PCC Courier, March 07, 1980

VOL 49, NO. 5 PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA MARCH 7, 1980 Athletes Named NEWSCENTER 4 INTERVIEWS MEYERS— Susan Hahn of KNBC's NewsCenter 4 interviews PCC Super¬ intendent-President Dr, Richard S Meyers about the recent scandal involving former PCC athletes The Meyers' interview was shown on the 5 p.m. edition of NewsCenter 4 Monday night. — courier photo ьу Dave ciarke By Dereck Andrade Sports Editor The FBI has released the names of two former Pasadena City College ath¬ letes whose transcripts they have in¬ vestigated in connection with an athlet¬ ic scandal. Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Michael Cooper, former player at PCC and the University of New Mexico, had his transcripts scrutinized by FBI agents involved in the in¬ vestigation of New Mexico U. and former Lobo Coach Norm Ellenberger. Ellenberger was indicted last month by the New Mexico Grand Jury on charges that included racketeering and mail fraud. Former PCC football player David Anthony Hill, now at Purdue, also had his transcripts checked from Pacific Christian College in Fullerton. The New Mexico Grand Jury subpoenaed them and the NCAA and Big Ten are also involved in separate investiga¬ tions. PCC Probe In PCC's own internal investigation into faculty members and student-ath¬ letes. administration officials are not releasing any new information until the inquiries are finished. The internal investigation involves the questioning of all current PCC athletes, student-athletes' grades, ath¬ letes’ attendance in classes, teachers’ class records and credit through ex¬ tension course offerings. Dr. Richard S. Meyers, PCC super¬ intendent-president, said that the in¬ vestigations have not led to anything ‘‘substantial or incriminating. “The investigators will make their report out to Elaine Canty (the col¬ lege’s attorney) when they are fin¬ ished. We really don’t know much right now. We are just waiting, " said Dr. Meyers. Dr. Meyers told NewsCenter 4's Sus¬ an Hahn during a television interview Monday that he is still interested in the investigation of Hill's transcripts. Dr. Meyers said he is still puzzled as to why Purdue would accept grade slips from PCC rather than a normal transcript. He added that PCC is work¬ ing with the Big Ten, trying to smooth- out discrepancies in the investigation. FBI investigations into PCC faculty members involve both athletic and non- athletic activities. The administration denies that any faculty members here at PCC are under investigation by the FBI, NCAA or New Mexico Grand Jury. Cooper Controversy In the Cooper investigation, the FBI in Albuquerque said that that they have not come up with any irregularities regarding his transcripts from either PCC and New Mexico. The Courier has learned that when Cooper was here, he was found to be academically ineligible the second half of the 1975 season. Cooper failed an English class and therefore lost his eligibility. But according to English teacher Wally Calvert, Joe Barnes, former basketball coach, attempted to exert pressure on him to change Cooper's failing grade to a passing one. That would have allowed Cooper to remain eligible. “He (Cooper) just disappeared from class," said Calvert. “I went to them (Cooper's counselor, John Hardy, and Barnes) and told them that he had to come to class. I gave him some breaks but he never attended class. His atten¬ dance was just awful. Calvert Pressure “I flunked him, and Barnes got all over me. He asked me if I would change his (Cooper's) grade and I said no. Then he tried to pressure me a couple of times into changing it, but I wouldn't. “I finally went to Dr. Sarafian (former PCC president) and told him what was going on. and he backed me up." Conflicting Stories Calvert, who was the basketball (Continued on Page 4) ~ Correction In last week’s Courier article, “FBI Continues Probing PCC,” there were two inaccuracies in the story. Bob Owens, who was mentioned in the story, never attended Cali¬ fornia Polytechnic-Pomona with PCC academic counselor John Har¬ dy. The other incorrect element mentioned Coach Myron Tarkanian as football coach when Dionicio Barraza attended and played foot¬ ball at PCC in the fall of 1976. The head football coach was William Sandstrom. now men's athletic di¬ rector. Students May Nominate Teacher for RisserA ward "JAWS II" — The PCC Board of Trustees met last included the closing of high cost departments, termi- Monday to discuss possible budget cuts if Proposition 9 nation of employees. (Jarvis II) passes in June. Some of the suggested cuts — Courier photo by Katrin Wegelius Prop. 9 Forcing Decision Trustees Consider Cuts Students who feel that a teacher has offered them particular inspiration and possesses special dedication to being a teacher can nominate that teacher for the J. Ray Risser Outstanding Teacher Award. Winners of the award will receive $1.000 and a plaque designating them to be a “master teacher.” J. Ray Risser. a former PGG+nstruc- By Elly Mixsell Staff Writer PCC’s public radio station KPCC swept the awards in the California Associated Press Television and Radio Association (CAPTRA) broadcast news competition. KPCC is the winner of six certificates