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Tuesday March 3, 2015 Volume 97 Issue 19The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton

Baseball hosts Malibu for a midweek clash

Student participation is focus of debate changes

News Sports3 8

Students to gain Dropbox storage

Student pride focus in ‘Titans’

Professional lizard chaser: Jason Wallace

A rotten smell for a beautiful bloom

Fifty gigabytes of cloud storage to be free to students

SVETLANA GUKINADaily Titan

Campus community gather to discuss strategic plan

DEVIN ULMERDaily Titan

The Cal State Fullerton Department of Informa-tion Technology is prepar-ing to offer free Dropbox accounts to provide a better student-teacher file-sharing experience and increased storage to students.

Students will receive an email invitation to register for their Dropbox account sometime this month, said Rommel Hidalgo, assistant vice president for informa-tion technology and IT divi-sion financial manager.

In its pilot phase, the number of Dropbox ac-counts will be limited to 5,000, and students will have to register for the lim-ited accounts on a first-come, first-served basis, he said.

The IT department spent $250,000 on Dropbox for faculty, staff and students. $41,000 of that amount paid for the 5,000 Dropbox ac-counts for students, Hidalgo said in an email.

The free accounts will belong to students for the entire time they are enrolled in CSUF, Hidalgo said.

The main goal of imple-menting Dropbox on cam-pus is to provide cloud storage and facilitate bet-ter student-teacher collab-oration, Hidalgo said, who is also a faculty member in the Steven G. Mihay-lo College of Business and Economics.

Faculty and staff were already given free Drop-box accounts with un-limited storage space in November.

Chuck Grieb, a professor and program coordinator in the Department of Visual Arts, is already looking for-ward to the usage of Drop-box for students.

Nearly 400 faculty mem-bers, students and adminis-trators came together Mon-day for a discussion on how to bolster collaboration and heighten the experiences of CSUF students during this semester’s Titans Reach Higher Town Hall.

The meeting, which ad-dressed the university’s five-year strategic plan, fo-cused specifically on high impact practices, student success teams and “Titan Pride.” President Mildred García opened the meeting by welcoming those in at-tendance before topics were discussed.

Mary Ann Villarreal, di-rector of strategic initiatives and university projects, iden-tified high impact practic-es as those which increase retention and persistence of students.

As part of the strategic plan, the university has an established goal of having 75 percent of students involved in at least one of these prac-tices within their first year, as well as to add involvement in a subsequent practice re-lated to their major.

Part of the meeting was aimed at establishing what those practices were and how the university could reach its strategic plan goal, Villarreal said.

“Today’s conversation is really to help identify what are people doing and how we are going to get there,” she said.

Student success teams were another focus during the meeting. The purpose of the teams is to create an integrated process between student affairs and academ-ic affairs in order to bridge the achievement gap and meet the goal of integrated

Cal State Fullerton has been home to an unusual flower, the corpse flower, for almost eight years. It start-ed to bloom on Sunday, at 5 p.m. and was fully bloomed at midnight on Monday.

When the corpse flower is in full bloom, it actual-ly smells like rotting flesh, said Gregory Pongetti, the Living Collections curator of the Fullerton Arboretum. The plant is also known as titan arum or by its scien-tific name Amorphophallus titanum.

“We had one bloom back in 2006, and we took pollen

from that plant and went down to another plant that was blooming at another bo-tanic garden in San Diego, the San Diego Botanic Gar-den,” Pongetti said. “They took the pollen from the one that bloomed here, pol-linated that flower and got a bunch of seed, and this is the result of that pollination effort.”

There are a few indica-tors Pongetti looks for to tell when the flower will bloom. The flower will start to loos-en at the top, then a little liq-uid comes from the base of the flower, which signals it will flower soon, he said.

A successful pollination of the open flower is called an infructescence, where the plant looks like “a big corn cob” with fruits containing the seeds attached, Pongetti said.

After eight years the corpse flower graces us again

NAYARA ASSISDaily Titan

The Amorphophallus titanum before and after bloom in the Fullerton Arboretum. The flower is available for viewing and is expected to collapse within two days.

Site steward for the Desert Studies Center located in the Mojave National Preserve, Jason Wallace (above) makes sacrifices and lives a rugged life for his devotion to the desert and his reptile studies.

RUDY CHINCHILLA / DAILY TITAN

Sometimes the hustle and bustle of a big city—the noise, the cars, the people—is too much. Sometimes a per-son just has to get away from it all. Sometimes he takes a break by going on vacation. Sometimes he does so by re-locating. Sometimes he re-locates to the middle of the desert.

“Everyone keeps showing up and it gets busier and bus-ier and more and more con-gested, and I felt I did my part: I left, and I gave my spot to somebody else,” Jason Wallace said, recalling his decision to leave his home-town of La Habra.

As the site steward of the Desert Studies Center—oth-erwise known as Zzyzx—in the Mojave National Preserve, Wallace is in charge of over-seeing facilities operations, as well as collecting data on des-ert reptiles, a continuation of his thesis research.

A graduate of Cal State

Fullerton with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in bio-logical science, Wallace has wandered off the beaten path, both figuratively and literally. Wallace knew from a young age that he was destined for the outdoors. His passion for nature would eventually have him chasing lizards out in the middle of the desert.

Wallace’s path toward Zzyzx seems almost like a prophecy fulfilled. The 40-year-old herpetologist had always had some sort of connection with the Mojave

National Preserve, dating back to his days as a youth.

Wallace recalls the trips he and his family took out to the National Preserve when he was a child. The fami-ly would leave home and ar-rive at Baker, California just in time for sunrise. They stopped at the Mad Greek restaurant, where they would eat strawberry pancakes or waffles before heading into the preserve.

“I loved this whole area anyway. And then to see this place, also here, not realizing

I was driving by, as a kid, my future co-worker all those years ago,” Wallace said, “ ... is kind of trippy to think about.”

That co-worker was Rob-ert Fulton, site manager of the Desert Studies Center. Ful-ton and Wallace finally met when Wallace was doing his graduate research at the Des-ert Studies Center in 2003. “I don’t think he had any clue he’d end up here,” Fulton said. “It just kind of fell that way.”

