Spring 2016 issue 9

oldaetne GGX

march 30, 2016 See Cory Goldstein respond to viral dreadlocks video on goldengatexpress.org

Issue

Serving the San Francisco State community since 1927.

Fact finder sides with CFA weeks before state-wide strike on Page 2

XPRESS

Video of Student Center confrontation fuels cultural appropriation controversy

#9

Volume CII goldengatexpress.org

Students design shopping cart for elderly community EMILY CHAVOUS

echavous@mail.sfsu.edu

J

Bay Area, according to a press release from the SF chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

“If you save and collect filters on your own, then we will send you a shipping label at no cost and give you $1 dollar for every pound you send in,” Ericksen said.

“There is an option to become a ‘butt ambassador’ to work with others and start your own recycling campaign.”

Surfrider Foundation also has airtight “pocket ashtrays” to help you collect and recycle on your own.

According to their website, the Surfrider Foundation has saved

une Fisher loves tomatoes.

The 82-year-old occupational health physician and Bay Area product design lecturer requires two walking sticks to compensate for knee problems and general muscular weakness. She can’t sling a shopping bag over her shoulder, and that makes things a little difficult.

“A friend of mine said the Civic Center market (had) wonderful heirloom tomatoes at $2 a pound,” Fisher said. “I quickly got dressed and I was ready to go down, and then I realized that I would be unable to go shop by myself. And that was a (moment of) despair because when you say ‘ripe tomatoes’ in front of me, I really salivate.”

But two SF State senior industrial design students created a solution. Brandon Lopez and Eric Renard, both 23, prototyped a portable shopping cart for elderly people with mobility issues. Their “City Cart” has been selected as a finalist in the Stanford Design Challenge, which will be held at Stanford University on April 5.

The students conceived their mobile shopping cart during Fall 2015 as part of the Product Design II course taught by Ricardo Gomes, who invited Fisher to work closely with the class. Gomes tasked student teams with creating a cart that would assist an aging demographic with basic errands, like shopping at the farmer’s market.

“The biggest thing we were focusing on from day one is designing a product that fits the consumer,” Renard said. “Elderly people want their autonomy.

They want to be able to do the shopping, and they don’t want to have to be picked up by their kids. They’d like to be able to do it all on their own, and with our shopping cart they can.”

The Stanford Design Challenge is an international competition for university students hosted by the Stanford Center on Longevity, which backs entrepreneurial product design supporting a positive aging experience, according to Ken

butts Continued ON PAGE 4

design Continued ON PAGE 5

NICHOLAS SILVERA VIA YOUTUBE

Cory Goldstein (left) and Bonita Tindle (right) shown in a video posted to YouTube Monday. The viral video has sparked a heated debate over cultural appropriation.

KELSEY LANNIN

klannin@mail.sfsu.edu

MIRANDA BOLAR

mbolar@mail.sfsu.edu

A

confrontation between two SF State students caught on video in the Cesar Chavez Student Center went viral Monday. The argument centered around whether a white person wearing dreadlocks constitutes cultural appropriation.

Around 4 p.m. in the SF State Student Center, Associated

Students, Inc. intern and photography major Bonita Tindle allegedly assaulted environmental science major Cory Goldstein because of his hairstyle and race, according to a report by the SF State University Police Department.

Tindle followed him down two flights of stairs and threatened

to cut his hair off with scissors, according to Goldstein.

“Someone within an activist group thought that she could attack me based on my locs and that’s not okay – it’s not even a part of the colored community’s culture,” Goldstein said. “I felt that I didn’t

video Continued ON PAGE 4

SF State introduces cigarette litter recycling CONNOR HUNT / XPRESS

A student places a cigarette butt in the new cigarette recycling bin located on Tapia Drive, Thursday, March 17.

MADELINE MANSON

mmanson@mail.sfsu.edu

SF State is the first place in San Francisco to collect and recycle cigarette butts at one dollar per pound.

Beginning March 16, Sustainable SF State has partnered with the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation to provide containers to collect cigarette butts. Filters will be facebook: /GoXpress

instagram: @goldengatexpress

collected by students, then sent to be recycled at TerraCycle.

TerraCycle focuses on recycling many everyday items that are not easily recyclable, such as water filters and plastic pens. The Surfrider Foundation is a volunteer community that aims to protect oceans and beaches by conducting beach cleanups and campaigning for better recycling of plastics.

“Our main goal is to prevent cigarette waste in our ocean,” said Shelly Ericksen, the program chair of the SF State chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. “A lot of people do not know that (cigarette) filters are not biodegradable.”

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in San Francisco twitter: @XpressNews

website: goldengatexpess.org

snapchat: @xpressnewspaper

Wednesday, March 30, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

NEWS

Fact finder sides with CFA weeks before state-wide strike JOEY REAMS

reams94@mail.sfsu.edu

T

he California Faculty Association announced Monday a third-party fact finder largely sided with the union in their dispute with the California State University over a 5 percent raise.

The report was made public Monday, weeks before the planned CSU-wide strike.

“The recession severely impacted the faculty at CSU, and while some progress has been made to restore the loss or competitive salaries with negotiated targeted increases, the faculty are still suffering from structural salary issues,” Bonnie Prouty Castrey, who chaired the independent panel, wrote in her report.

