volume 75 // issue 2
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THE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT RUN NEWSPAPER SEPTEMBER 8 - SEPTEMBER 14, 2015VOLUME 75 // ISSUE 2
SINCE 1979
In this issue:
Sports: Women’s Volleyball defends title in Hawaii. See Pg. 11
Opinion: Is our campus safe? Pg. 3
A&E: New photography displayed in University Art Gallery. Pg. 6
Student Life: New app rivals Google Docs and Snapchat. Pg. 9
Follow The STAR: @sonomastatestar @sonomastatestar /sonomastatestar Visit: sonomastatestar.com
STAR // Connor Gibson
Sonoma State University junior TJ Perez breaks away from his defenders in this weekend home openers for men’s soccer against Simon Fraser University and Fresno Pacific. The men’s soccer team remains undefeated with a 2-0-0 record.
Men’s soccer begins season undefeatedSee the full story on page 10
Associated Students looking to fill open
positionsAnnA Kehrlein
Staff Writer
Following last spring’s Associated Students election, newly-elected
student representatives were tasked with the job of filling the vacant positions of execu-tive vice president, School of Business Senator and School of Education Senator for which no student ran for.
Appointed at the end of the spring semester, Kate Chavez, political science ma-jor, serves as executive vice president. Whether Associ-ated Students will find any nominees for the remaining vacant seats remains un-known.
The current Executive Vice President was elected through an appointment pro-cess, involving an open ap-plication for all students on campus with advertisements urging students to apply on-line during the two-week ap-plication window. A commit-tee consisting of Associated Students President Mercer, the Vice President of Finance and several other Associated Students representatives re-viewed the resumes and de-cided on a candidate, to be nominated by the President and approved by the Associ-ated Students Senate.
Some students think that the reason for multiple vacant positions may be pinned on a lack of enthusiasm in student government by the Sonoma State students, Mercer be-lieves that isn’t the case. Ac-cording to Mercer, while the number of candidates de-creased, voting participation is as strong as ever.
“It’s just a fluke this year that isn’t going to be repeated in the next couple years. It’s just an anomaly issue,” said Mercer.
However, the views of the students don’t necessar-ily match the views of the student government. When asked for his opinion on As-sociated Students, sophomore Danny Avery said, “I didn’t even know that they existed.”
On the other hand, many incoming freshman expressed excitement to see such an active student body and an eagerness to get in-volved. Many of these stu-dents had fond memories of leadership and student
government in high school, invigorating a passion for student government that they wish to carry through col-lege.
“I went to the student government meeting and ASP meeting and am look-ing to get involved,” said Freshman Carly Solberg who served class president of her high school. “The student government seemed very, very, active – a lot more ac-tive than high school.”
According to Mercer, Chavez stood out as a can-didate due to her previous experience on the Executive Board of her Sorority and with Sonoma State’s Lobby Corps.
In addition, she has been a part of several political campaigns, and according to Mercer, boasts a calm, yet in-novative attitude.
The two other vacant seats, the School of Business Senator and the School of Ed-ucation Senator, are expected be addressed in a similar fashion, with the same open application process as before. Any student can apply for these positions as of Sept. 2.
The only difference is that the internal affairs com-mittee run by the Chair of the Senate will appoint the nomi-nee rather than the president. Whether this process will be as successful as the Execu-tive Vice President election process remains in the hands of the students and how many decide to apply.
Associated Students plans to avoid another drop in participation through their invigoration campaign: “make bold changes.” This campaign involves focusing on making huge impacts on students, such as reducing the price of student parking pass-es and reevaluating how the Green Music Center should get funded.
“I think we’re going to see this first semester, how [the campaign] grapples with students,” said Mercer. “But so far, my emails been blow-ing up the last few days with students that want to get in-volved, students that are see-ing the Associated Students in a different light this semes-ter and they want to be part of it.”
To apply for the vacant positions, students can visit orgsync.com/116121/chapter.
University District to bring residential, commercial developments
Joseph encinAs
Staff Writer
Canadian powerhouse Brookfield Residential has entered phase one of the
new Rohnert Park housing devel-opments known as the University District. The 300-acre district lies across the street from the Green Music Center, hugging the streets of Rohnert Park Expressway and Petaluma Hill Road.
“Phase one [of the district] consists of 399 units that are of-ficially under construction and are expected to take two to five years,” said Mary Grace Pawson, acting development services di-rector of Rohnert Park.
These new housing develop-ments will serve the large popula-tion of Rohnert Park. According to the general plan released by the city, from the year 1965 to 1999, the population grew from 4,412 to 41,000 people.
“In the 1990s, it was a huge question as to how big Rohnert Park would grow to be,” said Rohnert Park City Councilmem-ber Jake Mackenzie. “This [Uni-versity District] is how Rohnert Park would meet population re-
quirements.”Since then, the Rohnert Park
area has experienced a period of population stability with a current population of 41,398. Brookfield Residential, based out of Calgary, a metropolitan city in Alberta, Canada, first presented the pro-posal to the city in 2006. The plan was approved, but the project was delayed due to a stunted economic system that is starting to see pro-gression since the days of the re-cession.
Now that the project has the green light, Sonoma State Uni-versity President Ruben Armi-ñana said, “It seems to be moving quickly and efficiently after many years of having stalled due to the lackluster economy.”
More issues that concerned the City Council involved water usage and if developing such a large community was practical with the resources available.
“The developer incorporated a significant amount of water conservation technology, which aligns with the mentality of the surrounding community,” said Pawson.
Very similar to Sonoma State, which lies directly across the street from the new developments,
water conservation remains a top priority for developers and city planners alike, especially due to the drought in California.
This master-planned commu-nity consists of 12 neighborhoods with varying living styles in-cluding single family homes and townhouses. These new homes will reflect the influence of its sur-rounding area; the impact of the local music, art, and education all go into the recipe that will create the vision that is the University District.
Creating homes for the citi-zens of Rohnert Park is an obvious benefit to the local community, but Sonoma State can also expect positive return from having new neighbors. Students will have the option to live in the district, but the price will be known closer to the opening of the community. It is rumored that a hotel will occu-py a portion of the available com-mercial space.
“There is the possibility in the future of a hotel which could be accessed by parents and stu-dents visiting campus, especially around commencement,” said Armiñana, “The [University-
See CONSTRUCTION on Pg. 4
Recreation Center remodel to be completed this week
STAR // Kaila Sanders
Sonoma State University’s Recreation Center remodel is scheduled to be finished Sept. 10.
Aubrey Anzelmo
Staff Writer
Sonoma State University’s Rec-reation Center is currently be-ing remodeled, however, the
student body can look forward to the end of the renovation. The Rec Cen-ter, which opened in 2004, was in much need of a new floor, particular-ly in the Fitness Center - otherwise known as the open weight room. The floors of the weight room were start-ing to become unsafe due to 11 years of continuous use. According to Rec Center staff, the flooring was begin-
ning to form bubbles due to the large number of weights being repeatedly dropped.
Peter Neville, director of the Campus Recreation Center said the goal of the project is to provide users with a functional and safe physical environment.
“The project was originally slated for summer, but unanticipated delays occurred [so the process be-gan in early August],” said Neville, in regard to the delay of the remodel. “The fitness center will reopen the evening of Sept. 10.”
Neville also stated the front
desk area of the Fitness Center would be installed at a later date as a follow-up project.
Student employees of the Rec Center have been trained to accom-modate the needs and requests of the guests of the facility.
“Reconstruction will enhance our facility in a positive way, and students and the public can look for-ward to new great floors in the open weight room, as well as possibly a couple of new pieces of equipment,” said Amber Vang, a campus -
See REMODEL on Pg. 5
Editorial Sep. 8 - Sep. 14, 2015page
SonomaStateStar.com2
Editorial Policy: The commentary expressed in the unsigned editorial represents a ma-
jority opinion of the STAR Editorial Board on a topic facing the campus community in keeping with journalistic precedents of other major news-papers, and may not be shared by all staff writers. The board encourages readers to write letters to the editor about all topics, including the editorial.
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THE STAREditorial Board
This week’s can’t miss article:
Editor’s Pick
PublicationThe STAR is published every Tuesday during the fall and spring
semesters. Printing is done by Sonoma Media Group. The weekly publication of the STAR is made possible by Instructionally Related Activities Funding.
OpinionsOpinions expressed in the STAR are those of the writer and not
necessarily those of the STAR or SSU. The editorial reflects the views of the STAR Editorial Board on issues it considers to be of particular relevance to the campus community.
Letters to the EditorLetter writers may expect prompt publication in the newspa-
per’s op-ed section, as space is available. Letters of up to 500 words will be allowed and must be submitted no later than the Friday before the publication date. Published letters must be free of libel, since the publication is held legally accountable for all con-tent. Although personal controversy will be tolerated, it is the re-sponsibility of the editor to check statements purporting the facts. The STAR reserves the right to refuse publication to any letter and to edit for length. Letters must sign all contributions and the editor must verify the signer and the writer are one in the same through personal conference. To send a letter to the editor email [email protected].
