05/12/04

LC040512

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

President Bush has pledged more support for community colleges, but in California more than a dozen are dipping into reserves to keep classes going.

Steve White>> In these kind of times, you just play it a little closer and take a little more risk because the alternative is reducing services to students which is not what we're here for.

Val>> And then, a Southern California landmark is back at the forefront of scientific discovery. We'll tell you about what's old and new with the historic telescope atop Mt. Wilson.

These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> When President Bush gave his State of the Union address, he had good things to say about the nation's community colleges. He says, "It is the community colleges that will train Americans for the new jobs emerging in the twenty-first century." But in California, scores of community colleges are facing their darkest days ever. They are among the biggest victims of the state's fiscal crisis and, as I found out, even strong schools such as Glendale Community College are on a financial watch list.

It's a crystal clear day on the picturesque campus of Glendale Community College, but looks can be deceiving. Financially, the picture is anything but sunny.

Steve White>> The system is being affected by the state financial crisis in a very big way. We have had two years of budget cuts, a mid-year budget cut last year and this year a significant decrease across the board for all colleges.

Val>> Glendale Community College is one of thirteen community colleges across the state whose reserves have dropped below five percent of their budget. When that happens, they're put on a watch list. Other campuses like Compton, Santa Monica and Palo Verde Community Colleges are in worse shape than Glendale. Steve White is Vice President for Instruction.

Steve White>> I consider the watch list a red badge of courage. I think the Chancellor's office should be applauding us for trying to keep as much educational services open and available to students as possible. That's what reserves are for, a rainy day, and it's raining on the community colleges.

Val>> When we first visited Glendale Community College, students had protested tuition hikes. Governor Schwarzenegger had just been elected and they were apprehensive about the Governor's budget. Now, two and a half months later, students are looking at yet another tuition hike.

Steve White>> The main thing that our students are concerned about is the proposal to increase tuition forty-four percent.

Val>> And they just got a tuition increase not long ago.

Steve White>> That's on the back of last year's increase of sixty-eight percent, making a total of 136 percent.

Val>> Tzoler Oukayan is editor of the student newspaper, and head of the Armenian Student Association. She and many of the seventeen thousand students who attend Glendale Community College are facing tough times.

Tzoler Oukayan>> It was easier to get classes when I first started, but this semester especially, it was impossible for the newer students anyway. But we have really nice instructors who would let in students above their capacity.

Aaron Keshishian>> I'm hoping I'm going to be out of here in three years. Before, it was two years, but now my goal is three years going into Berkeley. I mean, it has been hurting us on campus. It has been hurting us.

Val>> It delays your life, really, doesn't it?

Aaron Keshishian>> Correct. It does delay our lives. It actually delays us being able to get a job as well.

Tatevik Mamikonyan>> I have an on-campus job which was very conservative to get and I'm only working ten hours. I had to fit it in with my classes, the schedules, the times, which is really hard.

Val>> Although community college tuition is rising, the additional money does not stay on campus.

Steve White>> It goes to balance the state budget deficit. It doesn't come to us. We receive money on the basis of so many dollars per student. That hasn't changed. So what this represents is a tax on students.

Val>> In the 1960's, California passed a master plan for education, promising all qualified students in California access to a public college or university, but it seems that promise is being broken. Between now and 2010, a surge of students called Tidal Wave 2 will be clamoring to enroll in community colleges and an estimated 1.8 million will be turned away. In fact, the number of students who will be turned away in 2010 will rival the total number of students enrolled in all of California public colleges in 1960.

What the state has taken away, students and supporters are trying to replace. Maintenance crews have been cut and students have been urged to help keep the campus clean. They've also voted to increase student fees by five dollars to help save some classes. The profits from the book store which is owned by the students went to build a new student center.

Tzoler Oukayan>> We had a student come in and complain about there's nowhere to study after classes in the evening because we have to cut down the library hours and that's one thing we're starting -- we actually approved money yesterday to extend the library hours during finals week.

Val>> And a support group sells Tupperware to raise funds for scholarships.

Nickie Malouf>> And a lot of kids are now struggling and they can't go, so they need money. They need help.

Val>> And some colleges, like Coast Community College in Orange County, are planning to lease land to a developer to bring in nearly a million dollars a year in revenues.

Steve White>> We're kind of landlocked on this small hill in northeast Glendale, so we don't have those kinds of options.

Val>> If there is one thing community colleges have, it's plenty of public support. Over the past two years, thirty-five out of thirty-seven bond measures for community colleges passed. At Glendale Community College, voters said yes to the bond that built this planetarium and four other science buildings. That's great news, but there are some strings attached to bond money as well.

