While the media dwells on the Republican Party primaries, I prefer to focus my attention on the local elections. The California primary is so distant that it will have little or no impact in this national race anyway. For this reason, I have decided to take a closer look at the San Luis Obispo County supervisorial race.

San Luis Obispo County politics have always been colorful, but District 3 Supervisor Adam Hill has taken this precedent to a whole new level.

As you may know, Hill used his tenure at Cal Poly and so-called “connection” with the student body to beat his incumbent opponent Jerry Lenthall back in 2008. In retrospect, though, how has he directly supported students and recent graduates of this fine institution?

Anyone? (Cue crickets.) Read more.

These past few weeks, we have heard the California Faculty Association unleash its primal cry over its salaries — and for good reason. The California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees deceived them when their raises were not honored due to budget cuts. Chancellor Reed, or as I like to call him, “Alfred Hitchcock with more brow,” is a pushover to CSU administrative pressures and has soured many faculty members to the point of strike.

Meanwhile, students face a 9 percent tuition increase for the upcoming year, in addition to the proposed “Student Success Fee” that may be introduced by the Cal Poly administration. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Education reports that approximately “8 percent of students who entered repayment of their loans defaulted on them.” Isn’t the purpose of higher education to increase opportunity? Obviously not.

Amidst these pressures, students are likely to buy into faculty propaganda. However, the CSU’s problem (and, consequently, Cal Poly’s problem) extends far beyond administrative greed. Here are the underlying reasons Poly students must pay the piper now for their education: Read more.