Pasadena City College
Pasadena, California
Vol. 75 No. 4
COURIER
Thursday
March 11, 1993
СТА
president under fire
Chief negotitator Ed
Ortell, (left) said
allegations of Woods’
personal use of
СТА
membership lists are
unfounded.
By ALFREDO SANTANA
News Editor
Several PCC California
Teacher Association
(СТА)
members launched a bitter attack
against their president accusing
Gary Woods of misrepresenting
the group’s interests.
Woods, who was first elected
as
СТА
president in 1980, said
he always has watched out for the
organization’s interests. He
defined the accusations as “po¬
litically-driven,” coming from
members who “don’t believe in
the right of the voters.”
Woods was the focus of a
meeting at which some
СТА
members said they were looking
for new leadership.
“I feel like the union is not part
of this school. I don’t know what
they [current leaders] represent any¬
more,” said Lee Reinhartsen,
СТА
member. “Gary Woods doesn’t rep¬
resent us any longer.”
“The point being that we are trying
to find a new leader. We never see
him except for that 15 year old pic¬
ture we see of him smiling at a desk
somewhere on the Advocate,” Rein¬
hartsen said. “He was not here for
the first meeting or for the faculty¬
wide meeting.”
One problem some members are
concerned about is how the money
СТА
members funnel to the organi¬
zation is spent. PCC’s chapter re¬
ceives a monthly fee of $12.60 from
each of its 202 PCC members. In
addition, people are concerned with
the shrinking membership rolls.
Jane Hallinger, PCC/CTA mem¬
ber, said the group is questioning
printing and supplies expenditures
as well as the salary of the chapter’s
part-time secretary.
“It’s not that I am anti-CTA,”
Hallinger said. “But after 1 2 years of
the same set of people (on the board),
it’s time for new blood.”
Other members of the organiza¬
tion complained about the
СТА
sec¬
retary’s wages, when the part-time
secretary’s wages were raised by
25.4 by the current
СТА
administra¬
tion, while on-campus secretary
salaries have not been increased
in more than three years.
“This is where the lion’s share
of our money goes,” Hallinger
said.
Ed Ortell,
СТА
chief negotia¬
tor, said members should remem¬
ber that the secretary has to pay
employment benefits out of the
$18,166 she receives a year.
Please see
“СТА,”
page 4
Forum
invites
writers
By KRISTIN BENTZ
Staff Writer
Cat got your tongue? Or should I
say cat got your fingers? If you ever
feel trapped by writer’s block, PCC’s
39th Annual Writer’s Forum may
just have the tools needed to free the
Whitman or Hemingway in you.
The all-day forum will be held on
Saturday, March 13 in the Forum.
The popular conference begins with
registration at 8 a.m. and cndat4:30
p.m. The fee for the entire day of
workshops is $72 including a box
lunch.
Workshop topics include: screen¬
writing, software for writing, writer’s
block, travel and adventure writing,
magazine and short story writing,
children’s books and query letters
that work.
Popular writer Ron Koertge, pro¬
fessor of English and foreign lan¬
guages will discuss the craft of writ¬
ing poetry. Koertge is author of ten
books of poetry and five novels for
young adults.
Anyone interested in participat¬
ing in the forum should contact the
Community Education office (Cl 17)
for a brochure. Information about
student discount rates for attending
individual sessions or the entire
conference may also be obtained
from the Community Education
Office.
For more information call
(818)585-7608. Early registration is
recommended.
Ron Koertge, published author
and English professor, will speak
on poetry-writing at the 39th annual
Writer’s Forum this Saturday.
Photo by KATRINA TEN/ The COURIER
of who
Гэд&..
People are who
they are.
Sometimes one
of the qualities
that people have
Times, they are a-changin’ for
Bill Farmer
By PATRIA ABELGAS
Staff Writer
Back in the ‘60s, William
Farmer wore wire-rimmed glasses
and his long hair parted in the
middle. He drove his ‘62 Ford
Galaxy from Kentucky to Wash¬
ington, D.C. to join his friends in
protest against racism and the Vi¬
etnam War.
Three decades later, he still
wears wire-rimmed glasses but
the hair is noticeably thinner.
Although still a major concern,
the quest for civil rights and
equality no longer drives him to
the streets.
Farmer will soon face new
challenges. By June of this year,
Farmer, who once described
himself as a “conservative rebel”
of the 60s, will become the head
of PCC’s largest department. He
will replace Dr. Rae Ballard who
is retiring as chairman of the Eng¬
lish and foreign languages de¬
partment.
Farmer was bom in Hyden, a
small town in Kentucky. He grew
up in the bluegrass area of Ken¬
tucky until he finished college.
He studied as an undergradu¬
ate at Georgetown College be¬
fore going to graduate school in
Illinois, first at Bradley University
then at Northwestern University.
Farmer’s interest in English did
not start until he was in graduate
school. He originally majored in
political science then he shifted to
communications before he eventu¬
ally transferred to the English de¬
partment.
“I grew up in the 60s and there
was a lot of politics going on. Major¬
ing in political science was an out¬
growth of my interest in the politics
of the 1960’s,” Farmer said.
“I was not exactly a hippie.. .but I
did go to lots of protests in Washing¬
ton, D.C. I protested against what I
saw as injustices at that time,” Farmer
said.
The injustices he saw then were
the Vietnam war, racism and bigotry
which he believed the country needed
to move beyond. “I tried to do what¬
ever I could to move the country in
that direction,” he said.
But Farmer is done with the pro¬
tests. He now leads a more quiet life
as an English professor. He has also
been adviser to the Gay, Lesbian
and Bisexual Students (GLBS) for
13 years.
“I think the most satisfying part
of my teaching was working with
the GLBS; I’ve been able to see
them grow and change and become
comfortable as gay, lesbian and bi¬
sexual students,” Farmer said.
Farmer himself is homosex¬
ual. “People are who they are.
Sometimes one of the qualities
that people have is that they’re
gay and that’s ok,” he said.
“I am more than a gay person.
That’s just a part of who I am.
Farmer became conscious of his
homosexuality in the 60s. “I think
the 60s made it more possible for
people to be different and for gay
and lesbian people to feel more
comfortable about coming out,”
he said.
Farmer said that he is comfort¬
able at PCC. “I have never felt
personally that people have treated
me any differently because they
found out I was gay,” he said.
“I’m one person who’s going
to be an English department chair¬
person who happens to be gay,”
Farmer said.
Farmer, 45, will headadepart-
ment that includes 57 full-time
faculty and more than 100 part-
time staff. It offers more than 400
class sections in English, English
as a Second Language, Arme¬
nian, Spanish, Chinese and nine
other languages.
He is a member of the National
Council of Teachers of English
and has been the adviser to “In-
Please see “ENGLISH,” page 3
Board hikes
material fee
By ANISSA VICENTE
Editor in Chief
In an effort to close a projected
$650,000 budgetshortfall, the Board
of Trustees voted to establish a new
materials supply fee applicable to
all students and effective in the
summer.
Covering materials such as hand¬
outs and photocopies, the increase
of$l per unit fee up to a maximum
of $10, passed by a 7-2 vote during
the March 3 board meeting.
Student government officials
voiced their strident opposition to
the fee hike and complained that
they were given little time to mobi¬
lize a sufficient student force in time
for the meeting.
“We had no clue about this until
Wednesday morning,” said Karen
Koch, associated students (AS) presi¬
dent. “We would have liked more
time to look into alternatives. ”
The new $1 per unit fee cuts
across the board for all classes. Pres¬
ently, the college spends $750,000
on photocopies and other paperwork.
The current supply fee varies,
depending on classes, including art,
nursing and plumbing courses. It
ranges from $10-$20, not including
materials students have to buy them¬
selves. This expense may run to more
than $70 for students taking art
courses.
Students say the latest increase is
the last straw added to the continu¬
ing load they have to carry. “They
just raised the tuition and that was
already a shock,” said student Eva
Isla, 23 . “If they’re going to increase
what we have to pay, they should at
least increase the benefits we’re going
to get from the fees.”
The Board of Trustees move,
coming a week after work began to
study the proposal, was sneaky and
underhanded, said Elizabeth Con¬
treras, vice president of the Inter-
Club Council. “We only had seven
hours to mobilize.”
Koch said she and Ernestine
Moore, dean of student services were
unable to speak the day of the meet¬
ing. John Robinson, student trustee,
said another reason the proposal was
voted on so quickly was that the
Board had to meet a printing dead¬
line for the summer schedule.
“The college does what it can,”
he said. “There’s not a whole lot
they can do. It’s Sacramento’s fault.”
The proposal came about after
the Board re¬
ceived a notice
from Gov. Pete
Wilson’s office
that the state will
cut 2.8 percent
from the budget
alloted to Califor¬
nia’s 107 com¬
munity colleges.
Funding from all
sources will de¬
crease 6.4 per¬
cent below the
level of funding received in 1992-
1993, said a spokesman for the
Governor’s Office of Child Devel¬
opment and Education.
That translated to a $650,000
shortfall for PCC. However, the new
material supply fee would cover only
approximately $450,000 of that
amount. The Board will study fur¬
ther plans to reduce this deficit.
However, Joseph Sargis, Board
Please see “INCREASE,” page 3
Karen Koch,
AS president
Hearings continue
on library tax plan
BY ENRICO PIAZZA
Staff Writer
A task force appointed by the
Pasadena Library Commission has
proposed a special tax on real estate
that will re-establish the quality of
service city libraries had prior to
1989, when the economically crippled
state started withholding much needed
funds from cities.
Sale taxes, the city ’s largest reve¬
nue source, also sharply diminished
in the same period because of the
economic recession.
The reduced
budget forced the
city libraries into a
painful battle to
preserve the high
standard of their
services. Not with¬
out public com¬
plaints, new book
purchases were cut
by 65 percent, 300
magazine and newspaper subscrip¬
tions were canceled, operation hours
were drastically cut, and staff was
reduced.
Library branches are now open
only four days a week. The Central
Library is closed on Mondays and
open at noon on weekdays. In addi¬
tion, 92 percent of the library staff
voluntarily renounced scheduled pay
increases. Various services were
terminated, including conferences,
training sessions, “author series,” and
the publication of the “In the Know”
newsletter.
Despite these cuts, books circula¬
tion increased 43 percent in the last
three years.
“We are going in
two different direc¬
tions at the same
time,” said Edward
M. Szynaka, direc¬
tor of the Pasadena
Public Library.
“We are increas¬
ing what we are
doing, and decreas¬
ing everything that
supports iL That rub¬
ber band is about to break.”
Szynaka said that there is a real
possibility that all eight library
branches could face complete clo¬
sure and the Central Library hours of
operation could be further reduced.
Purchases of new books and maga¬
zine subscriptions could become a
thing of the past.
“We are talking about dramatic
changes in the way the library serv-
Please see “LIBRARY,” page 4
‘We are going in
two different
directions at at
the same time.’
Edward M. Szynaka,
director
Pasadena Public Library