Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Vol. 95, Issue 56
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
SDS-VIEW
OPINION
OUTSIDE THE LAW Sex offenders in San Diego are in violation of their parole. page 2
TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
STUDENTS REBUILD College Students for New Orleans are helping to re-build what has been forgotten. page 3
DECEMBER DOWNPOUR Photo Editor Glenn Connelly captured this rainy scene of students in front of Love Library. Weather forecasts predict more rainy days throughout the week.
SPORTS
NO HOME SUPPORT Even though they rack up wins, the Aztecs have had a hard time getting fans in the stands.
Admissions Grant money under review to fund study
page 6
K R I ST I N A B L A K E
TODAY @ SDSU Women’s Basketball vs. Pepperdine 7 p.m., Viejas Arena The San Diego State women’s basketball team will take on the Pepperdine Waves at home tonight. Tickets are free for students with a valid Red ID. For more of today’s headlines, visit:
www.thedailyaztec.com
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IN CHIEF, FARYAR BORHANI 619.594.4190 EDITOR@THEDAILYAZTEC .COM
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STATE
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INDEX OPINION.........................................................................2 TRAVEL & ADVENTURE...............................................3 SPORTS.............................................................................5 CLASSIFIEDS....................................................................7 THE BACK PAGE...........................................................8
S E N I O R S TA F F W R I T E R
Recent changes have prompted San Diego State University Senate to create a task force to review how new admissions policies are being implemented. Almost 62,000 students applied to SDSU for Fall 2010. These applicants are the first to apply for admission since SDSU made changes to its undergraduate admissions process. SDSU Senate Chair Edith Benkov helped create the task force. Benkov said the new changes, including local entitlement and impaction, are significant compared to smaller changes made by the University Senate throughout the past decade. “Because this was a perhaps more radical revision of our policies, the Senate officers and myself thought it would be a good idea to have a group give a fuller review to how these particular new policies would affect our overall management enrollment strategy,” Benkov said. Benkov said a task force was needed to review policy implementation to see if the new policies meet the University Senate’s impaction and enrollment management principles. The principles have been in order since the University Senate declared the first round of impaction in 1997. But SDSU has since changed. “We’re in a mode of shrinking rather than a mode of expanding,” Benkov said. “We first put in enrollment management because we knew that we would be slowly expanding and not able to take in all of the students.” Benkov said the task force was also created to review how effectively policy implementation has proceeded. “It’s trying to balance among all of our majors, among all of the people who want to come to SDSU, and
make sure that we can let in as many people as we possibly can, but at the same point not create any real inequities in any area,” Benkov said. Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Sandra Cook is a part of the 16-member task force. She said it is important for a task force to examine these policies because people have a lot of questions about them. “In my mind (the task force) is there to monitor, because the new policy has created a lot of mistrust and questions,” Cook said. “The committee will act to keep everybody informed, so the process will be as transparent as possible.” Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Eric Rivera will represent the Division of Student Affairs on the task force. “I think it’s a great thing that they’re putting a task force together so they can have community discussion around enrollment management policy,” he said. Rivera said he hopes all views will be heard. “I hope it will generate some great dialogue in regard to the future of the student body at San Diego State University, because who we let in affects who we are,” Rivera said. “So my hope is through all these different perspectives and input from different people and stake holders that we do what is best for the entire community, the entire San Diego State community.” Benkov said the University Senate felt the task force should represent all groups who are affected by the policy changes, which is why there are five student representatives. Those named to the task force will represent local students, out-ofarea students and transfer students. “Any policy, as far as I’m concerned, that relates to student issues should have student voice on it,” Benkov said. “We don’t do things without including the various stakeholders that are involved.”
A S H L E Y M O RG A N S TA F F W R I T E R
The San Diego Prevention Research Center was recently awarded $1.4 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a four-year study in collaboration with Mexico. The research center is directed by San Diego State professors John Elder and Elva Arredondo. “This is a very exciting prospect for us,” Elder, a professor of health promotion, said. “In terms of SDSU, I think this is a highly visible grant — we had to compete against a lot of other universities to get this funding and it was a very competitive process. What really helped us get the grant is the fact that SDSU has such a large, diverse, student body and takes such an interest in diverse communities, especially Latino communities locally.” Elder and Arredondo, a behavioral sciences professor, will be leading the Latin American Chronic Disease Prevention study, focusing on obesity prevention and control. The study will also aim to increase understanding of heart disease, cancer and diabetes prevention in Hispanic communities, specifically Mexican and Mexican-American communities. “It makes sense that they are conducting this project with Mexico because I know a lot of members of my family in Mexico have diabetes,” Ana Figueroa, an SDSU student, said. According to Forbes magazine, the United States and Mexico are among the top 20 most overweight countries in the world. “I think it’s fairly unique that we’re not just looking at Mexico, or not just looking at a foreign country, but we’re looking at both Mexico and the U.S., and trying to see if there is a common approach (on chronic disease prevention)
that we can derive for both countries and the similar populations,” Elder said. This bi-national effort will be conducted by the SDPRC and the Mexican Ministry of Health’s National Institute of Public Health, with collaboration directed by another SDSU professor of public health, Guadalupe X. Ayala. The first year of investigation will focus on examining existing information on chronic diseases in Hispanics and seeing what work has been done throughout the U.S. and Latin America. The second year of the project is a planning process to develop pilot studies in Mexico and the U.S., most likely in America’s southwest border region.
“What really helped us get the grant is the fact that SDSU has such a large, diverse student body ...” —John Elder professor of health promotion “I think this study will help SDSU students because of our school’s large prevalence of people with Hispanic descent and the sedentary lifestyle we have in college,” SDSU student and dual Colombian and U.S. citizen Alejandra Jimenez said. Elder and the SDPRC are also looking to SDSU students to help with the project. “This could give undergraduate and graduate students a chance to work on a cutting edge research project,” Elder said.