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F U L L E R T O N INSIDE
BASEBALL: Mo goes despite broken nose. See Sports, page 6.
T U E S D AY
VOLUME 66, ISSUE 46
M AY 1 2 , 1 9 9 8
O’Brien killer sentenced to 50 years to life
n CONVICTION : Gilbert
Acosta is sentenced for the 1997 murder of CSUF student Kyle O’Brien. By JULIE HARDEN Daily Titan Staff Writer
Nearly nine months after the slaying of Cal State Fullerton student Kyle O’Brien, his murderer, Gilbert Acosta, was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. Acosta, handcuffed and wearing his orange jail jumpsuit, sat motion-
Weekday graduation gets mixed reaction
less on Friday as Judge J. Ryan ordered him to serve the maximum sentence allowed for the first degree murder, robbery, burglary and assault with a firearm that took place last summer. Acosta, a 21-year-old with gold dental work on his front teeth, crossed paths with Sears security guards O’Brien and fellow CSUF student Randall DePue on Aug. 15, 1997. During a struggle, Acosta shot both men in the Mall of Orange parking lot following a botched shoplifting attempt. O’Brien, the Associated Students
vice president of finance, died en route to a local hospital after being shot in the chest and leg. DePue, a business major, was shot in the wrist. Acosta’s father, Alfonso, rested his head in his hands throughout the 20 minute sentencing procedure that included a tearful statement from Donna O’Brien, Kyle’s mother. “How do I begin to explain the unbearable pain of losing a child?” she said. “This murder shattered our lives. Having a child taken in such a brutal manner left an ache in our hearts that will never end.” O’Brien reminisced about Kyle’s
life, including her son’s decision to pay for his last year of college with his own money earned from working. “Just a week before his death, he was so excited because he had just wrote the check for his fall tuition,” she said. “That check was returned to us.” O’Brien spent much of her statement comparing decisions made by those involved in the case. “We all make choices. We made the choice to raise Kyle with love, nurture him, and teach him right
see ACOSTA/
Going up?
By CINDY JIMENEZ Daily Titan Staff Writer
By LAURIE SCHULTZ Daily Titan Staff Writer
Graduation ceremonies for Cal State Fullerton students in the School of Communications and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences will be held on a Monday this year and next year. Next year, all CSUF students will graduate on a weekday as part of an experimental phase, said Mary Jo Medyn, secretary for Academic Affairs. An ad hoc committee decided to hold graduation ceremonies for one of the schools on a weekday this year when they were determining the academic calendar in December 1996. The committee consisted of the Academic Senate, a representative of the Associated Students, the council of deans and the president’s advisory board.
“Students come to my office to complain. They ask ‘Why are we graduating on a Monday night?’”
—Ronald Hughes, chair of the Sociology Department
WILLIAM VASTA/Daily Titan
Roy Romero, an elevator service mechanic from Nova Elevators, repairs an elevator after it was reported to be shaking in the Visual Arts Building yesterday afternoon.
Finals—whatever gets you by n EDUCATION : Students
use a variety of methods to make up for a semester of slacking. By Jennifer Jones College Press Service
Even though the coffee flowed until the wee hours of the morning and you pored over borrowed notes and old tests, that 7 a.m. alarm sets your heart racing. Your palms are sweaty and breath heavy - not because the test is scheduled to begin in mere minutes, but because you can’t find your ... Lucky pencil.
Students rely on a variety of goodluck charms and rituals to help them make it through exams. With finals week hitting campuses across the nation, talismen everywhere are putting in some heavy-duty overtime. “I have an inspirational picture on my desk (and) wear dark green sweat pants and animal slippers,” said Kathryn Marcotte, a 19 year-old student at Glendale Community College in Arizona. Then there’s Sara Lang, a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, who needs an extra bag to haul around her good-luck charms. Lang feels lucky when she has her statue of Buddha, a gold
cross, crystals, a special penny and a favorite perfume handy - trinkets she often doles out to classmates who have fogotten their own. Lang said she also makes it a point to wear a “killer outfit” on test days. “If you fail, at least you look good,” she said Ben Niolet, a junior at the University of Alabama, said his studying rituals include not studying at all. “If you’re going to fail anyway, there’s no point to it,” he said. “After (coming to that conclusion), I just pray.” Psychologists say that for the most part, charms and rituals are harm-
Copyright ©1998, Daily Titan
see FINALS/
room of Judge J. Ryan • March 5—Closing arguments end • March 6—Jury deliberated approximately four hours before convicting Acosta of first degree murder, two counts of robbery, two counts of assault with a firearm, a count of burglary and a count of great bodily injury • May 8—Acosta receives maximum sentence of 50 years to life
Summer school breaks the bank
sion fees may cost some students a needed class; university officials say a lack of state funding raises prices.
