1995_02 Insight February 1995

              In Focus
FEBRUARY 15, 1995
CSUF student's killer sentenced in NYC STAR has
By TVoy Wagner
Staff Writer
One of three juveniles charged with
the killing of CSUF junior Matthew
Charles Blek last summer has received a reduced sentence in a New
York City courtroom.
Tony Wilkins. an accomplice lo
Blek's murder on June 29, 1994 in
New York City, was sentenced this
month to three-and-a-half to 10 years
imprisonment after being convicted of
first-degree manslaughter.
Jamal Scott was also convicted of
first-degree manslaughter and will be
sentenced later this month.
Blek's parents. Charles and Mary
Leigh Blck of Mission Vicjo. spent
three days in New York lo attend ihc
court proceedings.
"My husband and I went 10 New
York for two reasons." Mary Blek
said. "I wanted the court to know how
painful this death is. and I wanted the
court to know what kind of person
Matthew was." She plans to return lo
New York when the accused gunman.
Joseph Lee, goes to trial
"I feel thai I have to be there." Mary
Matthew Blek
Blek said, "but I don't want revenge.
I just want justice to be served." Lee
will be tried for first-degree murder.
A date for his trial has not been set.
At around midnight on June 29, the
three youths, all 15 years old at the
lime, fatally shot Blck during a robber)' attempt while he was walking
with his girlfriend.
Just 90 minutes earlier, the same
three youths gunned down a Consolidated Edison worker in his truck during a robbery attempt.
The youths were later arrested, having gotten nothing from Blek or the
Con-Ed worker.
Since the youths did not take any
money in either killing, the crimes
were considered attempted robberies.
Attempted robbery is not a crime covered by the juvenile-offender law in
New York, and an accomplice-to-murder conviction would have resulted in
a much lighter sentence, perhaps as
little as 18 months.
Prosecutors decided to go after first-
degree manslaughter convictions instead.
However. Blek's parents don't agree
with this provision of the New York
juvenile justice system.
"There is definitely a problem with
the juvenile justice system in New
York," Mary Blek said. "There is no
doubt in my mind that when those
kids get out of jail, they'll do this
a year ago that Mat
thew Blek, a mathematics major,
started his second semester as a CSUF
junior.
Blek was a champion 142-pound
wrestler at Trabuco Hills High School
in Mission Viejo. Calif. He decided
to attend CSUF with the intent of joining the Bulldogs' wrestling team, after Humboldt State dropped its wrestling program. Blek later felt he was
not competitive enough to wrestle at
the Division I level.
"Matt was one-of-a-kind," said Gary
Hacker, Blek's high school wrestling
coach. "He was truly his own individual."
"His unique personality came from
marching to the beat of a different
drummer," Hacker said during the
eulogy. "His march through life enriched our lives. We will miss him."
When he was home from college
during the summer. Blek frequently
volunteered to work with beginning
wrestlers at Trabuco High.
Blek decided to spend last summer
with his girlfriend in New York.
"It was really no surprise when he
decided he wanted to go to New York
City to see the sights," Mary Blek
said. "Matthew had a wonderful zest
for life."
Throughout his high school years.
Blek was in the mentally gifted program and was a promising mathematician. According to his mother, Blck
was also a talented magician and an
accomplished violinist.
"He said he played the violin so he
would not hurt his neighbor's ears,"
Mary Blek said. "He played beautifully."
In memory of their son, Mary Blek
and hcr husband Charles Blek established the Matthew Blek Memorial
Scholarship Fund, which will be
given annually to deserving students
in the Saddleback Valley area.
"We currently have over S6.000 for
the fund," Mary Blek said. "As long
as there is a high school in this valley, the scholarship fund will be given
to deserving students in the area."
Contributions to the scholarship
fund can be sent to: The Matthew
Blek Memorial Scholarship Fund.
22171 Hazel Crest. Mission Viejo.
CA. 92692.
McLane students
get taste of college
By Casey Angle
Staff Writer
Can you remember your
thoughts about college when you
were 15? Sketchy? For 144 sophomores from McLane High School,
college life is already a reality
Turning Points Academy is steering McLane students to take high
school and college-level courses
on campus.
From 8 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. every
day, Turning Points students lake
four high school-level classes and
twocollcgc-levcl classes that count
for five units of college credit.
According to Jody Daughlry. ^n
associate professor of education
who is helping coordinate the program, it is supposed lo work "as a
model school for us within the
School of Education.
"So people who are studying to
be high school teachers can observe and help out in classes and
learn something about being high
school teachers." Daughtry said.
