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Since 1960 Volume 83, Issue 33
Interview Savvy
ASI Elections
Knowing how to present yourself can make the difference MONEY, p. 5
Profiles for Board of Directors candidates NEWS p. 3
Daily Titan
Monday October 30, 2006
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Audit: Funds A New Slogan for New Army Recruits Mismanaged By Officials Investigation finds insufficient budgeting records on campus By Maggie Hauser
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
According to an audit conducted by the CSU Board of Trustees that was released on Oct. 11, there were several instances of waste, abuse and mismanagement of funds at Cal State Fullerton between Jan. 2001 and Dec. 2004. The Office of the University Auditor called for the audit on Sept. 16, 2004, “in response to allegations made by made by certain members of the [CSUF] campus of improper governmental activities, disregard for regulations and CSU policy, allowance of abuse of authority, continuous improper suppression of irregularities, and acts of retaliation,” according to a letter from university auditor Larry Mandel to CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. The audit found instances of waste and abuse and insufficient keeping of budgetary records within CSUF’s Enterprise Computing office. It also confirmed instances of waste and abuse within the Business and Financial Affairs office. More specifically, a husband and wife who were directors of the Enterprise Computing and Business and Financial Affairs were accused of a conflict of interest. The audit found that the wife spent more than $100,000 in university funds to buy and maintain software created by a company affiliated with a corporation her husband had retired from but still owned stock in. The Daily Titan was informed of the names of the individuals involved in the incident, but could not confirm the identities of the people involved at press time.
CSUF President Milton Gordon said that within a month of admitting to improprieties, the husband was fired and that the wife later resigned. In response to the other allegations, Gordon said that corrections had been requested long before the audit was conducted. “There were inappropriate actions by those involved,” Gordon said. “There are no excuses. I think everyone would agree that we did everything we could.” According to the audit itself, the president and other “key administrators” responded positively to the allegations by making various organizational and operational changes as the investigation went on. Since the incidents came to light, Gordon said that he has assembled a committee to handle the CSUF finances and budget, and that he personally met with them on a weekly and biweekly basis before referring the committee to university Vice President Willie Hagen. Gordon also said that new staff has been hired and new positions have been created to compensate for the staff that left following the allegations. This is not the first time CSUF has faced accusations of financial misconduct. An audit concluded in 1999 charged the university with mismanaging funds, spending scholarship money on meals and entertainment and using preferential treatment in awarding contracts. Another report from 2001 also found that thousands of dollars were improperly spent on items such as wedding and baby showers and celebratory staff dinners. The university concurred with each of the 55 recommendations made by the Board of Trustees in the audit, and university spokeswoman Paula Selleck said that no criminal investigations are currently underway in any of the allegations contained in the report.
Three-star general reveals new ad campaign “Army Strong” during visit to Cal State Fullerton By Robert Moran
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp unveiled the Army’s new recruitment campaign, “Army strong,” before 40 cadets and officers during his visit to Cal State Fullerton on Thursday. The campaign features soldiers carrying out strenuous activities against a backdrop of orchestral music. Van Antwerp said since the Army became an all-volunteer army in 1973, it has had to rely on marketing campaigns in the media to get new recruits. “Today, we spend $250 million on advertising,” he said. Van Antwerp, during the presentation, displayed several older ads from previous campaigns, one
Cadet Flights Above: U.S. Army Sgt. Tanker Roncal services the blades of a Blackhawk helicopter after landing at CSUF on Oct. 26. Left: U.S. Army captain and CSUF graduate William Fitzgerald reminisces with baseball head coach George Horton about William’s playing days.
of which depicted a man saying goodbye to his many girlfriends one at time throughout a period of several months because he had delayed his enlistment for a year and had not told any of them. The most well-known marketing campaign was the “be all you can be” campaign, which Van Antwerp said ran for 18 years and was widely popular in the Army. The most recent advertisments were part of the “Army of one” campaign, which Van Antwerp said was not popular at all. The new campaign includes a tagline that says “strength to command.” Van Antwerp said the tagline is geared toward recruiting new cadets. “When we went looking for this new tagline, we were looking for Photos By Carlos Delgado/Daily Titan
SEE ROTC - PAGE 4
Director, Professor and Sometimes Janitor Looking to the Ancients to George Giacumakis a living encyclopedia in Middle Eastern studies By Joey T. English
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
By IaN HAmilton/Daily Titan
ExPert - George Giacumakis, director of CSUF’s Irvine Campus, has been with the school since 1963. An expert in Middle Eastern studies, he is able to read several foreign languages and has helped translate a version of the Bible.
When George Giacumakis began teaching at Orange State College in 1963, the entire college of about 3,000 students operated out of one building now known as McCarthy Hall. After earning his doctorate at Brandeis University, he was hired by the small California college – now Cal State Fullerton – as the Middle East history professor. With his wife and child, he left his home state of Pennsylvania. He said he had no desire to move to Southern California and did it as a favor to his mentor at the time. Forty-three years later, he’s still a CSUF history professor and has headed the university’s branch cam-
pus since 1989. During this time, Giacumakis has written books, toured and taught internationally, translated the Bible’s New Testament into English – he’s still working on the Old Testament – and raised four children in his 46 years of marriage. “He’s one busy person,” said Marilyn Conklin, assistant director to Giacumakis and co-worker at the Irvine branch campus for 15 years. Conklin said that has been the case since she’s known him. Giacumakis, born in 1937, described his role as director the same way he said he explained it to his son many years back: “When no one else will empty the waste basket, I have to. The buck stops there.” According to Arleene Parsons, the facility coordinator at Irvine, Giacumakis fills this description. “Once he gets out of his car, it takes him a while to get up to his office because he will go and check SEE GIACUMAKIS - PAGE 4
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Guide Modern Academia By Kevin Cole
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
Work hard and be nice, advised Shi Liu to over 100 Chinese-speaking Cal State Fullerton students, faculty and staff at the Pollak Library on Oct. 19. During the “Chinese Scholarship: Tradition and Modernization” workshop, Liu, professor of Chinese from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, quoted Confucius while applying traditional values to modern academic life. The workshop was organized to promote intercultural awareness and to celebrate the growing Chinese program, said Jie Tian, associate librarian. Shi, who has authored and edited nine books on Chinese lit-
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erature, art and civilization, stood at a podium and displayed slides of Chinese classical works. His 1.5 hour discussion, which was delivered in Mandarin Chinese, was periodically interrupted with applause and laughter. Yugeng Peng, a senior studying international business, said he laughed when Shi described how Chinese people spend their leisure time. “He said they watch birds, they watch TV and they sleep,” Peng said. As part of an international delegation to CSUF from Shanghai, Sun Ying found Shi’s readings from “Analects,” a book that contains the personal observations of Confucius as written by his disSEE CHINA - PAGE 4
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