PCC Courier, November 18, 1993

OPINION FEATURES SPORTS Students at Cal State Universities may end up paying for housing allowances for the system’s top officials. Page 2 KPCC news director Larry Mantle has a relationship with more than 30,000 listeners in one hour. Page 5 Football team upsets previously undefeated Long Beach City College 43-13. Page 6 PASADENA CITY COLLEGE PASADENA, CALIFORNIA VOL. 77 No. 13 ™E COURIER Serving the PCC Community for 75 years THURSDAY NOVEMBER 18, 1993 College to reinstate three fired nurses “Job security is extremely important to the [СТА] union... We do everything we can to protect jobs.” Ed Ortell, СТА chief negotiator □The PCC district offers to rehire dismissed workers. They may return as early as Monday. By ALFREDO SANTANA Editor in Chief PCC has agreed to rehire three nurses who where fired last semester after the college allegedly changed the job qualifications in the middle of the year. The compromise was reached last Monday between college officials and members of theCalifomiaTeach- ers Association / PCC chapter, which handled the nurses’ case. With this accord, both parties broke a two- meeting stalemate of trying to solve the matter. It was not disclosed, however, whether the nurses will receive mon¬ etary compensation for the time they remained off their jobs. The settlement, which calls for the reinstatement of all three nurses as early as next Monday, came about almost six months after Kathleen Konrad, JulieSti res and Tonia Brooks were dismissed. Three days before their dismissal on May 28, the nurses said they were notified by the Human Resources office that new jobs requirements, which included a master’s degree in health education or an equivalent, would be imposed. Although they had contracts guaranteeing their po¬ sitions at the Students Health Center until the end of the summer session, the college still issued dismissal no¬ tices. This was when they opted to file a grievance against the PCC district. On her grievance form, Konrad accused the college of implementing policies such as asking foramaster’s degree in a discipline where that degree had not previously been re¬ quired. Originally hired in 1991, she added in the grievance that two years ago in order to be employed, she had to meet job qualifications imposed by the state that only required a license to work as nurse in Califor¬ nia. To possess a California Nursing License, a nurse must have gradu¬ ated from one of the following accreditted institutions; the bach¬ elor of science in nursing program, the three year diploma school pro¬ gram, or the two year associate de¬ gree program. Konrad complained that the col¬ lege denied her the information she requested regarding the qualifica¬ tions needed to meet a master’s de¬ gree equivalent in the nursing field. Although Konrad hadacontract, she was not allowed to complete her assigment. She said the call for ter¬ mination was immediate. Mean whi le, the college advertised the openings in local newspapers, offering to pay as much as $19.55 an hour for those who met the new qualification. The Student Health Center em¬ ploys one full-time nurse, one full time medical assistant, six part-time nurses, five part-time physicians and one part-time practitoner. It is esti¬ mated that the clinic treats approxi¬ mately 103 students a day. According to a health center staff member, nobody has been hired to replace the nurses. Ed Ortell, СТА chief negotiator, said his organization was leaning to¬ ward accepting the settlement of¬ fered, and that the grievance was a tool that permitted them to reach an accord prior to filing a lawsuit. “Job security is extremely im¬ portant to the |CTA] union,” said Ortell. “ It isoncof our top priorities. The situation On May 28 of this year, three nurses were fired when they were told that a new set of qualifications would be imposed for their position Under those requirements, the college required a master's degree or an equivalent m nursing When the nurses took their positions, no master s degree was required On June 10. the nurses filed a grievance demanding their reinstatement to their former jobs College officials agreed to return them to their jobs last Monday after a meeting with СТА officials. Suspects in purse snatching arrested BY RODNEY MITCHELL Associate Editor With the arrest of three robbery suspects on Nov 4, Pasadena police say they were able to close the books on a string of unsolved robberies in the Pasadena area including a rob¬ bery on campus. However, a fourth suspect is still at large. The robbers were apprehended after a police helicopter spotted the suspects in the commission of a rob¬ bery involving a 68-year-old victim in the 2300 block of East Walnut Avenue at approximately 1 p.m. The suspects grabbed the woman’s purse and then fled in a beige colored Blazer. Using the par¬ tial license plate number obtained by the police cadets, during the inci¬ dent Pasadena Police were able to identify the Blazer as the same ve¬ hicle used in the Oct. 26 robbery on PCC. Lcanard Vandale Spencer, 19, Demetrice Ivey Hales, 19, were ar¬ rested without incident. The sus¬ pects were charged with two counts of second degree robbery and three counts of grand theft. All three men are from the Pasadena area. The incident on campus happended at approximately 10:30 p.m. when a PCC student reported that four black males approached her and her male friend and snatched her purse. All three fled with her friend pursuing the robbers. Campus police cadets reported seeing the four men running toward theBurger Kingrestauranton Bonnie Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. They were able to obtain a partial license plate n um ber from the a beige colored vehicle. Besides the incident on campus involving the 21 -year-old student, the suspects seemed to have largely targeted elderly victims, according to Investigator Mark W illiams of the Pasadena Police Department. Wil¬ liams pointed out several robberies that the four arrested men are be- Please see ARREST, Page 6 Getting informed HOWARD BURGER/ THE COURIER Four-year universities set up booths in the Quad yesterday to inform students about their