PCC Courier, May 27, 1993

The Pasadena City College Pasadena, California Yol. 75 No. 14 COURIER Thursday May 27, 1993 A hidden inequality? Administration does not reflect student ethnic population By PATRIA ABELGAS Staff Writer Much has been said about the college’s commitment to affirma¬ tive action. Its policy of ensuring that all “...programs and activi¬ ties are available to all persons without regard to ethnic group identification...” has been empha¬ sized repeatedly particularly dur¬ ing the dispute over the new hir¬ ing policy for department chair¬ men. “We’re absolutely committed to an ethnically balanced staff,” said Dr. James P. Kossler, assis¬ tant superintendent of adminis¬ trative services. Last year, a reverse discrimi¬ nation suit was filed by a white instructor who claimed that she was bypassed for a full-time leach¬ ing position to allow a young Japanese- American applicant to have the job. She claimed that it was because the college had “to expand their faculty to mirror the Recently, the ongoing battle for the selection of the new social sci¬ ence chairman has raised contro¬ versy over Section 53024 of the af¬ firmative action policy. The section assures that “selection committees shall include members of histori¬ cally underrepresented groups when¬ ever possible.” However, “historically underrepre¬ sented” has taken on a vague defini¬ tion. Nobody knows where to draw the line between “majority” and “mi¬ nority” anymore. The white student population normally considered the majority may be surprised to find that they are no longer the largest group on campus. At the same time, so called minority groups may be equally surprised to realize that they are now the “new majority.” Latest statistics from the office of admissions and records show that Asian Americans represent the larg¬ est group at PCC. Totalling 7,150, Asian American students, including Filipinos and Pacific Islanders, make up 32.8 percent of the credit student population. Hispanics count 5,985 or 27.5 per¬ cent while white students total 5,814 or 26.7 percent, 6.1 percent fewer than Asian Americans, blacks make up 1,919 or 8.8 percent American Indians account for only 163 students or 0.7 per¬ cent of the student body. Affirmative ac¬ tion is supposed to ensure that the fac¬ ulty and administra¬ tion reflect the ethnic make-up of the student body. Yet in a college where administra¬ tors continually point out their com¬ mitment to affirma¬ tive action, there seems to be some disparity in the make up of the faculty and administration. Although Asian Americans are the largest group, there are only 31, or 8.2 percent, Asian American cer¬ tificated faculty members on cam¬ pus. Certificated faculty also includes counselors and librarians. There are no Asian American ad¬ ministrators. Patricia Mollica, dean of human resources and affirmative action officer, explains that the college has not had a lot of success recruiting Asian American employees. Mollica said that there is not a large number of Asian Americans applying for administrative positions. On the other hand, 29 of the 39 members of the administration are white. Five administrators are His¬ panic while the other five are black. White faculty members total 270, or 71.2 percent of the 379-member faculty. Despite being the second largest student group, Hispanics make up only 30 or 7.9 percent of the faculty. Blacks account for 11.3 percent while American Indians make up 1.3 percent of the faculty. According to Harry Kawahara, counselor and professor, PCC should work harder at making the faculty and administration reflect the chang¬ ing faces of the student population. “I think the students would feel better if the faculty and administra¬ tion looked like them, people of different colors,” Kawahara said. Student Roily Maiquez, 24, a com¬ munications major, said, “It’s un¬ fair. There’s a lot of Asian Ameri¬ cans at PCC and in Pasadena. If there are no Asian Americans in the administration, there is no voice being heard from them.” Kossler agreed, stating that the college needs more Asian American administrators. “There’s no ques¬ tion about that,” he said. Kossler said the college’s intention “is to gradually make our faculty and amin- istration reflect the students.” But, Kossler said, the college lost ground when two of its Asian Ameri¬ can administrators, the dean of nurs¬ ing and the assistant dean of library services, retired three years ago. Susie Ling, assi? tant professor of social sciences, said, there are many qualified Asian Americans. “That’s not the issue at all. You have to commit to this (affirma¬ tive action),” Ling said. Kawahara stressed