Winter Week 10 Issue 211.10

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UT

NIVERSITY IMES

March 7, 2016

Photo Courtesy | peopledemandingaction.org

www.csulauniversitytimes.com

C A L I F O R N I A S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y, L O S A N G E L E S

ASI Board votes for Covino’s resignation

CSU Report finds 10% of students are homeless, 23% worry of starvation

Photo By dalyemerald.com

Adderall usage spikes for studying

Marina Andalon Contributor

Hannah Jacobsen

(Disclaimer: Sources who spoke with the reporter chose to remain anonymous because of the illegal activity involved.)

Staff Reporter

In early 2015, Chancellor White commissioned a yearlong study on the ability of CSU campuses to meet the needs of students experiencing food insecurity and housing displacement. The study’s conclusions, released in mid-February, shocked the CSU system by revealing that nearly 1 in 4 CSU students are experiencing food insecurity. Professor Rashida Crutchfield, a co-author of the report and a social work professor at CSU Long Beach, references Pasadena City College radio station 89.3 KPCC, with information regarding student social poverty. “We don’t have the same college population that we did in the 1950s,” said Professor Crutchfield. “Now we have more students who are experiencing social problems related to poverty and inequity.” While a handful of CSU campuses offer a strong variety of support for these food insecure or displaced students—through programs such as food pantries, food stamp acceptance, and emergency housing—Cal State LA was reported as one of the four campuses which offer the least amount of help to its students dealing with hunger and homelessness. Rebecca Wright, a Nutritional Science major and executive student advisor of the Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) at Cal State LA, disclosed that she was not surprised by the lack of systematic support offered by our campus. “This is not surprising. If anyone is surprised by this, they aren’t paying attention to what’s been going on with our students,” Wright said. “This is something I’ve observed as a student here for years. I think that, when something is so prevalent and so ubiquitous in a community as hunger is in this area, we grow used to it. We don’t always stop and say, ‘this is urgent, we need to do something now.’” The conditions exposed on the report show the extreme lack of urgency, which has been prevalent in Cal State LA’s campus support structure. An appendix listing the housing, funding, and food options available

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Issue 211.10

It’s 10 P.M. on a Sunday night and you have a final at 9:50 A.M. tomorrow, and you have not started studying for that Physics exam. Well you are in luck, Adderall is a drug that can help you, and is sold on Cal State LA. | Photo Courtesy calstatela.edu

Gerardo Amezquita Editor-In-Chief After Feb. 25 with the studentled protest of Young Americans for Freedom’s (YAF) guest conservative speaker Ben Shapiro, Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) called for the resignation of four administrators and staff on Thursday, March 3, under the grounds of mismanagement and safety concerns. Items on the agenda were a vote for confidence—where members express their approval or disapproval of their

leaders—that included President William Covino, Vice President Dr. Jose Gomez, Vice President Nancy Wada-McKee and Chief Rick Wall. Illustrating the long history of lingering tensions between President Covino and ASI, which began in the summer of 2015 with a budget refusal of ASI’s draft by Covino, then later on going on to freeze their budget over a dispute between increased funding of Anna Bing Children’s Center. The list includes constant disregard of student voices, false counseling to ASI by an administration paid lawyer, and a pattern of cancelling

student-organized events mere days, sometimes hours, before it's scheduled. One example referenced by Anthropology student Jose Trinidad Castaneda was the cancellation of the Sex Toys R Us event held last spring quarter where a concerned mother of a high school student called to complain of the event, which was immediately cancelled by President Covino. The cancelling of the event, an LGBTQ sexual education seminar,

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Parents pamper the need for baby changing stations Kayla Hodge Staff Reporter

Every Friday evening, Vera Cornavaca changes her 1-year-old son on the couches in the University-Student Union (U-SU). As she sits there changing her son, people watch her, she feels uncomfortable, as her son fights and squirms in resistance. Vera Cornavaca, senior majoring in Communication disorders, presses on but admits she’s embarrassed not to have a baby changing station in the Student Union restroom. “It is definitely hard as a mother with nowhere to change my child,” Cornavaca said. “I work on campus and sometimes we have meetings on Fridays, where I would have to bring my son, and it is such a hassle trying to change a 1-year-old on a couch in front of everyone.” Surprisingly, Cal State LA does not have any baby changing stations on campus. Due to the lack of changing stations, many moms and dads that attend school, hope for more stations in the future.

Single father, TVF major Desmond Hall has one daughter and expressed his feelings about the situation on campus. “I think we should have them in all restrooms because it is more convenient for the parent when they have to change the child,” Hall said. “I don’t like changing my daughter in a public place, let alone seeing other people changing their child in public, so I feel it is very important to have.” However, Executive Director of Public Affairs Robert Lopez has not received any complaints. “We have not received requests for changing stations,” Lopez said. “Typically, we do not encounter students bringing babies to the University, and the babies that are here are at the child development center.” In addition, when the buildings were constructed in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s changing stations were not included in the designs. Lopez is not aware of the campus having any stations in the women’s restrooms.

Federal laws do not require changing tables in bathrooms. Stores are not required to have changing tables, and the stores that do provide them are only offering a convenience for their customers. Where changing tables do exist, they only accommodate to the children less than 40 pounds. According to a 2013 Fox News study, it found that parenting responsibilities are becoming more equally distributed between partners and that fathers are spending triple the amount of time with their children than they were in 1965. The study also said that changing tables provide a more comfortable and sanitary environment for parents and children, and should be available to everyone. Victoria Lopez, a mother and a junior Communications major agreed. “We have a lot of mothers who may have to bring their child to school with them due to emergencies like work, or no babysitter, it would be nice just to have changing stations that are convenient and accessible to all parents.”

James*, senior majoring in Civil Engineering says, “Adderall can take me from being screwed to actually having a decent chance of passing. I might not sleep that night but I will get a lot of studying and work done.” Adderall is a drug normally prescribed to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Adderall contains amphetamine salts and dextroamphetamine. Amphetamines stimulate the brain by increasing the level of neurotransmitters, and dopamine in the brain. The use of this drug has increased

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INSIDE:

CDC REPORTS RECORD NUMBER OF HIV RISK FOR BLACKS

PG 3

EDUCATIONAL PIPELINE SIDELINES MINORITIES

PG 5 OP-ED: WHY DON'T STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN SPORT EVENTS?

PG 10


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