It’s Monday morning. Students are hustling to get to their classes, chatting quietly, dark circles under their eyes and coffee cups in hand, trying to make it to an 8 a.m. class. They hear the majestic notes of the carillon ring out across campus, and poof! The students disappear into campus buildings, trailing the aroma of coffee behind them.

For more than 50 years, the California State University, Northridge carillon has played several important roles in supporting the campus community and setting the academic mood at the university. But these beloved “bells” hold a secret: They’re not hanging in a campanile, or bell tower. They’re electronic rods.

A gift from the San Fernando Valley State College Class of 1966, the carillon is a Matador landmark of sorts that produces beautiful melodies to serenade the CSUN campus every day, year round. The original 1960s 54-“bell” system was housed in the former Administration Building, now called Bayramian Hall.

“The entire [carillon] system is a product of Maas-Rowe Carillons, and the ‘bells’ are actually tuned rods that, when struck, produce sound equivalent to cast bronze bell [chimes],” said alumnus Jeff Craig ’70 (Chemistry), Physical Plant Management (PPM) network analyst and carillon caretaker. “The depressions in the rods are how each rod is tuned to the correct sound.”

Designed for CSUN’s park-like campus, the chimes produced by the rods are amplified through funnel-shaped speakers above Monterey Hall, Redwood Hall, Student Housing dorms, Bayramian Hall and the PPM Administration building.

In 1988, 98 more rods were added to the carillon to produce better music. 

“The 98 rods were divided into ‘major’ and ‘minor’ rods and housed in oak cases,” said Craig. “[As time went on], the carillon was expanded by the addition of 49 Flemish rods and a Harp-Celeste with 61 rods.”

Music Therapy

The carillon continued to grace the campus with its sound until the university’s greatest crisis: The 1994 Northridge earthquake left the campus with massive rebuilding challenges that disrupted the pace, look and sound of the university. After some minor repairs, it was the soothing sounds of the carillon that helped restore tranquility to those who endured the difficulties of the earthquake.

Following its reconstruction, the carillon was transferred to a new home in Cypress Hall and equipped with 222 rods, two keyboards to permit the carillon to be played live as an organ and a microphone enabling it to serve as the university’s emergency broadcast system.

Today, the restored carillon keeps the time for students and faculty rushing to classes, exams, important events — even graduation ceremonies. The reverberating chimes bolster Matador spirit, playing the CSUN fight song, Hail to the Matadors.

“[When students and faculty] hear the music, it gives [them] a reference to know the time, especially if there’s some kind of important event,” said Craig.

The heart of the system is the Chronobell controller, which contains the amplifiers, digital song library and the GPS clock interface. The GPS system syncs the electronic rods to chime at 8 a.m., and every half hour and on the hour.

A Labor of Love

Maintaining and preserving the carillon helps connect alumni from past generations to CSUN when they visit the campus, at Homecoming and special events, Craig said.

“The carillon as a landmark adds prestige to the university,” he said. “[It’s interesting to hear] parents who are CSUN alumni say, ‘Oh, I used to hear the same music when I was a student here.'”

Craig said he takes pride in his job and maintains the carillon as a way of giving back to his alma mater. Since 1988, he has been the “unofficial official” caretaker of the system.

“Taking care of the carillon is volunteer work, and I volunteered,” he said. “In the 1960s, someone from PPM took care of it. In 1988, I worked with Maas-Rowe, the vendor who made the carillon, and we expanded the [carillon’s] capabilities to play more songs.

“I’m the go-to person if the carillon isn’t playing the right note, or there are problems with the speakers or amplifiers,” added Craig. “[I’m proud of my job] because it feels like I’m giving back to CSUN.” 

Next Generation

Craig has been the catalyst behind the carillon for 29 years, but he plans to retire this year. His successor and protége, PPM info tech consultant Arthur Grutman ’16 (Computer Science), volunteered to take Craig’s place.

Grutman explained how he, too, fell for the carillon. 

“The carillon is one of many CSUN hallmarks that Physical Plant Management maintains, that gives character to the campus and has been a feature since the late 1960s,” Grutman said. “My interest in the carillon first piqued when I learned that the system was a set of [tuned rods].”

Grutman and the PPM administration plan, with assistance from the campus emergency preparedness manager, to enhance the carillon in the coming year by migrating it to a data-network solution using fiber optics, he said. The updates will eliminate interference, sharpen the sound and provide better control of the campus-wide system, Grutman said.

For more information on CSUN’s carillon, please contact jeff.craig@csun.edu.

With the help from CSUN, music veteran Wes Hambright is a 2017 LAUSD “Rookie Teacher of the Year.” Photo by David Hawkins.

Since childhood, Wes Hambright had planned to play music professionally.

Teaching music, on the other hand, wasn’t something that immediately came to mind for the talented composer, whose music has been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, American Idol, The Tyra Banks Show and programs on the Discovery Channel.

“Being a musician for such a long time, I never thought teaching would be something I’d enjoy or be able to do,” Hambright said. “I eventually started teaching private lessons years back, after it was recommended by friends and neighbors. Once I got started, I found that it was very rewarding.”

Hambright never looked back. After speaking with a neighbor in 2015 who mentioned that Daniel Pearl Magnet High School — in Lake Balboa, next to Birmingham High School — had lost its music teacher weeks before school was about to start, Hambright applied for an emergency substitute teaching credential and began to teach music classes a few days a week. The school hired him as a full-time teacher in August 2016.

Now, with the help of California State University Northridge, he’s been named an LAUSD Rookie Teacher of the Year. On Aug. 13, Hambright was honored at Dodger Stadium before the Los Angeles Dodgers took the field against the San Diego Padres.

“Because this is my first year teaching full time, I’m quite blown away and extremely honored,” Hambright said of the award. “The classes at CSUN have been indispensable. I wouldn’t have been able to do what I’ve done if it wasn’t for CSUN.”

What makes Hambright’s journey even more unique was that during his 2016-17 “rookie” year, he was taking night classes at CSUN toward his teaching credential, which he is on track to complete in 2018.

In the meantime, Hambright has an “intern credential” from CSUN, which means that he is employed as a teacher while enrolled in the university’s teaching credential program.

The musician has flourished in CSUN’s credential program and as a high school music teacher, but it’s been far from easy.

“It’s been a huge challenge, especially in my first semester [in the credential program] because I had to get used to the system at CSUN,” said Hambright, who teaches everything from guitar to choir and songwriting. “I’ve pulled long hours as a composer trying to finish a song for a film or show, but teaching five classes every day and studying for classes at night is different.”

Although challenging, teaching has been an extremely rewarding experience, he said. Hambright, who also composes contemporary ballet music in Los Angeles when he’s not teaching, noted that his favorite part of teaching at the high school level is preparing his students for bi-monthly concerts in front of family and friends.

In the classroom, Hambright stresses listening above all. He makes it a point to listen to the same music his students enjoy and asks his students to reciprocate.

“I want my students to be able to listen to hip-hop, opera, J-Pop or house music and then be able to draw comparisons between the genres,” Hambright said. “I try and make my classes a collaboration, instead of me standing on a pedestal saying I know all the information.”

Hambright credited a large part of his early success to CSUN and his mentor, CSUN Coordinator of Music Education Mary Schliff, who came to his class a handful of times over the past year to observe and give pointers.

“The support and tools CSUN teaches you on how to deal with diverse learners has been great, and [Schliff] has been really helpful in helping me teach choir classes, since I’ve never taught it before,” Hambright said. “A lot of kids sign up for that class, not because they necessarily want to sing, but because it fits their schedule and counts as their art credit. So we focused a lot last year on how to teach it.”

If the first year of his teaching career was any indication, Hambright has a bright future.

“I knew I was doing a good job, but hearing it from my peers took it to a whole new level,” Hambright said. “[Being named Rookie Teacher of the Year] made me realize I’m on the right path and doing something good.”

Crystal Rogers (Biology) has received $435,000 from the National Institutes of Health in support of a project entitled “Cadherin interactions in ectodermal derivative fate specification.”

Amy Levin (Office of Research & Sponsored Projects) has received $151,000 from The Regents of the University of California in support of a project entitled “Mental Health Stipend Program.”

Ellen Jarosz (Special Collections and Archives, Oviatt Library) has received $1050.87 from the University of Southern California in support of a project entitled “LA as Subject Residency Program.”

Gilberto Flores (Biology) has received $145,000 from the National Institutes of Health in support of a project entitled “Integrated studies into the genomic, metabolic, and cultivable diversity of the human gut symbiont Akkermansia muciniphila.”

California State University, Northridge computer science professor Richard Lorentz ​is an Olympian, but not on the track or in the pool. He competes annually at the Computer Olympiad tournament, an international competition for game-playing computer programs, to test the latest programming.

“A human can play games, but how well can a computer play?” Lorentz asked rhetorically. “This is where programming comes in.”

The International Computer Games Association (ICGA) hosts the annual Computer Olympiad and determines its location. This summer’s competition was held in Leiden, Netherlands.

At this year’s tournament, Lorentz won gold medals in a game called Amazons for the sixth consecutive year, and he also captured a gold in a game called Breakthrough — bringing the total number of medals he’s won to 14 since 2001.

The Olympiad consists of 100 to 150 competitors in total, and there are usually 20 to 25 games, with anywhere from two programs competing to a dozen or more programs competing in each game. This year, Breakthrough had five programs competing and Amazons had four programs competing.

Lorentz is among the best competitors around, as there are three medals (gold, silver and bronze) awarded for every game at the Computer Olympiad, and he has won multiple gold medals.

Amazons is played on a board with 10 squares by 10 squares, and the objective of the game is to gain access to more empty squares than the opponent. Breakthrough is played on a checkered eight-by-eight square board, where the objective of the game is to get one of the player’s pieces to the opponent’s side of the board, similar to checkers — where the objective is to be the first to obtain a king.  

One algorithm, or blueprint for writing a program, used in artificial intelligence for game-playing programs is called Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) and is especially effective in games such as Breakthrough and Amazons, Lorentz said. MCTS searches for the best move in a game by examining many possible sequences of moves, and each sequence can be thought of as a branch in a tree. The branch that looks the most effective to the computer is the move the program will choose.

It was 2001 when Lorentz decided to compete in his first Olympiad with his master’s students in Maastricht, Netherlands.

“My affinity for computer game programming especially grew when I came to CSUN, and I wanted to get master’s students interested in AI (artificial intelligence) programming,” he said. “In 2001, students were working in the program with me. We decided to compete to test our programs. It seemed like a really good educational opportunity.”

Today, Lorentz brings master’s students from CSUN to the Olympiad as part of their dissertation.

S.K. Ramesh — who is stepping down as dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and will become the director of AIMS2 (Attract Inspire Mentor and Support Students), which aims to increase the number of Latina/o and low-income students who graduate from CSUN with degrees from CECS undergraduate programs  — called Lorentz a brilliant scholar and an incredible faculty member.

“A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of presenting [Lorentz] with a Distinguished Engineering Educator Award from the Engineers Council, for transformative research in MCTS algorithms and seminal contributions in game-playing programming as an internationally acclaimed educator and scholar in computer science,” Ramesh said. “His record in Computer Olympiads is simply unbelievable. CSUN is so lucky to have someone of his caliber in our ranks.”

Lorentz is already preparing for next year’s Computer Olympiad by researching how to modify algorithms and find even better moves.

“The way we prepare for the Olympiad is to find ways to make the programming better, more efficient,” he said.

The location for Lorentz’s 13th tournament is to be announced, but he explained what keeps him coming back.

“There are so many factors why I keep coming back to compete,” Lorentz said. “There’s the thrill of the competition, sense of camaraderie, making friends and being able to represent CSUN worldwide.”

For more information on the Computer Olympiad, please contact richard.lorentz@csun.edu.

Martin Pousson

“Black Sheep Boy,” the chronicle of a young gay man in Louisiana’s Cajun bayou by California State University, Northridge English professor Martin Pousson, is a finalist for a 2017 literary award from PEN Center USA.

The West Coast center of PEN International — the world’s oldest international literary and human rights organization — will announce the winners of its literary awards early next month.

Pousson said he was “shocked” when he received word that his book was one of four finalists for the PEN Center USA’s literary award for fiction. The other contenders are “The Association of Small Bombs” by Karan Mahajan, “Sweet Lamb of Heaven” by Lydia Millet and “Lions” by Bonnie Nadzam.

“[‘Black Sheep Boy’] was published by Rare Bird Books, a small independent LA-based press with limited funds for advertising and promotion,” he said. “I self-funded a large part of a limited book tour. There were a couple of early reviews, but none in the regular literary review magazines. Rare Bird submitted the book to PEN—and somehow it was named a finalist.

“The book is very much about defending a queer identity that is both personally and socially queer,” Pousson continued. “It’s about a teenager who pushes against assimilation and conformity and remains an individual, which is also a fight for the Cajun culture and all people who are outsiders. That’s why this award nomination from PEN is so meaningful. It’s an organization that has always stood for and defended those on the outside.”

Pousson said the honor also has particular meaning for him as a professor at CSUN, with its rich diversity of students.

He pointed to a panel of LGBTQ writers he recently served on who were asked if the literary world still needed queer “coming-out” novels. A fellow panelist responded that he thought such books were a “generational thing” and weren’t really necessary anymore.

“I had to interject that it’s not generational, it’s geographic,” Pousson said. “You don’t have to go very far out of West Hollywood to find very young people who are outcast by their families and friends, even in 2017. We may have marriage equality, but in 28 states someone who is LGBTQ can be fired from their job or evicted from their home. There still are so many places where lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and especially transgender people are subject to extraordinary brutality.

“When I teach on our campus, this is one of the ways I connect with our diverse body of students,” he said. “Like a lot of them, I know what it means to be outside the mainstream culture. Our students are at a crossroads, are pushed to assimilate and conform as the only gateway in a market of success. But, like the protagonist in my book, they can fight to maintain their uniqueness and succeed all the more —they can succeed in a soul-satisfying way.”

Pousson called “Black Sheep Boy” “a novel in stories:” stories that tap into the Cajun Bayou of his youth — with its unique mix of races, religions, languages and cultures — and that incorporate the mythologies and legends that permeate the region.

The book’s protagonist is a misfit, an outcast and loner, but not a victim. He is the son of a mixed-race Holy Ghost mother and a Cajun-French phantom father. In a series of stories, he encounters gender outlaws, drag queen renegades and a rogues’ gallery of sex-starved priests, perverted teachers and murderous bar owners. To escape his past, he must create a new story for himself.

Pousson was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014 for a selection of interlocking stories that chronicle the sexual coming-of-age of a young, mixed-race man in the bayous of Louisiana. The fellowship helped Pousson turn those stories into what is now “Black Sheep Boy.”

The book was inspired by a short story Pousson wrote about a young gay man escorting a girl to their high school prom.

“I remember sharing the story with close friends,” Pousson said last year upon the release of his book. “One of them turned to me with a question: ‘What about the girl?’ It was a great question to raise. It was absolutely right. My field of vision was so limited, it troubled me. I had to find a way to write stories about a boy coming out in that era and against all that adversity, and yet to write the stories not squarely and solely about him.”

Pousson said in 2016 that he hoped his book, which falls into the “fabulism” school of writing, not only captures the boy’s experience, but also “the experience of the place and everyone who occupies it.

“It’s not just about a queer boy, but also a queer place — an outsider boy living in an outsider culture,” he said. “The magic in the book arises not just out of a place but also out of a person growing up as an other, a gender outlaw, with all the horrible, traumatic elements of that experience. For those who grow up gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual or intersex, there is a duality to how you live, to how you dream and yet still tether yourself to reality.”

Jill Razani (Psychology) has received $108,750 from the NIH in support of a project entitled “Predictors of Functional Ability in MCI.”

California State University, Northridge President Dianne F. Harrison highlighted the numerous accomplishments of the university’s faculty, students and staff in her annual Welcome Address to the university Aug. 24, and presented the opportunities and challenges of the new academic year that began Aug. 26.

With nearly 40,000 students anticipated this fall, Harrison affirmed that all employees play a role in “Matadors Rising” — the title of Harrison’s speech and the name of CSUN’s student success campaign to help more students earn degrees and realize their potential.

“With student success as the university’s number one priority — ‘Matadors Rising’ is an effort to which everyone on campus, regardless of our role, department or division — can and does contribute,” she said.

Spotlighting the accolades and milestones that occurred during the past academic year, Harrison linked these initiatives and programs to student success.

“I ask all of you to remain focused on our commitment to our students and to excellence — to doing what you have always done with great dedication in meeting the needs of our students, and to produce graduates who are engaged and prepared to lead in today’s increasingly global world.”

Harrison opened her remarks by welcoming the audience to CSUN’s newly renamed Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Performing Arts (formerly Valley Performing Arts Center) following a transformative $17 million gift from the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation in July — one of the largest in the history of the CSU and the system’s largest single gift in support of the arts. The gift will support the first-class performances and student engagement opportunities at the center, which will use the shortened name “The Soraya.”

The speech outlined the university’s planning priorities — from student success to using athletics as a tool for student, community and regional engagement — with particular focus throughout on student success and boosting graduation rates.

In two of many campus highlights and examples of academic success, Harrison praised CSUN students who have developed applications to improve accessibility and quality of life for people with disabilities, as part of technology and entrepreneurship competitions: In the university’s second annual Fast Pitch competition, CSUN undergraduates Edgar Limon, Arvin Flores and Jasmine Beeman developed “smart script” internet code to help visually impaired people better navigate through websites. And in the Information Technology-sponsored VARJAM event, student Miranda Taylor took first place for her “Adventure VR” virtual reality program that helps those with mobility challenges experience nature by bringing it to them.

CSUN’s record-breaking 2017 graduating class of 11,500 will be followed by 10,000 new students this fall. Harrison emphasized a number of innovative campus initiatives that focus on using data to improve CSUN graduation rates and student success, as part of the graduation goals for the year 2025 set forth by the CSU chancellor’s office and the CSU board of trustees.

“I would encourage every faculty member to use our data tools to examine your own results, especially for opportunity gaps,” Harrison said. “Do not rest or feel confident until you have examined your own course data and can in good conscience say, ‘I am reaching and effective with all of my students.’ Make use of new technologies and approaches that relate better to our growing and diverse millennial generation.”

During her remarks, Harrison also struck a more somber note, reflecting the divided and unsettled mood in the country following this month’s violence in Charlottesville, Va.

“Diversity and inclusion are campus priorities and should be explicit in all our endeavors,” Harrison said. “We have to openly and repeatedly reject hate and bigotry in any and all forms.”

Toward the conclusion of her address, Harrison drew the greatest applause from the assembled faculty and staff by speaking about CSUN’s commitment to its values, regardless of the changing political landscape.

“I will not back down from facing white extremists and naming names: neo-Nazis, the KKK and a White House administration that seems so far not to be aligned with the values and goals that we hold at CSUN and the CSU (California State University),” she said.

Philosophy professor Adam Swenson, president of the Faculty Senate, opened the program by welcoming new faculty members, staff and leadership. Jonathan Goldenberg, president of Associated Students, also gave greetings on behalf of CSUN’s students.

“My successes and who I am as a person are a direct result of the experiences I had at this university,” Goldenberg said. “New lives are made here at CSUN.”

Click here for the full text or to watch a video of President Harrison’s address.

The focus of the California State University, Northridge 2017-18 academic year will be to build on the initial successes of “Matadors Rising,” the campuswide campaign to boost graduation rates.

This message was delivered by CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison and Provost Yi Li in separate talks Aug. 21 at the annual Department Chairs and Deans Retreat. More than 100 university leaders, including department chairs, associate deans and deans of CSUN’s nine colleges and library, and administrators, met in Nobbs Auditorium and other rooms in Sequoia Hall to prepare for the upcoming academic year.

At this same retreat one year ago, Harrison announced new goals for student success by the year 2025, set forth by the California State University (CSU) chancellor’s office and the CSU Board of Trustees. CSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025 is designed to raise retention and graduation rates and eliminate opportunity gaps systemwide.

CSUN has taken numerous steps to meet campus-specific goals, which include increasing four- and six-year freshman graduation rates by at least 16 percentage points and the two- and four-year transfer graduation rates by at least 10 percentage points by 2025.

CSUN is also working to eliminate the opportunity gap between traditionally underserved students — African-American, Latina/o and Native American — and their white and Asian-American counterparts, and between low-income and higher-income students. The university also has worked to highlight the benefits of taking 15 credits per semester or 30 per year to reduce time to graduation.

“I will say that so far in the past year, we’ve made demonstrable progress,” Harrison said. “We have invested strategically in the people and the systems to help us meet these goals.”

Early results are encouraging, Harrison said, even as they illustrate the challenges at hand:

• Four-year graduation rates for first-time freshmen have increased by an estimated 1 percentage point
• Two-year graduation rates for transfer students have increased by approximately 3 percentage points
• Average credit loads for freshmen and sophomores have increased to more than 13 units

Harrison, who kicked off the retreat with an opening address, and Li, who provided closing remarks, did not downplay the challenge in helping an increasing number of students complete degrees in targeted timeframes. But university officials outlined concrete steps already taken, such as hiring 11 student-retention specialists, providing summer completion grants to help students graduate and offering grants to students experiencing unexpected financial problems.

CSUN is reviewing its system, section by section, course by course, looking for areas that can be addressed to help students get to the finish line. Faculty were encouraged to use data tools and dashboards, including CSUN Counts, and data from their own courses to identify opportunity gaps and to adjust teaching methods.

Moreover, CSUN is working to ensure that degrees continue to be rigorous and meaningful, with curriculum designed to provide skills needed in the professional world, Harrison said.

“I would challenge yourselves and your faculty to ask: Am I reaching every one of my students?” Harrison said. “Until you can confidently say ‘yes,’ then I think we still have work to do.”

The retreat’s sessions included breakout groups focusing on undergraduate and graduate policies, using data to bolster student success and a session detailing the role of associate deans. A key takeaway for the retreat is for leaders to be able to explain to faculty, staff and students CSUN’s policies and procedures in an effort to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

“We’re providing information that makes them better equipped to do some of the work they do,” said Associate Vice President for Faculty Affairs Daisy Lemus, whose department takes the lead on planning the retreat. “They also develop communities at the retreat. It’s not very common we get all the chairs, all the deans, all the associate deans under one roof. They meet other people they don’t always get to see during the academic year.”

The ultimate goal of the retreat was to put academic leaders in position to help students succeed in 2017-18 and beyond.

There was a nagging itch that wouldn’t leave Betty Kradjian-Momjian ’88 (Psychology), M.S. ’92 (Counseling) soon after graduating from California State University, Northridge.

While working in the retail and wholesale food industry, she couldn’t help regularly asking her sister-in-law Nooneh Dolbashian-Kradjian ’90 (Graphic Design), a teacher at John Muir Elementary School in Glendale, what it was like being a teacher.

“I kept asking [Kradjian] how her day was and what she was doing at work. Finally, she told me to just come into the classroom and check it out,” Kradjian-Momjian said. “When I went into the classroom to volunteer, I fell in love with teaching.”

Nearly two decades and hundreds of impacted students later, Kradjian-Momjian is a 2016-17 San Francisco Teacher of the Year. She found out when she received a call from San Francisco mayor Ed Lee’s office

“When the mayor’s office called to say I received the middle school award, I was so moved and touched,” Kradjian-Momjian said. “I think part of the reason for the recognition was because of my background in psychology and counseling.”

Kradjian-Momjian, a math and science teacher at A.P. Giannini Middle School, said CSUN played a significant role in shaping how she teaches.

“My education at CSUN is the foundation on what helped me be a better teacher,” Kradjian-Momjian said. “My psychology degree is instrumental in me being successful because I can bring what I learned at CSUN into the classroom, such as knowing about child development, knowing a child’s decision-making process and knowing why students act the way they do.”

With a psychology and counseling background from CSUN, Kradjian-Momjian strongly believes in digging to find a student’s true reason for misbehaving in class. Rather than simply using discipline or sending them to the principal’s office, Kradjian-Momjian has a much more therapeutic approach.

“If a student is having a conflict, I want to sit, have a meeting and get to the root cause of what’s wrong,” Kradjian-Momjian said. “Students have told me before that it’s the first time someone has actually wanted to find out why they are angry. At the end of the meeting, I find students are mostly apologetic, saying ‘Hey, man, that’s my bad.’”

This unique teaching style is one reason Kradjian-Momjian believes she was recognized by the San Francisco School District.

“I think I adhere to this way of communicating with not just my students, but with adults in the workplace as well,” Kradjian-Momjian said. “I implemented this practice at our school and I feel that people on the district level notice that it’s not something I just preach, but something I practice.”

According to Kradjian-Momjian, CSUN played a pivotal role in her understanding on how kids behave in the classroom.

“When I was a novice student, I thought it was the kid’s fault for misbehaving and that something was wrong with the child,” Kradjian-Momjian said. “My education at CSUN was valuable because it enforced the belief that the child isn’t necessarily the issue, but it’s the family dynamic. The child is exhibiting symptoms of what’s going on in the family.”

Soraya Fallah stepped up to a podium in the Anaheim Convention Center and spoke for the voiceless.

Her subject: children with disabilities from Middle Eastern, North African and Southwest Asian backgrounds. Many of them grew up in war zones, in countries such as Iran, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Sudan and Syria. Some are born with physical, mental and emotional disabilities. Other injuries and issues were born of explosions and gunfire.

When these children come to the United States, they are frequently placed in special education classes with students — and, often, teachers — whose cultures and experiences are far different from their own. Even students from Middle Eastern, North African and Southwest Asian backgrounds born in the U.S. face language and cultural barriers to a quality education, Fallah said.

Before Fallah ’17 (Ed.D., Educational Leadership and Policy Studies) began her research at California State University, Northridge, there was almost no information to guide these students’ teachers. The children represent a population so invisible it has never been properly counted. Fallah had to coin an acronym for the region: MENASWA (Middle Eastern, North African and Southwest Asian).

On Aug. 20, Fallah spoke at the Multicultural Education Conference in Anaheim. Addressing teachers, teachers-in-training, education professors and school administrators from around the country, she provided tips on how to reach these students and help unlock their potential.

“If we don’t have any information about a population, how can we hear them?” Fallah said. “How can we craft a plan to help these individuals? If you don’t know where they come from, how can we ask a question to help them? Their unique situation warrants an understanding by all educators who may work with them and their families.”

By helping Fallah publish and present her findings, CSUN is amplifying a voice others have tried to silence. Fallah has spent her life speaking up for children’s rights, women’s rights and human rights in the Middle East, and she was even imprisoned in Iran for her political activism. As she reaches an audience of educators and policy makers with the power to make change, her CSUN dissertation, Giving Voice to an Invisible Population, could positively impact the lives of children across the planet.

Finding Her Voice

Fallah, 50, has seen firsthand the physical and emotional tolls that war takes on soldiers and civilians alike.

She was born the third of seven children in Baneh, a small city in a mountainous area of northwestern Iran on the Iraq border. Baneh is part of the Kurdistan region, which also includes parts of Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Fallah’s Kurdish heritage put her at odds with the Iranian government in the 1980s and 1990s, when she was a teen and young adult, as Kurdish forces clashed with the Iranian government.

In the 1980s, Iran was also at war with Iraq. When she was 21, her younger brother was wounded during his mandatory service for the Iranian army. Shrapnel is still lodged in his legs. He dealt with emotional scars as well.

“A child should not have to lose friends at a very young age. I lost many of them,” Fallah said. “I also saw my family grieve the loss of close relatives, neighbors and friends. A child should not be incarcerated, but by the age of 14 I had already been arrested and had witnessed many of my friends tortured and imprisoned. Some people I knew disappeared, and I still don’t know their fates.”

Facing the choice of wallowing in depression over her circumstances or fighting to change them, Fallah fought. She was first arrested for writing graffiti on a wall, “Land belongs to those who work on it.” There would be other arrests, then interrogations and torture.

Still, she worked to make her world a better place. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in international relations and law, both from Tehran Azad University. She married Michael Moradian in 1985, at age 18 (and kept her maiden name). Her daughter, Cklara, was born in 1987, and her son, Zaniar, in 1993. (Cklara Moradian is currently pursuing a Master of Social Work at CSUN.)

It wasn’t safe for them in Iran. Her family was granted political asylum, first in Azerbaijan and then in Denmark. In 1997, they moved to Los Angeles.

“From a very young age, my husband and I wanted to come to the United States,” Fallah said. “There are so many opportunities. We wanted to pursue our education and be free. We wanted to raise our voices about what we believe.”

Fighting with Education 

It would be years before she returned to school. Her time, mental energy and economic resources were taken up by her two children and activism through organizations such as Amnesty International, which often led her to travel to conferences across the globe. She also made a career in social work.

As her children finished up their own bachelor’s degrees, in 2014 Fallah applied and was accepted to numerous doctoral programs. CSUN, with its emphasis on education policy and practical research, was her first choice.

“I decided to make education something in my hand I fight with,” Fallah said. “So much of a child’s future is shaped by the quality of schooling they receive. If you educate those children or help those children get educated, that’s the best way to help.”

Her professors at CSUN, including Wendy Murawski, chair of CSUN’s Center for Teaching and Learning, first helped her narrow down her research focus to a manageable topic.

“She wanted to save the world,” Murawski said.

Fallah gathered data through a survey that was open to current U.S. residents, age 18 and older, from a MENASWA background, related to students with special needs or disabilities. The survey was sent to 8,000 random households, 123 schools and 200 organizations located in cities known to have large MENASWA populations. She promoted her work on a blog and on social media. Members of her target communities referred their friends and family.

Fallah was sensitive to the historical and ongoing conflicts in the region, stating in bold-faced type that her study was intended to be inclusive of all ethnic and religious groups.

At the beginning of the project, Fallah and her professors thought they’d be happy to receive 100 valid surveys. She received 267. She heard from families of children with autism, physical disabilities caused by war and emotional issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. She also interviewed 13 families, conducting in-depth interviews in person or by phone, giving her subjects a chance to get comfortable and open up about the challenges they’d faced.

“One of the grandmas cried and said, ‘This is the first time I’ve been able to talk about my grandchild,’” Fallah said.

Fallah’s son, Zaniar, a professional in computational statistics and statistics research, helped her analyze her study results and ensure its integrity.

“I was really impressed with the level of support not only of her immediate family but also her community,” Murawski said. “It’s very clear people are interested. That speaks to both Soraya herself and to the population. They’re interested in having a voice. They really want to make sure their children are getting the best services they possibly can.”

Surprising Results

Fallah’s research uncovered surprises. The U.S. Census currently does not have an ethnic category for people of Middle Eastern or North African descent — these individuals are typically counted as “white.” When Fallah conducted a pilot survey almost two years ago, 95 percent of participants were in favor of being counted under their own ethnic category (which is likely for the 2020 Census). But in recent months, given the shifting political climate in the U.S., attitudes have changed and Fallah’s subjects no longer want their own category.

“It’s safer to be under the white category,” Fallah said.

Other key study findings: As survey respondents’ income and English proficiency dropped, so did their families’ satisfaction with American schools. It’s hard to ask for services when you don’t speak the language, Fallah said. There are also cultural stigmas in some MENASWA families that prevent families from asking for help.

Now that Fallah has conducted in-depth research about MENASWA students with disabilities, she is working with CSUN to help tell those stories.

CSUN will publish her 340-page dissertation, and her professors will help her submit excerpts of her research to peer-reviewed journals. Her professors have helped her apply to present at conferences, and provided a coach who helped her prepare for her presentations and the questions she might receive. Currently, Fallah and Murawski are co-authoring a book chapter already accepted for a book on Social Justice and Education.

Fallah’s work has been covered by media outlets in different languages throughout the world. She was even contacted by the mayor of an Iraqi province who believed her work could benefit students there.

The Anaheim conference gave her the chance to provide educators with steps for more effective work with MENASWA families, such as recognizing specific issues and increasing cultural understanding. Her presentation will directly improve the lives of students in classes across the country, and education professors who heard her speak will also be able to share her tips with classes full of future educators.

“Educators should know where those kids come from,” Fallah said. “They should know: what is the history and story of their life when they arrived in this country? Maybe the child has no education, maybe he has PTSD, maybe he doesn’t know English. I know it’s hard, but we can start learning — we cannot ignore those experiences.”

At this year’s California State University, Northridge eLearning Showcase, faculty demonstrated how technology can enhance the learning experience of students in the classroom. Presentations included Abraham Rutchick’s Hybrid 2.0: Real-time Online Section (ROS), Kaitlin Bahr’s BioStatsBuddy app and Sally Spencer’s Interactive Simulations: Bridging the Gap Between Course and Career. In this series, CSUN Today profiles each of these projects. This story looks at psychology professor Abraham Rutchick’s Hybrid 2.0: Real-time Online Section (ROS).

Hybrid 2.0: Real-time Online Section (ROS) uses Zoom, an app containing video and audio, slides and a chat window for students to ask questions.

In Rutchick’s class, the use of Zoom increased students’ engagement. Those who were not able to make it to campus or have a far commute could take the course from a distance or watch lectures online, increasing the attendance and participation online. A chat option also allowed them to participate in class by letting them ask questions through a moderator.

He observed the increase in participation online during one class.

“What I did was I had two concurrent sections,” said Rutchick. “[At first] I taught my normal class with 150 people, and I tried to keep it exactly the same. So I was teaching these [150] students, and concurrently, there was a student in the back with a laptop — [the] moderator — filming me, and there were 48 more students online somewhere, watching and engaging with the class at the same time.”

He also conducted a survey to support his claim. Students rated how much they learned in a previous online class, and they voted 3.5/5. Students then rated Rutchick’s class with Zoom, and they rated 4.3/5.

The live video and audio allowed ROS students and students in the classroom to learn synchronously, increasing the students’ sense of community  The chat window also allowed students to ask Rutchick questions on information that they didn’t catch the first time or didn’t quite understand. In this way, students developed a professional connection with Rutchick. Additionally, answering students’ questions benefited both ROS students and students in the classroom when it came to tests.

“[Zoom] was meant to create a course in which online students have more of a sense of community, of connection with me and with other students,” he said.

Rutchick’s survey on students demonstrated how effective the use of Zoom was when it came to student-to-student and professor-to-student connections.

Students rated how well they connected with their last online instructor and agreed on 3.2/5. Students then rated how well they connected with Rutchick, and they agreed on 4.2/5. Students also rated their sense of community in the past class, for an average score of 2.9/5. ROS Students rated Rutchick’s class 4.1/5.

Hillary Kaplowitz, Instructional Design & Multimedia Services lead at the Faculty Technology Center, assisted Rutchick’s project, and she praised his work for accommodating all of his students.

“Abe used technology to increase the number of students he can teach beyond the limits of the seats in the classroom,” said Kaplowitz. “In this way, it allowed Abe to provide access to more students, which benefits everyone involved.”

For more information on Hybrid 2.0: Real-time Online Section (ROS), please contact abraham.rutchick@csun.edu

At this year’s California State University, Northridge eLearning Showcase, faculty demonstrated how technology can enhance the learning experience of students in the classroom. Presentations included Abraham Rutchick’s Hybrid 2.0: Real-time Online Section (ROS), Kaitlin Bahr’s BioStatsBuddy app and Sally Spencer’s Interactive Simulations: Bridging the Gap Between Course and Career. In this series, CSUN Today profiles each of these projects. This story looks at Kaitlin Bahr’s BioStatsBuddy app.

Biostatistics is an academic hurdle all health science majors must conquer at California State University, Northridge. A required course for all health science majors including: public health, health administration, and radiological majors. Biostatics covers the principles, theory and practice of statistical analysis in health. Ultimately, students are taught how to use those concepts in health planning, epidemiological research and experimental research.

To ease students’ journey through the course, CSUN Department of Health and Human Development professor Kaitlin Bahr created an app to simplify its concepts. The app, BioStatsBuddy, is intended to improve students’ ability to solve equations, improve memorization of formulas and better prepare for exams.

“BioStatsBuddy is a tool for students taking the course to get additional practice,” Bahr said. “It’s there to help them with calculations, additional learning problems and to help them in class.”

Bahr said she was thrilled to learn that the university’s Faculty Technology Center (FTC) could help her create the app, with the help of student app developers. It was her first foray into app development, she noted.

“It was great working with Greg Mena, a former staff member from the FTC,” said Bahr. “A team of students and staff [worked] on the app, and meeting with them was like putting together a storyboard animation project.”

Once the app was ready to go in May of 2016, Bahr and the students put it through two beta testing rounds, collecting feedback from [other] CSUN students. The first round was done during the summer of 2016 with eight students and the second round was completed the spring of 2017 during the lab portion of [Bahr’s] biostatistics class.

“The students told us about what components they liked, including the ease of the app and that it was [an] all-in-one application, instead of multiple websites and other apps,” Bahr said. “It’s a nice, easy tool to help them.”

The professor presented the new app at CSUN’s eLearning Lecture in May, a showcase that featured concepts for thoughtful integration of technology and pedagogy. The event also showcased the projects of eight other professors.

“I felt honored to have the app showcased,” said Bahr. “It was great after working on the app for the last year. I appreciate and value this opportunity, and the work and commitment from the FTC, students and the support of the faculty.”

Bahr said she hopes the app will be updated to a second version with more features. “My hope is to expand it for increasing student engagement to help understand the material and add more practice problems,” said Bahr.

CSUN biology professor Jonathan Kelber makes cancer cell samples to analyze in his lab. Photo by Lee Choo.

This summer Jonathan Kelber, an associate professor of biology at California State University, Northridge, traded the palm trees of Northridge for the ivy of Cambridge, Mass., and the hallowed halls of Harvard University. The CSUN researcher and mentor had a rare (for college professors) opportunity for professional development and to become a mentee himself for 12 weeks, serving as a visiting professor in the Department of Cell Biology and and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at Harvard Medical School.

In May, the American Society for Cell Biology Minorities Affairs Committee awarded Kelber a visiting professorship, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award sent Kelber to work with Joan Brugge, one of the world’s foremost cancer researchers and director of Harvard’s Ludwig Institute.

The grant program is designed to partner cell biology faculty from minority-serving institutions such as CSUN with established researchers at larger “R1” institutions — schools classified as doctoral universities that engage in extensive research. The visiting professorship aims to establish pathways for collaboration on grants and publications, Kelber said.

The other coup for the CSUN community, he said, is that Brugge will visit CSUN to give a guest lecture sometime this academic year.

“Work from Dr. Brugge and her trainees over the years has undoubtedly transformed cancer research,” said Kelber, who returned from Brugge’s Harvard lab on Aug. 25. “Early in her career, she identified a protein called Src kinase. Kinases are enzymes that catalyze different processes in the body, in cells. This discovery was huge, as Src kinase is a major culprit in many, many cancers. So, discovering that protein laid the foundation for a lot of research from her own group and others.”

Starting in late May, Kelber spent the summer working in Brugge’s lab on new avenues of research that complement the ongoing work in his CSUN research lab in Chaparral Hall, which includes a team of biology undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral trainees.

“It was very exhilarating — it was nice for me to go back [to Harvard] and be in that environment, where everyone’s thinking at a very, very fast pace about these critical problems in the field of oncology,” he said. “It ends up being very productive.”

Kelber and his summer collaborators aimed to develop a system to study how breast cancer cells interact with non-tumor cells. As they manipulated various cell combinations and treated the cells with different anti-cancer drugs and therapies, Kelber, Brugge and their Harvard colleagues found that all the non-tumor cells surrounding the cancer cells they studied were co-opted and “used as shields,” Kelber said.

“We found that the presence of these non-tumor cells completely prevents the drugs from working,” he said. “Next, we want to determine why — what is changing in these cells, so we can possibly identify new vulnerabilities in these [tumor] cells that could either re-sensitize them to approved therapies, or that could be used as new targets to kill the tumor cells directly.”

Some unexpected benefits of his summer at Harvard, Kelber said, were the professional relationships he was able to forge with the staff of “junior scientists” training in Brugge’s lab — scientists doing postdoctoral programs who are on a path to start their own research labs at other institutions.

The summer was especially busy, as Kelber balanced the new research onsite at Harvard with managing and overseeing projects, progress and personnel in his CSUN lab via email and Skype.

In 2015, Kelber and his CSUN team identified a critical “support wall” gene in breast cancer called PEAK1. They published the results of their research in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) One and Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (BBRC) journals. These reports were the first ever to show that the PEAK1 gene is essential to tumor cell stability at the earliest stages of aggressive breast cancer metastasis.

Metastasis is the process of cancer cells moving from their original source — in this case the breast — to other parts of the body through the bloodstream and forming malignant tumors elsewhere. (In January 2017, the NIH awarded Kelber and his team $1.46 million over the next four years to support their ongoing studies of PEAK1 in this context.)

When Kelber established his lab at CSUN in 2012, his team also took on some serious challenges related to pancreatic cancer, including how it forms, therapy resistance and metastatic progression.

“One of the things about pancreatic cancer that makes it so deadly is that it’s rarely detected early,” Kelber said of those research efforts. “It’s one of very few cancers that have a five-year survival rate that’s less than 10 percent (at less than 7 percent for pancreatic cancer). This means that within five years of being diagnosed, nearly 95 percent of patients will die. Unlike breast cancer, which is commonly diagnosed early — and if so, the survival rate is nearly 100 percent — pancreatic cancer is both difficult to detect early and to treat or cure even when detected early.”

On Aug. 30, the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports (by Nature Publishing) published the group’s pancreatic cancer study demonstrating that a new gene, ITGA1, may be used to detect the earliest stages of pancreatic cancer and as a target to prevent the progression of this deadly disease. This most recent report was the culmination of five years’ work by Kelber’s lab trainees, including primary authors Armen Gharibi (now working at Thermo Fisher Scientific in LA) and Sa La Kim, a 2017 CSUN Presidential Scholar and past participant in CSUN’s Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program. This year, Kim is continuing her research on ITGA1, as part of her graduate studies at CSUN under Kelber’s guidance, before applying to M.D./Ph.D. programs.

At this year’s California State University, Northridge eLearning Showcase, faculty demonstrated how technology can enhance the learning experience of students in the classroom. Presentations included Abraham Rutchick’s Hybrid 2.0: Real-time Online Section (ROS), Kaitlin Bahr’s BioStatsBuddy app and Sally Spencer’s Interactive Simulations: Bridging the Gap Between Course and Career. In this series, CSUN Today profiles each of these projects. This story explores assistant professor of psychology Stefanie Drew’s video iPads in Large Classes: Increasing Student Engagement.

It’s won acclaim on campus and recognition from industry leaders since debuting in 2013, but in the past academic year, the myCSUNtablet initiative really has gained traction among faculty and students at California State University, Northridge.

To call attention to new tools available, assistant professor of psychology Stefanie Drew earlier this year presented what’s available in iPad technology for CSUN students and faculty members in her video. 

The myCSUNtablet program aims to engage CSUN students with digital learning material at reduced costs — as opposed to sitting in traditional courses and purchasing textbooks. ​myCSUNtablet enables students and professors to have a better interaction during and outside of class.

Drew, who uses myCSUNtablet in some of her psychology courses, said that iPads allow her to offer more in-class assignments.

“It’s far easier for students to upload assignments in class, since the iPad is already linked up to [Canvas], the campus’ learning management system,” Drew said. “I can do more engaging activities, and we don’t lose time writing down ID numbers.”

She explained that to involve her students in class, she leaves blanks in her notes, which they fill out together during class time, and she plays games on Kahoot! — a website where an unlimited number of “players” are asked questions about the class subject in a game-like learning environment.

“By filling in the blanks, [students] are physically doing active learning, which the literature shows is more effective for students to learn, as opposed to passive learning,” Drew said. “There are a number of apps we use to engage with material, as well as online resources such as the resource Kahoot! It’s almost like a game show, which students really enjoy.”

Students who are unable to make her on-campus office hours can use their iPads to engage with her through Zoom, a video chat app, Drew added. Zoom allows users to share documents and make comments on those documents, much like what would happen during in-person office hours.

“I can now Zoom with any of my students,” she said. “I still have my regular office hours, but not everyone can make it to campus then, [especially those with longer commutes]. I’ve had Saturday night office hours because students have their iPad, and [all they need is WiFi].”

Dominic Ceroni ’16 (Psychology), a student in one of Drew’s iPad classes, said he enjoyed the integration of iPads in his class for more than one reason.

“[Having an iPad in the classroom] creates an innovative and interactive experience for every single person in the class,” Ceroni said. “This is something that is especially useful when you’re in a class of 200. It makes you feel more involved and a part of the learning experience. I would without a doubt recommend the class to any fellow student.”

Some argue that having technology in the classroom is distracting, but Drew points out that this isn’t necessarily the case.

“There’s a misconception that [technology] is going to distract students and take away from their learning,” Drew said. “Being distracted in class is nothing new, even before iPads. I purposely do multiple activities in every class, so it’s very hard for [students] to do something else because they have to be engaged with the material.”

The myCSUNtablet initiative won the national Apple Distinguished Program award in 2015 and the Apple Distinguished School Award in 2017.

CSUN is also helping combat the expense of the technology. Currently, the classes that use iPads and the myCSUNtablet program are in CSUN’s Departments of Biology, Journalism, Kinesiology, Psychology, Physical Therapy and Public Health, and several in the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Students within those departments have a few options for getting an iPad to use in class. They can arrange a payment plan with University Cash Services that includes the cost of the iPad in their tuition, and take the tablet with them when they graduate.

This is not an affordable option for every student, however, so there are also tablets available to be checked out at the Delmar T. Oviatt Library. Students can borrow these tablets at no charge for seven consecutive days, and take the tablets with them to class.

Additionally, some of the departments that participate in the myCSUNtablet initiative also have tablets that students can check out. Drew said that the array of options for obtaining a tablet was necessary since CSUN “wanted to make sure that every student has that option, one way or another, to have that device in their hands.”

Drums thumped and Aztec dancers moved to the rhythm of a beat. Fists punched skyward and purposeful chants filled the air. The throng of people walked briskly from Boyle Heights on the way to Downtown LA.

The group was protesting a potential prison being built in its neighborhood. mark! Lopez M.A. ’15 (Chicana/Chicano Studies) was young at the time — so young that he was pushed in a stroller during the protest.

It’s his first memory of a group of people coming together to fight for themselves.

More than 20 years later, Lopez would continue to find himself in the struggle.

Through community organizing, protests and gathering support of government officials, the community rid the neighborhood of battery recycler Exide Technologies’ plant in Vernon.

For decades, the plant emitted toxic pollutants, most notably lead, into the air, soil, and water. Lead has been found to damage the brain, kidneys, liver, and other organs. According to the Los Angeles County Health Agency, children under 6 years old and pregnant women are at a higher risk for lead poisoning. Thousands of homes in East LA and Southeast LA were affected by the emissions, with Lopez saying more than 100,000 people could have been harmed.

For his work over the years, especially with the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ) team, Lopez in April received The Goldman Environmental Prize — touted as the world’s largest award honoring grassroots environmental activists. Six people are honored annually — one each from six continental regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands & Island Nations including Australia, North America, and South & Central America.

Much of what shaped Lopez was a family dedicated to righting wrongs. But along the path, his years at CSUN helped elevate his thoughts and actions further.

“Being mentored by the faculty in the Chicana/Chicano Studies department — from people involved in movements for decades, being able to bounce ideas off each other and analyze together both contemporary and historically, it showed me the importance of context,” Lopez said. “A lot of the work we do, folks just think it’s about just today. But you have to look at it in the context of all the issues that exist in our communities in a temporal way as well, because this is a culmination.”

Lopez’s roots in activism run deep into the soil of East LA. His grandmother Juana Beatríz Gutiérrez is an iconic figure in the area, having fought with her husband Ricardo for social and environmental justice for decades. She is a co-founder of the groundbreaking Mothers of East LA activism group that helped derail plans for a prison, toxic waste incinerator and oil pipeline in the East LA area. Gutiérrez’s Mothers of East Los Angeles Collection is housed in CSUN’s Oviatt Library.

Lopez’s mother, Elsa, continued the tradition and was active in the Mothers of East LA. In the mid-1990s, Lopez’s mother and grandmother toured the Exide site, and it elevated their worry about the dangers of lead to the community. Lopez remembers being 10 years old and knocking on doors to inform the neighborhood about the long-term effects of exposure to lead.

He was a senior in high school when he organized his first protest — a walkout to protest the war in Iraq. He said nearly half of the school’s students participated in the walkout, though he and a friend were the only students not to run back into the school when threatened with expulsion.

After high school he earned a degree in environmental studies from UC Santa Cruz, but he desired further education to contextualize what the learned through the Chicana/Chicano Studies lenses.

“Chicana/Chicano Studies at CSUN is the premier program and has the largest faculty, the most diverse faculty, the most course offerings, so I was like, this is the place I need to be,” Lopez said.

Lopez began attending CSUN in 2008.

It was during this year that pressure began to mount considerably for Exide. Air quality officials ordered the company to cut production levels in half. However, Exide, despite being fined numerous times for health violations, remained in operation.

In the spring of 2014, elevated levels of lead were found in the soil of homes and a preschool near the plant. Finally, in 2015, Exide agreed to permanently close the plant to avoid criminal charges.

The EYCEJ team continued to apply pressure to state officials to accelerate cleanup by mobilizing community residents to lobby legislators in Sacramento.

Lopez and other activists were critical of the governor’s office for what they perceived as slow response to Exide in comparison to the action taken to plug the Porter Ranch gas leak (Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency 2 ½ months after the leak was discovered).

Lopez, as many community members, believes the foundation of the Exide issue is race. Because East LA is a predominantly Latino community with less affluence than other Los Angeles communities, their example being Porter Ranch, state action was largely absent in their neighborhood.

Their voices were heard.

In April 2016, Gov. Brown signed legislation authorizing $176.6 million for cleanup.

EYCEJ continues to fight for more. They want to push the area of testing and cleanup beyond what was determined to be the radius affected by Exide — from 1.7 miles to 4.5 miles. Lopez lives about 2 ½ miles from the plant and says he has elevated levels of lead there. He is raising a family with two young daughters, so it’s very personal to him.

“How do we understand what it means to poison a community for multiple generations? What does that do to a community?” he asked. “So we definitely need these resources for early education programs and really that academic support from K-12 and college and re-entry programs for folks who have been locked up and come back to ensure they transition back to our communities.”

Lopez cited numerous studies that have linked high exposure to lead to violence and low educational attainment.

“All of these need to be addressed as we look forward and still try to stay on top of the (Department of Toxic Substances Control),” Lopez continued. “Because we need to ensure accountability.”

Lopez’s passion and work led to his recognition. The Goldman Award has also been referred to as the “Green Nobel Prize.” Lopez said it’s bigger than him.

“More than anything it’s an opportunity to lift up a story and hope folks see that and think there’s nothing (different) about East LA or Southeast LA,” said Lopez of the significance of the award. “Everyday community folks are fighting back over long periods of time and are being successful at fighting back and protecting our communities. My hope is when you look at East LA — it’s a historical brown community — but when you look at other parts of the country there are a lot of communities that are newer immigrant communities that haven’t been around 100 years or whatever time. My hope is as they’re building their community, that they see fighting back and protecting their community as what needs to be done and hope they learn from the story of Exide and take that and create their own justice in their own community.”

While growing up in north Miami Beach, Fla., in the 1980s, California State University, Northridge communication studies professor Bernardo Attias encountered the Confederate flag and the rhetoric and symbols of white supremacy. As a boy, he said, he didn’t understand the divisive and violent history of those symbols.

“The Confederate flag and monuments were a part of my growing up,” Attias said. “Looking at this as a scholar today, I see the way white supremacy transfers through symbols and is coded as a rebellion. Of course, as a kid growing up with these symbols, you don’t necessarily know the history or meanings or why these civil monuments were put up.”

Does social change require protests, or does it demand a revolution or violence? Those were the questions on the minds of his students this month, the professor said. In response to protests across the nation and the recent violence around Confederate statues at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Attias opened his Rhetoric of Peace and Conflict course to the public Sept. 12 for a special lecture topic.

The lecture, Teaching in these Difficult and Divisive Times, was held at the Aronstam Library in Manzanita Hall and drew approximately 200 students. Attias focused much of his lecture on the resurgence of interest in Civil War monuments — especially those enshrining the Confederacy — and their place in United States society.

“I don’t normally research this topic, but the Charlottesville incident provoked me to visit this question due to my more personal connection to the topic,” he told the audience.

In his research, Attias found that there are more than 1,500 symbols of the Confederacy cross the U.S. that were federally funded, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He cited one statue of Robert E. Lee located in Charlottesville, Va., that was built in 1924, decades after the Civil War ended. That time period (the 1920s) coincided with the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and increasing fear of the loss of white supremacy, he said.

Attias also pointed out that there has been a continuous resurgence of building these statues. In 1998, for example, white nationalist Jack Kershaw designed a statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general, and the monument was erected in Memphis, Tenn.

A new social movement to take down or rename these structures is gaining momentum, Attias said.

“We are looking at public versus privately owned Confederate symbols, and how people have the freedom of speech to speak their minds — whether it is with a flag or a symbol,” he said. “The question is, should the state and the public be funding and maintaining any of these [monuments]?”

The lecture, one in a series, was sponsored by the Department of Communication Studies. Journalism student Blanca Palacios, who attended the lecture, said what she learned about the number of Confederate statues still standing was disheartening.

“The statues [being] up still is definitely overwhelming,” Palacios said. “Just the fact that people can still think that way and still have that opinion.”

Attias also went into detail about schools and parks that are named after Confederate leaders, and petitions to rename these public institutions. He noted the example of a school in Long Beach, Calif., renamed in 2016 from Robert E. Lee to Olivia Herrera Elementary, after the founder of Centro Shalom who passed away in 2002. Centro Shalom provides assistance to poverty-stricken neighborhoods in the Long Beach area.

Attias also showed news clips of President Donald Trump talking about the events at Charlottesville, a VICE news reporter interviewing a white supremacist and visuals of statues being pulled down by protesters.

During the lecture, participants raised the topic of controversial speakers coming to college campuses. Attias recommended that in those cases, students divert attention by creating an event on campus to bring students together.

“We need to come up with more creative ways to reshape the debate,” he said. “One of the things that I’ve heard is to ignore them. They’re coming to campus? OK, let’s create an alternative event and have everyone come to ours instead.”

Attias closed the lecture by discussing the appropriate rhetoric to look at Civil War monuments and fostering open discussion. He said that reframing the debate pulls the rug out from under white suprematists, whereas fighting them directly (especially in a violent manner) gives them exactly the attention they want and feeds their image of themselves as oppressed.

English professor Martin Pousson, has won the 2017 PEN Center USA Fiction Award.

A “fabulist” coming-of-age novel about a queer mixed-race boy in the bayous of Louisiana, written by California State University, Northridge English professor Martin Pousson, has won the 2017 PEN Center USA Fiction Award.

The West Coast center of PEN International — the world’s oldest international literary and human rights organization — announced today that Pousson won the award for his book “Black Sheep Boy.”

“I am so humbled and heart grateful to PEN Center USA for this incredible, unexpected honor,” Pousson said. “It means all the more to me coming from a literary foundation with an activist mission to defend the unjustly jailed, the unlawfully censored and the unfairly persecuted. PEN Center USA stands with outsiders, journalists and all writers who dare speak truth to power.”

Elizabeth Say, dean of CSUN’s College of Humanities, said Pousson’s colleagues were thrilled he was receiving the award.

“We have long known what a talented writer and teacher he is and celebrate this recognition of his talents by his peers,” she said.

The other finalists for the literary award for fiction were “The Association of Small Bombs” by Karan Mahajan, “Sweet Lamb of Heaven” by Lydia Millet and “Lions” by Bonnie Nadzam.

Pousson formally will receive his award at PEN Center USA’s 27^th Annual Literary Awards Festival on Friday, Oct. 27, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Among the evening’s activities will be the presentation of a lifetime achievement award to Margaret Atwood, author of such works as  “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Oryc and Crake,” “The Blind Assassin,” “The Robber Bride,” “The Year of the Flood,” “MaddAddam” and several others. The night also will include the presentation of the Freedom to Write Award to New York Times journalists Emily Steel and Michael Schmidt. They will receive the award from comedian and talk show host Chelsea Handler

“Black Sheep Boy” was published by Rare Birds Lit, a small, independent LA-based press with limited funds for advertising and promotion. Pousson self-funded part of a limited tour for his book, which garnered only a couple of early reviews.

“The book is very much about defending a queer identity that is both personally and socially queer,” he said. “It’s about a teenager who pushes against assimilation and conformity to remain an individual, and it’s about defending Cajun culture and all people who are outsiders.”

Pousson called “Black Sheep Boy” a novel-in-stories: stories that tap into the Cajun bayou land of his youth — with its unique mix of races, religions, languages and cultures — and that incorporate the mythologies and legends that permeate the region.

The book’s protagonist is a misfit, an outcast and a loner, but not a victim. He is the son of a mixed-race Holy Ghost mother and a Cajun-French phantom father. In a series of stories, he encounters gender outlaws, drag queen renegades, and a rogues’ gallery of sex-starved priests, perverted teachers and murderous bar owners. To escape his past, he must create a story for himself.

Pousson was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014 for a selection of interlocking stories that chronicle the sexual coming-of-age of a queer mixed-race boy in the bayous of Louisiana. The fellowship helped Pousson turn those stories into what is now “Black Sheep Boy.”

The book was inspired by a short story Pousson wrote about a gay boy escorting a girl to their high school prom.

“I remember sharing the story with close friends,” Pousson said last year upon the release of his book. “One of them turned to me with a question: ‘What about the girl?’ It was a great question to raise. It was absolutely right. The story had only been about the boy. My field of vision was so limited that it troubled me. I had to find a new way to write stories about a boy coming out in that era and against all that adversity, and yet to write those stories not squarely and solely about him.”

Pousson said in 2016 that he hoped his book, which falls into the “fabulism” school of writing, not only captures the boy’s experience, but also “the experience of the place and everyone who occupies it.

“It’s not just about a queer boy, but also about a queer place — an outsider boy living in an outsider culture,” he said. “The magic in the book arises not just out of a place but also out of a person growing up as an other, a gender outlaw, with all the horrible, traumatic elements of that experience. For those who grow up gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual or intersex, there is a duality to how you live, to how you dream and yet still tether yourself to reality.”