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Monday, October 10, 2022

The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton

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Volume 112 Issue 8

Aquatic Center revives CSUF water polo

Fire chief disputes report A grand jury found an inefficient use of fire resources. CARLOS CORDOVA Staff Writer

CARLOS CORDOVA / DAILY TITAN

President Framroze Virjee, who swam for the UC Santa Barbara water polo team, was one of the first to break in the university's new olympic-size swimming pool.

The project took two years to complete and costed $8.1 million CARLOS CORDOVA Staff Writer

Beginning a new phase in Titan Athletics and academics, the Aquatic Center was officially opened on Thursday in between the Kinesiology building and the Wellness Center, which replaced the old swimming pool that had significant damages and leaks.

The grand opening ceremony featured speeches by CSUF President Framroze Virjee, athletics director Jim Donovan, head coach of water polo Kyle Witt, vice president Tonantzin Oseguera and more. The event ended with a free swim for staff and students.

“This pool represents our investment in you. We believe in you, our students. You are the reason we are here. You are the reason we do everything. This is just one more example SEE SPLASH 8

CSUF to choose next chief of police CHLOE HONG Staff Writer

The Cal State Fullerton police chief open forums ended Thursday, and four candidates will now be reviewed by an 11-person committee. The new chief of police will relieve CSUF Police Chief Carl Jones from his position and allow him to retire after serving for over 20 years. The committee will make recommendations for the police chief candidates which they will send to the vice president's office, who will send it to CSUF President Framroze Virjee for a final decision, said CSUF police Capt. Scot Willey. The tentative date to hire a new police chief is Nov. 1, following university police chief Carl Jones’s retirement, Willey said. During the open forum, students, faculty, and staff were able to ask questions about the four police chief candidates. The committee includes CSUF

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student representatives Maysem Awadalla and Christapor Mikaelian, as well as police officers, faculty and staff members. The last candidate to speak at the Thursday forum was James Skelton, who has 20 years of experience in law enforcement. He currently serves as the commander of police with the Houston Police Department. He has a master’s degree in homeland security from Sam Houston State University and a bachelor’s in psychology from Southern University. When asked how he plans to interact with students that find police interactions triggering, he talked about breaking barriers as a community. “I want them to get out and start shaking your hand, and meeting you for who you are, not just walking past. That’s what I want,” Skelton said. Skelton said that informing the public about police involvement on campus is important to him. “I am your team, and if something happened on this campus, and we’re

building this trust, right, I am going to get in front of it, and we’re gonna talk about it,” Skelton said. The chief of police forum began Monday with Anthony Otero, who has 26 years of experience working for the Los Angeles Police Department as a captain of their west bureau traffic division and a political career as the mayor of La Mirada. Otero said he wants to prioritize addressing the shortcomings of law enforcement on campus regarding encounters with students of color, emphasizing a safe and equitable environment. The second candidate was Amira Saleh Eppolito, a 25-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. She currently works as a training and development specialist and as a quality assurance specialist for the San Diego Government Training Agency. Eppolito said she is committed to diversity within the university police force and feels confident speaking up for underrepresented groups. She said the campus police department should

be more integrated into student life and hopes to use her skills from the Los Angeles Police Department to pursue change if she becomes the next chief of police. The third candidate was Anthony Frisbee, a current interim police chief at UC Riverside. He worked for 17 years as a lieutenant at the UC Irvine police department, where he received his master’s degree in criminology. Frisbee said if he became the chief of police, he would try to build relationships and trust within the community to make students feel safe. It is important to make sure that staff receive implicit bias training, he said. “We need to build that trust with you all here now, so that you know why we're different,” Frisbee said. Andrea Orozco, the student assistant for the vice president of administration and finance, said that the SEE FORUM

The Fullerton City Council submitted its response to an Orange County grand jury report that outlined concerns of the city’s use of fire services for emergency medical calls. Fullerton’s city budget is currently facing a $5 million deficit for the 2022-23 fiscal year. Due to the deficit, Fullerton may lose their independent fire department. One concern that the grand jury brought up in their report was the cost of sending fire department equipment to medical calls. The city council reviewed the grand jury report and heard Fullerton Fire Chief Adam Loeser’s take on the findings. The council unanimously voted to submit a response to the Orange County Superior Court presiding judge that disagreed with the results and rejected all recommendations. A final recommendation from the jury was that the county implement a universal tiered response system to dispatch ambulances to medical calls rather than sending larger fire engines. “Findings one, three and five, we disagreed with entirely as they are not accurate or applicable to how we deploy our fire and EMS resources within our city,” Loeser said. The first finding of the report said fire departments were not updating their emergency response protocols for medical-related calls and treating them like a fire response. Another finding of the grand jury report suggested that staffing advanced life support ambulances was a more appropriate response for tending to emergency medical calls. In their response, the fire department said that it is better to have a multi-functioning emergency response service like a fire truck rather than a single functioning service when arriving on scene. SEE COUNCIL