1992_05 The Daily Collegian May 1992

              The Dally Collegian
Volume XCVIII
Issue No. 66"
CSUy Fresno's Only Independent News Source
Tuesday f
May 5,1992      ^y
laws interpreted narrowly
lohn D. Chavira
Contributing writer
During 1991, there were 604 crimes at
CSUF reported to University police. Crimes
ranged from two single incidents
of rape and robbery to 315 reports
of larceny/then.
The statisties are readily
available to students and the
general public because of the
federal 1990 Student Right-to-
Know and Campus Security Act. However,
public access to incident reports revealing'
details of campus crime remain severely
restricted by the University Police
Department despite provisions in the
California Public Records Act which detail
the disclosure of public records, including
police reports, to anyone who requests
them.
The restrictions center
around strict University Police
Department interpretations of
the state act regarding
exemptions permissible by law
enforcement agencies
regarding disclosure of the details of an
arrest
"You're going to find we are going to
play it very close over release of records,"
said CSUF police chief Bill Anderson.
The law states that "any person may
receive a copy of any identifiable public
record." However, University Police
staunchly refuse to release copies or allow
copies to Jje made of police reports.
"Most ofthe time you will find that most
of the information (in (he reports) will be
released," Anderson said. "But we're not
going to turn the report over to you. We
don't see anything really constructive in
just handing over the reports." I  '
Under the Act, law enforcement agencies
are exempt from disclosing records or
Patrick Young loads a wheelchair onto the bus he and JunkoKunttuke will use todellver the wheelchairs and
other medical supplies to health clinics In El Salvador.
Local bands 'rock the vote'
Manny Fernandez
Staffwriter
On the outskirts of Fresno—where
people still ride horses on dirt trails and
you can hear, if you really strain, the sound
of the river to the north—the sound of rock
n'roll filled the air. >    -
The Rock the Vote concert held Sunday
afternoon at FPO.A Park featured The
Crucified, The Miss Alans, The Reverend
Horton Heat and The Neanderthals
performing live, as well as information,
voter-registration and voter-awareness
booths.
Hundreds of teenagers were scattered
s the. fcrass in front of the stage, lying
oil blankets, talking in groups.
They were there for the music—the sonic
fury of the Crucified; the funk-punk of the
Neanderthals; therock-a-billy thrash of the
Reverend Horton Heat.
But as the fans listened to the musk,
they also walked by some of the information
booths, like Mark Woods voter registration
table.
1 don't do this for the money," he said,
as four people crouched over the table and
signed their names in numbered boxes.
"1 do it because I really believe in it I
always believed in helping people make a
positive choke."
. Gary Trousael, and his friend registered
to vofeo'nSundayat Wood's tooth. Minutes
before, they had been discussing how the
youth, one day, are going to be in power,
and the old will step down, or move over.
This is it right here," he said, his hand
coming out of his pocket and waving over
the youths and the park. This is the future."
Jason Olmstead, a student at McLane
High School, is the future Troussel was
referring to.
Olmstead said he went to the concert to
see the Neanderthals, but the voter-
awareness aspect of the concert was a good
idea.
"Hopefully, this will bring the energy
from musk into voting," he said, as an
See VOTE page 6
information whkb would endanger the
successful completion of an investigation.
Police are also exempt from disclosing the
name and address of a victim of rape, sexual
assault or a racially-motivated attack. These
exemptions are based on the governmental
interest in the successful prosecution of
criminals and protecting a victim's right to
privacy. But the University Police
Department routinely refuses to divulge
details of crime reports which fall outside
the exemptions by interpreting vague
provisions in the act broadly.
Se« POLICE page 3
Chemistry
profdie^
in auto
accident
Aimee L. Fisher	
News editor
Kenneth Chan didn't fit the stereotype
of a chemistry professor.
Wearing his standard boots and blue
jeans, with his keys dangling from his belt-
loop and his buck-knife buckled on, Chan
looked more like a park ranger than a
chemistry' professor.
% Chan, 36, died April 16 after being
broadsided by a tractor-trailer rig while
pulling out of a turnout on Highway 152.
Chan, who was an avid backpacker and
lived in the Yosemite Lakes community of
Coarsegold, was returning from camping
at The Pinnacles in southern California.
Chemistry graduate student Robb Culp
characterized Chan as "an academic
eccentric" as far as his dress and the way he
related to students.
"He was here every weekend," Culp
said. "He never quite left the graduate
mindset I think he related more with the
students than he did with the faculty."
However, Chan was 'perhaps one of
4he most demanding professors," Culp said.
In one of the classes Culp took, Chan
assigned a 20-page take home examination
to be done in one week.    -
"If you knew him personally, you liked
him, but if you took a class from him you
cursed him because [his exams] were so
hard and very long," Culp said. "He'd
receive all of these (exams] and he would
go up to the mountains backpacking and
grade them.
See CHANpage6
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