Volume 149, Issue 1 www.sjsunews.com/spartan_daily Wednesday, August 23, 2017 SPARTAN DAILY SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934 ARTIST EXPLORES NXT TAKES #spartanpolls CHILDLIKE OVER SJSU SPIRIT See full story Should eSports be considered See full story on page 8 a real sport? on page 5 FOLLOW US! /spartandaily @SpartanDaily @spartandaily /spartandailyYT COLLEGE OF EDUCATION Professor guilty of sexual harassment returns BY ISABELLE THAM from 2015. However, Harris said these claims were Managing Editor unsubstantiated due to lack of evidence, allowing him to return to SJSU. San Jose State professor Lewis Aptekar, who was put Students or employees who make claims of harassment on paid leave last year after being found guilty of sexual are protected by Title IX, a federal law that prohibits harassment by the university, has returned to teach two educational institutions that receive federal funding from classes this semester. discriminating on the basis of gender. Media Relations Director Pat Harris said that Aptekar “Dr. Aptekar’s experience demonstrates that Title IX stepped down as chair of the Counseling Education complaints must be taken seriously, be performed in department after allegations from 2015 surfaced. an ethical and complete manner, with a competent and He was also suspended for two weeks without pay and neutral investigator,” Aptekar’s lawyer Elisa Stewart said underwent diversity training, she added. in a statement. “The professor was placed on paid administrative leave Harris said Aptekar is taking a reduced workload in COURTESY OF FACEBOOK during an extensive, months-long inquiry that included his progress towards retirement. Class listings show that Counseling Education professor Lewis Aptekar will teach multiple interviews and a careful examination of relevant Aptekar is teaching classes on trauma counseling and two classes this semester. One is on trauma counseling. records,” Harris said in a statement. research in education. According to The Mercury News, it was not until nearly “I guess the most polite thing to say that it’s ironic,” said Education counseling graduate student Valerie Lamb fi ve months after the investigation that Aptekar stepped education counseling graduate student Celina Cesena on added that she was disappointed – not just by Aptekar’s down from his appointment as chair. Aptekar teaching a class on trauma counseling. “It’s kind return, but in the university as well. Additional allegations accusing Aptekar of sexual of inappropriate, but there’s some twisted humor behind harassment in 2014 appeared after the fi rst fi ndings that on some level.” CONTROVERSY | Page 2 CONSTRUCTION CAMPUS LIVING SJSU adds library Student housing crisis continues suicide barriers Mexican-American studies graduate student Angela Iraheta. BY ELIZABETH Some students on campus Iraheta says she chooses instead to drive an hour RODRIGUEZ & have their own opinions on and a half from Stockton three to four times a week. SATVIR SAINI whether installing the barriers “Trying to fi nish a program and getting a full-time News Editor & A&E Editor is a good move by the university job, I’d rather just avoid that confl ict.” Iraheta said. and the city. According to housing department offi cials, there are The Martin Luther King “I do think it’s a great idea to 2,500 new students living on campus this semester. Jr. Library at San Jose State build barriers because we need When combined with returning residents, this number University has been going to save lives,” health science climbs to just under 4,200. Put into perspective, when through safety renovations this sophomore Zariah Walker said. considering the 32,000 student population, 27,800 summer. After two suicides Once construction is fi nished, students are left to choose between commuting or occurring within 13 months glass barriers will cover the SARAH KLIEVES | SPARTAN DAILY looking for local housing. of each other, SJSU president atrium from the second fl oor With some help, a student moves a few of her According to The Mercury News, this summer Mary Papazian and city all the way to the seventh fl oor. belongings into Campus Village C. SJSU notifi ed over 600 students that not enough leaders decided it was time to The new changes are meant to space was available in the dorms. One hundred and BY TREVIN SMITH add glass covers through the prevent suicide. eighteen of these students are freshmen who were Production Editor atrium of the library. Another similar project that initially required to live on campus, because they In February of this year, the will have a suicide barrier is As over-packed cars crawl towards San Jose State lived out of the thirty mile radius. second suicide of the two was the Golden Gate