C A L I F O R N I A INDEX
C alendar & B riefs O p i n i o n S ports
VOLUME 66, ISSUE 37
Titan
S T A T E
2 4 6
The
Daily
U N I V E R S I T Y ,
F U L L E R T O N INSIDE
Tall and short battle it out in a no-holds barred war of words. —See Opinion, page 4.
F R I D AY
APRIL 24, 1998
TESORO WINS, SIGMA NU WINS AGAIN
n PRESIDENT: Christian
ELECTION RESULTS
Tesoro wins the AS president’s seat, extending Sigma Nu fraternity’s winning streak to six years.
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By Jason Silver Daily Titan Staff Writer
see TESORO/
CHRISTIAN TESORO
836
ERIC PATHE
Christian Tesoro defeated Eric Pathe by 308 votes in the Associated Students Presidential election, giving Cal State Fullerton its first new president in three years. Tesoro, the current vice-chair on the AS Board of Directors, captured 58 percent of the vote while his opponent received only 42 percent. The election marks the end of Heith Rothman’s three-year term as AS president. Tesoro, a fraternity brother of Rothman, gives Sigmu Nu a student government president for the sixth straight year. Although Tesoro denied that his candidacy was part of a “good old boys club” the victorious crowd marched the hall chanting “six-peat” in reference to his fraternity Sigma Nu’s six straight presidential wins. Tesoro’s running mate, Kristine Buse, current director of advancement on the AS exexcutive staff, will become AS vice-president in the fall. The winners were announced to an abundance of cheers in a jam-packed meeting room in the Titan Student Union early Friday morning. “I’d like to thank my team for campaigning all day,” said an excited Tesoro in an interview after the meeting. “The volunteers worked extremely hard and that makes me very, very proud of everyone. I couldn’t ask for anything more from them. They all put in a 100 percent,” Tesoro said. Tesoro’s running-mate was equally excited about the victory. “This was definitely a team effort. I believe this is the beginning of something awesome for Cal State Fullerton,” Buse said. The triumph apparently could not have come at a better time for Buse who was also celebrating her 20th birthday. “This is the best birthday present I ever got, by far,” Buse said. Rothman, who backed Tesoro’s candidacy, lauded the outcome. “I think they will do a great job. I think they won because they ran a positive campaign. Their opponents ran a negative campaign,” Rothman said. Pathe left immediately after the announcement and was unavailable for comment but earlier voiced an opinion on election outcomes. “Leaders don’t win or lose, they just lead. They do what’s best and if they fall at least they knew it was their own two
MATT LEWIS/Daily Titan
A victorious Christian Tesoro celebrates with his friends as it is announced that he has won the Associated Students presidential election.
Six players, seven winners n BOARD OF DIRECTORS: While most candidates ran unop-
posed, the one contest in the School of Natural Sciences was not particularly close and a couple of write-ins won seats in schools with no declared candidate. By KEITH MASON
Daily Titan Opinion Editor
JEFF CHONG/Daily Titan
AS presidential candidate Eric Pathe was somber amongst a cheering crowd moments after defeat.
Six students declared their candidacy for the Associated Students Board of Directors. Seven students won. Two schools—Business Administration and Economics, and Human Development and Community Services—had no declared candidates, and students voted in characteristically low numbers. But there were write-in candidates. Manuel Doblado, a write-in candidate for the School of Business, won 11 votes and a seat on the board. Of 474 total ballots cast in the School of Business Administration and Economics for which there was no declared can-
didate, 391 voted for AS president only, and an additional 72 voters entered random names. The School of Human Development, which also had no declared candidate, wrote-in Carmen Gonzalez as their next representative with a tally of 92 votes. In the only contested race, Jared Brummel outpaced Mike Bourdaa as representative for the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics by a score of 116 to 68. “I feel really good,” winner Brummel said. “I’m looking forward to it.” Brummel said he was glad to finally get the results. “What a relief. It’s such a load off my shoulders,” he said. Meantime, loser Boardaa said the stu-
Students could vote in AS elections, but why should they? n ANALYSIS: This election
seems to say AS is a “good old boys club,” but it isn’t too late to save CSUF student government. The students speak again. Not. How much is the student government Nathan at Cal State Fullerton screwed up? Let me count the ways. Eric Pathe and Christian Tesoro spent hours battling the sun and apathetic students in their efforts to gain votes. Was their effort worth the time and sunburns? Rough counts say that 2,089 students turned out to vote. Good effort guys, but it will take more than a little aloe vera to take the sting out of that one. Even if that is a “normal” turnout, it is still pretty sad. That’s a slam on the students, not the candidates. It is impossible to know for sure, but there were probably a lot of mislead Greeks voting. Lost in the yelling, scream-
ing, frolicking and bickering that always accompanies Greek Week, was the fact that the organizing committee decided not to give spirit points for voting—a fact which seems to have not made it out to the average Greek. Members of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and Delta Zeta sorority were of the impression that writing the name of their house on their ballot would win their organization points in this annual noiseOrme making event. Ryan Alcantara, the Greek Advisor, and Rosa Aceves, the AS Elections Commissioner, both said that the ballots would not be handed over to the Greeks to count up for points. It was discussed, Alcantara said, but no system was devised. Alcantara said that points were awarded a couple of years ago, which certainly had noble intentions. But considering how important this yearly competition is to Greeks, it could lead to an inordinate number of them voting, skewing the proportional representation of the already miniscule percentage of voters. Participation is welcome (though rare), but it would
be better to see a more representative small vote than a vote where a specialized group takes over the voting outcome not for the sake of exercising its democratic right but for the sake of having its name on a trophy. Not to mention that the political campaigning this time around has been pretty bogus. There, as usual, was some stupid mudslinging. Some group calling itself “Students For Quality Leadership” put out a brochure stating 10 reasons not to vote for Pathe and running mate Josh Kurpies. Christian Tesoro and (finally) ex-President Heith Rothman said they didn’t know where it came from. Pathe’s fraternity brother, Jim Hudgens, decided to muster some support from, as he put it, “people who didn’t support either candidate,” and try to get votes as a write-in candidate. Pathe and Kurpies accused AS of being a “good old boys club” where friends give jobs to friends. It may not be a “good old boys club” based on Greek affiliation, but AS is definitely a clique. But so is the Daily Titan or any other group of people who work together closely. The difference is that people who work for the Titan or other organizations don’t leave a legacy. The Rothman dynasty has made
Copyright ©1998, Daily Titan
see ORME/
dents’ voice was heard—at least the 184 students who voted. “If you don’t vote for who you want, you get what you deserve,” he said. Boardaa said some candidates run on platforms they cannot support. “Everybody says they want parking, and they want to keep fees low,” Boardaa said. “The question is, how are they going to do this? “I would love to get stuff for free ... but there are no give-aways in life,” he said. Boardaa attributed his loss to a lack of student participation. “Nobody gave a damn,” he said. “Se la vie. That’s life.” Kristin Donner was re-elected to the School of the Arts with 127 votes. “I was not terribly surprised as I was unopposed,” she said. Donner said she intends to improve
see BOARD/
Today in Sports
The Titan baseball team goes on the road—or rather the freeway—this weekend to face Long Beach State. —See page 6