As the solemn rhythms of a drum told the story of Sufism, an inner, mystical dimension of Islam, Abatiello began to twirl from right to left, mimicking the motion of blood circulating through the heart. Even though his eyes were closed, the young man has reached an acute state of self-awareness that he said brings him closer to God.
In a collaborative effort of the Middle East and Islamic studies and the world music and dance programs, audience members were enchanted by 90 minutes of music, dance and poetry in "Sufism: A Muslim's Mystic Journey" on Nov. 10.
Abatiello performed the whirling dervish dance known as "Sema" alongside Sufi musicians Shirzad Sharif and Pezhham Akhavass in Knuth Hall of the Creative Arts Buildin. Shirzad created mesmerizing melodies by sliding his fingers along a fretted lute called a Tanbur, while Akhavass played the Daf, a framed drum.
"Sufism is a mystical facet of Islam," said Hafez Modirzadeh, associate professor of music and co-director of jazz and world music studies at SF State, who helped organize the event along with Prof. Mehdi Rajabzadeh of the Middle East and Islamic studies program. "It's a path to personal enlightenment through music and movement."
According to Modirzadeh, while Sufism derives from the Islamic faith, it is a philosophy that is universal -- crossing over to all religions.
"Someone can have a Sufi heart without being a Muslim," Modirzadeh said. "It's a renouncement of worldly things and going back to your spiritual self."
The performance commenced with several students reading poetry by Persian poet and philosopher Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, a revered Sufi.
"It's awesome that they got the musicians to come here and take part in this," said senior Oliver Hunt, a philosophy major who attended the event. "I am a Middle East study devotee -- I wanted to learn more about Islam and its beautiful traditions."
A crowd of about 50 students and faculty members watched in awe as Abatiello embarked on a journey to spiritual enlightenment, his white, billowing skirt flowing gently with every spin.
Sharif and Akhavass started the evening with an instrumental improvisation. A slow drumbeat filled the auditorium, evolving into a simple and soft melody when joined by the three-stringed lute.
While all three performers were dressed in white, Abatiello and Sharif's costumes had traditional Sufi elements. Both were wearing a conical hat that Sufis believe helps them connect with God and block the ego.
Even after twirling on stage for 15 minutes, the dance still seemed effortless, and Abatiello only slowed down when the rhythm of Akhavass' drum dictated a subtle pace.
"The goal of Sufi music is to transport listeners to a place where they lose themselves and can step away from earthly realms and troubles of life," said Shirzad Sharif, a renowned Sufi musician who plays the Tanbur -- the pear-shaped lute associated with the Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran, considered to be the most sacred instrument of the country. "The people who actually play the instrument lead a very spiritual life."
Growing up in Iran, Sharif, who is the founder and musical director of Som'ma, a San Francisco based electro-acoustic sacred music trio, recounts a time when practicing Sufism through music was not embraced. Electro-acoustic music explores the interaction of natural and electronically generated sounds.
"When I was learning Sufi music in Iran, it was forbidden to perform," Sharif said. "Right now you can get arrested for attending a Sufi ceremony in Iran. It's probably the biggest threat to the current regime."
"But there's music in our hearts, life and in everything around us," Sharif added. "It's only natural to have music in spirituality."
Abatiello exited the stage after about 30 minutes, but Sharif and Akhavass continued to enchant the crowd with mystical tunes. At the end of the performance, Prof. Rajabzadeh concluded with a short discussion about Sufism.
Despite its cultural significance and complex history, the lesson on Sufism was not targeted solely at Muslims or Arabic speakers.
"The Sufi path takes you way beyond Islam -- it's human," Modirzadeh said. "Its exclusivity is marked by its inclusivity."
]]> class=2009fFounded in fall 2008 and currently with over 20 members, the organization has been devoted to organizing events that provide information ranging from how to apply to a university to information on scholarships and other resources available on and off campus for undocumented AB 540 students.
AB 540 is a California law, passed in 2001, that allows students, including undocumented students to pay in-state tuition in public universities and community colleges if they have gone to high school for three years and have graduated. These students are excluded from applying to federal or state financial aid like FAFSA.
Rose Carmona, a financial aid counselor and one of the advisers of the organization, said that the need to create IDEAS came because of the lack of information on how to help AB 540 students at SF State. "I've seen there's a lot of misinformation on behalf of the faculty, and these students don't have anywhere to go to look for help and information," she said.
Rosa*, 19, a second-year student business major and vice president of IDEAS said, "our biggest goal is mostly to bring to light that, yes, you can go to college and get an education and succeed." She also added, "it's hard, because obviously you still have tons of limitations, but I think there are a lot of things we can do within those walls that people have built for us."
IDEAS is part of an umbrella group called the California Dream Network, through which universities like UCLA and UC Berkeley have set up organizations to help AB 540 students on their campuses.
Carmona said that at SF State there isn't a definitive count of AB 540 students, but estimated that there are over 150 students in this situation on campus. "Looking at how many have access, there's no way for us to know because students don't come to us. It's more like a word of mouth," she said.
She added that the number of Latino students in higher education is already low. "AB 540 students are a minority within a minority," she said. "We're trying to delineate all that and put students in a path that they can achieve their academic goals."
The organization recently put on the first SF State AB 540 conference to bring awareness in the California State University system as well. "We never expected such a turnout," said Carmona, referring to the170 high school and transfer students, counselors and parents from various Bay Area counties who attended. "It showed the needs on all levels -- counselors, parents and community organizations."
Angel*, 19, the president of IDEAS, said that networking is important. "The system is not working for us and you have to know those little people or those small groups of people in each single place that can help you and the only way to know where they are for them to help you is through network," said the cell and molecular biology major.
But regardless of the help provided by these organizations, there are still challenges.
Mark Silverman, an immigration lawyer and an advocate of the DREAM Act, federal legislation that would allow qualified illegal immigrant students throughout the country a possible path to a legalization, touched up a court ruling last year that questions the validity of the AB 540 law in California. But he also said that despite the challenges, laws like the AB 540 or the DREAM Act bill represent "a huge difference for the future of undocumented students because they're more likely to choose a career they enjoy to contribute to society."
Mario Flores, director of Project Connect, a ASI's program on campus, which promotes higher education for low-income students, said that AB 540 is not only an issue for Latino undocumented students, but Asians, Africans and Europeans as well. "Some come as tourists and have stayed here and they are no longer legal, but have spent three years in high school here," said Flores, who is working toward creating a resource guide for AB 540 students and, along with IDEAS, creating a documentary film called "SF State's AB 540 Students Speak Out" to document the reality of all undocumented students on campus. "We want to educate faculty and staff on the specific needs of these students' population on campus, and also we'll use it as an outreach tool for those undocumented students in high school who qualify so that they continue their education," he added.
"I would hope that probably by next year or so there won't be a such thing as IDEAS anymore because the DREAM Act has passed," Rosa said. "It equalizes the huge gap that there's in education because of what immigration status can do." Meanwhile, IDEAS is looking forward to getting more students involved and building stronger networks.
Scholarships that are also open to AB 540 undocumented students include:
*Some students preferred to have their last names withheld for privacy reasons.
]]> class=2009fpodcast=true
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Thieves in search of the precious metals found in catalytic converters hit three Toyotas in four days parked in the area surrounding campus, leaving the vehicles in violation of emissions laws and the owners out between $600 and $1,300.
On Nov. 6, a 4Runner and a Tacoma had their catalytic converters cut off and removed from the chassis. Both vehicles were parked on Junipero Serra Boulevard near the intersection of Holloway Avenue. On Nov. 10, a 4Runner was reportedly found in the same state on in lot 25 on Winston Drive, stripped of the pricey component. Catalytic converters are designed to clean the exhaust from engines before releasing it into the air and are necessary for passing smog tests.
All vehicles were less than five years old. According to Captain Reggie Parson of the University police, two victims were SF State students and one was a staff member. University police have no suspects and no leads at this time.
Inspector Rich Van Koll of the San Francisco Police Department said incidents like these have been on the rise over the past 18 months, and SFPD recently arrested a group of "cat" thieves out of Hayward connected with multiple occurrences.
"It's generally Toyotas, or any four-wheel drive," Van Koll said. "They get a Sawzall and cut it right off in a matter of minutes."
Van Koll said that in order for someone to be able to remove the catalytic converter from a car, the vehicle must have been parked for a long period of time, because catalytic converters can remain too hot to touch for hours after turning off the ignition.
SFPD has recommended that drivers inscribe their license number on the outside of the part, but realize that not everyone has the ability to do this.
"Tracing those back is very difficult," Van Koll said, "but we've informed junk yards and metal shops around the city to keep an eye out for items that may be stolen."
According to Andre Yazbek, owner of Andre's Foreign Car Service on Taraval Street, Toyotas are a make of car notorious for their easily accessed catalytic converter.
However, Yazbek said after the "cat" is removed, they aren't of much use to auto mechanics, and aren't worth much more than $50-$75.
"I can't use it. Once it's been cut, I can't put it back on," Yazbek said.
He said instead, thieves target this specific part for the amount of valuable metals inside, usually platinum or palladium, used to detoxify hot car exhaust with the resulting chemical reaction making the average catalytic converter an easily swiped metal payday worth about $200 on the black market.
Yazbek said the procedure is a simple one taking a few moments, provided the victim's car possess sufficient ground clearance for someone equipped with an electric saw to slide under and work quickly.
Car owners will immediately notice if their vehicle has been tampered with. Engines without catalytic converters will run significantly louder than normal.
Without the "cat," a car will actually run more efficiently due to a less restricted airflow from the engine, however it will spew pollutants into the air at a faster rate than a normal car and will never pass a smog check.
Drivers can be issued a "fix-it" ticket, run into problems at the DMV for not clearing a smog check and may have to surrender the vehicle if unable to pass.
According to autoblog.com, consumers have had success deterring the theft of this piece by spot-welding it to the rest of the exhaust system.
]]> class=2009fAccording to Capt. Reggie Parson of the Department of Public Safety, a 17 to 18-year-old man described as six feet tall with a blue hat, Hollister shirt and blue jeans approached the victim, "snatched" his cell phone and fled north on Lake Merced Drive in a four-door Chrysler.
Responding officers stopped the car at 30th Avenue and Ulloa Street at around 2:15 p.m., finding six individuals in the vehicle, one of whom was an SF State student. All six individuals were arrested and taken into custody.
Parson said only the initial suspect is being charged with misdemeanor theft, adding that this was an isolated incident with no connection to other incidents of robbery near campus this year.
BROTHERLY SHOVE
University police responded to a physical altercation taking place on Winston Drive around 8:15 p.m. on Nov. 12, according to University crime logs.
Parson said two brothers had been consuming alcoholic beverages and began to argue. Trying to intervene, their elderly mother could not break them apart and called police for assistance.
Officers arrived on scene and separated the subjects, one of whom sustained a cut to the eye and needed medical attention. Both parties declined to pursue legal action, stating that the fight was mutual combat.
The injured individual was transported to the UC San Francisco medical center for treatment.
HITTING THE HIGH NOTES
University police received a call Nov. 10 regarding a group singing loudly in an apartment near campus. University crime logs said responding officers encountered marijuana in the apartment and cited two individuals for possession. One was cited and released, the other was arrested for possession of concentrated cannabis, hash or keefe and taken to San Francisco men's jail at 850 Bryant St.
]]> class=2009fThe entire cast did an excellent job of weaving their serious and comedic acting sensibilities in a way that brought this play to life. Their modern take on the classic made it easy to digest for people who might have a hard time understanding the Shakespearean language during the four-night run of the show, lasting from Nov. 10 -14.
"Twelfth Night" is a story about a brother, Sebastian, played by Michael Saarela, and twin sister, Viola, played by Allison Combs. Separated after a shipwreck, both believe the other to be dead. What ensued was a case of mistaken identity and multiple love knots that caused Viola to fall in love with an older man while she pretended to be a man herself.
What the set lacked in over-the-top props, the actors made up for with full use of the stage and the entire room. On more than one occasion, several of the actors sat on the stairs, or even in seats, which proved tricky because of the sold-out crowd.
The audience was often prompted to assist the actors in singing or cheering along, and some attendees were even pulled on stage to dance during the final wedding scene. The audience interaction proved to be a useful tool in creating a warm and comfortable environment.
William Peters, head of the directing area in the department, did a wonderful job in casting and directing the 14 young actors involved.
All were able to handle the notoriously tough language of Shakespeare as they used their comedic timing, something many may argue to be one of the more difficult aspects of acting, and chemistry with each other to produce an all-around enjoyable play to watch.
Standouts of the night included Tyler Shilstone as Sir Toby Belch, uncle to the confused and love-sick Olivia, and Ben Landmesser as The Clown, who tricks people into falling in love.
Shilstone was hilarious in his portrayal of Toby. His chemistry with Maria, played by Amanda Denison, also added to his performance as well.
Landmesser's portrayal of The Clown was both smart and comedic. His use of song to tell the moral as well as to invite the audience in on the action was very thoughtful and well played out.
Although the play was executed well, a distracting part of the entire would be the show hands standing in the back of the room. Some members of the crew took the interaction aspect of the show a step too far, where it became almost obnoxious.
]]> class=2009fAccording to ASI Marketing and Public Relations Director Mayra Saldena, what started as a sit-in during an ASI-sponsored event turned into a confrontation.
"He reached for my arm and pulled it with a lot of force," Saldena said. She said that an unidentified male tried to push the camera out of her hands while she was filming protesters in a stairwell of the Gymnasium.
The sit-in, organized by Student Unity and Power to challenge ASI to a public debate about the construction of the proposed Rec Center, took place at a "Dive-in Movie," a movie/pool party held at the Gymnasium.
The group of about 30-35 protesters included members of SUP, an organization concerned about the allocation of student money and diversifying the campus, as well as members from the Coalition Against the Recreation and Wellness Center and independent students campaigning against the project.
The protesters filed into the pool area around 9 p.m. and took their seats on the bleachers.
"We were the only ones there with the exception of maybe four other students who actually came to see the movie," said Cole Sanchez, 23, a fine arts major who took part in the protest that evening.
When the movie started, one of the protesters stood up and challenged ASI President Natalie Franklin to a debate, according to Sanchez.
"We chanted 'Hey, hey, ASI, we won't let you gentrify,'" Sanchez said. "They turned up the movie to drown us out."
Unhappy with the way ASI had been petitioning for the proposed recreation center, students from several campus organizations united to disrupt the movie.
