March 3, 2016

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PUT A RING ON IT: Being married in college

ERICA EVANS | COURTESY PHOTO I DO

| Aside from studying for finals and looking for the next party, some students have more to focus on. Ransom and Alex Cutshall have a marriage to keep together and a son to provide for.

Georgie de Mattos @georgiedemattos

It was finals week of fall quarter. Students hustled to class with packages of scantrons. Two students in particular had a different agenda, an agenda that called for rescheduling exams and a timely hospital visit. While most of campus was sitting down in lecture halls and classrooms bubbling in answers to questions, Alex and Ransom Cutshall were expecting a baby boy named Bradley. And after that, a wedding.

Students like the Cutshalls don’t fall into the traditional college student category. They fit into a different subset— married college students.

“The biggest difference is definitely the fact that when you’re married, it’s all about the other person, or in my case, the other people. Whereas most students, you know, you only have to focus on yourself when you’re in college,” aerospace engineering junior, husband and father Ransom Cutshall said.

Not the norm The married lifestyle can be vastly different from the traditional college lifestyle — it’s not just leaving home and experiencing the freedom of college like most students.

It’s that and then some. It’s count-

er-cultural in that only a small amount of college students travel this road — National Center for Education 2008 statistics say approximately 18 percent of 20,928 undergraduates reported they were married.

But Ransom enjoys the nontraditional lifestyle.

“It’s amazing, it’s the best thing that ever happened. I don’t understand why more people aren’t married,” he said.

Though Ransom vouches for the benefits of being married in college, Cal Poly students don’t necessarily feel the same. According to a Mustang News survey conducted last month, only 17.8 percent of the 770 students who participated said they would get married in college.

This sentiment among college students is common. Many wait until after college to get married. In fact, the average ages for a woman to get married are 2728, and men usually get married around ages 29-30, said Kendra Williams, a marriage and family therapist and lecturer at Cal Poly.

After the honeymoon stage: The ups and downs of being married in college Hannah Roberts, a California licensed psychologist and assistant director for community prevention and intervention at Counseling Services, sees Cal Poly couples

WOULD YOU GET MARRIED AS A COLLEGE STUDENT?

770 TOTAL SURVEYED

I would like to meet the people that said yes. Just because I’m so curious.

Business administration senior Alexa Meniktas

YES 17.8%

For people waiting to see where their lives go, I think it’s good to wait.

NO 82.2%

Business administration senior Franco Espinoza

ERICA EVANS | COURTESY PHOTO FAMILY MATTERS | In between classes Ransom and Alex Cutshall walk their son throughout campus.

on a regular basis.

“I think a lot of college-aged individuals are still figuring out what their needs are in a relationship.

They are still figuring out what expectations they have of a relationship. Especially for males, (their) brains don’t finish developing until (they’re) 25,” Roberts said. “So generally, we would say that college students are in some of those developmental stages.

They’re still learning about what they want from a relationship.”

Liberal studies junior, wife and mother Alex Cutshall said she enjoys married life, but it has been challenging to balance her family, academics and social life.

“It’s pretty difficult. Sometimes you want the other person to do more work but then you think about ‘Oh well, I want them to have a good time too’ so I want to try to do as much as I can,” she said.

Ransom faces concerns of his own. Some universities offer family housing to students who are married or have children.

However, there is currently no such housing offered to the Cutshalls, and living off-campus has not been ideal.

“Housing was a really mad scramble,” Ransom said. “The place we’re at now is OK, but it’s definitely not the best. It would have made it a lot easier if they offered some sort of … family housing.”

Cal Poly’s Master Plan may include residential neighborhoods

that provide space for nonstudents and nontraditional students, such as student families like the Cutshalls as well as faculty, staff and graduate students.

Another issue married college students may need to face deals more with emotions within a college atmosphere.

“When you bring someone into a marriage, it’s a contract. This isn’t dating anymore,” Williams said. “Now you have two people that are in an environment like college where they’re exploring and developing — ­ and are they doing that together? Or are they finding themselves maybe being driven apart by those differences?”

