A.S. BRIEF: 10-27-08

Diversity experiences?
There is a question that is being asked to college graduates more and more during job interviews.

“Do you have diversity experiences?”

Corporate America is concerned about the readiness of college graduates to operate in a diverse workforce, according to San Diego State Director of Diversity Aaron Bruce, who spoke at last week’s Associated Students Council meeting. The solution is for students to get involved in more on-campus activities, Bruce said.

“We realize that many students are not participating in all the great activities that SDSU has to offer,” Bruce said. “They kind of find their little niche and they stick with it.”

One idea to strengthen students’ cultural competency is co-circular transcripts that would require students to attend diversity events as part of their college experience in order to earn academic credits.

IRA Fee presentations
A.S. is gearing up for the Instructional Related Activities fee presentations, which will be delivered to the various schools of Education at SDSU. There will also be two IRA Fee open forums taking place this week. The first forum will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. in A.S. Council Chambers and the second will be at the Aztec Center Backdoor at 2 p.m. Thursday. A.S. executives said presenters would report the facts in a fair and unbiased way, regardless of their personal opinion of the IRA Fee.

Hailed designer to visit SDSU

If you have never heard of Jerry Kuyper, take a look at the logos for Touchstone Pictures, the World Wildlife Fund, ExxonMobil or the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He designed them.

Kuyper will be coming to San Diego State to speak on “Comic, Cosmic and Cosmetic Branding” next Thursday, something that has the art students abuzz, professor Susan Merritt said. In his industry, Kuyper has become a brand unto himself, Merritt said.

“His whole career in graphic design has been focused on branding,” Merritt added. “He’s worked with the best branding companies in the country … and now has his own company. He’s a funny person; he has a good sense of humor, and I think that is why students will enjoy his presentation.”

Kuyper’s high-energy lecture promises to “demystify” the branding industry from concept to creation, as well as hand out insightful advice to those hoping to break into branding themselves, Merritt said.

Kuyper said he makes a point of injecting humor into his lectures. His pet peeve is when professionals take themselves too seriously. But that’s not to say his lectures are not seriously informative, he said.

“I look at historic trends and current trends and I try to identify the criteria in creating and evaluating visual identities,” Kuyper said. “We take a broad look at branding — from how it affects political candidates to how it affects products.”

Kuyper is an award-winning graphic designer who specializes in forging aesthetic identities for companies and organizations and has worked internationally. He has left his mark on many businesses, including Cisco, General Electric, Stanford University, AT&T, Disney, ChevronTexaco, Hawaiian Airlines and Hilton.

Brands become synonymous with their companies — governing the look, feel and font of a logo — and they ultimately influence a buyer, Merritt said.

“A symbol, a logo, is really like a face that gets put out there to the public and it becomes the brand, the mark which sort of brands the company,” she said.

After spending years working for creative consultants such as Lippincott, Siegel + Gale, frog design and Landor, he decided to go into business for himself. Kuyper founded his own company, Jerry Kuyper Partners, in 2004. Kuyper received his bachelor’s in graphic design from the University of Cincinnati and finished four years of graduate work at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland.

The event will be held at 7 p.m. next Thursday in Nasatir Hall, Room 100.

A.S. BRIEF: 10-20-08

Browning talks campus safety
There is safety in numbers, said Police Chief John Browning, who attended last week’s Associated Students council meeting to address campus safety concerns.

A week after the tragic on-campus murder of Luis Santos, Browning proposed an assortment of tips for public safety. Invest in visible clubs for cars, walk in groups when traveling the campus at night, program the campus police number into your cell phone: (619) 594-1991 and utilize the police escort services at night. Browning also said motorcycles should be secured to security rails in the parking structures.

Campus police will be holding a Rape Aggression Defense course for women Nov. 19-21 in Cholula Hall, which is free for San Diego State students. There is a planned 911 service that will divert 911 calls made on campus to the campus dispatchers, Browning said.

The campus police are limited by budget concerns, which affects their ability to provide additional video cameras in the parking garages. However, Browning said that the campus has 35,000 very reliable surveillance eyes: that of the students. Students who report suspicious activity are invaluable in preventing crime on campus, he added.

The police and A.S. are joining together to combat auto thefts by providing more clubs for steering wheels, Browning said. This is meant both to make cars harder for thieves to steal but also as a visible sign to deter thieves. Police and A.S. will split the cost of 1,000 clubs for university students who volunteer for club training and sign a promise

Relief for Native American Student Alliance
The impecunious Native American Student Alliance will soon be feeling some relief after a recent decision by the Finance Board. The board agreed to “accelerate to the current year the $17,980 in transfers of funds to pay off a 2002-2003 powwow billing,” according to the board’s minutes.

This frees up NASA to apply for A.S. funding in the future and will allow the student organization to return to its primary goal of recruiting and representing underrepresented students.

Factors in this decision were A.S.’s commitment to promoting diversity, the lack of a proper billing policy when the incident occurred and the long absence of the original NASA members involved in the Powwow. Vice President of Finance Grant Garske said it was important to resolve the issue now, as delaying the decision would only push it further into the future, making it more difficult for future A.S. executives to understand.

-Compiled by Senior Staff Writer Justin Cooper

Slain Mesa student remembered

Photos by David J. Olender/ Photo Editor

Tuesday night, students came together to hallow a place marked by violence. Dozens of students gathered near Parking Lot M near Peterson Gym to celebrate the life of Luis “Lu” Felipe Watson dos Santos, 22.

