I had spent five years hoping and wishing on that big bright star that my friend Aaron would finally realize we were meant to be together, and he’d whisk me away to a place where happily ever after exists.

I spent almost a whole year having sex with him in the hopes that this would speed the process up a bit.

And then when he politely, but firmly, told me that we would never be more than friends and our sexcapades needed to stop because he got himself a new girlfriend, I spent another year or so trying to figure out how to mend my broken heart.

I began “Frisk Me” because I wanted to come off as a tough, heartless badass. I was trying to convince others, as well as myself, that I wasn’t hurting, even though I really was.

But being on staff for the past three semesters, and spending countless hours reflecting on my philosophies and ideologies on the subject matters through all the gut-wrenching, side-splitting stories I’ve collected, changed something in me.

Getting positive feedback from my friends and even a few strangers on how they could relate to my work and what they got away from it blasted my self-esteem through the roof.

It gave me more confidence to take on leadership roles at my place of employment.

It gave me the courage to talk to people and look them in the eye, not at my feet.

But true euphoria came this semester. In March, the College Media Advisers awarded “Frisk Me” as the third-best sex column among all college and university newspapers in the country.

Upon receiving this honor, and on the verge of wetting myself out of nervousness, I finally told my family about the column.

The parents’ responses were a perfectly blended mixture of pride and shock, but fortunately for my brand new jeans, no anger.

If I could have the confidence to write about my orgasms, urinary tract infections or some of the embarrassing things I’ve done, I have the confidence to go for anything else life throws my way.

The biggest lesson this column has taught me is that before I can love anyone else — whether solely for sexual purposes or because I really do feel a romantic, intimate connection with him — I need to love myself.

I need to know the difference between what’s good for me in the long run or what’s good for a little while. I need to know what I’m willing to give up and not willing to let go of. I need to forgive myself for my mistakes and grow from them.

And while the idea of following my heart sounds utterly romantic, I need to understand that it’s not exactly practical, and, with the right mindset, my head should be telling my heart what to feel.

I wish I could truly learn from others’ mistakes, or from what my mother tells me.

But sometimes the best lessons are taught by experience.

Sometimes it takes a horrible one to fully understand what you’re looking for, what you want to do with yourself or why you’re in the position you’re in.

So while the thought of bringing this up to my coworkers and family has made me a little nervous, I’m proud of the recognition for what my column really is about.

I chose to write about self-responsibility — not smut — in the Daily Titan, and there is absolutely no shame in that.

These past three semesters have been a blessing. I’ve had so many great colleagues that have inspired me and gave me the constructive criticism I needed. My abnormally large extended family just got bigger, thanks to the fine, foxy folks who lived up here in CP-670 with me. Their support and encouragement has made me the confident, strong-willed person I am today.

I couldn’t have asked for a better experience during my stay at Cal State Fullerton, but it’s not over yet! I’m still sticking around to freelance for another semester, so you won’t see the last of me.

And for all those dying for a shout-out, here’s your 15 minutes of fame: I never could have done this without you, Gabby Abutom. Thanks for catching all my embarrassing typos, Gillian Hadland. Marc Ballon, Genelle Belmas and Tom Clanin are the greatest professors in the history of the universe. Stay sexy, Lucy Niess and Daniel Gomez. And to George, the sweetest security guard in College Park, you will always be my valentine.

To the rest of my fellow readers, especially those graduating: My sincerest congratulations. Good luck to you all. Be safe. We’re all going to make it one way or another, and regardless of how many loops and drops there are along the way, the ride is going to be fun.

This is your favorite frisky girl Charlotte Knight, signing off with… well, a bang.

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” — Henry David Thoreau

Everyone has heard of fundraising sites and charities for the underprivileged, for animals and the terminally ill. But here’s a new concept that is really out there — fundraising for breast implants.

MyFreeImplants.com is a relatively new site that started in 2005. The site claims that more than $8 million in proceeds have been raised for breast implants, and boasts “hundreds” of success stories.

Much of the site shows girls in bikinis before and after they got their implants.

It looks like an infomercial ploy because many of these girls are posing with frowns, no makeup and shaggy hair before their surgery, then have makeup, a fresh perm and color, and a big smile to go with their new companions.

I must say, when I first heard of it I thought it was comical. I had to look around the Internet for quite a bit to make sure this wasn’t some scam or a joke.
As I kept reading on, and the whole scheme became apparent, I couldn’t help but laugh my way through the whole website.

According to the story, the whole idea was thought up among a bunch of guys pandering around Vegas one day.

They met this girl who wished she could afford a $6,000 boob job. One of these unnamed friends said he would pitch in. Pretty soon, they had a verbal commitment to pay for a big fraction of the surgery.

As it turns out, after some browsing and calling around, this site is legit.

It could be an elaborate front — there are a lot of those when it comes to prostitution.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call the site a digital pimp outright, because there’s no proof of any of these girls turning tricks for boob jobs.

All that’s for sure is that when you sign up, you get to “chat it up” with some of these girls on their webcam. They’ll do what they can to hustle some donations, and I’m sure the guys will try to hustle a little something in return.

And without signing up, you can even check out some of the webcams the girls put out on YouTube. It got pretty boring listening to these girls jabber on and on, but it’s pretty good to get a taste of what kind of stuff is out there without having to commit to the whole signup process.

As “in need” as some of these girls might be, I think that donations would be better suited to help out a poor kid who’s dying just because they can’t afford a life-saving procedure.

Maybe if these dingbats thought of it in that way, they’d think of this whole thing a little differently.

But what can you do?

Some guys are just desperate enough for some womanly attention that they would resort to throwing money to settle a girl’s insecurities.

But then again, maybe they’re using the site for its intended purpose: “Just fun, friendships and free breast implants!”

Right.

This concept — shady as it might be — is genius. It takes advantage of utterly desperate people and completely capitalizes on it. From the sound of it, this site gets the biggest piece of the pie when women don’t reach their monetary goal and all of the money raised goes to the website owners.

The number one concern of Dr. Lea Jarnagin, Dean of Students, is the safety of students at CSUF. Jarnagin said she wants to make sure that all forms of safety are something that students will keep in mind during the event.

“That’s an important piece to me,” Jarnagin said. “It’s also academic safety. Not everybody’s finished with finals on Thursday night. There are students that have finals on Friday, some even on Saturday morning … It might feel like the end of that academic year. There’s still business going on the campus. They can be impacted.”

Jarnagin said the underwear run is not sanctioned by the university and urges against students taking part of the activity.

According to Jarnagin, CSUF does not endorse, sponsor or fund the event in any way.

Jarnagin is spreading the official word of CSUF’s non-involvement through messages on Facebook and certain groups that might be participating.

Besides safety, another concern that arises is crowd control and the fact that non-CSUF students participate in the run.

“We know, over the years, it has grown and the estimated attendance last year was in the neighborhood of 3,000 participants. We know also that it’s not just our students who participate,” Jarnagin said. “We have students who come from other campuses and the only reason we know that is because they come wearing their … campus gear, their logos, colors and names and all of that. We have alums from Cal State Fullerton that come back and participate in this. We also have people that have no connection to this campus whatsoever and may not be a student on another campus because this is quite public …  They come to campus to participate in this.”

