Student Clubs on Campus

By: Kendriya Powell, Brittany Jackson, Leo Jerald, Juan Ramos, students of the Media Academy in Oakland & Alex Estrada, SFSU jouranlism student.


Student clubs table around Malcom X Plaza to raise money and generate club membership.

Hundreds of students from about 10 SFSU student clubs spent their Tuesday afternoon trying to recruit members for their clubs. The Campus Democrats, Muslim Student Association, and Phi Sigma Sigma, Improv Nation where amongst some of the clubs tabling on the beautiful Tuesday afternoon.

In order to promote their Halloween special show this coming Friday, Improv Nation members dressed up in chicken and gorilla suits.

The College Democrats sit in front of the Ceasar chavez student center with a giant cardboard cut-out of President Obama in a superheroes costume

“Our goal is to educate about politics,” says Fiona Ryan, an SFSU campus club member.

The College democrats spend their time volunteering and attend state conventions to educate young democrats.

A very gay day!

Three months ago, I got a text message that from my friend John telling me he had gotten engaged. I texted him back “CONGRATULATIONS!!!”

A few weeks later John and I met up for coffee. After grabbing a cup we sat in the back room at a table. John asked me something that was to a shock for me:
"So I wanted to ask you something," said John, in a nervous tone. "I was wondering if you would one of my groomsmen?"
"Of course!" I gleefully responded. "It would be an honor."

What I haven’t mentioned so far is that John is gay. His partner, Craig, slipped the domestic partnership papers under John’s menu as an act of proposal to spend the rest of their lives together. As we all might know, John and Craig cannot legally marry in the state of California.

I’m not gay, however I was thrilled by John's news because he is one of my best friends, and I support gay rights. I feel every man and woman should have the rights of marriage, no matter their orientation. I also happen to have other gay friends and relatives that are dear and close to me, and their right to be happy with the person they love is important to them and myself.
So when California voters voted yes on Proposition 8 last November, my enthusiasm for Obama’s victory plummeted. For rest of my Wednesday afternoon following elections, I was silent and angered at the Prop 8 victory. My heart was lifted very recently when I heard that Governor Schwarzenegger did something I never expected his little conservative Republican heart would do.

He just passed two bills that is hopefully a step forward in gay rights. The first bill will recognize Harvey Milk on his own special holiday. Harvey Milk Day is set to be celebrated on May 22, Milk’s birthday. It’s a day for everyone to honor a leader in gay rights. The governor vetoed a similar bill last year. Why a change of heart? Maybe the terminator is terminating his shallow views on culture. Actually, it is believed he did it because President Obama awarded Milk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. Apparently this moved Schwarzenegger to sign the bill this time. I think Schwarzenegger doesn’t want to look like a fool in front of his liberal colleagues.

The second bill passed by Schwarzenegger deals with same-sex marriage sanctioned in other states to be recognized in California. Any same sex marriages performed in Vermont, or Mass. will be recognized by the state of California should the couples move. However, there is a catch. The only marriages that will be recognized are those that were performed during the 5 months that California performed gay marriages. It seems as though California legislature have found a way to stop our loopholes. But there does seem to be some progress with this battle on same sex marriage.

The topic of same sex marriage is growing more and more each day, as gay right supporters push to repeal Prop. 8 and as other states begin to recognize and perform same sex marriages. California is behind its own acknowledgment of diversity. It is time to really open our eyes. Because, frankly, our eyes have only been 3/4 of the way open. Like Gov. Schwarzenegger we must realize that we are a very diverse state with a very large and persistent gay and gay supporting population. We cannot keep ignoring this culture. We are after all, a very diverse state, and part of a country that’s built on hundreds of thousands of different beliefs. I look to the day when John and Craig get “married” so that I can be by John’s side and support him for who he is and who he wants to live with. I hope that day comes just in time for him and Craig to be recognized as a married couple in the state. Thank you to our governor, I feel that day is closer than we expect.

