SLO RIDING
Freeride club races through SLO
MUSTANG DAILY | mustangdaily.net
SPORTS, pg. 8 Volume LXXVII, Number 112
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Anti-gay protester stirs discussion
SSF: access to more classes
NHA HA / MUSTANG DAILY
This is the second in a four-part series on the 2013-14 Student Success Fee allocations. Check back next Thursday for the third part on the Academic Success Center. SEAN MCMINN
smcminn@mustangdaily.net
Incident reveals improving relationship between LGBT community and some on-campus Christian groups SARA NATIVIDAD
snatividad@mustangdaily.net
An elderly man not affiliated with Cal Poly disturbed the typical atmosphere of the University Union Plaza this past Tuesday by holding a sign reading, “Warning: Homosex is a God damned sin.” The sign caused a stir of emotions among Cal Poly students. The reactions from students varied, though most were distraught by the vulgar language and the message behind the sign. In response, the Cal Poly Pride Center set up a booth near the man to show its support for the LGBT community. Because the Pride Center is a state entity, it is not allowed to have a visual response, Pride Assistant Coordinator Adam Serafin said. However, representatives were allowed to be present at the scene to comfort the students affected. Some members were approached by Christian students, as well as members of Slo Cru, expressing their sympathy and apologizing on behalf of the man, Serafin said. “Overall, students were kind of shaken up, a number of who belong to the LGBT community,” Serafin said. “The quick and strong response from Cal Poly members showed this is not in line with the Cal Poly community and how we honor and respect each other.” Most students showed their support by apologizing and taking a rainbow ribbon from the pride booth, but a few students decided this was not a strong enough stance. They decided to protest the original sign by holding signs of their own. One sign in particular drew a lot of
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attention. The sign read, “This guy is a douche,” and had an arrow pointing toward the man who was protesting against homosexuality. The sign was written and held by psychology freshman Sodie Orr, who said his main intention was to lighten the mood. “I wasn’t out there to put the guy down,” Orr said. “I was out there to make people smile who were seeing a very upsetting scene.” Many people approached Orr and thanked him for being brave enough to do something about the situation, he said. When he was at the scene, he received nothing but support from the people who approached him, and approximately 25 people took a picture with him or of him, Orr said. One of the students who took a photo posted it on the “Cal Poly SLO Class of 2016” Facebook page. It was only on here where people criticized Orr’s actions. But out of the more than 150 comments, most of them supported his stance and the photo received more than 800 likes. “I’m very glad I did what I did because it made a positive impact,” Orr said. “It’s unfortunate that people fail to look past the surface and realize that what I’m doing is combatting hate on my campus and home.” Some, such as Slo Cru staff member Matt Melendrez, however, think combatting hate with more hate is not the right way to approach these situations. “I feel like all of the signs were trying to provoke something,” Melendrez said. “The mood was so heavy
see FEES, pg. 2
Calif. budget still uncertain LAURA PEZZINI
lpezzini@mustangdaily.net
COURTESY PHOTO
I wasn’t out there to put the guy down. I was out there to make people smile who were seeing a very upsetting scene.
Did you know SLO had a poet laureate?
California Gov. Jerry Brown proposed his 2013-14 revised California state budget plan Tuesday, showing a potential surplus which has caused much debate over whether the money should be delegated to government programs, or held on reserve. Brown’s proposal, based on revenue forecasts determined by the California Department of Finance, allowed for a potential $1.1 billion to be reserved as a Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties, for future determination regarding its use. “The governor’s proposal is balanced and it calls for a reserve of about $1.1 billion,” California Department of Finance deputy director for external affairs H.D. Palmer said. The issue that is under debate is
SODIE ORR PSYCHOLOGY FRESHMAN (ABOVE)
see PROTESTER pg. 2
ARTS, pg. 4
With millions of dollars from this year’s Student Success Fee invested in access to classes, at least one indicator is showing positive signs for students unhappy with current offerings. Students’ enrollment averaged 14.71 units during Winter 2012, said associate vice provost Kimi Ikeda, who plans to release a more detailed report of how the Student Success Fee is opening classes in June. It’s the highest mean number of units for winter since as recent as 2006, according to Cal Poly census reports available from the Office of Institutional Research. The average unit increase from 2011 is also the second largest yearly increase since 2006. “It’s not an easy solution or answer,”
Tomorrow’s Weather: high Sunny sunny
66˚F
see BUDGET pg. 2
INDEX
Opinions/Editorial..............6 News.............................1-3 Classifieds/Comics............7 Arts...............................4-5 Sports..................................8
low 46˚F partially cloudy
cloudy
foggy
windy
light rain
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thinderstorm
MDnews 2 PROTEST continued from page 1
that something like this didn’t help the situation.” There were a few people trying to argue with the elderly man with the original sign: LGBT students who were offended and a lot of students from Christian organizations just praying, Melendrez said. There is a lot of misunderstanding on both ends of the spectrum and speech like this affects both sides, he said. “His terminology was not loving or biblical,” Melendrez said. “And it’s things like this that end up hurting the LGBT community and misrepresenting the Christian community.” Though saddened by the anger and overall hate that rose up, he was proud when a pride member approached him and said there were Christians and Slo Cru members who apologized to the Pride Center and took an ally pin, Melendrez said. “I was really humbled and emotional seeing how Cru expressed their sadness,” Melendrez said. “I’ve seen a variety of hate instances on campus, but this is the first time I’ve seen support from Christian groups on such a large scale. We still have a lot of room to grow and there are opportunities to do so on the horizon.” In addition to working for Slo Cru, Melendrez works as an Americore Member for the Center of Community Engagement for Student Life and Leadership, he said. After two years of working closely with other departments, and pride in particular, he has made close friends and colleagues with members of the LGBT community. “I feel like I’ve really become more educated and have grown (in) my understanding for the hurt and pain the LGBT community has felt from Christians,” Melendrez said. After realizing the amplitude of misunderstanding between the two communities, he approached the Pride Center to do an ally training with Slo Cru, Melendrez said. The conversations never got heated during the program and afterwards, the Pride Center was the group to come to Slo Cru to have another ally training. Serafin describes the ally training programs as “training to equip straight allies to the LGBT community.” They
teach terminology associated with homosexuality, for example, the difference between gender and sex and explain the differences between gender identity and gender preference, Serafin said. The program also discusses homophobia in general, and tries to help people have a better sense of understanding for the LGBT community. After the ally programs, there was an increase in students visiting the Pride Center and events who were involved in Slo Cru, Serafin said. The main impact from Tuesday’s events is not necessarily the support from the students, but the visibility of that support, he said. There was also visible support from other Christian groups on campus, such as InterVarsity and EPIC, who are also big LGBT allies. “The response was not too different, but the support from the Christian community was more visual,” Serafin said. “We are now starting to build bridges instead of walls, and I think that is positive.” Though some questioned why the elderly man, who was not affiliated with Cal Poly, was not prohibited from holding his sign or removed from campus, in general, the courts have been pretty adamant for support of free speech on campus, Vice President of Student Affairs Keith Humphrey said. The University Union is a place of free speech, Humphrey said. Cal Poly has the ability to regulate the time, place and manner of speech but not the content, Humphrey said. For example, if someone is being excessively loud near a classroom while it is in progress, the university has the right to make him or her stop. But it cannot discriminate based on the content of the speech itself. “We try to give individuals ample opportunity to express their freedom of speech as long as it doesn’t disrupt the educational mission of the university,” Humphrey said. “We want to make sure we are promoting free speech and the exchange of ideas, even if these ideas are controversial.”
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
NHA HA / MUSTANG DAILY
According to an Academic Affairs quarterly report, Cal Poly added 10,338 available student spots in classes during fall. The majority came in the College of Liberal Arts and College of Science and Mathematics, together totaling 7,200 new seats.
FEES continued from page 1
Ikeda said of Student Success Fee spending. “I’m hoping the students will see more access to classes.” In a poll of 41 students Tuesday afternoon, only nine said it was easier to enroll in classes this year compared to the 2011-12 academic year. Fifteen said it’s been harder, and 17 said they haven’t noticed a change. The Student Success Fee Allocation Advisory Committee recommended the majority of money from this year’s fee, approximately $5.8 million of $8.6 million, be spent on access to additional classes. But even with the funding, Ikeda said it was difficult to add professors this year because the Student Success Fee budget was not approved until spring. It didn’t leave enough time to search and hire new faculty for fall, she said. “We couldn’t easily hire permanent faculty,” she said. “We could try and hire lecturers who were local or able to take on one or two classes without a full load.” Where Cal Poly saw the biggest change was in lower division and general education courses, said University Registrar Cem Sunata. The Student Success Fee helped to alleviate “congestion” in those classes, he said. Next year, however, admin-
BUDGET continued from page 1
whether this $1.1 billion reserve is detracting from money that could be used for other programs or to reduce the
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istrators will have nearly seven months from when University President Jeffrey Armstrong approved the Student Success Fee budget in February until newly hired faculty begin this September. Because of this, Ikeda said, it will be easier for departments to hire new professors and, in turn, help students find room in classes they need to graduate. There are no statistics to show how many professors Cal Poly will hire using Student Success Fee money, Ikeda said, because their salaries are a combination of regular university money and the fee. There are, however, numbers that show an increase in classroom seats available in Fall 2012. According to an Academic Affairs quarterly report, Cal Poly added 10,338 total seats in classes during fall. The majority came in the College of Liberal Arts and College of Science and Mathematics, together totaling 7,200 new seats. The College of Engineering gained 1,445 seats, while the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences and College of Architecture and Environmental Design opened 840 and 724 spots, respectively. The Orfalea College of Business opened just 65 seats. The disparity in increases is mainly because of the number of general education courses each college offers, Sunata said. “A very large majority of general education courses are offered through the College of Liberal Arts, so every stu-
We’re doing what we can to increase access to classes, but students are part of the equation as well. KIMI IKEDA ASSOCIATE VICE PROVOST
dent, in a way, is a College of Liberal Arts student at least in their general education need,” he said. “And (College of Science and Mathematics Dean) Phil Bailey would say every student who needs general education courses in math and science are their students. So those two colleges support the university in general.” Cal Poly used a combination of moving classroom locations, changing times of classes and increasing faculty funding to increase the available seats, Ikeda said. In addition to changes from the university, Ikeda hopes students will make sacrifices to make it easier for them to find class times that work with both their schedules and the college’s. “We’re doing what we can to increase access to classes, but students are part of the equation as well,” she said. “That means taking them at times that aren’t at a desired time and taking classes with faculty members who aren’t their preferred faculty.” With a larger budget next year — the fee in-
creases annually until Fall 2014, when it will cap at $260 per quarter — approximately $7.2 million will be spent on classes. Though it represents a 24 percent increase in dollars, it is a 3 percent decrease in the amount of the Student Success Fee overall budget aimed at opening classes. Earlier this month, Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) President Katie Morrow said lowering the percentage was because of physical space on campus needed to hold additional classes. Cal Poly implemented the Student Success Fee after a 2012 campus debate that led to a student vote in which 57 percent supported the fee. It began this past fall at $160 per quarter and will increase to $210 next fall before capping at $260 in Fall 2014. Each year, a student majority committee makes a recommendation to Armstrong on how to spend the fee. The group, officially named the Student Success Fee Allocation Advisory Committee, is chaired by the ASI president and Cal Poly vice president of administration and finance.
