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" Twelve Angry Jurors:'' the verdict is in.
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PASADENA CITY COLLEGE
Pasadena, California
Vol. 78 No. 6
THE
COURIER
Serving the PCC Community for 76 years
THURSDAY
February 24, 1994
\
Street parking: residents want changes
□ Resentment brews
as students take over
home owners’ spaces.
By JOSE INOSTROZ
and GUADALUPE BERGIN
Staff Writers
Rose Villaand Sierra Bonitastreet
residents are feeling increasigly re¬
sentful of having to pay fees to park
on their oun streets while students
take those much needed spots away.
Every school day from 7a.m. to
7p.m. streets are full of PCC stu¬
dents’ cars, says Victor Vener which
poses a problem. “I can’t invite
relatives or friends to my house be¬
cause there are no parking spaces,”
said Venner who lives in the 200
block of Sierra Bonita Ave. “I have
to compete with students to park in
front of my house,” he added.
The city of Pasadena charges resi¬
dents $15 for permits to park on
Rose Villa and Sierra Bonita streets.
These permits are in the form of
stickers that can be placed in car
windows.
Some of the residents feel the
permits are an inconvenience since
the stickers cannot be used by visi¬
tors.
“I did not vote to be charged $ 1 5
to park in front of my own house,”
said Gregory Brown, who has lived
in the 800 block of Rose Villa for 10
years. He did sign a petition to do
something about the parking. He
suggested the city should give resi¬
dents the permits. “We are taxpay¬
ers and we pay for street mainte¬
nance. We don’t deserve this,” said
Brown.
Students can purchase a $30 per¬
mit from the City of Pasadena that
guarantees them a space on the streets
that have been designated for park¬
ing. A regular campus parking per¬
mit costs $20.
“This parking situation is a ter¬
rible inconvenience,” said Donna
Brown who lives in the 400 block of
Sierra Bonita.
“I am not about to pay $15 of my
money to get a sticker to park in front
of my own house. It is a rip-off,” said
Brown who has been a Sierra Bonita
resident for 40 years.
Vener said he and the elderly
people he knows in his neighbor¬
hood do not like students because
they are a nuisance to their every day
tranquility.
Every weekend during the winter
when the school has football games,
if not PCC’s students, high school
students come to the games, park on
these streets and get the streets dirty
with “fast food, beer bottles and
drugs,” they leave the mess which
the college doesn’t come the nest
day to clean up.
“We pay taxes, we don’t get any¬
thing free from the city and now it
charges us for parking in front of our
own house?” said Vener. “I am
furious, it is an absolutely
inapropriate way of making money,”
he added.
Student trustee John Robinson,
who has been working to resolve the
parking issue said, “Residents have
been complaining forever about park¬
ing, it’s nothing new to me.”
Last year Robinson struck a deal
between the City, the residents, and
students wherein it was agreed 12
zones would be allocated to parking
on streets south of the college. “The
residents are the ones who wanted
preferential parking last year,” said
Robinson.
“Residents who signed to pur¬
chase stickers should have thought
before they agreed to the plan,” said
Robinson responding to complaints
that residents could not accommo¬
date visitors.
“We’ve put in a lot of work, but
residents are still unhappy ,” he added.
The argument that taxpayers are
unnecessarily burdened is a“copout”
says Robinson. “The college con¬
tributes heavily to the city of Pasa¬
dena. It is a famous college and
many famous people have gone
through here. The college provides
a large tax base to the city,” he said.
The college does a lot of good for
local businesses therefore it doesn’t
mean anything to use the taxpayer
excuse because everyone is a
tazpayer, including the students.
Robinson also said that he has
driven around the areas where stu¬
dents park and has noticed that streets
have been kept clean.
“Students keep it pretty clean, but
if residents sees one cup on the
street, they think students leave a lot
of trash,” he said.
The current zones on streets in¬
cluding Sierra Bonita Avenue and
Rose Villa can accommodate as
many as 22 parking spaces each, one
half of that numberr goes to resi¬
dents and the other half to students.
