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U N I V E RS I T Y ,
F U L L E R T O N A new air hockey table gives dorm residents an additional game option in their rec room
INSIDE One man’s life story steps up to 4 ntheDETOUR: plate this weekend in “The Rookie” Titan women’s tennis team suf6 nfersSPorTS: a 5-2 loss at home to Wyoming
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M a r c h 28, 2002
Idea of family redefined nLECTURE: Connie Ahrons discussed how divorce changed the concept of nuclear relationships By Sabrina Sakaguchi
Daily Titan Staff Writer The nuclear American family is supposed to be one dad, one mom, one son, one daughter and one dog. Guest speaker Connie Ahrons’ “binuclear” family can be two dads, one mom, three sons, a couple of stepsisters and a fish. “Nobody will promote divorce,” said the USC emeritus professor during a lecture Wednesday. “It’s one of the worst things to go through, but so is a bad marriage.” Ahrons spoke to more than 120 students and staff as a part of “Sociology Day 2002—All in the Family.” Her lecture, titled “Can My Father’s Wife’s Daughter Really Be My Sister? Divorce, Remarriage and Family
Values,” focused on the changing concept of divorced families. “Divorce, family, remarriage and anything connected with family have become political…polarized,” she said. For more than 30 years, Ahrons has dedicated her studies to reversing this image. She said she wanted to establish a better social definition of what a family really is. During her lecture, Ahrons said there were a couple of myths of marriage, which her studies challenge. The first myth is that marriage is a lifelong commitment and the second myth is that divorce destroys the family. Ahrons said these myths are a result of “an inadequate language to describe all the kinship relationships in families.” She said the focus on describing divorced families should be on the qual-
Viva la concierto
ity of the situation, not the structure. “If you divorce, there can be better ways — good ways,” she said. As a divorcee, Ahrons spoke comfortably and casually about a topic she said has specialists bickering over its effects. “The debate is polarized with very little reality in between,” she said. Ahrons said there are two distinct sides of divorced family debates. One that says divorce is detrimental to children and the other says it isn’t. In her 30 years of research, Ahrons found that divorce does increase the risk for children to face emotional disturbance. However, about 80 percent of children from divorced families do not suffer from psychological problems. Ahrons used humorous cartoons about the changing American family to keep the large crowd interested.
Possibly her most effective slide, a cartoon of a packed fish bowl, said, “I guess we’d be considered a family. We’re living together, we love each other and we haven’t eaten the children yet.” Ahrons used her experience as a college instructor and expertise as a researcher to encourage attendees to change their concept of family and marriage. Lately, Ahrons’ research has shown that the focus on divorced families has evolved from pathology to normalcy, an event to a process and a marriage to parenting. In her own experiences,Ahrons shared a recent experience with her deceased first husband’s second wife. “People ask how we are related,” she
Connie Ahrons spoke to students about divorce, families and remarriage during Sociology Day.
SABRINA SAKAGUCHI Daily Titan
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Candidates prepare for campaign
nTALENT: The local Spanish radio station showcased some of its musical best at the weekend event
nVOTING: Less than 10 percent of CSUF’s student population votes for its student representatives
By Alma Castillo
Daily Titan Staff Writer
By Theresa Salinas
The audience was dressed up for the occasion, some more than others, and they appeared to be several different groups all mixed together. But they all had one thing in common — they were nervous, excited and happy to attend the Vivafest 2002 concert, a Spanish radio station show that celebrated their second year of being on the air. “We are expecting 10,000 people this year,” said announcer Omar Lainez of Viva 107.1. The event was held at the Universal Amphitheater. With the performance of Oro Solido “El Presidente del Merengue.” Luis Fonsi, a Spanish artist, was recognized for his talent during Sunday’s Vivafest. Fonsi has collaborated with two of the most successful and popular female pop sensations, Christina Aguilera and Jaci Velazquez. Laura Pausini an Italian singer, who can sing in Italian, Spanish and English, performed in Spanish-only that evening. He is known for his collaborations with some of the most prominent artists on the international music scene such as, Elton John, Santana, Michael Jackson, and Celine Dion. In 1999 Pausini sang “One More Time” as part of the soundtrack for the movie “Message in a Bottle.” Although his music remains nameless, Colombian sensation Juanes, wearing a black shirt and black pants, had people holding their Colombian flags screaming and jumping up and down while applauding. “It’s awesome, I really like it,” said Maria Parra, 21, of Colombia. The reason why I’m here is to see Juanes and Carlos Vives because they are from Colombia too.” The band La Mosca had the audience dancing and singing along to the lyrics of their songs. During their second song the lead singer jumped off stage into the audiences’ arms, while singing and holding their hands. “ I came with a group of friends from work and I’m here to see Carlos Vives and Oro Solido,” said Karla
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A campus theatrical production that showcases Cesar Chavez’ life and triumphs will be featured in this weekend’s issue.
