Memorial Day
School Closed
Monday, May 25
COURIER
An Interview
With
‘Life In Hell s’
Matt Groening
Page 5
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A Visit To
Ancient
America
Page 6
VOL. 64, NO. 13
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
MAY 21, 1987
Be Informed, ‘AIDS Awareness Week’
“This virus has changed the world. The big fear with
sex used to be getting pregnant... You didn’t die
from sex.”
By Jennifer Landis
News Editor
“AIDS Kills. Be Informed.”
So goes the message organizers of
PCC’s AIDS Awareness Week want to
emphasize.
“The only tools we have to fight
AIDS are information and awareness,”
said Mark O’Connell, one of the or¬
ganizers of the project.
O’Connell said he “started pushing”
to get PCC and the Associated Student
Board to organize the AIDS Awareness
Week because “no one had addressed
it” on this campus. “When I went to the
AS Board the members passed the
proposal that day,” he said. According
to
Нота
AmirAbbasi, AS special
events coordinator, she and O’Connell
started working on the project im¬
mediately.
“This virus has changed the world.
The big fear with sex used to be getting
pregnant or catching a disease that
could be cured with a shot of penicillin.
You didn’t die from sex,” O’Connell
said.
Organizers of the AIDS Awareness
Week plan to use a variety of methods
to educate the campus community on
the “facts of AIDS.” Their main goal is
to reach as many students, faculty and
staff members as they can between
Tuesday, May 26 and Friday, May 29.
To help get this information out to
the campus, AmirAbbasi and O’Connell
have set up videos to present the facts
about AIDS which will be available to
the entire campus via the closed circuit
TV monitors on campus. “We are
trying to get a monitor into the
cafeteria because it is a natural gather¬
ing area,” O’Connell said.
Organizers want the monitors to be
“perpetual information machines,” ac¬
cording to O’Connell. The videos will be
screened all day and into the evening.
The Red Cross has loaned the project
two videos Beyond Fear— An Introduc¬
tion and Education and Spread Facts Not
Fear. Sex, Drugs and AIDS, a PBS
Frontline/Nova video, will also be
screened. These are “not dry scientific
tapes,” he said. They are made to keep
young peoples’ interest.
Representives from AIDS Project
Los Angeles (APLA), AIDS Regional
Resource Center-All Saints Church,
Pasadena Planned Parenthood and The
Red Cross will be on hand to inform the
campus and the community about
AIDS.
On Tuesday, May 26, Pasadena
Planned Parenthood will be in the patio
area of the campus from 10 a.m. to 1:30
p.m. The Red Cross will be in the patio
area on Wednesday, May 27 during the
same hours.
Lisa Blitz of APLA will be on campus
Thursday, May 28. Blitz will speak at
noon in Harbeson Hall and in the
campus center at 7 p.m. Blitz will talk
about the prevention, cause, treatment,
testing and social implications regard¬
ing AIDS. At 6 p.m. she will be featured
on Air Talk with Larry Mantle, KPCC
news director. According to Mantle,
APLA has arranged to have a person
with AIDS and a physician also on the
program.
The AIDS Regional Resource Center-
All Saints Church has arranged to have
a bulletin board in the library with
information from the American Medi¬
cal Association. Bill Shanks, represen¬
tative for the resource center, plans to
have an AIDS patient and a mother
whose son died from an AIDS-related
disease here to help the campus com¬
munity understand AIDS. Shanks will
have a table set up in the patio area
from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, May
29.
One of the major reasons AIDS
Awareness Week has been organized is,
as O’Connell said, “when you’re 18 you
think you’re immortal. You can’t die.”
According to APLA, recent statistics
nationwide show that there is an in¬
crease in the number of AIDS cases
among young people. In 1986 author¬
ities reported that 6,077 people between
the ages of 20 and 29 were diagnosed as
having AIDS. As of May 4, 7,384 cases
were reported.
AIDS Awareness Week is sponsored
by the AS government. Additional in¬
formation is available at (818) 578-7384.
