Thursday, Volume 154 May 7, 2020 No. 43 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY A&E Science & Editor’s note: Tech Blood-curdling Spartan set for grad horror genre gets The Spartan Daily will resume school after winning reimagined publication on August 19. NSF fellowship Page 2 Page 4 COVID-19 Students locked into leases 27 North apartment residents lobby management for contract terminations during pandemic By Vicente Vera werere payment plans,” Kaur said lobby the apartment complex management personnel told them to SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR fromm her home in Manteca. to let students cancel their stop commenting. “We’reWe’re going back and lease contracts. “We were commenting, like, ‘Hey, forthth . and then The petition has more don’t forget about your currentcurren residents.’ Some San Jose State students felt the theyey said, ‘We’re not than 740 signatures as of Like, ‘Hey can you communcommunicate with weight of paying rent in the fall lifted workingrking on anything publication date. us?’ and they deleted all of those,”th Kaur off their shoulders when the university else,’e,’ and that’s kind “We never saw that said. “It just shows, they dondon’t want the transitioned to classes online for the of wwherehere itit waswas the pandemic [was concerns of their current resiresidents to go rest of 2020 to accommodate for social like,e, ‘Wow.’ ” coming],” she said. “You out in public.” distancing guidelines. The only other know, like, the over 22 Through more outreach on social Since mid-March, many students optiontion was for the million unemployment? media platforms like WildfireWildfi and the living in off-campus housing around sistersters to find a new All of that was SAMMY app, Kaur and otheroth tenants the university have moved back tenantant to take over their unforeseen when we first organized a group chat of about home to continue classes remotely. leasese for the two signed the contract.” 20 people, galvanized to reachreac out and Many of those students have chosen monthsonths llefteft on As Kaur’s negotiate with 27 North management.mana not to renew their lease agreements, but theirir contract, petition gained Kaur saisaidd thethe latestlatest cconference others are finding it difficult butt ththatat tractiontraction,, call with 27 North in late April to cancel their contracts with incurscurs she was unproductive. off-campus buildings. said She said their concerns arearen’t limited On March 22, SJSU pledged she to lease agreements and superfluouss to refund 42% of the semester’s was apartmentapartment fees. rent to students who left During the Zoom call, Kaur said university-owned housing she and other tenants alsoa asked by March 30, a rent the landlords if they had adopted refund that students said no other a screening process for new tenants to off-campus housing facility has ensure those with COVID-19 symptoms implemented so far. do not enter the buildinbuilding.g. “I know some leases are different, “We were told that thoseth were but in my case the person I pass just like our fears and concerns on the lease gives me back my and that no one else hhas really [$450] deposit I originally paid for,” raised those concerns,” KauKaur said. “At biology junior Cecilia Rios Del Rio said one point in the conversationconvers [the in a text message. “So that’s one of landlords] mentioned how as long as a the main reasons to try and find person is healthy and fit we someone to take over my lease, which don’t really have to worrywo about is really hard considering everything contracting it. Which was kind of going on.” shocking to be honest.” Some students said they are leaving Because they did notn find their apartments, but face dilemmas significantnificant contactecontactedd 27 North’s offers satisfying, Kaur said in trying to free themselves of legally- costssts of its by another she and her newfound tenants’tenants collective binding leases. own.n. resident are looking for legal routes to address “Looking for a female to take over Once of 27 North. their grievances. my lease from May-July,” microbiology thee Kaurs “Someone Going from only havingha her sophomore Sanika Samel wrote andd Samel actually reached sister by her side to morem than in a post on the SAMMY app. “You can findd someonesomeone toto [out] to me on Instagram 700 signatures on their continue into the school year if you takeke ooverver ththeireir asking if I started a Change.org ppetition, want. [Direct message] me if interested, respectivepective 27 North petition and then Kaur said she finds solace iin knowing looking for a replacement ASAP.” leasese agreements, from there, she was she helped provide a platform for other Samel is a resident of 27 North, theyy must pay a $750 actually in a group of tenants to lobby 27 North. an apartment complex located at “reassignmentassignment fee.” residents who all had “It’s unfair to make us pay when North 6th Street and East Santa Clara “Obviously it’s the same concerns,” s we’re not even occupying our bed Street, just two blocks away from SJSU. goingng to be hard to he said. “So I was spaces for a good reason,”reaso Samel She said she wants to move back findd someone to taketake adaddedded in.”in.” said. “Dorms and apartmentsapartmen should home because of the troubling overer at a time likelike thisthis The group of tenants understandunderstand aandnd let us canccancelel our lease.” concentration of coronavirus cases in especially,”pecially,” Samel said. began leaving comments San Jose and because she no longer has Even if Samel could detailing their grievances on-campus classes. findd someone to take on Instagram posts from Follow Vicente on Twitter This is the case for many 27 North herr lease tomorrowtomorrow,, 27 NorthNorth,, but Kaur said @VicenteSJSU@Vic residents who are struggling to get out shee said she is the comments were NGUYEN F LSEA LEIGE of their leases. worriedrried about losing swiftly deleted CHE BY N 27 North sells apartments on herr security deposit and that IO AT TR a bed-by-bed basis. This means that afterer her landlord S U L IL individuals are not responsible for inspectspects the apartment ; M O covering their roommate’s rent if they – an additional C . T decide to leave. $75050 loss. C E J Over a Zoom call, political science “I do O R P senior Baljit Kaur said when she knownow N U O and her sister spoke with 27 North there’sere’s N E H management personnel, they were nothingthing that T M unwilling to let the sisters cancel their seriousious in the apartment and I’m O R F leases even though they no longer worriedrried they’re going to overcharge us,” S R O T occupied the residence. Samelmel said. C E 27 North representatives did not After Baljit Kaur encountered V respond to a request for comment by otherher disgruntled 27 North residents, publication date. suchch as Samel, she and her sister “The only thing they were offering startedrted a petition on Change.org to sjsunews.com/spartan_daily 2 THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2020 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT w ILLUSTRATION BY NATHAN DOYLE NATHAN BY ILLUSTRATION A new era of hair-raising horror By Chris Padilla · Staff Writer Although horror movies and social commentary usually took the form with professionally-made play out like television evoke powerful emotion and on racism. of anthologies like “The horror shorts and series. for your ears, you can have always played an integral “Get Out” succeeded in Twilight Zone” and “The Episodes of Crypt TV listen to podcasts like role in entertainment, the showing that horror isn’t Outer Limits,” or are series are shorter than an “The Magnus Archives,” genre lacked legitimacy. just about gore and scares, aimed at younger viewers average TV show, but the “Deadly Manners” or Historically, hackneyed but can be cerebral just like the aptly-named scares it provides are no “Alice Isn’t Dead” horror films were released like any other film genre. “Eerie, Indiana” or the less potent. Anthologies are perhaps with little regard to quality, Later in 2017, a film campy “Goosebumps.” Crypt TV also has the most common type so they were often ridiculed adaptation of Stephen Sure, shows with a stable of horrifying of horror podcasts, like as unrefined by tastemakers King’s “It” made more than horror trappings are aired monsters that they’re “The NoSleep Podcast,” a and audiences. a $100 million on its box every once and awhile trying to make into a polished audio experience However, horror has office opening, releasing like “Buffy the Vampire nightmare version of often drawing from the experienced a renaissance in in the more profitable Slayer” with its vampires “The Avengers.” subreddit of the same recent years – a trend that will month of September and and demons or “Charmed” Traditional television name or “Creepy,” which most likely continue thanks to rocketing Pennywise back with its witches, but they isn’t willing to be left in is a collection of internet an influx of new talent, as well into everyone’s nightmares were usually seen as the dust either. While horror stories known as the sheer volume of titles thanks to Bill Skarsgård’s drama stories rather than “The Walking Dead” may as Creepypasta. across all media platforms. eerie performance. true horror. be starting to drag, newer Horror podcasts aren’t This new wave of quality Since then, horror Of course, serialized series like “NOS4A2” afraid to play with the horror will likely pave the way movies are treated more TV shows have delivered on AMC and “Lovecraft format either, with medium- for a wider respect of the genre fairly by Hollywood genuine horror stories, Country” on HBO ensure bending shows like “5 Week and some new classics to tingle studios, fans and critics.