May 9, 2016

Monday, May 9, 2016

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Establishe d 1916

Have cans,

will travel Lexi McCoy Special to Mustang News

Team Cali Crush, consisting of biological sciences junior Andrew Jess, mechanical engineering junior Brian Danis and agricultural business junior Carl Wilke, is back from its “Red Bull Can You Make It?” journey through Europe, having finished 23rd out of 165 teams.

“Red Bull Can You Make It?” was a weeklong challenge where teams traveled across Europe using only Red Bull as currency, with no access to money or phones. The team had to reach checkpoints and collect “Social Points” by getting their social media posts liked and shared, as well as “Adventure Points” by completing tasks off of a list.

The team was able to get around Europe by trading Red Bull cans for train rides, or by hitchhiking.

“I’m not sure if this is necessarily legal, but basically we were hopping on trains and once we were on the train a ticket person would come up, they’d ask us for our tickets,”

Jess said. “We’d describe what we were doing on the trip and either they’d get really stoked and let us stay on or they’d ask us to get off or they’d call the police.”

One highlight from the team’s trip was their time in Switzerland, which was unanimously their favorite place to visit.

“One of the ‘Adventure Points’ options was to take a shower under a waterfall,” Danis said.

“We did that in Switzerland, it was ice cold and we did it for 30 seconds. We all froze to death, but it was a great experience.”

Other memorable experiences included singing and dancing with a bride and groom in Paris, riding scooters down hills in Switzerland and celebrating Jess’ 21st birthday at a bar with the Eiffel Tower as their view.

The team was able trade Red Bull for food, but was unlucky in trading Red Bull for a place to sleep.

“We found sleeping to be one of the most challenging parts but also one of the most fun parts,” Wilke said. “We were sleeping out in the streets, in parks and

RED BULL | COURTSE Y PHOTO WINGS

| Jess, Wilke and Danis (left to right) finished 23rd out of 165 teams in the Red Bull-sponsored journey throughout Europe.

even on the beach one night.”

Language barriers were another struggle, though the team didt have a sheet that explained what they were doing in several languages. The team’s lowest point was being stranded in Northern Italy for almost a day.

“We made a plan to get ad-

venturous and hitchhike from Northern Italy to the next checkpoint in Switzerland and it worked out for the most part, but we got stranded in the middle of nowhere,” Wilke said. “It started raining and we were just beat. Finally, after hours of hitchhiking, this awesome

Argentinian couple picked us up and drove us all the way to the doorstep of the checkpoint.”

Though they were only getting a few hours of sleep every night and weren’t eating regularly, the team kept a positive attitude.

“We knew we had this once-

CAL POLY MULTICULTURAL CENTER | COURTESY PHOTO

Timoi brings art to the UU Naba Ahmed @nabaahmed

After nearly two years of planning, graffiti artist Timoi’s art was hung in the Julian A. McPhee University Union (UU) as part of a temporary exhibit starting April 28.

Timoi visited Cal Poly on May

Day 2014 to celebrate immigrant and labor rights, Cross Cultural Center Coordinator (CCC) Que Dang said.

“We are talking a lot about what graffiti art means for communities, activism, empowerment and social justice,” Dang said.

She worked in collaboration with

in-a-lifetime trip so we decided to make the best of it and always try to be the happiest people we could,” Danis said.

Though they have no specific plans yet, Danis, Wilke and Jess all hope to travel again together in the future, possibly back to Europe.

RAY AMBLER | COURTESY PHOTO

Men’s track and field leads Big West Championships

Cal Poly students to create this piece on Mott Lawn. Timoi, also known as Susana DeLeon, created the figure in the foreground, depicting historical labor figure Louis Moreno, while students contributed to the background.

Continued on page 3

Ty Schilling @CPMustangSports

The Cal Poly track and field team had three decathletes and three heptathletes compete in this weekend’s multievent portion of the Big West Conference Championships.

The men’s decathlon team, led by senior Devin Bennett, scored a total of 15 points over two days, giving the team a onepoint advantage over rival UC Santa Barbara.

After the Mustangs’ performance, the men’s team leads the Big West Championships

headed toward the second, and final, weekend of competition.

Bennett opened the second day of competition with a sixthplace 110-meter hurdle run behind his career-best discus mark of 139 feet, 7 inches.

Continued on page 8

Cal Poly zeros in on waste

Keysight donates 1.3 million

Lantern festival review

Softball goes 2-1

Page 2

Page 3

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Monday, May 9, 2016

NEWS | 2

Cal Poly Zeros in on Waste

MUSTANG NE WS FILE PHOTO DON’T BE WASTEFUL

| Cal Poly strives to be a zero waste campus. By 2020, Cal Poly plans to send 80 percent of waste to recycling and 20 percent to the landfill in order to do its part for the environment.

Naba Ahmed @nabaahmed

There are three options in front of you. You have to make a decision, but which one do you choose?

Landfill? Recycling? Compost?

Eric Veium makes the choice clear: when in doubt, recycle.

As the energy and sustainability analyst for Facility Services,

Veium is on a mission to give products consumed at Cal Poly a second life. He’s leading the Zero Waste Program: a campus-wide initiative developed by Facility Services to make Cal Poly more sustainable.

Cal Poly currently sends 80 percent of its waste to the landfill and 20 percent is recycled. But Veium plans to have those numbers flipped by 2020.

“It is important to build a culture and community around this because waste is an area of sustainability that affects everyone,” Veium said. “Zero Waste is just another initiative that reflects the university’s commitment for sustainability.”

Currently, people on campus have a habit of throwing their items straight into the landfill, sustainability coordinator

Kylee Singh said.

“There is going to be someone at the materials recovery facility who will sort through this,” Singh said. “We should leave it up to the experts rather than throw it straight into the landfill.”

This program is also a way to reach the goals set by the 2014 California State University (CSU) Sustainability Policy. Per the policy, Cal Poly must have a 50 percent per

capita reduction by 2016 and must have 80 percent of waste diverted from the landfill by 2020. In doing so, 80 percent of campus waste will be recycled or composted by that time.

“In order to achieve the 2016 goal, we are really focusing on individual actions on campus,” Singh said. “We need to be making sure that people are putting things in the right places.”

Zero Waste in action In Summer 2015, Veium came up with a new idea to help students understand where to put their trash. He started the pilot program for the nine Zero Waste recycling stations that can be found around campus.

“With the pilot program, we want to fail fast and learn Zero Waste is just quickly so that we have another initiative that reflects the a much more university’s commitment strategic for sustainability. and effective campus-wide ERIC VEIUM deployment program,” Veium said.

“We want the campus community to have the option to make proper sorting decisions.”

While the Zero Waste recycling stations have made it easier for students to understand where to put their waste, environmental engineering sophomore Amara

Cairns decided to take it one step further. Through a collaboration with Campus Dining, Cairns has created signs with actual waste products to put on the recycling stations. Her first sign has been put up in The Avenue, and she hopes to make additional improvements to future signs.

“We want to do a lot of educational outreach because everyone comes from different backgrounds,” Cairns said. “Some people are not even knowledgeable or conscious about recycling, so we are hoping to facilitate that.”

As part of its strategic plan, Campus Dining is also looking into reusable food containers.

“Currently, they have a single use disposable system where they take a salad, eat it and then it goes in the recycle (bin),” Veium said. “But with a reusable container, we can collect it, wash it and it will stay in the loop.”

Housing trash collection is an-

other area that needs to be looked at. By decreasing the number of trash dumpsters, consequently, there will be less waste going to the landfill.

At Poly Canyon Village, there are two four-yard landfill dumpsters collected seven days a week and only one three-yard recycling dumpster collected three days a week.

“Over a week’s period, that’s 56 yards of potential waste going to the landfill versus nine yards of recycling,” Veium said. “We are looking to switch that so more waste is being recycled.”

Since Zero Waste is a campus-wide initiative, multiple clubs are involved. The program also has its own student-run organization called the

Zero Waste Club, which Cairns will serve as president of next year.

One of its projects, which has been in the works for the past eight years, is to make the Open House Club Showcase waste-free. Booths were set up with recycling, landfill and compost stations to help anyone sort their waste properly at this year’s showcase.

Every club was required to send representatives to work the Zero Waste booths. If they didn’t, they were fined, Singh said.

However, members of the Cal Poly community were not the only ones battling waste. Cal Poly

hired a professional group called the Guerilla Gardeners to make sure people disposed of their trash properly at Open House.

Facility Services also hosts an internship program called Green Campus, where students create and develop energy and water conservation projects. Green Campus interns audit recycling stations and identify the amount of contamination — landfill trash that appears in compost or recycling or vice versa — to understand student behaviors when it comes to throwing away trash.

Zero Waste 0bstacles One of the biggest problems is the infamous Starbucks cup.

“The cup itself is recyclable, but the lid goes in the landfill,” Green Campus Team Manager and agricultural systems management senior Molly Barker said. “The proper way to do that would be to split them but most times one ends up in one or the other and that’s technically contamination.”

While it may be contamination, Barker refers back to the motto: when in doubt, recycle.

“In the greater picture of things,

throwing the whole thing in recycling is your best,” Barker said.

One project they are worked on was a competition between the six red brick residence halls, which took place throughout April to see who could reduce the most water, energy and waste. With a metering system, Facility Services will be able to measure the amount of hot water and electricity. For waste, each bin is weighed and looked at to determine the level of contamination on a scale of one to five.

Sequoia Hall came out on top with a 14.73 percent overall reduction in energy use. Facilities “adopted” a polar bear through the World Wildlife Fund on behalf of Sequoia, a nod to Green Campus’ Poly the Polar Bear mascot.

Green Campus and Zero Waste Club collaborated on a waste audit where they took a bag of landfill from one of the residence halls and cut it open. They set up camp outside of the red bricks where

NABA AHMED | MUSTANG NE WS CHOICES

| Cal Poly offers three choices for trash to reach the zero waste goal: compost, recycle and trash.

they sorted out the bag and found that a large portion of it could actually be recycled.It’s up to the students to take initiative and be informed on where waste really goes to meet the 2020 goal, Barker said.“It’s going to take the cooperation of all the students who are here,” Barker said. “We are the ones producing the waste, so we are the ones who need to learn.”

Where should you put your

waste? Landfill? Recycling? Compost?

The choice is all yours.

Monday, May 9, 2016

NEWS | 3

Keysight donates $1.3 million worth of equipment to create mobile communications lab Alex Davidson

ALEXANDER DAVIDSON| MUSTANG NE WS TECH TALK

| Keysight’s lab will benefit electrical engineering students learning about communication.

ALEXANDER DAVIDSON | MUSTANG NE WS

HANNA CROWLEY | MUSTANG NE WS TEMPOR ARY

| Timoi’s artwork will be hung in the UU for a maxiumum of 18 months unless extended.

Continued from page 1

Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) and the CCC partnered up to hang the work of art. The CCC provided the art and plaque while ASI chose the location for the piece and was responsible for hanging the art. Bringing Timoi to Cal Poly and buying supplies cost approximately $1,500.

It has been hung in the San Luis Lounge, which was an art gallery before it was converted into a study space.

A plaque will accompany the piece with the artist’s name and description to educate students on the significance of the work. University Union Advisory Board (UUAB) Chair and child development senior Sevelyn Van Ronk created a project proposal form to get more art into the UU. By collaborating with the CCC, the opportu-

nity presented itself, Van Ronk said.

“It was kind of unexpected and just fell into our laps to have this art displayed,” Van Ronk said. “But we have gotten really great feedback to have more student art represented in UU.” Since this is a temporary art piece, it will be no longer than 18 months. After a year, the UUAB will evaluate how the campus community is receiving the art to consider extending the display term, suggesting permanent status or removing the work from display. This will be done in consultation with the CCC. Unless the term is extended, the piece will be removed at the end of the display period. After the piece is taken down, it will be returned to the CCC. “If it works out well, students are responding well and the Cross Cultural Center thinks it’s a great spot, we can consider making it a permanent art piece,” Van Ronk said.

Special to Mustang News

Keysight Technologies, a test and measurement software manufacturer, recently donated $1.3 million worth of technology to Cal Poly to transform a room that was once simply lab tables and computers into an advanced communication laboratory for electrical engineering students.

Cal Poly professors, alumni and students, as well as Keysight employees, met in Engineering East (building 20, room 113) on Friday armed with party poppers to unveil the wire-filled Keysight Advanced Communications Laboratory. The new laboratory will allow students and researchers to generate, receive and analyze 4G and 5G wireless signals.

“There was only so much that we could do on our own,” electrical engineering department chair Dennis Derickson said. “We couldn’t achieve our vision with our own resources. We put this vision together and put it out there … It’s just amazing what can happen

when you actually ask.”

Students working in the laboratory will learn how mobile communication devices work.

