Monday, Febr uar y 6, 2016
E s t ab l ishe d 1916
w w w. mu s t an gne w s . net
Instafamous From student to social media celebrity Barbara Levin Special to Mustang News
Katie Postl carefully selects her outfit and hairstyle for the day, but not just for herself, for her 21,100 Instagram followers. Instagram is a social media platform primarily based around sharing photos and videos. With more than 300 million active users that spend an average of 21 minutes on the app every day, it’s now being used for more than just sharing photos; it’s used to market products, services and even individuals. “I’m constantly either sending messages or talking to companies [or] my manager, editing pictures or getting
PERKS OF THE JOB
pictures edited by someone else,” animal science graduate Postl said. “It’s honestly a 24/7 job when I’m not sleeping.” Postl, who modeled as a kid, started her road to Instafame by modeling apparel from small clothing companies in Los Angeles. Once she gained enough followers, she was featured on Total Frat Move, a top college comedy website. Now companies reach out to Postl through Instagram to represent their brand. According to Postl, it is crucial to post consistently, a struggle she faced as a fulltime student at Cal Poly. After just two days of not posting a photo, she runs the risk of
losing followers. As a student, Postl didn’t have the time to have a photoshoot every week. To keep her audience engaged, she would have to post photos from previous photoshoots. “I don’t think people realize that me posting one picture is not like I’m quickly selecting one photo and caption. I have a list of captions that I wrote down months ago that I haven’t used,” Postl said. “I have to send my edited pictures to so many people before I post it and I have to get captions approved by the company before I post the photo. It’s a lot of work to post a single picture.” INSTAFAMOUS continued on page 4
MAGGIE HITCHINGS | COURTE SY PHOTO
| Animal science alumna Katie Postl receives free clothing to promote on her Instagram from businesses that sponsor her. Postl has kept an abundance of clothing and products from the companies she promotes.
Bringing Chinese New Year to Cal Poly campus Rebecca Ezrin @CPMustangNews
GLOBA L
REBECCA EZRIN | MUSTA NG NE W S
| The Lion Dance Team purchases their handmade lion costumes from China and Malaysia.
The vibrant and colorful celebration of Chinese New Year is one of the most festive and important holidays in Chinese culture. This year’s Chinese New Year holiday began on Jan. 28 and will run through Feb. 11. Several countries honor the lunar-solar calendar-based new year, but Chinese New Year is the most internationally recognized celebration. “This is probably due to the fact that there is a lot of the Chinese community abroad,” modern languages and literatures professor Teresiana Matarrese said. Chinese New Year, some-
times called Spring Festival, is so ancient that historians are unable to trace its origin. The earliest known records of the celebration date back to China’s Shang Dynasty era in the 14th century B.C. The Chinese calendar was created in harmony with the lunar cycle and the solar solstices. The calendar’s framework also reflects the Chinese zodiac, in which each year represents an animal. The zodiacal animals include the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. This year is the year of the rooster. “The legend dates back to the Jade Emperor in heaven. He wanted to have a race with
different animals participating,” Chinese Student Association (CSA) member Kevin Chiu said. “The order of the 12-year cycle is based on the order in which animals finished the race.” Chinese New Year festivities span over a 15-day period and end with the Lantern Festival on the last day. Traditionally, married people give kids money, presented in a decorative red envelope. “It’s called hongbau,” Matarrese said. “They never give amounts with the number four in it, because it is thought to bring bad luck. ‘Four’ in chinese sounds like ‘death.’” NEW YEAR continued on page 4
Know your rights: A landlord’s job, a tenant’s home Kristine Xu @Kristiners
Part 1 of a series about students and their rights. It started with some wet socks I stepped over to the corner of my room to grab something off my nightstand when my socks became instantly wet. Upon further investigation, I discovered a large wet spot growing underneath my nightstand. The tenant before me had mentioned the leak and I thought peeling back the carpet and running a fan would do the trick. Besides, I figured having wet socks is a small price to pay for the heavy rains that were slowly bringing California out of its drought. Two days later, as I was wrestling a bed sheet onto my mattress, my socks got wet again when they touched the edge of the wall. I wedged myself between the box spring and the wall, reveal-
ing that the leak had spread to the entire perimeter of my room. My face fell. I live in an older house and there are plenty of things that haven’t been replaced in years. There’s a missing drawer in my kitchen that leaves a gaping hole in the counter. The once dark green porch paint is chipped and faded, with a couple missing spindles. There are even random belongings from past tenants still lurking in the closets downstairs. Though situations like this are unpleasant to deal with, it’s a reality that many students in San Luis Obispo face. As someone who has experienced her own set of housing issues, I’ve learned that every student deals with this kind of situation in a different way, shape or form. But every student also has rights, as I learned after a waterlogged research project about my own situation. HOUSING continued on page 3
HORROR STORIES
MAT T L AL ANNE | MUSTA NG NE W S
| Flooding caused by the storm in early January required repairs in some rental units, causing some tenants to vacate.
