Fresh faces aid baseball. SPORTS, pg. 10
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
WORD ON THE STREET Would you be afraid of an employer seeing your Facebook?
“No, because I purposely cleaned it up for that.” • Jorge Hernandez mechanical engineering senior
“Probably not. I just post pictures I take and like.” • Alex Demello computer engineering freshman
Volume LXXVI, Number 105
www.mustangdaily.net
Employers staying away from Facebook SEAN MCMINN
seanmcminn.md@gmail.com
Those Friday night pictures from downtown can be set to “private” on Facebook, but it might not be enough to stop employers from finding them. A growing trend in Facebookoriented job screenings has been on the mind of human resources professionals during recent weeks. And though the risk of someone having their online privacy invaded during a job interview in San Luis Obispo is fairly low, it may not stay that way. Late last month, a national report detailed the expanding and legal practice of employers requesting social media passwords as part of their hiring practices. After the American Civil Liberties Union took a case in Maryland, a state agency there changed its policy on Facebook checking and became the example in a crusade against invasive hiring techniques. There is no official policy for scanning prospective faculty’s Facebook pages on Cal Poly’s campus, but university officials say it is strongly discouraged. Graphic communication and interim journalism department chair Harvey Levenson said he would never look through an applicant’s online profile to gain more information about them. “We could look at Facebook,” he said. “But background checks are done in
person. Because social media could be distorted.” Using Google or other search engines to find an applicant, however, seems to be more acceptable among employers. Though Levenson does not remember any specific instances of searching the Internet for a candidate, he said it is something he considers to be an OK practice. Legislation is underway in California to enact a law that would outlaw some of the more invasive hiring practices regarding social media. California Senate Bill 1349 would prohibit employers or colleges in the state from requesting usernames and passwords to social media sites from any potential applicants. Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian, who represents San Luis Obispo in Sacramento, wrote in an email that he does not believe any potential employee should be forced to submit their social media login details to a company. “The personal information contained on social media sites has no bearing on a person’s ability to perform his or her job,” Achadjian wrote. “Therefore, access to this information should not be a requirement for employment.” San Luis Personnel Services director Kim Murphy said she has never seen an instance of an employer asking for Facebook information before hiring a job candidate. Her company specializes in working
with corporations by helping them with employee recruitment, hiring, screening and finding candidates. But Murphy said she has seen companies interested in Facebook for several years. “Any human relations professional will say they wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole,” Murphy said of Facebook. “You’re dealing with the employee’s privacy. There’s a ton of info that is none of the employer’s business.” Companies can also open themselves up to lawsuits after perusing a candidate’s Facebook profile, Murphy said. If an employer sees any information on Facebook that falls under one of California’s protected classes — race, religion and age, among others — they could be accused of involuntarily bias against a candidate.
Though there is no current case law on a hiring manager seeing this information on Facebook and then choosing to reject a candidate, Murphy said it is dangerous territory to tread in. “You don’t want to know it because it’s illegal to use it to make a decision when you’re trying to hire out,” she said. “This is the kind of thing I tell people not to tell me.” But if someone is confronted with the difficult decision to give private information, such as a Facebook password, or risk being denied a job offering, Murphy said she would never offer that information, even if it were the difference between being hired or passed over.
“If a company is going off asking for that information, then they are probably not very well-versed in hiring practices,” she said. Though the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce has not seen any history of this kind of behavior from employers, marketing director Lindsey Miller said as the national controversy heats up, it could become an issue in the city. “We might be an education force and give presentations on the pros and cons of it if it see FACEBOOK, pg. 2
GRAPHIC BY MELLISA WONG/MUSTANG DAILY
Career Fair: Green Careers mix it up
VICTORIA BILLINGS
victoriabillings.md@gmail.com
“Yeah, I may be. Some tagged pictures from parties.” • Nico Mamone nutrition freshman
“No, because I like to keep everything on the up and up.” • Christina Hulick political science junior
Sustainability and the career fair are united for the first time this year with the Green Career Mixer, an opportunity for students and businesses who care about making sustainability a priority to meet up. The mixer on Wednesday is open to all students and employers. It was planned as a way to not only help students find jobs that focus on sustainability, but also to help employers think of new ways to incorporate green practices into their businesses, said Victoria Carranza, environmental management and protection senior and president of the Empower Poly Coalition. “We want businesses that are like, ‘We need help, and we want students that have a lot of integrity,’” Carranza said. Companies that focus on green practices, such as local nonprofit One Cool Earth and fair-trade supplier HumanKind, will be at the mixer, but it is also open to employers who don’t have established sustainability practices but want to find people who can help them become more sus-
tainable, Carranza said. Current college students tend to be very concerned about environmental issues; the mixer is an opportunity for those students to find a job they’re passionate about, Carranza said. “Our generation is really in tune,” Carranza said. “We realize that we’re running out of time to make poor choices that affect the environment.” Cal Poly students, such as anthropology and geography junior Janiece Jarman, are already thinking about how sustainable their jobs will be after graduation. Jarman said college students are very conscious of environmental issues because of highly publicized problems such as global warming and fossil fuels. “It’s really important now, especially since we’re facing a lot of issues with unsustainable programs,” Jarman said. Jarman, who has had internships at green companies, said she wants to work at a similar company once she graduates. “I’d definitely like to work for a company that was sustainable and had green thoughts — environmentally friendly,” she said.
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NEWS, pg. 2
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Clinic helps with low-income tax preparations.
