C AL POLY SAN LUIS OBISPO ’S NE WS SOURCE
MUSTANG NEWS
OMICRON GOES TO SCHOOL
Students and faculty frustrated upon return to campus amid largest COVID-19 surge
IN THIS ISSUE
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LEADERSHIP Tessa Hughes
Editor in Chief, Mustang News
MUSTANG NEWS NEWS
Catherine Allen Editor Lauren Boyer Assistant Editor Sierra Parr Amelia Wu Mckenna Rodriguez Benjamin Anderson Chloe Lovejoy Brett Vollrath Ethan Telles Esther Lo Emmy Burns Allister Loftus
OPINION
Nicki Butler Editor Cassandra Garcia Brayden Martinez Elijah Winn Neta Horesh-Bar Zoe Denton Rebecca Caraway
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Diego Sandoval Editor Kyle Har Gabe Arditti Derek Righetti Gwendalyn Garcia Kylie Hastings Nick Bandanza Noah Greenblatt Andrew Harlow
UPFRONT
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
ARTS & STUDENT LIFE Kiana Hunziker Editor Abigail O’Branovich Alisha Nazar Elissa Luce Lauren Emo Olivia Meis Naomi Vanderlip Addi Krithi Sankar Tini Nguyen Emma Robertson Lauryn LaDuc Mari Stusser
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EN ESPAÑOL Diana Beas José González Mike Esparza Ava Farriday
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Cal Poly is in tiłhini, the Place of the Full Moon. We gratefully acknowledge, respect, and thank yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini, Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County and Region in whose homelands we are guests.
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FOOD PANTRY PROVIDES MORE TO COMMUNITY AMID “UNPRECEDENTED” USE BY STUDENTS STORY BY Cole Pressler DESIGNED BY Coby Chuang
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OMICRON GOES TO SCHOOL:
STUDENTS AND FACULTY FRUSTRATED UPON RETURN TO CAMPUS AMID LARGEST COVID-19 SURGE STORY BY Lauren Emo DESIGNED BY Kayla Olow
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CAL POLY POLO CAPTAIN ENCOURAGES EVERY STUDENT TO COME OUT AND PLAY
STORY BY Anya Dimaio DESIGNED BY Zara Iqbal
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A TRIBUTE TO JOHN MADDEN
STORY BY Noah Greenblatt DESIGNED BY Claire Lorimor
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GOOD LUCK: INSIDE CAL
POLY’S ON-CAMPUS ISOLATION STORY BY Rebecca Caraway DESIGNED BY Zara Iqbal
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FOOD PANTRY provides more to community amid “unprecedented” use by students
BY COLE PRESSLER
NEWS
MUSTANG NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
As a first-generation student at Cal Poly, now-graduate student Oscar Velasco never knew about the food resources, such as the Cal Poly Food Pantry, available to him as an undergraduate struggling with food insecurity. “I just felt that eating Top Ramen was a rite of passage, and that wasn’t the case at all,” Velasco said. “That would have been so much of a burden lifted off of me.” At Cal Poly, 27% of students experience food insecurity, according to a report from 2018.
We have been seeing unprecedented numbers of students accessing our food pantry resources, so the increased funding could not have come at a better time. KARI MANSAGER Cal Poly Director of Wellbeing
“That bothered me so much,” ASI President Tess Loarie, who worked with the Cal Poly Basic Needs Initiative before she was elected, said. “I was like, ‘This is infuriating. Why are we not doing more about it?’” In an attempt to combat this, ASI approved the Campus Health and
JACKIE ESPITIA | MUSTANG NEWS The Cal Poly Food Pantry offers a variety of fresh, canned, packaged and frozen foods for the Cal Poly community at no charge. It is located on the lower level of Campus Health & Wellbeing.
Wellbeing Food Pantry program in March 2020 which provided the Food Pantry with $35,000 for each school year until 2023–24. The Food Pantry, located below the Health Center, allows students to take as much food as they need as often as they want. Due to the funding, the Food Pantry can stay open on weekdays from 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m. instead of the previously shorter hours of 10 a.m.–2 p.m, according to Velasco, a social sciences student who worked in the Food Pantry during the 2020-21 school year.
“ASI came to us and they proposed that idea and we loved it,” Velasco said. “It was just me running the Food Pantry at that time.” The funding also allowed them to hire two student assistants, who work Monday through Friday for up to 20 hours per week. They are responsible for greeting visitors, stocking the pantry and helping coordinate volunteers. One of the student assistants is biochemistry sophomore Sharon Shin, who volunteered at the Food Pantry as a freshman. Shin experienced food insecurity as a Cal Poly
student and said it is much more prevalent than many people think and affects almost every aspect of students’ lives. “As college students, we require proper and adequate fuel for our bodies and individuals experiencing food insecurity are unable to provide this for themselves,” Shin said. “When suffering from food insecurity, our quality of life decreases.” Before the ASI funding, the Food Pantry was completely funded by donations and grants and there were “no long-term funds dedicated
to supporting the Food Pantry,” according to Cal Poly Director of Wellbeing Kari Mansager. “When people are happy and they want to donate, you get money, and if they don’t, you don’t get money,” Loarie said. “That’s really problematic for people who rely on this as a resource to be constant.” Mansager praised the funding’s benefits on the Food Pantry. “Having this additional assistance has been instrumental in adequately serving food pantry visitors,” Mansager said. “It has been great to be able to use the ASI funds to hire
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JACKIE ESPITIA | MUSTANG NEWS
edented numbers of students accessing our food pantry resources, so the increased funding could not have come at a better time,” Mansager said. “At the beginning of the quarter, we were needing to spend almost $1,000 per week to keep the pantry stocked. Without this additional funding, that would not have been a sustainable amount for us to be spending based on what we take in in donations alone.”
MUSTANG NEWS
When suffering from food insecurity, our quality of life decreases SHARON SHIN Former Food Pantry volunteer JACKIE ESPITIA | MUSTANG NEWS
who are sometimes tight on cash ... to have a resource on campus that’s easy to access,” Ruiz said. She added that she believes Cal Poly should be doing more to promote the Food Pantry, as stigmas surrounding food insecurity are still prevalent. “[Stigmas] definitely make it harder for students who can benefit from that resource to go and access it because of the feeling of judgment or embarrassment,” Ruiz said. Velasco said he thinks there should
be more advocacy about food insecurity including educating students on financial literacy and connecting them with programs like CalFresh. “With the pandemic, students are more destigmatizing food insecurity, but it’s also been the new normal,” Velasco said. “More students have fewer resources and fewer financial outlets so they’re using whatever they can to get by.” Other food resources Cal Poly students can utilize include Meal Vouchers and the Mustang Meal
Share. “[For] students who are low-income or just need extra help finding free, healthy food, I want them to know that there’s no shame in getting that help,” Ruiz said. “It’s a resource that’s there for us to use. You shouldn’t feel embarrassed or nervous to go.” You can donate to the Cal Poly Food Pantry through their page on the Cal Poly Basic Needs website.