Brandon Stachnik, Editor-in-ChiefKayla E. Galloway, News EditorJenna Fischer, Opinion Editor
Ashley Mar tin, Ar ts & Enter tainment EditorShannon Brown, Student Life Editor
Kory Arnold, Spor ts EditorBrennan Chin, Photo Editor
Edward Goquingco, Copy EditorKyler Khan, Copy Editor & Marketing Director
Jalissa Tello, Adver tising DirectorConnor Gibson, Distribution Director
Eddie Blake, Editorial Car toonistPaul Gullixson, Faculty Adviser
Corrections/Clarifications
In a story titled “Fall semester brings changes to cam-
pus dining,” published in the Sept. 1 edition, it was inc-
corectly said that Charlie Brown’s Cafe will be offering an
evening menu featuring exclusive items this fall. It is in fact
Lobos that will be offering the evening menu, not Charlie
Brown’s Cafe.
“Men’s soccer off to a perfect start”
The beginning of the soccer season brought the Sonoma State University men’s team two victories at home. Sports writer Aubrie Tolliver writes on the two games with brilliant play-by-play reporting.
Read the story on page 10
Have an opinion?We’d like to read it.
The STAR welcomes and encourages letters to the editor
and guest submissions. For more information, read the left
sidebar for our policies on editorials and letters to the editor.
E-mail all opinions [email protected]
Staff Writers
The University of Califor-nia system announced in July a plan to increase
the minimum wage of their employees to $15 an hour by Oct. 2017.
This plan will include pri-marily students who work more than 20 hours a week and contractors.
The UC system is Califor-nia’s third largest employer, only falling short of the Fed-eral and State Governments in California. If the UC system can do it, why can’t the Cali-fornia State University system?
Concerns of tuition or oth-er core expenses being raised after the new plan is imple-mented have been commu-nicated, but the UC has ex-plained that the funds to in-crease wages will come from some of the self-sustaining businesses within the system, such as bookstores and dining services.
“Through its education, research and public service missions, the University of California’s students, faculty and staff have made us into a world-renowned institution, and our community does not exist in a vacuum,” said UC President Janet Napolitano said in a prepared statement. How we support our workers and their families impacts Cal-ifornians who might never set
foot on one of our campuses.”The CSU system may not
be as large of an employer, but it certainly has an impact on California’s economy. Listed in the 2014/15 CSU revenue report was a $237.4 million budget increase for opera-tions, enrollment growth, and programs; in the fine print, employee compensation is in-cluded in operations.
So, if the UC system can do it on extra revenue alone, why can’t the CSU system do the same.
All California State Uni-versities have bookstores and a cafeteria; most campuses have even more. Sonoma State University, in particular, has two restaurants, two cafes, a cafeteria, a bookstore and the Green Music Center.
The Green Music Center often holds sold-out shows, and Lobo’s is a popular restau-rant. How hard would it be to redirect some of the revenue gained into employee wages? Even if the CSU as a whole can’t adopt a new system to raise wages, Sonoma State cer-tainly could.
By giving the employees higher wages, they are given more power in the local econ-omy. At $9 an hour, the current minimum wage in California, an employee working 20 hours a week would only make $720
a month before taxes. That doesn’t nearly cover average rent in Rohnert Park, let alone groceries.
Even though many em-ployees are students who live on campus and don’t pay a monthly rent, they still need to be able to have enough funds to cover books, food and any tuition that isn’t covered by fi-nancial aid or loans.
The average student will spend roughly $500 a semes-ter on books and anywhere between $3000 to $450 for tuition, depending on offered loans.
Even if the CSU just upper the wage to $12, $2 less than what the UC is doing, the em-ployees working 20 a week would be making $960 a month before taxes.
That extra $240 a month could make the difference in getting the essential needs for school.
It would boost employee moral and also be beneficial for the CSU system to follow in the UC’s footsteps with this new wage program. Tak-ing some of the revenue and putting it into the community would promote further eco-nomic growth.
It’s time the California State Universities step up to the plate and do what’s best for their employees.
If UC can raise wages, why not CSU?
Photographers
Megan Corcoran, Kaila Sanders
Aubrey Anzelmo, Natalie AroJustin Barrientos, Nikki BridgesThomas Call, Francisco Carbajal
Jerri Cohen, Sean CurzonSamuel Davis, Nicole Detmers
Christine Edwards, Joseph EncinasNoe Felix, Brendan Finn
Justin Freeman, Ryan Green Florencia Hasson, Olivia Hunt
Anna Kehrlein, Olivia LuccheseRachael Newman, Cassandra Owens
Lawrence Ricardo, Kayla SandersAubrie Tolliver
STAR // Eddie Blake
OpinionSep. 8 - Sep. 14, 2015 3SonomaStateStar.com
page
Francisco carbajal
Staff Writer
“Text me so I pick you up. I don’t want
you walking back to your dorm alone.” I heard this conversation from a couple of girls as I was walking to my car by the flagpole. While searching for my keys I thought to myself “What could be so scary about walking from the gym to Tuscany or Beau-jolais?” Maybe she’s just lazy. I’ve made that walk before and it’s not the worst. I shortly realized her fear was probably not because of the far walk or the ache from leg day at the gym but of what has happened in the last few weeks.
The Santa Rosa Junior College was recently the location of a violent rape in the middle of campus. The female victim was raped in the bathroom of Barnett Hall at about 9 p.m. by a masked man who pushed her in the restroom and assaulted her. He is still at large. Reading this news made me wonder about how prepared Sonoma State University is. We’re just a stone’s throw away from the junior college.
Barnett Hall in the SRJC is in the middle of
campus. It wasn’t a sec-tion of campus that was hidden or that there wasn’t much traffic. Joseph Cox, a sophomore who attends the SRJC campus spoke about Barnett Hall’s con-dition, especially at night. “There’s really no lights there, I had a class there last semester and it’s not lit up really. Honestly, it looks like the place a rape would happen,” said Cox.
I decided to check out the school website to see what we have prepared for sexual assaults and I saw many good helpful resources listed. Helpful Tips include “ Be aware of your surroundings, avoid isolated areas, avoid put-ting music headphones in both ears, and walk with purpose” What if the girl at JC was following these steps? There’s only so much a person can do against an attacker. Is the college at fault for not hav-ing lights shine through-out?
Luckily at Sonoma State we have emergency phones sprinkled around campus and we can call for escorts at any time we feel unsafe to walk some-where. But is that enough?
The United States De-partment of Justice report-ed “One in four college women report surviving rape or attempted rape at some point in their lifetime and 43 percent of rapes oc-cur between 6:00 p.m. and midnight.”
Reading these statis-tics is very alarming. If these attacks happen at night then lights brighten-ing up the campus should be everywhere. I went
out to go see how the Art Building looks like at night. Joseph Cox and Audrina Sablan, a senior, came along to compare Barnett to the Art Build-ing.
At first sight we no-ticed that there is only one emergency phone on the side closest to campus. Meaning if you aren’t on the path and you are at-tacked or need help, you need to get on the path by Carson to press the but-ton. Most of the other de-partments have more than one emergency phone and most are actually next to the building. As we parked, we saw that there is a sign saying the Cope-land Creek Path is closed from dusk to dawn which wasn’t there last year.
That path next to the building was completely unlit. We crossed paths with two students who were only visible because we were face to face with them. If there had been lights on that pathway we could’ve seen them ahead of time. Kristelle Pliez, a senior who sometimes works during finals at the Art Building till 3 a.m. by herself sees the lack of lighting and the only ad-
dition of the sign to be a lack of negligence by SSU “We (students) see this as a statement from the univer-sity saying that if you walk on that path after dark, it is your fault if you get at-tacked by someone who should not be occupying that space, and the school is not liable for your injury. It was very upsetting that the school is not willing to light that part of the path. Not only is there an entire department back there that stays unlit at night, it’s also a common path for stu-dents to use going to and from the GMC parking lot. It’s still just as unsafe as it was before with or without the sign,” said Pliez.
We walked around a bit more and saw some dark areas inside the stu-dio that were unlit or not bright enough just like the ones at Barnett Hall were. While we were in the park-ing lot I never saw a police officer car roam the area at all not even the parking lot.
SSU has great precau-tions for sexual assault and rape such as the emer-gency phones and many courses to educate its stu-dents. But there is a lot of room for improvement. A street lamp costs about $7000 or less including man hours according to PG&E. I’m sure SSU can find a way to get the costs to be lower. There simply isn’t an excuse. Do we have to wait to fix things after we become the head-line? Because I’m sure the ever changing colorful lights of the Green Music Center are not enough to light up the whole campus.
Fear of the dark, a reality for students
Florencia Hasson
Staff Writer
The United States prides itself in being a country that provides equal opportunities for all.
However, how can this be the case if the root to an equal opportunity begins with having an equal opportunity for a higher education, no matter what eco-nomic class one belongs to.
