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VOL. 86 NO. 9
www. p cc-courieronline. com
October 19, 2000
Briefly
Ш
Music concerts
The Association of
Fingerstyle Guitarists
will be presenting a
concert on Friday, Oct.
27 in Harbeson Hall,
which features Tommy
Emmanuel, cgp.
Emmanuel performed
in the closing cere¬
monies of the Sydney
2000 Summer
Olympics. Over the
course of his career, he
has had four platinum
and three gold records.
The doors will open at
7:30 p.m. and tickets
are $15. You can buy
them exclusively at
Southern California
Tickets located on 1487
East Colorado Blvd.
Ш
WebExtra
Log on to www.pcc-courieron-
line.com for our extended
coverage of the “Week Without
Violence” events taking place
this week. Maybe you’re look¬
ing to connect with other PCC
students online. Check out
the “Courier” message board at
www.pcc-courieronline.com
and make yourself heard. If
speaking out isn’t your cup of
tea, take our weekly “Courier”
web poll.
Facilities says it can’t
enforce smoke ban
Soup kitchen puts
heat on college
for pay increase
By Tim Alves
Editor In Chief
Who says there’s no such thing
as a free lunch?
Wearing tattered cardboard
signs reading “Will Work For A
Decent Raise” and “Spare Change
For The District,” faculty and
staff dished out bowls of hot
chicken noodle soup to “impov¬
erished” colleagues in a high-pro¬
file pay-raise protest on the steps
of the E Building.
The so-called “Solidarity Soup
Kitchen” on Oct. 18 was intended
to illustrate college employees’
frustration at what they term an
unsatisfactory and unlivable
salary increase and the district’s
contention that there is not
enough money to meet the pay
demands.
“So far I’ve raised 45 cents, but
I think I’ll give it to the district
because they claim jhey’re so
poor,” said Sue Talbot, publica¬
tions editor in the college’s public
relations office.
Conceived by instructors in
the geology department, the
hour-long soup kitchen protest
attracted about 50 employees and
about 30 curious students.
“It’s too bad these teachers
have to take time out of their day
and away from class to come out
here and beg for a pay raise. This
college has a ton of money; they
should appreciate their workers
and pay them a fair amount,” said
David Wayne, student.
The daytime demonstration
follows the impasse the college
and two of its unions declared in
their contract negotiations,
paving the way for state-appoint¬
ed mediators to look into the
deadlock.
Two of the college’s four
unions, the Instructional Support
Services Unit (ISSU) and the
California Teachers Association
(СТА)
rejected the district’s Sept.
26 final offer of 6 percent, a full
percent over its first offer.
Faculty and staff say they are
angry at what they call a slap-in-
the-face amount; however, they
say they don’t know who to be
angry with.
“We still don’t know who’s
calling the shots, Dr. Kossler or
the board of trustees. We’re not
sure what it’s going to take to get
through to them,” said Talbot.
The Courier
The long-simmering dispute with the college over raises boiled over Tuesday.
However, many faculty and
staff say the administration is
playing a shell game with them.
“This won’t make up for the
years Mt. SAC was giving raises
when we here at PCC remained at
the same levels because of tight
times,” said Talbot.
For its part, the college says it
consistently puts 87 percent of its
annual budget toward employee
salaries and benefits and says
using Partnership For Excellence
(PFE) funds is not an alternative.
A memo from the district’s nego¬
tiating team says that the college
does not include PFE money in
its base revenue because the state
could eventually rescind the
money.
Health and Safety Committee is
seeking to expand the distance
to 20 feet.
Even if the board approves
the proposal, some don’t think
it will make any difference.
Several students say that there
will still be people smoking,
just not as openly as before.
“Right now the policy says
that nobody can smoke five feet
from a building entrance. But if
you walk by any building, you
can see people standing right in
front of the door, puffing smoke
into people’s faces,” said Jeremy
Hogan, student.
About 3,000 non-smoking
adults die each year from sec¬
ondhand smoke. It also causes
many respiratory problems,
ranging from coughing to
reduced lung function.
Although some students
seem unfazed by the possibility
Smoke, page 3
issue of expanding the current
policy. All 25 members who
were present voted against
changing the policy. Of those
25, 95 percent of them were
non-smokers.
In order for this new policy
to work, red lines would have
to be painted and marked so
that a designated smoking area
could be established. This
would be too time consuming
and would take up additional
manpower.
However, Blanton does think
that the proposal would make
non-smokers more comfortable
because they don’t have to walk
through clouds of smoke as
they enter buildings.
Nevertheless, he believes that
smokers have a right to smoke,
because “it’s their lungs.”
Currently, state law prohibits
smoking in buildings and with¬
in five feet of a main entrance
or an exit. However, the campus
By Afni Adnan
News Editor
Photo Illustration By Curtis Gregory
Facilities may not be blowing smoke when it says it won’t enforce a new ban.
Now that the board of
trustees might approve a new
smoking policy for the campus,
many are either objecting to the
proposal or supporting it.
However, maintenance workers,
the people who are supposed to
help implement it, are taking a
stand and refusing to enforce
the new policy.
