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
Asian Week brings performances, culture and issues to Cal State Fullerton
INSIDE Students learn the value 5 nof Perspectives: environmental awareness at local wetlands
—see News page 6
SPORTS: Men’s track and field brings 8 nChallenge Cup home to Fullerton with a first place finish at the Big West Challenge
W E D N E S D AY
Vo l u m e 7 2 , I s s u e 2 8
A p r i l 11, 2001
AS hopefuls debate today
The Bootie Drag Show
nELECTION: The candidates for AS president and vice president are invited to participate in the question-and-answer forum By Sara Stanton
Daily Titan Staff Writer In a last minute attempt to publicize the Associated Students presidential and vice presidential debates, Joel South frantically runs around campus with a large stack of fliers and a staple gun. Every post, bulletin and message board will soon be permeated with more than 300 of the multi-colored fliers advertising information about the AS elections and debates. South, who is the elections commissioner for AS, is responsible for coordinating all of the events surrounding the upcoming election. South will also serve as the moderator debates, held in the Quad from noon to 1 p.m. today and in the Becker Amphitheater from noon to 1 p.m. on Thursday. All presidential and vice presidential candidates were invited to attend the debates, South said. “I invited them to explain their platforms and how they plan on implementing them,” he said. The teams invited to attend the debates are Vincent Amaya and Richard Adams, Evan Mooney and Susan Scanaliato, Alex Lopez and Edgar Zazueta, and Karl Kottke and Steven Moseni. Whether all teams choose to attend both days of the debates is entirely the choice of those running. The teams are encouraged by South to attend both days to maximize the candidates’ exposure to the students and to have their issues discussed by more people.
But if for some reason a team is unable to make one of the days, then they have the option to choose which day that they are able to attend. South said that he will be beginning the debates as a moderator and for the first 25 to 30 minutes he will be asking the candidates questions. The teams will then be given 90 seconds to three minutes to respond. South said that he wants to make his questions pretty general, allowing for all candidates to have equal opportunity to give an answer. “The questions will pretty much be ‘What would your resume look like’ sort of questions,” said South. The second half of the debates will be open for student inquisitions. There will a microphone in the audience and a representative of the elections commission will be taking student questions that can be posed to all of the candidates. This will allow for students to ask more specific questions regarding candidates’ platforms or student concerns and issues pertaining to the campus. Personality, platform and persistence by the AS presidential candidates will be on each of the candidate’s minds for the next week until elections, and especially during the debates, held today and Thursday. All CSUF students are invited to attend the debates. Although the fliers advertising the debates were posted late Tuesday afternoon, South hopes that the students are still able to get the information of when and where the debates are to be held. South also said that he hopes that students will be encouraged to sit in on the debates because it will be held outside, in the open, rather than last
AS Presidential Candidates
• Vincent Amaya • Karl Kottke • Alex Lopez • Evan Mooney
Backstage at the LGBA “Bootie” drag show, Mark Vela becomes his drag queen alter ego Ultra.
adam byrnes/Special to the Titan
Dorm resident arrested Monday nCRIME: Brian Gene Smith forged his roommate’s signature on personal checks, issuing himself $1400 By Amy Rottier
Daily Titan Staff Writer A Cal State Fullerton student was arrested in the Cypress campus dorms early Monday morning for grand theft, forgery, and burglary. Brian Gene Smith, 18, allegedly stole two blank checks from one of his suite mates and wrote them out to himself, according to the police report. The victim, Michael De La Torre, logged on to his online bank account Saturday to find that $1,400 had been
withdrawn from his account, according to the report. When he investigated his cashed checks online, he found that two checks for the amounts of $450 and $950 had been made payable to Brian Smith, the report said. The $450 check was cleared on Thursday and the other check cleared on Friday, according to the report. De La Torre was not sure when the checks were taken. When the police were notified of the incident, Smith was allegedly out of town for the
weekend. The police officers were shown a copy of the student housing agreement, which Smith had signed and compared Smith’s signature to the forged signature on the checks, according to the report. The officer reported that both signatures appeared to match. At about 12 a.m. Monday, Smith’s suite mates notified police that he had returned to the dorms, police said. Smith was arrested about 40 minutes later.
Smith told police that about two weeks earlier he took $250 in cash from Shawn Fahey, with whom he shares a room, according to the report. When Fahey asked Smith about the missing money, Smith returned the $250 and wrote a letter of apology, the report said. After this, Smith told police that he stole one of Fahey’s blank checks and wrote it to himself for $1,000, according to the report.