state debt. said CSU public “The debate will affairs assistant probably be over Liz Chapin. how big of a reserve The California there should be,” state legislature Palmer said. “Some has until June will want to put less 15 to approve or in the reserve so we deny the budcan spend more get, which would money on other go into effect in programs, but the July. The issue JERRY BROWN governor believes of how much that $1.1 billion is a money to keep in prudent amount.” the reserve is up for debate by Palmer said this reserve is the California legislature, but important because it is where Brown has the power to linethe state will draw funds in item veto any reductions they case of emergencies such as make to the reserve fund. natural disasters. “(The reserve amount) will “For example, if for some be determined by the goverreason it costs more than what nor before he signs the budget,” is budgeted to cover wildfire Palmer said. suppression, then we would As to whether any surplus draw from the reserve,” Palmer money may escape the reserve said. “It’s oftentimes referred to to instead benefit higher eduas the ‘rainy day fund.’” cation, Palmer said the issue is California State University as much a part of the debate as (CSU) representatives said anything else. because the budget has not “That would depend upon yet been approved by the Cal- what the legislature’s spending ifornia legislature, nothing priorities are,” Palmer said. can be said as to whether any Cal Poly students have voiced surplus funds would benefit their own concerns on the higher education rather than topic. Mechanical engineerbe reserved. ing junior Kyra Wells said at “At this point, none of the this point, she would be more additional revenue from Jan- likely to support paying off the uary to May that would be state debt before adding funds associated with such a sur- to education. plus is coming to the CSU,” “After Prop 30 passed, it seems
like there’s already a pretty big portion of the budget set for education,” Wells said. “I think that for the state, as a whole, it’s probably best to focus on using the surplus to start paying off the debt.” The proposed budget plan itself places a high dollar amount on education, with the majority of budgeted education money going toward elementary and high schools. Universities are represented with a proposed 11.4 percent of state funds, amounting to $11,109 million. Palmer said K-12 schools and community colleges are receiving the majority of the aid based on current legislature that guarantees them support. “Higher education doesn’t have the same constitutional guarantee,” Palmer said. “The governor’s proposal would provide for predictable year over year increases for the (Univeristy of California) and the CSU over the four year period, but those increases would be predicated due to a certain number of circumstances.” Ultimately, nothing can be decided until there are tangible funds to use, but the anticipation of those funds has been enough to start a heated debate. “We predict that we’re going to be in a positive place over the next few years,” Palmer said.
MDnews 3
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Rebuilding begins MICHAEL MUSKAL MATT PEARCE
that eerily followed almost the same route as the deadly storm of May 3, 1999. About 46 people were killed in the earlier tornado, which caused more than $1 billion in damage. State officials said at least 24 bodies had been taken to the medical examiner’s office since Monday, including those of nine children, most of whom were killed when the tornado destroyed the Plaza Towers Elementary School.
“We don’t have any firm numbers,” Fallin said. “BodLos Angeles Times ies have been taken to the medical examiner’s office. We State and local officials vowed have also heard that bodies to rebuild this bereft subwere taken to local funeral urb, shattered by a tornado homes. We hope to have betthat brought death and master numbers on that.” sive destruction, even as they More than 200 responders fought poor weather to push worked through the night, ahead with rescue efforts. especially around the Plaza At an afternoon news conschool, Moore Fire Chief ference, officials including Gary Bird told reporters. But Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin they had to be pulled off the and Moore Maysearch several or Glenn Lewis times because of We will rebuild and we will pledged to condanger posed by tinue to search lightning. regain our strength. every piece of Persistent property three thunderstorms MARY FALLIN times to account hampered reGOVERNOR OF OKLAHOMA for all survivors covery efforts and the missing. throughout “We will reTuesday mornbuild and we will regain our At least seven students died at ing and weather forecasts strength,” said Fallin, who the school, one of five schools were not encouraging with sesaid she had just taken an in the area to be damaged by vere rain and possible hail exaerial tour of the path of the the storm. pected. The National Weather tornado that swept through On Monday night the death Service also noted that there the area Monday. The storm toll was put much higher, at was a possibility of more torcarved a 20-mile-long swath 51, but state officials Tuesday nadoes in some parts of Oklaof damage. morning revised the count homa and other states. “It was hard to look at so much downward, blaming commuOfficials warned people debris on the ground,” she said nications problems for some to stay out the devastated of the damage zone, which was double counting. More than zones so that property could about two miles wide. “In many 120 people have been injured, be checked and re-checked places, homes have been taken but that figure, too, is expect- for survivors. The few civilaway. It is just sticks and bricks. ed to rise. ians who had trickled in took Street signs are gone.” Officials at the news confer- cover where they could when Officials were still trying to ence were hesitant to give exact the rains hit, though in some figure out the number of casu- numbers, saying the situation parts of town, there were no alties and the cost of damaged remained too unclear as rescue more roofs and awnings to property from the tornado and recovery efforts continued. hide under.
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
Following the destruction of Monday’s tornado, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Moore, Okla. Mayor Glenn Lewis committed to accounting for all survivors and missing people. Emergency workers continued their search-and-rescue work, which, with restrictive checkpoints, has paralyzed residents’ return as much as the damage has. A National Guard member prohibited reporters from following a long column of rescuers into one of Moore’s ruined neighborhoods, as lightning threatened overhead and power line poles lay draped over the road. Earlier Tuesday, President Obama pledged that his administration would do all that it could to ease the pain of Monday’s tornadoes. His
televised statement came in addition to calls Monday and Tuesday to state and local officials offering help. “The people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground, there for them, beside them as long as it takes,” Obama said. “For there are homes and schools to rebuild, businesses and hospitals to reopen, there are parents to console, first responders to comfort, and, of course, frightened children who will need our continued love and attention. “There are empty spaces
where there used to be living rooms, and bedrooms, and classrooms, and, in time, we’re going to need to refill those spaces with love and laughter and community,” he said. At their news conference, local officials praised the Obama administration response. Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters that his agency was prepared to back up state and local efforts. “It is unfortunate we are seeing once again what tornadoes can do,” he said.
Obama to meet with Chinese president in California ALEXANDRA ZAVIS Los Angeles Times
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
Tim Cook defends Apple’s tax practices JIM PUZZANGHERA Los Angeles Times
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook strongly defended the company’s tax practices Tuesday at a Senate hearing highlighting the technology giant’s use of Irish subsidiaries to shelter billions of dollars in income from U.S. taxes. “We pay all the taxes we owe — every single dollar,” Cook told the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. “We not only comply with the laws but we comply with the spirit of the laws,” he said. “We don’t depend on tax gimmicks.” Cook said the tax code “has not kept up with the digital age” and restricts the free movement of capital in comparison to the codes of other countries. He called for a “dramatic simplification of the corporate tax code,” including lower tax rates and a “reasonable tax on foreign earnings.” He said Apple was “deeply committed to our country’s welfare.” “We are proud to be an American company, and we are equally proud of our contributions to the U.S. economy,” Cook said.
The panel’s chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., called Apple “an American success story” with a “well-earned reputation for creativity.” He admitted that he carries an iPhone. But he said that doesn’t excuse the company’s tactics, which the subcommittee’s investigation found helped Apple avoid paying at least $9 billion in U.S. taxes in 2012. “Apple executives want the public to focus on the U.S. taxes the company has paid, but the real issue is the billions in taxes it has not paid, thanks to offshore tax strategies whose purpose is tax avoidance, pure and simple,” Levin said. Such tax avoidance by U.S. multinational companies hurts because it increases the federal budget deficit, forcing average Americans to make up the difference with a higher tax burden, he said. Levin said Apple “is exploiting an absurdity” that allows three of its subsidiaries in Ireland to claim they have no responsibility to pay taxes to any country. One of the companies, Apple Operations International, which has no employees but reported $30 billion in income
in four years, has not filed an income tax return in any country for the past five years, the subcommittee investigation found. A second company, Apple Sales International, holds the economic rights to Apple’s intellectual property in Europe, Asia and Africa. The subsidiary had $74 billion in sales income from 2009-2012 but paid less than 1 percent in taxes to Ireland. The tactic, which is legal, is possible through complex cost-sharing agreements that transfer the economic rights to the valuable intellectual property behind the iPhone, iPad and other products to subsidiaries outside the U.S., Levin said. “Many U.S. companies, including Apple, use transfer pricing to shift intellectual property rights to offshore affiliates and then direct income associated with that intellectual property — taxable income that would otherwise flow to the United States where the intellectual property was developed — to the affiliates’ home jurisdiction, which is typically a tax haven,” Levin said. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
said he and his colleagues should make it clear they admire Apple’s achievements in creating some of the world’s most popular electronics products. But he said its tax strategies are “unacceptable” and hurt smaller U.S. companies that don’t have the ability to shift profits to foreign subsidiaries. McCain said Apple “has violated the spirit of the law, if not the letter of the law.” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., came to Apple’s defense. “Frankly, I’m offended by the tone and tenor of this hearing,” Paul said, calling the session a “show trial.” He noted that Corning makes the Gorilla Glass for Apple products in Kentucky. “I’m offended by a $4 trillion government bullying, berating and badgering one of America’s greatest success stories,” he said. “Tell me what Apple’s done that is illegal.” Congress should apologize for creating a “bizarre and byzantine tax code” and should compliment Apple for its job creation, he said. “They’re doing what their shareholders ask, which is to maximize profit,” Paul said.
President Barack Obama is to meet with President Xi Jinping in California next month, their first meeting since the Chinese leader took office in March. The meeting is scheduled for June 7-8 at Sunnylands, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage. In a statement Monday, the White House said the two leaders will “review progress and challenges in U.S.China relations over the past four years and discuss ways to enhance cooperation, while constructively managing our differences.” In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters that China is willing to work with the United States to strengthen relations. “This year, Sino-U.S. relations have got off to a good start and are facing an important opportunity for development,” Hong was quoted as saying by the Reuters news service. “Of course, some differences exist between China and the United States, which require proper and active management by both sides.” U.S. officials are pressing China to use its influence to help persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. Beijing’s patience with its communist ally appears to be wearing thin after North
Korea unleashed a torrent of fiery threats against the United States and its allies in Asia this year, threats that Chinese officials worry are leading to an American military buildup in the Pacific. Beijing publicly rebuked North Korea over a nuclear test in February and other provocations, voting with the United States in support of U.N. Security Council sanctions. The Bank of China, the country’s largest state-owned bank, this month said that it had ceased dealings with the North Korean Foreign Trade Bank. Washington has also stepped up complaints about cyber-espionage, as more large-scale hacking attacks on the U.S. government and businesses have been traced to China — accusations that Chinese authorities dismiss as groundless. Also likely to be on the agenda are economic issues and tensions in the South China Sea, where China is asserting sovereignty over islands and reefs that are dangerously close to the shores of Japan, the Philippines and other U.S. allies. U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon will travel to Beijing on May 26-28 to prepare for the meeting, the White House said. Obama and Xi last met over a year ago, when Xi visited the United States as vice president and leader-in-waiting.
