the One up, one down for Comets at Easter series
Shrinking space at Cal State next fall
• P11/om11t te11eher defends eontroversillllltlions 11nd eries eorruption in p11eked meeting
By Michelle Forshner
Tlfl TELESCOPE
By Andrew Phelps and Roger Renkas
The business major has joined a growing list of impacted programs at Cal State San Marcos. The impacted major escalates an enrollment crunch at the university, which officials say is overcrowded. Impacted programs are those which have more applications than space available. Students must meet additional criteria and perform other tasks to secure entry into the major. Theresa Egkan, director of the Palomar Transfer Center, said business major hopefuls must now send a coursework status application and transcripts by June 15, after being admitted to Cal State San Marcos. The students will be ranked according to their GPA in all their preparatory courses. Even if students are admitted to Cal State San Marcos, they may still have to complete lower-division work to get into their major program. "It is one thing to be accepted into the university - and another into the major. Until you fulfill the pre-major requirements, you ·can be considered 'pre-business' and can't take upper division courses," said Dagmar Royer, a Transfer Center counselor. Palomar Students should complete as many pre-major
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Before a crowd of nearly 150, Palomar College professor Daniel Finkenthal responded to charges of unprofessional conduct and raised his own accusations of misconduct and corruption at the governing board's April 13 meeting. An animated Finkenthal tag-teamed with his attorney to address the charges led by Michael Rourke, dean of the Mathematics and the Natural and Health Sciences Division. Rourke said Finkenthal, a tenured physics professor, missed two science labs to attend committee meetings - and then failed to give his students an opportunity to make up lost hours. "I asked him on at least six separate occasions what he did to accommodate students," Rourke said. "Professor Finkenthal refuses to answer my questions." Rourke said Finkenthallied to the physics department chairperson when he said he scheduled hours for students to make up the time. Rourke said he checked scheduling records and found no documentation of the make-up time. Finkenthal did not dispute missing two classes, but he denied lying about the make-up time. He said he exercised academic freedom by taking personal leave to attend colllJllittee meetings - including one to reform the Tenure Evaluations Review Board, whose members admitted to not meeting for 15 months. Finkenthal referred to the Personal Necessity Leave section of the faculty manual, which includes "cases of compelling personal importance" as an excuse for missing class. That clause is open to interpretation. "I know in every business I have been involved with you can't go skip off to a committee meeting," said Ralph Jensen, governing board president. · "He wasn't sick. He wasn't going to a funeral," said board member Darrel McMullen. "He just decided that it was a very impor• SEE CROSS
FIRE, PAGE 2
Top: Palomar College professor Daniel Finkenthal speaks to the governing board Aprill3 to respond to charges of unprofessional conduct, citing a "personal vendetta" as the motive behind the charges. Bottom: Governing board member Darrell McMullen holds up a Finkenthal's formal response after the professor challenged the validity of the charges. "He didn't stick to the point," McMullen said of Finkenthal's hour-long talk.
PHOTOS BY IIDREW PHELPS I THE TU!SCOPl
• SEE SPACE, PAGE 2
$tudents learn language through song The native Californian, whose second language is Portuguese, learned a lot of Many students pay no Spanish through singing, he attention to the rules against said. Peixoto said he has seen a eating in class, but Eduardo Peixoto's Spanish 80 students lot of research about the definitely can't be caught with learning benefits of singing their mouths full. and melodies. Students in his class, "The language content Spanish Through Song, learn floats into the brain on the the language through expres- · melody," Peixoto said. "If you sive lyrics, Peixoto said. are relaxed and listen to it a Peixoto said he's teaching lot, it sticks." something that personally Peixoto uses classic songs in benefited him. the class as well as contempoBy Miko Kudo
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NEW AT THE BOEHM Th111 11rtists llllm up to displ11y thsir works. • PAGE 8
rary ones, including those from artists such as Mana, Shakira and Celia Cruz. Student Randall Ayers said the class is outstanding, and it really helps him learn Spanish. "Our professor explains reasons behind idiomatic expressions found in many songs," Ayers said. "The help with pronunciation has been a key to my progress in Spanish." Student Jodian Tyler said • SEE SPANISH, PAC~ 3
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Professor Edua'do Peixoto, !VJt, teaches students ''Spaish tfl'oudJ Seq'' illis class.
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