Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020
Volume 155 No. 15 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
BLUE NGUYEN | SPARTAN DAILY
Protesters hold a 5-minute moment of silence for Breonna Taylor around the “Justice 4 Breonna” mural Wednesday night in front of San Jose City Hall after collaborating on it.
Protesters chant ‘say her name’ By Chelsea Nguyen Fleige PRODUCTION EDITOR
Protesters marched through Downtown San Jose Wednesday night chanting, “No justice, no peace,” expressing their anger over the recent development in the investigation of Breonna Taylor’s death. Taylor died on March 13 in Louisville, Kentucky when she was shot at least five times in her apartment by police officers executing a “no-knock” search warrant, according to a Sept. 9 New York Times article. She was a 26-year-old emergency medical technician at the time. The march began at City Hall around 9 p.m. after Nino, a Black Liberation and Collective Knowledge (B.L.A.C.K.) Outreach San Jose public relations member, addressed the crowd.
Nino is also a chairman of the board for B.L.A.C.K. Outreach San Jose, a Black activist community collective, and is a part of HERO Tent, a nonprofit that aims to support protesters across the Bay Area with medical supplies. He and other members of the organization have requested not to use their last names out of concern for their safety. “The ruling today in Breonna Taylor’s case is bullshit, right?” he said. The crowd shouted their agreement. The Kentucky attorney general announced early Wednesday that a grand jury indicted one officer involved in the death of Taylor on three counts of “wanton endangerment,” for endangering the lives of Taylor’s neighbors during the raid. Wanton endangerment is classified as a Class D felony
The ruling today in Breonna Taylor’s case is bullshit, right? Nino B.L.A.C.K. Outreach San Jose board chairman and public relations member
wherein a person acts with, “extreme indifference to the value of human life,” and puts others in a deadly situation, according to Kentucky state law. A single charge carries a sentence of three to five years. There were no other charges related to Taylor’s death. Of the three officers directly involved in her death, former detective Brett Hankison has been fired.
“We out here for Breonna, Breonna Taylor’s family, Louisville, all the other cities who are going up, everyone else who passed away from police brutality,” Nino said. The protesters marched east on Santa Clara Street and north on First and West St. James Streets to the Thomas Fallon Statue of the aforementioned on horseback,, located on West Julian and St. James Streets. Some protesters graffitied the statue with “FTP,” “FDT,” “Justice for Breonna Taylor” and “Fuck White Supremacy,” then tied U.S. and Donald Trump flags to the statue, doused it in lighter fluid and set it ablaze. As police helicopters circled above, chants of “Fuck the police,” continued as protesters began to march back to San Jose City Hall. The organizers planned to
continue their demonstration all night but according to a live blog from San Jose Inside, dwindling numbers of protesters prompted them to decamp earlier than initially planned. “We’re gonna occupy City Hall,” said Jason, a B.L.A.C.K. Outreach organizer. The crowd originally gathered on the steps of San Jose City Hall a few hours earlier at 5 p.m. to address the need for police reform in the wake of the Breonna Taylor case. Approximately 40 people of all ages were actively demonstrating on the sidewalk outside City Hall. With signs emblazoned with “Black Lives Matter,” and “People over property,” the protesters chanted, “Say her name, Breonna Taylor,” PROTEST | Page 2
University requests $6 million from A.S. board By Laura Fields STAFF WRITER
The San Jose State Associated Students board of directors was presented with a request to consider granting the school money from the A.S. reserve funds during Wednesday’s Zoom meeting. Executive Director Carole Dowell, who presented the item, said this would help with the university’s $92 million deficit. Dowell said in the meeting the financial gap occurred because of the coronavirus pandemic, citing reasons such as loss of “state funding, spring refunds for housing, meal plans and parking fees.” In the proposal, SJSU requested a $4 million grant from the A.S. reserve fund for the 2020-21 academic year with an additional $1 million each year for two years after that. The grant, totaling $6 million from the A.S. funds, would be given to the university for “student-related purposes.” A.S. funds are generated from student fees accrued from things like the on-campus print shop and used to fund programs and opportunities for all students. A.S. directors took turns asking questions about the proposal to Dowell, Sonja Daniels, associate vice president of campus life and James Westbrook, A.S. finance and accounting manager. “If we give all this $4 million . . . that’s not even half of what we have left,” said Controller Flor Sario. “If you know anything about business, that’s one heck of a loan.” Associated Students currently has
$11 million in reserve funds, with a proposed operating budget of about $6 million for the 2020-21 academic year, according to the 2014-21 A.S. reserve analysis. Anoop Kaur, A.S. academic affairs director, asked if this was the first time the university asked for money from the board, to which Dowell said the request was unprecedented. Westbrook sided with the board saying that, “there wasn’t a good reason given,” for the university to ask for money from Associated Students. However, Westbrook admitted that the university would not be able to pay off a traditional loan with interest given the circumstances, which is why this method was proposed. Daniels provided more context to the board of directors on the budget situation and said that if the funding is not passed, there could be possible cuts to personnel, student affairs or academic advising. She said the university has financially invested in training teachers and technology that used a lot of the year’s budget, but that the university was still in a better position compared to other institutions. “No staff or faculty have gone through layoffs,” Daniels said. She compared the university’s lack of layoffs to San Francisco State, which laid off 131 staff members this semester, according to a Sept. 10 San Francisco Chronicle article. Daniels explained that there aren’t any new funds for new initiatives and the current funds are tightly allocated for certain purposes like for the Interdisciplinary Science Building.
It’s a dangerous precedent if we gift this money to the university, although it is important to support the university during this time. Anoop Kaur Associated Students Academic Affairs director
“Those are kind of dedicated funds that you can’t all of a sudden go, ‘I’m going to stop building this building,’ without some major ramifications there,” Daniels said. Kadence Walker, A.S. legislative affairs director, asked if the $4 million dollars would be more like a gift, to which controller Sario confirmed that it would be. Walker then asked if the amount of money and duration of the grant could be negotiated. “You’re in the driver’s seat on this, you can reject it outright,” Finance Manager Westbrook replied. Kaur said if the grant is approved, the university could potentially use it as leverage to ask for more money in the future. “It’s a dangerous precedent if we gift this money to the university, although it is important to support the university during this time,” Kaur said. Because the proposal was just a discussion item for the Sept. 23 meeting, no decision was made on whether the
IN BRIEF The university proposes a grant of $6 million from the Associated Students reserve fund to help with its $92 million deficit. Political science junior Britney Ortiz is the newest member of the A.S. academic affairs committee. university would go through an official petition to approve the funds request.
Appointment of new finance committee members The meeting’s action items also included the appointment of new members to the A.S. finance committee, academic affairs committee and lobby corps. Britney Ortiz, a political science junior, said she was “super excited” to be elected to the A.S. Academic Affairs Committee and that she will bring her passion for social justice and equity in education to the table, in a phone interview with the Spartan Daily. “I know there have been some microaggressions between professors and students,” Ortiz said. “I want to help with that.” Follow Laura on Twitter @swimgirllaura