The Only Independent Student Voice of PCC, Serving Pasadena Since 1915 Volume 95, Issue 2
Disabled Forced to
Pay For Parking
Parking commitee
decided that
disabled drivers
are no different
economically than
other drivers
Raul Cabral
Staff writer
Beginning this semester, students
with handicap placards who want
to park on campus must purchase a
semester parking permit for $64.
In the past, the policy had been
to let these students park in campus
lots or structures whether or not
they had a college permit, but, in an
effort to make it fair to all students,
the policy was revised this past
school year.
Lt. Brad Young, who was at
PCC when the decision to charge
disabled students for parking was
implemented, said that this is not
an uncommon practice.
“Before making a decision, we
conducted research on some local
sporting venues, such as the (Los
Angeles Memorial) Coliseum and
the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim,
and discovered that they were
already charging persons with
handicap placards for parking,” he
said.
Lt. Young said that the final deci¬
sion to implement the policy, which
was initiated by the campus admin¬
istration over a year ago, came
because non-placard students were
questioning the rule.
“Students would come up to me
and ask why it was that they had to
pay while handicapped students
did not. They didn’t think it was
fair. And, in the end, I think that it
was a fairness thing.”
He added that those students
that would be affected by the
change were notified beforehand.
“We went around and put notices
on windshields a few months
back,” he said. “Having to pay for
parking will not be a problem for
students who will be starting their
first semester at PCC. They are
accustomed to doing it everywhere
else they go, and it will not be any
different here. The dilemma was
getting those who are coming back
to go along with the change.”
Despite the rule change, howev¬
er, Lt. Young pointed out that vehi¬
cles displaying handicap placards
will still be able to park anywhere
on campus, provided they have a
valid permit.
“They still enjoy the perk of
parking in any of the teacher or stu¬
dent lots on or around campus,
which is nice,” he said.
PCC is not the only campus to
charge students with handicap
placards for parking. In fact, of four
local community colleges surveyed,
only one does not charge its handi¬
capped students for a permit out¬
right.
East Los Angeles College, which
charges $20 for a semester permit,
allows students with handicap plac¬
ards to park in any of the designat¬
ed campus spots, free of charge.
Santa Monica College allows
students with placards who don’t
have a permit to park only in spots
that are designated handicap,
although they have the option of
buying a semester permit for $75
and parking anywhere they choose.
Glendale Community College and
Mount San Antonio College
charge all of its students the same
price to park on campus.
An Unlikely
9/11
Adaptation
Phillip Kim
Staff Writer
Super heroes with incredible pow¬
ers and fight between good and evil,
are concepts that have filled the
pages of comic books for years. The
majority of the people associate
comic books as fantasy. However,
the world of comics has changed
with the publication of The
9/11
Report, A Graphic Adaptation. A
serious matter has been transformed
into comic book form. Last year the
government issued the final com¬
mission report of
9/11.
While the
interest in the findings was high, not
many people would really consider
Picking up and reading a govern¬
ment document? Unfortunately that
means not many Americans will
know the important details about
that day. This new comic book has
been released to depict this event
and the details of the report. This
unlikely adaptation of the
9/11
commission report has been
released for the fifth anniversary of
the event.
Veteran comic book creators Sid
Jacobson, 76 and Ernie Colon, 75
discovered that since the
9/1
1 report
was released by the government, it
falls under public domain. Since
early 2005, the two partners began
transforming the report into an
accessible comic book. This “graph¬
ic adaptation,” as it is officially
titled, is much shorter than the orig¬
inal; 131 illustrated pages as
opposed to 567. The partners spent
16 months working on the book,
with Jacobson providing the text,
and Colon handling the illustra¬
tions.
Although this might seem like an
unprecedented way to depict a trag¬
ic event, the intentions that the cre¬
ators had in mind was to make the
commission report more accessible
to readers and reach a new audience.
The foreword is co-written by the
actual chairman and vice chairman
of the original report, Thomas H.
Kean and Lee H. Hamilton. In a
sense, with their statement, they put
their stamp of approval on it. “Their
Continued on page 2
Soldiers’ Angels
Around the World
Bring Hope and
Healing for Many
Stacey Wang
Staff Writer
People often read or hear on the
news about the horrors of war and
the hardships our soldiers face.
People who hear those stories
would like to help, but they don’t
know what to do.
PCC alumna Patti Patton-Bader
has found a way for thousands of
people to get involved with the war
effort. And she continues to look
for more through the non-profit
organization, Soldiers’ Angels.
It all started when Patton-
Bader’s son Sgt. Brandon Varn was
sent to Iraq. In the summer of
2003, Patton-Bader mailed seven to
eight care packages a week without
realizing that it wasn’t going to be
enough.
However, she didn’t know that
her son would be sharing his sup¬
plies with soldiers that did not
receive packages from home like he
did.
Upon learning this from her son,
Patton-Bader sought the goodwill
of her family, friends, and the
online community. As a result, she
Continued on page 3
PCC Wants YOU
John Avery
Web Editor
One week into the fall registration
period, the number of students
enrolled at PCC was down 20 per¬
cent from the corresponding time in
the previous year.
Stuart Wilcox, dean of institution¬
al planning and research, said he saw
the numbers at the time and thought,
“‘man, this looks bad.’”
Enrollment numbers are serious
business at any community college,
because the state funding formula
depends on the total of full-time
equivalent students (FTES), a figure
that tracks closely with students
enrolled.
Last year colleges statewide,
including PCC, experienced a drop
in FTES, and this summer’s enroll¬
ment tracking had administrators
concerned the pattern would contin¬
ue. Conservatively, PCC has budget¬
ed for no growth this year.
Yet now this year’s third-week cen¬
sus finds 29,145 students enrolled for
an estimated 9,586 FTES, a 3.35 per¬
cent increase over last fall’s census.
If this positive trend holds, PCC
may be in a position to undo some of
the budgetary effects of last year’s
losses. The state allows PCC to
decide this November, if administra¬
tors are feeling lucky, to assign some
of this semester’s increase toward
reversing all or part of last year’s
drop.
As James Albanese, PCC’s new
vice president for administrative
services, explained, “There’s a basic
rule of finance: you never let your
base go down.”
Though week-by-week enrollment
totals lagged behind last year’s for
most of the summer, in August they
surged forward, a pattern not fully
understood.
“The numbers are factually accu¬
rate, but ‘What story do they tell?’ is
the hard part,” Wilcox said. “Maybe
the advertising had some effect.”
Most cable subscribers in the San
Gabriel Valley probably saw the ads,
about 1,500 spots carried by Charter
Media during the last two weeks of
August, on such popular channels as
ESPN, MTV, VH1 and Univision.
Continued on page 3
A DREAM For Illegal
Immigrant Education
Nathan Solis
Ellipsis Editor
Pasadena City College has more
than 3,000 students that receive
financial aid. However, Congress is
debating a new bill that may make,
illegal immigrants part of that
demographic. With the help of the
DREAM Act, illegal immigrants
would have the opportunity to
attend college, receive financial aid
and ultimately become U.S. citizens.
In 2006, the DREAM Act passed
the Senate Judiciary Committee by
a voice vote as an amendment to
comprehensive immigration reform.
By all indications, it should pass
both houses of Congress if brought
up for a vote.
Every year thousands of immi¬
grant students whose parents
brought them here illegally graduate
from high schools in this country.
Many of these students would be
Continued on page 3
