PASADENA CITY COLLEGE
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
VOL. 80 No. 23
COURIER
Serving the Pasadena Community since 1915
THURSDAY
March 30, 1995
Pepsico
By LUZ MARIA CASTELLANOS
COURIER STAFF WRITER
The soda wars have finally come
to an end at least for PCC. And,
Pepsi won.
On March 21, the Board of Trust¬
ees unanimously voted in favor of
the Pepsico contract which grants
Pepsico exclusive fountain and
vending rights at PCC for five years.
PCC will receive $35,000 annu¬
ally from Pepsico plus a one time
payment of $10,000 during the third
Student
arrested
smoking
marijuana
By RAY ARMENDARIZ
COURIER STAFF WRITER
A PCC student smoking a mari¬
juana cigarette on campus was
placed under citizen’s arrest and
cited last Thursday, campus police
said.
Gerald Cortez was walking
across the bridge to the W building
when he saw a male student trying
to light up a marijuana cigarette.
When he was finished, he put the
remainder into a plastic container
and walked to class in W201 with
Cortez following behind him.
Cortez, who works as store secu¬
rity in Los Angeles, confronted the
man in the classroom, handcuffed
him and escorted him to campus
police.
“Once Cortez placed the sus¬
pect under citizen’s arrest, by law,
we have to take him into custody,”
said officer Steven Lester. “In a
case like this, we don’t make the
arrest, we just take custody and
either transport the subject to jail or
write a citation.”
Police found the marijuana ciga¬
rette and a small amount of mari¬
juana in a plastic bag in the student’s
right front pocket. Since the amount
was under an ounce, the student
was only given a citation which is
usually a $100 fine or community
service. The fine depends on, what
the judge imposes and on how many
priors the student has. However,
Please see DRUGS, Page 5
wins exclusive vending rights in cola war
year of the contract which will go to
support campus programs. From
the $35,000 that PCC will receive
annually, $5,000 will go to the ath¬
letic department, another $5,000
will go to the PCC Foundation and
the remaining $25,000 will go into
the Student Services Fund.
“I don’t really like selling out to
anyone, but because of all the cut¬
backs, I think this would really ben¬
efit students,” said Robert Bow¬
man president of the AS board.
“The money the contract gen¬
erates will go directly into student
benefits in the student fund. We are
mostly interested in providing sup¬
port for new technology at this
time,” said Stephen Johnson, asso¬
ciate dean of student affairs. “This
will allow us to move forth in having
student access to more computer
based services,” he said.
According to the terms of the
agreement, PCC will only serve
Pepsi products. However, the con¬
tract does allow PCC the right to
serve Minute Maid and three other
non-cola products outside the Pepsi
product line.
“This [the contract with Pepsi]
is just wonderful for students, we
will all benefit from this” said Ernest
Romine, director of athletics.
When the proposal was origi¬
nally presented to the Board of
Trustees, there was some appre¬
hension about the terms. Originally
the contract was set for 10 years,
but the Board of Trustees was con¬
cerned that 10 years was too long to
be committed to one company.
Also, the board wanted student
opinions about the proposal.
Please see PEPSI, Page 5
*
Circle of friends
RAFAEL VEGA/THE COURIER
Members of “Miracle,” an ensemble of Armenian cultural dancers sponsored by the Armenian Student
Association (ASA), perform a native dance as part of the college’s Multi-cultural Fest which kicked off
last Tuesday. Three more performances in the Quad, including a reggae band, are expected today.
Annual disbursement
to PCC (three years)
Note: a one time payment of
$10,000 to the college will be given
on the third year of the contract.
Changes expected
for food services
By GILBERT RIVERA
COURIER STAFF WRITER
In an effort to increase revenue
from slumping sales, the college, in
conjunction with Professional
Food-services Management Inc.
(PFM), will remodel the campus’
Mini-Mart and the Annex begin¬
ning next month.
Last November, the office of
student affairs approved a
$311,500 proposal that would
change cosmetically most of the
campus’ food service facilities as
well as add a new coffee house.
The items listed under the project
included minor repairs to Check¬
ers, security and appearance
changes to the campus’ Trolley,
and a new coffee house service
called Oasis. Plans for the Trolley
and the Oasis, however, will be put
on hold for now.
“We hope that our efforts will
make the facilities more acces¬
sible and appealing to students, as
well as increase business in food
services,” said Stephen Johnson,
associate dean of student affairs.
PFM, which operates all of the
campus’ food services facilities,
did the designs on the project and
will contribute $125,000 to its total
cost. The rest will be paid for by
PCC’s Student Services fund.
“PFM’s designs are excellent,”
said Johnson. “They have taken
into account the latest designs used
elsewhere and tailored them to the
food service facilities provided here
at PCC.”