NEWS
Earth and soil science sophomore Lilliana Ruiz said she had used the Food Pantry a few times during the fall quarter. “I’ve had nothing but a good experience there,” Ruiz said. “Everyone is really friendly and the process is super easy. When I do go, it’s something I look forward to.” Ruiz grew up as a low-income student and relies on scholarships and grants to pay her college fees. “I’m grateful for the Food Pantry and those resources on campus because they allow students like me
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
students who are helping us to be the best resource we possibly can for students.” The pantry orders anywhere from 1,000-3,000 pounds of food weekly from the San Luis Obispo Food Bank, which is an increase from monthly orders compared to previous school years, according to Basic Needs Coordinator Kari Howell. “We do our best to get what students want and have established ‘staples’ for the Food Pantry,” Howell said. “This includes pasta, sauce, produce and soups.” The pantry usually receives at least two weekly donations from Greek life students, the Community Garden and parents and supporters, according to Howell. The Real Food Collaborative, a Cal Poly student organization, also donates Cal Poly-grown produce to the pantry weekly. Howell is a first-generation low-income college graduate and grew up receiving food service benefits. “I know what my collegiate experience could have been like had my university had a food pantry,” Howell said. “I’m proud to work for this program.” During the 2020–21 school year, Velasco said roughly 1,000 students visited the Food Pantry in total. “Most classes and services were virtual but the Food Pantry was one of the few programs that offered in-person services for students,” Velasco said. Since the start of the 2021 fall quarter, however, Howell said up to 400 students visit the Food Pantry each day. “We have been seeing unprec-
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FACULTY PETITION FOR SOLUTIONS TO CAL POLY’S COVID-19 POLICY SHORTCOMINGS
NEWS
MUSTANG NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
Jackie Espitia | MUSTANG NEWS Students wait in line to get tested for COVID-19 at the University Union testing location. All students were required to get tested on campus during the first week of the quarter BY SIERRA PAR
Cal Poly Administration has rejected the demands of a petition signed by nearly 4,000 community members following a week of mass frustration and record-breaking positivity rates. In a public ASI Board of Directors meeting, Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong said the Jan. 3 start to winter quarter was “a real problem for us” and “not ideal.” Yet he stuck strongly to the COVID-19 testing policy he laid out, unless positivity rates increase further. “It’s very difficult to make decisions based on petitions,” Armstrong said at the meeting. “We really respect the tenor and we also understand the great deal of emotion, but we’re gonna continue to consider those ideas and many others.” The petition argues that lack of testing prior to in-person instruction as the omicron variant surges throughout the country has led to an “egregious” violation of public safety. In a Jan. 13 campus-wide email that
has been fact checked by Mustang News, one of Armstrong’s responses to the community’s concerns was that online classes would not have given the university the same ability to mandate testing and booster shots for all students. “The President’s office has just been painfully silent and frankly disingenuous in their response,” political science professor Michael Latner said. In addition to highlighting the administration’s policy failures, the petition offers several solutions, including mandating the use and distribution of N-95/KN-95 masks on campus, scheduling in-person classes in rooms that have proper ventilation and space for social distancing, giving faculty the option to hold classes virtually for the winter quarter, improving isolation procedures and reinstating surveillance testing. The petition notes that Armstrong rejected two Academic Senate resolutions which suggested improvements to campus health and safety
policy in March and September. Political science professor R.G. Cravens was one of the several members of the university’s faculty union who drafted the petition. “The administration’s policy failures are the whole reason that we’re concerned because they’re trying to sweep things under the rug,” Cravens said. “The less information they have, the better for them, because then they can tell us that we’re being alarmist, and our concerns are unjustified.” Armstrong also said that surveillance testing would lead to more false positive tests and is not currently supported by public health data. Despite the lack of action from the university, Cravens said he was surprised to see how quickly the petition spread organically. “The response and the number of signatures were obviously tapping into the shared anxiety and concern of lots of people,” Cravens said. According to a survey conducted by the Cal Poly faculty union, more
than 60% of surveyed faculty chose to start the first one to two weeks of winter quarter remotely. The petition suggests that this number would have been higher if staff were not fearful of retaliation from the administration. Cravens said he feels a responsibility to stand up for faculty that might not be in a position to speak out against the university. “The administration has a lot of ways that it can negatively affect the careers of faculty who disagree with
them and that’s a big concern,” Cravens said. “That speaks to the power imbalance on campus…That’s why we thought it was best to show a united front with this petition.” While many faculty members embraced temporary remote instruction, those choosing to continue in-person felt similarly dismissed by the university. Natural resources management professor Richard Thompson voiced his discontent with online instruction. “The Cal Poly reputation will be greatly tarnished if we continue to allow faculty to pretend that COVID is so dangerous that vaccinations and masks galore are insufficient when really they just want an easy income or to project their political opinions,” Thompson said in an email to Mustang News. “It has truly devolved to the old axiom - ‘I’ll pretend to teach and they’ll pretend to learn.’” However, Cravens argues that moving online while the campus community had the chance to be tested would have kept students’ best interests at heart. “This is the largest outbreak of COVID on campus since the beginning of the pandemic,” Cravens said. “Many of the faculty felt that because the administration isn’t doing anything about that, it’s our responsibility to try to protect as many people as we can, including ourselves and our students.” The union is set to hold an emergency town hall meeting to further rally support for the petition on Jan. 17. “The goal to move students back into the classroom was tremendous and tremendously misguided,” Latner said. “It’s not just about student’s health but really the university’s almost total disregard for the health of faculty is what’s been most disturbing.”
More than 60% of surveyed faculty chose to start the first one to two weeks of winter quarter remotely
REDISTRICTING SAN LUIS OBISPO:
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The Political Implications of the County’s New Representation Layout
BY LAUREN BOYER AND PAYTON WALKER
OLD MAP MUSTANG NEWS TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
NEW MAP NEWS
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to adopt a redistricted map of the county last month. In the 3-2 vote, the three republicans — John Peshcong, Lynn Compton and Debbie Arnold — on the Board backing it and the two democrats — Bruce Gibson and Dawn Ortiz Legg — dissenting. This redistricting happens every 10 years after the census data is released, of which then citizens are encouraged to submit their own redistricted map of the county. The new map voted in by the board was submitted by Richard Patten, an Arroyo Grande resident and Republican, and it was backed by the local Republican Party. There are many changes with this new map, even though the census data did not point to much change in the San Luis Obispo county population, according to Gibson. District 2, which Gibson represents, currently consists of Los Osos and coastal towns all the way up to Monterey. With this new map, Los Osos, Morro Bay and Cayucos — which share a 10-mile stretch of coastline — will be in three separate districts. Los Osos will also be an unincorporated community with no elected leadership and will not get to vote in the 2022 primary. This is because they were removed from District 2 and moved to District 5, which does not have an election until 2024. “Coastal residents have a certain outlook and values they would like to see represented, so, quite reasonably, they should be able to elect somebody that represents those values,” Gibson said. “Now they’ve been fractured, cracked and packed and it just creates a disruption that is going to be bad for governing.” Gibson said he feels that the redistricting process is supposed to be about the voters choosing how they want to be represented, not about supervisors thinking which redistricting map would benefit them the most. “You can see that it was really quite clearly an effort to give advantage to the Republican Party at the disadvantage of the Democratic Party and that’s explicitly prohibited in the
state statute,” Gibson said. The state statute Gibson is referencing was put into place by the California Legislature in 2019 when the redistricting process was amended, which says “the board is prohibited from adopting supervisorial district boundaries for the purpose of favoring or discriminating against a political party.” Oceano has also been moved from District 4 into the district with Grover Beach and Avila, and, according to Quinn Brady, a local community advocate and New Times freelance writer, this will move it away from communities it shares interests with and will dilute the Latino vote. The San Luis Obispo County Citizens for Good Government is filing a lawsuit to try and overturn the decision on the basis that the new map is gerrymandering. The decision will then be at the court’s discretion. If a lawsuit had not been filed, this new map would have gone into effect Jan. 13. “Redistricting in general is super common in many places all over, and it’s meant to be a practice of making things fair and just and a democratic process,” Brady said.
