Spartan Daily Vol. 160 No. 2

SJSU introduces new president

By Carolyn Brown PRODUCTION EDITOR

Cynthia Teniente-Matson, San Jose State’s new president, was inaugurated on January 16, replacing former Interim President Steve Perez.

Teniente-Matson said part of her plan for her first 100 days as president is listening to many constituent groups, including students.

“I’m wanting to understand and maintain the momentum of things that we’re doing well, for our students,” Teniente-Matson said.

The newly appointed president has a vision for SJSU.

Teniente-Matson said the juxtaposition of being the oldest campus in the West, in an area with the newest innovation and technologies made SJSU attractive.

She also said SJSU’s commitment to justice, social justice, racial justice, equity and inclusion were all important to her.

“What that means for the students who come here and the experiences that you have and the chance we really have to shape the world,” she said.

Perez said the newly nominee president knows what she needs to do in order to be successful at SJSU.

“She’s a tremendously intelligent and accomplished person already,” he said in a Jan. 20 interview with the Spartan Daily.

Prior to being hired at SJSU, TenienteMatson was president at Texas A&M University - San Antonio for eight years.

SJ leaders condemn Tyre Nichols killing

By Nathan Canilao EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Protests around the country broke out this weekend after five Memphis police officers were charged in the killing of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, who was pulled over for allegedly driving recklessly in a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee on Jan. 7.

On Thursday, officers Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean were charged on seven felony counts, the highest count being second-degree murder.

Along with the five officers, three emergency medical technicians were terminated after an internal investigation by the Memphis Fire Department determined that it violated

A.S. approves $1,000 Family Emergency Fund

By Matthew Gonzalez STAFF WRITER

The Associated Students held their first official meeting of the spring semester on Wednesday. Among the points discussed, the board passed a family emergency fund for Francesca Ramona Arriaga, a San Jose State University nursing junior who died on Dec. 8, 2022.

multiple policies when giving Nichols medical attention, according to a Monday NBC article.

On Friday, the Memphis Police Department released body cam footage of Nichols’ death which showed officers beating Nichols after he was dragged out of his car.

The video showed police officers pulling over Nichols and attempting to remove him from his vehicle. Officers then pulled Nichols out of his car as he repeatedly told them,“I just want to get home,” according to a Friday New York Times article.

The officers pepper-sprayed Nichols while one of them shot a taser at him before he escaped and ran on foot.

The officers pursued Nichols for eight minutes before catching him in a suburban

Nina Chuang A.S. President

“I think that it’s important that the school can show support,” said Dillon Gadoury, A.S. director of communications.

“I think that it’s awesome that

Associated Students also has this backup, emergency family budget in cases where there is tragedy on campus.”

A.S. President Nina Chuang said providing the fund plays an integral role in respectfully acknowledging the experiences San Jose State students share.

“I think that it’s really important for us to take a position of empathy and respect and honor of the students and their experience here at San Jose State,” Chuang said.

The family emergency fund will allocate $1,000 to the Arriaga family.

A.S. Vice President Ikaika Rapanot said the fund was also used by the board in 2021 after the death of Saul Schrader, a junior SJSU business major. It was also used in October 2022 when freshman football player Camdan McWright died.

“I knew of this emergency fund as we have used it in the past, with people such as Camdan McWright and Saul Schrader who unfortunately passed away,” Rapanot said. “I figured as a member of our community in San Jose State, that it was only right to do our due diligence to help the family, as much as we can.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF MEMPHIS POLICE DEPARTMENT

ALEXIA FREDERICKSON | SPARTAN DAILY

SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson speaks to student media on Thursday in her office in Robert D. Clark Hall.

I think that it’s really important for us to take a position of empathy and respect and honor of the students and their experience here at San Jose State.

HaleyMillsMartinSmithBean

Bean

LEADERSHIP

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Teniente-Matson led a successful transformation of the university becoming a designated Hispanic Serving Institution, according to her Texas A&M biography.

A Hispanic Serving Institution is a designation for eligible schools when at least 25% of its full-time undergraduate students are Hispanic, according to the Department of Education’s “Hispanic-Serving Institutions” webpage.

On Jan. 17, at the National Day of Racial Healing event held on campus, TenienteMatson said the Texas A&M University she worked at had been created in an area which

MEMPHIS

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had previously been redlined, making the communities around the university primarily Latino and poor.

article by Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute.

“That’s where I chose to live,” she said at the same event. “I

insecurity in their livelihoods.”

Teniente-Matson said she feels like she had a lifechanging experience leading

excellence that values equity and inclusion,” according to the commission’s equity statement webpage.

Business administration junior, Alexandra Puga, said it’s nice to see someone like her in that type of position.

She said she thought it was cool to hear TenienteMatson talking about supporting first-generation and underrepresented students, but still is awaiting to see the President’s plans for the future.

“I’m just waiting to see, like, how it plays out,” Puga said.

Redlining is the discriminatory practice of systematically denying services – like loans or mortgages –to residents of certain areas based on their ethnicity or race according to an April 2022

neighborhood near his home where they tackled and began beating him.

The video showed officers repeatedly punching Nichols in the head, with one officer kicking him so hard that he nearly fell.

The footage also shows one of the officers using his baton to strike Nichols as he laid on the ground.

Throughout the nearly three-minute beating, Nichols is shown putting his hands near his face to cover up strikes before one officer hits him three times while standing behind him, and Nichols eventually collapses to the ground.

Nichols was pronounced dead at the hospital three days after being apprehended by the police. Nichols’ cause of death was from “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” according to a Monday CNN article.

Shortly after the officers were charged, the Memphis Police Department disbanded the Street Crimes Operations

MEETING

Continued from page 1

He said, while he didn’t know Arriaga personally, her death not only saddens him, but deeply affects the entire SJSU community.

“We are all part of a larger spectrum of San Jose State students so whenever we lose one of us, you know, it impacts us all very deeply,” Rapanot said. “Whatever we can do, especially in the positions of power that we have, the authority that we have, we have to do things for the betterment of our community.”

Chuang said she wanted to make it known that the death of someone in the SJSU community adds another layer of complexity to the grieving process for students, and said she is working to make sure conversations about those troubles are being had.

built the house in that same community so that I could be reminded on a daily basis of the importance of serving students, and serving families who are reliant on the bus, or might be unhoused, or may have food

to Restore Peace to Our Neighborhoods Unit (SCORPION), the unit the officers belonged to.

“In the process of listening intently to the family of Tyre Nichols, community leaders and the uninvolved officers who have done quality work in their

an institution in a previously redlined community.

At Texas A&M, TenienteMatson created the President’s Commission on Equity. The commission was charged with creating “a culture of

country to protest Nichols’ killing.

Lawmakers in San Jose and the greater Bay Area released statements condemning the actions of the Memphis Police Department.

“As the Chief of Police for the San Jose State University Police Department, I

condemned the Memphis police officers’ actions and said the city will continue to hold its officials accountable.

“I am outraged that our Black neighbors, friends and family continue to experience violence at the hands of officers who choose to abuse their power . . . San Jose is equally committed to holding accountable public servants who abuse their power. I pray that Tyre’s family and our community can heal and find peace,” Mahan said in a Friday statement.

A GoFundMe for Nichols has raised just over $1.2 million as of Monday night. Nichols leaves behind a 4-yearold son.

assignments, it is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the SCORPION Unit,” the Memphis Police Department said in a statement released on Saturday.

Following the charging of the five officers, groups gathered around the

am deeply saddened to announce there has been another wrongful death of an African American male at the hands of law enforcement officers,” said SJSU chief of police Michael Carroll in a campus wide email on Friday.

San Jose Mayor, Matt Mahan,

“I can’t imagine what it’s like for Francesca’s family but also for us as college students processing death at this age in our life is something that I’ve recently been talking with administrators about the realities of what that is and the hardship of that,” Chuang said.

Gadoury said, although A.S. couldn’t physically support

the Arriaga family, having the opportunity to aid them monetarily was a privilege and embodies the A.S. mission to strengthen the Spartan community.

“I think that it’s great that we have the opportunity to even have this backup, worst case scenario $1000,” Gadoury said. “And I know money isn’t everything and I know that showing up to support this family physically and in-person could be even more powerful, but at the least through everything that we do, money can help out in ways whether it’s funeral costs whether it’s bringing family together, for whatever reason a family uses it.”

