1992_05 Insight May 1992

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EATURES
Don't rock this concrete canoe
By Kelly Jantz
Staff WHUr
Losing 465 pounds in a year is a
lot of Weight to shed, but dvil
engineering students at CSUF have
managed to do just that by chipping
away at the size of their concrete
canoe.
Faculty advisor John Johnston
said the idea of a concrete canoe,
which may seem like a con tradition
in terms, is not original to CSUF's
students, but is part of a national
competition the American Society
of Civil Engineers has sponsored
since 1988. This year's ASCE Mid-
Padfic regional competition was
held at the UC Davis campus May
2and3.
"The concept of a concrete canoe
may seem ally, but a lot of the practical asrx?ctsofrivilenginccringcan't
be taught ina classroom" said Johnson. "Thecompeti bon gives students
an opportunity to participate in a
hands-on application of what they
learn in the classroom."
Before the students splashed on
a shiny coat of red and white paint,
the grey concrete boat looked ponderously heavy.
"Last year the canoe weighed 730
poundsand it floated, so we weren't
worried about thisone," said project
manager John Ennis. "We did want
tobringthewdghtdown.Thisyear's
canoe weighs only 265 pounds."
Ennis said weight will be a big
factor in the rowingcompetitionand
so will the design of the canoe. The
teamwantsthecanoctoglideswiftly
through the water on competition
day, making i t easier on the rowers.
This part of trip onmperirion also
depends on the skill and strength of
the rowers.
There is more to the competition
than having the lightest and fastest
canoe. To win in the overall competition, the team must also place high
on their oral presentation and a
posterboard display.
"We think our team can place in
the top five in the overall competition with this canoe/' said Ennis.
While the competition plays a
rnajorroleattheconference,itisnot
the novating factor for most CSUF
participants
"Sure it would be nice to win, but
compete with universities like 1
keley," said dvil engineering junior
Frank Bruce. "We know of at least
one university that spends that much
on thdr canoe's paint job."
Serious tasks tike calculating the
precise mixture of concrete and deeding how to transport the heavy
yet fragile canoe to the water are
usually balanced with jovial attitudes and teamwork
"Having fun is part of this
project," said Johnston "That and
getting together with friends."
'This project gives me a break
from my books," said Bruce. "I come
over here and play in the mud and I
fed better."
Ennis said the canoe project may
be hard work and demand teamwork, but these are important
qualities required of a good engineer.
CSUF's $800 budget for this
project may be ridiculously low
when compared to others in the
competition, but it has its advantages. Simplecalcula tions of CSUFs
budget and the results they have
produced in the past equate to economical and quality structures for
the future."
Other competitions at the ASCE
conference are the concrete bowling
ball, the concrete Frisbee; the steel
rebar javelin throw and the building
of a "mystery structure."
'The mystery structure is a competition where students are given a
quantity of balsa wood, razor and
glue. Within a set limit the students
build a strength structure resembling a bridge under specific guidelines. Bricks are then piled on top of
the structure one after another until
it collapses. The rules may change
each year, but the concept remains
the same.
All of the competitions at the
regionals revolve around the students balancing the need for strength
against light weight.
Plying Its maiden voyage at Lost Lake, Friant, the CSUF
concrete canoe la guided by engineering students Tricla
Thomason (foreground) and Cathy Drosos. The canoe's
weight reduction la due to the 75 percent decrease In hull
thickness over last years model.
First: concrete bowling ball Fourth: Co-ed sprint
Second: Concrete Olympics      Fifth: Men's endurance
Third: Co-ed endurance race     Sixth: Overall
Justice, from page two
Speech Area and by setting off voices of the African Ameri-
an alarm in the library at CSUF can sisters who got up to the
on Thursday, people showed microphone tocall out to their
they have no faith in the system community, to point out how
incidents of police brutality high the prison rate is among
areontherise.Partofithastodo African   American   men.
with the fear that exists toward "Where are our men to hold
people of color and the poor in on to?" one sister asked. This
this country. Women's Studies woman was talking about a
professor Sharon FJise said at partner — another man to
the rally that there have been make a positive impact on the
120inadentsofthisr_ruresince life of an up and coming Afri-
1980.Wehaveseenexamplesof can-Americancluld.Thatman
police brutality locally with the might havebeen Rodney King
1989 shopping mall bearing of or he could have been the ado-
an African American Clovis boy lescent boy in Clovis. There
and with the 1985 fatal shooting are claims that these.indi-
ofasuiddall5-year-oldChicano viduals were dealt justice. So
boy in a Fresno barrio. The who is going to be dealing
Chicano boy's justice? Like
mother said she tm*mmmma^mm^mMmMM*a^mm^m  the words of
was trying to con- the song Willie
vince her son out      "The fined" of     f** Bvrd sang
of the alley. She    u,„„,0 u°jp nn    at  the CSUF
towrjoiicethegun   blame lands on   rallV/    -The
wasn't loaded and the chests of the White man has
then witnessed -. , a   God   corn-
police shoot her police WHO pfex-."      The
son more than committed K™1 inventor,
thirty times even .    . „   the great objec-
afterhewasdown these injustices live one, the
on the ground. one to write the
Does all  the       ——————       history, to hold
blame fall on the the mic before
heads of the police? No. Like     the television camera and tell
someone said at the CSUF rally     us what news is. Who is toll-
Thursday, there are virtuous,     ing our history?
