THURSDAY, M ARCH 13, 2014
Volume 95, Issue 25
New fee proposal finalized at $181 per semester CYNTHIA WASHICKO Daily Titan
The Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC) voted to approve a recommendation
on the Student Success Initiative (SSI) Wednesday, cutting the proposed fee from $240.50 to $181 per semester. The fee would be phased in over the next three years, reaching its final cost of $181 per semester in fall 2016.
Before the fee is made official, it will require approval from President Mildred García. If García passes the fee, it will then be sent to California State University Chancellor Timothy P. White for
final approval. Committee members deliberated concerning several spending priorities for Cal State Fullerton, including athletics and technology. After an initial twoweek student consultation
process followed by a twoweek extension, the SFAC received 3,809 valid paper and online surveys from students. Committee members received the survey data Monday. The meeting began with
time for members of the audience to speak to the committee regarding the fee, and seven students took advantage of that opportunity. SEE FEE, 3
JAMES SMITH / Daily Titan
Thai Dinh Vu, 19, a computer engineering major at Cal State Fullerton, battles with a club member in the Fullerton Foam Fighters Club on campus.
A ‘Game of Foam’
Students take the edge off by fighting with foam swords in CSUF club JAMES SMITH Daily Titan
A foreign land consists solely of warriors looking for a good fight. It’s a land where honor and camaraderie are held in the highest regard and warriors can be found wearing the finest armor of leather plate, old hockey gloves and tennis shoes. The name of this strange realm is Moria, also known to others familiar with this land as the Student Recreation Center lawn. Three days a week these fierce warriors congregate,
schedule–weather permitting– to hone their craft. That craft is hitting each other senseless with foam swords, while the warriors are members of the Fullerton Foam Fighters Club. At first glance, the Fullerton Foam Fighters Club looks similar Live Action Role Playing (LARPing), but the club’s president and founder, Alex Krochman, is quick to point out the differences. “This essentially is a combat sport. We have a set of rules, we have a set of regulations,” said Krochman, a 22-year-old mechanical engineering major. Krochman founded the club in January 2013. Looking for a cheaper alternative to paintballing, he began looking online for cheaper ways to get his adrenaline fix. He eventually discovered foam
fighting and decided to bring a group to Cal State Fullerton. The club is free to join and is open to both students and non-students. It is also part of a larger international organization known as the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society. Belegarth Medieval Combat Society is a live-action battle game, with a loose Lord of the Rings theme. The organization differentiates itself from other medieval role playing games by placing less emphasis on role playing and focusing more on foam-based violence. The rules of the society allow and encourage tactics including full-contact hitting, grappling and shield bashes. SEE CLUB, 6
JAMES SMITH / Daily Titan Student and non-student members of the club battle with each other using foam swords. They protect themselves by wearing hockey gloves and pads.
Women’s basketball undermined by 49ers The Titans’ season was ended by Long Beach after a first round exit in the tournament
Paving the way in AIDS, HIV research
Women’s | Basketball
An interest in sciences led professor to study the virus
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MICHAEL HUNTLEY Daily Titan 5
The Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball team fell in the first round of the Big West tournament 64-60 to Long Beach State. The Titans (12-18, 8-8 Big West) finished the season with eight conference wins in Head Coach Daron Park’s first season. It is the most conference wins for the team since 2009-2010, when they also won eight games. “I’m so very proud of the effort that they gave day in and day out this year,” Park said. “(I’m) so grateful and humbled that these seniors embraced me and my staff and allowed us to come in and teach them and coach them and push them and develop them and do things with them that I don’t think they thought possible.” The 49ers jumped on the Titans early, scoring nine of the first 11 points of the game. They made four of their first five shots to take a 9-2
NOTEWORTHY SERIES
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lead just 3:07 into the game. The Titans battled back midway through the first half. A pair of three-point baskets by junior guard Chante Miles and senior guard Brianna Barfield contributed to the Titans getting their first lead of the game at the 7:57 mark of the first half. Long Beach’s Lauren Spargo caught fire in the first half, sinking three of five three-point attempts. The junior guard shot 36.3 percent from the field this season and 27.4 percent from three. In the first half, she shot 57 percent from the field. “What really motivated me more than anything is that I wasn’t about to just lay down and let them beat us, especially in our home gym,” Spargo said. “We’re not going to let a team
REBECCA HARDMAN Daily Titan
WINNIE HUANG / Daily Titan Sophomore guard Hailey King prepares to take a free throw. King will be one of nine players returning next season for CSUF.
come in and beat us twice in a row.” The Titans beat the 49ers at the Walter Pyramid 71-55 on March 1 and beat them 54-48 in the first round of last season’s Big West tournament at UC Irvine. Long Beach Head Coach Jody Wynn kept last year’s loss to the Titans in her mind throughout the year. “I printed out five articles with headlines about the game and I taped the headlines in my office … I had those five headlines staring at me everyday,” Wynn said. SEE BASKETBALL, 8
INSIDE
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A Cal State Fullerton professor is making an impact on a medical mystery by performing extensive research on the genetic aspect of HIV progression and its genetic relationship to immunity. Catherine Brennan, Ph.D., a biology professor, is helping solve the question as to why some people with HIV can live normally for more than a decade before the virus progresses to AIDS. Brennan is looking into the process of phagocytosis, immunology and teaching biology. Prior to becoming a member of the faculty, she spent about the last four years researching why the immune systems of certain individuals infected with HIV help block the
development of AIDS and how some do not require any drug treatment. As an assistant research scientist at the UCLA AIDS Institute’s David Geffen School of Medicine, Brennan’s collaboration with researchers identified a specific immune activation event that occurs in the first months of infection that may result in the long term, slower progression of the disease. As the main author of the study, Brennan has written several scholarly research articles and has also been published as the cover story in the October 2012 issue of the Journal of Virology. Brennan grew up in Vancouver, Canada, and lives in Los Angeles with her family. She possesses a rich academic background and demonstrates her love of learning through teaching and research. SEE RESEARCH, 5
BIKE SAFETY University Police will host course on campus to educate students on proper procedures
CSUF BASEBALL Titans return to Goodwin Field on a threegame losing skid after a seven-game road trip
NEWS 3
SPORTS 8 VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM