NAMED NATIONAL FOUR-YEAR DAILY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR FOR 2020-21 IN THE COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION’S PINNACLE AWARDS
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Volume 158 No. 37
ASSOCIATED STUDENTS
SJSU, Bill Wilson Center collaborate
By Hailey Fargo STAFF WRITER
The Associated Students Board of Directors met Wednesday to discuss the continuation of a joint program with SJSU Cares and the Bill Wilson Center Rapid Rehousing Program. Currently enrolled students “living in an unsafe environment and have nowhere else to go may be eligible for the Rapid Rehousing by completing a request for assistance form, according to the SJSU Cares website. SJSU Cares is San Jose State’s basic needs program, which assists students by providing direct support to those in need of food, housing, and emergency assistance, according to its website. Denver Velasquez, housing specialist for the Rapid Rehousing Program said the program aims to help individuals avoid homelesssness and find permanent housing. “In many cases, we need to find a place where the student can move into long-term and during that period if the student does not have a place to stay then we provide temporary housing,” Velasquez said. He said students are involved in the housing search, and are given the opportunity to attend housing tours. “They’re very empowered throughout the housing search to make sure that whatever the student is placed in is really the best choice for that student,” he said. He added that the program has been “welcomed” by the Student Homeless Alliance (SHA), a studentled organization focused on assisting the homeless student population on campus. SHA held several demonstrations over the past few years calling for SJSU to take better action in helping homeless students, including a protest and press conference
EVAN REINHARDT | SPARTAN DAILY
Associated Students Controller Maritza Molina (left) sits next to Vice President Nina Chuang while leading the discussion with other A.S. board members during their meeting Wednesday in the Student Union. Board directors talked about a joint housing aid program.
on April 20, according to past Spartan Daily reporting. During the press conference, SHA members said A.S. gave $94,860 to fund the Fall 2021 semester on-campus emergency beds, according to the same Spartan Daily reporting. According to the SJSU Cares Fall 2021 mid-year report, 11.2% of SJSU students have experienced homelessness at least once within the year. Additionally, 12 out of the 213 students who requested emergency housing assistance received emergency housing, according to the same report. Velasquez said he reached out to SHA through social media to share “important information” that should be available to students about the program.
“We exchanged information and also some potential ways to collaborate in getting the word out to other students,” Velasquez said. Anthony Majano, SHA president and sociology junior said he hopes the university continues its relationship with the Bill Wilson Center, but hopes the Rapid Rehousing Program and other partnerships will receive more attention and funding. “I love the fact that the school does have that connection and relationship with the Bill Wilson Center and their Rapid Rehousing Program,” he said in a phone call. “We know that there has been a good amount of students who have been housed or at least taken care of by the Rapid Rehousing Program.” However, Majano said SHA has asked the university to improve
its advertisement of SJSU Cares and the Rapid Rehousing Program, which he said is advertised even less. “One of the main issues was a lack of advertising for SJSU Cares and that does extend towards the Rapid Rehousing program as well – it’s even lesser known by students,” he said. “I believe that there can be a lot to be done in terms of getting awareness for that resource because it is helpful.” During the meeting, A.S. President Anoop Kaur expressed a similar concern regarding the program’s visibility. “I had a question for you all in regards to awareness, so something that SHA has mentioned is possibly collaborating with professors in classes and including this information in syllabi,” she asked.
“Have you given any thought to bettering communication in the classroom regarding improvements?” Velasquez responded saying the program is currently working on improving its awareness to students. “We are really trying to take advantage of all resources available to spread word about the program, so the classes with the professors, the student events and meetings and the other ways to interact with students,” he said.
Madilynne Medina contributed to this article.
Follow Hailey on Twitter @haileyfargo
MULTIMEDIA
REPORTING & PRODUCTION BY EVAN REINHARDT | SPARTAN DAILY
Justin Firmeza, San Jose State jazz studies sophomore, often plays his Hawaiian steel guitar on the university campus for passers-by. Firmeza said he started playing for the SJSU community once the campus repopulated in 2021, which was when the coronavirus pandemic eased and some in-person instruction returned. He said he
began to use playing as a way to pass time between classes and fit in some practice. Along with the guitar, Firmeza plays piano in the SJSU jazz studies program. Campus community members can find him playing on Seventh Street Plaza or by Tower Lawn, where he accepts tips for song requests.
2
sjsunews.com/spartan_daily
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022
SJSU track team tackles ‘Adversity’ By Eva Martin STAFF WRITER
San Jose State Radio, TV and Film junior Jaylen Williams is currently working on a documentary titled “Adversity” about the SJSU 2021-2022 track and field team and the program’s historic legacy. The production team includes SJSU students, alumni and other volunteers. Williams, “Adversity” director and producer, said he had the idea of making a documentary about the track and field team since he first enrolled at SJSU in 2019. He said he initially came to the university to become a track athlete, but chose to be fully involved in filmmaking. “I want to show that [the track and field] program is still going and is still trying to be as great as it used to be,” Williams said in an in-person interview.
I just think it’s so awesome that they capture the whole team and every aspect of it when it’s good and when it’s bad. [It shows] how much work we put in and the results. Emilia Sjostrand
track and field freshman
The SJSU track program was called “Speed City” from 1956-1979, according to the Online Archives of California. Speed City was coached by Lloyd “Bud” Winter and the team acquired 43 world records and 49 American records, including SJSU track and field alumni Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ respective 1968 Mexico city Olympic gold and bronze medals. “They were the biggest track
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ADVERSITY
The production team of “Adversity” films a scene from the documentary, which is expected to be in pre-production after September.
and field team in the nation,” Williams said. In 2019, SJSU remodeled its South Campus, which is about a mile from the university and replaced the historic Bud Winter track field, where all the Speed City athletes used to train, by a four-level parking garage, according to past Spartan Daily reporting. Selina Du, Radio, TV and Film freshman and “Adversity” production manager, said in a phone call that the track and field program is underfunded and the team still doesn’t have its own SJSU track. “The team has to go to a bunch of different colleges and high schools to use their tracks,” Du said. Williams said he presented his project to the SJSU athletic department in January. The
department gave its approval and support but did not provide any financial sponsorship. The production team gathered fundings through personal donations and raised $2,112 via an IndieGoGo page, he said. The production team is using its own camera equipment and checks out audio equipment from the SJSU film department. Williams said the SJSU director of track and field and cross country, Charles Ryan, provided him with a list of athletes to highlight in the documentary. “There’s a couple athletes that I focus on but [coach Ryan] is the main subject because he allows me to kind of see through everyone,” Williams said. “He’s connected to the entire team as the head coach, so he’s basically the main character in a way.”
A track and field athlete runs on a track while being filmed for the “Adversity” documentary about the team.
Ryan was named SJSU director of track and field and cross country after 14 years of NCAA coaching experience, according to the athletic department website.
what you’re supposed to do and not focus on how you look for the camera or where the camera is,” Sjostrand said. “But it’s very fun and I think that the end product will be very worth it.”
There’s a couple athletes that I focus on but [coach Ryan] is the main subject because he allows me to kind of see through everyone. He’s connected to the entire team as the head coach, so he’s basically the main character in a way. Jaylen Williams
Radio, TV and Film junior director and producer of “Adversity”
Williams said that the SJSU track and field team is very diverse and he didn’t anticipate hearing stories about the challenges international students experience. “There’s just spontaneous things that happen and I just can’t account for everything so much,” Williams said. “I’m watching stories being created.” He said he’s witnessing athletes’ personalities and skills develop through the lens of his camera. Greta Fraraccio and Emilia Sjostrand are both track and field freshman and international students from Italy and Sweden, respectively. Fraraccio said she’s glad “Adversity” is showing the Spartan track team’s hard work. “It’s really nice that they can show how much we work and what is track and field,” Fraraccio said. “Track and field is a really hard sport where a lot of people don’t know the effort and don’t know this sport.” Sjostrand said she’s grateful that the documentary is capturing her first semester at SJSU and the evolution of the track team as they grow as athletes. “I just think it’s so awesome that they capture the whole team and every aspect of it when it’s good and when it’s bad,” Sjostrand said. “[It shows] how much work we put in and the results.” Sjostrand and Fraraccio both said it was challenging to be followed by a camera at the start of the documentary’s production but they got used to it and said they believe the final product will be worth it. “When you’re in competitions and you have cameras, you need to stay in your zone to focus on
Selina Du said she was not familiar with SJSU track and field history and the “Speed City” legacy before talking to Williams about the documentary. “[Williams] was telling me everything and [it] made me want to work on it because I felt that it was important to learn about it, for myself and for other people,” Du said. She said Williams was a good leader because he motivated the entire production team and was dedicated to his work. “I think the biggest challenge is trying to balance school,” Williams said. “I have an internship at the same time, so I’m balancing school, this internship and the documentary.” Williams said it was also challenging finding enough funds to travel and follow the Spartan track team’s competitions. “I’m really pursuing this with the mindset and the professionalism of the director who wants to go into a film festival,” Williams. “That’s the goal for it, to not just be on HBO or Amazon or YouTube.” He added that he hopes “Adversity” will help his production team build a future in the film industry. The official production will stop on June 7 and Williams estimates post-production and editing will be done before September. “I feel like I’ve gotten support from everyone,” Williams said. “I’m blessed to even be able to do any of this.”
Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily
sjsunews.com/spartan_daily
OPINION
THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022
3
Racism lingers in cannabusiness
Joaquin De La Torre STAFF WRITER
If you Google “top five best cannabis brands in California” you’ll more than likely find brands including Kiva Confections, Raw Garden and Alien Labs, which all share a common trait: They are owned by white people. The cannabis industry needs to see communities of color represented more in the business owner demographics, especially since communities of color were the most affected by the war on drugs and are currently being excluded from the colloquially termed “Green Rush” A play off of the late 18th century California Gold Rush, those taking part in the booming legal cannabis market often call it the “Green Rush,” suggesting that the industry is making people extremely wealthy, according to a Nov. 17, 2020 Yahoo article. Even though recreational cannabis was legalized in California in November 2016 and cannabis-related arrests are on the decline in California, Black and Latinx people are still arrested at higher rates across the country in both states where cannabis has been legalized and states where it remains illegal, according to an April 20, 2020 ACLU report. Black people are almost three times as likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than white people nationally, according to the same report which used 2018 census data. Being arrested often leaves Black and Latinx people with a felony - one more hurdle to overcome if they want to start a cannabis business. In addition to all the historical, systemic ways people of color were financially held back, including redlining practices, it’s also difficult to do anything with a felony on your record. Redlining, which was practiced from the 1930s to the1960s, was a financial
ILLUSTRATION BY HANNAH GREGORIC
Jim Crow Law that separated neighborhoods by “levels of risk” using color coded maps, according to the Ferris State University website. Neighborhoods in the red section were typically populated by Black people and would be less likely to receive loans from banks, leading to the generational wealth gap that we see today, according to the same website.
practices for individuals with marijuana-related infractions. Currently, record expungement practices for cannabis-related offenses are strict and verbiage for records to be expunged have to fall within a set of specific guidelines. For example, if you are charged with a misdemeanor for having drug paraphernalia including a glass bong, but no
that advocates for the federal legalization of cannabis. Clearly a budget is not the issue for the slow expungement process. The lack of action by the California judiciary department isn’t surprising because these felonies mostly affect people of color. The history of how cannabis, which is the proper botanical name for
The only way to create more diversity in the industry is if business leaders start advocating for better record expungement practices for individuals with marijuana-related infractions. ns.
GRAPHICS FROM FLATICON
Having a felony record puts aspiring small business owners at a greater disadvantage because banks will rarely accept loan applications from felons, according to a Dec. 15, 2020 NerdWallet article. Opening up a brickand-mortar cannabis store is extremely expensive and starting a dispensary can cost anywhere from $250,000 to $750,000, according to a Sept. 25, 2018 article published by The Cannabis Industry. The only way to create more diversity in the industry is if business leaders start advocating for better record expungement
ABOUT
EDITORIAL STAFF
The Spartan Daily prides itself on being the San Jose State community’s top news source. New issues are published every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday throughout the academic year and online content updated daily.
