Fall 2019 Issue 2

SF State’s student-run publication since 1927

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019

CAMPUS

New SF State president looks to improve university relationships

CITY

Protection demanded for alumnus

BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ CITY NEWS EDITOR Four weeks after gunfire put him on life support in the Philippines, SF State alumnus Brandon Lee shows signs of recovery but still requires protection and travel home, San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney said at a press conference Aug. 30.

Lee, who was shot four times in the back, spine and face on Aug. 6, is conscious and capable of mouthing words while on life support, said Haney, who visited the Philippines for a week.

Relatives and colleagues of Lee, an environmental activist, hold the Philippine government accountable for the shooting. Police and military routinely pass through the hos-

After living with students in New York, former historian and teacher, Lynn Mahoney, has taken the mantle as SF State’s first woman president. (Photo courtesy of SF State Office of the President)

BY CARLY WIPF & path, potentially write JUAN CARLOS LARA a few history books, STAFF REPORTERS until her husband —

L

ynn Mahoney was originally a U.S. historian with a Ph.D., gearing up to educate students about the record of the past. She expected to be on a traditional teaching

also a history teacher — got a tenure-track job in a New York public school. From there, her career took a turn.

Mahoney said they were given the opportunity to live among New York students

in on-campus housing where, she said, she became intimately acquainted with hardships students faced.

“When you live with students and they’re your neighbors it’s different than having a class with them,” Mahoney said. “You see them as a whole person,

they see you as a whole person, but it made me much more acutely aware of the ways in which, as good as we were in the classrooms as teachers, the holistic experience for students, we sometimes made it really hard for them to get their degrees.”

Mahoney said she

became evangelical about student retention and climbed the educational ladder to make a difference.

She moved to the West Coast, became Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Cal State LA, then arrived CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

CITY

Planning Commission advances overnight parking program

Parking lot could allow overnight parking for unhoused people

BY LANCE TISUELA STAFF REPORTER

T

he San Francisco Planning Commission unanimously advanced a project to provide those living in their vehicles long-term overnight parking, social services and sanitization stations at a lot across from Balboa Park BART Station.

The project site, a Muni

GGX_FALL_2019_Issue 2 a (3).indd 1

parking lot located at 2340 San Jose Ave., would provide people living in their vehicles 30 parking spaces, restroom and shower facilities and a shaded canopy.

People using the lot must be engaged with San Francisco’s Vehicle Encampment Resolution Team, and those living nearby will be given priority, city officials said at the Aug. 29 Planning Commission meeting.

Office trailers would

accommodate staff and forefront of the plan. “So if around-the-clock security. we have a place where we Solar-powered light would can store it and have them illuminate the site while it’s transition into more permadark, and several parking nent housing options, this spaces would store vehicles provides that gateway.” for the program’s particiIf approved by the Board pants. of Supervisors, construction “One of the challenges for will begin in October and getting people out of their finish in November. The plan vehicles is this is their only would be in effect for one asset, and they feel very re- year, before a 130-unit afluctant to let that asset go,” fordable housing project besaid District 11 Supervisor gins construction at the same Ahsha Safai, who was at the CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

pital in a manner found threatening by Lee’s family, Haney said, adding that strangers attempted to access his room.

“It is shameful that a U.S. citizen is out there in this situation, currently under threat and not being fully protected by the Philippine government, let alone adequately by the American government,” Haney said.

Haney and Lee’s family have demanded the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines protect Lee and conduct a thorough investigation of the shooting. They also called for Lee to be flown back to San Francisco once he’s recovered enough to be transferred by plane.

Haney, San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar and Lee’s family and friends are urging state and federal representatives to put pressure on the Philippine-U.S. Embassy.

The office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released its first statement.

“Brandon Lee is fighting for his life in the hospital in the Philippines after being brutally targeted for his work in fighting for indigenous people’s rights and human rights in the country,” David Latt, a field representative for Pelosi, said.

Yet the embassy has only provided Lee’s mother with a list of attorneys, he said.

“We are very concerned for his safety,” Brandon Lee’s mother Louise Lee said in a video recorded from the Philippines, where she was visiting her son. “His assailant is still out there and could come back to finish the job.”

9/12/19 9:22 AM

2•CAMPUS

TUESDAY, SEPT. 3, 2019 | GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG

GOLDEN Serial killers, Satanic Panic GATE and superheros: Courses at PRESS SFSU get experimental

X

EDITORIAL BOARD

BY MJ JOHNSON STAFF REPORT-

From deep dives into the psyche of serial killers to the literary relevancy of superheroes,

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

the Experimental College’s fall 2019 lineup in-

Carly Wipf cwipf@mail.sfsu.edu

cludes a wide variety of courses taught by un-

PRINT MANAGING EDITOR

provides students the opportunity to teach class-

Frank Sumrall fsumrall@mail.sfsu.edu

dergraduate students.

The Experimental College (EXCO) program es based on their own interests.

