Pasadena City College
Pasadena, California
Vol. 75 No. 15
COURIER
Serving the PCC Community for 7 5 years
Thursday
June 3, 1993
Commencement exercises set for June 18
□ On June 18, a
record number of
students will
graduate despite fee
increases and class
reductions.
By RODNEY MITCHELL
Staff Writer
After all the assignments have
been turned in, all the examinations
have been taken and all the
requirements for graduation met,
students breathe a sigh of relief as
they come to the end of their aca¬
demic careers at PCC.
However, educators said gradu¬
ates should view graduation as the
beginning instead of the end.
“Commencement means the
beginning. And when you finish
college in two or more years, you
are beginning to do the things you
learned in college, ’’said Sam Sogho-
monian, professor of social sci¬
ences and the guest speaker at PCC’s
68th annual commencement exer¬
cises.
The commencement exercises will
be held on Friday, June 18 at 6:30
p.m. in the Mirror Pools area.
Dr. Jack A Scott, superinten¬
dent-president and Joseph Sargis,
president of the Board of Trustees,
will distribute degrees to the 1, 146
students graduating as the class of
1993.
Joseph T. Mancinelli and Thai
Tran Gia Nguyen are this year’s co¬
valedictorians. Nguyen will deliver
the valedictory address.
This year’s commencement is a
feat in itself, a college official said.
The graduating class of 1993 had to
contend with a flurry of financial
blows in the form of tuition hikes
and fee increases which made
graduation more difficult.
“Some people are survivors.
They do the things necessary to
make it happen,” said Alvar Kauti,
associate dean of student activities.
Kauti, who has been coordinating
the commencement exercises for
the past 16 years, said that a college
degree is absolutely necessary to
compete in the professional job
market.
He also said that without train¬
ing, a person will only be qualified
for service jobs such as those in fast
food establishments.
Service jobs and the necessity of
a college education will also be
discussed during Soghomonian’s
speech at the commencement
exercises.
Soghomonian, who has been
referred to as a pillar in the PCC
community, has been affiliated with
the college since the 1940s, when
he attended the then Pasadena Jun¬
ior College. He was student body
president in 1945.
He has been a political science
professor at PCC since 1964 and has
received honors such as the Teacher’s
Medal, the Valley Forge Freedom
Foundation, the Liberty Bell Award,
Pasadena Bar Association, and
Teacher of the Year Award.
Soghomonian said his basic
message to graduates will be to ac¬
quire college skills that can be used
to find a job.
“When your parents finished col¬
lege and found jobs, their jobs were
stable. However, when you go out,
you are going to find that the job you
get will only good for four or five
years, and then the job will become
obsolete. This is a throw-away soci¬
ety, jobs are throw- away jobs,” he
said.
“You have to have those college
skills that are transferable to any
job that is available, and I am cer¬
tain that those two skills are English
and math.”
Soghomonian went on to say the
most visible difference graduates
faced in 1945 versus graduates in
1993 is that the the 40s society was
more concerned with trivial issues
about behavior and conduct. “ We
were talking more about the me¬
ringue than the pie.”
The PCC student body as well as
the graduating class of 1993 re¬
flects the diverse racial mix of the
community which educators said
enhances the total educational ex¬
perience of students.
They also said that PCC gradu¬
ates will be prepared for the “real
world” by being exposed to a vari¬
ety of races and cultures.
However, Soghomonian said
racial diversity was not even an ac¬
knowledged issue in the 1940s.
“In that sense our graduates
were handicapped because we failed
to exploit the resources of those
who did not look like us.”
In addition to the commence¬
ment address by Soghomonian,
graduates and guests will be enter¬
tained by the music of the PCC
Chamber Singers, directed by Dr.
Donald Brinegar. The PCC Lancer
Band, directed by James Arnwine,
and the PCC Jazz Ensemble directed
by Paul Kilian will also be present.
Kilian has been entertaining the
guests and graduates at commence¬
ment exercises since 1978. Kilian
said the background music will be a
mixture of older tunes for the older
audience.
One of the highlights of the cere¬
mony will be the procession which
includes the graduates, the faculty,
the Board of Trustees and partici¬
pating guests.
Where do graduates go from here?
