1995_12 Insight December 1995

              DECEMBER 6, 1995
INSIGHT
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO
VOL. 27, NO. 11
Hoover High, a day in the life...
Troubled
teens talk
candidly
•f High school students
discuss problems with
counselors, peers
by Angela Elliott
StaffWriler
"Trouble" in high school goes far
deeper than flunking math or English.
If s Mary, a senior at Hoover High
School who's hooked on crank, cocaine and alcohol. She's also dealing
with a troubled lesbian lifestyle.
It's Tom. recently oil drugs, bul who
is so depressed. "I have breakdowns
ever> day .1 feel like I'm drowning."
And it's Bill, who confess
so f—ed up it's pitiful."
Man. Tom. Bill and do/o
' le to Gary Christiar
High guidance counselor win
■olve overwhelming probN
all
Hot
trie
ramptis, hut spill    After a long hard day of studying. Hoover High students enjoy the trip home with friends,
over from the community.
Their problems are real: rhei
prohle
"Wc deal with lite issues." lie said
"It's .1 iiiiiaiimg atmosphere, and e» -
cry thing is confidential."
Thc topic ofthc group meeting .ai
ies each lime. It depends.on lhe mm>4i
of the students. Christiansen said.
Support group* for expectant riioih-
. All spoke on the conditio
"I have no idea what 10 expect every week." Christiansen said. "Il [ihc
program) has a life of its own."
Christiansen. 111 his early forties.
ers facing drug and alcohol problems
al Hoover High. The idea is to have
sludents leant trust and respond to
troubled teens.
In a recall session for the dniv:- and
alcohol-addicted. Man. spoke in a
barel) audiblc,voice.ibntii stniaclinc
wiih lesbianism
n M.
Insight photo by Apolinar Fonseca
:lasps    crank or coke." Nlarj said "I just want
md looks dow n al    to he accepted "
is dead silent Mary's problems arise from a
is." -he said. "It's     breakup with her lesbian lover.
"II I don't U4> back to her. she is go-
; Shes,
■1 lli:jl;p
idest.
I J
cant tell \
whispers
> tell lhe group.
Mai
■| knov
See TROUBLE page 8
Local students face daily grind College decisions
♦ Drug raids and gang
activity characterize
today's campus life
by Rob Morgan
Staff Writes.
Cars screech into the parking lot.
Backpacks bounce off shoulders as
hundreds of feel trudge across the
Welcome to Hoover High Schoc
It's been five \ears since I gradu-      Hoover had a drug bust, he ex-
ated from Hoover. Now I'm back as plained.
an Insight reporter. Drug-smiting dogs scoured the cam-
But within minutes of mv arrival 4>n pus for illegal substances.
Tuesday. Oct. 31.1 was ordered off The raid resulted in two
campus by an obviously agitated As- "siispendible oflenscs": one un-
sisiant Principal Neil Smilh and asked Opened can ol beer in a pickup truck
10 return later. and an undisclosed quantity of nian-
The tension among faculty was ap- juana in a car.
parent. Di>gs.' Police' Drugs?
Smith, in a pressed white shirt and      As I recall, mv years at Hoover
♦ Which school to
attend is one of life's
difficult choices
by Aram Sarkissian
.eablv relie
•d. Hc-
ii the
1 I r
See DAY, page 5
:ompares it to the $906
K»r a semester at Call torn instate L'nt-
Goss would prefer Fresno Slate,
but said most pr4«bablv he'd end up
at City College because, "it's the
cheapest school to zo u\ and the edu-
vears."
' It's not that Hoover High students
don't respect Fresno State, but the
cost keeps many from applying.
See FCC, page 5
Professors
earn little
as authors
by Jefferson Beavers
Staff Writer
Imagine putting heart and soul into
a project for three or four years.
Hours of intensive work. Missed
time from fitmily and friends. Emotional and financial strain.
Professors at California Slate University. Fresno who have w ritten textbooks know the feeling.
The Used Book Buyback at Kennel
Bookstore Dec. 14-22 is the sort of
thing that causes textbook authors to
cringe.
•   The used textbook market reduces
royalties to near zero.
"Professionally, it has been very rewarding to have a successful book out
there," said mathematics professor
Robert Arnold.
Arnold co-authored the general education textbook "Excursions in Modern Mathematics" with math colleague Peter Tannenbaum. The book
took three years to complete.
"On one hand. I would write the
book again," Arnold said. On the other
hand, considering the time and effort
required in writing a book, Arnold's ■
hourly wage is very low.
Arnold and Tannenbaum get better
returns on their text than some professors because of high popularity for
Mathematics 45. the General Educa-
Students
experience
street life
bv Christina M. Penir
StaffWriler
Eighteen->ear-oId Ryan
Scalzo left behind his parents'
5.000-square-foot home in rural Clovis the weekend before
Thanksgiving to become one of
San Francisco's homeless.
Scalzo and 30 other young
people from Fresno. Clovis.
Reedley and Dinuba gave up
their weekend and joined Urban Plunge, a Chnstian youth
ministry that helps students put
their belief inlo practice.
The group, ranging in ages
from 18 to 25. arrived in San
Francisco and split into groups
of four, each given a list of objectives.
