ENTERTAINMENT
OPINION
SPORTS
Check out the review of the debut album from the British group Longpigs. SEE PAGE 6
Behind the scenes of the United States Navy. Is it full speed ahead or just idling at the dock?
Comet swimmers off to a recordbreaking start.
SEE PAGE 9
SEE PAGE 12
THE
ELESCOPE Palomar College
Friday, March 7, 1997
San Marcos, CA
Volume 50, Number 15
Bookstore goes do-it-yourself • Open racks to start in summer Suzette Clark Co-Ediwr-ln- Ciu ~f
Fl oor plan s a re being refined in preparation for the conversion of the Palomar College bookstore to a self-serve , open stack system for the sale of textbooks as early as summer 1997 . "We are looking at having the conversion to open stacks completed by the end of June this year," said Jerry Patton, the new vice president/ assistant superintendent for finance and administrative services. With open stacks, students pull their book off shelves instead of having bookstore employees known as runners do it for them. At the beginning of this spring semester, students typically stood in one line for up to an hour to receive a list of text-
books for their classes. They then stood in another line for up to half an hour to give their list to a runner, and declare their payment preference. Finally, students waited for up to another hour to receive their books and pay for them. College officials expect these changes to ease the frustration students experience during registration. Students have complained about spending days moving from one line to the next. "Registration week at Palomar is hell," said Nicole Bernstein, business major. "I move from one long line to another all day long. In the bookstore , I had to speak to three people before I ever saw a book. That is two more people
See BOOKSTORE, Page 4
Master key cloning a problem Chris Tribbey Managmg Editor
A recent inter-departmental notice stated that "up to I 000 (master) key clones" to Palomar College are being used by fulltime, part-time and student employees of the college. "Do you know how many master keys there are on campus? I don't think the school does either," said Floyd Collins, an illustrator at the Instructional Media Production Department on campus, who has had his office, ST-64, robbed numerous times in the last eight months. Collins believes the robberies were commited by someone with a master key to the college. "Anybody can come in almost anywhere on the campus with a master key," said Collins
Up until the weekend of Feb. 22-24, every robbery has been the same: there were no signs ?f forced entry and only small electronic equipment that could be easily hidden and small items like a cash box and a half case of root beer turned up missing. "This time they took a Power Mac(intosh), extra memory units, a modem, a slide scanner and they got halfway through stealing our other Power Mac," said Collins. According to Collins, although a vehicle would be needed to steal so much equipment, there were no signs of forced entry, hinting that an exemployee might be responsible. Every time Collins' office has been robbed, the same type of stuff turned up missing: a walk-
man, a hand-held recorder, and a camera. This time, the thieves got away with $7,000 worth of Palomar's computer equipment. "We asked and asked to have this place secured," said Collins, "We finally ended up telling the school we would even empty our own trash, to make sure no one we didn't know was in here." Despite the repeated attempts to have the locks changed so only Collins, his wife, Elaine, who is also an employee at the college and a handful of other people would have a key, the school didn't change the locks until the Monday morning following the robbery. The locks were changed within a half hour of the school being notified of the robbery.
Two male students charged with indecent exposure Kristian Billiot S{lle/lire View Eduor
The Palomar College Campus Patrol may consider undercover operations after two male students were found engaging in sexual activity in the S-building bathroom last month. After a witness reported the Feb. 12 incident, Campus Patrol officer Gerald Perez went to the scene and saw the men engaging
in oral sex activi.ties. The officers were shocked. "I was caught off guard and surprised to a certain extent, but I do consider myself to be a thickskinned person," said Perez. ''I'm not insensitive, it's just that my profession calls for a level head." Perez stated that he needed to maintain a professional demeanor for students and for the college. According to Campus Patrol
"/don't know why Palomar has this problem. It just seems that the [S-building] bathroom is a popular place for gay men and their activity."
Eric Varella
Campus Patrol officer officer Eric Varella, both men were detained by Perez and taken into custody by San Marcos sheriff's deputies. Since the charge of indecent
exposure is a misdemeanor, as opposed to a felony, the men will receive no jail time. This is the first time that homosexual activity in the S-
building bathroom has been reported this semester. However, during the spring semester of 1995 Palomar had a steady increase of indecent exposure and lewd conduct, with more than five reported in the mens S-building restroom during April. "I don't know why Palomar has this problem," said Varella.
See GLORY, Page 4