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Issue 9, Fall 2009
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The STaTe horneTOne COpy Free OCtOber 28, 2009 CaliFOrnia State UniverSity, SaCramentO eSt. 1949
MORE COVERAGEINSIDE A5-A8
Online Newsstatehornet.com
Sacramento State Pres-ident Alexander Gon-zalez and ASI President Roberto Torres express their feelings about the killing.
News A5
CAMPUS LEADERSOFFER THOUGHTS
TO COMMUNITY
KILLING RAISESQUESTIONS
The incident at the American River Court-yard residence hall has left the campus com-munity with a number of questions. Will we be able to find the answers? Read the editorial to find out how The State Hornet is trying to make sense of it all.
The STaTe horneTIssue 9 | Volume 62| No. 9
Opinion A7
See video of interviews with suitemates of Scott Hawkins and Quran Jones, as well as up to date coverage of the past week’s events relating to the ARC killing at statehornet.com.
Life Lost; motive sought
CenTer: roberT Linggi; Upper LefT and boTTom righT: adaLTo naSCimenTo State Hornet
Upper left inset and center: A makeshift memorial in honor of Sac State student Scott Hawkins is displayed in front of American River Courtyard Friday night. Bottom right inset: Hawkins is carried by Sacramento Fire Department personnel to an ambulance to be transported to a local hospital Oct. 21.
The Sacramento State com-munity was left shaken when an incident in a campus residence hall turned fatal.
At 2:10 p.m. on Oct. 21, a disturbance was reported in the American River Courtyard residence hall. Fifteen minutes later, a call was made to Univer-sity Police. When they arrived, police found 19-year-old Quran Jones in his suite reportedly holding an 8-inch long knife.
Police attempted to calm Jones down, but were unsuc-cessful. Police then attempted to subdue Jones with pepper balls fired from air pistols, which had no effect on him.
University Police Chief Dan Davis said police were then forced to fire their weapons when Jones reportedly charged at them with the knife; he was hit three times.
“The officers tried to avoid using deadly force,” Davis said. “But they had no alternative.”
Following the shooting of Jones, campus police found Jones’ suitemate Scott Hawkins, 23, on the ground suffering from injuries that may have been caused by a baseball bat. Hawkins was taken to a local hospital where he died.
Jones was taken to the UC Davis Medical Center, where he underwent surgery.
After both men were taken to area hospitals, the Sacramento Police Department took over the investigation.
SPD Sgt. Norm Leong said his department is handling the investigation because it was an officer-involved shooting.
Jones is facing charges of homicide and the attempted murder of a police officer.
Campus police and adminis-tration officials said no motive for the crime has been deter-
By Brittany Bottini,Cole Mayer and Todd
see ARC| page A8 megan harriS State Hornet
Victim remembered as loyal and loving
Scott Gregory Hawkins, 23, will always be remembered as the friend everyone would love to have had.
Hawkins, the student killed Oct. 21 in his Sac-ramento State residence hall, the American River Courtyard, was a quiet man who loved his studies and the peace and safety he felt at Sac State, said his father Gerald Hawkins.
“He liked how peaceful it was, how safe he felt there,” Gerald Hawkins said. “It is just so hard to say this now; he also just loved the new dorms.”
Elizabeth Hawkins, Scott Hawkins’ mother, said her son dealt with Asperger syndrome during his life. It made school difficult, but it didn’t stop him from being kind-hearted and filled with love.
She remembered her son as the pizza-loving, loyal man who never hesitated to help others, and said he was always there for her if she needed anything.
“I’m his mother and all I had to do was say
‘Can you do this for me?’ and he would do it,”
By Natalie Flynn andBrittany Bottini
see Hawkins| page A8
CoUrTeSy of geraLd hawkinS
Scott Hawkins and his mother Elizabeth Hawkins pose during move-in day.
Those who know suspectleft in shock
The man suspected in the death of Scott Hawkins was known as a quiet student with no obvious problems with others.
Quran Jones, 19, alleg-edly attacked and killed his suitemate Oct. 21 during an altercation in their room at the American River Court-yard residence hall.
“That’s not his way of doing things,” said his biological father, Willie Jones, in an in-terview with The Sacramento Bee on Thursday.
Like the victim, Quran Jones also went to a Catholic school before attending Sacramento State.
Quran Jones played on the football team at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco.
The school’s principal, Ken Hogarty, declined to give any comments about Quran Jones.
“I personally am stunned by the tragedy in Sacramento as it has been reported and will continue to pray for all those involved,” Hogarty said in an e-mail to The State Hornet.
Spencer Dirrim, roommate and sophomore computer sci-
see Jones| page A8
By Natalie Flynn, Inna Gritsak and Kristine
MEMORIAL SERVICETODAY
8 P.M.AMERICAN RIVER
COURTYARDRESIDENCE HALL
A candlelight me-morial service will be held for Scott Hawkins at 8 p.m. in front of the American River Courtyard residence hall. President Alex-ander Gonzalez and others will speak about Hawkins’ life.
Counseling ServicesAvailable
Counseling services are available for stu-dents, faculty and staff struggling to deal with the tragedy.
Services for students are available through the Student Health Cen-ter. Students can recieve help on a walk-in basis or by calling 278-6416.
Faculty and staff can obtain services by calling the Employee Assistance Program at 278-5018.
WedneSday - OCtOber 28 neWS SeCtiOn StatehOrnet.COmA2
Editor in Chief
Todd Wilson
(916) 278-6584
Print Managing Editor
Natalie Flynn
(916) 278-7300
Online Managing Editor
Adalto Nascimento
(916) 278-5590
News Editor
Leidhra Johnson(916) 278-5567
Assistant News EditorMitchell Wilson(916) 278-7248
Opinion EditorDavid Loret De Mola
(916) [email protected]
Sports EditorAndrew Hazard(916) 278-5145
Online Sports EditorNick Hunte
(916) [email protected]
Features EditorChristina Li
(916) [email protected]
Assistant Features EditorAnne Morrison (916) 278-5148
Photo Editor/Assistant Photo EditorNallelie Vega
Mia Matsudaira(916) 278-5500
Graphics EditorMegan Harris
(916) [email protected]
Video Editor Edson Guillen
(916) [email protected]
Web Designer Sam Pearson
(916) [email protected]
Copy ChiefBenjamin R. Schilter
(916) [email protected]
Advertising Manager Diane Kauffman(916) 278-6583
Advertisement DesignerMatt Erickson
(916) [email protected]
Professional Journalist in Residence & Adviser Holly Heyser
(916) [email protected]
The STaTe horneT | STaff
The first copy of this newspaper is free. Additional copies cost $1. All views expressed herein are the responsibility of The State Hornet and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sacra-mento State Journalism Program, the Communication Studies Department, administration, student body or ASI unless oth-erwise noted. The State Hornet is copyrighted, and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of The State Hornet.
Signed articles, letters and artwork express the opinions of the authors and illustrators. Unsigned articles are the responsibility of The State Hornet. The State Hornet reserves the right to reject or edit all submissions.
The appearance of an advertisement in The State Hornet does
not constitute an endorsement by the newspaper of the goods
and services advertised therein. The State Hornet reserves the
right to reject any advertisements deemed inappropriate. An
advertisement is not considered accepted until publication.
Further, The State Hornet shall not be liable for any omission on
an advertisement ordered to be published. By written request,
The State Hornet will reschedule and run the advertisement at
the advertiser’s cost. In no case shall The State Hornet be liable
for any general, special or consequential damages. Claims for
adjustments of any error must be made no later than three days
after publication date upon which said error occurred.
CSU class additions
The California State University system will distribute $25 million to add 4,000 courses and retain nearly 800 lecturers for winter and spring sessions and student support services.
The CSU system is taking the $25 million from a one-time federal allocation totaling $77.5 million. The rest of the funds will be saved due to the state’s ongoing budget concerns. All future stimulus funds will be used on a limited-term basis and cannot be used to create spending.
The 2009-10 CSU budget currently has been cut by $564 million and the universi-ty system is responding to the deficit with employee furloughs, cutting enrollment and increasing student fees on all 23 CSU campuses.
Rec and collegiate basketball seasons starting
The annual 3-on-3 basketball season signup deadline is at 5 p.m. today. The season starts on Nov. 2. There will be men’s, women’s and co-ed teams. Sixty-four teams are expected to play this season.
To register, visit the Recreational Sports Office in the University Union. The cost is $5 individuals or $30 for teams.
Sacramento State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams will be meeting students at noon on Monday in the Union lobby. There will be a free-throw competition, games and prizes given out.
Prizes include gift cards from the Hornet Bookstore and Visa. The grand prize is an XBox 360.
Sculpture Invitational
There will be an exhibition of projects from students, faculty at noon Monday in the Robert Else and Raymond Witt galler-ies. Work from local community colleges and high schools students will also be shown.
The galleries are open from noon to 4:30 p.m. every Monday through Friday.
Union supervisors wanted
There are openings for building super-visors to work in the University Union. Supervisors must work with others, spe-cifically group representatives, to manage
events in the Union. Coordination with public safety and other university officials is necessary.
Supervisors are responsible for the open-ing and securing of meeting rooms, and the delivery and setup of audio and visual equipment.
Other duties include taking the place of other employees during breaks and contacting the proper authorities in case of emergencies. Inspections of lights, doors, locks, alarm systems and all other facilities are required. Work shifts would usually take place during weekends and nights.
Prior supervisor experience is strongly recommended, as is having worked with student activities, student affairs and Union operations.
Two Mommies, Two Daddies
The experiences of growing up with gay parents will be discussed today in the Multi-Cultural Center at 2 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center, PRIDE and Student Activities.
Missed the event? Check out statehornet.com Thursday to read about their lives and why they want others to know.
Sunset Kayaking
The Aquatic Center is offering an eve-ning of paddling from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday. No experience is necessary and all participants should be prepared to get wet.
All kayakers must be at least 10 years old.The cost is $20 for students, $25 for fac-
ulty and $30 for the general public.
See the full story in Features, page B1.
▶◀ ▶◀ ▶◀ Contact Mitchell Wilson in
the News department at (916) 278-7248.
NEWS ROUNDUP Sac State’s weekly news briefs and campus events
WedneSday - OCtOber 28 neWS SeCtiOn StatehOrnet.COm A3
Sacramento State police have
made two arrests in the wake of a series of bicycle thefts on campus.
Interim Lt. Kelly Clark said the arrests were the result of an effort by plainclothes officers to stop the thefts. There have been more than 20 bike thefts since the beginning of the semester. University police are uncertain if the thefts are related.
“We can only speculate whether they’re connected … typically people are taking them to make money on them,” Clark said. “If I had to generalize, most of our crimes are crimes of opportunity.”
Clark said people who are not students or faculty often come to Sac State to steal bikes because they are abundant on campus.
“It’s a very convenient cut-through from the freeway to other areas,” Clark said.
Clark urges students who are concerned about their bikes be-ing stolen to register them with campus police for free. Clark said stolen bikes have a much greater chance of being recov-ered when the serial number has been entered into a state-wide stolen property database.
He also said students should lock their bikes up in the bicy-cle compound next to the Guy West Bridge. The compound is monitored by attendants, so students can park there and be confident their bike will remain
secure.“A problem we’ve had is stu-
dents park their bikes every-where on campus,” Clark said.
Students who lock their bikes to stairwells, fences, trees or other objects not designated for parking bikes have a greater chance of being victimized because police do not monitor
those areas as closely. Clark said that most bikes have been reported stolen from the resi-dence halls, University Union, and Library Quad.
Tyler Newell, bike shop lead mechanic at Peak Adventures, said students can invest in a good bike lock to protect their
Sac State lawsuit investigation continues
An investigation conducted by Sacramento State concluded that retired engineering profes-sor Miroslav Markovic created a hostile work environment, in direct violation of the univer-sity’s harassment policy.
On Aug. 7, Cici Mattiuzzi, career counselor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, filed a lawsuit against Sac State and Markovic on seven charges, including sexual
harassment, intentional inflic-tion of emotional distress and retaliation.
Markovic could not be reached for comment.
In a letter to Mattiuzzi dated Sept. 21, Director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Peter Lau completed his investigation of the harass-ment and retaliation complaint against Markovic, finding that Markovic’s behavior created a hostile work environment.
“It is the policy of California State University, Sacramento
to maintain a working and learning environment free from discrimination and harass-ment,” Lau wrote. “The results of our investigation indicated that Prof. Markovic’s behavior negatively impacted the ability of staff members to perform their jobs.”
Mattiuzzi filed the lawsuit in August after documenting and filing complaints about Markovic to Sac State adminis-tration for 18 years.
According to the court docu-ments, Markovic made sexual
advances toward a student, stalked a student, assaulted a staff member and threatened to shoot an international student and two IT workers.
The suit also charged Sac State with retaliation against Mattiuzzi for filing complaints against Markovic.
Lau told Mattiuzzi in his letter that retaliation for someone filing a complaint is against university policy as well as state and federal law.
According to Executive Order 928 from the CSU Chancel-
lor’s Office, if an investigation confirms the claims in the complaints, the university must take action in response to those complaints
“Should discrimination, harassment or retaliation be found to exist in any employ-ment action within CSU, all appropriate measures should be taken to prevent reoccurrence and to remedy any effects of the complaint,” the order read.
After receiving the letter from Lau, Mattiuzzi e-mailed Lau saying she was a victim of
retaliation. Less than one week after filing
the lawsuit in August, Mattiuzzi received e-mails from two of her colleagues informing her that they would be teaching the classes she had taught on campus for the past 25 years. Mattiuzzi said she believed having her classes taken away from her was clearly an act of retaliation.
Emir Macari, dean of the Col-lege of Engineering and
By Brittany [email protected]
see Lawsuit| page A4
Increasing incidents of bicycle theft on campus
By Julia [email protected]
Cyclists are encouraged to use different types of locks and techniques to prevent bicycle theft on campus.
ChaSe maSon State Hornet
see Bikes| page A4
“Gonzalez has devoted his entire professional career to California higher education. He is a champion for access and opportunity and understands the benefits a higher
education brings to individuals as a life changer,”
- CSU Chancellor Charles Reed in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office
Gonzalez hopes to make college more affordable
President Alexander Gonzalez was appointed to the California Student Aid Commission by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Oct. 9.
As a board member for the commission, Gonzalez will work with 14 other commis-sioners to make higher educa-tion financially accessible to all Californians. He was rec-ommended for the position to the governor’s office because of his accomplishments with the California State University system.
“Gonzalez has devoted his entire professional career to California higher education,” said CSU Chancellor Charles Reed in a letter to the gover-nor’s office. “He is a champion for access and opportunity and understands the benefits a higher education brings to individuals as a life changer.”
Mike Naple, spokesperson for Schwarzenegger, said Gon-zalez’s experience in the state’s higher education system qualified him to fill the CSU seat on the commission until October 2012.
The president began his career with the CSU system as an associate professor of La Raza studies at Fresno State University in 1979 and later
became a full-time professor of psychology. After working his way up, Gonzalez became vice president of academic affairs. Before coming to Sacramento State, Gonzalez was president of CSU San Marcos.
“President Gonzalez has much experience and is com-mitted to students, and opening the doors to education,” said John Kepley, special assistant to the president.
Gonzalez said he is look-ing forward to learning about financial aid on the state level and working on behalf of stu-dents.
“I want to make sure my participation in the commission
will maximize our students’ ac-cess to a university education,” Gonzalez said.
The commission was created in 1955 by the California State Legislature to make public higher education affordable.
“As the principal state agency responsible for administering financial aid programs …, the commission has never wavered from its central mission - mak-ing education beyond high school financially accessible to all,” according to the student aid commission website.
The commission has adminis-tered more than $2.4 billion in grants and loans, including the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholar-ship Program, Cal Grants and various financial aid programs.
In addition to Gonzalez, the commission has three members who have ties to Sacramento.
Barry Keene was a professor in the Masters of Public Policy and Administration program at Sac State.
Lorena Hernandez, who was appointed to the commission in February 2007, is a Sac State alumna with a bachelor’s degree in communication.
Patricia Fong Kushida, also a Sac State graduate, received her bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1985. Fong Kushida is the president and CEO of the Sacramento Asian-Pacific Chamber of Commerce.
By Brittany [email protected]
CoUrTeSy phoTo
Alexander Gonzalez,Sac State president
Application requirements change with budget cuts
Because the California State University system has imposed enrollment restrictions in response to state budget cuts, students are now scrambling to submit their fall 2010 ap-plications within the priority application period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30.
As of Oct. 15, 111,140 fresh-man and transfer applicants have submitted applications to the CSU system, compared to 62,520 who applied around the same time last year.
“The phenomenon that we’re seeing is really more students
applying earlier than it is more students applying,” said Edward Mills, Sacramento State’s associ-ate vice president for student affairs, enrollment and student support.
As of Oct. 15, Sac State received 3,016 freshman and transfer applications, a three-fold increase from the same time last year.
Mills said Sac State will likely receive the same number of freshman applicants as it did last year. Transfer applications, however, will be “significantly higher” because of the closure of spring 2010 admissions.
Twelve of the 23 CSU cam-puses are impacted for fall 2010.
These campuses received far more applications than they can accommodate and will not accept freshman and transfer applications beyond Nov. 30.
Sac State and 10 other cam-puses are not impacted and will continue admitting until enroll-ment targets are met.
“We made a decision not to impact the university this year,” Mills said. “What this means is that we kept our admissions criteria the same.”
However, three Sac State undergraduate programs, nurs-ing, graphic design and interior design, have been impacted for several years and have set higher academic standards and
supplemental applications as part of the admissions criteria.
The nursing program, for instance, raised the minimum grade point average require-ment from 3.0 to 3.3 for fall 2010.
The graphic and interior design programs require port-folios of students’ work and supplemental applications.
“The downside is that some people change majors,” said Mario Estioko, graphic design program coordinator. “The up-side is people who make it are guaranteed their classes.”
Although Sac State is not one of the impacted campuses,
Foster youths now priority for on-campus housing
Legislation that requires California’s public universities to give priority for on-campus housing to emancipated foster youths was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
AB 1393, or Foster Youth Priority Housing in College, also requires California State University campuses to keep housing facilities open for foster youths during school breaks. The bill was authored by As-semblymember Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley.
“Some of foster youths don’t actually have a place to go,” said Chantel Johnson, legislative and
policy coordinator for the Cali-fornia Youth Connection, an organization that sponsored the bill. “So the point of this bill is to keep them from being home-less and to ensure their stability while trying to complete their degree.”
Sacramento State’s Guardian Scholars program, which began in 2006, provides financial, emotional and academic assistance to emancipated foster youths, said Joy Salvetti, program director of Guardian Scholars.
Former foster youth and freshman kinesiology major Brittany Chamalbide is a recipi-ent of the Breaking the Barriers Guardian Scholars Scholarship
Fund provided by the Wells Fargo Foundation.
“They’re pretty much paying for everything,” Chamalbide said. “I never knew that there are people out there who care about me and would help me get through college.”
Chamalbide, who now lives at one of Sac State’s resident halls, was in foster care in Seattle, Wash., until she was 8 years old. She and her brother were then put under the guardianship of an aunt and uncle in Elk Grove.
The Guardian Scholars program works with Housing and Residential Life to provide on- and off-campus housing to former foster youths, Salvetti said.
“If we’re made aware that they’re part of the foster care program or have previously been, we definitely try to ac-commodate them to the best of our ability,” said Peggy Lu-ers, coordinator for housing administration and off-campus housing services at Sac State’s Housing and Residential Life. “They don’t have other avenues as far as family support, and they don’t have a lot of options for housing, so we do what we can to accommodate them.”
The Guardian Scholars pro-gram has 44 full-time students. Salvetti said former foster youths who are not full-time students also receive support from the program.
“We try to build a support structure for them so that they only have to worry about aca-demics,” Salvetti said.
Twelve other CSU campuses have similar programs.
Johnson said that although these are support programs for foster youths, not all of them provide funds for housing.
Salvetti said the program helps former foster youths cre-ate their identities in college.
“For foster youths, the fact that they’re emancipated at 18 and basically told to go on their own, you realize just how remarkably daunting that is,” Salvetti said. “Many times, they are very isolated. They just have no one.”
By Kristine [email protected]
By Kristine [email protected]
Impacted CSU campuses:
As of Oct. 15, 111,140 freshman and transfer applicants have applied to CSU through csumentor.edu, compared to 62,520 who
applied around the same time last year.
As of Oct. 15, Sacramento State received 3,016 freshman and transfer applications, a three-fold increase from last year.
Application
requirements:
- Be “highly motivated” students emancipated from foster care.
- Qualify for admission to Sac State as freshman or transfer students.
- Be considered inde-pendents under federal financial aid guidelines.
- Be California resi-dents.
- Have at least a 2.5 grade point average in completed coursework.
see Applications| page A4
CSU FullertonCSU Long BeachCal Poly PomonaSan Diego State
Cal Poly, San Luis ObispoSonoma State
San Francisco StateChico State
CSU NorthridgeFresno State
CSU San MarcosSan Jose State
WedneSday - OCtOber 28 neWS SeCtiOn StatehOrnet.COmA4
Bikes: Police encourage using gated compoundproperty. He said there is usu-ally an influx of lock sales at the beginning of the semester, but has noticed more locks being sold than usual this semester. “I feel like we are selling a lot more locks,” Newell said. “We have seen growth in traffic here in the shop. There’s more people coming here lately saying they just had their bike stolen or rear wheel stolen.” One example Newell gave was of a student who recently came into Peak Adventures to buy a new rear wheel. It had been stolen off her brand new bike. She bought the new wheel and came back the following week to inform Newell that her entire bike was stolen. Even Peak Adventures is not immune to crime. During the summer, a bike was stolen from the sales floor after Newell said someone gave a false driver’s license and took it for a test ride. The person never came back. The incident forced Peak
Adventures to tighten up its test-ride policy. Newell said it is just as important for students to learn how to properly lock up their bikes as it is to invest in a qual-ity bike lock. “It might sound goofy, but there are improper ways of locking up bikes,” Newell said. Oftentimes, Newell has seen or heard of students locking up just the front tire, which can be quickly released, or locking the frame to a pole from which the bike can easily be removed. He also suggested renting a bike locker on campus through Peak Adventures for the greatest pro-tection. The lockers also have the benefit of keeping bikes dry during the rainy season. Saud Saiari, graduate student in electrical and electronic engineering, does not worry about the possibility of his bike being stolen, even though he has several evening classes he rides to. He said that he does not take any special precautions against theft.
“I think this is fine with me,” Saiari said. “Nobody can cut (this lock) off unless he has an electrical tool, which would make a noise.” Lauren Robinson, sopho-more international business major, is one student who learned her lesson about mak-ing sure her bike is locked up. Robinson had her bike parked outside the American River Courtyard residence hall only to discover it missing when she returned. She called cam-pus police and gave them the description of her bike, only to discover that officers had picked it up and taken it to the station for safekeeping. “I feel lucky that it wasn’t taken,” Robinson said. “But … I wish they’d told the front desk, because I really thought someone had (stolen) it. But I’m very grateful.” Robinson said the false alarm made her more aware. “I’ll make absolutely sure I lock it – buy a better lock even,” Robinson said.
Lawsuit: Faculty member says she was mistreated
Computer Science, said Mat-tiuzzi was unable to teach the classes she previously taught because of changes to abilities of her classification.
Associate Vice President for Human Resources Kent Porter said Mattiuzzi has been assigned as a Student Services Professional IV since 1999. As a result of a round of bargain-ing earlier this year between the university and the union that represents employees in her bargaining unit, it was negotiated that SSPs may no longer teach unit-bearing courses.
“Ms. Mattiuzzi is not the only person in that classifica-tion that has been affected by what came out of collec-tive bargaining,” Porter said. “However, if she wishes, she may request a reclassification.”
Mattiuzzi said that she started as an SSP IV in 1984, not 1999. She said she has ap-plied for reclassification three or four times, and was denied every time except for once. However, her reclassification was taken away from her after she returned from maternity leave, she said.
“There’s a pattern. Every time I apply for reclassifica-tion, it happens to be at a time when someone is coming to me about problems with Markovic, or I am complain-ing about him,” Mattiuzzi said. “Once you complain about sexual harassment at this university, your opportunities are trashed.”
Macari said he had no con-
trol in the changes made. The changes were not retaliation, he said.
Mattiuzzi said she never received a response to her e-mail. Shortly after she made her claims of retaliation on the part of the university, Lau announced his retirement from Sac State. Lau was unable to be reached for comment.
Porter said he and Lau had been discussing Lau’s retire-ment for a few months. Lau’s last day worked was Sept. 30. He is currently using his extra vacation time until his official last day with the university on Oct. 31.
“We’ve been working to address the problems with Markovic for a long time, but investigation after investigation never concluded anything,” Macari said. “I was surprised to receive this letter by Lau, since he wrote near the day he retired. Now that the investi-gation is concluded, Lau has retired and the professor has left the campus as well. Action is up to the courts now.”
John Kepley, assistant to President Alexander Gonzalez, said there is nothing new in the case despite Lau’s findings.
“We’re still in the process of reviewing and responding to it,” Kepley said.
Since Sac State was served with court documents in Au-gust, the university has not yet filed a response and was given an extension.
“We are hopeful that we can explore the possibilities of mediation or a settlement,” said Susan Sheridan, Mattiuzzi’s lawyer. “If that is not possible,
we will give the university a deadline to file a response.”
Markovic retired from Sac State on Aug. 21. He was enrolled in a full schedule of classes and was on the list of professor expecting to receive grant money from the stimulus.
After seeing Markovic on campus on Aug. 26, five days after he had retired from the university, Mattiuzzi has been on sick leave. Her allocated sick leave should last her through March 2010, should she not return to campus before then, she said.
Mattiuzzi said she will return when she gets a reclassification and when is allowed to teach her class once again.
“If I am allowed to teach my classes again, I will return. Clearly, I cannot get it corrected on campus, so my attorney will be assisting me,” Mattiuzzi said. “I’m done going through the system. First they ignore my complaints about Markovic; then, they deny my reclassifica-tion for 25 years.”
Mattiuzzi said she is hopeful she and the university can come to an agreement and settle these issues with the help of their attorneys.
Macari said that whether or not Mattiuzzi will be able to teach again is not in his control. He said he is still waiting for her to come back, but he can’t keep waiting.
“We want her to come back. We need her to help out the students,” Macari said. “I am sad that the issues have escalated to this point. It’s not good for our students or our university.”
admissions are still restricted for fall 2010. This means the university will not accept fresh-man applications beyond Nov. 30. Transfer applicants can apply until March 1. However, applicants who applied within the priority filing period will be given higher priority for admis-sion, Mills said.
“When the state cuts the CSU’s budget, what that did is trigger a reduction in enroll-
ment in the CSU,” Mills said. Mills said upper-division
community college transfer applicants need to apply early to avoid delays in graduation.
“The biggest issue is for students who have already completed all of the courses that they need to transfer in,” Mills said.
Susan Johnson and Amy Bialek, upper-division transfer applicants from Sacramento City College, said they have already filed their applications
to Sac State. “My son told me to apply
right away for fall 2010. That’s what I plan to do when I get home today, apply online,” Johnson, who plans to major in sociology, said on Oct. 16.
Bialek, who plans to major in communication studies at Sac State, said she is con-cerned about not graduating on time.
“I was advised to apply be-fore the deadline and to have a backup plan,” Bialek said.
Applications: Restrictions on student admissions
Continued | page A3
Continued | page A3
Continued | page A3
“It is the policy of California State University, Sacramento to maintain a working and learning environment free from discrimination and harassment. The results of our investigation indicated that Prof. Markovic’s behavior negatively impacted the ability of staff members to perform their jobs.”
- Peter Lau, director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action
WedneSday - OCtOber 28 neWS SeCtiOn StatehOrnet.COm A5
Gonzalez: ‘We will ... search for a motive.’
A CAMPUS LEFT IN SHOCK | STATE HORNET AMERICAN RIVER COURTYARD HOMICIDE COVERAGE
Like many of you, I am searching for answers - both on a personal level and as univer-sity president - to last Wednes-day’s tragedy on our campus.
Although it was an isolated incident, the death of a student affects us all. Scott Hawkins was a young man who, by all accounts, was enjoying Sacra-mento State. He was taken from us far too soon, and I join the entire university community in expressing my heartfelt condo-lences to his family and friends.
As the investigation and the grieving process continue, it is important that we reach out and seek help whenever it is needed.
We know that it can take a long time to return to normal after a tragedy of this magni-tude, so in the days, weeks and months ahead, counselors from the Student Health Center will be available to help students
on a walk-in basis or by calling 278-6416. Faculty and staff can obtain counseling services by calling the Employee Assistance Program at 278-5018.
The sudden and shocking nature of this tragedy has made the past week even more dif-ficult, so please don’t hesitate to seek help if you need it.
We will also do everything we can to provide all the infor-mation we can to the campus community. Public Affairs has created a website www.csus.edu/pa/campussafety for the latest news.
I know that there have been many media inquiries across our campus, and we have given regular updates to the various news outlets in an effort to minimize disruptions to you. If you are contacted by the media, you may refer those calls to Public Affairs at 278-6156.
When I arrived on scene last Wednesday, Sacramento State officials were working in unison with other public safety agen-cies, and our staff had already begun to help the students affected by the violence.
We continue to cooperate fully with the Sacramento Po-lice Department and Sacramen-to County District Attorney’s investigation of the incident, and we are assisting them in any way we can.
I commend Sacramento State’s police force for their response and bravery. They fol-lowed our procedures exactly as they had been trained and made every attempt to subdue the
suspect without using deadly force. They used their weapons only after these attempts had been exhausted and their own lives were at risk.
The officers on scene coura-geously placed themselves be-tween life-threatening danger and the rest of the campus. We owe them a debt of tremen-dous gratitude.
Our Student Affairs staff also responded well to a ter-rible situation. Residence hall personnel helped to ensure the safety of students near the incident, and our counselors were available throughout that night to help those who needed services.
Wednesday’s tragedy has brought a sense of grief so profound and so baffling to our campus that I fear we will never truly understand why this horrific attack oc-curred. Although nothing can adequately explain such an unnecessary loss of life, we will continue to search for a motive.
I am deeply saddened that both young men involved were Sacramento State students.
As president, I take very personally the safety of our stu-dents. I am committed to learn-ing all we can from this terrible event, and if any changes need to be made, I assure you that we will make them.
I offer my thanks to everyone who has helped us in the week since the tragedy, and I want ev-eryone to know that we are here to offer any support we can.
Torres: ‘Our campus is in great hands.’
On Oct. 21, an unfortunate event took place where one of our fellow Hornets passed away and another is placed into custody. The informa-tion on the incident has been reported by the local media and our campus administra-tors and needs no repetition from us.
However, Associated Stu-dents Inc. would like to share our sympathies to the family and friends of the victim.
Situations like these make us realize that while the campus is a safe haven for many, we are not impenetrable to the prob-lems of the real world. Now with the added stress to our student lives, some handle the situation better than others. As a direct response, the university does offer counseling services for free to any student and ASI encourages any struggling student to utilize these services at any time.
ASI would also like to com-mend the campus police and administrators for their swift action on the matter. Their swift action ensured no other students were harmed by the incident. Within minutes of the occurrence, the police were able to take control of the situation and no other students were in harm’s way.
Because of this, immediate activation of the Emergency Notification System was not necessary. While some students have expressed a sentiment of distrust for ENS, the situation did not call for an immediate
mass text or notification of the incident. The situation did not present any harm to students; this was an isolated incident that occurred away from the main campus. While some students were asked to vacate the residence halls, it was mere precaution and protocol that called for such action. A notifi-cation was sent after the fact so that our students were assured of their safety and apprised of the incident.
ASI is among the many who wish to assure our students that the campus is safe and that the administration is pursu-ing every effort to support all students on campus. Instances like these open our eyes to our vulnerability, but we must always remember that there are campus programs and services that can assist and support students, including ASI.
Sac State students should be assured that the safety of our campus is in great hands and ASI sends our condolences to the family and friends of the victim.
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By Alexander GonzalezSac State President
By Roberto TorresASI President
Additional State Hornet Reporting and Coverage of the American River Courtyard Homicide by:
Jeondra Arrington, Robyn Barnes, Blajez Bruzda, Vanessa Girabaldi, Ryan Greenleaf, Edson Guillen, Marcy Hendricks, Nick Hunte, Leidhra Johnson,
Miyu Kataoka, Carli Knickerbocker, Christina Li, David Loret De Mola, Miranda Marsalla, Chase Mason, Mia Matsudaira, Anne Morrison, Dustin
Nosler, Samantha Palileo, Sam Pearson, Samantha Poulin, Britney Rossman, Benjamin R. Schilter, Jennifer Siopongco, Kristen Smith, Amber Wertman
and Mitchell Wilson
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A CAMPUS LEFT IN SHOCK | STATE HORNET AMERICAN RIVER COURTYARD HOMICIDE COVERAGE
Asperger’s explored: A piece of the puzzle?
