PCC Courier, February 25, 1993

Does Rodney King civil rights trial reopen the wound? 1 ’ - — - - ГТ7 - — FEATURES I 4 есш0\9 R r-J ! Andrew Lloyd Webber revives “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. ” Page 5 Pasadena City College Pasadena, California Vol. 75 No. 2 The COURIER Serving the PCCCommunity for 75 years Thursday February 25, 1993 Preference proposal draws fire By ALFREDO SANTANA News Editor Saying that they don’t have enough money to educate all students, com¬ munity college officials are consid¬ ering a plan to give enrollment pref¬ erence to young students with well- defined educational goals or spe¬ cific majors. The plan would limit the educational op¬ portunities of older students who have re¬ turned to the two- year institutions for job training or to continue their education. State college officials say en¬ rollment prefer¬ ences are needed because budget cutbacks im¬ posed by the state -■ — - . . ■■ government have left the community college system unable to provide classes for the system’s 1.5 million students. Ann Reed, vice chancellor of the California community college sys¬ tem said that because the school’s lack of space to acommodate stu¬ dents, about 100,000 of them were turned away by the 107 two-year colleges. The preference plan establishes two categories of students: those ‘Open access [to community college education] is already vanishing in California,’ Dr. Jack Scott, superintendent- president who have and those who have not decided what academic goals they are pursuing. Students who plan to transfer to four-year universities or get vocational degrees would get class preference. There would also be a ranking within these two categories. Con¬ tinuing college students would re¬ ceive top priority, followed by high school graduates and new and re¬ turning students without college degrees. Those who have bachelor’s degrees enrolled in the institutions would come at the end. The preference plan is currently under scrutiny by state college offi¬ cials. It will be formally presented to the California community college’s Board of Governors in March for discussion. Afterreviewingtheplan, they are expected to vote on it. “Matriculated students have edu¬ cational goals and educational plans. They are making progress to meet those goals and plans,” Reed said. “They need to get their degrees to move out to make spots for the next students.” She said the plan was drafted because “the state Legislature keeps asking us, ‘When there are not enough seats, who gets the seats, and in what basis?’ “Otherwise the Legislature would have come up with their own plan, and we don’t want that,” Reed said. According to Reed, approximately 60 community colleges across the states are setting enrollment prefer¬ ences without state mandate. She See, “PRIORITIES,” page 4 Sign of the Times EXCUSE ME, BUT ARE YOU...? A student eloquently answers the most-asked question heard on campus parking lots. Neither parking, fee increases, reduced classes and a pared down faculty will deter a student’s determination. He’s not leaving. Photo by NATHAN WOOD/ The COURIER Police orders evacuation Classes disrupted as C Building air vents fill with fumes By RODNEY MITCHELL Staff Writer An invisible assailant disrupted night classes and sent students and staff scurrying for safety Feb. 17. Noxious fumes filled classrooms on the second floor of C building, prompting campus police and safety officials to order an entire building evacuation. Police said they suspect foul play in that incident and will investigate the incident further. Helen Levia, a college employee, reported the incident to campus police when fumes emitting from the air vents became overwhelm¬ ing. Campus police ordered an en¬ tire building evacuation involving more than 500 students and staff. Sgt. Vince Palermo, supervisor of all security forces on campus, de¬ scribed the evacuation as smooth and orderly. Assisted by the City of Pasadena fire department, campus police con¬ ducted a room-to-room search of the entire building, primarily looking for any incendiary devices, such as smoke bombs and tear gas canisters. In a supposition, Palermo stated that mace or tear gas may have been dispersed into one of the main air ducts, which would explain how the fumes spread throughout the build¬ ing. Studentsand staff werekeptout of the building until Dr. James Kossler, assistant superintendent of administrative services, gave the all- clear. Some students and staff com¬ plained of mild chest pains and eye irritation from the fumes. Campus police have made no arrest in connection with this incident. Police suspect that the incident was the result of a prank. However, the person responsible for this incident endangered the lives of 500 students and staff and will face serious con¬ sequences if caught, a campus po¬ lice official said. Palermo said that there have not been any incidents of this kind for quite some time. However, he said during final examinations and mid¬ terms, building evacuations are some¬ times