PCC Courier, September 29, 1994

OPINION AS Board’s new policy on club funding deserves praise. Page 2 Actress Cindy James Gossett visits Community Skills Center to motivate female students working on their GED. Pages Susan Dyrek overcomes fear and a physical problem to lead this year’s women’s volleyball team. Page 6 PASADENA CITY COLLEGE PASADENA, CALIFORNIA VOL. 80 No. 5 ™E C OURIER Serving the Pasadena Community since 1915 THURSDAY September 29, 1994 Officer Beatriz Samorano escorts former First Lady Barbara Bush after she was interviewed on KPCC’s Larry Mantle show, “Air Talk." She is on tour to promote her new book, “Barbara Bush; A Memoir.” ENRIQUE ARMENDARIZ/ THE COURIER Barbara Bush visits PCC ByMECHELLE REA COURIER STAFF WRITER Former first lady Barbara Bush visited the PCC campus last Wednesday for a 50-minutc interview on the KPCC-FM pro- gram“AirTalk.” Shediscussed her new book, “Barbara Bush; A Memoir,” with host Larry Mantle, and answered callers’ questions about her private life and her feelings toward the Clinton administration. When comparing the differ¬ ence between the Clinton ad¬ ministration, especially the role of the first lady, Bush describes her relationship with Hillary Clinton as OK, and feels that criticism of her is unfair. “I think the job is the best job in America so I don’t empathize but she’s where she wants to be, where she put herself.” Bush emphasized that she and her husband George are still very committed to public service after leaving the White House. “We are both speaking around the country, I talk about illiteracy,” Bush said. The former firstlady Bush feels that parents are not doing their job in the fight against illiteracy. “There are 90 million Americans who are functionally illiterate in our country today. They are un¬ employable. You copy your par¬ ents, if you don’t see your mother and father reading, why should you?” Family literacy is some¬ thing that affects most Americans and she feels this project is of great importance. Adjusting to being in the pub¬ lic eye was a struggle for the former first lady. “The damdest thing happens to you the day your husband becomes president-elect. Suddenly a nice, old housewife’s every word is considered news¬ worthy and that really is a sur¬ prise,” Bush said. Reflecting back two years ago to the defeat of her husband in the 1992 Presidential election, she said, “They may not have voted for him butl don’t feel there’sany animosity. They justchose some¬ one else. I found that very com¬ forting.” Bush was disappointed in the outcome of the election because she felt her husband should have been re-elected despite a few doubts. “I’m the original pessi¬ mist. Any election we’d won was not because I thought we were go¬ ing to win it. Then I’d think, of course he’s going to win, he’s by far the best man.” On the issue of “family values” Bush feels that there has been enough talk, now some action must be taken. “I think we’ve got to get out and work on it now. We need to be sure our own children are well taken care of, and then I think, you have to look to your neighbors.” Bush will continue touring the country promoting her book which is based on the journal that she kept during her years in public service. It describes her relationships with other first ladies, her life in the White House and her personal fam¬ ily life. Mantle was “thrilled” about his interview with the former first lady. “ I love it. History is present at PCC,” ManUe said. KPCC budget cuts cause staff changes By DENIS WANG COURIER STAFF WRITER A $ 1 00,000 discrepancy between the college’s official books and KPCC-FM’ s unofficial books has caused a reduction in the work hours of the part-time staff of the public radio station located at PCC. The shortage, which the station execu¬ tives call a budget cut, did not affect the five permanent full-time staff members. Rod Foster, general manager of KPCC, said that the affected em¬ ployees will have fewer hours while others will work on a volunteer ba¬ sis. Those employees responded to him in a professional and coopera¬ tive way, he said. According to Foster, the station does not currently suffer from a shortfall in funds but now operates on a balanced budget. Foster and KPCC staff members worked together with Jon Clute, head of the fiscal services, and adopted a new budget. This new budget shows projected income to exceed expen¬ ditures, Foster said. The Pasadena Star News reported last week that two KPCC staff mem¬ bers were laid off. In a similar story the Los Angeles Times stated that KPCC executives fired a promotions employee. Foster asserted that the stories were inaccurate. These ar- Please see KPCC, Page3 STUDENT GOVERNMENT Board unanimously fills seven positions By GILBERT RIVERA COURIER STAFF WRITER The understaffed Associated Stu¬ dents (AS) voted to approve appoint¬ ments for members of the supreme council, a commissioner and the long awaited vacant position of vice-presi¬ dent of academic affairs during last Monday’s board meeting. In addition, the board voted to adopt a policy that would require clubs to do service work when they receive funds from the AS. An ap¬ pointment for the coordinator of ex¬ ternal affairs position scheduled for voting last Monday, however, had to be put on hold. Five new members of the supreme council were named after the board approved of AS President Robert Bowman’s appointments. Those members were Shontek Clay, Kevin Fullen, Shelly Johnson, Jaime Del Raza and Chrystal Smith. The su¬ preme council consistsof seven mem¬ bers, but only five students applied. The board will fill the two remaining positions next Monday. “I’m glad that we have most of those positions filled,” said Cesar Loera, coordinator of cultural af¬ fairs. “The new members are really qualified and they all show that they are involved in school activities.” The supreme council acts as the judi¬ cial body of the board and oversees decisions made by the AS. The board also approved Bowman’s appointment of Rebekah Doughty asacommissioner. Doughty was the only