May 22, 2017

Monday, May 2 2, 2 017

C a l P o l y, S a n L u i s O b i s p o

w w w. m u s t a n g n e w s . n e t

E s t a b l i s h e d 1916

Lightning in a Bottle

More than just music

FANTASY LAND

RYAN NEIL | COURTE SY PHOTO

| Lightning in a Bottle — a five-day music festival in Bradley, California — will offer a variety of interactive installments for attendees, celebrating community and spiritual connections.

Cameron Bones Special to Mustang News A crowd walks across a long bridge, each person high-fiving every stranger they pass. Groups of people meditate to the sounds of gongs and wind chimes, surrounded by larger-thanlife sculptures depicting iron teapots and colorful tents decorated with geometric shapes. Somewhere in the distance, the sound of thudding bass keeps a measured time.

Welcome to Lightning in a Bottle (LIB).

This five-day music festival in Bradley, California — 55 miles from Cal Poly — features a wide variety of musicians, artists, vendors and colorfully-dressed music lovers seeking the experience of a lifetime.

Business administration junior Ali Hanley first attended LIB as a freshman and it left her wanting more.

“Every time we talk to people about it, we just say it’s magical.

There’s no other way to really describe it,” Hanley said. “Every time I go, I leave feeling like I could do

so much more.”

LIB is unlike any other festival, according to Hanley, who has been to C oachella, Woogie Weekend, Boogaloo, SnowGlobe and other festivals. In addition to musicians and DJs, LIB also features yoga lessons, workshops on sustainability and healthy eating, art installations and other interactive environments.

“My favorite part was waking up in the morning and doing yoga and tai chi,” Hanley said. “LIB is about so much more than the music.”

Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge teams advance to Nationals

LIB origins Though music is a huge part of the experience, LIB is rooted in celebrating community and spiritual connection. What started as a birthday party in 1999 became a five-day event that brings people from all over together.

Founded by the DoLaB, the festival has moved locations within California several times, from Santa Barbara in 2006, to Silverado in 2010, Temecula in 2013 and now Lake San Antonio, where it has been held for the past three years.

In addition to the changing location, the festival itself evolved over the years. DoLab press representative Graham Berry said LIB is focusing more on activism and the humanitarian messages of the festival.

“Ultimately, the future of LIB will depend on the people who come and whether or not they choose to take the ethos of the festival to

heart,” Berry said. “It will require a lot of extra work, but we think it’s worth it.”

LIGHTNING continued on page 4

Charles Rice @ CPMustangNews

The Cal Poly Concrete Canoe and Ste el Br idge te ams will head to their national competitions after placing first overall at the annual regional Pacific Southwest Conference, held April 6 to 8 at University of California, Irvine.

The two civil engineering clubs applied the skills they learned in In the past 21 years, classrooms to the real world.

I think we’ve placed It worked top five in the out well, especially for nation 17 times.

Concrete Canoe, IAN BUCHANAN according to civil engineering senior Ian Buchanan.

“In the past 21 years, I think we’ve placed top five in the nation 17 times,” project manager for Concrete Canoe Buchanan said.

The Concrete Canoe is meant to mimic a real-life engineering project and is almost entirely CONCRETE CANOE | COURTE SY PHOTO STILL FLOATING | The Concrete Canoe will compete in the national competition June 17 to 18 at the Colorado School of Mines. student-run. At the beginning

of the year, team members are given a specific set of rules which can stretch up to 100 pages long, to follow when constructing their canoe.

The contests, which begin toward the end of the academic year, grade the canoe teams based on four categories: the final product, an oral presentation followed by a question and answer, the technical designer port and finally the actual races, which are divided into short and long distances.

“I actually joined when I was a third-year. I was originally interested because it gives us sort of an outreach kind of outside of school, Buchanan said. “In class we learn all these theories, but this is an actual chance to do some physical hands-on working. There’s no real textbook that tells us how to make the canoe to fit the rules so a lot of the skills we learn revolve around problem solving. It really embodies that Learn by Doing attitude.”

CANOE & BRIDGE continued on page 2

Exploring the world through sound at Around the World concert Anjana Melvin @ CPMustangNews

Beethoven, Mozart, Adele and Drake are well-known names in the music world. Peter Pupping, Pepe Romero, Francisco Tarego, Chen Jiafeng and Lalgudi G. Jayaraman are probably not common household names. It’s often said that music is a universal language and that’s exactly what software engineering freshman Arun Shri-

ram said he hoped to bring to Cal Poly with the Around the World fundraiser concert Saturday: a way to bring more international music names into the limelight.

