INSIDE: FEATURES
Family ‘Bruery’ handcrafts goodness, page 3
SPORTS: Matt Barkley makes a great start for Trojans, page 7 OPINION: Writers debate chemo ruling, page 5
judge’s
Tuesday September 15, 2009
Since 1960 Volume 85, Issue 7
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Student housing enters phase III By Eric Broude
By Katelin Paiz
Daily Titan Staff Writer
Daily Titan Staff Writer
news@dailytitan.com
news@dailytitan.com
The construction in the northeastern edge of campus, which began in March of this year, is devoted to providing housing for the increasing number of on-campus residences available to students. According to the Design and Construction Office Web site, the project, which is scheduled to be finished in June of 2011, will add 1,064 new beds, as well as two residential community coordinator apartments, two faculty-in-residence apartments, administrative offices, multipurpose conference rooms, laundry and mail rooms, a maintenance facility, a central plant and a dining/kitchen facility. This will all be contained in five buildings with a total of 25 floors, said Robert Brobst, associate director of housing. The new facility will be a dormitory, or community styled dorm, with two students sharing a room, 48 students per floor, with each floor containing shared bathrooms and showers, a study room and a recreation room, said Brobst. This differs from the apartment style of the current dorms, which are set up in one of two ways. The singles provide students with their own rooms with four students sharing a living room, kitchen and two bathrooms. The current doubles have two students per room, and each suite contains three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room and dining room. The current dorms only house a total of 800 students. The budget for the project is $142 million, according to the Web site. Brobst added that this money has come from bonds, which will be paid back with the money generated from the students who will live in the new dorms.
By Ron fu/Daily Titan Staff Photographer Above: Safety Coordinator Jorge Rodriguez provides a tour of the dorms being built near the existing housing. Below: A construction worker at the future student housing project on Monday, Sept. 14. The dorms are scheduled to be completed by June 2011.
Michael Smith, Director of Design and Construction, elaborated on this system saying that the new dorms, as well as the new parking structure being built in the southeast corner of campus are paid for in revenue bonds, which are borrowed from the state and paid back by the university. These differ from general obligation (GO) bonds, which have been used in the past to pay for the Student Recreation Center and a portion of Mahaylo Hall. GO bonds are voter-approved and are paid back by the state. Meanwhile, students are finding the construction difficult to deal with. “I think it’s nice that they’re building more dorms,” said Angie Rodriguez, a third-year criminal justice major. “I just wish they had waited until the new parking structure was
done.” Rodriguez has lived in the doubles throughout her three years at CSUF. In regards to the parking difficulties, Smith said that the inconveniences are a temporary hardship. “Right now we’re really trying to fill the needs of the students,” he said. “We’re doing what we have to do to get to a better place.” He also expressed his understanding of students’ frustration toward the construction projects. According to Smith, the new parking structure, dubbed the Eastside Parking Structure, will be completed next year, providing some relief to the students’ parking needs.
Hostel makes home for weary travelers By Katelin Paiz
Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com
photos By RON FU/Daily Titan Staff Photographer The Spanish-style Fullerton Hostel on 1700 North Harbor Blvd. in Fullerton on Monday, Sept. 14, 2009.
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Senate solicits accountability
Along Harbor Boulevard, on one of the best known roads in Fullerton, is a little known meandering road that leads to an even lesser known historical Fullerton landmark. At the end of the road, atop one of Orange County’s many green rolling hills, is a Spanishstyle house that is shielded from the world by the trees that surround it. It’s also home to many of Cal State Fullerton’s own international students a few days out of the year, as well as other travelers from around the world. Hostelling International Fullerton is one of many hostels owned by the non-profit company throughout the world. But before the building was a working hostel, it was home to a Brea Dams’ keeper and his family, making the building over 60years-old. Hostelling International rents the building for $100 a week from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The building has existed in its modern purpose for almost 25 years, and will soon be celebrating its anniversary as a temporary home for world travelers.
