THURSDAY 3VL
ЛТГ
6, 1999 - VOL. 84#29
Insight
COIKOH, IMF;
Students deliver an exhibition en the 15
vears ollashlon at PCD Pages
Trends
Bobby and Roger take it to tbe streets in
a dueling review ot "Entrapment'
Радев
www.pcc-courieronline .com
POLICE BEAT
Lawsuits Plague College Police
An investigation into past legal action against campus police finds two out of three cases are unfounded
BY ROG€R CHENG
Staff Writer
Over the years, the campus police
have been the target of several lawsuits
attacking them.
However, it seems that the charges
in these suits usually end up to be
unfounded. Two of three suits have
recently been thrown out of the courts.
The college appears to be a target for
anyone with a bone to pick or a lawsuit
to file.
Taking a look at two past lawsuits
that the college has endured, one can
determine that campus police have
attracted a lot of “nuisance cases,”
according to Officer Leroy Henderson.
The first suit involves Gary Steven
Maat-Hotep, a student who attended the
school in 1994. He claimed in his case
that two officers Ralph Evans and
Henderson, along with two cadets,
Richard Fitsimmons and Danny Vargas,
caused him “emotional and mental pain
and suffering.”
Maat-Hotep also alleged in his suit
that Henderson began harassing him
when the officer yelled, “Hey, you look
like a criminal guilty of a crime.” He
said this incident occurred in the col¬
lege library where several surrounding
students heard the accusation, including
Susan Brady.
However, Henderson denies ever
saying anything remotely like what
Maat-Hotep alleged.
“We only told him that we just want¬
ed to talk to him,” said Henderson.
Matt-Hotep continued by claiming
that the officers detained him there
while yelling at him to sit down. Once
again, Henderson denied that there was
any yelling at the scene.
“I told him that if you haven’t done
anything wrong, you have nothing to
worry about,” said Henderson. “I don’t
know how he got the rest of it.”
The officers had gotten a tip from
Mai Bich Tran, another student that had
mistakenly identified Maat-Hotep as a
suspect she saw on the program,
“America’s Most Wanted.” Both
Henderson and Evans admitted in court
that they had not verified whether the
accusations were correct before
approaching Maat-Hotep.
As a law student, Maat-Hotep was
able to defend himself in court. He had
also sued the City of Pasadena three
times in the past. However, the case
was recently thrown out of court. He
also said that Maat-Hotep was assum¬
ing that the college would settle, some¬
thing that PCC did not do.
The second suit involved Dr. Gordon
Brown, former president of the Faculty
Senate and instructor at the college. It
was filed in 1995. Brown’s point of
contention involved a meeting between
himself and Joyce Black, vice president
of instructional services, and William
Goldmann, former dean of education (a
position no longer in existence).
POUC€. pg. 6
RICHARD FAV6LA
/
THE COURIER
Police cadet Doug Wu talks to a student.
RAY SHUI
/
THE COURIER
Long jumper Karen Ota takes off during the Southern California
Preliminaries last Saturday at Mt. SAC. SEE STORY, PG. 7
TECH NEWS
COMMENCEMENT
Graduation Set for May 21
Over 500 students to receive degrees in 74th annual ceremony in front of C building
BY ROGER CHENG
Staff Writer
The 74th annual graduation ceremony
will be held on Friday, May 21 to honor
those students who have completed a cur¬
riculum based on their major or field of
specialty and have earned an Associate
degree.
Approximately 500 students will par¬
ticipate in the event, a number that has
remained constant throughout the last few
years.
“That’s around the same number we
have every year,” said Mark Wallace,
director of public relations.
So although there were no dramatic
increases in graduation rates, there also
weren’t any major decreases either.
This is out of 1,200 students that had
CULTURAL BEAT
petitioned for graduation throughout the
year. Another 100 students will also be on
hand to receive the high school diploma
they earned at the Community Education
Center.
Among the members of the graduating
class are the three valedictorians, Suresh
Lakshmipathi, Elise Hokulami
Matsushima and Michelle Tu Monroe.
Lakshmipathi is also the vice president of
publicity on the AS board.
“Of course it’s an honor. It’s nice to be
recognized for that,” said Lakshmipathi.
“For a community college, this is a com¬
petitive school, so I don’t take it for grant¬
ed.”