News 1-3 | Arts 4-5 | Opinion 6 | Classifieds 7 | Sports 8
NEWS 2
MUSTANG NEWS
CELINA OSEGUER A | MUSTA NG NE W S
STIGMAS
| Stalking is often thought of as a stranger hiding in dark alleyways, quietly lurking. However, that is rarely the case. Stalking is usually done by someone a victim knows.
What stalking can look like and how to get help Cassandra Garibay @CPMustangNews
When Cal Poly graduate school alumnus Angela Key moved from California to Minnesota for her undergraduate degree, she thought she left her past behind. Key was previously stalked and harassed through letters, by a girl who was kicked off the swim team on which Key was a star player.
It took two police actions, but eventually Key no longer had to worry about the envious stalker. However, her freshman year of college, Key was assaulted by someone she was dating. After the assault, Key said the man made her undergraduate years a nightmare. He told people that she had sexual relations with someone, which was frowned upon at the Catholic university
she attended. He also stalked her for several years. “For about three years on and off I got text messages about the terrible lies he spread about me around campus and the athletic community,” Key said. The stalking primarily involved hacking her social media accounts and posting her private information to Google. Key had to change many things about her life, from her phone number to her friends. Even after seeking help from the university, she found no solace. “I did well athletically, academically I was fine, but mentally I felt as though nobody was understanding where I was coming from,” Key said. Key was able to file a temporary restraining order through the university at the end of her junior year.
advocates to develop personalized “safety plans.” In some instances, safety planning may involve turning off phone location services. In other situations, it involves keeping a record log of instances where a stalker made a person feel uncomfortable. It can then be reported to the university or the police.
Speak up even when you’re shot down ... even if you’re silenced; find other ways to get around that.
National Stalking Awareness Month This year, Safer hosted events at Cal Poly for National Stalking Awareness Month for the first time. The goal was to shed light on resources that are available to victims, such as Key. RoughASSOCIATED STUDENTS, INC.
CANDIDATE FILING: February 6 at 8 am – February 24 at 4 pm
CANDIDATE INFORMATION SESSIONS: Tuesday, February 7 at 11 am, UU 216 Monday, February 13 at 7 pm, Cal Poly Rec Center Training Room
OPEN HOUSE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING: Wednesday, February 22 at 4:30 pm, UU220
FILE TODAY! ASI ELECTION PACKETS AVAILABLE: ASI Student Government Office and online at asi.calpoly.edu/student_government/elections
#whyasi
ly 20 percent of Safer’s crisis counseling services last year concerned stalking. “We don’t talk about it [stalking] enough,” Safer Coordinator and
#WhyNotYou
ANGELA KEY
trained advocate Kara Samaniego said. “And we recognize that we, as a program, need to make that intentional effort to bring it to light and let people know what it is and that we are a resource to address that.” To address this, Safer hosted events focused on cyber stalking, safety planning and misconceptions about stalking. When most people think of stalking, they imagine a stranger hiding in dark alleyways, quietly lurking. However, that is rarely the case. “Just like any other type of gender-based violence, like sexual assault or dating violence, stalking is almost always done by somebody the person already knows,” Samaniego said. Samaniego said that in most cases, a partner or former partner wishes to exert control over the other person by maintaining a constant presence. It often begins electronically with little things such as annoying text messages that are brushed off. However, an increase in frequency and intensity leads to fear. “A lot of people don’t necessarily recognize that it’s stalking until it has escalated to a point where there is a tremendous amount of fear,” Samaniego said. According to Samaniego, stalking is a repetitive action or behavior directed at a person that instills fear. However, Safer encourages people to be vocal at any point that they feel uncomfortable in a relationship or situation. Safer and RISE provide trained
Someone Stood Up For Me The “Someone Stood Up for Me” display took place Jan. 25 and 26 on Dexter Lawn. It gave people the opportunity to thank whoever helped them during their time of need. “People don’t always see the impact they can have on other people’s lives by just accepting what they [the victims] are saying and validating and offering resources and just being a good friend,” Samaniego said. According to Samaniego, if a friend comes to you, you shouldn’t make them think the uncomfortable feelings they experience are common and should be ignored. Nor should you dismiss their concerns with peer pressure or by choosing sides. “I lost friends in the process of making decisions because people pick sides on who to believe,” Key said. “I didn’t really get their respect back until the truth came out because they believed his story over mine.” Instead, Samaniego said trusted allies should address their friend by providing support and suggesting different resources, such as counseling. However, counseling should not be the only option according to Hannah Roberts, the assistant director for Community Prevention and Intervention Services. “It is so important to validate their [the survivor’s] experience without taking away any more of their control,” Roberts said. Ultimately, a person’s decision to take action is their choice. An ally must realize that it is not the victim’s fault nor can the ally force the victim to seek help. “Any kind of interpersonal trauma, like stalking or assault, is an individual experience and in counseling we follow the survivor’s lead,” Roberts said. The Health Center offers both individual and group counseling,