EXECUTIVE EDITOR MADILYNNE MEDINA
The Spartan Daily is written and published by San Jose State students as an expression of their First Amendment rights.
NEWS EDITOR BOJANA CVIJIC
Reader feedback may be submitted as letters to the editor or online comments.
MANAGING EDITOR CHRISTINA CASILLAS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AMANI HAMED PRODUCTION EDITOR BRYANNA BARTLETT
MULTIMEDIA & ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR EVAN REINHARDT A&E EDITOR SAUMYA MONGA ASSISTANT A&E EDITOR JOVANNA OLIVARES
weed, your record will just indicate drug paraphernalia, so you are not able to get it expunged, according to an April 17, 2020 Insider article. More than 34,000 Californians have yet to be pardoned for marijuana-related offenses, according to a Jan. 13 investigation by the Los Angeles Times. This is ridiculous, especially considering that last year California garnered $3.4 billion in tax revenue from cannabis companies, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. The Marijuana Policy Project is an organization
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
the plant, got its nickname, “marijuana,” is an anecdotal way to frame how history can affect the present day. In attempts to stoke anti-immigrant fears in U.S. citizens during the early 19th century, Harry Anslinger, director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962, began warning Americans that immigrants were bringing in a drug known as “Mariguana,” according to Dec.14, 2013 Al-Jazeera article. He used the word marijuana specifically because it sounded “foreign” and was therefore easier to
connect to Mexican immigrants, according to the same article. It’s easy to continue buying from your favorite cannabis brands, but consider buying from smaller brands owned by people of color. Some Black-owned brands include Oakland Extracts, which can be purchased from Caliva on South 7th Street in San Jose. Or, if you’re sensitive to THC, check out the Latina-owned cannabis salve and bath salts company, Ojo De La Sol, to celebrate with a peaceful bath. Its products are a bit more difficult to come by since it’s a smaller company but can be purchased from the Cookies store in Hayward. Cannabis was once a counterculture symbol, but now it’s sold out and is no longer for the people because of historic systemic inequities and modern day carelessness. Something needs to be done so that people of color are represented in the cannabis industry or if nothing else, I know we all know someone, who knows someone, who is a “small business owner” we could buy our favorite evening delight from. Follow The Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily
GRAPHICS EDITORS NICK YBARRA LINDSAY VILLAMOR AUDREY TSENG DAISHA SHERMAN AARON CHEUNG BIANCA RADER HANNAH GREGORIC XENA SEO
ADVERTISING STAFF
CONTACT US
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR MIA WICKS
EDITORIAL – MAIN TELEPHONE: (408) 924-3821
STAFF WRITERS D’NETRUS CHEVIS-ROSE JENNIFER SCHILDGE SAMANTHA DIETZ JOAQUIN DE LA TORRE HAILEY FARGO GIO GAXIOLA EVA MARTIN
ADVERTISING REPS TYSON TSOI ERICK BAQUERA ELENA RAZGONOV MOISES LLAMAS HAYLEY WATANABE THI TUYET MAI TRUONG RONALDO MENDOZA ESPINOZA AARON LAO JENNIFER YEH REGINA GRAJO CHELSEY THAI AMARI JOHNSON
SENIOR STAFF WRITERS CHRISTOPHER NGYUEN DON LE JAMIE BENNETT PRODUCTION CHIEF MIKE CORPOS NEWS ADVISER RICHARD CRAIG
CREATIVE DIRECTOR SHANALL SNEED
ADVERTISING ADVISER TIM HENDRICK
EMAIL: spartandaily@gmail.com
ADVERTISING – TELEPHONE: 408-924-3240 EMAIL: spartandailyadvertising @gmail.com
CORRECTIONS POLICY The Spartan Daily corrects all significant errors that are brought to our attention. If you suspect we have made such an error, please send an email to spartandaily@gmail.com.
EDITORIAL POLICY Columns are the opinion of individual writers and not that of the Spartan Daily. Editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Editorial Board, which is made up of student editors.
4
sjsunews.com/spartan_daily
SPORTS
THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022
OPINION
Spartans want tacky court design By Gio Gaxiola STAFF WRITER
A revamped basketball court is always a welcoming sight and could even help team morale and attract more fans, but if you hold a contest to choose a new design, don’t do it over the internet. People may take it as a joke and choose the worst design on purpose. San Jose State Athletics released a Twitter poll on April 4 with four potential court designs for the Walt McPherson Court, located in the Provident Credit Union Event Center. “What I didn’t agree about was the way they set up the voting,” said SJSU super fan known as Dac The Duck. “I think that they should have made the voting only for the members of One Spartan Nation.” One Spartan Nation is the official revenue generator of SJSU Athletics which raises money through donations from boosters, season tickets and corporate sponsors, according to its website. The options presented by SJSU Athletics are basic. However, a clean basic design looks better than an over-the-top design. The first poll option was to keep the current design, which is solid but a bit plain. It features a yellow logo of a Spartan helmet in the middle of the court. Option two includes a parquet design that brings the iconic look of the Boston TD Garden court. While the option would bring a breath of fresh air to the court, it’s ugly. Basketball fans would watch their favorite players play on a court that resembles a box of spilled Chex Party Mix. The third option changes up the first design, featuring a clear logo with a blue outline rather than a yellow logo. The hardwood is also changed to be a lighter tone of brown, which is
ILLUSTRATION BY XENA SEO
a clean design with minimalist flair. The last design is a doozie, dubbed the “Microchip Design.” The court looks like something out of the 1982 Disney film “Tron.” The logo in the middle is a Spartan helmet inside a microchip and the hardwood is a dark color with the microchip branching out on the court. Although Twitter users were able to vote on their favorite options, several San Jose State community members also had differing opinions about the proposed designs. “I have seen the design and I think it is a bit too much,” said Tim Miles, men’s basketball head coach.
“I can see how the microchip is related to San Jose but I am a fan of a more traditional court.” The “Microchip Design” won the poll with a whopping 58% of votes. “Although I like the design, I don’t believe that we should go through with the microchip floor,” Dac The Duck said. “I get that we’re trying to represent ‘Silicon Valley,’ but if those same big name companies aren’t funding our school. What’s the point of representing them?” Personally, I would want the team to go back to the old design from 2013. In this layout there were four spartans in full armor holding
CLASSIFIEDS CROSSWORD PUZZLE
weapons and it was an online hit that boosted game attendance. However, the fans were more interested in the court’s unique look than the game being played upon it. While the design only lasted a few years, it put an emphasis on Spartan Pride. Jeff Konya, SJSU athletic director said in a Tuesday email that the Twitter poll was not final and the ultimate court design will be decided using input from stakeholders and the votes. “We are working with our internal creative team and graphic designer to take the input from the voting campaign as well as receiving input from key stakeholders,”
SUDOKU PUZZLE Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively.
he said. Konya said the renovation would cost “approximately $200,000” to install including materials, design, transport, prep, padding and renovation would begin in summer 2022. If these are the only options, athletics should just leave it the way it is and leave these wacky court designs more for a videogame like NBA 2K, not a D-1 basketball program.
Follow Gio on Twitter @GaxiolaGio
JOKIN’ AROUND “Why was the calendar afraid?”
“Its days were numbered!”
SOLUTIONS
ACROSS 1. A computer company 6. 2 2 2 10. Frog 14. Music genre 15. Verruca 16. Therefore 17. Dominates 18. Notion 19. Auspices 20. A vague idea 22. Story 23. Mesh 24. Pilotless plane 26. Pick 30. Thin mortar 32. American symbol 33. Psychologically painful 37. Threshold 38. Monk’s monotone 39. Slang term meaning insane 40. Doing detective work 42. Snake poison 43. Damp 44. Calm 45. Gyrate 47. Fate 48. Diving bird 49. Willful 56. Dogfish 57. Colored part of the eye
58. Angered 59. Sleeveless garment 60. Break in two 61. Beside 62. Initial wager 63. Not his 64. Destitute DOWN 1. Dugout shelter 2. A dark bluish-red color 3. Any soft or soggy mass 4. Lascivious look 5. Gist 6. Distort 7. Dry riverbed 8. Black-and-white cookie 9. Be conspicuous 10. Abstainer from alcohol 11. Musical instrument 12. Nimble 13. Amount of medication 21. Observe 25. A strong drink 26. British tax 27. Salute 28. Look at flirtatiously 29. Bring light to 30. Allow 31. Sounded a bell 33. Not that 34. Pitch
35. Computer symbol 36. Draw near 38. Infantile 41. Craggy peak 42. Experienced 44. Cry loudly 45. Adult females 46. Raise 47. Speech defects 48. Molten rock 50. Sea eagle 51. Teller of untruths 52. Anger 53. Balm ingredient 54. Be inclined 55. Jittery
April 26
PLACE YOUR AD HERE Place your Classified Ads Online at Spartandaily. CampusAve.com
Contact us at 408.924.3270 or email us at
SpartanDailyAdvertising @sjsu.edu
Our office at DBH 213 is closed because of the pandemic.
sjsunews.com/spartan_daily
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022
5
Let’s talk mental wellness Program helps careers To the editor: Mental health awareness is a pressing issue, especially in high-stress environments like college campuses. Active Minds doesn’t only raise awareness about this issue but they also try to promote mental health resources available on campus. They want to help motivate students to reach out for support. The coronavirus pandemic has definitely affected the mental wellness of students. For some, it has altered their behavior or intensified their pre-existing mental health issues. The uncertainty of pandemic has made the college experience more challenging. “In 2020, suicide was among the top nine leading causes of death for
people ages 10-64. Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 and 25-34,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) should offer both in-person and online counseling services. It’s important to have counselors on-site to help students better manage their stress and provide students with immediate support. Wila Mae Navarro advertising sophomore
Dear Editor, There are many San Jose State student resources that are overlooked or understated, one of which is the Generation of Aspirational Leaders (G.o.A.L) program. G.o.A.L. is a promising organization that more undergraduates should know about. Many SJSU students have no idea where to start with their careers, let alone how to advance in their own major. G.o.A.L. supplies the community with resources to sort out those dilemmas. Career readiness and academic success are just a few of the top priorities G.o.A.L. wants to ensure and support. It provides leadership workshops, networking conferences and mock interviews for students to become prepared for life during and after college.
The program was established in 2016 and is actually the first program on campus to address community, curriculum and career. Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic has affected the program’s advancement for the past two years but they seek to solidify a stronger presence on campus once more. They recently brought back their annual G.o.A.L. retreat and have so many more social events to offer. Further appreciation of this program should be promoted for the benefit of SJSU students. Myra Luu advertising sophomore
Negatives of Tor browsers SJSU needs more parking Dear Ms. Fagundes: I just read your article from March 24, 2022 about Tor browsers being opened with Twitter. It was very interesting learning more about the process of this implementation, as well as its reasons for existing, as I had no clue that this was even happening. It was interesting learning that there was a term called “echo chamber,” which summarizes a lot of the distant connections I have on Facebook (people who get their news tailored to their beliefs). While I generally agree with your points, including that the internet should be uncensored and that tailored ads have the potential to be predatory, I noticed that some ideas in terms of Tor were not addressed. The article seemed to hint that there were only positives to Tor, but there are definite downsides to Tor as well, and they have been problematic to say the least. For example, encrypting your data with a Tor browser can largely affect a Wi-Fi network’s connection speeds. There is also no guarantee that your
data will actually be secure. The reason for this is that any insecure website that a person visits still does not offer a risk-free experience. Tor also encrypts your IP address, but not your data. In other words, people’s identities can remain hidden but their activity and the content they create is subject to data breaches. Overall, this was a very informative piece, but I just wanted to make sure that both sides of using Tor were explored.
Iseph Dela Merced communications junior
To the editor: San Jose State needs more parking spaces available to students, especially those who commute to campus on a daily basis. It’s already hard enough to find parking in school parking garages, so add that to the fact that SJSU is already plotted right in the middle of a busy city and it makes it almost impossible for someone commuting to campus to find a decent parking space. Due to the limitations of spaces available in our parking structures, students who commute to school have to wake up at the peak of dawn to begin making their way over to San Jose, even if their class does not start until noon. Not only is parking their main concern, but also trying to beat early morning traffic so that they can make it to the parking garages by 7:30 a.m. the latest. According to Barbara Jacoby, in the year 1990, 83% of the United States student population lived off-campus as commuters. These numbers have not changed much since then, especially with SJSU being a commuter-heavy
school. In my opinion, SJSU should use a part of their budget to build a new parking garage on the northwest part of campus, since there is not one in that area. To combat the need for more parking spaces, they should also make it taller than the other parking garages, which in turn would create more space.
