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SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934 SPARTANSPARTAN DAILYDAILY WWW.THESPARTANDAILY.COM VOLUME 122, NUMBER 30 FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2004 Bay Area movie Hands-on science labs aid students writers balance By John Kim Hollywood, family Daily Staff Writer There is one thing that sets the College of Science at By Dan King San Jose State University apart from other science pro- grams in the region, according to Herb Silber, a professor Daily Staff Writer of chemistry at SJSU. “One of the things I do is run a Minority Access Red carpets. Hollywood parties. Seven-fi gure to Research Careers program, funded by the federal incomes. Partying with Quentin Tarantino. A big government, which requires undergraduates to go away house in the Hollywood Hills. These are all items often for a summer before their senior year,” Silber said. “And associated with becoming a professional screenwriter. when these students go to major institutions, such as But for some screenwriters, it’s a less glamorous the top Ph.D.-granting institutions in the country, the life. It’s only about paying the bills, whittling down National Institutes of Health, they fi nd that most of the the mortgage on a suburban house and getting the kids other students at these places — from Harvard, Berkeley through braces and college. and Yale, et cetera — what sets us apart from the other David and Janet Peoples, who are scheduled to be research institutions is that our undergraduates do hands- presented with a Cinequest Maverick Spirit award on undergraduate research.” at 2 p.m. today at the University Theatre at San Jose Silber added that SJSU will let its undergraduates use State University, have tried their best to live the quiet, its “expensive instruments,” where other schools will not. normal life in Berkeley while also having careers as Sean Gehlke, a second-year graduate student in screenwriters. geology, attested to the college’s hands-on approach to “We’ve kind of settled in,” Janet said. “We just lead teaching. writers’ lives.” “The nice thing about the classes in our department is They have been successful screenwriters. Their they’re very practical,” he said. “In terms of what you do, credits include “Blade Runner,” “12 Monkeys,” “Hero” it’s very applied.” and “Unforgiven.” Gehlke, who is interested in hydrogeology, said that According to the Internet Movie Database Web he was in a class last semester where they were discussing site, their screenplay for “Unforgiven” earned them dam construction and engineering. His professor decided numerous industry awards and an Academy Award to take the class on an impromptu fi eld trip. nomination for best original screenplay. “We went out to Alum Rock Park to build a hypo- David and Janet are not Matt Damon and Ben thetical dam, to see if we could fi nd a good spot to actually Affl eck, who, according to author Peter Biskind’s book build a dam that would be free of landslides and faults and “Down and Dirty Pictures,” managed to ride their things like that.” he said. original-screenplay Oscar nomination for “Good Will Michael Sneary, an associate professor of biological Hunting” to fame and fortune. sciences and a pre-med adviser, said that statistics indicat- “David directed a fi lm,” Janet said. “But we are ing how well the College of Science’s undergraduates fare getting too old for that sort of change.” when applying to medical schools are diffi cult to obtain. Janet said they married young and, in 1959, moved According to the College of Science, SJSU graduates from Greenwich Village in New York to Berkeley, who apply to medical schools only number 30 to 40 hoping to break into the movie business. each year, compared to the hundreds who apply from “Starting out, we didn’t know any better,” David UC Berkeley or UC Davis. Complicating matters even said. “When we moved to California in 1959, we further, Sneary said, is that some of those applying are thought San Francisco and Los Angeles were only like post-baccalaureates who are changing careers, and some 100 miles apart. It’s only after we moved here that we are graduates from departments other than the College of fi nally began to understand California geography.” Science. In their fi rst couple of decades in California, they Mitra Hosseini, a graduate student in chemistry, said were documentary fi lmmakers. that when she entered SJSU in 1998 as a freshman, she Janet said that back in the 1960s they were able didn’t believe the College of Science had a good reputation. to make good money in documentaries in Northern Now, as a graduate student, she has changed her mind. California. Meanwhile, David wrote spec (unsolicited) “When I worked for Alza, a biotech company, a part scripts. of Johnson & Johnson, there were Ph.D. students from Janet said they got their start in fi lm when director other universities out of state, and when I brought them to Tony Scott (“Top Gun,” “Beverly Hills Cop II”) be- the research lab, they were really surprised to see that we came interested in one of David’s scripts. Tony told his have access to different kinds of instruments — any major brother, director Ridley Scott (“Thelma and Louise,” instrument that you use in biotech,” she said. “Gladiator”), about David when he was looking for Hosseini added that it is not just the hardware that someone to re-write the script that in 1982 became distinguishes SJSU’s science program. “Blade Runner.” “The faculty are very approachable, and they go beyond As they say in Hollywood, the rest is history. their responsibility to teach us,” she said. “They spend David believes their remoteness from Hollywood time with us and supervise us, and the biotech companies has served them well over the years. are starting to see it.” “We ended up not missing being right there in Sneary said he believes the upper division laboratory L.A.,” David said. “We don’t have to do the 3,000 Photos by Andrew Hendershot / Daily Staff program at SJSU is stronger than Stanford University’s or meetings to get a movie done. There has to be a good UC Berkeley’s. reason for us to travel to a meeting.” ABOVE: Cassie Shaban, a sophomore materials engineering major, holds a “Research universities like Berkeley, they cut back a The writing life away from Hollywood has devel- lot on their upper division labs, and if a student is going oped into a nice routine for the Peoples. fl ask for lab partner Ben Huston during a general chemistry laboratory class to get research or lab experience, they have to get into They live in a three-story house in Berkeley, with somebody’s research lab rather than the classroom, where on Wednesday. Huston, who recently Janice’s offi ce on the top fl oor and David’s on the here, the hands-on experience is built into the curriculum bottom. moved to San Jose from Texas, is an and the lab experiences here are very impressive,” he said. environmental studies graduate student. see SCREENWRITERS page 4 Sneary said that students write back to tell him their , fi rst year of medical school was relatively easy. RIGHT: In an empty hallway in front of a “Our strong students get in, they’re very competitive, chemistry laboratory Wednesday, Chris- and boy, once they get in, they shine,” he said. tina Hoang studies her chemistry book. Sneary believed the reason SJSU wasn’t getting the Business students Hoang, a sophomore biology major, publicity it deserved was because it was overshadowed by hopes to enter pharmacy school after schools like Berkeley and Stanford. advance in completing her bachelor’s degree. “That’s OK,” he said. “We do our job.” HR competition Football coach By John Kim Decisions, decisions ... Daily Staff Writer honored for strong A team of San Jose State University human resources students has advanced to the regionals of the Human Resources Collegiate Competition, an annual, academic push nationwide, Jeopardy-style competition sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management that By Maria Villalobos tests contestants about the subject of human resources. The team is made up of undergraduates belonging to Daily Staff Writer the Human Resources Management Association. The event will be held in Portland, Ore., on April 2 Every year, the honor society Phi Kappa Phi selects and 3, and the winning teams will go on to the national an outstanding faculty or staff member who it thinks competition. goes above and beyond in encouraging education. The SJSU team advanced to the regional round by Phi Kappa Phi initiated football coach Fitz Hill coming in fi rst place in the fi rst round, a competition on March 5 for promoting a strong commitment to among CSU schools. Eight schools entered that com- academics. petition, which was held in Pomona on Feb. 28: SJSU, “Coach Hill is a great man. I encouraged it,” said Fresno State, Cal State Stanislaus, Cal Poly Pomona, Gus Lease, lecturer and president of the San Jose State Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Los Angeles, Cal University honor society chapter. “It’s good to have State Chico and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. someone of his caliber, especially here on campus.” According to Veronika Morley, the president of Lease said he admires Fitz for pushing the books and the Human Resources Management Association and for helping young men try to achieve their goals. a member of the winning team, it is the fi rst time “A lot of coaches don’t care if players don’t achieve,” SJSU has won the fi rst round of the competition in Lease said.