Shriram, who has been playing South Indian drums called Mridangam for 15 years, came up with the idea for Around the World in high school. During his freshman year, Shriram’s father, a professional South Indian drummer, invited him to

play drums at the San Francisco World Music Festival. The festival brought together professional musicians from countries like China, Korea, Vietnam, India, Azerbaijan and Spain. Shriram played at the festival four years and the experience changed his view on how world music could be integrated.

SOUND continued on page 5

ARUN SHRIRAM | COURTE SY PHOTO

KEEPING BEAT | Pictured above, software engineering freshman Arun Shriram plays South Indian drums.

NEWS 2

MUSTANG NEWS

Students win award for copper filtration system Austin Linthicum @ austinlinthicum

A team of Cal Poly environmental engineering students took home the $2,500 Intel Environmental Innovation Award for using ion-exchange resins to filter copper out of roof runoff water at the 27th annual International Environmental Design Contest.

New Mexico State University and the Western Engineering & Research Corporation (WERC) hosted a consortium for environmental education and technology development April 5 to 7 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The consortium develops four tasks each year that university teams

create solutions for and present to a panel of experts.

The idea for this particular task originated at the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center in Ventura.

Owning many historic buildings with aging copper roofs, the Navy needed a better way to keep copper pollutants out of storm water runoff. Their previous solution, which involved copper waste collecting in sand, was not sustainable, took up a lot of space and produced massive amounts of hazardous waste.

The team, led by environmental engineering sophomore Andrew Ledezma, found that ion exchange resin — usually used to soften water — also worked

to remove copper particles from storm water. Even better, the filter they designed to contain the resin could be installed on existing gutters. This provided a cost-saving alternative that produces a fraction of the copper hazardous waste and can be reused overtime.

“What helped us win was the practicality and usefulness of our design,” Ledezma said.

The Navy, which partially funded the project, is looking into existing patents to see if using the student-developed product is possible.

Two additional Cal Poly teams competed in the contest. One group tackled challenges involving passive solar distillation of acid rock drain-

age waters, and the other examined construction of remotely operated weather stations that measure renewable energy potential.

Cal Poly has participated in the competition since 2005 under the direction of faculty advisor Tracy Thatcher.

Environmental engineering senior and student advisor Nicholas Hardy said what sets the university apart is its commitment to letting undergraduate students take the lead.

“Most of our team is made up of sophomores and juniors,” Hardy said.

“I think ev-

eryone else at the competition is a grad student or a graduating senior. It’s pretty incredible that we did as well as we did with our young team.”

On winning the Intel Innovation Award, Hardy said the team was surprised but honored.

“You get there and it is pretty intimidating standing next to schools with huge

To show up with [a] rag-team and win is pretty amazing.

budgets,” Hardy said. “To show up with [a] rag-tag team and win is pretty amazing.”

WERC is one of three contests the Society of Environmental Engineers competes in annually. WERC is different in that students work all year crafting their projects and preparing to present to the panel of experts in New Mexico.

“We work for an entire year, which brings in very talented and dedicated students,” student advisor and environmental engineering senior Andrew Kandea said. “Working for three quarters on their projects, I think they get a lot more out of it.”

NICHOLAS HARDY

CLEAN SWEEP

NICHOLAS HARDY | COURTE SY PHOTO

| Team pictured from left: Nicholas Hardy, Hayley Aarsvold, Enrique Molina, Joey Velasquez and Andrew Kaneda; front row, Gavrielle Orman, Andrew Ledezma, Emely Coreas and Joelle Arakaki.

SET IN STONE

CONCRETE CANOE | COURTE SY PHOTO

| Almost entirely student-run, the team begins preparations at the start of the academic year.

CANOE & BRIDGE continued from page 1

Cal Poly’s Steel Bridge team will also head to nationals after scoring second in the competition last year. Unlike Concrete Canoe, a portion of the Steel Bridge competition is actually assembling the bridge. The process starts when the team is given the set of rules. The team then plans their build through programs like AutoCAD. After dedicating the entirety of Fall 2016 to designing the bridge, the team orders their steel and begins to weld the parts. The team then practices quickly assembling their bridge in prepa-

ration for the competition. The competition is graded on a variety of factors, such as how much weight the bridge can handle, the weight of the bridge itself, how fast the bridge can be put together and how efficiently the bridge is put together.

