OPINION
FEATURES
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DONALD WARD REACHES
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• CELEBRATING LIFE BY COMMEMORATING THE DEAD
P.J. DATRI/ THE COURIER
Students watch as Art 8 students complete the sand mural. The colorful mural was designed by artists Sandra Varos and Bernardo.
Dia de los Muertos celebrates heritage
By BEATRIZ VALENZUELA
and RAY ARMEN DARIZ
Courier Staff Writers
Students who walked through the
Quad on Tuesday stopped dead in
their tracks when they noticed six
coffins in front of the R
Building.Thinking about death usu¬
ally does not bring to mind happi¬
ness or celebration. However, in the
Mexican culture, Dia de los Muertos
“Day of the Dead” is a celebration of
life.
Dia de los Muertos is a tradition
of joyously honoring and remem¬
bering those who have died. “This is
a time when we ask the spirits of our
ancestors to share their love and joy
with us again,” said student Marcos
Gutierrez, director for Day of the
Dead. The celebration is rooted in
ancient Mexican tradition.
The fifth annual celebration was
presented by PCC Art 8 students, in
collaboration with art students from
El Camino College, Cal State Los
Angeles and the Latino Museum of
History.
Among the multi-colored coffins,
students saw a 3.5-ton sand mural
and an altar created and elaborately
decorated by the students. The cof¬
fins represented Mexican artists, in¬
cluding Frida Kahlo and Diego
Rivera. The altar was decorated with
sugar skulls, flowers, candles, bread,
pictures and mementos honoring the
dead.
Dia de los Muertos is often com¬
pared to All Saints’ Day. But accord¬
ing to Gutierrez, there is a distinct
difference between the two days.
“When people think of saints, they
think of people who were like angels
on earth, not of this earth. The people
we are honoring on the Day of the
Dead, on the other hand, are real
people we can look up to and hope¬
fully surpass.”
The origin of the sand mural,
which dates back to pre-Columbian
times, was designed by Sandra Varos
and Bernardo. The Skull in the cen¬
ter of the mural represents the frailty
of the human body, Varos said.
“Around the skull is the universe,
and we as people become the center
of the universe,” she added.
The sand mural was created on
campus by students who volunteered
their time. They formed it by work¬
ing sand into the correct shapes and
Please see MUERTOS, Page 6
• PCC ONE OF 100 COLLEGES SELECTED
College exempt
from financial
aid regulations
By JOSH JACOBS
Courier Staff Writer
PCC is one in a hundred among colleges being
allowed to get financial aid to students, without all the
government red tape.
“We (PCC) are very pleased that we were chosen to
be one of only three community colleges nationwide to
participate in Quality Ordinance as part of an experi¬
ment,” said Karla Henderson, assistant dean of the
Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid.
The program will allow the schools to use their own
methods of distributing financial aid. Though approved
only for the 1995 to 1996 school year, PCC will more
than likely participate the entire five years of the study.
This will cut back a lot of paperwork, but “adminis¬
tratively, it is too soon to tell how much time will be
saved,” Henderson said.
“We believe it is going to benefit students directly as
well as give the [financial aid] office administrative
relief,” she said.
Aid will be dispersed the first week of school, rather
than 30 days into the semester. “It’s great,” student
Ignazio Palazzolo said. “It’s better because it has always
been a slow process.”
In the past, the first check was given to students at the
beginning of the semester and the second distributed
sometime during the term. But now, there will be no
more dispersement dates; the second check will be given
the following day. The college is required to give the
checks out in two installments.
“ft is really going to be a boon,” Henderson added.
With the 30-day delay eliminated, it will benefit those
who need the aid right away, especially those in the
Oxford Studies Program. Samantha Huynh, PCC stu¬
dent, said, “ft is better because you have to buy your
books right away. You need the money at the start of the
semester, not 30 days after we buy the books.”
The probate of loans was “a nightmare for students”
with less than a year left before graduation from PCC,
said Henderson. “I applaud the Department of Educa-
Please see EXEMPT, Page 3
“We are very
pleased that
we were
chosen to be
one of only
three commu¬
nity colleges
nationwide to
participate in
Quality
Ordinance as
part of an
experiment.
We believe it
is going to
benefit
students
directly as well
as give the
[financial aid]
office adminis¬
trative relief. ”
Karla
Henderson,
assistant
dean of the
Office of
Scholarships
and Financial
Aid
• CROWDED ESL CLASSES
FORCE CENTER TO TURN
AWAY STUDENTS
ESL students at
CSC rejected due
to lack of space
By ARDA HAMALIAN
Courier Staff Writer
The American Dream may be slipping away from
many English as a Second Language (ESL) students.
The Pasadena Community Skills Center (CSC), which
gives many ESL students the opportunities to succeed,
is being forced to turn students away.