Zzyzx isn’t the end of the road not for Jason Wallace

RUDY CHINCHILLADaily Titan

SEE DROPBOX 6 SEE DESERT 4 SEE HALL 6

SEE FLOWER 4

NAYARA ASSIS / DAILY TITAN

Jason Wallace inspects a desert horned lizard to demonstrate how to tell the creatures gender as part of his research to collect data on desert reptiles.

RUDY CHINCHILLA / DAILY TITAN

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FOR THE RECORDIt is Daily Titan policy to correct factual errors

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Teacher found hanged

LAPD defends officers

Iraqi forces advance on Tikrit

DTBRIEFS

- RUDY CHINCHILLA

- NAYARA ASSIS

- RUDY CHINCHILLA

A high school teach-er was found by stu-dents hanged inside her classroom Mon-day, according to the Orange County Register.

Jillian Jacobson, a 31-year-old photog-raphy teacher, was found hanged inside her El Dorado High School classroom at around 8:40 a.m. Stu-dents discovered Ja-cobson’s body af-ter another teacher opened the locked classroom door and placed her body on the floor. By the time paramedics arrived, Jacobson was in car-diac arrest. All efforts were made to revive her, according to Pla-centia Police Lt. Eric Point, but Jacobson was declared dead at the scene.

Students at the school were released for the day after the incident.

A bystander to the shooting of a home-less man by Los Ange-les Police Department officers claims that the man did not reach for an officer’s gun, CNN reported.

Anthony Blackburn, who recorded the video of the incident in which multiple of-ficers first struggle and eventually shoot a homeless man on LA’s Skid Row, said the man was already on the ground when he was shot.

The LAPD police chief, however, point-ed to a partially en-gaged slide on one of the officer’s pistols and a still shot from the video, showing the man reaching for the officer’s waistband, as evidence that the man was reaching for a weapon before he was shot.

Iraqi security forc-es began a large-scale offensive to take back the city of Tikrit from ISIS militants, accord-ing to CNN.

The Iraqi forces, backed by both Shi-ite and Sunni fighters, began attacking ISIS strongholds around Tikrit Monday, backed by Iraqi warplanes and helicopters that also struck ISIS targets in and around the city.

The effort to take back Tikrit, which was captured by ISIS in June 2014, comes in the wake of a wide-scale offen-sive ordered by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday.

In all, around 30,000 fighters have joined the effort to recapture the city.

Dropbox: Students to access free accounts

The arrival of the accounts will make it easier for Grieb to share course materials with students when class is not in session, he said.

Grieb is currently using Vimeo to share his video tu-torials with classes, but he is not satisfied with lack of pri-vacy there.

“This (Dropbox) might provide a way to do it in a way that isn’t so public, too, where it’s just for my stu-dents,” he said.

Sharing files via Dropbox could potentially alleviate the amount of content on Titani-um, Hidalgo said.

“It’s coming from a cloud-based storage, as op-posed to coming from our own on-campus servers, so it takes some of that hard-ware pressure off of those in-stances,” added John Carroll, Ph.D., director of the Aca-demic Technology Center.

Amir Dabirian, vice presi-dent for information technol-ogy and chief information of-ficer at Cal State Fullerton is

currently working with Drop-box to get a discounted rate for future graduates to mi-grate from student to person-al accounts, he said. Hidalgo expects to see a high demand for Dropbox accounts, he said.

“The 5,000 seats should go pretty quickly,” he said. “We will probably have a waiting list for the next 5,000.”

If his predictions come true, additional accounts will be purchased for all students sometime in the fall semes-ter, he said.

A weeklong series of events will give students the tools they need to navigate the ins and outs of the business world.

Business Madness Week, offered by The Steven G. Mi-haylo College of Business and Economics aims to give stu-dents looking for their break into the business world the chance to do just that.

Hosted by the Business In-ter-Club Council, day by day events will give students a chance to learn about a num-ber of facets to the business industry.

Lessons from each day will build on the previous day’s events, with the aim of leav-ing students more knowledge-able about the fundamentals of business by the end of the week, said Jessica Macaspac, vice president of the Business Inter-Club Council.

Each day has been assigned its own theme to encapsu-late the lessons that students are meant to take away from events held throughout the week.

Monday’s theme was Busi-ness 101, and the day featured events that taught students the business basics, including a resume review, overview of appropriate business attire and a dining etiquette review.

Jasmine Redd, Black Busi-ness Student Association member, said she was excit-ed to see her hard work as a decorator come to fruition for the dining etiquette portion of Monday.

The theme for Tuesday’s events will be style and suc-cess and that theme will be part of a business pageant from 6-8:30 p.m.

Pageant contestants will compete for Mr. and Miss

Business 2015. Contestants will compete through differ-ent rounds, and their business responses during the Q&A portion will determine who wins the title, said Jessica Ma-caspac, vice president of pro-grams for the Business In-ter-Club Council.

Each round will test con-testants on what they learned during Monday’s events, Ma-caspac said.

Wednesday’s learn and grow theme will culminate in “An Evening with Mag-ic Johnson,” during which the former Lakers-play-er-turned-businessman will take the stage Wednesday evening.

A business career expo and panel with the Institute of Real Estate Management will play into Thursday’s take ac-tion theme.

During the career expo, students take what they have learned from the previous days and apply it themselves to network with potential em-ployers, Macaspac said.

During the institute panel, real estate professionals will give students insight about their involvement in the busi-ness world, Macaspac said.

Friday, a dance marathon to benefit the Childrens Hos-pital of Orange County will conclude the week with a give back theme.

The TitanTHON, a six hour dance marathon benefiting CHOC, raised funds to ben-efit the hospital. The group reached its $8,000 fundraising goal.

Tickets to the dance mar-athon were sold for $15, and funds from the sales were used to meet the group’s goal, said Becki Vasquez, executive board member for the dance marathon.

All tickets for an “Eve-ning with Earvin Magic Johnson” are available in the Titan Student Union. Tickets for the Dance Mar-athon can be bought online at events.dancemarathon.com/event/titanthon.

