Issue 4, 11/20/15

PALO ALTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT PALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL 50 EMBARCADERO RD. PALO ALTO, CA 94301 NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE

PAI D PALO ALTO PERMIT #44

The Campanile

Vol. XCVIII, No. IV

Palo Alto High School • 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301 • www.palycampanile.org

Friday, November 20, 2015

District considers opening alternative school

Increasing enrollment of students at PAUSD schools prompts proposal for project-based school at Cubberley

JACKY MOORE/THE CAMPANILE

DAMI BOLARINWA/THE CAMPANILE

COURTESY OF TANNER NEWELL

Top left: A Paly Chemistry Honors class struggles to accommodate 34 students. Bottom left: Cubberley Community Center facilities are not fully prepared to host a secondary school. Right: Junior Jason Pollak leads an activity in one of Paly’s Social Justice Pathway classes, a set of courses that Cubberley Secondary School would attempt to mirror.

STAFF WRITER

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he Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) School Board is entertaining the idea of adding an innovative new secondary school at the Cubberley Community Center, which would include grades 6 through 12.

The plan was proposed by the Enrollment Management Advisory Committee (EMAC). The EMAC was formed in January with the aim to “look broadly at the challenges in enrollment across the district,” according to PAUSD’s website. Its

members include PAUSD parents, staff and community members.

The EMAC’s proposal involves both the opening of a new experimental, project-based school as well as a plan for the implementation of different learning techniques in the existing secondary schools, such as a housing system. District Superintendent Max McGee believes that the Cubberley school, if approved, would stimulate similar advancements in project based education at Palo Alto High School and Henry M. Gunn High School.

“I think [the Cubberley School] will inspire both schools to explore

some more project-based, inquirydriven learning experiences,” McGee said.

The EMAC convened in spring with the goal of solving the overenrollment problem at PAUSD schools. Paly and Gunn enroll 1,979 and 1,886 students, respectively, both more than double the national average of 847.

According to EMAC’s findings, learning efficiency begins to drop off at high schools in which there are over 1,700 students. With enrollment projected to increase, PAUSD is looking for ways to distribute out students and maximize learning.

CDC investigates suicide epidemic PAUSD to partner with institute to conduct Epi-Aid investigation PETER MAROULIS

NEWS AND OPINION EDITOR

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of students who died by suicide last year,” McGee said.

With expertise in a variety of EpiAids, from Ebola virus prevention to post-hurricane recovery, the CDC was seen as a valuable asset. However, the process of convincing the organization to partner on a district investigation was far from easy.

“The school district can’t call the CDC and say ‘come in,’” McGee said. “The request has to come from the public health department and the state of California. We first had to work with our Santa Clara County Department of Public Health.”

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Gender identity and access policy to be presented to District Board in December

facilities

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CDC

District regulation to protect gender non-binary students

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uperintendent Max McGee recently invited the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to partner with Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) to investigate recent teen suicides in Palo Alto.

PAUSD prompted the CDC to conduct an epidemiologic study for the district in response to several student suicides that occurred during the 2014-15 school year. The investigation, known as Epidemiologic Assistance (Epi-Aid), is designed to ascertain and understand the causes

of the recent suicides and to further analyze what measures can be taken to prevent future suicides.

“We see [the recent suicides] as a public health threat,” McGee said.

“One death by suicide can frequently beget another, and obviously we’re focused on the teen deaths by suicides.”

Looking to combat the growing issue of PAUSD students taking their own lives, McGee and the district turned to the CDC, a well-established national health agency, for help in early 2015.

“It’s been quite an extensive process getting the CDC involved [in the investigation], but what prompted the investigation was the cluster

The proposed Cubberley school would enroll 450 middle schoolers, and 600 high schoolers. Paly and Gunn enrollment could then drop to 1,800 and 1,700 students, respectively. Furthermore, the three existing PAUSD middle schools would each reduce enrollment by 150 students. With the additional school, all PAUSD schools would approach the optimal number of students.

The EMAC changed its fundamental goals after the screening of the film “Most Likely to Succeed,” which highlighted the evolving approaches to education and the importance of small classroom size.

Sharp settlement results in resignation

AR 5157

District investigation resolved with no admission of wrongdoing SAMUEL YUN

STAFF WRITER

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ormer Palo Alto High School English teacher Kevin Sharp recently resigned after an outside investigation found that he had engaged in “grooming” a Paly alumna for a potential sexual relationship after she graduated in 2014 and turned 18.

Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) settled with Sharp for $150,000 in exchange for his resignation, which was made effective Oct. 31. This settlement, which was approved by the Board of Education on Oct. 27, was signed by both PAUSD Superintendent Max McGee and Sharp.

The agreement states that neither party admitted to any “wrongdoing, violation of the law or breach of any agreement.”

There were “credible and concerned reports’’ that suggested that a “consensual relationship may have occurred after graduation.’’

Currently, there are no charges against Sharp, although PAUSD has reported the case to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the Palo Alto Daily News reported. Sharp taught at Paly from 2004 until last year in the English department as a film literature and

creative writing teacher. He went on leave this year due to the allegations of “grooming.”

On Sept. 26, 2014, the student’s parents met with Dr. Scott Bowers, the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for PAUSD, and Paly Principal Kim Diorio. The information provided by the parents alleging their daughter’s sexual activity with Sharp prompted Bowers to initiate a personnel investigation.

PAUSD hired two different law firms, which came to different conclusions.

The finding of “grooming” by the Lozano Smith law firm, based in Walnut Creek, is what led to Sharp’s resignation. An SHARP

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DAVID TAYERI

More than 1,500 PAUSD parents watched the film on April 30. According to a survey conducted by the EMAC shortly after the screening, 83 percent of parents indicated that they would likely enroll their children in a similar innovative program.

Now, PAUSD hopes to solve class size inflation and innovate learning in the district in one fell swoop. The potential location of the school seemed clear, as the district signed a 5-year lease for the Cubberley Community Center in 2014.

To gauge student opinion, the EMAC recently sent out a survey that asked whether or not students felt crowded at their school and if they would prefer a specific learning style.

However, even in an educationdriven, innovation-friendly city like Palo Alto, many people still hold reservations about the EMAC’s plan.

An editorial by the Palo Alto Weekly implored the district to exercise caution and beware the “perils of innovation.”

Others still point to the potentially crippling financial cost of opening a new school. Refurbishing Cubberley alone could set back the district $60 to 70 million. The operating cost of a new middle school is $2.5 million, and $3.6 million for a new high school.

Furthermore, many parents commenting on Palo Alto Online argue that funds should be spent on improving conditions at existing schools, rather than on a new school that would benefit only a few hundred students.

ALICE ZHAO/THE CAMPANILE

AR 5157 alleviates discrimination against gender non-binary students in the district.

JEREMY FU

ONLINE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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new gender identity and access policy aims to ensure the rights of transgender and gender-expansive students has been outlined by the District’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQQ) committee ahead of a school board vote.

The policy, which will go before the board for approval in December, includes guidelines to help school officials support gender-expansive students during their transition, including the use of names or pronouns, protection of privacy and use of restrooms and locker rooms.

“The policy provides greater context and guidance for ensuring the integration of transgender and gender non-binary students,” Sara Armstrong, parent member of the LGBTQQ committee, said. “We are not trying to do anything dramatically different, we are trying to create deeper understanding.”

Assembly Bill 1266, which includes provisions that ensure transgender students have equal access to all school opportunities, went into effect in January 2014 and was later included in PAUSD’s nondiscrimination policy in June 2014.

TRANSGENDER

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INSIDE

N e w s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A 1- A 4 O p i n i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A 5 -A 8 L i f e st y l e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B 1, B 7, B 8 StudentiLife..................................B2-B3 Spotlight...............................B4-B5 Entertainment.............................B6 S p o r t s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C 1- C 8

SPOTLIGHT

NEWS

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Politicians and businesses utilize social media to target teenagers.

PAGE B4-B5

Gunnís newspaper, The Oracle, takes a fresh perspective on mental health.

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Check us out at www.palycampanile.org

COURTESY OF HUFFINGTON POST

Influence of Social Media

COURTESY OF SHAWNA CHEN

Changing the Narrative

LIFESTYLE

JESSICA WONG/THE CAMPANILE

Tinder Culture

Learn about experiences of students with the renowned dating app.

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SPORTS

COURTESY OF NYPOST

Controversial Calls

Look back on five of the most disputed sports calls in history.

PAGE C4-C5

Friday, November 20, 2015

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NEWS TO KNOW

The Campanile

NEWS Program emphasizes mental well-being Sources of Strength aims to educate students and raise awareness about mental health JOSH NG

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF MATTHEW STOCKMAN

@ESPN ICYMI: Ronda Rousey had never lost a fight. Holly Holm decided to change that. @ThisWeekABC The final line of tonight’s #DemDebate went to @BernieSanders. “Please become part of the political revolution”. @WorldVisionUSA Our hearts break for all effected by violence. Pain is real, but so are hope and love. Join us and #PrayForTheWorld

@RookieMag Injustice on Campus: The events at #Mizzou that led to anti-racism protests across the US.

COURTESY OF ROSLAN RAHMAN

@TaiwanDaily Presidents of China and Taiwan hold historic first meeting since sides split 66 years ago

@KPLU Public Radio Astronomers spot most distant object so far in the solar system #V774104 #farfaraway

@Newsweek 20 of the 21 states refusing #SyrianRefugees are governed by Republicans

@gopdebates WSJ Survey: 44% of Democrats Think Bernie Sanders Won Debate

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t the start of the current school year, Palo Alto High School began the process of implementing Sources of Strength (Sources), an evidence-based mental health wellness program, as a new school-wide health initiative to create a positive atmosphere on campus and to provide early preventative and protective measures against mental illness and suicide. Sources seeks to utilize the power of social networks to change social norms and prevent outcomes of bullying, substance abuse, violence and suicide by creating a culture of connectedness, resilience and strength. Through the powers of peer influence and social media, Sources at Paly aims to connect students to professional help and trusted adults.

“The idea of Sources of Strength is to focus on this broader culture of well-being so that students feel safe and comfortable and do not need focused attention, either from support services, counseling or suicide crisis intervention,” Josh Bloom, the Social-Emotional Learning TOSA and one of Sources’ advisors at Paly, said.

The Atlantic, The New York Times, the National Public Radio (NPR) and other major national publications have written articles that portrayed Paly’s competitive atmosphere as detrimental. On May 10, NPR described Paly in an article titled “In Palo Alto’s High-Pressure Schools, Suicides Lead To SoulSearching” as a highly competitive school that subjects students to stress and high expectations posed by the school. Sources seeks to alter the media’s negative portrayal of Paly by alleviating the fixation on student suicides through positive activities.

“Part of what we’re trying to do is trying to change the narrative from ‘Palo Alto is the place for suicides’ or ‘Palo Alto is the community where

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@SkyNews The hacker/activist group #Anonymous promises revenge on Islamic State for #ParisAttacks @sciam El Nino is “strong and mature” and the biggest in more than 15 years, WMO Says

alo Alto High School administration has been working hard on teacher observations, district trainings and preparing for the upcoming semester.

According to Assistant Principal Victoria Kim, Paly administration is working on teacher observations in order to discuss ways in which teachers can improve their skills.

“Administrators observe teachers and then meet with them afterwards to discuss the observation and provide guidance and suggestions for ways to make instructional practices even better,” Kim said.

The administration is also trying to interview more students in order to get more input regarding the changes made to the new Tutorial system that was implemented earlier this school year.

“Our admin team continues to discuss and monitor how Tutorial is going and figure out how to make improvements,” Kim said.

The administration has been busy participating in various trainings implemented by the district office.

“We’ve also attended a training at the district office that was related specifically to the work we are doing in our Professional Learning Communities for our Western Association of Schools and Colleges action plan goals and another training on 504 plans,” Kim said.

According to Kim, as the first semester comes to a close, the administration is using this time to reflect in order to figure out how they can improve in the following semester.

“While we are heading into the end of semester one, the work now is actually focused on planning for what we need in semester two and on,” Kim said.

ASB begins to plan for second semester events After Spirit Week, ASB looks to add activities that are more inclusive TIFFANY LIANG

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

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fter a successful Spirit Week 2015, the Associated Student Body (ASB) is looking to reform certain activities for the coming year such as pumpkin carving.

“Pumpkin carving during spirit week was unfortunately not an inclusive event,” Senior Class President Eli Friedlander said. “We are constantly looking for ways to better Spirit Week to try and make the week all about class unity. But regardless, this was a very successful Spirit Week.”

They are also looking to implement homework free days and have been talking to the site council as well as the administration about what dates to have them. Feb. 11 to Feb. 15 is under consideration due to the long weekend.

Sources of Strength founder, Mark Lomurray.

To establish a peer leader team, students were nominated by more than one adult on campus as somebody who has been acknowledged as being a positive influence to other peers. Bloom and Frecceri asked the staff to nominate those that the adults saw fit as positive leaders in the Paly community. A total of about 150 peer leaders were nominated by the staff. The list was narrowed down to about 60 to 70 peer leaders based on peer groups and student background, in order to attain diversity in the peer leader team.

This is a community where we can utilize Sources of Strengths to find a way to overcome challenges.

Jonathan Frecceri Paly’s Mental Health and Wellness Coordinator The peer leaders and adult advisors then started to plan for Paly’s first campaign event, “Naming and Thanking Trusted Adults.” This campaign is intended to acknowledge

Administration has district trainings in future Jordan Middle School hosts choir fundraiser SENIOR STAFF WRITER

@HuffPostPol Jerry Brown pressured to ban fracking in California

everybody gets so stressed out that they have to jump in [front of ] trains’ to ‘[Palo Alto’s] culture is the place filled with resilience’,” Paly’s Mental and Health and Wellness Coordinator Jonathan Frecceri said. “This is a place where people will bounce back.

This is a community where we can utilize Sources of Strengths to find a way to overcome challenges.”

Sources of Strength bases its core values on eight ideologies listed on a “wheel:” mental health, familial support, positivity from friends, mentorship, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality and medical assistance.

The implementation of the Sources of Strength program has been divided into two parts: establishing adult advisors and peer leaders and starting student-led projects throughout the school known as “campaigns.”

To establish a team of adult advisors, Bloom and Frecceri shared the messages of Sources of Strength and the program’s initiative with staff members, then asked each individual staff member if they were interested in helping out the program by becoming an adult advisor. The 25 adult advisors and 68 peer leaders then attended a training hosted by the

District looks for student Choir to perform at 13th opinions on tutorial policy annual Madrigal Feaste SUSANA CACHO

COURTESY OF ABC 7 NEWS

COURTESY OF NEWFIELD PRESS

Sources of Strength’s wheel was created in order to represent its core ideologies.

these adults and point out more trusted adults so students who are struggling can seek them out through peer recommendations.

The Sources of Strength program separates its 25 adult advisors and 68 peer leaders into “campaign teams,” which implement the theme in different ways, including art, events and social media. For example, the visual arts team will create a poster filled with sticky notes where students can write what they are thankful for and names of trusted adults.

Though Paly already has a counseling and mental health program, Adolescent Counseling Services (ACS), there are differences between ACS and Sources. ACS treats those who are undergoing depression or mental health issues at the time. Paly implemented Sources because support services like ACS were not effective in supporting the entire Paly community. Rather than treating those who are affected by depression and mental health issues, Sources is a program that seeks to prevent students from experiencing depression and mental health issues by generating a positive and protective culture for everyone on campus.

Sources does not send messages of shock, sadness and trauma but instead delivers messages of hope, help and strength. Sources uses peer leaders as connectors between Sources and other students, and not to train peers to become peer counselors or psychologists who are there to solve other problems.

Senior Sylvia Targ, one of the peer leaders on the Paly campus, has seen benefits for both herself and other Paly students.

“I want to be just as helpful and emotionally supportive to all my friends and all those other people in my life because I know first hand how important that is,” Targ said.

“Sources of Strength has helped me, by helping other people.”

ASB has also started to think about events for the winter time. Although almost nothing is for certain yet, students can still look forward to Cookies and Cocoa after finals.

“We’re playing with a lot of ideas but we don’t know exactly what we’re going to do yet,” Friedlander said.

“Cookies and Cocoa on the quad is definitely set in stone.”

ASB is currently thinking of winter sport tournaments students can partake in with their friends.

“We’re playing with the idea of a volleyball tournament like we did last year,” Friedlander said. “Just some kind of winter sports activity, maybe badminton or kickball.”

For the tournament, there will be two teams, where two different grades will have to pair up. A holiday movie night, as well as quarterly movie nights is also something ASB

members have been talking about. A survey will be out in early December to get feedback from students.

The winter rally is also coming up; however, there have been complications due to the ongoing construction at Paly, eliminating the student-staff basketball game as an option.

“We have to think about a lot of new things and talk to the administration,” Friedlander said. “Obviously, we don’t have a big gym anymore so we can’t have a student-staff basketball game.”

The prom location will be revealed at the winter rally; this year 720 tickets will be available. Ticket sales may change, as last year’s ticket sale rules were not explicitly said. Therefore, this year ASB plans to release a statement regarding the rules. The application deadline for climate committee is also coming up.

ABIRA BEREZIN

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

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he Palo Alto High School Choirs will be hosting its 13th Annual Madrigal Feaste on Dec. 5 and 6 for the first time at Jordan Middle School due to Paly construction.

“We are really excited to have it at Jordan,” Paly Choir Director Michael Najar said. “They have a really great venue that fits our needs perfectly.

We are hoping to continue to have it there for future years.”

The Madrigal Feaste is the biggest choir fundraiser of the year and will use the profits for choir’s operating costs and scholarships for students.

The event will include repertoire from Concert Choir, Spectrum, The Madrigal Singers and the a capella groups. The Jordan Choir will be joining the Paly Choir to perform on one of the concert days.

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The Madrigal Feaste is one of Paly Choir’s unique events, as it includes choral repertoire, theatre and a meal.

Choir hopes to take audience members back to the 15th century King Henry VIII’s Westminster Palace.

The full experience will also include a storyline and elaborate costumes.

Costuming is a huge part of the event and is run by senior Clare Kemmerer and her mother Carlene Kemmerer. The costumes maintain the 15th century atmosphere and show off the hierarchial contrast among nobility, gentry and peasants.

Paly Choir currently has about 200 costumes and continue to make new costumes every year as well as tailor costumes to fit students.

“We do 15th century costuming for the Madrigals,” Kemmerer said.

“We have tiers of costumes, the Madrigals get the best costumes and then it goes down from there into Spectrum, gentry and then peasants.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

END OF FIRST QUARTER APPLICATION HELP OneCOMMON quarter down, three more quarters to Colleges should accept me for my go. personality, and not for my GPA.

NOV

THANKSGIVING DAY “You’ve grown so much! Where are you applying to college?”

NOV

BLACK FRIDAY TGIBF – Thank God It’s Black Friday.

DEC

SAT TEST DATE You should have just taken the ACT.

DEC

CHOIR’S MADRIGAL FEASTE Party like it’s 1499.

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Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

NEWS Gunn Oracle begins new series

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Gender Identity and Access

Online series to promote positive discussion about mental health Committee hopes to establish new guidelines Continued From A1 work to “de-stigmatize the use of

COURTESY OF SHAWNA CHEN

The Gunn High School Oracle staff, all wearing red clothing to promote school spirit, come together to take a group photograph.

KAI ODA

SPORTS EDITOR

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enry M. Gunn High School’s newspaper, The Oracle, is seeking to generate positive conversation around mental health through an online series called “Changing the Narrative.” The first article written in the series was published by Gunn senior Lisa Hao on Oct. 27, and describing with Hao her perseverance through her journey dealing with depression.

“It took so long to get here, but for the first time in six years, I feel alive,” Hao wrote. “For the first time in six years, I feel present and here. For the first time in six years, I’m all in.”

“Changing the Narrative” is The Oracle’s response to recent negative content regarding mental health.

The series also promotes discussion around sensitive topics such as emotional vulnerability and the acceptance of mistakes.

The Oracle’s new series focuses on stories of recovery by students who faced emotional challenges and overcame them.

We decided that even if it was painful, [mental health and emotional vulnerability] are things that needed to be talked about.

Shawna Chen Editor-In-Chief of The Oracle “There is a lot of negative stigma about what Palo Alto schools are doing to help students deal with academic stress,” Hao said. “Although there has been more open discussion about student mental health, it’s always been about how bad it is.”

The idea for “Changing the Narrative” began when Shawna Chen, The Oracle’s Editor-in-Chief, and Kristy Blackburn, The Oracle’s advisor, attended a meeting hosted by

the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

The meeting addressed the way that the media occasionally publishes “sensational” stories that glorify suicide incidents and can lead to suicide clusters — where one suicide causes other students to take their lives as well. However, the meeting also addressed the benefit of proper media coverage regarding suicides.

“When the media writes positive stories of hope and overcoming struggles, there tends to be a decrease in the likelihood of suicide clusters,” Chen said. “This is what started [Changing the Narrative].”

Chen pitched the idea for the series to the writers at The Oracle, and the publication agreed as a whole to change the type of conversation surrounding various facets of emotional trauma.

“We decided that even if it was painful, [mental health and emotional vulnerability] are things that needed to be talked about,” Chen said. “To know that you are not alone in struggling with a mental illness is important.”

Because of the delicate nature of the content published in “Changing the Narrative,” the writers have taken steps to be mindful. Students at Gunn are in different stages of grief, and not everyone wants to read stories of hope, making the content that “Changing the Narrative” produces potentially upsetting to some.

“I remember that when I was really depressed, I did not like reading other people’s stories of recovery because I felt that I was stuck, and I couldn’t identify with someone that made it out,” Hao said.

To solve this problem, Chen decided to make “Changing the Narrative” an online-only series. This gives students the choice to click on the article instead of accidentally stumbling upon it in the newspaper.

Chen and the writers who contribute content to “Changing the

Narrative” exercise caution in their writing so as to not be sensational.

They work closely with on-campus mental health advisors as well as outreach programs like the Reach Out Care Group (ROCK). Chen intends to expand the series to cover more topics in the future, such as dealing with failure and raising self-esteem.

The point of “Changing the Narrative” is not to draw more attention to mental illness, but rather to provide a resource for students in need.

It strives to achieve this by establishing personal connections between the writer and the reader. Chen believes that a connection between the two parties leads to greater understanding about a complex topic like depression or self-esteem.

“The power to relate: across the screen, across the paper and feeling what the author was feeling at the time is moving,” Chen said. “I want [students] to be able to read these stories and realize that it is human nature to make mistakes and have weaknesses, and that it is okay to talk about it.”

The Oracle wants to expand “Changing the Narrative” beyond the confines of the publication and its staff.

The second article in the series, written on Nov. 9 by Rachel Congress, a Gunn math teacher, described her divorce from an alcoholic husband, the subsequent apathetic treatment she received from her friends and her recovery process. In the future, a myriad of both staff and students may write for “Changing the Narrative” to spread their stories of hope to those who need it.

“For its good and bad, I love my school,” Chen said. “I love my class, and my peers, and my friends and all the memories I have made here. We need to be able to talk about challenges and grow and overcome them together. I hope [Changing the Narrative] is a step for that.”

School board approves Sharp’s resignation Teacher reportedly involved in relationship with former student Continued From A1 act[ed] inappropriately toward her as allegation that the firm focused on was the close proximity between the student’s graduation from Paly and the alleged sexual relationship. The firm attempted to uncover what kind of relationship the two had before the reported sexual relationship occurred, she turned 18. After the investigation, the firm could not come to a “definitive conclusion regarding the nature of [the] relationship” due to “lack of firsthand observation or other factual evidence.” However, there were “credible and concerned reports” that suggested that a “consensual relationship may have occurred after graduation.”

Another allegation considered by the firm was whether Sharp had “desensitized”the student during her time at Paly to make her more inclined to have a sexual relationship after she graduated. Despite her denying “repeatedly and adamantly that nothing ever occurred to her while she was a student to make her feel threatened, objectified, or unsafe,” according to a Lozano Smith report, and that Sharp had “at no time…

a student,” the finding was that it was likely that the relationship the two shared was much “more friendly than either admitted during interviews.”

However, the attorney report noted that “the preponderance of evidence does not support a conclusion that any behavior rose to a level of sexual harassment… or unwelcome behavior.” The firm did conclude that there is a “credible strong suspicion there may have been behavior or interactions that desensitized the student while she was a student to the potential of a future sexual relationship.”

The Fagen firm recommended that the district continue its “development of proactive and preventive efforts to ensure compliance with Title IX.’’ The Lozano Smith findings contradict the conclusion of the other law firm, Fagen Friedman and Fulfrost, which declared in its report that “it was not possible… to reach a definitive conclusion that such behavior rose to the level of sexual

harassment as defined under federal law.” In addition, it was noted that “review of available records did not provide evidence that participation or performance in any educational activities were diminished as a result of the sexual harassment.”

