Dwight Bentel, who helped students start the Spartan Daily in 1934 and two years later established the journalism program at San Jose State University, died today. He was 103.

His death at a Saratoga skilled-nursing facility resulted from complications related to a stroke, according to Amelia Vences, his caregiver for eight years.

During his 40 years at SJSU, nearly 30 of which he directed what is now the school of journalism and mass communications, he backed up two university presidents as an administrative aide, led a new police school, chaired a committee that got the Student Union built and fiercely demanded in his signature class that his students understand and defend the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Among Bentel’s several “distinguished” teaching awards was recognition by the university, California State College system and national journalism associations. Alumni of the journalism program have their names on three individual Pulitzer Prizes, and at least two graduates directed work that received four other Pulitzers for newspaper staffs.

Passion for the Daily

The story told many times painted a bright-eyed 25-year-old Bentel being summoned by President T. W. MacQuarrie of what was then San Jose State Teachers College, in the summer of 1934.

“Yes, I can pinpoint it right now,” he remembered in a Jan. 5 interview. “I went in to see him. And after a rather short discussion of what I could offer and so on, now, he said, ‘Dwight, I would like you to possibly do a little publicity with the college, to teach some basic course or two in journalism and … Dwight I don’t really know what your job is.’”

MacQuarrie gave the young reporter and former San Jose State student one year to establish an occupationally oriented program, according to “The first 50 years,” a book on the school’s history by Dolores Spurgeon, who was the Daily’s second editor and Bentel’s first hire in the department.

Bentel would become the driving force behind journalism at SJSU.

Although he would never say he founded the Spartan Daily, it was Bentel’s hand that shaped its emergence from the State College Times, which was being assembled by a dozen students out of Room 17 in Tower Hall.

At the beginning of the fall semester of 1934, Bentel, described as a dynamic character with red hair and freckles always moving, always bouncing, began the process of molding the Spartan Daily into a structured newsroom.

“All right, you guys, now look,” he recalled. “I came in today to watch you putting out the paper and right now, beginning immediately, you are now on a standard three-unit performance — three units of payment as a requirement — and you do not come wandering in when you are ready to work.

“You are to come in at 1 in the afternoon and work until 4. Whether you have a story due, you come in at 1. At that time we did a review of that day’s paper and saw what was good. But it was no longer a choice of you to say whether you would come in and work.”

Mindful that MacQuarrie had said Bentel was on his own, the staff each were assured by their new mentor that they would get three units of credit.

“Who said we could give three units of credit?” he added, chuckling. “I did. Later I had a word with the administration.”

Bentel was adamant that the Daily should be a free press publication with students making news and editorial decisions and faculty acting as advisers.

“He was such a huge figure in the history of the Spartan Daily,” said David Willman, L.A. Times reporter, Pulitzer Prize recipient and student reporter and editor of the Spartan Daily in 1977. “I think that a lot of us worked harder to live up to the reputation that he had helped create for the Spartan Daily. I know without thinking about it, it was an incentive and inspiration.”

Gordon Greb, a retired radio professor, who was an adviser on the Daily, wrote in a note that nothing ever stopped Bentel.

“This man was such a bundle of energy that he never walked but he ran,” he stated. “He was an olympian racer of Spartan endurance and set such high standards in developing the working press it left you breathless just to see him in action.”

Strong passion for the First Amendment

Bentel’s specialty was media law and the First Amendment.

He published more than 100 scholarly works including the novel “California Libel Law” in 1968, establishing himself as an authority on the subjects, according to Spurgeon.

Bentel was a member of a legislative advisory group whose work led to the Brown Act, legislation that prohibits closed meetings and secret records of public and governmental bodies in California.

Up until his retirement from full-time teaching in 1974 he taught classes in nearly everything in the department, but students most vividly remember his media law class.

“Dr. Bentel taught us about libel in great detail and added the broader lesson in life that anyone can make a mistake; the test is what you do about it,” said Jim Adams who was the Spartan Daily’s editor in 1959 and went on to travel with then Vice President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State George Shultz and cover the first Gulf War in 1990-91. “Dr. Bentel’s libel course was my guide throughout my career as a Washington AP and Reuters reporter.”

“He always told the same stories in all of his classes … I enjoyed him very much,” said Betty Dickason, a 1948 Spartan Daily alumna whose daughter was editor of the Daily. “He was just so full of energy when we were there.”

