The panel at the first Young Democrats meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 18 that took place at the Balboa room located in the University Student Union. Photo Credit: Raspina Jannesar / Staff Photographer

Empowering women and breaking the molds that women face on a day-to-day basis was the common theme throughout the night as the first annual women leaders lecture, hosted by the Young Democrats Club, took place Nov. 18 in the University Student Union’s Balboa Room.

The panel of five individuals representing women leaders, organized by Young Democrat members Pious Ahuja, a political science major, and Natalie Parmenter, a liberal studies major, consisted of a group of women with high levels of education and high-power careers.

Dina Cervantes, Sheena Malhotra, Suzanne Whang, Marcia Zellers and Tamar Galatzan shared their first job experiences, their inspirations in life and the challenges that women must overcome to be successful figures of authority.

“I always felt like I was this macho guy trapped in this little woman body,” said Whang, an actress of 20 years, comedian of seven years, published author and current host of HGTV’s “House Hunters.”

Most of the women on the panel admitted having a similar feeling to Whang while growing up and even today as adult women.

Galatzan, who is a Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney with the Neighborhood Prosecutor Program and a member of the Los Angeles school board, recalled a time in fourth grade when she organized a walk-out because a physical education teacher told all the girls to cheer on the sidelines while the boys played all the sports. She said all the students sat on the kickball field until the teacher allowed Galatzan to play.

Zellers, who is the head of digital media at the Fashion Institute in Downtown Los Angeles and a single parent of a 7-year-old daughter, said that while growing up she was always very feminine, doing things that many young girls do such as play with dolls, but she did notice that there was a dominance in her personality that other girls did not necessarily possess.

Family problems, ditching school and doing drugs, Cervantes said, were the primary reasons she spent time at a continuation high school for at-risk students.

“I used to hang out with gangsters,” Cervantes said. “I was looking for a family.”

Despite a troubled youth, Cervantes realized several years later that the people she was hanging out with were not her family, and even though her real family had its problems, they would always be there for her.

Cervantes graduated from CSUN a year and a half ago and is now working with the Los Angeles Unified School District as a field deputy making sure that schools’ needs are being met.

Life was much different for Malhotra, who grew up in India working in the film and TV industry, and now she is the chair of the women and gender studies department at CSUN.

While growing up, Malhotra found herself gravitating toward a liberal outlook on life, but what is considered very liberal in India, Malhotra found to be rather conservative in the United States, and it took some adjusting and a college professor mentor for Malhotra to discover what ideas she actually believed.

“I think I had very much the stereotype in my head of what a feminist was,” Malhotra said.

She said that with the help of her mentor she was able to really understand the concept of feminism and secure her beliefs.

This panel of women not only were inspired in different ways to get to the positions they are now in, but along the way they each had to dabble in different areas of work before finding their niche.

“Mine was child prostitution,” Whang said, jokingly. “My parents are very proud of me.”

Actually, Whang had her first job by the age of 17 as a dental assistant. A few years later, while studying math at Yale, she was disappointed by under-challenging math courses and found psychology more interesting. It was not until she received her masters from Brown University that she really got into acting and emerged into the entertainment business.

Galatzan said that when she was a little girl her dream job was to be an archeologist, but that dream never manifested into anything and instead she started out working in sales and customer service.

“I was 15, I sold shoes,” Galatzan said. “I can look at anyone’s feet and tell what shoe size they are.”

During college Galatzan called herself the “queen of internships.”

Today Galatzan said she loves her jobs even though it is sometimes a struggle to balance being a mom to two young boys, ages five and seven.

She is the only member on the Los Angeles school board with school-aged kids. Sometimes she must leave work to care for her sons, and that is only part of the battle.

Galatzan said that while she was campaigning to become a board member and often away from her children, other women would say to her, “If you’re really a good mother, you’d stay home with your kids.”

For Malhotra, her dream job of becoming a teacher is now a reality.

From the time in elementary school when one of her teachers had to step out of the room and told Malhotra she was to monitor the class, she found herself taking the job very seriously, threatening students with a ruler if they misbehaved. She said that having that kind of power attracted her.

Working in the marketing business was not where Zellers ever thought she’d have a career.

“As a woman I have to be three times better (than a man) to be considered competent,” Zellers said.

Although she is happy with her job, she still feels as though she is not where she wants to be.

“I always felt like this creative person,” Zellers said.

Her philosophy about life is that people go through a series of quests to find out what they want, and personally she feels as though she has yet to reach her full potential.

Maybe this is “divine dissatisfaction,” as Whang calls it; the idea that a person is always striving for more, that continues to push these five women to be confident, strong leaders and reshape how women are perceived in today’s society.

Juan Preciado Jr, 21-year-old, double majoring in Chicano/a studies and sociology wants to be a motivational figure for students of color and non english speaking children to continue their education. Photo Credit: Wendy Barba / Staff Reporter

Some children grow up admiring their science teacher. Others want to grow up to be just like their history teacher. But unfortunately, not all children grow up with a figure of inspiration they can look up to within the educational system.

Juan Preciado, Jr. said he grew up with little incentive from his teachers within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Today he looks to make sure all students have someone they can look up to for support and encouragement.

“I experienced careless teachers and counselors that made school even more difficult,” Preciado said.

The 21-year-old, double majoring in Chicano/a studies and sociology, believes this is one reason why very few Latinos pursue an education beyond high school. Preciado said it was discouraging for him to grow up surrounded by teachers who did not care about the education their students were receiving.

Preciado strives to be a motivational figure for children who are attending grade school. He is currently employed at James A. Foshay Learning Center in LA where he is working with English Language Learners as a paraprofessional. His goal is not only to teach these students to better understand the English language, but also to ensure they are given guidance.

“There are a few Latino men involved in education, and I feel it is essential to have figures within education for students of color to relate to and have a motivating figure and person to look up to,” Preciado said.

By inspiring young students, he hopes he will be able to encourage them to stay in school.

“Figures one can relate to within education prevent dropouts and keep students interested and enrolled,” he said.

Preciado’s approach at keeping the youth interested is by being a mentor they can view as a close friend or even relative. Sharing his experiences from when he was young, Preciado hopes it will lead kids to believe they too can become leaders.

But Preciado said his own inspiration today comes from the children he works with on a regular basis.

“The majority of the students I work with are new to the country and understand no English and are unable to read or write. Seeing these students motivates me to continue to pursue an education and become an educator,” he said.

Working with children who are limited in their form for communication helped Preciado realize how much he takes for granted, he said. He now wants to take advantage of all his resources to help students of color continue their education.

“Despite having such horrible experiences, I’ve managed to continue to pursue my education. I want to be that cool, down-to-earth figure any student can relate to, as cheesy as it sounds, to inspire other students to pursue their own education,” Preciado said.

Catilin McCarrick / Staff Photographer

Hello fellow students,

During recent weeks, my administration has been looking for ways to ease the pain of students when it comes to budget cuts. Here’s what we have accomplished in the last few weeks:

* CSUN Associated Students’ (A.S.) first successful online election was completed on Nov. 4. We expect this to make elections in the future run more smoothly, reduce our environmental impact and cost less. I would like to thank A.S. Director of Elections Dan Monteleone, the entire elections committee and his advisors for making this such a great success.
* In an effort to be a more sustainable campus, the university will be installing approximately 200 waterless urinals and upgrading our irrigation systems to be more efficient. This will save millions of gallons of water and ultimately, money for our campus, which can then be reinvested on students. I applaud the work of the senators who helped draw awareness to water conservation, and also the university administration who have responded quickly and positively on this front. I will continue to keep the conversation going on a more sustainable campus.
* Successfully introduced to the California State Student Association a measure to support the Federal DREAM Act last weekend at a meeting of the 23 California State University campuses. The full board is expected to vote on this resolution next month.
* In a move designed to increase the visibility of the impact the budget crisis is having on students, we will be launching a postcard campaign. Our goal is to send thousands of brightly colored postcards to Governor Schwarzenegger and the state legislature in protest of the cuts crippling the CSU.
* The finance committee, under Director Shawn Hakim, will be working hard over winter break to process hundreds of requests from organizations seeking A.S. funding. The process this year has been modified to reduce our paper usage and be more efficient.

