1993_02 Insight February 1993

              Page 2
January 28,1993
o
Insight
pinion
Voice opinion?
Never meant to.
Let it never be said that the president of our fine institution does not
care about the needs of the student.
Recently it was announced that due
to the pleading of President John
Welty, the university would be receiving $3.1 million from the state of
California, because we need it so bad.
To admit that is quite a feat.
Until now, the administration has
been trying to bolster the status of the
school, placating the students as long
as possible with delusions of improvement
Apparently, Welty has taken a clue
from the former president of the United
States, and admitted that the world of
the college life is not all wine and
roses.
At least not for the students.
There is a new restaurant on campus, serving many of the faculty and
administration, offering fares prepared
with the skill and presentation of "Dinner at Julia's." Universitie Roast
Boeuf.
The covered tables have folded,
cloth napkins, real silverware, and a
quiet atmosphere, a perfect study environment.
Next you know, there is going to be
a "necktie only" requirement, and only
a slight cover charge—your soul.
How many students, trying to afford over $700 a term in tuition alone,
not to mention the ever-rising prices
of textbooks, are going to be able to
afford this?
Perhaps they were never meant to.
Victory in the Freedom Bowl this
year practically insures full stadiums
next year, unless the squad preforms
like the current basketball team, including those who sit high above the
lowly students in their perches of
luxury, and do not give spit about the
academic troubles at CSUF.
The Fresno State Athletic Department does not need to solicit funds
from the state, they have no need to
raise ticket prices, even though they
do, and limit their ranks to incapable
players (about 90 percent of the student body).
Students are, however, gouged for
$9 to get in, sit at the end of the
stadium on backless bleachers, far
away from the hassles of comfy plastic chairs, padded seats, and a view of
the entire field, without squinting.
Students do all of the necessary reading, yet we damage our eyes at our
own school's sporting event.
Students can root with the infamous "Red Wavers" if they are willing to shell out enough dough, enjoying every luxury.
Perhaps they were never meant to.
Looking past the shadow of the
stadium, one might see the multi-
million dollar education building being constructed, making practically
obsolete many of the older buildings
on campus.
Video links between classrooms,
high-tech computer labs, and the presence of many different departments,
will spurn the desire for the upgrade,
or demolition of the existing ones.
With the $3.1 million issued to
CSUF, or for those of you in a less
academic mind set, Fresno State, the
administration should be willing to
make public the spending of the funds,
allowing the inspection of the budget
by any student that inquires.
That would require a large amount
of work on the part of the administration, giving the students what they
require, and demand.
Perhaps they were never meant to.
The money should be spent on such
things as the removal of cancer causing asbestos from older buUdings, the
inspection of campus water cleanliness, or the opening of more classes
for this semester.
The money should not be spent on
any of the following: administrative
salary increases, Chicken Kiev for the
entire Joyal and Thomas Administration staffs, any program related to the
alumni or sports programs, or improvements on the piece-of-junk
STAR registration system, the same
one that gave hundreds of students the
boot in the back pocket this spring.
The administration of CSUF has a
larger than normal responsibility on
their hands this term, dealing with fed
up, though somewhat apathetic students, and might not be able to handle
it.
Perhaps they were never meant to.
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University, students still lose
despite Freedom Bowl victory
^^^fafe"
George Constantinopoulos
"Freedom is not free" is an old axiom that
still rings true today. We learned this lesson
once again on December 29.1992 in Anaheim,
California. The Freedom Bowl.
Fresno State faced off the University of
Southern California. Imagine the Bulldogs
playing USC. Unthinkable at the beginning of
the season. But due to usual'Dog success and
a test of attrition (bad football) on SoCal 's pan,
the two schoolsAeams (pay attention to schools)
met close to Disneyland (so the 'Dogs could
shoot the requisite "I'm goin' to..." plug after
their win, no doubt).
Troy in smugness of Homerian myth resonated a level of putdowns towards Fresno
(school, team, players) preceeding the game.