A second goal of the program is
as a recruiting tool, introducing
students to college life and getting
them interested in education after
high school.
Turning Points is a voluntary program. No specific group of stu-
denis was largclcd. The main criteria: students must have a good
attendance record and be willing
to make the college adjustment.
Positive feedback from (he students and teachers has already
been noted.
Gukgae Colston, 15. is one student who likes the laid-back atmosphere on campus. "I think it's
great because everything is clean
and calm and nobody is worried
about anyihing. Everybody is respectful of everybody else."
Colston said.
Hector Castellan, 15. of McLane.
said he likes the program and plans
lo come to CSUF. But he misses
his old school. "I'm kind of glad
it's only a semester and I'm going
back to high school because I want
my high school years," he said.
Missing high school buddies and
only having 10 minutes to get from
one side of campus to the other for
a class arc basically the only complaints. Most like the greater freedom allowed and the chance to gel
a little bit ahead.
McLane biology teacher Dick
Gaskell, one of the four in the program, says things have gone
smooihly so far, and sees his students adapting to their new envi-
Photo by Christine Mlrlglan/lnslght
McLane High School students attend on-campus classes as part of the Turning Points program.
"They were a little tentative at first.
I think a lot of iheni thought they
would slick out like sore thumbs because they're high schoof students.
"But I think they found out a lot of
the time nobody knew unless they
said something about it." he said.
Gaskell noted that some students are
beginning to change their minds about
their futures.
"A lot of kids looked at it, like, '1
could never go to college. I can't afford it. 1 can't do it.'
"(Now] these guys arc already talking about going to college, whether it
be Fresno State or wherever."
The McLane students will get a lot
of information from various sources
on campus.
Gaskell said there are plans to get
students and faculty to speak to them
about what college is going to be like
as well as people from Financial Aid
to inform them that college can be
affordable.
Daughtry sees a day in the future
when students will shadow a CSUF
student majoring in an area they're
interested in.
Downtown, from page 1
The Farmer's Market played a role
in that lost heritage, Scharton said.
"They closed the place over and
commercialized it and got rid of the
character, and ended up with a food
court where the bills got too big. because they only had a handful of
places." he said.
Art Farkas. the new director of the
Downtown Association and its self-
appointed cheerleader, said citizens
need to wake up to the problems and
create civic pride, which he feels
doesn't exist in Fresno.
"The main point is. Fresno's civic-
pride is in the closet, and it's been in
the closet for the last 40 years," he
said.
Farkas knows a thing or two about
city pride, having spent 20 years on
Fresno's airwaves as a deejay and program director before becoming the
DTA's executive director last month.
There was a time when, like Fresno.
Farkas was ashamed of his heritage.
"I'll use myself as an analogy, because I come from a Hungarian family," he said. "It's like when you're in
the kitchen, with grandma at the
stove. She's cooking some interesting smelling food and people arc in
the living room, speaking a language
that, to you, is comfortable, because
of reference, he said.
"Then, as you enter your puberty period, outside influences become more
sophisticated, and you start to absorb
them. You get a little embarrassed
because you have a last name like
mine, and you're a little embarrassed
because a foreign language is spoken
in your home," he said.
"As a result, you wonder what your
friends think of you, and you feel
awkward and you want to be somebody else other than who you are."
"That's the period Fresno went
through after the Second World War,
when it was embarrassed to be a
small, quaint agricultural town," he
said.
"Fresno is now at the cusp of maturity," he said. Farkas said that
Fresnans are starting to realize their
city has a lot to offer. Farkas' maturation personified the city's own.
"It's kind of like the period when I
began to mature as a human being and
1 said. 'Wait a minute, I'm not embarrassed about my heritage or
ethnicity. In fact, now I've rediscovered n and I feel proud or it.'"
Farkas paused before continuing.
"That's how Fresno's civic pride will
emerge."
A baseball fanatic is also planning
lo change downtown's fortunes with
a grand-slam proposal he hopes will
bring the fans — and the businesses
— back.
John Carbray, a 55-year-old former
high school catcher and a current concert/entertainment promoter, is prcsi-
dcnl of the Fresno Diamond Group.
His proposal includes building a stadium in the heart of the city to entice
the baseball-starved fans who haven't
had much to cheer about since the
Fresno Suns left rickety Eulcss Park
in 1988.
Carbray is confident the stadium,
despite its location, will bring people
back to the often-desolate downtown
streets.
"It's just a proven fact that stadiums
in downtown locations stimulate busi
ness around that stadium area. The
fact is. there is no history right now
lhai I am aware of. of a stadium lhai
has failed downtown," he said. Look
at Buffalo, New York."
