THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 2014
Volume 95, Issue 45
Rape on CSUF campus alleged Police investigating first report of rape in four years SAMUEL MOUNTJOY Daily Titan
ELEONOR SEGURA / Daily Titan President Mildred García joins students Eloisa Amador Lara (left) and Bupendra Ram (center) Tuesday in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Top: A video shown during the opening of the Titan Dreamers Research Center explains the difficulties that undocumented students have gone through. Bottom: Students attend the grand opening Tuesday of the Titan Dreamers Resource Center, the first of its kind in the California State University.
Dreamers center opens Center to assist undocumented students at CSUF KYLE NAULT Daily Titan
Cal State Fullerton opened the Titan Dreamers Resource Center (TDRC) on the second floor of the Pollak Library Wednesday, the first center of its kind in the California State University. The center will provide undocumented students who qualify for Assembly Bill 540 benefits with
different services on campus. These include academic and emotional support, financial assistance and other programs designed to improve retention and graduation rates among the campus community. “We’re going to help every student who is a student here at Cal State Fullerton,” President Mildred García said. “Each and every one of us, whether we be faculty, staff, or student, or community leaders, are true purveyors of the path to upward mobility for all who seek and desire it.” As part of the California Education Code, AB
540 allows undocumented students who have attended high school for three or more years and earned a diploma or its equivalent to be exempt from paying outof-state-tuition fees. Three different undocumented students that benefit from AB 540 shared their hardships in their journey at the grand opening. “My college experience consisted of hiding in the shadows from friends, teachers, searching high and low for scholarships that more often than not required a Social Security number,” said Ana Celis Luna, a kinesiology major.
“I thought that no one here could help me.” Luna said the most important resource offered at the new center is academic advising, because there are several majors undocumented students are unable to pursue since they cannot obtain jobs in particular fields. She praised the university for focusing on helping students in familiar situations. “It brings me great joy to know that current and new incoming students will no longer have to face those same challenges alone,” she said.
Bupendra Ram, a communications graduate student who is also undocumented, shared Luna’s gratitude to CSUF for developing the center. “One of my dreams was to pursue a college education, and I feel like going through the process, it was a very lonely process, so knowing that future generations of students that would be coming in later on will have that opportunity to have those resources, I think it’s very inspiring,” he said. SEE DREAMERS, 3
Improving marine ecology NOTEWORTHY SERIES
Impacting the community by thinking outside of the box CSUF professor and students conduct oyster research SASHA BELANI Daily Titan
On an early morning in June of last year, the tide was low, giving a professor and students access to oyster beds they created a year ago. It would otherwise be buried under six feet of water. Danielle Zacherl, Ph.D., a Cal State Fullerton biology professor, and her team of students stood in the sand at the Alamitos Bay. They had their headlamps strapped on, shining beams of light in the dark morning and pulled on their rubber boots to begin their trek in the mud. It was time to collect their one-year samples for
MARIAH CARRILLO / Daily Titan Cristina Fuentes, a Cal State Fullerton marine biology student, holds her oysters from the Olympia oysters restoration project. The samples were collected from oyster beds last year.
the Olympia oysters restoration project. The Olympia oysters are the only native oyster species to the West Coast.
After the 1930s, the number of Olympia oysters plummeted due to overharvesting and changes in the wetlands, wiping out an
entire habitat. Since then, a larger species of oysters, known as Japanese oysters, which are commonly eaten on the
INSIDE HISTORY LESSON CSUF alumnus writes a new book about American history to engage more students FEATURES 6 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @DAILY_TITAN
West Coast, were brought in to be cultured and farmed and the Olympia oysters were forgotten. “For the most part, interest in the oysters is driven by the commercial operation and because when that species declined so radically, they brought in the Japanese oyster, I think people kind of lost interest in (the Olympia oyster) for a while,” Zacherl said. The oyster restoration project began in 2010 in Newport Bay. It started as a study to find the best environment for oyster restoration. Zacherl and a team of students created 20 miniature oyster beds with different bed designs to study the effect the bed designs had on oyster recovery. SEE OYSTERS, 6
University Police received a report last week of an alleged rape that occurred on campus, the first such report in four years. University officials said the case is being treated as an isolated incident that raises no safety concerns related to the community. The investigation is ongoing. University Police would not say whether an arrest has been made. The location of the crime was 1567 E. Campus Drive, according to the campus crime log. That is the address for Valencia Hall, an on-campus apartment. University officials identified it as an acquaintance rape. Acquaintance rape is defined as coercive sexual activities against a person’s will by means of force, violence or fear of bodily injury imposed on them by somebody they know, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. It is the first case of rape reported on campus since 2010 when there were two cases of forcible rape, according to the Cal State Fullerton Jeanne Clery crime statistics. However, victims do not always report that they were raped so the actual number may be higher, said Lt. Scot Willey of the University Police. “Sexual assaults on college campuses are one of the most underreported crimes that occur,” Willey said. “We are always assuming that there are more (victims) out there that just don’t feel comfortable coming forward, so we just try to do our best to let people know that we’re here for them.” Victims of rape are advised to call a rape crisis center or the police right away. Clothes and other belongings victims had during the incident should be kept so they can be used as evidence in a criminal trial. Most employees of the university are required to report to law enforcement if a student tells them they were raped. To find more information on reporting a rape or to find counseling, contact Counseling and Psychological Services at (657) 278-3040. The WoMen’s Center, which also offers information on rape reporting, counseling and prevention, can be contacted at (657) 278-3928.
BASEBALL Titans baseball continued to struggle as they fell 2-1 in 16 innings against Fresno State SPORTS 9 VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM