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Stefan Agregado | Daily 49er
Power Outage
A power outage in Parkside College on Sunday left many students confused and some complaining that their electric fans were unexpectedly shut off. Southern California Edison Spokesperson Maureen Brown said the 20-minute outage may have been caused by a tree that fell on the Hawkins substation around 7:30 a.m.
Gucyski said with the new changes, applicants are now prompted to submit an essay that describes either the challenges or responsibilities they have faced as college students and how those have affected them or how they overcame any obstacles that arose. The change “addresses students who may be facing challenges, whether that is financially, emotionally or both,” Gucyski said. She said the essay options also ask applicants to describe how the scholarship will help them and why it should be awarded to them. In addition to these changes, the ASI Board of Control has moved the scholarship application deadline to the fall semester, instead of setting it for the spring as before. The deadline for
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fall 2014 scholarship applications is 4 p.m. on Nov. 14. Gucyski said because the application deadline coincided with the busy spring allocation season, a period in which ASI distributes funds for the upcoming year among the colleges, the ASI Board of Control agreed to move the application deadline to the fall semester. The new deadline should also allow the ASI Board of Control, who will choose the scholarship recipients, “more time to be more thorough in the selection process,” Gucyski said. According to the application, students must submit the essay along with a letter of recommendation and Financial Award Summary, or an estimate of financial aid the student is eligible to receive, to the Center for Scholarship Information. Eligible applicants for the scholarship must be full-time undergradu-
ate or graduate students at Cal State Long Beach. Undergraduate applicants must also have a cumulative GPA of 2.5, while graduate students must have a cumulative GPA of 3.5, and applicants must not be receiving any other form of financial support from ASI. Last year, there were 88 eligible applicants for the ASI scholarships, but the ASI Board of Control hopes that these changes will lead to even more applications for this year’s scholarships, as the prompts should relate to more students, Gucyski said. All applicants must complete the online application form available on the CSULB website and submit all other required documents to the Center for Scholarship Information, located in Room 238 of the University Student Union. Recipients will be chosen by March 22.
Congress skeptical of plan to attack Syria, looks to rewrite Obama’s proposal WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Obama administration pressed Congress Sunday for an expansive green light to attack Syria, but faced Capitol Hill skepticism from both right and left. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday appeared on five television networks to make the case for military action against the Syrian government for what he said was the use of sarin gas on civilians. “We have learned through samples that were provided to the United States and that have now been tested from first responders in east Damascus (that) hair samples and blood samples have tested positive for signatures of sarin,” Kerry said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” While he worked to convince Con-
gress that the intelligence is accurate, Congress expressed more skepticism about the wisdom of a potential airstrike as well as the language of the war powers authorization being sought by the White House. A round of briefings and press sessions Sunday led only to congressional promises to rewrite President Barack Obama’s proposal and a reiteration of concerns. “What I’m troubled by is after the strike, the Assad regime is still there,” said Rep. Scott Rigell, R- Va. “Let’s say we attack two air force bases. Certainly it would result in loss of life of young Syrian conscripts who have absolutely nothing to do with the (chemical attack), yet the Assad regime is still in place.”
Though the administration on Friday released an intelligence summary declaring with a “high degree of confidence” that Syria had used chemical weapons, Kerry’s statements Sunday were the first to identify the specific chemical allegedly used. “Bashar al-Assad now joins a list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein who have used these weapons in time of war,” Kerry said on NBC. Obama’s proposed language for congressional approval would authorize the president to use force “as he determines to be necessary and appropriate” in order to “prevent or deter the use or proliferation” of chemical or biological weapons, as well as other “weapons of mass destruction.” The Senate Foreign Relations Commit-
tee will hold a hearing Tuesday on Syria. The House is sticking to its planned summer schedule and will return next week. “The ‘limited’ military response endorsed by President Obama shows no clear goal, tactical objective, or in fact any coherence whatsoever, and is supported neither by myself nor the American people,” said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “President Obama has gone from leading from behind, to not leading at all, to now hiding behind Congress.” Dangerously for Obama, Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina sounded similarly skeptical. The two veteran
lawmakers are declaring that they “cannot in good conscience support isolated military strikes in Syria that are not part of an overall strategy that can change the momentum on the battlefield.” From the opposite flank, some conservatives and liberals are united for disparate reasons in saying the U.S. should simply steer clear of Syria altogether. The senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, said Sunday on “Fox News Sunday” that he doesn’t think Congress will approve the authorization. — Michael Doyle McClatchy, Washington Bureau