MDarts 4
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
SLO poet laureate is a man of the outdoors KASSI LUJA
kassiluja.md@gmail.com
When Jerry Douglas Smith was in high school, he hated poetry. He thought all poetry dealt with the teacher’s idea of the poem’s meaning, he said. It wasn’t until approximately 25 years ago that he found his niche. When his mother passed away, Smith wrote a brief part of a poem for the memorial and was told his writing was “poetic.” It’s been approximately 22 years since he “started writing poetry knowingly,” he said. Now the 70-year-old is the 2013-14 San Luis Obispo poet laureate. Kevin Patrick Sullivan was the 2003 poet laureate and San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival co-founder. “The poet laureate program is a great thing and we’re grateful to the city that they support the poets this way,” Sullivan said. “It’s a special deal and all of the poet laureates have had a marvelous ride.” A poet laureate is chosen by the festival board, he said, which currently consists of four people. “We put out a call to the public at large and the poetry readings — all the local poetry readings,” Sullivan said of seeking poet laureate nominations. Nominees don’t have to be San Luis Obispo residents, but they do have to be from the county. Smith was nominated by two people, Evelyn Cole and 2011-12 poet laureate Bonnie Young, Sullivan said. “Not only is he a very interesting poet, (but) he gives his poetry and his enthusiasm for it throughout the community,” Cole said about Smith.
Cole describes Smith’s poetry as “alive” and, at times, humorous. “Every time he goes somewhere, he writes wonderful stuff about it,” Cole said. After nominations have been made, the festival board chooses a poet laureate based on various criteria including their written work, their work in the community and capability of representing the city, Sullivan said. Smith’s community work comes in part by way of his hosting the monthly poetry reading “Second Sunday at Seven” in Morro Bay, he said. But before being involved in the San Luis Obispo County community, Smith grew up as an only child in Salida, Colo., 7,000 feet above sea level in the Rocky Mountains. “Salida was a great place,” Smith said. “There were two rivers that ran through town.” Smith enjoyed outdoor activities as a kid, including hunting arrowheads on the weekends for recreation, he said. Once he turned 21, he relocated in order to attend Cal Poly, where he studied wildlife biology, though he didn’t graduate. His love for the outdoors is still evident through the continuous enjoyment he finds fly fishing and playing golf on occasion. Smith also said he has a “pretty extensive garden.” “Anything outdoors, that’s what I enjoy doing,” he said. His appreciation for nature is just part of what has helped bring life to his work. “Most of it comes from my experience outdoors, I guess,” Smith said. “You never know what’s going to spark a good poem — a story you hear,
something you read about — you just never know.” Smith has notebooks filled with ideas, one of which he carries in his fishing vest. “I always carry something because you never know what you’re going to see or what two ideas might get juxtaposed,” he said. Smith said many times when he compares two things that aren’t normally associated, he comes up with interesting perspectives. This juxtaposition can be seen in his poems “WindDrinkers” and “The Maya.” “My daughter and I visited the Mayan ruins, and we were the only people there except for the guide,” Smith said. “It was a different experience because there used to be 20,000 people sitting around this square and we were the only ones there. There’s hardly anybody that lives in this valley anymore.” Smith said his poem “The Maya” juxtaposes the demise of the Mayan culture with the feeling he felt sitting there with his daughter and a local guide. “Rains cease./The Maya eat their seed corn./Reigns of divine kings devolve/into obsidian depths,” the poem reads. Most of Smith’s writing is done in his San Luis Obispo home, approximately 20 yards away from Prefumo Creek, he said. Since the start of his poetic career, Smith has written approximately 400 to 500 poems and has won “50 to 70 contests,” he said. This experience surely helped his odds of attaining his two-year poet laureate title. Smith is now the 13th San Luis Obispo poet laureate.
COURTESY PHOTO
Jerry Douglas Smith, San Luis Obispo poet laureate, has won more than 50 poetry contests. “I’d known most of the poet laureates in the past and I was honored to be in that group,” Smith said. English lecturer and 2009-10 poet laureate James Cushing said the honor places recognition on one’s work in the field of poetry. “There’s no money involved,” Cushing said. “I figured that my role was to continue to write and send out my poems and to be available for readings.” Though Cushing didn’t get asked to do any more readings than before he took on the
title, he was asked to judge a couple of contests. Smith has also judged a lot of contests as poet laureate. “I was one of the judges in what’s called (the) Poetry Out Loud contest, which is (when) high school students compete to go to the state contest and the state contest competes to go to the national contest of Poetry Out Loud,” Smith said. Poet laureates have also been working with The Tribune during National Poetry Month — a relationship taking root more than a decade ago.
Since 2002, the poet laureate has chosen the poems that run every Sunday in The Tribune each week for that month, Sullivan said. This is something Smith continues in his role as the San Luis Obispo poet laureate. “Jerry is doing a great job,” Sullivan said of the man he describes as compassionate and strong. “He’s definitely somebody most people would like to know.” Smith has no current readings planned other than the San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival this November.
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MDarts 5
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Madonna Expo Center: reggae no more MUSTANG DAILY STAFF REPORT
arts@mustangdaily.net
The Alex Madonna Expo Center is changing its taste in music. Banquet and special events manager Kristen Trevino said that after a series of techno DJs and reggae groups performed in the 2,000-person hillside venue, management has decided those genres “just don’t represent the Madonna Inn as well as we wanted,” and will no longer offer shows of that variety at the Expo Center. In the future, the Expo Center shows will be tailored to fit Madonna’s image, Trevino said, meaning the venue will be host-
ing more country artists and ’80sthemed concerts. While the decision to halt DJ/ electronic music had already been made, the tipping point to end reggae concerts was made after the J Boog and Rebelution concert in March. The full-house younger crowd and reggae music prompted “a lot of pot smoking inside and outside the building,” Trevino said. “With reggae, there was a lot of drug use, which is not what we want to have reflect on the Madonna image,” Trevino said. “It was not as responsible. People were getting rowdy before even entering the facility and doing drugs in the bathroom.” But the biggest problem for this
concert was sound control. “We had complaints from people miles away,” Trevino said. “And when we looked into it, we found that a lot of the people complaining about the noise were people that had been in this city for a long time.” But not all of the Expo Center’s recent concerts caused conflict. Trevino said the Expendables (another reggae group from Santa Cruz) concert was easier to manage based on the smaller turnout, and soft-rock groups were a hit. “Both the Postal Service and Modest Mouse concerts were fantastic,” Trevino said. “They had great turnout and no issues. It had a lot to do with the crowd ... the average age was 27 to 30, maybe even
older, and people had fun but didn’t get out of hand.” Child development senior Stacy de Robertis-Theye, who attended the Postal Service concert, found it to be energetic, but not overly rowdy — even though it was a sold-out show. “It was mostly just loyal fans who were excited to see a band whose songs they had memorized for years,” she said. “I don’t think it was any worse than a typical concert. I mean, it was loud, but not especially loud compared to any other act I’ve ever seen.” De Robertis-Theye said she saw lots of people smoking cigarettes, but as for marijuana and other drugs, she saw none — which Tre-
MUSTANG DAILY FILE PHOTO
The Alex Madonna Expo Center will no longer host DJ or reggae concerts following complaints from local residents. However, special events manager Kristen Trevino said The Postal Service show in April (pictured) was “fantastic.”
Keeping it cool New Doc Burnstein’s to replace former Coldstone location MUSTANG DAILY STAFF REPORT
arts@mustangdaily.net
San Luis Obispo’s Coldstone Creamery may be closed, but locals can still get their ice cream fix — at the same location, where Doc Burnstein’s Ice Cream will opens its third store. “I’ve been interested in getting into San Luis Obispo for a few years, and that seemed like the perfect location,” founder Greg Steinberger said. “Been serving ice cream there for 17 years, and people just know that as the ice cream spot ... the opportunity just presented itself.” The ice cream shop was started in 2003 in Arroyo Grande and opened a second shop in Orcutt
in 2012. The ice cream parlor focuses on “superior, high quality ice cream,” Steinberger said. The San Luis Obispo shop will be designed much like the original Doc Burnstein’s. There will be a viewing window to watch ice cream being made, a signature model railroad train circling the parlor, indoor and outdoor seating and ice cream production on-site that will produce approximately 20,000 gallons of ice cream per year just for San Luis Obispo. Steinberger said there will also be “a surprise element that everybody will have to check out when they come into town.” Instead of having a special Arroyo Grande and Orcutt flavor, though, Steinberger plans to cre-
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ate a “SLO-unique flavor.” The shop will be looking to Cal Poly students for ideas on what would be an appropriate flavor to represent San Luis Obispo life, he said. The shop will be under construction for the next two to three months, but until then people can get a taste of what’s to come at Farmers’ Market starting this week. Allison Montroy contributed to this staff report.
vino said was a case in the music genre and average age of attendees. The themes of “responsibility” and “community” were stressed in properly representing the Madonna Inn. “We want to be bringing acts that encompass the ideals of Mr. Madonna,” Trevino said. “And his construction, building a lot of highways in California, and building a lot of San Luis Obispo.” Overall, Trevino said the decision to shift performance genres was based on wanting “to abide by permits and keep everybody happy while still offering concerts.” Allison Montroy contributed to this staff report.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013 Volume LXXVII, Number 112 ©2013 Mustang Daily “How do I make a Goolge Doc?”
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Diversity is bane, benefit to society Zachary Antoyan is a political science junior and Mustang Daily liberal columnist. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked the question: “What does diversity mean to you?” And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the response: “An old, old wooden ship, that was used during the Civil War era.” To tell you the truth, attempting to pin down diversity into a sentence or an article or an essay is a fruitless endeavor, as we have given a name to the most common aspect of humanity: the fact that we are all different. However, pitting it as a social construct and shoving it down the throats of the youth, there are those that aim to somehow prove that because we are all different, we are all the same. It is because the 65 percent caucasian school I attended appears to have a issue with diversity, or the lack thereof, that I ask the following question: At what point does the notion, promotion and application of diversity become a detriment to society? One major caveat must be put forth before we continue: I am not trying to make diversity out to be a good or a bad thing. Diversity, in its own right, is its own entity. As such, it deserves to be interpreted by the individual. However, following the mentality that even too much ice cream can be a bad thing, I will assert that the excessive promotion of diversity can lead to a diversity tummy ache. When an entity, public or private, supports diversity, all they are saying is that they support the differences between human beings. But what is expected by this support is something that has been socially constructed, and as a result, distorted to become a hot-topic buzzword. Though the intent is to show that the entity is progressive and inclusive, the true effect becomes the labeling of diversity as an issue. Even when diversity may not have been an issue before, the attention drawn in its direction implies there is one now.
