Daily Forty-Niner; March 21, 2022

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Weekly Digital Print Edition

DAILY FORTY-NINER EST p 1949

Vol. LXXXII, Issue 43

www.daily49er.com

Monday, March 21, 2022

What the gender pay gap looks like in leading industries By Isabel Silagy Community Engagement Editor

People are not able to fill their gas tanks fully due to the rise in gas prices.

ULYSSES VILLA | Daily Forty-Niner

Commuting CSULB students upset over gas price inflation Please see GAS PRICES page 2

Opinion

Thank you to all the women in my life I don’t think I’d be where I am today without these people.

By Jonathan Bigall Opinions Assistant

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s male-dominated as our society is, it owes an immense debt to the great women whose deeds have been memorialized such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harriett Tubman, and Frida Kahlo. As well as current trailblazers like Malala Yousefzai and Kamala Harris. The world we have today would be nothing without them. While reflecting on Women’s History Month, a thought came to me: Why stop at celebrating just the women who have gone down in history for their accomplishments? All women should be recognized this month for their contributions to the world.

In 2022, women are still confronted by the reality of unequal pay for equal work as men. There has been a push for progress in the gender pay gap in the U.S. in the last several years. In California alone, the Fair Pay Act was passed in 2015 and the Equal Pay Pledge was signed in 2022. Yet, the problem of unequal wages persists. In the last quarter of 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau found that women consistently earn nearly 30% less than their male counterparts, and that “the pay gap increases with age.” Pay disparities where more women were losing their jobs compared to men in some industries increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center. Substantial federal legislation to narrow the gap has not been passed in over a decade. The Paycheck Fairness Act, which would ensure stronger protections against wage discrimination on the basis of gender, was blocked by the U.S. Senate in June 2021. The gender wage gap has continued for the last 15 years and is more pronounced in some key professions. Finance Financial industries such as banking, investment management, and insurance are heavily dominated by men. While more women are entering the finance field, only 22% of leadership roles at U.S. financial firms are held by women, according to the New York Times. And, the pay disparity between men and women in the industry is starker. Women in the finance and insurance industries make an average of $944 per week. Meanwhile, men in the same industries make an average of $1,538 per week, according to Statista. Nursing Statista also stated that nine out of 10 registered nurses in the U.S. are women. Yet, the gender pay gap in nursing is increasing in favor of men. Please see GENDER GAP page 3

I may not be able to give appreciation to all the women on earth, but I can start with those who have graced me with their presence and thank them for everything they’ve done. To my mom Thank you mom for your hand in raising me. Even when times were hard you made it feel like they weren’t. You bought me toys and video games when you could barely afford them. We’ve laughed and cried together more times than I can remember. It feels almost like yesterday we were driving to and from places, singing along to music in your convertible Volkswagen Beetle with the broken roof. If I were to write about everything I am grateful to you for, that could be its own piece. Please see THANK YOU page 4


2 NEWS

MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | EIC@DAILY49ER.COM

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Managing Editor managing@daily49er.com

Editors News Editor Lauren Ramirez news@daily49er.com Arts & Life Editor Christal Gaines Emory arts@daily49er.com ULYSSES VILLA | Daily Forty-Niner

Ramos says he can’t afford to fill up his tank and needs to budget his money to compensate for the increase in gas prices.

Gas prices put strain on students’ wallets Those who commute to CSULB discuss how the rising prices affect their daily lives.

