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KRISTA H ERS H F I ELD | MUSTA N G N EWS
Potential goals were discussed through a public online survey and open forum Jan. 23.
BY RACH EL M A RQUA RDT The San Luis Obispo City Council set their official goals for the next two years at a public meeting Tuesday, Feb. 5. The key goals include increased housing, fiscal sustainability, sustainable transportation, climate action and maintaining and upgrading downtown San Luis Obispo. “We are continuing on with the goals we had in the last budget cycle and amplifying those,” San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon said. “So, the goals we have are big goals that have long-term challenges, so we continue to recommit to those goals and be leaders on those goals.” Potential goals were discussed through a public online survey and open forum Jan. 23. The final list was decided by city council members, including Harmon, who said she believes the most important
goal is the city’s focus on sustainability. “I think continuing to prioritize something on climate change is essential to our economic, social and actual survival,” Harmon said. “So, to me, that is the defining issue of our time and is of utmost importance.” Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) President Jasmin Fashami said she is also excited about the goals focused on sustainability, specifically sustainable transportation. “The city bus is something students use a lot and same with biking as parking on campus is expensive,” Fashami said. “Seeing it as a possibility means it will create more opportunity for students which is something I’m very excited about.” Overall Fashami said she is pleased with the new goals. However, hopes that lighting within San Luis Obispo will be
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addressed. Although last year the city had a budget of $40,000 for new lighting structures, the city has had general complications with PG&E that has put this process on hold, according to Fashami. “I’d like to hope we can work with PG&E to make those lights a reality in the city,” Fashami said. “I’m looking forward to working with the city more to learn how ASI, the community, [and the] student body can advocate for more lighting.” Fashami represented the student body at the open forum, speaking about the need to increase the city’s street lighting. The city’s next step to address these goals is to create a preliminary budget draft for the City of San Luis Obispo. “Given our current fiscal constraints, staff will take council’s direction to put together a budget that focuses on delivering core services and infrastructure maintenance, while prioritizing these Major City Goals,” City Manager Derek Johnson said in the press release. Draft work plans will be presented to the council April 16, 2019. Fashami said she advises students who are passionate about these goals or other topics to reach out to ASI or even city council members to make an impact. “The biggest piece of feedback we have heard [when attending city council meetings] is we would like more students coming to city council,” Fashami said. “I think attending those meetings is a great way to get your voice heard. Or talk to student government and see how we can help your cause, reach out to council members, or even the Mayor. They all really love and appreciate the student voice, and it’s a much less daunting process than you might think.”
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CAL POLY TO BREAK GROUND ON RESEARCH COMPLEX CONSTRUCTION ON THE $125 MILLION COMPLEX TO BEGIN IN MAY BY RACHEL M A RQ UA R DT Cal Poly will break ground on a new $125 million, four-story interdisciplinary research building beginning May 2019. The first phase of construction is expected to be completed by Fall 2021. The 100,000-square-foot Science and Agriculture Teaching and Research Complex (SATRC) is a collaboration between the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Science and Mathematics and the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. It will stretch roughly from the Cal Poly Plant Conservatory to Clyde P. Fisher Science Hall (building 33). The Science North Annex (building 53A) will be demolished to make room for the new complex. However, everything but the plant conservatory and vivarium will be included in the SATRC. University President Jeffrey Armstrong said the plant conservatory and vivarium will be relocated and rebuilt, but the university is still working on securing funding. An atrium will extend through all four stories in the center of the complex, according to Cal Poly Facilities Planning and Capital Projects. The first floor will include a lecture hall, classrooms, a computer lab, project space, a culinary laboratory and an area for electrical and mechanical equipment. The remaining floors will include faculty offices and laboratories. Cal Poly officials are currently finalizing
construction plans for the 3.5-acre complex. “It is right at the center of campus in order to show that undergraduate research is an important part of Cal Poly’s values,” Director of the Frost Fund Phil Bailey said. Bailey is the former Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics and has been working at Cal Poly for 50 years. He also spearheaded the development of the Warren J. Baker Center, the last major academic building to be added to campus. “Our mission is education, and research is a tool to educate our undergraduates for their future careers,” Bailey said. The complex will house a new agricultural technology center named after Jim Boswell, a Cal Poly alumnus who contributed $10 million towards the project. The Center for Expressive Technologies (CET) for the College of Liberal Arts will also be relocated to the building. According to Director of the Center for Expressive Technologies Matthew Harsh, it will act as a creative space that supports interdisciplinary work focusing on technology and human expression. Faculty are looking to include innovations in the center such as performance capture technology, augmented reality, cinema, animation and interactive elements. “The idea is to create a developmental and experimental space to work with types of emerging technology in interesting ways,”
Director of the Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies Program David Gillette said. “We want to also have a global component where we can connect this space to different spaces around the world.” The first phase, which is the largest component of the building, will cost around $100 million. This money has already been raised, and the first portion of the building is scheduled to open Fall 2021. More than half of the $100 million allocated to the building is from donations, Armstrong
ZGF A R C H I T ECTS | COU RT ESY
A mock up of what the new SATRC building will look like from the inside, featuring unique staircases.
3 TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 12, 2019 | NEWS | MUSTANG NEWS
ZGF ARC HIT ECTS | COU RT ESY
The 100,000-square-foot Science and Agriculture Teaching and Research Complex (SATRC) is a collaboration between three of Cal Poly’s colleges.
said. “We could not do this without the gracious support of our donors. Without them, it would be impossible to build these specialized facilities,” Armstrong said. Additional funding includes $10 million from The California State University (CSU) for classrooms, as well as funding from the Cal Poly Corporation and colleges involved. “If you think about what the state will fund, they have to fund buildings at 23 campuses,” Armstrong said. “There’s not enough money for the CSU to fund 100 percent of specialized undergraduate research building — they fund libraries and classrooms. They have to focus on the main mission.” Included in these donations is money from the highest donation ever made in CSU history — the William and Linda Frost Fund. Alumnus William Frost and his wife Linda Frost donated $20 million to the SATRC from their $110 million undergraduate research grant in May 2017. “The whole point of Mr. Frost’s gift is to grow undergraduate research in order to promote student success,” Armstrong said. “But you need brick-and-mortars to go along with the money and a place for them to do the work.” The second phase of the building will include labs for the College of Science and Math, which will cost $24 million, Armstrong said. Cal Poly is working to continue fundraising for this portion of the building, in addition to rebuilding the conservatory and vivarium. “I am confident that we will reach the total $125 million that is needed for this project,” Armstrong said. Physics senior Luc Bouchard, who was granted a scholarship through the Frost Fund, said he hopes the new building will do as promised and promote undergraduate research. “I think that undergraduate research opportunities are super valuable,” Bouchard said.“I would hope to see it allowing more students to get involved in more cutting edge research. That’s the main thing for me, allowing students to get involved with research they will later be getting involved in during their professions.” There will be a groundbreaking ceremony for the SATRC on May 3 at the evening of Green and Gold.
NEW COFFEE SHOP TO GIVE OUT-OF-TOWN FEEL
TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 12, 2019 | NEWS | MUSTANG NEWS
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BY SERENA LOPEZ
PASHION FOOTW EAR | COU RTESY
CEO Haley Pavone holds boxes of shoes that will be shipped to their first 155 customers.