Kathy Emery, director of EXCO, petitioned the university for the revival of the program in 2017. The program was originally established

ONLINE MANAGING AND SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

amid the student-led strikes of the 1960s by

Sahar Swaleh sswaleh@mail.sfsu.edu

Emery said it was shut down just four years af-

those who were dissatisfied with their education, according to SFSU Centennial History. ter its creation in 1965, due to a funding shortage and student interest.

ART DIRECTOR Eliza Flynn

organize,” Emery said. “It’s a transformative

eflynn1@mail.sfsu.edu

experience for them because their passions and

“Students gain confidence in their ability to

interests are awakened.”

CITY NEWS EDITOR David Mamaril Horowitz dhorowitz@mail.sfsu.edu

Through the EXCO program, student teachers develop a syllabus and course structure based on their own interests. History of Moral Panics, taught by Amanda Hawkins, a senior criminal

CAMPUS NEWS EDITOR

justice major, explores moral panics, the wide-

Paisley Trent ptrent@mail.sfsu.edu

spread fear that some evil threatens society, like instances of Satanic Panic.

Hawkins, vice president of the EXCO club,

OPINION EDITOR

said she chose the topic because she has always

Andrew R. Leal aleal@mail.sfsu.edu

been fascinated by Satanic Panics. Her mother, a metalhead, and father, a Dungeons and Dragons player, felt rejected by society during the

SPORTS EDITOR Jimmy DeRogatis jderogatis@mail.sfsu.edu

COPY EDITOR Cody McFarland cmcfarla@mail.sfsu.edu PHOTO EDITOR Paige Acosta racosta3@mail.sfsu.edu

XPRESS ADVISERS PRINT ADVISER

Gary Moskowitz gmoskowitz@sfsu.edu

MULTIMEDIA ADVISER Sachi Cunnigham sachic@sfsu.edu

PHOTO ADVISER

Kim Komenich komenich@sfsu.edu

GGX_FALL_2019_Issue 2 a (3).indd 2

Satanic Panic of the 1980s.

Other student instructors see the opportunity to

which reinforces my ideas,” Van Noord said.

teach as a way to impart knowledge of their fa-

“We can both learn about history, come away

vorite topics. Stephanie Martin, a senior compar-

with new knowledge and break down the stigma

ative literature major and president of the EXCO

of mental illness.”

club, is instructing the course “Teaching through

Taking an EXCO course can help students

Superheroes” for her third semester. This course

who need a few extra units meet requirements

examines the literary and cultural relevance of

and graduate on time. Each class fulfills one unit

superheroes and villains.

of upper-division elective course credit for those

“I love superheroes,” Martin said. “ ‘Watchmen’ has a lot of philosophical themes, ‘Wonder

enrolled and student instructors may receive up to four units.

Woman’ has queer and BDSM themes, ‘V for

“I wish I knew about it sooner,” Samantha

Vendetta’ has themes of anarchism. So, we get

Tersigni, a graduating senior enrolled in Van

to have a lot of political and theoretical discus-

Noord’s course, said. “Because every unit counts

sions.”

when you’re trying to graduate. The fact that

The peer-to-peer learning style promoted by

it’s taught by another student who understands

EXCO attempts to produce a safe zone where

being a student really creates an environment

students can feel free to express their opinions

where you can learn freely and willingly,” Ter-

without the pressure of traditional professor fig-

signi said.

ures.

Other courses offered through Experimental

Mental Analysis of Serial Killers, taught by

College this fall include How to Get Your Life

junior Robert Van Noord, includes lectures and

Together, Internet Communities and Cultures,

discussions on a new serial killer each week, like

Perceptions of Mental Illness in Society and

the Zodiac Killer and Ted Bundy, separating re-

Why We Sit in Rows, among others.

ality from myth.

The last day to add Experimental College

“I’m also learning by teaching something

course classes is Monday, Sept. 16.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Mahoney: First woman president in SF State history in San Francisco to be sworn in as the first woman president of SF State.

“I was a women’s historian.

I advised a lot of female students. I’ve kept an eye on gender equity and gaps like that,” Mahoney said. “But now, in this role, I’ve realized I have an overwhelming responsibility to help young women.”

Now that she is settling into her new role, Mahoney said, she wants first and foremost to address the lack of student housing on campus and prioritize building better relationships with students and staff.

She said she heard that students don’t feel like they had a good line of communication with the administration and wants to improve the connection by scheduling in-person meetings.

“My goal is to make San Francisco a consistently great place to learn and a consistently great place to work, and the only way I will find out how to achieve that is by meeting

folks,” Mahoney said. “I am driving my calendar people insane.”

Mahoney is entering the university at a time where the first campus climate report, released last semester, indicates that members of the SF State community are feeling dissatisfied with the university environment.

“I have looked at the summaries of [the campus climate report], which are enough to tell me we have work to do,” Mahoney said. “One of the statistics there that stuck out to me was the number of our faculty and staff who think about leaving.”

She said she was at a town hall meeting last Thursday where staff expressed their concerns highlighted in the report. Mahoney said she plans to hold further meetings with faculty to pinpoint issues.