Rick Carroll, who studied journalism at SJSU in the early 1960s and later worked as a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and San Francisco Chronicle, said as an 18-year-old he chose to attend SJSU, “where I met Dwight Bentel the Fall semester 1961 and felt the white hot heat of his passion for journalism. It was not a guild, a craft, or a profession to him; it was religion and maybe it was in his time, and maybe it was for a little longer for us, too.”

Mentor and leader

Spurgeon writes that Bentel had a strong vision for the budding journalism program at SJSU. The Spartan Daily would provide students with training and experience in operating a daily — the experience they needed to get a job.

He hired professionals from the industry and established three new sequences, advertising, public relations and photojournalism.

But also remembered is Bentel’s dedication to his students.

Jerry Nachman, author and former San Francisco Chronicle columnist, told of a session with Bentel.

"I was on my summer internship and I was at the Berkeley bureau of the Oakland Tribune in the summer of 1960,” he said. “I didn't do very well. I had a very tough boss and she didn't trust me to go out on stories. I put in my three months and I went back to school in September for my last semester. Dwight Bentel called me and he said, 'Well, you didn't get a very good support from the boss. She thinks you should find another career.' Then Dwight Bentel said to me, ‘I think she's wrong.' I had been writing for the Spartan Daily. He said, 'I believe in you and that you should keep on going.' He really backed me up and supported me. It was a huge thing for me at the time."

Marty Weybret, publisher of the Lodi News-Sentinel, recalls Bentel as an inspiring one-man show.

“He started the department and he added pieces to it like building block very deftly. He set very high standard for the teaching of journalism, mass media law, but also high standards for breadth,” he said. “He had a great balance with students, where you have to demand a lot and yet still be inspiration and still be a leader though compliments and encouragement. When he was at his best, the department was the best in the state and rivaled any in the nation in my understanding.”

J. Benton White, retired SJSU professor of religious studies and university ombudsman, said of Bentel, “He was extremely jealous of his student's role in reporting news during the tumultuous days of the late ’60s and early ’70s and became enraged when some of his reporters in his view were roughed up by the police on an occasion at McQuarrie Hall … I have never before or since seen him so enraged.”

Dwight Bentel Hall was named in his honor in 1982.

“He was highly respected over the years and the Spartan Daily was a highly respected student newspaper under his guidance,” White said. “It is fitting a building is named in his honor. He deserved that honor if anybody ever did.”

Dwight Essler Bentel

Mack Lundstrom, Cynthia Ly, Julie Myhre, Rebecca Duran, Francisco Rendon, Ronald Gleeson and Leo Postovoit contributed to this story.

Brittany Patterson is the Spartan Daily managing editor. This is a special appearance of her column, "Small Town Girl."

“Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world / took the midnight train going anywhere.”

The newsroom would belt these quintessential Journey lyrics nearly every time my column would run this semester and break into gleeful song at the sight of my corn stalks and illustrated rabbits.

It’s ironic because in many ways I didn’t even realize the significance of the words coming out of their mouths.

I am a small town girl, and in many ways my childhood was quite isolated — living in the middle of nowhere will do that to you.

And I, like millions before me, made my great escape the minute I could. I hopped on the first “midnight train” that passed through my life not caring where it took me. I needed to go anywhere.

Now as I face graduation I’ve realized the higher powers that be knew my anywhere would be exactly where I needed to go.

These last two years at San Jose State have changed my life. It’s cliché — something nearly everyone who is graduating will lament — but I mean it with the utmost sincerity.

When I came to SJSU I was still running, and at that point I didn’t know where I was going. I knew I liked to write and liked words, but I had no idea if journalism is something that I could or should do.

Lucky for me I have been surrounded by the most talented, dedicated group of peers and staff. This place has served as an incubator for budding creativity for my malleable brain.

Specifically my last year in the Spartan Daily has changed my life. It has been the most intense “real life” training I could have ever hoped for. I have never been challenged like the Daily has challenged me.

There has been sweat, tears and I’m sure blood, shed for the Daily. My experience this semester as an editor has tested every moral fiber I possess. I’ve had to transform the way I interacted with other people, transform myself into what I hope was a leader, into someone I hope was a teacher. I’ve had to transform the way I look at myself.

It took me 21 years to figure it out, but I think I’m starting to understand you really can’t control the events that unfold in your life. What you can control is your narrative, the story you shape, the threads you sew.

And perhaps the biggest part of my narrative has been the people who have entered my life.

And those people who have entered my life — they have affected me for the better. My classmates, my fellow staff writers, my editorial staff and the professors and advisers, all of these humans have changed my life for the better.

As part of my narrative, I can only hope, at least in a miniscule way, I have done the same for the people who have interacted with me.

Despite my neurosis, my emotions, my penchant for all things fuzzy I truly hope I have given back some morsel to those who have given to me.

My life has been a series of layers — I’m like a colossal seven-layer dip. My childhood, growing up with a core rooted in the country, has served as my foundation. My time here at SJSU has been yet another layer, but this one much more intricate.

And I have yet another layer waiting for me when I begin graduate school at UC Berkeley in the fall.

I would be fooling myself, and those who have come to know me if I said I’m not terrified. Things have finally begun to feel like home here.

But as part of my narrative it’s important that I keep challenging myself.

I will always be a small town girl, but I’m not living in a lonely world anymore — my midnight trains are going where I want them to now.

Megan Mills is a Spartan Daily staff writer.

My graduation gown is ironed, and my cap is ready to be worn.

On May 23, I graduate from college.

Having to go to class, writing countless papers and completing homework assignments will all be concepts replaced by suits, meetings and managers.

As scary as this thought seems, excitement tends to overshadow the nerves plaguing my brain right about now.

What job could I end up getting? Where am I going to live? How will my life unravel after my life of being a student athlete for the past 15 years?

Everything I know and have come to love will suddenly change.

My past four years at SJSU have truly been a remarkable experience, introducing me to an invaluable education, friends I’ll have for life and successful memories that are now embedded in my mind.

I vividly remember my parents dropping me off at SJSU after driving the eight hours from Southern California my first day freshman year.

It was the usual sight. Mom was crying immensely, and dad was hurrying to get to the car, waiting to enjoy the house as empty nesters.

Now four years later, I frequently relish my time living in the dorms, eating at the dining commons with my best friends, living right across the hall.

Two of the most important aspects in my life, swimming and school, will be over.

I’ve always liked consistency with anything I do. I like having a schedule of where I’m supposed to be at during a specific hour.

Call me crazy, but I thrive better under a strict schedule regiment.

This year especially, I’ve learned to ride the waves of life instead of fighting them. It’s hard to fight events you have no control over, like deaths within the family and the weather.

But, I realized I do have control over where my life is headed after graduation.

I do have control over which job I apply to within the journalism field, what internship I get and where I choose to live, which is in San Jose.

For all the graduates out there, from schools all over the country, this time after graduation can be the most exciting time in our lives.

It’s only normal we take the next steps in starting careers and jobs that may suit us 30 years from now.

For the last 17 years, I’ve known the next step after each school is graduation.

After middle school, you go to high school and after graduating high school you go to college.

Now, after graduating college, what’s the next step?

That’s the beauty of it.

As graduates, we really have the luxury of pursuing our careers in the field we chose during college.

I become stressed just as much as the next graduate — concerned about the future, becoming successful or making my parents proud of my accomplishments.

Then I realize I have to be proud of what I’ve already done after 21 years of continuous learning, both in and out of the classroom — both priceless.

That knowledge will help us in the future to continue in achieving great things.

I hope the graduates have enjoyed their time at SJSU as much as I have. Love it or hate it — SJSU has been a pivotal point for guiding us to our future.

Congratulations class of 2012! We did it!

Derik Irvin, Spartan Daily

Swimming/Diving

SJSU's swim team took home the WAC women's swimming and diving championship this year, earning a 728 team score over the course of a four-day championship.

The team placed first in eight of the 21 events and had three winners on the last day of the championship.

Coach Sage Hopkins earned Coach of the Year and junior freestyler Marisa DeWames was named Swimmer of the Year.

DeWames was then advanced to the NCAA championship and finished 42^nd in the 100 freestyle, — the first SJSU female swimmer to compete in the NCAA championship since 2008.

Men's Golf

The men's golf team won the WAC championships for the first time since 1985, and recorded their first season with four wins since 1982.

All five players were ranked in the Top-20 during the championship tournament.

Senior Jay Myers won two tournaments this season, including the WAC Championship individual medalist.

Myers was named to the first team All-WAC, in addition to being awarded WAC Player of the Year.

Alongside Myers, senior Matthew Hovan landed his sixth Top-5 ranking in the championship and was named to the All-WAC second team.  Coach John Kennaday was honored as WAC Coach of the Year.

The WAC championship win sends SJSU to the NCAA Regional Championships on May 17-19 at Stanford Golf Course.

Women's Golf

SJSU women's golf team claimed the WAC title for the fourth year in a row.

They finished 17^th at NCAA Regionals behind senior Megan Oswald, who landed at the 26^th spot by shooting a 221 in the three-round tournament.

Junior Jennifer Brumbaugh led the team with her lowest round of the tournament (74) to finish in 45^th place at 225.

Senior Madeliene Ziegert polished off her career at the 2012 WAC championship.

Ziegert ends her career as a Spartan with four WAC championships, three first-team All-WAC honors and the first SJSU women's golfer to win a regional title as a co-medalist in the 2010 NCAA West Regional.

Softball

The SJSU softball team finished with a .500 season, with a record of 28-28.

Two Spartans were named to the 2012 WAC all-tournament team.  Pitcher Amanda Pridmore was named to the first all-tournament team, and outfielder Michelle Cox was named to the second all-tournament team.

Pridmore finished the season with an 18-15 overall record in 209 innings pitched.  She is the second pitcher in school history to strikeout 200 or more batters in a season, as she recorded 201 strikeouts.

Overall, Cox has a career .366 batting average, 56 hits, 34 runs scored and 26 stolen bases.

In addition to Pridmore and Cox, Vanessa House, Jessica Garcia and Madison Fish were honored in the WAC tournament banquet on Wednesday as WAC Players of the Week for the 2012 season.

Gymnastics

SJSU's gymnastics team finished fourth in the WAC tournament, then advanced to place fifth at the NCAA Utah Regional.

Senior Thomasina Wallace was named the WAC Gymnast of the Year and the WAC all-around title, making her the first SJSU gymnast to win the title.

Head coach Wayne Wright led the Spartans to a WAC regular season title and was honored as the WAC Coach of the Year.

These honors are the first in school history for a gymnast and head coach.

Water Polo

According to NCAA.com, the SJSU water polo team is ranked ninth in the country, after recording a 19-13 season.

The Spartans were invited to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship Women's Water Polo Tournament (MPSF) at Stanford, where they went 1-2.

Seniors Meagan Minson and Dani Curran and junior Anna Natalizio were named honorable mention all-MPSF women's water polo players in a vote by the conference's eight coaches.

Curran is the first SJSU player to record 50 goals in a season and ranks third on the SJSU list.

Goalkeeper Minson received her second All-MPSF honor and recorded 212 saves in the 2012 season, where SJSU finished with a record of 19-13.

Minson finished her career as the school leader in saves with 952.

Tennis

The tennis team ended the season with a record of 13-7, and two players earned all-WAC honors.

Sophomore Sabastiani Leon Chao was named to the first team All-WAC singles list, and freshman Erica Medlin earned second team All-WAC doubles recognition.

The duo won a combined 12 dual doubles match wins in the regular season and had a win against New Mexico State in the WAC tournament.

The team entered the tournament as the fifth seed but were eliminated in the first round, losing to New Mexico State 4-2.

The tennis team went on a hot streak this season, winning 12 matches in a row to break the previous program record of seven.

Baseball

The Spartans broke a few records, defeating No. 7 Stanford for the first time since 1995 and swept Fresno State, for the first time since 2000.

SJSU beat Stanford once at home and once at Stanford this season.  Both wins were while the Cardinal were nationally ranked in the top-1o.

They will finish their season with series against UC Davis and New Mexico State next week.

These student opinion of teaching effectiveness, or SOTE, evaluation forms are used at the end of the semester for faculty to have their work in the classrooms assessed by their students.

Yet some students, such as Lauren Carter, question the effectiveness.

“I personally feel like it’s a waste of my time,” said Carter, a sophomore psychology major. “Even if I have a bad review on a professor and they have tenure, they aren’t going anywhere.”

Carter said she feels like she might as well put a review up on the website Rate My Professors and implied that the website is an equally ineffective assessment on how teachers perform in the classroom.

In recent years there has been consideration for these evaluations to go digital that would involve students filling out these evaluations online, rather than with pencil and paper in the classroom.

Jonathan Lovell, an English professor at SJSU, was on a university-wide committee a few years ago that involved researching how other campuses have moved their SOTEs online and the pros and cons of the move.

He said one of the biggest fears with moving them online involved faculty on a tenure track, because these evaluations help the university decide if a faculty member can be approved for tenure or not.

Lovell said the committee’s findings were ambiguous.

“There weren’t any decisive findings that we could locate that indicated strong reasons for preferring them or not using online SOTEs,” Lovell said.

