Spartan Daily Vol. 161 No. 8

SJSU talks campus safety protocol

By Maya Benmokhtar STAFF WRITER

A total of 50 active-shooter incidents with casualties occurred in 2022, according to an article published in Aug. 2023 by the U.S Department of Justice.

Sandy Hook Promise is a nonprofit organization that was established in 2013 after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012 and advocates for gun violence prevention programs. According to its website, there were more shootings in 2022 than any year since Columbine.

The Columbine shooting took place in 1999 and was at the time the worst shooting in U.S. history. According to an article published by History, the shooting prompted debates on gun control and school safety.

Frank Belcastro, San Jose State University Police Department captain, said he encourages all students to visit the university website and watch a training video about a “Run, Hide, Fight” protocol.

“This is a video from Homeland Security, it basically explains the three things that you really want to consider. Run, hide, fight,” Belcastro said. “Do I want to flee? Can I get out of this building safely?”

Belcastro said it is extremely important to alert SJSU .

“We may not have great information at the time, you might know something in a building before we do, but we’ll put out as much as we can on that alert,” he said. “Then we will try to get as much info, but again, sometimes the people in the area know more than we know.”

Belcastro said as important as alerting campus police of suspicious activity is, it’s strongly advised that any building you enter, scout out the exit routes.

He said knowing the exits within a building can be life saving if there is any kind of emergency.

Belcastro also said in the event of an active shooter, the choice of what to do is up to the student, however if you cannot flee, the next step is to lockdown.

He said it’s important for students to know exactly what it means to “lockdown.”

“ ‘Lockdown’ means we’re going to barricade, I’m gonna take that door and put furniture in front of it,” Belcastro said.

Belcastro said in a life and death situation, students have to think smart and fast.

“I’m gonna make it as impenetrable as possible. I’m going to shut off my cell phone.

I’m going to go in a corner, hunker down and wait for an ‘all clear.’” said Belcastro.

An article written by the New York Post elaborates on a viral video showing how to barricade a door after the Robb Elementary school shooting in Texas in May

shooter situation.

“There’s a lot of mention about the possibility and how to go about following certain protocols, yet drills for this possible situation aren’t emphasized like earthquake drills,” said Ford.

Belcastro said the university police department has to undergo special training in order to be prepared for an active shooter.

“Most of us have gone through this large-scale event up in Santa Cruz,” he said. “They put on training over a course of multiple days. They simulate an active shooter, they have tactical medicine, training and all that and our officers are tack mentoring.”

Belcastro said along with the active-shooter simulation, first-aid training also happens every year. He said first aid and medical training is crucial as blood loss is the number one cause of death from active-shooter situations.

“We’ve learned that the quicker you get them aid, the more lives we can save so that’s the protocol,” Belcastro said.

He said students should know that the campus response time is between three and four minutes.

2022.

Interior design senior Jaelynn Ford said she doesn’t think any institution prepares its students enough for a potential active-

“The last thing that we always tell students is fighting may have to be okay if your life’s at stake,” Belcastro said. “You’re gonna have

to fight. You’re gonna have to hurt someone and it might go against you to hurt but it’s the way you’re going to stop them.”

Many things can be used as a tool to assist students in an activeshooter situation, according to a commercial from Sandy Hook Promise.

If there were an active shooter on campus, a pen or a pencil can be used as a weapon, according to the same commercial.

“It’s not an easy thing to think about, but you’re gonna have to suspend your human feelings at that point in time because you got to hurt the person to stop that person,” said Belcastro.

Belcastro said students and faculty need to follow the run, hide, fight protocol if there was an active shooter on campus or anywhere someone may find themselves.

Senior public health student, Diborah Awoke said she doesn’t believe SJSU adequately prepares students for a situation of this magnitude.

“Schools could schedule dorms to active-shooter-protocol drills and info sessions as well as flyers and general drill for students that don’t live on campus,” Awoke said.

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SJSU receives budget increase

By Nikita Bankar STAFF WRITER

In the SJSU 2022/23 Annual Budget Report, a 7.1% increase was decided for the school, creating varied responses from faculty and staff.

The document is a detailed presentation of San Jose State’s budget

plans and is a resource for those on campus and surrounding communities.

The budget outlined a multi-year compact pathway to grow CSU base funding each year from 2022-2023 through 2026-2027, according to the budget report.

The plan is to increase the General

Fund appropriation by at least 5% each year in return for the CSU to meet student-centric goals including expanding enrollment, student success and equity, affordability and supporting workforce preparedness.

The California State University is a collection of 23

universities that educate nearly 460,000 students each year, according to its website. Jolene Koester, who has faced backlash for her response video to faculty regarding an increase in salary, is the current CSU Chancellor.

General Fund appropriations provide funding to

agencies that do not generate revenues, receive federal funds or generate sufficient other funds to support their approved programs, according to oregon.gov.

State appropriations and student fees are the main sources of

INFOGRAPHIC BY MAYA BENMOKHTAR & ALICIA ALVAREZ

GRAPHIC BY ALICIA ALVAREZ

ILLUSTRATION BY JOANNA CHAVEZ

New science building partially opens

By Vanessa Real STAFF WRITER

The new Interdisciplinary Science Building is partially open for the fall semester and is currently holding various classes.

Construction to build the Interdisciplinary Science Building was first approved by the CSU Board of Trustees in September 2018.

The CSU Board of Trustees is a 25-member board with authority over educational policy, finance, campus planning and facilities according to its website.

Construction on the building’s frame was completed in March 2020, and the school completed the building’s construction during the summer of 2023.

The building was supposed to officially open in Fall 2023, but the school has not published any updates about the official grand opening, according to the SJSU website.

There are already classes and labs being held in the building and it is accessible for students to walk in and use the study

rooms and look around.

Michael Kaufman, dean of the College of Science at San Jose State, said the original plan was to have students start attending classes in the Interdisciplinary Science Building at the end of the Fall 2023 semester.

However, Kaufman said it would have been difficult to start this process in the middle of the semester.

“The authorities who have a right to say, ‘Yes, you can occupy it,’ have the final

say, so we just have to wait,” Kaufman said.

San Jose State also has the Duncan Hall of Sciences, an older building on campus that has science labs, classes, and utilities.

Duncan Hall houses multiple departments, such as science education, biological and chemistry science, that store different meteorological instruments, a greenhouse and a man-made pond.

Maria Rodriguez, a student

New plan lowers loan payments

By Julia Chie STAFF WRITER

This summer, the U.S. Department of Education introduced a student loan paymentplan that provides the lowest monthly payments of any incomedriven repayment plan available to almost all student borrowers, according to its website.

Regulations will go fully into effect July 1, 2024, but this summer some critical benefits have already been introduced.

The SAVE Plan or “Saving on a Valuable Education Plan,” is a new plan replacing the “Revised Pay As You Earn Plan”, or REPAYE Plan. The new plan increases the income exemption from 150% to 225% of the poverty line (now $32,000 annual income), as a result, decreasing monthly payments, according to Federal Student Aid.

According to Federal Student Aid, the plan eliminates all of the remaining interest for both subsidized and unsubsidized loans after a scheduled payment is made, and excludes spousal income for borrowers who are married and file separately.

Dr. Isarin Durongkadej, assistant professor of finance at San Jose State, said student loan plans are usually categorized as either incomedriven or non-income driven. With income-driven plans, the student’s monthly payment depends on their income and the size of their family.

“When a student takes out a loan and then graduates, they’re going to choose what type of loan repayment they’re going to do for the rest of their life depending on the plan they’re choosing,” Durongkadej said.

He said borrowers would have to pay a fixed amount each month, regardless of income.

Durongkadej said this includes if the borrower does not have an income at any specific point in time.

The new SAVE plan is incomedriven. If a borrower earns an annual income of $200,000 a year,

their monthly payment would be higher than that of someone with an annual income of $50,000.

If a borrower’s annual income is lower than the threshold, an annual income of $32,800 or lower, they do not have to pay at all.

“However, once you choose one type, you can choose another type next year,” he said. “You don’t have to stay with it for the rest of the loan payment.”

Dr. Durongkadej also said with income driven plans, after 20-25 years of payment, there will be debt forgiveness. Even if a borrower still owes residual money, their student loan will be canceled.

Dr. Durongkadej said the general term of a “subsidized payment” means money of which the government pays the difference. Unsubsidized payment is when the borrower pays the full price of everything.

The subsidized interest expense for those whose income is less than $32,800 during the SAVE plan is paid for by the government through Federal Student Aid. Sometimes the loan is not directly from the government, but from an agency or other institution that the government has to pay.

“I think that the main point is just the government trying to help more people who have low incomes,” Dr. Durongkadej said. “They increase the threshold of who is eligible for low or zero monthly payment. Then maybe put more subsidies on the interest expenses.”

Environmental studies junior, Aryan Singla, said he had a positive experience getting his student loan.

“Every year, I get a loan from the federal government,” Singla said. “It’s basically for people without jobs, and they pay me usually in cash that goes to my bank. I use it to pay for my needs.”

Singla said his mother helped him apply, and the process went smoothly.

He said he signed some forms, went through a background check and only had a few road-blocks.

“They found out that someone

hacked my account. . . We had a couple of breaches,” Singla said.

Singla said his disability also made it fairly easy to get the loan, because his case went quicker.

“It was helpful because the truth is, without the loan, it would be very difficult for me to pay my financial stuff,” he said.

Data science junior Gavin Silva, said he had a different experience getting his loan.

“If any unforeseen circumstance happens where I can’t come up with the money in time, I’m just gonna have to drop out. Knowing that it can come, but it might not just wasn’t a good feeling.”

Silva said he got a $5,500 direct, unsubsidized loan split in half to pay $2,750 for each semester.

“The process wasn’t too bad,” Silva said. “When I finished the loan form, I got really scared for a second because it didn’t say ‘Finished’ even though I did finish it.”

Silva said he had to wait two weeks before he could receive his loan.

He said while he was waiting he had to call his school to inform staff members about his financial situation.

“I had to wait two weeks, and call the school to let them know ‘Hey, can you guys please expedite this?’ just to really get that peace of mind that I’m actually going to go to San Jose State,” Silva said.

He said the loan helped him financially when he received it, but he still felt scared because he got the money two weeks after his semester started.

Silva also said he didn’t get any notification when the loan came through.

“I wish that I would have gotten some sort of notification to show that I actually got it,” Silva said. “I was this close to giving up on going here, actually.”

has taken classes at Duncan Hall, and is now taking classes in the Interdisciplinary Science Building.

Rodriguez said she likes the colorful interior of the Interdisciplinary Science Building.

“The ISB is definitely an updated building and the biggest difference is the designated study space for students,” Rodriguez said. “[Duncan Hall] doesn’t really have tables for students to do work

outside of class.”

The Interdisciplinary Science Building has utilities that give students the opportunity to apply their lessons and labs to real world situations.

According to the SJSU website, the Interdisciplinary Science Building will have a lot to offer students, including biology and chemistry teaching and research labs, collaboration spaces, study rooms and the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center.

In the Innovation Loft for the College of Professional and Global Education there will be data analytics, virtual reality, intelligent systems and meta verse labs, according to the same website.

“We wanted to ensure that we had modern facilities that would allow our students to train both in classrooms and research labs to prepare them for the world beyond San Jose State,” Kaufman said.

Continued from page 1

support for SJSU’s operations, according to SJSU’s website.

The state appropriation and most system-wide mandatory student fees are tracked in the CSU Operating Fund, which is the main fund used by most departments.

The Annual Budget Report reported the comparison between the 2021 to 2022 budget of $405,173,307 and the current budget, $432,349,986. The difference between the two budgets was $27,176,679, making it a 7.1% increase.

Michelle Smith McDonald, senior director of media relations at SJSU, said all budget decisions are made by the president, cabinet and Budget Advisory Committee, which is made up of members from the Academic Senate.

“The Governor’s Office has a 5% budget increase compact with the CSU, in essence a promise to increase the system-wide budget by 5%,” McDonald said. “That compact was honored heading into the [2023-2024] year and all 23 campuses divide up the 5% increase.”

In the report, it states the operating budget has two main funding sources.

One is the student tuition and fees collected by the campus, and the second is the General Fund support from the state of California. This support is distributed by California State University Chancellor’s Office to the campus.

Simon Rodan, professor in the school of management, said he was personally concerned about the university subsidizing the athletics program in the amount of $16.6 million last year.

“In other words, the subsidy

being paid to the athletics program represents 45% of our current deficit,” Rodan said. “I should also note that $9 million is paid annually to athletics from the SSETF.”

Student Success, Excellence and Technology Fee is a mandatory student fee that subsumed and replaced all existing Category III miscellaneous course fees, except those associated with field trips and the Instructionally Related Activities fee as of Fall 2012, according to the SJSU Office of Provost.

Rodan also said these were his personal views and did not represent the views of the Budget Advisory Committee, or the positions of the campus and statewide Senates.

“The way the BAC has been looking at the budget is that we are facing an annual deficit of $37 million, out of a total budget of around $423 million at a deficit of about 8.7%,” Rodan said. “So it’s not about how to spend extra money but rather where to make cuts.”

SJSU President Cynthia TenienteMatson said at her Fall Welcome Address on Aug. 17, during the start of Fiscal Year 22/23, SJSU had a significant fiscal gap of $37 million.

“In February, shortly after my arrival, I asked the budget advisory committee and the president’s cabinet to expedite closing the gap,” Teniente-Matson said. “Through their collective work, that gap has been reduced from $37 million to $14.8 million for this fiscal year.”

Teniente-Matson also said everything done on campus, like the budget increase, is for the benefit of the students.

“Funding increases will allow us to enhance academic support, offer more courses and sections and provide livable salaries and benefits for faculty and staff,” she said.

VANESSA REAL | SPARTAN DAILY

INFOGRAPHIC BY ALICIA ALVAREZ

GRAPHIC BY ALICIA ALVAREZ

Campus serves up‘Social Justice BBQ’

By Aaliyah Roman STAFF WRITER

The Smith & Carlos Lawn flowed with chatter, R&B tunes and the faint smell of barbecue at a Social Justice BBQ on Wednesday.

The barbecue was hosted by the César E. Chavéz Community Action Center as a part of the Fall 2023 Weeks of Welcome series of events.

“This is for students to feel connected on campus, especially students who are passionate about social justice,” said Diana Victa, César E. Chavéz Community Action Center Department Manager. “[It] makes sure they know exactly where to go and where to pursue or explore topics of social justice, diversity and inclusion.”

San Jose State University has identity-based resource centers that offer support to marginalized students which include the UndocuSpartan Resource Center, Black Leadership and Opportunity Center and PRIDE Center.

“Not a lot of students are aware that there are resources available to them,” UndocuSpartan Student Assistant Lynna Lu said. “This event is one of the ways to promote our service and make sure that everyone knows that we’re here to support them no matter what.”

The UndocuSpartan Resource Center offers support and services to undocumented students for needs such as Dream Act application guidance and immigration services.

Outreach and Events

Program Assistant Wahhab

Salemi said the event looks to celebrate SJSU’s legacy of activism and social justice.

MOVIE REVIEW

“[We are] giving each other a sense of community and a place to encourage being a scholar activist,” Wahhab said.

According to the campus website, San Jose State is “unique in its storied and long history of student civil rights activism, service to first-generation-student populations, racial and ethnic diversity and location in the vibrant cultural communities and robust economy of the Silicon Valley of California.”

“The way this event was able to bring so many different people together [was] very special and important and I think it speaks to the school’s

mission statements of being inclusive and diverse,” Chicana/Chicano studies fifth year Jorge Castillo said. Castillo said the barbecue was a good way for students to build relationships and find a safe space with people of different backgrounds.

During the event, César E. Chavéz Community Action Center members handed out lottery-inspired scratchers with different resource centers on them and encouraged students to visit the tables representing a center that interested them.

The tables included nine of SJSU’s resource centers sharing their mission in

helping students.

“I’m a first year, and I just wanted to see what opportunities were given to me as a young AfricanAmerican male,” public health freshman Timothy Vaughn said.

Vaughn got to know about the Black Leadership and Opportunity Center community at the event.

The Black Leadership and Opportunity Center community focuses on empowering and developing students in the African Diaspora according to SJSU’s campus website.

“Being an “other” in society, I feel like being able

to come together with people that look the same as you, have the same ideals and face the same problems as you face; that brings empowerment between both of you guys in the community,” Vaughn said.

César E. Chavéz Community Action Center members gave students a ticket for food once they completed the task of visiting three tables.

Occupational therapy graduate student Brianna Katsuda attended the event after hearing about it from her peers but was able to strengthen her knowledge in social justice.

AALIYAH ROMAN | SPARTAN DAILY

Katsuda said she learned that one of the resource centers trains to teach younger people how to be advocates for themselves.

“Being a woman and an Asian woman, it’s good to acknowledge that we need organizations like this to help advocate for a difference. . . around here, the community and around the world,” Katsuda said.

‘Bottoms’ nails teen rom-coms

Director Emma Seligman takes us on the fast-paced raunchy high school sex comedy that is “Bottoms.”

The movie follows long-time best friends PJ and Josie, played by actresses Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, who have one ultimate goal before graduating high school: getting laid.

“Bottoms” is Emma Seligman’s second collaboration with Rachel Sennott, after the critically acclaimed 2020 release “Shiva Baby.” Sennott and Seligman take us on a wild ride in the journey of two bottom of the barrel gay high schoolers as they finally get laid.

movie review

“Bottoms”

Rating:

Directed by: Emma Seligman

Starring: Rachel Sennott

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Teen sex comedy is a genre that feels derivative and overdone.

How many more times do we have to watch teenagers and

their journeys in exploring their sexualities? Why is this always something that is set in high school? Also, why is it almost always straight men and their journeys?

Seligman takes an opportunity to turn the overdone genre on its head, not only by making the main characters queer women, but to completely parody the genre and make fun of it for what’s always been: weird and absurdist.

We start off with PJ and Josie deciding to create their own fight club at school to get themselves out of trouble for “hurting” the high school’s most popular football player, who is of course named Jeff, played by Nicholas Galitzine.

However, the fight club is only a front, as PJ wants to use it to gain the attention of the two popular girls in the school, Isabel played by Isabel Rose Liu and Brittany played by model Kaia Gerber, who she and Josie want to have sex with.

After starting a rumor they served time in juvenile detention, even going as far as saying they’ve killed someone, (who then came back to life two minutes later, according to Josie), it gains the attention of not just Isabel and Brittany, but other girls who feel outcast at their school, much to PJ’s annoyance.

All of their endeavors are made possible by their also queer friend Hazel, played by newcomer actress Ruby Cruz, who genuinely just wants to start a fight club for protection, even

though she knows what PJ and Josie’s true intentions are.

Watching this movie felt like I just drank three Monster Energy drinks, while getting stabbed in the chest with adrenaline.

I was completely enthralled with everything that was happening on the screen. I was not expecting the fight scenes to be as violent and chaotic as they were, but the whole time I just wanted them to keep going.

I loved Ayo Edebiri as Josie so much in this film. After her meteoric rise with her supporting role in FX’s “The Bear,” I want nothing more than to keep seeing her in as much TV and film as possible.

Rachel Sennott plays the really crappy friend well, constantly lying through the show and putting herself before others, you would almost want to hate her if she wasn’t so funny.

The plot definitely follows the formulaic teen sex comedy plotline, while PJ and Josie are executing their really bad idea with the help of a friend, it starts to kind of work off in their favor - but by the end, all hell breaks loose with a conclusion you most certainly won’t be expecting.

Another highlight in the film is football player Marshawn Lynch’s perfromance, playing the teacher and advisor to the fight club and actor Nicholas Galitzine, who plays the beloved and popular football player Jeff.

All of the characters are absurdist parodies of themselves, imitating stereotypes of the American high school experience.

PJ and Josie themselves understand where they are on the stereotypical ladder of popularity at their high school,

and it’s not solely because they’re both queer, but instead because they’re “ugly, gay and untalented.”

A short way of saying, “if you don’t really give us much to work with and you don’t entertain us as gay people, you suck.”

“Bottoms” doesn’t take itself seriously, which is my favorite part about it.

It’s a refreshing comedy on two girls literally just trying to get laid and save their school from their rival football team, all the while goofing off with outrageous and gratuitous amounts of violence.

It’s all I could ask for in a movie.

Event attendees lined up for free burgers, macaroni and cheese and potato salad after getting to know about campus resources.

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Should couples post their breakups?

I’ve never been a follower of any influencers that center their content around their romantic relationships. When it comes to privacy and limitations, when an influencer couple breaks up, I believe that it should be made public and kept classy.

Throughout the years, on apps such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, it’s become common to see a couple’s account appear on your feed.

I’ve seen accounts run by couples that will post and tell their fans a lot about their personal lives. Whether it be when the couple becomes pregnant, when a relationship shifts from dating into an engagement, or showing their kids growing older and posting them on the internet.

With giving fans all of this personal information that is meant for entertainment, I believe if there is a breakup between that couple, it should be made public.

If I were to be a fan of an account centered around a relationship, I feel that I would want to be aware of their separation. The audience isn’t entitled to know details of the breakup, but they should be informed if there is a change in relationship status.

With a breakup comes the separation of each content creator from the account, either to post on their own personal accounts or just one person leaving the couple’s account. Resulting in having the other person change the account possibly into a personal account.

Even if a follower interacts with a couple’s page, that doesn’t mean they also have to follow each person’s personal accounts. I would believe that people follow the couple’s account for the couple’s content.

Let it be known that even though I believe it should be public knowledge if content creators break up, I do not think that it should be done in a disheartening manner. I believe that there are certain unsaid moral rules with privacy that public relationships should follow.

A relationship ending poorly is not an excuse to totally trash talk your ex-partner online, unless this person can be seen as a danger to themselves or others.

If a content creator experiences a public relationship that ends up being abusive behind the scenes and if both partner’s faces and lives were broadcasted for their fans to see, I believe that the breakup should be spoken about in detail.

By exposing the abuse of the relationship along with evidence, it can help prevent the next person who might want to get involved with the abuser from making the same mistake.

With how powerful the internet is, if one person does something to make the

other ex-partner look bad, then that can cause the ex-partner to get hate from dedicated fans who may be on the other content creator’s side.

When an influencer gets hate, it can look like their comments being flooded with hurtful and displeasing remarks, and those messages can be in the direct messages for them to read.

When Olivia Rodrigo first released her “SOUR” album, a lot of hate got sent to Joshua Bassett, who was rumored to be in a brief relationship with her. Bassett was getting death threats and the stress from this had reportedly caused him to go to the ER. He discussed this issue in a 2022 interview with Zach Sang, a podcaster who specializes in interviewing popular music artists.

Relationship content creators must keep their fans in the loop of their relationship status if there is a dramatic change in the dynamic of their content. If these are dedicated fans who are following the influencers for the entertainment and love of their content, then they should be told of a breakup.

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The year is 2018, and I go home and hop on YouTube to see a thumbnail of David Dobrik and Liza Koshy with a video titled, “we broke up.” This was the first time I would encounter the wild beast that is: the breakup genre.

Little did I know it would be better and more entertaining than most “breakup content” I would come to watch.

And it was because the video was so normal.

If any of you have been on social media the past five years, you likely have seen a video depicting either both partners crying and sharing their sides of the story, or if you’re lucky, you’d get individual videos from each of the content creators’ channels.

It’s safe to say the overwhelming majority of breakup videos are scripted, edited and manufactured solely to gain views. I’m all for people getting closure after a fallout with a significant other, but there’s a difference between grieving a relationship in private than massproducing it on the internet.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be back and forth videos between ex-couples on the feeds of hormonal teenagers who need their daily dosage of toxic drama.

I’m not saying these influencers were not in a loving relationship, because they probably were, but it’s the

aftermath that comes from content creators exploiting the plot holes of their relationship to a wider audience that desensitizes both the influencer and viewer perspectives on a healthy breakup.

I would appreciate it if couples made dedicated channels for their viewers so people go to that specific channel for couple-specific content. Most of the couples I see on social media (besides the couples that prank and scare each other because they’re assholes), make heartwarming content that makes me laugh, sigh and miss my girlfriend, in that order.

In the future, if and when a couple breaks up, they should release a video on their shared channel explaining the state of their relationship and addressing the future of the channel for the sake of their viewers. This is my only exception to social media breakups, because there is a clear beginning that needs an ending that should remain clean and straightforward.

Now I don’t necessarily mean seeing a relationship evolve through each of its stages, but more so witnessing two people fall more in love with each other. And if a couple can’t make me fall in love with them through their content, I will not stick around and wait for them to fall out of it.

I’d rather go on Netflix and watch an episode of “The Bachelor” or the many other iterations of the fast-paced, getaway blind-dating genre to get my fill of commercialized drama.

On the other hand, if an influencer posts “someone” on their story or page and fans speculate a relationship and this “someone” becomes a reoccurring name or figure in their content only to disappear soon after, do not give me breakup content.

I do not care, and I doubt the majority of people will either.

Couples content should highlight the bond and depth of two interesting people as they discover more about themselves and each other. In turn, the community of viewers grows with the couple as their content and relationship matures over time.

When done right, a breakup on social media can hit the box office like a Michael Bay film in the late 2000s: a grand firework show that fizzled out too fast.

At the end of the day, my social media could benefit more from videos of older married couples dancing to popular TikTok songs and less from twenty-somethings being dramatic and money hungry.

Social media couples should be able to post about their breakups, as long as its moral.

Vanessa Real STAFF WRITER

The ‘breakup genre’ is not worth my time, ‘The Bachelor’ will suffice.

Brandon Nicolas STAFF WRITER

Talk about splitting the bill ahead of time

Lamar Moody STAFF WRITER

When I was a waiter, one small thing that made my job so much easier was when a group of people decided to split the bill before ordering or when the group already organized who would pay for each item.

