Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015 | Volume 210 | Number 101 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.
Blake Lanser/Iowa State Daily
“Amigos,” a student Mariachi band, formed during the fall 2014 semester at Noche de Cultura, an event hosted by the Latino Heritage Committee, but the organization hasn’t yet been officially established.
SPREADING CULTURE Mariachi club arises at ISU, welcomes new members
By Berenice.Liborio @iowastatedaily.com
S
tephanie Caceres has mariachi fever. Caceres, junior in elementary education, is part of a new club on campus that hopes to inspire others to be accepting of mariachi tunes and see the world differently through this type of music. The idea started two years ago with three mariachi feverinfected students. It wasn’t until now that they got the courage to actually start to get other students involved. For Caceres, the club is a continuation from her high school mariachi days. The college club formation started with Irma Tello’s Facebook post. “I remember seeing the status,” Caceres, who is also the communication chair for the
club, said. “I got a message and it said, ‘Hey guys, I want to start a mariachi [club]. Let’s start a mariachi!’ I had that mariachi fever so I was like, ‘heck yeah, I’ll do whatever!’ and I know she really reached out to people and [said] we should do this.” The club formed fall 2014 semester at Noche de Cultura, an event hosted by Latino Heritage Committee, but the organization hasn’t yet been established. The group got an adviser — Adolfo CarrilloCabello, world languages and cultures lecturer — last week and just needs to finish up a few application processes before being recognized as an official organization. “We want [to] benefit from being a recognized organization like reserving rooms in the Music Hall, getting support from [Government of the Student Body] for instruments we can’t
afford, to buy the mariachi outfits,. We want to see if Iowa State will support a mariachi band,” said Ricky Corona, president of the club. The mariachi members said they are excited about starting this organization and getting the chance to play their traditional music to the students, faculty and staff at Iowa State University. “There’s a lot of excitement. Everybody just really wants to join the group and start playing beautiful music with each other. It’s the traditional aspect too and expressing the passion we have for music and working with other people and spreading our culture,” said Cindy Tello, sophomore in kinesiology and pre-physical therapy and the club’s secretary. Corona, senior in civil engineering, said anyone who loves music would love to hear maria-
chi. All the mariachi members got together because they love music, especially something that’s within their culture. Mariachi bands consist of at least two violins, two trumpets, one Spanish guitar, one vihuela and one guitarron and can sometimes reach 20 members. The Iowa State mariachi organization consist of 13 members. They have four violinists, two guitarists, two singers and one person playing the vihuela. A vihuela is a Mexican guitar-like string instrument from the 19th century and is mostly played in mariachi groups. Irma Tello plays the violin and Cindy Tello plays the trumpet. For the Tello family, music has been around their whole lives. Irma and Cindy got involved in music from their grandparents, parents and
uncles. They started playing their instruments in the fourth grade because their older sister and brother joined orchestra and they wanted to do the same. Irma has been playing for 12 years and Cindy has for about 10 years. Caceres plays the guitar and Corona plays the vihuela. Corona taught himself how to play the vihuela at the age of 12. The group members have learned about five to six songs within a semesters worth of practice. They learned “La Bamba” in one night to prove to themselves how determined they are. The ISU mariachi group will be open to any organization that wants to contact them to perform for an event. The point of the organization is to not sep-
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Iowa State tries to power Cadets visit Pi Kappa Theta, campus sustainablity present on how to prevent By Jonathan.Findlay @iowastatedaily.com
As the frigid Iowa winter winds pierce through ISU students’ heavy coats, they probably aren’t thinking about how that same wind helps provide power to the ISU campus. Relief comes quickly as students hustle into a warm building, without a thought as to the source of where that warmth comes, but just grateful to feel their faces again. Where, then, does this warmth come from? All the heating, cooling and electricity on campus is provided by the power plant on the east end of campus. In fact, half of the energy used on campus is in the form of steam for heating, said Jeff Witt, the power plant’s utilities director. Using steam to provide energy for campus gives flexibility. Steam can be used to drive turbines for electricity production then reused to heat buildings. Steam can also be used to cool buildings by running the compressors that cool the air in campus buildings. This dual-use process is known as cogeneration and would run at 33 to 35 percent efficiency in a conventional power plant. Iowa State’s power
plant, however, runs this process at 60 percent efficiency. Energy conservation efforts on campus and improved efficiency using the cogeneration process combined helped cause an 8 percent drop in campus energy usage, from roughly 3.8 million British thermal units, or 4 billion joules in 2008 to 3.5 million British thermal units, or 3.7 billion joules last year. The same cold wind that drives people indoors also drives the windmill located just north of the power plant. This windmill, along with the electricity purchased from four other windmills in Northeast Story County, provide a little more than 7 percent of Iowa State’s electricity needs. Sustainable electrical production is still a new and expensive field compared to established methods like burning fossil fuels. The use of fossil fuels may not be sustainable, but Iowa State is making strides in different ways to lessen its carbon footprint and become more sustainable. For example, Iowa State uses more than 50 solar-powered trash compactors on campus that reduce garbage pickup from once per day to once per
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sexual assault, harrassment
By Kelly.McGowan @iowastatedaily.com She was dizzy and light headed. She slurred her words. Her friends had left the bar. She accepted a ride home from a guy she doesn’t know well. This was the beginning of one scenario that two Army ROTC cadets posed to members of Phi Theta Kappa fraternity at a sexual assault and harassment prevention training session they led Monday. In the basement of the fraternity house, Jessica Bales, senior in public relations, and Evan Ireland, senior in supply chain management, stood in front of 19 men. The two are leaders in Cadets Against Sexual Harassment/Assault, a cadet-led education, response and prevention program. Behind them, a plywood board spray painted with Greek letters leaned against the wall and a TV displayed their presentation slides. They defined sexual misconduct, assault, abuse and harassment. Then they defined consent. “Who in here has a sister?”
Ireland said. About half of the audience raised their hands. Ireland hopes they would stand up to protect each other’s loved ones from a dangerous situation like this, he said. The presentation came after a suggestion from the fraternity’s alumni at a recent meeting. Jordan Donner, senior in in chemical engineering, the executive vice president and risk management chair of Phi Theta Kappa, ran with the idea. He contacted Bales, a friend of his from high school, whom he knew worked with sexual assault and harassment prevention. “Hopefully it starts with an impact here,” Donner said. “And guys can transmit that to other guys they meet and it becomes not just one section of the community’s problem, but something everyone is aware of.” Six sexual assaults have been reported to the Iowa State Police Division this academic year, according to their daily crime log. It made Bales uncomfortable knowing she was in an environment where this happens, she said. She knew people who were
sexually assaulted and saw harassment happen in her Army basic training. “After being with your friends going through that, it made it real,” Bales said. People need to know what sexual harassment is and how to stop someone else or themselves, Donner said. Hearing the information from ROTC cadets helped the members take the message seriously because they are students with slightly more authority, Donner said. “Going through ROTC kind of gives you more respect,” he said. “It’s a good position to learn from.” Cadets at West Point Military Academy started CASH/A. Iowa State Army ROTC leaders learned about the program and introduced it at Iowa State last semester. The program designates a male and a female cadet from each grade as a trusted contact for ROTC members to ask questions, report concerns or incidents and receive advice and resources from.
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