PCC Courier, May 20, 2004

This ain't no Romper Room Child Development Center puts kids on the right track Pasadena City College тшнмшвшш Anti-Show Art show rejects display their work The Courier has been SERVING PCC AND THE PASADENA COMMUNITIES SINCE 1915. On this date in 1899 Jacob German of New York City, N.Y., BECAME THE FIRST DRIVER TO BE ARRESTED FOR SPEEDING. THE POSTED SPEED LIMIT WAS 12 MILES PER HOUR. VOL. 89, No. 25 May 20, 2004 ш Anxiety Highest During Finals Diane Garcia Staff Writer With the end of spring semester and finals looming, many PCC stu¬ dents come face to face with their greatest nightmare: anxiety. Anxiety is common among all peo- is especially prevalent among students during mid-terms When the sleeping mon- avytfkened, it can cause mental netimes physical illness that capKbe difficult to slay. >/ Heidi Bowerman, PCC psycholo¬ gist, said "A small amount of anxi- ety is good because if you don t have any then you are not worrying about your grade." But the con¬ stant worry can easily turn into a problem, making it difficult to get through daily routines or interact with friends and family. This stress is caused by a host of reasons but can be dealt with easily if there is some¬ one to discuss problems with. According to Final Exam Panic, Success Through Self CareuharfSout written by аи!й«да**^еап of special servieWHJnKent Yamauchi, there are three categories of anxiety peo¬ ple fit into: regular, irregular and infrequent. Those in the regular category are diligent in their study habits from the beginning of the semester. They frequently review their class assign¬ ments and hold regular study ses¬ sions. By the time finals come around they already have a thor¬ ough understanding of the subject and are not anxious about their pos¬ sible performance. Irregulars arg».AfwS|e who are concerned abo^SWreir perform¬ ance Qjjtp4Sfound exam time. They motivated by the impending date of a test. With irregulars the closer the date to the test, the more study time they put in. Though irregulars review their class assignments and schoolwork, they do so infrequently, and their notes are disorganized. Because of the infrequency of their studying, they are not as well prepared as those who fit into See naqe the regular category. Anxiety i-6. CANADA 1 wwwjewbtttoB-oom Photo Illustration by Mitchell Wright Faculty Concerned Over CEC Vacancy The Community Education Center has been without a dean since the new year Fast Track Program Suspended Revealed Hudson Hou Staff Writer Fast Track, PCC's accelerated transfer program for high school students, has been suspended due to budget cuts, a little-known deci¬ sion that has affected hundreds of students. The program has been "put on hiatus," said Dina Chase, assistant director of the transfer center. Interested high school students can still file to enroll in college class¬ es under the "educational enrich¬ ment opportunities" section of the California Education Code, which has always been available, but not in Fast Track, said Armia Walker, who works in the transfer center. News of the suspension, which went into effect in the of Fall 2003, has only begun to dribble out. Only recently, a caller to the transfer center was told that the program, intended for high school sophomores, was "not functioning." On its homepage, however, the transfer center gives no indication that the program has been sus¬ pended, but instead asks students and their parents to call the out¬ reach center in the L building. Callers are told that the pro¬ gram is "no longer funded." In addition, the brochure for the program (Ruta Acelerada, Fast Track in Spanish) is still available in the transfer center, despite the sus¬ pension of the program, which may explain why students and their parents have been surprised to hear of the suspension. On July 1, the program will be evaluated to see if lifting of the suspension is possible, Chase said. Describing the program as "very plus, plus," Tony Smith, one of two Fast Track counselors, said students have been "really disappointed" at news of the suspension. The disappointment has been felt all the more in that the relative¬ ly new program has been a success. Students from Arcadia to Blair to Temple City have all "benefited immensely," said Smith. The program helps students enroll, builds rapport with parents and provides counseling. "It ensures students are going to do well," Smith said, adding that guidance is lost as a result of the suspension. Additionally, not much is known about the progress of students cur¬ rently in the program. "There's no tracking system to find out how well they're doing," Smith explained. Students, however, "can still come in," said Walker. The counselor provides "guid¬ ance for the families" and acts as "a liaison with the parents," she said. "it was See page more per¬ sonal, one- AS Elections Set For Next Week Daren Dillinger Staff Writer Student government elections will occur May 24 - 26. Online vot¬ ing can be done at the Computer Cafe during normal operating hours, 7 a.m. through 10 p.m. Additional on-campus voting information will be posted as available. Filing of any com¬ plaints or protests to the election committee should be made no later than 11 a.m. on May 27. All 16 candidates were invited by the Courier to send in state¬ ments and answer some questions. self-defense in the Quad, com¬ bined with a safety awareness program for the students. Kong says that since he will not be having an off-campus job, he will be able to devote all of his efforts to working for stu¬ dents. Vice president for internal affairs: Cynthia Gonzalez, the incumbent, and Stephen Juarez are the candidates. Juarez is currently the associate chief justice for the student Supreme Council. He plans to fight the college tuition increases and propose additional security measures to decrease the rate of on- . campus crimes. Included below were the only ones to respond by deadline time AS president: the candidates are David Kong and Eli Scislowicz. Kong has two years experience tutoring and volunteering. He also wants to improve campus safety. He proposes some workshops on Juarez seeks to make the ICC more active and responsive to stu¬ dent needs. The internal affairs VP is also the head of the Inter-Club Council. Vice president for public rela¬ tions: the candidates are Nicholas Szamet and Shanshan Li. Li already has two years of experi¬ ence working in public relations with the AS. She was also in charge of the student publicity department in her high school four years ago. Her aims are stronger marketing, publicizing and promoting more activities on campus for all students. Chief justice of the Supreme Council: the candidates are Renata Costa and Khon Vong. Costa feels that her experience on the Supreme Council helps her to be familiar with the responsibil¬ ities of the executive board. Khon Vong. Khon has been a student work¬ er in the Student Affairs office and gained valuable experience seeing how things work. Vice president for business affairs: the candidates are Knarik Sevinyan and Jenny Wong . All of the other candidates are unopposed. Student Affairs encourages all students to vote "because voting is having a say in rules that govern you." Fast For those who think they've missed out on PCC's Fall Semester in Florence, think again. Although the initial deadline to sign up has passed, applicants will continue to be accepted on a space- available basis. Many of the scholarships avail¬ able have already been awarded, but the deadline for the $500 Italian scholarships has been extended to May 21 (this Friday). People must have completed an Italian class at PCC and enroll in one for the Florence trip to be eligible for the scholarship. The semester in Florence will offer four levels of Italian taught by Florence faculty members. PCC's own Elvio Angeloni will be teaching cultural anthropology and a humanities class and Karen Holgerson will be offering a linguis¬ tics class and two English classes. There will be weekend field- trips and trips to Rome led so that students may make their own plans to travel around Europe if they wish. -Crystal Samuelian Stephen Folan Staff Writer ♦ Academic senate president Alan Lamson brought a resolution to the board of trustees at its May 19 meet¬ ing in support of the faculty at the Community Education Center. The senate voted unanimously to back the resolution brought to them by CEC instructor Mabel Duncan asking for the group to support the CEC faculty's concerns about the board of trustee's deci¬ sion to not fill the CEC dean's posi¬ tion after the hiring committee made a clear-cut choice. The CEC has been without a division dean since Dr. James Crayton retired last year after 31 years of service to PCC. "It's basically a show of support," said Duncan. "A reinforcement of the shared governance program between faculty and management." The need for reinforcement came as a result of the board's deci¬ sion not to act on the selection of a candidate for division dean chosen by the hiring committee through the process clearly defined by the shared governance program. "The CEC position is one that seems to have drawn a lot of atten¬ tion," said Jacqueline Jacobs, vice president of instructional adminis¬ tration. "Dr. Crayton was there for 31 years. He helped establish the CEC and built a prestigious reputa¬ tion for it as well. "’I think that everyone just wants to find the best replacement we can." Approximately 10 candidates were involved in the interviewing process. A committee of five CEC faculty members and three division deans interviewed each candidate, going over their records and nominating the four most qualified to advance to the next level of the hiring process. The four candidates were sent to a second- level com- See page m i t t e e , comprised Dean Annual Banquet to be at End of Spring AS delays boat on funding the event until a later board meeting Diane Garcia Staff Writer The AS board approved a sub¬ committee to plan its annual banquet which is to be held sometime before the end of spring semester. The sub-committee consists of Arthur Choy, vice president for business affairs, Cynthia Gonzalez, vice president for internal affairs, Manny Torres, student trustee, Jennifer Soto, chief justice, Maria Reyes, vice president for student services and Knarik Sevinyan as chairperson. Gonzalez recommended hold¬ ing both AS and Inter-Club Council banquets simul¬ taneously because it would require less time to plan and less money to fund. Torres said the last time AS and ICC attempted to hold a banquet together mem¬ bers of the AS did not put as much time into the event as members of ICC did. The motion made by Gonzalez was denied. AS board member Sevinyan said she preferred to hold a pri¬ vate AS banquet because of everything they had "gone through this semester with people coming and going [on the board]." Sevinyan added that it would be more per¬ sonal for the ICC to hold its end of year banquet separately. A motion tabled the funding of the banquet until their May 24 meeting. Energy Boost or Health Risk? Ina Siem Opinion Editor You see Hollywood starts drinking them. Rock starts will take a gulp before going on stage. It can be bought by in any food store. And more and more students are joining the large group of loyal consumers of this product: energy drinks. Finals are coming up and so is the hot of summer. Full-time students like Sandra Diaz start¬ ed to take energy drinks because they were refreshing. Now, she can't stay awake a whole night studying without emptying a can of Red Bull. Just like Diaz, many other PCC students drink beverages such as SoBe, Fuze, and similar products sold on campus. Whether it's to get them through a long day at work or keep them going during a heavy night out, more stu¬ dents are being drawn to the drinks' promises of invigora- t i о n . See pggg web site Buzz