Dec. 3, 2015

Thur sday, December 3, 20 15

E s t abl ished 19 16

w w w.mus t angne w s .net

Diversity debate

brings dead week to life

PHOTOS BY ANDREW EPPERSON, KATY BARNARD, AND GABBY PAJO | MUSTANG NE WS SOLIDARIT Y

| Above, two students both protest a death threat against a SLO Solidarity leader. The protest took place in the University Union Plaza on Dec. 2, and included faculty and staff.

Naba Ahmed @NabaAhmed

SLO Solidarity, an unregistered campus organization which came into being earlier this month, has sent a list of 41 demands to Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong’s office.

It asks the administration to release an action plan by the start of Winter 2016. The plan would include steps for university leaders to take in order to “to meet (their) demands and make Cal Poly a safe and equitable campus for all students.”

The email sent to Armstrong was also sent to Vice President for Student Affairs Keith Humphrey, retiring Dean of Students Jean DeCosta and University Diversity and Inclusivity Executive Director Annie Holmes, who is no longer at Cal Poly.

SLO Solidarity ended the list by saying, “If these demands cannot be met, we will demand a new administration which will treat underrepresented students with equity and make Cal Poly a place where everyone is equally empowered to obtain a high-quality education.”

Here are some of the main points.

SLO Solidarity has called for the formation of a greek life diversity and inclusivity task force and a full-time greek life advisor for United Sorority and Fraternity Council.

Greek life SLO Solidarity has called for the formation of a greek life diversity and inclusivity task force that will be made up of students from cultural clubs on campus, staff, faculty, administrators and greek life.

Additionally, it demands a full-time greek

Free speech wall erected November 9

Open forum held November 18

life advisor for United Sorority and Fraternity Council who has experience with cultural greek organizations.

Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) SLO Solidarity demands funds for low-income students to campaign for ASI elections, in addition to spending limits on student campaigns.

It wants more transparent, streamlined communication which can be facilitated by the addition of a Diversity and Inclusivity position in each ASI branch.

Orientation SLO Solidarity demands diversity and inclusivity programming and education throughout Soar and Week of Welcome. Students should also participate in mandatory online cultural sensitivity training before coming to Cal Poly, it said.

University Housing First-year residence halls should have a comparable level of gender neutral facilities as well as gender-neutral or co-gender housing options for any student livings on campus in locations other than Poly Canyon Village (PCV) or Cerro Vista.

Academic Affairs and University Advancement SLO Solidarity demands that the Poly Reps program is reviewed so incoming students are fully aware of the reality of campus climate.

Education and curriculum As for academics, SLO Solidarity demands that women’s and gender studies or ethnic studies courses be required for students in every major.

They also demand an implementation of a queer studies minor and a women’s, gender and queers studies major as well as a fir st-year seminar focused on topic areas related to

gender, race, sexuality and culture.

Admissions, faculty, staff, retention and support Additionally, the number of Cross Cultural Centers staff should have more than just one representative of each ethnic minority, SLO Solidarity said. According to their demands, “the small staff is stretched too thin to fulfill all the necessary roles.”

It wants at least a three percent increase in minority faculty members every year until faculty demographics is representative of the State of California.

The club demands the position of Executive Director of Diversity and Inclusivity be raised to the Vice President level. They ask for at least one multi­-stall all-gender restroom in every building on campus and at least two in buildings with capacities exceeding 500.

3% The demanded increase in minority faculty members every year until faculty demographic matches that of California.

Data, transparency and accountability By expanding the Student Ombuds service, SLO Solidarity wants to encompass bias incident reporting systems specifically targeting instances of racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, Islamophobia, xenophobia or queerphobia including ­­ an online reporting system with ties to the Ombuds office.

In addition, SLO Solidarity wants quarterly updates from the President’s Office and other campus entities highlighting specific actions taken in the last quarter to address their demands.

