PCC Courier, May 11, 1995

OPINION FEATURES SPORTS Associated Student government needs to correct problems. Page 2 New AS President Kris Le hopes to expand heritage activities on campus. Page 4 Greg Smith is more than just a coach. Page 6 PASADENA CITY COLLEGE PASADENA, CALIFORNIA VOL. 80 No. 29 THE COURIER Serving the Pasadena Community since 1915 THURSDAY May 11, 1995 controversy hits student government Second □ AS Board Executive vice president gets two month probation By ENRICO PIAZZA COURIER STAFF WRITER The newly elected Associated Stu¬ dents vice president, Kim Smoot, was put on two-month probation for missing the deadline for turning in the receipts for her electoral campaign’s expenses. Election by¬ laws allow candidates to spend $100 each in campaign materials, but re¬ quires them to turn in the receipts to the Office of Student Affairs by 1 1 a.m.the day after the polls close. Although Smoot said her husband put them in the office’s mailbox at 8:15 a.m. prior to the deadline, they were never found. The same election committee that three days earlier disqualified Roldan Herrera from the presidency of the student body, voted 3-1-1 to put Smoot on probation. Faculty mem¬ ber Joseph Spiro voted against the motion and Rebecca Cobb, student affairs adviser abstained. As was the-case three days earlier, commit¬ tee-member Alan Chu was absent. At the meeting held last Thurs¬ day, Smoot told the committee that she tried to give the election expense receipts to Cobb the same night the polls closed but she was told by Cobb to put them in her mailbox. Cobb acknowledged the conversation, and told the committee she was too tired that night and she feared losing the receipts. Cobb added she did not actually see the receipts. Smoot’s husband told the com¬ mittee he placed them in Cobb’s mailbox by 8:15 a.m. the following day, but the receipts were never found. Cobb’s mailbox is unsecured and is located in a hallway open to students. Smoot was asked to pro¬ vide photocopies. “We determined she didn’t fol¬ low the rules because we didn’t have the receipts by the established dead¬ line, so we called the meeting,” said Stephen Johnson, dean of student affairs and chairman of the election committee. During the meeting, the committee also certified the election results. If nothing changes, Kris Le will be the new AS president. However, because Herrera lodged a complaint with the Board of Trust¬ ees regarding his disqualification, there is a slight possibility things would change. “Because the Board of Trustees ultimately runs the school, techni¬ cally Herrera could be re-instated,” Johnson said. The Board of Trustees allotted 30 minutes to students to express their complaints well in advance of the audience participation segment of their meeting. A student group call¬ ing themselves SOS (Statement of the Students) supported Herrera. SOS members presented a statement, also signed by Herrera, asking the board to “expunge” the disqualification and appoint a new election committee. The same group unsuccessfully tried to recall AS President Robert Bow¬ man last fall. Despite protests from SOS mem¬ bers, students supporting Herrera’s disqualification were also allowed to address the board. Board president Jeanette Mann allowed a few extra minutes to the discussion, than cut it off before students from the two sides could repeat the same accusationsthey have been exchanging since voting took place. Trustee John Martin said that he was not interested in accusations but was concerned to know if proper procedure had been followed. The board asked the administration to investigate the issue. Their findings will be on the next board meeting’s agenda The only new complaint heard in front of the board was voiced by Stephanie Thraen, who ran unop¬ posed for coordinator of external affairs on Herrera’s ticket. Thraen complained she wasn’t notified in writing about the election committee’s special meeting, which Please see AS BOARD, Page 3 Graduation program set for May 19 By TAMINA AGHA COURIER STAFF WRITER A world champion public speaker will de¬ liver the commencement address to PCC’s 1995 graduating class. Dana Lamon is an administrative law judge for the California Department of social ser¬ vices and received the 1992 Toastmasters In¬ ternational title of World Champion in Public Speaking. In his address to the graduating class entitled “Beyond Pomp and Circum¬ stance,” Lamon will stress the “ importance of always graduating from something in order to move up to a higher level.” Being blind since the age of 4 is an adversity that Lamon has overcome. Receiving his bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Yale University and his Juris Doctorate from the U.C. Law Center did not come easy for Lamon. Yale originally did not consider him, because never before had a blind student at¬ tended the university. After taking Lamon’ s qualifications into consideration, Yale admin¬ istrators changed their minds and accepted him into their university. This year 500 students are expected to participate in the colleges 70th annual com¬ mencement ceremony which will take place on Friday, May 19. Valedictorians of the 1995 class are Donna I. Howard and Kurt J. Keating. Both have earned perfect 4.0 grade point averages and will speak to fellow graduates during the cer¬ emony. Howard came to PCC as a re-entry student after a 20-year career in the insurance busi¬ ness. She has earned her associate in arts degree in general studies from PCC and plans to major in child development at California Please see GRADUATION, Page 5 In the spotlight . . . OSCAR CHAVEZ /IRC A model shows off a design by PCC student Trini Hoang . The dress was part of the cocktail and short formal category. In the background are two other two dresses in Hoang’s ensemble. See related story on page 5. Calendar Committee to poll campus in fall By GILBERT RIVERA COURIER STAFF WRITER Creating an unbiased survey and poll is a difficult task. Just ask the college’s calendar committee. After several months of lengthy negotia¬ tions, the committee agreed April 25 to conduct a faculty/classified staff poll and a student survey next fall, asking all three groups to make a choice between two pro¬ posed calendars. The selections: a slightly modified version of the college’ s current 18- week semester calendar, or the Faculty Senate’s 