GAS PRICES continued from page 1

By Alexis Nakahiro, Tania Rangel Staff Writers

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resident Biden’s ban on Russian-imported gas has raised gas prices in California by nearly 35%, financially hurting CSULB students who regularly commute to campus. Around 91% of CSULB undergraduates and 72% of first-time, first-year students commute to campus. Hannah Cruz, a sophomore who studies business economics, commutes from Costa Mesa four days a week. Just last week, Cruz said she spent $65 on a full tank for her 2021 Toyota RAV LE at Costco. She said a full tank typically lasts her a week and a half. Even Costco, a company notoriously known for their cheaper gas prices, is nearing around $6 a gallon. Brent crude oil, found in Northwestern Europe, is “commonly used as a global benchmark,” according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The price of Brent oil has increased, and continues to do so, due to Russia’s prolonged invasion of Ukraine and imposed sanctions against the country. Brayla Fills, a second-year business economics major, carpools to school with her friends and said the group is concerned about the rise in gas prices. “We help whenever we can but it’s just so much,” Fill said. “There’s only so much we can pitch in.” Transportation services, such as Uber and Lyft, are adding temporary fuel surcharges to “help drivers and couriers.” Uber announced starting Wednesday, March 16, the company will charge riders an additional $0.45 or $0.55 on each trip, depending on the rider’s location. Lyft will also be adding an additional $0.55 surcharge to their rides, which will go into effect next week. These new fuel surcharges go straight to the driver to “help offset fuel costs” and keep “more drivers on the road,” according to Lyft. Abdul Dahdouli, a fourth-year business economics major, said he isn’t too surprised by the increase of gas prices. Dahdouli said it’s something Americans will have to deal with due to circumstances beyond their control. “I feel like the prices are going to go up eight or nine bucks in the next two months,” Dahdouli said. Since May 2020 gas prices have gradually increased, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration. In May 2020 gas per gallon was $2.71. Then in January 2021 gas prices rose to $3.26 by the end of 2021 gas per gallon was $4.60.

Land Acknowledgment Here at the 49er we acknowledge that the school we report on is located on the sacred site of Puvungna, “the gathering place”. We are on the land of the Tongva/Gabrieleño and the Acjachemen/ Juaneño Nations who have lived and continue to live here. We also acknowledge the Gabrieleño/Tongva (pronounced: GABRIEL-EN-YO/TONG – VAH) and Acjachamen/Juaneño (pronounced: AH-HACH-AH-MEN/JUAN-EN-YO) as the traditional custodians of the Los Angeles region along with the Chumash (pronounced: CHOO-MOSH) to the north and west, and the Tataviam (pronounced: TAH-TAH-VEE-YUM) and Cahuilla (pronounced: KAH-WEE-YAH) Nations to the east. We respect and value the many ways the Tongva/Acjachemen cultural heritage and beliefs continue to have significance to the living people and remind us about the sacred and spiritual relationship that has always existed here at what we now call California State University Long Beach.

Opinions Editor Christina Merino opinions@daily49er.com Sports Editor Thomas Murray sports@daily49er.com Creative Director Gisele Robinett design@daily49er.com Chief Copy Editor Ana Acosta Deputy Copy Editor Rosaura Montes Special Projects Editor Photo Editor Video Editor Social Media Editor

Lillian Li Ulysses Villa Reyn Ou Kristina Agresta

Podcast Editor Cindy Aguilera Public Relations Editor Kaitlyn Rowell Community Engagement Isabel Silagy Editor

Assistants News Assistants Hannah Shields Vincent Medina Arts Assistant Julissa Villalobos Opinions Assistant Jonathan Bigall Sports Assistant Matthew Brown Graphic Design Assistant Eunice Barron Special Projects Assistant Sebastian Perez Social Media Assistants Krystal Ordonez Michael Carcano Podcast Assistants Aziza Gomez Cristian Vasquez

Business Advertising Manager Reilly Jonna Guzman advertising@daily49er.com Account Executives Zayra Rodriguez Purva Rao Graphic Designer Aaray Amano Webmaster Zenilkumar Vaghasiya PR & Promotions Manager Kate Michel Distribution Manager Darlene Malolos Distribution Analyst Jacob Patrick Mitchell Creative Director Wendy Rangel Web Assistant Vidyadhari Raghunadha Naid PR & Promotions Intern Alyssa Cristina Canales Nadia Melina Vazquez

Advisers Design Adviser Gary Metzker Content Adviser Barbara Kinglsey-Wilson Advertising & Business Jennifer Newton Adviser Letters Policy: All letters and emails must bear the phone number of the writer and must be no more than 300 words. The Daily Forty-Niner reserves the right to edit letters for publication in regard to space. Editorials: All opinions expressed in the columns, letters and cartoons in the issue are those of the writers or artists. The opinons of the Daily FortyNiner are expressed only in unsigned editorials and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the journalism department or the views of all staff members. All such editorials are written by the editorial board of the Daily Forty-Niner.