Scott Hawkins, the victim in the Oct. 21 homicide, was known to have Asperger’s disorder.
Kim Roberts, a psychology professor at Sacramento State, was able to describe Asperger’s disorder and her thoughts on what may have happened be-hind the scenes between these two men.
Roberts said that Asperger’s disorder is a social issue.
“We use to refer to Asperger’s as the ‘geek syndrome,’ but obvi-ously we don’t call it that any-
more,” Roberts said. “Asperger’s is on the disorder spectrum of autism, but cognitively, subjects suffering from the disorder are really bright and highly func-tional. They may not know how to interact in a normal fashion. Most importantly, they don’t understand social cues and have a hard time reading or sympa-thizing with emotion.”
Roberts said that clinical psychologists attempt to teach these social cues to individuals with Asperger’s disorder. She said that although this tech-nique can prove effective, it is difficult because social cues are so instinctual and instincts are
hard to teach.Roberts said the general code
of appropriateness most human beings understand may be un-known to those with Asperger’s.
“If someone shared the death of their pet with an individual with Asperger’s, that individual might say, ‘Well, it’s just a dog,’ not being able to empathize that it’s not just a dog to that person, it’s their dog,” Roberts said.
Roberts said from what she understands, Hawkins was very bright and, although he did not have many friends, it seemed as if he was coping with Asperger’s disease pretty well.
“I assume that Quran Jones
(the suspect) didn’t know how to deal with the symptoms of Asperger’s,” Roberts said.
Roberts said that many are not aware of the disease and may mistake the symptoms as “weird.”
She said the strange manner-isms associated with Asperger’s may have been an annoyance to Jones, but because of his newly found reclusive behavior, he may not have expressed these aggravations.
Roberts said witnesses have provided information of Jones’ reserved behavior. She said that Jones was not getting the catharsis he needed because of
this introverted lifestyle.“Many of (Jones’) friends said
he was getting quieter and qui-eter as the year progressed and ultimately becoming a whole different person. That’s a red flag for psychologists,” Roberts said. “The ultimate problem there is that depression cannot be treated until the victim asks for help.”
Roberts said that depression leads to chemical imbalances and that this may have caused Jones’ outbreak.
“If Jones was depressed, clini-cally depressed, his serotonin levels, which enable happiness, were down and something
probably sparked this annoy-ance towards Hawkins, which must have been building up inside of him for a while. This in turn builds up adrenaline and may have been the catalyst for Jones’ instant rage,” Roberts said.
Roberts said it upsets her that she wasn’t able to help Jones ahead of time.
“When I heard of the incident it broke my heart,” Roberts said. “I saw it on the news and thought, ‘How could this hap-pen?’ There are psychologists all around here and campus and it’s just too bad that we couldn’t help ahead of time.”
Coverage of student killing reaches beyond local media
The killing of Sacramento State student Scott Hawkins, and the shooting of Quran Jones by campus police on Oct. 21, was a temporary focus of more than just local media outlets.
The Sacramento Bee and The State Hornet were not the only ones to cover the incident.
National outlets such as the Associated Press and CNN also covered last week’s fatal incident at Sac State.
Barbara O’Connor, commu-nication studies professor at Sac State, said coverage of the event by local media was good, but was occasionally over-sensa-tionalized.
“The coverage of the press conferences was pretty fair and I think the Bee did an excel-lent job,” O’Connor said. “The morning news was a carry-over, but the noon news was more sensationalistic ... questioning whether or not five minutes was a quick enough response time or saying that the university
was withholding information.”Sac State public relations
professor Tim Howard said ho-micides and massacres should not reflect badly on any school’s reputation, especially Sac State’s incident.
“We must remember that this was one student’s actions and I hope nobody comes to the wrong conclusion how great and fine this institution is by one student’s actions,” Howard said.
Some media outlets targeted and questioned the Emergency Notification System timeliness.
According to Sac State’s Pub-lic Affairs Incident timeline, a disturbance was reported at 2:10 p.m the day of the inci-dent. A notification, however, was not sent out until 4:24 p.m.
Mark Ludwig, professor of communication studies, said the media had no choice but to focus on the ENS.
Twitter, Facebook and text messaging also played a major role in spreading the word among Sac State students.
O’Connor said she began posting questions regarding the
incident on her Facebook page before there was any notifica-tion from the university. Within seconds, other reporters began posting information, she said.
O’Connor was not the only person using social network-ing sites to communicate with others regarding the incident;
Howard also distributed infor-mation through his Facebook and Twitter pages.
Howard said he posted vari-ous links on his pages because he wanted the followers on his networking sites to come to their own conclusions regard-ing the incident.
By Katrina [email protected]
Psychological help available
In light of the violence that took place Oct. 21, many students are now dealing with the death of a classmate, friend or roommate. For these students, there are many ways of coping with the psycholog-ical stress from the incident.
Susan Ko, clinical psycholo-gist from the Psychological Counseling Services at the Student Health Center, said the typical reactions to the death of Scott Hawkins in-clude an inability to concen-trate, loss of focus, irritation and trouble sleeping.
Ko said counselors are available to talk to students for any reason.
“Sometimes at times like these people get glued to the TV or to the latest news try-ing to get as much informa-tion on it as possible, but that may just increase anxiety. They should take a break and try to stick to their normal routine,” Ko said.
Ko also said students that de-cide to go into counseling may suffer survivor’s guilt.
“Sometimes there is this feel-ing of their world being turned upside down. That can paralyze people and make them feel like they can’t do anything,” Ko said.
Christopher Valle, junior criminal justice major who lives in the American River Court-yard, said he did not know how to react to what happened.
“This is something I’m going to have to remember. (It) could have happened anywhere, but it happened here,” Valle said.
Ko said students who live in the Courtyard might have a more personal connection to the incident and being there could induce more stress.
Laurie Bisset-Grady, interim associate director of the Student Health Center, said the center offers counseling services as well as grief groups to help with the stress. In addition to these services, the Health Center also offers medical help in case a mental issue is causing a physi-cal problem such as a headache or a backache.
By Nallelie [email protected]
SamanTha poULin State Hornet
By Hanan Salem and Daniel [email protected]
Local news station KCRA 3 was one of the many media outlets to cover the student homicide at Sac State.
WedneSday - OCtOber 28 neWS SeCtiOn StatehOrnet.COmA8
A CAMPUS LEFT IN SHOCK| STATE HORNET AMERICAN RIVER COURTYARD HOMICIDE COVERAGE
ARC: Student homicide remains unexplainedmined.
“There’s only one individual right now who can give us any inkling of what the motive was to spark this incident, and that is the suspect. As far as I can understand, he is not commu-nicating. We may never know,” said Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez.
Friends and family of the men involved described both as quiet and studious, with no pre-vious signs of violent behavior.
Sophomore computer science major Spencer Dirrim, suit-emate of Hawkins and Jones, said neither had any issues before the incident, and was surprised to hear about what happened.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Dirrim said. “I didn’t think either of them was capable of being in that situation.”
Dirrim said Jones showed an interest in mixed martial arts, Transcendentalism and chakras, and often watched videos of yogis in India. Dir-rim said Jones expressed an interest in hallucinogenic drugs in the weeks leading up to the incident.
“If I had to guess this all could have come about as a really bad trip on his part,” Dirrim said. “He’d been talking extensively about DMT.”
Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, is a hallucinogenic substance most often found in plants and seeds, but it can also be produced synthetically. The drug is commonly sniffed, smoked or injected.
Jones’ toxicology report has yet to be completed. The results will be witheld from the public because they are part of an on-going investigation, Leong said.
For many students and staff,
the emotional impact of the incident isn’t expected to hit until later on, said Lori Varlotta, associate vice president for Student Affairs. Some students, however, are already in shock.
“I was terrified, scared, wor-ried, nervous, all of the above,” said Ashjone McPherson, sophomore speech pathology major.
Other students felt the inci-dent was isolated and would likely not be repeated.
“It was just like a freak incident and anything like that could have happened to anybody, but for the most part I feel pretty safe on campus,” said Briahna Reeves, an undeclared freshman.
Both Gonzalez and Davis have made assurances that the campus is safe and this was an “isolated and random incident.”
Some people complained about the late text message from the school alerting stu-dents about the incident and the safety of the campus.
“The situation was handled well, but I wish (the police) would’ve said something sooner,” said Mike Navalta, freshman business major.
Gonzalez said campus police followed protocol with regard to the Emergency Notification System.
“As far as I’m concerned with the incident, there was no danger to life or limb at that point. There was no property that was going to be damaged,” he said. “Essen-tially, it was the aftermath of the actual incident. Once the ambulance left, that was it. What are we going to say: ‘There was an incident and we’re mopping up the crime scene’?”
Dustin Stumpf, freshman kinesiology major and suit-emate of Jones and Hawkins, said he and his other room-mates are still in shock.
“We’re just going to stick to-gether and fight it out and just keep plugging,” Stumpf said.
Continued | page A1
Hawkins: Victim saw SacState as peaceful, safe
Elizabeth Hawkins said. “He was never disrespectful; he would go out of his way for anybody.”
Scott Hawkins was active in the community and went on mission trips to reach out to as many people as possible. He started attending East Val-ley Church in Orangevale just a few weeks ago.
“Scott was somebody who really cared about people,” Gerald Hawkins said. “He was dedicated and was tremen-dously sensitive about others.”
In addition to his love for serving, Scott Hawkins enjoyed studying the past. His knowledge and passion for history gained the respect of his parents and many others.
Gerald Hawkins said his son
would often watch historical films and point out the inac-curacies he saw.
“He would say things like, ‘That can’t be true, they didn’t have those sorts of things back then,’” Gerald Hawkins said.
Scott Hawkins came to Sac State this semester after transferring from West Valley College in the Bay Area. He was majoring in history and was pursuing a minor in Islamic studies.
For now, his parents are try-ing to cope with their loss and find out where to go from here.
“We have to deal with the nightmare of the horrifying facts,” Gerald Hawkins said. “We always hoped we would never be the parents who had to deal with this.”
Freshman kinesiology major Dustin Stumpf, also a room-
mate of Scott Hawkins, said he and his other roommates are still in shock about what hap-pened.
“This totally changed our lives,” Stumpf said. “It’s totally going to change our living envi-ronment and how we view life.”
Stumpf said he is in the pro-cess of writing something for their refrigerator that says that they will always stick together.
“It makes us a lot closer, like a family unit,” Stumpf said. “In a sense, we have more of a con-nection. We’re just trying to get through it together.”
A memorial service will be held for Scott Hawkins at 5 p.m. Friday at the Good Samaritan Church, 19624 Homestead Road, Cupertino, CA, 95014. For information regarding the services, please call the church at (408) 253-0751.
Jones: Suitemate can’tbelieve suspect involved
ence major, said the two men had not had any issues before Wednesday and was surprised the incident involved his roommates.
“I couldn’t believe it had been either of them because I didn’t think either of them were capable of that,” Dirrim said.
Lavita Jones, sophomore psychology major and friend of Jones, said she was con-fused that Jones was a suspect because he was always nice and calm.
“When I saw the news, I thought (Jones) was the vic-
tim,” said Lavita Jones, who is not related to the suspect.
Jones never displayed any hostility at the university dining commons where he worked in the dish room, said Kim Smith, Jones’ co-worker.
Smith asked for her name to be changed to protect her identity.
“I never expected it,” Smith said. “As far as I’ve seen him, he didn’t have any signs or problems.
She said Jones was hired this semester to work at the dining commons, and has been work-ing there for about a month.
He also did not have any known problems with the resi-
dents while he lived in Sierra Hall last year, Smith said.
Continued | page A1
Continued | page A1
Hawkins and Jones lived together in Suite 1032 in the American River Courtyard residence halls at Sac State.
megan harriS State Hornet
CoUrTeSy of LiLLy fUenTeS
Quran Jones
The time has come for our justice system to serve both the crime and the convict.
“Court-mandated” is most certainly not among my favor-ite phrases. So I pay attention when I hear the words “man-dated” and “intrusive” from op-ponents of current legislation.
Sacramento is one of four counties in California piloting a program that would mandate ignition interlock devices for all first-time DUI offenders.
Effective July 1, 2010, a five-month period of use will be
required of all those convicted. As a member and advocate
of the American Civil Liberties Union, I rise at the opportunity to stand against infringements of personal freedoms.
But this did not ignite my usual protest and outrage.
The American Beverage Institute, a restaurant trade association representing more than 700 California restaurants, works to ensure that alcohol sales are not compromised.
According to its official website, the ABI has urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto legislation mandating ignition interlock devices, which it calls “intrusive technology,” for first-time DUI offenders.
Among the litany of fees that come with a DUI, little sounds appealing in the additional cost of ignition interlock device installation and monthly moni-toring.
But losing the privilege of driving is even less appealing.
Mothers Against Drunk Driv-ing is a huge proponent of the ignition interlock device. Silas Miers is the programs specialist for MADD California.
“The ignition interlock device prevents someone convicted of a DUI from doing so again,
without restricting their day to day lives,” Miers said. “They can still go to work, take their kids to school, follow their normal routines, except it also makes sure that they’re being safe.”
Senior government major Katelyn Lille attested to the need for the device. Her license was revoked for a year after she was arrested on a DUI charge.
“(An ignition interlock de-vice) would have made a huge difference for me. I felt I was burdening people. I was taking the bus everywhere, trying to find work ... I wasn’t able to even function normally,” Lillie said. “But I’m sure if I had my own agenda, was worried I’d lose business, I’d opposed (igni-tion interlock devices), too.”
The ABI protects the interests of the restaurants it represents and does not believe these de-vices are a reasonable punish-ment for first-time offenders.
According to its affiliate web-site, interlockfacts.com, “People
driving at one sip over the limit shouldn’t be punished with the same severity as the high-BAC (blood-alcohol content) and repeat offenders who cause the majority of alcohol-related fatalities.”
For Miers, it is not the igni-tion interlock device, but the law that is indiscriminate.
“The law has determined that when someone’s blood alcohol level is .08 percent and above, it is illegal and dangerous (for them to drive),” he said.
The ABI seems to consider the patrons of the restaurants it represents to be victims of this program. But this is not so.
Drunken driving brings in-justice, cruelty and suffering.
The real victims are the people who die and the people left feeling those absences.
According to the DMV, igni-tion interlock devices can lead to a 40-95 percent reduction in repeat offenses when combined with comprehensive monitor-
ing. The range is wide, but I take
its word on this. It has been far too long since
sentencing took such a civil-minded approach.
Ignition interlock devices duly punish offenders without compromising their ability to lead normal lives.
This is a step towards the re-form our justice system needs.
While ignition interlock devices face strong opposition, these devices ensure that a one-time mistake does not become a repeat offense.
The ABI’s goal is to serve the interests of the businesses it represents.
You simply will not find me on the picket lines with the ABI. Profit losses are inconse-quential when it comes to true justice.
OctOber 28, Wednesdaya7 W W W. s t a t e h O r n e t . c O m | Fa l l I s s u e 9 | s a c r a m e n t O s t a t e
thestatehOrnetOpiniOnEDITORIAL
Where do We go from here?Scott Hawkins. Quran
Jones. These names are now burned into the an-nals of Sacramento State.
Hawkins is dead. Jones, the suspect in the death of Hawkins, lies in a hospital bed after being shot by campus police in the suite he and Hawkins shared in the American River Courtyard resi-dence hall.
In a span of roughly 30 minutes on Oct. 21, the incidents involving these two young men turned our university upside down.
As time progresses from those moments and we as a community try to make sense of this tragedy, it seems that all we are left with are questions.
What exactly happened
in that suite that day?If Jones did what he is
suspected of, what made him freak out, beat his suitemate to death and at-tack police officers?
And the one we may never find the answer to: Why?
As University Police Chief Dan Davis told the news media at a press conference Friday, “I want to know the ‘why’ as bad as all of you. We all want to know ‘why.’”
And in the coming days and weeks, as we find the answers to what exactly happened and possibly why it happened, will we ever be able to make sense of it?
Probably not. These seemingly random trag-edies are a sad part of the
journey that is life. This brings us to per-
haps a more immediate and important question.
It is reflected in a statement made to The State Hornet by Ger-ald Hawkins on his son Scott’s time at Sac State.
“He liked how peaceful it was, how safe he felt there,” Gerald Hawkins said.
So, are we safe?The simple answer is
yes. We are as safe as we can be at any given mo-ment of any given day.
As both President Alexander Gonzalez and Davis have assured us, this was a “random and isolated incident.”
The Hornet can attest to the validity of this state-ment.
Two of the Hornet’s top three editors arrived at the American River Courtyard at the same time as the Sacramento Fire Department.
We found a scene that seemed to be completely under the control of campus police. Neither editor felt at any time that he nor anyone else in the vicinity was in danger.
It should be noted that in the immediate after-math and time that has passed since the incident, the actions of Gonzalez, Davis, Vice President for Student Affairs Lori Varlotta and Sac State’s Public Affairs office have been commendable.
They have all been as open and honest as they can be given the situa-
tion.All of these people put
forth as much informa-tion as they can given that this is still an open police investigation on what is known at this point.
In addition, Varlotta coordinated efforts to make sure counselors are available to help those who are having difficulty dealing with this situa-tion.
The administration has also promised to review campus policies and procedures to make sure they are adequate for dealing with these types of situations.
What more can we ask of them?
For now, we must try to heal our community
as we wait and work for answers to the lingering questions.
As we try to heal our-selves, realize this will be an indelible and painful memory for many mem-bers of our community of their time at Sac State.
You can see it etched in the faces of Davis, Gon-zalez and Varlotta.
You can hear it in the voices of Scott Hawkins and Quran Jones’ three other suitemates.
All we ask for now is the time, patience, mercy and understanding we need to work through this tragedy as individuals and as a community.
And please know, dear Hornets, we will make it through this.
First-time DUI punishment is just
Give your laptop a vacation
Technology has advanced the ways we interact with others, but these improvements are encouraging people to become more focused on gadgets and programs instead of really communicating.
Our generation can connect with a multitude of players around the globe, just to play a game.
This type of online interac-tion is nothing new.
What is new is the high-reso-lution, super-realistic environ-ments that video game consoles and computers provide.
“It’s not a game. It’s a world,” are the words that entice potential gamers at World of Warcraft’s sign-up page.
World of Warcraft, a mul-tiplayer online role-playing game, unites gamers through battles and alliances in a huge fantasy world.
These gamers focus on mak-ing an impact in an online community rather than their real community.
Because of this, being able to interact with others face-to-face begins to become less important.
Social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook have the same negative impact.
These websites draw users in by connecting them to friends or acquaintances.
Although these websites are beneficial, after continued use, they may lead a person into feeling that the website profile is absolutely necessary.
Daily routines become cen-tered on checking messages, uploading pictures and brows-ing profiles - this is what my life was like before deleting my MySpace profile in 2007.
At various events or activi-ties, I was no longer snapping photos just for the memories.
I was doing it to share the pictures with my online friends.
The sharing of photos, videos, status updates and the like simply gives a whole new dimension to interaction with friends.
Apple iPhone’s Facebook application has allowed people to become even more obsessed
with the website. It has fueled our obsession
with smartphones, or mobile phones with PC-like capabili-ties.
Technological developments over the years have provided smartphones with fast internet connections.
They have become a portal to another universe, and it is at times hard to focus on the people around us.
Phone companies are con-stantly working to create a better smartphone that would provide the best experience for the user.
This is leading to a gadget-centric life.
Mark Stoner, professor of communication studies, recently attended a gypsy punk concert by Gogol Bordello. He said that before the concert began, most of the people in
the audience concentrated on their phones.
“These people were spend-ing more time texting others or just staring at the screen, as opposed to having a conversation with the person next them - I think that’s a really strange development,” Stoner said.
To gain even more user attention, there is an iPhone app for everything, it seems.
A personal radio station, the news network and a vir-tual pool game are all at the touch of our fingertips.
Along with wasting our time and money, these apps can lead to less time spent hanging out with friends.
Instead of playing a virtual pool game, why not just hit up a local billiards parlor with a friend?
The iPhone does provide entertainment, but an app cannot fully substitute for a real conversation or activity.
That is all technology will ever be: a pathetic substitute for real life.
We were perfectly fine without all this before - we can be again.
By Daniel Vasilchuk [email protected]
By Nelly [email protected]
STATE HORNET OPINION ONLINE
If you’re feeling de-pressed, there are people you can turn to. David Loret de Mola is just
sayin’ at statehornet.com
Even if it’s just the blues, you need help
Halloween: Why “slut” isn’t a costumeHow do you make a Halloween costume? Cleavage. Samantha
Palileo is disgusted at the bastardization of
this holiday. Read about it then see the video at
statehornet.com
David Demola’s Weight Loss WonderblogOpinion editor David Loret de Mola weighs
about 285 pounds. He’s on a mission
to lose weight. Check in every week in the blog
section ofstatehornet.com
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Mcclatchy tribune
OctOber 28, Wednesdayb1 tHestateHOrnetFeatures
W W W. s t a t e H O r n e t . c O m | Fa l l I s s u e 9 | s a c r a m e n t O s t a t e
Spooky haunted houSeS
reporting By Miranda Marsalla and graphic By Megan harris
Kayak around Lake Natoma at sunset
Kristen sMith State Hornet
The Sacramento State Aquatic Center gives people the ability to enjoy the sunset while kayaking around Lake Natoma.
Grab a kayak, some paddles and a glow stick and glide along the waters of Lake Natoma to witness a beautiful sunset and the rise of the full moon.
Sacramento State’s Aquatic Center offers students and the general public the opportunity to participate in Sunset Paddle, a kayaking trip where guests enjoy the sunset and take a relaxing paddle in the light of the full moon.
Sunset Paddle takes place near the end of each month, just as the full moon is ready to emerge. The next Sunset Paddle will take place from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday at Lake Natoma. The program welcomes people of all kayaking abilities.
The Aquatic Center has guides who take kayak enthusiasts out on the water to teach students how to get into the kayaks and how to paddle. The guides then take the kayakers across the lake as it starts to get dark.
Along the journey across the lake, the kayak-ers reach a marshland area where participants can paddle around at their own leisure and explore. Sunset Paddle is normally a two and a half hour adventure.
Katy Martinez, recreation parks and leisure studies professor, takes her students out to Sun-set Paddle during the spring semester. Martinez said she has been kayaking for years and loves to share the experience with her students.
“I like doing this event because it gives stu-dents a chance to see what we have available. The number of students that say they have never been to the Aquatic Center before is sad,” Marti-
see Sunset| page B3
By Miranda [email protected]
The air is filled with smoke as
audience members anxiously await “Motown Jukin’,” the celebration of Motown’s 50-year anniversary. As the performers
quickly enter the stage in dark-ness, the show finally begins.
Motown Records was a group of record labels originally based in Michigan, founded by Berry Gordy Jr. Motown Records, the first record label owned by and featuring African Americans, played a crucial role in the racial integration of popular music.
Linda Goodrich, department chair and director of "Motown Jukin’,” said a Motown perfor-mance wouldn't be the same without the four top names of Motown.
“You can’t do Motown without the Jackson Five. You can’t do Motown without Stevie Wonder. You can’t do Motown without The Supremes and Smokey Robinson, and you cer-tainly can’t do Motown without Michael Jackson,” Goodrich said.
The Theatre and Dance Department’s Sacramento Black Art of Dance, featuring the department’s Sons/Ancestors players and directed by Melina Wilson, staged this modern dance performance.
The show fused acting with dancing with the first half celebrating the various popu-lar Motown artists, while the second half focused specifically on Jackson’s influential life and career.
For the first half of the show,
the costumes were simple: solid black, white suits with black hats and shoes, or red tops with slacks and leggings.
For the majority of the show, performers danced barefoot to reduce the noise shoes would make.
During the Motown segment, performers shook their hips to the likes of The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and The Supremes. Different styles of dancing, including floor work, modern jive, the shuffle and a few pirouettes were incorpo-rated throughout these pieces.
Goodrich, who already planned on doing a tribute to Jackson before his passing, said that when he died, she knew she had to make it even more special.
“I’m 60. I, along with my kids grew up with Michael Jackson and I’ve used a lot of his music, especially in the '80s when I was teaching. He was very much a part of my home,” Goodrich said.”
Guest choreographer Michelle Ned, said her involvement with the show has been an exciting one.
“Dr. Goodrich gave me a lot of freedom to do my own thing and kind of put my portion of the show together how I want,” Ned said, “but I think it’s a good tribute to the 50 years of Mo-town and I’m glad they picked
this theme because it’s really fun music to dance to.”
Many of the “Motown Jukin’” performers said the Jackson tribute was just an added bonus for the event.
S/BAD member Rita “Coco” Clark said “Motown Jukin’” was one of the most cohesive S/BAD concerts she has been in.
“The pieces are intertwined with vignettes, theatrical per-formances as well, which makes it flow a little nicer," Clark said.
As the performance con-tinued, the simple costumes suddenly disappeared as the reggae jam, “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” by Stevie Wonder came through the speakers. Per-formers proudly donned black, red, green and yellow as they all showed off their Jamaican dance hall moves.
The real magic started the second half of the show when the sound of Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” filled the room.
A wave of emotion rolled over the audience when the per-formers danced to “Man in the Mirror” as the projectionist dis-played images of Jackson in the background. That particular song left some people in tears.
Senior theater and dance double major, Michael Smith, who dances as Jackson, said he started dancing because Jackson made him fall in love with
dance. Smith said performing as
Jackson was an honor. “It’s hard to put it into
words because it trickles down through family and over gen-erations,” Smith said. “It’s amaz-ing to look over his life and see how many generations and lives he’s touched.”
Wednesday - OctOber 28 Features sectIOn stateHOrnet.cOmB2
Musical attempts to make Bat Boy civilized
“Bat Boy,” a play being per-formed in Sacramento State’s Shasta Hall, delivers ghoulish giggles just in time for Hal-loween.
The play is written by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming, with music and lyrics by Lau-rence O’Keefe. It was first per-formed on Halloween in 1997 at Tim Robbins’ Actor’s Gang Theatre in Los Angeles.
“Bat Boy” tells the story of a half-man, half-bat found in caves near Hope Falls, W.Va. After biting a spelunker who was exploring the caves, the creature is captured and taken to the local veterinarian, Dr. Thomas Parker, and his family. The family teaches the bat boy, whom they name Edgar, to speak and act like a civilized adult. However, he faces preju-dice from the townspeople, who blame Edgar for their rapidly declining cow population.
“Bat Boy,” first produced as an off-Broadway play, was revived in 2001 after alterations were made by the original writers.
Peter Carroll, sophomore
theater major, plays the role of Bat Boy. Carroll, who had acted in two previous musicals, was aware that “Bat Boy” was going to be this season’s main play, so he did research on the project.
“Right when I heard that we were doing “Bat Boy,” I didn’t know what it was,” Carroll said. “I went on YouTube, listened to the songs and fell in love with it instantly. I totally related to the character and I prepared all summer long, learning the songs, working on physical-ity. I got the script, I had lines memorized, (and) I was ready to go, so if I didn’t get the part, it would be pretty disappoint-ing. But I did.”
“Bat Boy” was chosen by a committee to which directors submit scripts of plays, and the theme is generally chosen to fit the season. Ed Brazo, associ-ate professor and Sac State’s director for “Bat Boy,” said the play was also chosen to provide variety.
“It is a rock musical, and (we) hadn’t done anything like that in a while,” Brazo said. “For theater majors who are here for four, five years, we want them to have variety in what they learn.”
Brazo decided to step back a bit in directing and let the cast members make the play.
“We use a word here; it’s called ‘organic,’ and, I think from the time I had the audi-tions, I looked at the people that I thought of using in the show and I allowed what they brought from their audition(s)
into my head to create the char-acters that they are,” Brazo said.
Amanda Morish, senior theater and psychology major, plays Meredith Parker, Edgar’s foster mother whose marriage to Thomas is on the rocks.
Morish, who has been part of Sac State’s musicals for two years, modeled after the typical 1960s housewife, albeit one with conflicted interests.
“She comes off as a ‘60s housewife, very June Cleaver-like,” Morish said. “I kind of try to draw my inspiration from those old housewife-mothers, trying to stay positive even when everything seems to be falling apart around you.”
Joseph Leser Baldridge, senior theater major, plays Dr. Thomas Parker, Edgar’s foster father. Leser Baldridge said he was excited when he was cast in “Bat Boy.”
“When we first had the auditions, my forte was not in musical theater at all,” Leser-Baldrige said. “It was amazing to get the opportunity for a new experience.”
Leser Baldridge said that in the play, Thomas is perceived as the villain and is jealous of the love Meredith shows Edgar and not him. Originally, Thomas hopes that Bat Boy will save the failed relationship, but instead, he begins blaming Edgar, lead-ing him to kill others in the name of Bat Boy.
“When I started to look at Parker, (I saw that) there are many places where it says he has voices in his head,” Leser Baldridge said. “I began to
think of the more sinister (aspects), and the fact that he is labeled the villain of the show. I started off there and then with some direction, I came to real-ize that I couldn’t just play the villain. I needed to make him much more relatable to the au-dience. That is, if the audience does not care about Parker from the beginning, then they won’t care about the story, about this ensemble piece.”
Brazo said the play has been compared to the musical “Rent.” He compared the two rock musicals and noted that only one achieved mainstream success.
“It was done at a time where, actually, the rock musical “Rent” had happened, so this was a time when, wow, another rock musical, and it’s too bad it wasn’t more well-received,” Brazo said. “But then again, I know a lot of people that saw it, and they said that it was controversial. It was something new and everybody loved it, but it’s not for everyone.”
Brazo believes the concept of the story is what scared away most playgoers.
“You tell them about a boy born half-bat and half-human and it’s like, ‘why would some-body write a show about that?’” Brazo said. “I think it’s because we were starting to place on the fact, ‘What’s normal?’ Everybody’s different. That’s the concept I’ve kind of used in my thinking about that show. Let people be who they are, and be the best they can be, and that’s what the show is all about.”
By Cole [email protected]
Bat Boy gets captured, put in a cage and sent to Dr. Parker’s house after biting a civilian, Ruthie Taylor.
“Bat Boy” will be performed through Nov. 1 in the University Theatre, Shasta Hall. On Halloween, there
will be a costume contest during intermission, and those appearing in costume pay a discount price of $5. For
more information on showtimes and tickets, visit: www.csus.edu/dram/season_0910.htm
Performance celebrates 50 years of Motown
Dancers of Sacramento/ Black Art of Dance pay tribute to Motown in the production of “Motown Jukin’.”
Mia Matsudaira State Hornet
By Amber [email protected]
“Motown Jukin’” will be performed through Nov. 1 in
Solano Hall, Room 1010. For more infor-mation on showtimes
and tickets, visit: www.csus.edu/dram/
season_0910.htm
See the soundslide of the performers in Bat Boy atwww.statehornet.com.
See the soundslide of the performers in Motown
Jukin’ atwww.statehornet.com.
nallelie Vega State Hornet
Wednesday - OctOber 28 Features sectIOn statehornet.com B3
Sunset: Sticks light up lakeClub helps members during bad economy
nez said. “We have this wonder-ful resource available that in-cludes learning to kayak, going canoeing, using the water bikes, and taking sailboat lessons.”
Hasten Jones, senior com-munication studies major, participated in a Sunset Paddle last spring.
Jones said that if he hadn’t taken Martinez’s class, he would have missed out on the great experience. Jones said that the trip was really fun because there was a really youthful and lively atmosphere on Lake Natoma.
Jones said the employees and participants at Sunset Paddle were helpful.
“It was definitely my first time ever kayaking so, when I sat in the kayak, I sat in it wrong, but there were definitely a lot of people there to help me,” Jones said.
Cindi Dulgar, the Aquatic Center’s director, said students tend to love the kayaking ex-perience and environment that Lake Natoma provides.
“Sunset Paddle is really popular. It’s a great date kind of
thing. Sunset Paddle is only two and half hours. It’s just really pretty and quiet,” Dulgar said.
Dulgar said each participant is given a glow stick during Sunset Paddle, which makes for a beautiful collection of lights out on the lake.
Participants in Sunset Paddle can choose to go on single kay-aks or with a partner on tandem kayaks.
Martinez said many people are surprised at how difficult the kayaking experience can be and how much strength it requires.
Martinez said she is usually the last one to hop onto the kayaks when she participates in Sunset Paddle because she waits to make sure that things are going smoothly. Martinez said it helps students if she assists them in stabilizing the kayaks as they get in.
Samantha Ott, senior psy-chology major, said she had a difficult time managing a tan-dem kayak with her boyfriend on her Sunset Paddle trip with Martinez’s class last spring.
