May 4, 2017

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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

Taking a load off Backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail

SUMMER PL ANS

TYLER MCDONOUGH | COURTE SY PHOTO

| Biomedical engineering junior Tyler McDonough traded a summer in San Diego to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,659-mile trail that goes through California, Oregon and Washington.

Christina Leedham @ CPMustangNews

“You have to just, you know, send it, or you will never be able to do things you did not know you could.”

That’s what San Diego native Tyler McDonough said to himself when he swapped a summer full of ocean and sand for one on the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,659-mile trail going from the Mexican border to the Canadian border through California, Oregon and Washington.

The journey began when his father decided to take a break from reality and venture out on this five-month adventure and called biomedical engineering junior McDonough to see if he wanted to join.

“He [my dad] said I have to stay in school for spring quarter, even though I wanted to leave spring quarter and do the whole trail,” McDonough said. “The trail starts in April, so I met him the day after I got out of spring quarter and flew

up to Tahoe and went from Tahoe to Canada with him.”

With no time to waste, McDonough and his father averaged hiking approximately 10 hours each day. Withdrawn from technology, running water and other people — with the exception of his father and other hikers along the way — McDonough found a new appreciation for stillness.

“The coolest part would be hiking for 10 hours and we [my father and I] would rarely speak, which was

really nice because when you’re out there the world is so quiet and so slow,” McDonough said. “Just the aura of the trail was my favorite part. Sometimes we’d discuss our thoughts; I’d like to see what was on my dad’s mind.”

However, this adjustment to long-term silence started as one of the biggest obstacles, despite the physical demands that hiking every day required.

“The weird part about struggles is that it wasn’t what I was expecting

it to be. I thought it was going to be physical, like my legs are hurting too much to make it tomorrow, but it was only like that the first few days. It was mainly a mental, internal struggle,” McDonough said. “It started off as ‘Can my body do this?’ and it turned into ‘Am I going to mentally be able to make it through this, every day sleeping by myself in the middle of nowhere?”

BACKPACKING continued on page 4

Dining and University Store under new management Connor McCarthy @ conr_mccarthy

Follett Higher Education Group will take over full operations of the University Store starting July 1. The contract was finalized with Cal Poly Corporation April 21, Cal Poly Corporation Executive Director Lorlie Leetham said.

According to Leetham, the Corporation also handed over some Campus Dining management services to Chartwells Higher Education — an international university food provider — in late January.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY HANNA CROWLEY | MUSTA NG NE W S

ACCESS | ASI is proposing a resolution that will provide free hygiene products in on-campus bathrooms to students who menstruate.

Free feminine hygiene products could become a reality at Cal Poly Cecilia Seiter @ cseiter17

A resolution to provide free feminine hygiene products in some women’s, men’s and all-gender restrooms around campus is up for vote in Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) Board of Directors.

The resolution began as a project developed by landscape architecture senior Natalie Montoya for the University Union Advisory Board, on which she serves. She then proposed

expanding the project across campus and co-authored the resolution for the ASI Board of Directors with business administration senior Hannah Poplack and statistics senior Hayley Ford.

The resolution’s ultimate goal, Montoya said, is to provide students who menstruate with resources to support their success and well-being.

“We believe that by providing these products for free and across campus, we’ll help the people who menstruate to have

a better quality of life, more academic success and just honestly [have] access to a basic need that they have,” Montoya said.

The resolution requests that these products be offered for free in some bathrooms for all genders across campus and that they be supplied in reasonable amounts. Montoya and Poplack said the language of the resolution includes male bathrooms because there are students who menstruate who use men’s bathrooms on campus.

University Store Follett will take over management of the physical Cal Poly University Stores — both on

campus and in downtown San Luis Obispo — as well as the online store. The company operates more than 1,200 campus stores around the country.

Leetham said the change is due in part to challenges in the campus bookstore industry.

“You have Amazon, you have virtual store providers, you have a lot of compliance and legal issues around textbook affordability and needing to provide the best type of resources and information to our students,” Leetham said. “Our hope and a belief are a company like Follett, who we have contracted with, will bring 140 years of experience.”

THIRD PARTIES continued on page 2

Poplack said the resolution aims specifically to serve the population of students who struggle to pay for feminine hygiene products on their own.

“One in five CSU students are actually food insecure. And if you’re a food insecure student, you’re probably not a student who can afford to buy a pack of pads or tampons for $7 at the University Union,” Poplack said.

