Meet
Larry Mantle
Page 5
Scholarship and
Award Luncheon
Today
‘Shy People’
Projects
Courage
Page 4
COURIER
VOL. 66. NO. 6
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE. PASADENA. CALIFORNIA
MARCH 24. 1988
Ninth Graders Experience PCC
Benefits Could Be Terminated
Students and faculty will get to hear Denise Levertov read her poetry.
Celebrated Poet
Gives Reading
By Sally Blake
News Editor
Denise Levertov, a major Ameri¬
can poet and Inscape poet of the
year, will be performing a poetry
reading March 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the
forum. Jane Hallinger, assistant
professor of English and Faculty
Senate President, said “I have ad¬
mired Levertov’s work for many
years, and I teach it in my classes,”
said Hallinger. “After she was
selected to be our Inscape poet of the
year, I conta6ted her and asked if
she would do the honors of reading
for us. She accepted.”
Levertov lives in Boston, but a
few months out of the year, she lives
here on the West Coast. She is now
teaching at Stanford, and the timing
perfectly correlated with PCC
Women’s Month.
Levertov obtained a very ir¬
regular education. Throughout
kindergarten to the university level,
she was privately tutored.
“I had no formal schooling, which
makes some people scream,” ex¬
plained Levertov with her English
accent. “I was taught privately at
home. And a lot of the time, it was
with my mother.”
Levertov was born in Essex, Eng¬
land in 1923. She was married to
Michael Goodman, a writer, in 1947.
She migrated to the U.S. in 1948 and
became a naturalized citizen in 1955.
She has been a visiting professor
to a number of universities through¬
out the world including University
of California at Berkeley, Massa¬
chusetts Institute of Technology and
Tufts University. She holds hon¬
orary docterates from Colby Col¬
lege, University of Cincinnati and
Bates College.
She also received the Morton
Dauwen Zabel Prize for poetry, a
Guggenheim Fellowship and a grant
from the National Institute of Arts
and Letters.
Hallinger was very happy when
Levertov accepted her invitation. “I
think that we are really fortunate to
be able to have her come and read
for us,” said Hallinger. “I think that
it is important for students to be
able to read the poetry, and then be
able to hear the author read his own
work.”
According to Hallinger, Levertov
has a very strong social conscious¬
ness. Some of her poetry talks about
nuclear disarmament and anit-war.
Still others, talk about introspective
views,
Hallinger and the English depart¬
ment are always trying to bring
poets and writers onto campus. Last
year, they also had the Inscape poet
of the year, Michael Harper, here.
This year’s visit is funded by a
grant from the PCC Foundation and
a grant from the Student Services
Committee. Therefore, the reading
is free. There will be a small recep¬
tion following the reading.
goal is to show them all that is open to
them if they expand their science back¬
ground.
“In the ninth grade, their options can
be maximized. And this is what we are
trying to show them,” Moore said.
The students visited the science de¬
partment. They toured allied health,
nursing and laser tech. The faculty
talked with them and tried showing
them that science is a good background
to have for any occupation.
“Science is becoming more impor¬
tant as technology becomes more ad¬
vanced,” said Moore. “We are saying
to these kids, ‘You have to be prepared
for the future: have a background,
don’t run away from a rigorous cur¬
riculum.’ ”
Another purpose of the program is to
inform students that when they are in
the Uth grade, they can take classes at
PCC.
“They have the opportunity to be
concurrently enrolled here while
enrolled at their high school,” Moore
explained. “This gives them the op¬
portunity to get some college credit out
of the way, and it gives us a chance to
recruit future generations of students.”
Not only did the students talk with
instructors they also had a chance to
“hang out” on campus and really get a
feel for it, said Moore.
“They had lunch in the cafeteria and
hung around the quad and got a chance
to soak up the environment. We feel
this is really important. Students need
to go to the campus they may be
attending to see if they feel com¬
fortable there.”
According to Moore, they did in fact
feel very comfortable and asked ques¬
tions that they might not have felt at
ease enough to ask given another situ¬
ation.
Moore said next time, the math
department will be their host.
The students were selected from
Pasadena High School and Muir High
School. Moore expressed hope in add¬
ing Blair and Marshall High Schools to
the program.
little over 20 percent in fall ’86, a drop
of one-fourth from the previous fall.
The figures have steadily fallen since
then.
Kauti says that no strong push was
made for the program in the registra¬
tion lines this semester, and that no
amount of salesmanship would have
helped. “In previous semesters, we had
salespeople in the registration lines, we
had full page information sheets telling
of all the benefits that this program
provides and we’d still see the numbers
drop.”
For the $8 fee students recieve free
tutorial services. According to Kauti,
the cost of tutors has put a financial
drain on the program.
“ The money generated from the
whole program has not covered the
amount of the tutoring. Each semester
more than 300 students log more than
3,000 hours of tutorial services. The
payroll from all that is about $10,000.
That means that a student who pays $8
for the benefits sticker will get $27
worth of tutoring.”
If the benefit program is terminated,
Kauti said that the cost of the tutoring
program would be picked up by private
funds earmarked from the PCC Foun¬
dation.
Kauti said that the next step will be
determined by the A.S. board.
“They’re the key. But can we spend our
time and efforts in a more productive
area?”
According to Greg McLemore, A.S.
vice president, the board will survey
the positions of the trustee members
before any action to change the fee
structure is formally proposed.
Kauti summed up his feelings on the
program that he feels is winding down.
“I like this program. When you have
money you can do more for the stu¬
dents.
“We’ve put our best foot forward. I
have no reservations about what we’ve
done. I think that community college
students just don’t like to pay any
additional fees. It’s the nature of the
beast.”
Courier/Scott late
h snow still covers most of this San Gabriel Mountain hillside,
time shows its head beautifully in the glory of the pine trees.
Communications Department Gets a Grant
From Entertainment Industry Organization
By Sean DuPont
Associate News Editor
A $2,500 grant from the Society of
Motion Picture Engineers (SMPTE)
will allow 25 Telecom students to at¬
tend a conference next month that
promises to present the latest informa¬
tion on television and motion picture
technology.
The students will attend the National
Association of Broacasters (NAB) an¬
nual convention to be held in Las Vegas
April 9-12.
The grant came after Gerald Finn,
associate professor of communication,
wrote letters to several industry or¬
ganizations asking for help to cover the
$100 per person registration fee.
“This convention doesn’t offer any
student discounts, so I wrote letters to
such people as the vice president of
Universal Pictures, the NAB and the
SMPTE. What came out of the effort
was that the SMPTE will pick up the
tab for our registration. I’m thrilled.”
Finn said that the costs of transpor¬
tation, food and lodging will come out
of the students’ pocket, adding that the
students are dedicated are willing to
cover these costs themselves.
PCC has one of only seven student
chapters of SMPTE in the country and
has the only community college chap¬
ter. Finn said that the organization sets
the standards for the entertainment
industry and is a very prestigious
group.
Finn also reported on the upcoming
career preparation workshop co-hosted
by PCC and SMPTE to be held on May
7, The workshop will deal with in¬
terview techniques, resume prepara¬
tion and the principles of unions. A
panel discussion will end the day.
Finn and Joe Keane, formally a
professor at PCC ; John Flynn and Greg
Davidson of the NBC training depart¬
ment; Paul Wagner of IBEW, Local
645 ; and Greg Holden of NBC personnel
will speak.
According to Finn, the seminar will
be held at the Forum on May 7 from 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. Registration will be $15
and seating is limited so early registra¬
tion is advised. P’or more information
students should call 578-7216,
Ernestine Moore
By Sally Blake
News Editor
PCC has an ongoing program with
the Pasadena Unified School District to
bring ninth graders to this campus to
give them a better understanding of
what college life is all about. The
program is also designed to interest the
students in subjects such as science
and math. According to Ernestine
Moore, dean of student services, the
ninth graders last visit went very well.
“The ninth graders had a very favor¬
able attitude toward the campus, and
hopefully toward college in general.
What we wanted was to get the stu¬
dents more interested in science and to
have the experience on the campus help
keep them in school. We feel it was a
positive experience for all of us.”
The program concentrated on sci¬
ence this time. According to Moore,
these students take the very minimal
science requirements now, and one
By Sean DuPont
Associate News Editor
The A.S. Benefits package is in dan
ger of being scrapped due to declining
participation and a board of trustees
reluctant to approve a controversial
motion.
The benefit program has been of¬
fered since fall of 1985 and is com¬
pletely voluntary. Student participation
has dropped every year it has been
offered. Currently the package has a
little over 1,500 cardholders; only eight
Kauti says that no strong push was made for the
program in the registration lines this semester,
and that no amount of salesmanship would have
helped.
percent of the student body.
In order to change the fortunes of the
program, the Associated Student Board
has recommended the fee become
quasi-automatic and that it be imposed
on students when they register for
classes. Any students who did not want
the package would then have to ask for
a refund when registering. The board
also recommended that the fee be set
at $5. The current fee, which is $8,
yielded $12,200 this spring.
Alvar Kauti, dean of student ac¬
tivities and member of the A.S. Benefit
Fee Committee meeting, said that the
recommendation will have to jump the
hurdle of being approved by the Board
of Trustees, a group that traditionally
has not liked the idea of a quasi¬
automatic student benefit fee.
“I think that there is zero percent
chance of the Board of Trustees ap¬
proving our recommendation,” he said.
“When they approved the idea of a
student benefit fee, they let it be known
that they did not like the quasi-auto¬
matic part of it. They instead approved
a purely voluntary fee.”
Kauti pointed to a special trustees
meeting held on May 23, 1985 that he
feels supports his conclusion. When a
motion to impose the fee on a man¬
datory basis was raised, debate fol¬
lowed and a second proposal — to
implement the program with a volun¬
tary fee — was passed by a vote of 6-1.
Kauti said that today’s board is the
same as the 1985 one and said that it is
reasonable to assume the board will
vote the same way.
Mike Matsuda, A.S. vice president of
business affairs agreed. “If we can’t
automate it, we should scrap it.”
The program, which offers students
tutoring, discounts at campus events
and coupons for off-campus businesses,
has been losing popularity. In fall of
1985, its first semester, more than 5,000
students signed up for the program,
about 26 percent. In the spring of that
school year the percentage fell to 14.5.
The enrollment in the program was a
