Spartan Daily Vol. 160 No. 26

UndocuSpartan aids Dreamers

By Enrique Gutierrez-Sevilla STAFF WRITER

San Jose State welcomes the admission of undocumented students.

Undocumented students in California have the opportunity to pursue higher education through Assembly Bill 540, or AB 540, and the California Dream Act.

AB 540 was introduced in 2001, and it allows any student who has completed three years of California high school to pay in-state tuition, according to the 2023 California Student Aid Commission’s report “Renewing the Dream.”

The California Dream Act, composed of AB 130 and AB 131, was enacted in 2011, and the bills enable undocumented students who meet the AB 540 eligibility requirements to receive financial aid and other institutional aid from a university.

Undocumented students are encouraged by administrators and universities to apply for state financial aid through the California Dream Act application.

Other undocumented students enter university through the federal government’s Deferred Action

DACA | Page 2

San Jose community celebrates trans visibility

By Alina Ta STAFF WRITER

LGBTQ+ community members and allies united with their trans siblings in fighting for their human rights at San Jose’s City Hall on Trans Day of Visibility. Silicon Valley Pride hosted the community event on Friday to demand queer and trans youth autonomy.

Silicon Valley Pride is an organization in the Bay Area which focuses on celebrating and supporting the LGBTQ+ community and its allies, according to its website.

Outside of City Hall, members of the community and their allies formed a wall of signs to show their support as they chanted “we will not be erased.”

Sera Fernando, Silicon Valley Pride chief diversity officer, said she wanted to uplift voices in the community.

“[We wanted to] show that we have our story to tell as well,” she said.

Fernando, who identifies as a trans Filipino woman, said the event is a part of a national movement from the Queer Youth Assembly.

The Queer Youth Assembly is a nonprofit that serves LGBTQ+ youth under the age of 25 in the U.S., according to its webpage.

As she spoke in front of the crowd, Fernando said the goal of this movement is to promote four specific demands.

Fernando said the first demand is to have sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression codified or solidified as part of Title IX.

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits people from being discriminated against on the “basis of gender,” preventing them from being able to participate in educational or career opportunities, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website

On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court made a decision to clarify Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis

of sexual orientation and transgender status, according to the same source.

Title VII is a federal employment law that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national orientation, according to Cornell Law School’s

website.

However, the U.S. Department of Justice states Title VII and Title IX are two distinct statutes or two different laws.

Fernando said the issue is that Title IX doesn’t identify sexual orientation or

gender identity.

She said this creates an issue where states can create laws or bills that define LGTBQ+ inclusion or what it means how to define sexual orientation, creating a space to develop bills that discriminate against the trans community.

“What we want to do is make sure that, like, if it’s a nationwide legislative effort, then that will not allow states to have these anti-LGBTQ bills,” Fernando said. “That’s a one point of view, federal protection, not just statewide protections.”

She said their second demand is to

INFOGRAPHIC BY CAROLYN BROWN SOURCE: CALIFORNIA STUDENT AID COMMISSION

A person holds up a sign in support of trans youth at Silicon Valley Pride’s Trans Day of Visibility in front of San Jose City Hall on Friday.

Resource center helps undocumented Spartans apply for financial aid and more

Drag queens and transgender people are not monsters that they’re painting us to be. We are just regular people.

Tori Tia drag queen

Mayor Mahan possible solutions to police shortage

Library houses exhibit about legendary composer

SJ leaders discuss police shortage

By Alessio Cavalca MANAGING EDITOR

Mayor Matt Mahan and San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata discussed and highlighted the need for increased community safety at a press conference at Shady Oaks Park in San Jose on Monday.

Mahan and Mata focused the attention on the San Jose Police Department officer shortage and the consequences it has on the San Jose community.

Mata said there are 1,173 police officers in San Jose, a number which is lower than the 1,400 officers the city had in 2008.

The number of police officers has decreased over the past mayoral administrations.

“I know there was some decisions with prior administrations, that their belief was to reduce the number of officers due to financial reasons,” Mata said. “And that’s where we’re at. We lost close to 300, almost 400, officers during that time.”

Mahan said the current police officer numbers in San Jose are significantly lower compared to other big cities in the United States.

“It’s important context for everyone to be aware that our department in San Jose currently has about 11 officers, for every 10,000 residents,” he said. “That’s the lowest staffing ratio of any big city in America. Most other large cities have anywhere from 20 to 40 officers per 10,000 residents.”

Mahan also said that’s about two to four times more officers per population per capita.

“So you can take San Francisco, just to our north here, just, you know, 15% fewer people in the city of San Francisco, but twice as many, more than twice as many officers,” he said.

Mahan said the SJPD being understaffed has consequences on the San Jose community.

“It just makes it incredibly

DACA

Continued from page 1

difficult to provide the level of responsiveness and follow up and community policing that our residents demand,” he said.

Mahan also said, although the major complaints he received from the community are about slow responses from the SJPD, community members asked for more of a presence in neighborhoods, more community policing and capacity for follow up investigations.

“We can’t do it all with the staffing levels that we have,” Mata said. “But we’ll get there and slowly, incrementally get to the staffing levels that we once had before, to provide that level of service to our community.”

On March 21, the San Jose city council unanimously

for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

Undocumented students who applied and are accepted by DACA are granted work authorization and pardoned from deportation.

Ana Navarrete, program director for the UndocuSpartan Student Resource Center has worked for over 10 years developing institutionalized support for undocumented students.

Navarrete said she is undocumented herself and shares a personal connection with students she works alongside.

“I like to remind folks being undocumented is not an identity, it’s just a social condition that can change,” Navarrete said. “Working with students who are undocumented has allowed me to better understand the complexities around immigration, and how it impacts a person’s journey in terms of accessing a higher degree.”

passed Mahan’s budget, which included investments regarding police officer staff.

Some of the investments aim to double the rate at which the city hires new police officers and enhance SJPD recruitment efforts by increasing officer referral and signing bonuses.

“The [San Jose] population has grown, the city has grown. We need to grow our infrastructure, public safety, along with the growth of the city,” Mata said.

He said having more than 1,800 officers in San Jose would provide a high level of service to the community. A realistic number for the SJPD to reach is 1,400 police officers and then start increasing the level of service.

Resource Center engages with undocumented students’ to listen in on their experiences.

“We as an institution carry out assessments to get a sense of what our students are experiencing right now because my generation of undocumented folks was very different from the experience now,” Navarrete said.

Undocumented students at SJSU who qualify for AB 540 are eligible to receive university aid through the California Dream Act application, according to the UndocuSpartan website.

Some financial aid opportunities undocumented students can apply for include the Cal Grant, Chafee Grant, Middle Class Scholarship, CA Dream Loan, Educational Opportunity Program Grant, among others.

According to the 2023 California Student Aid Commission’s report “Renewing the Dream,” some challenges for undocumented students in California include college affordability, difficulty accessing financial information and lack of campus support.

“If a student got all the money that they could possibly get through the California Dream Act, they’re going to encounter a gap,” said Navarrete. “It’s a statewide issue with the California Dream Act because of federal funding or the lack thereof.”

Navarrete said SJSU is limited to what the institution can grant based on the California Dream Act application.

“As an institution, we’re looking at other avenues we can support the student,” Navarrete said.

She said she believes undocumented students are not getting accurate information and teachers are not prepared or trained with information to

Mata said the recruitment process is an important part of the issue because he wants police officers to reflect the San Jose Community.

“We go to events in the community, to the schools, colleges, in different venues, not only within San Jose, but in California and outside California to recruit the best and the brightest here to the San Jose police department,” he said.

SJPD Capt. Carlos Acosta said his goal is to improve safety in San Jose, reaching some of the accomplishments that the department achieved in the past.

“We were one the safest largest cities with 1,400 officers, right? And that’s my goal,”

Acosta said.

He also said a larger staff is important to address the houseless encampment issue, which is another main point of Mahan’s campaign.

“Our job is to go out there and engage not just our community members in our businesses, or residential areas, but as well as some of these trails,” Acosta said. “And again, it gives us an opportunity to provide resources, provide outreach and more importantly, education. As far as what programs are out there, what resources may be available to help them not just short-term, but long-term.”

Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily

help.

Navarrete said her mission for the UndocuSpartan Student Resource Center is identifying and addressing challenges or barriers that undocumented students are encountering

“We’re hoping to be able to tell that story of how many of our students are applying for financial aid and what are some strategies we can implement for next year to close some of these gaps,” Navarrete said.

She said she believes that when it comes to all California’s universities, SJSU is ahead of the game.

