Tuesday October 21, 2014 Volume 96 Issue 28The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton

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‘Red Folder’ comes to CSUF Rallying for mental health Mental health initiative aims to prepare faculty to address student needs

Active Minds club teaches awareness for people with or without an illness

News Features3 4

Cadets of the Cal State Ful-lerton Army ROTC Titan Bat-talion waited their turn as they watched their peers rappel down six stories of McCarthy Hall on Saturday.

While some were excited to rap-pel, others were a little nervous, but the purpose of this exercise was to build confidence among cadets

as well as help them overcome any fears they may have.

This on-campus conditioning was part of their off-campus train-ing weekend which was held at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos. The exercises at the base included virtual training on mounted vehicles, simulated live fire weapons training and how to handle a vehicle rollover in a Hum-vee, a high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle.

Rappelling is an exercise where cadets slide down towers or build-ings, while secured by a double rope

around their body. While one cadet is rappelling, another is on belay. The cadet on belay is responsible for securing the rope at the bottom. In case the cadet that’s on rappel starts falling, the belay will pull the rope straight down which locks it up and prevents the cadet on rappel from falling any further.

“The belay’s job is to make sure the other guy doesn’t fall to his death,” Master Sgt. Lukie said.

Rappelling may be too fright-ening for some, and while ROTC military instructors understand that, they still hope their cadets

accomplish the experience. “One of the seven army values

is personal courage, and this defi-nitely takes personal courage to step off a six-story building dan-gling by a rope,” said Lt. Col. Mark Waters, a professor of mil-itary science at CSUF. “It’s a big character building exercise ... This helps them get some confidence in themselves and confidence in their fellow soldiers or cadets.”

“This is terrifying,” said senior cadet and public affairs officer for the battalion, Jessica Lopez.

Despite being fearful, Lopez also

expressed her excitement about the rappel because they all work so hard and this exercise will serve as a stress-reliever.

“On paper, training is only three days a week, but it’s a full-time job,” she said.

The rappelling experience varies among the cadets ranking. MS1 ca-dets, which means they are military science freshmen, are less experi-enced than MS3’s and 4’s—juniors and seniors—who have done it in the past.

“Three! Two! One! Power! Power! Power!” Lucia Agu-irre, Cal State Fullerton stu-dent veteran, roared at her fellow veterans encourag-ing them to move strongly in sync.

As the drummer, the re-sponsibility of the teams synchronization fell on her shoulders.

“Reach! Reach! Reach!” she yelled. “Keep in sync!”

Regardless of the drill sergeant-like orders, Agu-irre’s strict motivation paid off for both the Titan Tila-pias and Blue Falcons at the LA Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday.

Both teams improved their times dramatically over the course of three rac-es, especially the Blue Fal-cons who took home fourth place in their division of 12 and won an added bonus of $80 for having the best team spirit.

Jose Guevara, president of the CSUF Student Veterans Association and team cap-tain for the Blue Falcons, felt

that the team walked away with much more.

“It was just awesome—the camaraderie we built up (and) the teamwork we were building up,” Guevara said.

Before their journey be-gan, it was the hope of di-rector for Veterans Student Services, Lui Amador, and assistant director of the fi-nancial aid office, Moni-ca Coloso, that the students

would experience a day to set aside their daily lives and enjoy each other as a team.

“One of the goals is that they work together as a team. Leave everything else aside. Leave it out-side the boat—your identi-ties, your responsibilities or your roles or what not. Just come together as a team. And, they’ve done that,” Coloso said.

At the end of the day, Gue-vara agreed they achieved that goal.

“It brought us togeth-er, and at the end of the last race, we weren’t even talking about anything but beating the other teams on the wa-ter. We didn’t care about anything else but those other teams,” Guevara said.

The National Cancer In-stitute at the National In-stitutes of Health awarded a Cal State Fullerton pro-fessor over $1.5 million in grants to fund cancer research.

Sora Tanjasiri, professor of health science, received the money in four grants to fund research in three main

areas. About $870,000 went toward Weaving an Islander Network for Cancer Aware-ness, Research and Training (WINCART). WINCART grants have helped fund Tanjasiri’s research since 2010. The new funding will allow her to build upon her past research and efforts to promote awareness of can-cer prevention within Pa-cific Islander communities in Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

CSUF Army ROTC Battalion cadets built trust and camaraderie by scaling down a campus building

DARRELL KING Daily Titan

Over $1.5 million in grants funds studies on cancer in un-derrepresented communities

CYNTHIA PLEITEZDaily Titan

Student veterans and staff participated in a dragon boat race to cultivate teamwork

CIARA GUTIERREZDaily Titan

Veterans demonstrate unity

ROTC tackles McCarthy

Cancer research granted funds

SEE BOAT 4SEE CANCER 2

SEE ROTC 4

Cadet AJ McCartney is lowered from the roof of McCarthy Hall as part of the Cal State Fullerton ROTC Army Titan Battalion training Saturday afternoon. MARIAH CARRILLO / DAILY TITAN

Health Sciences Professor Sora Tanjasiri was awarded over $1.5 million to fund cancer research in Pacific Islander communities.

COURTESY OF CSUF

Lucia Aguirre, dressed in blue wings and sporting a mohawk, leads the Blue Falcons team with the synchronized beat of her drum.

CIARA GUTIERREZ / DAILY TITAN

PAGE 2OCTOBER 21, 2014 TUESDAY NEWS

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FOR THE RECORDIt is Daily Titan policy to correct factual errors printed in the publication. Corrections will be published on the subsequent issue after an

error is discovered and will appear on page 2. Errors on the Opinion page will be corrected

on that page. Corrections will also be made to the online version of the article. Please contact

Editor-in-Chief Nereida Moreno at (657) 278-5815 or at editorinchief@dailytitan.com with

issues about this policy or to report any errors.

The Daily Titan is a student publication, printed every Monday through Thursday. The Daily Titan operates independently of Associated Students, Inc. College of Communications, CSUF administration and the CSU. The Daily Titan has functioned as a public forum since incep-tion. Unless implied by the advertising party or otherwise stated, advertising in the Daily Titan is inserted by commercial activities or ventures identified in the advertisements themselves and not by the university. Such printing is not to be construed as written or implied sponsorship, endorsement or investigation of such commercial enterprises. The Daily Titan allocates one issue to each student for free.

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Charges filed in death of student

ISIS renews Iraq attacks

Hit and run driver sentenced

DTBRIEFS

- NEREIDA MORENO

- CYNTHIA WASHICKO

- AMBER UDDIN

The Los Angeles Po-lice Department charged a 28-year-old Long Beach man Monday with murdering a Cal State Northridge student from Saudi Arabia that had been missing for a month, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Augustin Rosendo Fernandez was charged with one count of murder in the death of 23-year-old Abdullah Abdullahtif Alkadi, an electrical en-gineering international student.

Prosecutors filed special circumstances which allege the murder happened during a rob-bery and carjacking and that Fernandez used a knife. They will later de-cide whether to seek the death penalty against Fernandez.

Alkadi’s body was found dumped along In-terstate 10 in Palm Des-ert last week.

In what Kurdish gov-ernment officials call a renewed effort to gain territory, ISIS fighters launched about 15 at-tacks Monday in north-ern Iraq on Kurdish forc-es, according to CNN.

The attacks included the detonation of a mili-tary truck filled with ex-plosives that killed six and injured seven more at a Peshmerga security checkpoint.

ISIS forces also at-tacked areas in the Sin-jar mountains, includ-ing the village of Sharaf ad-Din, which holds a shrine important to the Yazidi community. Mili-tants managed to cap-ture two villages nearby Sharaf ad-Din, but both villages were reportedly unpopulated.

Peshmerga forces, us-ing European and Amer-ican weapons, repelled ISIS militants who at-tacked the Nineveh Valley near the dam.

An Irvine man was sentenced to two years in prison yesterday af-ter pleading guilty to a hit-and-run that killed his girlfriend and injured his young daughter on Hal-loween last year.

Francisco Montano, 22, was convicted of fleeing the scene after his girlfriend, 21-year-old Gloria Sanchez, jumped from the vehicle hold-ing their 13-month-old daughter while Monta-no was driving the fami-ly through Santa Ana on West Edinger Avenue.

Sanchez died at a lo-cal hospital and the child sustained minor injuries.

Montano was driving his black Toyota RAV4 without a valid driver’s li-cense when the incident occurred. He later turned himself in to authorities.

Slowing down distracted driving

In 2013, University Police at CSUF issued 156 citations for cell phone violations.

Drivers in their 20s make up 27 percent of the distracted drivers in fatal crashes.

At any given daylight moment in the U.S., approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving.

Five seconds is the average time your eyes are o� the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded.

1 newtextmsg

156 CITATIONS FOR CELL PHONE VIOLATIONS

27 PERCENT OF 20 YEAR OLDS

660,000 DRIVERS USINGCELL PHONES WHILE DRIVING

EYES ARE OFF THE ROAD FOR FIVE SECONDS ON AVERAGE

Sources: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, University Police, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

BERENICE ASHIKIAN / DAILY TITAN

A group of Cal State Ful-lerton students are working to bring an end to distract-ed driving.

Four members of the PRactical ADvantage class in the College of Commu-nications are working with Mazda Motorsports to pro-mote Project Yellow Light, a scholarship competition open to high school and college students which aims to promote safe driv-ing habits.

The competition was created by Virginia moth-er Julie Garner after her 16-year-old son Hunter died in a car accident. High school and college students are invited to create videos that promote safe driving.

The Ad Council, a non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements, will edit the winning campaign into a PSA to be aired on 1,600 TV stations nation-ally, where it will run for a year. First place winners each get $5,000. Second and third places will take home $2,000 and $1,000, respectively.

The PRactical

ADvantage team, led by student Lesley Roberts, is working with Mazda to spread the word about the dangers of distracted driv-ing and promote the schol-arship at the same time.

“They feel that youth are the ones that are most af-fected by this and if we tell them what the problem is, which is distracted driv-ing, and give them an op-portunity to make a video or reach out to their peers, that we will be able to find a solution to this problem that unfortunately takes so many lives every year,” Roberts said.

Although it is most of-ten associated with tex-ting and driving, distracted driving refers to anything that causes a distraction, whether it is eating, tex-ting, putting on makeup or playing music.

In 2013, University Po-lice at CSUF issued 156 ci-tations for cell phone vio-lations alone.

“We all are guilty of dis-tracted driving, whether we want to admit to it or not,” Roberts said. “I feel like our generation for some reason seems to be hit the hardest.”

In an effort to reach out to interested students, the team, which consists of public relations and

advertising majors, will visit the Irvine campus during finals week to pass out flyers and snacks, in-forming the students of distracted driving and the scholarship.

“We just feel that it’s kind of our duty in a sense as well to kind of get this scholarship out and it’s kind of a voice for our youth to figure out a solu-tion to this problem,” Rob-erts said.

