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CA L I F O R N I A P O LY T E C H N I C S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y Empower Poly unites campus clubs with sustainability focus.
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IN ARTS, 6 Volume LXXII, Number 108
Faith Mimnaugh dealt with gender inequality. IN SPORTS, 8
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
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New direction for studentled alcohol campaign Cassandra Keyse mustang daily
cassandra j. carlson mustang daily Students and university officials attended yesterday’s forum to discuss potential fee increases.
Poly holds forum to discuss possible college fee increases said state budget cuts would make it unrealistic to “get you graduated in a reasonable amount of time.” Two days before students cast an advisory This prompted Schwartz to ask whether the vote on the proposed college-based fee increase, administration has considered cutting its own the university held a forum yesterday to discuss salaries amidst the crisis. the referendum and answer student questions. Ikeda replied that 97 percent of the adminAlthough the administration has not explic- istration is underpaid, especially compared to itely encouraged students to vote either for or private-sector jobs. against the proposed increase, administrators at “Baker’s pay is peanuts compared to a CEO,” the forum described the benefits they say stu- she said. “He takes this kind of pay to do public dents would reap from the extra fees. If passed, service.” the referendum will raise all full-time students’ The forum opened with background intuition to $362 per quarter effective fall 2009, formation about how the increase came about. and augment $200 until 2011. Ikeda described the pressure placed on Cal Poly Although the student vote is considered ad- by the Chancellor’s Office in recent years to invisory — rather than decisive — to Cal Poly crease enrollment with the incentive that they President Baker, Kimi M. Ikeda, assistant vice were going to be funded appropriately.The state, provost for systems and resource management however, which is dealing with its own budget and a speaker at the forum, said Baker has never crisis, has not provided teh university with fundbefore acted contrary to the student body’s vote ing proportionate to the increase in enrollment. on a proposal and is unlikely to do so for this Schwartz said he was originally attracted to referendum. Cal Poly because of small class sizes and said he Still, despite the magnitude of the proposal, was disappointed that the university buckled unonly 10 students showed up to the forum, a der state pressure. number Ikeda said was disappointing. “It frustrates me... because I feel like a lot of However, she said the university expects a it’s about political pressure to do certain things larger turnout come voting day on Wednesday. and they don’t have the integrity to stand up for “We’re hoping for a 38 percent (of the stu- what Cal Poly stands for, like the small student to dent body) turnout. If it’s a 10 percent turnout, teacher ratio,” he said. that’s pathetic and sad,” she said. “I don’t think In order to continue Cal Poly’s quality of (the) president will listen to the 10 percent.” education, Ikeda said that the university isn’t just Business sophomore Daniel Schwartz was asking students to vote for the increase; it is also among the attendants. He said he wasn’t satisfied fundraising to increase scholarships for students with the answers the administration offered. and endowments for professors. “It only solidified my decision to vote no,” Regarding impact on financial aid dependent he said. students, Ikeda said their best option for affordLinda H. Halisky, dean of the College of ing a fee increase would probably be to take out Liberal Arts, warned students about the conse- additional To read last week’s story quences of voting no on the CBF increase. She loans. about the CBF proposal, and for a college-by-college breakdown, go to: http:// tinyurl.com/CBFVote REMINDER: IMPORTANT DATES Omar Sanchez mustang daily
State of the Student Address: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 from 7 to 9 p.m. in Chumash Auditorium Voting: Online via Cal Poly Portal March 11-12. Ballot will pop-up on portal page from 7 a.m. March 11 to 10 p.m. March 12.
Alcohol: many freshmen want it and will do whatever it takes to drink as much as they can once they get ahold of it.This situation often times leads to negative consequences for these students as they adjust to life away from home. At Cal Poly, as with many other universities, underage drinking is common, but there are students committed to educating the campus about alcohol and its consequences. Smart Students, Smart Choices is a senior project campaign class that started five years ago with the goal of increasing alcohol awareness for on-campus freshmen. “The purpose of the class is always the same, which is to promote smart decisions and good choices about drinking on campus. What’s changed is what it’s been called or what the theme is,” said Brian Tietje, associate dean of undergraduate programs in the Orfalea College of Business and the group’s faculty advisor. Though the title for the project is Smart Students, Smart Choices, this year the theme is Define Yourself, chosen by the students who think it has a more thoughtful impact on campus than past themes such as the recent Under Four campaign. Under Four featured posters and advertisements of students who looked like they drank too much alcohol and found themselves in less-thanflattering situations. “We’re really trying to move towards a more serious tone,” business senior Chris King said. “Last year’s campaign had good intentions, but a lot of people took their own spin on it. We didn’t want to have that.” The group was formed after winter quarter registration last fall. Each of the 20 students in the senior project class was sent out to perform their own research on drinking and how it affects college students. “At the end of fall quarter, I gave the students an individual assignment which was basically to do some primary and secondary research in order to learn more about the social problem of excessive drinking, to learn what other campuses have already tried to do and to learn about the data that’s out there and research that’s been done on excessive drinking on campus,” Tietje said. This is Tietje’s first year advising the campaign and he has taken a self-proclaimed “hands-off role” in the process. Thus far, his role has been to assign the students to conduct research in order to provide a solid basis for their chosen theme. He said that this research was especially important because senior students do not always fully understand what life is like as a freshman. “I challenged them to do some research to get inside the heads of their target market, in this case on-campus freshmen,” he said. “Seniors have kind of lost sight on what the lives of freshmen are like, especially because the lives of freshmen now are a little differ-
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Fliers posted around campus describe the new theme of the Smart Students, Smart Choices, campaign, which aims to curb underage drinking. ent than when they were freshmen.” The initial marketing efforts of the campaign can be seen all over campus, from their thumb-printed posters to a life-sized silhouetted person located just inside the doors of Campus Market. Each marketing effort leads the viewer to their Web site, www.cpdefineyourself.com, where there are links to six different videos that tell personal stories about the effects of alcohol. “The thumb print is our logo and it’s about defining yourself outside of alcohol. Anyone can drink, so it’s kind of like a challenge to students to figure out what they are all about,” King explained. One of the first major events that group members have been planning is what they tentatively call “A night off drinking.” They are trying to work with local businesses and the greek system in order to promote having a good time without the aid of alcohol. Ideally, businesses would agree to offer alternatives to alcohol and the entire greek community would agree to one night without drinking. The group is also planning is to sponsor a dunk-tank during a UU Hour where students would be able to dunk university police officers who have volunteered to participate. Each event will aim to engage students in activities that do not involve alcohol and yet are entertaining at the same time. “Our campaign isn’t about stopping the consumption of alcohol at Cal Poly,” King said. “It’s college, we realize that people are going to drink. It really ties into the Smart Students, Smart Choices where if you’re going to drink, do it responsibly. That’s all we want people to do.”