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Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Volume 160 No. 21 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
Teniente-Matson addresses university By Dylan Newman STAFF WRITER
Blue and gold colors and bright Spartan logos decorate the Student Union Ballrooms to commemorate President Cynthia Teniente-Matson’s inaugural “State of the University” address on Tuesday. Teniente-Matson covered a series of topics and issues relating to students and the future of the university. Associated Students President Nina Chuang opened the event with a land acknowledgement and an anecdote on how San Jose State contributed to the Bay Area’s diverse cultures.
Today, we bring our cultural backgrounds, our heritage and our families to continue the legacy of transformative change impacting our communities, and, really, overall, just impacting the community here with our amazing talents and backgrounds. Nina Chuang Associated Students President
A land acknowledgement is a verbal recognition to the fact that San Jose State currently sits on the land that belongs to the Mukekma Ohlone tribe, who are the original Native Americans who live here. DYLAN NEWMAN | SPARTAN DAILY
President Teniente-Matson delivers her inaugural “State of the University” address on Tuesday in the Student Union.
UNIVERSITY | Page 2
Heavy rain and strong winds slam Bay Area By Rainier de Fort-Menares NEWS EDITOR
Flood Around 16,000 residents in Monterey County have been ordered to evacuate because of the Pajaro River levee breach, according to an announcement from county officials on Monday. The storm has caused significant flooding in Monterey County, where both Highway 1 and Highway 152 have been closed as a result. The breach is approximately 400 feet in width, with emergency repair work to stabilize the breach underway, according to a Tuesday announcement from county officials. Charlie Faas, vice president for administration and finance, wrote in a campus-wide email Sunday, warning the San Jose State community of the potential impacts of the storm. Campus administration is monitoring the evacuation orders and has warned students and faculty coming to campus from Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties to pay attention to road conditions, according to a SJSU weather advisory webpage. SJSU’s Moss Landing Marine Labs has been closed for the past two days for students, faculty and staff, according to the SJSU weather advisory webpage.
Another atmospheric river has struck the Bay Area, resulting in heavy rain and high wind on Tuesday. Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow regions in the Earth’s atmosphere that transport water vapor – bringing strong wind and rain or snow when it strikes land, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration webpage. Atmospheric rivers are projected to become more severe and damaging as a result of climate change, according to a Jan. 12 Washington Post article. This atmospheric river will bring less rain than last week, but the high wind may result in more damage, according to a Tuesday San Francisco Chronicle article. The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for most of the Bay Area, cautioning residents of gusts from 55 to 75 mph along the coast. Some cities, including San Francisco, are under a flood advisory. The heavy winds have caused downed trees to close roads, highways and damage property. The wind has also caused power outages across the Bay Wind Area. Gusts of wind at 39 mph hit Tuesday’s rainfall is anticipated to reach around one to three inches San Jose with 93 mph wind in of rain, resulting in low visibility the interior East Bay, 71 mph in and hydroplaning on heavily WEATHER | Page 2 affected roads.
MATTHEW GONZALEZ | SPARTAN DAILY
Ronald Rogers, a finalist for the Academic Innovation & Institutional Effectiveness Vice Provost, details his plans to change “compliance” culture to SJSU community members Tuesday in the Student Union.
Rogers maps out plans for online learning at SJSU By Matthew Gonzalez STAFF WRITER
An open forum with Ronald Rogers, a finalist for Academic Innovation & Institutional Effectiveness Vice Provost, was held in the Student Union on Tuesday. Rogers has been at San Jose State University since 1999, he was the chair of the psychology department from 2011-2016 and taught both graduate and undergraduate courses. The Q&A-style conversation covered how SJSU can become more accessible to online learners, and how institutional effectiveness can improve the school as a whole. Rogers said institutional effectiveness is the acknowledgement of whether or not SJSU’s programs are achieving their goals. “What I’m talking about with institutional effectiveness is, really, how do we know that
our programs are doing what they say they are?” Rogers said. He said since he’s been at SJSU, a “compliance culture” has been built, and he wants to find ways to lessen the importance of number crunching in favor of finding meaningful ways to draw from data. “But remember, the most important part of that cycle is not the data collection,” Rogers said. “It’s not the reporting, it’s the reflection about what the data tells you about the health of your class, about the health of your program, about the health of your institution.” Sarah Schraeder, research associate and program coordinator, said the main focus of his message is to put the betterment of students’ experiences at the forefront of his actions in his new role. OPEN FORUM | Page 2