Each of Cal Poly’s 650 electrical engineering students will use the Keysight vector analyzers as part of their curriculum, according to Derickson.

This will help improve the electrical engineering curriculum and help put students ahead of the curve as the industry transitions from 4G to 5G over the next decade, College of Engineering Dean Debra Larson said.

“The thing that keeps me up at night — I sleep pretty good — but the thing that keeps me up is this idea of how we continue to keep our learning environment relevant with the changes that are happening with technology,” Larson said. “Keysight ... recognized the importance of being able to help us upgrade our labs because they’re going to be able to hire more relevant and state of the art engineers. It’s a wonderful and synergistic relationship that we have.”

Monday, May 9, 2016

ARTS | 4

Cultural clubs come together to celebrate 22nd annual Lantern Festival

CHRISTA LAM | MUSTANG NE WS C EL EBR AT IN G D I V E R SI T Y

| S atu rd ay ’s L ant e r n Fe s t i v a l brou g ht d i f fe re nt m i n or it y g roup s t o ge t h e r i n t h e Un ive r s it y Un i on w it h a v ar i e t y of c u ltu r a l fo o d an d p e r for m an c e s .

Regine Smith @regine321

The presence of collective values on campus was exhibited at Saturday’s 22nd annual Lantern Festival, an event celebrating Asian American culture at Cal Poly hosted in the Julian A. McPhee University Union (UU) by Omega Xi Delta fraternity and Chi Delta Theta sorority.

“We set up the Lantern Festival every single year at the UU,” said Anil Thattayathu, a software engineering senior who helped coordinate the event.

“All the cultural clubs and organizations set up their booths and sell food and perform. The

idea is just to show the establishment of community, the diversity of San Luis Obispo and the diversity of the Cal Poly community itself.”

The virtues of community, diversity and working toward a common goal were ever present at this year’s Lantern Festival.

Hundreds of minority students turned out for the evening’s performances, reflecting the culturally diverse community within the student body.

“I think it’s good to get recognition from all of the Asian American students on campus,” said liberal arts and engineering senior BJ Yebisu, who ran the Japanese Student Association food booth. “I know we have that stig-

ma that we’re the white campus, but this helps show that there’s a lot of diversity amongst the students and that there’s a group for everyone here.”

The themes of inclusivity and interconnectedness were manifested in the Festival’s program.

Walking along the food booths on Mott Lawn, every cultural club on campus was eager to explain what they were serving, and excited for newcomers to experience their culture.

Students received a cultural education with the variety of food to sample, such as Pilipino cassava cake, a nutty flavored root plant made into a sugary cake with coconut milk and wrapped in a

CHRISTA LAM | MUSTANG NE WS

Cal Poly women to tell their OWN stories Sabrina Thompson @sthomp_jour

In Cal Poly’s Gender Equity Center’s production of OWN — a

full-length student-run play of “Original Women’s Narratives” — students who identify as women will have a chance to tell their stories.

“We’re not telling fictional stories and we’re not telling the stories of strangers — these are the stories of your friends, classmates, lab partners, the people

banana leaf.

Students also sold Chinese oolong milk tea, a tea made with sun dried oolong tea leaves; Japanese spam musubi, a clump of fried spam and white rice wrapped in a nori seaweed roll; and okonomiyaki, a Japanese style “pizza” pancake that can be topped with anything from octopus to vegetables to mochi.

Another interesting sight was observing students try the Pilipino delicacy balut for the first time. Balut is a hard boiled egg, but with a more developed chicken embryo inside. To eat balut, students would crack a small hole in the egg, suck the juice out like a shot then eat the remaining embryo, which tastes like a hybrid between an egg and chicken meat.

A set of memorable performances began with the traditional Lion Dance. Students were dressed in red and green lion costumes with giant heads; this is commonly mistaken for a dragon suit but actually represents a lion. The lions bounced up and down, and crawled through the crowds, interacting with and teasing crowd members with traditional Chinese drum music.

The Pilipino choir Ating Himig performed romantic sonnets a capella and wowed the crowd, while Kahanee, the Indian dance troupe, surprised

you sit next to on the bus — these are your peers,” English senior and OWN director Taylor Steinbeck said.

In a production seeking to empower and inspire, OWN will explore feminism, social justice movements, race, ethnicity, culture and class among additional topics meant to explore the narrative of women from all walks of life.

Replacing The Vagina Monologues, OWN looked to in-

the crowd with a mix of traditional Indian dances and modern hip-hop hits.

Lambda Theta Phi, the Latino interest fraternity, performed a warrior chant roaring “Conquistadores!” along with the virtues of what it meant to be a man of the fraternity. The chant was somewhat frightening, but in an attention-getting and entertaining manner.

Take Out Kidz and HipHop Choreo Club displayed the community built through teaching members hip-hop dance. And Lambda Phi Epsilon, an Asian interest fraternity, impressed with a series of step team chants that grabbed the crowd’s attention.

The night ended with a dance from the Tahitian Dance team, dressed in traditional Polynesian attire as leafy skirts and ankle bracelets shook to the beat of Polynesian beats and modern pop hits.

The various performances had the audience members screaming with support. The M.C.’s lightened the mood with humorous commentary, and many intermissions allowed for festival goers to wander the lawns and enjoy each others’ company. If one thing was evident, it was the sense of togetherness and joy in simply being in each others’ company that defined what Lantern Festival is all about.

clude any and all people who self-identify as women, opening the conversation to include topics of gender.

“Our show is about the multifaceted nature of womanhood and how the definition fluctuates based on the experiences of different identities,” Steinbeck said.

Students involved in OWN hope the audience will walk away with a stronger understanding of the women of Cal Poly.

“I want for every person in the audience to understand what the women of our school have been through,” Steinbeck said. “I want our audience to laugh and cry and feel with our women.”

The performance, along with a gallery of memorabilia and a resource fair, will take place on May 13 from 7-10 p.m. in Chumash Auditorium. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased with cash in the Gender Equity Center (UU 219) or at the door.

Monday, May 9, 2016

ARTS | 5

Snaps for Terisa Siagatonu at ATOG

HANNA CROWLEY | MUSTANG NE WS SPEAKING OUT

| As a queer Samoan woman, Terisa Siagatonu discussed marginalization in her poetr y during a passionate performance at Another Type Of Groove last Wednesday night.

Megan Schellong @persimmegan

it brings issues into light and onto the stage.

Students snapped their fingers for Terisa Siagatonu’s riveting poems about race and gender relations Wednesday evening at Another Type of Groove’s (ATOG) Asian Pacific Islander themed open mic night.

From the Bay Area, Siagatonu is a queer Samoan poet who writes riveting word that speaks out for marginalized groups. Her work has been featured by CNN, NBC News, NPR, Huffington Post, The Guardian and Upworthy. She is a threetime member of the Da Poetry Lounge/Hollywood Slam team and she helped her team place second in the nation at the National Poetry Slam, according to her website.

The following is a Q&A with Siagatonu that has been edited for space and clarity:

MN: What kind of message are you addressing to people who can either relate to your experiences or to those who cannot?

TS: For those who can relate to me, spoken word poetry has given me and taught me (that) people need to see people like them being brave

MN: You’ve been recognized by Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, CNN, The Guardian, NBC News and NPR — how does it feel to be recognized by these well-read media organizations?

TS: It feels like an honor. There’s something about poetry that people are gravitating toward these days.

It’s a small community but attraction to it has gained attention especially with social media. It’s cool to go about my day and see a post that says, “Hey I saw your poem on Buzzfeed!” — it’s always a good feeling because it feels like my story and experiences are getting the time they deserve.

MN: You mention that your story and experiences are getting the time they deserve. What kind of experiences do you talk about?

TS: I talk very much from a first-person narrative, being from a working class background and being a queer woman of color.

These things are very much centered in my work and often times they’re not heard as often in society or in the classroom — and the reason I love this art form is that it gives a platform for people like me who have been marginalized and

I’m inspired by my lived experience in every aspect of my identity.

TERISA SIAGATONU

and courageous in public spaces.

People come up to me after a show and say, “Thank you for that poem. Thank you for what you said.

I’ve been scared to talk about that with my family,” and that’s all the affirmation I need for why I do this.

For the people who can’t relate, one of the most powerful things that comes out of this is promoting dialogue where people should be pushed to challenge their comfort levels and have new learning experiences.

If you’re not talking to the poet or inquiring about something she said, you gotta ask yourself what you’re trying to get out of this experience.

Remember, this is more than just art — this gives a voice to those who are voiceless. This is a way that people can challenge each other and grow. We’re trying to challenge each other … It’s not a means by which I am trying to say my lived experience is more important than yours, but yours is yours, and if what I said in my poetry sparks dialogue, then that’s great. I am always aware people will respect (my poetry) or have questions about it.