“I had a lot of fun. It was ex-tremely hard work, harder than I thought it was going to be, but
it was a really good trip. I really enjoyed the marshlands area. That was really fun,” Ott said.
CLUB CORNER | GEOGRAPHY CLUB
Kristen sMith State Hornet
Sunset Paddle, an event hosted by the Sac State Aquatic Center, is a two-and-a-half hour kayaking ride on Lake Natoma.
Due to the drowning economy, students have been fearful that unemployment is still a possibility, even with a degree. The Geography Club at Sacramento State, however, works in unison with the geog-raphy department to save those majoring in geography from this type of anxiety.
Madeline Stoddard, senior geography major and president of the Geography Club, said that within the first semester of being a member, she received a job opportunity that is rooted in her concentration, which is geographic information systems. She still works as an intern for the geographic in-formation systems department at the Sacramento Council of Government and said she is grateful for the connection she received.
Stoddard said social network-ing is important in any field of study and this club focuses on providing a general frame-work for anyone interested in geography.
“That’s what education is sup-posed to do - point students in the right direction with the help of more experienced professors. The tight connection between our club and the geography faculty creates a camaraderie throughout the department, which makes this possible,” Stoddard said.
The club’s events revolve around outdoor, hands-on activities which have included hiking at Angel Island and camping in Death Valley.
Stoddard said since the club members are surrounded by nature on these trips, there is potential for many learning experiences.
“With all of the recent finan-cial cuts, there’s not a lot of field work available in the geography curriculum. The club helps to bridge this gap by providing events which incorporate field learning,” she said. “We’re just lucky the professors in the de-partment are willing to take the time to guide us on these trips.”
Katherine Moss, sophomore geography major and vice president of the Geography Club, said these active events
correlate with the club’s main goal, which is to make members aware of their surroundings.
“All of a sudden, you become aware of what kind of rock you’re standing on and what tree is providing you shade. Be-ing a part of the club makes you aware of your surroundings, which is obviously important to most geography majors, but it can be quite interesting to other majors as well,” Moss said.
Moss said that when she first joined the club, she enjoyed it because there are not many obligations. She said there are only a few meetings throughout the semester.
Stoddard said the events in progress for this semester include hiking in Marin Head-lands, snowshoeing in Lake Tahoe, and stargazing.
By Katrina [email protected]
courtesy oF galiB ahMad
The Geography Club at its most recent event, a picnic in Sacramento’s McKinley Park.
The next Sunset Paddle will be from 6 to
8:30 p.m. on Friday.
Those interested in Sunset Paddle can
register online at www.sacstateaquaticcenter.
com, or purchase tickets at the Aquatic Center.
Sac State students can participate in Sunset
Paddle for $20. Admis-sion for the general
public is $30.
Sac State’s Aquatic Center is located off
Highway 50 at:
1901 Hazel Ave.Gold River, CA, 95670.
Those who are interested in joining the Geography Club can e-mail Stoddard
Continued | page B1
B4 THESTATEHORNETSportS OcTOBER 28, WEdNESdAy
W W W. S T A T E H O R N E T . c O m |FA l l I S S u E 9 | S A c R A m E N T O S T A T E
SportsUpdates
FOOTBALL
vs MONTANAOCT. 24
L 45-30 Marshall Sperbeck, Head coach:
“They all go hand in hand. We have to clean up all three areas and be better. We were not consistent enough in all three areas. There were some good plays but against a good team like this you have to be more consistent.”
Year-round commitment
Left: Coach Kathy Strahan talks to members of the softball team. Right: freshmen Amber Roszkos controls the game from behind home plate. Photos By samantha Poulin State Hornet
Collegiate sports require dedication, even in the offsea-son. Teams have conditioning, practice, weight-training and, in some cases, scrimmages and exhibition leagues.
Sacramento State softball takes part in these activities - most notably, a winter softball league.
However, head coach Kathy Strahan has trouble labeling it as a traditional sports league.
“You can’t really call it a league, I guess, in the term that there’s a set group of teams that keep playing,” she said. “It’s organized, but doesn’t count toward our overall win-loss record for the year.”
Strahan likened it to what Major League Baseball teams go through in March.
“It’d be like spring training,” Strahan said. “We don’t have spring training in the spring.”
The Hornets have no spring training because Sac State’s regular season takes place dur-
ing the spring, beginning Feb. 13 and ending May 9.
Strahan said scores are kept and there are umpires, but winter ball is basically a way to have eight scrimmage games in the offseason.
Sac State second baseman Jes-sica Abeila said hitting off live pitching is one of the biggest benefits of winter ball.
“We get to see the ball off the bat, on the infield,” Abeila said. “And we get the feel of the com-petition and the game speed.”
Abelia is a transfer student from Sonoma State.
Carlos said she finds the league beneficial because it helps the team improve and builds unity.
“It allows us to see where we need to go individually, and as a team, to build chemistry and get together with all the new (women),” she said.
Strahan said the league is a great way for the players to build chemistry and help the first-year players get acclimated
By Dustin [email protected]
Abercrombie is model for team
Sacramento State’s softball team participates in winter league, a replacement for spring conditioning.
Two former Sacramento State students, Mike Lange and Marc Moser, are currently radio an-nouncers for National Hockey League teams.
Lange, the voice of the de-fending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, attended Sac State from 1968-70. He graduated with a degree in broadcasting.
He said he worked at The Sacramento Bee to help pay his way through college. Lange said he started working there at the age of 12.
Lange also announced bas-ketball, baseball and football games for the Hornets on KERS, the university radio
station at the time he attended Sac State.
“(Sac State) was the best thing that ever happened to me in my life, because it gave me the opportunity to broadcast games on KERS,” Lange said. “Which in turn made me prepared to actually step out into the real world and broadcast.”
He did not follow hockey until a fellow broadcasting major who called games for a former National Hockey League team, the California Golden Seals, introduced him to the game of hockey.
“He asked me to go to the Sacramento Ice Hockey As-sociation rink, where they had amateur games, and I said ‘well, I really don’t know much about hockey,’” Lange said. “He
said ‘you should learn because someday, you never know, you might need it.’”
After persuading his college adviser to broadcast Golden Seals playoff games on radio, Lange used tapes of his play-by-play to get employment with other sports teams.
His first job after college was working in the broadcast booth for the Western Hockey League’s Phoenix Roadrunners.
Lange then announced for the WHL’s San Diego Gulls. In 1974, the Gulls folded because the New Jersey Knights were re-located to San Diego. The Gulls’ management decided the team could not financially compete with another hockey team in
Sac State goalkeeper Savannah Abercrombie defends the goal during Sunday’s game against Idaho State.
adalto nascimento State Hornet
By Jeondra [email protected]
Goalkeeper Savannah Aber-crombie, sophomore business administration major, has played a big part in the Sacra-mento State women’s soccer team’s success this season.
So far, Savannah Abercrombie has won the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week three times and she has 72 saves. She also has seven shutouts against teams the likes of Cal, Fresno State and the University of Pacific. Abercrombie gives up an average of less than one goal a game. She already holds the school record for career shut-outs with 15.
Head coach Randi Dedini said the coaching staff has noticed her determination and passion
for soccer is paying off.“We always knew she had the
potential to be this kind of goal-keeper,” he said. “She worked hard this summer to fix some of the technical mistakes she’s made in the past.”
Savannah Abercrombie said she did not always think she was talented enough to end up being a collegiate athlete, until her under-18 club soccer head coach encouraged her to continue to play soccer after high school.
She said that she hit a point in her life where she had to decide if she really wanted to pursue soccer.
“You get to a certain level where you know either you’re going to play or just going to play for fun, once you’re done with club you’re just going to
go and enjoy college,” Savannah Abercrombie said. “I always wanted to play in college. It’s every girl’s dream to play pro-fessional soccer.”
Savannah Abercrombie start-ed playing soccer at the age of 7. She was already playing base-ball, basketball and nearly every little league sport she could play when she started to play soccer. Abercrombie said the rest of her family played baseball, basket-ball and football, but she was the only one with an interest in soccer.
She said she began play-ing soccer because she always enjoyed participating in games during recess. She ended up joining the same team her friends played on, and did not
Hornet alumni skate up to the mic By Jeondra Arrington
see Softball | page B8
see Savannah | page B8
see NHL | page B8
Geoff Warner, Junior linebacker:
“Every week our coaches tell us and the players keep reminding us that any team can beat another Big Sky Conference team any day of the week. The fact that we were playing close to them was not a shock to us. They just got the edge on us in the second half.”
WOMEN’S SOCCER
vs WEBER STATEOCT. 23L 2-0
vs IDAHO STATEOCT. 23W 2-0
Randy Dedini, Head coach:
“We came out hard right away and never really took our foot off the gas. It was a complete game for us. We didn’t have a lot of let downs and didn’t give them a lot of opportunities. We played like we needed to win.”
Kim Kemper, Senior forward:
“It was exciting to finally get it into the back of the net. I’ve had so many chances. We all knew we had to win this game, so we were all on top of it. I think we came out really strong and were really physical, winning 50/50 balls. We were ready to go.”
MEN’S SOCCER
at SEATTLEOCT. 23W 1-0
at CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD
OCT. 25W 3-1
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
at NORTHERN ARIZONA
OCT. 22W 3-1
at NORTHERN COLORADO
OCT. 24L 3-1
John Henderschott, Junior wide receiver:
“We show sparks of being a great team. We’ve just got to be more consistent. We moved the ball on Montana and we were able to score on them. Our defense came up with some big three and outs, but we just need to play more solid.”
WEdNESdAy - OcTOBER 28 SpORTS SEcTION STATEHORNET.cOm B5
Many people may feel intimi-dated by football players, but they do not get the opportunity to see the up-close and personal side of these community-ori-ented student-athletes.
At noon every Monday during the football season, head coach Marshall Sperbeck hosts a lun-cheon at El Patron Bar and Grill for boosters, fans and curious customers.
Sperbeck chooses two players who played well in the previ-ous game to join him at these meetings.
“Our community is a vital part of our relationship with the school, so this is a good opportunity to get everybody together,” said Terry Wanless, director of athletics. “It is very important that we reach out to the community on a personal level. We want the community to understand that our coaches and players are not untouch-able.”
On average, 30 people attend the luncheon. The majority of those in attendance are alums, boosters and former Sacra-mento State football players reminiscing about their playing days.
The meeting features Wan-less discussing the state of the football program. He then asks a few trivia questions about
Hornet football and he hands out prizes to whoever answers correctly.
Marshall Sperbeck then talks for a few minutes about the team’s previous game and what the Hornets need to work on in the coming weeks.
He talks about the upcom-ing opponent’s best player, the team’s strengths, weaknesses and he gives a little insight into what Sac State must do to win. He finishes on a positive note get the boosters fired up.
The two players are given an opportunity to speak for a few minutes and answer questions from the audience.
They talk about their back-ground in football, what year they enrolled at Sac State, what their goals are for the rest of the season and what they were thinking on a particular play.
For the football team, being invited to join these meetings has become a sign of respect because they are recognized for playing well.