Being involved in Steel Bridge provided Hannah Lancaster, Steel Bridge project manager, opportunities to gain real-world experience.

“For example, our welder has learned that welding things upside down is not the best way to weld things,” civil engineering senior Lancaster said. “We all put a bunch of time into this project, Winter quarter we’re putting

in around 35 hours a week. It’s just something that we’ve come to love.”

When building the bridge, as many as six and as few as three workers are allowed to work.

Every competition, workers are assigned a price per minute, causing teams to find a balance between amount of workers and how much time they take.

“A lot of times we civil engineers will design something on a program and never really get to see if it’s even possible to build,” Lancaster said. “Steel Bridge gives us that awareness of what we can actually do; it let’s us know these sort of constructibility.”

NEWS 3

MONDAY, MAY 22, 2017

DREAM Center hosts immigration symposium RISE TOGETHER

FR ANK HUANG | MUSTA NG NE W S

| The Rising Immigrant Scholars Education hosted its first Immigration Sympoisum Friday, May 19 to recognize community members who contributed to the opening of the DREAM Center.

Cassandra Garibay @ CPMustangNews

The first undocumented student group was formed at Cal Poly by former Dean of College of Science and Mathematics Phil Bailey, eight years ago.

Since then, the group disseminated and Rising Immigrant Scholars Education (RISE) and the Undocumented Student Working Group rose to continue Bailey’s work of creating a safe space for undocumented students. With the opening of the DREAM Center, that safe place has become a physical reality.

“Even now when I think about it, it’s ridiculous. I wasn’t the only undocumented student on this campus. But at the time [before I knew my resources], it was hard to come out and say something like that. Now that there is a DREAM Center, you’re [able to acknowledge] that your

population even exists,” a RISE member and history and political science senior said (editor’s note: due to documentation status, the student’s name has been omitted).

Immigration Symposium: Strengthening communities and higher education RISE hosted its first Immigration Symposium Friday to recognize the community members who helped make the DREAM Center possible.

“Now that we have the DREAM Center, we really wanted to reach out to the community to K through 12 schools and the local community colleges and let them know that we are here and that there is somewhere that they can go,” the RISE member said. “And also, [we wanted] to emphasize how big of a difference community strength can make.”

The symposium panel consisted of keynote speaker Dario

Fernandez, the DREAM Center coordinator of California State University, Northridge; Cal Poly Multicultural Center Coordinator Jose Leon; Diana Valdivia, undocumented student coordinator at University of California, Santa Barbara Erica Reyes; aide to Congressman Salud Carbajal, and Dreamers RoadMap App founder Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca.

The panelists spoke about their experiences and efforts to advocate for undocumented students.

Many panelists explained that to serve the needs of the students, they must thoroughly listen to those students.

“I have to ensure that I am not speaking for students, I am working with students to ensure they have a voice,” Leon said during the panel discussion.

The symposium went on to honor local immigration attorney Amber Heffner, RISE

Employment and income on the rise for Cal Poly graduates Brendan Matsuyama @ CPMustangNews

Cal Poly Career Services released its Graduate Status Report (GSR) for the class of 2016 this past week.

The report summarizes a survey meant to gauge the success of Cal Poly graduates.

The GSR includes information such as median starting income for each college and major where graduates end up working, whether students went on to attend graduate school and other indicators.

The most recent survey had a response rate of 54.3 percent, or 2,464 respondents out of 4,541 graduates. This was the highest response rate since the class of 2008.

However, only 43.2 percent of respondents who are employed full-time reported their income.

This is an all-time low over the past decade, with the next lowest response rate for income being 68.5 percent for the class of 2009 cohort and the average between 2011 and 2015 being 85.6 percent.

According to the report, the proportion of respondents who reported positive post-graduation outcomes — full- or part-time employment or attendance at a graduate school — was higher for the class of 2016 than at any point since the class of 2008.

Approximately 92.6 percent of respondents reported positive outcomes — a 7.1 percent increase since the previous year. The remaining 7.4 percent of graduates are either seeking employment or are unemployed and not seeking employment. Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong attributed this increase to Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing philosophy.

“These latest figures further

demonstrate that Cal Poly’s signature Learn by Doing method is a fast path to career success,” Armstrong said. “We continue to invest in hands-on, experiential learning because, quite simply, it works — for students, for employers and for the state of California and beyond.”

Of those who responded to the survey, 75 percent were employed full- or part-time. According to the report, of those who were employed, 67 percent found work before they graduated and 99 percent found work within nine months of graduating. Additionally, 96 percent of employed graduates were hired for jobs related to their major.

