A Low Brow Art Show proved to be more than its name, a form of art that pokes fun at convention, would suggest. The show, held in CSUN’s Grand Salon, attracted numerous visitors each of whom paid five dollars to gaze at the beautiful artwork created by local Chicano artists. The proceeds went to benefit undocumented students.

Sponsored by Jarritos, a popular Mexican soft drink, and hosted by Dreams to be Heard, an undocumented student support group at CSUN, the exhibit showcased many craftworks that were for sale. All entry fees and half of the proceeds from purchased artwork went towards the Adelante California Scholarship Foundation, which assists undocumented students in furthering their education.

The art show also featured petitions in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. The DREAM Act would allow immigrant students who graduate from high school and are of upstanding moral character to earn conditional permanent residency in the U.S.

The Act benefits AB 540 or undocumented students in California’s higher education system who are ineligible for financial aid and barred from applying for state credentials among others. The organization Dreams to be Heard was selling T-shirts and posters in support of the DREAM Act.

Paintings, posters and decorative hand-made jewelry were also on sale at the show.
Former Chicano studies graduate Jake Prendez was one of the artists whose work was displayed in the exhibit. Prendez was able to spread the word about the art show through MySpace and Facebook. Prendez said he was really happy with the turnout. He understands the importance of education and wants AB 540 students to have the same opportunities as other U.S. citizens.

‘We want to create a way for all students to be eligible to go to college,’ Prendez said.

The majority of Prendez’s paintings were up for sale. His work was similar in style to the Chicano art he grew up with and some of his art was stencil-like portraits of his family.

Fellow artist John Carlos de Luna also had his artwork on display. The muralist was committed to making his work as meaningful and important as the exhibit.

‘I think it’s my responsibility as an artist to give my work to a cause,’ Luna said. ‘So it can be something that has a meaning and can be used for many positive things.”

Luna sold posters for ten dollars, the money going towards the scholarships. He noted that education is important for everyone.

Prenez’s wife, Esbeydy Cruz, manned the entrance of the art show. She took money and handed out samples of the satirical magazine ‘Puro Pedo’ of which her husband is Editor and Chief.’ Cruz volunteered her services to help pass the DREAM Act and to aid the AB 540 students especially. She is a strong advocate for the Adelante California scholarship and feels the art show will help.

‘We chose that organization because they sponsor AB 540 students regardless of college,’ Cruz said.

Cruz says that it’s ‘ridiculously hard’ for undocumented students to afford higher education and obtain meaningful careers due to the limitations placed on them.

Diego Martinez, a CSUN mechanical engineering senior, wanted to attend the show but wasn’t able to. Martinez was once an AB 540 student until he received residency four months ago. He understands the frustration of not being able to get certain jobs or financial aid because he was undocumented at the time. Martinez isn’t sure the art show is enough to help.

‘I feel that it can’t raise enough money,’ Martinez said.’ ‘ ‘

Regardless of the monetary outcome of the art show, the turnout for the event brought together people from many different walks of life, various ethnicities and cultures, who offered their support for a cause.

The No. 2 Matadors concluded their seven-match homestand on Saturday by sweeping Hope International 3-0. The sweep was the 12th in 22 games this season for the Matadors (19-3) and served as preparation for an upcoming road stretch.

‘It’s nice and you always want to sweep, but it’s something we even don’t talk about,’ Head Coach Jeff Campbell said.

Senior All-American Eric Vance led the Matador attack with 21 kills while sophomore Tanner Nua and junior Jacek Ratajczak added nine and eight respectively.

Unlike against their previous two opponents, the Matadors’ starters played for most of the game against the Royals. Not until the third set did Campbell decide to finally put his reserves in.

‘Hope is a good team and (Campbell) wanted us to get some momentum going into this week as we go into a tough game at Stanford,’ Vance said.

Down 17-15 in the first set, the Royals’ (13-8) hopes of an upset were quickly evaporated after the Matadors closed the frame on a 17-1 run to win the game 30-16 and take command from that point on.

The Matadors continued to pound away at the Royals in the second set, winning it 30-17 behind Nua’s five kills.

With CSUN’s reserves already in the game, the third set was more competitive. The Royals put up 23 points on the board, but the Matadors still won going away.

‘We played pretty well tonight with the main guys,’ Campbell said. ‘We even had some of the second-team guys come in and play very well. I’m very pleased with this week and now all eyes are on Stanford.’

The Matadors return to Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play this week as they travel to the Bay Area for matches against the Cardinal on Friday and Pacific on Saturday.

This weekend will be the start of a critical stretch for the Matadors as they will end the season playing six of eight matches on the road.

‘We need to start peeking,’ Nua said. ‘As soon as we do that, no team is going to beat us. That’s what it’s about come playoff time.’

The Cal State Northridge softball team (20-9) kept rolling Saturday afternoon as they swept Cal State Bakersfield in back-to-back games at the Roadrunner Softball Complex.’ In game one, Debbie Duran ‘- once again ‘- pitched a complete game for the Matadors in a 10-5 victory. Game two went down to the wire in extra innings, but the Matadors pulled out a 2-1 win.

Jaclyn Rymer went back to her hometown and was spectacular at the plate. Rymer went a perfect 8-for-8 and boosted her batting average from .311 to .378. For the season, Rymer has a career-high 23 runs with 25 RBI’s.

Duran earned her league-leading 14th win in game one. In game two, she came in for relief work and recorded her first save of the season. Duran has been putting up big numbers all season long and has a 14-5 record with a low ERA of 1.66 in 111.2 innings of work.

The Matadors are on a hot streak. They’re on an eight-game winning streak and 17-3 over their last 20 games. As a team, CSUN has a batting average of .266 and an ERA of 2.49.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

In game one, the CSUN bats came alive in their 10-5 win. The Matador bats recorded 16 hits and helped Duran earn the victory.

The Matadors broke out in the fourth inning when Amanda Pitzenberger got her first hit of the season on a double that scored in Micah Putman. Then, Rymer hit a single to left field to score in Krystal Raphael. CSUN scored three runs in the inning to get the early lead.’ ‘

At one point, CSUN was ahead 8-0. However, the Roadrunners closed the gap with four runs in the sixth inning.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

In game two, the Matadors had to go to eight innings to get a 2-1 win. Freshman Hannah Fraijo pitched seven innings and allowed eight hits.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘

The Matadors got their game-winner when Christina Saenz hit a single into left field to score Rymer.

CSUN may have found a new and innovative way to help increase voter turnout in this years Associated Students elections, which has gone through some difficulties in the past three attempts.

Mazen Hafez, director of elections said they hope to increase voter turnout by implementing different precincts in certain areas where students from a specific major can vote.

Students who are business majors would cast their ballot near the business building, whereas arts and media majors would vote near their respected buildings and so forth.

To avoid confusion or double voting, there will be a listing by each precinct to tell students whether or not they are in the correct place.

‘We have this thing that we call the black book,’ said Hafez.’ ‘It has every students ID number, major and class ranking and it helps us see if they are in the correct place to vote or not.’

The new balloting system has not caught the attention of many students around CSUN.

‘I’m not informed, that’s the problem,’ said Mike Gonzalez, sophomore biology student.’ ‘I don’t really know what each candidate has to offer.

However Gonzalez does believe it would be a good idea for precincts to be available by his building which could help him be more informed about the candidates and give him the ability to vote.

‘I think if they had some information about the candidates around the booths then it would give me enough information and make a decision on who the right choice is.’

Gonzalez did say that precincts near the buildings which students use most often would be a good idea to raise awareness of the candidates.

‘It sounds logical, that’s where I am all the time. So, I’d vote during my breaks or while walking in and out of the building.’

Other students who actually do plan on voting also believe it would be a good idea to have election precincts around the building they are usually in.

George Haley, a sophomore 3D-art major, clearly remembers all of the difficulties and cancelations of the previous election and is looking forward for voting to be easier.

‘I think it’s a good idea,’ said Haley. ‘I can just take a break or something and go out and vote right near my classroom.’

This will be a change from the last election, which was strictly online through a system somewhat like the portal found on the schools Web site.

Hafez said at the time a sizeable amount of students were not able to log in to vote, other students who could log in could not process their vote and other students had their ballots pre-selected and did not have the ability to change it.

This year Hafez is expecting big things from elections, hoping that the goal of having about 7,500 students to vote is met.’ He is also hoping that having a record number of candidates in this years elections will bring more students out to select the right leadership for the University.

Gonzalez thinks the new precincts around the campus would be comparable to voting on a largerlevel such as a state or national election.

‘It’s like voting on a state level, you vote in your own district right?’ said Gonzalez. ‘So it would make sense to do it that way around school.’

Alyssa Mazure is a social work graduate student and plans to work helping youth with Multiple Sclerosis or with LGBTQQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender or Queer and Questioning) youth after finishing her M.A. Photo Credit: Jacky Guerrero / Staff Reporter

A multiple-choice exam begins and students hurry to take out their pencils and scantrons. They all have fifty minutes to complete the exam. Fifty minutes spent in a lecture room with 100 students tapping their pencils, anxiously scribbling, flipping pages, and teachers making last minute announcements, while students concentrate on successfully finishing their test.

Among those hundred students, Jora Amirkhanian sits patiently, trying to concentrate and ignore the movement around him, and the anxiety that he feels inside. He is also simultaneously trying to read what the test question is asking. Five minutes have passed and he has successfully been able to understand the question, now he must read and choose correctly between A, B, C, or D.

Due to the time it takes Jora to read and understand a question, the highest Jora can hope to achieve is fifty percent on his exam despite having a Performance IQ (PIQ) in the 95 percentile.

After six years at Santa Monica Community College (SMCC), Jora was a B average student, but after transferring to UCLA to complete a bachelor’s degree in Biology, Jora dropped from average to failing.

After being tested for a disability, Jora was diagnosed with symptoms of dyslexia and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

‘I wasn’t convinced,’ said Jora, recalling his refusal to accept that he had a disability getting the results.

He felt he needed to go to an independent clinic for more credible results.

‘I wanted people who cared,’ said Jora.’

‘I wasn’t educated enough in a sense of what a disability was back then. In school it wasn’t explained properly, we were told we just need to treat you differently than another student, but I didn’t want to be treated different. I wanted to be given the opportunities to perform at the same level,’ said Jora.

Currently 11 percent of students who attend a postsecondary educational institution have a disability, according to a 2004 report by the National Center for Education Statistics.

‘It wasn’t explained to me properly, it was explained like you have a problem,’ said Jora. ‘I don’t think a disability is a problem, it is a circumstance and there are ways you can work with it.’

In the fall of 2006 Jora returned back to school for his second bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at CSUN, where he also started to work as a peer mentor at the Center on Disabilities (COD).

At CSUN Jora is only one among about 900 students registered with disabilities on campus.

‘We are probably one of the top best schools that serve students with disabilities,’ said Dan Duran, a counselor at the COD. ‘Except that we are unique in the fact that we have students that vary in their particular disability and the type of accommodation that we provide.’

Presently the COD offices located in Bayramian Hall have ten alternative testing rooms with sound proofing, accessible furniture, technological features and alternative formatting which can change traditional text to the Braille system said Jody Johnson, associate director at the COD, who has been working for the center almost 25 years.

Alyssa Mazure, a social work graduate student at CSUN has been going to the COD since she started college as an undergraduate.

At one point Alyssa had to attend rehabilitation at the Center of Achievement for the Physically Disabled/ Brown Center on campus after she suffered an episode due to her Multiple Sclerosis (MS) during the spring of 2007.

Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

‘I had to withdraw because I suffered an episode that left the right side of my face with out feeling, I couldn’t see, couldn’t hold a pen, I couldn’t read,’ said Alyssa. Though she did not let that impede her from joining the ‘Vagina Monologues’ cast in 2002 as a master of ceremony.

‘Do you know how difficult it is to say ‘welcome to the vagina monologues’ when you can’t feel half your face?’ Alyssa said laughing.’

Her brother helped her read and write e-mails during the semester when she was in rehabilitation. Her professors were understanding and allowed her to do her homework via email, said Alyssa.

‘Once during my freshmen year I asked my professor that I needed to record the lectures do to my disability, instead of allowing me that my professor made me stand up in front of my class and made me plead my case to the students and explain why I needed to record the lecture,’ said Alyssa remembering dealing with professors who had presented obstacles to the assistance she needed.

Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), faculty does not necessarily have the right to know what the student’s exact diagnosis is.

‘Faculty face many responsibilities, when a student with a disability comes to class sometimes expectations are unclear,’ said Johnson. ‘Or sometimes people are afraid of people with disabilities. It is kind of the same prejudice anyone else might experience and disabilities is just one of those.’

In cases like Alyssa’s the COD encourages students to speak to their professors first, if the situation does not improve then the student’s will speak to the faculty member directly and educate them about students with disabilities.

‘All we are trying to do is level out the playing field. People with disabilities have the same right to compete in the academic arena. We don’t want to set anyone apart,’ said Duran.

Other departments that work with the COD are the National Center on Deafness, which was instituted in 1965 when deaf students began being admitted into CSUN.

By 1970 CSUN had started to change the campus architecture, which was one of the main barriers for students with disabilities. A veteran who had a disability, not related to his time in Vietnam, pressured the campus to make CSUN more accessible for students with mobility problems.

In the 1970’s after the Vietnam War, many Veterans were returning back with handicaps, which started a movement among people with disabilities that pushed for legal protection.

By 1973 the Rehabilitation Act had passed making it the first anti-discrimination law protecting people with disabilities, but by then CSUN had been already started accommodating students with disabilities.

‘After graduating from CSUN in 76′ I was unsuccessful at finding a job,’ said Duran. ‘Those times were very discriminatory against people with disabilities.’

In 2009 the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that the unemployment rate of people with disabilities is at 13.2 percent.

Other departments that work in coordination with the COD is the Educational Department that provides special education literacy lab programs that help the K-12 community, the Family Focus Resource and Empowerment Center that provides resources and awareness for parents of possibly disabled students from birth to age 21 and the CHIME Institute that practices new ways to teach children with out just teaching to the mean of the class.

Currently Gail Roberts-Hughes, who also works for the COD, has joined with a group of students to start up the International Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society for students with disabilities to break the negative stereotypes about people with disabilities and to focus on their academic accomplishments.

‘Students should be recognized for their achievements,’ says Jora who is vice president of the honor society. ‘We need to start empowering those students who have done well with the obstacles they have faced.’

Boredom can often be a factor while studying, so every once and a while every student needs activities to break the monotony.’ Students who want to let loose on their free time might want to check out www.hammered.org.

According to the official site, Hammered helps students organize and highlight fun alternatives to alcohol and other drug use.

Hammered was created by Ken Procaccianti, a former Northeastern University student in Boston who was ‘looking for something to do.’ Before the site, Hammered began as an organized chapter Procaccianti started within his college. Procaccianti used simple flyers to spread the word about Hammered not expecting much, but the concept proved to have a healthy following.

‘I expected 15 or 17 people but 75 or 80 students came in,’ said Procaccianti, who admits he was shocked when it took off.

The website has recently been launched by the founder and has garnered a decent amount of support due to word-of-mouth and social networks.’