Four recommendations surfaced from this report, including a 5 percent general salary increase to all faculty and a 2.65 percent service salary increase for the roughly 43 percent of faculty at the lower end of the salary structure.

The fact finder’s report was made public Monday following a 10-day blackout period. During the blackout period, both sides were given time to meet and confer over the fact finder’s recommendation.

“The union has been ready and willing to meet with management for the

WE ASKED SF STATE

last 10 days,” said Kevin Wehr, chair of CFA’s bargaining team. “Despite our overtures, they were not willing to meet to discuss the implementations of the fact finder’s recommendations.”

“

The faculty are still suffering from structural salary issues.

- Bonnie Prouty Castrey, fact finder

The largest disagreement came from the conclusion that the University does not have the funds to meet the CFA’s demands. The report suggests that the University should reallocate funds from other unspecified projects and delay

implementation.

“They actually have structural surplus,” Wehr said. “They have a positive cash flow – they’re actively putting money in reserves. That means they have more money than they know what to do with. That’s not a structural deficit.”

CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White repudiated those claims.

“If we redirected money, it would hurt students,” White told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We’d have to decrease classes, lay off (lecturers) teaching those classes, and decrease student support services and advisers.

Neither the fact-finder nor the faculty union has indicated which of those student-focused efforts we should cut.”

Two other recommendations were made from the fact finder, including “to develop a joint list of comparable universities that award bachelor and master’s degrees and do a comparison using the available AAUP data and including a cost of living comparison.

Develop a joint strategy and documentation to go to the California Legislature and Governor in order to enhance the CSU budget,” according to the report.

Following the meeting, questions opened up and a reporter asked what is to follow if the strike is ineffective.

“In terms of what to happen after

the strike, if on April 20, management has not moved, we will make a plan to continue concerted action,” said Jennifer Eagan, President of CFA. “We are legal to continue concerted action, potentially more strikes, for as long as it takes until we reach a settlement, and faculty will be prepared to see that.”

The issue of a raise was reopened May 1 of last year, followed by a bargaining period that began in July.

Both parties had three meetings and then negotiated. The CSU offered the CFA a 2 percent raise, but the CFA held fast to its demand for a 5 percent raise.

“Faculty on average earn $45,000 per year, largely because two-thirds are non-tenured, part-time, temporary lectures,” SF State CFA President Sheila Tully previously told the Golden Gate Xpress. “Faculty have not received a significant general salary increase in nearly a decade. We have actually lost money over that time, because a promised 11 percent raise in 2006 was cancelled and a 9.3 percent furlough pay cut was instituted in 2009.”

White is scheduled to visit SF State April 5.

If the strike does occur, it will be the first system-wide strike in CSU history.

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Will you support your teachers in the strike? Why?

“I really support them. If I were a teacher, I would definitely feel the same way, and I would want support from students.”

“I support the strike, just because I need the extra time off. It’s a good seven-day break, so I’m just gonna go home and spend more time at home with my family.”

“I do support the strike – one of my teachers is on the committee for the strike and explained the school and CSU system has access to our money and that they could provide for that raise.”

“I support the strike because teachers haven’t gotten a raise in 10 or something years, and if you can’t provide incentives for teachers to become teachers because of pay then we’re not going to have good teachers.”

Stella Carlyon, 18

Fern Giron, 19

Brandon Geoffroy, 20

Josh Weinberg, 23

Business marketing major

Business marketing major

Communications major

Biology major

“Yes, I think that it’s really unfair that they’re not getting what they’re asking for because I just don’t think that they’re asking for much, living in the city that we do. Everything is so expensive here, and they kind of need a pay raise to continue living here.”

Rachel Pombo, 19

Political science major

Wednesday, March 30, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

NEWS

Underserved bisexual students more likely to binge drink, study finds KELSEY LANNIN

klannin@mail.sfsu.edu

L

GBTQ-affirming environments are ineffective in protecting bisexual students from already higher rates of alcohol abuse, according to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Researchers found that while binge drinking by their heterosexual and homosexual peers decreased as school support for LGBTQ students increased, bisexual students were left unaffected, suggesting that their needs aren’t being adequately addressed by policies and programs.

“Bisexuals often experience discrimination or bias from gays and lesbians and the heterosexual community,” said the study’s lead author Robert Coulter. “I think that affirming bisexuals needs to be present in policies and programming in all of the school’s efforts involving sexual orientation.”

Misinformed perspectives about bisexuality precipitate harmful attitudes toward bisexual students from their peers and even from faculty, said Reyna Aguilar, the director of Educational and Referral Organization for Sexuality at SF State.

ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY LANNIN

“If you’re bisexual, there’s this idea that you just can’t make up your mind,” Aguilar said. “Or, you’re selfish and you want everybody. Or, there’s a lot of slut shaming for bisexuals, because if you’re attracted to multiple genders, you just must be having sex with everybody.”

Aguilar said the school could do a better job of combating bias by making sure resources are up-to-date and requiring sensitivity training for

remember to celebrate cesar chavez day, march 31

faculty. Resources at SF State include funding for workshops, conferences, reading materials and information about offcampus counseling for marginalized sexual identities.

“If you’re feeling like you’re not being represented in these communities, then why would you go to them to begin with,” said Lindy Velasco, assistant director of the Queer and Trans Resource Center.

“So it’s our responsibility to provide them with those types

of resources, so folks know that they’re welcome here and it’s not just a space for gay and lesbian students.”

SF State senior and math major Rachel Tallon said she hasn’t felt any form of discrimination at school, but added that not many people at school know she identifies as bisexual.

“I haven’t really noticed anything on campus,” Tallon said. “I’m not really one to go to any of the school clubs or

organizations. I mean, I’m a college student – I drink, but I don’t abuse it or binge drink.”

While Tallon hasn’t engaged with any LGBTQ organizations on campus, her experiences with the Student Health Services have left her with a positive impression.

“I do know what I’ve experienced in the health center, and they seem pretty easygoing,” Tallon said. “They don’t make it hard to talk about it.”

Michael Ritter, programs coordinator at the Health Promotion and Wellness Center, while surprised by the study’s findings, agreed that the group is often misunderstood and doesn’t always feel supported by the LGBTQ resources on campus.

“I do know that on our campus bisexual students have been in leadership positions in the Queer Alliance and EROS,” Ritter said.

The study analyzed data from more than 50,000 high school students and eight states. Coulter cautions that since the study only looked at high school students and didn’t control for gender or race, more research needs to be done to understand the scope of the issue.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

NEWS

CONNOR HUNT / XPRESS

BELOW: Dylan Morse smokes a cigarette outside of the library surrounded by cigarette butts, Tuesday, March 15.

CONNOR HUNT / XPRESS

SF State student An Bui places the identifying sticker on the cigarette recycling bin located along Tapia Dive, Thursday, March 17.

SF State introduces cigarette litter recycling butts Continued from the front nearly 250,000 cigarette butts from being littered in Huntington Beach and San Diego in the last three years, where they focused on receptacles on the beach front.

“We are trying to repeat the success we had in Southern California,” Ericksen said. "We would love to put them wherever we get permission.”

Locations consist of three designated smoking areas –

Holloway Ave at Tapia Drive, the designated smoking area by Mary Ward Hall on Font Boulevard, and at the designated smoking area on State Drive next to the Towers at Centennial Square.

Recyclable cigarette items such as the filters, rolling papers, the plastic packaging as well as the foil inner packaging are recyclable at these receptacles.

The butts will be collected by

students.

“Nobody really thinks where they put their cigarette butts, most people just throw them on the ground,” said George Caden Reed, an urban studies and planning major. “If [it’s] successful then it would be good to see it in other places.”

“This is just the pilot," said Steven Childs, a natural resource management major and a major

contributor to the project. "My next project would be to get this at USF and CCSF, and pushing this all round San Francisco.”

Childs is already pushing for two more containers along Holloway Ave and Tapia Drive.

Containers were paid for by Sustainable SF State, and were about $50 each. Sustainable SF State used savings from energy efficiency projects to fund the

project.

“What (we) are hoping is that the rest of the city of San Francisco sees these and will start to put them in,” said Nick Kordesch, sustainability specialist at SF State. “We should have them at Ocean Beach and we should have them in Dolores Park, everywhere else where you see a lot of cigarette litter.”

Video of Student Center confrontation fuels cultural appropriation controversy video Continued from the front need to explain myself. My hair, my rules, my body.”

Maddy Grey, a communications major at SF State, said she witnessed the incident and the video was taken halfway through the exchange. Grey posted about what led up to the recorded incident to her Facebook account on Tuesday, saying, "He called her a bitch after she tried to give him a flyer so she went to talk to him about his dreads and not to call her a bitch (naturally)."

Goldstein said this was the

first time anyone had expressed negative views about his hairstyle and he sees dreadlocks as not solely the domain of Rastafarian or African culture.

The video, titled “SFSU 2016 - Campus employee assaults white student for ‘cultural appropriation’” had more than 260,000 views on YouTube at press time and was trending on Facebook Tuesday afternoon.

Jonathan Morales, director of news and new media at SF State, said Tindle is not employed by SF

State and that the University and ASI have separate contacts and a separate board of directors.

“We are taking the matter seriously and will promptly and thoroughly investigate this incident through applicable University channels, including our campus student conduct procedures,” Morales said in a statement issued Tuesday.

"I do see it as cultural appropriation," said Taylor Hunter, a psychology major who identifies as African American. "We are all

so culturally intertwined this day and age, we are always borrowing from different cultures. But you need to know where you got it from and you need to be respectful of the people that created it for you."

“For me, I don’t care if someone has dreads or has straight hair: I think everyone has freedom to do whatever they want,” said philosophy major Asha Hassan.

“There is nothing wrong with him having dreads. I feel like she was in the wrong because you can’t tell

someone how to live their lives or what to do to their hair.”

Goldstein declined to press charges, although he said the campus police considered the incident battery and a hate crime.

“I really am hoping that the campus is able to fully resolve this issue without any more issues basically,” Goldstein said. “I don’t feel that me getting attacked should cause more of an attack.”

ASI President Phoebe Dye declined to comment.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

LIFESTYLE & CULTURE

ERIC CHAN / XPRESS

Brandon Lopez (left) and Eric Renard pose next to their collapsible shopping cart design for the upcoming Stanford Design Challenge Tuesday.

Students design collapsible shopping cart for elderly community Design Continued from the front Smith, challenge director and head of the Center on Longevity’s mobility division. This is the competition’s third year.

“We wanted to get more students engaged in working on issues around longevity,” Smith said. “I think everybody is recognizing that the population is growing older, the demographics are shifting, and this is going to be a really important area as we go forward to the next century.”

Supermarket carts are solid enough to lean on, but collapsible “granny carts” often used at urban farmer’s markets do not provide appropriate support for people with mobility issues, Fisher explained.

“The idea of a cart is not exotic, but (it’s) important to my life,” Fisher said.

After conducting multiple interviews in the aging community, Lopez and Renard realized the need for a supportive

personal cart is widespread.

Renard said existing carts are generally constructed with weak materials with little attention to aesthetic.

“People put a little bit of thought and design into (portable carts), but they just paint (them) that nasty old-person beige,” Renard said. “Just because people are aging, they don’t want ugly products. They want something that fits their needs but is also stylish – (a product) they aren’t embarrassed to use.”

SF State’s team is one of 10 who will present designs to a panel of industry judges and an expected crowd of 200, Smith said.

Each team of finalists, selected mid-January after an open online submission period, received $1,000 for prototyping, industry mentorship and paid travel expenses to attend the competition in April.

“Essentially, (there are) three criteria that we look for,” Smith said. “Number one is impact. Does the design actually address a problem? Is it going to do any good in the world?

Second is originality. And third

“

The idea

of a cart is not exotic, but (it's) important to my life.

June Fisher,

Physician and product desi gn lecturer

is feasibility – probability of implementation and cost.”

Three teams will win cash

prizes to bring their designs to market – $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second and $2,000 for third. Competitors hail from UC Berkeley, National Taiwan University, National University of Singapore, National ChiaoTung University (Taiwan), National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (Taiwan) and Virginia Tech.

“You build a prototype, figure out what’s wrong with it, build another one, figure out what’s wrong with it,” Lopez said. “That’s fun for us, especially something like this that’s larger scale. It’s not just a little phone or something, it’s a big walker-type device. So it’s pretty cool making something that is life-size.”

Smith said he is impressed by the SF State design program, which has put forth a finalist in the Stanford Design Challenge

each year since its conception.

“It’s a really polished design,” Smith said of Lopez and Renard’s collapsible cart.

“They used 3D prototyping really effectively to their advantage.”

The students said departmental support has kept them motivated through back-to-back 12-hour workdays in the design lab – that, and their mutual love of chorizo burritos and Drake.

Both recently accepted job offers with a “design-slash-tech incubator” in Santa Cruz.

“We feel like we have a very good shot at winning,” Renard said. “Hopefully we can make SF State proud.”

Wednesday, March 30, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

LIFESTYLE & CULTURE

SF State professor’s ‘zombie bee’ research provides insight into strange phenomenon GRADY PENNA

gpenna@mail.sfsu.edu

O

n one of his early morning walks to his campus office, professor John Hafernik gazed down and stumbled upon something perplexing – a small discovery that would lead to one of the most important and recognized scientific projects of his entire career.

Hafernik saw a group of bees walking in circles and acting disoriented on the sidewalk, a phenomenon he had never witnessed before.

At first, Hafernik believed he had merely found a few honeybees that were acting erratically, but he soon discovered something far more complex and troubling was going on.

He deduced that the bees were infected by the parasitic larvae of the phorid fly, which caused them to behave like insect zombies.

The female flies, also known as Apocephalus borealis, inject their eggs into the bee, where the larvae begin to grow, making their way up the thorax until they violently erupt from the bee’s body, killing it in the process.

Shortly after the discovery, Hafernik began building a team of scientists to assist him with his research, and asked graduate student Chris Quock to help on the “zombie bee” project shortly after its inception in 2008.

“I think (John) takes a lot of pride in his work,” Quock said.

“Since the discovery, it’s been a very personal thing for him.”

Hafernik’s team soon realized they would need to utilize a technique called “citizen science” in order to fully explore the phenomenon. “(Citizen science) is a loose term for when members of science ask the community to help conduct research,” Quock said. “It’s like teamwork on a much larger scale.”

They started getting reports from citizens of bees emerging at night and being drawn to light sources, which is highly unusual behavior for them. Hafernik had never heard of bees acting like this before, but he soon found evidence to support these claims right on SF State’s campus.

“I walked outside and looked up into one of the light fixtures and it was crammed full of bees,” Hafernik said.

“That meant that these bees were actually coming there at night, which is a time when bees shouldn’t be flying, and they were acting like zombies.”

The next step for the team was to find out how many bees were affected in the surrounding area.

“Another student sampled hives all throughout the Bay Area to see how widespread it was here and found that about 77 percent of the hives were infected, which is virtually all of them,” Hafernik said.

They finally published their findings in 2012, and were

PABLO CABALLERO / XPRESS

Bees roam the SF State campus to collect nectar and bring it back to the hive near the campus greenhouse Thursday, March 17.

PABLO CABALLERO / XPRESS

Bees enter and exit beehives operated by SF State professor John Hafernik near the campus greenhouse Thursday, March 17.

met with a huge response from both the scientific community and the public, including their colleagues at SF State.

“I know about his work from his public seminars and the publicity he’s generated in the scientific community,” said Zachary Hui-He, a professor of biology for 18 years at SF State and executive editor for Molecular Plant, a scientific journal serving the plant science

community.

Though Hui-He is not an entomologist himself, he understands the potential significance his coworker’s research could have for the honeybee ecosystem.

“This could have a significant impact on the bee population,” Hui-He said. “It could help us to change policy and protect the bees.”

One of the questions

Hafernik and his team are still trying to figure out is what kind of impact this phenomenon is having on the bee population as a whole.

“If it’s affecting a high percentage of bees in a hive, it could remove a lot of the worker bees,” Hafernik said. “If you don’t have enough workers, the hive could fail.”

According to Hafernik, the biggest concern is hive failure.

However, there is still limited information on the number of bees in a given hive that are affected, making it difficult to determine how detrimental this issue truly is for the bee population.

Though much of the research has already been completed, Hafernik believes there is still more to discover about the “zombie bees,” and more people who need to be made aware of the problem’s existence.

Hafernik intends to retire within the year, but hasn’t minimized his participation in the project, and plans to continue the research into the foreseeable future.

“I’m going out to Washington D.C. next month to the U.S. Science and Engineering Festival to promote this and maybe see a few congressmen,” Hafernik said.

Ultimately, however, Hafernik believes continued support and involvement from the community is one of the most vital components in keeping this research alive.

The project’s website provides detailed information and allows anyone to join the hunt for infected hives across the U.S. “I think this is an example of a kind of project that the average citizen can get involved in and actually make a difference in terms of collecting real scientific data for something that is potentially quite important,” Hafernik said.

OPINION

ol daetne GGX

XPRESS

DARCY FRACOLLI

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

REID CAMMACK

MANAGING EDITOR reidcamm@mail.sfsu.edu

EVA RODRIGUEZ

ART DIRECTOR erodrig2@mail.sfsu.edu

JARED JAVIER

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR jjavier@mail.sfsu.edu

BRIAN CHURCHWELL

PHOTO EDITOR bchurchw@mail.sfsu.edu

JOEY REAMS

NEWS EDITOR reams94@mail.sfsu.edu

MIRANDA BOLAR

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR mbolar@mail.sfsu.edu

ASHLEY BOWEN

LIFESTYLE & CULTURE EDITOR anbowen@mail.sfsu.edu

JESSICA NEMIRE

OPINION EDITOR jdn@mail.sfsu.edu

Wednesday, March 30, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

STAFF EDITORIAL

Berkeley scandals expose need for independent sexual harassment investigations

S

tudents and faculty at colleges and universities have become all-toofamiliar with the endless cycle of sexual harassment allegations at their institutions: Faculty or staff member is accused, faculty or staff member is found in violation of sexual harassment policies, faculty or staff member receives slap on the wrist, public finds out, staff member receives more serious consequences.

The most recent rash of highprofile college sexual harassment investigations has illuminated the need for a third-party mechanism to adjudicate cases.

It is currently up to the individual universities and their administrations to investigate claims and discipline offenders.

We have a duty to the accused

and the accuser to ensure that the process is as fair as possible to both parties and untainted by personal bias toward one side or the other.

Schools have additional incentive to sweep cases under the rug to protect their institutional reputations, particularly in cases where the accused is a high-profile individual who helps attract donors and students.

This is especially apparent in the turmoil surrounding four recent high-profile cases of sexual harassment with botched investigations at UC Berkeley and the San Francisco Chronicle’s in-depth dissection of their unequal outcomes.

Janet Napolitano, president of the UC system, announced Saturday that she would be

meeting monthly with UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and had assigned the system-wide director for sexual misconduct issues to work full time with UC Berkeley staff.

Faculty members also sent a letter Monday to Vice Provost Janet Broughton condemning the university’s handling of another case.

California needs to establish a mechanism for third-party Title IX investigations, particularly with regard to sexual harassment allegations, that is outside universities’ control.

Our current system allows schools far too much discretion with the punishments they mete out and the length of their investigations. A third-party investigator, particularly a state-wide one, would be able to

much more effectively maintain objectivity and pursue a fair outcome.

We can no longer ignore that which has become so readily apparent: Sexual harassment is a problem of epidemic proportions and must be addressed as such.

We can no longer leave the decision of whom to punish, when they should be punished and how severely they should be punished in the hands of those who benefit from keeping allegations of sexual harassment hidden from view.

DARCY FRACOLLI Editor-in-Chief

TYLER LEHMAN

SPORTS EDITOR tlehman@mail.sfsu.edu

CHRIS DEJOHN

COPY EDITOR cdejohn@mail.sfsu.edu

Instagram update misses the point

JOCELYN CARRANZA

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR jcarranz@mail.sfsu.edu

KELSEY LANNIN

ASSISTANT MULTIMEDIA EDITOR klannin@mail.sfsu.edu

GRADY PENNA

SOCIAL MEDIA/ONLINE EDITOR gpenna@mail.sfsu.edu

RACHELE KANIGEL PRINT ADVISER kanigel@sfsu.edu

JESSE GARNIER

FACULTY ADVISER jgarnier@sfsu.edu

KEN KOBRE

PHOTO ADVISER kkobre@sfsu.edu

EVA CHARLES

ADVERTISING & BUSINESS echarles@sfsu.edu

ARUN UNNIKRISHNAN I.T. CONSULTANT arun@mail.sfsu.edu

SAMANTHA LOPEZ CIRCULATION

EVA RODRIGUEZ

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 Jessica Nemire at: jdn@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 Darcy Fracolli at: dfracoll@mail.sfsu.edu

EMILY CHAVOUS

echavous@mail.sfsu.edu

I shared my first photo on Instagram in January 2011, three short months after the app launched on iOS. It’s an awkward, duck-faced selfie snapped in the car and horrendously filtered with X-Pro II (never again!). More than five years and 1,400 photos later, my duck face hasn’t improved, but I’ve learned the art of personal branding, and I’m following a carefully curated list of friends and bloggers and #wanderfolk who never cease to motivate me on Monday mornings.