candidate that applied for a commissioner position at the time and will have a choice to sit on any of the 16 available committees. The commissioner position requires them to be liaisons between instruc¬ tional departments and other cam¬ pus-wide committees. Devena Johnson, a candidate for Please see AS BOARD, Page 4 MEChA, AS sponsor rally against Proposition 187 By JOSE INOSTROZ COURIER STAFF WRITER With an adamant no on Proposition 187, which is on the Nov. 8, ballot the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanos de Aztlan (MEChA) club and the Associated Students (AS) spon¬ sored a forum against the measure Thursday Sept. 15. About 300 attentive students listened as Roberto M. Almanzan, community affairs assistant for the Mexican American Legal and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and George Cervantes, a student activist, high¬ lighted the measure’s consequences. Almanzan said the proposition was a response by those who felt that undocu¬ mented immigrants contribute to the state’s poor economy. Personal injury and damage caused by criminal conduct of undocumented immi¬ grants deserves a right of protection, accord¬ ing to those who favor the proposition. “The proponents of 187 are really doing a big selling. They say, ‘Oh my God, we have this huge immigration crisis’,” said Almanzan. “I’m not really here to argue about immigration, I’m here to tell you how bad 187 is.” Supporters are proposing that 187 will stop immigrants from receiving health care benefits, education, and social services, ex¬ plained Almanzan. Proposition 1 87 was co-authored by Alan Melson, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from 1982 to 1989 and Harold Ezell, western regional commissioner of the INS from 1983 to 1989. According to Almanzan, Nelson was a lob¬ byist for the Federation for American Immi¬ gration Reform (FAIR). Almanzan added that backers received funding from the Pioneer Fund, an eastern sea-board organization which he described as a white supremacy group that gives money to different organization so they can do scientific studies. Almanzan tied this to law enforcement. “It’s going to give law enforcement the legal right to stop anyone who is “suspected” of being an illegal alien. But there is no language in the original document that de¬ fines “suspect.” Whatdoesitmean? Is it the way you speak? The color of your skin? There will be no protection,” Almanzan explained. He added that it would make people more afraid because not only could they be ar¬ rested for something, but the police could also be required to turn them in to the INS. Victims would not report crime for fear of being reported to the INS. Almanzan continued by saying that the same thing would happen in the area of social services. “For one thing, it is going to require these professionals to become INS agents. They are going to be required by law, to turn immigrants suspected of being undocu¬ mented,” he said. “When you go in for services, you are going to need proof. If you don’t have the proof, you are going to be denied services.” In health care, doctors and nurses would break confidentiality laws with patients and would be required to report suspected pa¬ tients to the INS. Health care services would be denied to those who really need these services. Immunization of children would be denied as well. “If we have children who are not immu¬ nized and people without proper health care, what is going to happen?” said Almanzan. Public education from K-12 and post¬ secondary education would also be denied for undocumented students regardless of residency proof. “This is in direct violation of federal laws such as the Federal Education and Rights Privacy Act resulting in the loss of funding to California of S2.3 billion per year from the federal government. Los Angeles alone would lose S450 million. Health care could also stand to lose S7 billion per year. The total cost to California would be S 1 5 billion in loss of monies which rounds out to $1,600 per family,” said Almanzan. He added that if the proposition passes, universities could lose funding from the government resulting in scholars fleeing to private institutions. Following Almanzan, activist Angel Cervantes of the Immigration Defense Orga¬ nization and organizer of Californians Against Proposition 187 spoke about actions students could take against the measure. He explained, “When we hear stuff like this, we get angry or we don ’ t know what to do about it. We go with our friends for lunch and we complain. There is a line that you cross from complaining to actually doing something,” he said. He also introduced students to the October Student Move¬ ment, a grassroots coalition of student organizations, which is planning teach-ins and marches against proposition 187 begin¬ ning Oct. 6. Robert Bowman, AS presi¬ dent said, “You have got to make a stand. I did, I felt really strong on this issue. We need to do something. It’s not right.” He added that through Oct. 1 1 , a massive voter registration drive will be undertaken on campus. “I hope the faculty will give us support. The Senate has given us support, the СТА and the FACC has given us support. We’re trying to get the whole school against this. If you don’t vote against this it won 4 happen,” Bowman said. He also said that PCC presently re¬ ceives $2.2 million which could be jeopar¬ dized by Proposition 187. “I think as written, it is too broad a proposition because it has conflicting is¬ sues,” said Drew Pruhs, philosophy major. “I think it needs to be rewritten to be effective. If the issue becomes one of who is a citizen SEFA SMITHART/THE COURIER Robert Almantan, MALDEF community affairs assistant, addresses a packed Harbeson Hall. or not, we’ll have a police state where if a cop wanted to abuse someone’s rights, they would have a right to do so. That is wrong. I think they should divide the issues, have one on social services and one on citizen¬ ship.” The measure qualified for the Nov. 8 ballot after more than 300,000 people signed a petition. }