2006 04 19

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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

THE DAILY TITAN W E D N E S D AY, A P R I L 1 9 , 2 0 0 6

w w w. d a i l y t i t a n . c o m

Vo l u m e 8 2 , I s s u e 3 6

SPORTS

OPINION

Legendary fencer and coach retiring after 20 years at CSUF Page 6

Some sports fans give hockey cold shoulder, others warm up Page 4

Disabled Reporter’s Tale From the Trenches Services Offered War correspondent proves that sometimes the pen is mightier than the sword By Elizabeth Simoes

Daily Titan Staff Writer

Campus program aims to ‘level the playing field’ for students who require extra assistance By Elizabeth Simoes

Daily Titan Staff Writer

A

t 2:15 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon thousands of students, adorned with backpacks and thinking about their next exams, swarmed the campus at Cal State Fullerton. Nick Devereux is one of the students. The only thing that slightly distinguishes him from the pack is his wheelchair. Devereux is one of 600 disabled students registered with Disabled Student Services at CSUF. The program is designed to assist students with limitations and physical or learning disabilities on campus. “Students are so relieved when they come here and see all these different programs,” said Elisabeth Colcol, coordinator of support services. The program offers a variety of services to make things easier for students with a disability. Students who are blind or visually impaired can use Braille textbooks or a computer program called Kurzweil 3000 that scans a book into the computer and reads the book aloud to the student. Another program called Jaws will read any text on the computer screen aloud to the student, in order for blind students to hear important information, documents and textbooks in lieu of reading them. Colcol said there is a computer lab equipped with these services in the back of the program located at University Hall 101 for the use of disabled students. Another computer program called Dragon Naturally Speaking is available for students who break their hand or arm or have a condition that prevents them from being able to write or type. The student speaks into a microphone and the computer writes what the student says on the screen, Colcol said. Sign language interpreters are available to translate and sign to students that are deaf in classrooms for a lecture, conference or meeting with a professor. Closed captioning is also an option during lectures for deaf students who donʼt know how to sign. The university-funded program provides many other services to disabled students. They allow students to have more time on exams, priority registration and disabled student parking permits. “Some people think disabled students get an unfair advantage, but we are just leveling the playing field,” Colcol said. “The fact is after graduation it is going to be harder for disabled people to find jobs.” Students can also enlist the help of a counselor through the program. Counseling is available for students who are having trouble in their classes or simply need a little encouragement. “They have a lot more they need to deal with,” Colcol said. “They get anxious or nervous around midterms like any other student or sometimes need to vent. They just need a little support.” Devereux said the programs offered at CSUF are very beneficial to disabled students. SEE DEVEREUX = PAGE 3

D

ressed in a pale yellow shirt and khaki pants buttoned across a large, round belly, Matthew Fisher doesnʼt look like a foreign war correspondent who has covered 14 wars and spent 41 days embedded with the U.S. Marines in Iraq.

And he knows it. “Iʼm not really made for the military,” Fisher said Tuesday in a lecture in the public affairs reporting class at Cal State Fullerton. “Iʼm more of a mechanized kind of guy.” Although he may not have the build to fight in the military, Fisher has the drive to write about it. He was born in a small Indian town in Canada, northwest of Toronto, to parents that were both veterans of World War II. From a young age Fisher said he knew he wanted to travel and see the world, and his dad told him to find someone who would

SEE JOURNALIST = PAGE 3

Stefanie Short/For the Daily Titan

WORDS OF WISDOM: Matthew Fisher speaks to a public affairs reporting class Tuesday about his experience as a journalist embedded with the US Marines in Iraq.

Ad Students ‘Fitting’ to Win CSUF challengers put human-squeeze on national competition By Cristina Rodriguez

Daily Titan Staff Writer

Kevin Rogers/Daily Titan

SUPER SOAKED

Caine Jamal of Fullerton gets soaked as he runs through the shooting streams of water at the Fullerton Market last Sunday.