“I said the first thing I have to do is learn what is making all of you so unhappy,” Mahoney said. “But the other

thing I heard loudly was, ‘We are committed to social justice, we are very diverse, but we wrestle sometimes with how to make everyone feel included.’”

Just before the fall semester began, professor Rabab Abdulhadi, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas studies director and Muslim Student Association adviser, received hate mail at her office. In the past, she has said she felt “harassed and abused

by SF State.”

“I think of the McCarthy era.

It had a horrific stifling effect on the intellectual and cultural life of the United States,” Mahoney said. “So I am an ardent supporter of freedom of speech and academic freedom, but when we exercise free speech and academic freedom, sometimes the response we get, particularly in the 21st century social media world, would be horrific.”

She said Abdulhadi was the latest person to receive these

kinds of messages and that these types of threats were also prevalent at Cal State LA. “This is happening a lot, and the first thing we do is we have to do is assess it, and University Police has ways of assessing it,” Mahoney said. “Then you do the best you can to try to make the faculty feel safe.

Whether it’s a little extra help getting to cars at night, we do a case-by-case.”

Mahoney said SF State should be a model for inclusion now, just as it was in the 1960s during student-led strikes and the formation of the College of Ethnic Studies.

“Diversity and inclusion is not easy,” she said. “If it was easy, the whole country would have done it. So we have to be the place that’s not just a model of it … I think [being a model of diversity and inclusion] will require courageous conversations that are not always comfortable and often painful, but we should be the site of this.”

9/12/19 9:22 AM

CITY•3

GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG | TUESDAY, SEPT. 3, 2019

San Francisco Chief of Police apologizes to LGBTQ+ community

San Francisco Police Department Chief of Police William Scott answers questions from the crowd at the Tenderloin Glide Memorial Methodist Church on Aug. 27, 2019. (Photo by Michelle Wilkinson / Golden Gate Xpress)

BY COREY BROWNING STAFF REPORTER Chief of Police William Scott delivered a historic apology Aug. 26 to the city’s LGBTQ+ community on behalf of the San Francisco Police Department.

“We are here tonight to reflect and to apologize for our past actions against the LGBTQ+ community and acknowledge the harm that has been done that still lingers to this day,” Scott said while addressing a small crowd inside the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in the Tenderloin.

The meeting took place on the 53rd anniversary of the Compton’s Cafeteria riot of 1966. Activists hope it’s the first of many listening sessions held to improve relations between the SFPD and the LGBTQ+ community.

“It’s a start,” said Alex U. Inn, a drag king and musical performer who led the Resistance Contingent in the San Francisco Pride Parade and is running for election to the SF Pride Board.

“We can’t just have one or two [meetings] and say, ‘OK, everything is fixed.’ This is decades and generations of pain from the hands of police officers.”

Predating the more famous Stonewall riot by three years, the Compton’s Cafeteria riot took place in the Tenderloin after a transgender woman is said to have thrown her coffee at a police officer when he harassed her. The riot marks an important milestone in the uprising of transgender people against police harassment in San Francisco.

Police would routinely harass, abuse and use violence against transgender women and gay men, said Susan Stryker, who co-produced the Emmy Award-winning “Screaming Queens.”

GGX_FALL_2019_Issue 2 a (3).indd 3

“They were considered bottom-ofthe-barrel prostitutes, expendable people (police) could mistreat with impunity because nobody would care,” she said.

Transgender women have described police arresting them for “crossdressing,” forcing them to perform oral sex on officers while in custody, strip-searching them in front of other prisoners and putting them into solitary confinement for refusing to shave their long hair, Stryker said.

Chief Scott called it an era where not just laws and policies, but also the culture of the SFPD, was “just plain wrong.”

“We’re sorry for what happened, we’re sorry for our role in it,” Scott said at the meeting.

Though Scott’s apology was met with applause, some in attendance expressed dissatisfaction, pointing to recent SFPD interactions with members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“Your apology [has] taken 53 years,” U. Inn said to Scott. “The apology needs to be right now.”

This year’s Pride Parade saw two people arrested for blocking the procession as protesters insisted excluding police from the event, among other demands. A protester reportedly sustained injuries, as did a police officer, according to the SFPD. “If she — that person you’re talking

about — is hurt, we are sorry, and we’re always sorry,” Scott said, referring to the protester reported as injured.

Lee Hepner, a board member of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, said when he saw a video of the incident this year, he was shocked.

He recalled seeing a protester “rather violently” dragged across part of Market Street. After the incident, he said, community members expressed anger at the idea of even entertaining an apology from the SFPD. “Irrespective of how I feel personally, that’s a real feeling in our community, that we can’t accept that apology,” Hepner said.

U. Inn also said that the previous year, police flanked the Resistance Coalition, which included many people of color.

Meanwhile, she said, the much larger, predominantly white group of Apple employees had no police escort.

“We really need to get to a place where we cannot have SFPD in the parade, in our march,” U. Inn said.

Despite her criticism of the department, U. Inn said that the chief’s apology wasn’t meaningless.

“It means a lot from this chief,” she said. “He’s really true to what he says.”

Even so, others, including Stryker, felt SFPD owed more than an apology.

Christopher Carrington, an SF State professor of sociology and sexuality studies, said he will only show interest in an apology from the SFPD when the LGBTQ+ community receives reparations.

“We deserve payment for the destroyed careers, the legal fees, the lost business licenses, the forfeited property, the opportunity costs, the mental health care costs and all of the other ways that the city of San Francisco has extracted capital from its LGBT citizens via its law enforcement operation over the past 150 years,” Carrington said.

Richelle Slota, a member of San Francisco’s Mental Health Board, speaks to an audience on Aug. 27 at the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in the Tenderloin. (Photo by Michelle Wilkinson / Golden Gate Xpress)

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Overnight parking passed site in November 2020.

The plan was spurred by San Francisco’s homelessness crisis, which saw the city’s unsheltered resident population increase 17% in the last two years, according to San Francisco’s 2019 biennial homelessness survey. Two-thirds of that increase was due to residents living in their vehicles, according to Dylan Schneider, manager of policy and legislative affairs for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

City resident Gaberiel Medina, who has lived near the project site for 33 years, said he encounters vehicular homelessness multiple times a day in the neighborhood, even experiencing it himself before.

“Most of these people are living in neighborhoods they are familiar with because they feel safest, so this will take care of people who are really from that neighborhood,” Medina said.

The project, he said, will safely connect people living in their vehicles to services that will help them find permanent housing.

Community member Sara Zhou was the sole commenter opposed to the plan. She voiced her concern about public safety, particularly whether security would protect the public in the surrounding area.

“There are many young kids going to school everyday — some of them go to school by themselves without their parents picking them up,” Zhou said. “Many of my coworkers are now saying they will not let their kids take transportation by themselves, and [will instead] find time to take them to school and drop them off.”

Zhou added that she would also worry for her safety when taking public transit in the early morning, before sunrise.

The vast majority of public commentators at the two previous community meetings, however, supported the plan, Safai said.

“We want to make [those who live in their vehicles] have access to more secure housing options,” he said. “We feel confident that given the growing number of people living in their vehicles, this was the appropriate time, more now than ever.”

9/12/19 9:22 AM

4•CITY

TUESDAY, SEPT. 3 , 2019 | GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG

Opponent of homeless shelter looks to voters President of group that sued to halt homeless shelter warns he’ll file a ballot measure if neighborhood becomes unsafe.

BY SAM MOORE STAFF REPORTER

T

he plan to build the largest navigation center in the city on the Embarcadero has once again rankled South Beach residents who’ve opposed the project since its inception.

“The city sought to impose this on us for the next four years,” South Beach resident Garrett Law said at a community meeting, “And now we have to deal with it.”

Navigation centers are temporary, low-barrier residence facilities for unhoused individuals. They offer on-site support services that include case management, connections to medical services and pathways to permanent housing.

First, neighbors attempted to appeal the shelter in June to no avail.

Then a group of neighbors calling themselves “Safe Embarcadero for All” (SEA) fundraised to sue and halt the project. Construction has begun nonetheless, and neighbors on Aug. 28 took their concerns about public safety to a meeting, this time held by local representatives and neighbors.

Among the dissidents was SEA president Wallace Lee, who said he intended to spend a lot of money on a ballot initiative opposing the project if it proved unsafe. Such a measure, which he threatened to file for the 2020 election, would attempt to prevent the shelter’s renewal once its two-year trial period ends.

“My concern is that the people

GGX_FALL_2019_Issue 2 a (3).indd 4

coming to this center will be drug users, the mentally ill and sex offenders,” Lee said. “Our view is that those people don’t belong in a residential neighborhood.”

After weeks of fierce debate between supporters and opponents of the center, the Port Commission voted unanimously in April to allow the city to build a 200-bed navigation center on a portion of Seawall Lot 330 at the Embarcadero and Beale Street.

Despite Lee’s warning, the latest suggested deadline to submit proposed ballot initiatives for the November 2020 election was Aug. 20, according to the Secretary of State’s website.

“It sounded like he was trying to use the ballot measure as a threat to get us to change our plans or behave better,” said Rachel Alonso, the Department of Public Works’ project manager for the construction of the navigation center. “I think everyone in the city wants to be the best we can be and have the center be the best it can be, so I don’t think the ballot measure will strike fear in anyone.”

Alonso added that the recently signed Assembly Bill 101 could hinder Lee’s proposed measure.

The bill requires California cities to support the building of new navigation centers on land that meets zoning requirements and prohibits people from appealing any decision to build the centers.

Tensions surrounding the Embarcadero Navigation Center mounted this month when South Beach

Despite neighbors’ public safety concerns surrounding public the project, construction of San Francisco’s 200-bed transitional homeless shelter at the Embarcadero is starting to take shape. A community advisory group met on Aug. 28 to discuss the project. It’s due for completion this December — when it’s expected to become the largest homeless shelter of its kind in San Francisco. (Photos by David Mamaril Horowitz / Golden Gate Xpress)

resident Paneez Kosarian, 26, was attacked by a man presumed to be homeless in front of her Beale Street condominium Aug. 11.

Kosarian has since advocated against the center alongside SEA, which has used the incident as proof of the center’s unwanted effects on the neighborhood.

“The more homeless people that are there, the more mentally violent people are going to be around,” Lee said. “Those people are going to encounter a lot more people around here than near the other navigation centers.”

An analysis of San Francisco Police Department data last year indicated that navigation centers do not affect neighborhood crime, according to a study published with the Goldman School of Public Policy. Data indicated that the number of crimes committed near navigation centers was roughly the same as the crimes occurring at similar locations without the centers.

There are currently five other navigation centers operating in San Francisco. The Embarcadero site is expected to open in December.

9/12/19 9:22 AM

GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG | TUESDAY, SEPT. 3, 2019

Federal agencies issue e-cigarette warning amid ongoing investigation

SCIENCE&TECH•5

BY DAVID MARAMIL HOROWITZ CITY NEWS EDITOR

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned against vaping as it investigates at least 215 instances of severe respiratory disease potentially linked to electronic cigarettes.

“Youth, young adults, pregnant women, as well as adults who do not currently use tobacco products should not use e-cigarettes ... anyone who uses e-cigarette products should not buy these products off the street,” the CDC said in an Aug. 30 statement.

Patients in 25 states reported symptoms such as difficulty breathing, shortness of breath and chest pain prior to being hospitalized, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) said in an Aug. 30 statement. Some patients reported gastrointestinal illnesses like vomiting and diarrhea. Others reported fevers and fatigue, according to the FDA. “Whether it’s smoking or e-cigarettes, you are inhaling materials for which the system was not designed,” said SF State professor Erik Peper, an in-

ternationally regarded expert on holistic health and biofeedback.

“Very powerful conditioners are smell and taste — by using flavored e-cigarettes, you are in fact making people more likely to become addicted.”

E-cigarette usage has skyrocketed from 1.5% to 20.8% among high school students between 2011 and 2018, according to the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey. Among the 215-plus cases of severe respiratory illnesses that federal and state agencies are investigating, one ended in a fatality in Illinois last week.

Despite collaborating with states to conduct their investigations, neither the FDA nor CDC has pinpointed a single e-cigarette product or substance causing the symptoms or illnesses.

Nonetheless, numerous research centers, including the CDC, recommend e-cigarettes over tobacco products. The Royal College of Physicians, representing more than 35,000 doctors globally, has advised regulating e-cigarettes in a balanced way that encourages tobacco smokers to make the switch.

FogCam stares death in the face and prevails

BY FRANK SUMRALL PRINT MANAGING

SF State’s FogCam has operated longer than any other webcam on the internet and will continue filming despite previous announcements that it would shut down at the end of August. (Screenshot courtesy of Fogcam.org)

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The FogCam, with its dated, clunky technology and style, greeted both the city of San Francisco and its encompassing fog Sept. 1 after all the obituaries and mournful goodbyes.

The webcam staved off death and will continue to display the city’s horizon and its adoring college campus.

“San Francisco State can confirm it has agreed to continue maintaining the FogCam, which prevents shutdown of the service,” an official statement on its website said.

“San Francisco State University has supported operation of the FogCam

since its inception in 1994, a major technology milestone at the time.

The University looks forward to continuing the webcam’s legacy.”

This comes to much surprise after co-creator Jeff Schwartz’s comments in an interview with SFGate.

“The bottom line is that we no longer have a really good view or place to put the camera,” Schwartz said. “The university tolerates us, but they don’t really endorse us and so we have to find secure locations on our own.”

But just like a phoenix rising from its ashes,

the webcam averted its demise once more.

As the internet has transformed from a Wild West frontier to a corporate construct of monolithic monopolies, San Francisco has faced the mass immigration of Silicon Valley tech conglomerates, causing a drastic change of a once vibrant community into an unornamented metropolis.

But despite the ever-altering culture, the city will always have its character and charm as long as the FogCam watches over as its stalwart monitor of Karl the Fog.

9/12/19 9:22 AM

6•SPORTS

TUESDAY, SEPT. 3, 2019 | GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG

Men’s soccer kicks off new season with recently promoted head coach

BY JIMMY DEROGATIS SPORTS EDITOR

Jordan Wusstig rises up to trap the ball against a Cal Poly Pomona defender at UC San Diego on Nov. 3, 2017. (Photo by Brandon Davis / Golden Gate Xpress) Bottom photo: Pedro Osório, new coach of men’s soccer. (Photo courtesy of SFStateGators.com)

t’s all about the love for one another and the comradery of playing for the man next to you. This is what truly ignites a program, lifts its fan base, infiltrates a winning culture and brings people together from different corners of the world. This is SF State men’s soccer, and this is what head coach Pedro Osório enforces upon his players from day one.

This will be Osório’s first season as the Gators head soccer coach, and second season as a member of the Gators coaching staff. Osório’s first season was as an assistant coach under then head coach Javier Ayala-Hil of SF State Gators men’s team.

“It was hard at first absolutely, knowing your true passion is to be a head coach when you’re just an assistant,” Osório said. “It was a little difficult, but with that, I had to take the theoretical backseat which was an approach that not only helped gauge our program but gave me time to oversee the entire game plan and method.”

He has gone on to become the new head soccer coach for San Francisco Glens. This provided an opening for Osório to become the new head coach of the Gators, a position he always

thought he was meant for.

“My vision was to always become a head coach, last year was a bit of a whirlwind it was mostly just meeting the team and assisting with film for player development,” said Osório.

“However, this season I will be the man at the helm, in charge of bringing that championship-caliber play back to the SF State community.”

His care and passion for his players, program and institution manifests immensely as he stalks the sidelines.

He not only wants them to succeed both on the field and in the classroom, but in life, implanting compassion, respect, class and perseverance, just like the great game of soccer has

I

to offer.

Osório epitomizes the notion of “a player’s coach,” a wonderful role model for these young players with a personable, charismatic, player-friendly approach. He brings over a decade of professional soccer experience from all over California, Latin America and Fiji.

He learned from playing at the top level in several different countries about the ability to be selfless with the ball something he will emphasize this year to his soccer team.

“We probably play in the toughest conference in Division II or Division III Men’s NCAA college soccer, so we want our student athletes to have a different mindset,” Osório said. “We want them to be well-or-

ganized, well-prepared, humble and come together as a group and sacrifice all individual accolades for the greater good of the team. We all learned a lot last year together with Javy [Javier Ayala-Hil].”

The team took a new approach this off-season by recruiting international talent from all over the world such as Japan, Germany, Italy, Denmark and South Africa. The team has a close relationship with 22 nations in the world.

Along with recruiting global talent, the San Francisco State Men’s team has a premise of recruiting and developing local talent such as Daly City native and Gator star Julio Gonzalez Ponce who played in the city for Mission High School.

The season kicks off Friday, Sept. 6 at 4 p.m. against Notre Dame de Namur in Belmont, California. The Gators first home game isn’t until Friday, Oct. 4 at 12:20 p.m. against Stanislaus State.

Some of the key matchups this season will be against teams down south such as Cal State Los Angeles, Cal Poly Pomona and a familiar foe in Cal State San Bernardino — who bounced the Gators in playoff competition last season. Look for SF State to get some re-

Athletic program promotes Schussel to assistant director; Durk, Okhovat, Warren join training staff Newly hired sports medicine team looks to pursue student-athlete longevity

BY ROBERT JUAREZ STAFF REPORTER

T

he SF State athletics website released a statement Tuesday regarding the addition of three new members to the sports medicine staff and the promotion of a longtime staffer.

Director of Athletics Stephanie Shrieve-Hawkins announced that

GGX_FALL_2019_Issue 2 a (3).indd 6

she is promoting Bryce Schussel to assistant director of athletics. Schussel has worked on the SF State sports medicine staff since 2006 and has been head athletic trainer since 2009.

“I was very excited about the opportunity, and for the confidence Athletic Director Stephanie Shrieve-Hawkins and the athletics staff have shown in me,” Schussel said. “Time has gone by

so fast and I really do enjoy working here at SF State. I think the coaches, staff and student athletes make this place a great place to work.”

Shrieve-Hawkins also announced the hiring of Natally Okhovat, Nicole Warren and Ryan Durk.

Okhovat and Warren will be joining as assistant athletic trainers and will work with Durk, who was hired as the new head strength and condi-

tioning coach.

Durk completed his master’s degree in kinesiology at SF State in 2017. After graduating, he was brought on as a lecturer at his alma mater, where he primarily taught research methods and writing, among other strength and conditioning and fitness-related courses.

Okhovat joins the Gator staff after working as a graduate assistant at

Oregon State and Western Oregon. She worked with many programs while at Oregon State, including women’s soccer, football and swimming.

Warren held a similar role at the University of Saint Katherine in San Marcos, California, and has experience as a certified athletic trainer with the Premiere Lacrosse League.

“We performed a na-

tional search when hiring our two new full-time assistant athletic trainers, and both Natally Okhovat and Nicole Warren rose to the top,” Schussel said. “Ryan Durk was working here in the Kinesiology department last year and bringing him over to athletics as our head strength and conditioning coach was a perfect fit. I am really confident in our staff and excited about this year.”

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S.ORG

ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT•7 SF Zine Fest brings out artists to celebrate inclusion

GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG | TUESDAY, SEPT. 3, 2019

BY MJ JOHNSON STAFF REPORTER

Rows and rows of colorful zines, comics and leaflets adorned the tables as excited attendees poured into the space for a bit of Labor Day Weekend fun. The exhibitors at this year’s Zine Fest represented just as much color as their creations portrayed.

