04.15.10_web

By Serena LeeStaff Writer

Miscommunication among A.S. councilmembers regarding the Grove Cafe’s health rating temporarily obstructed plans to allow dining dollars to be used as a form of payment at the strug-gling eatery earlier this month.

Bringing dining dollars to the Grove is part of the coun-cil’s ongoing attempt to revital-ize its lagging enterprise, which reopened in January after a brief remodeling period.

At the final student coun-cil meeting of Winter Quarter, Vice President of Finance and Resources Peter Benesch announced that dining dollars would be accepted at the cafe beginning Spring Quarter.

However, rumors that the Grove had received a ‘B’ health rating postponed the council’s efforts.

In spring of 2009, the Grove — which is currently about $130,000 dollars in debt — received a ‘B’ rat-ing from the UCSD Environment,

Health & Safety Department due to sanitation issues, accord-ing to UCSD health inspector Jeff Eisnert. EH&S is responsible for UCSD’s food-facility inspec-tion program, which is designed to protect the public from food-borne illnesses.

Permanent food facilities on campus are inspected and rated by EH&S four times a year.

During a health inspection last Winter Quarter — one year after the ‘B’ rating — councilmembers were worried the cafe would again receive a ‘B’.

This sparked a rumor that such a rating had already been assigned. According to Eisnert, the Grove earned a ‘B’ during its Feb. 10 inspection, but has restored the grade to an ‘A’ by a March 1 inspection.

However, councilmembers were unaware of the results, allow-ing rumors to eventually reach Housing, Dining & Hospitality Director Mark Cunningham. Because HDH has a strict policy

THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010 WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORGVOLUME XLII, ISSUE XLVI

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By Ruba AkelContributing Writer

After the attorney general’s office re-worded the description of the California Democracy Act in November, the proposed amendment — a ballot measure would simplify legislative vot-ing guidelines — has been withdrawn. Professor George Lakoff of UC Berkeley, author of the mea-sure, announced April 7 that he will rewrite the legislation and resubmit it by the June 24 deadline

for consideration on the November ballot.

If passed, the act would repeal the requie-ment that any bill in the state legislature related to budget issues be passed with a two-thirds major-ity. Instead, budgetary decisions would only require the ‘yes’ vote of over 50 percent of leg-islators in order to pass.

Chris Ah San, stu-dent director of the California Democracy Act Coalition, said alter-ing the rule will allow majority legislators to

make decisions on topics like increasing state funding for public higher education.

“The source of the problem is minority rule,” Lakoff said.

The initiative required 694,354 signatures to be placed on the November ballot. Ah San said the coalition received approximately 60,000 of the necessary signatures.

Lakoff withdrew the measure after California Attorney General Jerry Brown reworded the proposal’s official summary in a way that Lakoff claims is misleading and negative. In California, the attorney general can reword both a proposi-tion’s title and purpose however he chooses.

The original summary stated: “All legisla-tive actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.” Brown changed the summary to read: “Changes legislative vote requirement to pass a budget or raise taxes from two-thirds to a simple majority.”

California Attorney General press secretary Christine Gasparac said the office rarely uses the wording provided by the author of the bill.

“We try to provide a fair wording that isn’t biased in favor of whoever proposed the mea-sure,” she said.

Gasparac added that Lakoff ’s reference to the word “taxes” was based on the findings of a chief analyst, who examined the bill and determined that the measure would most likely result in an increase in taxes, not revenue — which is defined as the

See DEMOCRACY page 6

After a year of paying rent with-out a lease agreement, the student-run co-operatives at

UCSD — the Che Cafe Collective, the UCSD Food Co-operative, Groundwork Books and the UCSD General Store Co-operative — will meet with officials from University Centers on April 16 to request a com-plete alleviation of rent responsibilities.

According to Andrew Rubens, a member of the G-Store, the co-ops plan to request rent-free spaces because they consider themselves to be com-munities — not businesses with the goal of generating profits.

“A business should pay rent because they’re making money, but our pur-pose is to educate and promote a cli-mate of awareness and higher learning

for students,” Rubens said. “Within that context, is it is absurd to ask a nonprofit — whose entire goal and existence is to benefit students, and which is made up of students — to pay the same rent as another business would.”

The former lease agreement, from 2006, applies to all the co-ops, but each

ERIKA JOHNSON/GUARDIAN

The “Transurbanic” exhibit in the University Art Gallery combines contemporary Mexican art forms with surrealist elements to create 3-D interactive displays.

See GROVE, page 6

Hit hard by corporate competition, the Student Centerco-ops are asking for a break. By Sarah Smith

See CO-OPS, page 3

ANDREW OH/GUARDIAN

51%of legislative votes needed to pass revenue decisions, if act is passed

60,000signatures gathered by the CDA coalition

694,354signatures needed for act to be placed on November ballot

Proponents of the proposal need nearly 700,000 signatures to get the CDA on the ballot.

HIATUSTake a quick trip south.Page 7

PHILIP RHIE/GUARDIAN

2 THE UCSD GUARDIAN THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010 NEWS

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STEFANY CHEN/GUARDIAN

By Henry BeckerStaff Writer

Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have cre-ated an underwater vehicle powered by thermal energy, which they say could run indefinitely.

“We can take energy out of the environment without harming it in an underwater vehicle,” Scripps oceanog-rapher Russ Davis said.

The Scripps team worked with the Jet Propulsion Lab — an organiza-tion based in Pasadena, Calif. — to engineer an eight-foot-tall, 180-pound cylinder that runs on natural and renewable energy from the ocean.

The new design can dive at a more frequent basis than the old one — dur-ing its three-month trial, the new ves-sel made over 300 dives, whereas the old model was capable of making only 12 dives in that amount of time. The ability to collect data faster, Davis said, could aid in monitoring worldwide cli-mate change. He said his team hopes

to eventually deploy the vessel to replace many of the some 3,000 similar buoys currently scattered across the ocean. The buoys are part of the Argo project, which aims to track seasonal changes in ocean temperature, salinity and velocity.

The new vehicle draws on the energy generated from the natural temperature differences found at dif-ferent oceanic depths — from the warm waters of the surface to the cold waters closer to the bottom — to recharge its built-in battery.

The charge cycle begins when the battery turns on a motor that pulses oil into a bag at the bottom of the cylinder — which then changes the buoyancy of the vehicle and allows it to rise or fall. As the vessel rises from the middle depths of the ocean, it reaches warmer waters at the top.

A temperature-sensitive wax stored in cylinders throughout the vessel melts and expands when it comes into contact with this thermal energy, and pushes the oil back through the tur-

bine so it can recharge the battery. When the vessel’s buoyancy

changes due to the new balance of oil, it drops back into the ocean and the wax contracts and solidifies — starting the process over again.

“Similar things have been done by using oil for buoyancy, but this is the first time we’ve made a thermal motor for it,” engineer Kyle Grindley said.

According to Davis, this new method of powering the machines will allow vehicles to explore and study the ocean for extended periods of time.

“This technology to harvest energy from the ocean will have huge impli-cations for how we can measure and monitor the ocean and its influence on climate,” Davis said.

The new design was born from one of two originally proposed blue-prints. The other design would have been capable of horizontal movement through the water, acting as a glider through the ocean.

According to Davis, the Scripps team may eventually be able to imple-

ment this design as well, opening a new range of movement in perpetual ocean travel.

“This is the great thrill of my life,” Davis said. “We’ve been involved in the ‘Rush Limbaugh’ fight in whether the world has been warming or not.”