But the Insta world as we know it is about to change.

Instagram is rolling out a major update that will reorganize user feeds, and the social sphere has been sent into a consequent uproar. Instead of displaying photos in reverse chronological order, showing you friends’ photos as they’re posted, Instagram will now give preference to the photos that they think you want to see first based on an algorithm.

You see, Insta says we’ve cluttered our photo feeds. The average user misses 70 percent of the posts they follow, according to an Instagram blog post. Naturally, we need an Instagram intervention. So, according to the app developers, this new algorithm will “show the posts (the Insta gods) believe you will care about the most.”

The photo-sharing app sold out to Facebook for a cool $1 billion four years ago. Users have experienced minor tweaks, like the dissolution of the OG popular tab in 2012,

the introduction of the 15-second video in 2013, and the quick spread of paid ad placement that same year. But this update marks the biggest change in Instagram history.

I like logging in and looking at posts in the moment. Sure, the brands I follow use third-party schedulers to strategize optimal posting times, and after the birth of Snapchat, Instagram no longer thrives on immediacy. But there’s still a benefit to organizing photos chronologically.

I’m capable of sifting through my own feed (thank you very much). And I’m

capable of clicking that unfollow button anytime I’m tired of a friend’s #brunchlife photos. I shouldn’t have to turn on notifications for the photos I want to see à la Facebook (hello, I’m following users for a reason). I may not double-tap my BFF’s photos as much as I should because I miss their posts among throngs of photoshopped models and festival pics, but I certainly don’t need a robot to overhaul my feed and make that decision for me.

Social media’s become a game where users pay to play. If you’re curating a personal brand and trying to build a following, Insta’s update may hinder your efforts by burying your posts.

No one knows how the app will determine “the likelihood (someone will) be interested in the content,” but users are rising up against the update in a flurry of #boycottinstagram and #RIPinstagram hashtags.

In a Twitter post, Instagram said they’re listening to the backlash and working changes in slowly. But the update is inevitable. Brands are begging followers to turn notifications on so they don’t slip into irrelevancy.

Will I boycott Instagram?

Probably not. But I’d like to maintain some sense of social media autonomy, and if Instagram takes that away, I’m prepared to bid adieu to my favorite app of the last five years.

ILLUSTRATION BY REID CAMMACK

Wednesday, March 30, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

OPINION

Frida Kahlo would hate your Frida Kahlo shirt JEREMY PORR

jporr@mail.sfsu.edu

I spotted it from across the room and immediately hurried my pace. Gingerly hung in the cold, dead space of a stark, white room in the Museum of Modern Art was a vibrant self-portrait by Frida Kahlo, rich with color. I was surprised that Kahlo had only one piece on display at a world-class museum in the middle of Manhattan. I was also surprised to see that right next to the image was a mirror – also created by Kahlo – so that viewers could picture themselves right alongside her.

I was trying to appreciate the piece when, out of left-field, a well-dressed, Brooklyn-esque white couple appeared with their signature Nikon D5200 and began to take a bounty of selfies in the mirror for what felt like 20 minutes.

This got me thinking about the use of Kahlo’s image in the public sphere by people who know nothing about her politics.

Frida Kahlo would not only be disappointed with the well-dressed gentrifiers of Brooklyn ignoring her vibrant self-portrait, I’m sure she would also be pissed about the widespread use of her image on everything from socks and shirts to dresses and earrings.

Kahlo was an incredibly badass, anti-capitalist, queer, Mexican womxn who rejected homogenized, Euro-centric ideals of beauty, all while learning how to live with and embrace her own physical disabilities.

Kahlo’s image was a direct form of political resistance – she darkened her famous unibrow and never shaved her mustache as a way to oppose Western ideals of femininity, she consistently wore traditional Mexican clothing, she was an outspoken supporter of communism, and she even once referred to the United States as “gringolandia."

Grievances aside, I have to acknowledge my role in speaking on Kahlo’s behalf, because although I identify as both queer and chicanx, I’m also male, and can’t ignore the glaring privilege I have in regard to speaking on

ILLUSTRATION BY EVA RODRIGUEZ

this issue.

Historians suggest that Kahlo painted self-portraits in order to immortalize herself, but I’m sure she would be pressed to find that massive corporations are now profiting from the use of said portraits on every product in the market.

I’m sure she would also be upset to find out that said products are most likely made by womxn of color in sweatshops or factories in which they are severely mistreated and underpaid. Kahlo's face can be found across a wide range of mainstream retailers, including H&M, Forever 21 and Society6. White girls

everywhere are prancing about rocking Frida tees as a mere fashion statement, working to commodify her image and get social points for supporting a revolutionary figure.