Gadoury said responding to tragedies swiftly has been a prevalent topic among the board and that their collective willingness to have hard dialogue bolsters effective decisionmaking.

“One of our biggest board goals we talked about this year is to immediately address controversy, emergency and anything in-between on our campus and we’re fairly a very bold board,” he said. “And I think that makes us really effective because we can have hard conversations.”

The A.S. Board of Directors approved:

The Student Election Commission and elections timeline.

The Family Emergency Fund for nursing junior Francesca Ramona Arriaga.

Resolution in Honor of former Interim President, Steve Perez.

Director of Legislative Affairs Dominic Treseler and President Nina Chuang discuss measures during

I am outraged that our Black neighbors, friends and family continue to experience violence at the hands of officers who choose to abuse their power.

Matt Mahan San Jose City Mayor

We are all part of a larger spectrum of San Jose State students so whenever we lose one of us, you know, it impacts us all very deeply

Ikaika Rapanot A.S. Vice President

What that means for the students who come here and the experiences that you have and the chance we really have to shape the world.

Cynthia Teniente-Matson SJSU President

Landon Conrath talks career and life

By Vanessa Tran A&E EDITOR

Landon Conrath, Minneapolis-based songwriter and producer, played as the opener for the indie musician Windser, at The Catalyst Club in Santa Cruz on Friday.

Conrath debuted his first album, “Nothing Matters Anyway,” on Sept. 9, 2022 with a deluxe release on Dec. 30, 2022. He said it was about the troubles he faced throughout the year up until the release.

“It’s funny because I feel like the album, it’s kind of like, I’m writing about the album itself, but it ended up just kind of being about this struggle to feel like anything I was doing had any meaning,” Conrath said. “I’m just another dude, why did I need to put out music? Why does anyone care?”

Santa Cruz resident, Chloe Blue, attended the concert not knowing of Conrath but came out wanting to listen to more of his music.

“I felt that there was a lot of attention to detail of instruments, including the vocals and harmonies,” Blue said. “All of the songs had distinctive qualities that made them all unique, which was very cool to experience.”

Conrath said his favorite thing about touring is being able to meet and interact with fans.

“I think that’s something that me and my band really try and do is just like, we want people to feel seen and like leave a concert feeling like they had positive interactions with us,” he said, “I want them to leave a Landon Conrath show and be like, ‘I felt valued, I felt like he cared about me actually and didn’t just want to sell me

a T-shirt.’ ”

Matthew Swinnerton, who is the founder of Event Santa Cruz, an event management company that showcases creativity in the city, said Conrath connected with the audience instantly and kept them entertained.

“First of all, being an opener for any show is harder than the actual main performer because like a lot of people are not going there for you,” Swinnerton said. “But Landon connected

Conrath said overcoming massive amounts of self-doubt and imposter syndrome were daily obstacles he faced when making the album.

Imposter syndrome is a psychological occurrence in which an individual doubts their skills, talent or accomplishments, according to a June 20, 2018 Time Magazine article.

“Science Fiction” is his favorite track off the album because of how much he was able to unpack his thoughts and admit that

how to play piano and eventually moved onto chasing his dream of being a drummer in college. He randomly wrote a song after a breakup and partnered up with a friend who had just started producing music.

He said he didn’t like the process of having to fork over his creative vision to someone else, but ended up giving songwriting another shot and enjoyed it.

“I mean, there’s a million white dudes who are 23, making music. And it’s just like, why do they care that I’m another one? And so it’s like, it’s hard to find some meaning in that sometimes,” Conrath said.

Conrath said he also struggles with social media and being confident in front of a camera. He said he has never been the type of person to whip out his phone and record himself, but is aware that he’s slowly getting better at it.

with the audience instantly, and made it entertaining.”

Conrath said he wasn’t able to craft an overarching story arc for the album because he had to constantly chase deadlines ever since signing to Nettwerk Music Group, an independent company that strives to help artists grow, according to their website.

He said he came to the conclusion that he was pursuing music because he genuinely enjoyed it.

“At the end of the day, we’re all struggling with a lot of the same things,” Conrath said. “And I don’t know, it was just kind of trying to piece that all together and realize that everything would be okay.”

Landon Conrath songwriter and producer

he was depressed.

He said the song resonates with him because he felt so captive in his own mind throughout 2022, and it allowed him to break him free from his self-doubts.

“I wrote the song just about kind of the realization that I was depressed for the first time in my life, I never realized that, I think I just kind of shoved that aside. And I like to bury myself in work a lot. And I love to just stay busy,” Conrath said.

He said he often compares himself to his friends, who are also musicians – diminishing his motivation and will to create.

Conrath said he grew up learning

“I think part of it is just that I’ve been kind of reluctant to do it. So maybe I’m not gaining those skills,” Conrath said.

He said he believes the biggest downfalls of the music industry is artists being expected to be full-time content creators, something that he finds extremely hard.

Swinnerton said, despite not knowing any of Conrath’s songs, he thought it was enjoyable and catchy.

“I also like the alternative vibe that he has, which is kind of more my music taste.

So from the very beginning, he hooked the audience well,” he said, “And I think that Landon really complimented Windsor as well. Just having them two together, I thought was a great pairing.”

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RAINIER DE FORT-MENARES | SPARTAN DAILY

Singer-songwriter Landon Conrath (left) preforms with his bandmate Caleb Dee (right) as an opener for Windser at The Catalyst Club in Santa Cruz on Friday night.

I mean, there’s a million white dudes who are 23, making music. And it’s just like, why do they care that I’m another one? And so it’s like, it’s hard to find some meaning in that sometimes.

African Diaspora honors 26th anniversary

By Brandon Nicolas STAFF WRITER

On the first floor of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library is a windowed room, and on display are several paintings created with household acids, dollar store bleach and charcoal.

The Richmond Art Center, in partnership with the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, hosted an exhibition featuring the Art of African Diaspora.

They partnered up to celebrate the exhibition’s 26th anniversary on Friday.

In 1996, Jan Hart-Schuyers and Rae Louise Hayward established the exhibition, The Art of Living Black at Richmond Art Center. Founded in 1936, the Richmond Art Center is a nonprofit art organization that seeks to grow and sustain innovative art practices in Richmond and the Bay Area.

Over the following years, the exhibition became home to African American artists in the Bay Area, allowing young artists to garner new audiences and build a creative community. The exhibition celebrated its 26th anniversary on Friday.

The Steering Committee is a collective of artists who host the event each year.

Artists Kelvin Curry, Stephen Bruce and TheArthur Wright shared three pieces each in different mediums.

Born in Oakland, Curry picked up art at six years old when his grandmother and mother gifted him an art set, according to his website.

One of his pieces from the series “Summer of Love,” resembles a stained glass window in a church. Each of the quadrants contains a profile looking in a different direction, a symbol of Curry trying to find his way during the creation of the series.

Curry said he is a fan of using geometric shapes to tell a story of love, hate or beauty. Each piece in

a series starts long before line work.

He said his most recent series was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic. Curry said he spent his time studying African masks throughout history.

“The masks all have similar shapes and lines to them,” Curry said. “I’m going to take them and do a remix– keep it primitive but give it a modern feel.”

Curry said his research of African masks led him to produce his latest series which includes quotes paraphrased and inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, philosophy and social justice reforms.

Curry relates the Art of the African Diaspora to the Harlem Renaissance, an African-American cultural movement in New York City in the 1920s.

“It’s important to realize how we are all connected,” Curry said. “It’s hard to move forward if you don’t know what was done in the past.”

Raised in Sacramento, Stephen Bruce said he moved from studio to studio until landing in Richmond where he works in a warehouse downtown.

Bruce’s works have been seen on TV shows, including “House,” “Law & Order” and “The Big Bang Theory.”

Bruce works mainly on copper and brass canvases. “If I can manipulate oxidation on copper using acid, that would be an interesting technique,” Bruce said.

Bruce said he initially started coloring with various chemicals, but fainted one late night in his studio. He would turn to household acetic acids as an alternative, leading him to use other forms of acid.

One of the three pieces Bruce shared during the exhibit was colorized using Frank’s RedHot sauce and pickled pepperoncini. Other acids Bruce uses include pineapple juice and rice wine vinegar. Once the piece is done

treating, he sprays it with an epoxy clear coat to prevent the piece from further oxidizing.

