DATE: 2.4.10
A CERTAIN STATUE...
The Student Association Incorporated, which has provided our campus in the past with such eye-burning scars as the NCAA Softball sculpture in front of Natali and the Ascent of Humanity, has once again brought to fruition a bronze masterwork of abysmal quality. All who have walked past the newly remodeled Herron Recreation and Fitness Center have likely wretched at the recently erected Vulcan Statue that now commands and then punishes the happening eyes of those who look upon it. The Vulcan statue is an eye sore to be sure. And how ironic, that it has been situated within sight of the art buildings, as though to mock all those professors and students who’s aesthetically sensitive eyes would rather not have to behold such a disgusting apparition every time they inadvertently glance outside?
I have observed that three separate opinions frequently emerge on campus regarding the unsavory monument. There are those who are apathetic toward it, they being the most plentiful, yet also the most ineffective; those who outwardly hate it, they seeming to be few and whose opinions don’t make it far beyond passive discussions; and those who are very much for it, they being the ones whose opinions are best known and accepted thanks to their political sway, which is increased by the trumpeting of the Cal Times.
I envy those who don’t care about it. It must be nice to pass by such a detestable image day after day and not feel the effects of its lousiness; and then, remain undisturbed, even though actual money was spent in creating it. I, of course, fall into the ranks of those who oppose the presence of the god-awful thing. Unfortunately not all who oppose it are able to formulate an effective argument for their disdain and, avoid discussing it altogether. Hence, the opposition seems to be a minority. Alas, some actually do like it, but I wonder if they like it because it truly appeals to them or because they are obliged to like it. After all, if I were one of the people who had funded it, I might be a little reluctant to make known my negativity for it as well. I’m willing to bet that while these people express positive opinions for it, they would sooner lay themselves under the wheels of an available dump truck than be presented with the option of having it brought into the sanctity of their own homes.
I digress. As it happens, it hardly matters what anyone’s opinion is on the Vulcan statue because it is simply a bad statue. Perceptions cannot alter this reality. Its head is disproportionately gargantuan, no thanks to the chunkily sculpted hair all over its face; its stance is awkward and unbalanced; its legs likely have twisted and strained; its ropy physique looks less like a convincing body full of sinewy muscles and more like a body where the muscles were chiseled on as an afterthought; and, not least of all, the texture of its skin looks as though someone painted it on with a steel brush after the whole thing was cast.
There was talk about installing fuel lines around the Vulcan’s feet, which would have illuminated the whole thing in a ring of fire when lit, but unfortunately this was never realized. Otherwise, I would have been able to cling to the hope that it would one day explode and rid from our eyes this unworthy cacophony of blasting fright. The rest of it is giant, yet weak-looking. Its shoulders, chest, and neck pull in such a way that real muscles and tendons would not.
The Cal Times reported that the Vulcan statue would be a focal point. Well, truer words were never spoken. After all, ugly things do tend to be focal points.
- Cameron Nook
VULCAN VILLAGE: ROBBER BARON
Making the move up to Vulcan Village could be one of the most costly mistakes a Cal U students could make. To start off you must sign a twelve month lease- BAM locked in. What if something happens where you need to break the lease?? Well the resolution to this is quite unique to Vulcan Village. The tenant can move out no problem, but they must pay the remaining months if they do not find someone else to take over their lease and move in. It's a very cleaver tactic because if the tenant breaks the lease and pays off, say the last 6 months, then Vulcan places someone else in the vacant room and makes the money again from the new tenant.
Currently, and until next fall, the cost per month is more or less $540 a month and around $6,480 over the course of the lease. But next fall rent prices are rising almost two hundred dollars. This is way more than most mortgages!
Lastly, Vulcan Village has the worst relations between management and tenant after they move in. This is because they know they have you in an ironclad lease. If you're unhappy, management tells you to just break the lease because they know there will always be students ready to move in because there is a serious housing shortage at Cal.