Next, the Scripps team will re-examine the vessel in an attempt to streamline its complex interior, decrease costs and lower the weight of the vessel to 50 pounds — the current weight of the buoys being utilized in the Argo project.

Readers can contact Henry Becker at [email protected].

NEWS THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010 THE UCSD GUARDIAN 3

one calculates its rent based on square footage. Based on that evaluation, the monthly rent has been $1,450.97 for the G-Store, $521.70 for the Food Co-op, $84.00 for the Che Cafe and $788.55 for Groundwork Books.

Food Co-op core member Sarah Latoski said that, because the mort-gages for the co-op buildings have been paid off, co-ops shouldn’t have to pay rent apart from utilities and insurance.

“I don’t think it’s unrea-sonable for us to be paying some sort of nominal fee for monthly maintenance, but I don’t think we should be paying rent, because it’s just profit for the univer-sity,” Latoski said.

The space agreement between the university and the co-ops is normal-ly renegotiated every two years. When the agreement was revisited in the 2008-09 school year, however, the co-ops refused to sign an amendment to the con-tract that would have clari-fied the property lines of Groundwork and the G-Store.

Though Latoski said the amend-ment was largely inconsequential, co-op members refused to sign the revised contract in order to make a statement about rent prices at the time. They were not aware that not signing the proposal would void the lease.

“We collectively decided in the [co-op] union to not sign the amend-ment, to make a gesture to the univer-sity that we aren’t happy with the lease agreement,” Latoski said.

In response, the University Centers Advisory Board reverted the agree-ment with the co-ops to a month-to-month rental plan. While long-term leases require a landlord to provide just cause before an eviction can be carried out, paying rent on such a short-term basis gives the university

greater control over the space.“The month-to-month plan puts us

in a vulnerable position with the uni-versity because at any point, they can give us an eviction notice,” Latoski said.

The co-ops are now looking to negotiate an agreement with University Centers that would either significantly reduce their rent or eliminate it entirely. According to Director of University Centers Paul Terzino, this is not the first time the co-ops have requested

such a reduction.“They’ve made a simi-

lar request to reduce rent in the past, and every time they submit a request, I ask to see their finan-cial statements to get an understanding of how well they’re doing, how well the stores are doing — and I have not received that,” Terzino said.

Terzino added that if the co-ops do not bring financial statements to Friday’s meeting, no negotiation of rent prices will take place.

According to Latoski, the absence of financial statements is due to the co-ops’ communication problems with accountants hired from outside the university, as well as a com-puter failure that erased all accounting records at the Food Co-op last quarter.

“I wasn’t planning on [bringing financial statements],” Latoski said.

Although Terzino said he is open to reducing rent for the co-ops, he said that eliminating payments entirely is unlikely due to the financial woes cur-rently weighing on University Centers.

According to Terzino, around 65 percent of the department’s funding come from student fees, while the rest is derived from rent or retail — UCAB oversees both the old Student Center and Price Center, so part of its revenue comes from enterprises like the UCSD Bookstore and the UCSD

Bike Shop. Eliminating one of those sources entirely could have a nega-tive effect on University Center’s func-tions, which are already strained.

Terzino added that learning to bal-ance a budget — including rent — is part of running a student business.

According to Latoski, however, the co-ops have seen a dramatic decrease in revenue since the expansion of Price Center and the renovations that took place in the Student Center in 2005. The Food Co-op and the Che Cafe have already eliminated paid positions to become entirely volunteer-based, and are still unable to sustain them-selves at current rent prices.

“We have been paying rent,” Latoski said. “What we’ve realized, though, is that — through paying rent — we are not able to financially sup-port ourselves as we’re able to without the rent there. I agree it’s a part of the learning process, but what we’ve learned is that we can’t do it.”

Rubens said that some co-ops’ daily net values dropped from about $1,000 a day to $200 a day during the 2005 renovations. Remodeling efforts, for example, shut down some co-ops for days, and electrical and plumbing re-wiring temporarily blocked access to the Food Co-op’s kitchen.

“Two years of us being invisible to the student eye — that was a whole generation of students who didn’t ever know about us,” Latoski said. “There are students who come in here now and they’re in their fourth year, and they’re like, ‘This is the first time I’ve been here because I’ve never walked through the old Student Center.’”

Determining whether the co-ops are financially solvent is the respon-sibility of the A.S. Council and the Graduate Student Association, accord-ing to the 2006 space agreement. Before the newly drafted agreement can go before UCAB for approval, the A.S. council and the GSA have to

My fully-charged Mac bat-tery usually drains after at least four hours of

rapid notetaking on the drama of the weekly A.S. Council meeting; tonight, though, it didn’t even reach 50 percent before the final roll call was announced.

Audible gasps filled the A.S. Forum as the Week Three meeting ended at 7:30 p.m.

2007-08 A.S. President Marco Murillo made an appearance, con-gratulating both the council and current president Utsav Gupta for “taking a lot of heat from the Koala,” and dealing effectively under pres-sure in front of the student body.

In member reports, Associate Vice President of Student Services Meredith Madnick showed a cute lit-tle advertisement, shot in the CLICS library, for the Amp energy drink, a product of Triton Television.

Vice President of External Affairs Gracelynne West announced that there would be a state voter regis-tration drive. She said she hopes to gather at least 1,500 signatures.

Marshall Chair Tanvir Dhillon shared plans to provide an all-college free hot dog on a stick to all near the day of Sun God.

The February demands of the Black Student Union asked for a formation of committees with both administrative and student represen-tation. Campuswide Senator Bryant Pena announced his position on one of these committees, which focuses on creating a mandatory diversity course requirement for all the colleges.

Transfer Senator Adam Powers presented a PowerPoint slide regard-ing the Villagers — his affectionate

name for the residents of the new transfer-student on-campus housing.

His presentation highlighted the various Village events and their suc-cess rate, gauged by surveys he hand-ed out at last week’s barbeque event.

The A.S. meeting was virtu-ally empty, and a call for quorum revealed that, for the second week in a row, only 18 voting members were present — one more than needed for

quorum. Advocate gen-

eral Parminder Sandhu gave a warning about absences, and promised to bring them to the table

at next week’s meeting.In a report from the finance com-

mittee, Gupta justified the hiring of an athletics consultant for $28,000 to investigate both Division-I sports teams and a football team at UCSD. The council will fund $7,000 of the consultant’s salary from Enterprise Income, while the rest will be split between the athletics department, the chancellor’s fund and the vice chancellor’s fund.

“[The consultant] was the most experienced and most afford-able option… and in tune with the NCAA, and the knowledge of requirements to play,” Gupta said.

VP of Finance and Resources Peter Benesch had good news for the Sun God Festival: He pointed to an unused $1,000 line item on the executive budget. It was meant for the student-government bridge program, which would have been used to trans-port A.S. council out of San Diego to bond with other communities.

“Well, there’s a need for a Sun God water slide, so we’re going to put those funds to good use on May 13,” Benesch said.

NewKELSEY [email protected]

Business

▶ CO-OP, from page 1

“I agree that paying rent is a part of the learning process, but what we’ve learned is that we can’t do it.”

SARAH LATOSKIEMPLOYEE, FOOD

CO-OP AND CHE CAFE

See LEASE, page 6

[email protected]

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Flops to the Arizona legislature for passing an anti-immigration bill that will demand documentation from anyone that police

suspect could be an illegal immigrant.

No.

4 THE UCSD GUARDIAN WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG/OPINIONTHURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010

Out of 44 votes I don’t know.

STEFANY CHEN/GUARDIAN

We may have entered the 21st century of civil disobedience,

but — while hundreds of stu-dents can still get away with an occupation of the chancellor’s office — our antiquated admin-istration doesn’t seem to take kindly to a little virtual rebellion from one of their own.