Positive organizations like Hammered could be seen as beneficial. A study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) says that nearly half of America’s 5.4 million full-time college students abuse drugs and or alcohol at least once a month. Some of the reasons why the numbers for substance abuse is so high among American college students are due to social acceptance of binge drinking and drug use.

Procaccianti, who doesn’t drink or do drugs, didn’t want people like himself to feel pressured into using substances recreationally just to interact with their peers.

‘I wanted to create something that would be inclusive, where students can have fun without drinking or doing drugs,’ said Procaccianti.

The site itself has a clean and simple interface that’s very intuitive. The homepage set-up shows events and places occurring on or around a given date. There’s a list of different cities across the nation with corresponding event links to them. The way the site works is students can search for an event nearest to them along with other events in their surrounding areas. The Hammered homepage gives people the choice to: do stuff, add stuff, tag stuff, start a chapter and of course, learn what Hammered is all about.

The site also gives students the unique option to add events that may be happening in their area and post them on the site. For example, if tacos were being given away for free at a restaurant somewhere in Northridge, one click on the activity gives people information on exactly where it will take place, when and who posted it. Hammered also has an online store that sells ironic tee shirts, mugs and other memorabilia. All the money earned from these items are used to support the site.

Norma Alvarez, a junior biology major, finds the site to be a good thing.

‘I think that Hammered is an alternative,’ Alvarez said ‘People would be more encouraged to be more straight edged and not get pressured into doing drugs.’

Procaccianti said the most important thing about this student organization is that it takes a sense of humor towards an alternative lifestyle and doesn’t come off as ‘preachy,’ but rather, he wanted to create ’something that was refreshing.’

Carlos Diaz, a junior business major, likes the idea of Hammered because it was something he felt he could promote.

‘I think it’s kind of cool,’ Diaz said ‘There is other stuff to do besides drinking.’

Diaz is the vice president of Phi Delta Theta, one of the dry housing fraternities on campus, which means they cannot have alcohol on their property.

Through MySpace and Facebook, Hammered has the ability to teach broader audiences how to avoid substance abuse and how to form more chapters on university campuses.’ CSUN, unfortunately, doesn’t have a chapter on hammered.org yet, but Procaccianti encourages that anyone is welcome to join and create one.

There are a frightening number of challenges facing students today: a recession, dismal job market, budget cuts and impaction. The Associated Students (A.S.) is charged with acting as the conservators of our trust ‘- not to mention our money. There has been a lot of healthy debate between candidates over the past few weeks addressing the very issues students are concerned about. But there is also an inordinate level of discussions taking place on a topic that should be last on everyone’s list of priorities, school spirit.

Is school spirit important? Absolutely. We all want to have fond memories of our college days. It is unfortunate, however, that our resources are stretched so thin that we have to be especially careful about how they are channeled.

With that in mind, it is ludicrous to hear prospective (and, for that matter, current) senators discussing spending our money on something as frivolous as a Matador statue to raise school spirit. One would imagine these politicians-in-training would have learned a thing or two from the infamous ‘Bridge to Nowhere.’

There is also a lot of rhetoric concerning CSUN’s uninspiring retention rates and how an increase in school spirit could remedy those numbers. While our candidates are ready to make this correlation, they do nothing to back it up. I would not be surprised to learn that our undesirable retention rates are due to lax admission standards rather than a lack of school spirit. Bad students are unlikely to be enthusiastic about any academic setting, even one in which the student body is active and exciting.

A.S., despite all the time wasted on the topic, cannot legislate an emotion. Throwing money at phantoms rather than concrete problems is only going to deepen our economic woes. And what A.S. seems to consistently fail to realize is that CSUN already has a lot to be proud of.

