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Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Volume 158 No. 17 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934

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San Jose State faculty & staff host annual celebration By Eva Martin & Jennifer Schildge STAFF WRITERS PHOTO BY EVA MARTIN

A few San Jose State faculty and staff members put on the fourth annual International Mother Language celebration on Sunday afternoon at a local contemporary art space downtown dedicated to Chicanx and Latinx experience and history. More than 200 San Jose community members attended the event at the Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, commonly known as MACLA. Event speaker Sasha Reiisieh said the idea of the celebration is a yearly worldwide observance to promote the awareness in linguistic, cultural diversity sity and multilingualism. “In this community we believe in our ur work to preserve the differences in cultures es and languages that foster tolerance and d respect for others,” Reiisieh said during ng the event. He said arts, games, dance and language are all methods of honoring ing cultural diversity. Shannon Miller, dean of San Jose State’s College of Humanities and the Arts said thee International Mother Language celebration was a “wonderful wonderful mix” of parents, children and dance performances. s. “We applied for an Abierto grant from m the city and that helped fund aspects of the art activity going ng on here,” Miller said. “I want to give a big thanks to both th the city and to MACLA.” The event was sponsored by Abierto, the grant program from the City of San Jose. The Abierto program is a fund of $1.4 million fice dedicated to dollars from the Mayor’s Budget Office “the arts community and public space activations/events” according to the City of San Jose website. Miller said she was also thankful for Tina Korani, r, who organized SJSU media design assistant professor, the celebration.

“I feel like this is a great way for me to connect to different parts around India and not just my own little state,” Patel said. Shadan Mirabedi, the main instructor of Persian Dancing with Shadan based in Paolo Alto, said she thinks it’s beautiful when people of different cultures come to learn about each other. “In this day and age, when politics is what politics is, [it’s important] to sort of show the richness and the beauty of the people through the art through the dances and the music,” Mirabedi said. “I want to educate and present our culture, which is a really rich, ancient culture, to the general community.” David Vargas, also known as Texomazatl, is a Native American instructor of Tezkatlipoka Aztec Dance and Drum school based in San Jose. He said the celebration is a way to honor people’s ancestors and share their cultures. “Today, we are here celebrating the Mother Language celebration in Downtown San Jose because we believe in the idea that we should honor our ancestral languages,” Vargas said. He said the discipline taught Shannon Miller College of Humanities and the Arts dean, through traditional arts is applicable event organizer in “any area” of life. Andrea Topete, a teaching assistant to “It was my first time organizing this and I was pretty Korani, said everything bought for the event nervous at first,” Korani said. “[In] the previous years, we was bought from local businesses and the dance ar we were able to groups were all from the San Jose area. didn’t have any performances but this year ces.” have . . . six different cultural performances. Casas Topete, who helped organize the event, One of the performances was from thee Abhinaya Dance said she thinks everything being locally based is Company, which is located in West San Jose and was “cool” because it benefits the entire community. founded in 1980. In addition to the performances, an art workshop Abhinaya dancers and student-teacher duo Dooja Sohoni allowed kids of all ages to paint flags of the world on ave an opportunity canvas with oil paints, acrylic paints and markers. and Maitreyi Patel said it was exciting to have l b i A k ffrom young artists i b d 18 years old ld like the International Mother Language celebration to Artworks between 6 and perform in-person after previously performing virtually. were displayed on MACLA’s walls to showcase their mother Sohoni and Patel performed a dance style called tongues, exploring their languages and cultural identities. Bharatanatyam, which is specialized at Abhinaya Dance The young artists were awarded with certificates for Company and originates from South India where it is participating and showing their art pieces. performed in temples for and about the gods, according to SJSU engineering alumna Anginé Marouty came out Sohoni. in support of Korani, who’s one of her best friends, and “I don’t speak my mother language . . . however, this feels said this event is all about inspiring and educating the like I’m still kind of connected to culture in some way which next generation. is nice,” Sohoni said. “It’s a nice event and we should have more . . . [to] spread Maitreyi Patel said she speaks her native language but the word to everyone that people want fun,” Marouty said. she’s from a different part of India. “People want to live together and be happy and we want to

raise our kids [in] such a society for a better future.” Korani said she felt relieved after the event and was proud of its success. “I saw the crowd . . . they were really engaged and watching the performances and taking photos with all the performers,” she said. “All the effort, all the hard work made it all really worth it.” Shannon Miller, SJSU College of Humanities and the Arts dean, said she saw the event as a representation of San Jose diversity and a way of living together. “W When you see all these people “When interacting together, you know . . . one of the huge strengths of the city and of the South Bay, and of San Jose State

When you see all these people interacting together, you know . . . one of the huge strengths of the city and of the South Bay, and of San Jose State is the diversity and people’s willingness to understand and grow and learn from each other.

is the diversity and people’s willingness to understand and grow and learn from each other,” Miller said.

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NEWS

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022

Local groups honor diversity, multilingualism through dance, art PHOTOS BY EVA MARTIN Front page: David Texomazatl Vargas, the founder of Tezkatlipoka Aztec Dance and Drum school, dances at the International Mother Language celebration event in Downtown San Jose on Sunday. Left: Dancers of the Chinese Performing Art of America raise their hands in unison. Bottom left: Dancer of the Tezkatlipoka Aztec Dance and Drum school performs. Bottom right: A child in the front row watches the dancers of the Grupo Folklorico Los Laureles perform.

Above: Vovinam San Jose performs lion dances. Right: Dancer of the Grupo Folklorico Los Laureles smiles during her performance.

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SCIENCE & TECH

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022

OPINION

ILLUSTRATION BY BIANCA RADER

The android dilemma: What is human? By Christopher Nguyen SENIOR STAFF WRITER

As technology continues to develop humans may not be able to tell the difference between an android and a real person in the future. Movies such as “Blade Runner” and “Terminator,” portray androids, robots with the appearance of humans, as non-autonomous and stoic but recent innovations are bringing androids closer to flesh and blood. An android is a mobile robot usually with a human form, according to Merriam-Webster. While people will not be among androids anytime soon, they are around their smartphones. Sherry Turkle, professor of the social studies of science and technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said peoples’ relationship with technology affects the way communication works, according to an April 2017 NBC News article. “If you can’t be alone with your own thoughts [ever], you can’t really hear what others have to say because you need them to support your fragile sense of self,” Turkle said. Smartphones are not humanlike in appearance, but many people are spending more time on their devices during social interactions, blurring the

line between machines and humans. Over 89% of smartphone carriers used their phones during their recent social activities, according to an Aug. 26, 2015 Pew Research Center article. While the current appearances of robots are still distinguishable as shiny, cold and metallic, recent developments are allowing robots to appear and act more “human.” Promobot, a service robotics manufacturer, unveiled Robo-C, the company’s first autonomous robot, with the capability to speak and more than 100,000 speech modules, according to an Oct. 31, 2019 CNBC article.

office in Perm, Russia, making it the first time a human-looking robot is servicing a government agency, according to Promobot’s website. The Robo-C model is performing humanlike tasks including working with citizens and processing documents and form inquiries, according to the same website. Most androids still look distinct with visible wires and exoskeletons, but sometime in the future they will be walking or playing next to humans in everyday life. However, emotions are one distinct characteristic that robots don’t have. Unlike robots, humans can convey various

Most androids still look distinct with visible wires and exoskeletons, but sometime in the future they will be walking or playing next to humans in everyday life.

Robo-C can perform several human tasks including housekeeping and customer service, according to the same article. It will be interesting to see how soon a robot will become less recognizable as a robot. Recently, a humanoid Robo-C model was “employed” in July 2020 at a civil service

emotions using facial expressions, according to a Dec. 16, 2020 Nature article. That distinction though, is beginning to blur. RIKEN, a Japanese research company, unveiled the results of the Guardian Robot Project featuring Nikola, a robotic head with the capability to convey emotion, according to a Feb. 11 Riken press release.

