SPORTS
OPINION: The exploitation of children at the hands of TV producers, page 9
PAGE 12
Ground crew works behind the scenes Since 1960 Volume 85, Issue 25
NEWS: Group presented a campus event to celebrate Hispanic Heritage month, page 3
Daily Titan
Thursday October 11, 2007
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
DTSHORTHAND Fullerton police search for robber
Playing in Tuffy’s virtual world
The Fullerton Police Department is asking for the public’s help in locating a suspect wanted in connection with a string of armed robberies of convenience stores and gas stations. Two of the robberies – a 7Eleven and an AM/PM – occurred in Fullerton. The suspect is described as Caucasian, 25 to 30 years old, 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 8 inches, with black hair and about 150 to 180 pounds. Anyone with information about the suspect should call Det. Rob Long at (714)738-3396
Driving good in the neighborhood BROOMFIELD, Colo. (AP) – A hungry 6-year-old grabbed his grandmother’s car keys, positioned his child seat behind the steering wheel and tried to drive himself to an Applebee’s restaurant. He didn’t get far. Unable to take the car out of reverse, the boy backed up 75 feet from her house into a transformer Tuesday, knocking out electricity and phone service to dozens of townhouses in this suburb north of Denver. No one was injured and the boy, whose name was not released, got out of his car and told his grandmother what happened. “He went backward about 47 feet, hit the curb, then went backward another 29 feet,” said Sgt. Colleen O’Connell of the Broomfield Police Department. No charges will be filed.
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I feel like I’m still part of the game. Even the coaches say that we are part of the team.
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– Mark Panozzo, Lead grounds worker
See Sports, page 12
YOUTUBE: MADTVSTUART BLOOPERS
The new Titan Races video game, which is set to be released Oct. 15, features Tuffy the Titan in a race around the Titan Student Union and other campus areas.
CSUF’s video game club works through kinks in video game starring Titans’ mascot By Jade Lehar
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
For Cal State Fullerton’s 50th anniversary, the Cal State Fullerton Video Game Club decided to design a game for current and future
By CHRISTIN DAVIS
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
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students to enjoy. The club was just recently formed this semester, said Grant Paulis, a designer on the project, and its members wanted to contribute something special to the university. “We got the ideas from the engineered robot elephants that they’ve
had on campus,” said Mehmet Akkurt, computer science major and lead programmer of the game. Even though members of the club say they are extremely busy with other classes, they are pushing to get the game out in the next month for students to play.
The first level should be ready soon, which takes place in the TSU, said Paulis. After that, the club hopes to expand and have other levels include other places on campus for Tuffy and opponents to race around. “We compare it to a Mario
Cart-type game,” said Rusty Scrivens, a computer science major and the other lead programmer of the game. Players ride in different cars around the TSU and every car rep See TUFFY, Page 5
Students await governor’s decision Virginia Tech security Two bills aim to make textbooks cheaper for those in California
Michael McDonald, MadTV’s most prized possession, is cracking everybody up – co-workers included. McDonald’s popular man-child character, Stuart, is seen here admantly protesting that he is not hyper. He then proceeds to continually kick his legs in front of his mother, making noises with his hands behind his knees. Mo Collins, who plays Stuart’s woeful mom, cannot hold her composure for long and eventually bursts into laughter. Stuart later shouts downstairs about her Vagisil – in front of another man. Duration: 6:50
Courtesy of the Video game design club
Cal State Fullerton students could see a drop in textbook prices if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs either of the two textbook bills currently on his desk. Schwarzenegger has until Oct. 12 to decide whether to sign one, both or neither of the bills into law. Last week, the California legislature passed two separate textbook pricing bills recognizing the lofty and ever-increasing cost of college textbooks. The bills, both written by Democrats, seek to “get more advance information to college professors about the pricing of books and whether additional material in new editions is substantial enough to merit ordering them,” according to the Los Angeles Times. The College Textbook Affordability Act (SB832), written by State Senator Ellen Corbett (D-San Leandro), would require book publishers to provide faculty with an online list of book prices in each subject area; an estimated length the publisher intends to keep the text on the market; and a list of changes the newest editions contain. Changes would take effect immediately if the bill passes. The College Textbook Transparency Act (AB1548), written by Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana), would require publishers to print a
