Volume 61 Issue 05

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

NEWS

INTERVIEW WITH GOVERNOR BROWN ON PAGE 4

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Recent power outage leads to $100,000 in building damage Michael Rios SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In response to a highvoltage switch failure that occurred near the Genomics building last Saturday, Oct. 13, the UCR Facilities Management team was forced to temporarily shut down power to nearly 30 buildings across campus.

The power outage was caused by a failure in the electrical switch located near the Genomics building. A generator was used to power the building over the weekend, but the Facilities Management team still needed to replace the switch.

Management decided to temporarily shut power off from several of the buildings on campus last Tuesday, Oct. 16. Power was temporarily shut down from 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.. Some of those buildings included heavilyused facilities such as the Anderson School of Management, the Biological Sciences building, the Botanic Gardens and Chemical Sciences building.

Prior to the power outage, students and faculty were asked to properly shut down

devices and instruments in the buildings that would be affected by the temporary outage.

Despite the attempts to properly deal with the matter, the power outage still caused major inconveniences and damages as some lectures were delayed, electronic devices were nonfunctional during classes and laboratory equipment was damaged heavily.

According to Dr. Richard Kondrat, the head of the spectrometry facility at UCR, there was some confusion as to which buildings would be without power. The power outage never took place in the Chemical Sciences building as was initially reported. This forced his department to shut down their instruments unnecessarily, resulting in considerable damage to laboratory equipment.

“The consequence of this shutdown in our lab is that one of the instruments failed to start up again,” he said.

The instrument he referred to is the Liquid Chromatograph Time of Flight (LCTOF), which is used by students to analyze a variety

Local electoral showdown focuses on higher education S a n dy V a n SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Hosted by ASUCR and ASPB, the “Meet the Candidates” forum took place on Oct. 17. As part one of three events in the “Before the Ballot Political Speaker Series,” the distinguished panel consisted of local candidates for mayor, county supervisor, state assembly, state senate and Congress vying for electoral office in November.

ASUCR President Liam Dow presented a resolution, which asked each candidate to sign a commitment to higher education in California. “I hereby stand in solidarity with the UCR students; I pledge to prioritize higher education, promote the UCR school of medicine...educate students about the DREAM act, fund the middle class scholarship act, prioritize K-12 and promote regional jobs for high school students,” states the tailored resolutions, which was read by ASUCR President Liam Dow Moderated by ASUCR Vice President of External Affairs Lazaro Cardenas, the first component of the CANDIDATES CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

L i n C h a i /HIGHLANDER The power outage was caused by a failure in the electrical switch in the Genomics building

of samples in their classes and is used two hours a day from Monday to Friday.

Dr. Kondrat said one of the pumps that powers up the instrument failed to work after his department was forced to shut it down during the power outage.

“The problem is a pump

that will not start up,” he said. “This is not a simple pump that people would have their own back up for.”

Dr. Kondrat described the pump as, “a set of spinning blades that moves air out of the instrument to allow it to operate under a high vacuum.” It functions very much

like a jet engine and it powers the LCTOF. Without the pump, the instrument will remain unusable. Consequently, the pump could cost as little as $3,000 and as much as $16,000 to replace it.

The damage made to the lab equipment was only the BLACKOUT CONT’D ON PAGE 7

UCR professors honored with STEM awards C a rr i e M e n g STAFF WRITER

At their third-annual summit, the California STEM Learning network honored two female UCR professors and 10 other women with the “Leading Women in STEM” statewide award.

Held on Oct. 15 and 16, the two-day conference on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) took place in San Diego, with the attendance of over 350 researchers, educators, policymakers and entrepreneurs.

The summit focused on creating new partnerships that would bring more innovative ways in terms of how STEM education is taught, learned and applied.

“The synergy of participants and their total commitment to STEM was amazing,” said Dr. Pamela Clute, UC Riverside’s assistant

C o u rt e s y o f UCR T o d ay Dr. Pamela Clute was awarded with the “Leading Women in STEM” award.

vice chancellor of educational and community engagement, executive director of the ALPHA Center and lecturer in math. In an interview with the Highlander, she said the summit gave useful insight on the innovative ways in which teachers could educate students .

Dr. Clute was one of the speak-

ers at the summit as well as a recipient of the “Leading Women in STEM” award. The award is presented to those who have shown leadership in advancing critical areas of STEM education, including adoption of NEXT Generation Science Standards and advocating STEM AWARDS CONT’D ON PAGE 7

FACEBOOK: UCR HIGHLANDER NEWSPAPER -- TWITTER: @ UCRHIGHLANDER -- highlandernews.org

Volume 61

Issue 05

2

CALENDAR

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

HIGHLANDER

October/November

UPCOMING EVENTS Sunday

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Monday

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What I Should Know Before Choosing a Graduate School 2:10 p.m. – 3:10 p.m.

HUB 355 ASUCR Meeting 6:30 p.m.

Senate Chambers

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5

Fundamentals of Early Childhood Education Training: Pediatric First Aid/ CPR Training 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

UC Riverside Extension Center

Sophomores: Your Career Game Plan 10 a.m. – 11 a.m.

HUB 268 Law School Admissions Panel 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.

HUB 268

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

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Interview Skills featuring Target 11 a.m. - noon HUB 268

Chancellor’s Town Hall Meeting noon - 1:30 p.m.

University Theater

ASUCR Meeting 5 p.m.

Senate Chambers

Ghost Walk 5:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Downtown Riverside

SAA Medical Career Conference 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

HUB 302

Before the Ballot: Health Care 7 p.m.

HUB 302

Kaki King 7:30 p.m.

The Barn

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31

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5 Days of Basic Nutrition: Sugar High 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

HUB 265 Before the Ballot: Gay Marriage 7 p.m.

HUB 302

Fall Bike Registration 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

University Avenue Curve

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7

Careers for Social Science Majors Noon -1:30 p.m.

HUB 367 Law School Information Day 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Rivera Library,

Basic Elements of Public Speaking: How to Prepare and Perform a Successful Oral Presentation 3:10 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Rivera Library

Graduate & Male Eyes in a Female Professional School Body Info Day 3:10 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

INTN 3043 Rivera Library Volleyball vs. CSU Bakersfield 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

SRC Arena

Women’s Basketball vs. Cal Baptist (Exhibition) 3 p.m. – 5 p.m.

SRC Arena

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9

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3rd Annual Creative Coexistence 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.

The Barn

Women’s Basketball vs. Gonzaga 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

SRC Arena

SMI InformationAdvising Session 1:10 p.m. – 2 p.m.

Pierce Hall 315

ASUCR Meeting 5 p.m.

Senate Chambers

Scan this QR code and visit us at www.highlandernews.org

Highlander Elections Guide Be a part of history! Read the Highlander’s 2012 Elections Guide to inform yourself of the issues and best prepare yourself to vote on Nov. 6. In addition to the publication of the Highlander’s endorsements, learn how UCR students will be voting with the results of the 2012 student elections poll.

THE HIGHLANDER - 2012 ELECTIONS SPECIAL EDITION, COMING TUESDAY, OCT. 30.

NEWS

HIGHLANDER

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

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Achieve UC program has promising start at Perris HS Lauren Green CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Oct. 18, UCR Vice Chancellor James Sandoval visited Perris High School in Perris to kickoff “Achieve UC,” a systemwide initiative that informs teenagers about the financial options available to them when pursuing higher education in the UC system.

The program was started

by UC President Mark Yudof who, after visiting a disadvantaged high school in Northern California, implored each UC to join a systemwide outreach program. High school teachers, counselors and UC administration now work together to educate students about financial aid, course selection and the overall importance of a college education. “What Achieve UC really is doing for us is giving us an opportunity to better publicize the programs that we have here at UCR,” stated Vice Chancellor Sandoval in an interview with the Highlander.

Achieve UC reinforces UCR’s mission statement of “...[being] guided by its land grant tradition of giving back by addressing some of the most vexing problems facing society.” Vice Chancellor Sandoval described this endeavor as “... an opportunity to promote, in a much bigger way, the oppor-

tunities that exist at the University of California, and UC Riverside in particular.” High school students gain critical exposure to UC affiliates who provide them with more information about pursuing higher education. Students interested in obtaining a UC education work with counselors and a UC representative to create the next steps in their plans for higher education.

With costs rising due to state divestment, one of the main concerns of prospective students is obtaining enough financial aid to offset the severe cost of attendance. Vice Chancellor Sandoval said, “because of the increase in tuition, a lot of the families are of the opinion that they can’t go to a UC, just because it’s too expensive.”

However, the program advocates awareness of financial aid and assistance, while providing other options such as academic grants and scholarships to overcome financial barriers.

Although the program is a UC-wide initiative, UCR is creating a more involved, handson approach. In fact, the vice chancellor’s work with high school students stretches back to the 1990s. It was a time, “when administration recognized the need to stay in touch with local schools,” stated Sandoval. UCR also offers other STEM AWARDS FROM PAGE 1

for strengthened public-private partnerships and alignment of resources.

“That validation of our work makes us want to do more…

Teachers do change futures and they do change lives because they provide the inspiration that young people need,” Dr. Clute said.

Susan Hackwood, the executive director of the California Council on Science and Technology and professor at UC Riverside also received the award. Dr.

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“Achieve UC” program proved successful at Perris high school

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outreach programs that include campus tours and tutoring for local middle and high school students in the Riverside community. These programs help to reinforce Achieve UC’s mission of serving the local schools in the Riverside community, particularly those in disadvantaged areas.

Compared to other outreach programs, Achieve UC does not rely on financial support and is solely based on the use of time to sustain the program. “It’s not a tremendous amount of overhead. It’s time, you know, sitting down with the students and

talking with them and conveying what we know,” said Sandoval. The program is also an example of California schools working together to create educational opportunities.

For Sandoval, it is time well spent. When asked about the rewards of the program he listed “...[being able] to convey to the school administrators that... we recognize that the K-12 system has really been under siege, and that it really is... an under appreciated job. The second [reward], of course, is just the opportunity to help students understand that their college

dreams can in fact become a reality. And just seeing those eyes open up-restoring some faith and belief in themselves, and the fact that they can go to college.”

Although each campus participates in Achieve UC, the program’s immediate future is unclear. “The long term goal is to continue to motivate, inform and hopefully to encourage everyone who is contributing to the success of our youth, to give them the tools that they need in order to achieve standards for admission to the University of H California,” said Sandoval. ■

Hackwood is the founding dean of UCR’s Bourns College of Engineering and she has overseen the development of all research and teaching aspects of five degree programs.

California is currently ranked 43rd in the nation in undergraduate math and science proficiency.

According to the Department of Labor, the fastest growing and best paying occupations are in medicine, engineering, computer science, energy/environment and data communication. Out of these jobs, 63 percent require STEM knowledge and 92 percent

require post secondary education.

“Right now, STEM education is absolutely necessary for a vibrant economy and we need to educate the next generation in these fields,” said Dr. Clute.

Her presentation at the summit, “Why STEM, Why Partnership,” was centered on the grounds of building a partnership between education, businesses, government, media, and faithbased groups to work towards improving STEM education.

“This is about community and working towards the same goal,” she said.

Chris Roe, the CEO of California STEM Learning Network, said in a recent Press-Enterprise article that adjustments coming to the state’s educational curriculum will bring changes in the way STEM education has been taught by both new and veteran teachers.

Other speakers at the summit included State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, ambassador for California’s STEM school program and basketball champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and scientists from NASA, Google and Pixar.

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NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

HIGHLANDER

INTERVIEW: GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN On Oct. 16, Highlander Editor-in-Chief Chris LoCascio and News Editor Sandy Van joined student newspapers from seven University of California campuses for an interview with Governor Jerry Brown at UCLA. With the UC’s future funding uncertain, the discussion encompassed the impact of Proposition 30, sustainable measures for higher education, market intrusion in the public sector and the ideological divide over government mistrust.

UC Davis: If Prop 30 fails to pass, will any one area be more affected: K-12 education, community colleges, CSUs or UCs? Governor Brown: The way the budget was enacted, the UCs will lose $250 million if the no vote prevails on Proposition 30. The Cal State University will also lose $250 million and the CCCs [California Community Colleges] will lose about half a billion and the kindergarten-12 schools will lose about $4.5 billion, and, as a matter of fact, the UCs may even lose more money because there’s a certain tuition buyout that also might be lost. So there’s big stakes in the Prop 30 election.

UC Davis: A competing tax initiative, Prop 38, is also going to be on the ballot. What are your thoughts on Prop 38 and do you believe it will affect the outcome of the passing of Prop 30?

GB: Actually I don’t. [Prop] 38 is a separate measure that aims to achieve slightly different results. I prefer Proposition 30 because it has been drafted with a view to the budget architecture and how new taxes can work together with the rest of general fund spending. It also, and perhaps most importantly, prevents the cuts this year. The trigger cuts only go into effect if Proposition 30 gets a no, so the most important thing regardless of what people do on any other measure is to vote yes on 30.

That stops the cuts and that’s why I think it’s so important; it provides the revenue going forward.

UC Irvine: What is your response to supporters of Prop 38 and to opponents of Prop 30, especially regarding how the money will be handled through general funds?

GB: Well it’s very clear if you read the text of Proposition 30. The money is put in a special fund that can only be used for schools and community colleges—that’s a fact.

Now I think it’s well to point out that both these tax measures add a certain amount of money, which relative to the total state spending on education, is no more than 20 percent and therefore, 80 percent of this spending is through the authority of the legislature and the governor and that 80 percent is always subject to legislative enactment, every year. The taxes on the other hand, can be allocated to special funds, audited and absolutely guaranteed to go to the schools but unless you cease having all government, you can’t affect the fact that if the other initiative…is cut back, then that reduces the subtotal. So education spending is $50 billion and you add another six and another 10. If that $50 [billion] is reduced to $48 [billion], then the net is not as much

as you might want, that’s just the way it is.

Now there’s such a hostility to government, that some people feel that the government can’t be trusted with tax dollars, so the corollary of that would be not to have an elected government, to have something on automatic prescription by way of some crucial movement...completely unreal possibility, so we state it is the absolute truth that the money goes into a fund, it’s audited and it will be publically available and that money’s going to go there. Equally important is the fact that because of the budget—now we’re not talking about the taxes, we’re talking about the budget—that the budget assumes Proposition 30’s money comes in this year. If that assumption turns out to be wrong because the no vote gets 50.1 percent, all these drastic cuts will take place, even if Proposition 38 is passed.

So by the way, the reason this happens, is because when I was putting the budget together, we didn’t have enough money. So we had to either cut another $6 billion, or we say, “No let’s assume that people vote new tax revenues and then we’ll say the cuts only go into effect if the people vote no.” Now the reason we have to do that is because the state borrows money during certain months of the year when the tax revenues don’t come in at the rate needed to meet the spending. In order to borrow the money from Wall Street or the banks, you have to have a credible balanced budget. You can’t have a credibly balanced budget if $6 or $8 billion of it is a contingency that may never occur, so the only way you can make it a reliable budget guarantee is if you have plan B, which is what we call the trigger cuts and that plan is part of the budget architecture and is inexplicably linked to the fate of Proposition 30. That’s why it is absolutely crucial for every person who cares about the University of California to make sure that Proposition 30 passes.

UC Irvine: How important is the relationship between the state and public higher education in California and how could it be changed if Prop 30 potentially fails?

GB: If Prop 30 fails, the regents have already said they’re going to raise tuition $2,400 in the beginning of the near year. The reason is, the state has been reducing state support for years, that’s why tuition has doubled and you might say “Why?” Well if you just compare when tuition was $125 bucks a semester, well that’s when I went to a UC, but here it wasn’t that much higher when I was younger but at that time, in 1975, in 1977, 1978, 1980, the percentage of

the general funds that went to prisons was over 3 percent. It was between 2 and a half and 3 percent. Two years ago, prison spending went to 11.5 percent. In my budget program, it is slated to drop to 7.5 percent because of reducing prison population so we’re on the move there.

