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INSIDE news: Martial arts student takes first 3 nplace in weekend Wushu tournament
Track and Field place in three events at Long Beach Relays
PERSPECTIVES: Ecuadorian student 5 nstudies art on a Fulbright scholarship
—see Sports page 7
W e d n e sd ay
V o l u m e 7 2 , I ss u e 4
Student accepts director position
F e b r u a r y 21, 2001
Health Center construction in the works
Get out of my way!!
nCAMPUS: The project, slated for spring, will house the physical therapy department next to the existing Health Center
nGOVERNMENT: Samer Fayssal steps in to represent the college of engineering and computer science
By Kelly Mead
Daily Titan Staff Writer
By Sara Stanton Daily Titan Staff Writer
The Associated Students Board of Directors appointed Samer Fayssal as director for the college of engineering and computer sciences during the AS meeting held in the Titan Student Union Legislative Chambers yesterday. Fayssal is a graduate student in electrical engineering with a concentration in telecommunications. He achieved his bachelor of science degree from the University of Balamand in Coura, Lebanon. “I’m excited about this because I can express the engineering department’s ideas and sufferings to the board,” Fayssal said. Fayssal said that one of these sufferings is that the engineering department has no research program, because a doctorate is not available within the program. Fayssal heard about the position from Evan Mooney, director of administration for AS. Mooney said that Fayssal was a good candidate for this position because he represents the graduate, international and night student population. “He is very well spoken and he chooses his words impeccably,” Mooney said. The position required that Fayssal meet a minimum cumulative semester GPA of 2.5, and that he be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays. According to the application, his responsibilities on the board of directors will be to attend weekly board and AS meetings, maintain weekly office hours, act as a liaison between AS and school constituents, and make appropriate decisions on issues affecting Cal State Fullerton and AS. Also listed for the position, according to the application, are organizational and time management skills, good interper-
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Titan
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Denise Smaldino/Daily Titan
Toddler Lynnea pushes her yellow play cart at the Children’s Center Tuesday. The Center recently replaced the asphalt in its play area for younger children at the facility.
Construction for a new health building is expected to begin this spring. Four years after the initial idea, plans for the 7,500-square-foot building have been sketched and bids from contractors are already being considered. The new building will run parallel to the east side of the Health Center. The Health Center has saved about 1.7 million dollars over the last few years for the project, said Thom Sloan, director of the student Health Center. The money comes from a health facility fee of $3 that each student pays per semester. “Here [the fee] has mostly been used in the past for renovating,” Sloan said. “However, the previous directors haven’t spent all of it, so they built quite a large account.” One of the services the new building will house is Physical Therapy. Physical Therapy serves over 3,000 appointments per year, in a 700-square-foot space located in the Health Center. The volume of students is currently too much for the two-room facility. Each room is no
larger than the size of two standard doctors’ offices. “We have the staff to see them, but we don’t know were to put them,” said Cathey Carreiro, the department head of Physical Therapy, who has been at Cal State Fullerton since 1989. Carreiro recalls many days when patients have filled up the two rooms to their capacity and spilled out into the waiting area and the Health Center halls. “They’re really forgiving,” she said when referring to her patients. The new building will give Physical Therapy nearly three times the amount of space they are cramming into now. It will also have a private treatment room, a luxury currently absent for the center. The closed room will give therapists the opportunity to look at, for example, spine injuries in private. It will also give students the opportunity to have evaluations without other patients listening in. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) will also be relocating to the new building. “We’re kinda looking forward to being in the same building,” Carreiro said. She hopes Physical Therapy will spill into CAPS. Counselors could help student patients set goals and deal with other psychological aspects of injury. CAPS, a spawn of Career Development and Counseling, is currently located in Langsdorf Hall.