Big brands should not be profiting off the use of Kahlo's image, or any other revolutionary figure for that matter. Not only are those brands making a profit off of historical figures who would probably scoff at them, it isn't clear where their money is going.

I can tell you where it isn't going: It isn't going toward helping any of the womxn of color who worked tirelessly

to produce the final product, it isn't being donated to any organization that promotes the health and well-being of indigenous womxn across the world, and it definitely isn’t going to any disabled queer womxn like Kahlo.

Although I find the wide-spread popularity of Kahlo’s image incredibly ironic, I also know there are plenty of incredible womxn of color out there who are aware of her legacy and rock her image with pride. I just can’t help but feel that Frida’s political message has become increasingly small in a stark white room.

Tinder should swipe left on creating deep connections JESSICA NEMIRE jdn@mail.sfsu.edu

Tinder, as infamous as it is, has become the cultural norm as far as dating goes among the under-30 set. Meeting a potential date or hookup on the app has become almost more normal than meeting them through any other medium, virtual or otherwise.

Last weekend, when I told my 30-year-old stepsister I had a date (with someone I met at a bar), her first reaction was, “Ooh, from which app?”

Tinder has replaced love at first sight with “Hey, u up?” at first swipe, and with somewhere in the neighborhood of 800,000 paying users alone, it has done a

damn good job of doing so.

This week, Tinder made headlines when it acquired Humin, a San Francisco-based app that combines your Facebook and LinkedIn contacts with the numbers saved in your phone in order to consolidate your contacts.

“We want to bring a human touch to our online interactions,” Humin said on its website.

Tinder can buy all the apps dedicated to “bringing a human touch” that it wants, but doing so won’t make Tinder any more personal.

Despite the handful of Tinder profiles claiming, “if ur looking for a one-night stand, keep swiping,” Tinder is a superficial app. It always has been, and it always will be. Any app or any other entity that asks you to make a

two-second judgment on someone based almost entirely on appearances is inherently shallow.

Tinder’s users pick which other users they want to interact with based on two to six photographs depicting what the other user looks like physically.

How someone can create a long-lasting relationship based off of a couple of mirror selfies and a tiger picture escapes me. While Tinder profiles also feature short bios, they usually don’t get any deeper than listing one’s height, Instagram name and the acronyms for their previous and current cities separated by an airplane emoji, and the ones that do often get skipped over.

According to the Forbes article on the acquisition, Tinder’s founder and CEO Sean Rad hasn’t yet elaborated on how

Tinder will change consequently, but has said it may involve a new feature that allows users to see which other Tinder users are in the same building as they are, instead of simply displaying that the other users are x miles away. This, of course, would make it even easier to hook up with strangers from the Internet.

It should be said that couples have found love on Tinder. Tinder matches have just as much potential to turn into something more meaningful as matches from other apps or people who meet in real life, but Tinder is a hookup app, and shouldn’t market itself as anything other than that. Don’t get me wrong, Tinder is great for what it is – it just shouldn’t try to be anything else.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

SPORTS

SF State shortstop’s baseball roots run deep

t

GABRIELA RODRIGUEZ / XPRESS

SF State Gators shortstop Bryce Brooks bats against the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos at Maloney Field Saturday, Feb. 27.

ZACHARY DALTON zdalton@mail.sfsu.edu

A

life without baseball is one thing SF State shortstop Bryce Brooks has never experienced. Brooks, a junior transfer from Cal State Fullerton, was introduced to the game at an early age. He comes from a family full of baseball players and coaches – one of whom is former major league outfielder and current A’s bench coach Mark Kotsay. “(Brooks has) been around the game for a long time,” head coach Tony Schifano said. “The thing that’s been a pleasant surprise is his bat. He’s come up in big RBI situations.”

In his first season with the Gators, Brooks is hitting .284, with eight RBIs in 81 plate appearances. He’s also started in all but two of the Gators’ 24 games.

Brooks said it was special growing up

as Kotsay’s nephew. He not only learned a lot about hitting from his uncle, but also learned to have a positive outlook on the field as well.

“I’ve learned a lot from him,” Brooks said. “Being able to be around the pros in the clubhouse. Just being around him has helped a lot. He always talked about having a winning attitude and being the best at anything you do.”

Brooks was born in Arcadia, California and attended Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe Springs. He played two varsity seasons there, during which he batted .300 with 10 RBIs as a junior and .330 with 12 RBIs as a senior.

He began his collegiate career with the Rio Honda College Roadrunners in Whittier. After two seasons with the Roadrunners, where he batted .287 with 17 RBIs, he transferred to Division I Cal State Fullerton.

He redshirted with the Fullerton Titans in 2015, but made the decision to transfer to SF State after being told he wouldn’t play as much as he desired. It was a late

decision, but he has enjoyed his time playing for SF State so far.

“I just want to play every day,” Brooks said. “I knew I was coming to a good coaching staff.”

Despite receiving the amount of playing time he wanted, Brooks said it’s been tough on his body after redshirting for a year.

“

It's been a blessing having him.

He's going to be a big part of this program.

-Tony schifano , Head Coach

“A lot is on my body,” Brooks said.

“I’ve been feeling it in my lower back, shoulder and arm, but the fun thing is

coming out and grinding everyday.”