Facts Create
Awareness
Adults with AIDS
1981 and before—
321 cases diagnosed, 146 deaths
1982— 1,002 cases diagnosed, 382 deaths
1983— 2,736 cases diagnosed, 1,225 deaths
1984— 5,456 cases diagnosed, 2,829 deaths
1985— 8,775 cases diagnosed, 5,178 deaths
1986—12,089 cases diagnosed, 4,740 deaths
1987— 7,384 cases diagnosed as of May 4
Laser Light Spectacular To Illuminate Campus
Public Invited to Create Holograms
By Mark McElrea
Associate Sports Editor
An informative display showcasing
the world of light will illuminate the
campus Friday and Saturday from 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. The PCC chapter of the
Laser Institute of America in conjunc¬
tion with the Society of Photo-Optical
Instrumentation Engineers from the
University of La Verne (ULV) will host
the Pasadena Laser Expo ’87.
“This should be the largest gathering
of student laser enthusiasts ever,” said
Robert Ashway director of public rela¬
tions for the laser show. “Invitations
have been sent to more than 26 high
schools.”
This year, the city’s Laser Expo has
been combined with the Laser
Festival held each semester by the
laser technology students.
“The Expo was going to fall so close
to the festival this year that we decided
to just combine the two events,” said
Ashway. “It takes about ten to 15
people to run the show, but the work of
more than 150 students from PCC will
be represented. Projects will be on
display in the Y building from the
optics, wave and opto-electronics
classes.
The Expo will feature high school
and college level seminars, demonstra¬
tions and displays on Lasers in Space,
Lasers in Medicine, Holography, Fiber
Optics and Lasers in the Future.
A holography workshop will give
first time laser users the opportunity to
produce their own holograms in the Y
building on a Helium-Neon laser. Each
person can bring an object of his choice
for the hologram, but the size of the
object will be restricted to a two to
three-inch flat square. For best results,
it is suggested that the object be white.
Each hologram will cost $2.
“The opportunity for everybody to
create his own hologram is just one of
the benefits of having the show on
campus,” said Ashway.
In addition, a lecture series and laser
light show will take place in the Forum.
The program will consist of an hour
laser demonstration coupled with a 30
to 40 minute lecture focusing on the
numerous industrial uses of lasers. The
program starts at 9 a.m. each day, and
continues with 15 minute breaks be¬
tween segments. Late admittance to all
shows is permitted.
The Y building will also house in¬
formation booths from such companies
as JPL, Blasers, New Port Thin Films
and Control Optics. ULV will also
A holography workshop
will give first time laser
users the opportunity to
produce their own holo¬
grams in the Y building
on a Helium-Neon laser.
Each person can bring an
object of his choice for
the hologram but the size
of the object will be re¬
stricted to a two to three-
inch flat square.
sponsor a booth.
PCC and ULV have a close working
relationship in the field of laser and
optical technology, according to
Ash way. PCC boasts one of the only
three laser programs in the state on the
community college level, while ULV
offers the only bachelors program west
of the Mississippi.
The lack of programs offered on the
college level can be linked to the lack of
qualified full time instructors that are
available to teach them. “Most of the
people in this field who are qualified to
teach, also hold full time positions,”
said Ash way.
The 20 part time instructors at PCC
work in the laser industry. No two work
at the same firm. “We know what the
industry is doing,” said program direc¬
tor Wai-Min Liu. “The focus of our
program is to get the student a job.”
“Our program is now in its tenth
year,” said Ashway. “We’re not only
the oldest laser program on the junior
college level, but also the largest.”
“Upon graduating from the two year
laser technician program more than 98
percent of our graduates find jobs,”
said Liu. “The average graduate starts
out at over $20,000 per year.”
The Expo is geared to displaying the
works from the many branches of the
laser-optics field as well as generating
an interest among high school students
who might want to pursue a career in
this rapidly expanding field.
“Most of our students are older,”
said Liu. “They generally are already
involved in a technical field in some
capacity. It is our hope that the first
time college student can become more
aware of the opportunities offered in
the field of laser technology.”
Vibrant ruby and blue laser beams refract off this lucite sphere to create an
aura of color and light. These and many other lasers will be on display at
the Pasadena Laser Expo ‘87 on Saturday, May 23 and Sunday, May 24.
This is the first time the Expo will be held at PCC and uisitors are welcome
to create their own holograms and explore the possibilities of a career in
the laser-optics field. Courier photo by Jennifer Landis