Info at the Touch of a Button New government hotline keeps public in the know, but is it a reliable source? By Cristina Rodriguez

Daily Titan Staff Writer

The federal government now offers a new solution to everyday, complex questions via a toll-free number. The hotline – 1-800-FEDINFO – offers assistance to the general public Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. until 5 p.m. During tax season, one might obtain information about the IRS. In some cases, however, what may seem like a simple question can turn into a complex situation depending on the circumstances of the inquiry. Rebecca Ewing, press contact

for the U.S. General Services Administration said the toll- free line tries to answer most questions or direct you to the right source. Passport issues are one example of this type of inquiry. The hotline will direct a caller to a passport agent to answer any questions concerning passports. In the instance that an agent is not available a list of options including passport information will be given. The caller can then choose the option, leave a voice mail or call back during business hours. Despite the numberʼs convenience, some are concerned about the quality and reliability of the information being distributed. Cal State Fullerton political science Prof. Raphael Sonenshein, said the toll-free number seems like a good idea,

SPORTS

WEB

BASEBALL

TRAVEL SAFETY

Chalk up Titan loss to poor defense on Goodwin Field

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pay for it. The 51-year-old journalist has traveled for 23 years covering wars in Africa and the Balkans and has seen various countries including Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Rwanda, Somalia and Iraq. His first war was the Mozambique Revolution. Fisher attended York University in Toronto and graduated with a degree in fine arts. Before covering wars Fisher was a sports reporter for eight years and worked in television and

SEE TOLL-FREE = PAGE 3

INSIDE

From Milan to Morocco, safe travel tips for going abroad

www.dailytitan.com

however, that does not mean it is the source of sources. “There is always that question if the information is reliable,” he said. “For example, the IRS has a line that provides information, and people have used it assuming they have the correct information and in actuality [they] have received incorrect information.” Sonenshein said he is mostly in favor of these methods that help the public obtain information about the government but sometimes these things can turn into a calamity. “Thereʼs always a curiosity about what these hotlines can do and what they canʼt do. It could turn into a catastrophe,” he said. “The Medicare hotline, for instance, is a disaster. No

Cal State Fullerton students are competing against 17 other schools across the United States for a chance to launch a new vehicle for Honda called the “Honda Fit.” The Honda Fit Marketing Challenge is sponsored by American Honda Motor Co. Inc. in conjunction with EdVenture Partners. A budget of $2,500 is allotted to each school to carry out a real advertising campaign. The CSUF Communications 451 students who are participating in the contest said they are gaining the experience they need to succeed in the real world. Led by part-time Prof. Ian Crockett, the team is geared toward success. “EdVenture Partners pairs advertisers with academia,” he said. “The project is two-fold. They gave us a budget to bring our ideas to life.”

SEE CONTEST = PAGE 3

Casting Call: Student Directors Need Actors By Erika Jenko

For the Daily Titan

Student director theater projects serve as a requirement for Cal State Fullerton theater majors, who have a directing emphasis, but also provide opportunities for non-theater majors. When it comes to putting together student director projects, the greatest difficulty for student directors is finding actors to bring their vision to life, said Robyn Gleason, a theater major with directing emphasis.

A lot of theater majors are busy acting in main stage productions at CSUF, which makes it difficult to find actors to participate in directing projects, she said. Gleason added that it is also difficult for theater majors to participate, because their required courses are often scheduled at the same time as the directing courses. This makes it challenging to attend the in-class performance sessions that the student directors must conduct, she said. Student directors are SEE DIRECTORS = PAGE 3

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY THURSDAY Sunny High: 80 Low: 47

The CSUF students succeeded in making their first marketing presentation to executives of the public relations agency, Rubin Postaer, who represents Honda, Crockett said. Mike Hurley, the research director for the Fullerton project, said the presentation went rather well, and they did their job. He said the research portion of the campaign consists of creating different online school surveys in order to understand the target demographic. The main goal is to grasp a target consumer market. “Weʼre aiming for a nonconformist audience, specifically students ranging in age from 18 to 25. We hope to target them in our ads,” he said. Hurley said the project is pretty fun as well as beneficial. “Our class of about 40 students has converted into a full service advertising agency called Impact Advertising,” he said. “There is a department for everything from finance to creativity to media and research. Itʼs all about team work.”

Sunny High: 78 Low: 57

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Partly Cloudy High: 71 Low: 54

Partly Cloudy High: 64 Low: 51


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2006 04 19 by Daily Titan - Issuu