Mustang News February 19, 2020

C AL POLY SAN LUIS OBISPO ’S NE WS SOURCE

MUSTANG NEWS INCONCLUSIVE DATA LED TO SOPHOMORE HOUSING REQUIREMENT University Housing director says data does not prove sophomore living requirement causes greater student retention

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

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MUSTANGNEWS.NET

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Upfront

Austin Linthicum

President, Mustang Media Group & Editor in Chief, Mustang News

Cassandra Garibay

Danielle Lee

Emily Merten

Sam Spitz

NEWS Sabrina Pascua Editor Stephanie Zappelli Assistant Editor Maureen McNamara Cameryn Oakes Hailey Nagma Kylie Smith Lauren Walike Natalie Young Ethan Telles C.M. Bateman Lauren Kozicki Sadie Rhen Data Aidan McGloin Data

Sofia Silvia Grant Anderson Emi Powers

Managing Editor

Video Director

Digital Director

O PI N I O N Olivia Peluso Editor Sean McDonald Musa Farah Jack Semancik Grace Kitayama Leilee Naderi Tessa Hughes Hannah Benson Kiana Meagher Alice Antony

A R TS & STU D E N T L I F E Kailey O’Connel Editor Olivia Meis Sara Pedro Olivia Monoforte Sydney Sherman Alegra Zuchowicz Kiana Hunziker Sophie Lincoln VIDEO Sam Spitz Video Manager Sydney Brandt Chief Anchor Jack Berkenfield Production Director Kallyn Hobmann Brady Caskey Lauren Brown Kiersten Stevens Lily Dallow Matthew Bornhorst Daisy Kuenstler Kelly Trinh Anya Dimaio

IN THIS ISSUE

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020 MUSTANG NEWS

PH OTO Carolyne Sysmans Editor Diego Rivera Kyle Calzia Alison Chavez Connor Frost Sofia Clark Kylie Kowalske Jack Sann Andy Sherar Rachel Arabia Caroline Sliva

EYE OPENER

CO P Y Amanda Simonich Francisco Martinez Eddie Railsback

SPO R TS Naythan Bryant Editor Kyle Har Adam Birder Diego Sandoval Jack Clark Garrett Brown Alyssa Tierney Jordana Ginsburg Gabriel Arditti Brian Truong Sydney Finkel

UPFRONT

Social Media Director

Renowned director, writer and actor Spike Lee spoke about politics, the Black experience, and advice for aspiring filmmakers at a moderated discussion on campus Monday, Feb. 17. More than 400 students and community members were in attendance.

D ESI GN Solena Aguilar Director Von Balanon Samantha Shin Lucy Houghton Sophie Kroesche

EMLIY MERTEN | MUSTANG NEWS

SO C I A L Lauryn Luescher Miranda Knight Kelsey Luvisa Cammy Okmin A DV ERT I SI N G & PR Alyssa O’Halloran Manager Victoria Cohen Assistant Manager Shannon Weiss Assistant Manager Rachel Marquardt PR Manager Steven Nguyen Design Manager Grant Mitchell Distribution Manager Max Jenkins Ad Designer Elaine Do Ad Designer Von Balanon Ad Designer Michelle Kang Ad Designer A DV I SO RS Jon Schlitt Student Media Manager Pat Howe Advisor Brady Teufel Advisor CONTACT THE NEWSROOM Email editor@mustangnews.net or call 805-756-1796 PLACE AN AD Email advertising@mustangnews. net or call 805-756-1143

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CRIME

Vandalism spree leaves 16 cars with punctured tires Saturday morning

San Luis Obispo Police is investigating multiple incidents of vandalism Saturday, Feb. 15 between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. The vandalism occurred on the 900 Block Johnson, 1300 Block Palm, 800 Block Pepper, and the 1400/1500 Blocks of Mill — in the area around Taqueria Santa Cruz and Splash Cafe on Monterey, according to a news release.

A total of 16 vehicles had their tires punctured, one motorcycle was pushed over and one tree was damaged. It is unclear what object was used to slash the tires.

Police have not located any evidence or surveillance video.

OCEANO

SAFER

Second Kristin Smart billboard installed

Campus to be surveyed about sexual violence

A second billboard asking for information about Kristin Smart was installed this week.

The billboard is located directly behind the “Welcome to Oceano” sign on the intersection of Halcyon Road and Highway 1.

The ongoing Kristin Smart case has garnered recent attention with new developments in the investigation and podcast “Your Own Backyard.”

“I think it’s a sign of how much the community wants to help now,” “Your Own Backyard” producer Chris Lambert said. “That first billboard sat out for 20 something years and it just got really faded and weathered, and it just stayed like that.”

The new billboard features solar panels with lights so it can be seen from far away at night.

The first billboard was updated in January with donations from local sign company Brand Creative West.

Safer, Cal Poly’s resource center for sexual violence, domestic violence, and stalking, is gathering information from a survey focusing on sexual assault on campus starting Feb. 19. The information compiled from the survey will help university administration implement new policies in the future.

According to Safer, the survey includes questions on personal opinions about sexual assault, personal experiences, and awareness about current policies on campus. It will be open Feb. 19 - March 18.

“It is important that we are hearing from students directly about their experiences,” Stated on the Safer web page.

To access the survey, students will receive an email from San Diego State Social Research Lab, who is assisting Cal Poly with the distribution of this survey. The survey is estimated to take students between 10 and 20 minutes.

COVER STORY

4 Rental ordinances are changing, but prices may remain high

5 Inconclusive data led to sophomore housing requirement

6 Camp PolyHacks winners create medical career simulation app

8 Cal Poly’s 2020 Zero Waste goal will not be completed, officials say

14 Abbey Ellis and Sierra Campisano’s unbreakable bond

CLUB FUNDING IS UNAVAILABLE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR

BY C .M. BATEMAN There is no more funding to distribute to clubs on campus, as reported during the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) Board of Directors meeting on Jan. 22, but this is not the first time.

For the past few years, club funding at Cal Poly has not been able to last throughout the entire academic year.

The report shared by ASI Club Funding co-sponsorship liaison and political science sophomore Brian Kragh stated that $102,492.50 was allocated to clubs. Kragh serves as the ASI Board of Directors representative for the College of Liberal Arts.

“It’s been a problem in terms of trying to fund all clubs because

there’s only a certain portion that can be allocated to club funding,” Kragh said. “And we have been running out, normally, during the winter quarter.”

Club funding comes from mandatory ASI fees that students pay.

Chair of the ASI Board of Directors and political science junior Rob Moore explained how increasing the amount of club money available would mean charging more for the ASI student fee.

“There’s a finite amount of money, and so the only way that we can get more money for club funding — because club funding money comes from student fees — would be to increase student fees, and we don’t want to do that to students,” Moore said.

According to the Cal Poly web-

site, there are more than 300 clubs on campus. Clubs can receive a club sponsorship of $450 once a year at any point in the academic year, but the money is allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“When more clubs apply for the money every year, the interest shrinks,” Moore said. “It was $500 for a very long time. This last year, the board lowered it to $450 to stretch it a little bit. And this year, I created an ad hoc sub committee on club funding to figure out a long-term solution.”

Liberal studies sophomore Nicki Butler, the ASI Club Funding co-sponsorship liaison, leads the ASI club funding ad hoc committee. The committee recently completed training and has begun

BY GRACE NIELSEN

however, students and community members are encouraged to come by before 1p.m. to ensure accurate completion of their returns.

All tax returns are filed by Cal Poly accounting students and checked

by Cal Poly faculty members and Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). Each student has gone through training and has passed the IRS and FTB volunteer exams.

