Pasadena City College
Pasadena, California
Vol. 75 No. 6
COURIER
Serving the PCC Community for 75 years
Thursday
March 25, 1993
Students head off budget battle
Sacramento lobbying
a success, leaders say
By JONATHAN BLAKESLEE
Staff Writer
PCC students lobbied the state
legislature in Sacramento on March
16 and 1 7 against the proposed $20 a
unit fee increase.
Ninety-seven students traveled
by bus and plane to join efforts with
students from all over the state in
peaceful demonstration.
Because of a Cal State rally that
turned violent a week ago, state police
were apprehensive
about the situation.
However, the
500-member rally,
organized through
the California
Student Associa¬
tion of Community
Colleges (Cal-
SACC) never once
got out of hand in
the course of its four
hours of speeches
and chanting.
Four PCC students opened the
rally addressing the crowd on topics
including the budget proposal and
alternatives to the fee hike.
While the demonstration was in
progress outside, nine PCC students
met with 1 1 different legislators and
staffers to discuss budget alterna¬
tives that PCC students advocate.
The trip, including all of the ho¬
tel, food, bus, plane and lobby ar¬
rangements was organized and run
almost entirely by students. One
adviser, Alvar Kauti, assistant dean
of student activities, moderated the
trip.
Elizabeth Contreras, organizer and
Inter Club Council vice president,
said the trip “went off without any
glitches. We would have liked to
have taken more people because
we had the support and money. PCC
was the only school that provided
the trip free for its students.”
The rally was opened at 9 a.m.
Wednesday by PCC student trustee
John Robinson. Robinson welcomed
all of the schools from various regions
of the state.
Alpha Gamma Sigma officer J.J.
Neward then spoke on the gover¬
nor’s budget proposal and how it
will hit community
colleges.
“Gov. Wilson
has proposed an
11.1 percent cut
statewide to com¬
munity colleges,
which may be off¬
set by a S20 a unit
fee increase,”
Neward said.“Our
government is
spending a lot of
time and money on creating lower
dropout rates and raising SAT’s so
people can go to college, and then
they pull the rug right out from under
us. We arc willing to pay our share,
but this is too much too fast.”
Dylan Littlefield, presidentof the
College Republicans, spoke to the
crowd on Senate Bills 48 and 46
which are the two main proposals
PCC students were supporting.
He also pushed for having no
suspension of Proposition 98 which
also threatens community college
financial resources.
“You need to write or visit your
legislator at your district office, and
tell them how the previous fee hike
put 60,000 community college stu¬
‘We are willing to
pay our share,
but this is too
much too fast.’
J.J. Neward,
Alpha Gamma Sigma
member
SPEAKING OUT
Student Trustee John Robinson {left)
welcomes more than 300 students to the state
capitol, where a PCC group rallied against a fee
increase of $30 per unit.
(Upper left) Dylan Littlefield, College
Republican president, spoke about the Senate
Bills students should support while some of the
79 students from PCC held up placards (bottom
left). Another lobbying trip to Sacramento is
underway in May, when lawmakers decide on a
final budget for California.
All photos by
JONATHAN
BLAKESLEE/
The
COURIER
dents out of the system.
“You also need to offer your total
support of Senate Bill 48. This is the
extension of the
1/2
cent emergency
sales tax, which would create $420
million for community colleges and
completely offset the 11.1 percent
cut by Wilson,” Littlefield said.
The fourth PCC speaker to ad¬
dress the crowd, Contreras talked
about the effects the fee increase
might have.
“We know about the implications
of the hike. Approximately 300,000
students will be bumped out of the
system because they can 4 afford the
increase,” Contreras said. “College
students are 30 percent of the voting
population and we are the economic
future. Don 4 let them undermine us
and our role in the state’s policies.”
Contreras’s speech fell at the end
of the lobby session and served to
start the already vocal crowd into
chants such as, “Educate Wilson!”,
“Schools yes, prisons no!” and “Senate
Bill 48, and don’t suspend 98!”
Including the two sent from PCC,
a total of 12 buses converged on
Sacramento joining students from
L.A. area schools such as Santa
Monica City College, Los Angeles
City College, and Valley College
with students from schools in the
Sacramento area.
While state police were positioned
between students and the doors of
the capitol, the rally did not get out
of control the way the Cal State rally
had a week before.
During the Cal State protest, some
of the demonstrators were spitting
on police and even tried to storm the
governor’s office.
“The outside rally went really
well. From talking to the legislators,
the CSU and UC rallies really hurt
their cause, but they had a totally
different reaction to our rally.” said
Fareed Rayyis of the Cross Cultural
Planning Board.
“When we were inside talking to
legislators you could here the pro¬
test going on outside. It was a team
effort and it made a difference,” he
said.
An Associated Student (AS)
member said the effort could have
been bigger. “Hundreds of sheets of
signatures were dropped off at the
senate education committee, and
hundreds of individual letters were
given to the governor’s office, sena¬
tors and assemblymen. The only sad
part was that we had 1 70 sign up and
only 97 made the trip,” said Clara
Hernandez, AS coordinator of pub¬
licity.
Due to the establishment of a
student lobby account for just this
purpose, the cost of the trip was
covered by that fund. The projected
cost of the two buses, 40 hotel rooms,
five meals, and plane tickets is esti¬
mated at about $12,000.
PCC students plan to lake part in
another rally on May 7-9, when Cal-
S ACC holds its annual conference at
the capitol.
The timing of this event are cru¬
cial to the fate of community college
fees because it falls just before the
budget battles that decide who gets
California’s funds.
Drug Awareness Day set
By RODNEY MITCHELL
Staff Writer
Out of growing concern over
increasing alcohol and drug abuse
by students and staff, the PCC Foun¬
dation will present its 5th annual
Alcohol and Drug Awareness Faire
on Wednesday, March 31 and Thurs¬
day, April 1.
The faire, underwritten by the
Foundation, Student Services, Ca¬
reer Transfer Center and Commu¬
nity Skills Center, will be held at the
Quad from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
One out of ten students in PCC
suffer from the disease
of alcoholism, said Bar¬
bara E. Bondurant, RN,
director of substance
abuse prevention.
Bondurant said that
on any college campus,
alcohol is traced to two-
thirds of all violent be¬
havior, one third of all emotional
problems and one third of all aca¬
demic problems. Of all student
hospital admissions, one out of three
hospital admissions are alcohol-re¬
lated.
Although alcohol is legal and is
acceptable in American society,
statistics from the City
Council on Alcohol
Abuse show that there
is a higher fatality rate
associated with alcohol
than cocaine and her¬
oin.
Professional drug and
alcohol counselors from
Pasadena treatment
centers will be available during the
faire to offer guidance and direc-
toion concerning drug and alcohol
abuse. A representative from the As¬
sociation of Recovery Homes will
also offer specific information on
recovery homes in Pasadena.
Forum helps women cope
By MERISSA GOODRICH
Staff Writer
When PCC hosted the 16th an¬
nual Pasadena Women’s conference,
“Women of the 90s— Healthy in All
Ways,” both PCC students and Pasad¬
ena residents learned that more
women are injured by the men in
their lives than in muggings or car
accidents.
The conference, coordinated by
the Pasadena Commission on the
Status of Women with help from the
Friends of the Commission, focused
on health issues confronting women.
“There is a lot of work that goes
into the conference but a special
thanks goes to Cindy Kunisaki with¬
out whom this never would have
happened, and a thanks to the St.
Luke Medical Center, the Bank of
America, Kaiser Permanente, Pasad¬
ena City College, and others for all
their support,” said Sandra Ritten-
house, chair of the Commission on
the Status of Women. For the first
time in 16 years, the conference of¬
fered workshops in Spanish.
“ The workshops taught me how
to handle stressful situations and how
to manage my time in order to avoid
stress in the first place,” Dana Lea-
goon, a sociology major said.
The goal of the conference was to
educate women in health issues such
as AIDS, and to create a greater
feeling of confidence and pride in
themselves.
Rick Cole, mayor of Pasadena,
and Katie Nack, vice-mayor, wel¬
comed everyone to the conference
and expressed hope that the gains
women have achieved in the last few
years will continue to grow.
“I stand here as a participant and
sometimes a victim of the issues that
this conference addresses,” said Nack,
“But trends are flowing in the direc-
Please see “WOMEN,“ page 6
More students need aid
By MERISSA GOODRICH
Staff Writer
Student loans are at an all time
high in California because of the
recent tuition increases at all state-
funded colleges.
Fewer students are able to afford
the new tuition and scholarships
are more difficult to get because
of increased competition. In the
future, more and more students
will borrow money, and colleges
will be forced to use larger por¬
tions of their budgets on financial
aid, a national survey has found.
Many PCC students apply for
loans and financial aid here and
when they transfer. “We were
one of the first community col¬
leges to get SI million in finan¬
cial aid. Now we’re receiving $5
million,” said Karla Henderson,
assistant dean of scholarships and
financial aid.
The increasing cost of higher
education, pegged at $ 500 or
more per unit at some schools,
has made it difficult for transfer
students to afford their educa¬
tion.
Students who don’t have a 4.0
grade point average find it even
harder to get a scholarship and
usually apply for a grant or get a
loan from a bank or the federal
government.
Between 1970 and 1990, the num¬
ber of students receiving federal as¬
sistance increased significantly, ac¬
cording to the American Council
on Education report.
In constant 1990 dollars, student
borrowing under the guaranteed loan
program more than tripled, from
$4.3 billion in 1970 to 1971 to $14
billion last year, the report said.
During this same period, grants
also doubled, from $5.7 billion to
$13 billion.
“Twenty years ago, more student
aid was given in the form of grants
than in loans, but today the reverse
is true,” said Charles Andersen, a
senior staff associate with the Ameri¬
can Council on Education.
Numbers At Odds
1970-71
1990-91 $14 billion
The situation is not expected
to improve. The 1992 amend¬
ments to the Higher Education
Act raised annual and cumula¬
tive loan limits for students bor¬
rowing under the federal guar¬
anteed loan programs, and also
changed some income limits to
make more middle-class students
eligible for grants.
However, budget limitations
resulted in a cut in the maximum
award for Pell Grants in 1993
and 1994, from $2,300 to $2,200.
“With continuing pressures the
federal budget likely to restrict
the size of increases in federal
grant programs, it seems likely
that significant growth in feder-
Please see “LOANS,” page 2
Student borrowing under
the guaranteed loan
program more than tripled
between 1970 and 1990,
from $4.3 billion in 1 970 to
$14 billion last year.
However, amendments to
the Higher Education Acts
in 1992 raised the limits for
student borrowing under the
federal program.
I