Issue 13 - Spring 2010 - State Hornet

Ethnic studiEs turns 40

Sacramento State’s ethnic studies department celebrated its 40th anniversary Tuesday, commemorating its evolution from a small campus program to a department that now has 15 full-time profes-sors and four major concentrations.

The department held panel discussions and lectures on the cur-rent higher education crisis and issues concerning the future of the ethnic studies program. California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso also delivered a speech on the history of civil rights. In the evening, a ceremony was held to honor former and current profes-sors who had worked for the department for more than 30 years.

“When I went to Sac State, you could count the number of colored faculty on one hand,” said ethnic studies professor and honoree Wayne Maeda. “There have been enormous changes of the last 40 years.”

The other honorees are Otis Scott, former dean of the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies; linguistics and ethnic studies professor Alexandre Kimenyi; history and ethnic studies professor Charles Roberts; professor emeritus of government and

Pan African studies David Covin; professor emeritus of anthro-pology and ethnic studies Sam Rios; professor emeritus of ethnic studies Frank LaPena; and professor emeritus of Asian-American studies Shotaro Hayashigatani.

Eric Vega, ethnic studies lecturer, said the 40th anniversary cel-ebration was important because it recognized the era from which the ethnic studies department grew.

“It grew out of a period of time in which students were part of a mass movement in this country asking for more information to get a better look at the world,” Vega said. “It was an attempt to comment on the academic world with the ‘world out there,’ which included the farmworkers struggles, the rights of women, the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement.”

Maeda, a member of Asian-Americans for Action in the 1960s, worked with members of Sac State’s Black Students Union to push for ethnic studies courses. Other groups, such as the more conser-vative White Student Coalition, were also enthusiastic about ethnic studies proposals.

Sacramento State will receive $2 million a year from the California Energy Commission for research into Sacramento’s Smart Grid system, which seeks to reduce energy consumption in the region, said Emir Macari, dean of the College of Engi-neering and Computer Science.

Macari said it is unknown yet how long the annual funds will last. The funds, which were agreed upon on April 21, are in addition to the $905,348 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to develop a new training program for Sac-ramento’s Smart Grid system.

Macari said Sac State received the funds because it is the only university in the state that offers power engineering as a disci-pline and master’s program. Sac State also houses the only Smart Grid Center in California.

“(They) saw that we were the

main players,” Macari said. “Sacramento is now positioning itself to be the clean technol-ogy, green energy hub of the country.”

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sac-ramento, supported Sac State’s application for the federal funding.

“This is something that the congresswoman has been working on for many years, said Mara Lee, communications director for Matsui.

SMUD will install many of the “smart meters” across Sacramento to facilitate the use of the Smart Grid technology. The Smart Grid would work in people’s homes to show them which appliances are best to run at what times, and how much energy they are using. This would allow consumers to know the best time to turn on their appliances to be more energy efficient and to reduce

Fellowship givesnew perspective

The STaTe horneTOne COpy Free April 28, 2010 CAliFOrniA StAte UniverSity, SACrAmentO eSt. 1949

INSIDE THE STATE HORNET

Opinion | A5

Find out how the Sacred City Derby Girls take their

sport to the extreme.

SACRED CITY DERBY GIRLS

What professor puts the Sacramento community into class assignments. Online News

statehornet.com

RESIDENCE HALLS GET WILD ‘N CRAZY

How has Trevor Paine’s move from pitcher to in-field helped the Hornets

this season?

Sports | B4

TREVOR PAINEPROFESSOR REACHES OUT

The STaTe horneTIssue 13 | Volume 62 | No. 27Features | B1

Should you worry about global warming? Is Earth planning on killing us all?

IT’S NOT EASY BEING GREEN

A little sunshine makes dormitory residents

go wild.

Administration defends 14-unit enrollment cap

An enrollment policy that recently went into effect will limit the number of units that Sacramento State students can take for the fall semester.

On April 12, the Office of the

University Registrar announced that students could only sign up for 14 units during the first period of registration. During late registration, which will occur after Aug. 9, students can sign up for more units, but that number is yet to be determined.

Edward Mills, associate

vice president for enrollment management, said the unit cap is an effect of the budget crisis. Sacramento State receives state funding directly related to the number of courses the universi-ty offers. State funding is going down while student enrollment and demand for courses are

going up.“We are experiencing an

increase in enrollment because the average unit load is increas-ing, non-graduation attrition is decreasing, and less students are transferring out of Sac State,” he said.

The influx of students enroll-

ing has caused issues for the administration as they scramble to provide for a large student body with fewer resources. One temporary solution is the 14-unit enrollment cap, Mills said.

However, many students don’t think the 14-unit cap is a solution.

“I don’t understand the reasoning behind the 14 unit cap. Why 14?” said Heidi Yang, junior communication studies major. “Some students, like me, want to do more and achieve more.”

Mills said it was a difficult

By Lauren [email protected]

see Cap| page A3

CourTeSy PhoToS from The univerSiTy Library arChiveS and Sam rioS’ webSiTe GraPhiC by meGan harriS State Hornet

(Counter-clockwise from left) Professors Alexandre Kimenyi, David Covin, Sam Rios, Frank LaPena, Wayne Maeda, Shotaro Hayashigatani and Otis Scott during their earlier days at Sacramento State, and Dick Reynolds, who played a major role in the creation of ethnic studies at Sac State. Honoree Charles Roberts is not shown in the picture.

By Timothy [email protected]

see Anniversary| page A6

International experience is no foreign subject for Shadi Kara-jeh, junior international rela-tions major and member of the Epsilon Sigma Rho fraternity.

“I have a very international background,” Karajeh said. “My parents sent me to live in Jordan for a year with my grandpar-ents, and between fifth and seventh grade I lived in Syria.”

Karajeh’s father worked with the United Nations, so while travel-ing between the Middle East and America they’d visit dif-ferent European countries.

Karajeh, a Muslim Palestin-ian-American, said his interest in world politics is a result of his heritage. By nature, Palestin-ians are very politically active because of their history. Their activism isn’t exclusive to just the current conflict in Israel, but all social injustices, he said.

In summer 2009, Karajeh spent three and a half weeks in the Balkans region in Eastern Europe as a participant in the Abraham’s Vision Fellowship, specifically the Vision Program the fellowship offers.

The Vision Program is in-

tended for Jewish-American, Palestinian-American, Israeli and Palestinian college stu-dents. It’s open to 12 individu-als - six Jews and six Palestin-ians - and usually accepts six men and six women.

While in the Balkans region, which includes the former Yugoslavia, participants witness firsthand the reconciliation of the Balkans wars of the 1990s. After the breakdown of Yugoslavia, suppressed ideas of nationalism started to surface, causing conflicts among Serbia,

Bosnia, Kosova and Croa-tia. Vio-lence ensued shortly

after, Karajeh said.Karajeh applied for the fel-

lowship because he felt the pro-gram would be a good oppor-tunity for him to channel his energy into something produc-tive. By going to the Balkans, he hoped to find parallels between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the previous conflict in the Balkans.

Fellowship members stuck to a daily routine, which began with waking up in a hotel and getting breakfast, followed by a full day of guest speakers,

By Cahil [email protected]

see Vision| page A6

University Smart Grid gets grants

By Timothy [email protected]

“We’re not stuck in California....It was firsthand experience, not

just being in a lecture then going home.”

- Shadi Karajehjunior international relations major

see Grid| page A6

Online Featuresstatehornet.com

WedneSdAy - April 28 neWS SeCtiOn StAtehOrnet.COmA2

Editor in ChiefTodd Wilson

(916) [email protected]

Print Managing EditorLeidhra Johnson(916) 278-7300

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The STaTe horneT | STaff

The first copy of this newspaper is free. Additional copies cost $1. All views expressed herein are the responsibility of The State Hornet and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sacra-mento State Journalism Program, the Communication Studies Department, administration, student body or ASI unless oth-erwise noted. The State Hornet is copyrighted, and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of The State Hornet.

