SJSU Students rave for wellness
By Anahi Herrera Villanueva STAFF WRITER
Located on San José State University’s 7th street, the Student Wellness Center offers various services that many first-years, transfers or returners might not know about.
The Student Wellness Center houses most counseling, medical and well-being needs at SJSU, according to the Student Wellness Center webpage. Sydney Friday, an animation and illustration junior, said that her overall experience with the wellness center is positive.
“I went in for a COVID test, X-Ray’s, and to check out some knee pain. Each time I have felt pretty satisfied by their services.” Friday said.
As a resident advisor , Friday said she has conversations with her residents about the Student Wellness Center.
“When we do our beginning of the semester floor meetings we talk about the wellness center and how they have CAPS, Vaccinations, birth control, and where to get more information,” Friday said.
SJSU students can register for medical appointments to receive primary care- common injuries and illnesses and physical exams, according to the SJSU website.
With some students’ busy schedules, it can be important for students to find appointments promptly.
Shannon Aarons, an advertising junior, booked an appointment online and was able to get an appointment the next day.
“I was able to get a test done within ten minutes of my arrival and soon after I was already speaking with a doctor who already had a diagnosis,”
Aarons said. The Student Wellness Center also offers San José State students a pharmacy where prescriptions after an appointment can be given, refilled, or transferred to the wellness center, according to the Pharmacy Section from the Wellness Center Website.
Miah Lugo, a digital media sophomore, was able to use the pharmacy located at the wellness center to purchase medication.
“I went in my first semester at SJSU and I was unsure if they actually sold the medicine,” Lugo said. “I went up to the pharmacy desk at
the front and the whole transaction was pretty simple.”
Along with providing services for students' health, the Student Wellness Center on campus offers counseling services.
Alex Martinez, a sociology sophomore, found out about counseling services through posters on a wall by the Joe West dormitories.
“My experience with the counseling center was nothing but good,” Martinez said. It was easy to schedule appointments and I always felt comfortable opening up and sharing (things) with my counselor.”
Outreach and workshop opportunities also are offered at the wellness center. This service is for Spartans looking for opportunities to further their well-being, and their most popular programs are led by students for students, according to the Grow Your Well-Being section.
Cooking Healthy, Eating Well, also called CHEW, is a hands-on cooking workshop according to Outreach & Wellness under the Cooking Healthy, Eating Well Section.
Lugo was able to attend one of the CHEW handson workshops last semester.
“As a student living on-campus, it is very important to me to have a good meal that can fuel me after a long day of classes while having it be cost effective,” Lugo said. “The workshop I attended we were taught how to make Yakisoba and the instructions were very easy to follow along.”
The Student Wellness Center also focuses on the quality of care they can provide to students.
The entire SJSU Wellness is dedicated to providing confidential services and constant attention, according to their Confidentialtiy and Patient Rights.
“I thought that the doctors and assistants were kind and welcoming, they treated my sickness with kindness and (not) judgment,” Aarons said.
ANAHI HERRERA VILLANUEVA | SPARTAN DAILY
San José State's Wellness Center on 7th street, portrayed at night, is open during school hours for any medical or nonmedical services for any student or faculty.
ANAHI HERRERA VILLANUEVA | SPARTAN DAILY
City honors first female mayor
By Jackson Lindstrom STAFF WRITER
The San José City Council voted two weeks ago to rename City Hall’s Rotunda after former Mayor Janet Gray Hayes.
Terry Christensen, a political science professor emeritus at San José State, made the nomination in honor of Hayes.
“A lot of why Janet Gray Hayes is important is because she was a leader,” Christensen said. “A prominent woman leader ahead of her time (who) mentored other women to be leaders.”
When Hayes was elected as mayor, she was the force that changed San José from its conservative “old guard” leadership of the ‘50s and ‘60s to what it is today, according to Christensen’s nomination statement.
Another councilmember who was set on naming the Rotunda after Hayes was Councilmember Devora Davis.
“I knew that I wanted something to be named after her,” Davis said. “I actually asked my staff why (there) wasn’t something named after her?”
Davis said Hayes worked to pay future generations with her knowledge during her administration by mentoring future female political figures.
“There was an opening on City Council and she appointed Iola Williams to serve in that seat. (Sho was the) first black woman to serve in the city of San José on City Council,” said Councilmember Pam Foley.
David Pandori, Santa Clara Deputy District Attorney, assembled a group of people, including Christensen, who thought Hayes deserved the formal recognition.
“We settled on the Rotunda for a variety of reasons,” Christensen said. “We thought that was fairly appropriate.”
Foley said she agreed with naming City Hall in honor of Hayes.
of women.
“She was very instrumental at getting other women (or) mentoring other women to be involved in council and other leadership positions,” Foley said.
Davis said other buildings have been named after former mayors such as San José Mineta International Airport, which was named after former Mayor Norman Y.
She was very instrumental at getting other women (or) mentoring other women to be involved in council and other leadership positions
Foley said Hayes also mentored former Mayor Susan Hammer while she was in office.
“Former Mayor Hammer was mentored by Former Mayor Hayes, and former Mayor Hammer mentored me.” Foley said. “I'm just honored to have that sort of support.”
“City Council was where she really took the city through so many changes that were inspirational to bring San José where it is today,” Foley said.
She said at the time of Hayes’ election, San José was famous for being the “feminist capital of the world” for its inclusiveness
Letters to the Editor may be placed in the letters to the editor box in the Spartan Daily office in Dwight Bentel Hall, Room 209 or emailed to spartandaily@gmail.com to the attention of the Spartan Daily Opinion Editor. Letters to the Editor must contain the author’s name, year and major. Letters become property of the Spartan Daily and may be edited for clarity, grammar, libel and length. Only letters of 300 words or less will be considered for publication. Published opinions and advertisements do not necessarily reflect the views of the Spartan Daily, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication or SJSU. The Spartan Daily is a public forum.
Mineta.
“We already had the Hammer Theatre Center named after Susan Hammer and her husband,” Davis said.
As it stands right now, San José only has three women on its City Council, according to a website from the city of San José.
Christensen said naming the city after Janet Gray Hayes will cost some money, but it will be carried out.
He said he thought the most important thing about Hayes’s time as mayor was her effort in opening up new opportunities for future leaders in a similar place to her own.
“The goal is for it to happen by November because that will be the 50th anniversary of the election of Janet Gray Hayes as mayor,” Christensen said. send a letter to the editor
CHIOMA LEWIS | SPARTAN DAILY ARCHIVE
San Jose City
greek
CAROLYNNE BORN | SPARTAN DAILY ARCHIVE
Janet Gray Hayes depicted after being named mayor of San José, Calif.
Local bands rock out at After
By Charity Spicer STAFF WRITER
About a block away from San José State campus in an underground basement venue, young indie rock fans gathered together to watch five local Bay Area bands perform on Friday.
While there are a few local venues in San José such as the Art Boutiki and The Ritz, college-age students typically end up creating their own spaces to host local music performers.
Counter LLC, a production company based in San José, put on their first music concert “for the /counter-culture,” which featured performances from bands such as Stratosphere, Luck Fever, Like-minded Youth, Holistic and Fistfight with Traffic, according to their Instagram.
“For the /counter-culture” was hosted at After Hours, a live music venue located in San José.
Before the show started, large groups of students and locals gathered above the basement to talk music, to get “/counter merch” and to grab handmade tacos from a San José family business exclusive at the event venue.
Luck Fever launched as a band in April and its four members Aidan, Alex, Lexi and Damien are made up of students and young musicians.
On the lineup, Luck Fever was second on the setlist and performed before the last three bands; Like-minded Youth, Holistic and Fightfight with Traffic.
Damian Mack, Luck Fever’s lead singer, said the coronavirus pandemic negatively impacted small bands because a lot of venues had to shut down and it was hard to find spots to play.
“A lot of people moved out of San José. A lot of people quit their bands,” Mack said. “Only now are you starting to see a good resurgence, but I still feel that most of the bands in San José are mostly hardcore bands.”
Mack said Luck Fever usually opens for hardcore bands but San José is starting to see a larger comeback of indie rock.
In addition to discussing the live scene, when asked about
the effects of streaming in the music industry, Mack's dream is that people get into buying CDs again because the money goes directly to the artist.
Henry Buck, one of the founders of /counter, said the production company intends to ease the production process for these small venues and to garner more attraction.
“Having that extra set of hands with the lights, the sound and us doing media, it
really gives you the experience of a full-on professional show venue,” Buck said.
Logan Littlefield, a bassist for Fistfight with Traffic, said how the San José indie rock scene is beyond large venues and clubs and is moving towards an underground movement.
"It’s just so lovely to see After Hours flourish,” Littlefield said.
“Almost a year ago, we played here and it was small and tight knit and that was beautiful in
itself, just like people were here and were just getting down. But to see so many people spread that word is so awesome, people that you never thought would be meeting each other, it’s so beautiful.”
Luck Fever band's lead singer Damian Mack plays the bass guitar while singing into the microphone at After Hours San José on Friday.
Latin food festival spices up San José
#1: La Pituca’s mascot stands next to its tent and waves to people entering the festival at the Sazón Latin Food festival on Saturday.
#2: A group of people dance to Latin music next to the festival’s speakers at the Gordon Biersch Brewing Company in San José.
#3: People sit at tables with family and friends to eat food from a selection of Latin food vendors.
#4: DJ Orlando Rios plays live music for people at the Latin food festival.
JACKSON LINDSTROM | SPARTAN DAILY
Spartans start season off strong
By Israel Archie STAFF WRITER
San José State football (1-0) made a statement in its first game beating Sacramento State (0-1) 42-24 on Thursday.
It was hard to tell how the game was going to go in the first-quarter.
The team initially was struggling and had minus 12 rushing yards on 10 attempts, missing a late second-quarter field goal that would have tied the game at the half.
“I was proud of the way our guys continued battling,” SJSU head coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “Things looked bleak and bad for a long time, but our guys just kept at them.”
The Spartans were able to find their rhythm in the second half led by sophomore quarterback Emmett Brown.
“I put in a lot of hard work and all that, so I am just super grateful to get that opportunity to go out there and play,” Brown said.
Brown threw 298 yards, completed 20 of his 34 pass attempts and threw three touchdowns.
Despite the slow start in the first half, the Spartans had a solid performance from senior wide receiver Nick Nash.
Nash scored the first touchdown for the
Spartans in the first quarter and threw a touchdown pass to junior tight end Jacob Stewart in the second quarter, making this Nash’s first touchdown pass since October of 2021.
He finished the game with 10 receptions and 170 receiving yards.
“It was not a pretty ball, but it got there,” Nash said.
SJSU’s defense forced three fumbles and two interceptions with two of those fumbles being forced by freshman defensive lineman John Norwood.
Senior safety Robert
“Rocket” Rahimi supplied SJSU on defense and recorded nine tackles and one sack.
“Anybody could be the better team,” Rahimi said. “Thank God we were the better team today.”
SJSU ended up scoring 28 points in the second half with 21 of those points coming in the fourth quarter.
Junior running back
Floyd Chalk IV was a major factor in the fourth quarter, tacking on two rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
CEFCU Stadium seemed to be a hot spot Thursday night attracting the likes of San José Mayor Matt Mahan, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and NBA sportswriter and SJSU alumnus Marc Spears. There was a late game ejection for SJSU sophomore cornerback Jalen Bainer who was flagged for targeting freshman Sacramento State quarterback Carson Conklin.
“There are 11 guys on the field and we all got to do our job,” Brown said. “Trusting that those guys are going to do their job is key.”
Following this win the Spartans are scheduled to play Air Force on the road Saturday Sept. 7 at 4:00 p.m. at the Falcon Stadium in Air Force Academy, Colo.
“There are a lot more things that we need to clean up,” Rahimi said. “Preparing for (the) Air Force, we are going to be a lot more dialed in and locked in, so it was good to get this first game out the way.”
The hypothetical trans athlete
By Saturn Williams STAFF WRITER OPINION
The talking point on the fairness of transgender athletes competing in sports resurfaced during the 2024 Summer Olympics not because of any trans athlete’s performance, but because of a cisgender woman’s performance.
The internet stirred into a modern-day Lavender Scare over the participation of gold-medalist boxer Imane Khelif, a woman assigned female at birth who never identified as trans.
The situation exploded even further when Khelif won her match against Italian boxer Angela Carini.
An image of Khelif patting a crying Carini on the shoulder after the latter forfeited the match went viral, sending an online crusade into full force.
Khelif and fellow boxer Lin Yu-ting allegedly failed gender eligibility tests administered by the International Boxing Association at its 2023 world championships, according to The Guardian.
It’s critical to note the details and results of these gender tests have not been revealed.
Furthermore, the International Boxing Association has been mired in corruption and mismanagement for years and the International Olympic Committee has banned the association’s governance.
Despite these red flags, pundits still took the claims from the International Boxing Association and ran with them.
Armed with misinformation, highprofile transphobes and gender-critical commentators such as Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling aided in launching a tremendous online
hate mob against Khelif, labeling her as a man fighting a woman.
The ensuing uproar is a snapshot of how disconnected from reality the transphobic rhetoric surrounding sports has become.
Additionally, it is an ironic illustration of how a movement purporting to protect women has come full circle by actively harming women.
“Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better?” Rowling wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “The smirk of a male (who) knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head.”
Former U.S. competitive swimmer Riley Gaines posted the hashtag #IStandWithAngelaCarini on X with the caption “Men don’t belong in women’s sports,” to
“I stand by my sentiment that biological men should not compete against biological women in any sport and if you disagree you’re a sick fuck.” Paul wrote.
If swirling around the entire internet wasn’t damaging enough, the baseless claims about
comments.
“So you basically have two males when it comes to the biology of it, beating up women,” Webb said.
This sort of rhetoric and vitriol used against Khelif is a common experience for trans women in sports.
When Lia Thomas swam on the University
Digging a little deeper, it becomes clear that this gender-critical ideology is simply transphobic misogyny masquerading as advocacy.
which Musk responded, “Absolutely.”
Professional wrestler and internet personality Logan Paul weighed in on X as well with increasingly venomous comments.
“This is the purest form of evil unfolding right before our eyes,” Paul wrote. “A man was allowed to beat up a woman on a global stage, crushing her life’s dream while fighting for her deceased father.” Paul later admitted to spreading misinformation in a follow-up post while also asserting that Khelif was disqualified due to having XY chromosomes, another unverified claim.
Khelif’s gender were given credibility by various news outlets.
The Boston Globe ran the headline “Transgender boxer advances” after Khelif’s match with Carini despite the Associated Press reporting never claiming Khelif was trans.
It is also worth noting that Khelif hails from Algeria, where gender transition is prohibited.
Fox News contributors also pushed harmful conjecture about Khelif and Yu-ting’s gender during the network’s Big Weekend Show broadcast, including panelist David Webb’s erroneous
of Pennsylvania women’s swim team and competed in the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, she faced intense backlash as a result of her transness.
This transphobic framework is now levied at a cisgender woman in such a way that seems unprecedented.
The gender-critical movement claims to be a feminist defense of women and women’s spaces but sure has an easy time legitimizing the abuse volleyed at a woman for succeeding in a sport she’s trained for.
One would think a
feminist eye would raise a brow at the laundry list of misogynists who routinely take up gender-critical talking points and never advocate for women’s rights in any other context.
Former President Donald Trump, credited with laying the groundwork and pushing the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, has also repeatedly stated his mission to “keep men out of women’s sports” if he is elected.
Digging a little deeper, it becomes clear that this gender-critical ideology is simply transphobic misogyny masquerading as advocacy.
Trans women are not dominating women’s sports, so transphobes must invent imaginary trans women to scapegoat.
For this conspiratorial thinking to work, gendercritical spaces must create an environment where a woman’s femininity is highly scrutinized and regulated.
Imane Khelif was the victim in this case, but she is far from the first woman to be targeted by this witch hunt.
Ultimately, the argument against trans inclusion in sports deals entirely with hypotheticals and not the reality that trans athletes
continue to unobtrusively compete in sports.
So, why is it that a trans person cannot succeed in this field without incident and controversy?
Michael Phelps won 28 uncontested Olympic medals in his career in part due to his unusually long wingspan, hypermobility and low production of lactic acid compared to his competitors.
If that’s the case, then it’s surely not the concept of a biological leg-up that’s an issue.
Frankly, these differences shouldn’t be a problem because if one were to assess every slight biological advantage, clones would have to compete against each other for any sport to be truly fair.
There are layers upon layers of nuance that can be discussed regarding the intricacies of being trans within sports and how that interacts with various fields of play.
Unfortunately, as evidenced by this latest trans conspiracy and media circus, many are uninterested in having that informed, nuanced conversation.
MAT BEJARANO | SPARTAN DAILY
Senior wide reciever Nick Nash (Right) and senior wide reciever Justin Lochart (Left) celebrate a touchdown.