Lauren Rabaino

Faculty votes to cut its own wages by 10 percent

In a nearly split vote, about 8,800 California Faculty Association (CFA)  members decided to cut their own wages by 10 percent this week.

The California State University (CSU) and the CFA finalized agreements Wednesday on two-day per month faculty furloughs — non-work days without compensation –  in the vote that passed by 54 percent.

The CSU will save about half of the $584 million budget deficit through the furloughs. Of that total, Cal Poly will save approximately $16 million .

As a Cal Poly lecturer of 12 years, Sherrie Amido had to decide between the possibility of her job being cut or everyone’s salary being reduced.

“I couldn’t imagine myself standing up in front of the classroom and letting my students ask me why I couldn’t take a 10 percent pay cut, when they may have a 30 percent tuition increase,” she said. Continue reading →

Cal Poly on track for full Web accessibility by 2012

Looking into Laura Weiss’s piercing blue eyes, you’d never guess that she’s blind.

Although she sometimes returns the gaze — a habit she picked up from the first 30 years of her life when she still had vision — all Weiss can see now are faint blurs in her peripheral vision.

It’s this characteristic that places Weiss, a social sciences junior, among the 71 students at Cal Poly categorized as “disabilities students” who rely on compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to receive an education.

The law was passed in 1998 and outlaws discrimination against people with disabilities. Recent revisions involving electronic compatibility have forced the California State University to adopt a system-wide goal of achieving full ADA compliance for all digital information by 2012. Continue reading →

“Power Wheels guy” takes senior project to the streets

A picture of a student sitting in what appeared to be a children’s Power Wheels vehicle being ticketed by three San Luis Obispo Police Department motorcycles and one University Police Department SUV gained viral popularity on Twitter last week and was plastered on the front page of the Mustang Daily with a headline that read “Little wheels cause a big deal.” Continue reading →

Cal Poly refrains from issuing online policies for athletes

With the rise of social networking Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, all it takes is one incriminating photo for a student athlete to potentially lose a scholarship or be kicked off a team. And it’s not just hypothetical. There are numerous examples of athletes being punished for pictures or words published on the Internet, depicting misdeeds ranging from hazing to underage drinking.

Because the risks are so high, athletic departments across the country are increasingly re-evaluating their policies.

Cal Poly, however, does not have an official policy and probably never will, athletics director Alison Cone said.

Just because the university hasn’t implemented a formal policy, though, doesn’t mean school officials aren’t concerned about the hazards.

Beginning with the recruiting process, Shannon Stephens, the athletics department director of Academic Services, warns athletes of the dangers in the evolving cyber world.

“You get into this kind of freedom-of-speech thing at a public university,” Stephens said. “Then, at the same time, you have the mission statement of the athletics department and the institution.”

Cases necessitating such warnings have taken on many forms. Continue reading →

Chain-stores and downloading threaten the future of the independent record store

Photo taken by Lauren Rabaino

When Morninglory Music, a record store in downtown Santa Barbara, recently closed its doors for good, owner Stan Bernstein attributed the decision to the growing number of people who download music illegally online. But in San Luis Obispo, independent record stores see another problem: commercial retailers. Continue reading →

Harsh economic times hit SLO

When local hotels didn’t sell out for graduation in June, the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce saw its first signs of an economic crisis.

“For the first time ever, we had hotels calling us with availability,” said Lindsey Miller, marketing director at the chamber of commerce. “Usually they sold out in January.”

According to Miller, occupancy was down six percent in June, and when tourism is down, locally-owned shops feel the impact.

“Traveling is the first thing you cut; it’s kind of a frivolous expenditure,” Miller said.

Tourism is what keeps some businesses – like downtown boutique French Quarter – thriving over the summer months when students are gone.

“I think it helps that it’s a tourist city,” said Brittney Durr, a sales associate at French Quarter. “If we didn’t have any tourism, we wouldn’t really have any income (in the summer).” Continue reading →