“We get a lot of backpackers and also a lot of students that are going to Cal State Fullerton,” said Patricia Silveira, the hostel’s assistant manager and employee of 10 years. While the hostel is only open for the summer months between July and September, many CSUF students choose to stay there before student housing becomes available. “They came all throughout the summer, even the ones that had two months before school started, that way they could travel around,” said Silveira. The hostel has three rooms: one that holds six men, one that holds six women, and one co-ed that holds eight. It costs $24.20 per day for members to stay and $27.20 per day for non-members. The guests are expected to make their own food and clean up after themselves, as per the usual hosteling procedure. Silveira and her fellow employees take a great amount of pride in their hostel, which, according to her, is the only one in Orange County. “For the last two years, we won two awards for the best hostel in the U.S.,” Silveira said. “It’s funny because we’re such a small hostel; we are only open three months out of the year.”
One of the guests, who was on his way to Knott’s Berry Farm before his departure back to New South Wales, Australia, wore a shirt demonstrating his devotion to the Iron Man Triathlons of which he is a regular participant. “I’m a bit apprehensive about going back to Australia,” said 59-year-old John Hook, adding, “but I have to keep working so I can have at least two more holidays in the USA.” While only about 30 percent of the hostel’s guests are American, according to Silveira, two were present during the last few days of the season. “My first time staying in a hostel was one in Japan, and I thought it was a good experience, so I thought I would try one here,” 23-year-old Sacramento resident Victoria Chew said. Chew, who is in Southern California visiting a friend, found the hostel online and chose it mainly because of the affordable price. One of the hostel’s oldest patrons, in more than one way, 86-year-old Robert Bickel, has been coming for 10 years and returns again and again because as he says, he enjoys watering the plants and feeding the birds. “I come here when they’re open, and I try to stay 10 days a month here because it is a lovely place to stay,” said Bickel.
A bill that would make the Cal State University system’s private foundations, which include ASI and the Housing Authority, transparent in the way they gain and spend money, has been passed in both houses of the state legislature and now sits on the governor’s desk awaiting a signature. The bill was introduced by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) following a series of scandals involving these foundations, which are known as auxiliaries. The main catalyst for this bill seems to have been an incident that occurred at Cal State Fresno, in which a reporter asked for the names and contributions of donors to a new arena built on campus, and was denied. The court ruled that the California Public Records Act, which requires public agencies to make their information available to the public, did not apply to auxiliaries, the Los Angeles Times reported. “I think there is a sense, particularly among the faculty and the staff of the Cal State system, that if there is money out there for special projects or whatever it might be … at a time when people are taking salary cuts and cutting back on their class offerings and having to take furloughs, maybe it would be better if those auxiliaries could try to replenish the university’s coffers more directly,” Scott Spitzer, professor of political science, said, though he said that he was not an authority on the subject. In another instance of alleged misappropriation, an organization affiliated with Sonoma State University lent money to a former member of its board in an attempt at an investment but was exposed to public disapproval when the former member could not settle his debt. In addition, a former chancellor of San Francisco City College was indicted on charges of allegedly using money from an auxiliary foundation to fund personal expenses, according to the Sen. Leland Yee LA Times. “If it ends up on the television or newspaper, that one particular instance makes everyone look bad, even though the vast majority of the operations do everything exactly the way they are supposed to,” Frank Mumford, director of finance and administration, said. The primary purpose of these private organizations is to solicit contributions from private donors and distribute the funds through scholarships, grants and various other projects meant to further the universities with which they are associated, according to Mumford.
Meat-eating plants hunt on campus By ron fu Daily Titan Staff Photographer A toy skeleton is placed inside a Pitcher plant to amuse visitors and demonstrate the fate of insects that land on it. The carnivorous plant can trap prey and digest it with a special liquid. The greenhouse is located between McCarthy Hall and the Nutwood Parking Structure
See page 3
See BILL, Page 2