PCC Courier, January 16, 1992

OPINION 1 1 | SPORTS California Why state businesses seek relief ? Page 2 The COURIER will be back February 20, 1 992 Set for SCC Teams open conference play this weekend Page 6 Pasadena City College Pasadena, California Vol. 74 No. 15 "COURIER Thursday January 16, 1992 New law requires the report of hate crimes By EDWIN FOLvtN News Features Editor Campus police have been compiling data on hate crimes since the beginning of the fall semester in compliance with a state law en¬ acted in September requiring all institutions of higher learning to report on these crimes. The state’s intention is to find out how many of these crimes are happening and determine what kind of measures are needed to control them. Philip Mullendore, director of campus police and safety, said the department has been monitoring reports of criminal behavior but hasn ’ t received clear guidelines for collecting or submitting the data. The written law only generally defines what these crimes are and what kind of information should be re¬ corded. Mullendore said there is a similar fed¬ eral law that offers guidelines for hate crimes. The police use these to determine whether an incident is actually a hate crime. Although the federal government requires campuses nationwide to report statistics on all incidents of criminal activ¬ ity, the reporting of special “hate crimes” is optional, according to Mullendore. Representatives from the many colle¬ giate organizations involved are meeting this week to create a system similar to the federal plan, said Mullendore. “I think they will come up with definitions that will be similar if not the same as those of the FBI.” The state law, AB 1094, has been in effect since Sept. 9. The amendment to the educational code requires officials at each campus to compile records of all occurrences and arrests for crimes on campus relating to violence, hate violence, theft or destruction of property, illegal drugs or alcohol intoxication. It also requires information on noncriminal acts of hate violence. The law defines hate violence as any act of physical intimidation, harassment, force or violence, or the threat of any physical force or violence directed against any per¬ son or group of persons, or their property, because of the ethnicity, race, national ori- Budget dollar shrinks Photo by Katrina Ten/ The COURIER Even though no cuts were made to the Governor’s proposed 1992-93 community college budget, the money that has been allocated can’t compete with inflation or the number of students competing for classes. Campus suffers ethnic segregation "So let us not be blind to our differences — but let us also direct our attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity." - John F.Kennedy commencement address at The American University, June 10, 1963 By WES KAWANO Special Corespondent At a time when the world is witnessing some dramatic changes, issues such as whether or not the world is safe for cultural diversity no longer seem to exist. Cultural diversity can be seen everywhere, from what was once the Soviet Union to the United States. Presently, many diverse ethnic groups are actually attempting to communi¬ cate with each other instead of at each other. Though this may seem like progress, not all groups are willing participants in this process. Whether it is due to a lack of interest, misconceptions, or their own differences, quite a few ethnic groups choose to stay out of the “mainstream.” The issue might then be whether diversity is safe for the world. Although this process of staying away from other ethnic groups can be seen at almost every college and university in the United States, the most visible example can be studied at PCC. “Different ethnic groups have certain ‘areas’ staked out in the quad,” said Dale Smith, an English major at PCC. “When I sit for a minute in one of these areas, I feel I am on someone’s turf. Smith, a first year PCC stu- Ethnic groups on campus Apathy between groups. Think enough is being done about H. dent, also thought that the flyers on cam¬ pus, written in foreign languages might give the wrong indications to other ethnic groups. In a recent Los Angeles Times article regarding cultural diversity and separa¬ tion in schools, Glenn Rickets, research director of the National Association of Scholars, which is a conservative organi¬ zation based in Princeton, N.J. , blames the multi-cultural movement. “It’s just made people more race conscious and sets up group differences that might not be there otherwise,” he said. Rickets and others said those differences are accentuated by the proliferation of ethnic clubs on many campuses, amounting to self-segregation. However, Troy Duster, a sociology professor and director of UC Berkeley’s Institute for the Study of Social Change, contended in the article, that minority stu¬ dents have always grouped together for self-affirmation and discovery of their heritages — as well as a reaction to exclu¬ sion from establishment clubs. “What ultimately bothers today’s crit¬ ics most is not the racial or ethnic segrega¬ tion of students’ social lives, but the chal¬ lenges that the growing numbers of Asian, Latino and African-American students pose to the faculty once they find their ances¬ tors’ histories and contributions largely ignored in the classroom.” he said. For most campuses, the question really is not if, but how the challenge of bringing together various ethnic clubs will be met. The answer for PCC came in the Spring of 1991 when members of the faculty took an active step in response to this challenge. They participated in what was known as the curriculum integration project. The project focused on ways to modify teaching strategies to increase academic learn¬ ing as well as participation. But more impor¬ tantly, it helped prepare and encourage fac¬ ulty to include perspectives and issues of gender and racial minorities into their course content. Some of the courses that can be taken and have participated in the project include psychology of the Afro-American, contem¬ porary Chicano philosophy, history of the Asian in America, and history of modem art in Europe and America, and Yet, taking such courses does not enable a student to associate, participate, or even integrate into an