January 29, 2015

Thursday, Januar y 29, 20 15

E s t abl ished 19 16

w w w.mus t angne w s .net

Pick of the litter: The story of a puppy, a Bulldog and Cal Poly’s freshman wrestling sensation Harry Chang

@HarryChangMN

Wrestling is a notoriously vigorous sport. Aggressive pins, big lifts, hard falls and some of the most virulent sidelines in any sport.

But for true freshman Nick Fiegener, it all started with a puppy.

“It’s kind of a funny story,” Fiegener says. “When I was in first grade, when I first started, my dad wanted to get me into wrestling for the discipline and to be independent. But what (convinced me) is he offered to get me a puppy if I tried. So of course I did, I wrestled and ended up loving it and haven’t ever stopped since.”

But don’t be misled, the 184-pound Fiegener is no stranger to the highoctane side of the sport. The blood, sweat, tears and more sweat.

Take, for example, the time when Fiegener was still a Folsom High School Bulldog and found himself needing to lose 8 pounds in a night to make weight for a meet the next day.

“I ended up spitting, sweating and running for hours,” he recounts. “I was in plastics (to help me sweat), which I really wasn’t supposed to do, and I just ran. I’d switch to bike, then run, and just spit and sweat.”

And while it wasn’t exactly a model of planning ahead — “I didn’t wrestle that well the next day cause I was up ‘til 4 sweating,” he said in hindsight — it was a testament to his passion.

There was no reward this time, just the privilege of walking onto the mat, shaking his opponent’s hand and going at it for three rounds in a small, rowdy gym.

The numbers and accolades he accumulated in his time as a Bulldog are further proof Fiegener was barking up exactly the right tree.

After he missed placing in the State Championships by just one victory as a sophomore, climb is exactly what he did. Fiegener went 57-3 the next year as a junior and not only qualified for State Championships but placed second.

His tourney wrestling that year also included a second-place finish in the Doc Buchanan, first in the Tim Brown and third in the High School Coaches Association Tournament.

He didn’t stop there. Fiegener followed his breakout junior year going an eye-popping 64-1 his senior year and capturing a national

champions h i p in 2014, capping his graduat i n g y e ar at the peak of the sport.

But you have to go back to the Doc Buchanan Tournament his junior year to find where Cal Poly wrestling head coach Brendan Buckley first met the then-160-pounder.

“When we met him, we already knew how much success he had that year and the year b e f o r e ,” Buckley said. “We also knew what a good kid he was a n d h ow h a r d h e worked — how talented others thought he was.”

see PUPPY, pg 8.

IAN BILLINGS | MUSTANG NEWS

SLO cracks down on rental homes Jessica Nguyen @xjessnguyen

JASON HUNG | MUSTANG NE WS SAFET Y FIRST

| The program will require an additional cost from homeowners, which may lead to increased rent prices for tenants.

During an open forum on Dec. 16, the San Luis Obispo City Council voted to approve the Rental Housing Inspection Program (RHIP), which will affect current and future Cal Poly students living in rental homes off campus.

“The RHIP is a program created by the city of San Luis Obispo that will give them the authority to inspect rental property within the city,” said Jake Rogers, Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) Executive Cabinet Chief of Staff.

Based on the 2010 Census, 61.8 percent of San Luis Obispo housing units are rentals.

All rental units will undergo an inspection once every three years.

Landlords will be subject to fines if, upon review, rental property conditions violate city ordinances and pose potential safety hazards for current tenants.

“If violations are not corrected, the city may issue administrative citations, including fines to

the property owner,” Building and Safety Supervisor of San Luis Obispo Community Development Rafael Cornejo said in an email to Mustang News.

Homeowners are responsible for paying any fines, Cornejo noted.

In addition to possible issued fines to the owner, the program also requires an annual fee from the homeowner to help fund the inspections.

Due to a shortage of affordable housing, the program aims to ensure students will not have to live in unsuitable housing conditions.

Electrical engineering junior Alfredo Sanchez agrees the program will benefit students who are forced to live in poorly managed rental homes due to lack of availability.

