The
Pasadena City College
Since 1915
VOL 86 NO. 6
www.pcc-courieronhne.com
EPTEMBER 2
H
Briefly
* Ecologists start
up recycling drive
PCC’s environmental club,
Earthwise, is seeking student
help to improve the recycling
program on campus. There is a
petition going around campus
that needs more signatures.
Read next week’s issue of the
“Courier” for the full story.
m World renowned
guitar player heads
to PCC for concert
The Association of Fingerstyle
Guitarists will be presenting a
concert on Friday, Oct. 7 in
Harbeson Hall, which features
Tommy Emmanuel, cgp.
Emmanuel is a household
name in his native Australia
and has had four platinum and
three gold albums. The doors
will open at 7:30 p.m. and tick¬
ets are S15. You can buy them
exclusively at Southern
California Tickets located on
1487, East Colorado Blvd.
* Sign up to be king
or queen for a day
PCC 2000 Homecoming Court
applications are due by 4 PM,
Oct. 2, in CC203. A list of eli¬
gible candidates will be posted
by noon, Oct. 4, in CC203.
You must attend all
Homecoming events if you are
chosen as a court member. The
Homecoming reception and
game will take place on Oct.
28.
■ WebExtra
The division reorganization is
underway and the college is
hoping to alleviate workloads
on deans in some of the largest
divisions. Log onto www.pcc-
courieronline.com for a sneak
peak of next week's look at the
issue. Remember, you can see
these and other stories related
to the division reorganization
in our Courier Online archives.
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An exhibit that’s out of this world
Photo Illustration by Curtis Gregory
The Planetary Society has announced that the college will get a scale model replica of Uranus.
College is set to host
display of Uranus
Minus the rockets, blastoff and space suits, traveling to
another planet just got a whole lot simpler for students
By Gia Scafidi
The Planetary Society recent¬
ly announced the winning design
of PlanetTrek, a small-scale
replica of the solar system to
span the City of Pasadena, nam¬
ing PCC the chosen site for
Uranus, the seventh planet from
the sun.
Intertwining art, science and
education, PlanetTrek will
engage the public in an informa¬
tive travel experience to the sun
and its nine planets at seven pub¬
lic locations. According to the
Planetary Society, the project’s
completion date has yet to be
determined as “the funds are still
being gathered.”
“I think it is entirely appropri¬
ate that PCC be involved,” said
Dr. James Kossler, PCC presi¬
dent, noting that the college’s
geographical location and its sta¬
tus as a major institution led to
its selection as a planet host.
The Uranus model will be locat¬
ed near the planetarium and
observatory buildings, said
Kossler.
The project’s winning design,
submitted by a team of artists
and a scientific adviser, incorpo¬
rates a large spherical sculpture
at each site, linked by a curved
walkway to the scale planet
model mounted on a pedestal
containing information about
that world.
The proposal also includes
great questions of all time
inscribed on bronze plaques sur¬
rounding each sculpture. When
questions, such as “What condi¬
tions are necessary for human
happiness?” or “Was the begin¬
ning of the universe a chance
event?,” are ultimately
answered, its plaque will be cer¬
emoniously retired and a new
one put up.
“The winning design propos-
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al edged out a talented field of
internationally acclaimed
artists,” said Charles Kohlhase,
PlanetTrek director.
Materials used for the sculp¬
tures will reflect each celestial
body’s unique characteristics.
While the Mars model will be
done up in brightly rusted iron,
Jupiter’s surface will be crafted
from stained and polished con¬
crete and Venus’ from red glass
and greenish copper, depicting
the planet’s hellish, volcanic sur¬
faces.
Saturn will shine in laminated
limestone and marble in buff,
gold and beige, with stainless
steel rings. Earth will be a rotat¬
ing blue glass sphere with an
overlaid bronze map of
Panagaea, detailing this planet’s
plate tectonics and liquid water,
and the Sun will be created from
stainless steel and layers of pow¬
der-coat enamel.
Visitors will be able to turn
the Earth, Venus, Neptune and
Uranus models around their
axes, and Mercury, Mars and
Pluto will be set on boulders
formed at the beginning of geo¬
logical time.
According to the Planetary
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times the size of Earth
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is rotates from
east to west, which is
the exact opposite of
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Society (PS), the sun will be five
feet in diameter, with its planets’
diameters ranging from
1/10
inch for Pluto to 6 inches for
Jupiter. At this scale, Earth will
measure approximately one half
inch across.
While PCC will host the
Uranus. model, the Sun, Mercury,
Venus, Earth and Mars will be
located in Central Park at the Del
Mar Boulevard and Raymond
Avenue intersection. Jupiter will
be found near City Hall; Saturn
in Brookside Park near the Rose
Bowl and newly planned
Kidspace Museum; Neptune in
Victory Park on Paloma
Street; and Pluto just south of
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL).
Several community leaders,
including Kossler, Dr. David
Baltimore, Caltech president, Dr.
Edward Stone, JPL director,
Pasadena mayor Bill Bogaard,
Dr. Bill Nye, the “Science Guy,”
and science fiction author Ray
Bradbury have endorsed the
citywide solar system.
