OPINION
FEATURES
SPORTS
The campus speaks out about
the media’s coverage of Michael
Jackson.
Page 2
Walter Shatford II , running for Board
of Trustee position in Nov. 2 , talks
about the upcoming election.
Page 5
Volleyball season begins on
Sept. 8 at Cerritos.
Page 6
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
VOL. 77 No. 2
COURIER
Serving the PCC Community for 75 years
THURSDAY
SEPTEMBER 2, 1993
Parking
structure
plans OKd
By ROBERT FALCONE
Staff Writer
PCC’s long awaited plan to
solve its parking problems has
entered the next phase, when at a
trustees meeting it was announced
that the California Office of State
Architect approved the colleges
plan to build a five- level parking
structure to be located at the site
that currently holds parking lot
14, next to the Men’s gym.
“The next phase is to let a
contract out for bidding. That has
been approved by the Board of
Trustees,” said John Robinson,
student trustee. “The process of
collecting bids from contractors
interested in the project should
take approximately six weeks.”
Robinson also made available
notes from the minutes of that
meeting in which trustee mem¬
bers were told they could “begin
the process of securing Certifi¬
cates of Participation (COPs) for
approximately $8 million through
the Office of the County Superin¬
tendent of Schools. The money
will partially fund the construc¬
tion of the college’s new parking
structure.”
The cost of the COPs repre¬
sents the difference between the
amount of money that has already
been raised by the college, and the
Please see BUILDING, Page 6
Library moves to new facility
Checking
out books
History was made this week
when the Shatford Library was
filled with more than 113,000
books and 60,000 periodicals.
Above, a moving company worker
moves a shelf of books to the
new facility. Right,, One of many
people who helped shelving books
and periodicals Tuesday and
Wednesday.
Photos by KATRINA P.
TEN /THE COURIER
By GUADALUPE BERGIN
and ENRICO PIAZZA
Staff Writers
On its last day of operation last
Monday, the old PCC library was
busy as usual, with students crowd¬
ing every available space. Few of
them were aware that it was the last
day on which the 44-year-old facil¬
ity would be used as a library.
On the other hand, very much
aware of the closing was William
Grainger, a retired librarian who
worked 24 years in the building. He
was the director of the library, only
then his title was “college librarian. ”
Nowadays he is a substitute librarian
working on hourly basis and sitting
at the reference desk.
“Of course there is a little bit of
sadness in me after all these years,”
Grainger said. “But it’s also a happy
day because we ’ll go to a new home.”
Grainger said he was particularly
happy to know PCC was moving to
a bigger library because he knew all
along how much the college needed
more space.
Dedicated in 1949, the old build¬
ing was one of the very first in the
nation to be a separate library at a
community college. Until then,
schools just kept their books in class¬
room buildings. The college library
used to be on the second floor of the
C building.
However, despite being built spe¬
cifically to be a library, the building
soon proved to be too small. And
periodically Grainger tried unsuc¬
cessfully to obtain funds to enlarge
it.
“The new building will bring to¬
gether almost all the media of the
campus into a spacious and inviting
setting. Mostly it will be a matter of
more space,” Grainger said.
In a few days, students will have
more than twice the studying space
of the “old” library, but their reac¬
tion to the news of a few days without
a library was met with a mixture of
joy and anger.
“There are always students wait¬
ing outside for this place to open
even before its opening time, and
now they will not have a place to go
for a whole week,” said Lien Van, an
English major. “Everyday before and
between classes I come here and I
don’t know where I’m going to go,”
Van added.
“It’s a good thing that the school
will have a new library with more
computers, better equipment, and
much more space,” said OlgaSalazar,
a dental hygiene major. “Although
not to have a place to do homework
this week is going to be a problem,
yet to think about a new library gives
me a feeling of comfort.”
Business major Omar Baha that
day couldn ’ t go to his f avorite spot to
study, the “quiet and fresh” base¬
ment, he said. The stairs that go
down to it were obstructed by a
wooden ramp that will be used to
move books from the shelves. He
did not like the move on school days.
“This is bad news. Why didn’t
they move it during the weekend? It
would have been easier because the
campus is less crowded,” Baha com¬
plained. Dona Mitoma, college li¬
brarian , said she was very pleased
with the move.
Carpool program 6 A big success,’ campus police say
By RODNEY MITCHELL
Staff Writer
Students who ride together can
now enjoy the luxury of privileged
parking in the new carpool parking
lot for students on lot 4. Students
must be accompanied by at least one
other rider to use the carpool lot, and
violators will be cited, according to
campus police.
The new lot opens at 6:30 a.m.
and closes at 2 p.m. Students must
still display a student parking per¬
mit.