According to the Faculty Associa¬
tion of Community Colleges Office
of Education, out of ten community
college graduates, seven attend Cal
State schools, two enter the UC sys¬
tem and one will attend a private
university or college.
Commencement at a Glance
The 68th
commencement
exercises will be held
on Friday, June 18 at
6:30 pm. in the Mirror
Pools Area.
♦ Total petitions
received for 1992-1993
schoolyear: 1, 146 for
summer, fall and spring
graduation.
♦Number of candidates
for associate in arts
degree: 744
♦Number of candidates
for associate in science
degree: 686
♦ Graduate breakdown
without spring graduate
numbers: 169 men
graduates and 260
women graduates.
♦Valedictorians: Joseph
T. Mancinelli and Thai
Tran Gia Nguyen.
♦Commencement
speaker: Sam
Soghomonian, professor
of social sciences since
1964 and alumnus, class
of 1945.
Here’s looking
at you, PCC
Who does the typical college student look like?
At Pasadena City College, circa 1993, the answer
is everyone imaginable. As the spring semester
draws to an end, COURIER staff photographer Fu-
Han Lee captures some of the different faces on
campus that gives the college one of the most diverse
student populations in
California.
From the top row
left, Michael Perrick,
and Tiffany Estrada
Second row, from left,
an unidentified stu¬
dent, Daniel Wapner
and Nathan Wood.
Asian Americans
campaign for room
in Shatford library
□Fundraising is set for an
Asian American room in
the new library. Group’s
goal is $50,000.
By PATRIA ABELGAS
Staff Writer
The half-finished library standing in front
of the U building houses two small rooms
that will exhibit the various cultures that
make up PCC. “These rooms will remind
people that we have different heritages at
PCC,” according to Dr. David R. Dowell,
assistant dean of library resources.
The rooms, called heritage rooms, will
showcase books, paintings and other art of
the Latino/Chicano and African American
cultures.
Upon closer inspection, however, a piece
is found missing in this collection of “dif¬
ferent heritages.” Asian Americans, the larg¬
est student group on campus, do not not have
their own room in the library.
Dr. Grover Goyne, executive director of
the PCC Foundation which is in charge of all
the fundraisers for the new library, said,
“We were open to the idea but not enough
money was raised.”
Dowell said that several attempts were
made by the Asian American staff but they
were unable to raise the required $50,000.
A minimum of $50,000 is required for the
special rooms.
Goyne, who is also dean of institutional
advancement, revealed that, during the first
stages of planning for the construction of the
new library building, the possibility of a
general ethnic heritage room was discussed.
Some of the Latino and African Ameri¬
can staff members heard of the plan and
suggested that they wanted specific ethnic
heritage rooms, particularly for Latinos and
African Americans. With the help of other
organizations and private donors, each group
was able to raise more than $50,000. Harry
Kawahara, counselor and professor, along
with librarian Joanne Kim, arc now spear¬
heading a campaign to raise $50,000 for an
Asian American heritage room. They only
have $18,000 so far.
Kawahara said that the Asian American
community at PCC was unaware that the
other two groups were raising money for
their own heritage rooms. “1 suppose if we
had known about it, we would have done
something,” Kawahara said.
Kawahara said it was not until the two
groups had already acquired the special rooms
that the Asian American staff was informed
of the plan for specific heritage rooms.
“It was an oversight. We had to draw it to
the attention of the administrators,” Ka¬
wahara said. “How could they overlook the
contribution of the Asian American commu¬
nity to PCC?” he asked.
Kay Hogerty, founder of the new Japa¬
nese Student Association, said, “I think if
you want to represent minorities on campus,
there should be equal representation.”
Goyne said, “Let me put it this way, when
PCC started, the dominant groups were the
blacks and Latinos. The rise of the Asian
American population is very recent, though
dramatic.”
If the Asian American group comes up
with the required money, the Asian Ameri¬
can section will be located in one of the
orientation rooms on the second floor.
The PCC alumnae chapter of Delta S igma
Theta, a sorority for African American women,
donated $25,000 for the the African Ameri¬
can heritage room. The rest came from Afri¬
can American staff members and individual
donors. The La Raza Faculty and Staff Asso¬
ciation, with the help of the Berger Founda¬
tion and private Latino donors, raised $59,000
for the Latino/Chicano room.
it