OPINION
| FEATURES
| SPORTS
Magic
Hero status of basketball star
is questioned Page 2
Backstage
Sexson Auditorium is a labyrinth of
stage ins and outs Page 5
/
F : 1
s . r
Unstoppable
DarreU Thompson leads
Cerritos to 33-22 win over
Lancers Page 6
Pasadena City College
Pasadena, California
Vol. 74 No. 10
COURIER
Thursday
November 21 , 1991
Bookstore prices ranked lowest in survey
By CHRIS LANGREHR
Opinion Editor
Despite concerns among students that the
PCC bookstore is raking in profits, book
prices at PCC are more reasonable than prices
charged by most colleges. According to Al¬
bert DePonte, bookstore manager, from au¬
thors to publishers to retailers, profit margins
are very slim in the college book business.
Therefore students are also not likely to see a
drop in bookstore prices.
The PCC bookstore marks-up text prices
23 percent. Citrus College marks-up book
prices 30 percent. And Glendale College
marks-up book prices 25 percent.
After paying for freight, which runs two to
three percent of the purchase price, PCC
earns a margin of about 20 percent. In other
words, a book that PCC pays $8 for is sold to
students for $10.
This margin is cut into by rent, facili¬
ties, salaries and maintenance expenses.
“Twenty percent mark-up is hardly any¬
thing to make. Little money is made on
textbooks. Money is made through vol¬
ume,” according to DePonte.
Book publishers responded to calls for
higher bookstore profit margins for col¬
leges by allowing schools to charge what¬
ever prices they wanted for books. Be¬
fore that, college stores were told what
prices they should set on textbooks.
However, according to DePonte the
PCC administration responded by main¬
taining book prices at the same low mar¬
gin. A committee made up of the book¬
store manager, a member from the ac¬
counting department, a faculty member
and four students also helped decide on
bookstore prices in the past.
“The administration does not want to
raise book prices because they are already
expensive. They don’t want to make a lot of
money on books. They just want enough
money to pay all the bookstore bills and
have some funds going to the student body,”
stated DePonte.
PCC students can only hope to save money
on books through the book buy back pro¬
gram. The money given back to students at
PCC is 55 percent of what they paid for a
book. Then the store adds 20 percent to its
purchase price when reselling the book. The
refund given to students at a typical college
is 50 percent of what was originally paid, ac¬
cording to DePonte.
“College books are expensive. However,
where can you sell something used and
receive a 55 percent refund of what you
originally paid?” he said. “Used books are
Please see Text page 4
Aztec Dancers
The Aztec dance group Yankuitl drew a
large crowd last Tuesday when they
performed pre-Columbian dances of
Mexico in the quad. The Pasadena
based group is open to anyone
interested in learning pre-Columbian
dances and practices. The group meets
at the Washington Middle School gym.
Right: Dancers Marganta Calderon and
Morinna Martinez are crowned with
traditional Aztec head pieces.
Bottom: Group performs one of many
dances in their repertoire.
Photos by Scott Daves/ The COURIER
Where The New Textbook Dollar Goes
11.6 cents goes to author royalties
9 cents goes to taxes
1 1,3 cents goes to publisher marketing expenses
39.1 cents goes to publisher manufacturing and operating expenses
20 cents goes to college bookstores
9 cents goes to publishers net income
Information based on American Associated Publishers Study in 1982
Books
PCC
Citrus
Glendale
use
Intermediate Algebra by Lial Miller
Biology Concepts and Applications
$41.55
$45.75
by Starr
$46.75
$48
Physics by Giancol
$62.35
$64
Sociology by Macionis
$44.20
$45.35
Physical Geography by McKight
$45.80
$50.35
$47
$43
West’s Business Law by Clarkson
$52.95
$54.
American History by Brinkley
$33.20
$34.10
Judge to speak
on Bill of Rights
By ANISSA VICENTE
Features Editor
U.S. federal attorney Lourdes Baird will
round off the series of lectures and discus¬
sions for the Bicentennial of the Bill of
Rights celebration with “A Reflection on the
Bill of Rights,” on Thursday, Dec. 5 at the
Forum from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
Baird’s rise to presidential appointment
as a federal attorney is a study in respon¬
sible freedom itself. Before that, she had a
traditional life as a wife and homemaker.
“I had three kids, a station wagon, a
shaggy dog, and did a lot of volunteer work,”
Baird said in a “Los Angeles Times” inter¬
view in 1989. As soon as her youngest child
started school, Baird took one night class at
Los Angeles City College.
“When I went back to school, my self¬
esteem was so low that I was just happy to
be able to get through one class,” she said.