Jarnagin said she is concerned with what students who have no affiliation with CSUF might do to the campus. According to Jarnagin, Titans involved in the run see CSUF as their campus and they are very proud of it.

Since the run takes place on a Thursday, the campus is getting set up for Commencement which takes place that weekend. According to Jarnagin, chairs, canopies and booths are all set up and, if there is any form vandalism or carelessness with that property, unnecessary funds will have to be spent on fixing anything damaged.

“Many of these have been damaged during these activities, with thousands of people running through and knocking over rows of chairs, stealing wheelchairs and moving them to locations all over campus. Stealing water that has been placed at these booths for individuals for the next day given that it is often quite warm when we are having commencement. Pulling down canopies. These are things that cost us money to repair and put back together again, and I don’t think that anybody would believe that, that would be a good use of scarce resources,” Jarnagin said.

Another concern is alcohol. As stated on the underwear Facebook page, alcohol is not sanctioned at the event. Even though it is not allowed, it will not stop students from drinking prior to the event.

“My concern, (is) a large group of people drinking, scantily clothed — this, to me, is not a good recipe for personal safety … We’ve had circumstances in the past of having individuals leave campus after this activity is over and drive under the influence and cause property damage at a neighboring community,” Jarnagin said.

Due to some of some of the past antics that have happened in the underwear run, fountains will be drained for the night and Jarnagin, some of her professional staff and, of course, campus police will be on hand for the event.

“I am not there as an independent agent, but rather, I will be very much with my police colleagues. Myself and my staff who will be present, we will not be by ourselves, we will be with them. We know they are in charge and we know, that they know, what they are doing and chances are they will recognize something very readily. If I see something I am concerned about, I will say something,” Jarnagin said.

Jarnagin said she wants everyone to be safe and take into consideration everything that comes with an event like this.

“This is not about trying to stop students from having fun and celebrating,” Jarnagin said.

Focusing on keeping the campus safe, keeping the students safe and making sure everyone makes smart decisions before, during and after the event is the main concern.

Have fun Titans! Just don’t forget to be safe and smart during the run.

]]> http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/05/have-fun-but-be-smart-in-the-undie-run/feed/ 0 http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/05/former-goodwill-employees-allege-poor-work-conditions/ http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/05/former-goodwill-employees-allege-poor-work-conditions/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 09:00:57 +0000 Andrea Ayala http://www.dailytitan.com/?p=56079

Anibal Ortiz / Daily Titan

Goodwill of Orange County, which prides itself as being a service to the public, has been viewed by some as not living up to its own message. Some who have worked as employees for the company believe that Goodwill has mistreated its employees with poor pay, poor janitorial care and a general mistrust.

According to its website, Goodwill of Orange County is comprised of more than 35 stores and donation centers, and one of its goals is to “promote self-reliance and well-being at every touch point of the organization. We believe in the power of work; it provides a pathway to independence.”

Goodwill of Orange County, which opened in 1924, currently employs more than 900 people and has an annual budget of more than $78 million, according to its website.

However, not much of the revenue goes to employees, said Bonnie Hodgkins, a former employee of Goodwill.

“(Goodwill) always paid so below the bar … Everyone was living below the poverty level. There were people working there (for) five to seven years still making $8.15 an hour … people with families,” Hodgkins said.

Another source, “Mike,” said employees of Goodwill were informed about five years ago that a freeze in hourly pay came as a result of economic difficulties at the time.

However, since the pay freeze, Mike also said, there has been a construction of five new Goodwill locations and a new gym for the disabled.

The new locations were opened as a method of aiding the public, Goodwill stated in an annual report. According to the report, the new location “further enabled us to create new jobs and provide a way for budget-conscious families to stretch their shopping dollars.”

The new location would create new jobs, the report said, and went on to say that “through job creation and other paths to independence, we are in essence refueling the local economy. This seemingly simple act of getting or keeping a job has an ever-widening ripple effect as the lives of families, neighborhoods and businesses are transformed.”

But while 90 percent of Goodwill’s total revenue last year was used for public support programs and services, some say that the distribution of wealth among the company could be better, considering that the most current available data for pay for the Goodwill CEO stands at more than $250,000 a year, according to Charity Navigator.

According to Mike, revenue has always been very important for the company.

“They were starting to go to hiring just only part time. That way they were able to not offer paid holidays or paid vacations of any sort. Here they are again not giving back to the community but actually taking, and taking advantage of people,” said Hodgkins.

Mike said full-time employees like himself worked 40 hours a week and were sometimes asked to work seven, eight or nine days in a row. Additionally, employees of Goodwill were expected to sell an extraordinary amount for the store while being paid very little.

“The cashiers have no control on how much people buy …” said Mike. “The regular little workers make hardly anything and they expect an awful lot out of them.”

If met, these expectations would lead to a bonus of $75 that month for the employee, Mike said, but the bonus would not be offered to the store if regular repairs needed to be done, which made the bonus very difficult to obtain.

“At that rate of pay, you look forward to that bonus … you need those bonuses to just live,” he said.

Another thing that concerned Mike was the cleanliness of the various locations he worked in.

He said regular janitors were not available and the employees of the stores were expected to clean restrooms and other parts of the stores besides their regular duties. Since the only pay raise he received was $0.12 after working there almost five years, Mike feels as though these duties were too much. He worked 40 hours a week accepting donations for the store, and said that on several occasions he was expected to clean human excrement in the alleyways of the store until he refused to do it.

“If it’s (inside the store), fine, that is in my job description, but (outside the store is) not,” Mike said, adding that appropriate cleaning materials were rarely available. “I put up with a lot with that company, so much (that) it’s hard for me to believe.”

Many employees were also regularly searched as a method of controlling employee theft in the stores.

“Everybody had to carry clear purses. You had to have your pockets checked and your purse checked every time you left the store, (and) at any given time there were these random checks at the end of the night … Out comes loss-prevention personnel and they’d just check everybody … and this is an ongoing thing … (They) were very distrusting of their employees, to the point (that) they were fanatics,” Hodgkins said.

The Goodwill employee handbook states, “For general security reasons, management reserves the right to conduct inspections of all work and non-work areas … including, but not limited to, purses, briefcases, packages and vehicles … These inspections and searches may occur at any time without prior notice.”

These searches, Mike said, do not address the real problem.

“There is so much theft from the general public, but basically they spend most of their time examining the employees. They’re so concerned with the employee theft that they miss all the real theft that goes on every day from the general public and they don’t do much about it at all,” Mike said.

Karen Belan, a former employee who has cerebral palsy, said working at the Goodwill was made difficult for her since she was paid based on how much she produced in assembly, but is unable to move the entire left side of her body.

(Other employees) were getting more money for the simple fact (that) they were able to move faster with two hands. I was at a disadvantage — I couldn’t help it,” Belan said.

Belan, who is now at a community center for disabled seniors, said she was not paid for downtime, so she decided to quit.