“I think, in some cases, homeowners will take advantage of that (the housing demand), and they’ll either raise the price tremendously high or neglect their homes,” Sanchez said.

see RENTAL, pg 3.

Hollywood Motion Picture Experience: The production studio in the hills Will Peischel @CPMustangArts

We sped through the hills behind Atascadero as the sun retreated behind us — the radio clock’s numbers grew increasingly bold. The scene was tense, even from inside our blue Honda Civic. The car’s tires skidded through the dirt as we rounded up the Creston ranch’s hill.

The photographer and I were already late.

The expanse of dirt plots scattered with the occasional vineyard field yielded to an enclave of tall, lush trees as we crossed over the property line and curled up the slope. At the top of the hill stood a large two-story house facing off against two rectangular warehouses across the small parking lot.

This was the property of Todd Fisher: entrepre-

neur, film producer, Hollywood artifact collector and brother to Carrie Fisher, the original Princess Leia.

One friendly introduction later, we embarked on Fisher’s grand tour and sales pitch.

His home exists on a plane somewhere between film set and museum — imagine a Pottery Barn magazine page dense with Hollywood artifacts.

According to Fisher, there was a point when more than $30 million of film paraphernalia was stored on his ranch.

“This is a Revolutionary War flag,” he said, pointing to a wall. “It was given to my sister by Paul Simon as a wedding gift when they were married back in the late ‘70s.”

see FILM, pg 4.

GEORGIE DE MATTOS | MUSTANG NE WS W H O S H O T F I R S T ? | Todd Fisher, brother to Carrie Fisher, houses a camera that shot the original Star Wars trilogy at his Creston production studio, Hollywood Motion Picture Experience.

News... 1-3 | Arts... 4-5 | Opinion... 6 | Classifieds... 7 | Sports... 8

Thursday, January 29, 2015

NEWS | 2

Digging up the truth about recycling Jen Silva @jesilva345

For some Cal Poly students, watching someone drop a recyclable water bottle into the black trash bin instead of the clearly labeled blue recycle bin is as painful as watching someone get a needle in the eye. For others, recycling is more of a “guideline” than an actual rule — recycling isn’t the norm in some regions.

“I knew you can recycle plastics and cardboard, and I knew there were different kinds of plastics, and that’s when I stopped understanding,” former Idahoan resident and aerospace engineering junior Kinsie Ward said.

Regardless, Cal Poly students and faculty are now meeting with an ambitious goal: to increase recycling at the school from 50 to 80 percent. With that in mind, here’s a crash course on some of the facts and misconceptions about recycling.

least 50 percent of solid waste from landfill disposal to recycling products, Cal Poly Facilities Operation Manager Kevin Shaw said. Shaw is in charge of generating an annual recycling report, meaning he gathers data from all the different companies that take each section of Cal Poly’s recycling. In 2013, Cal Poly exceeded the mandate by reaching 62.7 percent. However, starting in the year 2020, the mandate will be raised to 80 percent.

Myth No. 3: You cannot recycle milk containers.

It’s true milk cartons made of plastic-coated paper are not recyclable, but the plastic milk jugs are made of plastic and are recyclable, according to Ryan.

Myth No. 1: It is OK to recycle a plastic water bottle but not the bottle cap.

According to Cold Canyon Processing Facility Manager John Ryan, both the plastic water bottle and its bottle cap can be recycled and will be separated by machinery either way.

Myth No. 4: You have to wash out cans before, otherwise they won’t be recycled.

One huge reason people tend to not recycle is due to laziness.

Many people will not recycle based on a belief they must rinse out the cans before putting them in the recycling; and instead of doing so, they decide to throw the can away. However, this is a myth. Though it is helpful, Cal Poly Recycle Coordinator Cindy Lowe said, it is not required to clean out before recycling.

Myth No. 2: Most of what you recycle gets thrown away in the trash.

On the contrary, 92 to 93 percent of what comes into the Cold Canyon Processing Facility gets recycled, Ryan said.

Since 1990, due to Assembly Bill (AB) 939, California has mandated a 50 percent reduction in what is land-filled.