Another expenditure that has grown is health and human services—aging population, more expensive medical care, in-room support services—these are all important, but they’re expenditures that didn’t exist at the level that they do now back when tuition was virtually nonexistent. So what’s happened is that there are more needs as the population ages, as more needs are generated then there’s only so much money that you can get and you might say, “Why don’t you cut something else?” Well the fact is, we’ve cut the elderly, the blind and the disabled, their pensions, which were $857 a month, we’ve cut them down to $835 a month. They’re the poorest people we have. Mothers who get CalWorks because they have two little children, her stipend under state and federal money is what it was in the 1980s. We’ve also cut Cal Grants, particularly for the private and for-profit colleges. We’ve cut out new development. We’ve made bigger cuts and so we look around to where to cut next, it just so happens that education is such a huge part of the budget and it is less protected by federal law.

So when you have a shortfall, people look to UC and Cal State and K-12 and the community colleges because they’re more totally in control of state authority. But when you go to Medicare, because they’re half federally funding, the condition for getting half of that money requires certain services be provided and if the state attempts to cut them, the state will lose federal funding and therefore, it doesn’t cut as much. So the only people left on the chopping block are the CSU, UC, community colleges and K-12. The answer is to get more revenue and it’s also for the UC to be as efficient as it can and not spend money on any low priority items if such can be found.

UCSB: If Prop 30 fails in November will you insist on new solutions and veto any other legislative alternative…and insist on cuts to new solutions to the budget deficit or will you pursue another tax increase?

GB: I’d like to think that there is an alternative in case of Proposition 30 failing but there isn’t. The state only has so much money. For the last 10 years, the state has borrowed money through caring maneuvers, gimmicks, inflated revenue

E r i n N g /T h e D a i ly B r u i n

projections and inflated expenditure reductions and that has created for California the worst credit rating of all 50 states, roof to bottom. When I became governor, the deficit was $26 billion and because a billion of the revenue was coming from selling out-of-state buildings at a ridiculously low price, I cancelled that and the deficit went to $27 billion. Now we have to cut away at that, billions and billions of dollars, and we’re getting close to balance which I believe will happen if Prop 30 passes, but if Proposition 30 doesn’t pass, I can’t conjure money out of thin air.

There’s only so many cookies in the jar and the gimmicks of the past are not acceptable going forward. We’re in an unserved world economy. We want to keep our debt in proper relationship to our revenue. So yes, the trigger cuts will go into effect and they’re part of the budget and it’s automatic so there’s nothing for the legislative to do because the trigger cuts are already enacted subject to not going into effect, if Prop 30 passes.

UCSB: In your ideal situation if Prop 30 passes, what needs to happen in the future to continue a more sustainable higher education system?

GB: I believe the correlation between community colleges, high schools, and the UCs has to be intensified, number one. Number two, I think online learning has to be part of the package has to be looked to where it can be usefully and creatively introduced. Thirdly, I think the UC leadership has got to find ways of reducing resources that are less valuable than the core mission of the university, which is to educate students and to do fundamental research. Now, I believe the university administrative leadership already claims and believes that they’ve cut administrative costs to the maximum. I would say that’s a question that should be looked at and not closed because there are things that...I mean you got to find out what is basic and what is nice in the enmity category because the problem in higher education as I see it is probably twofold.

State government has had its revenues cut because of the mortgage meltdown and that whole catastrophe coming out of Wall Street and the silly recession. Secondly, the university has been forced to compete with new social needs that absorb spending. Thirdly, universities are taking on more and more activities and that cost money. Then finally, the availability of student loans, which now approximates in an accumulated number, $1 trillion dollars, and student loans, which I think are properly denominated “student aid,”

should be very clearly labeled “student indebtedness” without benefited possibility of bankruptcy, have become a source of growing funds that because the money is almost infinite, then the discipline on spending that money is reduced. We just know for a fact that if you can always get more money, you will look to the more money rather than to alternative spending practices and that is difficult because the student indebtedness is growing faster than mortgage indebtedness and faster than credit card indebtedness. So it is a growing source of capital that feeds into every school or every college in the country and that then requires real vigilance to ensure that those who don’t spend all this money don’t become too comfortable on the student’s future, which they’re basically extracting from even though you’re all supposed to make so much money and pay it back. That was never the story when I went to school; nobody told us that and when my mother went to UC, nobody told her that. This particular student indebtedness issue is a recent phenomenon and it can be very difficult to control but I believe we’ve got to find ways of expanding college opportunity and finding the most elegant and efficient way of making that opportunity available.

UCLA: All right so as you discussed previously, higher education always seems to be on the chopping block. So in the long run, do you think there is a way to guarantee sufficient funding for the UC every year and from the state every year?

GB: The long term model is we should get more money from the state and what I’m doing in Proposition 30 is a major step in helping the university and I might say that this didn’t come very easy. Last year, there were certain taxes worth about $10 billion that were set to expire and I tried to get the legislature to put it on the ballot to see if we could extend it for another five years.

There’s a sales tax, there’s a car tax and there’s at least two exemptions that had been suspended. I couldn’t get the two votes in the senate and I couldn’t get two votes in the assembly, so I had to go out and get an initiative. My first initiative was a 2 percent tax but then the federation of teachers came up with a millionaire’s tax with a 5 percent on millionaires and that was polling so much better, I knew I had to form a coalition by creating a compromise, so we then came up a third idea, which is Proposition 30. I just retraced that history to show how difficult it is. So it’s difficult to get taxes that is true and by the way, Prop 39 will provide some INTERVIEW CONT’D ON PAGE 5

NEWS

HIGHLANDER INTERVIEW FROM PAGE 4

tax money too to the general funds.

When we look at these things, you have a lot of built-in requirements. For example, in reducing the prison population through what is called realignment, where you have less serious criminals dealt with on the local level, that realignment policy didn’t get one republican vote and in fact some republicans say that blood will be running in the streets because the felons who aren’t in state prisons, they’re in local prisons or local rehabs or some alternative sanction. What I’m saying is it’s hard to reduce the prisons so much more, although we’re still working on that because the courts are telling us to do that, but there is no easy path whether it’s less money in health and human services, less money for corrections, less money for all the other things in government. It is just a prowl, as you go from a state with 24 million [people] to a state with 38 million [people]. You have a lot of low income people and you have a lot of people getting older with more needs, medical needs, it’s more costly. When you have more people, 38 million, driving cars, it’s more crowded. You have more transactional costs and that comes up in government spending needs and yet the skepticism of government rules right alongside with the needs that only government can satisfy.

So we have a dichotomy between a growing need and a growing skepticism about paying any tax money to alleviate the need. We are in a cultural contradiction that we wrestle with and I wrestle with everyday and even if you look at some of the ads, they point to, “You can’t trust elected officials.” So I guess the corollary would be let’s have unelected officials or let’s not have elected officials, so how do we have trains, or freeways or buses or schools. So there is a serious issue here of conflicting perceptions and desires that make it difficult to arrive at a majority consensus on strengthening public sector activities. So as public funding declines, schools are forced to rely more on research and private funding, as the alignment provisions for the public sector decline, the state will have to rely more on private sector funding?

The university has taken the path of more and more fundraising because of the decline in state support also because of the increased perceived need that the university finds for itself. It’s even become the practice when interviewing possible deans or chancellors, the first question is, “How much money can you raise?” Now that really has little to do with intellectual depth or moral leadership or creativity, which I would identify with university leadership.

But there is this need for fundraising, there’s this need for making money through patents and other activities that the university can engage in and I would say all of that needs to be very carefully looked at because it can alter the character of the university, in ways that I don’t think would be good.

Having said all that, the money is needed so I would like to see the state giving more money, but for the state to give more money, you have more money, and the only way the state gets more money is if the economy grows. Now because of the mortgage meltdown, California lost 23.4 million jobs. Those people are col-

lecting money through unemployment, through Medicare and they’re not producing. So If we get all those people back to work, that would put money back into the state, and we’d be in a better position to fund colleges and universities. That goes into the question of macroeconomics and what’s the federal government doing and even the federal government is not alone and in charge.

You’ve got the effects of Europe buying exports from the United States and there is this meme infecting leaders around the world about the need for austerity, and there’s another group of economists that say, “No, what is needed is investment and stimulus,” and I would identify with the latter and not the former.

UCLA: I’m going to go back to the first question that the Daily Bruin asked, but I didn’t pick up on what you think the long term funding model should be?

GB: Now what is the funding model? It’s state funding, student loans borrowing and fundraising for wealthy individuals and maybe notso-wealthy individuals. How that can be altered—I think you’d have to work it all and I think, getting back to Proposition 30, efore worrying about the long term model, I can tell you this, if Proposition 30’s defeated, then the notion of additional state money will be defeated with it.

So I think we have to douse the fire. We have to put the fire out now and right now the challenge with the no on 30 people is that money coming from taxes is being wasted and that’s their theory. It’s a meme. It’s an idea that circulates in people’s minds and it makes it very difficult to win more support. So in order to respond to that, I’ve done...what we can: cut the governor’s office by 25 percent, cut travel, state employees have taken a 5 percent pay cut, the governor and the legislature has taken a 23 percent pay cut in the last three years. So we’re trying to win public confidence by showing that we are responsible with the tax dollars, but no matter how much we do, there’s always a problem, there’s something shows up. There’s 23,000 employees, something’s going to go wrong.

If you look at what’s going on with private business and their jet planes and their activities and their businesses, you can call that waste. But that is not the meme, not the idea being circulated. Government is somehow supposed to be pure and yet it has ordinary human beings.

So I respond by saying that the legislature, state governors, we all have to strive to be more austere to win the support of state people so as to have enough tax revenue to do what needs to be done. At the same time, there’s an ideological war going on between those who are comfortable with the growing inequality and stratification of society and the privatization and the diminishment of the public sector. So that’s really the contest and this election will deal with some of that particularly with Prop 30 and Prop 39.

UCLA: I’d like to ask the question that I wanted to ask. So there have been pressures on the regents to give more autonomy to the UC campuses, so do you see the UC becoming more decentralized?

GB: You know that’s a good question. I generally favor decentralized solutions under the notion of subsidiary, which is a fancy word but what it means is that organization or insti-

tution closest to the problem should have the most responsibility to deal with the problem. Under Catholic doctrine, which I was taught, the basic and primary institution is the family and as you go beyond the family, you get to the neighborhood, you get to the city, you get the university, the school and then you have the state and then you have the federal government. So all these different levels are involved in telling schools and universities what to do and in collecting and spending money. How that would apply to how much the central administration in Oakland should have and and how much should be in UCLA or Merced or San Diego, now that’s a very fluid topic and I would have to know what we’re talking about. Are we talking about course, tenure decisions, payroll, sports? I think there’s a variety of issues and I’m not prepared to pick one out, but if you have any specifics like should UCLA have this power or should it be in the hands of the president’s office, then I’d be happy to respond.

UCLA: Should campuses be able to set their own tuition levels?

GB: Now I know there’s a desire for UCLA and Berkeley to pull away from what they consider their lesser brethren out there and you know, I’d have to think about that. I guess there’s a notion that UCLA and UCB are the special institutions so therefore they can charge more. That hasn’t been the historic model. As a matter of fact, if you look at the last 50 years, the market as an idea has crept more and more into the public sector by way of bonuses. If you teach this course, then you ought to make more money than this course. Obviously, if you’re a computer scientist, you’re worth more than a Greek professor, or are you? And I think that gets to the question of what our society’s all about and I think the market intrusion needs to be limited because we’re all in it together, we’re all contributing and while incentives play an important role, I find it kind of ridiculous when people say, “Well if you give a teacher 25,000 bucks more a year or 5,000 bucks more a year, then they’re going to teach better.” I find that hard to believe. I assume a teacher or professor does what he or she does because they like doing it and they want to get a nice salary, but whether they make X amount or Y amount, as long as they’re in the job, I think they’re going to be professionally dedicated to what they’re doing. The market would say that the primarily motivation is money and therefore, the more you get the more you do. The less you get the less you do. Now that to me is a concept that needs to be challenged because I don’t think it’s true.

UC Santa Barbara: What have you done so far to prioritize education spending in the budget?

GB: Realignment, by reducing the prison population by 40,000 prisoners. Secondly, we have put about $120,000 plus into UC and Cal State to bog down the proposed tuition increases, we did that this year, by actually financing and circulating Proposition 30. Proposition 30 didn’t just spring to life ex mileo, which is the Latin phrase for means for nothing.

It had to be drafted, which was done in my office. Money had to be raised, and we had to deal with the competing measures, with the so-called millionaire’s tax, and also we’re working on making it easier and seamless for a community college student to go to UC and Cal State. I think that’s

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012 a very important part of prioritizing higher ed. And I would like to look into why so many students flunk remedial English and math. I think that is something we’ve got to figure out during their senior year of high school. More and more I have supported bills to provide state funding for high schools, even though the student is taking a course at a local community college or Cal State or UC. These institutional structures, their boundaries are more permeable.

The notion of a college as a quadrangle with ivy and trees and lawns and plazas, that’s true, that’s historically what the ivy looks like. Now with the internet and the ability for a digital revolution where ideas can be encoded and transmitted across all sorts of formal boundaries, there has to be a reconceptualization of high school, community college, Cal State University, and UC. There’s room there for cross pollination and interchange that I would hope smart people would think of.

UC Irvine: Now this next question stems from your passing of AB 970. Are you working on any other efforts to increase transparency and affordability?

GB: No, but I am open to your suggestions. Maybe you can send me some.

UCR: You made it very clear that your goal for this term is to balance the budget. Despite this, you have made some priorities like high speed rail and other investments. Do you have a particular vision for California? Where is your focus, especially once the budget is balanced? Do you have a certain goal in mind, or a certain endgame?

GB: An endgame, that’s kind of ominous. I don’t think we have an endgame, except to stay healthy and alert and learning. Vision is a word that’s thrown around. Now in fact the first George Bush used to refer to it as “that vision thing,” because people didn’t think he had much of a vision, so he got kind of frustrated and he kind of poo-pooed that vision thing. But I do have a sense in California and a growing sense for California since I’ve been around for a while. My great grandfather came to California in 1852, head of the stagecoach, so I have served the tradition. My mother went to a UC and my father was the governor, of course, and I see California as a very unique place. It’s uniqueness is not appreciated in some quarters like in Texas or New Jersey where they create an elusively utopia of low taxes, low regulations, plentiful low wage jobs, which they are by the way.

They have far more low-wage jobs than California. California is still the heart of creativity in the world. The new businesses coming out of the internet, the microprocessor... California’s a place that whether it’s in agriculture, whether it’s in movies or television or internet or biomedical research or computer sciences, it’s an amazing place and my vision is to, or my hope and my commitment is to, preserve and enhance this special place with its unique attributes.

Another part of California is its environment, that’s why California alone as a state has a goal of renewable energy by 2020. We have a goal of a high speed rail, which is a more efficient way to move people now across sixteen countries. The high speed rail will be [built] across a 20-year period and, by the way, the funding will go

5

over a span of forty or fifty years, and I want you to think if we look back at time, what are the things that last?

If you look at a bridge or a dam or the transcontinental railroad, these were big decisions, but they were often made during depressions. The transcontinental railroad was started

by Lincoln during the Civil War, the Golden Gate Bridge was built during the Depression. So just because we’re under fiscal stress doesn’t mean we don’t build new things. A one-ton vehicle was built in Pasadena that was landed on Mars, that costs three billion dollars. Some people say, “Why don’t we spend that money on reducing tuition or something else like feeding the homeless,” but we got to do lots of different things. We got to make sure we have a reliable water supply, we got to make sure that our transportation infrastructure is moderate and elegant with our kind of advanced state.

So I would just say that I see California as both a trendsetter, but also as a state that deals and grapples with the big issues, and the big issues are inequality, climate change and promoting and handling the innovation that both adds to our quality of life but also underlines our sense of our traditional identity. That puts us in kind of a hot-house of experimentation but I think California needs to look to its past and also pave the way for its future. By the way, the author Carrie Mcqueens wrote in 1948 the book “California: the Great Exception,” and in that book...he talked about how the gold rush, in a matter of a couple of years, brought hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world...everywhere. China, Russia, Italy, Germany, everywhere, people just came out, got their picks and shovel or their pans and they started extracting all this gold. A hundred billion dollars, in a very few number of years, and you might ask who owned the land, who owned the gold? Well, whoever got there. These mining towns had no government, but somehow it worked. But it supercharged California to the detriment of the native peoples that were here and to the environment to an extent.

But that stimulus and that surge of human activity has been replicated many times since and I would say the internet, the computer revolution, the sequencing of the human genome and the Pasadena Jet Propulsion Lab—there’s a continuing gold rush of human imagination and collaboration, so that’s also the way I see California.

UCR: What kind of outcome will the upcoming presidential race have on California?

GB: Well, I would say that Romney buys into the idea that more privatization is the way to go. Its more of a hyper individualistic perspective that is at odds with our understanding of what happened when these big banks weren’t regulated and were in fact too big, so they all had to be bailed out. So it’s pretty clear to me that President Obama represents a commitment to our common path through public service, through helping the less fortunate, through dealing with climate change and through, I think, a more enlightening foreign policy. Now, none of these presidential choices are black and white because they’re all within the American consensus, but I do think that for California, and for the way I see the world, President Obama is the clear ■H choice.

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NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

HIGHLANDER

ASUCR senate update: resolution to endorse Proposition 30 S a n dy V a n

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A r o o b a C h a u d h ry CONTRIBUTING WRITER

At the ASUCR Senate meeting on Oct. 15, senators declared the temporary suspension of a Legislative Review Committee bylaw, as well as the passing of two key funding bylaws. President Liam Dow, along with the rest of the senate, motioned to endorse Proposition 30, on the grounds that failure to pass on Nov. 6 will lead to a 20.2 percent tuition hike and a $375 million cut. As part of a month-long initiative to increase student voter registration, a series of electionrelated events have been held on campus. During the public forum period, Dean of Students Susan Allen Ortega announced that the student regents will visit UCR on Nov. 8 as part of a system-wide tour.

With the November elections less than two weeks away, ASUCR continued to enact major efforts to raise student awareness about voter registration. Senators have promoted the current election season through events such as “Meet the Candidates,” “Meet the Senators” and “Final Chance.” “Rock the Vote” banners have also been avidly displayed on ASUCR’s website, with links to ballot initiatives and online registration.

Prominent changes included a motion by President Liam Dow to temporarily suspend Chapter 13, section one, item e, from the ASUCR bylaws.

This section states that, “all legislation must be reviewed and edited by the Legislative Review Committee (LRC) be-

CHASS Senator Brian Leung fore being moved to the Senate to be voted on.” The bylaw was suspended due to desires to expedite public endorsement of Prop 30. The suspension motion was successful during the second round of senatorial votes, through a two-thirds majority. President Dow also requested an additional motion to pass a Prop 30 resolution to inform the public, which also passed with bipartisan support.

Meeting Highlights Executive Vice President Armando Saldana delivered a proposal to the Transpor-

presents his report and accomplishments for the week. tation and Parking Services tion of a new “Mobile Solar (TAPS) to reinstate the trolley Power Generator” has become system. Approval is unlikely a reality. Fueled by the sun until 2013-2014, due to recent and wind, the generator is a budget cuts. According to the “student-thought and studentUCR Commuter Programs, built” project. Future plans the trolley services were halt- include powering staged coned back in 2011 in order to certs and events on campus. keep free student bus passes UCR libraries are now open to the Riverside Transit Agen- longer during finals’ week cy (RTA). through the efforts of ASUCR In collaborations with the senators. Orbach Library will Green Campus Action Plan be open for 24 hours, while (GCAP), Center for Envi- Riviera until two a.m. These ronment Research and Tech- extended times apply to the nology (CE-CERT) and the Friday prior to finals’ week Bourns College of Engineer- until the following Wednesing (BCOE), the installa- day.

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L ee n a B u t t /HIGHLANDER

Upcoming Events Oct 23: Before the Ballot Political Speaker Series: Health Care Oct. 24: Chancellor’s Town Hall meeting Oct. 25: ASUCR senate meeting Oct. 30: Before the Ballot Political Speaker Series: Gay Marriage Nov. 8: UC student regents’ fall tour Nov. 9-11: The 24th Annual Students of Color Conference

UC online courses now available to the public Dean Mayorga STAFF WRITER

The newly-implemented online program UC Online provides more students with the option of taking general education classes through a University of California campus.

Initially reserved for UC-enrolled students, the program became accessible to the public in early October. The UC system is hoping to target undergraduate classes that may be overcrowded. First introduced in January at UC Merced, the program has gradually expanded to eight other UC campuses, with the current enrollment of 1,700 undergraduates.

This fall, eight classes were offered, such as The Beauty and Joy of Computing (CS 10), Art, Science and Technology (DESMA 9) and Maps and Spatial Reasoning (Geog 12) throughout the UC system.

There is only one available course at UCR, entitled Dance, Cultures and Contexts (Dance 7).

Classes are also available to nonUC students, though the selection is still limited to three courses. Courses must first be offered to UC students before becoming available to possible transfers, high-school stu-

dents or “life-long learners.” NonUC and UC students alike will receive college credit for their work but non-UC students are required to pay a fee based on an in-state tuition rates. Courses offered to students already enrolled into the UC system will be included within the tuition set.

UCR Registrar Bracken Dailey took part in the discussions and activities behind the launching of UC Online at UCR, where he explained the gradual process and evaluation that each course must undergo. “It has to go through the college and then our senate and they have to say ‘yes, okay, everything looks good,’” stated Dailey. “Then once it’s been approved at our campus, it has to go up to UCOP for the UC [Committee on Education Policy] to also approve it. And the UC online group has to approve it to be a UC Online course.” In the end, the course is still “governed” by each respective campus.

The one class that is offered so far at Riverside, Dance 7, is currently being taught by Jacqueline Shea Murphy, chair of the dance department and associate professor. She cited many reasons why

online teaching is a necessary academic course. Crowded classrooms, the need for more student enrollment and the desire to be a part of a technological revolution were all motivations for Murphy to teach the course.

Professor Murphy also mentioned the frustrations that come with being part one of the first groups to try out the new technology. She joked that her students will “be telling their kids that ‘when I was in college I pioneered one of the first…online classes [for the UC].’”

Though the technology is still being developed, she did add that her class did an “amazing” job on their last assignment using some of the online tools. “There’s probably…a little bit of anxiety and frustration getting to know the way an online class works…but I think [it’s also] amazing—stepping up to that plate.”

Some of the tools that Shea Murphy’s class uses include an EtherPad and Adobe Connect “discussion rooms.” With both individual and collaborative workloads, students are given the opportunity to work at their own pace. Students are free to listen to the lecture at any time, but there are designated online periods

C o u rt e s y o f U n i v er s i t y o f C a l i f o r n i a Keith Williams, Interim Director of UC Online Education.

for discussion section.

“You really have to be on the ball, [an active learner] and… be little bit of a ‘self-starter ’ or someone who is self-motivated to stay on track,” ■H stated Murphy.

NEWS

HIGHLANDER

NEWS IN BRIEF

COMPILED BY CRISTINA GRANADOS,

UCR FRATERNITY BREAKS SANDWICH-MAKING WORLD RECORD On Oct. 9, the members of Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity, attempted to break the world record of most sandwiches made in an hour.

The sandwiches of choice were peanut butter and jelly, which were later distributed by Second Harvest Food Bank around Riverside. The previous world record was set by 100 children and parents with the Jewish UJA-Federation, with a record of 1,660 sandwiches according to the World Record Academy site. The Guinness world reBLACKOUT FROM PAGE 1

tip of the iceberg, however.

The costs of repairing and replacing the failed switch were far greater.

Ken Mueller, director of the Physical Plant at UC Riverside, provided further information about the additional expenses that incurred as a result of the incident.

“The cost will be around $100,000,” he said in an interview with the Highlander.

“It’s expensive.”

The replacement of the electrical switch and additional work hours for the workers were among the primary costs of the incident, stated Dr. Kondrat.

Despite the costs, Mueller ultimately called the handling of the situation a “success,” stating that the department dealt with the situation fairly handedly in a short amount of time.

“Electrical failures happen,” said Mueller. He ultimately reassured that the department constantly performs routine maintenance on the electrical systems, insuring prompt repairs to any electrical failures that might occur ■H in the near future.

event involved five-minute individual introductions. The following Q&A session included inquiries about the UCR medical school, higher education and Proposition 30.

Each candidate was asked two questions with a three-minute time limit for each one.

Both candidates for Mayor of Riverside, Ed Adkison and Rusty Bailey, were unable to attend the event and sent campaign representatives in their stead.

Bob Buster, candidate for District one County Supervisor (incumbent) In regards to student voter registration, Buster stated that political participation is not a “natural step” for most, but the active efforts made by younger individuals has led to the preservation of 5,000 acres of citrus trees. The UCR School of Medicine was also a topic he addressed, citing the county’s role in helping fund the school and emphasizing that the school faces challenges of providing medical coverage to a greater population.

Richard Roth, candidate for State Senate

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staff writer

UC DAVIS PEPPER-SPRAY DOCUMENTS RELEASED

cord for the most sandwiches made in an hour was previously set at 1,500 sandwiches. Theta Tau was able to make 1,686 sandwiches in 43 minutes with only a group of about 90 students.

Catherine Ferguson, director of donor relations at Second Harvest and official witness for the record-breaking sandwich assembly, told the PressEnterprise that she was excited to partner with a campus organization and was grateful for the large donation of food.

CANDIDATES FROM PAGE 1

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

As per the request of the Sacramento Bee and other media organizations, and almost a year after the UC Davis pepper spraying incident, the University of California released over 9,500 documents and emails related to the case on Tuesday, Oct.16. These documents reveal many unpublicized reports of the investigation, along with the internal and external reactions of the public. Many emails contained very harsh wording and the words “Hitler” and “Gestapo” were used in over 30 different cases.

According to the investigation conducted by the Sacramento Bee, the pages of documents reveal a lack of leadership within campus administrators, including

Richard Roth stated that adequate state funding to higher education and K-12 is a fading dream in California. Roth strongly advocated the passage of Proposition 30, which will prevent a $6 billion cut to education—specifically citing a $250 million cut to UC and CSU alone. Roth identified the need to reform California’s educational system through increased structural efficiency and organization.

Jose Medina, candidate for State Assembly Jose Medina made clear his support of diversity that across public university campuses, especially through initiatives such as the Upward Bound outreach program.

With regards to the medical school accreditation, Medina agreed that the first class of 50 medical students will need to be trained to meet the cultural needs in the local Inland Empire, which has dire needs for greater health physicians.

Kevin Jeffries, candidate for County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries discussed his greater cooperation between the county and the city by focusing on an educated work force, good health and overall

the police. The incident has cost the UC and UCD about $1 million in settlements and almost another $1 million in investigations and other related costs. It was revealed that a large chunk of the documents included emails to Chancellor Katehi regarding her alleged lack of reaction and guidance to such a time-sensitive situation.

The documents also revealed immense public backlash against the mistreatment of student protesters.

Under the Public Records Act, the UC system was forced to provide public access to the documents. The release of these documents was initially delayed because UC officials said they were being used in the criminal investigation of the incident.

accessibility to local jobs. He said public safety and education are the most critical areas in need of state funding, and added, “When you have 6,000 people in administration at the department of corrections and then you’re cutting education, something’s wrong with that equation.”

Mark Takano, candidate for US Congress (41st) With student loan debt at an average $25,000 per person, exceeding $1 trillion nationwide, Takano emphasized his belief in the recommitment of higher education through rethinking the master plan and increasing consumer protections. When asked about the role of U.S. foreign policy, Takano stated that the “democratic impulse” of U.S. interventionism must be withheld and federal aid should be used minimally as a motivational tool.

Ed Adkison, candidate for Riverside Mayor (represented by Roger Carpenter) Ed Adkison’s representative explained the candidate’s belief that the role of a mayor in education is to set the agenda that consists of promoting local events and more innova-

tive ideas that promote college and high school graduation rates. “Listen first and learn,” was noted as Adkison’s model. Akison supports private sector entrepreneurship and the growth of new technologies, and if elected, plans to establish a policy that will pay UCR students’ loan debt if they start businesses and create jobs in Riverside.

Rusty Bailey, candidate for Riverside Mayor (represented by Tolby Holmes) Rusty Bailey’s campaign representative explained how the candidate prioritizes making fiscal and social connections when addressing the needs of UCR. A current city council member, Bailey has the support of the Riverside Unified School District and current Mayor Ron Loveridge. Since many first-year students lack the necessary accessibility to participate in the Riverside community, Bailey will focus on expanding opportunities, building modes of transportation, like a streetcar down University Avenue, and greater attractions in the local community will increase overall interest and civic participation.

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. OPINIONS .

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

HIGHLANDER

On June 6th, the Supreme Court refused to strike down a California law that offers state residents reduced tuition rates at California colleges. The law’s opponents argue that the bill, which does not distinguish between lawful residents and illegal immigrants, violates a federal law that prohibits states from giving college benefits to illegal aliens on the basis of residence within a state. Unfortunately for the law’s detractors, the Supreme Court wouldn’t even hear their challenge.

Lawyers for a conservative immigration-law group that backed the appeal claim that the law is patently unfair to the thousands of full-bred American high school graduates who apply to California colleges from other states each year. These students will have to pay as much as $20,00 more for college tuition than the illegal immigrants (and many other California residents) that the bill aids. Others have argued that the bill gives preferential treatment to illegal immigrants - it is just one more derivative of affirmative action, bent on taking positions away from the hard working, middle-class Caucasians who really deserve http://ulife. com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/rick-santorum-660x320.jpg

HIGHLANDER EDITORIAL

C h r i s L o C a s c i o /HIGHLANDER

VOTE YES ON PROPOSITION 30 Proposition 30, a November ballot measure proposed by Governor Jerry Brown, seeks to increase sales tax by onequarter of a cent for four years and income tax for taxpayers making over $250,000 for seven years. The successful passage of this tax initiative will designate state revenue to California’s education system, yet only ensures the bare-bone minimum to the UC system. The Highlander Editorial Board endorses Prop 30 because it offers the temporary, but necessary fiscal relief after years of consistent state disinvestment to higher education.

Dating back to the Great Recession, state disinvestment in the UC has amounted to nearly a billion dollars. No longer can students take a backseat to other priorities of the state, which includes an increase in austerity measures for the sake of a balanced budget. Originating from a hybrid between the Millionaires Tax and Governor Brown’s first tax initiative, Prop 30 is a short-term solution, yet it is a step in the right direction: halting the salting of the fiscal slashings endured by the UC system.

Alternately, the majority of state revenues raised from Prop 30 will be deposited and secured into an Education Protection Account (EPA). Specifically purposed towards funding the K-12 system and California Community Colleges, local school boards will have the ability to use funds under their own discretion.

The passage of Governor Brown’s 2012-13 California Budget back in June was based on assumed projections and the authorization of predicted tax measures— such as Prop 30—due to the lack of sufficient funds in the state’s general coffers.

According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, an estimated “balanced budget” is mandated by Proposition 58 in the California Constitution before state funds can be distributed that year. To provide further support to these contingency measures that is meant to balance the state budget, Governor Brown will enact a $6 billion budget cut on

HIGHLANDER STAFF

education if Prop 30 fails to pass.

Back in July, the UC Board of Regents voted to rally behind the state budget and the passage of Governor Brown’s Prop 30, which will halt $250 million in “trigger cuts” and a 20.3 percent increase in tuition, equivalent to a $2,400 rise in annual UC tuition. Concurrently, the regents enacted a systemwide freeze with an expected tuitionbuyout of $125 million for the 2013-14 academic year, under the condition that Prop 30 goes into effect.

With the future of the UC so contingent upon the proposition’s passage, the situation can be understandably maddening, but Californians have been dealt a harsh hand and must make harsh choices. Financial cuts to the UC have been clotted by costsaving measures, but critical damages may potentially occur if this initiative becomes overrun by no votes and driven off the fiscal cliff in 2013.

Based on previous propositions enacted

by Californians, certain programs have a funding minimum that must be fulfilled by the state. Under Proposition 98, a mandated minimum is dedicated to K-12 and higher education, according to the California Department of Finance. The passing of Prop 30 as a state constitutional amendment would also apply under the same principle, which dedicates a legal minimum of state revenue to education. Too often has education been targeted, since it has the least protections and is dependent on state funding, compared to federally-mandated programs such as Medicare or corrections, which are often earmarked in a state’s budget.

The competing tax measure, Proposition 38, has also increased the failure rates of all current tax initiatives on the November ballot. The California Constitution states that all competing tax measures will undergo a majority rule vote. Unlike its fellow counterpart, Prop 30 was written with the state budget in mind. The 201213 California Budget was balanced under the assumption that Prop 30 would pass in

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J o s h ua W a g o n b l a s t CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Taking responsibility for the violence in Benghazi is like admitting fault for a bank robbery because you failed to hire enough security guards. On Oct. 15, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took responsibility for the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya last month that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. This is commendable on some level, but should also be taken as asking for forgiveness on a poorly planned circumstance. But the main concern is how this will make President Obama look. Is there fault found throughout the entirety of the House, despite Mrs. Clinton saying that the safety of the US diplomatic staff overseas was solely her job and not the White House’s?

There are many opinions out there, and it was even brought up in the recent presidential debate. And, of course, many theories are circulating throughout the Internet, and although I do find the sympathy appreciative, I also find the blame as a campaign maneuver rather than an authentic worry about America’s stance abroad.

The recent debate between Romney and Obama seemed to be evenly matched. Obama was aggressive and argued well, while Romney embodied his typical role. But, performances aside, the issue I would like to address is a statement posed by Moderator Candy Crowley who brought up one event in particular.

This was, naturally, about Clinton’s acceptance of responsibility for the attacks.

When Obama was confronted about the affair he said that “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has done an extraordinary job, but she works for me. I’m the president and I’m always responsible.” At first I was glad he had that to say, but as second thoughts snuck up on me I wondered why he could not address the incident before then. If he does take the blame for the terrorist assault, then why not speak about this face-to-face with the country and say so?

I do understand that Hillary Clinton, being secretary of state and all, has a duty to inform congress and American citizens on the conduct of foreign affairs, but she also serves as the president’s primary adviser on U.S. foreign policy, while ensuring the protection of our country and the citizens. Along those lines, there has been circulating rumors about what intel the government had prior to the attack in Libya. In an interview with ABC news, Clinton said that “we understood that there would be an effort to try and reestablish a presence of extremist bases and operations.” She boldly admitted that VIOLENCE ABROAD CONT’D ON PAGE 10

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November. If an alternate tax measure, such as Prop 38, is successful, the trigger cuts will still go into effect and provide no funding guarantee to California’s higher education system.

With the California sales tax being one of the highest in the United States, many taxpayers are weary about passing such an initiative, which will raise both sales and income taxes. However, failure for Prop 30 to pass will reduce K-12 education by $5.4 billion, equivalent to a loss of three academic weeks, and $500 million to public universities, according the California Progress Report site.

With the student loan debt surpassing $1 trillion this year, both students and families have felt the pinch and deserve to catch their breath. Despite this fact, more than three-quarters of undergraduates who were surveyed believed in the investment of a college education, stated a national study conducted by financial group, Sallie Mae. Taxpayers must also support the same belief to endure the pangs of tax increases for the sake fiscal funding to education.

Exposoed to the political limelight, vocally embraced by most of California’s education system and attracting political participation from once-apathetic college students, Prop 30 does not truly provide a full-fledged sustainable funding model for the UC, but is still the best option on the upcoming ballot. Without Proposition 30, California’s educational system will further spiral into a chasm of faculty furloughs, increased tuition and civil strife from university students who have had the door of opportunities closed on them. California’s voters should keep that door open and vote yes on Proposition 30 come Nov. 6.

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Violence abroad: using terrorism for political gain

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

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Fisher v. University of Texas: affirmative action is not a number T i m R. A g u i l a r STAFF WRITER

After signing the Civil Rights Act, July 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson addressed the graduating class at Howard University.

He said, “You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, ‘you are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe you have been completely fair…”

But that was then and now is now. How much longer must our public education system continue to right the wrong that denies minorities’ equal access to higher public education? Is there some magical number that says mission accomplished?

The U.S. Supreme Court, in the recent case of Fisher v. The University of Texas, asked the same question, and the university responded by saying it required the flexibility to consider race as one of many factors in building a “critical mass” of underrepresented minorities. Chief Justice Roberts pressed, asking, “When will I know that you’ve reached a critical mass?” The university responded by saying, “[When] African Americans and Hispanics do not feel like a spokesperson for their race.” Astute, I thought.

Fisher was denied admission, according to the university, because she was not within the top 10 percent of high school graduates in the State of Texas, which accounts for approximately 85 percent of incoming freshman. Fisher went on to attend and graduate from Louisiana State University and her lawsuit was dismissed by a lower court, but the Supreme Court decided to review her case, which is well within their purview. Fisher is claiming that the

University of Texas discriminated against her because she is white and that less qualified African Americans and Hispanics were given preference because of race.

How is this woman able to claim discrimination based on race when white women dominate the nation’s higher education system at public and private universities? They also lead the nation in post-graduate enrollments and currently have the lowest unemployment rate at 6.2 percent. Affirmative action cannot be reduced to the level of an individual because it is attempting to address a nation’s failings in a polarized world of politics, religion and race. It is not about an individual, such as Fisher; it is about a nation of people that watch a young white man, on national television, at a Romney rally wearing a tee shirt that reads, “Put White Back in the White House.” It is about the Koch Brothers that use their wealth to promote segregation in public education, attempting to turn back the hand of time. We know separate but equal is not equal and denies diversity. And diversity is about changing those who would urinate on the Koran or burn an Israeli Flag or hang a noose in a UC library. Affirmative action seeks to change political leaders in our nation who pass Jim Crow Laws denying Americans the right to vote because of their political affiliation or color of skin. Affirmative action on the campuses of our public universities is this nation’s last bastion of hope to bring a diverse people together and this cannot happen if diversity vanishes where it matters most—where the future leaders of this nation prepare themselves for the world.

Yet some will argue that it has been long enough, that the time has come to set aside race, the color of

skin, religion and national origin when determining college admissions. And there is no greater wish in my heart for that day because my grandson is a Huckins, a blue-eyed, yellow-haired devil, and my granddaughters are Greenwoods with hazel eyes and burnish hair, bright and happy, but I must put social justice before my personal interest because my children and their children will derive the greatest benefit when social justice is the law of the land.

And while the highest court in this nation demands numbers, I can’t help but think they simply don’t get it. They haven’t connected the dots that translate from the campus of a public university to society. Here at UCR we are preparing the leaders of tomorrow; we are preparing them to respect the difference in people.

Look around and tell me that Jews or Muslims are treated with dignity and respect in all venues, or that African Americans and Latinos have equal access to education when every number in education says differently. How long should it take? As long as it should, because affirmative action is not a number—it is a condition, and until society is blind to race, religion and color we must always understand the importance of creating a world where respect and equity become a way of life, not a political slogan. History has clearly shown us that we have yet to find a way to live together in peace. And if the United States of America is the greatest nation on earth then it must be the light that illuminates this path for the world to see and learn. Social justice has no beginning or end, it is always.

Justices John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito signed an opinion that reads, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discrimi-

C o u rt s e y

of

MSNBC

People line up for the trial of Fisher v. University of Texas.

nating on the basis of race.” How ingenious I thought. Therefore, if we were strike all the criminal laws from the books then all crime would magically disappear. Strike down affirmative action and discrimination will magically disappear. How clever, how wonderfully clever. Social justice is not a number and it is not measured on the campus at the University of Texas but in society.

And so long as Latino or African American children are a year behind when they enter the school system and four years behind when they graduate high school, we have failed to address the needs of an education system that is different for people of color or for those who are economically challenged. We cannot turn a blind eye to the lack of equity at the lower end of our education system and then claim a level playing field at the higher end; the latter cannot sustain itself without the former.

The problems plaguing education are holistic and require a holistic ap-

proach.

If you wonder what the death of affirmative action looks like all you need to do is look at the University of California. The UC Regents, in 1995, passed a resolution eliminating race, religion, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin as criteria for admission. The following year Proposition 209 passed and further prohibited race-conscious outreach and financial aid. Despite strategies aimed at diversity, African American, Latino and Native American undergraduate admissions dropped by 58 percent at Berkeley. At UCLA, minority admissions dropped by 53 percent and the gap of undergraduate minority students increased from 18 percent to 23 percent on UC campuses.

Affirmative action is about social justice and social justice does not have a beginning or an end—it is a permanent way of life that ensures access, equity and diversity. So has H it been long enough? Not nearly! ■

No on Prop 32: a conservative control of campaign contributions Sean Frede CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When I first sat down and read about Proposition 32 I wondered why so many people were telling me to vote no on it. It bans both union and corporate contributions to state and local candidates. I’m all for getting money out of politics. The prop even claims to have no exemptions and no loopholes. Finally, a straight-forward bill that our bureaucrats put together to help kick corruption out of politics—about time! But that’s when I started feeling nervous and decided to delve into the lost art of journalistic research, and I soon got scared.

Proposition 32 claims to block unions and corporations from using payroll deductions to raise money for political spending.

Where’s the harm in that?

According to the LA Times, Prop 32 would leave some special interests crippled while others would be free to grow and grow. It turns out unions rely overwhelmingly on payroll deductions while corporations rarely use them for political contributions. By cutting the payroll deductions, the flow of money from unions would reduce to a trickle and corporations would continue to flow.

Corporations use most of their money to fund campaigns from their treasury department, which the proposition would not control, leaving them free to spend any amount they want. It seems corporations

are merely getting a slap on the wrist while the unions are being choked with both hands.

There has to be at least one redeeming quality for the proposition, though, otherwise why would it even be chosen to get voted in? It turns out prop 32 also claims to ban direct contributions to campaigns from both unions and corporations. Finally, now it’s looking good.

While this sounds like a step in a great direction, this essentially will do nothing for unions or corporations alike. In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions have the same political speech rights as individuals under the First Amendment and are protected to back whomever they want with as much money they want. Well, that’s just great. If Prop 32 passes it won’t even be able to regulate direct contributions because federal law trumps it. It also turns out that it would add increased costs to state and local government, exceeding $1 million annually to enforce the measure. It now has become a bill that will give corporations the upper hand in elections, will be costly to enforce and will leave unions to lose their grip in politics. So who is behind all this? Who is trying to make it so corporations gain a monopoly on controlling campaigns in the future?

According to Ballotpedia, American Future Fund (AFF), a political advertisement company, is one of the leading donors of Prop 32, funneling in over $4 million in

support of the proposition. Their website’s front page displays brilliant, patriotic hues of red, white and blue along with the slogan, “Advocating conservative, free market ideals.” Along with the AFF, the New Majority PAC is also a major donor. Take a minute to scroll onto their front page and in a blue background with white letters it will read, “The New Majority California Endorses Mitt Romney for President.” If Proposition 32 passes, the AFF would be able to collect as much money as possible from conservative corporations to put out ads for the “conservative, free market” campaigns they support. The AFF is simply feeding the hand that feeds them, a continuous circle of greed and control that must be stopped if we want corruption out of our politics.

These special interests backing the proposition are seeking to control our voice within the local and state government. Companies like the AFF are using this proposition as a tool to push their own conservative agenda into California’s government while simultaneously smothering the democratic voice—the voice of hardworking unions of teachers, firemen and nurses.

While special interest corporations are at the top of the donor list in favor of Prop 32, surely donors opposing the proposition are the same big businesses seeking to keep the common persons voice at bay, right? Here are just a few donors that are listed under the top 10 contributors advo-

cating against Proposition 32: The California Teachers Association, the California Professional Firefighters, the California Nurses Association, the California Labor Federation and, of course, the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association.

There you have it; those blood-sucking, parasitic teachers, firefighters, nurses, laborers and cops are at it again, trying to stop a proposition so they can shovel their billions into campaigns.

The evidence is overwhelming. This proposition has been put out to further aide Republicans and corporations gain complete control of campaign contributions while eliminating any competition that support campaigns they believe in.

There is no question that pumping money into politics is a bad idea; scandals and money-driven government deals seem to be made every day. It is hard for us to ever see a future where money doesn’t go hand in hand with the people running our country. I am not in support of either side funding politics at the local or state level, but I am in support of standing up against injustices within our government.

This proposition is exactly that—an injustice to not only democrats and unions but to all of us. If we sit back and allow this proposition to pass it will only further drive the conservative corporation juggernaut to tighten the leash around all of us.

It will only encourage big corporations to dictate how we should be controlled. Vote no on prop 32.

■H

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OPINIONS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

HIGHLANDER

Local candidates a dissapointment for UCR students Colin Markovich STAFF WRITER

On Oct. 16, seven candidates running in Riverside-based districts met at UCR to introduce themselves to an eager audience. The question-and-answer session was a joint effort by ASUCR and ASPB to inform students and encourage them to vote in some of the most competitive elections in the state and the country.

But though the goals were admirable, students may very well have come out of the event feeling less enthusiastic than they had when they entered. The reason?

The utterly vacuous, insincere and thoroughly unimpressive nature of the candidates themselves.

Each candidate was provided an opportunity to present their positive plans for UCR and explain what they would do when they were elected to office. But instead, most spent the vast majority of the audience’s time burnishing their records of support for UCR while attacking the opposing candidates, not on policy issues, but on personal grounds.

When each of the candidates stood up on the stage to introduce themselves, most of them gave some variation of the same speech, which can be paraphrased thusly: “I’ve supported UCR before I was born, and my opponent will try to kill it even after he dies.” Unfortunately, this tells us absolutely nothing about what the candidate will do once he is in office, and almost nothing about the candidates themselves, except that they are willing to engage in self-righteous bluster to secure a job opening they want. The evening was encapsulated in the few moments when each candidate stood at the podium, solemnly pledged to protect investments in higher education, and then turned around for a photo op.

Among the disappointments Tuesday was Mark Takano, Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives in California’s 41st District. In his opening remarks, he petulantly complained about the dysfunction caused by House Republicans, apparently unaware that he needed to work with them to accomplish anything. That was followed by shameless pandering when he pointed to a Master’s Degree from UCR in an attempt to gin up the audience. At one point, he was obliged to call for applause. Bob Buster, who is running for the Riverside County Board of Supervisors’ First District, emVIOLENCE ABROAD FROM PAGE 8

there is cause for concern, and there very well should be.