Steve White>> It can't be used for classes. It can't be used for salaries or any other operational expenses, only for --

Val>> -- just physical buildings.

Steve White>> Or capital expenses.

Val>> But no money to operate or get kids in the class or get teachers in the class.

Steve White>> The irony of this is that the voters understand how important it is to have quality community colleges with enough room for people, but Sacramento hasn't got the message because they don't provide us enough funds to operate and serve the students who want to come.

Val>> In the meantime, with higher tuition, less financial aid and fewer classes, Tzoler says it will take her an extra year to finish her degree in sociology. Then she hopes to go to UCLA if she can afford it and, whether she wanted it or not, she and her fellow students have gotten an unexpected education in politics.

Tzoler Oukayan>> Three times we sent students up to Sacramento to speak to Assemblymen and Senators in regards to our concerns. We were part of the march in Pershing Square in Los Angeles. That was a great turnout. It brought students together from all over. The budget cuts may be a bad thing, but one good thing that came out of it was the unity.

Val>> Steve White says certain community colleges, Glendale among them, are hurt further by an unfair formula used to distribute scarce state dollars. He hopes that formula will be adjusted to be more equitable. And then there is another solution to the community college budget crisis, but the new Governor may not like it.

Steve White>> I think that there is enough wealth and income in the state to provide high-quality services and education and we have to find ways of increasing revenues for the state.

Val>> So that means the big "T" word.

Steve White>> Taxes, absolutely. The approach in the legislature in Sacramento the last couple of years is to constantly cut public services and education and I really think that's a dead end.

Val>> California's community colleges are still analyzing the President's State of the Union proposal, which is aimed at training workers for high-growth industries. It would include $250 million dollars in new federal funding for community colleges, but it's unclear how much of that might be spent on schools here. In the meantime, California ranks among the lowest of all the states when it comes to funding community colleges.

Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times".

Toni Guinyard>> The Salvation Army Harbor Light Center is a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program for men. It's been serving the Los Angeles community for more than fifty years. Its Executive Director is a man who was once a client here and now he's telling his story talking about how he went from living on the streets to turning his life around.

Conrad Watson>> "How you doing, guys? Good to see you. How you doing?"

Toni Guinyard>> Where do you believe your story began?

Conrad Watson>> Well, actually, I think it begins when I was in the Air Force. At that time, you know, I was eighteen years old. I went in and I started drinking. As a result of drinking, I started getting myself into trouble. Breaking restriction -- nothing serious. I did finish school and became an aircraft electrician and was on flying status for a while. But for some reason, when I would go into town, I couldn't get back on time. As a result of that, I got a couple of court-martials and eventually wound up with a bad conduct discharge. Then when I came back home, it just escalated. A little over twenty years ago, I was in such bad shape that I wound up on Skid Row and you would not have recognized me during that time.

Toni Guinyard>> When you talk about this part of your life, do people look at you like you've got to be kidding?

Conrad Watson>> Yes, they do. In fact, there was a time in my sobriety when I was about twelve or fifteen years sober that I said, well, maybe I ought to just not tell people my rotten story because they always say, Conrad, I can't imagine you ever living like that or being in that kind of predicament. But certainly if there is any doubt in anyone's mind that God is not in the business of miracles, I'm one.

Toni Guinyard>> Why do you say that?

Conrad Watson>> Well, because I had given up on ever having a decent life. In fact, I had resigned myself that if I could just maintain a fleabag hotel room and something to get high on or something to drink, so be it. But I had accepted Christ when I was about twelve years old. Even though I had drifted away like the prodigal sons and daughters do, He never left me. So certainly I was able to come in to the Salvation Army Harbor Light Center and I had to come in three times before it finally clicked that I could have a good life.

Conrad Watson>> "All right, and you?"

>> "Twenty-one days."

Conrad Watson>> "Twenty-one days, all right. Hang in there. Don't leave before the miracle happens."

>> "Oh, I won't."

Conrad Watson>> That was the turning point for me.

Toni Guinyard>> It also had an impact on your past with the Air Force, did it not?

Conrad Watson>> Yes. That was the amazing thing because I had given up at ever getting my bad conduct discharge upgraded. We have a veterans program here at the Harbor Light Center. Someone said to me, you know, Conrad, you ought to see if you can get your discharge upgraded because during the time that I was in the service, alcoholism wasn't considered a disease. It was just considered a screw-up. So they applied on my behalf and, just a couple of months ago, I received an honorable discharge.

Conrad Watson>> "Ed Jones here, in fact, he's Reverend Jones, is the one that was instrumental in helping me go after upgrading my discharge. He wrote many letters and he got many rejections before it finally happened, so I'm grateful to Ed for helping me."

