Four bvtour
Homosexualitv vs.thechurch
The Boehm Gallery features art by four surreal artisits.
Is it okay for a church to fire its pastor for being homosexual?
i'
Men's Vollevball ii
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This year's team may make the playoffs, and more. SPORTS, page 10
OPINION, page 5
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT, page 6
TilE MONDAY,
FEB.
22,
1999
PALOMAR
COLLEGE
SAN
MARCOS,
CA
VOLUME
52,
NUMBER
13
Math requirements may increase for AA Tom Chambers Ed itor-in-Chief
Mikael Wiley / The 1\!le$l'Of><'
L.J. Thomas, Pastor of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, prayed over Palomar's Black History Month Events.
Education Secretary calls for better pay for teachers V. Dion Haynes Cp;;ege {ress
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Slates should introduce more stringen t lic ensin g requirements and better pay for teachers to boost the quality and quantity of professio nal s in the wake of nationwide shortages, U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley said Tuesday. In his sixth annua l State of American Education speec h, Riley told several thou sand ed ucators gathered at the campus of California State University in Long Beach that public schoo ls today enroll more students than ever, 53 million, but the ranks of qua! ified teachers are declining as veteran teachers retire and more lucrative careers draw young people away from the profession. With teacher shortages expected to reach 2 mi Ilion in the next
decade, Riley said, schools must find ways to attract qualified teachers and weed out ill-prepared ones. He said schools sho uld resist stopgap measures to fill vacancies, and he urged them to impo se a five -year moratorium on issuing emergency permits for teachers to instruct in areas in which they are not qualified . "Now. some say that this can't be done given the overwhelming number of yo ung people in our schools. They simply must have teachers , qualified or unqualified," Riley said. "But this view is based on making no changes in the current system. And that is what I am urging policy - makers to do. Change the system." Ri Icy, who has no authority over the stales but uses his position to encourage change, pro posed that sla tes introduc e thr ee lic e ns es to ensure th e qualifica tions of new teachers and to reward the expertise of veteran ones.
Wheredovoutit in? Students by Unit Load The following information about Palomar College's student popula tion was compiled in fall 1998
Unit Load
Head Count
Non-Credit
3,028
0.1-2.9
1,572
3.0-5.9
7,529
6.0-11.9
7,013
12+
6,093
Total
25,235
Currently, teacher certification runs the gamut: Some state s mere] y require teachers to take a certain number of courses in a given academic area , while others require that they pass stringen t cert ification exams and evaluat ion s. Under Riley's proposal, be ginning teachers would be required to pass written exams before obtaining an initial li cense for a three -year trial period, during which they would be expected Lo work close ly with more experi enced teachers and further develop their ski lls. After three years, the teachers could obtain a professional license by passing a comprehen sive eva luation of their teach ing techniques by more experienced educators as well as the principal. Riley recommended that sc hool s require teachers to renew the professional li cense periodi ca lly as a way to identify poor performers. "Vete ran teachers will te ll you that the people who are the hard est on a teacher who doesn't cut it are fellow teachers, " Riley said. "Teachers themselves must tak e an active role in imp rov in g th eir profession ." A third certificatio n, the advanced li cense , would be voluntary. Iss ued by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the license would go to experie nced teachers whose credentials and teaching methods are certified after a rigorous eva luation . Such teachers would command top pay. ¡'J ask public officials to recog nize - sooner rather than later that we aren' t go ing to be able to ge t good teachers on the cheap anymore ," Riley said. "That ' s just going to be a fact of lif e in the 2 1st Cent ury ..,
Students completing the requirements for an associate's degree may soon be taking higher level math courses at Palomar. The Mathematics Department is seeking approva l for an increase in the math requirement from Math 50 Elementary Algebra) to Math 60 (intermediate Algebra). In a letter to the Faculty Senate the Math Department cites rising standards in high school math requirements as a reason for the increase. San Diego City Schools, the Oceanside School District and San Marcos High School all require student s to pass Intermediate Algebra for a high school diploma. "Currently the mathematics requirement for the AA degree at Palomar is Math 50; this is less than what is now required for a high schoo l diploma," states the letter. Monika Brannick, a Palomar math instructor and one of the strongest proponents for the change, started invest igating the issue in March 1998. "I see so many students in my classes with a high school diplomar that doesn"t mean anything - they are still taking high school level class es," said Brannick. "'I don't want the AA to be meaningless."
Palomar's math requirement is not equal to the requirements in other subjects. "We arc a college institution, " said Annette Parker, chairperson of the Mathematics Department, "All our competencies for an AA degree are at a college leveL except for math." Brannick agrees, "We thought that math must get up to at least high school level to make the AA worth something." This change has met opposition from the Counseling Department. Their concern is that students will not complete the AA degree because of the Math 60 requiremen t. Brannick and the Mathematics Depa11rnenl disagree. "Math is only a barrier because we have let it be a barri er," Brannick said. ''When you get it, it builds confidence." Brannick feels raising the requirement will also help students go further with their education. "Many students get their AA degree and want to go further," she said. If students wanted to transfe r and receive their Bachelor's, they would only have to take one more math course. The proposal has already been approved by the Curric ulum Committee and will he voted on h} the Faculty Senate this week. If passed, it will go on to the President's Advisory Councile and then to the Governing Board.
.International student appointed to represent Palomar students things she wondered who represented their voices. "If I did not do anyth ing and just complained, nobody would listen," she said. "T wanted to be a representative of exchange students," she added. ASG held many events last semester and it caught her attention. She started wondering who was behind these events. "I want ed to be a part of them. I wanted to do some thin g," she exp lain ed. Nishida expects to accomp l ish many things and is enth usiast ic about being a senator. One of the things she wants to do is to have a stu dent 's opinion box so that ~tudents will know they can bring their opinions to the ASG. "[ want students to feel that they are part of the ASG. All studen t are supposed to know that they are part of the ASG," she said. She mentioned that she wanted to have more even ts in the cafeter ia and let the students know what the student government is doing . "l want to encourage students to pay more attention to events the we (the ASG) try to hold." Keiko Nishida Mikael WileJ I The Telescope Nishida be! ieves that while there arc many international students at Palomar College, their voices are seldom brought to the Rumiko Takeya Staff Writer ASG. "I want students to come to the ASG office and speak out whatever they feel so that we will A student from Japan was offically appointed as know," she said. a senator at the Feb. 3 Associated Student "I'll try to do my best as a senator. l want more Government (ASG) meeting a nd she is the seco nd st udents to be involv ed in the ASG," she said." Japanese student who is involved in ASG since 1990. Keiko Nishida ha s been a student at Palomar for l wo years majoring in mass com munication . Besides acting as an ASG senator, she is also the secretary of service points in Alpha Gamma Sigma, a state honor society . Nishida is also a member of Phi Thera Kappa, an international community co llege honor soc iety. "I want to be a voice for stu dents and a connection between the students and ASG ," Nishida said . She has a lot of international stud en t friends and she always heard their comp laint s about school, the cafeteria and parking. Mikael Wiley/ The Telescove Whenever she heard these Keiko Nishida is sworn in by ASG president Xavier E. Corona