golden gate xpress issue 11
DESCRIPTION
Issue 11 of the Fall 2011 semesterTRANSCRIPT
GOLDEN GATE XPRESS //STUDENT-RUN NEWSPAPER PROUDLY SERVING THE SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1927. 11.02.11// VOLUME LXXXXI
ISSUE 11
IN THE TUMULT OF THE LATE 1960S, A clash of movements ranging from faculty strikes to the Native American occupation of the island of Alcatraz sent San Francisco into a whirlwind of change. As part of the aftermath, the SF State women and gender studies department was born.
The program recently turned 40 years old and celebrat-ed its birthday Oct. 28 with a range of events acknowledg-ing its burgeoning history and the curriculum’s impact on students and the Bay Area.
The day-long campus event featured testimonies from faculty, staff and students who built the institution and fostered the development of the program.
“Truly we are here surrounded by inspirational people and trailblazers of the department,” said Kasturi Ray, as-sistant WGS professor. “It’s one of these days where I feel very, very tall. I’m going to remember this day for the rest of my life.”
The SF State WGS program is one of the oldest in the United States. The fi rst institution to offer curriculum in women’s studies was San Diego State in the fall of 1970.
Women and gender studies began at SF State in the spring of 1971 when four courses, offered by three separate departments, enrolled a total of 160 students. In 1976, these classes became an offi cial program recognized by the University administration. The fi rst graduating class consisted of three women in 1977.
The next year’s graduating class consisted of 13 stu-dents. Among those was a Robin Song, who spoke at the alumni panel event and acknowledged that the department was born from the heated, larger political context surround-ing San Francisco.
“For me, women studies was not a career move, it was a political statement,” Song said. “A lot was happening in the community in 1976 and women were out there in the community in huge waves. In the women studies program, we were out being in the community as well and the pro-gram had the two integrated together.”
Song said that the department integrated ideology and a climate of change within the school community.
“We were in the patriarchal institution, and fretted around that a lot. One of the things that we would do was
CONNECTING: Former women and gender studies faculty Sally Gearhart and recent graduate Zasharah Araujo celebrate the 40 years of women and gender studies at SF State Friday.PHOTO BY JESSICA GOSS
40 YEARS: WOMEN IN EDUCATION
O C C U P Y OAKLAND>> GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETINGS
WED., NOVEMBER 29 A.M. 12 P.M. 5 P.M.14th and Broadway streets
SEE OCCUPY PAGE
RANKED VOTING SYSTEM MAY
CAUSE CONFUSION
BY JUAN DE ANDA | [email protected]
SEE WOMEN ON PAGE 2
With 16 candidates on the ballot in this year’s mayoral election, it can be hard to pick one candidate, let alone three.
San Francisco is asking voters to do just that in this year’s mayoral election with an alternative system called ranked-choice voting. The system has only been used once in the city, for the mayor’s race in 2007 when Gavin Newsom won with 70 percent of fi rst choice votes.
Ranked-choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, allows voters to list up to three candidates as their choice for the position instead of the traditional one choice. In San Francisco the voter may list only one candidate, known as bullet voting, or two candidates and leave the other columns blank.
But the system is prone to ballot
SEE VOTING ON PAGE 7
BY CASSIE BECKER | [email protected]
San Francisco’s voting method may prove problematic in this year’s elections due to ballot errors and lack of voter knowledge.
Svend Larose hands off a bottle of water to a woman rushing to the aid of a fallen protester during the Occupy Oakland protest Oct. 25. Oakland Police Dept. tear-gassed the protesters five times over the span of a few hours. PHOTO BY ELIJAH NOUVELAGE
6
ELECTION
| GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG C A M P U S 11.2.112
I guess I no longer care. I would much
rather live in the woods and not deal with anyone ever. I realized one voice
doesn’t count.BRETT MORRIS
CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY,JUNIOR
I guess I’m not genuinely interested.
MICHAEL DANIELENGLISH LITERATURE
JUNIOR
SF SPEAKS OUT
COMPILED BY LISA CARMACKPHOTOS BY REBEKAH DIDLAKE
DO YOU FOLLOW SAN FRANCISCO POLITICS?
I feel terrible that I don’t know what’s
going on, but I haven’t had time.
SARA DELMANSECONDARY EDUCATION
GRADUATE STUDENT
It’s not easily available to me. If I did, I feel it
would be a full time job.
HILLARY SMITHJOURNALISMFRESHMAN
Songs, films and plays have all been written about San Francisco and it’s no secret that people travel from all around the world to visit this Northern California city.
It has a reputation for being a beacon of freedom and liberation, having strong historical ties with the 1960s pop counter-culture, and features gorgeous landmarks.
SF State junior Mariana Garcia, origi-nally from San Diego, decided to move to San Francisco for all these reasons.
The city has brought her much happi-ness ever since her earliest San Francisco experiences.
“I went for a walk in the Castro and it was at night and just when I turned the corner and I saw that sign light up. I was excited and that lit up marquee lit up my spirit,” Garcia said. “I knew it was the right place for me. I felt freedom.”
However, this may not apply to all Southern California students.
According to a statement released by Vice President of Student Affairs Penny Saffold and Associate Dean of Students and Director of Leadership, Engagement, Action, Development Joseph Greenwell, the number of SF State students from
Southern California in the freshman popu-lation has increased dramatically in recent years.
More students are coming from South-ern California than ever before, yet with the influx of students from Southern California, many are finding it hard to live here.
“I think it takes a lot of energy to do things here that would be usually easier in Southern California. Like in Southern Cali-fornia everyone drives... whereas here you have to take public transportation,” said SF State senior Thea Sandrich, who is originally from Santa Barbara. “It just takes longer to do things that it becomes a journey. The traveling aspect is something people aren’t used to. You don’t have to be necessarily more thick-skinned, but just not easily as deterred.”
Sandrich, who works as a nanny and lives with three other students, feels that because of these aspects many Southern Californian students move back home.
“A lot of people that I know who went back home, especially the first year, weren’t used to having to work a lot,” Sandrich said. “Or to even look for jobs. Jobs are even harder to find here. The liv-ing is definitely hard too. Having to share
a room, living in a little apartment, you know.”
According to SF State professor Chris-topher Sterba, who teaches Biography of a City: San Francisco, quality of life issues
may be the real issue as well.Students tend to live in
areas more suburban and farther from downtown such as the Sunset district or in the Ingleside district because of financial struggles; this may be something they may not have expected when first coming to San Francisco, Sterba said.
“You come to San Fran-cisco and you think it’s going to be exciting, artsy, bohemi-an, open place and in reality you have to live far from it and you have to work hard to stay here,” Sterba said.
San Francisco is cultur-ally looked at as one of the most tolerant cities in the world. Though it is no uto-pia, it can carry that reputa-tion, according to Sterba.
“You know I had a friend... she was here freshman year and she missed the beach, she missed the weather... A lot of freshman experience it and realize it’s not for them and maybe they should move back,” Garcia said. “I think a lot of stu-dents come here because they want to try something new and they experience it and they realize, you know, it’s not for them and they want to go back home.”
I left my heart in SoCal
“I think a lot of students come here because they want to try something
new and they experience it and they realize, you know, it’s not for
them and they want to go back home.
MARIANA GARCIAJUNIOR
WARRANTS AND RUCKUSBrass knuckles are called ‘poing
américain’ in French, which is literally translated as an ‘american punch.’ Apparently, Americans used these tools during the Civil War to beat each other up. One San Francisco 19th century fanatic had an aluminum pair on him when campus police stopped him and his friend driving on Sloat Boulevard last Thursday around 7 p.m. Not only did he have knuckles on him, he also had 11 active traffic warrants totaling $3,488. He was taken to jail and his homie was cited for driving with a suspended license.
LAZY PARKINGParking at SF State is as enjoyable as
receiving a rectal exam from a porcupine. So it makes sense that one student tried to park in a handicap spot using a fake handicap pass as they ran to their Important Marsupials of Late Antiquity class last Wednesday. While parking is difficult, it doesn’t make it right to take a parking space from someone who could use it (and who is also presumably late to the same class). The person was cited for their fraudulent pass and was released.
THINGS THAT GO ‘BURP’ IN THE NIGHTAlthough Halloween wouldn’t be until
the following Monday, one ruffian decided to drink and party last Tuesday evening around 8 p.m., and was found intoxicated and unconscious. Their chosen location for his early fright night phantasmagoria was between the Humanities and Fine Arts buildings. This person clearly wanted to party with the ancient Egyptian artifacts located on the fifth floor of Humanities. Perhaps they were hoping mummies would boogie with them? At any rate, the police apprehended this individual and sent them to UCSF to receive medical treatment.
10.25 through 10.31Compiled by Aaron Williams
CRIME BLOTTER
BY RUBY PEREZ | [email protected]
Despite San Francisco’s foggy charm, Southern California natives often find themselves longing for home.
SF State women recall strugglesto try to change things up,” Song said. “We were very fragile because we were new like a new baby and we were feisty. So we were always looking for new ways to approach things because we really didn’t know and we didn’t know we were going but just wanted to move forward.”
Andrea Rough, who attended the event, found it illuminating that the pro-gram had a course 30 years ago called the Politics of Housework.
“There were a number of issues raised that had to do with the past, pres-ent, and future with housework,” Rough said. “It was more about ageing.”
One of the ways to integrate prin-ciples of equality was in the hiring com-mittee, which reviews candidates hired to teach a department’s curriculum.
The hiring committee not only had tenured faculty, as is the norm, but also included lecturers, part-time professors and students.
According to Song each person had equal say in selecting a teacher.
In 1979, Angela Davis, a leader in the Black Panther movement, was selected to teach here, but the adminis-tration tried to deny Davis’s hiring. The issue garnered national attention and was featured in “People Magazine.” The program’s hiring committee called in a meeting with University administration.
“I remember our meeting with the administration very well because all of us were there, even the students. We were all sitting around this table and the two administrators walked into the room looked around and said ‘What are these people doing here?’ ‘They are part of the hiring committee!’ we said,” Song recalled. “So he sat down and sat down with his back to us. He would not look at us at all during the whole meeting but we got to keep Angela with us.”
Bonnie Gordon, WGS graduate from 1982, recalled being in Davis’s first class in 1979.
“I remember going to the classroom and wondering why there was so much police and security. I didn’t know An-gela Davis was going to be the teacher and it was exciting to be a part of her class,” Gordon said. “We were living in times of change and we all felt like part of a tight community that kept growing and changing.”
2011 marks not only the beginning of the department but also the 20th an-niversary of the master’s program.
Sima Shakhsari, a graduate from the master’s program, said it changed her way of thinking.
“Back in Iran, I excelled in the quan-titative sciences but when I came here I didn’t understand what the hell they were saying in these classes,” Shakhsari said. “I now know how to read bet-ter and the skills I’ve learned here at San Francisco State have helped in my teaching career out in Houston.”
Since the initiation of the major, there have been more than 650 students who either graduated with a bachelor’s, minor or master’s degree.
Nancy McDermind, former chair of the department, said the history of the department isn’t simply moving forward toward equality but rather building upon the foundations left by those past.
“We stand on the shoulders of oth-ers,” McDermind said.
Song concluded that WGS is not just schoolwork but rather a community of family.
“There’s a movement that takes place inside of us when we take women studies and we have this community of women that is life changing,” Song said. “We were telling, telling our stories for the first time and we learned how to stand up in all the contradiction in this country.”
There are currently 125 majors, 15 minors and 25 graduate students in the program.
Katherine Yau also contributed to this story.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
HOLDING HANDS, kissing and going out on dates are all typical ways to show affection when in a relation-ship, but these kinds of intimate interac-
tions can be difficult when your partner is not physically nearby.
SF State professor Ivy Chen devotes an en-tire lecture of her Sex and Relationships class to long distance relationships.
“They’re hard,” Chen said. “They’re really tough to do, especially when the distance is far.”
Long distance relationships can be difficult but the struggle doesn’t discourage many young couples from giving it a try.
According to Chen, college students are more likely to try long distance relation-ships because they are in a transitional phase, whether they just graduated from high school or transferred from a community college.
“It’s not a uniquely college thing, but college students is one of the populations that tend to have the option of turning their rela-tionship into long distance or breaking up,” Chen said.
Many SF State students are not strangers to long distance relationships.
Kelly Rappleye, 19-year-old humanities sophomore, celebrated her two year anniver-sary with boyfriend Leo Abraham last Mon-day. Only problem: They celebrated it from a distance of almost 400 miles.
Rappleye is from Los Angeles, where her boyfriend currently lives. They had been dating for eight months before she decided to move to San Francisco to go to college. At that point they weren’t sure how a long distance relationship would work, but they wanted to give it a shot.
“It was really, really hard to leave, defi-nitely, and for the first semester I just wanted to go back the whole time and kept thinking of transferring and everything,” Rappleye said.
The first year she was away was rough on the couple. Rappleye was homesick and Abraham was frustrated that he couldn’t be there for her.
“We went through a lot of fighting, but it seems like we’ve learned a lot from it and this year we are infinitely better,” she said.
Rappleye is not alone.Jamila Gonzales is an 18-year-old fresh-
man whose current boyfriend of eight months lives in San Diego.
Gonzales said her previous boyfriend in high school was also a long distance relation-ship, but he ending up leaving her for another girl.
“It sucks because it could easily happen to either one of us, falling for another person, but I don’t know, it’s just worth it for me to at least go through it because I do really like him,” Gonzales said.
Loneliness, insecurities and jealousy are all issues that both girls recognize as problems that every long distance couple must deal with.
“Many people have regular partners for the companionship,” Chen said. “But being in a long distance relationship means that you still have to do the commitment but you’re not getting the sex, not getting the companionship, and there’s a lot of work.”
Being so far away from your partner can lead to problems, but some say it can also strengthen your bond.
“When we’re together, we spend all our time together, so I think it’s really good for me to be independent and have my own friends and have my own life and be focused,” Rap-pleye said. “I think it’s really good for him too, especially since we’re young, still want to be fun and social. We can still do whatever we want but we just have each other still.”
| GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG C A M P U S11.02.11 3
PART THREE IN A RELATIONSHIP SERIES
BY DEVERY SHEFFER | [email protected]
Long distance relationships come with challenges due to physical separation,
but provide an opportunity for growth.
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NUMBER OF RESPECTED BAY AREA RESTAURANTS.
SUNSET EDITIONWhen you think of the Sunset
neighborhood, images that come to mind are likely of a quiet suburban neighborhood
filled with fog and ample parking. Because of its
proximity to SF State, many students find their home here as well. And while the Sunset
isn’t widely regarded as a restaurant destination, those familiar with the area know
of its culinary gems.
SWEET TOOTH
DONUT WORLDHINT: Most people only know this place as “that 24-hour
donut place.” A neighborhood institution, Donut World
has built a reputation on the most stable foundation of all:
delicious, mouth-watering apple fritters.
1399 9th Ave.
CHEAP EATS
ARIZMENDI BAKERYHINT: Though this bakery primarily sells handmade
bread and baked goods, they also dish out a different slice of gourmet pizza each day. Supporting a cooperative-owned business is another
draw for fans of the bakery.
1331 9th Ave.
ROMANTIC
WILDCARD
CAJUN PACIFICHINT: There is something
naturally romantic about tiny restaurants. This one barely
seats two dozen people, so like it or not you’re going to get cozy with your date, which
coincidentally makes sharing a plate of deep fried shrimp-
stuffed quail even easier.
4542 Irving St.
OUTERLANDSHINT: Walking into this
driftwood-paneled restaurant feels like climbing into the
treehouse you always dreamed of as a kid. The only difference
is you probably never dreamed of being served oxtail gnocchi once
you were inside.
4001 Judah St.
| GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG A R T S & E N T E R T A I N M E N T 11.02.114
SALSA DANCE NIGHT: FREE LESSON
THURSDAY, NOV. 3
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FRIDAY, NOV. 4
8 P.M. MCKENNA THEATRE
SF STATE
SAN FRANCISCO SKI AND SNOW-
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FORT MASON CENTER-FESTIVAL
PAVILION
COME OUT AND PLAY: FUN CITY-SIZED GAMES
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THE ATMOSPHERE IS THICK with audience excitement and anticipation. Microphone in hand and a chart-topping song prepared for cheering fans with live-streaming video broadcasted worldwide, the star is now ready to take the stage - as long as he has enough time before the lunch special ends at the local Chinese
restaurant.Karaoke is a part of the culture and entertainment of San
Francisco, and The Mint Karaoke Lounge proves just how successful karaoke stars can be. The Mint, winning several awards over the years for being San Francisco’s number one hot spot for karaoke, is one of the most prominent bars designed purely for karaoke in the state.
Karaoke starts at 3 p.m. and goes until 2 a.m. at The Mint. The lounge is also open 365 days a year and is one of the most accessible venues for performing karaoke.
Ben Quinones, who has been attending The Mint for several years, said karaoke at the lounge was one of the best experiences someone could have in the city.
“It’s the best time you can have while being legal, and The Mint is by far the happiest rooms in all of San Francisco,” Quinones said. “There are people of all shapes, orientations and colors here, a huge togetherness and a huge community.’
Many things make The Mint one of the strongest rooms for karaoke in the city. Boasting more than 60,000 songs, The Mint has a sound system that reverberates through the chest and a high ceiling, which makes the sounds soar rather than being stopped short and muffl ed as in many bars. Co-owner Eddy Chan said that despite success in the lounge, he hopes to create a pleasant environment for the community as well.
“It adds cheer to the community and an inexpensive place for them to have fun,” Chan said. “For the community, I think it’s good for them to come to a place that they can enjoy and afford.”
Chan and his partner Victor Hundahl bought The Mint out of bankruptcy more than 23 years ago and started off with such a small staff that Chan would often fi nd himself washing dishes when needed. Hundahl, who worked in medicine, and Chan, who up until two years ago was also a banker, turned what was a sad piano bar into a lively karaoke hub in the 1990s, after a trip to Asia inspired Chan about the art form’s relevance.
According to Tiffany Crittendon, a karaoke jockey and bartender at The Mint, the karaoke bar is a great place for students because it has cheap drinks, good times and is just a lot of fun. Although the bar is 21 and up, Crittendon says it still draws in students in their early 20s.
“We get students in here all of the time, especially when the schools are on break,” Crittendon said. “They need a break from stress, and here they can drink, not be over-worked, and not have to spend too much money in the long run.”
Crittendon said that students are often stressed but the ability to be silly and do karaoke allows them to have an outlet. Crittendon remembered that just recently two busloads worth of students from Berkeley showed up without any warning whatsoever and appeared to have a great time.
“You don’t have to worry about anything when you’re on stage, you can just come on out and belt it,” Crittendon said. “If you’re frustrated, then scream out your song.”
While The Mint has a high reputation in the karaoke community, and some of the singers who attend are prepar-ing for professional auditions, Chan says that there is always an inviting, energetic and accepting crowd ready to justify anybody who performs whether they are a seasoned karaoke veteran or student amateur.
“With karaoke, anyone can do it and be the star, and that’s why it grows bigger and bigger every year,” Chan said. “The audience is very supportive and nobody will gong or boo you, and sometimes they will give standing ovations and that makes it really a special thing.”
BY SPENCER DEVINE | [email protected]
Award-winning karaoke lounge, The Mint, attracts visitors from all over the world for the chance to get on stage and sing like a star for the night.
Art
s &
E
nte
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nm
ent
SING LIKE YOU MEAN IT
(LEFT) Frank Huang, a karaoke DJ at The Mint, sings and dances for the crowd in between karaoke sets. (BELOW) The Mint karaoke bar brings in a crowd of karaoke party-goers Friday. PHOTOS BY ANDREW LOPEZ.
| GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG A R T S & E N T E R T A I N M E N T11.02.11 5
By this semester, many students thought they’d be able to get their “dirty sauce”-smeared sandwiches from the SF State location of Ike’s Place.
The sandwich shop, named after founder Ike Shehadeh, that found so much success in its Castro location that its long lines eventually forced them to expand to a larger location, was scheduled to arrive on campus months ago.
So why hasn’t the SF State location opened up yet? The answer varies depending on who you ask.
Shehadeh had ideally planned to open in the Cesar Chavez Student Center around March 2011. Now, nearly eight months later, a banner still hangs on the empty space of Ike’s future storefront announcing an opening date of fall 2011.
During a Vendor Services Committee meeting Monday, retail services director Leonard Corpus gave an update to the committee on Ike’s Place’s current progress.
“We have received the revised plans from the Ike’s Place team,” said Corpus, referring to architectural plans for the kitchen and retail space on the lower level of the Cesar Chavez Student Center. “However we are still lacking two compo-nents: electrical and plumbing.”
According to Corpus, the plans that Ike’s Place manage-ment provided to the space were incomplete. This means that final approval for Ike’s to move in cannot be given.
However, when asked what was causing the delay in his shop’s opening, Shehadeh maintained that it was not due to anything on his side.
“If it was up to me it would have been open,” Shehadeh said. He added that he “did not have anything positive to say” about his experience opening up in the student center, calling the opening process a headache.
Shehadeh said that he wasn’t sure if Corpus’ statements about the inadequate plumbing and electrical plans causing the delay of the shop’s opening were accurate.
Ultimately it is the students that are being affected by the delay.
“I am disappointed,” said sophomore Denise Mayo. “I was really stoked.”
Despite the ongoing delay and lack of a set opening date, Shehadeh still plans to open on campus, and says that he is excited to get there to serve students. Although he still doesn’t have a set time frame, he wants to open “for the kids.”
Still, Corpus said that the ball was in Shehadeh’s court.“According to them, once they get approval they can be
open in two weeks,” said Corpus at the committee meeting.
BY KC CROWELL | [email protected]
The popular San Francisco sandwich shop Ike’s Place, originally scheduled to open months ago, is still in a holding pattern.
UPDATE: Where is Ike’s
Place?
MMMM: A Damon Bruce sandwich sits ready to go out to a customer at Ike’s Place in its Castro neighborhood location. PHOTO BY ELIJAH NOUVELAGE
TO OCCUPY
IS TO ASSEMBLE
| GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG C I T Y 11.02.116
(TOP LEFT) An unidentified pro-tester wears a gas mask after police tear-gassed the crowd to get them to disperse Oct. 25. Protesters were upset after the Oakland Police force-fully evicted the Occupy Oakland encampment in front of City Hall, which attempted to bring attention to the income disparity between rich and poor in the country. PHOTO BY ELIJAH NOUVELAGE
(ABOVE) Six-year Navy veteran Joshua Sheperd holds open a copy of the U.S. Constitution in downtown Oakland. PHOTO BY ELIJAH NOUVELAGE
(LEFT) Protesters scatter after Oak-land police officers fired tear gas at the crowd during a demonstration by Occupy Oakland at the intersection of 14th and Broadway streets.PHOTO BY ERIK VERDUZCO.
City officials on both sides of the Bay scramble to craft policies on occupations in the wake of Oakland PD’s decision to tear gas protesters.
BRIGHT FLASHES OF LIGHT, ear-piercing explosions and rising smoke might be consid-ered ordinary in the middle of a war zone, but these were the sights and sounds in downtown
Oakland during last Tuesday’s Occupy Oakland demonstration.
The violent clash between protesters and the Oakland Police Department Oct. 25 sent shock-waves through the Bay Area and set in motion several other events at the neighboring Occupy SF encampment.
Several hundred protesters gathered the night of October 25 in Frank Ogawa Plaza as part of the recent Occupy demonstrations aimed at calling attention to social and economic injustices. After issuing several warnings to the crowd to disperse, Oakland Police launched canisters of tear gas in an attempt to forcibly disperse protesters.
Lauren Smith, 29, studied at the EMT li-censing program at Solano Community College and was assisting protesters as a medic.
“I saw a lot of people with tear gas inju-
ries,” Smith said. “Their skin was inflamed and burning, and their eyes were tearing. Their optic nerves were seizing, and we had to force their eyes open to flush them.”
Initial statements by OPD cited the use of “minimal tear gas” and denied the use of rubber bullets, in spite of contradictory reports from eyewitnesses. In a recent press release, Oakland Police Interim Chief Howard Jordan stated he was confident that the appropriate action had been taken.