Business madness comes to campusWeeklong event will teach students business basics

MEGAN MENDIBLESDaily Titan

CONTINUED FROM 1

Students participate in one of the week’s first events, a dining etiquette class. Other events will give students the chance to put their skills to the test and network with employers.

NAYARA ASSIS / DAILY TITAN

TUESDAY• Business

Pageant• Participants will

be judged on their ability to use information taught during Monday’s events.

• Pavilions ABC• 6 - 8:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY• ‘An Evening with

Magic Johnson”• Former Lakers

player turned businessman will speak to students.

• Titan Gym• 7 p.m.

THURSDAY• Business Carreer

Expo• TSU Pavilions• 10:30 a.m. - 2:30

p.m.• IREM Panel• Real Estate

professionals will share experience

• Heterbrink AB• 2 - 4:30 p.m.

FRIDAY• CHOC TitanTHON

Dance Marathon• Proceeds go to

CHOC Hospital• TSU Pavilions• 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Business Madness Week

Events

Submit a letter to the editor at editorinchief@dailytitan.comwith the subject line as‘letter to the editor’

(Letters may be edited to fit our style)

HEARD!

HAVEYOURVOICE

PAGE 3TUESDAY MARCH 3, 2015NEWS

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The Fullerton City Council will decide Tues-day whether or not to re-tain the city’s legal counsel with an increase in hourly rates, according to an agen-da recommendation filed by the Human Resources Department.

This comes after an in-crease of $450,000 in the le-gal fee appropriation in the mid-year budget review that was passed by the council during the previous meet-ing. The council will con-sider employing three differ-ent law firms.

Liebert Cassidy Whit-more law firm has been rep-resenting Fullerton in labor disputes since 2012. The

firm, which provides labor and employment law ser-vices, requested an increase from $300 an hour to $325 an hour.

Atkinson, Andela, Loya, Ruud & Romo law firm has similar expertise. The firm has proposed an increase of $40 an hour and have set the rate for their part-ners at $290 an hour. They also proposed $150 to $250 an hour for associates and paralegals.

Filarsky and Watt law firm proposed an hourly rate of $280—a $50 increase. Attorney Steve Filarsky has provided legal services for the city, but does not employ associates and paralegals for Fullerton legal cases.

The council will also de-cide whether or not to re-sume publication of pub-lic notices in the Fullerton News Tribune as part of its community outreach pro-gram. The Community De-velopment Department

estimated the contributions to the newspaper to cost $4,560 a year.

The department recom-mended redesigning the public notice format to in-clude multilingual contact information on notices, or notices produced in differ-ent languages. Spanish and Korean are the two languag-es being considered.

The department is also recommending an email notification list to inform residents of public hear-ing notices in addition to a community project review meeting. In the memo, it is recommended that project applicants, along with the city, hold a meeting for the public while the project is in design review.

Community project re-view meetings would be required for projects that require a zone change, spe-cific plan, specific plan amendment or general plan amendment. Projects that

need a tract map of five par-cels or more, or projects that require a negative dec-laration, mitigated negative declaration or require an en-vironmental impact report

would require a communi-ty project review meeting if the council approves.

A standardized process for disclosing conflicts of in-terest and recording outside

meetings or site visits is also up for council consider-ation from the department. The department included a sample form attached to their memorandum.

Council will discuss options for legal representation

SPENCER CUSTODIODaily Titan

The Fullerton City Council will be reviewing their options for legal counsel now that an additional $450,000 has been appropriated from their budget for legal purposes.

AMANDA SHARP / DAILY TITAN

City to consider legal counsel options

Each of CSUF’s eight col-leges is assigned its own stu-dent success team. Adminis-tration and faculty from those colleges were able to meet their student success team and discuss what they do and what their plans are.

“We say we are going to be the model, the national model comprehensive university, but we have some internal prac-tices that we can highlight and share with each other,” Villar-real said.

University pride, the third major area of focus during the meeting, dealt with how to en-gage students at CSUF to get involved with events and the campus community.

“We talked about Titan Pride and the positive atmo-sphere and community we have on campus, and also how different departments around campus help students, faculty and alumni who have been in-volved at Cal State Fullerton,” Colleen Ortega, athletic aca-demic services department in-tern, said.

Titan pride does not lim-it its definition to merely athletics, but is to create a university-wide sense of com-munity and belonging, Villar-real said.

After all three catego-ries were addressed at the ta-bles, a Q&A session occurred and featured Shari McMa-han, Ph.D., dean of the Col-lege of the Health and Human

Development and deputy pro-vost; Vijay Pendakur, Ph.D., associate vice president for Student Affairs; Harpreet Bath, President and CEO of Associated Students, Inc. and Robert Flores, Ph.D., assistant dean of Student Affairs at the Irvine campus.

During the question and an-swer session, administrators responded to questions on how the university intended to in-crease resources for transfer students with responses that included increasing advising for transfer students.

They also addressed ques-tions on how the university plans to encourage students in multiple colleges to contin-ue in school beyond their first year. Solutions to that could

CONTINUED FROM 1

Hall: Campus officials examine strategic plan

Hundreds of faculty and staff members attended the TSU to discuss various elements of the university’s strategic plan. AUSTIN WALLACE/ DAILY TITAN

Associated Students, Inc. has revamped the election debate process this year, changing locations and Q & A methods to bring more students into the electoral process.

“It’s something new, what we’re doing—sort of like uncharted territory, but it’s something that we’re will-ing to try out to see how it works,” said Victoria Gomez, elections commissioner for Associated Students.

This year, Associated Stu-dents is aiming to get stu-dents, who do not usually at-tend outreach events, to come out and vote on their favor-ite candidate, she said, and to challenge candidates by asking them questions and address concerns they have about their college.

“I want them to be chal-lenged so that they are ready for the position, so that they know the importance of this position of representing stu-dents,” Gomez said.

The first debate of the Spring 2015-16 associated students elections will take place today for the College of Education and College of Communications, starting at noon.

The hour-long debate, which will take place until 1 p.m., will be the first hosted at the Education Courtyard in an effort to raise student at-tendance, Gomez said.