frequent due to unfounded bomb threats. These are called in mostly by students, campus police and safety officials said. Campus police officials suggest that students familiarize themselves with emergency procedures that are posted in most classrooms through¬ out the campus. These include information about fire evacuation alarm signals. This alarm consists of intermittent 10 seconds, two seconds and 10 sec¬ onds signals, followed by a longer alarm of five seconds to signal an all-clear. Other information include tele¬ phone numbers to call in case of an emergency, explosion, earthquake, chemical or radiation spill, air raid ornuclear attack, utility failure, duty assignments and medical and first aid. Rainy weather hampers new library construction Photo by ANDREW ZIMA / The COURIER Despite of heavy rains, construction continues to progress for the Walter Shatford Library, set to open in the Fall of 1993. □ After wind and rain present building problems, contractors for the new Walter Shatford Library struggle to meet scheduled opening. By ELIZABETH SCHMIDT Staff Writer Groundbreaking ceremonies for PCC’s new library were held Sept. 1991, and the weather has been play¬ ing unfriendly tricks ever since. The first disaster, Hurricane Andrew, hit southern Florida last April. According to Ernie Church, director of facilities services, the main contractor for the new Walter Shatford library, Moran Construc¬ tion, had secured a huge order of steel beams and other materials tor the project. However, when Florida builders were desperate for materials, the supplier used the materials for hurri¬ cane repairs. Although this delayed the PCC project, Moran Construc¬ tion was able to resume the original schedule a few months later. Everything looked good by De¬ cember, with concrete roof panels in place and a thin temporary water¬ proof coating applied in case of rain. Unfortunately , the heavy Decem¬ ber rains exceeded the strength of the waterproofing, and the concrete panels became watersoaked. Dow¬ ell said it takes at least five days of warm weather to dry out the con¬ crete. But every time the roof began to dry it rained again. Despite a variety of plastic roof coverings, the wind continued to rip off enough of the covering to allow leakage. To make matters worse, when the windows were ready for glazing, the installation subcontractor went bankrupt. As a result, January and February storms blew rain into the open win¬ dows, wetting some of the drywall. Fortunately, the drywall contractor guaranteed replacement for any drywall damage from their work being done before the roof and windows. Church says that work is still far behind schedule, because almost all the finish work with other subcon¬ tractors now has to wait until the roof and windows are in place. However he said he is confident that Moran Construction will be able to accelerate the schedule as soon as the roof is done. According to library director David Dowell, one unexpected benefit of California’s economic troubles has been that many first-class subcon¬ tractors and specialists are available for reasonable wages. This was first evident with the original contractor bids for the library — PCC ended up with a much better deal than first expected. There was so much com¬ petition for the contract that several items in the original plans, cut by state officials for budget reasons, were replaced at no cost in contrac- Please see, “LIBRARY,” page4 Campus police suspect theft an inside operation By RODNEY MITCHELL Staff Writer A mock radio station in the C building where broadcast students practice their skills on state-of- the-art equipment lost $4,000 worth of brand new broadcast equipment in a burglary that campus police describe as an “in¬ side job.” Michael Bloebaum, chairman of the communications depart¬ ment, reported the theft at ap¬ proximately 10:30 a.m., Tuesday Feb. 23. However, he said that he sus¬ pects that the theft took place over the weekend. Bloebaum reported that the items missing include a reel to reel tape recorder valued at $3,500 and two microphones valued at $250 each missing out of C114in the basement of the C building. “When equipment is open to the public, of course, sometimes theft occurs,” he said. Campus police and safety of¬ ficials suspect that a student or staff were responsible for the theft because there was no evi¬ dence of forced entry. Police said that either the door to the room was inadverdently left open or the thief or thieves had a key. The thieves also had enough time to unbolt the reel-to- reel tape recorder from the furni¬ ture stand it was attached to. Officer Leroy Henderson of campus police and safety said that the area where the equip¬ ment was stolen did not have any kind of alarm system. He also said that students and staff should ensure that their ar¬ eas are secured after use. “Secu¬ rity is everybody’s business,” said Henderson. Henderson concluded that sometimes staff members and students unlock doors to use the equipment and then forget to lock the doors again.