OMICRON GOES TO SCHOOL
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Students and faculty frustrated upon return to campus amid largest COVID-19 surge LILY TENNER | MUSTANG NEWS Masked students attend Survey of Western Art (ART 112) during week 2 of winter quarter.
ARTS & STUDENT LIFE
MUSTANG NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
BY LAUREN EMO
The first week of winter quarter looked different for all students at Cal Poly this time around. As some students scrambled to make it to class on time after waiting in hour-long testing lines, other students emailed their professors informing them of their inability to attend the first week of classes in person since they had to quarantine due to exposure or isolate after testing positive for COVID-19. Mechanical engineering sophomore Max Jorgenson was one of these students, isolating at his home in Pleasanton during the first week of instruction. “A great way to start off 2022,” Jorgenson said sarcastically after re-
ceiving a positive test on New Year’s Day. However, Jorgenson was not alone in experiencing disruption of his first week back from winter break because of the Omicron variant. While students returned to campus for the first week of classes on Jan. 3, Cal Poly experienced its largest surge of COVID-19 cases and students say they are feeling the major impact of the Omicron variant on campus. In just the first week of winter quarter, more than 1,000 positive COVID-19 tests have been reported at Cal Poly, according to the Cal Poly Campus Dashboard. Regardless of the rising numbers, Cal Poly is still holding classes in person. In a campus-wide email sent on Jan. 1, Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong said that “Cal Poly will remain one of the safest places and activities you can be a part of throughout next week and all of winter quarter.” Despite these claims from the administration, some students are not feeling safe and protected at this time.
Students say they don’t feel supported by the university Business freshman Rhyen Werner lives in the yakʔitʸutʸu residence halls and said she is frustrated with the lack of concern there is across campus regarding the spread of Omicron. On the fourth floor of tiłhini, where Werner lives, she has witnessed an “outbreak” of COVID-19 cases. “It’s kind of been frustrating because there’s been people who have not really been taking it seriously, like no precautions from people who’ve been testing positive, them not wearing masks around, still hanging out in the conference rooms, not even trying to quarantine whatsoever,” Werner said. After discovering her next-door neighbor in the residence hall tested
positive for COVID-19, and that other students living on her floor were experiencing symptoms, Werner and her two roommates took at-home antigen tests as a precaution on Jan. 5. Werner and one of her roommates received a negative result. However, Werner’s third roommate came back positive. After testing positive, Werner’s roommate contacted the university and was advised to stay in her room until the isolation team contacted her with further instructions. Fearing exposure, Werner said that she and her other roommate who tested negative took it upon themselves to check into a hotel until their positive roommate could be relocated. Werner spent two nights and two days in a hotel until her roommate was finally taken to another facility. “That’s not really fair to us so we’re just not feeling very supported by the school obviously,” Werner said. Other students, who are living off-campus with roommates that have tested positive are also dealing with isolation in different ways.
Biological sciences sophomore Liz Mandziara lives off-campus in Mustang Village Apartments and has been quarantining since her roommate tested positive after New Year’s Eve. “We’ve been going crazy with sanitation, wearing masks around the apartment, which is kind of weird,” Mandziara said. “We also have been wearing gloves too, to make sure that we are as safe as possible.” Liberal studies sophomore Amanda Richardson also lives off-campus with four roommates. Richardson tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan 4. at the Cal Poly Health Center. However, due to a high density of cases, she said that health center appointments have been backed-up and Richardson’s roommates were unable to get tests immediately. “I’m honestly lucky to be positive and know that I’m positive at this point because with my roommates, we’re all exposed to each other and it’s hard for them to get a PCR to know if they’re positive or negative,” Richardson said.
Departments, the choice that many professors have made to hold the first two weeks of their instruction virtually comes from an agreement made by the Academic Senate early in the pandemic, which allowed professors to have up to 25% of their course online. “This was not an option that was sent out by anyone,” Bates said, “So in that sense, it was individual faculty making the choice to do this. There was no email from the administration inviting us or telling us we can do this.” In a press release sent out by the CFA on Jan. 5, Call said they conducted a survey before the first week of school in which 514 faculty responded. Of those 514 responses, 60.7% of Cal Poly faculty that were scheduled to teach in-person reported that they decided to meet virtually the first week of the quarter.
LIZ MANDZIARA Biological Science Sophomore
Additionally, the petition calls for the resumption of the wastewater testing program to detect possible outbreaks in the dorms, the continuance of ongoing surveillance testing, adequate space provided for social distancing and the freedom for faculty to choose the modality of their course for the rest of the quarter. According to Brian Bates, a professor with a split appointment in the English and Interdisciplinary Studies
Mandziara and Werner, who are both members of the Cal Poly cheer team, said that their practices had been canceled due to the spread of Omicron, and said that it has been setting them back both in individual skills and as a team. “It causes us to go back on practices and we’re not progressing,” Werner said. “We’re having to relearn and rework stuff because it’s hard to do things where you need all of the team and they’re not all there.” For Mandziara, she said that changes due to Omicron have been impacting her mental health. “Cheer has usually been like a stress-relief outlet for me, and so not having that is kind of sad. It’s just honestly harder to like do every day,” Mandziara said. “Then, with every update, it’s just getting harder and harder to find the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Not only has the health center been overwhelmed with testing, but counseling services have seen the impact of Omicron on students as well, according to Call. “I’m sure it’s an added stressor,” Call said. “CFA also represents the counselors who work at the counseling center, they are also faculty. So I know that my colleagues on the counselor faculty are very, very busy, understandably, because students have so much anxiety about Omicron and about getting their work done.” As students reflect back on their first week of Winter Quarter 2022, many have said it is characterized by the impact the Omicron variant has had on the campus and community. “It is really depressing when you step back and think about it, and look at how long the lines are for testing and just the whole situation,” Mandziara said. “When you really think about it, it’s crazy. Even though it’s been so long, I still can’t believe that this is our world.”
