NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION AND CALIFORNIA NEWS PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Volume 160 No. 41 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
Students oppose fund for jail By Irene Adeline Milanez
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI) rallied in front of San Jose City Hall on Thursday morning to urge city council members to redistribute the $747 million new jail budget towards mental health services. SAMI is a studentrun activist organization opposing the criminal legal system and advocating for individuals with mental health disorders, people in poverty and people of color who are disproportionately impacted by the legal system. The county decided against proceeding with the new jail, according to the County of Santa Clara Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Recommended Budget. Sociolog y senior Kat Adamson, a lead organizer of SAMI, said people with mental health issues often don’t receive fair treatment in jail as
they are often harassed by guards, correctional officers or other inmates and are overall deprived of proper support. “I got the help I needed going to a mental health facility. I want that for everyone. I want everyone to get the chances and the privileges that I have received, and I recognize that my life would be vastly different,” Adamson said. She said though Santa Clara County will not build the jail from 202324, SAMI is focused on utilizing the funds in 2025 to complete the original project. “So we want to make sure that something’s done with that money and it just doesn’t disappear into the zeitgeist,” Adamson said. She said the Board of Supervisors is not interested in renovating the current jail because it’s cheaper in the short run to build a new jail. The Board of Super visors address the concerns of their represented communities from the five districts of Santa Clara County,
ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY
Dora Gurrola, a Students Against Mass Incarceration team member and rally speaker, presents SAMI’s demand for fund reallocation from Santa Clara County’s Board of Supervisors in front of City Hall on Thursday.
according to their site. “Frankly, people don’t need to be in jail for mental health problems,” Adamson said. “People are often arrested for causing
a disturbance or being in crisis and doing something that could be considered a crime, but they’re in crisis.” Justice studies senior
Alina Sandoval, SAMI health institutions and team member and rally substance abuse treatment speaker, said the group facilities. is demanding the budget “There are so many be used for mental health RALLY | Page 2 services, such as mental
ENRIQUE GUTIERREZ-SEVILLA| SPARTAN DAILY
Left: Entrepreneurship senior Angel Idusuyi presents her pitch to judges in the Student Union on Friday. Above: Buisness and data analytics student Xavier Verdu given check by Sunstone Management at the CSU Startup Launch Competition.
Startup pitch competitors win checks By Enrique Gutierrez-Sevilla STAFF WRITER
San Jose State University hosted the Sunstone California State University Startup Launch Competition in the Student Union on Friday. Mohamed Abousalem, SJSU’s inaugural Vice President for Research and Innovation, said the CSU Startup Launch competition took the university’s Office of Innovation a year to prepare. “The idea is what can we do to help our students to become stronger and more ready for their entrepreneurial journey in Silicon Valley or anywhere else,” Abousalem said. “They get training
and mentorship along the way and opportunities to connect with partners, supporters, employees or investors.” He said this CSU Startup Launch competition was the first system-wide pitch competition. The competition involved 18 of the 23 CSU campuses, with two pre-qualified teams of student entrepreneurs from each institution pitching their startups in 8-minute presentations followed by a 5-minute Q&A session to compete for prize money sponsored by Sunstone, according to the SJSU website. Sunstone Management is a private capital firm that invests in early-stage technology entrepreneurs who seek to build companies, according to its site.
The event featured five competition tracks: two product tracks, two service tracks and one social entrepreneurship track. Each of the five tracks had first, second and third place winners each winning $25,000, $10,000 and $5,000 respectively. SJSU’s two winning startup companies were FutPlay, which won second place, and Creditcliq, which won third place. Xavier Verdú, business and data analytics student, is the co-founder of FutPlay and delivered his pitch to the panel of judges. He said FutPlay is an app and a reservation system based in Costa Rica, that helps amateur soccer players create teams with friends, challenge others in
their local area and rent soccer venues. “I help the field owners by giving them a free reservation system so they can manage their bookings and get new ones,” he said. “The passion I’ve seen of the people when they download it and go play and participate in tournaments is very special to see them play for fun with their friends.” Verdú said he was disappointed in placing second because he put a lot of effort into his presentation. “I feel I reached such a good level of pitching and everything, but no, I’m just gonna keep it going,” he said. “I needed the money so badly because I’m LAUNCH | Page 2