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Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Volume 162 No. 33 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
SERVING SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
ETHAN LI | SPARTAN DAILY
A shelf of books sits next to the restrooms where an alleged arsonist lit fires on two separate occasions on the 8th floor of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.
Alleged arsonist lights fires in library By Ethan Li STAFF WRITER
An alleged arsonist lit fire to trash cans in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library multiple times. The arsonist lit fires at the MLK Library on two separate occasions. The first incident occurred on March 31 at 5:18 p.m. and the second incident occurred on April 8th at 6:33 p.m, according to the San José State University Police 60 Day Crime Log. An inspection on Thursday on the 8th floor restroom, where the incident allegedly occurred, revealed that there was still a smell of smoke in the air and vents carved into the ceiling. “Nothing is more important than the safety and security of our campus
community,” said Michelle Smith McDonald, a senior director for Media Relations at SJSU. “Our library is staffed daily with University Police officers. Yet this is another reminder of the importance of being aware of your surroundings and reporting any issues that are suspicious or concerning to campus police.” There were 29 separate cases that occurred in the MLK library in the last 60 days, making up a little more than 17.2% of the cases that have occurred across all of SJSU in the past 60 days, according to the San José State University Police 60 Day Crime Log. Of those 29 cases, several do not put anyone in physical harm such as use of offensive words, the possession of paraphernalia, lewd acts and petty theft,
according to the same source. Robert Cleveland III, business management senior, works in Student Computing Services in the library. Cleveland helps students access technology and supplies on the fourth floor. Cleveland said the library did enough and he felt like the library dealt with the fires appropriately in a quick time frame. He said that although he works there, he did not learn about the alleged arson until a co-worker of his sent him an email about it. “It’s a student-only floor, so I think there should be more (security), like more checking to see if you’re a student,” Cleveland said. “If it was a student, I don’t know what
else they could do.” There has been one other arson in the crime log. Campus Village B also experienced an arson March 20, according to the San Jose Staté University Police 60 Day Crime Log. Meteorology sophomore Lucas Pollicino said he heard that before spring break someone came to the library to set some trash cans on fire, and that they burned the paint and floors. “The other day on Tuesday night, I went there and apparently he walked out five minutes before I got there,” Pollicino said. “They just didn’t get him because he was wearing different clothes. Then they check the cameras and they’re like, ‘Oh shoot, that’s him.’ ” Pollicino, who was interviewed prior to the perpetrators arrest, said
he lives in Campus Village B where he said he saw posters in the downstairs lobby of the wanted poster. He said these posters were reminiscent of a bounty, and across the bottom of the photos it said, ‘Wanted by UPD.’ ” The alleged arsonist was arrested on April 10, according to the San José State University Police 60 Day Crime Log. There have been two incidents involving a firearm on campus. One involving a suspect in Joe West Hall who was arrested on Thursday, and another involving the willful discharge of a firearm in a grossly negligent manner at the Delta Upsilon Fraternity occurring on Feb. 20, according to the San José State University Police 60 Day Crime Log.
The closest California State University to SJSU in student population size is Sacramento State University with 30,193 students, compared to SJSU’s student population of 32,229 students, according to CSU enrollment numbers. Sacramento State has faced 78 incidents compared to SJSU’s 168 incidents in the same time period, according to the Sacramento State Crime Log. The University Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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Title IX conducts feedback survey By Jonathan Canas STAFF WRITER
San José State and the Title IX Office is conducting an optional campus wide survey for feedback to improve their department. The survey opened on April 8 and is scheduled to end May 3, according to an email sent out by Peter Lim, the Title IX and Gender Equity officer. The purpose of the survey is to get campus opinions of safety and inclusivity as well as the effectiveness of the Title IX office, according to a separate email by Lim. On Aug. 15, 2023 former SJSU athletic trainer pled guilty to sexually assaulting female athletes under the guise of treating their injuries, according to an Aug. 15, 2023 article by USA TODAY. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education. Title IX states that no one will be denied benefits or face discrimination in any educational program, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s website. “We did try to time the Title IX survey to come out with sexual assault awareness month,” Title IX investigator Arielle Egan said. Egan said Title IX’s Intake and outreach support coordinator, Kelsie Cleveland, did the “lion’s share” of the survey with help from the rest of the department.
She said the Title IX office is trying to get both statistics and written feedback from the survey. “The survey has three main purposes,” Egan said. “The first is to figure out how people are feeling in terms of campus climate, the second is to learn more about the effectiveness of our office and the third purpose is to figure out what kind of barriers are there for students who want to access our services.” Egan also said there are dialogue boxes where people can put their input. “We do use our number of reports as a metric to assess trust in our community,” Egan said. “If there are more reports that means more people feel comfortable coming to us.” Title IX received 529 reports filed from the academic years of 2021 to 2023, according to SJSU’s Title IX annual report. There were 107 more reports in the 2022-2023 academic year than the year before, according to the same source. Campus survivor advocate Selena Hernandez announced a list of her services were provided on the Title IX but said she had no input on the questions that were finalized in it. Hernandez said she is a oneperson department and her affiliation is separate from Title IX. SJSU survivor advocacy services
upholds free confidential support for students, staff and faculty survivors for sexual violence, intimate partner abuse and stalking, according to its Instagram. “Unfortunately a lot of students don’t know a lot about our services,” Hernandez said. “It’s really hard to advertise because we have about 40,000 people here including students, staff and faculty.” Psychology junior Rochelle Rufo said she heard about Title IX and during her orientation since the staff made the students go through the readings but didn’t know about it until recently. “I’ve heard about the survey and saw the email but have not gotten around to it yet,” Rufo said. Rufo said it is easy to go through emails without reading them and discard them. She said she would not have heard about Title IX if it weren’t for the orientation. “If you had the time to sit down and set expectations of doing the survey, that would help a lot,” Rufo said. Hernandez said the Title IX office received feedback from the survivors she worked with and found ways to improve the department based on that feedback. “I think, if feasible, the Title IX office will definitely take the feedback from the survey into consideration and apply those
GRAPHIC BY JONATHAN CANAS
changes if possible,” Hernandez said. Hernandez said there are many reasons why students or faculty could be hesitant to talk about their experience aside from SJSU’s history with Title IX. “There’s general ideas about reporting offices, including UPD or Title IX, and thinking that they’re not going to help me,” Hernandez said. “Some do go in with that conception.” She said she’s also had students question why the Title IX department would help students now if there’s a history of them not responding to complaints in the past. “I think the conception is definitely shifting from the survivors
I've worked with,” Hernandez said. Egan said it’s important that students know what resources are on campus because they have access to more resources on campus than in the real world. “We want to make sure that our resources are serving our community,” Egan said. “We don't know that without the input of our community so when people respond to the survey it gives us an opportunity to make our program better.” Follow Jonathan on Instagram @jonathancanas_