He mentioned that one of the reasons that the university would consider converting the evaluations online is to save money and because of the lack of funding creates a problem within these evaluations.

“I think there are problems with the way we do (the evaluations),” Lovell said. “Faculty is not required to have more than two classes SOTE’d, and they can cherry pick those classes.”

He said this does not provide for a full view of a faculty member’s effectiveness.

Lovell has also served as a member of the committees that review the SOTEs and recommend tenure to President Mohammad Qayoumi.

Katrina Swanson, a former Associated Students director of student resource affairs, also worked closely on a proposition concerning the movement of SOTEs to online.

“It would be through MySJSU and there was talk of maybe trying to get something where people get rewards to fill them out,” Swanson said.

Because they are online, she said, there is nothing to guarantee that students will do them, and that is one of the reasons it is still in consideration.

For a professor seeking tenure, SOTEs can influence committee decisions, but they are also useful to lecturers as well, as pointed out by Lisa Stenmark.

“If you’re generally a good teacher, I find students are … generous if you care and are genuine. They’ll forgive sloppy writing,” said Stenmark, a lecturer in the humanities department who said one of her most common comments is on her sloppy handwriting.

Stenmark said that if SOTEs were to go online, she also would compare it to Rate My Professor.

She said she could see why some professors could be worried because things become much more public on the Internet.

As for the effectiveness of the current system with the evaluations, she finds herself supplementing them on her final exams and asking students more specific questions to help her with performance in the classroom.

“One of the exam questions was they had to imagine someone from SF State was starting this class,” Stenmark said. “They had to write a 3-page letter with what they thought worked and didn’t work in the class.”

Stenmark said these are the suggestions that are most helpful for her, and she does it because she feels SOTEs are general.

“If there are professors that get consistently bad reviews, they shouldn’t get tenure,” Stenmark said. “No one does this for the money. We do this because we love our discipline or we love teaching.”

Los Angeles Lakers forward Ron Artest not only completely disregards this rule, he possesses not an ounce of class — a personal quality usually necessary to display sportsmanship.

Artest’s legal name is Metta World Peace — Metta being a Buddhist term meaning loving kindness and friendliness toward all.

I refuse to acknowledge Artest with the same name the government knows him by, simply because he does not represent what his fraudulent name claims his personality to be.

There are numerous accounts in Artest’s career that can be recounted to show why he does not deserve his name, but the most recent — and the focal point to this column — is the elbow he delivered to the back of Oklahoma City Thunder guard James Harden on April 22.

Following a dunk over one of the most prolific shot-blockers in the National Basketball Association — Thunder forward Serge Ibaka — Artest, in an apparent heat-of-the-moment exhibition of celebration, slammed home a fierce and devastating elbow behind Harden’s ear and head, resulting in a concussion for Harden.

Artest was suspended just seven games for his on-court actions. The suspension began on the final game of the regular season and carried through the first six games of the Lakers’ round one playoff matchup against the Denver Nuggets.

The series went to a deciding Game 7, where Artest’s suspension was lifted and the Lakers defeated the Nuggets to advance to the Western Conference semifinal round.

Artest should have been suspended for the entire NBA post season, if you ask me, but nonetheless the Lakers will face — you guessed it — Harden and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

As it turned out, Harden didn't need any handshakes. He contributed 17 points to the Thunder's 29-point victory over the Lakers last night in Game 1.

Could Karma be at play? After all, Artest's legal first name is of buddhist descent.

Understanding the meaning of his first name, Metta, and combining the obvious statement of World Peace, his last name, one would think Artest would shake the hand of the man who he put into a concussion — let alone the initial incident altogether.

This was not the case.

Artest was quoted on Sunday following the Lakers’ Game 7 win over the Nuggets as saying, “I don’t shake substitutes’ hands.”

Sure enough, Artest went without a single gesture toward Harden neither before, during or after Game 1.

Let me take a moment to let the loving kindness, friendliness and classiness waft over me.

Harden isn’t just a substitute — he’s the NBA’s best. He won the 2012 Sixth Man of the Year Award, given to the league’s best bench player, after he averaged just over 16.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists this season.

Artest couldn’t reach those averages, despite starting 45 games for the Lakers. Harden started just two games in the Thunder’s 2012 campaign.

Not only does Harden have better numbers, but Artest must be horribly mistaken of his former role with the Lakers earlier this season — he was a bench player!

How could Artest physically harm Harden and then disrespect him in such a way?