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NEWS ROUNDUP Sac State’s weekly news briefs and campus events

2010-11 editor in chief selected Leidhra Johnson, junior journalism major and current print managing editor for The State Hornet, was selected on Monday to be the 2010-11 editor in chief for the Hornet by the Publications Board. Johnson will begin her position at the end of the semester. See statehornet.com for more information.

5K Fun Run

The Sacramento State community will be striding out over three miles of the campus for the Sac State Fun Run on Thursday at 6 p.m. The run will begin and end at Serna Plaza, between the University Union and the Hornet Bookstore. For more information, contact Jason Blessinger at (916) 278-9355 or [email protected].

The Pitch

The Sacramento Association of Colelgeiate Entrepreneurs will be hosting The Pitch today from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the University Union Ballroom. The event gives students the oppor-tunity to present their next big idea to a pannel of judges in an effort to promote the entrepre-neuralship at Sac State. Judges will select three finalists who will be awarded monetary prizes in amounts of $250, $500 and $1,000. For more information, visit saceonline.brinkster.net/pitch.html.

Outstanding Scholarly Achievement Award The 2009-10 Outstanding Scholarly Achieve-ment Award lecture will be held on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the University Union Foothill Suite.

Ernest E. Uwazie, professor of criminal justice and director of the Center for African Peace and Conflict Resolution, is this year’s recipient and the award’s 48th recipient. His lecture will review several Alternative Dispute Resolution projects in select African countries and will identify key lessons and opportunities of conti-nuity and change.

Spring Runway Fashion Show

The Student Fashion Association at Sac State will be hosting the Spring Runway Fashion Show on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Union Ball-room. The show will feature designs from Sac State students, as well as fashions from local boutiques. DJ Nita will also be mixing at the event. For more infromation, contact Natasia Berry at (510) 860-8843, or [email protected].

Multi-Cultural Night 7

UNIQUE will be hosting Multi-Cultural Night 7, featuring campus and community performances by groups representing a wide variety of ethnicities and cultures. The event will be held on Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Union Ballroom. The free event is sponsored by Associated Students Inc., Epsilon Sigma Rho and UNIQUE. For more information, contact UNIQUE at (916) 278-6997 or [email protected].

▶◀ ▶◀ ▶◀ Contact Brittany Bottini in

the News department at (916) 278-7248.

▶◀ ▶◀ ▶◀

decision and they considered capping the units at 12, 13, 14 and 15, but 14 seemed to be the best number. A study by the Academic Affairs office found that more than half of the 25,000 undergraduates are taking 12 units.

The study determined that, on average, students take 12 units. Academic Affairs knew that part-time students could pull down the average, so the me-dian and mode were checked; both turned out to be 12 units as well, Mills said.

“Our goal is to provide a unit cap that allows all students, including math, language and science students, to have enough flexibility to sign up for three to four classes. This gives everyone the most equal chance to actually get a schedule,” he said. “If we made the cap at 15 units, that means freshman and transfer students wouldn’t have any open classes to choose from. That one course across 25,000 undergraduates does make a difference.”

Many students are concerned that the 14-unit cap will impede graduation.

Amber Serenil, junior recreation, parks and tourism administration major, said she hopes to graduate in spring 2011, but the 14-unit cap could potentially delay her gradua-tion.

“My major is relatively small and there are classes that I need to take that are only offered in the fall semester,” she said. “If I am not allowed to take all the fall classes I need, I am not go-ing to graduate on time and will have to graduate next fall.”

Cecil Canton, California Fac-ulty Association’s associate vice president for affirmative action, said the cap could have even bigger implications for fresh-man and sophomore students.

He said the cap doesn’t seem to fall in line with the university’s graduation initiative, a push to increase the amount of students who graduate.

“The university put an em-phasis on timely graduation with its graduation initiative. This 14-unit cap does not help at all with improving gradua-tion,” Canton said. “Students need to take 15 units each se-mester to ensure they graduate on time and this cap will delay graduation by one to two years.”

Mills said he knows the cam-pus community is concerned and wants to reiterate that this cap is only temporary.

“Many students have e-mailed me and I recognize their anxi-ety, but this is just a one-semes-ter fix,” Mills said.

Yang said she is worried that late registration will be over-whelming because everyone will be on the my.csus.edu server.

In the past, Mills said stu-dents typically overload their schedules and add two to three extra classes to hold spaces in a class they aren’t certain they will take. He said he hopes this cap will help prevent this from happening and registering for classes will be less chaotic.

Mills advises that students be prepared for late registration at 7 a.m. on Aug. 9 to register for the extra class or two they want. For students changing their schedule in late registra-tion, they should add classes then drop them later, he said.

Mills said that, for now, the cap is the best solution to Sac State’s funding predicament.

“This brings home to students the sheer scale of the budget crisis in California,” he said. “The administration is working hard to minimize the impact on students, but it cannot take it completely away.”

WedneSdAy - April 28 neWS SeCtiOn StAtehOrnet.COm A3

Cap: Students worried about graduation delays

Continued | page A1

meGan harriS State Hornet

WedneSdAy - April 28 neWS SeCtiOn StAtehOrnet.COmA4

Grid: New funds provide classes

Vision: Karajeh says fellowship provides insight on foreign affairs

WedneSdAy - April 28A6

“We were concerned about not seeing ourselves in the curriculum, so that’s why we pushed for ethnic studies pro-grams,” Maeda said. “We were pushing to try to change the university.”

These groups sometimes used tactics of civil disobedience to attract attention to their cause. Maeda said there were numer-ous rallies and some sit-ins in the president’s office.

“The administration was not in favor of making what they called ‘radical changes,’” Maeda said. “It was just a showing that students were concerned

and wanted change on their campus.”

Covin said that many ethnic studies programs around the country came in the wake of the civil rights-era turmoil over Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 as-sassination, which inflamed racial tensions.

Sac State’s ethnic studies program started in 1970, though negotiations to start the program began a few years earlier. The nego-tiations were sometimes heated.

“There were people who didn’t think that ethnic studies should exist,” Covin said. “That was happening throughout the

country, so it was no different here.”

Many people, including state legislatures, argued that ethnic studies would only create divi-sions among the population.

“A lot of the opposition was,

‘Well, we don’t have white stud-ies, so why do we have to learn about all these other ethnici-

ties?’” Covin said.Despite the tension, Co-

vin said he came to Sac State because the faculty members within the ethnic studies de-partment were very supportive, and he felt a strong connection

with the community and the school.

“There were a lot of people

who would come to the university – from Latinos to Asian-Americans, to Native Americans to black people - who would come from the community asking for support, sometimes even demanding

support,” Covin said. The ethnic studies

program became a depart-ment in 1997, which gave it the ability to hire its own faculty and acquire its own resources without relying on other departments.

Covin said he was pleased to be honored by the ethnic

studies department.“The program and the

department over the years has

had an extraordinary number of capable and accomplished people in it,” Covin said. “To be set aside is humbling, and in a way it’s a little inaccurate. It kind of makes you wish it had been done for some others.”

Tim Fong, program director of the ethnic studies depart-ment, said it was important to celebrate the 40th anniver-sary despite the current budget problems.

“The issues of 40 years ago are still relevant,” Fong said. “Things are different, but there are a lot of issues that are still important that our nation needs to discuss, and that’s what eth-nic studies teaches.”

Continued | page A1

workshops and group process.Karajeh said the groups

explored topics, such as inter-national law, use of force as opposed to diplomacy, recon-ciliation strategies and other moral issues.

Nights were spent interacting with the locals, sightseeing and taking up the culture, Karajeh said.

“What I was learning in the workshops we would really

learn about at night,” Karajeh said. “We’re not stuck in Cali-fornia; we’re there where the conflict was so we definitely got immersed in the culture and in the conflict.”

While in Serbia, Karajeh saw the leftover destruction caused by the 1999 bombing of Serbia by NATO forces.

“These aren’t rich countries,” Karajeh said. “Life went on and they just worked around it.”

Karajeh said he was reluctant to tell locals in Serbia he was an

American, but in Kosovo it was a different story.

“People in Kosovo love us. They love America,” Karajeh said. “They have American flags everywhere.”