Wednesday, the debate for the College of the Arts and the College of Natural Sci-ence and Mathematics will take place on Tuffy Lawn from noon to 1 p.m.

Then, on Thursday, the de-bate for the College of Health and Human Development and the College for Engineering and Computer Science will start at noon in front of the Engineering and Computer Science building.

Associated students is marketing more toward en-gineering and computer sci-ence majors this year because the building itself is far from

campus and most students stay within their building, Gomez said.

“We want to go to the stu-dents that don’t really get out of their college building to be able to listen to the debates ... and then get informed, and get involved, “ she said.

The debates will continue into the following week when the College of Humanities and Social Sciences kicks off their debate at noon in front of the Humanities Quad on March 10.

On Tuesday, March 11, the Steven G. Mihaylo College of Business and Economics will have their debate at the Mi-haylo Courtyard from noon to 1 p.m.

Associated Students Pres-ident Harpreet Bath and As-sociated Students Executive Vice President Michael Badal will lead the final elections debate on March 12 from noon to 1 p.m. at the Central Quad.

Originally, each debate was to have 20 minutes reserved at the end for questions, but students will now be allowed to ask questions throughout the debates, as each repre-sentative presents their plat-form, Gomez said, and this is where students can vocal-ize what they want from their representatives.

“It’s so important because that’s where students will meet the candidates and the candidates will meet the stu-dents. These are people who are going to represent them and they should meet the stu-dents that they are going to represent,” Gomez said.

If a certain demographic on campus doesn’t come out to vote, the interests of those students won’t be represent-ed on the board or associated students, Gomez said.

“In order for a student body, a student government to be representative of students, ... as many students as possi-ble need to vote so they can be represented,” she said.

Voting will take place on campus March 17-19 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting polls are located in front of Steven G. Mihaylo, TSU, Pollak Li-brary, McCarthy Hall and the Piazza.

Students can also vote on-line through their portal at Vote.Fullerton.edu.

High Impact Practices • Meant to increase

student retention

Titan Pride• Officials engaged in

conversation about what being a proud Titan means

Student success teams

• Create an integrated process between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs

Town Hall

Election debate season to beginCollege-specific debates aim to bring in more students

ELAIZA ARMASDaily Titan

PAGE 4MARCH 3, 2015 TUESDAY FEATURES

VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM/FEATURESFOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @THEDAILYTITAN

“If the pollen doesn’t take, then the whole flower will just kind of shrivel up and fall over, kind of like that dormant leaf,” Ponget-ti said. Once bloomed, the flower has two days before it will collapse, but with or without pollination, the underground root will sur-vive, he said.

This uncommon bloom seems to be gaining more popularity as its avail-ability increases, Pongetti said.

“When people do have the flower, then they pol-linate it and they typical-ly produce a lot of seed—I mean you can buy these plants from nurseries on

the internet,” he said. All of this is a joint effort be-tween the Fullerton Ar-boretum and the Biology Greenhouse Complex. The leaves and the flower itself grew at the greenhouse and were then donated to the Arboretum, where it is now blossomed.

The corpse flower is ex-posed at The Orange Coun-ty Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum inside the Fullerton Arboretum. They are open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day. In the museum, visitors can see the flower and displays explaining all different stages of its life cycle; as the emerging leaf, a leaf in full and even some seeds, one that is germinating.

Flower: Gagging and flourishing

By 2007, after spend-ing time as a professor at CSUF and Orange Coast College and after spending seven years as a zookeeper at the Santa Ana Zoo, Wal-lace finally gained employ-ment at the Desert Studies Center.

The desert offers hid-den treasures. Animals like ducks, coyotes and foxes convene in and around man-made Lake Tuendae pond as the sun reflects off the water in the day. Pink, yellow and purple hues reflect off the sky as the sun sets behind the distant mountains at dusk. Frogs croak and stars glisten big and bright in the sky at night.

But serenity can come with a price. An expanse of sand and rows of hills—interrupted only by des-ert bushes and Wallace’s pickup truck in the dis-tance—line the blue sky in the horizon. The talkative Wallace stops to observe the scene.

That momentary pause allows silence to set in, un-derscoring the isolated na-ture of the desert.

Zzyzx operates on a skel-eton crew of three men, and the center is a long way from home. “He definite-ly works really hard and he lives harsh, so we do, we miss him a lot,” said Priscil-la Mathis, Wallace’s young-er sister.

While Wallace works in the desert, his sister and two brothers still live in or around Orange County. “I don’t go back and visit as often as I’d like because I’m always trying to go in the opposite direction to see my wife and my dogs and my house,” Wallace said.

But even Wallace’s wife gets to see him only sporadically.

Wallace owns a house in Boulder City, Nevada, but he has to split his time be-tween home and work. “I can do anywhere from a week to two or three weeks at a time, and then I’ll go home for hopefully an ap-propriate amount of days,” said Wallace. When Wal-lace is home, though, he is only there for three or four days out of the week, of-ten not even consecutive-ly. “It’s the only part of this job that I think is kind of getting old,” Wallace said.

However, Wallace is also keenly aware that he is not the only one who has to make sacrifices for the sake of his work. “You show me one person who thinks life is always awesome. But it’s not always crappy, either. I couldn’t give you a ratio of good-to-bad, but it’s more good than bad,” Wallace said.

Despite, some of the neg-ative aspects of the job, Wallace is still able to enjoy the small things, like watch-ing lizards do “little push ups” at each other. “To this day I can watch lizards and just kind of crack up,” Wal-lace said.

In the end, Wallace seems perfectly content with his job, and he hopes people can appreciate the wonders of the desert as much as he does. “Overall, I kind of like assisting folks in ex-periencing something they may have never experi-enced, or seeing an aspect of the desert environment that they didn’t appreciate,” Wallace said.

Desert: From the zoo to Zzyzx

CONTINUED FROM 1

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The opening of the flower produces a ghastly smell of rotten corpse, hence the name corpse flower. Flies are then attracted to the bloom allowing for cross pollination.

NAYARA ASSIS / DAILY TITAN

The ink hasn’t dried on Katrina Awalt’s degree in ge-ology from Cal State Fuller-ton and she has already lead a co-authored a paper in hopes of publishing her ground-breaking research concern-ing a local marine creature, the Pacific leatherback sea turtle.