the impor¬ tance of equal representation. “We need to have this affirmative action. Otherwise, the Asians’ voices will be drowned out,” he said. However, Todd Srithongkham, president of Asian Pacific Aware¬ ness Club, disagrees. “I believe that Asians should be considered for the job but they should not be hired just because they’re Asians. I want the teacher or the adminis¬ trator who is best qualified for the job,” he said. Ling said the college needs diversity in thinking and ideas within the faculty and admini¬ stration. Both Kossler and Mollica agree that the whole decision-making process of the college will be better if there is more diversity in perspectives. “We’ll become more responsive as decision makers,” Kossler said. However, Kossler said that equal representation will not be achieved easily,”It’s something that we’re always playing catch up with. You can’t do it over¬ night,” he said. Mollica warns that the college will never be able to “mirror the statistics exactly.” “What is important is that no mattter what the ethnic make up of the faculty and administra¬ tion, they should be sensitive to multicultural issues,” Mollica said. PCC has the second largest Asian American student popula- tion among community colleges in California. San Francisco City College, which has the largest number of Asian American students, has 21 percent or 10 Asian American administrators. There are 116 Asian American faculty mem¬ bers, or 15 percent of the faculty. student body.” - Photo by HOWARD BURGER/ The COURIER Asian Americans are the largest ethnic group on campus 32. percent of the credit student population, but their presence does not reflect the administrative make-up of the college. SCC coalition wins election By ENRICO PIAZZA Staff Writer Sharifa Johka, 21, won the Asso¬ ciated Student (AS) presidency as the Student Coalition for Change (SCC) swept in for a decisive vic¬ tory in the election held last week. The SCC ticket won all six positions for which they presented a candi¬ date. The only two seats won by the Diverse Leadership That Listens ticket (DLTL), which currently has five people on the board, were the ones in which their candidates ran unopposed. Two positions remain empty and will be filled by the new AS Board. The newly elected officials will take office at the beginning of the sum¬ mer intersession. The election, which had the high¬ est turn-out in eight years, was marred by controversy, as members of DLTL filed a complaint with the election committee alleging irregularities contained in a flier distributed by SCC mem¬ bers. In the ejec¬ tion, 1,041 stu¬ dents cast votes. The election committee, made up of four students, two ad¬ ministrators and one faculty member, voted unanimously that the complaint had no merit. One member abstained from voting. “I don’t think it was a dirty cam¬ paign,” said Alvar Kauti, dean of student activities and a member of the election committee. Rebecca L. Cobb, student activi¬ ties adviser and a member of the election committee was of the same opinion. “It was a very exciting election because there was excellent compe¬ tition from all sides,” said Cobb. “The candidates brought a great deal of enthusiasm to the campus. I never saw so much involvement.” However, controversy abounded as both sides spoke bitterly about the other. “They [the DLTL] were very inactive and ir- responsiblc [while on the board] to the needs of the stu¬ dents,” said Alex Ortega, 19, who won the vice- president posi¬ tion. “The SCC campaign was very negative and without a platform,” said Elizabeth Contreras, 21, a member of the DLTL ticket who lost in her bid for the coordina¬ tor of cultural affairs. “They lied. Big time,” she added. Members of the SCC denied the charges. They said the reason for their victory is in their accessibility. “We’re still among the students, we don’t disassociate ourselves,” said Sidney Rodriguez, 20, who won the coordinator of publicity position. ‘They [the DLTL] were hang-around- the-office kind of people, who went out there with the students only when they needed something. Their inten¬ tions were good, but along the way they lost touch with the general stu¬ dent body.” Kay IJogerty, 19, current AS vice- president who lost her bid for the presidency, defended the job of the current board. “We’ve done surveys to rate our¬ selves and fix the problems. We arc out there to serve the students,” Ho- gerty said. She added that the board fought to improve the parking prob¬ lems, add services, and organized the lobby trip to Sacramento to fight the fee increases. “[To say we are out of touch] is a highly opinionated statement. It’s not factual at all.” Hogerty said it’s wrong to con¬ sider the current AS Board as “run by the DLTL,” since three of the five DLTL members on the board just joined “as recently as two months ago.” She added that the SCC doesn’t have the leadership experience nor the know-how of the DLTI .. Johka, the AS president elect, responded that the new board will empower the students by supporting the clubs and by letting the students See “ELECTIONS,” page 6 New student parking open BY RODNEY MITCHELL Staff Writer How do swarms of frantic stu¬ dents hunting for parking spaces “spell relief?” . 