OPINION
FEATURES
SPORTS
Skinheads
Local protest popularizes
racism Page 2
‘Rashomon’
Bruce GiU and his student actors
turn in impressive performances
Page 5
Footbrawl
Melee follows Lancers * 31- 29
victory Page 7
Pasadena City College
Pasadena, California
Vol. 73 No. 7
COURIER
Thursday
October 31, 1991
Cultural diversity
targeted in classes
□ Project strives for the
transformation of all cur¬
ricula to fit the needs of
the culturally diverse stu¬
dent population.
By AMOR PADILLA
Editor in Chief
In an attempt to address the needs of the
growing, culturally diverse student popula¬
tion, a group of 1 1 faculty members under¬
went the task of integrating culture awareness
and gender sensitivity into their curricula.
Co-coordinated by Susie Ling, assistant
professor of social sciences, and Mel Donal-
son, associate professor of English, the group
of professors participated in what is called the
“curriculum integration project.” Its primary
goal was the transformation of curricula to
include less sexist, less racist language as well
as the inclusion of modified teaching strate¬
gies that will promote learning and participa¬
tion by women and minorities.
Ling strongly believes that the change in
PCC’s demographics should be addressed for
the betterment of the college. “Excellence has
to come from both ways. We have to address
the students’ needs, if the students are di¬
verse, we must address this diversity,” she
said.
The group of 11 professors represented
various disciplines such as English, Spanish,
political science, sociology, history, psychol¬
ogy even math and geology. The group is now
in the third stage of the project which is the
actual implementation of the changes in
the classroom. Ling explained that stu¬
dents are not being told of the changes to
avoid prejudices. “We want them to think
it’s normal and that that’s the way the class
is always taught,” she said.
To monitor and measure the success of
the program a before and after “blind
study” will be performed. Students will be
surveyed on their opinions of the class,
before and after the curriculum integra¬
tion.
During the project development pe¬
riod, the professors met regularly with
experts on curriculum integration from
UCLA, CSULA, Occidental College and
Rio Hondo.
According to Ling the exchange ideas,
teaching experiences and the insight into
other disciplines was one of the learning
experiences that resulted from the proj¬
ect.
Dave Douglas, assistant professor of
physical science, participated in the origi¬
nal group. One of the classes he teaches is
geology, a discipline, to some, very es¬
tranged from the cultural diversity con¬
cept Douglas was the only representative
of the physical sciences department to
participate in the curriculum integration
project and he confesses it was an arduous
task. “It was a fascinating program. We
dealt with a lot of new ideas regarding the
different learning styles of different cul-
Please see Integration page 8
A visit to the pumpkin patch
Left: Venus Partida meets up with
a pumpkin just the right size as
she prepares for Halloween.
Bottom: Everything is set to make
your Halloween complete- Jack-o-
lantems, spiders, cobwebs and
Indian com are traditional main¬
stays for the haunting season.
Photo by Lupe Montalvo/ The COURIER
Photo by Howard Burger/ The COURIER
Cross Cultural Center working on new rules
Photo by Howard Burger/ The COURIER
Cross Cultural Center’s furniture, located in the campus center hallway is a fire hazard. Relocation of the furniture has been
haulted pending the approval of proposed regulations which will mandate the participation of club members in the clean up.
Telephone registration
By Michael Rhodes
Staff Writer
A new computer terminal that will
enable students to register by phone may be
on line and operational by summer ’92.
Students will call the computer by
phone and speak with a computer gener¬
ated voice that will ask for a student
identification number or a social security
number, and then a class section number.
Although the specifics of the phone transac¬
tion have not yet been finalized, it should be
as simple as that.
“It makes the telephone emulate a com¬
puter terminal”, explains Dr. Stuart Wilcox,
assistant dean of admissions and spokes¬
man for the new system.” We are
currently setting up programming, and
trying to decide on a certain set of rules,
such as should they (students) be able to
pay with a credit card or should it be open
24 hours, etc.”