The Mini-Mart will be con¬
verted to Hot Grab ’N Go’s and will
house a pizza stand called Pandy’s
Pizza. The Taco Bell stand, which
is owned by PFM and currently
located in the campus’ cafeteria,
will move into the convenience
store.
As for the Annex, located in the
А
it will almost double in
size and will have a deli and a cinna¬
mon roll stand called W.W. Cinna¬
mon. Other changes for the Annex
include upgrading floors and walls,
two entry and exit-ways for smooth
traffic flow, and wheelchair ramps.
“As the second busiest food
serving place on campus, the new
Annex is expected to be very popu¬
lar with students and will improve
revenue to the college,” Johnson
said.
Erick Rodriguez, director of din¬
ing services, said that both projects
will be finished and ready to go by
next fall.
In addition to the changes,
Checkers, PCC’s largest food ser¬
vice facility, now closes at 2 p.m.
instead of the usual 7:30 p.m. be¬
cause of “a lack of sales after 2
p.m.
“Bottom line is that we’re not
making money,” said Rodriguez.
“We were spending more to keep
Checkers open after 2 p.m. than
the sales that were coming in. We
were losing a lot of sales particu¬
larly since the parking structure
opened. I don’t know if that has
anything to do with it, but since
January, the student population has
decreased, at least around Check¬
ers.” Rodriguez also said that if
business picks up, the hours will be
changed.
“I love the food at Checkers but
it’s expensive,” said Erik Linares,
fire technology major who also man¬
ages a restaurant. “If you go across
the street, you could buy food really
cheap. So they aren’t being very
competitive and it’s not a surprise
to me why they changed the hours.”
Please see FOOD, Page 6
Multi-cultural Fest aims to bring students together
By PATRIA G. ABELGAS
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
The colors are different: white, black,
brown and several shades in between. So
are the words, the music and the moves.
Yet these very differences are the focus of
this week’s Multi-Cultural Fest, an event
that recognizes and respects the diversity
of the college’s population
The campus has always had events
marking Afrikan-American Heritage
Week, Asian American Awareness Week,
and Dia de los Muertos.
“This is the first time that we are going
to have something that will celebrate the
differences among all these cultures. But
hopefully, the event will bring people to¬
gether despite the differences,” said
Roldan Herrera, executive vice president
of the Associated Students (AS) board
and president of the Inter-Club Council.
Herrera spearheaded the planning of the
Multi-cultural Fest.
The whole event was organized by the
different campus organizations. Carrie
Afuso, cross cultural center coordinator,
said, “What makes this event different is
that it was totally planned by the students.
The clubs wanted an opportunity to show
some unity.
“The purpose of the event is to make
people aware of other cultures. The activi¬
ties will highlight something from each
culture,” said Afuso.
Three cultures will be represented to¬
day at noon in the Quad. The Pilipino Stu¬
dent Coalition will have cultural dancers
perform Philippine folk dances that date
back to the Spanish colonial period. Chi¬
nese Acrobats of Taipei will also be fea¬
tured today along with Afrikan Lion, a
reggae band sponsored by the Black Stu¬
dent Alliance.
Children performing Armenian cultural
dances wowed the students taking a break
from their classes last Tuesday. The chil¬
dren were part of “Miracle,” an ensemble
of Armenian cultural dancers sponsored
by the Armenian Student Association.
“I was happy to see that a lot of students
came to see the performances,” said Re¬
becca Cobb, AS adviser. “I wish we had
a multi-cultural week every week because
it reflects what PCC is really all about:
diversity.”
Lavonne Ramirez, AS coordinator of
campus activities, said that the organizers
“hope that all these will bring an aware¬
ness of the different cultures not only on
campus but also those outside. We hope
people will apply whatever they learned
from the activities to their own communi¬
ties.”
MEChA invited guest speaker Lupe
Lopez, who also said that multiculturalism
should not be celebrated for only a week
but should be promoted every day.
MEChA is the only group among the
participating campus clubs that opted to
invite a speaker instead of performers.
“There’s a lot of tokenism going on
here,” said Angelique Juarez, who said
that the atmosphere of celebration hides
currents of tension on campus. “We sing,
we dance, we pretend everything’s OK on
campus. It’s not. PCC is not OK.”
Juarez and her group announced during
Tuesday’s activities that MECha is going
to push for a Chicano Studies department
at PCC. “There’s no diversity in the col¬
lege. We have a diverse student population
but it is not reflected in the curriculum and
in the faculty,” said Jonathan Martinez
who spoke at the multi-cultural event on
Tuesday on behalf of MEChA, which was
originally formed nationally to promote
Chicano studies.
MEChA has yet to work on the details
of the proposal. No definite plan has been
submitted to the administration.
ELEONORAGHIOLDI/THE COURIER
MEChA member Jonathan Martinez
speaks in the Quad as part of PCC’s Multi¬
cultural Fest, which aims to promote
other cultures. MEChA is proposing a
Chicano studies department in PCC.
i
