- Title
- PCC Courier, March 16, 1979
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-
- Date of Creation
- 16 March 1979
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-
- Description
- Student newspaper published and edited for the Associated Student Body of Pasadena City College weekly during the college year by the journalism students.
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- Display File Format
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PCC Courier, March 16, 1979
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Board Approves 213 Classes
Trustees Pass Summer School
WE SURRENDER-The Board of Trustees ex¬
pressed more than unanimous support for one
—Courier photo bv S.K.
summer session. The meeting was held in the
Forum to accommodate the large crowd.
By Steve McManus
Staff Writer
The Board of Trustees Tuesday night
approved an administration plan for
one six-week summer session.
At its last meeting, the board had
agreed to meet Tuesday rather than
Thursday this week. That was to allow
sufficient time for possible notices to
be prepared by the March 15 deadline.
The board chambers could not ac¬
commodate the large crowd that had
come to hear the discussion of summer
school. The meeting was held in the
Forum.
Superintendent-President Dr.
Richard Meyers had outlined several
reasons why PCC should offer a
summer session at the March 1
meeting. But the board refused to act
at that time and requested Dr. Meyers
supply them with further information
regarding the costs of the program and
a break-down of courses to be offered.
Two plans were presented by Dr.
Meyers last night. Plan A was for 213
courses, costing $350,000 in faculty
salaries and benefits. Plan
В
was for
140 courses, costing $215,000 in faculty
salaries and benefits.
It was Plan A that the board
unanimously endorsed. This was
something of a surprise since it was
larger than the skeletal proposal the
board had hesitated to endorse at its
last meeting.
The reason for the larger plan was a
fear of student attrition linked to the
probability that the community
colleges will be returning to some form
of ADA (average daily attendance )-
based funding in the years ahead.
VOL. 47, NO. 6
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
MARCH 16, 1979
Veteran Representative Program
Closes Due to Low Enrollment
By Lawrence Young
Staff Writer
Decline in veteran enrollment is
forcing the veteran’s representative
office to offically close April 13. This
announcement by Leonard King,
veterans representative, confirms
rumors that have been circulating
among veterans for more than a
month.
According to King, “2500 veterans
were enrolled at PCC in the academic
year 1975-’76. That percentage of
veterans has drastically decreased to
500 for this semester. This steadily
dwindling number of veterans has
necessitated the discontinuance of the
veteran representative program.
“As a result of this phasing out
process the Veterans Adminstration is
taking the position that veterans will
have to take more responsibility in
solving their pay problems and rely
less on the veteran representative.”
The loss of the veteran represen¬
tative program had led the Los
Angeles Regional Office Adjudicator
Division to start a supportive system
that would insure a high quality of
service available without a complete
campus breakdown of services
avaialble to veterans.
This supportive system will require
the Los Angeles Regional Office to
switch over to a completely com¬
puterized system. PCC’s Veterans
Counselors Available
For Fall Registration
Programming for the fall 1979
semester will not officially begin until
May, but students should “come now
and see their counselors,” said Er¬
nestine Moore, dean of counseling
services.
Four Compete
For
В
of A
Scholarships
By Donna Grant
Staff Writer
Four semi-finalists from PCC will
compete against eight other com¬
munity college students from the
Southern California area in hopes of
advancing to the final round of the
Bank of America Scholarship Com¬
petition.
Each student has a GPA of 3.5 or
higher. They competed in specific
academic areas. The semi-finalists
are: Richard James Brenner,
Business; Joseph Martin Marino,
Science Engineering; Connie Jean
Dickey, Social Science-Humanities,
and Helen Mary Huerta.
In the semi-final round on March 27,
students will be given a question about
a subject in his own field. Each
competitor will be alloted 30 minutes to
answer the question. He will then be
given one minute to read his answer
back to a group of educators and
businessmen at which time the
student’s answer will be open for
discussion for 25 minutes.
The competition is graded on a 100
Point system in the three following
areas: scholastic achievement, in¬
volvement in activities, and the in¬
terview portion of the competition.
