MONDAY, M ARCH 24, 2014
Volume 95, Issue 30
Head of CSU passes new fee Student Success fee will take effect next semester at $60.33 MATTHEW MEDINA Daily Titan
Chambers went just two innings, allowing no hits while striking out two and walking one to pick up his first victory in his CSUF career.
California State University Chancellor Timothy P. White has approved the Student Success Initiative (SSI), which will take effect in the fall 2014 semester. Students will pay about $60.33 per semester in additional fees for the 2014-2015 academic year. The mandatory student fee, formulated by the Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC) over the past two semesters, will be phased in over the next three academic years. After collecting student feedback through open forums and meetings with student organizations, the committee finalized its proposal on March 12, and forwarded the retooled fee package to President Mildred García. As a result of those changes, the fee will cost $181 per semester from fall 2016 onward, down from the initial proposal of $240.50 per semester. In a statement to Cal State Fullerton faculty, staff and students, García said she passed the fee after “careful consideration,” and she received word from the chancellor’s office Friday that the fee had received final approval from White. “Any proposal to increase the cost of higher education is not one I take lightly. However, my number one priority has been—and must be—our students’ academic and professional success,” García said in the statement. “I also recognize that the many financial pressures we are facing, including the fact that our campus-based fees are the third lowest in the 23-campus system, make it difficult to achieve the vision of what we aspire to become.” This fee package will be the 10th of its kind among the 23 CSU campuses. Fresno State, San Diego State and Cal State Dominguez Hills are currently considering similar fees. The CSUF iteration of the fee is the ninth lowest among fees that have been approved; Cal State San Bernardino’s fee is $162 per semester. In its initial proposal, the SFAC divided the additional revenue from the SSI into seven categories. After the student feedback sessions, most categories had their allocations reduced.
SEE BASEBALL, 8
SEE NEW FEE, 3
AMANDA SHARP / Daily Titan Bill Nye spent his early career working as an engineer before moving into television. His “science guy” show in the 1990s won 18 Emmy Awards and is still shown to elementary school students. He hosted the keynote address for the Science and Math Symposium hosted by the Natural Science and Mathematics Interclub Council.
‘Change the world’
Bill Nye urges students to have planetary perspective SAMUEL MOUNTJOY Daily Titan
“Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!” Chants from the theme of Bill Nye the Science Guy, the hit ‘90s science show, filled the sold-out Titan Student Union Pavilions. Bill Nye himself took the stage Thursday to deliver a much-anticipated keynote to end the two-day Science and Math Symposium. “Change the world,” he urged the bow tie-clad audience who grew up seeing him on TV explaining science in a way that was understandable and approachable. “Having a planetary
perspective allows you to think about our place in space, and our place in the cosmos differently than any generation before you,” he said. Putting our planet in perspective, Nye explained that the atmosphere of Mars is 95 percent carbon dioxide and in 1997, the Earth’s atmosphere was .03 percent carbon dioxide. “Everybody in here was alive when this number changed from .03 to .04. This tiny change in the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is causing the world’s climates to change,” he said. “And that is the challenge I want you to take on. I want you to, dare I say it–change
the world!” The global population, Nye said, rolled over to 3 billion people when he had just made his way through third grade, and that number has more than doubled since then to nearly 7.2 billion today. The 7 billion people trying to breathe the thin atmosphere is the problem, he said. “Outer space is closer than Riverside; it’s right there,” he said. “It’s this thinness of the Earth’s atmosphere that has allowed humankind to accidentally change the climate of the planet.” As if climate change doesn’t cause enough worry, he also ventured into the science of “killer asteroids.”
“We do not want to go the way of the ancient dinosaurs!” he said. The big-screen solution of nuking asteroids in space is bunk, he said, noting that “we don’t want to send Bruce Willis.” The more likely solution would be to gently nudge an asteroid off-course. Rockets would take too much fuel, he said. We need lasers. Shooting lasers at an asteroid would cause the debris flying off, the ejecta, to push on the asteroid ever so slightly. Scooting an asteroid just 2 milimeters a second would be enough to change its path and save the planet. “You guys may be the generation who gets to deal
with this problem,” he said. “If we discover an asteroid with our name on it, we only have a few years to get out there and git ‘er done. And you guys are going to have to come up with the best system to do it.”
Behind the Scenes When asked about university funding during a press conference, Nye said Proposition 13, the 1978 voter initiative that drastically cut the amount of money the state of California receives in property taxes, has devastated the economy.
SEE KEYNOTE, 3
Baseball fends off late rally to win rubber match Rick Vanderhook earns his 100th win as head coach of CSUF JOHNNY NAVARRETTE Daily Titan
The offense for the Cal State Fullerton baseball team broke out at the right time as the team defeated rival Long Beach State 6-5 in a non-conference game Sunday afternoon at Goodwin Field. Up 6-0 early in the game, Long Beach State (11-11) made a comeback bid in the ninth inning getting within one run, but J.D. Davis was able to record his third save of the season and propel the Titans to their second straight series win. The victory was Rick Vanderhook’s 100th career victory as the CSUF head coach. The Titans (13-8) got things rolling in the second inning. After a leadoff walk to A.J. Kennedy, CSUF perfectly
executed a hit-and-run with Austin Diemer rifling a double down the right-field line, advancing Kennedy to third base. With runners on second and third, Timmy Richards stepped up to the plate and hit a shot back up the middle that deflected off the glove of pitcher Jason Alexander, allowing Kennedy to score the first run of the game. After a Keegan Dale walk, Diemer scored on a Matt Chapman sacrifice fly to right field for a 2-0 lead. The next batter, Davis, proceeded to smash a fastball to straightaway center field just out of the reach of a diving Colby Brenner, giving Davis a two-run triple that put CSUF up 4-0. Davis was two for three with two runs batted in at the plate. The junior has hit safely in 17 out of 21 games played this season and attributed his success at the plate to being calm in his at-bats. “Being patient really,” said
Davis, who is now batting .317 with 16 runs batted in this season. “Working counts in my favor and getting a good swing off.” In the third inning, the Titans added another run on a sacrifice bunt by Dale, scoring Kennedy. Diemer finished the day two for four with a run scored. It was the junior’s sixth multi-hit game this season. “I was just trying to take good at-bats every time,” Diemer said. “Team at-bats for us, put things together, score some runs and I thought we did that today.” It was the seventh time this season the Titans have scored six or more runs and it was the most runs scored in a game without extra innings since they defeated Baylor 11-0 back on March 7. The offense for Long Beach State (11-11) was stagnant for most of the game, not collecting their first hit until the fifth inning when Cameron Pongs ripped a single
WINNIE HUANG / Daily Titan Junior outfielder Clay Williamson rounds third base to score the Titans’ third run of the game off of a triple to center by J.D. Davis.
through the right side of the infield. In the inning, the Dirtbags were able to cut the Titans’ lead to 6-3 after RBI singles by Daniel Jackson and Colton Vaughn. Titan starter Miles
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