Check out The Collegian online to find out what we’re talking about!
WEDNESday Issue OCTOBER 20, 2010 FRESNO STATE
COLLEGIAN.CSUFRESNO.EDU
SERVING CAMPUS SINCE 1922
Welty backs bill veto Schwarzenegger’s Sept. 30 decision to veto Senate Bill 330, known as the transparency bill, would have made financial infor mation from community colleges and universities in California available to the public, a decision President John Welty expressed support for. Under SB 330, California State Universities would have to fully disclose public records under the California Public Records Act. Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill last year that also would have obligated universities to disclose financial records regarding donations to the public. “I think it was a very good decision,” said Welty.
“The potential of that bill to drive donors away from the universities was very high.” However, many legislators and students supported the bill due to recent scandals sur rounding many colleges and universities, including Fresno State. In 2001, the Califor nia Faculty Association reported that “an employee of the Fresno State Foundation received a no-bid managing Contract for a theater complex in which he held an interest.” In 1995, The Sonoma State University foundation “gave a $1.25 million loan to a board member, who had resigned two days earlier,” as reported by CFA. The board member failed to pay back the loan. The CFA, which supports SB 330, has found that several universities have mixed
t h e i r p u bl i c and private funds. The CFA stated that, “other campuses - including Sonoma and Fresno State universities, as well as City College of San Francisco - also have run into problems with their foundations, sometimes allegedly hiding and illegally using public funds.” An audit done by the Auxiliary Organization in 2008 affirmed many of these allegations. “[Fresno State] generates 20 to 25 million dollars a year from private support,” Welty said. “Not all of that is anonymous, but even if an individual is not anonymous, it has the potential to drive people away from giving.” According to SB 330, a donor’s name can be kept
anonymous, as long as the donor does not receive a thank-you gift g re at e r t h a n $500. Pe t e r S m i t s, vice president for university advancement, said that Fresno State does not give any thank-you gifts to donors greater than $500. “They might get an invitation to a dinner and recognition,” Smits said. “They don’t get gifts.” Since official information regarding these donors is
Illustration by Michael Uribes / The Collegian
By Ana Mendoza The Collegian
See SB 330, Page 3
Nonprofits push more online ed By Leonard Valerio The Collegian The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has partnered with four nonprofit educational organizations to develop postsecondary online courses for the nation’s higher education system. The nonprofit organizations will initially be concentrating on integrating more online coursework in the community colleges. With recent budget cuts, Fresno State has begun to offer more online classes. Not all students are embracing the shift. Chris McIntyre, history major at Fresno State, said he doesn’t think the university should offer more online classes. “I think interaction in the classroom is an important aspect of learning,” he said. In an interview with The
New York Times, Bill Gates said innovation in education in response to budget constrained colleges and online courses may be the only hope higher education has during harsh economic downturns. McIntyre said he has taken a few online classes and believes his learning and study habits suffered as a result. “The deadline to submit work was the last day of class, so it hurt study habits,” McIntyre said. “I would wait to do assignments and rush to complete them instead of taking time to do it.” Junior Kourtney Sweeney said online classes were beneficial because it gave her the flexibility she needed in a busy schedule. Sweeney also said that online classes have more busy
work and students can learn a lot if they put the time and effort into them. “I had to spend more time teaching myself the material which made me have to study more,” Sweeney said. “With all that studying I learned a lot more than I expected.” While Sweeney liked the online courses, she still prefers to take regular classes. “I’m more of an auditory learner then visual and I still need to be in a class,” Sweeney said. While sophisticated technolo g y has made its way into courses for years, previous developments strove to enhance learning in the physical classroom. McIntyre said that kind of technology can make him a better learner and he enjoys taking courses in the smart classrooms. “With things
Illustration by Michael Uribes / The Collegian
like smart-boards, it makes me more engaged because I’m curious to try it out and see how it works,” McIntyre said. “I am more willing to volunteer going in front of the class and answer questions.” The center for Scholarly Advancement at Fresno State believes that online classes can improve student skills. On their website they said online writing tools provide feedback with instruction on how to correct and improve and encourages students to revise their papers before submitting them to teachers for a grade. The center for Scholarly Advancement at Fresno State is already ahead of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and has formed the Technology Partners in Excellence program. The program is designed to bring teachers from different disciplines together and create partnerships between them. The partnerships will work as a team to share professional growth and development opportunities in the area of using technology to enhance student learning. According to their website, TPIE builds a shared knowledge base, shares successful teaching practices but most importantly aids in transferring training into the classroom. And for some students, as in Mcintyre’s case, interactions with the teacher aided by technology may be significantly beneficial to student learning.
Military told to accept gay applicants By Anne Flaherty & Julie Watson Associated Press The military is accepting openly gay recruits for the first time in the nation’s history, even as it tries in the courts to slow the movement to abolish its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. At least two service members discharged for being gay began the process to re-enlist after the Pentagon’s Tuesday announcement. A federal judge in California who overturned the 17-year policy last week rejected the gover nment’s latest effort on Tuesday to halt her order telling the military to stop enforcing the law. Before her ruling, government lawyers told Phillips they would appeal if she rejected their request. Wi t h t h e r e c r u i t i n g announcement, the barriers built by an institution long resistant and sometimes hostile to gays had come down. The movement to overturn the 1993 Clinton-era law gained speed when President Barack Obama campaigned on its repeal. The effort stalled in Congress this fall, and found new life last month when U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips declared it unconstitutional. “Gay people have been fighting for equality in the military since the 1960s,” said Aaron Belkin, executive director of the Palm Center, a think tank on gays and the military at the University of California Santa Barbara. “It took a lot to get to this day.” The Defense Department has said it would comply with Phillips’ order and had frozen any discharge cases. Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said recruiters had been given top-level guidance to accept applicants who say they are gay. AP interviews found some recruiters following the order and others saying they had not heard of the announcement. Recruiters also have been told to infor m potential recruits that the moratorium on enforcement of the policy could be reversed at any time, if the ruling is appealed or the court grants a stay, she said. Gay rights g roups were continuing to tell service members to avoid revealing that they are gay, fearing they could find themselves in trouble should the law be reinstated. “What people aren’t really See OUT, Page 3