The group has also en-listed the help of fellow CSUF student and semi-pro racecar driver Kenton Koch. Together, they will visit El Toro High School in Lake Forest next month to talk about the dan-gers of distracted driving as well as the scholarship program.

“When I’m on the road, I want to be driving with people that aren’t having their heads in their laps looking at their phone,” Koch said. “I actually feel safer on the race track than I do on the streets be-cause of how people are distracted.”

Students can submit vid-eos online starting Oct. 31 and have until April 1, 2015 to enter. For more in-formation about the schol-arship, visit ProjectYellow-Light.com.

PRactical ADvantage mem-bers compete in Project Yellow Light to promote safe driving

ROSELYNNE REYESDaily Titan

Over $400,000 of funding will also go to Pap test inter-vention to enhance decision making among Pacific Is-lander women.

Finally, the CSUF Health Promotion Research Insti-tute (HPRI) and the UC Ir-vine Chao Family Com-prehensive Cancer Center received funding to augment research on cancer in under-represented communities.

The significance of the funds to the HPRI is not in the monetary value but the pilot and long-term projects and studies it will spear-head, Tanjasiri said. The funding comes as an install-ment in a four-year grant that is expected to total over $1.3 million by 2015.

“We can support so many different cancer-related re-search projects dealing with tobacco cessation, physi-cal activity promotion, Pap testing and an array of pilot studies co-led by faculty at CSUF and UC Irvine,” Tan-jasiri said.

Funding will be split be-tween CSUF and UCI re-searchers, said Health Pro-motion Research Institute Program Manager Sandy Bennet.

“The $100,00 is split. The UCI researcher gets $50,000, the Cal State Fullerton researcher gets $50,000, and its for a two-year project. So they get ap-proximately $25,000 each year for two years,” Bennet said.

Areas of research for the pilot projects include social support for cervical cancer survivors, gender dispari-ties in early onset melano-ma, tools for Latina Breast Cancer survivors and in-vestigation into national and local retail advertis-ing of e-cigarettes aimed at minorities.

Members of the com-munities central to the re-search oftentimes don’t uti-lize the resources available for cancer prevention, mak-ing the research critical, said Department of Health Science Manager Jasmine

DeGuzman Lacsamana. “The research that has

been shown for Pacific Is-landers shows that there’s a very low rate of Pap test-ing and utilization of these types of preventive ser-vices,” DeGuzman Lacsa-mana said.

Screenings for cervical cancer include the Pap test and human papillomavirus (HPV) testing, which can detect cancer or abnormali-ties that may lead to cervix cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.

“It’s important because, for one that’s the research, this is the focus of this proj-ect and, two there’s just very little research that is done on Pacific Islanders and dif-ferent health outcomes,” De-Guzman Lacsamana said.

WINCART and the Pap testing research areas share community partners and some similar goals. WIN-CART, however, encom-pases multiple projects in-cluding tobacco cessation.

CONTINUED FROM 1

Cancer: Grants fund continued research

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

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HEARD!

HAVEYOURVOICE

Last month, Cal State Ful-lerton joined a list of Califor-nia universities to implement the Red Folder Initiative to make on-campus resources easily accessible for students in distress.

The Red Folder Initiative is a statewide effort on Califor-nia State University and Uni-versity of California campus-es, and is currently accessible to all faculty and staff in the CSU and UC systems.

The initiative’s purpose is to prepare faculty and staff to identify and react appropri-ately to students coping with mental distress. It provides faculty and staff with markers to look for in struggling stu-dents, and the correct ways to respond.

Faculty will be better equipped to identify and re-spond to students in need of

assistance and provide them with or direct them to the ap-propriate resources.

The initiative stresses the importance of getting help to those who need it in order to prevent serious consequenc-es, including severe declines in academic performance, dis-ruptive behavior on campus or suicide.

Each campus will provide and distribute a “red folder” to faculty, staff and assistants. The handout includes tips and information on how to ap-proach a student in distress. The UC system started this process in 2012, and the CSU system is following suit.

The initiative is a joint ef-fort of the California Men-tal Health Services Author-ity (CalMHSA) and the Student Mental Health Ini-tiative (SMHI). CalMH-SA’s mission is to give mental health and wellness services to California cities and coun-ties. SMHI is an initiative within CalMHSA that applies CalMHSA values specifically

towards the educational system.

The CSU system is provid-ing the folder as an electron-ic resource on faculty portals. A printed copy of the folder was also distributed with fac-ulty and staff paychecks in September.

The initiative outlines three themes for faculty and staff to follow: see something, say something, do something.

The first section encourag-es faculty to identify troubled students. Indicators of troubled students and the proper meth-ods of approaching them are outlined in the handout.

The initiative then encour-ages faculty or staff to say something, pointing out that a distressed student will like-ly exhibit problems in the classroom and at work, with friends, family and in social settings. Bringing the issues to the attention of the individual or appropriate resources is an important step.

Finally, Red Folder encour-ages action. Depending on the

situation, faculty can direct students to contact appropri-ate resources or, if the situa-tion warrants it, call campus security or 911. Guidelines

include that people in an-guish may not turn to fam-ily or friends and doing something about their situa-tion can save their academic

career or even their life.If you know of someone in

mental distress, contact Coun-seling and Psychological Ser-vices at (657) 278-3040.

PAGE 3TUESDAY OCTOBER 21, 2014NEWS

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A student walks by the Student Health and Counseling Center at Cal State Fullerton. The SHCC is one of many resources on campus for students coping with mental distress.

