February 26, 2015

T hur sday, Febr uar y 26, 2 0 15

Established 19 16

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Questioning tradition: How drinking on sorority turf could impact party culture

JOSEPH PACK | MUSTANG NE WS W H O S E H O U SE

| Sororities across the nation are not allowed to host parties, unlike fraternities, which can with certain restrictions. Some people believe allowing them to do so would reduce sexual assault cases.

Brenna Swanston @brenna_swanston

When sociology junior Maggie McHale walks into a fraternity party, she feels like “prey.”

Fraternity parties have become notoriously unsafe for women, McHale said. This reputation persists because the parties repeatedly set scenes

for sexual violence, and the hosts tend to commodify women by enforcing male-to-female ratios at their events.

“When men go into a party with enough women for everyone to ‘get some,’ they feel entitled to getting some,” she said. “It sets people up for noncompassionate thinking.”

McHale is president of Triota, Cal Poly’s feminist

activist community. She has joined people across the nation in questioning the tradition of fraternity parties, which have become common backdrops for acts of sexual violence at universities all over the country, including Cal Poly.

“I’m sure that’s not the message frat brothers are trying to send out,” McHale said.

But their parties seem to send that message anyway.

Discussion surrounding fraternity party problems and potential solutions has spread through Cal Poly’s community and the nation, raising a question: Why can’t sororities host their own parties?

see PARTY, pg 3.

KCPR open mic night to showcase diverse performing arts

STEVEN PARDO | COURTESY PHOTO BOOM, MIC DROP | KCPR’s open mic night will reel in all types of student artists Thursday in the PAC.

Frances Griffey @CPMustangArts

Cal Poly’s radio station, KCPR, will host its quarterly Open Mic event this Thursday, Feb. 26, at 8 p.m. in the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center (PAC). Acts ranging from music to poetry to comedy are expected to leave the audience satisfied and keep them laughing, singing and dancing through the evening.

“The whole point is to create a very relaxing space so that people feel comfortable performing, and so they are in a laid-back mood when

they watch the performances,” event coordinator Finn Warfield said.

He emphasized the diversity of acts KCPR tries to promote during these events, saying a few full bands, solo musicians, poets and standup comics will perform at the open mic.

“It provides an outlet for many students living on campus and off to showcase their talent or come see new talent they haven’t seen before,” he said.

see KCPR, pg 5.

IAN BILLINGS | MUSTANG NE WS BREAKOUT | Junior guard Joel Awich has dominated the paint this season, averaging 1.48 blocks per game.

Gamble on Awich pays off for Cal Poly Harry Chang @harrychangmn

Every recruit aims to raise some eyebrows.

When junior forward Joel Awich was scouted by Cal Poly head coach Joe Callero and staff, however, it wasn’t exactly a complete, well-rounded skill set that was doing the brow-raising.

Rather, it was Callero’s faith in the then low stock

Awich that had recruiters furrowing their brows, even scratching their heads.

“What the hell’s he doing here?” Callero recalls one fellow coach asking him of Awich. “That’s not a Division-I basketball player.”

Unfortunately for Callero at the time, there wasn’t much there for him to argue.

see AWICH, pg 9.

News... 1-3 | Arts... 4-6 | Opinion... 7 | Classifieds... 8 | Sports... 9-10

Thursday, February 26, 2015

NEWS | 2

$216.6 $119.6 MILLION

MILLION

BUDGET PROPOSED BY CSU BOARD OF TRUSTEES

BUDGET APPROVED BY GOV. JERRY BROWN

KYLE MCCARTY | MUSTANG NE WS THIN WALLETS

| CSU Board of Trustees members have to be especially frugal this year, as Governor Jerry Brown’s approved budget fell almost $100 million below the $216.6 million they asked for.

Graduation rates, enrollment increases debated in 2015-16 CSU budget Karen Garcia Special to Mustang News

Higher education has been in a rough financial situation since the economic crash in 2008, as it has experienced funding cuts and a lack of resources.

California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees believed there was still a chance to begin rebuilding a new foundation for the universities and student success when they requested a $216.6 million increase in state support last November.

In the beginning of January, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the request and proposed a budget increase for education of only $119.5 million, about $100 million short of the initial request.

If Gov. Brown’s budget is accepted, CSU campuses will only be allowed a 1 percent increase in student enrollment rather

than a 3 percent increase they would have had if the initial request was accepted.

Gov. Brown created the budget with the intention of increasing the student success rate, but many critics believe this budget increase is not enough to create another foundation if budget cuts were made, or for an increase in student enrollment.

The big focus Looking at the big picture, California Faculty Association (CFA) Board of Directors President Lillian Taiz said that before the budget can be analyzed the focus must be in favor of the students and student success.

“It’s like any other budget in your household or if you’re a student out there trying to make ends meet,” she said. “You have to figure out what your central

goal is and then you have to direct your resources there.”

Many students and their families are not able to help fund the university they attend.

A proposition was approved a few years ago in order to manage the funding for the universities and put a cap on student tuition.

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Gov. Brown proposed Proposition 30, a measure approved by state voters in 2012 that would help increase funding for public California universities.

The funds for the universities would temporarily come from the tax revenue of people that earn more than $250,000.

This is just one factor helping to fill the gap created by budget cuts, but what continues to be criticized is the fact that the funds are still not enough to ex-

pand the enrollment for incoming students.

The graduation initiative In his State of the CSU address, California State University System Chancellor Timothy White presented a 10-year graduated initiative for the CSU system and addressed the significant lack of funding higher education is receiving.

“I must agree with the governor, again, that students should not be the default financiers of higher education,” he said. “But the historical financiers of higher education — the people of California — are ill-served if their public universities crumble due to lack of sufficient investment.”

In his address, he said that the 10–year graduation initiative is focused on improving and increasing the four-year graduation and transfer rates by 2025.

White said that by combining state appropriation and student tuition, a degree earned is $8,000 less than it was 10 years ago.

On the other hand, CSU students earned 20,000 more degrees this year than 10 years ago.

“That is 20,000 more educated workers and contributors to society per year, helping to meet the state’s economic and social bottom lines,” White said.

In order to fulfill the graduation initiative, White said the state needs to do it’s part to help resource this goal and help see it become a reality.

What can students do?

“But let’s be real: shared success will only come from a shared commitment,” White said.

“State and university, faculty and staff, students and alumni,

trustees and elected leaders.”

The budget is designed for student success and providing students with more resources to benefit their future goals.

The main issue is being able to afford the university that a student wishes to attend without being buried under student loan debt.

Taiz believes that the students, as well as faculty, must make their voices heard and their needs known.

There is still time to start brainstorming ideas and alternatives for the budget, as the revised version of the governor’s budget proposal will be released in May. In the end, Taiz said that the focus of the budget should be on the students because these are the people who will go out into the workforce and make the State prosperous.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

NEWS | 3

LAES escape room project: A gamer’s dream Lindsy Mobley @lindsy_mobley

To all the gamers and adventurists out there who have dreamed of jumping into the screen and solving the murder mystery, saving the city or cracking the puzzle in an “Indiana Jones” movie — your time has come.

And it’s all thanks to something called an escape room.

Escape rooms immerse participants in a time pressure story that combines theatrics with gaming. But instead of virtual immersion, participants are physically locked in a room where they must solve the puzzles and find their way out.

The liberal arts and engineering studies (LAES) department at Cal Poly is currently working on an escape room for campus.

Escape rooms began popping up about two years ago, mostly

PARTY continued from pg 1.

Panhellenic sororities’ national bylaws forbid alcohol on sorority premises. Opponents to these restrictions have argued sorority parties would provide a safer environment for women and work toward solving the problem of sexual violence in greek organizations.

The Department of Justice financed a study in 2007 which found women who frequented fraternity parties were significantly more susceptible to sexual assault than other women. Additionally, studies by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and the Journal of Interpersonal Violence have found men in fraternities are more likely to commit rape than men not involved in greek life.

Cal Poly has witnessed this trend firsthand on campus, with frater-

in parts of Asia and Eastern Europe. They have now spread to the United States in big cities such as New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, LAES co-director David Gillette said.

It’s theatrical in that the room is based around a type of story that would be found in a game or adventure movie. It’s a game because the goal is to get out of the room.

The only way to get out is by solving the puzzles and clues embedded in the story of the room.

There’s no script, no actors, just the participants and the puzzles, Gillette said.

“So the idea is, you’re put in a room for a certain period of time, you have a number of puzzles that you have to solve, and if you solve the puzzles successfully you get out of the room.

If you are unsuccessful, you either lose the game or something

tragic happens to the characters that you’re dealing with,” Gillette said.

The content of the escape room’s story is kept under wraps due to the fact that it would ruin the game for future participants.

Students in LAES 301 and 302 (the introductory project-based LAES courses) are designing and building the rooms. They have been working on it for about six weeks now, Gillette said.

“Our vision for the escape room is to develop something that hasn’t really been done before. And we wanted to do something that’s international,” LAES junior Kevin Gong said.

The group created space in its story to collaborate with the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. This means this Australian university will also be creating an escape room to coexist with the one on Cal

Poly’s campus, and participants would have international interactions during the game.

According to Gong, they have created a very elaborate backstory that is designed to incorporate the two rooms so they actually connect. They are trying to establish visual footage between the two rooms via gopros. So the clues will overlap between the Cal Poly escape room and the Australian escape room.

“Either they succeed together or they fail together. So you actually have to work together with the (international) students,” Gong said.

Winter quarter is designated to figuring out story development, props, space usage, organizational logistics and testing, Gillette said.

“The whole point of the escape room is the immersive experience, and if they don’t buy into

the story, then everything is lost — it’s just a room of clues and puzzles. The story is really what builds layers that put people in the room. So we’ve been working very hard to build the story,” Gong said.

This week and next week, they are running tests to see how the puzzles work and what needs to be changed.

“We really have to build it kind of like software. We have to test it with people and refine it to see how it goes before we really release it,” Gillette said. “And then the spring is when we’re planning on running it as an actual theatrical gaming experience that people can sign up for and come and experience.”

The game will run for about an hour with eight or nine participants. The design team hopes to have the escape room ready

by May or June for the San Luis

Obispo community to participate in, Gillette said.

“We’re definitely building a world. We’re putting stuff in to make it an authentic part of the story instead of just being a room with clues in it,” English senior Emma Jaffe said.

Jaffe said she enjoys the Learn

By Doing aspect of the project because she doesn’t get that a lot as an English major, a sentiment shared by others students, including Gong.

“I just think the program is awesome, and it has given me the opportunity to do things like this that most classes like studying dynamics or studying statistics — it doesn’t allow for this kind of creativity,” Gong said.

Whether as a creator or participant of the escape rooms, people now have the opportunity to step out of their everyday lives and play pretend in another “world.”

nities Pi Kappa Alpha and Alpha Gamma Rho both facing probation for allegations related to sexual violence.

English senior and Safer student assistant Bailey Hamblin said sorority parties would make it easier for women to look out for each other’s safety.

“Bystander intervention isn’t as present at fraternity parties as it would be at sorority parties if they were allowed to have them,” she said.

Hamblin attributed this to the imbalanced atmosphere at fraternity parties. The men at these parties tend to be members of the hosting fraternity, she said, whereas the women aren’t necessarily connected to each other.

“I think at fraternity parties, when you get a group of men together who have privilege so

they’re not used to asking for things, they’re bonded together by brotherhood and by the image of the fraternity so they’re not going to want to call each other out,” Hamblin said. “That potentially is a dangerous recipe, whereas if sororities had parties, it wouldn’t be those same elements mixing together.”

Interfraternity Council president Alex Horncliff said fraternity brothers’ bonds don’t create a “dangerous recipe” at parties — in fact, they play the opposite role.

“You have a group of men who are all in a fraternity and know each other and they can all hold each other accountable,” Horncliff said.

Horncliff, a kinesiology and communications senior, also defended the male-to-female ratio fraternities usually enforce at their parties. He said the rule

is not intended to promote a hookup-friendly environment but rather to protect against potentially disruptive outsiders.

“It’s more of a liability to let in people you may not know,” Horncliff said. “It’s not for the sake of creating a competitive atmosphere of entitlement, but moreso that people you know aren’t going to cause a problem.”

National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) public relations representative Michelle Bower provided a written statement explaining Panhellenic sororities’ alcohol restrictions. In order to reverse these rules, NPC member sororities would have to change their national bylaws.

The statement said alcohol prohibition is in the interest of the sorority women’s safety.

“NPC member sororities’ chapter houses are private residence facilities that have made the deci-

sion to not allow alcohol on the premises,” the statement said.

“Many of the chapter houses are rarely set up to provide a means of holding large functions such as co-sponsored alcohol-related events. NPC has found it is safer for our members and the overall facility, especially since many of the housed members are under the age of 21.”

The statement also cited insurance premiums as a reason for the restrictions.

“The insurance companies of sororities have priced their premium insurance levels with the confidence that alcohol is not being served within a chapter house for public or private consumption,” the statement said.

Panhellenic President and business administration junior Kristen Henry said tradition also plays a role in alcohol restrictions.

“You can imagine when (sorori-

ties) were established back in the Victorian era, it was self-explanatory how those rules would have been established,” Henry said.

“Since then, the houses — which have primarily underaged women living in them — they’re just something that haven’t been changed.”

Henry went on to argue that sexual violence is not location-based.

“It doesn’t solely happen at fraternity parties or at greek events,” she said. “It happens everywhere.