ARTS & STUDENT LIFE
Whilst students have faced issues of exposure due to the testing protocols, faculty, too, are susceptible to exposure in these high-risk situations within classrooms and campus facilities. “Faculty are finding out that they may have had covid positive students in their classes, but they weren’t aware of that, so that’s causing some concern,” Lewis Call said, who is a history professor and the Chapter President of the California Faculty Association (CFA) at Cal Poly.
It is really depressing when you step back and think about it, and look at how long the lines are for testing and just the whole situation. When you really think about it, it’s crazy. Even though it’s been so long, I still can’t believe this is our world
The effect on extracurriculars
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
Faculty are being forced into unsafe cirucumstances
With regard to the concerns about transmission in classes, many faculty members have taken it upon themselves to speak up on behalf of campus safety. According to Call, faculty members have petitioned for the use of N-95 and KN-95 surgical masks throughout the classroom — a recommendation that President Armstrong recently sent out to the campus as of Jan. 6.
Students who were in isolation with COVID-19 during the first week of school expressed difficulty finding the motivation to complete their coursework. History sophomore William Hultgren tested positive with Omicron on Jan. 1 and was isolating from his home in Menlo Atherton for the first week of school. He described having mild cold symptoms, including congestion and a headache. “Now it’s a little bit harder to do work, especially with like an annoying headache,” Hultgren said. “Yesterday I should have done work but I just had to go sleep. Now, the only thing is [I] just feel behind.” Jorgenson expressed a similar feeling of falling behind in coursework. “I like being in [San Luis Obispo] while everyone’s working because that gives me the motivation to work,” Jorgenson said. Most students have conveyed gratitude for professors’ understanding and willingness to accommodate their situations while they are quarantining or isolating. Likewise, faculty members have taken note of the additional pressure that Omicron is adding to students’ first week back. “I guess I’m really feeling for you all right now,” Bates said. “It seems to me like there is a lot for you to do on the ground in-person, and the idea of having classes in-person right now as the numbers continue to rise. That strikes me as pretty stressful for you all.”
Physical health is not the only thing taking a hit
MUSTANG NEWS
Richardson and her roommates have decided to isolate themselves together, despite not having direct confirmation that they have all contracted the virus through a test. After taking her test, Richardson attended her Tuesday classes, as directed by the school, before receiving a call informing her of the positive result. Richardson informed the Health Center of her class attendance on the call. This quarter’s new testing protocol had students test throughout the entire first week, instead of being required to show proof of a negative result before coming to campus and attending classes. Although Armstrong stated in a campus email on Jan. 6 that, “our classrooms to date have remained safe with no known transmission of the virus,” this new testing protocol meant students, like Richardson, were put in a position where they could unknowingly spread the virus throughout their classes.
Student motivation on the decline
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CLOTHING RESELLERS ADDRESS
THE ETHICAL DILEMMA OF UPSELLING SECOND-HAND CLOTHING
ARTS & STUDENT LIFE
MUSTANG NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
BY NAOMI VANDERLIP
Scrolling through the fashion marketplace app Depop, thousands of thrifted finds flood its users’ screens. Buyers sift through $50 slip dresses, vintage band tees and an assortment of other hot commodities. This influx of resold clothing and accessories paired with steep prices has sparked a conversation about the ethics of reselling used clothing, according to local resellers like junior Advaitha Bhavanasi and employee of Old Mission School Thrift Shop Susana Toner said. Depop is one of many reselling platforms, along with other apps, such as threadUP, The RealReal, Poshmark and Instagram to sell old garments. Susana Toner said she’s noticed an increase in prices of used clothing overall, but that their store aims at keeping costs reasonable. “Everything that we sell is looked up to see its retail prices, and then we try to give a fair price based on obviously the condition of everything,” Toner said. Pricing also goes in hand with increased demand for thrifted items, Toner said. “Stores can get away with charging more because they know someone will buy it eventually,” she said. Toner said reselling can be an asset for individuals who would rather not thrift themselves and would pay more for curation, but said resellers need to be mindful of their purchases. “When [resellers] just come in and take a lot of clothes from the people who need them at the thrift store prices, that kind of gets out of hand — when they buy more than they need,” she said. Fred and Betty’s Thrift Store assistant and creative manager Megan Arlo said thrift store prices can be
attributed to the different needs of stores along with inflation and increasing wages. In regards to the reselling community, Arlo said she wholly encourages the practice as it is mutually beneficial on both sides.
The gentrification of thrift stories and just [generally] everything is becoming increasingly more of an issue because sustainability has become more of a trend than like a lifestyle... ADVAITHA BHAVANASI Business junior and active reseller
“[I] definitely have seen people resell stock from our store, which is fair game,” Arlo said. “If you come out and you find it and get a certain price then more power to you if you’re able to sell it for more than us.” Not only does reselling allow sec-
ond hand material to reach a wider audience, more thrifted inventory on social media brings more people into stores, Arlo said. Due to the sheer amount of clothing available and eventual textile waste, Arlo said reselling does not hurt those that rely on thrifted items. “If you walk through any Goodwill-type store, there’s aisles and aisles of clothing,” Arlo said. “This one, awesome clothing piece a person is reselling is not necessarily going to affect the chances of someone who is more in need of finding something because while it may not be the most trendy, it will be affordable. Stores in San Luis Obispo vary on their policies for unsold inventory. Old Mission School Thrift Shop serves as a last stop for much of its inventory and unsold items after 4-5 months are thrown out, said Toner. Unsold clothes at the Assistance League of San Luis Obispo County Thrift Store are given away to other nonprofits, according to their assistant manager Susan Pino. Fred and
Betty’s works with another company to recycle the fabric and linens of unsold inventory, Arlo said. Statistics junior Caitlin Lota estimates 90% of her clothing is thrifted or secondhand. She resells occasionally, mainly when clothing she has bought does not fit her. Lota said instead of donating her clothing, reselling allows her to see the cycle of her clothing and ensures more longevity. “A lot of the clothing that gets donated ends up in the landfill anyway, so I’d like to resell it myself to make sure it goes to somebody who actually wants it,” she said. A more specific issue Lota has noticed is the lack of inclusion of larger
sizes in the industry. “A lot of clothing that are larger sizes are usually branded as oversized and not the actual size,” she said. “[An issue is] buying out these clothing [that are] already hard to find and reselling it at a higher price.” Lota said higher prices are justified in certain situations. “You’re paying that person for their time spent in the thrift stores [because that takes patience and skill],” Lota said. “Also, a lot of people who resell will upcycle the clothes, so if it
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has a [problem], they will fix that — so you’re also paying for that service.” Computer science freshman and Depop seller Ian Loo said reselling is one of the factors of rising costs of thrift stores but is not entirely responsible. “More people are shopping at their stores, not necessarily reselling, but because it’s more affordable [than retail options],” Loo said. Loo said overall the good of buying secondhand and through resellers outweighs the negative. “Either way, you’re reusing clothes,” he said. “It’s more sustainable and better if you buy thrifted clothes rather than the alternative to buy new clothes.” Business junior Advaitha Bhavanasi started reselling during high school but revived her work with a friend through an Instagram and Depop storefront recently. She describes her shop as “eclectic and vintage,” often incorporating handmade or upcycled clothes and featuring an occasional styling video. Bhavanasi said the reach of gentrification, defined as the process of making a product, activity or other forms of commerce appealing to those with more affluent tastes, has the potential to have real repercussions in the thrifting scene. “The gentrification of thrift stories and just [generally] everything is be-
coming increasingly more of an issue because sustainability has become more of a trend than like a lifestyle, so people are going thrifting and not considering how their presence is causing people to not have clothes,” Bhavanasi said.