AUBREY SAULS / DAILY TITAN

At least 23 occurances of graffiti vandalism appeared on the fourth and fifth floors of the Nutwood Parking Structure over the weekend. Posts, walls and ceiling beams were defaced with graffiti depicting large faces and words in teal and yellow spraypaint. University Police were not able to provide further detail on the vandalism Monday afternoon. As of Monday night, the vandalism had yet to be removed. Read full coverage of the graffiti in the Thursday issue of the Daily Titan. – AMBER UDDIN and SAMUEL MOUNTJOY

YUNUEN BONAPARTE / DAILY TITAN

City Council to vote on police ticketing software

Fullerton Police Depart-ment (FPD) may soon be up-grading its software system to include smartphone tick-eting. Fullerton City Coun-cil will vote this evening on whether or not FPD will re-ceive this new software.

FPD Police Chief Dan Hughes is seeking approv-al to use $10,368 in asset

seizure funds to purchase smartphone ticket writers. The funds will also include training, licensing, sup-port and supplies on both purchases. Also request-ed in the same agenda item is $25,800 in asset seizure funds to purchase new pro-fessional standards software to facilitate the filing of paperwork.

The new ticketing soft-ware, Watson Mobile Com-puter-Aided Dispatch (CAD), is made by Data-Driven, a Tennessee-based

law enforcement software company. The software will allow FPD to access vehi-cle data and issue citations by scanning a driver’s li-cense. The software can also be used to obtain signatures and fingerprints.

Watson Mobile CAD can be used on an officer’s An-droid phone or tablet. Key features of the software in-clude GPS (using Google Maps), latitude and longi-tude capture, call event and status updates and real-time CAD notifications.

This new software can significantly cut down an of-ficer’s time spent ticketing a traffic violation by elimi-nating the need for the offi-cer to handwrite driver and vehicle information. It will also cut down on the con-stant back and forth be-tween the police vehicle and stopped motorist.

By implementing this new smartphone system, FPD can reduce paper costs be-cause it will be a mostly pa-perless device. The citations would look like a small

credit card receipt instead of a multi-page ticket.

DataDriven also provides the professional standards software for police laptops and computers, called Wat-son Field Reporting. This software includes five cate-gories of services: incident, crash, ticketing, CAD and evidence.

“Watson provides law en-forcement officers with im-mediate access to infor-mation provided by police database software,” accord-ing to their website.

FPD will also accept two donations at the council meeting. One $15,000 do-nation from the Ebell Club of Fullerton will go to the purchase of a police dog. Retail giant Target will award a $1,500 grant to the department to fund the “Shop with a Cop” program in December. The grant will fund $100 shopping sprees for 15 low-income families in the area. Chil-dren will be paired with an officer and buy gifts for their family members.

$10,000 software will allow offi-cers to issue tickets and access vehicle data with smartphones

HEATHER MYERSDaily Titan

Structure defaced with graffiti

Red Folder assists students in distressInitiative equips faculty and staff with information they can use to aid students in distress

AUBREY SAULSDaily Titan

Cal State Fullerton’s Active Minds is a club on campus that strives to create a com-fortable environment where students can openly discuss mental health issues.

A mental illness refers to a wide range of conditions that affects one’s mood, thinking and behavior. Some examples can be anxiety, depression and addictive behaviors.

Edwardo Lopez, psychol-ogy major and student pres-ident of Active Minds, said the club’s focus is to lower the negative stereotypes attached to mental illness. The club works to decrease stigma that is associated to mental illness by provoking conversation and bringing the issues stu-dents go through to light. He hopes this helps ease students into dealing with those issues by speaking out and gaining more information.

“We hope that people will be able to talk about it so it’s not put in the dark,” Lopez said.

He was drawn to Active

Minds because of an event that took place last year on campus called Send Si-lence Packing—backpacks adorned the Titan Lawn with stories of those who commit-ted suicide.

The event was used to show how suicide affects col-lege students, although not all the stories pertained to college students.

Send Silence Packing was particularly powerful for Lo-pez, and it made him look at the bigger picture. He decid-

ed he would do whatever he could to help other students and get them talking about mental health issues.

Active Minds member and health science major Esther Hwang was drawn to the club because of her own person-al experiences with mental illness.

“I went through depres-sion, an eating disorder and had suicidal ideations,” Hwang said. “So, when I

saw Active Minds on cam-pus I began to have passion and wanted to help those who are experiencing the same things.”

She went through a tough and painful period in her life where she felt she wasn’t loved, worthless and ugly, she said.

Hwang wanted to be able to encourage others because she knew what it was like to be in a dark place and what it was like to have these conditions.

Organization Advisor Jo-vannys Mejia feels passion-ate about dispelling the nega-tive connotations attached to mental illness.

He believes Active Minds provides a space for students to express their passions for mental illness awareness be-cause 1 in 4 people deal with it in his or her lifetime in varying degrees.

“I think a common theme is an opportunity for people

to learn,” Mejia said. “Any club is a community and I think that’s what we’re trying to work towards. We’re try-ing to work toward building a family on campus that ad-dresses these issues.”

Some upcoming events for students to relax and enjoy will be a movie showing in the Housing Piazza in about two weeks of the comedic, romantic drama film It’s Kind of a Funny Story.

The film centers the atten-tion on a clinically depressed teenager who admits himself into a psychiatric ward.

After the showing, there will be an open discussion for viewers to speak about what they’ve learned on men-tal health and the stigmas.