Cal Poly follows AB75, which states California State Universities (CSU) need to divert at

Myth No. 5: As long as it has a recycling symbol, it can be recycled.

Biology junior Nicole Desideri said she knows to recycle something if it has the recycle symbol.

“Plastic can be hard,” she said.

“If it doesn’t have the recycle symbol, it can be tricky.”

False. There are some objects that may still have a recycle symbol but cannot be recycled. For example, Ryan said, though the Styrofoam cups have a recycle

DAKOTA GREENWICH | MUSTANG NE WS RECYCLOPS

| People often have misconceptions on what can and can’t be recycled, sometimes prompting improper waste disposal.

symbol, Styrofoam cannot be recycled on the Central Coast.

In addition, not all paper or plastic can be recycled, either.

Plastic bags from grocery stores or plastic film both cannot be recycled, nor paper towels. There is a difference between reusable and recyclable, he said.

What can you recycle?

According to Shaw, Cal Poly recycles confidential shredded paper, concrete rubble, construction debris, electronics, campus food waste, cardboard, surplus, furniture, equipment, cars, manure, liquid, demolitions metal and coal-mingled waste.

The general public should be recycling cardboard, fiberglass, aluminum and plastic bottles, Ryan said.

Why recycle?

Anthropology and geography junior Stacey Olson said people need to save resources as much as possible.

“We live on a finite planet, and we are quickly using resources that we are never going to get back,” Olson said. “At this time, we are not making an effort to solve that, and when the time comes we will be struggling with what to do.”

Recycling is becoming one of the main ways to take immediate action to help save the planet, she said. Running out of resources will directly affect every single living organism on this planet.

Whether people are not recycling because of laziness or ignorance does not make a difference to Lowe.

“They’re either unaware or they don’t care,” Lowe said. “One per-

son says it doesn’t matter, but if we’ve got thousands of people saying it doesn’t matter, it matters.”

How can we improve recycling at Cal Poly?

The main way to improve recycling, according to Lowe, is to think about what you are throwing away before throwing it in the trash. Also, next time your friend is throwing a plastic water bottle into the trash can, point out that she can throw it in the recycle bin. Some other ideas that Cal Poly students had were having more recycle bins, making clear signs of what you can and cannot recycle above the bins and making small basketball hoops over the recycling bins to turn recycling into a game.

Both Shaw and Ryan said it

would be beneficial to incorporate lessons on recycling as a presentation during Week of Welcome (WOW) for incoming Cal Poly students.

It is important to spread awareness to students on-campus and incoming freshmen, Shaw said.

“If we want to generate a culture of sustainability with a high priority, we’re going to have to inoculate these new students with the importance of recycling,” Shaw said.

There will also be two informational sessions held for students and faculty to brainstorm ideas of how to spread awareness on campus. The meetings will be held by Cal Poly faculty on Thursday Jan. 29 and Friday Jan. 30 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in building 70, room 110.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

No bike light

NEWS | 3

Skateboarding

Expired registration

Running a stop sign

Public intoxication

Here’s why you got more tickets last year Shelley Westerson @shelley_westers

If you’ve been wondering why you and your peers have been getting more tickets in the last year, here’s why. According to a Mustang News data analysis, the University Police Department (UPD) has been giving out twice as many tickets this year.

In 2012, there were 636 tickets handed out. The numbers slightly dipped to 523 in 2013 due to loss of manpower, then came back up to twice as many in 2014 with 1,267.

These numbers do not include parking tickets, but any other citations students have received on campus from UPD. What are you most likely to get stopped for? Here are the top five most common tickets handed out on campus. #5: Bicycle Lights Construction management senior Brian Hutchison was riding his bike at dusk up the hill to Poly Canyon Village like he did every day, when he got stopped by a University Police Officer for not having an illumination device on his bike.

“It was a different experience, I’ve never gotten a ticket for not having a bike light and getting

RENTAL continued from pg 1.

ASI will be involved with the formulation of the program’s policy to assure student voices are heard.

