Is PCC
Endangering Its
Athletes?
Page 2
Shatner Offers a New
History Professor
Treat for Trekies
Runs Ironman Twice
Page 3
Page 4
The
COURIER
VOL. 70, NO. 1
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
Thursday, June 29, 1989
Prop. 78 Funds Used for New Labs
Michael Rocha
News Editor
An ad hoc foreign language
committee’s three-year research
on the inefficiency of PCC's
foreign language laboratory
resulted in the allocation of
$80,000 for new equipment to be
installed in August, John Wood, a
member of the committee and in
charge of staffing the lab, said.
“The $80,000 was generously
found by Dr. David Ledbetter,”
Wood said. The money came from
the $700,000. the college received
from the state as a result of Pro¬
position 78, which provided PCC
with adequate funding for instruc¬
tional equipment.
Proposition 78, a state bond
issue, provided instructional
equipment funds for all of the
Universities of California, Califor¬
nia State Universities and com¬
munity colleges.
The money PCC received will
also provide funding for new
equipment in the college's telcom
classes as well as the nursing
department. According to Ledbet¬
ter, there would not be enough left
of the $700,000 to spill into next
year’s instructional equipment
budget. “We expect another
[referendum] to come up in the
next year or two,” Ledbetter said.
The committee, which included
Pilar Ara, assistant professor of
English and foreign languages, Dr.
Rae Ballard, chairperson of
English and foreign languages,
Wm. Rodney Foster, assistant
dean of learning resources,
Virginia McCready, associate
professor of English and foreign
languages, Locknath Persaud,
temporary instructor of English
and foreign languages and Wood,
visited numerous colleges includ¬
ing Cerritos Community College.
“After visiting different col¬
leges and looking at their foreign
language laboratories, we found
out that our labs are too old,” ad¬
ded Wood. The current lab facility
was first used almost 10 years ago.
One of the main reasons new
equipment was needed for the lab
was that components needed to
replace parts are to expensive. For
example, a single headset could
cost up to $80. The department had
to replace a dozen headsets in the
fall semester, costing the college
more than $960 in unnecessary
spending.
The 35-station laboratory lo¬
cated in R 1 1 9 will be replaced
with more advanced instructional
audio paraphernalia. “When we
visited different colleges, we saw
them using computers with
different kinds of softwares for
various tasks, especially for
vocabulary,” Foster said. That
kind of modern techonology is
what the committee hopes to have
for PCC in the future.
According to Wood, computers
may not be too far into the lab’s
future. The committee will be try¬
ing to get adequate funding for
computers which will help stu¬
dents learn foreign languages more
easily, Wood added.
The new lab will have more dur¬
able headsets, not like the ones
currently in use, which always
break down. Wood said. "We have
had numerous problems with the
current headsets. The new
headsets will be more sturdy and”
will eventually save the college a
lot of money, he added.
In addition, the new equipment
does not need a separate room for
recorders. With the old equipment,
the room beside R 1 1 9 was used to
house the recorders. According to
Ara, the new equipment will have
its recorders beneath each station.
With eight first and second level
language courses, including Rus¬
sian and Arabic, taught at the lab,
more than 1,500 students used the
facility in the Spring semester. Its
Please see LAB, page 3
Commencement 1989
Will Lester/ The Courier
At the podium, Paul Stuart, newly elected Student Member of the Board of Trustees, leads the
capacity crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance during commencement exercises.
Computer Show and Sale Set
Board Returns Food
Contract for Review
James Dyce
Special Correspondent
PCC gets into the exciting world
of the computer with its very own
Golden Gate Computer Show and
Sale Saturday in the Campus Cen¬
ter cafeteria.
With all the new and exciting
software hitting the market in re¬
cent days such as Micosoft Win¬
dows or the new Lotus 1-2-3
spreadsheet that was just unveiled
in Boston June 20, usersmay want
to update or add to their computer.
If they have an XT computer,
they may want to update it with a
new 286 CPU mother board and
even possibly obtain a new 32 bit
hard disk that for a few hundred
dollars would make their compu¬
ter’s power and speed comparable
to the XT’s which costs well over
$ 1 ,500 new.
Or they may just need some
software, cables, floppies, a com¬
puter hardware part or even a new
computer. All this and much more
will be offered on campus Satur¬
day to all computer users. Pot
those into the Apple computer
there will be plenty of software
and hardware for the Apple com¬
puter also. Approximately 50
booths are planned.
For those interested in compu¬
ters who do not know too much
about them yet. there will be free
demonstrations and experts to
answer any questions at any level.
General admission is $5 but stu¬
dents, faculty and staff with offi¬
cial identification cards will be
charged “only $3,” according to
Bob Kershner, show coordinator.
There will also be a drawing for
$25 along with other prizes.
By James Dvce
Special Correspondent
The latest in a series of events
pertaining to the awarding of the
PCC food concession contract
took a surprising turn of events at
the last Board of Trustees’ meeting
with the startled board putting off
its decision on the matter until its
next meeting on July 6 — possibly
longer.
The food committee had pre¬
sented its recommendation to give
an exclusive campus-wide con¬
tract to Professional Food Service
Management (PFM) and many of
the well informed thought the
board’s approval was an open and
shut matter. However, when the
board was presented with a peti¬
tion containing 2,025 students sig¬
natures urging the trustees not to
accept the food committee’s
recommendation, they declined to
take action.
Dr. Jack Scott, superintendent/
president, said that since the con¬
tracts for both companies end on
June 30, both companies will be
asked to continue their food ser¬
vices for students and faculty, if
they wish to, until the board makes
its decision and awards the con¬
tract.
What many found rather
remarkable about the petition was
that the Bob’s Campus cuisine
supporters were recruited during
or just before exam week — not the
best time to try get students’ atten¬
tion. Evidently this food service
managed to not only provide a fi¬
nancially successful food service,
but in doing so also built a friend¬
ship and rapport with its student
and faculty customers.
Many students and faculty have
found the committee’s decision
rather incredible. When consider¬
ing service and economic success,
many thought that it was Bob’s
Campus Cuisine that would be the
unanimous choice of the food
committee. Complaints by stu¬
dents and faculty about PFM and
its food service ranged from in¬
difference and rudeness in provid¬
ing departmental catering services
to unfriendly treatment of students
by cafeteria personnel. Some
questioned the manner in which
PFM works with the food prepara¬
tion classes.
As one food preparation student
stated, “we couldn’t use any of the
equipment. If it was broken, then
it belonged to PCC, but if the
equipment was working, then it
was assigned out to PFM and you
still couldn’t use it.”
Some students and faculty
believe that two companies do
offer a more competitive environ¬
ment in spite of the fact that each
offers a very different kind of ser¬
vice. Others, however, noted that
while there could possibly be a
more competitive environment,
the competitiveness did not show
in any less expensive food prices.
Many did fear, though, that if PFM
did get control of all of PCC’s food
concessions that this might lead to
even higher food prices and poorer
service.
Dean Alvar Kauti said that the
faculty and staff service may be
better than service given to the stu¬
dents but, “we are looking for im¬
provement in services to stu¬
dents,” Kauti said. Such services
Kauti pointed out as the Thursday
hamburger cookout would be con-
tinued and others would be
planned. “I felt strongly that the
process followed [by the food
committee] was open and involved
the entire college.” said Kauti.
Criteria used in making the
committee decision included:
quality food service to students,
catering, food quality, a har¬
monious working relationhship
with the food services class and
food service for students and staff.
PCC income, renovation funds,
regulated prices and a clean, heal¬
thy and congenial environment.