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PHOTOS BY JOE JOHNSTON

From Bell Covers to Virtual Rehearsals, Mustang Band Adapts to COVID-19

Oct 20, 2020


WRITTEN BY ROBYN KONTRA TANNER

Cal Poly kicked off the new academic year with commonsense adaptations to the coronavirus pandemic: a hybrid learning plan, postponed athletics competitions, and virtual events, among many other changes.

Preschool student Edro sits in front of a laptop during one of the Preschool Learning Lab's virtual sessions. Courtesy of Peggy Osborn
PHOTOS BY JOE JOHNSTON

But a quieter campus doesn’t mean school spirit is gone.

Even without the usual fall fanfare, the university’s largest and loudest league of supporters, Mustang Band, plays on — thanks to some creative modifications.

“Our leadership team has put in hundreds of hours of work to develop a plan that allows Mustang Band to meet in-person safely and continue to grow musically,” says Nick Waldron, Mustang Band director.

The band, which has more than 210 members, only learned they would be able to meet in person a few weeks before classes began.

In order to practice together, they split into six sub-groups: four with equal instrumentation of brass and woodwinds, one featuring drumline and one with colorguard performers.

These mini-bands, which practice both musical pieces and marching in formation, rotate between outdoor rehearsal spaces multiple times a week.

In any other year, the musicians bond during band camp in September, an intense week of instruction and rehearsal to prepare for fall sports and campus events. Without the typical fall schedule, band members have doubled down on efforts to welcome new Mustangs into the musical and social fold.

“Our biggest opportunity to foster community within the band happens during band camp, and I think a lot of our success depends on our community itself,” says Madi Glozer, Mustang Band’s chief executive officer and a fourth-year tuba player. “What we’re doing now acts as those first couple days of band camp spread over a few weeks.”

After the first week of rotating rehearsals, the band’s associate executive director Katherine Hanson says the magic was still there.

“It still felt like band, and I wasn’t sure that it was going to with all the changes this year,” said the third-year clarinet player and political science major. “But it still felt like this energy was there.”

The group takes necessary precautions during rehearsals: musicians maintain strict physical distancing; MERV-13 filtration material now adorns bell covers; and members wear special face coverings fitted with a small, closable hole that allows for the mouthpiece of their instrument. The band also has a detailed COVID-19 testing plan that screens members multiple times throughout the quarter via Campus Health and Wellbeing. The core leadership team of staff and students is tested weekly because they have more contact with the rotating mini-bands.

“We just had the first opportunity to play together, and I was living for it because I’ve been anticipating it for so long,” exclaims Glozer. “I think that’s my favorite thing about Mustang Band — I just love playing the music.

“Having an opportunity finally to do it safely and be in a group and play together has been the biggest thing pushing me through all of this.”

While on-campus rehearsals press on, dozens of band members participate virtually via Zoom. During music rehearsals, Hanson says she sets up her laptop near conductor Nick Waldron to ensure everyone practicing remotely can see and hear the instruction. Virtual players mute themselves to avoid any lag in the video feed, but can hear the rest of the band.

On the other side of Hanson’s screen are student musicians like Tomy Stankiewicz, who plays trumpet from his home the Bay Area. Now in his third year with Mustang Band, the architecture student is used to a packed fall schedule with six hours of weekly rehearsal on top of 12-hour Saturdays supporting home football games. At home, he has one hour of structured rehearsal per week with a lot more independent practice. The extra time means he can delve into a wealth of video and written guides the band’s drum majors crafted to keep technique sharp.

“I feel like I’m more eager to play at home,” says Stankiewicz. “I’m not in the middle of 50 other trumpets, so I can hear myself when I practice.”

Though Stankiewicz isn’t physically with the rest of the band, he still makes time to mentor new members of the brass section.

“I’m an upperclassman so I answer questions from the freshmen who are virtual,” he says. “They have questions about warmups or specific things that we do within our alma mater and fight songs.”

After rehearsals, members of the band find ways to connect and have fun. Stankiewicz says he stays motivated because his closest friends are playing with him, even if it’s from afar.

“We have this culture of hosting socials between sections or just band itself,” he says. “Trumpets get together, or we have a whole band movie night, or just a game night led by our music fraternity. I think that just comes with the community with band.”

Still, leaders of the band can’t help but think about what it will be like to have everyone back together and playing at full volume for the campus community. Conductor Nick Waldron says imagining that moment has helped him stay optimistic since March.

“When that moment comes for our first performance, I will be the proudest person at Cal Poly,” Waldron says. “So much of what we do in music is delayed gratification already — countless hours of practice for one moment — so all this feels like one big delay to a great performance.”

Story originally appeared in Cal Poly News

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Preschool student Edro sits in front of a laptop during one of the Preschool Learning Lab's virtual sessions. Courtesy of Peggy Osborn

'An Incredible Experience for the Children.' How the Preschool Learning Lab Went Virtual

Oct 20, 2020


An update from Preschool Learning Lab Director Patty Clarkson:

The Lab reopened Fall quarter with a group of Lab families to form a small, consistent cohort. The children (and parents) are so happy to be back at preschool!  We have implemented the most efficient COVID-19 protocols and practices within our daily routine and the children and staff are adapting well to this new way of being together safely.  We have exceeded our state licensing recommendations and have been recognized as a model program for our area by our licensing office.