I would also like to congratulate all of the senators that were elected in the Nov. 4elections. I’m sure they will be great assets to Associated Students, and I look forward to working with them to represent students.

Abel Pacheco

Associated Students,

President

Los Angeles police and fire officials are stationed at the intersection of Reseda Boulevard and Lassen Street in Northridge, where a car filled with explosives had been brought, Thursday, Nov. 19. The explosives were later detonated on site. Photos by Jonathan Pobre / Executive Editor

Smoke is seen billowing out of the intersection of Reseda Boulevard and Lassen Street in Northridge shortly after a detonation of explosives, Thursday, Nov. 19.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Devonshire and Bomb Squad divisions responded to an incident where explosives were found Thursday evening, resulting in street closures on Reseda Boulevard between Lassen and Plummer streets. There were no injuries or arrests reported.

Traffic headed northbound from Plummer to Lassen was blocked by police officers from 3:30 p.m. until around 8 p.m. Caution tape was used to keep pedestrians about 100 yards away from Fire Station 70, where the explosives were brought, while police officers maintained an approximately two-block perimeter to block all traffic.

The explosives were found to be old pyrotechnics that belonged to a deceased relative of the woman who drove them to the fire station around 2 p.m., said Capt. Thomas Reyes of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Fire Station 70 was “attached” to the incident from that time until it ended, preventing personnel from responding to other calls, Reyes said.

At 7:05 p.m. an explosion was heard just after a voice yelled out, “fire in the hole.”

A second, louder explosion went off at 7:35 p.m., quickly followed by a dark cloud of smoke.

They were controlled blasts directed by the Bomb Squad, said Lonnie Tiano, watch commander at LAPD Devonshire.

Northridge residents Hacatar and Lusin Tasci found themselves stuck on the corner of Lassen and Reseda, unable to cross the street to get to Yolanda Avenue where they live.

“I want to go home,” Lusin Tasci said.

The shopping center on the corner of Plummer and Reseda was also blocked off by caution tape.

“I have heard everything from hazmat to bomb scare,” said Kevin Finkel, a Northridge resident who had been at the scene since the situation began and lives on Reseda just a couple of blocks south of the fire station.

Recent research has found that an eatery's 'A' grading does not necessarily mean students can trust the establishment's food safety practices. Photo Illustration by Hannah Pedraza / Photo Editor

The following students from a Spring 2009 Journalism 410 class contributed to the story:

Samantha Minton, Kristyn Fryrear, Robert Cisneros, Casey Rowley, Tiaira Nowlin, Cynthia Martinez, Mariana Enriquez, Shayla Selva, Gail Moscoso

When it comes to the inspection reports, letter grades can be misleading, and the rating system can be confusing. Dining at a high-grade restaurant doesn’t mean the eatery is without problems.

While one place may have attained an ‘A’ grade, it may have been closed down at one point for something serious, or it hasn’t been re-inspected recently, said Dr. Owen Seiver, CSUN professor in environmental and occupational health.

The risk factor could be far less at a place with a ‘B’ grade if the establishment was inspected recently and got the grade for something unrelated to food preparation, or for something that doesn’t present as big of a risk for the food preparation, Seiver said.

Some of the more common violations for restaurants in Los Angeles County are minor cleaning problems with surfaces that don’t go into contact with food, parts of the establishment in disrepair, and using multiple servings of potentially hazardous food.

It takes something drastic, such as rodents or operating with open sewage, to shut down a dining establishment, said health officials. Basically, something that can’t be fixed quickly and can pose an immediate threat to the public’s safety can close an establishment.