For Alex, the commitment is effortless. She still gets some of the perks of living like a college kid, watching TV and eating junk food, but now gets to do it with two people who love her unconditionally — her husband and her child.

“I love that I get to hang out with my husband and my baby. He comes home and I get to do all of the fun things I would do by myself, like binge watch a TV show,” Alex said. “There’s some times when you just want a little personal space, like I don’t want him to know how many cookies I’m eating or how many chips I had … I feel like if this person loves you, they won’t judge you for that.”

That’s getting the best of both worlds.

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

Thursday, March 3, 2016

NEWS | 2

What would happen at Cal Poly if the faculty went on strike?

Michelle Zaludek @michellenistic

Even after moving offices about a month ago, architectural engineering professor Graham Archer’s desk is almost overflowing with paperwork. He had been too busy to get settled into the office. But it’s not just fresh midterms on the

18172_11_06x10_5 OL.indd 1

desk — there’s a pile for California Faculty Association (CFA) work that’s been growing since strike dates were set for mid-April.

If it goes through, students may have an unexpected break about a third of the way through spring quarter.

Faculty from all 23 California State Universities (CSU) recently

agreed to strike from April 13-15 and April 18-19, if their demands are not met by that time. The dates will run through Cal Poly’s Open House, which is set for April 14-16.

The CFA is comprised of approximately 26,000 faculty members across the state, including lecturers, counselors, librarians and athletic coaches, according to CFA President Jennifer Eagan.

They are asking for a 5 percent raise, which has been answered by a 2 percent counter-offer by CSU Chancellor Timothy White for the past two years.

Tensions between the faculty association and CSU management have been growing since 2008,

JOSEPH PACK | MUSTANG NE WS SHUTDOWN

| If the CFA strike goes through, it will overlap with Cal Poly’s Open House weekend.

when the recession struck the CSU system with approximately $580 million in budget cuts, according to a furlough agreement between the CSU and Cal Poly faculty.

Cal Poly faculty agreed, at the time, to take 18 furlough days through the 2009-10 school year.

After that, they spent several years without receiving any pay raises.

“That year was a complete night-

mare,” Archer, president of the Cal Poly chapter of the CFA, said of the furlough year. “I mean, do you know what it’s like to live on our salary? To support a family and have 10 percent of your income taken away? That’s virtually all of your disposable income for the year … No one went out for dinner.

No one bought a new car.”

CSU management eventually began to give faculty raises that Archer called “pitiful” — ranging from about 1.3 to 1.6 percent. “(The raises) barely even impact your bank account over time, and at the same time, you know, my house payment didn’t go down,” he said.

The 2 percent being offered by CSU management would equal $33 million to be dispersed among the faculty, according to a CSU web page. That’s just shy of $1,270 per person, if the money were distributed equally across the 26,000 union members.

By contrast, the 5 percent increase in pay would cost about $102.3 million — approximately $3,930 per person, if distributed equally.

But half of all new state funding to the CSU this year went to paying employees, according to an emailed statement from Toni Molle, director of public affairs for

the CSU. The CSU says on its web page that there isn’t enough money to cover the additional cost in the 2015-16 budget if they have to concede to a 5 percent raise, and that “other operating expenses” would have to be cut to make up the difference. What those expenses could be was not explained.

However, Eagan is confident that the money was available, and that it was the CSU’s responsibility to figure it out.

Some students say they had been hearing rumblings about the strike since this past spring.

“A couple of them had said there was a possibility of class being cancelled eventually because of the strike,” theater and anthropology and geography sophomore Beatriz Pereira said. “From their point of view, they say that admin has gotten huge pay raises and faculty hasn’t gotten any except for inflation … They’re just angry, I think, about their pay.”

