Daily Titan - April 18, 2012

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April 18, 2012

Vol. 91 Issue 40

Freshmen Get Ready for Fall Semester College can be a daunting venture for many new students. Jeff Laabs reports on how Cal State Fullerton is helping to make that transition a little easier

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CUSTOM RACE CAR BUILT ON CAMPUS

LOCAL | Woman allegedly escapes abductors

Kidnapping attempt reported in Fullerton Authorities warn public to stay vigilant of suspicious behavior

MEC VALLE Daily Titan

ELEONOR SEGURA / For the Daily Titan The engine of “Formula SAE” is under construction in preparation for the competition in Nebraska June 20. Cal State Fullerton came in 16th place at last year’s Mini Indy.

Auto club revvs up for competition Categories include design, autocross, and endurance JOHN SOLLITTO Daily Titan

Cal State Fullerton’s Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Club is gearing up to race June 20 against other schools with a custom-made formula race car. SAE is building a new vehicle for the next SAE Mini Indy. The SAE Formula Series Mini Indy is held all over the U.S. and in Baja California, Mexico. The open-wheeled formula racer is currently under construction in the Engineering Department on campus. The competition is divided into several categories: Autocross, acceleration, endurance, cost report and design. James McCollum, a member of CSUF’s SAE and a mechanical engineering student, explained the autocross category.

“Autocross is more of a corner-entry, corner-exit type of race. You might get a straight or two, but mostly it’s just turning, breaking … doing the best to push the car to the limit without sliding or losing traction,” said McCollum. The endurance category score is based off of the car’s fuel consumption. McCollum said it is a test to see how much fuel the car used over a set distance and if it can efficiently reach its goal while consuming as little fuel as possible. Design is a more complicated category. Team member Alex Laugen, a mechanical engineering major and team member, said the car had to be designed from scratch by the club, from the drivetrain to the suspension system. Laugen said the the crew can buy parts for the car, but they have to prove the “viability” of those parts to the judges for another category. Rafael Castro Jr., a mechanical engineering major, worked hard on the cooling system for this year’s design. Castro and the team worked hard to make their own experiment on the engine since they didn’t

have the proper equipment on hand to determine the flow rate. Castro said the cooling system’s design this year is completely different from last year’s. McCollum said the team was also focusing on weight reduction. Team member Danny Rivera, a mechanical engineering major, said the team was also trying to change last year’s design of steel components to aluminum to cut down on the car’s weight. Rivera said another goal of the club was to place at least in the top 10 of the competition. Last year the team placed 16th. “From the looks of it, we have plenty of manpower, and some of our ideas are very, very good. So, I think we might be up there,” said Rivera. Even though this is the SAE’s race and their vehicle, they are receiving some aid from another group on campus for the car’s cost, which is the last of the major components of the vehicle’s grading. See AUTO CLUB, page 3

CAMPUS | Ads in China

Exhibit compares communist and capitalist ads

Sections of the 57 being widened to sustain new traffic JUSTIN ENRIQUEZ Daily Titan

SHEILA DEL CID Daily Titan

ELEONOR SEGURA / Daily Titan Attendees look at posters from 1960s China at the “China Modern” exhibit, which will be on display until July 1.

Museum educator Aimee Aul. “Western-inspired fashion and consumer products drew on traditional Chinese attitudes and ideals of beauty — pretty girls feature prominently in Shanghai cigarette cards as well as Maoist propaganda posters,” Aul said. “The ancient Chinese tradition of hanging ancestral portraits in the home worked out very well for Mao, whose official portrait was required to be displayed in every Chinese home.

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And, of course, the color red. It was a fortuitous thing for the Communists that red was already the color of good luck, prosperity and celebration.” Mao Zedong was the founder of the People’s Republic of China. The death toll as a direct result of his policies is estimated in the tens of millions. See CULTURE, page 2

See KIDNAP, page 3

LOCAL | Construction nearby

One-lane expansion to be completed by 2014, detours in place

Focus on cultural impact of Western-style advertising in China’s economy and people

