Republican party gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. Photo courtesy of MCT

Republican party gubernatorial candidates Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman debated Monday at the Samueli Theater at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

“It gives people an idea what the candidates are about and what they are saying,” said Dr. Gregory Brown, an assistant professor of criminal justice.

Whitman and Poizner tackled spending restructuring, higher education expenditures and immigration reform.

“The governor will have an impact on our education or state deficit,” said philosophy major Nick Heartmann.

Poizner said he wanted to invest more into higher education by creating more jobs and bring back vocational programs to high schools to decrease drop out rates.

Additionally, Whitman said she wanted to reform the spending problem and re-invest into the University of California and Cal State University systems.

“The UC system, the CSU system and the community college system is the gem of California,” Whitman said.

Whitman also talked of cutting spending on administration and overhead, devoting the funds to the local schools. Her agenda included making schools more transparent and providing a letter grade for parents to identify the condition and qualities of the local schools.

“We need someone that is for change and for the people of California,” Brown said. “Students need an education.”

The two candidates also debated the immigration situation that has long been a hot-button issue among Californians.

On Whitman’s list of items are plans to instill a more strict and thorough version of E-Verify to hold employers accountable for illegal immigrant hiring practices. She said that she also plans on taking initiative towards sanctuary cities and boosting spending on border patrol and equipment.

“Let me be clear, I am a hundred percent against amnesty. No exception,” Whitman said.

Poizner vows to take a more “radical approach” and cut off the taxpayer-funded programs that help illegal immigrants. By doing so, he plans to eliminate the incentive for illegal immigrants to come to California.

Republican party gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner. Photo courtesy of MCT

He also criticized Whitman’s approach. Her approach, Poinzer said, is already in effect through the current state leadership and has brought forth no solution.

Both candidates have established their campaign on reaching out to those who have been victimized through job loss and the current disastrous economic situation. They also appealed to voters by regulating California government spending and generating private sector jobs.

“You are only as good as the people you work for,” said Whitman, referring to how government works. “You have to have the right people on your agenda”.

Poizner elaborated on his more “radical” agenda for California.

“I want to change the state of California by implementing some bold and sweeping reforms,” Poizner said.

These candidates face the daunting task of winning a state that is more than two-thirds of registered voters are democrats.

The Irvine campus is currently holding a food drive to support the participants of the Families Forward program, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to empowering families that have fallen into financial instability.

“I feel that it is our responsibility to take care of (people),” said Reneir Cruz, 26, a senior advertising major taking classes at the Irvine campus. “Just put ourselves in their shoes, meaning, if we were in their shoes, we’d want someone to take care of us.”

Food drives are a small portion of what Families Forward does to facilitate self-sufficiency in families. The organization has supported housing programs called “transitional homes,” back to school-assistance, career-coaching and life-skills counseling, all geared toward re-establishing families into their community.

For Robert Flores, the organization hits close to home. For a short time his family was a participant in the Families Forward programs.

“I’ve always given back to the organization because I believe strongly in their cause,” Flores said.

It was Flores who approached Families Forward in 2002 in search of a way to give back and ended up organizing the bi-annual food drives that go straight to what is called the “Food Pantry.”

“They serve a lot of families, and in order to keep their food bank full, they rely heavily on donations,” Flores said.

The Food Pantry is entirely dependent on what they receive from individuals and businesses to serve more than 150 families a week, he said. The Irvine campus donates approximately two to three boxes per drive but hopes to collect as many as 10, and with three weeks left to donate, there is still more time to accomplish that goal, Flores said.

“This food helps them to cover other monthly costs and regain financial stability,” he said.

Many of the families assisted by the program are homeless or near homelessness. Job loss, divorce and medical emergencies are among the top reasons why people end up out of their homes and into the streets, according to the Families Forward Web site. Mental illness and drug abuse account for only a small fraction of the homeless population.