The CD 230 lab course, which ordinarily participates in-person in the Learning Lab activities, is being held virtually. College students periodically participate in "live" circle time with the children via zoom and students also contribute to our Learning Lab Google classroom where we share photos, videos, and resources for preschoolers and families. In addition, students have the opportunity to discuss real-time pandemic impacts as it relates to children and families during our weekly synchronous lecture times. The Lab is currently developing our own video library of best practices to be used for this class!

ORIGINAL STORY

WRITTEN BY GABBY FERREIRA

When the coronavirus pandemic necessitated a switch to online learning, the staff at the Preschool Learning Lab thought long and hard about how to keep the program going.

Preschool student Edro sits in front of a laptop during one of the Preschool Learning Lab's virtual sessions. Courtesy of Peggy Osborn
Preschool student Edro sits in front of a laptop during one of the
Preschool Learning Lab's virtual sessions. Courtesy of Peggy Osborn

The Preschool Learning Lab, which is part of the Psychology and Child Development department, is a functioning preschool and part of a lab class for students in the child development major.

The staff decided to move the preschool online, hoping to facilitate the Child Development Preschool Lab course (CD230) as well as provide structure for the preschool-age children and their families, whom the staff had built relationships with since the fall.

“We wanted to make sure our CD230 students could have access to the children and the families could participate and maintain relationships during the shelter-in-place order,” said Patty Clarkson, director of the Preschool Learning Lab. “We didn’t have a framework for offering a fully-online preschool program because preschool is based on in-person relationships and hands-on activities. However, we knew that our preschool families wanted to stay connected and wanted their children to be engaged in learning activities.”

The Preschool Lab’s team surveyed families and asked them about their needs and timeframes, using those responses as a guideline.

“We wanted to emulate the foundational building blocks of our day as much as we could,” Clarkson said.

Clarkson and the preschool’s two full-time teachers, Kari Applegate and Shondrela Braggs-Jones, came up with a plan: a virtual group meeting every morning, along with music and movement time, which lasted about 30 minutes to an hour.

In the afternoons, they hosted half-hour Zoom sessions where they would read to the kids from a chapter book before their rest time.

“These two daily activities gave the children a sense of normalcy and routine, during which they could connect with their teachers, see their classmates and continue their explorative learning through daily challenges and activities,” Clarkson said.

None of the Zoom sessions were required for the preschool children, and were meant to act as a structure that they and their families could take advantage of as needed.

Applegate brought some of the items from the preschool, such as a whiteboard that they wrote their daily agenda on, to her house to mimic the school setting.

“Parents told me, ‘Once we saw the agenda board, we felt like everything was okay, that there was a sense of normalcy,’” Applegate said.

The teachers also offered one-on-one sessions to children and families.

“Some kids get overwhelmed by so many people on a Zoom call, and some families have limited screen time expectations, so the children could make virtual appointments with us individually,” Clarkson said. “The children were free to just hang out with their teacher and have us along with whatever they were doing in that time frame.”

Applegate and Braggs-Jones also offered the children “challenges” to complete between classes, which included things like exploring outside to identify creatures or plants around their homes, or drawing a family portrait.

The next day, the kids would then take turns sharing their work with the whole group.

“We were thoughtful about doing things that didn’t require a lot of material or things parents would have to work to gather,” Applegate said. “It was however they wanted to do it; it was flexible. It was okay to not have the work done, we just appreciated that everyone was feeling connected.”

The virtual setting also had an unexpected benefit for the college students who would usually be interacting with the children and staff in person, as they were able to participate in the Zoom sessions and then debrief with staff afterward, Applegate said.

“It was a neat experience to get to know the college students better,” Applegate said. “By the end of the Zoom quarter, they were helping us with the challenges and got to be part of that process.”

Peggy Osborn, whose grandson, Edro, attended the preschool this past year, said she was impressed with how the preschool handled the move to a virtual environment.

“As a retired teacher, I thought, ‘How is this ever going to work?’” Osborn said. “I can’t praise the Learning Lab enough. It’s been an incredible experience for the children, every morning they got to see each other and every afternoon they got to see each other.”

Edro adjusted well to Zoom, and it was an “amazing experience” for the both of them, Osborn said.

“He doesn’t always have the best time with changes, but he was okay,” she said. “He did well. I’m proud of him.”

Osborn added that she didn’t think the virtual preschool would have been nearly as successful if it weren’t for the caliber and dedication of Clarkson, Applegate and Braggs-Jones.

“They are remarkable teachers and they are so kind and gentle with these children,” Osborn said.

Anna Brannen’s daughter, Evelyn, thrived in the virtual learning environment.

Originally, she attended the Zoom sessions twice a week, but soon asked to go every day.

“It offered the kids a lot of social time. They got to talk to each other and see each other, and it gave Evelyn a lot of structure,” Brannen said.

She added that she noticed her daughter’s artistic side coming out during the challenges as well.

“Everything was built upon the skills she had,” Brannen said. “It brought out a lot of creativity in her and brought out a lot of questions. She really thrived in this type of environment, which I wasn’t expecting.”

Brannen was also complimentary of the preschool’s staff and the college students.

“Their lives got uprooted as well but they really took the time to make sure every day had a plan, a follow-up plan for homework, and they showed up how you would expect them to at school,” Brannen said. “I don’t even know how to verbalize how much it helped us get through the last three months.”

Story originally appeared in Cal Poly News

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Christine Lam

Q&A With President of CLA Ambassadors Christine Lam

Oct 6, 2020


Christine Lam
Christine Lam

By Sophia Lincoln

Christine Lam is a political science senior at Cal Poly's College of Liberal Arts and she is the new president for College of Liberal Arts (CLA) Ambassadors, a group of CLA students involved in outreach and leadership within the college. Lam was also the Cal Poly representative to the Panetta Congressional Internship in 2019.