LACDPH officials would interview the restaurant’s management about its knowledge of the violations. If the restaurant wants to reopen, managers have to fix all the major violations and undergo reinspection.

If an establishment is closed on multiple occasions, it can lose its license to operate.

Los Angeles County Health Manager Thomas West said in a phone interview that the current grading system has helped create a higher standard of food safety for customers. The biggest concern for food safety is the prevention of food-borne illnesses, which have been estimated to cause six million to 81 million illnesses and up to 9,000 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Experts say those numbers are not entirely accurate since only a fraction of food-borne illness cases are reported or confirmed by medical authorities.

Last June, local news media reported that fresh raw tomatoes had to be pulled from all campus food services due to a Salmonella outbreak. Restaurants and supermarkets in the area surrounding the campus also stopped offering tomatoes.

Although this outbreak took place just last year, the student journalists could not find any hospitals in the surrounding area that had treated any local food-borne illness cases.

In a phone interview, Karen Keifer, the dietician nurse at Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City, said that at least two people must have the same symptoms or have been made ill by the same source to classify an ailment as a food-borne illness.

Once a food-borne illness case has been identified, it should be reported to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. In addition, patients cannot be released until it has been determined by medical professionals that the illness has been controlled.

Officials of Mission Community Hospital, said they had not seen any cases within the last 10 years, while representatives at Good Samaritan Hospital could only guarantee that no staff member or patient had become ill from food served at the hospital. The Good Samaritan officials said they did not have records of who had been treated for illnesses originating from sources outside the facility.

Verdugo Hospital officials said they had not seen any cases within the last year, either. Most of the hospitals’ officials cited the U.S. Health Insurance Privacy and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in declining to release any information about food-borne illnesses. HIPAA was passed in 1996 to protect health information. Many also claimed that they did not keep records on those admitted for Salmonella, prompting several formal Freedom of Information Act requests for information. The requests are currently pending.

According to the CDC’s Web site, 44 percent of food-borne illness outbreaks originate from restaurants, and more than half of those cases, probable contributing factors were unknown.

On their Web site, CDC officials said the food supply is safer today than it was 50 years ago because of pasteurization and cleaner water, among other reasons. They do acknowledge that while significant improvements exist in the meat and poultry industry, more work is needed in the produce department where food-borne illness cases have been increasing.

To look further into the quality of food and potential illness outbreaks on campus, student journalists conducted their own unofficial survey of 122 people, polling students, staff and faculty members on campus food safety issues. Students discovered a number of respondents had negative experiences, and more than 15 percent said they became ill after eating on campus.

Many of the student respondents insisted that the grade of the establishment highly affects their decision on whether they chose to eat there or not. After taking surveys, student journalists read violations from recent reports on campus eateries. After hearing violations, even with an ‘A,’ students said the grade perhaps did not matter at all.

Aside from grading systems, CSUN has its own regulations on campus food safety through departments and organizations. The CSUN Environmental Management System (EMS) helps regulate food and employee safety, especially if there is an investigation or complaint. The department also authorizes the types of foods that can be sold on campus and at campus fundraisers.

University Corporation (UC) works with L.A. County making sure campus eateries are up to regulation and code (grading). UC also authorizes the kinds of eateries that are allowed on campus. The facilities and projects manager for UC, Tim Killops, is in charge of overseeing the regulation of campus eateries.

Killops said if students feel they are getting sick from the food or seeing potential problems with campus food preparation then they should report it to the restaurant’s manager or tell UC. For now there have been no reported problems concerning students getting sick from the campus food.

The location drop-off center for CSUN's United We Serve Volunteer Program food and clothing drive is located in front of the Oviatt Library. Photo Credit: Caitlin McCarrick / Staff Photographe

CSUN’s United We Serve Volunteer Program continues its observance of Homeless Awareness Month with what those involved describe as the largest canned food drive this campus has ever seen. The donations from the food drive will be used today in a campus demonstration.

