Vol. 87 Issue 21
March 16, 2010
Multimedia
Find out about animal shelters and how to help at:
dailytitan.com/animalshelters
Check out Muay Thai Kickboxing and why you should take this class! dailytitan.com/csufmuaythai
Arboretum hosts a game-filled Arbor Day event for tree lovers
TUESDAY
NEWS, Page 2
THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE: The FCC wants to provide highspeed Internet access nationwide. OPINION, Page 6
CSUF hip-hop team rises to the occasion SPORTS, Page 8
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Candidates debate in OC
Some professors ban laptops
Republican gubernatorial candidates Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman discuss the CSU system, among other things. By Juliana Campbell and Oscar Romero
Steve Poizner
Meg Whitman
Daily Titan Staff Writers
news@dailytitan.com
Republican party gubernatorial candidates Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman debated Monday at the Samueli Theater at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. “It gives people an idea what the candidates are about and what they are saying,” said Dr. Gregory Brown, an assistant professor of criminal justice. Whitman and Poizner tackled spending restructuring, higher education expenditures and immigration reform. “The governor will have an impact on our education or state deficit,” said philosophy major Nick Heartmann. Poizner said he wanted to invest more into higher education by creating more jobs and bring back vocational programs to high schools to decrease drop out rates. Additionally, Whitman said she wanted to reform the spending problem and re-invest into the University of California and Cal State University systems. “The UC system, the CSU system and the community college system is the gem
Photo courtesy mct Colleges on the East Coast have banned the use of laptops during class. This trend may spread due to their disruptive tendencies.
By Kristie Surendranath Daily Titan Staff Writer features@dailytitan.com
In a recent article published in the Washington Post, professors from a number of colleges in the East Coast are banning the use of laptops in the classroom. The schools with professors imposing these bans include George Washington University, the College of William and Mary and University of Virginia. “(Laptops) are like putting on every student’s desk, when you walk into class, five different magazines, several different television shows, some shopping opportunities and a phone, and saying, ‘Look, if your mind wanders, feel free to pick any of these up and go with it,’” said Professor David Cole of Georgetown Law University in Washington, D.C. in an interview with the Portland Press Herald. Similarly, it is not uncommon to find about half of the students in a Cal State Fullerton classroom utilizing laptops during lectures. But exactly what they use them for is up for debate. “Once I’m in the classroom, it’s always on,” said radioTV-film senior, Kenneth Lopez, 24, “I’ll visit Facebook from time to time. I read articles on Yahoo. Sometimes I’ll play games, but more often than not, I do take notes,” Lopez said. Nonetheless, not all students use their laptops specifically for leisure.
Photos courtesy mct
of California,” Whitman said. Whitman also talked of cutting spending on administration and overhead, devoting the funds to the local schools. Her agenda included making schools more transparent and providing a letter grade for parents to identify the condition and qualities of the local schools. “We need someone that is for change
and for the people of California,” Brown said. “Students need an education.” The two candidates also debated the immigration situation that has long been a hot-button issue among Californians. On Whitman’s list of items are plans to instill a more strict and thorough version of E-Verify to hold employers accountable for illegal immigrant hiring
practices. She said that she also plans on taking initiative towards sanctuary cities and boosting spending on border patrol and equipment. “Let me be clear, I am a hundred percent against amnesty. No exception,” Whitman said. See GUBERNATORIAL, Page 2
OC man arrested for fraudulent testing news@dailytitan.com
tend a full course of study at colleges, universities and other institutions with language training programs. Although it is unclear if there is a specific proficiency exam that international students need to take in order to qualify for an F-1 visa, many institutions, including Cal State Fullerton, require all applicants whose native language is not English to present scores for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) prior to admittance. According to CSUF’s international students’ web page, students who do not meet the minimum TOEFL scores or wish to improve their English skills may enroll in the
American Language Program (ALP), does not occur in any form while an intensive English program that is students take any placement or prodesigned to ficiency tests. prepare inAll internaternational tional students students for The investigation began who walk in study in a take any when officers in Daly City to U.S. college tests are rein Northern California or univerquired to pressity. ent their I.D.s, discovered fake driver’s Mo n i c a after which licenses in a lost wallet. Snow, lectheir faces are turer and matched to the coordinator picture on the at the ALP card. While at CSUF said that there are stringent taking the tests, students have to measures taken at the center to en- leave their I.D.s on their desks while sure that cheating or impersonating proctors circulate the room. Faces are again matched to I.D.s when students turn in their tests once they are finished, Snow said. “With the measures we have in place here, it could be very difficult for students Tuffy to do that. I have been here the Titan 23 years and I haven’t had one incident Sir Tuffington Tuffsworth III yet,” Snow said. 1957 Snow added that M Titan 1 there are around 250 international stu4/1/1957 4/1/3000 dents at CSUF who Cal State Fullerton are enrolled in the ALP. Fullerton, CA The administrators and staff for the most part know the majority of the students as they interact with them on a daily basis.
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Eamonn Daniel Higgins, 46, a resident of Laguna Niguel, was arrested last week on charges of operating a ring of illegal test-takers who allegedly assisted international students in retaining their student visas by taking their proficiency exams and attending their classes. For the last eight years, prosecutors said Higgins aided mostly Middle Eastern students by taking or directing his associates to take math and English proficiency exams. Higgins then helped them hold on to those visas by taking college courses, passing finals and writing term papers in their names. According to court reports, the investigation began when officers in Daly City in Northern California discovered several fake driver’s licenses in a lost wallet. Each license had the same photograph of Higgins’ nephew but with different names. Higgins surrendered to authorities March 8, pleading not guilty to conspiracy to commit visa fraud. If convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison. The F1 student visa is a non-immigrant Graphic by Christa Connelly / Daily Titan Photo Editor visa which allows foreign students to enter A sample student visa, much like the ones that were illegally retained by international students with the help of Higgins’ into the U.S. to at- criminal student syndicate.
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By Zam Anwar
Daily Titan Staff Writer
See FRAUD, Page 3
See LAPTOPS, Page 5