Access Magazine
Friends, family remember victims
See insert
Campus reacts to DREAM Act News p. 2
Serving San José State University since 1934
DJ Shadow's new record
A&E p. 6
Wednesday October 13, 2011 Volume 137, Issue 26
SPARTAN DAILY SpartanDaily.com
Kids paint the darndest things
Children in the A.S. Child Care Center’s new art studio mix red and white paints to create their own unique shade Monday morning. The studio includes four work stations
Programs on campus stress the importance of teaching art to children by Brittany Patterson Staff Writer
for children to work at, including the paint table, a wire station and a writing table. Photo by Jasper Rubenstein / Spartan Daily
The art studio in the A.S. Child Development Center opened last Monday, offering preschool children approximately 3 to 5 years old the opportunity to spend one and a half hours per week following their muses. “It’s not, you know, ‘We’re going to make butterflies today,’” said Maria Davis, director of the center.
“It’s whatever children are working on in the classroom and they want to extend it into the studio work.” The space offers four stations: a writing table, painting station, wire station and clay sculpture station which Davis says are good, solid, simple materials that are both
SEE CHILDREN PAGE 3
Joyous student leaves legacy of love, hard work
Atlanta native brought energy, passion for music
by Christina Molina
by Chris Marian
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
If there was one proud moment that could not go unmentioned by Karen Pandula about her 20-yearold daughter, Kristina, it was her ability to make great choices. Kristina Lynn Pandula, who was shot near campus Saturday and died Sunday in a hospital, had deep aspirations of becoming a nurse. “She was just one class away from applying to the nursing program at San Jose State,” her mother said. However, with the class no longer offered at SJSU, Kristina had the option of pursuing her career at another institution. She chose to take the one course needed for the nursing program in Oakland. “We were very proud of her to make that decision,” her mother said. “It was a very grown-up decision for someone her age.” Kristina was inspired by her grandmother, who is a pediatrician, to go into the medical field. “I think she would have made a wonderful nurse,” her mother said. Kristina attended Wilcox High School in Santa Clara. An old high school friend, who wished to remain anonymous, sat next to Kristina every day for one year on the Associated Student Body. “She was described as a silly, free spirit and was someone everybody loved,” her friend said. “She was a junior then, and was the girl that anyone in the committee could talk to.”
If there was one overriding statement from the friends and family of Eric Kenzo Otokawa describing the 21-year-old man, gunned down along with his girlfriend Kristina Lynn Pandula in front of his home on Saturday, then this would be it — he had a good heart. According to his brother Kenneth Otokawa, Eric grew up in an affluent suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, where he went to a local private school until the 8th grade. Eric took Japanese classes on Saturdays and became fluent in the language, his brother said, which was something few people knew about him. “When he put his mind to something, he always succeeded,” his brother said. Eric was always a bit of a class clown, he said, a trait which endeared Eric to his fellow students but often infuriated his teachers. “He was always the popular guy wherever he went,” his brother said. “He was hilarious, he would crack everybody up.” According to his brother, Eric’s ability to fit in in any situation tended to get him in trouble when he started to fit in with the wrong kind of people. Eric spent only a year in public school before getting in enough trouble that his parents decided to transfer him to Camden Military Academy, his brother said. Eric surprised his family by thriving in the military environment, his
SEE PANDULA PAGE 4 Memorial Service for Kristina Pandula
SEE OTOKAWA PAGE 4 Memorial Service for Eric Otokawa
Los Altos United Methodist Church 655 Magdalena Ave. Los Altos Hills, CA Sunday, 2 p.m.
Services to be held in Georgia
Salaries analyzed Aid slowed by new eligibility rules in selection process by Jeffrey Cianci Staff Writer
by Margaret Baum Staff Writer
A special committee created by the California State University’s Board of Trustees to discuss and recommend changes to the presidential selection process will meet Thursday to address the topic of presidential compensation. According to Liz Chapin, spokeswoman for the CSU Chancellor’s Office, the committee may make recommendations to the board regarding how presidents in the CSU system are compensated. Chapin explained that the board sees this as an opportunity to address the compensation policy — in part because of negative legislative attention surrounding the issue. “It’s an ideal time to look into it,” she said. “The board wants to make recommendations and ease the attention.”
View exclusive stories and multimedia at
spartandaily.com
t Twitter: @spartandaily
83˚
f facebook.com/spartandaily 58˚
Spartan Daily Serving San José State University since 1934 Volume 137 / Issue 26
In July 2011, Elliot Hirshman took the position of president of San Diego State University. According to his offer letter, which was given to the Spartan Daily by the Chancellor’s Office, he receives salary of $350,000 and an annual supplement of $50,000 from San Diego State University Foundation sources. The letter states that he also receives several benefits. A company called Mercer, a human resource and financial services consulting firm, was hired by the Chancellor’s Office to conduct a survey of compensation, prerequisites and benefits of college presidents, Chapin said. The survey report stated that 20 universities which are considered comparable to CSUs were analyzed for the survey. Since not all of the universities gave their data, the report includes information from 13 of the 20 schools. The report focused on five different categories including position data, organizational data, compensation data, benefits and prerequisites. “The survey is more of a backdrop as to why salaries should be set as they are,” Chapin said. “In comparison to similar institutions, presidents in the CSU system are underpaid.” The comparison institutions in the Mercer report were assembled by the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC), which was originally created by the
SEE PRESIDENT PAGE 5
Changes to the Cal Grant policy, a record number of new applicants, and the ongoing state financial crisis have led to students’enduring more than a month’s delay for financial aid. According to an email from Carolyn Guel, assistant director of counseling for the Financial Aid Office, changes by the California Student Aid Commission, which administers the Cal Grant Program, to eligibility requirements for students were not communicated to the campuses until July when many awards were already made. Guel stated that these changes required the school to verify that Cal Grant recipients met income and asset ceiling requirements. Another factor, according to Guel, was late applications; the deadline for priority filing was June 10, 2011, with many students waiting until the last minute to file their application. “Many factors contributed to the delay this semester,” stated Guel, adding student applications are awarded in the order they’re filed. “We verify and award in date order, so those who turned in later will receive their awards later.”
Sexual assault reported last night on campus by Brittany Patterson Staff Writer
Guel stated many students waiting for aid to come through had to receive registration fee deferrals for their tuition to prevent them from being withdrawn from their classes — the fee deferral delays the due date for tuition until their financial aid is determined and has been paid. However, some students such as Yonathan Castillo have been waiting for financial aid for almost more than two months. Castillo, a senior mathematics major, said he receives $2,400 in Cal Grants and $5,500 in unsubsidized loans. Castillo said money he had expected to use on rent, food and other expenses was being used to pay his tuition with no idea of when financial aid would be processed to reimburse him. Castillo said he had planned on receiving loans that he could live on and using various grants such as a Federal Pell grant and a Cal Grant to pay off tuition fees, but “because Cal Grant got delayed they took my loan money to pay off my tuition.” Castillo said he became aware of the situation close to two weeks after school started, when money he had
An unidentified female student reported a sexual battery (groping) near Clark Hall in the vicinity of the Tommie Smith and John Carlos Statue, according to an SJSU alert that was sent to subscribers around 11:40 p.m. Wednesday. The suspects were described as two Hispanic males, late teens to early 20s, with short black hair, one wearing a black T-shirt with a white
expected in his bank account wasn’t there. All the financial aid office could tell him was the system was delayed and he would need to wait at least eight to 10 weeks, castillo said. “I felt desperate – it is critical for me to find out if I am going to be able to come up with that money,” Castillo said. “I need to get through without having this type of difficulty on top of my major already.” Castillo, who was at the financial aid office on Tuesday, said his aid was processed and the office is expecting to receive his money within a week. Besides leaving students waiting for money to cover tuition, the delay in financial aid leaves Associated Students waiting to collect their $73 association fee which is included in tuition payment. Shawn Chan, Finance and Accounting Manager for AS General Services, said the delay in financial aid will impact students trying to gain to services such as the computer lab acces and Eco Pass sticker because students need to have their tuition paid in full to receive an Eco Pass sticker, which gives
SEE AID PAGE 5
circle, and the second wearing a purple T-shirt with black pants. Both suspects were reported riding BMX-type bicycles, one with purple rims. The dispatcher on duty said no suspects are being held in custody at this time. If you see suspicious activity or persons matching this description contact UPD at (408) 924-2222.