Question: What responsibilities do you have as the president of CLA Ambassadors?

Christine: As the president of CLA Ambassadors, I kind of run the day-to-day operations of everything just making sure that everything that we need to do – so specifically, the information sessions every week – is running smoothly. With the virtual format, of course a lot of things are different, but we still need to hold information sessions. So that includes training our new ambassadors, working alongside [Cal Poly] Admissions to make sure that there is an information session every week, coordinating with ambassadors and now, I am also trying to do a lot of new things within the programs, [including] creating a new position for diversity, equity and inclusion and also mentorship within the program itself.

Editor’s note: Information Sessions are for prospective students to learn more about Cal Poly and the college. They were typically on campus, but this year are happening virtually.

Question: What types of initiatives is CLA Ambassadors in charge of as a whole?

Christine: We are the public face of the College of Liberal Arts so, anything that the university is involved with in a public aspect usually we will have student ambassadors represent the college in certain aspects. So, during Open House we have a booth that represents College of Liberal Arts Ambassadors. A lot of times, if the College of Liberal Arts has some sort of panel – whether it’s for the new Dean Advisory Council – usually ambassadors get [asked to join the panel], especially with public relations roles; if anyone who is interested in CLA or has questions about it, they will often reach out to us and we will direct them to the appropriate party.

Question: How and why did you become involved in CLA Ambassadors?

Christine: I kind of just fell into it. I think I got an email one about [recruiting CLA Ambassadors] and I was like okay, why not. I don’t want to be like I didn’t take it seriously at first, but I didn’t take it seriously at first. I was just like, oh it’s just a good way to get involved, but then I really started liking it. Talking to people who were once in my position, I know that my college application journey I didn’t get to tour colleges, I didn’t get to talk to people who went to the college and I wish that I did. The more that I got involved and the more things that CLA did for me outside of CLA Ambassadors, I kind of became passionate about sharing my experiences and what the college has done for me so that [prospective students] can come and have the same opportunities I did.

Question: What has CLA and CLA Ambassadors done for you that has enhanced your experience at Cal Poly?

Christine: [I gained] a lot of public speaking skills. I [previously] thought that I was a good public speaker but nothing compares to that experience of being asked on the spot about a question that is kind of difficult, like the diversity issues at Cal Poly; you can’t really just pull out your phone and [look up] what I should say, it’s the on-the-spot thinking that really helped me and I think that that really helped like specifically for me the biggest part was when I did the Panetta Congressional Internship where I had to interview with the Secretary of Panetta Institute and that experience working in CLA Ambassadors really helped prepare me for that because the questions were really difficult, but definitely the experience from CLA Ambassadors helped me a lot there.

Question: What are your goals for this year as the president of CLA Ambassadors?

Christine: I think the goal is just to maintain the integrity and as much of what we had last year as possible. Obviously, we’re not going to have as [many] community outreach events and events in the dorms as well – I don’t think we are going to have any this year, but just being able to engage with the first-years, build a community and also build the relationships within our organization -- making the CLA a stronger and tighter-knit community are definitely some goals that I have.

Question: Where do you see CLA Ambassadors going in the future?

Christine: I really hope that, because one of my best friends is the president of COSAM Ambassadors, I hope that there [will be] more blending and interaction with the other ambassador groups. I do think that there is a great potential for collaboration and reaching across colleges to learn from each other more, since I know that a lot of times when people come to our information sessions, they are interested in minors and other colleges and I feel like that engagement can really help. For the future, I hope that [CLA Ambassadors] gets bigger. I hope that the mentorship program that is still in early stages lasts and also creating an alumni network that can double for CLA Ambassadors and the college itself.

Question: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Christine: I couldn’t do any of it without my amazing executive team and members who are always being super accommodating for the virtual environment.

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Kim Bisheff

Ask an Expert: What Makes Online Misinformation So Dangerous — And Shareable?

Sep 29, 2020


WRITTEN BY GABBY FERREIRA

A pandemic, natural disasters and widespread protests are all happening across the country right now, and a significant epidemic of misinformation is exacerbating the chaos.

Kim Bisheff
Kim Bisheff is a lecturer in Cal Poly's Journalism Department
and an expert in how misinformation spreads online.

Unequivocally false claims have been swirling across the internet — that antifa protesters are being bussed into towns ahead of protests to loot, that hydroxychloroquine is a cure for the coronavirus — and in many cases, the sheer number of people who believe them and spread the misinformation only serve to more deeply fracture our shared perceptions of truth and reality.

Cal Poly News sat down with Kim Bisheff, a lecturer in Cal Poly’s Journalism Department and an expert in how misinformation spreads online, for a chat about what we face, why it’s harmful — and what we can do about it.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What is misinformation? What counts as misinformation on a social network like Facebook or Instagram?

It’s a really tricky term to define these days because it’s being thrown around so much, but in a general sense, misinformation is false information that is pushed out to the public with the intent to deceive.

Generally, misinformation is designed to tap into our emotional reactions: fear and anger, most frequently. We humans have this design flaw where, when we experience strong emotions —especially fear and anger — or in some cases, that feeling of validation that comes with having your opinions restated in an inflammatory way, we tend to react to that information without giving it much critical thought.

On social media, that means liking things, retweeting, “hearting,” commenting, interacting in any of those ways. When we do that, we amplify that message in a way that in the olden, pre-social media days we didn’t have the power to do.

