WINNER OF 2023 ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS PACEMAKER AWARD, NEWSPAPER/NEWSMAGAZINE NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION AND CALIFORNIA NEWS PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Volume 162 No. 35 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
SERVING SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY
A group of protesters gather in front of the San José U.S. Air Force Recruiting center on Saturday afternoon holding Palestinian flag-colored signs and a drum.
Protest opposes Israeli war fund By Kaya Henkes-Power STAFF WRITER
A protest in response to U.S. tax dollars funding Israel’s military occurred in front of the San José U.S. Air Force Recruiting center on Saturday afternoon. The protest was held by San José Against War, a grassroots organization that opposes U.S. war and militarism, according to the organization’s Instagram bio. Drusie, an organizer for San José Against War, organized
the protest following Israel’s attack on an Iranian diplomatic building in Syria. “The U.S. people do not want our tax dollars going to prop up the apartheid state of Israel,” Drusie said. Israel attacked the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria, killing 14 people on April 1, according to an April 2 article by The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Iran launched missiles and drones on April 13-14 in response to the April 1 attack on the Iranian Consulate,
according to an article by Al Jazeera. “We knew there was the potential for a widespread military campaign against Iran,” Druise said. “So we wanted to come out here today to say that the American people do not war with Iran.” She said the American people do not want the U.S. to participate in any more military activity in the Middle East. “The wars in the Middle East serve the purpose of protecting the ruling class here in the U.S. and (its) economic interests,”
Druise said. The United States sends approximately $3.3 billion a year, and cumulatively $300 billion in U.S. foreign aid to Israel, according to an April 11 article from the Council on Foreign Relations. An anonymous protester whose family is from Gaza believes being in front of the Air Force Recruiting Center will help raise attention. “The weapons and aid that we send to Israel is being used to commit this atrocity, to commit genocide,” the protester said.
He said people need to understand that Iran is a minor piece in the bigger story, and at a basic level an individual needs to understand Israel has been illegally occupying Palestine since 1948. The occupation of Palestine dates back to 1923, beginning with the British Mandate which facilitated the mass immigration of Jewish individuals following the rise of Nazism, according to a Oct. 9, 2023 article from Al Jazeera. PROTEST | Page 2
Writing Center offers helping hand By Melissa Alejandres STAFF WRITER
One of Michelle Hager’s favorite parts of her job as director of the Writing Center at San José State is being involved with a lot of tutor training and making sure students are trained to tutor. Hager said SJSU’s Writing Center was established in 2007 by the previous director Doctor Linda C. Mitchell, who is also a professor at SJSU, and Hager then became director in 2013. The Writing Center is a place built for students who need extra help if they are struggling with their writing or if they need help achieving any other academic goals, according to its website. “We offer a wide variety of services: in-person tutoring, online tutoring, we have drop-in options and workshops,” Hager said. She said students need
to know that the tutors are their peers who have gone through similar struggles as them. Hager said the tutors are always creating instructional resources, videos, handouts, and writing for the blog team.
Poetry for me is a form of healing and a form of processing the world around me. Nalana La Framboise Writing Center tutor
“It’s not magically easy to write,” Hager said. She said one of the biggest challenges when it comes to creative writing is to make it sound natural and authentic. Hager said poetry is often overlooked by
students because people think it is hard to do. Writing Center tutor Nalana La Framboise, a poetry graduate student, said her favorite part of tutoring students is watching the “light bulb” go off above their head when they get a great idea. “One of the difficulties of creative writing is creating your work and trying to put it out there in the world is the fact that you are going to be your own biggest critic,” Framboise said. She said when people do poetry on their own time or for fun, the words are not hard to find. “Poetry for me is a form of healing and a form of processing the world around me,” Framboise said. “Poetry is intended to reveal culture and identity.” She said a good way to get inspiration for poetry is by being out in nature or simply going on a walk. Seher Vora, a coordinator of Online Writing Support
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WRITING CENTER
A writing tutor and a student work one-on-one in the Writing Center during an in-person session on the second floor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.
Services at the SJSU Writing Center, said she believes writing is a crucial skill to develop because it applies to any aspect of communication in life. “Helping students develop that writing skill is a dream job for me,” Vora said.
Creativity can take many forms and writing is just one way to express it, she said. She said the tutoring services offered by the Writing Center are quite popular with students, especially online tutoring sessions.
“We’re your friendly neighborhood Writing Center, always ready to lend a helping hand,” Vora said. Follow the Spartan Daily on X (formerly Twitter) @SpartanDaily