Karajeh said he had reserva-tions about spending the Fourth of July away from home, but his concerns quickly diminished.

“I asked the hotel attendant if he knew where I could buy some fireworks so I could do a little celebration and he told me to wait until 9 p.m. the next day. From our hotel window, we saw a huge fireworks show and cel-ebration going on in America’s honor,” Karajeh said.

Another event that affected Karajeh was the symbolic bury-ing of 300 coffins in honor of the 8,000 Bosnian men killed by Serbian troops in the Srebrenica Genocide in 1995.

“They were symbolic coffins but seeing people carrying them, it was a one image that stuck with me, 300 graves dug and planting a coffin in all of them,” Karajeh said. “It’s the cost of war. It’s death and eth-nocentric violence.”

Upon returning home from the fellowship, Karajeh has gained insight from his experiences overseas. He said he wants to share what he learned with other Sac State students.

“I am no different than any other Palestinian or Jewish student at Sac State, but I must do all I can to share my experience with my fellow Hornets,” Karajeh said.

His brother, sophomore civil engineering major Rahmi Karajeh, applied for the program for 2010.

“It’s a great opportunity for experience and learn more about my ethnic roots and about the Israeli-Palestine conflict,” Rahmi Karajeh said.

If he gets accepted into the program Rahmi has a clear goal in mind.

“I’d like to see if my views change. See what can actually be done - what diplomatic solution is viable,” Rahmi Ka-rajeh said. “That’s essentially my goal for it, to get a better understanding of the conflict.”

Continued | page A1

their bills.When consumers know how

much energy they are using and at what times to use their appliances, they will reduce their overall energy consump-tion, Macari said.

“With all of these devices, we will be able to reduce the amount of energy in our region,” Macari said. “If we are able to export that to the rest of California and the nation, in the near future we could be-come an energy-independent country.”

The Smart Grid will work through electronic communi-cations, like the Internet, to tell consumers how much energy they are using.

Because of this, Sac State will also be granted $600,000 to $1 million from the National Sci-ence Foundation to improve the school’s Center for Cyber Security. This would prevent hacking into consumers’ Smart Grid information.

Macari said faculty members will help create the new cer-

tificate programs and classes to educate engineers in Smart Grid technology.

It is uncertain whether the new courses in Smart Gird will be offered this summer, Macari said. If not, the courses will be offered by fall 2010.

Sac State will receive the stimulus funds within the next two months.

Macari said he was excited to see Sac State get the recognition.

“We are not the little Sac State college anymore,” Macari said. “People are paying attention to us, not only in the country, but around the world.”

Continued | page A1

“We were concerned about not seeing ourselves in the curriculum, so that’s why we pushed for the ethnic studies program. We were pushing to try to change the university.”

- Wayne Maedaethnic studies professor

CourTeSy PhoTo

Shadi Karajeh (second from left) with other fellowship members and locals during his trip to the Balkans.

SMART GRID FUNDS: - $2 million annually from the California Energy Commission for Smart Grid research - $905,348 in stimulus funds to develop a Smart Grid training program - $600,000 to $1 million from the National Science Foundation to improve Internet security.

Anniversary: Department’s creation seen as radical

April 28, WednesdAyA5 W W W. s t A t e h o r n e t . c o m | s p r i n g i s s u e 13 | s A c r A m e n t o s t A t e

thestAtehornetOpiniOnEDITORIAL

California’s gubernato-rial candidates are spending millions on campaigns and publicity. Ironically, the attack advertisements aiming to sway our votes are exactly what I find most unpleasant about politics.

Political attack ads should be entirely ignored. Regardless of whether or not the statements are true, they use emotional language and selective phras-ing to influence your vote rather than informing your thought process through a logical argument.

The typical attack ad will present viewers with a set of accusations about one of the candidates. The statements may be true, but could also be misleading. Either way, we’re only hearing one side of the story.

The specifics of politics can be complicated to the com-mon man, making it relatively easy to misconstrue someone as a bad guy.

This is especially easy when you have an entire public

relations team producing a thoroughly premeditated 30-second advertisement.

Barbara O’Connor, commu-nication studies professor at Sacramento State and Director of the Institute for Studies of Politics and Media, said that campaign teams try to quickly appeal to our emotions and gut feelings because it’s all they can do to make their commercial time count.

“You can’t really advance an argument in 30 seconds,” O’Connor said.

Although it may be effective, the smear ad is unavoidably crude and unethical, even ma-nipulative, and I still protest it.

George Lakoff, professor of cognitive science and linguis-tics at UC Berkley, said that nearly 18 percent of people have conflicting ideas in their own heads that can be manipulated by how they hear something.

“Ads use language that activates a certain worldview,” Lakoff said. “It’s an attempt to get (voters) thinking a certain way.”

A person will think and vote differently on the same issue, depending on how he or she has come to understand it. The language used to describe an issue affects how we think about it, and those preconcep-tions affect what we under-stand and how we vote.

Voters typically say they dislike smear campaigning, but political teams continue with them because the fact

is, it works. It works because, sadly, most of us wouldn’t recognize political rhetoric if it was staring us in the face.

“You tell someone that they shouldn’t be persuaded by those arguments, and they say, ‘I’m not,’” O’Connor said. “Then you ask them where they get all their information and they say, ‘television.’”

According to the Pew Re-search Center’s website, “Tele-vision as a whole remains the (national) public’s main source of campaign news.”

But even if the majority start getting their information from the Internet, the same campaign teams are still using the same slippery methods to influence our vote. If we don’t actually try to understand the tricks being used to deceive us, then we’re not actually con-fronting the problem.

In order to open our eyes, we should stop being gullible and empower ourselves to effec-tively analyze the rhetoric of others. The public needs to be educated enough to think for themselves.

“To make more informed cit-izens,” O’Connor said, “school really is the silver bullet.”

Knowledge and critical analysis are really the best weapons against the subtle thought control of advertise-ment campaigns.

If you’re going to vote, make it your vote and not someone else’s. Ignore the ads, pay atten-tion to what’s going on and find the facts yourself.

Take the politics out of environmentalism

By Paul [email protected]

Shine a light on auxiliary funding

Students and faculty need to know where all of the funding for their higher education is coming from.

Senate Bill 330, authored by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would apply the Public Records Act to university and community college auxiliary organiza-tions.

As of now, these auxiliaries do not have to reveal the sources of their money.

The Public Records Act was passed by 83 percent in 2004 under Proposition 59, which gives Californians the constitutional right to have access to public records.

SB 330 would make auxil-iary organizations’ funding and spending part of these records.

These organizations not only help fund higher education through dona-tions, but also allow these universities to indirectly have contracts with the state government.

“All these auxiliaries exist for a specific function that they have and to further the mission of the university,” said President Alexander Gonzalez, according to a 2009 video posted by Public Affairs.

Students, being paying

members of these universi-ties, deserve to know where this money is coming from and how it is spent.

If students have to pay more money for educa-tion and professors have to take less pay because of furloughs, then it’s only fair that they both know where any extra funding is coming from.

This is not to say that The State Hornet suspects any foul play on the part of Sacramento State or its auxiliaries.

But to be certain that this university is being held accountable for this extra funding, a certain measure of openness is necessary.

Several universities in the California State University system have had troubles with auxiliary spending.

We need to be sure that Sac State is not – acciden-tally or otherwise – spend-ing its auxiliary money in an unethical manner.

Yee claimed in January that the Harris Ranch Beef Company had threatened to withhold a $500,000 donation from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, unless a guest lecturer was removed.

San Luis Obispo complied with the request, and thus

allowed this donor to affect its curriculum.

One of Yee’s biggest com-plaints is aimed at Fresno State. Adam Keigwin, chief of staff for Yee’s office, said the university had been giv-ing donors luxury suites in its sports arena in exchange for large donations.

The past version of this bill, SB 218, had been passed in 2009 by the Assembly and the Senate, but was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwar-zenegger.

According to a statement he released, Schwarzenegger said private donors would be hesitant to give if their identities were revealed.

The bill would force these auxiliaries to identify anyone who received more than $500 of gifts in return for donations. Any donor giving less than that amount, if he or she chose to, could remain anonymous.

