PCC Courier, September 23, 2004

Serving PCC and the Pasadena community since 1915 tain Film soars high at box office rage 5 Sept. 23, 2004 pcc-courieronline.com Vol. 90, Issue 3 Players Lose Just Game ■ Football game erupts in violence and looting after the game at Mt. SAC, causing extensive damage and controversy. Ernesto Ruiz Staff Writer The PCC football team had its posses¬ sions stolen from the visiting team’s locker room while they played an away game against rival Mt. SAC over the weekend. The incident allegedly took place some¬ time between 7 p.m. and 9. p.m, after half¬ time. As the seconds of the clock ticked off, the two coaches decided to have the teams shake hands, which is something the two rivals normally don’t do because of a history of bad blood between the two colleges. As the Lancers and Mounties were about to shake hands, PCC player Keith Brown recalled hearing someone from the Mt. SAC side say there was a surprise waiting for them in the locker room. Tempers flared as the two teams approached each other, abruptly ending the shaking hands. As both teams walked back to their lock¬ er rooms after the game, somebody informed the Lancers that their locker room had been trashed and raided. This prompted several scuffles to break out between opposing team members outside their locker rooms. Fights followed with hel¬ mets being used as weapons. Coaches and sheriff’s deputies tried to stop the fights, but they were outnumbered. As players exchanged blows, additional sheriff’s deputies arrived in a matter of min¬ utes dressed in riot gear and carrying shot guns loaded with beanbags. A total of 22 police cars, 40 officers in total, and a heli¬ copter were at the scene. The officers, with the help of the coach¬ es, managed to separate the teams. One of the deputies on the scene said, “Our first priority was to make sure nobody was hurt or injured in the melee and to aid those who were.” The PCC players wanted answers that night and were furious that they could not get any. “The reason many players are out¬ raged is because they had their possessions stolen,” PCC head coach Tom Maher said. “Along with CD players, jewelry, house and car keys, many players also had their rent money stolen from them. They are scared they will get evicted if they do not Photos courtesy of Brian Yokoyama, Mt. San Antonio College The Mt. Sac visiting team’s locker room suffered extensive damage after the game Saturday night. pay on time.” Maher said along with many of the play-' ers having their possessions stolen, some also had their clothes vandalized. “Somebody took water jugs full of water and poured them on our players’ clothes for no reason. For many that was their only change of clothing,” said Maher. A soda machine that normally blocks the back door of the visiting team’s locker room was moved to the side, said Maher. The door itself was not locked, either, allowing easy access into the visiting team’s locker room. Maher said he did not necessarily blame the Mt. SAC football team for the burglary and vandalism that took place during the game. He said whoever did this “obviously planned it and wanted to send us a message: we are not welcome at Mt. SAC.” There is still a question of who is respon¬ sible for the vandalization of the locker room. “It was a situation that was provoked by the poor handling of the situation, and we do attribute that to PCC’s side,” said Clarence Brown, public relations officer at Mt. SAC. Brown said that the situation “could have been resolved amicably and responsi¬ bly. It is our hope we can go forward in a spirit of friendly competition.” The Walnut sheriff’s deputies credited the two coaching staffs for doing the best they could to separate both teams and stop the melee. Maher was also pleased with the way his coaching staff responded to the sit¬ uation. “The coaches did a great job in de- Empty Facilities Jobs Soon to be Filled Cristina Pena Staff Writer PCC is finally letting the facilities department fill empty staff positions. The college froze 12-15 different facility posi¬ tions due to the budget shortfall two years ago. According to Dr. Richard Van Pelt, facilities director, this meant remaining workers had to shoulder extra duties, sometimes running crews only 50 percent staffed. Van Pelt said by “allow¬ ing some less critical things, to slip, we were able to handle the day-to-day needs of our customers. We expect that with a more complete staff we can handle requests more quickly.” The facilities department oversees all grounds, maintenance, upgrades, custo¬ dial care, air-conditioning, heating, ven¬ tilation, painting, plumbing, carpeting, anything electrical, remodeling and utility distribution. Currently 75 employees make up the maintenance crew. PCC has hired three additional custodians to fill frozen positions. Dr. James Kossler, PCC president, said instructors have requested that custodi¬ al positions be filled first. Each semester becomes more of a challenge due to increased class sched¬ ules, growing student population and Facilities J Page 4 Rafael Delgado / Courier One of PCC’s facilities workers cleans the campus. The college will soon hire additional workers to help understaffed custodians. PCC Budget Grows Lamaria Sapp Sports Editor The board of trustees approved the 2004- 2005 budget on Sept. 15, which shows a $7.2 million increase from last year. The college will receive $2.6 million from