ARREST/ 3
PR major pulls Comm Week togethnSTUDENT: Annika Sjoberg, despite a full class load, does “all or nothing,” for annual spring event By Lisa Bast
Special to the Titan
chris tennyson/Daily Titan
Annika Sjoberg organizes plans for the upcoming Comm Week.
Numerous papers, inscribed with a mixture of hastily handwritten and typed words, litter the round table like confetti. Various three-ring binders lie open, competing for space among the strewn papers. A pocket-sized calendar is half-buried under the clutter. A young woman sitting at the table leans forward, resting on her arms. She shoots questions to the two young women seated across from her, occasionally scribbling notes as she listens. Annika Sjoberg, Executive Director of Comm Week 2001 and a public relations student at Cal State Fullerton, is
conducting an executive board meeting on a Saturday morning inside a study room at the campus library. As Sjoberg speaks, she moves her hands constantly, impatiently pushing her shoulder-length brown hair from her face. When expressing an idea, the Swedish-born student uses her hands like props, whipping them quickly from side to side. Sjoberg, 32, wants to ensure preparations for Comm Week 2001 are done expeditiously, including creating the posters, compiling binders, securing the paper napkins and the butcher paper to construct the banners. Comm Week 2001 is the collaboration of students enrolled in the
Communications 497 course taught by Dennis Gaschen. Students have been planning this year’s event since January 31. Various committees, Hospitality, Programs, Publicity and Special Events, are created to facilitate successful implementation. Recruited by students, communications professionals representing the various branches of the industry arrive on campus to speak at seminars throughout the week. The event, held each spring, promotes insightful interaction between students, faculty and industry professionals. Additionally, it provides an occasion for CSUF alumni to return to campus.
“Involvement in Comm Week 2001 exposes students to the enormity of planning, implementation and evaluation of event promotion,” said Peggy Garcia Bockman, assistant dean for the College of Communications. “In addition, it gives students the opportunity to work as teams while contributing their own work.” Initially, Sjoberg was hesitant about enrolling in a class that involved such an intense workload. She wanted to take an “easier route” during her last semester before May 2001 graduation. But Sjoberg said she knew the course
SJOBERG/ 7
Third team announces candidacy, fourth team still quiet Titan nMEETING: Evan Mooney and Susan Scanaliato declares their intent to run to the Board of Directors at Tuesday’s meeting By Sara Stanton
Daily Titan Staff Writer At last Tuesday’s Associated Students Board of Directors meeting, two teams of contenders for president and vice president officially announced their candidacy to the board. This Tuesday, another team made their declarations to the board. Getting up from his seat at the Associated Students Board of Directors table at Tuesday’s meeting, Evan Mooney approached the podium not as the AS director of administration, but as a candidate
for president. With his long hair neatly tied back into a ponytail and with his goatee meticulously trimmed, Mooney addressed his fellow board members, many of whom are his friends, as a professional candidate for the upcoming AS elections. Susan Scanaliato, Mooney’s teammate for vice president, stood next to him as he introduced his campaign theme of “Keeping Students First.” Mooney explained that a lot of times, the student body is taken for granted, “The priorities of the students should come first,” he said. Following her teammate’s com-
ments, Scanaliato said that her primary reason for running for office is because she too, is student oriented. “I want to do something for the students,” she said. The 19-year-old psychology major also made a point to ensure that she would not defame the other teams in order for her team to prevail. “I don’t want to…put down other candidates teams,” she said. “I want to build unity and strength.” Scanaliato’s previous leadership experience includes two years on the AS Titan Pride Committee, of which she is currently the chair. Mooney, a musical education
major is the current AS director of administration, and the previous chair and vice chair of the Board of Directors. In closing, Mooney stated that he wants to create a universal entity with in CSUF. “We aren’t doing this for our résumés,” he said. “Serving the students is a very noble thing.” But there is still one team that remains silent. The team of Karl Kottke and Steven Moseni has not posted any signs on campus, nor have they attended a board meeting and declared their candidacy. True, the board is only a small
http://dailytitan.fullerton.edu
percentage of the student body, but the possibility of what they represent could be imperative for the information that is relayed to the students. Moseni, the candidate for vice president said that the reason why his team has not announced their candidacy to the board is because the men are extremely busy with other school and work commitments. “We’ve had a lot of scheduling problems,” Moseni said. “It’s just tough right now.” Kottke and Moseni, both fraternity presidents, have been going around
CANDIDACY/ 6
extras online
n
Check out the Daily Titan online this year at http:// dailytitan.fullerton.edu.
d ow n l o a d n
Need to announce an event? Visit our Web site to download our events calender form.