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Courier
VOL. 88 NO. 4
www.pcc-courieronline.com
Since 1915
SEPTEMBER 19, 2002
Book Prices: No Relief in Sight
By Kevin Awakuni
Associate Editor
t For many students the cost of
textbooks outweighs the cost of
tuition, and nobody seems to know
whom to blame.
Students blame the teachers,
teachers blame the campus book¬
store and the bookstore blames the
teachers and the publishers.
However, the bottom line is that
students are still stuck with paying
what they feel are exorbitant
prices.
In an attempt to begin a dia¬
logue among these three parties,
the Assembly’s Higher Education
Committee, chaired by Pasadena
Assemblywoman Carol Liu, held a
hearing on Monday with students,
bookstore managers, and faculty
members to discuss possible ways
to reducing textbook prices.
Students, faculty and bookstore
managers from area colleges
joined in the discussion.
Representatives from the pub¬
lishing industry were noticeably
absent.
Don Moon, the bookstore man¬
ager at UC San Diego, said one
way to lower textbook prices is to
have teachers turn in book orders
on time. He said when book orders
arrive late, then the prices of the
books go up because there is only
a limited amount of time to find
the book and stock it.
Mona Field, a professor at
Glendale Community College,
said not all the teachers are aware
of the results of putting in book
orders late, and that students
should call it to their attention.
However,
one faculty ^===
member com¬
plained dur¬
ing a question
and answer
session that ..
the deadline textbooks, and this IS
(Instructors) are
“ forced by the pub¬
lishers to buy new ,
what ultimately
affects the students.
for book
orders was
way too soon,
at least nine
months in
advance.
Other
ways for fac-
ulty to help make books cheaper
were brought up by both Moon
and Pat Peach, an assistant profes¬
sor of math at PCC.
They talked about classes
reusing the same textbook over a
longer period of time, rather than
choosing a new textbook every
semester. Peach said the math
department teachers could use the
same textbook for many years,
because there is not much need to
update math formulas.
However, Peach said that
every three years the publishers’
update the textbook and then
refuse to send out more copies of
the old textbook, even if the math
department finds no reason to dis¬
continue use
- - - 1 5 of the old
book. Peach
said they are,
“forced by the
publishers,”
to buy new
textbooks,
and this is
what ulti¬
mately affects
the students.
Loma
Where the New Textbook Dollar Goes
Publisher’s Paper,
Printing, Editorial Costs
/
All manuladuting costs lioni ! 32.1 4
distribution, as well as storage,
record keeping, ttitifjj.
Publisher's General and
Administrative
Including lateral,; slain and
local taxes, excluding sales
tax. paid by published
Publisher’s
Marketing Costs
Marketing, advertising,
promotion, publisher's Ml
stall, professors' ires copies.
-(4.7*
\ Pre-Tax*
/
College Store Personnel . . _ -
Store employee's salaries 2nd
/ У
Benefits to handle ordering.
/
•
« л
,
receiving. pricing. shelving. >
« »
cashiers, customer service, \ V
return! desk and sending extra ^
textbooks teefc to the publisher.
Freight Expense
Bus cost 0! getting honks
from tte publisher's
/
warehouse or bindery to [
the college store Perl of '
cost 0! foods sodpuio to
freight company.
3i
V
College Store Operations
insurance, utilities, building
and equipment rent and
maintenance. attainting and
data piocessing charges aiui
oilier overhead paid by
f.oilego stores. _
College Store Income
.'Note: Ihe amount 0!
federal, stale and/or
юс.з!
tax, and therefore ihe
amount and use
o( any sifer-tax protii. is
determined by ihe slote's
cvvneiship, and usually
depends on vrhetlier
college store is owned by
an inslitution ni higher
education,
з
contract
management company,
з
cooperative, a foundation,
ur by private individuals.
-Pat Peach
PCC Assistant Professor Clymer’ an
associate pro-
fessor from
Cal State Bakersfield, commented
about how the publishing industry
is just another big business, more
interested in marketing than in a
commitment to education.
