FRESNO STATE
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SERVING CAMPUS SINCE 1922
WEDNESDAY ISSUE | SEPTEMBER 4, 2013
FALL SPORTS PREVIEW | INSIDE IT’S HERE. THE COLLEGIAN’S FALL SPORTS INSERT, FEATURING COVERAGE OF ALL FRESNO STATE SPORTS TEAMS IN SEASON
ASI: Senators train over summer
OPINION | PAGE 2
SHOPPING AT WALMART: A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP
Containing the Rim
By Jacob Rayburn The Collegian Before there are any votes, prop o s e d r e s o l u t i o n s o r b u d g e t s, Associated Students, Inc. senators have to be trained how to do their job during the summer. Candice Amico, the executive vice president, said the boot camp sessions crammed a lot of new information into the men and women tasked with representing the students on the Fresno State campus. “I think we fried their brains,” Amico said. “We gave them a break before school to recharge.” At the end of last school year, the incoming senators and executive staff met with the people they were replacing at a retreat in Lindsey, Calif. “They met with whomever they were replacing to learn about what happened last year: what they did, what they fell through on and what they can improve,” Amico said. “They got used to what they can do.” Daniel Ward, the senator-at-large for academic affairs, said that meeting was his first lesson of what to expect as a senator. “Before the training, I met the outgoing executive vice president and three senators from areas I was interested in representing,” Ward said. “I got an understanding of what their jobs were like beyond the job descriptions. Hearing it from people who worked through issues was helpful.” During a two-day leadership workshop, Amico said that staff from organizations in the University Student Union met to collaborate and learn together. During the first day, senators were taught parliamentary procedure for meetings. See TRAINING, Page 3
A helicopter dumps water on hot spots battling the Rim Fire in the Stanislaus National Forest along Highway 120 near Yosemite National Park.
Paul Kitagaki Jr. / McClatchy-Tribune
Historic fire 75 percent contained as of Tuesday morning By Crystal Deniz The Collegian
Fresno State students may have felt more than a tickle in their throats the past few weeks while breathing in the hot Valley air. This time around, allergies are not to blame. The Rim Fire, the largest fire California has seen this year, was around 75 percent contained around 10 a.m. Tuesday, said Jim Bagnall,
a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford. Since the fire started in Stanislaus National Forest on Aug. 17, nearly 236,000 acres have been burned and over 100 structures destroyed, including 11 homes. Bagnall explained that the combination of heat from the fire and the Valley heat allowed the fire to create its own weather system throughout the area. The heat combination created
a strong upward motion, allowing the fire to grow at a rapid pace. Fresno County Fire spokesman Ryan Michaels said the fire’s upward movement makes firefighting difficult. “On extremely steep terrain, fire has potential to make very fast runs. We can’t move uphill as fast as the fire can,” he said. The Associated Press reported Sunday that the Rim Fire is the fourth largest fire in California’s history,
passing a September 1932 Ventura County fire that burned 219,520 acres. Photographs of the fire from Aqua, a NASA satellite, showed the intense clouds obscuring the ground. T he smok y air trig g ered an unhealthy air quality warning, which expired early Tuesday afternoon when the wind shifted. “The smoke has been blown to the northeast, away from the See FIRE, Page 3
Sea Lion Cove passes 1-year mark Congress considers Syria Strikes
By Jesse Franz The Collegian
See Page 4 Khlarissa Agee / The Collegian
The Sea Lion Cove at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo recently passed its one-year mark of being open to the public. The exhibit was funded completely by Measure Z and costed $10.5 million to design and construct. Six animals live inside the cove.
Despite support in Congress for military action against Syria, some Fresno State faculty and students remain wary of involvement. President Barack Obama said an attack against Syria was not imminent on Friday and announced he would seek congressional approval before taking military action. This is in response to what his administration called “indisputable proof ” of the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military in their civil war. Dr. Thomas Holyoke, a political science professor, distinguished why so much international outrage has come as a result of Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons, as opposed to the use of conventional weapons. “Chemical weapons, the way Assad has been using them, are being used to terrorize civilians by killing them in large numbers,” Holyoke said. “Assad
is using this as a weapon of terror to try and cow the people of Syria by murdering civilians.” The President’s administration gained congressional support over the weekend from two prominent Republican Senators, John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor also came out in favor of a military strike. “I’m going to support the president’s call for action. I believe my colleagues should support this call for action,” Boehner said in a press conference Monday. Sumaya Attia, a Fresno State student and member of the Muslim Student Association, disapprove of Assad but still hope for a diplomatic resolution. “Those who support Assad at this point cannot continue to deny that more than 100,000 people are dead. Not all are military people. These aren’t See SYRIA, Page 3