Students can purchase permits
for either morning parking from
8a.m. to 5p.m. or from 5p.m. to
8p.m.
There are about 100 spaces left.
Applications can be obtained from
the Safety Office and turned in to
Robinson in CC210. Only those
carrying nine or more units can ap¬
ply on a first come, first served
basis.
Should students be ticketed, they
can expect to pay a $20 fine which
must be paid at Pasadena City Hall.
Students with permits will not be
ticketed unless they park where they
shouldn.
The money the college collects
from the street permits will go to¬
ward the construction of the new
parking structure being built on the
southwest side of campus.
Students ask a
representative
from a university
about transfer
procedures
during College
Information Night
last week.
ERWIN GOLDBERG/THE COURIER
Enrollment decreases
Anti-Semitic, racist posters
and graffiti found on campus
By DAVID MUSHEGAIN
Staff Writer
Statewide tuition fees are up and commu¬
nity college enrollment is down. PCC is no
exception, with the 1993-94 census showing
Pasadena’s enrollment to be slightly below
the statewide average.
The spring 1994 census, compiled by Dr.
Stuart A. Wilcox and staff, estimate student
enrollment at PCC as 26,332. Those taking
classes for credit account for 21,956 of these
students. That figure represents a two percent
decrease from the fall semester census fig¬
ures. That is one percent below statewide
statistics. Although enrollment dropped in the
spring semester, the two percent figure is
more stable and promising than the eight
percent drop which occurred in the fall.
Drops in enrollment can be attributed to a
consistent increase in fees. Wilcox said com¬
munity colleges first began charging tuition in
1984 when the fee was set at $5 with a $50 cap.
By the fall of 1991, the fee had increased to $6
with a $60 cap. The highest fee hike occurred
in spring of 1993 when fees were raised to $10
a unit with no cap. Currently the fee stands at
$13 a unit with no cap.
Wilcox stated that there is about a one
percent enrollment decrease for every dollar
the fees increase. With Gov. Pete Wilson’s
proposal that unit fees be raised to $20 with no
cap and assuming that figures follow previous
trends, this $7 hike could result in further
enrollment decreases.
An increase to $20 a unit would be a large
sum difference possibly encouraging those on
the financial edge to not enroll, Nancy Ackley,
spokesperson for the Chancellor’s office, said.
Students should not let the fee hikes discour¬
age them from enrolling. While fee increase
has been suggested, proposals for more liberal
spending, regarding fee waivers, are also being
considered, Ackley said.
□ Local white
supremacist group is
the prime suspect in
investigation.
By ROBERT ARMIJO
Staff Writer
Anti-Semitic posters accompa¬
nied by swastikas, graffiti and racial
epithets against African Americans
and multattos were recently found
through out the campus. The posters
depicted an elderly man, supposedly
aJew,with exaggerated ethnic char¬
acteristics.
Campus police immediately dis¬
patched officers including seven
undercover officers and cadets to
investigate the reports, according to
Sgt. Vince Palermo of campus po¬
lice. But despite their efforts, the
campus police were unable to catch
the suspect or suspects. The posters
were removed and the graffiti erased.
Although initially discovered by
Dr. Bruce Carter, geology depart¬
ment chairperson, the posters and
graffiti were reported to the campus
police by Patricia A. Sea, a geology
department lab technician.
“Definitely anti-Semitic,” she
said. “I took great offense because I
am Jewish.”
A telephone number on the back
of one of the fliers led campus police
investigator Nick Hoekstra to a re¬
corded message from a group iden¬
tifying itself as White Aryan Resis¬
tance or W.A.R.
“They probably wouldn’t claim
responsibility , but say that they can’t
be held responsible for their mem¬
bers actions,” said Hoekstra, who is
currently keeping tabs on the orga¬
nization.
In a recorded message he listened
to a few weeks ago, W.A.R. claimed
responsibility for canvassing La
ReinaHigh School in Thousand Oaks
with derogatory posters of a preg¬
nant Chicana.