Pick a date The strike was not purposefully set to fall during Cal Poly’s Open House, according to both Eagan and Archer. Chapter presidents and other high-ranking CFA members had chosen the dates mostly out of Continued on page 3

12/14/2015 2:35:04 PM

NEWS | 3

Thursday, March 3, 2016

JOSEPH PACK | MUSTANG NE WS STRIKE COMING | CFA members will strike from April 13-15 and April 18-19 if they cannot come to a contractual agreement with the CSU. The CFA is asking for a 5 percent raise, while the CSU is offering 2 percent.

Continued from page 2

circumstance while at a meeting in Sacramento.

According to Molle, the CFA is required to wait until at least the end of March, when the collective bargaining process is finished, to strike.

That puts the earliest available strike dates for the CFA in April.

Faculty members were then faced with the problem of organizing a unified strike that was effective across all 23 schools, but did minimal damage to the students.

Faculty decided not to run the strike during Passover, which begins April 23. And they needed to choose days that wouldn’t occur during other schools’ spring breaks or major exam periods, according to Archer.

Both CFA and CSU members are confident that the initial strike wouldn’t impact students’ ability to graduate on time.

Campuses are set to remain open during the strike. Some classes will

Leona Rajaee @leonarajaee

Cal Poly computer science alumnus Ryan McLeod has redefined the way to play puzzles after launching his free puzzle app, Blackbox, last Thursday.

McLeod started developing Blackbox last February after being frustrated with existing puzzle apps, which he felt were “unstimulating and boring.” McLeod decided to come up with a creative approach to playing a puzzle by creating his collection of artful puzzles that are all solvable by using outside-the-box thinking skills, such as rotating the phone, flipping its switches and plugging in inputs.

“Our phones are brimming with advanced sensors and they’re crying out to be used for something other than simulating a steering wheel or rotating a YouTube video,” McLeod said.

“Games should shine with these new inputs, but they’re usually left unused.”

McLeod developed and marketed the app all on his own. As a computer science student at Cal Poly, McLeod developed an interest in mobile apps after taking associate professor John Bellardo’s iOS class. McLeod found

still be running at the time, and students are encouraged to ask professors how to proceed, according to Molle.

While Cal Poly spokesperson Matt Lazier declined to answer questions regarding the possible strike, he mentioned in a previous statement that Cal Poly has a contingency plan ready if the strike takes place.

This is scheduled to include career days and development workshops set for the strike, according to an email from Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong. Administration and general Cal Poly services are expected to continue.

Further, all events currently scheduled to run during the strike

period will proceed as planned, including Open House.

should just go home,” Archer said.

“Leave campus. Enjoy yourself …

But if you’re in town, come to the picket line. Your teachers are here.

Please, join us.”

Students cannot be demanded to participate in the strike by faculty, or be offered any class credit for doing so.

This includes being asked to walk out of class, join picket lines, stay away from campus or otherwise support the strike. Nor can faculty do anything to purposefully obstruct access to campus, according to Armstrong.

While professors who are striking are not allowed to work or ask their students to work, some pro-

Leave campus.

Enjoy yourself … But if you’re in town, come to the picket line. Your teachers are here.

Please, join us.

PRESIDENT OF THE CAL POLY CHAPTER OF THE CFA

GRAHAM ARCHER “Sometimes I’ll say, everyone

fessors might refuse to alter their syllabus as they had done during the furlough year, according to Archer. This would make students responsible for material that isn’t being taught.

However, Archer explained that pulling the material from the course wouldn’t be ideal, either.

“I teach architectural engineering,” he said. “That’s a life-safety thing. So there’s a whole group of structural engineers out there who didn’t see sheer design and reinforced concrete beams (taught to them during that year). I hope they learned it on their own.”

But if the initial strike fails, CFA members will continue to strike — possibly leading to them not returning in the fall, according to Eagan. “(Faculty) won’t be helping students with things that they’re supposed to, like with their senior projects … It would be really uncool if it hindered someone’s ability to graduate on time,” computer science junior Colton Stapper said.