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Companies that focus on sustainable practices, such as Seeds of Hope International Partnerships (above), a group which helps bring resources to undeveloped parts of Zambia by bringing them “community development resource centers,” will attend the green mixer. In the past, students looking for jobs relating to sustainability could attend the Green Career Fair, which was started in 2010 by Empower Poly Coalition with the help of Career Services. Cal Poly alumnus and former Empower Poly Coalition board member Corey Kreidler
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proposed the original Green Career Fair in response to a perceived lack of local and sustainable businesses at the regular Career Fair, he said. This was in part because of the cost and manpower required for a business to participate in the Career Fair which excluded smaller companies
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and nonprofits, Kreidler said. Kreidler proposed the idea of a separate fair for green jobs, and Career Services helped to set up a half-day event at no cost to attend for the companies which allowed nonprofits and local businesses to attend see GREEN, pg. 2
Opinions/Editorial...........7 Classifieds/Comics..........8 Sports.........................8-10
MDnews 2
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Poly taxpayer clinic aids with IRS, low-income disputes NATALIE DELOSSA
Special to the Mustang Daily
She made between $10,000 and $15,000 in 2010. In 2011, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said she owed $27,000 in taxes. The students and faculty at the Cal Poly Low Income Taxpayer Clinic looked at her returns and saw she had approximately $80,000 in mortgage interest on a $10,000 to $15,000 income. The woman, who could not be not identified for privacy reasons, had been a victim of predatory lending. The clinic brought the case to the U.S. Tax Court and prepared to sue the commissioner of the IRS. After months in tax court, the case made it to the appeals division, where a settlement officer agreed to settle the case. “The swing went from ‘Ms. taxpayer, you owe us $27,000’ to ‘Ms. Taxpayer, you have a $750 refund,’” adjunct professor and program coordinator Rusty Roy said of the solution. The clinic helped the wom-
an because her income fell within 250 percent of the poverty threshold, Roy said, and the clinic helps lowincome taxpayers settle disputes with the IRS. Low-income taxpayers represent an untapped market of people who need assistance dealing with IRS, Roy said. Cal Poly opened its clinic in 2010 to bring its high knowledge of taxes to a disenfranchised low-income community. Roy, a certified public accountant, usually handles taxes for much wealthier clients. “In our other lives, these guys couldn’t afford us,” Roy said. Most commercial tax lawyers, similar to the ones seen on TV, won’t help taxpayers with low incomes, Roy said. Tax resolution consultants usually take out a percentage of a client’s refund, Roy said. The practice, in turn, only becomes lucrative when dealing with large sums of money, property or business sales. “Our clients don’t have that,” Roy said.
Unscrupulous tax lawyers prey on low-income taxpayers, Roy said. The clinic faces the obstacle of gaining trust from low-income communities, especially low-income communities that speak English as a second language, Roy said. That is, however, a key to Cal Poly’s clinic, which operates under a grant from the IRS to provide Spanish-language assistance. Roy said he actively recruits bilingual business students for the program. Business administration seniors, for example, can work at the clinic for their senior projects in the fall and spring. Business administration senior Mara Harry did her senior project at the clinic fall quarter and now works as a paid employee of the clinic. Harry said the clinic is necessary because clients who can’t pay their rent or bills are getting tax help worth hundreds of dollars per hour, Harry said. “Once they get in contact with us, they know that we can help them to better their situation,” Harry said.
Harry assesses potential clients and helps build qualified clients’ cases to present to the IRS. Once a candidate has been accepted into the program, the clinic fights the case so the client won’t have to pay the money, can pay the money back in installments or follows another compromise, Harry said. The Cal Poly clinic handles approximately 30 cases during winter quarter, Harry said. Most are simple disputes, and the IRS agrees with the client. However, the Cal Poly clinic is preparing to sue the IRS for a second time, Harry said. “In 2010, low-income taxpayer clinics across the country worked over 24,000 cases,” Central Coast IRS media relations representative Jesse Weller said. “Some 5.8 percent of cases made it to federal courts, and all but .2 percent settled before trial.” And each person who receives help from Cal Poly’s clinic has a reason. Roy said most people with tax disputes have usually experienced re-
cent trauma or hardship; they may have lost a spouse, parent, home, job or have a mental illness, Roy said. “Typically, what happens to people who come in with tax controversies is something awful happened in their life, and they just didn’t get around to filing their taxes,” he said. The real benefit goes to the people the clinic helps, Roy said. The clinic has settled disputes resulting in returns from $4 to $1,000. “It sounds like a giveaway, but these guys need it,” Roy said. “In many cases, that’s been a bootstrap to help them move up the economic food chain.” Because the people who seek the help of clinic are typically in need, Harry said she likes that the IRS funds the clinic. “Everyone thinks of them as a terrorist organization, where here they’re actually helping people,” Harry said. Since the Cal Poly Low Income Taxpayer Clinic opened in 2010, the caseload has grown and the clinic has
been closing cases faster each time, Roy said. Eddie Quijano, a lecturer and tax lawyer who founded Cal Poly’s Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, said he sees the clinic handling 100 to 200 cases per year in the future. It will continue to serve as a servicebased learning opportunity for students and a pro-bono opportunity for professionals, Quijano said. However, not all clients are eligible. Roy said approximately 5 to 15 percent of people who come to the clinic are scammers, or people who claim to have a tax controversy but are really just trying to get out of paying taxes. If that’s the case, the clinic fires them, Roy said. “We get dirty,” Roy said. “This is not academic; this is the real world. You get to hear the director use bad language sometimes.” The Low Income Taxpayer Clinic offers free help to people whose incomes are within 250 percent of the poverty level, Roy said.
CFA faculty strike vote begins MUSTANG DAILY STAFF REPORT
mustangdailynews@gmail.com
The California Faculty Association’s (CFA) vote to strike began yesterday, barely one week after negotiations broke down between union leaders and the California State University (CSU). The CFA represents approximately 23,000 faculty and staff at the 23 universities. If a strike does occur, CFA organizers would plan a series of two-day strikes throughout the state, creating one of the largest higher education strikes on record. The CFA Board of Directors would determine the timing through-
FACEBOOK continued from page 1
becomes a big problem here in San Luis Obispo,” Miller said. One of the notable fields using Facebook as part of their screening process throughout the country is law enforcement. An Associated Press report
GREEN continued from page 1
and gave students a chance to meet green employers, Kreidler said. “I want to offer students something that they can really sink their teeth into,” Kreidler said. The only real drawback was that a Green Career Fair separated sustainability as an issue from other companies, Kreidler said.
