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Pasadena City College
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Volume 104, ISsue 7
The independent student voice of PCC. Serving Pasadena Since 1915.
October 13, 2011
DREAM Act signing feted
New law allows aid for illegal immigrants
Luis Orellana
Staff Writer
The signing of the California
DREAM Act into law on Saturday
was welcomed and celebrated at a
news conference in front of the C
Building near the Mirror Pools
later that day.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 131,
which allows undocumented stu¬
dents to apply for Cal grants and
state financial aid and joins AB
130, a law that allows illegal immi¬
grant students to receive financial
aid from private sources. The two
laws make up the DREAM Act.
For the Coalition to Defend
Affirmative Action, Integration
and Immigrant Rights and Fight
for Equality By Any Means
Necessary it's been a long fought
victory.
"This is a tremendous victory
for our movement [and] for every
single undocumented student who
had the courage to come out [in]
their community and say that they
are undocumented and that they
[will] no longer stand unequal
conditions in our society," said
BAMN member and PCC student
Jose Alvarenga.
The primarily student and
youth led BAMN was born out of
the immigrant rights movement in
2006.
Community organizing, march¬
es, rallies, walkouts and other
mass actions led to this victory,
they said.
"Going to college is a dream that
promises intellectual excitement
and creative thinking. The Dream
Continued on page 9
Protesting ' corporate greed '
Louis C. Cheung
/
Courier
An anti-corporate sign hangs by the camp next to Los Angeles City Hall during the Occupy Los Angeles event on Saturday.
PCC students join Occupy LA event
Jessi Alva
Staff Writer
Hundreds of demonstra¬
tors including PCC students
have been camping out in
front of Los Angeles City Hall
for weeks to protest against
the issues in a demonstration
called Occupy Los Angeles.
Students and other protes¬
tors, who refer to themselves
as Occupy Los Angeles, gath¬
ered together at Pershing
Square on Oct. 1 to join the
cause of Occupy Wall Street,
another sector of an ongoing
protest currently going on in
New York. The protesters
began marching toward City
Hall from Pershing Square at
about 10 a.m. and were
accompanied by Los Angeles
police officers that briefly
stopped traffic at intersections
for the marchers. Police were
cooperative as campers set
their tents on the sidewalk
just outside City Hall. Tents
where food, medical supplies
and other miscellaneous
items can be donated have
been set up around city hall.
"I have been so frustrated
that the 99 percent which is
the working class, have to pay
taxes and yet huge corpora¬
tions don't? A huge share of
the nation's economic growth
Continued on page 9
New law improves access to college records
LAURA-ANNE ROWELL
AND SARA MEDINA
Staff Writers
A new state law named in honor of for¬
mer PCC Professor and open govern¬
ment activist Richard McKee was signed
by California Gov. Jerry Brown and will
make college records more accessible to
the general public.
"Richard McKee was a champion of
the Brown Act and transparency in pub¬
lic agency business," said PCC President
Mark Rocha. "He was deeply principled
and very effective in leading colleges,
including PCC, to understand their pub¬
lic disclosure commitments."
McKee, a former chemistry professor
who passed away earlier this year, had
been an activist for transparency in gov¬
ernment at all levels since the early
1990s. He lectured at over 100 agencies
on the requirements of the Brown Act
(the state's open meetings law) and
California Public Records Act and was
the founding president of California
Aware, an organization that focuses on
educating the public on its rights to open
government.
Continued on page 3
New arts
building
progresses
Neil Protacio
Staff Writer
The Center for the Arts Building is rising above the
campus and is 25 percent complete, according to
Measure P Director Jack Schulman.
Though the new building has started to take shape,
recent rain, according to Vice President of
Administrative Services Rick van Pelt, has caused the
project to lose time.
Van Pelt reports in an e-mail that the building is
expected to be completed on Dec. 15, 2012; however,
the completion has become dependent on the weath¬
er.
"Until the building is 'rain-proofed,' we are very
much at the mercy of Mother Nature," van Pelt said.
Despite weather obstacles, Schulman maintains
that the building is still well on its way towards meet¬
ing the deadline.
"The project is moving along nicely and as with all
construction, we have issues and hurdles that we deal
with on a daily basis," Schulman said. "Nothing
major and nothing out of the ordinary for a construc¬
tion project this size."
The new Center for the Arts Building will house
classes from the Visual Arts and Media Studies divi¬
sion and the Performing Arts and Communication
division, said Schulman. The school website also cites
that the 62,000 square foot facility will hold the art
Continued on page 9
The Center
for the Arts
Building
is now
about 25
percent
complete.
Megan
Carrillo
/
Courier
Speak out!
Do you support the
goals of Occupy LA?
vote at
pccCourier.com
Picturing the Bomb
New gallery exhibition
shows images of
Manhattan Project
Page
10»
100th anniversary
Women's suffrage
celebrated with "One
Woman Show"
Page
2»