His works resemble seascapes and mountains in which Bruce shares his influence to be the southwest.

“I love Sedona, Moapa Valley, all the national parks,” he said. “That’s heaven.”

Bruce said he spends his time in nature, and when inspired, refers to his notebook where he will write the words, “Barbeque sauce. Hot sauce,” to remember the color of the landscape when oxidized upon copper.

TheArthur Wright said he was born in Little Rock Arkansas in 1940 and that he would draw characters on his assignments before turning them in. He gained notoriety for his character, and a demand for his art began at a young age.

Various published writings and art pieces fulfilled Wright’s career until he took a nearly 20 year hiatus from the humanities.

Wright said it wasn’t until his goddaughter requested a painting for her new home that his brush would again meet the canvas in 1994, this time with a new medium. “It was an accident,” Wright said. “I was eating a candy bar around bleach and the bleach somehow splashed on the brown cardboard tray of candy and turned gold.”

In the following weeks, Wright would experiment with bleach, painting Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. This series titled “The Three Martyrs” sold almost immediately, and Wright would no longer question his artistry.

“We never know who we are going to become,” Bruce said. “Who you were is less important than who you will be.”

BRANDON NICOLAS | SPARTAN DAILY

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Kelvin Curry (left), Stephen Bruce (middle) and TheArthur Wright (right) share their art at the King Library on Friday.

Spartans win first home competition

By Matthew Gonzalez STAFF WRITER

After starting the season off with two road wins over Stanford and Air Force, the San Jose State gymnastics team had its home opener in front of alumni, in a trimeet against Sacramento State and University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

SJSU had the highest overall team score, tallying 195.150 points.

SJSU gymnast Emma Milne had a career day, racking up 9.925 points on the beam and winning her first beam title of the season.

Milne also led the team on bars with 9.925 points, winning her second bars title in four meets and tying for the second-highest score in Spartan history.

Junior Jaudai Lopes said competing well for the alumni was especially important because, without them, the team wouldn’t be where they are today.

Lopes led the Spartans in the vault with a score of 9.850.

“It means a lot to us [competing] because without them building this program up and without them, we wouldn’t be where we are at right now,” Lopes said.

SJSU struggled on the vault to begin the meet and found themselves chasing both the Hornets and the Eagles in the team score after the first rotation.

“We started off really rough on vault, and they didn’t have the vault table set for one of our best vaulters and she crashed, it wasn’t her fault at all,” said SJSU head coach Joanne Bowers. Bowers said this forced her team to readjust and execute in the remaining events.

Even with the rocky start, Bowers said the Spartans performed incredibly well on the bars and beam.

“They went to bars and knocked it out of the park on bars, did a great job, did a great job on beam,” Bowers said.

The Spartans sprung their way through the screams of the crowd on the floor of the meet.

Lopes said when her nerves set in, she took a few breaths and reverted back to her practice to help calm her down.

“I just make sure to take a couple deep breaths and tell myself to do what I do in practice, because what I do in practice is the reason why I’m competing,” she said.

Lopes said having her teammates cheer her on is great support and is beneficial on the floor, where she had her second

highest score of the meet.

“That [camaraderie] is so important, especially on floor because sometimes you can get really tired so

having them kind of push you and cheer for you really helps,” Lopes said.

Bowers said she hopes Provident Credit Union Event Center gets even louder in the future and wants the SJSU gymnastics crowd to match the energy she has seen at other colleges.

“We want to build this thing where we can pack this entire place, and if you watch college gymnastics around the country, everybody is selling out their arenas,” Bowers said.

“It’s fun, good family stuff, that’s what we want to

PHOTOS BY ENRIQUE GUTIERREZ-SEVILLA SPARTAN DAILY

SJSU all-around gymnast Lauren Macpherson prepares to start her routine on the beam during Saturday’s meet at the Provident Cre dit Union Event Center.

An SJSU gymnast competes on the uneven bars during Saturday’s gymnastics meet at the Event Center.

That [camaraderie] is so important, especially on floor because sometimes you can get really tired so having them kind of push you and cheer for you really helps.

Jaudai Lopes, Junior

gymnast