HYGIENE continued on page 3

FILE PHOTO | MUSTA NG NE W S

PARTIAL | Some parts of Campus Dining will be under new management.

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

NEWS 2

MUSTANG NEWS

... ‘How could we have the maximum impact on making the world a better place?’

KYLE WIENS

IFIXIT TODAY

ANDRE W EPPERSON | MUSTA NG NE W S

| iFixit now offers more than 26,000 repair manuals online for nearly 8,000 different devices. The company also founded a technical writing program at Cal Poly for engineering students.

Yosemite Hall startup becomes fix-it-yourself empire Austin Linthicum @ austinlinthicum

You might know the unlikely origins of some of the biggest tech boom startups, like Napster and Facebook which started in university residence halls. But Cal Poly’s Yosemite Hall was once the original headquarters of iFixit, a site that teaches people how to fix almost anything.

The history The idea was born in 2003 out of need for a projector in the residence halls. Co-founder and industrial engineering graduate Luke Soules sold computer parts online in high school and his floor mates convinced

him to restart his business to raise the $1000 they needed for the projector.

Soules started buying old computers on eBay, extracting the parts so he could send them to people to repair their own devices.

“At that point, we got the money and bought the projector,” Soules said. “But we thought, ‘Why should we shut down a business that is making some money?’”

As Soules and co-founder and computer science graduate Kyle Wiens continued to sell computer parts, they were surprised by the lack of online resources for installing and repairing components. To give their customers instructions, the pair developed

“Fixit Guides.”

As an afterthought, they put the Fixit Guides on their website for free and saw shocking success.

On the first day alone they had upwards of 10,000 views.

“We quickly started to find that instructions were the big thing that we were known for,” Soules said.

While living in the residence halls, the pair had to keep their business under wraps because operating a business out of the residence halls is not allowed.

Soules jokes at the thought of being caught now.

“I think whatever statute of limitations applies has long since passed,” Soules said.

They also became well known

at the package center, dropping off up to 20 shipments per day during their first year on campus.

As the business grew, the amount of space needed to store their inventory grew as well. After operating out of an apartment for a year, they rented a house with a three-car garage where iFixit operated until they moved into a formal office space.

They admit that going to school and owning a business was sometimes challenging. Wiens recalls watching the clock while troubleshooting a product with a customer.

“I had a midterm on campus and I didn’t have a good way to tell the customer that ‘I have to hang up talking to you now be-

cause I’m going to be late for a midterm,’” Wiens said.

Just before graduation, the senior co-founders had to decide whether to continue to grow their business or try something else.

“Up until then it was just a way to make money,” Wiens said. “For us, it was about, ‘How could we have the maximum impact on making the world a better place?’” iFixit today A few thousand views have grown to millions as iFixit now offers over 26,000 repair manuals online for nearly 8,000 different devices. Still based out of San Luis Obispo, the company employs approximately 100 people. iFixit also founded a technical

writing program at Cal Poly in 2009 for engineering students.

Instead of writing instructions for an imaginary product, students receive a real device. They take it apart and then write a repair service manual for it. iFixit then publishes the guides with the most popular racking up to 300,000 views, according to iFixit education director Brittany McCrigler.

“It’s always cool for students to say, ‘Hey, I did this class project and instead of going in the trash, thousands of people saw it online!’” Soules said.

The iFixit technical writing program is now at 70 universities and 12,000 students have completed the program.

THIRD PARTIES continued from page 1

Follett manages about half of the bookstores across the California State University (CSU) system, making Cal Poly the 12th university to fall under their management. The company also runs the Allan Hancock College Bookstore in Santa Maria.

Follett agreed to keep current employees and their current benefits fixed for a three-year contract. After that, it will be up to the company to change or keep current employees.

“We negotiated a three-year agreement for our staff, meaning there will be guaranteed employment for three years,” she said. “Now, that doesn’t mean they won’t retain their employment for a lot longer.

This means they are guaranteed their current rate of pay with comp up packages for compensations and benefits so it comes out comparable [to] where they are today.”

Campus Dining Chartwells Higher Education has already begun managing some aspects of Campus Dining, but not all.

“Our core function will remain very similar as it did before; we have to manage those contracts,” Leetham said. “We still own Campus Dining. We still do post award sponsored research. We still provide fiscal and human resource support for agriculture programs; we operate conference event planning. We hold a number of licenses and agreements for the university and I think there will

THIRD PARTY MANAGEMENT

be new things coming down the pipe for the corporation.”

According to a Mustang News article, this transition will not affect Campus Dining employees.

University spokesperson Matt Lazier said the university has no additional comment beyond what was said by

FILE PHOTO | MUSTA NG NE W S

| Cal Poly Corporation handed over full operation of the University Store to Follett Higher Education Group starting April 21, 2017.

the Corporation.

Words from the new management Follet regional manager Susanne Duits said the company has always been fascinated by Cal Poly and is happy to be a part of the Mustang community.

“It is one of the premiere

[CSU] schools as well as one of the premiere schools in the entire state,” Duits said. “We are really proud and fortunate to be selected as the operator of the bookstore.”

As part of the contract signed with the Corporation, Duits said the University Store on campus will be remodeled, but

no true plan has been drawn up.

However, the current technology center in the store will be expanded to fit the expanding demand for those resources.

Aditionally, Duits said students will start to see more affordable textbook prices than currently offered, based on another part of the contract.

“That’s one of the core values that we have is affordable materials, whether we are working with the affordable learning solutions on campus through the Chancellor’s Office,” Druits said. “We got a lot of solutions in addition to rentals that will hopefully drive down the cost of course materials.”

NEWS 3

THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2017

Abortion medication may be accessible to students through the Health Center Emma Withrow @ CPMustangNews

A bill is going through the California Senate that would require public university and community college health centers to provide medicated abortion services. The bill passed its second reading April 25.

Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino) introduced Senate Bill (SB) 320, which would mandate student health centers that operate with state funding to provide students with access to medication to abort a pregnancy. The bill does not include surgical abortion procedures.

“SB 320 will ensure that pregnant college students — if they choose to do so — are able to end their pregnancy within the first few weeks without needing to travel off campus to a distant clinic, pay out of pocket and even miss class or work obligations in order to access these constitutionally protected services,” Leyva said in a press release April 19.

The Cal Poly Students for Life Club caught wind of the bill and began demonstrating their op-

HYGIENE continued from page 1

The project also aims to alleviate the need for students to leave campus in case of an emergency, she said.

“I think that any female constituent or any student that identifies as female that I’ve spoken to has a story ... where not having access to these products on this campus has caused them to leave,” she said.

“And that was pretty shocking to me.”

position last week, hanging baby socks on the fence in front of the Health Center. It was their way of taking a stand, Margaret Caligaris, the president of Students for Life, said.

“We wanted to do something that would have a really heavy impact,” Caligaris said. “Students for Life had been doing a sock drive since March and they are going to put baby socks around the congressional building in Washington, D.C. So we wanted to do our own little demonstration around the Health Center to show how this bill will affect lives, students and everyone on a day-to-day basis.”

The baby socks were removed when the fencing around the Health Center was taken down.

The Students for Life Club also held a protest on Dexter Lawn April 27 to raise awareness and inform students about SB 320.

Caligaris, an environmental earth and soil sciences sophomore, expressed her disdain that California is more open to providing abortion to college campuses than working on providing a more accessible campus for new

mothers. After walking through Cal Poly’s campus, Caligaris found there were very few resources for student mothers.

“The real thing that offends me the most as a woman on a college campus is that the legislator is ba-

sically telling us as women that we have to pick between our children and our education,” Caligaris said.

Reproductive law and politics and feminist studies professor Jennifer Denbow voiced her support for SB 320.

“This bill would expand access to abortions that are safe, it would allow for more abortions to be done early in pregnancy,” Denbow said.

“I think that more access to reproductive health services like this is an important part of healthcare and

reproductive justice.”

Students for Life is ready for an uphill battle in a primarily abortion rights-oriented state, Caligaris said.

“We will be fighting this bill until it is voted on. We are not going to stop,” Caligaris said.

While the resolution was proposed to the ASI Board of Directors in April, a movement was originally made to table the vote until March 2018, however, by then all the authors of the resolution will have graduated.

That movement would have essentially killed the bill.

After discussion and debate, it was ultimately tabled for a vote on the May 3 Board of Directors meeting. As of May 1, the vote was rescheduled for the May 10 Board of Directors meeting at 5 p.m. in Chumash Auditorium.

The meeting is open to the public. There will be a 15-minute open forum period at 5:15 p.m. directly before the vote where meeting participants can speak.

Montoya said she was disappointed with the proposed movement to vote in March 2018. She said the group of board members who suggested the later vote reasoned the resolution needed more research and specific details about the program, such as where its funding would come from and

how it would be implemented.

“All of those things are very important that we need to get student feedback on during a trial period and valid questions, but I don’t think that it’s a reason to shoot down this resolution,” Montoya said.

Montoya said the resolution actually includes broad language rather than specific terms to ensure its success. It gives the university flexibility as to how it can fund and implement the program and within what time period.

The current resolution includes research on the impact of the program on Cal Poly’s facility budget.

“What we’re proposing comes out to just under $15,000, so about $14,000. And that would only add 8.2 percent to the facilit[y] budget,” Poplack said. “It’s a tiny little drop in the bucket.”

Those additional $14,000 would come from the California state budget, which covers facility costs for CSU campuses.

Poplack said that while she would like to see the resolution passed, more time to educate her constituents and fellow board members about the project could be beneficial.

“What I would hope ... I would see is a totally different conversation happening in the boardroom,” she said.

“It’s not going to take us until March 2018 to understand that potentially half of the people on this campus could potentially benefit from a program like this.”

EMMA WITHROW | MUSTA NG NE W S

THE BILL | SB 320 would require the Health Center to provide services to students who want to get an aborton within the first few weeks of pregnancy.

ARTS 4

MUSTANG NEWS

Up! Way Up! working on new EP

SAMMI MULHERN | MUSTA NG NE W S

MOVING UP

| Up! Way Up! describes their sound as alternative, indie, surf rock with ska influence. The band is releasing their third EP which they are recording in a professional studio for the first time.

Mikaela Duhs @ mikaeladuhs

“Yeah, yeah drink with me! Yeah, yeah drink with me!”

Fifteen friends yelled in the center of the recording studio.

The cheers were so common after Friday night jam sessions that they started the first track of alternative rock trio Up! Way Up!’s newest EP. The scene had three musicians: Ryan Corvese on bass, Will Sutton on guitar and Colin Webster on drums.

After three years of knowing each other and jamming in their houses, the group decided to transform their hobby into an official band in August 2016. After Sutton and Webster recorded and mixed two EPs on the personal recording software Logic, the group decided to record their third EP in a professional studio.

They went back to what they knew: the Saucepot, a rehearsal studio designed for loud bands to escape noise violations in their neighborhoods and jam freely.

This space is the side project of local eight piece hip-hop/funk band Wordsauce. Up! Way Up! was renting a room at the Saucepot and chose to play their newest tracks there for the first time.

Aerospace engineering senior Sutton likes to classify each of the band’s musical releases by themes. Up! Way Up!’s first tape — The Madonna Tapes — was created, mixed and mastered in Webster’s home at the foot of Madonna mountain. Using Logic, the mix helped the band find their bearings without professional assistance.

Up! Way Up!’s second tape Stand Your Ground is flooded with encouraging lyrics as the EP’s name suggests. Stand Your Ground in-

cluded songs about standing up for your right to exist and speak.

Though it does not have a name yet, the band’s newest EP album is set to be a small selection of stories told through song. According to Sutton, each song tells a different story in a different way.

The album is the culmination of what the band has worked toward and represents a big step in their musical journey.

“This is Up! Way Up! It’s finally put together, recorded professionally, we haven’t done anything else like it,” business administration senior Corvese said. “This is the big project that we have been shooting for for a while now. It is finally happening.”

The band’s name draws from the Friday night jam sessions that were an escape for engineering students Sutton and Webster. Through music, they were able to force their feelings and moods up — way up — after a long week of studying and sleepless nights. Through this they found their most pressing passion, music making.

The sound With different musical interests, each band member has different musical influences they bring to Up! Way Up!’s sound. Each member of the trio described the band as having different characteristics and distinctive sounds with the commonality of alternative rock.

“I would call us alternative surf rock with punk and reggae rhythms,” biomedical engineering senior Webster said. “We sound beach, but aggressive at times and sometimes upbeat.”

Aside from the bass, drums and guitar, each member of Up!

Way Up! contributes vocally.

With only three members, it’s less at times, but according to Corvese, sometimes less can provide more of an experience for the audience.

