Tuesday

May 12, 1998

Experiences from Tanzania Dominick Porras/State Hornet John Shoka, ABOVE, and Rita Cameron-Wedding, BELOW, explain the CSUS-Fulbright sponsored "Experiences from the Fulbright Seminar in Tanzania." Both were part of a panel discussing the 1997, five-week summer seminar on democracy, gender and development in Tanzania. The panel was part of the seventh annual conference "African/African-American Family: An Agenda for the 21st Century" held in the University Union Redwood Room May 8 and 9. Dominick Porras/State Hornet

Social work addressing number of part-timers

It's often difficult for students juggling homework, classes, drive-time, family and work to find time to meet with instructors. It's even more difficult when the instructor offers only one hour of office time each week and shares the office with 18 other instructors.

It's a situation students and faculty in the Division of Social Work are dealing with this semester. Pressed to pick up the course load of the increasing number of retiring professors -- as well as those on sabbatical -- the division hired 42 part-timers. The division has 767 students and 28 full timers.

"It had to do with some great upheaval personnel wise. I had to go far beyond the normal scope (in hiring,)" said Juan Hernandez, interim director of the division. Hernandez spoke to the Hornet in late March on the issue.

Currently, campuses throughout the CSU system are seeing an increase in part-time faculty instruction. Schools are facing new problems while managing part-time faculty, problems the division is working to solve now.

Graduate and undergraduate students are concerned with the quality of instruction, accountability and management of the 42 part-timers.

Sharon Garrett, president of the Undergraduate Social Work Association, has concerns ranging from part-timers' course preparation to their relationship with the university community.

"They have short notice. They are inexperienced in the classroom -- that's one of the pitfalls. Sometimes students are ruthless," she said.

Andy Horita, president of the Graduate Social Work Association, has similar concerns.

"A lot of the problems with part-time faculty is that they don't get any training in teaching," he said. "This year, they were scrambling to find part-timers left by the void of the faculty who retired or went on leave. Some of the part-timers were told they were teaching the day before."

Hernandez said the division wants to reduce part-time faculty numbers. Both he and Garrett say the university and the School of Health and Human Services are helping. Given four slots for new full-time hires, the Division of Social Work has interviewed 10 candidates since late March.

Anticipating the fall semester need, Hernandez said he planned to contact potential part-timers shortly after course offerings were finalized in early April. Most of the part-timers teach three units, Hernandez said.

The 42 part-timers are placed in eight offices, although the bulk are placed in just three. Room 3123 in the Business Administration Building is home to 19 part-time faculty.

"They're not all in the office at once," said Robin Carter, the graduate coordinator for social work. "They all have their own voice mail and stagger their hours."

Andy Horita, a social work graduate student, agrees accountability is an issue. He is currently taking two courses taught by part-timers.

"One of the part-time faculty I have right now doesn't even have office hours," said Horita.

He also raised the issue of governance within the division. Currently, part-timers are not required to attend department meetings -- but they also don't have a vote in division affairs, he said.

"They are out of the loop on what curriculum changes are made," he said, referring to a proposal to give part-timers the equivalent of one full-time vote in the division's articles of governance.

"We're making a concerted effort to do in-service for part-time instructors," Carter said. "We are talking about changes such as allowing them voting rights, which would bring them into more of the process. It would also allows us to monitor their progress in the classroom."

According to Hernandez, some part-timers do attend faculty meetings. He added Carter organized instructional workshops with part-timers through the semester.

"The whole idea is to be of assistance to them, to give them ideas on how to teach effectively," Hernandez said.

Creativity displayed in new literary journal

The English department is hosting a celebration to kick off its first issue of Calaveras Station, a semesterly literary journal.

"Calaveras Station hopes to become a significant vehicle for the creative expression of CSUS students," said English professor Olivia Castellano. "It brings together a multiplicity of voices -- poets, storytellers, essayists and critics."

The entire campus is invited to take part in the event, which will take place from noon to 2 p.m. on May 14 in the inner patio of the Art Building. Refreshments will be available while the audience listens to students read from their works chosen for the journal. Winners of the recent Bazzanella Literary Competition will be reading also.

Calaveras Station, which shares its name with the English Building -- recently renamed Calaveras Hall -- is sponsored by the Academic Achievement Center and the Educational Opportunity Program.

English student Kathy Sheehan has been one of the main students involved in the project.

"Soon we'll be looking for submissions for next year," she said. "We take poetry, creative writing, critical analysis, expository prose, short fiction. Basically, if you can write it, we'll find a place for it."

