Fall 2016 Issue 2

GOLDEN GATE XPRESS Serving the San Francisco State community since 1927

Volume CIII, Issue 2

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Wednesday – August 31, 2016

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FIRED EMPLOYEE SUES SF STATE FOR $1 MILLION AFTER ALLEGED HACK

by Kelsey Lannin klannin@mail.sfsu.edu A former SF State information security officer claimed in a lawsuit that she was fired in a University attempt to sweep “under the rug” a 2014 hack involving a significant student records breach including financial records and password reset functions.

“We’ve had minor cases,” former employee Mignon Hofmann said of her work at SF State. “This was the most severe case I’ve ever seen.”

The suit, filed in January at the San Francisco Superior Court, accused the University and Board of Trustees of California State University of wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation. Hofmann is asking for more than $1 million in lost pension,

lost past and future earnings and emotional distress, according to court documents.

The University confirmed in a written statement that there was a “security incident in which information that was publicly available was potentially accessed,” but “because there was no breach of personal data, students were not notified and students have no reason to be concerned about their personal information.”

The University and the Board of Trustees of CSU have issued a general denial of all

Lawsuit cont. page 2

Summit begins year long interim provost position

by Cody McFarland cmcfarla@mail.sfsu.edu When Jennifer Summit, dean of Undergraduate Education and Academic Planning, steps into the position of interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs on Thursday, colleagues expect her to excel in the challenging new role.

Summit is temporarily replacing Sue Rosser, who was recently appointed to the state Chancellor’s Office, effective Thursday. Summit’s appointment will last one year or until a permanent replacement is found, according to a press release issued by President Leslie E. Wong on Aug. 8.

“In her short time, her leadership has brought a new vision to undergraduate education, academic advising, student success, curriculum development and the intellectual and social development of our students,” Wong said in the release. “…The University has much to do this coming year. I am confident that we will achieve much with Dr. Summit’s leadership.”

As interim provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, Summit will head the division that oversees the seven colleges, all faculty, academic programs, curriculum and support areas, which include research, sponsored programs, and the library.

She will also work on rolling out Graduation Initiative 2025, a statewide

New Gator statue

by Rita Berríos Riquelme – pg. 3

initiative beginning this semester to increase graduation rates across the California State University’s 23 campuses by 2025.

History Department Chairperson, Trevor Getz, who worked collaboratively with Summit over the last two years, said her expertise will be instrumental in ensuring the college meets its goals.

“She’s given the task -- in this crucial year -- of putting in motion the plan that’s going to let us get from 51 percent to 69 percent graduation rates,” Getz said. “It’s going to be a major, major thing. I actually believe that we can do it. I believe that Jennifer

Summit cont. page 2

Jennifer Summit, the interim provosts and vice president of academic affairs talks during an interview in her office, 447 of the Administration Building 447 on Thursday, 25, 2016. | Photo by Pablo Caballero

Fall sports preview True allies listen Depot hosts art

by Josué De Los Santos & Terence Scott – pg. 4

by Ahalya Srikant – pg. 6

social

by Mariana Raschke – pg. 7

2

NEWS

Wednesday | August 31, 2016

Housing safety concerns raised

by Karina Bueno kebueno@mail.sfsu.edu When Stephanie Berrospe, sophomore criminal justice major moved into her new on-campus apartment at University Park North, she was met with an unexpected sight.

Instead of welcome banners and resident advisors walking around speaking with parents and residents, Berrospe found herself in front of a cracked building with broken windows boarded up with cardboard and a car with a shattered window parked on her street.

“My mom was really upset. She was like, ‘I don’t know why the school is doing this to you guys,”’ Berrospe said. “‘You guys are paying so much, we are paying so much for you guys to be here and for them to have this place kept like this it’s disgusting.

It’s sad that it’s even like this.’”

Later that day, a unit in UPN, not yet occupied by students, was broken into by two individuals.

University Police responded to the call and soon the apartment was flooded with officers and search dogs, according to the UPD crime log.

SF State students walk back to SF State’s Upper Park North on Winston Drive near SF State on University spokesperson Jonathan Morales said Monday, Aug 29, 2016. | Photo by Perng-chih Huang UPD has seen an increase in crime leading up to the

school year. However it is also not uncommon to see a spike in criminal activity right before school starts. During summer there are less residents and therefore less people to keep a look out for. He said UPD has responded by increasing patrol in the affected areas.

“The University is committed to fostering a safe and positive community for all of our residents,” Morales said. “The property management and physical planning offices work with UPD to address any safety issues quickly and we encourage residents to report any maintenance issues to University Property Management so they can be addressed as soon as possible.”

Shiba Bandeeba, a junior liberal studies major and member of Students for Quality Education, is hoping to tackle the housing issues as her next project for the organization.

“It affects her studies, not just her personal health care. You want to feel safe when you go home,” Bandeeba said about how living conditions can affect residents such as Berrospe. “You want to feel that the bed you sleep on there isn’t going to have any mold or asbestos that you’re breathing that is going to affect your health. Or where you’re cooking food there are no roaches or mice.”

Medieval, Renaissance scholar takes provost spot Summit from page 1

is the person who can make that happen.”

In her two years as a dean at SF State, Summit led the creation of the Division of Undergraduate and Academic Planning.

The consolidated division includes: general education, writing in the disciplines, writing across the curriculum,student academic support and advising, curriculum development, student learning assessment, the Metro College Success Program and the Institute for Civic and Community Engagement.

She also led initiatives supporting student academic achievement and success in the majors, including a faculty-led curriculum redesign in the majors, supported by the Teagle

Foundation and a pre-major structured pathway to support students in the lower division, supported by the Keck Foundation.

“It’s amazing for a university of ours (CSU) to get money from the Keck Foundation and the Teagle Foundation,” Getz said. “That’s astounding that (Summit) managed to bring that money in. Teagle, as far as I know, has not funded any other comprehensive four-year public university.”

Despite leading these efforts, Summit insists the achievements are not hers alone.

“It’s a very collaborative division and I think what we do here that is strongest happens through relationships,” Summit said. “I would like to think that while I was here I built up, strengthened and supported the relationships that made and continue to make great things happen supporting student success.”

“

Summit began her career in academia on the tenure track as a professor in Stanford’s English Department, where she worked for nearly 20 years and garnered numerous teaching awards.

She is a widely published scholar of medieval and Renaissance literature, with fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Modern Language Association.

“As a literary scholar you are trained as a reader first,” she said. “The challenge of reading and interpreting complex evidence is something I think that feeds into the challenge of making decisions in a complex institution.”

A proud Bay Area native, Summit grew up in Silicon Valley before the once sprawling orchards and mustard weed were paved over to make way for the many techie campuses there

today.

The Bay Area holds a profound spot in her heart, she said, adding that she is in love with her homeland and the SF State community she serves.

The time Summit spends away from work is largely dedicated to her two kids, who keep her fascinated with their passions for video games and fantasy and science-fiction novels.

American educator Janet English once said “teaching is like sailing.” The analogy is one Summit will take with her into her new role.

“You know the direction you want to go, but you can’t control the winds and the waves. You can control the sail and how it responds to the winds and the waves, but you also have to be extremely sensitive to where the winds and the waves are coming from,” Summit said.

SF State deals with lawsuit from former employee charges and legal wrongdoing, according to court documents.

“SF State denies the allegations in Ms. Hofmann’s complaint and will vigorously defend the case. The case is in the early investigatory stage, but SFSU believes the evidence will show that it acted properly and within its rights regarding Ms. Hofmann.”

Current and former University IT professionals were interviewed for this story but did not want to speak on the record. The University wouldn’t comment on which information was accessed.

“The language leaves open the possibility that there was a breach,” said Kevin Poulsen, an information security expert. He was consulted

by Xpress but is not involved in this case.

Poulsen said he has heard of IT professionals being fired to avoid the breach disclosure required by California state law, but it’s hard to say how common it is because most often these situations are settled out of court to prevent information from entering the public record.

Information compromised by the breach is described in court documents as “key legacy databases of the University which stored all data on current and past students, financial aid, financial transactions, accounts receivables and interfaces to housing as well as campus wide account management and password reset functions.”

An outside firm first alerted Hofmann to the vulnerability in a University Oracle application server in September 2014, according to court documents. Bryan Seely and Ben Caudill, information security analysts who discovered

“

Lawsuit from page 1

There’s no way they can’t do an investigation with the information that I presented to them saying, ‘Your shit’s on fire bro,’ and they’re just like, ‘Nope, we’re good.’ Like no, your house is on fire, and they’re like, ‘No, it’s just smoke, we’re just running a drill.

the vulnerability went to CNN that month with information about the weakness that left government agencies, schools and universities in the U.S. — including San Francisco State open to possible data breaches.

“There’s no way they can’t do an investigation with the information that I presented to them, saying, ‘Your shit’s on fire bro,’ and they’re just like ‘Nope, we’re good,’” Seely said. “’Like no, your house is on fire, and they’re like ‘No, it’s just smoke, we’re just running a drill.’”

Prior to the alleged breach, Hofmann had recommended improvements to the Oracle database security, which her lawsuit alleges were rejected by her superiors due to “budget constraints and IT security risk acceptances.”

“All I can tell you is this: the networks at SF State were not properly fortified, maintained or secured,” Seely said. “And SF State did not do what they were supposed to do with their own stuff.”

According to court documents, Hofmann had also alerted “University Management, Risk Management, Legal, Campus Police, Internal Audit, Student Affairs, Housing, the University

Bryan Seely

President (Les Wong) and the Chancellor’s Office and other 23 campuses per existing procedures and to share information on the Oracle vulnerabilities.”

“They were risk accepting, they weren’t patching things,” Hofmann said. “It was Swiss cheese.”

The lawsuit alleges that Robert Moulton, the University’s then interim chief information officer didn’t want to report a security breach “on his watch” and sought to “avoid reporting supporting information that might lead to a breach disclosure.”

Despite a previous “stellar” performance evaluation, Hofmann was terminated before she could further investigate the extent of the hack, according to the suit. The University confirmed that she had been employed at SF State from February 2008 to January 2015 and asserted that her termination was unrelated to this security incident.

Data breaches are potentially very costly, according to a 2016 research report by the Ponemon Institute, which estimated the average cost of a data breach in the education sector at $246 per person affected. Costs associated with

repairing a data breach include payment for incident response teams, forensic experts and credit monitoring for those whose information may have been accessed.

“They could have protected themselves and everybody else. But they panicked. They wanted a different answer,” Hofmann said.

According to SF State, there have been six data breaches since 2011, the largest affecting 8,700 families enrolled in the Head Start program, which was reported. The breach described in Hofmann’s suit was not included in the list provided by the University.

Hofmann, who now works in information security at Microsoft said she hopes another university that was affected by this breach comes forward.

“Unfortunately that’s really common in the industry. Most people are incented to say, ‘Oh nothing here,’” She said. “Nobody knows for almost three years how bad this is.”

A trial is set for May 2017.

3

NEWS

Wednesday | August 31, 2016

Gators have new guardian

The newly installed 10-foot bronze Gator Spirit Statue stands in front of the Don Nasser Family Plaza at SF State on Monday, Aug. 29, 2016.

Photo by Lauren Saldana

by Rita Berríos Riquelme rberrios@mail.sfsu.edu

The Gator Spirit Statue made its debut near the entrance of the Gymnasium on Tuesday, Aug. 16, – four days before the new freshman class moved in.

After trying from different angles, a little boy climbed onto the back of the alligator that holds a sphere of written words under its front feet. The perch is a globe with crisscrossing bands listing SF State’s values; social justice, excellence and equity are some of the attributes cast in bronze under the alligator.

Sarah Guensler, a business major, had positive things to say about the 10-foot bronze sculpture that features a soon-to-be engraved platform.

“It’s a bad ass Gator statue,” Guensler said.

Mei Mei Kao didn’t agree with the placement of the statue. “It looks good, but I think it should be closer to the other statue,” Kao said, referring to the bronze busts of former coaches Vic Rowen and Joe Verducci. Kao’s daughter started graduate school this year at SF State.

The statue is the result of a cooperative process between Professor Emeritus Leonard Hunter, who designed four different models of the alligator, and sculptor Ilaman Sabirov.

“Via email we randomly asked alumni and students to rank their choices out of the four presented.

That was the top ranked selection,” said Doug Hupke, executive director of the Alumni and Constituent Relations & Annual Giving.

“I like to believe that the Gator is the protector of all that is SF State. I like to call the statue the ‘Guardian Gator,’” Hupke said.

The idea started about seven years ago by Ellen Griffin, then associate vice president, and it became possible thanks to the 2015 senior class gift.

The goal in 2015 was to raise $48,000, but only a little over $40,000 was raised. “Alumni and community members will have an opportunity to

purchase bricks to fund the full cost of the statue,” Hupke said.

Hupke said that the 2015 senior class gift would not cover the total cost of the statue.

“The bricks were a way to get alumni involved and also help pay for the statue,” Hupke said.

Current students and alumni can purchase a plaque for $200 and the bricks will hold up to three lines with 23 characters each, according to the SF State Alumni Association Facebook page. The installation of the bricks will be in October.

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4

SPORTS

Wednesday | August 31, 2016

Infographic by Jesslyn Los Banos

Gators plan to improve on last season’s successes, records

by Josué De Los Santos and Terence Scott dlsjosue@mail.sfsu.edu tscott@mail.sfsu.edu The expectation for all five Fall sports men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country and volleyball is to win.

Men’s Soccer Men’s soccer head coach Javier Ayala-Hil looks to bring more offense to an already strong defensive team that recorded nine shutouts last season.

Even with a new face leading the way, the players are ready to compete.

Seniors Ashley Watson and Emmanuel Serrano are the captains of the team and their enthusiasm about playing in AyalaHil’s offense has the team seeking a strong start.

Ayala-Hil looks forward to the first game, which will give him a better assessment of where the team stands.

The men’s soccer team begin their quest for playoffs at home on Sept.

1 when they host Hope International University.

Women’s Soccer The SF State women’s soccer team enters this season loaded with returning seniors from last season’s 8-7-3 team.

“We have very high expectations for this upcoming season,” second year head coach Tracy Hamm said. “We’re returning 15 seniors, with a few juniors

and sophomores sprinkled in. I think we have a solid set of leadership in place.”

“We focused a lot on team building,” Hamm said. “And creating a competitive culture at practice by trying to establish a winning mentality.”

“I think we have an advantage on teams with having so many seniors,” said senior Autumn Fox, who led the Gators last season with ten points. “Every year teams have three or four seniors you play for, but this year we have so many. We’re all playing like it’s our last game.”

The season kicks off at home Sept.1 against Central Washington University.

Women’s Volleyball Women’s Volleyball head coach Matt Hoffman talked about how the season and every day is a process for not only himself, but also the team.

“Getting 1 percent better every day,” junior Christine Johnson said of the message Hoffman has taught the team.

In the few months that Hoffman and the team have spent together, the team chemistry has been formed.

Women’s volleyball opens the season away from The Swamp on Sept. 1 at the Hawaii Invitational.

Men’s Cross Country This season looks bright as ever for the men’s cross country team as they look to pick up where they left off last season after reaching the West Regionals.

The team placed third in the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships, second best in program history.

All-West Region Runners Drew Feldman and Benji Preciado return to try to finally reach the NCAA Division II National Championship, which they barely missed last season.

Preciado said that he and the team know what they need to do in order to reach their ultimate goal. 12th-year head coach Tom Lyons added that there’s only so much his runners can do during the race. Last year, the team was close to reaching nationals but there were faster runners.

Men’s cross country is off to the races on Sept. 15 when they host the Speedway Duels at Golden Gate Park’s Speedway Meadows.

Women’s Cross Country Second-year head coach Kendra Reimer is excited about the potential that this crop of runners has.

“We have so many talented girls,” said Reimer. “We’re deep across the board.”

Junior Adriana Calva had a recordbreaking season that began last fall and continued into the Track and Field season. Despite the record-setting times, Calva is still not satisfied with her placing in the last race since she was one place shy of making All-CCAA, which gives her motivation.

“Thinking about it during training will push me,” said Calva.

Reimer pointed to the junior class being the strength of the team.

Women’s cross country is also off to the races on Sept. 15 when they host the Speedway Duels at Golden Gate Park’s Speedway Meadows.

Adriana Calva of the SF State women’s cross country team says the mistake she made last year is still in her head at the annual Fall Sports Media Day in Gym Room 117A on Thrusday, Aug 25, 2016.

Photo by Kin Lee

OPINION

6

Wednesday | August 31, 2016

Speak from experience or don’t speak at all

GOLDEN GATE XPRESS KELSEY LANNIN

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF klannin@mail.sfsu.edu

GRADY PENNA

PRINT MANAGING EDITOR gpenna@mail.sfsu.edu

BRIAN CHURCHWELL

ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR bchurchw@mail.sfsu.edu

SHEENA TADIFA

ART DIRECTOR stadifa@mail.sfsu.edu

JESSYLYN LOS BANOS

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR jessylyn@mail.sfsu.edu

GEORGE MORIN

PHOTO EDITOR gmorin@mail.sfsu.edu

AHALYA SRIKANT

NEWS EDITOR asrikant@mail.sfsu.edu

NICK MADDEN

Illustration by Jessyln Los Banos

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR nmadden@mail.sfsu.edu

SEKINAT SHIWOKU

by Ahalya Srikant asrikant@mail.sfsu.edu In today’s world, being politically correct is a general expectation for almost everyone hoping to have a civil conversation. It’s easy to get caught up in discussions about race, gender and privilege without realizing where your opinions are coming from.

In the seventh episode of comedian Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix series “Master of None,” the characters discuss at length the issues that arise when men comment on the experiences of women. The episode discusses gender issues like men only addressing men during in conversations and women having to take extra precautions when picking up a couch off Craigslist.

The women in the show try to explain

how different an experience women have in the world, compared to men.

This is a frequent issue in conversations not just about gender experiences, but also about race, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, age and socio-economic class. The bottom line is: if you’ve never experienced it, you don’t get to comment on it.

It’s always easier to have your opinions heard when you’re speaking from a position of power. Men in Congress have been making decisions about women’s health for as long as this country has existed. In 2012, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Leader Nancy Pelosi led a petition against House Republican leaders after they established a panel on women’s access to birth control that had five men and no women. White fashion

icons have been using other cultures as fashion trends more successfully than they should be able to. Just last year, Kylie Jenner was applauded for wearing dreadlocks for a Teen Vogue cover. This power to control the dialogue about issues that don’t concern you stems from privilege.

Merriam-Webster defines privilege as “a right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others.”

This word gets thrown around a lot in conversations but many people seem to forget what recognizing it should mean. It’s one thing to say that you’re a man who is a feminist but it’s another thing to recognize that you have no idea what it’s like to be a woman and you shouldn’t have any opinions about the female experience. When you are an ally to a movement, it doesn’t mean you get to make decisions for the movement.

As Ansari’s character Dev learned by the end of the episode: “I guess there’s no way I’ll ever really know what it’s like to be in your shoes, so I’ll try and do a better job of listening.”

Today, many communities that once felt silenced by their differences can now voice their opinions. What’s more, minority communities are often met with support from others who pledge to fight with them for equal rights. Being a feminist and standing up against police brutality are no longer just trendy, they’re required-- and many of us stand as allies for those who don’t share our privileges. But let’s not forget that as allies we are still unable to fully experience what those without our same privileges are going through.

LIFESTYLE & CULTURE EDITOR sshiwoku@mail.sfsu.edu

JORDAN VAIL

OPINION EDITOR jmv@mail.sfsu.edu

JOSUÉ DE LOS SANTOS SPORTS EDITOR dlsjosue@sfsu.edu

TRAVIS MACKIN

COPY EDITOR tmackin@mail.sfsu.edu

AVERY PETERSON

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR averylp@mail.sfsu.edu

RACHELE KANIGEL PRINT ADVISER kanigel@sfsu.edu

LAURA MOORHEAD FACULTY ADVISER lauralm@sfsu.edu

KIM KOMENICH PHOTO ADVISER komenich@sfsu.edu

EVA CHARLES

To the Xpress Editor: Thank you for your article (August 24, 2016) focusing on student homelessness and food insecurity. With inequalities in wealth rising and the middle class being increasingly financially squeezed, and given that San Francisco has one of the highest costs of living in the country, more and more of our students are becoming imperiled in relation to the basic human rights of food and shelter.

It was particularly gratifying to learn from your article that the campus bookstore has donated $9,000 for a food pantry.

The California Faculty Association E-Board here at San Francisco State voted last year to donate $2000 for a food pantry for our students, and we raised the idea of creating such a pantry with President Wong at that time.

The U.C. system recently surveyed its students and discovered that one in five experiences food insecurity. In response, U.C. President Janet Napolitano immediately ordered the expenditure of more than $3 million to make more food available to students. Many of their campuses already have food pantries. In fact, more than 300 colleges across the country have established such pantries.

Our students surely have equal or even greater needs than U.C. students. And our students cannot do their best work while struggling with food insecurity and lack of housing.

We hope that SF State will prioritize these urgent student needs and get a food pantry up and running on campus immediately, especially in light of the Xpress report that “SF State’s support offerings for housing and food insecure students fell below average” in relation to the other CSU campuses.

Ann Robertson Lecturer, Department of Philosophy California Faculty Association Representative for the College of Liberal and Creative Arts

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STUDENT GRAPHIC DESIGNER ggxads@sfsu.edu

WRITE US A LETTER The Golden Gate Xpress accepts letters no longer than 200 words.

Letters are subject to editing.

Send letters to Jordan Vail at: jmv@mail.sfsu.edu

ABOUT XPRESS The Golden Gate Xpress is a student-produced publication of the journalism department at San Francisco State University.

For more information or comments, please contact Kelsey Lannin at: klannin@mail.sfsu.edu

Wednesday | August 31, 2016

LIFESTYLE & CULTURE

Creativity f lows at The Depot art social

Andrew Speight, a SF State Music and Dance Lecturer plays saxophone for a photo in his office at Creative Arts Room 161 on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016.

Photo by Kin Lee

by Mariana Raschke mraschke@mail.sfsu.edu

Jazz “jam session” provides platform for music students

by Richard Lomibao rlomibao@mail.sfsu.edu

From the classroom to the stage, students who decide to study music as a career sometimes struggle to find a platform to be heard.

A couple of SF State jazz professors have put together a live jam session that provides an outlet for music students to showcase their talent and share the stage with their musical mentors.

Every second Tuesday of the month, SF State professors, Andrew Speight and Michael Zisman host Jazz Master and Student Night at a historic building called the 7 Mile House in Brisbane. On Sept. 13, these jazz professors alongside their students, alumni and musicians will take the stage in an improvised ensemble, also known as a jam session.

“We don’t really rehearse, it’s a jam session, so we get there and it all comes together on that night,” said Speight.

Zisman, who plays the bass, has taught at SF State for eight years. He currently teaches modern musicianship and jazz bass. Speight specializes in the saxophone and teaches survey of jazz, Coltrane seminar, jazz improvisation, small and big ensemble.

The two met 15 years ago while playing music in San Francisco and have been friends ever since.

Coming together for this show wasn’t only to have the opportunity to play alongside each other, but to show an audience the talents of their students.

This collaborative showcase, which began in February, allows students to get on stage in front of a live audience to perform and apply what they’ve learned in

class.

“It’s students we see in our classes or have seen in our classes, or graduated from our classes or graduated from the college, they come get a little real world experience,” Zisman said.

The night is set in two parts: for the first half, both Speight and Zisman will perform accompanied by a mix of alumni and other musicians unrelated to SF State.

After intermission, the stage will fill with students, alumni and local musicians to close out the set.

One of those students is alumni drummer Lilian Wu. Wu will usually perform for the entire night, but will occasionally give the reigns to another drummer for the second half.

When Wu received the phone call from Speight before the first showcase was booked, she made an effort to travel up to play the show after moving back to Los Angeles, where she is originally from.

“It really gave me the confidence to keep going,” said Wu. Last year after I graduated from May to December I had a silent period where I didn’t play and Andrew sort of got me back; it was really an honor and a privilege.”

Speight and Zisman believe they have created a unique night full of improvisation, keeping things loose and fun, where the audience won’t hear the same set from the last month.

On stage musicians will “take turns” and “sit in” to communicate without having to speak to one another about what’s going to be played next.

“We’ll have a jam session that is very loose and if people know what we’re doing, they can come and join us. And if they enjoy music, they should come and hang out,” said Zisman.

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Students gathered at The Depot on Thursday evening with paint brushes in hand and turned white canvasses into an explosion of color for SF State’s first Art Social: Paint our Walls event of the fall semester.

Frequent concert goers who are used to a much louder scene at The Depot would have noticed a change of atmosphere. The low lighting and lowtempo music created a mellow setting where people could chatter and allow their creative minds to take over. The art social takes place once a month throughout the semester and unlike live music shows, comedy nights or open mics, the social gives students a chance to interact with each other more and express themselves.

“This kind of event brings people together in a different way. This place has a lot of bands, so an art social brings a different crowd,” said 21-yearold Wendy Lopez as she painted an orange koi fish on the wall.

The event attracted both art majors and less artistically inclined students, as everyone was encouraged to leave their mark on the wall.

Some students, like art major Jeremiah Shanholtzer, painted art with a special meaning behind it. Shanholtzer explained that his painting of a large black pyramid with a keyhole inside it was an interpretation of seeking truth after death.

“It means that the key to life is death and the message is don’t be morbid and sad when people die and instead seek

Geovanni Ramos paints on the walls of The Depot during Paint Our Walls, an art social hosted by The Depot on Thursday, Aug. 25 2016. The Depot plans on hosting more events during the upcoming semester. | Photo by Connor Hunt truth and acceptance,” he said.

18-year-old Gabrielle Jay was inspired by “Belladonna of Sadness,” a Japanese animated film from the ‘70s and painted the protagonist of the film, a beautiful woman with flowing purple hair. Jay, a psychology major, said art was a hobby for her and she enjoyed coming out to look at everyone’s work.

“I wanted to come out and try something new since sometimes you get caught up in the same cycle of going to school, work and home,” said 25-year-old Antonio Newman, who found out about the event through Facebook. “It’s a great way to meet people, plus we pay for these events in our tuition.”

For recent transfer student, Sawyer Loftus, events at The Depot have a special attraction.

“It was the main reason I transferred here. I used to come here when I wasn’t a student at SF State and the energy was one of the appeals,” Loftus said.

Depot Venue Organizer, Nilo Amiri, said the turnout at the social was very good and she wants to expand this event and hold three more like it this semester.

“We will keep the art up until the next art social – which is one of the appeals of painting the walls because it’s ever changing, kind of like graffiti” said Amiri.

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