OPINION
SPORTS
Have you thought about
parking lately?
Page 2
Internationally-acclaimed director Endre
Hules to convert the Little Theater into a
surrealist set for the play, “Tales from the
Vienna woods. ” Page 4
Lancer Football team
preparing for new season
starting Sept. 10
Page 5
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
VOL. 80 No. 1
THE
COURIER
Serving the Pasadena Community since 1915
THURSDAY
SEPTEMBER 1, 1994
CARLO BACOR/ THE COURIER
The half completed four level parking structure will offer 2,600 new parking space. Its $9.2 million price tag caused the parking fee hikes.
Parking fees skyrocket
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
Meetings moved
despite opposition
By ADAM SMITH
courier staff writer
Associated Students(AS) voted
yesterday to schedule business meet¬
ings at a time which conflicts with
the schedules of many of the students
they represent. The move was made
over the objections of Steve John¬
son, assistant dean of student affairs,
Rebecca Cobb, student activity ad¬
visor, and Robert Bowman, AS presi¬
dent.
Meetings had been traditionally
scheduled at noon, so students could
attend them during their lunch breaks.
The board voted to begin them at
11a.m. on Monday.
The meetings were moved be¬
cause some members of the AS ex¬
ecutive board registered for early
afternoon classes. Cobb advised all
board members not to register for
classes immediately following AS
business meetings due to the history
of lengthy meetings. Those support¬
ing the move did so because they
were showing up late those classes.
“We need to make sure students
can come to our AS meetings if they
want to,” said Bowman.
“I think the meeting should be
moved. My instructors won’t let me
be late for class,” said Janclle
Gonzales, AS coordinator of campus
activities.”
The dean suggested suspending
lenghty executive board meetings,
and reconvening them later in the
week to complete business. The con¬
cept seemed to gather the necessary
support for passage in discussion,
but lost when the votes were cast.
“I don’t understand,” Roldan
Herrera, AS executive vice presi¬
dent said, “ I thought Dean J ohnson ’ s
idea worked for everyone.”
AS executive board attendance
Please see Meetings, Page 5
Starting Jan. 9, 1995, parking fees to go up to $64 per
per day; evening permits to be eliminated
How PCC slacks up
PCC currently charges the iowest parking fees among
community colleges in L.A. County.
Pasadena
$20.00
Rio Hondo
$22.50
Glendale
$40.00
LACC
$27.00
Pierce
$27.00
Santa Monica
$50.00
The colleges mentioned above say that they have no plans to
raise their fees anytime soon.
Students who overpaid
registration fees to receive
refunds within two weeks
semester or $1
By GILBERT RIVERA
COURIER STAFF WRITER
Parking Ices will be raised from
$20 to $64 in the Spring 1995semes-
ter, the largest fee increase in PCC’s
70 year hisLory. The Board of Trust¬
ees voted 6-1 on Aug. 17 to approve
the 320 percent fee hike, which will
compensate the college for an esti¬
mated $1.78 million in annual park¬
ing expenses.
The fee increase was intensely
debated by the board for more than
an hour. In addition to the parking
fee hike, the board also agreed to
double the cost of the daily parking
permit from 50 cents to $1.
Dr. James Kossler, assistant su¬
perintendent of administrative ser¬
vices, said that the parking fees had
to increase in order to pay for the
college’s annual parking expenses,
an amount that has escalated signifi¬
cantly from last year’s total due to
construction of the new $9.2 million
parking structure.
“Now it’s time to pay the piper,”
said Kossler. “The existing system
does not generate anywhere near
that kind of revenue to pay for the
expenses.”
Revenue from the new system
will consist mainly of student and
staff parking fees, citations and
meters. Although parking fees for
staff and faculty members is cur¬
rently the same as student parking,
they will not have to face the in¬
crease to $64 because it is a matter of
labor negotiations and bargaining.
“The faculty and the classified
staff have bargaining units or labor
unions,” said Mark Wallace, public
relations officer. “To charge any fees
or change anything in the workplace
would have to be negotiated as part
of their contracts. And so far that has
not come up.”
Construction for the multi-level
project, which is scheduled to open
in January, was paid for by a $7.2
million bond issue and $2 million
that the college set aside for the
project. PCC currently has a 20-
year- loan to finance the parking struc¬
ture and will have to pay an esti¬
mated $770,000 in annual payments.
Other expenses include $690,00 in
parking and traffic, $70,000 in sub¬
sidized bus travel, and $250,000 in
shuttleservices and parking lot/equip¬
ment maintenance. “If we realize
that we are generating too much
money from parking, we could re¬
duce the daily permit to 75 cents. I
would be the first to recommend
that,” Kossler said.
He also added, however, that if
the new parking system does not
raise enough money to pay for the
expenses, PCC will again have to
increase the parking fees.
According to Kossler, the college
had explored other alternatives to
building the parking structure, which
Please see Parking, Page 3
By JOSE INOSTROZ
COURIER STAFF WRITER
When political science major,
Peter Cortes discussed his schedule
of classes with friends, he discov¬
ered he had paid $ 1 5 for each of the
14 units he signed up for while his
friends only paid $13.
Cortes, along with those students
who registered by phone the first
week will be receiving a $2 per unit
refund for the excess charges.
