PCC Courier, July 1, 1982

Art Center students began shooting "It's a New Dawn" in the Nursing Lab last week. The film, written and directed by Candice Smith, relates the story of a welfare mother who enters nursing school and her struggle to make a living in the medical world. — Courier photos by Eddie Mundo Action! VOL. 54, NO. 1 PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA JULY 1, 1982 Slashed Budget Could Reduce Credit Classes — Courier photo by Barbara Nack HOW DO YOU SPELL "RELIEF"?— These former PCC students would spell it G-R-A-D-U-A-T-l-O-N. By Alex Spada Editor-in-Chief The Board of Board of Trustees adopted a tentative budget for the 1982-83 fiscal year last week, in¬ cluding a 26.9 percent reduction in Federal income. Although the ac¬ tion was taken prior to passage of the state budget, the Trustees ex¬ pected the $30 million decrease for ‘‘avocational and recreational” courses the Legislature approved Friday. Approval of the tentative budget follows the presentation of the preliminary budget in a procedure which will also includes approval of the publication and adopted budgets. State community college chancellor Gerry Hayward has proposed a “hit list” of avoca¬ tional classes “ineligible as credit course offerings,” according to Steven Cerra, PCC vice president for instruction. A more detailed list of “courses to be removed” as credit classes is expected to be available for tonight’s Board of Trustees meeting, said Cerra. The chancellor’s proposed list, presented last week for discussion only, includes credit classes de¬ scribed as “avocational, self-help and recreational courses.” Al¬ though, “PCC is in better shape than other colleges,” said Cerra, the class reductions will have a “severe impact” on the college. “There may be some serious ramifications” in the physical education departments, Cerra said. The hit list includes courses in bicycling, figure and weight control, yoga, backpacking, and ballroom, belly, square and disco dancing. Self-help courses include quilt¬ ing, weaving, gardening, home maintenance, personal typing, tax preparation, and consumer main¬ tenance of automobiles, motorcy¬ cles and boats. Specialized art courses are also "/ don 't think the concept that we are in a crisis has yet permeated the administration. " targeted for cutbacks. They in¬ clude calligraphy, stitchery, jew¬ elry and other craft courses. The private pilot’s ground school is also recommended to be drop¬ ped as a credit offering. While all these subjects may be deducted from the credit program, many will be retained as non¬ credit fee classes, according to Cerra. Many community colleges, however, may decide to drop these subjects entirely, Cerra said. Trustee Joseph Sargis said, “I don’t feel threatened by this at all,” explaining many of those same courses might have been dropped by the college anyway. “I don’t think the concept that we are in a crisis has yet permeated the administration of this campus,” Sargis added. Sargis expressed concern over the “extraordinary” number of one unit lower courses in the Phys¬ ical Education department. He specifically mentioned 21 vol¬ leyball, 15 tennis and 10 body build¬ ing classes offered for the fall semester: Trustee Roger Gertmenian ad¬ vocated cutting teaching positions in the art department, women’s physical education and the nursing program. He recommended drop¬ ping one librarian position, one administration vice president and 10 percent of the custodial staff. He also advised removing the Child Development Center. Superintendent-President Rich¬ ard S. Meyers said he believed the college to be in a good position to handle the chancellor’s hit list. “We have cleaned up” the course offerings, he said. Meyers ex¬ pressed concern however, since several cuts which have been made have hurt the campus; more cuts, he said, will hurt more. Non-credit classes, including all lectures, forum series and re¬ licensure courses may be offered as fee community service classes only. The cutbacks, which are ex¬ pected to affect many part-time and Extended Day instructors, will take effect when the final budget is approved next month. Police Officers Added to Security Department By Sheryl Mee News Editor Police officers will patrol the campus for the first time next January, the Board of Trustees voted recently. There will be seven of these police officers in addition to the five security and parking officers already employed. Phillip Mullendore, director of college safety, said he hopes the additon of seven police officers will help curtail the number of crimes occurring on campus. The police officer’s duties at PCC will include patroling the campus to protect persons and property, apprehending or arrest¬ ing violators, and conducting in¬ vestigations of crimes. According to Mullendore, “Our mission is prevention rather than ap¬ prehension.” The prospective police officers will be required to go through a lengthy and strenuous testing pe¬ riod before they become eligible to be hired, according to Mullendore. A sheriff’s physical agility test, psychological screening, a written exam and an oral exam are some of the tests used to weed out the best possible candidates. After candidates have passed these tests, they are then adminis¬ tered a lie detector test. Mullen¬ dore says that the difficulty of this testing is extreme. Statistics show that out of every one hundred people that apply for the job, only four make it to the finish. The Commission on Peace Of¬ ficers Standards and Training (POST) then examines the appli¬ cants. POST is a state commission regulating requirments for police officers and it also pays for their training. POST must approve the candidates before they go through a POST accredited police academy for sixteen weeks. During the 1981-82 school year, $12,000 was taken from cars parked in the PCC lots. Mullendore hopes the addition of the police officers will help reduce the number of such incidents. Crimes reported to the security office are usually not investigated. According to Mullendore, this is caused by the limited manpower the security department has now. With the addition of trained police officers, “there will be better in¬ vestigations of the crimes that have occurred so that we can take immediate action on the inci¬ dents.” These police officers will have the power to arrest suspects. The Board of Trustees has yet to determine if the officers will be carrying guns on campus. This will be decided next fall. News Briefs RTD Fares Cut The Southern California Rapid Transit District has cut back their basic fare to 50 cents, effective today. The base fare for college and high school students has been low¬ ered to 20 cents and student, senior citizen and handicapped monthly passes have been re¬ duced to $4. As a result of Proposition A, plans to cut back on routes have been scrapped. Author¬ ities hope the reduced rates will encourage people to take the bus instead of driving.