Protest at free speech wall November 11

Protest in University Union November 12

41 demands released November 30

Death threat against SLO Solidarity leader December 1

First SLO Solidarity meeting November 15

News... 1-2, 6 | Arts... 4-5 | Opinion... 8 | Classifieds... 9 | Sports... 10

University Union demonstration December 2

Thursday, December 3, 2015

NEWS | 2

Construction management sophomore remembered for positivity, brotherliness Gina Randazzo @Gina_Randazzo1

NAME HERE | MUSTANG NE WS A KIND AND LOVING SOUL

| Beloved Phi Sigma Kappa member Nick Brown (right) died Sunday.

Construction management sophomore Nicholas Reid Brown passed away early Sunday morning in his San Diego home due to an unexplained seizure that caused his heart to stop.

Nick’s mother, Gina Brown, said her son had a low-grade fever all week and was taken to the emergency room Saturday when it got worse. Doctors sent him home, seeing no reason to keep him in the ER. Paramedics responded to Brown’s seizure Sunday morning and performed CPR, but were unable to restart his heart.

“Doctors have done an autopsy,” Gina Brown said. “They don’t know what caused it.”

Nick had two brothers, Mitchell Brown, who lives in Mesa, Ariz. and Austin Brown, who attends Northern Arizona University. His parents are Gina and Greg Brown.

Brown was an associate

member of Phi Sigma Kappa (Phi Sig).

Phi Sig President Wyatt Carr said the fraternity held a small service Sunday with all of the brothers, where they talked about Brown, said prayers and gave thanks for the time they were able to spend with him.

“He was so positive. He was always smiling, he had such an infectious smile,” Carr said. “He was such a good guy. He always wanted to talk to you. He was exactly the kind of guy you would want in your fraternity.”

Gina Brown also said that Nick loved his fraternity and was very proud to have been pledging Phi Sig. “He loved it so much,” Brown said. “It made him so happy.”

Phi Sig is holding its philanthropy event, Dunk the UPD (University Police Department), in Brown’s honor this Thursday at 11 a.m. on Dexter Lawn. All the proceeds from the event will go to his funeral service, according to Carr.

Phi Sig has also started the

“Nick Brown Memorial Fund” on generosity.com, where it has surpassed its $2,000 goal in less than five hours.

Carr wrote on the website that $2,000 was “in no way a cap, (he) just thought it would be a good starting point.”

Brown’s memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Dec. 4 at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church at 16275 Pomerado Road in Poway, California.

Cal Poly counseling services are available to students 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling (805) 756-2511.

The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) also provides confidential counseling services to all Cal Poly employees and their families. Their 24-hour hotline can be called at (800) 367-7474.

“The important thing to know about Nicky is he that loved the Lord, his family, friends and his new fraternity with his entire heart and soul,” Brown said.

“And food. Nicky really loved good food. Everything he did, he gave it 100 percent — always.”

Conservative comedian Steven Crowder comes to Cal Poly, touches on SLO Solidarity Savannah Sperry @savannahjsperry

From jokes about gluten intolerance to AIDS to his home city of Detroit, no subject was off limits for conservative comedian Steven Crowder who performed in the Graphic Arts (building 26) on Dec. 2.

“Detroit’s kind of like Lindsay Lohan in that you see it in the news, you feel bad, and you really hope it gets its act together,” Crowder said during his performance.

“But you know it’s never going to,” he whispered.

Among other things, Crowder discussed the “rise in political correctness” and the “over-sensitivity of the public” in contemporary America. University Police Department (UPD) officers guarded the doors in light of the current political climate on campus.

“I think you have a generation who’s never had more given to them — afforded to them, who don’t realize that,” Crowder said to Mustang News after his performance.

Crowder also questioned the nature of some of the demands given by SLO Solidarity

to the Cal Poly administration this week.

“How many people here could even tell you what the First Amendment is?”

Crowder said. “I don’t see demands here being constitutional studies, I don’t see demands here being understanding the Declaration of Independence or a demand requirement to be learning about the Revolutionary War or the Civil War. You get demands about ‘cultural sensitivity training’ again, why is that the value to trump all other values?”

Crowder was presented by Cal Poly College Republicans.

Computer science senior Paul

ANDREW EPPERSON | MUSTANG NE WS FAIR GAME | No topics were off limits for YouTube comedian Steven Crowder, who spoke Wednesday.