depending on what the survivor feels would work best for them. Key said that although she preferred individual counseling, finding the counseling that works best is vital for survivors. “It can be powerful to sit down with four or five other people and hear them share similar stories and emotions,” Roberts said. If you notice a friend may be in danger, Roberts suggested voicing concern through “I statements.” For example, “I am worried about this…” rather than labeling or accusing the victim. This is also the case if you feel your friend is in an unhealthy or abusive relationship. The difference between unhealthy and abusive “There is a difference between an abusive relationship and an unhealthy relationship, but abuse comes in many, many, many different forms,” Samaniego said. “Physical is just one, far more common is the emotional abuse.” Relationships that are emotionally abusive are, in Samaniego’s words, “repetitively chipping away at self-worth.” Similar to stalking, Samaniego said, abuse is about control. “A relationship can be abusive for an extremely long time before it becomes physical,” Samaniego said. For instance, Key’s now ex-boyfriend who stalked her would publicly voice his opinion of her food choice and weight. This ultimately led to her developing an eating disorder and attempting suicide twice. Key went to many counselors and moved to San Luis Obispo to complete graduate school. She focuses on the importance of body positivism and health. “I hope that people never go through or try to get through the experiences I did without being protected or self-guarded or selfaware of who they are,” Key said. If a person in a relationship or a friend begins to notice abuse, Key says speaking out is the most important thing. “Speak up even when you’re shot down ... even if you’re silenced; find other ways to get around that,” Key said. “And advocate for yourself.” The Health Center, Safer and RISE are all resources on campus and in the community if you or anyone you know is experiencing stalking or abuse.
NEWS 3
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017
Pi Kappa Phi becomes the first of four new fraternities on campus
DANIEL BENHAM | COURTE SY PHOTO
ADDING TO THE BROTHERHOOD | Pi Kappa Phi shows off their new letters as they stand in celebration of being the first of four new fraternities to have their charter approved by the Interfraternity Council. Megan Schellong @meganschellong
As part of Cal Poly’s eight-year expansion plan for greek life, four new fraternities will come to campus. The first one to come on campus is Pi Kappa Phi. The fraternity came to Cal Poly in Fall 2016, but just participated in their first rush this past week. Pi Kappa Phi is the first fraternity to join campus of the
four because its goals align most closely to those of the Interfraternity Council (IFC) — namely, philanthropy. “Our theme is exceptional leaders and uncommon opportunities,” Pi Kappa Phi President Daniel Benham said. “So the vibe, really you could say of Pi Kappa Phi, is that we’re servant leaders.” In Spring 2016, Lead Coordinator for Fraternity and Sorority Life Kathryn O’Hagan expressed how
impressed she was with Pi Kappa Phi’s involvement in philanthropy. “I’m excited for IFC to be expanding,” Interim Coordinator for Fraternity and Sorority Life Payton Gates said. “Pi Kappa Phi has a lot of national support and so far they’ve got a great group of chapter members.” Pi Kappa Phi is the only national fraternity with its own 501(C3) non-profit organization called “The Ability Experience.” The
non-profit is dedicated to spreading awareness about people with disabilities. It was recognized as being one of the only fraternities to raise more than $15 million for one organization, according to the website. Philanthropy in greek life is not unique to just Pi Kappa Phi, but is common across all Cal Poly chapters. A recent announcement of the university found that greek life on campus raised more than
$500,000 last year. Top fundraisers included Chi Omega ($45,000), Sigma Kappa ($37,000) and Alpha Omicron Pi ($20,000). Materials engineering sophomore Benham said he’s looking forward to representing not only his fraternity, but greek life in general. “Knowing the reputation that we have among Cal Poly students and the community with
media portrayals have of us, we’re now in a position to influence that reputation,” Benham said. “It’s extremely valuable to me and it’s something our guys are excited about.” The following fraternities will be introduced next as part of the plan to introduce eight new fraternities: Alpha Sigma Phi in Fall 2018, Phi Gamma Delta in Fall 2020 and Phi Delta Theta in Fall 2022.
ALDEN SIMMER | MUSTA NG NE W S
FOR A CAUSE | Pi Kappa Phi is the first national fraternity with its own non-profit organization, “The Ability Experience.” Members pictured from left to right: Mateo Fabbri, Zachary Wackman, Jack Boulware, Neil Misra.