Nikola is able to portray emotions including happiness, surprise and disgust, as several actuators are placed around its artificial muscles, head and eyeballs, according to the same press release. RIKEN is a Japanese research organization with the mission to push forward innovation and research, according to its webpage. Robots showing emotions can be frightening, but what’s surprising is how close they are to communicating as humans. Facebook developed two AI robots known as Alice and Bob, two chatbots, that are able to mimic human conversation and negotiations through text, according to a July 28, 2021 USA Today article. The company shut down the project after the two AI robots were able to develop their own languages and gibberish as the developers did not limit their communication to English, according to the same USA Today article. There have been ways, including Turing tests, a method created by Alan Turning, to determine if a person is speaking to a real person or a machine, but technology is redefining what it’s like to be human and what it’s like to be a machine. In the future, robots could look just like humans, emote just like humans, dream just like humans. Will they dream of electric sheep? Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily

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SPORTS

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022

Spartans lose final home game 75-52 By Gio Gaxiola STAFF WRITER

The San Jose State men’s basketball team lost to the Utah State University Aggies 75-52 on Friday night at Provident Credit Union Event Center in their regular season finale. It was Senior Night for the Spartans and guards Trey Smith and Caleb Simmons and centers Eduardo Lane and Harminder Dhaliwal were honored before the game. The senior players were met by their families, teammates and friends to celebrate their last home game. “All four of these guys are great and were fun to coach,” head coach Tim Miles said. “It’s too bad that two of them could not play today, but they have always been there for their teammates.’’ S oph om ore for w ard Trey Anderson was the leading scorer for the Spartans during the game, scoring 12 points and two rebounds. The Spartans defense was strong for the first five minutes of the game and prevented the Aggies from scoring. SJSU went into halftime losing 28-26, but the defense stepped up and forced 10 turnovers. During the second half of the game, the Spartans were outscored 47-26. The Aggies came out on fire in the second half and went on a 7-0 scoring run. Spartans star sophomore guard Omari Moore got into foul trouble early and had limited time on the court. “It seemed like everytime we put Omari in, he would draw a foul,” Miles said. “He was only able to play 23 minutes today when essentially he usually plays all 40.”

PHOTOS BY SANDRA SANTOS-CRUZ | SPARTAN DAILY

Freshman guard Alvaro Cardenas faces oﬀ against Utah State University defenders on his way to the basket during Friday’s Senior Night game.

SJSU guard Shon Robinson went down in the second half with an arm injury. He was the team’s leading scorer at the time with 11 points. Although he

returned, it wouldn’t be enough to fend off the Aggies’ attack. Freshman guard Myron “MJ”Amey Jr. finished the regular season on a tear.

All four of these guys are great and were fun to coach. It’s too bad that two of them could not play today, but they have always been there for their teammates. Tim Miles men’s basketball head coach

CLASSIFIEDS CROSSWORD PUZZLE

During the last three games, Amey averaged more than 10 points per game, including 11 points in a loss to the Aggies. The 3-pointer was the Achilles’ heel for SJSU as the Aggies hit 11-22 behind the arc while SJSU shot an abysmal 6-23 from the three-point line. The Spartans have concluded yet another disappointing regular season. However, Miles seemed more than ready to help rebuild a Spartans basketball program that has not seen a winning season since 2010. “I love being the Spartans

SUDOKU PUZZLE Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively.

head coach and being here at San Jose State,” Miles said. “It’s going to be a big off season for us.” The Spartans (8-22, 1-17 MW) will now turn their attention to the Mountain West Tournament as the number 11 seed. The team’s first game is on Wednesday night at 4 p.m. against sixth seed rival Fresno State. The tournament will be in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Follow Gio on Twitter @GaxiolaGio

JOKIN’ AROUND “What did the buffalo say to his son when it left for college?”

“Bi-Son!”

