PCC Courier, March 12, 1998

ENTERTAINMENT LOCAL BAND: Pseudo Star may be more than their name implies SPORTS LADY HOOPSTERS DREAM RUN COMES TO AN END: A 77-71 loss to Fullerton College puts to rest the season and the old Men's Gym. For full game coverage see Courier Sports Visit us on the World Wide Web @ PASADENA CITY COLLEGE http://www.geocities.com/ ~ pccnewscourier/ VOL. 83 NO. 21 PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Courier THURSDAY MARCH 12, 1998 Four % Sports Axed? PE: Men's tennis, golf and volleyball may be among those to be cut At the board meeting, Kossler said that when dealing with the two-year college situ¬ ation, what one has to look at is the number of possible spaces for each team on campus. In order to add soccer and adhere to Title IX, the college would have to reduce the number of possible spaces for certain sports and cut other sports completely. What Kossler and Robinson noticed was that there was a disparity among several of the sports in the athletics department. The biggest difference was in the football program compared to the rest of the depart¬ ment. Currently, the football program has a maximum of 120 possible enrolled spaces. Following that realization, Robinson cut the number of the spaces to only 70. Head football coach Tom Maher, whose program will fall victim to the proposed cuts, did not feel that the change would affect his program in any way since his team fielded only 53 players last season. Other changes that may be made are the evening out of spaces on sports that are Please see TITLE IX, page 3 By SID SARAF Courier Staff Writer Title IX may have struck a blow for equal¬ ity. An attempt to add a new men’s sport resulted in the need to increase the number of slots on women’s athletic teams. At the March 4 Board of Trustees meet¬ ing, athletic director Skip Robinson and col¬ lege president Dr. James Kossler raised the possibility of cutting the tennis, golf, and men’s volleyball programs in order to expe¬ dite the process of bringing men’s soccer to campus. ‘There’s been a gradual demand for the sport on campus,” said Kossler. The process started with Robinson, Kossler, and Joyce Black, the vice-president of instruction. All three knew that soccer was gaining popularity in the San Gabriel Valley and that bringing the sport here could be a boon for the college. The problem, however, was adding soccer as one of the college’s Intercollegiate teams and still adhering to Title IX, which requires the college to ensure there is equity in men’s and women’s sports offerings. ! According to the official demographics of the college, 44 percent of students on campus are male, while 56 percent of the campus population are female. However, 64 percent of the current available athletic slots are for males, while only 36 percent are female. The proposed changes, which will be implemented this fall, will reduce the number of male spaces to 54 percent, while increas¬ ing the female number to 46 percent. “The effort they made to bring balance to the programs is very commendable. Their choices have been excellent,” said board member Warren Weber. The CSU system reached a settlement that the number of available slots for athletes must be within five percent of the total num¬ ber of eligible students. Even with the proposed changes, women’s sports would still be 10 percent below the number of eligible females. However, the CSU problem has to deal with the allocation of sports scholarships. Roman Krajewski, freshman, may not have a team to play on next season because of the cuts in athletics. DANIEL ARCHULETA THE COURIER TECHNOLOGY BEAT Smart Classrooms Being Developed Funding: Committee receives $ 1 00,000 for learning technology By RON NAVARRETE Courier Staff Writer The faculty technology committee (FTC), received a $100,000 budget allocation to develop a plan to imple¬ ment technology appropriate class¬ rooms, also known as “smart class¬ rooms,” at the request of the campus technology' committee. The smart classrooms will assist teachers in lectures and presentations, according to Dr. James Kossler, col¬ lege president, and Allen Dooley, FTC chairperson. “What the faculty is in the process of trying to discover is, what exactly is meant by a ‘smart classroom.’ That term can mean so many different things to so many different people,” said Dooley. “We need to identify platforms, technologies which are initially going to appeal to a wider group of faculty. “We would like these rooms, wher¬ ever they’re going to be, to be heavily used. We want to make sure that there’s going to be technology in them that faculty will want to use.” Dooley added that $100,000 is not a lot of money to furnish three rooms with the necessary technolog}’. As a matter of fact, the conmiittee requested $420,000 for both the spring and fall semesters. The FTC is looking for rooms that will require little or no physical modi¬ fications and can accommodate com¬ puter equipment immediately. The technolog}' that will be used in the rooms will vary, said Dooley. “There is discussion on campus about having a portable cart that can travel within a building,” he said. The possibilities of what the cart would contain can be anything from a projector, a computer, an elmo-a device that projects a 3-D image to a screen, a digital camera, or any combi¬ nation of those things. The idea is to maneuver the cart easily from floor to floor. Another proposal calls for a class¬ room that is technologically full}' inte¬ grated. Even with all the ideas on the draw¬ ing board, two big questions remain unanswered, where will the smart classrooms be located, and how will the rooms be staffed and maintained? Finding space for the smart class¬ rooms is only half the battle, because space is very limited, Dooley said. A location hasn’t been chosen. CAMPUS HONORS Six Given President’s Award Winners: Innovation in learning projects singled out By LISA MENCHACA Courier Staff Writer Six faculty members were named winners of tire sec¬ ond annual President’s Awards for Innovation in Learning for their projects geared toward academic suc¬ cess. Two years ago, college president James Kossler cre¬ ated the honor to emphasize student education. His goal was to “encourage faculty to come up with innov¬ ative ways to improve student success.” Winning instructors were given a total of $42,370 for a variety of projects. Physical science professors Christine Bilicki, Victor Bragin and Padrna Ganapathi received the funding. In addition, mathematics and computer science instmctor Xiaodan Leng, counselor Maryann Mayer, and Rachel Nardo, associate professor of music, were also recipi¬ ents. All college faculty were invited by Kossler to submit proposals. The applications asked how the projects would improve student success, how many would be assisted, what was innovative about it, how the project could serve as a model for use in other disciplines and how instmctors planned completion of the project. Thirty-one faculty members submitted proposals which were reviewed by a four-member committee made up of their peers. This year’s competition featured bonus points for the use of the Internet or computer technology. Kossler felt it was important to emphasize computer technology because it is an important, useful and innovative learn¬ ing tool for students. This year’s winners all used com- Please see HONORS, page 3 Ceremony Kicks Off Construction By RON NAVARRETE Courier Staff Writer The final phase of the $100 mil¬ lion master plan was kicked off with a groundbreaking ceremony last week. Faculty, administration and vari¬ ous dignitaries, attended the festivi¬ ties marking the official ground¬ breaking of the physical education and sports complex. The new building, a $22 million project, is set to be completed by August of 1999. Some of the major donations include a $125,000 contribution from Clare Hutto of the Hutto- Patterson Charitable Foundation. American United Sales Corporation and the Weingart Foundation gave gifts of $100,000. The PCC Flea Market provided $75,000 and the Avery Dennison Foundation, Pasadena Foundation and Pepsi Cola each contributed $50,000 to the complex. The PCC Foundation, which raises money for various campus projects, launched a $1.4 million capital campaign to support the pro¬ ject. The largest private donation, which was reported by The Courier last week, was the $500,000 gift by the РАС 10 and Big 10 Conferences. “In recognition of its historic partnership in the Rose Bowl, the Pacific-10 Conference is pleased to contribute to the construction of another important facility in Pasadena,” said Tom Hansen, РАС 10 commissioner. “This is our way of saying thank you to the citizens of Pasadena for their annual invitation to play in the most important college football game of the year.” The РАС 10, which needed approval by the NCAA to make the donation, said that tire contribution is something that will not be repeat¬ ed at any another college. HENRY SALAZAR / THE COURIER Spring is back! Although the rain is pre- Building serves to remind us that winter is dieted to return, this scene outside of the C dead and spring break is finally here.