Pasadena City College
Serving PCC
Since 1915
I
SEPTEMBER 17, 2015
VOLUME1 12
ISSUE 2
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM
Katja Liebing/Courier
Newly appointed Superintendent-President Rajen Vurdien in the halls of the C building on Sept. 4.
Meet PCC’s new president
Kristen Luna
Editor-in-Chief
One day while sitting in the doctor’s office, a
young Mauritian boy who had yet to visit Ameri¬
ca picked up a National Geographic magazine to
occupy his time. While flipping through the pages,
the boy saw a photo of an expansive beach located
in Oregon with a couple riding horses and thought
to himself, “One day I will go there.”
Dr. Rajen Vurdien, 62, is our newly appointed
Superintendent/President. Born and raised on the
small African island of Mauritius, he dreamed of
coming to the United States and through hard work
and much success, he made his dream come true.
It all started in 1971, when 18-year-old Vurdien
embarked on a journey that very few locals had
made before. One of 12 students awarded a schol¬
arship from the French government, Vurdien made
the move from Mauritius to France in hopes of
achieving academic success.
“It was a great experience,” Vurdien said. “I was
kind of lost and in a completely different world.”
At that time, with roughly 600,000 citizens, Mau¬
ritius was still controlled by Britain and for most
locals education was not easily achievable.
“When I was growing up, education was only free
up to the end of sixth grade and after that it’s over;
you’d go to work,” Vurdien said. “And the only
reason why I could go to high school was because
I got a scholarship. If I didn’t get a scholarship, it
would’ve been very difficult.”
“If you had a tenth grade education you could
become a teacher,” Vurdien added. “Very few would
make it to the twelfth grade and those that graduat¬
ed from high school would have very good jobs in
government.”
While in France, Vurdien completed both a bach¬
elor’s and master’s degree in art from the University
of Upper Brittany in Rennes, France. He returned
to Mauritius in 1975 with the goal of bringing all he
had learned back to the island.
“I thought I could do a lot of good by working
with students,” Vurdien said. “I wanted to help
prepare the next generation of students because
education was not easy on the island.”
In 1 968, the island had become independent and
according to Vurdien, “life had changed complete¬
ly”
“The island was able to develop itself, promote
tourism,” Vurdien said. “Now the island is one
of the richest islands on that part of Africa, it’s
the most intellectually advanced island. They have
colleges and universities.”
Vurdien received his postgraduate certificate in
education from the Mauritius Institute of Education
and immediately put his skills to use.
In 1982, after seven years of teaching on the
island, Vurdien moved to China to volunteer for the
United Nations and after two years he was running
the United Nations development program.
With all the diverse academic success Vurdien
accomplished, he has developed a broader under¬
standing of education as a whole.
“The profession of teaching itself is seen differ¬
ently in different parts of the world,” Vurdien said.
“Each college is unique ... it has its own culture, it
has its own governance system. Having been at all
those places I feel that I have been enriched by each
individual experience.”
“I would love for people to have an opportunity
to experience what I have experienced because it
broadens your mind and gives you an opportunity to
see the world differently, it gives you an opportunity
to deal with people differently,” Vurdien added.
It was 1985 when Vurdien finally made the move
to America. Having a friend in the area, he relocated
to Philadelphia and attended Temple University
where he received his master’s in education and a
doctorate in physiological studies. After graduating
CONTINUED PAGE 2
Pasadena ends the summer with
outdoor movies, concerts and
dancing!
PAGES 4&5
Pasadena Playhouse presents the
award-winning comedy
PAGE 6
Frustration mounts as Lancers
lose to San Bernardino Valley
PAGE 7
Former professor tackles many
mediums o'f art
PAGE 8
2017: Winter returns
Basketball coach reinstated
Keely Damara
Managing Editor
A winter intersession will be
reinstated in the 2016-2017
academic calendar following the
July decision by the Public Em¬
ployment Relations Board that
the district violated the law when
eliminating the winter interses¬
sion in the 2012-2013 academic
year.