SOLUTIONS

ACROSS 1. Read superficially 5. Jewelry 9. Dull pain 13. City in Peru 14. Agitated 16. Expresses relief 17. European mountain range 18. Pry 19. Type of cereal grass 20. Tumbler 22. Small European grebes 24. Bristle 26. A gold coin of ancient Persia 27. Mollify 30. Furlough 33. One more than a dozen 35. Coral island 37. Sphere 38. Large tropical American fish 41. “The Matrix” hero 42. Swindle 45. Mobster 48. Sake 51. Advancing 52. A part of the small intestine 54. To fancy (archaic) 55. Disconnected musical

sounds 59. Noxious plants 62. Frolic 63. Naked models 65. Urgent request 66. Church alcove 67. Tall woody plants 68. Dash 69. Adolescent 70. If not 71. Cleave DOWN 1. Smelting waste 2. Murder 3. Unfeeling 4. He gives backrubs 5. British rule in India 6. Footnote note 7. Wanderer 8. Used to adjust rocket engines 9. Mei 10. Fashionable 11. “Darn it!” 12. Female sheep (plural) 15. An elastic fabric 21. Immediately 23. Hello 25. Anagram of “Sage” 27. “Smallest” particle

28. Bush 29. Poetic dusk 31. Baby’s soft spot 32. Fugitive 34. Holiday drink 36. A titled peer of the realm 39. Buffoon 40. Be cognizant of 43. Hen or rooster 44. After-bath powder 46. Got bigger 47. Cleaning device 49. Inclined 50. Times to come 53. One who poses 55. Thin strip 56. Adhesive strip 57. Backside 58. Views 60. Prefect 61. Found on most beaches 64. South southeast

March 3

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022

Night Market Photos by Evan Reinhardt Top left: From left to right, computer science sophomore Manasa Gadepalli and software engineering and design senior Aparna Thyagarajan sing for the crowd at the Night Market event Monday evening. Both are part of the Madhura a capella team at SJSU. Top right: Hundreds of students crowd the 7th Street Plaza during the Night Market event Monday. After registering, students were supplied with free food, SJSU merchandise and several performances by university organizations. Bottom left: Tim Theoharis, co-owner of HōM Korean Kitchen in downtown San Jose, prepares plates of food for student attendees. The university asked the restaurateurs to join the event because they are known as a local favorite for the campus community, Theoharis said.

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OPINION

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022

Elitism poisons higher education Saumya Monga A&E EDITOR

Let me create a scenario: there are two students going through the college application process, one student’s a wealthy, privileged white man and the other is a low-income woman of color. They both share a similar academic standing and are extensively involved in school activities, but the white man could afford the best tutors and went to excellent private schools. His family paid thousands for him to get into an elite university. The high school the woman of color attended placed a similar emphasis on getting into an elite university despite a severe lack of resources. She wasn’t accepted to the elite university she dreamed of and felt worthless. After she graduated from college, she believed every missed career opportunity was because everyone looked down on the university she attended. But this is just a scenario and while the reality is far more complex, it highlights an important issue in our education system: the desire for people to graduate from elite institutions. The main issue pressuring students to attend elite institutions is that we convince students to believe they must be beyond exceptional at a certain talent and they will do anything to get there because once they get to a prestigious university, they can finally feel worthy. Many pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to the finest private high school or they will work themselves nearly to death. In 2019, wealthy parents collectively paid millions of dollars to

get their children into prestigious universities in a scandal known as Operation Varsity Blues, according to a March 12, 2019 Los Angeles Times article. Operation Varsity Blues involved many high-profile parents, including American actress Lori Laughlin, who paid a fake charity that falsified athletic records and helped wealthy students cheat on entrance exams according to the same article. Our K-12 educational system trains students for these universities, which can lead students to attach their worth to the prestige of the college they attend. This is not to say that there aren’t intelligent, remarkable students at elite institutions who make major contributions to society. But there are also plenty of folks who only made it there because of daddy’s money. For elite institutions, money is equivalent to intelligence. Students are expected to turn into robots designed to fine-tune aspects of their identities to match elite and Ivy League institutions. And if you are able to afford it, you can easily find

ILLUSTRATION BY HANNAH GREGORIC

according to a study done by The New York Times. Colleges aren’t looking for exceptional students, they are looking for students who they can easily manipulate into capitalistic machines who will find success (if their parents haven’t already given that to them) and indirectly (and directly) continue to support their beloved university. It’s become more apparent that attending an elite school is not an indication of your intelligence.