Sutton mixes up rhythmic patterns with a love of ska, Jamaican music, jazz and R&B. To put it simply, Up! Way Up! presents a melting pot of genres, and has a unique sound because of the band’s passion for different types of music.

“I do like to think that we have our own sound,” Sutton said.

“Colin and I both grew up listening to a lot of the same music.

Modern punk rock and pop punk and metal and progressive. A lot of the melodic sounds come from Ryan’s sixties rock love.”

times weeks, of work that make those songs sound the way they do,” Sutton said. “To be able to understand that, approximate it. It makes you really appreciate music from a technical standpoint.”

Getting out there Sharing their music is the band’s top priority.

“We’ve been trying to gig more than anybody,” Corvese said.

“We’ve been getting the demos out to show local venues we are somewhat reputable, start gigging, start showing people that we are fun to listen to.”

Corvese said that meant actively going online to get gigs and practicing, on top of schoolwork.

“We practice four times a week,”

Corvese said. “We are always here and when we are not here, we are texting about song ideas. Music is our life and I think that’s what it has to be about.”

Sutton said that because Up! Way Up! is a college band, many of the members’ friends frequent their shows. However, Sutton said he hopes to change that by giving their audience an unforgettable experience that keeps people coming back for more than camaraderie.

“My ultimate goal is to not be a local band that has their friends come out because they are their friends, but we want our friends to come out because they really enjoy the experience,” Sutton said. “I hope they really enjoy

the music.”

Because of plans away from San Luis Obispo, Up! Way Up! will be on a short hiatus over the summer.

“We expect to be back in the fall, book shows and continue musical career in SLO,” Webster said. “We will see where it goes.

We are hoping to pursue it as far as we can.”

Up! Way Up! wants to continue playing and sharing their sounds with everyone they can along the Central Coast, hopefully attaining bigger goals in the future.

“We have seen really positive responses about it and we love doing it,” Webster said. “If this is something we can pursue beyond college, then that would be the dream.”

Coming together Collaboration was crucial to the making of Up! Way Up!’s newest tape. Previously, the trio individually worked and reworked songs, presenting them to the group. Now, with extra time, cash from local gigs and a recording studio, the band took to new techniques of lyric and music writing.

“We put down our instruments, we kind of mad lib some stuff,” Corvese said. “We think, ‘What is a catchy hook? What do we want to sing about? Is this a story?’ As a band, we have come together, wanting to write a song with a certain vibe.”

Not only has working in the studio encouraged collaboration and helped to unify Up! Way Up!’s sound, it has also given the band a keen sense of gratitude for professional recording quality.

“It’s so easy to listen to a song that you hear on a CD and not even think about the hours, some-

RECORDING

SAMMI MULHERN | MUSTA NG NE W S

| Aerospace engineering senior Will Sutton plays guitar and sings for Up! Way Up!

BACKPACKING continued from page 1

For McDonough, these moments were offset by his surroundings.

Whether it was hiking underneath a waterfall, adding fresh berries to their food supply or drinking from the “best tasting water,” these experiences in nature became part of McDonough’s most treasured memories.

A backpacking trip this extensive requires a lot of planning and coordination. McDonough and his father created a system where his mother sent a prepackaged box of food and other necessities to each

small town they would stop in.

“We stopped in town every seven to 10 days and my dad had assembled these boxes with everything we would need, like bars and tortillas and necessities for the next week and my mom would then mail the box up to that location,” McDonough said.

In fact, for McDonough, coping with the stark lifestyle change coming back from life on the trail was the hardest part of the trip.

“There is this thing in the hiker community called ‘post-trail depression,’” he said. “You go on this insane trip to assimilate back into humankind where the people are so

different and there is running water and social issues and the world; going from just this euphoria, utopian world back to the real world.”

Every once in awhile, McDonough revisits this utopia through the blog he created while backpacking. Although his blog of the Pacific Crest Trail started as a way to let his family and friends know he was safe and alive, it grew to mean a lot more to him.

“It became something really cool to focus on. Now I look back and read about my adventures when I need a pick-me-up or am having a bad day and need some positivity,” he said.

ARTS 5

THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2017

Morro Bay Kite Festival gathers professionals and enthusiasts alike Sabrina Thompson @ sabrinaswriting

Kites flew and waves crashed as kids ran up and down Morro Bay Beach during the 11th Annual Morro Bay Kite Festival last weekend. A two-day event, the festival features professional kite flyers with giant kites and demonstrations for spectators to enjoy.

The Morro Bay Kite Festival was founded and is directed by Shaun Farmer, a kite shop owner in Morro Bay. After selling kites at a festival in Paso Robles 11 years ago, he decided Morro Bay needed a festival of its own. Working with the city of Morro Bay, volunteer community organizations and vendors, the Kite Festival became a weekend for families to go outside and enjoy the whimsy of kite flying.

“My favorite part of this event is watching the kids and the parents interact with their kids and smiling and getting away from their electrical devices,” Farmer said.

Professional kite flyers travel from all

over the county to fly their kites at the festival. From smaller trick kites to 50foot kites, a large variety fly the Morro Bay skies.

Professional kite flyer Penny Lingenfelter has traveled across the world to places like Malaysia, South America, Canada and Mexico to fly kites. Through her unique style, she uses skits and costumes to tell stories with the kites.

Anthony Eichele is from Stockton, California and has flown dual line kites for 20 years. He’s also put on kite demonstrations for eight years. In his demonstrations, Eichele controls his kite with precision to make it fly in loops, turn sharply, flip and draw invisible shapes in the sky.

Explaining the art Eichele explained three types of kite flying.

“We have pure precision flying which is flying straight lines and figures,” Eichele said. “The other is a kind we call freestyle, which is a blend of precision and trick flying. Trick flying is where we flip the kite at different angles and do flat

spins and rolls. And the other one is just flat out trick flying, which is doing those rolls and flips and whatever you can think of.”

These tricks can be done by one person, showing off their skills and accuracy by controlling their kite in unpredictable wind. Tricks can also be a team effort and the kite’s flight pattern can often be choreographed to music. This was the case for team For-ce who used four kites to create their demonstration.

Using rock climbing-strength material, Richard Delisio and Ken Schulz flew large 50- to 100-foot kites on the beach.

The two friends met in southern California at another kite festival. Many of their kites are shaped like sea creatures to keep with the location’s theme.

While many kite flyers take a relaxed approach, letting the wind move their kite naturally, professionals flying these large kites use more strength and control to avoid accidents.

“You’ve got to know what you’re doing,” Delisio said. “It’s not just a

light-weight sport.”

Several charities came out during the weekend to support the festival. The Central Coast Funds for Children, a non-profit organization, provided free kites for kids to decorate and fly alongside the professionals.

“It provides a wonderful opportunity for parents to have a fun day with their kids,” Central Coast Funds for Children member Claudia Grant said. “And to see all our kites flying later on in the day, it’s just a wonderful feeling.”

Children of all ages ran along the water’s edge with their kites as their parents watched. For some, the day was about getting away from the stress of everyday life while for others, it was about doing what they love: flying kites.

“When you’re flying a kite, you just forget about all your stress, it goes up in the wind with the kite,” Farmer said.

When you’re flying a kite, you just forget about all your stress, it goes up in the wind with the kite.

SHAUN FARMER

TABATA GORDILLO | MUSTA NG NE W S

WEEKEND FUN | The Morro Bay Kite Festival drew a large crowd of kite enthusiasts far and wide. The weekend was filled with activities for all, from families visiting Morro for the weekend to professional kite fliers.

TECHNIQUE

TABATA GORDILLO | MUSTA NG NE W S

| There are several types of kite flying, such as precision, freestyle and trick flying.

OPINION 6

MUSTANG NEWS

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

Letter to the President

CONTACT

Open Letter to Riley Nilsen Jana Colombini is an agricultural sciences senior and current ASI president. Open letters do not reflect the opinion or editorial coverage of Mustang News.

EDITORIAL (805) 756-1796 ADVERTISING (805) 756-1143 CLASSIFIED (805) 756-1143 FAX (805) 756-6784

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WRITE A LETTER

SOPHIA O’KEEFE | MUSTA NG NE W S

PASSING THE TORCH

| The outgoing ASI president shares some words of wisdom with newly elected President Riley Nilsen about dedication, tradition and humility.

Jana Colombini Special to Mustang News

Riley, Congrats! Being elected Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) President is a huge honor. Throughout your year, you will have a lot of successes and a lot of struggles.