To offer support for student writers, Sheehan and fellow student Danielle Newton have started the "Writer's Connection." Students interested in peer critiques can drop off their manuscripts in a "swap box" in the English department office.

"We're developing a list of names and numbers so writers can connect with others and get together on their own," Sheehan said.

For information about Writer's Connection, call English professor Stephanie Tucker at 278-6358. For information on Calaveras Station, call Olivia Castellano at 278-5727, or drop by the English department office with inquiries.

Student parking officers walk both sides of the lot

Dressed in street clothes and the bright orange, reflector vest also worn by Cal Trans workers, "Jason," a biology major, has stepped on every inch of parking blacktop at the CSUS campus.

Walking up and down the rows in the parking lot with eyes like a hawk, Jason -- who asked not to have his true identity revealed because of his job -- searches for illegally parked cars.

Jason has written more parking tickets than he has short essays in his two years working in the parking enforcement division of University Transportation and Parking Services. Despite the numerous citations he has slipped between windshields and windshield wipers, he and his partner for the day, "Nal," a speech pathology major, are quick to point out they are not just ticket writers, but rather community service officers -- as their job title states.

"We are out there to assist people who do not know where to park and help in every way possible," Nal said. "It feels nice to help people and not have to give everyone you talk to a citation."

About 75 student assistants work for UTAPS, which issues about 37,000 citations per year. One-third of those students work in the parking enforcement and bicycle compound divisions.

"They do not stress on having us give all of the tickets we can," Nal said. "There are days when I give out three citations and days when I give out 33."

The UTAPS program offers students a chance to earn money while in school -- a$6-an-hour starting wage with opportunities to work up to 30 hours a week. The program also gives experience to students interested in a career in law enforcement. About half of the student community service officers are criminal justice majors.

"It is very positive when a student can obtain work experience right here on campus, especially when it is in their field of study," said Nancy Fox, the manager of Transportation and Parking Services.

But although criminal justice is not Jason and Nal's field of study, they get a chance to appreciate what it takes to work in the world of law enforcement by being on both sides of the ticketing process.

"I have had many parking tickets before I started working here and when I saw those tickets on my windshield, of course I was mad," Jason said.

As a student, giving another student a ticket can make the job a little difficult. Jason said his student status could pose a conflict of interest, but he knows it is part of his job -- a job he would like to continue while at CSUS.

"It's just part of my job. I try to relate to them as best as possible because I have been there," Jason said.

Another part of a community service officer's job is dealing with the presumed guilty. Jason was on one of his two-hour shifts, the normal working hours per shift, when an irate student approached him.

"He came up to me and just began to yell," Jason said. "He was saying, How could I live with myself by giving other students tickets."

"Yelling at us won't help people get out of their tickets," Jason said. "We do have discretion whether to give the ticket or not. If a student politely addresses the problem and is sincere, we are likely to disregard the ticket and give them assistance so they will not repeat what they got ticketed for."

Jason and Nal said they do have sympathy for other students who have been cited, but enforcing the law is just part of their jobs.

"It's just like any other job; we have rules to follow and for us, following the rules can make somebody's day pretty lousy," Jason said. "The people we cite have rules in their jobs and they follow those rules like we do in our job."

But as Jason and Nal try to follow the rules of their job, some drivers try to make enforcing the rules tougher than it already is by doing anything and everything to keep the yellow citation slips off their windshields.

Drivers try everything from changing the dates on their daily permits to putting already-issued parking tickets on their cars because they know they cannot be re-ticketed, the pair said.

But they know the tricks drivers play to try to get out of a ticket. These scams rarely work and sometimes bring more attention to the automobiles parked illegally than they would if they did not have permits, they said.

"We've tried all those tricks before we started working here," Nal said. "Before, I thought, 'Oh, those people will never check,' so we would try them. Now we know every trick so it won't work for others."

Financial aid bill clears House despite Clinton veto threat

(U-WIRE) MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- House members overwhelmingly approved a higher education bill late Wednesday that would preserve affirmative action and boost financial aid as long as recipients aren't pushing drugs.

The Higher Education Act, which shapes federal financial aid and program funding for the next five years, passed by a 414-4 vote. The bill would lower interest rates on student loans and raise caps on Pell Grants while limiting eligibility for drug offenders.

Officials expect the Senate to start floor debate on companion legislation as early as today. After it passes through the Senate and a conference committee, President Clinton must sign the bill to make it law.