The UCSD Audit & Management Advisory Services is currently investigating UCSD visual-arts professor Ricardo Dominguez for staging a Virtual Sit-In, during which he and about 400 others hacked into the UCOP Web site, where they created error messages like “There is no justice at the University of California Office of the President.” Already in a bit of trouble since he developed a cell-phone application to help illegal immigrants cross the U.S. border, Dominguez now faces losing his tenure — which would make it much easier for the university to eliminate him altogether.

Ironically, holding Virtual

Sit-Ins is exactly the kind of behavior that helped Dominguez land his job here in 2005. The professor is renowned for his Internet protests — particularly, a successful 1998 attempt to shut down a Mexican government’s Web site.

The only difference between Dominguez’ prior activities and the incident now threatening his job, of course, is his choice of targets. Now that the impeccable UCOP reputation is at stake, Dominguez’s ACS account was shut down and officials have ini-tiated an investigation. Whatever that means.

Of course, the university has every legal right to continue an investigation of Dominguez — and, if that investigation yields just cause, is also entitled to strip him of his tenure.

But whether Dominguez technically broke the law isn’t our primary concern. What’s at stake is the preservation of dis-senting opinions within the uni-versity setting. Higher education is about challenging preexisting ideas and using the resources around us to form your own opinions about the world. Before university higher-ups choose whether to press charges, they should first consider the mes-sage they’re sending. By termi-nating a well-loved and highly

valued visual arts professor or taking any measures to silence his (particularly well-thought) dissent, the university is saying its image takes precedence over its responsibility to educate. We’re not here to get a cookie-cutter representation of life according to the UCOP; we’re paying to exist in an institution where we have diverse opin-ions, the freedom to think and say what we want and — most importantly — someone who will teach us to question the way things are.

Let’s stop a second and take this protest out of its virtual context. If Dominguez had, for example, disrupted UCOP’s day-to-day business by holding a nonviolent two-hour sit-in at their headquarters in Oakland, there would be no question of him losing his tenure. At worst, security would have called the police and he’d have been removed from the property and fined for trespassing — or, more likely, the whole thing would have blown over along with the rest of the demonstrations that took place that day.

So, it becomes apparent that the university is jumping at the chance to punish a protester — despite the fact that Dominguez insists he didn’t technically vio-late the law.

As Dominguez was hired on the basis that Virtual Sit-Ins were part of his M.O. — and was liked enough to be granted ten-ure in 2009 — this latest inves-tigation is made all the more catty. The university is trying to expel him for what he was hired to do. Should Dominguez lose his tenure, it will send an intimi-dating message to all other fac-ulty members who rightfully use their university resources daily to lecture on the downfalls of this institution. And we all know Dominguez isn’t the only one.

Problem is, virtual protests like his exist in a judicial gray area. If administrators think the best way to punish Dominguez’ dissent is to take away his tenure (a very rare occurrence, usu-ally in response to more serious wrongdoings such as sexual mis-conduct), it’s devaluing the kind of opposing viewpoints that make our education worthwhile.

Ironically enough, with all the national press Dominguez has garnered, he’s actually helped boost the university’s image; he’s publicized the fact that we’re a thinking, artful bunch — not just the square-eyed engineers and lab rats of tomorrow. Pick your battles, UCSD. This one only publicizes your staunch desire to sterilize our college experience.

Because I am a nerd, watching “Lost” holds a fairly prominent position in my top-five list

of things to do whenever possible. Because I am a nerd who commits, the vigor and tenacity with which I pursue this activity is rivaled only by the vigor and tenacity with which I read comic strips, visit Wikipedia and think about Princess Leia naked.

Oddly enough, my fascination with the greatest television show

ever has rarely proven beneficial to me outside the realm of my own Cheeto-stained self-indulgence. I cannot list “Big fan of ‘Lost’” as a qualification on my resume. I have never successfully introduced the Dharma Initiative into a conversation about modern scientific exploration. And, despite my dashing good looks, women tend to step slowly away when I begin discussing the mysteries of the Island.

“What do you think the statue is?”“I really don’t know what you’re

talking about.”“The one with four toes.”“I’m gonna go now.”This in mind, it has recently

occurred to me that my relation-ship with “Lost” may be somewhat unhealthy. According to my calcula-tions, I have spent roughly 120 hours of my life watching the show, roughly 42 hours thinking about it, roughly 23 hours thinking about how much I think about it and roughly 16 hours trying to understand the concept of irony.

This is, of course, in addition to the eight-month period during which I discussed the show at length with my former roommate, who — after being hit by a truck and prescribed massive amounts of Vicodin — could formulate theories about the smoke monster for days at a time without moving from the couch. He was the greatest friend I ever had.

Now, with only six episodes left in the series, my obsession has peaked. “Fan” is no longer an adequate description of my association with the show. Rather, I tend to think of myself as a disciple — a devoted fol-lower hand-picked to receive the vast wealth of sci-fi awesomeness sure to pour from these final episodes. The journey has been long and strenuous; the Hulu sessions have been rife with emotion; the damage to my social life has been considerable.

As with any great obsession, however, comes the inevitable pull of desperation. Like a junkie torn from his fix or an unpopular kid torn from his Xbox, I will soon be separated from “Lost” forever — left to pore aimlessly over reruns and the fast-approaching barrage of weirdo fan fiction sure to spring from the show’s ashes.

This sad realization has left me to contemplate the exact mechanisms by which I may cope with losing such an important part of my life. As I see it, my best options are as follows:

1) Maroon myself on a tropical island and spend the next six years re-enacting the entire show.

REZA [email protected]

Head MeetsGround

See GROUND page 5

EDITOR IN CHIEF

MANAGING EDITORS

NEWS EDITORS

OPINION EDITOR

The UCSD Guardian is published twice a week at the University of California at San Diego. Contents © 2010. Views expressed herein represent the majority

vote of the editorial board and are not necessarily those of the UC Board of Regents, the ASUCSD or

the members of the Guardian staff.

OPINION THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010 THE UCSD GUARDIAN 5

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DRAWING FIRE By Johan DeLaTorre

Dear Editor,

On this 95th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, what can we say? A charismatic President Barack Obama — who provided the most promising language to acknowledge the Armenian genocide in decades — proved to be a major disappoint-ment. This is not “what change looks like.”

His administration put more effort into preventing the March 4 House resolution acknowledging the geno-cide from going to a full vote — and into encouraging Turkish-Armenian protocols that have done nothing to further relations or border improve-ment between those nations. At best, Turkey merely tolerates Armenia in these diplomatic dances.

Yet how much more proof does the world need to know the Armenian genocide was real? Bob Simon of “60 Minutes” digging up the bones of our deported, death-marched ancestors in the Der Zor desert of Syria last month? Our remaining genocide sur-vivors in wheelchairs still commemo-rating the genocide around the world, because the photographs of their mur-dered family members propel them to show up for the truth? Insurance policies from New York Life, accounts from Deutsche Bank and Ottoman Empire land deeds — all belonging to Armenians who were killed, with no way for surviving family members to make a claim?

None of this makes Turkey look very good. Neither does Prime Minister Recep Erdogan’s March 18 flippant remarks about deporting 100,000 Armenians from Turkey. Now, for various reasons, Turkey finds itself on the bad side of Israel, the U.S. and other nations. Extremist Muslims who see Turkey as too secular or west-

ern are creating an environment of danger there, such that travel alerts are currently being issued warning U.S. citizens not to travel to Turkey.

Only when the world cares enough about this issue will the Turkish government feel, perhaps, enough pressure to face the truth — because it certainly doesn’t have that moral compass within. This editorialist and others have spent years citing all the common statistics of how many mil-lion Armenians were lost in 1915, how many American and European diplo-mats and missionaries wrote firsthand accounts of the Armenian genocide they witnessed in various villages, how Turkey has denied the truth in many ways and how many other regimes have studied the Armenian genocide to plan their own destructive agendas. There are many Web sites available to study those statistics including www.armenian-genocide.org.

We Armenians are again deeply disappointed to have our hopes raised, then dashed; to hear promises made to us that are not fulfilled and see other nations’ economic agendas crowding out the needs of our own homeland. Others may say our coun-try is not the only one who experi-ences such disappointments and that we should join the club.

Join the club? Friends, Armenia started the club.

—Lisa KirazianResident, San Diego

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

▶ The Guardian welcomes letters from its readers. All letters must be no longer than 500 words, typed, double-spaced and signed with a name and applicable title. Letters must also contain a phone number. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. Letters may be dropped off at the Guardian office on the second floor of the Student Center or e-mailed. Send all letters to:

The UCSD GuardianOpinion Editor

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e-mail: [email protected]

This would be pretty weird, and would likely have some negative effects on my relationships with my parents, my friends and anyone I ever meet for the rest of my life. On the upside, there’s a good chance that — after a few months of social isolation and the rigors of surviving in the wild — I would absorb my delusion entirely and begin to hal-lucinate, thus enhancing the realism of the whole experience.

As a bonus, this would also set me up perfectly to be the subject of a successful Oliver Stone movie. I would be played by Jonah Hill, and my love interest would be por-

trayed by Natalie Portman dressed as Queen Amidala. The sex scenes alone would merit an oscar nomi-nation

2) Obsessively stalk the show’s principal cast members.

Also weird, though less likely to end with me starving to death than Option one. Despite popular mis-conception, the stalking of celebri-ties is in fact a noble pursuit that can further one’s academic study of a particular character or work of fiction. It would also potentially give me the opportunity to spend some time in prison — a condition that would allow me to live out the excitement of Ben’s captivity in the

hatch during Season Two, or Jack’s imprisonment on Hydra Island dur-ing Season Three.

3) Start a “Lost” blog.I am not that big of a loser.4) Find a new show to watch.A distinct possibility, though

carrying around the kind of emo-tional baggage sure to come with my traumatic “Lost” breakup will render me wholly incapable of appreciating action, intrigue or witty dialogue in any form for at least four years. As it stands, I’d rather find a new pile of decompos-ing animal parts to stare at, which would be at least as good as any-thing else on ABC.

▶ GROUND,


of only allowing dining dollars to be accepted by eateries with an ‘A’ health rating, the misunderstanding stalled the project indefinitely.

“We are trying to figure out why we were told something that doesn’t seem to be true anymore,” Benesch said of the misunderstanding.

Associate Vice President of Enterprise Operations Rishi Ghosh attributed the confusion surrounding the Grove’s situation to poor com-munication between the council and Thomas Frank, student manager at the cafe.

“There has been a lack of com-munication from Tom Frank, a lack

of communication with [the A.S. Council], and repeated attempts by [the council] to make that communication with him,” Ghosh said. “In [the coun-cil], we are all very concerned with his performance and his lack of response.”

Benesch said that, by working with Cunningham, he has already resolved the logistical problems fac-ing the Grove — such as conver-sion between cash, dining dollars and Triton Cash — and that the health rating is the sole remaining factor preventing the dining-dollar pro-gram from being implemented.

Benesch, who has not yet com-municated with Ghosh on the situ-ation, added that once Eisnert offi-

cially clarifies the health rating and assesses a report, the Grove will have a dining-dollar option implemented within a week.

“The only thing that slowed down our progress was the health rating,” Benesch said. “If it wasn’t for that, we literally already had a document ready to be signed between HDH and the Grove. All it would take is just a quick visit from some of HDH’s engi-neers, and dining dollars would have been in there in a day or two.”

Frank could not be reached for comment.

Readers can contact Serena Lee at [email protected].

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state’s total income. Lakoff said he intends to make

the act’s wording more specific before resubmission. In the new legislation, the ‘purpose’ section will state that the intent of the legislation is to bring democracy to the California legislature through majority rule, not to raise taxes. Ah San said the use of “taxes” instead of “revenue” could hurt the act’s chances of passing in November.

“There’s a big difference between raising revenue and raising taxes,” Ah San said. “We did a lot of polling on the language and discovered that when people hear ‘raise taxes’ they hear ‘raise my taxes.’”

According to Ah San, the coalition’s polls revealed that support for the bill dropped from 73 percent to 38 percent

in response to Brown’s wording. He added that withdrawing the act for a rewrite would allow the wording to be more specific, and said the coalition would be working to revamp support for the new wording of the act.

“Unfortunately, what we discovered in polls we had taken is that, not only is the language that the attorney gen-eral submitted incredibly misleading, [but] there is also a lot of party politics involved with the act,” he said.

Ah San said the legislative approv-al process — including collecting new signatures — must begin from scratch for the new wording.

“Legally, we can’t use the same signatures that we already collected because they were used for a different ballot summary,” San said.

The UCSD chapter of the coali-

tion is also working to increase sup-port on campus: Chapter director and A.S. President-elect Wafa Ben Hassine said she is trying to raise new awareness, because the act will be vital to widespread accessibility to higher education.

“My biggest concern is seeing affordable education available for everyone,” Ben Hassine said.

Lakoff said he plans to raise money to pay professional signature-gatherers. However, if the required signatures are not received, the act may carry over to the next election.

“This is going to be an ongoing educational process, whether it quali-fies for this year or not,” Lakoff said.

Readers can contact Ruba Akel at [email protected].

▶ DEMOCRACY, from page 1

▶ GROVE, from page 1

certify that the co-ops are beneficial to the student body by verifying that they are financially sound, maintain quality of service and products, and are allow-ing students input in co-op managing.

GSA President Alex James said he is not concerned with the co-ops’ abil-ity to meet those terms.

“[If they are not financially sol-vent] we’ll have to come to different terms in their agreement,” James said.

“I don’t know any reason why anyone would have concern for lack of solven-cy. I wouldn’t worry about the co-ops being closed or anything.”

A.S. President Utsav Gupta said the council will play a mediating role between the co-ops and UCAB, should conflict arise.

“I don’t see it as necessarily cer-tifying,” Gupta said. “I think all we do is agree to mediate any concerns between University Centers and the

co-operatives. I don’t think we’d ever be in a position of not signing off on the co-ops.”

The co-op leases will be discussed on Friday, when the union members meet with Terzino, a second UCAB representative, Gupta and James.

Additional reporting by Hayley Bisceglia-Martin.

Readers can contact Sarah Smith at [email protected].

▶ LEASE, from page 3

CONTACT THE EDITOR: [email protected]

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2010

HiATUSIt’s not often a string ensemble goes on “Letterman,” but the Calder Quar-tet includes hits from modern bands like the Airborne Toxic Event in its repertoire. Sip some Franzia and check out this classic Loft shit. 8 p.m.

