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PERSPECTIVES: Sin City has many new monuments to cash, but a photographer’s quest for “Ol’ Vegas” still leads to neon nights and cable TV Please see page 4
NEWS: Do we need God? A CSUF assistant professor says no and sheds light on the rarely discussed topic in the Mackey Auditorium Tuesday Please see page 5
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William Langsdorf Dies at 93 nOBITUARY: Cal State Fullerton’s founding president turned an orange grove into a college By Kimberly Pierceall
Daily Titan Editor in Chief When William B. Langsdorf held his first Cal State Fullerton executive staff meeting 43 years ago, it was in his parked car on what would eventually be CSUF. With two deans, five faculty members and only four other administrators, Langsdorf turned an orange grove known as Orange County State College into Cal State Fullerton. In the 11 years he served as the university’s first president he witnessed massive changes to the campus and knew that one day, CSUF would boast more than 30,000 students. On Tuesday, the flag hung at half-staff outside the building bearing his name. Langsdorf, 93, died Monday of cancer. “He was one of my best personal friends and a personal and professional mentor of mine,” said Donald Shields, CSUF’s second president from 1970 to 1980. Langsdorf presided over Cal State Fullerton when Fullerton Union and Sunny Hills high schools housed the temporary classrooms. At that time, Langsdorf predicted CSUF would become one of the largest universities in the nation. “Frankly, I think it turned out the way he thought it would,” William Langsdorf Jr. said in a prepared statement. “They planned for the campus to reach 30,000 – and it does. His overall view of the campus centered on academic quality, and that focus on quality is the single most important legacy he left.” He created a Faculty Council, a new concept in the CSU, to fuel the role faculty and administrators
COURTESY OF CSUF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
William Langsdorf (second from left) in May 1974 stands with CSU Vice Chancellor Glenn Dumke, wife Eileen and Donald Shields. would play in CSUF’s creation. He was with the construction workers as they broke ground on the first permanent building and largest building in Fullerton at the time it was built, McCarthy Hall. When students voted to make the school colors royal blue and white and the mascot the Titans (semi-finalists included Rebels, Ocelots and Aardvarks), Langsdorf was there. And when students formed an elephant race club and invited schools from around the country, including Harvard, to race across what is now Lot B (“Dumbo Downs”), Langsdorf
was here. From Orange County State College from 1959 to 1962; Orange State College in 1962; California State College at Fullerton in 1964; California State College, Fullerton in 1968; finally to California State University, Fullerton in 1972, Langsdorf was president for most of the name alterations. Langsdorf was also here when protests ensued. Student unrest in 1970 surged when protestors barricaded themselves in the Performing Arts Building, staged fake funerals decrying the “death of
free speech” and torched temporary buildings. In 1968, Communications Professor Wayne Overbeck advised the then Titan student newspaper and said Langsdorf was fair to the press but thought the Titan was too sympathetic to student radicals. Despite this, Overbeck said Langsdorf was more of a statesman than a typical university politician. But the protests had exhausted Langsdorf, and finally in May 1970 he took time off and handed over the presidency to Shields.
“He played a very pivotal role in setting the standards and vision of what a fine state university should be,” Shields said. Langsdorf asked that no memorial service or funeral be held. The university has established a student scholarship in Langsdorf’s name. The family requested that donations be made to the fund in lieu of flowers. Langsdorf is survived by his wife, Eileen; his daughter, Sherry Haiman and son, William Jr.; and four grandchildren.
President, Pizza & Parking nEVENT: Students get a chance to voice their questions and concerns at the TSU to top school officials
SPORTS: Cross country runner Bryce Lighthall keeps his passion for running strong through a strict diet and an intense work ethic Please see page 8
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Check out the Daily Titan online this year at http:// dailytitan.fullerton.edu. New features and sections will be available this year!
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Ever wonder how it feels to be discriminated against and walk in another’s shoes? Find out in tomorrow’s issue.
