Online Exclusive
What’s Inside: NEWS 3
Budget cuts leave buses crowded OPINION 4
The electoral swing for the fences FEATURES 6
O.C. gets a taste of lucha libre Halloween Hearse Show - Costa Mesa celebrates the 15th Annual Trick or Treat Festival.
Vo l u m e 9 2 , I s s u e 3 2
FITNESS 8
Can chocolate be beneficial?
T U E S D AY, O C T O B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 2
dailytitan.com
CAMPUS | Registration
System delays cause class enrollment snags
Cal State Fullerton IT said fall 2012 registration errors were not the result of computer glitches ADREANA YOUNG Daily Titan
The fall 2012 registration cycle was met with unexpected issues, such as fall semester classes not being posted on the registration list for students to see. This prevented students from being aware that certain classes were being offered, and were then unable to register for that class.
“I guess that there was some kind of glitch in the registration system where our classes didn’t show up. It wasn’t just my class, but there were other faculty who would normally have two or three times the students in their class and all of a sudden they have eight and ten students,” said Maxwell Center director Dean Kazoleas, Ph.D., who teaches international public relations at Cal State Fullerton. Kazoleas’ class was one of the courses that did not show up on the registration list this fall. “Everything was scheduled and set, and all of a sudden, and it was like July or something,
STATE | Technology
Calif. passes law to allow self-driving cars on roads
Google takes the wheel as a leader in developing self-driving car technology IRMA WONG Daily Titan
A bill allowing self-driving cars on California streets was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 25. Brown signed the bill at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View alongside Google co-founder Sergey Brin and state Sen. Alex Padilla, who authored the bill. California is now the third state that will allow these innovative vehicles on the road. Senate Bill 1298 will not only authorize the operation of an autonomous vehicle on public roads for testing purposes, but also establish safety and performance guidelines. The bill requires a human driver to be behind the wheel at all times so that the car can be manually controlled in case of an emergency. Google, the California Institute of Technology and other organizations have been working to develop the innovative cars for years. Google, however, has been somewhat of a poster child for self-driving cars and were one of the first to report its experimental runs in 2010, which is likely why the bill signing ceremony took place at its headquarters. The driverless cars are equipped with GPS, radar, video cameras, lasers and a significant amount of computing power. They use GPS and maps to navigate on roads and have sensors installed to react to
change while on the road. According to Mikhail Gofman, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science at Cal State Fullerton, these self driving cars will also have a communication system of their own. “I’ve seen some research where they are trying to develop automatic accident avoidance algorithm, so basically each car communicates with each other car. For example, let’s say there are cars driving and there is an obstacle. The algorithm will tell each car how to pass to avoid an accident,” said Gofman. To date, Google has reported more than 300,000 miles of results with no accidents. According to HybridCars.com, former General Motors research and development executive Larry Burns said, “By 2015 we’re going to have auto companies selling features that are akin to cruise control on steroids… By 2020 we’ll have self driving cars.” Brown’s passage of the bill will now provide developers the legal support to modify and improve driverless cars since there are obstacles to overcome before they are cruising around without someone behind the wheel. NPR reported in early October that Google’s self-driving cars still need some adjustments. The report found that the there are still a few things these computerdriven cars could not do yet, like move in reverse and detect temporary road signs and dangerous weather conditions, like snow. SEE CARS, 3
the secretary goes ‘We just added your international PR class and I need the textbook for it,’ which I had already sent in before,” Kazoleas said. “It never clicked that it was somehow not added... (The class) didn’t become visible, or didn’t come out in the system, until summer when most students had registered.” However, according to Rommel Hidalgo, Senior Director of Information Technology infrastructure services, the issues came from the department and was not a glitch on the IT side. “There were no glitches in the system itself. It looks like this was a scheduling or processing issue within the department,”