"Normal protocol would require ASI to put the decision up to a student vote," Anastasia Gomes, a graduate student in women and gender studies, said. "But ASI received Corrigan's 'go' to circumvent that and have students decide in a petition process in which only 20 percent of the student body needs to approve the project."
Horace Montgomery, 37, ASI leadership development coordinator, helped organize the pool party and said that the protesting escalated into a confrontation between several of the students and Saldena when, after about 10 minutes of chanting, protesters received no response from ASI members and left.
"About 15 or 16 people exited the pool area through the bleachers, which leads towards Cox Stadium," Montgomery, who was not present in the stairwell where the alleged assault occurred, said. "When I saw her she was hysterical, saying that she was attacked."
"She was not assaulted," Gomes, who claims to have witnessed the confrontation, said. "The person told her repeatedly to stop filming."
According to Gomes, the student involved in the alleged assault pushed the camera out of his face, but did not grab Saldena's arm.
Saldena claims to have followed the students exiting and filmed them with her company camera.
"I followed them out with a camera to make sure they weren't defacing anything," Saldena said.
According to Sanchez, several of the protesters involved acknowledge that the student should not have reached for Saldena's camera, but insist that ASI is blowing the event out of proportion.
"I don't agree with him pushing the camera, but assault is with the intention to harm someone," Sanchez said. "He might have let his emotions influence his actions, but he did not intentionally attack her."
Several protesters, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the student involved in the alleged assault is an SUP member. The incident is still under investigation.
Sam Brown-Vasquez, 30, Coalition Against the Recreation and Wellness Center's leader, was not present at the sit-in. But he said that the group has repeatedly requested that ASI provide a public space for an open discourse about the construction of the $93 million center.
"We want to be a part of the decision-making," he said.
Gomes believes that, in the face of ASI's resistance to having a public debate with the Coalition and SUP, students are left with no options other than sit-ins and civil disobedience.
"We didn't want to confront them at a pool party," Gomes, who is one of the founders of SUP, said. "If ASI had said to us that they understand our demands for a discourse instead of ignoring and criminalizing us by taking pictures and telling us we don't have a right to be at a student event, we wouldn't have had to."
While Department of Public Safety is looking into the alleged assault, protesters plan to continue the fight against the recreation center -- but are also reflecting on their tactics.
"Seeing how ASI responded at the pool party," Sanchez said, "It made me realize how important it is for my voice to be heard."
The path, which was put into use last month, connects Thornton Hall with University Park North and leads to 19th Avenue and the Stonestown Galleria Shopping Center.
"It's great. You're not immediately on 19th Avenue, which is a relief because you have time to get up to speed with traffic," senior Geoffrey Colburn said. The 23-year-old art major has been biking around San Francisco since he moved to the city four years ago. He bikes from his house on 15th and Church Streets to the University.
According to Jason Porth, associate director of community relations at SF State, the path was funded by a $363,000 grant from the San Francisco Country Transportation Authority.
The path, which spans the area behind Thornton Hall, to the side of Cox Stadium and leading to Buckingham Way, was publicized through e-mails from the Bicycle Advocacy Group on campus.
However, according to founding member Randall Orr, many students still don't know about the path.
"The path isn't easily visible from Buckingham Way and I'm pretty sure there are no signs in Stonestown or along Buckingham Way directing cyclists to the path," said Orr, who also coordinates the annual Bike to School Day.
"I've only seen about three cyclists at a time the four or five times I've been on the path," said Colburn, who noted that there were students walking along it as well.
The money for the path was awarded to the University through the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's Bicycle Facility Program, which aims to help reduce motor emissions by creating more space for bicycles. The path was installed despite the injunction because it is on land owned by the state rather than the city.
"The University is working hard to welcome cyclists," Porth said.
According to Porth, the University plans to add the route to all new campus maps created and hopes that knowledge will spread through word of mouth. Signs will also be going up as the path reaches completion with the addition of landscaping and painting within the next few months.
In 2005 the city introduced a bicycling plan aimed at expanding the safety of cyclists by adding 34 new miles of bike lanes and additional bike racks. It was stopped after protests regarding its environmental impact.
Arguing that the bike plan would negatively affect traffic and parking spot availability, two groups, the Coalition for Adequate Review and Ninety-Nine Percent, brought a lawsuit against the city regarding the plan.
In July 2006, a judge granted their request for an injunction, which prohibited San Francisco from implementing any of the proposed projects in the bicycle plan on the grounds that the city was required to prepare an environmental impact report for the plan.
Still, in its 2008 State of Cycling Report, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency found that between 75 and 80 percent of the 820 cyclists surveyed felt there were not enough bike lanes in the city.
An annual report released by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition also found that despite the injunction, ridership in the city had increased 43 percent between 2006 and 2008.
]]> class=2009fIn 2004, SF State Academic Senate members passed a resolution calling for the University to be a smoke-free campus, subsequently approved by University President Robert Corrigan. However, some members of the senate that approved the policy, along with some professors and students, feel that the policy has been a failure due to a lack of enforcement and meaningful implementation.
"The 'smoke-free campus' campaign was a waste of time and money," broadcasting professor and 2004 Academic Senate member Rick Houlberg said. "Based on what I've seen, students now smoke more, are more open about their smoking and regularly smoke while walking through crowds."
In September of 2002, the California State University board of trustees adopted a resolution allowing each CSU president to limit smoking to specified areas or ban smoking on their campus altogether.
Of the 23 California State Universities given the option by the board of trustees to limit smoking or prohibit it completely, SF State was the only campus to act on it, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. However, members of the SF State smoke-free task force, a group responsible for assessing the effectiveness of strategies and awareness of the smoke-free campus policy, say the main weakness is that there was never any intended enforcement strategy.
"This was put into place in hopes that social norms and respect for one another would carry the day," smoke-free task force Chair Sheila McClear said.
"Are we smoke-free? Absolutely not," she said.
McClear, also the director of special projects in the office of the president, said that although she thinks there has been an increase in awareness, the policy still needs some "teeth" in it, but still nothing too "over-the-top."
According to McClear, the smoking policy task force is looking into new methods of enforcement that don't flood the City of San Francisco's justice department with petty smoking citations, a main reason for not issuing tickets. Also, McClear said that the task force is hoping to develop a newer, more centralized designated smoking area in hopes of improving compliance.
The danger of second-hand smoke is the primary motivation for pursuing a campus sans cigarettes, according to McClear.
"It doesn't bother me," 18-year-old freshman Nick Tang, a nonsmoker, said of others smoking on campus. "But the school's not doing its job enforcing it."
According to Capt. Reggie Parson, the Department of Public Safety does not issue any sort of citation for smoking outside of the designated areas, which are located in six locations on the edge of campus. University police have only issued warning cards that provide education on the campus smoking policy on one side and locations of the designated areas on the other.
"Educating the campus community of the policy has been the main mission of the University police department," Parson said.
Some members of the SF State Smoking Policy Task Force, a committee of 14 members of administration, faculty and other important figures on campus, feel that the school has been unsuccessful in following through on the policy.
"Enforcement is a major problem, since there is no consequence for smokers who do not comply," associate professor of nursing and task force member Grace Hardie said.
Some feel this lack of consequence is what led to the breakdown of the policy, and only serves to make SF State seem foolish for making such a claim.
"All in all, I have found the campaign a joke that does nothing but make our campus look stupid and smell bad," Houlberg said. Houlberg voted in favor of the ban in 2004.
After hearing from smokers on campus, the overwhelming attitude is that they don't care and they aren't exactly being pressured to.
"Me and my friends always laugh about it," 20-year-old junior Danny Song said. "It's really hard to take it seriously when you have half the campus outside smoking cigs."
Song regularly smokes on campus and said that when University police have approached him while puffing, he was merely told to put it out and went around the corner and re-lit.
]]> class=2009fvisual=true
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But the humming was not coming from extraterrestrials -- it continues to happen today, and has been recently pinpointed to a single species of fish by an SF State professor.
The small fish responsible is the Porichthys notatus, or the plainfin midshipman. Commonly known as the toadfish, the males give off a hum sound to attract a female mate.
"I consider this to be the line of pure research, not to produce something," physics Prof. Roger Bland, who discovered where the hum came from, said. "It's something interesting that presents knowledge of something interesting -- we definitely didn't know there was going to be toadfish sounds."
Bland and his student volunteers measure the hum by attaching a water-adapted microphone, or hydrophone, six feet down from the dock to record underwater sounds. The wire goes through the pier and up to the second story of a building. The recording is done at the SF State-owned Romberg Tiburon Center, beyond Sausilito, and the data analysis is done on the main campus by students and Bland.
"I've recorded sounds continually for four years now," Bland said. "We gradually eliminated things until it was an animal. Initially, I thought it was electrical interference."
Bland goes to the pier every Wednesday, but the data constantly transmits to SF State.
"I enjoy looking at the finished product when something comes out," said Daniel Cuneo, an undergraduate physics major who helps collect data of the hum. "I like learning about all the physics involved and learning the software. There's a lot of hidden artifacts to understand the technical process."
Currently, Bland and his team are trying to solidify the connection they are making between the temperature of the water and the frequency of the hum.
"It's very precisely correlated with temperature. It's as if they were little thermometers with fins," Bland said. "We're still trying to figure things out. Long-term continuous data collection will help."
As the temperature changes, so does the frequency of the hum. During breeding season the hum lasts from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m.
"What we want to find is multiple toadfish calling at the same time to be able to see it in the program. We are looking for a spectrum that has more than one toadfish in it," physics and chemistry major Matt Sanchez, 26, said. "It's like being at a choir and having a lot of people sing at the same time and it's hard to pick out which one is which. We're going through the data to find two toadfish calls with different frequencies."
Sanchez has worked with Bland for two and a half years.
"It was a good feeling because it was a lot of work. A lot of it was trying to find the frequency of the call," Sanchez said. "It's always good to get results."