The Fagen firm recommended that the district continue its “development of proactive and preventive efforts to ensure compliance with Title IX,” a legal framework that prohibits various forms of sexual harassment including “sexual advances, and other verbal, nonverbal or physical conduct of sexual nature.”

As of now, Sharp and the district have come to a mutual agreement that neither party will file any future claims based on the information that is currently known, according to Palo Alto Daily News. All derogatory information about this incident will not be disclosed to prospective employees unless they conduct a background search on Sharp or if PAUSD is required to do so. As of Oct. 31, the district will have 10 days after the resignation contract was signed to pay Sharp the money agreed upon in the settlement.

The LGBTQQ committee began working on the gender identity and access policy before the passage of the bill. The policy states that it is intended to apply to transgender students as well as those “whose gender identity or gender expression falls outside or in between the category of male or female.” Armstrong said that she hopes the policy will educate district faculty on the assistance that students may need.

“Everyone’s transition is different, so the guidance that is provided by this policy and by all the laws are not meant to be a one size fits all, but to allow people to understand the type of questions and assistance that might be requested,” Armstrong said.

AB1266 provides students the right to access restrooms and locker rooms according to their gender identity. However, AB1266 does not require schools to create gender neutral single-stall facilities, something that the new gender identity and access policy recommends.

According to Oliver, a Paly student whose identity has been changed to protect his privacy, single-stall allgender restrooms were not open to students at the start of the school year, despite promises from school administration. Currently, only four out of six single-stall all-gender restrooms are available to students.

“We had to lobby for them [single-stall all gender restrooms] even though I was told there would be gender neutral bathrooms set up for me this year,” Oliver said. “When my family touched base with them [the administration] two weeks before school started there were no bathrooms. I had to be given a key to the staff bathrooms and staff had to be notified because there were no operational gender-neutral bathrooms.”

But, students will still have access to facilities that correspond with their gender identity and also be welcome to use the alternative facilities. For Oliver, the restrooms provide increased privacy and protection from potential misunderstanding.

“I don’t feel comfortable using the men’s bathrooms because I’m not always read as a guy,” Oliver said. “Going into the men’s bathroom is empowering; however, it comes at the cost of me being paranoid that I’m going to get attacked. I was verbally and almost physically attacked in a women’s bathroom last year because someone thought I was a man and I was still presenting as a girl.”

To combat misunderstanding, the policy suggests school officials

such options, as well as to establish clear guidelines and expectations with regard to respecting privacy and boundaries.”

“The way to reduce stigma about all issues of gender is to normalize it,” Oliver said. “At my private middle school, we had units talking about ‘taboo’ topics, not just sexuality and gender. Pretty much all the people I went to school with have questioned their sexuality and gender at some point because it wasn’t treated as a big deal — just as another word that they could use to describe themselves.”

While progress has been made, Oliver believes the administration needs education on gender identity.

“My experience with the administration has been very double sided because they say they will do things but there is a huge backlog,” Oliver said. “They really are trying but they are so uneducated that it sometimes falls to me to educate when that should be the last thing on my plate.”

As for the day-to-day actions of teachers and school officials, the committee advocates avoiding segregating students into male and female teams. Paly administration has invited Gender Spectrum, an organization that provides training on gender identity, to speak to teachers early next year. The administration is also considering the addition of gender identity curriculum in school.

“We have brought in experts from Outlet and Gender Spectrum to educate staff and students,” PAUSD student services director, Brenda Carrillo, said. “We have plans to increase training, outreach and education to all stakeholders, including students.

Henry M. Gunn High School’s yearbook has proactively removed gender separation from yearbook polls, a change that Paly’s Madrono has yet to adopt. Editor-in-Chief of the Madrono, Liam Nororian, said including gender was a misstep in the polls and does not represent the true values of the publication.

“We as a publication encourage gender diversity and plan to eliminate regulations such as those that appeared to be imposed in senior polls, which encourage upholding societal gender constructs,” Nororian said. “We plan to emphasize that ‘cutest couple’ is open to couples that are not heterosexual and recreate our poll system so it excludes gender as a factor in the results of the voting.”

Students who want to lend their voices to the conversation can speak at the district board meeting on Dec. 8 or write a letter to the board by Dec. 1.

CDC investigates factors of teenage suicides in Palo Alto PAUSD requests aid following recent suicides Continued From A1 in January 2016, though McGee and After the welcome cooperation of the Santa Clara County Department of Public Health (SCCDPH), plans for the investigation were laid out wherein PAUSD, the county’s Department of Health and the CDC would research and report on suicide prevention strategies in Palo Alto. A group of researches from Stanford University, led by Dr. Steven Goodman, will also be participating in the joint investigation team.

“We’re also working with a team from Stanford led by Dr. Steven Goodman, who will be supplementing and supporting CDC’s work,” McGee said. “This is a really concerted effort involving a lot of people on a large scale.”

The investigation team will analyze factors that cause students to attempt to take their own lives, using resources and statistics. McGee sees the student suicides as a pressing issue for all of Palo Alto, warranting a comprehensive investigation.

“This investigation is not just about the schools; it’s about the whole community, the city, the culture, the university, the train tracks,” McGee said.

McGee says that PAUSD is eager to get started on the investigation as soon as possible in order to quickly find solutions. As of now, the investigation is scheduled for a definite start

the district are attempting to get a CDC representative to come to Palo Alto sooner.

The investigatory field work itself will take several weeks, and a final report is expected to be completed a few months after that.

The CDC conducted a comparable Epi-Aid on teen suicide clusters in Fairfax, Va. in 2014. Data from the 224-page study primarily targeted the 10 to 19 year-old public school demographic in five different regions of Fairfax County (encompassing 26 schools), after a sharp rise in suicide attempts in 2013. The comprehensive report looked at factors such as drug abuse, domestic issues and mental health history in cases of suicide and attempted suicide, as well as how local communities and press should most optimally handle the publicizing of self-inflicted deaths.

McGee says that the district drew inspiration from the Fairfax report, as well as similar Epi-Aids done at school districts in Maine and Massachusetts.

As Palo Alto continues to battle the issue of teen suicides in the community, the CDC report will hopefully provide welcome solutions, as it did in Fairfax.

“The investigation will be of significant benefit for our current and future students and families,” McGee said.

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

A4 NEWS Tutoring program looks to close achievement gap Project Rally focuses on providing in-depth, volunteer-based Language Arts tutoring for young PAUSD students MADDIE FELDMEIER

STAFF WRITER

B

ack in 2005, only 35 percent of low income students met or exceeded standards on California standardized testing.

In 2015, 10 years later, 63 percent of low income students still cannot meet or exceed standards from the Smarter Balanced English Language Arts test, while only 13 percent of non-economically challenged students struggle to meet standards, according to Palo Alto Online. After 10 years, progress had not been made in the closing of the achievement gap in Palo Alto.

On Oct.12, Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) and East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring (EPATT) came together to provide what may be the first tangible solution to the problem, a new program called Project Rally.

Project Rally, an after-school program offering free tennis lessons and tutoring, is located at Fairmeadow Elementary School and runs after school. Students are provided with three 45-minute tennis lessons and two 45-minute one-on-one tutoring sessions. Project Rally is open to kindergarten and first-grade students who are part of the Voluntary Transfer Program (VTP), a program that sends students from East Palo Alto to PAUSD schools. Shirley May, one of the program coordinators, emphasizes the importance of supporting these kids at a young age. ”We really believe those fundamental skills of building literacy and really nailing down the phonemic awareness skills [are important] for kids in kindergarten … [they] are at an age where we really still have a significant impact on closing that gap for them,” May said.

As of now, all of the students are from East Palo Alto and attend either Fairmeadow or Hoover Elementary School, though the program has just launched and has hopes of expanding to other elementary schools in the near future. Project Rally hopes not only to open the program to other schools, but also to increase enrollment from 23 to about 30 students by the end of the school year.

Project Rally follows EPATT’s model of combining tennis and tu-

COURTESY OF ERICA DICARLO

Paly junior Quinn Knoblock reads to a student as a part of Project Rally, an initiative pairing volunteer tutors with kindergarten and first grade students from East Palo Alto.

toring in order to take full action in getting these underprivileged kids the support that they need. May is fully aware of the struggle that these students face.

“Even though these kids have access to the same resources, the same classrooms, the same teachers, the same books as their Palo Altan counterparts, when it comes to academic achievement and things like test scores and college acceptance rates, these kids are showing much lower rates of success,” May said.

[Project Rally] is hitting the root of the problem, which is at a young age helping kids with early literacy skills, and so I think the achievement gap is improving, but it’s not hitting all of the population yet.

Quinn Knoblock Project Rally Volunteer May feels that a reason VTP students struggle in PAUSD is due to their socioeconomic background.

“They may be reading the same books or listening to the same teach-

New waste laws proposed

er, but once they leave Fairmeadow or Hoover, we don’t really know what they have access to at home,” May said.

Project Rally aims to have its students, beginning at age five, become active learners in their education process.

“We do have a focus on reading, and not just recognizing letters and the sounds that they make or learning new words, but we really want the students to be more proactive in how they read and how they question their education,” May said.

Tutors work with students on many different aspects of Language Arts. They teach 15 minutes of phonics, 15 minutes of writing and 15 minutes of reading each session. In the last 15 minutes, the kids all leave and tutors do a short debrief with each other on how it went.

Tutors are all volunteers who are working with these kids because they care about the cause. They range from passionate high school students and retirees to former teachers all working together to provide support. Quinn Knoblock, Jordan Quigley and Katie Cox are juniors at Palo Alto High

School who take part in this program because they enjoy working with kids and want to help make a difference in the community.

“I really like it because I have the same boy every time and I love him and it’s really fun to teach him,” Quigley said. “I love teaching him how to spell all of his favorite colors.

He’s gotten a lot better at reading, and it’s cool to see all the progress that he’s made.”

While Project Rally has goal of increased academic success, social and behavioral skills are also emphasized.

“We want to help them realize that in school and in society we need to be able to act a certain way and learn from our mistakes and just be not only focused on what we want, but care about others as well,” May said.

This can be a challenge for some of the students, as many of them came into the program with behavioral challenges.

“My kid has a hard time focusing so I always have to get him to refocus,” Cox said.

Project Rally will assess students at the end of the program and com-

pare the results to the teacher’s assessment of them at the beginning of students’ time at Project Rally.

“We’re working with the teachers to see if the tutoring and the tennis and the program is actually working for them,” May said.

Quigley feels like the program is off to a good start, but needs more time to settle in before they can make a true evaluation.

“I think because it’s the first year of it they’re still working out the kinks and everything, and it’s not flushed out yet,” Quigley said. “It’s not completely organized, and they don’t know exactly what they’re doing but I think that it’s definitely getting there.”

Knoblock is also optimistic about the outcome of the program as well given what she has seen so far. “[Project Rally] is hitting the root of the problem, which is at a young age helping kids with early literacy skills, and so I think the achievement gap is improving,” Knoblock said.

While this program may be just beginning, it is a strong effort towards eventually being able to close the achievement gap in Palo Alto.

Crab season delayed due to toxins

City Council debates altering compost rules California Dungeness crabs found to be contaminated with domoic acid RACHEL FARN

BUSINESS MANAGER

P

alo Alto City Council had its first reading of the Recycling and Composting Ordinance on Nov. 2 in order to decide whether to adopt the ordinance, and plans on having a second reading in the near future to make its final decision.

If implemented, the ordinance would amend Title 5 (Health and Sanitation) and Title 18 (Zoning) of the Palo Alto municipal code.

It would also require all commercial customers, multifamily properties and food-service establishments producing more than 10 cubic yards of compost per week to use to Palo Alto’s composting services and to sort their waste properly. Ideally, this first part of the ordinance would be implemented by April 1, 2016.

“This ordinance allows everybody in Palo Alto ... access to compost service,” Matthew Krupp, manager of the Zero Waste Initiative, said in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News.

Palo Alto currently has an 80 percent waste diversion rate, the rate at which waste is diverted from landfills, one of the highest in California.

Additionally, this rate has been stagnant since 2010.

In order to reach the city goal of having Zero Waste in landfills by 2021, the city will have to do more.

Other nearby cities such as San Francisco and Cupertino, Calif. have passed similar ordinances that have improved their diversion rates.

By requiring businesses to subscribe to all three services — garbage, recycling and composting — it is believed that there will be a resulting reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (equivalent to nearly 22,000 metric

tons of carbon dioxide annually in Palo Alto).

Previous initiatives have been taken to help meet the Zero Waste goal.

On June 15, the City Council approved of the GreenWaste Contract Amendment No. 2, which aimed to increase Zero Waste services, efficiency and annual cost in order to support composting programs.

In March, the plan to increase composting in Palo Alto was submitted and later, the residential food scraps program was approved.

“Our goal is that everything will either go into a compost container or a recycling container, eventually,” Phil Bobel, the city’s assistant director of Public Works, said during an interview with the San Jose Mercury News.

A 2012 city study found that over 70 percent of the city’s garbage is recoverable, which is equal to about 21,000 tons of compostable and recyclable material — mostly food scraps and food soiled paper.

As a result of landfilling compostable materials, 5,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases are released.

In October 2005, the City Council initially approved of the Zero Waste plan and strategies, hoping to meet 73 percent waste diversion by 2014 and zero waste by 2021. The council also decided that a Zero Waste operational plan should be developed.

Earlier in 2005, a task force was formed to form a strategic plan after the idea of a Zero Waste plan was brought up in 2004.

After listening to input from community sources, key objectives and plans, such as eliminating waste at the source and maximizing recycling through expanded collection programs, were found.

COURTESY OF KTLA.COM

Dungeness crabs containing domoic acid, a toxin, have caused California’s crab industry to suffer millions of dollars in profit losses.

CHRISTINA LE

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

T

he California Department of Public Health has issued a warning report that people should not eat Dungeness crabs caught along the California coast.

San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf would typically be preparing to harbor thousands of pounds of crabs at this time of the year; however, crab buckets have been sitting on empty docks due to the hazardous chemicals in the water.

“Due to the detection of dangerous levels of domoic acid, crabs caught in waters between the Oregon borders and the Santa Barbara County line pose a significant risk to the public if consumed,” the warning report said.

While the toxin can be colorless, odorless and harmless to the animals exposed to them, humans who have

consumed these infected crabs have been poisoned.

Consumption or contact with toxic crabs can result in mild symptoms such as sickness, cramps and a headache.

Severe poisoning can lead to permanent memory loss, seizures, coma and in extreme cases, death. Cleaning or cooking these foods will not rid them of the domoic acid.

Domoic acid is a neurotoxin that causes amnesic shellfish poisoning. It is produced by algae and accumulates in shellfish, sardines and anchovies.

The toxin started to spread in September, when more than 200 sea lions were killed from domoic acid poisoning in areas around the California coast.

As a result of the poisoning, the recreational crab season has been delayed and the rock crab fishery was forced to close until it is safe to harbor crabs again.

In an interview with the San Francisco Gate, California State Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Manager Craig Shuman explained that delaying the season will be a disappointing, however public health is more important.

“Delaying or closing the season is disappointing,but public health and safety is our top priority,” Shuman said in an interview with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The crab industry has already experienced profit losses, according to Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “[Crab harbor] closures have cost an estimated $22 million in tourismrelated spending,” Ayres said.

As of now, the prices of crabs have remained the same throughout markets in. However, many restaurants go off the menu due to the season’s scarcity.

The Campanile

Friday, November 20, 2015

OPINION A5 Customers should think twice before utilizing Uber

THOMAS RAUNER-SWAN

U

STAFF WRITER

ber, a well known ridesharing company, has become a primary means of transportation for people in big cities and suburbs around the world. Uber’s sign up page boasts that independent contractors get “freedom and flexibility to drive whenever they have time.” People generally like this idea because it seems like a socially conscious organization that gives people jobs and offers an inexpensive and convenient mode of transportation.

However, many frequent users of Uber are unaware of the problems within the company. Potential users of Uber should use alternative methods of transportation because Uber does not follow government regulations, misrepresents worker incomes, employs inexperienced drivers and uses complicated pricing methods that inconvenience customers.

The biggest issue that Uber faces is that it does not provide insurance for its drivers. The company gets around these laws by hiring its drivers as third party contractors. This way, drivers themselves are liable for accidents when transporting passengers unless they have special insurance. Some drivers also run into problems with insurance even when they are not on the clock.

“In some cases, personal auto insurance policies are being canceled once the insurance companies find out that the driver works for Uber or Lyft, so they’re stuck with no personal auto

coverage,” insurance broker Adam Cecil said in a PolicyGenius blog. “Complete auto insurance coverage is still unavailable to the vast majority of rideshare drivers.”

Another reason to think twice before using Uber is that the company misrepresents important data about the earnings of its drivers to increase the interest of potential employees. For example, Uber has quoted incomplete data to support its claim that its employees are able to make enough money to support themselves. Karen Weise, a journalist with Bloomberg News, recently wrote about Uber’s incomplete wage information and concluded that Uber did not take driver’s expenditures such as gas and insurance into account.

Many Uber workers claim that they earn significantly less than the $16 an hour that Uber claims its employees make. To discover how much Uber drivers were really earning, Michelle Chen, a journalist from The Nation, interviewed a current Uber employee who claimed to make less than $3 an hour. Chen’s findings match Weise’s analysis of Uber driver expenditures.

Uber claims that if you have a car, “you’ve already got everything you need to get started.” Becoming an Uber driver is as easy as being 21 years old, completing an application, passing a background check and getting your car inspected by an Uber-approved auto shop.

What Uber does not explain to its potential employees is that in most cases, the countries and cities where its employees will be driving have more restrictive requirements than the ones Uber does.

For example, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) requires aspiring taxi drivers to schedule an appointment with the SFMTA taxi service office for a prescreening evaluation, pass a taxi school, submit a 10-year driving record certified by the Department of Motor Vehicles, pay numerous fees and obtain a letter of intent to hire. After that, the driver is allowed to enroll in the SFMTA taxi class and attempt to pass the test. Assuming the driver passes, he or she gets an 8-week trial period with a temporary permit.

According to WhosDrivingYou.org, there have been 26 sexual assault “incidents” by Uber drivers in 2015 alone. Last August, Huffington Post reported that a Uber employee allegedly kidnapped and raped a client. There have also been other reports of kidnappings and assaults by various Uber drivers.

By making its drivers third party contractors, Uber is able to skirt government regulations.

This allows drivers to not meet legal standards of other companies in the same industry, which means that the consumers are not as protected from unsafe situations as they would be with other companies.

Upon examination, it is clear that Uber is not as safe as many people think. Instead of grabbing an Uber, jump on a bike, with a helmet, or use safer public transportation such as taxi services. Then, a giant corporation intent on getting around government safety regulations in order to make money will have some healthy competition.

Paly should remove Restorative Justice policy JACKY MOORE

P

STAFF WRITER

alo Alto High School’s cheating culture has been a source of controversy for students and faculty alike, leading administrators to create new, more lenient consequences for cheaters in an ineffective attempt to curb academic dishonesty.

Implemented in 2014, Paly’s Restorative Justice program is a process aimed at the reformation of students who violate the school’s Academic Honesty policy as well as restoration of the effects of the violation.

It is designed to gently teach cheaters not to cheat again, and therein lies the problem: in a stressful situation in which cheating is an option, a student is not going to be dissuaded by the threat of the Restorative path’s consequent “discussion” against academic dishonesty. To better curtail Paly’s issues with cheating, the administration should remove the option for Restorative Justice and instead stiffen the consequences of the traditional pathway for cheaters.

Restorative Justice is seen by many students as a way to sidestep the

harsher consequences for cheating of the traditional system.

“From what we were told about it [Restorative Justice], it seems like students could just take advantage of it and use it as a get out of jail free card if they get caught doing something against school policy,” junior Aidan Maese-Czeropski said.

The traditional consequences for cheating can range from Saturday School to ineligibility for scholarships, in addition to the immediate recording of the offense into the cheater’s discipline file. In some serious cases of cheating, the cheater’s college recommendations must mention the person’s violation of the academic honesty policy.

In contrast, Restorative Justice is a much less rigid policy. A panel composed of a school administrator, a peer, a representative of the cheater and an adult related to the cheater meet with the student in question to review the incident in question.

The cheater is given a chance to the harm that he or she has done as well as an opportunity to propose his or her own consequences for the incident.

“We might note the cheating under Academic Honesty [with the Re-

storative Justics policy],” economics teacher Eric Bloom said, referring to whether or not the incident would be recorded on a cheater’s permanent record.

In the Traditional path, academic dishonesty is automatically recorded.

“People could see it as an easy way out so they don’t have to face major consequences for cheating,” junior Isabel Nichoson said.

Senior Will Dougall noted that Restorative Justice’s less severe consequences could potentially lessen the blame that the cheaters place on themselves.

“Restorative Justice has this negative psychology for cheaters,” Dougall said. “The end result of Restorative Justice is that students feel better about themselves after they cheat.”

Cheating is a serious infraction, and therefore should trigger much more serious consequences. A pep talk with a few staff members and a restorative activity for the harm caused by academic dishonesty will not suddenly instill in a cheater newfound integrity.

Additionally, it is not a serious enough deterrent for cheating, as students do not consider it a consequence to be taken much seriously.

“While Restorative Justice could work in theory, in practice it seems like it’s too permissive of cheating,” Maese-Czeropski said.

Restorative Justice instead is seen by many students as a way to sidestep the harsher consequences for cheating of the traditional system.

Finals week, a prime time for students to cheat, is less than two months away. If the administration truly wants to eliminate the cheating culture at Paly, it needs to remove the option for Restorative Justice and offer only the more severe consequences of the Traditional Pathway. Removing the opportunity for cheaters both established and potential to circumvent the severe punishments they deserve, then replacing said with harsher consequences for violations of the Academic Honesty policy will instill into students the fact that cheating will not be tolerated.

Friday, November 20, 2015

A6

The Campanile

OPINION Western media should cover Yemeni conflict ANTONIO KIESCHNICK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

I

n the 2011 blockbuster “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” a fisheries expert is brought to Yemen to realize a local Sheik’s dream of bringing fly-fishing to Yemen. The film grossed $34 million at the box office.

However, as far as the general public is concerned, that is all the public knows of Yemen. But there is much more to Yemen than simply fish. The current conflict in Yemen gets minimal coverage from western media and, unless the government takes action, it looks like it will be staying that way.

Right now in Yemen, a Middle Eastern nation lying on the southwestern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, there is a civil war. The Shia (one of two sects of Islam, the other being the Sunnis) Houthis, a Yemeni rebel group, have taken power in the north of the country. While the Sunni majority continues to rule, it has to consult the Houthi minority on every action and regularly comes into conflict with them. The anti-Houthi ruling majority are heavily backed by the predominantly Sunni Saudi Arabian monarchy. The whole situation serves as the perfect microcosm of the conflict in the Middle East.

Just because specific issues do not affect a particular nation does not mean that the nation cannot take valuable lessons from that specific issue.

Here is the problem: to find out the complete story, one has to find an article from Al Jazeera’s English web page in January of this year. However, the conflict has continued to escalate as Saudi Arabia has slowly involved itself more in the country. Just recently, the Saudi-led coalition backing the current Sunni majority announced it would be entering into the final stage of its Yemeni operation to fight off the Houthis. The Western media failed to cover this incredibly important development in the conflict.

There are two likely reasons for this, the first being that the conflict

is too complicated because it not only involves conflicting factions within Islam, but further conflict within those factions (for example, there is a difference between the Houthi Shias and the non-Houthi Shias). The second reason, and probably the one that is more likely, is that as the United States is not in some way involved in the conflict, the western media feels it has no need to cover this story.

This is wrong. The primary duty of the media is to inform the general populus on subjects that are of utmost importance. While it is understandable that the media has to discriminate between smaller issues that are not relevant to a specific area, larger issues should be discussed worldwide. Just because specific issues do not affect a particular nation does not mean that the nation cannot take valuable lessons from that specific issue.

Let’s look back at the Yemeni conflict, what lessons are there to learn from it for the United States? Well, for starters, it provides the perfect case study of the constant battle between the Sunnis and the Houthi Shias for control of the religion as a whole: a conflict that might one day translate in

a smaller form to the U.S. as the number of American Muslims increases.

We could take valuable lessons from the results of the actions taken by both sides in the conflict and learn how to resolve issues if and when they show up within America’s borders.