ASI Chief of Staff Anthony and I came up with a list of 11 pointers to help you out because once I’m done June 18, you are on your own! Yes, I know top 10 would make more sense, but sometimes we must defy the societal norms. Here you go: Top 11 pointers for being ASI president 1. You have officially signed your soul to Cal Poly. You’re going to be overwhelmingly busy, so figure out what your priorities are and cut everything else out because ASI presidency deserves to have all your time and energy.

2. Your team is everything. Who you surround yourself with will determine your success, so pick your Chief of Staff and Executive Cabinet wisely. Don’t just pick people you know.

3. Your own interests and organizations are not the only people you represent, so think holistically. You represent all 21,000 students.

4. Say goodbye to a good chunk of your social life. You can’t party all the time because you are the ASI president and you should never put the position at risk for it to be an embarrassment to the student body.

5. How you decorate your office is actually important. Put up things that show who you are and what you represent. If you are an ally to any group, show that. It’s important for students to know what you stand for.

6. You don’t know everything, but act and be confident as if you do. Always recognize when you don’t know everything and do your research. Don’t promise students things that can’t happen.

7. Don’t be an idiot. You are the student body president of one of the best schools in the country, so act like it. Be the best you can be all the time.

8. Strive to make Cal Poly something better than it is. Strive to be better than all other schools and strive to create a perfect Cal Poly, even though we are far from it.

9. Always remember why you wanted to be president and the platform you ran on.

Students are expecting you to accomplish that. Don’t let them down!

10. Stay humble. You are not a gift from (insert whatever higher power you believe in here, if any). You are here to represent students, not to be their ruler.

11. You have no idea what the ASI president does until you’ve been ASI president. You have no idea what the job completely entails, but if you dedicate yourself to the position and always give it 100 percent, then you will understand what it’s like to be in this position. It can honestly suck at times, but being able to make change and help students makes it all worth it in the end.

Good luck!

— Jana Colombini

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MUSTANG NEWS

Poly-ball: A Mustang legacy Allison Royal @ alpalroyal

It’s 1985. Cal Poly volleyball players Kelly Strand and Vera Pendergast are laser-focused with sweat dripping down their faces in the heat of Mott Athletic Center. Cheers from loyal fans fill their ears and blur to background noise as they prepare to dig a speedy serve from the opposing team. Their Cal Poly team was ranked in the top 10 in the NCAA at the time.

And now, more than 30 years later, their daughters play the same positions their mothers did as Mustangs. But at the time, no one could have predicted the legacy they would start and that their children would continue.

Family history Thirty years ago, love was in the air in the Cal Poly athletics department. Jim Van Winden, a Cal Poly basketball player, and Cal Poly volleyball player Kelly Van Winden (maiden: Strand) met at Cal Poly and later got married. Similarly, Rich Nelson, a Cal Poly baseball player, and Vera Nelson (maiden: Pendergast), a Cal Poly volleyball player, also met at Cal Poly and later married.

Sophomore outside hitter Adlee Van Winden recalls her childhood home as the daughter of two Cal Poly alumni, with the families’ cars decorated with sentimental Cal Poly alumni and Cal Poly parent stickers.

“Everything in our houses is green and yellow,” Adlee said.

Junior setter Taylor Nelson recalls the first trip she took with her family to her parents’ alma mater with her sister, Lindsay, and brother, Darren.

“I came here when I was 10 and ever since then I was like, ‘I have to go here,’” Taylor said.

The SLO mamas Vera and Kelly were part of one of the most successful volleyball teams Cal Poly has ever had, finishing in the top eight in the country in the 1980s. Kelly was an all-American outside hitter for the team. As team captain during her senior season, Vera was named as an honorable mention to the Big West AllConference team.

“My time at Cal Poly was amazing,” Vera said in an email to Mustang News. “We had incredible teams all my years. We also had the best fans in the country.

Our gym was packed with students and the local community. I have so many amazing memories of playing in Mott gym.”

Their friendship has only grown stronger since their college days. For the past 30 years, Vera, Kelly and four other former teammates still go on an annual “girls weekend” vacation.

“They have a group text where they still talk to each other almost every day,” Taylor said.

“They call each other ‘the SLO mamas.’”

Now, Kelly and Vera drive down to watch most of their daughters’ volleyball matches on the same court where they first became friends.

“The friendships I made at Cal Poly have been the best friends throughout my lifetime,” Vera said.

