2
EDITORIAL
WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2016
CSUDH BULLETIN
How Free Should Speech Be? By David Mora Editorial Page Editor
Welcome to No Bull, the biweekly column from editorial page editor David Mora, who will chime in on whatever he damn well pleases....
W This editorial cartoon was drawn by Shayne Branley, a senior in the studio arts program.
TO OVER ENROLL OR NOT TO OVER ENROLL? The CSU, and this college, needs to decide between quantity and quality
I
s over enrollment a good idea for our campus? Is that the only way to increase our bottom line? What about the effects that adding more students would have on current students and faculty members? These are questions that seriously need discussion. At this moment, CSUDH is not impacted in terms of enrollment. That means acceptance criteria is not as stringent at most campuses that are impacted, such as CSU’s in Long Beach and Fullerton. Currently, according to CSUMentor, CSUDH and Cal State Los Angeles are the only campuses that allow D grades from transfer students to count on their transcripts. Since we are not impacted, CSUDH is looking to increase enrollment to help generate more finances, thus resulting in a higher acceptance rate, according to a town hall held on the CSUDH budget March 17. CSUDH Associate Vice President of Administration and Finance Stephen Mastro told a Bulletin reporter working on a story about the school’s budget that CSUDH would like to increase enrollment by three percent, but the chancellor’s office
has only authorized a 1.5 percent increase. The more the merrier, right? Who are we to preclude future students from getting a quality education? But the question we have is this: If enrollment at CSUDH increases, does that mean there will also be additional faculty members hired? Many classes are already filled, and it’s sometimes difficult for seniors to get into the classes they need. If more students are enrolled, what does that do to them (not to mention, where does the money come from to hire new teachers? If you remember, for months, the chancellor’s office claimed there was not enough money to increase the pay of faculty already employed.) It’s easy to think that adding more students without a commensurate increase in faculty members would result in larger classes, students stranded on waiting lists and elongating their time in college, which is actually what the chancellor’s office is trying to avoid. And then there’s the problem of relying so heavily on enrollment as the primary revenue source for the CSU system. According to the PDF from the aforementioned town hall meeting in March, tuition and other
fees accounted for 51 percent of the school’s revenue in 2015-16, a 16 percent increase since 2008-09. That is a product of the economic downturn, and even though funding for the CSU has increased slightly the past two years, when the CSU is relying so much on students to pay its bills, how sustainable is that? It seems the only options to increase revenue are to add more students, or increase the amount of tuition. Both scenarios are tough to swallow. We can’t afford to sacrifice quality for quantity just to pay the bills, and we can’t sacrifice the quality of students we enroll, or else the graduation rate will plummet. Yet, an additional increase in tuition would only mire more of us in more debt. We can only hope that the CSU system thinks less of its students as cash cows, and continues to press the state government for more money from the general fund. Yes, that’s a risk in case of another economic downturn, but the recently resolved faculty strike provide that with unity and support, anything is possible. Every CSU student, present and future, deserves equal support.
here should we draw the line when it comes to free speech? It seems as if though anything heard can be interpreted as having offensive qualities and offensiveness is usually where the line is drawn. It almost seems as though people are all for free speech when it falls in line with their views and ways of thinking. Anything else and they are clamoring that it is disrespectful and offensive. We can praise one group for speaking their minds and then condemn another group for doing the exact same thing. Words truly have no meaning other than the ones we give to them. We hold the power over them. We chose what we want to hear and what we don’t. We can’t sit back and be offended by everything we hear which we don’t agree with. Hate speech and racism directed towards individuals should be the only speech condemned. All other speech, agreed with or not, should not be shut down. If It’s Not Broke, Don’t Remake It. I am a die-hard fan of the original Jungle Book movie; after all it was a classic. The look of the characters, the voices, and the songs all made for a movie that stands the test of time. Sure, looking back, there were slightly racist undertones, but even though seemed innocent. Well, as innocent as slightly racist undertones can be. But still, a great movie. The remake isn’t. I’m sorry, but Bill Murray’s voice doesn’t do the Baloo character justice. Phil Harris is and will forever be Baloo. Scarlett Johansen as Kaa? More like Scarlet NOhansson! It just seems like Hollywood can’t come up with original ideas. The number of classics ruined by their remakes makes my grocery list look small. Here’s a very small rundown: The Sandlot, The Bad News Bears, Planet of the Apes, Psycho, Red Dawn. All were terrible! I don’t care how much this version of The Jungle Book brings in, it will not compare to the original. And neither will the remake of Space Jam, which was recently confirmed. It stars LeBron James, go figure. That’s like casting the person who played second fiddle to Michael Jordan to star in the original, but I guess Kobe Bryant needs some rest and relaxation. CON-GRADUATIONS. Congratulations to everyone who is embarking into a new phase in their life after this semester. Remember the first issue where we talked about improving campus atmosphere? You can still contribute to that very atmosphere by being successful and showing that CSUDH isn’t just some dumpy little school in Carson. Go out there and show the world that Toros can compete with elephants from Fullerton and dirty miners from Long Beach. We might not have big name recognition but we have the tools and the abilities to outwork anyone who competes with us. Make everyone who has attended CSUDH and anyone who is leaning towards coming here proud and give them a reason to stand up and say I AM A TORO!
STAFF BOX NEWS EDITOR Matthew Kessler
ASST. NEWS EDITOR Andrew Laszacs
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR David Mora SPORTS EDITOR Giovanni Padilla
LIFESTYLE EDITOR Jennifer Gordon
COPY EDITORS Jacklyn Kim, Juan Velez, Darrel Wilson LAYOUT MANAGER Mercedes Del Real SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER AND WEB EDITOR Kalie Calder ADVISER Joel Beers
REPORTERS Katherine Clements
Kyla O’Bannon
Dianna Diaz
Michael Reyngold
Carlos Ganarial
Maria Romero Anaya
Natalie Gear Cierra Haynes Andrew Hunter Crystal James
Trevor Song Steve Valencia Raven Warren
“Journalists should be watchdogs, not lapdogs.” – Newton Lee The print version of the CSUDH Bulletin is published bi-weekly and is produced by students in Communications 355, News Production Workshop. The online version is produced by students in Communications 385, Intermediate Media Production Workshop. The views and expressions contained on both do not necessarily
reflect that of the Communications Department, or the CSUDH administration. The Bulletin operates within, and is protected by, the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.” Comments, criticism, and story ideas can be emailed to bulletin@csudh.edu. We reserve the right to edit any letters for length, grammar and punctuation, and libel.