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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 ‘Narnia’ author wrote about more than just wardrobes.
Mexican drug cartels growing marijuana in northern Texas. IN NEWS, 4 Volume LXXIV, Number 17
‘Concerts in the Plaza’ gets a makeover and a new location. IN ARTS, 7
IN ARTS, 8
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
CSU chancellor delays CBF funds Statement is consistent with prior delays
Cal Poly administrators were informed that the California State University Chancellor’s Office gave an ultimatum regarding the College Based Fees (CBF) yesterday morning. The chancellor’s office gave the university two options if they wanted to keep the CBF in place, a $362 fee increase that 78 per-
cent of the students’ voted for in March. The first option would give one-third of the fee increase to the chancellor’s office to dole out to the other California State University (CSU) campuses. The other option is that all of the CSU campuses get the opportunity to approve similar fees. “(The CBFs) were passed prior
to this year. All 23 campuses face a moratorium on campus-based fee increases for this year,” Erik Fallis, a representative of the chancellor’s office said in a statement. A ‘moratorium,’ or delay, is no new strategy. “He is still asking President Baker to hold off on implementation of the increase, as he’s done
since the advisory vote was conducted in March,” Associated Students Inc. (ASI) President Kelly Griggs said. The chancellor’s office raised student tuition by 32 percent this summer in order to deal with a systemwide deficit of $564 million. The deans of the university’s
colleges were among the first notified of the impasse. Dr. Dave Christy, dean of the Orfalea College of Business, advocated the increase to CBFs. “The reason we asked students to pass it was to retain the mode of education. Without it we’ll have to see Funding, page 2
kevin black mustang daily
New portal lets students receive secure messages Megan Hassler mustang daily
The Cal Poly Health Center launched the new Mustang Health Portal on Sept. 1, which will allow students to receive secure messages, make appointments and fill out health history forms online to avoid filling the forms out wen going in for an appointment. The portal is the result of a $3,000 software update the Health Center has been looking into for the last 18 months. During last year’s discussion with the Student Health Advisory Council, students said the functionality of the portal would make the Health Center more accessible. The leaders of the Health Center agreed with this and want to make the visit to the Health Center as harmless as possible. “Being sick is lousy. No one likes to wait in a line when they are sick,” Dr. David Harris, Head of Medical Services, said.
The Mustang Health Portal launched this month. The Mustang Health Portal is not currently linked with the My Cal Poly portal, because after polling students last year, it was found that some students’ parents have access to their portals. Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) student medical records are included in educational records, which are protected under this act. Once a student turns 18, all of his or her educational records become protected by FERPA.This protection includes from the students parents or guardians, unless the student has signed a records release form.
The biggest downfall of the Health Center’s previous alert system was the “loop of sometimes endless phone tag,” Harris said. Due to FERPA and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Health Center officials are prevented from leaving any information on a student’s voicemail. This is because it cannot be guaranteed that the student is the only one who has access to their voicemail. The result is a generally inefficient mode of communication in which it could eventually take days to connect. see Portal, page 2
Library’s Einstein bust reported stolen mustang daily staff report
A bust-sized statue of Albert Einstein, usually located on the second floor of the Robert E. Kennedy library, was missing and considered stolen yesterday afternoon, library dean Michael Miller said. Although some regular library patrons noticed the statue’s absence for weeks, Miller just recently recognized that it was missing from its location above the rows of newspapers near Julian’s Patisserie. He then reported it to the University Police Department (UPD), which is conducting an investigation to determine exactly when the bust was taken. A spokesperson for UPD said that the report was incomplete, but that more information was forthcoming. Whoever stole it most likely walked out the front door of the library, Miller said. While there are exits on all levels of the library, they are all alarmed and would have caught the attention of the library staff, he added. Although the incident could
simply be a “prank,” Miller said he was disappointed on behalf of all who use the library. “When someone from our community comes in and takes it, it’s kind of depressing,” he said. The statue is estimated it to be worth several thousand dollars. “Einstein is an iconic figure,” Miller said. “(This particular statue) is as a nice, sort of friendly version of a genius. I found it both friendly and inspirational. It’s nice to have works of art available in the places where students do their work.” While UPD is conducting an investigation, Miller said it would be dropped if the statue is returned unharmed. “If (the statue) were returned, there’s not going to be any questions asked, there wouldn’t be any questions asked, that would be the end of the (investigation) with UPD,” he said. Updates will be available as information comes in on mustangdaily.net. Emilie Egger contributed to this report.
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Portal
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For now,the messaging is only oneway and cannot be replied to.There is
continued from page 1
The new system eliminates the first round of phone calls and makes the communication more direct. Biomedical engineering freshman Emily Falkenstein received test results through the portal earlier this week. “It wasn’t working at first but a couple of days later it did … and it was really convenient,” Falkenstein said. To use the new system, students must register on the Mustang Health Portal, using their Employee ID numbers and their official Cal Poly e-mail addresses. After entering this information, students will receive an e-mail with a temporary password to initially log on to the portal.This can be changed later within the portal. In the event that a student needs to be contacted by Health Center officials, a non-descript e-mail will alert the student of a message waiting for them on the portal.The student must log in to access the message from the Health Center officials.
It will change the way we do business... Medicine everywhere will be changing. — Dr. Martin Brag Director of Health and Counseling Services
the capability to change the system to have two-way messaging. However, for the time being it will remain one way to work out the kinks.The big-
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gest concern for the new system is the unchecked messages. Through the portal, the Health Center is able to monitor whether the message has been checked or not. This enables them to act accordingly if the patient has not checked their message, whether this means sending a follow-up e-mail alerting the student of the message or making a phone call. There are two full-time IT staff members working at the Health Center to fix any problems. So far they have come across a possible problem when the program is used on the Safari browser on a Macintosh computer. They are looking into this glitch further. They also work to ensure the security of the system. Harris referred to them as the ‘quintessential skeptics’. Along with the IT staff, the security is protected by housing all of the records from the Health Center in the computer center of school where they use mirror servers. Mirror servers are used as basically an identical copy of all of the information on one server to be on a second server in case of technical difficulties. There is also an off-site server farm with all of Cal Poly’s records in the event that all of the records on campus were lost. Although the new portal will cut out some of the unnecessary steps from before, Director of Health and Counseling Services, Dr. Martin Bragg said, “It isn’t an issue of efficiency. It will change the way we do business … Medicine everywhere will be changing.”
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Funding continued from page 1
increase class size and have fewer sections,” he said. The state university fee went up 30 percent and tuition for out-of-state and international students rose, but the state appropriation — money from the state to finance each Californian’s college education — decreased. “Cal Poly was cut about $32 million. The only reason we’re surviving right now is the faculty and staff are having mandatory furloughs and taking a pay cut,” Christy said. However, the actions taken so far to balance the budget aren’t doing the job. “Even with the fee increase and furloughs we have less money than before … Our challenge is to circle the wagons and make sure we’re offering the classes our students need to graduate,” he said. Griggs said a compromise is necessary, despite the chancellor’s desire to keep all CSU campuses on a somewhat level playing field in the form of cost and access to education. “Additional funding stimulated by the CBF is needed to maintain our programs,” she said. “Even if the fees were approved on a temporary basis, or for an amount even less than the amount proposed, and funding at this time would be helpful.”
Current and former students had mixed reaction to the chancellor’s decision. Business junior Joe Murrell voted for the CBF increase in the March 2008 referendum. He is frustrated that the chancellor denied the students’ vote. “It makes me feel like my vote really didn’t have an effect,” he said. “If the majority of students wanted a change, and the students are the ones who attend classes and pay tuition, shouldn’t we be able to have a say that we’re willing to pay extra to keep our classes?” Angela Kramer, ASI president for 2008-2009, had a different perspective. “I can understand where the chancellor is coming from because he’s received a lot of negative feedback from other schools,” she said. “I think he’s caught in between.” Other university’s presidents understand that some student populations can afford a fee increase, whereas some campuses don’t have that option with their students,” Griggs said. “Cal Poly is already a unique in the fact that were the only CSU that has a College Based Fee, so in these economic times the chancellor is hesitant to allow our university to increase this fee additionally,” she said. President Baker and Provost Koob could not be reached by press time. Tim Miller, Kate McIntyre, Alex Kacik and Will Taylor contributed to this report.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Refugee
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then, about 185 have arrived in Washington state. Hakizimana and the others thanked God for His blessings. Before departure, the refugees went through a three- to five-day training program — a tsunami of information covering the basics of life in America. They learned how to ride in an airplane; about hygiene; and about U.S. currency. They were told they would have to pay for food and shelter, that they must lock their doors at night, that they’d wash their clothes in mamcclatchy-tribune chines. Under the shade tree they jokingly call “the office,” Roger Kabura In truth, they had no idea what they were up against. They faced a terrible cleans off his feet after a day’s work. The refugees’ aim is to be self-suffijob market in one of the most expen- cient next year after completing basic training helping them in the U.S. sive areas of the country, without the skills that most Americans learn starting in youth. There also were larger cultural issues at play. A few decades ago, it seemed there was an excitement about newly arriving refugees. Americans wanted to help. King County residents opened their homes, for example, to refugees from Southeast Asia. But with so many more arriving over the years, attitudes have shifted. Money has dried up. Nonprofit refugee agencies found apartments for the Burundians in Tukwila and SeaTac and Everett, and bought furniture, kitchenware and clothes using federal money allotted for this purpose — $425 per person. The refugees got lessons on how to hunt for jobs, how to ride the bus. But day-to-day, they felt adrift, even misled. Other refugee groups have longestablished networks to help newcomers. Not the Burundians. Hardly anyone from their country had come before. Hakizimana had it better than most, though. He understands four languages, including English, and was a high school teacher in the camp. He’s the rare Burundian who has attended college. But that African education wasn’t helping him in America. “The first thing I ask the case manager: Where is college?” he recalled. “She said you are not here to go to school.You are here to work.” Hakizimana did what was required. He and several of the other young men took low-wage jobs, the best they could do with their skills. But he worried about the rest.Some spoke no English at all. Some were in their 50s and 60s. Others had young children. Sure, they had freedom in the U.S. But freedom to do what? They grew hopeless. Parcel by parcel, the land went from produce to pavement. Today, Barnier’s farm is an anomaly. Finding it after passing by so many warehouses is almost surreal. “We had wonderful land here and we’ve put the gravel over it,” Barnier said. She isn’t able to put in the labor to keep things running. But she still wants to see her land farmed. A program started by King County that matches landowners with wannabe farmers has helped her lease it for the past couple years. She was matched with the Burundians. Hakizimana looked over the paperwork and signed his name. Eleven acres, one year, $2,500. Not long after that, the Burundians stood outside Barnier’s house, bowed their heads, and prayed — for the land, for themselves, and for the people God sent to help them. “That’s how life is,” he said. “You have to wait a little bit, struggle a little bit. But we have hope.”
