OPINION
Too much technology, too few books are
detrimental to students
Facilities and technology funding are skyrocketing
while PCC and other schools languish with books
published when FDR was president. ~
FEATURES
SPORTS
Greek plays stir imagination of the¬
ater audiences
John Barton’s contemporary versions of classical
Greek stories deal with lost loves, anger, war,
revenge and regret.
Softball team qualifies for regional playoffs
With a 9-8 comeback victory over El Camino, the Lancers ex¬
tended their season to include the playoffs.
5
Schaefer and slate
sweep AS election
FULL MOON OVER PASADENA
By DANIEL ARCHULETA
Courier Staff Writer
Students for Students’ Aaron
Schaefer, claimed victory in his
quest to become the president of
the 1997-98 Associated Student
Board.
The entire Students for Students
slate was likewise victorious in last
week’s elections supervised by The
League of Women Voters, Pasa¬
dena Area.
Schaefer, who is currently the
president of the philosophy club,
amassed 639 of the 775 total votes
cast in the single candidate presi¬
dential race. The 136 votes against
him were from students who pre¬
ferred not to endorse his candidacy
for president.
Aside from the candidates on
the SFS slate, only Tu Dam was
successful in her attempt to be
elected. She ran unopposed for
vice president of business affairs.
Students Together Represent¬
ing International Diversity and
Equality failed to qualify any of its
four candidates for next year’s
board.
Vanessa Schulz de¬
feated write-in candidate
Peter Wahba (STRIDE)
handily to become next
year’s executive vice
president. She collected
575votestoWahba’s 116.
Schulz presently is a mem¬
ber of the Alpha Gamma
Sigma honor society.
In the vice president of
students services race,
Marlond T aroreh toppled _
Gabriel Garcia (STRIDE)
507-267.
Also a member of AGS, T aroreh,
serves as president of the Racial
and Gender Awareness Club.
In the drive to be elected coor¬
dinator of campus activities, Nina
lavan garnered 526 votes while her
competitor for the position, lason
Hammer was the recipient of 252
nods of approval.
As amusic major, lavan stresses
that, as head of campus activities,
she will be sure to entertain the
diverse PCC student body effec¬
tively.
She has also represented the
college on multiple AS sponsored
lobby trips.
The remaining category with
multiple candidates, coordinator of
cultural affairs, went to Sassoun
Ashoghian. He was the recipient of
517 votes of approval, while his
opposition, Kristina Ercole drew
just 268.
He has been a key figure in a
wide array of international associa¬
tions, and ha s donated time to AS
committees.
Unopposed candidates in this
years election were all approved
overwhelmingly.
Leila Jerusalem will repeat as
coordinator of publicity. She
picked up 644 votes, the most of
any candidate. Only 131 voters
decided not to approve lerusalem’ s
second term.
“I am hoping to do a better job
serving my fellow students as coor¬
dinator,” said lerusalem.
The current chief justice of the
supreme council, Michael
Gorzynski, will become coordina¬
tor of external affairs nextyear. He
was elected by a 637-131 margin.
Gorzynski siiid that he will ac¬
tively pursue dramatic
changes to the existing
AS constitution. His
position serves as liai¬
son to local, state, and
federal legislators for
PCC’s students.
The next student
trustee will be Yusef
Robb. He was approved
631-132. He holds the
position of front-page
editor on The Courier,
and is a justice of the supreme
council, and has accompanied AS
lobby trips.
The League of Women Voters
assisted in supervising the election
to ensure that a neutral party offi¬
cially counted the ballots to avoid
any possible controversy. Three
members of that organization were
onhand duringthevotingand count¬
ing of ballots.
This el ection drew more student
voters tham the two elections that
preceded i.t. The official voter tum-
out was 811.
JUDY WANG/ THE COURIER
Alpha Gamma Sigma, PCC’s academic honor society, held its annual “Sink a Scholar" fund-raiser last week. The event brought out teachers
and staffers, as well as one uninvited guest who volunteered to douse themselves in the pool to raise money forthe organization's programs.
Student computer center to open in fall
“I am hoping
to do a better
job serving my
fellow stu¬
dents as
coordinator. ”
Leila
Jerusalem,
coordinator
of publicity
By YUSEF ROBB
Courier Staff Writer
Students will have their own per¬
sonal version of Kinko’s here on
campus this fall if everything goes
according to plan, said Nino
Valmassoi, assistant dean of com¬
munity, continuing and foster care
education.
The construction that is currently
going on inside and outside the caf¬
eteria is slated to be a computer
center that will be available to stu¬
dents 24 hours a day.
Between 26 and 30 computer
workstations, all state of the art “with
all the bells and whistles” as well as
copy machines will be placed in the
center as part of the administration’ s
plan to increase computer availabil¬
ity to students, said Valmassoi.
A fee will be required to use the
computers, but Valmassoi said that
he is trying to keep costs down so that
prices will be low.
District funds are being used to
build the center, but Valmassoi in¬
tends for the center to generate
enough revenue to pay back the dis¬
trict and pay for its maintenance.
Internet access will also be avail¬
able at all of the stations, which will
be a great improvement over current
accessibility of the Internet. Pres¬
ently, there are only eight computers
that are Internet ready. These are
located in the library.
The project is running smoothly
despite some last minute changes in
the design of the center. A recent
change in the placement of a door
increased the center’s capability from
20 work stations to a maximum of
32.
“The contractors have been ex¬
tremely cooperative,” said
Valmassoi.
Commission drops
insurance loan fee
JUDY WANG
/
THE COURIER
Construction is progressing smoothly on the new computer center.
