Bob Cuddy: Poly dodges blame for sloshed teens

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• Alcohol-poisoning awareness: On a quest to spare other families their pain

  Alcohol-poisoning awareness: On a quest to spare other families their pain

  The parents of a Cal Poly freshman who died three years ago from alcohol poisoning haven’t allowed their son’s loss to wear them down.

  Despite their lingering pain, Scott and Julia Starkey are as active as ever in their work to prevent another incident like the one that led to the death of 18-year-old Carson Starkey in 2008.

  Starkey died with a blood-alcohol level of about 0.4 percent, five times the legal driving limit, after a fraternity hazing event involving large amounts of hard alcohol. Starkey was pledging the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

• Wise words: Local notables share the best advice they've received

  Wise words: Local notables share the best advice they've received

  There’s no shortage of advice in the world — as any trip to a bookstore’s self-help section will prove. Yet, not everyone takes advice the same way.

  English writer G. K. Chesterton once declared, “I owe my success to having listened to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” But the Bible offers a different perspective, declaring, “A fool thinks he needs no advice, but a wise man listens to others.”

  We won’t advise you which one of those approaches to take. But, curious to hear tales of good advice, we asked a handful of successful locals to share some of the best advice they’ve ever heeded.

• Viewpoint: CSU’s $498 tuition increase a necessary evil in light of budget

  Viewpoint: CSU’s $498 tuition increase a necessary evil in light of budget

  In the wake of this week’s decision by the California State University board of trustees to adopt a $498 tuition increase beginning next fall, Cal Poly students and their parents understandably might ask, “Again?”

  And add, “Enough already!”

  I don’t relish the idea of putting more of the financial burden on students and their parents; no one does. The reality, though, is that with very little public debate, there has been a seismic shift in public policy that leaves California’s public universities with few options.

• Cal Poly names new volleyball coach

  Cal Poly names new volleyball coach

  This time, it wasn’t just about finding someone who had the right amount of coaching experience or good enough offensive and defensive systems to deliver conference championships and NCAA Tournament berths.

  The new Cal Poly volleyball coach needed to have the ideal personality and characteristic traits to assume a program that was rocked with sexual allegations last September, which led to the firing of Jon Stevenson. The Mustangs announced Friday afternoon their new head coach in former Cal assistant Sam Crosson, who Cal Poly athletic director Don Oberhelman noted as someone with “a very quiet confidence.”

  “He doesn’t come in and fill the room with enthusiasm and noise,” Oberhelman said. “When other coaches come in, they just take over the room. He’s more quiet and reserved. He’s a listener. He’s exactly what the program needs right now, someone who brings a calmness about him. A lot of stability. And he’s going to think very, very carefully about every decision he makes in the leadership of this program

• Letters to the Editor 12/14

  Letters to the Editor 12/14

  FDR misinterpreted

  In response to Mr. Bevan’s Dec. 3 letter: First of all, I was writing about the “real” FDR. Secondly, I cannot let the misinterpretations in “his” FDR stand.

  FDR did in fact have to “bail out” the banks, first by temporarily shutting them and then by having the federal government (through the new Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) provide billions and muchneeded new regulation.