However, at the end of the day, it is unlikely that any of the conflict will be covered. The current state of media is a sorry one, dictated by viewing figures rather than the relevance of the news itself. Companies like the National Broadcasting Company and the Columbia Broadcasting System are far more interested in stopping their diminishing returns as news consumption shifts online, than they are in actually providing important news to the part of the population that still watches the news on television.

There is a relatively straightforward solution to all of this: nationalize at least a part of the media industry and fund it with a small media tax on all the devices used for consumption of media. The best example of this format working is in the United Kingdom, where the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is funded by a television license fee for households that have

some device that receives a signal. The BBC, without having to worry about catering to any bias from funders, has established itself as one of the world’s most reliable news sources. While other major news corporations might still exist, providing their own perspectives on current topics (Fox News, if it could end its yellow journalistic tactics and get back to actual conservative news reporting, would serve as a powerful counterweight), at least there would be one source for the public that was not bound by financial requirements and was simply there to provide the United States population with a reliable source of information.

The current state of media is a sorry one dictated by viewing figures rather than the relevance of the news itself.

While National Public Radio has done an excellent job of informing the U.S. populus, great strides still need to be taken to ensure that the U.S. population remains informed on everything happening in the world today.

Turkey Feast should prioritize spirit of giving

CATHERINE YU SENIOR STAFF WRITER

N

ovember at Palo Alto High School means many things: early college applications are due, winter sports are beginning, Thanksgiving break is around the corner and the annual Turkey Trot reappears on the quad. This year is the eighth annual year for the Turkey Feast, an event set up by Paly’s Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA).

Although this has been successful in the past, instead of bestowing all responsibility to parents, it is important that students assume duties for the event, so students should be provided with the option to have more involvement in Turkey Trot preparations.

In order to participate, students and teachers pay $5, or $2 and three cans of canned food. All preparation work

for the feast has previously been done by the PTSA. According to Turkey Day Lunch Co-Chair Melissa Anderson, all the turkeys, pies and baked potatoes are donated by parents — and thanks to over a hundred hardworking parents, Paly’s Turkey Trot from the previous school year allowed the PTSA to collect enough to donate five full barrels of canned goods and $4,000 in Target and Safeway gift cards. Although Turkey Trot is a parent-organized lunch, students should play a larger role in its arrangement.

The best way to get Paly students to be more mindful is to have them be actively engaged in the process of giving.

Currently, all food and proceeds collected at the end of the Turkey Trot are given to the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto. While Turkey Trot benefits local communities with its donations, it has become an event that is remembered more for

its abundance of food, and not one that reminds students the values of the Thanksgiving holiday.

As a start, students can help by transporting collected cans to the Ecumenical Hunger Program and volunteer at the organization as well.

Students can gain insight from volunteer work, either from the people they work with or from fellow students.

Additionally, students can gain eyeopening experiences that reveal how even small contributions can have big impacts on others.

Furthermore, students can participate in food preparation. Those with particular interests in the kitchen would enjoy cooking the feast. With a school population of almost 2,000 students, there can never be too many cooks in the kitchen. There are many opportunities to incorporate students into future Turkey Trots, and they need to be taken advantage of.

According to junior Jonathan Zwiebel, the feast is a chance for students to join together before the holidays; he advocates the idea of student involvement. Appreciation of the effort that goes into Turkey Trot is key.

The best way to get Paly students to be more mindful is to have them be actively engaged in the process of giving.

“If students helped out, they would learn about the hard work that goes into setting up a Thanksgiving meal and would be more thankful for the effort that goes into the holiday,” Zweibel said. “Also by participating in the cooking that is normally done by parents, students can learn to be thankful for all of the meals their parents prepare for them.”

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

A7

OPINION

Tutorial time should be redistributed CLAIRE DENNIS

NEWS AND OPINION EDITOR

E

ager freshmen are always quick to ask: “Do I have to go to Tutorial?” Every year, upperclassmen generally respond that Tutorial is a gift of time, but one that can be used however students see fit.

And for the past five years, that advice has been true. This year, however, that response no longer suffices.

Following a recent review by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), Tutorial has undergone numerous changes. WASC’s action plan, completed in February, suggests that Paly administration “reconsider use of Tutorial time to maximize learning opportunities for students and teachers on campus.”

This suggestion has manifested itself in the now-mandatory “Tutorial 2.0.” Students are assigned a teacher to serve as their “Tutorial teacher,” whom students must check in with during the last 10 minutes of Tutorial in order to be marked present. Some administrators even act as guards, patrolling exits to ensure that students do not leave campus early.

The now-stricter attendance policy was implemented per the suggestion of WASC, since Paly needs to enforce attendance in order to consider Tutorial time a part of state requisite instructional hours. However, to improve the Tutorial experience for students, Paly should redistribute Tutorial time throughout the week so that the 65 minutes every Tuesday can be an optional resource for students who wish to utilize it.

Tutorial is a supposed “gift of time.” Currently, that gift is subject to disclaimers, strings attached and some small print.

Paly is subject to a state-imposed obligation to complete instructional hours, which Tutorial is counted towards. However, Tutorial time should

not truly be considered instructional time because there is no instruction during the period. Instructional time minima are put in place to ensure that each student maximizes his or her academic potential by requiring teachers to teach. Paly administration should only count time where teachers are teaching curriculum as instruction. If Paly administration considers Tutorial instructional time, students are missing out on critical opportunities to learn, time that quickly adds up.

Instead of 65 minutes of required Tutorial, the minutes should be broken up across the block periods. If the Paly administration added five minutes to each block period, there would be 70 additional instructional minutes per week, which would account for the lost time incurred by an optional Tutorial. This relatively simple change creates 95-minute and 100-minute block periods, which are only slightly longer than classes currently.

While the Tutorial 2.0 system is less than ideal, the concept of Tutorial should continue. There should still be approximately an hour of Tutorial

time on Tuesday afternoons, but it should now be optional for students to attend. Students benefit from the ”gift of time” in which they can seek help from teachers, complete homework, make up tests or participate in other miscellaneous activities. But, if Paly completed the requisite instructional hours, Tutorial could offer additional flexibility. Those who want to work productively could stay, while those more interested in socializing would have the freedom to leave.

Seniors are just one year away from entering college, a significant leap in independence. In the future, they will have more freedom to decide where and when they want to complete schoolwork. Thus, guarding the school exits during Tutorial does not truly prepare students for the next step in their educational journey. Furthermore, placing guards by exits contradicts Paly’s open-campus policy. Why is it that during any other period of the day, students are able to walk on and off campus as they please, but during Tutorial, the school is on lockdown?

Though students do receive punish-

ments for truancy in regular classes, they do not encounter guards. This step seems backwards when Paly aims to promote student independence.

Additionally, students forced to remain on campus can easily become disruptive, disturbing those who genuinely want to work. The library and Media Arts Center, two top study locations on campus, get packed during Tutorial. Paly administration suggests that “sitting under a tree or at a picnic table is another great option,” however, studying outside does not offer the same resources such as computers, printers or textbooks. In a new optional Tutorial, students who benefit from a quiet workplace such as the library can stay, while students who want to work off-campus can do so as well.

Tutorial is a supposed “gift of time.” With the current system, that gift comes with several disclaimers, strings attached and some small print.

By reallocating Tutorial time across the week to meet instructional hour requirements and reinstating optional Tutorial time, Tutorial can be the true gift it should be.

The policy does not serve its purpose for many Paly students, due to a note following the guidelines that excludes some classes from being held accountable to the policy.

According to the policy, “students who choose to enroll in Advanced Placement, honors or accelerated courses should expect loads higher than those outlined.” This seemingly small addition changes the entire meaning of the homework policy for many Paly students. More than a third of Paly students took at least one AP test in the 2014-15 school year and many others take or have taken at least one honors or accelerated course.

While the policy mentions that students can refer to the course catalog for outlines of homework expectations in specific classes, this is not an adequate solution. Less than half of the AP course descriptions and very few of the honors lane course descriptions have any guideline for hours of homework per week. There is no suitable way for a student to get a realistic idea of what to expect from these advanced classes if little to no guidance is given in the course catalog.

A simple solution to this issue would be to add a complete breakdown of the average hours of homework assigned in each class per week.

As teachers should already have a good idea of the amount of homework assigned in the classes they teach, this addition not be difficult to accomplish.

This would not only aid students in choosing classes to take but also ensure that students know how much time should be spent on homework while taking the class.

AP, honors and accelerated classes should be held to the same standards of outlined expectations as all other classes. Advanced classes can easily get difficult to manage with the workloads assigned, especially due to added pressure from looming AP tests and University of California honors weighting requirements. If anything, students in these difficult classes should be more aware of the workloads they are signing up for. There is no reason for any of these advanced classes not to have guidelines for the homework assigned.

The homework policy fails to achieve its purpose if so many classes are not accounted for within the guidelines.

It is not reasonable to have higher expectations for the homework load of more challenging classes. However, it is not acceptable for these different expectations not to be outlined. It is necessary for the district to clarify the homework policy so as to include restrictions for the population of Paly students who take one or more advanced classes. Students and teachers alike would benefit from clearly outlined guidelines for work assigned in these classes, as doing so will provide guidelines for the actions of both sides.

Inadequate homework policy needs revision

MAGGIE ROSENTHAL SENIOR STAFF WRITER

P

alo Alto High School students who toil away at hours of homework each night may be pleasantly surprised to find that the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) has a homework policy.

This excitement may fade, however, when students discover that the homework policy set by PAUSD does not include any guidelines for homework given by accelerated, honors or Advanced Placement (AP) classes.

PAUSD has a very clearly outlined policy on its website, detailing the minutes to be spent on homework from kindergarten all the way to senior year in high school. While this policy is a step in the right direction, there are significant issues with the current policy in place. It outlines the purpose of homework and ensures that students do not receive absurd amounts of work each week, as well as establishing guidelines for how teachers should assign homework and how makeup work should be handled.

There is no reason for any of these advanced classes not to have guidelines for the homework assigned.

Whether it be an amendment to the homework policy itself, or through outlines of homework expectations for every advanced course in the course catalog, both students and teachers need additional guidelines for homework that include all types of advanced courses.

Friday, November 20, 2015

A8

The Campanile

EDITORIALS

Opening Cubberley is unnecessary Survey process ought

I

n an effort to solve over-enrollment in Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) secondary schools, the Enrollment Management Advisory Committee (EMAC) proposed reopening Cubberley High School as a project-based alternative for grades 6-12. The Campanile believes that the projected costs of this proposal exceed the supposed benefits of reducing the size of existing schools. However, we support the committee’s additional suggestions to implement a “house system,” similar to current PAUSD sixth grade teams, at existing schools and further extend experiential learning.

We applaud the EMAC for producing a comprehensive report on the subject by using PAUSD-specific data, and for taking the time to include student voice in the decisionmaking through a recent survey open for all PAUSD students.

While The Campanile believes strongly in alternative experiential and 21st century-focused learning environments, we question whether an additional school is absolutely necessary to achieve goals of modernizing education and mitigating the effects of large enrollments.

Both Palo Alto High School and Henry M. Gunn High School have recently undergone extensive construction to accommodate 4,600 total students. The student population is projected to peak at that level in 2020 before stabilizing at 4,100 students.

At the middle school level, the three schools are built to sustain 2,950 and enrollment is projected to peak next year at 3,019 before stabilizing at 2,700 through 2030.

The earliest that the Cubberley school could be opened is 2019 — an optimistic estimate in itself. The primary predicament of overpopulation at the middle school level will have already passed, and at the high school level, peak enrollment will have almost been reached by 2019.

Rather than attempting to create a long-term solution for a shortterm problem, the District should look to utilize all of its resources to improve these issues in a timely manner through the EMAC’s additional proposed solutions, such as the implementation of the house system, which would group students and core teachers together to create a home base. We believe this system could alleviate the strains of student connectivity due to exceeding capacity at middle schools, and provide a similar supportive environment at high schools.

The startup costs of updating Cubberley were projected at $60 to $70 million. The myriad decisions, constant attention and additional fundraising are sure to occupy a substantial amount of the District Board of Education’s time for at least the next five years to get the school up and running. These resources are finite, and applying them to a new

school could prevent progress at current schools.

Paly recently put in place Social Justice and Sports Career Pathways and has seen widespread approval by students in these programs. The Advanced Authentic Research (AAR) program began this year to expand research outside of the sciences, signaling that a greater emphasis on moving away from traditional direct instruction is developing. The Campanile fears that making an alternative experiential high school will divert focus from transforming our current schools and delay their development of innovative environments as students who seek project-based alternatives will opt for Cubberley.

With house systems in place, students could pursue varied thematic focuses, those that the EMAC pinpoints in the student survey, to give students ways to take control of their own learning. Additionally, such groups could be organized so as to emphasize diversity, augmenting learning environments as a whole.

We need a solution now, and we need to act fast to solve the issues at hand. The EMAC’s thorough report gives us the data we need to make changes today that will positively impact students’ learning in the years to come. The committee deserves praise for this impressive work but the solution does not come from drowning in the complications of an unnecessary additional school.

to be more efficient

A

t Palo Alto High School, surveys are administered by the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) to collect an abundance of data that can be helpful in finding solutions to ongoing issues.

While The Campanile recognizes that surveys are important in accurately depicting student opinion, we believe that the current system of conducting surveys does not take the necessary steps to ensure honest, complete responses.

Currently, surveys are generally administered during class periods, tutorial or given to students to complete at home, such as the Healthy Kids Survey, which was issued on Nov. 10. Through this system, students have little incentive to spend their time answering surveys, and as a result, many students respond to questions with little effort and care, which ultimately may cause inaccurate or unrepresentative responses.

Student opinion is invaluable and the way in which surveys are administered should create favorable conditions conducive to accurate data.

Thus, The Campanile believes there are alternative ways to collect data about the student body. One solution to the current issue would be to have focus groups more deeply discuss issues instead of having a larger number of students mindlessly click on responses

to vague questions in a 10-page survey.

Focus groups would ideally involve students that actually care about the topic, instead of students who are forced to participate. Focus groups leaders could listen to responses from students and guide the conversation in order to get more relevant information based off students’ answers.

While focus groups may be difficult to organize, students should recognize the necessity of taking advantage of a system that will improve their academic experiences.

Additionally, surveys may still be an option; however, surveys should be shorter and administered less frequently so that students are not constantly bombarded with long surveys.

This way, PAUSD can still receive information about the student body through surveys without forcing students to spend a large amount of their time.

Finally, it is simply logical that PAUSD would want to implement the simplest, most user-friendly system in order to get student feedback.

While The Campanile recognizes PAUSD’s attempt to involve students, the current approach is muddled and time-consuming. By implementing focus groups and having more efficient surveys, PAUSD would be able to obtain stronger, more accurate feedback.

Paly should incorporate preparation for testing and applications in classes

S

tandardized testing and college applications weigh heavily on students’ minds as they enter their junior and senior years. Some students seek hours of tutoring and counseling outside of school to prepare so they can perform their best on these tests and write the most engaging essays. However, The Campanile believes that Palo Alto High School needs to take more responsibility in preparing its students for these challenges by altering its curriculum.

Many students start studying for standardized tests, either the SAT or ACT, during their junior year, and feel that they are inadequately prepared, specifically in the areas of grammar and reading comprehension. Many students seek outside help in these areas, though we believe that the required knowledge should be fundamental to the Paly curriculum for underclassmen. Students could greatly benefit from a review of basic grammar skills during their English classes, to help with the Writing section of the SAT and the English section of the ACT. We suggest that students be given timed grammar assignments that reinforce these skills and mimic the difficulty and pressure of standardized tests. Not only are these skills necessary to succeed on the tests, they are important skills for the future as well.

Though English classes do focus on reading comprehension and literary analysis, they do so in a way that is very different from that encountered on standardized tests. English classes do help students analyze the main ideas and literary devices of many works, but students usually do not have to do so in a timed setting.

Additionally, standardized tests include styles of passages not covered in the typical English class, such as science passages, which appear on the Science section of the ACT and will appear on the new Reading section of the SAT. These passages merge reading and science, by including content on scientific concepts with charts, tables and infographics. To succeed on these sections, students must learn how to synthesize information not only from words, but from informational graphics as well. Once again, we recommend that students be given timed reading comprehension assignments that mimic the topics, difficulty and pressure of standardized testing.

We acknowledge that the responsibility for preparing for standardized tests does not lie solely with high schools, but that it should not lie completely with the student either. Students should not have to feel that they can only learn the material

for these tests outside of school. The current curriculum also puts students who cannot afford outside help at a disadvantage, and takes away from time that students could have to participate in activities they enjoy.

After all, these tests gauge how prepared students are for college, and Paly should help its students be as college-ready as possible. Therefore, The Campanile believes that integrating these skills into the curriculum of underclassmen is vital.

This pattern of feeling inadequately prepared for a milestone in the college process continues into senior year, when applications and essays make their appearance. After reading the prompts on the Common Application, or the supplemental prompts for many schools, students often feel stuck and they struggle writing these essays. The reason for this is not that students have not been sufficiently trained to write essays in school, but rather that students have not been taught how to write about themselves. The art of introspection and marketing oneself cannot be immediately developed come the start of senior year. It is a skill that is crucially needed throughout one’s professional life long past the college application process.

The Campanile suggests that English classes incorporate more assignments that challenge students to write about themselves, such as memoirs, journal entries and even practice college essays. Paly could create an English elective dedicated to developing the skills needed to successfully write about oneself. This way, students will be better prepared when it comes to college essays and the process of applying to college will go smoothly and with less stress.

Aside from college applications, many students will apply for internships or jobs during their summers, or even during college. If students are well equipped with the skills needed to write about oneself, they will also be more successful in their efforts in applying for these positions.

Topics covered on standardized tests and college essay prompts change frequently. Therefore, we also recommend that Paly teachers pay attention to what these alterations may be and inform students of such changes. Information regarding alterations to standardized testing can be reviewed during advisory.

The Campanile urges Paly’s teachers and administrators to consider incorporating test-taking skills and personal reflection writing into the curriculum so that students can confidently tackle these important challenges.

BO FIELD/THE CAMPANILE

TUTORIAL 2.0 JUST GOT EVEN MORE ACCOUNTABLE.

The Campanile Editors-in-Chief Miranda Chen • Stephanie Cong • Owen Dulik Lauren Klass • Mischa Nee • Nikhil Rajaram Online Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Fu News and Opinion Editors Claire Dennis Peter Maroulis

Lifestyle Editors Aiva Petriceks Carissa Zou

Sports Editors Kai Oda Ethan Teo

Business Manager Rachel Farn

Design Editor Bo Field

Photography Editor Dami Bolarinwa

Yael Ben-Shachar Josh Brigel Susana Cacho Kate DeAndre Greg Eum Joanna Falla Maddie Feldmeier Mackenzie Glassford Eli Gwin-Kerr

Staff Writers

Jamie Har Cole Hechtman Antonio Kieschnick Masha Konkov Christina Le Will Leighton Tiffany Liang Anant Marur Mads McCluskey Jacky Moore

Anna Moragne Josh Ng Thomas Rauner-Swan Gillian Robins Maggie Rosenthal Bethany Shiang Tommy Smale Adrian Smith Noah Smith Jared Stanley

Photographers

Abira Berezin Daniel Hammerson

Avi Tachna-Fram David Tayeri Annalise Wang Sarah Wang Clay Watson Jessica Wong Catherine Yu Samuel Yun Alice Zhao

Jacky Moore Jordan Schilling

Editing Consultants

Evelyn Richards

Elisabeth Rubinfien

Advisor Esther Wojcicki Letters to the Editors: Email all letters to editors to theeds16@googlegroups.com The Campanile prints letters on a space-available basis.

We reserve the right to edit submissions.

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Note: It is the policy of The Campanile to refrain from printing articles that misrepresent or alienate specific individuals within the Palo Alto community.

The policy of The Campanile is to publish editorial content that represents at least half of the staff.

L FESTYLE

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

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PAGE B3

How to become Instafamous

Tinder Culture L

ike she does most mornings, Katie wakes up and scrolls through her social media accounts, catching up on tweets and photos posted by her friends. Next, she opens Tinder. Sorting through the profiles that appear on her screen, she comes across a boy displaying a photo taken at his homecoming dance.

After a few moments of consideration, she swipes right.

Three months and dozens of dates later, Katie and her nowboyfriend exchange their first ‘I love you’s.’

Over the past few years, Tinder, a mobile matchmaking service that allows users to evaluate prospective dates with a single swipe, has revolutionized the world of online dating. While traditional online dating sites such as Match. com, OkCupid and eHarmony utilize detailed profiles and descriptions, Tinder instead offers a small collection of photos along with a name, age, school, job and short bio to users, who can swipe left for no, or swipe right for yes.

Along with its reputation for being simplistic, engaging and even addictive, Tinder has gained less desirable attention as well, having been frequently accused of promoting appearance-based relationships, demoting love into the careless swipe of a finger.

Nonetheless, Tinder continues to be the largest matchmaking service in the United States, attracting an estimated 50 million registered users as of 2015, over 50 percent of which are between the ages of 16 and 24.

When Katie, whose name has been changed along with all others who appear in this story, initially joined Tinder, the last thing she expected from the app was a genuine relationship.

“I joined Tinder as sort of a joke and to find people for hookups,” Katie said. “I had no real expectations of going through with anything with my matches. Tinder was basically just about sending nudes and sexting, which ultimately I was not into doing.”

Tinder users must be at least 13 years old and are required to register with their Facebook accounts, allowing the app to match up users based on mutual friends and interests.

Tinder’s simplistic profiles create a vast network for connecting with strangers. However, the service is also notorious for the high

volume of casual sexting that takes place within its digital walls.

“Most of the guys that chatted me

on Tinder asked for nudes, so it happens pretty often,” Katie said.

When first matched with her now-boyfriend, the experience began as Katie’s other Tinder encounters typically had.

“When we first started messaging … it was pretty much him asking for nudes and sexting conversations,” Katie said. “But eventually we started talking about more personal things, like our daily lives and hobbies.”

After a month of exchanging messages, they decided to meet in person.

“We had planned to meet for a hookup, but after [meeting] he asked if I would consider anything more than that, and I said yes,” Katie said.

“After that, we started getting to know each other better, and we went on a lot of dates.”

Nearly five months later, the two are still dating.

According to reports published

by Tinder, it has been responsible for over nine billion matches, averaging around 26 million per day since its launch in 2012. However, not all matches are as successful as Katie’s.

After seeing a friend using the app, Wesley decided to download Tinder for entertainment, but soon began using it more seriously.

“The first guy I ever met on Tinder, I actually dated for a week,” he said. “From there I’ve met a few other guys who I just hooked up with.”

Wesley also experimented with Grindr, a social networking app geared towards gay and bisexual men.

However, unlike Tinder, Grindr presents nearby men in order of their proximity, and allows users to send photos and messages without prior engagement. These easy, rapid interactions lead to a faster-paced hookup culture, whereas Tinder’s design of matching users encourages more mutual connection and the formation of a relationship.

“[Grindr] was a lot more hookuporiented,” Wesley said. “It’s like, ‘I’m going to hook up with you once and never talk to you again, deal with it.’”

Like Katie and Wesley, Allison originally joined Tinder as a joke, but ended up having a very different experience.

“My friends and I were messing around, just swiping [right for] people we thought were hot,” Allison said. “We would talk to some people that lived in the area and see what they were up to.”

A f t e r a few weeks of using the app, Allison matched with one particular boy, a San Francisco resident, whom she began messaging frequently.

As the two grew closer, Allison established him as a close friend. They

exchanged numbers and Snapchats, and decided to meet up for a beach day in San Francisco a few days later.

Tinder’s minimalistic profiles al-

low the user to present their best qualities, but their simple design also leave gaps in communication between matches. If two users take the leap to meet in person, the exchange may not transpire as anticipated.

“He was pretty nice, but he had a very different personality than what I had imagined from communicating through social media,” she said. “The trip [to San Francisco] was fun and it was cool meeting him in person, but I can’t say that I would ever do it again.”

Conversing with someone through the Tinder app makes it easy to articulate responses and feed another user a particular impression. However, speaking to a Tinder match in real life is a significantly different experience.

“When you have a Tinder relationship, the first contact you ever have is over the internet, where you know you can taper your answers ... and make them think what you want them to think about you,” Wesley said. “When you actually meet [someone] in person, it’s kind of like … now I need to act this way around them, I need to do x, y and z with them, so there’s a certain level of [falsehood] to it.”

Andrew, like Allison, remains skeptical of the real-life component of Tinder’s matching. “[Tinder is] just something to [use] when you’re bored and you want interactions with people,” he said. “I talk to someone as long as I’m interested. If I get bored, I just stop talking to them, or I don’t talk to them for very long.”

Unlike Katie, Allison and Wesley, Andrew is wary of meeting with someone encountered on Tinder in person.

