Spartan Daily Vol. 162 No. 33

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community,” said Michelle Smith McDonald, a senior director for Media Relations at SJSU. “Our library is staffed daily with University Police officers. Yet this is another reminder of the importance of being aware of your surroundings and reporting any issues that are suspicious or concerning to campus police.”

according to the same source.

Robert Cleveland III, business management senior, works in Student Computing Services in the library. Cleveland helps students access technology and supplies on the fourth floor.

April

according to

“Nothing is more important than the safety and security of our campus

There were 29 separate cases that occurred in the MLK library in the last 60 days, making up a little more than 17.2% of the cases that have occurred across all of SJSU in the past 60 days, according to the San José State University Police 60 Day Crime Log. Of those 29 cases, several do not put anyone in physical harm such as use of offensive words, the possession of paraphernalia, lewd acts and petty theft,

Cleveland said the library did enough and he felt like the library dealt with the fires appropriately in a quick time frame. He said that although he works there, he did not learn about the alleged arson until a co-worker of his sent him an email about it.

“It’s a student-only floor, so I think there should be more (security), like more checking to see if you’re a student,” Cleveland said. “If it was a student, I don’t know what

else they could do.”

There has been one other arson in the crime log. Campus Village B also experienced an arson March 20, according to the San Jose Staté University Police 60 Day Crime Log. Meteorology sophomore Lucas Pollicino said he heard that before spring break someone came to the library to set some trash cans on fire, and that they burned the paint and floors.

“The other day on Tuesday night, I went there and apparently he walked out five minutes before I got there,” Pollicino said. “They just didn’t get him because he was wearing different clothes. Then they check the cameras and they’re like, ‘Oh shoot, that’s him.’ ” Pollicino, who was interviewed prior to the perpetrators arrest, said

he lives in Campus Village B where he said he saw posters in the downstairs lobby of the wanted poster.

He said these posters were reminiscent of a bounty, and across the bottom of the photos it said, ‘Wanted by UPD.’ ”

The alleged arsonist was arrested on April 10, according to the San José State University Police 60 Day Crime Log.

There have been two incidents involving a firearm on campus. One involving a suspect in Joe West Hall who was arrested on Thursday, and another involving the willful discharge of a firearm in a grossly negligent manner at the Delta Upsilon Fraternity occurring on Feb. 20, according to the San José State University Police 60 Day Crime Log.

The closest California State University to SJSU in student population size is Sacramento State University with 30,193 students, compared to SJSU’s student population of 32,229 students, according to CSU enrollment numbers. Sacramento State has faced 78 incidents compared to SJSU’s 168 incidents in the same time period, according to the Sacramento State Crime Log. The University Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Title IX conducts feedback survey

By Jonathan Canas STAFF WRITER

San José State and the Title IX Office is conducting an optional campus wide survey for feedback to improve their department.

The survey opened on April 8 and is scheduled to end May 3, according to an email sent out by Peter Lim, the Title IX and Gender Equity officer.

The purpose of the survey is to get campus opinions of safety and inclusivity as well as the effectiveness of the Title IX office, according to a separate email by Lim.

On Aug. 15, 2023 former SJSU athletic trainer pled guilty to sexually assaulting female athletes under the guise of treating their injuries, according to an Aug. 15, 2023 article by USA TODAY.

Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education. Title IX states that no one will be denied benefits or face discrimination in any educational program, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s website.

“We did try to time the Title IX survey to come out with sexual assault awareness month,” Title IX investigator Arielle Egan said. Egan said Title IX’s Intake and outreach support coordinator, Kelsie Cleveland, did the “lion’s share” of the survey with help from the rest of the department.

She said the Title IX office is trying to get both statistics and written feedback from the survey.

“The survey has three main purposes,” Egan said. “The first is to figure out how people are feeling in terms of campus climate, the second is to learn more about the effectiveness of our office and the third purpose is to figure out what kind of barriers are there for students who want to access our services.”

Egan also said there are dialogue boxes where people can put their input.

“We do use our number of reports as a metric to assess trust in our community,” Egan said. “If there are more reports that means more people feel comfortable coming to us.”

Title IX received 529 reports filed from the academic years of 2021 to 2023, according to SJSU’s Title IX annual report.

There were 107 more reports in the 2022-2023 academic year than the year before, according to the same source.

Campus survivor advocate Selena Hernandez announced a list of her services were provided on the Title IX but said she had no input on the questions that were finalized in it.

Hernandez said she is a oneperson department and her affiliation is separate from Title IX.

SJSU survivor advocacy services

upholds free confidential support for students, staff and faculty survivors for sexual violence, intimate partner abuse and stalking, according to its Instagram.

“Unfortunately a lot of students don’t know a lot about our services,” Hernandez said. “It’s really hard to advertise because we have about 40,000 people here including students, staff and faculty.”

