Opinion
Campus Scene
Sports
Tobacco settlement: good for health
or good for profits?
The proposed settlement dupes the
public and lines the pockets of big
tobacco.
Page 2
Popular teacher Michele Ireland-Galman
is selected for coveted Risser Award. The
honor is given to the outstanding teacher
of the year.
Page 9
Women’s soccer makes its debut
at PCC in the fall. Under head
coach Chuck Lyon, the team
hopes to take the conference
title.
Page 12
Thursday
June 26, 1997
SAM HERNANDEZ
/
THE COURIER
Though PCC students take pride in their campus, this Campus Center closet has not been shown much respect.
Poindexter
sues college
BY SID SARAF
Courier Staff Writer
The epic saga of Forrest
Poindexter is continuing over the
summer. The ex-AS president has
Filed a claim of police brutality
against PCC. At its June 10 meet¬
ing, the board of trustees rejected
his claim for unspecified dam¬
ages.
The claim stemmed from an
incident on Nov. 3 when
Poindexter was detained for not
complying with a police order to
vacate his office. He also alleged¬
ly verbally abused two female stu¬
dents who were using the copy
machine in CC203 for a debate
tournament that was being held on
campus. He claims that police
used violent force when it was not
necessary. He also said he was
thrown against an elevator wall by
Steven Lester, campus police offi¬
cer.
“We can not comment on the
case since it is pending litigation,”
said Sherry Hassan, the director of
business services. Poindexter was
not available for comment.
Although the board of trustees
rejected the claim, the case has not
been resolved. The situation will
now be handled by the school’s
attorneys. Before any civil case
can go to trial, the court requires
that both parties conduct media¬
tion sessions which are expected
to take some time.
Little disruption
from 626 change
DANIEL ARCHULETA
Courier Staff Writer
■ The recent area code change
affecting PCC is expected to cause
little if any problems according to
campus departments.
Switching from the 818 to the
new 626, albeit inconvenient,
should be a smooth one.
Dale Pittman, director of man¬
agement information services,
said, “There won’t be an equip¬
ment or fiscal impact, just some
minor reprinting costs.” “If we
just let the normal life cycle of the
printed materials take place we’ll
be fine.”
Fortunately the change is
occurring during summer, while
there is less need for printed mate¬
rials.
This, coupled with the fact that
the area is receiving a six month
“re-adjustment” period, makes the
need for updated materials nearly
obsolete.
“There will only be added costs
if people on campus throw their
stationery packages away,”
Richard Jones, director of printing
services, said. He added that his
department did the change auto¬
matically.
“It’s a part of the service we
offer to the campus community,”
he said.
Jones said that the printing
plant’s work load shouldn’t
increase because the new code.
“It hasn’t impacted our work that
much;, we print every five to six
weeks anyway,” he said.
The change from the current
code of 818 to the new code of
626 isn’t coming as a surprise.
Pittman said that the school has
been preparing for the change for
some time.
“The phone companies warned
us a year ago that the area code
may be changed,” he said.
“We’ve been getting ready for the
last six months.”
The only significant alteration
to the college’s telephone service
in recent years occurred when the
prefixes were changed.
Pittman said that the college
invested on the equipment neces¬
sary for these type of happenings
at that time.
Jones said that people around
campus panicked when 585
became PCC’s permanent prefix.
“They ordered all sorts of stuff
because they were under the
impression that the change was
immediate,” he said. He suspects
that this will not be the case this
time around as long as “people
don’t order all at once.”
A large portion of Pasadena is
part of the area affected by the
change. Cities from Alhambra to
Walnut will be affected as well.
Cafeteria prices rise due to
international markets
BY REBECCA LANSING
Courier Staff Writer
Anyone who has stopped by
the Annex for a cup of coffee or
a snack probably noticed that
prices have gone up on all food
items. During the last two
weeks, prices have increased by
5 to 10 cents on most food, with
the exception of the Taco Bell
franchise and the Java Hut.
“In general, the increase has
been directed towards every¬
thing,” said Don Williams, man¬
ager of the cafeteria. For exam¬
ple, a sandwich that had cost
$1.19, now costs $ 1 .50. A bag of
chips went from 75 to 83 cents,
and a donut went from 60 to 65
cents.
“We’ve been holding off
increasing prices,” said
Williams, “but coffee prices
have gone up, and floods and
rain have caused a scarcity in
produce. Summer usually brings
a reduction in the price of pro¬
duce and raw materials, but this
year is different. The price of
coffee went up a long time ago;
we’re just trying to keep up.”
PCC is not the only school to
experience such an increase.
Schools all over the country
have had to deal with increases
in prices for similar reasons.
However, PCC gets a commis¬
sion on all sales and profits go to
the student body. When PCC
students were asked what they
thought about the price hike,
they had some mixed feelings.
“It was bound to happen, the
price of everything goes up. But
5 cents doesn’t seem like any¬
thing major,” Brian Kieplcr said.
Theresa Rowell explained, “I
FILE PHOTO
The increase in cafeteria prices is not worrying much of the student body.
only eat at school occasionally
because eating out gets expen¬
sive after a while. I’m sure it
won’t change anything for me.”
Steven Ramos said, “That
isn’t asking much if the quality
of the foods and beverages arc
going up.”
“I already have a budget for
parking, lunch, and supplies, and
I don’t think the price hike is
necessary. Books are expensive
enough without worrying about
a cup of coffee,” Michelle
Rodriguez stated.
Bruce Tong explained, “If I
didn’t have a little extra 5 cents
to spare. I’d be ticked off, but I
do, so I really don’t care.” While
most students admitted the
increase really wouldn’t change
whether they ate at PCC or not,
all students said they would have
liked the prices to stay the way
they were.
Irwin Haimowitz, owner of
the cafeteria, said that there was
one good thing to come from the
increase. “Because we did that,
we got a much stronger and mel¬
lower premium coffee.” He does
not think the increase will affect
students too much, if they are
realistic. “If students shop
around and compare, they’ll
realize that prices are going up
everywhere.”
AUG
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