Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Vol. 95, Issue 120
THE
DAILY
w w w. T h e D a i l y A z t e c . c o m
AZTEC
Tw i t t e r : T h e D a i l y A z t e c
San Diego State University’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1913
I N S I D E T O D AY SPORTS
Deaf studies program closes R E E M NO U R S E N I O R S TA F F W R I T E R
CHASSE RETURNS After being suspended earlier this season, Josh Chasse is back with a vengeance. page 2
FOOD & DRINK
FOOD NOT BOMBS Find out how some San Diegans are helping feed the homeless every Wednesday. page 5
ENTERTAINMENT
FAB FOUR TRIBUTE The Beatles tribute show “Rain” will be stopping by the Civic Theatre for a limited time. page 10
TODAY @ SDSU “Above and Beyond” Exhibit SDSU Library, 4th floor Students from Michele Burgess’ “The Art of the Book” class feature their book art in the exhibit, which runs until May 25. For more of today’s headlines, visit:
www.thedailyaztec.com
CONTACT GENERAL INFORMATION 619.594.4199
Repercussions from the state budget crisis and the California State University system budget cuts are still affecting San Diego State students. The School of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences has suspended the American Sign Language / deaf studies concentration as of last fall semester after the College of Health and Human Services took a cut of $1.5 million last year, according to the school’s director, Beverly Wulfeck. The decision to suspend the ASL / deaf studies concentration was strictly budgetary, one of many difficult decisions it has had to make concerning all undergraduate and graduate programs, Wulfeck said. This particular concentration was selected for suspension because it is the smallest program in the school, with 24 students, compared to 170 undergraduate students in the other two concentrations, speech-language pathology and audiology, she said. The 24 students, including eight seniors, were notified via e-mail and through announcements on the school’s website that enrollment in the ASL / deaf studies undergraduate concentration was being suspended for an “indefinite period of time.” According to Wulfeck, the eight seniors were assured they would have classes to graduate and were required to complete their courses by this semester, but the other 16 students have to consider alternative routes. Vicenta Summers, who relocated her family from Santa Cruz to San Diego two years ago to enroll in SDSU’s ASL / deaf studies concentration, had to change her major to psychology as a result of the suspension of the concentration. “I took a year of courses to meet the requirement so I could be in the major last year, but I got an e-mail last summer to inform me that the major has been suspended indefinitely,” Summers said. “I basically lost a year of my time and a year of fees.” Summers said the suspension of the concentration is “horrible” and “frustrating.” “I feel like the deaf community is getting screwed all the way around,”
MCT Campus
she said. “They’re not allowing people to get the education.” Summers has two deaf sons, a 17 and a 20-year-old. She said she w a n t e d to ge t t h e e d u c a t i o n required in order to be able to work with deaf people. “It’s affecting my family and it’s affecting the people I want to help,” Summers said. “The reason I want to get into this is because there’s such a scarcity in people who work with deaf people. “I know it (the budget issue) exists, but I think it’s an excuse to cut things … I just don’t understand why the people that are in need the most are the ones being cut out. They’re part of our world; they’re part of our nation,” Summers said. Although Isidore Niyongabo, president of the ASL Club at SDSU, is not directly affected by the suspension of the ASL / deaf studies concentration, he said he is worried about his future as a deaf person and the future of deaf people in a society that won’t have anyone fluent in ASL. “There are too many effects on deaf people who are studying in an environment where our language is
not present, and the suspension of the ASL program will reduce a number of people who know ASL, which is disabling for deaf and hard of hearing people,” he stated in an email. “You could imagine yourself being in an environment where no one understands your language.” Niyongabo said he understands there are budget limitations but he thinks this action will affect the diversity of SDSU. Karen Emmorey, professor of speech language, agreed with Niyongabo that SDSU will lose students and some of its diversity by suspending the ASL / deaf studies concentration. “Because you no longer can offer something that a lot of state universities are offering, as well as UCs,” she said. “It’s a language that is not really just a great language like French or Spanish, but also has these other implications — that is, the more hearing people know how to sign, the better it is going to be for deaf people. So that you may go out and do something completely different, but you have that skill of communi-
cating with a deaf person. So we lose ability to offer that to our students.” ASL and deaf studies students wrote a resolution petitioning the suspension of the concentration, and the A.S. Council approved the resolution unanimously on March 24. “I’m glad that students are voicing their unhappiness with having this program being cut so that the university can see how important it is not just to speech, language and hearing majors, but to really the whole university,” Emmorey said. Natalie Colli, vice president of University Affairs, encouraged ASL and deaf studies students to lobby the College of Health and Human Services dean in order to prioritize the hire of new faculty to teach the ASL / deaf studies courses or for the University Senate to consider shifting ASL into the Linguistics department. It’s a big “ordeal,” but it can happen, she said. Wulfeck said the administration is committed to bringing the ASL / deaf studies concentration back as soon as the budget allows it.
