PCC Courier, September 21, 2000

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. Inside ® Ion Hclkr waxes nostalgic tor the 60s 0 in she wake hf test weeks abortive MEGhA protest. page 2 Щ Rose Queen hope¬ fuls put their best foot forward as they compete for the annual honor, jwgr .3 loOLbaU H:;.UU § p| !ш! ||f liiif !щ|Щ li lilt College 41-0 to remain undefeated at 3-0. page 4 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- Fast Facts Щ I mi s tlfllllllllll planei in our solar , system, heated be! ween Saturn aud Neptune. Я Uranus has 4 rings and 21 satellites. IGA year Ш QllSil A 84 barm ye > Ьь planet spins around once in 17 hours. 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 ft Uranus is about four times the size of Earth and a Hide over 30,000 miles in diam¬ eter. ш This planet’s average Irtjrri is about one and lllllisifiiiii ъшпж miles. is rotates from east to west, which is the exact opposite of the .way Earth spins. 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.