Worst case scenario, according to Archer: “We hear nothing from (Chancellor White). And then we have to turn it up a notch. And in my mind, the only thing you can do from a one-week strike is to go out and not come back. And I would vote that we just simply not come back in the fall. And that’s a horrible prospect, because I don’t know how many weeks you can be on strike and still call it a quarter … Which could hurt students’ graduation dates.”

“It’s really hard for me to imagine,” Pereria said. “Especially with professors who I’ve had who have been really passionate — it’s really hard for me to imagine them not coming back. I could see a few of them teaching out of their houses. I can’t imagine them just completely leaving, because they’re so invested.”

But Stapper explained that he still supports the faculty’s effort.

“If they’re not happy with what they’re getting, then they should fight for that,” he said.

Cal Poly alumnus launches successful puzzle app

himself with a background in front-end web development after interning at Apple and Airbnb upon graduating in 2014. He did some soul-searching while he stayed in San Luis Obispo and started freelance work. He decided to develop Blackbox full time, using only his savings as a way of improving his iOS skills.

“I always wanted to do mobile stuff,” McLeod said.

Early on during the development process, McLeod began beta testing initial versions of what became Blackbox to perfect his product. At one point, he had 500 beta testers.

“I’m surprised my beta testers don’t hate me,” McLeod said. “I sent out a lot of updates.”

One of his beta testers was computer science and software engineering assistant professor Zachary Peterson.

“After graduation, we stayed in touch and he asked me to beta test a game he’d been working on,” Peterson said. “It’s probably been over a year since I played the first version, and it was immediately apparent to me that Ryan had something unique. I’m very proud of Ryan and Blackbox. It was truly a labor of love, and I’m always very pleased to see a Cal Poly

computer scientist having such tremendous success.”

Since Blackbox’s launch, the app has garnered 200,000 downloads and 2,000 reviews with a near-5.0 average, which McLeod said is an extreme rarity. Blackbox is currently the 22nd most-downloaded free puzzle app in the U.S., surpassing popular games such as Angry Birds 2 and Two Dots.

The game has even found popularity outside of the country.

“Blackbox is currently the #1 free puzzle game in Australia and U.K.,” McLeod said.

“It’s beating out three Candy Crush titles.”

According to Blackbox early adopter and liberal arts and engineering studies alumnus Tyler Dietz, part of Blackbox’s appeal is its unique game playing experience where finger swipes mean nothing.

“Blackbox isn’t just a puzzle that you play on your phone, it turns your phone into the puzzle,” Dietz said. “It’s exciting to think how the dead simple user interface of an iPhone could be reworked into an insanely hard game.”

Peterson had the same comment.

“Ryan has found the right balance of challenging and satisfying in his puzzles — if they were too easy, or too obvious, the reward of solving them would be minimal; if they were too difficult, then a player would become frustrated and wouldn’t return to the game,” Peterson said. “I think Ryan, through his design and his methodical play testing, has struck that perfect balance.”

McLeod hopes to share his success during a technical talk at Cal Poly’s Mobile App Development Club on Tuesday, March 29 at 7 p.m. But McLeod said his ventures into iOS development won’t stop with Blackbox.

“I’d really like to do — or give back to the world — more than a puzzle game, but I have a friend that always says ‘this is like your PayPal for Elon Musk,’ so hopefully it can just be a start for something else,” McLeod said.

For now, McLeod said he is hoping that more people will find Blackbox as a more stimulating alternative to your average puzzle app.

“It’s my hope that Blackbox can be both a conduit for strengthening outside-the-box, creative muscle and just a fun game,” McLeod said.

BLACKBOX | COURTESY PHOTO OUTSIDE THE BOX | Ryan McLeod developed an exciting new puzzle app.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

ARTS | 4

3 tips to become fluent in French Krstine Xu @kristiners

Kristine Xu is a jouralism junior studying abroad in Paris, France.

After taking four years of high school French, I had such a poor understanding of the French language that I could hardly manage a conversation. I was such a sad excuse for a French student that I thought I’d never touch French again — thank goodness I was wrong.

I was registering for classes my sophomore year of college and toyed with the idea of minoring in a language. I already spoke a second language, but after a brief interview with the head of the Chinese language department, I was deemed to be “too fluent” for lessons. So I promptly signed up for French 201.

A year later, I found myself at the San Francisco International Airport, clutching a plane ticket to Paris in one hand and my trusty copy of “501 French Verbs” in the other. If you’re a stranger to the French language, just know that conjugations make French students cry.

If there’s anything I’ve learned from the French classes I’ve taken back home, besides the difference between the imperfect and past tense, it’s that the only way to learn a language is by full immersion. Here are some tips I’ve found useful with becoming fluent in French: Make mistakes (with a glass of wine) Some days you will feel like the poster child of learning French, and then there are days when all you will want to do is to curl up in bed with the lights off. It’s okay.

Take a deep breath. The point of learning French is to make those mistakes and learn from them; there is no humanly possible way to be fluent the first time you speak French.

After a week of awkward and rocky interactions with my host family, I came home and had a glass of wine with my host mom.

We ended up having one of the best conversations in French of my life. Maybe it was the wine, or maybe I was finally getting all the mistakes out of my system.

Regardless, it’s the little victories that make it all worth it.

Enrich your life with French No matter what it takes, try to incorporate as much French into your life as possible. When I realized I was more serious about learning French, I changed the language on my phone to French, I started reading Harry Potter again in French and I watched Netflix shows with French subtitles. It wasn’t much, but these little details helped make me more comfortable with French. This is also a great source of vocabulary, which is particularly useful in holding conversations.

The first week of switching the language on my phone to French, I almost couldn’t do it. I had to remember through muscle memory where things were and what words corresponded to which actions. But slowly through repetition and sheer desperation, I started understanding the basic French vocabulary for working my iPhone. That doesn’t mean much when you’re missing a whole other portion of the dictionary, but it’s somewhere to begin.

Insist on speaking French One benefit of living with a French host family is that

KRISTINE XU | MUSTANG NE WS PERSISTENCE

| Fluency can be achieved through language immersion and constant practice.

they usually don’t speak a lot of English.

When I moved in, I told them to speak to me exclusively in French because my goal was to be fluent by the end of the year.

If I really didn’t get an expression, my host mom would bring out the heavily-used English to French pocket dictionary and look up the word.

As the only fluent English

speaker in the household, dinner can get lonely sometimes.

I’ll try my hardest to follow the conversation, but it gets so exhausting that my eyes will accidentally glaze over for just a second.

By the time I tune back into the conversation, I’m completely lost because I missed a vital conversation point. At that point, it’s quite hard to

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jump back into the conversation and my French mom will have to update me. Even then, I don’t know all the vocabulary and all I can manage is eating green beans at the table.

With these tips, soon enough your body will adjust to the temperature of the water and you’ll be able to swim comfortably in the waters of French. All it takes is a little bravery.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

ARTS | 5

Acroyoga group builds up students and strength It’s more than acrobatics and it’s more than stretching and strength.

There’s community and it’s about trust and communication.

BRANDON O’ROURKE

Madi Salvati @madisalvati

AVR AH BAUM | MUSTANG NE WS STRIKING A POSE | Working together, Katie Smith and Brandon O’Rourke do front plank pose on a sunny afternoon on Dexter Lawn.

AVR AH BAUM | MUSTANG NE WS SUPPORT | Cory Shallow and Haley Schlageter carefully attempt a progression of four step (left) and Smith and O’Rourke balance in front bird pose (right).

She got a running start before gracefully hopping onto his upturned feet. He held her up in what looked to be an “airplane” pose, except it was much more delicate.

Mathematics junior Katie Smith looked like a bird perched in flight as political science senior Brandon O’Rourke held her up by his feet. “This is called bird pose,” Smith said, smiling. She looked straight ahead with her head held high.

After steadying herself on O’Rourke’s feet, she let go of his hands and balanced there for a few moments.

