Serving PCC and the Pasadena community since 1915
Winter 2006 pcc-courieronline.com Vol. 93, Issue 1
Spring Enrollment Takes a Dive
Photo illustration by Daniel Belis
/
Courier
Empty Rooms: Low enrollment figures could possibly lead to PCC cutting classes with less than 20 students.
Dean Lee
News Chief
The number of students cur¬
rently enrolled for the PCC spring
semester is down significantly
from the number in spring 2005,
according to PCC’s office of insti¬
tutional planning and research.
One week prior to the start of
classes last year, the school was
84.7 percent full, compared with
81.6 percent this year. This 3.6
percent drop brings the total
enrollment number to 21,299 stu¬
dents.
Over the last five years enroll¬
ment figures at PCC have risen
steadily. In 2003 the figures
peaked at 27,000 enrolled students
before taking a downturn. They
have declined ever since.
“This is very interesting if you
look back that far,” said Stuart
Wilcox, the dean of the institu¬
tional planning and research
office. “These numbers are very
consistent with census data and
the number of students enrolled in
lower grades, such as high school
and middle school.”
Current enrollment figures are
at about the same level as they
were in 2000. However, since there
has been a steady drop over the
last three years, PCC administra¬
tors are concerned and working on
ways to promote PCC and attract
more students.
“We are working with Janet
Lavine in external relations by
phoning returning students and
making sure they are aware that
they need to register,” Hardash
said. “This 'phone blasting’ focus¬
es on students that registered in
fall but might not return in
spring.”
Financially, lower enrollments
have hurt the school in the long
run. PCC is in a state of “stabi¬
lization" where the state of
California gives PCC funding
based on a higher rate of enroll¬
ment from last year, even though
enrollment has dropped.
If the number of students stays
at the lower level of what it is now
or does not increase by July, 1 the
state will cut funning to PCC by
1.6 to 2 percent.
“If we don't meet the dead line
by July, 1 it's probably more likely
to be closer to 2 percent,” said
Peter Hardash, vice president of
administrative services. “That
amounts to about 2 million in
funding that the school won't get.”
Wilcox said the amount of
[see Enrollment,
PAGE 3]
Course
Cutback
Method
Stirs Up
Debate
Dean Lee
News Chief
A discussion over using the
Student Benefit Index (SBI) to
expand the number of core courses
offered at PCC sparked a heated
debate between members of the
Academic Senate and members of
the Board of Trustees during their
regular meeting Feb. 1 .
Tempers rose over how the SBI is
used to determine which courses
will be taught and how many sec¬
tions of these courses will be taught
in each division.
“The faculty is concerned that
the SBI could be used to get rid of
expensive programs or unpopular
faculty members,” said Terry
Trendler, associate professor of the
natural sciences.
Trendler heads an SBI ad-hoc
committee put together by the
Academic Senate to address faculty
concerns over the uses of the SBI.
“The first letter of the SBI stands
for students,” Trendler said. “Yet,
they were never surveyed for their
[see Student Index,
PAGE 3]
20th Artist in Residence Anticipated
William Hallstrom
/
Courier
Art Exchange: California state Sen. Jack Scott (left) talks with PCC design instructor Stan
Kong and former art department dean Dr. Linda Malm at the VIP reception for the 20th
anniversary Artist in Residence exhibition on Jan. 12.
PCC to Celebrate
Black History Month
Despite Controversy
Jennifer MacDonald
Contributing Writer
While getting ready to welcome
the 20th Artist in Residence this
spring, the visual art and media
studies division is taking a look back
at the past 19 artists who visited the
PCC campus as part of the Artist in
Residence program.
To commemorate the program's
20-year anniversary, a DVD and
full-color catalog will be available in
late spring that will document the
Artists in Residence when they were
on campus.
Those 20 artists have also been
invited to come back to PCC during
the spring semester to show their
work and give presentations.
The Artist in Residence program
was started in 1986 to provide stu¬
dents and the community of
Pasadena with the chance to inter¬
act with an artist of international
reknown and for the school to
acquire an original work by the
artist.
“For a lot of our students, this is
the first opportunity to meet with
somebody who is practicing across
the state and the world,” said Alex
Kritselis, dean of visual arts and
media studies.