NEWS 3

MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

CSULB ASI 2022 election results By Christina Merino | Opinions Editor

Trustee-at-Large

President

Executive Vice President

Vice President of Finance

Senator-at-Large

Verena Mikhail

Samantha Schoner

Senator, College of Business

Senator, College of Health and Human Services

Senator, College of Education

Senator, College of the Arts

Senator, College of Engineering

Isaac Julian

Daniel Rodriguez

Diamond Byrd

Jocelyn Pena

Mitali Jain

Nidhin Varghese

Mariel Carrasco

Dhrumil Shah

GENDER GAP continued from page 1 A 2020 report found that the wage gap in yearly nursing salaries climbed more than $1,600 since 2018. On average, male nurses earn $7,200 more per year than their female counterparts. The same survey found that male nurses tend to have less education and professional certificates than female nurses, but are more likely to negotiate their salaries. Law According to the American Bar Association (ABA), the wage gap between male and female partners in the legal industry is widening. Between 2010 and 2018, the gender wage gap between male and female partners at legal firms grew by 11%. On average, women earn 35% less than men in the same partner positions, according to ABA. In the 2020 U.S. census, it was reported that women in legal professions earn 54.8% less pay than their male counterparts earn per year. Education The public education system is largely composed of women, with “76% of public school teachers” being women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Yet, full-time female public school teachers receive a lower base salary than male teachers. Female teachers earn an average of $57,500 per year, while their male counterparts earn an average of $59,400. Education has a narrower wage gap than other industries, but women in educational occupations still earn 80.6% of what men earn, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Progress in closing the wage gap has slowed in the last two decades. According to U.S. News, President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday, March 15 that new steps will be taken to close the gap for federal employees, and he pressed private companies to take similar measures.

Unequal pay is still apparent in many job industries.

GISELE ROBINETT | Daily Forty-Niner


4 OPINIONS

MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | OPINIONS@DAILY49ER.COM

Women need to stop saying "sorry" By Christina Merino Opinions Editor

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universal feeling is when you get that pit in your stomach when you realize you’ve done something wrong and there’s nothing you can do to take it back. Well, I get that every time the words, “I’m sorry,” leave my mouth. Sitting in my Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies class at CSULB, my professor addressed the whole class on the first day, telling us to stop using “sorry” and apologizing so much in class and our everyday lives. Ever since that day, this idea of not saying sorry stuck with me and made me start thinking of the words I used in conversation. Did I say sorry too often? Women tend to apologize, a lot. And for what you may ask? Literally almost everything and anything. Sometimes even for things that don’t even need an apology. Need to share a thought during a meeting? “I’m sorry, can

I interrupt?” Someone needs to get their job done? “I’m sorry, could you get that back to me by the end of the day?” Someone bumps into you on the sidewalk? “Oh, I’m sorry.” You bump into an inanimate object like a table? “Ah, I’m sorry.” Women apologize for absolutely everything and it has to stop. But why is it that women tend to over-apologize? Do men apologize just as frequently but we just do not notice? According to a study co-written by Karina Schumann, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, women do apologize more often than men. Not because men aren’t willing to apologize, but women who apologize tend to admit to more wrong. “If [men] think they’ve done something wrong they seem to be just as willing as women are [to apologize] but they just don’t think that they’ve done as many things wrong,” Schumann said on the Women at Work podcast. “They’re perceiving fewer offenses than women are and women rate the exact same offenses as

being more severe and therefore are more willing to apologize for those offenses,” she said. We could clump this habit with all the other societal norms that have been unwillingly pressured onto women, like how we should always be polite and not raise our voices. It is a habit that many women have a hard time breaking free from. “Some women are worried about hurting people’s feelings and causing offense,” said Rachel Green, a psychologist from The Emotional Intelligence Institute in an interview with ABC News. “It does depend on the level of confidence of the woman, how they have been brought up, their cultural background, their religious background, their personality type, and what role they are in,” Green said. Even though all these aspects can influence the constant use of the word “sorry,” it doesn’t mean that women shouldn’t say it if it’s appropriate or necessary. What we do have to change is the use of “sorry,” being the way women try to express concern. “It’s one of many learned

elements of conversational style that girls often use to establish rapport,” said Deborah Tannen, author and professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, in Harvard Business Review. “Ritual apologies - like other conversational rituals - work well when both parties share the same assumptions about their use,” Tannen said. “But people who utter frequent ritual apologies may end up appearing weaker, less confident, and literally more blameworthy than people who don’t.” Using these ritual apologies also starts affecting women in the workplace. A leader at a corporation or organization can’t constantly take the blame and apologizing for everything that is done. This old habit has to die fast and soon. It is a form of minimizing oneself and their work. Women have to start owning what they say and accomplish without being apologetic about it. Sally Helgesen, author and women’s leadership consultant said on the Women at Work podcast that instead of starting all of

THANK YOU continued from page 1

To my grandma Thank you to my grandma Barbara, for being possibly the wisest and most compassionate person I’ve known. Your love for me has stayed consistent my whole life, from when you were taking me to the playgrounds in Marin, to when you were talking me through some of the painful parts of my early adulthood. Coming to Long Beach has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my adulthood, but I sometimes get sad that I can’t drive to your house and cook you dinner or just talk over a Giants game (or an A’s game on a good day). I’ll never get tired of you calling me “my guy.” To my aunts To Heidi, for being another person I can always come to with my problems and for letting me stay in your home. Whether it was just to visit or to watch your house and your dog Hendrix, while you went on your motorcycle trips. I am so glad we have gotten closer in recent years and you have been an essential figure in my adulthood. To Nadine, for all the effort you put into the family. Without your management of the kitchen at grandma’s house, I doubt our dinners together would be as good. You also helped me move into my dorm and drove with me all the way from Northern California to Long Beach. To Laurie for being supportive of me all the way from Minnesota. Due to that distance, we may not speak as much but I am just as happy to have you in my life. To Jen, for your constant

JONATHAN BIGALL | Daily Forty-Niner

My mother always loved filling the photo album with pictures of us throughout my childhood.

smile and the happiness you’ve brought to my uncle Christopher’s life and to our family. You and Christopher have done such a fantastic job raising my little cousins, Lukas and Oliver. Even before you two were married you were a glowing presence at all the

family gatherings. To my cousin Thank you to my cousin Angela for being the closest thing to a sister I will ever have. Who would have thought that after all our arguments growing up together we would be this close

now? It’s hard for me to believe you’re going to be graduating high school in a year but I just know you’re going to do amazing things. To my stepmother Thank you to my stepmother

our sentences with “sorry”, we should replace them with “thank you.” Replacing “sorry” with “thank you” gives a sense of intention to the sentence. It directs the attention to the other person and not yourself. For example, “I’m sorry I’m a minute late,” is not the same as “Thank you for waiting for me.” The blame isn’t taken by you. Instead, it acknowledges the person for their patience, and still meets that concern that women try to convey when saying sorry. Changing the ritual apologies will make women appear stronger and more confident in what they’re saying. This will gain us more success not only in the workplace but also as individuals with logical statements, opinions, and overall speaking with intention. The next time I say “sorry,” I’m hoping it is with intention, and that pit in my stomach will eventually go away and I will feel more confident in what I’m saying. I hope other women do too.

Patti for all the happiness and support you bring to my father and me. I love seeing you two go on your adventures together. For sitting down with me and helping fill out my FAFSA forms. You’re also an excellent baker and I am so grateful to have had my last two birthday cakes made by you. To my caregivers Thank you to Jinx for being an integral part of my life for six years. Not only were you there for all of my football games and swim meets but you were also driving me to and from school or practice before I got my license. Thank you to Deedee for teaching me how to cook and bake, something that has become my favorite hobby as an adult. One of my favorite memories with you that comes up often is when we made tortillas from scratch together. Perhaps most importantly, thank you for being a friend and motorcycle companion for my aunt Heidi. Thank you to all my teachers and professors for helping me prepare for college and my career. I would especially like to thank Anne Belden, the advisor for my community college publication for inspiring me to be a journalist. To my publication Thank you to all the women at the Daily Forty-Niner, including our advisor Barbara. I am so lucky to be able to work with and learn alongside such talented individuals and I am excited to see where your careers take you. Hopefully, I’ll be able to work alongside some of you in the professional field. I urge everyone to thank the women of their lives. Let them know they matter to you, whether it’s your mom, your significant other, or even your friend. I wouldn’t want to think about where I would be without these special people and I imagine most others wouldn’t either.


MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | ARTS@DAILY49ER.COM

ARTS & LIFE 5

In conversation with Emerging Writer honoree, Lina Abascal Photo courtesy of Demian Becerra

Lina Abascal.

Author of “Never Be Alone Again: How Bloghouse United the Internet and Dancefloor,” talks about her book, how she got a music column on VICE, and the book club she runs in Los Angeles. By Kevin Caparoso Managing Editor

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fter graduating from San Francisco State University in 2012, Lina Abascal moved to the state of New York. She sought a full-time job with a degree in journalism and wanted to write about music culture. At the time, moving to New York City seemed like a viable option for the recent grad. New York City was the home of various magazines and websites–fit for her journalistic ambitions. However, the media industry was in a transitionary period with the boom of technology and the 2008 financial crisis. Abascal learned how difficult it was to get a full-time job in journalism and worked at a restaurant. It was an “ego killer” but she was able to freelance. Through emailing and pitching she learned the process of seeking work. She found work at VICE, Playboy, The Fader, and other outlets. Abascal now lives in Los Angeles and released her first book in December 2021 titled, “Never Be Alone Again: How Bloghouse United the Internet and Dancefloor.” The book documents the transient culture of illegal music sharing, blogging and indie-electro dance music that transcended during the mid-2000s–an era that now holds the moniker, indie sleaze. She also attends California State University, Long Beach to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Abascal wants to pivot into the world of fiction and teaches a creative writing course at the university–a position she got through the MFA

program. Abascal is a recent Emerging Writers honoree from Literary Women, host of the Festival of Women Authors, held at the Long Beach Convention Center on March 19. Early in your career, you wrote a music column for VICE. It was essentially about parties all around the world. How did you land that? I had a blog in college and I wrote for other people’s blogs. Then I started writing for this site called Frank151. I wasn’t making any money and had this column for them called “Digital Divas,” which was basically about a different woman in some sort of new industry. It could be fashion, music, or whatever–of people blowing up online. I met someone at a party, Vivian Host, who was creating this new vertical at VICE all about dance music. She was looking for writers and came to me. At first, I pitched random ideas. Then I had the idea for the column. And they said yes because these sites need content. You need them to say yes, but in order for them to say yes, they need you to have ideas. So it’s in your best interest to always be thinking about what’s current, what’s trending, or what’s my take on something being discussed. And learning how to find people’s emails and just this formula. Just practicing and getting denied all the time. I get denied all the time. I got denied on something today and I don’t really care. Eventually, you’ll get a yes. You have to get in where it makes sense and build over time. I only got VICE because I had Frank151. I only got Frank151 because I had my personal blog. Looking through your work I feel like your report-

Photo courtesy of Lina Abascal

Lina Abascal’s book recounts a mid-2000s subculture.

ing has been culturally eclectic. I just want to know, what grabs your attention? My advice now would be to think about a beat and work within that. Being a generalist is a hard sell unless you’re already famous, have insane access, an insane voice, which I think for me was dance music. But that also intersects with internet culture and subculture. That’s kind of the arc that I’ve tried to follow with the Bella Poarch thing. I’ll be so honest with you, I didn’t know who she was and that was an assignment. Now I know why they assigned it to me, because they knew what I wrote about. They were like ‘she can talk about an internet celebrity because she’s familiar with politics and culture of the internet.’ So that made sense to me. That magazine also assigned me the KennyHoopla profile. I know they gave that to me because they know I love pop-punk. Because I’ve writ-

ten stuff about it. In terms of the Venmo thing, Instagram thing, OnlyFans thing, it’s all kind of about commerce meets internet–paving new roads through technology. That’s really interesting to me. People doing new and interesting things with culture online. I really want to talk about this book. What compelled you to write about this era of the internet and music? The simple answer is that I was very present in it. It was something that I know. That era is when I was the most passionate about finding new music and most involved in the scene. I think because of the age that I was at, I was so excited and not tired. I just had a lot of really fun experiences. All of that is what led me to become a writer in the first place. I have a soft spot for it. But also there was nothing else written about it. There was no other book and that’s very uncommon. So I really wanted to make