“Our Board of Directors (BOD) chose not to take a stance in whether we were in favor of the program or not, but we do want to have an active hand in helping shape (it),” Rogers said.

The RHIP is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

“All rental homes will be subject to inspection,” Rogers said.

pulled over for that. I’ve always ridden my bike around campus at night without a light and I had never heard of anyone getting a ticket for not having a light on their bike,” Hutchison said.

This is just one of many tickets students may not be expecting to get when they come to campus, but the fact is, they are.

Seventy-one citations handed out just last year were for bicycles without lights. #4: Expired Registration Though 71 bicycle light citations may seem like a lot, they are only the fifth most common ticket handed out on campus. The next most common were tickets for vehicles with expired registration, with 72 citations given out in 2014.

“I got pulled over by a UPD officer and he told me it was because my registration was expired,” anthropology and geography senior Cheyne Bluhm said.

“I talked to him for a while and explained that I had just bought the vehicle. He ended up letting me go with a warning but said that normally he would give out a ticket. Turns out he was a pretty nice guy.”

Though Bluhm was lucky, it is not uncommon for UPD to let students off with only a warning.

“Existing residents may experience an inspection once the program is created.”

As a current tenant, Sanchez expressed concern over the future policy.

“In my case, I technically should not be living in my home because the homeowner converted the garage into a livable room,” Sanchez said.

The BOD is aware of the potential issue with landowners passing fines onto their tenants for pre-existing conditions that violate housing safety standards.

“Our solution to that problem is that landlords can have their property inspected either by the

According to UPD Chief George Hughes, there is about a 2-to-1 ratio between warnings and actual tickets written, so for every 100 citations handed out, there were about 200 warnings as well. #3: Skateboarding/rollerblading on campus The third most common ticket handed out on campus in 2014 was for skateboarding or rollerblading, both of which are not allowed on campus.

There are two reasons skateboarding is banned on campus, according to Hughes. One is because Cal Poly is a very steep campus, making it easy to pick up speed. The second is that campus is extremely congested with people at the top of every hour Monday through Friday so skateboarding on campus would be too dangerous. #2: Public Intoxication The second most frequently handed out ticket is for public intoxication. The number has nearly doubled every year, with 38 in 2012, 77 in 2013 and 120 in 2014. The fine for public intoxication is $427, and a judge may impose additional fines such as court costs. First-time offenders have the option to attend a diversion class that, if successcity or by a private individual prior to the tenant moving in to document that the house is up to code,” Rogers said. “If any violations are found, it can be concluded that (it’s) the fault of the tenant.”

ASI plans to reach out to students to notify them of their rights under the new policy once it is implemented, Rogers said.

Exact details of the inspection

fully completed, would wave the fine. The ticket numbers have been increasing due to the higher population of students on campus and officers being more proactive since there were so many complaints. #1: Failure to stop at a stop sign The No. 1 most common ticket handed out on campus is failure to stop at a stop sign. With 310 handed out just last year, stop sign tickets account for 24 percent of all tickets handed out in the year. Most of these tickets were not given to drivers, but bikers.

Hughes said the majority of complaints UPD receives usually revolve around bicycle violations, most commonly riding through the pedestrian walk zones and running the stop signs.

“Our goal is not to just punish; our goal is to try to deter the behavior from happening,” he said. “Then we leave it up to the officer’s discretion on what’s the best way to get compliance; is it by warning, written warning or citation? Always the goal is to deter the behavior from happening again.”

UPD does try to deter the behavior on campus; the largest number of tickets handed out in policy are not final.

Aside from the implementation of the RHIP, the City Council has not provided any direction to act on the proposed neighborhood stabilization programs.

The stabilization program

the last three years were all on North Perimeter Road, which starts at Faculty Offices North and runs past the Robert E. Kennedy Library all the way down to California Boulevard.

Highland Drive, California Boulevard and Grand Avenue are the next most common areas for tickets on Cal Poly’s campus, but these are not the only places UPD patrols.

Out of all the citations given out in the last three years, 19 percent of them were off campus.