I don’t think changing the location would have a dramatic impact.”

Henry said it shouldn’t be women’s responsibility to prevent sexual violence.

“Of course, we want to contribute and make sure everyone is having a safe good time at all the events they choose to attend on the weekends,” she said. “But it’s not something I feel we should have to provide to the community.”

Thursday, February 26, 2015

ARTS | 4

Make space, here comes free play Will Peischel @cpmustangarts

The porcelain room sits just about empty. The sharp grey, reflective floors shine under bright light to ensure no mess is left over from the last group that inhabited the room.

A crochet maroon vine wraps around the room’s center column; it’s the only object that disobeys the monochromatic dress code.

The vine grows.

Days pass and the sterile room sees crochet rolls, pillows and mats (one zebra-print, of course) surround the center column like a shrine. Spider web strings reach out to the walls. The vine partially wraps itself in a teal plastic. Beautiful drawings of bored, naked women guard the walls; they lay out under the closest corner of the center column from their location, connected by string. An assortment of stools and chairs surround the center column, complementing the shrine-y feel.

On Feb. 20, artist Sheila Pepe brought her crochet installation and collaborative art mentality to Cal Poly’s Art Gallery.

Since then, the exhibit has grown by the day.

The hope is that the trend continues.

The contributions so far have been from art, design and architecture classes. However, according to art & design sophomore Morgan Momsen, who monitors the gallery, anybody can contribute and make the exhibit their own.

“Anyone can come in,” Momsen said. “There’s crochet needles, so people can add. During the show people were sitting down and crocheting — adding. The only thing that was here when it started was the big piece and this red string.”

That’s the idea of collaborative art. It’s a shared experience that blurs the lines between artist and audience. Anybody can add their work to the exhibit — in a respect-

GEORGIE DE MATTOS | MUSTANG NE WS CROCHETED

| Sheila Pepe contributed her crocheted art, which includes rolls, pillows and mats. Students can add on to the collaborative exhibit with their own art styles.

ful manner of course.

This isn’t the first collaborative exhibit held at the University Art Gallery. Art & design professor Jeff Van Kleeck has overseen an inclusive lineup of works over the past year. To him, collaborative art, even if it has earlier origins, largely works cooperatively with the millennial generation.

“Your generation has much more awareness of everyone around them and their feelings,” he said. “It definitely resonates there, but the idea has been a response to making an object that has a value and

then becoming part of commerce.

These artists are looking for shared experience and collaboration.”

Kleeck went on to point out the popularity of physically participating and doing things in reaction to a culture that emphasizes looking at a screen.

“Our culture is changing from one that stands and views to one that participates,” Kleeck said.

“Whether tweeting, or creating something, or having a live space for people to see your opinion, there’s a cultural shift with technology and people — a renewed

desire for experiencing things.”

That’s what makes Pepe’s art so generous. Her original piece was a work of passion in its own right, with respective influences and purpose. However, she’s allowed it to expand beyond those confined dimensions. The exhibit doesn’t ask for attribution, it asks for engagement.

“She definitely has her own underlying principles and ideas of what she’s doing,” Kleeck said.

“Once you make the space available, it’s up to the students to drive where they want that to go. That’s

a different kind of thing, giving up your art: ‘I’ve made this and now you can make something with it.’ Thats a lot different than, ‘I made this painting. Look at it but don’t touch.’”

Art & design senior Kristen Johnson tried to decipher meaning from the conglomeration of ideas that filled the white space.

“You have these really good drawings and this weird string, these duct tape chairs,” Johnson said. “It’s interesting trying to connect them together as one whole thing. How does the gallery

work together?”

Van Kleeck hopes collaborative art will continue to account for a considerable amount of art that passes through the gallery. The opportunity to present something that everyone can contribute to, art student or not, is too good to pass up.

“I hope the gallery uses collaborative art more — getting more art students engaged,” Kleeck said.

“And maybe more students in general will engage with the artwork. I think it’s way more fun. The more the merrier.”

Thursday, February 26, 2015

ARTS | 5

The Audio Files: Why college radio matters Elizabeth Aloe @ kcpr913

I cried the day I graduated.

It was June 1993, and I remember sitting in my empty apartment for the last time thinking how sad I was about my college career and life in San Luis Obispo coming to a close. Sure, I had my whole future in front of me — which included a move to the east coast a week later — but I couldn’t quite grasp that college life was ending.

I was saying goodbye to campus, roommates, seeing my friends consistently and, most of all, I was saying goodbye to KCPR — my second home.

There is something special about college radio, and unless you’re a part of it, you will never understand. Maybe it’s the same feeling fraternity brothers and sorority sisters feel for each other, but it’s a bond that never leaves the blood.

The friends I made, and still have to this day, remain some of the most important friendships and relationships in my life.

Aside from the bonds of friendship, there is the music. Before the Internet, YouTube and iTunes, college radio provided a way for new bands to get exposure to audiences who craved new, alternative music. Record labels would send us demos and compilations with bands no one had heard

KCPR continued from pg 1.

Here’s a sneak peek at Thursday’s performers: Abby Dorrell As a sophomore architecture student, it’s a little hard (okay, maybe more than a little) to write poetry with the constant projects and classes bombarding a daily schoolfilled schedule. Dorrell’s solution: write anyway.

“It’s a lot of writing in class when I should be paying attention, or writing at odd hours of the night,” she said. “It’s one of those things where I lose sleep over it, but it’s worth losing sleep over.”

You can find lines of poetry scrawled on the back of her tests, assignments and between lecture notes.

“Sometimes I’ll forget that I’ve written stuff and I unearth a piece of paper from the bottom of my backpack that I wrote four months ago,” she said.

Dorrell can’t remember a time when she wasn’t writing poetry.

“I was going through my bedroom at one point over summer break and found poems I was writing when I was 5 in purple crayon,” she said. “It’s not like I choose to do it, it’s just something I’ve always done.”

Common themes in Dorrell’s pieces are people, personal experiences, relationships and psychology.

“A lot of my poems are about dynamics between people and

supporter and ally of its station.

The university stands behind the station as not only a music outlet for DJs but as a lab for students to learn talk radio.

When I moved back to San Luis Obispo in 2012 and was asked to do a show on KCPR, I jumped at the chance. Every second we spend spinning discs and chatting with you over the air is completely voluntary. We don’t get paid, and for those of us out of school, we don’t get credits, either. We do it for the love of the music and the passion for exposing new generations to upcoming bands and sounds. We do it for the love of our community and our listeners. We also do it for self-satisfaction — without KCPR, college wouldn’t have been nearly as memorable for most of us. Support KCPR either by listening locally or streaming. Not only are you helping a college station stay on the air, you’re helping new bands and artists. It’s a win-win.

before. Using our airwaves and our musical passion, these bands could now be heard by thousands of people who otherwise didn’t have access to their sound. Ever heard of U2, REM, Collective

Soul, Green Day and Beck? This is just a small sample of bands who made it big because of college radio support. I still remember the small shows Green Day played for us here in San Luis Obispo and

how Beck crashed on our couches because he couldn’t afford a hotel room.

Now, 20 some years later, times have most certainly changed, but the importance of college radio

has not. Universities across the nation are starting to sell their licenses to corporations because they don’t see the need for campus radio anymore. Cal Poly, on the other hand, has remained a strong

Elizabeth Aloe, a Cal Poly journalism graduate, currently hosts Friday Night Flashbacks every Friday from 6-8 p.m. Her favorite bands include Berlin, Psychedelic Furs, Duran Duran, Kitchens of Distinction, Grant Lee Buffalo, Erasure, The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Church. Her favorite p-cut in the stacks is “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

by Nirvana.

how it gets complicated,” she said. “(But) I’m not really the love poem person.”

Dorrell isn’t one to title her poems (she struggles to sum up her pieces in only a few words), but she disclosed that the unnamed poem she will perform Thursday gives an inside perspective on what it’s like to be a writer.

He creates his content from a combination of often exaggerated but real experiences and completely made-up ideas. Cocores describes his comedic style as a “non sequitur hyperbole,” where he takes nothing and blows it up to its extreme.

“Recently, I found a gold mine at taking shots at myself,” he said. “You need to have a sense of humor about it because I can’t say these things and think them seriously.”

Cocores is moving away from pun-centric one-liners and will be putting himself under the microscope for Thursday’s events, where he will perform more selfdeprecating pieces.

cause you end up playing with a bunch of different people even if it’s one group,” he said. “Every jazz combination is special, and that’s why I favor them over big bands because you really get to see how, even if it’s three-people big, how those three people’s styles combine on the spot.”

The band’s passion for music is unquestionable, as Church explained the feeling of being on stage and performing for

a live audience.

“In jazz, you kind of lose where you are for at least a little bit of the song,” he said. “There’s a moment when you’re playing, and then all of the sudden you realize you’ve been playing for a whole chart and not even realizing it.”

Drummer Danny Diaz said there’s no feeling like performing, and he expects the Pac Pavilion to vibrate with music and dancing during their set.

“We’re gonna make people get up and swing for sure,” he said.