Toni Guinyard>> What does this signify? What does it really mean to you as far as how far you've come in life?

Conrad Watson>> Well, I'll tell you, this is like the final thing that I had regretted, having left the service under those circumstances, because I felt that I had done a good job and I had served my country well. You know, I was just an all-around screw-up, but I didn't do anything really dishonorable. So this was kind of like coming full-cycle to finally receive an honorable discharge.

Toni Guinyard>> What's the message here or the lesson that you've learned in your life that helps you with the people you're working with now?

Conrad Watson>> Well, I think the biggest lesson is that as long as there is breath, there is hope and sometimes I think we give up on people too quickly. Certainly I had no aspirations in my disease of ever being where I am today. So that's the message that we try to impart to other men and women who come in to the program. No matter how far down the scale you've gone, there is still hope if you're willing to work for it.

In fact, I really don't know any dumb alcoholics or addicts. Alcoholics and addicts are individuals who are multi-talented. It's just a matter of learning how to turn and channel that energy in a positive way versus a negative one. It's amazing. In fact, my story is just one of many amazing stories. The Salvation Army Harbor Light Center is full of people like Conrad Watson who were lost and who have now come in and turned their lives around.

Conrad Watson>> "Certainly you guys are going to be me twenty years from now, right?"

Conrad Watson>> Sometimes I think people think that we're running kind of a flophouse, but the Salvation Army Harbor Light runs well-structured, organized programs that are licensed and certified by the state. This is a program that will do intake 24-7. In other words, we will take the person in around the clock, no matter what. If they're ready to get help, our doors are open for them.

Conrad Watson>> "How's it going? How you doing, sir? How long you been here?"

>> "Twelve days."

Conrad Watson>> "Twelve days. You think that this is a good decision?"

>> "Definitely."

Conrad Watson>> "You're in a lot better shape than I was when I got here, so if it can work for me, it can definitely work for you. I'll tell you, anything that we can do to get the message out to the public that there is hope and that individuals, men and women, can turn their lives around, it's a good thing, it's a good thing."

Toni Guinyard>> As we see people out on Skid Row, what should we in the general public think about? What should we consider?

Conrad Watson>> Well, I think what we want the general public to know is that these are not individuals who do not want to be helped. These are individuals who have not learned how to reach out and accept the help. Through the support of programs like this, for those of us who have been there and know how to reach out and get these people finally to make the decision to turn their lives around, there is no worthier cause than to do that.

Toni Guinyard>> Mr. Conrad Watson, thank you so much for spending a little time with Life and Times.

Conrad Watson>> It's my pleasure. I'm just so grateful for the opportunity to let people know that people can turn their lives around. Thank you for interviewing me.

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Val>> JPL in Pasadena played a huge role in landing two Rovers on Mars and giving us a new look at the Martian landscape. But another Southern California landmark has been helping scientists peer into deep space for eighty-five years. It's the telescope on Mt. Wilson. It was once thought to be obsolete, but now thanks to a new infrared attachment, it is again leading scientists to new discoveries. Patt Morrison looks back at the history of Mt. Wilson and its continuing role in science.

Patt Morrison>> This is the Hooker Telescope, a 100-inch-wide mirror that expanded our vision of the universe by light years. For thirty years, it was the biggest telescope in the most important observatory in the world. Here, under a dome seven stories high, Edwin Hubble sat night upon night and learned that our Milky Way Galaxy is not the universe. It is only a small and glittering fragment of it. Here, too, he crafted the science of the "Big Bang", the origin of time and space and matter, eons ago in an endlessly expanding universe.

In 1985, the Hooker Telescope was closed down. Obsolete, they said, but under the auspices of the private nonprofit Mt. Wilson Institute, the site has made a comeback that Norma Desmond would envy. Nowadays, using the same eighty-year-old telescope in a different way, a computer can do the stargazing and astronomers can sit in a nice warm room filled with screens and printouts to do their calculations.

The comeback of the telescope is possible, thanks to a new technique called adaptive optics, which essentially flexes the surface of the mirror to allow starlight to be fixed in place, thus making this the highest-resolution telescope in the world now. So this is your home away from home? And you know how to work things that were built even before we were born?

Sallie Baliunas>> It's where we have great fun. This is where one points the telescope. These are periscopes that look at setting circles on the telescope. Peer in here and, as the telescope moves, there are marks on the wheels. You're controlling the telescope here and you take your finger off when you want to stop, and set the telescope slowly in its place.

Patt Morrison>> But you don't use this every night.

