1996_11 Insight November 1996

              In Focus
NOVEMBER 6. 1996 I
Fresno State known
around the world
COMPUTER, from page 3
I More than 500 students
from around the globe
attend Fresno State
by Fernando Gomez
Staff Writer
The fact that 596 international students
from at least 100 countries have chosen to
study at Fresno State is not coincidence.
Fresno State sends brochures to more
than 800 advising centers around the world.
International student enrollment stands at
445 undergraduate and 151 graduate students for a total of 596. Among these, 328
are male and 268 are female
Thc top three countries with exchange
students at Fresno State are Japan with 81,
Malaysia with 79 and Indonesia with 66.
Few around campus know more about international students than Carol B.
Munshower. who has been working for 17
years as director of international student
services and programs.
She said students come from all over thc
world to Fresno State, recommended by
friends who have been at the university before. Students also learn about Fresno State
through one of thc 800 advising centers
around thc world.
"One ofthe surprises ofthe exchange students is that the Fresno State campus is not
close to the beach or a big  city."
Munshower said.
Jihad Habib, an exchange student from
Lebanon, has been in Fresno for a year.
"Since 1960, all my brothers, cousins and
uncles have been studying at this university. Two of my brothers graduated from
here," Habib said. .
No time for fun
Students from other countries sometimes
experience culture shock.
Habib said a major cultural difference is
that in the United States students work too
much and do not have time to socialize.
"People here arc more oriented towards
wealth more than anything else. No space
for family." Habib said.
Chinami Someya. an exchange student
from Japan, came to Fresno State because
it was recommended by her school in Ja-
SPENDING, from page 1
said that the practice of depositing the
money into Foundation accounts was in
place before his appointment. He said that
he was advised lhat the money could be
used under Foundation rules.
Quillan said that after learning lhat the
money should have been only used for
energy conservation related projects,
"alternative funding sources" were found to
reimburse the account.
Under-reporting alleged
During 1990-96, according lo administration figures, nearly $330,000 &as spent on
remodeling the Thomas Administration
building.
AHAAC alleges that the administration under-reported the cost of thc remodeling and
refurbishing of the Thomas Administration
building by $85,000.
Included in the cost of the remodeling, in
addition to the $6,700 for thc refurbished
brass doors, was nearly $3,000 for the purchase of Ansel Adam's prints for the office
of Peter Smits of thc Office of University Advancement.
Smits, whose job it is to raise private money
for thc university, said lhat the prints were
not bought for his personal use but rather to
make an impression on potential donors.
"When I leave this office, the prints are
staying," Smits said.
"I think it's important lhat people get a
good impression of Fresno State. Most times,
this office is the first one they visit on cam-
Final report in November
Ida Jones, AHAAC chair, said thai the committee will meet with Thomas Ehrlich Nov.
1 to work out disagreements between thc administration and the committee.
Ehrlich is the chair of the committee that
provided AHAAC with its data. He is the
former dean of Stanford University Law
School and president of Indiana University.
AHAAC plans to have a final report ready
by mid to late November.
Welty said Ihe preliminary AHAAC report
was written in a hostile tone.
He said the report "disappointed" him.
Welty said his administration has made every effort to answer all questions honestly.
"We've just gone through a budget crisis. I
recognize and understand some of the frustrations of thc campus community." Welty
said.
"But this report [AHAAC| is full of distortions and inaccuracies."
Last semester, the high level of frustration
among some members ofthe faculty resulted
in anonymous e-mail messages criticizing
Welty and other high-ranking members of his
administration.
The anonymous e-mail messages led to the
return of several automobiles leased at Foundation expense to Welty and others.
Welty, in an attempt to answer the allegations raised by the anonymous e-mail, held
an open forum where he and his top administrators answered questions from faculty and
staff.
In response lo Welly's explanations of his
administration's practices, the Academic Senate created AHAAC to investigate Welty's
explai
pan.
/Someya said she was expecting Fresno
State to be more difficult. She has a 3.69
grade point average and takes more Ihan 12
unils every semester.
"My biggest problem is speaking. I do
not speak the language good and Americans talk a lot." Someya said.