Biochemistry freshman Emily Mobley spotted Smith as O’Rourke lifted her up and down like he was bench pressing her with his legs.

“You don’t need a gym,” O’Rourke said.

Holding Smith up with one foot, he then helped her shift into throne pose, where she seemed to be sitting upon his upturned feet as if it was a throne.

It was a wonder she never fell, but balance and strength were the name of the game. “(Acroyoga) is about discovering what your body can do,” O’Rourke said. “Discovering your limits.”

These three Acroyoga enthusiasts meet on Dexter Lawn every Tuesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., being “built up,” as Smith called it, by some seriously cool poses and by each other.

“We aren’t a club,” O’Rourke said, laughing. “We would be heavily scrutinized for liability if we were.”

Smith, O’Rourke and Mobley are only a few of the group members that meet to do Acroyoga. O’Rourke described their group as a type of extension of Acroyoga SLO, which is a community that meets in different places, including Spark Yoga, throughout the week to do Acroyoga.

While they might not be an official club on campus, the Acroyoga community at Cal Poly is strong.

“It started about two years ago,” Smith said. “My friend and I started doing Acroyoga

out on Dexter and slowly but surely, more people started to come. It’s become a really big established group.”

It’s not unusual to spot a lively group or two doing something like hula-hooping or playing music on Dexter Lawn, and the Acroyoga group likes to think it draws a pleasant crowd.

“We might be one of those eccentric groups on Dexter,” O’Rourke said. “But we don’t really care.”

Smith hopes to draw even more people to do Acroyoga, as it is a huge stress reliever. Being an expert is unnecessary.

“You can be the most inflexible person ever,” Smith said. “That’s why you do Acroyoga: to become more flexible and stronger.”

Lifting people up in the air by legs, and sometimes just arms, while lying down can look intimidating. As well as being a “flyer” — those who are being lifted.

“It’s more than acrobatics and it’s more than stretching and strength,” O’Rourke said.

“There’s community and it’s about trust and communication.”

Mobley found community and support within the Acroyoga group, especially as a freshman.

“It’s definitely a big passion in my life,” Mobley said. “It’s much like yoga — you find your zen and your peace, but you’re working with other people and getting to know other people.”

There is a definite support system within the Acroyoga group that supports its members, even outside of doing Acroyoga twice a week.

“We support each other a lot outside of this,” O’Rourke said.

“It’s all facilitated by the trust we build doing Acroyoga.”

Community and trust-building seem to be the foundation of the group, along with two basic poses everyone starts out with: the bird and throne poses.

Smith invited an observer who had been watching to try it. Hesitant at first, the student watched them do a few more poses and then hopped in, with Mobley spotting them. Smith applauded as the student held bird pose on her own without holding onto O’Rourke’s hands.

“Give it a whirl,” Smith said.

“All you need is body awareness and some optimism.”

Thursday, March 3, 2016

OPINION | 6

MUSTANG NEWS

Letter to the editor:

Campus Dining may be healthy, but is it sustainable?

Graphic Arts Building Building 26, Suite 226 California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, CA 93407

CONTACT Camille Tolleshaug Special to Mustang News

Camille Tolleshaug is a nutrition junior. Letters to the editor do not reflect the editorial coverage of Mustang News.

Dear editor, A recent Mustang News article, “Study finds most Campus Dining food unhealthy” (Connor McCarthy, Nov. 8), revealed a widespread lack of healthy meal options across various Campus Dining locations. Reaction to this study has justifiably focused on new and ongoing efforts to make healthy eating more practical at Cal Poly. However, a related, fundamental issue that needs to be addressed is the sustainability and environmental impact of our Campus Dining food system.

The United Nations estimates

that a whopping 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to animal agriculture.

That figure is sure to rise over the coming years if things continue to go unchanged. With the human population growing by 75 million people each year, proper resource management is becoming a matter of paramount importance; we simply cannot continue to feed 7 billion individuals with a system that is so detrimental to the environment.

What does a sustainability problem like this have to do with healthy eating at Campus Dining locations?

