CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH
VOL. LXVIX, ISSUE 19 | OCTOBER 12, 2017
CRIME
Racial slur discovered in CSULB bathroom Black students targeted in vandalism Monday. By Kat Schuster News Editor
Concerns about the presence of white supremacy at Cal State Long Beach resurfaced on Monday when a restroom stall was defaced with a composition containing the word “n****r, targeting African-American students. The graffiti was written with a marker in capital letters inside a men’s bathroom stall in lecture
halls 150-151and was reported to University Police. “As I have shared with you before, I vigorously condemn messages that demean any group,” President Jane Close Conoley said in an email blast to students and faculty. “In this case, our Black students and organizations — as well as our entire community — can be assured that when we discover the source of this or any other vitriolic graffiti, we will remove it immediately and continue to investigate perpetrators.” On Tuesday evening CSULB Black Student Union responded to the graffiti with an email to administration and the dean of
students. “’We, the Black Student Union, would like Administration to formally address this issue as there have been an increase in death threats, hate speech, and intolerant undertones directed towards People of Color on this campus, particularly Black/African American students as this comment relates to our community, who feel unsafe and uncomfortable to attend school,”’ BSU said in an email to university representatives. Following death threats on see GRAFFITI, page 3
Mac Walby | Daily 49er
A discriminatory phrase was found early Tuesday morning in a bathroom stall located at the Lecture Halls 150 & 151 building. The image above has been censored for viewers.
D49er
RESIDENTIAL
A new plan for campus housing The university hopes to add 900 beds to the oncampus housing facilities within the next few years. By Sarah Vehrs Staff Writer
Jay Kvapil’s ceramic exhibit is featured in a New York gallery through Oct. 19.
Courtesy of Jay Kvapil
FEATURE
‘Landscapes’ travels across country CSULB ceramics professor Jay Kvapil’s work is featured in a New York Gallery. By Alba Mejia Staff Writer
Jay Kvapil paces back and forth for an hour and a half in his studio at Cal State Long Beach, then decides to put a brushstroke on the flat bowl which he had shaped earlier at home. Finally, he places the ceramic piece into the kiln. Kvapil, a ceramics professor at CSULB, has 75 of his ceramic pieces displayed in his exhibit, “Landscapes” at the Magen H. Gallery in New York, New York. The exhibit is done in collaboration with Galerie Lefebvre & Fils, Paris, a gallery in
France. His hometown in Arizona and the time he spent in Japan learning ceramics are Kvapli’s main influences for designing his pottery. After taking a 10-year hiatus from ceramics, his goal when he returned was to make work that resembled his home state, Arizona. In his pieces, he portrays the vast deserts and landscapes with neutral colors and rough texture. “When I started back in 2004 I really wanted to go into what is the heart of pottery and firing [with] glazes that are goopy, flow and all kinds of strange things happen,” Kvapil said. Michael Nannery, the school of art’s advising coordinator saw Kvapil’s ceramic pieces before they were sent to the exhibition and was impressed by his attention to detail.
“I was amazed at how much work he produced and all the different kinds of forms, textures, colors and glazes,” Nannery said. “I just think as a body of work it was very impressive to see that range. Just the individual pieces themselves demand a lot of attention.” The high praise doesn’t come easy. Kvapil said that he destroys about one fourth of his work, and some of it has to go through the kiln about seven to eight times in order to achieve perfection. He describes the process as being a pleasant surprise with each attempt. “Everytime I open the kiln, it’s like opening a Christmas present,” Kvapil said. “That being said, there are times where it’s a complete disaster.” Kvapil’s exhibit will be on display through Oct. 19 at the Magen H. Gallery in New York.
Cal State Long Beach President Jane Close Conoley is on a mission to resolve one of the largest complaints she hears from students: expensive campus housing. It’s no secret that many students live off campus and prepare their own meals because it is much cheaper than living in the campus housing facilities. The 2017-2018 housing costs to live in a double are $7670, and meal plans, which are required for all residents to purchase, range from $3260 to $4606 for the year. However, campus leaders are beginning to research options that could bring housing prices down. “We might be able to capture some greater array of students who could afford to [live on campus] because we’re looking at ways to mitigate food costs,” Conoley told the Daily 49er last week. According to Conoley, CSULB is currently working on a housing plan that would add 900 beds with new buildings that could include kitchenettes so that students wouldn’t have to buy a meal plan. This would be executed by creating completely new buildings in locations that were presented in a 2008 master plan. “As President Conoley has said, we are in the very early stages of this work. We have contracted with a company that will do a massive study interviewing students, and doing an assessment of competition for camsee DORMS, page 3