Gave up the good life
The students dressed in
grungy clothes. Each received
S1.25 for food and transportation. For Scalzo. this meant
shedding his S50 Levi Silvcrtab
jeans and Polo button-down
shirt and layering himself with
multi-colored flannels. He
wore long-johns for warmth.
According to Emillio
Alexandro, Scalzo's group
leader, the S 1.25 is 10 help the
students realize the plight of the
homeless.
It was not the S1.25 that
helped Scalzo realize the obstacles the homeless face. Il
was the musly smell of the alleyways and the despair and
lack of hope that lurked around
the lower income districts of
the city.
Surviving on $1.25
"At first I didn'l understand
why we had to dress grungy."
Scalzo said. "But the homeless
have a kinship with one another. They accepted us and
were a lot more receptive to
what we had to say."
The S1.25 didn'l go very far
for the 6-foot-3-inch. 200-
pound Scalzo. His stomach was
rumbling by the end of the first
day. Scalzo's group ate breakfast at the Tenderloin Rescue
Mission and scrounged up
whatever they could for lunch
and dinner.
"Some of us begged for food
at the back doors of fast-food
See HOMELESS, page 8
Instructors just want to be alone
by   the
Insight photo Illustration by Apolinar Fonseca
Bookstore costs are not as inflated as many students think.
lion class in which the texi is used.
Each year. 4(M) studenls lake Math
45 at Fresno State. The lext is also
popular for a GE math course at area'
junior colleges.
Other professors who write textbooks in specially areas are noi as
lucky.
Used book sales and small audiences, combined vv ith high production
costs, make it almost impossible to
get a good return on a specialty textbook.
Mass Communication and Journalism professor Greg Lew is spent four
years working on his textbook, "Photojournalism: Conieni and Technique."
Lewis said hc did not write the textbook to gel rich, bul he did expect a
f3ir return for the effort.
"It'shorrible to put all your time and
energy into a book and noi get a
nickel." Lewis said.    .    .
Lewis' book is used at Fresno State
for MCJ 17. Beginning Photojournalism, and MCJ 134. Intermediate Photojournalism, An average semester
might see 20-25 students enrolled in
both classes.
"Since [photojournalism is] a very
narrow specially." Lew is said, "there's
almost not enough sales to justify the
printing of the text."
High prices for specially textbooks
reflect iheir markets. The narrower the
specialty, the higher lhe price.
Textbooks for engineering, nursing
and physical therapy are among the
most costly, according to Kennel
Bookstore textbook manager Susan
Battel.
Specialty disciplines often have thc
lowest number of used books available as well. Students keep lhe books
tor future reference.
See BOOKS, page 5
♦ Offices changing to
single occupancy for
professors
bv Valerie Gibbons
Staff Writer
More than 35 percent of California
ate University. Fresno faculty still
are Iheir offices with a co-worker,
tradition the university is trying to
A 1985
Chancellor's Office recommended the univ entity convert
to private offices, in an effort
t4> improve the quality of education and confidentiality.
According to. Debbie
Astone, interim director of facilities planning at Fresno
State, the university includes
private offices into plans when
constructing a new building or
Renovation on campus is
done on a piece bv piece ba-    __,
sis. A department w ith shared
offices will need to wait until funds
are available to convert the shared
offices into private 4>nes.
Most of ihe shared offices on campus are in the older "quad" area,
which includes the McKee Fisk and
Family/Food Sciences buildings.
"The problem with the offices in the
older buildings is they are only 150
square ft., so you can't jusl cut them
in half. The university standard for
faculty offices is 110 square ft.."
Astone said.
1
didn't have the time to
sonally. After a while. I realized he
was writing the memos to me even
when I was at my desk — two feet
away.
"He would write down what he had
to say. walk down the hall to the department office and put it in my mailbox. 1 was expected to do the same."
Most of the buildings wiih priv
offices are on the east end of campus,
such as the Peters Business. Science
and Conley Art buildings.
A location, which would put some
professors out of the loop" of information in their departments, prompting many to opi for a semi-private
office instead.
There are some disadvantages to this she said. "I eventually moved; I don't
arrangement. If one professor has a work well in that kind of environ-
class which requires a great deal of   menL"
time working with the students, his Most semi-private office relation-
officemate will need to get used to ships are friendly ones; for some,
sharing an office can be an in-
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^'^^^^^^^m valuable learning experience.
Professor Schyler Rehan of
the Mass Communication and
Journalism Department shared
an office for 15 years with the
late Roger Tartarian, a nation-
ally-respected editor and
writer.
"1 had the opportunity to
share an office with one of the
"After a while, I realized he
was writing the memos to me
even when I was at my desk
— two feet away."
— Associate Professor
W'llO wished tO remain   greatest writing coaches in the
anonymous
Rehart said,
would work with students for
—    hours on their articles. I
learned so much from listen-
working with constant conversation    ing to him advise his students on their
in the room.     . writing."
Occasionally, a personality clash Two professors in one office can
with an officemate can be so severe make things difficult for students,
il makes working conditions unbear- When two officemates are both talk-
able. One associate professor remem- ing to students.'it becomes obvious
bers an incident several years ago the small space can't handle two con-
when her officemate was so angry at versaiions at once,
her. he refused to talk to her face to Private offices are available in over
face. half of Ihe buildings on campus. Ten-
"At first 1 assumed he was leaving    ured professors and lecturers are
memos in my mailbox because he   given first priority.