[I] definitely have seen people resell stock from our store, which is fair game, if you come out and you find it and get a certain price then more power to you if you’re able to sell it for more than us. MEGAN ARLO Assistant & Creative manager of Fred and Betty’s Thrift Store
Yet, she said the ultimate blame weighs on stores themselves since the sheer amount of clothes begs another question. “But at the same time there’s just
FENN BRUNS | MUSTANG NEWS Vivian Jameson, frequent thrifter, looks through the clothing racks at Goodwill.
so much that I feel it is possible for everyone to have some,” Bhavanasi said. “I think the real problem is why stores feel like they need to increase prices rather than there not being enough for anyone, no matter how much money you have.” In terms of ethics, the pair made an effort to give back to charities and organizations.
“Every drop that we did, we had a focus on another organization [and would donate part of our proceeds],” Bhavanasi said. “It ranged from like 15% to 30%.” Bhavanasi said she also tried to price fairly, weighing in the cost of curation, shipping and affordability. In regards to what to keep in mind, Bhavanasi said buyers from resellers
should “know where the money is going,”— whether it’s to the reseller’s main form of income, a side hustle or to charitable organizations. For resellers, Bhavanasi suggests they can limit how much they buy from thrift stores, leaving clothes behind for others to purchase and remain fair when calculating pricing.
MUSTANG NEWS TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
FENN BRUNS | MUSTANG NEWS Goodwill, located on Higuera Street, is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. every day.
ARTS & STUDENT LIFE
FENN BRUNS | MUSTANG NEWS Goodwill offers a collection of second-hand clothing.
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EMILIE JOHNSON | MUSTANG NEWS Camilla McFall exercises her horses after a restful winter break at the Central Coast Polo Club in Los Osos
AFTER A MAJOR VICTORY, CAL POLY POLO CAPTAIN ENCOURAGES EVERY STUDENT TO COME OUT AND PLAY
SPORTS
MUSTANG NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
BY ANYA DIMAIO
When her family encouraged her to give polo a try at the beginning of high school, Carter Nix was hesitant. She’d grown up jumping horses and games of polo did not sound like something she’d be interested in. Her uncle and cousins were involved in the sport, but despite their efforts to intrigue her, she resisted for months. After a consistent chorus of “come out and play!” Nix reluctantly agreed to take a lesson with professional polo player Sunny Hale, who she now refers to as “the best female polo player to ever live.” To her surprise, she was immediately hooked. “It’s definitely not all champagne and big hats. There’s a lot of things behind the scenes going on,” Nix, who is now the captain and president of the Cal Poly polo team — and an international polo champion said. Nix played on the winning team in the U.S. Open Women’s Handicap Polo Championship on Nov. 12-14 at Houston Polo Club in Houston, Texas, beating 11 teams from around the world. Now that she is back on campus, she encourages any interested student to get involved. “Anyone can join, literally whenever. We always need more help around
here,” Nix said. “The more hands we have, the less work.” Students can play competitively on varsity, or join the junior varsity team to learn and play without the pressure of competition. No previous polo or riding experience is necessary to join the JV team, and students can learn everything they need to know about the game. That is what biology junior Cort Rowley did. He joined the team with no previous polo experience and is now playing for men’s varsity. “I grew up riding western and had never experienced English riding or polo for that matter,” Rowley said. “The entire polo team at Cal Poly welcomed me with open arms. They are teaching me everything that they know and I’m loving every minute of it.” Because of polo’s tie to horses, it is generally very expensive to get involved with and is often associated with royalty and extreme wealth in popular culture. Cal Poly’s program is working to disrupt this narrative by making the sport more accessible to anyone interested in trying. “The best place to learn how to play polo and compete in the sport authentically is in college,” Cal Poly coach and owner of the Central Coast Polo Club, Megan Judge said.
For dues of approximately $300 per quarter, JV students learn to play polo and how to exercise and maintain multiple horses without having to incur the cost of owning and boarding them. Polo first came to Cal Poly’s campus in 1977, which is later than most other collegiate programs that originated on the East Coast in the 1930s. But according to Judge, Cal Poly’s program is not far behind. “Even though we started in ‘77, our program has a lot of clout in the United States and internationally as well because we are catching up to the [University of Virginia’s] and the Cornell’s and the Harvard’s — it’s just that everything takes time,” Judge said. With more regional championships than UC Davis, Cal Poly is currently the top university for polo on the West Coast. The team practices at the Central Coast Polo Club, a regional polo center in Los Osos, tucked away behind an aging electric gate that swings open to reveal a polo arena and a landscape of rolling green hills and horse stables. Additionally, the 2018 grand opening of the Oppenheimer Family Equine Center on Cal Poly’s campus has provided more space for the
team to use when needed. Practices began during fall quarter with a weekly time commitment of 10-12 hours per week, which increases to 16-20 hours per week for varsity students during the winter quarter — the height of the competitive season. During the winter of 2022, practices will take place at the Central Coast Polo Club on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. with opportunities to scrimmage on weekends.
The entire polo team at Cal Poly welcomed me with open arms. They are teaching me everything that they know and I’m loving every minute of it. CORT ROWLEY Biology junior
Along with the skills needed to play the game, the Cal Poly polo program
provides an encouraging learning environment that supports students like Nix and Rowley to succeed in all aspects of their lives. “The team is just kind of like one big family,” Nix said, who now hopes to play polo professionally after college. “Hard work is always seen. If you work hard, someone is always going to notice and it’s always gonna pay off.”
SCAN TO WATCH OUR COVERAGE ON HOW THE TEAM PREPS FOR THEIR SEASON
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EMILIE JOHNSON | MUSTANG NEWS Cort Rowley rides Spiderman at the Central Coast Polo Club in Los Osos
DESPUÉS DE UNA GRAN VICTORIA, EL CAPITÁN DE POLO DE CAL POLY ANIMA A CADA ESTUDIANTE A SALIR A JUGAR tan saber acerca del juego. Esto es lo que hizo el estudiante de biología Cort Rowly; se unió al equipo sin experiencia de polo y ahora está jugando en el primer equipo de los hombres. “Crecí montando western y nunca había experimentado equitación inglesa o polo” — dice Rowley. “Todo el equipo de polo de Cal Poly me dio la bienvenida con los brazos abiertos. Ellos me están enseñando todo lo que saben y disfruto cada minuto.”