“I am really proud of the fact that San Jose State has invested money and resources for a standalone center, something that not all campuses have, and being willing to invest resources to ensure that we are implementing programs that are open or inclusive of non-DACA students and non-AB 540 students,” Navarrete said.

SJSU alumna Andrea Hernandez Galindo is a first-generation graduate who works for the UndocuSpartan Student Resource Center as a life after college consultant.

Hernandez Galindo is responsible for hosting workshops for students with the lead after college consultant, Juan Cortez.

Hernandez Galindo said they’ve held four workshops this year.

“Two of the workshops were about grad school and navigating grad school, the third was about generating income and the fourth was about developing an entrepreneurial mindset,” she said.

“We bring external people to come in and share their experience and then they become a resource for students to connect afterwards.”

Hernandez Galindo is also an educator for the UndocuSpartan Student Resource Center who trains different departments on campus on how to support undocumented students.

“We teach policies that affect undocumented students, terminologies, opportunities and barriers that

undocumented students face,” she said.

Hernandez Galindo said the UndocuSpartan Student Resource Center is great for moral and mutual support for overwhelmed or frustrated undocumented students.

“It’s hard to be undocumented and have a clear mind and always be motivated because sometimes you get knocked down and disappointed,” she said. “We help give that motivation and emotional stance so that you can continue your studies.”

Jair Diaz is an undocumented business sophomore at SJSU.

Diaz was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and came to the United States when he was three years old.

Diaz said applying to SJSU was nerveracking, but was thrilled when accepted into the university.

“I remember getting accepted into SJSU,” Diaz said. “I was very happy because my brother comes here, so having a familiar face stepping into the next big chapter of my life was definitely comforting.”

Diaz said he is receiving financial aid through the California Dream Act.

“My experience as an undocumented student has been very good so far,” Diaz said. “Financially, at first it was very rough, but now everything has definitely taken a turn and I am in a more comfortable situation, which I am very grateful for.”

Diaz said his goal after university is to open a business and become his own boss.

“Having a successful business is a goal, to be financially free and help my parents and family in Mexico so they won’t have to struggle as much,” Diaz said. “I just want a comfortable life where money isn’t a problem.”

ALESSIO CAVALCA | SPARTAN DAILY

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan (left) and San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata (right) talk to the press about the police officer shortage on Monday at Shady Oaks Park in San Jose.

Continued from page 1

have stronger safe school programs to protect trangender youth and transgender curriculum.

This includes the Safe Schools for Safe Learning Act of 2013, a bill meant to protect children from gang violence, gun violence, school shootings and more, according to the California Department of Education website.

“We’re not just talking about one day a year where you take diversity, equity and inclusion training, and you check it off the box and you’re done for the year,” Fernando said. “No, no, no, honey. We’re talking about allyship.”

She said this includes making sure educators also educate parents about transgender issues by including curriculum about the LGBTQ+ community without the option for students to opt-out.

“I’m looking at every single parent, you are responsible for making sure that LGBTQ+ youth are protected, and they feel safe,” Fernando said.

Fernando said the third demand is to have government bodies give LGBTQ+ community members “a seat at the table” when legislation that affects them is created.

She said no decisions should be made on these types of legislation without input from the LGBTQ+ community.

Fernando said the fourth demand is to have no hate against the LGBTQ+ community.

“It’s not about hate, it’s about showing love,” she said. “It’s about amplifying each other.”

Fernando said the news has been misinterpreting recent issues related to the trans community and gun control.

On Mar. 27, six individuals were shot and killed at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee by a trans woman, according to a livestream of a Metropolitan Nashville Police Department police briefing.

Fernando said some media outlets are missing the main issue.

“Making one trans person be made out [as] something . . . is more like a spin on the news, whereas, like, the issues not being translated [is] who is having access to guns,” she said.

Tori Tia, a drag queen in San Jose who identifies as gay, nonbinary and gender fluid, said they thought it was important

to share their thoughts as a speaker for the event.

“Drag queens and transgender people are not monsters that they’re painting us to be,” they said. “We are just regular people.”

Tori Tia said six to seven months ago, protesters interrupted their drag storytime at a Silicon Valley Pride event.

They said they were reading a story to children at the time.

“We should not be seen as threats to children,” Tori Tia said.

They said they do drag story time to raise awareness and ensure to parents and children that the drag and LGBTQ+ community are friendly.

