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WHAT’S INSIDE:

PROP 30 REMINDER

NEWS 3

University Police feeds the needy

If you haven’t already received your refund, contact Student Financial Services by Dec. 21 at:

OPINION 6

New Daily Titan editor-in-chief speaks DETOUR 8

Every tattoo has a story

studentrefund@fullerton.edu

Vo l u m e 9 2 , I s s u e 5 4

SPORTS 10

Titans ice Trojans

M O N D AY, D E C E M B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 2

dailytitan.com

LOCKDOWN: SUSPECTS STILL AT LARGE

STATE | Tuition

Refund details blurred

Poll shows 45 percent were unaware of Prop. 30-related refund

CAMPUS | Athletics

CSUF names athletic director Jim Donovan makes comeback to Southern California

DAVID HOOD

JUSTIN ENRIQUEZ

Proposition 30 passed as a bill hailed by the California State University as essential in patching budget woes California’s higher education systems have endured over the past five years, but details of the proposition’s effects on students’ accounts have blurred. The law will increase personal income taxes for earners over $250,000 for the next seven years and raise sales tax by a quarter-cent for four years in order to raise $6 billion to help stabilize the state’s bleeding budget. Since its passage in November, Proposition 30 was promised by the CSU Board of Trustees to refund students about $500 into two different packages: a $249 refund for the fall 2012 semester and another $249 tuition reduction for spring 2013. The information about the details of the measure came weeks after the Nov. 6 decision. No information was released beforehand. Forms were required for qualified students at Cal State Fullerton to receive the refund as an option to pocket some of the money. If the form was not filled out and returned by what at first was Nov. 30, then Dec. 21, the university said it would automatically credit students a tuition reduction. The fine print of the refund said students funded by Cal Grant (A or B) or the Pell grant or students who receive the University Grant are not eligible for the refund because part or all of their tuition is already paid by the state or the university.

The Cal State Fullerton campus continues its administrative transition as a new Director of Athletics was named in a press conference Friday. The five-month search concluded with Jim Donovan, former director of athletics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Donovan, 53, has vast experience in athletic administration with 21 years under his belt. With the appointment he becomes the 11th Director of Athletics at CSUF in the school’s 55-year history. University President Dr. Mildred García began the press conference by appointing Donovan as the Director of Athletics. “Following an extensive and very tight and competitive search, it is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Mr. James Donovan as the next Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Cal State Fullerton,” said García at the press conference. In order to make the decision, a nine-member search committee conducted a nationwide search. Amir Dabirian, vice president for Information Technology, chaired over the committee. After García’s introduction and appointment, Donovan got to the podium and thanked members of the committee that presided over the decision and all those in attendance. This appointment is a homecoming for him, as he grew up in the area and remembers picking up his father from engineering classes, who graduated from CSUF in 1970.

Daily Titan

ROBERT HUSKEY / Daily Titan

Investigation ongoing

Fullerton Police Sgt. Jeff Stuart speaks to reporters Wednesday at one of several press conferences in front of Mihaylo Hall.

Campus-wide lockdown spurred by pursuit of pawn shop robbers handled well, survey shows TIM WORDEN Daily Titan

The manhunt for two robbery suspects ended at 11:51 p.m. Wednesday, and as the coalition of SWAT and other law enforcement agencies cruised away from campus, so went their steady stream of updates and intel. Since the campus-wide lockdown Wednesday, police have released little new information on the at-large suspects. One

SEE REFUND, 2

was believed to have fled into Steven G. Mihaylo Hall and the other went south, but their whereabouts remain unknown. The two splintered from three others after a high-speed chase that began in Moreno Valley culminated in a crash on Nutwood Avenue and Folino Drive. The other three were eventually apprehended by police. According to Sgt. Jeff Stuart of Fullerton Police Department, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is heading the investigation. “Because the shooting and the robbery and everything occurred in their jurisdiction, everything has a nexus back to them. They’re the

CAMPUS | Greek community

Fraternity loses accreditation Hazing and underage drinking allegations led to fraternity investigation LAUREN TORRES Daily Titan