The 18th Annual San Francisco Zine Fest took place at the County Fair Ground Building in Golden Gate Park on Sunday, Sept.

1. Artists, writers and creators displayed their zines, self-published booklets, among other do-it-yourself crafters and exhibitors.

Since 2001, the festival has sought to celebrate artists who would otherwise not receive recognition from the mainstream industry.

“It’s a way for voices of the unheard to be heard,” said Anand Vedawala, executive director of SF Zine Fest. “We try to provide a platform for independent publishers and creators to share their work.”

Zines, short for magazine or fanzine, are original works of art, text or images, that are small-circulation and independently produced. Because of this, many creators are not in it for financial gain or recognition. Zines were priced between $1 to $10.

“You get to see different art and creativity, it’s almost too much to look at,” said Regina Chern, a

festival attendee. “The messages are great too and you get to see their focuses and passions.”

Festival organizers placed an emphasis on inclusivity and decided to highlight the diversity within the zine making community. Writer and artist, Lawrence Lindell, was the guest of honor at this year’s festival. Lindell, who lives with bipolar disorder and PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder, uses his zines and comics as a way to talk about mental health, queerness and blackness, he said.

“Zines are the freest thing in the world to create,” Lindell said.

“It’s hard to talk about mental health, so I want to open up the conversation with my work.”

Accessibility and inclusion of all identities was a common theme for many creators participating in the festival. ASL interpretation and a free wheelchair-accessible shuttle to and from 16th St. and Mission Bart Station to the festival venue was provided for the duration of the festival.

“This event is important and special for zine makers because a lot of them are from marginalized communities like queer people, people of color, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities,” said

Neil Ballard, a volunteer organizer for Zine Fest.

The festival and accompanying panels and workshops are meant to celebrate independent creators and further DIY principles throughout the Bay Area. The Comic Arts Club from SF State displayed their yearly zine, a collaborative effort of student artists throughout the school year.

“Seeing everyone’s work printed is really exciting,” said Carmen Liu, president and founding member of the Comic Arts Club. Her own zine, “Dim Sum,” was based on her cultural heritage and love of food, she said.

The “Kid-Friendly Zone” of the festival showcased zines and comics geared toward children and some even created by children. Aptos Middle School’s sixth and seventh graders created their own zines titled “Tiger Zines” based on themes like identity or how-to. All donations from the event will go to a children’s charity that the students decide on.

“They were excited to be a part of this,” said Katie Rinkenberger, a student teacher who helped the middle schoolers put together their zines. “It opened the door so they can cre- Top to bottom: Janell Delcid holds her zine at Zine Fest inside of the San Francisco County Fair atively tell their story Building on Sept. 1, 2019. Amol Ray speaks to his son, Rishi, at Zine Fest inside of the San Franor express themselves.” cisco County Fair Building on Sept. 1, 2019. (Photos by Paige Acosta / Golden Gate Xpress)

Left to right: Robbie Brown sits at the Oakland LGBTQ Center’s table at Zine Fest inside of the San Francisco County Fair Building on Sept. 1, 2019. People speak to exhibitors about their zines at Zine Fest inside of the San Francisco County Fair Building on Sept. 1, 2019 (Photos by Paige Acosta / Golden Gate Xpress)

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8•OPINION

TUESDAY, SEPT. 3, 2019 | GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG

UPD inconsistently responds to student safety UPD handles every safety emergency differently, but when do they go from handling an emergency to completely dropping the ball?

BY KERESA DIMITRIOS TSOKAS STAFF REPORTER The University Police Department prides itself on “delivering professional community policing with integrity and sensitivity.” As of Sept. 1, day 244 of the year, there have been 283 mass shootings in the U.S., according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive. Twenty-eight have occurred on a school campus.

On Aug. 27, an email sent out to the student body stated that there was an incident involving a handgun a few blocks away from campus at approximately 12:44 p.m. Though no one was injured and the incident technically didn’t happen on campus, the student body wasn’t notified until 5:13 p.m., causing a mix of panic and confusion among many students.

Is UPD handling campus safety and communication between students as best as they can?

There is a power struggle behind wanting information about what is happening as soon as possible and possibly coming in contact with false information because of how quickly you receive said information.

Ty Corral, a student at SF State, initially thought “It [the email] was super late but I still kind of started panicking because it was a block away from my apartment.”

Memories of the past spring semester instantly came to mind when reading the email. On Feb. 25, the student body received an email, three hours after the fact, that there was a shooting incident near campus — no other information was given.

Later that night around 11 p.m., the campus experienced a power outage and in addition to the emails, the student body received phone calls to the number(s) on university records notifying them of the power outage.

A day after the shooting incident, another email from UPD was sent out stating that there was no active shooter or threat identified. Despite the message containing more information than the initial email and apologies being sent out for how UPD handled the situation, students were — rightfully — angry and displeased with UPD. Corral happened to be on campus during the shooting and was, “only get-

ting news from Wildfire (an app) so we weren’t sure if we had to shut down the event or go inside and we didn’t know what to tell other people because we were in charge of the event...it was a mess.”