For some, Tinder is simply a method of entertainment and an occasional confidence booster. The freedom for users to manipulate age, accomplishment and socioeconomic status allows Tinder users to create any persona they wish.

“Tinder allows you to be anyone you want, regardless of who you really are,” Andrew said.

“It provides a reason to let people be false.”

Tinder, despite the ridicule that commonly surrounds it, has proven to be a major milestone in online dating. No matter the purpose it serves to its user, the app continues to gain momentum among young adults, connecting friends, bored teenagers and romanceseekers, one swipe at a time.

“There are a lot of people who don’t have hope [of meeting someone], but you never know what to expect,” Allison said. “People use Tinder for so many different reasons, it doesn’t have one purpose anymore. Tinder is really whatever you make of it.”

KATE DEANDRE

STAFF WRITER

Have you ever scrolled through Beyonce’s Instagram page and thought, I wish I had that many followers? Let’s be honest, we’ve all done that before — everybody wants to become Instafamous. Now, with these easy steps, you can become Instafamous yourself and never have to feel self-conscious about your number of followers ever again.

When you see attractive people walking down the street, be sure to sprint towards them. Especially if you spot a celebrity! James Franco is constantly roaming the streets of downtown Palo Alto so it’s easy to catch him, plus he LOVES taking photos.

You can snag a quick selfie to post on your Instagram feed. Catching celebrities and other attractive people off guard is much better because then they will have more of a confused look on their face, rather than an angry one. #Candid shots will add a lot to the legitimacy of your feed.

Artsy captions keep your followers captivated in your posts. To make them more sentimental use song lyrics such as Miley Cyrus’ song “Can’t be Tamed” or Kanye West’s song “Gold Digger.” For example, if you take a super artsy photo of your succulent garden, obviously use a Chris Brown song (“Strip” pretty much applies to everything) to express how much you love it. Add the top-trending emojis at the moment, such as the new moon face, the roasted sweet potato or the dragon face, to convey your emotions about your photos.

This creates a fun game for your followers to guess the hidden meaning behind your existential captions.

Food pictures are a must for Instagram feeds. Starbucks, Philz or Coupa are the best places to take pictures of frappuccinos and lattes. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like these drinks, posting them is essential to becoming Instafamous. If you don’t like them take the photo and throw them out once you have the perfect angle for Instagram, it is well worth the money.

You did it for the aesthetic.

The most important tip is to have photo shoots where ever you go. Be sure to bring a camera around at all times; better yet, hire a photographer to get some candid photos as well.

This makes it seem like you have paparazzi and will attract more people to you. Location is key to the shoot.

I’ve found that the places with best lighting are bathrooms, specifically ones in McDonald’s or Taco Bell.

Don’t let anyone tell you that mirror selfies are a dated trend — Miley Cyrus says otherwise. If you find that your local McDonald’s or Taco Bell is closed, no need to fear, everyone has access to a Starbucks. Although their restrooms are not up to par with McDonald’s, they are the next best thing (plus you can pose with your Frappuccino). Just remember, any opportunity to have a photoshoot is always a great opportunity!

I can assure you that if you complete these five steps, you will quickly become Instafamous and come even closer to becoming Queen B.

SPOTLIGHT

Targeting teens through social media

As the popularity of social media grows, politicians and commercial industries are utilizing the online platforms to tap into the minds of teens, who make up their most valuable market, and direct their messages and products to them.

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A breakdown of the best Tahoe locations to ski at this winter.

The singer marks her comeback with new single.

This new phenomenon will keep you on your toes.

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

B2 LIFESTYLE Challenging traditional Thanksgiving customs while still conserving the essence of the holiday Spice up your break by engaging in various activities with friends, or reserve it to reflect and de-stress JOANNA FALLA

STAFF WRITER

O

n Thanksgiving, the American tradition is to gather around a dinner table with family or close friends and share a large, extravagant dinner. While this is a great tradition that many families hold near and dear to their hearts, there are other fun activities that can be done alone or with a group.

Teens and adults alike are forced to spend Thanksgiving with family members they do not like or relatives so distant that they seem like strangers. Thanksgiving is a day set aside for people to spend time with those they love and give thanks for all the good memories that have occurred over the past year, so what could be a better way to honor that tradition than by spending time with friends? Going to the beach, watching a movie at home or just sharing a meal with one’s closest friends can be a great time to relax and reflect on strong relationships within the group.

Many people take this school break as an opportunity to visit family or friends, but it is also acceptable to use those air miles to escape to serenity.

The best part about celebrating with friends is that plans can be very low commitment and relaxed by setting loose dates and maintaining slight spontaneity. A simple potluckstyle dinner with friends is not only fun and cost-efficient but, it could be a much more valuable bonding experience rather than sitting next to your fourth cousin, twice removed for five hours.

DEAR JAMIE: I have a friend who I’ve been increasingly concerned about lately.

She’s beautiful, and her body is amazing, but she never seems to see herself in the same light that others see her in and has even resorted to some unhealthy habits to conform to her own ideals.

She’s skinny — eats like a bird.

Yet, when she lets herself enjoy a filling meal, she ends up feeling terrible and convinces herself that she has to not eat in order to maintain a good physique. Every pound gained is criminal to her, even though the extra weight is exactly what she needs.

I wish she could be okay with her body, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. She is one of the most genuine, caring people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing but is the harshest critic when it comes to her own body image.

I care a lot about her, and I really don’t want to see my friend hurt herself any further. However, at the same time, I’m afraid to confront her about this because I don’t want to upset her or have her be angry with me.

What should I do? How can I help her?

— CONCERNED FRIEND

People often think that Thanksgiving should be celebrated in the comforts of one’s home, but when school gives time off, one must take full advantage of it. Many people take this school break as an opportunity to visit family or friends, but it is also acceptable to use those air miles to escape to serenity.

Families may take the holiday break to make new traditions. People on the West Coast tend to go to Santa Catalina Island or Cabo for the break, while kids on the East Coast will go to the Caribbean or Turks and Caicos. For those who have an affinity for colder weather, a good option is to go to Tahoe for skiing or to fly to the East Coast to see landmarks such as Niagara Falls or Washington, D.C. Another good option is to go to the Big Island for a three-day weekend and take in the ocean view. Take advantage of the break to go out of the same old Palo Alto weather and go somewhere and relax.

Another way to give thanks for what has happened in one’s busy life is to leave the city for the day, go out on a hike or bike ride and simply be one with nature.

Thanksgiving is meant to be a time to think about what one may take for granted and take the time to honor what is forgotten. Whether going down a beaten path or traversing through the path less taken, going outside is a great way to get back to our roots, literally. Take a group of friends and go outside to make a day of it. Or just immerse yourself into nature and find beauty in the outdoors.

A phrase that is frequently asked during the autumn holiday is, “what are you thankful for?”

While it is important to realize what one may take for granted, vol-

DEAR CONCERNED FRIEND: Thank you so much for reaching out. Your friend is lucky to have you, and through your example of care, I hope others in similar situations can be blessed too.

Understanding the warning signs Though I’m not sure what exact “unhealthy habits” she has, I do know that her mentality resembles that of a person with an eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia. “Every pound gained is criminal to her” sounds all too dangerously familiar; I know from my own battle with bulimia, and so I sincerely thank you and hope that you can keep looking out for her.

Pay attention to signals. Seemingly controllable, harmless statements and actions, like “I’ll just control what I eat from now on,” can quickly snowball to become more serious: “I won’t have that sandwich either. Or my next meal. I’ll just skip one day … or two.”

Trying to consistently restrict what one eats is incredibly difficult.

It sounds like when your friend has a seemingly normal-sized meal, she feels like she just binged. For someone whose sense of self-worth can

JAMIE HAR/THE CAMPANILE

Two alternatives to having a big Thanksgiving meal include hiking with friends and flying to a destination far from home.

unteering for a wholesome organizations is an easy way to give back the community.

A fulfilling thing to do with family is to volunteer at a local soup kitchen, animal shelter or for any other causes that could use aid, especially during the busy holiday season.

For those more comfortable staying at home, sending small donations to other organizations, whether with money, books or toys, can make a difference. A group of friends or family can meet at someone’s house early and then go to the nearest non-profit to enrich others’ lives as well as your own.

Many people find that celebrating this holiday as Native Americans are still being persecuted is morally wrong, so some people think it better to just skip the holiday altogether.

Although it is an American holiday, it is completely acceptable to take Thanksgiving break off to relax — think of it as a Saturday in the middle of the week!

While Thanksgiving is generally seen as a holiday geared towards family, many of the aforementioned alternatives to the traditional practice of Thanksgiving can be done alone and are arguably just as fun and memorable an experience as it could be

with friends or family. By celebrating Thanksgiving alone, one could travel wherever he or she want instead of arguing with family, or you could get ahead on homework while others are forced to make small talk with distant relatives. Most families will stuff themselves to the point of obesity, but when alone, one does not have to pretend to like the dry turkey.

Instead of dropping a large amount of money on a oversized bird while raising the national food intake, go out and have fun alone.

Or just simply stay inside and think about the many things in life there are to be grateful for.

fluctuate with her weight, it can be tempting to purge afterwards.

As I’m sure you’ve heard, starving and binge-purging are both extremely damaging to one’s health for a variety of reasons. If you’re with her, take note if she consistently goes to the bathroom within 30 minutes to an hour after eating. Other physical signs include acid reflux, hair loss, irregular menstruation, frequent dizziness or fatigue, bloating, mouth and teeth decay, laxative abuse and weight loss or gain; contrary to belief, bulimia actually tends to cause more weight gain than loss. Even if her thoughts and feelings don’t lead to an eating disorder, it is better to be cautious.

I encourage you to seek adult guidance anyways. Talk to your parents, a counselor, a psychiatrist or another dependable adult for professional wisdom, and encourage your friend to reach out to trusted adult mentors to help her through any struggle.

honestly and openly how she feels is the best way you can provide support.

As you shared with me, tell her how you value her for more than just her amazing body or physical beauty — that she is “one of the most genuine, caring people [you have] ever had the pleasure of knowing” — and that there are likely others who feel the same way. Point out special personality traits or talents that aren’t tied to appearance. One conversation could change your friend’s life.

Supporting a positive lifestyle A good way to help someone stop a problematic behavior is to provide an alternative method of coping. For instance, you can offer to make a balanced, healthy eating schedule with her and to explore new activities that make her feel more positive about her overall self, not just her body. Your biggest role is just being a good friend by showing that positive change is possible. But remember, you are not the only one who can help her. There are others who are trained, available and wanting to help too.

Seeking trusted adults When eating disorders get to a certain point of severity, professional help is imperative. Eating disorders affect how the brain processes information, including advice from close friends, so at a certain point, food may be the only medicine.

If your friend has low energy, is often sick or missing school, faints or seems to be thinking significantly more slowly, tell an adult immediately. Even if you don’t see severe signals,

Identifying the real issue More importantly, keep in mind that weight may not be the root problem. Your friend’s dissatisfaction with her appearance may come from a deeper unhappiness about something else in her life; when we feel like things in our life are spinning out of our control, it can become easier to fixate on one aspect that we believe others value and think we can control.

Talk with your friend about other areas of her life that she feels particularly discontent with. Is it academics?

Extracurricular performance? Loneliness? Identify ways to strengthen and fill those lacking areas, even if it’s just one. Use your own experience and examples of others’ strengths as guides. Really encourage her by trying activities with her and by getting other good friends to join too.

Having the conversation I know it may feel scary to confront your friend with your concerns, but trust me, enduring a little rough patch and getting help for a potentially bigger problem is better than letting her face dangerous struggles on her own. In the long run, she will be more likely to appreciate it.

To initiate a conversation with your friend, make sure you’re in a private setting when she’s not in a hurry. Open with a normal conversation and show that you appreciate her, love her and care for her wellbeing. Then, mention your concern.

Emphasize that you only want the best for her, and ask her to tell you

Painting a perspective Weight is really just a number on a scale at one moment in time, and it does not measure worth. Think of a precious glass cup. You can fill it with as much water or substance as you want, but no matter how much its weight fluctuates, its value and importance stay the same. It could even be left to gather dust, and it would be precious all the same. We often convince ourselves that because the number is related to our own body and life, we should be able to control it, but this is not true; everything in life fluctuates and affects us in different ways that are out of our control. Thankfully, you can choose how you complement, appreciate and love yourself and your body for more than your appearance. Keep this image in mind when you’re with her and for yourself too.

I hope your friend’s eyes can be opened to the beauty and worth she holds beyond her outer appearance.

Remember, you, too, are a lovely person who is blessing so many people through your bravery.

WITH LOVE: JAMIE Dr. Moira Kessler, a child psychiatrist at the Stanford University Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, offers feedback to the column writer. She is not providing any clinical services.

Mid Peninsula Orthodontics STACEY D. QUO DDS, MS Specialist in Orthodontics

965 High Street Palo Alto, CA 94301 Tel: 650-328-1600 FAX: 650-327-6556 email: info@orthoquo.com

The Campanile

Friday, November 20, 2015

LIFESTYLE B3 Top ski resorts to visit during the winter holidays A review of different options that students have to ski this winter break based on price, location and amenities ally s’mores cart that comes around the resort.

One-day tickets bought online cost $68. To ski two days of a 3-day period, tickets are available for $132.

Finally, 3-day tickets over a 5-day period can be bought for $195. With this ticket, you can also access Heavenly and Kirkwood runs. Northstar has the most terrain parks of all of the resorts at Tahoe.

Additionally, with a great ski and snowboard school, beginners can still have a great time. Burton Snowboard Academy in Northstar is one of two of its type in the world and offers training to beginners and experts on the slope and in the park.

MADS MCCLUSKEY

STAFF WRITER

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ki season is rapidly approaching, and while some resorts have been open since Nov. 4, others are opening toward the end of November. With such a large number of resorts opening, deciding which resort to go to can be tough. To help with the decision, here is a comprehensive review of the seven best ski resorts in Lake Tahoe.

Heavenly 5/5 stars Heavenly, a large resort in South Lake Tahoe, initially announced it was opening on Nov. 20. However, due to massive snowfall, the resort moved its opening date up to Nov. 14.

It is only 5-hour car ride away from Palo Alto. It is the biggest of all the resorts at 4,800 acres of skiable terrain, although it has the same number of trails as Northstar, which provides 97 different runs for skiers and snowboarders to venture on. Heavenly’s longest run is five miles long with a 3,502 foot vertical drop. It only has three terrain parks, but averages 30feet of natural snowfall each year.

One-day life tickets cost $66 and $132 for two days. A 3-day ticket, sold for $192, can be used at both Heavenly and Kirkwood and one of the three days can be used at Northstar.

With access to multiple resorts, great powder and many runs, Heavenly is the resort to be at this winter.

The views of Lake Tahoe from every part of the mountain are magnificent and the customer service is laudatory.

It has lots of variation in difficulties of runs, from greens at the base to double blacks at the peak, for every type of skier. Overall, Heavenly offers the best experience for every level of skier.

Squaw 4.5/5 stars Squaw, originally set to open on Nov. 25, opened on Nov. 14, also due to the recent snowfall in the Tahoe

COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

The Heavenly Ski Resort is known for its availability of multiple resorts, quality slopes and a variety of different runs and levels.

area. It is four hours from Palo Alto.

Its longest run is the Mountain Run, which is 3.2 miles long. The mountain has a vertical drop of 2,850 feet and its peak is at 9,050 feet of elevation; it also has 16 bowls, making it the resort with the largest number of bowls in Tahoe.

The several bowls create over 170 runs on the mountain. To the skiers’ convenience, the resort offers many mid-mountain restaurants and cafes that can be conveniently accessed.

Squaw offers a deal called the “Tahoe Super 4 Pack,” which allows skiers to ski any four days of the year at Squaw and Alpine for $259.

However, single-day and multipleday passes are only sold in the Squaw Valley office, rather than on an online website.

After Heavenly, Squaw is the next best place to go. Like those at the Heavenly resort, tickets grant access to another resort; however, Squaw offers over 70 more runs than all other resorts at Tahoe, making it one of the

largest local resorts and a place definitely worth visiting.

Kirkwood 4/5 stars Kirkwood is the second closest resort to Palo Alto at four and a half hours away and opens on Nov. 21. Kirkwood has 2,300 acres of skiable terrain and 86 runs. One of the 86 runs is 2.5 miles long. Kirkwood has an elevation of 7,800 feet at the base to 9,800 feet at the top of the peak. Along the mountain there are two amazing terrain parks. One-day passes are offered for $61 and twoday passes for $98. Kirkwood is third on the list because the tickets offered are reasonably cheap, there are a multitude of runs and because of its high elevation, the conditions on the slopes are better.

Sugar Bowl 4/5 stars Sugar Bowl is the second-to-last out of the seven to open, on Dec. 13.

The resort is three and a half hours away from Palo Alto and offers 1,650

miles of terrain. It offers 103 runs, of which the longest run is three miles long. Its elevation ranges from 6,883 feet at the base to 8,383 feet at the top of the mountain.

Sugar Bowl has three terrain parks. Tickets cost $84 for one day.

Sugar Bowl is a very popular resort, with many excellent runs and a major vertical drop. On the other hand, Sugar Bowl’s lift tickets are pricey compared to other resorts.

Northstar 3.5/5 stars Northstar opened on Nov. 14, despite the original opening date of Nov. 20. It has 3,170 acres of skiable terrain and 97 runs. Its elevation ranges from 6,329 feet to 8,610 feet.

It has seven terrain parks and many dining options scattered across the mountain, making it easy to grab a bite anywhere on the mountain.

If guests are tired and no longer want to ski, there are alternative fun activities such as ice skating and snow tubing, as well as the occasion-

Alpine Meadows 3/5 stars Alpine Meadows was intended to open on Dec. 12, but has moved the date up to Nov 12. It has a vertical drop of 1,802 feet, and an elevation of 6,385 feet at its base and 8,637 feet at its peak. Pricing is the same as Squaw because the two are partnered organizations. A ticket can gain you access to both Alpine Meadows and Squaw. Alpine Meadows is a nice resort that, because of its partnership with Squaw, is becoming increasingly popular.

Sierra-at-Tahoe 3/5 stars The opening date for Sierra-atTahoe has not been announced; however, in all likelihood it will open around or before its opening date last year, Dec. 12. It offers 2,000 acres of skiable terrain. It has 46 runs available, the longest of which is two miles long. It is three and a half hours away from Palo Alto. With five terrain parks, it has the second-most amount of terrain parks — only Northstar has more. Tickets cost $83 for one day and a 3-day pass costs $59 a day.

While Sierra-at-Tahoe has many acres of terrain, it only has 46 runs and its longest run is only two miles long. For the cheaper prices and diversity of terrain, check out Sierra-atTahoe.

Holiday gift options from local stores Social media dominates the Shoppers can give personalized gifts and support Palo Alto stores

Teens equate self worth to number of likes

ANNA MORAGNE

STAFF WRITER

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he moment the calendar flips from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1, people will begin singing classic holiday songs such as “Jingle Bell Rock” and decorating their homes with colored lights and fake snowmen. People may as well jump on the bandwagon of holiday spirit and start searching for gifts ahead of time.

It is easy to shop on an online marketplace such as Amazon, but such shopping lacks fun and personal connection. This season, make an effort to support local businesses while finding the perfect gift, whether it be for a friend’s white elephant party or for any family member during the holidays.

Five Ten Gifts Five Ten Gifts is a small shop that can easily be overlooked while strolling in downtown Palo Alto, but should not be disregarded. Though it occupies a small space, the shop has a nice array of gifts for the holidays.

The shop has been in the same location for the past 10 years and offers a variety of unusual and colorful kitchen supplies. The store also has jewelry, candles and spice mixes. It is a great place to pick up a gift for anyone who likes to spend their time trying new recipes in the kitchen.

Palo Alto Art Center Gift Shop Adjacent to the Main Library, the Palo Alto Art Center has a small gift shop that is perfect for finding jewelry, vases and bowls for a grandparent, parent or friend with an artistic taste.

All of the items in the gift shop are created by local artists and are very unique.

The selection also includes scarves, bags and jewelry that are hand-made, however, some of the jewelry is on the more expensive side. The shop even includes some of Palo Alto High School students’ glass blown creations in the store for viewers to catch a glimpse of.

lives of younger generation ADRIAN SMITH

STAFF WRITER

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ANNA MORAGNE/THE CAMPANILE

Bell’s Books offers a variety of new, used and rare books for different genres and ages.

Mills Florists Mills Florists is a discreet hole-in -the-wall shop on University Avenue that has an array of flower arrangements and other plants. The best gifts found in this shop are the small, planted succulents. Mills has been in Palo Alto since 1903, making it the oldest florist in the city. The cute little shop is a small chain that only runs throughout the Bay Area.

Zombie Runner Many Palo Altans are aware of this store on California Avenue as a shop for runners, but are unaware that it provides more gift options for friends and family besides simply sneakers.

Zombie Runner offers a wide selection of different items, from athletic apparel to water bottles and hiking packs.

However, Zombie Runner is also a great place to get a gift for those who love coffee and chocolate. Zombie Runner has a cafe in their store with different blends of coffee beans and chai mixes available. Furthermore, the cafe has a large assortment of milk and dark chocolate bars from all over the world to satisfy the sweet tooth of whoever receives it. Ultimately, Zombie Runner is a great local store to get holiday gifts.

Bell’s Books Bell’s Books is the perfect location to get gifts for fellow bookworms.

The small store offers a wide range of new, used and rare books of all genres. Even though many Palo Altans are not aware of the shop, it has been in town for 80 years. The store has a multitude of books, whether they be for a 5-year-old sibling or 75-year-old grandparent. They also have all types of books including travel guides, professors’ old books and newly released books.

United Nations Association Gift Shop Although not quite an independent business, the United Nations Association Gift Shop is an excellent place to buy gifts for the holidays and one that should definitely be considered. The products are from all over the world, and most are fair-trade merchandise, with the proceeds going directly to the original artist.

The store offers a selection of scarves, bags, jewelry and some other colorful items. The prices are reasonable and can make great gifts for loved ones while also promoting local businesses. Visiting shops like these would greatly help the community and its economy.

ocial media has taken over the 21st century, creating extensive online communities connecting billions of people around the world. The creation of online profiles on large platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr has drawn in over 2 billion users worldwide, according to We Are Social Inc. Social media allows everyone to hide the bad moments of their lives, share the good moments with strangers and convince themselves that they are happy, while in reality, they long for real love and real happiness.

Instagram, which allows users to selectively post photos and edit them extensively, has proven to be the most popular application for warping the truth about how one really lives.

Former Instagram sensation Essena O’Neill has outspokenly rejected her career as a model, leaving over 612,000 followers and deleting over 2,000 pictures. O’Neill explains in a YouTube video posted after “deleting” her career, “I had it all and I was miserable, because when you let yourself be defined by numbers, you let yourself be defined by something not pure, not real, and that is not love.”

The culture of popularity through social media will live on for a long time, not only attracting users but also fueling the businesses behind the outrageously popular accounts on these applications.

“If you don’t think it’s a business then you’re deluding yourself,” O’Neill said in her video. “Companies know the power of social media and they exploit it.”

Social media corrupts itself, accepting a puppet role for companies to advertise within their platform, harnessing the function of the app while ruining the love and purpose in lives.

Users strive for popularity within the app, changing their lives for on-

line strangers rather than sharing moments with friends. Palo Alto High School junior Emma Toma, has almost 2,000 followers on Instagram, most of which are people she does not know or does not have a close relationship with, explains her discovery of the corruption of social media.

“I realized that there’s no point in explicitly showing so many details of my life to strangers that I’ve never even met,” Toma said.

According to a recent poll done by American Academy of Pediatrics, 22 percent of teenagers log on to their favorite social media site more than 10 times a day. As a result, teenagers get a higher exposure to the aforementioned detrimental content.

I realized that there’s no point in explicitly showing so many details of my life to strangers that I’ve never even met.

Emma Toma Junior Instagram builds the user’s narcissistic behavior into a “living” person, giving the users somebody they should look like and act like if they were real. Somebody with the need for real happiness, real love and real purpose.

“Too many people give this app control over their self esteem,” Toma said. “Instagram isn’t reality. Putting effort into hiding your flaws from the virtual world isn’t healthy. Instead of spending time taking pictures and worrying about the perfect selfie angle, try to live in the moment.”

According to Essena O’Neill and others, social media applications, primarily Instagram, have eradicated the social purity of their sharing services.

These apps have evolved into systems that evoke the ego in users, persuading them to show off their flawless lives when in reality their lives are jumbled with anxiety from social media.