“If they gave me at least $5 a day just for showing up — because I rode the city bus — I would stay, but no, during downtime you didn’t get a penny. Work … was a penny a label, and I did not appreciate it, so I just quit,” she said.

After speaking to management, Belan was told, “That’s all we can pay.”

According to Goodwill’s website, “Program participants are paid for their work based on their level of productivity and ability (we focus on a person’s ability, not their disability).”

Mike, however, said he witnessed and disagreed with some treatment toward the disabled.

“They were doing time studies on the disabled … and the ones that weren’t hanging clothes fast enough were getting a dollar an hour taken off their pay wage …” he said. “That made me sick. I thought, ‘This whole company is supposed to be about them. How could you take away their wages?’”

Hodgkins said the image of working for the disabled is used solely as a means to maintain the company’s status as a nonprofit.

]]> http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/05/former-goodwill-employees-allege-poor-work-conditions/feed/ 0 http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/05/engineering-students-dominate-competition/ http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/05/engineering-students-dominate-competition/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 09:00:56 +0000 Jameson Steed http://www.dailytitan.com/?p=56025 Eleven Cal State Fullerton graduates and undergraduates took part in a statewide competition based on the students’ research ability at Cal State Long Beach May 4 and May 5. Three took home top prizes in the undergraduate and graduate categories.

The 26th annual Cal State University Student Research Competition is held to promote excellence in undergraduate and graduate scholarly research and creative activity at the 23 CSU campuses. No school can bring more than 10 project entries, which are chosen from an internal campus competition of around 68 projects. There are nine different subject categories that take part in the competition.

“The competition is on various areas covering entire colleges from art to engineering and humanity to biology,” said Binod Tiwari, Ph.D., assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.

Tiwari is the adviser to graduate student Beena Ajmera, senior Richard Hastings and senior Alexander Lemmon, the three students chosen to form the Computer Science and Engineering section of the competition. All three took home awards in their categories.

“They impressed the judges and got both first and second awards in the undergrad and second in the grad category,” Tiwari said. “I think this is a record in the history of the competition that the students mentored by one faculty swept all awards. I am very proud of them.”

After the 10 students are selected, they must submit a five-page paper on their topic for the competition. The competition involved each person having to give a 10-minute presentation in front of three judges, followed by five minutes of discussion, Tiwari said.

Hastings took first place in the undergraduate Engineering and Computer Science category for his project, “Reduction in the Impact of Earthquake Ground Motion Utilizing Soil Replacement Method.” This is the third year in a row that a student from CSUF has come in first in this category. Lemmon placed second for his “Application of Recycled Material in Construction Application” project.

“When an earthquake occurs, it travels through the bedrock and eventually to the soil we live on,” said Hastings about his project. “We know that different soils have different seismic properties … So if we can decrease the amount of acceleration we can decrease the amount of force impacting a building. To do this we created a soil-cement panel, or what is a barrier of soil mixed with 10 percent cement that surrounds a building. This soil-cement panel … decreases the acceleration due to the earthquake and therefore will decrease the amount of force impacting a building.”

Hastings said this could reduce construction costs by as much as 20 percent.

Hastings also said he felt good about his presentation, but was not confident because it ultimately ends with who the judges will pick.

“Although a few of my fellow Titans kept telling me I won hands down, I was still pretty shocked to hear I had won at the awards presentation,” Hastings said.

Ajmera came in second in the graduate Engineering and Computer Science category. Her research was on “Influence of Saline Water on the Fully Softened Shear Strength of Soft Clays.”

“(The research) basically addresses two major problems in geotechnical engineering with soft clays … that is low strength and high compressibility,” said Ajmera. “Both of these properties make the soils very difficult to construct, so traditionally, people have found ways to modify these soils to improve the properties, in particular, with the use of cement. This research presents an alternative, which is the use of saline water instead of cement.”

Tiwari said all three students came to him for guidance on these research projects.

“They loved to do research in a geotechnical area and approached me to do research, and I provided them with knowledge and facilities,” Tiwari said.

The other eight who represented CSUF at the competition were Sheikh Mubashir, a senior biochemistry major; Esther Hwang, a junior child and adolescent development major; Marilyn Palamino, a psychology graduate; Andres Carrillo, a biology major; Gagandeep Bains, a biochemistry major; Allison McKnight, a graduate English major; Sandra Schreyer, a graduate anthropology major and Shane Riegel, a senior business administration and economics major.

“This competition was such a great experience,” Hastings said. “I got to meet a lot of other great researchers throughout California and look forward to competing again next year, although it will be as a graduate student.”

My first thought when reading the study was, “Is anyone surprised?”

My second thought was, “Who cares?”

And my final thought was, “Oh yeah, because people like Larry Craig are included in this group of homophobes.”

Craig, a former senator from Idaho, was arrested in June 2007 for suspicion of lewd conduct in a Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport restroom. He was accused of soliciting an undercover police officer for sexual favors. Craig eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.

After the plea, it is easy to question if Craig is homosexual, bisexual/bi-curious or if he just wanted to play footsie with his neighbor in the adjoining stall.

And before Craig was able to put his foot down (outside his stall), bloggers deemed him homophobic after he opposed to include sexual orientation in hate-crime legislation.

But, no matter what Craig’s sexual orientation is, he still opposed the legislation. Whether a person claims their sexual orientation or not, they are going to carry their opinions and vote the way they want.

Maybe the issue is the generation gap. It seems that a lot of the current generation accepts people no matter their race, religion or sexual orientation.
A widespread issue among all generations is the idea that being gay is still seen as negative, even by homosexuals. An article by Francisco J. Sánchez and Eric Vilain titled “‘Straight-Acting Gays’: The Relationship Between Masculine Consciousness, Anti-Effeminacy, and Negative Gay Identity” explains this issue.

The authors include different theories on why gay men who have negative feelings about being gay concentrate more on being masculine and become anti-effeminate.

Sociologist Joseph Harry believed that as boys, gay men were subject to ridicule and learned to “de-feminize” to protect themselves from being outcast.

Psychologist John Michael Bailey determined that gay men’s “femiphobia” came from them not wanting to be stereotyped and the reality of them being feminine.
Psychologist Douglas C. Haldeman and author Christopher Rice determined that gay men who show these traits feel negatively about their sexual orientation. This hypothesis fits best in accordance with the current issue.

It is difficult for some to be accepting of their own sexual orientation. But having someone in a position that makes decisions for the state or even the country is damaging.

I’m not saying Craig would have voted differently if he was openly homosexual or bisexual, but there is a good possibility that he would be more open to the legislation. Then again, he most likely would not be a senator for Idaho.

In an article titled “Political Homophobia in Postcolonial Nambia,” writer Ashley Currier broke down how the South African country went from promising equality to a campaign of political homophobia. The South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) was guilty of starting the campaign and leaders of the group were able to dictate how the government was run.

Currier included in her article that SWAPO leaders used political homophobia to hurt individual members of the opposition.

