• Palomar's 1 0-year bowl game winning streak ends . as Bakersfield w1ns, 2124. • Comets commit five turnovers as QB Cicero throws three interceptions in final quarter. • Renegades make two big offensive plays to win. • Complete Potato Bowl coverage on page 10.
Monday, D ec. 6, 1999
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Palomar College -
V o l ume 53, Number 11
San Marcos, CA
Spring gets bumpy start
Two arrested for lot 12 burglaries Claimed they stole from unlocked cars, authorities still looking for victims
Sched ules two weeks late, system test done incorrectly
Tom Chambers
Tom Chambers
Editor in Chief
Editor in Chief
Two Palomar students were r arrested just before Thanksgiving for burglarizing cars in parking lot 12. The students, arrested on Nov. 19 and Nov. 23, are being charged with eight counts of burglary, said Benny Cruz, San Diego Sherrif's · detective. Cruz said the two claimed they only stole items from unlocked cars, but they are still being charged with burglary. The Sheriff' s Department has recovered more items than were reported stolen, leading them to believe the two students were 1 responsible for more burglaries than they are being charged with. One of the items is a surfboard that Cruz said may have been stolen property to begin with. Bruce Bishop, student activities director, said the arrested students were 18 and 19, and attended -., Palomar full time. The two students were removed from their classes and asked not to return to Palomar. Bishop said the students would walk through the parking lot looking for unlocked cars. If someone saw them, they would run to a .-::; friend's house near campus. The two were caught when a female student saw one of them in her car and started to scream, Bishop said. A nearby male student, thinking she may have been attacked, followed them to the geta-way house and called the authorities. The two students posted bail and 1 · an arraignment date has not been set. Cruz said students should report stolen property. "When they suffer a loss in the parking lot they should spend a few minutes and call us," Cruz said. "Then we can recover the property." Campus Patrol refused to comment on the issue.
Tom Chambers I The Telescope
Palomar officials display six of the eight fake permits confiscated in the last month.
Students suspended for using fake permits Tom Chambers Editor in Chief
Palomar College suspended eight students over the past two weeks for using fake parking permits. "It's been since late October that this has become a big problem," said Bruce Bishop, student activities director. "I don 't even know of any prior to that." The students have all been young males, ranging in age from 18 to 22. They have been suspended for the last two weeks of the semester, forced to pay fines, and required to purchase an official permit.
"Typically, they received between two and three parking citations," Bishop said. "A student receives one citation for having an altered, stolen or counterfeit permit, and then they receive a second citation at the same time for not having a valid permit." Bishop said the fake permits have ranged from photocopies to computer scans. 'They' re easy to copy, but Campus Patrol is on the lookout for and is finding the_m ," he said. "One student admitted he took last semester's parking permit, scanned it and then altered the number and the date to make it
'Fall 1999' instead of 'Spring 1999."' Another student said the color of Palomar's permits was difficult to copy on a scanner. Bishop said some of the students caught with fake permits were remorseful, while others denied even having them. "Most students don' t see it as a big deal," Bishop said. "But they are countert"eiting a college document." As a result of the rash of fake permits, Campus Patrol has increased its efforts to spot fake permits, Bishop said. Campus Patrol refused to comment on the issue.
Palomar College's new softare system was still giving administrators headaches as they prepared for spring registration which starts this week. The admissions office ran a test of the Phone and Register (PAR) system last Tuesday, and it failed - but not because the system doesn't work, said Stan Malley, director of information services, the department implementing the new system. "The test was run incorrectly," Malley said. Palomar has 24 phone lines set aside for people to call PAR from campus and 72 phone lines for offcampus calls. The admissions test last Tuesday overloaded the on campus phone lines. "We set up 60 cases - we got 60 people on campus to call," said Herman Lee, director of enrollment. The 60 people calling the PAR line dialed the 24 on-campus lines. "We had 60 calls competing for 24 lines," Malley said. Malley said tests on the entire system have worked, and he doesn't anticipate any problems. "We've run tests on problems from the fall - they should all be fixed," Malley said. "It is working." Palomar purchased new administrative software from the PeopleSoft Company last year for $4.6 million. Last summer and fall the college had problems registerting students for classes as they switched over to the new software. Palomar also had problems finishing the spring class schedule on time. "Well, it's not really late," said Norma Bean, director of marketing, the department that produces the schedule. "It's due to be distributed on Monday (Dec. 6) under our revised schedule." Bean said the goal was to have the schedule out two weeks before registration, but the instruction office had prob-
!ems getting the class list done on time. "Basically it was due to the conversion to the new program," said Diane Veach of the instruction office. "We had to do a lot of manual input that we normally didn't have to do." Veach said learning the new program caused delays because it required more information. "At that point we revised the timeline," Bean said. Palomar prints 90,000 class schedules, about 23,000 of which are mailed to students' homes with registration appointments. The schedules were mailed Nov. 29 and 30 and were on campus Dec. 1, Bean said. Registration appointments were mailed on Dec. 1, five days before registration begins. Students enrolled in Disabled Students Programs and Services, Extended Opportunity Programs and Services and TRIO were scheduled to enroll Dec. 3, but many had yet to receive appointments and schedules. Mary Tuttle of DSP&S said her department is telling its 1,500 students when to register as they come in. However, she said they wouldn't see all the students. "If students call the PAR number, it will give them their registration time, you just have to listen to all of the recording," Tuttle said. Even though Palomar officials expect the system to work, they aren't taking any chances. A help line has been set up at (760) 744-1150, ext. 3143 for students having trouble with PAR. In addition, admissions has set up a walk-up window where students who haven't been able to register through PAR, Lee said. With the new software, the college no longer sends intent-to-register cards to students. Instead, PAR appointments are given to all currently enrolled students. Students can call (760) 471-2421 to register or fmd out when their appointment is. Phone registration begins Monday, Dec. 6 and goes into next semester.