“We plan to take all the food that has been donated and line them along the steps of the Oviatt Library,” said Justin Weiss, the program’s coordinator.

Weiss said students have responded positively so far to the drive, and the recent Survive the Night event helped motivate the participants to get further involved. Survive the Night allowed students the opportunity to see what it feels like to be homeless by spending a night without the comforts of easily accessible food and shelter.

“This is a grassroots approach to gathering students to participate towards helping out those in poverty,” Weiss said.

One of the volunteers at the drive, Jodi Murray, a junior CTVA major, said the reason for lining the steps of the Oviatt Library with the food is to let participants see what their collective donations look like.

“That will get more people involved. It’s not only about feeding the needy,” Murray said. “We need people involved to feed the needy.”

Even though some might question the benefits to the homeless of displaying the donations, Weiss said there are good reasons.

“It helps bring the community together and it helps students realize what they have done,” he said. “Rather than dropping your food into a bin and never seeing what happens, you see how one contribution turns into one huge contribution.”

Weiss said he hopes, in the end, that students are inspired and realize that the part each individual plays “contributes to the greater collective.”

One student, Joseph Elias, a junior political science and urban planning double major, said he participated in the Survive the Night event and felt a need to involve himself in homeless awareness.

“I believe that people deserve a handout when they’re down,” said Elias, who plans to return to the drive to make his donation.

Elias said he is also excited to see the donations on display on the steps of the library.

“It makes me happy to know that someone will be fed off my donation, especially during this holiday season,” Elias said.

For Murray, the best outcome of the drive would be feeding as many families as possible and changing people’s attitudes toward the poor and homeless.

“People say, ‘Why do I need to donate?’ and don’t believe a problem exists if they don’t see it. These events will hopefully change that,” she said.

The food will be on display on the steps of the Oviatt Library from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday. United We Serve has also planned an “Adopt a Family” event and a “Boxed Lunches” event where they plan to feed homeless families.

Deon Goggins, 20, English major, dance minor has been interested in dance since he was 16. It has become a great passion of his and helps him stay focused and fit. Photo Credit: Donnella Collison / Staff ReporterÊ

Deon Goggins’ interest in dance began as he watched his little sister during her dance class. What was then a passing interest of a 16-year-old can now only be described as a passion he hopes to pursue for the rest of his life.

As he watched his sister in dance class for eight hours every Saturday, his interest in dance grew, but he was always discouraged to pursue it because his mother believed that “boys didn’t dance” and dancing for men was feminine.

It was during a performance by Kenny Long, a choreographer who taught at Goggins’ old high school and his “true inspiration,” that he knew he loved dance and wanted to pursue it.

“The movement, the stories he told, was something I’ve never seen or experienced before. Each person seemed to really enjoy dancing and what they were doing,” he said.

As he sat in the audience, Goggins said he noticed something else.

“I saw men; manly masculine men. They were doing leaps and splits and everything but they looked strong doing it,” he said.

Now the 20-year-old senior English major with a minor in dance said that dance has given him more focus and drive.

“I’ve found that I am scatterbrained in everything else, but when I dance I am a different person because that is the only thing I focus on then,” he said.

The dancer’s mentality has also helped him to lose weight and stay fit and he said that he knows if he wants to be successful he cannot weigh the 290 pounds he weighed in high school.

One area of his life that dancing did not help was his relationship with his mother. He described their relationship then as “rocky and tumultuous,” but he said he now understands why she was so “close-minded.”

“She was trying to process the different changes she was seeing in me. Now we understand each other more, or rather I understand her more than she would ever understanding me,” Goggins said.

He said that his mother equated dancing to homosexuality and thought he would become gay because of it.

Ironically, his mother was right. While dancing did not “turn him gay,” Goggins admits that it was through dancing that he discovered homosexuality and the lifestyle.

“I met so many gay men when I started dancing. It was a confusing time. Both my mother and I are very Christian and at first I wasn’t sure if it was right or wrong.”