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out the CSU system. “It could happen as soon as this spring,” CFA spokesperson Alice Sunshine said. “But it’s more likely it would happen this summer or fall.” Before a strike can take place, the CFA must work with the CSU to go through the formal bargaining process mandated by law. The two parties ended negotiations April 6 and now enter the fact-finding stage of collective bargaining. A state-appointed third party will look at the dispute and make a recommendation to both sides in order to find a middle ground for the union and CSU system. If no agreement is reached, CSU Chan-
cellor Charles Reed can propose his final and best offer to the union. Only after rejecting that offer will the faculty be able to strike. Last November, two state universities’ faculties went on strike for one day after a vote passed with more than 90 percent approval. CSU East Bay and CSU Dominguez Hills faculty worked to virtually shut down their campuses for one day because of a dispute regarding unfulfilled pay raises to union members. CFA Chapter President at Cal Poly Glen Thorncroft could not be reached for comment as of press time.
claimed the practice is more prevalent in the hiring of police officers and 911 dispatchers. San Luis Obispo police do not have a stated policy for or against Facebook screening during their hiring process. But Sgt. Sean Gillham, a hiring director at the agency, said he does not believe Facebook is necessary to judge a person’s character.
“Could (Facebook help)? It could,” Gillham said. “But if there’s going to be something negative that comes out of it, you’re probably going to see it somewhere else. If you see someone had a DUI on their background check, you’re probably not going to hire them because they may have a problem with alcohol.”
“When we had a Green Career Fair, it was almost like we were saying the regular Career Fair wasn’t good enough,” Kreidler said. This was solved, though, when Carranza had the idea of incorporating green jobs into the regular Career Fair this year with a mixer. The mixer, because it is free and in the evening, still allows smaller companies and nonprofits to attend. “These companies didn’t have to have their people
spend all day at the Green Career Fair when they don’t have the employees to do that,” Kreidler said. It also welcomes larger businesses that are on campus this week for the Career Fair, Carranza said. “We’re trying to really send the message that the two are intertwined,” Carranza said. The Green Career Mixer is Wednesday night, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the University Art Gallery. Beverages and appetizers will be served.
MDnews 3
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
WORD ON THE STREET What’s your favorite app?
“I don’t have a smartphone.” • Huu Nguyen architecture senior
“Draw Something.” • Natalie Seckel animal science sophomore
“They all suck.” • Scott Miller industrial engineering freshman
“Instagram.” • Andie Reed nutrition freshman
Swan drowns kayaker JENNIFER DELGADO
Chicago Tribune
To the residents of the Bay Colony Drive condo complex near Des Plaines, Ill., Anthony Hensley was responsible for a small but important piece of their peace of mind. Hensley came around regularly to tend to the swans that made their home at a complex retention pond to help keep geese away. Residents noted his professionalism and marveled that the goose dropping problem had all but vanished. But Monday, his loved ones were left struggling to understand how Hensley — an experienced kayaker who retained the athletic build of his days playing high school football — could have drowned while on a job they said he’d held for about a decade. Witnesses told police that Hensley, a 37-year-old resident of the Villa Park suburb of Chicago and father of two young daughters, drowned after he was attacked by a nesting swan early Saturday morning, causing his kayak to topple. The bird continued to lunge at him aggressively as he struggled to make it to shore before disappearing under the water, authorities said. “It’s just terrible; no words can describe it,” his stepmother, Tammy Hensley, said Monday. “We are all very upset, but I can’t stop thinking about his two daughters.” Family members said Hensley worked for North Barrington, Ill.-based Knox Swan and Dog LLC, which places the birds in ponds as goose deterrents. The company also uses dogs to chase geese away from area ponds, grassy properties and golf courses. A company representative could not be reached for comment Monday. An OSHA representative said Monday that the workplace safety agency has launched an investigation into Hensley’s death, and police were also investigating. Raymond Hensley Jr., described his brother as someone who could light up a room and turn a bad moment into something good. “He’s like a rock star that never played an instrument,” Raymond Hensley said. “He just had that type of personality. He took life seriously but enjoyed life to its fullest.”
Anthony Hensley’s main motivation, his family said, was to provide for his wife Amy, to whom he had been married for 10 years, and their daughters Hayden Rose, 3, and Gabriella, 1. “He would do anything for them,” Tammy Hensley said. “Everything he did was for them.” Authorities said they were called to the scene at around 7 a.m. Saturday after a witness saw Hensley in his canoe being circled by a swan and then saw him go into and then under the water. Paramedics arriving on the scene were unable to find Hensley, prompting dive crews to join the search and scour the 50-foot-deep pond, said Tony Brzezniak, deputy area commander for the Cook County Sheriff ’s police. They located Hensley at around 7:50 a.m., and he was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he was pronounced dead at about 8:15 a.m. Using swans to chase away geese is an effective practice, experts said, because swans are larger, territorial and will live in non-native landscapes. They’re also not afraid to compete with other animals for resources. Swans, like many creatures, will defend their territory vigorously, especially when their young are involved, said Steve Sullivan, senior curator of urban ecology for the Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. “Swans are certainly perfectly happy to attack something that’s much larger than them,” Sullivan said. “It’s mama with her babies, and mama with her babies is always ferocious.” Though swans may seem serene and are pretty to look at, most people don’t realize how strong and aggressive they can be, said Doug Stotz, a senior conservation ecologist with the Field Museum. He said he’s heard tales of people being attacked or injured from swans but has never heard of someone dying after a bad encounter. Experts also said swans can be particularly nasty during the nesting and breeding season, which begins in early spring and goes through the summer.