“Per state law, we can patrol up to one mile around campus, and we do that,” said Hughes.

Off-campus citation numbers are higher than any location on campus, with 137 tickets given out in 2014.

What to do when you get a ticket Once you have been issued a ticket by UPD, there are a few options. Of course, an option is to simply pay the ticket, but there are also ways to get around paying.

For those considered eligible by the San Luis Obispo Superior Court, there are bicycle and skateboarding diversion classes available. Once the course is completed the ticket is forgiven, but these courses can only be

taken once every 18 months.

For parking tickets, there is an actual appeal process that takes place for those who feel they have been wrongfully cited.

Business sophomore Elliot Goodman was one of those people. He bought a yearlong residential parking pass as a freshman, but when he came to campus one night he could not find parking so he parked in a staff spot. In the morning he got a ticket. He was able to successfully appeal the ticket after pleading his case to UPD. “There were so many people with parking permits and so few spots for those people to park in, but obviously they realized it was a problem, too, and they overturned the ticket,” Goodman said.

According to Hughes, the overall goal of UPD is not to shower students with tickets but to keep the Cal Poly campus and community safe.

“I foresee the number of citations issued to level out and remain consistent or begin to slightly drop over the next few years as the proactive enforcement continues and hopefully deters the behavior from occurring, hopefully resulting in less citations being issued, not more,” he said.

proposals are currently up in the air but are moving forward, San Luis Obispo Community Development Director Derek Johnson said.

“I do think that the city will probably continue to pursue the

type of program where they’ll be buying houses so that they can then be purchased by owner occupants,” Rogers said. “However, I don’t think that that’s going to be counter intuitive to the RHIP.”

Thursday, January 29, 2015

ARTS | 4

Check out mustangnews.net to take a virtual tour of the museum

GEORGIE DE MATTOS | MUSTANG NE WS HELLO HOLLY WOOD

| Fisher plans to partner with Cal Poly’s theatre and dance department to recruit student actors for films produced at Hollywood Motion Picture Experience in the future.

FILM continued from pg 1.

Additional relics included a camera — which shot the original Star Wars Trilogy — patches worn by the airmen who flew the atomic bomb-dropping Enola Gay, custom saddles worn by Fisher’s parents in a 1950s Rose Parade and countless other artifacts eBay users would commit unnameable crimes to get their hands on.

“Well, my mother took it upon herself when I was very young to get me to save and reserve the film industry’s artifacts,” he said.

“She wanted to preserve as much as she could. Along the way, that rubbed off on my sister and I.” Without skipping a beat, Fisher

led us to the elusive beige warehouse: Stage 32. The moniker stood in tribute to MGM’s original 31 sound stages.

This was the core of the Fisher family’s current project, Hollywood Motion Picture Experience (HMPE). The company has origins in his mother’s Hollywood Motion Picture Museum, started

by Debbie Reynolds in the 1960s.

Fisher’s ambition is to maintain a working film production company here on his property in San Luis Obispo County. He sees this space as an untapped resource, open enough to produce anything he and his team want.

“Everybody is making movies in those places, San Francisco and Los Angeles — more so L.A.,” Fisher said. “We’ve all seen

all of that. We haven’t seen this as much. A movie like ‘Sideways,’ for example, showcases this area and people say, ‘Ooh, ahh, that looks so nice.’ There are a lot of things within an hour drive around here that have not been overused. There’s also a resource of people here hiding that nobody realizes.”

The doorway opened up to a massive 6,000-square-foot space.

The white walls were lined with a grate of black bars, all illuminated by lights glaring down from the 28-foot ceiling. The space featured a rotating stage, endless set lights, a working Jeep and every other film amenity one could imagine. Clearly, Fisher had a few extra bucks lying around.

Fisher may embrace the nos-

talgic attitude of films from the mid-20th century, but he appreciates that its new technology gives his dream feasibility, whether through cameras that shoot in 4000 pixels, drones or stations that render 4K film in real time.

“Technology progressed,” he said. “You could never have done all the post-production work that we can do here. A technological revolution has taken place. This never would’ve happened 25, even 20, years ago. We could always have a sound stage here but never be as self-sufficient as we are now.”

