1994_09 Insight September 1994

              Wednesday September 281994 CALIFORNIA STATE  UNIVERSITY,  FRESNO
Volume 26, Issue 3
Ring my belly(button)
INSIGHT
The newest craze is what some
might call self-mutilation, while others refer to it as self-expression.
Body piercing has actually been
around for a long lime. It was really
big in the twenties and thirties, but it
took a steep decline after World War
II.
"The big communist scare turned a
lot of people off of body piercing,"
said Jeri Metzlcr, owner of the only
body piercing shop in Fresno, Spears
of Shiva. "People didn't want to be
labeled different or strange."
Metzler first got the idea of body
piercing at age four after watching an
old pirate movie where the star had
both his nipples pierced.
"My mom said I couldn't have my
ear pierced at age nine," said Metzler.
"So I went into the bathroom and did
it myself."
Metzler did not start experimenting
with all-over body piercing until age
!6or 17.
He has been professionally piercing for the past four years and has
owned his own business since August
of last year.
So is this whole craze just a fad for
the young, or are others jumping on
the latest bandwagon?
"A lot of different kinds of people
arc doing it now," said Metzler.
"Anyone from businessmen to 75-
year-old grandmothers."
People today are doing it for many
different reasons: anything from trying to illuminate their spiritual beings
to trying to look like one of the
crowd.
Some people might be looking for
the erotic pleasures lhat have been associated wilh body piercing.
"Many find it cither psychologically or physically erotic depending
on the person," said Metzlcr. "General erogenous zones get pierced to
increase their sensitivity to touch."
Metzler did agree though that body
piercing has become the trendy thing
to do for many.
"You now see models with belly-
button rings. It's just a part of the
whole world becoming commercialized," Metzler said. "We're all just
under a media blitz."
For those over 18 interested in body
piercing. Metzler will pierce just
about any part of your body.
"There is no strange place to pierce,"
said Metzler."As long as the piercing
doesn't affect the function of the body
part, I'll pierce it."
For 16 and 17-year-olds, Metzler
will only do face and midsection
piercing. If you want your nipples or
genitals pierced, you're going to have
to wait two more years.
Kids under 16 can have their noses,
navels, eyebrows or earlobes pierced
with their parent's permission.
Body piercing isn't something you
can just walk right off the street and
get done. A person usually needs to
make an appointment.
See PIERCING, page 8
Students utilize the on-campus IBM/Apple computer laboratory in McKee Fi.sk.
Apples for the students?
Christine Malamanig
INSIGHT
While most students need only
a small basket to buy textbooks,
notebooks and bluebooks, they
may need a shopping cart to add
powcrbooks lo their school shopping.
Hanging in the air is the question of whether California universities will make computer purchases an additional college necessity.
Earlier this month, a rumor
spread like wildfire lhat three
California Stale University campuses, Humboldt, Sonoma and
San Luis Obispo, would require
students to own computers as pan
of an admission requirement.
CSUF officials bounced the
idea around a lew years ago and
then dropped it.
The CSUF academic computer
planning committee (ACPC).
which meets every other week to
discuss issues that deal with computer facilities, discussed the idea
of making computer ownership a
student requirement about 10
years ago, according to Gail
Abbott, computing consultant coordinator of Computing, Communications & Media Services (CCMS).
Abbott said the committee didn't
come up with a resolution or a recommendation, but she said. "It's been
bandied about."
Helen Gigliolti. CSUF associate
provost of academic resources, said,
"We've talked aboul it from time to
The reason the ACPC didn't pursue the idea is because the idea was
premature, Gigliotti said.
The idea may be more feasible now,
she said, "but I don't think we're anywhere near adopting the require-
News stories earlier this month
about such a requirement at the three
CSUs prompted CSU Chancellor
Barry Munitz to announce the inaccuracy of these news stories at an academic senate meeting.
The misunderstanding was based
upon a letter from the presidents ask-'
ing for a discussion on the topic of
technology and student learning,
Munitz was quoted as saying in the
minutes of an academic senate meeting.
Sonoma State University provost
and vice president of academic affairs, to students in August, said
that "SSU is considering making
ownership of a suitable computer
a requirement for all incoming
Freshmen in Fall 1995."
Farish also strongly recommended that new students consider purchasing a suitable computer for their studies at SSU now.
Cal Poly, one of the CSU campuses mentioned in the news stories, has sold between one and 10
computers this semester as a direct result from the letter and news
stories, said Judd Jones, manager
of Cal Poly's El Corral Bookstore.
"Sales are up over last year,"
Jones said, but he said he doesn't
know if the increase in sales is
solely because of talk of a computer requirement.
The Kennel Bookstore computer
department currently sells 25-30
computers a month, said one
bookstore computer department
employee.
Unlike Sonoma Slate students,
CSUF students are not given a
A letter sent by Donald Farish,       See COMPUTERS, page 8
Graduation: Fact or fiction?
INSIGHT
Most students agree that their college years are flying by at warp speed.
So why does graduation day seem
light years away?
The harsh reality for many college
students is that a diploma is rarely
acquired in four years.
According to Jeannine Raymond,
acting director of Institutional Research, it takes most students a little
over five years to graduate. She said
•ome students have taken up to eight
or 10 years before graduation.
CSUF 1993 statistics from the Office of Institutional Research show
that only 11 percent of the freshman
class will graduate in four years.