It is obvious that political homophobia affects other countries beside the United States. As soon as there is a gay scandal amongst the political realm, everyone is shocked and disappointed. Maybe if people owned up to who they really are, and others did not judge, it would not be as discouraging.
Just because a man is homosexual does not make him less of a man. It does not mean he cannot make “manly” decisions (whatever that would include).

A former professor of mine told the class that the worst thing about the current generation is that we expect everything to be handed to us, but the best thing about our generation is that we are accepting of others.

Maybe what the country really needs is a change in perspective.

The streaming war began a couple years ago with Netflix and Hulu battling across platforms on XBL, PSN, and, more recently, Wii and mobile and tablet markets. Also, Amazon finally joined the fray on the Playstation 3 (PS3) about a month ago.

Amazon Prime, which originally only gave free shipping on select merchandise — and other perks — is the Netflix-like unlimited streaming version of Amazon’s Instant Video (AIV) service. It even appears to be the cheapest of the three. Is it really?

Illustration by Vanessa Martinez

Sure; it’s $79 a year, or $35 a year for college students, while Netflix and Hulu are $8 each per month for streaming, or roughly $96 per year.

While the dreaded Yellow Light of Death ended any hope of further exploring AIV on PS3, I did manage to tinker with it somewhat. Sorry, Wi-Fi users, AIV requires a bandwidth just outside of what Wi-Fi can support, according to Amazon’s tech support. However, Netflix and Hulu operate just fine on Wi-Fi.

With a selection like the one on Prime, I wouldn’t even bother hardwiring the PS3. While the pay-per-view version of AIV clearly has the best selection of the three services, the Prime version’s selection is underwhelming, with only 5,000 titles compared to Netflix’s 20,000.

Netflix on the PS3 is set up better than on the Xbox 360. When you go to select something to watch, it brings up a menu that allows you to play it, add it to your queue, rate it or — if it’s a TV show — view more episodes. However, on the 360 version, the viewer can only play it or add it to queue. They can’t rate it or view other episodes without launching the title. That’s my biggest gripe with the 360 version.

Netflix sets its shows up in lists. Each season has its own sub-list of episodes. The PS3 version allows the viewer to seamlessly pick the episode they want to watch. However, the 360 version doesn’t have that. Instead, the viewer first has to select the show before they are able to find the desired episode. Then, the viewer is able to hit down on the universal remote to bring up the menu and select the desired episode.

Furthermore, the interface on the 360 is made worse by the fact that in order to get to the end of your queue, you have to scroll all the way to the end. That can be problematic if you have a combined 300 movies and shows in your queue. However, the PS3 version doesn’t have that problem. If you’re on the first selection of your queue, you can click once to the left and there’s 300.

Hulu, on the other hand, has two lists: a queue you can put episodes on and a favorites list you can put shows on. The favorites list automatically puts new episodes into your queue, and you can even tell Hulu to email you when a new episode becomes available. However, I’d prefer it if Hulu put each episode of a show into one list, similar to Netflix.

It should convert the favorites list to the queue and dump the saving episodes idea like a bad date.

Furthermore, the worst thing about Hulu Plus, whether it’s streaming on the PS3 or 360, is that it doesn’t contain full shows like Netflix does. It only has licenses for certain seasons. Generally speaking, to find the season you want to watch, you have to visit the website.

It also doesn’t contain as many movies as Netflix and is mostly shows. However, Hulu’s selection is still better than that of Amazon Prime.

By far, however, of the three, Netflix is the best value because it offers a wide range of movies and shows, and it has a better interface than AIV and Hulu.

A multi-million dollar house in Fullerton is getting a pricey renovation before a new tenant moves in. Jeff Laabs tells us why some CSUF students are up in arms about the renovation and the big move.

The demands of the group were to create a five-year freeze on tuition increases, eliminate all housing and car allowances for all 23 campus presidents, rollback executive salaries to 1999 levels and an extension of freedom of speech on all campuses.

SQE met with Chancellor Charles B. Reed on May 4. Reed responded to its demands, by saying, “Your demands … are not possible.”

On May 7, CBS-2 News broadcasted the story “Investigation Reveals Questionable Spending by CSU Chancellor’s Office,” which contrasted the SQE’s hunger strike with the lavish spending on food by the Chancellor’s Office.

CBS reporter David Goldstein uncovered records of $766,890.32 charged on CSU credit cards last year, leading the chancellor to be confronted about the expenditures.

In response to the CBS News report, Senator Ted Lieu sent a letter to the chancellor and the station calling for Chancellor Reed’s resignation. According to SQE members, Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom has invited the group to meet in Sacramento.

David Inga, the only SQE hunger striker at Cal State Fullerton, said that while there was some negative backlash about the hunger strike, it was successful in bringing awareness to the public.

“Whether or not (the public) agrees or disagrees with us … we forced people to critically engage in the world they are living in. I think that is a step in the right direction in terms of elevating the consciousness of people to enact some form of real change, (either) structural change or institutional,” said Inga.

The 12 hunger strikers set up camp at a Methodist church in Long Beach for most of the strike. Donnie Bessom, a Cal State Long Beach political science major, participated in the hunger strike.

Bessom said the response from lawmakers in Sacramento is the closest the group felt they could get to victory for the cause at this time.

“Obviously our demands are not off the table,” said Bessom. “Chancellor Reed is … very stubborn, so we are just trying to focus our energy now on pressuring decision-makers that affect him.”

Bessom said during the hunger strike that simple actions such as sitting and getting up were difficult for himself and the other strikers. As a result of the hunger strike, he has become sick and unable to hold down food. He said he and all of the other strikers are currently recovering at home, and they plan to take the next step when they meet with Newsom next week.

In Sacramento, he said, the group is going to press to democratize the CSU Board of Trustees.

“We are going to say … (that) this is what we want. We want to elect trustees directly,” Bessom said. “It’s the governor giving up power, but it will be empowering students (and) faculty to find the best representatives for the best interest of California students.”

Becky Asami, a Cal State Fresno geology major and SQE member, said the hunger strike turned out to be more successful than the group had planned. Although she was unable to participate in the hunger strike, she fully supported their sacrifice and the action shows the validity of their cause.

“I think the amount of public attention it has gotten is really … going to wake students up in the fall,” said Asami. “We’re going through another big batch of changes … There is not going to be anybody admitted in the spring of next year. We’re all looking at more tuition hikes and other (kinds) of fee hikes. So I think the attention of the hunger strikers, along with the present changes and the future changes, will get the student body motivated to do (more) organizing and actions.”

The land, at 201 E. Bastanchury Road, is a 10-foot-long strip on Bastanchury going 400 feet east of the Harbor Boulevard intersection, said Don Hoppe, director of engineering for the city. The stretch of land starts on Balboa road from the CVS pharmacy eastward to land owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam property.

Construction will tentatively begin late 2013 and the widening area is 3.5 miles northwest of Cal State Fullerton.

“We’re going to widen the roadway enough to accommodate three lanes on both sides,” said Hoppe.

The land acquisition was approved May 1 by the Fullerton City Council. The land was purchased for $346,775 from Ronald Beard.