Eighty-eight percent of employed graduates work in California, while 10 percent work elsewhere in the United States and two percent internationally. Top companies that hired Cal Poly graduates included Adobe, Apple, Boeing and Raytheon.

Median incomes for college graduates When adjusted for inflation, the starting median salary of Cal Poly graduates increased by four percent from the class of 2015 to the class of 2016 from $57,680 to $60,000. This is after the adjusted median incomes of respondents decreased by 1.9 percent between 2014 and 2015.

Cal Poly graduate median incomes: 2007-16 The real incomes of recent Cal Poly graduates are at their highest point since the class of 2008 when respondents with full-time employment had an adjusted medium income of $60,320, or $52,000 adjusted for inflation.

The College of Science and Mathematics (COSAM) saw the largest increase in median starting income over the past year from $41,200 to $48,000 in 2017 dollars. This

was after median incomes decreased for COSAM graduates by 12.8 percent between 2014 and 2015. However, not all colleges’ graduates saw increases in their real incomes.

The real median salary for College of Liberal Arts (CLA) graduates decreased by 2.9 percent between the classes of 2015 and 2016 from $46,350 to $45,000. Over the same period, the real median incomes for College of Engineering graduates decreased marginally from $70,040 to $70,000.

Highest grossing major by college For the class of 2016, the college that produced graduates with the highest median income was College of Engineering at $70,000, followed by the Orfalea College of Business (OCOB) at $60,000 and

Co-Coordinator Catherine Trujillo and Bailey for their impact on the undocumented student community.

“What [the DREAM Center] means to me is that the students have a place to go and someone to talk to. It is a safe place where they can talk to a counselor and to each other,” Bailey said. “But I will tell you what it does not mean to me.

It doesn’t mean that we don’t still have a responsibility [to undocumented students] on the rest of the campus.”

As Bailey and other panelists said, the DREAM Center is only the start of the work that needs to be done for undocumented student advocacy.

Future plans for the DREAM Center According to Interim Coordinator and STEM Volunteers in Service to America worker Casey McCullough, since opening the the College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) at $55,200.

When including majors with five or more respondents who reported their income, the program with the highest post-graduation median income was software engineering at $100,000.

DREAM Center, they have been trying to find a permanent coordinator. McCullough said the Undocumented Student Working Group and RISE chose candidates and hope to have an official coordinator by July.

“We are really looking forward to next year where we will have the resource coordinator here,” McCullough said. “We will have the center all year long so we will have a lot more opportunity to grow what we can offer throughout the Center.”

Though the Center is not yet at its full potential, McCullough and the Undocumented Student Working Group have been able to bring in resources such as attorney Heffner to answer students’ specific legal questions.

“Before, whenever I had a question, I didn’t know who to go to or if I could go to anybody. I didn’t know who I could talk to. But now I know, at least

I have this little community built around me,” the RISE member said.

The Undocumented Student Working Group also teaches ally trainings as a way to expand their community reach. Since the trainings began, there have been approximately 250 allies certified in the community as well as 700 people who have completed stage one of the trainings.

“One of the ways we can grow support for students is to educate allies on campus ... of what the needs are for undocumented students, give them information and tools so they can go back to their departments, programs or organizations and implement what they learned,” McCullough said.

The center recently received $1,200 from the Career Services Diversity Fund which will be used for an Undocumented Student Orientation week, McCullough said.

come was $50,000.

OCOB was the only college where there was no difference in the median income of males

counterparts. Approximately 69.5 percent of female graduates reported working full time as opposed to 77.5 percent of male graduates.

Female respondents who graduated last year were more likely to go to graduate school than males in the same cohort.

Overall, 21.8 percent of recent female graduates reported attending graduate school while 12.7 percent of males did so.

CAFES had the biggest disparity between the proportion of female and male respondents attending graduate school with a 13.1 percent difference. OCOB had the smallest with a 1.4 percent difference.

The only college where a higher proportion of male respondents reported attending graduate school was CLA. Within the college, 18.8 percent of male respondents reported doing so as opposed to 16.2 percent of females.

The program with the highest post-graduation median income was software engineering at $100,000.

Graduate outcomes by gender Across Cal Poly, the median income of female respondents in the class of 2016 was $10,960 less than that of male graduates. Within this cohort, the median income for female respondents who are now employed fulltime was $54,040 and $65,000 for males.

