The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Thursday October 21, 2015
Volume 98 Issue 28
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Math department faculty divided over textbook Spring 2014
1991
Alain Bourget uses book of his own choosing. He gets reprimanded & suspended from Linear Algebra.
Goode’s book is published.
1984
LGBTQ students highlighted for being fearless in athletics DARLENE CASAS Daily Titan
Policy decision settles on common textbook for all Math 250B sections.
Alain Bourget voices concerns. Committee tells him to continue using Goode’s book.
Administrative hearing is scheduled.
Oct. 23, 2015
2013
NATALIE GOLDSTEIN / DAILY TITAN
Math professor Alain Bourget broke department tradition when he introduced a new textbook for the Math 250B course, calling decades of practice into question.
Department disagreements result in hearing SPENCER CUSTODIO Daily Titan Associate math professor Alain Bourget, Ph.D, is slated to have an administrative hearing Friday about a reprimand he received from the math
department for using a different book than one that was adopted by the department. In October 2013, Alain put in a request to use “Introduction to Linear Algebra” by Gilbert Strang, Ph.D., as the textbook for his Math 250B class for the Spring 2014 semester, according to emails obtained by the Daily Titan. Math 250B Coordinator Scott Annin, Ph.D., told Alain that he would like all sections of the course to use the same text.
Alain ended up using Strang’s book that semester anyway, telling Annin that, to his knowledge, the department had not officially adopted a textbook for Math 250B. The textbook currently assigned to the course, the third edition of “Differential Equations and Linear Algebra,” is written by Stephen Goode, Ph.D., mathematics department chair, with Annin listed as co-author. “My recollection is that
when my text became available (around 1989), we adopted it by unanimous consent so no formal motion was necessary,” Goode said in an email obtained by the Daily Titan. Associate math professor Adam Glesser, Ph.D., said that since Alain kept insisting there was no policy requiring that all sections of the course use the same book, the math department felt it was time to officially adopt Goode’s book for the course.
The math department held a vote on March 7, 2014 regarding the issue. Goode’s book was overwhelmingly accepted, Glesser said. He also said that, to the best of his memory, the only three who voted against it were associate professors Tyler McMillen, Ph.D., Gülhan Bourget, Ph.D. and Alain. Gülhan and Alain are married. SEE MATH 3
Racing team on track for competition Titan Baja looks to surpass expectations HAYLEY M. SLYE Daily Titan At a Baja SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) race, cars rumble around a track. They bump into each other and fall over. Their suspensions rip loose, their breaks stick and their wheels come off or end up sideways. The cars start the race in multiple different colors, but end up in just one: dirt. Cal State Fullerton’s Baja SAE team will compete for the second consecutive year in 2016. After not participating for eight years, the team came back in 2015 and placed 56th overall at a competition in Oregon. If that sounds unimpressive, consider that other teams told them not to be surprised if they don’t finish the race or if their car
breaks down. “‘Breaks down’ is putting it nicely,” said Joseph Piacenza, Ph.D., faculty advisor for the Titan Baja team and assistant professor of mechanical engineering at CSUF. In the middle of the main event, the master cylinder of the Baja car locked up. The team had to tear it apart and rebuild it on the spot. Yet the car, named “Cronus” after the Titan in Greek mythology, made it across the finish line. Cronus finished the race with 11 laps while many schools didn’t have more than 10, and some higher-ranked cars broke down and didn’t finish. Christopher Gutierrez, a mechanical engineering major on the Titan Baja team, said that the 2015 team defied the odds. “A lot of teams didn’t expect us to do that good. I guess for most teams you wait one or two years or two or three years to be able to have a fully functional car, but we were able to do it in one,” Gutierrez said.
New parking rule enforced at local parks
News
Students who leave their cars parked for more than two hours at nearby Chapman and Acacia Parks may face 3 a new fine
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YUNUEN BONAPARTE / DAILY TITAN
Jonathan Nash, a mechanical engineering major at Cal State Fullerton, adjusts a tire on Cronus, the car Titan Baja team built for the Baja SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) 2015 competition.
Coming off of its 2015 success, the team didn’t waste any time preparing for 2016. “A lot of teams take the summer off. We didn’t,” Gutierrez said. As a tribute to the team
that built Cronus, this year’s team is considering naming the new car “Zeus,” the son of Cronus. Since the team is not allowed to use any part of the previous car in their
Student heading to world championships
Features
CSUF student continues to fight his way to the top of the no-gi jiu-jitsu world after winning gold at 4 nationals in N.Y.
Photos aim to inspire courage
new car, the name and the experience of making it will be the only thing the team can take from the 2015 Baja car. SEE CAR 5
Jeff Sheng introduced his photography series of LGBTQ student athletes, named the “Fearless Project,” to CSUF on Wednesday night at the Titan Gym. Sheng’s cover photos depict a different person from a different sport, but each athlete shares one thing: the courage to embrace their identities. The CSUF organizations that planned this event celebrated student athletes’ bravery to show that each student, whether LGBTQ or not, will be welcomed in the CSUF community. The series took 13 years to complete and includes athletes from high schools and colleges throughout the United States and Canada. Sheng shared his story to the crowd about coming out and consequently quitting tennis. He described how he was inspired by the athletes he photographed because they accomplished something he was unable to do. Although Sheng ended his athletic career, his transition to photography came naturally. He said photography and tennis were both hobbies that took his mind off his sexual orientation. “There was something about hitting a tennis ball and taking pictures that translates from one to another,” Sheng said. “You are looking through a viewfinder similar to searching a tennis ball.” His most memorable experience was when he was photographing a pair of fraternal twins who were both gay, and their mother quickly approached him. To his surprise, she told Sheng she was really glad that he was doing this project because he was making the world a safer place for her children. “In an ideal world (sexual orientation in athletics) wouldn’t be an issue anywhere,” Sheng said. “We have such few percentage of that in professional sports, and even in high school and college sport and it would be great if they just were who they are.” Joy Hoffman, Ed.D., Director of Diversity Initiatives and Resource Centers, said Sheng was strategic in designing the eight covers of his book, with each one representing a color in the rainbow of the LGBTQ flag. SEE LGBTQ
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Men’s soccer gives up late goals in defeat
Sports
Titans gave up their top spot in the Big West in a 2-1 loss to CSUN; Fullerton now sits in third place in the Big West 8 Conference VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM