Students speak out about war
By Saturn Williams STAFF WRITER
Students organized a general assembly and speakout against war rousing calls for action targeted at the San José State University administration on Tuesday at the Students for a Democratic Society’s first public demonstration on campus this semester.
Students for a Democratic Society is a national progressive student activist group with chapters at campuses all over the U.S., including SJSU, according to the organization’s About page.
Dozens of students and community members gathered on Tower Lawn on
campus in protest of mass incarceration, administrative investments and the Israeli military’s bombardment of Gaza.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” the crowd chanted in front of Washington Square Hall.
Fourth-year history student Aidan Rauh and member of Students for a Democratic Society at SJSU, was one of the handful of speakers at the event.
“We are witnessing the next wave of this colonial project and it started again with the genocide of Palestine,” Rauh said. “A new wave of violence and mimicry in order to perpetuate the exploitation of people and the deaths of Indigenous people.”
Around 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the past 10 months as a result of Israeli military attacks, according to an August 16 report from CNN.
Second-year animation and illustration student Oli Harter vocalized demands for SJSU to reallocate funds away from companies that contribute to conflicts like in Gaza.
“We divest millions and millions of dollars into war profiteers such as Lockheed Martin,” Harter said. “We are looking to end support with Lockheed Martin and put those investments towards students.”
Lockheed Martin is one of the largest military contractors in the world
selling weapons to governments globally, including Israel, making it a boycott target for pro-Palestinian activists according to the American Friends Service Committee’s “Investigate” project.
Harter explained that other SJSU students should be invested in divestment as it concerns where their tuition money is being appropriated.
“So even if you are like, ‘I don't know, what can I do in San José for people in Gaza, for Palestine?’, ” Harter said. “If not for them, then do it for yourself.”
The demonstration attracted members outside of the SJSU community, including representatives from the Green Party of
Santa Clara County.
Nassim Nouri, a council member for the Green Party of Santa Clara County, said she has been following student activism at SJSU and came to the assembly to show the party’s solidarity.
“The students on this campus have been amazing because they have been speaking from the heart and from their minds against injustice, against genocide, and against the oppression and marginalization of our sisters and brothers around the world,” Nouri said.
More than bringing awareness, Nouri said she hopes the speak-out encourages students to take action to make the changes they want to see.
“We want people to know they have the power to electorally push for policies they want,” She said.
Members said Students for a Democratic Society at SJSU has been impacted in its activities this semester as a result of new policies from SJSU and California State University administration limiting free speech activities on campuses.
“The reason that we have not held something on this scale before now has been fear of the new Time, Place and Manner,” Rauh said.
“We have not received any clarification on what is and isn't allowed so we've been hesitant to engage in something like this.”
Dialogue with SJSU’s Time, Place and Manner officials has been challenging for Rauh and the rest of the Students for a Democratic
Society chapter, citing a town hall on free speech where administrators were expected to speak with the organization and answer questions about the new policy but never showed.
“Student Affairs and the president, anyone with the ability to clarify and interpret the TPM has not responded to us, has not made any clarifying statement about TPM, completely ignored every attempt at communication,” Rauh said.
Despite hesitations with organizing under the new Time, Place and Manner restrictions, SJSU’s Students for a Democratic Society chapter plans to hold a rally and protest on Oct. 7 as a part of the “Week of Rage,” a nationwide protest helmed by Students for Justice in Palestine.
Robin McMahon, a sixth-year history student, highlighted the importance of activism as communitybuilding, something she said is often overlooked
“Think about the ways that you can help the people around you be secure without being dependent on capital power, without being dependent on police violence, without being dependent on a carceral state, without being dependent on an Army overseas doing violence in their name,” McMahon said.
PHOTOS BY ANAHI HERRERA VILLANUEVA | SPARTAN DAILY
Green Party members and protestors hold signs in support of student protestors out on San JoséState University’s Tower Lawn on Tuesday afternoon.
Student protestors gather around together to watch speakers at the Student for a Democractic Society at SJSU’s speak out.
Students gather to watch VP debate
By Jackson Lindstrom STAFF WRITER
San José State’s BridgeSJSU, SJSU Votes, Pi Sigma Alpha, Associated Students, and the Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement hosted a Vice Presidential debate watch party on Tuesday.
Vice Presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance faced off on the CBS News television channel to give Americans an opportunity to see what the candidates offered.
Walz and Vance discussed a wide variety of topics such as immigration, abortion, and the Middle East.
Samantha Sternstein, a third-year communications student, was one of the many students at the watch party.
“I (wanted) to know where these candidates stand on bipartisanship,” Sternstein said. “They definitely had points where (they agreed) ... But to what extent do they agree?”
During the debate, there were many points of contention in which both Walz and Vance stated they were able to find agreement.
Chima Nwokolo, a
fourth-year political science student, said this was refreshing compared to the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump presidential debate.
“Both candidates were civil, even though they strongly disagreed with each other, they were still able to be respectful across party lines,” Nwokolo said.
“In our current political times, (it’s) very polarizing, the two parties are known for just screaming and
yelling at each other.”
During the debate, Walz mentioned that his 17-year-old son witnessed a shooting at a community center, which Vance respectfully acknowledged in his response.
Nwokolo said he appreciated the civility in Vance acknowledging Walz’s son experiencing such an event.
“Everybody’s always yelling, interrupting, (and) lying,” Nwokolo said. “In
this debate they didn’t really interrupt each other ... they knew their lines (and) boundaries and they kept to them.”
Khush Naidu, a firstyear software engineering graduate student, agreed with Nwokolo’s sentiments.
“I think there was a lot more respect across the aisle,” Naidu said. “That may have been caused by the muting system, or just the more participatory moderation.”
A point of controversy after the Presidential debate between Trump and Harris was the moderation, which some people thought was biased towards Harris, according to Trump in an interview on Fox and Friends talk show.
Students at the watch party thought the moderation of the Vice Presidential debate by Nora O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan did not appear biased.
“I think the moderators did a phenomenal job,” Nwokolo said. “Please get them to literally all of our presidential debates in the future because those two women did a fantastic job at moderating this debate.” Naidu also agreed that the two moderators were better in this debate comparatively.
“I think it definitely didn’t work in terms of optics for the nature of the fact checks and the regularity of the fact checks would have looked like a bias to people that already had vested interest in a candidate,” Naidu said. “I think that’s where this debate improved on.”
The moderators of the Trump and Harris debate fact checked statements made by candidates, but the moderators of the Vice Presidential debate did not. Naidu said that this was something he would have liked to have seen from the debate on Tuesday, just in a different fashion.
“The fact checks weren’t as relevant and didn’t necessarily affect the optics as much,” Naidu said. “I would have still really liked to see fact checks.”
Votes lead to removal of houseless encampment
By Charity Spicer STAFF WRITER
San José City Council members and Mayor Matt Mahan discussed various projects and city business at the City Hall meeting on Tuesday.
Following procedural items on the agenda, San José City Council voted on important measures, Transportation & Aviation Services and Community & Economic Development to name a few.
These items included the removal of houseless encampments at Guadalupe Gardens and incentivizing businesses to lease and buy office spaces in Downtown San José.
In the United States, San José has the fourth highest houseless population, according to a June 2024 article from NBC Bay Area.
The same article noted that nearly 4,297 new households experienced houselessness for the first time in 2023, a 24% increase compared to the 3,473 households reported in 2022.
Mayor Mahan has made attempts at resolving the houseless crisis in San José since the beginning of his term in office, according to his campaign policies.
However, Mahan’s claims that San José is facing $60,000 in daily fines from
houseless encampments near creeks in a March 14, 2024 interview with KQED. State officials have contradicted these claims made by Mahan, clarifying that the $60,000 figure is from federal guidelines and is inflated, according to a May 14, 2024 San José Spotlight article. Mahan described item 5.1 as “the summary vacation of a number of streets that are within the Guadalupe Gardens area.”
In the public comment section of item 5.1, Batman of San José, a local advocate for the homeless community, called for the postponement of vacations/ clearances until a firm plan is in place.
He said that clearing homeless people instead of moving them into secure housing should not be the goal.
Despite this pushback against the item San José City Council passed the motion unanimously for the approval of removing the encampments.
Nanci Klein, deputy director for the San José Office of Economic Development, and Nathan Donato-Weinstein, downtown manager for the City of San José manager, presented the project’s initiatives about incentivizing office property and leasing in Downtown San José to the council members and public.
Klein and DonatoWeinstein found that Downtown San José primarily lacks daytime activity and increasing offices that will host their workers will change that, according to the presentation.
Donato-Weinstein said that the downtown office market is an economic driver, creates jobs contributing to the multiplier effect, and increases foot traffic.
“The biggest thing we can do to enhance office leasing is to enhance and improve the urban experience for everyone, whether that’s office workers, residents or visitors,” Donato-Weinstein said.
The presentation mentioned that the initiative is providing two years of free parking in city-owned garages and two years of business tax exemption.
Donato-Weinstein said that the criteria for this incentive are that residents must have offices in the Downtown Business Improvement District, commit to a four-year minimum, and lease or buy 2,500 square feet of office space.
San José Jazz’s executive director, Brendan Rawson, suggested modification of the item to address the downtown amenities issue.
“Why are we remaining focused on the wrong thing? Our city seems to pride
itself on being some sort of forward thinking, data driven enterprise,” Rawson said to the council. “Why are we ignoring the data?” Arjun Batra, council member representing District 10, recommended restricting these incentives to only new businesses while Rosemary Kamei, council member representing District 1, backed San José Jazz in advocating for amenities.
“We have to find ways of thinking about this, maybe it isn’t today, but I wanted to sort of have you all start thinking about developing these amenities,” Kamei said.
Pam Foley, council member representing District 9, proposed that the 2025 June report include incentives for retention by reviewing tenant improvement permits to streamline the process. Item 8.2 was unanimously approved by the San José City Council after deliberation.
“Approval today is just the start,” Donato-Weinstein said.“We will be working on program implementation with our partners and getting ready for a January launch.”
New SJSU students connect over games
By Anfisa Pitchkhadze STAFF WRITER
The San José State Global Connections program hosted an event on Monday at the Student Union, where students got a chance to meet others, play games and hang out.
The Global Connections program is a collaboration between International Student & Scholar Services, Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) and International Gateways, according to the Global Connections page.
The International Student & Scholar Services provides support by advising resources and supporting programming for F-1 and J-1 international students and scholars, according to the International Student and Scholar Services.
SJSU’s International Student and Scholar Services is also committed to international students finding success and providing a fulfilling experience at the university, according to the International Student and Scholar Services.
The program holds meetings every Monday about interacting with international individuals while also exploring and learning from one another, according to the Global Connections page.
Keri Toma Loehrer, an international programs manager and communications specialist at San José State University , shares how the program works.
“We rotate topics for
ALBUM REVIEW
events each week, focusing on culture, wellness and social activities,” Loeher said.
The program also consists of developing intercultural skills and exploring cultural topics, according to the Global Connection web page. Loeher shared that this week’s specific event was called “Fun and Games” where SJSU got to interact with another while providing games, according to the SJSU Events Calendar.“The Fun and Games was a social activity and the goal of that particular session was just to help students connect in a relaxed setting through games,” Loeher said.
The event’s theme surrounding wellness focused on tips and tricks to a healthy mind and body, according to the SJSU Events Calendar.
Some games offered at the event included UNO!, Jenga and card games that students participated in.
Jack Brooks, a psychology major transfer student finished his classes and decided to check out the event.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the games were a great way to break the ice and meet new people,” Brooks said. “It felt really laid-back, and I ended up talking to students from different parts of the world.”
Brooks shared that he met a lot of great people and felt the event was a way for him to take a break from his homework.
“I came because I’m trying to meet more people outside
of my major and learn about different cultures, so the Global Connections program seemed like the perfect opportunity to do that,” Brooks said. “Plus, I liked
Besides Brooks, other students were intrigued by the Global Connections program event.
Shoshana Kurland, a firstyear transfer and graphic
The games were a nice touch and by the end, I felt like I made a few new friends.
Shoshana
Kurland first-year transfer and graphic design student
“I had such a great time at the event and I’m always looking for ways to connect with others here at SJSU,” Kurland said.
Kurland said she left the event satisfied and was thrilled that SJSU threw an event for newcomers.
“The games were a nice touch and by the end, I felt like I made a few new friends,” Kurland said.
Loehrer shared that the program's growth showed significance on campus in transforming a broader initiative aimed at forming deeper relationships across cultural worlds.
hour just for international students, but it has since expanded over the past five years,” Loehrer said. She has also mentioned her experience in mentoring students and staff and has built teams that value intercultural understanding and mutual respect.
“Global Connections is also a great way for both US and international students to meet, engage in discussion or cultural sharing, and really just to get to know one another and build community on our campus,” Loehrer said.
the idea of the event being focused on something social and easy-going.
design student, attended the event to learn more about the SJSU community.
“Global Connections originally started as a coffee
‘SOPHIE’ sparks unfinished journey
Nearly four years after her death in January 2021, SOPHIE’s self-titled studio album was released on Wednesday.
The album was finished and compiled by SOPHIE’s brother and studio manager Benny Long with oversight from her sister Emily Long, according to a New York Times article.
Sophie Xeon, performing and producing under the name SOPHIE, was an invisible powerhouse in the experimental pop genres, working with artists such as Madonna, Charli xcx, Lady Gaga and Rihanna.
Hyperpop is a genre and movement tearing apart popular musical stylings with experimental, maximalist productions contrasting bubbly pop hooks with assaultive industrial sounds, according to a 2020 Independent article.
The Scottish artist made her solo debut in 2015 with the compilation album “Product,” but kept her identity hidden during performances and interviews.
In 2018, she released her first studio album, “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides,” revealing her face and identity as a transgender woman with the album’s lead single “It’s Okay to Cry.”
At 34, SOPHIE was working on her second album during her time in Athens, Greece before she slipped and fell from an apartment balcony while trying to view the full moon, reported in a 2021 NME article.
The self-titled project “SOPHIE” contains 16 tracks that dip into dark electronic beats, aspirational pop and some traditional brain-twisting production as well.
SOPHIE’s voice is not present anywhere on the track list, which is not uncommon for her songs since she was a producer and songwriter first. However, it’s one of the missing puzzle pieces that was present in her previous album.
At points, the album leaves ideas frustratingly unexplored while at others, it delivers transgressive and earbuzzing audio scapes.
The opening track
“Intro (The Full Horror)” is a dark ambient track
that would find a perfect place in an alien scifi film or video game soundtrack, but leaves a lot to be desired.
The track reuses “Cold Water” from her “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides Nonstop Remix Album” but without the vocals.
Without much iteration, the synths ebb and flow without building or evolving into anything, only gradually becoming louder by the end of the track. Although immersive, the introduction doesn’t offer much else.
The album’s vocal-led singles such as “Reason Why,” and “My Forever” work better in the context of the album, but remain too slicked back and watered down.
“Reason Why” is the lead single and features Kim Petras and BC Kingdom.
The track starts with a bouncy and nostalgic synth melody that loops
for the majority of the runtime while Petras repeats the lyrics, “In your mind, in your eye / Take a little look inside / What’s your life, in your eyes / And I know the reason why.”
The song feels sweet and sentimental, but ultimately ends up being repetitive and doesn’t do anything daring for SOPHIE’s discography, which is full of juicy production curveballs.
“Live in My Truth” featuring BC Kingdom and LIZ is one of the blandest moments on the project.
The song boasted four minutes of a generic party anthem backed by chiming synths, steady bass and hand clap percussion pattern.
“My Forever” featuring Cecile Believe plods through its runtime with a staggered, muted synth loop and a quarter-note percussive beat made only somewhat interesting with
some hi-hat flourishes throughout.
Some drawn-out synth pads fill out the prechorus, with the chorus adding reverbed hits over the lyrics, “Distant nights, city lights, in a dream / I can almost feel you again next to me, beautiful / How I long to be forever.”
One of the major highlights of “SOPHIE” is a series of four electronic dance music (EDM) tracks descending into the latter half of the album seamlessly transitioning into one another with “Do You Wanna Be Alive,” “Elegance,” “Berlin Nightmare” and “Gallop.”
