PUBLIC FORUM : EDUCATION MUST COME FIRST AT PIERCE COLLEGE.

Your editorial of Aug. 22, ``From boom to bust,'' is worthy of a reply from me.

The first thing that needs to be said is that you and some sectors of the public need to be reminded that the most important and primary reason for the existence of Pierce College is the students and their education. Every other purpose for which the college may be used is clearly secondary and should not be allowed to detract from and undermine the primary purpose.

We at the college feel that this is true at all times. When the financial resources given to support our educational enterprise become highly inadequate - as evidenced by the last academic year's deficit and the big deficit we are currently facing - it is even more important to remember the primary reason for the college's existence: namely, the students.

I believe it is highly irresponsible for us to allow a situation where our meager financial and inadequate human resources are forced into use to remedy the costly side- and aftereffects of a nonstudent event.

It also bothers me greatly, that the July Fourth event is being used by drug sellers and drug users to bring illegal substances onto our campus.

We are right now expending our resources in an effort to increase our enrollment. We are having some success in recruiting students, and we are worried that our very success, in recruiting students, is very likely to backfire on us because far too many of our classrooms do not have air conditioning, and the hottest part of the calendar year is now upon the San Fernando Valley. When the temperatures soar to make our classrooms oven-like, it is not unreasonable to expect students to leave, go elsewhere and perhaps, not return to us.

This is likely to have three consequences:

We would then have many unhappy ex-students, who would feel the need to go around and tell other people (including potential students), not to attend Pierce College;

Our funding, which has declined, would go down more, because our funding is based on enrollment;

We would also face increased risks regarding our accreditation, which was recently deferred, not ``lost'' or ``withdrawn,'' as inaccurately reported in the media.

In sum, if everyone forgets that Pierce College is a college first and foremost, and we allow the good secondary purposes of the college to work against the primary reason for its existence, then it would not take much to be able to forecast the eventual decline, if not demise, of Pierce as a college, and the emergence of a public park.

- Bing Inocencio, President

Pierce College

Woodland Hills

Yesterday and today

Re the Aug. 21 Opinions column (``Sorry, Bob, good old days weren't better'') by Russell Baker:

I was there, too, and I do not appreciate the usual slanted filth by political writers in this campaign.

Bathing out of a tin tub by a coal-oil lamp, polio stalking children in the summer and cars being cranked by hand, were not as bad as today's violence, pervasive drug use, crime in the streets, the welfare system, illegal immigration, AIDS, etc.

I remember very little crime or violence, despite the desperate situation during the Depression.

People slept in parks during the hot weather, left doors unlocked and helped one another, sharing what they could with their neighbors.

The ``bad old days'' concept was created by the liberal press.

Incomes may be higher now, but people have to work harder and have less.

- Joseph Gordon

Tarzana

Duke's visit to CSUN 

I am disgusted by CSUN student government's decision to invite David Duke to discuss affirmative action and CSUN President Blenda Wilson's approval of this decision.

Affirmative action is one of the most important and most controversial issues in California and the United States today. What is needed is intelligent discussion, by responsible spokesmen on both sides, of this issue in order for voters to make an informed choice. This is the American way.

Instead, a disreputable bigot is asked to represent the anti-affirmative action side of the issue so that this side will be poorly advocated. The justification for this is, according to Wilson, ``freedom of speech.''

What is especially appalling is Cal State Northridge's willingness to exploit the First Amendment in order to stifle informed debate on this issue.

- Kirk A. Weiss

Tujunga

Dole and teachers

As a Republican, I had expected I would be voting for Bob Dole. But after hearing Dole's comment about teachers' unions at the Republican Convention, I had a 180-degree change in position.

Dole's comment may have been intended to be against unions and not against teachers, but would he dare make such a sweeping comment about other unions?

Why should the interests of teachers, students, parents, school districts and government be so strongly in opposition? They shouldn't be, but if they are, it's simply because society doesn't value teachers. Teachers and students have very little political power.

We need Dole to be for parents, students and teachers, not against teachers' unions.

- Jim Peschke

Burbank

`What about the people?'

I'm not a Los Angeles city resident, but I nonetheless got miffed by your Page 1 article Aug. 18, ``Lawmakers target Boland bill.''

Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, has his head in the ozone. ``She (Assemblywoman Paula Boland) lost her chance,'' he said.

``She?'' What about the people of the San Fernando Valley? What about the people in other areas of the city also searching for a way out of the straitjacket put on them by the Legislature and City Council? Polanco and Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer, D-Hayward, and others of their stripe don't care about them. Neither do Council President John Ferraro and city lobbyist Ron Deaton, who together did nothing to dissuade Lockyer and Polanco, yet did that nothing at taxpayers' expense.

Your editorial of the same date, ``Backside politics,'' correctly castigated the seven City Council members who walked out of a council meeting rather than vote on unfair sewer service charges.

Aren't these matters related in some roundabout fashion? Isn't it true that our elected ``representatives'' don't represent us, but rather have an agenda of their own? I admit I don't have the answer, other than vote the rascals out. But who would we get to replace them? More of the same, I suppose.

-Grant Grubb

Agoura Hills

Mispronunciations

The unfortunate murders of three professors at San Diego State University brings to light one of the most glaring pronunciation errors in use today on TV and radio news shows.

Both the talking heads on TV and the faceless voices on radio news shows pronounce professor ``purr-fessor.'' ``Purr'' is one of the noises made by a domestic cat. Why not pronounce ``pro'' correctly, such as in pro football. The above applies also to the word protect and its derivatives.

Although English is no longer an important language in the United States, efforts should be made to use some of it correctly on broadcast news shows.

- James H. Steger

Camarillo

A costly war

In March 1964, President Johnson sent a message to Congress asking for a declaration of war on poverty. ``We have come a long way toward this goal,'' he stated. ``We still have a long way to go. The War on Poverty is a further step in that pursuit.''

The goal of the War on Poverty, we were told, was the Great Society - nothing new here, really. In his second inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said in part: ``I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day. I see millions denied education, recreation and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children. I see one-third of a nation ill-nourished, ill-clad and ill-housed.''

Does this sound familiar? Since the inception of the War on Poverty, $5.4 trillion dollars have been spent and the Great Society hasn't materialized.

- Hugh M. Wolfgang

Canoga Park

Insurance companies

Isn't it amazing? The insurance industry and our esteemed insurance commissioner (who is owned and controlled by the insurance industry) want the state government to create and run the California Earthquake Authority, in essence an earthquake insurance plan.

They discovered you cannot make money on earthquake insurance. These are the same people that moaned and groaned about the single-payer health care initiative in the 1994 elections.

There's a place to make outstanding profits, heath care. The insurance industry claimed the single-payer plan was government-run, and how could you trust the government to do anything right?

My question is: How could you trust the insurance industry?

- Ira J. Horn

Studio City

Air-conditioned schools

In the Aug. 1 editorial, ``Get hot under the collar,'' you wrote, in paragraph three, ``Most schools in the LAUSD have air conditioning.'' Nothing could be further from the truth!

I teach at Mulholland Middle School. We do not have air conditioning. Nor do most of the LAUSD Valley schools.

Please print a correction.

- Linda Minster

Mulholland Middle School, Van Nuys

The editorial should have stated that most year-round schools in the LAUSD have air conditioning. We regret the error.

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Photo: Pierce College: Students' education is its primary p urpose.

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