Public higher education in California has been pushed into a precarious predicament over the past few years due to a slew of state-sponsored budget cuts and university fee hikes. Are our policy makers truly “tightening the belt” and “cutting out the fat” or are they grafting from our education to save a little face? It is difficult to tell if the rise in the cost of education for Californians is a terrible failure by the state and the CSU Board… Read more

Friday’s vote to legalize same-sex marriage in New York State was narrow, 33 to 29. It comes 42 years after the genesis of the gay rights movement in June 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, a bar in the West Village in New York City. California, long touted to be a progressive state may now only seem so in comparison to Bible Belt states. Bill Maher said on, “Somehow bigotry won out here, even in liberal California. We voted to outlaw… Read more

The FDA issued nine new cigarette health warnings Tuesday. It has been 25 years since the last major change to the warnings on cigarette packaging and will be required beginning September 2012 on packaging and advertisements in the United States. I can only imagine the cost of this campaign will be passed on to smokers sooner or later one way or another. While I find these efforts as ridiculous as the actual warnings themselves, proponents feel they have to do… Read more

By the Gender and Women Studies  300 class “Women as Agents of Change” Think about your daily schedule.  For many of you, you wake up in a comfy bed, brush your teeth with clean water, take a relaxing, hot shower, get to campus to begin the last weeks of the semester—the last push—all while you down the caffeinated beverage of your choice.   But regardless of how overwhelming it may seem, it is nothing compared to the struggles like those of… Read more

Conor Lansdale contributor The Fall of 2006 was my first semester on campus, and every day since then I have been impressed and proud of our leadership for taking strides to improve our enjoyment and to enhance our experiences while pursuing a degree. There used to be only 2 parking structures, vintage apartment-style dorm suites, and little to no Matador Spirit, a.k.a. Matatude. Those days are well past us now, but there have been two constants throughout the past few… Read more

As the 2010-11 school year draws to a close, we reflect at the Daily Sundial on the issues we reported on and the themes that emerged.  We hope our coverage is a reflection of what is most relevant to the CSUN community.  By far, the topic that stands out to the editors of this newspaper is the rising cost of education and subsequent surge of student activism to thwart further increases. Yet, it has become clear to us that the… Read more

By Antony Garcia President Jolene Koester announced her retirement this week and highlighted university achievements during her tenure as president of CSU Northridge. It was beautifully written and focused on very positive aspects during her last few years of presidency, which while beneficial, are not the only or most significant accomplishments during her tenure.  She said graduation rates have improved, the VPAC is completed, and her leadership allowed CSUN to “weather difficult budget circumstances,” but I hear a politician when I hear… Read more

The U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday more than $2.5 billion in losses for the first three months of this year. The financial woes of the agency are adding up despite cutting 130,000 jobs over the past three years. USPS officials said the agency soon would be forced to default on loan payments due the federal government unless Congress approves proposed changes to mail service and retirement benefits for postal workers. The culprit, of course, is email. Just from January to… Read more

Sticks and stones As a guy who grew up with an unusual name which can be scoffed at, confused, inverted, changed at the speaker’s whim, easily rhymed with derogatory terms, needs repeating several times on the phone, out-right refused by listeners because it’s different, gotten wrong by peers, teachers, coaches, people taking food orders, etc. I feel I can speak from a place of experience to modern parents about their penchant for creative names. As my older brother tells it,… Read more