MN: What kind of questions do you get about your poetry?

TS: I get questions about politics

around race, privilege and power.

Generally, folks are grappling with their own sense of identity. A lot of white folks will come up to me about poems where I address race — they have genuine questions and I remind them that this is the point of the poem where I could be done saying it on stage but you’re welcome to approach me after we should be talking about it.

MN: What inspires you to write poetry?

TS: I am really drawn to this quote

by Nina Simone: “The duty of artist is to reflect the times,” meaning it is our job as artists to be up-todate in the world around us and put a spin and creativity on that.

My inspiration comes from the current events going around in my community and the city, especially in height of police brutality, anti-black racism and gender-based violence. I’ve recently been inspired about my own culture and heritage.

My grandpa isn’t getting any younger … I still don’t know the (native) language and I’m trying not to feel too much shame about it. So I said, OK, Terisa, you gotta do the research, spend time with grandpa and learn from him. Right now I’m grappling with how to retain my culture and learn from myself and preserve it. I’m inspired by my lived experience in every aspect of my identity.

MN: How has your upbringing influenced who you are today?

TS: Because I grew up in working class family, I am very aware.

As a marginalized person, you’re hyperaware of the fucked up shit that goes on. That’s influenced who I am. I did a lot of journaling and diary writing growing up. I grew up in an environment that was rigid about young people speaking up and being heard.

Growing up poor and marginalized gave me a new set of glasses to look at the world and let me see where we are going wrong and why people are sick, hurt, traumatized … My vision on that is 20/20. It is hard not to take responsibility and that’s the response of knowledge — it’s hard to unlearn it and act like

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you don’t know what s going on.

Luckily, I have my childhood to thank for that and my family, about respect and knowing where I come from and being aware of the world around me.

My education — I’m lucky to have gone to college and had a family to push me to go to college. It could’ve very well been me on that track and not doing well and not pursuing those goals. I had a lot of support despite oppressive situations I grew up, but those didn’t hinder me from fighting twice as hard.

MN: You mentioned you grew up in oppressive situations — what were they?

TS: We grew up in housing projects, but they don’t exist anymore because of gentrification. I still have family on brink of being gentrified but haven’t yet.

I’ve experienced living in a 14-bedroom apartment on very little and issues of class are things I’m sensitive about. I’ve become aware of the people who have money and watched how those people waste money. I’ve grown up without that financial aid.

Being a brown person, a brown girl, in the world isn’t easy and going to school at a predominantly white high school. I was tokenized for being this exotic brown girl … Sure it felt good at the time but it was at the expense of being exotified.

MN: How do your ideas for your poems come to you?

TS: I definitely bring a notebook with me everywhere; I usually have one in my bag if inspiration strikes.

Moments where I want to write down lines and words and people that make me want to write inspire me. I’ll pull out my phone and write moments in bullets so I don’t forget. I’m always inspired, especially when I go to watch poetry like this. I’m also a teaching artist (poet mentor) for primarily high school youth. I help them edit their poems … That’s also inspiration and also a kick in the butt when the person is 16 and it’s like, “Wow, they’re hungry for this.”

MN: What was the first small idea you had that you didn’t realize would make a great poem?

TS: I was attending a lecture and the professor was doing a lecture on the island of Fiji and she showed us a picture of map and the map was centered on the Pacific Islands rather than entire world and she showed us the map — every map cuts pacific ocean in half — one is on the left and one is on the right and the Pacific Ocean is never intact. As soon as she said that, I wanted to write about it.

I was in Boston coming back to California, during my layover I started typing up my poem, and that poem spurred into a free write and I took it with me to Paris for the last UN conference for climate change and I even did a recording of the video in Paris. It’s probably my favorite poem I’ve written and it all came from a professor dropping knowledge about homelands being cut in half by maps. It’s one I love doing because it helped me grapple with what home means for someone who comes from an island nation and is so microscopic on a map that no one pays attention to it, but now that it’s a poem, it’s in peoples’ faces so they can’t ignore it.

Monday, May 9, 2016

OPINION | 6

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

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The failure of the CSU Erica Hudson Erica Hudson is a journalism junior and Mustang News opinion columnist. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints and editorial coverage of Mustang News.

