Tuesday

May 5, 1998

Dominick Porras/State Hornet Above: A young party-goer reaches to touch one of the puppets during the show. About 550 children, parents and others enjoyed the antics of Richard Bay's puppets during the Children's Center's 25th anniversary Friday night.

Celebrating 25 years

By SYLVIA RODRIGUEZ
HORNET STAFF WRITER

Puppets sang, danced and joked with about 550 children and adults who gathered in celebration of the campus Children's Center's 25th anniversary.

Puppeteer Richard Bays, dancers from Ballet Folklorica, and 8-year-old violinist Patrick Claypool -- an alumnus of the center -- entertained the Friday night crowd.

"The biggest thing we're celebrating would be the Children's Center's growth," said Pat Whorley, who has been the director since 1991. "We are serving a broader range of children than ever before and we have extended hours."

The Children's Center serves about 300 families and is currently open from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Fridays.

"Having child care that is affordable and accessible can make a difference in whether someone gets an education," Whorley said. She added the continued development and improvement of the center is essential to many of those students.

Four-year-old Maggie has been going to classes at the Children's Center since last semester. Her mother, Kashia Verderosa, is a business administration major at CSUS.

Verderosa said the center is her first choice in child care because of its low-cost option, campus location, flexible hours, reliable staff and excellent equipment and activities for the children.

"The teachers are really uppity and they are interested in the children," Verderosa said. "If it weren't for the Children's Center, I might not be in school."

Ninety percent of the children attending classes at the center belong to students, but faculty and staff are also welcome to use the facilities, Whorley said.

Kem Albert-Cardenas, an administrative operations analyst for business affairs, used the center for three years -- until her daughter, Stephanie, turned nine, surpassing the center's age limit.

Albert-Cardenas said the center's teachers are "nurturing people who teach kids how to express themselves."

Other child care centers did not have as high of standards as the one on campus, Albert-Cardenas said.

"(The center) had lots of fun things to do. I like playing outside," said Stephanie, who attend the center's summer program for children ages five to 12, after graduating from regular classes. "I'm going to miss the teachers, but I'll come back to visit."

The center's staff hopes to continue to grow, Whorley said.

"We have a significant waiting list and we still have a need for more child care," she said.

The center gets 50 percent of its funding from parent fees and the rest in grants from the Associated Students Inc., the California Department of Education, and the California State University system.

Part-time faculty increases systemwide

As California State University enrollment increases, full-time faculty numbers decline. Meanwhile, part-time faculty numbers rise, leading to concerns about faculty workloads and quality of instruction.

Defending increased part-time faculty in the CSU, Chancellor Charles Reed said that part-time faculty are a resource he underestimated in his own college education.

"I didn't think that I got a good education the day I graduated because I had a lot of part-time instructors," Reed said. "But later -- 10 years, 15 years -- I realized I did. They were smart. They provided me with a lot of the experience I would get from a full-time professor."

According to the CSU public affairs office, between 1991 and 1997 the number of full-time faculty in the CSU system has dropped from 11,820 to 10,581 -- a 10.5-percent decrease. Over the same period of time, part-time faculty jumped from 5,912 to 8,073 -- a 26.7-percent increase.

Proportionately more part-time faculty must be hired to teach an equivalent full-time load, said CSUS vice president of academic affairs Jolene Koester.

Although CSU contends it is not replacing full-time faculty with part-timers, CSUS professor Michael Fitzgerald disagrees.

"I have seen it at Sac State and at (CSU) Hayward. What happens all across the system is when full-time professors retire, they are being replaced with part-timers," said Fitzgerald, who represents CSUS on the statewide Academic Senate.

CSU Hayward lost about 60 full-time faculty members between 1991 and 1993, said Hayward's Academic Senate chair, Alex Cassuto. Rehiring full-time faculty has occurred at a much slower rate.

"Because of the budget crises and the underfunding of enrollment increases, we have not been able to replace them," Cassuto said.