The students will be notified by mail
after the competition on whether they
will advance to the finals on April 25.
First place in each category is worth a
52,000 scholarship, second place $1,000,
third place $500, and fourth place a
$250 award.
Students with 30 units completed,
may begin to make appointments for
programming starting May 1. Those
with 15-29'v units may start making
appointments after May 1. All other
returning students, and new students
may start to program on May 9.
Registration will begin May 7 in D204.
Right now, however, is the best time
to make that initial appointment with
your counselor to begin to discuss your
next semester’s schedule.
“The counselors now have time for
appointments,” said Mrs. Moore. “It’s
important for returning students to
register before June.”
Also being offered to students before
and during the programming period
are workshops and guest speakers in
the Career Center, D209. All students
are invited to these workshops.
Guest speakers from four year in¬
stitutions will be at PCC to help the
students choose a schedule that will
enable them to transfer easily.
Next week “Exposing Transferable
Job Skills” will be presented by Jim
Cheney on Monday from noon until 1
p.m. On the same day, Cal State
Northridge information will be
presented by Kathy Fritchey from 9
a.m. until noon.
Cal State Los Angeles information
will be presented by George Bachman
on Tuesday, March 20, from 10 a.m.
until 1 p.m.
On Wednesday, Brenda Tress will
present information concerning
Gallaudett College in Washington,
D.C. from 9 a.m. until 11.
Thursday, noon, Dorthea Emerson
will present “New Perspectives in
Medical Careers.”
These, and other such workshops are
presented by the Career Center
throughout the year. Their calendars
for the events are available in the
Courier bpxes, and in ail counseling
offices. Also their schedule appears in
the weekly Campus Crier.
Affairs office will work directly with
the computerized system which will
prevent long delays for veterans
receiving their benefits and resolving
potential problems.
King went on to express concern
over the affect the loss of the veteran
representative program would
possibly have on the veterans.
“Initally 1 suspect the veterans will
have a hard time adjusting to the
veteran representative office no longer
being on campus. In the past they were
used to dealing with their problems on
a personal level."
Effective April 13, Helen Mathis of
the Veterans Affairs Office will
assume all responsibilities previously
held by the veterans representative.
King also indicated pay rosters,
delimiting date lists and other ap¬
propriate documents would continue to
be provided to the Veterans Affairs
Office.
“Although Mrs. Mathis has only
been working in the Veterans Affairs
Office a few months, the relative ease
in which she adapted to the office in¬
sures me she can adequately handle
the job. A number of procedures she
has instututed this semester have
prevented possible delays in veterans
receiving their benefits in a timely
manner. In addition to Mrs. Mathis
there are a number of very able
veteran work-study students who can
assist veterans."
King will leave PCC after four years
as a veteran representative to become
a liaison officer and the Los Angeles
Regional Office. His duties will en¬
compass coordinating information
that will affect veterans between all
Southern California Colleges and the
Regional Office.
“There is no question in research
that has been done in other community
colleges where summer sessions were
eliminated that fall enrollment was
severely curtailed because of a lack of
a summer session, Dr. Meyers said.
He thought it would be “a disastrous
move to discontinue a summer session
which would hurt a fall enrollment
which would lead us back around in a
circle to a point where we are looking
at sending notices to faculty and staff
next year.”
The number of course offerings will
still be leaner than at most other
community colleges in the area, ac¬
cording to Dr. Meyers. The 213 courses
to be offered this June compare with
321 courses offered last year during the
single inter-session.
“By offering 213 classes, as in Plan
A,” Dr. Meyers added, “I still have
severe doubts whether we will meet
student needs.”
The student curriculum committee
held a special meeting Tuesday and
voted unanimously to support Dr.
Meyers’ recommendation for a
reduced summer session.
Susan Savage expressed the student
concerns to the board. “If Summer
school is not here for the students who
need it,” she said, “if we come to class
in June and find a lot of doors closed, if
the community becomes aware the
college isn’t meeting the needs of the
students, there may be a September
not very long from now when the
faculty comes to school and finds a
classroom without students.”
She regretted not having an actual
vote in the matter, but reasoned that
“our voting is done with our feet— we
just won’t be here.”
In addition to the $350,000 for
teachers’ salaries there are overhead
costs involved in offering a summer
program. Dr. Meyers estimated those
costs to be about $100,000.
He was reluctant to include them in
the overall cost of the inter -session.
Those costs apply to maintenance
staff, secretaries and administrators
“who would be here pretty much
regardless of the size of the summer
program,” he said.
The actual dates for summer school
were not included in either plan. Dr.
Stanley Gunstream, vice president for
instruction, estimated that the six-
week session would probably run from
June 18 to July 27. Certain courses may
continue a few days more because of
the amount of material that needs to be
covered.
Faculty Upset
The major concern of the faculty is a
raise in pay. They have received no
increase so far this year and have yet
to begin contract negotiations for next
year.
The faculty senate budget and salary
committee was scheduled to make a
presentation to the board after
discussion of the summer school issue.
They asked the board to reverse the
offer of , agenda items so that they
might go first.
This was done largely so that the
board would see the lack of a pay raise
juxtaposed with the large budget
expenditure for summer session.
Certain board members resented this,
feeling that it was an attempt to in¬
fluence their decision on summer
school.
Faculty senate president-elect
Bruce Carter presented the report. A
salary comparison of 20 comparable
community college districts in
California (with three districts
missing) showed PCC ranking last at
step 5, class C.
“Though I’ve heard it frequently
asserted that PCC is one of the top
community colleges in the state and in
the nation in terms of academic
programs, quality of staff and
prestige,” Carter stated, “it will not
long remain so with pay rates which
bear so unfavorably with comparable
districts in California.”
Carter also cited the tendency of the
college to over-budget in past years.
He suggested that these extra monies
could be used for retroactive pay in¬
creases for this year.
After the meeting Carter reacted to
the board’s passage of the summer
school plan by saying, “I think the
board made it very clear they are not
interested in faculty opinion or faculty
concerns.
“Maybe collective bargaining is the
only way the board will listen to the
faculty,” he added.
Trustee David Hannah explained
after the meeting why the board did
not discuss salary raises for staff.
“If we get into a bind and don’t have
the funds (for a summer session),” he
said, “we really haven’t exposed
ourselves to a great degree. You’re
talking about $75,000-$100,000 at the
most if you have to cancel summer
school.
“But if you give six percent in¬
creases to all staff (with benefits in¬
cluded), you’re talking about ap¬
proximately $1.2 million. That’s a lot of
money.”
Whereas the district’s reserves
would be more than sufficient to cover
the costs of summer school can¬
cellation. Hannah was reticent to
gamble those same reserves for the
higher stakes of a salary raise. He also
felt that the way things are right now,
that a retroactive raise for this year
was a scant possibility.
Dr. Meyers was a bit more op¬
timistic on this subject. He explained
that the tentative budget is being
formulated on the basis that the
college will receive the same amount
of state funding next year as it
received this year. In addition, the
budgetary guidelines called for a
seven percent budget reduction to
make up for last year’s deficit spen¬
ding.
This “prepare for the worst”
planning may lead to two possibilities.
The first is that PCC will have money
left over at the end of this year. Dr.
Meyers feels that this will reflect an
“under-spending” by the staff rather
than an “over -budgeting” by the
administration.
He noted transportation expenses as
Continued on Page Six
Senate Halts English Investigation
Approves ASB Spending Amendment
By Terry Robertson
Staff Writer
In an action-packed assembly, the
student senate concluded the in¬
vestigation of the English 1A classes
and approved a constitutional
amendment that limits ASB spending.
The senate also ratified a member of
the supreme council, extended the
budget freeze and heard a report from
the election code reconstruction
committee in their Thursday, Mar. 8
meeting.