“Under the circumstances of this event our officers used what they believed to be the least amount of force possible to protest themselves and gain control of the situation,” Johnson said in the statement.
The following day, rumors spread that the San Francisco Police Department was planning to raid the Occupy SF camp at Justin Herman Plaza after the campers were alleged to be in violation of sanitation laws.
Protesters linked arms to form human bar-riers in anticipation of the police’s arrival, and were joined by local political figures.
San Francisco mayoral candidate John Avalos was among those who attended the pro-test, where he stayed until around 4 a.m.
“I wholeheartedly agree with the move-ment,” Avalos said. “I wanted to show that there are political leaders that do support the movement and that would put their jobs on the line for it.”
Avalos noted that he was there to “protect” the protesters in the event that SFPD made the decision to use force against them. No police raid took place, however, and SFPD spokesman Carlos Manfredi noted that the department used the event as a means to go over police training.
“We had two main concerns,” Manfredi said. “We were concerned about a possible spillover that could cause marching and dem-onstrations in San Francisco, and we wanted to provide mutual aid for Oakland. We used that as an opportunity to go over training proce-dures.”
BART closed two downtown Oakland sta-tions as well as Embarcadero station to prevent Oakland protesters from reconvening in San Francisco.
Occupy Oakland protesters voted last week to approve a general strike for today, calling for labor unions, students and teachers to skip work and school and gather at 14th and Broadway. Streets at 9 a.m., 12 p.m. and 5 p.m.
BY SARA DONCHEY | [email protected]
| GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG C I T Y11.02.11 7
In the ranked-choice voting system for San Francisco mayor, sheriff and district
attorney, voters have the option of ranking their top three choices for each
position. All choices appear in three columns labeled “First Choice,” “Second
Choice” and “Third Choice.”
TO VOTE, voters select their first choice candidate in the First Choice column and connect the arrow with a line as usual.
Do the same thing for the second choice in the Second Choice column, and same again for the third in the Third Choice Column.The voter can also write in a candidate in any column.
BE CAREFUL!There are common mistakes.Only select one candidate per column. If more than one is selected, your ballot is disqualified.
DO NOT vote for the same candidate in all three columns. The vote will only be counted once.
GO TO www.sfelections.org/demo/ to learn more about ranked-choice voting.
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error, especially in an election with many candidates, because not everyone under-stands how it works.
“In places where the ballots were longer, people make more errors, so the ballot does cause people to make some errors when they’re voting,” said SF State associate professor of political science Francis Neely, who studied ballot images from the first two ranked-choice voting elections in San Fran-cisco in 2004 and 2005.
Toward the beginning of its use, only 54 percent of voters even knew of the new sys-tem’s use in elections, according to Neely.
“A bunch of people showed up and all of a sudden found out that in this race for Board of Supervisors that they had to rank the candidates, not just pick one like they usually do,” Neely said. “That’s problematic because ranking candidates takes more information and people should come prepared for that. If you didn’t, you may not know enough about the other candidates to give a good ranking.”
When people don’t know enough about the candidates, they generally don’t fill out the other two options.
“Often it is the case that a sizable number of people don’t rank the candidates, they just pick one,” Neely said. “So it’s not uncom-mon for a third of the people voting in a system like this to just pick one candidate.”
The intricacies of the system plus the fact that it is not required to select three candi-dates means that ranked-choice voting can often produce strange results.
“It’s often the case that if you look at the number of votes cast for that office and then you look at the final number that the winner got for all the ranked-choice voting rounds and eliminations that the winner got less than a majority of all the votes cast for that office,” Neely said.
When no candidate has a clear majority
in the first round of voting, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and all votes are transferred to the second choice, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections. The counting continues in this cycle of elimination and transfer until one candidate gains a majority.
This system encourages more candidates to stay in the race through elections because eliminations and vote transfers give each one a chance.
“You no longer have to be a viable contender to stay in the race. Because usu-ally you get down to three or four or maybe two or three and you know they’re the most popular, they’re the most likely, and the other ones don’t have a chance to get more votes than them,” said SF State assistant professor of political science Jason McDaniel. “But now these candidates at the bottom of the pile are saying ‘I might get the second and third place votes and so I have no incentive to drop out of the race.’”
This outcome was demonstrated in Oak-land just last year when Jean Quan narrowly edged out front-runner Don Perata to become mayor because of the second and third choice votes.
The ranked-choice voting system was passed as an amendment to the San Fran-cisco City Charter in March 2002 by voters to eliminate the need for expensive runoff elections.
Neely admitted that ranked-choice voting is far from perfect, but no system really is.
“There is no election system that pro-duces a consistent, good, undeniable, unam-biguous outcome,” he said, adding that the system still allows some voter freedom. “It allows somebody to vote sincerely.”
Some students like the sound of that.“It sounds a little saner,” said SF State
senior Gregory Done. “The regular system isn’t as democratic.”
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Ranked voting system often leads to error, voter confusion
COMPILED BY CASSIE BECKER | [email protected]
| GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG O P I N I O N 11.02.118
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WRITE US A LETTERThe Golden Gate Xpress accepts letters no longer than 200 words. Letters are subject to editing. Send letters to Michelle Olson at: [email protected]
ABOUT XPRESS The Golden Gate Xpress is a student-produced publication of the journalism department at San Francisco State University. For more information or com-ments, please contact Kelly Goff at:[email protected]
A P U B L I C AT I O N O F S A N F R A N C I S C O
S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y
CASSIE BECKERCOPY CHIEF
JUSTIN OROZCO CIRCULATION
Voters should take the time out of their busy schedules Nov. 8 to vote for the people and propositions that could change the way in which they live.
The system makes it so easy to vote that there is no excuse not to go down the street to the local polling offi ce. And the system for absentee ballots and vote-by-mail is so easy, it practically begs people to vote. So why don’t they?
Statistically, many voters show up for presidential elections; however, when it comes to local elections they seem to care less.
Where is the passion, concern and motiva-tion when a president isn’t running? Voters should care more about local issues, as those are the measures that affect what happens right in our backyard.
