spring 2013 issue 13
DESCRIPTION
spring 2013 issue 13TRANSCRIPT
TWO SF STATE OFFICIALS HAVE BEEN AR- rested in the month of April. One, a former director, the other a records supervisor at the University Police Department. Their alleged crimes and roles at the Uni-versity are different, but their last names are the same. Meet Julie and Robert Shearer, SF State's married couple of defendants.
Robert “Bud” Shearer, a former SF State director of Environmental Health and Occupational Safety, is accused of being involved in a seven-year bribery scheme that cheated the University out of millions of dollars while students faced increasing-ly frequent tuition hikes, District Attor-ney George Gascón said. He plead "not guilty" to 128 felony counts for allegedly taking bribes in return for approving haz-ardous waste removal contracts that were overpriced, last Friday, April 26.
“As SFSU students were seeing tuition increases each year, this high-lev-el university official and vendor were getting rich off the University’s dime,” District Attorney George Gascón said. “We’re talking about millions of dollars here. We will seek restitution.”
According to Shearer’s newly ap-pointed attorney assigned by the Public Defender’s Office, Deputy Public Defender Stephanie LaCambra, Shearer has “no financial assets to speak of.”
Robert and Julie entered into bankruptcy Nov. 4, 1996 and their Fre-mont house was foreclosed on in 2010.
Stephen Cheung, Robert Shearer's alleged accomplice, was the owner and operator of Chemical Hazardous Materials Technologies, a company that the District Attorney says Robert Shearer routinely allowed to over-
AS NEW students living in the dorms at SF State, Gregory DiMartino and Julian Borrego weren't allowed to practice their
music in their rooms. Instead, they would walk about campus with their instruments, rehears-
ing and writing new songs.“Julian and I would go on night walks with our guitars,” said
DiMartino, a creative writing major and frontman of Black Co-bra Vipers, a self-described hipster rock band with three SF State members. “There’s cool meadows — it’s a beautiful campus, there’s cool little niches you can go into and sing songs.”
Borrego, Black Cobra Vipers bassist and music major, was meandering about the campus with DiMartino one night when they heard a woman complimenting them from the dorms.
“We were like ‘Jesus, thanks,’ and we looked at her and we looked at each other all handsome and were like ‘Hell yeah, there’s a chick in the world who’s down with that’,” DiMartino said, “but it turned out to just be Rob.”
Rob Mills, the “woman,” from the dorms and a music major, later went on to become the drummer of Black Cobra Vipers.
For some students, the constant studying that comes with college life means hanging up the instruments and dreams of playing in a band. At SF State, however, many students find a place where new bands are created and thrive.
Students aren’t the only ones pursuing their music dreams on campus. Tyler Johnson of Tommy Boys, a math rock band with two SF State members, sees his music career as a double life. He is a broadcasting and electronic communication arts graduate student and an instructor at SF State as well.
“My band life and school life are kind of like separate lives. I actually teach a couple classes and only a few of my students have figured out I’m in a band and sometimes they’ll show up at a show and say hi, but it’s kind of like this almost secret life,” Johnson said.
GOLDEN GATE XPRESS STUDENT-RUN NEWSPAPER PROUDLY SERVING THE SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1927. 05.01.13 VOLUME LXXXXVI
ISSUE 13// //
HAZARDOUS WASTE: PAY TO PLAY SCAM AT SF STATEMusicians use campus
community as creative catalyst
HAZMAT: The organic lab in Thorton Hall room 716 contains hazardous waste that is collected and then transported off-campus by a hazardous waste disposal company. Between 2004 and 2009 the company responsible for disposal, Chemical Hazardous Materials Technologies, stands accused of bribing an SF State official in order to gain a lucrative contract . Photo by Virginia Tieman
ROBERT “BUD” SHEARER
SEE SHEARERS’ ON PAGE 2
SEE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL ON PAGE 6
Bribery, burglary, and a high-speed chase shake campus as two scandals
erupt from one household
BY MATT SAINCOME | [email protected]
PRESSER: District At-torney George Gascón (left) announces bribery charges of former SF State Director Robert Shearer and owner of environmental waste disposal firm Stephen Cheung at the Hall of Justice. Photo by Gabriella Gamboa
BY KRISTEN MARTZ | [email protected]
BY LOVELIE FAUSTINO | [email protected]
and
PHOTO BY VIRGINIA TIEMAN
GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG C A M P U S 05.01.132 |
SF STATE SPEAKS OUT
CHRISTINA MERRICK, 25 GRAD STUDENT IN PSYCHOLOGY
If I saw more bands I like. It’s nice to see someone you’ve followed for a while. I appre-
ciate the art too, like what they have at Coachella.
HOW WOULD YOU FEEL YOU ARE GETTING YOUR
MONEY’S WORTH AT A FESTIVAL?