The tempo in “Do You Wanna Be Alive” increases before flipping into a driving EDM switch-up where the rest of this song and the three that follow transform into a mini rave set.
Raving melodies move forward in “Elegance” featuring Popstar with a persistent drum pattern
and eerie synth notes sustained over the top of it. The final track, “Love Me Off Earth,” sends off the album on a high note, carrying a message that feels prescient after SOPHIE’s death as Doss enters with vocals.
“What is it worth to love me on earth? / Defying logic and time / Love me off Earth,” Doss sings. Twinkling synths light up the post-chorus before they become hectic and discordant, and the lyric “Love me off Earth” becomes pitchshifted and distorted as extraterrestrial textures accompany it.
The song then deconstructs itself until only a stuttering beat mimicking a heartbeat is left.
As a capstone of her work, “SOPHIE” is decidedly less bold than its predecessors, but despite that, there is still some beauty and amazement to be found.
This is meant to be SOPHIE’s last studio album but potential singles, extended plays and collaborations are still on the table for the future, according to a New York Times article.
No matter what the outcome, SOPHIE will continue to inspire queer and genre-defying artists for years to come and the fact that we can still hear new sounds from her is worth celebrating in itself.
ANFISA PITCHKHADZE | SPARTAN DAILY
Several San José State students play a game of Jenga together on a table at the Student Union on Monday.
By Saturn Williams STAFF WRITER
Don’t judge a book by its popularity
Alejandra Gallo STAFF WRITER
TikTok might have opened up space for a new generation of readers, but it’s certainly not a safe space for readers who care about content more than aesthetics.
#BookTok is a sub community on the popular social media app where content creators share their current reads in aesthetically pleasing videos, according to this web page from SocialPilot.
Among the most popular books on #Booktok were Colleen Hoover’s “It Ends With Us,” a book about domestic violence and “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” a young adult fantasy novel by Sarah J. Maas.
The only problem with #Booktok isn’t the books themselves but instead, the way content creators market books and ignore the important topics.
I thoroughly enjoyed “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller, “Pride and Prejudice” which I read long before the start of #BookTok and “Daisy Jones & The Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
#BookTok introduced me to authors I didn’t know of before, such as Reid, and led to me reading her complete backlist which I appreciated.
However, the important content of several books –such as Hoover’s “It Ends
With Us” which touches on domestic violence and abuse – is watered down by #Booktok.
#Booktok took books that touched on important subjects and used them to make aesthetically pleasing videos and competitions of who could read the most books.
Similar stories were marketed on #Booktok for its simple, primarily romantic tropes instead of the important topics discussed in these books.
I read several of Hoover’s books because of #BookTok: “It Ends With Us,” “Ugly Love,” “Maybe Someday” and more.
I didn’t read much of her books because I didn’t take to her style of writing, though she is a highly acclaimed author who sold more than 20 million books, according to an Oct. 9, 2022 article in The New York Times.
picked off the shelves based on what’s trending and not their content.
Certain books were romanticized so much that they led to increased marketability and the skyrocketing of sales for specific books, according to an Aug. 6, 2023 article by The Guardian.
Recommendations on the TikTok app drove up sales and reshaped the bookselling industry in a matter of weeks, according to the same article.
I won’t ignore the fact that #BookTok gave way to a new generation of readers who finally had a space to make books enjoyable and entertaining.
However, it had a big effect on the people who read books not because they are trending, but because of its content.
Breathtaking novels such as “The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende and
The only problem with #Booktok isn’t the books themselves but instead, the way content creators market books and ignore the important topics.
While I think she attempts to discuss important topics, her writing style is not sophisticated and the popularization of books like these lead to their content being minimized.
All of a sudden, books are
creators did choose to market simplified and ignored their content and completely ignored classic novels in literary history.
I’m glad they didn’t touch masterpieces such as “Don Quixote” by Miguel Cervantes and “Emma” by Jane Austen, because it would have ignored the important themes of selfdiscovery both these authors covered.
The circulation of #BookTok dives into a deeper issue of marketing and consumerism in the United States.
Consumers are driven by what they see as aesthetically pleasing, even if it’s something they wouldn’t normally buy.
“Beloved” by Toni Morrison were not featured on #BookTok even though these authors covered powerful themes of the struggle of women in patriarchal society.
The books that #BookTok
The aesthetic fidelity effect, known as the aesthetics of a product’s design, is a crucial indicator of consumer choice, according to an International Journal of Research in Marketing study.
Apart from the books the #BookTok community loved, there were also books that received backlash such as “Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov, which addresses the controversial topic of hebephilia.
Hebeplilia is defined as a sexual preference toward children ages 11 to 14, according to a web page from Psychology Today.
However, the community failed to acknowledge that books like “Lolita” touch on serious issues, such as abusive and toxic relationships.
“Lolita” and other novels that were hated on weren’t conveyed like a soap opera, but as actual literature, sharing stories in the most human way possible.
There were also #BookTok content creators who positioned themselves as intellectually superior, reading classic novels such as “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley and “The Picture
However, even these users hyper-focused on the themes and tropes explored in these novels, with heavy annotations that were posted on TikTok.
The more you annotate a book doesn’t equate to how sophisticated you are.
#BookTok had a negative effect on many readers, making it into a competition of who could read books faster, who could annotate more and who had the better book collection.
This sub-community didn’t destroy reading for me: if anything, it made me value it more because I realized the importance of reading books for their content.
of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde.
The controversy of bingeing shows
In the digital age of streaming services, I always ask myself to binge or not to binge?
When a new television show comes out, there is always that temptation to watch the whole new season in one sitting.
However, there are people like myself that like to cherish one episode at a time.
Patiently waiting years for a new season of your favorite show and then binge-watching the entire thing in one sitting seems to diminish the anticipated experience.
Streaming services like HBO release their new episodes weekly, which follows the more traditional model before the birth of Netflix, the true leader of the binge culture of streaming.
Having a prolonged schedule gives HBO a dialed-in show schedule by holding onto the attention of the audience for much longer comparatively to Netflix.
The decay rate of Netflix shows that release all at once is much higher than the shows that have a weekly basis release or even periodic releases, according to a Parrot Analysts article.
The decay rate is determined by three different periods:
On-season when the episodes are being released, past-season is after the last episode is released, and off-season is the rest of the time until the new season is released, all this information is compared to see if there is a decay or growth rate, according to the same Parrot Analytics article.
Weekly releases hold a more valuable experience for the viewer because when a new episode is released weekly, there is always something to look forward to.
I recently started watching “The Penguin” and while waiting for its weekly episode, I talk about the past episode with my friends on what they thought about the episode or theories of the next episode. Towards the end of the week, there are instances where my roommates and I would all wait for one another to get home from work and watch our weekly episode together that involves popcorn, candy and post-show gossip.
Another great benefit of having weekly releases is it is nearly impossible to be spoiled on what \ happens.
Getting a show spoiled can sometimes feel like getting stabbed in the back. As viewers, we invest into the lore, plot, characters and endings in our favorite shows.
Streaming services that still use the traditional model of releasing weekly have an advantage because every week, it can promote shows through social media accounts according to a VSN article.
In most cases, with weekly released shows, you get a new trailer every week for the episode, audiences posting memes and comments on what they think of the show so far and theories of what might happen next.
It is a great way to keep the audience talking about the show for a
prolonged period of time.
There are benefits of binging a show, and like everybody else in the modern age, I have been guilty of binge watching several shows.
The main difference is I typically binge shows that aren’t recently released such as “The Wire,” which concluded its series in 2008 and “Lost” in 2010.
The problem with Netflix is that it is one of the streaming platforms that introduced a new model of show-watching through releasing all episodes of a show at once, according
to a Verge article.
Over the summer I watched the show “Dexter” in less than a month and in some ways, I can see why so many people can succumb to the urge to binge.
It was fun being able to binge a whole show in such a short amount of time but after I finished watching, I felt like it would have been better if I spaced the series out longer to maximize my enjoyment.
We all have had that internal debate with ourselves of just one more episode during the late night and early
mornings of our binge sessions.
I think there are many different reasons as to why an individual tends to enjoy a particular show but for me, I always believed that less is more.
Follow Hunter on Instagram @hunteryatess
Hunter Yates STAFF WRITER
GRAPHIC BY KAYA HENKES-POWER