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Staff members debate new labor contracts nFACULTY: Problems over salaries, heavy workload and merit pay to be resolved when work agreements expire in June By Rita Freeman
Daily Titan Staff Writer With the faculty contract expiring at the end of June, staff members voiced
concern regarding current conditions at the California Faculty Association (CFA) meeting last Thursday. An estimated 50 faculty members discussed problems over salaries, heavy workload and merit pay during the meeting in the Academic Senate Chambers at Titan Shops. “I was very encouraged by the meeting. There is a growing awareness of disrespect by the chancellor and certain board of trustees,” said James D. Semelroth, the Southern California director of representation for the CFA. “The faculty is underpaid, the liv-
ing costs in Orange County are outof-sight and we are losing opportunities to get top choices of faculty because of cost.” Ken Swisher, a spokesman for the CSU, admits there is a lag in salary compared to the California Post Secondary Education Commission (CPSEC) — nearly 4 percent — but there has been a 6 percent raise for all tenure-track faculty beginning in March. Negotiations for a new contract begin next month but both sides remain deadlocked on an agreement. During the meeting, G.
Nanjundappa, an associate vice president of CFA at Cal State Fullerton, said the CFA must negotiate the entire contract and it would be a “long, hard fought bargaining cycle.” “More than 50 faculty members say they are ready and willing to take actions if the chancellor and the board of trustees are unwilling to compromise,” Nanjundappa said. One issue raised by Diana Gugrin, chair of the child and adolescent studies department, was that the CSU is more dependent on part-time faculty. “We don’t help with the shortage of faculty by increasing the part-time
contingent labor,” Gugrin said. “It is not fair to students with part-time faculty who are itinerant and are not available. It is not fair to the part-timers either.” According to the CSU Chancellor’s office, the number of part-time faculty makes up about 47.8 percent with a number of 10,134 while full-time staff makes up about 11,089 members. “With the part-time faculty, the pay is less, a number of them don’t get the benefit of retirement,” Semelroth said.
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Students mingle with presinEVENT: Gordon and Cachuela address key issues on campus at the open forum pizza luncheon yesterday By Sara Stanton Daily Titan Staff Writer
Over 100 students attended “Pizza With the Presidents” at the Titan Student Union Legislative Chambers yesterday. The event served as an opportunity for students to enjoy free pizza and ask two of the university’s leaders questions that concern the student body. President Milton Gordon and Associated Students President Mary Grace Cachuela addressed students’ concerns in the hour-long luncheon. This is the first time that any sort of communicative effort has been
made to bridge the gap between the student population, AS and President Gordon. Students addressed key issues such as limited parking spaces, insufficient student involvement in campus activities, changes in commencement ceremonies, and the images of fraternities and sororities on campus. Most questions were directed to Gordon, though he graciously turned several over to Cachuela. Gordon opened by saying “As far as I’m concerned, any question that is on your mind I would be glad to try and respond to.” At that, students approached the podium with their questions. The first issue addressed that seemed to be on many students’ minds was about what the university is planning to do regarding the limited parking spaces on campus. Cachuela responded that AS is currently adding more student representatives to the parking committee, increasing representation from one to four students. “We want to involve you,”
Cachuela said. She also encouraged students to “use President Gordon and [myself] as your recourses…[and] let us know how we can accommodate you.” Gordon and Cachuela also challenged students to communicate any new ideas and feedback related to parking issues. “We know very well that we need a parking program,” Gordon said. “We’re firmly convinced that we are going to need a parking garage around here.” Gordon also joked with the crowd by saying that he is even more aware that Cal State Fullerton has a parking problem because students often take his own reserved parking space. Cachuela and Gordon also spoke about the benefits of current programs being utilized as a result of the parking crisis, such as Titan Park-nGo and the Titan Shuttle. Young Kim, a 22-year-old history and political science double major, and president of Pi Sigma Alpha, a national political science honor soci-
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Adam byrnes/Special to the Titan
AS President Mary Grace Cachuela and President Milton Gordon talk to more than 100 students at Tuesday’s luncheon.