Daily Titan - Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012 by Daily Titan

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What’s Inside: NEWS 2

Gas price surge expected to falter OPINION 4

Problem does not exist: Voter fraud FEATURES 5

Spotlight on new physics professors Daily Titan News Brief - Your daily update of what’s happening in and around Cal State Fullerton.

Vo l u m e 9 2 , I s s u e 2 0 SPACE | Mars mission

Mars rover Curiosity takes first dirt sample

FITNESS 8

DT staff steps up to vegan challenge

T U E S D AY, O C T O B E R 9 , 2 0 1 2

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SEARCH COMMITTEE MAKES FINAL SELECTION

Scientists think a wet environment existed on Mars’ surface for three billion years KYMBERLIE ESTRADA Daily Titan

NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity, scooped up its first sample of the planet’s soil Sunday, after picking up evidence two months ago from what scientists believe was an ancient riverbed. The key evidence of the ancient stream came from images of the size and roundedness of the gravel in and around the bedrock. Smaller rocks and sand can be transported by wind, but larger rocks require water for transportation, said Billy Pilesky, a Cal State Fullerton geology lab assistant. CSUF assistant physics professor Joshua Smith added, “I think a lot of scientists agree that it is very likely that Mars was a lot warmer in winter than it is now and probably had an atmosphere that can sustain liquid water, which is the key ingredient for life.” Scientists believe the wet environment that once existed on Mars formed more than three billion years ago, which is the same estimate for when life began developing on Earth. Joel Horowitz, research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Labratory working on the Mars rover sampling system, said they received the first images of Curiosity’s sample of the planet’s soil Sunday. SEE NASA, 2

STATE | Election

Koch brothers pledge $4 million to pass Prop 32 Proposition 32 will ban unions from contributing money to politicians or for political purposes in November’s election ERIC FARRELL Daily Titan

Proposition 32 is intended by proponents to curb special interest funding by unions and corporations by prohibiting them from using payroll-deducted funds for political purposes. The fiscal impact, as stated in the official sampling ballot for the upcoming Nov. 6 election, is “increased costs to state and local government, potentially exceeding $1 million annually, to implement and enforce the measure’s requirements.” Supporters of the initiative say that it’s a step forward for political reform, and that it will give voice back to California’s individuals. SEE PROP, 2

Courtesy of UC Riverside The new chancellor, Timothy P. White, was selected behind closed doors by a CSU Board of Trustees-appointed committee late last month.

White named as new chancellor Former chancellor of UC Riverside to hold reins in top spot of the CSU DAVID HOOD & TIM WORDEN Daily Titan

Timothy P. White, Chancellor of UC Riverside, was elected to succeed Charles Reed as the new Chancellor of the California State University, which enrolls 427,000 students. White will be the seventh CSU chancellor, is expected to begin in December. White, 63, who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, immigrated to the U.S. and is a first-generation college student. He has been chancellor for UCR since 2008 and previously served as president of the University of Iowa from 2004-2008. After attending Diablo Valley Community College, he earned his bachelor’s from Fresno State, a master’s from Cal State Hayward (now called East Bay) and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.

Biography: Timothy P. White, Ph.D.

“As Chancellor, I look forward to engaging with faculty, students, staff, campus presidents and CSU trustees, along with the communities we serve, as we advance this vital system of higher education for California’s future,” said White in a statement. The chancellor search committee, formed externally from the CSU Board of Trustees, met behind closed doors at the CSU Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach. Their last meeting was held Wednesday. “I was a little bit disappointed in the lack of transparency about this process… We had not heard anything about who the candidates were other than the candidates who had made it public,” said Kevin Wehr, California Faculty Association (CFA) Capitol Chapter president. Wehr said the applicants should have been interviewed publicly by the CSU community. Interviews for CSU

Diablo Valley Community College

Fresno State University

Attended 1966-1967

Earned Bachelor of Arts in 1967

Cal State East Bay

UC Berkeley

Earned M.A. in 1972

Earned Ph.D. in 1977

faculty include public presentations and more public searches, he said. “You always hope for the best, but we got more of the same… I would have loved it if the applicants under consideration had been interviewed by the CSU community,” Wehr said. While the CFA have stated that they would have liked a more “transparent process,” California

State Student Association (CSSA) President David Allison, who sat on the selection committee, said he believed that the students and the other members of the CSU were well-represented behind the closed doors of the selection committee meetings. SEE CHANCELLOR, 2

FEATURES | New physics professors

Smith to lead new physics center Joshua Smith, Ph.D., directs the newly-introduced Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy Center DAVID HOOD Daily Titan

WILLIAM CAMARGO / Daily Titan

Joshua Smith, Ph.D., said the greatest contribution the Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy Center will make is the students who go through it and learn. CONTACT US AT DTNEWSDESK@GMAIL.COM

As an aspiring paleontologist, Joshua Smith, Ph.D., desired nothing more as a child than to become a scientist. Smith said that was all he wanted to do from when he was a child to when he was a senior in high school, but that in his last year, he had a change of heart. “In my senior year, I took physics, I had an excellent high school teacher,” said Smith. “That year I also read a popular book that cemented my interest in physics. That book was A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. So black holes were really something that amazed me because of all the different paradoxes associated with them.” Smith said one of the things about black

holes that intrigued him the most was that a person’s head would be more attracted to the black hole than the rest of his or her body and that very shortly after, as Hawking put it, the body would undergo “spaghettification.” Smith described the impact of basic research, the main element of the Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy Center, in trying to understand the big questions of the universe and how it works. “The impact that our research can make on culture and society is difficult to foretell,” Smith said. “But one of the things that I expect will happen is that black holes and neutron stars and these very strange astronomical objects will become more a part of the common persons’ understanding of what’s out there,” he added. The potential impact of their research on society, Smith said, may not be for years to come; but in an effort to comprehend the mysteries of the universe, new technologies

must be invented and older instruments have to be updated to take on the scope of the projects they are undergoing. Smith said his team will have to build better high-energy lasers and other advanced optical sensors to detect radiation and other emissions from astronomical phenomena happening all the time, all over the universe. In his time at Cal State Fullerton, Smith said he was impressed with the students and their ability to adapt and get excited to the field of gravitational-wave detection and observation. The students at CSUF, Smith said, are a diverse group in terms of ethnicity and approach to science, something that the field of science he said is falling a bit short in. Smith said students have the advantage of collaborating together because different cultures bring different and fresh perspectives to science. SEE SMITH, 5