The city is currently applying for Measure M-2 competitive grant funding from the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA). The next grant cycle will be between January and March 2013, said Ron Bowers, who is in the design group and a senior civil engineer for the city.

If approved by OCTA, then the grant will be matched 75 percent to the city’s 25 percent, Hoppe said.

Measure M-2 helps alleviate traffic congestion with transportation and highway projects. The projects are funded by a half-cent tax. It was approved by Orange County voters in 1990 and was approved for a 30-year extension by voters in 2006.

The competitive program lets cities compete for the Measure M-2 grants, Hoppe said.

The city is working on a design that will take into account retaining walls, widening the street, placing medians, pavement rehabilitation, street lighting and a storm drain, Bowers said.

“We plan to wrap up design by December 2013,” Bowers said.

The widening project is meant to ease traffic congestion. Bastanchury has three lanes west of Harbor so it is a “small portion” of widening, Bowers said.

“This (project) takes care of the bottleneck of people going westbound (on Bastanchury),” Hoppe said.

The project is a good idea because investing in city infrastructure is often overlooked, said Brett Craig, 25, a junior engineer for Riverside county.

“Anytime you widen a road to improve capacity, I support that because it alleviates traffic and improves safety,” said Craig, who grew up near Bastanchury in Fullerton.

The city council previously approved a resolution to authorize the Bastanchury improvement funds to OCTA in a meeting Feb. 15, 2011.

“The preliminary cost estimate for the Bastanchury widening project is $3,768,000,” states the agenda, written by Hoppe.

OCTA’s grant was estimated to be for $2.36 million, with the remaining $1.4 million coming from Measure M-2 Turnback funds, according to the agenda.

The city is currently applying public right-of-way on the land, meaning that the acquired land will be used for transportation, said Hoppe.

According to the agenda, the city is also working to get an easement with the Army Corps. Easements allow individuals to use private land without owning it.

The city originally offered Beard $271,775 in October 2011. Beard then accepted the city’s second offer of $346,775 April 3.

Beard was unavailable for comment.

All your hard work and money has finally paid off — too bad you can’t share that experience with all of your friends and family.

You stand in the heat in a long GradFest line to get your cap and gown, your Cal State Fullerton alumni association tote, and any other nostalgic crap you may want (all of which you have to pay for), and then you finally get your tickets.

The sweet, beautiful golden tickets — symbols that you have officially made it.

These tickets are for your loved ones to see you cross the stage, cross your tassel to other side of your cap, and cross “graduate from college” off your list.
The hard part is not graduating; it is figuring out who the lucky six to eight people are that can come see you get your diploma.

While tickets are not required for the 8 a.m. University Commencement Ceremony where your name is not called and you are with thousands of other graduates that you do not even know, the tickets are required for all college graduations where your name is announced and you cross a stage.

Students have to watch a five-minute video where we are urged to graduate with Titan pride.

It is a little hard to graduate with Titan pride when I am still mortified that I had to tell my loved ones that I did not have enough tickets for them to actually see me graduate.

It does not make me feel proud, and it does not make me feel like CSUF is proud to have me as a Titan graduate either.

If they were, then they would agree that we deserve to share the moment we have worked hard for with the people that supported us the whole way through — not just a select six-to-eight of them.

While the CSUF graduation Facebook page was created for the purpose of extra ticket distribution among students, it constantly gets plastered with, “Please I need more tickets for my family!” — posts that are left unresponded to.

On behalf of everyone who is graduating, please find a solution to this problem for future graduates.

On the graduation video that everyone has to watch to get their tickets, former president Dr. Milton Gordon shares these pearls of wisdom:
“Please help us to insure that your Commencement is one that will pay tribute to your hard work and accomplishments, and one that you and your family, friends and guests will remember with fond memories.”

It is too bad that they do not give us enough tickets to share with our “family, friends and guests.”

There are 14 college ceremonies Saturday and 13 on Sunday — all happening at the same time on various places of campus.

I get it, there are a lot of graduates and little space for everyone from every college to move around.

Venue sizes are set April 30 based on the number of tickets distributed during the official ticket distribution and additional tickets will be given out only as the venue size allows, according to the Commencement website.

Fire marshals and maximum capacities; they all have to be respected and followed.

I get that.

However, the solution of limiting tickets to students is not working, helpful, or appreciated.

Whether it is staggering times of college ceremonies or putting ceremonies in bigger venues with higher capacities if possible, something needs to be done.

We need to remember that this is a celebratory event to honor the hard work, the money, the blood, sweat and the tears that each one of us has put it into this college and our education.

So, yeah, congrats to us soon-to-be alumni. Hopefully you saved enough money to buy a really nice video camera.

That way, the family and friends who were not VIP enough to get a ticket can see you cross the stage secondhand and after the fact.

The Hollywood event will be Saturday, June 16, until Father’s Day, June 17.

This year’s headliners include Boney James and the Christian McBride Big Band on Saturday, with legendary jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis closing up the show on Sunday.

Bill Cosby is set to be the festival’s master of ceremonies.

The Hollywood Bowl is the ideal venue for kicking off the summer concert season. Tall, thick trees surround the theatre, keeping the sun out for most of the afternoon, which makes twilight at the bowl a cool, jazzy affair.

“I’ve had a lot of things to be proud of in my life, but nothing more, quite frankly, than the Jazz Festival,” said Hefner.

Concertgoers are invited to bring their own beer, food and picnic supplies.

Other notable performers are Los Angeles-based Latin hip-hop group Ozomatli. Unfortunately, the group will be without DJ Cut Chemist, a local legend and one of their founding members. Ozomatli will take the stage shortly before Ramsey Lewis on Sunday.

On Saturday, Nashville blues singer and guitarist Keb’ Mo’ will perform.

Julian Quintero has been attending the jazz festival with his father, John, for the past four years.

“My father goes every single year. He’s probably gone for the past 27 years. I’ve been going with him every Father’s Day weekend,” said Quintero. “It’s a really good event; it’s usually an older crowd, but it’s a really modern crowd.”

Quintero said that getting the opportunity to bring food and alcohol makes this concert a one-of-a-kind event.

“Hefner’s there every Saturday … Sunday he’s not there. He’s out being a father to I don’t know how many kids,” Quintero said.

Also on the bill for Saturday is the Global Gumbo All-Stars, a group of solo artists who get together and perform some of their best work. Lionel Loueke is the group’s vocalist and guitarist.

“Gumbo is a good title for it. Basically it’s four guys, each one doing a couple of their own songs,” said Jack Leitenberg, Loueke’s manager.

Leitenberg said it’s more than just a jam-out session for the Global Gumbo All-Stars, since they all perform together a few times a year. Last year, Quincy Jones performed alongside the group. He said that the word “gumbo” shouldn’t get the group confused for a New Orleans band.

“The only reason it’s called Gumbo is because it’s like you throw everything together in a pot and see what happens, so it has nothing to do with the style of music they’ll be playing,” Leitenberg said.

The festival’s headliner, Ramsey Lewis, 76, is a world-renowned jazz pianist. He has more than 80 albums, dating from 1956 to 2011, and has won three Grammy Awards.