“We live in a wonderfully rich country and it’s surprising that we do have homeless people or people that are really in need,” said Stephen Messina, 52, junior, finance major on the Irvine campus. “Somehow I just feel like it’s something that doesn’t need to be or something that should be really easily curable. We don’t see too many homeless people in Irvine. We’re just not really affected.”

Homelessness has become stereotyped, said Vanessa Gonzalez, 24, a graduate student enrolled in the Master’s of Business program at the Irvine campus.

“Sadly, I mean you wanna help them out and you wanna give them money, but there’s this stereotype that they’re just gonna take the money and use it for something else,” Gonzalez said.

Cruz agreed. “(Sometimes) I felt that it was just something they were doing on the side, I felt like just from their attire I could tell that they weren’t homeless. Most of the time I give the benefit of the doubt … and do my best to share as much compassion as possible.”

Though students are willing to help, many don’t know about the program or its cause, not even Gonzalez.

“If there’s enough information out there about what the food drive is for and whose gonna receive the items for the food drive, then they can know and feel that they’re gonna help out a good cause,” Gonzalez said. “But there has to be that information out there.”

Flores urges students to help any way they can and to commit to community service. Families Forward’s goal is to protect the innocent victims of circumstance, mainly the children of struggling families.

“Some people assume because the Irvine campus is in the city of Irvine … that there isn’t a need for services like Families Forward or food drives,” Flores said. “That belief is completely false. I hope students gain an awareness about their community and leave with the passion to continue their good efforts. Community service shouldn’t be a one day or one week event. It should be a lifetime plan and commitment.”

Although donating food seems like a small act and that not much can come out of it, the experience gives students a way to be a good person and do what’s right, Messina said.

“I think you can take away probably nothing much more than a great feeling of helping, doing something constructive or positive in the world,” Messina said. “You can walk away feeling like you did something good, like you made a difference in your small way.”

There are 26 transitional homes that the Food Pantry provides for. According to its annual report, 44 families were served last year and 83 of those family members were children.

At this time, the Food Pantry is looking for dried and canned foods, such as canned fruits, canned chicken and beef, boxed juice, canned or dried soup, rice and pasta. Donations can be made at the Irvine campus in Room IRVC-101 until March 26.

Cathy Housman directing, attendes to build a human tree in order to understand how a tree functions. Photo by Ally Bordas/For the Daily Titan

Cal State Fullerton hosted its own early Arbor Day event in the Arboretum March 14.

The event was hosted by Cathy Housman and volunteers. When Housman, a Fullerton native, discovered that CSUF’s Arboretum needed someone to direct an Arbor Day event, she stepped right up and volunteered herself.

“Trees have taken care of us for so long, now it is time to take care of them,” Housman said.

The event started with a brief orientation about what to expect for the next two hours and the history of Arbor Day. During the event, everyone participated in seven activities: “guess that tree,” “build that tree,” “camera game,” “meet a tree,” “silent walk through the Trail of Beauty,” “draw a tree” and a reading of the children’s book, “The Giving Tree.” For the meet a tree game, everyone was split into pairs. One teammate was blindfolded and the other teammate would lead their partner to any tree in the surrounding area. Once the team reached a tree, the person blindfolded would have to feel and/or hug the tree in order to try and get a sense of what it might look like. Their teammate would then lead them back to the starting line. The individual took the blindfold off and had to go search for their tree based on what they felt during their time blinded.

Jane Saunders, an attendee at the event and founder of See Jane Explore, which focuses on customizing events for families to attend in their local area, found her tree based on what the outside of the tree felt like. She said the experience was “surreal.” Not only did you have to trust your partner to lead you in the right direction, you got to experience nature in a whole new way.”

The Trail of Beauty was the last activity. Housman asked all of the attendees to silently make their way down a shaded path that had quotes hanging from the trees. Each of these quotes was about nature, the importance of preserving it and the beauty of what lies around us.