Artest is one of my most despised athletes in professional sport, and the things he continues to say and do only reinforce my opinion on a daily basis.

Francisco Rendon is a Spartan Daily senior staff writer.

Disclaimer: I will try my best to write this, my last column as a student at SJSU, without being too sentimental.

It is difficult though. After all, who wouldn’t miss the 12 hour sessions trying to scrape together projects, falling asleep during PowerPoint presentations and perpetual fee increases.

I’m getting a little verklempt. Still, being at what I pray will be the end of my bachelor’s of science degree (that’s right, journalism is science!) this seems like a great opportunity to reflect on the system we navigate to get to this point.

Education in the U.S. is compulsory. Children have to go to school. Being from the U.S., I was one of these children.

I should start off by saying this is a very good thing. Every child should not only have access to an education, but a society should make sure that each of its children is being educated.

After all, most will agree that education is the process through which humans are trained and their capacities are released.

Every child is born with the potential to develop all sorts of qualities and gifts, which can benefit people in their extended family, community and society. There is no such thing as a child without potential, and these capacities are like gems of inestimable value.

I count my blessings to be born into a society that values education and gives everyone access to a system, because in many countries this is still not the case. Many children want to go to school and simply do not have the resources.

Having seen the way our system operates though, there are some clear trends the people are moving toward, and I can say it is truly an exciting time to be alive, to be able to witness the transformation of the current system.

Students have the resources and skills to access information like never before in human history. We have the ability to synthesize data and learn new skills like never before.

The next step is for the students to start figuring out what society really needs as it is going through what many can recognize as a transformative phase. The students must contribute to social discourse as protagonists of social transformation, those actively learning about and changing the ways we do things.

There are disintegrative processes in place that tear down inadequate systems and processes as new ones are raised up. The rising rate of incarceration, increasing fiscal hardship and escalating social tension are all signs of this change occurring, but even as the way we live and view the world collectively shifts, we mustn’t lose hope.

While the current educational system still has many ways it can be improved, my heart is full of gratitude for both the opportunities I have been given, and those that still await.

One of the most valuable things I’ve learned in school is that life is always going to seem hard in the moment. Whether or not I do well on a paper doesn’t really matter that much, but it sure seems like a big deal at the time.

In spite of this though, we should always try to be happy, because it might help somebody else get through their day.

And in the days to come, those that care are going to need to really start helping each other. I hope that doesn’t seem too sentimental.

This means the fraternity cannot pledge new members, participate in any Greek events such as philanthropies and fundraisers and cannot host any events themselves.

The fraternity was suspended based upon the accumulation of police reports from the last two years, according to Medi Gouta, Interfraternity Council (IFC) president and member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Gouta said that for a fraternity like Pi Kappa Alpha to be inactive not only affects the fraternity itself, but also the greater Greek community.

Not only is there a loss in philanthropy revenue, but there's also a loss in its presence in the community, which includes loss of community service hours and event participation.

"When something like this happens, we're all shocked because we are all friends," he said. "We won't have as much participation as before with them out."

Within the past two years, University Police Department has recorded 27 incident reports against the fraternity, with incidences as minor as noise complaints to as severe as battery occurring within the fraternity house.

According to Blake Balajadia, assistant director of fraternity and sorority life, said when a police report is received, he discusses the report with the members of the fraternity, in addition to asking for their perspectives.

"The unfortunate part is we haven't been able to stem off the amount of reports that have been coming across," he said. "In order to stop getting police reports we needed to take a minute to take a look at the chapter itself."

Many of these reports involved individuals who were not members of the fraternity, but were present in the house when the incidents were reported.

According to Student Involvement's Student Organization Conduct website, the fraternity was placed on probation starting on November 22, 2011, under code violations of unacceptable student organization/member behaviors, aiding and abetting, alcohol, damage to property and disorderly conduct.

Gouta said that since his election as IFC president in December 2011, he received the four most recent reports against Pi Kappa Alpha, in which three of those reports charged women involved with minor in possession and disorderly conduct.

Gouta said the punishments the IFC gives are part actual punishment and part constructive.

"Because of those four reports they received, I told them you are going to be dry for three months," he said. "You are going to have to do three educational sessions, which only count if 80 percent of the chapter is there."

The Student Organization Conduct website listed that the fraternity's suspension began on Feb. 14 under violations as a result from a social event.

"Eventually the city of San Jose, UPD, us, and even the chapter itself understood that at some point in time they have to say, 'we have to sit out,'" Balajadia said. "We have to re-evaluate our situation, rebuild and come back."

According to Gouta, he wrote a letter to Student Conduct stating "suspension doesn't teach anyone much" and "respectfully suggested alternative punishments."

Staci Gunner, director of student conduct and ethical development, was unavailable for comment.

"I still don't agree with school enacting a suspension without warning," Gouta said. "To come at a fraternity with no warning, and then all of a sudden say that they are suspended until August 2013, and you are dry until August 2014, that's not fair."

He said the fraternity was willing to forfeit its social privileges until August 2014, but did not want to be suspended and unable to participate in events like philanthropies.

"The problems are coming from the social aspect of the organization," he said. "I see them do so much for the community. Let them still function as an organization, but take away the source of those issues that the school is complaining about."

Balajadia said Student Involvement's role when fraternities face probation or suspension consists of discussing with the fraternity members ways to improve — including re-education for members and creating new policies.

"It helps them to refocus on the chapter itself," he said.

Many things become secondary while internal issues become the priority, he said.

Balajadia also said the fraternity is not alone in this rebuilding period — it calls for the IFC community to support its members and reinforces student governance.

"It gives a chapter time to re-evaluate its own direction and better make strategies for success in the future," he said. "It reinforces student self-governance and student self-support. It causes other chapters in the community to take a look at themselves and try to fix their own situation before it gets too far along."

In an email, Matt Sampson, Pi Kappa Alpha president, stated:

"Pi Kappa Alpha is a strong fraternity with a deeply rooted history at San Jose State University. We acknowledge the university's commitment as well as duties towards the community. Pi Kappa Alpha is currently in the process of enacting measures to increase relations with our host university, as well as the greater San Jose State community. As an influential member of San Jose State's Greek community, we are taking this opportunity to enact policies and membership standards to ensure continued success for years to come. Community outreach, involvement in pivotal student organizations, and building on an already strong brotherhood will be our main focuses moving forward."

Sampson said that the brothers have been in attendance and participating in a number of events in their efforts to "re-brand" themselves.

According to Sampson, over 50 brothers attended UPD's town hall meeting, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes and gave a $5,000 donation to YMCA's Annual Giving Campaign.

Matthew Araujo, a senior recreational management major and Pi Kappa Alpha brother, said that the fraternity is spending more time together, holding brotherhood events to refocus and rebuild.

"One of the things we look forward to as a fraternity is participating in the events and philanthropies," he said. "Since we can't, we've been spending more time with each other and re-evaluating what we're about. We're trying to revamp our inner-workings as a fraternity."

Araujo said the fraternity is also spending its time helping in the neighborhoods and communities around the fraternity house.

"We have so many brothers and we're trying to find a place to put in our man-hours," he said. "That was one thing the school couldn't take away from us — serving our community."

Araujo said the fraternity's focus now is to "raise accountability" of their members in addition to finding their niche in the community.

"We're working toward placing barriers to prevent our previous mistakes," he said. "We're seeing this as a new beginning."

Jack Barnwell

As the semester comes to an end, so does my two-year tenure as an SJSU student.

Come May 23, I will walk down the aisle with fellow journalism students at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s convocation.

Many people would see this moment as something to be dreaded, walking down that aisle in those voluminous black robes to receive their acknowledgment of graduation.

I always saw it as another chapter finished and the beginning of a new one waiting on the horizon.

The two years I’ve spent at SJSU have been some of the best in my academic career, including those spent at the Spartan Daily in one capacity or another.

The day I transferred to this university I had planned to graduate in two years.

Mission accomplished and I have so much to show for it.

Term papers filled with eminent deadlines, presentations given before geography and history classes and the Latin dance class I constantly fumbled through. These are experiences I will remember with fondness and often mild frustration.

I will miss the assignments I shot as a Spartan Daily staff photographer, the adrenaline that came with breaking news as an online editor and the tasks and trials of a photo editor.

I will also cherish the memories that came with the experience : sharing laughs over drinks with friends at local pubs, the witty banter during long production nights in the newsroom, late night food runs and the reheated coffee over all-nighters.

Gone will be the opportunities to ask advice on story leads, critiques over photographs, wise counsel over life matters and honest feedback over articles.

However, the one lesson being part of the Daily has taught me was that one needs to adapt and evolve as changes come.

This lesson applies to all aspects of life, including graduation. The advisers at the Daily put this before all the staff, reinforced by the newspaper’s editors.

What I’ve heard from other students all across SJSU is the butterflies fluttering in their stomachs as the graduation date creeps ever closer.