However, it will not be too long
before students can don their caps and
gowns sooner wan they think.
Two programs, a four-year plan and
a three-year plan, have been proposed to help students earn their diploma faster.
The first program, a four-year plan,
is an organized program designed to
help students obtain their diploma in
four years. It is still going through the
Academic Senate for approval.
"It gets students through a well-
structured program in a shorter length
of time," Raymond said.
Raymond said the motivation for the
new four-year program, which was
devised last year, comes from two
sources.
"First, the public institutions want to
help students get to their goals as soon
as they can," Raymond said.
The second cause is for legislation
to get students through the pipeline
faster in order to serve more students,
Raymond said.
See GRADUATION, page 8
m*r*
Christine Mirigian/INSIGHT
He "nose" his business — Jerry Metzler, "professional" body piercer and owner of
Spears of Shiva, sports facial rings.
Ag's massive microwave
Joe Rosato Jr.
INSIGHT
The School of Agriculture at California State University, Fresno has a
microwave — large enough to drive
a car through.
MTVAC. an acronym for "microwave vacuum," is a 40-foot long food
dchydrator combining microwave
and vacuum technology in a revolutionary process that doesn't dry food
but dehydrates it.
It is part of the S2.2 million Dried
Foods Technology Laboratory and
Microwave Vacuum Pilot Plant at
CSUF. completed in 1991.
MTVAC is the only one of its kind,
according to Project Manager Carter
Clary. Clary developed MIVAC
while working with grape drying.
He said he realized at the time that
he'd stumbled across something
unique.
"We were looking at Ways of drying grapes into raisins," said Clary.
"It didn't make raisins."
Clary's work yielded something he
calls a "grape puff which, though
dried, retained its grape shape and
color. His initial intention was to
widen the market for seedless grapes
through the introduction of the grape
puff, which he hoped would increase
demand for grapes.
"It's different enough from raisins
for the consumer to make the distinc
tion," he said.
MIVAC looks like a large cylinder-
shaped water tank lying on its side.
Inside is the large microwave and
vacuum that dehydrates foods at
lower temperatures than environmental drying.
According to Clary, sunlight dries
foods at high temperatures, which kill
heat-sensitive vitamins present in
vegetables and fruits. Environmental drying changes food's characteristics, such as color and shape.
"Nutritionally, you preserve things
better," Clary said of the MTVAC process. "You don't damage the product.
In heat they're lost — vitamins are
susceptible to heat and ultra-violet
light."
MIVAC's pressurized vacuum system lowers the food's boiling point,
allowing the microwave to dehydrate
the food at a lower temperature, causing the food to retain its color, shape
and flavor.
The process doesn't require sulfites
or preservatives, which are used in
outdoor drying to preserve food's
color.
"If you put something in raw, it
comes out dry and raw," said Amel
Sanchez, MIVAC technician, one of
three full-time staff members.
The facility also employs students.
CSUF enology major Randy
Hcrron, who helps out on the MIVAC.
said, "I think it's fascinating.
Matt Soby/INSIGHT
MIVAC is able to dehydrate potatoes in two hours.
Inside INSIGHT
"You put this wet, semicooked potato in there and you get this nice,
crunchy, flavorful potato you can
rchydrate and cook."
Besides potatoes and grapes, some
40 vegetables and fruits have been
tested in MTVAC.
The dried vegetables are used as
food snacks, and as ingredients in cereals, soups and baking mixes. Clary
said he tried selling.the dried fruit
snacks at the campus' Farm Market
but getting the product packaged became too difficult and expensive.
Aside from difficulty in snack retail, the MTVAC project has remained
self-sufficient.
According to Clary, the project retains its independence by performing
product development and testing for
private food companies.
The CSUF facility gives companies
the chance to test out their ideas with
trained technicians which is much
more economically feasible than
building their own facilities.
The companies pay for the use of
the dchydrator and would pay royalties to the Ag department should the
business decide to use the MTVAC-
tested products commercially, said
Dr. Jon Shaver, assistant dean in
charge of the California Agricultural
Technology Institute.
Royalties could amount to hundreds
of thousands of dollars for the university, the entirety of which would
go back into the project. Shaver said.
Clary and Shaver both said that by
contractual arrangement, they
weren't allowed to divulge the names
of companies using the apparatus.
Clary did say, however, that as of
yet, no companies have committed to
using a MTVAC- developed product.
"It's very close to happening,"
Shaver said. "When you're dealing
with a brand-new technology, it takes
a while to move it from a research
operation to a commercial oper-
"Prospective clients are interested
in various MTVAC facilities throughout the world," he said.
But not all companies are turning
somersaults to use MTVAC.
"We haven't figured out what to do
with it yet," said Jeff Wick, manager
of Wawona Frozen Foods, whose
company has used the CSUF service
to test ideas.
"It's such a unique process to have
close by," he said.
"Every time we have a glimmer of
hope at a new idea, we call them up
and see if they have a little line time
open," said Wick.
One idea Wick had was to market
dry strawberry slices as "fruit croutons."
After experimenting with the
MTVAC processed strawberries, he
concluded that the fruit became too
soggy and gummy for use.
Wick said that the potential intrigued him. but he couldn't see a way
it would fit in with Wawona's business.
Though the new process for produce-dehydration hasn't caught on
overnight. Clary said the project is
moving along as planned.