At the end of the event, attendees sat and discussed the activities and how they felt about the importance of Arbor Day.

“When it comes down to it, nature is important to the quality of life. I strongly believe in the preservation of nature,” said Sandy Marshall, an avid member of Save Coyote Hills, a group working to preserve natural space and habitats from becoming urbanized.

On the way out of the Arboretum, each of the attendees was given literature about how to get involved, how to conserve nature and basic information about the importance of Arbor Day.

A group of about 20 Cal State Fullerton students gather weekly for Candela Salsa, a salsa dance class led by senior Sean Nandayapa, the Candela Salsa president. Nandayapa started the salsa group four semesters ago and has brought the Cuban dance to CSUF students.

“I decided to start this group because of my experience in salsa. I started dancing in a club at Pasadena City College in 2003, and when I found out that there was no salsa club at CSUF, I figured that there should be one,” said Nandayapa, a 24-year-old kinesiology major.

Candela Salsa is open to all students, and no experience is needed.

Paola Gaona, an 18-year-old Spanish major and the Candela Salsa female instructor, said that beginners are welcome and that dance group instructors are more than willing to teach beginners even the most basics steps.

The group incorporates partner dancing along with solo dancing, and is working hard to perfect its routines and individual dance moves.

The fee to join the class is $25 per semester, or $3 a day for non-members. It is recommended to wear comfortable, loose clothing to practice, along with salsa heals, jazz shoes or sneakers.

The class is not just limited to teaching students the art of salsa dancing, but also embodies other aspects, such as the history of the Spanish dance and the different types of salsa dancing, including Bachata.

“We learn everything about salsa,” Nandayapa said.

Estella Maldonado, a 27-year-old kinesiology major, is a new member of the group who had never danced salsa before.

The CSUF senior said that she has learned the dance better in the one month she has been in the class, and has met new people along the way.

Maria Resendiz, a 24-year old math major, recently decided to check out the dance class because she wanted to increase her dancing techniques, and thought that the class would be a good experience.

“It was a good exercise. It was fun,” Resendiz said.

The Candela Salsa group has many performances and events coming up in April and May.

One of their events is a beginner’s salsa workshop on April 23 from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. in the Titan Student Union, Pavillion A. The event will include a live performance by the Latin Beat Dancers, the more experienced salsa group on campus, and the Cal State Long Beach salsa group. Other salsa groups from UCLA, Cal Tech LA, Cal State LA and Pasadena City College have also been invited to perform at the event.

A DJ and live salsa band are scheduled to play as well. The event is open to the public and admission is $5.

The Candela Salsa team will also be performing at CSULB on April 24, and has been invited to perform at the College Salsa Congress in Pasadena in May.

Gaona encourages students to join the dance group and said that it is an awesome way to meet new friends and get involved on campus.

“This club is a great way to establish new skills with people in the same age range, making salsa much more enjoyable. It is a great way to learn the dance,” Nadayapa said.

Professor Joe Cariati (right) assists students in his glass-blowing class. Photo courtesy of John Leighton

In the face of budget cuts, art students recently took matters into their own hands by raising funds to hire back a popular professor and saving a critical class in the ceramics/glass department.

Students were told late last fall that adjunct professor Joe Cariati would not return for the spring semester and his upper-division glassblowing class would be cut from the program.

John Grace, 55, an extension student in Cariati’s class, was taken aback when he heard about the layoff.

“Joe is an outstanding teacher,” Grace said. “He’s a unique teaching resource and I was amazed they would allow him to leave.”

Grace decided to do something about it. He put up part of the funds to hire back Cariati and then rallied other students with a challenge grant to come up with the remaining funds. Another glass student heard about the layoff and contributed, as did the student’s mother, an art patron.

The funds were funneled through a Cal State Fullerton philanthropic account called Friends of Glass, which allowed Cariati to be re-hired as a visiting artist for the spring semester. To date, enough funding has been raised to pay for nearly half of Cariati’s salary for the fall semester.