Bookstore managers wanted
students to know that their stores
are self-supporting and the college
does not pay for any business
expenses such as payroll, freight,
rent and general work bills. Moon
said they only make 4.7 cents for
every dollar after the bills are fig¬
ured in.
Tom Bauer, bookstore direc¬
tor at the Claremont Colleges, said
the bookstores are not there to
make money but are simply, “driv¬
en to just break even,” and provide
a service to the students. He also
said it would be bad business to
drive the students away with
unreasonable prices and they do
everything possible to keep costs
low.
The topic that many students
seemed extremely interested in
was the book buyback policies.
Christina Gagnier, a student and
A.S. member at UC Irvine, said
that book costs for her are in the
$500 to $1000 range and that
many of these books are non-
returnable. She said books that she
purchased one semester were non-
returnable the following semester
because newer editions had
replaced them; therefore, the
bookstore could not buy back her
book. It was Gagnier’s opinion
that these new editions had very
little additional information, and
was frustrated at being stuck with
a book she would, “never use
again.”
Many students echoed simi¬
lar sentiments, saying books that
Ш
see BOOKS, page 3
Beating Suspects Can't Beat the System
By Steve LuKanic
Staff Writer
Three PCC students, arrested
last month for the beating of a for¬
mer student, appeared in court
“Monday before
'-'an angry judge
1ИЯ
1
ж1вЦ
who set their
i bail at
$500,000 and
irecommended
they each serve 10 to 20 years in
prison.
Both the bail and sentencing
recommendations were an abrupt
about-face for Judge Judson
Morris who, earlier in the day, had
imposed a far lesser sentence on
two of the suspects, Antonio
Cervantes, 19, and Archie
Thompson, 21.
Both Cervantes and Thompson,
along with suspect Daniel Sciolini,
18, had been arrested Aug. 27 for
the brutal beating of Joshue
Gomez, 32, in front of the PCC
sign on the comer of Colorado
Boulevard and Bonnie Avenue.
Gomez and his wife had just
celebrated their son’s birthday at
Chuck E Cheese, along with a
friend visiting from Guatemala,
when they stopped to take pictures
in front of the sign.
Moments later, a gray Nissan
Sentra pulled up next to them and,
according to witnesses, suspect
Sciolini jumped out and began
punching Gomez in the face and
kicking him in the head.
The other suspects, Thompson
and Cervantes, joined in the attack,
with Cervantes chasing the vic¬
tim’s friend, Edgar Villacorta, who
had taken pictures of the attack.
All three suspects were later
charged with batteiy and assault.
Gomez was taken to Huntington
Memorial Hospital where he was
treated for injuries to his face and
head.
At the preliminary hearing
Monday morning, Cervantes and
T h
о
m p s
о
n - —
appeared before
Judge .Morris,
pleading not
guilty to the
charges and
hoping to strike
»
£ It C e
a plea bargain
with the court.
Morris, in
turn, recom¬
mended that
Cervantes serve 90 days in county
jail with three years probation and
that Thompson serve one year in
county jail with three years proba¬
tion.
But Sciolini, ignoring the
advice of his attorney, refused to
plea bargain and told the judge he
wanted to go to trial.
Sciolini ’s decision, a suiprise to
the other defendants and their
attorneys, resulted in Morris call-
============= ing a recess so
that he could fur¬
ther study the
police report,
view crime scene
photos and hear
testimony from
the victim and
witnesses at the
scene.
According to
- PCC police offi¬
cer John Hynes, who was present
at the afternoon hearing, after lis¬
tening to testimony and seeing the
graphic photos taken by Villacorta,
Judge Morris recalled the three
defendants and rescinded his earli¬
(This) beating is
the most “ egre¬
gious act of vio-
I have seen
in 3 0 years.
-Judge Judson Morris
er sentencing, calling the beating
the most “egregious act of vio¬
lence” he had seen in 30 years.
To the suiprise of everyone in
court, Morris threw out the plea
bargains and recommended that all
three men serve a minimum of 10
years and a maximum of 20 years
in state prison. He also increased
their bail from $50,000 to
$500,000.
