ENTERTAINMENT
OPINION
SPORTS
'The plant' has invaded Palomar's Brubeck Theatre. Wary students check out the preview SEE PAGE 6
Permission slips for body piercing? Where legislation doesn't need to be
Palomar pitchers combine for the rare double, back-to-back no-hitters against Victor Valley
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SEE PAGE 9
SEE PAGE 12
THE
ELESCOPE Palomar College
Friday, Feb. 28, 1997
San Marcos, CA
Volume SO, Number 14
Student workers could get wage ·increase Kristian Billiot Satellite Vie11· Editor
The wages of the Palomar College District student workers arc under review following the state of California's minimum wage mcrcase. "Prior to December I began to realize that with all the propositions being passed in favor or raising the state minimum wage, I said to myself· I guess it's time
to get moving,"' said Ron Jordan, director of placement services. The current student hourly wages range from $5 to $5.75. This policy has been in effect since January 1990, after its approval by the Palomar Governing Board. Oct. I, 1996, California's minimum wage was raised to $4.75 per hour and will be raised
again to $5.15 per hour Sept. I. As a result , the beginning student wage is currently 25 cents over the state minimum wage and as of Sept. I it will be 15 cents below the state minimum wage. According to Jordan, Palomar College has paid 75 cents per hour above the wage limit for the past six years, and his recom-
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OI~Wago "Jew Wage
See WAGES, Page 10
Rainbow Gathering still a hit Chris Tribbey Mwut,~IIIR
Campus ·Patrol may gain police status
Editor
To some it's a one-week vacation. To others, it 's a chance to re-live the 1960s. Others call it home. No matter what anyone who attend the Rainbow Gathering calls it, the event has been a mecca of kindness, love and spirituality for the past 25 years. It has been rccogniLed as the nation's largest non-monetary, communal living village. Held July 1-7 in a different part of the nation every year, the Rainbow Gathering is a literal commune that supports itself with one major difference: come one, come all. And they do. Last year's Rainbow Gathering held in the Mark Twain National Reserve in Birch Tree, Mo., drew a reported 60,000 people to the July 4 festivities. Why do so many people choose to spend their fourth of July with the Rainbow? 'The Rainbow Family lives a life much closer to nature than society, the society we know
See RAINBOW, Page 5
Chris Tribbey MallaRi"R Ediwr
Courtesy Chris Tribbey
Palomar student Eric Olsen, seen here at the Mark Twain National Reserve outside Birchtree, Mo., helps add to the Rainbow Gathering festivities by playing a drum.
Campus Patrol may soon be able to do more than issue parking tickets and Palomar students may be the ones paying for the privilege. In a proposal released for review at Palomar's Presidential Advisory Council during their Feb. 18 meeting, student parking permit fees could double from $20 to $40 as soon as fall semester of 1997. The money would go towards providing additional parking facilities and an upgrade of Campus Patrol's police powers and a 24-hour patrol presence. "At some point in the future, we may need to look at parking fees being increased," said Mike Ellis, director of facilities. The projected cost for a Campus Patrol upgrade could be as high as $492,627, approximately $135,000 more than it
costs to employ Burns Security who currently patrols the campus after 5 p.m. "Now a citizen's arrest would be a real arrest," said Mike Alleman, director of Campus Patrol. The normal funding Campus Patrol receives is from parking tickets, and the left-over funds from Palomar College projects that haven't been ear-marked. The extra money from the parking permits will be used to upgrade the two full-time employees to POST (Police Office of Standard Training) status and hire four more full-time and four part-time employees who are already POST Ct_!rtified. The cost for the new employees would include background checks, polygraph and psychological tests, uniforms, training and some safety equipment. The funding would also go towards
See WAGES, Page 10
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Adjunct faculty members vote 1n new pay scale Jeremy Lynch Co-Editor-ill-Chief
Palomar's adjunct faculty addressed one of its concerns, by voting to select the "New Proposed Salary Matrix" as their salary option. The salary matrix is a pay scale based on amount of education each instructor attained. Further movement up the scale is based on completion or a predetermined
number or in-class hours This option will provide the following changes for future adjunct faculty: • A one-time 3.06 percent cost-of-living allowance (COLA) payment for all courses instructed since July I, 1996. • Use of the new salary matrix for current adjunct faculty and all new hires. • All adjunct faculty will move to the next higher step on the new salary
matrix. • All future summer classes instructed will count towards hourly salary step movement. • All future COLA's will be granted at a 100 percent rate to each individual. According to adjunct faculty representative Carl McClain, Palomar's adjunct faculty has won a small victory. This was the first time that adjunct
faculty were allowed to have a vote in determining their future. Palomar's adjunct faculty can have a better future if they continue to move forward, says McClain. "We will have the opportunity to press forward and gain a greater say in the academic process and influence our future in a positive manner," said McClain, who
See ADJUNCT, Page 10