KOALA PROTEST
FAMILIAR RESULT
BREAST CANCER
Read a guest’s perspective about A.S.’ approach to protesting The Koala. page 2
SDSU again fails to come out of Provo with a win.
October is national breast cancer month.
dailyaztec the
Monday, October 11, 2010
Vol. 96, Issue 25
w w w. T h e D a i l y A z t e c . c o m
San Diego State University’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1913
INDEX:
opinion ... 2
LOOKING THROUGH OUT LENS
page 3
page 6
TODAY @ STATE SDSU fights hunger food drive “she in her teens and twenties” Art Exhibition 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. University Art Gallery
Tw i t t e r : T h e D a i l y A z t e c
sports ... 3
features ... 6
classifieds ... 7
backpage ... 8
Alcohol permitted in residence halls ASHLEY MORGAN S TA F F W R I T E R
AZTECS’ ANGST Photo editor David J. Olender captured BYU running back J.J. Di Luigi (right) celebrating after a big play. Di Luigi and the Cougars claimed a 24-21 victory in Provo, Utah.
The reopening of Chapultepec Residence Hall this year has come with many new changes to campus housing and policies, including the lift of non-alcohol policies in upper division housing. University Towers and Chapultepec now allow residents 21 years and older to consume alcoholic beverages in their rooms. This is the first time in two years university housing is allowing alcohol on its premises, aside from Villa Alvarado Apartments. “We want to make sure we’re meeting their needs and looking at the transition to an independent living model,” Director of Residential Education, Christy Samarkos, said. “The transition is from the first year model and we’re meeting students where they’re at, if they’re at the legal drinking age.” The change comes with guidelines that require the door to be closed while alcohol is being consumed, no one who is underage may be present during consumption and the alcoholic beverages are strictly wine or beer. Hard alcohol is prohibited. “Considering I don’t drink, it didn’t affect my decision (to live in Chapultepec),” Brandon Robinson, a computer science fifth year who lived in Chapultepec his first two years at San Diego State, said. “But I tend to think people who are still living in the dorms beyond their freshman year know they are going to abide by the rules and when they’re over 21 and drinking they are going to do it in a responsible manner.” Chapultepec was also reopened with a new educational initiative aimed at sophomores, coined the Second Year Success program. “The whole sophomore slump phenomena is a real thing, you start asking yourself those life questions and so we ask what we can do,” Samarkos said.
Originally the revived building was intended to be available for sophomores only, but because of the lack of second-year applicants and high demand by first-years, freshmen now reside in the lower five floors, Director of Housing Administration Patricia Francisco said. “It sucks because last year my resident adviser in the first-year dorms told me we would be freshmen-free in Chappy,” theater sophomore Ana Figueroa said. This year SDSU implemented a new decision by President Stephen L. Weber, requiring freshmen students who attended high school from outside the local service area to live on campus. “Ninety percent of students who live outside of our service area already live on campus and there were some additional people who wouldn’t have lived with us otherwise and since move-in, I’m not aware of any issues at all,” Francisco said. The differences between living on campus sophomore year and freshman year were addressed by Samarkos. “The retention rate to sophomore year is greater, the GPAs are higher and academic probation rates are lower for students who have lived on campus versus living off campus in their first year,” Samarkos said. “So with our proven academic success indicators it just seemed like the direction to go.” New living / learning communities have also been installed in the first-year residence halls including Journey Into Entrepreneurship and the combination of the Fine Arts community with Television, Film, and New Media students. The creation of an Honors Residential College has taken up an entire wing of the Maya living / learning community and supports the new requirement of freshmen students in the University Honors Program to live on campus. “From programming to student behavioral issues it’s really been off to a good start this year,” Samarkos said.
One step closer to new student plaza JUSTIN COOPER CONTRIBUTOR
The Plaza Linda Verde project is one step closer to realization. The recent release of the Environmental Impact Report has mostly given the 90,000 square foot project a clean bill of health. The EIR studied the area directly south of campus and gauged the environmental consequences the project would have on the surrounding community, weighing them through 13 relevant criteria such as visual impact, air quality, water quality and traffic. The report gave the project a favorable rating in every category except traffic. While the report found that traffic would worsen on streets such as College Avenue and Montezuma Road, it also pointed out solutions to mitigate congestion. The university will help shoulder the cost of these street improvements.
Associate Vice President for Operations Bob Schulz touted the project’s green credentials. “The project is arguably a net-positive environmentally because we’re providing oncampus student housing,” Schulz said. “Every time a student lives on campus they generate fewer trips, fewer pounds of carbon dioxide. They have a lesser environmental impact when they live on campus than when they live off campus.” The Plaza Linda Verde will include housing for 1,600 students and 600 in the first phase, retailers and a national brand restaurant such as a Chili’s or a TGI Friday’s. Schulz said the goal is to create a vibrant urban neighborhood that is “compelling to our students.” The land directly south of the university has been designated as “blighted,” and primed for redevelopment. “In the world of urban redevelopment ‘blighted’ means the community in question has decided the property is unsightly, devel-
oped inappropriately (or) is somehow funky,” Schulz said. The project will be divided into at least two phases of development, the first expected to begin in three years. The $130 million price tag for phase one will be paid for by the university with bonds, which the university expects to be made back in the future by the residents and shoppers coming to the property. Phase one is cleared to proceed, as it is land owned by the university. However, phase two is not as ready. Some of the land designated for phase two is privately owned, such as KB Books, and would have to be acquired. “We don’t own every parcel on phase two,” Schulz said. “So some of it could be put on hold, possibly forever, if we never acquire the property.” Early in the planning phase, the university launched a public relations campaign to gauge community desire and to seek input. The uni-
versity held several public meetings and sent out thousands of surveys. Director of Government and Community Relations for SDSU Tyler Sherer described the resulting community involvement as “tremendous.” Out of the 17,000 surveys sent to households, more than 1,500 were sent back with the respondents rating the types of retailers they found the most useful. Sherer described public feedback as an important tool for crafting the retail space the community wants. Of special note would be a grocery market, such as a Trader Joe’s or a Fresh & Easy, within walking distance of residence halls and houses. “There is anticipation within the overall community that the project will provide those things,” Sherer said. Now that the EIR has been released, community members will be able to review the report and submit comments through Nov. 10. For information about how to submit comments and to view the Draft EIR go to sdsu.edu/plazalindaverde.