NAMED NATIONAL FOUR-YEAR DAILY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR FOR 2020-21 IN THE COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION’S PINNACLE AWARDS
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023
Volume 160 No. 9 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
Mahan discusses committee roles By Mat Bejarano STAFF WRITER
San Jose City Council met on Tuesday for a priority setting session to discuss the committees created by newly inaugurated Mayor Matt Mahan. The mayor laid out a committee focused on addressing houselessness, community safety and city cleanness. The five focus reports proposed by Mahan are the Clean Neighborhood Committee, Community Safety Committee, Downtown Vibrancy Committee, Homelessness Committee and Planning & Permit. The Clean Neighborhood Committee, led by councilmember Peter Ortiz, plans to help keep the city clean. The committee plans on prioritizing their 311 app and adding new city-contracted organizations such as nonprofits and private corporations to better support the project. The 311 app is a tool that has been implemented by the city, containing access to resources such as eviction prevention. It also allows residents to report safety hazards such as illegal fireworks, road potholes and illegal dumping. “Hiring and recruiting for all vacant positions is critical to cleaning up San Jose,” Ortiz said. The Community Safety Committee plans on getting more officers back on patrol. Councilmember Bien Doan said he wants to increase police department staffing to accommodate the community’s needs. “I would love to see our police CAROLYN BROWN | SPARTAN DAILY
CITY COUNCIL | Page 2 San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan discusses various agenda items during Tuesday’s city council meeting at City Hall.
SJSU community reacts to MSU mass shooting By Alessio Cavalca MANAGING EDITOR
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CAROLYN BROWN
New President stays active on social media By Dylan Newman
presence and repertoire by hand as a PR project. She said social media helps her hear about student issues from the source, where she actively San Jose State’s new President Cynthia Teniente- advocates for them to speak up in her direct Matson is active on Instagram under the handle messages. @sjsuprezmatson, a public account that any “I’d say to [students] DM me, reach out to me, student or faculty member can view. you always know where to find me and I’ll respond At her previous position as President of Texas if I can, or connect you to the right person,” A&M University-San Antonio, Teniente-Matson Teniente-Matson said. “That’s how it started.” used Instagram and Twitter as a way to hear from Having both an active Instagram and Twitter the students that she is leading. under the same name gives students a direct line “I wanted to think more about what was the best to her phone. way to engage students and to hear student voices Robin McElhatton, assistant director of media because of my own kids.” Teniente-Matson said. relations at San Jose State, said the new president’s “And like I said, my nieces and nephews, I knew Instagram posts are primarily run by a social this was the way to communicate with them.” media team along with her own posts. Teniente-Matson said she participated in public She said it allows her to now be a part of new relations courses at Texas A&M-San Antonio, where students took part in building her online INSTAGRAM | Page 2 STAFF WRITER
A gunman killed three students and critically injured at least five others during a mass shooting which took place in two areas of the Michigan State University in East Lansing, on Monday night. Police identified the 43-yearold Lansing resident Anthony Dwayne McRae as the suspect in the overnight MSU mass shooting. McRae died from a self-inflicted gunshot after an hourlong manhunt, according to a Tuesday article by ABC News. Juniors Alexandria Verner and Arielle Anderson along with sophomore Brian Fraser died during the shooting, according to a Tuesday Michigan State University Department of Police and Public Safety press release. San Jose State President Cynthia Teniente-Matson released a campuswide email on Tuesday, expressing her condolences to the friends and the families of the victims. “Our SJSU community stands with the community of East Lansing as they grieve, heal and move forward,” Teniente-Matson stated in the email. Teniente-Matson stated no community is immune to the gun violence afflicting the United States. “The fact that such violence took place on a college campus, causing fear, terror and disruption
to the routines of daily life that we all know well hits particularly hard,” Teniente-Matson stated. As of writing, 67 mass shootings occurred in the United States in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a not-forprofit corporation that provides information about gun-related violence in the United States. There have been more mass shootings at this point of the year than in any other year of the last decade. Associated Students President Nina Chuang said it is heartbreaking to hear that this has happened on a college campus. “The fact that it was on a college campus and the fact that students that were affected [. . .] it’s a reality check for us of how much work we have to do, and how much we really need each other during these times,” Chuang said. She said while students grieve, heal and process gun violence, there is always the constant fear that it may happen again. Chuang said despite the community’s effort to educate and prevent shootings, mass shootings continue to rise. “My hope is that, as we continue to grow in our identities, as students . . . that our generation takes a space to combat these really systemic issues that have infiltrated our safe spaces, including universities and areas of comfort,” said Chuang. President Joe Biden released MICHIGAN STATE | Page 2