Dean Lee
News Chief
PCC is one of 70 schools in
Southern California actively partici¬
pating in a Caltech study searching
for ultra-high energy cosmic rays
that blast through the atmosphere,
shattering as they hit Earth’s atmos¬
phere, before falling to the ground.
Little is known about these high
energy particles and the California
High School Cosmic Ray
Twenty years later, it has proved
to be a success with the 2006 artist
in residence, video artist Jessica
Bronson, set to arrive in the spring.
Bronson, like the 19 artists
before her, will spend one week at
Observatory (CHICOS) project
gives PCC students an opportunity
to take part in real-life, scientific
research.
CHICOS is the largest cosmic-
ray research project in the northern
hemisphere. It is also one of only
two in the world, according to
Robert McKeown, professor of
physics at Caltech.
“I think this is great,” said
astronomy professor John Sepikas.
“To be honest, I didn’t know any-
PCC lecturing to large audiences
that include the public. She will
review students’ portfolios, give pre¬
sentations to small groups of stu¬
dents and spend time in a studio on
campus doing work.
thing about these high energy parti¬
cles until I started teaching about
them in my class. This project intro¬
duces students to the latest research
going on at Caltech.”
Researchers from Caltech
installed a 250-pound, funnel-
shaped cosmic ray detector next to
the astronomy building here at PCC.
Since its installation in Feb. 2003,
the detector has collected almost
three year’s worth of data.
Cosmic rays are thought to origi-
Another important part of the
Artist in Residence program is that
each artist donates a piece of their
[see Artist in Residence,
PAGE 3]
nate from atomic nuclei accelerated
to immense energies by violent mag¬
netic activity. These rays are thought
to originate beyond our galaxy.
The Caltech professors partici¬
pating in the project are studying
these cosmic rays through the detec¬
tion of “showers,” from secondary
particles they create in Earth’s
atmosphere. These particles have the
highest energy of any particle
Kate Murray
Editor-in-Chief
PCC will host a celebration in
honor of Black History Month on
Feb. 24. The event, which will be
sponsored by the African-American
Youth Leadership Connection, the
Black Student Alliance, and the
Association of Black Employees,
among others, will showcase a live¬
ly series of events at 7 p.m. in the
Sexson Auditorium.
The program will include choral
music, dancing and a video mon¬
tage to commemorate African-
American history. One community
humanitarian award will also be
given out, as well as Exceptional
Contribution Awards for those with
outstanding achievements in the cat¬
egories of business, sports, religion,
media and education.
“This is an educational celebra¬
tion of the African-American com¬
munity,” said Rick Hodge, dean of
the PCC Community Education
Center.
Black History Month has been
celebrated since February of 1926,
when Harvard scholar Dr. Carter G.
Woodson established Negro History
Week. February was chosen in par¬
ticular because it aligned with the
birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and
Frederick Douglass, both extremely
influential figures in African-
American history. However,
Woodson often said he hoped there
would be a time when Americans
would willingly recognize the
achievements of African Americans
as an integral part of American his¬
tory. Then, he said, Negro History
Week wouldn’t be necessary.
In 1976 the week grew into a
month-long celebration, which is
now sponsored by the Association
for the Study of African-American
Life and History, founded by
Woodson in 1915.
Today, Black History Month is
observed by many, while others find
it old-fashioned. In a recent inter¬
view with Mike Wallace on “60
Minutes,” actor Morgan Freeman
called Black History Month “ridicu¬
lous.”
“I don’t want a Black History
Month,” Freeman said. “Black his¬
tory is American history. There’s no
white history month.”
Objectors and supporters of
Black History Month seem to come
in equal numbers. In an interview
with ABC-7 news, Boston college
professor Larry Watson said he was
alarmed to find that none of his stu¬
dents could identify “the most
activist senator in our country,” Sen.
Edward Kennedy.
“Our schools do not teach the
importance of politics to history,”
Watson continued. “Black History
Month is needed now more than
ever and needs to be taught all year
round.”
Tony Muhammed, a Nation of
Islam minister in Los Angeles who
speaks to audiences about black his¬
tory, has experienced a similar reac-
Courier file photo
Jackie Robinson is one of
the PCC alumni honored
during Black History Month.
[see Black History,
PAGE 3]
[see CHICOS., PAGE 3]
Caltech Cosmic Ray Research Project
Largest in Northern Hemisphere