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 ,
Curly Dalke, campus missionary, spreads the word
INSIDE n OPINION: Women’s history celebration 5 should be more than a month
7
F U L L E R T O N
—see News page 4
n SPORTS: At the Benny Brown Invitational, Richard Adams breaks school record in men’s 400-meter hurdles
T U E S D AY
Vo l u m e 7 2 , I s s u e 1 5
M a rc h 1 3 , 2 0 0 1
Local leaders come together nCAMPUS: Students from Southern California schools speak at CSUF sponsored conference By Sara Stanton
Daily Titan Staff Writer MAYRA BELTRAN/Daily Titan
Student leaders discuss the qualities of effective leadership.
Minimum wage increase helps nECONOMY: Student employees’ salaries brought up to par with the statewide hourly pay requirement By Vu Nguyen
Daily Titan Managing Editor Andrea Perini works three jobs to help save up for law school. The 18 year-old spends anywhere from 10 to 30 hours a week working at Titan shops. She loves the flexibility of her schedule and having people recognize her on campus, but there are other fringe benefits. “They loan us our textbooks for the semester so we don’t have to pay for our books. It’s great,” she said. Perini has been so busy with work and school that she hardly recognized the pay raise included in her check since last fall. “I noticed I am working the same hours and making more money,” she said. “It makes me feel better about working here.” Student employees who make less than $7 an hour can look forward to a pay increase of between 53 to 97 cents. The raise is due to California’s minimum wage increase hike at the beginning of the year from $5.75 to $6.25. Since 1999, all student employees have received a 2 percent pay raise each fall. Even though the state’s minimum wage increase was effective at the start of the calendar year, another 2 percent wage increase will be installed by September. “It’s just a restructured salary schedule to comply with the new minimum wage …but not everyone is affected by it,” said Marilou Encina, pay roll operations supervisor. “It was to slightly move forward so that anything below $6.25 was
put at $6.25.” According to a fax of the most current salary schedule, entry-level jobs are the most affected with the pay raises. “When you look at [the restructured schedule] and compare that with the last salary schedule, you’ll probably see there’s only a few that were affected by it,” Encina said. “This isn’t an across-the-board increase. This is only to accommodate the minimum wage.” President Milton Gordon adopted the pay raise this year based on the recommendation of E. Sue Boeltl, senior director of Financial Operations and an ad hoc committee. “There is a committee that deals with salary changes for the students. So it’s not like someone thinks of something and adopts it. It needs to be approved by the President Advisory Board,” Encina said. “So one of the newer things that they adopted has been approved by the [board] is a 2 percent acrossthe-board increase every fall semester. So that’s every September pay period,” she said. “And in between, if the minimum wage changes, the salary schedule would be restructured but it would not be across-theboard.” In an effort to attract potential personnel, Boeltl explained in a memo to campus administrators that the majority of student employees — who work no more than 20 hours per week and pay fees for at least 6.1 units — are exempt from certain tax deductions such as Social Security, Medicare and SDI. Vicky Hsu, a tour and information specialist who also works for Titan Shops for the past two years, is aware of the bigger paychecks and thinks the 8.35 percent not taken out from taxes is a nice part of working on campus. “It’s a lot,” she said. “They don’t show us where they take taxes, but I notice.”
While most Cal State Fullerton students were away from campus Saturday, more than 175 people came
to the Titan Student Union for the fourth annual University Leadership Conference. Student leaders, advisers and staff members of various local colleges met at the conference titled “A Pathway to Tomorrow’s Success” to discuss, learn and evaluate their individual and group leadership skills, enabling them to become more effective on their campuses. The conference offered workshops on topics such as resume writing, interviewing skills, spirituality and
finding a balance between academics, friends and leadership responsibilities. “Creating a Culture for Involvement” was one of the sessions presented at the conference, where a panel of CSUF leaders discussed how to maximize student and community participation in campus activities. Rhianne Bergado, chair of the TSU governing board, described the life of some students that are involved in campus activities. “Some campuses are college
By Taylor Goldman
Daily Titan Staff Writer Buddhists for World Peace, a new club to Cal State Fullerton this semester, held its first meeting on Friday afternoon in the Titan Student Union. Elizabeth Crummett, Lisa Crummett, Lindsay Crummett and Lansil Choi are members of Soka Gakkai International, an organization that teaches and applies Buddhist values. The four girls worked together to create a subset of SGI on campus. One of the founders, Lisa
Crummett, said the club already boasts about 11 members. She added that the club is open to all people who are interested in learning about Buddhism and is not limited solely to people who practice the religion. “To join our club you don’t necessarily have to be a Buddhist,” said Lansil Choi, the club’s president. “As long as you share the same goal to bring about peace and positive change in society through our own actions, efforts and through our own example is all that is required.” A short video started off the meeting, explaining the basic premise behind SGI. The video stressed that the task is to establish a firm inner world, a robust sense of self that will not be swayed or shaken by the most trying circumstances or pressing adversity. A club member spoke briefly on the history of Buddhism, beginning with its development centuries ago. He explained the derivation of one
CONFERENCE/ 8
Woman making history
Singing praises!
