PCC Courier, September 26, 1991

OPINION FEATURES SPORTS l J.S. Bases U.S. imperialism work ? or democracy at Page 2 Which are you? An irreverent look at the personalities of PCC students Page 5 Two in-a-row Football team improves to 2-0 Page 6 Pasadena City College Pasadena, California Vol. 73 No. 2 n'" COURIER Thursday September 26, 1991 Shots, violence spoil weekend dance By EDWIN FOLVEN News Features Editor Lives were threatened and property was damaged when a large crowd of angry people nearly rioted after being turned away from a dance in the campus center lounge early Sunday morning. The crowd fired shots, fought, smashed windows and rolled a piano down a flight of stairs before dispers¬ ing around 12:30 a.m. Officers from the Pasadena Police Department (PPD) were summoned to help control the crowd, which dispersed rapidly after more than 20 shots were fired, said eyewitnesses and campus police. Angry youths smashed windows in the cafeteria and a piano was rolled down a flight of stairs in the CC Building. According to campus police, no injuries were reported and no arrests were made. Campus police attributed the violence to an outside group of people. “We had a dance where apparent gang members from the community attended. As in the past, when you turn away at the door, they take their anger out on something or somebody,” said Philip Mullendore, director of campus police and safety. He added that alcohol was definitely a contributing factor. The African American Student Associa¬ tion (AAS A) sponsored the open dance and apparently followed all rules and regulations put forth by Student Activities, said Alvar Kauti, dean of student activities. According to a PCC memorandum, dances are held for PCC students and their guests only, and no one under the age of 16 is to be admitted. An eyewitness reported seeing several people at the dance they knew to be underage. Paul Price, adviser to the AASA commented, “There are a list of criteria that must be followed. You must present a PCC I.D. Each person can bring a guest. There were underage people, but what this person failed to say is that they were guests of PCC students.” The college safety office assigns the per¬ sonnel necessary for a well organized dance. Dances are evaluated on the basis of past perform¬ ance. Past events organ¬ ized by the AASA have been peaceful, apparently requiring only four se¬ curity officers on Satur¬ day night. More people arrived than were anticipated and approximately 200 people had to be turned away. The crowd milled around outside the cam¬ pus center and in the Quad drinking alcoholic bev¬ erages before starting the altercation. Officers from campus police re¬ portedly confiscated several 40 ounce bottles of beer from people in the crowd, and several empty beer bottles were scattered around the area Officer Steve Lester witnessed the commotion and helped to keep the situation under control. “It was basically quiet until approximately mid¬ night when the dance got crowded and they stopped letting people in. At about 12:45 a.m., the crowd on the outside got restless and started throwing chairs.” Fifteen minutes later, Lester said, he heard ap¬ proximately 12 gunshots coming from the east side of the CC Building. After immedi¬ ately calling the PPD, he heard a second volley of approximately 10 shots from a different type of gun. Officers from the PPD found several spent bullet casings from a .25 caliber automatic pistol at the east end of the Quad. Casings from a .45 caliber pistol were also found in lot 12 near the campus center. Several witnesses reported seeing the sus¬ pects firing the guns into the air. “The incident reiterates our need to carry weap¬ ons,” said Lester, referring to the fact that the campus police are unarmed. One student who was in the unruly crowd said the commotion began with a small fight between two young women near the bookstore. “The guys gathered around and took their shirts off like they were gonna rumble,” said the student who asked not to be identified. He said first they cleared the Please see Windows, page 5 Howard Burger /The COURIER As a result of a disturbance that broke out during an all student party were fired. Two .45 caliber bullet casings were found and the piano, three windows of the Palm Cafe were shattered. Several gunshots located on the second floor of CC was thrown down the stairs. Fall semester opens with record number of students By AMOR PADILLA Editor-in-Chief In a climate of budget cuts and class closings, enrollment for this semester has hit a record number of 27,957 the highest ever, according to Dr. Stuart Wilcox, assistant dean of admissions and records. Accordin g to Wilcox, even though the enrollment fluctu¬ ates day to day due to drop¬ outs and schedule adjustments, the college has never been over 27,000. “There were more people applying than we’ve ever seen,” he said. There were 10,150 new students who went through the application procedures this semester which caused a major shortage of time to process registration. New students are usually given a registration date and time. However, due to the huge numbers, Wilcox had to open a “satellite” registration of¬ fice in C340 which housed six computer terminals, registration staff and counsel¬ ors to accommodate the extra students. “We processed approximately 400 new students in the satellite terminal,” W ilcox said. With this record enrollment, PCC is cur¬ rently 10.5 percent over the 1 percent en¬ rollment cap used by the state to reimburse the colleges. According to Wilcox, the state matches the growth of a city ’s adult popula¬ tion with the growth of its college. He ex¬ plains that this doesn’t work for Pasadena because while its population is pretty stable, the college’s numbers continue to grow. Based on Pasadena as a city, the state only reimburses the college for an estimated 1 percent growth per year. Part of the reasons why the enrollment numbers have increased is the dire need to renew work skills. “Many adults return to college to