Yet, the content of the information that the government had prior is vague. But, when asked in various interviews, including one with CBS, she ignored the questions regarding the time and place of received information. Instead, she resorted to saying that that the most important thing to focus on was the “death of four brave Americans” and that our government can make certain of hunting the terrorists down (while subtly hinting at Obama’s “job well done” with Osama Bin Laden). The core focus should not be about tracking down violent protesters and promoting a re-election of our president, but guaranteeing the safety of our country, especially with unstable for-

B rya n T u t t le /HIGHLANDER From left to right: candidates Richard Roth, Mark Takano, Jose Medina, Bob Buster, Roger Carpenter (representative for Ed Adkison), Kevin Jeffries and Tolby Holmes (representative for Rusty Bailey.)

phasized UCR’s positive role in the Riverside community, but did not indicate what he would do on behalf of UCR if he was reelected. His opponent, Kevin Jeffries (who was forced out of his State Assembly seat because of term limits) wasn’t much better. But at least these candidates showed up. John Tavaglione and Bill Batey did not deign to even attend.

Some candidates did distinguish themselves in the event. Jose Medina, a Democrat who is running in the 61st District for State Assembly, called for expansion of the Upward Bound program, which aids first-generation college students in the application process.

Rob Carpenter, the delegate representing the mayoral campaign of Ed Adkison, provided plans for a deal that would help UCR students pay off their student loans if they stayed in the Riverside area to help create jobs. Sadly, this was the exception rather than the rule.

The single largest failure on the part of the collective candidates was their apparent inability to provide specific ideas and plans to improve UCR. The University of California system has reported that investment in the University by the state of California has been almost half of what it was 20 years ago. Naturally, this lack of funding has impacted UCR in the form of larger class sizes, longer waitlists and huge tuition hikes. But though the candidates used the issues UCR faces as a bludgeon to beat the opposition into submission, they conveniently forgot to include any specific plan that would allow the UC system to emerge from its battered state. Instead, they focused on

eign relations.

Republicans are now amped up at the opportunity to impart undermining blows at the Democrats now that election day is getting closer and closer. It has come up both in the vice presidential debate and last week’s presidential debate on Oct. 16. Why dedicate so much time overseas? Yes, we should have increased security. The secretary of state should know better, and the president should find an applicable solution. But, in the end, our nation is the most important factor in the equation. Instead of concentrating on economic turmoil, rising taxes and unemployment, a political battle for the spotlight has began where the kindergartners point fingers and throw mud balls at one another. This is why my

what accomplishments they had made in the past on behalf of UCR and higher education. This, in and of itself, is not inherently bad. Indeed, those efforts and accomplishments should be lauded.

But what was achieved in the past is not necessarily an indicator of the future.

Importantly, they failed to provide specifics on what they planned to do once they won control of the seat they were so desperately seeking. Instead, the would-be politicians expressed support for higher education, but without providing any real substance to back it up. Some candidates advocated the passage of Proposition 30, but by the time they would be elected they would have no power over the issue: the proposition would have already been decided by an up-or-down vote by the people of California. Others condemned the decrease in education spending and demanded the state reemphasize higher education.

But universally-agreed upon platitudes do not translate into action, and nobody gave any indication of what actions they would undertake to keep those words.

The absence of any plan to accomplish their professed goals speaks louder than all the vague reassurances spouted over the course of the evening. This omission reflects the true nature of the candidates’ support for UCR and for higher education: one of political convenience and something subject to be thrown overboard as soon as it will benefit them.

Just as importantly, the candidates rendered themselves unable to address other important issues facing the local area because of their overriding focus on appearing to support UCR more than

aforementioned take has been one that supports the claim that Hillary Clinton is being used, as the Washington Post likes to put it, as a “doormat” for Obama and his campaign.

BBC News offered their opinion, saying that “Mrs. Clinton is trying to draw criticism away from Mr. Obama.” The president shouldn’t be one to shrug off something that causes so much frenzy so easily, and I do not necessarily believe that he has done just that, but there is an amount of discounting coming from his end.

Since the time of the assail, the White House has changed their intelligence information from a spontaneous attack “following protests earlier that day at our embassy in Cairo,” says Shaw Turner, director of public affairs for the national intelligence of-

anyone else. And Riverside faces a multitude of important issues that must be faced. Riverside County’s unemployment rate currently sits at 12 percent according to California’s Employment Development Department; the last time the unemployment rate was below 10 percent was November of 2008. The Census Bureau reports that nearly 15 percent of the houses in Riverside County are vacant. The ratio of primary-care physicians to patients in Riverside County is half that of the state of California, and in fact rivals that of some third-world countries.

With this year’s elections now only two weeks away, political candidates have initiated a last-minute attempt to convince voters that they are worth voting for. A flood of mailers and other flotsam brimming with blatant exaggerations has washed up on voters’ doorsteps; advertisements on the television elevating one candidate to the status of local hero while pummeling the opposition for hating puppies often take up more airtime than the television shows themselves. It is a shame to say that politicians in the local Riverside area are contributing to this mess. What is most depressing is that the once-a-decade redistricting process provided an ideal opportunity to send qualified, competent leaders to Sacramento and Washington, D.C. It appears that opportunity has been squandered. Each of the candidates that took to the stage Tuesday could have provided a different option than the garbage of the typical rhetoric and promises that float in as regularly as the tides.

Each of them chose not to.

■H

fice, to the U.S. intelligence community saying that, “We revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists.”

There appears to have been a lot of deception going around because it seems that no one is really sure what happened in what department, except that there was some sort of intelligence that precluded to something. The only real clear evidence is the information affirming that US security was diminished in Libya prior to the strike on the consulate. A US congressional committee had been made aware of this information, as confirmed by BBC, the Daily Beast, and CBS News. Multiple reasons can be applied to this. Perhaps we

had a reason to feel safer in a presumed less violence ridden country, which is implausible since the articles go on to say that that carnage worsened or our government felt the need to satisfy the people by pulling more individuals out.

Whatever the motive is, the understanding should be that the damage done is not a political promotion for either party; it is a situation that places stress on the fact that our foreign policy requires much work. Both Romney and Obama can point their determined fingers at one another and Mrs. Clinton can ensure a man-hunt for the extremists, but before we can concentrate on homeland business, which should be our main priority, there needs to be a serious reconstruction of foreign affairs first.

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The opinions expressed in the Opinions section belong solely to their authors and do not represent the Highlander Editorial Board or the University of California, Riverside.

HIGHLANDER

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

R adar ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

J i n y o u n g K o /HIGHLANDER

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

L L E ’ S HUNION Rebecca Paredes, Staff Writer Jillian Rausa, Photographer Rugged beauty, aged character and unified nonconformity characterize the latest exhibit at the UCR/ California Museum of Photography. Titled “Hell’s Union: Motorcycle Club Cuts as American Folk Art,” the exhibit showcases artist Jeff Decker’s collection of defunct motorcycle vests, officially known as “cuts.”They range from appealingly grungy to darkly intimidating, and the entire display inspires its observer to appreciate the unique workmanship each cut represents.

As an introductory placard at the beginning of the exhibit explains, the cuts are presented without titles or dates because

they weren’t initially designed as art pieces. Instead, each cut represents a particular biker’s club, territory and personality, which are revealed via specific initials, images and details. Although they are not “supposed” to be art, the cuts demand a sense of attention, particularly some of the more memorable displays.

Marred by ragged tears and bits of wayward denim, one of the cuts proudly displays more holes than fabric. Despite its torn appearance, its off-center rocker—the top patch that identifies a biker’s club—clearly reads “Cobras.” An embroidered cobra stands at at-

tention below the rocker. Its golden hood is unfurled and its mouth is pulled back in a two-fanged snarl, and although the cut stands alone, its ghostly owner seems prepared to throw on the vest and join his Cobras in a heartbeat.

A dark denim cut bearing an image of a Hydra rests in its display case. Its bottom patch is frayed around the edges and identifies its territory as Danville, Illinois. It lacks the road-torn look a few of the other cuts boast, but its sweat-waxed appearance and bronze laces around the arm holes conjure up images of long rides under a hot sun surrounded

GRIEVES BUDO AND

Seattle based hip-hop artist Grieves took to the Barn stage on Oct. 17 with multi-instrumentalist Budo. The show opened with Southern California native, Curtiss King, also a hip-hop artist.

In between the two artists’ sets, KUCR DJs continued the vibe by playing similar artists.

Cameron Yong, Photographer

HIGHLANDER

TOP: Motorcycle cuts displayed the upper level until Dec 8.. LEFT: Leather and woolen vests were also on display.. RIGHT: According to the exhibit, the “13” on the breast of the vest means this man could provide cannabis.

by the rest of the Hydra club. Its rocker says “Dead Prophets,” and its image is a winged skull wearing a wreath of emerald leaves.

Upon closer inspection, the wings are impressively detailed, and the skull exhibits beautiful embroidery work. The artistic heft of the patch would be invisible to all but its owner, which may be its biggest appeal: to faceless pedestrians, the skull is simply an image, but to the biker, it is a private mark of individual beauty.

Although the nameless cuts were worn as an emblem of rebellion, viewing them in one space evokes a sense of chaotic unity.

They represent different clubs, experiences and bikers, but their similar artistry and echoes of rugged lives mesh together perfectly. And even though they are presented without any indication of title or date, the time period from which each cut is taken is irrelevant; each vest is an example of unified individuality and harsh beauty, and the exhibit is worth visiting.

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The California Museum of Photography is open Tuesday – Saturday from noon to 5 p.m., and UCR students receive free admission with their student ID.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

HIGHLANDER

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

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MUSIC REVIEWS VITAL // ANBERLIN RATING: ★★★★☆

BY: JILLIAN RAUSA, CONTRIBUTING WRITER Courtesy of absolutepunk.net

After two years of composition and compilation to change their sound, Anberlin released “Vital,” their sixth album, on Tuesday, Oct 16. The album still relies on Stephen Christian’s big vocals just as before; however, the more electronic-based melodies incorporated into the rock style in this album expanded the alternative niche the band excelled in since 2005. The whole idea of this supposed breakthrough album was to emanate “youthful, energetic energy” and “keep it to that rock thing but just change it up,” lead singer Stephen Christian and drummer Nathan Young

explain.

Despite the prominent dark themes of war and anger expressed throughout the 12 tracks, the album seems to follow Anberlin’s vision of the new energy-infused rock. The track “Self-Starter” appropriately opens the album. Guitar and synth sounds create an intricate, rhythmic melody that align with the rock vocals and it is here that the “energetic energy” is evident. I expected it to clash, but Anberlin composed it effortlessly. It’s almost as if the track’s melody was influenced by a pre-pubescent Grouplove. There are also the oh-so-clas-

sic rock anthems “Little Tyrants” and “Someone Anyone,” which consist of passionate lyrics. These stereotypical anthems prove worthy of a listen solely because of their strong drum fills that accompany their resonant chorus.

It was the transition from an upbeat anthem to a techno-filled ballad of “Other Side” that became the album’s downfall—all I heard for four minutes was non-stop complaining that just reminded me of No Doubt’s “Say That You Love Me.” Tracks “Desire” and “Type Three” were even worse. Even “Unstable,” the best-selling track of the album, is a disappointment. Its

heart-wrenching lyrics cannot save it from the unenthused mood established by its underwhelming predecessors.

Where “Self Starter” was a step in the right direction for Anberlin to achieve even more success in the future, the majority of the album came off as a miscommunication of their vision for “Vital.” Don’t get me wrong, the album in its entirety still reflects growth in Anberlin’s sound as an alternative rock group, but it didn’t hit the target they were aiming for. Nonetheless, Anberlin released a decent album. They can only go up from here.

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FORMER LIVES // BEN GIBBARD RATING: ★★★☆☆

BY: JAKE RICH, CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Taking poetic lyrics full of imagery seems to be a Death Cab for Cutie hallmark. On his first solo venture since 2009, lyricist and lead singer Ben Gibbard continues these motifs exceedingly and although many of the songs have pleasant sounds, “Former Lives” is oozing with dark bitterness.

Gibbard, who recently divorced actress Zooey Deschanel, said in an interview that the songs on the album span eight years, three relationships and two cities.

Musically, the album varies from a capella to jangly indierock and mariachi to simple acoustics. Surprisingly, the album flows smoothly from one to the other. It begins with the aforementioned acapella track, “Shepherd’s Bush Lullaby.” The song proves Gibbard still has some notions of good romance as he sings a

Courtesy of Barsuk Records faraway lover to sleep.

Songs like “Dream Song,” and “Duncan, Where Have You Gone,” truly portray a sense of helplessness from Gibbard. In “Dream Song,” lines like, “The cameras photograph everything / That he’s burying down beneath / And show him what he don’t want to see” provide a sense of restlessness as they combine with an upbeat tune. In “Duncan, Where Have You Gone,” soaring harmonies add to an otherwise melancholy tone as Gibbard croons about a man who has simply given up hope, whose “biggest dream is to just be a stranger, passed on the street.” A Beatles-esque vibe is readily apparent, especially in the guitar solo.

Serving as the transition track into the relatively softer side of “Former Lives,” “Something’s Rattling (Cow-

poke),” is the most folk-driven song on the album, while soft mariachi horns add to its charm. In this faraway place, Gibbard is able to “live out in the open, perfectly hid,” away from everything that stresses him.

The album closes with two strong tracks, the country-tinged “Broken Yolk in a Western Sky,” in which Gibbard finally accepts more responsibility for a bad relationship, and the haunting, lo-fi acoustic ballad, “I’m Building a Fire,” in which Gibbard reminds his lover how to remember him and still be happy after he’s passed away.

“Former Lives” very effectively portrays a sense of the ups and downs of love with bitter sentiment at what could have been, be it through anger, sadness or hope. Through stylistic differences and an-

gry, heart-wrenching lyrics, Gibbard seems to have been through it all. To put it in his

own words, “It’s been a basement of a year / And all I want ■H is for you to disappear.”

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

HIGHLANDER

TELEVISION REVIEWS AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM - WELCOME TO BRIARCLIFF RATING: ★★★★☆

BY: DIANA S. HUANG, CONTRIBUTING WRITER Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Television

Season two of Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” anthology takes place in a facility that saw an outbreak of tuberculosis, which claimed 46,000 lives, before it was converted into an asylum by the church in the ‘60s. “Asylum” is a whole new story and setting with a handful of the same actors from the previous season that now portray different characters. The most notable performance is Sister Jude (Jessica Lange), a nun who runs the asylum with an iron fist. She is controlling, unforgiving, has a penchant for wearing red lingerie underneath her robes and is feared by her second in command, the doormat Sister Eunice (Lily Rabe).

Monsignor Timothy Howard (Joseph Fiennes) is Sister Jude’s superior and object of her affection and fantasies. Dr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell) is a sadist who performs horrific, unknown experiments on the patients and clashes often with Sister Jude, who knows of his doings, but is unable to prove them or convince Monsignor Howard that Arden is not a man of God. The first episode of the season kicks off in the present day as Leo (Adam Levine) and Teresa (Jenna Dwan-Tatum), “the lovers” and newlyweds, spend their honeymoon consummating their marriage in the most haunted places in America.

Their latest stop is the abandoned Briarcliff Manor Sanitarium, an old mental institution. As the lovers delve deeper into Briarcliff, Leo receives a surprise amputation while Teresa struggles to find a way out now and stumbles into a man with a bloody face (think Leatherface).

This episode then backtracks to 1964, where Kit Walker (Evan Peters) makes a simple living as a gas station attendant. He and his wife, Alma, are an interracial couple and are forced to keep their union secret in fear of scrutinization. This is where “Asylum” gets odd. Kit and Alma are attacked in their home by what audiences are to assume are… aliens. Bright lights flash from the sky and images of long, foreignlooking fingers probe at Kit and point to the possibility of an alien abduction.

Meanwhile, journalist Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) arrives at Briarcliff to attempt to get a few minutes in with serial killer “Bloody Face,” famed for killing women by skinning them alive from the feet up. One of his victims, an African American woman, is later identified as Alma. As it is revealed later in the episode, Bloody Face is Kit Walker. Lana discovers the institution isn’t what it seems and her nosy ways cause Sister Jude to blackmail Lana’s lesbian partner

into committing the journalist into the asylum so she can be “cured” of her disease. Other patients include Grace (Lizzie Brocheré), who may or may not be sane, and nymphomaniac Shelley (Chloe Sevigny).

The first episode is also peppered with allusions to what lurks in the woods surrounding the institution: bloodthirsty cannibalistic creatures, all former patients created from the failed experiments of Dr. Arden, who wasted no time in introducing Kit to his treatment (anesthetic not included). Sedated and tied down in a manner similar to Alex DeLarge from “A Clock-

work Orange,” Kit gets a futuristic, mechanic and decidedly alien object cut out of him, which recalls the whole alien abduction thing that doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the show.

The overall feel of “Asylum,”, at least the first episode, is drastically different from season one. While season one’s theme was infidelity, “Asylum” focuses on the sane and insane. “Asylum” is reminiscent of “Shutter Island” and “Hostel,” but without the unnecessary bloodiness of the latter (so far). What makes “Asylum” different is that it’s more in your face and relies on shock val-

ue, whereas season one was subtler and slowly crept into the viewer’s psyche.

The show is certainly not for the faint of heart. Despite being on TV, it holds scares, images and themes only appropriate for mature audiences. It’s also a show that demands your full, unwavering attention as every line holds weight and those who change the channel out of fear or cover their ear and/or eyes will surely miss something of importance. “Welcome to Briarcliff” is a great first episode, setting up the tone and storyline for the rest of the season.

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MOVIE REVIEWS ALSO THIS WEEK:

CHASING MAVERICKS

CLOUD ATLAS

FUN SIZE

THE LONELIEST PLANET

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 RATING: ★★☆☆☆

BY: GRACE KANG, STAFF WRITER

What the filmmakers forgot to tell the public about “Paranormal Activity 4” is that it’s really a moral story about how taking a phone call while your six-year-old is sitting in a bubble bath is a bad idea. Okay, it’s not exactly a moral story, but it’s just as stale as one. Whereas Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (“Catfish,” “Paranormal Activity 3”) livened up the found footage subgenre in the prequel by mounting a camcorder on an oscillating fan, they pretty much axed it to death in the latest installment; and meanwhile, in the writing department, it’s clear that Oren Peli (“Paranormal Activity”) is running out of ideas. It’s as though a bunch of high school students decided to make an amateur movie based on whatever technology was lying around in their bedroom. In this case, they ended up with a grab bag of smartphones, MacBook webcams and an Xbox 360 Kinect. It’s a good thing the movie is actually about one family’s struggle with a Best Buy catalogue. Oh, wait.

The opening scene resurrects familiar faces in a snippet of footage from September 2006, back when sisters Katie and Kristi (Sprague Grayden) were happy and healthy and not possessed by demonic forces; it was a time when little Hunter Rey was still in his parents’ custody. We then skip a month ahead to a less than pleasant family reunion, the night when Katie kills her sister and brother-in-law, and then vanishes with her baby nephew. Jump ahead to five years later

(2011), and we’ll find ourselves in Henderson, Nevada, where teenager Alex (Kathryn Newton) is filming her younger brother Wyatt’s (Aiden Lovekamp) soccer game. Modern society clearly dictates that today’s youth must tote around video cameras in order to enlighten the world with their mundane existences; our heroine is no exception. An unattended boy caught on film, lingering at the sidelines during the game, is revealed to be Robbie (Brady Allen), who lives across the street with his mother, a seldom seen woman who is carted off in an ambulance one night, leaving the kid in the care of Alex’s parents (who are fighting, but not really). At first, his only offenses are getting in the way of Alex’s boyfriend Ben’s (Matt Shively) raging hormones and standing alone in the kitchen past bedtime. However, after some webcam footage “unintentionally” recorded by Ben shows that Robbie snuck into Alex’s bed at night, the young couple fixes all viable cameras in the house for 24 hour surveillance.

That’s when things get weird.

Now, there’s a fine line between making nods to classic horror films and trying to surf on the wave of iconic scenes. As if the teenybopper-tech theme wasn’t enough of a hindrance, the movie drowns itself in “homages” to old school horror flicks, including “The Shining” and “Poltergeist.” The found footage vein was birthed in order for horror to branch off into a more minimalistic approach for creating tension without falling

back on the typical supernatural scare tactics employed by other movies (e.g. “The Ring,” “The Amityville Horror,” “Insidious”); therefore, it shouldn’t stoop to filling long minutes with references that don’t do anything to illuminate the trajectory of the series’ mythology. “Paranormal Activity 4” does, however, continue to do what it does best: point the camera at empty walls for excruciatingly uncomfortable lengths of time until something pops up. Unfortunately, this aspect of the film becomes a one-trick-pony that loses momentum each time it repeats the “trick.”

Everyone’s favorite imaginary friend, Toby, is back, and he appears to have been reduced to the status of misbehaving pet, rather than remaining the demonic terror that has hitherto manipulated children into making appalling decisions and led the crusade against middle-class Americans who live in nice two-story houses. The problem with having two six-year-old boys with similar haircuts under one roof with night-vision camera surveillance is that an absent-minded audience may experience some difficulty identifying which boy is which when one of the two sneaks downstairs for a midnight rendezvous with Toby in front of the Xbox.

The night-vision mode, while apparently great for “space dance parties,” isn’t ideal for igniting fear when the viewer is too busy trying to figure out whether the diminutive figure bathed in shiny tracking dots is the

creepy kid from across the street or a space alien. Or the other progressively creepy kid.

What does manage to make this movie a near-enjoyable experience is the presence of Alex’s cam-junkie boyfriend. Ben is (for lack of a better world) the audience on-screen.

He takes the time to comment on the noticeably “not okay” moments in the movie, without any regard for inappropriate timing, and he will record extreme close-ups of his girlfriend’s face, while ominously crowing, “BUM BUM BUM,” after they watch videos of weird little Robbie and his bizarre behavior. Also, I hope you’re a cat person, because there’s a lot of feline action going down on camera.

But aside from a particularly nerve-racking plot device involving a kitchen knife and its disappearing act, there aren’t any scares that can’t be dismissed after the end credits roll. If you lose any sleep after watching this movie, you may want to steer clear of “Hotel Transylvania” and “Frankenweenie” while you’re at it. Horror is not your color.

Critics have been condemning this as the end of the “Paranormal Activity” series, but I have to disagree. “Paranormal Activity 4” embarks on a new direction that proves that the franchise has a bright future in black comedy. As a final precaution, this movie may seem a lot like an 88 minute long trailer for the real sequel to the original trilogy. Because this surely can’t be it. Come on, guys, we’re waiting.

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HIGHLANDER

. FEATURES .

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

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HUMAN

Toni Louie, Staff Writer Jinyoung Ko, Photographer Open to the public through the entire month of October is the Human Roast House, a terrifying interactive haunted house created in the spirit of this year’s Halloween season, conveniently located in Downtown Riverside.

The Human Roast House is based on fictional character Austin Reed Trebbe, an evil cannibal who traps innocent victims in his house, tortures them and ultimately devours them. Austin comes from the imagination of 18-year-old Joshua Roa St. Pierre, who just graduated from North High School and is now the Creative Director of the haunted house—overseeing everything from the design, layout, theme, building, staffing and even acting himself in the house. It took months of planning and over a month to build from the ground up.

The Riverside Arts Council approached Joshua two years ago after discovering that he was hosting the Roast House at his own home each Halloween, offering to produce and fund the entire project as an annual attraction. This is the Roast House’s second annual presentation and it has been doing well, as seen by the jittery line at the entrance and the physically shaken individuals exiting.

“As you progress, it gets weirder and gorier,” says Joshua. “I wanted the house to tie into the mind. For example, the clowns represent [Trebbe’s] delusions, telling him to do bad things.”

The house, which is actually an open-roofed maze, appears small from the outside. But once inside, one quickly realizes that it isn’t so small after all. It takes seven to 10 minutes to walk through, but it feels like an eternity. What sets it apart and actually makes it even scarier than the bigger budget walk-throughs like the ones at Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights is that the hallways in the Roast House are long and spacious, rendering the victim extremely exposed and vulnerable. Not to mention that there won’t be 30 people ahead and 30 people behind providing a safety cushion—the house demands

ROAST

that individual groups or couples walk through one at a time. You never have the opportunity to anticipate what comes next because there are no people in front of you to scream first.

The actors in the Roast House, who are are all volunteers, are extremely invested and talented at what they do. In the beginning you are greeted by a little girl who asks for your name and if you want to play with her. The girl is terrifying; her ghoulish makeup and bleeding throat will make any victim want to succumb to her demands. Throughout the house, as you come across some of Austin’s other “victims” in cages, they will scream out your name and beg you not to go any further, that Austin is waiting for you, and that you are getting closer. Also, the personal aspect of the character has a terrifying humanizing effect; you see his bedroom, his dining room, his furniture, and start to try and piece things together. In contrast, at a place like Universal Studios, the mazes are based on TV shows and other mediums in American popular culture, creating a sense of distance and anonymity.

The Human Roast House is complete with all the works: strobe lights, fog, clowns, hanging intestines that you have to brush past, dismembered mannequins, amputated heads, plenty of blood, eerie music and so much more. Expect gruesome looking actors to constantly corner, chase, harass, throw things, and push and pull you through Austin’s home.

The Human Roast House is a wonderful opportunity to have an intense, adrenaline-filled and entertaining night with friends, without spending a fortune or driving to another city. Tickets sell for $10 each at the door or online, and proceeds go towards the Riverside Arts Council, a non-profit organization benefiting the arts and scholarships in our local community. The house is open Thursday through Sunday nights starting at 7 p.m. and ending at either 10 p.m. or 11 p.m., with the exception of rainy nights. Just a personal warning: you may end up in tears.

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HOUS

E

TOP: Victim, Taylor Johnson, asking for a savior. MIDDLE: Scarers, Jeremy Metkaa and Liana Chalpeau, in the middle of an operation.

BOTTOM: The lifestyle of Austin Reed Trebbe.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

Q &A with

SUSAN

S TRAIGHT Lin Chai, Photographer On Oct. 15, Managing Editor Kevin Keckeisen sat down with Susan Straight, an award winning writer and distinguished professor of creative writing at UCR, to talk about writing, our campus, Riverside and Facebook. Her new novel, “Between Heaven and Here,” hit store shelves last month.

FEATURES

Kevin Keckeisen: When did you start writing and when did you decide to be a writer?

Susan Straight: I think I started when I was really really young. My mom taught me to read when I was three. I actually grew up playing on the UCR campus if you can believe that. I grew up hiking up Big C, which is right behind us, grew up playing tennis right here, exactly where we are sitting; this used to be the tennis courts, and I would play tennis, and my future husband was actually playing basketball in that gym that I’m pointing to right now. We were freshmen in high school. But I didn’t write my very first short story until I was 16. I was writing poetry, bad poetry, which we all begin with, and I would write these little vignettes, you know, little pieces of dialogue, but I didn’t write an actual story until I was 16, and I was a student at North High, right down the street on Third Street. I took a class at RCC [Riverside Community College] in the summer. A lot of my friends had started using drugs and selling drugs that summer between junior and senior year of highschool so my mom said I had to take summer school and not hang out with them. I took a creative writing class. I wrote an eight page story about a woman riding the bus, and the professor at that time, he was so kind he called me to my office and said, “This is a great short story and I want you to read it out loud.” I was only 16 and everyone else in the class was, you know, 20, 25, so I refused to do so he read it out loud anonymously, and, seeing everybody’s reactions, I thought, “Oh I really like this.” I like the fact that I made up a story that is completely untrue and it’s just got human dialogue. So that was at 16, my first one.

KK: It’s an interesting feeling seeing the reactions of people when they listen to your writing, you know. I’m sure when you’ve done readings on campus and things like that you can see how people are affected—you can see it in their faces.

SS: Well what I like is when people say, “Oh, I cried when you read that story,” and I think you

HIGHLANDER

want to have a reaction, whether you want someone to laugh, cry or not forget at all, what you wrote. I think that’s what we’re aiming for, right?

KK: Along those lines, what draws you to the craft and what beauty do you see in it?

SS: Ah that’s a really good question. That’s not something people ask very often because you think more of visual arts as something that has to do with beauty. But I think loving to read, loving the way someone can describe the way a river looks. I just gave a student a copy of Ross Macdonald, and Ross Macdonald’s a mystery writer and people don’t think a mystery writer can be amazing, but he has this amazing paragraph in one of those novels where there’s a bar and a smoky pool room and the men were walking around like flat footed spear fishers on the bottom of a vast ocean because they’re holding their pool cues, and you think about them moving through the smoke it looks like they’re underwater, that’s such a beautiful sentence isn’t it?

So I mean the way that we’re able to use words to make something that vivid to where it stays even in my mind when I read as much as that, that’s what I think I like so much, is that somebody will say, “Oh, you describe this person’s hand and I can see it as if I were sitting there.” I think that’s what we want to do. Filmmakers want to do that in terms of how they set up a scene, right? Poets want to do that in their lyricism and imagery, and visual artists will paint that scene.

KK: How do you find inspiration for your writing?

SS: I really love to be outside. I love to be outside or I love to be in my car. And I love it when you’re walking, whether you’re in a city or you’re walking up Big C, and you look at the pepper tree. And if you take the time to look at the pepper tree you think, “Wow, that looks like a giant green chicken with droopy feathers.” Or other times if you stand underneath the branches of the pepper tree and the wind comes, it looks like you’re underwater and STRAIGHT CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

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HIGHLANDER STRAIGHT FROM PAGE 16

it’s all seaweed. You have to take the time to look at things. I was in San Francisco last week for Litquake and I’m walking around the streets of San Francisco, and you know there are so many strange characters on the streets of San Francisco, right? It’s San Francisco! But there was this one guy and he was standing on the corner playing old school funk guitar and he had a band with him, you know three other guys; they stood there for an hour and just everybody crowded around looking at them. He had on a pork pie hat and a leather jacket—he looked like he could be from a movie from the ‘70s, and he played for an entire hour, played funk guitar without stopping. Just watching his hands, how strong his fingers were, and I was just looking around, being observant. Writers need to be observant. Our deal is to be observant and to listen well, to listen to overheard conversations, to listen to the people speaking to each other.

KK: What are some pieces of advice you can offer to young writers trying to get a handle on the craft?

SS: Well you might not like it, because most people that are in their 20s don’t like it, but I do think that you have to get off the computer now and then because Facebook will kill you. Because I know, my girls talk to me about it. With Facebook you’re being a voyeur and it’s a really good thing in a way because you are seeing a lot of interesting and fascinating stuff, but I don’t think that when you see it on the screen you can translate it as well into making it into a full fleshed theme or character. What do you think?

KK: It’s funny you mention that because just a few days ago I deleted my Facebook because I realized that it’s almost a different level of communication.

It’s different than what we’re having now, a conversation. It’s its own sphere. You have time to actually think about what you’re going to write, but when you’re in a conversation as we’re doing now, it’s spur of the moment spontaneousness.

You don’t really see body movement, how people are interacting spatially with each other on Facebook; all you see is text and a picture.

SS: That’s interesting because my middle kid deleted her Facebook and she’s exactly your age. She deleted her Facebook two weeks ago. The thing about Facebook, and I’m not hating on it in general, I’m just saying for writers, is think about it—when I’ve watched teenagers have a fight over texts you lose all context, don’t you? You can’t tell if somebody’s really angry with you when they’re texting something that sounds angry. They could actually be laughing and messing with you, right? You don’t have any visual cues. So when you look at Facebook you’re completely right.

People have time to compose who they are on Facebook. But I think when you get out and walk around, or even if you sit in Coffee Bean and you overhear people talking and you hear the cadence of their language and you hear where they pause or where they stop—that helps you be able to write dialogue. And I also write in a notebook. And it’s not that I don’t like the computer, of course I use the computer all the time, but when I’m able to write something in my notebook and capture a strain of dialogue or something, then later when I’m typing it in the computer I feel pretty confident that this is a conversation that these two people had, but I know where the pauses were, or I know when somebody got up because they couldn’t bear to look at the other person, or I know that one person kept doing this (rubs space between her eyebrows) and that’s how

the other person knew that this person was lying because they know that this person always rubs the skin between his eyebrows when he lies.

KK: There’s so much more to an exchange than dialogue. What’s not said is often as important as what is said.

SS: Now here’s the thing. I am completely not saying that you should never go online because last night my youngest kid showed me these bad lip readings, have you ever heard of them? Bad lip reading is some crazy thing where they have the debate, not just the presidential debate but the vice presidential debate, they have Paul Ryan, they have Joe Biden, and it’s bad lip reading so they dub in all these things that it looks like they were saying. We spent a good half an hour watching. We were crying.

We ran out of tears we were crying so hard. There’s that; I do love that. And I mean I love watching crazy stuff on Funny or Die, but as far as being a writer goes, you’re still producing a book, or a short story, and so there is a way that I think you have to be able to work on the page, whether that page is translated to a Kindle or an eBook, it still has to start with words, and there’s a way that from your brain the words go onto the page; I think people need to go back to walking around and thinking a little bit more.

KK: As an aside, because I know you’re a Riverside native, where’s your favorite place to eat in Riverside?

SS: My favorite place to eat? I can’t pick one!

KK: It may not be a writerly question, but I’d love to ask a Riverside native.

SS: Well, I have about four places that I like to eat. I love Pho Saigon right down the street from here, and the couple that owns Pho Saigon, their daughter went to school here; she majored in chemistry and she lives in Texas now, but they have such amazing egg rolls and they have great food. I do love Señor Baja fish tacos. I gotta tell you, I love Bann Thai, it’s just really good Thai food, and it’s a small place. But my favorite place to eat?

Absolute favorite? That’s when we have family reunions at Bordwell Park and you know, all the cousins barbecue and all of us bring side dishes. 100 people barbecuing. That’s family. The thing is that people always ask my what’s my favorite barbecue restaurant and I don’t have one because cousin Carnel and cousin Eddy make the best barbecue there is in the world and so my girls say the same thing. We just want family barbecue.

KK: You really can’t beat homemade.

SS: No, it takes 12 hours and it’s in the half ton cooker that they bring you on a trailer. That’s what we’re used to eating.

KK: Speaking of Riverside, why do you choose it as the setting for so much of your work? What draws you to this place? What do you see in the landscape and the people?

SS: Every writer sort of makes a decision to write a mystery series, or to write travel monologue; I mean it is funny, there are those of us who write about one place over and over again, and I used to think that was a failing.

Strange enough, I did this radio show on Saturday for NPR up in San Francisco and there was a banjo player there, who was originally from Atlanta. She’s young, she’s 30, and she said she grew up reading Flannery O’Connor and she loved reading Flannery O’Connor’s version of Georgia, which is very different from Atlanta. Flannery O’Connor was writing about small town Georgia. There are some writers, Eudora Welty, Jackson, Mississippi, William Faulkner, his famous Yoknapatawpha county.

KK: Yeah I can never pronounce it correctly.

SS: I can’t either. I was practicing. Lou-

ise Erdrich always writes about this area of North Dakota and a particular Indian reservation but also the towns around it...For me, I felt fiercely defiant about my landscape when I moved to L.A. to go to USC. I felt as if no one would understand the pepper trees or the foothills or gathering in the park to eat barbecue, and then I wrote these stories, and people said, “That’s a crazy place. What is that place?” And I realized that really is my landscape. And I wrote last night. I was writing very late at night about the night my brother was born—he was born in November. And the next day my mom said this huge Santa Ana wind came in as it does in November; we lived in a tiny little one bedroom house outside of Rubidoux, very rural, right? She said all the tumbleweeds were uprooted by the wind and when she tried to open the door the entire house was surrounded by tumbleweeds. It was like being in the snow in New England and not being able to open the door; she couldn’t open the door because the tumbleweeds backed up. That’s a particular landscape.

I could never make that up, could I? So I guess I translated that even when I was little and she would say that story, and I thought, “Well other people have snowbanks outside and we have a bank of tumbleweeds. What does that mean?”

And so there’s a way I think I wanted people to see our unique landscape.

KK: And I think there’s something special in taking pride in where you were born. I’m from Corona.

SS: Same thing. You know you have the fragrance of lemon blossoms, which is different from orange blossoms, and nobody knows that unless you’ve been there.

KK: I liked what you said in your in-

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terview with the LA Times, that there are two types of people in the world: those that leave and those that stay. That really hit me when you said that, and at UCR this city has such a unique landscape amongst the other UCs. SS: You know people make fun of us and we have the best campus. Think about it. In fact, you know what’s funny?

A senior professor from here, he and I were talking last spring. We were walking across campus and I was telling him how much I love teaching at UCR after he asked me if I ever wanted to leave, because our students are so good at helping each other. You go to the HUB and everyone is sitting and talking to each other; It doesn’t matter what color or religion, everyone is working on their projects together. This senior professor told me that he went to Berkeley for a visit and no one talked and everyone was so competitive and they’re all hating on each other, and he said, “I’ve always like UCR because our students genuinely like each other,” and we talked to another professor that said he went to another UC campus and there’s no diversity either. And you walk around here, people are from Corona, they’re from Ethiopia, and they’re sitting working a project together. I love that about this campus.

And I think it’s because Riverside is so uniquely accepting of everybody; I mean look around, there’s people in Riverside from everywhere too. Even Corona, your home city. My best friend’s from Corona, the natives of Corona, they’re all Mexican-American and grew up working in citrus groves. And they always talk about old school Corona.

KK: Well, thank you Susan I really appreciate it.

SS: Thank you.

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FEATURES

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

HIGHLANDER

with Ryan Simon Senior Staff Writer

Microsoft’s big bet on Windows 8

WRITE FOR THE HIGHLANDER NEWSPAPER

MEETINGS ON MONDAYS 5:15PM @ HUB 101

Yup, it’s that time again. There’s a new Windows operating system on the horizon, and it’s coming very soon. Final versions of Windows 8 are already out in the wild for IT pros and enterprises, and consumers will be able to nab their copy this Friday on Oct. 26 Microsoft is talking big with Windows 8.

They believe it’s the shot in the arm that the PC market needs. This is because Windows 8 throws away many of the traditional elements we have come to expect from Windows—the removal of the Start Menu being of the most controversial changes—and adds a ton of interesting and intuitive new user interfaces.

Microsoft is positioning Windows 8 to be the bridge between tablet devices like Apple’s iPad and the regular old PC many have grown up using. The PC software juggernaut is so confident in Windows 8 that they’ve invested over $1 billion in marketing.

That’s not all; they also created their own in-house tablet called Surface that runs Windows 8, and a more portable version of Windows called RT. Microsoft loves their new Windows platform, but does it really have the potential that Microsoft is touting? Let’s take

a look.

PC, Meet Tablet (Again) It’s not the first time that Windows has been used on a tablet device. In fact, Microsoft began its foray into tablet computing in 1991, when a tech company called NCR was tasked to build a prototype tablet based on Windows 3.1. The first real tablet PCs didn’t start showing up until 2002 when Microsoft released Windows XP Tablet PC Edition to the public.

Nevertheless, tablets didn’t catch mainstream attention until the iPad’s tremendously successful launch in April 2010, which brings us to today. With over 20 years of interest in tablets, Microsoft is making their biggest gamble yet by actually making a tablet themselves. Now that Windows 8 and RT actually provide user-friendly touch-based functionality, Microsoft’s long-term interest may pay off. The most important task for Microsoft to accomplish is attracting consumers and businesses alike to the Windows 8 platform.

DIGITAL WORLD CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

Courtesy of digitaltrends.com

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DIGITAL WORLD FROM PAGE 18

Surface and the Windows App Store

Courtesy of Microsoft

In what could be described as a very bold move, Microsoft is shipping their first internally developed tablet PC called Surface. It’s bold because Microsoft isn’t well known for their hardware products. The only notable hardware Microsoft has put out as of late is the Xbox. Microsoft has never released their own PC before, instead relying on hardware partners like HP, Dell and Asus to the dirty work for them.

For Microsoft to be releasing something like Surface is a big deal for the company. This shift in business strategy was reflected in a recent letter from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to shareholders. Ballmer described a company that aims to become a lot more like their long-time rival, Apple.

Microsoft means serious business with Windows 8 and Surface, literally. Windows 8 and the more compact version called RT are being positioned as tablet-friendly operating systems for people who want to do “real” work on their tablets. Microsoft is pushing this work-friendly image by providing a free version of Microsoft Office 2012 Home & Student RT for anyone who purchases a Surface with a Windows RT tablet.

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To enforce this new strategy of intuitive computing, Microsoft is launching the Windows Store. Similar to Apple’s Mac App Store, the Windows Store offers a portal for consumers to more easily discover new applications for their Surface, laptop, and/or desktop computer running Windows 8 or RT. As great as it all sounds, Windows 8 has a long way to go before Microsoft can call it a success.

The Windows of Opportunity Microsoft’s Surface tablet and their touchcentric Windows 8 and RT platforms hold major potential. If Microsoft’s billion-dollar marketing campaign can connect with consumers in a unique way, their products like Surface and Windows 8 might just be able to convince people that tablets like the iPad are far less useful than advertised.

I can imagine Microsoft pushing their Surface tablet as the only device you can do serious work on and enjoy some entertainment too.

Surface could be marketed as a fantastic value for students looking for maximum portability and the flexibility of the Windows platform onthe-go. There’s a niche out there for Microsoft to capture, Windows 8 and Surface may just be the right bait.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

. SPORTS .

HIGHLANDER

Men’s tennis fares well in the ITA Regional Championship Michael Rios SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A rc h i v e /HIGHLANDER Simon Peters playing in a match earlier this year.

WRITE

DESIGN

SHOOT

for the Highlander

The UC Riverside men’s tennis team this past weekend continued their fall portion of its schedule at the USTA/ITA Southwest Regional Championship Oct. 1923 at Anteater Tennis Stadium.

Schools from across the southwest competed in the tournament, which was hosted by fellow Big West school UC Irvine.

The men’s tennis squad opened the ITA Southwest Regional Championship Friday Oct. 19 with action in singles and doubles competition. Highlander Jimmy Roberts got things going in the first round of singles when he faced off against Rainbow Wahine’s Chris Meyers. Roberts fought hard in his first match and defeated his Hawai’i opponent 6-3, 6-2 and advanced to the second round. Jimmy Roberts continued play in the second round against UCLA’s Marcos Giron but did not play as well in the second round, losing to his Bruin opponent 6-2, 6-1.

Roberts for Riverside paired up with teammate Luis Gastao for the lone doubles match of the day against Arizona’s duo of Sumeet Shinde and Kieren Thompson. Riverside’s duo dropped the match to the Wildcat’s duo 8-1 and looked to have a better performance the next day.

The final singles play for the Highlanders on Friday was Julian Ruffin, when he went against UC Santa Barbara’s Ziad Sultan and Gastao faced Yannick Hanfmann from USC. Ruffin went on to lose the match 6-3,6-2 and Gastao fell

to his opponent 6-0, 6-1 to wrap up the first day of play.

The second day of play for the Highlanders continued with double actions with Ruffin and Calvin Ngo. The singles action continued with the consolation singles with Ruffin and Gastao.

The Highlanders duo of Julian Ruffin and Calvin Ngo played the only doubles match Saturday as they faced the contest of UCLA’s Warren Hardie and Dennis Mkrtchian. Riverside fell to the Bruin’s duo 8-2 and would end their action of play in the tournament.

The singles for Riverside faired better for the Highlanders than the doubles. Ruffin won his consolation match 7-5, 6-1 against Matt Thompson from Cal Poly. Highlander Luis Gastao competed in the singles on Saturday, however, he fell 6-1, 6-0 to Marco Comuzzo from Cal Poly.

Ruffin because the win in the consolation round, advanced further into the tournament, however, bad weather permitted his action until the next day Sunday, Oct. 21.

Ruffin continued the singles consolation round of 16 Sunday Oct. 21 against UC Irvine’s Tyler Pham. Ruffin dropped the first set 6-4, won the second set 6-2 but fell 10-4 in the tiebreaker.

“The team did very well considering this was the toughest Regional in the country,” Head Coach Tim Downey stated. “It was a great effort from the guys and we know what we need to do to prepare for the upcoming dual team season.”

This year for the Highlanders in singles play, Jimmy Roberts has gone 4-2, while Julian Ruf-

fin’s record is 3-2. The doubles for Riverside has not fared well in their fall portion of their season.

This tournament puts the duo of Roberts and Gastao record at 0-2 and Ruffin and Calvin’s record at 0-2 as well. The tennis season has just begun and the men’s team look to use the experience from the past tournaments when they continue play at the Socal Intercollegiate Championship next ■H month Nov. 7.

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---------------Thursday Lunch with Bill Noon - 1 p.m. Discussion St. Andrews Newman Center 105 Big Springs Road, 92507 ---------------AA Information: www.inlandempireaa.org 909-825-4700 ---------------Tuesday Big Book Study Noon-1 p.m.

St. Andrews Newman Center 105 Big Springs Road, 92507 ---------------Hey frats, sororities & other Highlanders! Fundraisers at Taco Station get you 20% of the proceeds on food!

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HOUSING

Meetings on Mondays at 5:15 pm at HUB 101

Own room in house for $550 12 month lease - all utilities included - cable, internet, laundry, alarm system included. Call 562-274-5165 ---------------2700 sqf, 5 Bd 3 Ba House for rent, $2200. It is In a gated community with 24 hours security, close to UCR, community college, & elementary school, also shopping areas, hospital.

Downstairs bedroom, and large living, dining, family room, breakfast nook, refrigerator, washer/dryer.

Call for Maryam 949-735 -9005, or Ali 949-293-7919.

SPORTS

HIGHLANDER

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

21

Women’s tennis finishes fall portion of season at ITA Regional Championship Michael Rios SENIOR STAFF WRITER

October 18, 2012 Singles Round - 1 W/2 L Doubles Round - 0 W/1 L After competing in the C a l S t a t e F u l l e r t o n To u rnament earlier this month, t h e U C R i v e r s i d e w o m e n ’s tennis team traveled to the University of San Diego this past weekend to take part in their second and final tournament of the fall portion of the season. Riverside participated in the I n t e r c o l l e g i a t e Te n n i s A s sociation Southwest Regional Championship and the team fared pretty decently on the first day of competition.

In her first match, Jamie Raney was able to defeat UC Davis’ Cara Brown in the first round of singles p l a y. R a n e y w o n t h e m a t c h with scores of 7-6, 4-6 and 6-3 to advance to the second round.

The following round of 64 proved to be a bit more challenging for Raney as s h e t o o k o n U C L A B r u i n ’s Pamela Montez. Montez went on to win the match p r e t t y d e c i s i v e l y, d e f e a t i n g U C R ’s R a n e y w i t h dominant scores of 6-2, 6-3.

In other first-day action, R i v e r s i d e ’s N a t a l i e M c K ay was unable to get past U C I r v i n e ’s S a r a h G o n g .

McKay was edged out by a close score of 7-6 in the first set, but was later defeated handily by a score of 6-0 in the second to lose the match.