Sullivan is the club’s president.

“A lot of it was comedy, a lot of it was intentionally blown out of proportion, but I think he makes some good points too, and I think his points about free speech were really good,” Sullivan said.

Computer science sophomore Andrew Pirondini attended the event.

“I think a lot of it is very biased toward one side, but if you listen to the leftist comedians you’ll here the same bias,” Pi-

rondini said.

After the stand-up portion, Crowder opened up the floor to a question and answer session. As a former Fox News contributor, Crowder now has a podcast and runs a YouTube channel, both titled Louder with Crowder.

“Some people laughed, some people got offended,” Crowder said. “I’m grateful in that I could kind of say what I want.”

Crowder previously visited Cal Poly in 2013.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

ARTS | 4

America vs. England: Smoking culture Leah Horner @leahlingo

Leah Horner is a journalism junior and Mustang News study abroad columnist. Sabrina Thompson also contributed to this article.

We stood outside of a pub as he lit his cigarette. It was a typical English night — wet and dreary.

Despite the cold, there was still a group of 20-somethings huddled around each other with small, white rolls of paper in their hands.

Jordan Lewis, freshman at University of Brighton, was taking a break from directing the show, “A Christmas Carol.” For his break, he and three others decided to stand in the cold to smoke a cigarette.

“It’s just quite easy to smoke,” Lewis said. “If everyone else around you is smoking, it’s easy to smoke. You have so many con-

versations (when) you just go out for a cigarette.”

Since he was 18, Lewis has been stepping outside into the freezing cold English days to light up.

This was his eighth cigarette of the day. He typically only smokes three or four a day, but the stress has been piling up.

A combination of stress and the ease of accessing cigarettes caused Lewis to start smoking.

His friends always had them, so he eventually joined in, which led to a downward spiral.

“I was really stressed,” he said.

“And then someone offered me a cigarette, and then I had a cigarette. And then I was really stressed, so I had a cigarette. And then I had a cigarette, and then I was smoking.”

When he was finished we went inside, back to where the cast of the show was. Someone asked what I was writing. I said where I live in California, smoking in public is illegal. The room quick-

ly got quiet and everyone turned and stared at me with shocked looks on their faces. Multiple people repeated it over and over: “Smoking is illegal?”

“So you can’t smoke on a sidewalk?”

“Well what about at home?”

You would think I just told them they weren’t allowed to breathe. For them, smoking is part of daily life. I then filled them in.

Smoking is illegal in public in San Luis Obispo. It was the first city in America to ban smoking in indoor public places, like restaurants and bars, in 1990.

Then, in 2010, the city council took it a step further and banned smoking in public places, including sidewalks, parks and open spaces. San Luis Obispo Mayor Jan Marx said there are still a few designated smoking areas around town, but they’re all at least five feet away from doorways. People are also allowed to smoke in their

LEAH HORNER | MUSTANG NE WS CULTURAL

| You won’t get dirty looks from lighing up in England, as it’s just part of their culture.

LEAH HORNER | MUSTANG NE WS ILLEGAL | San Luis Obispo was the first city in the world to ban smoking in all indoor public places.

private residences. For her, this is a law that affects everyone, not just smokers.

“No one has the right to impair someone else’s health,” Marx said. “So in that case, people can be self-destructive and smoke if they want to, but when it starts impending on other people’s health, that’s when I think government regulation makes sense.”

Political science freshman Sam Beekwilder recently moved to San Luis Obispo after spending most of his life in Amsterdam. He has visited England many times and said the smoking culture in San Luis Obispo is a whole new world. Beekwilder first tried a cigarette with his friends at age 12, and began regularly smoking at 16. Since he arrived in the U.S., people have been openly commenting on his habit.

“Everyone thinks it’s ridiculously gross and very bad for you, and I honestly can’t argue with

them that it’s not,” Beekwilder said. “But it’s just a bit surprising to hear that coming from literally everyone. Because you always had like two people that would point out to you that it was bad.

But not every single person.”

Beekwilder said people give him weird looks, so he has learned to avoid smoking around people to escape awkward situations.