Photos by: Virginia Tieman Reporting by: Brad Wilson
JACK BETTERLY-KOHN, 21COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJOR
If they had more than just three bands that I wanna see I’d go. I’d go to a festival if it wasn’t in Florida or Southern California.
I got a good cut in taxes back, but if I was going to splurge, I’d use my money on something better spent.
TANNER REYES, 20 JAPANESE MAJOR
I went to Coachella and it was frustrating. It’s hard to see bands when they play at the same time.
You don’t see full sets. If you want to eat, you miss a set. It was
also way hotter than I thought and it was hard to enjoy.
International studentof the week
Name: Eliza Bolger Age: 22
Major: Graphic DesignFrom: Australia
What’s the first thing you noticed about the U.S.?
No one understands me and I'm speaking En-glish. I don't know if it's my accent.
What’s the biggest difference between here and home?
Everyone is more chill throughout the week. It's so casual.
What do you miss about home?I miss good Aussie food, fresh seafood.
What are your future plans?Road trip to the canyons, New Orleans, New York
and then flying to London in July.
FALL FROM GRACEThe Shearers’
Robert Shearer advises SF State
to sign a contract with
Chemical Hazmat
Technologies
Robert Shearer leaves SF State
SF State UPD launches bribery investigation
After a sting operation, Ju-lie is arrested by UPD
Julie Shearer is caught stealing
on covert surveillance equiptment
Stephen Cheung arrested by SFPD after high-speed chase
Julie arraigned
Robert was arrested
Both defendents plea “not guilty” to a combined 246 felony charges
APRIL 2, 2013
APRIL 26, 2013APRIL 8, 2013
APRIL 22, 2013APRIL 15, 2013
APRIL 18, 2013
2010
2009
2005
LAUREN NEUROTH, 23 ENGLISH AMERICAN LITERATURE
MAJOR
ART BY ELISSA TORRES
CONTINUED FROM THE FRONT PAGE
Shearers’ accused of crimes on campus
charge SF State for hazardous waste removal and other services in return for personal loans, monetary payments totaling up to $183,000, trips to China, and a gifted Volvo.
After Robert Shearer left his job as director and Cheung’s com-pany was replaced, SF State’s yearly spending on hazardous waste removal services went from $730,000 to only $176,000. According to the District Attorney’s office, Cheung allegedly started bribing Shearer in 2002 and continued to do so until 2009.
Shearer, a former helicopter machine gunner during the Viet-nam War, was arrested April 18 at his home in Fremont, without incident. But Cheung wasn't arrested until April 22 after a high-speed car chase that began at 46th Avenue and Taraval Street. Cheung crashed his Mercedes into unoccupied parked cars at 44th Avenue and Ulloa Street. He then fled on foot before he was arrested by the San Francisco Police Department.
Both defendants are currently in custody with bail set at $5 million apiece, and could face more than 100 years in state prison if convicted, according to the District Attorney’s press release.
Shearer is being charged with 128 felony counts — 59 counts of commercial bribery, 59 counts of accepting a bribe, five felony counts of making a contract in an official capacity by a financial-ly interested person, and five felony counts of perjury.
Ellen Griffin, University spokeswoman, said that because the investigation is ongoing, all she would say is that SF State “ap-preciates the DA’s work” and that “the current director of EHOS was chosen via a search committee with references thoroughly checked. Current campus procedure is that the unit’s operations and contracts undergo audit to ensure procedures and policies are followed, including audits from the CSU Chancellor’s Office.”
Bud isn't the only member of the Shearer household accused of taking more than their fair share off of campus. His wife, Julie Shearer, records supervisor at the University Police Department, was arrested on campus by University police April 8 for burglar-izing the UPD building and possessing property stolen from one of her coworkers, according to an internal memo obtained by Golden Gate Xpress.
After a sting operation including the use of covert surveil-lance equipment, she was arrested by UPD, according to the memo. She was arrested April 8 in possession of U.S. currency belonging to a co-worker, according to four charges from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.
The memo, written and signed by Patrick M. Wasley, chief of SF State police, states: “Ms. Shearer was the subject of a theft allegation in the department. I initiated an Internal Affairs inves-tigation and authorized a sting operation and the use of covert
surveillance equipment.”Julie Shearer was charged with burglarizing 100 North State
Dr., the University Police station, where she worked as a records supervisor and police dispatcher, according to the District Attor-ney’s charges.
Police dispatchers are the ones responsible for inputting information into the campus crime log on their downtime, ac-cording to a source who spoke with Xpress on the condition of anonymity. Julie Shearer’s arrest was not posted on the crime log until April 29, after its lack of an entry was brought to the atten-tion of Chief of SF State police by an Xpress reporter.
Wasley called the missing entry an "unfortunate oversight."The UPD crime log website states, “The SF State Crime,
Arrest, and Fire Log covers the past 60 days. Incidents are posted to the Log within 48 hours of occurrence. If a case disposition changes, it will be reflected in the log within 48 hours. If an arrest (is) made, the arrest information will be posted directly below the corresponding incident.”