These three acts are just a small taste of what is to come at KCPR’s Open Mic. “There’s free coffee, free food and you get to see about 20 different performances that a lot of people probably haven’t seen before,” Warfield said.

Doors open at 7:30 and the show runs 8-10 p.m. in the PAC Pavilion.

ELIZABETH ALOE | COURTESY PHOTO DROPPIN’ BE AT S

| During Aloe’s time with KCPR, college radio was the source of exposure for student bands and new sounds.

Nick Cocores As a member of improv comedy group Smile and Nod, theatre senior Nick Cocores knows his humor. After discovering the world of drama and comedy unintentionally in high school, his love for the arts and spreading laughs has only grown.

“I got put into a beginning drama class in high school,” Cocores said.

“I think I signed up for welding but got into that instead. At the time I was really upset.”

He remembers the day when things just clicked for him, and his path toward comedy became clear.

“There was this one day in class where (we played) an improv game, but I did something and everyone reacted in such a way where I was like, ‘Wow, that was really cool,’ and then I realized that if it feels good, then I should do it more often,” Cocores said.

He explained how it feels to be on stage and have the audience respond positively to his material.

“When I perform on stage, especially improvising, at times it feels like an out-of-body experience,” Cocores said. “In sports it’s the same way, where you’re in a zone and you’re focused.”

The CEOs Members: Elliot Fiske (piano), Thomas Steinke (trombone), Alina Lusebrink (percussion), Danny Diaz (drums), Burlie Fisher (trumpet) and Kevin Church (bass guitar). Six musicians, one mission: to jam their hearts out.

The CEOs started their career as a jazz band at open mic nights in student housing as freshmen. They mostly play jazz standards but bring fresh takes to the material, making it their own.

“We try to as best we can with six people in college and a bunch of different science, music and engineering majors to get together as much as possible every quarter, regardless of whether we have a gig,” architectural engineering junior Church said.

Church highlighted the diversity of musicians and styles found within jazz groups like The CEOs. “Jazz groups are interesting be-

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Thursday, February 26, 2015 Publishing since 1916 ©2015 Mustang News “She’s tight.”

OPINIONS | 7

In defense of drones Jacob Lauing @jlauing

Drones.

Never has one word instilled so much fear in some, and so much excitement in others. At Mustang News, we fall into the latter group.

When our digital adviser walked into the newsroom one day with what’s essentially an iPhone-compatible, remote control helicopter-like flying camera, I think we could all see its potential.

Drones — or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), to use their official name — mark the latest trend in journalism. Besides the obvious, ‘let’s use it for super cool aerial shots,’ drones have been used to capture what humans often can’t — natural disasters, protests (see CNN’s Ferguson coverage) and plenty of other news events too dangerous for reporters to document.

But with such a big tool comes big regulations and, of course, risk.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released its much-anticipated commercial UAV regulations proposal last week, and while it’s a step in the right direction for journalists, it’s not enough.

There’s been plenty of debate and bureaucratic buzz surrounding drones, so I’ll try to keep things as simple as possible.

The rules If you want to take pictures of your backyard, you’re considered a hobbyist and are bound by separate, less-restrictive FAA regulation. But if you’re using drones for commercial purposes (newsgathering, real estate, etc.), the rules were muddy and pretty overbear-

ing until last week.

Here are the main points of the proposal, which is under a 60-day comment period: • Don’t fly drones at night • Don’t fly them over people who aren’t involved in the operation • Don’t fly them above 500 feet • Don’t fly within five miles of an airport • Always maintain a line of sight with the drone Compared to the rules already in place, these are pretty lenient.

Consider this memo the California State University system sent out in November. “The use of any drone must be preceded by an application for and grant of a Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the FAA,” the memo read. “THERE IS NO EDUCATION OR RESEARCH EXEMPTION. Violation of this may result in civil and criminal penalties.”

Under the FAA’s new regulations, we wouldn’t have to obtain a COA or a pilot’s license, as some enthusiasts feared. Drone operators would only have to pass an aeronautical knowledge test (renew it every 24 months) and be vetted by the TSA. The process doesn’t seem like much of a hassle, considering the amount of potential drones have for newsgathering.

The problem Still, there are two glaring weakness with the FAA’s proposed regulations.

First, the “don’t fly over people” rule kills any hope of things like overhead shots of Baggett Stadium and aerial video of Farmer’s Market or greek recruitment.

Yes, there are risks, like when a drunk government employee crashed his drone on White House grounds, or TGI Friday’s decided to use drones to carry mistletoes on Christmas (I prom-

The editor’s note ise those are both real things).

