PCC Courier, October 31, 1991

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.