- Matilda Jeffries
PROGRESS IS PROGRESS
Tree hugger returns, with lamenting tales of future building prospects on Cal’s campus. If you observe the new website (calu.edu) an interactive map highlights beautiful trees located throughout the campus. However, this map only shows the beautiful trees that will exist after the long term plans and several millions, if not billions, of dollars worth of construction. It doesn’t show a beautiful weeping mulberry tree (which sprouts delicious berries in the summer) and a very large native holly tree that currently sit near the former site of beloved Binns Dormitory. In Serenity Paved I stressed many points. This new discovery only exacerbates the current animosity I have towards the University’s “progress”.
Albeit, progress is beneficial. We can observe this in the California University Journal, which published in its latest issue some notes from the January 21 faculty convocation. In it, Dr. Armenti himself stated that FTE (full time equivalent) undergraduate enrollment is up 6%, and graduate enrollment is up more than 20%. A person might notice that this Journal
article ran concurrently with a Cal Times article by Alex Vucelich, who noted that seven English adjunct professors (among other faculty) were fired at the conclusion of the Fall 2009 semester.
While the university makes great additions to student enrollment, a substantial amount of money is being spent on renovations, new buildings, and new parking garages. So where does the university make up for its losses? Why, with faculty cuts and increases in student fees, of course! So the faculty, already dealing with strained class sizes, need to pick up all the work that their former peers were responsible for. This leads me to ask: Why can’t I be the one the university is focused on? Why can’t the focus be upon my well being, my education? It seems, from my seat, that these long term plans make myself, my professors, and my peers the losers, and Cal (as a business) the winner. But what are we to do about it? Paid parking is just a few short months away. Who’s excited? I know I am.
- Lizzy D. Ira
A REVIEW OF THE LINE I’M IN
I write this review from the food court, you know the one, right outside the Gold Rush, where edible food can be had for those poor souls willing to part with a meal plan, and some dine dollars, and the blood of their first born. Yep, that’s the one. I’m standing in line at Joe’s, because all I want is a cheeseburger. I desperately want a cheeseburger. I have wanted a cheeseburger since early this morning and a cheeseburger would bring me both joy and fulfillment. This is not, at least to my perception, a difficult request. After all, Wendy’s can give me a cheeseburger in roughly two minutes. It might smell a little of cannabis and the guy at the counter will have bloodshot eyes and probably spit in it, but, whatever. It’s food, and I would like it now. Please.
The line itself isn’t that long, four people, really, and the woman with the little green notepad is going pretty fast. ‘Excellent’, I think, ‘I’ll be swimming in ketchup and mayonnaise and something vaguely resembling beef in mere moments’. I give the woman my order and enjoy the surly glare of someone who works for AVI. The hopelessness and sadness, roughly the same in any service industry, are like watching prostitutes but somehow so much sadder. My compatriot goes off to get pizza.
Twenty minutes later, my compatriot standing beside me, pizza long grown cold, my cheeseburger arrives. I don’t bother to ask for condiments, it’s been far too long already. I do make the mistake of admitting I would like french-fries, interestingly, despite the full tray of french-fries, it takes me another ten minutes to procure some. I end up at a dirty table, feeling broken, defeated, and hungry. The hamburger (They forgot cheese) is overcooked, the french-fries are undercooked, and I’ve started to cry.
It turns out that tears are almost as good a condiment as spit.
- Hipolit Dudek
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Issue One
Hey everyone- this will serve as a place for updates outside of publication, and a place for us to store our articles.
October 27, 2009
Serenity Paved, Progress Forced
There are a lot of things at Cal that bother me, but this issue hits an emotional core. Cal’s campus has never been one of great character in nature of the constant renovations and construction. Regardless of how useful or not useful the Natali Student Center, New Duda, and the future convocation may be, they lack a quality that is at best intangible. The quality that they lack is a quality that can be found on campuses of Ivy League schools, old buildings, and old houses. A certain ambiance, or “feel” to them, a certain character that builds up in a place after years. It’s a quality that tells you much about the history of a place just by entering its space. This is not a “useful” quality, per say. And old buildings are inefficient, their electrical circuitry is worn, the pipes are made of lead, the floors creak. Old main, for example, has a bit of it. The president’s office used to be the library, and if you walk up the wooden staircase with wooden banister, the floor is shifting slightly to one side. Old main, in contrast to much of the rest of Cal, HAS character of a sort. Meanwhile, in New Duda, professors get flustered with the “new tech” designs, which include a giant glass wall not nearly as heat efficient as it could be, and poor design of the light fixtures that gets in the way of seeing the projector. Why geeze, it’s not like we NEED to see what the professors are choosing to put up, right? It’s not as though this is a school, and that’s why (I) we’re here, to learn. This concept of progress is damaging. In the rush for newer and better things, we lose character, we lose opportunities to learn, we forget that we are a university and instead become a four year degree institution, a four year track to a greater aim of money, and more progress. It’s a cyclical progress that in the end leaves me dizzy and feeling a bit cheated out of what I want in life. To the point that spurred this article: Cal, in an attempt to address the atrocious parking condition they have created, is increasing the size of the river lot. To do this, they expanded beyond what was the leveled, paved surface of the campus. They cut down a ton of trees and are in the process of building a retaining wall along the river past Eberly. I’m not a crazy tree hugger crying about some trees. I’m upset because there is a little spot by the river nestled behind the train tracks just down from the California Public Library. This spot includes a bench, a fire pit, a swinging rope, and a lot of memories. It used to be a place where I could escape from Cal’s oppressively progressive feeling and just relax or be with my friends, some of whom have since graduated. There was a path that lead into the woods, where a spot was bare by the river. If you ignored the giant pipe where California Borough used to dump sewage into the Monongahela, you could peacefully sit in a solitary place, and watch the leaves float down the river, or the snow accumulate, or hear the cicadas shrilling in the warm evening air. Guess what Cal? You paved away my solitude. Again. Nobody asked me, or any other students, if this was okay, though I’m not sure we could have stopped it, just as the Billiards Club couldn’t stop Cal from taking away half of their space, THEIR solitude (although, of course, Cal Times writes how happy the Billiards club is now).
Once again I feel confronted by a school that just doesn’t get it. It’s not going to stop, there will be a maglev, a river amphitheater, and plenty more attractions to win California University awards (like the best kept lawn award), and get California University money, and increase California University’s enrollment. All the while people like me sit quietly in the background. So here’s a question: Do YOU think Cal has Character? Do YOU feel disgusted by the constant renovations? And more importantly, are there any places that YOU would be upset losing? If there are, you had better get a voice, because they might be gone tomorrow, renovated for a more efficient, more progressive, more productive California University.
-Lizzy D. Ira
Gold Rush Café Plus: brilliant Option?
Price of admission into Gold Rush $8.50
Price of new ‘Café Plus’ Average of $7.00
Knowing your getting a healthy meal with high quality ingredients = priceless (15.50)
I’ll just get right to the point. WTFx up with ‘Café Plus’? The new scheme of AVI to rip you off. Café Plus is the idea that you can pay to get into the Gold Rush and then pay more to upgrade to better food. That’s all well and good, but shouldn’t better food be standard??
We shouldn’t have to pay to upgrade to better food options. It should be standard. We pay enough!
-Matilda Jeffries
Breaking Student Unity (BSU)
The Black Student Union has as its mission, “Building Student Unity,” though by its sheer existence it does quite the opposite. The BSU states according to its website it is dedicated to the “simulation and development of cultural diversity.” Membership is open to all students, this is made quite clear; however, on the executive board of the BSU there is not one white student. The link on the BSU web page to other student organizations is simply entitled, “Other Minority Clubs.” A group designed to include all students under the umbrella term of “minority?” The club is an agent of inequality and it does not exist to build student unity. The black flag that the BSU displayed at the organizational faire even had depicted a red line drawing of Africa, and a fist rising up therein. This is a provocation, a symbol, and a threat. This problem extends far beyond this campus; it is in fact a nationwide calamity. BET, the NAACP, and the CBC come immediately to mind. I cannot think of any television station more able to cement negative stereotypes about black people than “Black Entertainment Television.” How can one summon support under the banner of equality, and focus on the “advancement of colored people,” and not of all people? The society in which we live is struggling to break free from a racial dichotomy that is outdated, and hijacked to meet a divisive agenda. Celebrating difference and embracing the visible distinction of skin color, then labeling it “cultural diversity” is not going to bring equality. If only people would recognize that all too famous proclamation about the conduct of one’s character, rather than the color of one’s skin. The current manifestations of social “equality” movements are an example of racism, the same racism they sought to fight originally. I would call for all people, regardless of color, to shed the label of race. Let us move on, the color of one’s skin is irrelevant be it, black, white, brown, yellow, or red. What would happen to a White Student Union? What would come of a Congressional White Caucus? Black is not a synonym for diverse, it is a label of racism. We are all people, instead of screaming persecution, and gathering in groups emphasizing differences in skin color, we should stop supporting organizations that maintain racism..
- Edge Casey
Parking Complaints Remain Unresolved
I know that everyone complains about the parking. The thing that bothers me most is that Cal is not even taking care of the faculty and staff, as demonstrated by the proposition to make them pay for parking - essentially a pay cut. I think it is bad enough that they are screwing all of the students but to screw your staff too? Where is the loyalty? I know that up until this year I have recommended Cal: It was a cheap place to get a good education. I enjoy most of the professors and I had few complaints about them. This whole parking crisis has changed my opinion. I now tell people not to come here because Cal does not care about its students or its staff. If we cannot change their mind about the parking situation then at least give us an effective way to express our opinions. Many students drive straight from class to work. Not having enough available parking on campus forces us to take unpredictable busses. This makes those who drive straight to work not be able to reliably get there when they did before. And then we have to change our work availability. Because of the need to change work availability, people have to stay later at work to make up the time and then have less time to do their homework. This is causing us undue stress and makes students unhappy, unhappy enough to tell prospective students not to come here.
-Sammie Happlie
October 27, 2009
Serenity Paved, Progress Forced
There are a lot of things at Cal that bother me, but this issue hits an emotional core. Cal’s campus has never been one of great character in nature of the constant renovations and construction. Regardless of how useful or not useful the Natali Student Center, New Duda, and the future convocation may be, they lack a quality that is at best intangible. The quality that they lack is a quality that can be found on campuses of Ivy League schools, old buildings, and old houses. A certain ambiance, or “feel” to them, a certain character that builds up in a place after years. It’s a quality that tells you much about the history of a place just by entering its space. This is not a “useful” quality, per say. And old buildings are inefficient, their electrical circuitry is worn, the pipes are made of lead, the floors creak. Old main, for example, has a bit of it. The president’s office used to be the library, and if you walk up the wooden staircase with wooden banister, the floor is shifting slightly to one side. Old main, in contrast to much of the rest of Cal, HAS character of a sort. Meanwhile, in New Duda, professors get flustered with the “new tech” designs, which include a giant glass wall not nearly as heat efficient as it could be, and poor design of the light fixtures that gets in the way of seeing the projector. Why geeze, it’s not like we NEED to see what the professors are choosing to put up, right? It’s not as though this is a school, and that’s why (I) we’re here, to learn. This concept of progress is damaging. In the rush for newer and better things, we lose character, we lose opportunities to learn, we forget that we are a university and instead become a four year degree institution, a four year track to a greater aim of money, and more progress. It’s a cyclical progress that in the end leaves me dizzy and feeling a bit cheated out of what I want in life. To the point that spurred this article: Cal, in an attempt to address the atrocious parking condition they have created, is increasing the size of the river lot. To do this, they expanded beyond what was the leveled, paved surface of the campus. They cut down a ton of trees and are in the process of building a retaining wall along the river past Eberly. I’m not a crazy tree hugger crying about some trees. I’m upset because there is a little spot by the river nestled behind the train tracks just down from the California Public Library. This spot includes a bench, a fire pit, a swinging rope, and a lot of memories. It used to be a place where I could escape from Cal’s oppressively progressive feeling and just relax or be with my friends, some of whom have since graduated. There was a path that lead into the woods, where a spot was bare by the river. If you ignored the giant pipe where California Borough used to dump sewage into the Monongahela, you could peacefully sit in a solitary place, and watch the leaves float down the river, or the snow accumulate, or hear the cicadas shrilling in the warm evening air. Guess what Cal? You paved away my solitude. Again. Nobody asked me, or any other students, if this was okay, though I’m not sure we could have stopped it, just as the Billiards Club couldn’t stop Cal from taking away half of their space, THEIR solitude (although, of course, Cal Times writes how happy the Billiards club is now).