Todo el equipo de polo de Cal Poly me dio la bienvenida con los brazos abiertos. Ellos me están enseñando todo lo que saben y disfruto cada minuto. CORT ROWLEY estudiante de biología
de una antigua puerta eléctrica que se abre para revelar un escenario de polo y un paisaje pintoresco de cerros verdes y cuadras de caballos. Además, la gran inauguración de 2018 del Centro Equino de la Familia Oppenheimer que está en el campus de Cal Poly ha provisto más espacio para el equipo cuando sea necesario. Las prácticas empiezan durante el trimestre de otoño con un compromiso de cumplir 10-12 horas cada semana, lo que aumenta a 16-20 horas cada semana para los estudiantes del primer equipo en el trimestre de invierno; el apogeo de la temporada competitiva. Durante el invierno de 2022, las prácticas tendrán lugar en el Club de Polo de la Costa Central los martes, jueves y viernes de 10 de la mañana a una de la tarde con oportunidades para jugar un partido amistoso los fines de semana. Junto con las habilidades necesarias para jugar, el programa de polo de Cal Poly provee un ambiente de aprendizaje que apoya estudiantes como Nix y Rowley para tener éxito en todos los aspectos de sus vidas. “El equipo es como una familia grande” — dice Nix, quien espera jugar polo profesionalmente después de la universidad. “El trabajo duro siempre es apreciado. Si trabajo mucho, alguien siempre se dará cuenta y siempre valdrá la recompensa.”
SPORTS
Debido a los vínculos del polo con los caballos, generalmente es muy caro participar en polo y a menudo es asociado con la realeza y riqueza extrema en la cultura popular. El pro-
grama de Cal Poly está trabajando en cambiar esta idea para ampliar el acceso del deporte a cualquier persona interesada. “El mejor lugar para aprender a jugar polo y competir de una manera auténtica es en la universidad” — dice Megan Judge, la entrenadora de Cal Poly y la dueña del Club de Polo de la Costa Central. Por aproximadamente $300 por trimestre, los estudiantes del equipo junior aprenden a jugar polo y a ejercitar y mantener los caballos sin el costo de poseerlos. Polo apareció por primera vez en Cal Poly en 1977, lo cual es más tarde que la mayoría de los otros programas universitarios que se originaron en la costa oriental en la década de 1930. Según Judge, el programa de Cal Poly no está muy atrás. “Aunque empezamos en 1977, nuestro programa tiene una influencia relativamente grande en los Estados Unidos e internacionalmente también porque nos estamos poniendo al corriente con la universidad de Virginia y de Cornell y de Harvard — es que todo lleva tiempo” — dice Judge. Con más campeonatos regionales que UC Davis, actualmente Cal Poly es la mejor universidad para polo en la costa oeste. El equipo practica en el Club de Polo de la Costa Central, un centro regional de polo en Los Osos, atrás
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
SCAN TO LISTEN TO A KCPR NEWS WRAP ON NIX’S TOURNAMENT WIN
Después de un coro constante de voces diciendo: “¡sal y juega!” — Nix aceptó sin mucho afán a  tomar una lección con la jugadora de polo profesional Sunny Hale, a quien ahora se refiere a ella  como “la mejor jugadora de polo que haya existido”. Para sorpresa suya, ella se entusiasmó. “Definitivamente no es todo champán y sombreros grandes. Hay muchas cosas que están pasando detrás del escenario” — dice Nix, quien ahora es la capitana y presidenta del equipo de polo de Cal Poly — y una campeona de polo internacional. Nix jugó en el equipo ganador en el Campeonato Abierto de Polo Hándicap Femenino de Estados Unidos el 12-14 de noviembre en el Club de Polo Houston en Houston, Texas, venciendo a 11 equipos de todo el mundo. Ahora que ella ha regresado al colegio, ella anima a cualquier estudiante interesado a participar. “Cualquiera puede unirse, cuando quiera. Siempre necesitamos más ayuda” — dice Nix. “Entre más manos tengamos, hay menos trabajo.” Estudiantes pueden jugar competitivamente en el primer equipo o unirse al equipo junior para aprender y jugar sin la presión de la competencia. No se necesita experiencia en polo o montando a caballo para unirse el equipo junior y estudiantes pueden aprender todo lo que necesi-
MUSTANG NEWS
El artículo fue originalmente escrito en Inglés. La traducción en Español fue hecha por Mieke Esparza. Cuando su familia la animó a intentar polo al principio de la escuela secundaria, Carter Nix dudó. Ella misma creció con caballos de salto y juegos de polo no sonaba como algo en que ella estaría interesada. Su tío y sus primos estaban involucrados en el deporte, pero a pesar de sus esfuerzos por interesarla, ella resistió por meses.
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A
Tribute to John Madden
BY NOAH GREENBLATT
MUSTANG NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
Noah Greenblatt is a journalism freshman and Mustang News sports reporter. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang News. On the afternoon of Christmas day, John Madden assembled his closest friends and family around the TV. The occasion: a documentary about him and his career, “All Madden,” was set to premiere and he wanted to watch it with the people he loved. As the documentary progressed, Madden and those around him couldn’t contain their joy at what they were seeing, and smiles lit up the whole room for all 90 minutes of the runtime.
Madden’s entire career is legendary (all three of his careers, to be more specific), but it’s his coaching that put him in the Hall of Fame. NOAH GREENBLATT
SPORTS
Mustang News Sports Multimedia Journalist
The next day, he and his wife Virginia celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary together. Two days later, something deemed impossible (or at least, improbable) by many became a stark reality: John Madden, legendary broadcaster, Hall of Fame coach of the Oakland Raiders and video game pioneer, passed away on Dec. 28 at the age of 85 years old. Before he went on to his illustrious career, Madden was a lineman with
a history of knee injuries. In 1957, he transferred to Cal Poly, where he won all-conference honors at offensive tackle. In 1958, Madden was drafted in the 21st round by the Philadelphia Eagles, but suffered a final injury to his knee in his first training camp, ending his playing career without having had an opportunity to play professionally. So, he became a coach. Madden’s entire career is legendary (all three of his careers, to be
more specific), but it’s his coaching that put him in the Hall of Fame. Madden spent all 12 seasons of his NFL coaching career with the Oakland Raiders, 10 of them as head coach from 1969-1978. When he was appointed, he set the first of his many benchmarks and records: he became the youngest-ever head coach in NFL history at the age of 32. During his 10 seasons in charge of the Silver and Black, he won American Football League (AFL)
Coach of the Year in his first season, coached seven Raiders into the Pro Football Hall of Fame — a place he himself arrived at in 2006 — and only missed the playoffs twice. However, his crowning achievement had to have been his 1976 Super Bowl XI Champion Raiders squad. That year, the team won their fifth division championship in a row (their sixth in seven seasons), finished with the best record in the NFL and are still considered one of
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the greatest teams of all time. However, it turned out that all the success, including becoming the youngest coach to ever win a Super Bowl at the time, had not only given him nothing left to do as a coach– it left him burned out, tired and ready to walk off into retirement.
