Christine MichaelsEditor-in-Chief

The Board of Trustees declined to attend an Academic Senate-run Town Hall in a letter sent out to the entire campus, arguing that the meeting is redundant.

The Academic Senate Ad Hoc Committee for Town Halls, headed by senators Melissa Mi-chelson, Yolanda McKay, David Cuatt, Kristin Pilon and Martha House, invited the board earlier this year to attend its Town Hall in April.

Michelson sent out an invi-tation to both the board and Rocha on Feb. 26 with the inten-tion of having an open dialogue among college constituents.

VOLUME 109 ISSUE 7 ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM March 6, 2014

CO

URI

ERPA

SA

DE

NA

C

ITY

C

OLL

EG

ETh

e in

dep

end

ent

stu

den

t vo

ice

of

PC

C. S

ervi

ng

Pas

aden

a

sin

ce 1

91

5

SPEAK OUT!

Do you think E-Cigarettes should

be banned in Los Angeles?

Vote atPccCourier.com

SECRET MENUS

BIG JAZZ

Discover the secret menus that surround the

campus.

Big band jazz ignites the Quad with

explosive vocals.

PAGE 7>>

PAGE 6>>

INSIDE:

HOOP DREAMS DASHED

Billy Skelly/CourierAverie-Alice Guzman (25) watches the clock as it with seconds left in the playoff game against Long Beach City College on Wednesday. The men’s basketball team also lost its playoff game against Chaffey College last night to end its season.

Video still courtesy of Faculty Association President Mark Rocha and Academic Senate President Eduar-do Cairo talk about issues at the CAPM meeting on Monday.

CAPM dispute resolved Board rebuffs town hall invite

Kristina Wedseltoft and Philip McCormickStaff Writers

For the first time this academ-ic year, the Council on Aca-demic and Professional Matters (CAPM) met after an ongoing dispute between President Mark Rocha and the Academic Senate about whether the meeting was subject to the Brown Act and thus open to the public.

“We only went back because the administration turned it into a Brown Act meeting,” Academ-ic Senate Treasurer Daniel Haley said. “There were some issues put on the table and we are off to a good start.”

Mary Thompson, adminis-trative assistant to the board, explained that because CAPM was created by board policy it is covered by the Brown Act and is subject to public notice and open for all to attend. In an email to the senate, Rocha also said that he agrees the meeting must be open to the public.

CAPM is a forum for discus-sion and mutual agreement. It is the primary communication mechanism between the faculty, administration, and the Board of Trustees.

“I’m happy about the turn-out,” Haley said. “A lot of faculty showed up to support the senate.”

Haley said the next CAPM meeting would be on March 31.

Once the meeting started, the

senate and Rocha debated the origins of $400,000 in funding now available to faculty under the Student Access to Success Initiative (SASI).

Rocha said during the meet-ing that the discussion of SASI funds goes back “into ancient history.” In Dec. 2010, on Pres-ident Rocha’s recommendation to the administration, the Board of Trustees set aside $1 million

Christine MichaelsEditor-in-Chief

The college will distribute a staff-wide campus climate survey on March 19 designed to mea-sure the quality of the school’s workplace, according to college officials.

An independent company, Modern Think, which has worked with over 300 colleges in a standardized questionnaire called “Great Colleges To Work For”, will conduct the survey. Crystal Kollross, interim director of institutional effectiveness, is working closely with Modern Think and emphasized the stan-

dardization of the survey.“Every 300 colleges that gets

the survey gets the same one,” she said. “And that’s beneficial. It gives us a benchmark to look at how do we score compared to other colleges. I like something to benchmark ourselves against.”

According to the Modern Think survey website, chroni-clegreatcolleges.com, more than 45,000 employees in colleges across the country have already taken the standardized survey.

Modern Think also conduct-ed the 2011 campus climate survey on campus, according to Kollross.

However, according to some

faculty members, such as ESL instructor and member of the Academic Senate survey com-mittee Melissa Michelson, the survey should have staff involve-ment.

“How come we were not asked to work on questions for the survey?” she asked. “[Faculty was given] no input to decide which questions to gather [for the upcoming survey].”

Kollross explained that the administration had no involve-ment other than changing the name of the survey and adjust-ing employee demographics.

“I find that to be very, very interesting. It’s not like I was

involved,” Kollross said. “It’s a standard survey that’s adminis-tered so it’s not like I in any way was able to modify the ques-tions.”

Kollross described many ques-tions on the survey as “hard hit-ting,” and ranging on topics such as leadership efficiency, overall satisfaction in the workplace environment, and satisfaction of employee benefits.

The administration plans to have Modern Think present the results of the survey after it is completed to give feedback and analytics regarding the data. The survey deadline is scheduled for April 4.

TOWN HALL page 6

CAPM page 7

School approves independent climate survey

Tiffany RoeslerAsst. Online Editor

“It’s a snow day,” said Su-perintendent President Mark Rocha in an email sent out to PCC faculty and staff on Friday morning.