HOUSING continued from page 1
Know your rights Patrick Saldana, the directing attorney at the California Rural Legal Assistance office in San Luis Obispo, noticed habitability issues throughout the county, particularly affecting students. He chalks it up to students just not knowing their housing rights. According to Saldana and The California Tenant’s Guide, the Landlord-Tenant relationship is built on a complex web of rights and responsibilities. Under California Law, the implied warranty of habitability guarantees rental properties are fit for human habitation. This means that by law, tenants have the right to live in a habitable space provided by their landlords. However, tenants are experiencing a more difficult time finding suitable housing, due to the large number of students seeking off-campus housing. According to Saldana, he estimates a two percent vacancy rate in San Luis Obispo, which leads to a high demand for available properties. “There might be individuals who use students as essentially a temporary sort of tenant … they don’t necessarily make those repairs because they just assume the student is going to be gone at the end of the year anyways,” he said. Saldana walked through a few steps that all tenants should do to get repairs done: Determine who’s at fault: Is the tenant or the landlord responsible for the repair?
Document ever ything in writing and make sure to sign and date it, ensuring there is written proof of the conversations. Give the landlord a reasonable amount of time to fix the issue, depending on the severity of it. Call the code enforcement hotline to request an inspection and to write a citation or a letter to the landlord requesting certain substandard conditions be repaired. According to Saldana, tenants should get a proactive start by being upfront about their concerns. “Even if you’re a little uncomfortable with starting off on what you think might be the wrong foot, that move-in inspection, that checklist that every landlord gives you when you go into a new apartment is very important,” Saldana said. Otherwise, tenants risk being blamed for issues they didn’t cause. If tenants have allowed a reasonable amount of time to pass, they can start considering other remedies. Repair and deduct, rent withholding According to the California Tenant’s Guide, the repair and deduct method is defined as deducting the amount necessary from future rent to repair the defects. In addition, a tenant is allowed by law to “withhold some or all of the rent if the landlord does not fix serious defects that violate the implied warranty of habitability.” However, the issue
in question needs to threaten the tenant’s health or safety and cost more than one month’s rent. Tenants are also recommended to speak with attorneys before moving onto remedies such as rent withholding or repair and deducting, or else tenants may be served with a three-day notice to pay or an unlawful detainer trial. Small claims court is also a viable choice if there are no other
Despite the frogs and slugs, Oberto actually prefers his house to the other rental properties his landlord manages.
options and the landlord fails to provide habitable premises. Tenants should vacate the premises before pursuing this option. According to Saldana, tenants should at the very least review the California Tenant’s Guide, which can be downloaded from the Department of Consumer Affairs website. The guide details tenant rights that prevent landlords from overstepping their boundaries. Between a rock and a hard place General engineering senior
Anna Laird is just one of the numerous students currently experiencing housing rights violations. Laird moved into a house that wasn’t cleaned before she moved in, but another tenant living on the residence had a much worse experience since. At Laird’s residence, there are five tenants on the main floor and a single tenant living in an apartment below who have dealt with sewage problems for months. “Her bathroom has been flooded multiple times. Every time she has to use her towels to clean it up and buy new towels to replace them,” Laird said. “Her doormats and the bathmats get messed up and she’s worried she’s going to get charged for water damage.” The pipes in her bathroom need to be replaced, since they frequently get blocked because of residual buildup over the years. For months, she’s dealt with flooding in her bathroom and it wasn’t until the tenant had no access to her bathroom for days that the landlord decided to replace the pipes entirely. However, once the heavy rains hit, there were two leaks found in her house. “Not only was her bathroom flooded, her kitchen and her living room were flooded as well,” Laird said. “It’s been smelling so bad that she’s only been in her apartment to sleep because it smells mildew-y,” Laird said. The landlord suggested to air the smell out by running a fan.
Laird advised students to read through their lease carefully before signing and to discuss any concerns with their landlords. “Don’t be afraid to talk about it before you sign it,” she said. “Don’t think that just because [the landlord has] the place that you want to live, they won’t give and take a little bit. There’s always room for discussion.” Lesser of two evils Music senior Jack Henry Oberto is another student experiencing housing issues as a result of flooding. There was a serious case of black mold at his house near Laguna Lake. Though his landlord called repairmen to take care of the mold, it hasn’t been much of a solution. “They still haven’t replaced my wall. They took out a piece of the drywall in the closet, and they haven’t gone back yet to replace it,” Oberto said. Due to poor ventilation, a significant amount of moisture accumulated in the house, causing mold to spread and dripping condensation to form on the inside of windows. “Multiple times I’ve gone into the bathroom and I’ve found slugs. We’ve found frogs three times and I can hear frogs at night,” Oberto said. “I think they’re probably living somewhere. We’ve also found a dead rat right inside the door that crawled out from the wall.” Despite the frogs and slugs, Oberto actually prefers his house to the other rental properties his landlord manages. “In another one of [my landlord’s] houses, they get snakes …
I’d rather have those [frogs] than have snakes,” he said. Oberto’s advice to students signing next year’s lease is to take a proper look around before making any definite decisions. “Make sure you go with someone [who knows] what they’re looking for; a parent or someone that understands property, and have them look at the house with you,” Oberto said. Students can make the best of their housing situations next year by understanding their rights as a tenant and speaking up if they have questions or concerns with their landlord. Laird and Oberto are both still dealing with their housing issues. However, my own housing issues are fixed for now — weather permitting. After contacting my landlord, I spent a couple days camped out in the living room before carpet installers could finally take out the balled up carpet in the middle of my mildew-smelling room. We discovered the source of the leak at the doorway of my closet, and construction workers are scheduled to come patch up the leak on the outside of the house. Being forced out of my room for that week made me realize just how little I knew about housing rights and landlord-tenant relationships. California Rural Legal Assistance offers free civil legal services and fair-housing services to low-income individuals throughout San Luis Obispo County. Contact their office at (805) 544-7997 or call the code enforcement hotline at (805) 594-8188.
ARTS 4 INSTAFAMOUS continued from page 1
For just one post, she charges approximately $200 depending on the company she is collaborating with. Postl tags the company, such as Members Only and Movimento Apparel, in the image or caption as part of her agreement. Her Instagram account is her personal brand and business. She stays true to her style by posting photos that have a similar natural look to them, though she’s not yet sure which particular brand or look she wants to eventually represent. Instagram also allows Postl to connect with her fans on a personal level. Because she runs her account, they can directly message her. Makeup artist and vegan lover While Postl built her personal brand in the world of Instafame, nutrition sophomore Amanda Castillo created her style through makeup tutorials and sharing her passion for veganism on YouTube. She uses Instagram to promote her videos and gain YouTube subscribers. “I don’t think there was a day in high school where I never wore makeup,” Castillo said. “I was known for it and people would always ask me to do their makeup for special occasions.” After gaining more than 20,000 subscribers on YouTube, Castillo was contacted by Nikki Phillipi, who now has more than one million YouTube subscribers. The two collaborated on a few makeup tutorials, and Phillipi served as Castillo’s mentor and taught her how to reach new heights of fame on social media. From there, Castillo first started trading free items from companies for shoutouts on her channel. Castillo soon realized she was underselling herself. Now she receives approximately
MUSTANG NEWS $3,000 for a one-minute shoutout and $6,000 for a full-video shoutout for companies. “As you’re in this kind of business industry for a while, you really learn how much you’re worth and how much you should get paid,” Castillo said. Though she is making good money, Castillo emphasized her ethics and the importance of staying true to her personal brand. She declines daily offers from companies that want her to promote products — such as makeup — that have been tested on animals. As a vegan she would never willingly apply makeup that counters her beliefs against animal testing. “I do look into my ethics and what I’m interested in first, and from there I’ll choose the company,” Castillo said. “Money definitely is tempting, but I always look at my core values and what my viewers like as well.”
cussing fees with DrinkRE, an energy booster with natural substances, and Eat Healthy Designs, a clothing company promoting good nutrition. Hansen’s personal brand is a combination of balanced eating and fitness, but she said staying true to this style is sometimes challenging. “Sometimes staying true to me can be hard and it is easy to get lost in the excitement of companies reaching out and followers growing,” she said. To those following the road to Instafame, Hansen suggests prioritizing one’s brand over the money and business aspect, and to make sure that a company matches the style and purpose of that account. “When distraction consumes your mind, which it likely will when your following grows, it’s easy to forget your mission and lose sight of your ultimate goal,” Hansen said. “When you put out genuine material, people who want to see it and who share the same beliefs will support you.”
Hungry Haley: A foodie finding fame In contrast to Postl and Castillo who make money from their Instagram and YouTube accounts, nutrition junior Haley Hansen does not currently charge companies for her “foodie” Instagram account. Created as she recovered from an eating disorder, Hansen’s posts feature recipes for nutritional meals and promoting healthy living. “My journey has been finding what foods support my busy fitness-obsessed lifestyle. Oh, and I’m vegan!” Hansen said. Hansen has promoted companies such as Crazy Richard’s PB and Square Organics Protein Bars on her Instagram account. She featured the health products on her Instagram and wrote reviews about them on her website. In the past three years, Hansen gained more than 20,000 followers. Because of this large increase in followers, she has plans to start charging companies. She is dis-
Challenges of student entrepreneurship On top of staying true to her personal brand, Hansen also faces challenges as a full-time student and running her business Instagram account. Being a successful student entrepreneur means choosing your priorities and practicing good time management. Jonathan York, Co-Founder of Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), emphasized the importance of finding a balance between running a business and being a full-time student. He noted that this gets harder as a business idea grows rapidly and gains popularity. “For the most part, it’s not going to wait for you,” associate professor York said. “As you get thousands of followers and people are noticing what you’re doing; you can’t just say, ‘Sorry I’m going to
I have to send my edited pictures to so many people before I post it ... KATIE POSTL
#APPROVED
MAGGIE HITCHINGS | COURTE SY PHOTO
| Postl's photos and captions have to be approved by the sponsor company before being posted.
have to stop for a while.’” York said when it comes to entrepreneurship, students must be committed to expanding their
brand. The work they put into their business has to be a part of their day, regardless of classes and other obligations.
