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Fans at the Palace in Hollywood ‘Get into the Groove’ at the Madonna Convention
NEWS: Linguistics professor immerses 4 nhimself in Vietnamese culture Women’s basketball begins 7 nBigSPORTS: West tournament play tonight against UC Santa Barbara.
—see Perspectives page 5 w e d n e s d ay
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Student money avail‑ nSCHOLARSHIPS: Thousands of dollars in AS funds go unclaimed because of the lack of awareness By Sara Stanton
Daily Titan Staff Writer Even with more than $5,000 of Associated Students scholarship money offered to students, applicants seem few and far between. As the March 16 deadline draws near, AS is hoping that more students will turn in applications to receive this money. Linda Luna, executive vice president for AS, and also the chair of the AS scholarship committee, said that last year, they only received a few hundred applicants for the scholarships. Of a campus with more than 28,000 students, that makes about 0.7 percent of the student population applying. Though Luna does not know how many applications have been received for this semester thus far, she anticipates that the majority of the applications will be turned in on the due date. “We usually get most of the applications the day of,” Luna said. Five of the AS scholarships are for $1,000 each, and will be awarded to only one person. There is also an Associated Students and Titan Shops Book Scholarship that will award 35 CSUF students with a semesters worth of free books for the fall 2001 semester. With one look at the applications, any person can see that recipients will not have to have a 4.0 GPA, because of the emphasis on extra-curricular activities. In fact, these scholarships require cumulative GPAs of 2.5 to 2.8. With realistic grade requirements, many students are eligible to receive money that will help them manage finances. Lizeth Posada, the newly appointed director for the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics for AS, who also serves on the AS scholarship committee says that students need to be more informed of these scholarships that are offered. “A lot of people that are looking for financial aid don’t know what is available to them,” she said. Posada also said that last year, many of the same people applied for
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M a r c h 7, 2001
Conference highlights women schol‑ nWOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: The all-day event focuses on female contributions in modern society By Kelly Mead
Daily Titan Staff Writer March is National Women’s History Month. In recognition, 16
campus organizations including the Women’s Center, the American Studies Department and the Anthropology Club are sponsoring a variety of events on campus. “Hejira Women’s Odysseys: Journeys Through Space and Time Celebrating Women’s History Month” will feature over 15 events through March 22. Hejira is Islamic for a sacred journey. Women’s History Month has been celebrated on campus for the past six years, said Barbara McDowell,
the director of the Women’s Center and Adult Reentry Center. “It functions to show women students that they are celebrated on campus,” McDowell said. The month features a diverse group of events that range from normal to obscure. This week the celebration has already featured a Latino lesbian comedian, Monica Palacios, and a film festival on Margaret Mead. The rest of the month will include guest speakers, art exhibits, and musical concerts.
This Friday an anthropologist will speak on women’s issues in Africa and delve in to such controversial topics as genital mutilation. This Wednesday a daylong conference was held in the Pollak Library. The day was held to heighten awareness about Cal State Fullerton scholars who are doing research on women’s issues. “The most important thing for me about this conference, is not only our focus on women, but our focus on scholars,” said Gayle Brunelle the conference organizer.
nSPEAKER: Social activist voices support for multi-culturalism in university and educational environments By Minna Easter
chris tennyson/Daily Titan
Lizette Morales, a fifth grade teacher, sifts through the dropped egg packages. -See page 3
Visiting scholar seeks
By Alex Douvas
Daily Titan Staff Writer In some countries, people fight for the freedom that any citizen has right now by holding a newspaper in his or her hands. In the former Soviet state of Belarus, information is a scarce resource. An imperialistic president keeps a tight reign on the national media, realizing that in the ashes of Communism, controlling information is necessary to maintain power. Fear, intimidation and manipulation are all commonplace in President Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s regime, and the Belarussian people are paying the price. Half a world away, Belarussian schol-
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Expert addresses academic diversi‑
MESA drops its eggs
nEDUCATION: Sergey Homich, a former Belarus news producer, chooses CSUF for media research
The conference included subjects on research guides, women in popular culture, and women who walk on the edge of social norms. Speakers included Roshanna Sylvester, a professor of history at CSUF, who spoke on the role of women in early 19th century Russian films. Another topic was on Bohemian women in Victorian London by Liberal Studies Professor April Bullock.
ar Sergey Homich is visiting Cal State Fullerton’s College of Communications, hoping that his research here will be a catalyst for change when he returns to Belarus. Homich, a news producer for the only independent television company in Belarus, will spend the next three months with the college as a visiting scholar. As the Foreign Department Editor of the broadcasting company, he produces news for other former Soviet countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Homich wants to produce local news for Belarus and inspire its own nationalism to combat the loyalism to Russia that the Lukashenka regime encourages in its state-run television news. With constant oppression from the government and ruling elite, accomplishing the task will be difficult. “The only way to change the Lukashenka situation is to change the attitudes of people,” Homich said. “He will not leave on his own. That’s why the media is very important. That’s why I don’t want only theoretical research
while I’m here, but practical research as well.” Homich’s visit to CSUF was coordinated through the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), a private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting advanced field research between the United States and Central and Eastern Europe. The program is sponsored by the State Department’s Bureau on Educational and Cultural Affairs. According to IREX ProgramAssociate Sarah Shields, Homich was one of 40 professionals given grants to research in America out of over 1,000 applicants from the 12 CIS countries. Each applicant must submit a proposal, demonstrating a critical need to conduct research in the United States and how their research will make a significant contribution to their fields in their home countries. According to Shields, Homich was chosen “due to the strength and importance of his proposal and his professional
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Special to the Titan Dr. Joseph White, social activist and pioneer in the field of Black psychology, delivered a keynote address titled “Leadership for a Multi-cultural Society: The Role of Colleges & Universities,” to a group of about 35 faculty and staff at the Titan Theatre on Tuesday.‑‑ Addressing what he called “The Browning of America,” or the increasing number of minorities in the American population, White emphasized his view that universities should incorporate multi-culturalism in its population, its curriculum and its leadership. White also explained some limitations and barriers to achieving multi-culturalism. “The university should look like us,” White said, referring the very diverse audience present in the theatre, “from top to bottom, left to right. ” According to White, there are several departments at Cal State Fullerton that have no ethnic faculty. White sees this as an illustration of the severe incongruity of the university population and California’s general diversity. To alleviate what White sees as a severe problem, he poses a severe solution. “You must develop a file of every ethnic Ph.D. in America,” White said. Recruit ethnic students for faculty positions by their third year of graduate school is also a solution. White also made recommendations to integrate multi-culturalism into the curriculum. Universities should include the stories of the
people who make up America, teach the roots of knowledge, and teach students to “think outside the box,” White said. White believes that meritocracy, the idea that assumes a level playing field for all who pursue higher education or professional careers, is not creative. He feels that meritocracy is actually thinking inside the box. Instead, White challenged, students should question what an ideal university looks like, and if there is indeed equal opportunities to achieve this ideal. As he made these points, White held up a recent copy of Time Magazine, featuring the debate over the SATs on its cover. According to White, admitting every other student who applies to Cal State Fullerton and using the SAT as a tool for admission would result in a similar outcome. “While the SAT may not have prevented all students of color admittance to college campuses, many of these students live in separate quadrants,” White said. To address this issue of separate societies, White called for the development of ethnic leadership at the university level. Citing South African President Nelson Mandela’s policy of constructive engagement and mutual enrichment, White voiced a need for a multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural dialogue. Yet White acknowledged that there are significant barriers to creating this dialogue. Distrust, the projection of blame, and the lack of reflection and empathy within different ethnic groups prevent productive partnerships from real progress. The most serious obstacle to interaction is a perceptual gap, according to White. Because all Americans do not experience the same reality, Americans will not view the same event in the same way. “It reminds me of a dysfunctional
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News producer Sergey Homich visits CSUF from Belarus for graduate research in communications.
Photo by Lorraine Dominguez