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MARYSVILLE, CA (MCT) — The youngest of three defendants in a fatal car-to-car shooting in East Linda will sit in prison until he’s at least 91 years old, according to a Yuba County prosecutor. Judge Kathleen O’Connor on Monday handed down the life sentence for Pheng Kue, who was 14 when Raymond Castro died of a single gunshot wound to the head at the intersection of Oakwood and Fernwood drives in May 2008. O’Connor rejected defense attorney Mark McBride’s motion to reduce Kue’s second-degree murder conviction to voluntary manslaughter — the verdict reached by juries for Kue’s co-defendants, Meng Thao and Thang Yang.
MIAMI (MCT) — A year ago, U.S. Coast Guard vessels plying the waters between Florida and Cuba were busy stopping dozens of Cuban migrants each and every month. Today, Coast Guard cutters are still operating in the Florida Straits — but Cuban migrants are harder to find. That’s because fewer undocumented Cubans are leaving the island for the United States, not only through the traditional route across the Florida Straits but also through the newer route across the Yucatan Channel to the Mexican border. The sharp decline is evident in the number of Cubans intercepted in the Florida Straits and those landing on South Florida beaches.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (MCT) — Facing condemnation abroad and criticism at home, Honduras’ interim President Roberto Micheletti reversed course Tuesday and said he’d withdraw a controversial measure that’s suspended civil liberties in Honduras. Micheletti’s government also backtracked on another key issue by inviting a group of foreign ministers to Honduras next week, two days after his government barred four foreign diplomats from the Organization of American States. The diplomats compose part of the international effort to pressure the Micheletti government into allowing the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
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LOS ANGELES (MCT) — Two Pebble Beach residents say thieves made off with $27 million of artwork Friday from their private collection — a fine-arts haul that included works by Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Jackson Pollock. Angelo Benjamin Amadio said he and his housemate, Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, a Boston radiation oncologist, returned to their rented Sunridge Road home about 6:50p.m. to find 13 pieces of art and other items stolen.
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WASHINGTON (MCT) — The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday rejected by 15 to 8 a “public option,” or governmentrun health insurance plan—the first significant setback for the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Five Democrats joined all 10 Republicans in opposing the plan, suggesting that more trouble lies ahead when the House of Representatives and full Senate consider the legislation in mid-to-late-October.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
In a Washington field, Burundian refugees find an opportunity
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LONDON (MCT) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown attempted to rally a battered Labour Party Tuesday, defending the government’s handling of the economic crisis and vowing to pursue policies that will benefit Britain’s “hardworking majority.” Brown said the Labour government’s decision to come to the aid of the banking sector last fall served as a model for similar rescues around the world, while other measures boosted small businesses and helped save 500,000 jobs that would otherwise have been lost.