EDITOR
IN CHIEF, FARYAR BORHANI 619.594.4190 EDITOR@THEDAILYAZTEC .COM
CITY EDITOR, WHITNEY LAWRENCE 619.594.7781 CITYEDITOR@THEDAILYAZTEC .COM
GREEK BEAT
FEATURES EDITOR, NICOLE CALLAS 619.594.6976 FEATURE@THEDAILYAZTEC .COM
SPORTS EDITOR, EDWARD LEWIS 619.594.7817 SPORTS@THEDAILYAZTEC .COM
OPINION EDITOR, RENEÉ VILLASEÑOR 619.594.0509 OPINION@THEDAILYAZTEC .COM
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, ALLIE DAUGHERTY 619.594.6968 TEMPO@THEDAILYAZTEC .COM
ART DIRECTOR, ELENA BERRIDY 619.594.6979 ARTDIRECTOR@THEDAILYAZTEC .COM
PHOTO EDITOR, GLENN CONNELLY 619.594.7279 PHOTO@THEDAILYAZTEC .COM
WEB EDITOR, MYLENE ERPELO 619.594.3315 WEB@THEDAILYAZTEC .COM
ADVERTISING 619.594.6977
INDEX SPORTS.............................................................................2 FOOD & DRINK............................................................5 ENTERTAINMENT...........................................................7 CLASSIFIEDS..................................................................11 THE BACK PAGE.........................................................12
Councils select next fall’s philanthropies The Panhellenic and Interfraternity councils have each selected two philanthropies to participate in next semester.
Panhellenic chooses AEPi, Movember philanthropies One of the philanthropies the Panhellenic Council selected is Phi Kappa Theta’s “Girls of the Gridiron,” a sorority flag football tournament. The event will benefit Movember, an annual month-long celebration of the “moustache,” highlighting men’s health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer, according to the Movember website, www.movember.com. The Movember movement started in Australia in 2003 by men who joked about the ‘80s fashion
and decided it was time to bring back the mustache look, the website states. In order to justify their mustaches, the men used their new looks to raise money for prostate cancer research. The men never dreamed that facial hair would ultimately lead to a global movement that would get men talking about a taboo subject — their health, the website said. The philanthropy event will take place the third week of November. Funds will be split between the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, according to Doug Case, coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life. The second philant hropy selected by the Panhellenic is Alpha Epsilon Pi’s “Fast Times with AEPi,” a sorority go-kart race that will benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
JDRF is a worldwide leader in research to cure Type 1 diabetes and is the largest charitable advocate of diabetes science, according to its website, www.jdrf.org. Its aim is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through research, the website states. The event will take place during the first week of November, Case said.
IFC’s water competition, game show philanthropies The IFC will participate in Kappa Delta’s “I Survived a Kappa Delta Game Show,” in which fraternities compete in a variety of events including a trivia game show, human foosball, human hamster b a l l r a c e , re l a y r a c e , s u m o wrestling and an ultimate obstacle challenge, Case said.
The philanthropy event will take place during the first week of October and will benefit Prevent Child Abuse America and Olive Crest, two organizations dedicated to preventing child abuse and educating and treating at-risk children. The IFC has also chosen to participate in Alpha Phi’s Ivy Splash philanthropy, a multi-fraternity water competition. The philanthropy event will benefit the Alpha Phi Foundation, which supports women’s cardiac health. The foundation raises and awards funds for programs that advance leadership development, encourage academic excellence, improve women’s heart health, support sisters in need and educate about the value of philanthropy, according the Alpha Phi Foundation’s website, www.alphaphi.org/foundation.
—Compiled by Senior Staff Writer Reem Nour