This column references a newly proposed CSU financial plan called the Sustainable Financial Model. If passed, this model would implement annual tutition raises and fees across the CSU system to help maintain purchasing power during a time of decreased state funding.

May the CSU, as well as my future, rest in peace.

What have I learned here? I’ve learned that I’m absolutely fucked.

I’ve watched my student loans soar into skies I’ll never be able to skim the surface of.

Every day I spend here, I have this buzzing in the back of my head, a ticking time bomb of impending financial doom. And I find myself wondering, “Was this worth it?”

In attempts to minimize the impact after I graduate, I’ve worked two jobs, while going to school, while trying to get good grades, while trying to have a social life, all while trying to be a functioning member of society.

How is that going, you may ask? Well, it’s not really.

You see, every year I have the same cri-

@CPMustangNews

sis. I find myself at my computer screen Each year spent here, I’ve found myin a panic, googling, “How much money self lost. can you make by selling your eggs?”

Lost as I see where the prioriAnd I’m not talking about the eggs ties are here, in our wallets and not you find in our perfectly cared-for and our minds. prioritized agriculture unit, I’m talking Now, if the money from my wallet about my eggs. was going to our teachers, it would And this might come make sense. But instead, it’s across as humorgoing to an endless list ous to you, and of administrative it kind of is, positions that but I’ve we simply do genuinely not need. contemI’m lost plated because I’m lost because I’m at this as I’m at a a university that hardly a resouniveracknowledges, or cares for, my lution sity that to my queer existence, as reflected in our h a r d l y d e b t acknowlcurriculum, campus climate, & when I edges, or should be cares for, my administrative support. focusing on queer exisERICA HUDSON my education. tence, as reflectBut how can I foed in our curricucus on an education that I lum, campus climate and can’t pay for? administrative support.

I can tell you that there are a lot of reLost attending a school that claims to quirements to sell eggs. So, I’ve moved care for diversity, but shows little-to-no on to easier ideas: selling a kidney, may- meaningful support in facilitating a be a tendon that I don’t need, maybe a diverse learning environment, and eipinky-toe… ther tolerates hate-filled opposition to All so I can go to a school that, diversity or allows it to be swept under one was built on the idea of free the rug. tuition, and two, has not been Because this is San Luis Obispo, right? worth my money.

The happiest city on Earth. More like

STAFF REPORTERS Gina Randazzo, Naba Ahmed, James Hayes, Carly Quinn, Elena Wasserman, Connor McCarthy, Chloe Carlson, Brendan Abrams, Michelle Zaludek, Annie Vainshtein, Will Peischel, Regine Smith, Megan Schellong, Alison Stauf, Keenan Donath, Clara Knapp, Ayrton Ostly, Alexa Bruington, Tommy Tran, Ty Schilling, Michael Frank COPY EDITORS Tori Leets, Kalynn Carpenter DESIGNERS Zack Spanier, Sabrina Smith, Kylie Everitt

the straightest, whitest, frattiest, ignorant, hegemonic city on earth. But hey, be happy! We have the Farmer’s Market and Spring Stampede to look forward to.

No. I’ve brought a lot to the table today, but let me leave you with a few things.

Before I was admitted, I would tell people I wanted to go to Cal Poly and they would say, “Oh that’s a really conservative school, good luck.” I didn’t really think much of it, but three years later I can see that they were wrong.

It isn’t just a conservative school, it is a dead one. Dead because our money isn’t going to our teachers; our money is not funding our education. Dead because the students here don’t care about diversity. And if they do, they are either passively sitting along with the oppressor or they are silenced and ridiculed.

No one is too busy for diversity because it applies to us all.

Do you think once you leave here with your increasingly meaningless college degree that suddenly the understanding of how fundamental diversity is just going to punch you in the face? So you don’t have to think about it now? That isn’t how the world works.

Support diversity. Support our teachers. Support your fellow Mustangs. Oppose the Sustainable Financial model.

