MUSTANG DAILY TOMORROW: Mostly sunny High 76˚/Low 45˚
CA L I F O R N I A P O LY T E C H N I C S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y ‘Narnia’ author wrote about more than just wardrobes.
Mexican drug cartels growing marijuana in northern Texas. IN NEWS, 4 Volume LXXIV, Number 17
‘Concerts in the Plaza’ gets a makeover and a new location. IN ARTS, 7
IN ARTS, 8
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
CSU chancellor delays CBF funds Statement is consistent with prior delays
Cal Poly administrators were informed that the California State University Chancellor’s Office gave an ultimatum regarding the College Based Fees (CBF) yesterday morning. The chancellor’s office gave the university two options if they wanted to keep the CBF in place, a $362 fee increase that 78 per-
cent of the students’ voted for in March. The first option would give one-third of the fee increase to the chancellor’s office to dole out to the other California State University (CSU) campuses. The other option is that all of the CSU campuses get the opportunity to approve similar fees. “(The CBFs) were passed prior
to this year. All 23 campuses face a moratorium on campus-based fee increases for this year,” Erik Fallis, a representative of the chancellor’s office said in a statement. A ‘moratorium,’ or delay, is no new strategy. “He is still asking President Baker to hold off on implementation of the increase, as he’s done
since the advisory vote was conducted in March,” Associated Students Inc. (ASI) President Kelly Griggs said. The chancellor’s office raised student tuition by 32 percent this summer in order to deal with a systemwide deficit of $564 million. The deans of the university’s
colleges were among the first notified of the impasse. Dr. Dave Christy, dean of the Orfalea College of Business, advocated the increase to CBFs. “The reason we asked students to pass it was to retain the mode of education. Without it we’ll have to see Funding, page 2
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New portal lets students receive secure messages Megan Hassler mustang daily
The Cal Poly Health Center launched the new Mustang Health Portal on Sept. 1, which will allow students to receive secure messages, make appointments and fill out health history forms online to avoid filling the forms out wen going in for an appointment. The portal is the result of a $3,000 software update the Health Center has been looking into for the last 18 months. During last year’s discussion with the Student Health Advisory Council, students said the functionality of the portal would make the Health Center more accessible. The leaders of the Health Center agreed with this and want to make the visit to the Health Center as harmless as possible. “Being sick is lousy. No one likes to wait in a line when they are sick,” Dr. David Harris, Head of Medical Services, said.
The Mustang Health Portal launched this month. The Mustang Health Portal is not currently linked with the My Cal Poly portal, because after polling students last year, it was found that some students’ parents have access to their portals. Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) student medical records are included in educational records, which are protected under this act. Once a student turns 18, all of his or her educational records become protected by FERPA.This protection includes from the students parents or guardians, unless the student has signed a records release form.
The biggest downfall of the Health Center’s previous alert system was the “loop of sometimes endless phone tag,” Harris said. Due to FERPA and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Health Center officials are prevented from leaving any information on a student’s voicemail. This is because it cannot be guaranteed that the student is the only one who has access to their voicemail. The result is a generally inefficient mode of communication in which it could eventually take days to connect. see Portal, page 2
Library’s Einstein bust reported stolen mustang daily staff report
A bust-sized statue of Albert Einstein, usually located on the second floor of the Robert E. Kennedy library, was missing and considered stolen yesterday afternoon, library dean Michael Miller said. Although some regular library patrons noticed the statue’s absence for weeks, Miller just recently recognized that it was missing from its location above the rows of newspapers near Julian’s Patisserie. He then reported it to the University Police Department (UPD), which is conducting an investigation to determine exactly when the bust was taken. A spokesperson for UPD said that the report was incomplete, but that more information was forthcoming. Whoever stole it most likely walked out the front door of the library, Miller said. While there are exits on all levels of the library, they are all alarmed and would have caught the attention of the library staff, he added. Although the incident could
simply be a “prank,” Miller said he was disappointed on behalf of all who use the library. “When someone from our community comes in and takes it, it’s kind of depressing,” he said. The statue is estimated it to be worth several thousand dollars. “Einstein is an iconic figure,” Miller said. “(This particular statue) is as a nice, sort of friendly version of a genius. I found it both friendly and inspirational. It’s nice to have works of art available in the places where students do their work.” While UPD is conducting an investigation, Miller said it would be dropped if the statue is returned unharmed. “If (the statue) were returned, there’s not going to be any questions asked, there wouldn’t be any questions asked, that would be the end of the (investigation) with UPD,” he said. Updates will be available as information comes in on mustangdaily.net. Emilie Egger contributed to this report.