Public institutions should be among the best ranked in our country. According to Forbes 2015 top ranked universities in the country, the first public school to appear on the list is the Military Academy at eleventh and sadly, there aren’t many more public in-stitutions included on that list. Of those public schools, some of the cheapest tuitions are University of Wisconsin with an estimated total annual cost of $40,644 for out-of-state students. UC Berkeley, positioned in thirty fifth place, has an estimated total annual cost of $57,234 and $35,850 for out-of-state students tuition and $12,972 for in-state students.
Sadly, our country’s private schools are considered to be among the best but cost the same amount of mon-ey one could use for the down payment of a house. Stanford charges $60,749 (this includes $13,166 that is attributed to room and board) per year to both in and out-of-state students. This allows universities, or as I’d rather call them at this point: businesses, to be as selec-tive as they want.
Although institutions that have such a vast gross income, such as Stan-ford’s, have the opportunity to provide hefty financial aid to students in need, how can one not expect to be discour-aged when acceptance rates circle around 5.1 percent. This only makes one wonder if the 1 percent of Ameri-
cans that are attending these schools do so because they have earned their 5.1 percent chance of being there or if it’s thanks to Mommy and Daddy’s line of high end hotels in the Caribbean. If a university is going to be charging such an absurd amount per year then it’s only natural for them to want to ac-cept students based on their family’s income; is this fair?
At what point did we stop believ-ing that education should be free? When did we decide it was more im-portant to allocate 23.91 percent of our taxpayers dollars to our military and only 3.59 percent to our education? Having incredible public benefits for things such as health care and educa-tion is what will put us ahead as the ex-emplary society we strive to be.
Sonoma State charges $7,324 a year for in-state students. This excludes housing, of course, and not to mention all the other miscellaneous necessities people and students need to survive and thrive. Expensive books that, lets be honest, half of us don’t even end up reading, or opening for that matter. Food, gas, campus parking passes, stu-dent ID’s; Sonoma State charges more for a renewal of a student ID (for stu-dents living on campus) than the DMV does for a new license. The list goes on… and on top of all these fees, we are struggling with graduating on time due to largely impacted classes. Yet, some-how we’ve managed to accept the larg-est freshman class Sonoma State has ever had. Just more fuel to the fire, and more reason to argue universities have stopped being an educational center as their first priority, and have evidently made being a successful business their main concern. Students working for dining are being paid minimum wage, $9.00 an hour, even in our high-end restaurant, Prelude. There isn’t much incentive to work your hardest or do your best when the reward is a petty $9 dollars that later has to undergo taxes.
“People can’t afford school any-more, and there’s a big turnover rate because of that. So much stuff you have to deal with for such a low pay that you constantly see people filtering in and out, which doesn’t make for good busi-ness,” said Sam Hayman, a manager at Prelude.
The Green Music Center has brought a lot of prestige and impor-tance to our school, which in turn re-quires for it to be run in a manner equal to that. If students are being paid low wages, the service will reflect that, and that’s not the message we want to send out to the venues valued guests.
Our public universities are the same price as private universities in other countries. Shouldn’t education should be free because we all deserve the same opportunity? Of course it’s ir-rational to ask or expect a completely gratis education. However it should not be far fetched to expect to pay a tuition that corresponds to what one chooses to study. It only makes sense to charge more for a career that will later give one the means to pay back that debt.
Why are we charging the same amount to students who study art or massage therapy than those whose de-sired professions are to become doctors or lawyers. Where is the logic? Our country has a growing economic gap between our upper and lower class; where the middle class is slowly disap-pearing and will continue to do so if we continue to expect our students to live their lives with an unreasonable amount of bills. Where is the incentive to further one’s education if a future of debt is what lies ahead? I believe this is a large ethical dilemma which our country struggles with and has not yet come to terms with how significant of an impact it can have on our society if we choose to ignore the “struggling student.”
And the problem doesn’t seem to be getting any better. According to sta-tistics presented by CNN; following the recession starting in 2008, the tuition of public universities has increased as much as 83.6 percent in Arizona. Ha-waii, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida and California had an upsurge that ranged between 62.2 to 70 percent. The article attributes this vast growth to the reces-sion and suggests that, “The vast ma-jority of state funding for these schools has yet to recover. States provide about 53 percent of the revenue used to sup-port public schools, according to the report. Without the funding, many schools are forced to make up the dif-ference with higher tuition.”
Universities: Businesses or educational centers?
ryan Green
Staff Writer
The number of voting college students has been in decline for the past decade. After some quick math from the US Census Bureau, I
found that 58 percent of the 66 million total college students are either not registered voters, or just don’t take the time to vote. So why aren’t college students voting? And, more importantly, why should they?
Voting is something that all eligible Americans should do, no matter your place. Some families don’t teach their children the importance of voting at a young age, and so those children, now students, have no reason to get involved.
Most college students only recently became adults, and have not yet created their political iden-tities. Even I had to ask my parents who to vote for and why. Voting is a new thing for rising adults, and it’s difficult to suddenly have to keep track of politi-cians, candidates and the most recent legislation.
However confusing politics is, voting is still the heart of our democratic process. This country was founded on the principle that its citizens can de-cide their government’s future, and it’s a right that shouldn’t be shrugged off by a lazy generation. What I’m trying to say is, college students should vote, and here’s why.
No one votes with college students in mind. Most people are more interested in health insurance rates than tuition and student loans. That’s why it is our job, as college students, to speak up for our-selves and stand for what we believe. It may be diffi-cult to do, but think about your future. Casting your ballot now could change your life for the better in five years.
If you prefer to live in the moment, think about who you are. You’re very likely a college student, trying new things and broadening your horizons, getting experience in the real world. So wouldn’t it be hypocritical to say you’re finding your place in this nation, but aren’t contributing to the driving process of democracy?
Actually, your vote could change your future as soon as next year. Forbes reports that presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is working to “make col-lege tuition in public universities and public colleg-es free.” The Department of Education states that the Obama-Biden administration “has dramatically boosted Pell grant funding by more than $40 bil-lion”, making Joe Biden another worthy candidate.
By voting, I don’t mean only federally. Voting on all levels counts, even for city ordinances and community propositions. Even voting for the presi-dent of your housing village can change your own well-being for the next year.
College students are an enormous constituency, and have much more political power than any of us could imagine. And even though 58 percent of col-lege students don’t vote, that still leaves more than 27 million of us. Think about how much power we’d have if we got all 66 million together.
So, I encourage those of you who aren’t regis-tered to register to vote. The Registrar of Voters is just up the road in Santa Rosa. Voting is the founda-tion of this country, and if the foundation falls, the structure falls.
Voting: Why should you
care?I’m sure the ever chang-ing colorful lights of the Green Music
Center are not enough to light up the whole campus.
STAR // Jenna Fischer
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Rachael NewmaN
Staff Writer
Sonoma State Uni-versity students will soon have a
new and improved sched-uling system called the Seawolf Scheduler to assist with class regis-tration for the spring se-mester.
Last week, the As-sociated Students Senate saw a demonstration for the new software that has been approved for use in spring 2016 regis-tration this November.
Kim Baptista, a ju-nior, dislikes the current system used for class registration and has ex-perienced many diffi-culties in her time at the university so far.
“The system is not user friendly and it’s hard to navigate around. You need lots of crite-ria to find a class,” said Baptista. “If you are a
freshman or a transfer student, the system is not intuitive.
It is hard to pull up the entire catalog, and you can’t seem to sim-ply look up the neces-sary class. There are too many steps involved just to find a class.”
A common frustra-tion among students is trying to find a class to fit your schedule or even finding an open one.
Many students work, have sports prac-tice, extra curricular ac-tivities so finding a class to fit one’s schedule can be difficult.
Director of Records Reports and Analytics Sean Johnson said the new software is designed to address some of the is-sues students have when registering for classes.
The program will not take away anything from the current system but will have some added
new features.“The Seawolf Sched-
uler is going to allow you to put in the courses you want to take for the term, and it is going to allow you to put in the times when you cannot take courses,” said Johnson. “[The Seawolf Sched-uler] will give you a list of all the possibilities of course schedules that you can have based on what is there in the sys-tem.”
The program is part of the E-Advising initia-tive, and will eventually be included in the new scheduling system. E-Advising is set up to help students make important decisions for their plan when they need them.
“[E-Advising] is designed to help get in-formation into students hands so that they have the ability to make criti-cal decisions about their own academic plans
when they need them,” said Johnson. “That in-formation is at their fin-gertips when they need it, so they are able to make decisions to move toward graduation.”
E-Advising will make class scheduling more clear and will show the classes you need or the prerequisites you have to take before enter-ing into a more advanced course.
Johnson said other California State Univer-sities are currently using this scheduling software.
“Students love it, faculty love it and the ad-ministration will love it. It has been great at other campuses and we expect that here as well,” said Johnson.
Student Nickolas Kling ended up in cours-es he didn’t necessarily want to take but desper-ately needed units and hopes there are courses
that will be beneficial to his academic plan.