that piece of media. With the internet and trends, I feel like things just disappear. Like some of the websites you wrote about don’t exist anymore. So how do you report on something from the past that was mostly on the internet? I used Wayback Machine which is a website. That’s a small percentage of what I did. A lot of it is word of mouth. A lot of the events that happen in the book are told through quotes from people. So that’s what they’re saying happened. A quote is obviously different than you authoritatively saying it. It’s difficult. Thankfully I knew who to speak to, who was running these blogs and they were all referring me to their friends. There are about 50 sources in that book, but there were like 100 people interviewed. Not everyone is going to get in the book. One of my good friends that did the first read was like ‘you’re diluting the point by inserting one singular quote from 15 people in this one chapter.’ I wanted to honor the time they gave me, but it’s not a promise you’re going to be in the book. So doing a bunch of research and then finding themes within that to do secondary interviews or dig deeper online, it was kind of like this puzzle. Thankfully it wasn’t just a given assignment. I was grateful that I was able to be the first person to write about this–coming from this place of experience. And I think most of the people that spoke to me could sense that and some of them were more keen on giving me their time.

Please see LINA page 6


6 SPORTS

MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2022 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | SPORTS@DAILY49ER.COM

Defensive Player of the Year Maddi Utti finds a home at LBSU By Thomas Murray Sports Editor

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fter starting her collegiate career at Fresno State, Maddi Utti would find herself traveling 251 miles south to play her last year of collegiate basketball at Long Beach State. In 2020, Utti was announced as the 2020 Mountain West Player of the Year and earned herself a spot on the 2020 All-Mountain West team. Now, the senior from Seaside, Oregon has found herself in a familiar position and was recently announced as the Big West Defensive Player of the Year and earned a spot as a first-team all-Big West. Utti finished her final year of collegiate basketball with incredible numbers as she led the Big West with 86 steals and first in defensive rebounds at 191. Utti also finished the year with 24 blocked shots. Durability was another thing that made Utti so great for The Beach as she finished the year with 1st in the conference for the season averaging 37.7 minutes per game and even played a full 40 six times this year. While Utti’s defensive and durability numbers were impressive, her numbers offensively were just as good. She was fourth in the conference for scoring and was first in the Big West for field goals (103), proving her presence inside the paint was a factor for The Beach. Utti’s head coach Jeff Cammon easily considers her the best player in the nation and said if the team won first place in the league, Utti would have been named the conference Player of the Year. “She should have been Player of the Year. I mean, she’s the best player in the conference,” Cammon said. “I just hate that I wasn’t able to get us to the point where we win the league.” Utti was ecstatic when she found out she won Defensive Player of the Year because of all the hard work she put in after receiving a torn labrum the year before. Utti spent her entire offseason preparing for this year. She had started training for the 2021-2022 season just four months after suffering an injury. “I put in a lot of work on just understanding our defense and really working hard on that defensive end,” Utti said. “All my hard work paid off, and I try to pride myself in rebounding.” Over the summer, Utti was

LINA continued from page 5 Before we close, I want to talk about the book club you do at Junior High. That’s really cool, tell me more about that. I love the book club, this is our

limited to what she could do in practice, she wasn’t allowed to perform in contact drills but she was always finding ways to get better. That’s what Cammon believes makes Utti different. “There’s not many kids that do that,” Cammon said. “Most kids you tell them ‘hey you can’t go’ they’re going to sit on the side, watch practice, and cheer. She’s over there trying to get better and that’s why she is who she is.” As Utti prepared for the season after her injury, she said being in the gym every day was important for her if she wanted to be 100% for the team’s season opener in Boise State. While living in the 2021-2022 season was rewarding for Utti, she said that learning the way Long Beach plays defense in comparison to how Fresno State plays defense was challenging for her. “I didn’t pick it up right away at all,” Utti said, reflecting on the past summer. “The philosophies are different. It’s much more aggressive.” Coach Cammon said he knows his team’s defense runs differently in comparison to other schools, but he knew it was more than just defense that brought Utti to the team. A big part of what he liked in Utti was she was a “perfect fit” for the team. When he met Utti, he knew she would fit the culture the team has created. A positive culture is something LBSU athletic director Andy Fee focuses on for all the programs at The Beach. So when Cammon was recruiting Utti, he was looking for more than just a basketball player. Coach Cammon said Utti is an amazing person and she was that perfect fit right when she came down to check out the school. “From the jump, she came in, there’s no ego. I mean you can imagine a Player of the Year coming in from another conference, they can be a little arrogant, and they’ve accomplished a lot. But she didn’t come in with any of that.” Cammon said. “She’s an amazing basketball player that helped take our program to another level.” Utti was never formally to LBSU for an official visit, she came down to check out the school on her own to see what the campus and team were like. Immediately, Cammon noticed that she was talking to the players on the team, she was doing everything the right way and the boxes just seemed to check themselves for Utti as the day progressed. “They welcomed me in from the jump,” Utti said as she reflected on what it was like playing for