Although the posters and graffiti
are considered free speech, and thus
protected by the Constitution, acts
of vandalism to state property are
not. The suspects, once caught, can
be charged with defacing state prop¬
erty, Palermo said.
Officer Eric McWilliams of the
Pasadena Police Department will
begin his investigation soon. In ad¬
dition Kay Schafer of the Los Ange¬
les District Attorney’s office has
expressed an interest in the case and
has requested all material and infor¬
mation be forwarded to her office for
further investigation.
Conceding that as Americans we
all enjoy the freedom to express opin¬
ions, she points out that depending
on the circumstances, an action can
range from an act protected under
the U.S. Constitution to a misde¬
meanor or felony hate crime. How¬
ever she cites citizen awareness as
the fist line of defense against such
acts.
“The most important thing a vic¬
tim and witness can do is to report it
to the police. That’s critical. If it
doesn’tgetreported, thejudicial sys¬
tem can’t work,” Schafer said.
Hoekstra also advises students to
“get to a phone as quickly as possible
and dial 911.” But he cautions stu¬
dents against confronting a suspects
or getting into a shouting match with
them.
Sea, the lab technician, said, “It’s
too bad people have to be such sepa¬
ratists.”
The posters and graffiti were
found in the Women’s Gym; men’s
rest room on the third floor of the C
building; the Shatford Library; and
in U, E, and V buildings.
The gift of life
Student needs bone marrow
□ The life of a
leukemia patient
depends on the
generosity of
others.
By PATRIA G. ABELGAS
Editor in Chief
People are constantly looking
for what they say is “their twin in
this world,” someone who looks
like them, acts like them, talks
like them, and thinks like them.
But for people like Eric Le
Blanc, all they are look- _
ing for is somebody who
matches their blood type.
Le Blanc, a former
PCC student, has been
fighting leukemia since
1983 when he was diag¬
nosed with the disease at
the age of 14. In order for
him to have complete
remission, he will have to un¬
dergo a bone marrow transplant.
A possible donor has been
matched to him already, but “it’s
still not for sure,” said Le Blanc.
So Kathleen Long, an Alpha
Gamma Sigma (AGS) member
and Le Blanc’s stepmother, invited
the coordinator for the Bone Marrow
Registry from the City of Hope to
encourage more people to become
bone marrow donors. Jean Blaylock
will explain the procedures of be¬
coming a donor today at noon in
R122.
“We’re not desperately looking
for a donor for Eric because we have
one already, but it would be nice if
more people would register to be
donors,” said Long. If this donor
doesn’t work, then Le Blanc’s doc¬
tors will tap possible donors from the
registry.
There are currently more than a
million possible donors registered
“For people to be able to sign
up for the bone marrow
registry is a gift. It’s giving
life to somebody else.”
Eric Le Blanc
with the Bone Marrow Registry.
Marrow transplantation, accord¬
ing to the National Marrow Donor
Program (NMDP), is a new medical
therapy for patients with fatal blood
diseases such as leukemia and
aplastic anemia.
According to NMDP, donors
initially give two tablespoons of
blood for testing. Their blood is
tissue-typed and the lab result are
stored in their computer database.
Patients from all over the world
refer to this database for a pos¬
sible match.
Once a preliminary match is
identified, additonal blood tests
are taken to determine if the do¬
nor is a precise match for the
specific patient. The donor then
has to give a final consent.
“Every little bit helps. Even if
just one person came to get his
blood typed and then saved
another’s life, that would be
great,” said Le Blanc.
Le Blanc’s possible
donor is waiting for more
tests to make sure he’s
healthy and that his blood
won’t be rejected by Le
Blanc’s antibodies.
Once the tests are com¬
pleted, Le Blanc will un-
dergo 10 days of chemo¬
therapy before the actual trans¬
plant can take place.
“I’ll go in for 10 days and the
doctors will kill everything ma¬
lignant in my body. I have to be
isolated because my body won’t
Please see MARROW, Page 3