Keep in mind U-S-C had played S-U-C-k-y
football during the season, even losing to a
school Fresno had trounced. State beat 'SC
resoundingly 24-7. Fresno on the map (forget
Saroyan, grocer to the world, great water).
Grudging respect was given to the 'Dogs, while
a noxious odor of contempt still wafted through
the air.
Fresno State could always be counted on to
play effective, successful team football. In fact,
the football team represents Fresno Slate, but
Fresno State does not represent the University.
This is largely the fault of the Department of
Athletics, the alumni and boosters, the football
team, the fans and even the university.
First of all, you the average student or faculty, or school staff are not Fresno State. The
students who become CE.O.s, farmers and
engineers, the students in ROTC who become
our country's future great military leaders and
the students who become our teachers to make
America great, they are not Fresno State.
In fact, the majority of the university does
not count. This is because of the football ream
and the athletic department. The words "Fresno
State" are the property of the CSUF Department
of Athletics. They get angry if the rest of you
insignificants consider yourselves Fresno State.
Settle with California Stale University, Fresno.
That's all you'll ever be. Be an athlete, coach or
operate a desk in the athletic department and
then you'll be Fresno State.
Remember your school loyalty when you are
not considered a Fresno State Bulldog. Think
about this when you cough up another $748 for
resident tuition plus at least $150 for books.
Loyalty also means tenure. USC coach
Larry Smith lost his job after the Freedom Bowl
debacle. Sorrow would be high if Bulldog
coach Jim Sweeney got the axe. Wait, Fully
tenured professors have been getting fired across
the nation wholesale, even right here at Fresno.
The likelihood of getting another job, even non-
teaching, is tough. But a coach can find work
across the country, even if he has to "step down"
to a junior college.
School is Mind, Body and Spirit. But at
Fresno, athletics take precedence over academics. Right now, students are whimpering like
beaten hounds (not "'Dogs"!), licking their
capped-class, fee-increased wounds collectively. Has the football team had to bite the
bullet? I'd like a skybox built into my classes
where I can sip champagne (I bet the ones up at
the stadium aren't from Madera!) and watch in
climate-controlled comfort my second-string
professor on the classroom 50 yard line try to
make the plays the sacked (fired) prof didn't get
Our school i s not football only as the Department of Athletics would like to have in a gridiron utopia. We have classes overfilled with
s tudenis gushing out over the top scrambl i ng for
classes and paying the price for administrative
failure - national, state, local, Joyal. There will
be Bulldog football in Fall '93 but how about
the upper division classes in your major?
Sweeney will keep his job but how about the
dean of the school you arc in, or your department chair?
I am reminded of the gifted, world-acclaimed
and respected flamenco guitarist who teaches at
our university, Juan Serrano. You can enroll in
one of his string classes and get lessons from
this talented and friendly genius for free. Outside of the school, you couldn't touch the italf-
hourlypriceMr.Scnanocoddrightfullycharge.
There were no Red-Wavers to tell you this,
though I just did with money provided by the
Department of Journalism.
If our school was important then it would be
treated accordingly. There are more members
in marching band uniforms than in Riddell
helmets. Only there isn't a marching band.
Sure, historically at Fresno, the band hasn't
always been the best. But they have genuine
school spirit, more than any fan or football
player. See that you get a band for your team
and make every one of my columns required
reading for everybody connected with athletics.
Get some athletic department staffers to take a
walk out of the North Gym and see the rest of the
campus, including the beauty of over 4,000
trees that are there if you can sec past a goal post.
Letters to
the Editor
To the Editor of Insight:
I want to commend Coach Sweeney for
his achievements, his leadership, and especially his patience with the pompous asses
on campus. For me the university was a
magic world in which I spent four great
years. Both academics and athletics contributed to it. Coach Sweeney's record in
athletics speaks for itself. On the academic
side, I've never had a player in my office
who didn't commend the coach for his
insistence upon personal responsibility and
scholarship. What I heard was "if you need
time to study, you get it. "If you don't
attend class you don't play." And I heard
it from linebackers who are now science
teachers and tight-ends who became surgeons.
Lighten up folks. CSUF is the social
heart of the Central San Joaquin Valley.