“It is surprising that the judge
would go back and rescind his sen¬
tence and give them that much
time,” said PPC officer Steven
Lester, who filed the original
report.
“But Judge Morris is a no-non-
sense judge,” Lester said, “and the
photos were really damaging.”
In addition to the photos, the
suspects also incriminated them¬
selves in the patrol car following
their arrest, virtually admitting to
the beating, unaware their voices,
were being recorded.
In court, however, the men gave
no clear indication of their motive,
other than that the victim had made
some sort of hand signal at them,
which they interpreted as gang-
related.
Contrarily, Gomez testified that
the suspects had yelled something
at him from their car window and
that he had merely gestured to
them that he didn’t hear what they
said.
Judge Morris chastised the
three suspects, claiming it was
ridiculous to think that the victim
would engage in any gang-like
behavior in front of his wife arid
child.
Morris said the beating was a
“Third World act of violence,”
something that should never have
happened.
Fire
While his carefree
diposition masks
his stress, Keenan
Bernard Gosset,
vice president of
campus activities,
has plenty of
problems.
By
Andrew
Campa
Weeks of speculation turned
into a resignation then a retraction
as Keenan Bernard Gosset,
vice president of campus
activities, withdrew his
proposed resignation.
Gosset, 27, in his sec¬
ond term as head of cam¬
pus activities, has been
under scrutiny from the
new Associated Student
board since he was sworn
in July. He has been criti¬
cized for many points, the
two largest include over¬
spending and advertising.
He originally asked the
AS on Friday, Sept. 6 to
put his immediate resigna¬
tion on the agenda for the
Wednesday, Sept. 1 1 meet¬
ing. Gosset’s plan was to
give his two-week notice,
complete activities already
scheduled and leave by the
end of September.
Things did not go as planned.
In a memo presented to the A.S.
Board on Tuesday, Keenan said, “I
will NOT present the AS any res¬
ignation from office.”
Gosset also gave a reason why
he had rescinded his resignation.
“I believe there is still work to
be done,” wrote Gosset in his
memo. “Those who know me shall
know that leaving a task uncom¬
pleted or half done is just not my
style.”
Although Gosset said that he
still had work to do, one
anonymous AS member said
that Manny Torres, vice presi¬
dent of internal affairs, put
pressure on Gosset to stay by
threatening to cancel his
activities.
After Gosset declared his
intention to quit, Torres
placed an agenda item for a
modification of funding for
the Friday Night Showcase.
Had Gosset resigned,
planned funding for his proj¬
ects would have been pulled
and saved for his replacement.
Subsequently, when Gosset
withdrew his proposal, so did
Torres.
“We had to allocate funds
for his replacement,” Torres
said. “It was nothing personal
against Keenan and I don’t
believe he took it that way.
“If he did, then that’s a person
al problem. However, the AS could
not guarantee that his replacement
«§
see GOSSET, page 4
Burglary Suspect
Now Under Arrest
Police Nab
Man After
Car Chase
By Matt Robinson
Contributing Writer
A suspect was arrested
Tuesday in a rash of burglaries of
faculty and staff offices at PCC
after a car and foot chase.
The suspect, identified as
Charles Branch, 27 was placed
under arrest for burglary and hit
and run.
He was taken to the Pasadena
jail were he was booked for bur¬
glary and hit and run.
The latest incident, reported
on Sept. 13, was a burglary in the
C building.
A laptop, small screen TV and
a small stereo were reported
missing from the English divi¬
sion offices.
Although
c a m p u s
police had
few details
about the break in, a cadet who
was on duty over the weekend
remembered an incident early
Saturday that might have a con¬
nection.
The cadet remembered some¬
one walking on the fifth floor of
the R building around 6 a.m.
The person suddenly shouted
to the cadet, "You looking for
trouble? I'll come down there and
kick your ass!"
He repeated this several
times. Officer Alan Chan and the
Ф
see BURGLAR, page 3