As of now, the Senate has passed the bill with 37 votes in favor and one against.

The Hornet hopes Schwar-zenegger will not veto this bill when it comes to his desk.

It should be our right to know where our university’s money is coming from and where it is going.

Why should it take another stupid made-up holiday like Earth Day for society to col-lectively realize we have not done much green living in our lives and need to do something about Earth’s rising tempera-ture?

Humans as a whole seem to have devolved into a species resigned to accepting a revers-ible fate.

But we can change that. It will require slightly changing how we live and rising above the poli-sci labels that distract us from survival.

I do not understand why politics seem to dominate all climate change discussions. First there was Climategate, leaked emails used to sup-

port the allegations of climate change denialists and some that climate change is not really happening.

Then there is all of the fight-ing between environmentalists and politicians over environ-mental laws.

Even the terms “climate change” vs. “global warming” are up for debate; though they mean basically the same thing, they conjure different opinions and emotions from people. Like how “pro-life” vs. “anti-abortion” are the same but have different connotations.

I just want people to set their politics aside when it comes to the survival of the human race. I could honestly care less which term we use, but if I had to choose, it would be global warming.

Climate change sounds more hip, trendy and all-encom-passing instead of being so Earth-centric but, unlike global warming, it lets people off the hook.

Why is it even considered a partisan issue? Scientists on both sides seem to agree either term is really just fine and that we must focus on saving the environment instead of splitting hairs.

“I call it global warming be-cause of the way we’ve used that term in the past, it does have the idea at its core that humans are the dominant force at the center of the trend,” said James Wanket, professor of geology at Sacramento State. “It opens up the idea that what it is just natural. I think it’s important politically to make it clear ... that humans are behind this.”

Our increasing standards of living most certainly are the common denominators in deteriorating environmental conditions.

Our excessive use of fossil fuels and other activities caus-ing the release of greenhouse gases into the environment are accepted as the cause of climate change acceleration.

“(‘Global warming’) implies that the biggest problems are related to temperature change,” said Mark Chandler, NASA research scientist. “Though that is the fundamental beginning of the problem … it’s just a tiny part of what’s really happening.”

It’s nice to pretend none of this is happening or that it is not our fault, but we undeniably affect the environment and have a lot of power to influence it.

“We’ve wasted about 30 years and a lot of climate change is going to happen,” Chandler said. “We’re in a position now to where ... it’s way too late for us to stop change from happening, but it’s not to late to stop that change from being disaster.”

Let’s stop wasting time and consider what we can do. It’s what we hear all the time: drive less, turn on your thermostat, and turn the lights off when no one is in the room.

I hate that I even have to repeat it in this column, but I will in case the memo missed some people.

The late comedian George Carlin’s vision of “a big, smok-ing, flaming, stinking, bowl of gaseous s---” can be avoided.

Every little bit helps, but the biggest difference we can make is voting and pushing for gov-ernment to support alternative and renewable energy.

“The final most important thing is we need some power changes,” Chandler said. “We have very large industries in this country based on fossil fuels and they have a lot of clout in the political realm, and we need to vote for people who don’t give them clout.”

We need to fill the voting booths if we want to save the Earth, and continue living more increasingly environmentally aware lives.

As humans, we will deserve our fate for continuing to act stupidly by wasting time bicker-ing about labels and research instead of diverting disaster while it’s still possible.

By Julia [email protected]

Why can’t political ads just focus on the issues?

Marcy Hendricks state HOrnet

Where is all the Earth Day hype? Opinion editor David Loret de Mola

and writer Paul Roundtree remember the glory days of environmental care

at statehornet.com.

Who here remembers Recycle Rex?

McclatcHy tribune

THESTATEHORNETFeaturesw w w. S T A T E H O R N E T . c O m | S p R i N g i S S u E 13 | S A c R A m E N T O S T A T E

ApRil 28, wEdNESdAyB1

‘I hIt people and don’t go to jaIl’

Members of the Sacred City Derby Girls have been injured so seriously that they needed nails, screws and plates inserted into their bodies to help them heal correctly. Despite these injuries, these strong women come back to the sport they love: roller derby.

Roller derby is a full-contact sport using “old-school” roller skates that started around the 1930s and ‘40s as a staged sport for entertainment, said Nelly Wollenberg, senior Spanish major and board member of the Sacred City Derby Girls. Derby has become more popular, she said, and is now more than just a show.

“We train really hard to make this a legitimate sport,” Wol-lenberg said. “Everything we do is real, including all of our injuries.”

Wollenberg said her nick-name on the team is “Attila the Honey.”

“A friend suggested the name - everyone loved it and it just stuck,” Wollenberg said. “Attila the Hun was a really cruel con-queror and this is a play on his name with a sweet little twist.”

In a roller derby game, more commonly known as a “bout,” four blockers from each team make a pack and must help their “jammer” break past the oppos-ing team’s blockers. The jammer scores points for every opponent she laps while her blockers obstruct the other team, Wol-lenberg said.

“As a blocker, my job is to simultaneously block the oppos-ing team while trying to get our jammer through,” Wollenberg said. “I should constantly be hit-ting someone.”

The game, she said, is played in two 30-minute intervals made up of a series of two-minute-or-less “jams.” Each jammer has the ability to score points, but the lead jammer, or person who makes it through the pack first, has the ability to call off the “jam.”

“Being a lead jammer is stra-tegic in the fact that if you get to the pack first and score first, you can call off the jam before the opposing jammer even scores a point,” Wollenberg said. “If neither jammer got through the pass legally, meaning that she fouled or stepped out of bounds, then it’s a full two-minute ‘jam’ because no one has the ability to call it off.”

To ensure a fair and safe game, the derby girls must learn and follow many rules. Illegal hitting zones, for instance, were set in place to ensure players do not unfairly strike opponents from the back, Wollenberg said.

“If I were to break the rules and come up and hit you from the back, I would get thrown into the penalty box for illegally hitting the opponent,” Wollen-berg said.

Depending on the severity of the penalty, she said, one could stay in the penalty box for the entirety of the ‘jam.’ As with other sports, players who are pe-nalized cannot be replaced with another member of the team.

“Once you’re out, you’re out,” Wollenberg said. “In a way, you’re letting your team down because there isn’t someone coming in to replace you.”

Penalties and rules are in place for a reason: to prevent injuries, Wollenberg said. But as with every sport, she said, the risk of injury is high.

“I’ve had knee injuries, broken ribs, hematomas or extreme

bruising and even chipped bone off of my toes,” Wollenberg said. “You get hurt, but it’s worth it.”

Injuries are something that Rena Garcia, board member of the Sacred City Derby Girls, accepts as a part of playing derby. She said she has torn her meniscus in both legs, strained hamstrings and even had a “gnarly” concussion.

“All of my injuries don’t stop me because derby is way too much fun,” Garcia said. “I hit people and don’t go to jail.”

Garcia said living up to her derby name is another reason injuries do not sway her from playing this somewhat danger-ous sport.

“My name is Shadow Soldier and that’s who I am,” Garcia said. “You’ve got to live up to your name.”

Garcia said there are two rea-sons for her derby nickname.

“The band Otep calls her fans shadow soldiers and she is a really inspiring aggressive artist,” Garcia said. “Also, this is a play on my father being a Vietnam veteran.”

Wollenberg said roller derby provides the women with a sense of camaraderie.

“We are a family, we refer to ourselves as sacred sisters for a reason,” Wollenberg said. “There are women that I have met in this league that I will be friends with for the rest of my life.”

Sacred City’s sense of family amongst its members is one of the reasons Christina Rodri-guez, senior international rela-tions major, decided to join.

“Nelly just always talked about how she loved the sport and the team,” Rodriguez said. “I was getting bored between school and work and this seemed like a

By Erin [email protected]

Sac State professor assigns community service projects

Make your own Jamba recipe

The Jamba Juice in the University Union is ask-ing Sac State students to

submit self-made smoothie recipes, which will be considered and tested by Jamba Juice associates. The winning recipe will win its author a week’s worth of free drinks at the Union’s Jamba Juice. They will also have their recipe become an exclusive drink off a secret menu at the Union’s Jamba Juice. The drink is planned to be called “The Hornet Drink” or “Hornet Express.”

