Union lays it all out for administration
and operations, according to a California State University Employee Union web page.
In an effort to gain economic security and have a contract for student workers, the California State University Employee’s Union delivered a petition to San José State University along with 17 other university administrations these past two days.
California State University Employee Union was formed to support 16,000 California State University (CSU) support staff members of the 23 CSU campuses working with six different bargaining units that cover academics
Paul Lechtenberg, California State University Employee Union labor relations representative for Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, CSU Monterey Bay and SJSU was present in the delivery of the petition.
“Today, we will be delivering our petition (to President) Cynthia TenienteMatson and we are calling CSU leadership to be better leaders,” Lechtenberg said.
“Student workers deserve a fair contract and career staff deserve a fair salary step.”
For SJSU, student workers, career staff and California
State University Employee Union representatives met up at the Arch of Dignity, Equality, and Justice where the 26-foot-long petition was unraveled displaying the names of those who signed.
“The President can use her leadership role and urge the chancellor and board of trustees to direct CSU negotiations to provide a fair first contract for student workers,” Lechtenberg said.
Together, they walked to Clark Hall to hand over the petition to Teniente-Matson who was not present on campus yesterday. Instead, student organizer Akhil Rao handed it to Shawn Whalen, Chief of Staff, and was told
to deliver the petition to Teniente-Matson.
As of now with the current increase in the minimum wage, the average student assistant is making $17.00 to $24.00 per hour, according to SJSU’s salary schedule.
This petition calls for an increase in wages, a refusal of staff layoffs and a stepby-step process to secure career staff employment, according to the California State University Employee’s Union petition.
“Management is offering no wage increase and no parking fee discounts at all at the same time, management blames state funding and predicts there will be layoffs
and program cuts next year,” Lechtenberg said.
Khanh Weinberg, a California State University Employee Union spokesperson alongside Lechtenberg, has reached out to management and organized students to stand up for their rights.
“We are challenging (CSU’s) to be bolder and have a more thoughtful and strategic view on building up the university, to attract more students to pay and open the door for students who need access to quality education,” Weinberg said.
Currently, the CSU manages an investment portfolio of $8.7 billion, according to the California State University Employee Union petition.
However, students are noticing the lack of support from their management and an overall decrease in hours.
Akhil Rao, a fourth year business management information system student and organizer, has seen this in his workforce.
“I work at (Spartan Village on the Paseo), so over the summer my hours were fine but there was another team who had their hours cut significantly and I know it (financially) impacted them greatly,” Rao said.
Rao says because students are only getting paid around the minimum wage and the increased price of living, it has added stress to those whose hours were affected, impacting their mental health.
As of now, to attend SJSU with only tuition and campus fees alone students, without financial aid are expected to pay $8,410 for the whole academic year, according to the SJSU student undergrad budget.
For students who live paycheck to paycheck a cut in hours with no wage increase could face a harder time paying simply for their attendance.
“You also get zero holiday pay so when it is like Thanksgiving or Veterans Day you lose that entire day of pay,” Rao said. “That makes a difference for college students who are paying everything on their own.”
Rao also says that the CSU has treated student workers and career staff with disrespect describing them as temporary workers.
With more bargaining meetings to come, those on the bargaining team are focusing on the implementation of a contract which would make it easier for student workers to be seen as more than just temporary.
“I hope Teniente-Matson takes our petition seriously and pressures the chancellor and the board of trustees but if she doesn't or they won’t, we aren’t afraid to get more serious and take more serious action. This is the first step but I feel good about what we did today,” Rao said.
PHOTOS BY ANAHI HERRERA VILLANUEVA | SPARTAN DAILY
(Left to right) Akhil Rao,Paul Lechtenberg, David Moreno,Camden Forbes, Brenna Sitta, Antonia Rock, John Pfenning, Werner Goveya, Annie Huang and an unidentified individual proudly hold a 26-foot-long petition in front of the Arch of Dignity on Tuesday.
Organizer Akhil Rao talks with San José State University Chief of Staff, Shawn Whalen in the president’s office.
By Anahi Herrera
Villanueva STAFF WRITER
A.S. board hosts monthly Town Hall
By Israel Archie STAFF WRITER
Associated Students (A.S.) hosted its second town hall session of the semester and gave the public the opportunity to talk about different topics, including the election and hate speech, in the Student Union on Tuesday.
A.S. President Ariana Lacson opened the discussion for students and staff to talk about campus concerns with a new political climate set to lead the nation.
“Our first priority topic is to talk about the impacts of the 2024 U.S. elections, and use this as a space to talk about our feelings and how it could impact our students here on campus,” Lacson said.
Ma’Kayla Akin, an A.S. Lobby Corps student, addressed the recent stints of offensive slurs that have been written around campus to different groups of students’ responses to the election.
The Lobby Corps is a committee at A.S. tasked with making recommendations to the Board of Directors centered around state and federal legislation that could have an impact on San José State, according to an SJSU web page.
“It would be really
important that we throw our hands to different communities and make sure that we stand with them,” Akin said. “Things may arise in the future because of this recent election, so I think that it is very important for us to stand with each other.”
Akin recently talked to SJSU alumni who informed her that these kinds of issues occurred while they attended the university.
She also anticipates this issue to become more significant because of the
political turnaround that the country is projected to make in a few months.
“With the current change of political power that is happening right now, I feel like people are more prone to do more things freely without any regard for other people’s feelings because of different types of political views,” Akin said.
Katelyn Gambarin, the committee chair and Director of Legislative Affairs, encourages students to come to Lobby Corps meetings and board
meetings to express their feelings towards things like this on campus.
“A lot of things are changing in our community and it’s really important that we’re there for one another and finding ways to support one another,” Gambarin said. “It’s really important that we’re standing for our students and with our students.”
John Duroyan, president of Students for a Democratic Society, voiced his concerns about the increase of hate speech on campus.
“If we are going to have a conversation about ongoing instances of Ph.D. research, we need to be more stringent in understanding what allowing certain speakers could bring to this campus,” Duroyan said.
Leonardo Plazola, the Director of Student Rights and Responsibilities, is currently working with Student Involvement on how to address the issue of hate speech.
Chief of the University Police Department (UPD), Michael D. Carroll, said
the department was able to successfully identify three individuals who were responsible for writing hate speech.
“For the most part we are investigating and taking every case seriously,” Carroll said. “UPD can’t be the sole partner responsible for any type of criminal activity or wrongful doings, it has to be a collaborative approach (and) it has to be all of us working together.
SJSU Office of DEI hosts campus forum
By Jackson Lindstrom STAFF WRITER
In light of graffiti containing hateful remarks on San José State campus, faculty and staff from the SJSU Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hosted a campus climate forum Tuesday to allow students to voice concerns about the campus atmosphere.
The graffiti was found in multiple buildings on campus containing threats as well as racist, Islamaphobic and anti-Semitic remarks, according to an Oct. 25 campus-wide email.
The forum began with a presentation from campus faculty and staff from the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
SJSU’s Chief Diversity Officer Kristin Dukes introduced the forum’s presentation, saying the campus needs to take opportunities to respond to instances like the recent graffiti being found.
“(I) recognize that this conversation might be challenging given the time, given where we are, given the divisiveness of our nation,” Dukes said. “We can encourage one another in the ways in which we speak, in the ways in which we show up, (and) in this space.”
The job of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is to make sure that the campus’s environment is welcoming to all students, according to the office’s web page.
“The work that we do (in) our campus climate is not a destination. It's a journey,” Dukes said. “Think about this as just part of the process, part of the engagement, part of the continual movement to be better.”
After Dukes concluded the presentation, she offered students the opportunity to speak about what problems
SJSU Department of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion discusses Islamophobic and anti-Semitic graffiti found on campus.
are being faced with the campus climate.
Students attending the forum described the campus climate as disconnected, uninvolved, unsafe for the LGBTQIA+ community and not transparent.
Katelyn Gambarin, the director of Legislative Affairs for Associated Students (A.S.), said the biggest problem with the climate on campus comes from a lack of connection between students and staff
“I would describe our current campus climate as disconnected,” Gambarin said. “I think that was the overarching theme that we heard, and I think it's still true. Part of that plays into the fact that a lot of us are coming out of the pandemic, so we’re still learning how to reconnect with one another and be social.”
Around 44% of undergraduate students who went to college for an undergrad-
uate degree in 2020 attended exclusively online classes, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Gambarin also highlighted how it’s been difficult for A.S. to maintain student participation despite the group’s attempts at outreach.