They came with stories, warm memories and doses of laughter.



“For those of you who knew Lu, you knew he was an energetic and fun individual who was always down to do something, actually anything,” friend Tracy Katelsen said. “He accepted everybody, he was friends with everybody. If he didn’t know you, he wanted to be your friend.”

Friends solemnly held candles and shared fond memories about Santos, first publicly and then in smaller groups. The Parking Lot M sign is now marked by memorial candles and signed cards.



Santos, a Mesa College student, was walking from a party with three friends when they reportedly got into a verbal altercation and then later a physical fight during which Santos and three other victims were stabbed. Santos is also remembered by his parents, Fred and Kathy Santos, as a very upbeat, outgoing and social young man.

According to SDPD Lt. Kevin Rooney, a video of the assault does exist, although it is of poor quality. Rooney went on to say that police did not want to subject family and friends to the video by making it public without a valid reason.

“We viewed the video; unfortunately it’s not of good enough quality for us to release to the public,” he said. “We don’t feel that the video is of a caliber that anyone would be able to recognize the suspects from the video.”



Questions about the attack and the identities of the suspects continue to surround the incident. Rooney said there was no indication that it was a gang-related incident or that the victims provoked the attack in any way. Santos’, best friend, Navid Sabahi, asked anyone with information to call the police.



“Anybody who knows like anything at all, even if you heard of just a fight that same night, anything at all, please contact the police department,” Sabahi said. “The people who did this should be punished. Now’s not the time to procrastinate on things like that so please just come forward as soon as possible.”

Flowers can be sent to the Santos family at Oakmont Memorial Park & Mortuary. The address is 2099 Reliez Valley Road, Lafayette, CA 94549 and the phone number is (925) 935-3311. Funeral services will be held at noon on Saturday, at Saint Bonaventure Church at 5562 Clayton Rd. in Concord. A burial will follow at Oakmont Memorial Park at 1:45 p.m. and there will be a reception at the Santos family home after the burial. Details will be announced at the funeral service.

A.S. Brief 10-6-08

Strasburg honored
Associated Students presented the first ever Above and Beyond award to Stephen Strasburg, an Olympic notable who represented San Diego State in the 2008 Olympics. Strasburg competed as a pitcher on the National team and scoring as much as eleven strikeouts against the Netherlands in one game. He said some memorable experiences included walking alongside Kobe Bryant and LeBron James during the march of the nations as well as a photo and signed baseball from U.S. President George Bush.

Add/Drop Abuses
Students are abusing the class enrollment system by reregistering for a high number of classes and then later “shopping around” for the teachers they like and dropping the other classes Associated Students President James Poet said. This is muddling the funding for classes because the university allocates funds based upon enrollment. It also negatively affects the availability of classes for other students Poet said.

Update on Louie’s
Poet said that there would be an upcoming meeting for himself, Louie’s Pub representatives and university administrators to clarify the facts surrounding Modern Space and the fate of the Pub.

“I think there’s are a lot of rumors flying around that are inaccurate,” Poet said.

Money Matters
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed the new budget into law, which affects the SDSU general fund Vice President of Finance Grant Garske said. The new California State University budget has shortened SDSU’s projected shortfall of $12.3 million to only $4.4 million. CSU Budget talks, specifically with the CSU unions will still be ongoing Garske said.

At the meetings end, Director of Communications and Campus Relations for Aztec Shops, R.D. Williams challenged A.S. to a campus wide scavenger hunt with prizes ranging from “free stuff’ to $100 gifts cards to Aztec Shops locations. Excited A.S members split into teams, hurried from their seats and joined the hunt.

-Compiled by Senior Staff Writer Justin Cooper

A.S. Brief 9-29-08

Free Speech Steps
Associated Students held its council meeting outside Wednesday on the Free Speech Steps. While there were crowds, the students seemed more interested in the preview screening of "Eagle Eye" than student politics.

State Senate candidate Jeff Perwin spoke at the council meeting, warning A.S. that the city of San Diego has been opposing students through various alcohol bans and a law that prevents three students from living together in housing districts.

"The city is moving against the college students and you have the right to stand up," Perwin said. "You need to start being aware of what's going on."

President Weber addresses students
President Stephen Weber also visited the meeting, sharing his vision for San Diego State and answered questions from the council and the gallery.

He said that SDSU's road to top recognition laid in a mixture of community involvement, elevating student pride and securing its reputation as a small research university.

Also important were grants and contracts, which totaled more than $130 million last year, Weber said. Weber called philanthropic donations the "third stem" of support that along with student fees and state money would help to enrich the university.

He also talked the changing demographics of SDSU, which will increase by 10,000 new students in the next 10 years.

Debt collections
A subject of long debate for the council was the $19,204 debt owed by the Native American Student Alliance to Associated Students. The debt stems from an event years ago, when NASA and other community groups rented Cox Arena and failed to pay. A.S. funds NASA, so the money that NASA gives back is to pay the debt. Essentially A.S. is paying itself for the debt.

A.S. officially accepted the independent audit that monitors A.S. annual spending and gave A.S. a financial clean bill of health. The auditors offered no recommendations.

Rock the Vote
Vice President of External Affairs Daniel "OZ" Osztreicher said that the "Rock the Vote" program has signed up nearly 5,000 new voters in preparation for the coming election.

The meeting ended to the rousing words of the Aztec Fight Song, as councilmembers were determined to let the crowds know that there was something else going on than just cinema.

-Compiled by Senior Staff Writer Justin Cooper