said Hidalgo. “Classes are scheduled months in advance, many months in advance. So for a class to be added really late, that has to do with the processing.” Each department, not IT, sets up and schedules their own classes for the semesters, according to Hidalgo. Hidalgo said there could be a lot of different possibilities that could have contributed to the system glitch and that it might be due to faculty contracts that were pending processing. With impending budget cuts around the corner, these glitches come at a bad time for
SEE ENROLLMENT, 2
STUDENTS FALL IN FOR ROTC EXERCISES
ROBERT HUSKEY / Daily Titan
ROBERT HUSKEY Daily Titan
Cadets from Cal State Fullerton’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) traveled to Camp Pendleton over the weekend to conduct their semi-annual Field Training Exercises (FTX). The exercises cover a broad spectrum of mental and physical challenges that
test the cadets’ abilities. The ultimate goal is to prepare level three Military Science (MS) cadets for their Leader Development and Assessment Course (LDAC) evaluation at Fort Lewis in Washington, D.C. in early 2013. The training exercises conducted over the weekend included multiple land navigation courses, two obstacle courses and a seven-mile ruck hike. Obstacle courses included team co-
operation and friendly competition between the multiple companies. During the sevenmile ruck hike, cadets carried rucksacks with a minimum weight of thirty-five pounds. The FTX exercises are designed to build team camaraderie as well as team leadership skills for the cadets. SEE ROTC, 3
LOCAL | Fitness
CAMPUS | Vandalism
Graffiti on campus light, police say
Riding the waves, cruising to fitness
Surfing is a workout where one can take advantage of living so close to the beach DOMINIQUE ROCKER
Tagging around CSUF is sparse and likely not due to gang activity, according to University Police
Daily Titan
SAM MOUNTJOY For the Daily Titan
A constant police presence on campus may have contributed to a low number of graffiti incidents on campus, said University Police Cpt. John Brockie. There have been just two reported acts of graffiti since Sept. 28. A low prevalence of tagging in the areas surrounding Cal State Fullerton may also be a contributing factor to the infrequency of graffiti on campus, according to Brockie. “When we do have graffiti, it’s not too often,” he said. Most graffiti on campus seems to be artistic, and Brockie said University Police has no reason to believe that the tagging is gang-related.
faculty and students, said Kazoleas. When deciding what to cut, classes with limited students in them are viewed as unwanted and unnecessary, and can therefore be cut to save money. “Basically we’re about to face some big cuts,” said Kazoleas. “I mean, we’re already operating on a budget that’s equivalent to 1995 where we had 30 percent less students. We’ve got more cuts coming and this is a bad time for that to happen. Because now people will be saying let’s look at the courses with low enrollment, and those courses had low enrollment.”
WILLIAM CAMARGO / Daily Titan
A trash can is tagged with a marker in a men’s bathroom in the Visual Arts building.
“Usually gang-related tagging identifies the gang—their moniker,” he said. None of the recent graffiti were reported to have gang-related markings. On Sept. 28, two separate instances of graffiti were found on the walls of McCarthy Hall. It appeared to be the work of a non-gang “tagging
CONTACT US AT DTNEWSDESK@GMAIL.COM
crew,” said Brockie. The cartoonish, alien-like figures had been painted on the wall in differing styles and signatures. This suggested two-ormore culprits working with one another. SEE TAGGING, 2
Surf ’s up, dude! What do people picture when the word surfing comes to mind? Lean, tan dudes with long hair in Hawaii and Southern California? A long day spent at the beach? Salt water and sand in your hair? What about a full body workout and a difficult test of one’s mental endurance? In fact, surfing entails a lot more than sitting in the ocean on a colorful board all day. Perhaps surprisingly for some, the activity takes a lot of mental and physical capacity. “It’s a holistic workout,” said James Wu, a fifth year kinesiology major. “When you paddle out,
you’re working your arms. You engage your calves when you stand up, and you’re working your lower body and utilizing spatial awareness with your arms when you balance on the board. You’re also engaging your core to generate power and direction when negotiating the waves.” Surfers must have a lot of power and muscle tone to succeed in the water since they are working their arms, shoulders, back, core, and legs. “Paddling, catching a wave and riding a wave are all very physical,” said Giovanni Pasinato, a 21-yearold surfer. The activity lends itself to more than just the physical muscle toning, however. Surfers also have to deal with being in the water for long stretches of time, which requires a strong heart and lungs. SEE SURFING, 8