mcclatchy newspapers
A small community of Burundian refugees in the Seattle-area have formed Hope Burundian Community Cooperative farm in Kent, Washington. What do you do as a refugee in America with few career skills? The Seattle-area Burundians, including Adirine Ntirabampa, turned to the land and created a farming cooperative. Ntirabampa picks bean leaves, which some African cultures consider a delicacy. Maureen O’Hagan the seattle times
Serges Hakizimana got off the plane and was awe-struck. He had been traveling for three days, all the way from a refugee camp in Africa to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. In two bags, he carried everything he owned. On that summer afternoon two years ago, each sight was a revelation. The roads were so busy, so big — nothing like where he came from. And the lines of cars: Why do they simply stop, as if on command? A light had changed colors, he was told, as if that explained anything. Hakizimana is Burundian, but he’s never been to his homeland. In 1972, before he was born, Burundi was wracked by ethnic violence. Hundreds of thousands faced a choice: flee or be killed. The lucky ones wound up in refugee camps far from home. For decades, these “1972 Burundians” have lived in limbo — one of the most protracted refugee situations on the planet. Hakizimana was born and raised in those camps. It is a life, he said, where you don’t think about the future.You just survive. Then, in 2006, the United States agreed to accept some of the refugees. He is among about 8,000 who have arrived since then. These newcomers, most of them unable to speak English, had no idea how to find work. Nor did they completely grasp that they would nonetheless be required to pay their rent. “They say you’ll be fine in U.S.,” Hakizimana, 29, explained.“Now you have somewhere to call home.” It was harder than he could have ever imagined. The story of Hakizimana and his comrades swings between hope and despair. The Burundians’ visions of life in America — of going to college, of first-world opportunities — were
shattered. Instead, they took jobs washing dishes until the wee hours in hotel kitchens, if they were lucky enough to find anything at all. They have been weighed down by isolation. Yet they have stumbled onto a new path, one that, even in this modern world, takes them back to their roots. Which is how Hakizimana and the others wound up planting potatoes amid the industrial warehouses of Kent. Community comes first It is difficult, as Americans, to understand all that it means to be a Burundian refugee. You live for decades in isolated camps on foreign soil. You have few rights. You can’t return home. You have a roof over your head, but no electricity. You are given a ration card for food.You wait in line at a pump for drinking water.You gather firewood for cooking.This can take all day. You are likely illiterate, even in your native language of Kirundi. Inside the Tanzania camp where Hakizimana lived, there are a few official jobs, like helping to dole out food, or teaching. Some Burundians created camp jobs for themselves: barber, cobbler, bicycle repairman.You risk arrest if you stray more than three miles from camp, so there are no other options for work. It’s a hard life, Hakizimana said. But it’s like an old injury that never heals. After awhile, you just accept it and soldier on. They practiced their Christian faith and maintained an ethic of sharing resources, putting community first. They held tight to their traditions and their language, so even the young, who have never set foot in Burundi, would know their homeland. In 2006, the U.S. agreed to accept thousands of Burundians — just a small percentage of the total refugee population — for resettlement. Since see Refugee, page 3
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Mexican cartels growing marijuana in north Texas Steve Campbell mcclatchy newspapers
Mexico’s nimble drug cartels are leapfrogging tightened border security and establishing sophisticated marijuana-growing operations in North Texas and Oklahoma, law enforcement officials say. “There is no doubt” that three big marijuana fields uncovered this month in Ellis and Navarro counties “have a tie to the border and a Mexican drug cartel,” said a drug investigator for the Department of Public Safety. “They brought the tenders up here from Mexico to do the work. “This is not Joe Bob growing some marijuana to smoke. These are professional drug operations,” said the investigator, who asked not to be identified for security reasons. The traffickers’ farming operations, known as “grows,” have been an increasing problem on public lands in California and other Western states for some time. But it’s only been in the last two years that the cartels have started to cultivate densely plant-
ed plots in North Texas and eastern Oklahoma, law enforcement officials say. Oklahoma officials got their first glimpse of the trend this summer when an aerial surveillance crew spotted “a buck-naked Mexican in red boots,” bathing in a creek in a remote section of the Kiamichi Mountains, said Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. Police rappelled into the area from helicopters and found 30,000 marijuana plants spread around multiple plots in the forest, Woodward said. He said the growers used all-terrain vehicles and horses to access the site. This month alone, sheriff ’s departments in Texas’ Ellis and Navarro counties found three irrigated, fertilized and manicured pot-growing operations near Ennis and Corsicana. More than 16,000 plants have been uprooted from the sites, said Duane Steen, an assistant commander of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Narcotic Service in Austin.
Word on the Street
“Do you use the Cal Poly Health Center?” Compiled and photographed by Jennifer Titcomb “I try not to because it takes forever to get in there. But I do because it’s part of tuition and have cheap prescriptions and nice doctors.” -Chris Nelson, Agriculturalbusiness junior “I don’t use the Cal Poly health center because when I’ve gone there the waits were really long and I didn’t get much help.” -Diana Buhler, environmental management senior
“Rarely, because of the long lines. The service provided wasn’t very efficient.” -Pateel Krikorian, food sciences sophomore
“No, I haven’t used it yet. I haven’t needed to.” -Ryan Fulton, agricultural engineering freshman
mcclatchy newspapers
