FULLERTON : Students Protest Plan to Cut Advisory Unit

About 75 Cal State Fullerton students who hope to go into the medical field demonstrated Friday in an effort to save the health professions advisory program from the budget ax.

“This program is the only reason I came to the school,” said Marjan Naraghi-Arani, a 20-year-old senior in biochemistry.

About 90% of the students who go through the program enter graduate schools of medicine, dentistry or optometry, according to the school’s Health Professions Office, which administers the program. About 1,000 students are in the program this year.

University administrators will meet Monday to decide whether to cut the program and close down the office to save $35,000.

“The advisory program, as good as it is, is tangential to the basic instructional program,” said Don Schweitzer, vice president for academic affairs who recommended the program as one of three that could be cut.

Naraghi-Arani, who wants to become a physician, said Cal State Fullerton was recommended to her because of the advisory program. She said she turned down UC San Diego and UC Berkeley to attend Fullerton.

“If you’re going to be a premed in Southern California, the place to be is Fullerton,” said Jim Henry, 23, who studied history at UC Berkeley before deciding to go to medical school.

The Health Professions Office helps students pick classes, find medical clinics in which to volunteer and research projects to join.

“Advising was my major concern,” said Henry, who commutes from Pasadena. “It was quite a shock to find out (the office) was closing.”

Most important, the office organizes a committee of 10 professors and two university staff members to review each student’s background and write personal recommendations. Prof. Albert Flores, who coordinates the advisory program, said the recommendations help “pave the way” for students to move on to graduate programs in the medical field.