Photo Illustration by Tessie Navarro / Multimedia Editor

Imagine walking up to the counter to pay for a $12 meal, handing the cashier a piece of paper and walking out paying only a fraction of that price. Now imagine doing that every time you had to pay for something, think of how much more money would be sitting in your bank account that could pay for school, movies, a round of drinks, and more food. Let that dream become a reality.

Cutting coupons is not just for the moms anymore. With higher tuition increases and the pressure of student loans, more students are turning to coupons to save a shiny penny and more places are throwing them at their consumers to get them in the door.

Coupons have been coming out in the spotlight recently and have even become the star of their own television show. The TLC show, “Extreme Couponing,” features people who spend hours on end cutting, downloading and printing, organizing and planning out how to best use their coupons. Though it takes the role of a full-time job, these extreme couponers save thousands of dollars on everyday items. The extreme part comes when the stores end up paying the customer after the effect of hundreds of coupons takes place.

Kinesiology major Jessie Gomez, 21, is one student who turned to coupons after transferring to CSUN this school year. She said she didn’t realize how expensive living on your own can be.

“I love coupons. I especially love grocery coupons, which are usually good deals,” she said. “The two-for-one food deals are so helpful when you’re a broke college student like me.”

Child adolescent development major Michelle Karlinsky said she uses coupons from the newspaper, such as Daily News, to save money on food and at restaurants, which include mainly Black Angus, Denny’s and Target.

“My mom got me involved in using coupons, plus I would looks at the newspaper on Sundays,” Karlinsky said. “I use them whenever I can remember that I have one for a store or a restaurant I’m at.”

Karlinsky’s advice to other college students is, “If you want to save money, then you should start cutting out coupons.”

Newspapers are just one of the many ways students can save a dollar. There are now more ways than ever to save money with the advances of cell phones and technology. Several different applications for download that involve coupons have become popular for phones. It’s become as easy as showing your cell phone to the cashier to save yourself money.

“I absolutely love coupon apps,” said 24-year-old CTVA major Liz Jones. “It’s so much easier to just whip out your phone and flash your discount than having to cut and clip paper coupons.”

One popular site and app for coupons is Groupon, which features deals on almost anything imaginable in any given local area.

“Groupon is a personal favorite of mine,” Jones said.

Another popular app among students is the Yelp application, which has deals just for checking in to places. For example, students can receive a free Kamikaze shot at the Stovepiper Lounge and half off Boba at Bun Me for simply checking into these shops on their mobile devices. Sometimes it’s as easy as showing your CSUN identification card and saving 10 or 15 percent around campus.

Barclays Coffee is just one location among the many which uses these apps to their advantage. Barclays barista Allison McKay said she noticed a rise in customers using the Yelp check-in app to save 10 percent on smoothies over the summer months.

Department of marketing faculty member Deborah Cours said that the new-found popularity of coupons stems from the poor economic times. “In this economic time, people become focused on being frugal and saving money,” she said. It has come to a point where people are proud of saving money, “it’s cool to save money,” she said.

Though the thrill of saving can empower a consumer, Cours cautions care when using coupons. “Only use coupons to buy products you would otherwise buy, things that you would actually use or consume,” she said.

Stores will put out coupons to get the consumer to try new products or switch brands and the consumer will end up buying products they don’t usually need or use. “You end up spending money and not saving money,” she said.

Another tip of advice Cours gives is to check different prices online. Many times another retailer will have a lower price on specific products without involving coupons.

“Sometimes I’ll get coupons for discounted grocery items at Vons, but then I’ll check the Fresh and Easy website and find out that store is selling the same things at a cheaper price,” said 23-year-old communications major Jennalyn Ramirez.

Cours also warns students about the buzz factor with sites such as Groupon. People get excited by sharing with friends and because their deals are prepaid, you end up buying deals and never use it, therefore wasting money.

So the next time you go out for a cup of coffee or pick up some food on your way home, think twice before handing over your money so willingly.

“I’ve certainly wasted a good chunk of money on prepaid deals,” Ramirez said. “Sometimes discounts sound too good to be true that I immediately jump on them before really weighing other options.”

Coupon clipping has become the norm for college students living on a tight budget, and with new ways to receive discounts, students show no sign of ditching the coupon craze.

“Coupons are convenient, resourceful and fun,” Ramirez said. “They’re worth it.”

The California Health and Safety Code requires the university to put out an annual notification to alert people of exactly where the asbestos is located in the buildings.

