VOLUME 110 ISSUE 11
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM
November 6, 2014
COURIER
EDITORIAL
CAIR6 SHOULD
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$2.9 MILLION HANGS ON SENATE VOTE
Student funds for counseling in jeopardy
unless document is signed
Philip McCormick and
Daniel Johnson
Staff Writers
Academic Senate President
Eduardo Cairo has refused to sign
a document that would secure
a $2.9 million grant for student
services unless the senate approves
the report in a special session next
week.
The grant money would go to¬
ward the Student Success and Sup¬
port Program (SSSP) plan. Interim
Superintendent Robert Miller said
that he had talked to the Chancel¬
lor of Community College’s office
and they had said it ‘ Vouldn’t look
good” without Cairo’s signature.
The senate had a mixed response
on how to address the document
at its meeting on Monday. Some
senators thought that the docu¬
ment should be signed as soon as
possible.
“I think we need to figure out
how to get this thing signed,” Sen¬
ator Mark Whitworth said at the
meeting. “We’re talking about a lot
of money here. Even if we meet
next week, how is that going to get
you to sign the damn document?”
However, not everyone at the
meeting was in agreement that it
should be signed.
“I would like to remind this
body that our jobs are not to sell
our souls for $2.9 million,” Senator
Lynora Rogacs argued.
“Presumably there are all sorts
of nefarious, disgusting ways that
we can get our hands on money,
but coercing our president to sign
something which this body may
fundamentally disagree on should
not be one of them. We can go
whore ourselves out in some other
rodeo.”
SIGNATURE page 2 ►
How to
SPEND $2.9
Million
4 New
Text service Evenin
system
12 New
counseling
that v/ill be
available at
night
text alert
10 min before
counselor
appointment
full time
counselors
adjunct
counselors
Photo illustration by Daniel Valencia
If approved, the funding would be used primarily to improve counseling services.
Historic mansion shapes gifted
kids into museum tour guides
Chris Martinez/Courier
The Fenyes Mansion in Pasadena.
Daniel Johnson
News Editor
A chorus of “Eww!” rever¬
berated around the historic
mansion.
The voices belong to roughly
two-dozen middle schoolers all
crowded into a child’s bedroom
that is filled with toys and furni¬
ture from over a century ago.
They had just learned that
long ago, mattresses were
commonly stuffed with straw,
making them very attractive to
bugs.
They move from room to
room, each wearing shoe covers
or padding around in socks to
preserve the antique hardwood
floors, with the temptation to
slide instead of walk proving too
much for some to resist.
The kids are part of the
Pasadena Museum of History’s
Junior Docent program, receiv¬
ing training on how to conduct
tours of the museum’s Fenyes
Mansion.
The intended audience for
these young tour guides is part
of what makes this program
unique.
When they have completed
the seven-week course, the
Junior Docents will give 3rd and
4th graders tours of the man¬
sion lasting about an hour and
1 5 minutes, detailing what life
was like a century ago.
Brad Macneil, the museum’s
education program coordinator,
believes that this approach helps
hold the interest of the young
audience.
“They become young teach¬
ers,” he said. “The coolest
thing is to watch the interaction
between the 7th and 8th graders
and the 3rd and 4th graders be¬
cause it’s not like an adult giving
a tour, it’s like their older brother
or sister.”
The program has been active
since 1988, drawing from several
public and private schools in the
Pasadena area. All of the stu¬
dents are part of their school’s
Gifted and Talented Education
(GATE) program.
MANSION page 2 ►
Haggling over faculty
hiring numbers continues
Daniel Johnson
News Editor
The question of how many
full-time instructors should be
hired resurfaced at Monday’s
Academic Senate meeting,
drawing an exasperated apology
from administrative leadership
and exposing divisions within the
faculty group.
Interim Superintendent/Pres¬
ident Robert Miller appeared
before the Senate for the second
consecutive meeting, repeat¬
edly apologizing for previously
estimating at a meeting of the
Council on Academic and Profes¬
sional Matters (CAPM) that the
school would add between five
and 10 full-time faculty positions
by fall of 201 5.
“P offer] a personal apology,
from this interim superintendent,
for being a little too ‘full-disclo¬
sure’ at the CAPM meeting,”
said Miller. “It was my mistake, I
apologize, I hope we can all move
on from here.”
Senate treasurer Manuel Perea
brought up the issue by indicating
that state projections of the full¬
time faculty obligation number
(FFON) could be interpreted as
requiring five to 10 new hires,
speculating that the administra¬
tion could have had the state
figures and did not release them.
“The fact that [the state
data] has a date of September
4, and we see how [five to 10
hires] could easily be reached by
referencing it, we felt we need an
answer,” said Perea.
“Was this report being used
to calculate and perhaps lowball
the new hires at a number under
what could have been given to
us?” Perea asked.
The Senate reported not re¬
ceiving those figures until Oct 1 5.
Miller said that his initial esti¬
mate was not based on the state
data, and that the implication
that the administration withheld
anything was unfounded.
“I did not see the September 4
document until the day after the
[CAPM] meeting [on October
15],” said Miller.
HIRING page 2 ►
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