“It’s important because we don’t know a lot about the leatherback sea turtle, we know that there is the one ex-istent species alive today, but we don’t know exactly when it started declining,” Awalt said.

Five to 10 million years ago, there used to be six or seven other species of leath-erbacks alive and nobody re-ally knows when those other species started declining and why they went extinct she said.

As co-author of the study, James Parham, Ph.D., assis-tant professor of geological sciences and faculty curator

at the John D. Cooper Ar-chaeological and Paleonto-logical Center is Awalt’s ad-visor and fellow researcher on west coast leatherback turtle.

Their paper will be sub-mitted for publication this summer and once published, the research will provide a framework for future leath-erback sea turtle studies, Par-ham said.

“It is original research, it’s not like a cookbook where we can see what people have done before and then just replicate it,” Paraham said. “Katrina is looking at fossils that nobody has studied be-fore and she is asking ques-tions and doing science that is brand new and pioneering new ground.”

With no previous studies as a standard to quantify these fossils, a way to measure the species had to be created, Parham said.

By conducting a morpho-logical study, where research-ers examine the fossils and compare them to other spec-imens, it will help increase the database of information known about the leatherback sea turtle, Awalt said.

“We have these five leath-erback turtle fossil specimens

from Orange County and I’m doing a comparative study of them. I’m measuring and de-scribing the fossils that we have, which is mostly shell ossicles,” Awalt said.

Ossicles are tiny pieces fit-ting together in a mosaic pat-tern that make up the back shell of the turtle. Awalt es-timates she measured about 1,000 of these little pieces for

her paper. At the start of her college

career, Awalt didn’t have os-sicles in mind, but after a four and a half year break, she enrolled in CSUF with a newfound attitude.

“If I’m going to do this, I’m really going to do this. I’m going to do something that is difficult for me, and is a challenge, and something that I have always wanted to do but never thought I could do,” Awalt said.

Awalt knew she didn’t want to waste her time, and if she was coming back to the

university, she was going all out.

“Just because I didn’t think I could do it, it (paleontology) was never something that I ever took seriously; and then when I went back to school I was like, ‘well screw it, I’m going to do this,’” Awalt said.

With guidance from a pro-fessor, Awalt decided to get

her bachelor’s degree in geol-ogy and enrolled in the pro-gram during the same semes-ter Parham started working at CSUF. The two were in-troduced shortly after. With Parham specializing in ver-tebrate paleontology, the timing worked out perfectly Awalt said.

Now 30, Awalt originally enrolled in university class-es for social work. However, her plans changed and in Fall 2014, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Geol-ogy from CSUF.

As part of the requirements

every Bachelor of Science major in the Department of Geological Sciences must submit an undergraduate the-sis. Because of Awalt’s in-terest in vertebrate paleon-tology, she became Parhams first undergraduate thesis student.

Research like this has been done on other speci-mens from different parts of the world, but never on west coast leatherbacks. A critical-ly endangered species, the pa-cific leatherback sea turtle is the official California marine reptile.

On a normal day, Awalt can be found at her current job, working as a field monitor on construction sites looking for fossils as they cut into the sediment at LSA Associates Inc.

The chance to continue gaining a practical application of paleontology will help her in her career, Awalt said.

Awalt is planning to ap-ply to graduate school in the next year and continue studying vertebrate paleon-tology and leatherback tur-tles. The content, howev-er, will depend on who her thesis advisor is, but having a publication under her belt couldn’t hurt the process.

CSUF alumna plans to publish study on rare OC marine fossils

STEPHANIE GOMEZDaily Titan

JAMES PARHAM PH.D.Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences

Katrina is looking at fossils that nobody has studied before ... that is brand new and pioneering new ground.

““

Breaking new ground for fossilsKatrina Awalt (above) measures a fossil for her fundamental research on rare leatherback sea turtles in the lab of James Parham Ph.D.

COURTESY OF JAMES PARHAM PH.D.

@theDailyTitanfollow us

Updating you from the newsroom and around the campus.

He sits across the table chowing down his steak bur-rito from Chipotle, occa-sionally sipping on his iced tea with extra lemon, be-cause that’s how he likes it.

A warm smile lights up his face as he contin-ues to talk about his crazy weekend.

As he stretches his arm out to grab Tabasco sauce, large purple, green and yel-low bruises become visible.

The smile instantly fades away when he’s asked how those bruises came about.

After a couple minutes of going back and forth, he spills the beans.

He was at work and a fe-male co-worker grabbed him, dug her fingers into his arm and ended it with a pinch.

It was a natural instinct to turn around and hit whoever had touched him, but when he realized it was a girl who

had hurt him, he caught himself and walked away.

She thought it was funny, but he thought differently. Things like this are far from hilarious.

If his hand would have slipped and he would have hit her, even pushed her, there would have been out-rage. Why? Because he’s a man and men are not sup-posed to hit women.

Why is it okay for her to hit him?

To injure him and get away with it? Why do most people laugh when a wom-an hits a man, but fly off the

handle when it’s the other way around?

The reality is, violence toward men is just as unac-ceptable as violence toward women.

If a woman hits a man

and he hits back, she had it coming. It goes back to the notion of treating oth-ers the way you’d like to be treated.

He is a tall guy, over six feet, and she is relatively small, which comes to show, regardless of size, a man is still vulnerable.

More than one in four men have been victims of domes-tic abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but it’s rare that a man being abused by a woman gets publicity.

A man who is abused is seen as weak, unmasculine

and cowardly. But the woman respon-

sible for an attack is ap-plauded for “teaching him a lesson.”

Nearly three million phys-ical assaults in the United States happen to men and they seem to be disturbingly overlooked.

Everything boils down to one thing: treat others with respect.

Hitting someone because it’s “entertaining” or “fun” is not right.

If you wouldn’t want something done to you, don’t do it to another individual.

Nearly three million physical assaults in the United States happen to men and they seem to be disturbingly overlooked.