CSUN has the No. 1 men’s volleyball team in the nation. Our men’s basketball team made it to the NCAA and fought toe-to-toe with the third best team in the country. Our Model U.N. team traveled to China last semester and earned the Outstanding Delegations Award. Our women’s basketball team made it to the second round of the Big West Tournament, alumni Katharyn Ryan and Cristina Ramirez-Mares’s senior film project won third place at the Student Emmys last year and our journalism department won the Golden Mike Award for Best Hard News Series Reporting. These accomplishments were the result of our peers’ hard work and creativity.

CSUN is a relatively young university. Our history isn’t as long as UCLA’s or USC’s and, as a commuter school, our community might not be as tight-knit. School pride is something that must evolve over time. It is not something that can be voted into existence. A.S. can certainly nurture its progress by continuing to fund our outstanding students, programs and projects, but this is not an issue that can be tackled head-on by any means.

Frugal spending, however, is well within our control and should be our focus for some time to come. Graduating students are much more likely to be comforted by the fact that they received a quality education rather than a bronze bust of Matty the Matador’s disproportionately large head.

There is a lot of rhetoric thrown around during the Associated Students presidential election.’ Four sets of presidential/vice presidential pairs are campaigning for the highest elective office at CSUN.’ A position that includes a $1,200 a month stipend, free tuition, a free faculty parking pass, an extensive executive travel budget and probably the most important, access to the most exclusive university officials and the ability to have your personal opinion heard by the University President, Jolene Koester.

So how does one go about winning the A.S. presidential election?’ Well, the truth is that campaign strategies vary from year to year, but there a few major pieces that are important.

The Constituencies

In the CSUN high-propensity voting population (the 2,000 or so students expected to vote) there are three basic constituencies:’ The Greeks, the student athletes and the student organizations.’ Each of these can be further subdivided.’

The Greeks consist of the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Sorority Council, comprising of the ‘traditional’ fraternities and sororities, all of which are National or International Organizations, and the United Sorority and Fraternity Council, comprising of the Latino and multicultural Greek organizations.’ In general, Greeks will vote for a Greek.’ In this election two of the four presidential candidates are Greek, meaning the 1,200 or so Greek voters will probably be split between the two.

The student athletes are the second largest voting block in the election.’ There are over 400 student athletes on campus and the CSUN athletics department encourages their student athletes to be civically engaged (so much that they sometimes delay or cancel practice on election day to allow the student athletes time to vote.’ That being the case, these 400 voters can be counted on to show up on election day in large numbers.’ Today A.S. plays a less direct role in Intercollegiate Athletics on campus (A.S. used to fund most student athlete scholarships), but student government support for athletics is always desirable.’ All of the presidential candidates have claimed their utmost support for athletics, so it is hard to see where student athletes might lean toward.

The student organizations include all of the groups not included in the other two.’ Fraternities and sororities not part of the three major Greek councils (and having smaller membership) and cultural clubs make up the bulk of these students.’ The total number of voters in this category is hard to tally because a single student can join 10 clubs and rosters are infrequently updated.’ These are also lower propensity voters than the first two categories.’ The majority of these voters will choose a slate with more inclusive or multicultural emphasis, and the group that pledges the most money for these student organizations.

The other major group of voters is the commuters.’ These students are impossible to track down and unlikely to vote, making them a huge wildcard.’ Long-shot candidates tend to appeal to commuters, but without the ability to organize them they remain a silent majority.

So who will win the election?

The winner of the A.S. election will be the candidate that appeals to the greatest number of these voters.’ A vast majority of the recent presidents and vice presidents have been Greeks who supported athletics, but every few years the students elect a candidate who is a major player from one of the campus’s cultural organizations.’ This election follows the largest influx of young political participation in recent history with the election of President Barack Obama.’ Will that be a factor that pulls the commuters out to vote?’ We will know March 24 and 25.

Adam Haverstock served in Associated Students from spring 2005 to spring 2008 and in the University Student Union from Fall 2007 to the present.’ He was A.S. Director of Finance in 2006-2007 and A.S. President in 2007-2008.’ He ran two election campaigns for A.S. President.’ He is a graduate student majoring in recreation and tourism management.