050715

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VOLUME 48, ISSUE 52

THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015

WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG

CAMPUS

CALIFORNIA

OK GO ROCKS OUT DOWNTOWN PHOTO BY TAYLOR SANDERSON /GUARDIAN

Governor Institutes Fines for Water Waste Local governments can now penalize groups and residents up to $10,000 as part of new water conservation efforts. BY Andrew chao

IN ADDITION TO THEIR SUN GOD PERFORMANCE, OK GO PUT ON AN EVEN MORE ELABORATE SHOW AT THE HOUSE OF BLUES, AND BASSIST TIM NORDWIND TALKS ABOUT THE BAND. WEEKEND, PAGE 9

DRIED UP CALIFORNIA

valuing water conservation opinion, Page 4

PLAYOFF BOUND Tritons grab second seed SPORTS , Page 12

FORECAST

THURSDAY H 63 L 54

SATURDAY H 66 L 55

FRIDAY

H 64 L 56

SUNDAY

H 68 L 57

Contributing Writer

The Mariachi Divinas performed during the Dia de Danza event held in PC Plaza on May 5 as part of Raza Awareness Week. Photo by Brian Monroe/Guardian .

MEChA Students Celebrate Latin American Culture

U

CSD’s 26th annual Raza Awareness Week began on May 4 with events aimed at understanding and celebrating the social, cultural and political aspects of the Raza community. Raza Awareness Week coordinator Veronica Rubalcava explained that many are unaware of how vast and rich the cultures they are celebrating are. “From Guatemala to El Salvador to Mexico, you have really rich traditions and cultures that not a lot of people are aware of,” Rubalcava said. “This week is dedicated to allowing not just the Raza community but the UCSD community as a whole to get together and really get to understand these issues on a deeper level, as well as celebrate the cultures that Latin America has to offer.” Raza Awareness Week, sponsored by Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanola de Aztlan and La Sociedad Latin@, kicked off Monday with a taquero when more than 150 students received free tacos for providing three facts

-AYAT AMIN & MARCUS THUILLIER

ACROSS THE GLOBE

INSIDE AVERAGE CAT.................. 2 EDITORIALS..................... 4 MICROWAVE RECIPES...... 8 CLASSIFIEDS................. 10 MIND OF AN ATHLETE.... 12

STAFF WRITER

about Latin America. Later that day, several musical groups representing different Latin American nations performed at Price Center Plaza. A mariachi band picked up the musical festivities with a performance on Tuesday, which was also Cinco de Mayo. MEChA then hosted an open forum at the Raza Resource Center on Wednesday called “Queer Latinidad & Higher Education”. The Raza Awareness Week Facebook event page described the forum as “a writing workshop and open discussion on life, death, love and resistance through a Queer Latin@ lens.” Later that night, UCSD community members gathered together for Mujer Appreciation Dinner to celebrate the women in their lives. MEChA Board intern Jonathan Gonzalez sees Raza Awareness Week as an opportunity for the Raza community to unite and express themselves freely. “Raza Awareness Week is the time of the year that people of color from Central, Latin and parts of North America can push forward the

See RAZA, page 3

VERBATIM

LOOKING AT THE NUMBERS NOW, BALTIMORE IS NO SURPRISE. IN FACT, HOW COULD WE NOT SEE IT COMING?”

By JACKY TO SENIOR

CULTURE

UCSD Students Promote Inclusion in Greek Life GUIDE is the first national Greek organization to educate about cultural sensitivity. BY Kyle somers

associate a&e editor Greeks United for Inclusion, Diversity and Equity, seeking to make the UCSD Greek system more inclusive, is educating campus fraternities and sororities for a more equitable atmosphere within that community, as has been the group’s focus since it was founded in Fall Quarter 2014. GUIDE has so far held a retreat and four workshops that focused on teaching members of the UCSD Greek community about a range of issues including allyship, LGBTQQIAA campus issues, historic exclusivity of Greek life and pre- and post-Compton Cookout UCSD.

Lauren Roberts, an Eleanor Roosevelt College sophomore and active member of GUIDE, as well as Alpha Chi Omega, spoke about using GUIDE to fix issues that have been institutionalized in the Greek system. “This org [sic] isn’t about dismantling the system in place and creating a new one,” Roberts told the UCSD Guardian. “This org is about realizing the institutional problems that exist in Greek life so we can step up and move into a new era for Greek Life. We hope to make institutional changes in the Greek system that can move Greek life away from its historical exclusivity and towards a more equitable future.” GUIDE intends to make changes in education for the Greek system specifically by implementing a

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion requirement for all members of UCSD Greek life. Roberts indicated that this may be their most difficult goal to implement. They have also been drafting their constitution, and the election for principal members will be going on this week. Roberts also told the Guardian that though GUIDE realizes that many communities at UCSD do not trust Greek life, the members intend to work to change that image. “A lot of communities are distrusting of Greek life, which is completely understandable. We have a lot to prove as a new organization, and the first of its kind in the country,” Roberts said. “That See GUIDE, page 3

On April 28, Gov. Brown announced new penalties for residents and businesses that waste the most water. The new water-conservation measures will empower local municipalities to impose fines up to $10,000 on groups and individuals using excessive amounts of water. The new penalties are part of a mandatory statewide effort to curb water waste by 25 percent. More recently, Brown even called for some districts to reduce water waste by as much as 36 percent in order to reach the state’s conservation targets. The governor stated that these fines should be considered as a last resort and that only those who use the most water by violating water conservation laws will be penalized. However, he did not specify exactly what kind of violations would incur the penalties. “Only the worst offenders will be getting that,” Brown said in a statement to U-T San Diego. “I don’t like to increase penalties too much.” UCSD has a Water Action Plan in place to reduce potable water use by 20 percent and reach statewide conservation targets by the year 2020. The plan includes such measures as implementing more efficient plumbing fixtures and replacing and reducing ornamental turf. The conservation measures implemented by the university will not affect student housing and attendance costs, according to UCSD’s Communications and Public Affairs Manager Christine Clark. “The conservation efforts will have no impact on housing rates, as they are already set for 2015–16 and this includes utilities,” Clark explained to the UCSD Guardian. According to Kimberly O’Connell, a representative of AQUAholics Anonymous — an organization whose mission is to reduce water waste on campus — UCSD has replaced outdated irrigation systems with more waterefficient versions. “The campus has replaced approximately 6,650 irrigation heads to water-efficient, low-volume irrigation heads to save 7.2 million gallons of potable water a year (an 8-percent reduction in irrigation water use),” O’Connell stated. Additionally, the campus has stopped watering 54,000 square feet of turf and replaced Muir Field with artificial turf, which is expected to save over 1.53 million and two million gallons of water per year respectively. The replacement process at Muir Field began earlier See WATER, page 3


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