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Thursday, December 5, 2024
Volume 163 No. 42 SERVING SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
Black student pride thrives at SJSU By Israel Archie STAFF WRITER
Feeling a sense of belonging and community on San José State University’s campus may be difficult for some Black students. African Americans make up approximately 3% of all students at San José State University, according to the university’s web page. With students studying, socializing and taking breaks from classes, SJSU’s Black Leadership and Opportunity Center is a campus resource center that supports and advocates for Black students, according to the center’s web page. Rocky Anderson, a business marketing fourthyear student, struggled to find other Black students but that changed for him when he started visiting the center. “Honestly, I was just trying to find the Black community,” Anderson said. “We only make up 3% but every time you go into the (Black Leadership and Opportunity Center) it feels like more than that.” The center arranges community events, offers free resources and collaborates with other centers, which took place at the Rooted Social Justice Music and Art Festival on Oct. 24 in collaboration with César Chávez Community Action Center, Centro and other centers and campus organizations. The event gave students the opportunity to visit each center and see how they advocate for students. The Black Leadership and Opportunity Center opened on February 21, 2018 and became the first on-campus
Black student support center in the school’s history, according to the previous web page. MyShaundriss Watkins, program coordinator for the Black Leadership Opportunity Center and SJSU alumna, has close ties to the center as she played a part in its opening. “I’m one of the students who fought and advocated for this space so I recognize the value of it,” Watkins said. Anderson feel that the Black Leadership and Opportunity Center is doing a good job of being an outlet for student advocacy. “It’s really where I found my community,” Anderson said. “It’s a safe space on campus just to be yourself.” Taylor Thomas, Black Leadership and Opportunity Center employee and SJSU student, enjoys being a part of the resource center and encourages more people to come and do the same. “I think it is a welcoming environment, so I think people should stop by,” Taylor Thomas said. Watkins also urges students, especially Black students, to utilize the center’s resources. The center often gives out free snacks, school supplies and students can print there for free. “Give us a chance (and) come in and experience it for yourself, because it really is a vibe,” Watkins said. “I like to say we’re like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re going to get.” The Black Leadership and Opportunity Center offers paid job positions for students which include peer mentors and peer success ambassadors.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BLACK LEADERSHIP AND OPPORTUNITY CENTER
Black Leadership and Opportunity Center members pose in front of the Tommie Smith and John Carlos statue.
Peer mentors are a part of the Black Alliance of Mentoring program, which advises newly enrolled Black students on campus, as stated on the center’s “Services” page. Peer success ambassadors help the Black Leadership and Opportunity Center promote Black student success at SJSU, according to the same source. Workers at the center often post promotional posters for their events on their Instagram page, including their annual “B.L.O.C” party, which the space hosted on Sept. 26. Taylor Thomas became a peer mentor for transfer students at the center because she knows what it is like to be
in that situation as she is also a transfer student. “I personally did not take advantage of (it) in my first year, but I wish I would have because I was not really involved my first year,” Taylor Thomas said. “A lot of students can be intimidated by talking to faculty or staff, so having another student to help connect them to their resources is a good thing to have.” Dominique Thomas, a peer success ambassador, compared her job to the mentor position at the Black Leadership and Opportunity Center. “We do act as a mentor to anyone who comes in
and doesn’t have an official mentor provided by the (Black Leadership and Opportunity Center),” she said. “We’re here to answer questions that no one (else) has.” They also help with paneling and college readiness event in addition to talking to high schoolers when they come to campus according to Dominique Thomas. Watkins used the word “visibility” to describe in one word what the Black Leadership and Opportunity Center means to her. “My generation wishes we could have had a center that allowed us to just be, rather than walking around campus and feeling like a fish confined
within a fish tank,” Watkins said. Peer mentor Taylor Thomas urges students who don’t look like her to come to the resource space and engage with Black Spartans. “Everybody is welcome so they can feel free to come by if they have any questions,” Taylor Thomas said. “They can talk to the students, staff or even the program coordinator, MyShaundriss… it is a safe space for Black students but it is open for everybody.” Follow Israel Archie on X (formerly Twitter) @archie45760
Students tackle finals through resources By Sofia Hill STAFF WRITER
San José State University students are bracing themselves to gear up for finals week as the semester ends. Amaya Benutto, a fourth-year finance student, said that she’s under extreme stress because she’s taking all finance classes that have exams within 24 to 48 hours of each other. “I’m just sitting in the library for hours. That’s usually every finals week. I sit here until probably one in the morning,” Benutto said. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library is extending their hours of operation next week to full 24-hour service beginning December 11th until December 13th at midnight, according to its website. In addition to the extension of hours, the MLK Library is also providing tutoring services
The Student Union has been hosting a “Finals Fair” this week, where they have been hosting a multitude of different events every day giving away food and testing supplies, according to their Instagram. Sai Priyanka Bonkuri, a master's student studying computer engineering, said she’s been taking advantage of these final resources and stationery supplies by grabbing herself a book during the Finals Fair. The fair this week has been running multiple events to ensure students had all the materials they needed for upcoming final SOFIA HILL | SPARTAN DAILY exams. Students study in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library at San José State University on Wednesday evening. “It’s going pretty hectic for me with different projects and assignments, in-person from 10 a.m. to about her final projects. for studying, according than students who didn’t. 3 p.m. and online from “I don’t usually come to to its website. Olaf Elhag, a first-year but I think with a little 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the the library but I needed to According to an MIS student said he has help and taking time for writing center according lock in. I mainly just came article by Zotkey UCI, some upcoming finals myself, I’ll get through to SJSU’s website. over here for a nice space,” they analyzed a study by next week for a few of his this,” Bonkuri said. Audrey Tseng, a fifth- Tseng said. the American Library classes. year animation and The library also allows Association that found “I just come here (to the Follow Sofia illustration student said students to book and that students who visited library) to study probably on Instagram she’s less stressed about reserve private study rooms the library regularly had once every two days,” @sofi afromvenus exams and more stressed to have undisturbed time a higher GPA on average Elhag said.