When John Rizzo (junior) of Claremont-Mudd-Scripts (CMS) visited Occidental’s Anderson Field over the weekend, he discovered that the tension and rivalry normally found during Sunday afternoon Tiger baseball games was strangely toned down for a gathering of SCIAC competitors.
The event was the inaugural SCIAC Home Run Derby, designed to raise funds for cancer research via local cancer research and treatment facility City of Hope. Separate from the ongoing varsity baseball season, the derby united the players for a cause beyond the realm of the playing field.
The ties to a charitable cause created a bittersweet moment when Rizzo was later crowned the first winner of the derby.
“My mom passed away of cancer a couple years ago, so it’s really nice to come out here,” Rizzo said. “She always used to watch me play baseball, and winning this; it’s kind of for her.
Seven of the nine SCIAC members — Occidental, Whittier, Redlands, La Verne, Cal Lutheran, Pomona-Pitzer and CMS — entered one participant in the event. In typical derby fashion, each batter had 10 outs to hit as many home runs as possible, eliminating the hitter with the lowest total after each round.
Sophomore Atherton Kniseley of Cal Lutheran, the son of Occidental baseball hall of famer Mike Kniseley ‘90, dominated the first round by hitting six home runs. Rizzo, in contrast, had to break a three-way tie with Max Hardman (senior) of Redlands and Jake Bruml (junior) of Pomona-Pitzer to advance out of the first round.
Rizzo found his swing in the second round with a round-high five home runs, even hitting a ball that reached the roof of the baseball club house over 400 feet away.
The win did not come easily, as he faced off with Julian Barzilli (senior) of Whittier who currently leads the nation and the SCIAC with 14 home runs on the season in the final round.
Despite Barzilli’s track record, he was only able to muster a single long ball in the finals, as Rizzo easily took the victory at two in walk-off fashion after recording only three outs.
In addition to Rizzo’s win, the event’s personal connections with its charitable cause also extended to Jaylon Fong, 13, who threw out the first pitch. Fong is a leukemia survivor who attended the baseball camp held over the summer at Occidental.
“It was a lot of fun watching how much power these guys have,” Fong said.
The So Cal Youth Baseball outfielder and pitcher got to know Tiger baseball head coach Luke Wetmore through the camp, which eventually inspired the derby.
“Primarily it was about City of Hope and promoting their organization and the good research that they’re doing for cancer,” Wetmore said. “And then secondly, the ability to bring a bunch of guys together that have a common interest in having such an exciting event was something to see.”
Occidental slugger Chris Caldwell (senior), who is known for putting his power on display in batting practice, was knocked out of the first round after failing to leave the yard.
“I was pretty nervous before this,” Caldwell said. “I wish I could have done a little bit better, but life goes on. It’s a lot harder than it looks.”
The Tigers return to SCIAC play on Friday, hosting La Verne at 3 p.m. before going on the road to face the Leopards on Saturday for a doubleheader at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
I was naked, standing in the middle of the Quad, surrounded by hundreds of my peers and brutally aware of my own vulnerability.
All of my clothes were on. I was even wearing boots. But my phone, my consummate security blanket, was turned off and far away on my bedside table.
Within the lifetime of the typical Occidental student, cell phones have gone from non-existent to an omnipresent part of daily life. Today, a student without a smartphone is an anomaly; a circus marvel who manages to function without constant access to emails and Twitter. But a completely phoneless student? The existence of one has yet to be confirmed.
Having a phone is like having an extra appendage. It has become an integral part of daily life, one that presumably makes one’s day easier by making just about everything more accessible. Instead of needing a watch, GPS, calendar, notepad, daily planner, newspaper, music player and radio, one needs only to remember a single item hardly bigger than a deck of cards. In streamlining these items, however, life has not only become “easier” but also more anxiety-producing. Easier, it seems, does not necessarily mean simpler.
Phones are so prolific that they have become another entity that defines the campus environment. This compelled The Occidental Weekly to wonder just what would happen if students were asked to turn off their phones for 48 hours. Students were given a series of questions to which they responded over a two-day period while their phones remained turned off and left at home. Weekly staff members from various class years and social groups contacted friends, either directly or via social media, asking them to participate. Out of the multitude of students who were contacted for participation, only nine successfully completed the informal study.
Some students had legitimate reasons for refusing to turn off their phones: they were club directors whose jobs required that they be in constant contact, they were waiting for calls from prospective employers or their families were coming into town and they had to be reachable. But for others, just the words, “Turn off your phone,” caused them to respond adamantly, “Absolutely not.” The anxiety these students felt at the mere prospect of being out of contact was almost universally reflected in the survey responses of the nine participants.
Art History and Visual Arts major Liz Wells (senior) was one of the many who chose not to participate in the study, having already experienced an extended period of time without a phone.
“I didn’t realize [until that experience] how much I had come to depend on it and how safe it made me feel to have constant contact with people. Not having all of that, and especially not having Facebook – being very disconnected from everyone in my life – made me feel very vulnerable,” Wells said.
Her response is reflective not only of a generational dependency on mobile technology, but of its relevance at Occidental, specifically.
Significance of phones at Occidental
Though it can be assumed that smartphones have taken over all college campuses, they have a particular importance at a school like Occidental, where students frequently balance a myriad of obligations.
“Everyone is so busy all the time and, without a phone, there is just no way to translate my busy schedule to someone else’s busy schedule,” Diplomacy and World Affairs (DWA) major and study participant Dana Rust (sophomore) said.
Many students here have their hands in a number of pies: club directors are also presidents of Greek organizations, Green Bean baristas are also Glee Club members, theater performers are also varsity athletes. In order to coordinate something as simple as a coffee date, smartphones seem to be a necessity. No longer do people only call their peers to make plans – they text, email, Facebook message or, in some cases, sync Google calendars.
This phenomena of assumed multiple identities makes being in constant contact a near necessity. And it affects the tenor of the campus environment.
“I never really see people on the Quad just sitting. You don’t really see people not doing anything,” Rust said.
The demands of academia and extracurriculars stretch themselves into every corner of a student’s life. Sitting in the Quad with a friend is no longer a moment of reprieve. It is a social interaction punctuated by emails, calendar reminders and phone calls, all reminding the individual about the things they should be doing.
Effect of phones on social interactions
When the participants in the study finally worked up the nerve to turn off their phones, most of them began to notice just how reliant their peers were on their mobile devices.
“The amount of people [who] are checking their phones seems unnecessary. Without having a phone, I realize how truly annoying it is that people check their phones for silly reasons when you are trying to have a conversation with them,” Urban and Environmental Studies (UEP) major Mary Richardson (sophomore) responded in the survey.
The quick glance at a phone mid-conversation has become so routine that many no longer notice it. The rhythm of conversation works its way around the compulsion to check texts, emails or Snapchats. Participants responded that it was not until they became phoneless that they were made aware of chronically interrupted social interactions.
More compelling, however, is the degree to which students use their phones as a source of comfort in moments of social anxiety.
“It’s definitely like a shield or protection against feeling uncomfortable,” Rust said.
Studio Art major Daisy Cortes (senior) echoed Rust’s comments.
“I turn to my phone in moments of social anxiety/awkwardness,” Cortes said.
Phones in this context become a mediator between one individual and another. They allow people to ignore feelings of discomfort, easily masking social awkwardness with a swift scroll through Instagram.
Ways in which phones are anxiety producing
Apart from the one participant who did not own a smartphone, every participant felt that their mobile device was a source of both comfort and anxiety.
“I would definitely say that my phone can be anxiety provoking, especially if I lose it or have a lot of people bombarding me with calls and messages,” Critical Theory and Social Justice major August Polstein (senior) responded.
Being constantly accessible may enable more efficient work, but it may also diminish a student’s ability to be in the present moment.
“Any moment of free time when I’m alone and don’t have anything to do, I automatically look at my phone,” Rust said. “I dont even think about what else I could be doing. What I really do is compulsively check my email, but email that I’m not going to answer right now, that I don’t have time to answer right now. But I’m just going to look and worry about answering later in the day.”
The various apps available on smartphones have replaced the moments in a student’s day when they could speak casually with friends, engage in an activity just for fun or even take a moment to sit and do nothing. If constant inundation of information causes such anxiety, it begs the question – are phones really enriching people’s lives, or are they stripping them of important moments of idleness?
At an unmarked, secure room on campus, Informational Technology Services (ITS) staff maintains the college’s critical data center. The center holds 100 college servers and 68.8 Terrabytes of data storage—equivalent to the storage space available on 17,612 Macbook Pros combined — that handle the business of the institution, from registration to fundraising to human resources files. The secure facility features numerous air conditioning units to regulate the tightly controlled environment, a waterless fire suppression system and extended backup power capabilities through a massive battery unit and a dedicated diesel-generator link.
Keeping the data center functioning at all times is the number one priority of Associate Vice President of ITS James Uhrich and his team of over 20 ITS staff members. The department is responsible, as Uhrich explains it, for just about every piece of college equipment that plugs in, except lighting. Included with the large amount of servers and storage are 50 databases that handle college business, 1500 computers, 64 classrooms with technology and hundreds of telephones.
“We have a fairly large infrastructure we need to support,” Uhrich said. “There’s no lack of challenges when it comes to managing the finances of keeping our systems running.”
Students, staff and faculty have complained about technology at Occidental, from the Internet connection to the old computers and software in the library. Last spring, dozens of faculty signed on to a letter formally complaining about classroom technology not working and not being fixed promptly.
Uhrich understands the high expectations students, staff, faculty and administrators have for the utilization of technology on campus.
“It is a challenge to meet ever-increasing and frequently-changing demands, but we are absolutely committed to meeting them as best as we can,” Uhrich said.
Associate Vice President of Scholarship TechnologyMarsha Schnirring observed that students often come to the college with the expectation that technology will function as smoothly on campus as in their individual homes.
“Think about multiplying that by 2,000 students who live here and all the staff, faculty and administrators,” Schnirring said.
Uhrich notes that Occidental currently spends a smaller percentage of its budget on technology than do peer institutions, but it is attempting to change that. A $5 million endowed gift from alumnus and trustee Dave Berkus’62 earmarked for technology will certainly help. However, Berkus’ gift was blended, meaning that some of it will be paid in the short-term while the rest will be deferred until later, according to Vice President of Institutional Advancement Shelby Radcliffe.
Uhrich says that his department has yet to see an increase in funding from Berkus’s gift, but that will not stop his department from moving forward on numerous projects this summer. ITS will upgrade its data storage along with completing numerous other projects, but internet connectivity continues to be a high priority.
“I am very mindful of the need for more wireless connectivity,” Uhrich said, cautioning that increasing wireless coverage is not as easy as paying a little bit more money to the Internet provider.
In the past, ITS had been so pressured to get the entire campus covered by wireless that they did not prioritize the capacity of the system to handle multiple users at the same time.Wireless access points and associated wireless switches could not handle the traffic, especially when confronted with the exponential growth of the popularity of wireless-connected devices on campus and student usage of high-bandwidth websites.
Recently, ITS has switched to a capacity strategy that can deal with all of the demands in a given area of campus. Recently, ITS upgraded Occidental’s main internet switch leading off campus, raising its capacity from 1Ggb to 10Ggbs. That is one of the fastest connections among peer schools. Meanwhile, ITS added 145 wireless access points in the summer of 2013, mostly in residence halls – a 40 percent increase in wireless access points on campus. Each wireless access point increases capacity and connects to switches which handle multiple access points, funneling the connection towards the main switch.
This summer,the department plans to add more access points,as well as upgrade switches. Dozens of wireless access points connect to these older switches, which may be slowing down internet performance. ITS also plans to add a secondary Internet source to campus, allowing a quick backup should the primary source fail.
Printing presents another frequent issue for ITS. According to Uhrich, the switch to Ricohfrom Cannonfor printing services, coupled with the swipe-to-print program instituted two years ago, has saved the college a great deal of money. On average, 18 percent of print jobs never get picked up with a conventional system.
However, given the still high amount of printing on campus, ITS officials still say there is more work to do. In 2013,230 campus network printers handled 6.1 million clicks. One double-sided page equals two clicks. It is common for students to print 2,000 pages per semester and, according to Uhrich, one student even printed 10,000 pages in a semester. He stressed that ITS removes names and information about what is bring printed before examining the statistics.
Uhrich points out that almost all of Occidental’s peer institutions have some type of regulation on printing, be it a quota or a a per-page charge.
“I have said this before, I think we need to have a quota on printing. You have to create a disincentive,” Uhrich said, although he noted that it is not ultimately his decision to make.
Uhrich cautioned that any decision on a student printing quota would involve a comprehensive campus-wide discussion that accounts for student, staff and faculty concerns. The quota would also initially be set high enough so as to only affect the small percentage of students who print the most.
Occidental’s enterprise-wide database system,Banner, is less familiar to students but plays a critical role in student and administrative tasks. Students encounter Banner through MyOxy when they register for classes, fill out timesheets and more. The system handles everything from fundraising to accounting.
The college first adopted Banner in the mid-1990s. It is designed specifically for institutions of higher education. The program has been updated regularly since, but it does not fit every single use optimally.
“By their very nature, products that try to do everything do very little perfectly,” Radcliffe said, explaining that she is always considering and tracking potential new products to handle fundraising work.
However, she put any immediate plans to use a fundraising-specific system on hold when she found significant inefficiencies in how Banner was being used.
“It’s been very easy to do better with what we have,” Radcliffe said.
Radcliffe noted that many of the top-end, ideal systems for fundraising are meticulously developed for massive fundraising operations and, as a result, fall outside of Occidental’s budget. Radcliffe also noted that alumni relations is aggressively pursuing new programs that will help it better connect with alumni, especially recent graduates.
In recent years, Occidental has stepped up its efforts to improve its technology, and the intersection between technology and scholarship, according to Uhrich. Since the Vice President of Information Resources left, President Jonathan Veitch has decided not to fill that position but rather meet with department heads, Vice President of Finance and Planning Amos Himmelstein and Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College Jorge Gonzalez, together. The college also maintains an information resource leadership group, which includes ITS, Library Services and Scholarship Technology.
ITS is split into five groups: media development, networking and operations, institutional information systems, support services and budget and project management. Networking and operations is largely responsible for Internet connectivity, while institutional information systems handles database analysis and support for the college’s financial business. Support services together with the Technology Help Desk provides assistance to community members in accessing technology. They handled a large portion of the 5,371 requests for service that ITS responded to in 2013.
Bob Kieft, the college’s librarian, is responsible for procuring databases, articles, booksand other information resources and making them available to students. According to Schnirring, Scholarship Technology is broken up into two groups. One group directly supports faculty too leverage the college’s technological resources for effective teaching and research. The other group, the Center for Digital Learning and Research (CDLR), constantly tracks, experiments with and helps to develop new technologies and apply them to scholarly projects. It is best known for maintaining the Global Forum media wallin Johnson Hall and hosting the 3-D printer, or Digital Production Studio, on the ground floor of the Academic Commons.
Scholarship Technology recently acquired several grants to supplement its budget. Multiple grants from the Mellon Foundation have been used for hiring post-doctoral fellowsand funding digital liberal arts technologies.
Meanwhile, the department continues to work with students to develop content for the Johnson Global Forum media wall. Much of the work on the wall can actually be found behind it, wherecustomized computer racks were built into the tight space and white backing was installed to help light from the wall reflect outwards. For Scholarship Technology, ITS and other high-level college officials, the centerpiece of the new McKinnon Center represents Occidental’s commitment to technology and innovation.
As of April 6, 2014, at 10:47 p.m., the Top 5 singles and albums in the dance category on iTunes could not be more different, apart from superstar Avicii appearing on both. The two charts are a perfect reflection of a split in electronic music today.
The songs at the top of the singles list include the wildly popular “Turn Down For What,” the obnoxious “#Selfie,” Avicii’s “Hey Brother,” the overplayed “Animals” by Martin Garrix and Calvin Harris’ “Summer.” Sorry for the negativity right off the bat: I have, at some point or another, enjoyed listening to all three tracks I just criticized. However, the only times I have actually heard and enjoyed them was in a social or live setting. The formula works: Have a massive bass explosion at the drop, incorporate a Twitter-ready phrase just before the beat returns and use a simple, repetitive synth melody. Instant success.
None are really what you would call casual listening songs – ones that most people would not pick to listen to while doing homework, lying in bed or reading a book. That is, unless you can write effective essays while turning up (and falling through floors), in which case more power to you.
Just below the singles, the albums are almost a complete 180-degree shift. Aside from the Ultra Music Festival 2014 compilation (which is supposed to showcase songs from a live set), the music is more diverse, complex and typically melodic. At the top sits Skrillex’s eclectic “Recess,” accompanied by the latest, always reliable “A State of Trance” release from mainstay Armin van Buuren and Avicii’s first album “True.” Say what you will about Tim Bergling, but his debut was an intriguing, innovate step forward. There is a reason Pitbull decided to include acoustic guitar and harmonica on “Timber,” and it is thanks to tracks such as “Wake Me Up.”
However, the latest and best entry in the Top 5, at the time of this post being written, sits at the No. 4 spot: “Drive,” the end result of four years of work from Gareth Emery. What sets the album apart from other releases is that there are no “extended mixes” to be found. While every song could easily find its way to a club or festival, it was designed to be listened to in the traditional sense. The songs are carefully arranged to be enjoyed as a cohesive whole, as well as on their own. This makes buying the continuous mix a worthwhile use of money.
Musically, while every track sticks around the 128-130 beats per minute range, each has its own clear style and direction. Gareth seamlessly blends together synth-driven tracks with guitar, piano and beautiful vocals from a wide range of singers, including Gavin Beach, Bo Bruce and Christina Novelli, last heard collaborating on “Concrete Angel” and returning for “Dynamite.” The instrumental tracks are just as strong, relying more on progressions of textures and layers rather than a huge drop.
The most noticeable aspect of “Drive” is the emotion. Likely inspired by his cross-country road trip through the United States, combined with not featuring “that drop sound,” the songs are as much about the journey as they are the release. It is as contemplative as it is dance-worthy, the perfect blend of high quality musicianship and knowing what will get people out of their seats and moving to the beat.
This, to me, is the most striking distinction between Gareth and artists such as Martin Garrix and DJ Snake. Yes, they are all talented, craft memorable songs and throw down impressive live sets. However, the latter two are primarily focused on releasing a string of singles and remixes of said singles, all geared toward a festival-esque setting. There might still be some raw emotion present, but it is less focused, more surface level. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this strategy, it does at times make for some repetitiveness. Case in point: Compare “Animals” with “Wizard.”
On the other hand, Gareth Emery and his contemporaries, such as Kyau & Albert, dive far beneath that surface level. Not only can they build an impressive album, but they also consistently put on high-energy shows showcasing a variety of styles, from trance to more chilled-out house and back. They thrive off the rise and fall of the crowd’s energy and emotions, taking their fans on an adventure rather than just playing banger after banger, forgettable drop after forgettable drop. To me, this is a more enriching and memorable experience.
In the end, I will still rage hard whenever I hear “Turn Down For What” at a party. But years from now, looking back on this time, it won’t be those moments I remember. I will remember the time I pressed play for the first time on “Drive” and for a brief moment, left everything else behind. This is the music, for me at least, that stays with you, that means something; and I hope that I’m not alone in that.
Until next time: No retreat, no surrender.
JTB
Jack Butcher is a senior history major. He can be reached at butcher@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyJButcher.
I am cheering for UConn right now; I am hoping that they win another championship. For some unknown reason, my family has cheered for UConn, something about my mom going to a game or something. It’s illogical probably, but fandom usually is.
Thus, in the past eight years, of the 12 players who started as first-years, only one person has graduated with a degree or in good academic standing, according to vox.com. Of the Final Four teams, UConn has the lowest graduation rate; Wisconsin is the next lowest at 44 percent.
That is horrifying. Sure, some graduate to go on and make millions of dollars in the NBA, so perhaps a college degree is superfluous.
But Americans sit around and idealize these people as figures and examples for who were are supposed to be. So that really just tells people that as long as you can shoot a three, you do not need an education.
Rather than working hard in school as a youth, Americans hope for the chance at NBA; they work harder on the court than in the classroom. It does not set a good precedent when Americans allow their children to falter in school in order to play sports.
Some say, “Well, there is a minimum GPA one needs to achieve to play.” That GPA is in the 2.0 range. That’s averaging a C, which by definition is “average.” So we are settling for average in the classroom for excellence in sport.
Americans need to prioritize their studies. Graduating from college (if one chooses to attend) should be the goal. Obviously, there are some extenuating circumstances that cause people to leave. Some people just are not meant to go to college for a variety of reasons.
But athletics should not be the reason that one does not graduate. Furthermore, Americans need to stop idealizing athletes who do not graduate. It should be expected that the student-athlete achieve greatness in all aspects of collegiate life.
Hailing from Portland, Ore., Hannah Teskey is a senior Art History and Visual Arts/Spanish Studies double major. Aside from her position as the Arts & Entertainment section editor, she acts as the Delta Omicron Tau social chair, works tirelessly on her two senior comprehensive theses, and searches for post-grad employment. She loves cheese, her cats, and museums.
Melina Devoney, a sophomore (undeclared) from Amherst Mass., joined the Weekly in 2014. She is a Resident Advisor for Stearns Hall and competes on the Women’s Cross Country and Track teams. On the rare occasion that she is not running, Melina enjoys adventuring via bicycle and participating in campus sustainability initiatives.
This week on Backdoor Science! Can you beat that red-light camera? How do pharmaceuticals and illicit molecules compare? Are there dangers to the rise in e-cigarette liquid production? And can science help amputees walk again?