By Jared Kiemeney
Daily Titan Staff Writer
DEANNA LUCCI/Daily Titan
ASI President Alex Lopez and Milton Gordon answer questions.
Students came to Titan Student Union Pub on Tuesday, armed with their opinions and their appetites. About 100 students came to voice their concerns to President Milton Gordon and Associated Students, Inc. President Alex Lopez. Some of them came to eat pizza.
As could be expected, many students complained about the parking situation at Cal State Fullerton. Vice President of Student Affairs Robert Palmer also attended, and expressed an opinion that resonates with students. “We have a serious parking problem here and we desperately need additional parking,” Palmer said. Students will soon get their wish. CSUF is planning to build two new parking structures, the first of which was approved last week by the Board of Trustees. Gordon told students that ground will be broken on the 2,500-space parking garage in spring 2003, with the project being completed in fall 2004. The five-level parking struc-
ture will be located across from the Performing Arts green. The second structure will be constructed near the childcare center and will add close to 1,500 parking spaces. The structures will be built with money from student parking fees, which are at a record $99 a semester. That raised a question in one student’s mind. “Once the parking structures are built, will the fees decrease or will they continue to be where they are this semester?” Kevin McCormick said. “The fees are not going to
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LATimes Photographer Speaks About His Remarkable Journey nLECTURE: Don Bartletti gave an account of his trips and experiences behind the lens By Benjamin Becker
Daily Titan Staff Writer After spending three months trekking through Mexico and Central America – retracing and documenting the steps of a Honduran boy named Enrique who was bound for the United States – Los Angeles Times photographer Don Bartletti was dispatched to Afghanistan to cover the war on terror. His project was on hiatus, over 300 rolls of exposed film concerning Enrique’s travels remained shelved in Los Angeles. And now, two years later, Bartletti
speaks to students at Cal State Fullerton of his recently completed project titled “Enrique’s Journey: Bound For El Norte,” a six-part series published over the span of two weeks in the Los Angeles Times. “This is the work I am most proud of,” he said. “I think my efforts paid off.” Bartletti, who spoke at the Ruby Gerontology Center on Monday night, showed dozens of photos he took atop freight trains careening through beautiful and often lawless lands, and recalled the experiences he and his colleague, Times writer Sonia Nazario, had. “I didn’t live the torturous day after day, hour after hour that these guys did,” Bartletti said of his traveling companions, who risked their lives to come to America. Bartletti and Nazario proposed the project two-and-a-half years ago to their editors in which they would document the phenomenon of children and young
adults dangerously traveling on top of violently shaking freight trains through Mexico to reach the United States. They were given the green light from their editors and spent the next three months interviewing, traveling and photographing. “We wrote to the president’s office (of Mexico) asking for clearance to do this,” Bartletti said. “An aid responded with a letter, signed by the president, allowing us to.” Bartletti said that there were a few times when he and Nazario had to show the letters to law enforcement officials to be left alone. The letters, however, were minor forms of protection as they did nothing to prevent gangsters, smugglers and drug dealers from deterring them. Five men appointed to protect traveling migrants accompanied Bartletti and Nazario for a good portion of the trip. “It is their job to make sure that travelers aren’t assaulted or bothered by
BENJAMIN BECKER/Daily Titan
LA Times photographer Don Bartletti speaks at the RGC Monday. gangsters and other outlaws,” Bartletti said. He spoke about the obstacles facing such an assignment, like deciding whether or not to use flash photography at night, jeopardizing the success of migrants crossing the border. “It was one of the biggest decisions,” he said. Bartletti used the flash at night while the men and boys slowly slithered
across the river. From bank to bank, the half-naked migrants trusted Bartletti’s judgment and successfully crossed the Rio Grande without U.S. Border Patrol detection. Bartletti said Enrique is still in America and he is in contact with him, but won’t reveal his whereabouts. “The consequences of immigration is a huge story,” Bartletti said. “I want to continue to explore that subject.”