shining stars in every group. The finger of blame lands
Police have been accused of     on the chests of the police who
using excessive force and     committed these injustices,
courts and police commands    Bad cops and good cops,
have claimed, in most in- An 18-year veteran African-
stances, that thesepeople were American police officer at the
acting within their boundaries. Blackstone and Shaw rally
Justice has been served, they Friday night said she was glad
say. to be a cop, even during these
The lack of people of color tense times. She said she was
on the police forces is part of sure that all people see is the
the problem. After all, people color of her uniform and not
cringe at things that arediffer- her skin. She wants to use her
ent from them. You didn't position to do good. White of-
grow up in the ghetto, you ficers at the scene expressed
weren't poor, you don't care to the same concern. We can't
learn about that life, so you are     just sit back and smile and
part of the problem.
say, "Oh, how lucky we are to
The song and chants and have such good police." We
impromptu talks in the Free need to reform and continu-
Speech area last Thursday ally scrutinize the system.
wereofAfricanpride.lt was in Right now our government
the beat of the drums, in the doesn't allow us this chance.
Surrogates: from page six
Feministsin the statealso see surrogacy
as a divisive issue. California NOW, the
state chapter of the National Organization for Women, sees surrogacy as a matter of a woman's choice to control her
body.
"We support the right of a woman to
make this choice and for her to be compensated monetarily for this," said Kate
Sproul, a legislative advocate for the state
group in Sacramento.
Sproul said California NOW is opposed
to a section of SB 937 which spedfies
rights for the genetic mother but not to the
gestation-' mother in a situation where a
woman has a fertilized ovum implanted.
California NOW would like to see added
to the bill the gestational mother's ability
to change her mind through a set grace
period.
In Fresno, surrogacy is a legal hot potato too. Calls made by Insight to local
infertility physidans and attorneys who
specialize in family law only generated a
couple of responses. One Fresno doctor's
office did acknowledge that it worked
a void contract?" Contract law doesn't fit surrogacy in
What makes Fresno attorney Bovell- every legal expert's eyes. In an interview
with surrogacy cases, but wouldn't say Tong and others skeptical about taking a with the American Bar Assodation Jour-
much more. Another refused comment, surrogacy case is the fact that there are no nal last year, Alta Charo, a University of
One did not return a reporter's phone call laws in California addressing surrogacy Wisconsin law professor, said that con-
and another said he had not dealt with spedfically. tractlaw wasn't broad enough to address
any surrogacy cases. "It gets all tangled up," Bovell-Tong surrogate parenthood. The professor was
Oneofthefamilylawattomeysintown    said. "If a client came to me with a speaking specifically about the California
who did call back
Gail Bovell-Tong. Bovell-
Tong said that surrogacy
was indeed a grey area of
the law. Theattomey said
ifaclientcametoherwith
a concern about
surrogacy, she would
refer them to a surrogacy
attorney in San Francisco
or Los Angeles.
"It's not really a decided issue,"  Bovell-       ___________
Tong said.
Law experts are "working out different arrangements. Various courts are experimenting. It's a novel problem," she
said. "There's nothing firm. The issue is,
who's got the maternal rights and does it
come down to a contract and if so, is that
"We support the right of a woman to make this
choice and for her to be compensated
monetarily for this."
—Kate Sproul
legislative advocate,
National Organization for Women
surrogacy case, 1 don't think I would take
it. Whether I take it or not would depend
on/whether it's a contract issue and a
rnoral issue. I probably would refer it to
one of the big attorneys who is working
on surrogacy."       < .
case involving
gate  mother  Anna
Johnson and the expectant       infertile
couple, Crispina and
Mark Calvert.
"Old     law    says
people haw two biological parents,and the
new   facts are  that
people can have three
parents," Charo said.
___________ In the Johnson vs.
Calvert case, a state
superior court judge has decided that the
contract between the couple and Johnson
was legal. Johnson's attorneys focused
not on the legality of the contract but on a
section of the Uniform Parentage Act that
says that a child's "natural mother" is the
woman who bears it.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the
trial at the superior court level, Johnson's
attorneys are taking it one step further, to
the California Supreme Court. The state
appeal court rejected the birth mother's
claim to the baby because she had no
genetic connection to the child. Last year,
in the area of surrogacy, a California appellate court ruled against a woman who
gave birth to a baby intended for another
couple then changed her mind five years
after the adoption. The court relied on
existing child custody law.
Whether the surrogate mother has any
legal rights after the pregnancy is one of
the burning questions in the debate.
The Uniform Parentage Act in the California civil code falls short of addressing
surrogacy. It touches on areas like parent-
child relationships and artificial insemination, an initial step some surrogate
mothers go through. The law does not
address "third-party parenting" which is
something the Center for Surrogate
Parenting and Sen. Diane Watson, D-Los
Angeles, who presented thdr bill to the
Senate, would like to see changed.
PARALEGALS'...
Who They Arc - What They Do - Where They Work
AN INFORMATION FORUM
With a Panel of Practicing Paralegal*
Saturday, May 23, 1992
9:00 a.m.- 11:00 a.m.
SAN JOAQUIN COLLEGE OF LAW
3385 EL Shield! Aw., Fresno
Call 225-4953
to rrwrvc your pl»c*
AUU
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