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Monday, November 25, 2013
CLA dean pushes for fee increase RACHEL SUN
@rachelllsun
The College of Liberal Arts (CLA) Dean Doug Epperson proposed a fee increase earlier this month to bring tuition for CLA students up to par with other colleges within Cal Poly. The fee will be a $112 per quarter increase for full-time CLA students and $58 increase for part-time students. If the proposal passes, funding will increase by $1 million dollars per year, Epperson said. “Based on careful consideration of numerous factors, we believe that our students deserve the very best education we can provide for them,” Epperson said. “It just doesn’t seem fair that students are deprived of opportunities students in other colleges have. We are currently
using almost 100 percent of Student Success Fees for course access. Thus, the proposed increase in the College-Based Fee (CBF) to be at the same level as what other students pay.” The revenue could purchase instructional equipment and create more Learn By Doing enrichment activities, Epperson said, though it is unclear exactly how the money will be spent. Epperson cited the Cal Poly Music Department as one area that demonstrates the College of Liberal Art’s highcost needs are on par with the rest of the university. One baby grand piano, he said, costs upward of $100,000. “Most of the music department’s equipment inventory is aging and in need of replacement,” Music Department Chair Terrence Spiller said. “All of the practice room,
Based on careful consideration of numerous factors, we believe that our students deserve the very best education we can provide for them. DOUG EPPERSON COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS DEAN
classroom and rehearsal room pianos need replacing — this can run into several hundred thousand dollars.” When CBFs were originally implemented in 2002, the Liberal Arts dean did not think CLA students needed to pay as much as students of other colleges, Epperson said. But, after years of budget cuts, CLA’s tuition is still lower than other colleges’. In 2009, there was a vote to increase CBFs across campus, which would have raised CLA tuition. Then-Cal Poly President Warren Baker recommended approval, but the California State University Chancellor denied it. “One of the issues that I’ve heard is that it has the fallacy that CLA is less than other colleges, that it’s not as difficult or polytechnic in nature,” Associated Students, Inc. President Jason Colombini said. “The fee kind of adds on to that belief, which is completely not true. Every college at Cal Poly has the difficult parts to it, the easy parts to it and the things that make it what it is.” Epperson plans to advertise the CLA’s high-tech and highcost needs to clear up any false assumptions that liberal arts students don’t need more funds. “I will be doing my best to make sure that faculty and stu-
dents are appropriately informed of what the proposal is and what the potential uses of the additional revenue might be,” Epperson said. “I will meet with any college club that wants to meet with me to answer questions, encourage department chairs to meet with students in their department about this and assure that expenditures will be done through consultative student advisory committees.” Epperson and other proponents of the fee increase will have to work to gain student support to get the proposal passed within the next three months. “The main challenge is that anytime you talk about any type of increase in fee, the initial reaction is negative,” Epperson said. “It’s a normal and appropriate human reaction. My view, at the end of the day, is that student judgment will be made based on what the return is of their investment.” Epperson doesn’t know where the money will go yet, he said, because the consultative process hasn’t been completed. First, the proposal goes to the College Fee Advisory Committee (CFAC), a committee with three students and six Cal Poly employees that reviews university fee increases. Based on an initial review, CFAC makes a
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS DEAN DOUG EPERSON
recommendation to Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong. As of its meeting on Nov. 6, the CFAC decided the proposal was worth moving forward. At the second CFAC meeting on Nov. 13, the dean’s office presented an objective statement. They reviewed drafts of a timeline, a list of action items and alternative consultation strategies. Two students will write pro or con statements for the proposal. The CFAC met on Nov. 20 to finalize the documents. The 30-day public notice period will begin after the CFAC’s final meeting on Jan. 15. During this time, the CFAC will tell students about the proposal
through their Student Communication Plan. The CLA student vote will be collected during the last week of February. When the votes are tallied, they will be sent to the university president. From there, Armstrong and Chancellor Timothy White make the final decision. “At the end of the day, the merit of the idea either carries the vote, or it doesn’t,” Epperson said. “Whether the idea prevails or not, it’s the result of a very careful and thoughtful process driven by our desire to better serve majors — to ensure that they have opportunities equal to those students of other colleges.”