“There’s definitely a shortfall when it comes to outreach. We as A.S. have done a lot of things to try to outreach to students, to learn more about what things matter to students and that can be a wide range of issues,” Gambarin said. “It becomes a question of if the organization that's supposed to be the student voice can't even get students to say how they're feeling, how can administration do that?”
Gambarin said A.S. was having a town hall meeting later the same day, but the organization had to incentivize students to come because of a low student turn-
out at its first town hall.
One common method for outreach at SJSU is social media because of its popularity.
Around 84% of adults aged 18 to 29 said they used social media in some way in a 2021 Pew Research Center survey.
Leonardo Plazola, A.S. director of student rights and responsibilities, said using social media can sometimes be ineffective in outreach.
“We have a difficult time hearing from our students ... Our election statement received a little bit under 150 likes on Instagram. I'm not one to really look at likes and care, but we have a population of 36,000 students and 10,000 followers,” Plazola said. “The issue isn't the (number) of students, clearly not. It's what that barrier (is) that's disconnecting from us and students, because we’re trying really hard.”
This phenomenon of low interaction rates on Instagram can be seen on the SJSU main Instagram page as well, where the last 10 posts averaged about 411 likes.
Based on that data, SJSU Instagram page statistically has about a 0.6% interaction rate of likes.
John Paul Amaral, an employee at the Native American Indigenous Student Success Center, said the campus lacks the community that other CSU campuses seem to have.
“One of our students committed suicide recently because their parents were deported ... What do you do when you don’t have family?” Amaral said, crying. “When you have someone who doesn't know what to do ... Who are they to turn to? They’re not going to turn to people that they’ve never met before.”
Nearly 30% of Latino(a)
people in California are undocumented immigrants or are living with an undocumented immigrant, according to a 2022 fact sheet from Unidos U.S. Dukes said although the campus cannot prevent another instance of hateful graffiti being found on campus, there are still actions that can be taken to reduce harm.
“When we don’t have control of a particular situation, we have to reclaim that control. And I think the way in which we can reclaim that control is by determining how we as a campus community respond to these incidents of hate,” Dukes said. “I see this campus forum (as) an opportunity for us to lead into being that community of mutual care.”
ISRAEL ARCHIE | SPARTAN DAILY
A.S. Board member Leonardo Plazola speaks to the audience in the Town Hall meeting Tuesday on the San José State University campus.
JACKSON LINDSTROM | SPARTAN DAILY
Students open ‘Cabaret’ in downtown
By Saturn Williams STAFF WRITER
Through a night of enrapturing performance, San José State University’s Department of Film, Theatre and Dance transformed the modern downtown Sobrato auditorium into a seedy Weimar-era burlesque theater in its opening production of “Cabaret” on Friday.
“Cabaret” is a musical theater piece originally adapted to Broadway in 1966 based on John Van Druten’s 1951 play “I Am a Camera,” according to an Oct. 25, Britannica article on “Cabaret.”
The story of “Cabaret” follows a series of characters and their escapades within Berlin’s underbelly in 1929 as the Nazi Party rises to power, focusing on the raunchy Kit Kat Club, which encourages its patrons to forget any troubles and indulge in its sensory pleasures.
Theatre arts senior Nicholas Hintzman played the leading role of the Emcee, the conductor of the late-night entertainment for the cabaret. Hintzman opened the show with the immediately attentionhooking “Willkommen” introducing the audience to the club’s risque cast.
“Willkommen” also ends the show with a reprisal that recontextualizes the tone as the Nazi presence looms over Berlin and the Kit Kat Club deteriorates. When the Emcee introduces the Kit Kat Girls again as he does at the beginning of the show, they are visibly battered and disheveled.
Hintzman does an excellent job of escalating the character’s emotional spiral, culminating
FOOD REVIEW
in the solo song “I Don’t Care Much” before the character stumbles offstage, dragging the microphone stand behind him with visible track marks on his arm.
The Emcee’s declaration of “there are no troubles here” also shifts in tone from a playful invitation of escapism to an entrapping threat when comparing the two versions of the song.
The show’s choreography, directed by Zendrex Llado, channeled a vaudevillian physicality that made for an audiovisual feast whenever the cast congregated for a song.