Sincerely Jacqueline Toscano advertising sophomore
Gender identities simplified in housing applications To the editor, There seems to be a lack of nuance in terms of diverse gender inclusion at San Jose State University. For nonbinary students, navigating the applications for next semester’s housing is not a smooth sailing. The options for gender on the website are constrained to male, female, and neutral. “Neutral” isn’t the best term to describe all gender-nonconforming students as it does not accurately describe identities that are more fluid. Not all nonbinary students consider their gender identities to be neutral, as some more fluid identities can involve fluctuating between masculinity and femininity. On top of the language not being inclusive, it also seems useless in terms of the way housing addresses students who identify as “neutral,” asking them to switch to “female” or “male” out of convenience. Nonbinary students have been asked to switch their identities from “neutral” to a binary gender identity in order to match students to roommates. A study from Boston University’s School of Public Health Gender revealed that gender nonconforming students are four times more likely to experience mental health problems than their cisgender peers. I suggest that housing rethinks gender diversity in terms of pairing students with roommates as well as reprogramming the application to actually acknowledge the existence of gender nonconforming students. SJSU University
Housing should change the term from “neutral” to “other” immediately because the vagueness of the term can encapsulate identities such as genderfluid, bigender, or even gender identities that lean toward femininity or masculinity; these cannot be considered “neutral.” In demographic and diversity reports of SJSU, nonbinary students are not even represented in the gender makeup. I believe if given the opportunity to share our voices and experiences through a survey or town hall style meeting, gender nonconforming individuals can feel more included in a cis, binary majority environment. This can ensure that the needs of these students can be addressed. Irene Adeline Milanez journalism freshman
Empower but don’t belittle SJSU: recognize the past Dear Jennifer Schildge, With respect to the article “Women belong behind the camera,” I totally understand and agree with your point of having more women in the filmmaker’s position. It is important in the film industry to have a different perspective on creating a beautiful film. It’s also unfortunate that it’s a male-dominated industry and that the female voice gets overlooked and women are belittled. While empowering women is awesome, I believe that it is possible to empower without belittling men. In your article, whether it was intentional or not, the phrase “If a man was behind the camera, the film would have been shot differently because a man could not have captured Princess Diana’s character like Mathon did” could be interpreted as a man is incapable of capturing Princess Diana’s character. If we were to change “man” to “woman” in that sentence, I would imagine
many people would feel disgusted to say the least. Respectfully, if some sentences were rephrased, it could help create a more positive narrative in your article. By adopting a new perspective on the issue, we can hopefully break the vicious cycle of trying to one up the other group in order to gain equality. Thank you. Sincerely, Edward Ngo entrepreneurship senior
Dear Spartan Daily editor, I’m writing in response to an article titled “Community remembers Japanese internment” by Madilynne Medina, published on Feb. 22. A lot of students are generally unaware of the history of Japanese internment here at SJSU, and we can no longer ignore what was once on our campus. Yoshihiro Uchida Hall was the first building on campus named after someone who wasn’t a U.S. president and the recognition of Japanese Americans shouldn’t stop there. Like John Carlos, Tommie Smith and Cesar Chavez, there should be something dedicated to Japanese Americans inside Yoshihiro Uchida Hall. Justice for Japanese, an oncampus organization, has come together to push for an art installation in Yoshihiro Uchida Hall to show SJSU’s role in the internment of Japanese Americans. The fact that the university has not
yet given approval or funds for this project shows a lack of commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion that the university claims to promote. We must call on the administration to allocate funds and support to Justice for Japanese, to honor the Japanese Americans that were interned on this very campus. Katy Jensen political science senior
6
sjsunews.com/spartan_daily
THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
sjsunews.com/spartan_daily
THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022
7