Nicole Theiner, an exchange student
from Germany, came to Fresno State to
study in the speech pathology program.
"Fresno Slate is a nice school with many
international students, but it's still too conservative." Theiner said.
to be canceled, sometimes for an entire
week.
John Carroll, a computer science undergraduate, said he had missed three weeks
worth of labs because of computer problems.
"A lot of these machines just shut down on
you. Or they just freeze." he said. "And these
machines are so slow." "
Other members of the faculty have also
canceled classes and pushed back some of
their assignmemslo compensate for thc shortage of workable machines. •   '
Repair requests ignored
Read said he's made several requests for
maintenance bul many went unheeded.
The maintenance requests are usually sent
to either Russ Pecry. System Administrator
for Computer Science, or to Mohamad
Youscf. director of the Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) activities committee. Both
Yousef and Perry said they have looked into
thc problems whenever they received complaints from the department.
The Dean for each ofthe academic schools
within lhc university is responsible for using
the money allocated to the School by the Pro-
This money may be spent on maintenance
of equipment of purchasing of new equipment or any other expense thc Schools may
incur.
The entire university, includmg thc School
of Engineering and Compuler Science, is also
covered by a maintenance contract with outside 'vendors.'
Funds available
The Computer Science departmept also
gets a supplement of SI 50,000 from the Provost under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Provost and thc Dean
ofthe School of Engineering.
Read, however, questions where the money
is being spent. "I don't know where it is going," he said." We haven't seen a dime of it."
The MOU is an agreement which allows
the School of Engineering to maintain and
replace all of their computer software and
hardware and any other additional equipment
purchased during the four years (1994-1998)
of the agreement.
The Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Alexander Gonzales said he
signed the MOU so it would allow the school
the freedom to do something different by
maintaining the computers by itself.   .
Read also said he's sent a memo to thc Interim Dean of the School of Engineering and
Compuler Science. Karl Longlcy, requesting
the information under the California Public
Records Act.
More memos sent
Hay also said he has written memos to the
Associate Provost for Academic Resources.
Richard Tellier and Longley.
Ih his memo. Hay has requested copies of
all documents detailing the expenditures related to the MOU.
"Il disturbs me and other students that even
though the School is receiving $150,000 a
year for maintenance, our needs are not being met." Hay said.
"I received a written response from Associate Provost Tellier suggesting I check with
the School regarding the copies of documents
related to the MOU." Hay said.
Possible solution in the works
Longley said his office was getting ready
to give Hay thc information he asked for. He
also said he was setting up a committee lo
prepare a financial management plan.
"The information | Hay asked for] exists on
a spreadsheet." he said. "I want some analysis done on it." Longley said the committee
will also be responsible for putting together
an operational manual.
"The manual will address a lot of thc issues students and slaff are disturbed about."
On October 30. Gonzalez and Tellier met
with Longlcy. Gonzalez said he and Tellier
had raised each of thc issues the Computer
Sciences faculty had raised in a prior meeting.
"For some of them, we got answers to right
away, and the others we are in the process of
finding," he said. Longlcy said he was sensitive to the problem in the 201 lab and some
new computers have been ordered.
The nine new Macintosh Performasare surrounded by controversy. Read said he had not
been told officially about these machines and
questioned if the computers had even been ordered for the department.
"Whatever information I got was unofficial
and that too just very recently." he said.
Read added while he was not offended by
the Macintosh Performas. he would have preferred being consulted. "I think thc faculty
knows better." he said. Yousef, who was in
charge of the purchasing, said he had acted
on what Longley told him. "He told me that
there were machines broken and you are responsible for the labs. The Performas are standard Macs and they will function pretty well,"
he said.
If the Macs are surrounded by controversy,
Osiris, a computer server, is surrounded by
even greater controversy.
Perry decided to upgrade the operating system on Osiris. Osiris was a server used mainly
by Computer Science students for e-mail and
networking. Osiris also housed the web pages
ofthe School. The Computer Science faculty
also used Osiris for research.