A public service announce-ment was also sent out, warning of flash floods in Azusa, Mon-rovia, and Glendora residents. Hours later PCC closed its main campus along with the Rose-mead campus and Community Education Center.

Students, both happy and confused, were asked to empty out buildings.

“We basically closed down campus to err out the side of caution,” said Interim Direc-tor of Public Relations Valerie Wardlaw.

“We’ve been listening to the weather forecast so we don’t want to have our students have to travel back and fourth, [so] we’re locking the doors [and] turning off the lights.”

All of Friday’s sports events were postponed, including the playoff rounds for both the men’s and women’s basketball

teams, which took place on Sat-urday evening. Both teams ended up successful in their competi-tions against Saddleback College and Canyon.

“From what we heard the traf-fic that they were going in the direction of what they would’ve traveled is going to be packed,” Wardlaw said. “So the police are saying if you don’t have to go on the highways don’t do it. So we’re not going to take the chances with our teams, know-ing that it will take them three hours to get somewhere.”

Some of the staff on campus was unaware that the campus would be closed or why. Athletic trainer Patty Gallego was one of them.

“Game on, I’ll be in at 2 p.m.,” she said in a text at 11:15 a.m. But just a few minutes later she was notified of the cancel-lation.

“Change that, games are can-celled too!” she wrote.

Every building was locked and shut by noon including the Shatford Library and the Piazza. One librarian started locking the doors of the library right at noon and told perplexed stu-

dents that they had to shut down the library for reasons she didn’t know of at the moment.

The I-8 Food Services and the catering department, which started its preparation at 5:30 a.m., didn’t receive an email until 9 a.m.

I-8’s catering Manager, Pai Pispratuang, informed Terry Surin, the Piazza Food Count-er Manager, that they were to prepare for an early closing

due to the rain. Surin said they were able to save some of the chopped vegetables that were prepared for the day’s events to use for events coming over the weekend.

The Piazza only had a few hours to sell food.

The only building that remained open was the Center for the Arts Building, which featured the musical theatre pro-duction of Stephen Sondheim’s

“Company” at 8 p.m. in Center for the Arts Theatre. The Pame-la L. Girard Guest Artist/Master Class Series also continued its show at 8 p.m. in the Westerbeck Recital Hall.

“Now the performances are still going on.

Our Theater Arts department decided not to cancel,” Wardlaw said. “The show must go on.”

-Additional reporting by Monique LeBleu

John Peters IIAsst. News Editor

The Academic Senate will write a letter to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office supporting the imple-mentation of a new baccalaure-ate degree program at PCC.

Dr. Dianne S. Moore, director of nursing, said if California Senate Bill SB850 passes in the assembly, community colleges could participate in an 8-year pi-lot project to offer one baccalau-reate degree in one in-demand major.

“Community colleges can pro-vide a quality baccalaureate edu-cation with lower costs to their students than a traditional 4-year university, enabling place-bound local students the opportunity to earn the baccalaureate degree needed for new job opportu-nities and promotion,” the bill states.

Senator Kaitzer Puglia said community colleges in 21 other states already offer bachelor’s degrees.

“New York was one of the first states allowing community colleges to offer degrees as early as 1970,”she said.

Being the Director of Nursing at PCC, Moore hopes that if the legislation passes and PCC participates in the program, a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN) would be the program chosen by PCC.

“(PCC) just lost a clinical con-tract with Methodist Hospital because we do not offer a BSN,” Moore said. “Our (nursing) students are increasingly having difficulty with gaining employ-

ment in some of the acute care facilities because they are miss-ing bachelor’s degrees.”

Moore added that the Cal States and UCs are unable to meet the demands for nursing students.

“The 4-year colleges sim-ply cannot produce BSNs fast enough,” Moore said. “That is one of the reasons why the legis-lation is going through and why they are pushing for the BSNs.”

The Institute of Medicine recommends that the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree increase to 80 percent by 2020.

Moore said PCC students will have better clinical opportuni-ties, job placement, and have the ability to move on to masters and doctoral programs by ob-taining a BSN.

Facilities will have to be up-graded, administrative support

added, and faculty with doc-torates hired for some upper division classes.

“The money will come from this legislation, the grant and the Chancellor’s office,” Moore said. “It will not come from any funds that are currently here. It will add money to the operations for Pasadena.”

She added that community colleges might change the tuition for upper division classes, but it won’t be anywhere near the $330 per unit that state schools charge.

According to LegiScan, the bill is currently in the Senate Education Committee.

“If all (the legislation and ap-provals) are fast-tracked through, like we all pray it would, we may be able to admit by Spring/Fall 2015,” Moore said.

Concepcion Gonzalez/CourierDr. Dianne S. Moore, director of nursing, asking for a letter of support to pass SB850 allowing community colleges to offer bachelor programs, in the Creveling Lounge, on Feb. 24.

