Senator, state officials propose platforms

By Michael Watanabe
Daily Forty-Niner

Amid some controversy, the California Faculty Association held a reception Thursday to honor and help re-elect two assembly members and a senator to help education and Cal State Long Beach.

"We want to support all three, and we want to send them back to Sacramento so they can do more things for us," said Simon George, political action chairman for the CFA. "We're all here for one thing, help to support education."

The three representatives, each of which have affiliations with CSULB, are Sen. Betty Karnette, D-Long Beach, Assemblywoman Sally Havice and Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal.

Karnette and Havice received their master's here, and Lowenthal is a psychology professor on leave of absence.

John Whittaker, a campus technician, said Lowenthal is preaching hypocrisy. When Lowenthal ran for Long Beach City Council, Whittaker said Lowenthal and other colleagues "sort of quit their job," as evidenced by the decline of a psychology program on campus.

Lowenthal said otherwise.

Everyone on the city council has another job, he said. Plus, the council meetings are weekly and at night. In fact, the campus "encourages people to be involved in the community," Lowenthal said.

Hamdi Bilici, president of the CSULB chapter of the association, said it is a distinct right.

"According to CFA contract, faculty has [the] right" to pursue outside jobs, Bilici said. It's a "contractual right."

When the reception started, each of the candidates briefly spoke on the major issues that they were running upon.

Karnett focussed on education. She said education was for everybody and wanted to make it affordable for everybody. She planned on doing this by funding scholarships for high school students, and mentioned money for the new science building on campus that was recently proposed.

Lowenthal targeted education, the environment and the community. He said that this campus had helped him listen and think analytically, which has helped him tremendously in the assembly. He had learned a lot of problem-solving skills from the university.

Havice also stressed education as she recounted her experience with Long Beach. She recalled how CSULB helped her advance from department to department. Eventually, she became a part-time community college professor, then moved to full-time. Now, as an assemblywoman, she encounters former students that live in her district.