““

PAGE 5TUESDAY MARCH 3, 2015OPINION

VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM/OPINION FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @THEDAILYTITAN

Fraternities are tarnished by rape

Fast food creations make feasting fun

Violence against men is no different

Blackened burgers, chicken corsages and edible sugar coffee cups are just a handful of peculiar inven-tions that have appeared on fast food menus throughout the world.

Have fast food restau-rants lost their mind?

Perhaps not. Fast food chains have taken an ec-centric path in creating dif-ferent food items for the av-erage consumer, and that probably isn’t a bad thing.

In a 2013 Gallup poll, eight in 10 Americans have consumed fast food at least once in a month.

It’s evident the nation consists of fast food con-sumers and the demand for innovative food items are needed.

Restaurants like KFC and Taco Bell are some of the many fast food restaurants

that have altered their food menus with whimsical cre-ations, like the Waffle Taco, the A.M. Crunch Wrap, the Double Down sandwich that substitutes bread for chicken breasts and the ed-ible “Scoff-ee” cup sold in the United Kingdom.

Taco Bell’s creative team must choose at least 12 out of the 4,500 innovative concepts to be provided on the menu—the “Waffle Taco” was one of the cho-sen few to be a breakfast item, according to Taco Bell’s Secret Recipe for New Products.

The “Waffle Taco,” was transformed at least 80 times, constantly renovat-ing the form, taste, tex-ture and flavor before the final product, according to Bloomberg Business.

Fast food consumers may love or hate edible cre-ations, but the risk-tak-ing actions from fast food restaurants is admirable.

People may believe the items are ridiculous inven-tions, but it takes a lot of effort and consideration to create interesting food.

The wary perception of the product doesn’t over-shadow people’s actual in-tention from trying and eat-ing them.

Sure, many people may say they dislike the idea of honey being drizzled onto a meat or an egg and cheese Waffle Taco, but an over-whelming curiosity will usually get the better of them.

Fast food restaurants are thinking outside the box, injecting a dose of fun and creativity into everyday food items.

It’s easy to roll your eyes at the new recipes fast food joints are cooking up, but-don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

It’s hard to escape the so-cial media buzz about new products through friends on Yelp, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Consuming the restau-rant’s peculiar food be-comes a unique experience that no typical cheeseburg-er, taco or salad on the menu will provide.

These inventions are fun and distinct products that

drift from the ordinary menu at fast food restau-rants, creating diversity in the fast food culture.

When looking past the bizarre menu items, one can find that time, inno-vation and creativity were

emphasized in making food entrees to spice up the appetite of the fast food consumer.

New menu creations from fast food chains show creativity

MARICELA GOMEZDaily Titan

The benefits of being in a fraternity may include a large group of friends, fun social gatherings, servicing a community and network-ing opportunities.

But fraternities are full of storied traditions like initiations, which have come under fire for poten-tially endangering female students.

It’s common knowledge that being in a fraternity will expose participants to a party scene, but what ex-actly goes on in those par-ties are only known by the fraternity members or so-rority members they associ-ate themselves with.

Members of fraternities are 300 percent more like-ly to be the perpetrator in a rape incident and females in a sorority are 74 percent

more likely to be a victim of rape, according to The Guardian.

These shocking statistics tell the story of an envi-ronment fueled by alcohol and drugs, leading to bad judgement, a lack of mor-als and spelling danger for females.

Many fraternities do not allow male outsiders into their parties or social gath-erings for fear that if a vis-itor breaks a rule, it will negatively affect all the brothers in the fraternity.

Oftentimes, such actions can lead to the suspension of a fraternity.

In 2014, officials at the University of Virginia be-lieved fraternities promote a dangerous climate and suspended all fraternities from their campus after a first-year student was raped by 7 different men at a Phi Kappi Si party, according to Time magazine.

The victim was so dis-traught after the incident that she became suicidal.

Though this incident only involved one fraterni-ty, UVA decided to suspend

all fraternities, a ban that is still under effect.

It’s great to see UVA take such serious action on an issue that many universities would prefer to brush under the rug.

Univiersities like Wesley-an have also taken note and handling fraternity-related rape incidents with swift action.

Wesleyan University, lo-cated in Middletown, Con-necticut has been peppered with stories of rape these past few years.

This includes the dis-missal of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity whose house was nicknamed the “Rape Fac-tory,” according to Daily Mail.

Wesleyan University sent out an email to students informing them on the in-tent to make all fraternities co-ed.

It’s unclear how much this will alleviate the issue, even though it’s a great start in addressing the issue.

Even the best and bright-est at Yale University has come across hot water for the actions of one of their

fraternities. In 2010, Delta Kappa

Epsilon pledges marched through campus chanting, “no means yes, yes means anal,” according to The Guardian.

These can be the actions

of a few that tarnish the reputation of many reputa-ble fraternities.

Some fraternities are great organizations that actually promote chival-ry, a sense of community and help further members’

careers.Yes, they still have par-

ties, and having fun is a huge part of fraternities, but if that fun risks the safety of other students, then their actions shouldn’t go with-out consequence.

There’s a double standard for men in domestic violence

LILIANA MOTAFor the Daily Titan

Fraternity culture and traditions endanger women on campus

ANDREW MCLEANDaily Titan

Favorite fast food chains are always cooking up new edible creations, keeping customers on their toes. KFC’s Double Down sandwich takes a new spin on the typical burger.

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Fraternities have made headlines recently for incidents relating to rape and violence against women. The agressive and hyper-masculine identities of frats have endangered female students.

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Check out our daily Instagram posts!Including exclusive photos,

behind-the-scenes shots and previews of stories before they go to print.

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PAGE 6MARCH 3, 2015 TUESDAY OPINION

VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM/OPINIONFOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @THEDAILYTITAN

Students need class rules

Classroom policies are annoying, but it doesn’t hurt to have them.

When college students stand up against classroom rules, justifying it with the fact that they are adults and they should not be dis-ciplined, they clearly for-get that discipline is one of the main characteristics of a mature adult.

The most common rules that students are not

satisfied with are enforced attendance and bans on food, drinks and electronic devices in class.

However frustrating it may be, these rules do make sense, simply be-cause missing classes re-sults in poor academic performance.