Fisher and his production team aren’t the only ones who stand to gain from this. According to both Fisher and Theatre and Dance Department Chair Josh Machamer, discussion regard-

ing a possible mentor partnership between HMPE and the Cal Poly department is underway.

“Well, right now there’s no formal plan on the agenda or anything curricular wise,” Machamer said. “What I can say is that we, in terms of the department and other entities, have had some conversations and visits with HMPE as far as their facilities and what might be exploring the possibility of what would be good for students and respective departments.”

Theatre arts sophomore Sophie Canter also sees the potential in local mentorships.

“I think a possible mentorship would definitely provide a positive experience for students looking to build up their resumes,” she said. “Especially when every part of film production is

available there.”

Even if a legitimate relationship with Cal Poly is a distant ambition, HMPE has already begun drawing up schematics for future projects.

“I would say a year from now it will have completed at least one motion picture and will be in the middle of the next one,” Fisher said. “Our goal for the next two years is to complete at least four films. So we expect to have four films completed. As you know, you move up a little at a time, then get more aggressive.”

Fisher has an optimistic air. The future may not be clear, but he looks forward to it nonetheless.

“Around here we’re looking for cooperation and support,” he said. “And looking for the mutual benefits that a movie business can bring to this region.”

Thursday, January 29, 2015

ARTS | 5

Out, damned spot!

My 3 most shameful coffee stains

JOSEPH PACK | MUSTANG NE WS S TA IN S W I T H S T O R IE S

Annie Vainshtein @annievain

They say the truth leaves the harshest mark.

In my column thus far, I’ve told you about the physiology surrounding my coffee consumption — the psychotic episodes, the embarrassingly sweaty handshakes, etc. Most of that stuff goes away after a moment’s laugh.

But sometimes, coffee’s impact on our lives is harder to wash away than Tide to Go advertisements. I’m talking coffee stains.

Coffee stains evoke a certain kind of shame — shame like wearing a Hollister shirt inside out, like XYZ in middle school, like pushing a pull-operated glass door and walking into that same pull glass door you tried to push.

My Top Three Most Shameful Coffee Stains 1. The stain didn’t just seep through the micro rayon fibers of the Gap blouse I happened to be wearing May 15, 2014, it seeped into me. I had just driven up to San Francisco for a summer job interview. My interview was in SOMA — aka South of Market Street — which is also

| An n i e Vai nshte i n is a Must ang Ne ws cof fe e colum nist w ho w r ite s ab out he r adventures (and mis adventures) w it h her favor ite c af feinate d b e verage. an unnecessarily abridged way of naming South Peninsula’s coffee capital. I was nervous, of course, so I figured I would pregame. I followed the smell of Verve but landed in a skate shop that, in true yuppie style, doubled as a coffee shop. The one person working at the counter informed me there were no lattes, no drinks could be made iced and what they were really doing was making art.

I proceeded to order some sort of pour over that rounded out to about $5, which ended up being fine because the cashier’s square was broken so I just used Venmo.

(I love Venmo!) I walked outside, the harsh, industrial wind a stark reminder of what was to come. Before I knew it, I collided head-first with an advertising honcho on his company’s Segway, and the pour over poured all over me and my white blouse.

Frappuccino. The glass frap was mindlessly purchased while grocery shopping earlier that day, and since I couldn’t drink it non-ironically and still respect myself, I decided to bring it that night.

I’m a woman of great virtue, so after cleaning out the Kirkland Signature Light from the funnel, I took it upon myself to take it down in under five seconds. The crowd of three gathered around me, erupting in Yucatecan Mayan chants. After three and a half seconds, the deed was done and the corporation defiled. After a few bows, I made my way to the sink, staring at myself in the mirror, looking into the eyes of a champion. In my golden trance, I overlooked the evil drip that had made its way onto my tank top. It was disappointing, but a winner is a winner. The syrupsweetened gremlin knew it, too!