NEWS

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THE DAILY TITAN

OCTOBER 9, 2012 TUESDAY

CHANCELLOR: Some criticize closed-doors selection process CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

He said that on behalf of the CSSA and the CSU students, he is grateful to the CSU for including more student representation in the process. Michael Uhlenkamp, director of media relations for the CSU, said White’s experience at UCR has adequately prepared him for his duties in the CSU. “I think specifically with the campus that he helms right now at Riverside, that campus, more than any of the other UCs, really mirrors some of the demographics of CSU campuses, there’s a large commitment to helping underserved students, and there’s a large group of students there that receive Pell Grants, so based on that experience, we do feel that it’s a good fit,” said Uhlenkamp. Reed, who has held the position for 14 tenured years, announced his retirement in May. The search for his replacement began shortly after. During his term, the CSU has had to endure historic budget cuts from the state of about a billion dollars. History, Uhlenkamp said, will remember this feat.

“I think people look at tuition increases and they don’t understand exactly why they happen—they take place obviously because of massive cuts in funding,” Uhlenkamp said. “I think students have a right to be upset and I think Chancellor Reed as well as the campus president as well as anyone who’s working at the CSU is working on behalf of students to try to mitigate that as much as possible,” Uhlenkamp said. Reed will continue his duties as chancellor through the end of the fall semester, including the implementation of the recent board’s contingency plans for Proposition 30, which will definitively decide the outcome of student tuition, as well as faculty pay, for the next several years. If Proposition 30 fails, the CSU would institute a 5 percent tuition increase, amounting to about $150 more per student per semester. This will, at its bare minimum, keep the budget where it currently is. If it passes, however, tuition would “roll back” to fall 2011 prices by reimbursing students $498 that was demanded almost a year ago

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DTBRIEFS

Brown steps in to lower gas prices

Courtesy of UC Riverside

Timothy P. White (with scissors) was selected to replace Charles Reed by the end of the fall semester. He served as chancellor of UC Riverside since 2008 and was previously president of the University of Iowa.

and caused CSU students all over the state to protest. White said that he believes he can bring a “unique perspective” to the CSU from his success in fulfilling California’s Master Plan, which mandates that all citizens have a right to education. Additionally, he said similar challenges facing the UC are present in the CSU and that

he can help solve them. “I feel this is a tremendous opportunity for me to try to do more for higher education in this state, at a time that is both precarious and potentially transformative. It is an opportunity to affect the futures of some 430,000 CSU students, and those yet to come,” White said in an open letter to the UCR community.

Allison said he has faith that White can overcome the obstacles set before him and the CSU as a whole. “I think he knows what he’s doing, he knows how well it’s gonna go, he knows what to expect… The fact that he’s willing to do it speaks volumes about how much he cares about California and higher ed in California,” Allison said.

PROP: Unions fight 32 tooth and nail CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“If you have a heartbeat and could go into a ballot box to vote, then you, not the big corporations or unions, should be the one determining the fate of your district,” said John Kabateck, California executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). “There are very specific agendas that these organizations have that don’t speak for the people they are expected to represent,” Kabateck said. The NFIB serves about 20,000 small and independent businesses in California, and Kabateck said many of these business owners and other Californians are saying the same two things. “Number one: They’re frankly uncertain about what tomorrow will bring them and their small businesses and families, and number two, they’re outright frustrated with the government that continues to be in gridlock and the government leaders who will not listen to them, but are instead choosing to place special interests above theirs,” Kabateck said. The opposition to the initiative have been vocal in their efforts to prevent the measure from passing, citing how corporations do not use

payroll-deducted funds. “They use their profits to donate money. They use… super PACs or whatever donations they take from their profit,” said Jarret Lovell, associate professor of criminal justice. “It’s a proposition by corporations to limit the voice of its labor unions. If this passes, you won’t hear from us. You won’t hear from anybody advocating for professors, students, administrative staff and for funding,” Lovell said. Political science professor Shelly Arsneault said unions rely on payroll deductions and that without those payroll deductions, they are effectively silenced. “Instead of having the ability of both labor and management to have a political voice, it’s taking labor’s voice out. All it does is silence one side,” said Arsneault. “It is inherently creating an imbalanced system that favors corporate money.” Yet Kabateck argued that “depending on what the powerful special interest is, it could be argued that it’s not speaking for the actual person in that organization.” Kabateck referenced the case last year when the Senate Bill 1530 would have made it easier for school districts to fire teachers in the cases of sexual

or other egregious conduct. The bill easily passed in the senate before being killed by the California Teachers Association, a union in the Assembly Education Committee. “If the CTA really cared about the kids, they wouldn’t be wielding their muscle to protect teachers in egregious cases like that. They would be working to get more money to the classroom,” Kabateck said. In an Orange County Register article, Gloria Romero, the state director of Democrats for Education Reform, countered some of the arguments made against Proposition 32. “Opponents argue that this creates ‘exemptions’ because other business entities that aren’t corporations could still give to campaigns. But when you look at how the federal government applies a corporate ban, every contribution from those entities has to be applied to an individual and is restricted to campaign-spending limits,” Romero told the Register. In September, $4 million was donated by a group linked to the billionaire Koch brothers to pass the measure. The Koch brothers are the key figures who run Koch Industries, Inc., the second-largest private company in the country, according to a 2011 article by Forbes.

NASA: Rover acts as lab on Mars CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“What we have now is a good understanding of the chemical composition of the soil and also a whole bunch of detailed close-up pictures of the soil,” said Horowitz, which helps build the framework for Curiosity’s mission on Mars. According to NASA’s Mars Mission press release, researchers plan to assess four goals during its mission, which is about “reconstructing environments and understanding habitability,” Horowitz said. With the help of the Curiosity’s advanced engineering, researchers will examine the biological potential with analysis of organic and chemical matter. The rover will also send visual images detecting chemical and mineral composition of the planet’s surface. Scientists will also investigate planetary processes applicable to past life on Mars and begin to characterize its surface radiation. Researchers analyzed photographs of outcrops that show evidence of a former presence of water taken inside Gale Crater, where Curiosity landed Aug. 5. The rover picked up images of Hottah, an outcrop “that looks like someone jackhammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it’s really a tilted block of an ancient streambed,” said project scientist John Grotzinger. During the first 90 days, Curiosity will make its way toward its target site called Glenelg, or the “Rocknest,” located at the base of Gale Crater. The Rocknest contains three types of ter-

Gas prices rose to a recordbreaking $4.66 a gallon this past week, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. Prices jumped by more than 17 cents in a 24hour period last week. However, according to the Los Angeles Times, analysts expect price hikes to slow down. Gov. Jerry Brown decided Sunday to allow oil refineries to begin processing “the less expensive winter blend of fuel three weeks early” to help slow the steep price increases. Typically, the cheaper winter blend of gas is not sold until after October because the blend evaporates quicker than the summer blend and is considered to be more environmentally damaging. Wholesale gas prices, the price of gas before state and federal taxes, were recorded at $3.30 yesterday compared to the wholesale price of $4.39 last week. Analysts have stated that as long as there are no new problems with the oil refineries, gas prices should not increase anymore. Brief by ADREANA YOUNG

Local coach receives warning The Fullerton Union High School head baseball coach received a written notice of unprofessional conduct and unsatisfactory performance after he was accused of using highly offensive and vulgar language in front of his student athletes, according to the Orange County Register. Marc Patino, also a social science teacher at the high school, is said to have used derogatory terms in reference to Jews and gay people on “multiple occasions,” and more specifically used an extremely offensive slur directed towards a 16-year-old during a team huddle in June. The student said Patino referred to him using a gay slur and then told him he was going to “skull (expletive)” him. Patino had also received a previous warning last spring about his foul language on the baseball field after he used an offensive term towards a parent who had interrupted practice. Patino was given 45 days to correct his appropriate behavior and 90 days to correct his professional deficiencies. Brief by LOREN MANNING

Van der Sloot soon to be father

Courtesy of NASA NASA’s rover Curiosity rolls over wind-shaped sand dunes on Mars.

rain, including layered bedrock, which scientists believe is a likely place where water may have collected. For the next few weeks, Curiosity will continue to scoop up sand and run it through its system of removing any object subjected to the Earth’s atmosphere. The rover’s ultimate destination lies in a 3-mile high mountain in the middle of the Gale Crater known as Mount Sharp, which contains layers of sediment that can potentially hold matter indicating former life on Mars. Curiosity will then feed samples of the sand to the lab by using its X-ray feature to reveal its mineral structure and chemical makeup. Curiosity’s carries several builtin analytical instruments which include a six-wheeled mobility, sample acquisition, a 7-foot-long robotic arms, a laser to break down rocks, navigation using stereo imaging, a radioisotopic power source, avionics, software, telecommunications

and thermal control. “We’ve never carried this many instruments on a spacecraft to the surface of another planet before,” Horowitz said. “It’s like we packed up a terrestrial geochemistry lab and brought it with us to Mars.” The jeep-sized robotic geologist, according to Smith, “moves rather slowly and is capable of moving across a very rough terrain and taking highresolution photos.” This will provide researchers with further knowledge about Mars with close-up inspections and analysis of rock, soil and atmosphere samples. This $2.6 billion mission on Mars is expected to last two years. If the rover is still operating by the end of two years, the mission will resume. “The landing of Mars rover was one the most impressive displays of human accomplishment that I’ve seen,” Smith said. “I hope that, that it’s actually not the most exciting thing that the rover produces.”

Joran van der Sloot, 28, convicted killer of Stephany Flores in Peru and a suspect in the disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba, may or may not be preparing to become a father. Van der Sloot, who is currently serving a 28-year sentence in a Peruvian prison for Flores’ death, has been reported by the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf to have conceived a child with a woman they identified as “Leidi” during an unsupervised visit. De Telegraaf reported that they confirmed the pregnancy over the phone with Van der Sloot. Van der Sloot’s lawyer, Maximo Altez, denied the news and also told ABC News that the woman, whose real name is Carol Figueroa Uceda, is not pregnant. ABC News reported that Uceda was also rumored to be pregnant in June 2011 with Van der Sloot’s child. Van der Sloot has had regular conjugal visits with Uceda, who is registered as his girlfriend at Piedras Gordas Prison. Brief by JAZMIN SANCHEZ

OPINION

OCTOBER 9, 2012 TUESDAY

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THE DAILY TITAN

The sinking US postal service fails to deliver It’s too inefficient, it’s too expensive and it’s losing to better private competitors DANIEL BARBEAU For the Daily Titan

Courtesy of MCT Rob Corddry is the creator of Childrens Hospital, the TV show that has taken out a billboard ad very close to Los Angeles’ famous Children’s Hospital. The ad features Corddry in clown makeup and bloody scrubs.

A tale of two hospitals When a TV show places a billboard near a hospital, it is simply clever marketing JAZMIN SANCHEZ Daily Titan

A bald man wearing clown makeup in bloodied doctors scrubs stares creepily at you from a billboard on a busy Los Angeles road. You wonder to yourself, is this an ad for Knott’s Scary Farm? For Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights? As you get closer to the billboard, the fine print becomes easier to read—“Thursdays, Midnight. Adult Swim.” You realize that the ad is very obviously a promotion for a television show. Or do you? Although the creepy billboard is clearly an advertisement for actor and comedian Rob Corddry’s latenight comedy Childrens Hospital on Adult Swim, this isn’t stopping some people from wondering if the ads are affiliated with the actual medical center, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. One might notice the apostrophe in the word “children’s,” one of the only differences between the two names. Aside from the confusion on the strikingly similar names, both the billboard and the medical center are located on the same street in Los Angeles—Sunset Boulevard. CHLA, Los Angeles’ first and largest hospital, is a nonprofit, academic and pediatric medical center known for providing medical services to thousands of children each year. It has been affected quite a bit by the ads, mainly because the public can’t seem to understand that there are two children’s hospitals; one of which is a legitimate medical facility and the other which is a comedy show that pokes fun at medical dramas. The Los Angeles Times reported that administrators at CHLA issued a memo to staff that the ads are in no way affiliated with the hospital’s advertising campaign, as if this was not already obvious. The billboards and bus stop ads for Childrens Hospital clearly state the network, day and airing time of the cable show. But apparently, this is not enough to stop people from calling the hospital and questioning

