• Home
• News
• Features
• Sports
• Opinion
• Multimedia
  • Video
  • Galleries
  • Interactive
• Blog

Engineers for people

In the near future you may find yourself flipping channels with a voice-activated remote control that was conceptualized and developed by students right here on the Fresno State campus. Read more

Fresno State commits to campus sustainability

Since The Talloires Declaration was established in 1990, over 350 universities around the world have signed the ten-point action plan for incorporating sustainability issues into their teaching, research, operations and outreach. Read more

Bulldogs save energy

Last summer, a staff worker for the University Business Center wanted to keep some lights turned on in the Peters Building because it “looked nice.”

But the Energy Saving Bulldogs fought back. Read more

Club clinches Coyote Cup

The Fresno State ultimate Frisbee club went to two tournaments this semester, winning one of them.

In March, the club went to Long Beach to compete against 15 other colleges from around the state including UCLA, Cal and San Diego State. Last Saturday, the club co-hosted an indoor tournament in Fresno at Selland Arena.

Ultimate Frisbee is normally played on an area the size of a football field, but the indoor tournament was played on the Central Valley Coyotes’ arena football turf, which was about half the size of a normal field.

The ultimate Frisbee team went undefeated and won the single-elimination tournament against teams from Sacramento, Stockton and Fresno to win the first-ever Coyote Cup.

James Lundberg scores against San Diego State in Long Beach. Lundberg has been playing for the team for all two years of the club’s existence. Senior Drew Maurin defends against a San Diego State forehand. Maurin has played ultimate Frisbee for four years.

Double trouble

Whether it’s gaining momentum in the batting order, or keeping the left side of the infield secure, the Fresno State softball team only needs to call one name — Haley. Read more

Bulldog tennis to host two rounds in NCAA Regional

The No. 16 Fresno State women’s tennis team earned the right to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA regional tournament. Read more

Students prepare for future careers with hands-on experiences

Sarah Luke swings her leg up the left side of Prince O’Pep, then back down.

She repeats the process on the right side, careful to keep her movements slow and steady. She finally sits down in the saddle and gets led around the round pen. Read more

Lone drafted Bulldog heads to Cincinnati

Jim:
Former Fresno State defensive tackle Jason Shirley may have been the lone bright spot in the NFL Draft for Fresno State, but he is not destined to be in a positive light any time soon. Read more

Let’s go ride a bike

Campus parking pass, $68 per semester. Gas, $3.67 per gallon. Going Green — priceless.

According to bicycle statistics data from the International Bicycle Fund, 10 percent of the U.S. population uses a bicycle or walks as a mode of transportation.

For most Fresno State students, riding their bicycles is not only a quicker way to get around campus, but is also inexpensive and environmentally safe, whether they think about it or not.

And, trying to find a parking space is next to impossible.

The priceless satisfaction of going green applies to the Fresno State students who choose to walk or ride their bicycles to campus.

Her red bike sits on the balcony of her apartment next to her roommate’s purple bicycle. Jenna Ruder, a junior kinesiology major, rides her bicycle to class everyday because she lives near campus, just off Barstow Avenue.

Her classes are far away from each other, so she finds it convenient to ride her bicycle to her other classes. Ruder said even if she lived further away from Fresno State she would still make the effort to ride her bicycle.

“Maybe if it was about two to three miles,” she said. “But I do it more for the exercise and the gas slump influences me, too.”

Ruder said she never really reflected about how she is making a positive impact on the environment.

“I never really thought about it, but I’m sure over time it will have an affect on the environment,” Ruder said.

Her roommate, Mallory Breshears, a sophomore pre-psychology major, also rides her bicycle to campus for the same reasons as her roommate.

“My classes are so far apart,” she said. “And, it’s good exercise.”

Breshears sees the advantages to living close to campus, especially now, with gas prices at an all-time high.

“Hell yeah, gas prices influences me to ride my bike, rather than drive my car,” she said.

Like Ruder, Breshears does not consider how the environment is affected by her decision to ride her bicycle, but finds parking her bicycle an easier misson than her car.

Senior Ben Musson, a music major, lives off Milbrook, which is two miles further away than Ruder and Breshears.

Musson said he rides his bicycle to campus because of its convenience, the high prices of gas and the lack of available parking.

“It’s easier because I can just park my bike two feet away from my class and not have to worry,” he said.

Unlike Ruder and Breshears, Musson has thought about how riding his bicycle to campus is affecting the environment.

“My professor last year, who rides his bike to school, always talked about car pollution, so I definitely began to think about it,” he said.

Musson does not believe he is doing much, but he thinks about it.

The University Police Department encourages the Fresno State community to be a part of the Red Bike Program, which is a cheaper and healthy way of commuting.

The Red Bike Program allows students, staff and faculty to participate in a program, which offers new and reconditioned bicycles for rental around campus or the city of Fresno.

To rent a new bicycle, there is a $55 deposit and the first semester is free. Each semester following is a $5 fee. A U-lock and a helmet are provided. Depending on the contract stipulations, people participating may receive a $50 refund.

Rental of a reconditioned bike is $15 with the same conditions. Personal bicycles can also be brought in, licensed by the State of California Department of Motor Vehicles and registered in the University Police Department system.

With this program, students and staff can save $68, money they would have spent on the expensive price of gas and actually reduce air pollution and traffic congestion.

A fine wine

Her hands were stained dirt-purple after a long day of hard work. People looked at her funny and questioned why she hadn’t washed up. Read more

Subway hits the highway

Subway Restaurant’s spokesman, Jared Fogle, is celebrating his 10-year anniversary of keeping his weight off and is coming to Fresno State to encourage student awareness of wellness. Read more

Fun and games: 04/30/08

Fun and games for April 30, 2008. Read more

BFF: Ending relationships between friends as bad as breaking up

VALENTINE’S DAY 2008 — You’d think I’d have been drooling over some dude, or at least stuffing my face with candy.

Instead, I was basking in the cold glow of a laptop and an e-mail that sealed the fate of a friendship that had been in limbo since day one.

Three and a half years. Certainly not the longest or oldest of my friendships, but an important one, nonetheless.

Friendships can end for a variety of reasons — sometimes it’s over a guy, a betrayal or the result of malicious gossip.

I’ve experienced a couple of those, witnessed quite a few, and things can get ugly fast, like a messy breakup.

Sometimes there are nasty exchanges or dead silence, as both parties retreat to nurse wounds and load up on verbal ammunition.

But then there are friendships, like relationships, that die ever so slowly, where numerous attempts are made to come to terms with and work through problems that have no solution.

The effects of a demise like this are never apparent right off the bat. All I was feeling Feb. 14 was overwhelming relief.

I could move on at last.

But several weeks later there was love drama on the horizon, so of course I reached for the phone. I was halfway through dialing her number when it hit me.

I was the one who’d put the final nail in the coffin.

Regret replaced relief.

I wondered if I’d been a smidge too impulsive axing three and a half years of friendship with one icy e-mail.

I hung up the phone.

“Boyfriends come and go, but girlfriends are forever.” Or so they say.

This must be why it hurts so much when it doesn’t work out.

A good friend is a confidante, shrink and surrogate sister all rolled into one, but sometimes personalities just aren’t compatible.

In the weeks that followed, the drama died down and I started seeing someone new.

So I called one of my other friends instead, then deleted her number, finally.

When I really think about it, I would not have done anything differently even if I could have. When the bad times begin to outnumber the good, and every conversation morphs into an argument in a matter of minutes, it’s time to move on.

And there’s no sense in holding on to regret either, because you can never go back and do things over.

It’s called the past for a reason.

Job hunt

JOB FAIRS ARE A GREAT WAY TO GET a lot of interviews in with prospective employers, though the savvy graduate should already have a job lined up.

This is not for those graduates. Read more

Open avenue

Chestnut Avenue, from Shaw Avenue to Bullard Avenue, is now open to through traffic as of April 25. The roundabout at Barstow Avenue and Chestnut Avenue is now open for north-south and east-west traffic.

Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians are urged to use caution when approaching the new roundabout, according to campus traffic officials.

The Chestnut Avenue construction, which started in July 2006, included widening the road and adding a new parking lot for Fresno State’s Rue and Gwen Gibson Farm Market.

The project was paid for with a $4.6 million grant from the state’s Traffic Congestion Relief Program.

Next Page »

The Collegian Online is a public forum for student expression. All content is copyright The Collegian.