*the word "gay" in the headline is used as its original meaning: happy.
**John and Craig are not the real names.

Discount Please

OP-ED2
Alex Estrada
Jour 570
10/08/09


Will this change help?

I am sitting on a BART train on Sunday morning on my way back to San Francisco after celebrating my friend’s birthday in Berkeley. As my two friends and I get off the bus, we grab what we think are transfers to ride MUNI for free for the first 90 minutes after leaving BART. We step on the bus and hand the driver our “transfers” only to tell us that they are coupons for a discount to MUNI. I quickly reach for change in my pocket, and I’m 25 cents short of the fare. Luckily my visiting friend has an extra quarter for me.
On July 1, 2009, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MUNI) raised the fees for the bus lines, light-rail and cable cars from an already expensive $1.50 per ride, to an even more expensive $2 per ride. MUNI’s decisions to raise the fees came from the $30 million deficit the agency faced last year.
So what benefits do riders have? Riders getting off of BART in San Francisco stations, have the option to print out a coupon for a discount on MUNI just before leaving the gates of the station. However, while the coupon promises a discount, it is never mentioned anywhere how much the coupon is worth or how much the discount is. From experience, I learned that the discount coupons only take $0.25 off the $2 that MUNI charges for a bus rides. If this is your first time and don’t do research ahead of time at the website, you won’t know about this little trick. Luckily, MUNI drivers still hand out a 90 minute (or more) bus transfer/ receipt upon the rider paying fare. Will it get better? A program called Translink may change the way riders pay but still keeping the fundamentals behind transferring.
According to Translink, by 2010 Translink plans to make the transition from one public transportation system to another easier, and more convenient for one’s pocket. The program will allow people to transfer from BART to MUNI or MUNI to the Golden Gate Transit, GGT, and other Bay Area county means of public transportation with ease, and the swipe of a card. Sounds fairly easy right? It is. Translink allows people to use the card like a credit card. People can add money to the Translink card when the value on the card starts to get low. Translink will allow people to continue transferring from one MUNI line to another, and still get a discount when transferring from BART to MUNI.

This program sounds reasonable and affordable: buy a card, put money on it, and never wait in line at the front of the bus to pay. The fact that we never have to show proof of payment or spend time busting out exact change to ride seems likes a splendid idea. It is also nice to know that any discounts from transferring from one form of transportation to another are automatically done for you. That is, this only really works for a frequent rider. And that doesn’t change the fact that we initially don’t know how much of a discount we get. I also don’t come back to the city from Santa Rosa very often by public transportation; however, whenever I ride GGT, or get off BART I would like to save some money that adds to my savings for my trips to Utah and Oregon. Only discounting one quarter from the normal fare just doesn’t cut it. I will never make it to my friend’s wedding at this cheap discount. Nothing about this new program or nothing on MUNI’s website says anything about the possibility of getting ride free transfers from other transportation systems to MUNI lines. BART and GGT already burn a hole in my pocket with their high fare rates. When people ride BART or GGT back into the city, it would be nice to have a decent discount or free transfer to the first MUNI ride. I hate paying $11.80 for a one way trip from Santa Rosa to San Francisco. And I believe it’s ridiculous that the only discount from BART to MUNI is only worth a mere quarter. For people who don’t change public transportation on a daily basis, a quarter’s worth of discount from BART to MUNI does not add up to much at the end of the day, it doesn’t even punch a dent out of one’s daily expenses. As a poor college student, I can’t afford to only save a dollar or two every month I travel to the Eastbay and back. Trankslink and the Bay Area transportation agencies must really consider making transferring a more easy and affordable for tourists, part time commuters, and students; and give us a discount we can use, transfers from one public transportation system to another that we can afford, and help us save some money in this harsh economy. We, after all, are supporting them as much as we can by riding their reliable buses, boats, and trains.




Sources:
SF MTA
http://www.sfmta.com/

Translink
https://www.translink.org/TranslinkWeb/