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COURIER
Pasadena City College
Baseball
Lancers
swept
by LBCC
Page
8»
Volume 103, Issue 6
“The Independent Student Voice ofPCC, Serving Pasadena Since 1 915. ”
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Green tech
Two electric
were demonstrated in
front of the IT Building on
Monday. The new models
are said to be more efficient
with a full charge time of six
hours.
Brian Warouw/Courier
Speech team exhibits top talents in
preparation for U.S. championships
Amrah Khan
Managing Editor
On the heels of a successful state championship, PCC's Speech and
Debate team prepared for its upcoming national competition by show¬
casing award-winning performances in "A Night of Interpretation" on
Thursday.
Despite the pouring rain, sociology major Ishmael Bracy was one of
the nearly 75 students, staff and family members who came out to the
Vosloh Forum to support the team.
"It's just nice to see an artsy, sophisticated event on campus," he said.
The night began with a dramatic interpretation by Brian Hy about a
Chinese- American boy trying to fit in at his predominantly white school
in Connecticut. His character deals with fits of rage as he deals with the
alienation and depression over his parents' impending divorce. The per¬
formance had dark, yet humorous elements and seemed to strike a chord
with the audience as Hy channeled different emotions.
Hy was one of the 13 team members who won medals at the California
Community College Forensic Association State Championship in
Woodland Hills the previous weekend. The team placed fourth overall in
the state. Hy won silver for this competition, as well as a bronze in prose
interpretation.
"Were really proud of what the team has accomplished this year," said
Forensics co-director Josh Fleming. "We knew going into state champi¬
onships that we would have to have an exceptional showing to stay in
the top five... What they achieved is really amazing."
Continued on page 7
Danny Reyes/Courier
Tiffiny Vuong, front, and Kevin
Lopez performed a duo interpre¬
tation at the Speech and Debate
team's showcase on Thursday.
Fee increase
is now reality
Opposition voiced as 40% tuition hike signed
Sara Medina
Editor-in-Chief
Despite the disagreements on
campus regarding PCC's budget,
the administration, students and
faculty agreed on Monday that the
latest development in the budget
cut saga is one that will hurt stu¬
dents, not help them.
California Gov. Jerry Brown
signed SB 70 on Thursday, a bill
that will raise community college
tuition fees from $26 per unit to
$36, effective July 1.
Roger Marheine, president of
the PCC Faculty Association and
Faculty Association of California
Community College (FACCC)
board member, expressed a strong
view of the increase.
"I personally am absolutely
opposed to any fee increase... and
am pleased to note that [the
FACCC] went on record as oppos¬
ing the fee increases," he said in an
e-mail on Monday. "Fee increases
will reduce the access for students
statewide and will cause even
more hardship on students who
already face section cuts."
As for those who the fee increase
directly affects, Associated
Students President Jamie
Hammond believes that accepting
the fee is the best way to deal with
it, even though it may be unfair.
"I feel it's better for us to pay
that fee and not suffer as many
cuts than to have to pay a fee and
suffer cuts anyway," she said. "The
fee increase is meant to bring us
closer [to closing the deficit] but
it's unfortunate that the burden
has to go to the students who have
the least amount of money."
According to the Legislative
Analyst's Office, the fee increase
"could benefit the [California
Community College] system and
protect affordability and access for
financially needy and non-needy
students."
In the analysis of the proposal,
the Board of Governors' (BOG) fee
5v..waiverOs, said to help preserve
affordability of the community col¬
lege system due to its "relatively
high income cut-off." Because of
this, LAO's website says the fees
create no additional out-of-pocket
Continued on page 7
Winter session safe
Dispute about canceling, moving intersession
put to rest until 2012-13 academic year
Natalie Sehn Weber
Web Editor
The 2012 winter session is officially back on PCC's calendar, President
Mark Rocha told the
О
ollege Council on March 23.
"The Enrollment Management Committee had made a very good pro¬
posal to do away with the winter session... and there were compelling
reasons to do that," Rocha explained.
He said those reasons were still legitimate. "[But] it's not on the table
for the academic year '11-'12. I've made the decision that next year will
look exactly like this year."
Although the change will be popular with many students and faculty,
Associated Student President Jamie Hammond felt the change pointed to
a larger problem.
"As happy as I am about the prospect of students having the opportu¬
nity to take classes next winter," Hammond said, "I think this entire sit¬
uation speaks to the way decisions are being made [at PCC]."
Hammond hopes the back-and-forth decision making will encourage
students to pay more attention to campus issues.
Technically, Rocha said, the EMC's original winter [session] proposal
was not to cut winter session, but to "re-calendar" it.
"What we never got [around] to was the discussion of adding sections
to Summer One," said Rocha, referring to the EMC's proposal to have
some winter session sections moved to the proposed dual summer ses¬
sions.
Continued on page 7
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'Mudbound'
Author discusses
‘One City, One Story’
selection
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