Part-timers teach 35 percent of Hayward's teaching units. Some departments run closer to 60 percent, particularly within the School of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences. The reasons vary, including retirement and sabbatical coverage.

"The situation has not improved at all," Cassuto said. "It's been getting worse over the past three or four years."

Reed acknowledged the system-wide trend toward part-time faculty when he was at CSUS last Wednesday.

"It'll probably stay the same. But don't think that part-time faculty aren't good. They can be a great wealth of experimental and real-world knowledge," Reed said.

CSU spokesman Ken Swisher says that part-timers are not replacing full-timers.

"We're not replacing positions," Swisher said. "It's a matter of adding to cover increased enrollment."

CSU figures show that student enrollment increased by 17,435 students between 1994 and 1996. However, the total enrollment of 336,803 students in 1996 was lower than the historic high in 1990, when it was 369,053.

Chico State department of psychology chair Marvin Megibow acknowledged the statewide trend but said a university's location affects its use of part-timers. He said Chico State uses a smaller percentage of part-time faculty than metropolitan campuses, such as CSU Los Angeles, San Diego State and CSUS.

"Being the insular community that we are, we don't have the reserves that others do," he said. "Most Ph.D.s (in Chico) are gainfully employed."

Megibow said that Chico State has less "freeway fliers" -- part-time faculty that teach part-time loads at multiple institutions to make up a full-time schedule.

According to a variety of CSU faculty and administrators, part-time faculty only teach and provide office hours to students, leaving a smaller full-time faculty pool other responsibilities such as participating in university governance, student advising and department meetings.

"The bigger impact would be the work that part-timers don't do," Meglibow said. "It falls on fewer and fewer shoulders."

The CSU Academic Senate's position is that less part-time faculty is better, Fitzgerald said.

"There is a fiscal argument that it's a better use of resources, but they don't advise," Fitzgerald said. "They are discouraged from doing it."

Cassuto said that part-timers teach well but typically are not on campus five days a week. Part-timers generally don't participate in university life outside the classroom, such as club advising.

Jennifer Coleman contributed to this report.

Faculty calls meeting with Reed chilling

REED

Faculty Senate Executive Committee members voiced concerns regarding their meeting with Chancellor Charles Reed at the senate's meeting last week.

"I came away feeling chilled by the experience, both in terms of his lack of interaction with us, and his vision for the university," said senator Linda Palmer.

The English professor pointed to Reed's goal of molding the CSU system into a "consumer business model of efficiency" as one her main sources of concern.

"The word he used more frequently than any other was 'efficient,'" said Palmer, who was disappointed with Reed's attitude throughout the meeting.

"I didn't feel we were having a dialogue," she said.

According to Palmer, who took notes during the meeting, Reed said he thinks distance learning and Internet courses would be more efficient than traditional classes. He also said Internet courses might bring students and faculty closer.

"I think we have to ask ourselves what that means," said Palmer, who is concerned faculty will become a directory students will access in their search for "digital information."

"I don't think that's what our students and their parents are paying for, and that's certainly not the job I signed on for," said Palmer.

Palmer was also disturbed by Reed's proposed elimination of tenure in the CSU system. Reed was quoted in a previous interview with the State Hornet as saying, "There are no long term jobs unless you're a federal judge."

Senator Margorie Geles, like Palmer, was uneasy with the manner in which Reed responded to questions.

"He kind of side-stepped some of the difficult questions on part-time faculty and the use of technology and distance learning," Geles said.

Reed's assertion faculty could work harder was a specific concern.

"That seems chilling," Geles said.

But despite unanswered questions, Geles said she found Reed less negative than Palmer. Reed's general answers to specific questions were probably the result of an unfamiliarity with the issues, she said, adding they are answers he will have to refine later on.

Faculty Senate Chair Thomas Krabacher agreed faculty should not judge Reed hastily.

"My sense, based on the meeting itself, is we don't know enough," said Krabacher, who added the meeting's brevity and question-and-answer format "left a lot up in the air" -- and could have easily led to misunderstandings.