“As long as the asbestos is not disturbed, it is not a health hazard,” said Antonio Pepe, assistant director of environmental health and safety. “This notification is to give folks an idea of where these materials are so they don’t disturb them.”

Faculty and students are advised to avoid drilling holes, or hanging objects from walls or ceilings where asbestos has been found, according to the report.

Over the past 15 years, asbestos has been taken out by building renovation projects, according to an email from the environmental health & safety department.

“A large majority of the asbestos was removed in these buildings as a result of the 1994 earthquake,” said Lynn Wiegers, interim executive director of physical plant management.

The asbestos remnants were discovered through detailed building inspections, material sampling and laboratory analysis that met the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health and Environmental Protection Agency standards, according to the annual report.

Specific contaminated building parts include: floor and ceiling tiles, thermal pipe insulation, weather stripping, putty, and both hot and cold water pipes. Not every building contains asbestos in all of the listed areas.

According to the report, asbestos-containing materials pose no health threats unless its fibers become airborne due to deterioration, or as a result of damage.

“I didn’t believe it was really that harmful to be around. I thought everyone was over-exaggerating,” said Frank LeClair, a contractor who suffers from lung problems possibly related to asbestos exposure.

To see which areas of specific buildings are contaminated, a notification is an available resource online.

As of now, CSUN has no plans to completely remove all of the asbestos.

“It’s not a hazard as it is where it’s located. As we go through various projects and we work in various areas we take the opportunity to remove it as part of those projects,” Pepe said

View Buildings on campus affected with Asbestos in a larger map

CSUN Associated Students feel the current smoking policy is sufficient enough according to Billy Ryder, senator for the College of Business and Economics. A.S. agrees that banning a personal freedom and a legal substance is for political reasons.

“Going after smoking is an easy target; UCs and Cal States need to worry about bigger issues like financial instability,” Ryder said. “We were concerned about the cost it would take to enforce the policy.”

A.S. provided a resolution that points out a strong contrast to what the UC system is doing, Ryder said. It supports the A.S. stance about smoking on campus.

“President Yudof directed chancellors to assemble steering committees tasked with implementing the policy at their locations,” said Steve Montiel, UC media relations director, in an email interview. “UC will ban both smoking and chewing tobacco on campuses, including parking lots and housing, as part of its commitment to cut tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke.”

Currently, 585 colleges and universities in California have already banned smoking.

“It’s a long implementation to quit smoking and change behavior,” said Kim Homer-Vagadori, project director of California Youth Advocacy Network. “Two years gives colleges time for policies to take effect and adjust to policy.”

Furthermore, the hope is to have other colleges follow in the same footsteps and encourage a smoke free campus.

“Smoking not only has health risks for smokers, but nonsmokers, as well. By allowing smoking designated areas, it just makes it OK to smoke,” Homer-Vagadori said. “UC’s are not trying to promote this idea at all.”

Even designated smoking areas aren’t OK, said Homer-Vagadori.

“We don’t support designated smoking areas because it encourages smokers to smoke socially, and it supports their addiction,” Homer-Vagadori said. “In California, we’ve tried to decrease smoking areas and increase tobacco costs.”

CSU schools have not decided to make all their campuses smoke-free, but they do have designated smoking areas around campuses.

“The CSU follows the state law on smoking regulations, but there is no CSU system-wide policy on smoking,” said Stephanie Thara, public affairs  communications specialist for the CSU in an email interview. “One campus might enforce smoking 30 feet away, and another campus might enforce a ‘50-feet regulation.’”

AB 795 Assembly Bill is the state law on smoking regulations specifically dealing with post secondary education. It “prohibits smoking inside a public building or in an outdoor area within 20 feet of a main exit, entrance, or window of a public building or in a state-owned vehicle.”

Each campus varies how far an individual needs to be away from a building while they are smoking, Thara said.

CSUN’s current smoking policy makes it permissible 30 feet away from any building, according to CSUN Police Department.

While CSU campuses have not banned smoking, help is provided for those who have an addiction to smoking. Self-help links are available online through the Klotz Health Center.

One CSUN student feels indifferent on the UC smoking ban.

“It’s not a big issue (for me), since I’m not a tobacco smoker. But if I was, I would be ticked off since smoking is legal at 18,” said Fernando Muro, a freshman undecided major.

“Some school campuses sell alcohol, so, what’s worse? It’s a personal choice to smoke,” Muro said.

“Tobacco users are in support of banning smoking because the policy would help,” Homer-Vagadori said.

This is the third consecutive year the foundation has donated to CHIME, said Michael Spagna, Dean of the Michael D. Eisner College of Education.