LOCAL CAL POLY STARTUP IS ON THE ROAD TO EXPANSION PASHION FOOTWEAR SENDS OUT FIRST SHIPMENT OF CONVERTIBLE HEELS BY SER EN A LO P E Z Shoes, shoes and more shoes — except this time it’s two in one: a heel and a flat. Cal Poly startup Pashion Footwear shipped their first pre-sale line of convertible heels to customers. The first 180 pairs of shoes were shipped Jan. 14 to 155 customers all over the world, including the U.S., Canada and Switzerland. “They were air shipped over here. Usually shoes would be cargo shipped on a boat, but we were like, ‘We’re so excited to get them here. Let’s do it even faster — put them on a plane,’” Pashion Footwear Founder, President and CEO Haley Pavone said. Along with their new launch, the company was also selected to be one of the 20 featured brands at one of the Grammy Awards 2019 pre-parties this weekend. Their shoes will be included in the gift bags for guests attending the party. “We are really excited,” Pavone said. “Any of the a-list celebrities that are in attendance that want to take a pair home with them will be welcome to do so.” The team spent the past two and a half years developing, engineering and testing a convertible heel to launch. There are currently three styles available for the spring collection (Pashionista, THE Boss and Goddess) that can be converted from a heel to a flat. “So one of our main goals for this shipment was to just confirm that people like the product and that the shoe is done,” Pavone said. “Obviously as an entrepreneur, I feel very close to this product and I always think it could be better.
I’m always kind of chasing perfection with it.” Each pair of shoes costs $180 and are available via Pashion Footwear’s website. The shoes cannot be ordered directly from the website, instead, there is a waitlist option which will then send a notification once customers can place an order. “For what it is right now, like in its earlier stages, I think it’s a little too expensive just because it’s not perfect yet I don’t think,” English junior Emma Roellig said. “So I think they might have to lower the price a little.” Currently, Pashion Footwear is partnering with ELEETS Logistics to store and transport their shoes, but Pavone said they hope customers will be able to order the shoes directly from their website sometime in Spring 2019. “When I first got them they were in the packaging with the heel a lot, so it was kind of hard to get used to it and break it in, but once you have them broken in and get used to walking around in them it’s completely fine,” kinesiology sophomore Ally Schasteen said. Pashion Footwear is placing an order in a few weeks for 1,500 units for inventory so customers can order shoes from their website. The rest is going to retailer stores in Canada and a few boutiques in California. “So as we continue to grow, we want to expand the line both in shoes and additional heel kits and that way our customers will be able to kind of create the perfect shoe for them and also create a shoe that has eight different looks associated with it, or however many heels they want to buy,” Pavone said.
New coffee shop WithCo Coffee opened Jan. 28 in the Creamery Marketplace on Higuera Street with a theme unique to San Luis Obispo. Unlike the earthy tones and rustic themes of other coffee shops in town, the charcoal black interior and white marble countertops are intended to make customers feel like they have just walked into a coffee shop in Los Angeles or New York, according to owners Rydian Searless and Walker Sotello. WithCo Coffee founders and San Luis Obispo natives Searles and Sotello came up with the idea for the shop last summer and just went for it. “We wanted to do something much more urban and modern,” Sotello said. “We wanted to change the whole aesthetic of what [San Luis Obispo] could be.” The childhood-friends-turned-businesspartners said they always had their mind set on opening a business, and this was their first shot. “We both love coffee, and we had been around it for a while now,” Searles said. “It was our first kind of adventure for us.” The name WithCo is short for With Company and ties to the slogan of the shop: “Drink with Company,” which is the way the shop was built. With lots of outdoor seating
and open space in the shop, Searles and Sotello created a place for people to enjoy their coffee with others. “We wanted to create a space where we would want to go and hang out,” Searles said. “It’s bits and pieces of other cafes and pictures we’ve seen.” Searles said WithCo is proud to have their own coffee in-house. They offer coffee grown in Papua New Guinea, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Colombia. All WithCo coffee is roasted in Oakland by Searles’ brother. The menu includes espresso, drip coffee, herbal teas and much more. They also offer almond milk, oat milk and donuts from the local donut shop San Luis Obispo Donut Company (SloDoCo). The shop also makes coffee with non-alcoholic cocktail mixers from their sister company, WithCo Cocktails, founded by Searles’ sister and brother-in-law in Nashville. The combination is new to San Luis Obispo, but has proven to be a success, according to Searles and Sotello. Some of their most popular drinks are the Old Fashioned latte and cappuccino. The two are working on more business plans and hope to expand the coffee shop. WithCo Coffee is located in the far left corner of The Creamery and its current hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.
SO F I A C LA RK | M USTA N G N EWS
Lattes served at Withco’s new coffee shop feature the same traditional coffee art seen at most shops.
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said. “If we could stop it we would. And we’re working really hard to control what we can control.” The email sent informed students that the hearing process was changing, but did not detail the live hearing cross-examination model. The email also did not mention that cases are being remanded and some university sanctions are being vacated. The CSU has not officially asked campus presidents to inform student bodies at large yet. Implementation plans and other details are still being sorted out.
TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 12, 2019 | NEWS | MUSTANG NEWS
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What Cal Poly is doing in response to the changes KYL IE KOWA LS K E | MUSTA N G N EWS
CSU MANDATES TITLE IX CHANGES SEXUAL MISCONDUCT CASES PAUSED AND SOME REOPENED BY A SHLEY LAD I N The California State University (CSU) system mandated campuses to halt all current and appeal-pending Title IX sexual misconduct investigations while the CSU adopts a new investigative model. The new model, now required by California law, will guarantee students accused of sexual misconduct the right to cross-examine their accuser, potentially during a live hearing through an advocate. This is a significant change in CSU policy and a timeline of its implementation is unknown. In past policy, written questions and answers between the the respondent (student accused of sexual misconduct) and complainant (student who reported misconduct) was allowed. Now, this information gathering period will more closely resemble a court-like proceeding, with the due process rights for party advisors to separately question the involved students during a public hearing. Until this model is implemented, no Title IX case at Cal Poly or any CSU campus can proceed past the Investigative Report, a summary of investigative findings that does not include recommended factual findings (the investigator deciding if the accused student is in violation or not), or recommended university action. Students are already being affected by this change. The university has been working to notify all those directly affected, according to President Jeffrey Armstrong. Pending cases that have proceeded past the Investigative Report will have to redo the fact-finding process under the new model. This includes all cases where an investigative outcome has already been reached based primarily on witness testimony, but an appeal is in process or the deadline to file an appeal has not passed. Cases that have already reached an investigate outcome based on more concrete evidence than witness testimony, such as rape kit or video evidence, will not be remanded or subjected to the live hearing change. “If we had made findings, the findings are vacated, or taken away, and the case is put back to where that hearing would have happened,”
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Personnel Albert Liddicoat said. “It can still come to the same conclusion, but it can’t rely just on the findings by the investigator and the process we used to use.” “If we had made findings, the findings are vacated, or taken away, and the case is put back to where that hearing would have happened.” University sanctions are also being vacated, or undone, in these cases. If an appeal-pending case reached an investigative outcome and the university took sanctions, such as expulsion, this action is now undone. This reverses the expulsion of students who were expelled through Title IX and are in the appeals process, or still have time to appeal. Without the expulsion in place, there is nothing legally preventing the students once expelled through these Title IX cases to reenroll in Cal Poly classes Spring 2019. “In some [cases] the end result is vacated, so it’s like going back in time,” Armstrong said. “That is a really big concern for us. That a student who has already undergone trauma, that this can happen. We just don’t know yet if students in these cases will come back.”