Nevertheless, Baird’s sisters encouraged
her to transfer to the University of Califor¬
nia, Los Angeles, where she graduated with
a degree in sociology in 1973. She gradu¬
ated from UCLA Law School in 1976. The
U.S. Attorney’s office hired her as an assis¬
tant prosecutor immediately afterwards.
After eight years in the U.S. Attorney’s
office, Baird decided to strike out on her
own, handling criminal and civil cases in
her private practice.
In 1986, Baird received a call from then-
Gov. George Deukmejian, who nominated
her for the Municipal Court bench. She was
elevated to the Superior Court two years
later.
In 1989, President George Bush
appointed Baird U.S. Attorney for the
Central District of California, the largest
federal district in the country.lt encom¬
passes seven counties with a population of
14 million people. This appointment has
brought Baird full circle from the time she
set the alarm for 3 a.m. in order to study in
peace.
“There were times I wanted to give up,
and I didn’t. 1 felt compelled to follow
through for myself,” Baird said. “You have
to see yourself differently, transcend sex and
class and say, T can do it.’”
Success, Baird said, breeds success. She
is a little scared but nonetheless thrilled
about being a role model, especially to re¬
entry students who may be daunted by re¬
turning to school.
“It got pretty tough,” Baird said of her
early days as a law student. However, she
stresses the importance of having a sense of
humor for survival, “I think you need that
to get through life no matter what you’re
doing. If you can’t laugh at yourself, then
you’re in trouble.”
“There’ s a tremendous amount of things
to be done,” she said, looking undaunted by
the prospect. Experience has been her best
teacher.“There were times when I really
wanted to give up, but I knew that, ulti¬
mately, it was going to be for the best.”
Students get lesson on recycling
Photo by Scott Daves/The COURIER
Dr. Claudia Barrier categorized grocery items based on the threat they pose on the
environment during her workshop, “Recycling in Shopping Options,” Nov. 13.
By AMOR PADILLA
Editor in Chief
In a tremendous effort to bring up student
awareness in recycling and environment pro¬
tection, the ASB sponsored a recycling con¬
ference Nov. 13. in the campus center lounge.
Frank Wong, vice president of academic
affairs and chairman of the college’s resource
conservation workshop committee organized
the three enlightening workshops which drew
a large crowd of concerned students.
“The earth itself is a marvelous recycling
machine,” said Dr. Dave Douglass, assistant
professor of physical sciences in his keynote
speech to the audience. “Scientists have learned
to see the earth as a cycling system. Water is
recycled as is the outer crust of the earth,” he
said.
“Resources are created in long geological
time scales but are consumed in short time
spans,” he added. “Recycling helps augment
the natural system. We have to protect and
provide the resources,” Douglass said. He
explained that while it took millions of
years to form a mountain, humans can de¬
stroy it in a month.
Another theme stressed in the confer¬
ence was the concept of rejecting environ¬
mentally hazardous objects, and learning
how to purchase recyclable or reusable
ones.
Dr. Claudia Bamer, instructor of physi¬
cal sciences stated in her workshop “Re¬
cycling in shopping options” that recy¬
cling is the last thing on our list. “We
should first learn to reject. If you reject,
you won’t have to recycle,” she said.
Bamer explained that by avoiding or
rejecting over packaged articles we help
eliminate 65 percent of the waste in Amer¬
ica.
During her workshop Bamer catego¬
rized the items in a “typical” shopping cart
into best, good, OK and “boo” articles.
Some tips given by Bamer: the best choice
for bleaching are sun rays, second best is
Borax bleach . Baking soda is the best choice
when deciding on a cleanser. Comet, Ajax
are out.
Disposable razors are also very hazard¬
ous to the environment. Bamer estimated
that approximately 2 billion razors were
disposed of in a year. An OK choice was to
purchase disposable blades. For the coffee
drinkers, Bamer advised them to purchase a
permanent “gold filter” instead of the dis¬
posable bleached paper filters.
Styrofoam and plastic six pack rings were
definitely on the “boo” side. According to
Bamer 100,000 sea mammals die every year
because they are trapped in these rings.
Bamer’s advice is to be aware of what is
bought. The best choices are high-density
polyethylene plastic bottles, glass and card¬
board. Plastic bottles almost always bear a
number in a triangle sign. One and two
numbers are the best choices because the
city of Pasadena recycles them.
Collen Duffy, an environmentally con¬
cerned student presented a workshop on
composting organic waste. Duffy explained
how a three foot pile of organic waste can be
transformed into fertilized dirt or humus.
According to Duffy, humus is great to use on
plants because it provides the soil with the
ability to hold water. She urged students to
start composting their organic waste as a
means of cutting the 20 million tons of trash
that is dumped in landfills.