Lakshmipathi, Monroe and
Matsyshima each earned a flawless 4.0
grade point average to receive this distinc¬
tive honor.
“I had a lot of support from Dr. Milton
Brown, Rebecca Cobb and Stephen
Johnson, among others,” said
Lakshmipathi. “They gave me some guid¬
ance.”
The current AS officer will also be
making a speech on behalf of the other
two valedictorians.
Each student participating in the grad¬
uation ceremony had already gone
through the rigors of following a course
outline that involved completing basic
requirement classes as well as classes
geared towards a specific field. Although
most are looking forward to transferring
to a four-year university, others are
receiving terminal degrees.
Two speakers will also be on hand to
offer words of encouragement to the
departing class. The commencement
speaker will be USC president Steven B.
GRAD, pg. 4
Young Prodigy Speaks to BSA
16-year-old Ayinde Jean-Baptiste talks about strengthening the black community
BY TIM ALVES
Staff Writer
Skilled orator and 16-year-old child
prodigy, Ayinde Jean-Baptiste gave the
keynote address Friday night at the Black
Student Alliance event that honored him
for his work as an inspirational speaker
and positive role model for black youth in
America.
Jean-Baptiste’s “Building the Black
Community: A Youthful Perspective,”
identified the media, family, and the
schools, as areas where young adults need
guidance and preparation to ascend into
roles of leadership and strengthen the
African American community.
“Working with the youth is not easy,
but it must be done. The institutions that
shape thought: the media, the family, and
the school systems must be employed to
promote and strengthen the youth for the
challenges of tomorrow,” said Jean-
Baptiste.
Although Jean-Baptiste’s address last¬
ed for more than 30 minutes, specific
methods for bringing about the changes
he urged were absent.
Citing the media as the most powerful
force behind role modeling and shaping
the goals for black youth, Jean-Baptiste
said that television, video games, movies,
and music, “tell us what group to look up
to; they play a role in our destruction.
They glamorize drugs and gun violence;
venerating vandalism, crime, and those
that have been to jail.”
“Then the media turns around and
places blame on the youth of today. The
media should not scapegoat us with the
blame for society’s ills. I don’t know why
young people are synonymous with drugs.
We don’t, grow it. We don’t import the
stuff. But we do, however, allow our¬
selves to take the drugs. We allow our¬
selves to sell the drugs. We cannot let
ourselves be used like this.”
Continued on the Website
Campus Network Has Occasional Problems
BY SID SARAF
Staff Writer
For students who don’t have com¬
puters at home, using the campus labs
is a necessity to pass classes here.
While most students expect things
at this school to function without a
hitch, a sizeable network can run
across problems every once in awhile.
This was no more true than on
Tuesday, April 27, when the entire
campus network went down for close
to an hour. Apparently, a network
card began “chattering,” or sending
packets of info without control, until
the network went down. This prob¬
lem started with a single computer in
one of the labs, but nothing could be
fixed until the power was shut off and
technicians were given a chance to
find out what the problem was.
Although this problem inconve¬
nienced students who were working
on papers and other assignments,
according to some members of com¬
puting services, this can happen from
time to time. This is due to the fact
that the size of the network here on
campus is far bigger than your aver¬
age business.
Normal businesses usually have
anywhere from 50 to 100 computers
on their networks. PCC’s computer
pipeline has 1500 for student use, and
even more on the faculty network.
The department also has to maintain
the 40,000 student accounts every
semester.
NETWORK, pg. 4
wears on tbe Web?
www.pcc-courieronline.com
THE EH
О
IS COMING:
SNIFF SniFF....UITH THE EF1D OF THE SEHESTER
СОШНО. ПАКЕ
SURE
TO CHECH OUT THE SITE TO SEE OUR BEAR-EHD URRP-UPS OH-LIHE
FUII STORIES:
ARTICLES THAT HAD TO BE EDITED FROD
ITS ORIGIHAL PERSIOH UILL RUH FULL-
LEHGTH OH THE SITE
DANIEL ARCHULETA
/
THE COURIER
MORE OPINIONS
THE HEUSPAPER JUST DOES
НОТ НАЯ
EHOUGH ROOD
TO FIT ALL OF OUR HEUS OH LIFE. TAKE A LOOK AT
AH EXTRA
0Р1Н10П ВУ
ROGER CHEHG THIS UEEK