NOAH GREENBLATT
And so, retire he did, at the age of 42. He finished his career with a 103-32-7 record, which remains the best winning percentage, at 75.9%, of any coach who won a minimum of 100 games. Despite this, Madden never liked to live in the past. The first season after his retirement, he joined CBS Sports as a color commentator for the NFL. Then, in 1981, in perhaps the
“Then it will take years,” he famously replied. Well, it took two, and the franchise has sold north of 130 million copies of the famous “Madden” video game since its release in 1988. The game in football heaven can finally be played. The lineup cards, with names of those long gone, and those gone too soon — like Sayers, Starr, Tillman, Payton, Seau, Taylor and McNair — can finally be filled out. The coaching staffs — like Shula, Halas, Landry, Walsh and Brown — can finally be assembled. The plays
can finally be drawn up. The last piece of the puzzle has now arrived: John Madden. Madden is with Summerall once again, calling games and sharing laughs for the rest of time and leaving us with only the memories. Thank you, Coach, for everything.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
Mustang News Sports Multimedia Journalist
“doink,” (that one–nobody had heard before). Yet the most famous of these moments belongs to the introduction of the Madden Cruiser, the giant tour bus that, due to his aversion to flying, Madden used to get from game to game. Madden would often make many stops along the way to his games — signing autographs, doing meet-and-greets and just being Madden. However, he wasn’t done yet. He still had one more piece to add to his illustrious legacy. In 1984, John Madden was approached about making a football video game. He immediately agreed, so long as the game was 11-on-11. Only 7-on-7 play was allowed by technology at the time and he was warned that it could take years to build a game that squeezed 22 players on one screen.
MUSTANG NEWS
The last piece of the puzzle has now arrived: John Madden. Madden is with Summerall once again, calling games and sharing laughs for the rest of time and leaving us with only the memories.
greatest production move in the history of American sports television history, Madden replaced Tom Brookshier as lead analyst and joined another all-time great in the booth: Pat Summerall. Together, they formed one of — if not the — greatest broadcast duos ever. Madden and Summerall worked with each other every Sunday for the next 22 seasons, across two networks and eight Super Bowls. Through their words and wisdom, Americans not only sat at their TVs watching the game, but listening to the duo as they played off of each other expertly. Summerall brilliantly served as the straight-man, playby-play announcer while Madden took on the role of the hilarious and fun-loving analyst, who still somehow managed to remain serious enough to expertly and clearly explain, inform and educate football fans around the country with his insight into the plays on the field. He was, to put it simply, the best. Madden’s list of all-time great moments in the booth is as endless as his expertise. Most famous among them are his breakdown of the “family” of Gatorade buckets on the Giants sideline during their Super Bowl XXI win and his usage of exuberant phrases like “boom!” and
SPORTS
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GOOD LUCK: Inside Cal Poly’s On-Campus Isolation BY REBECCA CARAWAY
The Hoof is a satire column created to find the humor in the daily life of Cal Poly students. If you’re looking for news, this is not it. If you’re looking for sports, this is kind of it, because we’re having a ball. Ha. Puns. Rebecca Caraway is a journalism junior and Mustang News opinion columnist. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang News.
OPINION
MUSTANG NEWS
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
You Find Out You Test Positive You get a call that says UNKNOWN from San Luis Obispo county. You don’t have to answer it to know what they are going to say. You tried to ignore the slight tickle in the back of your throat but now your fears are being confirmed. You tested positive for COVID-19. Now, even though you tested positive, you have to walk all the way from your on-campus residence to the health center to get re-tested because the saliva test you did at the University Union isn’t FDA approved. You go to the health center, wait in line outside, and when you finally get inside, you sit next to other people as you fill out your information on a computer. No one can answer your questions. They are either busy on the phone, talking to someone else, or simply don’t have the answers you need. Then they send you outside until someone calls your name, where you will receive a nose swab to give yourself the test. No one will tell you where you go to isolate or what your exposed roommates should be doing. They just send you back to your apartment, with your roommates, and wish you good luck. You tell your roommate to move their stuff to the other bathroom so you don’t expose them further. In your roommate group chat you make arrangements to use the kitchen, promising to wear a mask and sanitize everything when you’re done.
Two Hours After Testing Positive You finally get a call from the Health Center confirming your results. De-
spite the CDC’s new five-day isolation guidelines, you are instructed to stay in isolation for 10 days, because you won’t be given a green pass, even if you’re asymptomatic. The only way to leave is if you test negative after your fifth day in isolation. “If you feel like you’re dying, you probably are, so call 911,” the guy on the phone says to you. Thanks, great bedside manner. He ends the call by wishing you good luck.
Six and Half Hours After Testing Positive After waiting in your room you get an email containing your isolation instructions and location. You pack all the stuff you can think of and head down to the Cerro Vista community center. A girl walks outside, lays your room key on a bench a few feet away from you and says, “Good luck.” You get to your new home to discover you’re isolating in a four-bedroom apartment with five other girls and you’re sharing your room. So not only do you have to put your life on hold, do school online, monitor your symptoms, try not to go crazy, but now you have to do all of this in the same bedroom as a complete stranger. You and this new stranger will get comfortable rather quickly, as you have to share one desk and one wardrobe, and you constantly feel like you’re on top of each other.
The Next Day You try to heat up breakfast in the oven only to discover that your school threw you into the apartment with no way to cook any of the food you brought with you, so you feel hungry, abandoned and sick. You
don’t get to eat until noon when your isolation meals arrive. Meals are delivered straight to your door every day between 12-1 p.m. Each day you have to fill out a survey requesting what meals you would like for the next day. You don’t get to choose the kind of food you want, but instead if you want breakfast, lunch and/or dinner, and you have to pay for all of these meals out of pocket or with your dining points. Breakfast is $8, lunch is $10 and dinner is $12. This means that unless you brought groceries, you will have to pay $30 for the next ten days which comes out to $300 for your whole isolation. Even if you did bring your own groceries, there is no way you cook because your oven and stovetop are broken and the kitchen comes with no plates, pans, bowls, cutlery or anything else required for cooking. If you’re lucky, maybe your roommates will be nice enough to bring you some of the dishes you all share to use during your isolation. You could DoorDash food, but you aren’t allowed to leave your apartment to go meet the driver. After six hours of waiting to hear back from housing about the oven and stove, you are finally able to fix it. You’re relieved to have one thing go right. At least now you can make
something out of the few groceries you remembered and the one pan your roommate brought. The isolation page on the Cal Poly website promises a dining meal kit for when you get to your isolation apartment. This meal kit is supposed to include “a microwaveable mac n’ cheese cup, tomato basil soup, granola bars, fruit cups, crackers, a bottle of water and a cutlery kit.” Instead, this meal kit came with a cup of ramen, popcorn, bags of nuts, fruit snacks, crackers and cheez-its. While this isn’t the worst thing you could have gotten, it is a disappointment when you were told you could get mac and cheese and soup. In isolation, your days feel long and slow. You lack the motivation to do the little school work you have, but try to do the bare minimum to not fall behind. Sometimes you just stand by the window and watch the
outside world move on without you. You monitor your symptoms and take the vitamins your mom gave you when she moved you in. You keep realizing how much you forgot to pack but you feel too bad to ask your roommate to do another trip to drop stuff off. Every day you get an email asking if you need anything — if you do, don’t count on getting it or anyone responding. You keep reminding yourself that this is only ten days. Soon you’ll be back in your own apartment, going downtown with your roommates and going back to work. It’s just 10 days. Good luck.