There are some things in this world that I feel just need to be done automatically, especially out of courtesy to the people who are serving you. Organizing the bill payment should be simple amongst a group of friends or family, I should have nothing to do with it.

Restaurant servers get angry and annoyed when a group of people dine in and at the end of their meal, the bill payment isn’t carefully discussed within the group. So now the group is trying to organize what they each

had specifically on the bill. This situation can take forever and even get hectic causing the customers to argue.

I was a restaurant server/busser for two years in Santa Monica, Calif., at a small restaurant named Cafe Crepe. Splitting the bill became an annoyance because the group would always argue or disagree on how to split it.

I distinctly remember a group of eight people coming into the restaurant and eating, when the bill came out to $325, pandemonium ensued. The group of eight were now frantically discussing who had the steak and wine, who had the $18 salad and what price each person felt entitled to pay.

Splitting or making eight different payments for one table is the most annoying thing ever. In my opinion the group of eight should just have one or maybe two people pay for everything. The other six people should just use mobile payment services such as Zelle, Cash App and Venmo to reimburse the two who paid the original bill. Or even the Cash App, Venmo, or Zelle can be done at the very beginning before ordering. Establishing what everyone will order and how the bill will be split is so convenient not only for the server but for the people eating.

Within a group of friends, people have different budgets and cravings. One friend may be craving a $50 T-bone steak and the other friend may just be craving a small $12 chicken caesar salad. In this scenario, I dont think it’s right to split the bill in half knowing that the $50 steak is way more expensive. Sometimes people make things more complicated than they need to be, while other people simply just lack common sense. If you’re going out to eat with a group of friends, the bill splitting situation should be briefly discussed and situated before anyone gets to

send a letter to the editor

start ordering their food.

When I used to be a waiter, I always found it hilarious when the bill came and everyone would freeze and look at each other as if they didn’t know how the bill was going to be paid.

It’s simple people. Establish and discuss bill payment/splitting before you and a group of friends go out and eat together.

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ALEXIA FREDERICKSON | SPARTAN DAILY

Winless Spartans host Mustangs

By Nathan Canilao

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Starting the year off 0-2 is not ideal for San Jose State, but there is optimism that the team could score its first win of the season against Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo on Saturday at home.

The Spartans, who lost to No. 6 USC and No. 18 Oregon State in their first two games of the season, face a team who shouldn’t be as big of a challenge.

Cal Poly is a part of the Football Championship Series of NCAA Division I football. FCS schools are considered to be “lower tier” comprising mostly smaller schools with budgets smaller than SJSU.

It’s easy for fans and media to look over Cal Poly, but head coach Brent Brennan said that is not the case for the Spartans. SJSU was in a nail biter of a game against FCS Portland State last season in which they won on a last-minute drive.

“We know that every team can beat us and we can beat every team,” Brennan said in a Tuesday press conference. “It’s football, it’s why you play the game. So it doesn’t matter if we’re playing Portland State or the Green Bay Packers, we have to be ready to play.”

Cal Poly is coming off a win against the University of San Diego, defeating the Toreros 27-10 at home last Saturday.

The Mustangs are led by former University of Washington

quarterback Sam Huard who transferred last season. Huard is a former five-star recruit and was a big get for the Mustangs in the transfer portal.

Against San Diego, Huard passed for 368 yards and a touchdown.

“He’s a really talented guy, he’s a pure passer,” Brennan said. “They’ve surrounded him with good players. They had a couple guys have big days last week against San Diego. And so it looks like they’re doing a good job getting him going. And I think that we’re gonna have to learn on the fly as we go.” Saturday’s game will give SJSU’s defense an opportunity to bounce back after a tough start to the season. The Spartans’ defense gave up 98 points and 974 yards of total

offense in two games.

SJSU has struggled to get to the quarterback thus far. The Spartans averaged 3.5 sacks a game last season and have recorded just 2.5 sacks in two games this season.

“We always want to get to the quarterback as much as we can, but [the front seven] is working really hard,” said SJSU defensive coordinator Derrick Odum. “They’re eager to go out and just have another game to prove it.”

Offensively, the Spartans will look to get their running game back on track. After rushing for 107 yards against USC, junior running back Quali Conley rushed for only 34 yards in 11 attempts on Sunday against Oregon State.

The offense was without starting

senior running back Kairee Robinson on Sunday and his status for Saturday’s game against Cal Poly is still unknown.

Conley will likely get the majority of the reps in the backfield, but freshman Jabari Bates did get a few snaps last game and could continue to get more playing time if Robinson is unable to go.

The Spartans are scheduled to play at 1 p.m. on Saturday at CEFCU Stadium. This game will be the first and only game broadcasted on NBC Bay Area this season.

Stanford and Cal switch coasts

By Nathan Canilao SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The next two dominoes of the college realignment process have dropped.

On Friday morning, the Atlantic Coast Conference voted to allow Stanford, UC Berkeley and Southern Methodist University to join its conference starting in 2024 in what are the latest moves in the college conference realignment saga.

Yes, two schools from the West Coast and one school in Texas will join a conference designed for East Coast schools.

From Stanford and Cal’s standpoint, this move was inevitable. With the Big Ten Conference seemingly shutting its doors on the two Bay Area Institutions and the refusal from both schools to join a Group of Five Conference, the logical choice here was to join the only remaining conference who has not made a significant move in adding another member school.

It makes sense this was a fight of survival for Stanford and Cal.

Dropping down to a Group of Five conference

would eventually lead to the cutting of non-revenue sports teams because of a lack of funding from media rights deals. Trying to rebuild the Pac-12 was going to be a big uphill battle considering the schools that were left to add and the cost it would take to take them out of their current conference.

If any Mountain West member were to leave the conference before 2025, the school would have to pay an exit fee of $33 million, according to an Aug. 4 article from ESPN.

But the fact that this move had to happen is still sad and disappointing.

With the movement of colleges to different conferences across the country, it only hinders the tradition of college sports. What made college athletics different from the pros was the rivalries and proximity of games to local communities.

Gone will be the days when fans from the Bay Area could drive a few hours south to watch a Cal vs UCLA men’s basketball rivalry game on a Sunday afternoon. Gone will be the days that family members

of athletes can make family trips to see their son or daughter play in the nearby college.

The fans of college sports have an emotional tie to the team because they were alumni of the school or grew up watching the teams because they were down the street. That all goes away with conference realignment.

What makes this situation even worse is the fact that athletes and coaches were not in the room when these decisions were made.

Football and men’s basketball are the driving money-making forces of college sports and these latest moves were made for those teams in my mind, but

this will have a ripple effect on the entirety of collegiate sports. Imagine being a women’s volleyball player at Stanford and having to go on a threegame road trip that consists of Syracuse, Boston College and Duke University. That means being on a separate coast for a week while trying to balance schoolwork, a social life and the pressure of producing at a high level.

According to a study done by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the leading causes of stress among college students is lack of sleep. Having long flights from the Bay Area to the East Coast certainly doesn’t help with

maintaining good mental health for athletes.

But to make this full circle, it certainly seems like the clock is ticking on SJSU.

With Oregon State and Washington State being the two remaining schools from the Pac-12 without a conference in 2024, there are still options on the table for them that are surely going to impact Mountain West Schools like SJSU.

Washington State President Kirk Schulz said as early as last week that there is still optimism that the Pac-12 can be rebuilt, according to a Aug. 29 Sports Illustrated article. In the unlikely scenario that happens, it would likely mean picking schools from the Mountain West not named San Jose State.

If Oregon State and Washington State decide to join the Mountain West, it would help the conference gain some notoriety, but would also mean the progress of winning Mountain West titles that San Jose State has been slowly building goes down the drain, as was shown in SJSU’s blowout loss to No. 18 Oregon State on Sunday.

Ever since USC and UCLA announced its intentions to move to the Big Ten Conference last summer, this situation was going to be inevitable.

For years, college athletics shamed and criticized kids for taking money under the table or transferring from dead-end situations. But this whole process has shown the hypocrisy of college sports. It was all about the money all along, but not for the athletes who made the big plays nor was it used to enhance the fan experience. It was for the higher ups and the people who already had millions of dollars.

Stanford and Cal’s move to the ACC isn’t surprising, but did the administrators that made this decision ask the people who actually matter what they think of these decisions? Did they ask the fans what they thought about moving conferences? They didn’t and that’s what makes this situation unbelievably sad.

snap in preparation of the Spartans’ Saturday matchup against Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

GRAPHIC BY TRACY ESCOBEDO | SPARTAN DAILY

Follow Nathan Canilao on X (formerly Twitter) @nathancanilao

Follow Nathan Canilao on X (formerly Twitter) @nathancanilao

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