HIGHLANDER NEWSROOM

KUCR RADIO 88.3 WEDNESDAYS @ 9AM

In doubles action, the UC Riverside duo of McKay and Raney teamed up t o f a c e o ff a g a i n s t S a n D i e g o S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y ’s I s a belle Hoorn and Michela Casanova. But the Highlanders were unable to get past them, as they fell to S a n D i e g o S t a t e ’s d u o b y a score of 8-3.

KENDALL PETERSON

KENDALL’S FASTBALL

October 19, 2012 Singles Round - 0 W/1 L To u r n a m e n t a c t i o n c o n tinued the very next day for the Highlanders.

In the consolidation match, Natalie McKay batt l e d a g a i n s t P e p p e r d i n e ’s Abigail Phillips. McKay lost the first set by a score of 6-1, but rallied back in the second set, winning it 6-4 to tie things up.

In the tiebreak, the two women played outstandi n g l y a n d c o m p e t i t i v e l y, b u t i t w a s P e p p e r d i n e ’s Abigail Phillips who came out victorious in the end.

McKay lost the final set and the match by a score of 10-7.

Wi t h M c K a y ’s l o s s , t h e UC Riverside w o m e n ’s tennis team concluded its fall portion of the season.

Relatively speaking, the w o m e n ’s t e n n i s t e a m f a r e d a b i t b e t t e r i n l a s t y e a r ’s Regional Championship. A year ago, the team managed to earn a couple of victories in singles and doubles.

T h i s y e a r, t h e t e a m ’s s o l e v i c t o r y c a m e f r o m R a n e y ’s win in singles action.

The team will resume its second part of the seas o n o n J a n . 1 9 , f a c i n g o ff H against San Diego State. ■

NBA season is approaching

Jamie Raney playing last year.

A rc h i v e /HIGHLANDER

Singles Round of 128 Jamie Raney (UCR) def. Cara Brown (USD) 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 Sarah Gong (UCI) def. Natalie McKay (UCR) 7-6, 6-0 Singles Round of 64 Pamela Montez (UCLA) def. Jamie Raney (UCR) 6-2, 6-3 Doubles Round of 64 Casanova/Hoorn (SDSU) def. McKay/Raney, J. (UCR) 8-3 Consolation Singles – Second Round Abigail Phillips (Pepperdine) def. Natalie McKay (UCR) 6-1, 4-6, (10-7)

The NBA preseason games are almost over and we are approaching the 2012-13 season. The preseason games have given us a great feel of how the NBA season will be like this upcoming season. Since the end of the the NBA finals, a lot has changed, from the New Jersey Nets becoming the Brooklyn Nets to Dwight Howard and Steve Nash joining in Los Angeles.

The Brooklyn Nets have a new logo for their identification, however, the new logo doesn’t set well in my opinion. I felt the organization could have come up with something better, maybe showing the word Brooklyn in the logo instead of the word “Nets” to signify the change of cities.

One offseason move that seemed productive was the trade for Howard and when the Lakers required Nash.

With Howard in the paint and Nash along with Kobe at the guard positions, the Lakers could see themselves in the NBA finals this year.

Next, you have the possible return of Derrick Rose—if he chooses to come back. Derrick Rose tore his ACL and is scheduled to return 8-12 months.

Talks around the league is if Rose should even come back this season with that type of injury.

Finally, we must ask ourselves what the NBA will look like in a few years once all the great players like Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe retire. Kobe is said that he might retire after his contract is up in 2014.

There is speculation that the Los Angeles Lakers will pursue Lebron James in a couple of years if he chooses to opt out of his contract in the 2013-14 season. The Lakers would potentially have the salary-cap space to offer James a maximum deal should Kobe Bryant follow through with his plans.

I cannot wait for the season to begin and finally see the greatest athletes compete for NBA Championship.

■H

SPORTS

HIGHLANDER

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

23

UC Riverside women's volleyball remains winless in Big West Conference play D a rr e n B u e n o CONTRIBUTING WRITER

October 19, 2012 Mustangs 3 – Highlanders 2 The UC Riverside women’s volleyball team entered Friday’s match against Cal Poly looking for their elusive first conference win of the season.

In a showdown that featured 34 tied scores and 21 lead changes, the Highlanders (5-16, 0-8) fell to the Mustangs (2-18, 1-7) in five heartbreaking sets (21-25, 25-22, 25-22, 24-26, 15-17) despite holding two match points.

Highlander Amanda Vialpando led all players with 22 kills and 14 digs. Ashley Cox added 11 kills and 20 digs while Tyler Dorsey chipped in 9 kills.

The Mustangs were led by Megan McConnell, who registered 13 kills.

After dropping the first set (21-25), the Highlanders recovered from a 10-14 deficit to take a 21-17 lead behind a service ace. A slew of errors opened an opportunity for the home team as they closed to within one point at 22-23 before a Vialpando kill and Mustang error sealed the set for the Highlanders, 25-22.

The third set saw UC Riverside continue their impressive form as they contained the Mustang’s relentless attacking pressure and weathered nine tied scores to pull out the set, 25-22.

The visiting team started the crucial fourth set strong, charging to a 12-6 advantage as they looked to secure their first road win of the season. The home team, however, gained momentum as the Highlanders watched the Mustangs surge to take the lead 17-16. A timeout by Highlander coach Ron Larsen calmed the team as UC Riverside tied the score and opened a three point lead at 2118. Two consecutive kills by Vialpando gave the Highlanders a match point at 24-23, which

was quickly erased by a Mustang block. A pair of Cal Poly kills shut the door on a possible fourth set UCR comeback as the Mustangs won the set, 26-24.

The Highlanders trailed early in the deciding set as Pomona tallied eight kills to lead 11-8.

The visiting team responded by stringing together four uncontested points pulling ahead 1211. The two teams traded leads before the Highlanders failed to convert a second match point at 15-14. Cal Poly then went on to win the set and the match, 1715, behind two kills and a Highlander error.

October 20, 2012 Gauchos 3 – Highlanders 1 Coming off a tough five set loss to Cal Poly, the UC Riverside women’s volleyball team squared off against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday Oct. 20 with hopes of stealing a rare win on the road. The Highlanders (5-17, 0-9) came up short again as they lost a tightly contested match (25-14, 25-23, 23-25, 2523) to fall 0-9 against conference opponents this season.

Errors proved to be fatal for the Highlanders as they committed over double the amount of their opponent (28-12). Amanda Vialpando continued her strong weekend play registering 20 kills and 20 digs to lead UCR. Ashley Cox contributed 16 kills and 25 digs while Emily Borges added 16 digs.

The Gauchos (12-12, 5-4), who own a 36-5 record all time against UC Riverside, opened the first set generating multiple kills as the Highlanders struggled to withstand a 10-1 Santa Barbara run before losing the set, 14-25.

The Highlanders took control early in the second set winning three straight points to open a 3-0 advantage that ballooned to 12-8 behind a Tyler Dorsey kill. Knotted at 17-17, the two

teams swamped leads as neither gained separation before consecutive errors from Riverside at 23-23 gifted Santa Barbara the set, 25-23.

The third set saw UC Riverside trail early as the Gauchos galloped to a 7-2 lead. Backed by power hitting, the Highlanders rallied to tie the score at 1414. Following six tied scores, UCR produced a service ace to lead 24-22. A Vialpando kill sealed the set, 25-23.

The fourth set featured eleven tied scores and seven lead changes as the Highlanders battled to stay in the match trailing 11-18. Strong serving and a balanced offensive attack proved vital to the Highlanders as they recovered to tie the score, 2020. Santa Barbara then gained momentum before a kill by Cox instilled a glimmer of hope as UCR tied the score, 22-22.

Energized by the cheers of the home crowd, UC Santa Barbara subdued the Highlander’s audacious play to secure the win on a costly UCR service error, 2523.

The Highlanders return home to face Pacific University on Oct. 26 at 7:00 p.m. at the SRC Arena in Riverside.

■H

C a mer o n Y o u n g /HIGHLANDER Annishia McKoy (Jr.) and Jasmin White (Sr.) attempt a block.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL STANDINGS BIG WEST GAMES Team Hawaii Long Beach State Cal State Northridge Cal State Fullerton UC Santa Barbara Pacific UC Davis UC Irvine Cal Poly UC Riverside

W

L

PCT.

10 6 6 5 5 4 4 4 2 0

0 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 7 9

1.000 .667 .600 .556 .556 .444 .444 .444 .222 .000

ALL GAMES

W

L

PCT.

17 11 15 11 12 16 10 9 3 5

2 9 7 11 12 6 12 14 18 17

.895 .550 .682 .500 .500 .727 .455 .391 .143 .227

24

SPORTS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

HIGHLANDER

UC Riverside women’s soccer splits weekend play with Cal Poly, UCSB Jayvee Valencia CONTRIBUTING WRITER

October 19, 2012 Highlanders 1 – Mustangs 1 The UC Riverside women’s soccer team played a well fought game and came out with a draw after two overtime periods against Cal Poly Pomona 1-1. Highlander Kaitlin Anzalone scored the first goal of the game at the second minute mark after a broken play by Cal Poly. The Mustangs evened the score 1-1 when Kacey Held assisted teammate Sara Lancaster.

The game got physical late in the first half as both teams drew eight fouls each. UCR attempted two corner kicks in the first half but were unable to score on those opportunities. Although Cal Poly outshot the Highlanders in the first half 12-11, the defense was active in pressuring passes and shots.

Goalkeeper Jessica White contributed with five saves and the team as a whole gave a full effort in protecting the net. In the 2nd Half, Cal Poly attempted 10 shots while UCR attempted seven.

Missed opportunities and chances were the theme for the rest of the match.

Both teams completed their passes off set formations but the ball would not go through the net.

Jessica White added eight saves in the second half and the two overtime periods ending the game with 13 saves.

Coach Gonzalez spoke about team defense and on Jessica White’s performance. “With goalkeepers you don’t expect them to make as many saves as she did, defensively everyone worked hard; it was a team effort.”

Improving off of Friday’s game and playing with consistent effort will be the theme for the rest of the season. Coach Gonzales stated, “Consistency, I tell them don’t worry about wins and losses, tonight’s effort is going to be the difference in every game.”

October 21, 2012 Highlanders 1 – Gauchos 0 Sunday Oct. 21 was Senior Day for the Highlanders with introductions to all the graduating seniors before the match. It ended with a win for the UCR women’s soccer team as the Highlanders defeated UC Santa Barbara 1-0. Andrea Morales scored the game’s first and only goal in the second minute when she was assisted by Andrea Luttio.

Luttio soared a free kick and the ball bounced off the crossbar, finding Morales for the header.

UCR’s effort was consistent in terms of running hard, pressing the pass and challenging the shot attempts of UCSB. UCR had seven fouls and were outshot 10-3 in the first half.

The second half was about surviving for Riverside. Although the Highlanders were hit with 10 fouls in the second half, the Gauchos only attempted three shots compared to the 10 shots in the first.

Credit the defensive effort of UCR in reducing the shot attempts of the Gauchos. The Highlanders made it a physical grind-it-out game. They played more defensively but only created a few opportunities. Two shots were attempted and missed by Andrea Morales in the 65th minute and Alexa Bustamante in the 74th minute.

Midfielder Andrea Luttio centers the ball in front of UC Santa Barbara’s goal.

Goalkeeper Jessica White accumulated four saves and the backline defense for the Highlanders was key on the missed shot attempts by UCSB. Throughout the game, the Highlanders forced the Gauchos into shots that

missed wide and high. The final four minutes of the game were intense, filled with substitutions and some lucky breaks. After a substitution in the 86 minute, a foul was called on UCR but minutes later they survived when an offside

B rya n T u t t le /HIGHLANDER

was called on UCSB. The game wasn’t pretty but it was a tough and gritty performance for UCR and they’ll take it as they head to Stockton, CA against the Pacific Tigers Friday Oct. 26.

■H

WOMEN’S SOCCER STANDINGS BIG WEST GAMES Team Cal Poly Cal State Northridge Cal State Fullerton UC Irvine Long Beach Hawaii UC Davis UC Santa Barbara UC Riverside Pacific

W

L

5 5 5 4 4 3 2 2 1 0

1 1 2 1 1 4 4 5 5 5

T

PCT.

2 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1

.833 .833 .714 .800 .800 .429 .333 .285 .167 .000

ALL GAMES W

8 8 8 8 11 8 7 5 6 3

L

T

PCT.

6 4 7 8 5 8 8 11 9 12

3 5 0 1 0 2 2 2 3 1

.571 .667 .533 .500 .687 .500 .467 .312 .400 .200

Men’s soccer defeats UC Irvine, loses to Fullerton in double overtime C o dy N g u y e n CONTRIBUTING WRITER

October 17, 2012 Highlanders 4 - Anteaters 1 The UCR men’s soccer team (85-0) and the UC Irvine men’s soccer team (4-9-0) took the field at the UCR Soccer Stadium in a critical match that would determine who would be in the driver’s seat for the second playoff spot in the Big West South division.

The first half saw the Highlanders strike first in the 10th minute when Juan Mendoza and Jimmy Martinez found the team’s leading scorer Aaron Long for his fifth goal of the season.

In the second half Highlander goalkeeper Ashkan Khosravi went down with an injury from a diving save that caused him to collide with a UCI forward. Redshirt freshman Colt Reichl took over in Khosravi’s absence.

The Highlanders then embarked on a furious three-goal rally that commenced when Jose Diaz scored Riverside’s second goal of the match on a penalty kick inside the box. One minute later, Jimmy Martinez scored his first goal of the match to extend the lead to 3-0. 27 seconds later, the Anteaters capitalized on a defensive breakdown to make the score 3-1, which would serve to be a moot point

as Jimmy Martinez scored his second goal of the evening to put the game out of reach.

Highlanders coach Junior Gonzalez attributed the second half explosion to “getting more runs in the box and the dangerous areas, and finishing on [our] scoring opportunities” and believes that “there’s no reason we shouldn’t win the rest of [our] matches.”

October 20, 2012 Titans 3 - Highlanders 2 The Highlanders continued their homestand hoping to ride the momentum from Wednesday night’s victory as they took on Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, Oct. 20.

In the second half, Fullerton midfielder Ian Ramos fired a crosser to teammate Jameson Campbell who netted the first goal of the match.

The Highlanders showed resolve and found the equalizer no more than 20 seconds later when Eric Gonzalez clanged a shot off the post that rebounded into the waiting foot of Jimmy Martinez.

Things would get no less dramatic when the home crowd roared in disbelief on a handball called against the Highlanders that was issued inside the box at the 86th minute. The Titans

capitalized as Ian Ramos scored on the penalty kick. With the game on the line, the Highlanders rallied behind the desperate home crowd for one last free kick to be taken by Eric Gonzalez, subsequently finding Highlander Hayden Leslie who headed the ball in for an unbelievable game-tying goal with 13 seconds to play in regulation.

It took two overtime periods to reach a decision in the contest, when Fullerton defenseman Mark Vasquez fired a shot into Highlander territory off a free kick, finding teammate Gerzon Blanco for the game-clinching score in the 108th minute of the match.

The loss drops the Highlanders to seventh place (2-5-0) in the Big West conference, as they look to bounce back and play their final regular season home game against Cal State ■H Northridge Saturday Oct. 27.

B rya n T u t t le /HIGHLANDER Ruben Valencia outmaneuvers CSU Fullerton to take the ball downfield.

MEN’S SOCCER STANDINGS BIG WEST GAMES Team Cal State Northridge UC Davis Cal Poly Sacramento State UC Santa Barbara Cal State Fullerton UC Riverside UC Irvine

ALL GAMES

W

L

T

PCT.

W

L

T

PCT.

5 5 4 4 3 2 2 1

2 2 2 2 3 4 5 6

0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0

.714 .714 .667 .667 .500 .500 .250 .143

11 7 9 7 9 6 9 4

5 5 5 6 3 10 6 11

0 4 1 2 3 1 0 1

.688 .563 .633 .533 .700 .382 .600 .281