ethnic group or “the multi¬ cultural American mainstream.” The courses can only attempt to educate and hopefully help the student comprehend other cultures and ethnic groups. Please see Project, page 4 gin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, dis¬ ability or political beliefs of those persons. It does not define a noncriminal act. Because of a growing concern for these problems, the federal “Hate Crimes Statis¬ tics Act of 1990” was enacted in April. The law required the attorney general and the FBI to develop guidelines and collect data regarding hate crimes. According to a booklet published by the FBI, the federal act requires data to be collected on crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity, including where appropriate the crimes of murder, rape and many other physically oriented crimes. Mullendore said the hardest part of re¬ porting these crimes is determining when a hate crime has actually been committed. He said PCC has had no specific reports of hate crimes. “Hate crime guidelines are not ‘cut and dry.’ In the event of a hate crime we will gather data as to what is going on.” In order to qualify as a hate crime, the incident has to be hate motivated, said Mullendore. The simple mention of a de¬ rogatory remark can be considered a hate crime in some incidents. “The crime has to be motivated through hate for alternative races or lifestyles.” Under the new law, the circumstances surrounding the incident de¬ fine whether it is a hate crime or not. As part of the state law, offense characteristics similar to those of the FBI are required but there is no official form of reporting. “It’s not clear what they want,” said Mullendore. Since the campus population is very ra¬ cially diverse, it is surprising that no such crimes have been reported recently. Mullen¬ dore thinks people at PCC are very tolerant of different ethnic groups. “There may be an occasional lack of civility on the part of certain individuals, but there is not a lot of racially motivated crime. Mullendore expects only a small number of the occurrences in the future. “We may have one or two. There can always be some precipitant event that can cause tensions, but people on this campus seem to make an ef¬ fort to get along.” Pay scale differences spark faculty concern By CHRIS LANGREHR Opinion Editor Part-time instructors and teachers at the community skills center are complaining about inequities in pay and hiring policies. Community skills center employees com¬ plain about different pay scales for credit and non-credit instructors. The process of determining which part-time instructors re¬ ceive teaching assignments and which ones don’t is also being attacked, since many in¬ structors face unemployment because of budget cuts. These problems are partly tied to hard economic times. ‘Times of growth are the good times. When you have to start reduc¬ ing programs, it’s a difficult time. When somebody does not get a job that they want, they are going to be upset,” said Dr. David Ledbetter, assistant-superintendent and management chief negotiator. Continuing reductions in the number of classes being offered at PCC means many part-timers do not or will not have jobs any¬ more, since tenured faculty are guaranteed employment. PCC is also required by law to increase the number of full-timers and re¬ duce the number of part-timers, it has on staff. This law is AB 1725 which requires that 75 percent of the instructors at PCC be full-timers this year. Three years ago, PCC classified 67 percent of its staff as full- timers, according to Ledbetter. Consequently, the number of teaching assignments available for part-time instruc¬ tors is greatly reduced especially for the coming summer session. These part-timers seem most concerned that there are no management guidelines that dictate which instructors are offered teaching assignments. “We don’t have any rights. There are no rules or regulations. Departmen t chairs can use any hiring criteria that they want when hiring a part-timer. They also are supposed to consult with tenured faculty when hiring teachers, but they don’t have to. The department chair has the final say when making hiring decisions,” said a part-tme instructor who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of repercussions. Please see Instructors, page 4 Colleges get needed funds in new budget By ANISSA VICENTE Features Editor The spoils from the Proposition 98 victory were made apparent by Gov. Pete Wilson’s 1992-93 budget for the state’s 107 community colleges. The increase, roughly 10 percent above the current year ’ s funding calls for a $268 million increase, $103 million of which is from local revenues. However, a 40 percent increase in Cal state fees will offset the economic advan¬ tages for community colleges, which will carry the burden of heavier enrollments from students who can no longer afford education in the Cal state systems. Last year, California’s community col¬ leges accommodated 100,000 surplus stu¬ dents, for whom they received no state re¬ imbursement. The adjustment failed to stop the cutting of 5,000 more classes and the rejection of 100,000 more students from available classes. The California community colleges, the largest system of higher education in the world, serve more than 1.5 million students. The colleges have been funded for a 2 percent growth each year, while actually experiencing a 5 percent increase in class demands. Community college Chancellor David Meries nevertheless praised Wilson’s budget, calling the increase a vote of confidence for the role community col¬ leges play in the state’s economic recov¬ ery. Key points in Wilson’s proposal for community colleges include $37.5 mil¬ lion for a 1.5 percent cost-of-living ad¬ justment; $ 1 55.5 million for a 6.9 percent enrollment growth and $14 million to continue basic skills education at the cur¬ rent level. Certain categorical programs such as matriculation, disabled students programs and services (DSPS ) and extended oppor¬ tunity programs and services (EOPS) will receive a 6.95 percent increase in fund¬ ing. Community colleges also received added funds for program improvements, containment of hazardous materials, stu¬ dent data collection services, transfer pro¬ grams and mandatory reserve.