Image by Christa Connelly/Daily Titan Photo Editor

Eamonn Daniel Higgins, 46, a resident of Laguna Niguel, was arrested last week on charges of operating a ring of illegal test-takers who allegedly assisted international students in retaining their student visas by taking their proficiency exams and attending their classes.

For the last eight years, prosecutors said Higgins aided mostly Middle Eastern students by taking or directing his associates to take math and English proficiency exams. Higgins then helped them hold on to those visas by taking college courses, passing finals and writing term papers in their names. According to court reports, the investigation began when officers in Daly City in Northern California discovered several fake driver’s licenses in a lost wallet. Each license had the same photograph of Higgins’ nephew but with different names.

Higgins surrendered to authorities March 8, pleading not guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud. If convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison.

The F1 student visa is a non-immigrant visa which allows foreign students to enter into the U.S. to attend a full course of study at colleges, universities and other institutions with language training programs. Although it is unclear if there is a specific proficiency exam that international students need to take in order to qualify for an F-1 visa, many institutions, including Cal State Fullerton, require all applicants whose native language is not English to present scores for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) prior to admittance.

According to CSUF’s international students’ webpage, Students who do not meet the minimum TOEFL scores or wish to improve their English skills may enroll in the American Language Program (ALP), an intensive English program that is designed to prepare international students for study in a U.S. college or university.

Monica Snow, lecturer and coordinator at the ALP at CSUF said that there are stringent measures taken at the center to ensure that cheating or impersonating does not occur in any form while students take any placement or proficiency tests. All international students who walk in to take any tests are required to present their I.D.s, after which their faces are matched to the picture on the card. While taking the tests, students have to leave their I.D.s on their desks while proctors circulate the room. Faces are again matched to I.D.s when students turn in their tests once they are finished, Snow said.

“With the measures we have in place here, it could be very difficult for students to do that. I have been here 23 years and I haven’t had one incident yet,” Snow said. Snow added that there are around 250 international students at CSUF who are enrolled in the ALP. The administrators and staff for the most part know the majority of the students as they interact with them on a daily basis.

The University Testing Center at CSUF, located in University hall, offers several tests, such as the English Placement Test (EPT), Entry Level Mathematics (ELM) test and the Examination in Writing Proficiency (EWP), all of which are required for admission to the university, placement in classes and graduation.

Lorrie Harnach, coordinator at the testing center, said that students who take any tests are required to present a valid form of I.D., such as a driver’s license or passport. Seating is sometimes assigned and proctors should be able to move freely among examinees in order to effectively monitor testing. After tests are taken, I.D.s and faces are matched again and names are compared to the ones on the answer sheets. Student signatures on answer sheets are also matched with the one on the student’s I.D.

Although no such incident has occurred at the center to her knowledge, Harnach said that the possibility of students cheating or impersonating others cannot be ruled out. “If a student presented what appeared to be a valid form of I.D. where the picture matched the person, we would not have any way of knowing if it was fraudulent or not,” she said.

LayTuan Tan, director of International Education and Exchange at CSUF, said that all international students at CSUF are part of the Exchange Visitor Program that is regulated and operated by the U.S. Department of State. Tan said that at CSUF, all students with foreign visas are required to maintain continuous enrollment, and have to report within ten days of a change in address or within 21 days of dropping a class.

According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Web site, Congress mandated a fee-based system to better keep track of international students and exchange visitors in the United States. To accomplish this task, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established the Student Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) under ICE. The Student Exchange and Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is the database that allows SEVP to track international students, exchange visitors and their dependents to ensure that they are in the United States for the purposes they stated.

“This is bad news for the international education field,” Tan said of the visa fraud incident. “The Majority of our scholars are serious, bona fide students who come here for the quality of education that the U.S. provides. These things do happen, but they give our international students a bad name,” Tan said.

Although Tan said that the implications of this incident could be huge and highly complicated, she added it was unfortunate that most media organizations were alluding to hints of possible terrorist ties within the fraud ring. “Just because these students are from the Middle East, they say they might be terrorists. You cannot say that, it is stereotyping,” Tan said.

Graphic courtesy of MCT

Univision Communications Inc. launched a three-year national educational initiative to create a college-bound culture Jan. 23.

The campaign, Es El Momento (The Moment is Now), is a multi-million dollar partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, as well as educators, civic and community leaders from around the country. The campaign, aimed at improving academic achievement among K-12 Hispanic students, has a specific focus on high school graduation, college readiness and completion and engaging Hispanic parents in these efforts.

“I think this type of effort is very helpful because of the influence that Univision has on the Latino household,” said Adriana Badillo, director of the Talent Search Program on campus.

Badillo works with the Talent Search Program to offer academic and financial advising, tutoring and cultural enrichment activities to low-income and first-generation college students. She said that is was scary to think that the access to education is not available to all students.

“It’s not a trend, it’s an educational crisis that Latinos are facing,” Badillo said. She also said the campaign was a really good effort to get information out to the community, especially because Univision has the resources needed to raise awareness and address the educational crisis.

The Spanish-language campaign was launched across all Univision platforms – television, radio, online and mobile – as well as national and local news outlets. Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos will be the campaign’s primary spokesperson.

“I think it’s a beautiful thing that Univision has started,” said Jose Torres, a 22-year-old Cal State Fullerton business major, “but I doubt they really have the heart for it.”

Torres said he thinks the education struggle is a trendy topic, especially in the Latino community.

“I think it’s a political scheme because education is a sensation right now and it’s an easy way to up your ratings,” Torres added.

According to Es El Momento, research shows that the high school graduation rate for hispanic students is 55 percent, compared to 69 percent for their non-Hispanic peers. Additionally, only 20 percent of Hispanic students graduate high school ready to succeed in a four-year college.

Es El Momento focuses on cultivating a strong culture of college aspiration and academic achievement among U.S. Hispanic community. The campaign outreach not only targets Hispanic students but also their parents, caretakers and the greater community.

“It’s interesting that the Hispanic market is a hidden population,” said Karia Salazar, 19, who studies communications and Chicano(a) studies. “But it’s a very powerful market.”

According to an Es El Momento fact sheet, Hispanic parents in the U.S. are faced with two barriers, which the campaign seeks to dispel. Because many parents lack the knowledge, experience, and tools necessary to help their children succeed academically, the campaign seeks to bring awareness of the academic requirements needed for college.