17-week compressed semester cal¬ endar, which faces strong opposition from classified staff members. Dr. Philip Ricards, chairman of the Fac¬ ulty Senate calendar committee, said that all faculty, managers, and classified staff mem¬ bers will be polled directly. As for the stu¬ dent survey, which is identical, a sampling of about 1,000 to 2,000 students will be taken from randomly-selected morning, afternoon and evening classes. “The answers we get will not be binding votes,” said Susan Talbot, president of the union representing all 239 clerical and tech¬ nical staff. “The final decision will be made jointly by the union and the school adminis¬ tration. The poll and the survey are advisory and are meant to be as objective as possible.” Initially, the committee had plans to con¬ duct the poll before the end of this spring semester. Final exams and the small amount of time left in the semester, however, prompted the committee to poll the faculty and staff next fall. “If we rush the survey and poll right now, faculty and students will be preoccupied with other concerns like final exams and it would be difficult for them to pay attention to something like this,” saidRichardPalermo, director of assessment/research. Attached to the poll and survey will be explanatory material and a list of factual statements regarding both calendars. How¬ ever, those statements have yet to be final¬ ized, and the committee hopes to complete them in their next meeting. “Creating an unbiased poll is very hard especially when the issue is volatile and organizational agendas are involved,” said Hollis Stewart, Classified Senate represen¬ tative. “I think the poll and the survey will be done well and I hope the results will be a fair reflection of the campus community.” The ramifications ofboth calendars, which the committee has been discussing since last December, are several. If the new 18-week semester calendar is implemented in 1996- 97, the start of the spring semester will be moved from the traditional Jan. 2 date to Jan. 13, and the semester will end May 23. The length of class time for both fall and spring semesters, however, will remain the same as the current 18-week semester calender. If the 17-week compressed semester calender is adopted, fall classes will run from Aug. 26 to Dec. 20, and the spring semester will begin on Jan. 13 and ends on May 23. Consequently, classroom instruction will have to be lengthened by about 10 minutes per week for a typical three-unit class. “The course schedule changes are neces¬ sary in order to maintain the quality of education at PCC as well as to comply with State Education Code requirements,” said Ricards, who made it clear that he speaking for the Faculty Senate and is not trying to push his own agenda. “The compressed calendar more nearly approaches semester patterns in the Cal State andUC systems, thus lesseningtransfer shock to students and providing a more collegiate psychological atmosphere in tune with the true nature of education at PCC,” Ricards Please see CALENDAR, Page 5 AIDS researcher’s mission is tracking down the killer disease By ANDREW MCDIARMID COURIER STAFF WRITER Micheal Gottlieb has been in pur¬ suit of a serial killer for 15 years. It claims 92 lives in the United States each day. It is a relentless killing machine that is forecast to affect 40 million people worldwide by the year 2000. Gottlieb’s enemy is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. Recently, he told students about his war against the deadly virus. Gottlieb is a doctor with a mission. He is in involved in a con¬ tinuous struggle between small vic¬ tories and endless defeats as he fights the disease. In a presentation spon¬ sored by the life sciences department Gottlieb told of the newly discov¬ ered facts in the war against the modern plague. ' “By the year 2000, 40 million people could contract the AIDS vi¬ rus. In the United States, 250,000 persons have already succumbed to the wrath of the disease,” Gottlieb told the students. Gottlieb, who studies AIDS at UCLA Medical Center, was one of the original doctors who discovered the disease in the late 1980. He has seen thousands die at the hands of his enemy. He is optimistic, however, that with ever increasing technology new developments will help conquer AIDS. The one major discovery in the past year deals with one of the main diseases once thought to be associ¬ ated with AIDS, Karposi Sarcoma (KS). New research shows that KS has been found to be a new human herpes virus. When a person is given HIV through sexual contact, they are given KS as well. It is not until HIV destroys the person’s immune sys¬ tem that the KS begins to develop. There is no cure for KS, according to Gottlieb. Gottlieb explained that he first noticed the disease in 1980. Strange cases of a rare type of pneumonia began emerging in the gay commu¬ nity in Los Angeles. He reported these findings to the Centers for Dis¬ ease Control and the long chain of events to the discovery of HIV be¬ gan. Gottlieb and many researchers fought for the answer for many years. Scientists fought over data, blamed each other for no progress, and fought over the rights to discoveries. Doctors researching the disease discovered, however, in the early 1980s, that HIV was a retro-virus. Normal diseases travel along a path changing from DNA to RNA for copying itself and spreading through the body. HIV, however, goes back¬ wards through this process or “retro” by copying from RNA to DNA. “ft is important to note that HIV never, absolutely never, lies dor¬ mant. It is the Xerox machine of diseases. It is always making copies of itself, and making little factories of disease. What many people never realize is that the immune system puts up a great fight against the disease. It creates Anti-HIV cells to combat the disease, it tries to replace the cells HI Vkills. Unfortunately, HIV replicates and mutates faster than the body’s im¬ mune system can attempt to elimi¬ nate HIV. When HIV finally wins the war against the body, AIDS re¬ lated diseases emerge. That is our war,” Gottlieb said. “Our society needs to come to terms with this dis¬ ease, education Please see AIDS, Page 2 ELEONORA GHIOLDI/THE COURIER Micheal Gottlieb speaks in front of a packed Forum. So many students attended the event that even the overflow room connected was filled to capacity.