A lot of that content is political. A lot of it is, these days, COVID-19 related.

Here’s an example: a lot of the misinformation around the pandemic is about miracle cures, like gargling with bleach or the whole hydroxychloroquine thing.

When that came out, it tapped into this really strong fear that people had, and in a vacuum of concrete information, they just ran with it. People, even very bright people, were getting hydroxychloroquine and taking it prophylactically even though there has never been any definitive evidence that it’s helpful. Of course, eventually it was shown that not only does it not help, but it can be very harmful.

But in that interim, and even still now, there are memes out there, there are narratives that are being passed on by people who are looking for a solution to this big scary thing that’s out there. They’re going to grab on to any possible solution they can find.

Another example of misinformation is texts and Facebook posts about antifa being bussed into SLO in advance of protests. That exact rumor is playing out in cities all over the country with almost the exact wording every time.

Those messages were designed to cause a fear reaction and be spread around. Locally, that led to shop owners being fearful and boarding up their stores, which had a negative emotional impact on a lot of community members. That’s an example of misinformation that spreads with absolute intent to deceive and to cause uncertainty.

Those repeated messages are super powerful because the more we’re exposed to false information, the more likely we are to accept it as true information.

How does misinformation spread? How does misinformation find a footing in an audience?

It taps into emotional triggers.

We’re already on heightened alert, at really high levels right now, and then we see something that seems to legitimize that fear. We share it, we spread it, we send it to friends because we’re worried about them.

We have this feeling of having insider information because it came to us from a friend of a friend. Once someone we know is attached to that piece of misinformation, then it lends it this legitimacy that shuts down our critical thinking even more. So, it continues to spread and spread and spread.

The interesting thing about something like that is once a piece of misinformation has been debunked, the truth really doesn’t spread.

False information spreads much faster than true information, and that includes misinformation that’s been debunked or corrected. Once this thing has gone out there, it’s really hard to contain again.

That has to do with human nature. The emotions that are involved in debunking are less satisfying than the emotions that are involved in legitimizing our fear and anger.

There can also be a little bit of embarrassment, especially if we realize that we ourselves were suckered into believing something that was false. We consider ourselves intelligent beings and we shouldn’t fall for that stuff. It’s embarrassing! We maybe quietly think, “Oh that wasn’t right,” and we move on. Whereas when we experience the more negative emotions that are triggered by scary content, just as humans, we feel a greater urge to put it out there.

Because of the nature of viral information, it spreads quickly and in a way that causes us humans to adopt beliefs. Developing a belief is much easier than tearing down that belief because of evidence to the contrary.

When you’re dealing with people you respect and love and they’ve consumed really well-produced convincing misinformation, like that Plandemic hoax video, and they absolutely believe it, it’s just heartbreaking. It’s so hard to have those conversations. It’s so hard to convince them that it’s not something they should put any faith in. It’s challenging.

How do you confront a loved one about misinformation that they truly believe, or have shared on social media?

What I’ve learned is that first of all, it’s a very, very, very difficult task.

Secondly, once someone has adopted a belief, if you simply present them with facts contrary to that belief, you’re not going to change their mind. They’re more likely to just dig in. The best way to start to change someone’s mind is to find common ground.

In the case of the Plandemic video, for example, you could say something like this:

“Wow, I saw that video. It’s really convincing. When I first saw it, I thought, ‘I can see how this makes so much sense.’ I was curious about the woman who was interviewed, so I Googled, and look what I found. What do you think about this?”

When we bring them on that journey of discovery together, it takes the shame and accusation away and makes it more likely that they’ll be receptive to the possibility that their first interpretation was wrong.

It’s really key to make it clear this is a person I love and respect and I’m not telling you you’re stupid or wrong. I want to go on this intellectual journey with you. Let’s do this together.

What are the consequences of misinformation? How do we see misinformation impact people both on social media and then in the real world?

I am very concerned that if Americans continue to look at their social media feeds to find out about current events and how the world works, and if they continue to turn away from legitimate sources of news and science information, then when election time comes, we’re going to make some really bad decisions.

It sounds like conspiracy, but there are plenty of people who would like to see the downfall of our democracy.

Part of that game plan is taking advantage of our tendency to react to inflammatory content by spreading it through social networks. We all need to inoculate ourselves against that by being aware that this is a problem that exists.

We need to think critically whenever we are confronted by those scary emotions because of something we saw or read. Of course, in the pandemic era it’s really hard to do that because everything we see is scary.

When I give talks, one thing I’ve started to tell people is they need to do some social media distancing.

I would never tell anyone to stop consuming social media because that’s a fool’s errand, but it shouldn’t be the place where we go to find out about what’s happening in the world. It should be the place where we go to find joy and share pictures of our families, beautiful hikes we’re taking, and anything that makes us feel positive emotions.

If there’s anything that makes us feel a negative emotion that we consume, especially on social media, we just need to stop and take a breath and put on our critical thinking brain and at the very least, don’t react to it on social media.

If we just stop sharing it, this problem goes away.

How should people judge for themselves whether they’re looking at a credible news source?

Mark Zuckerberg is not going to save us, we gotta do this on our own. [Laughs].

When we’re deciding what’s a credible news source, one thing we should look for is whether the stories have bylines. We should then look up the people who have published that information, and look them up across their social channels and see: do they have a journalism background, do they have an advocacy background, who are they?

We need to improve our ability to tell the difference between fact-based writing and opinion writing. That’s a big problem.

Opinion pieces tend to generate a bigger emotional response, so in the digital world those individual stories are more likely to get shared and spread. As readers, we tend to be pretty bad at telling the difference between opinion and news when it’s not clearly labeled in a separate section in a newspaper.

Another thing to look for is attribution. Responsible, professional journalism attributes its statements to credible sources. Every statement should have clear attribution that helps us understand exactly where the reporter got that information. The word “said” is all over every professional news story. When we’re reading casually, we don’t even notice that word, but if you start looking for it intentionally, you’ll see after that “said” is a source that we can look up independently and verify.

We want our information attributed to primary sources. That means, for example, if it’s something that has to do with a real estate development, then we want to make sure the reporter is talking to the development director and not a random neighbor who’s angry about the impact that development may or may not have on their property value. Reporters do include opinion statements from the general public, but those statements are lower in the story and serve a different purpose. We want our facts to be confirmed by primary sources.

The News Literacy Project has fantastic resources for educators and for anyone who wants to improve their news literacy skills. They just launched a podcast called, “Is that a fact?”

Another good resource is MediaWise, a program through the Poynter Institute that’s geared toward empowering people to become better consumers of information. Their free, online fact-checking course for first-time voters goes live in October.

Could you give any examples of misinformation that spread on social media that bled into the real world?

The “Pizzagate” rumor is the most notorious example.

Students Use Graphic Communication Skills To Promote COVID Safety Measures

Sign of the Times: Students Use Graphic Communication Skills To Promote COVID Safety Measures

Sep 29, 2020


WRITTEN BY GABBY FERREIRA | PHOTOS BY JOE JOHNSTON

As the coronavirus pandemic progressed during the spring quarter, Facilities Operations executive director Jude Fledderman started thinking about posting signs on campus to help people safely navigate Cal Poly in the age of COVID-19.

University Graphic Systems
Michaela Kwan, left, and Chris Jones work with the die cut
machine at the Cal Poly Printing Press.

Meanwhile, University Graphic Systems, the Graphic Communication department’s student-run printing and design operation, was brainstorming how to keep their business running during the pandemic.

“I knew Facilities was looking to get these signs printed quickly and we have the equipment and capacity to produce them,” said Colleen Twomey, chair of the Graphic Communication department. “It was serendipitous.”

Since July, the students who primarily operate UGS have been making the signs, which show people how to get around campus buildings while maintaining social distance, among other things.

“The UGS folks were extremely positive in taking this challenge on and working through the details,” Fledderman said. “This is not something they expected to do, but they took it on and delivered.”

The student managers on the UGS team, who were mostly trained on their duties via Zoom during the spring quarter, knew this year would be different. But the sign project hammered home the new normal of adapting a business to serve customers in pandemic conditions.

“The students’ responsibility is to run the company, and typically there is plenty of business throughout the year. This year they have had a big challenge due to COVID-19, and they really have to pivot and be agile,” Twomey said. “I’m extremely proud of these students.”

The students, along with Graphic Communication electromechanical technician Peter Schlosser and adviser Dina Vees, are figuring out how to move forward and expand their skills during this unprecedented time while also fulfilling their UGS duties. Vees helped create a digital storefront, where UGS’s customers can place orders online, helping to streamline operations.

University Graphic Systems
Kinsey Mangan checks delivery confirmation for COVID signs
as she and other student employees print signage to be used
in buildings on campus during the coronavirus pandemic.

The team has also learned how to use different kinds of machinery in the shop, which is useful not only for printing signs but also for future products. They’ve also created a San Luis Obispo-themed kit of products, including buttons, stickers, a mug and a T-shirt, to help new students this fall feel more connected to the area as remote learning continues.

“You don’t get any deeper, hands-on learning than you do in UGS,” said Stephanie Tang, UGS’s specialty printing manager, and a fourth-year Graphic Communication major. “As managers, we have so many responsibilities and we have to learn how to use and utilize the machinery effectively.”

“It’s a lot. It’s uncharted territory for sure,” said UGS general manager Chris Jones, also a fourth-year Graphic Communication major. “Because of the pandemic and this need for signage, we now use it and incorporate it into our services. We now have all these new machines that are now within our capability of using and it’s honestly fantastic.”

The experience has also made the students more confident in their abilities.

“Being able to run a machine by yourself and know what you’re doing is a pretty cool feeling,” said Elise Monroe, account manager and third-year Graphic Communication student.

Working in UGS is “the epitome of Learn by Doing,” Jones said, and while part of the Learn by Doing experience in UGS involves making mistakes and learning from them, the student managers all said putting out quality work is their highest priority.

“Although we do make mistakes and we learn through our mistakes, we’re still a company that holds quality as one of its highest standards,” Monroe said. “It’s being able to make those mistakes but then being able to fix it as properly as we can and having that clear-cut final product, that’s ultimately what we’re striving for and what UGS tries to do with all of its projects.”

“UGS is definitely a privilege,” said project manager Kinsey Mangan, a fourth-year Graphic Communication student. “These are the kinds of things it seems like employers want to know about and I think we have a team that really takes that seriously.”

The UGS students aren’t the only students working on the pandemic-appropriate signage: a team of student workers in Facilities is installing the signs, according to Fledderman and Paul Fleischer, a planner, estimator and scheduler in Facilities Operations.

The UGS team all said they were excited to take part in making the signs, and had sent videos of the process to their families, shown the signs off to their roommates, and found other ways to take pride in their work.

“I went on a run on a Friday after getting off my shift working on the floor signage, and I ran by Baker and the signs were up,” Mangan said. “That was the first time I had seen them on the building and it was super exciting to see that this is something that everyone on campus is going to see and I had a part in doing it.”

Story originally appeared in Cal Poly News

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Diana Stanton

CLA Professor Diana Stanton Awarded Distinguished Scholarship Award

Sep 21, 2020


By Sophia Lincoln

Cal Poly Dance Professor Diana Stanton, who has worked on various dance films and collaborative student projects, has received a Distinguished Scholarship Award for the 2019-20 year.

Diana Stanton
Diana Stanton

Granted by the Academic Senate, the award recognizes achievement in scholarship and creative activity by exemplary and accomplished faculty.

Stanton’s work includes research of what she calls “kinesthetic intelligence,” which refers to the human ability to learn and process life through movement.

“Movement and dance are innate to who we are as a whole person,” Stanton said. “My hope is that people recognize the importance of movement.”

According to Stanton, kinesthetic intelligence is applicable to all different majors and fields of study.

“[The Theatre and Dance Department has] had a lot of students that integrate their studies with dance,” Stanton said. “We have people that do choreography pieces relating to aerospace ideas and we even had one student, who is a doctor now, do her whole senior thesis about a bacteria.”

Stanton’s work is also very collaborative among the different colleges at Cal Poly, and she has led workshops for various majors including one for first-year architecture students to experience some of their concepts in a kinesthetic format.

While many students have used the dance minor to further their own respective studies, Stanton also believes that dance itself can be an essential aspect of life.

“I don’t want to diminish dance as an ancillary or supportive role in these things, but really as an integral way in how we think, how we feel and how we process.”

Stanton has also been recognized at national film festivals for her dance pieces “State of Grace,” which portrayed the different stages of women’s lives, and “Breaking Bread,” which was recognized at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival and depicted the dynamics of family dinner.

Stanton is very grateful for this recognition from the Academic Senate for the dance program and her work.

“What I am thrilled about is that dance is being recognized in academia,” Stanton said. “I have tremendous gratitude and thanks for those that bestowed this upon me to see the importance of what we do.”

She would also like to recognize her students who participated in her work.

“This scholarship was not done alone, the work of the students has been critical in the research and activity we do as artists,” Stanton said. “The students have experimented, stretched their comfort zones, they have been vulnerable and honest, and most of all passionate about movement exploration.”

Stanton also hopes that this recognition may bring to light the importance of the dance program as a whole.

“I hope it brings our program recognition that is collaborative and included in all of the other disciplines,” Stanton said.

Stanton, along with other awardees Scott Hazelwood and Foaad Khosmood from the College of Engineering, received a $2,000 award and were formally honored during fall convocation.

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America Romero

Psychology Senior America Romero Awarded Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Aimed at Preparing Future CSU Faculty

Sep 21, 2020


By Sophia Lincoln

Psychology senior America Romero is one of two Cal Poly students who have been selected as pre-doctoral fellows through the California State University's (CSU) Sally Casanova Scholars Program.

America Romero
America Romero

The program features one-on-one guidance provided by a faculty member from the student’s respective college and may include participation in research, visits to doctoral-granting institutions and travel to a national symposium or professional meeting and related activities, according to their site.

Romero will work alongside faculty advisor Kelly Bennion, an assistant professor in the Psychology and Child Development Department.

“I think the reason [Romero] designated me as her faculty mentor is because [she] has been working with me for about a year in my research lab and also her interests happen to be very similar to mine,” Bennion said. “So, I was extremely excited when she told me she wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and specifically that she wanted to study memory because that is my area of expertise as well.”

Romero has worked with Bennion before both through the BEACoN Mentoring program and as a lead research assistant in Bennion’s lab.

“Not only does she collect data on memory studies and enter the data and analyze it, but I also lean on her to help communicate with my other research assistants so that she can help organize, or manage, my lab,” Bennion said.

Romero will continue working in Bennion’s lab for the 2020-21 academic year where she may conduct her own experiment for her senior project and also gain guidance from Bennion as her designated faculty mentor for the program.

Additionally in the fall, Romero will have the opportunity to help present her and Bennion’s findings at virtual conferences. Bennion also hopes to help Romero find and apply to a doctoral program that matches her interests and perhaps help her find a lab to work in over the summer.

“Ultimately, I would also really like to just continue to mentor America in just professional development even after she graduates,” Bennion said.

Romero is interested in pursuing a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience and plans to use her fellowship to learn more about different doctoral programs, to become more involved in the research aspects of her doctoral aspirations and to obtain financial support for application fees.

“America is extremely impressive,” Bennion said. “I very rarely have a student who does so much external research to figure out everything she needs to know not only about Ph.D. programs and grad school but also opportunities like the Sally Casanova Scholarship.”

Romero is also involved as a Scholar Mentor in the Cal Poly Scholar’s Program and has spoken on several panels for the Psychology and Child Development Department.

“I’m really grateful for this opportunity and to be able to continue the mentor-mentee relationship with Dr. Bennion,” Romero said. “I am a [first-generation] student so, to me, all of this is unchartered territory. It’s super helpful to have someone as incredibly helpful as she is to guide me through the process.”

The Sally Casanova Scholars Program aims to support the doctoral aspirations of CSU students who have faced economic or educational disadvantages. The program is intended for students who are interested in becoming CSU faculty members after achieving their degrees.

“As a first-gen, Latinx student it is hard navigating higher education, so it’s been super exciting that I have this opportunity,” Romero said.

Graduate student Ashlee Hernandez from Cal Poly’s School of Education’s Higher Education Counseling and Student Affairs program was also selected as a pre-doctoral fellow for the program. Hernandez and Romero are the first Cal Poly students to be selected for the Sally Casanova Scholar’s Program since the 2014-15 academic year.

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How Cal Poly Prepared Recent Alumna Sydney Nguyen For Her Career in Design (Q+A)

Aug 6, 2020


Sydney Nguyen
Sydney Nguyen (Comparative Ethnic Studies, '20)

"By harnessing the work, organizing, and values, focus that energy into the building and healing of our communities – especially the marginalized. Because our wounds have never healed, and our foundation is broken. Amplify our voices. Lead unapologetically and empathetically. It's always about putting other’s needs before your fears."  - Sydney Nguyen (Comparative Ethnic Studies, '20)

 What did you love most about your experience at Cal Poly?  

In my five years at Cal Poly, some of the most valuable moments I’ve had in my time were learning from the brilliant minds of students, professors, and mentors, teaching me to always lead unapologetically and empathetically. Working with an array of student organizations and leaders, I’ve learned that leadership and empathy lie in the practice of caring for communities around you. From having listened to personal stories of adversity and resilience in student-led workshops, classroom discussions on critical theory, and creating works of art and literature that engages us to be active citizens, these are moments to be caring. I especially loved my courses and mentors in the Ethnic Studies department and students activist organizations, MCC, CAED Diversity + Inclusivity Committee, Decolonizing Sustainability, Queering Migrations, etc, because these groups of folx allowed me to envision and embody what a healthy and loving community could be.

As a designer, these are important skills and privileges to live by —having the self-love for ourselves, understanding multi-faceted contexts, and being sensitive, hopeful, and responsive to the world around us. These generous people and resources have provided me their welcoming love that inspired my education, one that could never be taken away from me. 

How did Cal Poly prepare you for your current job? 

At Cal Poly, I have participated in opportunities that seem unlikely when merged, specifically around social justice, design, and the built environment. This blend allowed me to challenge conventional ways of thinking and further pushed me to design the type of futures that local communities need, which currently led me to be a freelance creative. Navigating 2020 can be painful, but if anything valuable to take out of it is always to remain resilient and hopeful, shifting mindsets to create opportunities from adversity. Cal Poly has certainly provided me confidence and values in being critical and caring for unpredictable situations, as a means to shape the equitable, just, and beautiful world we want to live in.

In being a freelance creative, I’ve taken lessons and experiences learned to lead the type of work I am interested in and create visions and strategies with non-profits, businesses, and teams that share the same values with me. From having the honor to lead the CAED Diversity & Inclusivity Committee, I’ve networked with student leaders across campus organizations and build workshop curriculums, and policy plans that advocate the needs of BIPOC students in the college. Taken on lessons from Ethnic Studies and Sustainability, I’ve conducted research and project management that increases student public engagement and education in these intersectional disciplines that are needed now more than ever.

These privileges and experiences —to co-create, dream, draw, write, listen, sculpt, organize, and design— have helped me create seemingly nonexistent futures to exist and thrive. Cal Poly has prepared me to be comfortable with the uncomfortable, be continually critical and caring, and strive to lead authentically and empathetically wherever I go.  

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voting ballot and mask

Ask an Expert: How Do You Vote in a Pandemic?

Aug 3, 2020


voting ballot and mask

With a presidential election just months away and a pandemic keeping many Americans away from public spaces, the ability to vote safely and securely has become a major concern for engaged voters around the nation.

Cal Poly political science professor Mike Latner is a nationally-recognized expert on voting rights. He works with the Union of Concerned Scientists on developing policy proposals to combat voting inequality, and is the co-author of the book “Gerrymandering in America: The House of Representatives, the Supreme Court and the Future of Popular Sovereignty.”

Latner met with Cal Poly News to help separate fact from fiction in the conversation about voting by mail, and discuss how the nation can address the challenges that are sure to arise in this unprecedented election.

How does voting by mail work? Is it as susceptible to fraud as some people claim? There are a variety of types of voting by mail. The most comprehensive is what we call universal vote by mail. That’s a system in five states — Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado and Hawaii — where every eligible voter receives a ballot in the mail. California is moving to universal vote by mail for this coming November election.

In Oregon, counties put secure drop boxes in various locations, and any voter can turn their ballot directly in to a drop box. The other option is California’s traditional model, which is no-fault absentee voting. That means if you’re a registered voter in California, for any reason or no reason at all, you can sign up to be a permanent absentee voter and have your ballot mailed to you.

All states have some form of mail-in voting, for military voters and overseas voters. It’s important to note though, that even in the universal vote-by-mail states, there are opportunities to vote in person.

On voter fraud, I did some work with the UCLA Voting Rights Project, and there have been several other studies as well that have looked at vote by mail as a process. And when we look across states where more people vote by mail, we don't see any evidence that there's a significant increase of voter fraud.

If anything, the real concern is when we move a bunch of people into a different system of voting, you're going to have mistakes. You may have a higher ballot rejection rate because of differences between signatures on ballots and registration files. But generally speaking, voter fraud is not a problem in the United States.

Political science professor Mike Latner
Political science professor Mike Latner

What lessons should we learn from recent primary elections this year about voting in a pandemic? Particularly primaries like Georgia and Michigan, where there were serious problems at polling places with overcrowding and polls closing? I'm currently working on a study where political scientists and economists looked at the Wisconsin primary, where we had exactly this pattern. The city of Milwaukee consolidated their polling places — they went from about 85 polling places to just five. Because of the pandemic, a lot of people requested mail-in ballots, but the state wasn’t prepared for it in a number of ways. People were waiting on Election Day to get ballots in the mail that they had never came. The governor tried to postpone the election, which was rejected in the courts, but it wasn’t even clear the day before whether there would be an election at all.

