RENZO POCASANGRE | Daily Forty-Niner
Singer/songwriter Jaime Cope performing during ASI’s Noontime Concerts in sync with her band accompaniment.
1250 Bellflower Blvd., LA4-203 Long Beach, CA, 90840
Brockie said he wants to make the station a welcoming place, by taking off the tint on the sta tion windows.
John Brockie
promoted to Long Beach State police chief in April, and aims to improve the transparency and relatability of campus po lice.
Brockie served for 22 years at Cal State Ful lerton and decided to transfer to CSULB since his two sons attend the university.
The new chief is facing no shortage of trou bles from reorganizing, recruiting, and reviewing the structure of the department to taking strides in making officers more approachable and relat able on campus.
“I am the highest ranking person in the police department,” Brockie said “I’m responsible for everything that occurs, whether I know about it or not.”
The semester started with issues for the de partment when professor Steven Osuna accused officers of racially profiling him.
Osuna had forgotten his ID and keys and asked a campus police officer to come with him to unlock his office, but the officer denied since he could not properly ID Osuna.
The unlock door policy was not changed since 2012 or ‘13, and the department saw an opportu nity to revise, Brockie said.
The department gave the officers mobile de vices for them to access pictures of a faculty or staff members.
“That was an opportunity for us to improve on a policy, and that’s part of being a chief,” said Brockie. “We didn’t make that change because I felt that the officer did anything wrong, we made that change because I felt that we could better serve.”
“Who wants to walk into a police station, that’s already scary for a lot of people, and you can’t see in?” Brockie said. “Hopefully it’s more welcoming, that’s the intent.”
Officers in the department echoed his mes sage of transparency and expressed their confi dence in the new police chief.
Lieutenant Carol Almaguer from the CSULB police department said Brockie advocates for his community and wants to change the culture of law enforcement.
“His philosophy within law enforcement is just willingness to change and willingness to be progressive,” Almaguer said. “He’s very insight ful and mindful of our community, who we rep resent, and how we represent ourselves with Cal State Long Beach.”
Officer Liz Herniquez was recruited this year and said Brockie creates a welcoming environ ment.
“He has an open-door policy, which I love, and it just makes everyone feel comfortable.” Herniquez said.
Brockie wants to keep ensure that students feel comfortable reaching out to them for assis tance.
“We want to be part of the educational pro cess, so if students want to go on a ride-along, they want to do an internship we are a resource,” Brockie said.
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 con tinue to have significance to the living people and remind us about the sacred and spiritual relation ship that has always existed here at what we now call California State University Long Beach.
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Ron Herrera, president of the LA County Federation of Labor, resigned Monday after the Los Angeles Times re leased audio of him and LA City Council members in a discussion involving racist remarks.
After the audio was leaked, the Cali fornia Faculty Association at Long Beach released a statement on Tuesday, de nouncing Herrera and demanding that LA councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo resign from the council as well.
“The conversation represents a betray al of the trust and interests of the workers our elected leaders were selected to repre sent and defend. It also indicates a time of reckoning: a moment of illuminated truth that many labor unions have a history of racism, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigene ity, and colorism that is often hidden and rarely discussed,” the CFA wrote.
Herrera spoke at the Anna W. Ngai Alumni Center a few days before the au dio was released, where he advocated for a labor union center at Long Beach State and encouraged the next generation of la bor union leaders.
Gary Hytrek, the co-president of the CFA chapter at Long Beach who also at tended the event, said Herrera’s and the council’s remarks “demonstrate a failure of leadership.”
However, Hytrek was not worried that Herrera’s remarks would weaken the union.
“The labor is more than one person. There are leaders in the labor move ment, but the labor movement really is the workers,” Hytrek said. “The idea that
[Herrera’s remarks] will somehow under mine the labor movement, is not going to happen.”
The CFA co-president said the plans for a labor union center on campus were still underway, and hoped a labor center would create a bridge between communi ties of different ethnicities and sexualities.
“Labor has a history that is not par ticularly kind to immigrants or to African Americans in particular, and I think the potential for a labor center is really going to be in a place that can bring those ele ments together,” Hytrek said. “It can build relationships across racial, sexuality, gen eration and class lines and really build a community that’s inclusionary.”
In the audio, council members also spoke of redistricting strategies that would favor the council members’ districts and favor Latino council members in general.
Urban geography professor Christine Jocoy said that redistricting is a political move, and believes her students need to learn how to behave ethically in all chal lenges while advancing their values and principles.
“I am deeply concerned about the way that the LA City Council members dis cussed members of their constituent com munities in dismissive and racist terms,” Jocoy said. “Being a public servant should be about more than serving only the com munities that vote for you.”
Jocoy also said that students need to learn about different communities and develop empathy for others publicly and privately.
“In response to this leaked audio, I plan to refocus my teaching on ethical be havior so my students who go to work for cities and elected officials have tools to in tervene,” Jocoy said.
A march organized in Long Beach was one joined by thousands of dem onstrators across the country on Sat urday for Women’s Wave Weekend, where nationwide demonstrations ad vocated for reproductive rights and the reinstitution of Roe v. Wade.
Approximately 100 demonstrators marched from the Long Beach Supe rior Courthouse to Harvey Milk Park, gathering supportive honks or disap proving shouts from the window of cars passing by.
The Long Beach demonstrators called not only for reproductive rights, but also advocated for Proposition 1, which would amend the California Constitution to protect reproductive rights and the choice to have an abor tion.
Lisa Del Sesto, founder of LB/OC Women Rising, organized the march and hosted a community activism fair at Harvey Milk Park to encourage resi dents to vote for pro-choice candidates.
“[Politicians] need to have semi
nars or a class to understand women’s reproductive health and to understand the path of pregnancy,” Sesto said. “I don’t know how a person can legis late without understanding what it is they’re legislating on.”
Josh Lowenthal, a pro-choice can didate for California State Assembly District 69, was one of the guest speak ers at the activism fair.
“We need to figure out how to ad equately fund women’s health care facilities and provide access to care throughout the state, and potentially throughout the country,” Lowenthal said. “California needs to be a beacon of human rights and reproductive jus tice.”
Sunny Zia, Long Beach Communi ty College District Board of Trustees member for Area 3, referenced the sit uation in Iran, where Mahsa Amini was killed in police custody for incorrectly wearing her hijab, to illustrate the fra gility of women’s rights.
“In Iran they had democracy and the freedoms that we have, and it was taken away from them,” Zia said. “We
have to be visible, vocal and vigilant and vote, especially for Proposition one.”
Naida Tushnet, with the Long Beach Area Peace Network, and her friend Sylvia Mannheim, 97, said they remembered celebrating the passing of Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.
“Overturning [Roe v. Wade] doesn’t ban abortions, it bans safe abortions,”
Tushnet said. “I know people who had illegal abortions. Women will keep get ting abortions, but if they don’t get safe abortions they’ll die.”
Sesto said LB/OC Women Rising has no demonstrations planned for the rest of the month, but plans to contin ue advocating for pro-choice candi dates before the November midterm elections.
people march from Long Beach
to Harvey Milk Park.
Singer-songwriter Jaime Cope helped students unwind amid mid terms week by performing mellow songs during a free Noontime Concert event on Tuesday.
Cope and her band which includes bassist Leo Moneymaker, drummer Matt Ralph and keyboardist Alex Niles performed a mix of Cope’s original songs and covers. Passersby and stu dents having their lunch at the USU Southwest Terrace alike basked in her melodies as they performed covers of Faye Webster and Corrine Bailey Rae.
“[Noontime Concerts] is not only an opportunity for local, up-and-com ing rising talents to perform, but also for students here at Long Beach to just relax and listen to some live music here on campus,” April Marie Castro, Beach Pride Events coordinator said.
Beach Pride Events seeks out artists of different performers through outlets like 22 West Media and by using gig booking sites such as GigSalad and The Bash for Noontime Concerts.
The events team prioritizes Los An geles or Orange County artists to aid in the transportation costs and to allow students to discover artists with close, accessible upcoming shows.
Cope, for one, will have a show at
Break Room 86 on Nov. 16 where stu dents can hear more of her.
“We receive insight from the feed back of what students want, and a lot of what we got was music that are a little bit more mellow and more chill, which Jaime did happen to be great for,” Cas tro said.
Cope, who was not found through booking websites, was discovered by Beach Pride Events Program assistant Reyna Gutierrez through TikTok.