Kimberly McKinnis, 27, a bachelor of fine art student with a concentration in ceramics/glass, said she wasn’t surprised to hear about the layoff given the cutbacks and tuition increases that had already taken place.

“It’s very disheartening to not know what is in store for you as you try to plan your upcoming semester,” she said. “We were given very little warning that this upper division class was being canceled.”

McKinnis heard about the challenge grant through word of mouth and was relieved when the glassblowing class was reinstated and Cariati was hired back. She called Cariati one of the best teachers she has studied with at CSUF and credits his teaching methods with pushing her forward in her art-making abilities.

Cariati said when he was told that he was not returning for spring he felt a “tremendous amount of loss.” He heard about the challenge grant but didn’t get involved in the details.

“My responsibility on campus is generating energy and excitement about the creative process of glassblowing for 22 students, so my head is always a little bit in the clouds about anything outside of that, even during a budget crisis,” he said, adding that he is honored to carry on and continue to educate students in the glass program.

Cariati was hired at CSUF in 2004 as a part-time lecturer and to help re-design the glass curriculum.

“Joe is a major asset to our glass program and it seemed especially tragic to lose this amazing adjunct professor to save a few thousand dollars per semester,” said John Leighton, an associate professor of glass.

Leighton said that in his 35 years of glass education, he has never met another instructor who can excite and inspire his students to worker harder and improve more in less time than Cariati.

Cariati’s students attend workshops like the prestigious Pilchuck Glass School and the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Many receive scholarships to attend regional and national conferences. In 2009, his students were invited to do glassblowing demonstrations at the International Glass Art Society’s annual conference in Corning, NY.

Many of Cariati’s students go on to win international competitions and have their work displayed in the most prestigious galleries in the world.

Although the university provides some of the major pieces of equipment, like the glass melting furnaces, much of the funding for the program comes from the students themselves, Leighton said.

The Hot Glass Club holds sales each semester with the proceeds providing about half of the operating budget each year, which is a substantial amount, Leighton explained.

To contribute to Friends of Glass, contact John Leighton at (657) 278-2771.

(Left) Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-47) and (Right) Fullerton City Council member Sharon Quirk-Silva at their campaign kickoff. Photo by Jennifer Karmarkar/Daily Titan Staff Writer

The chance to meet and greet Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-47) and Fullerton Mayor Pro Tem Pam Keller brought around 100 people to a campaign kickoff in the Maple neighborhood of Fullerton March 13.

Both candidates used the opportunity to talk about the issues facing residents, register new voters and canvas the 3-square-block neighborhood just east of Harbor Boulevard.

Sanchez has served the 47th Congressional District for seven terms. Keller was elected to the city council for her first four-year term in 2006. Both are up for re-election in November.

Fullerton City Council member Sharon Quirk-Silva attended to lend support to both candidates, saying that it was exciting to hold the event in the Maple neighborhood.

“It’s a very established neighborhood with longtime residents and that’s the way these campaigns are won,” she said. She added that Sanchez likes to make sure that the residents are involved and that they have a voice.

Susie Dittmar, 47, lives in the Maple neighborhood and attended the event with her sister, Jill.

“I’m very civic minded and I’ve never been on a walk with either Sharon (Quirk-Silva) or Pam Keller so this was a good opportunity,” she said. “I’m hoping to ask Pam about the recent gang activity and trimming some hedges along the public sidewalks.”

Live rock ‘n’ roll and the smell of pizza filled the afternoon air as the crowd gathered in the front yard of homeowner Vicki Calhoun. Sanchez arrived a little after 2 p.m. and spoke to the crowd for about 10 minutes.

Education was foremost in the mind of many attendees, and Sanchez focused on what she was doing to help repair California’s troubled school system.