Daily Titan Staff Writer
Valentin Mendoza/Daily Titan
Spanish singer Juanes performs three songs at Vivafest 2002 at the Universal Amphitheatre.
No slander, no name-calling, no sign stealing. “Any questions?” Associated Students Elections Commissioner Suzette Escobar asked the crowd of candidates gathered before her. The sea of sleepy faces produced no response. The 17 candidates gathered at 7 a.m. on Wednesday in the Titan Student Union legislative chambers to hear Escobar and Associate Dean of Students Sandra Rhoten outline campaign rules for the spring 2002 AS election season. The duo spent about an hour talking about candidate qualifications, voting procedures, run-off elections, publicity and campaign conduct. “We want to encourage a really clean campaign,” Escobar said. Candidates who missed the meeting will have to run as write-in nominees. Candidate Linda Solorio said the session was informative. She didn’t mind waking up early to attend. “It’s worth it,” she said, “I really want to get into student leadership.” All 17 candidates will be listed on the spring 2002 ballot. Students will vote for one president/vice president team and one member to represent their college on the AS Board of Directors. Incumbent Alex Lopez (president) and Matthew Martinez (vice president) will run against Jeremy Harrison (president) and Melinda Crawford (vice president). John Bernal and Mary Lawrence are candidates for the College of Communications. Benjamin Gold, Mohamed Alkamalee and incumbent Aaron Terreri want to represent the College of Business Administration and Economics. Rolando Soriano, Mimi Su and incumbent Courtney Patterson are running for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Linda Solorio, Justina Espinoza and incumbent Travon Owens are candidates for the College of Natural Sciences
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Dean of humanities meets with Inter-Club Council
nCAMPUS: The ICC is being developed to replace another organization that gave money to clubs and individuals for events By Ryan Hoppe
Daily Titan Staff Writer Thomas Klammer, the dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, served pizza and soft drinks Wednesday at the Dean’s Council meeting in the Humanities Building. Several issues were discussed, including the development of the new Inter-Club Council (ICC) and the open room on the first floor of the Humanities Building, as well as problems with club constitutions. The ICC is being developed to take the place of the Departmental Associations Council (DAC). “The DAC gave money to clubs and individuals for different events,” said Michael Paul Wong, assistant
dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He said the money would be distributed to students attending nonlocal conventions or clubs sponsoring events or speakers. Wong said that the DAC was being terminated because the different colleges at the university had begun their own inter-club councils and the DAC was no longer necessary. He believes that students will have more opportunities for funding with an inter-club council within each college. Courtney Patterson and Karen McCord, Associated Student representatives for Humanities and Social Sciences, spoke about the budget proposal and opening positions for
the college’s ICC. “Chair and vice chair positions for the ICC will be opening,” Patterson said. She also handed out copies of the budget proposal. The report stated that AS is requesting $34,650 for general operations and program funding. The council will consist of one delegate from each of the 35 departments as well as chairman, vice chairman and director of administrations. Another issue brought up in the council meeting was the approval of organization constitutions by the Dean of Students Office. “We’ve had tremendous difficulty getting our constitution approved,”
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said Wade Wright, vice president of the Theta Pi Chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta Honors Society. Wright said that Gordon Bakken, the society’s adviser, had revised the constitution several times. Wong said that federal legislation spurred the Dean of Students Office to require constitutions from all organizations on campus. Several organizations don’t have constitutions, but others have functioning constitutions in place. “Our constitution is based on the national constitution,” Wright said. He said that the constitution was rejected due to certain policies employed by the society. The society does not hold elections because there
are no set positions to fill. “We’re all acting vice presidents, and we fill in where we’re needed,” said Wright. Wong gave several contacts for organizations to call if they were having problems with their constitutions. He also e-mailed sample constitutions for organizations having trouble. Other items on the agenda were ideas for use of an open room on the first floor of the Humanities Building. “We’d like to make it something for the students,” said Wong.