The uncertainty of what lies before them, a parting from friends that they have made as students here, all of which seems a whirlwind of Oz-like proportions.

This is all part of the transition from one part of life’s journey to another.

Change is good. Change is essential. It is part of what makes living worthwhile.

I will miss some very dear friends that I have made at SJSU, but that does not mean I will stop communicating with them.

Friends and classmates drift apart in their own respective paths, but this can be a good thing.

New friendships wait to be forged, new experiences to occur so that when I do see those college friends five, 10, 15 years down the road I will have new stories to share.

While I will miss my time at the Daily, miss the advisers with their wise insight and seeing new staff come into their own, it’s time to leave.

The same applies for this university. Stay too long and you find yourself bogged down by a drudgery of repetition that slowly starves the soul.

Journalists often think long term as much as in the moment, but as students I find that too many of us soon-to-be graduates worry about the future to enjoy the simple accomplishment that is before us.

It’s that one time where we should embrace the freedom to come even if our future might be uncertain.

The freedom to explore the world lies before us just as we explored our options as college students.

Graduation is a good thing for those students that are walking and for those that have yet to take the walk.

Spaces open up for those who will embark on their college career while graduation thrusts us into a brave new world.

It’s time to toss the cap and look to the horizon for the next adventure in life.

The decision is still being decided.

Jennifer Garnett, a spokeswoman for the City of San Jose, said the reason for the ban is that San Jose is required to reduce its litter by 40 percent by 2014, 70 percent by 2017 and 100 percent by 2022.

“We have to submit our trash reduction plan to the regional water board,” Garnett said. “(The regional water board) is the entity that issues our permit. We issued a draft plan to the regional water board in January and that was what our council approved. At that time one of the things our council was considering was whether or not it was feasible to do a ban on (polystyrene).”

The reason they are considering this specific ban is because they are required by law to reduce litter in the city’s waterways, and polystyrene dissolves in the water and is eaten by animals, according to Garnett.

“At this point in time a ban on polystyrene is one of the options being considered, but it’s not an option that’s active right now,” Garnett said. “It’s still being researched and considered by our staff and our city council.”

Candice Carbonell, the sustainability coordinator for Spartan Shops, said its been proactive about cutting back on non-biodegradable items.

“Jamba Juice is really the only location on campus that uses Styrofoam,” Carbonell said. “There’s the Jamba Juice in the Student Union, the one in Just Below and the one in the dining commons.”

Carbonell said that it has switched over to the biodegradable containers at places such as Panda Express, which used to use Styrofoam.

“The problem (with Jamba Juice) is that the Styrofoam holds the product the best,” Carbonell said. “We switched to plastic cups for Earth Day but (the smoothie melts really fast).”

Spartan Shops is trying to find a better material to hold the product, according to Carbonell.

“The whole state of California is looking to ban Styrofoam,” Carbonell said. “I’m sure Jamba Juice is on top of it and I don’t think we’re the first (to try to change containers).”

Carbonell said Spartan Shops even switched over from plastic utensils to biodegradable utensils and are starting to look for vendors who are more environmentally responsible.

“Right now we’re just looking at how to switch over for Jamba Juice,” Carbonell said. “If you get rid of Styrofoam, you’re going to have to get a cup with a sleeve to (insulate it). So then you’re using an extra piece of material and that’s just going to create more trash. There’s the argument that even if you do switch, it’s just going to be another form of waste, which is a good argument.”

Patrick Vu, a junior in electrical engineering, said he can see why they’re considering it.

“It seems like they’re trying to for that environmental friendliness,” Vu said. “I don’t see any potential negative consequence for them. You can certainly use paper substitutes and stuff like that.”

Daniel Conway of the California Restaurant Association, which opposes the ban, argues that the real problem is litter in general, not specifically polystyrene.

Polystyrene helps keep hot food hot and cold food cold, according to Conway.

“It’s a very effective (product),” he said.

Conway said that this is just one product; if it is banned then some other product is just going to take its place in litter.

“People are still going to litter,” Conway said.

Mitchica Bose, sophomore in health science administration, supports the ban.

“It’s harmful to the environment and they did it in San Francisc so we should do it,” Bose said. “I wouldn’t care if (Jamba Juice) didn’t use Styrofoam anymore.”

Both Santa Cruz and San Francisco have an expanded polystyrene ban, requiring that all takeout food packaging is recyclable or compostable, which started in 2008 and 2007, respectively.