OPINION COLUMNISTS Amelia Parreira, Emilio Horner, Brandon Bartlett, Daniel Park, Erica Hudson PHOTOGRAPHERS Jason Hung, Illiana Arroyos, Andrew Epperson, Christa Lam, Gabby Pajo, Hanna Crowley ILLUSTRATOR Roston Johnson ADVERTISING MANAGER Maddie Spivek ADVERTISING DESIGN MANAGER Jordan Triplett PRODUCTION MANAGER Erica Patstone MARKETING MANAGER Ross Pfeifer ASSISTANT ADVERTISING MANAGERS Anna Seskind, Sam Patterson SENIOR ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS C.J. Estores, Kristen Corey ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Madison Flemming, Victoria Howland, Emily Manos, Clara Howley, Levi Adissi, Luke Bickel, Tara Heffernan, Darcie Castelanelli, Joseph Pack ADVERTISING DESIGNERS Micaela Pacini, Sabrina Bexar, Alex Braica, Ellen Fabini, Rene Chan DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Dylan Ring FACULTY ADVISER Pat Howe GENERAL MANAGER Paul Bittick

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Monday, May 9, 2016

SPORTS | 8

Softball goes 1-2 in series at Hawaii

Ayrton Ostly @ayrtonostly

The Cal Poly softball team traveled to Hawaii for a weekend series and left Honolulu with a win and two losses in one of the season’s final tournaments.

On Friday afternoon, the Mustangs (24-23, 7-11 Big West) got out to an early 1-0 lead against the Warriors (23-28, 7-11) after sophomore third baseman Stephanie Heyward scored off an RBI single by junior pitcher Sierra Hyland in the top of the

Continued from page 1

After a winning pole vault mark of 14-5 1/4, Bennett propelled himself from 10th place into sixth place.

Bennett, who finished second in the conference in 2014, continued his momentum by winning two more events and rais-

first inning.

Cal Poly extended its lead in the top of the third when Heyward scored an unearned run to make it 2-0. But the Warriors came back with a threerun scoring spree in the bottom of the seventh to win the first game 3-2.

On Saturday, the Mustangs went down 1-0 by the top of the fourth but fought back with a three-run fifth inning. Freshman catcher Makenna Young hit a sacrificial fly to score junior left fielder Courtney Tyler

and sophomore center fielder Amanda Sandoval hit a double to plate Heyward and freshman pinch-runner Noa Yakir.

The Warriors tied the game 3-3 after the bottom of the fifth, but Tyler singled to score senior right fielder Betsy Colburn in the top of the sixth to put Cal Poly up 4-3 for the win.

In the second game on Saturday, the Mustangs played yet another low-scoring affair, this time one that went to eight innings. The Mustangs ended up on the losing end after a run by

the Warriors in the bottom of the eighth to make it 1-0.

Each of the three games were decided by one run and the series totaled 13 runs for both sides. For the Mustangs, this is par for the course; their season schedule is full of low-scoring affairs controlled by great pitch-

ing and just enough offense to pull off a victory.

Hyland notched a combined 20 strikeouts in the weekend series to move up to 10th on the Big West career strikeouts list.

In the series, Heyward led the way on the plate, hitting 5-11 with three runs scored.

With this series now finished, there’s one more series left to play against UC Riverside at home. Winning the three games in that series could move the Mustangs up to as high as third in the Big West Conference before the regional tournament.

ing himself into fourth place.

A career-best javelin throw — also the 10th-best in school history — brought Bennett a top three finish. Bennett also won the 1,500-meter, finishing nearly 24 seconds ahead of UCSB runner-up Tyler Nelson.

Bennett finished third place

overall with 7,153 points, earning him all-conference honors.

Following Bennett were junior teammates Ted Scranton (fourth, 7,038) and Ivy Adair (fifth, 6,882).

The Cal Poly women’s heptathlon team was led by junior Jessica Rasmussen, who finished seventh overall with

a score of 4,567. Rasmussen’s finish was good enough to compile two points for the women’s team heading into the final weekend.

Rasmussen highlighted the Mustangs’ afternoon with a second-place long jump finish. Her jump of 19-2 landed her in the No. 5 spot

conference wide.

Mustangs’ sophomore Kirby Ruback and redshirt freshman Keana Viss also competed during the weekend. Ruback finished 11th with 4,269 points while Viss finished 12th with 4,221.

A l l t h re e h e pt at h l e te s scored career-high totals over

the weekend.

Cal Poly heads into the final weekend leading the men’s field by one point while sitting in fifth place in the women’s category. The Mustangs compete again May 13 and 14 at 11 a.m in Long Beach. Saturday’s events will be televised live on Fox Sports Prime Ticket.

CHRISTA LAM | MUSTANG NE WS SLUGGER STEPH

| Third baseman Stephanie Heyward finished the series 5-11 with three runs scored.

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