“It is a great honor. I have never been invited before,” said junior kicker Chris Diniz. “It was kind of surprising to get invited by coach Sperbeck. I had to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Junior defensive back Zack Schrader said the luncheon is a nice treat after a hard week on the football field.
“You put in a lot of hard work
and then you get invited to stuff like this,” he said. “It is great to meet the alumni and it lets you know you are doing something right.”
The Monday meetings are a great way for people to get to know the members of the football team.
“Fans get to meet the kids, what they are like, what they are thinking about, what their majors are, their idiosyncra-sies, their attributes,” said Dick Sperbeck, Marshall Sperbeck’s father.
Dick Sperbeck said that the luncheons are a way for the community to feel like they are a part of the football program.
“These Monday luncheons have become an integral part of the program in getting people in the community to come out and meet with players each week,” he said.
The coaches and players have formed bonds with the employ-ees at El Patron.
Waiter Jose Castro said that all the employees at El Patron look forward to the weekly luncheons.
“We want to support them any way we can. This is the third year they have been using our back room (for the luncheons),” he said. “We are happy to have them here so we can follow up and see how the team is doing.”
Dick Sperbeck said that the football program hopes to reach out to the public with more events so people will be more inclined to follow Sac State athletics.
Wanless said it is vital for the athletic department to stay con-nected with the fans.
“It is very important that we reach out to the community on a personal level,” he said. “We want the community to un-derstand that our coaches and players are not untouchable.”
Head coach Marshall Sperbeck (right), interacting with boosters and fans during meet and greet at El Patron.
mia matsudaira State Hornet
Football reaching out to community
By Andrew [email protected]
To see a video of the team visiting with members of the public at El patron, visit statehornet.com
For anyone who has been watching the Major League Baseball postseason this year, the public outcry to institute a more expanded use of instant replay should come as no surprise.
Last week alone, we witnessed countless incorrect calls that could have been overturned in a matter of minutes.
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, willing to risk blown calls in the postseason and World Series, is demonstrating a lack of sensitivity towards the fans by refusing to use instant replay for questionable umpire deci-sions.
The fact is that MLB is try-ing its hardest not evolve with technological advances that would make play calling more accurate.
In today’s game, players are faster, have quicker reflexes and hit the ball harder. Bang-bang plays happen instantaneously leaving the naked eye unable to discern what happened first. This is why MLB needs to expand instant replay.
Why is Selig completely against the idea of having a backup plan for missed calls?
As reported by ESPN in No-vember 2005, Selig responded to the public’s demand for instant replay, saying that errors are part of the game.
“Yes, we had some incidents that certainly need to be looked at. So I’m not minimizing
them,” he said. “But do I believe in instant replay? No, I do not. Human error is part of our sport.’’
Four years and several hun-dred blown calls later, his stance has not changed.
In an Oct. 23 interview with chicagonow.com, Selig reas-serted his position.
“I understand every time there’s a bad call it sets the media off, but am I concerned enough to begin inserting the instant replay? No, absolutely not,” he said.
For the purpose of correcting mistakes that affect the outcome of a game, I am shocked by Selig’s candid approach to sweep the entire issue under the rug.
My biggest concern stems from his apparent lack of concern. I have no doubt that if Selig opened the conversa-tion and worked on creating an instant replay protocol, MLB would find a productive way to address baseball’s shortcomings while limiting in-game delays.
We are in the age of high-def-inition television, slow-motion video playback and about five different cameras all watching the same play from different angles.
Why isn’t it acceptable for MLB to try to do its best to make the right calls anymore?
On Oct. 15, Selig shed some light into the reasoning for his stance against replay.
“Do I think we need more replay? No,” he said. “Baseball is not the kind of game that can have interminable delays.”
Interminable delays? It is called instant replay for a
reason. The first word signifies that it is within its nature to be quick and easy.
And MLB games already experience delays due to com-
mercial breaks. These delays have been deemed acceptable because they provide something instant replay cannot: the influx of millions of dollars in addi-tional revenue.
In minor league baseball as well as spring training games that are not televised, the time between innings is much quicker.
If that is not enough of a television-instigated delay, then consider the fact television networks have direct influence over MLB’s postseason sched-ule. This arrangement usually hinders the play and increases the length of the postseason due to longer periods of idle time.
In years past, before television was the all-powerful master of the universe, two teams would meet in the World Series as soon as both had won the previ-ous round. There was no rest. There was no time off. There were no interminable delays.
The World Series of today is slated to start on a specific day. No matter how soon the other series is over, game one of the World Series does not change.
Meanwhile, instant replay is ignored because it provides no financial incentive to motivate Selig into action.
Selig’s wait-and-ignore-the-problem approach to expanding replay will not produce any significant action until it is too late and some poor team is left wondering what would have been.
SAC UP!
Instant replay isnecessary for MLB
By Stamati [email protected]
WEdNESdAy - OcTOBER 28
Marc Moser, announcer for the Colorado Avalanche.
courtesy Photo
SpORTS SEcTION STATEHORNET.cOmB6
to Division I softball. “It’s absolutely huge,” Strahan
said. “If we didn’t have fall ball, it would just be chaotic. It gives us a chance to get the new players out to try to learn the system; get the pitchers in sync and in a groove and just establish a team way of doing things and find out what our chemistry is.”
Strahan said, out of her 19 players, nine of them have no Division I experience. Of the remaining 10 players, four of them have had regular playing time in the past.
Jan Schefkowitz, CSU Stan-
islaus head coach, said the team is just looking to get quality at-bats and play well in hopes that it will carry over to the spring.
Strahan said the only signifi-cant change that has been made since she has been coaching the Hornets is the limitation on the number of games a university is allowed to play.
The NCAA also has limita-tions on how much a team can participate in organized drills, practices and scrimmages dur-ing its offseason. Strahan said it is limited to approximately six weeks - for good reason.
“There’s an important piece that needs to be in place for the student-athlete: the chance
to experience college,” Strahan said. “That’s enough time for us to do what we need to do.”
Strahan said competition is open to any four-year school that wishes to participate and Sac State has participated in winter ball in each of Strahan’s 18 years as head coach.
Sac State finished its eight-game winter ball schedule with a doubleheader Saturday at UOP and another doubleheader Sunday at Cal.
Shefkowitz said the league is valuable to the team’s advance-ment.
“We’re getting good experi-ence against good competition,” she said.
Softball: Half of team members have no D-I experience
become a goalkeeper until she was 12 or 13 years old.
While attending El Camino High School in Sacramento, she gave up basketball in order to focus solely on soccer.
“It got to the point where I wasn’t going to play basketball my junior year and soccer,” she said. “I had to make the decision, and I loved soccer to death.”
Savannah Abercrombie said one reason she chose soccer over basketball was because she considered basketball a sport she could play for fun, while soccer was something she saw herself doing in the future. She was also playing on a club team she liked, the River City Clash, with a coach she had a lot of fun playing for.
“My club team and I, we always traveled. We’d go on college trips we called ‘the odys-sey,’” she said. “I think those were some of my best soccer memories.”
Savannah Abercrombie got her first chance to start for the Hornets last season when junior goalkeeper Mandy Trojan
was forced to sit out due to an injury.
She played so well in Trojan’s absence that Dedini unexpect-edly had an open competition for the starting job between the pipes over the summer.
“We didn’t know she was go-ing to be our No. 1 goalkeeper coming into this season. We knew coming off of this last spring a lot was going to de-pend on how they looked over the summer,” he said. “Savan-nah’s done great and there‘s been no reason to take her out.”
Cindy Abercrombie, her mother, said her daughter worked hard during the off-season with goalkeeper coach Maureen Whitney in order to prepare for this season.
Cindy Abercrombie said her daughter’s own mental blocks are the only thing that can pre-vent her from succeeding.
“I think she loves the game. She is extremely competitive and has a good work ethic,” she said. “She is her own worst enemy.”
Savannah Abercrombie said a lot of her success has come from working hard on whatever she has needed to improve on.
“I think what helped me out a lot was constantly working on everything and pushing myself regardless of the days when I’m tired and don’t want to do things,” she said. “Regardless of what sport you play working on your weaknesses can always make you better.”
In 2008, Savannah Abercrom-bie started the last 12 games for the Hornets and she recorded eight shutouts. This season, she has started and finished all but one of Sac State’s 17 games.
Cindy Abercrombie said she loves watching the Hornets work together on the soccer field.
“I think it’s a team effort,” she said. “They all work really hard and have a good chemistry with each other.”
With two more years of eligibility, Savannah Abercrom-bie said she is excited to have plenty of chances to start for the Hornets.
She said that she is still amazed she made the soccer team.
“Just being on the team is a big privilege. Not everyone gets to play college soccer,” Savan-nah Abercrombie said.
Savannah: El Camino grad chose cleats over high-tops
NHL: Talent put to good use San Diego.
This bump in the road did not prevent Lange from pursuing his passion.
“I wanted to be a play-by-play man, and I pursued that and kept it up. I still have done that most of my life,” he said.
Lange’s big break in the NHL came in 1974 when he was hired as the Pittsburgh Penguins announcer on KDKA 1020 AM, Pittsburgh’s local news talk radio station.
“For a young guy who came from California and didn’t know a lot about hockey but learned the game, I was very fortunate to be inducted into the National Hockey League Hall of Fame in 2001 in the broadcast category,” he said.
Moser, announcer for the Colorado Avalanche, had simi-lar experiences with broadcast-ing while attending Sac State.
He attended Sac State in the late 1980s and early 90s. He broadcasted basketball and football games for the Hornets on a radio station that aired only in the dorms.
He then got an internship with KFBK 1530 AM, Sacra-mento’s local news talk radio station.
With KFBK, Moser got his first opportunity to do play-by-play, announcing Sac State basketball and football when the Hornets joined the Big Sky Conference. He also covered Sac State baseball and did live updates as well as sportscasts for the school on Saturdays.
While still attending school, Moser got a chance to cover the Sacramento Kings, the San Jose Sharks and the San Francisco 49ers’ training camp in Rock-land. Eventually, with only a few credits left until graduation, he got a full-time job with KFBK working as a sports director.
Moser said that his internship with KFBK was the thing that really sparked his interest in broadcasting.
“I always had an interest in sports and was always interest-ed in broadcasting, but I never really thought of making a ca-reer of it until I got into KFBK,” he said. “What I learned there was absolutely invaluable.”
He grew up in Sacramento watching the San Francisco Giants and was a 49ers fan, but he never developed an interest in hockey.
He moved to Chicago in 1989 and befriended several Chicago Blackhawks fans.
“Sacramento itself never really had a hockey mentality and all,” Moser said. “But once you’re exposed to this game, especially live and in person, it is impossible not to fall in love with it.”
In 1996, Moser was hired by the broadcast wing of Hockey Enterprises, Altitude Sports and Entertainment, to broadcast play-by-play for the Colorado Avalanche.
“The Avalanche had just moved here (from Quebec) and just won the Stanley cup,” he said. “This town was absolutely on fire for hockey and it was just a great experience.”
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Second base runner Emily McCormick leads off as the pitcher releases the ball.samantha Poulin State Hornet
