Strap down your book shelves and prepare an earthquake survival kit, because the simple steps that many tend to overlook might save lives if disaster strikes. On Tuesday, Oct. 9, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) hosted a Disaster Preparedness Day at the CSUN Department of Public Safety to raise awareness about what community members and students can do to protect their families and help others in case of a fire, an earthquake, or any other disaster.

Thirty years after the launch of the twin Voyager spacecrafts, both probes continue to explore space and are expected to uncover new environments beyond our solar system before their onboard power runs out around 2020. On Sept. 28, Dr. Alan Cummings, a senior scientist from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, presented a lecture to an audience of about 100 at CSUN’s Bianchi Planetarium on the history and the future of the Voyager program.

Our computers have become an everyday appliance. We use them just as we’d use a toaster or a coffeemaker, but we don’t question who’s tracking our e-mails, our Internet navigation, or why we have to pay $399 for Adobe PhotoShop or Microsoft Office. This ignorance is what deprives us of choice and privacy as computer users.

A day after heavy rainfall, CSUN’s men’s and women’s cross country teams raced over grass and mud against opponents who came from as far as Ohio to compete at the Pepperdine University Invitational in Malibu, Calif on Saturday. Although the men’s team did not officially score because it lost one of the five men necessary for scoring due to an injury in the 8-kilometer race, head coach Don Strametz said he is satisfied with the results and expects both men’s and women’s teams to perform even better at the upcoming UC Riverside Invitational on Saturday, Sept.

After serving as a dean for the College of Health and Human Development (HHD) for about six years, Helen Castillo will step down in August 2008 to pursue her interests in research, teaching and writing. The move, Castillo said, is “more like stepping out and not down.

During the first formal event held by the Jafaria Islamic Society Youth Group on Sept. 8, at the Shia place of worship in Cudahy, Calif., world-renowned neurobiologist Dr. Naweed Syed praised the youth for their tolerance and encouraged them to keep up a dialogue with other communities.

The movies often portray pirates as half-witted villains or noble heroes, but in reality many were ordinary sailors and fugitive slaves who joined the pirates’ ranks to trade the hardships of the merchant marine for a life of danger and pillaging on the high seas.

Next time you get a ticket on campus, buy a parking sticker or pull over at an information booth to purchase a $5 daily pass. Your money will be used to build another parking structure. The new structure would increase the campus’ total parking capacity by 11,000 spaces in an effort to accommodate the increasing student population and relieve congestion.

There are many lost people trying to find their way on campus today who considered being Matadors several months in advance when they were on CSU Mentor filling out applications. But these new students are nowhere near being lost, having paid a tuition much higher than before.