Many people in towns in Michoacan are just attempting to stay out of the crossfire between the drug cartels and the Mexican military. Erik Alejandro Gonzalez, who works at the State Commission on Human Rights in Apatzingan, next to the town of Paracuaro, says there are 40 complaints against alleged abuses by the military. Last year, a 12,000-plant operation found in Ellis County was the first sign that Mexican drug cartels have branched out from smuggling marijuana to cultivating it in Texas, Steen said. The Piney Woods of East Texas was where investigators usually found pot patches, Steen said. “The old operations were local: The guy grew up in East Texas and decided to grow a little weed,” he said. What’s being found now is on a different scale. “It’s not the number of fields, it’s the sheer size of these huge cultivations — 12,000 plants is a
lot of marijuana,” Steen said. Ellis County Sheriff Johnny Brown and his drug investigators say they are not surprised at what has become the norm for pot growing. The marijuana farms were spotted by officers in the department’s surveillance plane, which it got in April through a grant from the National Institute of Justice. “We’re flying every day,” Brown said. “We don’t have our heads in the sand,” he said. “It makes good business sense for drug cartels to grow it here. And they are very good businessmen. It’s all about
the money. “If they grow it here, they don’t have to smuggle it across the border and they don’t have to risk driving it 300 miles to get here. There’s little risk for the people behind it and there’s a huge payout.” The potential profits from pot plantations are staggering. Texas officials said the three plots uncovered this summer would have yielded about 16,000 pounds of high-quality marijuana worth an estimated $24 million, according to a value scale established by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
thursday, september 24, 2009
arts & Entertainment editor: cassandra keyse
Market music replaces UU Plaza entertainment Nikol Schiller mustang daily
certs will be held this year than in previous years, despite ASI having a full Music in the Market budget of $24,000. Last year, about 10 concerts were scheduled per quarter. Between the two Music in the Market concerts and the four Fan Fest concerts, only six concerts are scheduled this quarter. The added expense of having the concerts at different locations accounts for the fewer concerts being held this year, Missi Bullock, ASI program coordinator, said. “It’s more difficult to program when it’s farther away for us, from our base (in the Epicenter),” Bullock said. “It’s also more cost prohibitive for us to bring the whole thing somewhere else.” The
Construction in the University Union plaza has caused Associated Students Inc. to move the UU hour concert series to the Via Carta Mall near Campus Market, cut back on the number of bands playing per quarter and create a new music event called Fan Fest before home football games. Michelle Broom, ASI public relations and marketing coordinator, said that the purpose of the UU hour concert series, now known as Music in the Market, is to provide students with free entertainment. She explains that UU hour began as a class-free, hour-long break every Thursday from 11 a.m. to noon. Students would gather in the plaza to listen to the free entertainment, usually a local band, brought to them by ASI see Music, through student fees. page 8 “It’s really just a long-standing tradition that ASI has done,” she said. “It’s free entertainment during the day for the students. photo courtesy of associated students inc. Because of the location change from the UU plaza Singer/songwriter Jason Reeves will to the Via Carta Mall, fewer con- perform on Oct. 29.
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Music continued from page 7
location of the Music in the Market was another reason the concert series was split into two separate musical events, the UU hour concert series featuring local band Still Time and singer/songwriter Jason Reeves, and Fan Fest. After sending out a group to look at possible venues for the concerts, Bullock and her team ultimately decided that Via Carta Mall, an area by Campus Market, would best replace the plaza. “A big thing we considered was an impact to classes in different areas,” she said. “So that’s what we looked at when we scouted locations. Via Carta Mall was deemed as the most ideal space for that to happen with the least impact to classes.” On both concert dates this quarter, the surrounding buildings, including the Agricultural Sciences Building and the Agriculture Engineering Shop, have no scheduled lectures from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Because the Via Carta Mall does not have a permanent stage like the plaza, ASI plans to rent the Ernie Ball Mobile Stage, a large semit r u c k that
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folds out at one of the sides to create a stage inside the truck. The Ernie Ball Mobile Stage, one of two truck stages designed and created by Ernie Ball, Inc., has been used at several music festivals, including the Vans Warped Tour and the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands. This mobile stage will roll into the Via Carta Mall to provide a platform for the band. The extra cost to bring in the Ernie Ball stage accounts for ASI scheduling six concerts instead of the usual 10. In addition to the cost of Music in the Market budget is the new Fan Fest concert series, which will be held before Cal Poly’s four scheduled home football games. Featuring a small festival-like concert with two live bands, inflatables and food vendors. This new free event will take place on Chase Hall lawn along College Avenue at 3 p.m. on Oct. 3, 17, 24 and Nov. 14. Broom and Bullock say that attendance has been steady over the last couple of years, but they did notice a slight decrease in the turnout of students last year. They link the small decline in student attendance to the increase of on-campus student residents. Instead of sticking around
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the UU between classes, students may go back to their dorms to study, Bullock said. Although Broom and Bullocks have high hopes for the new location, students have mixed reactions about the concert change. Civil engineering sophomore Michael Nilsen, an avid UU concert enthusiast, says that he probably won’t go, since the concerts are not held in the middle of campus anymore. Business sophomore Maddie Foster thinks that the change will not affect the turnout of students attending concerts. “I think the response to the location of the concerts will be the same as last year because it is a free concert,” she said. “No matter where it is on campus, I’m sure students will flock there. Despite some students’ concerns for the new concert series venue along Via Carta Mall, Bullock hopes for a positive turnout. “We’re hoping more students (will go),” she said. “It’s a niche that’s been there that we haven’t served, so to speak. I think that the students are yearning for something new and different.”
photo courtesy of associated students inc.
Local band Still Time will open up the Music in the Market series tomorrow in front of Campus Market.
Wednesday September 23, 2009
“Narnia” author weaves a tale of sisterly bonding When most of us think of C.S. Lewis, we think of his hugely popular “Chronicles of Narnia.” Despite being a long time devotee of the Narnia books, I never read any of his other works — until this one. “Till We Have Faces” is a wonderful book, full of all the beautiful language and innovative plot twists that one would expect from C.S. Lewis.
narrator, Orual. Though Orual was born a princess, she never received love from her parents or respect from any of her peers. She is said to be an extremely ugly child and is shunned by much of the kingdom, giving her a generally dark attitude towards people and life in general – that is, until her sister is born. Orual is still
The content and the language are clearly directed at an adult audience, but the things that made me love his writing in the Narnia books are still present — most importantly, his ability to weave a story from some of the most fantastical elements and still make it seem real. “Till We Have Faces” retells the classic myth of Cupid and Psyche from the point of view of Psyche’s sister, Orual. Lewis creates the story in the setting of an ancient society, one which believes in the power of the gods and still practice sacrifices to please them. Orual and Psyche are born as princesses in this world, daughters to the king of a small and failing kingdom. I was surprised at this setting for a retelling of a myth such as this, because I was expecting Greece, a grand palace, or at least a bit more prosperous kingdom. But I think that Lewis uses this unexpected setting and its uniquely harsh language to mirror the harsh qualities of the
seen as the ugly one, but she finds a new purpose in life by caring for her little sister. As Psyche grows older, Orual finally has a friend and knows love in a way that she never has. Lewis does a wonderful job illustrating this bond between siblings. In a way, it even reminded me of the bonds described in the Narnia series. This is another of Lewis’ talents — depicting the bonds of human relationships. There aren’t specific incidents to point to really or even one poignant scene that stands out above the rest to create this relationship. Rather, it is the way in which he mixes these together with the smaller everyday moments to create the nuances of a sisterly bond that is truly unique. It doesn’t take long to discover that, despite their bond, the two sisters are strikingly different. Psyche is everything that Orual is not: pretty, accepted, loved. Orual, whom we may expect to be jealous of her sister, is surprisingly not. Instead, she loves her sister more than anything else in the world, but it is this love that will prove dangerous to Psyche in a way that neither of them ever imagined. In some way, I think that Orual’s love for Psyche is something that allows her to live vicariously through her sister. When she is with Psyche, she is overshadowed, but acknowledged. She is constantly around Psyche, so she gets to see first-hand what kind of adoration and respect she receives all the time.Though she isn’t jealous of it, I think that she does rely on it and tries to claim some of it as her own, in some strange way. One day, Psyche draws the attention of a god, Cupid no less, the god of love.While Psyche is thrilled, Orual does not want to believe that it is true — she does not want to lose her sister. She is torn between wanting to believe her sister and letting her go and denying that it could be true in order to keep Psyche with her.While I obviously won’t tell you what happens, suffice it to say that the choice Orual makes will affect not only both of their lives forever, but everyone around them as well. Melinda Truelsen is an English graduate student and Mustang Daily book columnist.
opinion/editorial Editor in chief: Emilie Egger Wednesday, September 30, 2009 Managing Editor: Alex Kacik
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America needs to turn to its core values to get through difficult times As Americans we claim to, “hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Yet today it seems we have traded our heritage for these unstated truths — that all men are equal, that they have evolved from goo with equal rights, that among these are marriage of anything to anyone, life — after you’ve passed nine months — and the pursuit of our pleasures.We have exchanged the values which this country has been founded on for our interpretation of freedom as it best suits the pursuit of our pleasures. American values as expressed by our founding fathers form the basis of government and are embodied in documents such as the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, sums up his contemporaries’ values concerning the formation of this great nation: The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He (God) has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on
our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses. In this excerpt from Mr. Jefferson’s writing to James Fishback, Jefferson expresses the necessity for Christian morality in the foundation of a functional society. If Jefferson believed that which he states, his other writings, including the Declaration of Independence, must embody this view of morality. It is sad, but true that our current leader does not share these same sentiments. Our leader has repeatedly stated that we “do not consider ourselves a Christian na-
tion.” He has even gone so far as to say America is “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world” even though less than 1 percent of Americans are Muslims. The president, as the leader of this great nation, has an obligation to act on behalf of American citizens and should base his decisions on their values. Citizens who hold in high esteem the values on which the United States was founded must speak out and share their values, lest they be handed over to the history books, never to return again. At this very moment, you and I face the most difficult challenges this country has ever known. We engage at the dawn or demise of a new era of attacks on our core American values. Just as the at-
tack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 created a unifying point for all American people who returned to their true American values in the weeks and months that followed, so again, we must rally behind the attacks against our core American principles. For example, we are faced with the threats of impending socialism, government control of once private companies such as General Motors, infringement of our freedoms such as our freedom of speech in light of proposed expansion to the Hate Crimes Law, and the list goes on. The time is nigh when you will be called to make a choice for truth or progressivism, to speak out and defend your freedoms or let them slip away. It is imperative that you take a bold stand for the fundamental freedoms and truths held by the founders of our nation and embodied by its original governance. You must speak out now, or there will be no one left to speak for you. Nathan Tsoi is a computer sicence senior and Mustang Daily political columnist. His column, “First Things First” will appear every Wednesday.