“We want to be respected and seen,”

Tori Tia said.

Steven Alvarado, who identifies as agender and prefers to use ne/nem/ nir pronouns, said ne agrees that the situation is dire for the trans community.

Alvarado said ne doesn’t believe the community should be relying on politicians for change.

“I’m surprised that a lot of people are, like, ‘We need to get these laws passed. We need to do this and that,’ ” ne said.

Alvarado identifies as an anarchist or someone who is anti-hierarchy.

Ne said ne believes in the opposite of hierarchy which ne defines as someone, such as politicians, arbitrarily having power over another person.

Ne said ne doesn’t believe the LGBTQ+ community should rely on politicians to rescind laws.

Alvarado said this because the government is partially responsible for creating the current environment of discrimination against the trans community at the moment.

Instead, Alvarado said the community should focus on coming together and relying on each other.

“I think we can only solve this problem once we come together as a community and try to figure it out together,” Alvarado said.

Correction

On Wednesday, March 22, the Spartan Daily published a story titled, “Mock Trial Team discusses adversity,” in which we misquoted Mary Ashley Fortuno. She never said “keep the theme of representation alive.”

On Thursday, March 23, the Spartan Daily published a story titled, “A.S. Board debates on SWANA resolution,” in which we misidentified Magnus Herrlin’s position. At the time of publication he was the A.S. director of internal affairs.

The Spartan Daily regrets these errors.

ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY

Drag queen Tori Tia dabs at the end of her speech in front of a crowd outside of San Jose City Hall Friday afternoon.

ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY

Silicon Valley Pride chief diversity officer Sera Fernando, who identifies as a Filipino trans woman, holds up the Progress Pride Flag as she speaks to the crowd outside of San Jose City Hall on Friday afternoon during the Trans Day of Visibility.

Beethoven Center exhibits history

By Alina Ta STAFF WRITER

The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies is a hidden gem inside the Martin Luther King Jr., Library holding famous items from one of history’s most famous composers, Beethoven.

Ludwig van Beethoven was a classical music composer who was born in Bonn, Germany on December 16, 1770, according to a Biography’s YouTube video.

Eric Gjovaag, the public services coordinator at the Beethoven Center, said one of the main reasons why Beethoven is popular is because he became deaf in his late 20s and 30s.

Despite this impairment, he said Beethoven continued to write and compose music until the end of his life.

Gjovaag said Ira F. Brilliant, who is originally from Phoenix, Arizona, founded and opened the center at San Jose State University in 1985.

Patricia Stroh, the curator who has been working at the center since it opened, said Brilliant was a private collector who wanted to donate his collection to the university.

Stroh said the president and dean of the college at the time were excited about having “something so unique and special.”

She said the Beethoven

Center is the only library and museum that’s dedicated to the composer.

Gjovaag said one of the oddest items the center has is multiple locks of hair from Beethoven’s scalp, which is located in a gold and teal frame, hidden in a wooden drawer in the back of the center.

He said it used to be very traditional to have a lock of hair after someone famous died.

“When someone died, they would cut a lock of hair to remember that person,” he said.

Erica Buurman, Director of the Beethoven Center and assistant professor in the

belong to Beethoven himself.

“I think it’s worthwhile to come in [to the center] because Beethoven had such fundamental importance in the history of music and still has a profound influence on not just music, but on art and society,” Stroh said.

She said regardless of whether or not a visitor is well educated on who he is, they should still come to the center.

Stroh said Beethoven is seen as one of the most influential composers because he revolutionized how the genre sounded during his time.

She said by the end of his life,

of music that is performed in small groups, according to a Richmond Symphony Orchestra webpage.

According to the same source, these groups usually have each performer play a different instrument.

Stroh said these groups could include between two to nine people and typically are performed in people’s homes or in small public halls.

Buurman said the Beethoven Center is currently presenting “Beethoven’s Chamber Music Exhibition” to present some of the chamber music he wrote when he was alive.

need that anymore because you can just play a CD at home of a symphony.”

Buurman said Beethoven would sometimes write dedicated pieces of chamber music to his friends as a symbol of friendship.

She said it’s fun to see his music scores and items out on display because it helps remind her and other visitors that Beethoven was a real person.

“It’s always helpful to see things, you know,” Buurman said. “Everyone knows Beethoven existed and whatever and you kind of know about the music, but once you start to see the world that a [historical] figure lived in and some of the objects that they used. . . it seems much more accessible and real.”

music department at San Jose State, said having a lock of hair from someone who was considered famous at the time was comparable to having a celebrity’s signature.

She said one out of the three locks of hair the center owns has been tested to be authentic and has been proven to once

Beethoven was writing music that was quite advanced.

“I mean, [it was] sort of futuristic in a way,” Stroh said.

Buurman said Beethoven’s music was extremely influential, widely known for writing symphonies and chamber music.

Chamber music is a type

She said seeing Beethoven’s chamber music helps scholars understand the social world he lived in.

“That was a really important part of the culture in Beethoven’s day that kind of died out,” Buurman said. “I suppose when, you know, after the era of recorded sound, you don’t

Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily

A lock of hair from Beethoven was bought by staff members in the Ira F. Brilliant Beethoven Center on the fifth floor of Martin Luther King Jr., Library in Downtown San Jose.

ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY

I think it’s worthwhile to come in [to the center] because Beethoven had such fundamental importance in the history of music and still has a profound influence on not just music, but on art and society.

Patricia

Stroh curator at the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies

Jeffrey Vandergrift: a Bay Area icon

Vandergrift was an icon and a staple to the morning routine of listeners across the Bay Area, myself included.

He would always make it just a little bit easier to get through the morning.

Listening to “The JV Show” every morning on Wild 94.9 introduced me to a group of people that are just as unique as they are charismatic. JV particularly opened my eyes and taught me what it means to have an outlet, to reflect your own personality through.

He taught me that a person can captivate the entire Bay Area with their own charm, every time I heard his voice on the radio.

One of the Bay Area’s biggest icons, Jeffrey Vandergrift, a DJ on the Bay Area’s own Wild 94.9 radio station in San Francisco, was found dead at 55 years old, on Wed. March 22, according to a 2023 article from NBC Bay Area.

Vandergrift, had been missing since Feb. 23, and was last seen at his San Francisco home, on King Street, according to the same article.

In lieu of his death, many news outlets have been bringing awareness to lyme disease, which Vandergrift had struggled with for years.

JV grew up in Fremont and became drawn to radio during his time at American High School, according to the Wild 94.9 website.

According to the site, Vandergrift acquired his own show called “The Dog House” by the age of 25 and continued to work as a regular on the station’s “The JV Show,” along with co-host Selena and former “Dog House” member Graham. His wife Natasha Yi joined the crew later on.

Being able to listen to the show and hear him make jokes on air would add a little bit more personality to my morning routine and make my experience getting ready for the day more fun.

The show actually made me look forward to waking up in the morning and getting ready for school.

I discovered Wild 94.9 during my time in junior high school.

During that time, I had an increased interest in music and following local radio stations in the Bay Area.

I had started listening to the station, having enjoyed a lot of pop and hip-hop hits back in 2010.

In 2012, my cousin had won a couple invitations to parties through the station, one of which was a playoff party during the game between the 49ers and the Giants, leading up to the Superbowl that year.

During the party, Vandergrift, Yi, along with both Selena and then cast member Rico, came to my cousin’s house with a number of other Wild 94.9 affiliates on Jan 22, 2012.

Rico was also a staple to “The JV Show” at that time, according to a May 14, 2013 Facebook post by Wild 94.9.

Vandergrift, Selena and Rico all watched the game with us, as my family partied with them and they had served as the DJs for the party.

At the time, I was mesmerized.

I couldn’t believe that the same people I had listened to on the radio days prior were right in front of me.

Vandergrift particularly made a

huge impact.

Seeing him party with all of us really put into perspective just how nice and caring a person he really is.

Vandergrift had an amazing spirit and really made everyone at the party, including myself, feel like we were best friends that day.

It was as if we had known him all our lives.

He welcomed all of us with open arms and had the best time possible.

I had even gotten pictures with Vandergrift, along with both Selena and Rico.

After having such an awesome time that night and seeing just how positive they all were, I will never forget the time we got to spend with everyone, especially Vandergrift.

From then on, I continued to listen to the station off and on throughout the years.

I still make a point to listen to Wild 94.9 to this day.

Wild 94.9 has always been and will continue to be one of my favorite radio stations.

However, listening to the station will never be the same.

I could be having the worst day and one quick flip to “The JV Show” could immediately brighten up my mood.

Vandergrift made the show extremely special.

To hear him interact with his fellow cast members and crack jokes on air would give an elevated degree of personality to the show.

He knew just how to make listeners across the Bay Area smile and laugh every morning.

The reach that he had and the impact he made on listeners was immense.

He will forever be a Bay Area icon.

After Vandergrift’s passing, Wild 94.9 made a tribute to the late radio DJ and stated that the morning show would continue under the name “The JV Show,” according to a March 24, 2023 podcast of the show.

Fans of the show left flowers, photos and candles in a memorial

outside of the station’s San Francisco Studio, according to the same NBC Bay Area article.

Jeffrey Vandergrift, otherwise known as JV, will forever be missed and never forgotten.

Thank you JV for all the fun that day, all the memories and all the laughs every morning.

I will never forget you. For anyone who may be struggling or if anyone you may know is going through tough times, call the Suicide and Crisis lifeline at 988.

Alternatively, you can call the previous line for the National Suicide Prevention lifeline at 800273-8255, or text HOME to 741741. For any additional resources, you can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide. com/resources.

To find more resources and more information about the battle against lyme disease, visit BayAreaLyme. org. Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily

Jeremy Martin

SENIOR STAFF EDITOR

(Left to Right) Selena, Rico, Spartan Daily Senior Staff Writer Jeremy Martin, and Jeffrey Vandergrift pose for a photo at Martin’s cousin’s house in 2012.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEREMY MARTIN

GRAPHIC BY VANESSA TRAN

Starbucks has been brewing up problems

Starbucks has treated its employees terribly within the last year, and genuinely it should stop seeing its workers as machines and start treating them like people.

I’ve been a barista for almost two years now and I sympathize with all the other Starbucks workers who have had their unions silenced all over the country.

In Ithaca, New York, Starbucks is closing down a store because of its “militant organizing activity,” according to a June 6, 2022 Vice article.

Starbucks Workers United is the union that Starbucks employees formed to advocate for their labor rights, nondiscrimination policies, promise of mandated hours, health and safety regulations to protect Starbucks workers and more.

However, Starbucks’ corporation believes these unions don’t reflect the experience of all Starbucks employees across the nation, according to the same Vice article. The company wrote a letter to the White House about how Starbucks Workers United isn’t representative of the reality the workers go through.

So allow me to offer insight as a Starbucks partner from a messed up Starbucks store.

First off, the next time you go into a cafe, please just offer the barista a bit of kindness. We’d love a tip, but if you can’t, at least ask them how their day is. It can make a difference.

Because, honestly, my baristas and I are tired of being disrespected on a daily basis with constant ridicule.

I love suggesting new drinks to people and seeing smiles on their faces. I love making latte art, even if it is a shitty feather made from foam. I love tying on that apron. But the second I get yelled at for not getting drinks out quickly enough, I wanna quit.

Listen, baristas have to handle a lot on a daily basis and they aren’t nearly paid enough. There’s a reason why Starbucks employees are currently unionizing all over the nation in order to assert their labor rights.

employees to cover shifts at other stores since the standards of the company are the same at every store and the skills should be easily transferable, but that demands more from the workers to adapt and adjust to a different store’s needs.

An example of this would be working at a regular Starbucks cafe store but being scheduled to cover a shift at a drivethru Starbucks, a partner would have to learn drivethru training on the go and adapt that same day.

This happened to me.

lack of communication as to why I kept losing hours and needed to go to other stores to find work.

Not only that, baristas in general are overworked. Starbucks doesn’t put a limit to how many mobile and delivery orders are put in at a store at a time, and when it comes to peak hours, I would have to stop my breaks to keep the store flowing smoothly.

The store that I worked at didn’t prioritize cleaning either, only keeping the doors open.

We legitimately had cockroaches in our cafe

Starbucks needing a cup of coffee to keep warm especially in cold weather.

Because of the housing crisis and the lack of mental health resources in San Jose, places like your local Starbucks end up being their safe space.

I do empathize with these people because their respective circumstances are out of their control, but my store had to literally close off all indoor seating because of so many incidents which result from a city that isn’t cared for.

online and utilizing campus resources to the best of my ability.

In the Starbucks Workers United webpage, the National Bargaining Committee has published proposals with feedback from over 6,500 Starbucks partners.

The proposals stem from the several issues of Starbucks’ treatment of its workers from partner safety and the ability to defend themselves against customer aggression to guaranteed schedules for both full time and part time workers.

I sent emails, I called, texted my supervisors, but inevitably had to go to the cafe to ask my manager why I wasn’t being scheduled at the store I’ve been working hard at for the last two years.

She just said she’s looking elsewhere for me to work and they couldn’t accommodate me.

I had no transparency, a significant lack of communication and blatant disrespect of my time and autonomy.

In December 2022, Starbucks implemented a policy where its workers are mandated to work a minimum of 12 hours a week, according to the Starbucks Partner Policy. Store managers are required to schedule each Starbucks worker at least 12 hours a week “based on the needs of the business.”

Basically, partners (which is how Starbucks refers to its employees) are required to work at least 12 hours per week, but “based on the needs of the business” managers aren’t enforced to schedule parttime workers 12 hours a week.

So far, I haven’t seen any backlash from the company if a partner doesn’t meet the minimum. However, it’s ultimately left to the barista to find these hours if they’re not scheduled to work the required amount. Starbucks allows its

I was already working under 12 hours a week for the past month because the store I was working at was being overstaffed. Because of the transfer process with Starbucks, I was allowed to transfer to another city when I went home for winter break, and when I came back to San Jose most of my hours were taken by baristas who had been hired when I was gone.

One could argue that’s the nature of the business, companies hire more people during winter break and the people that come back after will only have the scraps to choose from.

However, I was promised at least the minimum amount of hours to work.

I had to constantly scramble and adjust working at two different stores during this time, trying to meet my hourly requirement with a severe

and were expected to stay open instead of closing down the store to get an exterminator.

And yes, I did watch that bug crawl into the espresso machine.

Especially working in Downtown San Jose, baristas have to be therapists, teachers and, sometimes, security.

In our training modules, we have to learn how to handle an active shooter in our stores and how to calm down a person who is disrupting the environment.

There have been too many times when I had to clean up someone’s pee or feces on the floor, feared hot coffee being thrown in my face and de-escalate situations I’ve never been prepared to handle.

Now this is definitely not all the corporation’s fault, there have been many unhoused individuals who come to

I watched as a shift supervisor had their hair pulled over the counter, having to defend themselves against an individual because the situation escalated.

Our shift supervisor had to protect us, and I scrambled at the register to find the security guard’s phone number. I don’t feel safe as a barista. Not emotionally and not physically.

I’m here to make your damn coffee, I’m not paid enough nor do I have the expertise to handle the mental health crises of San Jose.

That’s the city’s problem, with Starbucks also to blame.

These last two weeks have been the hardest for me, I opened my schedule and found no available hours for the next week.

I had to figure out what I was going to do for food, applying to CalFresh

It is unfair that I, along with so many other Starbucks workers, have to go through this with no unions to support us.

Trust me when I say we do love making your drinks. We may not like making 15 frappuccinos all at once or an entire soccer team putting their drinks all on one tab, but we go through it because we actually enjoy being baristas.

I like being a part of the community and helping make that one good moment in someone’s day where they choose to get a pick-me-up at a coffee shop.

So, please treat your Starbucks workers kindly, unfortunately we’re not getting it from anywhere else.

Jillian Darnell OPINION EDITOR

I love suggesting new drinks to people and seeing smiles on their faces. I love making latte art, even if it is a shitty feather made from foam. I love tying on that apron. But the second I get yelled at for not getting drinks out quickly enough, I wanna quit.

Stop policing athlete’s trash talk

By Nathan Canilao EXECUTIVE EDITOR

A wise man named Finesse2tymes once said, “It’s cool when they do it, it’s a problem when I do it/ fuck ’em.”

That situation played itself out during the NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship game on Sunday when Louisiana State University star forward Angel Reese taunted Iowa guard Caitlin Clark with Clark’s “you can’t see me celebration.”

The Tigers had the game on lock and were minutes away from winning their first national championship in school history when Reese followed Clark around the bench pointing at her ring finger, indicating that LSU had not only won the game, but whooped Iowa’s ass while they were at it.

And LSU indeed won. By a lot.

When the buzzer sounded, the Tigers defeated the Hawkeyes 102-85 and led by as much as 21 points at one point in the game.

But the talk after the game wasn’t about the 19-point second half from LSU guard Alexis Morris or how the Tigers shot 11 for 17 from behind the arc.

Instead, the talk on social media sites was about how Reese was “classless” and “unsportsmanlike.”

Some sports commentators, such as Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy and former ESPN anchor Keith Olbermann, took it a step further.

“Classless piece of shit,” Portnoy said in a tweet after

LSU’s win on Sunday.

“What a fucking idiot,” Olbermann said in a tweet on Sunday.’

Not only does this type of rhetoric paint a picture of Reese that is untrue, but it spreads this notion that athletes are supposed to remain humble and quiet during games which is just untrue.

Portnoy and Olbermann weren’t the only people who thought a Black woman talking trash was “out of bounds.”

Many people in Reese’s twitter

for white and Black players.

For example, Boston Celtics’ legend Larry Bird was a notorious trash talker who started hand-to-hand combat with players just to get in their heads. He’s revered as a toughminded player who just had an extra edge to him.

Meanwhile if LeBron James even smiles after a big play, he is conceived by old media heads as “cocky” or a “showboater.”

No one was calling Clark unsportsmanlike or thought less of her character because of her trash talk. Instead, she was labeled as a transcendent athlete taking over women’s sports with her entertaining jabs at other players.

It is a privilege that white athletes have enjoyed from other white fans who watch sports.

Let’s cut the bullshit: if the shoe was on the other foot and Clark taunted Reese in a blowout championship game loss, Jill Biden would have not invited the LSU Tigers to the White House. Reese is not a villain in this situation.

mentions were very adamant that the 6-foot, 3-inch forward “crossed the line” and even resorted to using racial dog whistles to describe her character.

It’s interesting that when Clark, a white player, did the same exact taunt against Louisville two games earlier, she was applauded for her toughness and gamesmanship on the floor.

But when Reese, a Black player, does the taunt, she is looked at as “hood” or “ghetto.”

Even though Reese’s haters will say they just care about the sanctity of the game, it’s obvious they just don’t like seeing Black athletes, specifically Black women, having fun while they dominate the game they play.

It’s especially concerning because it’s a double standard

This is a problem that expands to Black athletes in other sports as well.

In a study done by Andscape, they found that 90% of penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct in the NFL since 2018 were called on Black players. Andscape is an ESPN-owned media company, reporting on the intersection of race and sports.

Even the way that Clark’s trash talking was covered, compared to Reese’s, is vastly different.

On Friday, ESPN aired a segment on Sportscenter titled “Caitlin Clark: Queen of Clapbacks,” in which they interviewed teammates and coaches about some of Clark’s best trash talk on the floor.

Among the clips shown, there was a video of Clark telling another “shut up, you’re down by 15,” in a tournament game against Louisville.

They weren’t seen as cocky, they were just passionate. It wasn’t unsportsmanlike, it was fiery.

In fact, the Baltimore native who put up 23 points and 15 a night this past season is good for women’s sports. Her expressive presence combined with her sheer talent only brings more eyeballs to women’s college basketball. She is the type of player who people tune in to watch to either see her succeed or fail.

The bigger point in all of this is that it’s fucking basketball. As much as people want to believe sports is a handholding kumbaya moment, it’s not.

To be fair, Clark has not fired back against LSU. She praised the Tigers after the loss and took the taunting with a grain of salt.

“All the credit in the world to LSU. They were tremendous. They deserve it. They had a tremendous season,” Clark said after the loss.

Clark didn’t ask for people to defend her, but those who did have gone to such extremes to paint the picture of Reese as a heartless woman who kicked her opponent while she was down.

They take pity on Clark because they saw a white woman losing.

It’s even gone as far as First Lady Jill Biden saying she wants to invite both LSU and Iowa to the White House to celebrate the Tigers’ win, according to a Monday

These games are ruthless, especially when a championship is on the line. Emotions run high and some players feel the need to grab an edge by trying to get in their opponent’s head.

I am a big proponent of more trash talking, rivalries and heated moments in sports. It’s entertaining and makes the game fun.

But the double standard needs to stop. Stop demonizing Black women who are great at what they do and have no problem letting people know.

Just sit back, kick your feet up and enjoy the fucking game.

Associated Press article.

PHOTO FROM ADOBE STOCK

Follow Nathan Canilao on Twitter @nathancanilao

The bigger point in all of this is that it’s fucking basketball. As much as people want to believe sports is a hand-holding kumbaya moment, it’s not.