Monday, March 5,
2001- Palomar College- Volume 54, Number 16
Real diversity
God vs. science
Good strokes
Individuality is what true diversity is all about.
What answers does science give to age-old questions?
Swim teams finish strong at South of Border Relays.
Opinion, page 4
Entertainment, page 5
Sports, page 7
Palomar gets large technology grant Sean J. O'Connor The Telescope
. Palomar College has recently been awarded $11.5 million over a five year period for developing e-conferencing programs for California's 107 community colleges. This grant will enable Palomar to expand and develop the quality of its distant education programs in conjunction with California Community College Satellite Network or CCCSAT. "This is a big plus in the telecommunications age. We are definitely delighted to be designated for this award. It is tremendous credit to Sherry Hargraves and the
Educational-Television Department," said E stands for "electronic," just as it does William Flynn, dean of community learning in e-mail. Participants in the conference or class can interact with the speaker or resources. Hargraves is the manager of the Ed-TV with other participants in the conference. Department. Any number of participants can be E-conferencing will allow for ((We are definitely delighted involved in e-conmore interaction ferences regardless in Palomar's dis- to be designated for this of geography. People can look at tant education award." the same Powerprograms -William Flynn, dean of Point slide-lecture between professors and students. community learning resources and interact, even though they hunConferences dreds of miles away. which are now held in hotels or at sites away from the college can now be held It can help college personnel cut for a group, alone or individually. down on trips and time away from cam-
National champions!
pus. They won't have to book as many airline flights, or re-arrange schedules at the home campus or go to the expense of paying for hotel rooms . Hargraves said Palomar College recently had an e-conference with 60 people and nobody had to go anywhere. Eventually, all107 community colleges will have receive sites." Thus far, only 60 colleges have them installed. Having receive sites does not mean the colleges are a passive recipients. These colleges will also be able to initiate conferences.
Palomar looks for best full-time instructors Julie Devaney The Telescope
Jessica Gremett aad lim Passalacqua, sophomores on the Palomar Cheerleading Squad, perform~ ~" The team won fourth place in the United Cheerleading Association Nationals in Orlando, F1L in January. lhe squad won first place in the USA National$ in Las Vegas, Nev. in February.
see Ed-TV page 3
Palomar is in the process of recruiting for 36 full-time faculty positions with starting dates of fall 2001. This large recruitment is due to Palomar receiving more than $1 million in funding from the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges System and Chancellor's Office. Seventeen of the positions are for new faculty and the rest are to replace faculty who have retired or taken positions elsewhere. "We are working toward a fiveyear goal to increase our ratio to 75/25 percent for full-time faculty, That is the reason why we are hiring so many this year," said President of the Faculty Senate Christine Barkley. This means 75 percent of the instructors at Palomar would be teaching full time and 25 percent would be part-time. "This is the first new money that community colleges have received in 15 years," Barkley said. Palomar has received funds fro111 Partnership for Excellence for the last three years. PFE has set goals for California community colleges, one of which is to improve the ratio of full-time to part-time instructors.
Palomar needs to hire 21 new full time faculty every year for 5 years to reach its goal. This is in addition to replacing any teachers who retire each year, Barkley said. "With 75 percent of classes offered being taught by full-time faculty, it makes for more accessibility for students, and I think a higher student success rate," Barkley said. She said Palomar also wants to be competitive with pay raises. "We would like to attract new faculty as well as reward existing faculty because they de erve it," Barkley said. Barkley said this is the third year of a seven-year plan since the governor of California has allocated these funds. One of the concerns for next year's funding is that Governor Gray Davis will not continue to allocate funding to the California Community Colleges System as promised in this seven-year plan because of the energy crisis. Barkley said the college system may not be making enough progress in the governor's eyes. "That kind of change requires a little planning," Barkley said. She pointed out that it has only
see Instructors, page 3
University of California takes another look at SAT Becky Bartindale TMSCampus
SAN JOSE, Calif.- In a move bound to reverberate across the country, University of California President Richard Atkinson is urging the system to drop the controversial SAT I test as a condition of admission to the university and replace it with tests that better measure what students have learned in high school. Atkinson's proposal would make the 180,000-student University of California the first
large system in the nation to reject the test that long has been seen as the key to the nation's most prestigious colleges. UC is now one of the biggest users of the SAT exams. Scores of small, liberal arts schools have dropped the SAT as an admission requirement in recent years but ambitious high school seniors continue to pin their hopes for a big-name school on a high score on the college entrance exam. Any large-scale rejection of the test would be a blow t<l'the multimillion dollar
test preparation industry that has grown up around the country's preoccupation with the test. Atkinson had planned to unveil his proposal Sunday in a speech at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C. but word leaked out Friday. "These changes will help all students, especially low-income and minority students, determine their own educational destinies," he says in the text of his speech, released Friday. Atkinson's proposal comes in a
year when regents are expected to reconsider their 1995 ban on the use of affirmative action in employment and admissions~ The university saw minority applications plunge after the ban, which was reinforced by voter-approved Proposition 209 in 1996. It has struggled since then to fmd a legal admission strategy to draw more Latino and black students to the elite system. This is the second time faculty have been asked to consider dropping SAT I as a requirement. The earlier effort never reached
the Board of Regents. The president also has asked the UC system's Academic Senate to consider replacing the "narrowly defined quantitative formulas" based in part on SAT scores now used to admit most students with a more comprehensive, "fairer" admissions system that considers all of a student's accomplishments. Eventually such a proposed change would have to be approved by the regents. If it were accepted, the change probably could not be put into place before the fall of 2003.