While Marx and Beekwilder both agree smoking affects others in the immediate physical area, Marx also points out the economic impact on third parties.

“There are a lot of health problems that are caused by smoking, and tax payers pick up the tab for that illness,” she said. “So it’s expensive not only in terms of human suffering but also in financial terms.”

In England, the actors in the room said they would never be able to survive in a town like this. Smoking is part of the cul-

ture here. However, the numbers indicate their country is not very different from America.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) states that in 2013, 20 percent of adults in England smoked. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, shows that in 2013, 17.8 percent of adults in the U.S. smoked.

The difference between the two countries seems minimal, but both Lewis and Beekwilder agree that the U.S. appears to have fewer smokers than England.

Lewis does not recommend smoking to anyone. He says it’s addictive and expensive. Personally, he smokes to relieve stress, but he realizes it’s the smoking itself that causes stress.

“You associate it so much with cutting down stress, but it’s just a vicious cycle of it cuts down on stress because it causes more stress,” Lewis said. “Not being able to smoke makes you want to smoke.”

Thursday, December 3, 2015

NEWS | 3

Audio Files: The deconstruction of ‘see and be seen’

GEORGIE DE MATTOS | MUSTANG NE WS

Annie Vainshtein @annievain

A few times in a blue moon, I get asked which of the shows I’ve been to is my favorite. I have an embarrassingly hard time recollecting a lot of things, I Shazam some of my favorite songs and often find myself forgetting the word “ladle.”

For a host of these, I can blame

missing a few lessons on b a s i c c l a s s i f i c at i on s — I think I missed a few ver y imp or t ant d ays of first grade.

In terms of concerts and music, I’m equally forgetful, but for different reasons than them simply slipping my mind.

I’ve thought about it for a long time, and have come to a few points of understanding, all of

which have to do with my experiences alongside other people.

So what do I mean?

Somewhere, in between the daguerreotype and HUF 5 Panel, we, as a collective humanity, quietly cultivated this very specific idea of what it means to be social — what it means to enjoy yourself in the company of other people. That’s not to say everyone follows a blanket-

ed mantra of living, but there became a certain expectation of the self that emerged as more humans began to interact with one another and live through s h are d e x p e r i e n c e s an d shared interests.

If I really focus my memory on the concerts I’ve been to, I find that, in many cases, I spent a disconcerting amount of time thinking of the people around

me — squinting to anticipate their reactions or hoping they wouldn’t ask me to go on a bathroom trip with them. Or sometimes wishing they would but not wanting to ask first. I spent too much time worrying that the people around me weren’t having fun or weren’t happy or feeling stifled by a need to maintain a social situation and accommodate unrealistic expectations, often times second-guessing my own.

Sometimes, concerts felt like another venue for which to go through the banal motions of life. Seeing bands I felt so unbelievably close to started to play second fiddle to upholding some random, immaterial “aesthetic” of perfectly chopped baby bangs, ‘90s revival chokers and that one backpack everybody has.

Everyone feels the weight of human interaction to their own personal degree, but the point is that music, specifically musical events, are extremely susceptible to this kind of disembodied social stress. A core part of that sometimes rests on how difficult it has become — and how unprepared we are — to be alone, devoid of all crutches.

There’s something quietly sublime in being alone, something so truly empowering in acting exactly, with intention, as you want, in doing exactly what you feel in a moment,

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independent of anything or anyone. And acting earnestly doesn’t mean disregarding the rights or feelings of other people. It’s just learning the subtle importance of peeling yourself away to be fully you when you feel you need it most. So much of our lives are spent acting subordinate to some inanely looming idea of being “trendy” or the dozen other misguided marks of social virtue.

Some of my favorite concerts were spent dancing wildly for hours with my best friends. But a few of them were spent alone, hands free of any buffer, totally submerged in the drummer’s unearthly dexterity.

In no way am I concerned with dictating or setting some dogma for how other people define quality or happiness, all I want to emphasize is the utter importance of feeling okay just being.

Concerts are wonderful as shared experiences, but taking them to a certain social extremity and warping their roles to fit a diluted space where the only concern is to “see and be seen” fogs an experience that could be really magical.