Once again I feel confronted by a school that just doesn’t get it. It’s not going to stop, there will be a maglev, a river amphitheater, and plenty more attractions to win California University awards (like the best kept lawn award), and get California University money, and increase California University’s enrollment. All the while people like me sit quietly in the background. So here’s a question: Do YOU think Cal has Character? Do YOU feel disgusted by the constant renovations? And more importantly, are there any places that YOU would be upset losing? If there are, you had better get a voice, because they might be gone tomorrow, renovated for a more efficient, more progressive, more productive California University.
-Lizzy D. Ira
Gold Rush Café Plus: brilliant Option?
Price of admission into Gold Rush $8.50
Price of new ‘Café Plus’ Average of $7.00
Knowing your getting a healthy meal with high quality ingredients = priceless (15.50)
I’ll just get right to the point. WTFx up with ‘Café Plus’? The new scheme of AVI to rip you off. Café Plus is the idea that you can pay to get into the Gold Rush and then pay more to upgrade to better food. That’s all well and good, but shouldn’t better food be standard??
We shouldn’t have to pay to upgrade to better food options. It should be standard. We pay enough!
-Matilda Jeffries
Breaking Student Unity (BSU)
The Black Student Union has as its mission, “Building Student Unity,” though by its sheer existence it does quite the opposite. The BSU states according to its website it is dedicated to the “simulation and development of cultural diversity.” Membership is open to all students, this is made quite clear; however, on the executive board of the BSU there is not one white student. The link on the BSU web page to other student organizations is simply entitled, “Other Minority Clubs.” A group designed to include all students under the umbrella term of “minority?” The club is an agent of inequality and it does not exist to build student unity. The black flag that the BSU displayed at the organizational faire even had depicted a red line drawing of Africa, and a fist rising up therein. This is a provocation, a symbol, and a threat. This problem extends far beyond this campus; it is in fact a nationwide calamity. BET, the NAACP, and the CBC come immediately to mind. I cannot think of any television station more able to cement negative stereotypes about black people than “Black Entertainment Television.” How can one summon support under the banner of equality, and focus on the “advancement of colored people,” and not of all people? The society in which we live is struggling to break free from a racial dichotomy that is outdated, and hijacked to meet a divisive agenda. Celebrating difference and embracing the visible distinction of skin color, then labeling it “cultural diversity” is not going to bring equality. If only people would recognize that all too famous proclamation about the conduct of one’s character, rather than the color of one’s skin. The current manifestations of social “equality” movements are an example of racism, the same racism they sought to fight originally. I would call for all people, regardless of color, to shed the label of race. Let us move on, the color of one’s skin is irrelevant be it, black, white, brown, yellow, or red. What would happen to a White Student Union? What would come of a Congressional White Caucus? Black is not a synonym for diverse, it is a label of racism. We are all people, instead of screaming persecution, and gathering in groups emphasizing differences in skin color, we should stop supporting organizations that maintain racism..
- Edge Casey
Parking Complaints Remain Unresolved
I know that everyone complains about the parking. The thing that bothers me most is that Cal is not even taking care of the faculty and staff, as demonstrated by the proposition to make them pay for parking - essentially a pay cut. I think it is bad enough that they are screwing all of the students but to screw your staff too? Where is the loyalty? I know that up until this year I have recommended Cal: It was a cheap place to get a good education. I enjoy most of the professors and I had few complaints about them. This whole parking crisis has changed my opinion. I now tell people not to come here because Cal does not care about its students or its staff. If we cannot change their mind about the parking situation then at least give us an effective way to express our opinions. Many students drive straight from class to work. Not having enough available parking on campus forces us to take unpredictable busses. This makes those who drive straight to work not be able to reliably get there when they did before. And then we have to change our work availability. Because of the need to change work availability, people have to stay later at work to make up the time and then have less time to do their homework. This is causing us undue stress and makes students unhappy, unhappy enough to tell prospective students not to come here.
-Sammie Happlie
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