Archive for August, 2010
Controversial health-care reform is Constitution Day topic
August 31st, 2010
Constitution Day will be celebrated at California State University, Fresno with a panel discussion of recently enacted national health-care reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The session, titled “Obamacare: Landmark Legislation or Dead on Arrival?”, is scheduled at 10 a.m. Sept. 17 at 10 a.m. at the Satellite Student Union. The panel discussion is free and open to the public.
Panelists are Fresno State political science professors Dr. Yishaiya Abosch, Dr. Jeff Cummins and Dr. Tom Holyoke, and Jeffrey G. Purvis, a professor at the San Joaquin College of Law in Clovis.
The event is co-sponsored by the Fresno State’s College of Social Sciences and Division of Student Affairs, and the law college.
Constitution Day on Sept. 17 is the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution in 1789 and a celebration of U.S. citizenship.
(Copy prepared by University Communications news intern Sadie Thomas)
- Constitution Day
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Tags: Constitution Day, Day
Posted in University Business | No Comments »
Video interview with Mission Viejo linebacker Tre Madden
August 31st, 2010
Here is an L.A. Times video interview with Mission Viejo linebacker Tre Madden. The Diablos are coming to Seattle to play Bothell in the 2010 Emerald City Kickoff Classic at Qwest Field on Saturday.
Here is the story that goes with the video.
Tags: Linebacker Tre, Linebacker Tre Madden, Madden, Tre Madden
Posted in Education Sport Notes | No Comments »
Suncoast High School traffic snarls still irk neighbors, but relief promised by mid-October
August 30th, 2010
RIVIERA BEACH — Drivers still wait in lines of traffic and obey police to reach the new Suncoast High School in the mornings.
But some residents say the Suncoast traffic is flowing better than it was during the first few hectic days of the school year. And the school district says the traffic jam between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. will be eased in mid-October, when a wider section of West 13th Street is scheduled to open.
Still, some residents remain frustrated by the congested mass of cars winding through their residential streets.
“It’s crazy,” said Erica Gonder, a parent who lives on 13th Street near the Suncoast entrance. “It’s not that we don’t want the school there. They should take a better route.”
Terrence Houvouras, a father of three who lives on 13th Street, worries about cars speeding by his house while his sons play basketball in the driveway.
Houvouras and other residents want speed bumps to be restored when the wider stretch of 13th Street near the school entrance is completed. The school district is not planning speed bumps, nothing that they pose problems for school buses.
“Their only concern is making everyone at Suncoast comfortable,” said Annette Simpson, a 13th Street resident who attended an Aug. 24 meeting with district officials to discuss traffic around the new school. Simpson says speed bumps are needed – especially now that the road in front of her house will be wider and filled with young drivers headed for Suncoast.
Riviera Beach officials are irked, too.
The city withheld water and sewer permits for the new high school last year because the district had failed to make road improvements to handle Suncoast traffic. The utility permits were granted in January after the city and district approved an agreement that called for several improvements: two stoplights, turn lanes on Congress Avenue and a widening of the stretch of 13th Street between Congress Avenue and Jake Lane.
The road work was supposed to have been completed Aug. 1. The city and the school district are working to extend the deadline to Jan. 7.
City officials also are negotiating with the district to pay for the hours that six Riviera Beach police officers spend directing traffic to and from Suncoast.
The acclaimed high school sits on a 70-acre campus that includes John F. Kennedy Middle School and Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary. The high school serves 1,394 students.
To reduce the number of students walking through construction and traffic to reach the three schools, the district recently added bus routes to pick up students at the Spinnaker Landing and Marsh Harbour developments west of Congress Avenue.
But on a recent morning, a student dressed in khaki trousers and a white shirt walked, apparently late for school, around backhoes and bulldozers working on 13th Street near the Suncoast entrance.
Tags: High School, Still, Suncoast High, Suncoast High School
Posted in School Advisory | No Comments »
Reaching across the state: WSU offers engineering degree in Bremerton
August 26th, 2010
ME 303 Fluid Mechanics is a cooperative course taught via telecom-
munications to WSU, University of Idaho and Olympic College, Bremer-
ton, students. Konstantin Matveev, of the WSU School of Mechanical
and Materials Engineering, is shown teaching the class in the Electri-
cal/Mechanical Engineering Building on the Pullman campus.
(Photo by Tim Marsh, WSU Today)
From the Kitsap Sun newspaper BREMERTON - For the first time ever, 15 students recently sat down at desks at Olympic College to earn bachelor degrees in mechanical engineering from Washington State University. The new offering is a crowning achievement for OC, which has added a second four-year degree attainable in Kitsap County - a nursing degree was the first. Its also a milestone for the local military community hungry for mechanical engineers. The program often piggybacks on an associate of science degree and is taught mostly by WSU professor Marvin Pitts, whos just relocated here. But much of it is through interactive television, taught by WSU engineering professors juggling a class full of students at the same time in Pullman. Professor Konstantin Matveev of WSU kicked off the day with a rousing lecture on fluid mechanics. Bremerton students took notes as he spoke out of a large-screen television. A technician was in the classroom, deftly handling all the things that had to go right. Matveev has the same TV screen in his Pullman classroom, with a small inset of the Bremerton students. The main challenge will be to encourage them to ask questions, he said of his students 288 miles away. If somebody raises a hand, I might not notice. WSU is planning on expanding its interactive TV class offerings and has had engineering classrooms torn up to expand the technology. The OC program is a pilot. If its successful, and it certainly has all the earmarks, they want to expand that to other community colleges, said Judi Brown, an OC dean who oversees engineering.
Read the complete article from the Kitsap Sun here.
Tags: Wsu, Wsu Offers
Posted in University Business | No Comments »
It’s decision time for Skyline’s Kasen Williams
August 26th, 2010
This is it. It doesn’t seem like that long ago I went out to watch Skyline’s 2009 scrimmage hoping to meet Kasen Williams and his parents for the first time.
That was a year ago. A lot has changed since then. Skyline won its third straight state title. Jake Heaps graduated and Williams solidified his place as one of the top recruits in the country.
Shortly after the Spartans wrap up their scrimmage, Williams will select one of the five hats — one for each of his final list of five schools. The expectation is for the 6-foot-3, 200-pound receiver to pick Washington and follow in the footsteps of his father, Aaron, who played for the Huskies from 1979-82.
The senior was non-commital when I asked him about it Thursday. He did say the decision has been made and, once he announces it, that’s going to be final.
It was important for him to make the decision in front of his Skyline teammates, with all of the players in the junior football program looking on, so he picked out the date where the Spartans’ football family would be able to attend.
“I’ve been in the program,” Williams said. “I was in the same position as these youth kids and I wanted to give my appreciation back and just show them that one day I was in your shoes and one day you’ll be in mine.
“To commit in front of them, I know a lot of them look up to me and that’s one of the things that’s been on everyone’s mind. To do it in front of them really shows my appreciation for, not only the players, but the coaches, too.”
I’m heading out there in a little while. I will have Twitter updates @masonkelley throughout and I’m going to try and get some audio and video as well. It depends on how things are set up.
There will be more on the blog later. I’ll also tweet some notes on quarterback Max Browne. I’m intrigued to see how he throws the ball.
Tags: Kasen Williams, Williams
Posted in Education Sport Notes | No Comments »