May 11, 2010
Vol. 87 Issue 50
Multimedia
Go backstage of the 2010 Grammy Awards, only at: www.dailytitan.com/grammy2010
TUESDAY
Nerdgasm:
German scientists discover that suffering stab wounds from robots can be lethal OPINION, Page 6
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Irvine Campus still at risk Task Force must prove the Cal State Fullerton satellite school is still a viable expenditure By Alison Munson
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
Last summer, the landowner of the Cal State Fullerton Irvine Branch Campus, the Lennar Corp., intended to withdraw from a lease renewal with CSUF. After a decided extension of the lease to August 2011, the current location of the Irvine Branch Campus is still at risk of being shut down. In January, the Irvine Branch Campus Task Force Report was released. Composed by 16 people, ranging from professors and administrators to students and deans, the report is an analysis of “historical and current documents pertaining to a central/southern Orange County campus,” otherwise known as the Irvine Branch Campus. For 75 days, this group worked to answer a key question for the future of CSUF: Why should CSUF provide a campus in southern Orange County? “We have made a commitment to south Orange County since 1989,” said Susan Cooper, dean of the Irvine Branch Campus. “We have made commitments to students, cities, school districts, etc. to have a presence in south county. The Task Force reaffirmed. Students depend on us, and vocalized this at our open forums and in each year of our student surveys, to be a location that they can reach from home or work in south county.” The report in summary presents a “strong rationale for maintaining a campus in central/southern Orange County” and delves deeply into the economics of the situation as support for their reasoning. According to the report, during the 2009-2010 academic year, the Irvine Branch Campus revenue was estimated at $11.9 million with expenditures of an estimated $5.4 million. This implies an estimated $6.5 million in “profit” for CSUF. The Task Force Report reasons that “Cal State Fullerton takes in much more revenue from the Irvine Campus operation than it spends on Irvine campus functions” and so the $6.5 million is assumed to benefit the Fullerton campus. In a letter to the Irvine Branch Campus Task Force, Justin Tucker, assistant professor of political science and graduate adviser for the environmental studies program, expressed his belief that “diverting resources to an additional campus at a time of budget cuts is demoralizing to the faculty and is a poor use of resources.” “(We need to) pull some of the faculty that are teaching at Irvine and put them back here on the main campus,” Tucker said. “I don’t think we’d have a net loss in number of classes or number of teachers but I think we’d have a definite reduction in costs in terms of building maintenance, power, and stuff like that.” See IRVINE, Page 3
photo courtesy marcelo tolmasky Biological science professor Marcelo Tolmasky will receive an award for his contributions to the California State University.
By Fred Bloom
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
Professor of biological science Marcelo Tolmasky will be honored May 21, following his acceptance of the 2010 Cal State Fullerton Outstanding Professor Award. Tolmasky has been studying why and how bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotics since the 1980s. “It’s a great honor,” Tolmasky said. Recipients of the award must demonstrate superlative teaching, distinguished scholarship on a national or international scale and contributions to the University and the CSU, according to a press release. “He is considered brilliant as a teacher and brilliant as a scientist,” said Russ Hudson of CSUF Public Affairs. Tolmasky first became interested in studying bacteria resistant to antibiotics in 1985, while in Argentina. “My first interest came by working with the people at the children’s hospital in Argentina and seeing the devastating effect of mulit-resistant infections on newborns,” Tolmasky said. PHOTO COURTESY DT PHOTO LIBRARY Cal State Fullerton’s Irvine campus is still in danger of being shut down, even though it brought in an estimated $6.5 million in profits for the 2009-2010 academic year.
City budget cuts continue to affect community
photo By Jennifer Karmarkar/Daily Titan Staff Writer Fullerton Parks and Recreation Commission (left to right): Scott Hayes, Shawna Adam, Sueling Chen, Scott Stanford, Carl Van Gorden, Kathleen Shanfield and Wes Morgan.
By Jennifer Karmarkar Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
Monday night, the Fullerton Parks and Recreation Commission unanimously approved that budget cuts totaling $323,000 should go forward for final approval by the City Council in June. The City Council had already approved the total amount to be cut at a March city budget workshop, however, the way the cuts were to be dispersed among the Parks and Recreation department had been unclear. In March, city officials announced a $5.5 million dollar shortfall for fiscal year 2010-2011, which begins July 1. The city council has already approved more than $3 million cuts and needs to slash the remaining amount by the end of June.
Biology expert awarded for bacteria research
“What we have is a structural deficit citywide that we are a part of,” Parks and Recreation Director Joe Felz told commission members. “We’re trying to come up with the fundamental reductions citywide so we can move forward with the operation of the city. Clearly, public safety is the number one expense, but we are part of trying to create a new starting point for the city budget.” One hotly-debated issue had been a proposed $80,000 cut to the Muckenthaler Cultural Center. More than 150 people attended a March 23 city council meeting to protest the cut. However, last night, the Commission voted to move forward. In addition to the cuts to the Muckenthaler, cuts will be made to several other Parks and Recreation programs, including $152,000 to the Senior Center,
$12,000 to Adopt-a-Park, $50,000 to youth sports programs, $89,000 to the Fullerton Museum Center, $55,000 to FAST/Independence Park Pool and $19,000 to the Richman Center. These represent only a portion of the cuts to be made, according to Felz, with an additional $161,000 in cuts to be decided by June 1. He added that there has been a lot of cooperation among the groups since the cuts were announced. “I think that the organizations are in the real world and they appreciate what’s happening throughout the economy,” Felz said. “This is not a big surprise to anybody who’s operating a business or working.” Parks and Recreation Commission members agreed that asking the groups to shoulder these cuts has been difficult.
“What makes Fullerton a unique place is the parks and recreation and museums and lakes and trails that we have,” said commission chair Scott Stanford. “For us to have to recommend any type of cuts to anything really undermines the quality of life that we all enjoy, so I don’t think any of us enjoy taking these cuts.” Stanford added that it’s a reality of the times we live in and the commission would be irresponsible if they didn’t take a hard look at all of the different partners and ask that everybody make a sacrifice, including the Muckenthaler. “We’ll just have to wait until the city council meeting and see what the final report is,” said Muckenthaler Executive Director Zoot Velasco after the meeting. “And plan for the worst.”
See TOLMASKY, Page 2
‘Gluten-free’ products emerge
PHOTO COURTESY MCT Gluten-free baking can include foods that would otherwise contain gluten, such as cupcakes, biscotti and submarine sandwich bread.
By Brenna Phillips
Daily Titan Staff Writer features@dailytitan.com
The “gluten free” label has become more and more common. Those words have little meaning for many customers, but for those who have been diagnosed with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that causes damage to the small intestine, finding a “gluten-free” proclamation on the front of a Chex cereal box or Betty Crocker cake mix found at mainstream grocery stores is exciting progress in health awareness. An estimated one in 133 people have celiac disease, with about 97 percent of these people undiagnosed, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation. “I was diagnosed with celiac six years ago. My mom had died from Chron’s disease and I was having a lot of weird abdominal symptoms and I felt sick all the time,” said Victoria Morrison, CSUF alumna and nurse practitioner at St. Joseph’s Hospital. “The doctors ended up doing testing on me for celiac to rule it out but it actually ended up coming out positive.” See GLUTEN, Page 5