“This campaign has sparked discussion in my family about the education officials and how we shouldn’t trust them 100 percent, because a lot of people think they know what is best for us,” Salazar said. “But ultimately, parents should have a say on what the outcome of the education of their children should be.”

Es El Momento also wants to prepare parents financially. They may not be aware that, regardless of their economic situation, there are options available to support their child’s higher education.

In addition to partnerships with local grassroots and community efforts, the initiative has also included an online and mobile Web site, Eselmomento.com. Hispanics will be able to find educational tools and resources through the site, which features a Q&A section, a glossary of educational terms, an interactive message board and general information about scholarships and financial aid. Mobile text alerts also provide visitors of the site with educational tips.

Thousands of people marched from Pershing Square to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office on Spring St. in downtown Los Angeles. Photo by Christine Amarantus/Daily Titan Staff Writer

“No cuts! No fees! Education should be free!” Hundreds chant as other protesters’ cries of “Save our schools!” and “¡Obama, escucha! ¡Estamos en la lucha! (Obama, listen! We are in the fight!)” blend into the overall demand for political action, favoring education.

Megaphones and cardboard signs conquered the day as the scent of burning sage wafted through the air and thousands hit the streets of downtown Los Angeles, uniting against the increasing tuition and budget cuts to public education, as part of the statewide “Day of Action” on March 4.

“We are out here with thousands and thousands of our closest friends … to rally for public education,” said Cal State Fullerton political science professor Dr. Shelly Arsneault. “We’re going to march to the governor’s office … and we are going to let it be known that we are tired of budget cuts and we want education to be made a priority.”

Arsneault and a bus filled to capacity with CSUF students and faculty members came to LA to join the march from Pershing Square to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office on Spring Street.

“We have an economy in the toilet,” Arsneault continued. “We need to improve the economy, and you can’t do that with an uneducated work force.”

CSUF sociology major Adelyna Miranda commented on her reasons for joining the protest.

“We want better education … we’re paying way more and we’re getting less … and they kept raising our tuition,” she said. “They’re cutting back hours. They’re cutting back teachers … When we graduate it’s going to be really hard for us to find a job. It’s affecting us. It’s going to affect the future.”

Miranda further commented on the students who barricaded themselves into the Humanities building on March 3.

“They had their heart in the right place,” she said. “They’re fighting for a cause, the same reason we’re here today.”

Radio-TV-film major Elizabeth Martinez said the budget cuts have really hit home.

“It’s more expensive for me to go to school, and it’s just kind of hard to pay for school now,” she said. “Sometimes I feel like I’m not going to be able to finish.”

“I just feel like we have to do something about it, and this is the way to do it,” Martinez said of the protest.

The half-mile march to the governor’s office forced the closures of Hill, 4th and Spring streets. Upon reaching the Ronald Reagan State Building, protest organizers ended the scheduled protest with a poetry slam and statements from local teachers. Students and employees from Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal Poly Pomona and LA City College had joined in the protest.

Sal Castro, an education activist who inspired the massive 1968 East LA walkouts, attended the rally. Castro, who is now the director of LA Unified School District’s Chicano Youth Leadership Conferences Inc., said the protest was “beautiful” and would have been more effective in Sacramento.

“What has to happen now is we have to start organizing to repeal Prop 13,” he said. “We have to also repeal the Bush tax cuts, because there’s a complete imbalance in the economy. The poor and middle class are getting poorer and the very few rich are getting richer.”

California Proposition 13 was an amendment placed on the state’s constitution in 1978, which capped property tax in California. With many owners paying much lower rates than what their property is worth activists, like Castro, argue that this cuts down on money going toward education.

“Indeed, Proposition 13 marked a dramatic turning point in funding for K–12 public education in California,” reported Jennifer Sloan McCombs and Stephen J. Carroll for the Rand Corporation. “Revenues and expenditures per pupil had grown fairly rapidly both in California and nationwide until the early 1980s. But California fell well behind the nation by the late 1980s.”

Prop 13, Castro said, was a “culprit” behind such action as the student occupation of CSUF’s Humanities building.

“This is reminiscent of what happened during the Vietnam War,” Castro said. “I understand the frustration of the students, but … I wish the protest had been in Sacramento two years ago.”

Protests surged across all institutions, hundreds rallied at CSUF, University of California Irvine and University of California Riverside. At UCR hundreds walked across campus and took to the streets where police accompanied them.

Meanwhile, in the San Fernando Valley, five Cal State Northridge students were arrested with associate professor of sociology and American Indian studies Karren Baird-Olson, 73, suffering a broken arm during a protest at Reseda Boulevard and Prairie Street, the Daily Sundial reported.

Baird-Olson was standing with students who had formed a human chain and was allegedly thrown to the ground when police rushed the crowd, the Daily News reported.

A sticker on the back of a street sign expresses the disproval of the USA Patriot Act, a view shared by many Americans. Photo courtesy of FlickR.com

The USA Patriot Act of 2001 had several of its provisions extended for one year by President Barack Obama and the democratically controlled Congress Feb.27. Former President George W. Bush originally signed the Patriot Act into law with support from both parties in Congress shortly after 9/11.

The three elements of the Patriot Act that will stay in effect include court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones, court approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations and surveillance of what is called a “lone wolf,” or a non-U.S. citizen suspected of terrorist activities. Section 215, which allows for the search of library records without probable cause, was also extended despite complaints from the American Library Association.

Obama’s decision to extend the Patriot Act provisions was not unexpected. However, FOX News reported that the extension was done “quietly” and with “zero debate or media attention.”

Senate democrats attempted to use a super-majority of 60 votes to restrict some of the more intrusive sections of the Patriot Act, but were not able to get enough of the legislature on board.

“Thrown away were restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government’s authority to spy on Americans and seize their records,” the Associated Press reported.

Chirag Bhatka, a 22-year-old Cal State Fullerton history major, voted for Obama in the 2008 election, but was disappointed over the presidents decision to extend portions of the bill.

“If he didn’t pass it, what would people say? If you’re against the bill, you’re portrayed as being anti-American. Obama doesn’t have the political courage to fight against ideals he knows are wrong,” Bhatka said.

Scott Spitzer, professor of political science at CSUF believes the law had multiple facets to it.

“On the one hand, I recognize that terrorism is a real threat. People want to do us harm, as we saw with the Christmas day bomber. The question I always have involves the court orders. The last president decided we didn’t need to follow the 1978 FISA – (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) – (a law that requires a court order to surveil citizens). If the court order part is going to be taken seriously, I’m for it,” Spitzer said, adding his belief that when the U.S. starts to sacrifice its freedoms, the terrorists win.

Representative Jane Harman (D-CA) claimed that there were abuses of the law under Bush and would not vote for an extension.

“While I strongly support using the most robust tools possible to go after terrorists, Congress must revise and narrow – not extend – Bush era policies,” Harman said.

The Patriot Act has been the subject of much controversy ever since its passing in 2001. Back in March 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union released a comprehensive report of Patriot Act abuses.

”From the gagging of our nation’s librarians under the national security letter statute to the gutting of time-honored surveillance laws, the Patriot Act has been disastrous for Americans’ rights,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.

CSUF criminal justice major Andrew Gaerlan, 24, couldn’t quite make up his mind when it came to supporting the Patriot Act.

“Sometimes I think we should do it. Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I think it’s completely un-American,” Gaerlan said.

Republicans on Capitol Hill, however, vigorously defended Saturday’s renewal of the Patriot Act provisions.

“Recent terror attacks, such as those at Fort Hood and on Christmas Day, demonstrate just how severe of a threat we are facing. This extension keeps PATRIOT’s security measures in place and demonstrates that there is a growing recognition that these crucial provisions must be preserved,” said Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Graphic courtesy of MCT

National Public Radio collaborated with journalists from The Center for Public Integrity to perform a 12-month investigation of how colleges and universities handle cases of sexual assault.

They found, according to a report by NPR, that ” … even the best-intentioned of colleges are ill-equipped to investigate rape on campus, and mete out adequate punishments.” NPR began discussing the investigation on air Feb. 24 and it will continue this week.

Susan Leavy is the acting director of Cal State Fullerton’s Women’s Center, Campus Crime Prevention Coordinator and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. “I am not surprised (by NPR and CPI’s conclusions), but that is not the case at our school. We take sexual assault very seriously here,” said Leavy.

CPI and NPR reporters sought to examine the potential causes of a disturbing statistic reported by the U.S. Department of Justice: one in five women will be sexually assaulted while in college.

Leavy said that at CSUF there have only been three reported incidences of sexual assault on campus in the past seven years.

Alison Greenberg, a biology major, said that she feels completely safe on campus. “I walk all the way to the A Lot at 8:30 at night, I don’t even think about (assault),” said Greenberg.

NPR began the series on air with an introduction by NPR correspondent Joseph Shapiro. Shapiro told the story of Laura Dunn, who was allegedly sexually assaulted her freshman year at University of Wisconsin.

Dunn said that the night of the assault she had been drinking heavily at a party. She went with two trusted male acquaintances to stop by a house on the way to the next party, but while they were there the two men raped her while she was semiconscious.

Unfortunately, Dunn’s reported experience is common among college rape victims. Leavy said that at CSUF, 90 percent of rape cases are acquaintance rape and the 90 percent involve alcohol. “Alcohol is the number one date rape drug,” said Leavy.

Dunn remained silent about the attack until over a year later when a professor mentioned rape during lecture. The professor said that assaults could be reported to the Dean of Students. After class, Dunn went directly to the Dean and reported the assault.

Kandy Mink Salas, Dean of Students at CSUF, said that she would always encourage a student who experienced sexual assault to report it and to pursue a campus judicial hearing and/or other legal action. “One of the most challenging roadblocks to ending sexual assault is the silence that surrounds it,” Mink Salas said.

CPI reporters found a database of approximately 130 colleges and universities that had received federal funding to help handle cases of sexual assault more effectively. At those schools, only 10 to 25 percent of the men who were found responsible for sexual assault were expelled. Mink Salas said that at CSUF, students found responsible for sexual assault would “… at a minimum be suspended, if not expelled.”

Leavy emphasized how important it is for survivors of sexual assault to know that they have options. At CSUF, students can report assault to the Dean of Students, Women’s Center, University Police Department or Student Health and Counseling Center. The Women’s Center offers free individual counseling to victims.

However, even with these options, the majority of assaults are not reported. Nationally, 20 to 40 percent of acquaintance rapes are reported, said Leavy. She said that victim’s feelings of shame and social restrictions are some reasons for not wanting to report assault. “Women’s rights have come a long way, but still not far enough; women (victims of assault) are still blamed (by some people),” said Leavy.

CPI surveyed 260 crisis clinics and programs of four-year public colleges from across the country. CSUF was not asked to participate. 58 percent of those that were contacted responded to the survey and the answers provided were then compared to official crime data that universities must report under the Clery Act.

The Clery Act, passed in 1990, is named for Jeanne Clery, a student at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania who was raped and murdered in her dorm room in 1986. The Clery Act requires higher education systems to collect and then report crime data to the U.S. Department of Education. CSUF police reported three on-campus sexual assaults between 2006 and 2008.

Another law that advocates student safety is civil rights law Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination, which includes sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape. Under Title IX, schools which receive federal finding must take “prompt and effective” measures to prevent and stop sexual assault.

So why not wear shirts that help contribute toward the well being of our planet? Clothing company Bamboo U is doing just that with a clothing line targeted at women and college students.

The Brentwood, Tenn.-based t-shirt company was started in 2008 by Jeff Fulmer, who wanted to start up a company with products that would be as environmentally friendly as possible.

Through some research, this is where he discovered bamboo and organic cotton as a means in making t-shirts and fell in love with the way the material felt.

He thought the two alternative ingredients would make for a comfortable t-shirt. He also decided to focus his line on the female college student demographic. “We are geared to the college market because students are often more aware of environmental concerns and are open to trying new things,” Fulmer said.

Child and adolescent studies major Eunice Kim supports and likes the idea of ‘green’ shirts. “I would get a shirt that contains organic materials because we’re giving back to the environment,” Kim said.

The shirt is made from 70 percent bamboo and 30 percent organic cotton and printed with water-based inks. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on the planet and is considered an environmentally safe product. It contains no chemicals, requires only water to grow and is self-regenerating.

There are many advantages to sustainable clothing. All of the materials used in sustainable clothing are made from sources that are renewable, recyclable and chemical-free. Regular clothing can contain materials that were manufactured or produced with pesticides and toxic chemicals.

Along with clean and pure standards regarding material, strong moral work ethics are high on the list for Fulmer and his company. Before deciding on a supplier for Bamboo U, he did research on potential companies to make sure that the factories were in good condition and that employees worked in a safe environment.

Elizabeth Hesson, a biology major and member of the Cal State Fullerton Environmental Advocacy Committee, is big on cutting back on waste. She buys only biodegradable products and recycling paper. She also thinks students on campus would be on board with the idea of sustainable clothing.

“It’s great, as long as they’re not growing excess products to make the shirts with. College kids would be into it. With all students, it’s all about comfort,” Hesson said.

Currently, the Bamboo U line is limited to only t-shirts, but Fulmer would like to expand his offerings to hoodies and yoga pants in the near future. For now, “we’re a small clothing company and we want to focus on good quality things,” Fulmer said.

For more information on the clothing line, go to: Store02.prostores.com/servlet/bamboou/StoreFront.

Photographer Peter Bruce. Photo courtesy of Peter Bruce

Hundreds of women across the country are baring their breasts for a new project to support breast health.

“b for a cure,” the brainchild of San Francisco photographer Peter Bruce, will compile black and white photographs of more than 300 women’s breasts in a coffee table-style book, with proceeds going to breast-health charities.

“Everybody loves boobs; everybody loves breasts,” Bruce said. “(We thought:) let’s create a book on breasts. And we might as well do it for a good cause and give back some money while we’re doing it.”

Bruce said the photographs will be anonymous and will include women of all ages, ethnicities and walks of life, including women who have lost one or both breasts to cancer.

“This is not a playboy shoot, it’s a real-life project,” Bruce explained. “We want everybody to look at the book and say ‘Wow, these are the people who could actually be affected by breast cancer.’ ”

Bruce is a seasoned photographer who has worked with Playboy, the Melbourne (Australia) Opera, major Hollywood studios and celebrities that include Michael Caine, Elton John and Vanessa Williams.

He became cognizant of the scope and severity of the disease after his wife participated in a 3-day walk in support of breast cancer awareness. After kicking around some ideas, he and a business partner came up with the idea for a book that would enhance the beauty of women’s breasts.

Bruce plans to print 2,500 books in the first run. Sale price will be around $50, with 30 percent of the profits donated to charity.

Although the charities have not yet been finalized, he envisions the proceeds to be split between a large organization with a good following, a juvenile foundation to help future generations and an individual on the cutting edge of breast cancer research.

Cal State Fullerton psychology major Anita Wadwa, 35, said she is skeptical about the project.

“I don’t see how photographing 300 women’s breasts is supporting breast cancer,” Wadwa said. “I wish people could come up with something more creative than nudity to raise money. If some women are willing to do it, great – breasts are beautiful. But I don’t think women need to be exploited, even for a good cause.”

While most of the models will be “everyday women,” Bruce said he plans to include at least one pair of celebrity breasts (anonymously) in the book. Only nude breasts will be shown in the photographs. No faces or bodies will be revealed.

So far, more than 500 women across the country have signed up to participate.

31-year-old Tamisha posed at the photo shoot in San Francisco last month and was surprised at how comfortable she felt.

“I think it’s a great cause and it was easy to donate my time,” Tamisha said. “I don’t personally know anybody who has been affected by breast cancer but it struck a chord in me and I like the approach that Peter is taking with the project.”

Others are less certain.

“In terms of posing for the book, I don’t think I could do it, just because I’m not very comfortable exposing myself,” said CSUF marketing major Carmen Busa, 22. “Even though it’s anonymous, I just haven’t been in that position, I guess. I would definitely be interested in purchasing that book, though. I think the concept is really interesting.”

Busa’s sister Kristine, a CSUF alumna, agreed.

“I would not be comfortable with the pictures either, but I would definitely buy the book because I believe in the cause,” she said. “Our mom had an issue with her breasts and we know a lot of people with that issue in our family.”

“b for a cure” is seeking females 18 and older for upcoming photo shoots in Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas. Bruce said the modeling is done on a volunteer basis.

“(Women) are doing this gratis, free, because they’ve either been affected by breast cancer or they see the beauty in the project,” he said.

For more information on the organization or how to participate, visit the Web site at: bforacure.com.

Graphic courtesy of MCT

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Wednesday passed a jobs bill that one senator described as “modest,” but one that Democrats hope will be the first in a series of attempts to jump-start hiring nationwide.

More notable, perhaps, than the bill itself was the fact that 13 Republicans crossed party lines to vote for it. The $15 billion bill passed by a 70-28 tally.

The bill would grant employers a “holiday” on their 6.2 percent Social Security payroll contribution for every new employee hired through the rest of the year, as long as that employee has been out of work for at least 60 days. It also would make it easier for businesses to write off equipment purchases and would extend federal highway and mass-transit funding programs.

“For the first time in a long time we have a bill that is supported by both Democrats and Republicans,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said shortly before the vote, but he cautioned, “This is not a magic wand that is going to be waved and all our joblessness will decline.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the vote proved that bipartisanship in the Senate is “possible.” It also marked a victory for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has seen his chamber paralyzed by partisan warfare. Reid pushed for the vote counting on some GOP support and was rewarded earlier this week when several Republicans, including the newest senator, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, signed on.

The bill now heads to the House, where leaders there must decide whether to pass the Senate bill unchanged or attempt to reconcile it with a much more sweeping $154 billion bill it passed in December. House Democrats have complained that the Senate’s approach is too incremental and won’t reshape the employment landscape quickly enough. Still, they may decide that Congress needs to show the public that it’s moving forward on job creation.

Republicans opposing the bill charged that it was fiscally irresponsible and would add to the burgeoning federal debt. “I don’t think you get people back to work in this nation by loading more and more debt onto the next generation,” said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

But others argued that the bill was necessary because it would pump up the depleted federal Highway Trust Fund.
“There are some things that we are supposed to be doing in America,” said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. “We need to start building roads and bridges and repairing them.”

Just the mere scene of two Republicans having an open disagreement on a piece of legislation on the Senate floor was news in a year where party discipline has been the norm.

Senate leaders will now develop further job-related measures and they hope the votes this week will serve as a bipartisan model going forward for passing a series of bills.

Those bills are expected to include extensions of several industry-friendly tax breaks, such as a credit for biofuels and research and development costs. The Senate is also expected to try and push through further extensions on unemployment compensation and COBRA.

Many of those provisions were in a bill crafted by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, that was rejected by Reid earlier this month as too industry-friendly.

Beyond that, Democrats are pressing for federal aid for beleaguered state and local governments to help preserve public-sector jobs, although that is likely to meet with significant opposition from Republicans.

Eight Republicans who Monday didn’t support a procedural motion to proceed with the jobs bill switched sides Wednesday to support it, including Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Thad Cochran, R-Miss.; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; and Richard Burr, R-N.C. Hatch was a co-author, along with Schumer, of the payroll tax provision in the bill.
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(c)2010, Tribune Co.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Photo courtesy of Joe Cirmmings/Flickr

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama offered his much-anticipated new health care plan Monday in an eleventh-hour bid to rally Democrats behind sweeping legislation that would expand coverage, tighten regulation of the insurance industry and make the nation’s medical system more efficient.

The White House, releasing the $950 billion blueprint ahead of Thursday’s health care summit with congressional Democrats and Republicans, in effect challenged GOP leaders to offer an alternative.

But with Republicans firmly against any major health care overhaul, the president’s primary task is unifying House and Senate Democrats behind comprehensive legislation that they could send to his desk in coming weeks.

In all likelihood, given the loss of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, that means firing up House Democrats to approve the bill that has already passed the Senate – along with separate legislation incorporating changes to address concerns by House Democrats.

“The real goal here has to be to resolve differences among Democrats,” said veteran Democratic strategist Paul Begala. “The Republican leadership is more likely to perform in a gay marriage than they are to work with Democrats on health care.”

GOP leaders swiftly condemned the president’s latest proposal, which House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, called a “new Democrats-only backroom deal” that “doubles down on the same failed approach.”

Obama has repeatedly expressed his determination to move ahead with a systemic overhaul, even in the face of public anxiety about a large bill and Republican calls to scrap it and pursue more limited legislation.

Monday, senior Democrats on Capitol Hill echoed the president’s rallying cry. “The cost of inaction is too great for our nation and for every family facing the heartbreaking reality of skyrocketing health care costs and denied care or coverage,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement.

Pelosi met with rank-and-file House Democrats Monday evening to discuss the president’s proposal and the way forward. Senate Democrats are slated to discuss health care when they meet for their weekly luncheon Tuesday at the Capitol.

Graphic courtesy of MCT

White House officials and Democratic congressional leaders have been working on a two-stage legislative strategy in which the House would vote on the Senate bill and both chambers would separately pass a package of changes, likely along the lines of the ones proposed by the president.

The package could also include traditional Republican health care priorities, including new efforts to clamp down on waste and fraud in government healthcare program.

The extent to which GOP ideas were incorporated into the changes could depend on the outcome of Thursday’s summit.

Even without GOP support, Democrats believe that the package could be advanced through a process known as budget reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate, rather than the 60-vote supermajority necessary to squash a filibuster.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said Monday that no decision has been made about using budget reconciliation. But he said the president’s proposal was developed with that option in mind.

“The president expects and believes the American people deserve an up or down vote on health reform,” Pfeiffer said. “The package is designed to provide us the flexibility to achieve that if the Republican Party decides to filibuster health reform.”

Both parties have used budget reconciliation over the last 25 years to advance major domestic initiatives, including the 1996 overhaul of the nation’s welfare system and the major tax cuts enacted by the Bush administration in 2001 and 2003. But it remains controversial, even with some Democrats.

Rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers also continue to have concerns about individual parts of the proposed overhaul. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., for example, said Monday that he remains troubled by a new tax on high-end “Cadillac” health plans that the president has included in his blueprint.

Like the Senate bill, the centerpiece of the president’s plan to expand coverage to some 31 million people over the next decade are new state insurance exchanges in which people who do not get coverage through work would be able to shop for plans.

The federal government would oversee the plans, as it now does for members of Congress and other federal employees.

Additionally, the president would give the federal government new authority to regulate premiums charged by private insurers, a new proposal that the White House unveiled over the weekend in response to steep rate hikes in California and elsewhere in recent months.

Under Obama’s proposal, the secretary of health and human services would be able to block premium hikes deemed excessive under standards to be developed by a new panel of experts.

That idea drew fire Monday from insurance industry officials, who said that rate hikes nationally are being driven primarily by rising medical costs.

“Regulating premiums won’t do anything to reduce the soaring costs of medical care,” said Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s Washington-based lobbying arm. “This would be like capping the prices auto makers can charge consumers, but letting the steel, rubber, and technology manufacturers charge the auto makers whatever they want.”

Following the Senate’s lead, the president did not include a new government insurance plan – or public option – in his health care outline, reflecting the political delicacy of the concept.

Obama’s plan also makes several other substantial changes to the Senate legislation, paralleling agreements hammered out by House and Senate Democratic leaders last month.

It boosts subsidies to help low- and moderate-income people buy insurance on the new state exchanges, a key demand of House Democrats. (The plan does include a national exchange as some House Democrats had wanted).

Over the next decade, it would phase out the coverage gap in Medicare’s drug benefit, known as the “donut hole.”

It would provide additional federal aid to states to help them expand their Medicaid insurance programs for the poor and eliminate a provision in the Senate bill that provided special assistance to Nebraska in response to demands from that state’s Democratic senator, Ben Nelson.

The president’s plan would also scale back a new tax on so-called Cadilllac health plans that was a cornerstone of the Senate’s health care bill.

Under the president’s proposal, the tax would be imposed in 2018 _ rather than 2013 _ and would apply to individual plans worth more than $10,200 and family plans worth more than $27,500, up from $8,500 and $23,000 in the original bill.

The new subsidies and aid to seniors push up the cost of the bill above the $900 threshold identified by the president last year, although the bill still would reduce the deficit over the next decade, administration officials said.

To offset the new costs and lost revenue, the president has proposed increasing the Medicare payroll tax on individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000 to 2.35 percent.

And he would impose a new 2.9 percent Medicare tax on unearned income for these high-income taxpayers.

Obama also is proposing an additional $10 billion in taxes on drug makers to help close the donut hole, up from the $23 billion in the Senate bill.

The president did not propose any changes to the Senate bill’s restrictions on federal funding for abortion, which would require any woman buying a subsidized health plan with abortion services to pay separately for the abortion benefit.

That drew fire from groups opposed to abortion rights and could complicate the president’s search for votes in the House, where a group of socially conservative Democrats has demanded tougher restrictions.
___
(c) 2010, Tribune Co.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Members of CSUF's Model United Nations club. Photo courtesy of Choudhury Shamim

Cal State Fullerton’s Model United Nations, a political science club, has been working around the clock to prepare for the National MUN Conference in New York City.

The New York conference is the most prestigious in the country and the most important for MUN students, according to Professor Choudhury Shamim, political science professor, former UN delegate for Bangladesh and MUN adviser of 21 years.

In preparation for New York, MUN participated in a conference held at Harvard University Feb. 10-14. There, students discussed and debated current real-world issues amongst colleges from 36 countries.

Despite MUN’s success at the conference, the trip did not begin smoothly. Flights set to carry several students were stranded in San Francisco and Phoenix for almost two days due to a blizzard in Boston. Amidst frustration and anxiety, the stranded students continued to work on their laptops. They prepared for the conference with the rest of their club that had made it safely to Boston.

The students who were left behind made it to Boston one hour before the conference’s opening ceremonies. According to several members in MUN, flight trouble was only a minor setback for the group.

“We came in working hard and wanted to be dedicated, despite our fallbacks,” said Lady McDesmond, 21, public relations major and treasurer of MUN.

At the conference, students experienced firsthand what it would be like to be part of the real United Nations. Each participating college represented a country. Committees from each college represented a real-life issue their assigned country is currently experiencing. Representing Libya, Cal State Fullerton MUN delegates discussed and debated topics like small arms and light weapons (weapon usage).

“MUN is probably the greatest preparation for what actually takes place in real government meetings,” said Rashad Abelson.19, political science major. “Everything is there ? dealing with rival nations, forming allies and selling your position.”

Choudhury Shamim, professor of political science and MUN advisor for 21 years, was a former UN delegate for Bangladesh. Photo courtesy of Choudhury Shamim

According to Omar Torres-Vasquez, 28, political science major and president of MUN, the club sends qualified students to conferences and provides the training needed. He said students gain lifelong speech, analytical and critical thinking skills that they can use personally and career-wise.

MUN is a diverse club, with students of different majors, ages and ethnicities. A mandatory class is accompanied with club meetings to prepare students for their conferences through readings, research, discussions and mock trials.

“It’s been difficult to dedicate the required time into the class and club without slacking in my other classes, which has been my biggest challenge,” Armando Murillo said, 21, political science major. “But it’s a great and fun experience that everyone should try.”

The club is recognized nationally and sometimes internationally, according to Professor Shamim. But despite MUN’s reputation, club members said they were still apprehensive of the Boston Conference because they competed against Ivy League schools like Yale University.

“We learned not to get intimidated by other schools because we performed just as well, if not better, than them,” McDesmond said.

MUN students didn’t spend their entire time in Boston slaving away inside closed conference rooms. They took in the full experience the historical city had to offer.

“We ate at some of America’s oldest restaurants, toured Harvard University and saw the actual graves of our founding fathers,” Abelson said.

Students learned things at the conference that they hadn’t covered in class or club meetings. For example, Murillo discovered that when you speak to delegates in their native language, they are “more willing to hear your side and be signatories to your draft resolution.”

Students will use skills they learned at the Boston Conference at their upcoming conference in New York. They may have been intimidated by other colleges in Boston, but that won’t be the case in New York. According to Professor Shamim, CSUF has an outstanding winners’ record at the conference.

“At New York, people know who Cal State Fullerton is,” McDesmond said. “Why? Because we win every year.”

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church head off to picket on the corner of 10th Street and Ximeno Avenue, diagonally across from Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach. Photo by Christine Amarantus/Daily Titan Staff Writer

Shirley Phelps-Roper, 52, makes her way to the corner. She dons a tattered and bloodied American flag as an apron and pulls out her four signs with different messages of God’s wrath from a padded carrying case, holding them up like butterfly wings on either side of her. She guides her youngest of her 11 children, Luke, who is wearing a blue shirt with anti-homosexual sentiments, to stand beside her.

“We’re just here to tell you faithfully what the scripture says and to tell you also that your destruction is imminent,” said Phelps-Roper, daughter of the Westboro Baptist Church’s leader, Fred Phelps.

A man with a megaphone on the other side of the street chants, “USA! USA!”

Phelps-Roper answers back, “IED! IED!” (short for improvised explosive device).

Such devices have been known to kill American soldiers in the Middle East, which the WBC says they rejoice in. The group has been known to picket at funerals for American troops along with picketing Jewish temples and celebrations and anything remotely tied to homosexuality. Their next scheduled picket in Southern California will be at the Academy Awards in Hollywood.

“Protests, such as those organized by WBC, do not reflect a compassionate response to the human condition,” said Dr. Janet Bregar, a professor from Cal State Fullerton’s comparative religion department, “because they create harm and pain to those who are in a vulnerable state of grief, are not requested by those in grief and are forced upon those in situations where the excuse of free speech is used to coerce and force one worldview upon another in a public space.”

Bregar is expertised in Christian thought and world religions and is a reverend at Village Lutheran Church in Brentwood.

Groups like the WBC try to “stoke the fires of reactivity” by implying that an “apocalyptic situation will occur” in order to gain a larger membership, Bregar said.

“The differing perspectives of religious traditions and worldviews contradict each other and create a situation of moral insecurity for those people whose orientation is conservative and oriented toward scriptures as ‘direct revelation’ from God,” she said. “There is a freedom to make a personal choice about what is moral or not and usually allows for moral nuances and changes in truth claims which result in more complex decision making and a moral value upon individual authority and choice.”

Protected by the Bill of Rights to assemble, worship and say what they wish, members of the church have been arrested in the past for destruction of American flags. Phelps-Roper, who is also an attorney, has argued that these acts are constitutionally-protected.

“The first amendment is one of the jewels … one of the beautiful ornaments that God gave this nation,” she said. “They have no respect for it, and they won’t long have it.”

Phelps-Roper and her father have been banned from flying into the United Kingdom, where they intended to protest a production of “The Laramie Project” last year. The play, based on a true story, details the life of a young homosexual man who was beaten to death in Wyoming.

For more on the WBC protests visit: http://www.dailytitan.com/2010/02/westborobaptistprotest.

Counter-protesters at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School surround the picketers of WBC on Friday, Feb. 19. Photo by Christine Amarantus/Daily Titan Staff Writer

Thousands of counter-protesters flooded 10th Street in Long Beach as members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) attempted to leave after picketing across the street from Woodrow Wilson Classical High School Friday, Feb. 19. The Topeka, Kan.-based church known for their countrywide pickets against homosexuals, Jews, military troops, liberals and Americans, were in Southern California Friday through Sunday to picket the Jewlicious Festival in Long Beach.

“That’s sort of what got us here, but once we’re here: we picket, therefore we are,” said Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of the WBC’s leader, Fred Phelps.

Other pickets for the weekend included Long Beach’s Ragga Muffins Festival, convention center, police department, the Golden Dragon Parade in Los Angeles and a handful of churches, temples and schools in the area.

With the church’s schedule of planned protests available online, counter-protests began to organize against the WBC. The largest response revolved around the picket at Wilson.

Cal State Fullerton student and Wilson alumna Allison Anderson, 22, said she found out about the counter-protest a month ago from a friend at Cal State Long Beach.

“It just got me fired up … it upset me,” the American studies major said. “It just makes me angry that a whole church is coming from miles away and coming into our city and is complaining about the way we live. I’m totally for protesting when it’s for something that you feel strongly about, but for something like this … it’s just not right.”

The WBC’s picket for Wilson was scheduled for 2:45-3:15 p.m. At around 2:20, when Phelps-Roper and her daughters arrived to picket, approximately 40-50 counter-protesters stood with their own signs on the southeastern corner of the intersection of 10th Street and Ximeno Avenue. As the WBC set up on the northwestern, hundreds more arrived to support the counter-protesters. When Wilson let out at 2:50, the numbers exponentially increased.

“I’m actually pretty happy about it. We were at the Jewish Community Center on the other end of town earlier, and it was 20 or 30 people and coming here … there’s hundreds of people here,” said counter-protester and Long Beach resident Ethan Hackett, 29, of the massive numbers.

While the five WBC members’ signs read, “God hates Haiti,” “Fags are beasts,” “America is doomed,” “The Jews killed Jesus” and “You will eat your babies,” a multitude of signs and banners with statements such as “Long Beach is for lovers,” “Dog hates flags,” “Sell Alaska now,” “God hates shrimp,” “Frankenstein hates fire” and “Nuke Iceland” were displayed by the counter-protesters.

A man in a white rabbit suit stood beside Phelps-Roper with a sign reading “Welcome 2 Long Beach, now go homo.” Another man, dressed as a robot, carried a sign that simply read, “Tea party with cupcakes and giggles and dresses.”

Students from Wilson held a banner declaring “Hate is not welcome in our school.”

Wilson sophomore Emily Ha was one of the students positioned behind the banner.

“I just don’t like this. I went through Prop 8 … That was the worst ordeal to go through,” she said.

Counter-protesters followed WBC picketers to their van next to the Long Beach Convention Center on Saturday, Feb. 20. Photos by Christine Amarantus/Daily Titan Staff Writer

As more and more counter-protesters stood around the WBC, blocking their signs with their own and eliciting honks from many passing vehicles, the church members decided to cut their picket short and started to head back to their van, only to be encircled by hundreds in the Long Beach Schools Financial Credit Union parking lot.

“That high school was a mob scene, just shy of a riot. You raised your kids to be God-hating brutes, & so they are,” wrote Phelps-Roper’s daughter, Megan, on Twitter.

Long Beach police officers eventually intervened, keeping the Phelps-Roper family in the center of 10th Street while counter-protesters chanted, “Go home! Go home! Go home!” The crowds erupted in screams and cheers as the WBC members’ van pulled away.

Geoff Maddox, 29, Long Beach’s Hate Crime Awareness founder, insisted the counter-protesters turn their backs on the WBC members. Many did so while displaying middle fingers.

Maddox started one of the five Facebook event pages guiding users to come protest the WBC’s Wilson picket. Some of the events had names like “Not In My Town” or “Steal This Protest.”

“You’ve got all these people that all got together – it started on Facebook,” Maddox said. “(The protest) ended up being really successful. Nobody got hurt. Everybody voiced their opinion and it went really, really well.”

CSUF alumnus Steve Reeder brought a trombone to several of the counter-protests throughout the day with the intent of disrupting the WBC whenever they would sing some of their parody songs.

“The protest has been more fun and laughing at them,” he said. “I think that they were not expecting this. They’re usually expecting people to be more aggressive and we’ve just been having fun all day.”

The WBC did not appear at a 7:15 p.m. scheduled picket against a Martin Lawrence show at the Long Beach Convention Center.

For an analysis of WBC visit: http://www.dailytitan.com/2010/02/wbc-analysis.

Banners posted throughout CSUF's campus advertise the statewide rally against budget cuts to be held on March 4. Photo by Christa Connelly/Daily Titan Photo Editor

Students and faculty from Cal State Fullerton and over 100 different schools, unions and organizations will meet at Los Angeles’ Pershing Square March 4 to march to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office for a rally to protest budget cuts, which continue to affect California’s public education system.

The march is sponsored by the Southern California Public Education Coalition and will include participants from all 23 Cal State University campuses.

The march is just one of many statewide “Mobilization for Education” planned events that will occur on the same day at or around all 23 CSU campuses, according to the California Faculty Association (CFA). Other planned events include sit-ins, rallies and demonstrations.

In addition to the events planned for California on March 4, groups from 17 other states will be holding demonstrations, including New York, Alabama and Michigan.

This is the first time that members representing all areas of public education will unite to demonstrate against the state-wide budget cuts. Participants will include students and educators from K-12 schools, community colleges, UCs and CSUs.

Photo by Christa Connelly/Daily Titan Photo Editor

Tatiana Pedroza, a senior sociology and women’s studies major, said that students and faculty who are not traveling to Pershing Square, but still want to discuss the budget cuts and other issues affecting CSUF, will gather for an informal meeting on campus at the central quad. Pedroza has been involved in protesting the budget cuts in the past.

“I really believe in our education system and really feel like it has taken a big hit recently,” Pedroza said.

According to the CFA, student fees at CSUs have tripled since 2002, and among all of the states, California is 47th in public spending per student. The governor proposed $300 million each for the UC and CSU systems in his most recent state budget proposal but CFA feels that is still not enough, considering that the CSU has lost $1 billion in funding over the past two years.

Alice Sunshine, CFA’s communications director, said that over 800 students and faculty from across California met at University of California, Berkley last fall to determine a day for all segments of public education to actively protest what they feel has been an attack on the public education system.

“Students who are eligible are being turned away from college. At CSU, they have increased costs and limited the number of classes,” Sunshine said.

Sunshine said that March 4 was chosen because public schools of all levels are in session that day and also because they wanted the protest to take place before the governor’s budget revision, which occurs on May 15.

Chuck Marchese, the CFA representative who is helping organize CSUF’s involvement, said that while students and faculty can travel to Pershing Square on their own, they also have the option to reserve a seat on a bus that CFA has rented. The bus can hold 55 people. Marchese said that seats that are not reserved will be filled on a first-come first-serve basis. The bus will be leaving from in front of Langsdorf Hall at 2 p.m.

Amy Bishop, suspected of shooting up a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama, Huntsville on Feb. 12, is taken away by police. Photo courtesy of Flickr/Mark Holloway

Throughout the United States, shootings pose grave problems on college campuses. In 1976, Cal State Fullerton was no exception, but since then it hasn’t experienced any extreme acts of violence.

“Yes, I feel safe here at Cal State Fullerton. Last summer, within minutes of the earthquake that occurred in Chino Hills, students were receiving texts and automated phone calls notifying them not to come to campus or to leave,” said Associated Students Inc. Vice President Joseph Lopez.

Text messages and calls, like the ones Lopez mentioned, are a part of the connect-ed program at CSUF, which notifies students, faculty and staff if an incident were to occur, similar to the one that took place Friday Feb. 12 at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Shots rang out during a biology faculty meeting held in the afternoon, leaving three killed and three wounded.

According to the Huntsville Times, the suspect, Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated neuroscientist and professor at the University of Alabama, unleashed gunfire on her fellow faculty members during a meeting held at the Shelby Center on campus. Motives for her actions were attributed to the fact that she was denied tenure and would have to look for work elsewhere at the end of the spring semester.

CSUF has many precautions to prevent or execute when dealing with an incident of this magnitude. Lt. Don Landers of CSUF University Police commented on the preparedness of his officers who are trained by, “The Active Shooter program, which gives direction and policy guidance to the officers on how to respond to those types of events.” Landers said. “We train on it regularly, and go through a rigorous background process.”

New ideas to help in preparing CSUF for events like the University of Alabama shooting or to prevent them from happening at all were discussed by assistant professor of political science Scott Spitzer.

“What might be helpful is for some kind of evaluation of stress level for students, staff and faculty across the board,” Spitzer said.

The process of tenure can be capricious but is recognized as a high achievement, and when being granted tenure, that professor has attained a certain level of excellence, Spitzer explained.

“The positives to tenure are the security gained. It allows scholars to think outside the box and take risks intellectually, promoting faculty to be innovative. The negative is that if a professor doesn’t get tenure then they have to leave and look for another job,” Spitzer said. “Being denied tenure at an institution such as Harvard or Berkeley is routine, but if denied at a Cal State or institution such as the University of Alabama, it is likely that they would have to change careers.”

Cal State Fullerton’s process for tenure is straightforward and transparent, ensuring professors who are on the track toward tenure that they are aware of the necessary criteria.

Despite the theory that Bishop’s denial of tenure was the most likely cause for her rampage, she had been well aware of her denial for tenure since April 2009 and has multiple violent incidents on her record.

“This happened in Alabama which has very lax gun control laws. My question is how come it’s so darn easy for people nowadays to get guns? This is just another example of how gun violence is ripping our country,” Spitzer said.

Artwork at the presentation illustrates the harrassment and violence often directed at immigrant femal farm workers. Photo by Victoria Guerrero/Daily Titan Staff Writer

Cal State Fullerton alumna Mily Treviño-Sauceda gave a presentation at the University of California, Riverside Wednesday, Feb. 10, about her experience as a migrant farm worker and the events that led her to create Líderes Campesinas Inc.

Treviño-Sauceda gave the presentation, titled “Farmworker Women’s Movement and the Power of the Collective,” in a room decorated with artwork created by female agricultural workers.

Líderes Campesinas, which means “Farm Worker Women Leaders” in Spanish, is a nonprofit group that began as Mujeres Mexicanas. Since its development in 1988, it has received more than 10 awards and now has over 500 members. It organizes, educates and supports farm worker women.

“(However) it’s not just about organizing women, it’s about organizing families,” Treviño-Sauceda emphasized.

Lucy Haincaple, a women studies major at UCR, attended Treviño-Sauceda’s presentation. She felt that part of Treviño-Sauceda’s success as a service provider is due to the fact that she shares the culture of the people she seeks to help.

“She (Treviño-Sauceda) understood her environment and the population,” Haincaple said.

Treviño-Sauceda was born in Washington to a family of migrant farm workers. Her family moved frequently during her childhood in search of employment and better living conditions. While living in Idaho, the rancher who employed her family provided wagon trains for housing, despite the freezing temperatures. When she was 8 years old, Treviño-Sauceda began working in the fields moving irrigation pipes with her parents and two brothers.

She, along with her family and her co-workers, labored in unhealthy and unsafe working conditions. They were exposed to poisonous pesticides and often did not have access to a toilet.

When she grew older, she was sexually harassed by supervisors and co-workers.

“I worked with my dad and brothers where I was being harassed and thought, ‘If I am being harassed having my family here, can you imagine all the women who don’t have their families with them,” Treviño-Sauceda said.

She complained to her father about the harassment, but he questioned her as to whether she had provoked it.

“That silenced me,” she said. Later, she would discover that 90 percent of farm worker women report having been sexually harassed in the work place at least once.

She worked in the fields before and after school during her years throughout elementary school. While in school, Treviño-Sauceda was unable to communicate with her teachers because she only understood a small amount of English and they did not speak Spanish. The language barrier prevented her from learning and she was held back in second grade. She began to question her intelligence which promoted a feeling of helplessness.

That changed with her family’s involvement with the United Farm Worker’s Union (UFW). She became an active member of the UFW and has pursued leadership roles ever since.

Fortino Morales, an environmental science major, went to the presentation to learn how Trevino-Sauceda brought awareness to the farm workers about their surroundings.

“I learned how she empowered women and made them aware of their dangers working in the farms,” Morales said.

Treviño-Sauceda stepped down from her position as executive director of Líderes Campesinas last August. She is now working on earning a master’s degree in the oral histories of farm worker women. She received her bachelor’s degree in Chicano studies, with a minor in women’s studies, from CSUF in 1997.