The Grant provides support for students who will become teachers through internship programs. It will help support an infant/toddler program, a preschool/kindergarten program located at CSUN and CHIME Institute’s Schwarzenegger Community School, Spagna said.

“CHIME started back in 1990 at CSUN,” Spagna said. “The programs are fully inclusive, including all kids with special needs. The belief is this results in academic improvement for all kids.”

Students who intern with CHIME can also be offered paid positions.

Graduate student Anita Pulley, who is an Inclusion Specialist in the kindergarten and preschool classrooms at the child and families study center on the CSUN campus (CSUN LAB School).  Pulley will graduate in May 2012, with her master’s degree and a credential in Special Education disabilities.

“I have learned how to work within a team and how to collaborate with one another to do what is best for the children,” Pulley said. “I have learned various methods on how to support children especially through positive behavior support methods.”

The funding will help increase the number of CSUN student teachers that are trained annually, develop new instructional materials and provide the CHIME faculty with opportunities to gain professional experience, said Annie R. Cox, executive director of the CHIME Early Education Programs.

“CHIME provides the opportunity for hands-on experience in inclusive early education and elementary and middle school settings, including mentoring and guidance by highly qualified faculty and staff,” Cox said. “The experience and training in inclusive education also fills the shortage of special education teachers in the surrounding school districts.”

Lucia Laguna, graduate student pursuing a master's degree in social work, stands in front of a mural in Room 130 inside Jerome Richfield Hall. Laguna has been a social justice activist for eight years, focusing on student, immigrant and ethnic rights. Photo Credit: Luis Rivas / Contributor

The walls inside Room 130 in Jerome Richfield Hall are nearly completely covered with Chicana/o and Latina/o art, protest posters and photographs of demonstrating social justice activists who all happen to be young students. A red flag with the United Farm Workers’ black eagle in the center hangs above a wide table where several MEChA students sit and talk.

Among those is 27-year-old graduate student Lucia Laguna, a self-described veteran activist and community organizer with eight years of experience under her belt.

At a young age, Laguna felt helpless for the immigrant and Latina/o community, which she said was under attack shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 anti-immigrant backlash.

“I started perusing activism because I was just really tired of feeling helpless,” Laguna said.

“I could see things getting worse in the news and in my community, and it just got to this point where I just asked myself, ‘I can either cry about it or I can do something about it.’”

Laguna first ventured into the world of activism during her time at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster.

She was motivated to organize a student group on campus after her Antelope Valley College professors made a bold attempt to get rid of ethnic studies classes, including Chicana/o studies, African-American studies and Asian-American studies, a year after the entire active and militant Black Student Union graduated.

Laguna’s student organization argued for not only the preservation of ethnic studies courses, but the need for more as well. At the time, Antelope Valley College had 14 African-American studies classes, two Chicana/o studies classes (without Chicano/a professors teaching) and one Asian-American studies class, Laguna said.

“They claimed that they were not against ethnic studies,” she said. “They were just ‘for’ the ‘classics.’”

Years later in 2005, HR 4437, dubbed the anti-illegal immigration and anti-terrorism bill,  was introduced and passed in the House of Representatives, which further criminalized both undocumented immigrants and the employers that hired them.

The passing of the bill further pushed Laguna to reach out to immigrant rights groups in Los Angeles, including MEChA chapters at UCLA and CSUN. She then began to take activism more seriously.

“It wasn’t activism anymore. It was a way of life,” she said. She also encourages students, regardless of ethnic background, to get more involved at CSUN and organize against the recent permission number freeze here on campus and escalating budget cuts in public education.

“I think it’s really fascist,” she said. “This whole permission number freeze has never happened. All the years I have been here, it has never happened. People have always been able to add.”

Laguna is currently in school to get her master’s degree in social work, and after she completes her education, she plans to pursue a career in social work, with a focus on rehabilitation and prevention for at-risk youth and sentenced adolescents.

“Ethnic studies has been known to be an affective form of prevention because students take pride in who they are and what they are,” Laguna said. “And that’s dangerous to the people in power—that’s why they don’t want it.”

Meet the Clubs Day took place on Cleary Walk, last semester during September, where clubs were able network with students and each other. Sundial File Photo

Meet the Clubs Day is a way to learn about the more than 100 clubs at CSUN, which will be held on the Bayramian lawn Feb. 8 and Feb. 9 from 11 a.m to 3 p.m.