The FAA doesn’t want a lawsuit on its hands, but there has to be some compromise with journalists.

The film and agriculture industries have already been granted exemptions to the strict commercial drone rules. The agricultural implications make sense. But films? I’d say consuming news is more of a public need than watching movies, so if Hollywood gets drone privileges, so should journalists.

In fact, a group of 10 news outlets — including the New York Times, Associated Press and NBC — struck a deal with the FAA last month, testing drones for newsgathering in hopes of broader commercial regulations, particularly when it comes to breaking news events like Ferguson.

I applaud those news organizations. But the FAA will likely only

cut bargains with the most respected publications, which leads me to the second problem.

As the CSU memo alluded to, there is no exemption for education.

The proposal Sure, every journalism student at Cal Poly and every Mustang News staff member could take the “aeronautical knowledge” test proposed by the FAA, but that seems inefficient.

There needs to be some education classification in the new FAA rules. Why not add another operator classification called “educator”?

Our advisors, journalism professors and even our editors could undergo a more rigorous test with the FAA and TSA, one that would allow them to teach drone journalism safely. The certification process

could be specific to newsgathering, including ways to avoid crashes in crowds and do our jobs without causing harm.

At Mustang News, we are reporters, innovators and storytellers, yes.

But first and foremost, we are students.

We are the future generation of reporters, and we should be educated in every tool at our disposal.

There’s clearly no one blanket set of regulations that applies to all drone users. There needs to be specific regulations for each industry, with both professional and student journalists making up new categories.

So I’ll kindly ask the FAA, CSU or any other governing body limiting our ability to report the news: Let us fly our drones.

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Thursday, February 26, 2015

SPORTS | 9

IAN BILLINGS | MUSTANG NE WS BIG THREAT | Junior guard Joel Awich has steadily increased his offensive production, averaging 11.3 points per game in Big West Conference play.

AWICH continued from pg 1.

Awich was thin — only 185 pounds. He wasn’t confident,

Callero said. he wasn’t very experienced and he wasn’t very aggressive.

“You’re r ig ht,” C a l lero would say. “He’s not a Di-

vision-I basketball player right now. But he’s going to be.”

“I treated him like good stock or a good upward trend,” Cal-

lero said. “We took the long steady approach with him, saying, ‘high character, high academics, great work ethic, great kid ... and yeah, great athleti-

cism.’ If we do it the right way then by the time he’s a junior or senior he’s going to be a great stock.”

Awich — a calm, collected individual off the court — isn’t one to argue. In fact, he will be the first to tell you that four years ago he was, in fact, a work in progress.

“I was literally just the rebound guy,” he says about his past play. “I would get anything around the basket, but I was never the big scorer.

Even last year, having Chris Eversley and those other guys around me I was still more of a pass-first guy.”

But this year?

This year’s been different. The 6-foot-7 junior from Saint Paul, Minnesota — who is playing in his third year of eligibility — has been one of Cal Poly’s most productive offensive players in Big West Conference play.

His average of 11.3 points in 13 conference games has boosted his overall scoring mark to an 8.9 per-game figure and added a level of confidence to his game that has proved his ability, as well as his coach right.

“He’s been a steady developer,” Callero said. “He’s really gifted, very talented, very athletic, very cerebral smart kid, and in his over four years he’s just continued to develop confidence and skills that have made him as scorer, and now he really is an impact player on any given night for us both on offense and defense.”

With three games left to go in the regular season, Awich has now scored in double figures in 10 of Cal Poly’s last 12 games – including a career-best 19-point performance versus Long Beach State in a huge win on Feb. 14.

“I definitely have found that scoring is one of the things I improved on the most,” Awich said. “The more my shots fall, the more confidence I get and the more I’m going to take shots and do what I can offensively to help the team win.”

And that defensive skill, the part of his game that was never any doubt for coaches, has only gotten stronger. Today, when you watch Awich go to work you’ll find that there really isn’t much he can’t do on either end of the floor. The redshirt junior

has now recorded his first two double-doubles in points and rebounds within the last month.

And in blocks, his calling card on defense, he has risen to third among Big West players this season with 1.48 blocks per game.

Awich has blocked multiple shots in a game 13 times this year, grabbed seven-plus rebounds 12 times, and now has 97 career blocks, good enough for third all time at Cal Poly.

Thirty-seven of those blocks have come in this year alone.

“The blocks are definitely the part of my game I’m most happy I was able to bring to college,” he admits. “Blocking shots has always been kind of a fun thing for me ever since I started playing in high school, and I’m glad I could keep that up at the college level.”