One of the club’s signature events is called the Calm Be-fore the Storm, which takes place the week before finals. It serves as a stress reliever where there are therapy dogs of various breeds such as lab-radors and Welsh corgis for participants to play with.

Hwang said this is her fa-vorite event and always attends.

“I always go to the pet therapy to pet the dogs, and it really helps,” she said.

“Seeing those puppies excit-ed to see you really lifts your spirits.”

If you or anyone you know is suffering from any form of mental illness, please visit the Counseling

and Psychological Services (CAPS) in the Student Health and Counseling Center for further help and information. Dial (657) 278-3040 or the 24/7 Suicide Prevention Ho-tline 1-800-273-8255.

PAGE 4OCTOBER 21, 2014 TUESDAY FEATURES

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“I’m nervous,” freshman Marco Aguilar said.

This is Aguilar’s first time participating in the exercise and while he acknowledges his nervousness, he also rec-ognizes the benefit of com-pleting the task.

“It teaches you to face your fears. Once you get down you’re going to feel like you accomplished something big,” Aguilar said.

He later went on to suc-cessfully scale the building.

Some cadets struggled with nerves, but they were all heavily encouraged to take

the plunge.Trust is something that

can’t be stressed enough—not just for completing the rappel, but for the Battalion as a whole.

“Its everything in what we do. It’s the cornerstone and baseline for every unit. You have to trust your peers, your

subordinates and your lead-ers,” Maj. Brad Isler said.

Isler, who is new to the program, recognizes how imperative cadet encourage-ment is.

“The camaraderie, know-ing that they all did it togeth-er, and got through it and helped each other out—it’s

great,” he said. After every cadet finished

the rappel, they were dis-missed with a newfound feel-ing of camaraderie.

The next big event ahead for the CSUF ROTC Battal-ion is a 5-10k walk-run which will take place on campus Nov. 9.

He believes that his team had a distinct advantage be-cause they were a team of trained veterans who operate and think alike.

“It’s that fearless factor in us that we have. We’ve done other stuff way bigger than this and it’s just like let’s give it our all and re-adapt, improvise and overcome any situation … that is one of the biggest things that the veter-ans have to offer,” Guevara said.

Apart from this newfound sense of unity and friend-ship, the veterans enjoyed a fun day full of exciting small competitions aside from the races. The festival hosted five competitions throughout the day: best drummer, best team uniform, best team spirit, best food and best spectator group.

The best drummer com-petition required each drum-mer to perform a solo in full costume in front of the fes-tival attendees. Unfortunate-ly, Aguirre, the drummer for both Titan teams had no idea this would fall into her job description.

“This morning we told her ‘oh yea, by the way, you need to do a little spiel and a little dance up front.’ So she didn’t know … And she did a great job, great energy.” Coloso said.

Aguirre, who wore blue wings, an orange beak and a giant blue mohawk, ap-proached the single drum and improvised in front of the crowd with a rhythmic drum solo, finishing with a caw and a pose of a fal-con. Her teams roared with cheers of pride and grati-tude while Amador and Co-loso smiled at the success of the hard work they had invested.

“I couldn’t have been more happy in terms of the outcomes. Just our ability to come outside and really con-nect with the students. As a new person on the cam-pus with a brand new staff, I couldn’t think of a better way to connect with my staff and with the students that we service,” Amador said.

Finding your nicheActive Minds

The Active Minds club at CSUF advocates for mental health awareness for all

TROI MCADORYDaily Titan

EDWARDO LOPEZStudent President of Active Minds

We hope that people will be able to talk about it so it’s not put in the dark.

“

“

Boat: Student vets paddle

CONTINUED FROM 1

A climb specialist secures Cadet Marybel Oyoque’s rope before she descends. Student climb specialist, Cadet Umang Mehta, assists Cadet Tawni Myers. MARIAH CARRILLO / DAILY TITANMARIAH CARRILLO / DAILY TITAN

ROTC: Breaking down fearsCONTINUED FROM 1

Cadet Michael Preciutti tackles the rappeling training exercise with the encouragement of his peers. MARIAH CARRILLO / DAILY TITAN

Members of Active Minds strive to dispel the negative connotation attached to mental illnesses.

COURTESY OF ACTIVE MINDS

PAGE 5TUESDAY OCTOBER 21, 2014OPINION

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November is rapidly ap-proaching, and with it comes cooler weather, hol-iday feasts and general elections.

Prior to the general elec-tions are the primary elec-tions. This year the primary elections were held on June 3, 2014 in California.

The primaries narrow down the list of potential candidates for office. With-out these often overlooked pre-elections, the media would not be able to pro-vide adequate coverage for the vast amount of activity happening for every person running for office.

The primaries are an important section of the election process. In June, California governor pri-maries held 15 candidates, in which one candidate from each party is chosen, based on the most received votes.

Based on the June prima-ries, Jerry Brown will face-off against former Assistant United States Treasury Sec-retary Neel Kashkari in the Nov. 4 election. Brown re-ceived 54.4 percent of the primary votes, and Kash-kari received 19.1 percent of the votes.

If the primaries did not exist, following the stand-ings of 15 nominees would be almost impossible to achieve. In deciding on the potential general election winner, keeping track of the politics and ideals of only two candidates can be enough of a challenge with-out increasing the number of runner-ups.

Keeping track of the

large amount of poten-tial candidates requires the time and knowledge regard-ing American politics that most people are not able or are unwilling to afford. Unsurprisingly, news inter-est in the midterm elections never topped 16 percent in 2014, according to a Pew Research Center poll.

Sadly, looking at the aver-age turnout of voters, there are too few interested citi-zens to have more than two candidates. This year was a record low for the state of California, with only 25 percent of voter turnout in the June primary.

More needs to be done to gain and keep public inter-est in the political process,

especially the youth vote, which has a historically low voter turnout.

U.S. Representative of Florida Patrick Murphy is the youngest current mem-ber of congress and be-lieves that young adults are instrumental to choosing the nation’s leaders.

“The political process does not end on Election Day. Young people need to stay involved in the process by continuing to pay atten-tion to the conversation and holding their leaders ac-countable for the decisions they make,” Murphy said in an interview with MTV.

The primary system be-came commonly used in the early 20th century follow-ing the use of the caucus

system. Caucus was the name of the public meet-ings held during colonial times where matters re-garding elections would be brought forward to be voted on by town officials.

Since then, primary elec-tions have been categorized as partisan and nonparti-san, direct and indirect. Partisan refers to open pri-maries that require only declared party members to vote on the potential can-didates. Nonpartisan, on the other hand, are closed primaries that allow citi-zens to vote who have not declared a party affiliation. Direct means that voters decide on the candidates, while indirect refers to vot-

ers electing delegates who ultimately decide on can-didates at a convention for nominating.

Primaries occur sever-al months before general elections to properly plan for each candidates’ me-dia coverage, televised debates, campaigns and fundraisers. Narrowing the list of nominees allows the two designated opponents to battle for media cov-erage without causing an entire war with 13 other candidates.

Forgoing the primaries would possibly cause an even stronger decrease in the vot-er turnout. Without primary elections, the entire nomi-nation process would be no-ticeably less organized.

Record-low poll results show Americans don’t take the entire election process seriously

BRITTANEY CARPENTERDaily Titan

Moving toward new energy sources

Primary elections shouldn’t be ignored

PATRICK MURPHYCongressman

The political process does not end on Elec-tion Day. Young people need to stay involved in the process by continuing to pay attention to the conversation and holding their leaders ac-countable for the decisions they make,

““

The era of fossil fuel us-age will undoubtedly have to come to an end. Not be-cause of political influence or lobbying, but because fossil fuels are finite while other forms of energy are sustainable and make sense for the long term.

The question of how much money this nation should expend on clean en-ergy has often been de-bated, with proponents of fossil fuels saying that al-ternative forms of energy are costly and ineffective. However, this perception is outdated.

Across the world there are examples of function-al energy systems that ar-en’t based on coal or oth-er forms of fossil fuels, but rather on more sustainable sources such as wind and the sun.

In Hawaii, where ener-gy costs are skyrocketing, outdoor brand Patagonia has teamed up with Hawai-ian company Kina’ole Cap-ital to install solar panels on 1,000 homes in Hawaii. The implementation of the solar panels will be a posi-tive move toward energy in-dependence because it will drastically lower energy costs for those households.

Residents will only have to pay for the energy pro-duced by the solar panels, resulting in energy bills that will be 40 percent lower than Hawaii’s average.

Each solar panel is tai-lored to the individual’s

home needs in order to avoid producing an excess of en-ergy. If an excess of energy is produced, homeowners will be able to get cred-it from their utility compa-ny as the remaining energy will be sent back to be used as backup like rollover min-utes on a cell phone, said Kina’ole Co-Founder Blair Herbert in a Businessweek interview.

Patagonia hopes that oth-er U.S. companies start thinking about doing the same in an effort to bring further awareness to these types of projects while cre-ating more jobs.

This sounds like a very beneficial relationship for both homeowners and busi-nesses. Hopefully more companies begin to follow their lead, and even inno-vate on it.

It’s not just Hawaii that’s benefitting from alternative forms of energy as of late. Multiple Nordic countries have seen significant reduc-tions in the costs of energy per megawatt hour as a re-sult of an increase in wind power, according to a Reu-ters report.

This, paired with less-ened energy use as a result of static economies, has

lessened dependence on coal in the region and low-ered energy prices overall.

Other countries are start-ing to follow suit with this model. Denmark wants to eventually have all their power and heat generat-ed from renewable ener-gy sources by 2035, first by making the switch from coal use by 2030.

Meanwhile, as countries around the world are facil-itating cheaper forms of al-ternative energy, our tra-ditional forms of fuels are depleting.

The peak oil and coal the-ory has suggested that there

will be a point after which we reach our peak ex-traction of fossil fuels. This theory states that fossil fu-els will be phased out of the marketplace over time be-cause the remaining depos-its will become increasingly difficult to mine. After that time, we’re only ever going to see declining quantities of these substances.

Oil industry experts have contested for a while now that peak oil isn’t some-thing that stands to reason. They’ve argued that new technologies have allowed them to reach deeper and collect more oil than they

have in past decades. But this stance overlooks

a key concept: fossil fuels, no matter how you look at them, are finite. There’s a division in the peak oil and coal camp among those who believe we will run out of these fuels sooner and those who believe we will run out these fuels later, but the point remains the same: there is a day when we will run out.

Why delay the inevitable when we can start to form comprehensive solutions now? We see various places throughout the globe where people are using sustainable alternative forms of energy to lower costs and even cre-ate jobs. It’s more sensible to honor this model as op-posed to one that’s doomed for failure.

There’s a camp in the United States that believes that an increase in alter-native energy stands as a smart approach for the na-tion’s future. A recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists said it was pos-sible to increase the na-tion’s electricity gained from non-hydro renewable sources by more than 23 percent.

