VOL 52. NO. 12
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
NOVEMBFR 13, 1981
Forensics Team Sweeps Events
Coach Says Hard Work Paid Off
By Julien Orow
Editor-in-chief
The PCC Forensics Team won 12
trophies at the Lancer Invitational, a
speech competition open to all com¬
munity colleges. The tournament,
which is the largest community college
competition in the country, was held at
PCC, Nov. 6-7. Twenty-two colleges
competed in the event.
The Lancers took first place
Sweepstakes in all the team events,
including Reader’s Theater, Oral In¬
terpretation and Debate. The
Sweepstakes is the highest overall rat¬
ing for all of the schools entered. It is
determined by a point system.
PCC also won third place
Sweepstakes in Novice and fourth
place Sweepstakes in individual events.
PCC also did well in the Radio
Speaking competitions, In the Upper
Division Radio event both the first and
second place winners, Brad Herrling
and Leo Hughes, are PCC students.
Saddleback took third, with John
Vande Wege of PCC coming in fourth,
in a tie with Long Beach City College
and Saddleback.
In Radio First Novice PCC again
took the first and second places, with
awards going to George Acevedo and
Steven Baird. Cerritos College came in
third, with a four- way tie for fourth
between PCC (Rachel Torres), Mt.
SAC (a two-way tie between Mt. SAC
competitors), and Cerritos.
This was Acevedo’s first college
tournament. “I was really nervous, I
didn’t think I was ready,” he said. But
after winning “I took it as kind of an
omen that maybe I do have what it
petition in high school.”
Mendes agreed, saying, “We com¬
peted against some of the Upper
Division teams and were judged
against them. It was like competing
with a class above us.” There were
approximately 13 teams in this event.
Moorpark College took first in
Reader’s Theater, which is a 25-minute
'Our dream is to go on to St. Louis. We're going
to make it to the Nationals.'
takes. It’s an incentive to go on and do
better the rest of the year.”
In Duo-Interpretation Novice PCC
took the first and fourth place spots.
Kent Borja and Gary Mendes came in
first, with Susan Banfield and Mei
Chinzi placing fourth. Another first
place was obtained in the Team De¬
bate, by the duo of Barte Masciarelli
and Barry McGowan.
Stiff Competition
This was only the second time
Mendes and Borja competed as d team.
Borja felt that the competition was
“very stiff” because “none of us had
had speech competition before, and a
lot of the people against us had corn-
reading of a cutting of a play or
original production comprised of three
or more people. The Moorpark team of
Pielaet, Duncan and Stivers performed
a cutting entitled “Pfeiffer’s People.”
PCC won both second and third places
in this event, with second place going
to Susan Banfield, Mei Chinz, Ron
Secor, Kent Borja and Peter Georgilas
for their rendition of “Summer Tree.”
The third place team did “Don Juan
In Hell.” This team was comprised of
Mike De Quattro, Sheri Virzi, John
Ybarra, and Will Piehr.
Coaches Credited
Anthony Georgilas, forensics coach,
expressed a great deal of pleasure over
the way the PCC team performed.
SWEEPSTAKES TEAM — The Forensics Team (above) competed against 22 other communi¬
ty colleges in the Lancer Invitational held Nov. 6-7 at PCC George Acevedo (right) won first
place in Radio First Novice.
-Courier photo by Jesus Monje
Acid Rain Equals
Dead Lakes
See story pg. 2
Learn About
Biorhythms
See story pg. 3
Football Team
Wins By a
Field Goal
See story pg. 4
Metro Conference
Finals
See story pg. 5
Royal Shakespeare
Review
See story pg. 6
Economic Forum Thursday
Student Input Encouraged
By J. C. Catlin
Contributing Writer
Reaganomics and the parallel poli¬
cies of England’s Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher is the topic of the
Nov. 19 social science department fo¬
rum in C301 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:50
a.m.
Social Science associate professors
Robert C. Augur and Dr. Michal A.
Finkenbinder and Vice President of
Administrative Services John S. Mad¬
den are the speakers. Dr. William E.
Goldmann will moderate the session.
Each individual will have five
minutes to make an introductory
statement after which they will discuss
each other’s viewpoints. After the
panel discussion the audience will have
a chance to participate.
“I believe that during the review of
the introductory statement there will
be a spirited interchange of ideas,”
said Dr. Goldmann. He also hopes for a
wide range of student input since stu¬
dent participation in past forums has
been very good.
“The forum provides students an
opportunity outside of class to address
a teacher and also promotes a spirit of
free inquiry,” stated Dr. Goldmann.
Augur is an economics professor and
has been teaching at PCC for nine
years. He spent his sabbatical last year
living in England.
Dr. Finkenbinder has a doctorate in
Counselor Attains Grant
For Doctorate Program
By Kathryn Norton-Taylor
Special Correspondent
Robert D. Navarro, a PCC counsel¬
or, just won a University of Southern
California study grant from its com¬
munity college Hispanic Educational
Leadership Training Program.
The grant provides partial funding
for a three-year crash program for a
doctorate degree in education. Navarro
is one of 19 Southern California
educators to be admitted to USC’s
program.
“I want to go into adminsitration to
effect good, positive change as needed.
I’m very impressed with USC. It is
very responsive to the needs in educa¬
tion,” Navarro said.
Part of the training will include
seminars in college management, lead¬
ership style, collective bargaining, le¬
gal issues, policy analysis and im¬
plementation. One part of the program
which Navarro said he’s looking for¬
ward to participating in is a supervised
internship at the community college
level.