equalization money, which comes from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's state budget. PCC is one of 109 community colleges statewide that will share the $80 million approved by the governor to equalize funding for two-year colleges. This money will equal¬ ize the amount of apportionment funding each community college district receives for each full-time equivalent student enrolled. The funding varies from between $3,550 to $8,150 per student and will be equalized over a three-year period. Peter Hardash, vice president for adminis¬ trative services, said, “87 percent of the equal¬ ization funds are allocated to employee com¬ pensation accounts to cover costs associated with personnel.” Kossler indicated that the college will use these funds to increase salaries. Hardash said the remaining 13 percent wifi be distributed to non-compensation accounts in the budget. Stuart Wilcox, dean of institutional plan¬ ning and research, said this year the money from equalization will be used to “catch up” the budget, by putting money back that was taken away last year. Dr. James Kossler, college president, said, “This money is a big deal for PCC. It could reach to about $7 million that we could get every year.” Before the equalization approval, not all Budget j Page 4 Sculpture j Page 4 Orson Leiva Staff Writer PCC’s newest student is a can’t miss. He towers over 1 1 feet 9 inch¬ es, weighs over 1Д00 pounds and is well endowed with the chiseled features of a young Robert Redford. This bloke is apt to attract attention from the 24,000 plus students who cross his path - and yes, ladies, he’s single. Students have nicknamed it Average Joe, Watcher, Lawn Jockey and plenty more. Column Figure, the newest addition to the Boone Sculpture Garden, made its first appearance on campus on Aug. 30, the first day of the fall semester. It took three or four people no more than 30 minutes to erect the single-piece bronze statue, accord¬ ing to Richard Van Pelt, director of facilities services. A sighting committee, which consisted of a group of people from on campus and off, was responsible for the placement of the statue, according to Janet New Kid on the Block Computers Soon to Get Upgrades Veronica Cid/Courier Out of order computers on campus will be a thing of the past after 500 receive upgrades starting this year. Dean Lee Staff Writer On the first day of the fall 2004 semester students were faced with a line in front of the Computer Cafe to get class print¬ outs, only to see nothing but out- of-order signs on seven of the 25 computers in that lab. After final¬ ly getting a working computer, the outdated Windows 98 screen stared back at them. If they were lucky they had a read¬ able keyboard, without all the letters worn off from overuse. Over the summer the board of trustees passed a five-year plan to upgrade all computer systems here at PCC with new operating systems and software. The PC Desktop Plan was adopt¬ ed as part of a Technology Master Plan passed July 21 to assist students in achieving their educational goals through the use of technology. According to the Technology Master Plan, computer skills now join reading, writing and mathemat¬ ics as essential parts of an informed citizenry in the 21st century. The school relies heavily on the state budget for funding computer technology and in 2000 the funding for computer technology dropped from over two million to just over $500,000 last year. The overall total funding given this year is still unde¬ termined, according to computer services. “We could barely keep the labs open after the state budget crisis, let alone upgrade,” said Robert Cody, assistant dean of computer services. “We are just glad we can start upgrad¬ ing them now.” Starting this year, 500 computers will be upgraded and then each year after that at least 500 more computers will be upgraded for a duration of five years. “We are starting with the student labs,” Cody said. “I can’t stress that enough, none of the faculty or staff comput¬ ers will be upgraded until we finish the student computer labs. After the five-year plan, our goal is that no computer on campus will be older than three years.” The Windows 98 operating system on most of the comput¬ ers will be replaced with the newer Windows XP and the latest version of Microsoft Office will be installed. The 1,450 computers on campus that are older than five years will be replaced altogether. “These older computers don’t meet the minimum requirements for Windows XP, and if you start buying new memory for a couple of hundred dollars and then have to buy larger hard drives at another hundred, this adds up fast. You might as well just buy a new computer,” Cody said. “And that’s what we plan to do.” Lieutenant Responds to Allegations Diane Garcia Entertainment Editor Lt. Brad Young gave an emo¬ tional speech before members of the board of trustees at their Sept. 1 5 meeting in order to respond to allegations brought against him by several campus officers at the Sept. 1 board meeting. At that meeting officer Leroy Henderson, Police Officers Association presi¬ dent, accused Young of secretly recording conversations in PCC officer locker rooms and announced a vote of no confi¬ dence against Young. Young began his statement by saying, “Retaliation in the work¬ place is always wrong and always unlawful,” adding that he believes PCC officers are seeking retalia- Lieutenant Page t, %