One of Cal State Fullerton’s prominent fraternities has been officially stripped of its accreditation after months of investigation conducted by the university in partnership with a national representative of the fraternity. Sigma Phi Epsilon, one of the seven fraternities on campus, was removed as a chapter from the inter-fraternity council Dec. 5, following allegations of underage drinking at an off-campus unsanctioned event as well as allegations of hazing, according to Maricela Alvarado, the Greek Life Coordinator. Alvarado received a police report in September from the Fullerton Po-

lice Department indicating that an incident had occurred involving underaged drinking, which required the hospitalization of a young female. “We take our reports very seriously,” Alvarado said. Upon receiving the report, Alvarado and the chapter’s national governing council took it upon themselves to further investigate the allegations. “Their national headquarters decided to send a representative to investigate and determine the status of the fraternity, and whether or not they will be pulling their charter,” Alvarado said. According to Alvarado, the former fraternity chapter had been on suspension previously, last spring, due to violation of policies both under university and Sigma Phi Epsilon nationals’ policies. SEE ACCREDITATION, 2

lead agents. They took the bodies, and they get the investigation,” said Stuart. Sgt. Lisa McConnell of the Riverside County Sheriff ’s Department confirmed the department is taking the case. “We’re still actively involved in the case,” she said. “(But) I don’t have any updated information on what they’re working right now.” Moreno Valley Police Department, which partnered with the sheriff ’s department, is leading the investigation, headed by Investigator Ed Rose of Moreno Valley’s Robbery Suppression Team. SEE LOCKDOWN, 4

SEE DIRECTOR, 3

EDITORIAL

Proposition 30 refund: Students left in the dark Imagine that while Christmas shopping this season, you came across a new refrigerator that you are in dire need of; your current icebox is on the fritz. To your surprise, the refrigerator is advertised as $500 off, a deal just too good to pass up. This was how Proposition 30 was pitched to our student body. Much was made by school administration during this year’s election of the importance of Proposition 30’s passage. There was an implied understanding—if not an outright statement— that if Cal State Fullerton students supported the school by backing this measure, our veritable backs would in turn be covered; a near $500 refund for helping stave off drastic cuts. Yet now, with the semester closing, there appears a relative indifference to delivering on what was promised. To put it another way, it seems that the $500 off the fridge was really a mail-in rebate, putting the burden on you as the consumer to obtain your own savings. Granted, students still receive a credit towards their next semester regardless, but the implication was a monetary refund. Simply put, information passed on to

students on how to get their Proposition 30 refund has been lacking; the discrete steps taken to inform students paled in comparison to the amount of effort expended campuswide on getting students to vote in favor of the measure in the first place. Qualified students were given just over 20 days to complete and turn in a form to claim their money and, additionally, have until this Friday to clarify how they would like their refund to come in. This is, of course, dependent completely on students seeing emails sent out to their campus addresses. Not to mention students needing to be eligible for the much-desired refund, those requirements remaining unknown until after Proposition 30 had already passed, leaving several students with Cal Grants, Pell Grants and University Grants high and dry. There simply seems to be a disconnect from administration, student financial services and the student body they’re supposed to be serving—claiming to have handled the situation thoroughly despite even student leadership suggesting otherwise evinces this. Even the Daily Titan’s own survey, though

hardly a scientific poll, skews towards almost 50 percent of students being ignorant of how to get the Proposition 30 refund, or that there even was one in the first place. Perhaps there was simply not enough work put into a contingency plan if the proposition passed. But the point remains that for as much faith and support that students placed in their administration, they have done a poor job in reciprocating that. In the future, administration needs to do a more thorough job on making sure students know what they are getting (and what they are getting into) if another opportunity like this arises. Emails alone will not suffice, rather we should be using all of the resources available to us to get the word out: Social media, the CSUF website itself and even encouragement to staff to let students know what steps they need to take would all be effective solutions. Without an earnest effort to get the word out, enticing students to vote seems cynical and selfserving rather than helpful. If effort is expected from the students to vote for school funding, effort should be expected from the school to give students what they were promised.