VOL.50.NO. 14 _ PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA NOVEMBER 21, 1980
Faculty Senate Rejects Petition
Addendum on Low Morale Still Lives
By Rosemary Cameron
Contributing Writer
The Faculty Senate Board rejected a
petition Monday signed by 30 faculty
members proposing that the Board
hold in abeyance the results of a poll
citing Superintendent-President Dr.
Richard S. Meyers as a significant
cause of low morale on campus.
The results of the original poll were
forwarded to the accreditation team as
part of an addendum to the five-year
Self Study Report.
The Senate Board voted 16-1 with two
abstentions to reject the petition be¬
cause the addendum had already been
submitted to the accreditation team,
which visited the campus this week.
The rejection was based on the
grounds that the wording used was not
constitutionally valid. The petition
asks that the addendum be “held in
abeyance.”
According to Article C8.1 and C8.2 of
the Faculty Senate Constitution, a peti¬
tion must be signed by 30 faculty
members and must ask the Faculty
Senate Board to rescind or revise a
proposal.
In a related action the Board also
rejected a motion to rescind the adden¬
dum to the Self Study Report.
Before voting, Board members at¬
tempted to interpret the provisions
within the Faculty Senate constitution
and. to decide whether the proposed
petition should be accepted or rejected
on the basis of wording technicalities.
Pat O’Day, physical science as¬
sociate professor, said the issue should
be one of democracy, and the petition
shouldn’t be rejected “because of a
small technical point” not being
adhered to.
Joseph F. Dimassa, social -sciences
professor, responded that “once you
understand technicalities they are very
important.”
Increases in Tuition
Spark Protest Rally
By Monique Meindl
Staff Writer
Suggestions on how to act against
increases in tuition for nonresident and
noncitizen students were given to four
representatives from a group of for¬
eign students who met with Super¬
intendent-President Dr. Richard S.
Meyers on Monday.
A student organized group of approx¬
imately 50 last week protested As¬
sembly Bill 2825 which increases tui¬
tion from $59 to $75 per semester unit,
to start spring 1981.
The meeting ended two days of dis¬
cussion which included a rally, outside
the cafeteria Nov. 14. After several
discussions, the students decided to
take their demands directly to Meyers,
and approximately 30 members of the
group went to Meyers’ office to make
an appointment.
“The rise in tuition will place an
enormous burden on foreign students,”
said Ruth Wong, a member of the
group. “The issue affects American
students as well,” she said, as out of
state students will also pay the in¬
creased tuition.
The tuition rise is in accordance with
AB 2825, which calls for community
colleges to increase tuition by the
projected percent increase in the Unit¬
ed States Consumer Price Index as
determined by the Department of Fi¬
nance for fiscal years 1979-80 and
1980-81.
The bill states that the tuition fee
may be paid in installments, as de¬
termined by the governing board of the
district. Although extensions have been
no
given in the past, the college has
provisions for a monthly payment pro¬
gram. “The problem of monthly
payments would be that the school
would have to hire someone to do the
book work,” said Meyers. “This may
pass an additional cost on to the stu¬
dents, which would not help either.
“The college didn’t make the law,”
said Meyers. “I agree that it is a
significant rise which is a drawback to
foreign students, but the 106 California
community colleges have no decision
but to follow the law,” he said.
According to Meyers, PCC argued
against the bill. “We notified our rep¬
resentatives that we were against the
bill, as well as joining with other
organizations who were opposed to it.
We fought and lost,” he added.
At the meeting, Ms. Wong presented
three requests of the group. “We want
the school to provide more financial
aid, to have the chance to get work
permits and to be able to have monthly
payments of the tuition.”
Scholarships for foreign students are
restricted by law to 10 percent of the
number of foreign students attending
the school. To be eligible for a scholar¬
ship, the student must show a signifi¬
cant unforseen change in his or her
other financial circumstances, accord¬
ing to Wallace Calvert, foreign student
adviser.
“It is up to immigration to issue
work permits,” said Calvert. “The
student’s financial picture would have
to change significantly for work per¬
mits to be considered.”
Meyers will look into the possi-
-Courier photo by Larry Goren
FORCE BE WITH YOU — Queen Lisa Brown was crowned at Saturday
t's homecoming game as her name ignited in lights in a fireworks display
rt Chris Calvert looks on as Darth Vader presents the new queen with her
?n. Halftime festivities included the final parade of the club floats.
:tators were astounded when water suddenly showered upon them from
e K's float as it made an additional lap around the field.
bilities of installment payments and
will discuss it with the Board of
Trustees.
The students were advised to try to
organize a resolution to go to the
(Continued on Page 6)
The petition, which requested “the
proposed addendum be held in
abeyance until a college-wide vote
could be held, also proposed that “a
new instrument using proper quan¬
titative methodology be used.”
According to Lee Reinhartsen, Com¬
munication Department represent¬
ative on the Faculty Senate Board, the
poll was unscientific and haphazardly
conducted.
“It wasn’t academic at all,” said
Reinhartsen. “It wasn’t conducted em¬
pirically.” The reverse side of the poll
sheet concluded that Meyers is respon¬
sible for the deterioration of faculty
morale, Reinhartsen said. “It told peo¬
ple how to vote,” he said.
The poll was conducted scien¬
tifically, according to Gordon Brown,
Faculty Senate president. “There is no
such thing as a bias-free poll,” he said.
“I don’t feel that the information on
the back of the sheet would per¬
suasively sway anyone away from an
attitude they did not hold prior to
reading it.”
The poll was databased in the sense
of the ranking procedure used, said
Brown. “The ranking procedure is well
known, the responses were quan-
tifyable on both questions asked,” he
added.
The addendum is based on the results
of a recent faculty poll initiated by the
Accreditation Exit
Evaluation Good
Saying PCC needs to work harder at
communication and planning, the ac¬
creditation team nevertheless gave the
college a positive report.
“Your forest is in pretty good shape
although some of your trees are a little
rotten,” Dr. Jim Fitzgerald, chairman
for the Western Association of Schools
and Colleges team, said at the con¬
clusion of his oral exit report on
Wednesday afternoon.
The eight-member team, composed
of educators from California colleges,
included two nursing professionals who
specifically evaluated the PCC nursing
program. The nursing report has not
yet been released.
Communication at PCC is- a two-way
problem, not just a top-down problem,
according to Fitzgerald, who added it
was his observation that college per¬
sonnel rely a lot on the written word,
and “not everybody reads.
“There is a difference between lis¬
tening and waiting for one’s turn to
talk,” he said, suggesting that efforts
at human contacts be renewed.
Evidence of planning for the future
is not clearly present in the Self Study
Report, he said. There is little dis¬
cussion of “how that plan will occur,
who will be involved, what the goals
are, when it will be accomplished or
Senate that focused on the question of
morale. Faculty members were asked
to determine the seriousness of the
morale problem on campus— if in fact
there was a morale problem. The
survey also listed a number of factors
thought by the Senate Board to be
any measurable criteria that will be
employed.”
While not discounting faculty’s feel¬
ings of low morale, Fitzgerald re¬
sponded that “management also feels a
lowering of morale and that every
member of the team thought that mo¬
rale in our campuses is lower this year
than last year.”
About the demographic changes in
the community which became evident
during the self study period, Fitzgerald
said that the team “feels the communi¬
ty may be changing faster than the
college is changing.
“Maybe as an institution you ought
to ask yourself some questions. You
should reflect the community and pro¬
vide better service to the community,”
he said.
The team was most impressed with
the student leadership, according to
Fitzgerald. “They had their act togeth¬
er more than any other group we met.
Where it really counts— the students of
the college— it would appear to be in
rather good shape,” he said.
Fitzgerald and other team members
will now prepare a written report to be
sent to the Accreditation Commission
along with the team’s recommenda¬
tions regarding accreditation. Results
of that report are expected to be
available in several weeks.
— Courier photo by Larry Goren
COOLING A HOT ONE — Freshman tailback Stefan Hodnett is being
consoled bv l ancer Head Coach Harvey Hyde during game with L A. Valley
College Saturday nigm, which PCC won 45-0. PCC, ranked No. 1 in two of
three national junior college polls, is now alone in first place in the
Metiopolitan Conference with a record of 4-0.
possible causes for low morale and
asked faculty to rank them in order of
significance.
“Efforts to protect the president are
the motivation behind challenging the
poll,” said Brown, citing Reinhartsen
specifically.
— Courier photo by Zach Harmon
WALKING THE LINE — Dissatisfied with the lack of movement in
negotiations, PCC blue collar workers set up an informational picket line
beginning Monday. The picket line is not a strike, according to a Teamster
representative, since there is no intention of a work stoppage. At the last
negotiating session the teamsters proposed a 12 percent salary increase
and the Distrct countered with a 6 percent offer.
Counselors Offer
Tips on Transfer
By Wynona Majied-Muhammad
Opinion Editor
Most PCC students intending to
transfer are attracted by six institu¬
tions, according to counseling service
records of all the private and public
universities and colleges in Southern
California.
These six institutions, California
State Universities at Los Angeles,
Long Beach and Pomona (Cal Poly),
the Universities of California at Santa
Barbara and Los Angeles and the Uni¬
versity of Southern California, enroll
as well as graduate large numbers of
former PCC students.
Last year, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA
and USC together enrolled a total of 642
transfer students from PCC, according
to the college counseling service
statistics. Cal State L.A. accepted 251,
Cal Poly accepted 105, and Long Beach
State accepted 82 transfer students
from PCC.
Ernestine L. Moore, dean of counsel¬
ing services, said the commuter nature
of PCC’s student body may be a clue to
understanding the students’ choice of a
transfer school
“Students don’t seem to reach out
too much. They tend toward local
schools since many work and have
stable living conditions. They don’t
want to move, or they can’t move,” she
said.
“In other areas people grow up
thinking about going away to college,”
she said. “Perhaps, its because com¬
munity colleges and state colleges are
so accessible in California.”
However, before potential transfer
students edn begin to think about grad¬
uating from a four-year institution,
counselors recommend several stages •
of planning and personal evaluation
before students actually present them¬
selves to a college or university for
acceptance.
Shop Around
Dean Moore suggests that the stu¬
dent shopping for a transfer school
should consider non-academic as well
as academic qualities.
Asking advice of a PCC counselor
and studying a prospective school’s
catalog can give the student good pre-
(Continued on Page 6)
Student Found Beaten
To Death in Arcadia
Katherine Skinner, a 19-year-old
PCC student, was found beaten to
death in Arcadia Nov. 12.
Her body was discovered in the
courtyard area of a professional build¬
ing at 623 W. Duarte Road.
Police have been unable to account
for the 12 hour period from the time
Ms. Skinner left her Arcadia home and
the time when her body was found. As
of Tuesday, there were no suspects.
A 1979 honor graduate of Temple
City High School, Ms. Skinner was
majoring in telecommunications at
PCC. A rock, found near her body, is
believed to have been used to kill her,
according to Arcadia police. There was
no sign of sexual molestation, and
police found her pickup truck parked
about a mile away from where the body
was found.
/