There are 96 students in the program and four supervisors, along with several on site Certified Pub-

Say goodbye to the frustration of switching between multiple tabs to create your class schedule and degree plans.

Cal Poly announced that it will introduce new platforms for student academic planning. PolyPlanner and Plan a Student Schedule (PASS) are tentatively scheduled to be replaced in Spring 2020.

The platforms ‘Degree Planner’ and ‘Schedule Builder’ are designed to help students plan out required classes for their entire degree program, all within one tool. These new platforms will no longer require a student to move through several third party platforms in order to plan, schedule and enroll in classes.

The switch to these new platforms has been in the works for quite some time, according to Associate Registrar of the Office of the Registrar Daniel Parsons.

“Faculty, staff and students will have a small learning curve while they get accustomed to the new program,” Parsons said. “However, The Office of the Registrar held student focus groups for both ‘Degree Planner’ and ‘Schedule Builder,’ and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Our student testers have commented that both tools are very intuitive and are excited for the roll out.”

The decision to replace PolyPlanner with ‘Degree Planner’ and PASS with ‘Schedule Builder’ was made after a series of meetings between the Office of the Registrar, Information Technology Services (ITS) and Cal Poly Advising, Parsons said.

Parsons added that the reason behind the switch is to streamline the student user’s experience — both ‘Degree Planner’ and ‘Schedule Builder’ will be accessible through the Student Center.

“Degree Planner is a planner tool that will allow for a better user experience for planning your required classes for your entire degree program,” Parsons said. “This in turn, will lead to improved reliability in the students planned courses that departments can use to better project and plan seats students need to make progress towards their degree.”

The Office of the Registrar will host an informational session for faculty to learn how to use the new digital academic planning tools closer to the switch.

NEWS

More than 90 business administration students are providing free tax return preparation through Cal Poly’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

The clinic, which began Feb. 1, is hosted at Cal Poly every Saturday from through March 14, from 10 a.m to 2 p.m.

The VITA program is a tax service open to individuals and families in the community with annual in-

comes of $56,000 or less. The clinic is a capstone course for accounting seniors, sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service and the California Franchise Tax Board.

The clinic takes place on the third floor of the Orfalea College of Business Building (Bldg. 3) at Cal Poly.

Volunteers will also host clinics at Oceano Elementary School in Oceano and Allan Hancock College Community Education Center in Santa Maria.

No appointments are necessary,

BY SOPHIA CROLLA

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020

STUDENTS PROVIDE FREE TAX SERVICE

lic Accountants. Each Saturday around 80 tax returns are completed, totalling to over 500 returns, according to the Cal Poly VITA program director and business administration professor, Trisha Daughtrey.

“Tax season can be overwhelming for the general public so it’s nice to be able to run this program that takes away that stress for most of our clients,” Daughtrey said.

“Plus, the clients that qualify for our services will usually be receiving a refund which always makes them happy.”

The program not only aims to help business administration students, but people who cannot afford to get their taxes done by a CPA. “Students participating in the program get real world experience, which helps them when they work for public accounting firms,” business administration senior Grigor Barsegian said. “The VITA program is aimed at individuals making $56,000 a year or less — this program helps those individuals save money.”

Compared to online services such as TurboTax, the VITA program can offer a more personal solution to tax season stresses, according to business administration senior Amanda Gile.

“I prefer talking with the students if I have questions rather than trying to solve problems on my own,”Gile said. “It’s super convenient as a student on campus.”

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MUSTANG NEWS

CAROLYNE SYSMANS | MUSTANG NEWS

The VITA program is a tax service open to individuals and families in the community with annual incomes of $56,000 or less.

action-planning to approach the ongoing problem.

“We started talking about how we can reach out to key stakeholders, which are our clubs on campus, about processes and practices in the club funding process,” Butler said during the meeting. “We decided the best way to do this would be an electronic survey sent out to all clubs, trying to gauge what they think club funding should be doing and what they think of our process as it is now, so we’re currently working on developing that survey and getting it finalized.”

The ad hoc committee will continue approaching the lack of club funding throughout the year and plans to provide a thorough report in April of how to fix this issue for the future.

NEW CLASS REGISTRATION SOFTWARE COMING SOON

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RENTAL HOUSING ORDINANCES ARE CHANGING IN SLO, BUT PRICES MAY REMAIN HIGH

BY GRACE POWER SMITH The housing market in San Luis Obispo is changing as the state pushes housing legislation that requires more affordable housing be offered — with some exceptions.

With an average cost of about $1,000 per month for a one bedroom apartment, San Luis Obispo faces a great demand for cheaper rates.

The city is planning to take on 4,000 more affordable units by the year 2035, according to the San Luis Obispo community development housing coordinator Cara Vereschagin.

The potential for more ‘granny units’

NEWS

MUSTANG NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020

San Luis Obispo city council recently passed an emergency ordinance that may make more housing available to Cal Poly students via granny units.

Previous law required that homeowners must live on-site in order to rent out an accessory dwelling unit (ADU). This barred many landlords who own houses surrounding Cal Poly from renting their ADUs because they were also renting out the main house.

However, this is no longer the case.

Landlords are free to rent both the main house and the ADU.

Accessory dwelling units, or granny units, are additional living spaces on an existing residence, usually meant for one or two people.

According to assistant community planner Kyle Van Leeuwen, ADUs are required to have a kitchen and a bathroom.

Whereas junior accessory dwelling units, on the other hand, are not required to have these facilities, but Van Leeuwen said that he does not expect to see many junior units.

Because this ordinance was made as an emergency solution, it went into effect the day after the vote, rather than after a 44 day buffer period. Meaning, students may see more leasing options as soon as this quarter.

“We will absolutely see an increase in available housing for everyone, workers and students,” Van Leeuwen said.

However, Van Leeuwen said he is not sure that an increase in housing will have any effect on rental rates throughout San Luis Obispo.

“The state legislation was written more for housing stock than housing prices,” Van Leeuwen said.

Although a common economic effect of increased supply is lower prices, it is unclear at this point how the market will respond in San Luis

Obispo. Leeuwan said he is also unsure of how many units will be built.

Required affordable housing units Whether or not the granny units have a significant affect on housing prices, the city will be forced to offer lower prices to comply with affordable housing standards set by legislation passed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019. Any new housing development that contains at least five units must include one affordable unit.

According to the city’s website, affordable housing is defined as housing in which total costs do not exceed 30 percent of total income. Not only does affordable housing allow for low-income residents to reside in the city nearer to work or school, but it also makes contributions to the local economy so that less money is paid toward rent, and more is paid toward goods and services.

Currently, the Academy Chorro is the only student living facility that has partnered with the Housing Administration of San Luis Obispo (HASLO) to offer affordable housing.

HASLO aims to help foster affordable housing for residents of San Luis Obispo and offers a list of properties that contain affordable units. They

are offering a workshop Feb. 24 to assist with the affordable housing rental application process.

The Academy Chorro offers four affordable units for $725 per month, a price that is set by the city, according to a front desk employee. Students can qualify for the affordable units only if they are self-dependent and are not given any outside allowances. These units are for residents that make less than $29,150 a year.

Despite the new legislation, developers have the option to pay a fee that will waive the affordable housing requirement. The fee can cost between five and 15 percent of the development value depending on the zoning site, according to Vereschagin.

The city does offer incentives to implement affordable units such as reductions in site development standards, such as square footage, a reduction of cost of housing development or a waiver of application fees, according to section 17.140.070 of the municipal codes.