Nationally, when Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, there was 20 percent higher federal voter turnout than in the midterm elec-tion in 2010.
In San Francisco, a city in which residents are known for being civic-minded and socially aware, the voter turnout for local elections is pathetically apathetic.
In the 2008 presidential election, 81.25 percent of San Francisco voters who registered showed up, but the following year a measly 22.58 percent made it to their polling place for the municipal election, according to the city and county of San Francisco Department of Elections.
A year later only 34.7 percent of voters registered in San Francisco showed up at the polls for the 2010 midterm election, according to a press release by the California Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
While voters can choose their president, the president isn’t the one who will retrofi t your schools (Proposition A), repair your roads (Proposition B) or reform the city pension system (Proposition D).
San Francisco residents need to get back to the 81.25
percent voter turnout that occurred in the 2008 presidential election. During the Barack Obama election, there was a big movement to encourage youth to vote, but now that demo-graphic seems to have disappeared from the charts.
San Francisco’s voters should stay informed and involved with the politicians and laws that drive their community.
Don’t take the right to vote for granted.
ART BY SARA [email protected]
VOTE FOR LOCAL ELECTIONS AND VOTE OFTEN
PROP A: SCHOOL BONDS *Proposition A would authorize the city to issue up to $46.2 million in deferred loans and grants for seismic retrofi ts to multi-story wood structures at signifi cant risk of damage or collapse during an earthquake.Xpress says YES!
PROP B: ROAD REPAVING AND STREET SAFETY BONDS *Prop B is a $248 million bond measure which would provide additional money for repairing and upgrading city streets, sidewalks, lighting and traffi c signals. It requires a two-thirds vote to pass.Xpress says YES!
PROP C: CITY PENSION AND HEALTH CARE BENEFITS *Put on the ballot by interim-Mayor Ed Lee, Prop C would boost worker payments to city pension funds and, beginning in 2016, require city employees to pay into a retiree health care trust fund. It would save the city an estimated $968 million over the next 10 years.Xpress says NO!
PROP D: CITY PENSION BENEFITS *Written by Public Defender Jeff Adachi, Prop D also would increase the amount city workers pay into their pension funds, saving the city an estimated $1.2 billion in the coming decade. NOTE: If both Prop C and Prop D pass, only the measure with the larger number of votes will take effect.Xpress says YES!
PROP E: AMENDING OR REPEALING LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVE ORDINANC-ES AND DECLARATIONS OF POLICY *Prop E would allow the Board of Super-visors, with approval of the mayor, to re-vise or rescind voter-approved ordinances a minimum of three years after they are passed, without going back to the voters. It would only apply to future ordinances or policy declarations of the board or the mayor, not citizen initiatives.Xpress says NO!
PROP F: CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT ORDINANCE *If approved, Prop F would make techni-cal changes in the 1997 ballot initiative
regulating local political consultants. It also would allow future changes to the ordinance to be made by a super-majority of the Ethics Commission and the Board of Supervisors, without going back to the voters.Xpress says NO!
PROP G: SALES TAX *Under Prop G, the city sales tax would rise by one-half of one percent for 10 years, with the money earmarked for public safety programs and services for children and seniors. The increase would only take effect if the state Legislature did not reimpose the 1 percent sales tax hike that expired July 1. The measure requires a two-thirds vote for passage.Xpress says YES!
PROP H: SCHOOL DISTRICT STUDENT ASSIGNMENT *Placed on the ballot as a voter initia-tive, Prop H is a policy statement calling on the school district to revise its student assignment system so that the top priority is allowing students to attend the school nearest their homes.Xpress says NO!
X P R E S S V O T E R G U I D E
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SAN FRANCISCO’S PROPOSITION H cleverly disguises an elitist agenda as a policy “for the kids.” Yet the prop has potential to reintroduce class-informed boundaries into the local education sys-tem, and must not be voted into policy.
The proposition tries to make it official city policy to try to place kids in high school and below in the public
school closest to where they live. Though placing children in nearby schools will not be written into law, the proposition is a movement toward making location a prime factor in where the district places students.
Presently, a majority of people have the opportunity to send their kids to one of the top schools if they wish. Though the current enrollment system employs a lottery, 80 percent of students get into one of the three schools that they wanted, according to the “San Francisco Educator,” a publication of the SFUSD teachers union. Since a variety of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds will be able to attend the same schools, resources and outreach get to schools in a more evenly-distributed way.
This proposition is penned and backed by Republicans, and has the entire school board and teachers union fighting it.
Though the proposition cites that local enrollment encourages community involvement in local schools, it is more likely that a neighborhood school will be limited to the resources of its constituents. This means that schools in areas with low-income households are going to be resource-crip-pled, while the schools with well-to-do parents living nearby will flourish.
Proposition H also plays into the traffic card, by predict-ing less road congestion with kids going to schools closer to home. While less traffic would certainly put everyone at ease, there are components of the proposition, like it taking immediate effect, which would place psychological and social hardship on the hundreds of kids who will face abrupt school changes in the current 2011-12 school year.
The recent Occupy movements exemplify the country’s grievances with the wealth chasm dividing the privileged and the 99 percent. Proposition H undermines those efforts, and is a backwards move that provides the potential for resources to be pigeon-holed into a few select schools, and limits resourc-es for others.
One proposition on the ballot next week could limit school resources in many neighborhoods as well as force kids into new schools next year.
BY KATHERINE YAU | [email protected]
Prop H: Not what it seems to be
THE AIR OF CHANGE has been as thick as tear gas lately, and San Francisco’s new ranked-choice voting system is a chance to expand upon that.
With voters picking their top three candidates, the system allows for a wider spectrum of politics to surface, some-thing that our country desperately needs right now.
Nov. 8 right here in San Francisco, there’s an opportunity to be a model of a major govern-mental change. Not by marching down Market Street, or burning the banks, but simply by heading to the poll booth.
Ranked-choice was voted into effect in 2002, and was first used in 2004 for a Board of Supervisors elections. In 2007, ranked-choice was used in the mayoral election for the first time, but Gavin Newsom didn’t have any seri-ous competition.