Lewis’ manager, Shelby Shiaratzeh, says Mr. Lewis has been touring with a new electric-style band, which will take the stage with him at the jazz festival.

“He hasn’t done it in a while, but I don’t think this is his first time doing it,” said Shiaratzeh. “Over the past year he started working with an electric band sound, so he’s got an acoustic and electric base … He’s also added a Fender Rhodes to the mix, so it’s kind of a throwback to the Sun Goddess album.”

Courtesy of Susanna Tabatha

 

The private party sponsored by Vans and Vitaminwater brought some of the best skateboarders of the world to the Combi Bowl at the Vans Skatepark in Orange for the eighth annual Pro-Tec Pool Party Saturday.

Patty Segovia, CEO and founder of All Girl Skate Jam, said the invite-only Pro-Tec Pool Party is the most prestigious and core pool event of the year.

“(The contest) in itself is awesome,” said Al Vano, Vans marketing and promotions manager. “Out of the entire contest we do every year, this is the one that brings everyone together.”

The difference between masters and pros is the age group.

Both master and pro skateboarders skate to win a piece of the $113,000 prize.

In the pro category, skater Pedro Barros defended his title for the second year in a row. Barros took first place, winning $28,000. Rune Glifberg placed second, walking away with $14,000. After having a broken wrist last year, Bucky Lasek returned, placing third and winning $7,000.

Returning from a recent injury of a broken collarbone in a motorcycle accident, Steve Caballero placed first with a $14,000 prize. Caballero was not expected to enter the competition, but he had a fast recovery just in time to get cleared a week ago to enter the contest. First runner-up for the master category was Tony Hawk, earning $7,000 and Lance Mountain placed third, banking $4,000.

“The unique thing about this time around was that the original Bones Brigade team was all placed in one heat to compete against each other,” said Segovia.

The Bones Brigade was a skateboarding team that included veterans Caballero, Hawk, Lasek, Steve Rocco, Frankie Hill, Rodney Mullen, Andy Macdonald and others.

According to a press release, it was the first time Caballero, Hawk, Mountain and Mike McGill had competed in the same contest since the early ‘90s.

There is no favoritism in this competition, Vano said.

“We try to support all the skaters,” Vano said. “It doesn’t matter who you ride for, what you do, what age you are, what creed you are, as long as you come and have fun and enjoy yourself.”

Barros, 2011-2012 winner of the Pro-Tec Pool Party Pro Finals, said he enjoys the event because of the skating and energy.

“All skaters and everyone around are putting energy into (the event),” said Barros.

Barros also said he likes the Vans Pro-Tec Pool Party because he skates with skaters of all generations.

“It is amazing being able to skate with the masters … Everyone is amazing,” Barros said.

Chris Gonzales, sales representative for Vans Apparel, also said he likes watching the masters skate.

This is Gonzales’ fourth time attending the pool party.

“Guys who (have) been doing this as long as I (have) been alive, skating every year … that to me is like the best part,” said Gonzales.

The newer and younger kids may do the harder tricks, but Gonzales grew up watching the masters skate, so to him, watching Chris Miller, Caballero, Graso and all the older skaters was his priority.

He also admires some of the pros.

“Alex Perelson, because he rips,” Gonzales said. “He is young and is pretty much set to be one of the best guys based on how he skates now.”

The Vans Pro-Tec Pool Party is one of his favorite events put on by Vans.

“It is amazing,” Segovia said. “The energy is phenomenal. Vans is family — they have been my longest and most genuine sponsor.”

Segovia also ranks the Pro-Tec Pool Party as one of the best events.

“I want to thank Steve Van Doren and his crew for working so hard to make this event something to look forward to all year,” Segovia said.

This is a great idea because it would make roads safer to drive. The cars have artificial intelligence (AI) systems, GPS, a substantial database and a Light Detection And Ranging Light (LIDAR) laser radar, which can detect obstacles like people, cyclists and other cars on or around the road. The self-driving cars also have computers connected to the brakes and accelerators.

I’ve met people who are afraid of driving because of how dangerous other drivers can be. I’ve nearly been involved in wrecks while being driven by someone else because another driver wasn’t paying attention. In fact, once I was riding a bus that was parked at a bus stop when a car ran a red light and slammed into the bus. All that could end if Google’s driverless car becomes a hit.

I know there are skeptics who probably think it won’t work because computers can glitch. They can die, and it can cause major problems if something like that happens while driving. I’ve seen that happen; I get it. I’ve had Blue Screen of Death on my laptop, Yellow Light of Death on my Playstation 3 and Android Screen of Death (twice) on my Android phone. That doesn’t include all the times I’ve had to restart one of the above just to use it, or even the countless times they’ve crashed.

However, according to the Guardian, Google’s cars have logged in more than 200,000 hours without incident, even though they didn’t have driver interaction.
The cars drive safer than humans. In fact, according to Bruce Breslow, the director of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in Nevada, “It gets honked at more often because it’s being safe.”

Nevada is the first state to approve a testing license to Google. The driverless cars will have a red background and an infinity symbol on the left side of its license plates. California — where Google is based — could be the second to grant a testing license for these cars, according to the Guardian.
After all, the cars have made it to the Golden Gate Bridge and Pacific Coast Highway.

Furthermore, the cars can easily benefit the disabled community. In fact, Virginia Tech won a Blind Driver Challenge last year. The car’s driver, Mark Riccobono, who is a blind executive for the National Federation of the Blind, didn’t need to see the stunt drivers all over the course. the car saw them for him, with its GPS, laser-range finders and cameras.

Just think about the possibilities. If these cars can allow blind people to drive, why not people with other disabilities?

It could end the need for special equipment for people who may not be able to use their legs or hands. It could end the need to rely on unreliable bus companies like Orange County Transit Authority (OCTA) or its subsidiary, ACCESS.

Furthermore, not everybody can pay attention to every single detail of what is going on around the car. Parents might have to deal with their kids fighting while the car is in motion.

If you’re like me, however, it’s difficult to pay attention to anything 100 percent of the time, which is why I don’t drive. If you’re in that situation, a car like this is a godsend.

That’s why a good place to test drive an autonomous car is Las Vegas Boulevard.

“They’re designed to avoid distracted driving,” the Guardian quoted Breslow as saying. “When you’re on the strip and there’s a huge truck with three scantily clad women on the side, the car only sees a box.”

Once California approves the driver’s license for these cars, I’ll be first in line to pick one up, as long as I can find a way to get an autonomous car. I just hope it’ll happen soon.

Photo by Jaryd Lucero

As a poor, starving college student, whose palate is never satisfied with the cup of noodles and Vienna sausage diet, I’ve discovered a number of light-on-the-wallet eateries to get a fix of my favorite cuisine — Vietnamese.

From what I’ve learned from my restaurant-hopping experiences is that you don’t go to the same restaurant and order everything  that looks good on the menu. You find the one food you like and go there for that one thing.

Banh Xeo

Banh xeo is my all-time favorite Vietnamese dish and Van Restaurant gets it right. Banh xeo is a thin, pan-fried, savory pancake made of rice flour stuffed with bean sprouts, onions, slivers of pork and shrimp. It looks like a huge omelet.

