Opinion
Sports
Womenʼs soccer kicks its way into a share of the Big West title 6
Prop. 66: fixing the problem of the nationʼs largest prison system 4
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
M o n d a y, N o v e m b e r 1 , 2 0 0 4
Greeks boost safety on row
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Board OKs fee hikes
Pumpkin patch kid
Students can expect an 8 percent increase in the 2005-06 year By ALI DORRI Daily Titan Staff
Fraternitiesʼ social activities are suspended after Oct. 16 shooting By ANDREW STRETCH Daily Titan Staff
The crowds of costume-wearing partygoers that usually consume Fraternity Row on Halloween weekend were absent this year, as Greeks moved festivities off the row in accordance with university sanctions imposed on fraternities and sororities following the shooting of a Sigma Phi Epsilon member on Oct. 16. “Our priority is safety,” said Juanita Razo, assistant dean of students and acting Greek adviser. “Thatʼs the main priority of the university – making sure that our students are safe and that we have environments on our campus that are free of violence. Safety and violence is of the utmost priority to us.” As a result of the shooting, all Greek organizations under the Interfraternal Council and Pan Hellenic board have been stripped of all social privileges until Dec. 31, 2004. “We had a Greek community meeting last week, where about 100 people showed up,” Razo said. “We talked about security, we talked about increased police patrol and we talked about additional training. We need to talk about those ideas further.” Razo also said a “Greek row community task force” will be set up to further discuss these issues and attempt to develop concrete measures so these types of incidents do not occur in the future. Members of these task forces will include Greek leaders, Razo and members of the Associated Students Inc. “Right now, a decision was made to put parties at a moratorium until Dec. 31. Thereʼs kind of three reasons for FRATERNITY 3
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SEAN ANGLADO/Daily Titan
One-year old Jacey Piacenza searches for the right pumpkin on Halloween at a local Placentia pumpkin patch on Yorba Linda Boulevard.
Female issues forgotten Class research project shows Bush fails to hear womenʼs voices By SHANNON ANCHALEECHAMAIKORN Daily Titan Staff
National security, terrorism and the war in Iraq dominate the candidates’ campaigns this November, leaving little room for either to address women’s issues. Because of complicated international problems now facing the nation, women voters now have to decide whether Sen. John Kerry’s emphasis on creating and improving social programs, which directly affects them here at home, is more important than President Bush’s emphasis on national security, morality and fighting terrorism. In response to the lack of attention women are receiving in this election, Helen Mugambi, a Cal State Fullerton professor of women’s studies, had her Feminist Research, Methodology and Writing class research over a threeweek period each of the candidate’s
Catch me if you can
stances on abortion, education, health care and minimum wage. According to its findings, Bush’s policies failed to acknowledge women’s issues in many areas of concern. The class found that during the past four years, there has been an increase of 2.2 million women who have lost their health care coverage. The research also concluded that the “No Child Left Behind” program is under-funded by $27 billion, despite Republican claims that the program is working. Conversely, Kerry’s positions seemed to address more women’s issues. The fact that Kerry wants insurance plans to be required to cover contraception seemed to gain a lot of support among the women in the class. In a nation where 10.4 million women use contraception, only 15 percent of insurance plans presently cover it. Also, with Kerry’s proposed minimum wage increase, the class found that of 9.2 million low-wage female workers, 4.5 million would directly benefit. In regards to the current level of equality women encounter today, women’s studies major Toni Balik
By LINDA HO Daily Titan Staff
GABRIEL FENOY/For the Daily Titan
WOMEN 3
Panel debates U.S. security, civil liberties Students, staff weigh in on the importance of individual rights
Raymond Fero takes advantage of the clear mid-day skies above the CSUF campus to practice his four-ball routine. Fero is a junior majoring in art animation and a member of the juggling club.