American beauties need protection mcclatchy-tribune
So begins the latest PBS offering from film-maker Ken Burns. “The National Parks: American’s Best Idea.” It’s hard to imagine a more eloquent opening than the haunting voice-over of those words from John Muir, one of the early champions of preserving the majestic spaces of America. What you get from Ken Burns is meticulous research, stunning visuals, interesting facts about long-forgotten folks, elegiac music and poetry to soothe the soul. He proceeds at a stately pace. But persevere. As he did with his documentaries on the Civil War, baseball, jazz, race, feminism and World War II, Burns tells stories that illuminate topics everybody thinks they already know. They don’t. They don’t know these stories. Burns is on firm ground when he says setting aside national park land for the public is as “uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence.” The palaces and many parks of Europe, he notes, are owned by royalty and the elites. America’s parks are owned by the people. The ruination of Niagara Falls gave birth to the idea of “public” parks. By the 1860s, private owners controlled every single U.S. vantage point for viewing those magnificent falls. Tourists, hounded by hucksters, had to pay the going rate. Throughout this series,
the battle cry raised is “not another Niagara.” Tourists came to marvel at Yosemite even before the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln in 1864 preserved that land and the ancient groves of giant Sequoia trees for public use by entrusting them to California. Yellowstone became the first national park in 1872, mainly because Wyoming was still a territory and there was, as yet, no state to take it. (Congress, however, failed to appropriate any
barry maguire newsart
money to manage or protect the park that year.) Before the National Park Service was born in 1916, the parks were in a legal limbo. The U.S. Cavalry came to the rescue. Gen. Philip Sheridan of Civil War and Indian Wars fame commanded the West. A young Teddy Roosevelt went west in 1883 because he was afraid the buffalo would become extinct before he had the chance to kill one. Roosevelt loved hunting. He also became, as president, a staunch conservationist and fierce protector of the parks “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” Those words of his are inscribed on the famed arch at Yellowstone’s northern entrance. President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the parks to include battlefields and other historic sites. Today there are nearly 400 such parks and sites. It is the grandeur of the first parks in the West that enthralls in this series. They contain the “spacious skies” and “purple mountain majesties” made legend in song. Ken Burns will have done the parks a service if this series inspires families to get up off the couch and plan a journey to one of these spectacular spots. You own these parks. Your kids and grandkids will own them. Follow Muir’s advice. They are yours to play in. Enjoy.
This could be a good thing. Previous posters took the naive route and said “it doesn’t happen here.” However, the truth of the matter is that, yes, maybe the WOWies aren’t drinking while they are with their WOW leaders, but once 11 o’clock rolls around they (most not all) are hitting Hathway, Foothill, Slack, etc. to find a party or get trashed. This does occur during WOW. It may not be within the ledger of activities during the day, but it does happen. It is also funny to read all the Facebook posts and what not telling people to go to the county meeting tonight, to protest. If they read your article well or even looked into it a little more, all they would have to see is that the city is wanting individuals to act like adults, treat neighbors with respect, keep kids under 18 out of harms way ... and be responsible. It is safe to say that if you got into college let alone Cal Poly, you are a fairly intelligent individual who could abide by such standards. Thus, you keep $350 in your pocket, don’t have to find a new place to live, and can still get tanked and have a good time… as long as it’s done responsibly. I think most are capable of that much. —Anonymous Response to “Politicians hear the noise”
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September 30, 2009 Volume LXXIII, No. 17 ©2009 Mustang Daily “Why don’t you go hug a tree or something.”
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Angels’ celebration: Foul ball or home run?
mcclatchy-tribune
Pitcher John Lackey holds Nick Adenhart’s jersey after a moment of silence April 10 in Anahiem. Adenhart was included in the celebration for the American League West champs Monday, but some argue the booze bath may have struck a nerve too close to home. Jeff Miller the orange county register
They couldn’t possibly be this shortsighted, this insensitive, this flatout stupid, could they? Here was a symbol — the symbol — of their dead brother, killed by a man who was driving drunk, and they were soiling the memory of Nick Adenhart by drowning his jersey in Budweiser, Bud Light and cheap Korbel. And now they were hoisting that jersey aloft, whooping and shouting, proudly and coldly, while cameras flashed and cell phones clicked.