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

SPOTLIGHT

B4

THE RACE TO CAPTURE THE

BUsiness owners and politicians adopt new te TEXT BY: ANNALISE WANG AND JESSICA WONG STAFF WRITERS

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eenagers hold the key to determining trends — everything from the latest crime show to watch to the most relatable politician to elect into office. These opinions are voiced through the most widespread methods of communication today: social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Political campaigns and commercial businesses alike are racing to garner approval from younger audiences by using social media as a crucial marketing platform.

In the upcoming 2016 presidential election, an unprecedented amount of campaigning is taking place on social media. Candidates are trying to appeal to one of their most essential demographics: 18- to 24-year-olds.

Teenagers and young adults utilize their social media voices for a variety of reasons that can range from advocating for changes in the justice system to discussing pop culture. By using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to document their reactions to current events, young adults send their messages of dissatisfaction or approval directly to others, and with the approach of the 2016 election, this voice extends to politics more so than ever before.

Historically, younger demographics have had the lowest voter turnout on election day, with just 45 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voting in the 2012 presidential election, compared to 60 percent of 30- to 44-year-olds. However, according to a survey conducted by Fusion, a multiplatform media company, 90 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds are planning to vote in the upcoming presidential election. Out of these potential voters, 98 percent are also users of social media, based on a report published by The Next Web, a technology-focused media company.

For this reason, it is easy to see why presidential hopefuls are so keenly reaching out to voters via Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media. In order to stand out from the competition, candidates use tweets, hashtags, posts and videos to connect with their voters and promote their political views, all in limited digital space.

In August, a tweet posted by Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign team on her Twitter

Facebook provide platforms for young adults to react and express their opinions.

Hashtags can be used to support certain candidates. For example, the use of a hashtag such as #FeelTheBern can be used to show support for Bernie Sanders’ speeches and tweets, while others such as #GOPDebate and #DemDebate encourage Republican or Democratic debate-watchers to tweet and post about their views on each candidate.

It is no surprise that presidential candidates are doing everything they can to win approval through media platforms. According to an analysis published by the Center for Research and Information on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, despite the low number of 18- to 24-year-olds who voted in the 2012 presidential election, the youth vote gave Obama the advantage he needed to win a second term in office. With the high number of youths predicted to vote in the upcoming election, securing the 18- to 24-yearold vote is on every politician’s agenda.

In general, younger voters are more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who they feel they can relate to.

Obama often receives praise on the Internet for his references to pop culture, which have included impersonatHILLARY CLINTON ing Grumpy Cat and ofDEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE fering campaign advice to Kanye West in the midst of speeches.

Similarly, some presidential canhave each posted their own videos about fantasy football on various so- didates for the upcoming election cial media sites. While Bush’s video want to demonstrate the same level discussed his outlook for his team of lightheartedness through tweets and Rubio’s video spoofed rival can- and videos to appeal to younger votdidates’ teams, the intent of capturing ers who may appreciate a sense of the attention of adolescents was clear. humor. Candidates hope to come across as friendly, apSocial media sites such as Twitter and garnered widespread attention from adolescents and young adults on Twitter, though not for the intended reasons.

“How does your student loan debt make you feel? Tell us in 3 emojis or less,” Clinton said.

The tweet, clearly aimed at younger voters, was quickly ridiculed by its target audience and the awareness it brought to Clinton’s stance on college affordability was drowned out.

However, the tweet also highlighted the gradual shift from campaigns of the past, which primarily focused on the usage of television and radio promotion, to campaigns of the present, which are increasingly centered around social media. Though the tweet did not generate the desired discussion for Clinton’s mission, it still managed to bring attention to Clinton herself, before another candidate could step in to steal the limelight.

In similar attempts to connect with younger voters, Republican candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio

How does your student loan debt make you feel? Tell us in 3 emojis or less.

proachable and understanding, rather than cold and emotionless. Doing so can make a young voter feel more comfortable with a candidate, especially those new to voting.

and mindset of teenagers. Showing off these qualities, candidates hope to imply that under their hard exteriors, there lies something that resembles less of a politician and more of a friend.

With the support of teenagers and children comes massive amounts of money, and not just teenagers’ own money. Their influence over others such as family, friends and peers makes them a key target for all kinds of companies and retailers looking to make a profit. According to a study conducted by the RAND corporation, a public research compilation organization, companies spend roughly $180 billion annually advertising to young adults.

Companies must compete with varying marketing strategies for the attention of teenagers, and keeping a teen interested for long proves to be a difficult task.

According to a survey conducted by Marketingvox, a researcher in the spending trends of Americans, the average teenager has an annual spending power of $4,923, which includes all the money spent on and for a teenager per year, including health insurance and the cost of living. According to U.S. Census numbers for 2014, there are

there is a $355 billion dollar profit to be made from advertising to teenagers as they have such a large influence over peers and relatives.

Dominating social media, young people essentially have the power to determine what is “in,” even when it comes to politics. When a large number of social media users like a particular politician, this positive image spreads. For example, Bernie Sanders’ popularity on the internet among many young adults has generated him a strong reputation, and those who may be unfamiliar with Sanders but frequently use social media will see predominantly positive messages about him.

Along with politicians, commercial businesses rely heavily on social media to directly target teenage consumers. Today, adolescents are arguably the most important demographic for companies to target, making up the largest market for music, films, retail and more.

As the youth vote becomes increasingly essential to political candidates, campaigns have placed a greater emphasis on social media presence in order to reach out to younger voting demographics. By attempting to appear humorous and relatable on social media sites, candidates hope to convince voters that they truly understand the struggles

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

SPOTLIGHT

B5

E TEENAGE DEMOGRAPHIC

echniques to gain support from YOUNG ADULTS DESIGN BY: BO FIELD, ANNALISE WANG AND CARISSA ZOu DESIGN EDITOR, STAFF WRITER AND LIFESTYLE EDITOR currently about 31 million adolescents in the United States. These figures of money spent by teens total to be astronomical. According to numbers found in a survey conducted by West High, a public Iowa high school, teenagers on average spend $155 billion per year on advertised products and influence their parents to spend another $200 billion per year.

These numbers are record rates, soaring high over the previous record of the 90 billion dollars, adjusted for inflation, that the baby boomer generation of teens spent in 1953. In total, there is a $355 billion dollar profit to be made from advertising to teenagers as they have such a large influence over peers and relatives.

Young adults seem to largely influence decisions on purchasing technology in particular. Teenagers are, for the most part, more tech savvy than their parents. This means that all advertisers have to strategize how to incorporate the youth demographic into their advertisements, because after all, they are not only advertising their products to adults, but also to teenagers.

“This generation is a generation of teens that a re

passing down technology to their parents, not the other way around,” Mary Leigh Bliss, trends editor at YPulse, a youth-focused market research firm said in an online article.

can do this by communicating with their fans via these social media platforms.

Likewise, the majority of box office for films and ticket sales from theaters is accounted for by young teenagers. If you look around in a crowded theater, it is likely that you will see a sea of adolescents pockmarked by adults. Teenagers like to watch movies, as it is viewed as a social event for them. Movies, therefore, are hyped with trailers, sneak peeks and behind the scenes clips online that feature products strategically placed in by advertisers. For example, take the release of the new Star Wars movie. Trailers are being released slowly over time to build anticipation for the actual film to be released in late December 2015.

In addition, movies make more money from advertisers by strategically placing products at certain points in the movie. Advertisers know millions of teenagers will be watching these movies and that a product on the big screen can really help sell the product. Therefore, businesses are willing to pay a lot to have their product advertised in a box office success.

What teens do actually end up buying, however, is unpredictable. If advertisers make sure teens see their product on a constant basis, in every facet of their life, why aren’t the teenagers buying certain products? The answer is simple — teenagers depend on their peer networks for final approval. Shopping is very much a social experience for adolescents and includes a whole network of communicating what is “in” and what is “out” amidst the ever present desire of the teenager dream to fit in.

Young adults tend to be very

Candidates hope to come across as frienDly, approachable AND UNDERSTANDING, RATHER THAN COLD AND EMOTIONLESS. Practically all industries make sure their ads are directed towards adolescents. There is one commonality to all these methods of advertising. They all take place on the Internet or on television.

The Internet has been a medium for communication regarding popular culture and social media sites and advertisers recognize this. According to a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente, the average adolescent spends seven and a half hours on social media or consuming some sort of digitized media every day. That is longer than some adolescents spend in school on a typical school day.

Since social media is one of the largest and most influential aspects in a teenager’s life, it has become one of the main mediums used to target the high-school age demographic.

One market that is especially dependent on young adults is the music industry. Teenagers are, by far, the largest consumer of music. This generation is the generation of at least one earbud, if not both earbuds permanently stuck in their ears. Therefore, musicians must maintain desirable images to young adults if they want to succeed with their careers, and they

malleable to the suggestions of the people they respect. This could be anyone, from a blogger to a celebrity to a peer they look up to. It is very common for teenagers to follow the trends set forth by their idols and the teenagers try to mimic them.

To attempt to attract teens’ attention, companies often hire celebrities to endorse their products. This could be through a paid tweet, Instagram post, vlog, interview or mention.

Celebrities can make upwards of $50,000 for a simple tweet and toppaid celebrities can make anywhere between $7 million to $60 million for a campaign or commercial series, according to Forbes Magazine. For example, according to the Huffington Post, Beyoncé’s Pepsi endorsement deal made her $50 million.

Not only do advertisements have to be tastefully done, they have to be memorable as well. Some ads try to use humor to relate to the consumer.

Take the State Farm advertisements for example. “It’s Jake, from State Farm” is a line commonly recognized

appeal and unite the adolescents in a way that adults simply do not understand.

Another way to target the youth demographic is by using interactive ads. For example, take the Lucky Charms’ interactive game series.

Mostly directed to sell cereal to the youth, the game is advertised on television and on cereal boxes. It is an immersive online adventure to find Lucky the Leprechaun’s charms. This type of ad piques interest and provides entertainment, thereby keeping Lucky Charms in consumers’ minds and also in their shopping baskets.

It is not so easy to find out exactly what grabs teenagers’ short attention spans. Teenagers are extremely selective and picky about what they buy, but there seems to be one similarity: teens pay attention to whatever other teens do. They check out who their friends follow and what music is recommended by their peers.

From a moral standpoint, the constant barrage of advertising to teens does not sit well. According to Marketingvox, teenagers are exposed to 3,000 ads per day. It is both psychologically and physically damaging teenagers to be sitting in front of a screen for hours at a time being bombarded with media.

According to a study by York College, the constant use of social media causes alarming psychological effects such as a lowered attention span, anxiety and overstimulation of the brain. Additionally, a study from the Centre for Vision Research, a group that researches human vision asserts that screen-staring is corrosive to vision and leads to increased blood pressure, among other serious heart problems.

This raises into question the issue of the ethics of a constant advertising onslaught upon adolescents.

Whether they are getting an obnoxious spam email from a local company, seeing Kylie Jenner raving about her fake hair extensions or watching their favorite movie when a Chevy logo flashes by, one is constantly being exposed to advertising through the medium of social media.

Social media has become a connection point for the spreading of the latest trends, and companies and candidates are happy to employ their offerings to target young adults with their strategic advertising and product placement.

ACCORDING To A SURVEY CONDUCTED BY MARKETINGVOX, THE AVERAGE TEENAGER HAS An annual SPENDING POWER OF $4,923. by children and adults alike. This effect is achieved by the abilities of the creators of this advertisement to make it humorous. This advertisement even turned into a widespread Internet sensation as well as a wellknown advertisement. This is a great way to get publicity, as humor tends to

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

B6 LIFESTYLE Alternative and accessible New hoverboards outfits to try out this season roll off of shelves Winter outfit ideas that bring together comfort and fashion KATE DEANDRE

STAFF WRITER

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s winter approaches, girls are beginning to pull out their UGG boots, Lululemon yoga pants and comfy hooded sweatshirts.

To avoid matching with every other girl in school, here are some trendy, affordable, go-to winter outfit ideas.

Comfortable, but Cute One way to dress comfortably while also keeping up with the hottest fads is to pair an oversized sweater with a colored pair of jeans. This chic look is perfect for a winter day in the Bay Area and can be purchased at most stores. Places like Nordstrom, J. Crew and Forever 21 usually carry essentials like these. In order to ensure the oversized sweater will not make one’s legs appear shorter, tuck a small part of the sweater into the front of the pants. Booties match well with this combination, as do crossbody bags.

Rainy day Though the rainy day style may not be worn often, seeing as it hardly rains in Palo Alto, it is always nice to have clothes lying around for those rare days. This look will help one stay fashionable while surviving the terrors of Lake Paly. The foundation of this look is the classic combination of rain boots and a raincoat to keep dry. Hunter is a great brand of boots because it sells the original rain boot style in all colors and finishes, but those boots can be quite pricey.

However, Hunter boots do not have to be bought at their full retail price.

To find them at a discounted price, look for them at Nordstrom Rack or find similar, cheaper rain boots at Target or on Amazon. To differentiate the outfit from any random rain boot-and-raincoat combination, incorporate a turtleneck into this outfit. Turtlenecks are gaining popularity

Plethora of options causes competition JARED STANLEY

STAFF WRITER

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ccording to the movie Back to the Future, our society was supposed to have hoverboards

by Oct. 21. However, all we have is a glorified segway that allows people to travel around town on a two wheeled vehicle. At the this point in time, we would have hoped to have a device that at least hovered and didn’t simply roll around.

Today’s version of hoverboards has been introduced by a variety of companies, the main ones being Hovertrax and IO Hawk, allowing people to stand atop a 2-wheeled vehicle and to be transported anywhere they wish JACKY MOORE/THE CAMPANILE within a 12 mile radius, at a top speed Following the seasonal fashion trends, Paly students pair winter coats with boots. of 10 to 12 miles per hour. The boards as a staple piece for this season and anywhere, though the quality will are capable of supporting up to 220 pounds, as the board itself, on avercan be included into any ensemble. vary based on the price and store. age, weighs 25 pounds.

Black jeans are ideal for this rainy day For anywhere from $300 to $1500, look, seeing as they work well with Grunge The resurgence of graphic t-shirts, you can be chauffeured around town all colors and patterns, including the ripped clothing and leather jack- while standing upright, and expend crazy designs on some rain boots. ets has thrust grunge attire into the little to no physical effort. spotlight once again. Graphic t-shirts The board needs to be recharged Casual Every girl searches for an outfit have made a remarkable comeback in every 12 or so miles, so it is not very which she can wear to be on the cut- recent years, having been popularized effective for long distance travel. It is ting edge of fashion, as well as to keep by brands such as Brandy Melville. often referred to as an evolution in warm in the Palo Alto winter. This Topshop has the most diverse array technology; however, by this point, look combines various staple items of these shirts, the most popular people were expecting something into a fashion-forward look that is being their vintage band and movie that would actually hover a few feet both stunning and relaxed. To create shirts. To keep with the grunge off the ground and allow riders and this basic style, combine a long car- theme, match a pair of black ripped travel at fast speeds, instead of a glodigan with tall boots, a plain white jeans with a graphic t-shirt. There is rified segway.

2015 has been named the year of tee and a pair of jeans. Cardigans are an immense number of brands to buy essential items in any girl’s closet and jeans from, once again, all depend- the hoverboard by many tech comcan come at a reasonable price. These ing on budget. Some examples of panies; CNN named the hoverboard sweaters can be found at most stores brands to purchase from include made by IO Hawk the coolest piece such as Anthropologie, Hollister Paige Denim, Abercrombie and of technology at the Consumer Elecand Urban Outfitters. For items Joe’s Jeans. Finally, bring this look tronics Show in Las Vegas. Since, like tall boots, quality is imperative together with a leather jacket. The many knockoffs have appeared on the to ensure the pair lasts long, so it is leather jacket is another item that market. IO Hawk’s plan is to get their best to splurge. Tall boots can be pur- may be best to splurge on to ensure products into the hands of as many chased from a variety of companies longevity. Leather jackets can be pur- celebrities as possible in order to out including Frye, Sam Edelman and chased at stores such as Macy’s and sell their competitors.

YouTube star Casey Neistat was the BP department at Nordstrom. JCPenney. Recommended brands Plain white tees can be purchased include Wilson Leather and GUESS. one of the first public examples of

this business plan, as his video in July, “Hands free Segway thing,” got over 4.3 million views.

As of now, there is a patent war going on over who owns the plans to this 2-wheeled self stabilizing device. Mark Cuban, billionaire entrepreneur, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and investor on Shark Tank, has invested in a similar product created by American inventor Shane Chen. Chen created his own version of a hoverboard, Hovertrax, for which he was given a patent in 2014. When entering into an economic deal with Chen, Cuban promised to sue any company that appears to be copying Chen’s design, which can be bought for $1,495.

One of Cuban’s early targets was IO Hawk. He claimed that their $1800 design infringed on that of Chen’s cheaper board.

Palo Alto High School senior Kash Rogers is one of the few students at Paly who own one of these prototype hoverboards. The prices for these boards do vary, due to the fact that there are some very highend ones, and there are some that do not go even as fast as a person can walk. Despite this, these boards are viable for commuting around town, terrorizing your pets, making your friends jealous, or even cruising in airports.

“Sometimes I bring it into the airport and ride it in the terminal,” Rogers said.

The carry bag it comes with is a great way to store not only Rogers’ hoverboard, but also other carry on items that can be easily stored in the overhead compartments when at airports.

If you really don’t feel like walking or if you happen to have some extra money lying around, a hoverboard could be a solid and enjoyable investment.

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

ENTERTAINMENT B7 Adele makes comeback with new hit single “Hello” Her album “25” is set to debut on Nov. 20, is predicted to gain as much popularity as recently released song MACKENZIE GLASSFORD

STAFF WRITER

A

dele, you had me at “Hello.”

Since the release of her first single in three years, Adele has had the entire world salivating in anticipation of her upcoming album. “Hello” is the first single off of the long awaited album “25,” which is Adele’s first record since “21” in 2011. “21” won six Grammys and went platinum 16 times. “Hello” is also the first song she has recorded since her Oscar-winning Bond theme, “Skyfall.”

The ballad begins with “Hello, it’s me,” because Adele knows that the world has been pining for her ever since she went into hibernation after the birth of her first child in 2012.

Since it is an Adele song, the song is light and twinkly, then loud and grand, and, of course, full of heartbreaking lyrics.

Although the song follows the same basic formula as “Someone Like You,” “Turning Tables” and countless other Adele hits have followed, the substance and emotions of the song have changed and matured.

“My last record was a break-up record and if I had to label this one I would call it a make-up record,” Adele said in a Facebook post. “I’m making up with myself. Making up for lost time. 25 is about getting to know who I’ve become without real-

COURTESY OF IZLESENE

Adele performs “Hello” live at the NRJ Awards in France. The single has remained number one on charts since it was released.

izing. And I’m sorry it took so long, but you know, life happened.”

Adele has stated that “Hello” is less about heartbreak and more about reaching out and apologizing to those she has hurt, including herself. She belts out the chorus so forcefully and powerfully that it feels like she is projectile vomiting her heart ... gracefully, of course.

“This song was a massive breakthrough to me with my writing because I’ve been pretty slow up until this point,” Adele told SiriusXM. “After this, it all poured out of me.”

Grimes releases new album “Art Angels” Pop artist tries different musical styles

COURTESY OF THE VERGE

Art Angels’ cover was designed by singer and music artist, Grimes, or Claire Boucher.

BO FIELD

DESIGN EDITOR

T

he music world has been involved in many tantric exercises over the last year. The staggeringly hyped and ultimately unfulfilled (as of yet) wait for a new Frank Ocean album and a similar situation with Kanye West caused an unquenchable thirst that could not be sated even by the excellent variety of other quality album releases.

One of these cases was experimental pop artist Grimes’ newest album “Art Angels,” which remained unnamed with an unspecified release until its quick rollout and drop on Nov. 7, causing many fans to finally experience the long-awaited climax of a distressing wait.

“Art Angels” serves to evolve Grimes’ originally somewhat inaccessible (but very creative) variations on electronic music into a more familiar and engaging format. Gone are the spacey synths and Burial-reminiscent muted house drums of her debut record, “Geidi Primes,” replaced by fuzzy guitar riffs and unmistakably pop melodies. This can be jarring for some listeners who went in expecting trippy cosmic inspired electronica yet got something closer to Taylor Swift.

But beneath the almost radio-friendly songwriting, muffled screaming and frantic reverberating backing vocals keep the sonic aesthetic just weird enough to fit with the rest of Grimes’ discography.

The transition into more simplistic and palatable sonic themes serves a different purpose than most might assume. Grimes as an artist has often

struggled with the commodification and warping of her artistry. She describes the opening track, “California,” as a hate song towards the record industry that frequently compromises her vision. Followed by the abrasive and frantic “SCREAM,” listeners get the impression that such ironic stylistic choices are entirely Grimes’ own and serve to jar listeners rather than attract new, different audiences. As the album progresses, standout tracks like “Realiti” and “Easily” prove that Grimes’ signature electronic charm and sonic aesthetic is not lost; she is just addressing a different side of her musical ability on the poppier cuts.

This back and forth progression continues throughout the album, resulting in an interesting and fresh take on the state of popular indie music.

However, there is something to be said for the feeling one gets when trying to appreciate a song and realizing it would not be far out of place at a middle school dance. Despite slightly darker lyrics, higher production value and Grimes’ genuine and unprocessed voice, the basic upbeat drum patterns and chord progressions can make you feel like you’ve heard certain songs many times before in miserable environments such as a coffee shop or a middle aged woman’s car. The dark, sparse minimalism of past tracks like “Oblivion” and “Zoal, Face Dancer” feels very far from the near Radio Disney level of bubblegum present at some points on the “Art Angels” album. But as a whole, this record is great for new Grimes listeners, potentially confusing for day one fans and recommended for both as an exciting and dynamic listening experience.

The song was released along with a haunting and evocative music video.

After losing cell signal while talking to her ex on a flip phone, Adele enters an old and dusty house to try and make sense of her still-fresh romantic wound. Despite the meager amount of promotion for this video, Adele managed to break the Vevo record for most the views for a music video in 24 hours, which was previously held by Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood.”

For most artists, waiting four years to turn out new music would be a disastrous move. All this time that

Adele spent off put a lot of pressure on any music she planned to release.

Furthermore, it is hard to satisfy fans who have been starved for new content from their favorite artist. However, the euphoric response to both the song and the accompanying video prove just how talented Adele is.

“Hello” accomplishes everything that fans want, with its elegant simplicity combined with its booming and powerful chorus. It makes everyone want to sing along while gazing out of a rainy car window, with an imaginary tear rolling down their cheek, as

they remember how they have been hurt in the past.

In an interview with SiriusXM, Adele talked about the opening lines of the song, “Hello, it’s me,” and said that she was hesitant to open her first song in four years with those lyrics.

“It’s incredibly conversational,” Adele said. “I didn’t want to come back with some spectacular point. I didn’t have any points to prove.”

Well, she proved one anyway.

Adele is the Queen of the music world, and it is fruitless to pretend otherwise. It does not matter how long she makes the world wait for her music, because as soon as she releases it, everyone forgets his or her own name. Who can stay mad at her when she is speaking to your soul?

Adele is not only a pop star; she is a musical goddess with an otherworldly talent. Besides all that, she is a real person. She is someone relatable, someone that people can understand and who understands her fans and she never fails to be there for anyone who needs need a good cry.

She is like a soulful British guardian angel.

Despite the fact that this album has a different vibe and feel to it than the Adele records that the world is familiar with, “25” looks like it is going to be her biggest album yet. If “Hello” is any indication, we all need to stock up on tissues and ice cream in preparation for the release.

Fallout 4 impresses upon release Role-playing game has expansive details and compelling plot NOAH SMITH

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

M

ost of the way Fallout 4, a huge roleplaying-shooter game, works is carried over from its excellent predecessors, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. It is the Skyrim to Fallout 3’s Oblivion, if you will — it iterates on the previous game’s already amazing systems, and it is similarly dense with locations to explore, genuinely creepy monsters to fight and superbly engrossing post-nuclear atmosphere that blends unsettling gore and death with dark comedy. After more than 20 hours played, I may have seen an ending, yet I feel like I have only begun to explore its extraordinary world. From the looks of it, I will easily be able to spend another 100 happy hours here and still see new and exciting things.

A story that begins as a basic search for your lost family evolves into something much more complex and morally nuanced. Like in Fallout: New Vegas, we are drawn into a struggle between several groups competing for control of the region. Deciding which of their imperfect postapocalyptic philosophies to align with made me pause to consider how I wanted events to play out. Even the highly questionable Institute has a tempting reason to side with them, and turning away from them in my playthrough was not as clearcut a choice as I had expected. I was impressed by the sympathy shown toward the villains, too — even the most irredeemable murderer is explored and given a trace of humanity.