rial Day pushes graduation ceremonies for Communications and Humanities to a Monday.
see CEREMONY/
• Aug. 15, 1997—O’Brien and DePue shot while working as Sears security guards at Mall of Orange • Aug. 17—Acosta arrested in South Gate by the Orange Police Department • Aug. 19—Capital murder charges filed against Acosta • Sept. 5—Acosta enters a not guilty plea to all charges • Feb. 23, 1998—Trial begins in Orange County Superior Court-
n EXPENSES : Summer ses-
n COMMENCEMENT : Memo-
The Memorial Day holiday pushed the graduation ceremonies back to Monday, according to Carole Jones in the Registrar’s Office. Because of the holiday, finals could not begin until Tuesday and could not end until Friday night. The committee customarily allows three days for the ceremonies after finals end, hence Monday graduation. The School of Humanities has the largest number of people graduating of all the schools. Angela Della Volpe, associate dean and professor of linguistics, said potentially 1,700 graduates could take part in the ceremonies Monday night. Ramona Rose, an English major, is one of the students who will take part in this school’s graduation ceremony. “I’ve been attending school parttime for the last 13 years and I insist that the people who gave me emotional support be there Monday night,” Rose said. “There are not a lot of places to go to celebrate on a Monday night and I don’t like imposing on people to be there, party with me and get up Tuesday morning for
Timeline of a trial
Convenience comes at a high cost. Taking one class during summer school can cost a student $217 a unit. Why is it that students have to pay more money to spend their summers in the classroom? “Instructor time is what drives the cost up,” said Extended Education Dean Harry Norman. Three types of classes are offered in the summer: lab, lecture and supervised. Supervised classes include internships, independent field and individual study. Depending on the type of class, fees can range from $137 for a one-unit lecture class to a five-unit lab class costing $852. A full-time professor earns $5,040 for teaching a three-unit summer class with 25 students. However, no matter what the size of the class, instructors are usually paid the highest scale for teaching in the summer, Norman said. If the class generates $10,275 in registration fees, the remaining $5,235 is used to pay a litany of fees including mandatory CSU system costs, enrollment costs and establish student records (about $30 per student), Norman said. Another reason for the high cost of classes is that the classes are solely self-supporting. The state provides no funding during the summer and the university actually must pay overhead costs to the state to use the campus facilities. State support is based on an academic year, generally mid-August or September through May on CSU campuses, said Ed McAleer, CSU dean for Extended Education. This schedule does not include summer school. McAleer said constrained resources are a major concern. “If the state had more money it might invest more in higher education,” he said. The high cost is evident in classes such as General Chemistry 120B, a
Is the Bard too
five-unit lab class. Norman said an instructor teaching a lab class is paid twice the teaching load than other instructors who are paid based on a uniform formula established by the CSU system. Chemistry instructor Pat Wegner said the registration fee barely covers the cost of teaching the course because of the lack of state-supplemented funds. He said it is not economically feasible to run the lab priced as a lecture class. Although the General Chemistry class is the most expensive class offered in the summer, it also has the highest enrollment. One of the reasons it is so popular is that many of the students enrolled are not CSUF students, but students who attend other private universities where the cost for this course is even higher than at CSUF. A lot of pre-medical students take the class because it is more cost-effective to take it here instead of universities like USC, Wegner said. The chemistry class is convenient to take during the summer, but Wegner strongly urges CSUF students to consider all their options. Summer school provides a chance to get the class out of the way or try to get caught up, but Wegner said students should consider the high cost. CSU students would have to have compelling reasons to spend that kind of money, he said. During the regular school year, the cost of the chemistry class would be included in a part-time 0-6 units fee of $619.50. “The $619.50 is the resident fee for 0-6 units regardless if it is a lab class or not,” cashier Joyce Jones said. The fee not only includes the cost of the class but mandatory student fees and auxiliary fees determined by each campus. Despite the self-supporting status of summer classes, Communications Department Internship Coordinator Carolyn Johnson is concerned about the rising costs to communication students who need to take the Mass Media Internship class during the summer. Johnson said the cost has slowly risen, reaching a high of $525 this summer. Johnson said summer is an important time to make visits to internship
see SUMMER/
Parents of high school students should have been prepared for
the Theatre
Department’s
portrayal of
See Opinion, page 4.
Shakespeare’s
classic tragedy.