“The online list of classes I needed for my major was somewhat clear but when I trans-ferred, trying to add a class was abnormally complicated,” said Kling. “Getting in touch with my adviser and clarify-ing everything was much more difficult than I an-ticipated.
I am enrolled but not
exactly happy with the outcome.”
The Seawolf Sched-uler will hopefully re-move the stress and con-fusion students experi-ence when registering for classes at Sonoma State.
To find the Seawolf Scheduler, visit sonoma.edu and log into your student account and visit MySSU.
News Sep. 8 - Sep. 14, 2015page
SonomaStateStar.com4
Campus crime creates fear in student safety
STAR // Megan Corcoran
The start of a new semester brings a wave a bike thefts and car break-ins.
Nikki BRidges
Staff Writer
Once the sun goes down, classes are let out of ses-sion and Sonoma State
University students return to their homes, criminals lurk in the shad-ows looking for valuables to steal.
“My bike was stolen in the night last week,” said Keira Daneh, a sophomore Hutchins major. “It is an extreme inconvenience to me considering I ride my bike to and from class everyday.”
Sonoma State University Po-lice Services has been going to local bike stores to see if any of the reportedly stolen bikes from campus were sold to the shop for money. Sonoma State police rec-ommend students use campus bike racks scattered throughout the campus, securing bikes with a u-shaped lock and reporting suspi-cious behavior. Students can now register their bikes for free online which will give police services a better chance of finding stolen
bikes. “We have reported seven
bikes being stolen [as of this se-mester] and have identified a sus-pect that we are bringing to the DA to press charges against this criminal,” said Nate Johnson, Sonoma State Police Chief and Executive Director for Enterprise Risk Management.
Amanda Klein, a junior awomen and gender studies major, had her car damaged in the middle of the night in a parking lot just one week before the fall semester began.
After she realized what hap-pened, Klein called the police ser-vices to report the crime. Her car was then dusted for fingerprints and a written report was filed.
“I don’t know exactly how they got in, however, there was over $300 worth of merchandise stolen such as an old phone and wires necessary for my car,” said Klein, “They also ripped my dash-board attempting to hot wire my car.”
Students who’ve been affect-ed by crime on campus have ac-cess to many resources at Sonoma State to help cope with traumatic experiences including the Student Health Center and Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS).
In 2013, the university an-nounced they were introducing the Jeanne Clery act, an annual report showing crime on campus.
This report requires the uni-versity to provide crime statistics, police services recommendations on safety and crime prevention, as well as how to report crime on campus. The report will be pub-lished on Oct. 1.
The campus is also equipped with blue stands that, when used, will alert the on-campus police department and will send an of-ficer to escort you to your car or on-campus dorm.
Whether students are leav-ing a late night class or feel uncomfortable walking home students can rely on this ser-vice to ease their worry.
sonoma.edu
Associated Students is introducing a new program, the Sea-wolf Scheduler, aimed at easing the process of registration.
Online scheduling program intended to ease stress of registration
STAR // Megan Corcornan
Construction of the University District has barely begun, yet the developments are expected to bring commercial and residential communities to the city.
CONSTRUCTION: District to bring new neighborhoods to RP
Continued from Pg. 1
district] will add commercial space that can be oc-cupied by services useful to our students such as restaurants and stores.”
The goal of this district is to create a mix of residential, rural and commercial developments that will ultimately intertwine the Rohnert Park residents and spur the economy of the city. One of the reasons this project commenced after an unsus-pecting halt due to economic turmoil was the pub-
lic push for some new developments. With the aid of the citizens of Rohnert Park, the city council and Brookfield Residential have made strides in creat-ing a connected community that serves a residen-tial and commercial purpose.
The district will connect residents to Sonoma State University, the local middle and high schools and the Green Music Center via three miles of trails for pedestrians and bikers alike.
For more information on the University District, visit liveuniversitydistrict.com.
RECREATION CENTER: Expect improvements
with remodelContinued from Pg. 1
- recreation employee of four and a half years. Vang, among other staff, worked over the summer and have been aware of the construction plans and execution process.
The semester began on Aug. 25, and there have been an exces-sive number of students attempting to utilize the Rec Center during this time of remodel.
Because of the pushback of the remodel, many students anxiously anticipate the date for the construc-tion to come to an end.
“I am eager to see how the re-construction turns out because the temporary location of the machines is a little bit awkward,” said junior Melanie Yeoman. “Upstairs is crowded, and I know of a few people who have purchased gym member-ships from other facilities due to the remodel.”
Although the construction has disrupted normal function of the Rec Center, it has not completely stopped students from using it. The facility
has remained open at normal operat-ing hours during this time. Workout machines have been moved to the front lobby area, making it possible for some to still utilize the facilities.
“The reconstruction makes it difficult to complete a workout without feeling overcrowded,” said sophomore Max Hull. “I am defi-nitely excited to see the new weight room, and also the other changes they made to the Rec.”
In regard to how the remodel was funded, Neville said the Rec-reation Center has a reserves ac-count from which the project was financed and currently there will be no change in the fees paid by mem-bers of the center.
“I am definitely excited to see the
new weight room, and also the oth-er changes they
made to the Rec.”
News 5Page
SeP. 8 - SeP. 14, 2015SonomaStateStar.com
Santa Catalina Island, CAMichael Harris, son of former 49er’s CEO Peter Harris, died on Sunday in a boat collision off the coast of Santa Catalina Island in Southern California. According to his family, Harris had just recieved his masters degree from Santa Clara University and was starting a new job as a high school counselor. In the boat were three other passangers, two of which suffered minor injuries and the third is recovering from a head injury.
San Juan County, COA small plane crashed in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado on Monday, most likely killing everyone on board, according to authorities. The National Transportation Safety Board reports that five people were on board the plane when it went down at 4:35 p.m., but according to the San Juan County Sherriff’s Office who sent crews to the scene, only four people were on board the aircraft. The victims of the plane crash remain unidentified.
New HampshireA recent survey by NBC News/Marist Poll on presidential candidates shows Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders taking the lead by nine percentage points over Hillary Clinton with backing from 41 percent of democratic voters in New Hampshire. The same survey conducted in July showed contrasting results, with Clinton ahead of Sanders by 10 percentage points. The Iowa caucuses are scheduled for February 2016 with the New Hampshire primary election following.
Anne Arbor, MIA 21-year-old college student at the University of Michigan has moved into a 170-square-foot tiny house he built himself. The student, Christopher Cerk, lived in the dorms at his university during his freshman year of college and after an unenjoyable experience living on campus, he decided to build a house himself. The “tiny house” cost Cerk roughly $13,000 to build and he said he hopes the house will ultimately save him money over his next two years of college.
News in Brief New study: Marijuana use up in college
Christine edwards
Staff Writer
According to a recent Univer-sity of Michigan study, daily marijuana usage is the highest
it’s been since the 1980s, and findings suggest that Americans are simply just becoming more accepting of it.
Students have noted that mari-juana has little to no recovery time, and is a good, safe way to relax with friends. The study revealed that 5.9 percent of students across Amer-ica’s college campuses are daily marijuana smokers, compared with only 5 percent being daily cigarette smokers.
With Sonoma State being situ-ated in liberal Northern Califor-nia, where medicinal marijuana has been legal since the passing of Proposition 215 in 1996, students are certainly more exposed to mari-juana than other college campus communities. Seniors Jake Duncan and Wes Koenig agree.
“I know a lot of people that smoke pot,” said Duncan. “I’d say it’s probably higher than 5.9 percent at Sonoma. I’d say 30 percent use daily [at Sonoma State].”
Koenig believes the reported percentages would be much higher in California.
Conversely, alcohol consump-tion can have severe consequences - especially if the individual decides to get behind the wheel under the inf luence.
A DUI sentence will usually in-clude at least a couple dozen hours of community service, at least $1,000 in fines, as well as losing your license for six months, and sometimes for more than a year. A DUI will stay on your record for 7-10 years and can interfere with getting a job in the future.
The University of Michigan study showed that binge drinking is way down.
“[The consequences] are way more risky- jail time, paying penal-ties, for weed there isn’t that much,” said Duncan, comparing the conse-quences of alcohol with marijuana use.
The media have certainly
played a role in these all-time low statistics of college-aged tobacco users. Anti-smoking campaigns such as “Truth” are having an effect on young adults and how they view cigarette smoking.
The Center for Disease Con-trol’s (CDC) “Tips” campaign cre-ated the graphic ads featuring indi-viduals living with long-term and life threatening health issues as a consequence of smoking. The cam-paigns have left a lasting impression on college students like Duncan.
Posters and commercials de-claring “Don’t forget to cover you stoma”, feature a middle-aged man shaving while covering the gaping hole in his neck with a rag.
According to CDC.gov, the Tips campaign alone has motivat-ed 1.6 million smokers to quit and smoking among teens and college students is becoming less and less prevalent.
Koenig and Duncan say they don’t know many people who even smoke cigarettes on campus.
“Cigarettes give me a headache and [smoking] is way worse for your health [than marijuana],” said Duncan. “Maybe there’s not enough studies on weed, but as far as I’m concerned it seems pretty chill.”
With the current marijuana reg-ulations being passed in other states such as Colorado and Washington D.C., the general consensus is that marijuana is no longer seen as a harmful and addictive drug.
According to students on cam-pus such as Koenig, “It’s socially acceptable”. Marijuana has been on the ballot a couple of times in the past decade in California, with the most recent being Proposition 19 in 2010; it was shot down in a narrow margin with 53 percent voting “no” to legalization for recreational use.
“Even though it’s not quite le-gal, I think it’ll be on the next bal-lot,” said Duncan.
The answer to whether Cali-fornia will see the legalization of recreational marijuana in the near future still remains unclear and will ultimately be decided by voters, in-cluding college students.
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Arts Sep. 8 - Sep. 14, 2015page
SonomaStateStar.com6
University Art Gallery focuses on photography
Justin Freeman
Staff Writer
As the sun began to set, the final touches were being made to the room. Bottles of wine had were
lined up on one of the tables to welcome the guests who enjoyed their drinks while perusing the exhibition they came to see. Several dozen photographs hung silently on the walls, some the size of books, others the size of large television screens. These pieces would soon be contrasted by a noisy crowd of photography lovers, whose mutu-al appreciation for the camera would bring them all to Sonoma State’s University Art Gallery on this particular Thursday.
“Focus on Photography: Selections from the Gallus Sweet Collection” at-tracted quite a turnout. Most of the crowd was constituted by swaths of expensively dressed older folks, but, a decent amount of Sonoma State students were also in at-tendance. Work by a number of heavy-hit-ting names from the photography world, such as Ansel Adams, Robert Mappletho-rpe, and Tina Modotti was on display.
All of these photos came from the col-lection of Fay Gallus and Dr. Richard Sweet, who both reside in Sonoma Coun-ty. Dr. Sweet, who first began collecting photographs over forty years ago, believes that photography “captures the impor-tance of history.” Dr. Sweet went on to say that photographs “can capture a moment and the emotions associated with them very realistically.”
Shannon Benine, a Sonoma State as-sistant professor of photography, was very impressed with the exhibition. Benine said it was “one of the most comprehensive collections of historical and contempo-rary photographers that I’ve seen in a long time,” and that for photography majors, “The opportunity to stand in front of An-sel Adams really teaches you something
that looking at a website just can’t.” The exhibit covered a vast range of
human emotions. The Santa Fe, by Rich-ard Misrach, captured a lonely train mak-ing its way across a desolate desert hori-zon. Meanwhile, Sebastio Salgado’s Serra Pelada, Brazil (Cast of Thousands) gave a view of a lively Brazilian quarry, popu-lated by hordes of workers, who seemed to cover the carved stone walls like ants.
Perhaps the largest photograph in the room was Lynn Davis’ Wave Rock, Hyden, Western Australia. This photo de-picted an enormous wall of rock, which bore an eerie resemblance to a humungous tidal wave, what with its smoothed edges and wavy patterns.
When people were asked to com-ment on the photographs, “phenomenal” was a common word used. Aryan Chapell, a Sonoma State alumni and photographer, called the exhibit “a treat” and added that “A great photo can be taken anytime of day or night or anywhere.”
He also added that photography was special because it is such “an immediate medium.” Sonoma State student Victoria Mihatovic shared this sentiment, assuring that photography “can document a single moment in time and place,” and that pho-tographs “preserve memory.”
A commonly spread rumor caused many people to believe that the exhibit would be featuring the works of Sonoma State students. “You could put Picasso up here, and people will ask about the student who made it,” said Carla Stone, the Uni-versity Art Gallery’s exhibition coordina-tor.
Anyone who arrived expecting stu-dent photography was surely surprised when they came face to face with the works of masters. These will be open to the public at the University Art Gallery until October 25. Until that date, Sonoma State will be the home of this collection.
Courtesy // Gustavo Vasquez
Sonoma State University students, faculty and community members gather in the University Art Gallery on Thursday to view an art collection consisting of pieces of works by many photographers.
Wes Craven: a horror legend to be remembered
facebook.com
Wes Craven, director of the popular “Scream” horror films and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” died on August 30.
sean Curzon
Staff Writer
The world of horror films lost an icon when director
Wes Craven died Au-gust 30th of brain can-cer in his home in Los Angeles. Craven was a noted director, writer and producer. His films include “Last House on the Left,” “The Hills have Eyes,” “A Night-mare on Elm Street” and “Scream.”
While not every movie he made was a classic, he did create two of the biggest hor-ror franchises in Hol-lywood. “A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)” owned the eighties and “Scream (1996)” defined nineties horror. His leg-acy spans across nearly four decades, his inf lu-ences can be felt even today.
“Last House on the Left (1972)” and “The Hills Have Eyes (1977)” were Wes Craven’s first shots at directing. They are both low budget hor-ror movies. “Last House on the Left” is about par-ents who avenge the mur-der of their daughter by trapping and killing her killers. “The Hills Have Eyes” is about a family on a road trip who are attacked by a cannibal-istic family. Both films were made for less than $1 million.
“A Nightmare on Elm Street” is arguably one of the best horror films in history. It tells the story of a group of teens who are haunted by the ghost of serial killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) who can kill people in their dreams. The film was also John-ny Deep’s first acting role. The dream world is filled with strong dark shadows, while clever edits blur the line be-tween dream and reality.
“A Nightmare on Elm Street” has one of the biggest, most well-known horror villains, Freddy Krueger. Every-thing about him became an icon. The glove with the blade fingers, his hat and sweater, his burnt face. Craven came up with the character by mixing the nightmares he was having and mem-ories of a school bully.
To this day, Freddy Krueger stands as one of the great villains of cinema along with Darth Vader.
“He brought so many different things to a film. In “Night-mare on Elm Street” he brought the characters to life,” said Matt Nich-ols, a sophomore music education major, “I don’t know if anyone else can do that.”
Craven also directed all four “Scream” films. The film series follows Sidney Prescott (Neve
Campbell) as she and her friends are stalked by a serial killer. The prem-ise in each film involves a killer who would kill by horror tropes while the cast, being fans of horror movies, are aware of them.
The opening scene with Drew Barrymore being taunted on the phone is an iconic mo-ment in movie history. The first “Scream” film, which was filmed in Santa Rosa, CA, was a parody of slasher mov-ies in general, while the second one was a parody of horror sequels, and the third one was based off the idea of trilogies and the fourth one play-ing off the idea of horror reboots. The franchise was notable for its use of meta-horror. The films also introduced the pop-ular “ghostface” mask. While ghostface didn’t match the popularity of Freddy Krueger, the mask became a staple for Halloween costumes.
Wes Craven directed numerous other films, some good and others not so good. The comic book adaption “Swamp Thing (1982),” “Music of the Heart (1999)” and the psychological thrill-er “Red Eye (2005)” are a few of the films that were not as celebrated by his fans. Wes Craven will always be known as someone who made the world a little scarier.
Miley Cyrus continues to perplex Jerri Cohen
Staff Writer
Review
Miley Cyrus continues to shock and confuse her fans with the release of her perplexing new album,
“Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz.” Cyrus released the news that she will be dropping this album during the 2015 VMAs.
The artist started off her career by star-ring in her television series, “Hannah Mon-tana” in 2006. Cyrus went from being a teen pop culture sensation to an abnormal crea-ture with such a quick rise to fame.
The young pop star has evolved drasti-cally as represented throughout her reper-toire of albums.
As Cyrus has progressed, she has been recognized for her amazing vocals. The art-ist never had a hard time demonstrating how talented she really is by hitting outstand-ing notes in every song of hers. As of late, after having listened to Miley’s new work, some are left confused and offended. “Mi-ley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz” features un-usual lyrics and song titles such as, “I’m so Drunk,” with the only lyrics being “I’m so drunk, I can’t even explain what I feel right now.”
Although Cyrus now targets an older demographic, younger fans still remain,
while Cyrus’ new priority seems to be to shock the public with her newest and most creative ideas, or so she thinks.
“I honestly think her new album is ri-diculous and nothing like her old work,” said sophomore Sara Citti.
After Miley presented a scandalous performance during the 2013 VMAs, the in-nocent country girl fans all knew and loved from the teen girl obsession, “The Last Song” had officially left them for good. She now prefers to sing about how intoxicated she is.
“After seeing Miley’s music evolve into what it is today, I no longer look up to her. She mainly just confuses me,” said senior Tessa Altshuler.
To say that the general public found Mi-ley’s newest album terribly confusing and frightening would be an understatement. The negative attention does not seem to tear down or discourage the motivated, young professional, nor will it for her work to come.
facebook.comCyrus released her newest album “Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz” August 30.
Entertainment 7Page
SeP. 8 - SeP. 14, 2015SonomaStateStar.com
“[Minaj] is a very creative person, and people see that and are shocked by her. If it’s Katy Perry or Taylor Swift doing something, they are praised. I am not sure if it is because of race, but it is overlooked because it is Nicki Minaj who is out there and she may make people uncomfortable. Taylor Swift is more relatable as a country girl who is seen as innocent.” - Stephanie
Seawolves SPEAK!Cultural Appropriation in Entertainment
“I dont think that is what [the feud] is about. Beyonce is a strong African American feminist who wins awards. I am not a huge fan of Nicki Minaj and I know that cultural appropriation is not right, but it is also not the bias for an award. Miley may have went a bit over-board. I can see Nicki’s frustration.” - Thomas
“I don’t think the styles and actions that some people are using should be considered ‘stolen’ from black pop-culture. If we are accusatory of cultures exchanging ideas then our society may be even more unable to move past remaining racism. If Miley Cyrus is not allowed to do anything considered ‘black’ then what about Nicki Minaj doing anything considered ‘white?’ Like Kylie Jenner’s cornrows, everyone should be allowed to do everything- you can’t coin a hairstyle. The more outlandish you make it, the more it draws attention. I definitely think there is a line, but as long as these cultural ideas are not used in a negative way, it should be fine.” - Grace
“I definitely notice this with the ex-amples of twerking, Nicki is seen as ‘ratchet’ when she twerks and when other girls like Miley and Taylor do it, it is funny because the white girls are doing it.”
- Mariana
Cassandra Owens
Staff Writer
Cornrows: a traditional African style of braiding and plaiting the hair in narrow strips to form geometric patterns on
the scalp. Men and women have styled their hair in such a way to allow further growth and upkeep, while expressing culture and identity.
By 2010, the hairstyle had made its way to the entertainment industry, where African American Hip Hop and R&B artists continued to expressed themselves with these traditional hairstyles. White entertainers soon started to sport the traditional hairstyle themselves.
This is only one example of the many times actors, singers and other stars have tak-en cultures other than their own and exploited it to seem “different.” Cultural appropriation can be seen throughout entertainment. There
are many examples, including recent con-troversy regarding Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift.
Upset at being snubbed for a Music Video of the Year award, Nicki Minaj began tweet-ing about the injustices in the entertainment industry. At first, she goes on about celebrat-ing black women and compares them to the “slim bodies” that were nominated.
“I’m not always confident. Just tired. Black women inf luence pop culture so much but are rarely rewarded for it,” tweets Minaj regarding the VMA nominations.
Often times, many people who demon-strate aspects of their personal culture are criticized, while people who are not of that ethnicity or race will take pieces of it if they consider it “different,” “cool,” and “stylish.”
Sonoma State University students were asked their opinion on cultural appropriation
facebook.com
“Transporter Refueled” released on Friday, earning $7.1 million in the box office.
‘Transporter Refueled’ recycles
a favorite, fails nOe Felix
Staff Writer
Review
Rebooting a franchise is no easy feat. Film-makers want to be
able to bring new life into the franchise but simultane-ously stay true to the roots of what made the original franchise so great.
“The Transporter” se-ries has always held a spe-cial place in the hearts of ac-tion movie fans everywhere.
The movies are known for the great lead, Jason Sta-tham, as well as great fight choreography and high-speed chase sequences.
They were action packed movies that people thor-oughly enjoyed watching. Unfortunately, “The Trans-porter Refueled” lacks the qualities necessary to live up to its predecessors, and at times, becomes unbearable to watch.
The movie revolves around Frank Martin (Ed Skieren), a former special ops agent who is now a hired mercenary. While eating dinner with his father (Ray Stevenson), he gets a call from a mysterious woman named Anna (Loan Chaba-nol) and is offered an elusive job. Hesitant, he accepts the job and then, plot twist, ev-erything goes wrong.
Anna, along with her three partners in crime, take Frank’s father hostage and forces him to work for them. The movie’s plot is very dull, and worse, doesn’t do a good job of pulling a viewer in.
There were countless times during the movie where this a STAR report-er rolled his eyes, silently asked himself “are you se-rious?” and laughed at the fact of how bad the movie was. There are times where scenes are attempted to be recreated from the original trilogy, but end up failing horribly.
The producers, director and actors fail to capture the spirit of the original films.
However, the reuse of the iconic line “Seatbelts, please,” was a nice nod to the previous films.
It’s hard to imagine a Transporter movie without
Jason Statham. He is the biggest reason the movies are so memorable to action movie fans.
He was an instantly lik-able and charming lead and unfortunately, newcomer Ed Skeirn fails to achieve the heights that Statham set before him.
Skeirn never appeals to the audience, and often times, comes off as trying too hard to be cool.
Furthermore, Skeirn strives to be exactly like Statham’s portrayal of Frank Martin. This is an entirely new start to the franchise and because of that, there is no reason why he couldn’t try a new portrayal of the character.
The movie is about Frank Martin, so shouldn’t he be the character the audi-ence likes the most?
Of all the characters in this movie, he was the least likeable. Even the support-ing characters were more likeable than the protago-nist.
It’s like the director de-cided to give all the charm to his father, and give Anna and her cohorts the emotion-al pull of the movie.
Since the Transporter movies have always been about action, that is where they shine the most. Ironi-cally, “Transporter Refu-eled” fails in that important aspect. There was no sense of awe whenever an ac-tion scene came up, as they lacked spectacle.
The opening car chase scene left a lot to be desired, and used way too many slow motion shots. It didn’t have the same sense of adrenaline as its predecessors did.
When it came to the fight scenes, they seemed stiff and unexciting. They were not well choreo-graphed, and sometimes, it felt as though Skeirn needed more time in rehearsal.
If there were an option to refund people’s money after seeing this movie, they would take it. This movie is not enjoyable at all.
It doesn’t seem to re-member what made the originals so fun to watch. In short, they fail to capture the spirit of the original, and worse, don’t stay true to the series.
Student Life Sep. 8 - Sep. 14, 2015page
SonomaStateStar.com8
Student spotlight: Demarcus LuckettSamuel DaviS
Staff Writer
As Demarcus Luckett looked into the crowd of thousands of people from all different parts of the world carrying mugs of beers, he knew he made the right choice to travel abroad. It was going to be a day he would remember
for the rest of his life.Luckett had many more highlights from his trip to Germany than just Okto-
berfest. He made life-long memories with people he would have never met other-wise. “Oktoberfest was only one of my acmes of traveling abroad,” said Luckett. “I think the best feature that came from it was the lifelong friends I have accu-mulated and the experiences we have had together. I have also gained an outside perspective on what it is to be American, and also how the rest of the world views us in a mixture of awe and disappointment. I was able to expand my personal perspective of how the world works through distinctive lenses, particularly of the differentiating educational systems globally.”
Luckett describes how hard it is to be away from everything he has ever known, but he assures that it’s a great way to get out of your comfort zone. “As with anything, studying abroad has its ups and downs,” said Luckett. A couple of the downs are very obvious, such as homesickness or not being able to see your friends and family for that allotted time, and missing a sense of familiarity where you know all of the social norms. It was an exciting challenge to live somewhere that I did not have any hands on experience about, and the only form of knowledge that was apparent to me was what I have learned through the readings of the his-tory books.”
Luckett explained how studying abroad opened his eyes to new views of other people and countries. He got to see first hand how people in different cultures interact on a daily basis.
“I know I have certain stereotypes about many different countries and Ger-many is no different. Now that I have actually been there, I am gaining a sense of understanding and getting to know the people who are originated citizens that live in the country of Germany,” Luckett said. “This particularly was very eye opening and it really expanded my horizons. I unable to speak for the other people who studied abroad, but I know that I had an amazing time and I cannot wait to go back for another adventure in a different province.”
Luckett explains how studying abroad is not what students typically view it as. During his first semester he was involved in rigorous courses with material that required he spend five days a week in the classroom.
Despite the toughness of academia, every adventurous students dreams to study aboard. For most, the first thing that comes to mind is money and how these expenses will be settled during travel to a specified foreign region.
This too was the case for Luckett and to account for these expenses, he worked at an elementary school in Germany and taught students to speak, read and write in English. Along with being a student, he was also an employee who was paid ten Euros per hour to incorporate his teaching skills.
There is also an alternative method of income as an option for students study-
ing abroad. They are given the right to voluntarily speak at local high schools and colleges in regards to current events such as gun control, human rights, human trafficking and anything that may be of interest to that specified class. For this the student speaker is also paid, as they would be if they were to take up a tradi-tional job.
From seeing the true culture of Germany through a pint of beer at Oktoberfest to learning how to speak German and teaching children how to speak english, studying abroad opened Luckett’s mind to the world.
For more information on studying abroad, visit International Hall or go to a study abroad information meeting which will be happening throughout the month of September. For meeting dates and times visit seawolf living.com.
STAR // Brennan Chin
Demarcus Luckett studied abroad in Germany and was able to attend Oktoberfest and teach English to German students.
STAR // Kalia Sanders
Students gather around while eating to enjoy live music by fellow seawolves at Open Mic Night. The event is free to attend and occurs on the first and third Wednesday of every month at Lobos.