The conventional wisdom of the word “diversity” links it with some sort of problem, and indeed it would seem that the lack of diversity in any one place, begets some sort of issue. Whether it is about sexual orientation, race, gender, socioeconomic status or any other form, we believe that only if we were to promote diversity in the school, or promote diversity in the workplace, or even the community, our lives would be better for it. This method of thought holds that diversity is the link to solving gender gaps, class struggles and race relations. Entities then try to promote it in the interest of combatting these issues. Diversity is seen as the answer to all of the problems that are present in our society, or at least the problems that people see. Entities then try to promote it in the interest of combatting these issues. Promotion of this concept most commonly comes in the form of diversity training workshops. In a short threehour seminar, you too can become aware of all the people around you! Humorous is it that a company would pay for someone to come and tell you for three hours that you should watch what you say, or that there are different types of people out there. Recent research at Eastern Washington University suggests that: “Many such pro-
grams garner negative reactions from participants. Charges of ‘political correctness’ and ‘white-male bashing’ may typify such responses.” Diversity workshops are but one example of how theoretical diversity promotion is viewed positively, but in practice it clashes with preconceived notions of the actors and polarizes opinions. Convictions of diversity are so far-flung among people that these workshops can have detrimental effects on those who attend them. It is possible our method of thought leads us to believe
that if only we had more diversity, or if only people could understand others better, all the problems of the world will be fixed. The misinterpretation of the issue has led to the radical promotion of it in ways that paint diversity as the issue. Our current idea of diversity doesn’t embrace the differences we have — it isolates them — and places them into categories while creating stereotypes. We are told in school and in the workplace that we should always be tolerant of others and their values. But when we are forced to identify with ideologies, races or ethnicities, we are
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also forced to take sides. “History is also littered with lost civilizations that failed to set high standards for appreciating the unique-ness of others while also recognizing a common humanity. Part of the human condition is struggling for this balance,” the researchers wrote. This balance is the common ground that all must strive to stand on, as entrenching one’s self on either side of the battlefield only exacerbates the problem. Diversity has become a problem, not in the literal sense, but instead on the metaphorical level, where we struggle with the very idea of inclusionary acts and differences between humans. Such an instance can be found in higher education, where Anthony Kronman examines the role of diversity in that sector: “The diversity debate has tended to divide its participants into two sharply opposed camps — those who insist that racial and ethnic diversity is an educational good, and those who deny that it is ... It is my belief — my hope — that one can be supportive of the diversity argument and skeptical about it at the same time.” What Kronman is asserting is exactly how I would like to address diversity, something that we can all strive to understand, but in doing so, remain critical of its arguments. This is Zachary Antoyan, thinking that you’re damn right the tree doesn’t make a sound if no one is there to hear it.
Conservatives shunned from college commencements KEVIN HASSETT
Los Angeles Times
We have once again entered the college commencement season, which means we’ll soon be reading about uplifting graduation speeches delivered by prominent Americans. Or at least by prominent liberal Americans. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that conservative speakers aren’t welcome on college and university campuses. Last month, in the span of a few days, student protests disrupted a presentation by Karl Rove at the University of Massachusetts and one by Rand Paul at Howard University. That same week, former Bush administration official Robert Zoellick withdrew as a commencement speaker at Swarthmore College, while Obama critic Ben Carson did the same at Johns Hopkins. Zoellick pulled out after being attacked by students who said he’d helped instigate the Iraq war — a preposterous claim considering he was the U.S. trade representative at the time the conflict began. But even Zoellick’s supporters on campus didn’t mount much of a defense. A well-meaning campus newspaper editorial implied that Zoellick should be allowed to speak because he was not one of the truly evil Republicans — like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald
Rumsfeld or Paul Wolfowitz — who rightly should be personae non gratae on campus. If Zoellick, a moderate gentleman with an impressive record promoting women’s rights as president of the World Bank, can’t speak on a college campus, no Republican can. Indeed, a look at the data suggests that is how things are trending. There are many lectures on college campuses on any given day, and assessing the relative proportion of liberals and conservatives is a difficult task. Commencement addresses, however, provide a good measure. Virtually every school has at least one, and they are prime opportunities for speakers to address an entire campus community. To gauge how rare it is for a conservative to be invited to speak at a college graduation, I looked at commencement and other announced graduation event speakers for 2012 and 2013 from the top 100 universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges (according to the U.S. News & World Report rankings). Then I tried to identify them as liberal or conservative based on their party affiliation, if I could determine it. For public officials, I looked at the party affiliations of those they served. I then looked up speakers in a database of campaign contributions, noting whether speakers had donated to can-
didates from one party or both. If a speaker endorsed a presidential candidate in 2012, I noted that as well, and identified the speaker with that candidate’s ideology. In 2012, the political leanings of 84 people were identifiable. In 2013, with speakers still being announced, 69 are. In 2012, only one Republican elected official was invited to speak at a top 50 liberal arts college: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell at the University of Richmond. The top 100 universities invited three Republican officeholders: Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal spoke at both the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology, and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham spoke at Clemson. Missouri Rep. Sam Graves spoke at the University of Missouri. No Republican official spoke outside of his home state. When one expands to former Republican political appointees, the picture only changes slightly; Colin L. Powell (who endorsed President Obama in the last election) spoke at Northeastern University, and Condoleezza Rice spoke at Southern Methodist University. There were no conservative speakers at Ivy League commencements and no conservative elected officials who spoke outside of the South. Democrats, on the other hand, were everywhere. Six-
teen speeches were given by Obama administration officials alone. All told, and including the data on political contributions, there were only three identifiably conservative speakers at the top 50 colleges and 12 at the top 100 universities, compared with a total of 69 identifiably liberal speakers. The results for 2013 are similar, though not all the schools had named their speakers when I did my research. With Zoellick’s withdrawal, no current or former Republican public official is scheduled to speak at the top 50 colleges, and only four will address the top 100 universities — with Jon Huntsman the only one outside of his home state. Again, there are no conservatives scheduled to speak in the Ivy League. Newark, N.J.’s Democratic mayor, Cory Booker, who is speaking at Washington University, Cornell and Yale, has as many addresses as all current elected Republicans combined. Factoring in campaign contributions and public endorsements, liberals outnumber conservatives by about 6 to 1. America’s liberal arts colleges are especially hostile territory, and the few conservatives who are invited to speak at them, such as David Brooks of the New York Times, tend to be on the moderate side. Aside from a Reagan-appointed federal judge, who
was honored in 2012, the only other honorees whose political affiliations could be discerned through campaign contributions or federal appointments were all liberals, including 18 who have donated to Democratic campaigns, seven who served as members or advisors to Democratic officials and three who ran for office under liberal parties, such as a former gubernatorial candidate in California who was nominated by the Peace and Freedom Party. Obama won the votes of the majority of college students in November because many of them were predisposed to vote for him before they attended college and because many of them began to find their political identities at the colleges themselves. There is no question that a primary objective of today’s academic institutions, which allow conservatives to be shouted down if they are invited at all, is not to educate students but rather to educate reliable Democratic votes. America has become much more polarized over the last few decades, and observers have blamed politicians and gerrymandering. But some of the blame lies elsewhere. America’s institutions of higher education have become some of the most polarizing institutions in our society. Students who pass through them are remarkably well-prepared to join our uncivil political discourse.
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MDsports 8
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
SHARING
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It’s nearing 11 p.m. at a parking garage in downtown San Luis Obispo, and not a car is in sight. Business administration junior TJ Perrin stands at the structure’s exit, phone in hand. It’s on speakerphone, and he can just make out the rumblings of the controlled chaos happening on the parking garage’s top floor. Suddenly and clearly, words ring out of Perrin’s iPhone. “On your mark.” “Get set.” His finger hovers over the timer’s start button. “Go.” He hits the stopwatch.
The screech of skateboard wheels on cement soon becomes deafening. After flying down the parking garage’s five floors in a mere 35 seconds, biological sciences sophomore Hugo Alvarez rounded the turn out to the exit, passed Perrin’s finish line and nabbed first place at Central Coast Freeride’s parking garage circuit race. Central Coast Freeride (CCF) is a community-based longboarding club that Perrin established his freshman year. CCF aims to link up those who longboard — a style of skateboarding that focuses on downhill runs and freeriding — with those who support the scene. The club is “for skaters, people who are passionate about long-
boarding, not just dudes who own a skateboard,” Perrin said. “Central Coast Freeride represents a form of communication between sponsors and skaters,” Perrin said. “We’re one way to access around 50 skaters on the Central Coast. Skateboarding’s typically a pretty disorganized sport, so something like this helps.” Although Perrin and his friends tried to get the club established through Cal Poly, Associated Students, Inc. did not grant its approval. “Skateboarding’s illegal in SLO, so there’s automatically a stigma there because pretty much every time you go skating, you’re doing something illegal,” Perrin said. “It’s tough for
Cal Poly to endorse something like that because they’d have a lot of liability.” Skateboarding is prohibited on Cal Poly’s campus and in downtown San Luis Obispo — the area between Santa Rosa Street to Carmel Street and from Mill Street to Pacific Street. And even outside downtown, skateboarding is technically only allowed on sidewalks in San Luis Obispo. “It’s just a matter of taking the risk,” Perrin said. He hosted the bracket-style parking garage races by alternating parking garages every Tuesday night for about two months. “One time a cop came while we were doing the garage races and told us to leave, but he was super nice about it,” Perrin said. “He was like, ‘Yo, you can’t be doing this. I wouldn’t kick you out, but we got a call.’ I mean, we did it for months, racing each week, and we didn’t have any real problems.” CCF isn’t looking for any real problems though, Alvarez, who won the parking garage race, said. Actually, they’re hoping for just the opposite: smooth skating. “There’s a stereotype for skateboarders that we’re evil or something and out to cause harm, which is not true. And, as for us, we consider ourselves longboarders, which is almost a different subsection of skateboarding,” Alvarez said. “It’s more about the love and the feel of it. We’re not jumping off stairs or grinding on things, we’re just expressing ourselves through our boards.” Most of the time, the reception is positive. Community members have offered water, moved outside to watch the skaters and even offered up
Skateboarding is a lifestyle; it’s all about being relaxed, being a free spirit and being an artist and individual on and off the board. JONNY MILLER CENTRAL COAST FREERIDE SPONSOR
their homes’ restrooms for bathroom breaks. The club wants to continue bettering the relationship between skateboarders and community members in San Luis Obispo with its “strict smile-and-wave policy,” member Liam Hedriana, an English junior, said. “We’re trying to get a better rep among the community because we need these hills in order to keep skating and keep improving, and it’s no use trying to share it with grumpy neighbors,” Hedriana said. “Really, our first motive, especially when we start skating in a new neighborhood, is to try to be mindful of the neighbors, go and introduce ourselves, always smile-and-wave.” Sometimes, though, CCF doesn’t get a warm welcome. “There was one guy, he had a mustache, and he didn’t like us … at all,” Perrin said. “We just called him the Mustache Man, and we said, ‘If you’re skating, stay away from the hill with the Mustache Man. He doesn’t like us.’ He said he works a long day, and he doesn’t like hearing the sound of our wheels chattering against the ground.” If neighbors like the Mustache Man aren’t receptive to longboarding in their area, CCF moves on. “It was a cool hill and we were bummed, but we got over it,” Perrin said. Perrin’s chill, live-and-let-live mindset is part of the skate-
boarding mentality, CCF sponsor Jonny Miller said. Miller, owner of skateshop Toyland Boardhouse and the self-proclaimed “old guy on the crew” at 49 years old, says that skateboarding is a sport, and also a way of life. “Skateboarding is a lifestyle; it’s all about being relaxed, being a free spirit and being an artist and individual on and off the board,” he said. Although it’s about being an “individual,” Miller said, it’s important to create a community of skaters. And that’s just what CCF provides. “People hit me up all the time like, ‘Yo, I’m coming to San Luis, I found Central Coast Freeride, and this is sick. I definitely want to skate with you guys once I come here.’ And I’m like, ‘Hell yeah dude, that’s awesome,’” Perrin said. “Honestly, if you’re a longboarder, then you’re gonna think Central Coast Freeride is cool.”
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