Posts from — August 2009

The SJSU Women’s Resource Center will be showing, Nollywood Lady, a film by Dorothee Wenner, 6:00-8:00PM on Wednesday, 09/02/09. Please join us!

Nollywood Lady / A film by Dorothee Wenner
Germany/Nigeria, 2008, 52 minutes, Color, DVD

Peace Anyiam-Fibresima of Lagos, Nigeria is an impresario of showbiz and an impassioned spokeswoman for the thriving and innovative African film industry. She is “Nollywood Lady,” an ex-lawyer, producer, filmmaker, and the founder and CEO of the influential African Academy of Motion Pictures. And she is reshaping the way Africans see themselves—and how the world sees Africans. [Read more →]

Are you an incoming or nontraditional LGBTQI student?

Would you like to:

• Get connected to the LGBTQI Community at SJSU?
• Get confidential support?
• Get linked to resources available to you?
• Make new friends?

Peers in PRIDE is a free mentorship program designed for incoming LGBTQI students.  We provide individual support and resources to undergraduates, graduate, and nontraditional students.  For questions or to request more information, contact Angela at peersinprideSJSU@gmail.com
Or drop by the LGBT Resource Center in Building BB anytime!

Here is a flier with this info about the program
And here is a Mentor Request form if you’d like to sign up!

A series of discussions on the Chicano movement for civil rights and its legacy will kick off Sept. 16 (NOT Sept. 20!) in San Jose, organized by local civic group MAIZ (Movimiento de Accion Inspirando Servicio), according to SJSU alum Adriana Garcia

The first of four panel discussions, “Community Based Organizing in the Movimiento, Then and Now,” will be held from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Roosevelt Community Center near downtown San Jose. Admission is free.

Event #1: Wed. September 16, 2009: Community Based Organizing en el Movimiento, moderated by Maribel Martinez, SJSU Cesar Chavez Community Action Center, Program Director

Since 1969, community-based organizing has played a profound role in empowering San José’s diverse Latino community. Rallying around issues of quality education, police brutality, immigrant and labor rights, groups have employed militancy, culture and history as key organizing tools. Newer generations have also worked to strengthen the voices of mujeres and the LGBT community. Listen and share on the impact of the movimiento through the people that shaped it and continue its legacy. [Read more →]

The SJSU Women’s Resource Center will being showing, I Was a Teenage Feminist, A film by Therese Shechter, 6:00-8:00PM on Wednesday, 08/26/09 (Women’s Equality Day). Please join us!

I also offer my thanks to all our students, who are unfortunately shouldering an annual fee increase of over $900 in order to help San José State weather this budget storm. This rapid increase in student fees has resulted in a fundamental change in the balance of how education is funded across the CSU. For the first time in history, funding received from student fees — and other such  revenue sources — exceeds funding received from the State of California. This is unprecedented.

Here is a slide that shows the dramatic shift that has occurred over the past few years.

This increase in fees is a shameful shifting of responsibility for paying for public higher education from the state’s historic responsibility to San José State’s parents and students. This is not right. This is not what any of us wants. This act clearly breaks the promise of California’s higher education master plan. This promise created a system of higher education for the public good that now more and more is shifting to a personal/private responsibility. The master plan is so far out of whack that it is broken. This saddens me beyond belief, and I suspect it saddens all of you as well.

Our historic pride in access to all qualified citizens is now threatened. Our historic pride in serving a diverse population is now threatened. And our historic pride in continuous growth to serve the needs of a growing California is now threatened. So how will San José State deal with these threats going forward? That’s the question. How do we make the best of these challenging circumstances?

See full video and transcript here

By Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times
Updated: 08/13/2009 11:03:21 PM PDT

California State University students have asked a San Francisco judge to reverse fee hikes implemented last month after students had paid for the upcoming fall term.

The suit, filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court, closely resembles a successful action against the University of California that resulted in UC paying back about $42 million to former students. The same law firms that represented UC students are involved in the Cal State case.

“I believe it’s exactly the same thing that happened” at UC, said Danielle Leonard, an attorney with the students’ San Francisco firm, Altshuler Berzon. “This option should not have even been on the table.”

The class-action suit accuses the 440,000-student state university system of unfairly raising undergraduate and graduate fees in July, the second time in three months fees were hiked. Students at some campuses had as little as a week to pay the additional money to avoid having their accounts frozen, Leonard said. [Read more →]

Before 2001, America’s military women had rarely seen ground combat. Their jobs kept them mostly away from enemy lines, as military policy dictates.

But the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, often fought in marketplaces and alleyways, have changed that. In both countries, women have repeatedly proved their mettle in combat. The number of high-ranking women and women who command all-male units has climbed considerably along with their status in the military.

“Iraq has advanced the cause of full integration for women in the Army by leaps and bounds,” said Peter R. Mansoor, a retired Army colonel who served as executive officer to Gen. David H. Petraeus while he was the top American commander in Iraq. “They have earned the confidence and respect of male colleagues.”

Their success, widely known in the military, remains largely hidden from public view. In part, this is because their most challenging work is often the result of a quiet circumvention of military policy.

Full story at NYTimes.com.

Hi Everyone! I know this is a bit late, but I wanted to share my experience participating in San Jose Pride this year before the summer is actually over and the semester starts. San Jose Pride took place on June 13th and 14th and this year, for the very first time, SJSU had a group of students, faculty, and staff, who participated as an official contingency!!! Yeah!!!!

To be honest, in recent years I’ve become somewhat disillusioned with Pride events. In my limited experience, it seems like more and more the politics of gay liberation are being replaced with corporate sponsorship and consumer citizenship. When Pride rolled around again this year, I felt ambivalent about it. Where was the social critique in all of this? Where were the radical politics? I wasn’t sure the answer to these questions.

Anyway, I found out that the SJSU LGBT center was going to have an organized group marching the parade on the 14th and I came to the decision that yes, I should go and particiapte not only to support the students who had put in a great deal of work to organize themselves but to represent the queer community at SJSU. And I have to say, it was AWESOME!  

All together there were about 30 of us, including students, faculty, staff, and supporters. Some of the students had organized themselves to do a drill team routine, twirlling their flags and busting out their moves. They were amazing! And the crowd loved them.

I suppose I didn’t fully realize the impact of having an SJSU group in the parade, and what it meant to the San Jose community, alumni, and current students until I was marching down Santa Clara and so many people who were standing on the side lines seems thrilled to see SJSU represented. It was in that moment that I rediscovered the importance of events like Pride. Sometimes the seemingly simple act of being out and proud is tremendously political. Next year I want to help get even more people involved. Can you imagine what it would be like if there were 50 or 100 marching from SJSU?! It will be so awesome. So all those who want to be involved, start warming up for next year!

Today, at 12:30 pm on Thursday, August 6, the United States Senate voted 68-31 to confirm President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.   Sotomayor is the first Latina justice, and just the third woman to serve.

Yeehaw!