The college with the largest disparity between female and male median incomes was the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences (CAFES) where the female median income was $42,000 and the male median in-

and females. For respondents in the class of 2016 graduating from OCOB who are now employed full-time, the median income was $60,000 regardless of gender.

Overall, female respondents in the class of 2016 were less likely to work full time than their male

ARTS 4

MUSTANG NEWS

I think LIB as a festival will allow me to experience music in an atmosphere that is very hard to find.

MASON TOBIA

MORE THAN MUSIC

RYAN NEIL | COURTE SY PHOTO

| Along with providing more than 200 musical artists such as Bassnectar, Kaytranada and Troyboi, LIB is starting to focus more on activism and humanitarian messages of the festival.

LIGHTNING continued from page 1

This year, LIB will take place during Memorial Day weekend — May 24 to 29. The lineup features more than 200 artists including Bassnectar, Kaytranada and Troyboi.

In addition to the music, festival-goers can immerse themselves

in a variety of activities. These environments include Amori’s Casino & Burlesque Club, Giggle Juice Cafe and Frontierville Gypsy Encampment — where attendees can visit the leather trader to make their own belts or drop off their dirty laundry to be scrubbed on a washboard and hung to dry.

Another popular aspect of LIB is the Beacon, a place for workshops,

50 75

S E L EC T A P P AREL, GIFTS

panels and rituals for those seeking community and connections to their spirituality. This year’s Beacon theme is “Illuminating Our World: Visionary Guidance For Strange Times.”

For the 10th year in a row, LIB will feature Lightning in a Paintcan, a live painting experience where people can watch different artists create works of art and purchase

cool down in the lake throughout the weekend.

“The ability to swim is certainly opening up a world of possibilities,” Berry said. “We’ve had water nearby LIB a few times, but we’ve never had the option to swim before in almost 15 years doing the festival.”

Business administration junior and first-time LIB attendee Mason Tobia explained that the art, music

and culture of this unique festival drew him in.

“I think LIB as a festival will allow me to experience music in an atmosphere that is very hard to find,” Tobia said. “I’m looking to experience a journey where I can learn more about myself and enjoy my surroundings without being confined to the norms of the outside world.”

Review: JoJo shines despite initial cancellation Shanti Herzog @ CPMustangNews

% TO % OFF AND SUPPLIE

pieces to take home. This year, artists will produce eight large-scale murals, as well as smaller works throughout the festival.

The most significant change to this year’s LIB has nothing to do with the music, art or people — it’s the lake. Thanks to this year’s rainfall, San Antonio Lake is currently at 50 percent capacity, allowing festival-goers to wash off the dust and

S

JoJo’s “Mad Love” Tour lived up to its name, as there was no shortage of love at Fremont Theatre Tuesday night. Even though her tour is officially over, JoJo returned to San Luis Obispo and a few others cities to make up shows she was originally forced to cancel due to laryngitis.

Brayton Bowman opened the show alone on stage and quickly won over the audience with his unique sound and incredible vocals. His rhythm and blues electronic style was new and captivating as he performed songs about boys and weed, ending with one he originally wrote about his first heartbreak but later realized was actually about self love.

The second opener, aspiring singer Keisha Renee, owned the stage with a gorgeous and

powerful voice. Finally, JoJo took her place on the stage and opened with “Clovers.” Her hair whipped around as she got the entire crowd dancing.

JoJo has incredible stage presence; she performs as though she’s been onstage for decades.

Her poise, confidence and joy were inspiring. She seemed to be genuinely doing what she loved, making it impossible for the crowd not to have a good time.

Even though I wasn’t a fan of JoJo before the show, I quickly became one. I found myself dancing to every song, despite not knowing the words. JoJo had the audience jumping, moving their hips and relishing in what she called the “beautiful vibes” of the room.

At one point, JoJo asked the crowd if they came to the show with a “true friend.” She explained that she had begun a “no tolerance” policy for phoniness

in 2017. The crowd screamed along as she performed “Fake Ass Bitch.”

After a few songs, JoJo told the crowd she felt like she grew up with most of them and slowed it down to perform a few acoustic versions of the songs that started her career. The audience sang along as she performed “Too Little Too Late,” a song she wrote about her first heartbreak.

JoJo also touched on mental health during the show. She reminded the audience that she isn’t ashamed of her struggle with depression and it is not out of the ordinary to have struggles with mental health. JoJo confessed she is often her own worst critic, then continued the theme with her song “I Am,” which she wrote as a reminder to anyone listening that they are beautiful, strong and worthy of love.

