Monday December 9, 2019 Thursday December 12, 2019
Students pay millions for parking; where does it go?
WENDY CHAVEZ / DAILY TITAN
Cal State Fullerton will pay $2.6 million annually for the new $38.8 million structure next to the Eastside parking structure.
Parking permit costs will climb from $285 to $334 by July. JESSICA RAZO Asst. Editor
WENDY CHAVEZ ARIANNA BURNS Staff Writers
Volume 106 Issue 47
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
This year alone, Cal State Fullerton students have paid $9.8 million for their campus parking, and they are set to spend millions more in the coming decade. The $9.8 million comes from the sale of roughly 39,000 semester-long parking permits. Historically, CSUF is a commuter university and at least 50% of students purchase parking permits each semester, according to the Department of
Parking and Transportation. As of this semester, there are 39,868 students enrolled at CSUF and a total of 8,047 parking spaces available for students. CSUF sold 18,880 permits this semester — over twice as many permits as there are spaces. The parking permit cost $236 last semester, then increased to $285 this semester and will climb to $334 by the 2020 summer session — an increase of over 40% in two
years. The daily parking pass will increase from $8 to $10, and the motorcycle parking permits will increase from $120 to $140. Campus officials justified the increase by stating that it will be used to finance the incoming parking structure on the east side of campus, next to the existing Eastside structure. The structure will hold 1,900 new spaces and cost $38.8 million, according to Sasha Azoqa, communications specialist for the parking and transportation department. She added that each parking spot is $20,000, which are used by two to three students each day. The new parking structure will be built north of the Eastside parking structure and is set to be completed by fall of 2020. It will include energy-efficient LED lighting, elevators, a staircase and a rooftop solar canopy. The structure is intended to help alleviate parking overflow, which is an issue that has become worse over the years. However, some students have expressed displeasure with the increase, acknowledging the parking issue on campus, but not wanting it paid for by students who already face financial hardships. “It makes me upset, and it makes me feel frustrated, because students are already food insecure. We have tenants who are homeless. We can’t afford their textbooks,” said Maria Linares, Associated Students’ board of directors vice chair. “It really isn’t the time to be raising parking permit fees.” Students opposed to the parking permit increase started a petition on the website change.org that has raised nearly 3,000 student signatures — over halfway to its goal of 5,000 signatures. Throughout the comment section, students have voiced their concerns and their disappointment about the fee increase. SEE MONEY
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Losing Concluding the decade with art and style is easy money CSUF’s Grand Central Art Gallery in Santa Ana features poetry and live performance. NATHAN NGUYEN Editor
Men’s basketball made $1.3 million the past six years for away games. DANIEL BRITO Staff Writer
BILLY HUYNH Asst. Editor
KASON CLARK Editor
For five years, the Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team has received $1.3 million from other schools for playing away games, the most out of all of the university’s athletic programs. From 2013-18 the guaranteed revenue acquired from the men’s team dwarfs even the women’s team, who had the next highest with $99,500 in the same five years. Last season, the men’s team received nearly $250,000, while the women’s team had the second-most with $20,000. In certain collegiate sports, such as basketball, visiting universities are paid by the program in which the home team is highly expected to win. While the monetary benefit is enticing, CSUF athletic director Jim Donovan is wary about scheduling too many of what he defines as “money games.” “Typically, you’re going into a game where you’re going to be an underdog, and you will likely lose the game. So we try not to play more than about four money games a year with our men’s basketball program because we’re still trying to have a winning record overall,” Donovan said. SEE AWAY
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“Transdimensional dance party lit by dramatic light” and “Profound silence for devoted listeners,” were just a few of the phrases artist Chris Kallmyer used in his piece titled “All Possible Music,” but they were also words used to describe the Grand Central Art Center’s latest exhibit . The art center, which partners with Cal State Fullerton, showcased its last art walk of the decade on Saturday night, Dec. 7 — a fitting farewell to the last 20 years of art, music, live performance and celebrations held at the intimate gallery in downtown Santa Ana. After opening to the public in 1999, the center celebrated its 20th anniversary earlier this year in March with a special event reception. Every first Saturday of the month, the center holds an art walk with new exhibits for enthusiasts and anyone interested in what lies between the lines. Serendipitous music seeped through the gallery’s glass doors as people strolling through the streets were drawn in by the strange allure. Guests were treated with a live musical performance before they even walked through the gallery’s doors, but they would have to go inside to fully hear the music and understand the context of everything in place. Smooth strings and sounds from pedal steel guitars echoed through the night as part of Chris Kallmyer’s latest installation, “Faded Love,” which Kallmyer describes as “country western musicians playing sad songs all together.” Surrounded by stacks of hay and curious listeners, the musicians played a melancholic symphony that filled the spaces and set the mood for all those in attendance. In the next room over, Kallmyer’s short film, “All Possible Music,” played on an endless loop for viewers to immerse themselves into poetic prose. According to the exhibit title’s
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NATHAN NGUYEN / DAILY TITAN
Martín Durazo’s ‘Monolith (ic),’ a stone Babylonian behemoth, is featured at CSUF’s Grand Central Art Gallery.
description, “All Possible Music” is a “film that envisions all music that could ever happen in casual handwritten descriptions.” Short notes written on paper across three panels side-by-side detailed unlimited possibilities from an “Amateur yodeling by candle light,” and a “Better than average laser light show for dogs” to a “Heartfelt production of ‘Macbeth’ in an igloo,” and a “Profound profession of love for a stranger.” For a half-hour, words and phrases mixed and matched to form idioms that intersected across spectrums of unspoken word poetry. Whether they were sitting down or standing in the back, many attendees stuck around to watch the entire duration of the film, curious to see if the pages of poetry ever ended. Kallmyer’s unconventional work incorporates everyday objects and explores the human senses, encouraging observers to question the ever-changing environment around them. John Spiak, director and chief curator of the Grand Central Art Center, said he loved Kallmyer’s pieces in the way that it changes and develops into something bigger and bigger as time goes on. Grand Central Art Center’s mission statement is dedication to the “open exploration of contemporary art, culture and creativity: locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, through socially engaged collaborations among artists,
NATHAN NGUYEN / DAILY TITAN
Steel guitarists played a melancholic symphony as part of artist-in-residence Chris Kallmyer’s piece, ‘All Possible Music,’ at the Grand Central Art Center.
students and communities.” Artist-in-Residence Martín Durazo’s “Monolith (ic)” stood out from the rest of the gallery’s pieces in more ways than one, as it towered over everything in its path. A stone behemoth stood in the middle of the room, and the Babylonian demon represented power and strength. Oddly enough, the stone monument wasn’t the strangest piece in the room. Surrounding it was also a disco ball and mirror in a boat, the alcoholic energy drink Four Loko in a clear backpack, Papa Smurf from “The Smurfs” comics and a wall of glowing abstract art. Before guests left for the night, they could spend a relaxing time under Sharon Levy’s “Canopy,”
“a mobile made of wooden dowels and handmade translucent green paper leaves,” according to the exhibit’s title description. Jennifer Enriquez, a communications major with an emphasis in advertisement at CSUF and Santa Ana resident, said the gallery’s location was a surprise to her. “I didn’t even know it was in Santa Ana, and I’m from Santa Ana. So it was interesting to see that, but I liked it. I liked the music, I liked the overall layout of the place,” Enriquez said. Spiak said that the Grand Central Art Center is still a hidden gem to those at Cal State Fullerton, and there’s still a lot of students and faculty that aren’t aware of all the things the center has to offer. VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM