Monday, May 2, 2022
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Volume 111 Issue 17
Uncertainty surrounds return of WoMen’s Center The center was closed in December 2021 due to financial cuts. AMBER JUAREZ Dept. Editor
AUDREY PARAYNO Staff Writer
The new WoMen’s Center may be located on the first floor of the Pollak Library. (Carlos Cordova / Daily Titan)
The campus WoMen’s Center is scheduled to open in the fall 2021 semester, but there is no exact opening date, location or budget, university officials said. They also said the new center will concentrate on events and programs, but did not offer any specifics. The Daily Titan first reported the December 2021 closure of the WoMen’s Center, which was in Steven G. Mihaylo Hall. Tonantzin Oseguera, vice president of student affairs, said it was her decision to close the center because of a budget cut, and that she told Cal State Fullerton President Fram Virjee of the impending closure. She said in order to abide by an executive order, they needed to move programs
and services to other departments in the university. However, the university never informed students or faculty that the center was closing, precipitating a drive by hundreds of faculty members to restore the center. “At the end of the day, there wasn’t anything else that was remaining other than the actual physical space. All of the services we maintained through the last two years, those never went away. We did not have the staff to keep that space open,” Oseguera said. The new center will be a joint project of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs, said Becky Dolhinow, a CSUF women and gender studies associate professor. “The center will be, as far as we know, the first of its kind to join these two units in the CSU,” Dolhinow said. “Traditionally, women centers exist only within student affairs.” Dolhinow said when faculty saw that the center was closed they saw this not only as an opportunity to reopen it, but as an opportunity to
reenvision it. She said that the Division of Student Affairs will use its own faculty advisory council. “We were really hoping to make this new WoMen’s Center something that people who do work on gender and women across campus would feel that they had a place to be part of, and the lack of a faculty advisory council kind of makes that not as available to people,” Dolhinow said. Provost Carolyn Thomas said there will be a faculty liaison position that will specifically work with other faculty to create more programs and to look at gender issues from an academic perspective. “We have a lot of faculty on our campus who really cared deeply about this issue. And that will allow us to showcase their strengths, and allow students who are interested in that connection to scholarly gender issues and questions to make the connection,” Thomas said. SEE WOMEN
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CSUF resources for transit students not up to date The university offers more services to individual drivers than public transportation users. GENESIS PAVIA JAQUELINE ROSALES
Despite Cal State Fullerton’s reputation as a commuter campus, the university offers few sustainable transportation options compared to the services for individual drivers, such as parking structures and permits. The Daily Titan has found that CSUF lacks bus stops on campus, and that bus service is infrequent and schedules are unreliable. Outdated transit websites do not provide accurate bus route information, leaving low ridership from CSUF students using Orange County Transportation Authority, or OCTA, services. Bus stops near campus also lack coverings to protect students from dispersed weather conditions. On campus, CSUF does not provide maps or signage directing students to the nearest bus stops. A map of bus routes on the CSUF Public and Transportation Services website are not up to date. OCTA route 24, which is shown on the map, was discontinued, 213 was rerouted west of campus and route 123 is missing. Cassandra Reyes, a second-year graduate student, said she used public transportation to get to school. Taking the bus has been cost-effective, she said, but it often does not arrive at the scheduled time, forcing her to use ride-sharing apps like Uber, which VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM
often costs more than $20, compared to a $2 bus fare — significantly more than she planned. “Sometimes it’s severely late, and then that will make me late to class or work,” Reyes said. “I don’t have that flexibility to just get in my car and go because I have to go on the bus’ schedule.”
See Pages 6 & 7
(Matthew Keyser / Daily Titan)
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