Downstroke

Fee simple: If former Associated Students President Richard Elsom has anything to say about it, student fee increases won’t fly under the radar this year. “I’m really torn,” Elsom told the A.S. Governmental Affairs Committee at its Feb. 9 meeting. “You have a lot of homework to do. … You need to bust out those budget cuts specifically.”

All told, Chico State University students could be paying $56 a year more in fees for student programs and services after the GAC unanimously voted Feb. 9 to approve placing an $8-a-semester increase to the activity fee on the April 14-15 student ballot. Other committees are considering a $30 hike in the student union fee and an additional $10 for the instructionally related activities fee. Voters can also approve a “contingency plan” to raise the fees as much as $70 a year if the $15 billion state bond measure fails.

The GAC was about to vote without much discussion when Mario Sagastume, A.S. commissioner of activity fee, asked for a least a chat. “I mean, we’re talking about raising student fees,” he said.

Staff infection: At the beginning of the year, Enloe Medical Center was under pressure by law to meet new nurse-to-patient staffing ratios, and despite the hospital’s initial doubts, it is apparently meeting the requirements.

“It’s going as well as could be expected, given the amount of work it took to implement the law[‘s requirements],” said Ann Prater, Enloe’s public relations director, adding that that requirement has sent hospitals across the state “into a tailspin.” She said a couple of hospitals closed their doors last year, anticipating that they would not be able to meet the requirements. If found “steadfastly” out of compliance, Prater said, a hospital would be punished not by fine but by possible loss of its license to operate or restrictions on its ability to collect payments from the government.

The ratio is enforced by the Department of Health Services and by California Nursing Association monitors working in the hospitals. Prater said that as of Jan. 31 Enloe employs 644 registered nurses as compared to 622 one year ago. Another 54 are scheduled to begin work before the end of May.

Gill net: Chico activist Harjit Gill (pictured), who was arrested by the FBI last November at a Chico State event, has hired famed San Francisco attorney J. Tony Serra to defend him against pending federal perjury charges. Those charges stem from an appearance Gill made before a Sacramento Grand Jury that was investigating the activities of animal rights group Animal Liberation Front, which claimed credit for vandalizing a McDonald’s in Chico last summer. Serra has successfully defended a number of liberal activists, including Earth First!ers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney.

Gill, who was called to testify before the Grand Jury last year because he has participated in anti-war and other local protests, said the perjury charges are trumped-up and that the FBI is harassing him over his beliefs. Gill said Serra gave him a price break on his steep retainer because the lawyer believes in Gill’s innocence. Gill, who recently graduated from Chico State has still had to take out loans to help pay for his defense and is barred from traveling outside of inland Northern California. He denies any affiliation with ALF.