As the starting shortstop, Brooks has command of the entire infield and has to have strong leadership skills. He is always trying to help his teammates, whether it be shifting the infield or talking about different defensive situations, according to first basemen Chris Nicholson.

“You can see he’s very communicative with people,” Nicholson said. “He does a good job trying to correlate with other teammates on what to do and what to focus on.”

Brooks’ goal is to make it to the majors, but he said he would love to coach if that doesn’t work out. If he had to pursue a career outside of baseball, he said he would want to become a firefighter, another thing that runs in the family.

Schifano said Brooks has already proven to be a great addition and looks forward to his future with the team.

“It’s been a blessing having him,” Schifano said. “He’s going to be a big part of this program.”

Wednesday, March 30, 2016 goldengatexpress.org

SPORTS RYAN MCNULTY / XPRESS

SF State Gators guard Warren Jackson (1) makes a charge toward the basket in the first half against the Humboldt State Lumberjacks at The Swamp Friday, Feb. 5.

“

It was depressing, not knowing if I was going to play or end up going to school.

I just had a lot on my shoulders.

-Warren jackson

starting guard

Star Gator guard overcomes horrific injury to earn prestigious accolade CHRISTOPHER CONTRERAS ccontreras@mail.sfsu.edu

G

ators’ starting guard Warren Jackson is a team player, but his talent keeps attracting end-of-season individual awards.

Before SF State, the Detroit native played for the Cabrillo College Seahawks, a community college team located in Aptos, California, and in 2013 he was named the Most Valuable Player of their conference and also earned AllState First Team honors as a freshman, a first in Seahawk basketball history.

In his first season at SF State this year, Jackson was named to the AllCalifornia Collegiate Athletic Association second team and was also chosen as the CCAA Newcomer of the Year, the first Gator chosen for the award since 2009.

“He was one of the best players in the league at the end of the year,” said head coach Paul Trevor.

But while he may seem happy about his individual recognition, it’s obvious that team accomplishments mean a lot more to him than any individual achievements.

“I mean, it’s good to be recognized as one of the better players,” Jackson said, “But as a team, I wish we did better.”

The men’s basketball team lost in the first round of the CCAA basketball

tournament, but overall had a resurgence this season, finishing the year 16-11 after a disappointing 11-15 record last year.

A main contributor to that resurgence was Jackson, who led the team in points, averaging just under 11 per game.

So far the only thing stopping Jackson from getting additional awards is injuries. In 2012, Jackson’s first year at Cabrillo, he tore his meniscus during a championship game in a preseason tournament and was forced to sit out the rest of the year. He only played six games.

Jackson had a quick recovery and came back the next year to lead the Seahawks to a 20-9 record, leading the team with 18 points per game while also averaging 3.3 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game.

But tragedy struck again when Jackson tore his ACL playing at an open gym after the season ended in the spring of 2014.

“It was bad,” Jackson said. “It was very depressing. Already going through it one time, and then having to go through it again, this time being even worse.”

Jackson needed surgery on his knee since he tore it fully. The recovery process from an ACL injury can be very long, usually a year even for professional athletes.

Unsure of what was next for his basketball career, Jackson headed back to Detroit to recover.

“I wasn’t even thinking about going back to Cabrillo, so then I was just going to be sitting in Detroit, not being able to play basketball,” Jackson said. “It was depressing, not knowing if I was going to play or end up going to school. I just had a lot on my shoulders.”

After Jackson’s freshman year at Cabrillo, he was being recruited by Division I schools, but his second knee injury made most of the schools drop out of his recruitment.

“He was a low-to-mid-level Division I recruit,” Trevor said. “They dropped off after he got hurt. A lot of people dropped off.”

Jackson’s injury proved to be a blessing in disguise for SF State. Current assistant coach Vince Inglima played at Cabrillo from 2002 to 2004, and stayed in contact with the Seahawks current head coach Tony Marcopulos.

They had known about Jackson’s talent since his first season at Cabrillo, but they couldn’t compete with the Division l schools recruiting Jackson.

“I talk to (Marcopulos) all the time and I’ve pursued some of his guys in the past,” Inglima said. “But Warren was really the first one that I felt was a nobrainer.”

The summer had passed when Inglima got a call from Marcopulos. Jackson had decided to come back and play again; he was at Cabrillo rehabilitating and taking classes that fall.

The Gators didn’t waste any time – they went to his practices, they had home visits, they gave him a campus tour, and they stayed in constant contact with Jackson.

“We did take a chance on him, but it’s worked out great so far,” Trevor said.

“The reality is, if he’s back to health, he’s a high-level player, and he answered that this year.”

But the adjustment from junior college to Division ll wasn’t easy for Jackson, who looked rusty in the offseason after a year off, and he still had to regain confidence in his knee.

“It’s so many talented guys, and you go against so many players, that I was thinking, ‘Dang why (aren’t they) playing Division l?” Jackson said. “That helped me transition to playing against bigger guys.”

Early in the season, Jackson didn’t play as aggressively as Trevor wanted.

In his first nine games, Jackson averaged just under nine points.

In time Jackson got the message, and he scored double digits in 10 of his last 12 games.

Usually, junior-college transfers come to four-year schools with two years of eligibility left. Fortunately for the Gators, they get Jackson for three.

“The exciting thing is, he’s got two more years,” Inglima said. “We feel like we’re going to see a whole other big step next year.”