Why Cal Poly has to follow the new Title IX model The CSU system did not make the new model mandate, but is following a new California law that was put into effect Jan. 4. A ruling made by the California Court of Appeal on a case involving a University of Southern California student who was accused of sexual misconduct, set precedent that required an immediate shift to the live hearing cross-examination model for Title IX cases in California universities. This should not be confused with the Department of Education’s proposed Title IX changes, which also recommend a shift to a live hearing cross-examination model. These proposed changes have not yet been implemented and it is unknown if (or when) they will go into effect. The CSU Chancellor wrote a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos raising concerns about these proposed changes, which was signed by all 23 CSU presidents, including Armstrong. While Cal Poly is required to follow the man-
date, Armstrong said he is in favor of limiting the use of the live hearing model as much as possible. “I would be a proponent of limiting live hearing as much as we could, quite frankly, because of the trauma,” Armstrong said. “I’m not in a position to make that judgement, but just Jeff speaking, if there is anyway we can meet the letter of the law without inducing more trauma, I would be all for that.”
Why Cal Poly waited to inform the campus community Announcements of this new model have been kept to a minimum. According to the CSU, all campus presidents and Title IX offices were informed of the mandate Jan. 10 in a memo that asked universities to reach out to students in the Title IX cases that are directly affected by the change. Cal Poly students with current and pending cases were emailed by the Title IX office in January regarding the changes and the halting or reconsideration of their cases. The university declined to comment on how many students or cases are being directly affected due to student privacy. There was even confusion amongst university administration about which offices knew about the changes. “The Chancellor’s office sent out a number of communications and no two offices knew who else was communicated with,” Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students Kathleen McMahon said. “But there was a really strong attention to make sure the complainants and respondents knew about it.” Armstrong sent a campus-wide email notifying students of the Title IX changes Feb. 8, less than an hour after Mustang News reporters met with the president to talk about the new model and ask why the campus community had yet to be informed. “In situations like this we can always look back and think we should have communicated a day or two earlier or done something differently, but this is an example of something at a very high level court, has happened and it’s going to be very traumatic for our students,” Armstrong
The university is looking into making an immediate hire for a Title IX advocate to help manage increased workload and cases; Cal Poly currently only has one full-time advocate. The university also hired a second full-time title IX investigator in January and is currently searching for a new administrative support coordinator. This year the university allocated a third fulltime position for Safer, a confidential support and resource group for sexual assault survivors, but due to turnover, the university has yet to have all three positions filled. Armstrong and McMahon also said they are looking into allocating more resources to programs like Safer to help support sexual assault survivors. The president also announced the creation of a new advisory group made up of students, faculty and campus professionals to help support students through the changes and “make sure we are doing things with as much sensitivity and caring as we can, while still following state and federal rules.” The group is intended to not only help students and the university transition to the new CSU Title IX model, but also the potential Title IX changes from the Department of Education.
What will happen to newly reported Title IX cases Armstrong said students are still encouraged to report sexual misconduct through the Title IX office. New cases will be investigated as usual up until the Investigative Report. At that point, the case will be halted until the new model is implemented. “We will still provide resources, conduct interviews and go through the process up to the point where the investigator would make a decision on whether or not a violation occurred,” Liddicoat said. “All that information would then feed into the hearing process, and it would take that hearing process to conclude an investigation.” Armstrong said he would like to encourage students to continue reporting sexual misconduct. “My concern is with the safety and health of our students. I’m really concerned these changes are going to suppress our survivors from reporting,” Armstrong said. “It could have a really chilling effect, typically, on young women reporting. We care for all of our students and we know these changes are going to cause trauma, cause students to revisit trauma. It’s going to be very difficult but we’re committed to doing the very best we can.”
HEIDI HARMON CALLS FOR ALL MAYORS TO STOP USING AMAZON San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon took to Twitter on Tuesday, Feb. 5 to urge all mayors to stop using Amazon. Harmon said people are going straight to the internet, especially Amazon, instead of shopping locally. She said Amazon hurts small, local businesses and has an overall negative effect on communities. “I feel like mayors have a bigger responsibility than most to ensure the economic viability of their community, and Amazon is implicitly detrimental to that mission,” Harmon said. “Mayors really shouldn’t be personally utilizing Amazon, in my opinion. I mean, really, neither should anybody.” Harmon called for residents to shop locally by tweeting a picture of her cutting her Amazon Prime card with scissors. “It’s really convenient – I totally get it,” Harmon said. “I mean, I’m having a hard time quitting. But it’s destroying downtowns. It’s really having a negative impact on our communities.” Chief Executive Officer of Downtown SLO Bettina Swigger agreed that eCommerce sites
like Amazon have had an overall negative effect on businesses. “There is no doubt that retail in general has been significantly disrupted not just by Amazon, but online shopping in general,” Swigger wrote in an email to Mustang News. “The same is true in Downtown [San Luis Obispo], but we maintain a healthy mix of brickand-mortar stores, both locally-operated and chains. We invite all to come experience the special magic that comes from having a personal experience while shopping, which is so much more meaningful than the click of a button.” Amazon has a heavy presence in San Luis Obispo. As of 2015, they employed approximately 100 people locally, according to The Tribune. Cal Poly also launched the first university-based cloud innovation center powered by Amazon Web Services in 2017, and the company frequently participates in career fairs on campus. Amazon CEO Jeff Wilke said in a 2018 news release that more than 1 million U.S.based small and medium-sized businesses are selling their products on Amazon, resulting in more than 900,000 new jobs.
“Amazon helps small and medium-sized businesses reach hundreds of millions of customers around the world, giving the smallest of businesses the opportunity to compete next to the biggest household brands,” Wilkes said in the news release. “These businesses are a vital part of Amazon’s continued growth.” However, Harmon said Amazon is “a detriment” to building relationships with local merchants. “I try and do what I can to support locally-owned small business here in the community,” Harmon said. “That helps the individual business owner, but also helps the community at large — economically, but also socially.” Harmon also mentioned co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance Stacy Mitchell in her Tweet, asking what else she could do to promote her call to action. Mitchell is the author of “Amazon Doesn’t Just Want to Dominate the Market—It Wants to Become the Market” on The Nation. “I wanted to lead by example in some way and invite other mayors to consider doing the same,” Harmon said.
Stores that recently closed in San Luis Obispo include Ann’s Clothing, Aaron Brothers and San Luis Luggage.
H EI DI H A R MON | T WI T T ER
Mayor Harmon has been vocal of her disapproval of Amazon, going so far as to cut up her own store card.