Swans are certainly perfectly happy to attack something that’s much larger than them. STEVE SULLIVAN CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
STATE
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INTERNATIONAL
MOUNTAIN VIEW —
WASHINGTON D.C. —
COLOMBIA —
Google Inc. is facing a $25,000 fine for impeding a Federal Communications Commission investigation into the tech giant’s datacollection practices. The world’s largest Internet search engine came under fire two years ago when it was revealed that its popular but controversial streetmapping program was also picking up sensitive information from home wireless networks, including emails, passwords and Internet usage history. The FCC, which filed its 25-page report Friday, said despite Google’s apology and assertions that it did not intend to use the so-called payload data, the company has since “apparently willfully and repeatedly violated commission orders” during the probe, launched in 2010.
Republican-led opposition blocked the “Buffett rule” from advancing in the Senate, turning back an election year effort by President Barack Obama to slap a new tax rate on those earning beyond $1 million a year. Nearly all Republicans voted against the measure, a potentially risky move at a time when 60 percent of voters support the measure, according to a recent Gallup poll, as a way to ensure wealthy Americans pay their fair share of taxes. Democrats are likely to revive the effort in coming months. “Continuing to allow some of the wealthiest Americans to use special tax breaks to avoid paying their fair share simply cannot be justified,” the White House said in a statement before the vote.
The Pentagon is investigating 10 U.S. military members in a widening inquiry into whether or not an advance team led by the Secret Service hired local prostitutes or engaged in other misconduct before President Barack Obama visited Colombia for a weekend summit, U.S. officials said Monday. The Pentagon investigation is focusing on five Army Special Forces soldiers, two Marines, two Navy personnel and one member of the Air Force, according to a U.S. military official. The Navy and Air Force personnel belong to an explosives detection unit, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
MDarts 4
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Online startup combines socializing and sustainability ERIN HURLEY
erinhurley.md@gmail.com
You’re in the middle of a marathon study session and you realize that pizza would be perfect right now. But your car is in the shop. Or maybe you’ve just arrived home from the grocery store to find that you forgot the pasta sauce for dinner, but you don’t have time to go out again. Three local entrepreneurs are developing an answer to these kind of problems — an online system called NeighborFavor, which allows anyone with a Cal Poly or Cuesta email address to request pur-
efficient traditional delivery businesses are. “They all have huge delivery trucks that are refrigerated ... and they’re really not an efficient way to deliver to people in your area,” Doherty said. “I was like ‘Wow, I would really like to actually deliver all the time, just deliver to my friends and stuff.’” The creators considered outsourcing the work or getting a patent and selling the concept, Doherty said, but at the end of last July, he said, “Let’s grow some balls” — they decided to make NeighborFavor themselves. It launched in the begin-
It’s like using people in your community to do things with you. ... It’s so new — it’s a little abstract.
COURTESY PHOTO
ZAC MAURAIS NEIGHBORFAVOR CO-FOUNDER
chases from other users in the area, saving time and energy. Co-founders Ben Doherty, Chris Labasky and Zac Maurais began working on NeighborFavor last July. Doherty, a Cal Poly civil engineering senior, said his roommate Labasky convinced him to take an entrepreneurship class, which led to the pair discussing startup ideas every night. Labasky, a Cal Poly business administration alumnus, proposed the potential of grocery delivery to Doherty, who was skeptical at first but was swayed by Labasky’s numbers on how in-
y le? z a cyc l o To re o t Save the planet at
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ning of March. According to Labasky, they’re now “living the startup dream, eating Ramen noodles and eggs and sleeping on the floor.” The process works like this: each user creates an online profile, and when they leave the house, they can update their status about where they’re going so other users can see. There’s even an option to post it to Facebook. NeighborFavor is currently being tested on individuals with a Cal Poly or Cuesta email address, but down the road, it may be available to the public, Maurais said. And NeighborFavor doesn’t charge anything for people to use it. This startup follows the concept of collaborative consumption, which Doherty said is a new idea and a “very hot space” right now. Maurais agreed. “It’s like using people in your community to do things with you — like sharing resources, sharing time,” Mau-
CHRISTIAN MILLAN/MUSTANG DAILY
Cal Poly students Ben Doherty (left) and Chris Labasky (right) along with friend Zac Maurais (middle) created NeighborFavor, a website that follows the concept of collaborative consumption, last July. rais said. “It’s so new — it’s a little abstract.” When people ask favors, they specify what they want, from where, when and where they want it delivered to, as well as the tip they will provide, Maurais said. Favors can be sent out to multiple users in the area and are giv-
en to the first to accept. Users can also rate the person who makes their delivery and leave comments. And NeighborFavor isn’t limited to food — users can ask for almost anything. People have even asked for rides, Maurais said. Users enter their credit
card information into a PayPal system, which Maurais said fronts the money to ensure the favor-accepter will be paid. Each request is assigned a four-digit code, which is used to transfer the payment when the delivery is made. Users can also pay in cash.
There’s also a NeighborFavor smartphone app currently available for Androids and iPhones. The app currently can only be used for accepting favors since the service allows the progress of the favor-accepters to see STARTUP, pg. 6
MDarts 5
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
HOROSCOPES TUESDAY, APRIL 17 ARIES (March 21-April 19) — You may have to do more research today before you have all the information you need to put a new idea into motion. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) — What appears difficult at first is likely to be quite simple for you when you find your rhythm. Be patient with yourself and others. GEMINI (May 21-June 20) — Now is not the time to permit another to take liberties; you must insist that he or she respect your boundaries at all times. CANCER (June 21-July 22) — You’re looking for something that may not be available to you at this time. Perhaps you have a suitable substitute in mind? LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) — You may not be able to keep an appointment today — but you will surely do everything you can to keep everyone informed of your whereabouts. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — You may have to put one of your primary jobs on hold temporarily today, as you tend to one or two new responsibilities that simply will not wait. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) — A promise is made today that has you thinking everything is on the mend — but you may be overlooking one simple fact. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) — You may not have all the information you need to make a final decision, but you can surely weigh options with a certain degree of confidence. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) — Your enthusiasm may wane unexpectedly today, but you must stay the course and work to restore your get-up-and-go. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) — What is it you have that others are so eager to acquire for themselves? What they don’t know is that it is actually something intangible. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) — It’s been too long since you were in touch with that certain someone. If circumstances are just right, you can remedy the situation. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) — Another’s work may provide you with the inspiration you need to improve your own performance — on the job and at home.
Meatheads going strong SAMANTHA SULLIVAN
samanthasullivan.md@gmail.com
Following the “Great Recession,” many businesses closed their doors; many employees became unemployed. However, for 15 years, a local moving company has been growing. California’s Meathead Movers is looking to add approximately 70 jobs that can be filled by local students. The company needs employees to replace those who are graduating, as well as fill the gap due to the business’ re-
Steed said jogging is a requirement during the job. Meathead Movers charges customers based on an hourly rate, therefore, jogging saves them time and money, Steed said. “It’s definitely not a job for the lazy person,” Steed said. Steed said the movers work around the students’ school and athletic schedules and try to get them as much work as possible. The movers offer a path to move up in the company, too, and get managerial experience — no one knows that better than James Powers.
I’ve promoted 10 people in the time I’ve been here. It’s great to see someone blossom with the company. JAMES POWERS SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY OPERATIONS MANAGER
cent growth, president and CEO of Meathead Movers, Aaron Steed said. Meathead Movers also intends to open an office in Orange County, Calif., Steed said. The company is hiring customer service representatives, as well as more movers and “princess packers.” According to Steed, moving is a very physical job, but applicants don’t have to play a sport or be a man to be hired. “That would be discrimination,” Steed said. “(Employees) need to be strong enough to move things and jog to get more.”
Powers, San Luis Obispo County operations manager, wrestled at Cal Poly and worked for the Meatheads in his free time. When he graduated, there was an opening he said he couldn’t pass up. Powers has been working at that position for eight months. “It was a part-time college job that paid well,” he said. “It was great.” Powers said the raises and bonuses depended on what the client thought of you and how aggressively you performed your job. Movers also get paid more if nothing is broken or damaged.
COURTESY PHOTO
“(Meathead Movers) is definitely not a job for the lazy person,” president and CEO of movers Aaron Steed (above) said. Powers is now in charge of payroll, managing the fleet and hiring and training the new movers. He says he looks for the cleancut, athletic types because of the physical nature of the job. However, he also looks for individuals who could be future managers and are career-minded and want to grow with the company. “I’ve promoted 10 people in the time I’ve been here,” Powers
said. “It’s great to see someone blossom with the company.” Powers said he finds his job very rewarding, especially since he was that same guy a few years ago — he started out as a Meathead and worked his way up to super meathead and mentor. A mentor and Meathead for almost two years, economics senior and club baseball playsee MEATHEAD, pg. 6
MDarts 6 STARTUP continued from page 4
be monitored through their phones. But the founders are working toward having two NeighborFavor apps where people can either do or ask favors, Doherty said — the focus is on making NeighborFavor completely mobile. At this point, 235 people have signed up for NeighborFavor, Doherty said. One of those is civil engineering junior Chrissy
Ford, a friend of Doherty’s who tried NeighborFavor a month-and-a-half ago when she and her roommates wanted sushi but couldn’t get it delivered — until Ford remembered NeighborFavor. While Ford said she was skeptical about NeighborFavor’s payment system at first, after seeing it work, she would do it again. “It’s going to be awesome when it opens up to everyone,” Ford said. “If someone’s in the area, why have someone else make the extra trip?
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 I think the green aspect of it is pretty cool.” Doherty agrees — he said NeighborFavor will change the world for the better. “We can’t continue as a society and as a world with our growing population to be taking single trips to go do things ... people are going to have to be working together in order to get things done or otherwise it’s not sustainable,” Doherty said. Recently, the co-founders filed for a provisional patent to claim their ideas for components of NeighborFavor. Doherty said the patent is for the idea of the code assigned to each favor as a contract. The process by which NeighborFavor uses real-time location information to help people do favors for multiple people at once and a component by which merchants will be able to receive orders through favor requests and control which users deliver those orders. And NeighborFavor has already gotten professional attention. The co-founders had a second interview yesterday with Greenstart, a company that provides financial and developmental support to startups that are environmentally friendly and involved in information technology. It went “really, really well,” Doherty said. The co-founders will find out whether they are accepted into the Greenstart program on June 5.
Greenstart managing partner Mitch Lowe wrote in an email that “NeighborFavor is an exciting new model in the ‘collaborative consumption’ space.” “We think collaborative consumption is a highgrowth, exciting area at the intersection of cleantech and IT,” Lowe wrote. “We’re excited to see startups like NeighborFavor show early traction in the race to serve customers while reducing inefficiency in how goods and services are consumed and transported.” The only two problems NeighborFavor is currently addressing are fear and inventory, he said — the cofounders want to build up their inventory of people willing to do favors so others aren’t afraid about getting their favors done. While NeighborFavor hasn’t taken off as much as Doherty thought it would at this point, Labasky isn’t worried. He said the idea of collaborative consumption is only a few years old, and it might be “too soon for people to get comfortable with it.” But he also said this idea “is the future.” “When people start seeing their friends doing it, it’s gonna kick in and people are going to love it,” Labasky said. “The fact is what we’re doing, people want ... what we’re bringing to the world is something that people really want bad.”
GRAPHIC BY CHRISTIAN MILLAN/MUSTANG DAILY
Meathead Movers assists with moves along the southern and central coasts of California.