The newly added entry states that the total loss of the theft was $60.
The surveillance equipment confirmed allegations of Julie Shearer’s involvement in a theft and she subsequently admitted to two thefts while being interviewed, according to the memo.
The District Attorney’s office confirmed that she is charged with “unlawfully entering a commercial building occupied by SF State with intent to commit larceny and felony.”
In the memo, Wasley wrote, “These actions are unacceptable in any situation and even more strikingly so in the University Police Department. For that reason, I request that appropriate disciplinary action be taken.”
Julie Shearer has been put on administrative leave, according to Griffin.
“It’s distressing when a law enforcement professional is ar-rested, but taking immediate action was essential. We have made the arrest and now trust in the legal system,” Wasley said.
Julie Shearer was arraigned April 15 and has a pretrial confer-ence scheduled for May 30. Golden Gate Xpress reached out to Julie Shearer, but she was unavailable for immediate comment.
Julie first met Robert when she was with the Twin Cities Police Department, according to an SF State news memo from 2007.
According to a report by the Marin Independent Journal, Robert was forced out of his 1985 position as Corte Madera fire chief amid allegations of misconduct.
The Golden Gate Xpress will continue to update you on our ongoing investigation in this matter.
If you have any tips about Robert or Julie Shearer, contact Matt Saincome at [email protected] or tweet him
@MattSaincome.
Julie Shearer arrested on campus
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SOON AFTER THE BOMBING OF the Boston marathon, the world saw gruesome photos of the bombing victims with blast wounds, melted clothing and lost limbs. People wanted to know what happened and who was responsible.
When SF State student and biology major, Yaman Ahmen, 24, and member of the Muslim Stu-dent Association at SF State first heard about the bombing he thought one thing: “I hope it’s not a Muslim or someone claiming to be a part of an Islamic organization.”
Many Muslims in the SF State community braced themselves, fearing that conclusions would be drawn. They followed the unfolding investigation with anticipation, hoping that the bombers wouldn’t turn out to be Muslim.
“When bombings happen, like in Boston, it’s always assumed to be Muslims or Arabs,” said Rabab Abdulhadi, SF State associate professor of ethnic studies. “When the Oklahoma City bombing happened nobody was looking for Christians.”
Abdulhadi and many Muslims on campus blame the media for fueling the terrorist stereotype by popularizing terms like "radical Islam" and "jihadist" to describe vio-lent terrorists. These labels can cause uniformed people to lump a very small number of violent people with the one and a half billion Muslims in the world.
“The media defines all Muslims as radicals,” said Muslim, Shafah Arsala, a 20-year-old business admin-istration major. “There is nothing in our religion that condones violence.”
David Fischer, an international relations professor at SF State, said that terrorism is not only limited to Muslim people.
“Terrorists are found in all religious communi-ties,” said Fischer, who teaches a course here on terrorism. “They’re found in the Christian commu-nity and the Jewish community.”
Fischer estimated that about “20 to 30 percent of the general population has fundamentally racist views toward Muslims.”
Abdulhadi, senior scholar of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative at SF State, said that since 9/11 she’s been stopped on many flights to and from Palestine and questioned by security, and that her bags always have the tag that says they’ve been randomly selected to be searched. People confuse her name. Some even laugh the first time they hear it.
“It’s very troubling and takes its toll on their daily lives,” she said, referring to the psychologi-cal effects on Muslims. “You’re always wondering when something is going to drop (or) when some-thing is going to happen.”
It didn’t help squash the Muslim terrorist ste-
reotype when the Boston marathon bombers were identi-fied by law enforcement as self-radicalized Islamists.
“The minute they catch the two guys, all of a sudden, everything falls neatly in place,” Abdulhadi said, adding that everybody then acts like “it’s natural; of course it’s going to be Muslims.”
The suspects were brothers Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. Both are Chechen, born either in Kyrgyzstan or Dagestan, predominately Muslim regions. Dzhokhar is thought to have been influenced by his older brother’s increasingly radical views. Tamerlan was killed during a police car chase and shootout. The younger Tsarnaev was captured after suffering multiple gunshot wounds and is being charged with using a weap-on of mass destruction.
Most Islamists aren’t violent. In 2012, just 12 Muslim-Americans were indicted in terrorist plots, with only one that resulted in violence, according to FBI and Homeland Security data reported in University of North Carolina study by Charles Kurzman, professor of sociol-ogy. That’s 12 out of roughly 2.6 million Muslims living in the U.S., according to a study of the Pew Research Center.
Only a small minority of Islamists believe that the use of violence is necessary whenever Islam is threatened and that all Muslims have a responsibility to attack, according to Fischer.
“The use (of) violence separates them from the 99 percent of Muslims,” he said.