This production adapted the 1998 Broadway revival version, which adds the songs “Money,” “Mein Herr” and “Maybe This Time” from the 1972 film adaption as well as an original addition, “I Don’t Care Much.”
SJSU’s ensemble filled the Hammer Theatre Center stage not only with raucous group numbers Friday night but with powerful character moments as well.
Hintzman’s Emcee is wildly charismatic and capturing, luring the audience into the spectacle of the Kit Kat Club with a sort of deviant exuberance.
The Emcee is an omnipresent character throughout the story, appearing in scenes outside of the Kit Kat Club as an almost paranormal force and always pulling focus even when not in the spotlight thanks to Hintzman’s background acting.
The live theater audience is treated as a character of its own in “Cabaret” and Hintzman tore down that fourth wall every chance he could, constantly addressing
the voyeuristic patrons looking for what this side of Berlin has to offer.
The main characters all unveil their emotional depth as the show goes on, drawing out dynamic performances from the entire cast despite a few minor line flubs and illenunciated German accents muddying some dialogue.
Alex Delgado has starred in multiple SJSU productions such as “Into The Woods,” “La Curandera” and “Threepenny Opera” before starring as Sally Bowles in “Cabaret.”
Bowles is an English chanteuse who works at the Kit Kat Club, introduced as a promiscuous and blasé burlesque performer in the bawdy “Don’t Tell Mama” but secretly wishes for greater heights as shown in “Maybe This Time” after she becomes romantically involved with traveling American novelist
Cliff Bradshaw. Delgado threw themself into the performance, dripping with 1920s flapper energy as they delivered the night’s vocal highlights, providing fun sultry romps such as “Mein Herr” as well as gut-punching emotional belters such as the titular song “Cabaret.”
Isaiah Perdue, a secondyear theatre arts student, played Cliff Bradshaw, a selfproclaimed “starving author” visiting Berlin for inspiration in writing his novel.
He is initially seduced by the indulgences of the Kit Kat Club but realizes things in Berlin are turning sour as the Nazi Party gains influence, something he tries to warn the people around him about such as Sally, to no avail.
At the beginning of the play, Perdue’s Bradshaw played a bit too much into
the straight man archetype, stiff against a backdrop full of colorful characters.
However, in the second half, Perdue excels in pushing the emotional intensity between his character and others as they ignore his warnings about the Nazis and Kit Kat Club’s trap of ignorance.
The way the Nazi rhetoric and imagery slowly creep into the show and its characters throughout the runtime is foreboding and effective, starting with a lone gramophone the Emcee sets up on stage to play a hollow rendition of the nationalist song “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” in the first act.
The references only become more overt and more frequent as they are spliced between the raucous antics of the cabaret.
In the wake of an election and a political climate where
fascist rhetoric seems more alive than it has been in decades in the United States, the themes of “Cabaret” feel increasingly prescient. The show ended with multiple characters in front of the stage, reciting a line where they denied the threat of Nazism before removing their shoes and placing them in a pile reminiscent of shoe piles found at Nazi concentration camps.
In the final moments, the Emcee also removed his trenchcoat, revealing a black and white striped uniform emblazoned with the yellow Star of David and a pink triangle under a single spotlight.
The Halal Shack surely smacks
By Anfisa Pitchkhadze STAFF WRITER
San José State offers various food options for students at the Student Union with one being a Mediterranean bowl place called The Halal Shack, a fantastic option for students to crave.
In my three years I have been at SJSU, Halal Shack never disappoints. I am satisfied with the workers providing a tray of fresh food and toppings while they are consistent with pleasing customers, like me, with polite service and correctly choosing my preference of toppings.
It is my number one choice to purchase food on campus and I will never get tired of going back to order from time to time.
The Mediterranean-styled food also allows customers to customize their bowls or
food review
The Halal Shack
Rating:
Foods sold: Mediterranean wraps and bowls
Location:
1 Washington Sq, San Jose, CA 95112
wraps by providing various options for toppings, according to its website.
This gives students the ability to assemble the type of bowl they want such as a rice, salad and fries bowl, according to the same website.
Some toppings include choosing a type of meat such as chicken and beef, vegetable toppings, dips and sauces, according to its menu.
My usual order is the brown rice bowl containing various toppings that are laid on top and next to each other which gives an aesthetically pleasing look with crispy chicken, lettuce, chickpea korma, olives and white sauce.
My rice bowl ended up costing a total of $17.15, and while it is on the expensive side, it is well worth the price.
The Mediterranean bowl itself was a masterpiece from its vibrant flavors and textures all coming together in a harmonious blend that delights the senses.
The warm brown rice offers a hearty foundation with each grain soft and slightly chewy, providing a strong comforting contrast to the freshness of the other ingredients.
The tender, perfectly seasoned chicken adds a savory richness that compliments the subtle taste of the chickpea korma’s texture.
The chickpea korma provided an extra boost of rightfulness of the other toppings.
A notable mention is
the crisp lettuce that adds a refreshing crunch and helps in balancing the warmth of the rice and chicken. The mozzarella cheese pieces also creates a smooth and fulfilling texture that countered the saltiness of the olives.
To top off the bowl, the drizzle of white sauce brings it all to life with its cool, creamy finish, blending the savory and the tangy in one delicious spoonful.
The sauce added the power of flavor that was able to bring all toppings of the bowl together.
Visually, the bowl is an invitation to indulge, with its rich, vibrant and pops of color.
The careful arrangement of each ingredient creates a plate
that looks as good as it tastes, a colorful appetizing mosaic that promises a satisfying, nourishing meal.
flavors, a perfect harmony that makes this Mediterranean bowl an irresistible, unforgettable experience.
The careful arrangement of each
ingredient creates a plate that looks as good as it tastes, a colorful appetizing mosaic that promises a satisfying, nourishing meal.
Every bite is a balanced combination of textures and
their food from the Student Union as there always seems to be a line when I want to purchase food from there. It is the perfect place to stop by to order food during your gap hours and also makes a fantastic lunch choice as well, so SJSU students don’t delay and find a day. My purchases from the Halal Shack have my tastebuds thrilled to be filled with deliciousness and the best food featuring on campus.
ANFISA PITCHKHADZE | SPARTAN DAILY
The Shack certainly is a hot spot for students to purchase
SATURN WILLIAMS | SPARTAN DAILY
Alex Delgado croons “Maybe This Time” as Sally Bowles to the audience at Hammer Theatre Center on Friday.
Community college lowkey sucks
Charity Spicer STAFF WRITER
Free tuition, resources and guaranteed admission; this is what California community colleges are advertised as to potential students of all ages.
I tried to avoid attending one in high school as much as possible but ended up at my local institution. Was it worth it? I’m not so sure.
From kindergarten to 12th grade, I was homeschooled and never attended a typical school or even experienced a “normal” classroom environment.
This is an educational experience that I never enjoyed but didn’t want to transition out of in high school because of the feeling of being behind everyone else–socially and academically.
I worked my ass off from sophomore year to my last year in high school, striving to gain acceptance into my top University of California System (UC) and California State University System (CSU) choices.
It was extremely difficult since my online charter school did not offer any Advanced Placement (AP) classes and the pandemic happened.
Despite these obstacles, I managed to gain acceptance into the University of California, Davis and a couple other top universities for my first-choice major,
English. As a low-income student, I didn’t realize that finding affordable housing would be so incredibly difficult even though I desperately wanted to move out. I was initially waitlisted at University of California, Santa Cruz and UC Davis but then was offered admission and had a few days to accept, less than a month away from graduation.
My parents urged me not to apply to any four year institutions in high school because of the financial obligations I would be burdened with.
West Valley Community College was my dad’s alma mater and he transferred to San José State University as a B to C average student who didn’t really give a shit about academia all that much.
My mom attended San José City College part time but ended up dropping out after the challenges of being a first generation college student living on her own and working full time.
The beautiful hills and valleys of the Santa Cruz mountains in Saratoga attracted me into West Valley College and promises of guaranteed admission to UCLA and UC Berkeley didn’t look too shabby.
People argue that community college is not what the stereotypes say but I found it to ring incredibly true.
Community college students essentially don’t have a social life unless you intentionally fill up your already packed schedule with tons of extracurriculars and become the president of three
different clubs.
I found my “community” in college at student government which was a blessing and a curse.
I was sick of meeting folks that didn’t give a flying fuck about their classes or were too busy to even talk to you after class.
This prompted me to join the Associated Students of West Valley College as a senator and met friends and foes along the way.
One of the main focuses of Associated Students of West Valley College initiatives was creating and passing a bill that would allow all students to receive free tuition to attend West Valley.
We signed petitions, advocated for basic needs to the Board of Trustees and wrote resolutions to lower student fees.
The way free tuition would be achieved is to use subsidiaries from the property taxes in the area–which is a particularly wealthy neighborhood
surrounding the college–and this would go beyond the California Community College Promise Grant that served students in the district.
The majority of students I met in my two years in community college owned luxury cars, wore designer clothes and told me that the reason they decided to go to college was because they were rejected by schools they applied to or the schools they did get into were simply not good enough.
This money that is essentially contributing to students gaming the system–getting free parking passes, full access to basic needs without any requirements, etc.–could have been used to improve basic needs for students or better wages for student workers.
At West Valley, I became the director of records of Associated Students of West Valley College and had quite the wild ride.
I became close with people I now consider my lifelong
friends but the drama and toxic environment was so horrible for my mental health that I now regret running for the position.
Besides the unhealthy work-life balance that the organization promoted, I was also getting paid every six to eight weeks without any contract or benefits.
Some months I would have to demand members of the district Board of Trustees to state when my next paycheck would be.
I lived paycheck to paycheck and drained much of my savings from my previous job and scholarship money.
For an institution that was promoting itself as an equitable opportunity for students, I found it to be insanely two-faced because of the total of four years I spent at the college taking dual-enrollment classes and attending full time for the last two years.
I would have to walk across campus to find a
clean and spacious place to study since they never gave students any updates about the absence of a library due to remodeling.
Not to mention, they closed their bookstore in 2023 which gave accessibility to students for textbook rentals, school supplies and merchandise because they didn’t have enough “funds” for it to be profitable enough. Community colleges have amazing resources to offer but corruption and negative experiences are more likely to happen for students who need to attend community college because of their background, like myself.
I met beautiful people that made it worthwhile to be at West Valley but also, I wasted two years of my life when I could’ve been at SJSU taking important journalism classes and gaining relevant experience.
GRAPHIC BY CHARITY SPICER SPARTAN DAILY
SJSU stunned by Bulldogs in five sets
By Charity Spicer STAFF WRITER
San José State’s women’s volleyball team played an intense game against Fresno State ultimately losing at 2-3 falling in the fifth set. The court was filled with Spartan fans and Fresno State supporters cheering on the teams.
Todd Kress, head coach of the Spartan women’s volleyball team (14-5, 12-5 MW), issued a statement regarding the headspace of the team following the game.
“ It has been a roller coaster ride to some big ups and downs through it all,” Kress said. “These student athletes have shown the grit and determination to stay together as a team to stand together on the court and play the game we all love.”
The Spartans controlled the score in the first set with 9 kills from redshirt senior Blaire Fleming and 6 kills from redshirt sophomore Nayeli Ti’a ending with a score of 25-19.
“The past weeks have been some of the best volleyball that we've played all season. I thought we outplayed Fresno State tonight in every aspect when I looked at the stats, except from a serving pass standpoint. We out hit them, we had eight minutes
OPINION
to play … we had 12 or 14 more kills,” Kress said.
Despite holding the same hitting percentage of 0.333% in the first two sets, Fresno State’s (16-12, 12-5 MW) momentum shocked the Spartans and they couldn’t keep up in the following set which ended 19-25.
“I thought we did a lot of quality things. We just didn’t win the serving pass game,” Kress said. In the third set, senior
setter Brooke Slusser stepped up with 28 assists, 3 kills, and 2 blocks.
Junior Randilyn Reeves also made 10 digs against the Bulldogs in the third set which contributed to a final score of 21-25.
“Today we were aggressive. Unfortunately, we just missed more than we should have,” Kress said. “But that’s definitely the difference in the match that I was serving back.”
The Spartans tied the game up with 2-2 on sets and Fleming’s stamina shone through with dozens of kills by the end of the fourth set, defeating the Bulldogs with 25-20.
In the deciding fifth set, the Bulldogs won the game with 12-15 by the end of the game. Fleming performed 21 kills, 9 digs, and 3 blocks and Slusser performed 34 assists, 6 kills, 3 blocks.
“I just think they’re
incredible young women that love to compete. I think they’re good people at heart that have been caught up in a very unique situation that's challenged them at the core.
But I think that in regards to the strength they’ve shown, the adversity that they've worked through. I mean, you’re looking at 19 strong, incredible women in this program,” Kress said. SJSU will be gearing up for the Mountain West
Girl Gains combats the gender gap
Girl Gains at San José State is helping eliminate the gender gym gap affecting hundreds of women who workout at the gym by empowering and giving them confidence.
Girl Gains is an organization founded at San Diego State University in 2020 by several students to inspire women to feel strong, keep healthy and active and promote weight-lifting, according to its web page.
The gender gym gap refers to women getting less exercise than men, for reasons such as insecurity, fear of being judged or feeling out of place, according to a June. 14 Durham University article.
that target specific muscle groups in your body, meant to strengthen and tone your muscles while aerobic exercises target legs and arms to build endurance, according to a March 24, 2022 National Heart, Lung,
about the gender gym gap, which poses a big problem for women who are trying to stay healthy and fit.
There needs to be more initiatives like Girl Gains in all campuses and gyms because women supporting women in the gym helped me find my place.
When I went to the gym with friends and girls I just met, I didn’t feel completely out of place and I was in a safe environment where I could stay healthy while also having fun.
Samantha Rodriguez, a fourth year political science major, is the president of the organization and wishes to empower women to feel comfortable in a gym setting.
Men are more likely than women to participate in weight-strengthening exercises, according to a July 31, 2020 Journal of Lifestyle Medicine research article. When I go to the gym, I’ve always been interested in weight training since it’s a different way to define your muscles and stay healthy.
However, seeing that section mostly filled with men makes me uncomfortable because I feel out of place.
Women would benefit from more organizations such as Girl Gains because creating a safer and more comfortable environment at gyms is crucial for women who want to stay healthy and also lift weights.
predominantly male environment, lack of confidence and feeling uncomfortable, according to a March 24, 2020 Journal of American College Health research article.
The first time I went to the gym to lift weights, I went alone and it was an intimidating experience because I usually
It is a lot easier to feel comfortable at the gym and participate in an activity you are uncomfortable with when you are with a group of people who share the same experience as you.
stayed away from the section.
“The gym is typically dominated by people who identify as male, but I think our biggest goal is to always encourage women to go into a gym setting and feel supported
by the people you are going with,” Rodriguez said. Although I don’t avidly go to the gym, it’s clear to me that the gender gym gap is an issue and affects women’s abilities to work out comfortably and take part in aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities, which are male-dominated.
Muscle strengthening activities are exercises
and Blood Institute research article. There is a noticeable separation between workouts for men and women because while the weight-lifting section is always filled with men and a few women, the section for stretching and cardio is usually filled with mostly women.
It’s easy to assume that women prefer those types of exercises over aerobic and weight-strengthening, but I later learned
Girl Gains has chapters in universities all over the United States and also internationally, such as Vietnam and Canada, according to its web page.
In a study about college students and exercise trends, researchers concluded that women often do not participate in weight-strengthening exercises due to intimidation because of the
Something that helped me overcome that intimidation factor was doing it with a group of friends because we were learning together and supporting each other if we ever found ourselves feeling uncomfortable or not knowing how to do a certain workout.
Girl Gains hosts events about twice a week such as social, studying, de-stressors, gym events or partnering up with studios, according to Rodriguez.
For college students, it is hard to have a healthy lifestyle which includes eating healthy, exercising and doing physical activities because of their busy schedule with classes, work and extracurricular activities, according to Sept. 9, 2019 University of Michigan article.
That type of support has the opportunity to help other girls facing the same struggle and allow them to feel comfortable in a mostly male-dominated setting.
“One of my goals has always been to not let anyone go to the gym alone, especially if they have anxiety (over) the gym setting, so our club is really to help girls build their confidence and feel supported,” Rodriguez said. “(Girl Gains) really likes to push forward a safe place for girls.”
“We don’t want to exclude anyone,” Rodriguez said. “For us, a big thing is how to stay active, how to maintain a healthy lifestyle even when you’re at school.”
ANAHI HERRERA VILLANUEVA | SPARTAN DAILY
San José State University right side hitter Blaire Fleming spikes a ball in Tuesday’s match against the Fresno State defense.