FIRE criticizes Cal Poly investigation into party SEAN MCMINN
@shmcminn
Cal Poly’s investigation into an “offensive” fraternitysorority party is now facing criticism from the legislative and policy director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Joe Cohn, who works at FIRE’s headquarters in Philadelphia, said Thursday that Cal Poly’s investigation is unconstitutional based on the information the university has made public so far. The theme of the party in question — “Colonial Bros and Nava-hos” — is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Cohn said. “University officials issued their statement that there’s no place for events like these in the Cal Poly community,” said
Cohn, who was on campus to speak at a Cal Poly College Republicans club event earlier this month. “That claim is just flatly and universally wrong.” The claim Cohn referenced is from a campuswide email President Jeffrey Armstrong and Vice President for Student Affairs Keith Humphrey sent Monday. In it, they decried the party for being “offensive” to Native Americans and women. Dean of Students Jean DeCosta launched an investigation into the party after receiving complaints from neighbors and Native American faculty, Humphrey said. The students or organizations involved with the party could be found responsible of harassment or intimidation, he added. But case law on the subject is clear that themed par-
ties are not considered harassment, Cohn said. Even launching an investigation into such a party, he said, is against the law. “The investigation in itself kills speech,” he said. “If anyone who made a statement against Obamacare was subject to an investigation, might that silence speech against Obamacare?” University counsel Carlos Cordova declined to comment on Cohn’s remarks. The U.S. Supreme Court defines university harassment as behavior “so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive, and that so undermines and detracts from the victims’ educational experience, that the victim-students are effectively denied equal access to an institution’s resources and opportunities,” according to
FIRE’s website. A misguided party theme does not meet that definition on its own, Cohn said. “Schools try all the time to protect students from offensive speech, and we confront them when they do,” Cohn said. “And it’s really problematic. And how they play out largely depends on how much the students who are subjected to it want to fight it.” Cohn said FIRE would review the Cal Poly case more closely if a student in one of the organizations under investigation brought a complaint to him. FIRE’s legal services are free to students. In contrast to Cohn’s criticism of the investigation, he applauded Cal Poly’s choice to have an open forum discussing racism and sexism Friday.
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Doing approach, Chilton said. “First of all, it is not that (CLA students) weren’t included,” Chilton said. “What happened in this was that we went to produce this video primarily for international students. So we searched the international student body at Cal Poly and the students that came forward were in certain colleges.” In the video, one student is from India, one is from Ireland and one is from China. Chilton hoped the video would be used as a general Learn By Doing video and exemplify Cal Poly for what it is, not highlight any particular majors more than others. “We didn’t have any options for CLA in the amount of search time that we had,” Chilton said. “The CLA was never not planned on being included,” Chilton said. “Wherever that information came from is incorrect. Liberal Arts is going in the video. Marketing has a strong desire to include the CLA in the video … and while we didn’t have students to shoot with, we did shoot additional material to actually be put in for Liberal Arts … Cal Poly said themselves that we have to in-
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Cal Poly’s University Graphic Systems lab is located in Graphic Arts (building (26). clude them, so we are working on that. It’s just that the video got out before we were actually able to make that happen.” CLA will be portrayed through journalism and performing arts aspects of Learn By Doing, Chilton said. Sullivan hopes the completed video will be posted as soon as possible. “On one level, it was wonderful that people loved it, but it was frustrating to not have it have its launch and have us be able to make a big deal out of it,” Sullivan said. “Because we will and want to
make a big deal out of it.” Chilton agreed about the leaked-video mishap. “The sharing was a mistake,” Chilton said. “However, the actual existence of it on Vimeo was not a mistake — we’re allowed to do it.” Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong agreed excluding CLA from the video was unintentional. “They are going to reshoot and balance (the video) from a college perspective,” he said. “It will be back. That was a Learn By Doing moment … it wasn’t intentional.”
“The forum is launching a discussion about these issues, and it’s bringing these issues to the forefront instead of letting them fester,” he said. “I think that’s the silver lining with it. But I think it’s really unfortunate it’s coming with the very real threat of censorship.” Before the forum, Safer Coordinator Christina Kaviani said one goal of Friday’s forum was to give students who are angry or have negative feelings a place to voice them. The event aimed to bring people together to come to a common resolution that this type of behavior is wrong and shouldn’t happen again, she said. Most themes have a sexist component to them, and this theme was racist as well, Kaviani said. “It’s always oppressive to women when there are themed
parties with ‘hoes,’ and it is really demeaning to women,” she said. “The themes usually have the man in the more powerful position, and that’s already creating a problem.” Kaviani believes this problem should be treated with a punitive and educational response. Students should be taught this behavior is not acceptable, she said, and Cal Poly should adopt policies to make sure similar parties don’t happen again. Greek organizations have the spotlight on them and people can use it for good, she said. “I was pretty surprised because I do know a lot of members in the greek system who are fantastic people, and I don’t think it’s a representation of the greeks in general, I think it’s a representation of not thinking something through,” she said.