Pasadena City College
Pasadena, California
Vol. 75 No. 3
COURIER
Serving the PCC Community for 75 years
Thursday
March 4, 1993
СТА
charges unfair labor practices
‘We requested the district
negotiate this matter. We
tried to talk to the
administration about this
matter, but they don’t
want to negotiate.’
Gary Woods,
PCC/CTA president
□ The California
Teachers Association
files an unfair-labor
practice charge after
PCC lowers overtime
pay for full-time
professors teaching
non-credit classes.
By ALFREDO SANTANA
News Writer
Arguing that the Pasadena Area
Community College District decided
to reduce wages to professors in¬
volved in teaching non-credit courses
without telling them, the college’s
chapter of the California Teachers
Association
(СТА)
filed a lawsuit
against the college, accusing the
district of “unfair labor practices.”
However, college officials have
strongly denied the charges, saying
that the district has “always com¬
plied with what is specified in the
law.”
Gary Woods, PCC/CTA chapter
president, accused the college dis¬
trict of “unilaterally developing their
own scale to pay the [involved] teach¬
ers a lower rate.”
The dispute centers on a 1991
labor agreement between the Pasad¬
ena Community College District
and the Pasadena Chapter of Cali¬
fornia Teachers Association that,
according to Woods, forces the col¬
lege to pay instructors who teach
non-credit classes the same amount
of money they make when they are
assigned to overload classes.
In this case, a non-credit course is
defined as a class given by college
instructors to local business
employees aiming to provide them
with necessary skills to perform more
efficiently in their workplace. Ac¬
cording to college officials, local
businesses seeking job-training for
their workers approach the college
for help. The college usually pro¬
vides them with a specific plan of
courses, depending upon their needs.
The college charges local businesses
for the non-credit job-skills courses.
Once a business asks the college
for a specific job-training course,
the college’s economic development
office chooses the instructors needed
for the program.
Woods said that the college be¬
gan to pay instructors less than stipu¬
lated in the 1991 contract last se¬
mester, stirring angry reactions from
СТА
members.
He said the PCC district currently
pays those instructors under a new
salary schedule called “Contract
Education Hourly Rates.”
Woods pointed out that under
the college’s old salary plan, in¬
structors assigned to teach training
courses for workers of local busi¬
nesses were paid based on their
academic teaching experience on
campus.
Prior to the new college salary
plan, academic degrees that instruc¬
tors have earned were also taken into
consideration to come up with the
instructor’s final pay rate, Wood
said.
“The college unilaterally has
developed its own scale to pay the
teachers a lower rate,” he said.
Ed Ortell,
СТА
chief negotiator,
mentioned that in this case, those
instructors having master’s degrees
who have taught classes at the col¬
lege for more than 20 years make the
same amount of money as those
instructors who only have bachelors
degrees and two or three years of
experience as college teachers.
“They [college officials] used to
Please see, “DISPUTE,” page 4
Administrators honor president
HIGHLIGHTS:
Bom in Sweetwater, Texas in
1933, Jack Scott earned a
bachelor’s degree in religious
history from Abilene Christian
University in Texas. He would
later earn a master’s degree
in history from Yale
University and a doctorate in
history from Claremont
College Graduate School.
In 1987: Scott assumes PCC
presidency, embarking on a
$100 million rebuilding
campaign.
1991 : groundbreaking for the
$19.25 million Shatford
Library carries the $100
million master plan forward;
Scott visits China, one of
more than 25 countries he
has visited.
1992: PCC ranks as one of
safest campuses in the
country; Board of Trustees
approves plan for a five-level
parking garage, included in
the Master Plan. Other
projects underway include a
new learning resources
center, community skills
center and physical
education facilities.
In August 1992, Scott
celebrates his fifth year in
office.
By ANISSA VICENTE
Editor in Chief
Six years after becoming su¬
perintendent-president, Dr. Jack
Scott was honored by his col¬
leagues for his achievement and
leadership on behalf of commu¬
nity college education.
Scott, 59, received a standing
ovation at the annual convention
of the Association of California
Community College Administra¬
tors (ACCCA) held in San Fran¬
cisco last Friday.
He was honored with the Harry
Buttimer Distinguished Admin¬
istrators Award together with Dr.
Robert Jensen, superintendent-
president of Rancho Santiago Col¬
lege and chancellor of Contra Costa
College.
The award, named after a for¬
mer chancellor of the Contra Costa
Community College district and
education leader, was established
in 1986 and is given to two distin¬
guished forerunners in commu¬
nity college higher education.
In his acceptance speech, Scott
said he was humbled by the selec¬
tion. He thanked his friends at the
college and his wife Lacreta, who,
after helping him realize his goals
re-entered school herself and
earned her degrees and creden¬
tials. She is currently dean of the
English department at Cerritos
Community College.
Scott said he continues to be
excited about his job, especially
the growing diversity of the stu¬
dent population.
Scott assumed the college presi¬
dency in August 1987. A member of
the Board of Regents of Peppcrdine
University, he is also president of
the Accrediting Commission for Com¬
munity and Junior Colleges.