schools. Asian-American heritage room to open next year □ Faculty and staff raise the $50,000 required to launch the project. The room is expected to open early next year. By ENRICO PIAZZA Associate Editor A room in the Shatford Li¬ brary will be dedicated to cel¬ ebrate and honor the Asian Pa¬ cific heritage, currently the larg¬ est ethnic group in the ттшшш college. With help from the community and the stu¬ dent body, the PCC fac¬ ulty and staff raised the needed $50,000 to desig¬ nate a room in the new facility. At least a part of the money will be invested in an endowment, and the dedicated to ethnic heritage in the new library. Both of the others arc ready and will soon be dedicated. The African American Herilageroom will be dedicated next Sunday at 2 p.m., and the Chicano/Latino one will be dedicated on Dec. 5. Considering that 34 perccn t of the campus’ population has Asian back¬ ground, many on campus see the designation of this room as long overdue. “It’s about time. We need to show all different cultures on campus to give a chance to people to display and talk about their culture,” said Jerry Charles, a political science ‘There is more interest now in the history of minorities, and the subject is finally being treated more seriously,” Dona Mitoma, college librarian riers that stand between the cul¬ tures on this campus,” he added. “It’s very important for Asian Americans on campus to have a place to go. We need recognition too,” said Kay Hogerty, presi¬ dent of the Japanese Student As¬ sociation. “I’m really thankful they raised till the money, and I realize a lot of work went into it. I think the students will really appreciate it when they see the room done and completed. They did a great job,” she added. Last year, faculty and staff raised S345,000 for theconstruc- tion of the Shatford Library, as шшшшж well as $50,000 for the Latino/Chicano room and S93,500 for the African American one. According to Joanne Kim, acquisitions librar¬ ian, three quarters of the money was raised by PCC faculty and staff, with some help from students - too. interest generated will be used to pay for various exhibits of paint¬ ing, sculptures and crafts repre¬ senting the Asian culture. The room, which willbeready early next year, is the third one major. “With this room, as well as with all other heritage rooms in the library, thecollegecommunities will be able to communicate better with one another, and hopefully these rooms will help break down the bar- “When we called and asked for their help, they really re¬ sponded,” Kim said of the cam¬ pus staff and faculty. She added that some students and student Please see HERITAGE , Page 6. Colleges should create high-tech labs, study finds □ The system could save up to $135 million by the year 2005 if students assimilate concepts through special computers. Cal State campuses may be involved. By PAT ROBISON Staff Writer To help case budget strains and crowded classrooms in California community colleges, the system should invest in high technology and improving tclecourses. Those sug¬ gestions were contained in a report issued by the Commission on Inno¬ vation of the state’s community col¬ leges. The commission suggested the creation of a body called INTECH (Institute for Technology and Dis¬ tance Education). This organization would be responsible for the re¬ searching and developing of new technologies and obtaining funding for the start up costs of implementing them in new programs. The commission also suggested that high-tech centers should be on every campus and that each should have at least 1 00 work stations by the year 2005. These work stations would have the latest technology available such as ROM CDs(rcad only memory), and interactive CD and video, but also would be flexible enough to incorporate new tech¬ nologies as they develop. One of the key programs that INTECH would be involved with would be “distance education” which means off-campus education cither through tclecourses or on-line com¬ puter networks and community cen¬ ters. The system-wide goal would be to serve 20 percent of the enrolled students in distance education courses by 2005. That would mean that 272,000 students or almost all of the increase in enrollment expected by that year could be accommodated. The commission estimated that by making those changes, the two- year colleges could save as much as $ 1 ,700 per student per year. Using a conservative estimate of savings of $500 per student, they estimated the system could save S135 million per year by the year 2005. Currently the state spends $3,000 per year forcach student. The report said that although in¬ stituting high technology in instruc¬ tion often has high start up costs, these programs save money in the long run. Faculty and staff of the colleges would be encouraged to participate in the development of high-tech teaching programs such as innovative computer software or im - provements to tclecourses. As an incentive, they would share in part of the profits il'INTECH were able to sell the programs to other schools or businesses. Like the California Slate Univer¬ sities , the com m un i ty со 1 leges wou Id develop a pervasive technological infrastructure on each campus that would link them. The report said the colleges have discussed with some of the Cal State University presi¬ dents building a community college network and then joining it with the universities’ network, or simply ex¬ panding the universities’ network to include the community colleges. By doing either, the community college system could achieve one of the report’s stated goals and that is to become a premier institution for the application of technology to learn¬ ing. The report said that there are three barriers to the application of new learning technologies in com¬ munity colleges. Currently there is no statewide planning for a coherent approach to increasing new technology. Second, in times of budget tightening, the short-term costs of a program often prohibit its being implemented, even if it will save money in the long term . Third, most of the faculty of the community colleges lack training in the use of technology as an instruc¬ tional tool.