COMMENTARY A & E Bay Area NFL ʻThe Americanʼ season previews is an acquired taste SEE PAGE 6 SEE PAGE 5 INSIDE Serving San José State University since 1934 NEWS • Professor’s love of nature Thursday, September 9, 2010 spartandaily.com Volume 135, Issue 6 fuels her passion for studying the starry unknown 2 • King Library revamps website 2 • Associated Students Budget cuts Play it again, San José! inducts new members 3 • High school test designed to give students an impede edge 3 • Students favor late morn- PHOTO: ing classes 4 A&E transfer • Mosaic hosts semester’s HUME KEVIN fi rst poetry reading 5 • ‘The American’ is good, prospects but not in the way you’d expect 5 | SPARTAN DAILY | SPARTAN SPORTS KELSEY HILARIO • New talent boosts 49ers Staff Writer chances 6 • Campbell brings hope to Budget cuts and impacted majors are making Raiders in 2010 6 it tough for students trying to transfer to SJSU, according to the university website. OPINION Admission to SJSU from another college is • NFL players should man based on several factors — GPA, choice of ma- up 7 jor, units taken and the location of the college • Content with the student is transferring from, according to awkwardness 7 the SJSU website, and the majority of majors re- • Facebook got me fi red quire an average of a 2.6 cumulative GPA based 7 on all transferable courses taken at the time of FEATURE application. Ricardo Jimenez, a senior justice studies ma- • Ivory keys invite passers-by 8 jor, said he was able to transfer to SJSU from to play the College of San Mateo after only two years. He credits this to only taking courses that were ONLINE transferable to SJSU. “It was actually kind of easy,” he said. “I al- AUDIO ways went to my counselors meeting and stuff and my advisers meeting so they actually point- SLIDESHOW ed me in the right direction.” • Pianos off er outlets for Because of budget constraints, SJSU is cur- students’ creativity news.sjsu.edu rently accepting only upper-division students for Fall 2011, according to the website. SOCIAL Thesis students must have 60 transferable MMEDIAEDIA semester units or 90 quarter units, 30 semester Become a fan units of general education or 45 quarter units, on Facebook good standing with their last college and com- facebook.com/ pletion of four basic skills courses by Spring spartandaily 2011, according to the website. FollowF our Senior photo major Stephanie Adams said tweetsttw on she transferred from Diablo Valley College, and TwitterT had to submit her request for a transfer three JUAN FLORES, A SENIOR HEALTH SCIENCE MAJOR, PLAYS A PIANO ON SEPT. 8 IN @spartandaily@ times, since SJSU lost her first two requests. FRONT OF THE DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. LIBRARY. THE PIANO IS ONE OF 20 “Make copies of everything,” she said. “Don’t THAT DECORATE DOWNTOWN AS PART OF THE SAN JOSE 2010 BIENNIAL PROJECT. OUTSIDE See TRANSFERS Page 4 See PAGE 8 for the full story Students supplied with assorted snacks High: 71° in store ‘Just Below’ MacQuarrie Hall Low: 53° KENNY MARTIN according to its hours of operation. Good’ chips sell a lot,” she stated. Staff Writer Nolyda Tep, a senior computer en- “People buy chips for a snack or PHOTO: gineering major, said she hasn’t been alongside their sandwiches, so those A new store opened on campus a frequent customer of Just Below, brands and products go the fastest.” this past June to fi ll the gap created but has a favorable opinion of it. Yehlen Corpuz, a junior business HUSAIN SUMRA SUMRA HUSAIN when restaurants closed as a result of “It’s great,” Tep said. “I wish it management major, said she spent construction on the Student Union, were closer to the Engineering build- a lot more time at the old Spartan said the senior director of retail ser- ing. I’d be broke, though.” Shops location in the Student Union, vices for Spartan Shops. Senior engineering major Arnold although that was partly because she While there is no longer a Burger Bajet said he also wishes the shops worked there during her freshman King, Market Pizza or Market Cafe, were in a more central location. year. students can now visit Just Below, “I don’t go [to Just Below] oft en “I liked the other one because it | SPARTAN DAILY | SPARTAN found on the fi rst fl oor of MacQuar- because my classes aren’t near Mac- had more food choices,” she said. rie Hall, Jeff Pauley said. Quarrie Hall,” he said. “It looks im- Pauley said most of the people Th ere