PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
VOL. 82 No. 1
SUMMER EDITION
THURSDAY
June 27, 1996
• PCC WILL CONTINUE ITS INTERCOLLEGIATE TEAM FOR THE 1997 SEASON
Baseball program safe at home
By ROBERT SANTOS
Courier Staff Writer
It seems a late-inning rally has
saved thebaseball program atPCC.
It was announced at the end of
the last baseball season that the
program would be suspended in¬
definitely. The main reason given
for the suspension was that PCC’s
home field, Jackie Robinson Field
at Brookside Park, named after
PCC’s most famous alumnus,
would not be available after April
1 next season because of a reseed¬
ing project.
Skip Robinson, athletic direc¬
tor, said lack of funds to hire a full¬
time coach also contributed to the
decision.
However, after two Board of
Trustees meetings where commu¬
nity members, including Delano
Robinson, sister-in-law of the late
Jackie Robinson, voiced their op¬
position to the plan to suspend
baseball, the suspension was re¬
versed.
“After further evaluating the
baseball program’s situation,
we’ve decided that we will field a
baseball team for the coming 1997
season,” said Robinson in a state¬
ment released last Thursday.
“The program will be under a
full departmental review follow¬
ing the ’97 season. It’s our hope to
offer a suitable and competitive
baseball program for our students.”
“I think it’s great,” said current
coach Tom Cano upon hearing the
news of the reversal. “I don’t think
it should have been suspended in
the first place,” he added.
At press time, it was still un¬
clear as to where the baseball team
would play next season after its
home field is closed, but at the last
Board of Tnistees meeting was
informed that the team could play
at Victory Park in Arcadia and
would be given priority status.
“Well, that seems to be one of
the solutions to the problem. But,
I think that with PCC’s political
power in the community, it should
tiy to have the closure date pushed
back a month,” Cano said.
The suggestion to suspend
baseball wasmadebythe college’s
Intercollegiate Athletic Commit¬
tee, whose job it is to evaluate all
tlie school’s athletic programs.
Baseball was the first program the
committee evaluated.
Lori Jepsen, women’s volley¬
ball coach and member of the
committee, told the board had she
known that another site was avail
Please see SAFE, Page 3
A BIRD'S EYE VIEW
OSCAR CHAVEZ
/
IRC
The new $17.85 million Community Education Center on Foothill Boulevard will open this fall.
• PCC NAMED REPOSITORY FOR DEAD SEA SCROLLS
A bit of history on loan to PCC
By DOUGLAS WILKIE
Courier Staff Writer
The famed Dead Sea Scrolls have
arrived at Pasadena City College.
The Huntington Library in San
Marino has indefinitely loaned PCC
some 800 microfiche images pro¬
duced from photography of scroll
fragments originally written on
papyrus and leather. The collection
will be housed in the Shatford Li¬
brary. PCC has the distinction of
being the only public community
college in the country to serve as a
scrolls repository. The Huntington
Library considers the loan a con¬
tinuation of its policy of not “im¬
posing restrictions on the study,
publication and reproduction of its
rare books, manuscripts and art ob¬
jects.”
Since their discovery in caves
east of Jerusalem in 1 947, the Dead
Sea Scrolls had been under the
strict possession and control of a
handful of Western religious
scholars for 40 years. Most of the
original scrolls are housed in the
Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem,
with a few others on display at the
Shrine of the Book, also in Israel.
A complete photographic set of
the scrolls was originally on dis¬
play at the Ancient Biblical Manu-
Please see SCROLLS Page 8
Rodney Fleeman
assumes post of
PCC vice president
By DOUGLAS WILKIE
Courier Staff Writer
Dr. Rodney Fleeman’s appoint¬
ment as vice president for adminis¬
trative services on June 1 could not
have been more timely. California
voters had only just recently ap¬
proved Proposition 203 which will
enable community colleges like
PCC to embark upon ambitious
capital improvement programs.
Fleeman, whose predecessor just
happens to be current PCC Presi¬
dent James Kossler, has wasted no
time in setting out to implement the
next phase of the college’s ongoing
Master Plan approved by the Board
of Trustees in 1987.
Fleeman will oversee three prin¬
cipal capital improvement projects
over the next two to three years at a
cost of$28 million: construction of
a new two-story physical education
facility, a new facilities building
and the renovation of the old li¬
brary. In addition, he will be re¬
sponsible for a proposed privately-
funded commons and sculpture
garden to be located to the immedi¬
ate south of Shatford Library. The
just-completed satellite Commu¬
nity Skills Center and Child Devel¬
opment Center will also be in his
purview and are slated for formal
dedication ceremonies in the fall.
Fleeman is no stranger to the
bricks and mortar of higher educa¬
tion, having supervised the con-
