Vol. 90 Issue 1
August 22, 2011
Going Green
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Food Trucks
Solar panels installed across campus structures
Festival, hosted by Makea-Wish, attracts foodies
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New Dorms Open
Students moved into Phase III dorms Wednesday
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Commuter campus no more
Brown signs for further cuts As fees and tuition rise, CSU becomes more tuition reliant
Residence halls expected to create community on campus
MICHELLE WIEBACH Daily Titan
After enduring millions of dollars in cuts, the CSU Board of Trustees approved a 12 percent tuition increase July 12, raising fees by $294 per semester for full-time undergraduate students. Gov. Jerry Brown signed on a new budget that slashed state funding for the CSUs by $650 million for the 2011-12 academic year. “I’m definitely disappointed with the legislators,” said Associated Students Inc. President Eric Niu. “It’s a big impact on students during these economic times.” The dwindling state support for the CSU has “forced the system to be more reliant on student tuition and fees,” according to the CSU Budget Central. Because of reduced state funding, the CSU is serving 10,000 fewer students than last year. About 412,00 students are enrolled across 23 CSU campuses. But past tuition increases have not shown major decreases in student enrollment, said Erik Fallis, media relations specialist for the CSU. “The evidence hasn’t been there in the effect of applications or enrollment,” said Fallis. Because of the late-adopted state budget and slashed funding for higher education, a 10 percent tuition increase — a $222 increase per semester for fall — was approved by the board last November. The $222 added to the current $294 brings the total increase to $516. The CSU had originally planned for an expected $500 million reduction in March. “The chancellor had a sense for the $500 million (cut),” Fallis said. “His preference was not to have an additional fee increase for fall.” See TUITION, page 3
ANDERS HOWMANN Daily Titan
ALVIN KIM / Daily Titan Members of Answer LA, a coalition of activist organizations, participate in a memorial walk and protest in remembrance of Kelly Thomas near the Fullerton Police Station.
Standing up for justice Hundreds protest on Commonwealth against beating of homeless man JARYD LUCERO Daily Titan
Cal State Fullerton students joined protesters Saturday morning in front of the Fullerton Police Department to rally in support of Kelly Thomas, a homeless man with schizophrenia who was beaten to death last month by six Fullerton officers. The rally started at 9 a.m. in front
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of the police station and a march to the memorial site of Thomas took place a few hours later. The crowd grew gradually throughout the morning to protest against the incident. “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” was one of many slogans shouted from the intersection of Commonwealth and Highland Avenues. Drivers showed their support by honking their horns, giving thumbsups and even holding their fists high out the windows of their cars. Some even made honking-trips up and down the street. A group of protesters wore Guy Fawkes masks and said they were
part of the cyber-activism group Anonymous. One of them, who wanted to remain anonymous, revealed that he is a student at CSUF. He said this was his third rally for Thomas and added that he’ll continue going to rallies until “something happens.” “I want to see the cops held accountable,” he said. Other CSUF protesters agreed. “My main hope is that these protests will pressure the City Council to actually do something more than just give these officers a paid leave,” said Tamara Khoury, board member of CSUF’s Students for Justice in Palestine. A wide variety of groups and peo-
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See PROTEST, page 4
See DORMS, page 3
ASI admonished for iPads Facebook comment spurs discussion on funds allocation NURAN ALTEIR Daily Titan
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ple were present at the protest, from homeless people to students, Anonymous to Answer LA, and even Oath Keepers. A number of homeless people said it was their responsibility to be there. “We’re in the same boat he was in, being homeless on the street,” said Robert Boies of Fullerton. After a few hours of protesting outside the Fullerton Police Department, hundreds of protesters walked three blocks east on Commonwealth Avenue, in the middle of traffic, to the OCTA bus stop where the incident happened.
Student volunteer Chris Fetro used one word to describe movein day Wednesday at Cal State Fullerton’s Phase III residence halls: chaos. As 1,062 students and their parents were corralled into organized lines and volunteers and resident advisers in brightly colored blue shirts directed students into their respective buildings, chaos was absent throughout the inaugural day of the new housing complex. Students were assigned a move-in time in hour increments throughout the day, starting at 9 a.m. with the fifth floor. Moving concluded at 3 p.m., after which parents attended an orientation and students were left to get to know their roommates, check out the amenities on their floors and eat in the Gastronome, the newly built cafeteria. Fred Lipscomb, the director of Housing Services and Residence Life, was posted at the help and troubleshooting desk, where to his delight, the line was nonexistent. “There’s nobody here so that’s a good indication (that things are going well),” said Lipscomb with a smile. Aside from some minor issues, Lipscomb said the move-ins were going as planned. “Everything is going relatively smoothly for our first time doing this. I think that the T-shirt distribution, the lines, having students come in hour increments, seems to be working,” Lipscomb said. “Our greatest challenge is that we are having some key card issues so we are trying to make sure that we can rectify those.” Students can access their room
The ASI Board of Directors unanimously retracted a decision to allocate $5,024 for eight iPads Aug. 9 after it received feedback from upset students via Facebook. In an effort to be transparent, Associated Students Inc. posted the board’s initial decision on its Facebook page July 26—the same day it voted to allocate the money for the iPads. “The board approved to allocate $5,024 to purchase eight iPads for the executive staff, board chair and governing board chair to rent for the year,” the post read. Then came a wave of student feedback. Within a day, the post received 24 mostly angry comments. Some comments asked for an
explanation while others criticized ASI for using student money on iPads. “Say what you want to defend the necessity of an iPad, but the fact of the matter is the motion has no business sense,” said Chad Cisneros, a Cal State Fullerton student, in a separate post on ASI’s wall. “ASI could have easily paid for a student’s tuition with that money or even a less expensive and more durable alternative.” ASI Board Chair Aissa Canchola said the post’s lack of context made the allocation of funds look like an ill decision. “When it was put on Facebook, it really didn’t look good, especially because it didn’t have any background information,” said Canchola. “It was just this blurb of information.” ASI President Eric Niu said the post did exactly what it was meant to do, encourage feedback. “We gave them a channel, an opportunity to provide their feedback, and when we got that feedback we truly valued (it),” said Niu. Posting board decisions on Facebook is a di-
WILLIAM CAMARGO / Daily Titan Students question whether iPads are useful as a device for conducting business.
rection the ASI executive staff is taking in order to increase transparency and make ASI-related information easier to access. “Transparency and communication are at the top of our values, and one of our biggest goals this year is to increase communication,” Niu said. See IPAD, page 4