OPINION
FEATURES
SPORTS
AS constitution back to the
drawing board.
Page 2
PCC’s Sandwich Man aims to please.
Page 5
Lavonne "Pepper” Paire adds a
bit of spice to softball.
Page 6
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
VOL. 80 No. 22
THE
COURIER
Serving the Pasadena Community since 1915
THURSDAY
March 23, 1995
Students say
no to changes
By PAT ROBISON
COURIER STAFF WRITER
A special election to amend the
Associated Student Constitution has
failed to get the required
2/3
major¬
ity vote. Fifty-two students voted for
the amendment and 4 1 voted against
it. Kevin Fullen, author of the amend¬
ment, said he thinks the low voter
turnout was due to rain and voter
apathy. “Students will come out and
vote if they are voting for candi¬
dates,” he said, “but to some this was
just about a piece of paper.”
The constitutional amendment
would have created a 15 member
student senate to replace the six
member board which is currently
appointed by the AS president. The
senators would have been elected
directly by the students, and each
member would have been respon¬
sible for a spefic area on campus
such as sciences or intercollegiate
athletics.
It would have also reduced the
executive board to six members, one
being the Student Trustee who would
have then been given voting power
at AS meetings and been required to
attend them. Copies of the amended
constitution were left in racks around
campus for five days before the elec¬
tion along with copies of the old one
for students to compare.
The supreme council also held a
meeting last week to answer ques¬
tions and discuss the amendment.
One topic of discussion at the meet¬
ing was a letter to the editor printed
in the March 9 issue of The Courier.
The letter was written by Jonathan
Martinez, Internal Coordinator of
MEChA de PCC. In it he said that
MEChA was opposed to the amend¬
ment.
Even after the election Fullen
said, "The letter is totally invalid.
The facts are totally wrong, ’’and
added, “At the meeting nobody even
asked any questions. ” Martinez said,
however, that the meeting, “was
pretty much an attack on the (letter).
The aim was to attack our resistance
instead of listening. We had prob¬
lems with the new positions that
were not outlined in the new consti¬
tution.”
Roldan Herrera, AS vice presi-
Please see CHANGES. Page 6
ANDREW McDIARMID/THE COURIER
PCC student J.P. Henderson was the highlight of the
lobbying effort. His creative protest caught the attention of
major news media organizations, including CNN.
Students lobby in
Washington D.C.
By ANDREW McDIARMID
COURIER STAFF WRITER
In our nation’s capitol, Con¬
gress has cut $100 million from
Pell Grants, and proposed to cut
more than $ 1 50 million more from
the educational budget. It is un¬
derstandable that many students
across the country are angry about
the cuts reaching into their pock-
etbooks. This voice was presented
to Congress this past weekend
during the National Student Lobby
Visit.
Within the group that stood on
Capitol Hill demanding that funds
not be cut were PCC students.
Anger about the cuts in educa¬
tion, and other vital government
programs, including proposed
changes in the student lunch pro¬
gram and $36 Million of cuts in
AIDS prevention and education,
was apparent with the United
States Student Association
(USSA) Student’s Rights Rally
on Monday on the south terrace of
the Capitol building.
The students attended many
forums headed by officials in¬
volved in the educational lobby.
The importance of the students’
voice was the significant issue of
the weekend. The House and Sen¬
ate have approved the cut of $ 1 00
million from Pell Grant programs .
Now, as the legislation returns to
Please see D.C., Page 6
ANITA NARDINE/THE COURIER
Children from the child care center dig dirt with their little playground. Da’Von Fisher, second from left, said about the
plasticshovelsatthe groundbreaking ceremony fortheirnew groundbreaking, “I am digging my new school!”
Breaking ground for new center
By PATRIA G. ABELGAS
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Tiny high-pitched voices, most
of them out of tune, rang out in the
chilly afternoon air. “This is the
way we break the ground, break
the ground, break the ground
they sang, as short arms swayed in
a digging motion. “This is the way
we break the ground of our child
care center. ”
Almost 30 children, with their
neon windbreakers and tousled
ponytails, sang eagerly in front of
an audience that had come on
Tuesday to witness the
groundbreaking at the site of the
new Child Development Center.
The center will be built on what is
now a PCC off-campus parking
lot on the corner of Green and
Holliston streets.
“This is the way we build the
building, build the building, build
the building, ” the 2 to 5 year olds
chanted, slamming their little fists
on top of each other. They stood
under a glossy painting of their fu¬
ture playground, a $3 . 8 million state-
of-the-art facility. “This is the way
we build the building of our child
care center. ”
Througha generous donationfrom
the Berger Foundation, these chil¬
dren will be running around in a
biggerplayground by February 1996.
