-lost culture. He would rather see Hausa taught. It is the language of Ni¬ geria, and is spoken by more Af¬ ricans than any other. There would be no difficulty getting teachers for such courses since visiting African professors could teach. Ron Karenga of the US organi¬ zation, owes much to Brook. When the L.A. school district decided to conduct a course in Swahili, following Brook’s request for a black culture course, they asked Brook to find a teacher for the course. Brook found Karenga, then a student at UCLA, knowledgeable in Swahili. It was necessary to have Karenga specially credential- ed so he could teach the course. But when Brook tried to attend the first Swahili night course, for Which its existence he was largely responsible, he was not allowed into the room. Since that time Karenga, says Brook, has been building his own empire. Brook would like to see the his¬ tory of the black people of this country integrated into the pres¬ ent U. S. History courses where they are presently largely ig¬ nored. He pointed out many contribu¬ tions of black people to the cul¬ ture of this country. The South could not boast of its lily white maidens had black women not been readily available to the white gentleman of the South. The soft Southern accent is the result of the influence of the blacks’ dialect. Brook will be on campus again Call for Frosh Freshman Class President Jim Bowler sends this message of interest to all freshmen: “All freshmen have the right to serve on the Freshman Class Council, which determines all my decisions on freshman ac¬ tivities. I need as many people on this body as I can get, so I can gain an accurate concensus of the student wishes. For those who are interested, sign up sheets are on my desk on the top floor of the Campus Center. The only requirement is that you be a freshman.” as he accepted an invitation to the Student Curriculum Commit¬ tee’s meeting following the hu¬ man relations meeting, where he impressed his listeners. Two top student government officials were ousted from their posts Thursday because of sub¬ standard grade point averages. Associated Student Body Vice- President Bharat Persad and Sen¬ ate President Bob Serrano were pulled out of office because of grades. Martin Green, ASB president, quickly cleared up the major gap by appointing Valerie Lewis to the vice-presidential position. She previously was Associated Wom¬ en Students president. Replacing Serrano as Senate president will be Charles Clark, who has never held any elective or appointive office, but who ran for ASB president this semester on an independent student benefit ticket. Taking over Miss Lewis’ vacat¬ ed office will be Shar’ee Thomure, who will be president of the Asso¬ ciated Women Students. The position of Second Senate vice-president will be filled by Aleta Davis. The officers who were elected for the fall semester who were not removed from office besides Miss Lewis and Green were Jim Goodwin, who is Sophomore Class president, and Jim Bowler, who is Freshman Class president. Miss Lewis has also begun working almost immediately. Any students interested in working on the faculty evaluation booklet should go see her about it in her office in the Campus Center. She is also in charge of screen¬ ing applicants for cabinet posi¬ tions. According to Green, “If you are interested in becoming a cabi¬ net member, see the vice-presi¬ dent.” Besides the problem of the officials not measuring up to the grade point average requirement, Green’s administration is still attempting to take over the reins of the government. Many of the cabinet positions are not yet filled because the officers have not made the appointments. The position of first Senate vice-president is still open, presi¬ dent of the Inter-Club Council has not yet been selected, and neither has the AMS president. PCC Journalists Attend San Francisco Convention By MARY JO YOUNG SAN FRANCISCO— Nine per¬ sons represented PCC at the 81st annual California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) convention held February 6 through 9. Two of the students, ex-Courier editor Bryan Cuthill and Steven Lantz, a writer for the campus magazine Aspect, were sponsored by the Ridder Publishing Co. The present editors for the Courier — Bernard Comas, editor- in-chief; Vaughan Inman, execu¬ tive editor; and Mary Jo Young, managing editor — were sponsored by the PCC Associated Student Body. William Buttler, adviser, and Mrs. Butttler also attended the conference. Another Aspect writer, Dave De Mulle, went to the convention on his own funds. The final dele¬ gate was Robert van der Veen, PCC Press manager. The high point of the conven¬ tion was the family dinner at which Governor Ronald Reagan was the guest speaker. The gov¬ ernor’s speech centered around the current problems of Califor¬ nia, and he stressed the issue of drug use by junior high and high school students. He asked the publishers, edi¬ tors, and newsmen present to help him in his effort to check the use of dangerous narcotics. Governor Reagan also stated in a round-about way that he would again run for the governorship in the next election. After he concluded his speech, he opened the floor for a press conference. Another of the convention high¬ lights was a press conference in reverse. A panel of public offi¬ cials quizzed newsmen on many current news issues. The participants from public life were U.S. Senator Alan Cran¬ ston, Joseph Alioto, mayor of San Francisco, Willie L. Brown, Jr., 18th District assemblyman, Thomas H. Cahill, San Francisco • Continued on Page Three The requirement for holding office is a 2.0 grade point average for those who have previously held office or who are currently serving. For students who have not held office before, the mini¬ mum requirement is 2.2. The rule used to be just 2.0 for all, but to forestall any drops the requirements were put up. This requirement has been fairly suc¬ cessful in the past, but perhaps something else will have to be done, according to student gov¬ ernment officials, because of the problem now facing the student government. With only four members of the elected officials remaining in of¬ fice only one month after the elections, it is obvious that some¬ thing must be done. Students who think they have a solution to the problem may ap¬ ply for office and go about these changes through introducing leg¬ islation, according to current gov¬ ernment officials. KPCS-FM Names Student Staff for Spring Term The student staff of KPCS, PCC’s FM educational radio sta¬ tion (89.3), for the spring semes¬ ter has been announced by Dr. John Gregory, station manager. Each semester promising, po¬ tential broadcasters are selected to fill operational staff positions within the station. Students se¬ lected must have spent at least one semester in the radio produc¬ tion class. During the coming semester, Don Benke will take charge of programming responsibilities as program director and Richard Blankinship will continue to be responsible for the engineering aspects of the station as student chief engineer. Cliff Warner will carry out the duties of the traffic director, Pat Jacobs will become news director, and Dave Brack will head the KPCS sports department as sports director. Bud Ireland and Jerry Dunham will handle special events and public affairs for the station, while Ken Pratt keeps the station in the public eye as director of public affairs and station liaison. Representing the station in stu¬ dent government is Miss Laurel Amato, who becomes secretary of radio. To insure proper opera¬ tion of station equipment and to perform preventive maintenance when needed, Bert Weyle be¬ comes radio technician. Bernard Comas Elected To Head Courier Staff Bernard Comas was elected ed¬ itor-in-chief of the Courier for the spring semester by the journal¬ ism staff last week. He comes to the job well-pre¬ pared, for he has already worked on a professional newspaper for some time. When Comas was still in high school, he was approached by the Independent Star-News because of his writing ability and has held a job on that paper ever since. He served as feature editor of the Courier during the fall semes¬ ter, and has conceived many ideas about how he wants to run the paper from that experience. His decision to run for the edi¬ torship was based on his desire to see the paper more efficiently run. Already he has begun revamp¬ ing the organizational set up by requiring all staff members to at¬ tend weekly staff meetings to dis¬ cuss assignments and any prob¬ lems which may come up. The editors on the paper must attend editorial sessions beside the regu¬ lar staff meetings to work out the upper level problems. Attempting to help the staff members gain a more complete knowledge of the production pro¬ cesses of a newspaper, Comas is setting up good editor-staff rela¬ tionships. Every staff member is under a specific editor, but each one is given a wide range of as¬ signments so that he will have ex¬ perience in all areas of reporting. BERNARD COMAS new Courier editor-in-chief