After more than 20 hours played, I may have seen an ending, yet I feel like I have only begun to explore its extraordinary world.

Of course, as is the tradition with developer Bethesda Game Studios’ open-world RPGs, the main story is not nearly as gripping an attraction as the huge number of well-written side quests you will come across just by wandering through the ruins of the Boston area, now known as The Commonwealth. I found it difficult to complete even the most basic point-A-to-point-B task without being sidetracked at least twice by enticing detours. An abandoned comic book publisher office? How can I not explore it? Boston’s famous Fenway Park? Gotta see what has become of that. A crumbling high school with heads on pikes outside? I bet there is great loot in there! Practically tripping over new discoveries like this, I

COURTESY OF GAMESPOT

Fallout 4 features a post-nuclear world in which players fight villans and monsters.

feel like a kid on Easter whose parents are bad at hiding the candy.

Exploration has its own rewards, as this is the most diverse Fallout world yet, with dilapidated urban areas, ominous dead forests, eerie swamps, a desolate area mired in a hellish radioactive haze and even some areas that look borderline hospitable like beaches and budding farms. The Commonwealth is more colorful than Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland, though it has its fair share of greys and browns and it shares New Vegas’ bright blue sky (as opposed to oppressive clouds) when it is not night time or raining or green with a terrifying radiation storm. It is often beautiful. Attention to detail is evident everywhere — Fallout 4 might not be a leader in all areas of graphics technology (character animations are still a weakness) but from the intricate Pip-Boy wrist-computer interface (which completely changes when you’re in power armor), to careful arrangement of skeletal remains that tell the tragically dark or tragically funny stories of long-dead characters, to tattered poster art on the walls, to even raindrops on your visor (if you are wearing one) it is consistently impressive.

Fallout 4’s crafting system gives even more motivation to compulsively collect everything that is not nailed down. It is so easy, too — grabbing things out of containers happens quickly in window that pops up when you look over it. Every item in the world is made up of material components, most of which you can intuitively guess: bottles are needed for glass, a desk fan will provide you with steel and gears and a roll of duct

tape is worth its weight in gold. I once went on a desperate search for pencils so that I could extract the lead they contained to use for radiation shielding. (Apparently Fallout’s alternate universe never switched to graphite). Nothing is completely worthless, which means that managing the weight of your inventory is a constant series of agonizing decisions of what to take with you and what to leave behind.

The value of those materials comes from their use in the fantastic equipment upgrades, which give most guns you pick up extraordinary potential for flexibility and longevity. Stopping at a crafting bench with the right components in hand can turn a pistol into a short-range, pray-and-spray automatic or a scoped sniper with a long barrel for accuracy and a big stock to reduce recoil. A few tweaks to a standard-issue laser rifle can add burning damage over time, or split the beam into a shotgun-like spread.

The best part is that those changes aren’t just tweaked numbers in the stats; nearly every modification you make is reflected in the look of your gun as well, creating an extremely varied selection of weapons both for you and for enemies.

The world, exploration, crafting, atmosphere and story of Fallout 4 are all key parts of this hugely successful sandbox role-playing game. Great new reasons to obsessively gather and hoard relics of happier times, strong companions and sympathetic villains driving tough decisions make it an adventure I will definitely replay and revisit. Even the technical shakiness that crops up cannot even begin to slow down its momentum.

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

LIFESTYLE

B8 FROM

PALY TO COLLEGE

1

in

2000

This edition featuring:

Laura Sieh with The Campanile’s own

Text By: Sarah Wang and Carissa Zou ollege is undoubtedly a huge stepping stone in any student’s life. While many prospective students have gathered bits and pieces of what the college experience entails, it is often difficult to gauge what surprises these next four years might bring. To paint a clearer picture of this transition, recent Paly graduates provide advice for current and future students as they shed light on their experiences of adapting to new academic structures and Paly’s impact on their college careers.

has a bunch of transfer programs for the students that are really helpful and the transfer rate is really high.”

Many college students are enrolled in four to five classes, meaning that they can spend more time thoroughly exploring all facets of the topics discussed in their courses. Noah Hashmi, a Class of 2015 alumnus and current freshman at Brown University, finds that this academic framework allows one to focus more on select topics, rather than only broadly approaching subjects.

“My classes right now are easier than those at Paly — part of the reason is because I have four classes I can focus my attention on as opposed to the seven that I had to constantly worry about at Paly,” Hashmi said. “Classes are individually much more time consuming than those at Paly.”

ACADEMIC STRUCTURE When a student transitions from high school to college, one of the biggest changes across all universities is in academic structure, leading to an increase in independent learning. College is often a person’s first experience in paving his or her own path and making independent deci- PALY PREPARATION sions without the close guidance of Though every student at a parparents and teachers. ticular university shares the comBased on his experiences in col- mon bond of attending that instilege so far, Joseph Chang, a Class tution, each enters with a different of 2015 Paly alumnus and current background of secondary education. freshman at Stanford University, Students coming from Paly have has noticed a shift in class structure, received different preparation than which now puts more emphasis on students from a private school in independence and academic re- New York and even different preparation from students from Henry sponsibility.

“For college, there’s less of a ‘safe- M. Gunn High School.

For Hashmi, college has been a ty net’ in the sense that you need to motivate yourself to do stuff,” smooth transition in terms of acaChang said. “In high school you’re demic rigor. However, he believes required to go to class and be pres- this ease is not felt by many of his ent all the time, but in college you classmates coming from different don’t have to, so it’s easier to fall into high school.

“I definitely feel like Paly prea cycle of just ditching class because pared me really well for college, you want to catch up on sleep.” especially comCasey pared to most of Glassford, a 2015 Paly my classmates a l u m n a — for most of I have four classes I can and current them, everyfocus my attention on f reshman thing is a step at Foothill as opposed to the seven up, but coming that I had to constantly out of Paly, it’s Commujust a continuanity College, worry about at Paly. tion of what I’m also finds used to,” Hashher classes Noah Hashmi mi said. easier now Brown University freshman Katie Foug, than they were while a Class of 2015 she attended alumna and Paly. freshman at “My classes in college are easier the University of Michigan echoed than my classes at Paly were, and Hashmi’s sentiment of feeling more they are less stressful,” Glassford prepared than most students from said. “Since I go to Foothill, ev- other high schools, even though eryone’s mostly focused on getting she attends a public university with their work done so that they can more than five times the students transfer to a good school … Foothill that Brown has.

Design By: GilLian Robins and Sarah Wang “I feel more prepared com- obviously easier said than done, ing from Paly than some of my but I wish I hadn’t been so stressed. fellow peers coming from other When college commitment time high schools,” Foug said. “When came around, most everyone found most kids transition to college, the a school that suited them and were change in workload is dramatic for happy about going to.”

Some students wished they had them but I think Paly adequately done more research on their school prepares you for [college].”

In particular, some feel that before committing, but still believe Paly’s math department prepared they made the right choice. Kylie them exceptionally well for college. Wilson, a 2015 Paly graduate and Chang found that his math teachers freshman at Boston University, was at Paly have made learning the sub- surprised to discover how present ject at Stanford much more man- grade deflation, the policy of only allowing ageable. a certain “Paly, espenumber cially in math, When most kids of As in a prepared me very transition to college, class, is at well for college,” the change in workload her college.

Chang said. “If you learn your is dramatic for them but “I wish I think Paly adequately I knew math well in high prepares you for Boston school, it will University save tons of time [college]. was known in college.” for grade In addition Katie Foug deflation,” to specific subUniversity of Michigan freshman Wilson jects, Class of said, “We 2015 alumna and don’t have freshman at the University of Puget Sound Nata- many Paly kids who go to [Boston lie Holla believes Paly has given University] so I think that’s why I her specific study skills, something didn’t know about it. Even when I students coming from other high went to orientation and admitted students week … nobody talked schools lack.

“Paly definitely prepared me in about it, probably because it’s kind time management,” Holla said. “It of a turn off.”

Foug wished she had known seems that I am a bit more prepared than other people in my school in more about the demographics of the time management and being on top University of Michigan population.

As a state school, Michigan attracts of my school work.”

As one of the top high schools more students in-state than out-ofin the nation, Paly seems to prepare state.

“Something I wish I knew when its students well for any college its graduates may attend, from smaller applying for [the University of liberal arts colleges like the Univer- Michigan] was taking into account sity of Puget Sound to research uni- that because it is a state school, over versities such as Stanford.

50 percent of the students are from Michigan,” Foug said. “A lot of the LOOKING BACK Michigan kids already had their With at least five months since best friends when entering campus, leaving the realm of high school, making me feel a little more of an many Paly graduates have come to outsider.” view their time as high school stuCaroline Young, a 2015 Paly dents differently now that they have graduate and freshman at Stanford transitioned into higher education.

University, now sees the value in foThough the stress surrounding cusing on the present, rather than college applications seems almost constantly looking into the future unavoidable, once on the other side, to try to predict how one will feel the stress can seem trivial. Carol later on, a lesson she learned while Hung, a Class of 2015 alumna and choosing which college to go to.

“When I was trying to decide freshman at Cornell University, went through college stress like any what college to go to, one of my other applicant, but looking back, teachers, Mrs. [Melinda] Mattes, regrets the unnecessary stress she told me that we are terrible at preadded onto herself. dicting how we will feel in the fu“Don’t worry too much while ap- ture,” Young said. “We should just plying to college,” Hung said. “It’s go with how we feel in the present.”

Joanna Falla The Campanile: Okay Laura so what’s good?

Laura Sieh: I’m ... very good.

TC: So during Spirit Week, you had a tendency to dress up but not with your own class. Do you care to elaborate?

LS: I consider myself as kind of a freedom fighter of sorts, so yeah.

TC: So what did you dress as this year?

LS: Um, on the color day I dressed in red, which is the sophomore color.

TC: Why? LS: Because I didn’t dress up on the other days, so that was my contribution.

TC: What’s the worst part about junior year?

LS: At this point it’s mostly the classes that you have. Also I’m doing like, I wouldn’t say this is the worst part, but I have a lot of work this year. I’m writing for Verde, I’m also involved with Paly Theater, I wrote some of the music for “The Odyssey”, and I was also involved in “Shrek” as a musician and a performer.

TC: How’s taking PE junior year?

LS: I was actually enrolled in dance.

TC: Oh, sorry. How’s working with Mrs. Gibson in the dance studio?

LS: I’m actually not taking dance. I’m enrolled in it senior year.

TC: What? What are you taking now?

LS: I added Physics. I mean [next year] I might take PE instead, because like with PE it’s zero period, you know, but I’m just considering my options.

TC: If you could describe yourself in three words or less what would it be?

LS: *three minutes of silence* Persistent, impatient and light-hearted.

TC: What’s your advice for the underclassmen?

LS: Buy me food at Town and Country.

TC: What would you say your aesthetic is?

LS: Well in terms of fashion it would just be more like whatever I have in my closet, in terms of like my work and stuff I would say I like it pretty clean, pretty organized.

TC: On your Facebook and through other social media you definitely have a different style, especially your profile pictures. Would you consider your presence on social media as eccentric or iconic?

LS: Yeah, yeah. I would definitely say that I have a pretty eccentric social media presence but I don’t have a lot of followers and stuff like that so if y’all wanna follow me that’s @usadice on twitter, guys.

TC: Do you consider yourself a class clown of sorts in any of your classes?

LS: Not really, I’m more of a class ...

I’m a prophet.

TC: Could you elaborate?

LS: Well I speak the truth and I speak the whole-hearted truth, and no one can get me, not even … I will be unrestrained by the law, because I am a wild ... west.

TC: What do you think you’ll get for senior polls next year?

LS: Um, I’ll probably get Scrawny to Brawny because like, I’ve been really working it at the gym and if you guys see me, I’m getting major gains.

TC: Do you have any last words for Paly?

LS: Honestly I think this whole interview is a PR disaster so … I’ll have to talk to my publicist about this.

TC: Do you want to say anything else for the people?

LS: ...

TC: You can say no, Laura.

The Campanile

Friday, November 20, 2015 ATHLETE OF THE MONTH

SPORT

Wide receiver Eli Givens’ speed and reflexes have given the football team unprecedented momentum.

C7

ALAIN SANDRAZ

FIRE ON ICE DESIGN BY: CATHERINE YU SENIOR STAFF WRITER

TEXT AND DESIGN BY: BETHANY SHIANG STAFF WRITER

I

ce hockey embodies ferocity. Ballet embodies gracefulness. Between these two lies figure skating — a place where athleticism and artistry meet to create spectacular breathtaking spectacle. Alain Sandraz, a junior at Palo Alto High School and 4-time nationally ranked figure skater, must be able to command power, precision and beauty. But his journey has contained grueling training and the potential for serious injury.

Sandraz has been skating since he was eight years old, and has since won countless numbers of medals, dedicating many hours to training and conditioning in order to become a competitive figure skater. His journey did not begin as a figure skater, but as an ice dancer at Winter Lodge in Palo Alto.

“When I first started ice skating, no one believed in me,” Sandraz said. “They didn’t know what to do with me, so they partnered me with a girl.”

In ice dancing, a couple is judged by footwork, how well the pair moves as one and the relationship between the two, whereas figure skating is judged heavily on the technique of jumps and spins. According to Sandraz, ice dancing has provided him with the strength to jump for figure skating.

Competitive ice skating has come to Sandraz with literal blood, sweat and tears. He dedicates at least four hours a day to practicing on ice and two hours of conditioning on land. With one session that begins at 4 a.m. and one in the afternoon at the Redwood City Nazareth Oasis, Sandraz is sometimes forced to finish his homework in the car. Because Sandraz competes at such a high level, Sandraz must also watch his diet carefully by creating meal plans centered around his practice in order to maintain a weight of 140 pounds.

On the day of big competitions, such as regionals or nationals, Sandraz usually experiences a whirlwind of emotions. The large arenas, crowds of people in the audience and other skaters trying to find a corner to rehearse in anticipation can be a stressful, yet exciting atmosphere.

“Sometimes before competitions, I would break down’ and cry and ask myself, ‘Why am I doing this? I am just going to embarrass myself,’” Sandraz said.

“That feeling goes away once I am on ice because I start to focus on what I have practiced.”

At the 2013 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sandraz was in the middle of warm-ups when he accidently fell on the ice. Sandraz realized his leg could not stop shaking, but his coaches had told him it was due to the intensity of the competition.

An hour after he skated the short competition program, Sandraz realized that he could not walk. He was quickly taken to the hospital, where he was told his kneecap had hit his thigh bone, which bruised and tore multiple muscles in his leg.

“I could not feel much pain because of the adrenaline,” Sandraz said.

“During a competition, you can overcome the pain with your mind and the pain will most likely stop.”

Figure skating competitions consist of two phases. The first is the “short program,” which is a 2-minute, 30-second performance. The second phase is the “long program,” which is a 4-minute, 30-second performance.

Due to the lactic acid “burn” that sets in early on in the performance, Sandraz must train to tolerate that burn while doing a choreographed number that includes jumps and spins.

You have to be the greatest when they ask you to be the greatest because you only have one shot.

Alain Sandraz junior

SPORTS

COURTESY OF FLICKR

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downs or keeping track of the number of points, figure skating is scored subjectively.

The goal is to impress the judges by performing precise techniques with a heightened sense of showmanship.

“You have to be your greatest when they ask you to be the greatest because you only have one shot,” Sandraz said. “When you fall you don’t like it, but you have to do your best to make the judges forget about that mistake.”

Along with the physical and mental challenges Sandraz has had to face, he has also encountered people who have made fun of him for being a male figure skater. However, ever since Sandraz entered Paly as a freshman, people have been more accepting of him.

“Generally there are football players who have made fun of me, so I can just say, ‘I go into a locker room full of girls and you go into a locker room full of sweaty guys,” Sandraz said.

Sandraz was born in France, which has allowed him to find coaches more easily. According to Sandraz, French coaches were more willing to coach him when they knew he had a French background. Sandraz has several coaches that specialize in different aspects of figure skating such as jumps and spins. Surya Bonaly, a French-American 3-time World silver medalist and 9-time French national champion, coaches Sandraz on jumps with the help of her daughter, Suzanne Bonaly.

Sandraz also has two other coaches who focus on other specific techniques, while his main coach, Zina Kovalenko, focuses on the overall choreography and technique of Sandraz’s performances. Sandraz and his coaches strictly speak French and maintain a close bond.

Sandraz hopes to become a professional figure skater in the future, but in order to do so, he must create a reputation for himself. Consequently, Sandraz is training to compete in the next Winter Olympics in order to secure a bright future in professional figure skating.

“Ice skating is an escape from all the school stress and I like to entertain people,” Sandraz said. “Ice skating is like a freedom; I can do what I want however I want.”

INSIDE

Controversial Calls in Sports History

A look into some of the most questionable calls in sports history made by officials, which have sparked heated debates among avid sports fans and players. The Campanile investigates the controversial calls and the impacts the calls have made.

“Just 30 seconds into the performance a skater’s heart rate is above 90 percent of its maximum capacity,” a renowned figure skating coach, Kat Arbour said in an interview with GrindTV. Sandraz dedicates his time training on land to strengthening muscles. In order to perform a jump such as a triple axel, which consists of threeand-a-half revolutions while in the air, Sandraz relaxes his body to obtain maximum velocity and power.

At the last second, Sandraz must contract every muscle in the body and spin around an axis of rotation.

“Racing is getting from point A to point B as fast as you can, but skating is having to do the hardest things you can while making it look easy,” Sandraz said.

P h y s i c a l strength is only half the battle when it comes to figure skating.

The other half is composed of the fears, stress, nerves and anxiety that plague other sports.

“The hardest part about ice skating is trying to manage mental stress — if I am having a terrible day on ice, I don’t want to fall,” Sandraz said. “The hardest and scariest part about falling is the next jump because I think, ‘I can’t fall on this one, I can’t fall on this one,’ and I have to make sure I don’t think about [falling].”

Unlike most sports, which have an objective scoring method, such as counting touch-

COURTESY OF KRISTEN ANDERSON

Team Chemistry

The importance of players spending quality time with teammates outside of a sport.

PAGE C6

COURTESY OF NCAA

COURTESY OF PRESAGIASPORTS

Stanford Sports

NCAAB Preview

PAGE C7

PAGE C8

The athletic programs at Stanford should have more recognition for their successes.

A look into some of the top college basketball teams in each region of the country.

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

SPORTS

C2 VIKING RECAP FOOTBALL RECENT SCORES

Paly vs. Homestead 11/6/15, W, 45/7 Paly vs. Wilcox 11/13/15, L, 57/43 UPCOMING GAMES

Paly @ Salinas 11/20/15, 7 p.m.

TBD

VOLLEYBALL RECENT SCORES

Paly vs. Sequoia 11/11/15, W, 3-0 Paly vs. San Benito 11/14/15, L, 3-2 UPCOMING GAMES

None

Vikes look to finish strong in CCS playoffs After a tough loss against Wilcox, boys football hopes to finish off the season strong ELI GWIN-KERR

STAFF WRITER

O

n Oct. 30, the Palo Alto Vikings celebrated Senior Night with a sweeping 45-7 victory over Homestead High School.

Senior Eli Givens returned the first kick off for a touchdown, easily maneuvering through the Mustangs’ defense and into the end zone. The Vikings went on to score five more touchdowns and one field goal, while the Mustangs only managed one touchdown halfway through the second quarter.

The game was the Vikings’ first Senior Night victory in three years and began with the traditional Senior Night ceremonies, recognizing the senior players and their families.

More significantly, the Vikings’ win meant they had secured a spot in the top four teams of the De Anza League, placing them in the Central Coast Section (CCS) playoffs.

Our cornerbacks have been working hard since the last game, and we’re ready to take on the next team.

Bryant Jefferson Sophomore

GIRLS WOPO RECENT SCORES

Paly vs. Gunn 11/14/15, W, 7-5 Paly vs. Leland High 11/18/15, L, 5-12 UPCOMING GAMES

None

BOYS WOPO RECENT SCORES

Paly vs. Monta Vista 11/02/15, W, 9-8 Paly vs. St. Francis 11/14/15, L, 15-4 UPCOMING GAMES

None

The Vikings played their last regular season game two weeks later on Nov. 13 at Wilcox High School. The Wilcox Chargers beat them last season, 20-19, and this year’s game saw the same intensity. Disappointingly, the Vikings left Fitzpatrick Field in Santa Clara with another loss, this time by a score of 59-43. Palo Alto and Wilcox combined for 47 points in the fourth quarter, but that was not enough for the Vikings to pull through and redeem last year’s loss.

Both teams fought until the final whistle, ending with a combined 786 yards.

Pay vs. Lynbrook 10/27/15, W, 5-2 Paly vs. Monta Vista 10/29/15, L, 2-5 UPCOMING MATCHES

None

XC RECENT SCORES

SCVAL Finals 11/3/15, Boys placed 1st Girls placed 3rd CCS Championship 11/14/15, Boys placed 2nd Girls placed 7th UPCOMING MEETS

CIF State Finals 11/28/15, Time

GIRLS GOLF RECENT SCORES

SCVALTournament 10/27/15, Girls placed 2nd 413 points UPCOMING MATCHES

None

tying the game at 43-43. Despite the Vikings’ efforts, the Chargers ultimately came out on top, finishing with a score of 59-43. The Chargers repeated last year’s victory after an incredibly heavy final minute.

We’ve just got to come into playoffs and win, just keep winning. We’re going to come back hard and we aren’t letting the loss get to us.

Troy Henderson III Junior “The loss didn’t get us down because we knew we had at least one more game after,” sophomore defensive back Bryant Jefferson said. “Our cornerbacks have been working hard

since the last game and we’re ready to take on the next team.”

The Vikings play their first playoff away game on Nov. 20 against Salinas High School. If they win, they will continue to play the victor of the Alvarez-Milpitas game, with Milpitas (No. 2) favored to win.

“It was tough ... we had two weeks to prepare for this game and we went into the game prepared but somehow we just couldn’t come out with the win,” junior right guard Troy Henderson III said. “We’ve just got to come into playoffs and dominate, just keep winning. We’re going to come back hard and we aren’t letting the loss phase us like it did the last game. I’ve got a good feeling about this playoff season, it’s going to be a good one.”

Boys water polo suffers an early defeat in CCS

Team defeats Gunn in first round, ends season witloss to Leland High School

Season comes to an end after team loses a crutial game against St. Francis High School

STAFF WRITER

RECENT SCORES

The Vikings entered the game prepared; they were coming off of a bye week. After taking the ball from their own 20-yard-line with one minute and a half to go, the Vikings managed to tie the game with only 53 seconds on the clock. Quarterback Justin Hull threw to teammate Riley Schoeben, who ran the ball from the 43-yard-line to the 33-yard-line.

Then the following personal foul took the ball further down to the 18-yardline. The next play by the Vikings was the highlight of the night. On first down, Hull handed off to Eli Givens, who then threw overhand to Schoeben, who was 15-yards back. Schoeben then threw back to Hull who had gotten into the end zone. After this touchdown pass, Hull threw back to Schoeben for a 2-point conversion,

Girls water polo loses in semifinals of CCS JACKY MOORE

GIRLS TENNIS

COURTESY OF KAREN AMBROSE

Sophomore Paul Jackson III runs for a touchdown in the game against Homestead High School. The Vikings went on to win 45-7.

D

espite a strong start to the season, the Palo Alto High School girls water polo team ended its league season on a sour note. In a devastating one-point loss to crosstown rival Henry M. Gunn High School, the girls placed second in the Santa Clara Athletic League (SCVAL) finals.

The game was close, with the Lady Vikes losing 5-6 to Gunn. Senior Gigi Rojahn scored two points, and senior Katie Francis and sophomores Sophie Frick and Sabrina Hall each made one goal. Sophomore Claire Billman had five saves.

“It was a tough loss, but we knew we could come back stronger in CCS [Central Coast Section],” junior Molly Weitzman said.

The team played Gunn again on Nov. 14, beating them 7-5 in the CCS quarterfinals. They ended their post-season in a semifinal game against Leland High School on Nov. 19, losing 5-12. The Lady Vikes were seeded fourth.

Throughout the season, the team suffered and overcame various setbacks. The loss of Paly’s pool and subsequent use of Gunn’s aquatic facility was a significant concern for many players, yet they were able to rapidly acclimate to the new pool. Seven out of the team’s 13 original players were new to playing varsity, but the group as a whole was able to work well together. Sophomore Claire Billman filled in at goal for Joanna Falla, who suffered a concussion late October.

“We were able to adapt to anything that was thrown our way, and that made us stronger,” Weitzman said.

Despite having beaten Los Altos High School in mid-September, the team lost 8-6 on Oct. 27. Rojahn and senior Claire Drebin led their team in scoring with two goals each, and Frick and Francis both added one

point to Palo Alto’s score. On Nov. 6, the team lost again to Los Altos, this time 6-7, despite strong performances by the team’s seniors.

“We lost by only one point that was scored in the last few seconds of the game,” Weitzman said. “We were proud of how we played because we showed [Los Altos] how much fight we have in us.”

We were able to adapt to anything that was thrown our way, and that made us stronger.

Molly Weitzman Junior

The team’s last two wins of the regular season were earned against Lynbrook High School and Mountain View High School on Oct. 29 and Nov. 5, respectively. In these matches, the seniors provided extra support for the team, both in terms of scoring and morale. Rojahn led her team in scoring against Lynbrook with four goals, Francis added three more and Hall scored the team’s remaining point. In the game against Mountain View, four of the team’s five seniors scored.

“Our seniors are the most dedicated, driven, and determined teammates I’ve ever had,” sophomore Hollie Chiao said. “They’re all always so helpful at every practice and have a never ending supply of tips and tricks that they’re ready to share with you.”

Billman concurred with Chiao, adding that the rest of the team will have to step up next season when the class of 2016 graduates. After this season, five of the original 12 players will leave. This will force the younger Lady Vikes to step up their game and take the places of the graduating seniors. Yet, the team is not phased by the loss and is excited for next season and the challenges it will bring.

“We’re definitely going to miss all of the seniors a lot next year,” Billman said. “But we have players ready to fill the big shoes they’ll leave behind.”

COURTESY OF KRISTEN ANDERSON

Senior Winston Rosati rises to shoot over a Mountain View High School defender.

ANNA MORAGNE

STAFF WRITER

I

t was a tough loss for the Palo Alto High School’s boys water polo team at Central Coast Sectionals (CCS) in their first game against St. Francis High School 15-4 on Nov. 14. The season ended on a short and rough note, and the boys will not continue to play in any more games at the CCS tournament.

The boys knew that they would have a tough road ahead of them going into CCS, but regardless, they are still happy with how their overall season went.

“I’m happy and relieved that we were seeded where we were,” senior captain Kevin Bowers said. “But it’s no reason to get overly confident; teams are very solid that far in the tournament.”

With somewhat of a shaky start earlier in the season, the team was able to play well enough at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League tournament (SCVAL) in order to place them as sixth seed in the CCS tournament.

“We’re a very competent team that has had great success against great teams,” Bowers said. “I trust my teammates and while we definitely did have some tough losses in the

season I think we knew what had to be done to make it to CCS.” In the first game of the SCVAL tournament, the Vikings faced off against Mountain View High School and lost 4-6 in a tough match. The loss was unexpected since the boys had already beaten Mountain View twice this season. At this point, with their morale low, a place in the CCS tournament was no longer guaranteed for the team, causing the boys to feel on edge.

Luckily, the boys were able to remain composure and win two days later when they played Monta Vista High School in a game that ended 9-8. This game was a test of the team’s endurance after losing to Monta Vista in their past two encounters.

This past win proved necessary in order to heighten the team’s morale right before they entered the CCS tournament.

Overall, the boys were happy with how they played this year and had a good season with many hard fought games and well deserved wins.

“It’s a blessing having been able to play for this team this season,” Bowers said. “I’ve played with many of the guys here for three or more years, and it means a lot to me being able to finish my high school career alongside them.”

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

SPORTS Volleyball ends season in CCS playoffs Winning streak ends during CCS quarterfinals game against San Benito High School MADS MCCLUSKEY

STAFF WRITER

C3

Confessions of a Concussed Student

T

he Palo Alto High School Volleyball Team headed into Central Coast Section (CCS) playoffs ranked sixth in CCS Division 1. However, they lost to San Benito High School on Nov. 14, ending their season.

The Lady Vikes played Sequoia High School on Nov. 11 and won in the first three sets, leading them to play San Benito High School.

During the league season, the girls had never played against Sequoia or San Benito.

“We do scouting reports of all the teams before every match, so we’re away of their stronger players and their hitting tendencies, even if we haven’t actually had the opportunity to play against them,” senior captain Clara Chiu said.

In these reports, the team finds out which players are strong in each position in order to shut them down. “[To shut down a stronger player] we usually, for our blocking, we commit on that player so both the blockers go up on that hitter no matter what to make it really hard for them to get a kill because we’ll just try and block them,” Chiu said.

When the Vikings played against Mountain View High School on Nov. 5, they lost 3-0, losing their sets by two, nine and five respectively.

JOANNA FALLA

STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF SHELLEY CHRYST

Sophomore outside hitter Chelsea Fan digs a hit from Los Gatos during the Senior Night match. The Lady Vikes lost in five sets.

“I think as a team we’ve been playing pretty well, but we can obviously do better,” junior Fiona Green said.

“We just need to work together as a team and try our best during games.”

In their game against Los Gatos High School (Gatos) on Nov. 3, Gatos scored first in the game. Gatos then led a 16-25 win in the first set and a 25-21 defeat in the second.

Paly brought it back in the third game with a 19-25 win. They won the fourth game 25-20. However, in the last set, the girls fell 16-14 to Gatos.

Many of the seniors were sad to lose on Senior Night, but they hoped to bring it back around during CCS. “It was definitely disappointing [losing to Gatos on Senior Night] but I think that if we had to lose it wasn’t a bad way to lose,” Chiu said. “I still feel very everything that we accomplished that night. If you look at our record, they swept us in three sets in the beginning of the season, and even to take them to five and to lose such a close match by two points in the extra point, that’s really exciting.”

The girls were on a three game losing streak headed into CCS, which was broken during their first game of CCS. “Our goals for CCS is obviously to make it as far as we can,” Chiu said. “I think we actually can definitely make it to the finals if we want it enough.

This team has a lot of heart and we’re all really committed and we’re gonna try our best in every game like it’s our last and putting it all out there.

So we just want to have fun and do our best.”

SCVAL loss leads to Girls golf falls short league drop for tennis at CCS tournament JACKY MOORE

STAFF WRITER

A

fter a grueling season, Palo Alto High School’s girls tennis team ended its run on a bitter note. Despite moving from the regular season into the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) playoff pool, the Vikings eventually lost in their second round of matches to Monta Vista High School.

The match was disappointing, with the Vikings losing 2-5 to the Monta Vista Matadors. Isa Castillo and doubles pair Kelsey Wang and Avanika Narayan were the only two parties to win their games. The remaining five singles and doubles fell by wide margins.

I think dropping a league next year will let us focus on developing our skills and our game strategies.

Alice Zhang Junior Throughout their season, the Lady Vikes faced a multitude of obstacles that handicapped their cohesiveness.

Halfway through the season, junior Alice Zhang broke her arm, breaking up her doubles team with senior

Kelsey Wang. A singles player was suspended for half of the season, and another was placed on academic probation, consequently handicapping the team’s already-limited roster.

One player from the junior varsity team was pulled up to fill the gaps in the varsity roster, further regressing the group’s close-knit chemistry.

Currently, the team is seeded in the highest branch in SCVAL; however, next season, they will fall to the El Camino league due to a threeway tie for last place in the De Anza league.

Paly was unfortunately one of the two teams that had to drop from the division.

“We’ve had a pretty tough season this year,” Zhang said. “I think dropping a league next year will let us focus on developing our skills and our game strategies.”

The team also expects the 2016 season to be an opportunity for the team’s growth as a whole. With three seniors graduating this year, the rest of the players will need to collectively step up to take their places on the roster. Zhang, however, is undeterred by the challenges ahead.

“We’ll all support each other and take on leadership roles,” Zhang said.

“We’ll do what we have to do to have a great season.”

JOANNA FALLA

STAFF WRITER

A

s the season comes to a close, the girls golf team closes out with a solid finish: sixth place out of twelve other teams in the Santa Clara Coast Valley League (SCVAL) during the Central Coast Section (CCS) tournament on Oct. 27.

The team of younger players has held its own throughout the season, and junior Celia Wilner had only positive feedback about the team.

“I loved playing with this team throughout the season and I was so happy that we went to CCS,” Wilner said.

Mainly, we were focusing on our actual game and dialing ourselves in mentally.

Celia Wilner Junior The team had overall goals for the season to be consistent throughout the season and to work on their mental preparation, both of which Wilner believes drove the team to CCS. “We were confident that if we played the way we had been playing the whole season, we could make it to CCS,” Wilner said. “Mainly, we were

focusing on our actual game and dialing ourselves in mentally.”

The team played well during SCVAL, placing fourth in the league by playing with skill and focus though the CCS qualifying tournament.

“At leagues we were placed fourth,” Wilner said. “The whole team played well and I am so happy the way it turned out. We all played our normal game and we made it to CCS.” While at the CCS tournament, however, the team was not able to play as well, according to Wilner.

Despite the bitter-sweet ending, Wilner says that they are looking forward bonding more next season.

“Next year, the team will be great with our original 3; Me, Emily [Hwang], and Elise [Kiya], and our awesome sophomore, Stephanie Yu, and the up and coming freshman Jasmine Choi.”

Even though the senior presence next year may strengthen the leadership, Wilner thinks that the team has already created strong bonds and will benefit from that next season.

“We will know our teammates very well and we will be able to pick each other up when needed,” Wilner said. “We have basically had the same team for two years, and we can already see the camaraderie between us.”

Boys cross country to compete at state meet Girls’ season ends following CCS loss, boys continue after a strong meet performance

COURTESY OF MALCOLM SLANEY

Freshman Henry Saul and juniors Naveen Pai and Kent Slaney start strong at their CCS race at Crystal Springs. Slaney placed first, with the team placing second overall.

AVI TACHNA-FRAM

STAFF WRITER

T

he girls cross country team lost at the Central Coast Section meet (CCS) which means that their season is over. However, the boys cross country team placed second in, meaning that they will go on to play at the CIF State Finals (states) on Nov. 28.

The girls did not qualify for the state meet, placing seventh out of 19.

They have expressed disappointment.

“I thought at the start of the season that this team had a lot of potential, but ... we weren’t able to realize that potential.” girls team senior Captain Portia Barrientos said.

The girls team suffered from many overuse injuries this year and plans to focus on injury prevention next year.

The girls team also suffered because one of their star athletes, Emma Raney, was injured and could not compete at the meet.

A contributing factor to the girls team loss was the low quality of the work outs.

“This year the workout intensity has been the lowest it has been during my four years at Paly, and it has been steadily decreasing every year.”

Barrientos said. “I’m not blaming this on the runners. It’s hard to run a hard workout if you’re not given one.”

A bright spot for the girls team was Julia Doubson who, after a good season, finished first for the girls team and 12th overall at CCS. On a more positive note, the boys team got second at CCS which means that they will go on to the state meet.

The boys team has expressed satisfaction with their result, as they achieved their goal of placing higher than their ranking.

“We placed second which was better than our predicted place of third, and we qualified for states. Overall, it was a really strong team perfor-

mance.” boys team junior captain Naveen Pai said.

After their success at CCS the boys team is looking to make a strong showing at states.

“We’ve proven this season that we’re a better team than we were last year, and all of our runners race at a high level,” Pai said. “I think this will be the first year that the Paly boys make a real impact at the state meet.”

The boys only loss at CCS was to Bellarmine which placed first overall at the meet with over 30 points more than Paly.

I think this will be the first year that the Paly boys make a real impact at the state meet.

Naveen Pai Team Co-Captain The boys team’s success at CCS followed an exceptional showing at leagues, in which the boys team placed first overall. All seven Palo Alto High School runners placed in the top fifteen spots.

It was a normal evening practice in the pool when my next 14-21 days would change forever. I received a blow to the head by a water polo ball, proving a concussion can strike at any time and can even affect a world-class athlete like myself. After hearing that I wouldn’t be required to complete upcoming assignments, it would be an understatement to say I was excited. Unfortunately, there are some major setbacks to having major brain swelling.

There’s really nothing to do: You get to sit back, relax and do nothing. Literally nothing. I woke up naturally on Friday morning at 11 a.m. and it was truly a beautiful experience, but what was I going to do for the rest of the day? I tried to do homework, but it hurts to concentrate. I decided to make the most of my day off by sitting on my phone and scrolling through social media, but the bright screen made my eyes water as my head started pounding.

I just lay down and attempted not to pass out when I got up to get some fluids or simply closed my eyes and timed the beat of my favorite song to the pulsing in my head (not the best option for everyone). The worst part for me was dealing with my parents when they would contradict themselves. It’s very confusing for someone who can’t focus for longer than three minutes. While you’re not allowed to get up or do anything in general, you also aren’t allowed to have an attitude with your parents. By “having an attitude,” I mean that when I would ask my dad to get me something because I was told not to get up, I “was being snippy” and told that my legs weren’t broken so there was no reason I couldn’t get it myself (not that my brain was broken or anything).

If you do anything, you lose progress: Eventually, after days of sitting around missing TV shows and homework, your head is hurting just as bad and you can’t stand up without almost passing out. I went to a party, but the next day was probably the worst I had ever felt. I coincidentally had a doctor’s appointment that same day and he was extremely, condescending towards my treatment of the concussion. I was told that if I kept being your average party animal, I might face some actual brain loss, which no one can really afford, much less growing up in our school district. Let this be a lesson to all past, current and future sufferers of a concussion: even if you feel fine, you aren’t. Believe me, the reward of the party or anything of similar nature isn’t worth the risk of major headaches and losing time out of the game and the classroom.

Assignments are extended, not excused: My doctor gave me the papers and I emailed my teachers to keep them in the loop about my tragic accident, so I walked into school thinking that the following week would be a breeze. All my teachers were helpful and understanding, saying “You don’t have to do that right now.” Absolute music to my ears, I think I shed a tear or two on Monday, and it was not because of the typical Monday sorrows, but of joy. I coasted through the day with no complications. When I went home, it was a completely different experience. It didn’t even occur to me that I would still have to do homework. I just thought I could skip a unit and jump back in, but as we all know, life is unfair. All of the teachers totally accommodated me and my injury which should definitely be recognized, but after two weeks they were obviously tired of the same excuse. Like I said before, even though you may feel better, you’re not better.

Even today, I’m still having minor headaches, but as the old saying goes, “don’t be a little b**ch about it.”

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

CONTROVERSIAL CALLS

C4

The Most disputed Ca A

nyone who would proclaim him or herself as an avid sports fan is sure to have seen ma there is nothing more aggravating than a disputable call made against your favorite te and argument. Here are five calls in particular that have been hotly disputed, to

The "Hand o

"The Play"

M

any local college football fans are aware of the historical football rivalry between Stanford and Cal. Since 1892, the teams have clashed in the Big Game every year, but it was the Big Game on Nov. 20, 1982 that left a tremendous impact on the rivalry and on college football.

Neither of the teams had an especially impressive 1982 season, though Cal was favored with a winning record of 6-4. Stanford had struggled with a record of 5-5, but it had a few memorable wins over great teams such as the Washington Huskies and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

This was also the last regular season for talented Stanford quarterback John Elway.

For Stanford, a win meant bowl eligibility — most likely to an invite to the Hall of Fame Bowl. Cal was already bowl eligible, but had not received any invitations.

“The Stanford Axe,” a trophy given annually to the winner of the Big Game, was also at stake.

The suspense surrounding the game steadily increased as the match-up approached. On game day, 75,000 excited fans packed

into the stadium for the opening kickoff as the game commenced.

The two teams exchanged possession throughout the first three quarters, with neither team gaining a significant lead over the other. Late into the fourth quarter, Cal pulled ahead 19-17. Stanford was forced to take possession deep into their own territory and was faced with a difficult fourth-and-17 from their own 13-yard line.

Failure to convert a first down would likely end the game, but Elway made a crucial completion for 29 yards.

Inspired by this play, Stanford began to rally, continuing to move the ball effectively downfield, until they reached field goal range.

Elway called a timeout with eight seconds remaining to kick a 35-yard field goal. This allowed Stanford to freeze the clock so that they would have a second chance in case they drew a penalty.

Kicker Mark Harmon successfully made the field goal, putting Stanford ahead 20-19 with four seconds left.

The team began to celebrate, to a point where they received a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct,

forcing Stanford to kickoff from further away.

Stanford would have never expected how big of an impact this penalty would have, as they were now forced to kick off from their own 25yard line rather than the typical 40yard line.

Harmon squibbed the kick around Cal’s 45-yard line where defensive back Kevin Moen quickly recovered the ball.

Moen scrambled before lateraling leftward to defensive back Richard Rodgers. Rodgers was quickly pressured by Stanford’s defense and pitched the ball back to halfback Dwight Garner.

Garner ran forward, picking up a few yards. He ran into a bundle of Stanford players, and as he was being brought down, pitched the ball back to Rodgers.

Stanford players behind the south end zone began to run onto the field under the impression Garner was down.

Rodgers dodged a defender and found space toward the right. As he sprinted towards the right side, several of his teammates followed closely behind him to offer additional support.

At this point, 140 Stanford band members, also under the same false impression, had joined the players and marched onto the field.

Rodgers made his way to the Stanford 27-yard line before running into a group of defenders. As he was brought down, he made a blind lateral over his shoulder picked up by Moen around the 25-yard line. Moen beat two defenders, but also had to dodge the many intruding band members.

He found his way through the mob into the endzone, where he famously ran into an oblivious trombone player.

The officials ruled it a touchdown and the Cal players celebrated triumphantly, but it was difficult to make a correct call with band members obstructing their view.

The Play has sparked tremendous controversy and discussion — many argue that Garner was down, and that two of the five laterals, especially the one thrown from Garner to Rodgers, were illegally thrown forward. Stanford was also guilty of illegal participation, with too many players and band members on the field.

None of these possible obstructions were called, and Cal won the game 25-20.

C

onsidered one of the most controversial goals in soccer history, Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal occurred during the 1986 World Cup when Argentina faced England.

Just four years after the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom, this match had a far deeper meaning beyond just being a simple sports rivalry.

Once the game began, both teams had exchanged opportunities to score.

Argentina appeared to have the upper hand, but it was England goalkeeper Peter Shilton who saved all of Argentina’s close attempts.

Early into the second half, both teams remained scoreless. Argentina’s Diego Maradona had possession of the ball, and he completed an easy pass to forward Jorge Valdano. Valdano dribbled the ball closer to England’s goal as Maradona made a run toward the penalty box.

Valdano attempted to pass it further downfield to Maradona, but the pass was rejected by an England de-

USA vs. USSR Gold Medal game 1972 Text and design by Cole Hechtman staff writer

W

hen basketball was first introduced into the Summer Olympics in 1936, the USA Men’s National Team dominated the event. In fact, leading up to the 1972 Olympic games, the American men had yet to lose a game and had earned all seven possible gold medals to date.

In the preliminary round, the qualifying teams split into Group A and Group B. The teams played seven games and the top two teams moved on. USA easily advanced, winning all of its seven games, putting them at the top of Group A. Meanwhile, USA’s political and Olympic rival, the USSR, had also gone undefeated, placing them at the top of Group B. America then faced Italy in the knockout round, scoring almost

twice as much as Italy in a 68-38 victory.

They met the Soviet Union in the Championship game, playing for the gold medal. As the game began, the USA men were unexpectedly outplayed.

“Unfortunately the Americans were surprised by a team that was better than they ever counted on it being,” Dennis Lewin, producer of the gold medal game on ABC, said.

After the first half of play, America trailed by five. In the second half, the Soviet Union expanded their lead to 10 points with only 10 minutes remaining.

However, America continued to fight, and struck a comeback, which eventuated in a one-point deficit with a mere 38 seconds remaining.

The Soviet Union held possession with under 10 seconds remaining, but

an imprudent pass from a Russian player was intercepted by American guard Doug Collins who was immediately fouled.

Under immense pressure, Collins stepped up to take two crucial free throws. Collins drained both of them, putting America in the lead 50-49. USSR inbounded the ball for one final chance, but the game was halted by the referees with one second remaining.

Apparently, the Soviet Union had signaled for a time-out in between the free throws, but the officials had not acknowledged it. Today it is still debated whether or not the time-out was called legally or not.

Three seconds were added back to the clock and the Soviets inbounded the ball for a second time, and as the clock expired the Americans began to celebrate a victory. To everyone’s

surprise, the teams were once again ordered back onto the floors.

The officials explained that the floor crew had not reset the clock properly, and the Russian team was given a third chance. The inbound pass soared across the court successfully into the hands of Alexander Belov, who layed it in as time expired.

The Soviet Union defeated America 61-60, marking America’s first loss in eight Olympic tournaments.

The Soviets claimed the gold medals; however, American players refused to accept their silver medals.

The American team filed a formal protest to the International Basketball Federation which was later concluded in the Soviet’s favor.

To this day, all of the silver medals still sit in a vault in Switzerland — none of the American players have claimed them.

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

CONTROVERSIAL CALLS

C5

alls in Sports History

any cases of objectionable criticism towards calls made by officials. No matter the event, eam. In many sports, there have been countless rulings that have sparked enduring debate o the point where they have left a lasting impact on fans, players and the sport itself.

of God" goal

Tom Brady’s “Tuck Rule” game

fender. Fortunately for Maradona, in trying to clear the ball, the defender failed and directed the ball further into the penalty box, close to where Maradona was positioned, and he leaped to head the ball into the goal.

The controversy begins here, as the ball can clearly be seen first hitting Maradona’s left fist, knocking it into the goal. The inexperienced referee Ali Bin Nasser and line keepers failed to see this, and the England players were quick to protest the call.

“I was waiting for my teammates to embrace me, and no one came ...

I told them, ‘Come hug me, or the referee isn’t going to allow it,’” Maradona said after the match.

However, the call remained, and Argentina went on to win the match 2-1 and later went on to beat West Germany and win the World Cup. The goal later became known as the “Hand of God” goal after Diego Maradona himself was quoted saying the goal was scored with “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God.”

A

s the last game to ever be played at Foxboro Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, began, heavy snow covered the turf.

It was Jan. 19, 2002, and the temperature was 19 degrees Fahrenheit as the Oakland Raiders faced the New England Patriots in a divisional playoff game. The winner of the match would advance to the American Football Conference (AFC) Championship, which would determine one of the competitors in the Super Bowl.

The Raiders had finished the regular season with a record of 10-6, clinching a spot in one of four wild card games against the New York Jets. The Raiders easily picked up a win, beating the Jets 38-24 and progressed into the divisional playoff game against the Patriots, who were 11-5.

The Patriots had clinched the second seed of the AFC after an eventful season. Following two early losses and veteran quarterback Drew Bledsoe’s sheared blood vessel in the regular season, the Patriots decided to put in their second string quarterback, young Tom Brady. Brady would not only make a name for himself this season, but would also be the focus of

one of the most memorable plays in NFL history.

The game began with the surface of the field already laced with snow and even more falling. The Raiders controlled the game through the third quarter by scoring a touchdown and two field goals while only allowing the Patriots three points. Down 13-3 in the fourth quarter with eight minutes left, the Patriots responded as Brady ran into the end zone, minimizing their deficit to three. With the Raiders unable to answer, the Patriots retook possession late in the fourth quarter at their own 46-yard line.

After a successful first down run

by Brady, just under two minutes remained. During a timeout, Raiders cornerback Eric Allen heard Brady discussing the next play with the Patriot’s offensive coordinator and quickly went back to his sideline to report what he had heard. The next play, Brady dropped back for a pass, but faced heavy pressure. The defense was fully prepared for the play, and as Brady attempted the pass he realized the receivers were under tight coverage and instead pump faked. As this happened, Brady was hit hard by cornerback Charles Woodson and the ball was knocked loose. The ball was

ruled a fumble and recovered at the Raider’s 47-yard line by linebacker Greg Biekert.

Raiders players and fans erupted in celebration. With possession and only one minute and 45 seconds remaining, the Raiders had surely won.

However, officials paused the game to review the call. After discussion, the officials overturned the call, reasoning that Brady’s arm was in forward motion when the ball was forced out, making the play an incomplete pass instead.

According to the NFL, the rule regarding fumbles at the time was the following: “When a player is holding the ball to pass it forward, any intentional forward movement of his arm starts a forward pass, even if the player loses possession of the ball as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body. Also, if the player has tucked the ball into his body and then loses possession, it is a fumble.”

Although this call pertained to passes, many were outraged due to the fact that Brady had clearly tucked the ball into his chest and had no intention of throwing it. Now with little time remaining, the Patriots regained possession for a second chance to survive.

After a 13-yard pass from Brady, the Patriots lined up for a 45-yard field goal. To force the game into overtime, Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri successfully kicked a field goal with 27 seconds left in the game.

In overtime, the Patriots took possession first. They drove 61 yards in 15 plays, and Brady did not miss a single pass. Stopped on fourth down, Vinatieri once again lined up for a field goal to win the game, this time for 23 yards.