Fischer doesn’t like to use “radical Islam,” preferring political Muslim or Islamist instead, as it helps better identify those pushing for a political form of Islam.
Islamists want a theocratic system, a form of govern-
ment guided by the divine and ruled by religious leaders.“They want to create here on earth a form of political
rule based on the word of God spoken in the Quran,” Fischer said.
Longtime criminal justice professor Daniel Vencill said the Islamic views are hard for mainstream westerners to understand, which adds to the negative stereotypes of Muslims.
“The Shariah law — we’re scared to death of it,” Ven-cill said, referring to the strict moral code outlined in the Quran followed by devout Muslims. “Most westerners hate Shariah law, they don’t like the misogynistic culture and the maltreatment of women. It’s so anti-western.”
But none of the stereotypes present the whole picture, far from it. Most people don’t understand Muslims be-cause they lack the information.
“The information they do have,” Vencill said, “is legend, myth, misapprehension— propaganda that people have unwittingly been fed and absorbed.”
Some people doubt whether Islam or if any terrorist influence played any real role in the bombers’ motives, suggesting that they were just alienated kids.
“The Boston bombers were just pissed off kids who suddenly had access to an idea that would glorify their actions,” Fischer said. “The young kid, I probably know more about Islam than he does.”
The New York Times did a profile of Tamerlan Tsarnaev April 27 that suggested his devotion to Islam increased, but “only after his more secular dreams were dashed.” The Times was referring to when Tamerlan quit boxing apparently over the frustration of no longer being able to compete in Golden Gloves tournament because of his immigration status.
Whatever the reasons the suspects had for bombing the marathon, you can be sure on one thing, agreed Fischer and Vencill: we will abso-lutely see more bombings like what happened in Boston happening in major cities across the nation.
While terrorists who pursue violence in the name of Islam are a small minority of Muslims, it only takes a small number of people to inflict serious violence. As the potential for more attacks increases, so does the potential for misinformation to spread, adding to the terrorist stereotype of the Muslim people.
Terrorists around the world are going to say “look at what two (young people) did in a big American hub city with just $500 worth of fire-works and crockpots,” Vencill said. “They shut down an entire city for five days and terrorized the entire population. For almost no money they got in every newspaper in the world. In every other part of the world they’re going to say 'Good lord look at what you can do.' Talk about a force multiplier, talk about asymmetric warfare.”
HOLY WATER: Moaan Ahmed (above), a junior at SF State, cleanses his feet in the process of ‘wudu’ in the lower level bathroom of the Student Center of SF State. Wudu is the cleansing of ones arms, hands, head, ears and feet before participating in the holy practice of prayer. WORSHIP: Muslim Student Association (MSA) members Moaan Ahmed, junior, and Ali Al-Arabi, senior, pray in room C-139 in the lower level of the Student Center. Photos by Frank Leal
WRITING ON THE WALL: Islamic calligraphy is written in the small confines of the Mus-lim Student Association’s room in the lower levels of the Student Center allowing Muslim students the opportunity to practice during the school day. Photo by Frank Leal
Campus Muslims break negative stereotypes
The Boston Marathon bombing brought accusations of terrorism to the Muslim community
as students aim to shed stigma
BY BRIAN RINKER | [email protected]
THE OPENING CELEBRA- tion of the historic American Indian occupation exhibit “We Are Still Here” echoed through the walls of Alcatraz Island, where occupation veterans, historians and University alumni gathered to give visibility to all native people April 28.
“A lot of people just see it as this distinct 19-month occupation of Alcatraz. What they don’t understand, and hopefully the exhibit will help with this, is that it really sparked the Red Power movement,” said Philip M. Klasky, exhibit curator and American Indian studies professor at SF State.
The 1969-1971 occupation of Alcatraz helped shed light on American Indian rights issues, and helped gain national and international attention to the plight of American Indians, eventually leading to legislation that resulted in the return of hundreds of thousands of acres of ancestral lands to Native American tribes.
The occupation succeeded when the federal govern-ment adopted a policy to end termination and ad-opted a new policy of Indian self-determination.
“This exhibit is going to allow us to tell our story behind it. It’s going to allow us to express ourselves in a way that America hasn't heard our voice," Frankie Rivera, member of the Navajo tribe, said. "It’s going to give to a lot of tribes that have lost their ways and touch with their own culture, because of assimilation, lack of the language.”
The multimedia gallery of work is housed in a small, Civil War era brick case and is big enough to hold 20 people at a time. The exhibit includes photography and art, Native Ameri-can poetry, an “audioscape” of native leaders and occupation veterans, and video collages of
archival footage of the occupation.In 2010, Park Ranger Craig Glassner from Golden
Gate National Recreation Area was invited to see the “We Are Still Here” exhibit at the Cesar Chavez Student Center Art Gallery at SF State, where it was displayed for just one month.
