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The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Volume 97 Issue 27
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Engineering college sees stratospheric growth
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College of ECS shows record growth in 2014 KLARISSA ALCALA Daily Titan This semester, the College of Engineering and Computer Science has seen the largest growth of any college at Cal State Fullerton. While the growth is a significant achievement for a college that, fewer than 30 years ago was facing a complete
shut down, it nonetheless ushers in growing pains that create further issues for the college leadership to address. In the ‘90s the college faced many problems, a situation which nearly led to the closure of the college. Those issues resulted from a lack of leadership and expertise, along with a decline in enrollment, said Raman Unnikrishnan, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “We were considered a prime candidate for closing down,” Unnikrishnan said.
In 1996 Schaffer Associates, a consulting agency, was hired by then University President Milton Gordon to audit the engineering and computer science program. The agency concluded that faculty at the time was not working together to solve problems, there was a lack of meaningful dialogue regarding the college’s budget, and the college could not sustain an environment of change due to a lack of leadership. Despite these issues the agency recognized the
college’s success in graduating students, and there were many individuals within the college who did want to work toward change. The agency recommended the college hire a dean who would focus on correcting the issues plaguing it. Andy Bazar, dean for the college at the time, resigned shortly after the consultation meetings began. Part of the enrollment decline was also due to the decline of the aerospace industry in California, said Susamma Barua, Ph.D., associate dean for the College
New bill targets rape drugs Bill will heighten penalty for date rape drug possesi
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of Engineering and Computer Sciences. Barua, who has worked at CSUF since 1988, said the lack of employment in the industry brought a correlating dearth of funding to the program, and a corresponding decrease in enrollment. “When enrollment goes down so does the resources that are attached to it,” Barua said. “And because of that we weren’t able to hire any new faculty members and didn’t have money to upgrade new labs.” SEE ENROLLMENT
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Assemblywoman Young Kim is attempting to address issues of sexual exploitation with a new bill, Assembly Bill 46, which would reverse portions of recently-passed Proposition 47 and make the possession of date-rape drugs a felony. Prop. 47, approved by voters in November, changed the classification of certain instances of drug possession from felonies to misdemeanors. The proposition’s parameters extend to possession of Ketamine, Rohypnol and Gamma Hydroxybutyric Acid (GHB), all of which are commonly known as “date rape” drugs which can be used to incapacitate victims before they are sexually assaulted. GHB is a central nervous system depressant that was approved for the treatment of narcolepsy, a sleep disorder. This drug has no color or taste and is frequently combined with alcohol to commit sexual assault. Rohypnol tablets-more commonly known as roofies and are chemically similar to sedative-hypnotic drugs like Xanax or Valium, but tend to impair judgement and leave victims physically incapacitated. The drug is not approved for medical use in this country, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Ketamine causes hallucinations, loss of body control and unconsciousness, and works very quickly, leaving victims with only a short window of time to react before becoming unconscious. SEE AB-46
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Steady stubble has theorists talking The driving force that keeps these beards growing FIONA PITT Daily Titan If a nearly naked woman isn’t on the cover, just about every men’s magazine this month bears a big bushy beard instead. What’s driving men in 2015 to keep the beard going? A study in the Oxford Journals titled Beards augment perceptions of men’s age, social status, and aggressiveness, but not attractiveness published in 2012 by Barnaby J. Dixson and Paul L. Vasey, suggests men grow facial hair in order to, “effectively signal their social status.” Social status in modern societies is mainly determined by occupation and some of
America’s biggest economic crises dating back to the 18th century run parallel to beard trends. The first crisis reported in the National Bureau of Economic Research was in 1857. A two and a half year crisis that devastated 23 percent of business activity called the Panic of 1857. This crisis is noteworthy because in the first half of the 1800s, a clean-shaven face was commonplace. Then mid-1800s, a dramatic shift occurred along with this economic panic. The Bureau lists economic recessions increasing after 1850 with greater periods of time. Thus when crises rose after 1850, beards grew. And almost out of nowhere. At this time beards became linked with the notion of masculinity, wrote Jacob Middleton in his book Bearded Patriarchs, published in 2006,
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where the image of a Victorian era man adorned in an austere black waistcoat, top hat and full sideburns or a flared moustache comes to mind. The parallels of economic crises and beard trends happened again. Into the 19th century after nearly a half century of what the Gillette Corporate website refers to as the “Golden Era of the straight razor,” King C. Gillette transformed shaving with the invention of the first safety razor. Influencing men to shave with ease and without having to sharpen a straight edge razor at the barbers. Possibly the reason the Great Depression, was spared from a bearded, hairy mess. When beards began to come back in the mid-60s on through the 70s, credited to the hippies; the Dow Jones Industrial Average also reached its lowest point on Feb. 20, 1961. SEE TRENDS 4
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FIONA PITT / DAILY TITAN
Trends come and go and men’s facial hair has a long history, multiple studies and numerous meanings behind the hairy masculine expression. VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM