VOLLEYBALL OPINION Tigers devour Spartans Special appearance by former columnist Angelo Lanham SEE PAGE 5 SEE PAGE 6 INSIDE Serving San José State University since 1934 NEWS Wednesday, October 20, 2010 spartandaily.com Volume 135, Issue 28 • Student earns prestigious scholarship for life’s struggles, community service 2 • Career Center hosts information False fi re alarm causes session 2 • Workshop teaches how to end violent relationships 3 • CAMPUS VOICES: How do you feel about Music building evacuation SJSU’s recycling 3 program? JEN NOWELL & A&E REBECCA HENDERSON Staff Writer • Latest Belle and Sebastian album exceeds Th e fi re department was called expectations 4 to the Music building Tuesday • Happy hours off er at 3:30 p.m. aft er a choir director competitive 4 saw black smoke coming from the pricing vents in her offi ce. Th e University Police Depart- SPORTS ment received a call from the sec- • SJSU swept by ond fl oor of the Music building, Pacifi c 5 said Sgt. Manuel Aguayo, a public information offi cer for UPD. OPINION Teachers and students were • Find someone else to be 6 evacuated from the building when your lackey the fi re alarm went off , Aguayo • MTV’s ‘Teen Mom’ fails said. to show the whole picture 7 He said the call was about an • Former agent played it odor of something electrical burn- smart 7 ing in the building. • I guess hybrids aren’t Choir Director Charlene Ar- so bad 7 chibeque said she had just stepped out of her offi ce when two of her students told her there was black smoke coming in. ONLINE Freshman music major Manuel PHOTO: Rodriguez-Ruiz said he smelled the smoke right aft er Archibeque SOCIAL left her offi ce. “I looked up and you could see MEDIA FARNHAM DONOVAN black smoke coming through the FollowF our heating vents,” Archibeque said. tweetsttw on She said the smell was very TTwitter @spartandaily@ strong and it smelled like an elec- trical fi re. “It smelled like rott en marsh- mallows,” Rodriguez-Ruiz said. OUTSIDE “We could tell something was burning, but it was only coming | SPARTAN DAILY | SPARTAN from the choir room upstairs.” He said outside you couldn’t smell anything. “Th e alarms went off and we just sat there at fi rst, because we thought it was another drill,” said senior composition major Tristan Poratt i. High: 73° Firefi ghters descend a ladder after responding to a false fi re alarm at the SJSU Music building Tuesday. Low: 52° See FIRE Page 8 Building BB to be SJSU feminist organization demolished for to rally for Senator Boxer new development KELSEY HILARIO ing out fliers and putting out signs to McDonald said. Staff Writer remind students to vote on Nov. 2. The organization’s website gives KELSEY HILARIO been slammed with higher The Feminist Majority is a non- its own reasons as to why a person Staff Writer tuition due to budget cuts, Thirteen days remain until the No- profit organization that is funding the should vote for Boxer — she is pro- the cost of the building, vember elections, hopeful candidates statewide campaign on approximately choice, against off-shore drilling, a Building BB is living out $32,243,000, will be paid for are out in full force and SJSU students 50 campuses, McDonald said. leader in reducing emissions, a sup- the last of its days, according by students, Shum said. are joining the fight. “The Feminist Majority was found- porter of marriage equality and immi- to William Shum, the direc- Rishi Malik, a sophomore Several students have teamed up ed in 1987 and with the goal of pro- grant rights, and Sarah Palin endorses tor of planning design and management information with the Feminist Majority organiza- moting and achieving full economic, Boxer’s competitor, Carly Fiorina. construction for Facilities systems major, said it will be tion to help Sen. Barbara Boxer find political and social equality between Although the Feminist Majority is Development and Opera- sad to see Building BB de- success in her re-election campaign, men and women,” she said. “They most active during elections, McDon- tions. molished. said Feminist Majority representative won’t necessarily just endorse women ald said the organization is active year- According to CSU re- “I think that it could be Allie Mcdonald. candidates but candidates who sup- round and works to support bills, spe- cords, a new 47,208-square- useful,” he said. “But I don’t Senior psychology major Denisse port pro-women policies.” cial elections and any legislation that foot Student Health Center think with our budget situa- Mendez said she was recruited by the Boxer’s campaign website adver- they feel requires their endorsement. and counseling facility will tion we should be spending Feminist Majority to be a representa- tises her as a fierce advocate for wom- Bonnie Sugiyama, assistant direc- be built where Building BB that much money on tear- tive at SJSU and has already planned en’s rights, especially for women’s tor of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and currently stands, with con- ing down and rebuilding the events for the weeks before the elec- health — improving health services Transgender Resource Center and struction to commence in new building.” tion. for women in the military, furthering the Women’s Resource Center, said 2011 and completion set for The bill to build the new “We are going to be tabling next breast cancer research and protecting she does not support specific candi- 2013. health center was passed week Tuesday, Wednesday and Thurs- a woman’s right to choose. dates but does approve of students The most comparable three to four years ago day outside of the Student Union as In the past the Feminist Major- becoming involved in the election building in size on campus is through the Associated Stu- well as next Wednesday evening we ity played an active role in support- process. the Business Tower, accord- dents elections and students are going to be showing a pro-choice ing health care reform and making “We want people to be able to ing to SJSU records. film,” she said. sure that women are treated equal- Although students have See BB Page 8 Mendez said they will also be hand- ly when it comes to health care, See BOXER Page 2 2 NEWS Wednesday, October 20, 2010 Student earns prestigious scholarship for life’s struggles, community service REBECCA HENDERSON the Career Center, said Johnson is is already grown and the time to he was so young and his dad not else to recognize how much he’s Staff Writer a really friendly person and nice to make things happen is now. always being present with him,” achieved and how much he’s over- talk to. “He’s very tenacious,” said his Semien said. “So with the loneliness come,” Becerra said. “It could have An SJSU graduate student in “When he talks to students he’s uncle Stephen Semien. “When he and diffi culties that puts in a child’s been easy for him to just go a dif- education received a scholarship very helpful and professional,” said heart, I think as an adult he wants ferent road completely because he’s which is given out annually to stu- Silvas, a junior animation illustra- to see to it that other children don’t had a lot of things go wrong in his dents who have faced personal tion major. have to go through that.” life when he was a young kid and hardships, have commendable Since the age of 21, Johnson said When his mother was sick, John- he’s really persevered.” community service and signifi cant he had been doing work in counsel- What son said he would fantasize a lot, Semien said his nephew is not personal achievements, according ing at group homes and an agency matters something he continues to do today the type to toot his own horn. to the CSU website. aft er his cousin persuaded him to “is the when under stress. “I have gott en in the habit of not “I can be dishonest and say I get into it. “I just wanted my mind to go trying to feel or seem like that kid had the average upbringing and try Aft er a six-year break from choices I somewhere else,” Johnson said. who was without,” Johnson said. to pretend I’m just like everyone school and feeling stuck working at make now, He said the diffi culties he’s faced Semien was amazed by his neph- else, but that’s not the truth,” said the agency, Johnson said he decided in his life are mere moments in time, ew — not because he felt Johnson Gerard Johnson, who won about to go back to school. what type but they are not the things he thinks couldn’t do it, but because he did it $3,000 from the William Randolph “I needed to get a job and in or- of man I of when thinking of his childhood. and did not make a big thing about Hearst/California State University der for me not to feel stuck, I need “Looking at where I come from it. Trustees’ Award. to get a master’s degree,” he said. am now and where I am now makes me ap- “I think his dedication is as- Johnson said he grew up in Fres- Johnson said he is currently con- and how I preciate myself, or the people who tonishing because it’s based on a no as an only child and turned to his centrating in counseling and people have helped me at least,” Johnson selfl essness and a very positive re- mother for inspiration because she personnel services.