The following year it landed in a revolving exhibit on the Alcatraz for six months, though a permanent space had not yet been found. The exhibit would eventually find a permanent home on the Island.
“A while back I got an invitation to see an exhibit at San Francisco State, it was just getting ready to close. When I saw the exhibit, I thought it really deserved to have a home here at Alcatraz,” Glassner said.
A permanent home not only because of what it meant back then, but what it continues to represent for all indig-enous peoples.
“A lot of native kids don’t know the history of Alcatraz, they know a little bit about it, but they don’t know why we did it, and the reasons that we did it, and how it changed everything, how it started a whole new
way of looking at yourself as an indigenous person,” said Michael Horse, member of the Yaqui/Mescalero Apache tribe, who came to the Island during the occupation when he was 19 years old.
Mariah Cruz, a criminal justice and American Indian studies major, keeps Richard Oakes legacy alive by studying the Alcatraz occupation at SF State.
“It's always amazing to see what we study in school be applied to real life. I've been studying about the oc-cupation of Alcatraz for over two years now,” Cruz said. “I've written countless papers and I know so many facts and dates about the event, but to actually meet those who were there and were protesting for the rights of American Indian people is truthfully amazing.”
Richard Oakes, member of the Mohawk tribe, a former SF State student and Alcatraz occupation leader helped to create one of the first Native American studies departments in the nation. While the struggle to reclaim sovereignty continued, the power of an American Indian studies education grew stronger.
Occupation Veteran Eloy Martinez, member of the Southern Ute tribe, caught the attention of the crowd when he said if they would try to do now, what they did then, they would get arrested for terrorism.
“All you young adults, don’t let anyone tell you ‘you can’t do it.’ You can do it,” Martinez said.
Enlightening the young, which came after the occupation, seemed to be the most powerful takeaway from the event.
“When Richard jumped into the water it was education, it’s all about the next step, it’s bringing your history with you," said Betty Parent, pro-fessor Emeritus of the American Indian studies department at SF State. "If we don’t do that, then we will become invisible.”
GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG 05.01.13| 5C I T Y
And the winner is...LAUREN! On April 29, 2013, Lauren, a Communication Studies major here at SF State, won a free Taqueria Girasol lunch for getting caught reading the Golden Gate Xpress!
‘We Are Still Here’exhibit occupies Alcatraz Island
This weekend, an exhibit chroni-cling the 19-month occupation of
Alcatraz Island kicked off with an opening celebration
BY LULU OROZCO | [email protected]
An ONLINE
EXCLUSIVE
video on
Alcatraz
goldengatexpress.org
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RETRACTION FOR XPRESS PRINT EDITION 4.24.13
We regret the error.
In the article “Punk activist fights cops, founds venue,” the Xpress mis-takenly reported that Eppard found out that “Ost and other officers were having sex with underage girls.” Nei-ther Ost nor any of his fellow officers
were ever convicted of having sex with minors.
STAFF EDITORIAL
The dust and LSD has finally cleared after two smelly, hippie weekends of Brochella. We have reached that time of year between music festivals. Starting May 8-12, we will have Bottlerock in Napa Valley and at the end of summer, Outside Lands, shortly followed by the free music fest known as Hardly Hipster, or something. Not to mention other popular music festivals going on throughout the summer, it is no real news that these out-ings are just a hoot for people.
My big question is why the hell are these so popular? Not to sound like a bitter old man, but damn, I hate these festivities.
The first festival that comes to mind when complaining about these music gatherings is Coachella; a time to celebrate overrated bands, some not-so-popular bands so hipsters can still feel obscure enough, hot weather in the middle of nowhere, atrocious electronic music and people either too inebriated or fried on hallucinogens. Is that the secret? Should I be on a ton of acid or really drunk to fully appreciate what is going on? I live in San Francisco so I don't need to spend $300 to watch people fry, not bathe and listen to overrated music while pretending to be enlightened; I have Dolores Park.
In "Top Ten Reasons Coachella Music Festival Totally Sucks" for Crossfade Music Blog, Matt Priera wrote, "Festivals are sort of the Costco of live music. If you purchased individual concert tickets for every artist on the lineup, the cost would far exceed the fes-tival's more-or-less $400 fee. But when you visit Costco to buy a swimming pool's worth of mustard or a 1000-box supermegapack of Cap'n Crunch, you're not expected to eat it all
before you even walk out the door. The mod-ern music festival — built upon excess (more bands!), cheap nostalgia (more old bands!), and straight-up selling you shit (better bring more money!) — is a bloated, fiendishly trend-oriented marathon of total overkill."
I speak negatively about this because of perspective. I've gone to Coachella, Warped Tour, Ozzfest, Outside Lands, Sun God Festival and others. I don't want to sound too pessimistic and I'll admit, there is usually one band I'd enjoy at any of the aforementioned festivals. The problem is, you pay a substan-tial amount of money to see a band you like, if any, and they play for only about 30 min-utes. Call me crazy, but if I'm going to dish out the bucks for a festival, there better be at least 10 bands I like, especially at a multiple day festival, like Coachella or Bottle Rock, which feature over 60 bands.