Next time you’re deciding on a concert you want to go to, just go. Even if your friends or your ride bails. Just go.

“Bob’s Burgers” can wait. You don’t even have to talk to anyone. Just go and be. And I promise to do the same.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

NEWS | 6

Star women’s tennis player recovering after second shoulder surgery Savannah Sperry @SavannahJSperry

Five weeks ago, tennis player and architecture senior Louise Oxnevad had her second shoulder surgery for labral and rotator cuff tearing in three years. It’s an injury common among tennis and baseball players, and one Oxnevad has dealt with since her freshman year at Cal Poly.

Oxnevad played through the pain during her freshman sea-

son on the women’s tennis team, she said. She underwent her first shoulder surgery in her sophomore year before redshirting for the season.

Upon returning for her second season, Oxnevad worked her way into Cal Poly’s No. 1 seed, where she competed against the top players from universities around the West Coast.

“There’s a lot of honor playing No. 1 and excitement,” Oxnevad

said. “You put a lot of pressure on yourself to prove to the rest of the team, or to the school, that you actually belong there.”

But the damage done to Oxnevad’s labrum and rotator cuff kept rubbing and creating small tears when she played, even after her first surgery. She underwent a second operation on Oct. 22.

Now, still recovering from her second surgery just over a month ago, Oxnevad is expected to be back playing by the end

MICHELLE LOGAN | MUSTANG NE WS RECOVERING | Oxnevad’s shoulder surgery has not stopped her from participating in team workouts.

of February.

“I feel a lot better, I think I’m making a fast recovery this time,” Oxnevad said, “I feel a lot stronger.”

A New Zealand native, Oxnevad also spent her youth as a competitive skier, once ranking No. 1 in the country for her age. When she got more serious about tennis, she had to learn the different mental aspects of the two sports.

“You have to be more mentally strong for tennis.” Oxnevad said, “Skiing is like trying to get yourself as pumped up as you can before you exit the gate. Tennis you just have to keep calm, keep cool through the three hours it takes you to finish the match. “ Oxnevad said the two sports transition well because they focus different groups of muscles and, consequently, cause different injuries.

“I was really competitive, probably too competitive, and that’s why I ended up switching to tennis,” Oxnevad said. “I found it was more relaxing.”

Though she’s in the early days of rehabilitation, Oxnevad is hopeful she’ll make a strong comeback with the support of her team, coaches and physical therapists.

Recreation, parks and tourism administration junior Zoe Oedekerk has played with Oxnevad on

MICHELLE LOGAN | MUSTANG NE WS

the tennis team for the past two years.

“She hits like a dude, she has such good form and hits the crap out of the ball,” Oedekerk said.

“I got killed by her the first time we ever played a set. It’s really fun to hit with her because you feel like she kind of raises your level of game a little bit.”

Oedekerk said the team’s new head coach, Katharina Winterhalter, has made a positive impact on Oxnevad’s recovery.

Though it’s her first year coaching at Cal Poly, Winterhalter has known Oxnevad since her freshman year from coaching against her as an assistant for St. Mary’s.

“Once I came here I learned really quickly that she’s an extremely hard worker.” Winterhalter said, “She’s very disciplined, has high intensity when she’s on the court, that’s what makes me hopeful about her recovery.”

Though Oxnevad hasn’t played on the court this fall, Winterhalter said she remains an integral part of the team and continues to attend workouts and conditioning sessions.

“She definitely has a leadership role on this team on and off the court,” Winterhalter said.

Winterhalter is optimistic about Oxnevad’s recovery.

“I know that she’s going to work really hard and she’s going to stay on top of it, because I know she’s eager to get back on the court.”

Now, Oxnevad’s biggest hope is to play pain free and get back to the top of the lineup after her shoulder recovers.

“I really have big goals. Even if this season doesn’t work out, I hope to make NCAA tournaments or All-Americans the following year,” Oxnevad said,.“I just really want to see what I can do.”

Thursday, December 3, 2015

OPINION | 8

When tolerance becomes offensive Brandon Barlett @CPMustangNews

Brandon Bartlett is an English sophomore and Mustang News conservative columnist. These views do not necessarily reflect the editorial coverage of Mustang News.