summary of changes in new editions in the new text and to provide faculty with a list of wholesale prices and edition changes upon request. It would also require campus bookstores to list retail-pricing policies and contains a section to prohibit professors from receiving anything of value for adopting certain course materials. Changes would not take effect until 2010. ASI Chief Governmental Officer Anthony Martinez said that while the high cost of textbooks is a huge issue on campus, neither of the proposed bills will affect book prices. “It’s basically all bark and no bite,” Martinez said. “The publishers will be required to disclose information but that does not lower costs. In theory, SB832 is a good idea but we have to remember too the additional requirements will cost publishers additional money. That money will be made up via the sale of textbooks, which means students will pay for it.” Fullerton Assemblyman Michael Duvall voted against both textbook bills. Nicholas Romero, senior field representative for Duvall’s office and a CSUF political science graduate student said that, “requiring publishers to do back flips will only increase prices and may decrease supply.” “Other measures could provide benefit to students, such as a sales tax exemption for textbooks or a state tax credit on education comparable to the one at the federal level,” Romero said. “And perhaps we shouldn’t only target the publishers.” A 2005 study by the National Association of College Stores reported the average gross margin for college book retailers is 22.5 percent on new
textbooks and 40 percent for used textbooks. Taking into consideration store expenses, the report said a college store can expect to make about 4 cents for every dollar’s worth of new textbooks sold – products that the professor, not the store, select. Mike Dickerson, Titan Shops textbook adoptions manager, said the bookstore supports the Affordability Act because it will address some of the factors in high costs. “SB832 builds upon existing legislation to add useful transparency at the point of actual sale – when the publisher offers the product to the teacher,” Dickerson said. “While it will help bookstores keep costs down, AB1548 merely clutters the process and requires publishers to do things that are already in their own best interest.” According to the California Student Public Interest Research Group, which has largely supported the Affordability Act, students in California spend an average of $900 per year on textbooks – nearly 20 percent of tuition at a four-year public institution. “College textbooks, along with tuition, room and board, are an expensive necessity for student success,” Dickerson said. “Whether they’re too expensive or not is a matter of relativity, choice, and the value to the student – how much is it worth to get an A?” Martinez said ASI has made textbook pricing at CSUF a No. 1 priority this year and is working with faculty and department deans to develop solutions that will lower costs. ASI is advocating the textbook rental See TEXTBOOKS, Page 2
alerts may be faulty A trial run has 711 people reporting they never received a message Associated Press Hundreds of people reported they did not receive a message sent out during a trial run of Virginia Tech’s expanded emergency alert system on Wednesday, though it was not clear whether all were signed up for the service, a university spokesman said. The “VT Alerts” system sent text messages, voice mails, e-mails and online instant messages to the more than 18,000 people — about 60 percent of the university community — who signed up. The Blacksburg school followed up with a campus-wide e-mail survey seeking feedback within hours of the test run and 711 people reported that they never received an alert, university spokesman Mark Owczarski said. “It can be that they never signed up for it, or they signed up and they dropped out, or U.S. Cellular was having hiccups,” he said. “It could mean a whole bunch of things.” The school already had been looking into expanding its alert system when student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and then himself on April 16. Plans began last fall, after an escaped prisoner accused of killing a hospital guard fled to the Tech
area and caused the campus to shut down. During the April shootings, the university relied mainly on e-mails, campus warning sirens and a message on Tech’s Web site to alert students to the danger. The expanded service gives subscribers the option of receiving their alerts by up to three delivery methods, and each subscriber designates a primary delivery method, such as a text message. An analysis by a California provider of mass notification systems, 3n (National Notification Network), showed it took 18 minutes to send the test messages to all subscribers via their primary point of contact, and 31 minutes to send out alerts via all the contact methods, company spokesman Marc Ladin said. There may have been external issues that delayed or prevented people from receiving the alerts, such as phone carrier delays delivering text messages, instant message systems that aren’t configured to accept messages from the university and cell phone reception problems, Owczarski said. Virginia Tech and 3n will review data from the test and the survey, Owczarski said. If there are problems within the system, adjustments will be made, he said. “I would say that we’re still learning,” he said. “But it may just be that there is no such thing as a system that is perfect.”