The July 30th PERB ruling
stated that the district unilat¬
erally implemented new terms
and conditions of employment
when adopting a new calendar in
2012-2013 academic year — which
caused a loss of wages for faculty
affected by the calendar change.
The Board of Trustees
accepted the ruling and chose
not to submit any exceptions to
the decision, which orders the
district to reinstate winter by
the 201 6-201 7 calendar year and
compensate employees for “any
losses suffered as a result of the
change,” including interest at the
rate of 7 percent per year.
The district is currently working
with the Faculty Association to
calculate the financial impact
eliminating winter had on affect¬
ed staff.
Roger Marheine, president of the
Faculty Association during the
span of the lawsuit initially filed
in 2012, said that the FA pushed
for reinstating winter for the
2015-2016 academic calendar.
“Upon hearing the PERB find¬
ings, we informed the college that
we wanted to reinstate Winter
in 2016,” wrote Marheine in an
email. “Unfortunately, the college
has refused. However, by law the
college must implement Winter
in 201 7. 1 personally would have
hoped to get back on track earli¬
er, but that is where things stand
at the moment.”
Dr. Robert Bell, assistant
superintendent of academic
and student affairs, said that
the reinstatement of winter will
move forward through the shared
governance process, just like it
did last year, before a calendar
will be submitted to the Board of
Trustees for approval.
Changing the 2015-2016
academic calendar after it has
already begun could negatively
affect students, Bell said, just
like it did when winter was taken
away suddenly in the 2012-2013
academic year.
He believes proper planning is
necessary to make the transi¬
tion easier for students - which
includes submitting proper fi¬
nancial aid disbursement dates to
the government based on a new
calendar and programming our
course registration portal website
to reflect these changes.
“We made that change too
quickly and it impacted the stu¬
dents negatively,” said Bell. “So
I’m disinclined to go back and
make the same mistake twice.”
While the FA disagrees that
adding winter to the current
calendar would disrupt smdent
planning by adding a session —
not eliminating one — they are
CONTINUED PAGE 2
Ahmad Akkaoui
Staff Writer
Coach Joe Peron
Women’s basketball head coach Joe Peron
returned to his coaching position for his 20th
season in 2015-2016 after being suspended
following violations
that occurred toward
the end of last season.
After 1 9 seasons of
coaching at PCC with¬
out committing any
violations, Peron was
“guilty by association”
for a recruiting viola¬
tion and was accused
of a housing violation that would’ve left one
of his players in the streets. She asked him
for help one night and he was there to help
her. The original ruling was a one-year sus¬
pension that wouldn’t affect his teaching.
After investigations and several months of
waiting, Peron’s penalty was lessened to an
eight-game suspension and the women’s bas¬
ketball program was placed on probation for
four years with one year of formal probation
and three years of informal probation.
Peron, speaking during public comment at
the Board of Trustees meeting on Septem¬
ber 3 alongside nine of his current players,
thanked the board and Trustee William
Thomson for influencing further investiga¬
tion in his case. Peron also thanked Superin¬
tendent-President Rajen Vurdien for trusting
and believing in him and his program. He
said at the end of the day it’s about his play¬
ers and their expectation when they agreed to
attend PCC.
During a previous board meeting, Thom¬
son called for an investigation into this
matter. Senior Vice President and Assistant
Superintendent for Academic and Student
Affairs Robert Bell was responsible for the
investigation but was unable to comment
about any details.
Vurdien said the decision to bring Per¬
on back to his coaching position was “my
decision.”
Former point guard Shay Jackson decided
to follow in a few of her peers’ footsteps and
trust her coach’s advice after high school and
move away from home in Oakland to play
for Peron.
“[Peron] helped me with life in general . . .
he was always there. I hadn’t seen my mom
in about two or three years and my first game
here was the first time she had ever seen
CONTINUED PAGE 7