The dish is served with a selection of greens, from lettuce, mint, sorrel (a sour herb), fish mint, red perilla (a bitter, cinnamon-y herb) and other herbs. The way to eat this food is to rip off a piece, wrap it up in greens of your choosing, dip into some fish sauce and enjoy. You eat this dish with your hands, so it might get a little messy. But it’s well worth the effort of wrapping up each little bit in the lettuce. It takes awhile for me to eat it because I’m very particular about which greens I use in each bite …  I use them all so it takes me longer to set up each bite.

The banh xeo is served in a very generous size for $5. Van Restaurant is located at 14122 Brookhurst St. in Garden Grove.

Banh Mi

Most people know of this popular sandwich via Lee’s Sandwiches, or more recently through the Nom Nom Truck, which was the runner-up on the first season of the Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race. Like most non-Vietnamese people, I have only eaten banh mi from Lee’s. Recently, I found myself at a tiny, less mainstream store stuffing my face with a baguette filled with pickled vegetables, cilantro, jalapeños and choice of meat.

At a flat $2.75 a sandwich, Tan Hoang Huong Sandwiches & Coffee definitely rivals Lee’s.

As always, I ordered my banh mi with grilled pork and couldn’t have been happier with my lunch. The baguette was warm and crispy, the pork was well-seasoned and the fresh jalapeños were very spicy; just how I like it. Since the restaurant has coffee in the name I also decided to have an iced coffee. The first thing that came to me when I took a sip was that it tasted like a very strong piece of toffee candy. You’re supposed to let the ice melt to water down the coffee, but I like a strong cup of jet fuel.

Tan Hoang Huong is located at 6926 Westminster Ave. in Westminster.

Spring Rolls

Brodard Restaurant is the one place I go for spring rolls. My preference is the grilled pork sausage roll, which is filled with the basics: lettuce, cucumber, carrot, daikon, mint and crispy egg roll skin for that extra crunch.

What makes this place known for its spring rolls is the sauce that comes accompanies them. It isn’t the typical peanut sauce, but rather a secret house that still has a bit of a nutty taste, along with many other flavors to tie the whole spring-roll-eating experience together. The sauce is difficult to describe. The murky orange-colored dip has a unique savory, sweet, garlicky pungent taste to it and with a silky texture.

The rolls are filling and at $6.47 for four rolls, they make a decent meal.

Also, don’t get Brodard Restaurant confused with Brodard Chateau. I’ve never been to the Chateau, but from what I hear, the food costs more and is exactly the same. You pay for the atmosphere, apparently. Brodard is located at 9892 Westminster Ave. in Garden Grove, behind the 99 Cent Store.

Duck

Duck is, hands down, my favorite piece of poultry. At Banh Cuon Hong Mai they serve a delicious duck salad next to bamboo soup.

The duck comes boiled (or possibly steamed) and on top of a refreshing salad of cabbage, mint, pickled onions and peanuts dressed with some fish sauce. On the side is a fish sauce with plenty of minced ginger, which is usually paired with many other Vietnamese poultry dishes. I love ginger so I drench the pieces of duck in the sauce. I wouldn’t mind having the salad on its own. Not to say the soup is bad, though. It’s just a simple beef broth with vermicelli and bamboo — quite tasty, actually.

The soup-salad combo costs $7.75 (not including tax), but I don’t mind pay a little extra to enjoy a good piece of duck. Banh Cuon Hong Mai is located at 5425 First St. in Santa Ana.

As of now these restaurants are my go-to places for each of these dishes. I have yet to have a bad experience at any of them. I left pho off this list for a reason. I have never been to a pho place that has notably outperformed the others. I have my share of bad bowls of pho and good bowls, but it all pretty much tastes the same to me.

I have no plans to stop going to any of these restaurants — that is, of course, until I find something that tastes better.

As much as we are proud of our accomplishments during our college years, we are also wary of the impact of the economic crisis on our future careers.

After going through years of hearing how the job hunt will be difficult from both professors and professionals, we are anxious about facing a future that is uncertain.

Many of us are wondering if we will be able to get the job we have been studying for. More importantly, when we do find work, will we be able to afford to sustain the job?

Many of us are going to be paying off student debt along with rent and other bills. We want to find jobs that allow our creative and critical thinking skills we learned during our college years to flourish, but fear these skills may be harnessed by the corporate world.

There are some of us who are considering moving out of California to find work, and there are a few of us who wonder if we can find work in the media world at all. Some of us will be entering the “real world” and living outside of home for the first time. Others have lived on their own, relying on either full-time work and/or financial aid along with loans to sustain us through our college education.

For those of us who have worked for a living during school, our biggest post-graduation fear is being offered an entry-level position within a company based on our recent graduation status.

After the financial crisis hit, few of us reevaluated our goals and aspirations in life. We balanced work and school (or went back to school) in hopes of going for the career of our dreams. Instead of waiting on tables or being stuck in a corporate cubicle all day, we wanted more out of our lives and careers.

Now, we are going to be faced with the conflict of getting paid to do what we love or getting paid so we can pay off our debt and bills.

For those of us who have not worked for a living just yet, we do not know what to expect. All we know is we have to learn to be self-sufficient and enter the working world cautiously with an open mind.

As the graduating class of 2012, we are thankful we can leave school before tuition increases once more. However, we are concerned about the increasing costs of school will have on our generation, as well as future generations.

We are concerned about the quality of the CSU system all across the board. Will incoming students have the opportunities we had?

Are there students out there too scared off by the 318 -percent increase of tuition the past decade of the CSU system to even try to make their way through school?

In addition, graduate school may be option for those of us who want to continue our education to reach our goals (or avoid paying off student loans); however, now that graduation loans are no longer being granted, we may not be able to take that next step in our careers.

We are fortunate to have made it this far, and we see ourselves being successful in some kind of capacity.

At this point, it is just a matter of whether or not we can make a living off of using our creative minds and critical thinking skills to the fullest in our career or if we will have to slave away at a job we hate just to survive. Of course, many of us hope for the former instead of the latter.

The vision behind the film comes from none other than television and movie director Joss Whedon.

The Avengers tells the story of a team of super humans brought together by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., an international peacekeeping agency.

Courtesy of MCT

Well-known characters Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Dr. Bruce Banner/the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) make the Avengers team.

What’s very different about this film is that each one of these characters has their own respective plot line outside of this production, their own films and many years of being used as comic book characters. The team itself made their first appearance in September of 1963 when The Avengers #1 was published, originally created by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby.

After nearly 50 years of devoted fandom, Whedon was entrusted with the task of bringing this story to life. Having already worked on Thor (2011) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), he said that melding into the brand of other Marvel Studios directors for this film wasn’t too far off from his own style.

“There’s no way you could make a movie that looked like a Jon Favreau, Kenneth Branagh, Joe Johnston, Louis Leterrier movie. You have to take from each of them the thing that is useful and will jive with the rest of them,” Whedon said. “I tend to be a tiny bit florid with my camerawork and my dialogue, but hopefully in a way that feels like a realistic version of a comic book universe.”