He said he struggled with the idea of his homosexuality and it wasn’t until his freshman year in college that he came out.

“I knew I was gay when I transferred my fantasy of a husband and wife nuclear family to a fantasy of a nuclear family with two men. I am still the same person my mother raised me to be,” Goggins said.

“A good Christian gentleman who just happens to want to raise a family with another man.”

And it is that fantasy, his dreams and aspirations that continue to drive and energize him.

“Everyone who knows me knows I [am] all over the place, doing a million things, and my future is like that, everywhere,” Goggins said.

But this he knows for sure: He wants to dance for the rest of his life, choreograph and teach dance so he can give back all that his mentors, like Kenny Long, have given him.

Additionally he wants to teach English, his other passion, which he said arises from the look in a child’s face when he reads Shakespeare and comprehends it for the first time.

“This is how I envision my life. I would teach high school English during the day, teach dance in the afternoon, and learn more dance in the night,” Goggins said.

Photo Illustration by Sami Eshaghi

As most students are in a blur after the holidays, some motivated students are taking classes every day, including weekends, for the first two weeks of January. The Winter Term/Intersession 2010 is a short, highly concentrated session of classes offered by the Tseng College.

A student may only take three to four units per session, because each unit requires 15 hours of class time during the two-week period. A three-unit class would require 45 hours of class time and a class with a lab would require 60 hours of class time. The classes are small so that students may interact with the faculty often.

“We are accredited by the Carnegie Foundation so we have to have very high standards,” said Simin Bahmanyar, the director of University Access at Tseng College.

“The winter term offers over 80 classes, mostly social sciences and business. There are no engineering classes or education classes,” Bahmanyar said. “Math 140 is usually crowded and hard to get into during the regular school year, but during the winter term, it’s available and finished in two weeks. CSUN faculty members teach the courses for the winter term, and the classes are located throughout the campus.”

The session also offers non-credit classes in preparation for the CBEST, GRE and LSAT at more reasonable rates than commercial prep courses.

“I was undeclared, so I took a communicative disorders class as an elective and ended up majoring in it,” said Becky Spelts, a former intersession student and a current speech therapist. “It was a nice break from school with five to six classes. With the intersession, it was easier to focus on just one class.”

Because the Tseng College is self-sufficient, it is not affected by state budget cuts or furlough days. The winter term will have no breaks in the 14-day program. Online courses, on-campus courses and some hybrid courses are offered during the term. Students are asked to do pre- and post-reading and some group projects for the highly concentrated courses as well.

Course fees run from $265 per lecture unit, to $305 per activity unit and $385 per laboratory unit. Registration began on Monday, Oct. 19 and will continue until the first day of school, Monday, Jan. 4, 2010. The classes will meet every day for 14 days until Sunday, Jan. 17, the last day of class.

The winter term is open to members of the community as well as CSUN students. Students whose hometown is in the area, but who attend college out of state, are welcome to attend the session. No admission process or application is required for registration.

“One of the delights of our work in the Tseng College is that our charge is to get to know what the university knows, and then create opportunities for the faculty to make knowledge across the disciplines accessible,” said Joyce Feucht-Haviar, dean of the Tseng College.

Photo Credit: Roxanne Estrada / Contributing Reporter

By Roxanne Estrada

To Ricardo Rodriguez, music is more than just a few notes strung along a treble clef; it’s a way of life.

“It’s the music, the scene, the whole culture of music, it’s almost like a ritual, a religion,” he said.

Rodriguez is an amateur roadie for his many friends in local bands and said he loves just being there whether it’s carrying amps or setting up equipment.

He’s not too picky when it comes to music.

“I like anything with a good beat,” he said.

But when it comes down to it, rock ‘n’ roll is what he’ll always play.

His favorite bands are Megadeth, Disturbed and F-5.

Despite his love for the music world, 20-year-old Rodriguez has had less time to travel with the band due to extra work and school hours. Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, he is in his junior year and is starting to take 400-level classes as a history major.

He’s also working 22 hours each week as a receptionist at a Catholic school.