“I think that students who are young entrepreneurs pretty much excel at setting priorities and using their time well,” he said.
WINNER OF THE
STUDENT CHEF COMPETITION Congratulations to 4th year business student and full-time foodie Skyler Hubler! Our chefs were blown away by her Roasted Shrimp and Orzo Pasta recipe featuring fresh, locally-sourced parsley. To taste it for yourself, visit 19 Metro’s comfort station between February 6 and 12. Bravo, Skyler!
#HEALTHYHACKS Midterms got you crunched for time? For a nutritious meal on the go, grab a healthy PolyFresh food item like a Performance Kale Salad or a Southwest Veggie Wrap. Feel those veggie vibes! (Registered Dietitian approved)
PCV MAC & CHEESE FEST THIS TUESDAY Do you love mac & cheese? Don’t miss out on the chance to build your own FREE mac & cheese creation on Tuesday, February 7 from 7 - 9 p.m. in the PCV Aliso Conference Room. Bring some friends and come ready for one super cheesy night!
RECYCLE AND COMPOST Be mindful of how many napkins you take during mealtime and remember to recycle them. Using less is a simple way to reduce paper waste and help clean up our planet.
REBECCA EZRIN | MUSTA NG NE W S
GOOD LUCK | Performances will include lion dancing, which Chinese culture believes will ward away evil spirits.
NEW YEAR continued from page 1
Chinese New Year is a time for people to set aside their work and stress to gather with their families, usually over a feast of traditional Chinese dishes. “Both my parents are Chinese. We usually have a dinner and it’s always a good time because you sit down with your entire family and you eat and celebrate,” business administration junior Chiu said. “There’s a lot of food items. Every dish represents something.” These dishes are meant to bring good luck in the new year. Some of the dishes include a whole chicken representing family togetherness, a vegetable dish called jai for cleansing the soul and rice flour cakes called fa gao that increase prosperity. The CSA will host its own rendition, the 60th annual Chinese New Year banquet at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11 in Chumash Auditorium. The club has hosted the banquet since it was founded in 1964. “The main goal is to share traditions of Chinese New Year and the Chinese culture with San Luis Obispo and the Cal Poly
community,” business administration junior and CSA President Jason Lu said. “We have a lot of different performances planned to represent different cultures within Chinese culture.” Performances at the banquet will include lion dancing, a play, Tai Chi and a traditional Chinese dance. Food will be catered by Golden China in Atascadero. Tickets cost $12 with food and $5 without. The CSA is one of the largest clubs on campus, with more than 350 active members of many different ethnicities. Lu said he hopes to see about 250 people attend this year’s banquet. One of the ways the CSA promotes itself is through collaboration with the Cal Poly Lion Dance Team, which performs at the San Luis Obispo Farmer’s Market on Thursday nights. “A lot of times people are really intrigued,” captain of the Cal Poly Lion Dance Team Theodore Tan said. “We got yelled at last year for drawing too large of a crowd and subtracting from other people.” The Lion Dance Team performs acts that most resemble lion dancing in Southern China.
According to Tan, lion dancing originated in China. People thought evil spirits lived everywhere and lion dancing was good luck, especially for the new year. Lions were believed to scare the evil spirits away, mostly by showing the spirits their reflections through mirrors on makeshift lion heads. Tan said the lion represents bravery, knowledge and wisdom. “The lions are handmade, but they require a lot of skill. We ship them out of China or Malaysia,” computer science senior Tan said. “Sometimes we get lucky and find something in Chinatown, San Francisco. Mostly they’re handmade by people far, far away.” The Lion Dance Team practices about eight hours a week and currently has 31 members; this is the largest Cal Poly Lion Dance Team in history. The team is non-profit and funded through donors. “Most of us have a shared understanding of our cultural upbringing,” Chiu said. “Every household is different, but there are traditions and customs (like Chinese New Year) that people from these backgrounds all understand.”
ARTS 5
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017
Professor shows Plato and Playboy are not all that different
It’s about being entertained but being enlightened as well. That’s really the core ... IAN WESTWOOD
SAMMI MULHERN | MUSTA NG NE W S
AN UNLIKELY PAIR | In his ISLA 320 class, professor Ian Westwood draws connections between works like Plato's symposium and Playboy Magazine. He said both started an important conversation for young men.