But at the end of the day, the real version that mattered was that of Whedon’s. His vision was ultimately how Marvel came to pick him to direct The Avengers, he said.

“I think Marvel has a great nose for a director who has a passionate vision, who’s not famous for turning out big-budget hits, but will bring something a little bit fresh to the concept of a hero movie. It’s one of the things that I respect the most about them,” he said.

And for those who aspire to sit in the director’s chair one day, Whedon offers this piece of advice.

“We live in an age where anybody can make a movie. If you have a phone, you can make a movie.  OK, maybe not a huge movie, maybe phone-sized, but it’s there,” Whedon said. “Things are different now, and the best way to get your work out there is not just as an offering to somebody else to hope they’ll make it, but to show yourself as a filmmaker, and to learn as a filmmaker is just (to) make movies. There’s no excuse not to now.”

With inspiration and passion on his side, it is no wonder Whedon was able to create such a huge film. The Avengers is available in 2-D and 3-D viewing nationwide.

26 members of Cal State Fullerton’s community have successfully gotten hefty grants to fund research in order to benefit the campus and local community. The main reason behind these grants is to fund research in order to answer important questions.

H. Jochen Schenk, an associate professor of biological sciences, was a recipient of an $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). These grants are funded by taxpayer money and aimed at increasing the knowledge of the way the world works.

“The grant money goes directly back into the economy, because it is spent on equipment and it employs people who spend the money for their living expenses,” Schenk said.

These grants are vital to conducting research, which doesn’t come cheap. Some small pieces of equipment can cost more than a car.

“Research is very expensive. Mine requires a highly qualified full-time staff and expensive equipment. Without the external funding, my lab would only be able to do research on the cheap.  That probably would not be cutting-edge research at the forefront of science,” Schenk said.

The Biological Sciences Department and the Mathematics Department receive the most grants. Other departments within the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, however, receive their fair share of research money as well.

Joshua Smith, an assistant professor of physics, is currently working with three grants to fund his research on gravitational-wave astronomy. Smith has used the money to purchase equipment, such as lasers, optical tables, computers, oscilloscopes and electronics.

“We have a rare opportunity to answer big questions about the universe such as, ‘how many black holes are out there,’ and, ‘how often they collide with each other or with other stars,’” Smith said.

A major part of all research has to do with the students who participate in it.

“Our research is also training the next generation of scientists for the U.S. The students that work in our group are gaining experience that will help them contribute to society after graduation,” Smith said.

Many of the students involved in research get paid for it.

“Many students at CSUF are paying their own bills throughout college. If I were not able to offer them pay, they would likely have far less time to devote to research and we would accomplish far, far less,” Smith said.

Although it’s not just Cal State Fullerton students and the professional community that benefit from grants, some students in neighboring grade schools also reap the benefits.

David Pagni, CSUF professor of mathematics, has received several grants, some which aim at educating students in the elementary and high school level. One of the grants he was awarded is called the Teachers Assisting Students to Excel in Learning Mathematics grant, or TM2.

“TM2 involves collaboration with teachers and mathematicians to investigate how students learn algebra and why so many students end up taking remedial math in college,” Pagni said.

These grants aim to improve local students’ educations and prepare them for the college academic environment, which, currently, has many students taking remedial math classes.

“These grants essentially pay for a faculty member to work on issues related to research and instruction and, in cases like my rants, to serve the local community, a role I believe the university must undertake as a leading institution for Orange County,” Pagni said.

Those professors who are lucky enough to be awarded grants for their research get to conduct their research with the tools they need to do the best job possible. Others are stuck finding ways to cut corners and get the job done on a budget.

“I have been very lucky and successful in getting external grant money almost since I came to CSUF. That has enabled my lab to conduct productive research that lead to high-quality publications,” Schenk said.

There are even workshops, both on and off campus, that help teach those who need grants how to write their proposals. Many of the professors who are awarded the grants put in a lot of effort for the money.

“I highly recommend grant-writing workshops and review panels to anyone who wants to get external funds,” Schenk said.
]]> http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/05/grants-at-csuf/feed/ 0 http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/05/using-paper-to-save-power/ http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/05/using-paper-to-save-power/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 09:00:23 +0000 Krystale Rankin http://www.dailytitan.com/?p=56074 As Cal State Fullerton strives to become more of an environmentally conscious campus, Unisource Worldwide, a janitorial supply company, is trying to get the university to trade in its hand dryers and paper towels for an environmentally friendlier alternative.

Devonne Graham, who has been a representative for Unisource Worldwide for 14 years, is targeting CSUF to inform them of a healthier substitute — paper towels made of eucalyptus leaves.

CSUF was seen as a potential place for eucalyptus leaves paper towels because Unisource is interested in trying to serve facilities that are known for being green, cost-efficient and health conscious.

Unisource started using eucalyptus leaves as a paper towel product about seven years ago because the leaves are high in sustainability and are rapidly renewable.

Paper towels made of eucalyptus leaves have the same absorbency as regular paper towels, cost less and are potentially a green alternative to regular paper towels and hand dryers.

The towels are an innovative sanitary paper product made from tree-free fibers. It takes six years from planting the eucalyptus for it to grow, reach maturity and be ready for harvest. The short fibers from eucalyptus leaves create an ultra-soft tissue. They are also environmentally friendly when disposed of because they are rapidly renewable resources.

Rapidly renewable resources are used to reduce the use of resources that are important to the environment, like forests. By using eucalyptus leaves that have a shorter harvest time, the harvesting of forests and other resources can be reduced. This contributes to saving the environment’s trees and forests.

“From an environmental health scientist’s point of view, using an air blower in the bathroom is just as sanitary as using paper towels while saving important natural resources. Although air blowers use electricity, at the end of the day, making paper towels probably wastes more energy,” said Danny H. Kim, Ph.D., assistant professor in the CSUF Health Science Department.

It is a common misconception that hand dryers are a more environmentally friendly alternative than paper towels, Graham said.

“Dryers reduce the paper waste, they do not promote a healthy workplace or environment. Going green, people should always keep health in mind first,” Graham said.

Michelle Lanternier, a double major student in Spanish and linguistics, agrees that hand dryers are unsanitary.

“Hand dryers in the bathroom — it’s disgusting. There are almost no windows in bathrooms. It’s enclosed and there’s not a lot of air circulation, so the germs just float around,” said Lanternier.

Many new hand dryers require people to insert their hands into the machine increasing the chance of touching surfaces and coming into contact with germs left behind by others.

Paper towels wipe the bacteria off instead of blowing the bacteria back into the air.

Automatic paper towel dispensers feed paper towels in a controlled manner and allow for touch free dispensing. This lowers the amount of bacterial contact.

According to Unisource Worldwide statistics, paper towels are also cost efficient. Hand dryers could cost four times more than expected when installing new ones in bathrooms, and for every four hand dryers, one paper towel dispenser is needed. Hand dryers also have high power consumption that could lead to the increase in facility costs, especially in larger facilities.