Clinton already threatened to veto the legislation, insisting the student loan provisions are too generous to banks. But House officials said Clinton's opposition won't block the bill.

"We're confident with that veto-proof majority we can push this through the House and Senate and send it to the administration," said Bill McCarthy, press secretary for the Committee on Education and Work Force. More than two-thirds of members voted to pass the bill, which would be enough to overcome a veto.

Interest rates on student loans would drop from 8.2 percent to 7.4 percent on July 1. Fearing the lower rates will drive banks out of the programs, the House plan subsidizes banker's losses -- against the administration's wishes.

In another financial aid boost, representatives increased the maximum amount of money awarded to students through Pell Grants. For the 1998-99 school year, the maximum Pell Grant is $3,000. This bill would boost that number to $4,500 for the following year and $5,300 for 2003-2004. "The intent and the philosophy are excellent," said Phil Lewenstein, director of communications for the Minnesota Higher Education Services Office. "The question is, how much will they really fund?"

Lawmakers need to fund the Pell Grant program on an annual basis, which they historically have not done, Lewenstein said.

Not all students will reap the financial aid rewards. The bill bars students convicted of drug offenses -- including possession and sales -- from receiving aid.

Under these new guidelines, students become ineligible for aid for one year after their first conviction, two years following a second conviction and indefinitely after a third.

College students' lifestyles get thumbs down from researchers

By JANE SCHELL
THE VANGAURD (U. of S. ALABAMA)

(U-WIRE) MOBILE, Ala. -- The lifestyles and activities of college students are currently the focus of several recent studies.

One study, released by federal researchers in Atlanta, focused its research on unhealthy behavior. Young people are often lectured on excessive drinking and smoking. Now, unhealthy eating habits have been added to the list of what college students should avoid.

The study revealed an alarming increase in overweight college students.

The survey of 4,609 students at 36 universities was compiled by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Twenty-one percent of college students are overweight and nearly one-third smoke cigarettes, drink heavily and drive after drinking, according to the study.

Lloyd J. Kolbe, director of CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health, believes college students are sometimes viewed as a special group that should not be a subject for public health policies and programs.

"The study shows college students ... endanger their health through some of the same risky behaviors as the general population," Kolbe said.

Unhealthy behavior, such as smoking, drinking and overeating can lead to health problems and medical complications, including heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Kolbe said that in order to counteract unhealthy lifestyle choices, improved campus health programs should be created.

Research has shown an increase in drinking has become a serious problem with today's college students.

The study also found 34 percent of students admitted to binge drinking, consuming five or more drinks at a time.

Michael Predergast, assistant research historian at the University of California-Los Angeles Drug Abuse Research Center, said immediate side effects caused by drinking can also "indicate emerging patterns of excessive alcohol use (which might) continue after the student leaves college."

In addition, the study reported the leading alcohol-related problems among college students: drinking and bingeing, 33-41 percent; destruction of property, 6-7 percent; and academic problems, 17-23 percent.

David Hodge, former manager of substance-abuse counseling for the University of South Alabama Student Counseling Services, said, "Students believe they are exempt from the worries of dangerous behaviors."

Another possibility for the increase in student drinking is autonomy. Hodge believes students become preoccupied with the newfound freedom that comes with entering college.

"Young people begin to explore their limits," Hodge said.

"For me, drinking is a social thing more than anything," said Major Click, a sophomore majoring in political science. "I know my limits and everyone else should know theirs." Drinking is not the only activity in which students abuse their freedom.

Smoking is a prevalent problem among today's youth. Nearly 15 percent of first-year college students smoke.

A UCLA study found the more a person smokes, the quicker arteries will harden. Smoking is also a precursor to heart attacks and strokes.

New evidence revealed smoking causes growth changes in the lungs which might lead to cancer. These changes were also discovered in individuals who had quit smoking years before.

With these studies being public knowledge, health officials have trouble understanding why so many young people smoke.

"Smoking is something I do to relieve stress," said Lori Gallety, a University of South Alabama sophomore. "I don't plan on smoking in the future though."

Another problem facing college students is unhealthy weight gain.

James Brinkley, associate professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, said weight gain might have more to do with laziness than diet.

"It (might) be couch potatoes, not french fries, that are the heart of the problem," Brinkley said.

Americans are becoming heavier. Between 1960 and 1991, there was an 8 percent increase in the number of overweight adults.

There are many possibilities as to why weight problems begin. University of South Alabama sophomore Robyn Moore said she knows she should exercise more, "but my schedule is very hectic and does not give me much time for exercise."