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Visit theorion.com for an interview with track and field athlete Kim Crosby, who is legally blind. Story B1 Video theorion.com/multimedia
Hundreds gathered at City Plaza to see the nations top yo-yo players at the 2011 National Yo-Yo Contest. Story C1 Video theorion.com/multimedia
VOLUME 67 ISSUE 7
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5, 2011
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Pepper spray attacker stalks streets Kjerstin Wood STAFF WRITER
Two female Chico State students were attacked with pepper spray while walking late at night last week in the south-campus area, police say. One attack occurred on West Fifth and Flume streets and the other on West Eighth and Hazel streets. Both victims reported being pepper sprayed by a white male who is in his early 20s and approximately 6 feet tall, Chico police Sgt. Rob Merrifield said. Police are treating these cases as assaults and attempted kidnapping, Merrifield said. The suspect attacked both women after
been exposed to exiting the passenpepper spray before ger door of a black and knew what the sedan, similar to a effects were, she Lexus or a BMW. He said. Because of that The windows were grabbed past experience the very tinted or “murme and I spray did not inhibit dered out,” said the second victim, a thought he her breathing. “He grabbed me and sophomore commuwas going I thought he was going nications major. to put me to put me in the car,” “People heard in the car. she said. me screaming,” she She then began kicksaid. ing and screaming to One group of SECOND VICTIM deter the attacker and people saw her runSophomore was able to run into ning away from the communications her home just around attacker and into her major the corner. house, however they The vehicle was turned around and seen circling the area went back inside from 11 p.m. to the early morntheir own home, she said. Normally pepper spray ing hours prior to the attack chokes and incapacitates a on West Eighth and Hazel person, but the victim had streets, said a witness, a junior
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sociology major. “It was stalking my neighborhood,” the witness said. “We haven’t seen the vehicle since then.” In both cases the women were able to get away, after fighting back and yelling ,and one was even able to dial 9-1-1, according to a press release from the Chico Police Department. The first attack occurred Sept. 18. In this incident the attacker sprayed his victim with pepper spray. In the second attack on Sept. 25 the victim was grabbed and then knocked to the ground while fighting back. In August, there were 32 incidents of misdemeanor assault, 16 felony assaults, two kidnappings, two sexual assaults and one rape, >> please see ATTACKS | A7
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ILLUSTRATION BY • TERCIUS BUFETE
Oil spills in Big Chico Creek CFA calls
CAMPUS >>
Jorge Ceja Aguilar pleaded no contest to stabbing former Associated Students President Joseph Igbineweka in April 18, 2010, during the time that Igbineweka was president. Ceja Aguilar was sentenced to four years in state prison for assault with a deadly weapon and an additional three years for inflicting great bodily injury. For more visit theorion.com Source: Chico Enterprise-Record
for protest at schools
PETROLEUM POOL Oil spill occurs after a hydraulic line breaks as an excavator works to drive a post into the ground. Full story on A3
Andre Byik ASST. NE WS EDITOR
THE ORION • AARON DRAPER
The Chico Women’s Club will be hosting the Fifth Annual Tribal de Chico Belly Dance Festival on Saturday, Oct. 15. Tickets will cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door. You can also attend a belly dancing workshop before the event for an extra fee. Source: Artoberfest.com
THE ORION • KENNY LINDBERG
BIKING PAINS A Chico State student leans over a police cruiser favoring his right hip after he was hit by a patrol car Monday. The California Highway Patrol are currently investigating the incident but officers suspect the accident could have been avoided if the victim had proper lighting, police said.
Officer sideswipes student cyclist Award-winning journalist Ted Cox is coming to Chico State to speak of his experience at a “straight camp” he attended undercover. Cox witnessed what went on in a Christian “ex-gay” program and has come to share his story with students from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11 at Selvester’s Cafe-by-the-Creek. Source: Campus Announcements
Siskiyou and Plumas halls. Farrell said that the biker saw the officer at the last minute and tried to swerve but was hit by the front bumper of the vehicle. Because the accident involved an emergency vehicle, the California Highway Patrol was called to investigate the incident. “We have a conflict of interest because it’s our vehicle, so we want an impartial person to investigate,” Farrell said. Both the names of the victim and the name of the officer driving the vehicle were withheld by both the university police and the CHP. Although the determination of who is at fault hasn’t been determined yet, CHP officer George Carpenter speculated that the victim’s use of a >> please see ACCIDENT | A7
Kenny Lindberg NE WS EDITOR
A University Police cruiser struck a Chico State student riding his bicycle Monday, as emergency vehicles swarmed to the scene, briefly blocking the northbound route of Warner Street. The bicyclist limped from the scene and was transported by a friend to a medical facility with what he described as pain in his right hip area, police said. “The bicyclist was traveling northbound without a light,” University police Sgt. Brian Farrell said. “The officer stopped here at the stop sign and started drifting out to enter the roadway but didn’t see the bicyclist.” The accident occurred at 10:13 p.m. in between
INDEX >>
As the California Faculty Association is in early stages of negotiating a new contract, union leaders have floated the possibility of a strike on one or more campuses. The possibility of a strike comes from the CFA’s insistence that the priority of California State University Chancellor Charles Reed is with management and not faculty and students, CFA President Lillian Taiz said during a campus-wide meeting Wednesday broadcast on the Web. “Chancellor Reed is working hard to implement his vision of a highly paid corporate management and a weak workforce of instructors in a mostly privately funded university,” Taiz said. Faculty are legally allowed to strike because of an impasse in labor talks, which was agreed upon during the previous contract period, between 2007 through 2010. Additionally, faculty from the 23 CSU campuses have been asked to take “concerted action” at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State East Bay on Nov. 17 as a way to “make history,” Taiz said. Concerted activity could be grouping together and wearing the same thing, informational picketing or even the disruption of an organization through striking, said Andy Merrifield, chair of the CFA bargaining team, during the broadcast. Raises for faculty were halted in the 20082009 and 2009-2010 years due to massive cuts to the CSU, said Erik Fallis, spokesman for the CSU Chancellor’s Office. The CFA contract, and raises built into that contract, was based on former Gov. Arnold Shwarzenegger’s claim that he would find a way to give the CSU an increase in funding every year after an initial cut, Fallis said. Those increases stopped in 2008 with a $100 million cut to the CSU followed by a $600 million cut in 2009-2010. Because funding was decreasing, the CSU revisited the contracts and halted raises, Fallis said. “That reality made it really difficult for the CSU to see a $20 million increase for a small group of faculty as appropriate,” he said. Reed’s vision was criticized during the CFA broadcast. “We can summarize it bluntly, but accurately, as nothing now and less later,” Taiz said. The relationship between faculty and the CSU is considered “sour,” said Curtis Peldo, lecturer and member of the faculty union. >> please see STRIKE | A7
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Chico State’s women’s soccer team is tied with Sonoma State for first place in the CCAA after an undefeated weekend at home. Story B3
Features An inside look at the janitors who clean the campus at night. Story D2
Opinion Defending the DREAM: Undocumented immigrant and Chico State student Tercius Bufete advocates for passage of DREAM act. Story A8
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