VOLUME 111 ISSUE 8
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM
March 26, 2015
OUR/ER
SERVING PASADENA CITY COLLEGE
FOR WO YEARS
Op-Ed
The new senate
candidates give a
reason to why they are
running
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Lancer track star first in state
Eric Haynes/Courier
PCC's freshman sprinter Alexander McElwee waits for the whistle to be blown by assitant coach Pat Williams for
take-off during practice on Tuesday.
Daron Grandberry
Staff Writer
With a rare combination of raw ath¬
leticism and persistent determination,
freshman sprinter Alexander McElwee
has already marked his territory as one
of PCC’s most notable sprinters.
In only his third year running track
competitively, the Arcadia High School
product has already made a name for
himself and the Lancers’ in both the
200 and 400-meter races.
“Alex is a very hard worker,” first
year assistant coach Mikele “Miki”
Barber said. “He’s very dedicated and
disciplined. When I first met him he
was kind of rough and tough and just
very determined and I didn’t know that
he had just started running track about
three or four years ago. Some people
just have it and Alex has all the tools to
be a successful runner. He’s very dedi¬
cated and that’s what I like about him.”
McElwee made a name for himself
early in the season with two first place
finishes at the Cerritos Invitational in
February. McElwee raced a 48.51 time
to win the 400-meters, which was the
fourth fastest time in the state at the
time. His first place in the 200 was the
region’s top mark (fifth in the state) at
21.65.
“From the first day Alex came in he
has been very focused,” head coach
Armand Crespo said. “He already had
his mind made up as far as getting a
full ride scholarship.
As coaches we try to motivate him
and keep him going. He’s improved tre¬
mendously but it’s really just the work
that he’s done in the off-season. That
was the most important thing, he came
to PCC in great shape and was ready.”
A former high school cornerback,
McElwee attributes his athleticism and
performance to a very disciplined regi¬
men and diet, which includes a routine¬
ly healthy breakfast of egg whites,
MCELWEE page 6 ►
New hirings
hit a hiccup
due to flawed
system
Matthew Kiewiet
News Editor
Little to no progress has been made by PCC
in filling the 36 new full-time faculty posi¬
tions — a number that was agreed upon back
in November — as the software being used to
collect and evaluate appli¬
cations, Cornerstone, has
been automatically rejecting
applicants due to a number of
severe glitches.
“A system like this should
have never been launched with
this number of applicants,”
Interim Superintendent-Pres¬
ident Robert Miller said. “But,
in the PCC way, it happened.”
The main problem that applicants are running
into is as that they will submit their application
and then never receive a confirmation email.
Then they will receive a notification that their
file has been closed.
“There are some very angry applicants,” said
Faculty Association Grievance Officer Suzanne
Anderson.
Cornerstone is also allowing major security
breaches. When an applicant fills out an applica¬
tion, the software saves their information to the
computer that the applicant is applying from. In
other words, anyone can access said applicant’s
information if they have access to their com¬
puter.
mm, ■ ■ - ~se#s.
! — ' Tn
Interim
President
Robert Miller
HIRINGS page 2 ^
Campus reacts to the state’s accreditation exit report
Kristen Luna
Managing Editor
A state accreditation team re¬
cently provided their exit report
regarding their four-day site vis¬
it including overall comments,
five commendations, and seven
possible recommendations.
Stephanie Fleming, accredi¬
tation faculty coordinator and
Kathleen Scott, accreditation
liaison officer, reviewed the exit
report and presented it to the
board at last week’s meeting
along with a preliminary plan
to address those recommenda¬
tions that were given.
“They made clear that they
evaluated the institution as
a whole using the accredita¬
tion standards and it was very
important for them that we
understand that,” Scott said.
“The recommendations that
were made were based on the
standards and whether we met
those standards.”
The school will receive the
final results after their meeting
in June and he final decision is
expected in July.
Overall, the accreditation
team said that the campus “has
an excellent learning environ¬
ment, dynamic programs and
vibrant community,” said Scott.
Some of the successes the
accreditation team highlighted
were distance education, the
professional learning oppor¬
tunities provided for teachers
in the online environment,
the school’s commitment
to student success, many of
the Pathway’s programs, and
the welcoming and inclusive
environment that’s been cre¬
ated on campus. Additionally,
they commended the school’s
many services that are offered
to students such as the Child
Development Center and the
workforce grant that helps train
students in the child develop¬
ment program.
“They were very impressed
with the many things they saw
here,” Scott said. “They made
clear the need for the campus
to become more familiar with
the accreditation standards and
that will be something we need
to work on going forward.”
The team also provided sev¬
eral possible recommendations
that will be formalized in the
ACCRED page 2 !►
Max Zeronian/Courier
Academic Senator Melissa
Michelson addresses the senate
regarding the accreditation report
on Monday.
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