So you had all this last minute confusion, and then you had voters that were standing in line for four hours at a time. Two and three weeks after the election, the counties where you had larger numbers of people per polling place showed a spike in positive cases of COVID-19.

We know that this threat is real and it's something that we have to take account for November, if we are looking to stop the spread of the disease and to ensure that people can safely exercise their franchise.

If every additional administrative step is going to make voting harder, what does that actually mean in terms of who effectively ends up being able to vote? The way we look at it in political science is that every act has a cost. If you have to take time out of your day, or if there’s only a certain day or place where you can vote, or only a certain way to get election information, every little thing that makes it more difficult goes into this calculus of whether or not someone votes.

If everyone starts out with the same resources — money, time, whatever — then the cost of voting is the same for everyone. But we know that we already have inequalities, people who have fewer resources like free time. So when you have those inequalities in society already and then add the cost of voting on top of it, it’s more difficult for people of lower socioeconomic status, people in communities that are less well-served, to overcome this cost.

What ends up happening is that you end up exacerbating the inequalities that are already present in the system. That's really what we want to avoid because that's a question of equity, and it's frankly a question of voting rights and political equality.

What do we need to be looking out for in the upcoming November election, with everything going on? The first thing we need to do is to make it easier to register to vote. The demand is certainly there — if you look at polling data, this will probably be a record year for voter turnout, if we have the infrastructure set up

Second, we need to make it easier to vote by mail. We should be sending all registered voters mail-in ballots, and not make them go through the process of having to request them, because every extra step in the process leads to fewer people actually turning out to vote.

Third, we need to ensure security and safety at the polls. That means we need to be as efficient as possible in processing voters in person on election day. We need reliable, working voting machines, sanitation, social distancing and safety guidelines. The goal needs to be minimizing wait time, because that’s where the greatest risk is.

And finally, we need an open and transparent process with regard to processing ballots, because across the United States election officials are going to be facing problems that they’ve never faced before. We know that voters of color and younger or first-time voters are most likely to have their ballots rejected. Especially in this political environment, we need to make sure that the process is fair, transparent and equitable.

For all that to work together, what the states need more than anything else is support from Congress. The CARES Act allocated about $400 million in election support to the states. We’ve found that we actually need about $4 billion allocated across all 50 states in order to ensure a safe and secure election.

Are there signs that more states are taking these issues seriously and working to address them? There are, in fact. There have been something like 42 states taking some kind of action to either reduce the excuses required to obtain an absentee ballot, or like in the state of Michigan, they're proactively sending eligible voters absentee ballot requests. You can see it happening around the country, but it’s slow.

My concern is that we're going to be in a position where even if states provide the necessary legislation, that there simply aren’t going to be the resources and the financial support that state and local election officials need. Congress needs to allocate more support for this effort nationwide, because states can only do so much. And we have to act now if the nation's going to be ready in November.


This story, written by Larry Peña, originally appeared on Cal Poly News.

 

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Emeritus English Professor Named SLO County Poet Laureate

Emeritus English Professor Named SLO County Poet Laureate

Jul 5, 2020


Emeritus English Professor Kevin Clark has been named the new San Luis Obispo County Poet Laureate. We are excited about the opportunities to come for our community! The San Luis Obispo County Poet Laureate Program is dedicated to advocating the literary arts by appointing an outstanding local poet as Poet Laureate to promote an appreciation of poetry among people of all ages. The appointment is a two-year term. The Poet Laureate shares the art of poetry with citizens of San Luis Obispo County through their writings, recitations and leadership of community poetry readings. 

Here is a bit about Kevin..

Emeritus English Professor Named SLO County Poet Laureate

Winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Series Book Competition, Kevin Clark’s  Self-Portrait with Expletives  was published by  Pleiades Press and distributed by  LSU Press. His first full-length collection,  In the Evening of No Warning  (New Issues Poetry and Prose), earned a grant from the  Academy of American Poets. Clark also won the Angoff Award for best contribution to  The Literary Review, an  Artsmith  fellowship, and a  Bread Loaf  fellowship. 


The author of three chapbooks, Clark has published poems in such journals as the  Georgia Review,  Iowa Review,  Antioch Review,  Crazyhorse,  Southern Review,  Prairie Schooner,  Ploughshares,  Gulf Coast, and  Poetry Northwest. One of his poems was anthologized in  The Notre Dame Review: The First Ten Years. 


Clark also writes essays about literature, some of which have appeared in magazines such as the Iowa Review,  Southern Review, and  Contemporary Literary Criticism. A semi-regular contributor to The Georgia Review, he has published essays in books about Ruth Stone,  Charles Wright, and  Sandra McPherson. He and his son, the actor and artist Joe Hewes-Clark, have cowritten a play,  Brick’s Last Call. 


Recipient of two teaching awards, Clark has written a textbook on writing poetry, The Mind’s Eye: A Guide to Writing Poetry (Pearson Longman). He spends summers teaching at the Rainier Writing Workshop, a low-residency MFA program in Tacoma, Washington. 


Clark lives with his wife, Amy Hewes, on California’s central coast, where he continues to play city league softball “despite legs like ancient concrete and more injuries than Evel Knievel.” 

Check out more at his website kevinclarkpoetry.com

Story originally appeared on Arts Obispo

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