7-77 Ei-unU Serving the San Jose State University Community Since 1934 Volume 81, No. 4 Thursday, September 1, 1983 State's Chocolate or vanilla? EPA drops schools fine, citation failing SJSU to monitor PCBs SACRAMENTO t AP) Their own superintendent (Bill Honig) By Eric Hermstad ing incident in Japan was initally says California public schools are The controversy surrounding attributed to PCBs. Subsequent re- failing to prepare students for work PCBs t polychlorinated biphenyls ) search questions whether PCBs or college. A study conducted for the that involved SJSU and the Environ- were to blame). state's biggest businesses agrees. mental Protection Agency is re- In 1974, a government scientist solved. according to J. Handel reported that PCBs caused cancer Many school buildings are dete- Evans, executive vice president. in a certain type of rat. These events riorating. Laboratory equipment is led to the regulation of PCBs in short supply. So are trained math- Evans said the citations and through the Toxic Substances Con- ematics and science teachers. Shop $51,500 fine have been dropped. The trol Act of 1976. machinery is outdated. School days citations were issued June 3, follow- Bill Leonard, media relations are getting shorter. Bands, drama ing a routine inspection by the EPA. spokesman for PG&E, said that clubs and sports teams are being Listed in the citations as violations PCBs were declared toxic because it :liminated. were improper storage and disposal "simply doesn't break down." of PCBs, and improper marking and The controversy over the health The average beginning teach- record keeping. risk of exposure to PCBs remains er's salary is $13,000. A third of the "We have complied with all unsolved. Dr J. Donald Millar, di- teacher candidates flunked a new their findings," Evans said. To con- rector of the National Institute for basic-skills test. The state, which form with regulations, all fixtures Occupational Safety and Health, was among the 10 highest-spending containing PCBs must be labeled wrote in the Federal Register: states on schools 15 years ago, now accordingly, must be checked regu- "PCBs have also been found to ranks about 35th in money spent per larity, and the university must induce tumors in experimental ani- student, and close to the bottom in change the logging procedure that it mals after repeated oral ingestion. teacher-to-pupil ratio. The San Jose used. Because of these findings. PCBs are district has declared bankruptcy. EPA spokesman Al Zemsky considered to have carcinogenic po- said as of Monday that he could not To conservatives, the villains tential in humans." the agency had fin- are welfare spending, which grew confirm that But other information contra- much faster than school spending in ished its examinations into the case. dicts Millar. In a study by NIOSH, citations involved the stor- at two General Elec- the 1970s, and "permissiveness." The 2,500 workers were Liberals blame Proposition 13 of age of six electrical transformers, a tric Co. plants where PCBs 1978 and related tax cuts. But nearly barrel of oil containing PCBs, and a used in the manufacture of capaci- everyone agrees that a shortage of barrel of fluorescent light ballasts tors showed no evidence of chronic money is a chief cause perhaps that contain a capsule of PCBs. Al- illness except for skin rashes. More the primary cause of the schools' though there were no operational than half of the workers were ex- tproblems. transformers found leaking, there posed to high levels of PCBs, includ- had been some leakage. ing skin contact, for periods of 20 to The effect of financial cutbacks Evans said that the whole PCB 40 years. varies from one district to the next, situation was blown-out of propor- A report on the health effects of but one legislator illustrates the tion, because by definition, storage PCBs prepared by Ecology and En- schools' plight by speaking of a dis- of PCBs could consist of keeping a vironment Inc. an international en- trict where textbooks now in use say small capsule of oil containing small vironmental research group, cor- that someday humans will land on amounts of PCBs in one's desk roborated the General Electric the moon. drawer. findings: PCBs were produced between "While dermatitis and chlo- Another illustration is that in 1929 and 1976 for a number of differ- racne, which were reversible after the Los Angeles Unified School Dis- ent uses, including use as an el- discontinuing the exposure, have trict, attended by 600,000 of the ement in ink and oil based paint. The been noted in some cases, no other state's 4 million students, a ninth- main concern is its use as an insulat- significant findings were routinely grade student could not possibly ing fluid in transformers, for which made." take enough classes in the next four its use was popular because of it's Dr. Robert James, also of Ecol- Nears to meet new University of Cal- efficency and resistance to combus- ogy and Environment Inc. looked to ifornia entrance requirements. tion. the future of studying enviornmen- According to a pamphlet put out tal pollution. Money shortages have ph,), by 1.o, Bev ilacquo prompted the district to cut high by the National Electrical Manufac- "Considering the lower and de- school days to five periods just turers Association, concern about clining environmental exposure to Not just your average counter help, SJSU'S President Gail Fullerton and other adminis- PCBs began around 1966, when envi- PCBs," he said," it seems unlikely over four hours a day. The district trators scoop ice cream as part of welcome week activities. "Only two flavors," hopes to increase course offerings ronmental research in Sweden that we will ever find an environ- Fullerton sai(l, "It's not but it's free." showed some buildup of PCBs in na- mental exposure to humans which continued on page 8 ture. Then, in 1968. a mass poision- will produce injury." ,Library funds cut Dorm drinking rules enforced
