1992_05 Insight May 1992

              JN S^rP
Volume 24, Issue 23
Wednesday, May 6,1992
King verdict aftershock hits area
By Christopher Heredia
StaffWriter 	
As dusk settled and the
weekend began in Fresno
May 1, the city cushioned itself
from the shock waves
reverberating across tnecountryin
the aftermath of the April 29
acquittal of four LAPD officers in
the Rodney King beating trial.
Although one man was shot to
death outsidea jewelry store in the
Fresno Fulton Mall Friday and the
blarcofvehiclehomsfueledadcm-
onstra tion beyond midnight at the
comer of Blackstone and Shaw
avenues, local residents, business
owners and police kept the dty in
check amid reports of fires, looting
and demonstrations in numerous
ci ties across the country.
At the Watoto Day Care Center
in Fresno's predominantly African—American and Latino West
Side and ata Chief Auto Parts store
intrwitrcighhorhood.ownerswere
keeping an eye on thei r businesses
and dosing shop early, just in case
tension flared into violence.
At a Food Maxx supermarket at
the comer of Kings Canyon and
Willow avenues, store employees
closed the 24-hour store at 10 p.m
Friday due to what store manager
Steve Hunt said was a misconception of unrest in the food mall.
A three-day Cincode Mayo festival on the Fulton Mall was cancelled after the 5 p.m. shooting of
53-year-old Catarino Rodriguez of
Del Rey. Witnesses said Rodriguez,
a Latino, was parked in his truck in
an alley beside Majestic Jewelry
andLoanCo.whenamulti—racial
group of youths approached the
storeand began breaking windows
and steaM ng jewehy. Police, dad in
riotgear,cteared festival goers from
the mall.
Dusk settles
A family gathered on a bench at
the mallaboutan hour beforedusk.
The King verdict was on Joe Wil-
• son Sr.'s mind. At 57, he said he's
never had any run-ins with the law
and prefers to keep it that way.
"1 go fishing. When I don't go
fishing, I go to church Thaf s how
I stay out of trouble," Wilson said.
"The whole thing in LA is not
concerned about King," Wilson
said. "The violence is not the way
to go about it. You never solve any
problems that way. You've got to
obey the law," he said.
Violence was too close tha t night
in Fresno. A gunshot in the distance jolted Wilson, his son, wife
and daughter out of their seats. As
they fled the mall, Wilson hollered,
"I don't like the West Side. I'm
getting out of the West Side."
Tight security
Fresno Police Officer Robert
Montgomery, driving up and
down the Fulton Mall, his partner
in a separate car in front of him,
said the police dearcd the mall
only as a precaution.
"Right now it seems like the
whole damn department's working," said Montgomery.
Montgomery logged on about
the time of the mall shooting and
was expected to work until 6 a.m.
— five overtime hours. All days
off for the entire force were cancelled and some of ficers were called
back from vacation, Police Chief
Joseph Samuels said earlier in the
day at a press conference.
Asked if he felt demonstrators
would receive him differently because he is African—American,
officer Montgomery said, "I've
been there before."
Montgomery grew up in Los
Angeles and was mere for the I%5
Watts rebellion.
"1 know what it's about," he
said. "It seems like when you put
on a blue suit it doesn't matter,
though That's all they see."
Outside the Radio bilingiie studio on the mall, disc jockey Al
Roblcs stood alone waiting for a
co-worker to let him in for his
7 p.m. jazz show. Robles said he
watched police clear the mall after the shooting. He said he
planned to use sections of his jazz
program that night to "blow off
some steam" about the LA verdict
and subsequent violence.
"I listened to Bush's address
earlier todayand I was sickened by
the tone and how slick it was "
Robles said.
There were few othersat Fulton
Mall. A man pushed a friend in a
wheelchair, unhindered by the
news of the shooting two iiours
earlier.
'This is for the people to see,"
said David Leday, a resident at the
Saa Frosno unrest, page 3
Late arriving Los Angeles
firefighters (Above) had
their hands full last
Wednesday with a
after the Rodney King
beating trial verdlcL The
firefighters prevented the
Maze, In Hollywood, from
spreading to a house In the
lot directly behind.
Between 60 and 70 Fresno
police officers {Lett,
gathered Friday night In a
parking garage behind the
Golden One Credit Union
on Shaw Avenue in the
event they had to break up
a protest.
U.S. visa regulation changes affect
international student's work habits
ByHui-SinTeoh
StaffWriter
International students'ability to
work in off-campus jobs will be
cut back after the F-l regulations
changes, according to the
International Student Services and
Programs (1SSP) counselor, Russell
Mitchell.
Mitchell said international students who study on the F-l visas
were greatly restricted to work off
campus under the new regulations,
that went into effect last October.