First open mic at Lobos showcases student talentlawrence ricarDo
Staff Writer
The first and third Wednesday of every month in Lobos isn’t the typical atmo-sphere that one is used to seeing at Lobos. There’s no sports on the TV or a line at the pool table, instead, Open Mic Night takes hold of the venue.
Sonoma State University kicked off the school year with the first open mic night on Wednesday. Seawolves arrived with curiosity and excitement for hearing student talent fill the room. Gabe Duran, live performance coordinator of Associ-ated Students Productions, is responsible for anything student performance related at Sonoma State.
Not only is Open Mic Night one of the biggest events Duran is responsible for, but he also coordinates the Tunes at Noon. Duran, as well as the other students who help run these musical events, want to foster an open environment within Sonoma State so that everyone has a community to belong to.
Returning student Ang Ross holds these open mics near to her heart. “It’s very accepting. You meet a whole bunch of people from different backgrounds, but we all have a common connection, which is music,” she said.
Various students across Sonoma State attend this event. Regardless of a stu-dent’s major, talent and age, everyone is welcome to watch and/or participate at these events.
Starting at 7:30 p.m., students were able to sign up on a first-come first-serve basis. Attendees trickled in, grabbing food and beer from the bar to enjoy the night
of talent. The night consisted of performances by a wide range of songs like John Mayer’s “Daughters,” Beyonce’s “Halo,” to Frank Ocean’s “Thinking Bout You.”
Audience participation only added to the lively atmosphere. As students per-formed, the student audience swayed, clapped along, sang along and even partici-pated in a “call and response”. One student sang Nelly’s “Ride Wit Me” which naturally prompts others to respond back “hey, must be the money” periodically throughout the song.
Freshman Hannah Hobbs performed an acoustic rendition of Coldplay’s “Fix You” which entranced the crowd. When asked what brought her to perform tonight, Hobbs said, “I’ve loved to sing ever since I was two years old, so it’s kind of like second nature. And I thought, why not wing it and do something that I will remem-ber and be proud of.”
Freshmen aren’t the only ones who enjoy this night. This is the first time that fifth-year Kelsey Thompson attended this event. Between being a Kinesiology ma-jor and a member of Alpha Omicron Pi, her busy schedule doesn’t necessarily allow for any other extra-curricular activities.
However, she finally had some spare time and showed great excitement as she attended the event. “I’ve never been to open mic night, but I’ve always wanted to go. This is the first semester I’ve had free time and there’s so many things that I’ve been wanting to do, and this is one of them,” said Thompson.
As Thompson shows, age and year don’t make a difference in attending these events. They’re open for everyone and Duran and all of ASP are working to create entertaining events. Catch the talent again at the next Open Mic Night taking place every first and third Wednesday.
Student Life 9Page
SeP. 8 - SeP. 14, 2015SonomaStateStar.com
Swoodle app introduces new way to collaborate
Olivia hunt
Staff Writer
Up-and-coming collaboration app, Swoodle aims to promote college student to “scroll together, edit
together, chat together, create together, review together [and] work together.”
Based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Swoodle team aims to supply con-sumers with a simple, yet effective app that prioritizes group collaboration on assignments while providing students the ability to work together in real time. This allows for quick editing across a range of devices, and is conveniently free.
Other features of the app include a free messaging tool that incorporates text, voice calling and video calling which assists in the group work dynamic.
The app allows for photo sharing and document editing, much like Snapchat and Google Docs.
Kris Nixon, Content Crafter for Dis-playNote Technologies described an ad-vantage of the app. “[It] essentially al-lows a team of students working together on a project to do so from the comfort of their respective homes, whilst having the same level of input and interaction that they would get from arranging a time and place for a face to face meeting,” said Nixon.
Swoodle provides an easy way to avoid unproductive group meetings be-tween classmates and it is a constructive
way for people with busy schedules to promptly contribute without appearing as a ‘slacker.’
“I could see myself using Swoodle if I was doing a time-sensitive group proj-ect and I was unable to make in person arrangements,” said Sophomore Kristen Santos.
For people already struggling to find free time in their schedules, using Swoo-dle can be the difference between staying up all night surrounded by empty coffee cups and getting a solid 8 hour sleep after an exhausting day.
Paul Brown, CEO at DisplayNote Technologies, said, “We wanted a way to be able to share actual content with each other live on a mobile device, not a screen share, not an emailed copy and for all of us to be able to make changes live and to chat to each other at the same time all in the same app. In essence, we wanted to get stuff done quicker, be more productive and not waste time.”
Swoodle promotes collaboration, communication, productivity and team-work using a simple and modern outlet that doesn’t require much effort to learn.
Although the components of Swoo-dle give it great potential to be a popular app, it might be a little late in the game, seeing as there have been other compa-nies to create similar inventions such as Google Docs.
Nevertheless, there is a chance that due to its contemporary abilities, it will rise in the market and be in high demand.
STAR // Kalia Sanders
Newly introduced app Swoodle hopes to make document sharing and group projects simpler and more effective.
WEDNESDAY,Sept. 9
SEX SIGNALS AT STUDENT
CENTER BALLROOM
7:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
THURSDAY,Sept. 10
JEAN AND CHARLES SCHULZ
INFORMATION CENTER’S 15TH
BIRTHDAY PARTY (JEAN AND
CAHRLES SCHULZ INFORMATION
CENTER)4:00 p.m.- 7:00 p.m
AMIR NASR AND MY ISL@M
(THE COOPERAGE)7:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M.
SEAWOLF DAYS PRESENTS:
SEAWOLVES SCANDIA TAKEOVER
(SCANDIA)10:00 P.M.-11:55 P.M.
FRIDAY,SEPT. 11
SSU
IMPROVAHOLICS
MIDNIGHT SHOW
AT IVES 76
11:55 p.m.
SATURDAY,
SEPT. 12
SCENE IT BIG SCREEN
OUTDOOR MOVIE NIGHT: DOUBLE FEATURE WITH JURASSIC PARK AND JURASSIC
WORLD AT GREEN MUSIC
CENTER LAWN 6:30 P.M. - 10:30 P.M.
Student Life Calender
Thursday,Sept. 10
Women’s Soccer
at California Baptist3:00 p.m.
Men’s Soccer at Concordia-
Irvine3:00 p.m.
Friday,Sept. 11
Women’s Volleyball
at Dominican7:00 p.m.
Saturday,Sept. 12
Women’s Cross Country
at Humboldt State
Invitational 9:00 a.m.
Men’s Soccer at Point Loma
11:30 a.m.
Women’s Soccer
at Point Loma2:00 p.m.
Women’s Volleyball
v.s. Holy Names7:00 p.m.
Monday,Sept. 14
Women’s Golfat
U-Indy Fall Inivitational
All day
Sep. 8 - Sep. 14, 2015page
SonomaStateStar.com10 Sports
Seawolves Sports
Courtesy of sonomaseawolves.com
Men’s soccer off to a perfect startAubrie Tolliver
Staff Writer
It could have been the packed stands. It could have been the sense of confidence surg-
ing from a team returning with all but one player from their previous season.
One thing was certain; there was an undeniable feeling of anticipation and excitement as the Sonoma State men’s soccer team took the field for the first time in its season-opener last week.
The Seawolves found themselves victorious in their first two matches of the season, defeating Simon Fraser 3-1 on Thursday, and Fresno Pacific 1-0 on Saturday.
The offense was electric in their season-opener Thursday, with senior Brenton Frame leading the at-tack.
Frame contributed two of the three goals for the Seawolves in the 3-1 win over the Clan.
The first goal was scored almost as soon as the whistle blew, coming in just under two minutes into the game on a free kick where Frame buried the ball in the corner of the net.
The ball was kicked so hard; it was deep in the net before the Clan’s goalie could even react to it.
With two minutes remaining in the first half, junior forward T.J. Perez scored a goal of his own, after steal-ing the ball away from a Simon Fraser defender in SFU territory and chipping it over the head of the goalkeeper.
The Seawolves added one more goal in 59 minute when a corner kick by Josh Sanchez perfectly set up Frame, who tapped it into the net.
The Clan offense was relentless in the second half, shooting nine of their 11 total shots during the last 45 minutes. However, sophomore goalkeeper Mitch North was just as unyielding.
Four of his six saves came in the last half. Only one of the SFU shots found the net in the 67 minute.
After the 3-1 victory, SSU hoped to maintain their undefeated status heading into their Saturday match against the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds.
Unlike Thursday’s game, scoring was kept to a minimum. Throughout the first half, the Seawolves out-shot FPU with 11-7 shots on goal, but neither team could find the net.
Heading into the second half, the Seawolves looked to make adjustments against the Sunbirds.
“They had a slower defense so we just looked to expose their outside backs and just get by them,” said junior Armando Coronel.
“In the second half, we figured out how to break
Water polo head coach leads junior national team
to gold
oliviA lucchese
Staff Writer
Coralie Simmons will return to Sonoma State for her eighth season as head coach of the woman’s water polo team. Through
her experiences as an assistant coach for UCLA and the University of Hawaii, along with play-ing in college at UCLA and professionally on the United States National Team, Simmons brings knowledge and experience to the SSU women’s water polo program to help the girls succeed and play their best.
