Thank you to all of our parents of first-time Fresno State students who braved the heat and attended Parent Welcome Night 2009! We were grateful for the chance to meet so many of you and hope that you all enjoyed yourselves!
The Maddy Institute at California State University, Fresno is currently accepting applications for the Fall 2009 semester for its Legislative Intern Scholarship Program. The deadline to apply is Friday, September 4, 2009. Students must be at least Junior in standing (Grad students welcome, too!) and have an overal 3.0 GPA.
ALL FRESNO STATE MAJORS ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY!
Fall 2009 Intern Details are:
- Students commit to a 150 hour internship
- Students will work in Legislative offices within Fresno
- Internship will tentatively start on Monday, September 21, 2009
- Students will be awarded a $1,250 scholarship for their participation
Applications and details are available on the Institute’s website at www.maddyinstitute.org
Guests enjoy Parent Welcome Night 2008
Parent Welcome Night will take place on Wednesday, September 9, 2009. Welcome Night is open to all parents of incoming freshmen. The event is free and includes remarks by President Welty, Police Chief Huerta and ASI President Jessica Sweeten. Please click on the link below for more information and don’t forget to RSVP by August 31st!
Dr. Paul Oliaro, Vice President for Student Affairs
Dear Parents,
As you know, this is a very difficult time for the State of California and for the CSU. We face unprecedented reductions in our state allocation and have been forced to take drastic measures to continue to provide quality education to our students. Those measures have including increasing the University fee by a total of $978.00 for the 2009-10 academic year. In addition, virtually every faculty and staff member on campus will be on furlough 2 days a month for the entire fiscal year - a 10% reduction in their salary for this coming year. In addition, we will still have to eliminate some positions, not fill vacancies that occur, and continue to reduce our routine operating expenses wherever possible.
We realize that many of you are experiencing similar conditions in your place of employment. On a positive note, I believe that our staff and faculty are managing these reductions and these changes with professionalism and a sense of collaboration and coopration. We are committed to providing the highest quality of instruction and services to students within the reduced time and resources that are available. We will have to do less with less, but we will work hard to maintain core services, quality instruction and maintain a safe and supportive campus environment.
I realize during periods such as this, clear and frequent communication is important. I conducted an open forum on the budget for our Division in March and again in July after the Trustees’ decision to raise fees again. On the Student Affairs website, there is a budget update that outlines the effect of the budget reduction on our Division. I will continue to communicate with the Parents Association through your new “Parents Blog” and will continue to keep our Division and our students updated as new information becomes available.
We will get through this and we will work together as a Division to maintain our reputation for helping students to succeed. More than ever, we need your help as supportive parents with your daughters and sons. We will also benefit from your generosity by using funds from the Parents’ Annual Fund to supplement projects and programs that have been reduced due to budget reductions. As always, I thank you for being such an active part of our Fresno State family. We do look forward to the coming year knowing that we will do our very best to make this year a very positive experience for our students. We will also look forward to seeing many of you at our Parent’s Welcome Night on September 9th.
See you there! Go Dogs!
Paul M. Oliaro
Vice President for Student Affairs
California State University, Fresno’s Department of Risk Management and Sustainability and University Health and Psychological Services (Student Health Center) are preparing for what could be a challenging flu season during the 2009-2010 academic year. 
Fresno State officials have been monitoring the situation throughout the summer break to be ready for the beginning of classes August 24th. The campus community will be kept informed as developments warrant.
When the seasonal flu vaccine become available, Fresno State will partner with the Fresno County Public Health Department to provide vaccinations to those in the highest-risk groups, which includes young adults who make up the biggest percentage of the university’s students.
During the summer, four students on campus were confirmed positive for H1N1 and there were three or four other probable cases. All were sent home, recovered and returned to work or school.
H1N1 symptoms are very similar to those for regular seasonal flu: fever, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, head and body aches, lack of appetite and lethargy. There may be additional gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea with H1N1.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend anyone with flu symptoms stay home and contact their health care provider.
Because people can be exposed to flu viruses almost anywhere and anytime, there are some common-sense recommendations to minimize transmission of the flu and exposure to it:
* Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
* Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
* Wash your hands often with soap and water or alcohol-based hand cleaners.
* Avoid close contact with sick people.
* Avoid social gatherings if you are ill or if you have medical conditions that put you at risk for flu complications.
* Get your flu shot this fall.
For general questions about the H1N1 flu, call the Fresno County Department of Public Health’s toll-free information at 888-993-3003 or visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu.
Campus information is available from the Department of Risk Management and Sustainability, 559-278-7422 or the Student Health Center, 559-278-2734.
Due to recent budget cutbacks, California State University, Fresno employee bargaining units agreed to take 24 furlough days this semester. There are three types of dates:
1) Furlough - Administrative (open for instruction)
2) Furlough - Campus closure (non-instruction)
3) State shutdown - Campus closed
On administrative furlough days, the campus will remain open in the following areas to support instruction and critical services for students:
1. All classrooms and labs scheduled for instruction
2. Childcare centers
3. Bookstore, University Student Union, Student Recreation Center, Satellite Student Union
4. Library services limited hours
5. On-campus housing and dining
The following services will be provided to support the facilities that are open on administrative furlough days:
1. Campus Police and Plant Operations will ensure that the limited facilities scheduled for instruction are open, functional, safe and secure.
2. Custodial services will be provided for a limited number of common restrooms that support classroom activity.
3. Reduced traffic operations and student escort services will be available.
4. Critical functions at the University Farm Laboratory will be available.
To view the planned furlough days for 2009-2010 and to see when on those days classes will still be in session, you may click here: furlough-dates-2009_2010.
In fall of 2008 the Parents Association provided funding for the International Student Services and Programs office to offer the International Commencement Celebration as a live stream on the internet. Dr. Lucia Hammar, Director of ISSP, wrote a letter to the Parents Association following the commencement ceremony.
On Saturday, May 23 at 1 PM, a group of parents and friends of graduating international students gathered in the campus Concert Hall. These proud people were the lucky folks who managed to fly from their home to the USA to see their son or daughter or grandchild or niece or nephew receive a bachelor’s or master’s degree from California State University, Fresno. International students who were graduating marched in, robes swishing and tassels tossing. The university president, provost and vice president of Student Affairs each spoke. Two graduating students spoke: a young man from Japan with a newly earned masters in linguistics, and a young woman from Malaysia with a bachelors (with honors) in psychology. Parents of those two young people were present but most of our students were not able to see their parents’ faces. But now, thanks to our Parents Association, everyone had the chance to “tune in” from all over the world and watch live. Now the streamed program, which was recorded, is available on the University’s website along with the official university commencement ceremony.
Our technical colleagues on campus worked with our office beginning last October to make this possible. We had help from captioners working off site (on the east coast!) who were keying in the words of the speeches and the names of each student as they walked individually across our Concert Hall stage. It was amazing that it worked as well as it did with multiple cameras, multiple mikes and people in three locations connected only by wires and ether.
Thank you so much from the parents of the world to the parents of the Parents Association! We really hope we can do this again next year, when we believe even more people will be tuned in to this possibility and will join us on the internet.
Sincerely,
Lucia, ISSP staff and international students and families
Dr. Lucia Hammar is the director of International Student Services and Programs at Fresno State
The University Police Department will be on duty. In the event of an emergency, call 559-278-8400.
Classes will resume and offices will re-open on Monday, July 6th. Summer hours throughout the campus are 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with a 30 minute lunch break.
Courtesy of www.fresnostatenews.com
The 3rd Annual Fresno State Farm Festival will take place from 9 am to 1 pm on Saturday, June 20, at the University’s Ornamental Horticulture-Nursery garden area at the Gibson Farm Market on Chestnut Avenue at Barstow.
The event showcasing student-produced products from the university’s 1,000 acre campus farm will be held in the market’s parking lot under tents.
This year’s festival will include live music, wine tasting, sampling of Fresno State farm products, educational workshops, kids activities and other events. Winery and farm tours will also be available.
Article courtesy of Fresno State News.
Piggy bank
Many parents and students are eager to find out if they are going to receive a Fresno State scholarship for the 2009/2010 school year. Please keep in mind that at this point it is too early to determine who’s receiving a scholarship. The Scholarship Office will be receiving scholarship recommendations from departments and donors all summer long. The awarding process will be on-going throughout the summer and may extend past the first two weeks of the fall semester. If your student is awarded a scholarship, he or she will receive a congratulatory award letter in the mail announcing the scholarship. For those of you who wish to monitor the award activity in real time, students are able to remotely check their status by logging on to their My Fresno State portal. Under their “Student Center,” look for the “Finances” header and you will see a link called “View Financial Aid.” The first thing the Scholarship Office does when awarding a scholarship to a student is to post the award on their student account. That data entry is what initiates the award letter to be printed and mailed to the student. You can view this activity by clicking on “View Financial Aid.” If there is no scholarship award posted on their account, then no scholarships have been awarded to the student. You can view this activity by clicking on “View Financial Aid.” If there is no scholarship award posted on their account, then no scholarships have been awarded to the student. Students are encouraged to check their Fresno State portal frequently for this and other important campus news.
As a reminder, the Scholarship application process for 2009-2010 is now closed. The next opportunity to apply for Fresno State scholarships will be on October 1, 2009 for the 2010-2011 school year. For more information, please visit the scholarship website at: www.csufresno.edu/scholarships.