Although the new equipment was
purchased for close to $100,000 Wilcox
is optimistic. “We anticipate to recover
our costs” he said . “We spend $1,000 a
day for registration now, not including
cashiers.”
Lainie Hartwig, a 21 year old student
at Citrus College, has used a similar
method of phone registration there. She is
set for 4 92
pleased with the system, “It’s a lot easier,”
she said. “The biggest hassle is redialing
the phone.”
Dr. Wilcox was also enthusiastic. “You
could register from work,” he said, “and
because it will be on line, the student gets
immediate feedback.”
Although the new system has left many
questions unanswered it looks as though
PCC students will be able to phone in their
registration from any touch-tone phone,
from whereever they may be. A new scan-
tron enrollment application is also being
worked on. The application will allow faster
input of student infromation to the com¬
puter.
□ Coordinator waits for
approval of new
stipulations designed to
regulate the use of the
Cross Cultural Center.
By Guadalupe Bergin
Staff writer
The doors to the Cross Cultural Center
(CCC) have been closed since last summer
due to the misuse of the facility by different
clubs members. According to CCC coordi¬
nator Cayndis Berhane various clubs were
not making correct use of the Cross Cul¬
tural Center.
Originally, CCC was created as center
were cultural clubs could get the office
space they needed. Part of the problem was
that non-cultural clubs were also using the
facilities.
“The Cross Cultural Center needs to
be reorganized so, that it will be used by
cross cultural clubs.” Berhane said. Right
now the cultural clubs are working on the
Inter Club Council to create involvemnent.
Berhane wants club members to have
pride when using the center. “Last year
they did not have any pride, they left it
dirty, they stored things in there, they did
all kinds of stuff in there” she added. We
worked on a whole new set of standards
over the summer and we are still working
on them now.”
CCC will have its own cross cultural
committee later this year and its members
will be representatives of clubs elected by
students. “To do this we need student par¬
ticipation,” Berhane said.The committee
will be in charge of maintainig CCC’s
standards and rules.
JorgeComejo vice-president of AS said,
“CCC has been closed since sum mer and I
do not why. She (Cayndis Berhane) is sup¬
posed to manage that. She has been wait¬
ing for somebody else to clean it, she wants
ICC to clean it. It has been two months and
nothing has happened yet.
According to Cornejo, Berhane has not
proposed anything to ICC, “she has not met
with me and we are not going to take any
position regarding CCC. ICC has not re¬
ceived any proposals from them” Cornejo
said.
Berhane states that she asked ICC for its
help to clean the Cross Cultural Center at two
separate ICC meetings Sept. 27 and Oct. 11.
Jorge Cornejo presided over the two meet¬
ings, she said.
CCC is located on the second floor of
Campus Center. The hallways that run in
front of the center are occupied by CCC’s fur¬
niture, desks, file cabinets and other office
supplies that create a fire hazard.
Furniture was placed there pending the
final approval of the proposed rules.
Rebbeca Cobbs, student activities adivser
says that CCC will undergo major reorgani¬
zation. “The Cross Cultural Center is going
to be reorganized and we want all the clubs
that belonged to it in the past to come and
help take out the things they no longer need,
clean out the desks and chairs that tire broken .
We are waiting for people,” she stated.
Cobbs wants to promote a sense of respon¬
sibility in the students. “If it is going to be a
student center, I think students have to have
some sort of ownership of it and what hap¬
pens to it,” she said.
“We want to clarify the reasons why we
have the Cross Cultural Center. There arc
written proposals, but it is different when you
put things into action' Words are very differ¬
ent. You say you have these guidelines but
people don’t follow the guidelines” Cobbs
said.
“We have talked about CCC reorganiza¬
tion,” said Alvar Kauti, associate dean of
student activities. “ But we are talking about
money limitations. Sometimes PCC has
bought things that have not been used. Kauti
is concerned about the number of times stu¬
dents ask for new furniture. “I would like to
know if the furniture that is going to be
bought will be used adequately. If the Cross
Cultural Center asks to buy furniture and the
next semester they ask again and the next
time again, we are talking about money in the
sense of dollars,” he stated.