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Since 1960 Volume 83, Issue 13
Dynamic Duo
Student Stock Options
Investing may be a better gamble than Texas hold ’em MONEY, p. 3
Twin soccer players gain respect on the soccer field SPORTS, p. 6
Daily Titan
Monday September 25, 2006
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
‘Dog’ Gives Bounty Hunters a Bad Name
Fish Fine, Other Pets Not OK for Dorms
Local bounty hunters voice concerns about TV agent’s recent arrest By Harmony Trevino
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
By KEVIN COLE
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
SEE PETS - PAGE 2
By DAVID OSBORNE/Daily Titan
STILL SMILING - Kenny Gibson (left) finds support from his family including his brother Lloyd (right). Kenny is paralyzed from the waist down due to a sports injury he suffered two years ago on his highschool football team.
Back on the Playing Field
CSUF student receives a Swim with Mike athletic scholarship By RACHEL DOUGLASS
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
Even though Kenny Gibson lost the ability to walk, he said he can smile because he just began his freshman year at Cal State Fullerton. 18-year-old Gibson is one of 22 recipients of the Swim with Mike athletic scholarship, a scholarship given to students who have suffered an injury that prevents them from practicing their sport. Two years ago Gibson was playing football for his alma mater, Damien High School in La Verne, when he was pushed into a tackle that broke one of his vertebrae and compressed his spine.
“
The doctors say that I won’t ever fully recover. But I keep on doing my exercises at home ... and I pray. I pray a lot.
– Kenny Gibson CSUF Student
“
Darlene Stevenson has found everything from mice and hamsters to boa constrictors in the Cal State Fullerton dorms. Stevenson, the director of housing and residents life at CSUF, is in charge of enforcing the University’s dorm pet policy, which is currently limited to a fish in a five-gallon container. CSUF has ����������������������� 820 students liv������� ing���� on campus, a few of them have fish as a pet,��������������������������������� she said.����������������������� Fish don’t need to be registered with ��������������������� CSUF housing a��s long as they are within the policy, she said. S���������������������������������� tevenson�������������������������� said i������������������� t is �������������� ap������������ parent ����� when students have unauthorized pets, ��� because they �������������������������� may ���������������������� have litter boxes and kibbles on ������������� the patio�. “��������������������������������� I�������������������������������� t doesn’t take long������������� ,������������ ”����������� she������� ���������� said��. “You have an environment w����� here� four to six people are living with each other – there are no secrets�� .�” She said a person is notified and required������������������������������ to �������������������������� get����������������������� the animal ����������� out of the dorm within ������������������������������ a specified time limit. “They decide what they do with the animal����������������������� ,���������������������� ”��������������������� Ste����������������� venson����������� said.����� “We are not confiscating people’s dogs or their birds or anything like that.” While s���������������������� tudents can �������������� propose a change in policy������������������ through the������ resident hall association, Sharnette Underdue, residential community coordinator������������������������� at CS������������������� UF for four years,� said she didn������������������������� ’������������������������ t����������������������� know if��������������� ����������������� they���������� would ��������� be able to change ������������������������ the current������������� pet policy. She said she������������������������� see��������������������� s�������������������� the benefit of having a ������������������������������� strict ������������������������ pet policy�������������� and has ����� seen the damage done. T������������������������������ wo years ago a resident had a snake that escaped and got into the toilet through the pipes��������������� . It ���������� went into the toilet in a room in the floor below���������������� ,��������������� Underdue������ said�. The ladies in the dorm below realized there was a problem because there was a blockage��������������� .�������������� Someone went in late at night to use the restroom.
