Volume 94, Issue 4
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013
dailytitan.com
Course redesigns aim to break the ‘bottleneck’ $360,000 redesigns will revamp 10 lower-division roadblock courses HELENDA REED Daily Titan
High demand and high failurerate courses can go hand-in-hand at Cal State Fullerton, according to Provost José L. Cruz. As a result for some students, progress towards graduating has slowed down. Dubbed “bottleneck courses,” these classes create a roadblock for students who struggle to pass the class and often end up repeating them. “. . . The more students that need to repeat a course, the less seats there are available for stu-
dents that want to enroll in the course for the first time,” Cruz said. Faculty and students question why the failure rate for bottleneck courses have been high for so long. “In my opinion I think a lot of it is lack of confidence,“ said Cherie Ichinose, an assistant professor for the Department of Mathematics who is a member of the team redesigning Math 115. She explained that much of the time students come into courses like Math 115 with the belief that they can not do it, but she hopes that this type of mindset will change. According to Ichinose, nontraditional ways of teaching students could be a good start. “Instead of the students being
in a lecture based environment, I’m going to look at alternative ways of learning, whether it be a fully online course so students can learn anytime and anywhere with mobile learning,” Ichinose said. She believes that if students are able to learn at their own pace and environment, it will be more appealing and help give students the extra time they may need. Vivian Gonzalez, 19, a sociology major, is one of the students who has struggled with Math 115. SEE CENTER, 2
Professors study rare monkeys in Ethiopia Student assistants travel with professors to study gelada monkeys in Africa NEREIDA MORENO Daily Titan
Photo courtesy of Peter Fashing Niina Nurmi, former GGRP research assistant, now a Ph.D student in primatology at Max Planck in Germany, studying geladas at Guassa, Ethiopia.
Following the end of a long and bloody civil war that kept researchers out of Ethiopia for over 30 years, two Cal State Fullerton professors have made the African nation their summer home since 2007. Peter Fashing and Nga Nguyen founded the Guassa Gelada Project in 2007 to conduct research on the gelada monkey in a unique and ecologically pristine region of Ethiopia. The couple met in a Kenyan
rainforest and have been together for over 15 years. Nguyen was an undergraduate student at Barnard College, while Fashing was doing his Ph.D. research on colobus monkeys. Peter Fashing, Ph.D., an associate anthropology professor at CSUF, received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1999. Nga Nguyen received her Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University in 2006 and joined the CSUF faculty in 2009. “We both carried out our research in Kenya and then in 2007 founded this research project on gelada monkeys,” Nguyen said. “It was a site where we could go to the field and study animal behavior together.” SEE MONKEY, 2
Artists and shelters team up for animal rescue Three animal rescue organizations were apart of the Rescue Me exhibit ROBERT REYES Daily Titan
A few years ago, local artist Cody Raiza and her boyfriend saw a three-legged Dachshund named Elsa at a dog park and instantly fell in love. After learning that Gunther had been rescued from a shelter and was looking for a new owner, they fostered her. Since then, Raiza and her boyfriend have been committed to being a foster family for dogs that are rescued from local animal shelters until they find their own homes. “I find dogs all the time and I rehabilitate whatever falls into
my lap,” Raiza said. Now, her love of animals is being combined with her craft in an art show she curated at the Egan Gallery called Rescue Me, which opened Friday. What makes this exhibit special is it also doubles as a pet adoption event. Stephen Baxter, who runs the organization Art With An Agenda and is the owner of the Egan Gallery, approached Raiza with the idea to do a show to benefit animals. Both the gallery and Art With An Agenda are known for their socially conscious art shows including LOVE. SEX. UNITY. RESPECT. about marriage equality and The Life and Murder of Kelly Thomas about the death of Kelly Thomas. Raiza jumped at the chance to curate her first show and said that all of her experience doing group
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shows as an artist taught her everything she needed to know. Artists from Orange County to Philadelphia contributed new animal themed artwork for the show.
Many of the artists made personal pieces that featured their own pets. Craig ‘Skibs’ Barker’s mixed media piece, “Small Miracle,” features his wife and their three dogs.
Like Barker, Cal State Fullerton alumna Kelly Castillo is one of the featured artists who has adopted or rescued dogs. Castillo contributed a Virgin Mary-inspired portrait titled
“You Don’t Choose The Pug Life,” which includes a halo of pugs and playful allusions to ‘90s rap. SEE ANIMALS, 6
ROBERT REYES / Daily Titan
Five cats were adopted at the Egan Gallery on Saturday as part of the Rescue Me exhibit. Paperwork for dog adoptions is in progress.
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