2. A second, equally important stain was marked this past Friday at an off-campus gathering.

This was more glorious: I was finally named champion of something other than recess tetherball in the third grade. I took it upon myself, as a purely scientific experiment of course, to “beer bong” a bottled Starbucks Iced

3. Ninety-nine percent of the people I’ve encountered will probably know this fact already, but I used to work at a coffee shop. And if I may say so myself, it was the coffee shop of all coffee shops. It was basically the Internet manifest — a convoluted web of people who never actually talk to each other, except to

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @CPMUSTANGNEWS

spout software app development ideas and compare kickstarters.

I tried to make conversation a lot, but because I was me — someone who barely understood the concept of computer science and had zero patents to date — I often resorted to hand motions to communicate with the customers.

And so one summer day, I was

brewing a light roast for a particular mute web developer when I sensed him getting angry that it wasn’t taking less than two minutes. “Hand craft takes work,” I told him, but this didn’t seem to mitigate the situation. In an effort to help him understand why it was taking so long, I carelessly lifted up the perilous, scorching hot and about-to-break

filter for him to see. And like clockwork, it exploded. Seeping into my jeans, the malevolent grinds reminded me that it was I, not he, who still had much to learn.

Coffee stains tell tales of plight and sorrow, revenge and ecstasy, and leave marks that are often more powerful than the stories themselves.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

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A grand old dilemma: The 2016 landscape Garret Ahern @CPMustangNews

Garret Ahern is a biology junior and Mustang News liberal columnist. These views do not necessarily reflect the opinion or editorial coverage of Mustang News.

Steadfast conservatives, along with a few 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls, converged in Des Moines, Iowa, for a “Freedom Summit” this past Saturday.

Those in attendance were graced by the words of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and political gadfly Sarah Palin, to name a few. Despite the assembly of these conservative personalities, it was those not in attendance who shed the most light on the current state of the GOP. Neither former Governors Jeb Bush nor Mitt Romney were seen at Saturday’s forum in Iowa. Though the two have both yet to announce their run for office in 2016, their absence in Iowa is likely a concerted effort to balance their image between moderate understanding and conservative principle.

The younger brother of former President George W. Bush, Jeb is known by many as a geared-to-center Republican with fiscally conservative ideals and socially forward actions. As Governor of Florida, he demonstrated his support for stronger public education through his “A+ Plan” and has proved to be more progressive than his party’s base when it comes to immigration.

Though Jeb Bush has showcased his ability to stand independently from his party on key issues, many of the policies he holds are conservative in nature. When it comes to women’s rights, Bush has stood resolute with the right to life. When questioned about his beliefs on climate change, he has repeatedly identified as “a skeptic.” He can come across as an indecisive candidate, but Bush’s ideals appear staunch in comparison to the flip-flop nature of Romney’s beliefs.

Unlike many figures in the realm of politics, who will adamantly defend their views to the death, Romney holds political sentiments that change with the weather. From gun control to healthcare reform, Romney has been caught changing his mind on key issues numerous times.

the conscience of a progressive In his 2002 race for the Massachusetts governorship, Romney was quoted as saying, “I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard.” No more than five years later, Romney was recorded saying, “Look, I was pro-choice. I am pro-life.

I changed my position.” Again, in 2002, Romney stated, “We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts. I support them.”

He then changed his mind in 2008 when he claimed, “I don’t support any gun control legislation; the effort for a new assault weapons ban is something I would oppose.” The list goes on and on.

Either way, both Bush and Romney are

politicians and, just like their Democratic counterparts, go to great extents to achieve political success. Nevertheless, you may ask how the individual behavior of Bush and Romney sheds light on the current structure of the Republican Party. The answer can be found if we return to this weekend’s events in Iowa.

When individuals such as Cruz and Palin speak on behalf of the GOP, many of the party’s members ask themselves if they concur. Oftentimes, the answer is “no” or “not exactly.”

For many Americans, the GOP represents their political views. However, for a growing number of Americans — who in past elections have voted

red — the Republican base has become too conservative and too reactionary.

This leaves potential candidates such as Romney and Bush in a tight spot: racing to win a Republican primary from a conservative base, while at the same time maintaining popular support in a general election.