2 COURIER March 6, 2014NEWS

Campus closed due to rainy ‘snow day’

Senate supports potential bachelor’s degree programs

College moves towards online classesKristina WedseltoftStaff Writer

Three grants, all under the student success initiative and California statewide initiatives of distance education, are going to be put into place over the next three years and were discussed during a presentation at the Col-lege Council meeting last week by Interim Director of Distance Education, Leslie Tirapelle.

Tirapelle gathered all this information from a meeting in December where the initiatives were discussed from a technol-ogy standpoint, and expected effectiveness.

Under the online education initiative, $16.9 million will be given at one time and $10 million will be given on going to support these initiatives.

“The mission of Distance Education is to promote student access and success by integrating programs and services of the California community colleges using technology mediated instruction and to develop and promote effective distance learning paradigms,” a statement from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office reads.

The online education initiative would allow students to take online courses through another community college but their home college would still receive the funds for the student taking the course. This initiative would use an existing online database, California Virtual Campus (CVC), which would be used as an online catalog. Colleges can

place selected courses in the course exchange and any student from any community college would have the accessibility to the class.

“This is important,” Rocha said. “Even if our student took their course we can still get paid for it because the student is ours.”

The education planning ini-tiative would focus on creating a centralized education plan. This would include a new electronic transcript system and allow for a common assessment. This common assessment would allow for a shared system with other community colleges where assessment tests could be transferred between colleges. This will hopefully lead to the creation of a common system along with the new California Community College (CCC) Apply that will identify students more efficiently.

This effort to create a cen-tralized education plan has a timeline to be done by the end of 2015-2016.

“That’s not a lot of time, they’re under very tight dead-lines,” Tirapelle said.

Many members of the College Council wondered how priority registration would be affected since PCC is in the middle of changing its priority registration process.

“The secret sauce, a new student identifier that will be separate from the K-12 with the new CCC apply,” Tirapelle said. “Everything I’ve talked about is going to end up in a single portal, that will provide an abun-dance of access and resources.”

Daniel Nerio/CourierMonitors at the Center for the Arts building announce the campus closure on Friday.

OPINION

Courier2012 JACC

General Excellence Award-Winner

Note to ReadersLetters to the Editor

The Courier welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be about 300

words and may be edited by Courier staff. All letters must contain your

full name and a correct daytime phone number. Letters can be delivered

to the Courier office in CC 208 or sent by email to

raymondjbernal@gmail.com

CorrectionsThe Courier staff endeavors to ensure accuracy in all aspects of its

reporting. If you believe we have made an error, please contact us at

(626) 585-7130 or via email to michaels.courier@gmail.com

COURIERMarch 06, 2014

ONLINE POLL RESULTSOnline, we asked: Do you think animal testing should be banned?

Results as of 5 p.m. Wednesday:

Yes, it’s cruelty: 82 % No, it keeps products cheap: 12 % Who cares, they’re just animals: 6 %

Vote at PccCourier.com

Editor-in-Chief

Christine Michaels

Managing Editor

Philip McCormick

Asst. News EditorJohn Peters II

Online Editor

Justin Clay

Asst. Online EditorsTiffany Roesler, Aerika Dave

Opinion Editor

Raymond Bernal

Asst. Opinion EditorTiffany Herrera

A&E Editor

Samantha Molina

Asst. A&E EditorLucy Patrikian

Features Editor

Aubrey Quezada

Asst. Features Editor

Monique LeBleu

Lifestyle Editor

Paul Ochoa

Asst. Lifestyle Editor

Janel Leonard

Sports Editor

Daron Grandberry

Asst. Sports Editor

Andrew Salmi

Photo Editor

Antonio Gandara

Asst. Photo Editor

Nagisa Mihara

Online Photo Editor

Benjamin Simpson

Scene Editor

Billy Skelly

Social Media EditorConcepcion Gonzales

Staff Writers: Jessica Arceo, Matthew Kiewiet, Emma Koffroth, Mary Nurrenbern, Robert Tovar, Kristina Wedseltoft

Staff Photographers: Joseph Adajar, Josh Balmadrid, Jorell Brittenum, Victoria De La Torre, Andrew French, Chris Martinez, Mary Nurrenbern, Barney Soto, Daniel Valencia, Rocio Vera, Charles Winners

Faculty Adviser

Nathan McIntire

Photography AdviserTim Berger

Advertising Coordinator

Daniel Nerio

The Courier is published weekly by the Pasadena City College Journalism Department and is a free-speech forum. Editorials and comments are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the institution and its administration, student government or that of the Pasadena Area Community College District. The Courier is written and produced as a learning experience for student writers, photographers and editors in the Journalism Depart-ment.

Phone:(626) 585-7130

Fax:(626) 585-7971

Advertising(626) 585-7979

Office:1570 E. Colorado Blvd.,

CC-208 Pasadena, CA 91106-3215

© Copyright 2014 Courier.All rights Reserved.

Is banning animal testing necessary?

CONPRO

VOICES:

“No, Dr. Rocha was a drama queen about some rain.”

Danielle Rico,music

“I get it was for safety reasons but the rain did calm down. It wasn’t like there was

snow.”Lizette Lupercio,

psychology

“I was already on campus. It was

unnecessary to close down the campus.”

Ryan Catalasan,electric engineering

“No because this is California and we have unexpected

weather.”

Angelica Crenshaw,sociology

“I understand for safety reasons it makes sense but it wasn’t that

bad. It was only an inch of rain.”

Daniel Salazar,music

“It wasn’t raining that hard. It’s only Los

Angeles rain.”Ryan

Navarrete-Fonseca,Chicano studies and

psychology

“I think the hype of the rain affected the administration’s decision to close the

campus.”Annie Loau,psychology

“No because they announced it too late. They should have

closed it in the beginning of the day.”

Azariah Rivera,education

“I could see if it was a windstorm like we’ve had in the past, but it’s only rain. It’s

not going to kill you.” Dylan Lopez,

business

“No, it’s rain! I understand if it were

the winds of 2011, but it’s rain. Rain is nice.”

Arthur Martinez,music

Reporting by: Paul Ochoa Photos by: Mary Nurrenbern

Tiffany HerreraAsst. Opinion Editor

Animal testing is not just morally wrong; it’s cruel.

If people offer themselves up as test subjects, it’s a choice and can easily be undone by walking away. But an animal doesn’t have that freedom to walk away if the results are uncomfortable or unbearable for them.

According to the Humane Society (HS) website, companies that test on animals use several common tests on mice, rats, rab-bits, and guinea pigs. The tests include skin and eye irritation tests, repeated force-feeding studies that can last for months, and “lethal dose” tests.

The skin and eye irritation tests are when chemicals are rubbed directly on the animal’s shaved skin and when they are dripped into the eyes of a re-strained animal. This is all done without any pain relief.

The force-feeding studies watch for signs of general illness or specific health problems, such as cancer.

“Lethal dose” tests, which are widely condemned, are when animals are forced to swallow

large amounts of chemicals in order to determine what dose causes death.

“At the end of a test the animals are killed, normally by asphyxiation, neck-breaking, or decapitation,” the HS website states. “Pain relief is not provid-ed. In the United States, a large percentage of the animals used in such testing (such as labora-tory-bred rats and mice) are not counted in official statistics and receive no protection under the Animal Welfare Act.”

People for the Ethical Treat-ment of Animals (PETA) under-mines the argument that if we didn’t use animals, we’d have to test new drugs on people.“The fact is that we already do test new drugs on people. No matter how many animal tests are un-dertaken, someone will always be the first human to be tested on,” PETA said.

With other alternatives out there, testing on animals is just lazy.

While animals should never be put before people, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have some rights.

Animals are living creatures that do not deserve to be abused and tortured.

Matthew KiewietStaff Writer

It is impossible to argue that animal testing is 100 percent

flawless. It only takes a few clicks on

any Internet search engine to find proof that animals are mistreated every day.

However, completely banning animal testing is not the way to go.

Effective testing is definitely possible without inflicting harm on the subjects.

The Animal Welfare Act is the only federal law that places restrictions on what can and cannot be done with animal research.

The law provides no pro-tection for rats, mice, and birds, which make up about 90 percent of the species used for research, and hardly any protection for the species that it does cover.

For example, in 2004, a chim-panzee died from overheating because of subpar ventilation in his cage while being held at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center.

The USDA fined the center

$1,375—a slap on the wrist. In 2008, the AWA raised the

maximum fine per violation to $10,000.

These amounts are simply inconsequential, especially for facilities that rake in millions of dollars annually.

The AWA is also incredibly vague.

It does not specify what ani-mals can or cannot be subjected to during experiments.

So what exactly is being checked during the required annual inspections?

This is an issue that simply needs stricter regulations.

It does not take heavy scru-tiny to see the areas that need improvement.

In addition to the weak, unintimidating punishments for the minimal amount of regula-tions that currently exist, there are only 115 USDA inspectors to oversee close to 8,000 testing facilities.

An all-out ban on animal testing would work about as well as the War on Drugs, or Prohibition.

If it is completely outlawed, manufacturers will just find somewhere else where they can test their products on animals.

Do you think the campus shouldv’e closed due to rain?

3

SCENECOURIER COURIERMarch 6, 2014 5 4

Emma KoffrothStaff Writer

For the last few years Jennifer Perez has been going to local music shows and hunting down the original and unique sounds of underground musicians so she can broadcast them on her Lancer Radio show “The Spazmaster’s Domain” every Friday at 10 p.m.

Perez first started the program about seven years ago and then came up with the concept of “The Spazmaster’s Domain,” but then she got pregnant, got married and took time off. After all of that she came back into the program and hit the ground running, specifically playing around with Lancer Radio’s catch phrase: “Pasadena campus sound.” The show was inspired by the concept of shaping the sound of Pasadena City Col-lege, an idea she had after watching the documentary “Before the Music Dies” in Sarah Barker’s class.

