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Chico State’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1975
VOLUME 69 ISSUE 11
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WEDNESDAY, NOV. 7, 2012
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SPORTS
SAFETY
Efforts for Safe Rides rise amid sexual assaults Allison Weeks STAFF WRITER
PHOTO COURTESY OF • LUKE REID, SPORTS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
Say aloha to the big time Cross-country earns NCAA berth in Hawaii BIG WINNERS Junior runner Ayla Granados embraces her teammate after both the men’s and women’s cross-country teams earned National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II West Regional championship titles on Saturday in Kahuku, Hawaii. The teams will travel to Joplin, Mo., to compete in the NCAA championships Nov. 17. To read more, please see “In case you missed it” on B4.
SUCCESS FEE
Zingg decides students won’t vote on compact Katrina Cameron Ben Mullin
Sept. 24 President Paul Zingg proposes the Chico Compact for Student Success at an Associated Students board of directors meeting.
THE ORION
Chico State President Paul Zingg has chosen not to put the establishment of a campus fee up for general student vote. He is instead opting to consult with the campus community by other means. The fee is part of the Chico Compact for Student Success, a proposal to bring revenue to Chico State following steadily declining state support for universities. The money gained from the fee, which is tentatively set at a maximum of $450 per year per student, could be used to increase the number of class sections, improve campus learning technology and provide more advising hours, said Maggie Payne, the dean of the College of Communication and Education. The fee could be phased in with $150 increments beginning in fall 2013. Instead of having students vote, Zingg has decided to get opinions through alternative consultation after considering how he could best ensure a strong student role in the governance of
Nov. 2 The College of Communication and Education holds a meeting with student leaders to discuss how fee money could be spent.
Spring 2013 After receiving more feedback from students, university administrators will consider the compact. SOURCES • PAUL ZINGG, BELLE WEI
the fee, he wrote in an email to The Orion. “The latter is particularly important because this is not a one-shot deal,” Zingg said. “It will require informed student involvement and leadership for the long haul.” Alternative consultation is a long-term campus-wide conversation that involves students, faculty and staff. Zingg has already instructed college deans throughout campus to meet with student leaders to figure out where students stand on the compact, Payne said. He has also met with the Associated Students, the Campus Fee Advisory Committee and the Chico Parent Advisory Council. The council supported the proposed fee unanimously. The California State University system requires Zingg to consult with Chico State’s campus fee advisory committee and Associated Students if there will be no general student vote, according to an executive memorandum from the 23-campus system. A.S. officers have discussed putting the fee up for a vote in its spring elections. “This is a process that can end in a ballot >> please see FEE | A3
Following a series of late-night sexual assaults in the south-campus area, an Associated Students officer is trying to bring back Chico Safe Rides, a program that gave students free transportation at night. Safe Rides was discontinued in fall 2011 because it was not being used enough to invest the money required to run the program, said A.S. Commissioner of Community Affairs Krista Farnady, who is working to bring it back. The program was designed by Associated Students in 1990 as a way to ensure students had a safe ride home on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays between the hours of 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. It costs about $175 to run the program every night, said former CADEC director Shauna Quinn in a previous interview with The Orion. In previous years, Chico Safe Rides was giving about 70 rides each night, but that decreased to 20 during the spring 2011 “I think the more rides semester. The transwe can offer to bring portation cost students back home, the Califorthe better.” nia Office of Traffic Safety, A.S. and a BRYCE DAVISON student safety University Police sergeant committee so much money to run because it required pay for a driver, someone to operate a phone line for people to call and a vehicle, Farnady said. “What we need to do really is get some sort of marketing strategy, so students know this is available for them, and have students use it so it is worth the money,” she said. In the past two weeks, Farnady has met with on-campus organizations such as University Police, Students Against Violence Everywhere, Campus Alcohol and Drug Education Center and the Interfraternity Council to find ways to revive the program, she said. She hopes to restart Chico Safe Rides at the beginning of the fall semester. The Interfraternity Council decided to help bring Chico Safe Rides back as part of its philanthropy, IFC President Geo Stemrich said. Interest in bringing the program back came from emails from the university about violent crimes and sexual assaults happening >> please see RIDES | A3
PHILANTHROPY
PARTY CULTURE
Halloween chaos trashes town, drains city funds student, is one of many who signed up to mitigate the damage of Halloween. She volunteered to pick up garbage for the second annual Chico Green Clean. Halloween in Chico is more than just a holiday, said John Rucker, assistant city manager for Chico. The festivities also include the weekends before and after the holiday. In the 1980s, Halloween was a small event centered downtown with children and families, and the event became a magnet for out-of-town visitors throughout the state by 2000. In 2002, the City Council directed police to make the celebration smaller. “The level of individual responsibility varies over time in our culture,” Rucker said. Problems with holiday partying >> please see TRASHED | A4
Katrina Cameron STAFF WRITER
Hillary Gomez reached down and grabbed a few more cigarette butts to add to a zip-close bag nearly full of the burnt filters. “This is gross,” she said. Broken alcohol bottles, food wrappers, cigarette butts and other debris were left scattered around the streets of the south-campus area after Halloween partiers trashed the town. But the trash is only a visible reminder of the cost Halloween inflicts on Chico. The city has to pay police officers overtime to control the crowds that pack the streets every year. Enloe Medical Center treats the holiday like a natural disaster, beefing up the number of medical staff on call. And police blocked off a south-campus intersection to prevent the crowds from spilling into the street. Gomez, a senior child development
FOR MORE ON PARTY CULTURE, SEE A2, A3 • Students discuss the Labor Day float • Man in critical condition after birthday
INDEX
THE ORION •PHOTOGRAPH BY RILEY MUNDIA
Students stay Up ’Til Dawn to raise funds for children’s cancer research hospital COMING TOGETHER Teams packed Acker Gym Monday night for Up ’Til Dawn, an annual fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. Chico State beat every other participating university in the nation last year, raising about $106,000 in donations from the letter-writing campaign. The school also met its goal of logging 125,000 hours of community service Monday night, completing the 10-month My Service Counts campaign to celebrate Chico State’s 125th anniversary.
INSIDE
World News
A2
Sports
B1
Weather
A2
Directory
B3
Police Blotter
A4
Features
B5
Opinion
A6
Sex Column
B6
Sports
TODAY
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high low
Features
Three women soccer players have finished their final season as Wildcats. Story B2
The food columnist demonstrates how to bake a cookie in one minute. Column B7
full week A2 >>
THE ORION • XXXXXXXXXX
PHOTO TITLE When filling this area with text, please don’t just erase everything and begin typing.
Opinion Students deal with lingering racism in friends’ parents. Column A7