HOTHOUSE OPENS NEW MANUFACTURING LAB ADDITION FOR ENTREPRENEURS WITH $500K GRANT BY S OPHIA C A R N EVA L E After nearly two years in the works, Cal Poly’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) opened a manufacturing lab in their new 4,100-square-foot downtown space, called the HotHouse Annex. The goal of the new lab is to give entrepreneurs resources to create product prototypes and early-stage manufacturing. Executive Director of the CIE Tod Nelson said he has been advocating for the new development for the past few years. “It’s really difficult to manufacture in [San Luis Obispo],” Nelson said. “We have a lot of people in our program now who are actually manufacturing products and we needed a space for them to do this off-campus.” CIE gives students and community members the resources and tools to cultivate economic and social value in their field. This can look like starting a new business or just bringing innovation and entrepreneurial spirit into their field of choice. The HotHouse is a community space to bring students’ and community members’ ideas to life. The manufacturing lab will be an addition to the HotHouse space. “We outfitted it with manufacturing space, 3D printers, a testing laboratory; all of the things you need to prototype and manufacture your first few thousand products,” Nelson said. The lab was funded by a federal grant of
$500,000 from the Economic Development Agency (EDA). Nelson wrote the proposal for the grant and for the next three years, the money will be used to develop and facilitate the growth of the new lab. Nelson said he sees this new addition, in part, as a way to combat the jobs that will be lost when Diablo Canyon closes in the near future. “We’re gonna lose 1,500 head of household jobs. That’s a significant blow to the economy. We know its coming. We’ve got five or six years to plan for the closure of Diablo,” Nelson said. “It’s such an unknown and we really believe that through activities at the HotHouse and the CIE that we can help offset the loss of those jobs”. Like many fields, the start-up industry is ever changing and the manufacturing lab is an example of Cal Poly keeping up with those changes. “More than half of the companies that come into our summer accelerator or our incubator program are building tangible products, Nelson said. “It’s not just software and apps anymore”. Although a few people have already begun work in the new lab, the grand opening is planned for Feb. 21. “We’re always looking to expand our services. We have a co-working program that’s at 100% capacity so we’re always looking to expand that space,” Nelson said. “We don’t know any specifics but we’re excited about the possibilities.”
A LI S ON C H AVEZ | MUSTA N G N EWS
CIE’s new manufacturing lab features equipment that startups can use to begin fabricating prototypes.
TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 12, 2019 | NEWS | MUSTANG NEWS
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TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 12, 2019 | STUDENT LIFE | MUSTANG NEWS
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SAN LUIS OBISPO CAN EXPECT TO SEE THREE NEW DISPENSARIES WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR BY LAU R EN KOZ I C KI Computer science senior and Norml President Nicolas Pitchon has been a member of the Norml club since its start on Cal Poly campus in Fall 2017. Norml (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) is a non-profit organization that aims to persuade public opinion about the cannabis industry. Pitchon said the Norml club attended city meetings last year after proposition 64 passed to inform the city council how the cannabis industry would benefit the city. “We actually ended up seeing a really open cannabis ordinance for the San Luis Obispo city,” Pitchon said. Proposition 64 passed in California in Nov. 2016, legalizing the possession, cultivation and use of marijuana for personal use. But, it was not until Jan. 2018 that California allowed for the sale and taxation of marijuana. The City Council will permit up to three retail storefronts in San Luis Obispo within the next year.
“They are not allowed to be either downtown or 200 feet from a residential area, so you’re going to see them kind of in Higuera street, Broad street, near the airport, places like that,” Pitchon said. According to Pitchon, the people who have put in their applications for businesses are primarily cannabis stakeholders that most likely already have grows within the county. After the city closes the application period, it will choose three to open up shop. Pitchon said the club’s biggest goal is to throw a career fair for cannabis business’ to come and recruit students. This goal also remains their biggest challenge because of cannabis laws on campus. “Even if we brought business’ that didn’t touch the cannabis plant, us Norml, would jeopardize the school’s financial funding, at least according to their lawyers,” Pitchon said. Last weekend the club was invited by Monterey County Norml to take a tour of the Wave Ride Nursery in Salinas, a six-and-a-half acre cultivation (6 and a half football fields). Jour-
nalism sophomore Grace Power Smith is new to the club this year and went on the field trip. “It’s crazy to see what goes into the whole thing at every level,” Smith wrote in an email to Mustang News. “It’s not like three people growing weed in a greenhouse and then putting it on shelves, it’s bigger than you could imagine. It was also really cool to see these young people starting businesses and being super successful at it.” Pichon said there are lots of cannabis growing grounds in San Luis Obispo, but because of changes in different laws in the last couple of years, growers have to get new a set of permits and fill out new applications. “Right now were in this in between stage, so all of our grows that were legal with the old laws before prop 64, are no longer legal,” Pitchon said. The only people who can go through the process of aderhing these permits and applications are people who already had a business and registered it with the county back in 2016. These business are now putting in their new applications for where and how
big they want their new cultivation to be. Pitchon said putting in an application for a dispensary in San Luis Obispo will cost about $60,000 to $80,000, just to have a chance at, “your name being drawn.” There are about 50 active members in Cal Poly Norml, and about 3-4 meetings per quarter. At each meeting there is usually a guest speaker involved in the cannabis industry that visits and informs students on opportunities for job and internships. The club also has educational presentation. “I believe that San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Monterey Counties are really going to become the new emerald triangle when you see these laws changing because we have the best growing climate and you don’t have to go hide in the woods to grow anymore,” Pitchon said. Because hemp is now federally legal, the next goal for the Norml club at Cal Poly is to get a hemp cultivation program started on campus with the help from donors. Pitchon said this would be a great opportunity for students to work in these “cousin” companies.
STUDENTS CARE FOR MUSTY THE MUSTANG ANIMAL SCIENCE CLASS ALLOWS STUDENTS TO CARE FOR THE LIVE MASCOT
S ABRINA T HOMPS ON | COURT ESY
Known to most as Musty the Mustang, the horse’s actual name is Chase.
BY SA B R IN A T H O M PS O N On big game nights, an untamed stallion gallops across the football stadium as the crowd cheers him on. Affectionately known as Musty the Mustang, the 15 year-old horse has been reestablishing this game-time tradition for the past six years. Perhaps no one knows him better than the students who care for him in class. In addition to Musty mascot in a costume, a real horse also makes an appearance on the field on game days to get the crowd excited. This tradition started in the 1960s, but stopped
for a period to avoid damage to the field. It was only recently that the tradition was reinstated as a way to help amp up the energy and get the crowd cheering. Alpha Omega Foundation owners Robin and Michelle Baggett donated the horse. “It is pretty cool for our school to have a live mascot, I think,” animal science senior Alice Von Staven said. “You don’t see a lot of schools who have a live mascot. It also shows how agriculturally involved our school is.” Students have the opportunity to get up close and personal with the horse, Chase, by taking
care of him as a part of ASCI 490: Advanced Animal Production and Management Enterprise. Regardless of experience, a student can become part of the team that helps take care of Chase by joining the class commonly called “Mustang Enterprise.” The class is an opportunity to get involved with the campus while learning about the care and training of horses. A course primarily offered in Summer and Fall, students can earn credit as part of the enterprise. “The Mustang Enterprise consists of eight to twelve students, usually caring for the mascot, Chase, and also a few other horses that are used in the program,” Manager for Mustang Enterprise Lou Moore-Jacobsen said. As an unconquered mustang, Chase runs across the field without a rider to introduce the football team during home games. To help guide Chase, students ride horses alongside him in what is known as “ponying.” This team of horses helps build up excitement and school spirit. One of the newest horses to join the team ponying Chase was donated by President Armstrong. Students worked over the summer to get him ready for the football season. “The purpose is to represent our school spirit of the fact that mustangs are wild animals — they can’t truly be 100 percent conquered,” Von Staven said. “I think he loves his job. He is actually kind of a spooky horse, but when it comes to the football games, he loves it. He loves all
the people coming up to him and running across the field. When they see that tunnel they go through that we run out of, they just take off. You barely have to do anything.” Von Staven served as student manager last year for Mustang Enterprise, which meant she was in charge of scheduling out and managing the horse’s care. This included collaborating with Cal Poly Athletics and Administration to schedule appearances and making sure Chase is well cared for and kept clean. Because Chase is seen by the thousands of people who attend the football games and also makes public appearances at other school functions, he receives a little extra grooming and attention from his caretakers to keep him ready for the spotlight. He is housed in the stables year-round and is ridden by students as part of beginning and advanced riding classes offered through the university. “Chase is so cute, and we’ve had him for a couple of years,” kinesiology senior Kelly Terris said. “Everybody kind of sends of extra love towards Musty. He’s kind of the face of our school, so he gets a little bit of extra carrots and kisses and extra attention.” “Something about it is so much fun and rewarding,” Terris said. “Getting to be in the parade and walking down and getting to see all these people cheering you on. And getting to be part of it and working with these large animals and how they represent our school is just so cool.”