One thing interfering with the frequency of the hum is the presence of man-made objects in the water -- the main one being ships.
"It's pretty clear that a ship would mask the sounds a midshipman would make," Bland said. "It's a typical species that sees the effect of man-made sounds. It might interfere with their mating call."
Another animal affected by man-made underwater activity is the whale. Whales become beached when they can no longer tolerate the sonar sounds made by the military. Also, their mating calls are dramatically affected and blocked by the ships.
Bland is currently doing research on the whales and other instances of underwater sound interferences.
The hum sounds of the midshipman fish can be found online at http://bayacoustics.sfsu.edu/rtcpier/html/.
]]> class=2009fThe event at Jack Adams Hall drew roughly 180 people and featured speakers predominantly from SF State and UC San Francisco. The mural is on the northeast face of the Cesar Chavez Student Center.
"The mural makes me feel like part of my identity is recognized. It's hard to put into words," said Aymen Abdel Halim, a senior in the Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts department.
He became a member of GUPS after transferring to the University from City College of San Francisco.
Keynote speaker Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian researcher and a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, focused on the situation between Israel and the Palestinian territories in his speech.
"It's really inspiring and motivating to start a BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign at SF State," said 27-year-old Halim.
The BDS campaign was initiated in 2005 and focuses on convincing Israel, through economic pressure, to acknowledge a Palestinian state.
"It's not strictly a Palestinian issue, it's a human issue," Halim said. He is aiming to encourage a movement at SF State, such as the BDS movement at UC Berkeley, which according to him passes out literature on products supporting Palestine.
Halim would like to organize a boycott of Caterpillar machinery used at SF State.
According to Halim, this brand of tractors is also used to bulldoze Palestinian households.
"It's to get people to do what they can everyday, where they can," said Halim.
Recent conflicts between the Israelis and Palestinians have been going on in the Middle East since at least the 19th Century. One conflict focuses on land disputes between the two. The land contested includes the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. There is currently no Palestinian nation.
Barghouti compared the situation between the two countries with that of South Africa in its former apartheid state, when it was segregated by race. The connection is made due to the treatment of Palestinians in Israeli areas, where human rights violations have been alleged. In South Africa there were a series of boycotts aimed at taking down the apartheid state, including a successful disinvestment campaign, which the United States joined in 1986.
"I truly believe our South African moment has arrived," Barghouti said.
Part of his speech touched on the battle for water in the region, recently highlighted by an Amnesty International report that found Palestinians had inadequate access to water compared to Israelis.
"The whole point is to push us out of this land or slowly kill us," he said.
Rabab Abdulhadi, the second speaker of the night and an associate professor in the College of Ethnic Studies, focused part of her speech on creating a successful movement for a free Palestine. She connected the territory's spread-out population to its conflict at home.
"Some people don't speak Arabic fluently, but they know justice in their hearts," she said.
She highlighted the need for common action towards a Palestinian state, stressing the importance of Palestinians who live in the United States to influence the American political view on Israeli.
"They are using our name with our taxes," she said.
The event started with a short documentary recounting the struggle to get the mural design approved. The most difficult part of the process was the removal of a character named Handala, who represented a refugee boy with his back to the world. The documentary stated that this point was important in showing the idea of the Palestinian diaspora. However, groups against his inclusion in the mural called the figure a "terrorist." He was eventually removed.
One of the student groups opposed to the figure was Hillel, a Jewish student group that, according to their Web site, is a center for students active in the Jewish community on campus.
"The mural doesn't affect me, but it's a piece of good art," said Aaron Horn, a Jewish studies major and vice president of Hillel's student board. He did not attend the anniversary celebration, but was aware of the controversy surrounding it.
The final mural features an image of Palestinian-Arab-American activist Edward Said and a quote -- "Humanism is the only, and I would go so far as saying, the final resistance we have against inhuman practices and injustices that disfigure human history." It also included the word "Salam," meaning "peace" in Arabic, formed as two doves at the top of the art piece.
"The mural doesn't say 'Palestinians are great and Jews are awful,'" 21-year-old Horn said. "It symbolizes a people representing themselves."
Booths along the walls of the event also provided information from sponsors, including the Arab Cultural and Community Center and Jewish Voice for Peace.
]]> class=2009fvisual=true
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The Bi-Annual Career Expo put on each semester by the SF State Career Center drew 25 percent fewer employers this and last semester than in the past, according to Career Center Director Jack Brewer This year a much younger crowd attended than in previous years.
"There's been, especially, a lot of juniors and sophomores," Christina Ramirez, human resources manager for Cintas Corporation, said. "They're really concerned about the market, so they're trying to get ahead of the game."
Ramirez said that due to the incredibly competitive job market, Cintas, a uniform supply company, has been able to be more selective in whom they hire.
"The bar is so high, and there are so many applicants, that we are allowed to be more meticulous," Ramirez said.
