Journalism 133: Prof. Craig: Working on Leads
WORKING ON LEADS
Here are summaries of stories from a Spartan Daily edition of 10 years ago. Let's come up with some ideas for good leads for them.
- The California Faculty Association is the union representing professors at SJSU and throughout the California State University system. It has been negotiating with the CSU Board of Regents for a new contract, aiming for a 5 percent salary increase for its members. Because negotiations have been unsuccessful thus far, the union is asking its members to authorize a possible strike. The union says that said stagnant faculty salaries have negative impacts across the entire CSU system. Since 2004, management and supervisory positions have increased 19 percent while overall tenure track faculty staffing has decreased 3 percent.
- Rising Tide North America is an international activist group that organizes action against the root causes of climate change. It organized a protest in San Francisco called Flood Wall Street West. This follows a protest called Flood Wall Street, held outside the New York Stock Exchange a year earlier. While that protest drew more than 1000 people, the San Francisco event drew roughly 200 protesters, 12 of whom were arrested. SJSU students Chelsea Busick, Sarah Khosla and Jerry Wilburn attended Monday's protest. Busick and Khosla attended as president and vice-president (respectively) of SJSU's Global Awakening Club, and Wilburn attended as a program assistant to SJSU's Cesar Chavez Community Action Center. The protest began at 8 a.m., with protesters marching through the Financial District.
- Title IX is a federal law which prohibits discrimination based on sex or gender in any and all federally funded education programs and activities. It was started as a tool for women in athletics, but has developed into a policy governing numerous areas of educational institutions. According to SJSU's 2014 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, there were 11 cases of forcible sexual assault from 2011-2013 and seven cases of hate crimes reported in that same time frame at the university. In light of these reports, SJSU has put an emphasis on curtailing such behavior on campus with the hiring of Diana Harris Epps as the Title IX officer. Harris Epps was a magistrate judge for 12 years and she stepped down from the bench in July 2015. She said being able to serve as a role model to students is very important.
- The Alternative Press Expo (APE) is a comic book festival and alternative comics convention. Hosted by Slave Labor Graphics publisher and self-appointed Supreme Commander Dan Vado, who has been publishing comics for 30 years. The expo focuses on self-published, independent, and alternative cartoonists and comic publishers. It allows readers to meet the authors face to face and immerse themselves into the characters and backstories of the comics. It was first held in 1994, and was held in San Jose in 2000. This coming Saturday and Sunday it will be held at the San Jose Convention Center.