of excellence and the Mark Twain trophy for first place in the designated news catagory. News Director Bill Cooper, heading a staff of student interns, received first place for best newswriting. Ed Lewis, sports director, and Larry Shirk, program director, also won first for their best play-by-play sports cov¬ erage. Three second place awards went to KPCC for the best news broadcast that, was 15 minutes or longer, for the best commentary and the best editorial entitled “One Man-One Vote” written by KPCC General Manager Dr. John Gregory. KPCC also took the CAPTRA cooper¬ ation award for contributing news stories and tips to the associated press. Approximately 189 radio stations participated in the statewide compe- tor and administrator has dedicated more than 50 years to education, and offers the award because he feels “teaching is one of the greatest pro¬ fessions anywhere.” Risser said that once he had a teacher who inspired him greatly. Teachers, he said, are not given the credit they deserve, and he would like to pay back his teacher by giving credit tion which was divided into two clases. Class one stations are those with seven or more full time news people, like KFWB and KNX. Class two stations have between two and six full time news people. KPCC has one full time news director. Cooper, and a sports director, Lewis, who divides his time between news and sports writing'. At least five news and sports interns are working on the production of news. Cooper said these students interns pro¬ vided the help KPCC needs to be a successful, winning station. Over three hours of news is broad¬ cast daily, Monday through Friday. One of those hours is dedicated to local coverage. KPCC broadcasts more news than any of the Southern Califor¬ nia stations except those which present all news, according to Dr. Gregory. Bill Cooper said winning was a team effort. He attributes much of the suc¬ cess to incorporating student interns and combining elements of both print and broadcast journalism experience. Interns John and Arthur Wood also played an important role in combining these elements into a successful news presentation. to others. Therefore, every year. Risser lays aside $1,000 for the teacher students feel can best meet the criteria for the honor. The nominees will be judged for “organization, preparation and presen¬ tation of course material, fairness and accuracy in grading, encouragement and inspiration to students, wholesome attitude toward good citizenship, and loyalty to family, the college and coun¬ try.” The petitions must be signed by 20 students who have attended the college a minimum .of three semesters. The student sponsor (or student who in¬ itiates the petition) must indicate his reasons for the nomination. Risser believes better teachers will produce “a better crop of students who'll do more to help preserve free¬ dom and this country than some of us have, so everybody in this world has a better life. “I've never known a student who, without the proper encouragenemt, would not do well. Every youngster has potential, if 1 can just get to it,” said Risser. “The award.” he said, “is a stimulus for all teachers to be a stimulus for the students to do better work.” In the early part of the summer, Risser and a committee of faculty will review the petitions to determine which teachers will receive the award. The winner will be named at the first faculty meeting in September. Past recipients of the award include Roland E. Sink, business department. Dorothy J. Kolts. journalism. Dr. Nor¬ man J. juster, chariman. Department of Physical Sciences, and Dr. William Goldmann. social sciences. Petitions are available in all de¬ partmental offices and in the Public Information Office, A105. Despite the coming March 15 dead¬ line for issuing termination notices to teachers, the Board of Trustees post¬ poned a final budget cut decision in a special meeting Monday in Sexson Auditorium. The Trustees made their final budget decision last night. At the urging of Trustees Walter T. Shatford and Roger Gertmenian. the Board deferred the final vote on Mon¬ day. Shatford and Gertmenian said they wanted to investigate alternative cutting plans to those presented to the Board. The Board is making budget adjust¬ ments now to prepare for the possible passage of Proposition 9 in June. While the trustees are sticking to a general plan to make a 10 percent cut now and a 15 percent slash after the possible passage of Jarvis II, the Board had difficulty choosing an area for trim¬ ming. However, trimming may even be necessary if “Jaws II” does not pass, according to Dr. Bonnie R. James, vice president for business services. The budget, he said, has relied heavily on a reserve accumulated by the college. The reserve has now decreased to a point at which it is no longer a feasible source of money. “It's like living off of a savings account.” Dr. James said. “Even¬ tually. it runs out.” The Board's postponement may hinder the cutting process. John S. Madden, dean of personnel, said he only would have two days to prepare pink slips (termination notices) when he should have two weeks. Madden said he must finish resolutions and letters for all the positions to be cut by this afternoon in