In Aesop’s classic fable “The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey,” he leaves a valuable lesson for our society. No, it is not that we should kill our donkey (subtle political party joke), but that if we strive to please all, we will end up pleasing none.

However, there are many who would hide under the banner of tolerance advocating that all should be pleased.

But this is, frankly, impossible.

Often times the desires of different individuals are mutually exclusive. We cannot have our cake and eat it too.

It is for this reason, and on this premise, that civil society was produced: a world in which people could maximize their liberty without it costing others their own.

This enlightenment principle culminated into an unfaithful interpretation of John Stuart Mill’s philosophy: Each ought to leave every individual either in the same state or in a better state than when one first encountered them.

And, at first, the idea of doing no harm seems like a very good thing. Would it not be great if everyone lived by this rule?

No. In fact, it would be quite disastrous.

By this logic, every time we do something as simple as drive in traffic, and thus make more traffic, we are doing something wrong, for we are leaving other drivers worse than when we found them; i.e. in more traffic. Likewise, when we take the last corn dog at 19 Metro Station, and thus deprive someone else of a corn dog, we do them harm — actually, depriving someone of Metro food seems like a good thing, maybe even a moral imperative, but you get the point.

It is impossible to live in a way which never negatively affects others.

“Okay,” you might be thinking, “but people don’t just drive in traffic for the fun of it, they need to get somewhere. And that good would outweigh the extra couple of seconds that other drivers have to spend on the 101.”

Absolutely! But it still holds true that there are instances in which harming other people is, at the very least, justified.

The problem is that the modern “tolerance movement” or “politically correct culture” often, though certainly not always, operates as though doing someone harm is always wrong.

Take for instance, when University of Minnesota recently decided not to allow a moment of silence for 9/11 victims because it could lead to anti-Islamic sentiments, which could make the campus an “unsafe space,” in the sense that Islamic individuals may feel

unwelcome. Or when students attempted to shut down an academic debate being held at Brown University about sexual assault because it might “invalidate some people’s experiences.”

In both cases a good is being pursued, whether paying respect to the dead or attempting to better understand sexual assault. However, since the mechanism for achieving these goals has the possibility of hurting someone in the process, people react negatively.

And these are not cherry-picked examples. With 40 percent of millennials saying in a Pew Research Center poll that they would be OK with the government restricting speech that offends minorities, the stories are countless.

However, I must admit that there is a case to be made, though I would disagree with it, concerning the silencing of those who purposefully spread lies for the sake of further oppressing minority groups. Some people are going to believe the bogus statistics that Trump retweeted, and such propaganda does cause real damage.

And though I may not believe that the government should intervene in such an instance, I certainly understand the reasoning behind the desire.

Hence, to be as clear as possible, let us focus on the latter of the examples in which the contention was not outright offensiveness, but an “invalidation of

Tell us your story News organizations are all about storytelling.

At Mustang News, we make an effort to tell every side of every story — but there are some topics reporters can’t cover. The voices of journalists are meant to tell a well-rounded story, not one based on their personal experiences.

That’s why we want your voice.

We are seeking submissions for a new recurring feature called “Voices of Cal Poly.” These columns are all about what it’s like to be you — your experiences on campus, your opinion on current Cal Poly events, your suggestions for climate improvements.

Voices of Cal Poly is a platform for you to express your experiences, whether you’re a student, faculty or staff member.

Tell us your story.

If you want to share your narrative with the Mustang News audience, submit your piece to editor@mustangnews.net for consideration.

Submissions should have the subject line “Voices of Cal Poly” and be no longer than 600 words. For any questions, contact opinion editor Liana Riley at liriley@calpoly.edu or editor-in-chief Kayla Missman at editor@ mustangnews.net.

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return to rationality one’s experience.”

Why is this problematic?

Because the truth rarely conforms to one’s experience. This is why we laugh at the senator who believed that a snowball could disprove climate change: Just because I haven’t seen or experienced something doesn’t mean it is not true.