The best shows I have been to have one or two bands, if the opener is decent, playing at a moderate sized venue. This creates a much more intimate musical experience, with a longer set list and a lower ticket price. I'd rather pay $15 to see a band like The Gaslight Anthem play for almost two hours than to see The Lumineers and Of Monsters and Men play for 40 minutes each, while pretending I'm not getting groped by an E-head. Plus, it's not 12 hours of continuous music blaring from five different stages; oh yes, that sounds great!
To end my rant, I'd like to quote Daniel Tosh.
"The worst thing about music festivals is they're full of the one thing I try to avoid; you."
Music festivals:
dirty, drugged up and pricey
BY BRAD WILSON | [email protected]
IN WAKE OF SCANDAL, A CALL FOR JUSTICE
JUST WHEN WE THOUGHT THE WORST had happened — years of budget cuts, de-creased classes, tuition hikes and prolonged graduations — news broke last week of a University official and his accomplice being charged with cheating SF State out of mil-lions.
Robert Shearer, former director of Envi-ronment Health and Occupational Safety at SF State, allegedly bilked the University out of millions in a bribery scheme involv-ing a hazardous waste contractor.
In essence, Shearer is accused of steering a lucrative hazardous waste disposal contract between SF State and Stephen Cheung, vice president of Chemical HazMat Tech-nologies. Shearer looked the other way while CHMT overcharged the University to the tune of roughly $7 million, according to the District Attorney’s estimate.
Shearer started his job at SF State in 1994. Cheung and Shearer were alleged-ly engaged in “pay to play” corruption in 2002. He recommended a contract with Cheung’s company in 2005 and encouraged renewal of that contract for the next four years. Shearer resigned in 2009, was accused by a University colleague in 2010 and was arraigned in court last week on more than 100 felony counts.
But the revelations of the past week leave us with more ques-tions than answers.
How could a scheme this dubious — involving multiple payouts, a gifted Volvo and more than 50 trips to China — be left undiscovered for so long?
Who was in charge of oversight of Shearer’s department and should they be held accountable for failing to see what was hap-pening right under their nose?
We also question the accountability system (if it exists) at our University. Contracts involving outside businesses and the school should be subject to a higher level of scrutiny, given that large bureaucracies — like public universities — can be easily preyed upon. Even if colleagues weren’t aware of possible bribes, they should have enough common sense to smell a scam.
According to a 2011 SF Weekly article, Cheung’s company charged $161,510 for an emergency cleanup, more than some CSUs spend on hazardous waste disposal in an entire year. Even a small amount of research would’ve shown that the deal was bad
business. Which leaves us asking, what else is our University over-spending on?
While Shearer still deserves to have his day in court, there are
some things that the administration can do in the meantime to make sure that this type of thing doesn’t happen again.
The University should do everything in its power to recover any of these stolen
funds that haven’t already been spent. Students saw tuition increase by about $1500 from 2005
to 2009, the years of Shearer’s alleged bribery. Any money recovered should be divided and distributed to students in attendance at SF State during those years.
We also ask the administration to launch a full investigation into how this happened. It is possible that the scandal rose no higher than Shearer, but the officials in charge of him should be questioned thoroughly to make sure they didn’t have their hand in the cookie jar as well.
If the administration wishes to garner the faith of its student body, it will institute a policy of full and complete transparency, including the complete public disclosure of the contract between SF State and CHMT and all invoices for services rendered during the term of that contract.
Anything short of that will leave students asking where the University’s priorities lie, with the protection of SF State’s public image or with the trust of its student body.
ART BY KIRSTIE HARUTA [email protected]
GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG 05.01.13| 9
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I USED TO SIT IN MY CAR LISTENING to the public radio station while I waited for my drug dealer to arrive. Shows like the BBC News Hour, This American Life and Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me droned in one ear and out the other. I could rarely concentrate on anything except drugs, but I thought these shows made me seem smart, liberal.
Since my 20s, I secretly wanted to be an intellectual liberal yuppie. I had a simple dream of living in a nice apartment in Manhattan, drinking wine, writing books and discussing litera-ture over dinner with other like-minded friends.
That could explain why I ended up living in San Francisco. I was never politically aware, partly because I was too high on heroin and booze to care about anything except myself, until I became a journalist. While it’s still not my forte, I’ve become increasingly interested in drug policies.
Last week, April 23, Senator Mark Leno's new drug bill, which would reduce drug possession from a mandatory felony to a misdemeanor, was approved by a senate committee and will be voted on by the full senate in May. The SB 649 bill doesn’t auto-matically change the law. It just allows the prosecutor to lessen the charge if the case merits it.
Leno attempted a similar bill last year that would've made all small drug possession charges a misde-meanor, but it failed to pass. The idea is to reduce the burden on the state's overcrowded prison system by not sending so many drug users to jail.
Once a felon, the path is hard. It’s a tough stigma to shake. Jobs are hard to come by, cops can search them without war-rants and if they’re on parole they can’t vote.
For the junkie who gets a severe charge, like burglary, and ends up in prison, a small possession felony can violate his parole and send him back to prison or at least to county jail for a few months. It can be a vicious cycle.
Luckily, I never got popped for a felony charge that stuck. I did get close once.
For years, I parked in the same general area near my drug dealer’s house, often multiple times a day. It was a suburban setting with blocks of ranch-style houses. This day though, my dealer got more paranoid than normal and had me park a half block down from my usual spot, landing me right in front of a preschool.
But I didn’t care. I stayed parked on the street in front of the school for a half hour waiting for my dealer to deliver me heroin. I had the windows down and was leaning back in my seat chain smoking cigarettes with the stereo dialed to the lo-cal public radio station. I sat up and looked around. Then I no-ticed some women at the school were acting abnormal. They gathered the children playing outside and herded them inside.
The teachers looked around suspiciously and then glared at me. A sheriff drove by, and they tried to flag him down.
This was not good. I panicked.I started the car and sped off, zipping around the corner. I
pulled in to the parking lot of a nearby liquor store. I couldn’t leave, I still needed my drugs. I phoned my dealer. He told me to drive by his house and he would be there on the street waiting.
I drove back, passing the school. A sheriff car was now parked there. I continued on like everything was cool, until I saw my dealer standing on the street. I sped up, swerved at him, slammed on the brakes, got the dope and raced off. My house wasn’t too far. Maybe I could make it. Another police car passed in front of me at a stop sign. I prayed to God, "Don’t let him notice me." He did a U-turn, and pulled me over a few blocks down the road. I knew I was busted. I didn’t want a felony possession charge so I swallowed the dope, which was wrapped in plastic still, and hoped I could barf it up later.
At first the cop thought I was a pedophile. He made snide comments and tried to make me feel guilty and bad about
myself. It worked.I was on unsupervised probation,
which allowed the cop to search me. He found a Narcotics Anonymous work book in my car and some old sy-ringe wrappers. Good thing I cleaned out all my dirty old needles from the center compartment the day before.
Unfortunately, he still arrested me for being under the influence of a controlled substance. My car was towed and I was taken to a holding cell downtown where I immediately tried to puke up the baggy of dope I had swal-lowed. It was too late. But at least I spent the next ten hours comfortably high before getting released.
I’ve had a lot of embarrassing moments in my life, but being suspected as a pedophile tops the list.
Looking back, the whole thing seemed so predictable. Of course, getting arrested and accused of being a child molester would have happened, but at the time I was shocked.
Good thing I swallowed the dope otherwise it could have been much worse. The cop might have found it and arrested me for possession of an illicit substance. The District Attorney would have had no choice but to charge me with a felony. At least with the proposed drug bill SB 649, the DA could choose either a felony or misdemeanor.
A felony would still haunt me today, probably would’ve landed me in prison.
I support Leno's bill and the decriminalization of drugs, if only to keep more people out of prison, including myself.
Now that I don’t use drugs, I no longer get arrested. Instead, I spend my free time at the gym, fast-walking on the treadmill, listening to This American Life and Freakonomics podcasts.
Journalism student Brian Rinker takes the ideals of full disclosure
and transparency to an exteme level when he reflects on his days as a
heroin junkie.
A WEEKLY COLUMN BY BRIAN [email protected]
Close call: how I almost ended up a
felon
GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG S P O R T S 05.01.1310 |
PLAYERof the
WEEKNOLAN SHERIDAN
BASEBALL
Freshman pitcher Nolan Sheridan improved to 6-1 on the season with a complete game shutout against Cal State East Bay. Sheridan gave up one hit while striking out three, walking three and throwing 111 pitches.
