VOLUME 49, ISSUE 33
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2016
WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG
SUN GOD FESTIVAL
UC SYSTEM
DEMONSTRATE DISSENT
University Creates Joint Anti-Poverty Federation UC President granted $1.32 million towards forming the coalition from pre-existing poverty research centers. BY LAUREN HOLT
PHOTO BY CORY WONG/GUARDIAN
UCSD HAS A LONG HISTORY OF SOCIAL ACTIVISIM SPANNING FROM THE FIRST STUDENTS TO TODAY. THE GUARDIAN INVESTIGATED WHAT MAKES A GOOD RALLY AND WHAT MOVEMENTS FAIL. FEATURES, PAGE 6
SELECTIVE REQUIREMENT
WORKSHOPS FOR ALL STUDENTS OPINION, PAGE 4
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Stellar wins ; 20-3 record SPORTS, Page 12
FORECAST
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CONTRIBUTING writer
HANDLE YOUR LADY LIQUOR HOW-TO GURU
OPINION, PAGE 4
INSIDE LIGHTS & SIRENS............ 3 VOLUNTOURISM.............. 4 BEHIND THE LECTERN..... 8 CALENDAR...................... 9 M. BASEKTBALL............ 11
is not adhering to the concerns brought up by students. “We feel that in the task force, student voices and input are not currently being effectively included,” Selvidge said. UCSA President Kevin Sabo told the UCSD Guardian that the UC faculty’s unwillingness to participate in consent training has been more of an obstacle than the Task Force itself. “It’s not so much the Task Force that has been problematic, at least to the extent that I’m aware,” Sabo said. “I think the biggest concern has been [obtaining] funding for the consent training that is required of faculty; that’s been hugely difficult for us to get. The faculty appears very resistant by the training [because See LETTER, page 3
See BLUM, page 2
Rapper Snoop Dogg performed at last year’s Sun God Festival as the headliner. Photo by Matthias Scheer /UCSD Guardian.
ASCE Talks Sun God Lineup with the Guardian By JACKY TO
A
ssociate Vice President of A.S. Concerts and Events Christian Walker told the UCSD Guardian that the 2016 Sun God Festival may feature a smaller number of well-known performers as opposed to a greater number of lesser-known artists. “A survey that was conducted by a member of A.S. Council last quarter about Sun God indicated that students were more interested in seeing a smaller amount of bigger names at the festival,” Walker said. “We’re definitely taking the approach of booking artists that we see a lot of potential in and a lot of value in.” Walker emphasized that student opinion has been very important and consequential to his office’s direction and decisions. “Every day, we’re checking the responses to our entertainment survey, which asks students what genres they’re listening to, what specific artists they’re listening to and what types of events they’re interested in seeing,” Walker said. “That’s influencing the process of who we reach out to and who we decide on.” An aspect that will not factor into ASCE’s lineup decisions is genre. Instead, the event organizers will evaluate
NEWS EDITOR
performers based on the culture surrounding their concerts. “I don’t know if we’re trying to avoid any genre as much as we’re trying to remain educated on the experience the audience has at those shows,” Walker said. “We do a lot of research before booking an act to see what is the nature of the crowd when this person is playing at another festival. That affects the decisions that we make more so than their genre.” Sun God Festival will take place on Saturday, April 30 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., ASCE announced in a Facebook post on Jan. 19. Though some have expressed discontent with the event now taking place solely in the daytime, Walker assured the Guardian that the organizers intend to maintain what students love about the festival while modifying it to fit the new time slot. “We’re confident that a move to a daytime event can be done creatively and in a fun way so that it just changes the vibe of the event without necessarily feeling like the nighttime element was just thrown in the garbage,” Walker said. “We’re currently working to refresh the Sun God brand and incorporate elements that really cater to that daytime festival aspect.”
See SUN GOD, page 3
VERBATIM IF YOU DECIDE TO HIT IT OFF WITH ANYONE, TAKE YOUR SHOTS OF VODKA AND DROP IT LIKE IT’S HOT – OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THROWING IT ON THE FLOOR, OR DOWN SOMEONE ELSE’S THROAT.”
All 10 Blum Centers from each UC campus will merge to form the Blum Federation, the UC Office of the President announced in a press release Feb. 8. The Blum Centers conduct research on poverty in California. The purpose behind the merger is to allow campuses to share their specialized research, UCOP Media Specialist Kate Moser told the UCSD Guardian. “The Blum Federation expands the systemwide impact of and access to each campus Blum Center in the service of fighting poverty globally,” Moser said. “Each Blum Center has a unique specialty, and coordinating on a systemwide level gives UC researchers and students across campuses a chance to benefit from each other’s expertise for new research and education opportunities.” In order to develop the resources to collaborate across the UC system, the UCOP issued a $1.32 million grant in seed funding to finance the merger. The money is not to be spent on base funding for each program, UCSD Associate Political Science Professor and co-founder of the UCSD Blum Center Fonna Forman told the Guardian. “What that money is intended to do is to elevate our capacity to be a contributor to the Federation,” Forman said. “It is not intended to actually infuse support into our local programming.” Forman also noted that the new federation will have an important impact on the UCSD Blum Center, allowing them to improve their research and interactions with more university students. “It is going to make our research better because we will have a repository of knowledge that we can all draw from,” Forman stated. “It is going to be this amazing networking opportunity for students to study across the state.” The UCSD Blum Center has a transnational specialty. Its main project, the “UCSD Cross-Border Initiative,” studies the wealth of San Diego and the extreme poverty across the border in Mexico. Forman’s counterpart at the UCSD Blum Center, co-founder and Visual Arts Professor Teddy Cruz, told the Guardian that with this new Blum Federation in place, students from other campuses will be able to come and gain hands-on experience with international poverty. “The asset that we bring to the whole network is that students
UC STUDENT ASSOCIATION
UCSA Criticizes UC Sexual Assault Task Force Students believe the administration provides insufficient services and transparency. BY MARIO ESPINOZA
Contributing writer The UC Student Association discussed drafting an open letter to the UC Office of the President regarding its Task Force on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence and Sexual Assault at its Board of Directors meetings last week. According to The Daily Californian, the letter would address UC student concerns over the Task Force’s lack of communication, inadequate membership and insufficient resources. The Task Force was formed in July 2014, after months of UCSD student survivors sharing their stories with the UC Board of Regents and President Napolitano. “[Of the] 233,000 students
enrolled in the University of California, roughly 26,830 students will experience sexual violence during their academic career, most of whom will not report or speak of their assault,” according to the UCSA website. President Napolitano convened the Task Force in order to respond to and prevent acts of sexual violence and assault on UC campuses. The Task Force is made up of important constituents of the UC System, including “UC regents, faculty, police and student survivors.” However, there have been complaints from UC Berkeley and student groups over the progress made by the Task Force. According to a report compiled by the Daily Californian, UC Santa Barbara junior Jennifer Selvidge said during the meetings that the Task Force