That’s really not hard to believe considering that 17 states across the coun-try have standards in place which require a higher per-centage of reusable alter-native energies than what’s required by the Environ-mental Protection Agency. Nine of those states factor in wind and solar.

With statistics such as these, its high time that people realize the benefits of technologies which fos-ter an increase in alterna-tive energies.

The shift to alternative energy needs to happen as fossil fuel becomes totally inaccessible

ALEX GROVES & GUSTAVO VARGAS

Daily Titan

Large scale wind power has made the role of fossil fuel plants less relevant and has pushed electricity prices down, decreasing the profitability of coal and gas power stations, in Baltic nations.

COURTESY OF WIKI IMAGE

The media’s recent ob-session with all things eb-ola has unsurprisingly brought forth the question of whether we need to con-tinue to invest in the study of bacteria and viruses in case of a sudden outbreak, or rather mothball the re-search and simply work on containing the current situation.

The White House an-nounced Friday that it would temporarily pause new funding for experi-ments that aim to study certain infectious agents by way of making them more dangerous. I can cer-tainly see why they had to make such a decision and think their heedfulness and precautions should be applauded.

Particularly, the White House would like scien-tists who are involved in research on the influenza, SARS and MERS viruses to hold off on their work, by their own decision of course, until all the risks are re-examined. It is in-teresting to see that they are only asking and not demanding, considering the potentially lethal and plague-like repercussions of ignoring this request.

This type of research involves the process of

making a virus more “powerful,” or simply more pathogenic or con-tagious in order to better understand it, is known as gain-of-function.

An example of this meth-od would be the attempts to create a more contagious version of the H5N1 avian influenza in order to learn which mutations made it that way in the first place.

Those who oppose the gain-of-function way have been more at ease knowing such research has been put on pause.

“The government has fi-nally seen the light. This is what we have all been wait-ing for and campaigning for. I shall sleep better to-night,” said Peter Hale, the executive director of the Foundation for Vaccine Re-search, in an interview with the New York Times.

It’s interesting to note that this moratorium is meant only for research on the influenza virus and the coronaviruses that cause SARS and MERS. To my surprise, no mention of Eb-ola was made, which has been reported to be quite lethal.

I imagine that either they are too busy handling the current crisis that Ebola has been responsible for, or they are secretly tampering with Ebola to see what it can be capable of. I know if

I was in a position to make that happen, I probably would.

This debate over gain-of-function research started in 2011, when scientists at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands discovered how to make the bird flu virus spread faster among ferrets. This was alarm-ing for people due to the fact that humans catch the same flu as birds do.

“There is always a risk,” said Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National In-stitute for Allergy and In-fectious Diseases in a tele-phone news conference held by Science. “But I be-lieve the benefits are great-er than the risks.”

I agree that the benefits can, at times, be greater than the risks. As unintel-ligent as it may sound, we shouldn’t let fear keep us from potentially achieving something great in medi-cine and science.

There is this fear that re-search published in scien-tific journals or in the me-dia by scientists and even journalists might give ter-rorist a chance to replicate such findings, or even lone scientists with their own agenda.

“Being in the free and open literature makes it eas-ier to get a lot of the good guys involved than the risk of getting the rare bad guy

involved,” Fauci said. Both journalists and sci-

entists are rarely fond of censorship, but the high level risk that these mat-ters pose have made some of them agree that infor-mation like this may be too dangerous to share with the public. There are even some who believe that no one should have ever been allowed to create such dan-gerous germs in the first place because it’s very pos-sible, even likely, that in-formation and even the vi-rus itself could leak. Some

scientists argue that if the virus can be made in the lab, then it could certain-ly happen on its own in nature.

“Public involvement in this deliberative process is key, and the process is thus designed to be trans-parent, accessible and open to input from all sources,” said National Institutes of Health Director Fran-cis Collins in a statement. “These studies, however, also entail biosafety and bi-osecurity risks, which need to be understood better.”

I think it’s important to research these dangerous and deadly viruses so that we may better understand them and ultimately sur-vive them, provided that there is very tight security and precautions around the research.

Whether only a select few scientists should be made aware of such stud-ies or whether the research should be public so that all can be informed is a ques-tion I still have to answer.

Although if it were up to me, I would have a little of both.

PAGE 6OCTOBER 21, 2014 TUESDAY OPINION

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

CSUF COMMUTERstudent appreciation week!

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GUSTAVO VARGASDaily Titan

The temporary pause requested by the White House is expected to end when the U.S. government has adopted a federal policy regarding gain-of-function studies on the basis of the deliberative process.

COURTESY OF SCIENCEROLL.COM

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MAD MIKE

Deadly virus and bacterial studies need to be monitored more closely

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QUOTE OF THE DAY“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to

pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain

JOKES OF THE DAY

Q: What do you call a fake noodle?

A: An Impasta

Q: What do you call an alligator in a vest?

A: An Investigator

Q: Why are frogs so happy?

A: They eat whatever bugs them

ARIES (MARCH 21 - APRIL 19):

You need adventure -- and today is the perfect time for that! Your amazing personal energy helps you to see the fun side of almost every-thing, so make sure that you’re sharing the vibe!

TAURUS(APRIL 20 - MAY 20):

Someone close -- probably at work or school, but maybe elsewhere -- proves to be invaluable as you make your way through the day’s agenda. It’s easier than ever to work together!