Now, the ballot has 16 candidates and a handful of serious contenders, which could make this race very interesting. It’s entirely pos-sible that the person who wins will not be most people’s first choice for mayor, though they will have support of more than 50 percent of the people’s votes.
It sounds funny at first, but the system brings along its share of plus sides. The main being that ranked-choice voting is friendlier to third party candidates.
Our traditional system first had a primary election, where a person gets one vote and for a collection of candidates. Say Candidate A gets 40 percent, Candidate B gets 30 percent, and Candidate C gets 30 percent. This leaves Can-didate A with the nomination, and the majority didn’t vote for that person at all.
This new system of ranked-choice voting confronts that. It eliminates a primary election, and only a general election is held. By creating second and third place choice picks, along with
the elimination process, the winner has to have support of the majority, and as a result the vot-ing process is more democratic.
A general election came after the primary. Voters went to the ballot, and because they didn’t want to split their vote on a third party member who might not win, they voted for whichever of the two major parties seem less evil.
Third party candidate votes are no longer “wasted” in this system. If a voter’s first choice candidate is eliminated, their second and third place votes are redistributed. This eliminates the fear of wasting a vote, and gives third parties a better chance.
There are other projected benefits as well. Candidates need to appeal to a broader spectrum of people to wrangle in second and third place votes, and the city plans to save money from only having one election. Also, it is said that candidates are more likely to focus on issues, and not bashing each other, as networking is beneficial in picking up extra votes.
A huge part of helping this system work is knowing how it works before going to the booth. A 500-person study done in February by the Chamber of Commerce says 55 percent are confused on how the eliminations affect their vote. Doing research on ranked-choice voting, such as checking out the City’s official voter demonstration or reading local news on the subject, is a good way to overcome that.
As a newer voting system with more choic-es, there is a lot of information to take in. It may seem intimidating, but don’t let it be.
With more options and more to choose from, a chance to bring better representation into government is created. And out of that comes the possibility for progress.
BY HUNTER MULICH | [email protected] Ranked-choice voting is hardly new to San Francisco elections, but gives more opportunity to the underdog with 16 candidates vying for city government.
More choices are more
democratic
Oct. 28 SF State at UC San Diego 1-4
Oct. 28 SF State at Cal State East Bay 2-3
Oct. 28 SF State at UC San Diego 0-1
Oct. 30 SF State at Cal State San Bernardino 1-1 double overtime
Oct. 29 SF State at Cal State Monterey Bay 3-1
Oct. 30 SF State at Cal State San Bernardino 1-2 overtime
SCORES FROM THE LAST WEEK OF GATOR SPORTS
LOSS
LOSS
LOSS
TIE
LOSS
MEN’S SOCCER
VOLLEYBALL
WOMEN’S SOCCER
GATORS’ SPORTS SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, NOV. 4
VOLLEYBALLSF State vs. Cal State
Los Angeles at 7 p.m.(San Francisco, Calif.)
SATURDAY, NOV. 5
MEN’S BASKETBALLSF State at UC Santa
Barbara at 7 p.m. (Santa Barbara, Calif.)
VOLLEYBALLSF State vs. Cal State
Dominguez Hills at 7 p.m. (San Francisco,
Calif.)
SOFTBALLSF State at Stanford at 12 p.m. (Palo Alto, Calif.)
CROSS COUNTRY NCAA Division II West
Regional Championships at 10:30 a.m. (Spokane,
Wash.)
WRESTLINGSF State at Bakersfield
Open at 9 a.m. (Bakersfied, Calif.)
SUNDAY, NOV. 6
WRESTLINGSF State at Mike Clock Open
at 9 a.m. (Forest Grove, Ore.)
WIN
PLAYERof the
WEEKMEGAN JOHNSON
VOLLEYBALL
After two of her best games of the season, Xpress has chosen volleyball player Megan Johnson as its Athlete of the Week. Despite a Friday night loss at Cal State East Bay, Johnson had 24 kills and fi ve serving aces, a season high for the team. She also had a double-double in each match and hit .296 for the weekend, helping the team win its Saturday game at Cal State Monterey Bay.
PHOTO BY TYLER DENISTON/SF STATE SPORTS
| GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG S P O R T S 11.02.1110
PHOTO BY TYLER DENISTON/SF STATE SPORTS
EVIL CLOWN DOCTORS TOOK ON SAN Diego lifeguards. Tie-dyed lesbians battled Vince Vaughn’s cronies.
Perhaps no other place on earth could mimic the scene in the SF State gym as the campus recreation department hosted its third
annual Costume Dodgeball Tournament Friday night.“The whole thing got started because we just wanted to
create more student events for people to participate in,” said Ryan Fetzer, campus recreation intramural and sports club coordinator.
Eight teams ducked, dipped, dove and dodged their way through the seven-round-robin tournament.
“(The event) has been a success in the past and it’s growing each year,” said Alex Roway, facilities manager for campus recreation. “We’re getting more and more interest as the years go on, which is great.”
Some teams went all out with coordinated costumes; oth-ers appeared to have thrown on whatever was lying around the apartment.
“Some students participate and dress up, some won’t, but we just want to put it out there and I think most of them
enjoyed it,” Fetzer said.After some initial confusion over what, exactly, the rules
of dodgeball were, the night got off to a roaring start.There was a healthy mix of ultra-competitive jocks and
folks that were there just to have a good time.The fi nals came down to the clown-faced Cali Boys and
the guys from Average Joes, whose jerseys were impressively accurate to those from the fi lm “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.”
The Cali Boys were the big winners of the night, tak-ing home both the dodgeball championship and the costume contest. Their trophy was a handful of candy and In-N-Out coupons.
“We got the email through (intramural leagues) and I was like ‘Dude we have to do this, this is us,’” said Cali Boy Devon Rodriguez, a freshman biology major.
Though the emphasis was on having a good time, there was still a competitive air to the proceedings.
Joseph, the Average Joes captain who did not give his last name, said, “It was really fun, but I wanted to win.”
All in all, it was a night that would have made Patches O’Houlihan proud.
BY MICHAEL BEBERNES | [email protected]
BULL’S EYE: SF State junior Loren Gonzales looks for a target during a costumed dodgeball game at the gym Friday. PHOTO BY ERIK VERDUZCO
BALLIN’: A HALLOWEEN
EXTRAVAGANZA
After carrying the team out of tough situations and being a decisive force on the court, Halimah Oswald is fi nally being recognized for the dynamic fl are she provides for the SF State volleyball team.