Jerold Blanton, president of
the California School
Employees Association Chapter
77, said that the new policy
would just be too hard to
enforce.
“Not everyone has the depth
perception needed to judge
what 20 feet from a building
would be,” he said.
The CSEA, which represents
the facilities, custodians,
grounds and trades workers,
had a meeting to discuss the
Week without violence puts focus on
awareness of abusive relationships
Campus groups get together to talk about prevention and empowerment for victims
Katarina Lindell
Courier Contributor
She may be short in stature,
but Carrie Afuso stands tall
behind the annual Week
Without Violence now taking
place at PCC. Fed up with
abuse on and off campus, the
director of the Cross-Cultural
Center believes the anti-vio¬
lence messages that will be seen
and heard throughout the week
will make an impact on stu¬
dents’ lives.
“This whole week is about
confronting our fears and
telling ourselves that we are not
going to tolerate violence.”
As the coordinator of the
project, Afuso hesitantly agreed
to be interviewed and if she had
her way, she would not be pho¬
tographed at all. It is the stu¬
dents working on the project
and the anti-violence message
that should be in focus; not her,
she explains. But Afuso
deserves to be portrayed.
Having worked at the Cross-
Cultural Center for the past
seven years, Afuso has been part
of arranging the annual Week
Without Violence on the cam¬
pus for the past five years.
Although violence on campus is
relative¬
ly rare,
she can
still
recall a
number
of vio¬
lent acts
that
have
taken
place on
and near the campus during the
past few years.
“1 don’t know statistics, but I
do know that students have
been victims of child abuse, rob¬
bery, and gang violence. There
was an attempted rape in the
К
building a couple years ago, and
one across the street. Last year,
there was a rape down the street
and I have heard about a PCC
student who was shot.”
Afuso looks sad as she recalls
another victim of violence, a
victim she knew.
“We had an intern here at the
CC building a few years ago. He
was always smiling and willing
to help, a
bubbly per¬
son. He left
PCC for
UCLA, and
one night he
was at a
restaurant
that was
being robbed.
The robbers
shot him to
death. When we found out, we
were shocked.”
Remembering more victims
of violence, Afuso sighs: “Gosh,
1 hear about stuff like that all
the time.”
But physical abuse, she
points out, is not the only form
of violence taking place on cam¬
pus and in the community.
“There has been a lot of gay¬
bashing on campus. The Gay
and Lesbian Students Union’s
posters are constantly being
ripped down or having hate
messages written on them.”
She sounds frustrated as she
brings to mind the most recent
ones: “God Hates You,” and
“Faggots.”
Besides physical and verbal
abuse, violence also includes
child abuse, domestic violence,
and sexual harassment. And
violence, says Afuso, begets vio¬
lence.
“A child from an abusive
family may bring violence to
school.”
The goal of project Week
Without Violence is simply to
have awareness beget aware¬
ness.
“With 28,000 students at
PCC, the campus is a big part of
the Pasadena community. If
seeds are planted now, students
who go off to different commu¬
nities will take the message with
them and share.”
“Victims of violence need to
know that they are not alone.”
“Victims of violence need to
know that they are not alone.”
Carrie Afuso,
director of the Cross Cultural Center
The MTA offers five days
of free trips for riders
By Derek Blackway
Staff Writer
After a 32-day labor strike,
the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority buses started rolling
Wednesday morning, alleviating
the major stress that severely
impacted PCC students who rely
on buses to get to class.
In addition to just getting
buses back on the road, the MTA
is offering an olive branch to rid¬
ers in the form of five days of
free bus rides.
With help from the Rev. Jesse
Jackson, a 24-hour marathon
negotiating session ended
Tuesday morning breaking the
third-longest transit strike in the
history of Los Angeles.
The MTA board unanimously
approved the contract that was
ratified by 92 percent of the
members of the United
Transportation Union Tuesday
night.
Tired bus drivers who were
hungry for paychecks welcomed
the settlement.
“I want to go to work. I lost
some money there and I’m happy
about the deal,” said Leonid
Derbarmdiker, a bus driver.
The MTA directors originally
wanted to save $23 million, and
this deal allowed them to achieve
that goal.
“It looks like people are
happy,” said PCC cadet Adriana
Buenrostro, who helps run the
Transportation Trolley outside
the C Building.
PCC student Sergio
Hermosillo is glad that the «trike
is over. He relies on the 267 to
get him home after school. Since
the strike began, he had to wait
two-and-a-half hours before his
mother could pick him up to
take him home.
Other PCC students com¬
mented that even though they
usually take the bus, they did
not really care about the strike
being over.
Many felt the strike was
pointless and nothing was
proved.
The three year contract calls
for wages for the highest paid
employees to increase from
$20.72 hourly to a maximum
$22.50.
The offer of a four-day work
week consisting of 10-hour days
will be extended to an extra 55
drivers.
The free rides on the MTA
buses, “Started yesterday and will
run through Sunday,” said
Toshiko Brown, the clerk in
charge of the sale of bus passes
at the student bank.
(