BY A L LY MA D OL E
KYL E C AL ZIA | MUSTANG NEW S Cal Poly’s team had approximately 20 people competing in various sections.
BALLROOM CLUB HOSTS MUSTANG BALL DANCING COMPETITION BY M ICHA ELA B A R R O S On February 10, the Cal Poly Ballroom club hosted the 12th Annual Mustang Ball, an all day Ballroom and Latin Dance competition in Chumash Auditorium. The ball had the largest attendance in its history, with about 275 competitors and 1,300 event entries. Professionals Maksim Leonov and Anastasia Zhuchenko performed in a Ballroom Showcase during the afternoon. Cal Poly’s team had approximately 20 people competing in various sections. For six of the couples, it was their first time competing at the Mustang Ball. “We were up until 3 a.m. practicing and we were here until about 1-ish setting up. There’s a lot of that, she [teammate] got up at 5 :20 am to get her hair and makeup done,” history freshman Meg Sintef said. “We’re pretty nervous. This is our first ballroom dance competition.” The Ballroom Club waltzed away with many awards by the end of the event. Environmental Engineering sophomore Kyle Rathbone and Business sophomore Kim Marquez won first in Newcomer Cha Cha, Samba and Rumba. Economics junior Gianna Garza and mechanical engineering junior Matthew Carlson won first in gold Cha Cha, Samba, Rumba Jive and second in novice Jive. Club president Sadie Rhen and Club publicity officer Nathan Carlson won first in bronze Cha Cha, Samba, Rumba jive, Silver Samba and Jive, second in silver Cha Cha and Rumba. As the music shifted from smooth jazz to Demi Lovato’s “Confident”, the style and pace of the dancers followed suit. Carlson said Latin Dance is the Cal Poly team’s expertise. When Carlson joined during his freshman year, the team’s focus on smooth ballroom dance quickly shifted to faster-paced Latin when two remarkable dancers began attending practices. “During my first year, a freshman couple came to Cal poly and they are junior national
champions in Latin dancing, and so they sort of took over the role of coaching our team, which is super cool,” Carlson said. “That’s why our team is super specialized in Latin dancing, because they’ve put a lot of time into the team. This year, starting in the Fall we had a brand new team basically.” Many of the competitors dressed in very bright outfits with tassels to highlight the movement of their legs and hips throughout the dance. Some of the competitors said that although the judges don’t base their scoring on outfit critique, it can be helpful to try to “catch their eye”. “Think Dancing with the Stars. It’s fun, it’s sassy, it’s high energy,” Carlson said. Carlson said he loves dance because he gets to take a break from his intense workload and express himself in a unique way. “It takes a lot of my time, but it’s super fun and I love it,” Carlson said. “I’m an engineer, so I do a lot of thinking, and it’s fun to do something more artistic. It’s been a really good work-life balance kind of thing. [Ballroom dancing] gives me a well-rounded life.” Two years ago, club treasurer and liberal studies junior Elisabeth Marciano entered herself unattached into the Ballroom dance competition. Although she had been a dancer all her life, ballroom dancing was a new experience for her. Now, Marciano said she loves partner dance because of the connection and communication it requires with the other dancer. “It’s really fun because you have to have a really good connection with someone,” Marciano said. “You have to work together and it’s not just about one person’s commitment but how you work together as a whole to make the dance happen.” Marciano said her favorite aspect of being on the Cal Poly team is the sense of belonging she has found with the other dancers. “We go there [to practices] for the dance but we end up staying for the community,” Marciano said. “It’s a really awesome group.”
With a paintbrush in hand, business administration junior Ally McPartland transforms abstract conceptions from her mind into vibrant paintings on canvas. “A lot of times I almost feel like an alien or something goes into my brain, and I’m just doing this art piece and I’m not even thinking about it,” McPartland said. “And then I look at it, and I’m like, oh, it’s done. That’s how it turned out.” Ideas for paintings come to her as vividly and quickly as a dream in deep sleep. She said her current emotions flutter through her mind as images at any given time, and she then rushes to get them onto a canvas. “Almost all of my pieces are inspired by the human mind and its beauties and faults,” McPartland said. Some of her pieces are abstract self-portraits delving into her identity. Others are detailed depictions of her favorite musicians — from The Beatles to Chance the Rapper to Tyler, The Creator — whom she calls “artistic icons” and inspirations to her own art. “I’m really passionate about music,” McPartland said. “Even my pieces that don’t have artists as the subject are inspired by a certain genre of music or what I’m listening to in that time period.” Easily grasping the attention of a passerby, her oil paintings radiate with a vibrancy that express a creative side that may be lost as a finance major. Although some of her pieces may not have a direct message, her art serves as a medium for expressing her inner thoughts and struggles. “My main interest is my own exploration through my realities,” McPartland said. “I don’t necessarily hope that others interpret the same idea as me from each piece of work I create.” McPartland said she hopes the viewer can observe how her art pertains to their own life. What she considers her most notable
piece, “Entropy of Mind,” depicts this message, serving as her personal diary and exploring her sense of self deeper. “Entropy of Mind was made when I was at a point of growth and clarity in my life, so it has a lot of meaning to me,” McPartland said. McPartland was first introduced to her talent of painting in her junior year of high school when she took an arts elective as a required course and fell in love. Even as a beginner, her art showed a complexity that would typically take years of experience. As a senior in high school, her Art II teacher recommended she submit a handful of her pieces for the AP Art exam, even though she was not in AP Art. “When I passed the exam, I gained a lot of confidence in my ability to create, which led me to be more excited in making art,” McPartland said. McPartland is now a junior in college, and her art has grown and transformed as she has moved through school. She decided to declare a minor in Studio Art as a way of expanding her creativity and exploring deeper into her potential. As a finance concentration, she views her art as an escape from reality. She said it allows her to delve deeper into self expression through brush strokes. However, she said she feels no need to carry her passion of art into the workforce. “I see art as a hobby, an escape from reality, and I don’t want it to become a chore or something I have to do for money,” McPartland said. Her eye for creative processes has allowed her to cope with her life’s ups and downs as well as share it with an audience that can relate. Something that started as a task in a classroom setting has transcended into a passion that she now shares with others. For money or not, McPartland will continue to create. She runs an Instagram account, @artbyallymcparty, where she updates followers on her latest pieces and sells prints.
A LLY Mc PA RT LA N D | COU RT ESY
McPartland aims to distort reality with her vibrant paintings.
TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 12, 2019 | ARTS | MUSTANG NEWS
THE VIBRANT PAINTINGS OF ALLY MCPARTLAND
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KY LE C A LZ I A | MUSTA N G N EWS
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The Mustangs eighth conference loss was a heartbreaking overtime defeat in Mott Athletics Center to Long Beach State.
WHAT HAPPENED TO MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM RANKS 333 OUT OF 353 DIVISION 1 SCHOOLS
THE NUMBERS BEHIND A SEASON THAT MAY GO DOWN AS THE WORST IN HISTORY BY F RA N C I S CO M A RT I N E Z After Cal Poly men’s basketball lost to Long Beach State on Saturday night, the Mustangs (5-17, 1-8 Big West) have lost eight of their last 10 games, with their only wins coming against conference rival UC Riverside and Holy Names from NCAA’s Division II. The team’s current conference record leaves them in last place in the Big West. It can be argued that the Mustangs’ season has not been one for the ages. With only one conference win so far this season, the team is on track to have their worst in-conference season since joining the Big West Conference in the 1996-97 season. If the Mustangs lose the rest of their games this season, this will be the second-worst season since transitioning to Division I in 1994; the 1994-95 team went 1-26. According to college basketball analytics website KenPom, the Mustangs are ranked No. 333 out of all 353 Division I programs. The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings,
which are used to determine selection and seedings for March Madness, puts Cal Poly at No. 332 in the overall field. The three Division I programs that Cal Poly defeated so far are not powerhouses either; Based on the NET rankings as of Saturday, Feb. 9, Bethune-Cookman ranks No. 307, UC Riverside ranks No. 314 and USC Upstate is just below Cal Poly at No. 338. Two wins in their last 10 games and five wins out of 22 overall games begs the question on many fans’ minds: why is Cal Poly not good?
Anything but net
After Cal Poly’s exit in the 2018 Big West Men’s Basketball Tournament, head coach Joe Callero gave an adage as to what the team needed to have done in order to advance: “He who makes buckets wins game.” Since then, the Mustangs have been doing anything but making buckets. On average, the Mustangs only score 64.9 points per game. Their opponents, however, score an average of 71.5 points, creating an
average point differential of -6.6 points per game. While the team’s average point differential is telling in itself, the point differential does not account for Cal Poly’s opponents throughout the season. Based on an adjusted offensive efficiency ranking (aOER)–a model that factors in opponent strength and determines how many points a team scores for every 100 possessions–the Mustangs score 93.4 points per 100 possessions against Division I opponents. Among all Division I teams, the team sits at No. 328 for aOER according to KenPom. Defensively, things are not looking good either for the Mustangs. While their adjusted defensive efficiency ranking (aDER) – a statistic similar to aOER, but is based on how many points Cal Poly’s opponents score – is No. 290 in the nation, they still allow 110.1 points per 100 possessions. The -16.7 point differential between aOER and aDER is how KenPom determines every team — including the Mustangs — overall
ranking. This explains the difference between KenPom rankings and NET rankings, and why the Mustangs may be higher positioned in one and lower positioned in another. Cal State Fullerton, who defeated Cal Poly 80-63 on Jan. 26, made a higher percentage of shots from the field compared to the Mustangs (56.5 percent versus 42.2 percent). The Titans also out-rebounded the Mustangs 39-28, allowing for more second chance points as well (20 points versus 11). Arguably the most important factor to the Titans win, however, was their ability to make it to the free throw line and score from there. Cal State Fullerton was at the line 26 more times than Cal Poly was in that game, and scored 23 more free throws than the Mustangs.
Woes with free throws
In addition to the Mustangs’ troubles making 2’s and 3’s, there has been a significant decline in scoring from the free-throw line. Currently, the team has been shooting 62.2
KYL E C AL ZIA | MUSTANG NEW S
The Mustangs dropped both weekend matches at home.
BY THE NUMBERS
A one-half team
percent from behind the line against D-I opponents, which makes them No. 341 in the nation, according to KenPom. This is a stark contrast to the Mustangs’ 78.5 percent team free throw shooting percentage against D-I teams in the 2017-18 season, good for seventh in the nation.
fourth in the nation with his 92.6 percent accuracy from the line, he is making 14 percent less than last season. “[Fields] has been playing excellent, but we need him to be spectacular [...],” Callero said about Fields in an interview on Mustang Gameday prior to their Jan. 26 game against
While the dismal statistics can tell us a lot about a team’s performance, there’s only two numbers that truly matter at the end of the day: wins and losses. While ESPN also accounts Cal Poly’s games against their non-Division I opponents when calculating free throw percentage, the wide gap is still evident. The Mustangs were No. 10 according to in 2017-18, while they currently sit tied with Binghamton at No. 336 this season as of Feb. 9. Senior point guard Donovan Fields, the all-time free throw leader in program history, has so far made 78.6 percent of his free throws against D-I opponents this season. Compared to last season, where Fields was
Cal State Fullerton. “Crazy to say, but we [actually need an] MVP-type performance [from Fields] to elevate everybody else.” Among the rest of the team, similar free throw shooting trends have appeared as well. Senior forward Kuba Niziol, senior guard Marcellus Garrick and sophomore forward Karlis Garoza have all been shooting worse at the line this season so far, compared to last season’s numbers. In addition to not making free throws, the Mustangs have also had trouble getting to
Besides the Mustangs’ lack of scoring ability and free throw troubles, the team has had trouble remaining consistent throughout 40 minutes of play. In their 22 games this season, the Mustangs have been outscored in one half after leading or tying in another half in 12 games this season. Six of the Mustangs’ encounters this season saw them leading at the end of the first half before being outscored in the second half. Only one of these games, Bethune-Cookman on Dec. 8, saw the Mustangs hold on to win, albeit on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime. In the six games where Cal Poly has been down at the half, the Mustangs came from behind to win only once. The lone instance of this happening occurred against USC Upstate on Nov. 24, when the Mustangs defeated the Spartans 75-74 in overtime. In the games where the Mustangs were outscored in both halves, four games saw Cal Poly outscored in single digits in one half before being outscored by double digits in another half: Nov. 11 against Arizona, Jan. 23 against UC Riverside, Jan. 26 against Cal State Fullerton and Feb. 2 against CSUN. In total, that’s 16 games where the Mustangs were either leading or down by single digits in one half and outscored by their opponents in another half. Statistics, at the end of the day, only fill one piece of the puzzle as to why the Mustangs are not good. Injuries, like the one to freshman guard Junior Ballard, are obvious detriments to a team’s performance and their calibre of play. There are some bright spots in this black hole of a season, such as Cal Poly’s offensive turnover percentage rate of 18.7 percent. which is just below the Division I average of 18.9 percent. And while the dismal statistics can tell us a lot about a team’s performance, there’s only two numbers that truly matter at the end of the day: wins and losses. Those two numbers are the ones that never lie, and with the help of these statistics, they clearly say one thing: the Cal Poly Men’s Basketball team is not good.
KY LE C A LZ I A | MUSTA N G N EWS
Ranking in Division I
333/353 5
wins overall this season
64.9 average points
scored per game
DI EGO R I VERA | MUSTA N G N EWS
62.2% successful
free throws against Division I opponents
18.7%
offensive turnover rate
13 TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 12, 2019 | SPORTS | MUSTANG NEWS
the free throw line this season. Based on a ratio of free throw attempts to field goal attempts throughout this season, Cal Poly has a free throw rate of 21.9 percent against Division I opponents according to KenPom. This means that for every 100 field goal shots, the team is getting to the line 21.9 times. A free throw rate of 21.9 percent is well below the NCAA Division I average of 33.4 percent. The Mustangs are last in the Big West in this statistic, and No. 349 out of 353 Division I programs. If Cal Poly’s nine conference games were the only games factored into their free throw rate, that rate drops to 19.8 percent, which is last between all conference opponents and 13.6 percent lower than the NCAA D-I average.