third year. It’s like been happening since January 2020. A very strange time to start something because obviously, we didn’t know. For a while, it was on Zoom. Junior High is an art gallery/community space centered around femme/marginalized voices and artists. That is sort of the umbrella under which all the books that we read fall under. It’s totally free, open to anyone.

Utti driving the ball in for a layup against UC Davis.

ULYSSES VILLA | Daily Forty-Niner

Long Beach this year. Utti said playing under her teammate Justina King’s leadership was one of the best things about LBSU. “Justina is such a great leader on the court because she’ll literally tell me during the play exactly where to go [especially in the beginning of the season] So I look up to that,” Utti said. “She’s a leader on the court.” Jasmine Hardy was another teammate Utti loved to play with because of their aggressive approach when it came to shooting. “Jazzy,” Utti said. “She’s a great shooter, she’s always looking for her shot.” On the defensive side, Ma’Qhi Berry was a player Utti loved playing with as she mentioned the two’s chemistry on defense was a big part of why the team was so successful this year. “That’s one thing I really like, we play team basketball,” Utti said. “I wouldn’t ask for better teammates.”

When Utti entered the transfer portal, Cammon said he knew right away who she was, he said he had coaches all over the PAC 12 calling him and asking questions about her. However, Utti was on a visit to another school until the head coach got fired. That’s when she decided to come to check out Long Beach and Cammon described this process to come naturally as he said she fell right into the team’s lap. After a friend of a friend reached out to Cammon about Utti, he said the two spoke over the phone and knew right away it was a done deal. Cammon said the common denominator with her is that she’s a winner and no matter where she is, she’s going to find a way to elevate people’s game. “She’s not even tapping on the surface of who she’s going to be as a basketball player,” Cammon said. As Cammon is preparing to

have Utti leave after this season, he said there is no replacing her on and off the court, but for the team, she was a part of the culture and building the chemistry the team has made over the years. “I’m just blessed that she decided to spend her last year here,” Cammon said. “I wish we had more time with her because she’s an amazing young lady.” As Women’s Basketball season just came to an end, Utti said she is thankful for the LBSU women’s basketball program and said it’s the best decision she could have made for herself. She has aspirations of one day playing basketball professionally in the future. “I’m surrounded by the best people, they’re really a family here and I felt like they welcomed me into that family so easily,” Utti said. “It’s just a great environment to be in and I’m lucky to have been a part of it this year.”

I think people appreciate the accountability. You know, that’s kind of wholesome. That doesn’t involve drinking or spending money, which is so rare. That was kind of my motivation. Way before COVID-19, freelance working from home, I was just alone all day. At first, I loved it, but it started to mess me up. I was feeling really isolated and sad. I decided I want to do this be-

cause I have to show up. If I flake the whole thing falls apart. So I contacted Junior High. I’d gone to events there before, done a couple of essay/poetry readings that I curated. But I wanted something that wasn’t only for writers. Then I thought of the book club and they really liked it. Because they need events just like these websites need material. Now we have a partnership

with Skylight, the bookstore in Los Feliz. There’s a mini bookstore in Junior High that has the book club book–always. Also, a different person curates the shelves every month. It’s like 30 books that are all under a certain category or theme. You don’t have to buy the book there. But it’s definitely turned into a more real thing. We made merch. It’s pretty cute.


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