Burning the
, Red, White
and Blue
. see page 2
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Halloween
Fashion
_S 'M Ideas
see page 5
Lancers scale
Mt. SAC,
see page 6
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COURIER
Since 1915
VOL. 87 NO. 9
www.pcc-courieronIine.com
OCTOBER 25, 2001
Bookstore Theft
PCC student charged with five counts of burglary for steal-
. ing books and selling them back to Book Mart of Pasadena
By Bethany Johnson
Managing Editor
A PCC student was arrested and
charged with five counts of burgla¬
ry after PCC’s bookstore manager
reported to campus police that an
employee of Book Mart of
Pasadena called him to say that
they may have been buying stolen
books.
The student, Rene Ramirez,
was caught on surveillance cam¬
eras walking out of the PCC book¬
store with textbooks. He then sold
them immediately to the Book
Mart of Pasadena for cash, accord¬
ing to Lt. Brad Young of the cam¬
pus police.
Young said that while the book¬
store had been noticing shrinkage
in inventory since August, no
report was made to campus police
until Coleen Brophy, the manager
of the Book Mart of Pasadena,
came forward. She called Doug
Ferris, the manager of PCC’s
On Campus
High
Risk
Youth
By David DM Coutant
Web Editor
Do you know what it’s like
to wake up in the street? Do
you know how it feels to do it
three, six, nine months in a
row? Can you imagine not eat¬
ing for days, never knowing
when or from where your next
meal will come? Now imagine
living that way when you’re 14.
The people of the High Risk
Youth, Program don’t need to
imagine it. They see kids
between the ages of 12 and 24
living on the streets of
Hollywood, going hungry, turn¬
ing to drugs and prostitution,
sleeping in doorways and aban¬
doned buildings, and putting
their health and lives at risk
daily.
Dr. Nikolaos Stefanidis, pro¬
gram director and supervising
psychologist at the Children’s
Hospital Los Angeles Spoke on
how these kids end up on the
street at Monday’s event, put on
by PCC’s Psychology Club.
“Classified as runaways or
‘throwaways,’ they are thrown
out of their homes for many dif¬
ferent reasons,” said S.tefanidis.
“These kids are thrown out of
their homes because of school,
their friends, their sexual iden¬
tities,” The program started
around 1988 and covers three
main boulevards in the
Hollywood area. Hollywood
Boulevard and Melrose Avenue
see a lot of young women pros¬
tituting themselves, while Santa
Monica Boulevard is host to
many male prostitutes.
“There are anywhere from
six to eight thousand youths on
the streets every night,”
® see KIDS, page 3
Bookstore, and told him the sus¬
pect had been selling stolen books
to her.
When the report was made,
Ferris told police that he had
noticed missing inventory from as
far back as August. When the
police referred to old surveillance
tapes, they were able to find five
instances of Ramirez robbing the
store.
After Ferris was notified that
textbooks from PCC were sold to
the Book Mart of Pasadena, he
went across the street and bought
the books back.
“They pay wholesale prices for
textbooks,” said Ferris. “That’s 20
to 30 percent, or less, of the origi¬
nal cost. They were willing to sell
the books back to me at that price
because it was the best way to
diminish our loses.” He said the
bookstore will save money by sell¬
ing the books at their original cost
next semester.
Brophy provided campus
police with the buy-back slips
signed by the suspect at the Book
Mart. He signed two of the five
slips under the name David
Oliverez, an alias the suspect
admitted to using.
“I don’t know why they finally
called,” Young said. “What I
found bizarre was that they were
buying these books. They have a
history of buying books from our
bad guy that any prudent person
would know was stolen.”
According to the police report,
Monique Minor, a bookstore
cashier, told campus police that
she witnessed Ramirez stealing
books on Sept. 26. When he
walked around the counter with
several books under his arm, she
asked him if he was going to pay
for the books. He told her no and
exited the store.
No report was filed at the time.
“I may have made a mistake,”
Ferris said. “I didn’t look at the
® see Theft, page 3
Alexandre Spiridonov/Courier
Health Services is administering flu shots to help
fight the illness this season. Shots are available
today and tomorrow on the first floor of the U
Building. No appointment is necessary, but sup¬
plies are limited so don’t delay, get yours today!
Student Works on Mars Odyssey
Courtesy of NASA
Artist’s rendition of Mars Odyssey entering the
Martian atmosphere Oct. 23, 2001 at 7:30 p.m.
By Aaron Harris
Staff Writer
NASA’s Mars Odyssey space¬
craft successfully entered its orbit
around Mars on October 23, at
approximately 7:30 p.m. PST, after
a six-month journey that began in
April of this year. The orbiter is the
fourth in a series of unmanned
spacecraft to have made the 93
million mile trek to study the red
planet.
The mission’s success was
mainly due to the hard work of
NASA and Jet Propulsion Lab
(JPL) scientists along with a little
help from a student and a professor
from PCC.
Erik Pounders is one of PCC’s
“best and brightest” science stu¬
dents, double majoring in geology
and mechanical engineering. He
works part time at Caltech answer¬
ing e-mail inquiries for NASA and
JPL about the Mars Odyssey proj¬
ect.
Pounders showed his expertise
on the subject as he explained
what the mission was about. He
said, “The orbiters two year mis¬
sion will be to send back scientific
data about the surface of the plan¬
et. The information NASA hopes
to gather will concentrate on three
different areas.
The study will focus on radia¬
tion around the planet, the chemi¬
cal composition of the first meter
of Martian soil and the mineralogy
of the surface.”
“All of the information we get
back will not only assist in learn¬
ing more about the make-up of
Mars, but it will also help in pro¬
viding a better idea of what astro¬
nauts might face when they take
their first steps on the Martian sur¬
face,” he added.
Pounders got involved with the
Mars Odyssey through the VESTA
program which was co-founded in
1997 by Betty Schulz, head of
Media Affairs at JPL, and Scpikas,
during the Mars Pathfinder mis¬
sion.
# see Mars, page 3
Bias in Selection
Process Debated
Discussion “beats a dead horse” over ongoing controver¬
sy surrounding selection of newest AS board member
By Erin Ashby
Staff Writer
The AS held a special two-
hour meeting last week allowing
students to air their concerns
regarding allegations of bias and
a conflict of interest in the selec¬
tion committee that elected new
board member, Danielle
Marquez. Some requested that
action be taken on the issue while
other AS members and audience
members claimed that ongoing
the discussion was “beating a
dead horse”.
The controversy revolves
around Andrey Fong, AS student
trustee and chair of the selection
committee, who was accused of
showing bias toward Marquez,
with whom he is romantically
involved. Fong began the discus¬
sion by making a statement
defending his actions as the
selection committee chair.
“There was no bias or
favoritism shown toward any
candidate. I am able to separate
my personal life from my busi¬
ness life. Every act 1 took was
taken in a professional manner,”
Fong said. He named qualities
the committee had sought in a
candidate such as communication
skills and an ability to handle
conflict. He described Marquez
as the best qualified candidate in
that respect. Fong also encour¬
aged Richard Me Cutcheon, chief
justice of the supreme council, to
fully investigate the selection
committee’s actions.
Gabriel Gayhart, vice presi¬
dent for business affairs, stood by
Fong and called him “a man of
his word and a man of integrity.”
“When you question that
integrity and that voice, you
question the people he speaks
for,” said Gayheart.
Following the board mem¬
ber’s statements, Eric Wang, a
former candidate for vice presi¬
dent of student services who lost
to Marquez passed out the quali¬
fications he brought to his inter¬
view with the selection commit¬
tee. Wang also requested a list of
Marquez’s qualifications in
response. During the proceed¬
ings Marquez remained silent
and did not comment as to
whether she would grant Wang’s
request.
Wang said, “After hearing the
statements from Andrey and
Gabe, I no longer question the
selection committee’s integrity,
but I do question Danielle’s
[Marquez] interview.”
Wang also asked for a tape of
the committee’s interviews.
Ш
see BIAS, page 3
The Plight of PCC's
Disabled Students
Nancy Roback
Special to the Courier
The writer was a speaker at the
Disability Awareness Forum host¬
ed by the Helping Hands Club,
last week. She has written a first
person account about the difficul¬
ties she encountered on campus
during the year she used a wheel¬
chair and crutches. The staff she
refers to should not be assumed to
be staff or faculty of the science
department unless specifically
stated.
She wants to emphasize that she
is speaking from her experience as
a science major who does not have
extensive knowledge of any other
departments. There are many staff
and faculty members in the science
department that have been enor¬
mously helpful.
I wanted to take a chem¬
istry lab class in the U building
while I was using a wheelchair. I
was told that the school had a
lower table to accommodate
wheelchairs. I thought that was
wonderful and asked, “How do I
get the bottles off the shelf?” I was
l
told the school docs not supply
assistance to students in my situa¬
tion, that I could not bring in a
friend to help me for insurance rea¬
sons, I should not distract class¬
mates from their work by asking
them for help, and assisting me
was not part of my teacher’s job
description. 1 was told I should
interview all the chemistry teach¬
ers and see who was the “friend¬
liest,” maybe she or he would be
kind enough to help me.
I then asked about taking
a physics class in the E building.
Knowing that the main elevator in
the U building is out of order
approximately every other week, I
asked what would happen when
the one and only elevator in the E
building was out of order. I was
told, “then you miss class.” But
what if 1 have a lab, a test, or a
final?
When I did enroll in
classes in the U building, the ele¬
vator continued its tradition of
breaking down constantly. The
school’s back-up plan is to have
students use the elevator behind
# see DISABILITY, page 4