Under community pressure to al¬
leviate the number of student cars on
the city streets, Phillip Mullendore,
director of safety services, said the
carpool program will make a sub¬
stantial impact on the parking prob¬
lem as well as traffic congestions.
He also said that while the new
parking structure is yet to be built
that and the lot on Holliston Avenue
and Green Street will eventually solve
the parking problem. However, the
additional spaces do not address
the problem of one-person one
car.
The South Coast Air Quality Man¬
agement District, a governmental
regulatory agency requires busi¬
nesses to have a ride reduction pro¬
gram for employees only.
However, the SCAQMD in the
near future will be mandating that
schools also implement a ride reduc¬
tion program for students.
Mullendore said the college has an¬
ticipated this action by starting its
own student program.
The carpool program has been a
“huge” success, Mullendore said.
The lot started out with 300 spaces
and filled quickly. It has now been
expanded to 600 spaces, showing the
success of the program.
He said that depending on the
program’s success, every lot on cam¬
pus may be turned into a carpool lot,
perhaps next year.
“A key point to the success of the
carpool program is that students have
a place to park. The long term goal
is to get more passengers in the cars
and fewer cars on campus and in the
community.”
Mullendore said the carpool pro¬
gram is not only good for com munity
relations because it takes cars off the
streets, but students can also benefit
from the program by traveling in
one car and saving money.
“Students can save money, re¬
duce wear and tear on their cars as
well as meet new friends,” he ex¬
plained.
To make carpool arrangements,
students must go to the transporta¬
tion trolley on campus and they will
match the students with someone
living in the same area and with the
same time schedule.
Facts about
carpoolina
Saves students
money by riding
several in one car.
Those who carpool
get parking special
spots on campus.
Enrollment in community
colleges decreases statewide
REGINA PARIS
/
THE COURIER
Monica Morales and Elphen Luu joined Project L.E.A.P. this year.
□ Officials blame the
ailing economy and
higher tuition fees as
student registration
goes down this year.
By ALFREDO SANTANA
Editor In Chief
The ailing state of the economy
and higher fees approved this year
forced many community college stu¬
dents across the state out of the sys¬
tem for the 1993-94 school year,
preliminary results of a survey run
by state college officials revealed.
With three weeks of classes al¬
most completed, officials in Sacra¬
mento as well as at PCC blamed the
$13 per unit fee and the shrinking
work opportunities in California as
the reason for a 12 percent drop in
enrollment statewide.
Trich Robertson from theLeague
of California community colleges, a
group whose efforts heavily influ¬
enced the Legislature to phase in
fees in the two-year colleges, said
that although the figures released by
the system are not official, they re¬
flect a real trend.
“At this point it is too soon to
know for sure the percentage of stu¬
dents who left the system,” said
Robertson. “But we definitely have
less students than last year.”
Chaning Young, a researcher for
the community colleges, said offi¬
cial data regarding students enroll¬
ment will be available in two more
weeks, when a group of three re¬
searchers is scheduled to wrap up a
registration survey ordered by David
Mertes, chancellor of the two-year
institutions in the state.
Last year, 1.5 million students
were registered in the 107 California
community colleges that make up
the largest higher education system
in the world. This year, however,
enrollment is down by more than
180,000 students from September
1992.
As of yesterday at PCC, the num¬
ber of enrolled students was 22,534,
whereas last year at the same time
about 1,000 more students had al¬
ready registered.
The deficit in student enrollment
is intrinsically related to the steep
hike in fees for those students who
hold bachelor’s degrees in the sys¬
tem. Currently set at $50 a unit,
degree holders plunged in the col¬
lege from 1 ,079 last year to 639 in
1993. Statewide figures about these
Please see ENROLLMENT, Page 6
Program
targets
students
at-risk
В у
REGINA PARIS
Staff Writer
Monica Morales might have
been teaching nursery rhymes to
preschoolers, instead of Spanish
to college students if it had not
have been for Project L.E.A.P.
Randy Taylor might still be
stacking boxes in a warehouse
instead of programming comput¬
ers, if it weren’t for Project
L.E.A.P..
Elphen Luu wouldn’t be at¬
tending PCC this fall at all. “I
would have been kicked out by now”
Luu says.
The office just off the student
lounge is a hub of activity. Students
wander in and out looking to talk to
the leader and most popular member
ofProjectL.E.A.P. (Links to Educa¬
tional Achievement & Progress).
Jim Gonzalez, “Godfather” of the
program. “Some just want to say
hello, others to tell me how their
day is going to hell,” Gonzalez
said.
Project L.E.A.P. is one of the
few mentorshipprogramsfor com¬
munity college students who are
on academic probation. The pro¬
gram matches students at risk of
dropping out with a concerned
Please see PROJECT, Page 4
r