Students in attendance said that networking at events like the expo is one of the things they are doing to increase their chances of getting hired once they receive their degree.
"It's gotten quite competitive," 23-year-old computer science major Duc Nguyen said of the current job market.
Nguyen explained that, in his experience, employers are looking for college graduates who have already done internships or have work experience.
When asked what steps he is taking to ensure that he gets hired after graduating in the spring of 2011, Nguyen said, "This is one of them. A lot of my colleagues are waiting until the last minute, and I think the right way to approach it is to get on it early, so when you graduate, you are that much more ready."
San Bruno Target store team leader Javad Hadizadeh said that Target is seeing an influx of applications for employment, and he credits this to the economy putting pressure on job seekers to broaden their search to a wider array of fields.
"There's a lot of people applying that haven't considered retail in the past, and we're happy with that," Hadizadeh said.
Among companies participating in the career expo were Kraft Foods, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Disney, Walgreens, Verizon Wireless, the U.S. Marine Corps and the Department of Public Safety.
]]> class=2009fThe event drew people to the SHC, located near the Student Services Building, for a health fair. The event included an "Ask a Doctor" booth, an information table with UC Berkeley's optometry clinic and horror-themed games, such as a matching game with unwrapped condoms and their wrappers called "Condom Mate."
Many of the games were run by students in the Peer Educators Advocating Campus Health program, an organization that lets students focus either on nutrition on sexuality.
"My favorite game was the Little Box of Horrors," said 19-year-old Courtnie Everidge, an undeclared student. The sexuality PEACHes hosted the game, which they also used last year, to test students' knowledge on sexually transmitted diseases. People looked into little black boxes with gold curtains that covered photos of STDs and guessed which infection they were looking at.
"I didn't really get many right, but my roommate did. It was just interesting to really see how all that stuff looked," Everidge said.
"I just wanted to go to the haunted house but I ended up seeing all this other stuff. The games make getting the information fun," said 19-year-old Jasmine Williams, a theatre arts major and Everidge's roommate.
Prizes, in the form of a condom and lubrication variety pack as well as non-sexuality specific information on STDs, sexual health and the PEACHes, were awarded to students who played two or more games.
"As the flow comes out of the haunted house, we get a lot of people," said 26-year-old Alex Hickey, a dietetics major in her second semester as a nutritional PEACH. She and a colleague were manning "Nutritional Twister," which replaced the usual colors of the game mat to colors of nutritious foods, and a nutritional trivia game.
"Our goal is to test students' knowledge and educate them to decrease the risk of STDs and increase sexual health," said Ingrid Ochoa, a health educator at the center and the coordinator of the sexuality PEACHes. As an example she cited the booth "Lucy Lube" which allowed students to test different lubricants with gloved hands.
"Lube decreases the STD risk and increases protection because it's less likely for anyone to get tears that could spread an infection. It also increases pleasure," Ochoa said.
The SHC themes its open house for Halloween every year. This year preparations for the event started on Oct. 22.
"People like the theme and the staff get to dress up," said Albert Angelo, a health educator who helped transform the center's conference room into a haunted playground the day before the event. He dressed in a cape with a distorted, bloody mask for the event.
"It's good because it's nonreligious, so it doesn't have anything to do with Hanukkah or Christmas, though I suppose you could always offend someone," said the 42-year-old.
When students entered the house they were plunged into darkness, save for a television tuned to static. They exited near the business office, which had been transformed into the "Crone's Corner" for tarot card readings by Barbara Salge.
"Have you ever had your cards read before?" she asked 18-year-old undeclared student, Renee Quesada, who responded that she hadn't.
"Well, that's good, because I don't know what I'm doing," she said. Normally working in the SHC with Family PACT, a program that allows eligible California residents to get confidential reproductive health services free of charge, she said she enjoyed playing a tarot card reader despite her lack of experience. Armed with a print-out of what the cards meant, Salge spent her third year as the "crone."
"This event is to make students comfortable coming here. We're cool. We're not their parents and there are no judgments," Salge said.
According to Angelo, the event gathers roughly 500 students each year.
"We advertise on the Web site, on the campus memo and through lawn signs. We also have a lot of students who do outreach," Angelo said.
The event featured more than 15 different booths to educate students about what the SHC has to offer.
]]> class=2009f"In bargaining with the various unions, the equivalent of a two-day per month furlough for all employees appeared to be the preference," CSU spokesman Erik Fallis said.
However, this was not the approach taken by the University of California in assigning furloughs, and some feel that the CSU's approach was less fair than it seemed on the surface.
According to California State University Chancellor Charles Reed, 85 percent of the CSU's budget is used to pay employee salaries and benefits.
"So that's where we had to go to get the savings," Reed said.
According to the CSU furlough program agreement ratified by the board of trustees July 29, all employees of the CSU will take either 20 or 24 furlough days this school year, 24 for those working full calendar years, adding up to a 9.5-10 percent pay cut over the course of the year. Every employee is subject to this percentage, regardless of salary.