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For a fresh take on the Lewis Carroll classic, stop by “ALICE: Re-imagining Wonderland through Music, Dance and Spoken Word,” a chamber ensemble and contemporary dance performance premiering on Friday at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art’s Sherwood Auditorium, in downtown La Jolla. Commissioned by classical performance group Art of Élan and the Colette Harding Contemporary Dance Company, the show shoots for a fresh perspective on the trippy children’s story through the eyes of modern artists. But be forewarned: Tim Burton’s trademark acid-trip eccentricity and visual effects will be nowhere to be found; you can leave the 3D glasses at home for this one. (AS)

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Two weeks ago, my friend Andrew and I trekked to San Francisco to attend Wondercon: part of the

Comic-Con family, and a chance for aspiring writers and artists like us to show all our dorkus peers we exist.

Our trip began on Friday night, but I spent that morning complet-ing my ongoing mini-comic, which was to act as my business card for the convention. I spent the entire day writing, drawing, copying and printing out 100 of those suckers in preparation for the convention, while my girlfriend acted as moral sup-port, editor and even disciplinarian

throughout the entire process.When I finished, I met Andrew

in LA, and we started the long drive up north. We spent much of our trip discussing the absurdities of life while listening to radio alt-rock and ’60s classics. While Andrew drove, I sat in the backseat, folding and stapling my comics. We made a pit stop in Cambria for the night before we continued to San Francisco and Wondercon — a gathering of geeks in a city of hipsters.

To get a better idea of Wondercon, you need a base idea of Comic-Con. Over the years, Comic-Con has become one of the world’s most widely attended media events. It’s heaven for anyone who loves video games, mov-ies, television shows and/or comics — everyone, these days. Wondercon, though, is catered to the collectors — the diehards who can’t let a culture go. Everything from toys to Lou Ferrigno to that dude who wore the Chewbacca outfit are put on parade.

After a quick stroll through the exhibition, we finally got to hustling — or, as Andrew would say, “doin’ work.” We walked among fellow art-ists, passing out comics and introduc-ing ourselves as a creative team. This is harder than it sounds — not unlike approaching the popular kids in high school and asking them to watch “Star Wars” with you. But once we got into the swing of things, it got easier. Some artists even asked us if we had our own table set up, assuming we were one of them, which was flattering. After we made our rounds, we took one more pass at the exhibition floor and called it a day. The only downside to the trip was a flat tire on the way back home.

We did learn a few lessons, though. For one, the people our comic would cater to in the real world were not present at Wondercon. (We prob-ably should have done the trip to the Alternative Press Expo.)

Secondly, we’re not the only ones on the hustle. Everyone and their mother is doing the same thing. If we want to be anybody in these parts, then we best be damn sure that we’re doing our work properly.

And third, success is a point of view. So many artists working on the same platform swing the pendulum between happy and miserable. I real-ized that if we are to be happy at all, we need to be happy with the fruits of our labor. If not, then we’ll never be happy no matter how much good comes out of our work. My day could have been ruined by the bad feedback I got for my comic, but instead, my day was made by the effort I put into it. In Andrew’s words: “That was such a good idea.”

boss ditties

THE UCSD GUARDIAN 7

I f you walked past the door to second-year Noah Doely’s studio without stepping in, you had little choice but to

double-take. His room contained a tower of Victorian cupboards and boxes stacked like a snowman with a brightly colored bird perched on top. Every door and drawer was cracked open to reveal glass vials and bits of coral — a child’s treasure trove of assorted knickknacks.

Except for the brass birdcages near the top and a few rusted measuring instru-ments, the entire structure was vibrant: The cupboards looked as smooth as balsa wood, and the animal skulls were pristine

as chalk. According to Doely, though, the piece is far from finished. He said he envi-sions his final product in the form of an antique sepia photograph, with the tower slung across a costumed wanderer’s back. While it would seem that such a photo might disclude the intricate details, Doely test photos captured almost everything — down to tiny butterflies pressed onto glass plates. He’s certainly had plenty of prac-tice: His portfolio is full of similar faux-antique photos. Still, seeing the structure live is the best way to fully appreciate all its elements — including one particular vial, half-full of Doely’s own baby teeth.

A t the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions benefit in February — as part of second-year Elle

Mehrmand’s performance piece “Technésexual” — she and UCSD gradu-ate Micha Cárdenas tapped away at their laptops on stage. A video of the virtual space in which their avatars exist was projected onto a screen behind them.

Minutes later, as Mehrmand reached down to Cárdenas’ naked crotch — grop-ing and grinding in front of a crowd of over 100 — their avatars did the same.

Their amplified heartbeats, whose pitches were modulated by the room’s temperature, were shared with three audi-ences: the artists, their live audience and all those on Second Life.

Mehrmand said “Technésexual”

explores how partners share their sexual experiences with each other and in multi-ple worlds, in reality and through technol-ogy. But her explanation doesn’t end there.

“If you’re a cat making out with a cyborg woman, what’s your sexuality?” Cárdenas said, referring to their avatars. Last year, Cárdenas used Second Life in her performance piece “Becoming Dragon” to question binary constructions of gender.

Mehrmand’s real-life relationship with Cárdenas, a transgender woman, is equally difficult to categorize, making video replays of “Technésexual” personal and intimate even after their clothes come back on.

Critical Hit!PHILIP RHIE

[email protected]

ARTREVIEWS

TRANSURBANIAC

See OPEN STUDIOS, page 9JOHN HANACEK/GUARDIAN

The latest exhibit at the University Art Gallery is a collection of pieces from Mexican artists, with an

emphasis on modernity and urban space — a brainchild of UCSD visual-arts pro-fessor Ruben Ortiz-Torres.

Accordingly, the installations are heavy on themes of construction and the world of outside influences on Mexican culture. Ortiz-Torres explained that artists from Mexico City are less concerned about rep-resenting their culture than they are about depicting the globalization of the metro-politan capital of Mexico.

“There is this idea that tends to be exported about what Mexican art is,” Torres said. “That it’s based on this recon-struction of the past and national identity — but a lot of young artists aren’t interest-ed in that. Mexico City is a very polluted, cosmopolitan city.”

Studio traditionalists beware: “Transurbaniac” is unconcerned with fas-tidious detail or clean accuracy. Most of the exhibits feature unconventional manipu-lations of materials like ornate wooden panels, shoes and horsehair. Each involved item is placed around the bleak white space

See TRANSURBANIAC, page 9

Noah Doely

OPEN CRASHING THE CUCKOO’S NEST

Elle Mehrmand

BUILDING UP BORDERS

BY MATTHEW PECOT ASSOCIATE HIATUS EDITOR

BY NEDA SALAMAT SENIOR STAFF WRITER

While dodging doe-eyed admits last Saturday, UCSD’s 48 Master of Fine Arts students in the vis-arts department opened their studios to the public. The Visual Arts Facility became a beehive of walk-in closets, showcasing performance art, multimedia masterpieces and — behind a few doors — even some artistic liquor cabinets. Though it was only a one-day event, keep an eye out for future exhibits from our following favorites.

ANDREW OH/GUARDIAN

Y MATTHEW PECOT ASSOCIATE HIATUS EDITOR

While dodging doe-eyed admits last Saturday, UCSD’s 48 Master of Fine Arts students in the vis-arts department opened their studios to the public. The Visual Arts Facility became a beehive of walk-in closets, showcasing

erformance art, multimedia masterpieces and — behind a few doors — ven some artistic liquor cabinets. Though it was only a one-day evvenent, eep an eyyyyyyyyyyyyye e eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee out for fututuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurerererrerrrrrrerrerrrrrrrrrerrerrrrererrererrrrerrreeeerreeeeeeeereeeeeeeereeeeeerreeee e xhibits from our following favorites.

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRISTOPHER KARDAMBIKIS/VIS-ARTS DEPARTMENT

STUDIOS

8 THE UCSD GUARDIAN THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010 HIATUS

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Hollywood’sBEST KEPTSECRET

PAGE11

MGMTCongratulationsSONY/COLUMBIA

S tumbling awk-wardly on the red carpet at the

Grammys last January, the mem-bers of MGMT slid right into the unfortunate, disgruntled indie-band stereotype they seemed destined for since the day “Time to Pretend” began infiltrating deejay playlists. During the band’s interviews, lead singer Andrew VanWyngarden’s painful unease in the wake of the group’s sudden commercial success gave him the air of an electro-pop revival of Kurt Cobain.

And with the arrival of sopho-more effort Congratulations, the band’s mole-like introversion has only gotten worse.

It’s as if MGMT decided to make the In Utero to their Nevermind. Unlike catchy debut Oracular Spectacular, the band’s latest is defi-antly anti-commercial, strange and ultimately polarizing.

All those looking for a memorable hummer like 2008 blockbuster “Kids” can go home now. In fact, the group has abandoned the idea of singles alto-gether — because the art of the album should be appreciated as a whole, of course. The lovable poppiness that made MGMT famous has been chucked for the drones of psychedelic rock that were hinted at on Oracular.

On many tracks, though, the

band’s new formula is oddly suc-cessful. Despite its disjointed nature, “Flash Delirium” is unusually catchy. The track begins in familiar tuneful territory, but evolves into moments of doo-wop and surf-rock, ending in a clattering and chaotic stream of nonsensical phrases and unintel-ligible ideas about spiders, freedom and commerce. Rad.

Other highlights include wonky homage “Brian Eno” and titular track “Congratulations.” Like a cut off David Bowie’s Heroes, the latter is a deconstructed power ballad — a sign that maybe there is more to MGMT than indie-radio hits and peculiar experimentation.

Less appealing are tracks like instrumental “Lady Dada’s Nightmare,” whose only vocals come in the form of a distant, terrifying scream.

Despite a scattering of failed experiments, Congratulations will likely grow in appeal over time, as many force enough listens to find something innovative and exciting within its trippy wails. Many more, however, will mope in memory of the synthy grooves that made the band’s first album so much fun.

— Arielle SallaiAssociate Hiatus Editor

Fatboy Slim & David ByrneHere Lies LoveTODO MUNDO/ NONESUCH

H ere Lies Love — a collaboration between David Byrne of the Talking Heads and big-beat ’90s

icon Fatboy Slim — disproves a com-mon musical myth: that talented art-ists in collaboration will create work far greater than anything they could have made alone.

Instead of the decade’s best collab, Cyndi Lauper plus Roisin Murphy plus Sia plus Florence Welch plus Santigold plus Camille equals a misguided homogenization of over-wrought aesthetics.

The album’s 22 tracks romanticize the life of Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos, from her impoverished

beginnings to last meditations. It’s pumped with star power, but — instead of pushing its artists to think outside their routines — it seems Slim and Byrne looped one disco track and ordered their rent-a-voices to impro-vise some bland melody on top.

“Here Lies Love” is the first of many extravagant, upbeat pieces, with soaring vocals over strings, a syncopated rhythm and jaunty horns. As an intro, its complex strains and brash vocals demand attention, but the track soon becomes forgettable over a sea of identical songs.

In “You’ll Be Taken Care Of ” — told from the perspective of Marcos’

devoted housekeeper — Tori Amos’ signature breathy gnarls are mis-used to comedic effect, making her character into an evil and conniving beast.

“Don’t You Agree” makes the hip-hop sentiments of Roisin Murphy (of electronic act Moloko) sound just like Amos, Welch and Sia, and even Cyndi Lauper’s “Eleven Days” blends into the mush. Each individual track has its few merits, but together, they become a numbingly mundane pop cacophony that leaves us yearning for golden silence.

— Angela ChenSenior Staff Writer

Star-Studded Disco Opera Drowns in Lineup of Soundalikes

TRACKREVIEWS

‘In One Ear’Cage the ElephantJIVE RECORDS/RED

510

‘Die By the Drop’Dead WeatherTHIRD MAN

J ack White is normally all about simplicity, but with supergroup Dead Weather, he’s proving his trademark riff-driven guitar style can work within

a heavier and more complex format. One lone recur-ring piano note kicks off “Die By the Drop,” soon joined by White’s staccato riff to form a foot-tapping intro that’s busting with repressed energy. Alison Mosshart’s restrained vocals keep the track pent up for a few more verses before White’s roar explodes onto our speakers like a tsunami. A sweeping guitar hook leads us into a maniacal chorus while White and Mosshart pass the mic back and forth for a battle of personalities. The contrast is superb, and atop White’s addictive guitar work, the result is a heavier, grittier version of White Stripes fare.

— Imran ManjiStaff Writer

610

I f you listen to alt-rock radio, you’ve heard Kentucky indie-rockers Cage the Elephant play their ridiculously catchy “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked.” And admit it: You

totally sing along. “In One Ear,” a re-release of their pre-breakout single, looks like it will be just as popular — the track was clearly written with summer road trips in mind. With an embarrassing amount of attitude, lead singer Matt Shultz sprays his nasally voice over fast-paced, blues-tinged guitar riffs, as if Mick Jagger and Jack White got together to get loose on some G. Love rhymes. His lyrics are obvi-ously anecdotal (“It goes in one ear and right out the other/ People talkin’ shit, they can kiss the back of my hand”), but the identifiable refrain about ignoring haters and doing what you love saves the track from overt egocentricity.

— Gretchen WegrichStaff Writer

610

is tHipsters Spurn Fans, Sanity

ALBUMREVIEWS

510

HIATUS THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010 THE UCSD GUARDIAN 9

WEDAPR 21

SATAPR 24

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TUEAPR 20

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in an almost haphazard manner that, at first glance, doesn’t really seem to merit the esoteric title of high art — let alone a spot in a gallery.

The aforementioned horsehair is featured prominently in Pablo Vargas Lugo’s piece “Snoop 2” — what seems to be a fiberglass mold of a rocket, paired with a halo of horse-weave. The weave hangs menacingly over the fiberglass and the viewer. Though Lugo appears to have been aiming for a juxtaposition of the traditional with the modern, the piece leaves a lot to the imagination, espe-cially with such a mystifying title.

Much of the remaining exhibit is, like “Snoop 2,” puzzling to the point of alienation. However, Jerónimo Hagerman’s video installation — “Because The World Is Round it Turns Me On”— projects a captivat-

ing stream of Mexican people and places, focusing on imagery and song rather than dialogue. A dark room with a door envelops the viewer and narrows the field of focus on the film’s vivid message.

Another reprieve are Rubén Gutiérrez’ “Objects over Havana”

photographs, which deliver a calm-ing simplicity to “Transurbaniac.” A series of images that cleverly avoid faces and other identifying human features aim to depict Mexico

City’s complex cityscape, clarifying the exhibit’s focus on the moderniza-tion of culture.

While many of the pieces would have been better received with the simple addition of a more explicit title (or even the availability of a Spanish-to-English dictionary), fall-ing down this rabbit hole is overall an enlightening experience.

▶ TRANSURBANIAC,

FILMREVIEW

By Poonam ManthaContributing Writer

B ased on the comic-book series by Mark Millar, “Kick-Ass” is the perfect blend of art and

trash. Carefully choreographed action sequences explode on screen, right before an 11-year-old drops the C-bomb and cuts off a drug dealer’s leg. It’s the type of film that feeds off of the worst in human nature — a soggy gas-station burrito for the brain. It’s brazen, wild and politically incorrect, and one of the most awe-some/hysterical films of 2010.

