C A L I F O R N I A
S T A T E
U N I V E R S I T Y ,
F U L L E R T O N
INSIDE Women with tattoos 3 nfaceperspectives: stereotypes and unfair criticism
Men’s basketball loses to Loyola Marymount, 65-56
News: Disney’s new theme park will 4 noffer three districts that center around the
—see Sports page 5
California experience
w e d n e s d ay
Vo l u m e 7 1 , I s s u e 4 8
D e c e m b e r 6, 2000
Fatigue weighs heavily on AS
Getting their groove on
nMEETING: Exam stress takes its toll on board members’ frayed nerves By Marlayna Slaughterbeck
Daily Titan Staff Writer
Dance 101 students practiced their routine in front of the Performing Arts Building Tuesday afternoon.
jeff almquist/Daily Titan
With final exams just around the corner, stress and fatigue appeared to take a visible toll on members of Associated Students’ Board of Directors at Tuesday’s meeting. The mood at the semester’s final meeting was, at times, decidedly tense. After Vice President Linda Luna left early to finish working on a 30-page paper, Chair of the Board Vincent Amaya asked members if there were any objections. Surprisingly, there were. Young Kim, Director for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said that he also had a paper due, but that he managed to squeeze in time for the meeting. After Kim’s objection was seconded, Elliot Sacks, Director of Statewide Affairs urged members to consider Luna’s predicament. “Keep in mind that if there is ever a time when you need to be excused for one reason or another — just remember the tone we’re setting here,” Sacks cautioned. The discussion then turned to the early departure of another board member after Christina Machado, Director of Human Development and Community Services left early for a doctor’s appointment. Although no vote was taken in her case, there was some minor grumbling about why Machado did not schedule
the appointment around the meeting. The tension did not hamper the board’s progress, however, as it scrambled to wrap up remaining issues for the semester. Responding to a presentation from Parking and Transportation Services, board members fired a litany of questions at Transportation Programs Manager Lupe Briseño and Director Joseph A. Ferrer. Concerns included a possible increase in parking fees to pay for a future parking structure and whether evening shuttle service could be provided during the final two weeks of the semester. Ferrer and Briseño handled the questions with ease, saying that although it is late in the semester to add night shuttle service, they would nonetheless try. Responding to the possible increase in parking fees,Ferrer told the board that “There are no hard numbers yet.” Vice President of Student Affairs Kandy Mink and Associate Vice President of Facilities Management Jay Bond also gave a presentation to the board updating the status of the photo project for the Facilities Master Development Plan. In a slide presentation, Bond showed examples of the 400 photos taken and submitted by students illustrating their favorite and least favorite places on campus. Bond said the photos closely reflected issues already acknowledged by the Master Development Plan. “Our perceptions as staff and professionals were pretty much on target,” Bond said, adding that although this particular phase of the project was essentially complete, the photos would still be used for reference in the future.
Shooting digital provides freedom nTECHNOLOGY: The continuous improvement of digital cameras makes them more popular today than ever By Matt Capuano
Daily Titan Staff Writer With technology moving at a fast rate, all the items people use everyday are advancing and being simplified. One of the most obvious improvements is in the field of photography. Cameras have turned from cameras with rolls of film to digital cameras with memory cards. Digital cameras are becoming more than just cameras. Some digi-
Titan
extras online n
Check out the Daily Titan online this year at http:// dailytitan.fullerton.edu. New features and sections will be available this year!
u p co m i n g n
Juries are on the minds of theater majors who must perform to remain in the program.