The city’s priority

“Housing production is a major city goal,” Vereschagin said. “We’re really trying to facilitate the production of housing that’s affordable to every income level.”

Vereschagin said the city wants to

plan for housing in relation to job growth. She said although the city works with the university, providing housing for students is not as much of a priority as providing housing for “recent graduates and young professionals” for the city.

Although “Cal Poly students fed $179.2 million in 2012 into the local economy through off campus housing, [Cal Poly and Cuesta] sometimes pose a challenge, as student lifestyles can conflict with community priorities and housing demand drives up housing costs, affecting affordability,” according to the city’s Economic Strategic Development Plan.

The process to get funds for affordable units through tax credits, state grants, federal loans, local city money and local housing trust funds can take years which takes a toll on how quickly those affordable units can be built.

“It really does take a village and a lot of coordination between a lot of different people in order to get things financed,” Vereschagin said.

Vereschagin said one thing to look forward to is the increase in density bonuses for affordable developments.

State legislation allows for an 80 percent increase in occupancy if all units are affordable, which would mean not only lower prices, but more units available with lower prices.

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT STUDENTS TAKE HOME 6 FIRST PLACE PRIZES IN NATIONAL COMPETITION

BY KIANA HUNZIKER Cal Poly construction management students set two school records for most first place wins and most teams placed at the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) competition Feb. 5 through 8 in Sparks, Nevada.

Cal Poly sent 12 teams to the competition, six of which won first place in their respective categories. Nine teams in total placed in the competition, achieving two new feats in the 33 years that Cal Poly has competed.

During their work time from about 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., student-teams stayed in their hotel rooms and were not allowed to contact anyone outside their team.

“Besides being intellectually challenging, it’s honestly a huge physical challenge,” construction man-

agement senior Emily Bohannon, whose team won first place in the electrical competition, said. “Most of us don’t sleep for three days.

You’re working on your problem pretty much the whole day.”

The Associated Schools of Construction competition hosted construction students from 53 universities to compete in 12 competition categories, varying from commercial construction to mechanical construction categories. Teams were presented with a construction problem in the morning and turned in deliverables that were due throughout the day until 11 p.m.

Deliverables were scored by judges and the teams gave presentations on their solutions the following day.

Construction management senior Avery Spector is the captain of the commercial construction team and project scheduler. She said the most

challenging part of the competition for her was staying focused on several tasks in a high-pressure environment while her teammates were focused on their own individual tasks.

“As a scheduler, I had to create anywhere from 500 to 1,000 activities,” Spector said. “Staying focused and figuring that out on my own for 16 hours [was the most challenging part].”

Spector’s team placed third last year, so when her team was called for first place in commercial construction, she said it came as a surprise.

“When people won – no matter what place people got – the hundreds of [Cal Poly students] stood up and cheered and it was just such a fun moment,” Bohannon said.

“That was probably the highlight of my experience at Cal Poly so far.”

CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT | COURTESY

12 Cal Poly teams competed in the ASC competition from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., with deliverables due throughout the day.and comic books.

According to Spector, the construction industry is very male dominated, but she said she feels like the Cal Poly teams have a more equal gender ratio than the industry.

Spector said that the quality education she received through the construction management program

at Cal Poly has helped her stay competitive with students from other universities, and it is most apparent at the ASC competition.

“I feel pretty confident when I’m walking around there that I can [compete with] or somewhat surpass some of the boys,” Spector said.

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INCONCLUSIVE DATA LED TO SOPHOMORE HOUSING REQUIREMENT

BY AIDAN McGLOIN

to self-report to a committee of individuals on a case-by-case basis and that student leaves, then shame on Cal Poly for putting a student in that position,” Stegner said.

The Academic Senate never supported the requirement.

Stegner said they were never asked for comment on the policy by administration. but after the Feb. 11 meeting, senators will likely draft a resolution opposing the policy.

“There was lots and lots of consultation, but it was weird, the way it was done,” philosophy professor Rachel Fernflores said. “We were never asked to approve the Master Plan. It came to be something we heard in speeches.”

Many senators said the policy would price out students who would otherwise attend Cal Poly.

“Those students who are scrappy students who are trying to make their way to be first-year or first-time degree students are going to be pushed in a system where they are going to leave with debt. And the accessibility of a Cal State system is something we are drifting away from,” chemistry professor and Cal State Fullerton graduate Eric Kantorowski said. “I never could have gone to Cal State if this was the situation,” Campbell said the availability of on-campus apartments will lower the

On campus second year

Three-year retention rate

Multiracial

cost off-campus, making San Luis Obispo more affordable.

City and regional planning professor Amir Hajrasouliha studies retention rates and campus housing in his day-to-day research. At the meeting, he said housing’s biggest priority should be reducing the cost of housing.

“We talk about diversity and inclusion and all those goals, but not providing affordable homes for our students. That should be the priority, not focusing on expanding exemptions,” Hajrasouliha said. “The housing cost here is simply too expensive for our students.”

On-campus housing currently costs $10,000 for an academic year, according to the housing website, and Campbell said costs are going to go up to pay off debt.

“I will not dispute, will housing costs go up every year? Yes, for the foreseeable future,” Campbell said.

Research is inconclusive on the impact of required second-year housing.

The University of Dallas’s 2018 research paper, “The Value of Living and Learning in Residence,” found that living on campus had an inconclusive effect on GPA. It also found that, without controlling for income, freshmen students were more likely to stay enrolled if they choose to live on campus.

Parents no college

Income under $80,000

28.05%

n/a

28.57%

42.62%

On campus first year

95.18%

92.23%

88.15%

91.94%

On campus both years

96.88%

98.51%

95.65%

95.62%

SOLENA AGUILAR | MUSTANG NEWS

COVER STORY

On campus no years

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020

have huge, huge grievances with this,” Moore said at the meeting Feb. 11, citing the increased cost of living on campus and the need for some students to leave campus if they experience trauma.

“I, on my life, I would have left campus if I would have had to live here a second year,” Moore said. “I experienced a very traumatic event my first year, and I was very close to dropping out otherwise, I almost did. I had the paperwork, but I ended up not because I knew I could move somewhere else away from where that experience happened, with my best friends. And I know so many students with stories like that. Students who were sexually assaulted in the dorms. Students that have been victims of racial profiling.

Students who don’t want to interact with UPD or their RAs. I think there are so many students who just don’t feel safe living here, and want to live somewhere else.”

The two-year policy has an exemption program where students with close family, medical or financial hardships, or other miscellaneous reasons for leaving campus could request to live off-campus. But Academic Senate Chair Dustin Stegner said self-reporting a personal, traumatic event to strangers for the chance of living off-campus may be too much for students to do.

“If a student has an event, or wants to leave, and knows that he or she has

MUSTANG NEWS

President Jeffrey Armstrong and top administrators have argued for years that living on campus improves student’s retention rates.

However, University Housing Director Jo Campbell said data she presented at an Academic Senate meeting Feb. 11 did not show second-year housing causes greater student retention, or the likelihood for a student to continue until their third year.

“I’m not trying to paint a picture that it is causal. I’m showing a point of data,” Campbell said.

This comes after statistics professor Steve Rein said University Housing’s study was statistically flawed. While the data provided at the meeting showed Cal Poly students who lived on-campus their second year are two percent more likely to stay at Cal Poly until their third year, it did not account for wealth, whether or not the student’s parents graduated from college, or any other variables that could affect a student’s decision.

“We just do not know unless we do the analysis with those other co-variants,” Rein said.

The retention argument was the justification for Cal Poly’s mandatory two-year housing requirement.

Retention rates are the primary argument given by Vice President Keith Humphrey for the policy, according to a 2015 ASI resolution. Humphrey wrote “Students who live on campus perform better academically and are retained at Cal Poly better than those who live off campus,” in a 2014 email to Mustang News.

Armstrong said grades, campus connectedness and student retention rate are all improved by staying in University Housing in a student’s second year, according to a 2014 Mustang News article.

The Academic Senate said they were never consulted in the decision for President Armstrong to sign the two year housing requirement policy in 2017.

“At such time University Housing

has as part of its housing portfolio the number of bed spaces needed to accommodate all freshman and sophomore students, all admitted students who enter the university as freshmen will be required to live on campus for two years,” the policy reads.

Campbell said University Housing took a deeper dive into three-year retention rates and created an analysis which breaks down retention rates on-campus versus off-campus students by family income and whether or not the student was a first-generation college student. She said she distributed the report to the provost and campus deans, but will not make it public due to privacy concerns.

Mustang News obtained some of the data about freshmen from the class of 2020 provided by University Spokesman Matt Lazier, who previously told Mustang News that the report Campbell described did not exist.

Students with annual income under $80,000 actually do better than their peers if they live off campus for the first two years, according to the report.

In 2015, the ASI Board of Directors opposed the policy, a position that Chair of the Board and political science junior Rob Moore said still stands.

ASI opposes the policy for three primary reasons, according to the 2015 resolution: 1. “Those likely to live on campus a second year cannot be directly compared to those that choose to live off-campus.

2. “The presentation concluded that the differences in retention and graduation rates were due to living on campus for the second year.

This correlation does not imply causation, and therefore should not be the core of the argument presented.

3. The differences in retention and graduation rates between the two groups are not necessarily statistically significant.

“The ASI Board, elected board members who represent students, are very, very opposed to this. We

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BAHARAN ABDOLLAH | MUSTANG NEWS

NEWS

MUSTANG NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020

Students get an hour to sit with sponsors of the event who mentor them.

CAMP POLYHACK WINNERS WIN $2,000 IN PRIZES FOR THEIR MEDICAL CAREER SIMULATION APP

BY BAHARAN ABDOLLAH This year’s winners of Camp PolyHack have created SURGE.on, an app that is geared towards helping low-income students explore potential medical career paths.

Camp PolyHack is an annual, student-run, multidisciplinary hackathon dedicated to social entrepreneurship and human-centered design.

The first place team was comprised of six sophomores: business administration major Amy Ru, software engineering major Sullivan Xiong, computer science majors Elaine Pranadjaya and Fiona Soetrisno, liberal arts and engineering studies major Shandeigh Palabrica and graphic communication major Isabel Lao. The team has been com-

peting together for two years.

This competition required that teams innovate products that target one of three main problem areas: sustainability, education and inclusivity. SURGE.on will help students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds access educational resources to explore potential career paths in the health sector.

SURGE.on team member Amy Ru said the mission behind the app is to increase access to the medical industry.

“Through SURGE.on we hope to democratize education in the medical industry by creating a medium for underrepresented students to pursue occupations previously inaccessible to them because of their socioeconomic standing,” Ru said.

SURGE.on provides a virtual re-

BAHARAN ABDOLLAH | MUSTANG NEWS

ality training platform, online informational videos from industry experts and an inclusive community forum for students to chat with

similar minded individuals.

Using an Oculus Quest virtual reality headset and controllers as hands, students are able use the

app to simulate conducting operations on patients. The app is an explanatory platform that is intended to provide a range of medical professions including a pediatric doctor, neurosurgeon, dentist and nurse, Ru said.

Ru added that through SURGE. on, students can understand the different responsibilities of various jobs in the medical field before they commit to a specific career path.

“A lot of time you see people who become doctors, dentists surgeons coming from richer backgrounds because they have connections,” Ru said. “People from lower income communities often don’t consider a medical profession to be an option because of the cost of further schooling, especially to find out they aren’t interested in that career path.”

The winning team earned around $2,000 worth of prizes from the events. Winners are chosen by a vote from representatives sent by the sponsoring companies.

The 24-hour competition spanned over two days from Feb. 8 to Feb. 9. Cal Poly students from different backgrounds and majors worked in teams to analyze, design, pitch and market their product solution to issues facing the community.

Hackathon Lead Director Brad Iglesia has been running and organizing hackathons for three years at Cal Poly. He said this year’s PolyHack was a success.

“The event went amazingly this year,” Iglesia said. “This was both outstanding and relieving because for a majority of my team, this was their first time ever attending a hackathon, let alone being in charge of a large 24-hour event.”

Graphic communication senior Ben Garvey who attended this year’s Camp PolyHack said the event is a great way to learn more and gain experience.

“The hackathon is a fun, daylong competition that gives you a chance to work with people from other majors and do something you wouldn’t have the opportunity to do in another setting,” Garvey said.

“I feel like I learned a lot and I think that’s how most of the other teams feel as well.”

Looking ahead, Ru said that ideally every project from PolyHack will become a start up in the future, but she said it is hard to manage that now being full-time students.

“I think specifically for SURGE. on, we only had a few hours here to develop it, and I can’t even imagine what it could look like if we could work on it for a longer period of time,” Ru said. “It would be really cool to finish the simulations of other occupations, add more features, and improve the responsiveness of the application.”

DEAL OF THE WEEK PRESIDENTS’ DAY HOURS Presidents’ Day is coming up! It’s an observed government holiday and three-day weekend, which means some of your favorite food venues might be affected. You know what that means! Check. The. Website. Before. You. Eat!! Some food venues will have modified hours, while a few others might not be available for food service at all. Enjoy your long weekend! calpolydining.com/hours

“FOOD FOR THOUGHT” DINING FORUM Join us Monday, Feb. 24, for a special Campus Dining forum. Get a Vista Grande update, share your dining questions and concerns, and provide feedback about meal plans, food quality and dining options. Visit slido.com and use code #food to submit questions before the event. The forum will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. in UU 220.

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You can find them as a topping option for your next acai bowl in 805 Café.

CHEF’S TABLE: SHORT RIB BOWL

If you like short ribs like we like short ribs, then you’re gonna LOVE this week’s Chef’s Table: Short Rib or Jackfruit Bowl! Grab some yummy, savory short ribs in a bowl, or try the vegetarian jackfruit option. Mmm short ribs -the perfect winter comfort meal.

Wednesday, Feb. 26. 11 a.m. 2 p.m. outside of 805 Kitchen.

GET THE DISH DELIVERED HOT TO YOUR INBOX WEEKLY. SUBSCRIBE AT CALPOLYDINING.COM / THEDISH

L E A R N M O R E AT M U S TA N G N E W S . N E T/ M M G

@cpcampusdining

8

CAL POLY’S 2020 ZERO WASTE GOAL WILL NOT BE COMPLETED, OFFICIALS SAY

The university has greatly diminished its waste production, but there is “still a long way to go”

NEWS

MUSTANG NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020

BY HAILEY NAGMA

In 2014, the California State University (CSU) implemented a system-wide Sustainability Policy, containing long term goals for each campus to diminish their carbon footprints, their emissions and their waste. More than half of those goals were set for completion by 2020.

Now that it is 2020, how much progress has Cal Poly made?

According to Director of Energy, Utilities, and Sustainability Dennis Elliot, the university has made great strides, but there is still a long way to go. “[Zero waste is] an aspiration that’s intended to drive improvement, raise awareness and just allow the people that are responsible for this to be able to set their sights on where the north star is — which is to get it to as low as possible,” Elliot said.

The 2014 policy listed the following goals and purposes to be met by 2020: • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels • Increase renewable energy to 33 percent • Reach 80 percent waste diversion from landfill • Reduce water use by 20 percent • Increase use of sustainable (local/ organic/trade-free) food to 20 percent Based on the 2018 sustainability report, the university’s numbers for 2016 and 2017 meet most of the 2020 goals.

In spite of 100 percent growth in building square footage and on-campus housing in the past three decades, the university managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels.

Both water usage reduction and renewable energy usage have exceeded their 2020 goals — Cal Poly’s reduced its water usage by 37.22 percent and 39 percent of the campus’ energy comes from renewable sources.

The average landfill diversion rate over the past four years is about 77 percent, just 3 percent short of the university’s goal of 80 percent. A diversion rate measures waste diversion, which is the process of redirecting waste from landfills.

The progress on increasing sustain-

able food on campus is unclear, according to Registered Dietitian and Sustainability Coordinator for campus dining Kesley McCourt.

Cal Poly Campus Dining has been working with suppliers to increase their efforts of purchasing food products made from recycled, energy- and water-efficient, or renewable materials, McCourt said.

The university is also working to reduce waste in landfills by targeting where waste begins. One of the primary root causes of large volumes of waste production is the behaviors of those producing the waste, Elliot said.

“You have about five seconds or less as a person is on their rush to work or to a class and they have a

thing in their hand that they want to throw away and they’re going by a bin,” Elliot said.

The solution? More signage, Elliot said.

A large problem lies in the fact that most trash bins around campus are not paired with a recycling bin, Elliot said. This means that most waste products, recyclable or not, go toward landfills.

The university plans to roll out signs similar to those in The Avenue, which clearly label separate bins for compost, recycle and landfill, alongside a comprehensive outreach, education and marketing program.

Despite reaching 1990 baseline levels for greenhouse gas emissions, the

university still seeks to reduce emissions further, Elliot said.

Half of Cal Poly’s carbon footprint is not comprised of the energy used by our buildings and facilities. Instead, it consists of emissions from student and faculty commutes to campus, according to Elliot.

With the CSU policy goals satisfied and still work to be done, Elliot said he encourages students to get involved in any way they can.

“We want to inspire people to care about the world, the environment, what’s happening to it, why it’s happening and what they can do,” Elliot said.

According to Zero Waste Coordinator Anastasia Nicole, the sustainability staff aims to have the sustainability

report for 2020 — with numbers for years 2018 and 2019 — by Fall 2020.

We want to inspire people to care about the world, the environment, what’s happening to it, why it’s happening and what they can do.

Director of Energy, Utilities. and Sustainability Dennis Elliot said.

SUSTAINABILITY GOALS INCREASING RECYCLED AND REUSED ITEMS TO 80% BY 2020

77%

2015-2018 avg

INCREASE RENEWABLE ENERGY TO 33% BY 2020

GOAL

MOST RECENT REPORT

39% 2018

REDUCE WATER USAGE BY 20% BY 2020

37.2% 2018

INCREASE USE OF SUSTAINABLE FOOD TO 20% BY 2020

5% 2018

REDUCE GREEN HOUSE GASES TO PRE-1990 LEVELS BY 2020 Targeted

34,583 MT Reached

32,711 MT VON BALANON | MUSTANG NEWS

CAN IT RECYCLE? SLO COUNTY EDITION

NO Dirty Pizza Box

“People practice ‘wishful recycling’ instead of knowing what actually needs to be recycled.”

- Patti Toews

YES Empty Tissue Box

Plastic Bottle

Shampoo Bottles Scan for more things you can recycle!

Books Takeout Box

Yogurt Container

Empty Food Can

Paper Towels

Diapers Batteries

Posters

Paper Bags

MONIQUE E JENUKO | MUSTANG NEWS

‘WISHCYCLING’ CAN DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD What to recycle in San Luis Obispo County

BY JAKOB MCQUADE

waste management happen way before the trash can. Toews esti-

When we look at the public trash – what the students throw away – we’re nowhere near 80% recycling. There’s no way.

Cal Poly’s Zero Waste Coordinator Anastasia Nicole said. Nicole oversees waste management on campus.

NEWS

mates that 90 percent of plastics that enter the home are garbage.

That means that recycling is helpful, but there are more effective ways to prevent unnecessary waste.

Cal Poly employs people like Anastasia Nicole, the Zero Waste Coordinator, who oversees waste

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020

even further. Then, a loader goes and scoops it up and throws it up on the recycling line, those pieces rain down like snow through the equipment.”

When it comes down to it, recycling is similar to other businesses in the sense that it is dictated by supply and demand. The demand for things like clamshell packages or thin plastics, for example, is low, meaning that tossing them into the bin is doing more harm than good.

This forces consumers and managers like Toews alike to adapt to all of the changes that come their way.

“Honestly, everything’s recyclable if somebody is willing to buy it,” Toews said. “The problem is that there are very few items that people are willing to buy. When we throw a whole bunch of stuff in the cycling cart because we wish it would be recyclable, that’s the problem. So, we have to back up to the homeowner, back up to the curb, back up to the business. You’re really adding contamination.”

For average consumers, the most important decisions that impact

9

MUSTANG NEWS

Black or blue. This is the choice that most Americans have when they throw something away, or recycle.

Yet, knowing the correct choice of which to pick is not always simple as plastics in the blue bin and waste in the trash.

With nowhere to ship recycling now that China has stopped accepting recycling boats from other countries, understanding that the “Dos and Don’ts” of recycling is a lot more complicated than “When in doubt, don’t throw it out” is even more crucial.

This optimistic approach to recycling — known as “wish-cycling” — leads to recycling contamination: when non-recyclable items make it into the recycling stream. This can drastically impede waste processing plants according to Patti Toews, San Luis Obispo’s Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA) program manager.

Toews said that recycling contamination makes up 30 percent of what gets placed in recycling bins,

which was the main incentive for China to refuse boats of recycled goods from the U.S. China has some of the largest recycling infrastructure in the world, and up until last spring, it facilitated a massive flow of recycling imports from other countries, including the U.S. Now that they have called it off, even San Luis Obispo is feeling the pressure.

With the IWMA, Toews oversees how waste is managed in the county. The little mistakes people make when recycling have a resounding effect on their operations.

One common misconception is that clamshell packaging — like the ones that contain berries at the grocery store confusing — can be recycled, but these are especially problematic in the system Toews explained.

“If you think about when the truck pulls up, it throws your recycling in and immediately impacts it, so it shatters that container,” Toews said. “Then, when it hits the recycling floor, thousands of pounds of waste rain down on it, smashing it

management on Cal Poly’s campus at the top level, to figure out more practical solutions. Nicole suggested that it is best to avoid the complications of recycling and go higher up on the pyramid: reducing and reusing.

“It’s reduce, reuse, recycle: the old hierarchy,” Nicole said. “People will start at the bottom saying, ‘I want to recycle more.’ I say, ‘No, let’s start at the top.’ Reduce first, reuse what you’re buying, and then and then think about recycling.”

For Nicole, reducing and reusing are essential for Cal Poly to meet its zero waste goals. Though the campus fell short of some of its 2020 milestones, Nicole said that their systematic waste diversion is well above the standards of the California State University program.

Where the needs are not met, however, are in public trash cans.

“When we look at the public trash — what the students throw away — we’re nowhere near 80 percent recycling. There’s no way,” Nicole said. “That is not on the students though, because students have to eat, and, you know, 7000 students live on campus and have to have three meals a day on campus. A lot of that food is being produced in packaging and the packaging, in general, is not recyclable or compostable.”