The event, which was postponed a day due to rain, occurs every semester and lets active clubs and organizations recruit new members and introduce themselves to the CSUN community.

The event is a fun opportunity to talk to nonengineering students and network with other clubs for Salvador Ramirez, a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

While not all 270 CSUN clubs and organizations will be appearing for Meet the Clubs Day, the number signed up to appear at the event has exceeded the 130 available tables available, said Augustin Garibay, CSUN’s activities coordinator based in the USU.

A 130-table cap exists due to budget limits, according to Garibay. But despite the demand, Garibay is confident the issue won’t slow down the event.

“It‘s my job to think of a way to balance it out while staying within the given budget,” Garibay said.

A list of the participating groups was released by the office of Garibay on Jan. 13. The list, currently topping at 160, has diverse groups, such as the CSUN Young Democrats, the Japanese Student Association and Alpha Epsilon Pi.

“By having this event, students who are almost self-isolated see everything the school has to offer for those two days,” Garibay said.

By Garibay’s count, more than 300 club and organization members take part during the event, and the numbers go into the thousands when one takes into account that club members change shifts a few times a day.

“We know that students who are able to create relationships on campus are likely to stay,” said Thomas E. Piernik, director of student development and international programs at CSUN.
Having worked in the university for 27 years, Piernik recalls that the event has always been about connecting returning and new students to the campus.

And while exercising at the recreational center, swimming in the campus pool or eating lunch on campus can be alternative ways to participating in school, these activities do not offer a unique experience, Piernik said.

“Clubs are a piece of the resources offered to students,” Piernik said, “one that provides leadership opportunities.”

Brown’s 2012-2013 budget proposal reduces funding to the Cal Grant program by $131.2 million by increasing the minimum GPA requirement for Cal Grant A from a 3.0 to a 3.25, Cal Grant B from a 2.0 to a 2.75 and community college transfer entitlement awards from a 2.4 to a 2.75.

According to the resolution, over 65,000 CSU students rely on funds from Cal Grants.

“Students should be held to a higher standard if they want help,” A.S. Senator Lettieri said.

Should Brown’s proposed plan pass, the new standards would be taken into effect immediately and would deny many students access to aid they had received previously. Several A.S. senators agreed that this could lead to a higher dropout rate, as some may not be able to afford the costs of education under these circumstances.

“Take your personal feelings out of the equation and vote how your constituents would want,” Flavin said.

CSUN is home to a diverse student body, many of who come from underrepresented groups and may not have access to resources that would drive their GPA in more competitive ranges, Flavin said..

“I think it’s irresponsible of the board to agree with the governor to further cut money in higher education,” Flavin said.

A point of contention in Flavin’s resolution was the inclusion of loan forgiveness programs for nurses and teachers.

Some senators felt this clause in the resolution was irrelevant and didn’t fit the context of the proposed opposition.

Senator William Ryder suggested an amendment to the resolution that would exclude current students receiving aid to be subjected to the proposed changes. He said the resolution would force students to seek funding from other sources.

Senator Laquae Felix emphasized, “It’s not about ‘we should be working harder’ it’s about representing our constituents.”

Despite the amendments and jargon clarification, the resolution in opposition to Cal Grant cuts was passed with two senators in objection.

“The panel majority held that by using their initiative power to target a minority group and withdraw a right that it possessed, without a legitimate reason for doing so, the People of California violated the Equal Protection Clause,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in the decision.

In the decision summary that can be found on the 9th Circuit Court’s website, Reinhardt specifically made sure to make it known that the court’s decision only pertains to the state of California and does not relate to the rest of the states.

Art major and openly-gay student Julian Gonzalez agreed with the court’s decision.

“Banning gay marriage is unconstitutional and makes humans inferior to others. Instead of being against each other, we should stand for equality,” he said. “How is this any different than judging someone based on the color of their skin?”

The court’s decision to confirm the proposition as unconstitutional will help the proposition’s appeal. The appeal was first submitted as Perry v. Brown in December of 2010.

Psychology major and openly-gay student Luis Ralph said that he is ecstatic about the decision and supports the progress the proposition’s appeal has made.

“Three times should be enough to prove something, eh? Victory!” he said. “We’re here, we’re queer and we’re absolutely not living in fear.”

The USU started the LGBTQ Peer Mentor Program this semester to provide support and resources to LGBTQ students and those that may be questioning their sexuality, according to the website.

“Gay marriage may not be legal today but it is a step closer and I am ecstatic. Hopefully it will go to the Supreme Court,” said Sarina Loeb, USU special assistant for diversity initiatives.