Laptops distract users and students around them from studying and eating in class creates extra noise irrelevant to the course work.

These simple points are backed up by scientif-ic research, and scientific data is something an adult should take into account.

The reason why teach-ers enforce attendance

is because it actually matters.

It may seem like going to class isn’t really a big deal, especially when it comes to grades, but research in-dicates the opposite.

The chance of students earning a passing grade are eight times higher when they regularly at-tend class, according to a study conducted by Sadri Alija, Ph.D., in South East European University in Macedonia

Similarly, scientific data can explain why banning electronic devices, like laptops in class, can actu-ally help students.

Numerous studies prove using laptops in class

interfere with learning, according to a study ti-tled “In-class laptop use and its effects on student learning.”

Moreover, it interferes with the learning process of those seated nearby, af-fecting students who do not have laptops.

This way, even people who may want to concen-trate on class work won’t be able to do so.

This is where the claim “I am an adult” really works against the com-plainers, because adults understand they have to re-spect the rights and needs of others.

If “adults” do not un-derstand this, it’s up to an

educational institution or faculty to protect the ma-ture students by enforcing classroom policies.

The same applies to eat-ing and drinking in class.

Touching food wraps, chewing and sipping cre-ate extra sounds, which are distracting in a learning environment.

Multiple studies have proven that one’s attention can be “involuntarily cap-tured by sudden changes in a train of otherwise re-peated sounds,” accord-ing to a study titled To-wards A Cognitive Model of Distraction by Auditory Novelty.

This means that if a stu-dent, for example, hears

only a lecturer’s speech and ambient sound of the classroom for half an hour, the sound of someone opening a bag of chips will immediately steal the stu-dent’s attention, even if he or she is determined to lis-ten to the teacher.

Students should be treated as adults on col-lege campuses. But they should behave like adults as well.

Maturity and adulthood are defined by self-disci-pline and consideration for others.

If a student can’t fol-low simple rules meant to help themselves and those around, he or she is not adult enough for college.

College students make classroom rules a neccessity

SVETLANA GUKINADaily Titan

MAD MIKE

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QUOTE OF THE DAY“It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

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A: She couldn’t control her pupils!

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ARIES (MARCH 21 - APRIL 19):

It’s a really good time for you to make new connections and try to get others to share their perspectives. Your great energy is sure to make life more interesting for at least one person from far away.

TAURUS(APRIL 20 - MAY 20):

You may not quite understand what’s going on logically, but your subconscious mind is sure to have a few ideas. Listen carefully -- you may only be able to figure this stuff out metaphor-ically.

GEMINI(MAY 21 - JUNE 20):

A coworker or acquaintance surprises you with a comment or idea that is perfectly in line with your thinking. This may be the start of a much richer relationship for you two! Embrace it.

CANCER (JUNE 21 - JULY 22):

A former coworker pops up with a request -- or maybe an offer. Take your time to consider it carefully, as your energy is a bit tapped out and you may need to ask for more time.

LEO(JULY 23 - AUG. 22):

Something big is changing -- and you think you like it! It could be almost anything but you’re sure to be the vanguard of embracing this new way of living or thinking about things.

VIRGO(AUG. 23 - SEPT. 22):

You’ve got to discipline yourself at least a little -- otherwise, things are sure to get weird fast. You may need to try something totally new and untested, but you should be able to make that work.

LIBRA(SEPT. 23 - OCT. 22):

Your intellect is in charge of everything today, so make sure that you’re keeping all your actions as rational and planned out as possible. It’s easier than ever to make real progress!

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 - NOV. 21):

This is not a good time for risky behavior of any kind. You should do what you can to play it safe and try to let others shoulder more of the chal-lenges. You can get back into the game tomorrow.

SAGITTARIUS(NOV. 22 - DEC. 21):

It’s a good day for exploration of all kinds -- so check out the fringes of your city or discover some new activity that may turn into your new favorite thing. Life is sweet for you!

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 - JAN. 19):

You take a stand today and end up someone’s hero -- but also possibly someone’s enemy. That’s okay, because this is one of those issues that’s too important to ignore and you know you’re right.

AQUARIUS(JAN. 20 - FEB. 18):

You’re letting someone new into your social or work group today, and it’s super-simple for you to make them feel welcome. Try not to worry too much about the long-term, though.

PISCES(FEB. 19 - MARCH 20):

You’re going through something troubling at work -- or as part of a larger job search. It’s easy to feel down about it, but if you can keep your spirits up, things should start to get better soon.

PAGE 8MARCH 3, 2015 TUESDAY SPORTS

VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM/SPORTSFOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @DTSPORTSDESK

Track sets school records

Baseball looking to ride momentum against Waves

Women’s tennis seeking first Big West win over UCI

The Cal State Fullerton baseball team will look to keep its momentum going when they take on the Pep-perdine Waves Tuesday at Goodwin Field.

After a series of losses early in the season, the Ti-tans may have finally start-ed to gel, but their win/loss percentage still re-mains at a precarious .500. The Titans’ last three wins all came against the same opponent, so their game against Pepperdine might

determine whether or not the Titans have really found their groove.

The Titans enter the game with a 5-5 overall record after earning three wins in their weekend sweep of the Baylor Bears. Meanwhile, the Waves also enter the matchup on the back of three consecutive wins, theirs coming against the University of Hawaii.

Fullerton will have to continue to keep the hits coming against Pepper-dine. The Fullerton bats finally came alive against Baylor over the weekend—the Titans outscoring the Bears, 28-13, over the three games. Pepperdine, how-ever, also enters the game with 28 runs in their last three games, but the Waves

had a better defensive re-cord over that stretch, giv-ing up only six runs to Hawaii.

Furthermore, despite Fullerton’s improved bat-ting over the weekend, the Waves will enter Wednes-day’s affair with a better overall batting percentage than the Titans. Pepperdine will go into Goodwin Field batting at a .269 clip. Cur-rently leading the bats for the Waves is Jeremy Gold-enetz. However, his .455 batting average is deceiv-ing since the sophomore outfielder has only played nine games and only start-ed in two of the Waves’ 12 games.