“Students see someone who looks similar to their age, and that could be inspirational to students who are cur
rently interested in the realm of song writing and singing,” Gutierrez said.
“A lot of students approached her and they definitely felt like they could con nect with someone in the position they want to be like.”
Gutierrez said on top of the type of music students liked, Cope’s availabil ity and needs fit the purpose of Noon time Concerts well.
Cope has been writing her own songs since she was 17. She has also worked with other artists such as Ava Clark and Austin Sexton after gaining connections in the music field by at tending open mics and restaurant gigs.
Having put out her EP “Souli tude” and making music a full-time ca reer in high school, Cope said she nev er felt inclined to attend college, but growing up as a musician came with its own obstacles she was able to learn from.
“When you go out into the real world, it can be hard to constantly match what you did when you were younger and in a much calmer circum stance. Now that I’m 21 and I’m living on my own, everything is on my shoul ders,” Cope said. “Finding a balance and investing in your career is one of the hardest things but it’s not impossi ble, so it’s really important to find peo ple who believe in you.”
Sunday morning gloom could not stop around 15,000 runners from par ticipating in Long Beach’s 38th annual marathon and half marathon.
The 26.2-mile course began with a scenic tour through Shoreline Village before heading across Belmont Shore, Naples, Alamitos Heights and around Long Beach State.
The 13.1-mile half marathon took place soon after, heading along the oceanside, up Rainbow Harbor and past the Queen Mary.
Some runners competed in the men’s and women’s competitions for first through fourth place prizes, but every participant received a medal for completion of the courses.
Among the participants were local running groups, including A Running Experience Club (AREC).
Dona McBride, 71-year-old vice president of the club and CSULB alum ni, discussed the group’s preparation process.
“Our club runs three to five miles every week, and on Saturday mornings we do marathon training where we run up to twenty miles,” McBride said. “We have elite runners in our group, slow walkers–everything in between. We try to be inclusive so everyone can
meet their goals and compete in these events.”
As the hours passed and the sky brightened, spectators hoped to catch a glimpse of who would cross the fin ish line first. That just happened to be Raymon Ornelas, Long Beach State’s very own track star.
Ornelas, a 22-year-old who gradu ated from CSULB last summer, com pleted the full marathon with a time of 2:31:06.18 and won first place in the men’s competition.
This was his first marathon.
“It sort of just happened,” said Or nelas. “I knew going in I might have had a fighting chance for the win, but nothing was guaranteed–you never know who’s going to show up in the field.”
Ornelas was on the track and field team from 2018 to 2022. He trained for this marathon for three months by taking 17-plus mile long runs, focus ing on his mileage times and learning to intake fluids, all of which led him to first place.
“It was a mixed feeling emotionally, I was kind of overwhelmed but so hap py about winning… physically, it had to be the most pain I’ve felt. It all just suddenly rushes to your legs as soon as you stop running,” said Ornelas.
For those inclined to take part in this event or cheer on their community, the Long Beach annual marathon and half marathon will return next year.
One moment I was in Costa Rica studying abroad, and the next moment the world was shutting down in the midst of a national emergency.
By Ashley Wilkes Staff WriterThe stars filled the darkness above me like no night sky I had ever seen before. I looked up as I waded out into the ankle-deep water that seemingly went on for miles in the low tide of the Caribbean Ocean.
The night brought me peace that I previ ously would have felt was unobtainable.
Just weeks earlier, I had arrived in Costa Rica for a study abroad program through Long Beach State. Before leaving, I went through a rough breakup, left a toxic friend ship, I was involved in a car accident that to taled my car, and I left my job to go abroad.
I knew that studying abroad would be a metamorphic experience, but I had no way of knowing what to anticipate.
When I left for Costa Rica, I had a few things in mind: I would be going to school in paradise, I would have an internship, and I would be going to the beach every weekend.
Once I got there, the Caribbean felt like a dream. I met travelers from other countries at hostels, got to see sloths and other native species, and even hiked through rainforests to get to beaches and waterfalls. There was no cell phone service away from the hotels, so I was forced to disconnect from the rest of the world.
It was exciting getting to experience peo ple from different places within my cultural experience. It felt like many of those living in the Caribbean lived for the simple things in life, like the star-filled sky and the warm ocean water.
Everything was going great, until we were told that the borders were closing and we had to leave our trip just a couple weeks into it.
Costa Rican locals began to look at us differently. Turns out the first case of COVID-19 in the country was traced to two Americans.
Many of us still had plans for places in the country that we wanted to visit. I still hadn’t seen Guanacaste Province, which has bioluminescent algae.
Reluctantly, we all hopped on a plane and came home just days after we were told we had to leave.
I returned home to a world that was closed down. I was unemployed because I had left my job to go abroad, and finding a job in a world where everything is closed was practically impossible.
For weeks I was reminiscing about Costa Rica and wondering what could have been. Eventually, I realized that it was a good time for me to do something that I had never done before. I started selling my clothes online.
As it turns out many people had shifted to online shopping since everything else was closed. This, coupled with the extra time on my hands, led my clothing resale business to take off.
If it wasn’t for Costa Rica and getting sent home early, I might never have found my true passion for entrepreneurship.
As Helen Keller once said, “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
In the midst of a mental health battle, I turned to the rock band to help calm my nerves and make it through my mental strains.
By Nicholas Broadhead Sports AssistantMay of 2020, my brain began its decline into daily anxiety attacks and mental health battles, stripping me of the normalcy of the ev eryday life that I was accustomed to.
Thoughts such as having random brain aneurysms, thinking I can’t breath on my own, and worrying about getting saliva into my lungs and it slow ly killing me would pop up in my head constantly, making me fear for my life all the time.
I felt completely broken. It also didn’t help that in spring of 2021, I eventually became obsessed with my school work and completely threw away all of the hobbies that I once loved due to extreme stress.
But one thing that always got me to remain calm was music.
After coming home from running errands with my mom, the Foo Fighters started playing on the radio. When lis tening, the guitar riffs and vocals from Dave Grohl, main guitarist and singer of the band, got me on a hunting spree to find the song I just listened to.
The song was entitled “Everlong” and it became one of my all time favor ite songs. From the soft guitar riff entry to expressive vocals throughout, Grohl and the band made me want to move my head and dance out my frustrations.
At first, I paid no mind to the lyrics of the song, only the instrumental is what grabbed my attention, but looking into the lyrics created a whole new con nection between myself and the song.
In a video released on the Foo Fight ers official YouTube channel, Grohl explained how in 1996, while he was experimenting with chords on his gui tar, he triggered the emotions he was feeling about a current breakup he was going through. When writing the lyrics, they formed from the true feelings he was facing.
“I think that that’s what songs
should be,” Grohl said. “They should be something that not only the tone or the melody or dynamic of the instrumen tal, but also the lyric, match in a way that it represents how you feel at that moment.”
As I looked deeper into the lyrics for the song, I saw a connection between Grohl’s thoughts and my anxious emo tions.
When first reading the lines “if ev erything could ever be this real forever, if anything could ever be this good again,” it made me think about where I was in my life.
For my life to go to from stable and predictable to anxiety-inducing and soul-crushing, it made me question if I would ever be able to not panic over so many different things.
Would I be able to do my hobbies without feeling extreme stress and guilt? Could I go through a day where I didn’t have to tell myself I wasn’t going to die? Will there be a time where I could be around others and not stuck in my room quarantining?
In all honesty, the answers to those questions were no. I felt powerless, like things would never get better. But I kept pushing forward, hoping for the best and not backing down.
The song became a daily listen. Grohl’s guitar shredding and multiple drumming riffs from late drummer Taylor Hawkins really got me through my days. The authenticity of the emo tions from the band and their perfor mance made me feel as if I wasn’t alone with my struggles.
As the months went by in the pan demic, things in my life began to turn for the better. Changes in my school schedule and the addition of a new job changed my mentality from doom and gloom to hopeful.
Today, I feel as though my life is back on track. While I still have my anxious moments, my mentality has thrown away most of my paranoia. I feel as though I can finally breathe and just be myself like I was before the pandemic.
In the end, everything can be as good as it was again.
Director of track and field, jumping event coach and nine-time awardee of the Big West Coach of the Year, Andy Sythe has decided to continue his 34 years of employment at Long Beach State.
By Kamryn Bouyett Staff Writer
The passion of camaraderie, aca demic excellence and college athletics can be seen through Andy Sythe’s ac complishments at Long Beach State.
His position as director of track and field is to uphold Long Beach Athletics’ mission of enriching the lives of stu dent-athletes on campus and advanc ing the Long Beach athletics off the track.
As a coach, Sythe has been recog nized for his coaching throughout his career, winning the Big West Track & Field Coach of the Year award nine times, 10 including Women’s Coach of the Year this past season.
Even before getting a job at Long Beach, Sythe always knew he wanted to be a coach.
During his early student athlete days, Sythe was the captain of every sport he was a part of. He’s unsure whether or not his father’s coaching during his early days influenced him, but he knew wanted to go down that path.
He coached age-group track while attending high school. In college, he coached high school track. Graduating from college, he knew he didn’t want to coach at any level below college.
“I think probably a thing that helped me wanna be a coach, inspire me more, was the fact that I always had great mentors at every level,” Sythe said. “There was always somebody be hind me, helping me and lifting me up and doing everything they could to give me opportunities.”
His long history at Long Beach started in 1988 as the youngest Divi sion I head coach.
Sythe believed Long Beach was the school he wanted to pursue because of
the coaches and administration within the athletics department. After coach ing for his alma mater San Diego State University, he chose Long Beach.
“I picked the lowest paying job out of all the positions that I looked at in Long Beach State and decided to come here,” Sythe said.
His decision to take a position at Long Beach was also because of former track and field head coach Ralph Lind erman and the mentorship Linderman
winning part of the experience,” Sythe said.
Sythe is proud of the coaches with in the track and field division of sports with most of them being an alumni of Long Beach.
“His commitment to doing things the right way is a shining example that will lead to much success for our student-athletes under his direction,” former executive director of athletics Andy Fee said in a Long Beach Athlet
Sythe is also the coach for all jump ing events. This would include triple jump, long jump, high jump, javelin, decathlon and heptathlon runners.
“We’re teaching them how to be stronger mentally. How to make de cisions, how to overcome obstacles, how to, you know, meet the challenges, whatever they may be,” Sythe said.
When the pandemic hit, everything shut down, leaving teams with lack luster seasons, senior athletes unable to finish strong and coaches unclear with what it would mean for the future. Sythe described it like being sidelined, an injury limiting people from grow ing.
“Coming back was just as hard, but we made it and we survived it and this fall feels like normal,” Sythe said. “I feel like everyone’s, you know, kind of back to the rhythm.”
Cross country meets have com menced as Ryley Fick became the first Long Beach cross country student ath lete this month to be awarded Big West Women’s Athlete of the Week. Fick also marks a new school record, beat ing Rosa Del Toro’s time 11 years ago.
embedded in Sythe.
“Ralph was a mentor and true friend,” Sythe said in an Long Beach Athletics article honoring Linderman after his passing. “The impact he has had in my life is profound. I am so very grateful to him on so many levels and this loss truly hits me in the core of my soul.”
The best quality of a coach, Sythe believes, is whether they can uplift a student athlete and not just care about winning.
“But that’s not the most important thing, ‘cause caring about winning can drive you to do things that you might consider questionable, so we like to care about the whole person and make
ics article about Sythe’s coaching con tract extension.
This contract extended his coach ing into the 2025 season.
The privilege of experiencing all positive interactions within every lev el of his career is what gets Sythe to breathe this initiative into his job as track and field director at Long Beach.
“Our environment and our cul ture here is the most important thing to help us be successful. So we pro tect those things and work very hard at making our environment and our culture the right one that we want to have,” Sythe said.
Track and Field has also seen recent recognition, as Jason Smith from Long Beach Men’s Track and Field team was named Field Athlete of the Year this past season, according to Big West.
But with each passing season, Sythe’s accomplishments and his de termination for his student athletes seems to indirectly influence the track and field divisions’ success.
“From a personal standpoint as a director, I am responsible for manag ing people and staying on target, but what inspires me, what motivates me, what makes me want to come to work everyday and be the best I can be, is the student athletes.”
...what inspires me, what motivates me, what makes me want to come to work everyday and be the best I can be, is the student athletes.
“ ”WESLEY HITT | LBSU Athletics Andy Sythe (right), has worked with student athletes like Jason Smith, who qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.
Andy Sythe Big West Coach of the Year