As the first order of business, the
senate swiftly halted the English 1A
investigation. ASB started an in-
ASB OFFICERS were
Meyers on Thursday.
installed by Superintendent-President Dr.
—Courier photo by S.K.
vestigation when it was reported that
students who failed the English 1A
placement test could not retake it.
Cathy Fede announced the com¬
mittee had accomplished its main goal
of informing students of their right to
retake the English 1A placement test if
they fail it.
Miss Fede, the senate investigator,
stated Dean Irvin Lewis would include
in both the counseling and student
handbooks, a paragraph informing
students of that right.
Senator Steve Lambert then in¬
troduced a motion to amend the
financial code of the ASB constitution.
The amendment reads, “The
executive board can approve limited
funds totalling not more than $200 or
two percent of the total ASB budget.
Funds greater than this amount should
constitute an amendment to the budget
and must be approved by the student
senate.”
Senate Vice President Mike Tiberi,
expressing strong feelings on the issue,
said, “1 personally agree with this
amendment. I believe the control on
the money ASB spends should be a
little tighter. Let me state a few
examples of how frivolous ASB spent
their money in recent years.
“ASB had two Bakke luncheons last
spring. I'm not too sure how much
money they spent, but I know it’s over
$500 or $600,” continued Tiberi. “You
don’t even remember the debates.
Why have a luncheon?” he asked. The
question was not answered.
“The money we have should go to the
benefit of the students. Did the debate-
luncheons benefit any of you?" Again
silence was the senate's reply.
“Last semester ASB spent $400 on
plaques. ASB gave plaques to just
about everybody and their mother,”
Tiberi said. “Did that benefit any of
the students of this school?” Silence.
“Plaques are nice. But when you
give a plaque to every appointed and
elected officer in ASB, I feel that is not
in the best interest of the students.
ASB President Derek Coleman,
speaking in rebuttal, said, “We did not
spend $600 on the Bakke luncheon. We
spent $60 on a debate on the Bakke
issue.”
Tiberi immediately raised a point of
order stating, “I went to the bank and
checked the budgets. I looked at what
happened last spring. All I saw was
Bakke luncheon. Ron Grant, who
happened to be the ASB president,
signed the requisition. That’s all I saw
and that is fact. If any of you want to
check it out, go right down to the
bank,” said Tiberi.
“Also, I went to the bank today to see
if I could check into the budget of last
semester, the lady at the bank stated T
could not look at the budget unless I
had Dean A1 Kauti’s approval.’ I
replied, T am a student of this school.
ASB is the Associated Student Body, it
is our money.’ I was refused my right
to look at the books. In denying my
right they also denied your rights as
Senate President Carolyn Brennan
was forced into resignation yesterday.
In a full session senate meeting.
Senator Bruce Diffey asked Miss
Brennan if she was on academic
probation. Her reply was, "Yes,"
Diffey then called for Miss Bren¬
nan's resignation. She immediately
resigned.
The ASB constitution states that
anyone on academic probation cannot
lioid an ASB office.
students of this school. Go to your class
and say something about it,” in¬
structed Tiberi.
“They wouldn’t let me or anyone
else look at the budget without an
adviser’s approval.”
After lengthy discussion and an
abortive attempt to recess into
executive session, the senate passed
Lambert’s constitutional motion.
For the motion to become ASB law,
the executive board must pass it by a
two-thirds majority. Should the
executive board veto the senate
proposal, the senate can override that
veto by a two-thirds vote.
In other business, the senate ap¬
proved Joan Herrman as a member of
the supreme council, voted to freeze
ASB’s proposed budget for at least
another week, and heard a report from
the election code reconstruction
committee.
Miss Herrman will join Tim Selinske
on the supreme council. Selinske was
ratified at the last senate meeting.
Rather than launch into another
lengthy discussion, the senate voted to
freeze the ASB proposed budget until
the next session.
In its report to the senate, the
election committee states a rough
draft of a new election code and two
constitutional amendments will be
presented at the next meeting.