Frances Mylod-Vargas @CPMustangNews
For most people, reality television is just a leisure activity. It’s sheepishly labeled as a guilty pleasure or “trash TV” and collectively write it off as irrelevant. However, English professor Ian Westwood sees it as more important than that. To him, every piece of media tells an important narrative. Stories told through film, print, illustration and other mediums reflect society’s values and interests. Media can appear vastly different upon first glance. When comparing “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” it is initially hard to find anything in common. But Westwood argues that even these seemingly different pieces of media can have striking similarities in the stories they tell. “We’re taught to readily dismiss a lot of popular culture. ‘It’s just TV, just a movie, it’s just a song or album. It’s here today, gone tomorrow,’” Westwood said. “And while the majority of it won’t last, it falls into a pattern that captivates us through human interest.” This particular study of historic literature and contemporary media is offered in Westwood’s class, Topics and Issues in Values, Media and Culture (ISLA 320). The course is offered under
the Interdisciplinary Studies in Liberal Arts (ISLA) department. In the course, Westwood teaches students about the similarities between old works and new media. He argues that although stories are changing shape and form as time goes on, a closer look reveals that many of them share common themes, storylines and characters repeated throughout history. The course’s reading requirements include a range of works from different time periods. Among them are Hugh Hefner’s “Playboy” and Plato’s “Symposium,” two texts he sees a connection between. “Plato establishes his academy designed to teach young men about the necessary, rhetorical, logical, philosophical, artistic, legal things necessary to be well-informed voting citizens,” Westwood said. “Hugh Hefner did this same thing [with Playboy] in the mid-1950s. He created this conversation … an on-going, philosophical text that says ‘You need to learn about music, you need to understand the popular books, you need to understand the sexual liberation movement that’s an undercurrent of post-war life.’” The idea for this course originated in the mid-1960s with Cal Poly faculty member Richard Keller Simon, who started developing the curriculum as a graduate student. While listening to the radio, Simon found similarities between
rock music and romantic poetry. He thought they both expressed the anxieties and yearnings of the youth’s voice. He created the course curriculum, wrote the textbook “Trash Culture” and after teaching the class for several years, offered Westwood the opportunity to take over instruction in 2004. Westwood jumped at the opportunity, excited for the chance to give students reading material other than dry and traditional textbooks. “I thought, ‘This is an outstanding way to continue reaching the students so that it doesn’t seem as though we’re trying to walk students through the library,’” Westwood said. ISLA 320 represents the changing values of generations through works of art. Though students today may not be as familiar with classic literature as older generations, they may have seen classic stories revived for contemporary audiences through modern-day film, television and written works. “Students by and large don’t have the same relationship with some of the cultural touchstones, but they’ve read ‘Harry Potter,' they’ve read John Green,” Westwood said. “It’s about being entertained but being enlightened as well. That’s really the core of one approach to the role of art is that it should be to teach and delight.”
OPINION 6
MUSTANG NEWS
Return to Rationality: OPINION
Brandon Bartlett @CPMustangNews
Brandon Bartlett is a philosophy junior and Mustang News columnist. The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints and editorial coverage of Mustang News. Most people defend freedom of speech because they believe in the wisdom of the common man. They believe each of us is worthy of the responsibility of thinking for ourselves. They are wrong. I believe in freedom of speech for the opposite reason. I believe in freedom of speech because no one can bear the weight of separating truth from falsity, nor fact from fiction. It is exactly because we are too foolish and ignorant to handle the responsibility of speech, that I know we are far too foolish and ignorant to handle the responsibility of censoring speech. It is the same as the right to parent one’s own child. None of us are blind enough to believe that every parent is a good parent — in fact, once safely out of earshot, we often admit to each other that we might be better off if the woman screaming at her three unruly children at the grocery store simply never re-
Why I defend hate speech produced. And yet, we accept that no one ever has — nor ever will — raise a child perfectly, as it is simply too complicated. It is for this very reason that we do not put some bureaucratic committee in charge of raising millions, because they would be as inept as we are. Likewise, you and I may be able to agree that we would all be better off if some crazy person didn’t speak his or her opinions. But that does not mean that we should be able to curtail their speech as we see fit just as we should not be able to force parents to raise their children as we see fit. This leads us to the tricky subject most talked about today: hate speech. For while it may be well and good to defend the right of your opponents to express their opinions, it seems as though we can (and should) still draw a line at the point that those opinions become simple bigoted hatred; but that is not the case. It was once true that we judged whether someone was hateful
merely by assessing whether or not they admitted to hate. But we were awoken from this delusion of clarity at the discovery of the unconscious. Freud declared that even I do not know what I intend, that I could secretly harbor hate for those whom I seem to love most in the world. And he was right.
...we learned not to merely look to the words being said, but to also take into
despite their claiming otherwise. Or that political actions such as the War on Drugs can actually be a covert way to hurt the exact people that they claim to help. Thus, we use the hidden intention and results of a given speech to determine whether or not it is hateful. This is why in the last several decades we have become decreasingly interested with the professed intentions of speaker, and increasingly interested in the result of their speech. We no longer police hate speech, but rather harmful speech. And given the discovery of the unconscious, it makes sense to do so. However, it also raises a problem. Seemingly now more than ever, there is little to no agreement about the future that an idea will create. That is why there is no agreement on what constitutes hate speech. For example, it seems very likely to me that Trump’s “America First” policy will actually benefit all countries (all things considered). Yet, reasonable people disagree with me. In fact, many disagree so strongly that they would label my words as
account their intent...