“It goes into great depths about how the radio industry is ruining the artist-ry behind music and is stopping really original artists from surfacing,” Perez explained. “There is an entire community of artists that has been told that music is dead for a very long time, so I am going to be documenting and covering what happened after the music died.”

The excitement of originality that seems to have fled mainstream music is what she lives for, and she gleefully recalls some of the more unique bands featured on the show.

“The thing I really remembered about The Hot MCs was that the keyboard-

ist didn’t have a stand,” she said. “He brought a shower chair, like one of those things that people use when they’re really old to take a shower. He found it, old and rusted on the street.”

This week’s performance on the show will feature the girl duo Girlpool, who just hit the local music scene a mere three months ago. Consisting of Harmony Tivi-dad and Cleo Tucker, they are a feminine force to be reckoned with who hold their own in a musical world that seems to favor men.

“Male dominated bands are widely more common than female dominated bands, and it’s a shame more women don’t feel as capable to play music,” Tividad said. “Male superiority in the music scene is one of the reasons why we started Girl-pool. We both felt like female-front bands were lacking and wanted to show other girls that they can do it too!”

Perez is holding her own as well. She has published books of poetry, and done live performances herself including rap-ping, singing and dancing. Making a com-mitment to herself that she’d perform her own music before 30, she had a show at an Echo Park venue called Lot 1 on her 30th birthday.

“It was hard. Immediately after that [performance] I was like, oh my God, I respect you guys so much more!” Perez said.

She is currently still taking courses at PCC and trying to finish up her math and sscience requirements despite having four certificates of achievement in the radio program. Spazmaster is truly the labor of love for her as she does not get paid.

Working on trying to make a living out of a notoriously difficult career path, Pe-rez has ideas for the creation of a media company in the works.

“Doing what artists do is not going to pay a lot of money in the long run,” Perez said. “At some point in time I do need

to figure out how to make a living at it because I have a daughter. The idea is to stick my finger in every pot, like managing the dance crew I’m in, putting on events and managing bands. ‘The Spazmaster’s Domain’ will ultimately be a hodge-podge of all of that.”

FEATURES March 6, 2014COURIER6

Spazmaster highlights true art in music

Benjamin Simpson/CourierJennifer Perez interviews the band Girlpool in the Lancer Radio sound studio on Feb. 26. “The Spazmaster’s Domain” airs on Lancer Radio on Friday nights from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Jazz Big Band showcases beautiful chaos TOWN HALL

“In a collegial effort to address this need, the Academic Senate invites you to participate as panelists,” the letter reads. “The theme is ‘campus cli-mate.’… The aim of the event is to fa-cilitate discussion of ideas and effective communication among our institution’s constituencies.”

A response written by board pres-ident Anthony Fellow stated that the board’s bi-weekly public meetings sufficed as town halls and that presi-dent Mark Rocha was the appropriate person to invite to the upcoming town hall. “Board bylaws governing the roles of the board and the superinten-dent-president assign all matters of shared governance and college opera-tions to the superintendent-president,” the letter reads. “Dr. Rocha has con-ducted a series of well attended school town hall meetings.”

Michelson was upset yet not shocked that the board declined its invitation. “I’m not surprised that the board members were unwilling to participate,” she said. “They didn’t participate in the Oct. 13 [town hall] either.”

The board also chastised senate members for conducting their own campus climate survey, calling it “dupli-cative and outside of any consultation or involvement of the Institutional Planning and Research Office.”

Michelson explained that the senate campus climate survey was not du-plicative, as it had questions from the college’s own campus climate survey, which was conducted in 2010 and sep-arate from Modern Think, along with questions regarding major discussion topics from last fall. The information gathered from the survey will be used as topics of discussion for the upcom-ing town hall, according to Michelson.

Emma KoffrothStaff Writer

A mess of auditory chaos preceded a performance by the Lancer Jazz Big Band led by Andrea Wilkerson outside the Cen-ter for the Arts building on Feb. 25.

Wilkerson, who presents herself as cool and collected amidst the pandemonium of rehearsal, commanded the respect of her class and the audience by frequently get-ting the crowd cheering for soloists when the show began. Considering there were five saxophonists, five trumpeters and four trombonists in the horn section alone seems like quite a feat to direct. In addition there was a bassist switching between a 5-string electric and an upright, two drum-mers, a percussionist, two guitarists, two pianists and three different singers that came up to sing solos.

“We always want to be sure that the band is prepared as they can be before a rehearsal or performance,” Wilkerson said. “It’s been a little bit of a challenge this year because we had the grand opening the first

two weeks of school, so it kind of cut into our rehearsal time. Making sure we have enough rehearsal time to get a clean per-formance in, it’s just time management.”

She was pleased with how the show went and rightly so as the attendance of students hovered around 100 at any given time. Her students seemed to be enjoying the attention and support from their peers as well.

Luis Caceres, playing saxophone, had a smooth solo in the band’s rendition of Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are.” Cace-res, who has been playing sax for 10 years, finds who you’re playing with to be a key factor in how you play.

“It’s good to have a good relationship with your players. That bond makes a bet-ter section,” Caceres said.

Creating the opportunity for all of her students to be a part of the musical com-munity is important to Wilkerson as well. During the performance the two drum-mers, pianists and guitar players switched off playing every other song.

“I hate to not let people have an oppor-tunity to play so I will let two equally gifted

people have a chance to play,” she said.A first for Wilkerson this semester is

having two female guitarists. Erika Takagi and Hansuk Cho switched off playing, except for the final piece “Jazz Police” in which both had impressive solos. Wilker-son spoke of them as very different but very wonderful musicians. She is confident that both will go on to have careers in music.

“I would like to become a profession-al musician and also a composer for TV shows, film or video games,” Takagi said of her future plans. “I also would like to teach guitar and musicianship to younger generations.”

Wilkerson has high hopes for all of her students. She finds the final product of her class’ performances to be the most enjoy-able part of the process.

“When you hear the finished product it makes you feel like you’ve done your job,” she said. “We have a really good record of our students going on to 4-year schools, conservatories and playing professionally. That’s also very rewarding.”

Continued from page 1

Victoria de la Torre/CourierThe Lancer Jazz Big Band performs in front of the Center for the Arts on Feb. 25 under Andrea Wilkerson direction.

Monique LeBleu Staff Writer

Special orders rarely upset the fast food and made-to-order power drink restaurants these days and off-the-menu ordering from so-called “secret menus” has become an art form fueled by word-of-mouth and online social networking.

Corporate franchises such as Starbuck’s, In-N-Out Burger, Jamba Juice and even mom and pop cafes like the Zephyr, are quick to embrace the growing popularity of off-menu ordering. Some secret menus are so well known that they are not really secret any more.

Alejandro Palma, a manager at the Starbuck’s across from PCC, said that off-menu items such as the Harry Potter inspired “Butter Beer,” the “Snicker Doodle,” the “Banana Cream Pie” and the “Horchata” have often been requested.

“Every hour, we get about five customers who ask for secret menu items,” Palma said. “And recently, because they go in fads, the most popular item is a Cot-ton Candy Frappuccino. That’s a really good one with Raspberry.”

Many secret menu items in-volve high doses of caffeine that

are often simple modifications to official items that Starbuck’s barista’s are trained to create.

Palma was not the least sur-prised to hear of the high-shot content of a “Liquid Cocaine,” which boasts four shots of espresso, equal shots vanilla syrup and milk.

“Four is not really a lot in our world!,” Palma laughs. “To give you an example, a Venti Iced Double Shot gets five shots of espresso. It’s just called a double shot, but it has five shots. We can make all these drinks, it’s just that we don’t get trained on them.

So, every week we’ll get one that we’ve never heard of and say ‘Well what is that?’ so they’ll look it up and find the recipe and then we’ll make them for them.”

At the In-N-Out Burger on Foothill Boulevard and Craig Avenue, the long drive-thru lines are unhampered by off-menu orders.

“Animal Style” will prompt that a beef patty is grilled with mustard, topped with pickles, to-mato, diced grilled onions and a slathering of the house “spread.” “Animal Fries” are similar, with french fries covered in melted

American cheese, the same grilled-until-caramelized onions and the spread.

Ashley Hamlin, psychology, said that many PCC students frequent the Jamba Juice bar on Lake Avenue where she works and order secret menu items.

“We get anywhere from 30-40 [students] every day,” said Ham-lin, noting that the most popular custom drink is the “White Gummy Bear” made with peach juice, mango, soy milk, raspber-ry, lime, pineapple and orange sherbert.

Other creative sounding items

are the “Peanut Butter and Jelly,” the “Sour Patch Kids”—with a tart mix of four sherberts, blue-berries and lemonade—and the “Skittles,” according to hackthe-menu.com.

Britney Cimmino, a PCC busi-ness major and a manager at the Zephyr Coffee House and Art Gallery on Colorado Boulevard and Sierra Madre Boulevard, is also frequented by PCC students who come for the coffee, teas, power drinks and sweet and savory crepe dishes, as well as to enjoy the hookah.

“We pretty much get the younger crowd, so people come to study and the drinks are just a plus,” Cimmino said. “The Dirty Chai, which is a chai latte with a shot of espresso, is very popular.”

She also mentioned the high-octane drink, the “Redbull Fusion,” which is a popular modification to a menu item called “The Italian Soda,” which replaces Crystal Geyser soda with the energy drink Red Bull.

But even with the origins of most secret menu items still unknown, the creative spirit lives on in a PCC’s student’s quest to meet hunger, thirst and study fatigue head on.

LIFESTYLEMarch 6, 2014 COURIER 7

 

Lucky Baldwins Trappiste 1770 E. Colorado Blvd.

626-844-0447 Bring in this ad with your PCC Student ID

and receive 10% off your bill! Free Wifi!

Popularity of secret menus increases

Billy Beans Skelly/CourierSecret menu items from In-N-Out Burger are the animal fries, left, and the 4x4 burger, right.

Academy Awards lost on young viewersJustin Clay Online Editor

The Academy Awards is Hollywood’s annual celebration of the best films of the previous year.

As publicized as the event is, many potential viewers are not excited about the film industries biggest night.

According to the entertain-ment magazine Variety, the 2014 Academy Awards ceremony hit a 10-year high in viewership but fell relatively flat among the coveted 18-49-age bracket.

The Los Angeles times report-ed last week that the median age for Oscar viewers has risen from 42 in 1993 to 53 in 2012.

What is it about the Academy Awards that repels the younger demographic?

Many in the PCC commu-nity have their own opinions about the biggest night in show business. Many believe there is a disconnect between the films that people are watching and the films that the Academy selects for judgment.

“The way people in this generation watches movies has changed,” says Eamon Conklin, photo lab manager. “In previous years, the only access had to movies was the theater. But now because of the Internet, younger people have access to smaller independent productions and the major award shows haven’t caught up yet.”

Many younger people don’t see the point of watching a three hour long ceremony when all of the highlights can just be re-capped after all of the pageantry and the media frenzy has ended.

“You can just see all of the clips and highlights on social me-dia sites, that’s what I did,” said Christiae Butron, biology.

Butron also believes that the Academy has lost its touch when it comes to grabbing the attention of the average movie watcher.

“Some of the best movies I have ever seen have been inde-pendent films and the Oscars haven’t recognized them because they weren’t from major stu-dios.”

James Lee, a film major, is another student that agrees that the Oscar presentation can’t hold up to the attention span of the modern day viewer.

“I feel as though it isn’t as accessible to younger viewers, I would rather watch the results on YouTube,” he says.

“The film industry doesn’t have the prestige that it once had, what the Academy rec-ognizes and what people are

watching aren’t necessarily the same,” said Lee.

The Academy Awards did manage to attract some new viewers this year that wanted to see what all of the fuss was about.

“I liked it, I usually don’t watch the awards and I wanted to see how it went,” said Sergio Herrera, theater arts.

Herrera says that people of today’s generation have so many other distractions that the Oscars just don’t tend to appeal to them.

“Young people are too busy doing other things like social-izing, school work and being employed. Many people don’t see the Oscars as being significant to their lives,” Herrera said.

Many believe that the Acade-my Awards will have to do a lot in order to be able to once again reach todays youth.

“It’s tough to change some-thing that hasn’t changed in the last 80 years or so,” said Conklin.

Nagisa Mihara/CourierStudents prefer to watch highlights of the Academy Awards online instead of watching all of it live.

for SASI grants. The board then authorized an additional $400,000 for SASI grants in a recommendation from Presi-dent Rocha.

“We’d love to get this money out to work based on your rec-ommendations,” Rocha said.

But Academic Senate Pres-ident Eduardo Caíro said he is concerned about where the money came from and intimat-ed that there might be “strings attached to the money.”

“Where did it come from?” Caíro asked. “Nobody from the senate asked the board for the money.”

Robert Miller, Senior Vice President and Assistant Su-perintendent of Business and College Services, has expressed concerns about the budget but tried to explain where the $400,000 came from.

“The original purpose [of SASI] was research and de-velopment innovations [such as] first year experience and pathways.

Once these dollars are invested and if in fact they are successful, then we try to institutionalize these so we can see where we’re going in the

budget.”The board funded the addi-

tional money because they felt there was more leeway in the budget that would allow for extra allocations to help faculty work on worthy projects, Miller said.

“I don’t think anyone from the academic senate asked for the money. I don’t think the administration said here’s the money,” Robert Bell, Senior Vice President and Assistant Superintendent said.

“Rocha recommended to the board [that they] allocate more money to the faculty for professional development and the best way to facilitate that is through the Academic Senate.”

“I’m still more than happy to get this money granted out to the faculty by the end of this year, so we can work on it for next year,” Rocha said.

Continued from page 1CAPM

STAY UP TO D

ATE WITH YOUR PCC N

EWS.

@

www.p

c cc o u r i e

r.com

@STAY

U

P TO DATE WITH YO

UR PCC NEWS.

ww

w.p

ccco ur i e

r.co

m

Daron Grandberry and Benjamin SimpsonStaff Writers

Despite a valiant effort to come back against fourth-seeded Chaffey College, the Lancers came up short down the stretch as they lost 79-71 in the third round of the 2014 CCCAA Men’s Basketball Southern California Regional playoff tournament. The defeat ended PCC’s season on the road in Rancho Cucamonga.

“I’m very proud of the guys for their season,” said head coach Michael Swanegan. “We held tough with the No. 4 seed. We just could not get it done at the end.”

Down 34-27 at the half, the Lancers managed to come back to tie the score at 59 with 7:08 remain-ing in the second half.

Sophomore forward Taj Spencer led all scorers with 25 points on 9 of 19 shooting, also adding a game-high 14 rebounds on the night.

“We had plenty of opportunities to win the game but we could not capitalize on our shots,” said Spencer. “We could not get enough stops.”

