SLO Film Festival hangs 10
Puppy joins Cal Poly softball
ARTS, pg. 5
SPORTS, pg. 8
Volume LXXVII, Number 78
Thursday, March 7, 2013
www.mustangdaily.net
SLO air quality ‘F’ grade misleading JESSICA BURGER
San Luis Obispo has
jburger@mustangdaily.net
COURTESY PHOTO
Spartan Training Resources offers women’s-only handgun courses every four to six months, with an emphasis on female self defense and gun safety.
Girls with guns SARA NATIVIDAD
snatividad@mustangdaily.net
One of the many stereotypes women face is unfamiliarity with firearms, but a local training group is looking to remedy that. Spartan Training Resources is offering a women’s-only handgun course this weekend that will highlight gun safety and use, specifically aimed at female self defense. “It’s good for women to have a viable means of self defense,” Spartan Training Resources co-owner Steve Odom said. “Even if a woman knows handto-hand combat, it may not be enough. If a women is less than 120 pounds and she is facing a 200 pound man that has more than likely been incarcerated before, proper firearms training may save her life.” The program is designed for
female shooters who have little to no experience with firearms, Odom said. The day begins at 8 a.m., when students are taught the basic safety and handling procedures of using and own-
in which students go through the motions of shooting an unloaded gun, he said. When the trainers believe the students are finally ready, the real fun begins, he said.
It’s interesting having women of different political beliefs come together and acquire shooting skills ... KATIE MARTIN ENGLISH SOPHOMORE
ing a handgun. The program also provides students with the different holster combinations suited to women’s needs. After the trainees are taught the fundamentals of handling a firearm, they are taught how to shoot one. The training starts with “dry practice,”
“Besides using firearms as a means for self defense, shooting is an enjoyable sport,” Odom said. “It requires discipline, hand-eye coordination and it’s exciting when you’re shooting ammunition.” English sophomore Katharine Martin grew up recre-
ationally using firearms for target practice, as well as hunting, and loves the challenges that come with additional training, she said. “I think that women’s training is valuable because women are able to become comfortable with firearms and learn about safety and maintenance,” Martin said. “This also allows them to acquire excellent marksmanship abilities, which is often stereotypically viewed as an activity for men.” Most of the training programs such as this one are designed to prevent crimes against women, Martin said. This usually brings people with a variety of backgrounds and views on firearms. “It’s interesting having women of different political beliefs come together and acquire see GUNS, pg. 2
COUTESY PHOTO
The event will take place this weekend, Friday and Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Santa Lucia Sportsmen’s Association Range in Atascadero. It costs $200 to join.
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San Luis Obispo County residents are often confused by the American Lung Association’s State of the Air report, which this past year placed San Luis Obispo as the ninth most polluted city by ozone with a letter grade of “F.” The annual report has been given for 13 years, and according to the manager for the planning and outreach division for the San Luis Obispo Air and Pollution Control District (APCD), Aeron Arlin Genet, the report’s grading technique uses a set of standards that differs from California state standards. “It’s been a challenge for us here locally every year,” Genet said. “They don’t take a look at the state standard, which is typically more health concerned.” According to Genet, the report bases its grades on data collected by air qual-
THE NINTH MOST POLLUTED DAYS IN CALIFORNIA, according to the American Lung Association.
ity monitoring stations. In San Luis Obispo, one of the monitoring stations located in east county happens to be in a spot that picks up pollution moving into the county from other sources. “There are times when Red Hills and Carrizo Plains gets pretty high, but there are no real sources of pollution out there,” Genet said. “The way it’s located, it’s really good at picking up pollution from places elsewhere in the state.” The area where the two monitoring stations are located also holds less than 1 percent of the population. see AIR, pg. 2
Students get preschooled KRISTINA MARTIN
Special to Mustang Daily
The Preschool Learning Lab on campus used to have almost as many students working as it had children. That has changed, as the lab has expanded to 40 hours per week with six students working at a time, Patty Clarkson, director of the lab, said. Now, she said, it is a better experience for the students to practice teaching children, which is what they will be doing for their careers. The expansion of the lab opens up opportunities for students to learn how to teach, play and talk with children. Before the expansion, students found it hard to get quality interactions with the children. There were so many adult bodies and the children were only there for two hours, three days a week, Clarkson said. “The challenge for the college students was that there were so many of them that the responsibilities of the lab got spread out,” Clarkson said. “There wasn’t as much opportunity to really dig in and be part of the lab and really help out.” The most important thing
for the students to learn in the preschool lab class is how to develop relationships with children because without this it becomes difficult for the students to support the children’s learning, Clarkson said. The lab is open 40 hours per week and children can enroll from four to eight hours a day, Clarkson said. The college students are spread out in sections of six at a time. “This gives them much more responsibility to carry the whole program and really get experience with all the different aspects of the program,” Clarkson said. “We rotate them through different areas and layer on different responsibilities each week.” There were a lot of challenges with the old system, Clarkson said. The children, approximately 25 to 28 at a time, were only in the lab for two hours. This made it difficult for the 20 college students to absorb any real sort of responsibility with it spread out so widely. “It’s kind of like a small circus venue, if you will, because there’s a lot of activities going on and there’s a lot of adults around so it didn’t really lend itself to a lot of peer-to-peer see PRESCHOOL, pg. 2
INDEX