Psychology junior Rochelle Rufo said she heard about Title IX and during her orientation since the staff made the students go through the readings but didn’t know about it until recently.

“I’ve heard about the survey and saw the email but have not gotten around to it yet,” Rufo said.

Rufo said it is easy to go through emails without reading them and discard them. She said she would not have heard about Title IX if it weren’t for the orientation.

“If you had the time to sit down and set expectations of doing the survey, that would help a lot,” Rufo said.

Hernandez said the Title IX office received feedback from the survivors she worked with and found ways to improve the department based on that feedback.

Hernandez said there are many reasons why students or faculty could be hesitant to talk about their experience aside from SJSU’s history with Title IX.

“There’s general ideas about reporting offices, including UPD or Title IX, and thinking that they’re not going to help me,” Hernandez said. “Some do go in with that conception.”

She said she’s also had students question why the Title IX department would help students now if there’s a history of them not responding to complaints in the past.

“I think the conception is definitely shifting from the survivors

“I think, if feasible, the Title IX office will definitely take the feedback from the survey into consideration and apply those changes if possible,” Hernandez said.

I've worked with,” Hernandez said. Egan said it’s important that students know what resources are on campus because they have access to more resources on campus than in the real world.

“We want to make sure that our resources are serving our community,” Egan said. “We don't know that without the input of our community so when people respond to the survey it gives us an opportunity to make our program better.”

San José State’s Bridge Club hosted a Generation Z Mental Health discussion on therapy Tuesday night in the Student Union.

Sabrina Nabizada, political science senior and Bridge president, asked club members a variety of mental health questions.

Mental Health can be defined as a person’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being, according to the Centers for Disease and Control page.

“Mental Health tends to have a negative connotation because there’s a lot of misinformation on the topic,” Nabizada said. She said there isn't enough research done on mental health and it’s ignored by doctors and the media and it gets sidetracked away.

“When people suffer from illness there’s no outlook or anywhere else for them to go to resolve their issues and get the help they need,” Nabizada said.

She added that society tends to have a negative outlook on men’s mental health which she believes should be addressed more in detail.

“Men are expected to be strong, the household leader, and are expected to not show emotions because emotions have been linked to a sign of weakness which is not true at all,” Nabizada said.

Nabizada said that in her opinion, showing emotion is a sign that you are emotionally strong and you are in tune with what you are feeling.

“It depends on the household you grew up in when it comes to mental health,” she said. Nabizada said one of the most important topics talked about in the discussion is how the media plays into mental health. She said it is a bigger issue than most people think.

“I grew up in an immigrant household and I feel mental health was a topic that wasn't talked about and I feel like it's because my parents genuinely didn’t know about mental health,” Nabizada said.

Kishen Mann, a political science junior and member of the club said discussions help people stay up to date on the political issues and cultural issues in the U.S.

“It gives people a good

chance to speak their minds but it’s important to stay on top of these topics and be informed,” Mann said.

Mann said different cultures are very fiscally strict and wary of mental health services because there are examples where people overcharge therapy so they are wary of new things.

“It takes time for people to understand and trust,” Mann said. “There needs to be a precedent to prove that it’s legit.”

Mann said the environment of your mental health can be based on your ethnicity or whether you grew up in a more homogeneous area or not.

“I think mental health has a negative connotation because it's derived as a Western philosophy so,

naturally, colonized cultures have a hesitation towards mental health,” Mann said. Mann said mental health is not talked about in schools enough because it is a very touchy topic and people need to have a certain level of maturity to listen to each other's experiences.

“The high school I went to, I wouldn’t say they had that level of maturity,” Mann said.

Director of events and political science junior Gisela Corona-Torrez said she thinks mental health is neglected because of years of generational trauma.

“I think that it’s very evident that conversations are like a bridge,” CoronaTorrez said. “We feel comfortable enough to have a group of 30 people come

out here talking about it.”

Corona-Torrez said mental health is often neglected because of intersectionality.

She said that through a person’s upbringing, people are often taught implicit biases that are hard to shake off. But she said people can take control and decide to change their biases and have different opinions on how important mental health is to them.

“I think mental health is an epidemic we tend to ignore in the past,” CoronaTorrez said.

She said a mental health class is not being taught yet at SJSU, but she’s hopeful that having more of these conversations will bring more awareness to the issue.

“People can benefit a lot

Corona-Torrez said if an individual is hesitant to get help for their mental health, it can be challenging to break through certain barriers but all it takes is a first step.

“I think it’s great even starting with conversations like this with Bridge,” Corona-Torrez said. “I think it’s important that even Gen Z is having these conversations.”

#1: Abi Martinez Pita, child and adolescent development sophomore, and Estefania Lopez Parra, accounting junior, laugh as they paint their cups during the Craft Your Glass event.