As daughters of the “SLO mamas,” Adlee and Taylor grew up together. They played beach volleyball together as teenagers in Santa Cruz or at the court in Adlee’s backyard. But the odds of Kelly and Vera having daughters that were less than a year apart and that both grew up to play NCAA volleyball as well are pretty remarkable, even to the daughters.

“So slim. It’s crazy. It’s awesome

though,” Adlee said.

Both moms still stay involved in volleyball beyond watching their daughters play for Cal Poly. Vera is the head volleyball coach and assistant beach volleyball coach at Sierra College in Rocklin, California. Kelly owns a volleyball club in Napa and every one of Adlee’s maternal cousins received a full college scholarship for volleyball.

“Just being raised in that environment gives us an attitude that’s super similar to one another,” Adlee said.

Adlee and Taylor’s lifelong bond goes on to the court as well. The middle school beach volleyball tandem has continued their partnership all the way to the sand courts at Cal Poly. With a 10-year partnership comes communication skills that other NCAA pairs may not have.

“It’s such a personal sport.

You’re only with one other person that you really have to understand each other’s dynamic,” Taylor said.

Freshman of the year and allconference honorable mention her sophomore season, leading the Mustangs in kills with 366.

With all the accolades comes some stress, so both girls look to their mothers for comfort and advice.

“I think the best part is going to your mom and saying, ‘Hey, I had this really hard day, blah blah blah,’ and ... she knows, she’s been in that day,” Adlee said.

“Literally, in my day, in Mott, doing the same thing as me, so it’s just really cool to have her be like, ‘Hey, you’re gonna get through it.’”

The volleyball world was still a physically taxing place 30 years ago. Kelly and Vera tell their daughters about their grueling practices and the workouts they did to rise to the top of the NCAA volleyball ladder.

“Coach Mike Wilton was a very tough but honest and caring coach,” Vera said. “He and his wife Kuulei treated us like family and still keep in touch 30

years later. They both made our time at Cal Poly truly special.”

Today, when Taylor and Adlee play in a tense indoor match or neck-to-neck beach game, they understand each other. The two friends know not just where they are right now, but where they came from.

“Competitive-wise, we’re both just extremely competitive, so being able to look at her and knowing there’s someone out there that has the same drive and meaning is super reassuring,” Adlee said.

The legacy continues for this Cal Poly-proud set of families.

Taylor’s little brother, Darren, will attend Cal Poly to play baseball this fall, just as his father Rich did.

The family connections to Cal Poly don’t seem to stop. Taylor lives in the same house that her mom did when she lived here.

“Both of my cousins [also] lived here when they went here and now I’m living in it,” Taylor said.

Someday, after Taylor and Adlee trade in their Cal Poly uniforms for alumni gear, they want their future children to become Mustangs, too.

“Three generations, that’s the goal,” Taylor said. “I don’t want to pressure them, but if it works out, that would be pretty cool.”

“Oh my god, yes. That would be amazing,” Adlee said.

A few family members have strayed away from the Cal Poly tradition. Adlee’s sister, Torrey, goes to University of California, Los Angeles and Taylor’s sister, Lindsay, graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara.

But Adlee and Taylor are convinced they will have “Cal Poly Parent” stickers next to their “Cal Poly Alumni” stickers on their cars one day. “[The plan is to] just make Cal Poly look like the greatest place ever their whole life,” Adlee said.

“Essentially what our moms did.”

As Taylor and Adlee continue to climb to the top of the collegiate volleyball world, to each other, they are still those lifelong friends laughing and playing around with a volleyball in Adlee’s childhood backyard.

Sometimes the two will even wear their moms’ old Cal Poly uniforms for nostalgia.

For these two families, it is a very small world. And Cal Poly will always be home.

Continuing the legacy Kelly and Vera were successful during [The moms] have a their days at Cal Poly, but their group text where they d aug hters are power players in still talk to each other their own right. almost everyday.

Ta y l o r was selected as one of 12 players for the U.S. TAYLOR NELSON Women’s Collegiate National Team Thailand Tou r. Ad d it i on a l l y, t h e kinesiology major ended her season sixth in the country and first in the Big West conference in assists per set and earned all-region honors from the American Volleyball Coaches’ Association.

Adlee, a child development VERA NELSON | COURTE SY PHOTO major, was named Big West FOOTSTEPS | Taylor Nelson (left) and Adlee Van Winden (right) are continuing their moms’ legacy.