"I would suspect, and I would hope, that these concerns will be unfounded," he said. According to Krabacher -- based on remarks made in a meeting with CSU senate chairs in February -- tenure is not in Reed's game plan.

"He made it very clear at that meeting that he had no intention of eliminating tenure at the CSU," said Krabacher, who added, "It's something that needs to be clarified."

Another area Krabacher said definitely needs clarification is Reed's stance on technology in the university.

"There is a tendency to see distance learning and education technology, in some quarters, as a universal solution," said Krabacher.

But according to Krabacher, "There is no indication that he is going to go overboard on this."

Krabacher is currently drafting a letter, which will be reviewed by the executive committee, requesting Reed clarify the remarks he made at the meeting.

Bilingual education debate stirs feeling on campus

Dominick Porras/State Hornet Professor Duane Campbell urges students to oppose Proposition 227 during a debate last Thursday.

Calling Proposition 227 "round three of immigrant bashing," multicultural education professor Duane Campbell and audience members attacked the bilingual education initiative and it's proponents during a debate in the Redwood Room Thursday. The debate was sponsored by UNIQUE Programs.

"Don't let the tired old white men take this election," Campbell said. "We have 33 days to mobilize our friends, neighbors, the entire college community in California to defeat this initiative."

If passed by California voters in November, the proposition will require non-English speaking K-12 students to be immersed into English-only classrooms after only one year of bilingual instruction, said panelist Buzz Breedlove, a policy analyst for the state.

This immersion could affect 20 percent of 5.6 million school children in California who speak limited English, Breedlove said.

According to Campbell, the initiative -- authored by 1994 gubernatorial candidate Ron Unz -- is based on the deception that children are not learning English under the current system, which allows school boards flexibility in using bilingual programs.

"Only 30 percent of schools actually use bilingual strategies. So Unz is targeting those few teachers who do," Campbell said.

Panelist Linh Dao, a candidate for U.S. Senate, defended the propositions, arguing voters can do what is best for children by having faith in their intelligence.

"Children up to the age 11 have the ability to learn English quickly if they mingle with native speakers," Dao said. "Many teen immigrants have the advantage of having a better education from their home countries, so a lot of them have already studied what is being taught in America. Having the class twice gives them the chance to pick up the English without hurting their studies."

Dao used other sections of the country as examples of how immigrants might succeed.

"If you look at the situation in the Midwest, say Nebraska, how do immigrants learn when there are no bilingual programs?" she said.

But Campbell said the initiative's assumption that non-native speakers will be able to learn English in a year was incorrect.

"Anyone who has studied a foreign language knows it takes much longer than a year to become proficient at it," he said.

Campbell also questioned the forces behind the initiative.

"This is just another example of mean, vindictive, vicious Republicans picking on children through their anti-education policies," he said. "But what really makes me angry is the media is buying into the lies of 227."

Campbell attacked statistics used by Unz in a PBS "Newshour with Jim Lehrer" clip, shown just before the debate, which Unz used to assert the initiative would decrease drop-out rates among Latinos. Campbell contended the numbers reflected mostly migrant workers and already assimilated English speakers.

"This is obviously not caused by bilingual education; the Republican-controlled Congress underfunding schools is why Chicanos fail," he said.

Tensions ran high during the debate's question and answer session, with students calling Dao's Nebraska comparison ridiculous. After one student told Doa, an immigrant to the U.S. -- to take bilingual classes, debate moderator and government studies professor Jeff Lustig had to step in to regain order of the cheering audience.

Lustig had to step in again during closing arguments when an angry audience member took issue with Dao's reference to learning English as being a "sink or swim situation."

In his closing remarks, Campbell urged audience members to challenge Unz by voting down Proposition 227.

"In a state as diverse as California, we need policies that show us how ro respect each other, not divide us," he said.

Nine emergency phones activated

By MICHELLE McCLURE
SPECIAL TO THE HORNET

A 23-year-old woman was desperate to contact the authorities two weeks ago, after being flashed in parking Lot 8. But when the CSUS student reached an emergency campus phone, she found the line was dead.