96 additional park¬ ing spaces, that is how. PCC students can find additional parking spaces at a parking lot on the corner of Holliston and Green Streets, a three minute walk from campus. Dr. James P. Kossler, assistant superintendent of administrative services, said the lot is only tempo¬ rary until the new parking structure is built. He also said the lot is being leased for $2,200 a month from the Berger Foundation.The lot is permit parking only and parking regulations will be strictly enforced and citations will be issued accord¬ ing to Sgt. Vince Palermo, supervi¬ sor of all police forces on campus. He also said permit parking will deter outsiders from using the lot. Sworn campus police will patrol the new parking lot during opera¬ tional hours, between 6 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Campus police said the lot will be closed before dark due to the lack of lighting. “ We do not want students and staff exposed to any potential danger,” Palermo said. Even though staff may use the parking lot, they are being encour¬ aged not to. Campus police said the parking lot is primarily for students. I DO . x i Green [x; / l mx Cordova ; PCC Holliston Chester ;; f . Hill Jeannette Atkins, a business ma¬ jor said she would be using the new parking lot daily. She also said she rather take the three minute walk rather than riding around in circles waiting for a campus parking space. Rodger Williams, a English ma¬ jor said it’s about time the college did something about this horrible parking problem. Meanwhile, a new 2,000 space parking structure is on the drawing board and construction is scheduled to begin late 1993. The parking structure will be located on the south side of the campus on parking lot 14 and will double the number of park¬ ing spaces available now. College buys CSC land □ Pasadena Unified School District accepts college offer to buy land for the Community Skills Center. By ALFREDO SANTANA News Editor After years of intense negotia¬ tions between the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) and the col¬ lege, PUSD accepted the $4.75 mil¬ lion PCC offered last week to buy a piece of land to permanently house the Community Skills Center. With the purchase of the 4.5-acre site located at 308 1 Foothill В lvd. in East Pasadena, the college closed a chapter in its history marred by resi¬ dents’ complaints about possible problems the new skills center would bring them. Dr. James Kossler, assistant super¬ intendent of administrative services said college officials are pleased with the deal. He said the college originally appraised the parcel that is situated next to Southern California Edison power lines at S4.2 millions, whereas PUSD officials set the price between $4.5 and $5.5 million. But after almost five years of negotiations, both sides settled on the $4.75 million figure. “It was a fair price the college paid for the property,” Kossler said. To buy the site, PCC received $4 million from state funds last year when voters approved Proposition 163, a measure that provides money to build facilities at California col¬ leges. But since the overall price went $750,000 more than what col¬ lege officials expected, PCC will apply for state funds to generate the extra money, Kossler said. The state also provided $1 1 mil¬ lion for the construction of the two- story facility, which will also in¬ clude a parking lot for 360 cars. The PUSD Board of Education author¬ ized the school district last March to pul the final touches on the deal, even though residents of the Daisy- Villa residential area bitterly com¬ plained about street security and parking logjams students would create if the skills center were constructed in that area. Tim Price, president of the Daisy- Villa homeowners Association, said the 750 households he represents hope that the college will stick to its promise of not acquiring more real estate once the construction of the center finishes. “We will make a good situation out of a bad situation. [As long as] there is not expansion of the college, Please see “CSC,” page 6