According to the PS, this project
will be a “permanent monument
fostering the spirit of ‘The
Universe’ later this year.”
Callers
stuck in
phone
limbo
Staffing shortages, software prevents
callers from getting through to operators
By Gia Scafidi
“Hello, you’ve reached
Pasadena City College.. .Please
stay on the line, you’re being
transferred to an operator.. .You’re
call is important to us. ..Please stay
on the line...” If you’ve followed
these instructions, but were still
left waiting, your call may have
been one of the many thrown back
into the college’s telephone sys¬
tem due to a lack of immediate
assistance.
While the public’s inquiries
may be important to the college,
they may not be addressed as
promptly as one would hope due
to the way calls are routed by the
system. In addition, the college’s
two full-time information clerk
positions have remained open for
some time.
“It’s a difficult situation
because this is the front line of the
college,” said Mark Wallace,
director of public relations. “I can
tell you that when callers finally
get out of the network loop they
are very upset.”
The hundreds of daily calls that
hit PCC’s main line (626-585-
7123) are currently being handled
by an automated system, which
directs callers to specific offices,
and two student part-time workers
and one full-time temporary
employee, who answer phones,
make room reservations and han¬
dle walk-in inquiries Monday
through Friday. At present, no
operators arc available after 4:30
p.m.
While the college hopes to
eventually fill the full-time posi¬
tion, the Call Center is “sufficient¬
ly staffed and meeting the needs
of the students, staff and the pub¬
lic,” according to Sherry Hassan,
director of business services.
“We always try to have some¬
one covering the phones,” said
Hassan.
She explained that hiring a
full-time person is presently on
hold while the reorganization of
the college’s divisions gets
straightened out. “We will wait
PHONE, page 4
Staff looks at
next move in an
attempt to get
a pay increase
By Tim Alves
As the college and negotiators
for the full-time instructors con¬
tinue their contract talks, staff
members are struggling to find
ways to quell infighting, step up
pressure on the administration for
a pay raise and maintain a unified
front.
“If we don’t do this now, then
they’ve got us. This may be our
last shot at doing something big,”
said Lee Reinhartsen, professor in
the English and foreign languages
department.
Nearly 100 college employees
gathered at the Vosloh Forum on
Sept. 21 for what amounted to a
war- room pep rally. The small
number of speakers exhorted their
colleagues to stay focused on
wresting from the college a larger
pay raise than the 5 percent cur¬
rently being offered by the admin¬
istration.
The most direct course of
action, it was decided, was to
increase the ranks of the instruc¬
tors’ union, the California
Teacher’s Association
(СТА)
to in
effect, increase the number of
people eligible to vote on accept¬
ing or rejecting the college’s offer
when it becomes finalized.
“Our most immediate source of
power is our yes or no vote on rat-
PAY, page 4
AS, MEChA meet to ease tensions following political protest
By Afni Adnan
The AS (Associated Students)
and MEChA (Movimiento
Estudintil Chicano de Aztlan) met
on Monday to try and work out
their differences and ease tensions.
After several heated discussions,
the meeting adjourned on some¬
what of a high note, after all the
> frustrations concerning what hap¬
pened at last week’s candidates’
fomm was laid out in the open and
discussed at length.
MEChA was upset that they
didn’t get to express their views at
the forum, whereas the AS felt that
the group’s protests cast a dark
cloud over the event.
The AS suggested that the next
obvious step for both organiza¬
tions is to put what happened
behind them and move forward as
a collective group. They believed
that both organizations should
focus on collaborating more and
building a healthier relationship.
However, MEChA wanted to
address their concerns about why
the AS tried to censor them from
speaking out during the forum.
Ricardo Miranda and Manny
Rangel, the two most vocal
MEChA members during the
meeting, felt that they should have
had the right to express their views
to the candidates, and that they
should have answered their ques¬
tions.
“We had a right to ask those
questions. It’s freedom of speech,”
said Rangel.
The AS’s response was that the
fomm wasn’t meant to be a public
arena for students to address their
issues. The focus was on the can¬
didates who were there to establish
their platforms and to discuss
issues that were important to their
candidacy.
During the meeting, Daniel
Loll, AS president, and George
Magdalcno, vice president of
internal affairs, both wanted to
move past this incident and start
thinking about working with
MEChA in upcoming events.
Magdaleno proposed that MEChA
members consider applying for
Homecoming Court and possibly
even filling the two empty posi¬
tions on the AS Board.
“We aren’t happy with what
happened. In the future, we want
to work with MEChA so that this
doesn’t happen again,” said
Magdaleno.
MEChA was particularly upset
when they were kept in the dark
about the fomm. They said that
they weren’t informed about the
fomm until it was all planned.
When they said that they want¬
ed to ask a few questions, an AS
member reportedly told them to
organize their own fomm if they
wanted to have those questions
addressed.
That was what incited MEChA
to take action.
Even though the tension
between the AS and MEChA
might have culminated after the
fomm, Magdaleno felt that the
strain had existed long before the
fomm ever took place.
“In the past five weeks, we’ve
MEChA, page 4
Tim Alves
/
The Courier
Last week, MEChA demonstrated against perceived censorship.