Visas reinstated after mass revocation
By Alina Ta & Kaya
Henkes-Power SENIOR STAFF WRITER & EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Several San José State student visas were reinstated following a wave of cancellations across California State University campuses and other universities nationwide.
As of publication, Michelle Smith McDonald, San José State’s senior director of media relations, confirmed in an email to the Spartan Daily that 12 international students had their visas reinstated.
Dawn Lee, SJSU’s interim associate vice president and dean of students, has been helping students with their concerns.
“Up until the past couple weeks, students were operating under the assumption that they had
to figure out what they were going to do next, ” Lee said.
She said that students had to make some very real decisions amid the chaos and confusion.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would be reinstating the legal status for international students who were affected by revocations, according to a New York Times article published Friday.
This followed the termination of more than 1,800 students who lost their F-1 or J-1 visas under President Donald J. Trump’s administration, according to an Inside Higher Ed infographic.
“We’ve had students who have had their jobs terminated because their visa has been revoked,” Lee said.
Both F-1 and J-1 visas
have specific requirements that a student must meet, according to a webpage from the University of California, Berkeley International Office.
Along with financial impacts, student records from the Student and Exchange Visitor
Information System had been erased, according to an NPR article on Friday.
The Student and Exchange Visitor database holds student records that are used to track the progress of students, according to the same NPR article.
expanded list of criteria for ICE to terminate foreignborn students’ legal status in the U.S, according to a Tuesday NBC News article.
CSU has seen Student and Exchange Visitor Information accounts become active again.
“The CSU is monitoring this development and continues to provide support to impacted students,” the statement read.
revoked.
We’ve had students who have had their jobs terminated because their visa has been
Dawn Lee SJSU interim associate vice president and dean of students
Parinaz Zartoshty, senior director of SJSU’s Global Programs and Services for International Student and Scholar Services, has seen the effect this has had on students.
“They (students) have been through an emotional rollercoaster and are happy now, but still fearful of any future action on their (Student and Exchange Visitor Information) record,” Zartoshty said.
An internal memo released to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program personnel showed an
“Based on information we have from new sources, most of the records will be reinstated, but we are not certain why some have been left in terminated status,” Zartoshty said in an email sent to the Spartan Daily.
Some attorneys and advocates say there is a connection between the visa revocations and pro-Palestinian protests, according to an April 10 NBC News article.
Additionally, other visas seem to have been terminated because of past charges, such as DUIs, according to the same article.
In a statement sent by Smith McDonald on Friday to the Spartan Daily, the
Smith McDonald confirmed that across CSU campuses, 70 students have had their visas revoked.
“I am in frequent communication with all the students and especially the one whose record remains terminated,” Zartoshty said. “We have been providing continuous messaging regarding our support, as they navigate these challenging times.”
Professor joins state solar initiative
By Fayoo Ahmed STAFF WRITER
Dustin Mulvaney, an environmental studies professor at San José State, studies solar energy and how it can help solve environmental problems.
With decades of experience studying solar energy systems and its broader social impacts, Mulvaney now finds himself at the forefront of a groundbreaking project: the California Solar Canal Initiative.
The California Solar Canal Initiative aims to install solar panels over California’s vast canal system, reducing water evaporation while generating clean energy. This is a dual solution to water loss due to evaporation and the need for clean energy production, according to a March 26 SJSU News Center article.
The California Water Plan, which is updated every five years, outlines how the state aims to manage its water resources sustainably and fairly, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
I was working on pollution control in an engineering job and realized that I wanted to address the systemic sustainability issues rather than work on ‘end-of-pipe’ solutions.
Mulvaney, who first wrote about this concept in a 2019 Nature Sustainability paper, will be contributing to the initiative as part of its environmental justice research team, according to the same source.
“I was working on pollution control in an engineering job and realized that I wanted to address the systemic sustainability issues rather than work on ‘end-of-pipe’ solutions,” Mulvaney said.
Dustin Mulvaney Environmental studies professor at San José State tudying energy em s it s e r y imself nt project ol for cle accordi Ne S pa co n to
He went back to school, eventually earning a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz in environmental studies.
Before becoming a professor, Mulvaney worked as a chemical process engineer and later at a bioremediation startup focused on pollution control, according to his SJSU biography on the environmental studies department webpage.
He has been studying how solar projects impact wildlife and cultural resources for around 17 years now.
“I have always been interested in land-sparing solar development that avoids these impacts,” Mulvaney said.
“Dr. Mulvaney is a national thought leader on climate and energy justice, as well as the sustainable use of critical minerals,” Cushing said.
Katherine Cushing, professor and chair of the environmental studies department, commented on Mulvaney’s role in the department.
Mulvaney teaches classes such as “Sustainable Energy Strategies and Solar Energy Analysis” at SJSU, which has one of the first environmental studies programs in the U.S., founded on the first Earth Day in 1970, according to an SJSU webpage.
Rhea Ramesh
“I consider these forms of injustice in the supply chain to be antithetical to aspirations for green energy, because I would hope that green energy would provide clean jobs for all,” Mulvaney said.
The university’s Environmental Resource Center became the activist wing of the Environmental Studies Department and continues to organize the annual SJSU Earth Day celebration, according to the department webpage.
For Rhea Ramesh, a first-year political science
student, she first learned about Mulvaney after reading about the California Solar Canal Initiative.
“I ended up looking into more of his work after
that because I thought the overall process of his solar panel work sounded pretty interesting,” Ramesh said.
Scientists have been increasingly interested
in using solar panels as a strategy to conserve water. Generating electricity with solar panels uses as little as one-two-hundredth the water compared to
think about solar energy or engineering, but the way he talks about justice and supply chains made it feel a bit more relevant to my own interests, hence why I continued my own additional research,” Ramesh said.
Mulvaney said research is only one part of the job. The other is mentorship.
“I’m proud when I hear that a student I mentored or taught was able to get a job in a closely aligned field,” Mulvaney said. “It means the investment in teaching is paying off.”
conventional power plants, according to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency.
“As a political science major, I don’t always
In addition to his teaching
wildlife and nature photographer who has chronicled the adventures of a rambunctious Southern Pacific sea otter as well as made a fossil find on a Santa Cruz beach,” Cushing said. As both a researcher and an educator, Mulvaney shares his insight with the community around him.
“Find a topic and dig in. Find the people doing the work. Read a lot. Stay engaged. Every student that does this ends up finding exactly what they want,” Mulvaney said.
SJSU students paint downtown
By Alina Ta SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Local
more
Four San José State students are learning how to turn their passion and skill for art into a profession by learning more about murals at the heart of San José’s Japantown. Every Saturday, the students meet at Empire Seven Studios’ art gallery and gift shop located on North Seventh Street to strategize about how they will turn their sketches into public art. The internship, “Art is Power: The Business of Murals,” provides hands-on experience in mural creation, project management, community engagement and more, according to a webpage from SJSU. The program is a
collaboration between the Asian American Studies department, the Japanese American Museum of San José and Empire Seven Yvonne Kwan, an one who developed the idea for the internship.
in community-based projects to understand the social impact of public art, according to the same webpage from SJSU.
Juan Carlos De Araujo, the founder of Empire Seven Studios, is in charge of mentoring the
I’m self-determined,” Araujo said. “ ‘No’ has never really been an option for me … I believe that
Santa Clara County.
“I took a picture of the (wall), and I imported it online, digitally, and then I drew over it to try to thumbnail some initial sketches for mural ideas,” Chou said.
students to come and study, for older people to read and (to) enjoy their time.”
“Something that
Cloud Tran, a third-year sculpture student who uses they/them pronouns, said they want to bring
involved in painting 1,000 publicly displayed murals, according to a website from SF Mural Arts. Tran is still trying to find a wall to paint their own mural on, but they said they want to paint
She said her goal for the mural is to beautify the space and to make it engaging for children.
The Cupertino Library has activities for visitors of all ages, including Storytime for Babies on Thursdays, according to
Chou said she wants to paint a mural at the Cupertino Library because she grew up visiting the
Kwan said. Students in the program also learn how to professionally network and engage
“It’s a space that I feel very comfortable in,” Chou said. “I know a lot of families around also use (it) as a community space to take their
of time going to Chinese bakeries as a kid,” Tran said. “A lot of Chinese restaurants, people will see it as the lesser food group and I think that's just not fair because the food is so widely consumed by so many people, but it’s not thought of as pristine as Japanese food
Tran said they are going to try to paint on a wall
d in a way.” Tr an go ing pa int on a w al l in San Francis co Chinatown, even ou gh it will b e digita l m who also pr onouns, chosen a wal t p a a Gate Silicon Valle y’s L H
media art student who also uses they/them pronouns, has already chosen a wall to paint on. They plan to paint over a wall at YWCA Golden Gate Silicon Valley’s Linda Haskell Empowerment
digital
Photo collage of the storefront of Empire Seven Studios, where a mural painted on the sidewall of Kiem Service Laundromat lies (left). A mural painted by @amysol beautifies the back wall of J Town Apartments (right). Both artists coordinated with Empire Seven Studios.
MURALS
Continued from page 3
something beautiful there ... put something more empowering and uplifting,” Van Leer said.
Silicon Valley is a community support center that provides various services, including therapy, services for the LGBTQIA+ community, childcare, services for the unhoused community and more, according to its webpage.
ge.
an apartment, because ‘Join Come live here,’ ” Van Leer
paint over the wall that has a “really terrifying bleached out poster that says, ‘Join us.’ ” idea what the building was for
In California, around 2,570 in the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“I can't express enough how many real institutions, like solidified institutions, reach out to you as a creative, as a small business owner, for unpaid work,” Araujo said. “It continues to happen, and it makes it really difficult to sustain as a
On average, the hourly wage for artists in California is $54.81 and the average for annual earnings is $114,010, according to the same data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Tran said they think the school system is very bad at teaching students how to turn art into a profession.
“I definitely think the school system has failed us in that way, like just straight up,”
Around 74% of art graduates are able to find work as professional artists after graduating from college, according to a report from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project.
Many arts graduates work multiple jobs and many are self-employed in projectbased work, according to the Aljhecia Alolor, a sixth-
been learning definitely (an) emphasis on community in every space that we're in, and then leveraging the connections that we've made,” Alolor said.
In 2008, Araujo founded Empire Seven Studios. Before building his business, Araujo
He said he remembers seeing a lot of murals being whitewashed
his goal now is to not only teach the students the process of how to create a mural, but also how to engage
“This industry really does have opportunities,” Araujo said. “We just need to work really hard for (what) we need. We need to work harder because we're not privileged. We're not coming from –I don't have a trust fund and this is not my hobby– I don't have another job.”
The good and the bad, nepotism in sports
By Bryan Reos STAFF WRITER
Nepotism in sports can be fun and entertaining for fans, but can ruin once in a lifetime opportunities for other players.
This past weekend during the 2025 NFL Draft, we saw how nepotism can benefit leagues with revenue and viewership.
Shedeur Sanders, son of NFL Hall-of-Famer Deion Sanders, was a projected first round pick during the draft, but fell to the fifth round where he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns with the 144th overall pick, according to an April 26, ESPN article.
This created a story line and narrative that intrigued fans and increased viewership.
instances where there are successful nepotism families like the NFL coaching tree of Mike Shanahan, with two Super Bowl wins under him and his son Kyle Shanahan with three Super Bowl appearances, according to a Feb. 10, 2024 The Sporting News article.
Despite the success of the Shanahans, nepotism in the NFL for coaches is still bad for the league, as in 2022, 12 of the 34 NFL head coaches counting two interim coaches are related to current or former coaches in the league, according to a Nov. 22, 2022 USA Today article.
Shedeur sliding to fifth round was unprecedented, as he was projected to be at least a second round pick, showing that teams didn’t want to risk a pick on him as he can come off as arrogant due to his overconfidence, as well as the media circus surrounding him, according to a Fox Sports article.
During the later rounds of the draft , typically there are rating dips, but the NFL saw an increase in viewership as fans were anticipating who would take Shedeur Sanders.
Although leagues can benefit from nepotism, it can create drama as these players are often looked at as being favored over others who have better playing abilities.
This year’s draft had an average 7.4 million viewers for the second and third rounds, and was the second all-time on Day 2 of draft coverage with 2020 having 8.2 million viewers in, according to a Yahoo! Article that was published on Monday.
Despite Sanders being a very late round pick, his jersey ranks top three in sales, behind his Colorado teammate, Travis Hunter and first overall pick Cam Ward, over the weekend as well, according to a Sports Illustrated article.
Although leagues can benefit from nepotism, it can create drama as these players are often looked at as being favored over others who have better
playing abilities.
A similar case is Bronny James, the son of NBA legend and Los Angeles Lakers star, LeBron James.
In the 2024 NBA draft, Bronny James was a prospect coming out of University of Southern California where he averaged 4.8 points per game, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists, according to stats from Sports Reference.
With much better players still on the board the Lakers selected him in the second round with the 55th overall pick, the same team as his father, according to stats from the same source.
Bronny being drafted to the Lakers was clearly
prearranged because of who his father is and where he went, possibly ruining opportunities for others who are more worthy of the position.
During the draft process, Bronny’s agent, Rich Paul was reportedly telling teams not to draft him or else he’d sign and play in Australia, causing a lot of criticism if he should even be drafted at all, according to a June 28, 2024 Yahoo! article.
These cases where strings are being pulled in order to favor a person despite playing ability is why nepotism in sports isn’t fair for other players and why leagues should take more action.
However, there are
And at least 93 coaches have a father, son or brother who is a current or former NFL coach and 76 coaches with those connections, 81.7% are white, according to the same source.
Seeing your favorite player’s kid making it to the professional level can be exciting as a fan, but depending on the circumstances, it can ruin why sports are enjoyable and fun as it’s just supposed to be based on merit.
Nepotism should stay far away from sports as it does more harm than good by removing merit, creating egos and taking away opportunities to those more deserving with less.
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