“You’re not a freak. You’re not alone,” she said.

spring Sidewalk Sale May 23–25, 9:00am – 3:00pm Steal the deals.

All sales are final. Limited to stock on hand.

KEEPING IT REAL

CHRISTA L AM | MUSTA NG NE W S

| JoJo sang about self-love and talked about her struggle with mental health.

ARTS 5

MONDAY, MAY 22, 2017 SOUND continued from page 1

“[There were] so many different artists, so many views on music,” Shriram said. “That kind of exposure to professionals and their ideologies, that kind of mentorship ... I was amazed at just how people from different cultures can instantly play music together [even though] they may not speak the same language.”

After being exposed to different types of music at the festival, Shriram decided to bring an Around the World concert to his high school during his senior year. He brought together musicians from different cultures to perform.

Though he only expected about 100 attendees, more than 250 people showed up. He raised $4,000 for the Make-A-Wish foundation.

With the success of that event, Shriram decided to bring Around the World to Cal Poly.

“Cal Poly is known for not being that diverse and I wanted to show people that we can bring tradition from where we’re from and show how diverse and talented our musicians can be,” he said.

With the help of the Music Production Union (MPU), the Around the World benefit concert brought together a variety of music genres and styles, including a cappella, Indian, Spanish, beatboxing, Latino and modern pop. Shriram’s father, Shriram Brahmanandam, performed a percussion solo and the final fusion song, which took musical elements from all of the acts. All proceeds from the concert will go to the Child Foundation, an international charity organization that helps children living in poverty stay in school.

Biochemistry sophomore Austin Gandler helped Shriram make Around the World a more community-oriented event. He said he believes the event fulfills its purpose of providing a way for people to experience different types of cultural expression, but also its larger purpose of donating to a worthy cause.

“I found so much joy and purpose through education and learning how I can help the world and I want to help kids [who] don’t readily have that opportunity,” Gandler said. “I learned a lot of [the Child Foundation’s] work is based in the Middle East and Eastern European countries. A lot of people usually associate that area with war, [but] forget that there are still families and children there.

The fact that this organization can help those kids stay in school and continue to learn is really special.”

Gandler’s roommate, anthropology and geography junior Christian Salyer played Spanish guitar at the concert. When he was a child, Salyer said he would find himself mesmerized by the guitars at live concerts and begged his parents to give him guitar lessons. Salyer didn’t know he was interested in Spanish music until he walked in on his teacher playing a Spanish song one day when he was 12. He’s played the genre ever since.

“It’s one of my favorite things and greatest passions and just the opportunity to share that with people is very enticing,” Salyer said. “One of my favorite things about music is the way it dissolves barriers and brings people together, so doing an event like this where music from all over the world [comes together] and showing how it’s universal is just really cool.”

Salyer met Shriram through the MPU. Salyer said he admires the legacy that Shriram’s music has because Shriram comes from a family of respected Indian musicians who have performed for 300 years. Salyer said he was excited to expose Cal Poly to cultures they might not otherwise experience.

“Cal Poly doesn’t have the most welcoming climate,” Salyer said. “I don’t think it’s purposeful. I think a lot of it is unawareness. An event like this is really good because it’s a lighthearted way to show people why it’s good to be inclusive and celebrate culture and peoples roots and passions.”

19 METRO DESSERT NIGHTS Bring your sweet tooth and some friends to indulge in an evening (or two) of tasty treats at 19 Metro on May 23 and 24 from 5-8 p.m.

There will be an ice cream sandwich bar, a crepe station and much more!

#HEALTHYHACKS With 20 vitamins and minerals in every serving, avocados are both delicious and nutritious. Get your fix with a slice of hearthealthy avocado toast from Sandwich Factory. (Registered Dietitian approved)

CLASS IT UP End the year with an evening to remember.

The annual Class It Up event will be hosted at Myron’s on June 4 from 5-9 p.m., and will include a gourmet three-course meal, photo opps and live entertainment.

Reserve your space today at www.calpolydining.com/myrons/

PLU$ DOLLARS AND SENSE We are now 49 days into school! Students in residence halls should have about $563 Plu$ dollars left to spend this quarter and apartment students should have about $429 Plu$ dollars left.

OPINION 6

OPINION

MUSTANG NEWS

The right to college

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

CONTACT Hunter White @ CPMustangNews

Hunter White is a history junior and Mustang News columnist. The views expressed in this column do not reflect the viewpoints and editorial coverage of Mustang News.

