Daily Forty-Niner, Sept. 30, 2019

DAILY FORTY-NINER EST p 1949

y p p a H

th

B

y a d h t ir

2 70TH SPECIAL

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | STAFF@DAILY49ER.COM ON THE COVER A collage of the photos represents the 70 years of CSULB history. Graphic by Alejandro Vazquez and Louis Lopez.

Daily Forty-Niner 1250 Bellflower Blvd., LA4-203 Long Beach, CA, 90840

Editor’s Note: Looking back 70 years Happy Birthday, Long Beach State!

Editorial Office Phone (562) 985-8000

Business Office Phone (562) 985-1740

Austin Brumblay Editor in Chief eic@daily49er.com

Paula Kiley

Long Beach State started from a dingy apartment building in 1949 to what is now Park Estates, and later transformed the plots of farmland near the former Bixby Ranch to a sprawling university campus. Hundreds of thousands of students later, it’s time again to take a step back and look at where we’ve come from.

Multimedia Managing Editor multimedia@daily49er.com News Editor

When choosing stories for this issue, the Daily Forty-Niner staff wanted to accurately examine the unique histories that came from this institution. This means that some of the stories in here are light-hearted: Campus squirrels and ‘90s sports are great examples. But some of them take a more critical view of the past and how integral campus activism and determined students, faculty and staff were in enacting necessary change.

Arts and Life Editor

The celebration also continues online, with the launch of a micro-site with interactive features. Make sure to check out daily49er.com for more content.

Advertising Manager

CSULB, you aren’t perfect, and your history has had a lot of ups-and-downs and twists-and-turns. There is still much to be done. But looking back we can see where we went right, where we went wrong, what we forgot and what we need to remember.

To many more years of CSULB.

Hannah Getahun

Special Projects Editor

Shark Bites

By Alejandro Vazquez

Shark Bites is a CSULB inspired crossword puzzle that contains clues from the recent news stories published by the Daily Forty-Niner. Tag us @daily49er with a picture of your completed crossword for a chance to win a prize!

Across 4. last name of the dominant closing pitcher during the golden age of the Dirtbags.

5. this artist’s exhibit in the 1960’s brought up the question of protecting students’ right to protest on campus 7. this species of rodent is found all over campus and terrorizes students 8. the name of the silver sculpture outside of Coffee Bean

Down 1. CSULB no longer has this sports team 2. the last name of the first female university president 3. this building is going to be replaced with the Anna W. Ngai Alumni Center 6. there has never been enough of this on campus

Sports Editor

Opinions Editor

Business Manager Special Projects Editor Copy Editor Design Editor Photo Editor Social Media Editor Video Editor Online Editor Podcast Editor Webmaster Assistant News Editor

Rachel Barnes news@daily49er.com Mark Lindahl sports@daily49er.com Staff arts@daily49er.com Perry Continente opinions@daily49er.com Steven Zuniga advertising@daily49er.com Melissa Valencia business@daily49er.com Hannah Getahun Rachel Barnes Alejandro Vazquez Ryan Guitare Brenna Enos Aubrey Balster Nahid Ponciano Emma Carlsen Samantha Hangsan Nikki Nelsen

Arts and Life Assistant Editor Arts and Life Assistant

Alexandra Apatiga

Assistant Sports Editor

Manuel Valladares

Assistant Sports Editor Assistant Social Media Editor Design Adviser Content Adviser Advertising and Buisness Adviser Letters to Editor

Suzane Jletati Ralston Dacanay Cristal Gomez Gary Metzker Barbara Kinglsey-Wilson Jennifer Newton editor@daily49er.com

Corrections

correction@daily49er.com

Story Ideas

tips@daily49er.com

Job Inquiries

jobs@daily49er.com

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 Forty-Niner 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.

Follow us @daily49er

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

“

70TH SPECIAL 3

“[Squirrels] managed to make it, they somehow managed to survive, just like the students too.”

- Brett Mizelle

”

A nutty history The fox squirrel, that most students interact with, took years to eventually migrate to CSULB. Now, they are abundant on campus and have become symbolic to students.

By Hannah Getahun Special Projects Editor @ hannahgetahun

T

he recognizable beady-eyed, trash can-diving campus fox squirrel, though social media famous and one of many pseudo school mascots, was not always on campus.

Much like the campus, the fox squirrel that is so integral to the Long Beach State image, became a part of Long Beach over time.

Before, when CSULB was farmland, the campus and surrounding areas were dominated by the California ground squirrel, which exhibit a less bushy tail and a light spotted fur coat, and the western gray squirrel.

“Western gray squirrels, which are the native tree squirrels around here, they are much more shy, they are much more timid and don’t respond well to humans,” said Ted Stankowich, associate professor of biological sciences.

The ground squirrel was pushed off the main campus. According to David Huckaby, professor emeritus of biological sciences,

they can still be found in the flat areas on campus near Bellflower Boulevard.

However, the fox squirrel was able to habituate the greater Los Angeles area and almost completely replaced the western gray squirrel population.

Food and guaranteed safety are what drew the squirrels to the campus.

“They’re so used to people,” Stankowich said. “They live in a world where they become really habituated really quickly.”

“As long as they can find ample food, things to climb, nest sites up in trees, they can live [here],” Stankowich said.

According to historical accounts, the fox squirrel’s journey began not too far from campus, at the Sawtelle Veterans home in West LA right before 1904. Civil War veterans from the Mississippi Valley who resided at the home kept them as companions or cooked them in squirrel stew. Legend has it they were eventually let go by the veterans, and began to roam LA.

Even though the campus fox squirrel is a more recent addition to the campus than Prospector Pete, they have found themselves in the midst of campus culture.

Squirrel merchandise can be found on sale at the 49er Shops Bookstore, Instagram pages gush over the impish squirrels and many students thought the fox squirrel should have been the mascot replacement.

Between 1913 and 1921, the western gray squirrel populations were decimated by mange. Later, western gray squirrels were also driven out by urban and housing developments.

The fox squirrel has found itself in the hearts and minds of many students in the short amount of time they have resided here.

“That’s why when humans invaded Los Angeles, western grays were…driven out of areas and don’t live among us anymore,” Stankowich said.

According to Stankowich, unlike the western gray, the fox squirrel is less afraid of new things and new people, and is more aggressive among predators and towards humans.

Because the fox squirrel serves the same ecosystem roles as the western gray squirrel, and had a penchant for human interaction, they were able to take the place of the gray squirrel.

In the 1980s, as the squirrels were expanding outwards, they were also introduced to El Dorado Park by Long Beach citizens. Some may have also been brought to the area by Iowan transplants who wanted to bring a piece of Iowa to Long Beach.

Huckaby said their proliferation on campus was quick.

Graphic by RODRIGO GONZALEZ-GARCIA | @ roro_thefool_workz

“When I first came here in 1973, they were not on the campus,” Huckaby said.

“I cannot remember when I first started seeing them, but it was a few decades ago.”

According to sociology professor J. William Gibson, “Campuses develop new…icons when a substantial part of the student population no longer feels any positive connection to the official mascot.”

Squirrels are probably one of the closest interactions that students have with wildlife, which also adds to their appeal.

“There’s a natural urge for us to be near wildlife, and when the squirrels are so close to us…it’s a natural thing for people to want to be close and have an interaction with them,” Stankowich said.

However, Brett Mizelle, director of American studies who has been researching and observing the squirrels on campus for the past couple of months, notes that students may see something of themselves in the campus fox squirrels.

“Maybe they appeal to our sense of resilience,” Mizelle said. “[Squirrels] managed to make it, they somehow managed to survive, just like the students too.”

4 70TH SPECIAL

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

The fight for a feminist education CSULB’s women’s, gender and sexuality studies department fought an uphill battle to get to where they are today.

DANY COTA | Daily Forty-Niner

Members of the Caribou Collective walk hand in hand to the Academic Advising Center to present their demands to Chuck Lepard, vice president for academic affairs in 1984.

By Nahid Ponciano Online Editor @ NahidPonciano

L

ong Beach State students in the 1960s didn’t have the option of pursuing women’s, gender and sexuality studies.

This was during a time where racism, sexism and homophobia were especially prevalent, and unofficial events like “Hate Women’s Week” at CSULB were able to exist.

All of this made it especially difficult for the women who fought for the creation of what was initially known as the women’s studies program.

“We made the absence of women in the curriculum an issue that others had to reckon with,” said Sherna Berner Gluck, a former women’s studies faculty member in 1977.

The formation of women’s studies began in 1968 with the course “The Sociology of Women,” taught by Audrey Fuss, according to “An Early History of Women’s Studies at California State University, Long Beach: 1968-1976” by Juliane Bartolotto.

More courses taught from a feminist standpoint were added later on. Typically these courses were under different programs or titled “special topics” since women’s studies was housed under what was known as special programs.

The process of adding and keeping these courses was stressful. It took constant gathering, planning and fighting with the university, according to Bartolotto.

would be over,” said Debby Rosenfelt, former English professor who helped in the development of feminism literature classes in 1971 during an interview with Bartolotto.

“Those people were exhausted all the time trying to deal with a hostile administration,” Betty Brooks, a part-time women’s physical education and studies faculty member in 1973, said in an interview with Bartolotto.

The lack of support left the women’s studies program susceptible to backlash.

In the early 1970s, Fuss and a returning student, Mary Krueger, circulated a proposal for a women’s studies program at CSULB and what it should entail.

This occurred in an attempt to appease a group of Christians who became relentless in demanding that the program curriculum be changed to something more socially acceptable, Gluck said.

In 1972 after multiple women met with administrators, the Center for Women’s Studies, now the Women’s & Gender Equity Center, was formed.

The center provided a centralized meeting place for the developing program. This is where they created the first course under the department of women’s studies: “The Seminar on the Status of Women.”

By 1975, a minor in women’s studies was approved by the university, and in 1978 women’s studies became institutionalized in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

At the time, the program was largely neglected by the administration.

“I think the university mostly kind of wished we would go away, that we would sort of disappear quietly, that this fad

At the start of the ‘80s, many part-time lecturers in the program were fired for not having “traditional academic credentials.”

According to the Daily Forty-Niner, in May of 1985, 16 people filed a lawsuit against the women’s studies program.

The American Civil Liberties Union got involved in defense of the program and those who were fired. The suit lasted for nine years.

“It decimated what had been a tight collective of faculty that included many of us who were community activists,” Gluck said.

The curriculum for the program didn’t change after the lawsuit, but the people who were hired did, Gluck said. New hires had traditional academic credentials and degrees, and primary activists were no longer hired.

Although the program underwent scrutiny and had to rebuild the confidence it once

had, the WGSS program is like a family now.

“Working in a feminist environment means that we work to listen to one another, look after one another, and think with one another, ” said Abraham Weil, assistant professor in the WGSS department.“That is my favorite part.”

Because people care to have a better understanding of sociopolitical systems, WGSS is more secure at CSULB, according to Department Chair Jennifer Reed.

“We have a very supportive administration,” Reed said. “Our dean’s office is very supportive, all the way up to our president.”

The department continues to grow. Approximately five to 10 classes have been added since 2008, according to Lori Baralt, associate professor for WGSS. “It’s basically an open space for you to talk about social issues, anything feminism, which I love,” said fourth-year WGSS minor Alyssa Casiano. “Not a lot of places you go or classes you have talk about this kind of stuff.”

Gluck attributes the state of WGSS now to the women who fought for years to build the program.

“Our program and the generation of activists we educated had a lasting impact on the consciousness and history of the US and laid the groundwork for what we see today,” Gluck said.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

70TH SPECIAL 5

Out with the old, in with the new The once bustling Soroptimist house served as a student union and a place for community gatherings. Now, the historic building will be a 6000 sq. ft. alumni center, which is expected to start construction summer 2020.

By Reina Suio & Delaney Tran Staff Writers

“It’s exciting to have progress, but it’s sad to not have something that embraces our history on campus,” Murray said.

T

The building, one of the oldest on campus, served as an inexpensive venue to rent on campus. The dated furniture and midcentury modern architecture appealed to the students since it felt retro compared to the rest of campus.

campus.

he now empty, caution-taped Soroptomist house used to be a thriving center for advocacy, wellness and community on-

Alumni, like Jo Murray, class of 1982, remember the building fondly.

“It’s bittersweet,” said Murray, who chaired concerts held in the outdoor terrace with her husband in 1986 and enjoyed the afternoon tea services in high school.

The house was built in 1957 and gifted to Associated Students Inc. by the Soroptimist House of Long Beach, according to James Ahumada, senior communications manager of ASI. It was then used as the school’s first student union, where students gathered to relax between classes.

However, after 62 years on campus, it’s being replaced with the new alumni center. The decision was made before the Ridgecrest Earthquake on July 4 which left the Soroptimist House red-tagged and deemed unsafe.

The Soroptimist House remains empty after it was red-tagged in July after the Ridgecrest Earthquake.

Photo by REINA SUIO

Throughout the years, it has been used for multiple events including weddings and Poet’s Lounges. The ownership was transferred to the university in recent years, where it continued to hold events and meetings. The Soroptimist International of Long Beach has used it for meet-andgreets, but hasn’t in the past five years.

Soroptimist International has embraced the news, but are sad to let it go.

“I think times have changed; it’s no longer a viable house,” said Judy Murphy, president of Soroptimist International. “It’s served its purpose all those years...We are OK with that. We are happy that it’s been used for so long and so well...You have to let it go, but that’s what happens. Times change.”

According to Mark Zakhour, director of design and construction services, the canopy in particular was unsafe and the overall structure has gone beyond its replacement date.

“It’s deteriorating, it’s old,” Zakhour said.

“It was built in the ‘60s, so by the time you make all the seismic retrofits, make it compliant with the new energy codes, at that point you’re basically building a new building.”

Now, the space will become the 6,000-square-foot Anna W. Ngai Alumni

Center. The building will cost $8.5 million, and its funding will come exclusively from private donations, with Construction scheduled to begin summer 2020.

Its design was just released at the Founder’s Day celebration for CSULB’s 70th anniversary.

It will still be a place to hold events and a space for community and campus groups to gather, much like the Soroptimist House.

The new structure will pay tribute to the Soroptimist House by incorporating a plaque dedicated to the house and using pieces from the old structure in the alumni center.

“It has a lot of great history and has done a lot for the campus, so we want to document it well and make sure it never gets forgotten,” Zakhour said.

6 70TH SPECIAL

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

By Austin Brumblay Editor in Chief @adbrumblay

P

arking is a problem that Long Beach State students and administration have been fighting for 70 years. The campus has transformed since 1949, but the struggle to find a parking spot has not.

CSULB has always been a commuter campus.

The first class consisted mostly of World War II veterans seeking an education. Many of these veterans had settled with their families in the nearby cities and would work during the day and commute to CSULB for night classes. Students parked without fear of fees in the 300-acres that surrounded the small campus buildings.

For a student today, a spralling field with endless parking opportunities would be a dream, but the dirt parking in the 1950s presented its own problem for students.

“What’s now lower-campus where the [University] Student Union is and Brotman Hall, most of that was unpaved and that’s where we parked,” said Lee Brown, a CSULB class of 1960 alumnus and professor emeritus. “When it rained, AAA made millions. They came and winched and pulled everybody out.”

The area where the USU now sits was a dirt hill where students parked their cars in the early years of the university.

“Parking has always been a problem,” Phil Riley, a class of 1955 alumnus recalled.

He said the rare, rainy Southern California days caused problems for his peers who parked on the dirt hill. “[The dirt lot] wasn’t an organized parking lot,” Riley said. “One day, kids were all parked up on that hill, and it rained and all the cars slid down the hill. When they came out of class they found all their cars piled up at the bottom all against each other.”

Many students today love to complain about parking, and Riley said the ‘50s were no different as he recalled an interaction he had with his biology professor.

“One of the professors of mine came to class one day and was upset because there had been a student survey about what they consider the important issue of the day,” Riley said. “He said that the majority of people [surveyed] said parking and he was upset that they didn’t have a more intellectual outlet.”

The complaints of cars sliding into each other in the muddy dirt lots and the rapid growth of the campus prompted the administration to build the first paved lot in 1959. The luxury of the cars not getting stuck in the mud came at a cost; the first parking permit fees.

Students of ‘59 were outraged about the new $13 per semester permit, which is roughly $155 today, and started the 60-year war between parking authority and students.

Riley said that the administration told students that the fees were to help build parking lots at other California State University campuses.

In response to the new fees, students did what they do best — find a free alternative.

“Students used to park endlessly on Seventh Street,” Brown said about the 1959 parking situation.

By 1969 the student population had doubled to over 21,500 students, creating huge parking problem .

The Long Beach Police Department had banned parking on Seventh Street by this point due to unsafe conditions on the busy street.

70 years of looking for parking From the simple beginning of parking in a dirt lot to 14,090 paved spots, “Parking has always been a problem.”

GRAPHIC BY STEPHANIE HOLT | @ paninipaints

Again, students tried to get around the parking crisis — sometimes to an extreme.

In March of 1969, the Daily Forty-Niner reported on student, Brian Fiedler who built a car called the “Loophole.” Fielder’s homemade three-wheeled vehicle was technically not a car, and he was able to use this loophole to register the vehicle as a motorcycle. The vacant motorcycle spots allowed him to park with ease, and save hundreds of dollars in parking permits he told the Forty-Niner.

“I could do anything that I wanted to do,” he said.

By the ‘80s many of the lots students recognize today were in place. Pay machines were added and parking permit prices were raised 60% to $34 a semester and students were, again, outraged.

Students looked to get around the increased fees by parking in the Seventh Street “$2 Lot,” an off-campus gravel lot across the street from the McIntosh Building where a neighborhood is today.

“I could see Catalina [from the lot],” Paula Riley recalled. “Then they tore that lot out to build houses. It was a great place to park because it was the only place to park on upper campus.”

In the early ‘90s the school had run out of room to pave. Administrators decided to build upwards, and, in 1994, the first parking garage was completed. The Palo Verde garage added 2,800 parking spots and raised parking permit fees from $54 a semester in 1992 to $63 in 1994 to help fund the project.

Despite the administration’s history of attempts to curb the parking problem, parking is now worse than ever according to many current students.

“I got [to campus] at 12:00 [p.m.], it would be a stretch to say that there weren’t any other spots available, but given the time I had to make it to class on time, and [with] the large amount of other students scrambling for a spot, I really did not have a choice,” said Franco Vizcaya, a second-year computer science major. “The campus is really scamming the commuting portion of the class.”

The 14,090 spots aren’t enough for the roughly 20,000 students who drive to campus. In an effort to reduce car-commuter numbers and carbon emissions, Parking and Transportation Services has reinvested in sustainability.

Solar panels were added to lots G6, G7 and G8 in 2016 to help power CSULB and offer charging stations for electric vehicles. Parking and Transportation Services also partnered with Long Beach Transit in 2010 to offer discounted bus permits for transit throughout Long Beach.

President Jane Close Conoley announced Sept.

6 that parking has become an educational barrier for students and faculty on campus. She said the administration is in discussions to alleviate parking pressure.

Work-arounds this semester include the eightweek assisted parking service to double-park cars in assigned lots.

The latest parking discussion has sparked controversy, as the last of the undeveloped land on campus, the 22-acre parcel known to Native Americans as Puvungnva, is a target for a potential temporary dirt lot.

“In terms of additional parking we’re looking over near the Japanese Garden,” Conoley told the Forty-Niner. “That’s still in the environmental investigation, so it’s not a done deal, but we’d like to add another 500 spots over there. [The spots] would be used only during those first eight-weeks and then we’ll leave it alone.

If the 500-parking spot lot becomes a reality, the campus will have come full circle, ending where it began, with dirt lots to fuel controversy and outrage.

Rachel Barnes, news editor, contributed to this article.

PAID ADVERTISEMENTS

A Tradition of Educational Excellence

YOUR MORNING COMMUTE JUST GOT BETTER Tune in this Monday morning for the Beach Weekly 70th Anniversary Special Episode.

Introducing Our Newest Faculty

Guangfei Duan

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Maryam Haddad Chemical Engineering

Hossein Sayadi

Computer Engineering & Computer Science

Ga-Young Kelly Suh Biomedical Engineering

THE OFFICIAL HOME OF GEAR The 49er Shops are a Non-Profit Organization.

Our sales directly support CSULB students and campus programs.

Beach Weekly can be streamed at Daily49er.com as well as the following platforms: Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, SoundCloud, and Radio Public.

WHAT YOUR TEACHERS WILL NOT TELL YOU The State of Our State Dr. George A. Kuck (galbertk@aol.com) In the over 50 years of watching politics, one major observation has stood out. Whenever one political party has a position such that it does not need the votes of the minority party, corruption flourishes and politicians can ignore the needs of the voters. The super majority of Democrats in control of California illustrates the necessity of having at least two active, strong political parties. If the Republicans had the supermajority, I would have reached the same conclusion.

What is the state of our state, California? How well we are doing depends upon the criteria that you use. The major media think that we are doing a great. What criteria do they use? Their major criteria are the size of our economy and what the gross income is in the state. They do not publicize the distribution of the salaries (the GINI) coefficient, the poverty level, the number of homeless, the unemployment rate, how easy it is to start a business, the total tax and regulatory burden on the middle class, and what are the flows of middle class citizens into and out of the state.

California is becoming a feudal state where there are a small number of very wealthy people, a declining middle class, and a growing class in poverty. The GINI index (a

measure of the income inequality) is 0.488, the 47th highest in the US, and has been rising for the past 8 years.

California has the highest poverty level in the country according to the US Census bureau. Over 25% of the homeless reside in California. The unemployment rate is a bright spot with it running at 4.1%. The national unemployment rate was 3.7% for the third consecutive month in August.

California is 43rd in the business climate to start a business due to high taxes, the cost of living, and the cost of actually starting a business.

Some surveys say that California is the least friendly for small business.

The integration of all the facts that influence live in California is measured by the number of people voting with their feet. The census bureau showed that California lost 138,000 citizens to domestic migration in the past 12 months. .

Has our state become better under single party “progressive” Democrat rule or become worse for the citizens? To clarify your thinking before you vote, please read both platforms of the Democratic and Republican parties. Then vote.

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

Dr. Kim’s Dentistry

1777 N. Bellflower Blvd. Suite 102, Long Beach, California 90815 Email. contact@drkimdentallongbeach.com Tel. 562-494-9090 Mon - Fri l 9 AM - 6 PM

A One-Stop Shop for Making a Difference in Patients’ Lives Implant Surgery Root Canal Treatment Orthodontics

Oral Surgery Cosmetic Dentistry Cosmetic Cavity Filling

Periodontal Surgery Crown and Bridges ...and More

All your dental needs right here at one office, because your time is valuable.

Call us at 562-494-9090 today to make an appointment!

shopthebeach.com

Most insurances accepted Cash patients are welcome All major forms of credit cards accepted Senior discount available

Ask us about our grand opening specials!

Wherever you plan to take your smile, Dr. Kim’s got your back.

Honest and professional dental work guaranteed.