#2: A cup decorated with strawberries and flowers sits next to a slice of pizza and water bottle filled with paint water.

#3: A student takes a photo of a group of friends holding up their finished products at the event.

#4: Student Union meeting room 4B is packed with students gathering at tables with supplies.

#5: A palette of watercolors sit at a table, waiting to be used by a student.

#6: Management information systems sophomore Jiya Patel paints flowers onto a glass jar on Tuesday afternoon.

Being a girl is not for the weak

Being a girl is like walking on a path shaped by societal expectations, gender norms and personal experiences.

From a young age, girls learn to navigate a world that often imposes limitations and stereotypes based on their gender, presenting them with obstacles that can hinder their growth and potential.

Yet, despite these challenges, we demonstrate resilience, strength and the ability to overcome adversity, making room for empowerment and change.

I grew up as a pink enthusiast, loving anything with glitter and sparkles, but that doesn’t mean my life has been all glitter, glossy or picture perfect.

I have faced my own challenges primarily based on the fact that I am a girl.

One of the most pervasive challenges that girls face is the pressure to conform to narrow standards of beauty and femininity.

At a very young age girls are bombarded with images and messages that dictate what it means to be attractive, desirable and worthy of acceptance.

Images like girls with a perfect round nose and the infamous hourglass shape. It’s become even more of a challenge due to the significance of social media platforms in the 20th century.

Trust me – the pressure to achieve unrealistic beauty ideals can lead to low self-esteem, body image issues, and a constant sense of inadequacy.

I often hear the saying “This is a man’s world,” but the reality is – this is a woman’s world.

inclusive world.

and advocating for gender equality and social justice.

Let’s not forget the obvious. . . menstrual cycles.

Whether you’re a girly girl like me who loves

menstrual cycles

The fear of throu gh

my mi m nd

bleeding through my white jeans is constantly on my mind

Girls often grapple with societal expectations regarding their roles and capabilities.

For me it is being expected to cook and clean, as if that is only a role for a woman.

Hate to break it to those who believe this but men can cook and clean too!

Despite the advancements in gender equality, girls continue to encounter stereotypes and biases that limit their opportunities and potential.

From being told that we are not as good at math or science or that we cannot drive a car without hitting a curb, to facing barriers in male-dominated fields.

For me, it was being told that weightlifting was a male sport and not something “someone like me” should be doing.

Girls have no choice but to navigate in a world that sometimes fails to recognize our talents, intelligence and ambitions.

I once worked at a job for over 3 years and never got a promotion or a raise. One day a new

ues, and e apple pectations roles and eing k and only a n k ve nd cle an n ontinue ereotypes ties and old that we at math or we cannot out g ate d fields s lifting t and not meone like in a etimes e our nce and d ears and motion or y a new

employee who identified as a male got promoted to manager after only a week of working at the company.

The employee in question was not better than me at the job, in fact he hard ly y knew how to ring up a

customer on the register. challenges related to our

We also experience physical safety and wellbeing.

Gender-based violence, harassment, and discrimination are all too common realities world, a culture of fear and insecurity has been built arou nd it.

for many girls around the The threat of violence, have serious effects of vulnerability and Over half of women

The threat of whether on the streets, in schools or online, s er ious ef fe ct on girls’ mental and emotional health, often leading to feelings

mistrust. have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact during their li fe times and 1 in 4 women have experienced completed or attempted rape, according to an article by The Cont rol and Prevention.

Center for Disease

We are agents of change, challenging

stereotypes, breaking barriers,

of the b ecaus e as as

regardless of the day of the month because as much as we want to count on a consistent cycle, we fear for the worse.

pink and collects Barbie branded items or a sportslover girl who feels most c onfide nt in a tracksuit, continue to b e yourself and express who you are.

I often hear the saying

consiste nt we fe ar wors e. The mo od we us

swings we deal with that make us appear crazy or bipolar to anyone on the outside should not be used as an indicator of our true personality and we shouldn’t be judged for it even if it was . Being a girl is not for the weak.

Being a girl is not without its challenges, it is a journey filled with resilience, strength and the power to create change.

Despite societal barriers and genderbased discrimination, we continue to defy expectations, challenge stereotypes and advocate for a more equitable and

This is a man’s world,” but the realit y is – this is a woman’s world. Without us , men would not even b e al ive.

We are able to experience the beaut y of and carr y ing

reproducing and carrying a child along with birthing one.

We are unstoppable regardless of all the challenges we may face on a day-to-day basis.

Being a girl rocks and I would not change it for the world!

BY CIA CASTRO

Maya Benmokhtar OPINION EDITOR

Follow Maya on Instagram @themayatimes

FROG FRIENDS

PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY MAYA BENMOKHTAR