April 29, 2010
Vol. 87 Issue 37
Underground sounds:
The Bloody Beatroots duo electrifies crowd at the House of Blues in San Diego SOUND-OFF, Page 4
THURSDAY
Bardsley: Making impact felt in WPS
SPORTS, Page 9
Multimedia Find the rhythm and feel the rhymes of the Poetry Slam at: www.dailytitan.com/poetryslam2010
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
The 15-month Persian language program will teach students why Farsi is the ‘language of love’ By Melissa Hoon
Daily Titan Asst. Opinion Editor news@dailytitan.com
Cal State Fullerton is offering a Persian language program this summer, beginning June 14. The 15-month “life-changing” program, funded by a grant from the Strategic Language Initiative Program, has three modules. The first module takes place over a nine-unit summer school session and covers three Persian courses – Persian 203, 204 and 300. The class, taught by Persian program coordinator Ali Miremadi, is six weeks long and meets
Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Over several weekends this summer, the class will visit places and attend events in the area that will help students become more familiar with Persian culture. These culturally-enriched locations include the Iranian Church of Love in Orange, as well as a Zoroastrian Temple and an Islamic Center. A potluck will also be held to become familiar with Islamic families. “It’s best for students who want to study Persian to communicate with families (of that heritage) and to be involved in areas (that boast) Persian culture,” Miremadi said.
The second module convenes over the next two semesters (fall 2010 and spring 2011). In this module, students will take necessary classes toward the completion of their Persian major. Students will spend most of their 2011 summer studying abroad in Tajikistan for the third module. They will live with a local host family to help improve their Persian and better understand the culture. “(Module three) is essential. Classroom learning is used to assist students to engage in natural communication in real Persian context,” said Janet Eyring, department chair
of modern languages and literature. “Tajikistan is the next best thing to living in Iran, which is impossible at this time, because students are able to use the language they studied at Cal State Fullerton.” Living and studying abroad will allow students to do more than practice their Persian. “Studying abroad in Tajikistan is a fantastic opportunity (for students) to experience the Persian culture, customs and way of life. The students will be able to live it firsthand,” said Persian Professor Parastoo Danaee. See PERSIAN, Page 3
Speaker Junkies
This week at the Becker
Professional journalists return to CSUF By Juanita Vasquez
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
As part of the ongoing Comm. Week activities, the Daily Titan will celebrate half a century of journalism excellence on Saturday, with the Daily Titan 50th Anniversary Reunion. “We’re taking advantage of very well-placed alumni by putting them in a panel to talk about the future of print journalism and the distribution of information,” said Rick Pullen, dean of the college of communications. The reunion is part of a series of events that include a tour of the Daily Titan newsroom, an alumni panel, a social hour and silent auction and will close with a dinner. See ANNIVERSARY, Page 2
CSUF chair receives rare lifetime award
photo courtesy karen tipia Dr. Irene Lange, professor of Marketing, is awarded for her work with students and faculty at the university.
By Melissa Hoon
Daily Titan Asst. Opinion Editor news@dailytitan.com
Photos by mark samala/For the Daily Titan
Multimedia www.dailytitan.com/speakerjunkies
Details, Page 4
Library poetry event generates creativity By CORT TAFOYA
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
On Wednesday afternoon, the Pollack Library hosted a joint celebration of National Poetry Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The event featured two poetry writing workshops, a poetry reading from professor Irena Praitis and teaching associate J.D. Isip, as well as special guest reader, Oliver De La Paz, a poet of Filipino heritage. Associated Students Inc. provided some funding for the event. About 25 guests sat down in room PLS 102A to support their love of poetry. Praitis and Isip were the key coordinators who put the special occasion together. “We like to set aside a week each year to host this event. We’ve been bringing in poets for about four or five yeas now,” Praitis said. She then explained the simplistic
reason for combining poetry month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month. “Those things overlap. Sometimes we’ll mix it together with library week,” Praitis said, laughing. “At the end of the semester things are kind of crazy. Doing stuff like this reminds us of things that refresh us,” Praitis added. Isip, who is a Cal State Fullerton alumnus currently working on his Master’s, talked about what he likes best about this annual event. “Reading my own stuff is kind of fun. We generate interest in people talking about poetry,” Isip said, adding that the inclusion of guest speaker Paz made the event even more memorable. Paz has written multiple poetry books. He lives in Washington and has taught there for five years as a professor of creative writing, but didn’t want to miss a chance to come visit Southern California, where he attended school. “I had a previous speaking engagement booked in California,” Paz said.
Professor and chair of marketing, Irene Lange received the Lifetime Achievement Award on April 8. The award recognizes her array of accomplishments over her career at Cal State Fullerton since 1965. Lange, a Lithuanian native, came to the United States in 1951. With an intense passion for learning, she powered her way through school and received her Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. See LANGE, Page 2
photo by cort tafoya/Daily Titan Staff Writer Filipino poet Oliver De La Paz reads his poems to CSUF students in the Pollack Library.
“And I wanted to spend a longer time in Los Angeles. I wanted to revisit for a bit. So I booked four readings, one of which was (at) CSUF.” Paz also talked about the type of poetry he likes to write. “Depends on what project I’m working on,” he said. “When I first started, it was kind of light. I worked on magic realism. Now it’s gotten a little more serious. My themes of interest are finding grace.” One of the two writing workshops was a lesson on how to use criticism to improve writing. The other involved finding musicality within poetry. Before the readers shared their work, they offered crowd-pleasing anecdotes explaining
what inspired them to write their poems. The audience seemed to enjoy hearing the writers’ poems and clapped after each reading. Isip’s poems discussed issues such as sex and death, while Paz’s included many issues about where he grew up.