8 70TH SPECIAL

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.CO

How CSULB transf CSULB is a diverse school, but its past is characterized by racist policies, people and events.

By Perry Continente & Cristal Gomez Staff Writers @perrycontinente & @gomezcristal98

L

ong Beach State, like most institutions of its age, has a racist past. However, over time, the school evolved from an almost entirely white college to a more diverse campus.

In the late ‘60s, the Black Student Union protested the lack of representation of students of color in student government, occupying the Associated Students Inc. council chambers.

The Daily Forty-Niner responded by running a story with the headline “Blacks hold A.S. Senate hostage” and an editorial called “Wrongs don’t get rights,” condemning the protestors.

This story was printed April 4, 1968, the day Martin Luther King Jr. died. News of King’s death was reported days later and buried on page 3. A month later the paper published an advertisement for medallions emblazoned with King’s image. They sold for $2.98.

The “49er Days” annual, Western-themed parties often featured dramatized violence against caricatures of Native Americans.

White students dressed in garish representations of indigenous people and participated in light-hearted skits depicting historical violence.

The first of these events took place in 1950 and included a white student in a headdress being held at rifle point while her captors discuss executing her. Another saw the lynching of an effigy.

Flipping through yearbooks in the ‘50s and ‘60s reveals rows of white faces with almost no diversity. In addition to lack of diversity in the student body, many fraternities and sororities were segregated.

Long Beach State Special Collections & University Archives

Students pose in front of a mock lynching during the 49er Days festivities.

Alumnus Phil Riley attended CSULB in the mid-1950s, and remembers when his frat excluded Huey Shepard, an accomplished student, because of his race.

“The fraternity I was in wouldn’t allow [Shep-

ard] in because he was Black,” Riley said, “The members wanted Huey, but [the national organization] wouldn’t allow him in.”

According to Alumna Anna Nieto-Gomez, discrimination was a social requirement for many white students during that time.

Nieto-Gomez enrolled at CSULB in 1967 and felt isolated by the racially homogenous population. She said that the only time white

70TH SPECIAL 9

OM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

formed exclusion into diversity Students recreate the trial of a Native American women during the first 49er Days event, May 20 1950. 49er Days often recreated violent events through light hearted sketches.

Long Beach State Special Collections & University Archives

ed the counselors and the teachers and told them we wanted to recruit students.”

Despite opposition, groups like La Raza and the BSU championed change. The groups took action and worked to dismantle the white supremacist power structures that used to dominate the campus.

In recent years, the population of Latinx students has surpassed the number of white students at over 40% of the university’s population.

Recently, the protection of Puvungna, the sacred land of the indigenous people, and the removal of longtime mascot Prospector Pete, due to the association of prospectors with the genocide of Native Americans in California, have become major concerns.

Associated Students Inc. Vice President Leen Almahdi, who co-authored the bill to remove Pete as mascot, commented on the progressive focus of the organization.

students talked to her was to ask about her ethnicity.

“When I was at Long Beach there was no concept of Latina yet,” she said. “Those who stopped to talk to me ask what I was. They thought I was from another country.”

Nieto-Gomez was one of the first members of United Mexican American Students, an organization that championed Mexican students.

UMAS eventually evolved into La Raza, which remains an active organization at CSULB. La Raza is one of many organizations such as the BSU that acted as catalysts for the changing demographics and culture of CSULB. “In the summer of ‘68 we were going to organize ‘La Semana de la Raza,’ or ‘The Week of the People,’” Nieto-Gomez said. “We contact-

Carlos said he has experienced microaggressions, subtle, and often unintentional, racist actions that reflect people’s preconceptions.

“When I was on a panel, one of the older professors had asked when we were going to bring the food out. It’s nothing malicious on their part,” Carlos said. “I take things like that with a grain of salt, it wasn’t the first time something like this happened.”

Carlos mentioned the disparity between the school’s population and its current faculty.

“If you look at the power structure of the university, it’s not indicative…of the student population,” he said.

Studies have shown that students of color are more successful when they are being taught by someone who looks like them. Carlos said that a diverse faculty will improve things for students of color who currently see few educators who share their experiences.

“I think the folks who served before me did a great job of bringing social justice,” Almahdi said. “Social justice was incorporated in literally everything.”

CSULB still has a noticeable gap in its student demographics in relation to Long Beach as a whole. Just over 4% of CSULB students are Black, compared to almost 13% of Long Beach residents.

These actions have done much to dismantle the white supremacist power structures that used to dominate the campus.

Almahdi is concerned that the demographics of the college do not accurately reflect the population of Long Beach.

However, racist faculty have been employed

by CSULB as recently as this decade. Psychology professor Kevin MacDonald published a three-part anti-Semitic manifesto before his retirement from the university in 2014.

“If you look at our rates of access and retention to Black students, the rates aren’t particularly high for a university,” she said. “There are not a lot of people for students of color to relate to.”

Additionally, critics have said the diversity of the student population is notably absent in the school’s faculty.

In addition to a lack of representation of Black students, recent construction that has involved Puvugna has provoked a backlash from indigenous groups.

Alfredo Carlos, political science and Chicano studies professor, is one of the few Latinx professors in the predominantly white political science department. He has seen firsthand how the campus has changed since his time as a graduate student from 2004 to 2008.

Almahdi said that as far as CSULB has come, social reform is a perpetual process.

“I think it’s a work in progress,” she said. “We can never get to the point where we are 100% good.”

10 70TH SPECIAL

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

From demonstrations to decline Protests have drastically changed at Long Beach State from the 1960s to now.

By Alexander Zepeda, Rachel Hanna, and Alberto Nunez Staff Writers

There were also protests at CSULB because of the killing of four students at Kent State University in 1970

P

“As a result of that, students around the country called strikes from Columbia University to Long Beach State,” Durand said.

assionate students surrounded the Fine Arts-4 building at Long Beach State in 1968 as part of a campus protest intended to defend their right to free expression.

Durand said that students are not protesting on campuses as much anymore due to digital outlets letting them voice their opinions.

Cops soon arrived at the scene trying to tame the outraged students, arresting 42 in the process. This was the norm for protest culture at CSULB in the ‘60s.

This particular protest occurred after CSULB alumnus William Spater exhibited his nude sculptures.

Many students thought of his art as freedom of expression. Protests to keep the artwork resulted in 42 student arrests.

Eventually, his artwork was allowed, but with some of the student protestors being arrested and tried, Spater was put into court to determine if his exhibit was legal.

“When my sculptures were placed on the lawn in front of [Fine Arts 4], a large number of students sat inside a makeshift rope enclosure circling the art, immediately upon hearing why they were there,” Spater said. “The crowd rapidly grew until the police were called, arrest threatened—no one budged.”

According to a 1968 Daily FortyNiner article, Glenn S. Dumke, chancellor of the California State University system during that time, barred Spater from displaying his work after the

Graphic by RODRIGO GONZALEZ-GARCIA | @ roro_thefool_workz

arts department had approved his exhibit. Dumke’s decision, along with the support of CSULB President Carl McIntosh, propelled unrest among the student body.

According to the article, the cancellation of the Spater exhibit made students feel as if their freedom of expression was stripped away. Students began to protest.

The American Civil Liberties Union took over the Spater case to protect students’ freedom of expression. When the case was taken to court, it was held that displaying the exhibit outside of CSULB’s art department met the exhibition requirements set by the CSU. “I don’t think this local change was because of my project,” Spater said. “Rather the product

of inevitability and the times.

Clearly, I was just the fool standing in the intersection when the culture bus ran me over.”

a legal right to express their views, and if it tried to curve free expression, it would have done more harm to the university.”

Michael Durand, a 1969 CSULB alumnus and adjunct professor at New York University, protested in the ‘60s against the Vietnam War.

In the mid ‘60s, Long Beach was a conservative area and the majority of the citizens supported the Vietnam War. Durand said the Long Beach community regarded citizens who were protesting the war as “leftist hippies.”

“It was our generation that was committed to fighting the war and the vast majority of young people at the time did not believe in it,” Durand said.

According to Durand, protests in the mid ‘60s were about how the U.S. government had young men and women fighting a pointless war.

“Protesting was probably the easiest way to express their outrage,” Durand said. “CSULB recognized that protestors had

“It was an invigorating time,” Durand said. “It was a time when a lot of us were coming together to form our adult thoughts.

Looking back at it, I remember quite fondly, but many of the issues that we were concerned about back then remain and I think we just have to be conscious of what’s going on in the country and what’s going on in the world today.”

“There are more ways of people protesting or voicing their outrage through social media channels largely,” Durand said.

“In the 1960s, there was no easy way of students communicating between themselves or policy makers, except writing letters and getting your feet dirty to protest.”

When Donald Trump became president in 2016, Durand found it encouraging to see massive protests like the ones of the 1960s.

Other CSULB alumni like Andrew Gonzalez, who specializes in Vietnam-era demonstrations, said that the need for political protests like those in the ‘60s has come back. To him, protests are all about enacting positive change.

“While political tensions rise once more and the whispers of war start to increase in intensity the need for student protest becomes more clear,” Gonzalez said. “Many students today feel they aren’t being heard and the world isn’t willing to change, but I ask them to look back to their predecessors and see how much change we can make in the world.”

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

70TH SPECIAL 11

Viewing campus sculptures through a new lens Daily Forty-Niner takes a virtual walk on an art tour.

By Brenna Enos Social Media Editor @brennasenos

S

Sun Forces by Rita Letendre Commissioned for the 1965 California International Sculpture Symposium Sun Forces by Rita Letendre, which was recently preserved with a fresh paint job, is located next to the Liberal Arts-5 building.

This piece is mostly known for its abstract and colorful designs that students walk under on their way through the LA buildings.

Letendre has created several large-scale murals and public works, many of which explore light and color.

cattered throughout Long Beach State are towering sculptures and murals that mark the campus, but students may not be aware of the art and its history.

Many of these sculptures and paintings, created by several worldrenowned artists, were placed on campus in 1965 as a part of the California International Sculpture Symposium. This symposium was the first large organized gathering of artists in the United States, and it aimed to combine technology and new materials.

“Rita Letendre is known for these very energetic, colorful, abstract pieces all over her Native Canada,” Fruta said.

RYAN GUITARE | Daily Forty-Niner “Sun Forces” by Rita Letendre, the 22-foot by 21-foot landmark mural between Liberal Arts-5 and Faculty Office-3 was first painted in 1965.

The mural echoes her focus on vibrancy as the geometric shapes in hues of green and yellow stand out against the black background.

“Now” by Piotr Kowalski Commissioned for the 1965 California International Sculpture Symposium Created using explosives and stainless steel, Piotr Kowalksi created “Now” with the intention of having viewers connect with the universe. The sculpture’s reflective properties through the triangular sheets of steel reflect sunlight in various ways, bouncing light back-and-forth between the sheets and creating a campus mirror next to the University Student Union. Kowalski worked with Northern American Aviation, who produced metal for aerospace projects at the time, to create this piece.

To learn more about these sculptures, the Daily Forty-Niner went on a campus art tour with Curator of Education Christina Alegria, and Public Affairs & Communications Specialist Amanda Fruta, both from the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum. We stopped at six sculptures around upper campus to learn more about the artworks’ history, significance and the artists who created them.

“In your mind, if you go back to 1965, you can think about what is happening in the South,” Alegria said. “[The nation] had a huge aeronautical [program] going on.”

Long Beach State Special Collections & University Archives A sculpture by Piotr Kowalski called “Now” is located next to the USU on the east side of campus. Photo taken in 1967.

Homage to Kenn Glenn by anonymous students Commissioned for the 1965 California International Sculpture Symposium While it may appear to be a pile of wood from a distance, the fifteen ton and 12-foot high mixture of timber and steel next to the CSULB sign on Seventh Street is a sculpture, titled “Homage to Kenn Glenn.” An anonymous group of students created the piece as a part of the 1965 California International Sculpture Symposium, but it was not planned to be a part of the event.

To watch the full tour on IGTV, visit our Instagram page @daily49er.

“Not only did [the symposium] bring together artists and innovative science and industry, it also used students as collaborators and assistants in making all these sculptures come to life,” Fruta said.

Long Beach State Special Collections & University Archives 1966 view of the “Homage to Ken Glenn” a sculpture on upper campus.

In the summer of 1965, a group of students were excited about the symposium and greatly admired director of the symposium Kenn Glenn, so they created a monument to show their enthusiasm and artistic potential.

PAID ADVERTISEMENTS

Your future made easy Proud supporter of Long Beach State

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

By Rachel Barnes News Editor @rachlbarnes

What do you hope to see in CSULB’s next 70 years?

You know a number of things, I’d like us to of course solve our parking problem, but I don’t think that will take 70 years, but I’d like that. So in the next 70 years I think I want to have a university that is even better at engaging all the students. These students come from very different backgrounds; They bring different gifts and they bring different needs. I hope that we’ll have the financial resilience to really meet those needs and build on those strengths.

I also want us to really never take for granted that we have a caring and compassionate community and that we really work to meet the needs of people. But [I] also [want to] give everybody a place at the table and make sure that they know their voice is valued.

We have the advantage of great diversity of every kind, but that’s not enough. It’s not enough just to have different people in the room; the people in the room have to feel that that they have some influence on what’s going on.

I also want us to be a model in 70 years from now, assuming the world is still here, that people will say, “Long Beach State was ahead of its time in its sustainability and climate mitigation efforts.” So I have a lot of hopes and dreams for what I want us to be, but the basis of it [is] I want us to be 70 years from now is a place where students really are proud to come.

If CSULB was a person, what would you say to them to celebrate their birthday?

I’d say: You’re doing great at 70. You’re doing better than ever actually on so many dimensions. Most applications ever, most graduations ever, biggest combined new class. You know, we’ve been breaking records in philanthropy [and] in research dollars.

We just got a renewal of an almost $20 million grant. [These are] great times. So 70 is the new 25, I suppose or something, in organizational life. Yeah, I’m really proud of all that the faculty and staff and the students have accomplished.

COURTESY OF CSULB

70TH SPECIAL 13

President Conoley celebrates Long Beach State’s 70th anniversary with the Daily Forty-Niner.

14 70TH SPECIAL

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

How Long Beach State sports dominated the ‘90s

LBSU ATHLETICS Dave Snow was the head coach of the Dirtbags from 1989 to 2001 and led the team to four College World of Series.

By Dom Quaranta and Julian Gutierrez Staff Writers

L

ong Beach State has had a long and illustrious sports history, but the ‘90s were especially impressive in terms of accomplishments, particularly in baseball and volleyball.

For CSULB baseball, the ‘90s was the era of legendary head coach Dave Snow. Snow began coaching for the Dirtbags in 1989 and led the Dirtbags to 18 consecutive wins in a single season. This placed the team first in the Big West Conference, and advanced the team to the College World Series for the first time in the school’s history.

In his first year coaching, Snow was chosen as NCAA coach of the year, which served as the catalyst for his legacy. Snow would lead the Dirtbags to the College World Series three more times in the ‘91, ‘93 and ‘98 seasons, along with six Big West titles.

Among the Dirtbags during the Snow golden age was Kasey Olenberger, who proved to be a dominant closing pitcher for the Dirtbags, with his four-seam fastball and slider change-up. Olenberger played under Snow towards the end of his coaching career, including when Long Beach placed third in the NCAA regionals in 1999.

“I was beyond impressed by the team when I joined Long Beach State,” Olenberger

While CSULB athletics has had their ups and downs, the 1990s was a decade where players found success in their respective sports.

said. “Coach Snow had this aura about him, I could tell right when I joined, and there wasn’t a time that he didn’t demand attention and respect. He was always professional and everybody listened up.”

Olenberger also mentioned John Strauss, a pitching coach who had three separate stints with the Dirtbags, as a significant influence on him. Strauss is entering his

“

LBSU ATHLETICS Three-time Olympic gold medalist Misty May-Treanor was the women’s volleyball team captain in 1998.

During the ‘91 season, Ratelle led the team to victory over USC for the NCAA Championship title. Ratelle solidified his legacy with the Beach after receiving the NCAA Coach of the Year award in ‘90 and ‘91. He finished his career with a .670 overall winning percentage.

The women’s volleyball team won the national championship in 1993, reached

We’re all close in this little community of ours and that has...carried over for us. We’re all in here, from top to bottom.”

-Gary Trejo

fourth season coaching at Baylor, with a total of 20 years of NCAA coaching experience.

the Final Four in 1997 and returned in 1998 after an undefeated season to claim another national championship.

For men’s and women’s volleyball, the ‘90s were also an era of success.

At the helm of the 1998 women’s volleyball team was Long Beach legend Misty May-Treanor. May-Treanor was named national player of the year in 1997 and 1998. In 2004, she was inducted into the Long Beach State Hall of Fame.

Head coach Ray Ratelle was the man at the forefront of the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team, and led it to three conference titles. Ratelle spent 18 years, from 1982-2000, coaching the men’s volleyball team, and in 2003 was inducted into the Long Beach State Hall of Fame.

These championship teams of the ‘90s still have a resounding effect on CSULB sports. Alan Knipe, a key volleyball player

during the early ‘90s runs, is the current men’s volleyball head coach and has led the Beach to six Final Four appearances, with back-to-back NCAA titles in 2018 and 2019.

Redshirt junior setter Gary Trejo said the environment of CSULB volleyball mirrors the winning culture put in place years ago.

“The culture has been reiterated by our coaches here for sure,” Trejo said. “It has been enforced by our leaders since I got here…it’s exciting to keep that going for the future.”

Trejo and many others view Knipe as the best of the best. Trejo credits Knipe for bringing him and his teammates to the next level through his advanced understanding of the game.

“He’s even created a different volleyball language that just shows how in depth he understands everything,” Trejo said. “I thought I knew a lot about volleyball, but playing under him and this team has really changed things for me.”

It isn’t just volleyball that is striving to reach the lofty expectations set back in the ‘90s.

“The entirety of the programs here at the Beach have a tight-knit bond,” Trejo said.

“We’re all close in this little community of ours and that has...carried over for us.

We’re all in here, from top to bottom.”

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | @DAILY49ER | NEWS@DAILY49ER.COM

From bright lights to empty nights

70TH SPECIAL 15

Long Beach State football was once a prominent piece in the sports community, but after sanctions and down years piled up, the team was disbanded in 1991.

Long Beach State Special Collections & University Archives Long Beach State running back Leon Burns breaks a tackle in a 1970 game versus UCSB.

By Saad Kazi Assistant Arts & Life Editor

U

SC and UCLA are, and have always been, big names in NCAA football. Both teams have produced professional coaches and players. Games deemed unforgettable have come out of matchups between the two rivals.

But it was this level of stardom that USC and UCLA garnered that overshadowed the little-known football program of one other Southern California school — Long Beach State.

“USC and UCLA had hundreds of years to build their program,” said Amen Rahh, a professor emeritus of African studies at CSULB. “We didn’t get a chance to build it; 10 to 12 years is not enough time.”

The 49er football team was formed in 1955.

In the beginning, their games, held at Long Beach City College’s Veterans Memorial Stadium, drew only a couple thousand fans.

Local high schools had much larger crowds.

The prospect of 49er football being shortlived seemed inevitable in the early years.

The team never managed to exceed five wins under the coaching of Mike DeLotto and Don Reed during their first nine seasons.

But after finally landing significant recruits, the 49ers lifted themselves to records of 8-2 and 9-1 in the mid-1960s. Quarterback Jack Reilly stood out, setting multiple passing records in 1966. Wide receiver Billy Parks

carried the team the next season, hauling in 79 passes for 1,294 yards.

coach Jim Strangeland to complete the new formed synergy.

The team’s momentum continued to rise upward as the decade went on. By 1969, with the addition of three key individuals, CSULB became a dangerous team.

“[Strangeland] brought mentality,” Olsen said.

Safety Jeff Severson earned All-Coast recognition and was a 12th round draft pick for the Washington Redskins. Star running back Leon Burns became one of the most celebrated athletes in CSULB’s history after being selected 13th overall by the San Diego Chargers in 1971.

“We heard all about Leon,” Severson said.

“He was everything they said he was.”

Burns earned national fame by scoring 47 touchdowns over the course of his two seasons at Long Beach. He led the nation in both rushing yards and scoring his junior year and held the title of Southern California College Player of the Year in 1969 and 1970.

He is the only football player in the school’s history to have his jersey retired. “[Burns] played like a man compared to the boys he was playing against,” said Dan Olsen, who graduated with his master’s degree in 1984, and is the technology coordinator of the journalism and public relations department.

Severson held a national record of 15 interceptions in his first season and had eight more in the next.

“That was the pinnacle,” Severson said about his career at CSULB. The football team was now intact, and to top off the freshly built team, CSULB hired

his

winning

The 49ers finished the 1969 season with an 8-3 record. The following year, Strangeland coached the 49ers to 9-2.

In the postseason, CSULB faced San Diego State in a game where everyone wanted to see Ohio State play instead of the 49ers.

“That was the game of the year,” Severson said.

In the past, Burns had annihilated SDSU’s defense. The 49ers knew they would have to change their running game the next time around.

“Burns was used as a decoy,” Severson said.

“They knew they had to stop Leon.”

The ball would instead be handed off to fullback Hans Albrecht, who ran over 200 yards in the 27-11 upset.

“We had it in the game plan forever and never used it,” said 1970 offensive guard Dave Brown. “The offensive players played an exceptional defensive game.”

It was a one-sided victory for the 49ers, who would advance to the Pasadena Bowl.

They tied Louisville 24-24 in the only bowl game in CSULB’s history.

The football team fell into obscurity after the 1970 season, being restricted by three years of NCAA sanctions due to recruiting violations. Some fans criticized former President Steven Horn for contemplating

ending the program in the ‘70s. Although alumni and community members raised money in an attempt to save the program, there was little hope for the 49ers.

In 1990, George Allen stepped away from coaching in the pros to join the 49ers.

Hoping to keep the program alive, Allen kept a winning record until his death twoweeks before the end of the season.

Shorty after, former Oakland Raider and Denver Bronco Willie Brown took over as head coach. Brown finished the season with a losing record before the entire program began to wane.

Low attendance, a stronger presence surrounding local rivals and budgetary constraints were all factors in the program’s demise. Former president Curtis McCray officially terminated the program in 1991.

Athletic director Perry Moore deemed it as “One of the worst mistakes we ever made” in the book “Long Beach State: A Brief History” by Barbara Kingsley-Wilson “I feel sorry for [CSULB] students,” Severson said in the book. “There was a time that we were great.”

Any attempts to revamp CSULB football after 1991 were not successful, leaving a void in the hearts of football fans.

“It was such a beautiful experience we had in sports,” Rahh said. “We want to bring football back. Football carried all the other programs.”

Mark Lindahl, sports editor, and Ralston Dacanay, assistant sports editor, contributed to this article

CELEBRATING 70 YEARS It was 70 years ago

that Long Beach State College opened its doors.

We’ve been opening minds ever since.

For seven decades, our faculty and staff have helped students discover ideas, creativity, cultures and people.

We can’t wait to see what the next 70 years bring to The Beach.