The blow left Gibson paralyzed and unable to walk or write. “I woke up on the ground and couldn’t feel my body,” he said. After the accident Gibson underwent two surgeries, one to fix the vertebrae and another to add a plate in his spine. Gibson, who lost 60 pounds in the first three weeks, is no longer an athlete – however, he believes that he will walk again. “The doctors say that I won’t
ever fully recover,” he said. “But I keep on doing my exercises at home with my mom and I pray. I pray a lot.” Gibson went back to school after missing the second semester of his junior year but due to health issues was unable to attend his high school graduation. His high school honored him with a personalized graduation. “Damien [High School] showed me love,” said Gibson, who commutes to CSUF from Diamond Bar. “So many people showed up, kids that had already graduated, people I didn’t even know.” Gibson has found a strong support system. Among them is Mike Orr, founder of the Swim with Mike scholarship program. The scholarship covers Gibson’s tuition and fees as long as he keeps SEE SCHOLARSHIP - PAGE 4
The arrest of bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman has local fugitive recovery agents – more commonly known as bounty hunters – criticizing the reality TV star and the way he handles his vocation. U.S. Marshals detained Chapman, who was later released on $300,000 bail, on Sept. 14 for the 2003 capture of Andrew Luster in Mexico, where bounty hunting is illegal. Luster had escaped to Mexico in 2003 after posting bail during his highly publicized rape trial. Chapman “does give the profession a bad name,” said Don Moon, a recovery agent in Pasadena. “I find it very hypocritical that he goes out and collects people that are fugitives and he was a fugitive himself. People in the law enforcement will tell you that you don’t do that. When you go to recover people, you need to be within the law.” Moon, a former Marine Corps officer, has been a fugitive recovery agent since 2001 and has a bachelor’s degree in political science. He said that the profession has a lot of shaping up to do. Moon said that in 1997, five men who claimed to be bounty hunters raided a home and killed two Arizona residents. Even though the criminals falsely claimed to be bounty hunters, the incident brought demands for new regulations in the business. “A lot of bounty hunters now have master’s degrees,” said Hemetbased fugitive recovery agent Maria Caban. “A lot of them are private investigators, are ex-military and law enforcement.” Caban, who also owns her own fugitive recovery agency called FTA Recovery Group, said that bonds agents and fugitive recovery agents go to seminars for continuing education, networking, learning the new laws and learning about new technology that is available to them. Chapman’s reality show “Dog: The Bounty Hunter” isn’t helping
the profession’s image said Caban. Caban, a six-year veteran of the industry, has met Chapman at a couple seminars. She said that he is a good guy and does good work, but the way he approaches bounty hunting is made for television. “Those of us that work hard don’t like it,” Caban, said about the way Chapman portrays bounty hunting to the public. Moon said that in reality the job can be mundane and time consuming. The only time the job gets intense, he said, is when a fugitive is about to be caught. While agents don’t agree with how Chapman portrays bounty hunting, he has brought a lot of public attention to the business with his show. Moon said what is seen on TV is overstated. But that’s what the audience wants, said Cal State Fullerton Criminal Justice Professor Jarret Lovell, an expert in popular culture and media coverage of crime. Lovell said it appeals to an audience who enjoys watching the good guy catching the bad guy. “Part of what’s enticing about the ‘good guy’ getting caught is precisely that: the restoration of law and order and a renewed faith that ‘goodness’ will always prevail,” Lovell said in an e-mail interview. Referring to Chapman’s arrest, CSUF Criminal Justice Professor Kevin Meehan says that even though a bounty hunter is not really within the formal criminal justice system, they must still abide by the laws. “We have to honor constitutional rights of individuals,” Meehan said, acknowledging that people were probably pleased that Luster was off the street. “Ultimately, the question becomes do the ends justify the means?” Caban added that she didn’t want what happened to Chapman to “affect the rest of us who actually do work hard.” “It shouldn’t in any way shape or form, form anybody’s opinions,” Caban said. “We all are professionals. We are all law abiding and we all make sure that the civil rights of the subject that we arrest are taken into consideration.”
Academic Senate Disapproves of CSUF Involvement in Housing Project Planned community for campus faculty has been in the works for two years By Paul Saiedi
Daily Titan Staff Writer
news@dailytitan.com
By DAVID SUZUKI/For the Daily Titan
GOING UP - There are plans for new homes to be built on this open trench atop of the hill next to the Fullerton Creek.
The Academic Senate chose to recommend that Cal State Fullerton should have no involvement with a proposed faculty housing agreement Thursday. The faculty housing, which would provide 300 homes for CSUF and Cal Poly Pomona faculty, would have been developed as part of a larger project by Shell and Exxon Mobile’s jointly owned energy and development firm AERA.
The Senate, in a 21-7 vote, decided to recommend to President Milton Gordon that CSUF have no involvement with AERA. CSUF’s interest in the development is to acquire affordable housing to sell to new faculty struggling with housing costs in Orange County. The project, already two years in development, is scheduled to include commercial buildings, a golf course and 3,600 homes to be built in the foothills bordering Los Angeles and Orange counties. AERA’s project is the second major residential development for Shell and Exxon Mobile in Orange County. The first development was an 840-acre planned community and golf course in Yorba Linda known as Vista del Verde.
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The new project, the largest single residential development proposed in the hills of Orange County, is located west of the 57 freeway and seven miles north of CSUF. Concerns over the development were initiated by Jonathan Taylor, a geography professor, and seconded by Mark H. Shapiro, professor of physics. The development is situated on a major earthquake fault, is prone to floods and brush fires and would be built over existing oil fields, Shapiro said. “It is always amazing to me how Californians seem to build houses where they do not belong,” Shapiro said. The project faces opposition from multiple environmental preservation
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groups in addition to the senators. Bill Dickerson, who oversees faculty housing development for CSUF, said the AERA’s project would have minimal effects on traffic. Some audience members disagreed with Dickerson and voiced fears that the project will overburden Harbor Boulevard and the 57 Freeway with extra traffic. Another major concern is the effect that AERA’s plan will have on wildlife. The current habitat on the proposed construction site supports bobcats, coyotes, mule deer, greater roadrunners and horned lizards. In response to apprehensions regarding wildlife preservation, DickSEE HOUSING- PAGE 2
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