With just a few games left in her college volleyball career, Oswald was recognized for her talent when she was named the Molten/California Collegiate Athletic Association player of the week for Oct. 17-23.
That honor capped off a weekend in which she helped lead the team to two wins, moving them into sole possession of fi fth place of the CCAA standings.
“I was really excited,” Oswald said. “It’s an honor to have, and it’s a tough thing to get in our conference.”
Oswald helped lead the Gators to two 3-1 wins against Cal State Stanislaus and rival Chico State Oct. 21 and 22, respectively. She hit .446 in the two games and led both teams for a combined 35 kills.
“She brings a spark to the team,” said Iris Tolenada, team setter. “She’s done well in other weekends but in this one she was very outstanding. She was very vocal on the court, which helped our offense a lot.”
Tolenada, a junior, is co-captain of the team with Oswald. “It’s like a relationship,” she said of their connection on and off the court.
“I think she’s been deserving for a really long time,” Tolenada said. “She worked really hard for it too. In games she’s performed really well, especially this past weekend.”
Oswald is the senior member on the team, having joined as a freshman in 2008 when the program was restarted by coach Michelle Patton.
“It’s something I’m really proud and excited that she got in her senior year,” Patton said, adding that it’s “very, very tough to get in this conference. It’s that one player who made a huge impact on that weekend for their team, and with all
of the great teams and great players in the conference, it’s a huge honor.”
Oswald has been performing consistently all season, averaging a little over three kills a set. She might have been named player of the week sooner but she has had some tough competition — undefeated Cal State San Bernardino’s star player Samantha Middleborn has garnered the honor three times this season.
Still, Oswald’s coach knows she has the skills of a top player.
“She has the ability to (play well) week in and week out,” Patton said. “It was great to see her fi nally put it together in the end and get recognized for it.”
As for Oswald herself, it makes this time even more bit-tersweet.
“It felt great to get it my senior year,” Oswald said. “I’m happy I got it at all, but especially se-nior year. I’ve grown a lot as a player and I think it’s kind of a testament of how much I’ve grown that I got it this year, and this weekend.”
Oswald, who has been playing volleyball since she was 12, knows how to give credit where it’s due.
“I’m really proud of myself and my team, for helping me get (player of the week),” Oswald said. “I’ve improved so much because of Mi-chelle’s coaching. Michelle (has) just fi ne-tuned everything and made me the best player I could possibly be, which I’m so grateful for.”
She also spoke about the connection she has with Tolenada.
“We’re friends off the court as well as on the court, so that just adds to the relationship. I hope she feels proud too because I couldn’t have done it without her,” Oswald said. “We pick each other up. We’re in it together. It’s nice to have someone on the court to lean on.”
After she gets her bachelor’s degree in psychology Os-wald plans to obtain her master’s degree. It’s no surprise that volleyball still factors into her plans. She hopes to attend a school in Southern California so she can play beach volley-ball.
PHOTO BY TYLER DENISTON/SF STATE SPORTS
BY JAMIE WELLS | [email protected]
Consistent talent recognized at last
ABALLERINA IN A BLUE WIG, superwoman and others joined forces Friday at Cox Stadium to throw javelins and discuses to raise funds for the throws squad at SF State.
The all-female throws squad, part of SF State’s track and field team, dressed in costume to host the first-ever Throw-a-fit, a fundraiser designed to raise money for scholarships for members of the team.
“Today was really fun,” said throws coach Chris-tina McKinstry. “Hopefully we can make this an annual event.”
The event raised more than $600 for the team. Sponsors pledged ten cents per foot, and were also given the option to donate a set amount of $25. Each team member stated a total number of feet they hoped to throw, ranging from 200 to 500 feet.
The throwers had two chances at each event to accumulate their projected total. The events consisted
of javelin, discus, hammer, shot put and 20-pound weight throw.
“I really enjoy being on this team. We encourage each other,” said Deirdra Bridgett, a senior who has been with the team four years. “The Throw-a-fit was a fun way for us to fundraise.”
Luisa Musika, a senior, had 10 sponsors for the fundraiser, the most on the team. Musika, who has been with the team four years, placed second last year for the discus throw at the NCAA Division II Cham-pionships. She has also won all-conference awards the last three years.
“I like the team atmosphere and competition,” Musika said. “And we all work toward the scholar-ships.”
The money raised from the Throw-a-fit will be awarded as scholarship money for female throws athletes. Those who will receive scholarships are chosen by how well they perform at the California Collegiate Athletic Association and how much they have improved over time, McKinstry said.
Typical scholarships cover about 40 percent of a full-ride scholarship. Overall, McKinstry said she and
head coach Terry Burke decide who is most deserving of scholarship money. McKinstry said after scholar-ships are allotted, leftover money is used for other team purposes.
Another fundraiser ran next to the Throw-a-fit event: the Lap-a-thon hosted by the cross country team. The Lap-a-thon raised $1,000 by Friday, and head coach Tom Lyons expected to double that by the end of the semester through other donations.
“We typically bring in about $2,000,” Lyons said. “Parents and alumni want to donate so this (event) is just an opportunity to do that.”
Lyons said donations range anywhere from $5 to $200, made either per lap or at a flat rate. Lyons said the money raised has no specific purpose, but it goes back into the program to provide for unspecified needs. Both Lyons and McKinstry said the fundrais-ers provided a fun way for the teams to raise money through team bonding.
“These girls are great… This is the largest team since I’ve been here and they work hard,” McKinstry said, who has been with the team five seasons. “We are hoping to get the community more involved.”
BY KEALAN CRONIN | [email protected]
| GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG S P O R T S11.02.11 11
R U N N I N G FO R A R E A S O N
RUN ALONG: The men’s track and field team runs in costume at the Throw-A-Fit fundraiser at Cox Stadium Friday. PHOTO BY CINDY WATERS
Fundraisers put on by the track and field and cross country teams raise hefty amounts of scholarship
and team money, all in the spirit of Halloween.
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