FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 26, 2005

Contact: Tom Uribes
559.278.5366 or 246.1717

Fresno State students will hit the corners around the campus this week beginning Tuesday morning (Sept. 27) selling copies of The New York Times to raise funds for the Fresno State Hurricane Relief Project.

The Associated Students, Inc., the university’s student government arm, is working with the Times, which is donating a total of 1,000 copies of three editions: 333 each on Sept. 27, 28, and 334 on Sept. 29 that will be sold for $1 on and around the campus by participating student organizations and individuals.

Fresno State’s deans pitched in for the hurricane relief project cause by making the first purchases of the New York Times this morning. Student Affairs Vice President Paul Oliaro and Provost Jeronima Echeverria, center, show off the deans’ contributions. Some of them plan to join students on street corners around the campus during the newspaper drive Sept. 27-29.

The papers will be sold at vehicle entrances to campus, intersections near campus, in classes and at other locations. Volunteers are still being accepted to help sell the newspapers.

The Fresno State Hurricane Relief Project – launched Sept. 7 by University President John D. Welty in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast Aug. 29 – is being coordinated by the Office of Civic Engagement and Service-Learning and the Division of Student Affairs. All funds collected through the project will be disbursed to various agencies involved in the relief efforts, Welty said.

More than 15 individual projects have been or will be under way as the Fresno State community strives to meet Welty’s call for at least $1 each from the 23,000 students and employees at the university, as well as from the community. Relief projects range from student club concessions sales at the Save Mart Center, to collections in the Free Speech Area and individual offices on campus, to a raffle for Bulldog souvenir items in the Kennel Bookstore. Concerts have also been held or will be held in the near future.

The largest single endeavor so far has been by student–athletes and the Athletics Department at the Sept. 10 Bulldogs football game. Other upcoming relief events include a concert with Inner Visions on Oct. 6 presented by the University Student Union and a “Leap for Relief” event at the Fresno State Ropes Course tentatively scheduled for early October. (Full press releases with details of these events will be forthcoming with updates posted at www.FresnoStateNews.com).

Chris Fiorentino, director of the Civic Engagement office on campus who convened the initial project meeting of more than 85 students representing 65 organizations on Sept. 13, said he is compiling collection totals for the Fresno State Hurricane Relief Project and expects to provide the first report this week.

For now, the energy is being put into the newspaper sales project beginning Tuesday.
The Associated Students recruited student groups and individuals the past few days to sell the papers, which they will pick up starting at 8 a.m. at the Civic Engagement Office in Science Building I, Room 136 before heading for a destination to sell their papers for the hurricane relief cause.

Volunteers interested in helping sell may contact Fiorentino at 278.7079 or e-mail chrisf@csufresno.edu.