Mitchell said the new regulations
were also designed to simplify the
offcampus jobs application procedures.
Mi tchell sa id befo re the ne w regu -
la tions were passed, the U.S. lmmi-
grationand Naturalization Services
hired the nationwide accounting
firm of Pricc-Waterhouse to carry
out a study on the impact that
working in tema tional studentshave
on the U.S. economy: the impact
found was less than one percent of
the gross national pmdiu t.
'Theimpacton the U.S.cconomy
was nil but the new regulations were
still passed because many Amcny
cans fed if they can't find jobs, why
should foreign students be working?
'The decision, 1 think, waspoliti-
cal.TheBushadministration passed
the new regulations because of the
recession in America," Mitchell said.
f Mitchell said the ISSP sent eight
copies of k*tters to the INS to voice
thcirconcernsfortheinterestsofthe
international students last summer
while the proposed regulations were
being discussed.
Mitchell said the new regulations
have eliminated two of the three
pmgrams the interna tional students
previously had to work off-campus
while in school.
'International students were allowed to work off-campus before
completion of their studies, usually
duringsummer and winter sessions
if the work was related to their field
of studies practical training.
'They were also allowed to work
off-campus before completion of
their studies if they could prove
economic necessity," Mitchell said.
Mitchell said the new regulations
only keep the curricular practical
Saa Regulation, back page
Welty names Gonzales as second-in-command
By Angel LDeJesus
Wni
Staff Writer
T> he search to fill the second
highest academic position on
campus has ended.
Alex Gonzales, 46, was selected
by President John Welty to serve
as chief academic officer of CSUF.
The candidate was selected
from approximately 95 applicants
in a national search to replace
Judith Kuipers.
Gonzales wasappointed acting
vice president foracademicaffairs
at CSUF last year, succeeding
Kuipers, who left last
summer to become
chancellor of the University of Wisconsin
at La Crosse.
A 12-mcmber
committee formed
last semester picked
applicants who had
teaching experience,
ability to formulate
strategic objectives
and an understanding of academics in- Al ■ r._,
eluding the view- A,ex G°'
point of both faculty and administration.
provements
sity schools.
The committee
made its recommendation to
Welty, who officially named
Gonzales.
Gonzales is responsible for providing leadership in
educational policy
development, academic   planning,
' academic personnel
decisions and
evaluation and im-
of the eight univer-
Gonzales, with an annual salary of $102,300,eamod a bachelor's
degree in history from Pomona
College in Claremont. He holds a
master's degree and doctorate in
psychology from the University
of California at Santa Cruz.
In 1979, he joined the CSUFfac-
ulty. Although he began as an associate professor in the Chkano-
Latino Studies program,Gonzales
was convinced that with a little
"ganas" or desire he would move
up in the steps of success.
Move up he did. In 1981, he
Saa Oonzalaa, back psf!
CSUF changes
vending machines
ByToddHeth
StaffWriter
The   vending machine
business just ain't what it
- used to be for Fresno State Food
Services.
They realized it last year when
they lost $6,000yOn it, and were
pro jectedtolose$12,000 this year.
Before 1990, it wasn't unusual
to make about $30X00 a year out
of the $340,000 budget for vending, said Opera tions Manager Jim
Prince.
But a 20 percent national drop
in food vending sales during the
recession has also hurt CSUF.
The predicted losses for this
year prompted the Food Services
to contract out the servicing of
vending machines to Canteen of
Fresno Inc., and cam $25/300 a
year for letting them have the
privilege to sdlon campus.
"1 think we'll get better service wi th them because they ha ve
24-hour service and deal only
with vending," Prince said.
'This will allow us to concentrate on other areas instead of
maintaining machines and stocking them," Prince said.
Prince said the contract is renewable yearly and pricing is
subject to the Food Services' approval.
Canteen is the largest vend-
ing service in the Fresno area and
has tripled its operations since
being bought by itscurrent owner
six years ago.
Other campus food serviceop-
erations won't be contracted out
in addition to the vending
though, said CSU Fresno Ass<>
nation President Gaytord-Gfa^
ham.
This seems like a good idea
for this particular service, but that
doesn' t mean we' re going to contract out the whole food service
operation," Graham said.
Graham said the con tract definitely benfits the campus with
the increased serviccand income.
Canteen is responsible for
reparingand stocking machines,
but the Food Services will retain
ownership of them.
A one hour maximum service
call is the standard for Canteen,
while often the process could
have taken longer with the Food
Services, Prince said.
Refunds will still be handkd
on campus in the Food Services
offices.
Graham, said he's satisfied
with thecon tract made with Canteen, realizing tha t such con tracts
are often worse.
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