“Orange County alone got about $178 million dollars to keep the schools open but we’re not out of the woods yet,” Sanchez told supporters. “Speaker Nancy Pelosi, being a Californian, understands that our schools are in trouble here in California. And we’re doing everything that we possibly can to work on getting more money into the system because we know that 92 percent of all our kids go to public schools.”

Sanchez added that she was working toward passing legislation that would improve the student loan program and increase Pell Grants, “so that Cal State Fullerton will have more money for students, teachers and programs.”

That idea resonated with Fullerton resident Rose Matthews, 54, who recently earned her master’s degree in education at CSUF.

“When she was talking about the Pell Grants and that they’re increasing them to Cal State Fullerton, that’s so important,” she said. “I know it was so tough for me to go to college and it’s even harder now with tuitions rising and rising to uncontrollable rates.”

After the speech, Sanchez addressed concerns about the nearly $6 million dollar budget shortfall facing the city of Fullerton.

“The reality is (Fullerton) has been a really well-run city. I know that as the city makes their cuts they’re going to try to eliminate those things that least affect people,” she said. “They have come to me to ask for more money for the Boys and Girls Club, more money for the Seniors Program, more money for police and fire protection as well as infrastructure projects like the train crossings. I’m going to work as hard as I can to bring back money here to Fullerton.”

Later, Sanchez, Keller and about 30 campaign volunteers canvassed the neighborhood to meet homeowners and pass out information about the candidates.

Once again the students of Cal State Fullerton have stood up and made their voices heard. At 2:30 a.m. March 3, a couple dozen or so students from CSUF, University of California, Irvine and Claremont College barricaded themselves in the Humanities building. This was a bold move made in opposition to another potential bold move from CSUF.

The students took action after seeing a document released by the University Planning department that insinuated that courses and concentrations under the College of Humanities were expendable in the growing global market.

This may have been a bit of an overreaction on the part of the students. The likelihood that the university would cut an entire department and college out of its curriculum is rather slim, but certainly possible. The students did the only logical thing they could, they descended upon the Humanities building and locked themselves inside.

It is difficult to gauge whether their occupation of roughly five hours was more effective than starting a petition or holding another rally, but a message was sent to the administration of CSUF.

The actions of these students should not be considered representative of the entire student body. While we should all be upset at the prospect of losing an entire major because of budget cuts, we cannot all be compared to a handful of students who decided they were going to play a quick game of Civil Rights Movement: For Kids!

Don’t get us wrong, we applaud them for taking a stand and letting the administration know that their actions are being watched, but if you are going to take a stand, you might want to stay on your feet longer. This is nothing more than a romanticizing of the protest era from the, ’60s. It is every angry, disenfranchised student’s dream to relive their parent’s glory days by standing up to “The Man” for what they believe in. Great idea, poor follow through.

We live in a modern age, where more people are going to school and working full-time. Where students have responsibilities beyond waking up from their hangovers before class starts. College life has changed, and so should campus protests.

Instead of handcuffing yourself to the library’s information desk (with the key hidden in your pocket), take advantage of your college education and do something worthwhile: do your research, organize to plan out your intentions and prove “The Man” wrong. Don’t just organize physically, organize mentally. If these students truly wanted to prove how essential humanities is as a major for the global market, they should have prepared a report that displayed how a degree in humanities can be used to get a job.

The very wording of the University Planning document could have been used against it. The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is home to majors that were directly addressed in the University Planning document: philosophy, literature and fine arts. A degree in any of these, although potentially useless by themselves, when applied to other majors such as political science, criminal justice, psychology and many others, can prove to be incredibly useful. Many of the classes in these departments would not be considered general education or collateral courses if this were not true.

For anyone in the Strategic Planning department to insinuate that the College of Humanities does not provide students with access to the global market is foolish. For students to assume that the University would so hastily do away with such a large program, with 25 undergraduate and 17 graduate degree programs, is nothing more than a paranoid delusion that the school is out to screw us all.

So far the student protesters have done a good job in making their voices heard, and at times their actions and statements are very well thought out. However, if the student protesters wish to make a greater impact, they need to take less from the pages of their father’s past, and more from the pages of the textbooks and powerpoint lectures that all students are paying far too much for.

Cal State Fullerton’s College of the Arts is celebrating “The Pianist in the 21st Century” this entire week during the 9th Annual New Music Festival. The week-long event will include the works and performances of international, national and local composers and pianists.

Dr. Pamela Madsen, an associate professor of composition, music theory and music technology at CSUF, has been the event’s organizer and director since its inception nine years ago. When the week long celebration first began, it was the Women in New Music Festival, focusing on international and national female composers.

It wasn’t until recently that the event became open to both genders.

“The best way to celebrate women was to be inclusive. There needs to be a clear representation of all gender voices,” Madsen said.

The festival features world-class composers and performers who are unique to their industry. The artists incorporate not only classical piano, but also jazz and electronic techniques into their performance.

“This festival is really good for the artistic value for music students. There are so many new and innovative collaborated ideas compiled from within the last century. These artists are inspiring us to get to the next level and go beyond our boundaries,” said Joey Penna, 27, a liberal arts major.

Madsen wanted to bring together composers and musicians from different spectrums into one event, where they could showcase their new innovations.

“They are not here just to perform, they are here to work and mentor students, teach them how to play and compose. Our students get to interact with artists at the top of their field,” Madsen said.

The 9th Annual New Music Festival began with the CSUF Symphony Orchestra and the Grammy Award-winning pianist Gloria Cheng, March 7 in the Meng Concert Hall.

It was followed by the piano duo of Helena Bugallo from Switzerland and Amy Williams, March 9. The two women performed a rare piece for Duo prepared pianos, in tribute to composer John Cage, who popularized the technique, and choreographer Merce Cunningham. The two women also premiered a new work by Madsen with Duo prepared pianos. A prepared piano is one that has had its sound altered by placing objects between or on the strings, hammers or dampers. The result is an innovative acoustic sound, like an orchestra.

“It was so sick. They took a grand piano and placed rubbers, nails, screws, wood and pennies in it. When a note was hit, different sounds of that note were projected. Like when the penny was hit, it sounded like a big gong. When the wood was hit, the sound of wooden clogs tip-toeing across a floor resonated,” Penna said.

CSUF’s New Music Ensemble and Grammy Award-winning Bill Cunliffe performed “American Classics,” March 10. Both solo and ensemble works were also performed under the direction of Madsen.

“The exploding piano,” a performance by one of America’s most versatile contemporary pianists, Kathleen Supové, March 11, showcased innovative uses with theatrical and electronic elements.

March 12 will feature the artist Ursual Oppens. American composers will also perform solo works.

The weeklong festival will conclude Saturday with the “granitically overpowering piano technician/composer” Frederic Rzewski. Rzewski will perform his own works along with Amy Williams, Ursula Oppens and CSUF faculty.

Also on Saturday, March 13 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the Composer-Performer Symposium will feature the World Electro-acoustic Listening Room, along with lecture and panel discussions in the Recital Hall. The Listening Room is a day-long playback of a collection of international and national electronic works in electro-acoustic music, video and electronics in an ambient space with imagery and video.

The process of compiling the “call for works” for this years Electro-acoustic Listening room began in fall 2009 with postings on American Music Web sites and even through sites like Facebook. During the “call for works” process, Madsen tried reaching out to places she has never heard works from before, like South America and Indonesia. As a result, hundreds of works were submitted. The final project is one of diverse cultures and artistic sounds.

“There is a certain aesthetic, with the environment and politics of today, the kind of world we live in, this music gives a sense of where people are in terms of composing and performing sentiments,” said John Pollard, 30, music composition major.

The English department is mixing it up with classes such as Harry Potter, Vampire Literature (not including Twighlight), and a Graphic Novel class is in the works for the Fall 2010 semester.