Deals of the Week
PUZZLES Sudoku Fun by the Numbers Like puzzles? Then you’ll love sudoku. This mind-bending puzzle will have you hooked from the moment you square off, so sharpen your pencil and put your sudoku savvy to the test! Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3
boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!
CLUES ACROSS
Guess Who? I am a singer born in Germany on February 14, 1972. I played in a few bands since 1995, but made it big with my current band before doing solo work. One of my biggest hits features a smooth guitar legend.
*See answers at mustangnews.net/games-answers/
Word Scramble Rearrange the letters to spell something pertaining to romance.
O L W R E F
1. Chop or cut 4. Political action committee 7. Male parent 10. Doctors’ group 11. Ottoman military commander 12. A metal-bearing natural material 13. Lively ballroom dance 15. Male Gypsy 16. Once-popular card game 19. Occurred just once 21. __ Streisand, singer 23. Shiny yellow minerals 24. Get hitched again 25. See (Latin) 26. Lies between the Caspian and Persian Gulf 27. Scourges 30. Sentence 34. Supervises flying 35. Bar bill 36. Alfalfa 41. Type of dishwasher soap 45. Witnesses 46. Ancient Italian-Greek colony 47. Newspapers need them 50. Discuss again 54. Small group with shared interests 55. Support 56. Wool 57. Take hold of 59. Likely the first Meso-American civilization 60. Woman (French) 61. Automobile 62. Popular Georgia rockers 63. Soviet Socialist Republic 64. A major division of geological time 65. Make an effort
CLUES DOWN
1. Czech monetary unit 2. Able to arouse feeling 3. Elk 4. Muscular weaknesses 5. Earlier 6. Lightweight fabric 7. One who greets 8. Soldiers sometimes wear one 9. Officially prohibit 13. US political party 14. Used of a number or amount not specified 17. Make a mistake 18. Biopic starring Jamie Foxx 20. Ancient Media inhabitant 22. About aviation 27. Popular American sports league 28. Cologne 29. Partner to cheese 31. When you’ll get there 32. Not pleased 33. One point east (clockwise) of due north 37. Respects 38. Shake up 39. Ethiopian river 40. Intrinsic nature of something 41. Principal parts of the brain 42. Brews 43. Where ships dock 44. One who wassails 47. Shock treatment 48. Popular average 49. Things 51. A type of “bear” 52. Utilize 53. European Economic Community 58. Swiss river
B R I A N T R U ON G | MUSTA N G N EWS
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Hana Vesela leads the Mustangs with 11.1 points per game while averaging 4.5 rebounds per game.
333/353
of Division 1 programs
MUSTANG IN FOCUS
JUNIOR FORWARD HANA VESELA HANA VESELA TALKS ABOUT ACCIDENTALLY TRANSFERRING TO CAL POLY AND HER BAGEL OBSESSION BY KY L E HA R & BR I A N T R U O N G Junior forward Hana Vesela is proving to be a difference-maker in her first year at Cal Poly. The Michigan State transfer leads the Mustangs i scoring with 11.1 points per game. The Czech Republic native scored a season-high 19 points, picked up four rebounds and dished out three assists on Feb. 6. Mustang News: You played your best game of the season against Long Beach State on Wednesday, have you grown more comfortable with the team? Hana Vesela: I haven’t really played for the past two years. At Michigan State I was getting limited minutes, so coming here, I knew I was going to be in a leader-type position, so I had to adjust to that. It was tough in the beginning, just playing with the team and getting the chemistry going. It was nice to play against Long Beach, kind of feel comfortable, being calm and knowing what my shots are and what teammates I can find to get them open. It was nice to finally feel comfortable. MN: How have you adjusted from being from the Czech Republic, playing at Michigan State and now Cal Poly? HV: It was a culture shock, for sure, when I came to Michigan State. Everything was new and I was missing the family a lot. But coming to California was the biggest difference, because of the weather and the school is super cool and super nice and everything is much
happier here. MN: What has the support from the Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo community been like? HV: When I go to the store, because of my height, they usually assume I’m a basketball player, so it’s kinda like ‘oh, Cal Poly!’ It’s really nice. I like the smaller type of city. MN: We heard that you didn’t want to come to Cal Poly at first HV: Oh, lord ... oh, you know about it. MN: Yeah, could tell us about your journey of transferring here? HV: That’s kind of a funny story, when I decided to transfer, I was really hoping to go to Los Angeles. I found on Wikipedia that Cal Poly Pomona is really close to LA. So I thought, “oh my gosh, so cool. I’m going to send an email over there and see what’s up.” But my host mom was sending the emails for me, and she thought I was talking about this Cal Poly. So she sent the email to [head coach Faith Mimnaugh]. Coach Faith called me after and I was like, “oh, Cal Poly … I didn’t mean that one!” but she was like, “well you have to come anyway! Just visit us.” So I took the visit, and it was amazing, and I fell in love with the school and the staff and the players. MN: So what was your first impression on your visit? HV: I really didn’t want to come, even on a visit. Actually, this school was like my last choice. But coach Faith, she just didn’t stop calling me. She was like “oh my gosh, you’ve really got to come here, we’re 20 minutes from
the beach, it’s like a life changing experience.” And I was like, “oh yeah, of course, they’re lying.” But I knew they were paying for it so I wasn’t going to spend any money, so why not. Coach Faith was so happy that I came. When I got here, I was like, “oh, man I really like it, that’s crazy.” I wanted to go to LA but I really loved it here. MN: What about Cal Poly did you really like? HV: I was really focused on the relationships with the coaches and the players. They were super welcoming. I have been through the recruiting process before and I kind of know it’s all about business, but here I really got a different vibe. And of course the weather is really nice. MN: How were you welcomed to the team? HV: I came in the middle of the season and I was really worried about that, but everybody was so nice, surprisingly. They were so happy to see me finally … we bonded super quickly. MN: What has been your favorite moment at Cal Poly? HV: I guess bonding with the players and thinking about the future. I think we have a really nice bond here with everybody. Of course the winning, I love being hyped and I love to win. Winning games is really fun. MN: What’s the best advice you’ve received? HV: Just to be calm and take one second before I make any decision. From Coach T Christina MN: So we asked your teammates for some
funny questions to ask you. How many times do you eat bagels a week? HV: Oh my gosh! Yeah, so it’s like my favorite food. I eat it every day for breakfast and for dinner. With cream cheese. You know, you save a lot of money if you think about it. MN: What’s the weirdest American food combo? HV: Oh my gosh, okay, so weird, I still don’t get it. It’s putting mint into ice cream or chocolate. Who does that? It’s so weird, I still don’t get it, like, who likes it? MN: Have you tasted it before? HV: Yeah, it’s weird! The combination is like putting gum into ice cream. So weird. MN: Is there anything else you want people to know about you? HV: I’m really shy at first, and then I’m really fun and I can sing. That’s all I got. MN: Do you want to sing something for us now? HV: No! Maybe next time. I’ll prepare.
