PCC Courier, May 19, 1988

Juan Tobin Steals Show At Finals Page 3 Tomorrow Is Last Day for Mail-in Registration ‘Shakedown Succeeds Page 4 COURIER VOL. 66, NO. 13 PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA MAY 19, 1988 Morgan Wins the Election By Sean DuPont Associate News Editor The dust has settled in last week’s elections. Gilbert Morgan has officially retained his seat as student trustee while the A.S. Constitution was ratified by a margin of a little more than two percent. The final count showed that of 577 ballots received, Morgan won 303 votes and his opponent Jose Rodriquez cur¬ rent A.S. president, captured 233. The 13 percentage gap makes Morgan a member of the Board of Trustees until at least May, 1989. The official results were announced Tuesday afternoon by Alvar Kauti, dean of student services. The final counts were delayed because of com¬ plaints lodged by the two candidates against one another after the election had been closed. According to Kauti, Rodriguez ac¬ cused Morgan of using an excess amount of butcher paper. Twenty-five feet of paper is provided by the Student Activities office to use for campaign material under the Student Trustee Election Procedures for Spring, 1988. “My understanding is that the pri¬ mary rational behind 25 feet is that any more would cause an abundance of litter on the campus,” said Connie Hurston, faculty advisor of the A.S. Board. Morgan provided receipts for his extra campaign paper and was found not to have exceeded the $50 campaign expense limit, according to Kauti. The election procedures call for the collec¬ tion of all campaign receipts by May 12, at 9 a.m. Morgan, in his complaint against Rodriguez, contended that the A.S. Constitution forbade any member of the board from running in a student trustee election while holding office. Kauti, after studying the old constitu¬ tion that was in effect at the time of elections, decided that the intent of the document would allow Rodriguez to run legally. “They made alligations, and I’ve had interviews with the two parties,” said Kauti. “I’ve inspected and measured the paper used. After collecting as much information about the situation as possible, I think we’ve followed specific written rules and had a fair election.” In the same election, students rati¬ fied the revised constitution by 198 votes. Three hundred sixty-six voted yes, 174 no. The 69 percent yes vote barely met the needed two-thirds ap¬ proval required for amendments or rewrites by the constitution in effect at the time of the election. As a result of ratification, the re¬ vised constitution went into effect im¬ mediately and was referred to several times at Monday’s A.S. board meeting. It was announced that elections for the (continued on page 6) Voters Fight Over $1 Billion Pie By Coleen Meyers Editor-in-Chief When the distribution of money takes place, everyone seems to want a piece of the pie. And the supporters of propo¬ sitions 71 and 72 seem to be fighting for the same piece. In 1979, California voters passed the Gann Limit which sets the level of taxfunded appropriations in the state. Due to this, state funding can increase only at the same pace as the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) and adult population. As a result of high inflation, followed by a slow economic recovery, the limit’s effects did not appear until 1987. With the return of economic prosper¬ ity, the state collected a $1.1 billion surplus. However, the distribution of the money was prohibited by the Gann Limit. Suddenly, this became an issue. The California taxpayer then re¬ ceived this money in the form of a tax rebate. Proposition 71 and 72 would like to modify the Gann Limit so that such extra funds collected by the state can be spent on transportation, education or other budget areas instead of becom¬ ing tax rebates. According to William Goldmann, ex¬ ecutive assistant to the president, the passage of proposition 71 will provide schools “a chance to begin to get sufficient funds to address the campus issues. Since proposition 13 came into effect in 1978, there are a lot of unmet needs.” Also known as the Government Spending Limitation and Accoun¬ tability Act, proposition 71, if passed, would alter the allowable cost-of-living adjustments from the CPI or per capita income. It will replace the CPI with an index of California personal income and an index of economic growth; update population increases by includ¬ ing actual enrollment growth in grades К through 12 and community colleges ; and exempt motor vehicles user fees and taxes from the Gann limit. The effect of these changes is ex¬ pected to raise the state limit on allowable expenditures by an esti¬ mated $700 million in 1988-89 and even higher amounts in the following years. “What prop 71 attempts to do is to change the definition of how the cap is arrived at. It does not change the Gann initiative. What it does is allow more money to be used for schools,” Gold¬ mann continued. Among the supporters of proposition 71 are Bill Honig, supertintendent of public instruction, the California School Boards Association and more than 100 major statewide education, senior law enforcement and business organizations. Proposition 72, also known as the Paul Gann Spending Limit Improve¬ ment and Enforcement Act of 1988, proposes to exclude gas taxes from the population while requiring that all gas- tax money be spent on roads and mass transportation. If passed, proposition 72 will free transportation from spending limits, and leave all other segments of state spending, such as education, still sub¬ ject to the Gann Limits. The majority of proposition 72 sup¬ porters are Orange county developers, construction companies and the state chamber of commerce. These two initiatives affect some of the same sections of the California