Fresno State students consider fee hike

Fresno State students will vote on hiking their fees to pay for a new Student Union when annual voting begins Tuesday.

Students will also choose a new student body president and other officers in balloting that begins Tuesday and goes into Thursday.

To pay for a new Student Union, the annual student fee if approved will go up by $400. But that won’t become effective until the Student Union is ready to open.

Online voting begins Tuesday at 9 a.m. and ends at noon on Thursday. The League of Women Voters will provide a laptop polling station for those without access to the internet. League volunteers will be outside the Kennel Bookstore from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m on March 28 and 29 and 9 a.m. till noon on March 30. A free Rice Krispies treat will be given to participants at the polling station if they print of screen shot their voter confirmation page.

Write-in candidates will have until noon on March 30 to register in the ASI office, located inside the University Student Union, Room 310.

In the race for student body president is John Richardson, a biology major; People of Action slate runner Cecilia Ruesta, a graduate student in the marriage and family counseling program who also has undergraduate degrees in criminology and women’s studies; and Students United slate runner Blake Zante, who is the current ASI executive vice president and a political science major.

The voting results will be released at around 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.

César Chávez remembered in week-long events

Two distinguished literary professors, who spoke at the annual César Chávez Education Conference, on Saturday kicked off the celebration of National Farm Workers Awareness Week.

Dr. H. Gerald Campano, assistant professor and chair of the Reading, Writing and Literacy Program at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School, spoke on “Practitioner Research for Educational Equity: Expanding Circles of Solidarity”. Dr. Maria Paula Ghiso, assistant professor of literary education at Teacher College at Columbia University, closed the forum with “Critical Literacy and Emergent Bilinguals: Social Justice Inquires though a Photographic Lens”.

The conference was among many events at Fresno State that will lead up to César Chávez Day on Friday, March 31.

Chávez was the civil-rights leader who helped form United Farm Workers union and pushed American society to recognize the rights of farm workers and Latinos.

Mariachi musicians, dancers and speakers will perform at the garlanding ceremony and celebration in the Free Speech Area and the Peace Garden on Wednesday, March 29 from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Camila Chávez, Chávez’s niece, will speak at 12:35 p.m. Among many accomplishments, she has helped coordinate the Stop Proposition 209 campaign to save affirmative action in California, promoted Medi-Cal for low income and undocumented families and established the Dolores Huerta Foundation, an grassroots organization in Bakersfield.

A César Chávez photo exhibition is already on display on the second floor of the Henry Madden Libary. The artwork will remain on display until Thursday, March 30.

Fresno State will also hold a blood drive where donors can receive a free T-shirt and gift coupons. A donor bus will be located near the east wing of the University Dinning Hall between 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 28. The drive will continue March 29 and 30 at the west side of the University Student Union.

Fresno Pacific No. 15 in college ranking

Fresno Pacific University is No. 15 spot in a ranking that looks at colleges and universities that offer the most to students.

Great Value Colleges ranked schools in its 50 Best Colleges for Adult Education survey for the 2017-18 academic year.

The ranking is based off a point system that measures a college’s performance by looking at factors including: affordability; degree programs; graduate study availability; student retention and academic awards and recognition.

Fresno Pacific earned a total of 11 points; University of Alaska-Fairbanks earned 16 points as the No. 1 school.

Great Value Colleges said Fresno Pacifichas an 80 percent retention rate and a 13-to-1 student-faculty ratio.

Great Value Colleges said Fresno Pacific has the highest four-year graduation rate in the region. Sources like The Princeton Review, U.S. News and World Report and others were used to determine the school’s ranking.

Fresno State hosts mock trial round

Fresno State is hosting an opening round of the Intercollegiate Mock Trial national championship this weekend.

Twenty-four teams from 16 West Coast universities, including two Fresno State teams, began competing Saturday and will wrap up Sunday. Closing ceremonies are at 6 p.m. Sunday in the Leon Peters Auditorium adjacent to Save Mart Center.

Sequoias college expo draws 600

The annual College and Career EXPO was expected to draw about 600 students to College of the Sequoias on Friday.

EXPO has been an annual event since 1992. High school students compete in technical and academic competitions and visit the college, many of them for the first time.

This year’s events were held at the college’s Tulare center on 4999 E. Bardsley Ave. in Tulare and at the Visalia campus on Mooney Bouelvard.

The event allows students to show off skills in competition categories including fashion design, hacking, sports medicine, video production, construction technology and culinary arts.

This story was originally published March 26, 2017 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Fresno State students consider fee hike."