B R I A N T R U ON G | MUSTA N G N EWS
DI EGO R I VERA | MUSTA N G N EWS
After going 4 for 6 from beyond the arc, Stahley said it felt like any shot she made would go in.
TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 12, 2019 | SPORTS | MUSTANG NEWS
“[Stahley] just put her superwoman cape on and came through for us.” FAITH MIMNAU G H
THE NIGHT DYE STAHLEY BECAME SUPERWOMAN BY BR I A N TRUONG On Wednesday, Feb. 6 inside Mott Athletics Center, senior point guard Dye Stahley seemed unstoppable. The Women’s Basketball team was suffering, with their worst record in Big West Conference play in program history. The situation turned from bad to worse when Stahley suffered a Grade 1 MCL tear just four games into conference play. Stahley was forced to sit out, and the Mustangs were without their veteran playmaker and defensive mainstay. “[Stahley’s] one of the most feared defensive presences in the league,” head coach Faith Mimnaugh said. “A lot of opponents are happy to give up the ball to somebody else on their team so they don’t have to go against her, hawking them the whole way up the court.” However, Stahley was only sidelined for two games, a feat that Mimnaugh considers to be a small miracle. “The injury she sustained usually takes a month to come back from, so for her to be able to play in the game again is a testament to her
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resolve and what a hard-nosed cookie she is,” Mimnaugh said. This year, Cal Poly has relied heavily on Stahley’s presence. The team captain averages 36 minutes a game and is the only Mustang to have played for an entire game this season. She has recorded nine full 40-minute games. In addition to taking on more minutes, the 2018 Big West Hustle Player of the Year knew she would also have to take on scoring responsibilities, as the leader of a young Cal Poly team. “Coach Faith and I were talking during summer, and she was like, ‘You’ve really got to flip the switch. You’re not going to be able to just pass the ball and get on defense. We’re going to need you to score too,’” Stahley said. On Wednesday, in a 45-minute performance against Long Beach State, Stahley flipped that switch. She was tired of losing. “We talk about Mustang basketball as tenacious, fierce, in-your-face and [Stahley’s] done that since day one,” Mimnaugh said. “Her moving from the phone booth, mild, unassuming Clark Kent, into putting on the cloak that actually is going to be the dagger in your opponents’ heart, it really was a special event for me.”
The return to Mott
Stahley’s first game back inside Mott Athletics
Center was a close contest, with back-andforth action throughout the game. But with 1:30 left in regulation, the Mustangs were facing their largest deficit of the game. Trailing by six points, it seemed that the 49ers were poised to run away with the game. But Stahley and the rest of the Mustangs would not accept defeat. Especially when breaking a five-game losing streak was within their grasp. Stahley drew two fouls in 30 seconds and drained all four free-throws to help close the gap. With 19 seconds left, Stahley blew by three Long Beach State defenders, driving into the paint to make a no-look pass to junior forward Hana Vesela. Vesela skirted around the inside of the arc, before stepping back to make a momentum-shifting three-pointer. “When Hana hit that step back three, I was like ‘oh yeah, we’re winning,” Stahley said. “Because when does Hana shoot a step back three?” A free throw gave Long Beach State another three-point lead. In response, Stahley took matters into her own hands. After pulling up at the top of the key, she let a shot go from three-point range. It landed, tying the game Continued on page 18
TUESDAY • FEBRUARY 12, 2019 | SPORTS | MUSTANG NEWS
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“She didn’t foul me, and I was like ‘oh I really hope that went in, because that was not a good shot.’ and then it went in. It was just one of those nights.” Mimnaugh was also surprised by Stahley’s clutch three-pointer, admitting that she could not take credit for how it played out. “It’s just what happened, I turned to the coaches on that one and said ‘just like we drew it up,’ but that was facetious comment,” Mimnaugh said. “[Stahley] just put her superwoman cape on and came through for us.”
Taking charge
Despite being a prominent presence throughout her career as a Mustang, Stahley had never been considered a point scorer. In her sophomore season, Stahley averaged 26 minutes per game while starting in every game she played in, but averaged only 2.8 points per game. In her junior season, she improved to 3.9 points per game. “[Point scoring] is a part of her game that she’s deferred to other players in the past, so that hasn’t been the biggest component of her presence on the court,” Mimnaugh said. “I think in the past with [Dynn and Lynn Leaupepe], Hannah Gilbert and Beth Balbierz, I didn’t have to score,” Stahley said. “I just had to be a distributor. I just had to set them up and I knew that they were going to hit shots.” In overtime, it was Stahley’s turn to hit shots. With five minutes on the clock, the ball handler, the passer, the one-who-defers, decided to take charge and become a pure point-scoring heroine. Just over a minute into overtime, the 49ers had taken a three-point lead, but it did not last long. Vesela made a quick pass to a wide-open Stahley, standing nearly three feet away from the top of the arc. From the same angle from where she scored the game-tying shot, Stahley let a deep three-pointer go. “I didn’t even notice how far off of the three-point line I was, but I was feeling it, so I was like, ‘yo, just shoot it, what could go wrong?’” Stahley said. Knowing that Vesela and senior forward Katie Nunnelley were by the posts and ready for any potential rebounds gave Stahley the confidence she needed to take shots. With 1:38 left in overtime, the 49ers lead by just one point. Dialed in, Stahley found her familiar spot at the top of the arc and confidently pulled the trigger. “That was a heat check,” Stahley said. “I was like, ‘alright, I’m feeling it, I just hit two [three-pointers], so why not try this third one?’” Stahley’s fourth shot from beyond the arc earned the Mustangs their first lead in overtime at 60-59. The dagger came with 34 seconds remaining, as Nunnelley inbounded the ball to Stahley, who cut inside for a jump shot. “Pull up jumpers . . . I’ve been working on that for some time — it’s not really my
game,” Stahley said. “It was just one of those nights where literally anything I shot, it just felt like it was going to go in.” Two more free throws by Stahley, who went 7 for 8 from the free throw line, finished off Cal Poly’s 66-59 win.
Superhuman Stahley
“Her performance was just at a different level,” Mimnaugh said. “Sometimes when you get in a groove, and you’re in the zone, it’s just a special moment and you want to recreate it over and over again.” Stahley’s 23-point performance was a new career-high. She went 6 for 13 from the floor and 4 for 6 from three-point range. Stahley also dished out a team-high six assists, putting her at seventh in Cal Poly history for all-time assists with 302 total career assists. According to Stahley, her mindset going into her transcendent performance was the same as any other game. “I had the same mentality: I want to come in every game and help any way I can,” Stahley said. “I was just playing in the moment and everything was falling into place, for me and the rest of the team.” Mimnaugh repeatedly likened Stahley’s evolution into a scoring threat to Clark Kent’s transition into Superman. “[Stahley] just put the whole team on her back,” Mimnaugh said. “I was proud of the whole team because there were a lot of things that everyone did individually to collect the win, but Dye’s game is one that I will remember for probably the rest of my life.” On that Wednesday night, Stahley’s superhuman strength allowed her to power through her recent MCL tear. Her superhuman vision revealed her scoring opportunities, which her superhuman speed let her capitalize on. Her ability to fly sent her shots soaring through the air and cleanly through the basket, in a style fit only for a true leader. On that night, Dye Stahley was superwoman.
DIEGO RIVERA | MUSTANG NEW S
Stahley went 7 for 8 from the free throw line and tallied six assists in Wednesday’s win.