According to Dr. James Kossler,
vice president of administrative ser¬
vices, less than 8,000 students were
affected by the increase. Fewer will
be sent beginning next week and no
later than the following week. Stu¬
dents with degrees and foreign stu¬
dents were unaffected.
The administration is working as
hard as it can to get the refunds out as
quickly as possible.
“This has been a very compli¬
cated process but it is being taken
care of,” Kossler said.
The fall schedule of classes men¬
tioned the possibility of a fee in¬
crease from $13 to $20.
However the exact amount was
not known when the schedule went
to press in June bccau sc the go vernor
had not officially approved a fee
increase for the comm unity col leges.
Registration began at PCC before
the governor decided not to raise the
fees. The college had to anticipate a
possible increase, therefore $15 per
unit was charged until a firm fee was
set.
As soon as the college was noti¬
fied that fees would not be raised, the
amount was dropped from $15 to
$13 a unit. Those who sent in their
payments by mail were unaware of
the drop until they received their
printouts and found out they had
overpaid.
Faculty Senate president demands changes for veterans
By ENRICO PIAZZA
COURIER STAFF WRITER
In an emotional speech complete with
exaggerated gestures, Professor Anthony
Georgilas, faculty senate president, loudly
protested the efficiency of the school’s Vet¬
erans’ Services office at the Aug. 17 Board
of Trustees meeting. The speech and com¬
munication pro l essor al so accused Ernestine
Moore, dean of student services, of being
unsympathetic to the needs of veterans on
campus.
Dean Moore responded to the charges by
calling Georgilas’ statements “inaccurate
and very biased.”
Georgilas complained about the cut in
hours for the office and the removal of long¬
time employee Helen Mathias, someone, he
said, “who knows the answers to veterans’
questions and doesn’t just hand out an 800
number.”
He also asked that veterans be given pri¬
ority registration, a privilege, he said, that is
granted to athletes. He also asked for a full
time adviser and a secretary, the same
treatment the school gives to international
students.
In his presentation, Georgilas told the
story of Damien Goodin, a veteran who was
sent over to see a counselor by the new
employee of the veterans’ office. According
to Georgilas, Goodin was sent back and
forth “two or three times” before he got in to
see Dean Moore, who supervises all student
services. Claiming that the new
employee was the cause of the troubles en¬
countered by the student, Georgilas specu¬
lated that her nationality was at the base of
the problem.
He yelled, “Who is this person? This
[position] calls for a specialized person, this
calls for an American.This calls for some¬
body whose family has been in the service,
somebody who knows patriotism , somebody
who knows the GI Bill and just doesn’t hand
out an 800 number!”
With the room in complete silence, he
then told the story of Mr. Cervantes, a vet¬
eran of 13 years who was medically dis¬
charged because his spinal column had fused
together from the construction work he did in
the service. Mimicking his crippled walk in
“102 degree heat,” Georgilas spoke of
Cervantes’ long wait in the office. Accord¬
ing to Georgilas, when he mentioned the
incident to Dean Moore, she replied that
veterans don’t deserve any special treat¬
ment, and “they’re just like any regular
student.”
Georgilas shouted, “We laid our lives on
the line in war and not in war and we’re still
doing it. I believe our veterans deserve bet¬
ter. I believe that they deserve earlier regis¬
tration to get their classes. We do it for other
students, don’t tell me we don’t! Don’t tell
me we don’t do morning classes for football,
baseball and basketball so they have the
afternoons off.” He then repeatedly asked
for the return of Mathias to the veterans’
office.
Although Dean Moore didn’t address the
board, she later defended the the new em¬
ployee.
But what Moore said is beyond her under¬
standing is the criteria used by Georgilas to
judge an employee’s performance.
“I felt that those were very biased state¬
ments. To infer that this employee is not
qualified or patriotic because she is not an
American is unprofessional. It is a negative
statement against all people who are not
Americans. Besides, lots of non-citizens died
while serving this country,” Moore said.
“I also believe that is totally unacceptable
to attack somebody because of their ethnic
background. We do not hire people based on
whether they are citizens or not. As long as
they are legal residents, we judge them by
what they do, not by their nationality. As a
school, we have to be a model for the rest of
the community, and to have people with
different ethnic backgrounds brings strength
to the institution,” Moore said.
For the record, she added that Georgilas’
statements were also incorrect because the
employee in question is an American citi¬
zen.
Moore said that the veterans’ office was
restructured and personnel have been moved
around in order to provide the best service.
“We looked at the best distribution of tasks,”
Moore said. She added that some of the
problems veterans are experiencing are
caused by the tightening of regulations by
the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).
She said giving out the 800 number is not an
Dean Moore Prof. Georgilas
uncommon thing to do, but it is the best way
to put students in direct contact with the
agency so they can have specific answers.
“The VA office is requiring a lot more
accountability. For example, students used
to be able to choose all the classes they
wanted and be in school almost indefinitely,
but now all students need to have an educa¬
tional plan in order to receive their benefits,”
Moore said.
She added that is a lengthy process, but
that the idea of one counselor solely dedi¬
cated to veterans is not a functional one. “Just
one counselor dedicated to veterans will not
work because some students can come to
school only in the morning, others only in the
Please see VETERANS, Page 3