A lot more than you might think.

Addressing human health and the sustainability of our food system at the swame time is

both viable and logical. Plantbased foods are free of the many carcinogens associated with

as well. Food technology companies everywhere are introducing plant-based, eco-friendly alternatives to culinary staples with resounding success.

San Francisco-based Hampton Creek Foods, creators of the egg-free sensation Just Mayo, produce the delicious and sustainable dessert Just Cookies. If every student at Cal Poly were to eat two Just Cookies in place of two conventional cookies per year, they would collectively save 1 milCAMILLE TOLLESHAUG lion quarts of water and 19,000 square feet of land.

They would also be consuming half a million less milligrams of cholesterol. Numbers like these animal products, and produce a are too substantial to ignore, much smaller carbon footprint especially in a region such as

Let’s have our cookie and eat it, too. Rather, let’s have our planet and our health.

California where there is a major drought problem and resources are limited. Luckily, plant-based foods can be a big part of the solution.

Many California schools, including UC Berkeley, have partnered with companies like Hampton Creek to offer Just Mayo and Just Cookies to students. Cal Poly should do the same. In addressing the issues with Campus Dining, the university has an opportunity to embrace a much more sustainable food system, all while providing healthier alternatives to its students. Changes like these will eventually be inevitable, so let’s help lead the movement instead of waiting around to follow it.

Let’s have our cookie and eat it, too. Rather, let’s have our planet and our health.

Letter to the editor: A response to the OWN coverage Linda Austin Special to Mustang News

Ruth de Jesus was the assistant director of the Cross Cultural Center. Letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the editorial coverage of Mustang News.

Dear editor, The recent article you published about Cal Poly’s OWN (Original Women’s Narratives) may well have fit in the opinion section. Please let me explain.

The rationale to bring a student-centered, culturally diverse, more updated and inclusive expression of women’s experiences than that offered by the traditionally celebrated Vagina Monologues is legitimate. While I appreciate the earnestness of your reporting staff in breaking a story, I am left wanting more by its unbalanced approach.

As a survivor of various forms of trauma, I must say I cannot be reduced or fully defined by any one of them, though they inform my experience as a woman. I can, in fact, speak about my womanhood (even as it occupies the privilege of my cisgendered identity) without having to talk about the trauma that has threatened my well-being and sought to diminish the fullness of my womanhood. To be sure, the breadth and depth of women’s experiences served as the inspiration for OWN. As a survivor of various forms of trauma and a professional in higher education, I respect what the Gender Equity Center staff and the OWN students are doing in order to be sensitive about and responsible for the submissions they receive.

OWN’s advisory group did consider the implications of including stories with themes of sexual violence. They considered the realities and pain. They considered the social constructs that perpetuate such violence. They considered the triggering impact of such stories on the audience. They considered their responsibility to their community. They considered the policies of the institution. They considered the spirit of what gave birth to OWN. They considered many things and they consulted with professionals, advocates and students. I know this because I was part of many conversations and knew of many more conversations that have taken place about OWN’s debut.

To do anything for the first time requires courage. To do it well requires thoughtfulness. I hope that the Cal Poly community will welcome OWN. The article headlined OWN as “avoiding sexual violence discussion,” when in reality it seeks to broaden the representation of women’s narratives in public spaces. The audience can expect to hear about sexual violence.

And culture. And body image. And race. And class. And sexuality. And gender identity. That is exciting. And at Cal Poly, that is breaking news!

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SPORTS | 8

Hyland’s record start powers Cal Poly softball early in season Aryton Ostly @AyrtonOstly

FILE PHOTO | MUSTANG NE WS FIRE | The Mustangs won 11 of their first 15 games.

In the first month of the past five seasons, the Cal Poly softball team has won eight, seven, four, three and two games. Historically, February hasn’t been the best month for the Mustangs — they’ve won just 32 percent of their February games from 2011 to 2015.

This February, things changed.