This will cut an equal percentage from lower-income employees' paychecks as it will from someone like University President Robert Corrigan. The Chronicle of Higher Education sets the median salary for presidents of public four-year institutions at $427,000. Compare this figure to that of a custodial employee, for instance.
Associate Vice President of Facilities and Services Robert Hutson said employee salaries are confidential, but according to salary.com, the median expected salary for a janitor in the United States is $24,341.
By taking the standard 10 percent cut Corrigan will be losing more from his salary this year than a custodial employee might make altogether, he considers this system unfair to low-income employees.
He added that someone supporting a household on $28,000 might experience more than an inconvenience in losing 10 percent of their salary.
"I'm very uncomfortable with furloughs," Corrigan said. "Furloughs are like the sales tax. They're very regressive. And unlike the University of California, we do not differentiate between income levels."
Corrigan said this aspect of the furlough program needs to be reconsidered, and he expressed sympathy for those in financial situations that won't allow them to absorb this reduction easily.
"That's food money. That's rent money," Corrigan said. "If we're going to look at furloughs we at least ought to try to discriminate more in terms of ability to pay."
Humanities department chair Saul Steier said that the SF State custodial employees do good work for salaries unacceptable to academic employees, and don't deserve as deep a cut.
"Cutting 10 percent of my salary is lousy, but I will get by. Cutting 10 percent of theirs puts them dangerously close to not being able to pay rent and feed their families," Steier said.
UC President Mark Yudof originally wrote the UC furlough proposal with equal cuts, but after hearing input from the community in the form of tens of thousands of e-mails, adopted a graduated approach using a sliding scale to assign fewer furlough days to lower-salaried employees, according to Peter King, director of media relations for the UC office of the president.
The guidelines state that employees who make up to $40,000 a year are only required to take 11 furlough days, amounting to a four percent pay cut.
Employees earning between $40,001 and $60,000 will receive a five to six percent cut, and so on.
"Those who make the most should feel the most pain," King said. "And those who make less should feel less."
Had it been written into the CSU's furlough proposal, this would apply to many low-income CSU employees who instead will be forced to give up a portion of their salary equal to employees who make upwards of $100,000.
"CSU should be ashamed of itself for pretending equal cuts were fairer," Steier said.
According to Fallis, the system of equal cuts was agreed upon by the CSU and the nine unions representing their employees.
"Ultimately, the CSU process of collective bargaining arrived at a different outcome," Fallis said.
]]> class=2009fECO Students and the SF State Bicycle Advocacy Group joined forces to offer SF State riders free valet parking in the Quad, a makeshift repair shop offering minor fixes, useful biking information and even breakfast on their way to class.
"We want to promote cycling on campus, both as alternative transportation and as a way to encourage the administration to create better infrastructure for bikes on campus," said Bicycle Advocacy Group member and bike-to-school day organizer Randall Orr said.
Students unaware of bike-to-school day were pleasantly surprised to find the free services geared especially for bicyclists set up in the Quad.
Alexis Garrod, a kinesiology major, said that when she was about to lock her bike up at the top of campus, she saw a flyer for today's event and rolled on over.
Coffee, bagels and muffins were laid out on a table in front of a sign reading "Only if you biked to school." Another table, covered in tools, offered brake and handlebar adjustments and tire re-inflation. Volunteer mechanic and art major Jessie Fernandez said he enjoys helping riders when he has the free time.
"Even when I don't, I'll skip class and work on people's bikes," Fernandez said. "It's a lot of fun."
Organizers said that although the turnout this semester was slightly smaller than previous events due to a lack of promotion, it was still a success.
"It opens up the possibility that this is a practical option, not only for students but for faculty as well," said Simon Lee, a San Francisco Bike Coalition volunteer.
Communications major Maddie Cushman, 18, said that like many other students, she had already parked her bike at the top of campus when she stumbled upon the collection of the free perks in the Quad.
"I definitely would've parked my bike there," Cushman said.
When asked what she liked about biking to school, Cushman replied, "It's adventurous, you get this Indiana Jones feeling when you weave in and out of cars. I love it."
]]> class=2009fThe internship covers all program costs, including air travel, food and lodging in Monterey and in Washington, D.C., in addition to a stipend.
"It's a free ride," ICCE Program Coordinator Adam Calmenson said. "They pay for everything. They get to meet all kinds of congressmen, former senators, and they're working in D.C."
According to the Panetta Institute's Web site, each September, the Institute hosts students who are appointed by the presidents of each of the 23 California State University campuses, as well as Santa Clara University and Dominican University of California. Participants go on to live in the Washington, D.C. area from late September through mid-December while working on Capitol Hill.
First, however, students are put through two weeks of training courses at CSU Monterey Bay with former White House chief of staff and current CIA Director Leon Panetta and other seasoned veterans who explain how the legislative process works.
Last year, Jennifer McCrea-Steele was the selection from SF State, and she worked in the office of Democratic Representative Jackie Speier.
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