Sallie Baliunas>> We no longer use this, although it still is operable. We now use the computer system. Just a little mouse, a false picture of the sky, point, click, and away the telescope goes.

Patt Morrison>> There is a dissonance about a mouse and a fifty-year-old periscope here.

Sallie Baliunas>> I call this the sacred and the profane (laughter). I like the contrast.

Patt Morrison>> Sallie Baliunas is Deputy Director of the Mt. Wilson Institute. She's an astrophysicist who is also on the staff at Harvard.

Sallie Baliunas>> That's the chair Hubble sat in when he worked at this telescope, and it's sitting on the platform where he would have been sitting and working at that focus of the telescope. The platform moves up and across, so with the whole dark and cold of the night, he'd be sitting there gently guiding the telescope to get the best plate possible out of it.

This was a tremendous achievement in engineering and it was the dedication of a man, his vision, George Ellery Hale, that drove him up here. The road you drive on, the highway, wasn't built until 1936, yet all this was built before that, decades before that. There's a trail from Sierra Madre coming up here eight miles. Everything came up in your backpack or in a mule train or, eventually by 1915, they had a tiny little truck with motors on four wheels that came up that path. Everything here was built in place.

There was a near catastrophe the night they opened this telescope. The workmen had left the shutter open in the late afternoon and the sun shone briefly on the glass of the telescope optics and distorted it. When they came in late in the afternoon and evening to look at the first object, they were horrified because they saw six images all dancing around. That is, the light wasn't focused. Everybody thought this is a failure, this is a hard, hard failure. We've wasted our time and money. But they decided to go away and perhaps the mirror needed to cool down from whatever had happened to it. They came back early in the morning, looked through it, and saw it was perfect.

Patt Morrison>> Now for years, Los Angeles has been maligned because of its smog, which is a product of the inversion layer, and for astronomical purposes, the lights have interfered. But now the inversion layer is a godsend.

Sallie Baliunas>> The inversion layer is what keeps us in business. Unfortunately, for people down below (laughter), it's an atmospheric pressure lid that keeps the smog and whatever trapped below. But then above that, smooth air comes in from over the ocean and blows up here and bathes the telescope and the observatory in this perfectly still air.

Patt Morrison>> The ancient Greek mathematician, Archimedes, said, "Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the world." From this place, with the leverage of a telescope, the great astronomers of the twentieth century have moved our world a little further into the vast and starlit universe.

Val>> Silence may be golden, but for astronomers, the discovery of a most unusual sound was spectacular news. It is the lowest note in the universe and it's coming from a black hole. Science reporter, Brian Hackney, tells us that, although no human can hear the note, it is music to scientists' ears.

Brian Hackney>> If there is one consistent mistake that space movies make, it's that in the vacuum of space you're not supposed to be able to make a sound. Of course, that's because sounds are carried through air compressed by vocal chords.

[Film Clip]

Brian Hackney>> It turns out that the universe is speaking to us too. Using the Chandra X-ray Observatory, looking toward a cluster of galaxies in Perseus, scientists found that black holes at the center are producing sound waves.

Andy Fabian>> And the note that they are playing is the deepest, the lowest, note in the universe.

Bruce Margon>> What note does a black hole play? Well, of course, it's B-flat.

Brian Hackney>> It's not exactly a minuet. In fact, the Perseus cluster has been playing this note for three billion years.

Bruce Margon>> Although the symphony does not have a lot of variety, it is surely the longest lasting symphony that we know of.

Brian Hackney>> Sound, after all, is just the variable compression of gas at a frequency that we can hear. The gas around the black hole is compressed and heated to fifty million degrees emitting x-rays and the x-rays correspond to sound waves. But while the black hole in the Perseus cluster is playing B-flat, it's playing it at a frequency that is fifty-seven octaves below Middle C.

Bruce Margon>> A million billion times too low to hear with your ear and now we understand why Andy is telling us that this is the lowest note in the universe.

Andy Fabian>> But, interestingly, the loudness of the sound is comparable to that of human speech, so the intensity of the sound is similar to how I'm talking to you today.

>> Any way we can translate this to something useful on this planet?

[Film Clip]

Brian Hackney>> It might not cure cancer or erase the deficit, but in a very difficult year for space science, there is no doubt that discovering the lowest tone in the universe is a definite high note for NASA.

Val>> I guess this means there's a chance for cosmic harmony after all. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times, a Christian ministry who says they can use Jesus' power to heal homosexual behavior.

>> You could say it's a series of miracles that we experience as we walk with Jesus Christ and with one another. It's not a wham-bam now I'm only heterosexual.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.