MEATHEAD continued from page 5
er Ryan Dion said the work hours are very flexible. “They understand you’re a
student first,” Dion said. Computer engineering senior and intramural basketball player Nick Powser has also been with the Movers for two years. Powser said the movers are all athletic
The new economy, in my opinion, is going to be having to create your own way, rather than climbing the corporate ladder. AARON STEED PRESIDENT AND CEO OF MEATHEAD MOVERS
“Falling for you” • PHOTO CREDIT Krisha Agatep •
guys, so they get along well. “Most of them I see at school,” Powser said. “It’s a different kind of camaraderie.” Steed said the movers have employed more than 1,000 Cal Poly students in 15 years of business. Steed and his brother, Evan, started Meathead Movers while they were in high school playing sports. Since then, they’ve made sure to make their business a place people want to work. “We pay more than most companies,” Steed said. “You get paid to work out.” Meathead Movers is the presenting sponsor of Cal Poly wrestling and the Founding Circle for Cal Poly Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center. Steed said being a former wrestler and being in a position to give back is something he’s happy to do. The center spoke to the Steed brothers on a personal level; he felt, in this economy, it was important to have one, he said. “The new economy, in my opinion, is going to be having to create your own way rather than climbing the corporate ladder,” Steed said.
MD op/ed 7
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
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Tuesday, April 17, 2012 Volume LXXVI, Number 105
©2012 Mustang Daily
“Ya, cause the police just love to make stuff up.”
Equal Pay Day raises equal pay questions Juleyka Lantigua-Williams writes for the Progressive Media Project. Today, April 17, is Equal Pay Day. This date represents how far into 2012 women must work to earn what men earned in 2011. Because, on average, women get paid 77 cents for every dollar men earn, they have to work more for the same pay. This disparity goes beyond the issue of gender equality. This is an economic injustice that affects nearly half the workers in this country. The Department of Labor estimates that women made up 47 percent of the total U.S. labor force in 2010, accounting for up to 66 million workers. Overall, 73 percent of employed women worked full time, while 27 percent worked part time. We cannot afford to be un-
derpaying almost half the workers when our country is experiencing such challenging economic times. And women are not the only ones affected. Families are affected. Almost 14 million married couples with children relied on two incomes in 2009, representing 60 percent of all married couples with children, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Black and Latina women are affected. African-American women make only 62 cents, and Latinas only 53 cents, for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men, the law center notes. Considering that they represent the two largest ethnic groups in the country, we are continuing the economic segregation that defined much of the last century. Single mothers and their children are affected. Lower earnings cripple the economic security of the 6,340,000 fami-
lies headed by working single mothers, 41 percent of whom already live below the federal poverty line. The ability of women to retire is affected. The Center for American Progress estimates that a typical woman would lose $434,000 over a 40-year period due to the wage gap. Economist Evelyn Murphy, president of The WAGE Project, estimates that the wage gap costs the average American full-time woman worker between $700,000 and $2 million over the course of her lifetime. Lower lifetime earnings mean lower Social Security benefits for women. This problem must be addressed at a national level, since men earn more than women in every single state. The Paycheck Fairness Act, currently pending in Congress, is essential to combat unfair pay because it would allow victims of
sex-based wage discrimination to seek justice. But we don’t have to wait for Congress. Businesses can ensure that they don’t discriminate against women workers by performing an Equal Pay Self-Audit provided by the U.S. Department of Labor on its website. Women are projec t-
The walkout revolution
70 students walked out of an introductory class in protest, bringing to light a new discussion on economics in the U.S. Eric J. Weiner is the senior editor and director of communications at the Institute for New Economic Thinking in New York. He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times. There is a growing student protest movement against orthodox economics that could change the field as we know it. If it is sustained, historians likely will cite Nov. 2, 2011, as the start of the revolution. On that day at Harvard University, roughly 70 students organized a walkout of an introductory economics class taught by N. Gregory Mankiw. Mankiw is the former head of the Council of Economic Advisers for President George W. Bush and an adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He is also the author of “Principles of Economics,” the predominant textbook used in introductory economics classes worldwide. Not surprisingly, he has an extremely traditional, market-oriented view of the discipline. The students who walked out of Mankiw’s class explained their reasoning in an open letter printed in the Harvard Political Review. It began with this declaration: “Today, we are walking out of your class, Economics 10, in order to express our discontent with the bias inherent in this introductory economics course. We are deeply concerned about the way that this bias affects students, the University and our greater society.” They went on to explain that instead of presenting a broad introduction to economics, Mankiw’s teaching was narrowly focused, did not offer alternative approaches to orthodox economic models and ultimately was complicit in perpetuating systemic global inequality. Their argument struck a chord with the wider economics community. Sudden-
ly, many more economists started to acknowledge, at least in private, that something is terribly wrong with the field. If you think all of this seems to be coming out of the blue, you’re not alone, because much of the debate is taking place behind the walls of cloistered academia. Indeed, sometimes you don’t even realize that there’s a social revolution going on until you find yourself in the middle of one. That’s what’s happened to me. I work for the Institute for New Economic Thinking, a research and education foundation in New York. Each year we hold an international conference that gathers major figures from the global economic community to discuss new ideas for addressing the critical challenges facing society. Our conference this year starts Thursday in Berlin. Considering the location and timing, our focus naturally is on the financial crisis in Europe. To incorporate some younger voices into the mix, we decided to invite a few students. So we put out word that we were accepting applications for 25 doctoral candidates from around the world to attend the conference, all expenses paid, and actively participate in our program and panel discussions. We figured that we’d receive from 100 to 150 responses. We got 563. Obviously, we were caught off-guard by the level of enthusiasm. But in that heaping pile of applications we also could see a budding community of young scholars who don’t want to pursue economics as it’s traditionally been taught. These students are frustrated by a field that they believe could provide so much to society but instead is mired in outmoded thinking. Today’s economics is dominated by ideas, like the efficient market hypothesis, making such sweeping generalizations that they render human beings practically unrecognizable. Do people ever have “perfect information” or a complete understanding of their best interests? Of course not. They’re humans. In paper after paper, the students applying to attend the conference described their frustrations with pursuing fresh avenues of economic inquiry that are applicable to real-world issues. The problem is that the economics establishment doesn’t want them to do this. In fact, the