The Fullerton Museum Center held an opening reception for the new exhibit “China Modern: Designing 20th Century Popular Culture,” focusing on advertising’s impact on Chinese culture. With more than 170 objects on display, the exhibit ties in capitalism and communism to modern-day living. Although the ideologies differ, the exhibit shows how the means of instilling these values were continually similar. Yadira J. Luviano, a frequent visitor of the Los Angeles Art Walk, said that because the two ideologies are complete opposites in definition, it makes sense to put the two together. “It’s like a painting of black and white,” said Luviano. “Opposites attract, and together (they) can prove a point or explain a (more in-depth theme). Perhaps that’s why these two ideologies are the topic of many works of art.” There is both continuity and contrast in the graphic art from both capitalist and communist periods in China’s history, said Fullerton

A 19-year-old woman reported that two people recently attempted to kidnap her as she walked down an alley in west Fullerton. She reported to Fullerton Police April 6 that she was a victim of an attempted abduction. She said someone grabbed her from behind and attempted to force her into a small black car where another accomplice was waiting in the driver’s seat. The woman said several bystanders helped her escape. “We take everything at face value. Part of the investigative process is to determine whether all the facts are present,” said Sgt. Jeff Stuart of the Fullerton Police Department. “And there are very few facts to go on in this case.” Stuart described the steps that are taken when dealing with cases such like these. “The first step, obviously, is to determine whether or not a crime occurred, whether the information is accurate and to pretty much to fill in pieces of the puzzle,” Stuart said. “When we work a case, each person may have different pieces of the puzzle, and it’s not until we get a bunch of those pieces together we can actually see what it is that occurred.” Stuart said one of the ways the public can keep themselves safe from these types of crimes is to be aware of their surroundings. “A lot of the time, people walk around and they’ve got cellular devices and they’ve got iPhones, iPads, iPods, the whole bit, and (they do not) necessarily pay attention to their surroundings,” Stuart said.

California law defines kidnapping as moving a person a substantial distance against their will by the use of force or threats of violence. Lt. John Brockie of University Police agrees with Stuart in urging the public to be aware of what is going on around them. “The biggest thing is being aware of your surroundings,” said Brockie. Brockie offers a few precautions to take in order to ensure safety, including checking rear-view mirrors while driving to ensure that no one is following you. “If you ever think that you are (being) followed and you are on (your way) home, don’t go home. Drive past your neighborhood. Drive to a police station ... Drive to a well lit public area,” he said. Brockie also he said the community should be aware of who is walking alongside them and to look out for any suspicious vehicles parked in places that they should not be parked, like a van blocking a sidewalk. Brockie also advises having keys ready. Jenny Salgado, 22, a health science major, said she noticed that a lot of people pay no attention to their surroundings. “I look around and I see people just, like, texting, and they have their headphones in their ears, dozing off and not paying attention,” said Salgado. “I don’t think people really pay that much attention to their surroundings.” In his 14 years at CSUF, Brockie recalled one case that was classified as an attempted kidnapping. “I think they were following them in a vehicle and then when they parked on campus and got out of their car, the person tried to get them into their vehicle, that type of situation,” Brockie said.

Commuting Cal State Fullerton students and faculty should expect closures and construction if traveling northbound on the SR-57 Freeway. Two segments of the freeway that CSUF commuters often use are part of a project to widen the freeway in order to relieve future traffic. Both segments are slated to be completed by the end of 2014. The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is behind the efforts to make improvements on the SR-57 Freeway. It is also in charge of informing the public on the project itself and any closures and construction that may occur. According to the OCTA website, some of the project’s key objectives are to reduce traffic congestion and delays, increase traffic flow and safety, and facilitate the flow of goods and services via the SR-57. About 144,000 to 158,000 vehicles travel in this section of the freeway daily.

Segment 1 of the project, for which construction began in January 2011, is a five-mile stretch northbound on the SR-57 between Orangethorpe Avenue in Placentia to Lambert Road in Brea. Improvements will include an addition of one general purpose lane along with merging lanes, standardization of existing lane widths and shoulders, and reconfiguration of certain on-ramps and off-ramps. The segment is a collaborative project between OCTA and Caltrans District 12. As of April 10, a temporary 12week closure of Rolling Hills Drive began in each direction in order to widen the bridge undercrossing in Segment 1. Detours will be clearly marked. The total cost of the Segment 1 project is $102 million. The project was funded by California Proposition 1B: Corridor Mobility Improvement Account Program Funds and Orange County’s Measure M2. The Measure M2 is the half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements approved in 2006. See FREEWAY, page 2


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