upgrade their knowledge. The world is changing and this change requires people to upgrade skills every five or 10 years.” said Wilcox. Also, the increasing number of high school graduates influences the growth of community college popula¬ tions. Many of the general requirement classes are most affected by the record enroll¬ ment, specifically in the math and Eng¬ lish departments. “Our classes are very full,” said Dr. Rae Ballard, chair of the English Department. “However, many teachers have commented that they are very pleased with the students. They feel that they are serious students.” she said. According to Ballard, this seriousness has something to do with the difficulties in get¬ ting into these classes. “Stu¬ dents now are less willing to just give it a try and drop the classes,” she added. The English as a second language divi¬ sion was specifically impacted, accord¬ ing to Ballard, the ESL classes were closed with the exception of two, right from the first day of class. “In a year’s time, more than 35,000 people pass through the college. This is like a city in itself,” said Wilcox. “Be¬ sides cutting classes, we have to find a way to minimize the increase of students because we are generating more instruc¬ tion than we are being paid for,” he added. ‘Many adults return to college to upgrade their knowledge. The world is changing and this change requires people to upgrade skills every five or 10 years.’ Dr. Stuart Wilcox Assistant dean of admissions and records Ride-share fair works to better BY EDWIN FOLVEN News Features Editor Campus police are sponsoring a ride- share fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Quad today to inform students about their roles in improving the air quality. The fair, which is part of National Rideshare Week, will include exhibits and booths from sev¬ eral businesses and organizations as well as live music and discount refreshments. “Our goal is to get people out of their cars and to work in different ways,” said Sgt. Vince Palermo, employee transporta¬ tion coordinator and campus police offi¬ cer. Each organization will have displays or booths with environmental literature or rideshare information, said Palermo. Elec¬ tric vehicles and an inner-city bus will be among the exhibits. The Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD), the Pasadena and Los Angeles Depart¬ ments of Water & Power will be among the largest organizations represented. “We want to make people aware of al¬ ternate means of transportation to get to and from work and school. I’m glad they are all donating their time towards the same goal,” said Palermo. CSU cutbacks put a strain on enrollment □ Cap on spring ‘92 admission for CSU triggers concerns. By Chris Langrehr Opinion Editor PCC will be unable to accommodate the expected rise in enrollment caused by Cal State University (CSU) cutbacks, said Dr. Jack Scott, superintendent-president. These cutbacks include Cal State Long Beach and Cal Poly Pomona which will not enroll any new freshman or lower-division transfers this spring. Meanwhile, six other CSU campuses including Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Northridge have cut off any further applica¬ tions for spring enrollment by new under¬ graduates in most majors. “Obviously these cutbacks will increase the number of students who will want to come to PCC. But we don’t have the money to offer more classes,” said Scott. The state will only pay for a one percent increase in enrollment each year. Despite the record enrollment this year many students who tried to register could not get classes and were discouraged from en¬ rolling. This means that the school could have had even more students, according to air quality Baskin Robbins will donate their time and ice cream to promote ridesharing by selling scoops at a discount price at the fair. Palermo said 10 percent of the profits will be given to the PCC rideshare program. PCC’s program offers informa¬ tion and incentives designed to pair people who are interested in ridesharing. The pro- Please see ROLA, page 3 Scott. “I think the only way we can meet the rising demand for higher education is that if the state decides to increase the 1992-93 education budget. I have some question as to whether it will happen given the state of the economy,” he said. Scott also said that the financial crisis at the college is a long term problem. “I think the state of California has to look at how deep their commitment is to higher educa¬ tion. They have to recognize that higher education is an investment in the future of the state. The more we educate students, the more likely they are to have higher incomes and to thereby pay higher taxes,” said Scott. There is a good spirit about education in the state. However, citizens sometimes want to maintain or increase services provided by the state but they don’t want any new taxes. You can’t do it, he said. “We are doing as good of a job as we can do given the money that we have. I think our staff is working pretty much at full capac¬ ity,” said Scott. Some of the steps taken to reduce costs include canceling classes that have low en¬ rollment. The school turned over non-credit courses to the community skills center in order to save on rent. And the school is looking at energy savers such as lights that automatically turn off when the room is empty, he said. Over the next ten years, enrollment in California community colleges is expected to increase from 1.5 million to 2 million. The school also faces great pressure to spend more on instructional equipment so that its programs are up to date, said Scott. In addition, the school needs to pay competi¬ tive salaries so it can attract a good staff. “We are going to maintain a quality edu¬ cation at PCC. We are going to serve as many students as the state will pay for. However, we are not going to endanger the fiscal well-being of the college and the qual¬ ity of education being offered by trying to provide more classes than the school can afford to pay for,” said Scott.