tal cameras are capable of capturing not only still photographs, but also sound and video because they are evolving into more like multimedia recorders than cameras. In addition to displaying and distributing photographs, a person can also use a photo-editing program to improve or alter photos. For example, a user can crop photos, remove red-eye, change colors or contrast and even add or delete elements. It’s like having a darkroom with the lights on and without the chemicals. Some of the most popular programs for this are Microsoft Picture It, Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw. Beyond the image manipulation power, there is the image quality. If a photographer traces the path that most photographs take from shooting to printing, there are at least two steps – film processing and scanning the photo – that are eliminated. As the cameras improve, digital cam-
eras will be able to capture a greater tonal range than film. By combining the functions of photography and scanning, digital cameras eliminate several steps when it comes to developing film, which means it eliminates the time and cost of film processing. Digital cameras also enable the easy transmission of images. By connecting a digital camera to a modem, a person can transmit photographs anywhere in a matter of minutes. This is particularly beneficial for photojournalists. Digital cameras also eliminate the need for costly film. The cost and time delays involved in processing and scanning photographs are also eliminated. Although both the immediacy and flexibility of digital photography make the medium so popular, there is one aspect that is rarely mentioned: The new freedom it gives its users
to explore creative photography. In the past, photographers had to carry around a camera bag that weighed a ton because of all the extra film inside, and possibly may have hesitated before taking a picture because of limited film. During that time, a photographer may perform a mental calculation, saying, “Is it worth it?” At the same time, the photographer runs down a checklist of costs, times and effort. During that decisive moment the image is often lost. The photographer loses the opportunity for creative growth and chooses to stay with the familiar path that has worked in the past. “I love the freedom of being able to take a picture and not having to worry about it,” said an advertising major, Luis Chavez. “In the past I would have to worry about how many pictures I had left.” Digital photography not only eliminates the “Is it worth it?” ques-
david rivera/Daily Titan
Cameras have evolved from manual film to digital in a short time. tion, but it also leaves the option of reusable film. Hand the camera to anyone, take weird and unusual angles, shoot without looking and ignore all conceptions about how to take photographs. One may be surprised at the photos one can get if this new era of uninhibited shooting
is exploited. “I take new pictures all the time and I don’t have to worry about it,” art student, Mark King said. “I also like being able to see the picture before and after I take the picture.”
DIGITAL/ 4
Honors club opposes commencement consolidation nGRADUATION: The university plans to reduce the number of ceremonies in the College of Humanities By Marlayna Slaughterbeck Daily Titan Staff Writer
Young Kim has put in five long years toward his degree. Looking toward graduation in the spring should make him smile, but instead it makes him angry. Recently, the political science major learned that the university is planning to condense the number of commencement ceremonies within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences from six to possibly four. “If this happens — and I hope it won’t — commencement will be just
another crowded, impersonal event,” Kim said. After learning of the plans, Kim took the matter to members of the honors political science club, Pi Sigma Alpha, of which he is president. Friday, the club passed a resolution voicing its opposition to the plan. Club members agreed that reducing the number of ceremonies would destroy the intimacy of the experience and trivialize its importance. “We think once students find out, they’ll be just as against it as we are,” said Pi Sigma Alpha member Shamoli Kulkarni. Kulkarni also referred to her belief that the university intends to use the money it saves to pay a prestigious speaker who will garner positive attention for Cal State Fullerton. “Commencement is supposed to be for students and their guests. We aren’t concerned about having a high-profile speaker if it means the ceremony is an overcrowded mess,” Kulkarni said.
“You work so hard for four years, and you want some recognition for it. You want to feel like you’re part of the event — not just a face in the crowd.” Most seniors, like Kulkarni and Kim, look forward to graduating, but know little about the process. Even Kim, who serves on Associated Students’ Board of Directors and is privy to a good deal more information than the average student, found himself caught off guard by the situation. “This upset me very much” Kim said. “I’m sure if I hadn’t found out about this ahead of time, I would have just gone through commencement thinking the change was an act of God. I definitely wouldn’t have guessed that I personally could have done anything about it.” While Kim and Kulkarni say the issue concern financial matters, John Beisner, adviser to President Milton Gordon, insisted it is not. “There has not been, to my knowledge, any discussion about saving
http://dailytitan.fullerton.edu
money by reducing the number of ceremonies in order to pay for a more prestigious speaker,” Beisner said, explaining that the commencement committee arrived at the current proposal for several different reasons. Among them, the health and safety issues surrounding the heat factor, and traffic and parking congestion. Beisner said that the in the past two years, the university had incurred problems in these areas as a result of the larger number of ceremonies. Expanding on the issue of health and safety, Beisner explained that by the time the final two ceremonies were held, the temperature outside had skyrocketed and not only were people restless and uncomfortable, but there was a real health concern. “Parking was a major problem, as well,” Beisner said, adding that traffic was congested because so many people from the early ceremonies were trying to exit the parking lots while those who were participating in the
later ceremonies were trying to enter them. Other issues considered included the lag time between the all-inclusive ceremony in the morning and the individual ceremonies given later by the various colleges, and the number of available facilities. “We’re looking at the possibility of losing venues, both this year and in the future, to various construction projects,” Beisner said. While Beisner said he believes that having a talented, well-respected speaker at the event is a positive thing, he emphasized that it was not a factor in the university’s decision to re-work the number of ceremonies. “There has never, to my knowledge, been a discussion about saving money with fewer ceremonies in order to use it for a more prestigious speaker,” Beisner said. While it may seem as if there are
CEREMONIES/ 4