Read said although he was given an indication that changes would be made to the
server, he did not expect the server to be pulled
down in thc middle ofthe semester. Perry said
he had begun making changes on Osiris in the
summer, but because of some technical difficulties and personal problems, ihe work was
carried over to the Fall semester.
Students such as Carroll and Williams said
they lost a lot of files when the files were
moved from Osiris to Triton, thc new server.
Lack of communication
Gonzalez. Tellier, Longley and Yousef all
said that there had been a lack of communication between the Computer Science Department and the School of Engineering and
Computer Science.
"I think that one of the biggest problems is
communication," Longley said. "What I really appreciate is objective communication."
"It is one thing for a member of a faculty
to come to me and say the computers don't
work," Yousef said. "It is completely another
thing to read about it in the newspaper or an
e-mail that is directed to the president."
In the meantime, the Computer Science students say they're disillusioned. The students
graduating in December and May arc worried
about the availability of workable machines
for their senior projects.
"It's high time the department is provided
with better equipment by the School of Engineering and Computer Science." said Jamil
Modak, who graduated last year. "The computers in both McKee Fisk labs are at least
five, six years old."
"Computer Science program?" Farzad
Buxey. a graduate student said. "The Computer Science program is a virtual reality. It
exists in name only."
President John Welty
"The only goal of this committee is to get
out this information in a fair and complete
way," Jones said.
"We're not out to 'get' Welty or Ihe admin-
Kiddies in classroom cause
distractions for some professors
■ Student-parents are faced
with a dilemma when
bringing children to class
by Irene Marin
Staff Wrter
It's not show and loll, bul there are limes
when liny visitors sit in lecture classes with
moms or dads. Little ones can attract alien-
lion, bul there are studenis and professors \\ ho
say they're distracted w hen kids are present.
There are times when 20-year-old Lorena
Villa. Fresno Slate student and mother of two.
has to miss class because Karla or Francisco
is too sick to be in day care.
Villa, a pre-nursing sophomore, and her
husband are both studenis at Fresno State. She
comes to school every day. Her husband holds
two jobs. Right before class Villa drops off
both two-year-old Karla and one-year-old
Francisco at the campus day care center.
Last semester Villa dropped out of school
to care for her children at home.
"I tell he would gel wild if I'd lake him lo
class. Just imagine whal he would have done
while I was trying to take notes?" said Villa.
She admitted kids can be a distraction in
class, depending on the age of (he child.
Professor Robert Merrill. 54. of the Geology Department at Fresno State has been
teaching geology classes for 25 years.
This year professor Merrill is leaching Geology I. a general education class usually filled
with freshman.
Test days can be trouble
Merrill said one student this semster
brought her child lo class without telling him.
"It was on a test day and this causes distractions, especiallv lor other students." said
Merrill.
Merrill said the student's child has regular
day care, but the child
"Kids are never a
distraction   in   my
classes."
- Professor David Frank
was sick at the lime. He said he talked lo the
siudeni and ad\ ised her lo take the lest some
other way.
"I don'l understand, it ihe university provides testing services for ihe disabled office,
ihen why can't there be alternatives for day
cares for mothers with sick children?" said
Merrill..
On a test day. if a disabled student has
trouble showing up. the Disabled Student Services provides security ofthe test and a room
with supervision. On campus day cares don'l
do this.
Day care centers usually don'l take sick
children because other children are at risk of
catching an illness.
Professor David Frank. 52, has been teaching chemistry classes for 27 years at Fresno
State.
This semester Frank teaches Chemistry 1A
and 3A. both pre-requisite classes for upper
division science courses and part of the general education requirements.
"Kids are never a distraction in my classes."
said Frank.
Frank is also a father. He said he considers
himself a kid-friendly type of guy. He said he
has no problem with parents bringing them
along.
"Sometimes I'll form a science lab for kids,
so they too can learn lab." said Frank.„
The energetic chemistry professor who
finds nothing w rong by bringing kids to class,
said he doesn'l think other students would
have a problem either.
"The bottom line is. I've never had an oc-
casion of children distraction. Acttically, it
seems to me that children arc better behaved
than students of my own."
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