FRESNO STATE
COLLEGIAN.CSUFRESNO.EDU
SERVING CAMPUS SINCE 1922
FRIDAY ISSUE | JANUARY 17, 2014
MLK Future unclear for amphitheater remembered through service By Brianna Vaccari The Collegian For years, Fresno State has embodied what Martin Luther King Jr. Day is all about: service. Fresno State has volunteered 1 million or more community service hours since the 20092010 school year. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is part of President Barack Obama’s United We Serve campaign, the president’s call for Americans to come together and get involved with their communities. Every year, the Jan & Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and ServiceLearning collects and tallies Fresno State’s community service and service-learning hours. In the 2012-2013 school year, Fresno State volunteered 1,055,257 hours, and the economic impact was estimated to be more than 27 million. Chris Florentino, the director of the Richter Center, said Fresno State is a national leader in the area of community service. But he also said, “Numbers aren’t nearly as important as the benefits for the students and
The Fresno State Ampitheater’s green room was demolished over the winter break due to mold. Though the campus’ master plan still calls for the amphitheater, Fresno State President Joseph Castro said a concert hall may be built in the future, which would eliminate the historic outdoor performance venue.
See MLK, Page 6
See AMPHITHEATER, Page 3
Photo illustration by Katie Eleneke / The Collegian
Outdoor concert center’s green room demolished By Brianna Vaccari The Collegian Once host to nationally acclaimed acts like Jefferson Starship, Tom Petty, Radiohead and even Democratic senator Robert F. Kennedy, Fresno State’s only outdoor performance venue has now partially been torn down. The demolition of the Fresno State Amphitheater green room
and electrical room was completed Jan. 10, leaving only a concrete stage and roof. Reggie Rush, who was instrumental in the construction of the amphitheater, said the electrical panel wiring that was removed in the demolition was vital for performances on the stage. “If someone is going to save the place, they don’t have long,” he said. Rush said without the
electrical panel, the amphitheater “useless.” Gary Wilson, senior director of facilities management at Fresno State, said the green room needed renovations and it wasn’t being used by Associated Students, Inc (ASI). In spring of 2013, the former coordinator of the Student Involvement Center, Gary Nelson, said the dressing rooms needed to be torn down because
of mold, and the structure itself needed up to $150,000 worth of repairs. Rush, who was part of a group called College Union Sound System (CUSS), said when he arrived at Fresno State around 1975, the amphitheater wasn’t more than a plywood stage made of two-by-fours.
Castro’s tablet program begins Forty faculty members, 1,000 students to participate in first phase this fall By Jesse Franz The Collegian
Katie Eleneke/ The Collegian
Chair of Academic Senate and Faculty member of Agricultural Business Lynn Williams (left) discusses the implementation of tablets in teaching with Fresno State President Joseph Castro.
Fresno State has begun institutionalizing tablets. Fresno State President Joseph Castro officially kicked off the universities tablet program Monday by handing out free iPad Airs to the first group of professors who will teach with them. “Today I will invest our first 40 faculty members who are going to be our pioneers in that program, and together with 1,000 or more students we’ll get that program started in the Fall,” Castro said. Although the tablet program won’t begin in earnest until fall, over the next eight months faculty participating in the test program will be trained in effective ways to teach with the new technology and how to adjust their courses to make them more tablet compatible. “What you will see this spring is you’ll see professional development programs that we’re launching with our faculty because we
have to get them ready to teach these classes and redesign our courses,” Castro said. “So you’ll be able to see them getting ready for that. Then we’ll have an intensive summer program so that by the time they start in August, they’ll all be ready.” Some of the finer points of the program are still in development. One of those points is the unknown cost that students will be required to bear. Castro said a buy-or-lease option for tablets may be the policy in the future. “We have purchased the initial tablets for the faculty members, and they will use those in their work, and we’re going to give students the option to purchase or lease. We’re still working out those details, but my intention is to make those as accessible as possible, especially for our students from lower income backgrounds,” said Castro. He also announced that Fresno State’s initial purchases of tablets See TABLET, Page 6