And this is especially the case at an academic institution, where the very reason that you would pay for an education is because your experience may be inadequate or blatantly incorrect.

Whether it is the white male

who believes his privilege did not contribute to his success, or the African-American woman who sees systematic oppression as the only cause of her failure, people can be wrong.

And if we ever want to fix problems like sexual assault or systematic racism, we need to be able to foster open dialogue in which we can dig for truth.

But this cannot and won’t be done until we realize that it is impossible to please everyone, and we admit that there are times in which offense is justified.

SPECIAL SECTIONS COORDINATOR Suha Saya PHOTO EDITOR Georgie De Mattos OPINION EDITOR Liana Riley HEAD DESIGNER Jordan Dunn SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Cara Benson OUTREACH COORDINATORS Hannah Avdalovic, Reilly Roberts WEB DEVELOPER Jon Staryuk STAFF REPORTERS Savannah Sperry, Gina Randazzo, Warren Fox, Naba Ahmed, Tim Wetzel, Alexa Bruington, Brendan Abrams, Michelle Zaludek, Madi Salvati, Annie Vainshtein, Dillon Payne, Alison Stauf, Keenan Donath, Clara Knapp, Ayrton Ostly, Olivia Proffit, Avrah Baum, Michael Frank COPY EDITORS Tori Leets, Kalynn Carpenter, Gurpreet Bhoot DESIGNERS Zack Spanier, Sabrina Smith, Meghan Legg OPINION COLUMNISTS Amelia Parreira, Emilio Horner, Brandon Bartlett PHOTOGRAPHERS Jason Hung, Illiana Arroyos, Andrew Epperson, Christa Lam, Gabby Pajo, Hanna Crowley ADVERTISING MANAGER Maddie Spivek ADVERTISING DESIGN MANAGER Jordan Triplett PRODUCTION MANAGER Erica Patstone MARKETING MANAGER Ross Pfeifer ASSISTANT ADVERTISING MANAGERS Anna Seskind, Sam Patterson SENIOR ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS C.J. Estores, Kristen Corey ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Madison Flemming, Victoria Howland, Emily Manos, Clara Howley, Levi Adissi, Luke Bickel, Tara Heffernan, Darcie Castelanelli, Joseph Pack ADVERTISING DESIGNERS Micaela Pacini, Sabrina Bexar, Alex Braica, Ellen Fabini, Rene Chan DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Dylan Ring FACULTY ADVISER Pat Howe GENERAL MANAGER Paul Bittick

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Thursday, December 3, 2015

SPORTS | 10

Cal Poly golf receives $10 million donation Keenan Donath @CPMustangSports

The Cal Poly golf program just came into possession of a whole lot of cash.

The $10.188 million donation from alumni Bill Swanson is the single largest athletics donation in school history. It is also among the largest donations to any collegiate golf program in history.

The charitable gift was given by Swanson and his wife, Cheryl.

The former chairman of Raytheon Company, Swanson and his wife are the second family in less

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than a year to give a sizable gift to the golf team. In May, local golf enthusiasts Michael and Sammy Pineau gave $1.1 million to the program.

While an industrial engineering student at Cal Poly, Bill Swanson played under a partial scholarship for the Cal Poly golf team. Swanson pursued a career in the defense industry post-graduation, eventually working his way up to CEO of Raytheon in 2004.

The money will go a long way for both the Mustangs’ men’s and women’s squads. With greater financial resources, Cal Poly can

compete in some of the NCAA’s premier events and offer more full scholarships to potential student-athletes. The publicity stemming from the donation will foreseeably help the recruiting efforts of the up-andcoming program.

The men’s golf team finished in fifth place out of 17 teams in its last tournament, the Warrior Princeville Makai Invitational.

The women’s team last finished second out of 11 teams in the Lady Mustang Invitational in October and will open the spring season in February.

CAL POLY ATHLETICS | COURTESY PHOTO

CAL POLY ATHLETICS | COURTESY PHOTO

| Bill Swanson’s donation of $10 million is the largest ever in Cal Poly athletics history.

IN LINE | The Cal Poly golf program will use this money to improve scholarships and tournament travel.