Dedicated but colorful people like Coach
Sweeney have given far more than self-
serving journalists bent on manufacturing
unnecessary animosity.
Dave Grubbs, Professor of Biology
Guest Commentary
Students placed low on totem pole
K. Amy Kaltman
Enough is enough! And when will we say
when?'
The students that attend Cal State Fresno are
the university and with oui them there would be
no university. Yet the students are constantly
and consistently the ones to get the short end of
the stick.
Do studenu get priority parking? Do the
professors look at the prices of the books when
they decide on the readings for their courses?
And when teachers try to send a message to
Gov. Wilson about the funding problem who do
they use as ihe messenger?
It is a given fact that the CSU system is one
of the most affordable systems in the nation.
But at the same time, roughly $700 is still a lot
of money to be paying only to be told that you
will have to postpone graduation for yet one
more semester in the hopes that a spot will open
up for you next semester.
It is sheer disregard for students when a
professor won't si low a graduating senior in a
class in hopes that said student will become
outragd enough to write to Gov. Wilson.
Come on! These studenu that are being
turned away only prolong the problem. What is
to say that next time the class won't be closed all
together.
A message most definitely has to be sent to
the politicians, but al what cost? For a teacher to
say that he or she won "t teach because of a union
agreement is simply a cop out. The faculty of
this school, and others like it, are under ihe
assumption that students don't care or won't do
anything about the problem. They seem to think
that if students get angry enough and write to
the legislature that something will be accomplished.
Well, have they gotten angry and written
these letters? Not as a collective voice, rather as
individual angry citizens that are tired of watching California's educational system fall by the
way side.
The problem, however, does not lay entirely
with the teachers though. Administrators have
a fair share of the responsibility.
What would possess a dean of a department
to leave the country on a vacation during the
first week of school? That does not appear to be
a reasonable or responsible way to deal with the
problems at hand.
Students get the lowest priority when it comes
toanythingconcemingschool. Office hours are
shortened in the offices which students use, and
the hours arealwaysduringihe times that classes
are most likely to be held. So for you to get the
assistance you need, you must disregard the
teacher's attendance policy. And heaven forbid
not EVERY office take lunch at noon.
Cuts have to be made, and budgets need to be
irimm'ed, but why do the concessions to come
from the students time after time?
Why not limit the number of secretarial
hours put in? They cut back the hours, but keep
the same number of workers. And if the Athletic Department can raise $3 million to buy a
scoreboard and build sky boxes, why can'tthere
be some kind of financial drive done to raise
desperately needed funds for desperately needed
classes.
No magic wand will be waved to rectify the
horrid state of the educational system. Without
the students, there would be no reason for any of
us to be here. Students will get angry and
possibly even write letters, but under no circumstances should studenu ever be used as
pawns in a funding chess game against the
governor.
Mail Stop 10, CSU Fresno
Fresno, CA 93740 (209) 278-2892
McKee Fisk, Rm. 240
CALIFORNIA STATE
UNIVERSITY,FRESNO
Insight
Davin A. Hutchins
Managing Editor 	
Katharine Barrans
GrmpktesJPhoto Editor	
Eric Johnston
Copy Editor       	
K. Amy Kaltman
Opinion Editor	
George Constantinopoulos
Sports Editor 	
Fred Lee
Projects Editor	
Shelley L. VVillingham
Advirtlting Manager	
Krista Helgeson
Advertising Production Managtr
Cindi Martinez
Assistant Editors	
Lisa Driver
Andrew Forester
Kelly Jantzen
Mike Penner
Kiki Rizki
Sandy Sirias
Deborah Speer
Jenny Steffens
Fernando Tejada
Kelly Jantzen
Tommy Monreal
Matt Soby
Thcan Su
Diane Troha
Insight welcomes all reader
letters and guest commentary.
Letters and commentary must
be signed by the author, and
may be edited for length. All
submissions will be published.
All unsigned editorials are the majority
opinion of the editorial board, and do
not represent the Department of
Journalism, CSUF administration, or
the trustees of the California State
University system.