said she would like gender equality to materialize more rapidly. “The public is basically uninformed, we’ve gained a lot in the sense that women now make up to 76 percent to the dollar of which men make, but people still think that that’s OK,” Balik said. After sharing its findings, Mugambi’s class agreed that the Bush administration had not made any policies in the last four years that directly helped U.S. women. Brateil Aghasi, a women’s studies and sociology major, said that doing the research for this assignment forced her to look at the facts, and that the decreases in numbers spoke for themselves. “When you look at the numbers, you can’t say that the ‘W’ in George W. Bush stands for women,” Aghasi said. While some are upset about how women’s issues are being handled by the current administration, many are still standing strong behind the Republican Party and the president. Rusty Feddersen, operations
The question of whether national security justified the violation of the rights of American citizens was contested last Thursday at the third annual panel discussion hosted by the Beta chapter of Phi Beta Delta, an honor society for international scholars. Cal State Fullerton staff, faculty and honor society students delved into a topic that concerns every American. The discussion, an event coordinated in association with Honors Week, was titled “Civil Liberties or Security Concerns?” and featured six panelists who were each allowed approximately five to six minutes to make their case. An open forum followed to allow for questions and
responses to the presentations. The panelists agreed that the events of Sept. 11 and the government reaction to the attacks have drastically changed American views of freedom and individual rights. They also agreed that a balance between the protection of American rights and the protection of American lives is needed for the sake of the values of democracy. However, that balance is a challenge in itself, they said. Brenda Gonzalez, a political science graduate student, argued in her presentation that the Patriot Act eliminated the rights of citizens. Vague terminology makes it easy to label anyone as a domestic terrorist, she said, and the burden of proof often falls onto the person accused. Brandon Reilly, a history graduate student and Phi Beta Delta member, discredited the arguments of an Asian-American author who defends World War II Japanese internment LIBERTIES 3
The California State University Board of Trustees voted 15 to 3 Thursday to approve a 2005-06 budget that includes an 8 percent tuition increase. The yearly undergraduate cost for two full-time semesters, counting as 6.1 units and higher in the fall and spring semesters, will go from $2,334 to $2,520. This is the fourth increase since 2001-02 when the cost was $1,428. The increase is part of the 2005-06 budget package that the board expects the state Legislature to raise from $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion. The general sentiment of supporting board members was that of opposition to the concept of constant increases, but also one that sees no other alternative to fixing leaks created by the downpour of state financial problems onto the CSU system. Cal State Fullerton President Milton A. Gordon said that it is unfair to students but is a necessary burden. “I have been going through [tuition increases] for 14 years,” he said. “I hate to do this. Itʼs the most painful thing. If we donʼt have the increase, we will have to turn away more and more students. Itʼs a forced necessity.” California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante
voted against the budget and said there are alternatives to burdening students; itʼs just that those in power donʼt want to search for them. “California has a $1.4 trillion economy,” he said during intermission. “Do we have the will? There are lots of alternatives.” Throughout the meeting, Bustamanteʼs facial expressions signaled a less than happy feeling for an increase that many in the state figured would pass. “I have not been happy about raising student fees for the past four years,” he said. While asking the board not to approve the budget, Cal State Long Beach senior Hector Flores told trustees they are failing students. Bustamante agrees. “They are failing,” Bustamante said. “The system and the state are failing. Itʼs incredible, the lack of vision in this state. All we are doing is hurting ourselves and our future.” Despite increases, the Cal State University system will retain its ranking as one of the least expensive higher education institutes in the country. The budget presentation included cost comparisons to other “bargain-rated” universities. Proponents of the increase are quick to point out the good sticker price, just as those in opposition are fast to say the numbers donʼt factor Californiaʼs higher than national average cost of living and the mission statement of TUITION 3
CSUF student pens proposition
Author pushes to pass Prop. 66, amend three-strikes law By RYAN TOWNSEND Daily Titan Asst. News Editor
Sam Clauder, a Cal State Fullerton communications graduate student, is the original author of Proposition 66. The initiative seeks to amend Californiaʼs three-strikes law that was initially passed by voters in 1994. Clauder worked to get the original law, Proposition 184, passed and supported the implementation until 1996, when he said he “realized it was going horribly wrong.” Determined to overturn provisions in the law that were putting non-violent offenders away for life, Clauder set out to fix the existing law with a new proposition. Several years of strategizing led to his authoring the bill during a 10-week period in 1999. The initiative was filed in 2000, but Clauderʼs political action group didnʼt have the funding to collect the signatures necessary to get it on the ballot until this year. Clauder worked as a ballot access consultant from 1990 to 2000 in Orange County before coming to CSUF as a graduate student in 2001 to pursue a masterʼs degree in communications with a specialty in political communications. With Novemberʼs election looming, Clauder spoke with the Titan on Tuesday. He said he considers himself a citizen layman, very unlike a lawyer, and said he loathes the term political consultant, preferring to be known as a political advocate and consultant because political activists and consultants are all whores and prostitutes,
Clauder said. Q: What goes into the writing of a proposition and how does one get it on the ballot? A: In August of 1999, Jim Benson (colleague) and I made a commitment to each other to start. So I wrote the initiative over a 10-week period, working 40 hours a week. I used three sources. I had a committee of about 20 people with a dozen legal advisers and eight laymen. I also used anecdotal evidence from right-wing
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Prop. 66 is only going to affect the sentence enhancement... Sam Clauder Fullerton Graduate Student
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Republicans in Orange County to see how theyʼd respond to amending the law. And then I had this huge poll out of UC Riverside. So, between those three sources, we drafted an initiative that we knew voters would be likely to approve of. We filed the initiative in 2000 but did not circulate the petitions because we couldnʼt raise the money. In 2002, we did circulate petitions even though we couldnʼt raise the money, but because we did that we were the most viable campaign out there. In December of 2003, I took a leave of absence to concentrate on my M.A. because all the work was distracting my attention. While I was gone, the Keenan family weighed in with a million dollars to place it on PROP 66 3