Since then, we learned not to merely look to the words being said, but to also take into account their intent and their results. For instance, we know that most sentences starting with the words “I’m not a racist, but...” are going to end up being racist
hateful, as the ideas contained in those words, according to their analysis, are destined to only harm others. In this lies the problem. For in marking hateful ideas by their results, we end up losing any distinction between hate speech and merely incorrect speech — if I am wrong, then it would be true that my speech is harmful, and thus hateful, as it would hurt people all around the globe. Now, if we could know for a fact that I am wrong, then maybe I should be silenced; but the entire problem is that we do not and cannot know. The world is a very complicated place, and freedom of speech is merely an admission of that fact. Freedom of speech is telling those with whom you are conversing with that, while you may not agree with them, you know that you do not have all the answers, and that maybe, if you are really lucky, you could both learn something from each other. And as soon as we lose that humility, we lose everything. So why do I defend hate speech? Because just as I do not have the moral authority to determine what should be said, I do not the moral authority to determine what can be said.
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HANNA CROWLEY | MUSTA NG NE W S
| Many gathered outside of Spanos Theatre to protest the content of Milo Yiannopoulos’ speech, but some stood in defense of his rights irrespective of his ideologies.
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SPORTS 8
MUSTANG NEWS
Mustangs take down conference leader Ayrton Ostly @ayrtonostly
The Cal Poly men’s basketball team split its weekend games, winning the first game against UC Davis 74-70 Thursday night before losing Saturday night 6756 to UC Riverside. Against UC Davis Thursday’s matchup was the toughest test of the season for the Mustangs (7-16, 2-7 Big West), as the Aggies (14-9, 6-2) are the best team in conference. UC Davis won the first matchup 68-64 and their forward Chima Moneke is one of the players in the running for Conference Player of the Year. But the Mustangs came out fir-
LET IT GO
ing early, matching the Aggies in scoring before managing a 32-28 lead at halftime. Sophomore guard Donovan Fields had eight points in the first half and senior guard Ridge Shipley had six points to lead the offense in the first half. Cal Poly and UC Davis shot similarly in the first half, going 43 and 44 percent from the field respectively, but the Mustangs’ trio of threes helped them get the lead. From there, it was all about closing out the game. Moneke looked the part of a Conference Player of the Year candidate by scoring 25 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, both game-highs. But as he and Aggies guards Brynton Lemar and Law-
rence White all had double-digit points in the second half, junior guard Victor Joseph added 16 of his 22 points in the second half to lead the Mustangs to victory. After White knocked down a three to give the Aggies a 6362 lead, junior forward Luke Meikle hit a go-ahead corner three-pointer to get the lead for good. Head coach Joe Callero called plays for Victor Joseph to run the offense and the Mustangs tightened up defensively to beat the conference leaders. “Coach [Callero] had the confidence to go four-flat and run the offense through me,” Joseph said. “From there, I just took what the defense was giving me.” The win was the Mustangs’ sec-
ond against conference leaders. Their first Big West win came the week before against UC Irvine, conference leaders at the time. Against UC Riverside The Mustangs weren’t able to start a win streak Saturday night as UC Riverside (7-13, 5-4) proved too tough of a challenge. Jo s e p h c ont i nu e d h i s high-scoring performances, scoring 20-plus points for the fourth game in a row. He scored the game’s first shot, a three-pointer, and started a slew of shots from beyond the arc for the Mustangs. Senior guard Kyle Toth, sophomore forward Jakub Niziol and Fields all knocked in threes
to keep the Mustangs on pace with the Highlanders. Cal Poly went on a 14-3 run to close the first half and hold a 28-25 lead at the break. The Highlanders made adjustments at halftime, changing schemes on defense and offense as well. They fluctuated more to man-to-man and had their big men, forwards Alex Larsson and Menno Dijkstra, shot from long range to spread the Mustangs’ defense thin. With the change in scheme, the Highlanders went on a 17-4 run over the first seven minutes of the half. Joseph scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half to keep the game close but the rest of the team struggled on offense.
As a team, the Mustangs shot 35 percent from the field in the second half, compared to 47 percent by the Highlanders. Zach Gordon was the lone bright spot for the Mustangs besides Joseph’s scoring. He had a team-high 12 rebounds and often extended possessions with his offensive rebounding. “We knew we just had to focus,” Gordon said. “These guys had size and we had to focus on playing our best. Tonight, it wasn’t enough.” The Mustangs travel to Hawaii (11-11, 5-4) next week in the first of two road games. They’ll be back on home court Feb. 18 for their second game against Hawaii.
HANNA CROWLE Y | MUSTA NG NE W S
| Senior guard Kyle Toth was one of five Cal Poly players to make a three-pointer against UC Riverside, but their shooting wasn’t enough to get a conference victory against the Highlanders. The Mustangs lost 67-56.