discipline is so dominated by orthodox ideology that the students risk jeopardizing their careers simply by engaging in research that runs counter to economics’ fundamental assumptions. As one student wrote in his application, “During the last 40 years economics captivated itself in an axiomatic hypothetical theory prison. Freedom of opinion, one of the most fundamental characteristics of an enlightened and pluralistic society, disappeared.” Now these students are looking to the senior members of the economics profession for guidance. Of course, this is something our institute wants to encourage. So we decided to set up an overflow room at the conference specifically for students to view the proceedings on a live video stream. For these attendees, however, we couldn’t pay any expenses. We weren’t sure what to expect. But the demand became so great that we had to limit access to this overflow room as well. At this point, hundreds of students from around the globe are making their way to Berlin to spend four days watching the conference, sharing ideas with major economic figures who are eager to visit with them — the next generation — and discussing new approaches with their peers. Suddenly, it feels as if we’re setting up the coffeehouses and backroom parlors for the fomenters of an underground uprising. Why is this happening, and why now? Obviously, the global financial crisis brought the failures of the economics profession into stark relief. But there still hasn’t been a significant public movement of established professional economists away from orthodox theories. However, as the pernicious effects of instability and inequality become part of daily life, frustration with stale economic ideas is starting to turn into action — at least on the part of some. So this is where economics finds itself today, stuck between failed methodologies and whispered realities. It can continue to produce elegant theorems that work only by ignoring obvious realworld situations and conditions. Or it can break free of its restrictions and apply its rigor to addressing society’s most intractable problems. The choice is up to the economics establishment. But the revolution has begun.
ed to account for 51 percent of the increase in total labor force growth by 2018. We cannot wait until then to rectify this economic injustice.
PAUL LACHINE/NEWSART
MUSTANG DAILY
It’s hard for people to understand perspectives. Although we have bright students, they become this way at Cal poly. There are many students here that make me wonder how they got into this college in general. People of other minorities aren’t given the chance to become great like all the grads here because of circumstances that white people are unable to understand. This article states that less qualified minorities would be favored. What defines someone being qualified? They went to a school that had high scores, great teachers and tutors, and high SAT scores? You don’t understand that many minorities don’t have the privilege of SAT classes, math tutors, or counselors that advise them on how to get into their dream college. Even having parents to convince them to work hard to get into college is a luxury. As a minority, I was lucky enough to take the initiative myself to get high SAT scores and get motivated for college. I had little to no motivation from my parents to go to one of the best engineering schools in the country. This is common for many of the few minorities here now. White people don’t realize that things that seem innate to them are luxuries to minorities. It is sort of analogous to trying out for the NBA. Most players are extremely tall. Although there are people who have the same skills, but are shorter, they will not make the team. Therefore, the shorter players that try out have to be twice as good as their tall counterparts. In this analogy, white people are the tall players, great school resources is their height, the NBA is Cal Poly and minorities are the short players. And how many players in the NBA are under 6 feet? An extremely small amount. You might try to argue that this is what WASC is trying to do with the roles flipped, but this is what minorities face everyday when applying for jobs as well. WASC is asking Cal Poly to consider circumstances of minority applicants. White men don’t understand that a lot of minority
students, which includes white women, feel the pressure to prove to their teachers and peers that they are worthy of being here. It baffles me that the Mustang Daily could allow an article this offensive to be published. And trust me, there are MANY people who are offended by this. —B In response to “WASC encourages illegal activity” Nice work DSP, a noble cause. — Jayson In response to “Fraternity raises money for alcohol awareness” Great article! Thanks for talking about how greek life gives back! — Jason In response to “Fraternity raises money for alcohol awareness” This was so great to see! Thank you for showing some of the positives of greek life! It’s great to see that Delta Sigma Phi was able to give back to the community through Aware Awake Alive! —* In response to “Fraternity raises money for alcohol awareness” These people are just whiney punks. God forbid they should elect to retire and not be allowed to draw retirement plus five years half pay for doing even less than their active careers required. If California’s legislature had a brain they’d close all but two CSU and UC campuses, and if the kids want to go to college, go somewhere else. — Cliff In response to “Faculty union set to vote on strike”
NOTE: The Mustang Daily features select comments that are written in response to articles posted online. Though not all the responses are printed, the Mustang Daily prints comments that are coherent and foster intelligent discussion on a given subject. No overcapitalization, please.
MDsports 8
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Big West W-L
Big West W-L
1. Cal Poly
3-0
2. UC Santa Barbara 3. UC Irvine 4. Pacific 5. UC Riverside 6. UC Davis
3-1 1-1 1-2 0-1 0-3
Big West Standings - Softball
Big West Standings - Baseball
Big West Standings - Men’s Tennis
Big West W-L
1. Cal State Fullerton 7-2
1. Pacific
7-3
2. Long Beach State
7-2
2. Long Beach State
6-3
3. Cal Poly
5-4
3. UC Santa Barbara
6-3
4. UC Irvine
4-5
5. UC Santa Barbara
4-5
4. UC Davis
6-3
5. Cal State Fullerton
4-5 3-6
6. Cal State Northridge 4-5 7. UC Davis
2-4
6. Cal Poly
8. UC Riverside
2-4
7. Cal State Northridge 3-6
9. Pacific
1-5
8. UC Riverside
1-8
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MDsports 9
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Baseball falls to 21-13, plays Fresno State tonight MUSTANG DAILY STAFF REPORT
mustangdailysports@gmail.com
MAX ZERONIAN/MUSTANG DAILY
Third baseman Jimmy Allen leads the team with a .353 batting average.
