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Serving PCC and the Pasadena community since 1915
May 12, 2005
pcc-courieronline.com
Vol. 91, Issue 1 1
Former Student Arrested on Murder Charge
■ A man who
was thrown out
of PCC in 2004
is being held on
$1 million bail
on a charge of
first-degree
murder.
Linda Rapka
Editor-in-Chief
A 23-year-old former PCC student
was charged Monday with fatally stab¬
bing a 21 -year-old female Japanese
national.
The son of a prominent Caltech pro¬
fessor of English and executive officer
for the humanities, George Pigman IV is
being held on $1 million bail for first-
degree murder at the Twin Towers
Correctional Facility in Los Angeles.
The victim was found dead
Saturday, May 7 at around 2 a.m. in her
apartment near San Gabriel, where she
had lived for about three months. She
had suffered multiple stab wounds to the
chest and blunt trauma, according to
wire reports.
The woman, whom witnesses pre¬
sumed to have been Pigman’s girlfriend,
was studying English at Poly Languages
Institute on Lake Avenue. She was
enrolled in an ESL class at the PCC
Community Education Center in
January and February, but there is no
record of her receiving a grade for the
class, said Juan Gutierrez, PCC’s direc¬
tor of public relations. At this time,
police do not know how Pigman and the
woman met.
Pigman was a student at PCC from
the fall of 2001 to the spring of 2004.
Campus police became familiar with
him after investigating several reports
that he was intoxicated on campus.
In March of 2004, officers removed
Pigman from the Courier newspaper
office after causing a disturbance and
appearing intoxicated. Upon searching
his backpack, the officers found a half-
empty 750-milliliter bottle of vodka and
Murder j.
Page 6
George Pigman IV
Counterfeit Money Passed on Campus
Linda Rapka
Editor-in-Chief
Several fake $20 bills were passed by two students
at Lancer’s Pass last week.
A man attempted to pass a fake bill to a cashier
on May 5, but the cashier noticed it was counterfeit,
said Mantree Keawmalee, the store manager. The
cashier told the man it was fake and refused to accept
the $20 bill. The customer took the bill back, threw it
into a nearby trash can, pulled out a huge wad of
bills from his pocket and handed the cashier a real
bill, the cashier said.
At the same time, a woman passed a counterfeit
$20 bill to a different cashier at the same location.
Keawmalee then saw the man walk away with the
female who passed the other counterfeit bill.
Campus police were informed of the incident,
which was reported to the U.S. Secret Service, said
Ту
Yu, director of food services.
Charles Siri, manager of food services, said that
although people have attempted to use counterfeit
bills in the past, the campus has never encountered
Counterfeit *
Page 4
Steve Carrillo/ Courier
A cashier in the campus cafeteria marks bills with a special marker to ensure that they
are not counterfeit. The special ink appears yellow on real bills but shows up black on all
other kinds of paper.
Who Really
Discovered
America?
Paul Swearingen
Contributing Writer
PCC Business Professor Dan Raddon, is very
popular among his students. Finance, Mission
Statements and Corporate mergers is the vocabulary
that his classes are use to him reciting, however” this
summer Raddon plans on taking off his Business hat
and putting a History one on instead.
As the history books teach us, “Columbus sailed
the Ocean Blue in 1492, and from there he discov¬
ered America, or did he?
Raddon actually believes that America could have
been discovered in 1398, by a man named Henry
Sinclair. The funny thing about this belief is that the
answer may be in Scotland, along with the east coast
of the U.S.
The Rosalyn Chapel, which is located outside of
Edinborough, Scotland, was constructed by William
Sinclair, the grandson of Henry Sinclair. Legend
states that Henry sailed to North America in 1398
and he stayed here for about a year. After returning to
England, in 1400, he was killed by the English.
William then built the Roslyn Chapel in 1444. In the
chapel, there are engravings of corn and aloe vera
cactus. The proof is that com and aloe vera were not
known in Europe at that time, meaning that Sinclair
would have seen those plants here in the U.S. and
implementing them into the design of the chapel.
Dr. Paul Wilkenson, another PCC Professor, is
actually the individual that informed Raddon of this
possibility and the two, along with the help of a stu¬
dent may be investigating this probability of this
claim as early as this summer. With the possibility of
traveling to England, Raddon also wants to travel to
the east coast of America as well; to research the
Tempar Death Stone and a cannon from the 1300 s
that may hold answers as well to the Sinclair discov¬
ery.
If this ends of being true, Raddon feels that
Columbus should still receive his early October holi¬
day. “It would be obvious then that Columbus was
not the first person that came to America, however he
accomplished a very courageous feet states
Raddon. So we wouldn’t need to change Columbus
day to Sinclair day.
To Drive or Not To Drive?
Titania Kumeh
Staff Writer
To drive or not to drive, that is the
modern road navigator’s quandary.
Gas prices approaching $3 a gallon,
Los Angeles congestion that ranks as
the nation’s worst and environmental
concerns motivate students and facul¬
ty to find alternative means of trans¬
portation.
“I live in the city and it takes a
shorter amount of time to ride my
bicycle to most places,” said PCC stu¬
dent William Hallstrom. “It’s cheap
and convenient. Also, I want those
buns of titanium.”
In Southern California, alterna¬
tive transportation can include walk¬
ing. Student Damian Martinez said
most places that he travels to are local
or based in Pasadena, so walking is
convenient.
Stan Kong, PCC car- and product-
design instructor, maneuvers the
three miles from his Pasadena home
to the college campus on his electri¬
cally powered Segway Personal
Transporter nearly everyday.