In 2016, the Cal Poly softball team has opened the season on a tear, winning 11 of 15 games to start the season, including a current six-game winning streak.

During the streak, the team has outscored its opponents 21-7 and posted a pair of shutouts against No. 9 Arizona and Cal State Bakersfield.

What could be the catalyst for such a different start to the season?

Easy — junior pitcher Sierra Hyland.

So far, the stats for Hyland this season are enough to merit consideration for Big West Con-

ference Player of the Year. She’s second in ERA (1.72), second in wins (7), seventh in batting average (.400) and tied for eighth in RBI (12), but absolutely blows away the rest of the conference in strikeouts. Her mark of 104 is first among NCAA Division I pitchers and is more than twice as many as Long Beach State’s Cielo Meza, who stands second in the conference with 49 strikeouts on the season.

Hyland was named the USA Softball Collegiate National Player of the Week on Tuesday, becoming the first Cal Poly player ever to earn that honor. She’s also earned two straight Big West Conference Pitcher of the Week honors — bumping her up to nine such awards over her career.

Looking at the scores for the Mustangs’ wins, it’s easy to see how the team plays. The squad wins through stout pitching and defense with enough hitting to win low-scoring games. With a pitcher like Hyland having a career season, that’s a formula that can be depended on during the season.

This weekend the team hosts Weber State, Toledo and Saint Peter’s in the ShareSLO Mustang Classic. These games mark the first home games of the season and give the Mustangs a chance to continue their winning streak as well as their best start in years.

At 11-4 overall and no conference games yet, the team stands atop the Big West Conference.

Teams to look out for this season include UC Riverside and Hawaii, two schools that have been at or near the top for many seasons, as well as the defending Big West regular season champions, CSUN. Conference games don’t start until April, so that gives Cal Poly the month of March to build on a strong start of the season and gain momentum as the season progresses to conference play.

And if Hyland, as well as sophomore pitchers Lindsey Chalmers and Stephanie Heyward, keep up the good work in the circle, the Mustangs will be in c ontention for the top spot in the Big West.

FILE PHOTO | MUSTANG NE WS ICE | The Mustangs have displayed strong pitching.

Men’s golf wins first tournament in three years by one stroke Keenan Donath @CPMustangSports

Following a second round in which the Cal Poly golf team set a school record for lowest four-person total (268), the Mustangs held onto their lead during the final round to take the Del Walker Intercollegiate Golf Classic on Tuesday. The Mustangs’ team score of -2 through the tournament’s three rounds proved to be just enough to outlast runner-up Long Beach State, which finished one stroke behind at -1.

The top individuals for Cal Poly were juniors Cole Nygren and Justin De Los Santos. Nygren finished in a tie for fifth place with a score of -1, while De Los Santos was only one shot behind him at even par with a share of ninth place. Both players went especially low in the second round with the scores of Nygren (65) and De Los Santosw (66), good for a combined effort of -9 at the par 70 Virginia Country Club in Long Beach.

Senior Jordan Wright and soph-

THE MUSTANGS WERE ABLE TO STAY AHEAD OF THE FIELD BY HAVING FIVE PLAYERS FINISH WITHIN THE TOP 20

omore Jesse Yap were a shot off De Los Santos’ mark, both finishing in a tie for thirteenth place with tournament totals of +1.

Wright and Yap held down the third and fourth slots for the Mustangs by posting identical scores of 71 coming down the stretch on Tuesday afternoon.

Cal Poly finished ahead of fellow Big West Conference teams Long Beach State (-1), UC Irvine (+23), CSU Northridge (+23), CSU Fullerton (+25) and UC Santa Barbara (+31). While Mi-

chael Chen of Long Beach State was able to claim medalist honors with a score of -9, the Mustangs were able to stay ahead of the field by having five players finish within the top 20.

The team victory was the first in three years for Cal Poly, a possible sign of more good things to come for a program that received a $10 million donation earlier this year. Next up on the schedule for Cal Poly is the Oregon State Beaver Classic in Corvallis starting on March 21.