"He waited until I was alone before he stopped his car next to me and exposed himself," said the student, who asked to remain anonymous due to the nature of the incident.

The student ran to a nearby maintenance worker, who suggested she use the campus emergency phone to report the incident to the authorities. But the phone did not work. Fueled by anger and the desire to see the flasher punished, she drove around the campus before finding two police officers on bicycles.

But the officers were unaware the nine emergency campus phones were not activated. They could not tell her the phones would not be activated until one week later. According to Public Safety investigator John Hamrick, no announcements were made to officers as to when the phones would be operational.

"(The officers) told me I should have called them from the emergency phones" the student said.

The officers explained it would be easier to gather evidence from the scene if an emergency phone were utilized, she said.

According to Robin Lovering, manager for project design and development, the emergency phones were originally scheduled to have been completed in October.

Lovering said the project's completion was delayed due to subcontractor problems, lack of correct parts and red tape.

But Hamrick was pleased the phones are now up and running.

"I think the blue (emergency) phones will help," he said.

Hamrick said items such as the emergency phones and cell phones are helpful because the chances of apprehending a suspect are greatly increased if the victim can still see the perpetrator fleeing while speaking with officers.

Lovering said the original proposal, made by university telecommunications services, called for 23 emergency phones.

However, costs limited that number to nine.

"There will eventually be more," Lovering said.

According to Lovering, purchase and installation of the current phones cost the university $225,000.

The project -- rejected by alternative sources of funding -- was paid out of the parking trust fund by the transportation department, according to Lovering.

Phones are located in Lot 7, Lot 10, Lot 8, behind Solano Hall and near the Child Care Center.

Anthropology professor says lack of cuisine shows diversity

If we are what we eat, America is a nation of diversity.

Unlike France, Italy or Mexico, Americans have no national cuisine, said Professor Sidney J. Mintz during his Friday lecture, "Animals that Cook."

"You can have a ham sandwich today, pizza tomorrow, and Thai food the next," he illustrated.

Mintz, a professor of anthropology at UC Berkeley, said because America is so diverse -- and the foods so different -- a national cuisine may never develop.

During his speech sponsored by the anthropology department, Mintz stressed the irony of how we speak of the tastes of other countries.

"We talk about how disgusting we think the Japanese are for eating raw fish, but we enjoy eating oysters right out of the shell," he said. "We are products of our culture." He explained that the tastes people acquire have significance as an aspect of the culture.

Everyone is different, whether they like to eat alone or with someone else, Mintz said.

According to Mintz, our imagination runs wild with regards to food.

Talking about food helps us stay in touch with each other in terms of our ideas, he said. We also use symbolic imaging in our minds, such as a taste that's sweet as honey being likened to sex. "Food is a wonderfully powerful symbol that we can load up with all kinds of thoughts," he said.

But in his impression, we take food for granted.

"We treat food like it's not terribly important."

Mintz contended the most important point in the civilization of mankind was the domestication of animals.

"It took us the mastery over cows and horses to learn about our own humanity," he said.

According to the Bible, Adam and Eve were originally vegetarians, but because they then sinned by Eve's picking the apple, man was cursed to forever be a carnivorous being, Mintz said. Mintz also noted table etiquette can be seen as a rite of passage into maturity.

"Children learn manners at the table, which is one price they pay for adulthood," he reasoned.

Mintz concluded his speech with a description of a trip he made to a McDonald's restaurant in India.

While there, he asked women customers what they thought of the experience.

They answered saying that they liked the clean bathrooms and that they could choose on their own what they wanted to eat, even though they were less than impressed by the restaurant's food itself.

Corrections

The May 1 edition of Campus Quotes missidentified two persons. The photographs of Mandy Wong and Amber Daniels were switched.

The May 1 Opinion page listed the incorrect ASI position for Stephanie Johnson. Her correct title is Director of Social Science and Interdisciplinary Studies.