GOLDEN GATE XPRESS Serving the San Francisco State community since 1927
Volume CIII, Issue 4
Wednesday – September 14, 2016
FREE SINGLE COPIES
goldengatexpress.org SF State student Parker Sha, a Pi Kappa Phi member carries Dartanian, his 6-month-old Nubian goat in the Quad at SF State on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016. Sha provides a goat-grazing business that safely removes poision oak without damaging neighboring plants. Photo by Pablo Caballero
Goats are the answer, says eco-friendly frat brother by Michelle Nunez mnunez93@mail.sfsu.edu Fraternity brothers and sorority sisters did their best to attract new members during this fall semester’s rush week. They sported their house names, played loud music, and engaged
with those that walked by. But one fraternity in particular stole the show with their fourlegged mascot named Dartanian. Dartanian is a 6-month-old Nubian goat that attended this semester’s rush week alongside his owner Parker Sha, member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. “This is the first time we’ve had an animal
out there, but it worked out pretty well,” said PKP member Ben Berke. “So we’re probably going to bring him back.” When Dartanian is not pledging alongside his Pi Kappa Phi brothers, he is taking part in his owner’s goat-grazing business.
Goat cont. pg. 5
ASI farmer’s market to accept SNAP benefits by Breanna Reeves bjreeves@mail.sfsu.edu Associated Students, Inc. is finalizing a program that will allow students to make purchases from the farmer’s market at SF State using using Electronic Benefit Transfer and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Officially approved in July, the program is expected to launch in October, according to Horace Montgomery, director of programs and services for ASI, applied to become an authorized retailer. “It took about a year of going through all the paperwork and then someone from Florida called me,” Montgomery said. “What we’re working on right now is a method where they can come swipe their card, they can come get their money from us, then go buy from the vendors and then the vendors will come back and recoup the money.”
EBT cont. pg. 2
A vendor from the Associated Students, Inc. Farmers Market, who declined to provide their name, browses a fellow vendors organic fruit in front of the Humanities Building on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2016. | Photo by Lauren Saldana
Election course tackles 2016 presidential race by Rita Berríos Riquelme rberrios@mail.sfsu.edu Every four years, the political science department offers a course examining that year’s approaching presidential election. This year’s course, the 2016 presidential election public lecture series, is designed to inform students about the election in a nonpartisan manner and show the community the type of engagement that is encouraged at SF State. Every Tuesday three to five faculty members present topics surrounding an event leading up to the upcoming election. By the end of the class, students will have been exposed to lectures from about 50 faculty members. “This class helps students to better process all the information given, making it less confusing,” said Professor Joel Kassiola, who created the course in 2004 to help inform the community. “There’s too much information to make sense of.” Kassiola said he relates the class to Chinese philosopher Confucius’ teachings of the importance of self-cultivation and making sense of the world. He said the course also provides information on the different problems that contemporary population faces.
Kassiola cont. pg. 3
Poetry center kicks off semester
Walker provides student voice
Student housing is pertinent
Senior forward poised for success
by Jacqueline Haudek – pg. 4
by Amanda Aragona – pg. 6
by Katherine Elizabeth Minkiewicz – pg. 9
by Terence Scott – pg. 10