Jamba Juice store manager Daniel Anisi, graduate comput-er engineering student, said this will give students a voice.

The contest is planned to take place in the first week of May.

Jamba Juice is the first Sac State vendor to have a food or drink exclusively made and named for the school.

All entries for the competition can be sent to:

[email protected]

By Miriam [email protected]

Mia Matsudaira State Hornet

A dodge ball tournament on Sunday raised money for the UC Davis Children’s Hospital, thanks to a group project as-

signed in Nick Trujillo’s class, Communication Studies 105.

Trujillo, professor at Sacra-mento State, uses this par-ticular group assignment every semester to teach his students how to effectively work and communicate in small groups. Trujillo said students can fulfill the requirements of his group project by making a contribu-tion to a community, city or a country of their choice.

“Most students do volunteer work, a book drive or raise money for some cause,” he said. “I want the students to do something they’re excited about that will make a difference in people’s lives.”

Dip Duck Dodge Donate, a group in Trujillo’s class this semester, organized Sunday’s successful dodge ball tourna-ment, which raised $810.

Carli Fager, junior com-munication studies major and member of the Dip Duck Dodge and Donate group, said she has enjoyed participating in the group projects because she learned how to solve conflicts

with her group members.“It’s a good class especially be-

cause we’re not just told to make up some project and present it, we actually run into real prob-lems and learn how to face them working in a group,” she said.

Fager said the obstacle her group ran across was trying to get in touch with the Sky High Sports, located in Rancho Cordova, to determine whether the center would hold the dodge ball tournament there.

“No one got back to us so we went down to the office and worked with the manager to fit in a date and time to hold the event,” she said.

Fager said this group project has been important for her because she helped benefit the lives of sick children in the com-munity.

“With other classes, I have been told to make a project, but afterwards, I felt I did not make a difference in someone’s life,” she said. “With our project, our group members helped raise money to get children supplies they need to live better lives.”

Gina Ramirez, junior com-munication studies major and member of the Dip Duck Dodge and Donate group, said she connected with the hospi-tal and found many resources that the children lacked.

“The children are limited on funds and resources at the hospital, but were asking for things such as Play-Doh, glue sticks, Crayola markers, infant raddle and Baby Einstein mov-ies,” she said.

Normally, Trujillo said, a group’s success in its contribu-tion is representative of how effectively group members communicated.

It is now Trujillo’s 20th year teaching Communication Studies 105, and he said he is passionate about his group assignments and helping the community because all people are interconnected, in every community.

“This university is part of a community in of itself,” he said. “We don’t live in an

By John [email protected]

see Trujillo| page B2

see Derby| page B2

robert Linggi State Hornet

A player gets ready to throw a dodge ball at the opposing team during the first ever Dodge Duck Dip Donate trampoline dodge ball tournament Sunday at Sky High Sports.

The Sacred City Derby Girls describe how voluntary games of roller derby have become so competitive.

Above: Nelly Wollenberg, senior Spanish major, known by her derby name “Attila The Honey” waits in line for drills during practice on Thursday. Right: The Sacred City Derby Girls line up for technique drills during practice on Thursday. The more advanced teams, the Sacrificers and the Disciples, practice to train Fresh Meat recruits. Far right: Wollenberg (in blue) bashes an opposing jammer to stop her from passing the pack and scoring during a scrimmage Sunday downtown.

robert Linggi State Hornet

robert Linggi State Hornet robert Linggi State Hornet

perfect outlet for me.”Unfortunately for both Wol-

lenberg and Rodriguez, roller derby is an extreme time com-mitment and the two students often struggle to find a balance between school and their pas-sion for skating.

Rodriguez said roller derby can easily dominate the team-mates’ time since they practice three to four times a week.

“We do a lot of practicing to gain skill and strength,” Rodri-guez said.

By being a board member and coach of the new members, Garcia feels the time commit-ment restraints of being a derby girl. She said a full-time job is difficult to maintain while on the team, so she decided to start a custom leather-making busi-

ness that revolves around the sport.

“Every derby girl wants a custom leather belt with their name on it and team colors,” Garcia said. “I found a creative way to intertwine my life.”

Despite the major time commitment and high risk of injury, these women continue to skate and play.

“I am so head-over-heels in love with this sport that it’s really important to me to work hard to improve myself as a skater,” Wollenberg said. “I physically could never walk away from this sport, it would hurt too much.”

The Sacred City Derby Girls will be competing against the Los Angeles Aftershockers at 7 p.m. May 22 at RollerKing in Roseville. Tickets are available at sacredcityderbygirls.com

isolated bubble.” Trujillo said he has used

community service as an outlet of small group commu-nication for more than three decades. Before Sac State, he said he used this group project at Purdue University, Michigan State and Southern Methodist University.

Trujillo said his passion for community service began thanks to his mom.

“Growing up, my mother did volunteer work, and my first job at Purdue, being in the small town, put me more in touch with the community,” he said.

Vinnie Teresi, junior com-munication studies major, said he enjoys Trujillo’s class because it is not a typical col-lege course.

“The great thing about Tru-jillo’s class is that it does not

follow the format in most of my classes, where the profes-sor will assign three tests and also assign you to write a few additional essays,” he said.

Teresi said Trujillo’s class is different because the students are able to work outside the classroom, be involved in the community and shed a posi-tive light on Sac State.

“Sac State students are seen by many people in society as a party people - this is the general perception of colleges,” Teresi said. “It’s nice what we’re doing because we’re helping the community by raising money for the better, which helps to break this misconception.”

Ramirez said she is grateful to Trujillo.

“I think it’s great that Trujillo’s is emphasizing com-munity because it gave me the experience to do something I wouldn’t have the time to do on my own,” she said.

wEdNESdAy - ApRil 28 FEATuRES SEcTiON STATEHORNET.cOmB2

CLUB CORNER | MATHEMATICS CLUB

Club proves math exceeds the basics

The Math Club at Sacra-mento State is out to prove that mathematics is more than addition and subtraction.

“Math is basically every-where,” said Marilyn Koch, senior mathematics major and math club treasurer. “If you look you will find it.”

At one of the most recent club meetings, Koch said the math club discussed quantum cryptology, which is how math keeps personal information private on the Internet. She said without math, personal information sent across the Internet would not have the protection it does today.

“One way to keep informa-tion safe is by utilizing algo-rithms - whenever you make an online banking transaction, you have to make sure that there are encryption codes, created by algorithms, to ensure that your private pass-words and other information are safe,” said John Kanemoto, sophomore mathematics ma-jor and math club member.

After learning how prevalent math is on the outside world, Kanemoto said he began to

feel comfortable with his career choice - being a math teacher.

“Making what I am learning in the classroom relevant to the outside world is important because it will make me a better math teacher,” Kanemoto said. “Students need to know that math can be applied elsewhere besides the classroom.”

For those looking to connect with the math department, said Kate Drennan, sophomore mathematics major and math club president, meetings are held at 3 p.m. every Wednesday in Brighton Hall, Room 115.

“We want to create a little math community where people don’t have to feel afraid or self conscious to talk about math,” Drennan said.

The Math Club will be hosting an Integration Bee at 5:30 p.m. on May 5 in Mendocino Hall, Room 3013.

Drennan said this event is similar to a regular spelling bee, but it instead revolves around mathematical integration. She said winners of the competi-tion will receive cash prizes and many extra credit opportunities.

“You get all these people excited about math in one room, who knows what chaos can hap-pen,” Koch said.

tina Horton State Hornet

Math club president Kate Drennan (at board) and treasurer Marilyn Koch (right) look at Euler’s Identity. “Dude, that proof is so clean,” Koch said.

‘Environmental degradation’ exposed

Sacramento State was in frenzy Thursday as enthusiastic volunteers took over the Quad in an attempt to raise environ-mental awareness for Earth Day.

Alex Underwood, sophomore environmental studies major and vice president of the Envi-ronmental Student Organiza-tion, worked hard to recruit the volunteers for the event.