Despite the heavy snow complicating the field goal, Vinatieri split the uprights and the Patriots won the game to advance to the AFC Championship. The Patriots went on to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship and advance to Super Bowl XXXVI, where they beat the St. Louis Rams to become champions.

Had it not been for that call, the Raiders would have likely won the game. As a direct result of the game, the rule enforced two years prior was dubbed “The Tuck Rule.” However, the rule was repealed by a 29-1 vote in 2013, proving it only temporary.

Armando Galarraga’s near-perfect game design by kai oda sports editor

I

n June 2010, the baseball season was in full swing, and the Detroit Tigers were set to face the Cleveland Indians at Comerica Park in Detroit. Both teams had struggled to begin the season, with the Indians struggling with a 19-32 record and the Tigers also doing poorly, barely sustaining a winning record at 27-25.

Pitching for the Indians was fifthyear pitcher Roberto Hernandez.

Hernandez had pitched for the Indians for his whole career, and had a record of 13-14 going into the game.

However, it would not be Hernandez whose performance would be remembered for years to come, but Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga’s. Galarraga had only pitched seven games that year with a mediocre record of 3-4, but in this game, he would come within one out from achieving the 21st perfect game in Major League

Baseball (MLB) history. A perfect game occurs when a pitcher does not allow batters to reach any base by any means.

The game began as any other. In the second inning, Tigers first baseman, Miguel Cabrera, homered with no batters on base to boost the Tigers to a 1-0 lead. As the game progressed, players, coaches and fans observing the game began to notice that the Indians players had yet to get on base and that Galarraga had the opportunity to pitch a perfect game.

Through the eighth inning, the Tigers added two runs from a single

by Magglio Ordóñez and a throwing error by Shin-Soo Choo to make it 3-0. However, it was no longer just a win that fans were anticipating, and as the Tigers went into the final inning, Galarraga had yet to give up a single hit.

The first batter, Mark Grudzielanek, was quick to make contact.

The ball soared into deep center field where center fielder Austin Jackson made a remarkable over-theshoulder catch for the first out. The second batter, Mike Redmond, hit a grounder to the infield and was quickly thrown out. With two outs in the ninth inning, the next call would be one of the most infamous calls in MLB history.

The third batter, Jason Donald approached the plate. Donald had watched a strike and a ball go by, resulting in a 1-1 count. Galarraga was only two strikes or one out away from making MLB history. After Galarraga delivered the third pitch, Donald grounded the ball in between first and second base. First baseman Miguel Cabrera darted toward the center of the bases to collect the grounder.

Meanwhile, Galarraga awaited the throw from Cabrera. The throw was quickly delivered to Galarraga’s glove just before Donald stepped onto the base. To everyone’s surprise, Jim Joyce, the first base umpire, called the runner safe. The crowd burst into angry booing after the replay exposed Joyce’s error.

“It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the s**t out of it,” Joyce said. “I just cost that kid a perfect game.” He later approached Galarraga with tears in his eyes and apologized.

Galarraga was disappointed yet understanding.

“You don’t see an umpire after the game come out and say, ‘Hey, let me tell you I’m sorry,’ “ Galarraga said. “He felt really bad. He didn’t even shower.”

Friday, November 20, 2015

C6

The Campanile

SPORTS

Students juggle academics, athletics Athletes maintain team Athletes forced to drop or commit to playing sports before college chemistry in offseason GILLIAN ROBINS

Players plan team activities outside of practice

M

ELI GWIN-KERR

STAFF WRITER

any high schools are known to have exceptional academic or athletic reputations, but rarely have both — Palo Alto High School is unique in that respect. Athletic competition can relieve stress, but sometimes athletic programs become too ambitious, or take up too much time.

Because Paly is such an academically focused school, if an individual struggles in class, being surrounded by high-achieving students can negatively affect that individual’s confidence.

“I believe that in Palo Alto there is a constant pressure to be the best at something,” senior Andrew Cho said.

“So for the students who are not at the top of the academic chain, [they] can gravitate towards a sport and be better than they are academically.”

If a student is juggling two sports and striving to play at a high level, he or she must choose in order to “be the best” in the eyes of college recruiters.

Cho was forced to decide between water polo and swimming.

“I had to decide between the two sports and commit to becoming the best I can to one of them,” Cho said.

“I chose to swim instead of water polo because I was already so committed into the sport, and put in countless hours into swimming that giving up on that was not an option for me,” Cho said.

As a senior, the combination of the application process with the recruitment process is something only a select few students experience, and it adds an additional level of stress.

“It’s a hard process because, not only do you have to be on top of school and work, but you have to be efficient and productive during practice in order to improve and impress coaches,” Cho said.

The goal of many high-performing high school athletes is the elusive college scholarship.

Although many students are skilled in both athletics and academ-

STAFF WRITER

F

JEREMY FU/THE CAMPANILE

ics, only a few can obtain these athletic scholarships.

It is often thought that those who get athletic scholarships do not have to try as hard in school because they are such skilled athletes they will be accepted anyway.

“I feel like there also is a persona that student athletes who are making it into high achieving schools with an average GPA or test score is seen as ‘cheating’ the system,” Cho said.

“As [student athletes], it is almost human nature to be exceptional in sports and not academically because, instead of taking the time after school to spend time studying or working on homework, we spend it in the pool or on the field.”

There are players on most high level teams that are known to worship their sports. However, showing the same level of rigorous commitment can be difficult for others. Junior Jasmine Abeyta is a member of the highly competitive NorCal Premier League (NPL) soccer team.

“Last year, my team started to push for becoming way more competitive than we already were and it started happening really fast, which changed my view on soccer and how much I enjoyed it,” Abeyta said.

As the intensity increased, Abeyta’s love for the game decreased. She was not sure whether to continue playing.

“When we started pushing to become the best of the best — even though we clearly weren’t fit for it — I started to feel like I wasn’t good enough of a player,” Abeyta said. “This was the level of commitment and intensity I would be put through for college soccer — even DIII — and I didn’t want to participate in that.”

Looking ahead, Abeyta hopes to focus on things other than soccer to help her get into a university.

As a student athlete, it is almost human nature to be exceptional in their sport and not academically

Andrew Cho Senior “I want to do more things outside of school that will help me get into college, since I know I don’t want to play in college, so soccer obviously can’t help me,” Abeyta said.

Competitiveness in a sport can be an outlet to lower stress, but it is not always beneficial because it can make people lose interest, as was the case for Abeyta.

However, for others, although it comes with a lot of added stresses and difficulties throughout the year, it can potentially provide them with a scholarship, as is the case for Cho.

or many high school sports teams, players and coaches would agree that the primary factor affecting team performance is neither raw talent nor repetitive practice, but rather the chemistry that exists between team members.

During the regular season, day-today practices serve not only to hone individual players’ skills, but also to improve the bonds between teammates. Players get to know how they play individually and as a whole, improving their chemistry and effectiveness on the field. Despite this, in the offseason, when teammates are not practicing with each other every day, teams get together in different ways to maintain these crucial connections.

“Maintaining team chemistry during the offseason is a pinnacle of any great team,” varsity boys lacrosse coach D.j. Shelton said. “Team workouts, playing on club teams, participating in community service and any other means of bringing the members together to achieve a goal strengthen the interpersonal relationships between them, [and] also reinforces the group mentality and vision of success that is required for a team to be competitive in season.”

Shelton’s lacrosse team has a variety of opportunities to participate during the offseason. Team NorCal, a local club team, offers many programs for high school lacrosse players. Many Palo Alto High School lacrosse players participate in the Summer Ball and Fall Ball programs, which consist of various school teams playing each other in weekly games.

NorCal’s traveling club team is also popular among lacrosse players from the area. “[Coach D.j.] encourages us to do Summer Ball and Fall Ball to stay active and get better,” varsity lacrosse player Hayden Libbey said. “For Fall Ball, all the Paly players are put to-

gether on one team and we scrimmage other teams so we get an idea of how well we play together. We’ve also been doing morning workouts before school, and within the next month or two we’ll be doing after-school lifting and some skills practices.”

League rules prohibit coaches from organizing and scheduling team practices before set dates, so as not to have practices year-round. To get around these limitations, team members — typically upperclassman — organize informal practices to keep the team spirit alive in the offseason. For school players who do not participate in club sports or play on different club teams than their school teammates, these player-organized activities are opportunities to revitalize their chemistry. The activities often do not even resemble practices — they can be team meals or organized pick-up games.

“Over the summer, the majority of us were on club teams, but not all of us were on the same team,” girls varsity basketball player Skylar Burris said. “However, even when we aren’t playing basketball together, we always find time to have team nights where we all just hang out and watch movies together and get dinner and stuff. We don’t really play any pickup games, but we start lifting and conditioning as early as we can before winter season.”

Paly sports create more than teams, they create families. Each and every team member relies on one another, and the connections made during the season do not end when the season does.

Team chemistry improves the abilities of the team and pushes them towards a higher level of performance, uniting them like nothing else can.

“It’s crazy how much we love each other, both on and off the court,” Burris said.

“They’re my best friends in off season just as much as they are during season.”

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

SPORTS

C7

Playing non conference games proves beneficial ATHLETE Monetary compensation and national attention provide benefits for both participants involved TOMMY SMALE

STAFF WRITER

I

n National College Athletics Association football, weaker conference teams playing top tier teams initially seems odd as it appears to bring little benefit to the smaller programs, but these games are beneficial to both programs.

These powerhouse programs pay a lot of money to play weaker football teams. For example, the University of Buffalo was paid $1.5 million from playing three non-conference road games in one season, and used the money to buy new furniture for its complex and upgrade its weight room.

Conferences such as the Southeastern Conference (SEC) consistently have strong football teams, as they recruit very well. SEC teams so powerful that their teams need to play teams from weaker conferences to balance the higher-ranked team’s schedules with the difficulty of schedules of teams in other conferences. SEC teams — Alabama, Louisiana State University (LSU), Georgia, Florida and Texas A&M — are constantly playing each other and competing for top ranking positions.

Earlier in the season, Alabama lead by coaching great Nick Saban lost to Ole Miss, but Alabama recently beat the second-seeded LSU. There is so much fierce competition within the SEC compared to other divisions that playing average teams outside the SEC is necessary to even out the SEC teams’ schedules with other Power Five, a term given to the five leagues with the strongest athletic programs division teams.

Weaker teams face potential embarrassment and possibly injury, but can reap high reward. When the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) plays a team like third-seeded Alabama, they will likely get demolished and run a higher risk of injury. Just imagine a monstrous Alabama linemen sacking the undersized ULM quarterback Garrett Smith. That will leave a mark; it is not going to feel good for the smaller quarterback.

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LSU’s game against Western Kentucky gave the team a break amidst its tough season.

However, weaker teams also receive some benefits — they have the opportunity to shock the nation and pull off upsets. If a smaller team pulls off an upset, it shows they have true potential. In 2005, University of California at Davis upset Stanford head coach Walt Harris on his home debut. Davis had lost their previous two games to Division II teams Portland State and New Hampshire. The Stanford upset was devastating for Cardinal fans who were hoping for a strong year, but fantastic for the rest of the nation.

Many smaller football programs receive inadequate funding, and the money they are paid to play Power Five conference teams can be used to improve their programs.

Playing weaker teams also gives teams with tough schedules a chance to revitalize. LSU, prior to playing Arkansas (Arkansas) actually beat LSU), had matchups against Florida, Western Kentucky and Alabama.

Playing Western Kentucky was piv-

otal to LSU’s recovery from its difficult game against Florida so it could boost its confidence and reenergize before playing Alabama away from home in Tuscaloosa.

Playing a weaker opponent is risky for power conferences, since a loss could be highly detrimental to their season. In 2007, unranked Appalachian State upset fifth-seeded Michigan 34-32 in the first week of play.

Michigan dropped out of the rankings in the Associated Press Poll and did not reappear in the rankings until week seven at 24th in the nation.

The money that smaller football programs receive is necessary in order for them to succeed in the future.

Many smaller football programs receive inadequate funding, and the money they are paid to play Power Five conference teams can be used to improve their programs. The money can be used to improve recruiting and facilities and subsidize program costs.

On Aug. 30, 2014, Michigan paid Appalachian State a lofty $1 million to play one game in the Michigan stadium. In the same weekend, Oregon paid $525,000 for South Dakota to play a game at Oregon. On that

particular weekend, college football teams paid their opponents a total of $12.9 million.

These powerhouse football programs can afford to pay such large sums of money for weaker programs to play in their house. Michigan’s football stadium, for example, can fit nearly 110,000 people and can fill all of these seats regardless of the opponent. It is a win-win for these powerhouses, since they have very high chances of winning and they are still able to pack their stadiums.

Home-and-home series are deals in which teams alternate locations and payment every year for games, with teams such as Alabama and LSU participating in these series.

The teams pay each other this way because when LSU comes to play Alabama at home, Alabama will absolutely sell out their stadium and can significantly raise ticket prices.

Smaller football teams such as the University of Buffalo often do not require a home-and-home series, meaning the better team does not have to visit the following year.

This benefits the better team, which does not have to play a game at the weaker opponents stadium the next year.

Stronger programs then have an open date for the following year which they can use to schedule another game against a weak opponent.

This gives flexibility to the better team, as they can decide to play another Power Five conference team to make their schedule more challenging in attempt to better their ranking.

Northwestern pulled off an upset against Stanford during the first week of the 2015-16 season, which demonstrated that Northwestern had potential to succeed. Polls have recognized this: as of week 12 they are 20th in the Bowl Championship Series poll.

There are pros and cons to organizing match ups between Power Five conference teams and smaller conference teams. The smaller school gets a chance to put in a name for itself out there and is compensated for its play, so it can improve its program.

Stanford continues to dominate collegiate sports

Though often overshadowed by academics, Stanford’s athletics program has also thrived

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The tennis program at Stanford is the most successful of the university, with their 2013-2014 women’s team winning an NCAA.

ETHAN TEO

SPORTS EDITOR

S

tanford University is best known for being one of the most academically competitive schools in the United States, but its athletic program is rarely recognized for its success and well-roundedness.

Despite this, Stanford boasts arguably the strongest collegiate athletic program in the entire nation, having won the Division I Directors’ Cup in 2015 — an award that recognizes the most athletically successful National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) university — for the 21st year in a row.

Stanford has won 107 NCAA team championships in 19 different sports throughout the program’s existence, which is the second most championships that any school has won behind University of California, Los Angeles, which has 112 championships under its belt. Additionally, Stanford athletes have earned a total of 476 NCAA individual championships — the most won by any Division I school.

Within Stanford’s entire athletic program, tennis seems to have had the most success, having won a grand total of 34 NCAA championships between the men’s and women’s teams. Stanford men’s tennis was in its prime in the 1990s, when Dick Gould was still the head coach.

Mirror twins Bob and Mike Bryan, known as the Bryan Brothers, played for Stanford in the 1990s and went on to become the most successful doubles pair of all time, holding the World No. 1 doubles ranking jointly for a record consecutive weeks.

However, Stanford found success even earlier, most notably with tennis legend John McEnroe, who attended Stanford in 1978 before he turned professional and later won 77 professional tournaments in his career.

Although Stanford has not won any championships since Gould’s retirement as head coach in 2004, it has remained elite under the guidance of John Whitlinger and ended most seasons with a winning record, with the exceptions of 2007 and 2013.

Paul Goldstein has been the men’s head coach as of 2014 and was rec-

ognized as Stanford’s first Pac-12 Coach of the Year since 2006 after he led his team to a successful season.

Led by elite sophomores Tom Fawcett, David Hsu and David Wilczynski, Stanford men’s tennis can expect to receive further recognition in years to come.

Stanford women’s tennis has been dominant since the beginning of its existence — from 1975 until now, the team has won 91 percent of its matches and 17 NCAA championships and has had 10 undefeated seasons, four of which current head coach Lele Forood has overseen. There is plenty of potential on the current roster — four of the 11 players are freshmen — but the player to watch this season will be junior Carol Zhao, who has won 88 percent of her singles matches. Zhao has also begun to compete professionally and climbed to a national rank of 247 over the summer — a rare feat for a college player, let alone a student-athlete handling Stanford’s academic rigor.

Historically, Stanford’s football team has not been all that successful. From 1950-2010, Stanford won

the Pac-10 (now called the Pac-12) conference title only five times. However, the team has performed incredibly well as of recent years under head coach David Shaw — it won the conference title in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and finished in a close second in 2014. Stanford is on track to win the conference title again this year, and is nationally ranked among the top 10 collegiate football teams. Led by fifth-year quarterback Kevin Hogan, Stanford has a decent chance in finishing the season ranked among the top five teams. After Hogan graduates, Palo Alto High School graduate and current sophomore Keller Chryst will likely be Stanford’s starting quarterback and hopefully can extend the team’s recent successes for a few more seasons.

A swimming program that produces 56 Olympic gold medalists is nothing less than phenomenal — and that is exactly what Stanford’s swimming program has become.

The team formed in the early 1900s and has consistently competed with the top swimming universities in the nation. The men’s and women’s teams combined have won a total of 16 NCAA championships. Katie Ledecky, 18-year-old phenom and world record holder in three events, plans to swim for Stanford this year.

Ledecky also has 15 international gold medals under her belt, and is arguably the best swimmer in the world right now. Ledecky, in addition to being a record holder in multiple events, proved to be a threat in both short and long-distance events. With her skillset and Stanford’s exceptional coaching staff, Ledecky and the rest of Stanford’s swim roster are in a good position to have another successful season.

Stanford is perceived as a dark horse in athletics by most, but it is evident that this should not be the case.

From tennis to football to swimming, Stanford has proven itself to be a force to be reckoned with and looks to continue its dominance in the college sports world in the coming years.

OF THE

MONTH

This edition featuring:

eli givens with The Campanile’s own

Kai Oda Eli Givens is a wide receiver on the football team whose speed and reflexes have given the team unprecedented momentum.

The Campanile: What position do you play for football?

Eli Givens: I play wide receiver and cornerback.

TC: Okay, what are your contributions to the team?

EG: I do a lot on offense, and I make big plays when I can. I try to score as much as I can when I get the ball.

TC: So how long have you been on varsity?

EG: I’ve been on varsity since the end of freshman year, but a lot of guys got moved up then.

TC: So Eli, I’m 5-foot-9 and weigh around 130 pounds. What do you think I have to do to get on your level?

EG: Well… Eat your vegetables, drink your milk and get some stronger bones ya know. Get in the weight room a little bit and do some curls, get on the bench. Run some laps, but I know you do that anyways. Probably within a year or so you’ll be just like me!

TC: Yeah, I kind of doubt that.

Anyways, list two things you won’t miss about football: EG: Running, and getting the ball after [senior] Justin [Hull] throws it 30 feet over my head.

TC: Who do you admire on the team?

EG: I really admire David Chernyak. He really contributes a lot to our team during practice. I look up to him and I wish I had the mentality he has during practice.

TC: Okay, how has the season been going in general?

EG: I think it’s been going pretty well. Obviously there are some ups and downs, but you just have to forget about the bad parts and move on. We just have to focus on the current games.

TC: So Eli, what are some of the rituals you have before a game?

EG: I go home, I have one cup of noodles, get that sodium I need.

Then I go into my room and I play with my lizard. I take my lizard out of his cage, and play with him.

His name is Wilson; he’s a bearded dragon.

TC: I thought you were going somewhere else with “going into your room and playing.”

EG: Nah, I watch TV with Wilson, put him on the ground and feed him some crickets. I have a lot of fun with him and he’ll sleep on the bed with me.

TC: Nice. So I know you haven’t been cramping as much this year.

What’s the secret to being loose?

EG: I pop some potassium pills, stretch and roll out. But I really think that getting my ankles taped was cutting off my circulation. Ever since I stopped taping my ankles, I have not cramped once.

TC: Are there any odd things the team has made you do?

EG: I would prefer not to answer that. Sooo… no.

TC: Okay, so what are your goals for games?

EG: As I wide receiver I just love the feeling when Justin throws the ball high in the air and I see that defensive back. I just love putting my nuts on his neck, just making sure my nuts are right on his neck, so I can catch that ball. It’s a platform where I can just enjoy myself and it’s the best feeling I get in football.

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Campanile

SPORTS

C8

NCAAB CONFERENCE PREDICTIONS AAC

BIG EAST

Winner: North Carolina Contenders: Duke, Virginia, Notre Dame Pretender: Louisville With a new face on top of not only this conference, but the nation, North Carolina has great chances to win it all this year.

Marcus Paige has become one of the most reliable guards in the nation and is looking to prove himself after last year. Surprisingly, Duke is not on top this year despite winning March Madness, because of key losses. Stars Jahlil Okafor, Justise W i n s l o w, Tyus Jones and Quinn Cook all left for the NBA. Virginia is another school that has recently become a top 10 school in the past three years, but will be without swingman Justin Anderson. Notre Dame may surprise viewers with the emergence of Demetrius Jackson and Zach Auguste.

Winner: Villanova Contenders: Butler, Georgetown Pretenders: Marquette This seems to be the most unbalanced power five conference. The Big East is slowly becoming weaker year after year as it holds onto Villanova and occasionally Georgetown to hoist up its rankings. Although both contenders should make March Madness this year, Villanova is the only lock which leaves them alone at the top in conference play. Georgetown has not put together an impressive campaign since 2007 where they lost in the national semifinal game.

The bright spot for this league is the emergence last year of preseason player of the year Kris Dunn who could single handedly carry Providence to the NCAA tournament. This league looks very different from last year, with the loss of Notre Dame, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Louisville, which leaves Villanova alone as the single powerhouse.

BIG 12

MID MAJORS

Winner: Kansas Contenders: Iowa State, Baylor, Oklahoma Pretender: Texas Quickly becoming one of the strongest conferences in the nation, the Big 12 has four talented teams that may put together one of the more exciting races. Kansas, having been the conference champion over 10 times, seems to be the common pick, and for good reason. Being one of the annual national powerhouses that is built on the one-and-done rule, Kansas has been as consistent as any other team. Head coach Bill Self has led the Kansas team to at least the Elite 8 of March Madness seven times in 13 years and to the title in 2008. Iowa State seems to be the team which will give Kansas it’s hardest challenge as will Oklahoma, led by star shooting guard Buddy Hield. Although Iowa State has flopped as a high seed in the tournament two years in a row, the boost of All-Americans Georges Niang and Monte Morris is immense.

TEXT BY

JOSH BRIGEL STAFF WRITER

Mid Majors Power Teams: Wichita State, Gonzaga, Valparaiso All three of these teams are unanimous picks this season to win their respective conferences. Wichita State and Gonzaga have already cemented themselves as college basketball powerhouses for the time being, following a line of teams such as Butler, Creighton, and Virginia Commonwealth (VCU).

Wichita State and Gonzaga are locks to make it into the March Madness tournament , but Valparaiso is in a much different situation in that they will probably never be mentioned until the March Madness tournament.

Valparaiso has the potential to be one of this season’s Cinderella teams who will crash brackets and make headlines when it matters, perhaps against Wichita State or Gonzaga.

Wichita State is an extremely similar team to last year’s team wwho were the champions of the Horizon League and had the ability to push Maryland to the edge.

BIG TEN Winner: Maryland Contenders: Michigan State, Indiana, Wisconsin Pretender: Michigan After five years, head coach Mark Turgeon and Maryland have reached stardom. Being led by Melo Trimble, one of the country’s best players, helps but this team will have a hole with Dez Wells missing — last year’s senior leader.

New faces of Diamond Stone and Rasheed Sulaimon will help this team cement itself. However, don’t count out Michigan State who made a Cinderella Final Four run last year.

Since 2008, Michigan State has only missed t h e Sweet 16 once which is great news. In Bo Ryan’s last year, Wisconsin will have big gaps with the absence of Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker but will probably make March Madness, the tournament in which they gave Kentucky its only loss of their season.

PAC-12 Winner: Arizona Contenders: California, Utah Pretenders: UCLA The Pac-12 is certainly looking stronger than it did last year and has many middle-of-the-pack teams behind Arizona. The only recognizable returner for this powerhouse is senior Kaleb Tarczewski who will definitely take his talents to the National Basketball Association (NBA), but astounding recruiting has kept Arizona relevant for another year. Perhaps one of the most highly talked about teams this season is the emergence of California as a possible dark horse Final Four contender.

With the additions of Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb, this certainly seems possible along with taking the entire conference championship.

Cal has been on and off in recent years with little success but this year, their luck looks to be on the rise. Even with their Sweet 16 run last year, UCLA is still looked upon as a pretty weak team who happened to make a lucky run in a depleted region.

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MACKENZIE GLASSFORD STAFF WRITER