According to Nicole, the solution can be as simple as students bringing their own beverage containers or even buying reusable utensils.

However, other students take it one step further to reduce their carbon footprint, like environmental management and protection junior Amanda Gersoff, a member of Cal Poly’s Eco Reps. Eco Reps are a student-run sustainability team that focuses on peer-to-peer outreach by organizing events like beach cleanups, recycling workshops, and the Annual Conversion Diversion Challenge, or ACDC. “My favorite part about working with Eco Reps is talking to people about sustainability and starting a conversation about things that we can all do to live a more sustainable lifestyle,” Gersoff said. “I feel like a lot of people are really interested in sustainability, but don’t necessarily have all of the resources to help them make informed decisions.”

Just because international and local policies on recycling have changed does not mean that living an environmentally friendly lifestyle is impossible. When it comes down to the details, understanding the simple daily decisions can help make waste management more efficient for the community.

“If I had my druthers, no one would recycle anything, because we wouldn’t buy this trash to begin with,” Nicole said. “Let’s all move toward just reducing this out of our life.”

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT DOUBLES AS VIRAL TIK TOK COSPLAYER

11

Aleya Dolorfino records makeup videos for thousands of followers

BY SYDNEY SHERMAN

“I’m known for two things — it’s the hair and the eyeliner,” mechanical engineering sophomore Aleya Dolorfino said.

When she is not working to land her dream job as a Disney “Imagineer,” Dolorfino is making videos for the popular video sharing app Tik Tok. She downloaded the app in June 2019 and went viral within weeks, using it as a creative outlet for her colorful makeup looks and cosplay videos.

Since then, she’s gained 151,000 followers.

“I like being able to showcase different makeup looks because I don’t always want to post certain stuff on my Instagram or something like that,” Dolorfino said.

When it comes to the looks, Dolorfino said she sometimes gets inspiration from other Tik Tok users, but her favorite thing to do is recreate characters from movies, TV shows and comic books.

“I like seeing how accurate I can get to it or how I can make a character my own because it just shows that I can just be creative with something that’s already there,” Dolorfino

said. “I think it’s fun to dress up and be someone else for a little bit.”

Her most popular post, with more than 1.3 million views, features Dolorfino with a galaxy and constellations painted on her face as she lip-syncs to an audio track called “Haven’t slept for a solid 83 hours.”

“I have no idea how it happened, honestly,” Dolorfino said. “I just kept making more videos and started gaining popularity.”

When it comes to her platform, Dolorfino said that to her, she does not think of 151,000 followers as such a large number until someone points it out to her.

“I post these videos for me,” Dolorfino said. “I just enjoy doing the makeup, having fun, doing stuff like that.”

However, that does not stop eager fans from wanting to meet Dolorfino.

“I have been stopped at Farmers Market by a little girl who had her mom ask me if I would take a picture with her, so that was interesting,” Dolorfino said. “It’s such a weird interaction, I’m not used to that.”

As much as Dolorfino said she enjoys using the app, she said that there is another side to posting that

ALEYA DOLORFINO | COURTESY

Dolorfino said her favorite thing to do is recreate characters from movies, TV shows and comic books.

is so enticing.

“The online world is a lot scarier than people think it is,” Dolorfino said. “There are so many people and they believe that because there’s a screen in front of them, that they are not hurting the people who are on the screen, but the people on the screen are still real people.”

Dolorfino said that when Charlie Damilio, a 15-year old, became famous on the app overnight, that Damilio received an immense amount of hate from all over the world.

“I could not understand why so many people would be so mean to a 15-year-old,” Dolorfino said.

Although the comments on her

He said he knew that the bar business path was for him very early on.

During his time at Cal Poly, Hales said he was a social butterfly. He was very involved with his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, but he also paid his way through college by working three jobs. His senior project advisor wrote on his final paper, “I think your school work is getting in the way of your social life.”

Hales agreed.

One of Hales’ three college jobs was at Bull’s Tavern. His decision to stay and work at Bull’s after graduation was also his biggest career move. Instead of taking a sought af-

ter sales job, he decided to do what he did best and bartend four days a week.

Hales worked his way up into the management side of things.

He eventually took over the bar at Brubeck’s restaurant, where Novo Restaurant and Lounge is now.

Hales said working closely with his bosses and investors helped him execute his idea of opening up a traditional English pub.

“It’s been an amazing journey,” Hales said. “I think the one thing that I’ve always appreciated about the Frog and Peach, is it’s never been really pigeonholed into any one type of group.”

The first two projects that Hales launched in the 1990s were the Library Lounge and the Frog and

for at least two years, Hales and the other senior partners give them equity stake in whatever project the company is actively working on.

“I want everybody from the the new door guy to the seasoned bartender to understand that they’ve got room to grow within the company,” Hales said.

There were people who believed in him back then and he said he wants to return that favor to those working for him now.

“He’s always been super uplifting,” Frog and Peach Bartender Drew Gonzales said. “[Hales is] super encouraging on how he had a humble beginning and how anyone can make something of themselves.”

Hales has a new project in the works on Tank Farm Road and Broad Street. He says it is about 18 months out.

“Take my ashes, set it up there on the bar with a shot of tequila next to it and my friends passing through town can toast me,” Hales said about his loyalty to the Frog and Peach.

ARTS

If your school work is getting in the way of your social life, maybe it’s time to open up 13 bars and pubs in your college town like Billy Hales did.

Hales worked his way up from a janitor at Bull’s Tavern in the 1980s to now owning it and 12 other bars locally through his company Ash Management. This year he celebrates his 25th anniversary of owning and operating one of the most well-known pubs in downtown San Luis Obispo, Frog and Peach Pub. The pub was the first one he ever started himself.

“I’m really proud of Peach,” Hales said. “But most of all, it makes me feel old.”

Getting into the bar business

Peach Pub, which are still under his ownership today. Milestone Tavern, Creeky Tiki, Mother’s Tavern are just a few of the other bars Ash Management operates.

“They know their audience and they cater to them,” Marketing and Communications Manager of Downtown SLO Kat Thompson said.

“Frog and Peach has live music every night, no one else really does that.”

Hales took over Bull Tavern’s and McCarthy’s, which have been staples in downtown San Luis Obispo for the past 80 years. He moved up and down the coast to Humboldt, Santa Barbara, Paso Robles and Grover Beach to open various places, but ultimately returned to what he calls the “secret spot.”

“I think another lesson is just to keep it in your backyard, there’s plenty of opportunity right here,” Hales said.

The way that he builds his company now mirrors what was done for him. After someone has worked for a business under Ash Management

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020

BY KYLIE SMITH

want, and to not get caught up in the trends.

“Don’t try to be popular, just do what you want to do and if people like what you want to do, it makes the app more fun — which is honestly what the app is supposed to be for anyways,” Dolorfino said.

Her “set up” consists of a dollar store container, a phone stand given to her on her birthday and a welding project from a class.

“You don’t need to spend money in order to have fun on an app like this,” Dolorfino said. “Just be creative and have fun.”

MUSTANG NEWS

MEET THE MAN BEHIND DOWNTOWN SLO NIGHTLIFE

posts used to bother her in the beginning, Dolorfino said she brushes them off as quickly as she brushes her makeup on.

“I think because I have been on this app for a while, the hate comments, I kind of just brush them off now, because, in the beginning, I definitely was more affected by it than I am now,” Dolorfino said.

Dolorfino said her friends and family have been very supportive throughout the process.

“My whole apartment is a Tik Tok apartment now because they help me with videos,” Dolorfino said.