The road-woe bug bit the Mustang baseball team again. The team goes into tonight’s matchup with Fresno State at Baggett Stadium having dropped two of three games against Cal State Northridge this weekend. The losses dropped the Mustangs to third place in the Big West, but thanks to a loss by conference-leader Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly (21-13, 5-4) is just two games behind the Titans. Rain on Friday forced the team to play a doubleheader on Saturday as the Matadors took the first game 6-5 in extra innings. Ryan Raslowsky drove a two-out pitch into left field that brought in Chester Pak who started the inning with a double. The Mustangs then pushed the game into extra innings as they trailed by two runs going into the top of the ninth. Down to their last out, Tim Wise singled in pinch-runner Jordan Ellis to cut the Matador lead to one. Mitch Haniger followed Wise with a home run to left field to put Cal Poly up one run. Haniger leads the Big West in homers with seven. Northridge then forced a run through against closer Chase Johnson who took the loss in the ninth to set up a walkoff win. Starter Joey Wagman went 6 2/3 innings, gave up eight hits and allowed four
runs, all of which were earned. In the second game of the Saturday doubleheader, the Mustangs notched their only win of the series on the back of starter Kyle Anderson. He threw seven innings, scattered six hits and gave up one run. The Mustang bats drove in six runs to give Anderson his sixth win of the season, and he moved his ERA to 2.08, the lowest among Cal Poly starters and fourth lowest in the Big West. Third baseman Jimmy Allen paced the Mustang offense by driving in two runs on two hits in four at-bats in addition to scoring two runs himself. In the rubber game on Sunday, Cal Poly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, but Northridge re-
sponded with a four-run rally in the bottom half of the inning and went on to sink the Mustangs 6-3. Kyle Brueggemann’s record fell to 4-3 on the year after allowing five runs in 2 2/3 innings. He was relieved by Reed Reilly in the third; he went four innings and gave up a run. Left fielder David Armendariz continued his hot streak going 3 for 5, including a double to improve his average to .320 on the season, but it wasn’t enough as Cal Poly left 15 runners on base. The team takes on Fresno State tonight at 6 p.m in Baggett Stadium. Cal Poly is just 1-3 in midweek games this season. The Mustangs will travel to Fresno to play the Bulldogs next Tuesday as well.
.4615 WINNING PERCENTAGE ON THE ROAD
.7222 WINNING PERCENTAGE AT HOME
.279 TEAM BATTING AVERAGE
MDsports 10
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Freshmen follow leaders, find success Pluschkell, Torres in middle of Cal Poly’s resurgence CONOR MULVANEY
conormulvaney.md@gmail.com
Cal Poly baseball is off to its best start in three years. A 2113 overall and 5-4 Big West record puts the team in third place in the Big West. The hot start is accompanied by a group of underclassmen providing key hits to bolster the Mustang office. At the head of that group are redshirt freshman Tommy Pluschkell and true freshman Nick Torres. “The juniors and seniors helped prepare us for this,” Pluschkell said. “They have been great leaders. You want to perform well for these guys. The older guys helped to anchor the team, and the younger guys have just tried to perform well for them. Anyone can become the leader when we need them to, anyone can perform when we need them to.” Pluschkell, a general engineering freshman, attended Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton, Calif. During his time there, he helped capture two CIF titles for his team. The recruiting process
for Pluschkell was a bit unconventional, though. Pluschkell’s high GPA, accompanied by a high SAT score, drew recruiting from many high-end academic institutions, including MIT and several Division II schools. Pluschkell originally had his mind set on attending UCLA, but he was weary about the future of his baseball career after being offered an uncertain walk-on spot. Then an offer from Cal Poly arose, and he said he knew it was a school that would foster growth academically and athletically. “Cal Poly has a great history,”
Pluschkell said. “They have a great engineering program. They wanted me for baseball. I had a bunch of other schools set up, either great educationwise or athletics-wise, but I didn’t find a mixture between the two.” San Luis Obispo sat right in the center of those
two worlds. Pluschkell picked the Mustangs. Now in his first year playing for Cal Poly, Pluschkell is hitting
.400 with three doubles and seven RBIs. Prior to the season, the team held inter-squad scrimmages three times a week to prepare underclassmen for the increased difficulty of collegiate level pitching. This difficulty is not holding them back, however. Pluschkell said this year’s team can beat anyone, as long as it brings intensity every game and remains consistent. “Every game can be the difference between making a re-
gional and not,” he said. “We need to keep that same focus, that same drive and that same dedication to make sure we pull out every game.” Business administration freshman Nick Torres also said he believes the atmosphere of collegiate baseball helps to build a program based on wins. “The coaching staff here is unbelievable,” he said. “They are
great guys, we come out here to practice and we know that they are always out here to help make us better.” Torres entered Cal Poly expecting to get a few mop-up innings during his freshman year, and hopefully, build himself up for success later on. Torres said he was pleasantly surprised when he found he would be in the mix, starting
at designated hitter throughout the season. “I was just trying to come in and be a role player,” Torres said. “Just do my part when I’m called upon, but it’s great. I love being able to go out there every game day and try to contribute.” When Torres’ collegiate career is over he hopes to be more than just another name at Cal Poly. “I want to be able to say I left my mark on the program,” he said. “If I get my chance to move on to the next level, then hopefully, I have done enough to have had an impact.” Head coach Larry Lee said in a preseason interview that it is important the younger players establish themselves on the collegiate level early in the season, which Pluschkell and Torres have done. “The sooner they can get acclimated to this level the better off we will be,” Lee said.
MAX ZERONIAN/MUSTANG DAILY
MAX ZERONIAN/MUSTANG DAILY
True freshman Nick Torres (above) has started 33 games for the Mustangs while batting .280. He also has 20 RBIs and two home runs.