nHISTORY: Mary Baker Eddy was a19th century pioneer who founded the Christian Science Monitor By Darleene Barrientos Daily Titan News Editor
LORRAINE DOMINGUEZ/Daily Titan
A Christian student organization gathers in the Quad Friday afternoon to sing hymns.
New club spreads the values of Buddhism, world nCAMPUS: The organization welcomes any students who are interested in learning about the teachings
towns,” she said. “Advisers become your parents, the cafeteria becomes your kitchen and your office becomes your bedroom.” Bergado explained that extra effort often means extra time, which means extra hours. This is often an attempt to expand and improve a group or organization. Kandy Mink, assistant vice president for student affairs, was the moderator of the session. She spoke on
Photo by Mayra Beltran
Buddhist member speaks on Friday.
of the oldest religions practiced and explained how it had evolved into the form it exists in today. “Each individual has the potential to overcome the suffering of life,” the member said. Lisa Crummett explained the daily practice of Buddhism, highlighting
the meaning behind a special chant that is the key to becoming “indestructibly happy.” Nam-MyohoRenge-Kyo is the name of the mystic law that permeates everything within the universe. Lisa said that this chant has helped her study for a test, solve relationship problems and resolve conflicts with a boss in the past. “When you are chanting you are tuning your own life rhythm to the rhythms of the universe,” Lisa said. Lindsay Crummett, another founding member of the club, then spoke of the 10 levels of consciousness that humans can achieve, ranging from hell to Buddahood, leading into Elizabeth Crummett’s discussion of karma. Elizabeth explained that, contrary to popular belief, karma can be both positive and negative, and can materialize as a result of past lives. “Karma is the storage of eternal life,” Elizabeth said. Once all of the founders had spoken, questions from the group of
http://dailytitan.fullerton.edu
about 15 at the meeting were welcomed. Lisa said that members were drawn to the group through exposure at Club Fest, fliers that were posted around CSUF or because they are members of SGI. Choi said that the club will hold a Victory Over Violence seminar in the future. They plan to explain that passive violence such as stereotyping or name-calling can lead to more active violence that is seen in so many schools today. In addition, Buddhists for World Peace plans to have an Earth Charter seminar and take members on a trip to the Museum of Tolerance, Lisa Crummett said. Choi said other Buddhists for World Peace clubs have been founded at Saddleback College, UCLA, USC, Cypress College, UC Irvine, UC Berkley, Orange Coast College and Cal State Long Beach. “Our goal is to create positive venues to bring about positive changes in our society.”
She went over and above the expectations of society in her accomplishments in education, religion and health. However, only seven people came to the Tuffree A room on Monday in the Titan Student Union to learn more about her, as a part of the series of events held in honor of Women’s History Month. Mary Baker Eddy is a woman who thought and behaved beyond her time. Criticized by figures like Joseph Pulitzer and Mark Twain as being a “woman out of her place,” Eddy established the Massachusetts Metaphysical Center, founded the First Christian Church, Scientist, and launched national newspaper Christian Science Monitor, a publication which still exists and is highly respected to this day. All to the astonishment of her critics and to the society in which she lived during the 19th century. Marceil DeLacy, a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship, traveled to Cal State Fullerton from Seattle, Washington to speak on the life and achievements of this notable figure in history. Calling to mind a family anecdote, DeLacy told the small but attentive audience of the hope that Eddy’s teachings gave to her grandmother, who had been told she would only
SPEAKER/ 3
TITAN
extras online Check out the Daily Titan online this year at http:// dailytitan.fullerton.edu. New features and sections will be available this year!
d ow n l o a d Need to announce an event? Visit our Web site to download our NEW events calendar form. Get your club’s events noticed!!