In 2009, Simmons lead the team to a 9-22 record for the season. Simmons was named the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPA) Division II National Coach of the Year after leading the Seawolves to their fourth place finish in the Women’s Water Polo Association Championship Tournament.
This past summer, Simmons had the oppor-tunity to coach the 20U Junior National Team in Greece and successfully lead the team to its second-straight gold metal.
“Playing in Greece this past summer was so unique, this group of girls was so talented and a nice combination between youth and college girls,” said Simmons.
“I got to experience the game tactically and play five on five, rather then six on six, so that was exciting and my coaching staff was an all female staff, the first one to win a national cham-pionship.”
Simmons continues to show her love for the game and is able to bring this experience home with her to help bring some new knowledge to the SSU woman’s water polo team.
Simmons said the trip to Greece was a pro-fessional development for her as she was able to have access to many other countries’ tactics and approach.
“I think it is great exposure for the school, as well as recruiting and puts us on the map not only nationally, but internationally,” said Simmons.
“I love being apart of my athlete’s lives here at Sonoma State and watching them grow; they balance school and sport so well, I love watch-ing them fulfill their goals as athletes and as stu-dents.”
them down.”Coronel gave the Seawolves a lead in the 66 minute
after finessing the Sunbird goalkeeper for a wide-open shot.
With a hint of desperation, FPU started firing at the Seawolves’ net. They did so 11 times in the second half. However, none of the attempts were successful thanks to North, who made eight saves during his shift defend-
ing the net.The clock struck zero and the Sunbird players fell
to their knees in disbelief while the Seawolves cheered. The 1-0 score was final, and SSU raised their record to 2-0-0 on the season.
The Seawolves will play their next five games on the road before returning home to play rival Cal State Chico on Sept. 27 at 2 p.m.
“In the second half, we figured out how to break them down.”
sonomaseawolves.com
Sonoma State University women’s water polo Head Coach Coralie Simmons, far left, led the Americans to their second striaght gold medal at the FINA Junior World Championships in Volos, Greece.
STAR // Connor Gibson
Juior forward TJ Perez advances on the Fresno Pacific defenders as the Seawolves went on to beat the Sunbirds 1-0. Perez scored a goal in the Seawolves’ 3-1 season-opener against Simon Fraser University.
Justin Barrientos
Staff Writer
Scott Alexander, for-mer pitcher for the Sonoma State baseball
team, was given the call-up to come and play for the Kansas City Royals.
This was primarily due to Major League Rosters expanding from 25 to 40 players in preparation for the upcoming postseason on Sept. 1.
Alexander, a local prod-uct out of Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, played one season for the Seawolves in 2010, going 3-6 with a 4.50 ERA and 70 strikeouts before making the decision to forgo his senior season and pursue a career as a professional baseball player.
After making himself eligible for the draft, Alex-ander was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the
sixth round, number 179 overall.
After five seasons of working his way through the lower levels of the Roy-als minor league system, Alexander was called up to play for their triple-A affili-ate Omaha Storm Chasers of the Pacific Coast League at the end of the 2014 season.
He remained with the Storm Chasers into the 2015 season. In 41 relief appear-ances for the team, Alexan-der had a 2-3 record while maintaining a 2.56 ERA, racking up 50 strikeouts and saving 14 games.
Last Tuesday, as Major League Baseball teams picked up 15 more players in order to provide depth for the postseason, several mi-nor leaguers were given the opportunity of a lifetime.
Alexander was called up by the Royals who are 82-54, currently holding first place in the American League Central Division and
are poised to make a deep playoff run for the second consecutive year.
In two relief appear-ances for the Royals this past week, Alexander was called upon to finish the game for the team in which he suc-ceeded both times, includ-ing getting the game ending strikeout against the Detroit Tigers.
In his two appearanc-es, Alexander has given up three hits, two earned runs and has recorded two strike-outs in two innings of game time.
Alexander is only the fourth Seawolf to play in the majors, joining Marshall Brant, Tommy Everidge and Daniel Barone as a member of this elite fraternity of ball-players.
As October approaches, Scott Alexander will look to make an impact for the Royals in the postseason, as they pursue a World Series Championship.
Sports 11Page
SeP. 8 - SeP. 14, 2015SonomaStateStar.com
Scott Alexander makes it big
Women’s volleyball set to defend title
thomas Call Staff Writer
Sonoma State University’s Wom-an’s Volleyball team is coming off their most memorable season
in school history after being crowned champions of the California Collegiate Athletic Association last season for the first time in the seventeen years the school has been in the conference. Now, there is nothing they want more than to regain their title. The team boasted a 23-7 overall record and finished with the CCAA conference championship, the NCAA west region championship, and an appearance in the Women’s Divi-sion II NCAA Elite Eight tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. All firsts for the university.
The Seawolves will try to build off this historic run in 2015. Seniors Cay-lie Seitz and Madelyn Densberger look to lead SSU all the way to the first ever CCAA women’s volleyball tournament hosted by UC San Diego in La Jolla, California at the end of the season.
Senior outside hitter Caylie Seitz, from Santa Rosa, California, looks to follow in the footsteps of her former teammate and Seawolves legend Kelsey Hull. Hull was the first ever Sonoma State woman to be named CCAA Fe-male Athlete of the Year.
Even though these will be hard shoes to fill, Seitz is no amateur on the volleyball court. Seitz is a two-time AVCA All-American and was named the 2013 season’s most valuable player by the CCAA.
Seitz led the CCAA with a 4.39 kill-per-set average, which was ranked seventh best in the nation last year. She finished with double digit kills in 28 of the teams 30 matches. Seitz looks to continue her great run in a Seawolves uniform by pairing up with her younger sister Calan, who is a Sophomore setter for the team this season.
In August, the CCAA released its preseason coaches poll and the Sea-wolves received the most votes for first place with seven but were picked to place second with 134 points just behind women’s volleyball perennial powerhouse Cal State San Bernadino who received 136 points in the poll.
Later in August, the NCAA re-leased its Division II preseason coach-es poll and had the Seawolves ranked 12 overall in the nation ahead of Cal State San Bernadino who was ranked 19 overall. The 12 overall ranking is the highest overall ranking in school history.
The Seawolves began their title de-fense with a trip to Oahu, Hawaii where
they played in the Hawaii Invitational this past week. The Seawolves split the first two games of the trip after they dropped the opener against the Hawaii Pacific Sharks in three sets. The girls then came out on fire against Saint Martins University in the second day of the Invitational and won the game in three sets.
That led to the premier matchup of the trip where the number 12 ranked Seawolves squared off against the the number 11 ranked BYU-Hawaii Seasid-ers on the third day of the Hawaii invi-tational in Laie, Hawaii.
SSU started off strong, taking the first set 25-17, when things took a turn for the worse.They dropped the next
two sets 25-22 and 25-23. The fourth set went back and back but the Sea-wolves would not go down without a fight, winning the fourth set 25-22.
With the match tied 2-2,the Sea-wolves went on a 7-2 run to finish off the Seasiders in the fifth set and win the match. Caylie Seitz led the Sea-wolves to victory with a match high 23 kills.
Sonoma State lost the final game of the trip to undefeated Chaminade Uni-versity in four sets. They finished the trip with a 2-2 record.
The Seawolves will come back to California and prepare to face off against Dominican University, Friday, Sept. 11 in San Rafael, California. The defending champs will return to play on their home court at SSU on Satur-day, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. against Holy Names University.
sonomaseawolves.com
Coming off of its first-ever CCAA and NCAA Division II West Region championships, SSU looked to defend their title as they competed in the Hawaii Invitational last week.
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Seawolf alumni Scott Alexander has been called-up to play with the Kansas City Royals.
Now, there is nothing they want more than to regain their title.
Photo Sep. 8 - Sep. 14, 2015page
SonomaStateStar.com12
STAR // Kaila Sanders
Sonoma State University students gather at Lobo’s to listen to live music performed by their fellow Seawolves.
STAR // Connor Gibson
Armando Coronel, #18, dribbles the ball away from his defender.
STAR // Connor Gibson
Sean Callahan, #8, looks downfield while surrounded by defenders.
STAR // Connor Gibson
TJ Perez, #15, saves the ball with a header.
COURTESY // Gustavo Vasquez
Sonoma State art students James Blake and Simon Cherin-Gordon view-ing “Muhammed Ali” by photographer Gordon Parks during the open-ing reception of Focus on Photography, a collection of photographs from the Gallus Sweet Collection on Thursday.
COURTESY // Gustavo Vasquez
Focus on Photography, a collection of photographs from the Gallus Sweet Collection, consists of photographs from iconic photographers. Sonoma State art students view work during the opening reception on Thursday.
COURTESY // Gustavo Vasquez
Art Studio student James Blake (left) and professor of art Kurt Kemp (right) view artwork during the opening reception on Thursday.