When asked about how UPD handles notifications to the student body concerning handguns and shootings, Interim Deputy Chief of Police, Wailun Shiu said, “The University Police takes this responsibility of providing accurate information very seriously as to not cause unnecessary confusion and panic. There are, however, guidelines set in place that provide guidance on the reporting of crimes to the public.”

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) is what provides UPD with this guidance. “UPD takes into account two main criteria in determining whether to communicate to the community about an incident,” Shiu said. “1) Is it within the department’s primary or secondary jurisdictional boundaries? and, 2) Is there a likelihood of public safety or security concerns?”

Suggestions from the student body about how UPD can improve safety were not hard to find. Cade Pustelnik, who has been at SF State for three semesters, suggests, “more active communication for the people on campus because their job [UPD] is to protect these people on campus and if they aren’t communicating these types of incidents then people can get hurt.”

This issue with UPD goes much deeper than just complaining. The student body is being notified via calls and text messages about an event like campus phones not working or campus having a power outage.

However, when incidents concerning the student body’s safety like a handgun near campus or shooting happen, emails are sent out hours and sometimes days after.

UPD has shown in the past that they can take accountability for not handling situations concerning safety correctly. But, UPD needs to find a faster and more efficient way to notify the campus when there is something as harmful as a gun or shooting, even if it is only near campus.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Editor’s note: this letter is in response to the May 21, 2019 Xpress editorial titled “Ethics violations betray department integrity.”

BY JESSE GARNIER Associate Professor of Journalism, San Francisco State University “The journalism department at SF State has an ethics problem.”

So began the staff editorial that topped page 2 of the final Spring edition of the Golden Gate Xpress on May 21.

Reading these words, and the 1,500 or so which followed, crumbled my heart.

Mostly, because I agree.

Over nearly three decades at SF State, as an educator, student, and publication advisor, I have never witnessed anything near the scale or scope of the academic dishonesty I was forced to address over the last year with my students.

In 2018-19, I submitted to my chair formal reports concerning three instances of fabrication, four of plagiarism, and another five regarding

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an explosion of cheating involving nearly two dozen assignments.

I had never before, not once, encountered the need to refer even a single student for disciplinary action.

In each instance, I investigated and met with the student involved. More than once, when I asked why students chose to cheat, I was met with the answer: “Well, it’s better than not turning anything in.”

Well, no. It’s not.

Your best option, every time, is to complete the assignment, on your own, as directed, by your own hand.

The only other honest option is to not turn anything in. If, as some of my students assert, my coursework was too difficult, this option preserves any high ground you may have to contest your grade, my teaching, or anything else.

But the parts of the editorial that stung most were those that were simply weren’t true.

The editorial contained multiple inaccuracies, key omissions, and, most seriously, a failure to observe even the most basic journalistic principles in the pursuit not of truth, but of a fact pattern gerrymandered to lead to a particular conclusion.

In this case, that conclusion was that our department, and I personally, failed to take sufficient action to enforce or penalize violators of

journalism ethics and academic integrity.

That is simply false.

I took swift action, not only directly with the involved students, but also as chair of our curriculum committee, I spearheaded an effort within our faculty to step up our sanctions for violations of academic integrity and, in particular, journalism ethics on our student publications.

Shortly after Journalism faculty approved my proposal, I announced in class and on social media new policies for Xpress, including stiffer maximum penalties for plagiarism or fabrication, including failing the class, and the means for student editors to divert suspicious works out of the publication process to faculty advisors for review and, if necessary, academic discipline.

None of my actions were reported in the editorial.

One reason may be because I was never interviewed, on the record, on background, or otherwise, by any Xpress staff. My quotes, apparently, were gleaned from private conversations over the course of the semester.

I did all I could within a shifting, nebulous process that remains undefined. At least four separate policies have been conveyed to Journalism faculty over the last 12 months, and to this day we remain uncertain as to exactly what we are permitted to do to sanction cheating

students.

Can we fail a publication student for plagiarism? When I asked directly, I got different answers from the Office of Student Conduct and from within my own college. This is unhealthy, dysfunctional, and ultimately harms both students and faculty, as has played out here.

After the editorial was published, I demanded, in writing, a formal retraction of several specific statements therein. Under California Civl Code 48(a), citizens have the right to demand in writing a published retraction or correction of statements they consider defamatory.

As a result of my demand, I was deemed to have a conflict of interest and was removed as Xpress faculty advisor in July, and I moved my office out of the Xpress newsroom. Despite statements I consider defamatory and injurious to my professional reputation after two decades in local and national journalism and nearly as long as a journalism educator, I was notified that Xpress is standing by their story and will not be issuing any retraction or correction.

By the time this piece is scheduled for publication, the editorial will have appeared on the Goldengatexpress.org home page for 119 days.

If you missed it, you can Google “Jesse Garnier ethics,” then click on the very first link.

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