Opinions/Editorial..............6 News.............................1-3 ClassifiedsComics..............7 Arts...............................4-5 Sports..................................8
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PRESCHOOL continued from page 1
interaction for the children,” Clarkson said. With fewer students in the lab at a time, the students have much more responsibility and are able to focus on more things. The ultimate goal is to have the students facilitating the whole lab, Clarkson said. The new expansion of hours allows students to really focus on learning to run the lab on their own. This includes supporting the children’s play by coming up with intentional activities that act as an extension to the play, Clarkson said. “On the outside, it may look to you that the children are just playing with the cars but we know that we are helping guide their play toward
speed, such as timing the speed of cars,” Clarkson said. “Then we say how far did this car travel? And we have them measure that and write out ‘Red car went 14 inches.’” The students are helping the children to get the idea of basic concepts such as longer and shorter, Clarkson said. By having the children write these things out they are learning to sort, measure and differentiate between numbers and letters. “It’s a whole climate that we build here where children are constantly exposed to those kinds of intentional teaching moments,” Clarkson said. Students enrolled in the class are all child development majors. Sophomore Morgan Doshier wants to pursue a teaching credential working with preschool-aged children, she said. The preschool lab class is beneficial because of the direct interaction with the kids that other classes do not offer, Doshier said. Not only do students get the chance to teach the children in the classroom, but they also get to watch the children’s interactions with each another using a one-way mirror, Doshier said. “One of our classes, CD 131, we get to observe the kids behind the booth, which is good to see the interactions and everything, but it’s nice to be in with the kids and learning as you go,” Doshier said. “What’s right and what’s wrong, what works and what doesn’t.”
AIR continued from page 1
In fact, the portion of the county in which approximately 90 to 99 percent of the population lives, would receive an “A,” Genet said. When the American Lung Association compiles all the data for the county, it draws an average — the monitoring data from the stations in Red Hills and Carizzo Plains drastically lowers that average. “It’s very tough because we live here and it’s beautiful — we have the vistas, we go out hiking and running, and when we get that ‘F’ grade, it’s very confusing,” Genet said. “It’s frustrating, but it’s a tool that the American Lung Association uses to highlight the effects of pollution, and we think that’s a good thing. We just don’t like the way the grading is applied to our county.”
It’s a whole climate that we build here where children are constantly exposed to those kinds of intentional teaching moments. PATTY CLARKSON PRESCHOOL LEARNING CENTER DIRECTOR
The Preschool Learning Lab is unlike any other preschool not on a college campus, child development associate professor Jennifer Jipson said. Its value is that it helps train amazing preschool teachers which can lead to a larger change in school systems overall. “It makes such a difference in my classes,” Jipson said. “I teach infant development and some of the students are currently working in the lab and just being able to have that personal experience really helps them understand and appreciate the scholarly material they learn in class more.” For students to develop relationships with the children, they first have to learn how to talk with children while they play with them, Clarkson said. They play with cars and blocks, they play in the kitchen or outside on a tire swing one-onone with the children, rather than just standing back and watching the children play. “It’s a different language in how you support the child,” Clarkson said. “They’re going to bring you a paper that they drew and say ‘Do you
like my paper?’ and we would say ‘Looks like you worked really hard on that paper, tell me more about that paper.’” Students get overwhelmed coming into the lab at first, because they are worried they will say or do something wrong, Clarkson said. Being thrown in with the children is a little scary at first, but you learn how to act with the children by being in the environment, Doshier said. The Preschool Learning Lab teaches students how to teach, talk and play with children which is what they will be doing in their careers, Clarkson said. At the beginning of the quarter, students observe specific interactions between the children to help them learn how to deal with the situations they will encounter in the lab. “As the quarter goes on, you see the students become more comfortable and start practicing themselves how to say things,” Clarkson said. “They get into some really tight spots with the children, but I let the students figure it out because that’s ‘Learn By Doing.’”
Business administration senior Brett Edwards, who also works as an environmental activist by the name of Mr. Eco, said he found the report upsetting when he first heard about it. “Being the prince of fresh air, I am sad to hear San Luis Obispo received an ‘F’ in the report,” Edwards said. “I have worked with SLO’s APCD in the past and know that they are doing their best to improve our air quality.” According to regional director for programs and advocacy for the American Lung Association Jenny Bard, the ozone pollution monitors were installed in 2006 and have since lowered San Luis Obispo’s air quality grade on the report. “These higher elevation monitors show that there is substantial amount of air pollution that is generating elsewhere,” Bard said. “Looking at the border areas, the transport of pollution from the Bay Area, Los Angeles
and San Joaquin Valley regions are responsible for the unhealthy air in the region.” Bard said the American Lung Association is working toward reducing ozone pollution for the entire state of California, mainly through the lowering from vehicles, trucks and manufacturing. “I think the key message is that air pollution does travel and it can affect the health of those areas directly where the source is coming from, as well as the areas it travels to,” Bard said. The SLO APCD website offers daily air quality ratings that residents are encouraged to use. People who tend to be more sensitive to poor air quality — anyone who suffers from respiratory issues such as asthma, cardiac issues, allergies, growing children and even seniors — may benefit by checking the quality of the air before outside activities, Genet said.
GUNS continued from page 1
shooting skills that may help save lives and prevent crimes,” she said. The program will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at the Santa Lucia Sportsmen’s Association Range in Atascadero. The cost is $200 and covers the group training, which will be a maximum of 12 people, Odom said. Students are expected to bring their own handgun and bullets. The price of the class is typical for this type of program, said agribusiness sophomore Brooke Bradshaw, who started shooting when she was 11. Her experience with firearms training has taught her patience and how to be more aware of her surroundings, she said. She believes women should have the knowledge of how to properly use firearms in case a dangerous situation ever occurs, she said. “I definitely have more security and confidence walking around at night or alone knowing I can handle a situation should it present itself,” Bradshaw said. “That is a feeling every woman should have, especially if (they’re) planning to live alone at some point in their life.”
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WORD ON THE STREET Would you be interested in taking a class on gun safety?
“Not really, because I don’t intend on buying a gun anytime soon.” • Phillip Sweeney architecture senior
Cars need no-phone device, study says KAREN KAPLAN Los Angeles Times
Thousands of people die in car crashes each year because drivers were too distracted by their cellphones to pay attention to the road. A pair of researchers from West Virginia University have a radical proposal for reducing that death toll — equip cars with devices that make it impossible to send a text message, check your favorite traffic app or dial home while the car is in motion. “Simply stated, handheld portable devices must be rendered unoperable whenever the automobile is in motion or when the transmission shaft lever is in forward or reverse gear,” they wrote in a Viewpoint essay in Wednesday’s edition of
the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Automobile and cell phone equipment manufacturers have the engineering capabilities to implement these safeguards, and they should be required to do so.” Sound extreme? Consider the health costs of distracted driving: — Experts at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis in Boston have calculated that drivers using cellphones cause 333,000 injuries (including 12,000 that were serious) and 2,600 deaths per year. — Researchers from the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth have estimated that texting accounted for more than 16,000 crash-related deaths between 2001 and 2007. — Investigators at the Vir-
ginia Tech Transportation Institute in Blacksburg have concluded that, compared with driving with a cellphone put away, texting while driving increases the risk of a “safety-critical event” by a factor of 23 and dialing while driving increases the risk by a factor of six. Passing a law is not enough to solve this problem, according to the Viewpoint authors, Dr. Jeffrey Coben and Motao Zhu. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that 10 states and the District of Columbia have banned the use of handheld cellphones while driving, and 39 states and the District of Columbia have made it illegal to text while driving. Yet in surveys, 40 percent of drivers still admit to talking on the phone when they’re behind the wheel and
“I’ve never shot a gun but I’m open to the idea.” • Amy Watson communication studies sophomore
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
“Not really. I already know most of it. My dad is a police officer.” • Ross Pellerin business administration junior
“Yes, because it’s really important for everyone to know, and so I don’t hurt myself or anyone else.” • Erica Solum software engineering freshman
“Yeah, I think it’d be cool. Guns aren’t taught about much and a lot of people don’t know the safety.” • Erin Thorsell biological sciences senior
Lion attack leaves one dead TIM SHEEHAN EDDIE JIMENEZ The Fresno Bee
A worker at Project Survival’s Cat Haven at Dunlap is dead in an attack by an African lion, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife official said Wednesday. Lt. Tony Spada of state Fish & Wildlife confirmed that one worker was killed by the lion in an enclosure at the haven. The haven is permitted by the agency for exotic animals. Spada said the male African lion was “dispatched” by a Fresno County sheriff’s deputy who came to the scene. Spada described this type of incident as “very rare” because of the safety measures required by the state and because regulations require minimal humananimal interaction. “This facility has a very good history,” Spada said. “In this case, someone just got too close.” Spada said his agency will investigate along with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office to pin down what happened, including an autopsy of the lion. Fresno County Emergency Medical Services got a call around 12:32 p.m. to respond to the Cat Haven. But before their arrival at 12:52 p.m., the call was canceled because the patient had died. An autopsy on the worker will be conducted Thursday, Fresno County Coroner David Hadden said. The worker’s name and hometown were not released. The lion was a 4-year-old male named Cous Cous, said Tanya Osegueda, a spokeswoman for the Cat Haven. She said the lion was hand-raised at the Dunlap haven since he was an 8-week-old cub. Cat Haven is home to approx-
imately two dozen rare felines from four continents. Among the species at the Dunlap site are tigers, leopards, lions, jaguars and cheetahs. The 93-acre wildlife park just west of Kings Canyon National Park has been in operation since 1998, promoting conservation and preservation of wild cats in their native habitat. Animals at Cat Haven are housed in cages on hillsides covered with granite boulders, manzanita, live oak and buckeye trees. A decomposed granite path allows visitors to travel a quarter-mile path past the cages. Cat Haven was founded by Dale Anderson, a former commercial airline pilot who fell in love with big cats in junior high, when a mountain lion visited his seventh-grade classroom in Santa Rosa, Calif. “I thought it would be fun to own one,’’ Anderson said in a 2008 story in The Fresno Bee. But as he grew older, Anderson realized he would never be content with a single big cat in his backyard. And, as he learned about the declining numbers of big cats in the wild, he knew he could never justify owning one or more of them without doing something to preserve endangered species and their shrinking habitats. So he created the Cat Haven and Project Survival, a nonprofit group that raises and distributes funds for research and habitat preservation. Most of the funds come from donations and public appearance fees. “Our goal is to save cats around the world,’’ Anderson said in 2008. “The idea behind the zoo is to get people to interact with the cats and get interested in their conservation.”
13 percent own up to texting. “As individuals continue to use their cell phones nearly continuously throughout the day, for both business and pleasure, they will continue to be tempted to use this technology — if available — while driving,” Coben and Zhu wrote. Hence the need to make this technology unavailable, they said. That would still leave room for hands-free systems that let you dial by voice or translate text messages into computer speech, Coben and Zhu wrote — but only if research shows that such systems don’t lead to distracted driving either. In the meantime, “The federal government should enact stringent new safety standards that require all handheld devices to be ren-
•Drivers using cellphones cause 333,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths per year. •Texting accounted for more than 16,000 crash-related deaths in a six-year period. dered inoperable when the motor vehicle is in motion,” the pair concluded. “Failure to act in this manner will result in the continued loss of thousands of lives each year to this preventable public safety hazard. In this era of smartphones and smart cars, it is time to be smarter about keeping them apart from one another.”
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ALLISON MONTROY
amontroy@mustangdaily.net
DAVID JANG/MUSTANG DAILY
The mid-morning silence is suddenly shattered by the splash of a dark, finned creature as biological sciences senior Cate Webster rises slowly from the murky, green water. She is clad in thick, black neoprene, decorated with a metal cylinder on her back, a glass mask over her eyes and a wide smile resting just above her shivering chin. The scientific diver climbs onto the pier, having just finished a set of underwater tests — part of being a researcher for the Cal Poly Center for Coastal Marine Sciences. Cate’s a self-proclaimed ocean enthusiast. She spends at least five days a week either in the water or in the lab, focusing most of her attention on finding the ideal non-toxic coating for ship hulls and pier pilings — one that won’t leech toxins into the ocean, will be durable and will be easily washed of bio-fouling, or the accumulation of invertebrate animals such as algae on the hulls and pilings over time. Back at the pier, Cate collects some sea water for the lab, and heads to campus to start the real work — feeding her bio-fouling of choice: barnacles. Yes, Cate’s a barnacle scientist. “It is one of the most rare things you can do, and people are usually pretty surprised by it,” she said. “But they’re also really curious about it. You don’t meet a barnacle scientist everyday.” Her tiny creatures — generally smaller than 5 centimeters tall and wide — look like little volcano-shaped pimples growing anywhere there is seawater. But Cate takes her time studying them, photographing them, understanding them and feeding them. “Working with them after so long, they become a little less foreign,” Cate said. “You become familiar with them and the way they like to feed, and you get a soft spot for them over time. It’s cute the way that they feed, that’s probably the best part. Their foot — the cirri — is kind of like this net that comes out — it’s from their operculum — like a little claw, and it waves it through the water trying to get the artemia — that’s what we feed them.” Cate can easily name every invertebrate body part with perfect scientific dictation, and she spends most of her research time in the lab — she lives there, she says — when she’s not diving, of course. Despite being a hub for federal naval research, the building itself goes easily unnoticed, tucked neatly away between the construction sites, fac-
ulty offices and grand concrete buildings on the north end of Cal Poly’s campus. But just up the thin, metal stairs, past the rows of green and brown glass bottles caked in seafloor debris and displayed like long-lost treasures, lies what Cate calls “the hidden gem within Cal Poly,” and the home of her barnacles. Posters and pictures of sea slugs, nudibranchs, tropical fish and topographic maps bring color to the small four-room lab. Pipettes sit in glass jars scattered on shelves around the main room, and binders filled with data sit on the clean, black tables. Cate kneels on a chair, the only one in the lab. Her long, dirty blonde hair is thrown into a messy bun while she works, exposing her three-time pierced ears and “Central Coast Scuba Club” sweatshirt. The water tank system drones loudly from the other side of the wall, but she’s too intently focused on the image inside the massive microscope resting on the table to notice. Click. She presses a button, photographing the barnacle under the lens, then picks up her pencil and scratches a series of numbers and notes in her graph paper notebook. “You see,” she explains, “if these organisms are growing on a boat, it’s going to create more drag and you’re going to spend millions of dollars more on your boats on gas because of the amount of drag from all these little organisms accumulating.” For years, boats used copper paint coatings — a paint so toxic that no bio-fouling could grow on it, eliminating the problem of drag. But the copper paint leeched, killing aquatic life in harbors and estuaries such as Morro Bay. Today, copper coatings are banned — but the problem of bio-fouling still needs to be solved. That’s why Cate spends a majority of her time in a lab, hidden behind microscopes with little company other than the barnacles in petri dishes. “We’re trying to work toward sustaining and keeping the oceans clean of all of these toxins,” she said, “and every little barnacle we raise is a step toward finding a better solution to the problem of bio-fouling.” It’s a tedious topic of research, but Cate works with an unfettered, bubbly enthusiasm that comes from a true passion for the ocean. “Cate’s found her stride working in and around the ocean,” said Grant Waltz, a research associate at the lab. “She can take intense boring-ness and make it fun, while still being professional. She’s see CATE, pg. 5
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Surf's up at SLO International Film Festival MUSTANG DAILY STAFF REPORT
arts@mustangdaily.net
PHOTOS BY NHA HA/MUSTANG DAILY
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: The SLO International Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday with a gala, screening and searchlight on campus.
CATE continued from page 4
been around the lab for a long time because people like being around her.” Waltz said Cate views her work and her world in a unique way proven by her ability to find enjoyment in the lab and in the field — even in some not-ideal situations. “My first day, we went out to Morro Bay, and worked for five hours in the estuary,” Cate said. “I was covered in Morro Bay sludge and my clothes were dirty, but I don’t know why, I really enjoyed it. It’s really interesting research. And it’s a lot of
fun. It’s more interesting than waiting tables with grumpy customers. I like it, I like working with my hands, I like the animal identification that goes with it. Sometimes it is really nitty-gritty ... and it’s not always the most glamorous job. But I like getting my hands dirty.” Paul Carvalho, a biological sciences senior and fellow lab scientist, described Cate as a light-hearted but devoted person. “She’s outgoing, never shy,” he said. “Not like a lab scientist. She’s funny, she’s always making people laugh. But she’s also always looking out for people. She cares about doing a good job.”
Cate laughs often: When describing her work, when talking to friends and has a gregarious, carefree demeanor about her. But her passion for her barnacles — and what’s more, the ocean — shows in the undercurrent of her nonchalant attitude. “Having the ocean as such a big part of my life, it makes it worth it to want to conserve it,” she said. “The more I explore it, the more I am impassioned to conserve it.” As she snaps the lids back on her barnacle petri-dishes, Cate apologizes for having to rush off, but she heard conditions were perfect, and she just has to go get a dive in before class.
Gidget and Duke “Big Kahuna” may not be ruling California’s surf scene anymore, but surf enthusiasts from past and present can still shoot the curl Thursday at the SLO International Film Festival’s 8th annual “Surf Nite” at Fremont Theatre. First on screen will be director Leslie Iwerks’ “The Ride,” winner of the XDance Best Film in 2004. The film chronicles a group of surfers’ journey tracking a big swell in Maui and their ultimate attempts to surf a massive, 30- to 50-foot wave. And it’s not just any old surfers in the 45-minute documentary. Iwerks captured Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Peter Mel, Tom Carroll and Ross ClarkeJones boards-in-hand, planning their epic rides. While Iwerks said “any surf film starring big-wave surfers is going to be compelling right out the gate,” this film gives a behind-the-scenes perspective
on some of the most prominent people in the surf industry, documenting how they work together with one common goal: big wave surfing. “These guys — nothing stops them,” Iwerks said. “At the end of the day, seeing the physical strength, courage and fearlessness of these guys who ride these big waves is pretty incredible.” Iwerks will also receive the SLO Film Festival Spotlight Award for her work with documentaries, one of which earned her an Academy Award nomination. “I’m honored to receive (the award),” Iwerks said. “Documentaries are a lot of fun and have huge potential to make a difference.” Following “One Ride,” Tom Carroll and Ross Clarke-Jones will return to the screen for “Storm Surfers 3-D,” which takes the audience to some seriously big waves in the Southern Ocean. Business administration junior and Cal Poly surf team president Justin Barr called both Carroll
and Clarke-Jones “crazy, big wave surfers.” “They are not specialized to just surfing big or small waves but can rip in any conditions,” Barr said. “Both are legends ... they can rip no matter what.” Barr, who plans to go to “Surf Nite,” said the event “seems like a really great way to support the films and meet more of the surfing community here in San Luis Obispo.” Barr also likes how relatable the documentaries are to the sport itself, he said. “They portray the experiences every surfer has felt and continue to feel about surfing,” Barr said. “Also, it is a cool way to see all the waves and places they get to travel to because it influences where I want to travel next.” The evening will also feature a Q&A session after each film. Tickets to “Surf Nite” can be purchased at www.slofilmfest. org for $22, or $17 with student ID. Allison Montroy contributed to this staff report.
DAVID JANG/MUSTANG DAILY
Biological sciences senior Cate Webster studies barnacles at the Cal Poly Center for Coastal Marine Sciences.
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MUSTANG DAILY
Time to rethink teen pregnancy stereotypes
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Thursday, March 7, 2013 Volume LXXVII, Number 78 ©2013 Mustang Daily “I tweeted a sexual message @koretzky”
Chavez’s death marks turning point for Venezuela ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
The Miami Herald
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s death will most likely mark the beginning of the end of Venezuela’s political clout in Latin America, but his influence inside Venezuela is likely to last for many decades. Contrary to the conventional wisdom in the international media that Chavez was the political heir of Cuba’s guerrilla leader-turnedpresident Fidel Castro, the late Venezuelan president will probably go down in history as a political phenomenon closer to that of late Argentine strongman Juan D. Peron. Like Peron, Chavez was a military officer and coup plotter who first flirted with fascism, later turned to the left, and once in power gave millions to the poor thanks to a boom in world commodity prices, which set him apart from previous Venezuelan presidents who had only paid lip service to the country’s poverty-stricken masses. And like Peron, Chavez was a narcissist — he once used the word “I” 489 times in just one speech (on Jan 15, 2011) — who built a personality cult around himself, and impulsively gave away billions of dollars at home and abroad without any accountability, at the expense of destroying his country’s institutions and much of the economy. Chavez’s influence in Latin America during his 13 years in power grew in direct proportion to world oil prices. When he took office in 1999, oil prices hovered around $9 a gallon. When oil prices started rising gradually to more than $80 a barrel in the years that followed, Chavez started bankrolling loyalist politicians in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and other Latin American countries, and ultimately built his ALBA bloc of Latin American allies that followed his narcissist-Leninist model. By 2006, Chavez was giving away up to $3.7 billion a year in Latin America — compared to the Bush administration’s $1.2 billion — to buy political influence as he was drumming up support for his unsuccessful bid for a Venezuela seat at the United Nations Security Council. Many of his grandiose money pledges never materialized — like a pipeline that was supposed to go from Caracas to Buenos Aires, which skeptics at the time branded the “Hugoduct” — and some of his pledges for huge infrastructure projects in Africa and Asia drew criticism at home, where roads and bridges were crumbling. But Chavez’s influence abroad began after oil prices reached a record $146 a barrel in 2008. Since then, and especially after Chavez was diagnosed with a never-revealed form of cancer in mid-2011 and oil prices fell further, Chavez’s petro-dollar generosity has been confined to Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and a few Caribbean countries. Now, with Venezuela’s economy in near chaos, a 30 percent inflation rate and oil prices unlikely to reach their previous records in the near future, Venezuela will have to give up its regional ambitions, for the simple reason that it has run out of money. And regardless of who will run Venezuela in the future, the days of oil-based populist megalomania are likely over because of global trends in the energy industry. According to most forecasts, the United States will replace Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer in five years, which will cause a reduction in U.S. oil imports and a decline
in world oil prices. This will make it hard for Chavez’s successors to keep bankrolling Venezuela’s radical populist allies in the region. But at home in Venezuela, “Chavismo” will probably remain alive as the biggest political force for generations to come. Because Chavez’s years in power coincided with the biggest oil boom in Venezuela’s recent history, and because Chavez gave away so much money to the poor, he is more likely to be remembered as a “champion of the poor” than as the populist who destroyed the country’s private sector, scared away investments, and turned Venezuela more oildependent than ever. From now on, much like happened in Argentina after Peron’s death, most presidential hopefuls will declare themselves “Chavistas,” even if they despised the late military coup plotterturned-president. And much like happened in Argentina in recent decades, we will see “Chavista” politicians of all colors: radical leftists, moderate, centrist and rightists. In his never-ending speeches, which sometimes lasted more than six hours, they will find enough memorable quotes to support almost any political theory. Guillermo Lousteau, a professor at Florida International University who heads the InterAmerican Institute of Democracy, believes that Chavez will go down in history not so much like Peron, but like Ernesto “Che” Guevara — a cult figure whose influence today is more romantic than political. “Chavez will become a cultural icon: we will see T-shirts with Chavez’s face, much like we see T-shirts with Che Guevara’s face, but his influence won’t go farther than that,” Lousteau told me. “Chavez is no longer alive to keep the Chavista movement united, like Peron was after he was thrown out of office,” Lousteau said. “Without a charismatic leader, and with a deteriorating economy, Chavismo will implode.” My opinion: Latin America’s political cycles tend to change every dozen years, and Chavez’s death — alongside stagnant commodity prices — is likely to accelerate the waning days of Chavez’s “Bolivarian revolution” in Latin America. Much like we had military dictatorships in the 1970s, social democracies in the 1980s, pro-free market governments in the 1990s, and “Chavismo” in the 2000s, we may be entering a new decade of something different — hopefully democratic pragmatism. But Chavez’s undeserved image as the region’s biggest champion of the poor — in fact, countries such as Peru and Chile reduced poverty more than Venezuela in recent years, and without weakening their democracies — will have a lasting negative impact on Venezuela. As often happens in commodity-rich countries, populist leaders thrive during booms in world commodity booms. Then, when commodity prices go down and they leave office — whether they are thrown out or, as in Chavez’s case, die in office — their successors have to take unpopular economic measures, and the former populist leaders’ followers can say, “You were better off when we were in power.” Venezuela will be no exception to Latin America’s commodity curse. Chavez’s populism will remain popular for decades. It will take a lot of time — and education — to convince many Venezuelans that Chavismo was “bread for today, hunger for tomorrow,” and that the most successful countries are those that have strong institutions, rather than strong men.
We are pretty sure of our stereotypes in this country, and we hold them close. One of them is that teen pregnancy is an inner-city problem, a poor problem, a black problem. Another is that “rural” equals “farm,” and life there is wholesome and God-fearing. Like so many of the things we believe to be true, these aren’t. Not exactly. New research from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reveals that the teen birth rate is a third higher in rural counties than in other areas of the country, regardless of age, race or ethnicity. Rural counties account for one in five teen births, even though they make up only 16 percent of the overall teen population. “The prevailing stereotype of the young mother continues to be a young, urban person,” said Bill Albert, chief program officer for the campaign. “What the data suggests is something quite different. “As it turns out, teen pregnancy is more rural than concrete jungle.” For a while now, organizations like the campaign have been asked what was going on outside the city limits, and they had to say, frankly, they didn’t know. There was just no data. New statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2010, sifted by the National Campaign’s research staff, show that the number of teen pregnancies remains highest in the areas of highest population. “But look at rates, as opposed to numbers, and you have a very different picture,” Albert said. The first task here might be to define “rural.” We are not just talking the family farm. Rural counties are defined by their proximity to population centers, but the economic activity can cover quite a range. So, Albert said, the stereotype that farm kids get each other pregnant because there is nothing better to do is equally uninformed. Then why are the numbers higher? “It is unlikely that any single reason explains the difference in teen birth rates,” said Albert. It is probably a
combination of factors, including poverty, education levels, access to clinical care and access to insurance. “And,” he said. “It may be simply that teens are unlikely to ask for condoms at a store where everybody working there knows you and your parents.” It is also possible that these pregnancies are not all unintended. That women in rural areas are more likely than their suburban peers to be actively seeking to start a family. The difference in teen birth rates between rural counties and other counties is particular pronounced among teens 18 and 19 years old. The fact is, the news about teen pregnancy in this country continues to be good — rates are still dropping in cities and in rural areas — just not as fast in rural areas. It might be the biggest public health success story of the last 20 years, considering the lifelong detriment suffered by children born to children. The reason for this success appears to be that teens overall are having less sex and using more contraception. “In the rural counties,” Albert said, “it appears to be more sex and less contraception.” This research is step one, he said. “It may be that this is not news to anybody living in a rural area. It may only be news to those of us who pontificate from urban areas. “But no one will work on a problem they don’t know exists. You have to convince parents and policymakers that the problem is there.” From here, the action plan is familiar: Convince parents that we still have great influence with our teens and, attitudes and ear buds aside, the kids want to know what we think, what we believe. That if we tell them that they are too young for sex and it can break their hearts, they will hear us. If we help them with access to contraception — while telling that it is protection, not permission — they will understand this message. That if we tell them that their futures (and the futures of the children they may ever have) depend on delaying pregnancy until their education is complete, they will give our ideas thought.
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MDsports 8
Thursday, March 7, 2013
In her first year, Puppy gives ‘Stangs bite JEFFERSON P. NOLAN jnolan@mustangdaily.net
Cal Poly softball assistant coach Gina Vecchione was 13 when her friends and teammates started calling her “Puppy.” Her men’s size 10.5 feet support a 5-foot-5 frame, giving her the proportions of a 2-month-old golden retriever. And after four collegiate national championships, a retired jersey and a career chalk-full of athletic awards, the nickname has stuck with her all the while. “Gina? Oh, that sounds really weird,” outfielder Cami Brown said with a laugh. “We call her ‘Pup’ and ‘Puppy.’ I don’t even call her ‘coach.’ That would be weird.” Prior to joining the Mustangs (5-14-1) this season, Vecchione led the UCLA Bruins to three national championships. She has played softball around the world. Now, she’s settled at Cal Poly with the goal to instill a tradition in the hearts of her young players. And big feet or not, Vecchione has most certainly grown into her shoes. Her career path didn’t always include softball. Born in New Rochelle, N.Y., Vecchione knew she wanted to be a coach since junior high — she just pictured basketball coach. “Basketball was my first love,” Vecchione said. “But I was a good athlete and could pick up on the skills eventually. It was unusual. I always played slowpitch, but fastpitch and slowpitch softball are different games.” Vecchione began college at Southern Connecticut State University in Stratford, Conn. on a basketball scholarship, having never played fastpitch softball before. But during her sophomore year in college, Vecchione joined the Connecticut Brakettes, a women’s fastpitch softball team. Entering the fall of her second year in college, it was the internationally acclaimed team that helped Vecchione realize she was a better softball player than a basketball player. Just like that, softball became her world. While playing for the Brakettes, Vecchione met a fellow teammate and UCLA’s assistant coach Sue Enquist. The two kept in touch
as summer ball ended, and by the time Vecchione’s sophomore year came to a close, the ex-basketball player found herself on a plane headed for Los Angeles. “I just thought that my college experience would be at a bigger university,” Vecchione said. “‘What about UCLA?’ (Enguist) asked me. I said, ‘Really, you think I could play at UCLA?’” And even though head coach Sharron Backus had never seen Vecchione play, she made the decision based on Enguist’s recommendation to welcome the transfer student to the team. In her 1981 season, Vecchione led the Bruins in doubles (10) and added three triples and 21 RBIs. Vecchione was honored in 1982 as a member of the All-College World Series team after she helped lead the Bruins to a national championship. As an outfielder, she received second-team All-American honors, and in 1997, Vecchione became the first UCLA player inducted into the Amateur Softball Association’s Hall of Fame. After her collegiate career ended, Vecchione spent five seasons coaching at Oregon State before returning to UCLA as an assistant coach. During her 12 seasons as a coach for the Bruins, UCLA won NCAA championships in 2003, 2004 and 2010, and she became the fourth player in UCLA history to have her number retired. But after abruptly resigning from her position last season, the softball coach needed to make a decision. “I loved (UCLA),” Vecchione said. “It’s my alma mater. I just needed to make a change for myself. I didn’t know what was going to happen.” Amidst the unanswered questions and various job offers, it was at that time Vecchione received a call from an old friend. It was Jenny Condon, head coach of the Cal Poly softball team. “Jenny and I are best friends,” Vecchione said. “I’ve known her for years now. (Condon) played on the national team, and I coached her on the California Commotion (an Amateur Softball Association summer ball team).
We’re all like a family. (When I left UCLA) and this opportunity was here, I just said ‘Yeah, this is the place.’ The game is the game. I love coaching, and I wanted it to be somewhere where it was competitive. Cal Poly is a competitive program.” Though it’s just her first season coaching at Cal Poly, Vecchione has hopes to bring a championship mentality to Condon’s club. “She brings a wealth of knowledge, tradition and championship play,” Condon said. “She’s won at every level. She just brings a championship mentality and a passion for the game that exudes out of her and into the kids, and they’ve just jumped on it.” And while the softball season is still young,
the program recently topped No. 18 Washington 2-0 and No. 13 Georgia 1-0. Junior shortstop Kim Westlund returned to the team having led the offense for the Mustangs this past season. Now in the midst of the team’s 2013 season, she is prepared for a new era of Cal Poly softball under the guidance of Vecchione. “She likes to break everything down into little things,” Westlund said. “She teaches us how to do it, so I think that’s really helped our program. During a scrimmage, if someone makes a good play, she’ll sprint across the field just to give her a high-five. We all love that.” And while the softball crew will focus on the small things, Vecchione and Condon will continue to prepare their players for their first conference game against Long Beach State on Saturday, March 23. “I certainly expect some bumps in the road,” Vecchione said of the team. “But that’s part of the game. That’s when you find out what you’re made of. I’m excited about that, to see how they respond to that.”
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WHERE WILL THEY LAND?
Basketball squads look for top seeds MOTT MADNESS Thursday vs. UC Riverside at 7 p.m. Saturday vs. Cal State Northridge at 7 p.m. Thursday vs. UC Irvine at 4:30 p.m. Saturday vs. Long Beach State at 4 p.m.
Men’s basketball Big West tournament best possible scenarios Two wins AND A) UC Irvine loses at Pacific AND Long Beach wins at Pacific B) UC Irvine wins at Pacific AND UC Irvine loses at UC Davis C) UC Irvine wins twice AND Hawaii wins at Cal State Northridge AND Pacific loses twice Two wins AND A) Pacific wins twice AND Hawaii wins at Cal State Northridge B) UC Irvine wins at Pacific AND UC Irvine loses at UC Davis C) UC Irvine wins twice AND Hawaii wins at Cal State Northridge AND Pacific loses twice
Women’s basketball Big West tournament best possible scenarios Two wins OR 1-1 AND Pacific loses AND Hawaii goes 1-1 1-1 AND Pacific wins AND Hawaii goes 1-1 OR 0-2 AND Hawaii goes 1-1 Two losses AND Hawaii wins twice