“My Segway allows me to get
back and forth very easily to school
and run my local errands without
having to drive my car,” Kong said. “I
feel better about doing something that
is actually responsible and in the end
it’s fun. Whenever I can, I use the
Gold Line with my Segway.”
Since it is electric, Kong’s Segway
has limited range. “The furthest I can
go on it is about eight miles,” he said.
“So, I have to be a little better plan¬
ner.”
“I think that it’s important that
more people think about other ways
to get around,” he said. “We’re run¬
ning out of oil, there’s no doubt. It’s
just a limited resource. There will
come a day when the gas thing goes
away.”
Kong’s outlook on the use of
unconventional vehicles is reflected in
his approach as a professional prod¬
uct designer and a teacher, he said.
“As a designer, I’m always trying
to look at what it is that causes a
problem and how we can design a
product that addresses those prob¬
lems,” Kong said. “If you look at a
company like General Motors who is
not doing well now, they’ve invested
on much more large vehicles, and
now that gas is coming up on $3 a gal¬
lon, their sales have pulled up like a
$1.1 billion loss first quarter.”
“I think that we have responsibili¬
ties to the communities that we live in
as designers,” Kong said. “Designing
a product isn’t just designing cool
things. It’s designing things that make
sense, that are socially responsible.”
In 2003, Americans spent 3.7 bil¬
lion hours stuck in traffic, according
to a national report released by the
Texas Transportation Institute.
During that year, drivers wasted 2.3
billion gallons of fuel sitting in grid¬
lock. But California took the prize as
home to three of the 10 most-con¬
gested urban areas in 2003.
Between lost time and extra fuel,
congestion costs the economy $63.1
billion annually.
“Over time, Southern California
streets and highways will become
more crowded,” predicts Brian
Taylor, director of the Institute of
Transportation Studies at UCLA.
“Population and vehicle travel is
growing at a faster rate than road
capacity.”
Social Science Scholars Earn Awards
Chantal Mullins
Staff Writer
For those students who have
gone above and beyond the call of
duty, May 24 may prove to be the
day their hard work is recognized.
The social sciences department
awards reception will take place at 3
p.m. in Creveling Lounge.
At the end of every spring
semester the social sciences divi¬
sion holds this even to honor cho¬
sen students. Each division has a
reception, each with different
requirements to receive an award
or scholarship. All of those hon¬
ored will have their names printed
in the graduation program.
Susie Ling, Asian-American
studies and history instructor, has
been in charge of the social sciences
reception for the past six years.
While she may be heading the
event, she said, “It is not a job you
should do alone.” This year her
partners are philosophy instructor
Phil Regan and anthropology
instructor Derek Milne. In order to
be fair, they try to get instructors
that are not all in the field.
While this event has been going
on for as long as Ling can remem¬
ber, she said this year it’s “bigger
than ever.” The number of scholar¬
ships awarded each year has
increased with the growth of PCC.
This year the division will give out
155 awards and scholarships.
Many people think of awards
and scholarships as something stu¬
dents apply for themselves or they
are nominated by their instructors.
But these awards and scholarships
work differently. A computer is
used to generate the first level of
names that fit certain criteria.
Then, those in charge of the recep¬
tion go to instructors and narrow
down the list.
However, there were four schol¬
arships that students could apply for.
Social Sciences >
Page 6
F acuity
Paychecks
Run Short
■ Discrepencies and shortages in
paychecks over the last month
has faculty members seeing red.
Jennifer MacDonald
Staff Writer
Faculty members have been experiencing discrep¬
ancies and shortages in paychecks over the last month
due to a new payment system and previous trouble
with retroactive pay.
РСС/СТА
negotiated a new contract that started
March 1 to pay teachers in four equal payments each
semester. Since the new way of paying the faculty
requires a new payroll system, errors in the first pay-
checks, issued March 10, were caused by the recent
payment method change, said Dorothy Burns, PCC
fiscal services payroll supervisor.
“The problem stems from the fact it is a new sys¬
tem,” Burns said. When the contract was negotiated
back in March, negotiators for
РСС/ СТА
were told to
be patient with the new system, she added.
PCC/CTA head negotiator and English instructor
Roger Marheine said although the fiscal services and
payroll employees are “very good people working very
hard,” the problem with the paychecks should have
been dealt with by the district before paychecks were
sent out.
“There could have been mock runs to test
computer programs,” he said.
Of the checks issued March 10, PCC calculates that
8 percent were incorrect based on the total number of
employees. Of the total amount of money paid to fac¬
ulty, 1 percent was incorrect.
The new system of payment uses data that includes
the total working load of each instructor.
Management information services handled this data
Paychecks
л
Page 4
Think Transfer:
Free Workshop
Caroline Ikeji
Opinion Editor
Students and their families can learn more about
the transfer process and how to better prepare them¬
selves for it when they attend “Educational Success: A
Family Affair” on May 21 at 9 a.m. in the Quad.
Representatives from PCC, the UC and Cal-State
universities will be on hand to inform students plan¬
ning to transfer to four-year institutions. Majors, trans¬
fer admissions requirements, general education and
financial aid will be among the topics of discussion at
the event. Students can also get their questions
answered by the representatives at the event.
’’The sooner students get the information, the better
chance they have to get into universities,” said Dina
Chase, transfer director.
The event will also give parents, spouses and other
family members a chance to get information about the
transfer process- so that they can help the student as
they are going through the transfer process.
“Families usually don’t know what students are
going through,” Chase said.
Chase hopes that the event will aid students in plan¬
ning early so that they will have an easier time when it
comes close to transfer time.
“I hope they realize they can do things right now to
get prepared so they don’t waste time and energy tak¬
ing wasteful classes,” she said.
For more information, contact the Transfer Center
at (626) 585-7287.