A college education serves two purposes in our society. It is, in its most capitalistic sense, an investment. It provides a path to achieve some advanced career requiring specific training and knowledge, as well as some modicum of insurance against a life lived in alleyways and street corners where Gucci-adorned teenagers avoid eye contact as they stroll into the glowing mecca of an Apple store; a tragic circumstance which American society provides no guarantees against.

Secondly, it provides an example of the supposedly classless society the social contract of our government proposes in which all men are created equal. You are not born a doctor, you have to earn it.

Of course, I would not claim that we have ever come remotely close to achieving that goal, but being that it is among the first things we Americans ever wrote about ourselves, it is no great leap of logic that the laws of our land should strive for such an ideal: a society in which every man is judged by the contents of their character, not their father’s bank account.

That is why student’s ability to attend college should not depend in any part on their or their parents’ ability to financially afford it. College should be tuition-free.

At the height of White America’s greatness, 8.8 million Americans attended college or job train-

ing programs through a massive government welfare program.

This influx of educated and specialized professionals into the workforce has been hailed by historians and economists as a major reason for the extended period of economic growth America sustained through the ‘50s and ‘60s.

This period saw the rise of the American middle class and the birth of the great American ego as the “leaders of the free world.”

Ignoring Jim Crow, this is almost certainly that “Great America” we are currently trying to remake.

This period of Pax-Americana was created and sustained by the democratization and spread of higher education across classes.

Any attempt to reach such heights again should rely on the expansion of advanced education, not the reduction of it.

Beyond a purely economic issue

though, is one of America’s ideals.

Just as Thomas Paine argued that the son of a king is not necessarily going to be a good leader, neither is the son of a real estate executive guaranteed to be able to use his bought-and-paid-for Harvard education to lead the office of American Innovation. College is a filter by which the supposedly best and brightest are meant to be thrust into roles most deserving of their talents. When we add a secondary filter, such as inherited capital, those best and brightest tend to look very similar. I am in no way implying that you, my most beautiful and intelligent reader, are in any way undeserving of your placement here. I am stating the simple fact that, whether due to issues of race, gender or class, the promise of an equal society has never been truly realized in America. It is current-

ly harder for the children of the poor to attend college than the children of the wealthy. By offering higher education on a purely merit-based system, as opposed to a financial one, we can move just a bit closer to that city on a hill we so hope to attain.

The proposed strength of a democratic society is its ability to best utilize the brainpower of all its citizens, as opposed to only that of a small ruling class. To shape our society in such a way that only a select few — lucky enough to be spawned by wealthy loins — can receive the benefits and access provided by higher education is the first step to some ludicrous and wealthy family of oligarchs usurping our democratic processes. Oh, shit.

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UP IN FLAMES | College costs a pretty penny most places in the United States and while some think we should make it tuition-free, others think it is not society’s responsibility to make that happen.

Return to Rationality: Is free education about ethics or economics?

Brandon Bartlett @ CPMustangNews

Brandon Bartlett is a philosophy junior and Mustang News columnist. The views expressed in this column do not reflect the viewpoints and editorial coverage of Mustang News.

There are two reasons to make any policy: for the principle and for practice. A principled policy is one that is advocated for on moral grounds (such as the abolition of slavery), while a practical policy is advocated for on empirical grounds (such as the exact rate of sales taxes). The former is a discussion of ethics, the latter of economics.

Of the supporters of tuition-free college, some are motivated by principle and others by practice.

To those who advocate for free education in practice, I have no problem. For while I currently

disagree with their economics, my mind could easily be changed by a new economic study.

However, I do take issue with those who advocate for free college tuition in principle and it is to such a group that this article is addressed.

Their argument is often constructed as thus: 1. People have a right to education.

2. Society has an obligation to fulfill the rights of its citizens.

Therefore, society has an obligation to pay for education for its citizens.

Surprisingly, I actually agree with the first premise; it is the second premise with which I take issue.

Generally speaking, there are two conceptions for the way rights are to operate: restrictively and prescriptively. Take the right to life as our paradigm case: a

restrictive right to life would dictate that I am obligated to not kill you nor do something that immediately leads to your death. A prescriptive right to life would dictate that I am obligated

I do take issue with those who advocate for college tuition in principle.

to do what is necessary to keep you alive (for instance, provide food, shelter and healthcare if you could not afford such on your own).