The story revolves around a dis-satisfied high-school nerd (Aaron Johnson) who sets off to become a masked vigilante despite a total lack of superpowers, training or social skills. He buys a painfully unflattering green-and-yellow costume, then prowls the streets of New York City under quaint moniker Kick-Ass.

The boy’s delusions render him fearless as he walks into an apartment full of hustlers with nothing but a taser — and fully expects to come out of the situation alive. It is here that he encounters his saviors and true superheroes, Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz)

and her adoring father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) — a Batman ripoff seeking justice in a corrupt world.

The film’s appeal hits home in the brief moment when we finally begin

to believe that our anti-hero’s fame might be possible. Capitalizing on an age when a shtick and a nice video camera can make anyone a celebrity overnight, Kick-Ass is catapulted to fame courtesy of YouTube. However, his fellow Internet vigilante Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has a shadier vision for his fame.

Newcomer Johnson is convincing as a pathetic nerd just likable enough to root for. But the film’s true star is Moretz, whose character is trained

by her father to be a shockingly vul-gar and violent killer. She’s a tiny but deadly weapon, and — although she leads the most intense and climactic fight sequence of the film — she never wavers. Cage is surprisingly tolerable as well, but only because his cowlicks are tamed and he shares every scene with the talented Moretz.

Mintz-Plasse, of McLovin fame, is typecast as the socially awkward nerd with a prepubescent squeak and doughy jowls; the result is as funny as always, but he never leaves the shadow of his mile-a-minute castmates.

On a whole, the film does end up suffering from lack of focus. The trail-ers advertise “Kick-Ass” as an epic about an average guy trying to save the world, but vicious, drawn-out action sequences descend the film into mad-ness. Luckily, it’s damn entertaining. Director Matthew Vaughn saves his baby from becoming a total farce by aligning hilarity with startlingly seri-ous combat and a relatively heartfelt premise. He may have sucked the life out of Neil Gaiman’s “Stardust,” but he manages to breathe a tangible energy into “Kick-As” — and turns out some dark comedy for the ages.

Kick-AssSTARRING AARON JOHNSON, CHLOE MORETZ & CHRISTOPHER MINTZ-PLASSEDIRECTED BY MATTHEW VAUGHNRATED R1:57

FOUR-EYES SUITS UPLethal Lolita and McLovin in spandex put bloody spin on “Spy Kids” comedy

▶ OPEN STUDIOS,

ARTREVIEWS

Following her themed collection of channeling the dead, first-year Vabianna Santos adopted a persona obsessed with puppets shaped like the heads of famous young rockers who committed suicide. The persona, she said, allows her to “channel them with my own fan-ness and my own sexuality.”

However, she then revealed that “the plan is to make out with them.”Seeing as the Open Studios installations were works in progress, Santos

wasn’t doing any lip-locking this past weekend — that’ll happen in a video slated for later this year. So far, the melon-sized puppets with Pac-Man mouths (think of a cross between a decapitated Bert and a sock puppet) sit actionless between unlit candles. In the background, a trio of dolls dutifully carried out a list of robotic instructions emanating from a nearby speaker in Vabianna’s sepulcher-like studio

The red mouths of the heads — and the red bags on which the heads sat — were a striking contrast to the black-and-white photos of the rockers’ faces, hastily fastened to the puppets’ heads. Their mouths were agape, but whether the puppets were stuck in song or frozen in mid-scream — perhaps at the thought of an obsessive super-fan tongue-kissing their spirits — remains up for interpretation.

Vabianna Santos

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along with Azzi and Takahashi, each added two goals to the Triton score.

Nguyen, reflecting on the season, said the team’s young talent promises more successful future seasons.

“We have a really young team this year,” Nguyen said. “Our girls have a lot of indi-vidual talent that is only going to grow as they gain more experience playing and competing during the season. It was a hard week and we played some tough teams, but I think we

improved a lot and played well this weekend.” Junior captain Jessica Greiner shared

Nguyen’s optimism.“We’ve learned a lot this season, and I’m

excited to see what we can do going into next year,” Greiner said. “We just need to develop our new recruits and work on building our team, so that next year we will be a force to be reckoned with.”

Readers can contact Christina Chopin at [email protected].

the Tritons took the lead thanks to junior out-fielder Katrin Gabriel, who stole home.

Unfortunately, Gabriel was the only Triton to cross home plate: Lumberjack freshman pitcher Vaneza Hoover held strong over seven innings, allowing only the one run. The Lumberjacks then managed two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning against Triton sophomore pitcher Tess Granath, and evened the series with a 2-1 win.

Saari said the Tritons’ offense was fatally shaky heading into the second doubleheader.

“We need to be consistent offensively and continue to score,” Saari said. “Our defense is solid.”

Game One of Saturday’s doubleheader was largely uneventful through the early innings, but exploded with life later on. At the top of the fifth inning, with the score tied 1-1, junior infielder Sarah Woofter scored a game-changing run thanks to Spangler’s RBI single — putting the Tritons in the lead. The Tritons pushed two more runs to the plate while the Lumberjacks only squeezed one out.

In the sixth inning, UCSD extended its lead with three more runs. Gabriel scored off Ousley’s single, and Saari and Woofter were batted in by Spangler, who went three-for-four from the plate.

On the defensive side, Gaito posted an 1.83 earned run average and struck out 13 Lumberjack hitters, shutting down Humboldt for the last two innings and securing the 7-2 Triton win.

However, the team was unable to stay on top in the fourth game and had already allowed a two-run Humboldt lead by the end of the first inning. The Tritons lacked the stamina they showed in the game before, and — coming through for only one late run in the sixth inning — they lost 5-1.

Head coach Patti Gerckens noted the team’s inability to score in the latter halves of both doubleheaders.

“Our bats came alive in the first game of each day,” Gerckens said. “But they were quiet in the second game.”

The Tritons’ series split against Humboldt makes their upcoming games even more important. Their series against Cal State Monterey Bay — from April 16 to April 17 — and Cal State San Bernardino — from April 23 to April 24 — will determine whether or not UCSD plays in the CCAA Championship Tournament, which takes place in Stockton, Calif., from April 30 to May 2.

“We just need to keep focusing on the little things,” Gerckens said. “Do routine plays, stay calm and have composure during pressure situ-ations.”

UCSD currently stands in third place in the CCAA with a 27-15 overall record and 17-11 in conference. The upcoming series against Cal State Monterey Bay on April 16 and April 17 will be UCSD’s last home play of the regular season.

Readers can contact Yvonne Chow at [email protected].

▶ LACROSSE,

32-34 and 30-27 in a grueling four-set match. The Tritons fell behind early when the

Bruins grabbed a quick first-set lead. However, UCSD battled back to a 17-16 lead, thanks to senior opposite hitter Frank Fritsch. The two teams continued neck-and-neck until UCSD took the set at 30-26 after a UCLA error.

The second set proved even more unpre-dictable: The Tritons and Bruins battled through 14 ties and seven lead changes. Then, two consecutive UCLA errors followed by a Spangler ace gave the Tritons a 22-19 lead they held tight for the duration of the second set. UCSD pushed through to the end for a 30-25 win. The set point was punctuated by an emphatic Fritsch kill.

UCSD started off the third set strong, mak-ing a straight-set upset look possible. But, the Bruins fought back harder than ever to take a 23-20 lead.

The Tritons did not relent, and stole back the lead at 30-29; however, facing match point, UCLA scraped through to claim the set 34-32 on a service ace.