they will fi nd a Peet’s Cof- pressive, though. It’s more authen- who worked at Spartan Shops’ previ- fee, a Jamba Juice, a sandwich shop tic.” ous location are now employed at the and a breakfast station, which pri- Pauley said the reason MacQuar- food court inside the Student Union. marily off ers bagels. rie Hall was chosen as the site of the Kushal Vora, a graduate student In addition, there are shelves of new eatery was because of simplicity. in science computer engineering, food items for sale, representing a “Th ere was space on the fi rst fl oor,” said he has walked past Just Below a selection similar to what is found in he said. “Spartan Shops needed to re- couple of times while exploring the the Village Market in Campus Village locate. It was an easier project than campus. Building B, such as juices and bags building from scratch on open land.” “It looked very busy, and that is of chips and an assortment of other Melissa Newman, who works as what gained my att ention,” he said. “I snacks. a student lead for both the deli and defi nitely plan to go there.” Just Below is open Monday Peet’s Coff ee at Just Below, stated in Th e name “Just Below” doesn’t JUNIOR HOSPITALITY MAJOR LAUREN WELCH POINTS OUT A through Th ursday from 7 a.m. to 10 an e-mail that more than 1,000 peo- have any special meaning, said Pau- BEVERAGE TO HER FRIEND AT “JUST BELOW” ON SEPT. 8. p.m., and Fridays from 7 a.m. to 6 ple visit Just Below on a daily basis. ley, other than that the store is located p.m, but are closed on the weekends, “Kett le chips or ‘Food Should be on the fi rst fl oor of MacQuarrie Hall. 2 NEWS Thursday, September 9, 2010 Professor’s love of nature fuels her passion for studying the starry unknown AIMEE MCLENDON PHOTO COURTESY OF: COURTESY PHOTO Staff Writer istics they are looking for, such as water “It’s an hour-and-a-half that I don’t in liquid form, which is required for life have to think about anything except on Earth. for what my body is doing,” she said. When Natalie Batalha heads out for While the mother of four works 14- “Th ere’s no room for anything else be- a jog, the sky twilight blue, she drinks hour days analyzing data from the satel- sides thinking about the precision of in the aroma of apple blossoms as she lite telescope orbiting the sun, she said my body and its movements.” runs toward the river. she is torn about not having enough Th at outlet provides a small respite And as she looks up at the expanse time to teach at SJSU this semester. from the demands of the NASA mis- of stars and the crescent moon she is in Although her blood, sweat and tears sion, which recently released new dis- awe. are now thrott led into the Kepler Mis- coveries on the Kepler website, based Th at is where the physics and as- sion full time, Batalha said her heart re- on the fi rst 43 days of the mission. BATALHA NATALIE tronomy professor from SJSU said she mains at SJSU. According to Batalha and the Kepler- began her journey to the stars, which “It’s not uncommon to walk in NASA website, the discoveries include led her all the way to NASA. her offi ce and see fi ve or six students 706 stars with candidate exoplanets As the deputy science team leader around her desk working a problem,” and six confi rmed planetary systems, for NASA’s Kepler Mission, Batalha said Michael Kaufman, an astronomy one of which has two transiting planets said her love and intense reverence for and physics professor at SJSU. orbiting the same star. nature is the wellspring from which she “Th is is very intense,” said Steve draws inspiration for her work. Bryson, a scientist and colleague on “I think scientists are similar to art- the Kepler Mission. “We are all deeply ists in creativity,” she said. “Th ey draw in this project and spend as much time from the same source.” as possible on it, but she is very much Her love for nature coupled with her To know you at the forefront and she is very careful passion for space exploration served as about her research.” a catalyst for her work on the Kepler are“ here on Bryson said Batalha works just as Mission — which she said is a search this earth to hard to prove there aren’t exoplanets as for the frequency of Earth-sized plan- she does to prove there are. ets in and near the habitable zone, she do something He said it’s important to the scien- said. that impacts tifi c mission that she does both, and he Th e habitable zone is the “sweet commends her integrity.