“You have to deal with little kids a lot,” he said, laughing.

Rodriguez never went to a religious school, and although he identifies as Catholic, he doesn’t consider himself very religious.

“Believe whatever you want to believe,” he said.

From ancient to modern, Rodriguez has always loved history.

“It was the only subject I was good at in high school,” he said.

After he graduates in 2011, he wants to travel as much as possible, starting in Europe.

“I read all about it in my books and I’m always curious to see these places,” he said.

But for now, Rodriguez is content with traveling to Mexico once a year to visit his large family in Zacatecas. But this past summer is the first time he hasn’t been able to go due to financial situations, mostly school-related.

“I remember signing up and paying less than $1,000 for tuition,” Rodriguez said. “Every semester it’s been going up and this semester I paid the bulk of it myself, that pretty much took up my whole summer and savings.”

Rodriguez will continue to save up this semester so he can visit his family over spring break. He’s already looking forward to hanging out with his cousins at a local bar and to “let the good times roll.”

“It’s my place to be at peace, my favorite place, because all the concern here like bills and school are just off my mind,” he said.

Crosswalks on and around the CSUN campus have been noted as dangerous to pedestrian safety. Photo Credit: Hannah Pedraza / Photo Editor

Special Investigative Report

Pedestrian Safety at CSUN Part 4 of 4

This article was reported by:
Megan Blumenthal, Danielle Directo, Brittany Glover, Alexis Lipnicki, Sandra Parada, Mike Tersigni, Alex Viray, Tade Williams

Written by:
Danielle Directo

Current laws dictate that in order to use radar or laser traffic enforcement, the speed limits must be updated to reflect drivers’ average speeds.

Despite the opposition from neighborhood councils and residents, the Los Angeles City Council approved a motion to raise speed limits on Zelzah Avenue between Chatsworth and Nordhoff streets, a busy stretch that runs alongside CSUN’s east side and on which Northridge Academy High School and Granada Hills Charter High School sit. The speed limit was raised by 5 mph to 40 mph.

Echoing the concerns of Northridge residents, Assemblyman Paul Krekorian of Burbank said local governments shouldn’t have to accommodate speeding drivers by raising the average speed limit for the sole purpose of enforcing the very same speeders.

“The legislature refuses to make the changes,” councilman Greig Smith’s representative Matt Myerhoff said. “(Greig Smith) has always argued that this process automatically raises speeds each time you do it, regardless of what is a safe speed.”

Officer Daniel Del Valle of the LAPD’s Devonshire division said that though the five-mile increase on Zelzah might not be much, community members have a right to be upset.

“(It’s) not for me to decide,” he said.

He cited the city’s surveys, adding that the protocols are necessary.

“But would I have increased it? No. That’s just my opinion.”

Eventually, two lighted crosswalks were installed on Zelzah Avenue – one of which came after a pedestrian, a Granada Hills high school student, died.

Bruce Gillman, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) – the agency that conducts surveys to determine what needs to be changed on city streets – also said the city plans to install illuminated feedback signs that display vehicles’ speeds on Devonshire east of Zelzah and west of Balboa, which will be completed after July 1 of next year.

But Del Valle noted that with the state’s grim economic state, garnering funds from Sacramento for local fixes such as installing crosswalks and other safety measures might be even more difficult.

But authorities say not all the accidents are always the fault of drivers.

Del Valle said crosswalks often give pedestrians “a false sense of security.”

Many pedestrians think, “‘Hey, we have the right of way,’ and the vehicle should stop, which is true,” he said. “But the reality is you have a lot of drivers who just aren’t paying attention.”

Anne Glavin, CSUN chief of police, agrees that pedestrians are not always completely faultless.

“They shouldn’t assume that just because they walk off a curb into a sidewalk that the whole world is going to stop,” Glavin said. “And that’s the difficulty for law enforcement, trying to deal with both sides of the coin.”