The fourth and final set began with a vola-tile competitiveness reminiscent of the second — the teams battled through 18 ties and seven

lead changes. Two Fritsch kills broke a 27-27 tie to set up a match point for the Tritons, who proceeded to convert and take the final set 30-27. The Bruin beating was the Tritons’ second victory over UCLA out of three meet-ings this season.

In the match, Spangler served his 81st career service ace, making him UCSD’s all-time lead-er. Spangler said the team’s win against UCLA was due to an ability to string passes together — something he says the Tritons struggled with against Irvine.

“Compared to the night before, we passed better — that was the key difference,” Spangler said. “We built up our offense this time. We were more confident. The crowd helped. The past three years we have been close to UCLA, so there is always some excitement and motiva-tion to play well.”

The Tritons will return to action on April 14 when they host Cal Baptist. Then on, April 16 and April 17, they will round off their sea-son at RIMAC Arena against the University of Southern California and Pepperdine University, respectively.

Readers can contact Jessy Jahangir at [email protected].

▶ M. VOLLEYBALL,

▶ SOFTBALL,

JOHN HANACEK/GUARDIAN

Senior opposite hitter Jason Spangler (right) served his 81st career ace on April 10 against UCLA, making him UCSD’s all-time leader.

NICK HOWE | TRACK

WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG/SPORTSTHURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010

Competing at the Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational at UCLA from April 8 to April 10, the soph-omore threw 220’6” in the javelin throw — the best mark in Division-II so far this [email protected]

12 THE UCSD GUARDIAN

HOTCORNERLINGO LEXICONNaked: ney-kid, adj. —In sport, a colloquial term that connotes when a player is wide open for a pass, or uncovered by a defender.

By Christina ChopinContributing Writer

WOMEN’S CLUB LACROSSE — UCSD pushed through a tough three-game stretch last week to con-clude what has turned out to be a difficult season for the Tritons who finished their year 3-13 overall.

On April 7, they faced rival San Diego State on their home field. Prior to the game, UCSD head coach Lindsay Barton said she was optimis-tic about the team’s chances.

“We have a strong team this sea-son,” Barton said. “This is the year that we could beat San Diego State. If the girls come out ready to play and keep their momentum going into the second half, this should be a good game.”

As Barton predicted, the team came out in attack mode. Freshman Maddie DeLoria led the UCSD offense, scoring four goals during the first half. However, the Tritons were shut down in the second half when the Aztecs went on an offensive tear, and the girls went home with a 19-6 loss.

Team morale was low going into the weekend after Wednesday night’s loss, but the team sucked it up for its final two home games of the sea-son, against Arizona State and the University of Arizona, on April 10 and April 11, respectively.

Junior midfielder Tamara Schroeder said that her team would have to put its loss to the Aztecs behind them to ensure victory in the upcoming games.

“It’s going to be really hard to keep team spirits high this weekend after losing to State,” Schroeder said. “We just need to focus on keeping our heads up and playing hard no matter what.”

Saturday’s game against the Sun Devils showcased a world of improve-ment from the lady Tritons — but the effort was not enough to secure a win against a resilient Arizona State.

The Tritons were able to stay within a few goals until the end of the second half, when Arizona State cranked up its offense and put the game away with back-to-back break-away goals, leaving with a final score of 19-9.

Schroeder scored three goals to lead the Tritons, while sophomore Victoria Azzi and freshman Caitlin Takahashi added two goals apiece against the Sun Devils. UCSD saw a significant setback in the game when sophomore midfielder Stephanie Gerretsen suffered a knee injury in the first half; Gerretsen, a regular starter and one of UCSD’s key play-ers, was sidelined for the rest of the weekend.

Sunday morning’s game against the University of Arizona was the Tritons’ last chance for redemption. However, once more, the team came out strong during the first half — nearly matching the Wildcats goal for goal — but let Arizona break away with the lead in the second half. The game ended in a 19-11 loss for UCSD.

Junior captain Monica Nguyen,

UCSD hosted a showdown against No. 10 UC Irvine on April 9, looking to reverse a losing trend

against the visiting Anteaters. The neigh-boring UC had defeated the Tritons four times over two years. So, last Friday, the Tritons flooded their home courts deter-mined to bring the heat.

However, their spurt of determination was no match for the Anteaters’ consistent skill and the Tritons fell 30-23, 30-13, 30-21.

UCSD was jittery from the start, com-mitting 12 attacking errors in the opening set — seven more than Irvine. Although the two teams initially kept the score tight, the Anteaters broke open a 9-9 tie with a 10-4 run, and eventually won the set 30-23.

UCSD committed fewer errors in the second set, but was unprepared for a spec-tacular offensive barrage from UC Irvine, who registered a .667 hitting average to claim the set 30-13.

In the third set, the Anteaters hit at .433 and jumped out to an early lead. The Tritons, struggling to cope with the oppos-ing team’s offense, nearly tied the set at 23-21, but UC Irvine pushed through to score the game’s final seven points and win the third set 30-21.

The Triton offense — combining for a .053 hitting average, dwarfed by Irvine’s .416 average — was anemic. Moreover, the Tritons were out-blocked by the Anteaters 17.5 to 7.0.

Individually, however a few UCSD

players still delivered sizable contribu-tions throughout the game. Junior middle blocker Adrian Guthals made 10 kills on .467 hitting, and senior outside hitter Jason Spangler and sophomore middle blocker Cyrus Kiani earned 11 kills combined. Senior setter Phil Bannan had 28 assists and seven digs, and sophomore libero Andrew Kaban added nine digs.

The team had little time to dwell on their crushing Friday night defeat. On April 10, No. 7 UCLA came to RIMAC Arena hoping to capitalize on the Tritons’ recent troubles. However, in a surprise comeback, the Tritons rebounded from their Anteater beatdown by toppling UCLA 30-26, 30-25,

See W. SOCCER page 11

See M. VOLLEYBALL page 11

Club team closes season with three losses to San Diego State, Arizona State and University of Arizona.

By Yvonne ChowStaff Writer

SOFTBALL — With only three series remaining in the California Collegiate Athletic Association regu-lar season, UCSD entered its final four-game series against Humboldt State University last week. The Tritons were looking to solidify their spot at the con-ference playoffs — only possible if they could hold onto a No. 3 or No. 4 conference ranking. However, after a series split at Humboldt, the Tritons’ seat in the playoffs remains a questions mark.

“The pressure is on now with each game,” senior captain Nicole Saari said. “We need to bring our A-game every time.”

Game One of the first doubleheader took place on Friday. The Tritons jumped out to an early lead: In the second inning, junior outfielder Rhiannon Ousley scored on junior infielder Jennifer De Fazio’s double to make UCSD first on the board. Buoyed by junior centerfielder Kris Lesovsky, who went three-for-four with two scores and two runs batted in, the Tritons tacked on four more runs.

Triton defense was tight as well, only allowing the Lumberjacks one run throughout the entire game — despite the fact that sophomore pitcher Camille Gaito’s allowed eight hits.

In the second game, after four scoreless innings,

SOFTBALL TEAM SPUTTERS AGAINST HUMBOLDT

The UCSD men’s volleyball team followed up a discouraging performance against No. 10 UC Irvine on April 9 with an upset of No. 7 UCLA on April 10.

By Jessy Jahangir Staff Writer

See LACROSSE page 11See SOFTBALL page 11

SERIES HITTING STATISTICSUCSD HUMBOLDT

14

36

117

17

3

10

31

104

17

7

Runs

Hits

At Bats

Strikeouts

Errors

JOHN HANACEK/GUARDIAN

TRITONS 0, ANTEATERS 3APRIL 9, 2010

TRITONS 3, BRUINS 1APRIL 10, 2010

04.15.10_web

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