For elite institutions, money is equivalent to intelligence. someone who can wire you into the perfect candidate. Ivy League universities are prestigious universities in the U.S. that are known for being selective and academically excellent. The Ivy League consists of eight universities including Princeton University, Harvard University and Yale University according to Sep. 23, 2019 U.S. News article. 72% of students at Princeton come from the top 20% of the income bracket and only 2.2% of students come from the bottom 20% of the income bracket,

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To figure out what our schools are teaching our students, we need to examine what elite universities look for during the admissions process. Some elite universities look for a “student brand,” which is essentially a complete picture of your talents and passions that goes beyond just academics, according to a Feb. 19, 2019, Forbes article. Students need to study hard and also be involved in an extracurricular activity – they should only pursue a couple talents or institutions will think it’s a sign of “not enough focus.” Students also need to

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The Spartan Daily is written and published by San Jose State students as an expression of their First Amendment rights.

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A&E EDITOR SAUMYA MONGA

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ASSISTANT A&E EDITOR JOVANNA OLIVARES

OPINION EDITOR MADISON FAGUNDES SPORTS EDITOR ESTEVAN LOPEZ SCIENCE & TECH EDITOR ROYVI HERNANDEZ SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR SAMANTHA HERRERA PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR TRAVIS WYNN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS AI BLY SANDRA SANTOS-CRUZ COPY EDITORS REBECCA LEE CHRISTINE STEVENS ALAN BAEZ BRIANA CONTE SAVANNAH NATIVIDAD ISALIA GALLO

be involved outside of school, whether that be volunteering or tutoring young children. The application essay should reflect a hard life and how despite it all, a student accomplished great things. Oftentimes people of color feel they need to focus on the hardships that come from being of a different race. Rich students focus on how wealth didn’t allow them to escape hardships. Colleges look for students who could further the institutions’ brands. Reputations are the most important because they’re tied to wealth. If a student graduates and becomes the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, they can attribute many of their skills or success to attending a prestigious university. They can also lure prospective, mostly rich students to attend the university, ensuring the university’s wealth cycle continues.

Harvard, according to an April14, 2021 Forbes article. Most of these students are legacies, meaning a student’s family member attends or attended the university. Almost 17% of students at Ivy League Cornell University are legacies, according to a March 25, 2020 article by data provider Statista. Students are not brands. They are not products that need to be marketed to be sold. They should not be displayed on a shelf while their university gleefully brags about them and claims they only gained success because of them. Students are human. They are complex and most of the time, they are average. The hard truth of the matter is that most of us are average at most tasks. You could believe you got into Yale because you volunteered 500 hours a week or

Students are not brands. They are not products that need to be marketed to be sold. There are 29 students who became billionaires, some coming from wealthy families, after graduating from

because your grade point average was 4.0 but once you get there, you will find someone who has done more. It will be even more

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shocking when you discover students at state universities who have “achieved” more. Aiming to be exceptional is damaging because most of us will never get there, regardless of how much colleges and high schools want us to achieve. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try our best. We should put our best effort into everything we do, but we also shouldn’t be disappointed when we can’t reach the highest level of excellence in everything. So yes, maybe the wealthy, privileged male man reached the top, but he’ll be in for a rude awakening when he realizes he’s average and likely made it to a prestigious university because of his money. The woman of color might just end up disappointed because she realizes no matter how hard she works, she won’t ever reach the “highest level” of success. Money cannot buy intelligence, but it can buy a nice Ferrari and for some, an expensive, luxurious car is equivalent to the size of someone’s brain. The aim of college education should be to improve and learn, regardless if it happens at Yale or a community college. Follow the Saumya on Twitter @MongaSaumya

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