To aspiring “Tik-Tokers,” Dolorfino said users should post what they

PUZZLES & HOROSCOPES

CLUES ACROSS 1. Expression of disgust 4. A place to unwind 7. A type of cooking range 8. Grasp tightly 10. Sea eagles 12. Carb dish 13. Late-night host 14. Revolutions per minute 16. Indicates odd or erroneous 17. FDR’s military chief of staff 19. Swiss river 20. Norwegian district and river 21. A form of motivation 25. Car mechanics group 26. Once a must-have home theater accessory 27. Broken branch 29. Apple and pumpkin are two 30. Skeletal muscle 31. Small Eurasian deer 32. Tight-lipped fellow 39. Comes after a cut 41. A place one lives 42. Cognizant of 43. Albanian monetary unit 44. Carrot’s partner 45. Famed garden 46. Chilean seaport 48. Days (Spanish) 49. Sudden anxiety 50. 100 square meters 51. A type of beer 52. French/Belgian river

CLUES DOWN 1. Spanish dish 2. Concurs 3. _ _and her sisters 4. Patti Hearst’s captors 5. Used to refer to cited works 6. A state of excited movement 8. Advertising term (abbr.)

9. Nocturnal S. American rodent 11. New York art district 14. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!

15. Pre-release viewing 18. Northwestern Canadian territory (abbr.)

19. Consumed 20. Falters 22. Radioactive form of an element 23. Catch a wrongdoer 24. Breeze through 27. Thick piece of something 28. Yellowish-brown color 29. “The Raven” poet 31. Rural free delivery (abbr.)

32. Creating 33. Supervises flying 34. Northwestern state 35. Was obligated to repay 36. Diverging in lines from a common center 37. Bleak 38. We all have them 39. Hit with the palm of one’s hand 40. Sea that’s part of the western Pacific 44. Political action committee 47. Famed Spanish soldier El _ _

*See answers at mustangnews.net/games-answers/

ARIES – March 21/April 20 Aries, you may want to pick up a relationship right where you left off, but the other person may not be as amenable. Bide your time and give this person some space.

TAURUS – April 21/May 21 A few extra goals never hurt anyone, Taurus. St down and see how your new resolutions can be turned into ways to achieve all of those tasks you hope to get done.

GEMINI – May 22/June 21 Gemini, while you may want to expand your social circle right now, you’re just not sure how to get started. Networking opportunities may be the way to go.

CANCER – June 22/July 22 There is no point getting into a disagreement over a situation you have no control over right now, Cancer. Instead, wait for the right opportunity to express your position.

LEO – July 23/Aug. 23 Leo, take a step back from responsibilities at work to devote more energy to your relationships at home. Embrace activities that your family can enjoy together.

VIRGO – Aug. 24/Sept. 22 Some melancholy may have you seeking out quiet corners, Virgo. Distancing yourself from the crowds is only a temporary fix. Instead, look for activities you find soothing.

LIBRA – Sept. 23/Oct. 23 Someone close to you may be feeling under the weather and could use some extra support, Libra. Take a few days off to be the rock that this person can use right now.

SCORPIO – Oct. 24/Nov. 22 Friends may make excessive demands on your time this week, Scorpio. As a generous person, you want to go along with it all, but be careful not to overextend.

SAGITTARIUS – Nov. 23/Dec. 21 Sagittarius, you are usually outgoing, but this week you may be feeling more shy and reserved. It could be because you are missing someone.

CAPRICORN – Dec. 22/Jan. 20 Don’t take what you hear this week at face value, Capricorn. The information that has been coming your way may not be entirely accurate. Make up your own mind.

AQUARIUS – Jan. 21/Feb. 18 Group activities or time spent with a spouse may not go as well as usual this week, Aquarius. Your mind is elsewhere.

Until you are focused, things may seem stressed.

PISCES – Feb. 19/March 20 A minor disagreement could have you questioning a relationship, Pisces. Don’t fret, as you’ll soon find that the turmoil is short-lived.

OPINION

13

INSTEAD OF WATCHING A ROMCOM, DON'T

BY GRACE KITAYAMA Grace Kitayama is a journalism sophomore and Mustang News columnist.

The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang News.

A key principle I follow when watching Netflix is to not start a show unless it has at least three seasons, thus allowing for maximum binge-watching satisfaction. But investing all those hours in a show takes time and lately, I haven’t been able to emotionally commit to a single series. As a result, I’ve been watching a lot of low-effort movies that don’t require much attention from the viewer. These movies are almost always romantic comedies.

While diving into my romcom rabbit hole, I’ve noticed several troubling patterns that occur in many of these films-- especially if they are produced by Netflix. Of course, there are the more obvious problems with representation. The protagonists are often straight, white, able-bodied, thin and beautiful. However, there are more subtle and glaring issues that I often see in the plots of these movies. The characters are either fall-

ing in love by accident, which implies a relationship should not take work.

Or the couple is together because one of the two in the couple manipulated the other and tricked them into being in the relationship.

The queer POC best friend A character I see over and over is the queer person of color best friend.

I’ve watched about ten Netflix romcoms so far and in every single one, the character of the best friend is either a person of color (often black), queer or both. Though I support the representation, this character is so obviously Netflix’s attempt to quell the social justice warriors’ rage on Tumblr by jamming all the minority representation into one character.

It’s checking off all of the inclusivity boxes for a film to just barely pass the Bechdel test without ever giving the character screen time or development equivalent to or even near the other characters. It's lazy representation. It’s representation with no effort. It’s representation without the need to hire a black, queer writer for

the script.

Heterocentrism

Couples in romcom are often straight and it’s understandable why. The majority of people in the world are openly straight. However, there are only so many different ways you can portray a straight relationship. Marriage Story, which was hailed for its brave and realistic portrayal of marriage features two straight people arguing for two hours and getting divorced. However, a movie with a straight couple is not daring just because it features the less romantic aspects of marriage. No one in Hollywood is losing any money by hiring white well-known actors to play a gritty realistic heterosexual relationship.

White gals

Even if the romcom doesn’t feature a straight couple, the couple is probably white. Films like ‘Tall Girl’ and ‘Sierra Burgess is a Loser’ show the struggles of different straight, white, cis-genered, non-disabled girls instead of simply showing literally anyone else as the protagonist of a romcom. And it’s clear they’re running

out of ideas. In Tall Girl, the protagonist struggles to find love because she is tall. In Sierra Burgess is a Loser, the protagonist struggles to find love because she’s fat. Though I think the intent of these movies is pure in hoping to validate girls who do feel insecure about these things. The protagonists in these movies present themselves as whiny and spoiled while the movie subtly promotes the message that if you are tall or fat, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Falling in love

Falling in love implies that relationships happen by mistake when in reality they take effort. Romantic comedies always show the chase of the relationship. The whole film is centered around the part where the couple is trying to get into a relationship and ends once the couple is together which in reality, is the worst part of any relationship. The awkward first dates and the fear of overstepping before you are really comfortable around each other is not romantic at all. The constant anxiety of asking yourself ‘are we in a relationship yet?’

Nothing magical has ever happened to me on a first date. At best, the date ended up being not as bad as I thought it would be.

Manipulation

The most harmful troupe that I see in these romcoms is manipulation.

Sierra Burgess is a catfish to the boy she is trying to date. In Hitch, the protagonist’s job is teaching men how to manipulate women into being in a relationship with them. Seth from Superbad concocted a master plan with the sole purpose being to get Emma Stone’s character drunk enough that she will sleep with him. What’s worse, is that all of these plans work. We are supposed to root for the character manipulating their target rather than question their actions and intentions.

