01-18-2017

Page 1

weekly PRINT EDITION

wednesDAY, January 18, 2017 – Tuesday, january 24, 2017 volume 103, Issue 19

SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1913

W W W . T H E D A I LYA Z T E C . C O M

Qualcomm’s future undecided will fritz senior staff writer ____________________________

file photo

kelly smiley, photo editor

Recap: What you missed on the Mesa anthony reclusado Sports Editor ____________________________ A third time was the charm for the San Diego State football team, who finished the season in the Associated Press’ Top 25 for the first time since 1977. The Aztecs cracked the poll twice during the regular season, but dropped out after road losses to the University of South Alabama and University of Wyoming. SDSU also finished in the USA Today’s Top 25 poll. “At the end of the bowl season, up until the semifinals of the playoffs, I thought we should have been a Top 25 team,” head coach Rocky Long said.

The No. 25 finishes for the Aztecs was propelled after a 3410 victory against the University of Houston in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 17. SDSU scored 34-unanswered points to claim the Aztecs first back-to-back 11-win season and consecutive bowl wins in school history. In what was his final game as an Aztec, senior running back Donnel Pumphrey rushed for 115 yards on his way to become the NCAA’s all-time leading rusher. While the football team was enjoying historic success, the men’s basketball team was playing on the other end of the spectrum. After an 8-4 nonconference record, the Aztecs dropped their first three games of Mountain West

play and were alone in the basement of the conference standings. This was the first time in 15 years SDSU opened conference play with a three-game losing streak. The losses included a 68-62 tilt to the University of New Mexico in Viejas Arena on New Year’s Day. Since the threegame losing streak, SDSU claimed a 15 and 19 point victories against San Jose State and Utah State, respectively, which is sixth in MW standings. Sophomore guard Jeremy Hemsley is leading the team in scoring with an average of 16.1 points per game on a 46 percent clip from the floor.

RECAP continued, P8

Since the San Diego Chargers recently announced its intention to leave San Diego, the remaining Qualcomm Stadium site is ripe for a number of potential uses, including as a satellite campus for San Diego State. The Chargers announced on Jan. 12 they would be leaving San Diego for Stan Kroenke’s Inglewood stadium. SDSU President Elliot Hirshman has apparently already been in talks with the City of San Diego, which owns the stadium, regarding possible redevelopment of the site. “We are excited about the opportunity to continue discussions with our partners, including Mayor Faulconer, the City Council and our community, about the potential to redevelop the Qualcomm Stadium site,” Hirshman said in a statement Thursday after the Chargers’ announcement. He also expressed his sympathies for Chargers fans in San Diego. “While the discussions for the site are in the early stages, we have an opportunity to create something very special for our community,” he said. SDSU spokesman Greg Block said a blog post of Hirshman’s from nearly a year ago represents the best explanation of Hirshman’s vision for the site. In the blog post, dated April

5, 2016 back when the Chargers were still pursuing a downtown stadium option, Hirshman said the current SDSU campus does not have sufficient space to serve the university over the next 50 years. “We see a future in Mission Valley with community parks and recreational opportunities, low- to medium-density housing, a small number of research/technology transfer facilities and, possibly, a stadium – one on a significantly smaller scale than Qualcomm Stadium – that could be shared by San Diego State, a Major League Soccer franchise and other community partners,” the blog post reads. One exciting aspect of this proposal, Hirshman said, is the existing trolley connection between the SDSU main campus and the Qualcomm site. Students and faculty residing at the new campus could use public transportation to get to the main campus, potentially reducing traffic in Mission Valley and the College area, he wrote. However, Hirshman did say there are some unanswered questions about redevelopment in the post. “Who would own the redeveloped site? Who would be the development partners? How would the redevelopment be financed? The blunt answer to these questions at this moment is that we don’t know,” he wrote.

See QUALCOMM, P2

Aztecs travel the world over winter break jamie ballard managing editor ____________________________ As many college graduates can attest to, having a long winter break is a luxury that ceases to exist in “the real world.” Several SDSU students took advantage of this year’s winter break by traveling to far-flung destinations including Israel and Costa Rica. Political science and international security & conflict resolution senior Erin Gonzalez spent some time in Israel, with a Fact Finders program hosted by SDSU Hillel. She said the goal of the trip is to allow SDSU students to personally experience Israel and learn about the Palestinian Authority and the IsraeliPalestinian Conflict. “We met with various government officials, grassroots activists, and

average citizens from both sides of the conflict who shared their personal narratives with us,” she explained. “Their narratives helped me and my fellow students to come to our own conclusions and form our own perspectives about Israel, the Palestine Authority, and the conflict.” She said there were several things that surprised her. Before visiting, she believed she was entering something akin to “an ‘apartheid state’” but soon after landing she found religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity. The trip also changed some of her opinions. “Another thing that surprised me about Israel is how my perspective on the Israeli settlements in the West Bank completely changed,” she said. “Although the global community, and recently the United Nations

SDSU senior Erin Gonzalez visited the women’s section of the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem courtesy of Erin Gonzalez

have condemned the Israeli settlements as both internationally illegal and an impediment to peace, I no longer see it that way.” Gonzalez said her group visited various settlements throughout the West Bank and she was surprised to see how many Palestinians she

saw benefitting from aspects of the settlements, including employment opportunities and social benefits. “Throughout the entirety of our trip we encountered so many people, both Israeli and Palestinian, who were so genuinely grateful to us for visiting their homelands,”

she said. “Their gratitude was largely for us taking the time to experience their cultures and lifestyles, and not being afraid to enter the world that they live in everyday.”

See TRAVEL, P14


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