Outside of Spencer, the Lancers only had one other player score in double figures. Sophomore guard Jeffrey Dockett scored 10 points on 4 of 11 shooting. Dockett also added three rebounds and three assists.

Sophomore forward Rashad Smith, who scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds, was clearly disappointed with his team’s loss.

“I’m sick, tired and I want to go home,” said Smith. “We turned the ball over in crucial situa-tions and got out-rebounded at times.”

The Lancers reached the third round by beat-ing Saddleback College by the score of 53-49 on Saturday, giving them their first road playoff win in 20 years. The last time the Lancers won a road playoff game was when they were a No. 13 seed and defeated both Southwestern and Cypress in the 1994 regionals.

The Lancers began the game with an early 14-4 lead, but the Gauchos came back to take the 24-22 lead at halftime. In the second half, Saddleback jumped out to a 37-26 lead with 12:02 left, but the Lancers would not go down without a fight.

The teams traded baskets until Dockett hit a jumper and picked up a foul, making the free throw to give the Lancers the lead for good, 51-49, with 28 seconds remaining.

The Lancers were led in scoring by freshman guard Adrian Miles with 14 points, including three 3-point field goals. Second-year forward Rashad Smith added 12 points and sophomore forward Taj Spencer added 10 points, despite being in foul trouble.

Pasadena men’s basketball finished the 2013-2014 season with a very respectable 21-10 record.

~Staff writer Andrew Salmi contributed to the story.

SPORTSCOURIER March 6, 20148

Women’s basketball upset at home

Christopher Martinez/CourierSophomore sprinter Breanna Clark was named the Courier Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 24 through March 3. At the Cerritos Invitational, Clark won the 100M for the second consecutive year with a time of 12.40.

Daron GrandberrySports Editor

Despite last second heroics from sophomore guard Skai Thompson, one missed free-throw end-ed the Lancers women’s basketball season.

The No. 4-seed Lancers (22-8) were upset by South Coast South rivals Long Beach City College, 64-62, but they had an opportunity to even the score at the very end.

Thompson had the chance to tie the game with a free throw when she was fouled after scoring on a lay-up with 3.2 seconds left in the game. But her shot from the charity stripe bounced off the back of the rim, sealing the Lancers’ fate.

“We fought hard,” Dillard added. “Our ladies shouldn’t hang their heads. This season has been a long rollercoaster ride. I’m very proud of our girls, we stepped when we needed to but tonight wasn’t enough.”

Despite the game-sealing miss, Thompson was the leading scorer for the Lancers. Thompson fin-ished the game with a team-high 23 points and five rebounds, including five 3-point field goals.

“Skai played an amazing game,” assistant coach La’Nette Dillard said. “Skai stepped up and had the best game she’s had all season long. I’m very impressed with Skai.”

Sophomore center Kaitlyn Parks recorded a double-double in her final game, scoring 14 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore guard Tyler Croc-kom added eight points and five assists, while letterman point guard Desiree Loving added six points and a team-high 10 assists before injuring her ankle with five seconds remaining in the game.

The Lancers advanced to the third round of the playoffs after defeating College of the Canyons on Saturday. when six players scored in double figures.

Sophomores Tyler Crockom and Brandi DuBose tied for team-high honors in points with 13.

Crockom was instrumental for the Lancers recording eight assists and six rebounds, but it was the rebounding and hustle of DuBose who helped the Lancers dominate COC. DuBose grabbed a Lancers playoff record with 18 rebounds.

Freshman guard Kiara Phillips scored 12 points off the bench and added four steals and four assists.

“Once we woke up, our defense was awesome,” Dillard added.

Sophomore guard Skai Thompson scored 11 points and seven rebounds, while standout point guard Desiree Loving added 11 points and four assists. Sophomore center Kaitlyn Parks added 10 points and nine rebounds.

For COC, Keiona Mathews scored 19 points, connecting on 7-of-17 field goals. The Lancers were relentless on defense, forcing the Cougars to turn the ball over 25 times. No other Cougars player reached double figures in scoring. Canyons closed the season at 13-15.

The Lancers got off to a slow start as COC jumped out to an early 18-9 advantage with 13:10 left in the first half. The Lancers would go on a 20-3 run to end the half and take an 18-point halftime lead, 44-26.

The Lancers shot 42 percent from the field (connecting on 32 of 76 attempts), and outre-bounded the Cougars 54-47.

In SCC play, the Lancers defeated the Vikings, 77-70, in overtime. That was the second time that the teams went to overtime as the Lancers also de-feated LBCC, 69-64, in the championship final of the Irvine Valley Tournament earlier in the season.

Billy Beans Skelly/CourierSophomore guard Tyler Crockom drives to the basket during the Lancers’ 64-62 upset to LBCC in the Hutto-Patterson Gym on Wednesday.

Men’s basketball ousted Player of the week

Benjamin Simpson/CourierBryce Clifton scores during the first half of the third round of the playoffs away against Chaffey College on Wednesday.