Kiley Carmona, 21, has observed offenses as both a pedestrian and a driver. The CSUN student lives close to campus and said she usually rides her bike or walks to school.

She nearly hit a skateboarder because he or she seemed to come out of nowhere, she said. Another time, she was riding her bike and a driver nearly hit her while attempting to make a right turn because he “did not want to wait” for her to cross.

Like Del Valle and Bustos, the student said pedestrians hold responsibility in their safety and need to be more aware of their surroundings. And like police, Carmona said cell phones and iPods seem to be too much of a distraction to both drivers and pedestrians alike.

CSUN student Jenn Newsome lives near the intersection where Johoney Lobos was killed last fall.

Newsome said she feels most drivers are too impatient to wait for pedestrians. Despite the lighted crosswalk on Zelzah Avenue, the 22-year-old interior design major said the street is still dangerous because many drivers speed down the road. Newsome herself had a close call when a driver trying to make a left turn didn’t notice her.

CSUN isn’t the only college campus to suffer the tragic effects of pedestrian accidents.

In the early morning of March 29, 18-year-old USC freshman Adrianna Bachan was killed when she was struck by an alleged drunk driver just north of campus at the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover Street.

Bachan was crossing with a friend, 19-year-old Marcus Garfinkle, who was carried about 500 feet on the car’s windshield before being removed by a passenger of the car, police say. Garfinkle suffered two broken legs with multiple fractures, as well as injuries to his abdomen and arms. A witness, 19-year-old Will Sturgeon, told the media the pair may have crossed outside the crosswalk because Bachan’s body ended up about 15 yards away from it.

Money quickly became a driving force in the search to find the hit-and-run driver – the L.A. city council approved a $75,000 reward for information that led to an arrest and conviction in the case, and USC’s vice president of student affairs, Michael Jackson, announced the university would put up $50,000.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved a $10,000 reward on April 1, upping the award to $135,000. The following day, an anonymous donor contributed an additional $100,000 – bringing the total to $235,000, former LAPD Chief William Bratton announced to the media that morning.

a, who is being held on $1 million bail, is charged with felony hit-and-run and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter and faces eight years in prison with a court date coming up next week. Cabrera’s husband, 32-year-old Josue Luna, was arrested April 18 as he crossed San Ysidro border returning from Mexico. He was jailed on suspicion of being an accessory to the hit-and-run, but was later released on $50,000 bail, television news media reported.

Luna told the media the light was green and neither he nor his wife saw any pedestrians in the crosswalk, nor were they intoxicated. He did, however, admit to removing Garfinkle from the windshield and placing him on the sidewalk and returning to the car.

But some close to Yao Lu, a Chinese exchange student who was struck by a car on Reseda Boulevard and Vincennes Street last November, are discouraged as to why the USC incident garnered more attention from the city and media.

“I remember the police told Yao Lu’s family that if the victim died, they would offer a (larger) monetary reward to catch the driver,” said Dr. Justine Su in a later e-mail interview, adding that perhaps that was reason why the USC case received more coverage. Currently, the standard reward offered by police to find hit-and-run drivers is set at $50,000.

Bessie Karras-Lazaris, academic director of the Intensive English Program (IEP) who worked closely with Lu, who was a part of the program, has sympathy for Adrianna Bachan’s family, but she doesn’t understand why the CSUN-area accidents received less publicity.

“(Yao Lu’s accident is) really the same thing… A car hit a student by a university,” but yet the incident near USC “had much more coverage,” she said.

Karras-Lazaris said she never saw the police’s reward flyer for Lu’s case posted, and she herself had to request a copy from the station. Had authorities “made more of a public plea,” the driver that hit Lu might have already been caught. Instead, nearly six months after the Chinese student’s accident, the case remains open without any leads.

Though Lu returned to China this January, Karras-Lazaris said the student plans on coming back to CSUN in the fall to finish her studies. The IEP academic director said she’s grateful that Lu survived, but regardless of whether or not someone dies, she said, “why (should the response) be any different? It should be safe for all of us.”