It¿s a common misconception that math majors are destined for education-related jobs. People are often surprised that Google and the National Security Agency recruit and hire many mathematics graduates.

¿There¿s a lot to mathematics that you probably didn¿t know,¿ says John Rock, assistant professor in the mathematics and statistics department. ¿A lot of people don¿t know exactly how many positions you can get with a math degree. They assume that they teach math in high school or college, but that¿s just a fraction.¿

Cal Poly Pomona will host the first round of basketball playoffs Tuesday night at Kellogg Gym. The women¿s game vs. Cal State L.A. starts at 5:30 p.m., and the men¿s game vs. CSU Stanislaus begins at 7:30 p.m.

The women¿s team, defending champs of the conference tournament, will look to reach that goal once again. The Broncos own a four-game winning streak, a stretch that included a 73-56 victory over Cal State L.A. last Wednesday.

The men¿s basketball team comes off a wild regular season finale over CSU Dominguez Hills. The Broncos won 60-58 after a Mitchell Anderson three-quarter court shot at the buzzer in double overtime.

Admission is free to the first 1,000 students, as well as for faculty and staff who show their Bronco ID. The Office of the President, Office of Vice President for Student Affairs, ASI and Intercollegiate Athletics have sponsored the 1,000 free student tickets and all faculty/staff tickets. Because the tournament is sponsored by the CCAA Conference, there is a charge for general admission. Ticketing opens at 4:30 p.m.

In his weekly message, President Ortiz thanks the campus community for their heartfelt condolences.

The president also talks about attending Corona Community AME Church with Pastor Charles Lee-Johnson this past Sunday. His visit was part of the CSU's annual Super Sunday program, whose goal is to share information about college, applying to the CSU and financial aid with African American churches across California.

There great news in Bronco Athletics. The men's basketball team had an exciting finish at the final regular season game last week. The men's and women's teams head to the playoffs Tuesday night at Kellogg Gym.

Engineering technology alumnus Tony Marraccino and his wife, Terri, have made a generous planned gift that will equally benefit the Rose Float program, the College of Engineering and a maintenance fund for the university.

As longtime donors to the university, the couple say they wanted to support programs that have fulfilled their lives, both professionally and personally.

Tony Marraccino, one of three students in engineering technology¿s first graduating class in 1972, says his hands-on education has been helpful throughout his career.

Cal Poly Pomona is part of a $1.4 million grant from the Department of Defense¿s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) to help save threatened plants. The project will identify areas within dry ecosystems in Southern California and Hawaii that have potential for ecological restoration.

The research team includes Cal Poly Pomona Professor Erin Questad, along with researchers from the University of Maryland and the USDA Forest Service.

The Cal Poly Pomona Jazz Band, led by Professor Dave Kopplin, is among six bands chosen to compete in the Next Generation Jazz Festival, from March 30 to April 1.

The band will give a preview concert March 1 at 8 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall. Tickets are $10 for students and $15 for general admission. They may be purchased online http://csupomona.tix.com or at the box office in Building 24-188.

A discarded cooler, old pipes and a pair of worn skateboard wheels were part of a junk pile but soon found new life as body parts of a homemade scarecrow. Students from Westmont Elementary School in Pomona helped design and put together the garden protector, a lesson in recycling and reusing.

The project was part of a four-week afterschool series led by 11 graduate students and Kyle D. Brown, director of the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies. The workshops touched on various environmental topics, but more importantly, they imparted some life lessons.

President Ortiz celebrates a gift from engineering technology alumnus Marty Colombatto and his wife, Stefanie, to the College of Engineering. The couple donated $100,000 to upgrade one of the engineering labs with 70 pieces of equipment.

"Our hands-on model is what separates us from other universities. We also know that our educational model is costly. If we want our graduates to continue to be in demand, they need to have access to state-of-the-art equipment," Ortiz says. "This is the power of philanthropy; individuals and companies recognizing where gifts can make a difference."

Chemistry Professor Ed Walton opens a drawer, pulls out a small green book and modestly places it on his desk. On the first page is a photo of his father, Norman Walton, a history professor who taught at Alabama State University for 35 years. The book, Walton says, is dedicated to his father's memory.

The rest is filled with messages that former students have sent Walton -- messages that spell out the difference he has made in their lives.

The Renaissance Scholars program is celebrating 10 years of providing much-needed stability, support and services for former foster youth to help ensure their success in college and in life.

College can be a daunting experience for anyone, but for students who lack the emotional and financial support of a loving family, it can be overwhelming.

"It's very tough to make the transition to college when you don't have parents or family members who can be there when you want to share your successes or need help with challenges such as unforeseen medical expenses, summer housing or sometimes food," says Sara Gamez, coordinator of the Renaissance Scholars program.

All faculty, staff and students are urged to prepare for a test of Cal Poly Pomona's Safety Alert system on Tuesday, Feb. 28. The test will begin around 11:50 a.m. Expect a brief test message on your cell, home and office phones, as well as an email. The campus community is urged to notify those who share your home number, particularly if their first language is not English.

During an emergency or urgent situation, the Safety Alert system simultaneously sends out messages to phones, email, text/SMS and TTY/TDD devices. In order to receive the messages, faculty, staff and students need to provide up-to-date contact information in BroncoDirect.

The College of Engineering has dedicated one of its labs in honor of alumnus Martin Colombatto and his family, who provided new equipment through a $100,000 donation.

Colombatto, ¿82, engineering technology, said his gift was prompted by a visit to the college a couple of years ago. He was surprised that students were using the same instruments that he used during his undergraduate years.

¿Cal Poly Pomona has a world-class engineering program, and the students deserve to be working with state-of-the-art equipment. This was kind of a natural way, a good fit for us to give back to this institution that gave me so much,¿ Colombatto said at the Feb. 10 dedication ceremony, which he attended with his wife, Stefanie, and his parents.

In his Monday video message, President Ortiz recaps Pizza with the Presidents, which was held last Tuesday evening. Ortiz and ASI President Johnathan Jianu answered questions from variety of topics, from facilities to rising tuition fees to on-campus food service. The Q&A was tweeted live and recorded on video. The video will be rebroadcast on campus channel 33 and online at various times over the next several days.

In addition, the Cornel West talk will be rebroadcast in its entirety on Thursday, Feb. 16 at noon on campus channel 33.

Dracula.

Simply the name of the most famous vampire conjures images of blood, fangs, crucifixes and mysterious lands, as well as feelings of suspense, horror and seduction.

Over the years, countless stage productions, movies and television shows have interpreted and re-interpreted the stories of Dracula and other vampires. While the original novel was rooted in Gothic tradition, recent adaptations have moved into the action, romance and even comedic genres.

Curt Stager, an ecologist and science journalist, believes that biobutanol, a fuel similar to that in cigarette lighters, could be used for aviation in the future. Stager, who blogs about alternative fuel and other environmental topics, believes climate change is very real and is searching for solutions.

¿[Biobutanol is] more suitable for aviation than ethanol, which offers only modest energy outputs, isn't fully compatible with existing internal combustion engines, and corrodes the pipelines it travels through,¿ Stager writes.

On Thursday, Feb. 16, Stager will use geological data to address ¿Climate Whiplash: What Happens After Global Warming.¿ His presentation is from 3 to 5 p.m. in Ursa Major, Bronco Student Center and is part of the First Year Experience program.

The annual evening rendition of Pizza with the Presidents covered well over a dozen topics, ranging from sustainability to food choices on campus to the safety of trucks making nighttime deliveries, but one topic cropped up repeatedly as it has at the past several quarterly get-togethers: access to education and its cost.

In a fast-moving session Feb. 7 that ran just over an hour and featured the first use of social media for participants who could not attend in person, university President Michael Ortiz and ASI President Johnathan Jianu agreed that lawmakers in Sacramento need to be made aware of the damage they are doing to higher education by continuing to cut funding.

In the classroom, Cristina Aceves doesn¿t see skin color, style of dress, accent or anything out of the ordinary. She says she sees all of her classmates as equals.

¿We kind of cluster ourselves under one huge umbrella,¿ she says. ¿We¿re able to connect with others more. We don¿t seem to see race or anything ¿ we¿re all students in the school environment.¿

Outside of her academic home, however, it is a different story. She acknowledges that she catches herself noticing differences in the people around her. Without consciously realizing it, she says she unintentionally judges her fellow students.

English Professor Emeritus John Frederick Fulbeck, a prolific poet who joined Cal Poly Pomona when it was still part of San Luis Obispo, has died at 95.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, Fulbeck enrolled at USC. He earned his bachelor¿s degree in 1951 and a doctoral degree in comparative literature in 1960.

He began teaching at Cal Poly Pomona in 1958 in the English department (now known as the Department of English & Foreign Languages), which offered a wide range of courses in English, speech, drama, law and music.

President Ortiz invites students to come to the PM Pizza with the Presidents on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Bronco Student Center. He and ASI President Johnathan Jianu will be answering questions on any campus topic.

Students can also tweet their questions in advance using the #askOrtiz or #askASI hashtags. The @calpolypomona Twitter account will be live-tweeting the Q&A event.

In his video message, the president also recognizes biological sciences professors Ed Bobich and Jayson Smith for receiving research grants. He also highlights the Students in Free Enterprise group, which received $8,000 in grant money to help improve the lives of Pomona-area residents and empower small businesses.

Professional athletes and coaches watch game films to improve their skills and strategies. Similarly, the Center for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (CEMaST) at Cal Poly Pomona plans to use video to help math and science middle school teachers up their game.

Video analysis is a major component of a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant that the university received to provide professional development to 20 middle school math and science teachers. The goal is to develop ¿master teachers¿ who will mentor beginning teachers at their schools and will have the skills to teach at the college level.

¿It is my hope that the property that kind Providence has brought me may be helpful to many others, and that I may be found a faithful steward.¿

This quote by W.K. Kellogg graces the entrance hallway to the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, which opened to the public Wednesday.

The library provides a permanent home for the Arabian horse collection, which has been moved from place to place over the years with no dedicated space large enough to hold the entire collection.