C A L I F O R N I A
S T A T E
U N I V E R S I T Y ,
F U L L E R T O N Baseball opened Big West play with a victory over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
INSIDE NEWS: Six months after 9/11, people are 3 nsuffering from post-traumatic stress disorder
—see Sports page 6
opinion: Staff editorial looks at Spring 4 nBreak options for students working full time
weekend
Vo l u m e 7 4 , I s s u e 2 3
M a r c h 29, 2002
Parking permit forgery increasnCRIME: There have been more reported cases of fake decals to Public Safety this term than in prior semesters By Allison Wells
Daily Titan Staff Writer Public Safety not only has to handle fender benders, theft, disputes and indecent exposure cases, but now they are dealing with the
growing problem of forged parking decals. Officials said there were 20-30 forged-decal cases reported in the last academic year. There have been more reported cases in spring 2002 than in past semesters, said Tony Prince, Parking and Transportation Services supervisor. Prince said he thinks this increase is due to the enrollment boost. With fewer parking spaces, the greater chance of forged decals is probable. An increase in the enrollment is not the only possibility to blame
Graduate entry tests get harder
on the numerous amounts of forged decals. The parking structure that will be completed in January 2003 is assumed to take up 400 parking spots while under construction and officials are preparing for forged decal cases to increase again. Prince said the decals only take a couple of minutes to make, which is why many students try and make these on their own. But original decals have a unique hologram where the phony decals do not. One anonymous student explained the process he went through to create
his imitation decal. “I went to Kinko’s and colorcopied my girlfriend’s decal on both sides. Then we glued the sides together and got the decal laminated. It wasn’t that hard and it looks just like a real one.” Although some students choose to forge their decals, they may not realize the cost of the fine. Prince said the fine is $106. Police don’t prosecute criminally for this kind of action, they just issue large fines. Prince said what many students fail to realize is that the parking and
transportation officials can detect a forged decal immediately. “As we patrol the lots we go up to each vehicle and look at the permit. A bell rings in our head when we see something that looks strange about a decal,” Prince said. Detective Robert Botzheim said another indication of a forged decal is suspicious looking numbers. A parking service worker would then run the numbers to see if it is indeed a forged decal or not. Nights are an easier way to detect forged decals with a flashlight, Prince said.
nTECHNOLOGY: Students have more options with the revised system but have a limit of five megabytes By Scott Leeds
Daily Titan Staff Writer
By Esmeralda Sosa
Daily Titan Staff Writer
TESTS/ 3
DECALS/ 5
Upgrade for Titan e-mail
Bustin’ a move
nREVISIONS: Effective April 2003, changes will be made to the MCAT and the GRE to increase difficulty Trying to enroll in a graduate program might be difficult for students, as changes have been made to the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), according to the Kaplan Test Prep. Many graduate school programs require the GRE exam as well as the MCAT for admission. The GRE exam, which is about a two hour and 45 minute test, consists of a verbal, math and analytical reasoning multiple-choice section. As of October 2002, the new GRE exam will include a new analytical writing section, which will be replacing the multiple-choice analytical reasoning part of the exam. Students interested in obtaining a master’s degree in economics at Cal State Fullerton must take this test in order to be admitted in the program, according to the College of Business Administration and Economics Web site, business.fullerton.edu. Another test that will face changes is the MCAT exam. This exam is to be taken by those students that want to enter a graduate medical program. It is a standardized multiple-choice exam that helps medical schools predict the success of students entering medical graduate programs. Since 1991, when the MCAT exam was last modified, this is the first time that the MCAT exam faces major changes. As shown in the MCAT exam Web site, www.aamc. org, the MCAT exam is a six-hour test that consists of a verbal reasoning, a biological science, a physical science and a writing sample. Bonnie Eissner, public relations manager of Kaplan Test Prep, said the MCAT exam will have three new biological section questions that will focus on DNA. It also will have a shorter verbal reasoning section. The physical science section, which previously was after the biological section, will now be before the biological section.
When walking through the parking lots, the officials use flashlights to shine on the decals and the holograms on the originals reflect, and the imitations do not. Forged decals are found not only in student parking lots, but the faculty and staff parking lots as well. Cal State Long Beach has a different approach to parking decals. The decals are done in a way that is difficult to forge. Ignacio Carrillo, associate direc-
Valentin mendoza/Daily Titan
Adrian “Ace” Harburda does a head spin while break dancing in the Quad on Thursday.