The real Pepperdine threat will be Hutton Moy-er; the junior infielder has

racked up 12 runs, four homers and 12 runs bat-ted in while accumulating a .634 slugging percent-age through the first 12 games.

Brad Anderson will also pose a threat. Anderson’s .205 batting average may not read as impressive-ly as Moyer’s .317, but the junior first baseman leads his team in RBIs with 13, while also having scored the Waves’ second-most home runs at two.

The Titans will look to respond with Josh Estill, whose exploits against Bay-lor earned him Big West Conference Field Player of the Week honors. The soph-omore infielder will carry with a .394 batting average and a team-high 11 RBIs

and one home run. David Olmedo-Barrera will also look to pose a threat. Ol-medo-Barrera is batting at a .320 clip and has amassed eight RBIs of his own. Both hitters will look to capital-ize on Pepperdine’s 4.04 earned run average.

Aside from their bat-ters, Fullerton will also be buoyed by their pitching staff. The Titans currently sport a 3.74 earned run av-erage, led by junior pitch-er Thomas Eshelman, who carries with him an impres-sive 1.77 ERA through 20.1 innings pitched. However, midweek games are like-ly to see a staff day for the pitchers.

First pitch for Wednes-day’s game is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Goodwin Field.

Titans are hoping their hot bats carry into the Pepperdine game

RUDY CHINCHILLADaily Titan

Sophomore shortstop Timmy Richards rounds third base and heads home to score a run in the bottom of the sixth inning in the first game of the Baylor series. The Titan offense erupted for 28 runs in the three-game homestand, and the team will hope that momentum carries over into the Wednesday night matchup with Pepperdine.

MATT CORKILL / DAILY TITAN FILE PHOTO

Cal State Fullerton set two more program records Sat-urday at the Mountain Pacif-ic Sports Federation Indoor Track and Field Champion-ships, held at the University of Washington.

Sophomore Ty’Jalayah Robertson and senior Te-jera Dial broke their own school records in the high jump and 800-meter run, respectively.

Robertson tied Sandy Gonzalez’s school record of 5 feet 5.75 inches in the high jump Jan. 30-31 at the UW Invitational, but she took sole possession of first in the Fullerton history books with a jump of 5 feet 7.25 inches in Seattle.

Dial previously set the school record in the 800-me-ter run at the Husky Invita-tional in February with a time of 2:14.43 seconds. She bested her previous time by almost a second, clocking in at 2:13.67 seconds.

Junior Jessica Flores also had an 11th place finish in the weight throw on Friday. Her throw of 16.97 meters set a new personal best for the Fresno native.

“Overall, the girls per-formed well against great competition,” Head Coach John Elders told fullertonti-tans.com. “Ty’Jalayah’s high jump was so exciting, as she had a couple great attempts at 5-foot-9-inches. Tejera re-ally competed well against top competition and Jessica threw a big personal record in the weight throw on Fri-day. I think the indoor sea-son is a strong indicator that we’re going to have a strong year outdoors.”

The Titans will next com-pete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayette-ville, Arkansas. The two-day event begins March 13 and concludes March 14.

The indoor team posts new bests in high jump and 800M

TAMEEM SERAJDaily Titan

In hopes of gaining their first Big West Conference victory of the season, Cal State Fullerton women’s tennis (5-6 overall, 0-3 Big West) will look to get back on track against No. 49 UC Irvine (8-3 overall, 2-0 Big West) Wednesday at Anteat-er Tennis Stadium.

The Titans ended up fal-tering late in a non-confer-ence match against Uni-versity of the Pacific (5-3), dropping the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles matches to give the tiebreak to the Tigers, 4-3.

This week, the Titans will face much tougher opposi-tion in the Anteaters. UCI has been competitive in the past month, winning six-of-eight matches while going 5-2 at home this season.

UCI is coming off of a victory over Pacific, 4-3, on Sunday after jumping out to a 3-0 lead, winning the No. 3 through 5 singles match-es and gaining the doubles point, led by sisters Ali and Kat Facey.

The Facey sisters have won their past four dou-bles matches, with their last defeat, which came in a tiebreak (8-7, 5), coming

against UC Davis on Feb. 16.

UCI singles No. 1 Sarah Gong has been struggling as of late, going 0-4 over the past four matches. No. 2 Arisha Ladhani has lost her last three matches in row.

Titan sophomore No. 1 Alexis Valenzuela has been battling through a back in-jury, but her opponents cer-tainly haven’t noticed, as she has won her past five singles matches and com-bined with freshman No. 4 Danielle Pham to win the past five-of-six doubles matches. She will be look-ing to extend that streak to six when she faces Gong on Wednesday.

Titan sophomore No. 2 Camille De Leon, who had won four straight singles matches prior to the hard fought three-set defeat against Pacific, will look to return to form when she takes on Ladhani.

The doubles upset against Pacific was a rarity, as the Titans have gone 4-2 over the past month. Fullerton will need to slow the pace against the Anteaters, who have gone 3-3 in the past month, even with the ag-gressive play of the Facey sisters.

The Titans will look to gain their first conference victory while handing the Anteaters their first con-ference loss. The match is set to begin at 1:30 p.m.

The Titans will travel for a midweek clash with the Anteaters

MATT CORKILLDaily Titan

Sophomore Alexis Valenzuela gets set to return with a backhand. Valenzuela and the Titans will face the UC Irvine Anteaters Wednesday in search of their first Big West Conference victory.

MATT CORKILL / DAILY TITAN FILE PHOTO

Estill named Big West Player of the Week

DTBRIEFS

Purdue transfer Josh Estill is finally start-ing to find his groove at Cal State Fullerton. His stellar performance over the weekend earned him Big West Conference Field Player of the Week honors.

The sophomore first baseman batted 6-12 in the three-game home-stand against the Baylor Bears this past week-end, compiling a triple and six runs batted in. Estill came in clutch in the sweep of Baylor, two of his hits resulting in game-winning RBIs.

Estill’s two-run sin-gles put the Titans ahead 7-6 in both game two and three of the series.

Estill is now hitting .394 on the season with a team-high 11 RBIs.

TAMEEM SERAJDaily Titan