The Angels, a franchise the fans love because it does so much right, a team that played all summer with its hearts exposed after Adenhart’s shocking death in the season’s first week, couldn’t be this tactless. Or could they? No, they absolutely couldn’t. Not this franchise. Not this ownership. Not this coaching staff. Not these players. What the Angels did Monday upon clinching the American League West was, to be accurate, straight from those wounded hearts. They poured booze over each
other in silly celebration, and then poured more over Adenhart’s jersey in sober tribute. Think of it this way: If Adenhart had been in that clubhouse with them, his jersey would have been just as soaked as it wound up being in his absence. In a very deep way then, he was in that room. Once again. Just like he has been all season. Just another Angel, Adenhart’s locker remaining intact, his jersey hanging in the dugout — home and away. As grossly inappropriate as it might have appeared — and, trust us, we
were initially stunned — what the Angels did wasn’t an act of indecency but an act of involvement, a blind and unadulterated embrace of a lost teammate. What they did upon reaching their first goal was the same thing they did throughout the pursuit. They included Nick Adenhart. Now, about these baseball celebrations, they have gone too far and need to be abridged. Spray champagne, sure. Enjoy a beer, fine. Enjoy a second one, if you like. But these volume-10, mosh-pit, brain-cell holocausts have run their course. Baseball doesn’t need any more swim goggles, not this early in the achievement process. For a sport that loves to trumpet its marathon pace, this game wildly sprints to the slightest scent of triumph.The Angels just won their division for the third consecutive year and fifth time in six seasons. Do they really need to pour through a bathtub full of booze? They just outlasted three teams, 10 percent of the major leagues, to clinch another berth against an opponent they’ve never beaten when it matters most. Do they really need a pour through a second bathtub? Yes, the Angels overcame plenty to reach this coveted position, the biggest obstacle being Adenhart’s death. But every team that wins every season does so only after preserving through injuries and losing streaks and other teams striving for the same plateau. And guess what? The clubs that don’t win, they’ve had all those same issues, as well. Blame it on television, a medium that once just affected lives but now directs them. Like you, players have seen other players soaking themselves, other teams collectively leaning against the walls of appropriate merriment.
So when the opportunity is theirs, the result feels less spontaneous and genuine and more like forced oneupmanship. Often, it’s competitive gloating disguised as something nobly earned, a ridiculous bar being raised one case of dumped beer at a time. In the same way, the walkoff victory celebration has been stretched beyond recognition. The chase for outdoing one another finally ended up recently with all the Milwaukee Brewers on their backs, an incident both humorous and distasteful. All that being said, the Angels didn’t act inappropriately in their treatment of Adenhart’s memory. As Manager Mike Scioscia said afterward: “These guys want to pay tribute to Nick in any way they can.They’ve felt that way all season.” He never really left this team, Adenhart literally woven into the Angels’ fabric on a patch each player wears over his heart. If you thought they were disrespecting him in their revelry, you didn’t see any of the Angels who approached his locker late Monday night — music still pounding and suds still exploding — and bowed their heads in prayer. When a group of Angels returned to the field after the game, they headed toward the warning track in center. Once there, they pounded their fists on the No. 34 insignia and emptied even more beers over Then they did something really cool. They stopped, turned around and posed, arms wrapped around shoulders, championship ballcaps askew, untucked T-shirts dripping, hair mopping and smiled for the cameras. Hovering just above the raucous group, visible, if just barely in some frames, was the face of Nick Adenhart, the forever Angel. Now that’s a team picture.
Despite injury, Stafon Johnson will play football again Scott M. Reid the orange county register
LOS ANGELES — Doctors treating Stafon Johnson for throat injuries he suffered during a weight-lifting accident said the USC senior tailback will play football again but are uncertain if he can return this season, Trojans coach Pete Carroll said Tuesday. Carroll said doctors at California Hospital Medical Center characterized both the seven hours of surgery he underwent and his recovery as encouraging. Johnson surprised doctors by being awake and alert Tuesday morning and has been non-verbally
communicating with family members and teammates. “Fortunately this morning we got great reports about Stafon responding to the accident and also the surgery,” Carroll said. “He was awake this morning, communicating with everybody and his spirits were good. He’s not talking but was doing his way of making some sense of stuff, writing and all that, very, very uplifting for his mom and family and all and our guys who got the chance to get down there. “This morning everyone has been very encouraged so it’s a great sign. He was out all night last night and nobody could really communicate with him at all until this morning. So that’s the first time and the signs were great.” A weight bar slipped out of Johnson’s hands and landed on his throat as he began the final set of lifts Monday. “(A) most unfortunate accident, it was an absolute accident,” Carroll said. “It just hit him wrong and he’s had obvious consequences.” While splitting tailback duties primarily with Joe McKnight, Johnson scored a team-high five touchdowns in the Trojans’ first four games this
season. Johnson has five career 100yard rushing games and scored nine TDs in 2008. He has been projected as a fourth-round NFL draft choice by some draft analysts. “Doctors said today they expect him to play football again, they don’t know when,” Carroll said. “...It’s very open ended right now. The doctors can’t say, they can’t predict, they have to wait and see but they do say he will be able to play and there won’t be any problem with that. But we don’t know when.” In what Carroll described as “an unbelievable stroke of synchronicity,” Johnson’s mother Kim Mallory was working at California Hospital Medical Center at the time of her son’s accident. Carroll said his team was still struggling to make sense of the accident. “He’s a wonderful kid in this program, he means something to everybody here,” Carroll said. “Stafon has been a spiritual leader and a leader on the field in all ways for a long time and a beloved guy so this is something that does affect you and we all will feel it for some time.” But Carroll added he didn’t think the incident would impact the Tro-
jans preparations for Saturday’s game at Cal. “We’re concerned about him right now,” Carroll said. “The conversation about the effect of this and the effect
on the game is really not even an issue for us, I don’t think at all. I think our concern now is for Stafon and his family and everybody handing what’s going on.We’ll be OK.”
mcclatchy-tribune
The Trojans lose their short-yardage specialist and team leader in touchdowns for the season.