Profile: Tennis star from Vietnam
DRINK OF THE WEEK
Sports p. 6
A&E p. 4
My friends were shot this weekend
Serving San José State University since 1934
Tuesday October 11, 2011 Volume 137, Issue 24
Opinion p. 8
SPARTAN DAILY SpartanDaily.com
Shootings hit home at SJSU, students react by Jeremy Infusino Staff Writer
After living on the streets of San Jose for three months, Susanna Beouchan moved into a woman’s and children’s shelter. She has been living there for the past six years,
and despite her situation, her faith and membership in the First Church Disciples of Christ has kept her spirits high. Photo by Jasper Rubenstein / Spartan Daily
The San Jose Police Department released the names of two former SJSU students who were shot on Saturday while they investigate two other shootings that occurred in San Jose over the past four days. The victims were identified as Eric Kenzo Otokawa, 21, of San Jose, and Kristina Lynn Pandula, 20, of Sunnyvale, according to SJPD. Otokawa, last enrolled at SJSU in Spring 2011, was an undeclared major and his hometown was listed as Atlanta, Ga., according to an email from Pat Lopes Harris, director of media relations for SJSU. Pandula was last enrolled at SJSU in Summer 2011, was a pre-nursing major, and was associated with Delta Gamma sorority, according to the email from Harris.
When police arrived on the scene at the 800 block of South Third Street on Saturday morning, Otokawa was pronounced dead at the scene and Pandula was brought to a local hospital for life-threatening injuries. She died Sunday from injuries sustained from the shooting, according to SJPD. The double homicide marks the 33rd and 34th homicides in San Jose in 2011, according to SJPD. Junior kinesiology major Joshua Kingley said he had heard about the shooting but was not that scared. “I try to avoid dangerous spots or try not to put myself in dangerous situations if I can,” he said. SJPD stated that the motives for the killings have not been established and the suspect(s) are unknown and considered armed and dangerous.
SEE SHOOTINGS PAGE 2
DREAM Act signed Living hand to mouth for illegal residents by Brittany Patterson Staff Writer
Susanna Beouchan peered intently at the white, pocket-sized Bible in her hand. Sitting in the shade outside the Salvation Army’s Emmanuel House on North Fourth Street in the heart of downtown San Jose, she is one of about thirty people waiting for the hot lunch that will be served just after noon. Cast haphazardly around the small yard of the Emmanuel House — a homeless shelter and public feeding center run by the Salvation Army — are shopping carts piled high with ragged blankets and
clothes, and weathered bicycles held together with duct tape. The people are all different — young and old, white, black and Latino, clean and dirty — but all of them are here. They are waiting for their hot meal and shower; they are receiving help where they can before they move on to the next place. These are some of the homeless in San Jose, those who live in poverty every day. According to recently released statistics from the 2010 Census, poverty rates climbed to 15.1 percent in the United States, affecting 46.2 million people — nearly 1 in 6 Americans, the highest it’s been since
the census first started measuring poverty in 1959. In Santa Clara County, poverty rose more than a percentage point to 10.5 percent, with a median income of $85,002. Beouchan said she lived on the streets for three months and then in
SEE POVERTY PAGE 2 See full story and Multimedia online at
spartandaily.com/?p=44891
Occupy S.J. protesters raise voices, pitch tents at City Hall by Jeffrey Cianci Staff Writer
Occupy San Jose, a movement of solidarity for the protests on Wall Street, has been camping along Fourth Street on the plaza outside San Jose City Hall. The protest has no official leader — it’s a mix of students and long-time activists hell-bent on taking down cor-
Protesters from Occupy San Jose brandish their signs outside of City Hall Saturday night as part of a larger Occupy Wall Street movement across the U.S. Photo by Karl Nguyen / Contributing Photographer
porate America and the banking system, which they claim is oppressing the working and middle classes. Democratic general assemblies are held every evening, where a consensus with 100 percent agreement among the occupiers is reached on every agenda item.
Participants listened carefully to Alysa Cisneros as she addresses the assembly, a community organizer for a leaderless movement. Cisneros, a political science major at De Anza College, said she was
SEE OCCUPY PAGE 7
by Cynthia Ly Staff Writer
A state act allowing illegal immigrants access to financial aid was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown this past Saturday. The California Dream Act allows undocumented students who came to the country before the age of 16 and attended a California high school access to public financial aid, including Cal and Pell grants. “Going to college is a dream that promises intellectual excitement and creative thinking,” Brown said in a prepared statement. “The Dream Act benefits us all by giving top students a chance to improve their lives and the lives of all of us.” Eligible students have already been able to pay in-state tuition, and in July, Brown signed an accompanying measure allowing them access to private financial aid. According to Carolyn Guel, assistant director of SJSU’s Financial Aid and Scholarship Office, the act is currently lacking structural and financial support. “(Illegal immigrants) cannot fill out FAFSA forms,” she said. The FAFSA website lists being a U.S. citizen or being an eligible noncitizen as a basic requirement to qualify. Guel said this will result in additional paperwork for any illegal immigrant students who wish to apply in the future. She also said the funding sources for more financial aid have not been decided. An estimated one million illegal immigrants will eventually enroll in public higher education institutions as a result of the Dream Act, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonprofit think tank focused on U.S. immigration policies. “On average, each illegal immigrant who attends a public institution will
receive a tuition subsidy from taxpayers of nearly $6,000 for each year he or she attends,” Steven Camarota, director of research at the center, said in a 2010 memorandum. “For total cost of $6.2 billion a year, not including other forms of financial assistance they may also receive.” “With the cost of schooling, some immigrant families are put off it,” said Tony Ly, a senior business management major. Ly said some families will be more worried about work and getting money to support their livelihoods. He said his family legally emigrated to the U.S. from Cambodia and feels that an increased number of illegal immigrant students will not have a negative effect because of the campus’ diversity. “We are all here for an education,” Ly said. According to SJSU’s College Portrait website, less than 1 percent of the student population are considered illegal immigrants. Brown’s signature comes during a spike in nationwide tension about immigration, most recently over strict new laws in Georgia and Alabama. Georgia’s Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011 (HB 87) gave state law enforcement the green light to actively investigate and fine illegal immigrants, according to the Georgia General Assembly website. Meanwhile, the Obama administration announced it would suspend deportation measures against illegal immigrants who aren’t a danger to public safety, including people who immigrated as young children and are in school. “I’m going to treat everybody, whether they’re documented or not, as God’s child, and my brothers and sisters,” Brown said. McClatchy Tribune also contributed to this story.