Historical depictions of minorities in
film the topic of Forum symposium
r RACHEL URANGA
mrier Staff Writer
Obedient Blacks, lazy Mexicans,
vage Native Americans and lapa-
se saboteurs, this has been the
lage of America’s melting pot
rough the lens of Hollywood film-
akers over the past 60 years.
Chronicling these images, Linda
mis Mehr, director of the Library
the Academy of Motion Pictures
Arts and Sciences, explored the
le minorities have occupied in
merican cinema in a Social Sei¬
ne symposium titled “Strangers at
e table: images of minorities in
merican film” last Tuesday.
“While motion pictures can be
itertaining, they can be viewed as
uch more. They are a mirror of
ciety, revealing its fantasies, hopes
id fears, ” said Mehr.
Speaking to about 100 students in
e Forum, Mehr delved into a theme
films, “the notion of other.” “Oth¬
ers” in American cinema has al¬
ways been anyone who was not
White Anglo Saxon Protestants
(WASP).
Others included the lews, East¬
ern Europeans, Blacks, Mexicans
and Na tive Americans. Their char¬
acters depicted the very antithesis
of WASP characters.
WA SPS, the good, hardworking,
rugged individuals typified the film
hero. Moreover this character was
symbolic of the American hero.
“And it stuck from lohn Smith to
lohn Wayne,” she said.
Thrt depiction of minorities
throughout the history of film has
often been dependent on the politi¬
cal, social and economic climate of
the country, Mehr said.
W1 ten the lapanese showed their
muscle, winning the Russo-Japa-
nese war, Hollywood reflected the
U.S. fear of this rising power .
Once depicted in the same light
as the Chinese, nomads of a seedy
underworld, they were now shown
as spies and saboteurs.
The negative depiction of minori¬
ties was not limited to their screen
image. Opportunities were scarce,
explained Mehr. Up until the 1950s
Whites in black face played Black
roles. Moreover, Blacks were re¬
duced to servants and porters, “al¬
ways supporter of whites,” said Mehr.
Duringthe civil rights movement,
Blacks were often depicted as vio¬
lent, explained Mehr.
“This reasserted traditional so¬
cial values and reassured things were
under control,” said Mehr.
The market often dictated the di¬
rection moviemakers took. With the
surge of European immigrant audi¬
ences in the 1930s, studios capitaliz¬
ing on this new group, sought to
incorporate the Slavic and Irish char¬
acters in their films.
“Irish came to the center, by the
1930s they became the symbol of
American nationalism. lames
Cagney defined urban style,” said
Mehr.
During the Depression, European
markets waned, the film industry
looked to Latin America as a source
of revenue. A rush of Latin musicals
emerged, romanticizing haciendas
and senoritas. But this only perpetu¬
ated the stereotypes, said Mehr.
Latins were portrayed as hot-blooded
andpassionate. But, as Mehr pointed
out, “American males maintained
sexual superiority.”
In the past 20 years, the infiltra¬
tion of “others” into the film industry
has offered Americans a diversity of
perspectives.
But the stereotypes remain, as
evident in the depiction of Native
American in Dances with Wolves,
she said. It is the same cliche, said
Mehr as the savage but gentle Indian.
The probable reason for this, ex¬
plained Mehr, was a societal need to
have an “other” with whom we mea¬
sure ourselves against.
By JONATHON RUSSELL
Special Correspondent
Students who are on financial aid
will get a break next academic year.
In a recent action taken by the Cali¬
fornia Student Aid Commission, a
freeze on insurance rates is expected
to save students $15 million in the
next year and $30 million over two
years.
The commission, which is respon¬
sible for the administration of stu¬
dent loans in California, dropped the
insurance premium fee that borrow¬
ers pay on their loans last June.
The fee was one percent until the
action.
Based on the results of an analysis
to determine whether program funds
would remain sufficient to cover all
obligations on the loans, the com¬
mission has decided to extend the
zero percent fee for another aca¬
demic year.
According to the guidelines set
by the federal student loan program,
an insurance premium of up to one
percent is allowed to be charged on
the loan.
The one percent is deducted from
the amount of the loan before the
student ever receives the money.
Because of there is now no fee, stu¬
dents will receive all of the money
that they are granted.
For students borrowing $3,000 at
a community college, the one per¬
cent fee cost them $30. This adds up
to $120 over a four year period,
“This may not seem like much,” said
one student, “but there are times
when even a few dollars can make a
big difference.”
“Every dollar counts for students
whose college costs keep going up,”
stated John Shaver, executive direc¬
tor of the commission. He calls the
zero percent fee “just one part of our
commitment to making college edu¬
cation more accessible and afford¬
able for California families.”
The commission is predicting an
estimated $1.5 billion in loans guajr
anteed by the agency next year, in
all, nearly $3 billion will be bor¬
rowed in federal student loans, but
under federal rules, the commission
only administers one half of these
loans. The other half will still have
the one percent fee.
The commission, one of the larg¬
est student loan agencies in the coun¬
try, is the first to lower the fee.
Classified Celebration of the Arts
Receptions to honor the featured artists in this year’s classified art
show will be held at the Shatford Library on May 5 from 3 p.m. to 5
p.m and at the Community Education Center on May 6, from 3 p.m.
to 4:30 p.m.
The exhibits will run from May 5 to May 29. Works displayed in
the library may be viewed during regular library hours.
The CEC exhibit hours are 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday and
Thursdays. The CEC is located at 3035 East Foothill Boulevard, in
Pasadena. The celebration will feature paintings, photographs, sculp¬
tures and other arts and crafts created by PCC’s classified employees.