Navarro started working at PCC in
1973. He has been a college work study
adviser, counselor specialist for the
office of Chicano Affairs, part-time
instructor in history and cooperative
education, and is currently a counselor
on the Humanities and Fine Arts coun¬
seling team.
Navarro has an associate of arts
degree from East Los Angeles College,
a bachelor’s and master’s degree from
California State University at Los An¬
geles. He has another master’s degree
from Point Loma College. He holds
credentials in counseling, and also has
instructor, chief administrator and su¬
pervisor credentials.
“Our participants worked extremely
hard in getting ready for this event,”
he said. “A great deal of credit must
also be given to the coaches— Pat
Brown, Chrystal Watson, Bob Wright,
Jay Hern and Larry Kulp.
“There was a lot of work involved in
preparing the students,” he continued.
“As always things moved along very
smoothly.”
“I am extremely pleased with all the
hard work our students exhibited. I’m
also extremely pleased with their pro¬
fessional approach to competition.
They were always helpful to our out-of-
town guests,” Georgilas concluded.
Georgilas also “gratefully acknowl¬
edged” the tournament directors—
Norm Fricker (Bakersfield), Bob
Bourneman (LA City College), Paul
Crary (Central Arizona), Donna
Grossman (Cerritos), Tom Buttone
(LA Harbor), Vera Ieperen (LBCC),
Jim Wyman (Moorpark) and Pat
Ganer (Cypress).
Mendes and Borja look forward to
their next competition at Northridge in
two weeks. “It’s like going to a candy
store,” said Mendes. “You want to see
everything but you can’t.”
“Our dream is to go to St. Louis,”
added Borja. “We’re going to make it
to the Nationals.”
DYNAMIC DUO — Gary Mendes (left) and Kent Borja, the first place
winners in the Duo — Interpretation Novice, were competing as a team for
only the second time. — Courier photo by Jesus Monje
New Grading
Rules Begin
Bv Valerie Provines Percent.
philosophy and did graduate work in
economics. He has been teaching at
PCC for seven years.
Madden is a former economics in¬
structor. He taught for 15 years at PCC
before taking the vice president posi¬
tion in 1976.
Over a quarter of the social science
department members participate in
the forums they present about twice a
semester. Dr. Goldmann feels that
being involved in the forum is “part of
his regular teaching duties.”
The department is planning two
more forums to be held in February
and May. The topics and speakers will
be announced later.
By Valerie Provines
Staff Writer
A new grading system has been put
into effect this semester that will
affect the way students receive their
grades in certain instances.
The grading changes, which is part
of Title 5, are “fairly detailed,” said
Dr. Ernest F. Neumann, dean of ad¬
missions and records. “About two
years ago a committee appointed by
the chancelor of the California com¬
munity colleges got together in Sacra¬
mento. They wanted to standardize all
college grades so that an A at Citrus
meant the same as an A at PCC,” said
Nemuann.
Before this time, each college had
different grading standards The Chan¬
cellor decided to appoint about 15
people, mostly academic faculty mem¬
bers and some students to a commit¬
tee. They worked for a few years doing
questionnaires, compromises, etc.
From this, “the state legislature
enacted amendments to the Education
Code which are in effect in about 107
community colleges right now,” Neu¬
mann said.
“The general grade thing, in es¬
sence, is a tightening up of policies
around the state. It’s a change in how
long a college can allow a student to
stay enrolled. Now students are al¬
lowed a shorter time to stay in col¬
lege,” Newmann added.
Title 5, Section 51303, “Progress
Probation.” states that a student who
has enrolled in a total of at least 12
semester or 18 quarter units “shall be
placed on progress probation when the
percentage of all units in which he
enrolled and for which entries of ‘W’,
T, and ‘NC’ (Section 51306) reaches or
exceeds 50 percent.” The student
would be removed from probation
when his grade point average was 2.0
or higher or the percentage of units in
this category dropped below 50
percent.
This past spring, a student who
wished to withdraw from a class could
do so until Friday of the 16th week of
the semester. A change went into
effect at the beginning of this fall
semester which amounts to a deadline
for withdrawal by Friday of the 12th
week of the semester, or 75 percent of
the course.
There is also a mandatory maximum
drop deadline which is Friday of the
14th week. (Title 5, section 51308).
What this means is: the student either
drops (withdraws) his class/es by the
end of the 12th week or completes the
class/es or he drops all his classes by
the end of the 14th week.
If he withdraws later, he could re¬
ceive an “I” or “Incomplete” if he
drops for “Unforseeable, emergency
and justifiable reasons,” according to
Section 51306. As stated in this section,
“The condition for removal of the “I”
shall be stated by the instructor in a
written record.
This record shall contain the condi¬
tions for removal of the “I” and the
grade assigned in lieu of its removal.
This record must be given to the
student with a copy on file with the
registrar until the “I” is made up or
the time limit has passed. The “I” may
be made up no later than one year
following the end of the term in which
it was assigned.”
“RD” (Report Delayed) is a tem¬
porary symbol to be used when there is
a delay in reporting the grade of a
student due to circumstances beyond
the control of the student.
“ ‘RD’ is used in a case where a
teacher simply does not turn in a grade
(for whatever reason), but will turn the
grade in later on,” said Neumann.
“I think the student wins, in effect,”
he said, “but it’s a horrible, tragic
change in record-keeping. But I think it
will cut down on the number of in-
completes.”
INFORMATION PLEASE — College information was
on view last Thursday to help students decide where to
transfer next fall. November is application month for
students who plan
fall. Counselors are
to attend a four-year college next
urging students to apply right away.
— Courier photo by Brian Thompson