Spartan Daily Vol. 162 No. 37

A.S. votes on boycott resolution

semesters’ new directors.

Dozens of students piled into the Associated Students’ Board of Directors meeting in the Student Union on Wednesday evening.

This was Associated Students’ second to last Board of Directors meeting of the semester before beginning its transition to next

The Board of Directors is the official body representing and the voice of over 35,000 students at San José State, according to the Associated Students website.

There were six action items on the agenda, as well as two discussion items according to the same website.

The first action item was a vote on an A.S.

resolution to boycott HP Inc. and Dell Inc., which are involved with human rights violations going on against Palestinians, according to the A.S. agenda.

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) movement seeks to end international support for Israel’s oppression toward Palestinians, according to the BDS Movement website.

BDS claims that HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise provide hardware to the Israeli army and maintain data centers through Israeli police, according to the same website.

HP Inc. is for consumer products like PCs and printers, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise is for business and government services, according to the BDS website.

SJSU Student for a Democratic Society (SDS) protested outside on the Student Union patio at around 4:30 p.m. following the meeting.

Student for a Democratic Society is a national, student and youth-led political organization according to the Instagram bio for the National SDS.

Protests involving Gaza and Palestine have intensified in universities from Texas to California as students have been setting up encampments as a way of protesting, according to an April 24 article by the New York Times.

Protesters at the Student Union echoed the chant, “SJSU no more genocide in our name” and “From Palestine to the Philippines, fuck the U.S war machine”.

Students For Democratic Society declined to speak with the Spartan Daily. The resolution was passed unanimously 12-0-0.

The Board of Directors did not get through all the action items due to a time restraint on the meeting.

Biomedical engineering junior Ariana Lacson, the vice president of Associated Students, said there were eight people who signed up to speak about the first resolution before getting into the vote.

Multiple students spoke

up as to why they believe the resolution should be passed, before the directors read out the resolution.

Ariana Shah, the director of Intercultural Affairs for Associated Students, read out the resolution to the public and listed multiple reasons as to why she believes the student government should pass this resolution.

Palo Alto-based technological company HP Inc. released a statement addressing a call for boycott in 2021.

“The misinformation about HP Inc. being circulated by some on social media is unfortunate and untrue,” the statement said.

HP states the company operates in strict accordance with all applicable laws and regulations and implements rigorous policies to respect human rights in every market where it operates.

Shah said Associated Students should follow the guidelines of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement.

She said Dell and HP are two companies that have been involved with assisting Israel in supplying them with technology.

SJSU Jewish Student Union and Students Supporting Israel at SJSU didn’t comment in time for publishing.

Associated Students President Sarab Multani said Shah wrote the resolution.

“We’ve seen an uproar of our students show up and show out in solidarity with what's going on in the Middle East,” Multani said.

“Thank you for taking your leadership and applying it to the resolution.”

Multani said he made an amendment on the resolution in regards to the Black Lives Matter 2020 protests and its ties to Israel in terms of the

police brutality being used.

He said the statement might not be seen as factually correct.

“Specifically saying that the 2020 protests were tactics used and learned by Israel, I just feel like it takes away from the validity of the rest of the statements,” Multani said.

The Board of Directors amended the statement between the 2020 protests and the tactics learned by Israel.

Multani said the past week had been very stressful for him because there were various attempts of intimidation from outside the SJSU community.

“Folks that aren’t SJSU students have been creating narratives, questioning the integrity of our board, claiming we’re antiSemitic,” Multani said.

“The things that have been said are unbelievable.”

Multani said he wasn’t supposed to mention the intimidation tactics, but all the work of A.S. is public information.

He said the fact there are many students attending the meeting shows there is a sort of revolution happening within the United States.

Multani said he thinks the boycott resolution was a successful one, and the students coming out to the meeting shows the importance of this topic.

He said he wanted to reiterate that this resolution is A.S. calling out human rights violations.

“This is the third or fourth board meeting where we’ve had a large attendance and every single time the students have acted with integrity and compassion,” Multani said.

Masked protesters hold signs and chant outside of the Student Union on Wednesday evening after

Imaginarium festival lights up the Bay

Imaginarium is a light festival outside of Great Mall in Milpitas this year from March 12May 27. The festival features circus acts, interactive displays and life-sized characters.

#1: A light up bear and flowers are placed outside of the Imaginarium gates.

#2: A pink light up elephant takes the spotlight in the enchanted forest at Imaginarium.

#3: A Cirque Legacy acrobat dancer shows off their flexibility skills at the live circus show.

#4: A light animation of a cartoon with fangs was displayed Sunday night.

#5: Guests pose and photograph each other in front of the Imaginarium main entrance sign.

#6: Imaginarium attendees record a TikTok walking down the illuminated pink vine path.

Math & I have a rocky relationship

It doesn’t matter what environment you grow up in or if someone is criticizing you – you can still always succeed. I know that now, but didn’t know when I was younger.

I always thought about going to college, but the low-income schools I attended growing up didn’t give me the most positive outlook or support.

Teachers should be mindful of how they act when a child is struggling because it can deeply impact the child forever.

One of my elementary school math teachers was tall, had brown curly hair, wore thick-framed glasses and had an intense gaze. I struggled a lot in school, especially in math. I dreaded going to the classroom every day because of my math teacher's unenthusiastic demeanor.

The classroom had framed posters with quotes from famous mathematicians, walls that were an off-white paint color that was peeling and a large chalkboard.

My teacher had a blue fishbowl filled with scr ap s of p ap er with stu de nt s’ n ames on it waiting to b e sele cted My teacher would put multiplication problems on the board and demand answers as s oon she pi cked up one unlucky name from the fi shbowl When my name was called my face turned tomato-red, my palms became sweaty and my fa ce felt like it wa s on fire. I felt dumb for not knowing

and I hated not knowing. Not only did I not know, but I did not

However, my teacher did not care if I understood. She only cared if I gave the right

One time I was struggling with a math problem and

asked for her help.

Of course, it bothered her that I did not understand fractions during this time.

than I could count when I wanted to throw my textbook. I stayed up for hours and worked with a tutor to understand statistics.

I pushed the negative thoughts and flashbacks of what my math teacher had told me out of mind.

Instead of helping me, she told me words that I would never forget which were “If you can’t understand this math you will never go forward in

As a child, those words crushed me and made me fear math even more.

As years went by I kept struggling with math in school and with her scarring words. Anytime it came to math I always froze up and doubted if I even knew the answer. I was letting one person’s opinion keep me from succeeding in life.

When I finally got to college I decided to take matters into my own hands and work with a tutor. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I confronted what I had been avoiding. We have to start somewhere and I had a rough start with math, but that doesn’t mean it has to be my ending. I worked very hard even though I had more moments

For the first time in my life, I understood math because my college statistics professor had a more constructive teaching style, helping students understand.

I learned that there are some teachers who teach because they have to and some teachers that teach because they want to.

I was given a couple of life lessons from my experience: one, that grades don't define you –the effort does, and two, to not give up in life even if someone wants to drag you down.

Giving up is one of the easiest things to do and I refuse to make that choice.

In some ways, I don’t hate my elementary school teacher’s harsh words because it's one of the experiences that shaped me to be who I am today.

Melissa Alejandres STAFF WRITER

Security should be a priority

Dear Editor,

The alleged arson attacks at San José State University campus on March 31st and April 8th have left me confused and worried.

It is unacceptable for colleges not to have a system in place for fire emergencies.

We need better protocols for such situations.

I believe a better system

should be in place for students during fires, such as clear routes and clear directions. Having fire drills during orientation would be a great way to at least give students a better understanding of what to do during fires on campus. Many others and I were left confused about what exactly we were supposed to do and where we were supposed to go.

Crowds of students were leaving the building at the same time and everyone seemed to have no clue on what to do.

We as students should stand together and fight for a safer and more reliable college experience.

Sincerely,

Austen Cochran Communications junior