The new CDC, estimated at $3.8
million, will be a two-story building
with a total of 22, 302 square feet of
space, with plenty of room for 100
children, 20 teachers and 45 stu¬
dents doing field practice at the
center.
Right now, the child care center
is located behind the Community
Skills Center, an old building where
pipes hang out from the ceiling and
a musty smell pervades the halls.
The children play in a three-room
bungalow with an outside area half
the size of a basketball court.
“The old building is home, but
it’s old,” Nikki Harmon, the
center’s program director,
said. “We’re excited about
the new building.”
Dr. Grover Goyne, PCC
Foundation president, said
that the college is building
the center at a time “when
child care centers are becom¬
ing more and more impor¬
tant. Working mothers are
going back to school and they
need quality care for their
children.”
Dr. Gretchen Anderson,
head of the social sciences
department and one of the
prime movers in the plan¬
ning of the new facility,
promised theseparents “qual¬
ity child care” while they
study and work.
“We put a lot of hours into
planning and designing the
center,” Anderson said, “but
it was truly a labor of love.”
Please see BREAKING, Page 3
ERWIN GOLDBERG/THE COURIER
Pasadena mayor Kathryn Nack
was the keynote speaker during
last Tuesday's groundbreaking
ceremony. “This is a place where
children can be more than
adequately cared for,” she said.
Numbers still add up for Georgilas
By ENRICO PIAZZA
COURIER STAFF WRITER
A vote recount of the Faculty
Senate election confirmed that in¬
cumbent President Anthony Georgi¬
las was the winner. The margin of his
victory was updated to nine votes, as
only minor mistakes were found.
Georgilas ended up with one more
vote, for a total of 144, while chal¬
lenger Ellen Ligons received two
more votes, for a total of 1 3 5 . Ligons,
currently the Faculty Senate vice
president, asked for a recount be¬
cause of the slim margin of her de¬
feat. In a written statement she also
accused Georgilas of violating sen¬
ate bylaws and controlling the elec¬
tion outcome. According to Dr. Philip
Ricards, chairman of the election
committee, it was the first time in
recent memory that a recount has
been asked for.
Ricards attributed the mistakes to
“clerical errors” caused by the rush
with which the votes were first
counted.
“Everytime you’re counting
votes, you can miss one or two,” the
philosophy professor said. “We were
“The important issue
is who will serve the
faculty best. I was re¬
elected twice: on the
initial ballot and on
the recount. ”
Anthony Georgilas,
faculty senate president
in such a rush to alleviate the anxiety
of the candidates.”
Responding to Ligons’ allega¬
tions, Ricards said that the names of
the Election Committee members
were “well known” before the elec¬
tion. He added, it is not true that he
was appointed by Georgilas, but he
was nominated by the whole senate
board. Records show that the senate
voted unanimously on Feb. 6 to have
Ricards chair the committee, mainly
because he was not running for re-
election and had “no stake in the
outcome.” A verbatim account of
the Feb. 6 meeting also shows that
the names of the election committee
members are included in the motion.
Ricards also said there is no indi¬
cation that Georgilas violated proper
election procedures. John Jacobs and
Joan Brandlin, who conducted the
vote recount, agreed. “We see no
impropriety.”
While complaining he never re¬
ceived a copy of thp written state¬
ment Ligons released to The COU¬
RIER, Ricards said he immediately
sealed the box containing the ballots
once he was notified of Ligons’ re¬
quest of a recount. Ricards added he
found the box untouched.
Georgilas, who campaigned with
the slogan “the mouth that roars, is
still roaring, and getting results” re¬
jected Ligons’ allegations as basi¬
cally nothing more than “sour
grapes.”
“I believe Ms. Ligons owes an
apology to Dr. Ricards and the Elec¬
tion Committee,” Georgilas said in a
written statement.
"The only people who knew who
voted are the members of the elec¬
tion committee. Ligons knows that
the voting process is a secret ballot.”
He added that he did call faculty
members, but his messages were
addressed to all the faculty, not just
the ones who hadn’t voted, as Ligons
alleged. The communication profes¬
sor added that he couldn’t know the
name of those who didn't vote, as
Ligons alleged.
“I wanted to get out the vote and
to prove to the Administration that
the faculty were strong supporters of
the Faculty Senate Board. ' Georgi¬
las said. He added that almost 85
percent of the faculty voted, the big¬
gest turnout ever.
Please see RECOUNT, Page 3