the creepy clown ads. “People are questioning whether the ads are part of the ongoing CHLA branding campaign,” said hospital Vice President DeAnn Marshall in a statement. “If friends, family or other members of the community raise the issue, please assure them we are not affiliated with the show or its advertisements.” Normally brand confusion like this would harm the copycat (in this case Childrens Hospital) not the original (Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.) However, because there is obvious humor in the similarity of the names (the show gets its name after the character Dr. Arthur Childrens), Childrens Hospital is sliding under the radar while the medical facility is ironically receiving actual complaints. But there isn’t a real problem here. If people can’t pay enough attention to a sign to see it isn’t owned by the actual hospital then that’s not the fault of the show itself. In fact it’s actually a pretty clever marketing campaign when you think about it. This advertising campaign is smart for two reasons: location and timing. By advertising in the city of Los Angeles, the home of the actual CHLA, the show is gaining more publicity than ever by stirring up a ton of controversy. In the famous words of Notorious B.I.G., “If you don’t know, now you know.” About the show, that is. On the other hand, timing is also important. The show first aired as a web series in 2008, with the exact same name. Four years later, CHLA probably doesn’t have a strong lawsuit on their hands when it comes to getting the creators of Childrens Hospital to change the shows name. Also, the ads are popping up in October with Halloween around the corner. What’s scarier to kids than a man wearing clown makeup with blood on his clothes? Nothing grabs your attention more. While the ads may be a bit shocking and controversial, they are also hilarious and justify themselves appropriately. The ads provide enough information to distinguish the difference between the real Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the show, Childrens Hospital. Provided, of course, that you pay close attention to the details.

The U.S. Postal Service is both a sentimental representation of imagined simpler times and an anachronistic throwback to a different era. It is also a heavily bureaucratized and bloated organization whose heyday seems well in the past. Perhaps the most revealing fact of this dysfunctional agency is the sorry state of its labor and services management. After all what other agency can claim to have invented a euphemism for insanity; ‘going postal’? Sentimentality aside, recent news concerning the U.S. Postal Service is troubling. In an attempt to break even, stamp prices have been raised to 45 cents, but the Postal Service still plans to default on its retiree health care payment obligations for the second time in two months, to a combined tune of $10.1 billion. For a single quarter of fiscal 2012, the Postal Service lost $5.2 billion and mail volume is down 20 percent from its peak as a growing amount of correspondence is sent through the internet. Congressional meddling disallows the Postal Service from enacting significant money-saving organizational restructuralization, such as ceasing mail delivery on Saturdays or slowing delivery speeds. Meanwhile, Senators refuse to allow underutilized post offices to be closed in favored districts in order to avoid public ire. The the Postal Service even plans to cut sweet deals with advertising companies in

Courtesy of MCT While the U.S. Postal Service goes another year planning to default on its retiree health care plan, while the taxpayers suffer the cost.

order to send discounted junk mail to mailboxes in an attempt to raise badly needed revenue. These measures ensure that the Postal Service will continue to hemorrhage money and never again become a profitable government agency; all while alienating the public and calling into question the basic premises of the Postal Service’s mission. Lysander Spooner is a name that unfortunately has almost been lost to obscurity. However, he and his adversarial relationship to the post office are a major contributing factor to why we have postal service in a form which we recognize today. Spooner was a 19th century entrepreneur who lambasted a strangely familiar problem: poor postal service at high prices. Seeing a good business opportunity, he created the American Letter Mail Company to deliver parcels for as low as 6 ½ cents (while the post office charged 25 cents). Private innovation developed other novel ideas that we now take for granted, such as prepaid stamps and door-to-door pickup and delivery. Of course, this perturbed the Postal Service, who sought governmental protection to halt the flouting of their monopoly and loss of revenue to Spooner’s and others’ new start-ups. Spooner was finally defeated in the courts and forced to shut down, but not before the the Postal Service adopted his innovations and

standard postal rates were forced to dip to 4 cents-where they remained for almost another century. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution enumerates to Congress the power “To establish post offices and post roads,” but enshrined nowhere is a granting of government monopoly. In fact, it is currently perfectly legal to create a private-sector mail carrier service under the Private Express Statutes, with one prohibitive caveat; mail cannot be delivered at prices below that of official the Postal Service rates. Unfortunately, governmental price-fixing intentionally makes a competitive mail market impossible. We can observe the striking differences between a governmental operated agency and its private sector quasi-competitors of UPS and FedEx. To maintain legality, these private parcel delivery services are allowed only to ship packages, but they might stretch the definition of ‘package’ by enclosing documents and letters in cardboard envelopes for delivery. Nevertheless, they are fiscally solvent and suffer none of the dilemmas currently plaguing the Postal Service. Perhaps Congress should look to the lessons of history and legalize competitive private mail delivery. Then again, that action is exceedingly doubtful, since the government hates competition.

DNA testing can free innocent lives Even if it costs money, DNA testing should be used to help clear prisoners’ names LOREN MANNING Daily Titan

Imagine spending 35 long and grueling years locked behind bars for a crime you did not commit. Imagine being accused of raping a young boy when you were actually sitting on your living room couch, watching television with your younger sibling. This was the life of James Bain, an ex-prisoner who was released in 2009 after DNA testing proved his innocence. Today’s technology has gifted the practice of DNA testing to our society which has, in turn, saved and freed numerous lives. More prisoners every day are finding relief as their cages are being unlocked while many of the true perpetrators are just now occupying those cages for crimes others were wrongfully accused of. According to the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to assisting prisoners by using DNA testing, 49 states now have some kind of law allowing for the use of DNA evidence regarding a court case. Oklahoma is the “odd man out” with no such law in place. Many states still have some sort

of invisible border up, limiting the practice in some shape or form, with some restrictions being made against those who plead guilty and limiting the testing altogether to only those on death row. Since 1989, there have been 300 post-conviction exonerations of serious crimes with 18 people from death row itself. The average length of time for a prisoner serving under a false conviction is about 13.6 years. That’s a good number of people that will never get those years back and must now familiarize themselves with freedom once again. So what is flawed in our legal system that would allow these wrongful convictions? For one, witnesses aren’t always reliable, whether false information is given with full intent or without knowledge. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, over 80 percent of the now-excused sexual assault charges were due to mistaken witness identification. Twenty-three percent of those charges were because of perjury or false accusations. To gather DNA evidence is a bit pricy but entirely worth it to those being freed. In prison, inmates have every right to demand DNA testing in accordance with their cases, no matter the financial burden. An innocent man will always be

an innocent man and if thousands of dollars have to be spent in order to make sure of it, well, then so be it. If money is the real issue in this situation, then maybe trials should sway in the right direction in the first place. More recently in Louisiana, a man was just freed from death row after DNA evidence proved his innocence, accused of a murder he had never committed. In perspective, six people have been exonerated from Louisiana’s death row alone since the year 2000. Since then, three prisoners have already faced execution, leaving people questioning whether they were actually wrongfully accused, ultimately costing them their lives. Conversely, besides freeing inmates and aiding trials, DNA evidence has also given justice to those who deserve it the most. Out of the 300 excused cases, 146 true suspects have been found and imprisoned due to the DNA testing and are now finally serving their time for a crime someone else was accused of. Having a fair trial isn’t always as fair as it would seem, and it’s not possible for every detail to be completely captured and weighed. While logical reasoning cannot fully determine a person’s innocence on its own, science can step in and help fill that void. VISIT US AT DAILYTITAN.COM/OPINION

OPINION

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THE DAILY TITAN

OCTOBER 9, 2012 TUESDAY

Courtesy of MCT Several states have passed new voter ID laws, some of which have been blocked by courts or the Justice Department. All of the laws were passed by Republican legislatures.

A solution to a nonexistant problem

Despite Republicans’ attempts nationwide to try to ‘curb voter fraud,’ most of it doesn’t exist JENNA STOKES For the Daily Titan

The year is 2012. We can all agree on that, right? It’s a fact. Now that the year has been established can anyone answer why the country is still undergoing a struggle for one of our most basic rights as citizens? Another fact: there is an effort taking place today to remove at least 2,100 names off of Ohio voter rosters. The right to vote should not be eligible for debate nor be threatened by anyone aiming to take it away. The Civil Rights movements have all come and gone; they are now pages in history books. As a country, we have come a long way by eliminating poll taxes and allowing women and former slaves the right to vote. The fight for voting rights should

be a thing of the past, as well. Sadly it is not. As a natural skeptic, I do not believe in wild coincidences—especially when politics are involved. So, when looking more closely into the subject of today’s new fad of trying to shrink the electorate, it doesn’t seem very coincidental to me that the right wing is responsible for acting on new ballot fraud suspicions. It’s not by chance that Republicans are claiming that what Democrats and Libertarians are calling a “voter suppression drive” is merely a “citizen movement to prevent ballot fraud”. The fact is, that while the majority of Republicans are ready to implement new voting rules, making it difficult for many to vote, such fraud has been denied by the Republican secretary of state who claimed to know of no more than “a handful” of fraudulent votes over past few presidential elections in an article in the Los Angeles Times. While voter fraud is hard to monitor, we can track how many allegations have been

LETTER TO THE EDITOR The Daily Titan welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must include the sender’s first and last name. Students must include their majors and other writers must include their affiliation to the university, if applicable. Letters must refer to an article published within the last week. Once a letter is submitted it becomes property of the Daily Titan. Publication of letters is based on the validity of content and may be edited for length, grammar and spelling. Letters may be sent to dteditorinchief@gmail.com.

filed and how many people convicted. An independent study by journalism students conducted in August found that there’s been 2,068 alleged cases of voter fraud since 2000. Only 10 of those cases involved voter impersonation. Or this fact: The Brennan Center for Justice, a New York law university, found that there is no documented trend of voter fraud increase. In 2004, voter fraud in Ohio happened 0.00004 percent of the time. It seems you are more likely to get struck by lightning that commit voter fraud. Basically, voter fraud rarely occurs and certainly not enough to cause this much investigation and pause on certain citizens’ rights to vote. This is a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. If we have a hard enough time trying to get the public to vote much less register to do so, obviously no one is going to take the time to vote fraudulently. Sadly, most people just do not care enough. Where the real

for the right wing. Ohio, however, is not only a swing state but also pulls tens of thousands of African-American voters. Now it has to worry about poll watchers fighting to making voters in the state jump through hoops just to get their vote to count. The main group responsible for this is The Ohio Voter Integrity Project, similar to Texas’ True the Vote group, both fronts for Republican and Tea Party voting groups. Tim Burke, chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party said, “Too much of this is going on for this not to be a coordinated effort,” while Reverend Rousseau A. O’Neal (one of a group of black ministers from Cincinnati who provided buses to take African Americans to the polls in 2008) said, “Bigotry of the highest order” is involved. Whether or not that’s true is up for you to decide. But, I will leave with one final fact: The Ohio Voter Integrity Project has questioned registration in 13 counties and, in 2008, Obama won nine of them.

Buying extra land with money we don’t have It seems strange CSUF is trying to approve the purchase of another building with budget cuts on the table ALEX GROVES For the Daily Titan

If the CSU weren’t in the middle of a massive budget crisis, it’d be pretty hard to be discontent with their planned purchase of Western State University College of Law. The property lies adjacent to the west side of Cal State Fullerton and would add 86,000 square feet to the campus. Its structure comes complete with its own library and classrooms, and would provide students with 300 additional parking spaces. In theory, the planned purchase sounds topnotch: A growing university gains an additional facility for instruction, and students have more space to park. What could be so displeasing about that? But the CSU is in a massive budget crisis. The state has allocated less and less to education over the past two fiscal years; the budget for the CSU has been slashed by $650 million dollars, causing tuition to increase yet again. Programs have been consolidated or cut altogether, and some teaching positions have been eliminated. CSUF President Mildred Garcia addressed the impact of budget cuts in a formal message to students on CSUF’s website. “I have been working with the campus community in determining the best way for us to manage these cuts,” the message reads. “To date our specific actions have included: reducing admissions, instituting a hiring freeze, eliminating faculty, staff and student positions, eliminating non-essential travel and making large cuts in operations and expenditures.” If one thing is clear, it’s that the university has already had to make a great deal of changes in order to adapt to the increasing constraints of less funding. And things will undoubtedly get worse if Proposition 30 fails. The CSU has already voted in favor of a five percent tuition increase if that’s the case. That’s an additional $150 dollars per student each semester. CONTACT US AT DTOPINION@GMAIL.COM

crimes take place is among those involved and invested with the procedures of voting. According to the LA Times, the majority of these threats have been aimed at college students, trailer park residents, homeless people and African-Americans in counties which President Obama won in 2008. It should come as no surprise that Romney supporters are all for minimizing voter turnout. After all, when it comes to college students and African-American voters, Obama has him beat. There have even been reported cases of college students being removed from rosters for something as trivial as failure to identify their dorm room numbers. Currently 284 students at the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, 110 students at Oberlin College, 88 students at the College of Wooster, 38 students at Kent State have been deemed ineligible to cast their ballots this coming November. California voters aren’t necessarily under the same threat due to it being a lost cause

WILLIAM CAMARGO / Daily Titan

The Western State University College of Law, across the street from CSUF, will be purchased for just over $18 million, adding 86,000 square feet and 300 parking spots to the campus.

It’s no secret that CSU students are hurting with recent budget cuts. As tuition continually increases, students are going to find that financing their education is a far more difficult task than it’s ever been. So at the very least, it’s not unreasonable to expect the CSU to use the money that it does have in a way that’s most beneficial to students. That’s why it’s nonsensical and irresponsible for the CSU Board of Trustees to approve the purchase of this building for $18,250,000. That’s a lot of money to spend on an additional facility when there are far more pressing issues to address. To put things in perspective, the cut of $650 million that caused tuition to increase by 12 percent is less than three times as much as what’s being spent to buy up the college building. But the hefty price tag isn’t the only issue to address in regard to the purchase. The fact that CSUF students can’t even utilize the college building for the next three years is another problem. If there’s no immediate benefit for students, then what’s the point in buying the building now? If budget cuts have been so extensive that they’ve necessitated an increase in tuition for students, then surely long term investments should

be out of the question. The university needs to be making a concerted effort toward putting budget money into things that help students now, not three years from now. No one should have to pay into an investment that they don’t get to reap the benefit of. Then there’s also the issue that CSUF doesn’t even have an idea of what the college building will be used for. A committee has to be formed some time in the next two years in order to determine how the building will be occupied once it becomes available for CSUF operations. So not only did the board approve the purchase of an extremely expensive building that can’t be used yet, CSUF does not even have a viable use for the facility. That decision sounds like impulse buying more than anything else. If funding weren’t tight as it is, this would be a great purchase, but as CSUF students, we have to look at the bigger picture. The admissions threshold has gotten tougher, and tuition and hiring freezes are both big issues. Common sense would indicate that the money garnered from the CSU bond measure would be best used elsewhere. But perhaps common sense doesn’t apply to the Board of Trustees.

FEATURES

OCTOBER 9, 2012 TUESDAY

PAGE 5

THE DAILY TITAN

Physics department welcomes new staff DAVID HOOD Daily Titan

With the new physics department center at Cal State Fullerton, the Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy Center, assistant physics professor Joshua Smith will lead a team of two other faculty members Jocelyn Read and Geoffrey Lovelace to help students and the university to understand the universe better. The center, which opened its doors Sept. 28, is part of a larger effort by the Laser Interferometer GravitationalWave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration to observe and study gravitational waves generated by phenomena in space. All three faculty members bring diverse and unique perspectives to the

field of physics and astrophysics. Smith, the Center director, who currently works with LIGO and has been at CSUF for two years, has the practical experience of understanding the physics department at CSUF as well as the students. Read’s background is primarily in theoretical astrophysics with a speciality in modeling sources of gravitational waves, especially neutron stars, or “dead” stars that have an enormous amount of mass, but not enough to create a black hole. Lovelace is a theoretical general relativity physicist specializing in modeling sources of gravitational waves using numerical relativity. He works on numerical simulations of occurrences in space to better analyze their potential effects.

WILLIAM CAMARGO / Daily Titan

Jocelyn Read, Geoffrey Lovelace and Joshua Smith gather to discuss the Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy Center.

Read seeks to engage community members Jocelyn Read, Ph.D., grew up reading science fiction novels and aspired to be a science fiction novelist. But as she read her favorite authors, Read observed that the scientific concepts often brought up were so sophisticated that in order to fulfill her dream as a writer, she needed to immerse herself in the science of the topics. That led Read to astrophysics and a general curiosity of the scientific world beyond the sphere of the Earth. “As I went to do a degree in university, I got absorbed in understanding the scientific questions,” said Read. “That’s what brought me to working in physics today.” Read said that she and her team hope to give their students the tools they need to play a role in detecting gravitational-waves, a discovery that they believe they are on the brink of. “One of our big goals is to give the students an opportunity to play a role in current, active research projects,” Read said. “The students will be able to engage and contribute to what the scientific community, in particular, the gravitational-wave community is currently trying to do to understand the universe.” In a previous conversation, Read explained that a facet of history that is usually associated with developing civilizations and their impact on humanity are their contributions to science. She said there is a certain parallel between the advancement of culture

WILLIAM CAMARGO / Daily Titan

Read wants to become a part of the Fullerton community and plans on doing so by inviting people to learn about new discoveries.

and science. Read said their impact, with Cal State Fullerton’s Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy Center, will be the base from which understanding the universe will grow from by working as a team, since they are “on the brink of a discovery.” “In our center here, we’re sort of poised on the threshold of a new type of astronomy,” Read said. “This is what we often call a new window

on the universe. So when we are able to directly able to detect gravitational waves, we have a new way of learning about the universe that we haven’t been able to use before.” In a personal statement, Read said one of her passions is studying neutron stars, or collapsed remnants of very big stars that are the most compact astrophysical objects outside of black holes. “Inside a neutron star, matter is

compressed into strange new forms, pushing the limits of our understanding of condensed matter and particle interactions,” she said in her statement. Read said she enjoys being a resource for students who are wrestling with the abstract concepts of the universe to come to for direction. She said one of her favorite moments so far in the few months she has been at CSUF was when a student came to her with some feedback and said she looks at the sky in a different way. “I got all these great ideas for research,” Read said, as the Daily Titan previously reported. “I feel like I have some catching up to do with being actually settling in at Fullerton. But right now, I’m happy—I’m very happy to do this work. It’s actually really nice to feel this support from a university.” Moreover, Read expressed that she aims to bring the community of Fullerton and north Orange County to the center to learn about their exciting discoveries. She said she wants to engage the community with the “beauty of ideas” that is expected to result from their research. Ultimately, however, Read said she wants to see students experience the joy that comes with discovering and understanding new concepts. “We hope to be engaging in this exciting time of discovery,” she said.

Lovelace strives to leave a mark on physics Geoffrey Lovelace, Ph.D., described his interest in science in the old Nintendo NES game Star Voyager, where the player has to travel the galaxy and overcome many obstacles, one of them being black holes. This, Lovelace said, initially sparked his interest in physics and in science. After his intrigue with black holes from Star Voyager, Lovelace said he went to his local library and picked up the Encyclopedia Britannica to read up on black holes and other astrophysical phenomena. Obviously, Lovelace said, the concepts were too much for a preadolescent to understand, but his love for science only grew. When Lovelace was in high school, his mother, who was the director of a community college library brought him back a book by Kip Thorne, one of the leading experts on gravitation and Einstein’s theory of relativity. The book, Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy, opened and inspired Lovelace to pursue physics as a career and an ultimate goal to inspire others in the same way Thorne did made his imagination sparkle. “I read this book and I was immediately fascinated with the science and the concept of time slowing down depending on how you’re moving and how time and space can be thought of the same thing,” said Lovelace. Thorne’s book, Lovelace said, was not dumbed down on a conceptual level, but it made Einstein’s theory of relativity one that he could understand and grow to admire. Lovelace said it was “serendipitous” that later on in his career, in

graduate school, Thorne actually became his doctoral advisor. “Getting to work with Kip while I was in grad school was very serendipitous,” Lovelace said. “A lot of times you change your major going to college or you change your field of expertise in physics, but I got to do exactly what I set out to do,” he added. As part of a grant obtained by Joshua Smith, Lovelace and Jocelyn Read were able to join Cal State Fullerton’s physics department faculty to contribute to and teach students about gravitational-waves and their potential impact of life here on Earth. Lovelace said his goal for students was not only to get them involved in research, but to inspire them to garner a sense of accomplishment from thinking about complex concepts brought up by research and observation and apply them to life. “Knowledge doesn’t come from professors,” Lovelace said. “It comes from observation and getting to discover for yourself new ideas to become a better person and a better citizen.” “I believe very strongly that it’s important for every undergraduate to get an understanding of where knowledge comes from,” Lovelace said. “It’s something that people discover through their own creative activities.” For the Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy Center, Lovelace said he hopes that the work he and his students do in developing better technology will contribute to the international effort of exploring the intricate mysteries of the universe.

SMITH: Making an impact

WILLIAM CAMARGO / Daily Titan

Smith’s goal for the Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy Center is to make a contribution to science with the help of his students. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Smith said his goal for the newly-opened center is to make significant contributions to the science and that his students will play a part in that. “The overall goals of the center are that we want our students and our faculty and our staff to be on the leading edge,” Smith said. “And we want to train the next generation of scientists.” In addition, Smith said he hopes his students will graduate and go on into graduate school but in other professions as well, carrying the lifelong lessons learned by grappling with complicated topics in gravitation and astrophysics. Lastly, Smith said, the greatest

impact on society by the center is the students he and his team have the fortune of teaching and working with. That opportunity, Smith said, is not only the greatest joy in learning about the universe, but teaching as well. “For me, I think the proudest moments are yet to come,” Smith said. “But some of the best moments I’ve had while being at Fullerton was to see the success of my students; to see my students go out to our community meetings and giving presentations on our research... So that’s a great moment, and you start to be like parents who take more pride in what their children do than what they do,” he said.

WILLIAM CAMARGO / Daily Titan

Lovelace’s interest in physics and science came at an early age, upon playing the Nintendo NES game Star Voyager.

“It’s great for the students to enter into the field at such an exciting phase,” Lovelace said. Lovelace said he is glad to have the chance and opportunity to leave a positive impression on science. “I want students to have a positive view of physics,” Lovelace said, after recalling some feedback from a lower-division physics class.

One student wrote that he wanted to learn more about physics so he wouldn’t abhor it so much. That, Lovelace said, is something he wanted for all his students: to wrestle with the ideas and concepts and be in awe of them; not so it can intimidate, but so it can inspire as it did with him playing Star Voyager in his childhood. VISIT US AT DAILYTITAN.COM/FEATURES

October 9, 2012

FOR RELEASE OCTOBER 9, 2012

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Horoscope

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Aries (Mar. 21-April 19) You can find plenty of work and income, if you’re willing to look. Keep your objective in mind. Leave time for romance. Tiny deceptions get unveiled, so avoid them. Taurus (April 20-May 20) Make changes, but not to core values. Talk it over with family before deciding. Old lessons prove useful again. Find a way to do what you love. Gemini (May 21-June 20) Reorganize your workspace for maximum productivity. There’s a lot to learn, and plenty of work to practice with. Your curiosity rewards you with useful skills. Get into powerhouse mode. Cancer (June 21-July 22) Seek balance between power and pleasantries for a philosophical partnership. Creative opportunities abound. Emotions surround you, but true love is not for sale. Go with your heart.

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Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) You’re more than ready to make changes for the better over the next few days. Learn from a master, and listen to the whole lesson. Be generous with your appreciation. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Friends can be a great help, especially in solving a puzzle and fixing old problems. But don’t follow blindly. Your intuition is excellent. Reaffirm a commitment. Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) It’s all about friends. To honor John Lennon’s birthday, remember the words of his wife and friend, Yoko Ono, “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Talk to everyone, and more money may even come in. Ignore distractions to focus on a creative project. Learn from mistakes. Reconnect with someone from your past.

How To Play: Each row must contain the numbers 1 to 9; each column must contain the numbers 1 to 9: and each set of boxes must contain the numbers 1 to 9.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Express love to your significant other, friend or family member. With a few adjustments, you get the perfect picture. Saving is better than spending now. Savor kindness. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) You’re entering a transformative cycle. Out of the rubble, something new gets built. Work with a partner, listening carefully. Optimism expands to fill available space. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Care for houseplants or garden work goes better with the help of a female. You’re more exposed to the elements now. Make sure you understand the rules before proceeding. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) You’re getting busier and very productive. Behind-the-scenes negotiations lead to a sweet deal. Finish a tough job before going out. You’re making a good impression.

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Monday’s Puzzle Solved

37 Plastic construction toy 39 Novelist Waugh 42 Lisa of “A Different World” 43 2005-’07 attorney general Gonzales 44 Nebraska neighbor 45 Broadway fare 48 “I insist!” 49 Trojan War epic 50 Miniature

10/9/12

52 Nail file material 54 Mariners’ pronouns 56 Volcanic flow 57 Sitter’s handful 58 Hit the ground 59 Powerful wind 61 Word that can precede either part of each starred clue’s answer 62 Animation frame

FITNESS

PAGE 8

THE DAILY TITAN

OCTOBER 9, 2012 TUESDAY

Vegan Tales: The Daily Titan dietary challenge Through the month of September, members of our Daily Titan staff decided to challenge themselves and each other. The competition was to not eat meat or animal products for an entire month, in other words live the life of a vegan. Some flourished, others fell short but everyone had a story to tell in the end. Pictured from left to right: Nereida Moreno, Kymberlie Estrada, Alvan Ung, William Camargo, and Andie Ayala.