GEMINI(MAY 21 - JUNE 20):

People may take you a little too seriously today -- so try to avoid any joking around that could make people uncomfortable. The good news is that anyone you do offend will accept a quick apology.

CANCER (JUNE 21 - JULY 22):

You need to take advantage of this new offer or opportunity -- you really do deserve it! Your en-ergy is a bit slowed down, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pick things back up in a moment.

LEO(JULY 23 - AUG. 22):

You need to share your big heart with the world -- or at least some portion of it. That could mean anything from kindling a romance to volunteer-ing at a local shelter. You know what to do!

VIRGO(AUG. 23 - SEPT. 22):

You need to make firm plans with someone new -- and then you need to make sure that they stick to them! It’s hard to make that happen with any subtlety, but if anyone can, it’s you!

LIBRA(SEPT. 23 - OCT. 22):

Your creative side is quite active today -- so much so that you might be able to try something new that wouldn’t have been possible even yesterday. Things are looking good for you!

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 - NOV. 21):

You need to avoid the serious temptation to ask for more than you’re getting now. It’s not that you don’t have the right!

SAGITTARIUS(NOV. 22 - DEC. 21):

Even if trouble pops up today (and it might not), your creative ideas are sure to knock it back down with ease. Your fiery energy is per-fect for getting others to pitch in and make life better for eveyone.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22 - JAN. 19):

People are way too busy for you today -- but that’s okay! You don’t have to get their attention to influence them, and you may actually find yourself getting more done on your own.

AQUARIUS(JAN. 20 - FEB. 18):

An unexpected change comes suddenly today -- and you may be the only one who can adapt quickly enough to take advantage of it. Though it’s a bit uncomfortable at first, you’ll soon come to love it.

PISCES(FEB. 19 - MARCH 20):

You may have to tread lightly with coworkers today -- or potential employers, if you’re look-ing for a new gig. Folks are more sensitive to perceived social slights, but you can avoid the worst of it.

PAGE 8OCTOBER 21, 2014 TUESDAY SPORTS

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

Gabrielle Rodas helped the Philippines national team finish fourth in the Incheon Asian Games held in South Korea. She was named one of the top outfielders in the tournament due to her performance. COURTESY OF CSUF ATHLETICS

Being invited to play for your country’s national team as a college student is no easy task, yet Cal State Fullerton athletes have been making it seem that way recently.

Titan baseball players Thomas Eshelman and Justin Garza represented Team USA over the sum-mer, and now sophomore Gabrielle Rodas has made her mark on the interna-tional sports scene.

Rodas was invited to play for the Philippines softball national team in the Incheon Asian Games in September.

While playing summer softball with her travel team, the Lakewood Fire-crackers, her friend and teammate reached out to her about the opportuni-ty to represent her home country in the upcoming Asian games.

Rodas had never actually been to the islands, but felt like the games would be an excellent opportunity to not only improve as a soft-ball player, but also to get to know some of the expe-riences her teammates had undergone.

“My favorite part was getting to know the girls,” Rodas said. “Hearing about what they go through and the differences be-tween living here and liv-ing in the Philippines was pretty shocking to me.”

Nine natives from the Philippines made the na-tional team, while six girls from the United States were also named to the squad.

The team was only given a few days of preparation, which included four prac-tice games in Irvine before heading to South Korea to take on the top softball players in Asia.

“Honestly, going in I didn’t think it was all that serious,” Rodas said. “But then we started playing against teams like Taiwan and Japan and it became clear very quickly.”

Despite the lack of prac-tice time, the Filipino team finished in fourth place overall, falling to China in the consolation game.

“Compared to how other teams from the Philippines have done in these games in the past, we definitely had an impressive show-ing,” Rodas said. “Top teams like Japan and Chi-nese Taipei had to use their best pitchers against us, which usually hadn’t been the case.”

Notoriously, the teams from the Philippines ha-ven’t been as strong as those from other Asian nations, but this year was different.

“The team came togeth-er in a really short amount of time, which was pret-ty cool,” Rodas said. “I think we surprised a lot of people.”

Rodas was a major rea-son for the success of the Filipino team, and she was named one of

the top outfielders of the event for her outstanding performance.

“I was practicing all summer and getting the game experience with my travel team, so I was excit-ed to be playing again for my country,” Rodas said. “I’m really hoping that per-formance can carry over to the spring here at Cal State Fullerton.”

While Rodas only ap-peared in 16 games last

year for the Titans, she is hoping that her perfor-mance in the Asian Games will help vault her into a starting role this season.

“This year I gained a lot of game experience so my coaches know what I’ve gone through now, so I think that gives me that extra advantage,” Rodas said.

The Titans lost several key contributors and vet-erans from the 2014 team

that went 33-21-1 and fin-ished fourth in the Big West Conference.

Fullerton will likely rely on several new contribu-tors such as Rodas if they are going to finish in the top half of the conference once again.

“We have a young team, so some of our newer play-ers are going to have step up this season,” Rodas said. “If we learn from our mistakes from last year,

this should be a really ex-citing year.”

Regardless of how the season goes for Rodas this spring, she will al-ways have the memo-ries and experiences she gained during her time on the Philippines national team.

“It’s definitely an expe-rience I’ll never forget,” Rodas said. “I was lucky to have gotten such a great opportunity.”

The Titans sophomore looks for a strong season after shining for the Philippines

JOSEPH ANDERSONDaily Titan

Rodas stars in Asian Games

While Rodas didn’t see the field much as a freshman, she is hoping her strong showing over summer will vault her into a starting role.COURTESY OF CSUF ATHLETICS

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