In spite of their political track records, Romney and Bush are merely politicians attempting to represent a party in the midst of an identity crisis. Regardless of their absence at this weekend’s summit in Iowa, Bush and Romney have yet to announce their candidacy for 2016, leaving us asking what will come next.

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POP CULTURE SHOCK THERAPY

F MINUS

SUDOKU

CROSSWORD

Thursday, January 29, 2015

SPORTS | 8

“He knows where he is when he’s competing, and that’s where he’s kind of beyond his years.”

BRENDAN BUCKLEY

IAN BILLINGS | MUSTANG NEWS

FLEXIN’ | Freshman wrestler Nick Fiegener leads the Cal Poly wrestling team in wins this year, highlighted by the defeat of a senior All-American from Brown on Jan. 10 in the 184-pound weight class.

PUPPY continued from pg 1.

Mike Collier, Fiegener’s coach at Folsom High, was one of those who vouched for him.

And Collier, who Buckley had incidentally coached years before at UC Davis, was the only testimony Buckley needed to believe that Fiegener was, in fact, the pick of the litter.

“From that point on, we kept in touch with him that junior year and followed along with him as he continued to succeed.”

Fiegener ended up putting on more than 20 pounds from his sophomore year, a growth that would be pivotal in giving Fiegen-

er the reputation he’s making for himself as a premier Pac-12 wrestler in the 184-pound class.

“When you see a guy who is lighter in middleweight and then they keep growing,” Buckley said, “it’s generally those guys who, the bigger they get, the more athletic they become, and the more success they find because they do continue to wrestle like lighter guys.”

Fiegener admits it’s the level of athleticism in his competition that has been the biggest adjustment for him three months into his rookie campaign.

“Besides from schoolwork, yeah, it’s the level of competition,” he said. “There’s not a lot of pins anymore, you know, pretty

much every match is gonna go to the third round. Whereas in high school I was pinning almost every kid in the first round, here you’re almost always going all three rounds.”

And three rounds is exactly what it took when Fiegener notched his biggest win to date — and probably the biggest win for the Mustangs this year — on Jan. 10 at home against Brown University.

In the third round of a dogfight, Fiegener found himself down 7-6 to Ophir Bernstein, Brown’s senior 184-pound AllAmerican who took eighth place at NCAA Nationals last year.

The veteran Ivy Leaguer was just

30 seconds from putting away the freshman and earning the decision when Fiegener exploded to escape the grasp of Bernstein and tie the match at 7-7. Fiegener then scored a takedown with just six seconds to go to upset the nation’s 16th-ranked 184-pounder in emphatic fashion.

That notorious wrestling sideline? Well, Cal Poly’s hadn’t been that amped up all year.

Coaches, wrestlers and trainers alike jumped up and down like schoolchildren as the referee raised Fiegener’s hand toward the Mott Athletics Center rafters. “[I remember] my teammate telling me he’s an All-American and feeling like I couldn’t lose,”

Fiegener said. “Like I had to get that one.”

“Awesome,” Buckley said of his performance after the match.

“Just awesome.”

Part of that win may have been due to one of Fiegener’s biggest role models and training partners on the team: the team’s lone senior and emotional leader, Dominic Kastl, who Fiegener trains with primarily because of their differing styles.

“I’m more about doubles and getting straightforward shots, and he’s really funky,” Fiegener said. “He tends to squirm out of stuff while I’m more offensive, so it’s fun when we train together — and it does help a lot.”

Fun for Fiegener, fun for the team and fun for the coaching staff, who have it made with one of the most talented wrestlers the program has seen in years.

“Just seeing him steadily getting better and better is great,” Buckley said. “He knows where he is when he’s competing, and that’s where he’s kind of beyond his years.”

With the most wins on the team this season and even higher expectations heading into Pac-12 conference wrestling, Fiegener’s story is no longer about a Folsom High School standout, or a naive teenager trying to make weight or even a first-grader wrestling for a puppy.

This true freshman has a chance to become wrestling’s top dog.