Constitution, so if both pass, the meas¬ ure with the greater number of votes will take effect. Proposition 72 would allow legisla¬ tors to take road building and repair money right out of the general fund, the source of the funding for schools. This is why the people for propositiom 71 are opposed to proposition 72, Goldmann said. Courier/John Geraghty The laser exhibit showed student projects, state of the art full scale hole grams and holographic workshops. The display included multiple light shows. Victory, Defeat As Student Board Fills Vacancies A.S. Fills Them With Little Time By Sean DuPont Associate News Editor Two weeks before the elections man¬ dated by the new constitution, the A.S. Board was busy filling in the slots vacated earlier this month. After some heated debate and hard ball politics, the board failed to install two executive officers, leaving that until tomorrow. The board defeated the nomination of Supreme Council member Martin A.C. Enriquez-Marquez to the post of Vice President of Academic Affairs at Mon¬ day’s meeting. The vote, three against to one for, came after Enriquez-Mar¬ quez asked the board not to turn the vote into a popularity contest. “I hope you vote for me on my merit.” Enriquez-Marquez told the board. After that, Enriguez-Marquez picked up only Regina Ringo’s vote while being rejected by Mike Matsuda, Tif¬ fany Morgan and Greg McLemore in a rare roll-call vote asked for by Jose Rodriquez, A.S. president. He said that he wanted to, “add a little spice” to the meeting by asking for the roll-call. “I’ll continue to serve this board on the supreme council,” Enriquez-Mar¬ quez told the board. Circle К club member Noel Truick was nominated Monday for the post of co-ordinator of exteral affairs, but the nomination was delayed after some board members questioned if the higher ranking office of vice president of academic affairs shouldn’t come to a vote first. Matsuda motioned for and got passed a change in the order of filling the vacancies, altering Rodri¬ quez’s agenda. If the original order was followed and Truick approved, Truick would immediatly have been able to vote on the Enriquez-Marquez nomina¬ tion. But by the time the debate concern¬ ing Enriquez-Marquez ended, the board had lost its quorum when McLemore left the board room. The nomination is scheduled for a vote at a noon meeting tomorrow. Daniel Hurst was unanimously ap¬ pointed to serve as the A.S. Com¬ missioner of Communication. He will serve as a liaison between the board and that department. “He knows almost everyone in the communications department,” said Rodriquez while nominating Hurst. “And take my word for it — he is carrying nine units and has at least a 2.0 Grade Point Average,” the presi¬ dent said in reference to eligibility requierments that both Santana and Adesina failed to meet. Hurst recently won a bronze metal at the Phi Rho Pi Nationals for extemporaneous speak¬ ing. After being approved, Hurst was told that according to by-laws, he as com¬ missioner has the power to motion and Courier/Steven May Students arranged this case showing many aspects of the African culture. Perceiving the ‘Unity of Africa’ By Sally Blake News Editor Three professors who have lived in West Africa will share their views of this changing continent this morning at 10:30 in C301. The Unity of Africa will be discussed by Marjorie Forsythe, associate professor of social sciences, Francis Nyong, instructor of social sciences and Earl Phillips, California State University professor. According to Forsythe, the purpose of the lecture is to discuss Africa and hopefully create a better understanding of it. “We want students to become more interested in Africa, and think about the information that the media is giving them. We want them to think about what they are reading.” She will be discussing the similarities in the cultures among the differentpeoples of Africa. “We did not have any particular topics that we had to talk about,” she explained. “I chose to talk about African cultures because it is the teaching of this subject that fascinates me the most. “I want to show social patterns that differ to America’s. In doing so, I hope that African patterns won’t seem so strange to Americans anymore.” “I lived in Africa three different times as a graduate student and enjoyed it very much,” Forsythe said. “Either I lived in a university, or near a university,” she explained. “Some people wondered how my parents let me stay by myself, because they thought a woman being by herself was somewhat unsafe, but actually I didn’t mind. There would be times that people would offer to travel with me, and I welcomed the company.” Forsythe was born in Washington D.C., and also lived in Missouri and New York. She received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Adelphi University in New York. She is currently working on her doctoral dissertation at the University of California at Los Angeles. Phillips will be talking about the changes Africa has experienced since the colonial rule. Nyong will be talking about the independence struggle Africa’s people have encountered up until now. second proposals before the board but is not allowed to vote. Hurst promptly used his new-found power when he seconded Ringo’s motion to nominate Enriquez-Martinez to the board. Another new face was introduced as the board presented Pamela Schoon- hoven the new A.S. secretary. The post was vacated two weeks ago by Ver¬ onica Morenski. With the school and election year winding down, both Truick and Hurst acknowleged that there wasn’t much time to do a lot for the board or the students with the limited time to serve in their positions. “I want to work for the board be¬ cause I want to help out and work. Even though it is very late, this helps to get the ball rolling,” said Truick.