order to give school at¬ torneys enough time to review the paperwork next week. One reason for the Board's hesitation to issue notices has been Assembly Bill 1745. AB 1745 would extend the deadline for issuing notices to teachers until July 15. Dr. Richard S. Meyers, PCC superintendent-president, said during the Monday meeting that the bill is now in the state Senate Education Commit¬ tee. In cuts, the proposed 10 percent slice would reduce the budget operating base by more than $2.7 million. More than $<}. million of this cut would be borne bv PCC's service departments, with the remainder taken from instruc¬ tional departments. Dean Madden offered several alter¬ natives for the instructional cuts at the Monday meeting. He offered five strategies to ac¬ complish the 10 percent cut. The first alternative would make slashes based on projected low ADA (Average Daily Attendance) or in programs with few hourly instructors. Madden said this proposal would primarily affect the nursing, allied health, and engineering and technology programs. The cut would reduce the freshman class in nursing and eliminate it in dental hygiene. Night cosmetology would not be offered and the aviation program would be dropped. This choice would save $800.000 and cause 21 termination notices to be issued. Two alternatives suggested shutting down high-cost departments. Nursing is one high-cost program. Eliminating nursing would save $810,000 and would send 33 notices to personnel. In addition to nursing, classes in the Life Science Department that suffered “fallout” (a high loss of ADA) from the nursing closure might also be eliminated. Another suggestion was to close ath¬ letic and physical education programs. This would save $980,000 and terminate 26 positions. A second athletic cut proposed would limit both the men's and women's departments to four sports each. Men would have football, basketball, track and baseball, while women would re¬ tain volleyball, basketball, softball and tennis. These cuts would save $100.000 in athletics, while the remainder of the trimming, $700,000, would be made from the first proposal cutting low ADA programs. Termination notices would be sent to 23 employees. The last strategy listed by Madden would “terminate all first contract and long-term temporary employees." No existing vacant positions would be filled. Even with these cuts, this alter¬ native would still be 11 positions, or $242,000 short' of the instructional cut goal. The remainder would either be “taken at risk” or cut from low ADA programs. Possible certificated staff reduc¬ tions, amounting to a 25 percent cut, would slice portions of administrative, instructional and student personnel services. Business services would not be cut. When Mildred Wardlow, vice presi¬ dent for administrative services, re¬ tires this year, her position will be eliminated. Several positions would be decreased from a 12 to 11 month assignment, including the supervisor of the Com¬ munity Adult Training Center, the deans of extended day education, ad¬ missions and records, and counseling, the coordinator of financial aids and two psychologists. In addition, four persons in depart¬ ment coordination would return to teaching. Three more vacated posi¬ tions would not be replaced. Gertmenian had additional ideas for cuts. He questioned the need for a cafeteria, a child care center at the Community Adult Training Center and two deans for student activities. He also suggested limiting the Courier to one issue per month, eliminating Prism magazine, discontinuing out-of- state travel on school funds, cutting religion classes and putting “an absolute freeze on hiring.” He added that he is against giving notices at this time. Shatford. like Gertmenian. did not want to approve issuing notices at Monday's meeting. Did U.S: Know A bout I ran Tortures ? The Courier recently asked several PCC students if the United States should admit knowledge of tortured Iranian nationalists by the Shah’s secret police Savak. Brad Worely, undefined major, first semester: “No. I just don't think they should no matter what the involve¬ ment was." Robin Townsend, theater arts major, second semester: “No, I don’t think we should take the blame for the Iranians' problems and get ourselves further involved. We are treading through hot water right now! Dereck Bowman, chemical biology major, fifth semester: “Yes, if that's the only way they are going to free the hostages and nothing else will come as a result. They've held the hostages for 120 days now and I think that's long enough. We should get them out of there as soon as pos¬ sible.” Chris Cruz, business major, third semester: “Why should we apologize to a group of students who took the law into their own hands?” Alex Samartin, graphic arts major, second semester j “As long as they were aware that crimes were being committed in Iran. I think they should take some responsibility.” Robert Benson, telecommunications major, second semester: “No. be¬ cause it was the CIA (Central In¬ telligence Agency) who had knowl¬ edge of these crimes and not the United States. We would have to go back to the administration 30 years to find out when things started happen¬ ing in Iran.” KPCC Receives Several Awards