PCC Courier, March 18, 2010

For exclusive stories and photos check out the Courier on the web @ pcccourier. com Pasadena City College Softball: Falls to Antelope Valley College Page 7» Volume 101, Issue 4 "The Independent Student Voice of PCC, Serving Pasadena Since 1915," Thursday, March 18, 2010 New plan on guns for police emerges Barbara Beaser Editor-in-Chief A proposed draft policy for approving guns for PCC police officers has been circu¬ lating on campus, and has revived years of debate about arming the police. Dated March 2, the draft is 19 pages and contains real incidents that have happened on campus over the years from 1981 to 2009. "We are still thrashing out the draft, and the contents of the report," said Interim Vice President of Administrative Services Rick van Pelt. "The goal of the committee is that it make its way to the Board of Trustees this semester." The report seems to lean toward arming the campus police, although four options are outlined in the draft. The first is to keep things the way they are, and leave the police Proposed gun choice, a 9mm semi-auto¬ matic pistol. on campus unarmed. "This option is politically the easiest, as nothing changes," the draft states. It goes on to say however, that the officers feel unpro¬ tected and unable to do their job without weapons. The second option mentioned is to arm the officers on the night shift. The draft states that this option was briefly imple¬ mented in the early 1980s before being revoked by Philip Mullendore, the security director at PCC in 1981. Mullendore deter¬ mined that the security officers lacked the sufficient training to carry firearms. According to the draft, Mullendore pur¬ sued turning the PCC security officers into a P.O.S.T. (Peace Officers Standards and Training) accredited police department. This was accomplished in 1983. However, the police department remained unarmed. The third option is to arm the entire police force. "Allow them to use the equipment they feel they require to adequately perform their jobs," the report said. It acknowledged that this would be the most difficult to imple¬ ment politically. The last option would be to hire an out¬ side agency in order to avoid the liability issues that could arise from arming the police. On Monday, van Pelt told the Courier that since the draft was released it continues to go through numerous changes. He said that several people have con¬ tributed to writing this draft, and that it is not yet ready to go to the Executive Committee. "[The committee] is chaired by the college president and includes the three vice presi¬ dents (Instruction, Student and Learning Services, and Administrative Services), and the Deans of Human Resources, Educ¬ ational Services, External Relations, and Continued on page 2 Natalie Sehn Weber/Courier Artist-in-Residence Cary Panter speaks to students about his illustrations and paintings in the PCC Art Gallery on March 15. Versatile artist shares variety of experiences JP Lallos Staff Writer He is perhaps best known for his work as the head set designer on the "Pee Wee Herman Show" and "Pee Wee's Playhouse," but Gary Panter is also a renowned artist whose work has been in every¬ thing from underground comics and the New Yorker, to interior design and television and even music. Before his lecture at the Vosloh Forum on Tuesday night, Brian Tucker, director of the PCC Art Gallery, introduced Panter with a quote from artist Mike Kelley, say¬ ing, "Gary Panter is the most important graphic artist of the post-psychedelic (punk) period." From looking at his work, it is very clear why. Panter creates with a unique "ratty line" style that is unlike the very clean style that other artists use today. One can see in his work the admiration of artists such as Picasso and Eduardo Paolozzi and under¬ ground comics such as Zap Comix. Panter will be at the PCC Art Gallery throughout the week to work with students through lec¬ tures, demonstrations, and portfo¬ lio reviews. He will also be creating Continued on page 6 Student petitions to reverse decision on televising meetings Alfredo Aleman Contributing Writer A petition with over 1,000 signa¬ tures was presented to the Board of Trustees during Wednesday's meeting in an effort to get it to reverse its decision to telecast its meetings. After a 3-1 vote March 3 by the board to telecast its meetings start¬ ing in July, a student single-hand¬ edly began to gather signatures from the PCC community. "What I would like is for the decision (to telecast each meeting) to go further than what was dis¬ cussed," said Juan Diego Ashton, 18, liberal arts, who authored the petition. Ashton, prior to March 3, had never attended a Board of Trustees meeting, and did so only as extra credit for one of his classes. "They don't have the backing of the (PCC) community," said Ashton alluding to the number of signatures he has gathered. The motion passed by the board would allow the telecasting of each of the 22 meetings yearly by hiring the Pasadena Community Access Cable Corporation for an annual fee of $15,400 to handle production. Ashton said that his main objec¬ tive isn't to get the board to change its ruling, but to have it re-open discussion and to consider the opinions of the PCC community in AS opposed to plan for telecasts The Associated Students on Wednesday voted strongly against the board's decision to televise its meetings. All members present voted against the plan except for Student Trustee Brian Abadia, who abstained. "We are genuinely dis¬ pleased with the actions of the board," said Vice President for Academic Affairs Jason Herbert. "TTiis is the worst idea the board of trustees has come up with since Paulette Perfumo." AS members questioned the actions of Abadia, who used his advisory board vote to approve the proposal with¬ out first consulting the other student leaders. — Hannah Leyva its final decision. "The discussion didn't really happen. They didn't have a public point of view in there," said Ashton. "Something like an open discus¬ sion where [the Board and the public] would talk about it Continued on page 2 Memorial: ESL, French professor mourned Page 2» Do you think the campus police should have guns?. УОТЕ AT: pcccourier.com Entertainment: PCC’s fourth annual Jazz Day Page 5»