Callero knows as well as anyone else that having a force known within the conference as a rim protector can do wonders in changing the approach of opposing offenses.

“It’s not just the blocks,” Callero added. “But the ones that he may alter or that teams may not drive as far are what helps. Opponents now see Joel and they realize, ‘That’s a long-armed guy that can jump quickly and get a hand on my shots’ and maybe think twice about shooting it in that situation.”

Wreaking havoc on defense is a testament to not judging Awich for face value. While he may not have made many waves in his four years at Cal Poly — from his underwhelming recruiting experience to his calm demeanor in practice and in conversation — the evolution of his offensive game has made watching Awich on the court a wild, raucous experience.

“From where he was this year is a 150-degree improvement and over the next year I hope we can improve another 30 degrees where he can really be a gentleman, a scholar off the court then beast-mode animal on the court,” Callero said.

Cal Poly faces UC Irvine on Feb. 26 in a blackout game inside Mott Athletics Center at 7 p.m. For Cal Poly’s most impressive and still-rising investment, though, the closing bell is still far from being rung.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

SPORTS | 10

Baseball notches first home win, faces No. 1 TCU this weekend

Keenan Donath @CPMustangSports

After losing six of its first seven games, the Cal Poly baseball team (2-6) righted the ship on Tuesday, beating Cal State Bakersfield (3-5) by a dominating score of 13-2. Cal Poly’s muchneeded second win of the season halts an ugly stretch of early season play, including series sweeps from Baylor and for-profit university Grand Canyon.

“One step in the right direction, but we still have a ways to go,” head coach Larry Lee said.

Tuesday’s victory over Bakersfield marks the end of Cal Poly’s fourgame home stand. A reenergized Cal Poly team hopes to carry a bit of momentum to Texas when it takes on the No. 1 team in the

country, according to Collegiate Baseball newspaper, in TCU this weekend.

On Tuesday, the Mustangs welcomed back their second-team AllAmerican from a year ago, second baseman Mark Mathias. The junior will lead off at DH until he has healed enough to play his normal position at second.

When freshman second baseman Alec Smith committed an error on a weak ground ball to open the game, it looked like more of the same for the Mustangs. But freshman pitcher Andrew Bernstein kept the Roadrunners at bay, and a Zack Zehner ground out would give Cal Poly the early 1-0 advantage.

A single up the middle from Smith would extend the Cal Poly lead to three runs after three in-

nings. A single from hot-hitting junior shortstop Peter Van Gansen, a ground out from Zehner and a John Schuknecht sacrifice fly all scored runs for a productive Mustangs offense.

After two innings, Cal Poly sat comfortably on a six-run lead.

Bernstein ran into trouble in the third inning, when the Roadrunners’ 6-foot-7 DH, Soloman Williams, scored two runs on a single that just eluded Smith’s glove.

However, that was the extent of the damage done by the Roadrunners.

The Mustangs got a run back when Mathias scorched an RBI double to the left-center field wall.

Van Gansen helped tack on another run in the fifth inning with yet another RBI single. After five innings of play, the Mustangs led 9-2.

Except for the two runs in the third inning, Bernstein (2-0) pitched exquisitely. His 6 innings gave the developing Cal Poly bullpen time to save energy, and his eight strikeouts stunned unassuming Roadrunners hitters. The true freshman has the two lone wins for the Mustangs’ pitching staff this year.

“It’s hard not to be confident when your team puts 13 runs on the board,” Bernstein said.

Look for the Mustangs to utilize the freshman throughout the rest of the season.

Mathias performed exceptionally in his return to the diamond. The temporary DH reached base three times after going 2-for-4 with an RBI double and a hit by pitch. A semi-healthy Mathias is possibly the catalyst the Mustangs need to change

this season’s lethargic start.

“I have been waiting for what feels like forever, so it feels good to get out there and compete with my teammates. I feel good; no pain,” Mathias said.

A two-run double by sophomore outfielder Kevin Morgan made it a 12-2 game in the eighth inning.

The third RBI single of the night

by Van Gansen ran the total up to 13-2, the final score as Cal Poly had its best hitting performance of the year.

Van Gansen went 4-for-6 with three RBIs, while his partner up the middle, Smith, nearly matched him with three hits and two RBIs of his own. The Mustangs had 13 hits on the night and hit .467 with runners in scoring position.

Friday’s first pitch at TCU is set for 4:30 p.m.

JOSEPH PACK | MUSTANG NE WS

BACK ON TRACK

| The Cal Poly baseball team dominated Bakersfield on Tuesday night as freshman pitcher Andrew Bernstein gave up two runs in 6 innings, coming away with his second win this season.