Nereida Moreno

Andie Ayala

As awful as it may sound, my decision to join the vegan challenge had nothing to do with morals or camaraderie, the way it might have been for other people. I was subjected to the most classic form of peer pressure by fellow editor Andie Ayala. It was a dark and stormy night. I was standing outside of my car, ready to go home when Andie and photo editor William Camargo began shouting like mad men from the depths of William’s minivan. I was exhausted and willing to agree to anything in my fragile state. I could not have been in my right mind by agreeing to be vegan for a month. I love meat. I could live off meat! Well, that’s not completely true. But I was accustomed to eating meat on a daily basis thanks to my hectic work schedule that limits my food options to the restaurants across the street from College Park. When I realized my mistake, I tried my best to talk myself out of the challenge to no avail. I did however manage to rework my contract into a vegetarian challenge instead of a vegan one. I knew I could give up meat if I really wanted to, but I am simply not strong enough to give up cheese or ice cream. To be honest, my concessions were not nearly as difficult as the one my competitors had to make. The only days that were truly difficult were the ones that I was back home in San Bernardino. Having to say no to my mom’s famous chicken mole was almost more than I could bear. Perhaps I am too competitive, but I was so determined to come out of this nonsense a victor. I was willing to do anything, even reject my loving mother. I consider myself a winner. From my understanding, the deal was to end the challenge as soon as the first person broke. Given Andie’s cake incident, I had a clean conscience walking into The Habit to enjoy the classic char burger. I haven’t looked back since.

The vegan challenge was no piece of cake for any of us, literally. It began spur of the moment after William, a vegetarian, suggested that I try vegetarianism. We somehow decided to try veganism for a month instead, and a few other friends decided to join in. In the beginning, I was surprised negatively every time I reached for a cupcake, chocolate milk or any of my usual favorites (aka heavy carbs and generally anything unhealthy.) When I went out with my friends, it upset me to have to decline sharing a pizza or be the only one with regular fries instead of animal style fries at In-N-Out Burger. Life had changed, I became that annoying girl who took her food back to the cashier saying, “Um, excuse me, I didn’t want cheese in that,” or “Can you make extra sure there’s no mayo in this?” I sensed the annoyance, felt the disapproval and worst of all, hated the judgemental comments my friends made; “You know you’re not getting enough protein, right?” But after awhile, I began to notice positive changes; I felt more energetic and I was saving money. When I had an urge to eat something non-vegan, I texted my friends in the challenge and over time, we bonded over our experiences. We ate vegan foods together, shared vegan recipes and shared our daily vegan challenges. It was all going very well until the day I forgot to eat breakfast. I walked into work where there were sliced up pieces of cake. There was a sign in front of the cake that read, “Delicious cake, please take some.” That word “delicious” brought back an intense sense of nostalgia in me. I remembered pleasant tastes and frankly, I could no longer resist. I grabbed a piece of cake and ate it as quickly as I could. Every bite was pure euphoria. While I knew I’d fess up to my friends, I couldn’t help cracking up while eating, as it was my idea and I was the first to give in. Overall, I feel like the experience taught me a lot, I have a greater understanding of what most foods are made of and definitely am more used to eating vegetables now. Would I do it permanently? Hell no. Omelettes are too good.

ROBERT HUSKEY / Daily Titan

Kymberlie Estrada

Alvan Ung

William Camargo

I’m 5 feet 5 inches, 90 pounds and a vegetarian. You would think that going vegan would come easy to me. It wasn’t. My current diet consists of non-dairy milks, yogurt, eggs, cereal, a lot of fruits and vegetables and other vegetarian substitutes. Going vegan cut out essentially everything I had in my pantry such as eggs and yogurt, which account for most of the protein in my diet. I found myself eating an apple for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Since most vegan delicacies require actual cooking; rather than your standard pre-packaged microwavable meal, I found it difficult to stick to the vegan competition. Since I was constantly on-the-go and frankly have not one cooking ability bone in my body, fruits and vegetables were convenient grab-and-go foods. I dropped nearly five pounds in less than two weeks. I became weak and tired. Clearly, something was wrong. Two weeks in, I walked into The Habit and broke. The warm, crisp smell of onion rings made its way towards my table and well... you get the picture.

Being vegan wasn’t easy. Part of me didn’t think I could it; the other part of me just wanted steak for dinner. But I reluctantly signed up for the vegan challenge. The first week was pure shock. My life changed, and I had to learn so much. The Internet became my Bible on all things vegan. I analyzed the ingredients list of everything I wanted to eat. The aroma of fresh Costco hot dogs nearly broke me. “It’s not for me, it’s for them,” I chanted. I needed to remind myself that I was buying this food, this delicious, sensual-smelling food, for other people. It taunted me devilishly and told me I couldn’t be vegan. That served only to fuel the fire within me. So vegan it was. Chips and dip, fries, salads, vegan burritos and vegan bowls became staple foods. And everything became delicious to me. It was either be vegan or starve. And even now, I still have a bit of vegan in me. The other day, I had to force myself to add bacon to my entirely-vegan-friendly Which Wich bowl. Yes, it was delicious.

I could say being vegan was easy, but I won’t. I’ve been vegetarian for more than a year and thought going vegan would be simple, especially going against all the meat eaters in the challenge. Looking at everything I bought became a nuisance as I learned that many of the things I wanted actually had dairy products in them. This was disappointing because I was already preparing myself to become a vegan one day. I knew that I needed to replace the cheese so the next best thing for me was fries. That wasn’t a good switch though. I decided to try and and be a healthier vegan by switching to fruits and vegetables because of the research I had done. Luckily, I had the support of my mother who would pack me at least three apples a day. My mother still thinks I’m vegan and continues to pack vegan lunches for me. I don’t mind it at all. The first thing I bought once the challenge was over were mozzarella cheese sticks. I then grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich with animal style fries from In-N-Out Burger and asked for double cheese which was ridiculously filling.