“We went out there and contacted these people one on one and asked if they would like to be part of Sac State’s Earth Day, most of them complied,” Underwood said.

Twenty-eight booths were set up in the Quad, with volunteers from Donate Life California, Peace and Conflict International

and Women’s Studies Student Association.

In addition to the 28 booths, the Environmental Student Organization also gathered three speaks who informed students about current obstacles the world is facing with its environ-ment. The three speakers includ-ed two Sac State environmental studies professors Virginia Matzek and Michelle Stevens, as well as environmental expert, Barbra Johnson.

Although Earth Day is a one-day event, Underwood said she believes students at Sac State can take steps to help the Earth every day.

Underwood and the Environ-mental Student Organization have come up with a way to help students reduce their carbon footprints while on campus.

She said the club has teamed up with Jamba Juice and Java City to encourage students to bring their own cups to school for the beverages they purchase. Both Jamba Juice and Java City will give a 10 percent discount on any purchase if customers sup-ply their own cups, she said.

Underwood said 147,392 Jamba Juice smoothie cups are thrown away in an academic school year. Broken down, she said, that amounts to 9,212 cups a week and 1,535 cups a day.

If students were to visit Jamba Juice with their own cup daily, they would save anywhere between $80 and $93 depending on their drink of choice, Under-wood said.

“When you put something in numbers, like waste, students are more likely to see the how

drastic the environmental deg-radation can be,” she said.

Karina Oropeza, volunteer and sophomore anthropology major, said conserving the Earth for future generations was one important fact she tried to get across to her fellow students on Earth Day.

“I want my kids to see and have the natural things I had growing up and that won’t be possible if we don’t start preserving what we have,” Oropeza said.

Environmental studies professor Greg Popejoy said Earth Day is an important day for everybody, worldwide.

“Earth Day should really be the first international holiday. This is the only planet we have and we’re not taking that great of care of it,” he said.


Trujillo: Dodge ball helps sick children

Derby: A theatrical sport turns brutal

Continued | page B1Continued | page B1

By Erin [email protected]

Vice President Joe Biden an-nounced April 20 the Obama administration would overturn the 2005 revised interpretation to Title IX federal law, which was said to provide a loophole in the law.

Title IX reads that no one shall be discriminated against due to gender and requires col-leges and universities to meet gender equity by enforcing a three-pronged test.

The test requires schools to meet one of the following three standards.

The first option is based on enrollment rates; a school must proportionally provide athletic opportunities to women and men. The second option is for schools to expand programs for the underrepresented gender. The third option is for schools to show they have fully and effectively met the interests of the gender that is underrepre-sented.

The 2000 Government Ac-countability Report showed that 53 of 74 schools used the first part of the three-part test.

Sacramento State Deputy Athletic Director Bill Mac-riss said because Title IX is an unfunded mandate, many schools choose to meet the first condition.

“You’re required to make changes with the same funding you have to make the numbers work based on a new set of cri-teria potentially if you haven’t already dealt with it,” Macriss

said.Macriss said colleges and

universities often try to meet their school’s ratio by eliminat-ing sports. They have to make adjustments to the number of sports they retained, number of participants, funding to those programs and scholarships to those programs, he said.

B3 THESTATEHORNETSportS ApRil 28,WEdNESdAy

W W W. S T A T E H O R N E T . c O m | S p R i N g i S S u E 13 | S A c R A m E N T O S T A T E

NCAA SportsUpdates

WOMEN’S TENNIS

vs. MONTANA STATEAPRIL 24W 4-0

BASEBALL

vs. NEW MEXICO ST.APRIL 23L 4-2

SOFTBALL

at SAINT MARY’SAPRIL 25

L 4-1, 4-2

at SAINT MARY’S APRIL 24

W 5-3, L 4-2

Senior Holden Ching on the team’s semifinal win:“I think the team played pretty well. Especially since we came in not playing very well, we lost a couple of late matches in the schedule. We all practiced hard. So we just focused and played well today.”

vs. NORTHERN ARIZ.APRIL 25W 4-0

MEN’S TENNIS

vs. MONTANAAPRIL 24W 4-0

vs. NORTHERN ARIZ.APRIL 25W 4-0



WOMEN’S GOLF

at BIG SKYCONFERENCE

CHAMPIONSHIPAPRIL 19-212ND PLACE


QUALIFIES FORNCAA TOURNAMENT

MAY 14-16

OUTDOORTRACK & FIELD

at BRUTUSHAMILTON

APRIL 23 & 24

Tennis conTinues dominance

Obama closes 2005 loophole in Title IX

Megan HarriS State Hornet

The Sacramento State men’s and women’s tennis teams were victorious in the 2010 Big Sky Conference Championship on Saturday and Sunday.

The Sacramento State tennis teams each won the 2010 Big Sky Conference tennis cham-pionships Sunday at the Gold River Racquet Club under clear skies and breezy conditions.

The Hornets defeated the Lumberjacks of Northern

Arizona University – both by a score of 4-0. The teams swept all four singles points and each doubles point.

The racquet club hosted the semifinals on Saturday, with the women and defeating Mon-tana State University 4-0 and the men beat the University of Montana 4-0.

The women, who have been

playing without senior standout Katrina Zheltova since Febru-ary due to a sports hernia, got contributions from sophomore Clarisse Baca, sophomore Maria Meliuk and freshman Rebeca Delgado, who had the championship-clinching vic-tory.

The win was the women’s ninth consecutive Big Sky

championship and 72nd confer-ence win in a row.

Baca said she was pleased with her and her team’s perfor-mance during the champion-ships.

“The weather was kind of hot, but everybody came through pretty well,” Baca said. “We had a couple of tough matches but I think at the end of the day, we

came out pretty good, actually.”Baca won her semifinal match

6-0, 6-1 on Saturday before winning her championship match 6-2, 6-2 over the Lum-berjacks’ Malia Wahniepio.

Delgado, who defeated the Bobcats’ Laura Villegas 6-0, 6-1, said she did not have any out-


see Tennis | page B4

By Dustin [email protected]

see Title IX | page B5

Shelby Voelz has been voted as The State Hornet Athlete of the week after her remarkable performance against the Uni-versity of San Diego on April 16 and 17.

The sophomore threw shutouts on back-to-back days against host San Diego.

In her appearance on Satur-day, Voelz gave up five hits and walked three while striking out four. However, she looked even sharper in her second shutout against the Toreros. She gave up four hits and one walk while striking out five.

For her efforts, the com-munication studies major was awarded the Pacific Coast Softball Conference’s Pitcher of the Week award for the second time this season and the third

time in her young career. For the season, Voelz has an

8-15 record with a 3.21 ERA. She leads the team in appear-ances, innings, games started and shutouts.

SHELBY VOELZSOFTBALL

pHoto CourteSy of Hornet SportS

THE STATE HORNET READER’S PICK:

Go to statehornet.com to vote forthis week’s nominees.

Voting ends Saturday at 11:59 p.m.

file pHoto

The Obama administration is attempting to close aloophole in Title IX, which is designed to provide equal funding for NCAA men’s and women’s sports.

Star gymnast to miss next season due to injuries

After finishing the season 14th in the 2010 NCAA West Regional and winning the West-ern Athletic Conference beam title, sophomore gymnast Cayla Boyce will redshirt next season due to injuries.

Boyce dealt with a torn labrum all season and made the choice at the beginning of the

season to compete this year and sit out next year.

“I had to decide to perform in the events that least affected my shoulder,” Boyce said. “I sacrificed for the team this year, so they all know I won’t be able to compete next season.”

Boyce performed her fresh-man year as an all-around com-petitor, but she said due to the torn labrum, she had a difficult

time on bars and decided to drop the event. She had surgery on her shoulder April 26 and said she must rest for a full week before starting four to six months of physical therapy.

“It’ll be so painful,” Boyce said. “Physical therapy will help me get my range of motion back in my shoulder and will help build strength.”

She had one of her best sea-

sons, scoring career-highs on the beam with a 9.900 and the floor with a 9.825. She made her first regional appearance.

At the West Regional on April 10, she finished with a score of 9.725 after scoring a 9.875 at the WAC Championships to claim the beam title. Boyce also main-tained a beam score of 9.700, which was the highest season average on the team.

With Boyce out for next sea-son, head coach Kim Hughes said he will make some adjust-ments to the lineup.

“She’s going to be a huge loss to our team because she’s proved her talent,” Hughes said. “We have some girls like Jasmine Lipka and Amanda Blauvelt to step up on beam.”

Blauvelt competed on the

see Boyce | page B4

By Marshall [email protected]

TEAM WINSBIG SKY CONFERENCE

CHAMPIONSHIP

TEAM WINSBIG SKY CONFERENCE

CHAMPIONSHIP

QUALIFIES FORNCAA TOURNAMENT

MAY 14-16

THREE ATHLETESRECORDED TOP 25DIVISION I MARKS

side distractions when facing Montana State this time around.

“I was excited because the last time our team played against Montana State I wasn’t able to go on the trip. I had to take a test,” Delgado said. “So I was really excited. I knew that I was going to be focused and ready to play them.”

Head coach Dima Hrynashka said he was impressed with Northern Arizona’s perfor-mance at the championship.

“They were ready to compete today,” Hrynashka said. “They were so tough. Some matches were very close.”

Tennis Director Bill Campbell agreed with the coach’s remark.

“They were competitive all the way through,” Campbell said. “It was not easy. Both teams had to play well.”

Hrynashka said the team played well without Zheltova.

“It feels like (all) the girls can play successful,” he said. “Every-body understands it’s a little bit tough, but everybody started to prepare for (the) matches and they can handle (it).”

Baca said while the confer-ence title is nice, the team’s main goal still lies ahead.

“Everybody wants to be the winner,” Baca said. “But I think our goal is to win in the first round of the NCAA Tourna-ment. We just have to come strong and we need to prepare. We have two weeks before that and these little things that we can improve – we need to work on those.”

Baca said more private lessons with the coach and extra work-out time are going to be big factors in the team’s preparation for the tournament.

Junior Kiryl Harbatsiuk,

sophomore Jason Smith and junior Marko Starcevic won in the semifinals on Saturday to advance the Hornets to the finals on Sunday.

Starcevic said he was ready for his match in doubles in the men’s afternoon installment of the semifinals.

“I felt very prepared,” he said. “We are all trying to be serious about this because it is the most important event of the year.”

On Sunday, the men were led by senior Anton Stryhas, Smith and Starcevic – each of whom won their matches.

Harbatsiuk made a great comeback against Northern Arizona’s Andrew Reiff, win-ning the first set 7-5 when Har-batsiuk was within one game and one point of losing his first set in 25 outings. Since the team reached four points before the Harbatsiuk-Reiff match ended, it was halted.

Athletic Director Terry Wanless said the school values conference championships from all its sports, as they are never sure things.

“We never take it for granted,” Wanless said. “It’s always a special thrill because the players change even though the tradi-tion continues. That’s one thing that we’re most proud of is to be able to sustain the quality of play that we see every year.”

The team finished the season with a 15-11 record overall and 7-1 in conference play.

Wanless said the continued dominance within conference by both teams is a testament to the coaches and recruiting.

“It obviously speaks highly of our coaches because kids don’t just come in and automatically win,” he said. “You gotta have good coaching staff, but you

also gotta have good players.”The teams earned the Big

Sky’s automatic berth into the first round NCAA Tourna-ment, May 14-16. The Hornets’ opponents will be determined Tuesday.

Check statehornet.com to see which teams the men’s and women’s teams drew in the first round of the NCAA Tourna-ment.

Matt Harrington contributed to this story.

vault and the uneven bars for most of the season. She led the team on bars Feb. 19 with a sea-son-high score of 9.800 against San Jose State University, but has not competed on beam in her career as a Hornet.

Hughes said Lipka, the team’s MVP, was the team’s most con-sistent three-event performer.

Lipka said she fully supports Boyce’s decision to redshirt and is preparing for next season without her teammate.

“My goal is to be a competi-tive all-arounder next season,” Lipka said. “I just need to stay consistent. She is a great team-mate and a great motivator to the team. She’s kind of goofy and I’m kind of goofy, so we got along well last year. We’re going to miss her in the starting lineup.”

Lipka averaged a 9.641 on beam this season while main-taining a 9.578 average on bars and a 9.750 average on the floor.

Boyce will continue to strengthen her shoulder for another year in practice after the initial four to six months of physical therapy.

“She knows that she’ll be

doing physical therapy and as long as she’s not tumbling on the beam, she’ll be working on her turns and things like that,” Hughes said. “It’s a matter of her being patient and us being patient as coaches.”

Boyce said she will able to attend all the home meets next season and will cheer for the team from the sideline.

“I’ll still be side-coaching and I’ll train with the girls when I can,” Boyce said. “While I’m at the meets, I’ll still be pep talk-ing and motivating the girls.”

The team finished in sixth place at the WAC Champion-ships but did not make it to regionals in the past two years.

Boyce was one of three gym-nasts to make the west regional, but she said she wants the team to make it next season.

“I want them to go as a team next year because there’s more pressure competing as an indi-vidual,” Boyce said. “I have to get them in the mindset to get them there.”

Boyce said she will come back her junior year as an all-around

competitor. In her freshman year, she competed in seven of the 10 meets as an all-arounder, scoring her career-best mark of 38.900 against University of Washington.

Hughes said he is looking for-ward to Boyce’s return following her surgery and rehabilitation.

“She’ll be a huge gain when she comes back for her junior and senior years,” Hughes said.

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For junior Trevor Paine, switching positions over the offseason due to an injury has helped Sacramento State Base-ball win games. After two years of pitching, Paine now plays first base and is a designated hitter for the Hornets.

Paine missed most of the 2009 season with a stress fracture in his elbow, which occurred in September 2008. After healing from the injury, Paine began pitching again late last season.

Paine said he was also dealing with a recurring shoulder in-jury. Between the two injuries, Paine said the doctor told him he would need surgery in order to pitch again. Paine decided against surgery and convinced head coach John Smith to move him to infield so he could be back in the lineup.

“I’ve always loved hitting,” Paine said. “I didn’t want the surgery. I always saw myself as a hitter, not a pitcher that can hit. So I went up to coach and told him that I was really serious about it.”

Paine is currently leading the team with a .360 batting average and a .590 slugging percentage. He also has a team-leading five home runs and a perfect field-ing percentage.

Paine said he attributes his good start to being aggressive at the plate.

“I’ve taught myself to put your best swing on the ball don’t over think anything,” he said. “A lot of hitters start to overthink things when they get to the plate.”

Paine’s hitting ability goes back as far back as his high school days at Jesuit High School. He had a .412 batting average and racked up 42 RBI’s throughout his junior and senior years.

When he made the transi-tion this season, Paine started working a lot more at practice with assistant coach Reggie Christiansen. Christiansen said he even had his doubts about Paine hitting.

“At the beginning, I wasn’t too certain about it,” Christiansen said. “He hasn’t picked up a bat in almost two years. But he’s been a pleasant surprise to us.

Without him in the lineup, we wouldn’t be very good offen-sively right now.”

Paine said he has learned a lot about his swing from train-ing with Christiansen during practices.

“He’s a really good hitting coach. He really knows what he’s talking about,” Paine said. “We’ve been working on a lot

of a mechanical things. He’s changing my stance up and allowing me to get better swings off. He’s helped make this tran-sition. I owe him a lot.”

When Paine started at Sac State, he was a go-to pitcher his freshman year. In 21 games, he had a season-best 4.50 ERA and earned his first victory on March 11, 2007, against Univer-

sity of the Pacific.Now that Paine is in the

lineup every game, Christian-sen said he and Paine worked closely at getting him used to college hitting.

“He’s always been a good hit-ter since his high school days,” Christiansen said. “But being a good hitter in high school doesn’t always translate into be-ing a good college hitter. We’ve been working on live pitching, like the type of pitching he’ll be seeing at our level.”

Paine will be establishing himself at first base for a few games in place of Josh Pow-ers. Paine said that playing catcher in early in his baseball career made the move to infield smoother.

“First base is one of the easier transitions to make,” Paine said. “You pretty much stretch and catch the ball. I was used to catching 90-mph fastballs coming at my face, so catch-ing groundballs was an easier transition.”

Powers has the second-high-est batting average, after Paine with .301. Powers has started at first base for most of the

season and said he’ll be playing catcher for the Hornets because of injuries as Paine gets a shot at infield.

“He’s taking it head on,” Pow-ers said. “He’s always giving a good effort everyday at practice. He’s getting a lot more oppor-tunities.”

For a player who is leading the Hornets in several catego-ries this year, Powers said he enjoys being on the field with Paine.

“He’s always having fun at practice and at the games,” Powers said. “We have a good relationship just talking about our position and how we hit that day. He’s just a fun guy.”

With a good first half of the season, Paine has set some team and individual goals to continue his success for the rest of the season.

“For a team goal, I want to make it in to the WAC Tourna-ment and win it,” Paine said. “I know that we’re more than ca-pable of doing it. But for myself, I want to go out there everyday and help our team win. I’m not really concerned about the stat sheet.”

A ‘Paineless’ transition from mound for Hornet sluggerBy Marshall Hampson

[email protected]

tony nguyen State Hornet

Junior Infielder Trevor Paine takes a swing at the ball against Hawaii on April 17 at Hornet Field.

Tennis: Teams sweep matches; now off to NCAA Tournament

Continued | page B3

yana yaroSHeviCH State Hornet

Marko Starcevic returns the ball during the Big Sky Championships Saturday.

Continued | page B3

Boyce: Sophomore will cheer on team from the sidelines

A majority of schools avoid the second prong because of fi-nancial costs and they avoid the third because if its vagueness. This is where the 2005 interpre-tation of Title IX comes in.

The 2005 interpretation of Title IX attempted to lessen the ambiguity of the third prong of the test by requiring schools to take surveys to measure their students’ interests in athletic programs. Then, based on the results of the survey rather than enrollment, they decide to cre-ate or take away sports.

Schools were using the new interpretation as a scapegoat to avoid following Title IX rules and regulations.

While the 2005 interpretation failed to accurately define the third prong, organizations like the College Sports Council are still pushing for Title IX to be revisited.

Bryan Knepper, wrestling head coach at Middle Ten-nessee State University, said controversy surrounds Title IX because its original intent was to prevent gender discrimina-

tion in athletics.He said the law, in its current

form, guarantees discrimina-tion.

“It basically all comes down to proportionality,” he said. “When Title IX came into ef-fect we saw schools in late ‘70s early ‘80s getting rid of male programs to make things ap-pear equitable under the intent of adding women’s programs. That’s not providing opportuni-ties for women, that’s taking away opportunities for men.”

The United States Depart-ment of Education conducted a commission report for opportu-nities in athletics titled, “Open to All: Title IX at Thirty.” In the report, Corey Bray, NCAA’s assistant director of research for educational services, said her research found that on a per school basis, the number of male athletes has decreased by 7.7 percent between 1981 and 2000. The number of female athletes has increased over that time frame by 52.6 percent.

Knepper said he supports Title IX in the respect that it provides opportunities for women’s sports, yet he feels it

has not worked and is inher-ently sexist. The law should be altered so that providing women’s sports doesn’t mean taking away men’s sports, he said.

“Numerous cases have been brought to the regional circuit courts and to courts of appeal to revamp Title IX,” he said. “But each ruling came down in favor of the law, saying that it’s OK that it’s made it legal to discrimi-nate.”

Knepper said if courts were to stop focusing on being politically correct and rather on the actual issue at hand, a solution could be reached.

“Whenever people hear anything against Title IX, they think its obstructing women’s sports,” he said. “That’s not the case here. If sports helped get more women in college, it was a positive thing. Why take it away from men?”

Knepper said Title IX is also beginning to have a negative impact on women’s sports.

“When the women’s softball team in Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego complained about

their softball field and facili-ties not being equitable to that of the men’s baseball team, the school responded with cutting three men’s sports and the women’s softball team,” Knep-per said. “They met Title IX and didn’t have to spend money rebuilding.”

The commission also reported that Carol Zaleski, former president and executive director of USA Swimming, said Title IX has evolved into something that was never intended.

“The act was intended to expand opportunity,” Zaleski said in the report. “The inter-pretation by the Office for Civil Rights and the evolved enforce-ment has turned into a quota program. Title IX is a good law with bad interpretation.”

In the same report, Marty Mankamyer, president of the United States Olympics Committee, warned that if the elimination of programs con-tinues, the consequences will be evident by the absence of American athletes on the med-als podium at future Olympic games.

Nevertheless, the courts have stood a strong ground when it comes to maintaining Title IX in its current form.

Sac State softball head coach Kathy Strahan said enabling schools to balance Title IX without cutting programs at the present time was unrealistic due to the economic climate in the country.

Strahan said the law has worked well to bring quality to school athletics for both men and women.

“If before Title IX a school had 19 men’s sports and one woman’s sport, it’s not going to be allowed to have 19 women sports and one men’s sport after Title IX. It’s balanced,” Strahan said.

Macriss said for Sac State, it is not a question of advantage or disadvantages, but that Title IX is a law the athletics department works hard to follow.

“We work very hard to raise money through fundraising ticket sales, through any avenue that we can so we can provide as good as an opportunity as we can for both the man and women on this campus,” Mac-riss said. “It is and has always been vision and mission of this campus to have a broad base of athletics for all its contestants.”

WEdNESdAy - ApRil 28 SpORTS SEcTiON STATEHORNET.cOm B5

It is absolutely ridiculous how professional athletes can’t stay in their homes with their mil-lions of dollars and just watch Sports Center at night instead of getting arrested.

There have been numer-ous cases of athletes getting in trouble with the law, and it is becoming annoying. Gilbert Arenas, Plaxico Burress, Ben Roethlisberger, Donte Stall-worth and many more have a tough time spending their time and money on good things.

Doesn’t it seem like an easy concept? Get your huge check in the mail and go to bed at a decent hour because you have practice or a game the next morning. If I got paid that much, I’d have fun enjoying my lifestyle instead of shoot-ing myself in the leg or killing someone while driving drunk.

Maybe I don’t know because I’m not in their shoes. But when an opportunity comes up, like getting millions of dollars, don’t take it for granted.

Our society has become so consumed by what athletes do on the field of play that what they do off does not matter. It is for that reason athletes have problems staying out of trouble.

They are idolized in college and are not made to be respon-

sible because of their talent.When they are drafted into

a professional league, they are idolized even more and have everything done for them by a paid staff.

They are instantly considered a role model for younger ath-letes and children.

This is so contrary to logical thinking that it reminds me of a Newsweek article written by David Gelmen.

Gelmen points out a televi-sion commercial where Charles Barkley said, “I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court.”

Barkley’s statement is the most logical thing I have ever heard from a professional athlete. When we put athletes

on a pedestal, we ignore their off-the-field indiscretions and go about our business.

When I heard Ben Roethlis-berger of the Pittsburgh Steelers was having legal issues again, I was not surprised. Roeth-lisberger was suspended for six games by the NFL for an alleged incident with a young woman in a nightclub restroom. A classic example of an athlete thinking he can do whatever he wants because of who he is.

I dare someone to point out one athlete being responsible, because I can easily point out 10 others who are not.

We need to steer children away from professional athletes and actually be that example we want them to follow.

By Marshall [email protected]

By Matt [email protected]

On Second Thought: Athletes

behaving badlyWhaT makes iT so hard for some aThleTes To sTay ouT of

Trouble? members of The sporTs sTaff chime in

Continued | page B3

Title IX: Coach says women’s sports impacted negatively

MCClatCHy tribune

This graph displays sports participation by gender in high schools and college.

WEdNESdAy - ApRil 28 SpORTS SEcTiON STATEHORNET.cOmB6

Issue 13 - Spring 2010 - State Hornet

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Transcript of Issue 13 - Spring 2010 - State Hornet