The center rejected a large number of ESL students
this semester because of a high demand for classes
offered at convenient times and a lack of space said
James Crayton, dean of the CSC.
All of the early morning and evening ESL classes are
lull to capacity since students often work or have fami¬
lies. However, afternoon classes, especially those of¬
fered froml p.m. to 4 p.m, are not very popular. “Most
students are at work around that time or they want to be
home when their kids get in,” said Crayton. “ If we
change the schedule to offer more ESL classes in the
mornings or evenings, we would have the same type of
scheduling problems with the non ESL classes.”
The skills center usually enrolls about 4,000 students
in the fall and spring semesters. However, the Pasadena
Unified School District has taken some classrooms for
use as a continuation school. Due to the lack of space,
CSC enrollment dropped to 2,233 students this fall,
about 800 of them are ESL students.
When the location of the Skills Center is changed
from the current one on Del Mar and Oak Knoll to the
new facility being built on Foothill Boulevard, Crayton
Please see ESL, Page 5
• FOUR DELEGATES FROM THE BSA DESCRIBE THEIR EXPERIENCE AT THE MILLION MAN MARCH
One Million Men Marching for Unity
By RODNEY C. MITCHELL, Special Correspondent
from the towering speakers of a state of the art P. A.
system the prophetic lyrics of the late rhythm and
blues artist Marvin Gaye resonated over the chilly, early-
morning air accompanied by more than 100,000 Afri¬
can-American men singing in perfect unison the quasi¬
official Black national anthem, “What’s Going On.”
However, despite the festive atmosphere of the early
morning, the mission was intensely serious for those men
who gathered at the break of dawn at the threshold of
world power. They came in peace and with the intent of
setting the stage for an unprecedented historical event,
ft was not 1 963 but 1 995 and within hours, more than one
and a half million African American men would descend
on Washington D.C.--ground zero for the Million Man
March on Oct. 16, 1995.
Among those first 100,000 African American men to
set up camp on the lawn of the nation’s capital were four
delegates from PCC’s Black Student Alliance. They
were Odell Mayweather, Marlon Grandberry, Barutti
Anderson, Konata Khalfani, and Paul C. Price, adviser
to the BSA. These representatives took part in what has
been declared the largest, unprecedented gathering of
African Americans in history.
Although all five scholars share the same ethnicity,
and hail from the same city college, all were touched in
unique ways. However, they all say that their lives were
forever changed after attending the Million Man March.
Price, a sociology instructor, contended that solidar¬
ity and brotherly love carried the day. He described how
firm handshakes and reassuring hugs were the norm
among the masses of African American men. “We would
pass groups from Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta.. .and in
every such encounter, there was an enthusiastic greeting.
Black men were turned on by the God-given spirit of the
march.”
Mayweather, a business major, spoke of how the sight
of thousands of Black men waving money in a symbolic
manner, showing the potential economic strength in the
African American community, made a permanent and
profound impression on him. “The hope for unity over¬
whelmed me. Some felt that this event was the closest
thing to being in heaven. I was in heaven.”
Please see MARCH, Page 3
• AS SPONSOR ANNUAL HALLOWEEN FESTIVITIES
CDC children trick-or-treat at PCC
By ARDA HAMALIAN
Courier Staff Writer
Believe it or not, about 40 ghosts
and goblins paid PCC a little visit on
Halloween.
No, the college is not haunted.
The visitors were actually trick-or-
treaters from the PCC Child Devel¬
opment Center.
Every year the Associated Stu¬
dents arranges for the children to
come to campus and go trick-or-
treating to different departments.
“The AS did such a good job in
organizing the event,” said Shiela
Donish, the child development spe¬
cialist at CDC.
The children were divided into
two groups as they made their way
through departments like social sci¬
ences, human resources, financial
aid, and fiscal resources.
Some costumes worn by the chil¬
dren included Power Rangers, prin¬
cesses, ninjas, and Disney characters
such as the Little Mermaid, and
Simba and Nala from the movie the
Lion King.
After they completed their rounds
through the college, they ate lunch
provided by McDonald’s.
The trick-or-treaters were given
Halloween goodie bags that included
things like pencils, stickers, plastic
rings, crayons, raisins and nuts, but
no sweets.
“We are no sugar center,” said
Mary Smith, the evening supervisor
at the center.
The event began at 9:45 a.m., so
only the children enrolled in the
daytime program could participate.
However, the AS also prepared
goodie bags for the children in the
center’s evening program who
couldn’t come trick-or-treating.
“We’d really like to thank the AS
for arranging this,” said Donish. “The
kids really enjoyed it and we’re look¬
ing forward to next year.”
CARLOS SANTIESTEBAN
/
THE COURIER