By Jennifer Koss bly reduce its hours during the sum- tem, Pastine said SJSU's library SJSU students can expect mer and holiday breaks. was affected more than others. longer lines and less assistance at The library lost $59,374 in total "Our library, because it is the the library this year. Loss of state operating expenses. The lost funds oldest and largest, got hurt more funds has forced the library to elimi- would have been used to purchase than most," Pastine said, "but our l.nate $157,115 worth of services and and maintain books and periodicals, university administration has been operations, with a further reduction equipment, supplies and services. very cooperative in helping us in of $62,930 slated for this fiscal year, As a result of the lost funds, li- every way they could." said Maureen Pastine, library direc- brary officials have been forced to She said SJSU officials alloted tor. use taped, rather than personally- $110,000 in work study and matching "There will be huge backlogs in guided library tours. They also have funds, and $26,000 in regular student reshelving books," Pastine sai- reduced the number of classroom assistant and temporary help funds i d."And we will no longer be offering instructions on library usage, and in order to continue minimal library as much help to find or replace miss- have cut back book repairs. service. ing books." In addition to reductions in oper- Pastine said she plans to investi- ating costs, salaries for library em- gate other sources of funding for the In addition, a backlog of errors ployees have been reduced by $321,- library, but she said more staff cuts in the library's automated circula- 124 and vacated positions have been make it harder to search for outside tion system means some books may left unfilled. help. not be listed. The system may also A freeze on the 1982-83 school "We have not laid anyone off to indicate whether the book is in year left vacated positions open in yet, but we did have to put a number Clark or Wahlquist library. Pastine anticipation of the impending cuts. of librarians and support help on said. Pastine said. temporary," Pastine said. "By the photo illustration by Leo Bevilacqua Although no reductions are cur- Although the budget cuts have end of this year, if we don't have rently planned for regular sessions, affected all schools in the California enough turnover, we will have to lay By Ken Leiser If a student is caught breaking the rules he or she will Pastine said the library will proba- State University and College sys- off." If nothing else, the SJSU dorms may not be quite so be given a warning by that floor's resident adviser. If the noisy anymore. warning is ignored, the matter could work its way up to They will be quieter due, in part, to stricter enforce- Brown's office. ment of existing alcohol policies which forbid students However, Brown doesn't anticipate any problems hi- from drinking in the hallways, lounges, and restrooms. cause he is confident students will be cookrative. According to Willie Brown, newly appointed director "Basically, we're just asking them to use their own option of housing at SJSU, there will be no changes in the drink- discretion," he said. Club offers textbook ing regulations, only "uniform" enforcement from hall to He added that the housing department's policy to- hall. ward alcohol is not aimed at infringing on people's pri- By Warren Bates said. "We'll also be able to resell them for a few dol- "We were concerned that different dorms had differ- vacy unless they are causing a disturbance. In other SJSU business students will be given an alterna- lars under the bookstore's markup." ent alcohol policies in the past," he said. words, a loud party would require a warning from advi- tive to selling their textbooks back to Spartan The Spartan Bookstore's markup for used hooks is Brown said some of the halls allowed drinking in the sors if it disturbs other students. Bookshops this semester. generally 15 percent. common areas as long as the drinks were carried in Brown, who has a background in law, filled the posi- A book exchange program is being developed by Aside from the benefit to the business students, opaque containers like plastic cups or coffee mugs. tion vacated by Cordell Koland in July, 1982. He left his the Small Business Student Association which would one of the program objectives is to give the 1 mem- Such differing policies led to confusion among stu- job at the University of California, Irvine where he also allow students to determine their own selling price for bers of SBSA experience in managing a small busi- dents about the regulations. served as an on-campus housing director. textbooks. ness. "I don't really know what the rules are," said Ron According to SBSA secretary Jim Rodondi, the The idea for the exchange originated last semester Niewald. a 19-year-old resident. "As far as I know, you Ben McKendall, associate dean of student affairs program will start operating three weeks before the when the club began. President Joe Carter said he was can party as long as you are in your room with the door was acting housing director before Brown was hired. semester break following the example of a similar program that was closed." McKendall said there is a definite alcohol abuse prol, "The way the exchange works is that the students successful at Cal -Poly San Luis Obispo. The official rules state that no one under 21 can "have tern in the SJSU dorms, but assured that it was no worse would agree on a selling price for a book," Rodondi or consume" alcoholic beverages. than anywhere else. said. "They would then be given a receipt, and after Rodondi and Carter said they were reluctant to Students who are 21 or older can "consume alcoholic "We've needed an alcohol policy that is both consis we sold the book the following semester, the student begin the program in those early stages because of the beverages responsibly in the privacy of their room." tent and firm," he said. would be reimbursed. lack of organization. "The new policy stresses uniformity," said Will Although he doesn't suspect that the new policy will "This allows the student to receive a few dollars "We're planning this very carefully," Rodondi Koehn, resident director of Royce Hall. "From now on stop dorm drinking, McKendall hopes to see it curb more than Spartan Shops would pay them," Rodondi continued on page 8 we're all going to have the same policy, 'no drinking in "problem" drinking. common areas,' and we're going to enforce it." "Students must learn to drink intelligently," he said. 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