Scott is also a member of the
Pasadena Rotary Club and is imme¬
diate past president of the ACCCA.
He previously served as presi¬
dent of Cypress College and held
positions at Orange Coast College
and Pepperdine University before
coming to PCC.
Robbers leave
victim unhurt
□ Four robbers steal
a CSC custodian’s
radio and beeper in
evening attack.
By RODNEY MITCHELL
Staff Writer
A busy Community Skills Center
(CSC) campus by day turned into a
menacing hunting ground by night
when four assailants robbed a lone
college custodian last Friday night
at approximately 1 1 p.m., according
to campus police and safety.
Police said that the victim was
not harmed in the incident.
The victim, Sammwelo Osewe
noticed a car sitting in front of a
telephone booth at the entrance of
CSC on Oak Knoll Avenue as he
pulled up in his personal vehicle to
lock the gate.
Two of the assailants were at a
telephone booth, and two more
remained in the vehicle. After lock¬
ing the gate, Osewe returned to his
vehicle. That was when one assail¬
ant approached Osewe’ s vehicle.
The suspect asked Osewe if he
was a police officer and Osewe
responded that he just cleaned the
buildings.
He then asked Osewe why he
had a radio and a beeper if he was
not a police officer. Osewe responded
that he uses the equipment to do his
job.
The assailant demanded that
Osewe hand over the beeper and
radio, threatening to do bodily harm.
Osewe refused. A second assailant
walked around to the rear of Osewe ’ s
vehicle and bashed in the right side
passenger window with an unknown
object. He took the beeper and the
radio from the passenger seat, cam¬
pus police and safety officers said.
Police said that the men then sped
off heading south on Oak Knoll
Avenue in an old make green ve¬
hicle with black and yellow tags.
There have been no arrests in
connection with this incident, cam¬
pus police and safety said.
Sgt. Vince Palermo, supervisor
of security forces on campus, strongly
urged that students and staff con¬
stantly check their surroundings when
traveling about the campus after dark.
Palermo said that incidents of
this kind could be prevented if stu¬
dents and staff would always remain
alert and exercise caution wherever
they are on campus. Constantly being
aware of what is happening in their
surroundings is the key to safely
anywhere, they said.
Campus police and safety offi¬
cials said that this is the first robbery
incident in the CSC this semester.
Bus riders left stranded with one option: RTD
□ Bus riders say they
are being treated
unfairly because the
college sells only
RTD, and not Foothill
Transit, passes.
By RODNEY MITCHELL
Staff Writer
Students who use the RTD and
the Foothill Transit bus lines com¬
plain that there are no outlets in the
Pasadena area, including PCC, to
purchase the new joint RTD/Foot-
hill bus pass.
Asof Jan 1, 1993 Foothill Transit
no longer honors RTD passes with¬
out the new joint sticker affixed to it.
However, PCC transportation
committee officials said that red tape
and a search for funds is stagnating
their efforts to obtain the new joint
stickers, if they get them at all.
William Dale, a telecommunica¬
tions major who regularly uses the
RTD and Foothill buses, said that
he has to travel as far as downtown
Los Angeles to buy the new joint
bus pass.
Dale contends that other neigh¬
boring cities such as Monrovia and
South Pasadena offer the new joint
pass, but that a student must be a
resident of the city to receive the
new passes.
Cities such as South Pasadena
and Monrovia subsidize their passes
and sell them only to residents of
their communities at a lower rate,
PCC transportation officials said.
The Foothill buslines that run north
and south on Colorado Boulevard
are readily used by PCC students
who depend on RTD and Foothill as
their only means of transportation.
Students say that the Foothill buses
closely coincide with class sched¬
ules, and that students are often late
for class because they cannot afford
to board the Foothill buses and must
wait for the RTD.
Edward Temm, a broadcast main¬
tenance major, said that due to
tuition and fee increases as well as
rising personal expenses, he cannot
afford to pay the extra fare for the
Foothill buses which is almost triple
the fare he used to pay with the
pass.
Maggie Tracy, PCC transporta¬
tion coordinator, said her office has
been working on getting the new
joint sticker for students since Octo¬
ber 1992. She said student must think
of other means of transportation until
then.
However, a spokesman for the
student business services said PCC
will not purchase the Foothill Tran¬
sit sticker at all.
“We are the official student busi¬
ness ticket agent and we have no
plans to obtain the passes. We have
not been offered the passes by RTD
and we cannot subsidize the Foothill
passes,” the spokesman said.
The source added that in order
for the school to order the new passes,
they will have to renegotiate their
current contract with RTD.
Meanwhile, students complain that
neither the RTD nor the Foothill
Transit gave riders ample notice ex¬
plaining the new sticker policy.
Dale said that some bus riders
who are not aware of the new
policy and who do not have the new
joint sticker understandably become
hostile toward the driver when asked
to pay the additional fare or leave
the bus.
(ТТТТТЛ
256 students use
the bus passes
for the RTD.
Their options are
now limited
because of a new
Foothill Transit
bus line rule.
/