PHOTO BY TYLER DENISTON/SF STATE SPORTS
LL
W
WAPRIL 28 SF STATE VS. CAL STATE EAST BAY 3-0
APRIL 27 SF STATE VS. CAL STATE EAST BAY 7-0
APRIL 26 AND 27 BRUTUS HAMILTON INVITATIONALONE SECOND-PLACE FINISH FOUR PERSONAL BESTS
APRIL 27 SF STATE VS. CAL STATE EAST BAY0-5
APRIL 27SF STATE VS.CAL STATE EAST BAY 1-5
BASEBALLSOFTBALL WOMEN’S
TRACK & FIELDS C O R E
B O A R D
SCORES FROM
THE LAST WEEK OF
GATOR SPORTS
S P O R T S S C H E D U L ETHURSDAY
(5.2)WOMEN’S
TRACK & FIELDCCAA Outdoor Track & Field
(Turlock, Calif.)L
APRIL 27 SF STATE VS. CAL STATE EAST BAY4-8
HUDDLE UP:(left) The SF State Gators defense, breaks after a short timeout to discuss the Cal State East Bay Pioneers offense during the second game of a doubleheader at the SF State softball field. The Gators lost the game 1-5.STRETCH OUT:(right) SF State Gators’ Cara Spence (20), catches a ball thrown by middle infielder Kelsey Murakami (13) for an out against the Cal State East Bay Pioneers during the second of a doubleheader at the SF State softball field. The Gators lost the game 1-5. Photos by Frank Leal
BATTER UP: SF State Gators’ Sarah Catania (19) slugs a ball at the Cal State East Bay Pioneers defense during the second game of a doubleheader at the SF State softball field. Catania went 1-for-2 in the game with a walk. The Gators lost the game 1-5 and split the four-game series with the Pioneers 2-2. Photo by Frank Leal
Softball breaks even
GOLDENGATEXPRESS.ORG 05.01.13| 11
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DATA COVERAGE, OR CLOUD storage, is a model of networked online pools of storage where data is saved and usually hosted by third parties. The “hosts” are companies like Google or Facebook that oper-ate the large data centers. A “cloud” is a set of computers jammed into a
particular space.The carbon footprints left behind by large businesses'
operating systems are causing friction in the environmental community. The problem lies with the massive amount of energy — used and unused — that goes into the data sys-tems of large Internet companies.
One of the largest and most used operating systems is Google. The company provides email support for 425 million Gmail users; it processes 72 hours worth of video uploads per minute to YouTube while refreshing 20 billion Internet pages a day.
This is equivalent to the power used by all the homes in Irvine, Calif. — approximately 200,000 homes — roughly a quarter of the output of a standard nuclear power plant, according to the MIT Technology Review.
Most of the energy that data systems need in order to function is created by using heat and water to generate steam, which turns turbines that generate electricity. The massive amounts of energy is then distributed through a network of electric wires and into a transmission system through which it travels to your computer. The process of creating electricity harms the environment by emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that servers and data centers are responsible for up to 1.5 percent of the total US electricity consumption, or roughly half a percent of United States greenhouse gas emissions for 2007.
In 2007, the entire information and communication technologies sector of large internet businesses was estimat-ed to be responsible for roughly 2 percent of overall global carbon emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions from data centers are projected to double from 2007 levels by 2020, according to the "Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency" from the U.S. EPA Energy Star Program. If the business community contin-ues to use this amount of energy in order to operate, who knows what environmental impacts humans will have to deal with.
Despite the environmental impacts, data storage is continuing
to grow.Facebook reported plans to build a $1.5 billion data
center in Altoona, Iowa. The social media behemoth already has cloud storage facilities in Oregon and North Carolina.
The New York Times found that data centers often waste 90 percent, or more, of the electricity they consume. Energy is wasted by back-up generators that are in place if a power failure occurs. There’s even more energy going into ensuring the systems are maintaining a suitable tempera-ture, according to the Chartered Institute for IT.
Silicon Valley, right down the peninsula from San Francisco, has had many data centers pop up on the Cal-ifornian government’s Toxic Air Contaminant Emissions Inventory list, which shows the top diesel polluters in the state. According to Data Center Map, currently there are 21 data centers in San Francisco, most of which are located on California Street.
Companies like Facebook and Google are trying to use re-engineered software to cool their data systems down and reduce the amount of wasted power they produce. Currently Google’s data centers use about 300 million watts a day and Facebook uses about 60 million.
To put into perspective how involved the government is, no single government agency has the authority to track the industry’s energy consumption. The federal government was unable to determine how much energy its own data centers use, according to officials involved in a survey com-pleted in 2011. What is known is that the number of federal data centers grew. In 1998 there were 432 and in 2010 the number jumped to 2,094.
First of all, our government, businesses and consumers need to closely monitor the energy consumption of cloud storage systems and use incentives for green innovation.
Second, companies need to respond with ways to make their growing businesses greener. Apple is trying to make its cloud storage system run entirely on renewable sources. If one company implements a change that works, the others should follow.
Lastly, consumers need to pressure cloud service pro-viders to create a cleaner business. Consumers should know what systems they are using and what they can do to ensure the impact on the environment lessens.
It's time for businesses to get their heads out of the clouds and realize, although they are making strides in technology and in global communication, they are doing irreversible damage to the envi-ronment. Clear skies aren't on the horizon if business profits are prior-itized over the health of our planet.
When Elissa Torres isn’t rescuing wounded marine mammals or
hugging trees, the environmental studies minor spends her time
writing this column.It’s based on equal parts opinion,
statistics and life experiences. If you don’t like it, read and recycle.
Data storage
results in wasted watts
A WEEKLY ENVIRONMENTAL COLUMN BY ELISSA [email protected]
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