I believe in a restrictive right to education: that it is immoral to, for instance, pass a law disallowing women from pursuing higher education. However, some principled advocates believe in a prescriptive right to education, which is why they believe society is obligated to provide tuition-free education.

The problem is that this view entails what I would hold to be an absurdity: because a society is composed of individuals, it is the individual that must fulfill the obligations of society, at least to their full capacity.

Thus, if education is a prescriptive right, each individual is obligated to fulfill said right to whatever ability they are capable. Not fulfilling an obligation is, by definition, immoral.

Therefore, whenever you spend $10 at the movie theater, money

that you have the capacity to give toward someone’s education, you are not fulfilling your obligation and are acting immorally.

However, given the fact that it seems morally permissible to catch the new Star Wars movie every once in a while, we must reject the prescriptive right to education.

For this reason, any argument resting on the moral obligation to provide education for the individual is untenable. However, this fully leaves open the conversation for practical consideration.

If you are embroiled in a conversation about free education, do not ask for philosophy, but for fact. This is a matter for economics to sort out and we ought to be humble enough to accept whatever science determines.

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MUSTANG NEWS

Sean Pihl: The All-American in the net Brian Truong @ crusaderkitten

Sitting out for the final home game of his collegiate career didn’t discourage Cal Poly Lacrosse Club team senior goalie Sean Pihl.

Because he pulled his right hamstring just five minutes into a game, the All-American goalie was forced to sit on the sidelines for his senior night game.

“It was the first game in four years that I didn’t suit up for,” Pihl said.

For Pihl, the injury was a wake-up call — this was his last year of collegiate competition.

“I knew the end was coming all along,” Pihl said. “But that weekend made me think, ‘Wow, it’s really almost over.’”

Who is Sean Pihl?

The 5-foot-9, 200-pound Tustin, California-native received First Team All-Conference honors since his freshman year, Defensive Player of the Year for the past two years and, as of last week, First Team All-American in Division I Men’s Lacrosse.

Pihl was back between the pipes for the first game of the postseason as the Mustangs took down Stanford University 14-8 at the Western Conference Championship. He notched 14 saves in his first game back in the net.

“The Stanford game was a little rocky,” Pihl said. “But it took that one game to get back in my groove.”

The Mustangs continued their winning ways after the victory over Stanford to shut down UC Berkeley 10-8 as Pihl backstopped the Mustangs for his third Western Conference Championship. The club has a winning tradition fueled by more than just superstitions. “[Our defense] is the best in

It all starts with our goalie; he’s an absolute stud.

AJ GURALAS

LINCHPIN

MAT T L AL ANNE | MUSTA NG NE W S

| Senior goalie Sean Pihl was an integral part of the Mustangs’ defense this season and for his efforts, he was named First Team All-American last week.

the country,” sophomore attackman AJ Guralas said. “It all starts with our goalie [Pihl]; he’s an absolute stud.”

Pihl’s teammates know they can trust him in the net. They also know that, like many other athletes, Pihl has his own share of superstitions for game days.

On the field, he can only step over lines with his left foot. After every goal, he high fives his defensemen in a particular order. Most important of all, his teammates can never step into

his goalie’s crease. It’s a series of ceremonies that contribute to his confidence in net.

“If I’m mentally comfortable, then I’m good,” Pihl said.

According to senior defenseman and team captain Jackson Cole, these superstitions bring in the saves.

“He’s been the best player on our team all four years,” Cole said. “He just makes a lot of saves.”

However, Pihl is unwilling to take sole credit for his

team’s success.

“All four years I’ve been surrounded by killer defensemen who make my job easier,” Pihl said.

That confidence helped him feel reassured watching his team while injured.

Back to the final game That was the case in the final game of the regular season, another matchup against UC Berkeley, and the Mustangs were forced to put sopho-

more goalie Anthony Epshetyn in net.

“When [Epshetyn] was in net, I had 100 percent confidence in him,” Pihl said. “Winning the biggest game of the year without me showed how good we are when everyone plays together as a team.”

Sitting on the sidelines allowed Pihl to return to the field with a new sense of purpose.

“From then on, I tried to have a different mentality,” Pihl said.

“To appreciate playing lacrosse

at Cal Poly with some of my best friends.”

Despite the postseason coming to an early end when Virginia Tech eliminated the Mustangs 9-5 in the first round of the National Championship, Pihl has hope for the future of the club.

“I think [head coach Bobby Dabrieo] has done a good job of building on the tradition when he came in last year,” Pihl said.

“I’m excited to see what’s in store for Cal Poly Lacrosse.”