Wednesday, Sept. 13 - Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017 Weekly Print Edition
Vol. 104, Issue 5 www.thedailyaztec.com
San Diego State University’s Independent Student Newspaper Since 1913
Students protest DACA decision ‘Black Minds Matter’ by Amber Nelson CONTRIBUTOR
Dozens of San Diego State students participated in a rally against the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in front of Hepner Hall on Thursday. The rally was hosted by the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán just two
days after President Trump’s announcement of the end of DACA, a program that provides temporary protection from deportation and other support to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States at a young age. “As soon as the news came out, (the MECHA members) congregated,” said Alan Olvera, a MECHA member and computer science senior. “From there we
tried to come up with a way of presenting this to the campus and I think the best opportunity of doing so is with a rally.” The rally lasted about an hour and many students, both those who are personally affected by DACA and those who are not, were able to speak out about SEE DACA PROTEST, PAGE 2
Photo by Jocelyn Moran
Students protest President Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Estudiantes protestan la decisión de Presidente Donald Trump de revocar la Acción Diferida para los Llegados en la Infancia. Ve historia completa en pagina 7.
Aztecs seeking upset over Stanford by Abraham Jewett ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
There is a buzz around campus surrounding San Diego State football this week. The release of SDSU’s 2017 regular season schedule brought with it an elephant in the room — or, to be more specific, a tree. Now the wait is finally over: it’s time to play Stanford. The Aztecs will take on Stanford this Saturday in an attempt to defend their home turf against an opponent that will be hungry to get back in the win column. The Cardinals, ranked
No. 19 in the AP and Coaches Poll, will be coming to town with a record of 1-1, following a tough road defeat to the University of Southern California. SDSU, on the other hand, heads into the matchup with a two-game winning streak to start the season. Fresh off a 30-20 road win against Arizona State, their first road victory over a Pac-12 school since 1975, the Aztecs will look to continue their hot start with a third straight win over a Pac-12 opponent (including their win over University of California Berkeley in 2016). This will be the fourth all-time
meeting between the programs, with Stanford holding a threewins-to-one advantage. The game will be nearly three decades in the making, with the last matchup in 1988 resulting in a Cardinal victory. Aztecs Head coach Rocky Long always embraces the opportunity to play schools from other conferences, and knows that a victory in this game could stir up national interest in his team. “We have another opportunity game this week, where we’re SEE STANFORD PREVIEW, PAGE 8
class draws criticism by Maya Carter STAFF WRITER
A new class offered to graduate students at San Diego State has garnered both criticism and support from students, administration and community members. Black Minds Matter, created and taught by education professor J. Luke Wood, will be offered in person to roughly 30 students at SDSU, as well as online via live broadcast to approximately 10,000 participants from Oct. 23, 2017 to Dec. 11, 2017. The course is described as a way to train educators to prepare and organize their classrooms as sites for civil resistance against racism, Wood said. “We, often times as a community, confront justice through marches, demonstrations, sit ins, and vigils and the classroom is another site, particularly through the avenue of teaching through empowerment, that can serve for that type of civil resistance,” Wood said. Such resistance, according to Wood, stems from the fact that black men and boys fall into two categories: one, they are undervalued in education and are assumed to be academically inferior, and two, they are criminalized in the classroom, often times assumed to be deviant or up to no good. “The result of (these perceptions) is that (black men and boys) are exposed to exclusionary discipline or put in special education as a dumping ground for them, which really only does one thing well, and it’s to socialize people to go into the prison-industrial complex,” he said. The course draws parallels from the Black Lives Matter movement in an attempt to change the way educators interact with black men and boys in the classroom. “Nearly all educators are racist,” Wood said. “They are not overtly white supremacists but they harbor perceptions of black males that are informed by what they have seen in wider society through the media, news, in books and in film. They engage black males from a point of
stereotypes, microaggressions and bias.” Wood said that he wants educators to understand where this bias comes from and to work to move away from it. “Beyond that, we are organizing how we talk about what a new teaching and learning practice should look like through the Black Lives Matter principles of loving engagement, restorative justice and collective values,” he said. Wood said that he did not anticipate the amount of criticism that he has received so soon before the class has begun. “We anticipated that there would be some people who were not happy with the course, because whenever you speak love into a system of hate, there is a visceral reaction,”he said. “We did expect that there would be some concerns, but the way that the concerns are manifested have certainly taken us by surprise.” Jon Coupal, the president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, is working to have the class cancelled, saying that it’s a waste of tax money. “We should be spending public funds on courses that will actually prepare the next generation for meaningful jobs instead of teaching them how to be victims,” Coupal told the San Diego Union-Tribune. Wood rebuffed this criticism. “What you see is an organization, led by a white male, [whose] position is to advance ideas and policies that benefit those who are the ‘haves’ of our society,” Wood said. “Our class speaks against that while providing some realistic pathways, and has a reach far beyond what a normal class would have. That, for some people, can be scary.” Brandon Jones, the President of the San Diego State College Republicans, echoed Coupal’s criticism in a statement Sept. 12. “Taxpayer money must not be used to fund political campaigns of any kind, especially those associated with Black Lives Matter,” said Jones. “The university must distance itself SEE BLACK MINDS MATTER, PAGE 6
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Sally Roush is serving as interim president following the resignation of President Hirshman.
San Diego State volleyball’s Deja Harris continues her suprising rise against volleyball elites.
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