Buffalo's minor league Bisons play
just one step below the major league-
level in downtown Pilot Field. Stadium attendance routinely tops minor-
league attendance rolls. "Buffalo
changed in one day." he said. "They
built a stadium in a really downtrodden area and put 19,000 people in the
seats the first day. All of a sudden, you
never heard any more stories," he said.
Reports from major league teams
support Carbray's thesis.
In 1992. the Baltimore Orioles
moved from Memorial Stadium in
suburban Baltimore lo the new Oriole Park at Camden Yards downtown,
and attracted 3.5 million fans its inaugural season. A report prepared by
the Baltimore City Department of
Planning slated that 1.6 million out-
of-town fans came to the park for the
team's 81 home games, up 76 percent
from the team's last year in Memorial Stadium in the suburbs.
"The most interesting fact I know,
is that in Camden Yards in downtown
Baltimore, the businesses around the
stadium were open an average of 40
hours a week. After the stadium got
built, the same businesses, with larger
staffs, have averaged 96 hours a week.
"That same story is told lime and
lime again, in different cities with
minor league ballparks. If the stadium
is built, people will come. It will just
happen. It's proven, every place there
is a stadium, it happens."
Would those same fans be willing
to trek just a few blocks to the Fulton
Mall, Fresno's symbol of past greatness yet the current butt of jokes?
Breni Weiner, who with his brother
Jason runs Proctor's Jewlers, ;• mall
fixture for generations, said it's the
preconceived ideas about downtown
that hurts the family business.
"People's perception, especially
about crime, gives us a bad rap," Breni
Weiner said.
Twenty-four-year old Jason Weiner.
who has worked at the store "all my
life — Christmases and vacations
since I was 7." agreed. "There's very
little crime on the mall," he said.
See DOWNTOWN, page8
students
in orbit
By Sean Lynch
and Robert Williamson
Staff Writers
Through a process that began in
September 1992. the university has
added yet another change to the
touch-tone telephone STAR registration system, one that has many students and staff members in a tizzy.
The change causing a controversy
is the automation of the add/drop process during the first two weeks of
classes. Students used to have to carry
around a slip of paper to be signed by
the instructors of the classes they
wished to add or drop. Now they simply call it in through STAR.
The problems with the new process,
however, are that teachers will no
longer have control over who they can
add. Consequently, seniors and others will not enjoy the priority status
they seem to have had in the past.
Students are also having trouble registering classes that the instructors
have said they can add. The recording often says thai the class is closed
— if they get through lo the recording at all.
Tanya AbulGhanam. a senior in psychology, said it's "highly unfair. It's
nonsense.
"Any educator who finds this system appropriate is slacking in their
duties." she said.
A liberal studies senior, Pclra
Cardenas, was equally unhappy.
"I think it's unfair to students and
professors alike," she said. "Professors have no control over who they
can add. and students have to rely on
luck to get through (on the phone)."
Instructors, in general, were a bit
less distraught with the new system;
however, there were several who had
problems with various aspects of it.
Elena Kissick. an instructor of
enology, food science and nutrition,
said she was basically happy with the
new system, except for the "piles of
add/drop reports" dropped on hcr
desk daily.
A sociology instructor. Matt
Jcndian, said he was "very dissatisfied with the new system. It's unfair
to students and staff."
He said that even if he allows a senior to join his class, it basically depended on who had the "quickest re-
dial button."
He was also unhappy about the "ton
of paperwork generated by STAR"
which he had to deal with daily.
CSUF's Registrar Tina Bcddall said
the automaiion of the add/drop process is the latest, and final, phase of a
process that began before she arrived
here.
She said it is part of a plan to automate as much as possible through Ihc
touch-lone telephone system for a
long time, but as far as the STAR registration is concerned, this was the last
change lo be made.
Bcddall said the automation is being done, "hopefully, to make things
more convenient for students" and
siaff alike.
Bcddall added that while most of
what she has heard about the change
has been positive, she has heard some
See STAR, page 8
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$jl}^      Associated Students, Inc.
1995-96
BUDGET PROCESS
What is an as.i. budget process???
Each year the Associated Students, Inc, your student
government, offers recognized campus dubs and organizations an
opportunity to request funds for various annual activities that will
benefit the entire student body. If you fed that your dub or
organization qualifies, don't delay come to University Student
Union #316 and pick up an application or call us at Z7B-2656.
*>
DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 24,1995 BY 4 PJvl. |
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