“THIS LITTLE NICHE COMMUNITY”
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What jewelry making means to student crafters and creatives BY EMILY TOBIASON
There’s so many women in SLO that have their own small businesses and make art and jewelry and all these awesome things that I never even knew existed.
CHARLOTTE ROSS Cal Poly journalism alumna
Fellow crafter Alex Kandarian, otherwise known as Lizard Muse, has sold his jewelry, art and clothing at all three of the pop-up shops. Kandarian said the event’s interactive booths and setup amazed him. “Especially as queer folks and artists, it’s somewhere to be safe and happy and enjoy community,” he said. “[Lew] has really brought together so many people and made
such an impact on me personally.” Recreation, parks and tourism administration junior Phoebe Saul first became aware of the large and “legit” crafting community in SLO after sharing a class with Lew, she said. Her first and most successful sale was at a Bitchin’ DIY Pop-up shop. Saul started her DIY journey by selling paintings and collages on Instagram. When she received several requests from friends for custom necklaces, Saul archived old art posts and invented Phee’s Beads. Saul began with a set of beads she had collected while growing up and developed a love for the creative process behind jewelry making, especially picking out colors and styles for custom pieces. “It’s really huge just having a creative outlet in college,” Saul said. “I’ve really enjoyed becoming a part of this little niche community in SLO.” Although it can be frustrating to make something she likes and not have it sold, Saul said it is a great feeling knowing she has made something a customer loves. She is working on refining her “cottagecore” style and expanding her sales to sites like Depop and Etsy. For graphic communications sophomore Sadie Curdts and business administration senior Pablo Acosta, their small business — Conozco Crafts — is centered around their relationship. They create pieces inspired by inside jokes as well as personal gifts they have made for
Charlotte Ross | COURTESY Ross models her clay and wire “squiggly” collection.
Conozco Crafts | COURTESY Sun and moon wire earrings made by Acosta.
each other. One of their best sellers is a pair of earrings sporting characters from the stop-motion comedy series “Wallace and Gromit” and was first gifted to Curdts by Acosta for Christmas. Their Conozco Crafts logo was even inspired by a pair of pink glasses worn on the couple’s second date, according to Curdts.
I started [the events] with the goal to be able to raise money and at least use the platform to help some people, because I know that I have immense privilege.
Cal Poly graphic communications senior Phoebe Saul | COURTESY Handmade beaded flower necklaces by Phee’s Beads
Mia Lew | COURTESY A beaded necklace with gummy bear charms.
KCPR
Mia Lew | COURTESY Mia Makes Ice at a local craft fair.
At home, Acosta said his friends tease him for making jewelry, but he doesn’t let that phase him. Not only is it a way for him to bond with his girlfriend, but it is also a means to express himself freely. “I get to be who I really am when I’m in SLO and I think that’s an outlet for me, and what pushed me to get out there with [Curdts] and just not be ashamed,” he said. Curdts said the crafting community is welcoming, supportive and
different from the “mostly conservative” presence she has encountered on campus. This close-knit community is what 2020 journalism graduate Charlotte Ross said makes her jewelry making experience meaningful. “[My business] just evolved into something that has been so beautiful with other artists and other females,” Ross said. “There’s so many women in SLO that have their own small businesses and make art and jewelry and all these awesome things that I never even knew existed.” What started as a way to keep busy during the first COVID-19 lockdown, turned into Ross’ own business: Lobos Earrings. Ross’ love for the outdoors and disco inspired her “boho-funk, earthy” style. Her business grew to attract a large crowd, including indie-pop artist Goth Babe. As a long-time lover of his music, Ross went to see Goth Babe when he came to the Fremont theater in October. After the show, Ross waited to meet the musician and give him a beanie she knitted him. Several weeks later, Goth Babe posted a photo of him wearing the beanie on his Instagram story, according to Ross. “I kept acting like it was no big deal but I could hardly look at my phone, I was so excited,” she said. “It was super rad to see someone whose music and life inspires me so much rocking one of my beanies.” Looking to the future, Ross said she is ready to move away from SLO. However, she has made countless connections and friendships through the crafting community that she is sure will follow her wherever she goes.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022
MIA LEW
Charlotte Ross | COURTESY A collection of Lobos clay earrings.
MUSTANG NEWS
Ever since her mom set up craft stations for her as a child, graphic communications senior Mia Lew has loved getting creative through DIY projects, whether it be selling duct tape wallets or painting custom shoe designs. Then, two years ago, Lew began experimenting with jewelry making and during the COVID-19 pandemic, she started an Instagram account and became “Mia Makes Ice.” “It kind of just took off from there. I grinded on it and made a website and was taking pictures every day — making jewelry every single day,” Lew said. “Now we’re here almost two years later, and it’s still going strong.” From bloody dagger resin earrings to brightly colored beaded necklaces, Lew said she sells to a mostly “artsy and queer” audience. Through her passion for the arts and as an event planning and experience management minor, Lew has put on three “Bitchin’ DIY Pop-up” events — craft sales for local and student creators to share their handmade items — since the spring of 2021. The pop-up shops are a way for Lew to give back to the community, she said. At each event she holds donation drives for various causes, such as toiletries for the local homeless community and holiday gifts for underprivileged children. “I started [the events] with the goal to be able to raise money and at least use the platform to help some
people, because I know that I have immense privilege,” Lew said. Lew also said she loves watching people become “homies” and bond over their crafts at the events.
IMPORTANT ABOUT DIABLO CANYON POWER PLANT
Welcome to Cal Poly. We are glad you have chosen to make San Luis Obispo your home. Located within the county is Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP), a nuclear power plant that generates approximately 10% of California’s electricity. If a serious emergency were to occur that would require you to take action, the County would sound the Early Warning System sirens. The sirens are an indication
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to tune to a local radio or television station for emergency information and instructions. When at sea, tune to Marine Channel 16.
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The siren system is tested regularly throughout the year and may be used for any local emergency.
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Additional emergency planning information regarding DCPP is in the current Emergency Planning calendar, and at www.ReadySLO.org
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