Wednesday October 23, 2019
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
LGBTQ celebration centers around acceptance The President’s Pride Celebration honors LGBTQ Heritage Month. DIANA TRAN BRIANA TORRES WENDY CHAVEZ Staff Writers
The Titan community stood in alliance with the LGBTQ community as tables and seats were filled at the Golleher Alumni House for the school’s LGBTQ celebration on Tuesday. Nat Betancourt, the coordinator for the LGBT Queer Resource Center at Cal State Fullerton organized the event. Betancourt wanted this event to be casual as previous celebrations were formal events. “(It’s) just another fun event for people to be in community, to learn about different resources that we offer, and even for folks that don’t identify as queer, to learn more about and be allies to our community,” Betancourt said. A rainbow-colored balloon archway led students, faculty and administrators to a large dance floor. A DJ played upbeat music as people enjoyed food such as Mexican sopes, potato empanadas and fried shrimp. The layout of the dessert table
resembled the LGBTQ flag laden with colorful macarons, cupcakes and fruit. There were also activities that attendees could participate in that were inspired by the LGBTQ community. “We have airbrushing tattoos because tattoos are really important in terms of reclaiming our bodies, and we also have button making where people can learn the different flags within the LGBTQ community,” Betancourt said. Fei Hernandez was a guest speaker that spit poetry about the night’s theme “the chosen family” and those they love. The chosen family is defined as non-biological kinship bonds, whether legally recognized or not, deliberately chosen for the purpose of mutual support and love, according to the Sage Encyclopedia of marriage, family and couples counseling. This is a term the LGBTQ community has come to adopt because of the rejection many have come to face from their immediate family. “We have to recognize that the fact that we’re here tonight where six years ago this celebration didn’t even exist on campus is the important milestone,” said President Fram Virjee. Since the center was founded in 2012, support for the LGBTQ community at CSUF has funded even more services on campus,
a c c o r d i n g to Virjee. Due to advocacy from the center and the Division of Student Affairs, CSUF has been able to increase the amount of gender-neutral bathrooms by over 700% in 2017, according to Virjee.
The campus has made other progressions through including inclusive housing residents hall for students and making history as one of the first CSUs to raise a pride flag. “In 2016 our ASI passed a resolution in loud and proud support of our LGBTQ community, and our LGBTQ students leaders began to create places and spaces for queer people of color and the queer straight alliance to bring people together,” Virjee said. Charles Frausto, a business and marketing major at CSUF, said he had trouble making friends who are a part of the LGBTQ community on campus. SEE ALLIANCE 4
DIANA TRAN / DAILY TITAN
Volume 106 Issue 29
Faculty member died
Students were asked to move on after the death of psychology lecturer. HOSAM ELATTAR Editor
A Cal State Fullerton professor committed suicide two weeks ago. Students in his class have taken to social media, saying the university did not disclose the information to them appropriately. Nathan Westbrook, 45, was a part-time faculty member in the psychology department and taught for 14 years. “He was a really good person, and that’s why I was really upset and taken aback by the news,” said Dawn Anoche, a third year psychology student. “He went to class to lecture every week and suddenly, he’s gone.” Anoche said she went to class last Thursday, and she did not see her professor; instead, there were staff and faculty members from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the front of the classroom. “They introduced each other and then they said, ‘Oh, we’re sorry to inform you, but your professor is not here because he took his own life,’ and they stopped, and waited for us to react to it, and you can hear the whole class gasp, and then people started crying,” Anoche said. SEE CAPS 3
President Fram Virgee gave a speech on milestones as supporters listened.
Master Plan looks at possible changes CSUF hopes to become a living campus as opposed to a commuter one. JESSICA BENDA STEPHANIE DELATEUR Asst. Editors
ANGEL RAMIREZ Staff Writer
After months of planning, members of the Cal State Fullerton community gathered in the Titan Student Union pavillions, on Monday, for a forum about the campus’ master plan. The plan includes adding housing for up to 3,000 students, a 6,000-seat event center and facility upgrades across campus. Parking facilities, transit mobility hubs and a pedestrian bridge from College Park across Nutwood Avenue are also proposed new additions to campus. Emil Zordilla, CSUF campus architect and director of planning and design, said cost is not specified in the master plan. Attendees brought up concerns over the potential changes, such as the demolition of certain buildings and increased traffic brought about by the expansion in student and faculty housing. The plan is designed to cut down traffic by reducing the need for students to leave campus at
all, said Andrew Cunningham, architect from Flad Architects. “As we think to the future, the big idea is to really move from a commuter campus to a residential campus,” Cunningham said. CSUF is the most populous campus in the CSUs. In spring 2019, just under 40,000 students were enrolled, with more than 4,000 staff members. The master plan states it will maximize available space to support its thousands of students and staff. “As part of the master plan, the current housing that’s existing today is more or less going to stay,” Zordilla said. “There’s another aspect of housing that’s going to get built currently south of the gastronome, and then there’s a part of the current housing on the north side that is thought of as being renovated.” Sixteen years have passed since CSUF had a new master plan, as the last one was adopted in 2003, said President Framrose Virjee. “The purpose of this is to create a student-centered vision for who we are going to be and where we are going to go as a physical plan on our campus,” Virjee said. The 2003 plan had the construction of both State College and Eastside Parking structures and the Mihaylo College of
Business and Economics. New student facilities such as the Student Recreation Center, resident housing and an addition to the Titan Student Union were also added. “We’re not going to tear down all our buildings and build new ones. We know that’ll never
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concrete plan, and has no set timeline of when construction would begin should the plan be approved, Virjee said. The plan will continue to be vetted this fall before it is presented for approval and adoption by the CSU board of trustees in spring 2020.
JESSICA BENDA / DAILY TITAN
President Fram Virjee address the campus community about CSUF’s Master Plan.
Cultural foods to fulfill students’ sweet tooths
WHAT’S INSIDE?
happen, and so we shouldn’t plan that way,” Virjee said. “But, we are looking for building interactive learning spaces and communities. We are looking at providing community for our students.” The new preferred plan serves as a proposal as opposed to a
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