Bridge, which University’s residence halls before the commencement “I know a lot of students have looked at off campus by a 26-year-old photographer has been criticized since some of another fall semester, the most American of scenes housing,” said University Housing Senior Associate who jumped from the seventh San Francisco residents think unfolds as nervous moms and dads unload their Director Matthew Rees. “For us, we have on our fl oor railing. Following the it will take away from the children’s things on San Salvador Street. website a list of off campus housing resources. But suicide, the library was closed aesthetic of the architecture. For these young Spartans, locating housing in the obviously the priority is making sure that we get to the university and the public “I don’t think it’s gonna middle of the largest populated city in the Bay Area residents on campus because we know for the folks for the remainder of the day. It take from the beauty at all,” is a burden that they will not have to worry about this that contract with us or apply for housing, that’s their reopened the following day. undeclared sophomore Janita coming semester. However, for the remaining student fi rst choice.” Blach Construction is Kumar said. “I feel like that’s body, it can be a tough process that brings fi nancial Rees has worked at SJSU for a decade and has currently working on building not even a question that should worries during a frantic search to fi nd a home before said that each year has brought growing numbers the glass barriers and is be asked — ‘How the library is school starts. of students as well as residents living on campus expecting to be fi nished by gonna look?’ I think it’s more “It was really expensive to fi nd housing and just longer. To combat this, he says that the department is early September, as the fall of the fact that it’s saving lives at the time I only had a part-time job doing retail, semester begins. The total cost than making the library look so obviously I can’t afford a thousand dollars,” said WELCOME HOME | Page 2 for this project is $2.6 million, worse or better.” which is being divided between The library is known for its the city of San Jose and the university, according to NBC. LIBRARY | Page 2 THIS DAY IN SJSU HISTORY August 23, 2007 Faculty receives a raise The California Faculty Association and the California State University board of trustees negotiated an agreement for a 22.23 salary increase for three years. Olympic Athletes visit SJSU The United State Olympic Committee and San Jose State administration along with former San Jose city mayor Chuck Reed announced that Olympic gold medalist Lebron James and Michael Phelps would visit campus before the 2008 summer games. SJSU ranks eighth best in the west Both US News and World Report announced that San Jose State is the top eighth university in the west for ELIZABETH RODRIGUEZ | SPARTAN DAILY graduate and undergraduate students. Construction is currently underway in MLK library, which forces library goers to walk around the entrance to the escalators. INFOGRAPHIC BY NICOLE CHUNG | SPARTAN DAILY 2 NEWS Wednesday, August 23, 2017 LIBRARY Continued from page 1 large atrium and openness, but with the construction the space looks much smaller. SJSU Vice President of Administration and Finance, Charlie Faas, wants the look and feel of the atrium to be as present as possible. “We went through a lot of time and effort so that we’d have these safety railings fi t in with the design and architecture,” Faas said in a Mercury News interview. “We don’t want this to look like it’s an afterthought, a bolt-on.” Along with the new barrier, security will still be walking around all eight fl oors of the library to make sure everything and everyone is safe. “Honestly I feel like SJSU definitely should have done it a little sooner, however once one [a suicide] happens you always think it’s never CONTROVERSY going to happen again, so I understand why it took Continued from page 1 this long. I appreciate Cesena and Lamb did not become SJSU for like taking aware of Aptekar’s return to the program until a colleague mentioned precautions to make it that Aptekar’s name had replaced the safe for everyone.” initial instructor’s on the class schedule. Chinonye Onyea “We just have so many frustrations Public health sophomore right now,” Lamb said. “It’s a lot of frustrations in different directions, but all lead to the same thing: we don’t want him bac k on campus.” Both students have organized a sit-in With two suicides only 13 months apart to protest the professor’s return to the from each other, some question why it took campus. They hope the sit-in will act so long for the city and SJSU to add these as a message to the department and its new measures.