“You’ve got too much mail.” There is a plethora of ways for someone to have an email address. For example, one can get them through any Internet provider such as Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL or the one Cal State Fullerton offers. “Out of the 47,000 available student accounts, about 6,000 are active users, and only a few hundred of them are getting up to the five-megabyte limit,” said Mike Marcinkevicz, director of Network Applications. That’s 13 percent of student’s using the e-mail address given out by the college. On Jan. 29, student e-mail services were moved to a new set of Dell servers, running the new Microsoft Exchange 2000 software. This action provides increased capacity, more robust service, new capabilities and increased security for students, according to the Information Technology Department. The department also said that with this upgrade, users would gain the benefits of increased system stability and enhanced e-mail features, including compatibility with the new “My CSUF Portal.” The change is supposed to be virtually undetectable. Students will be able to access e-mail on the new system exactly as they did on the old system. Student e-mail addresses, logins and passwords have not changed. However, the student e-mail addresses have a fivemegabyte limit. Marcinkevicz said they used existing equipment and that the expenses for the change were minor. He added that even though the users are minimal they are not losing money, because it’s a referral service that faculty can use to get information out to students if they want. “The campus is moving in the direction of using e-mail rather than U.S. mail to communicate information such as: financial aid, admissions & records and student financial services,” said Susan Kachner, director of Administrative Computing. Someone can choose to have e-mail from the campus sent to an on-campus e-mail address or have it forwarded to an off-campus account. The campus will send electronic messages to just one account, according to Titan Online. “I think the on-campus e-mail addresses are pointless,”
E-MAIL/ 5
Chavez’ life shown through musical nHISTORY: The story of the labor activist and his fight for farm workers’ rights were celebrated in the TSU By Ricardo Sanchez, Jr. Daily Titan Staff Writer
Cesar E. Chavez lay on the ground exhausted and dehydrated. He hadn’t eaten in 25 days and could not move without assistance. Covered in ethnic garb, he collected himself in front of 8,000 farm workers and supporters at a mass and broke bread. His fast started Feb. 14, 1968 to rededicate the farm workers movement to non-violence. When he finally ate on March 10, his wife and U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy were at his side. Kennedy called Chavez “one of the heroic figures of our time.”
Supporters and the media watched history unfold. Students, faculty and the general public witnessed the scene develop once again Wednesday night at Cal State Fullerton in Nyna Shannon Andersen’s “Chavez: Going Toward the Light,” a musical based on the life of the historical figure. Hosted by the Independent Latino Student Association in conjunction with Gily Productions, approximately 450 students trickled into the Titan Student Union Pavilions A & B to witness the event in honor of his birthday, March 31, which is now a holiday in California. “Cesar Chavez represents a life of service to others, working with the poor and commitment to the community,” said Isaac Cardenas, chair and professor of Chicano studies. Cardenas said he pushed for the show to arrive and was excited about the musical aspect. The show’s music also drew the attention of senior Chicano studies
major Juan Fonseca. “I was wondering how they would incorporate his life story in a musical,” he said. “To actually see it in a musical, it was interesting.” Although people recognize Chavez, many are unfamiliar with the trials and tribulations he went through to make a name for himself and create significant change among farm workers and Chicanos as well. “I wanted to see how everything got started. I really didn’t know his story,” Gerardo Sanchez, a junior civil engineering major, said. “I liked it.” If those in attendance arrived with a minimal knowledge of Chavez, they left with a more intimate look into his life. “[The musical] gave a personal perspective of what the internal struggle was for him,” said Jeannie Kim-Han, director of Service Learning at CSUF. “Because you see a lot of him in terms of the media, you see the television coverage and it’s always been external and never internal.”
Yliana Meeker, a junior psychology major, agreed. “It was more of the personal side and sometimes humorous look into the events that Cesar Chavez had to deal with,” Meeker said. The play began with Chavez quitting school after he was teased and called a “dumb Chicano” by his peers. He went to work in the fields but his mother made him promise to not give up on his education. Chavez then meets his future wife, Helen. He later inspires his fellow Chicanos to get out and vote and eventually gathers their support to take on a fight for the rights of farm workers in California. All of this with Latin beats and classical overtones intermixed in the background gives the multiethnic cast a channel to sing about the historic figure. It also gives the audience a different experience on how Chavez’ story is usually told. “I thought it was a really effective
http://dailytitan.fullerton.edu
VALENTIN MENDOZA/Daily Titan
Rich Andersen and Jose E. Maronon depict one of Chavez’ plights. way to tell a story. Not just lecturing about it,” Meeker said. Andersen wrote the play in 1991 after an official of the Diversity Program in the Los Angeles Unified School District convinced her there was not enough plays about Latino leaders and she should consider writing one about
Chavez. Andersen obliged and later felt a bond with Chavez upon its completion. “I never met him but I feel like I know him,” Andersen said. “He’s a tremendous role model and humanitarian. He’s right up there with Gandhi, Jesus and Martin Luther King.”