I think people who like romcoms are made fun of because they often lack a serious tone that is in other genres of film. Though there is nothing wrong with watching romcoms, be it as a guilty pleasure or as one of the many proud followers of Noah Centineo on Twitter. But I often see these expectations about love being applied to real life via social media and it seems like people are comparing themselves to fake love. Because I never looked like the women in these movies and because the dates I went on weren’t as romantic or easy as they showed, I had started to develop insecurities about myself distorted my view of what love was.

THE HOOF

CLASS OF 2024 TO BE SORTED INTO HOGWARTS HOUSES

BY HANNAH BENSON

tossed around the school.

Therefore, this four-part division will allow the Mustangs to focus on their personalities rather than institutionalized social constructs,” said senior administration member Barry Pawder.

The ceremony will take place the first night of WOW in Spanos Stadium. Students will line up in front of the Sorting Hat and labeled as either brave, smart, friendly or evil.

Due to an influx of incoming fresh-

men, this will take approximately seven hours. The majority of today’s college students are as the Hat describes, “Complex and not meant to be constrained anymore, please understand life is full of spectrums,”.

The administration insisted the school fly out the actual Sorting Hat, raising university tuition, in the process. Ever since the movies got to its head and retirement-planning began, sorting rates have skyrocketed.

OPINION

Hannah Benson is a journalism senior and satire columnist. The views represented do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang News.

This past week, the Administration announced a groundbreaking addition to university protocol. Next year’s incoming freshmen will be the first class in the history of Cal Poly SLO to be sorted into one of the four Hogwarts houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff.

“The sorting is intended to create a stronger sense of camaraderie among students. The administration felt too many labels were getting

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020

The Hoof is a satire column created to find the humor in the daily life of Cal Poly students. If you’re looking for news, this is not it. If you’re looking for sports, this is kind of it, because we’re having a ball. Ha. Puns.

MUSTANG NEWS

SAM SHIN | MUSTANG NEWS

“This event will unify students.

Together, they will dig deeper, questioning their strengths, weaknesses and why a badger is considered the appropriate mascot for loyalty,” said Pawder.

Pawder has faced backlash in previous years. It was his idea to make the water in the Red Brick Dorms taste just a little bit like metal, to keep everyone on edge. Students with more on their minds and chemical drops in their bodies, have less time to discuss and break-down the bigoted ideals that have divided us. We ALL take COMS 101 and we are human beings with anxieties and we fart after too much 5 gum.

Therefore, a major concern to this new sorting practice is whether the students want this at all. Therefore, we here at The Hoof asked a representative source.

“I’m sure it will be fun! What bad could come of this!” said a white, heterosexual, cisgender male from an upper-class family. He did not elaborate.

The Class of 2024 is bound to be a promising addition to the Cal Poly Mustangs. May the tradition of challenging social constructs encouraged by campus climate continue!

14

SPORTS

MUSTANG NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020

THE DYNAMIC DUO

DIEGO RIVERA | MUSTANG NEWS

Campisano (52) and Ellis (1) are the Mustangs’ two leading scorers this season.

Abbey Ellis and Sierra Campisano’s unbreakable bond DIEGO RIVERA | MUSTANG NEWS

Redshirt junior forward Sierra Campisano and freshman point guard Abbey Ellis embrace each other after their win against UC Riverside.

BY KYLE HAR & NAYTHAN BRYANT

During her first day on Cal Poly’s campus, Abbey Ellis was asked by Sierra Campisano if she wanted to get lunch together. Now, the two have an unbreakable friendship and have propelled each other to the top of the Women’s Basketball team’s scoring chart.

“We both knew from the start of the season that we had to work well with each other to be a successful team,” Ellis said. “I think we really took that to heart.”

Ellis arrived at Cal Poly as a freshman point guard from Yallambie, Australia. Campisano, a redshirt junior transfer from Oregon, connected with Ellis immediately. Since their first lunch together, the chemistry between the two took off.

“As my mom and sister were say-

ing goodbye, my mom said that she was so grateful for [Campisano], because I guess I talked about her constantly,” Ellis said. “She was like ‘I feel so safe with you in her hands.’”

According to head coach Faith Mimnaugh, Ellis refers to Campisano as her “American mother.”

“Everyone calls me mama-bird, I am always looking after all the freshmen,” Campisano said. “But [Ellis] is my little baby.”

Campisano spent her first two seasons with the No. 3 nationally-ranked Oregon Ducks, where she played 6.1 minutes per game over 23 appearances as a sophomore.

Campisano transferred to Cal Poly as a junior after realizing Oregon was not the right fit, but had to sit out during the 2018-19 season due to eligibility rules.

“Our coaches were telling us since before [Ellis] came on campus that

we were going to be super compatible and super fun,” Campisano said.

Having a go-to friend in Campisano helped Ellis transition not only into a new team, but a new country as well.

“Coming into a new team and country was pretty daunting,” Ellis said. “At the start, it was difficult and intense, but I am loving every second of it.”

Ellis established herself as an integral part of the team early in the season. The 5-foot-5 point guard scored a game-winning layup with just 1.6 seconds remaining in Cal Poly’s second win of the season — a 57-56 victory over Lamar.

However, the game-winner was just a sign of what was to come. In the second week of Big West Conference play, Ellis propelled the Mustangs to a come-from-behind 75-70 victory against UC Riverside,

where she recorded a career-high 37 points.

Mimnaugh, who is in her 23rd season with Cal Poly, called the performance “one of the best I’ve ever seen in a Mustang jersey.”

“If we want to talk about the ‘mamba mentality,’ that is kind of what she had that day,” Mimnaugh said. “I have had some really talented freshmen, and from a performance standpoint, her confidence in her own abilities probably exceeds those of other freshmen.”

After the comeback victory, an excited Campisano saw her boyfriend courtside and went to give him a hug.

“All of a sudden, I feel this little body around both of us,” Campisano said. “I looked down and I was like, ‘Oh! Abbey!’ And she was like, ‘Mom! Dad! We won! We need a family hug!’

That describes our relationship.”

The friends’ relationship outside the gym has led to an undeniable connection on the court, where the two players often combine to assist each other on scoring drives. While Ellis brings a fast pace to the floor, she describes 6-foot-3 Campisano as “a beast in the post.”

“We both have total trust and confidence in each other,” Campisano said. “When [Ellis] is hitting shots, I’m like, ‘Alright, where’s Abbey.’

When we’re playing together, it doesn’t really matter who has the ball, we know we’re going to make the right decision.”

The teammates’ link on the court combined with their individual skill sets has led to Ellis reaching an average of 15.5 points and 3.4 assists per game in her first season as a Mustang. Her impressive statistics are second to only one player — Campisano.

Campisano leads Cal Poly with an average of 16 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. The San Diego native recorded a season-high 33 points in a 100-35 blowout win against Holy Names. Campisano also led the Mustangs to a 52-41 road win with 21 points against CSUN, recording her seventh double-double of the season in the process.

“Almost instinctively, they kind of know what each other is doing on the court, and I think that’s been a great benefit to the team this year,” Mimnaugh said. “It’s so authentic that you can sense that bubbling joy that is heartfelt from both of them when one succeeds. It’s almost like a sisterhood.”

Mimnaugh attributes Ellis and Campisano’s success to a strong sense of confidence within both players. While having them on the court together has left a positive impact on this season’s results, Mimnaugh holds excitement in knowing the pair will continue to grow as Mustangs next season.

“The more and more experience we have as a team, and certainly the tandem duo, the dynamic duo, I think that they make our future exciting,” Mimnaugh said.