For years, college students Christian Poblano and Luis Romero had quietly supported the Dream Act. On a sunny but chilly Tuesday afternoon in downtown San Jose, the two undocumented immigrants stood in front of a line of news cameras and finally spoke out.

“I always secretly supported the Dream Act,” Poblano said in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library. “I definitely still feel scared, but I feel encouraged and empowered because I’m speaking for those who want to speak out but feel they can’t.”

He was only a few months old when his parents brought him to San Jose from Mexico City. Poblano is now an 18-year-old freshman at San Jose State, and the Dream Act proposal has been around for half of his life. First introduced in 2001, the congressional measure would grant legal residency to a generation of illegal immigrants who were brought here as children.

They feel time is running out. While the Dream Act has support from Democrats and Republicans, it doesn’t stand much of a chance after a more conservative Congress — and slate of tea party candidates — takes power in January.

“This is it for me,” said Romero, who was 5 when his parents brought him to the United States. The 25-year-old senior will graduate soon with a bachelor’s degree in justice studies but without the legal status to put his education to work in this country. “My future depends a lot on passing the Dream Act now.”

He’s thinking about his options if the bill doesn’t pass; he might go to medical school in Mexico or emigrate to Canada.

About a dozen students and immigrant-rights activists attended Tuesday’s news conference, which ended with cell phone calls to a Dream Act hot line that connected supporters to members of Congress. Poblano reached the message box for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Nevada Democrat has already vowed to move for a vote. Poblano left a message anyway.

“Hello, I’m calling from San Jose, California. It’s a very important piece of legislation to be passed.”

Like many college students who would benefit if the bill passes, Poblano and Romero speak flawless English and have blended into the large student body. With a mop-top haircut like former Beatle Paul McCartney, Poblano knows what he’d do if the bill passes.

“The first thing I would do,” he said, “is get a driver’s license. Then I’d look for a job.”

As undocumented students, both pay in-state tuition but are not eligible for government scholarships or loans and cannot work legally without Social Security cards. Neither student has left the country for fear of not being able to return.

The Dream Act would grant legal residency to illegal immigrants who arrived before the age of 16, lived here for at least five years and completed two years of college or military service. They must have no criminal record and must pass background checks before they can become legal residents or permanent citizens. Until then, however, they would not qualify for federal scholarships even if they win residency.

An estimated 825,000 out of 2.1 million undocumented students could gain legal status if the measure passes. About 553,000 of them live in California.

Officially named the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, the bill has enjoyed some measure of bipartisan support. The bill’s co-author is Sen. Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana. Other GOP supporters include Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former Secretary of State Collin Powell and former Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez.

However, chances are the Dream Act will get floor action but not come to a vote. Each political party and the White House have must-pass and hope-to-pass priorities. These include a compromise on renewing the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy families, extending federal unemployment benefits and a measure to send $250 checks to Social Security recipients.

Some Republicans object to the bill because they say it opens the door to the legalization of youths’ undocumented parents and other family members.

Poblano and Romero said they will appeal for passage to the very end of the session, asking politicians and Americans in general to put their youth, hard work and love of country over their illegal status.

“We go to school, we make friends, we speak the language,” Poblano said. “We are like you. I’m very blessed to be here.”

More information, including directions for making monetary donations.
http://www.sjsupd.com

Contact: Pat Lopes Harris, 408-656-6999

SAN JOSE, CA — San Jose State University has received a $1.2 million federal grant to train Afghan professors to teach modern journalism. The effort will link San Jose State and Herat University in western Afghanistan for three years.

“A free press and professionalized journalism trade is critical to the stable and vibrant Afghanistan that our Afghan and international partners are working so hard to realize,” Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, U.S. State Department Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in a statement. “Governments cannot do this alone, however, which is why I am truly inspired and heartened by this commitment by San Jose State University’s journalism school.

“Herat, Afghanistan’s third largest city, is close to the western border with Iran and of great cultural and historical significance. The future of Afghanistan depends on equipping the younger generation with the tools they need to rebuild their country, so I would like to thank San Jose State University for your role in making the future of Afghanistan a little brighter — your commitment today will change lives,” Holbrooke continued.

“San Jose State University welcomes the opportunity to help bring peace and democracy to Afghanistan by developing a program that will foster the growth of a free press and professional journalism,” said William Briggs, director of the SJSU School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

SJSU Assistant Professor of Journalism Diane Guerrazzi and Lecturer Peter Young will co-administer the program. They will develop curriculum modules and train Herat University faculty and staff, traveling to Afghanistan when it is safe to do so. Subsequently, Afghan students will participate in internships at Bay Area media outlets.

“Our goal is to create a foundation of understanding between Afghans and Americans, with San Jose State at the center of ongoing relations,” Guerrazzi said. “This grant also supports SJSU’s globalization efforts, and fosters our ties with the South Bay’s Afghan community.”

Guerrazzi is a longtime TV news reporter specializing in educational exchanges with the Middle East. Young is a former Fulbright Scholar with a broad international background and multimedia expertise. The grant includes funding for the establishment of Internet-based radio and TV broadcast channels.

San Jose State — Silicon Valley’s largest institution of higher learning with 27,400 students and 3,190 employees — is part of the California State University system. SJSU’s 154-acre downtown campus anchors the nation’s 10th largest city.

San Jose State is one of just two U.S. universities that boast a collection of historic pianos, and some of those classic keyboards will be the centerpiece of a concert Monday night.

The 7:30 p.m. event at the Music Concert Hall will feature performances by SJSU professor and pianist Gwendolyn Mok and San Francisco Symphony cellist David Goldblatt, plus students and other faculty members.

Two historic pianos will be used during the concert: an 1841 German Bosendorfer on loan from conductor Nicholas McGegan and Mok’s own 1875 French Erard Piano.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.

As a college professor, Dr. Belle Wei concluded that, too often, engineers were trained only in technical skills without developing personal character. Teaching at San Jose State University since 1987, she observed this in her electrical engineering department and in counterparts such as computer and mechanical engineering. “This wasn’t new. My peers and I were educated the same way in the 1970s.”

So as SJSU’s Don Beall Dean of Engineering, Wei tries educating students broadly. She wants them globally informed and socially responsible. Wei encourages the more than 4,900 engineering students seeking bachelor’s and master’s degrees to take courses in the humanities and social sciences. The engineering college offers undergraduates a minor in business, which helps them better comprehend how their work for an employer is linked to company profits. Wei asks guest speakers industry leaders from the surrounding Silicon Valley as well as non-engineering faculty at SJSU to discuss ethics and personal values with students. “Technology can benefit people or kill people. I want students to understand the purpose of all this technology is for benefit. And I want them to lead meaningful lives.”

A signature program of Wei’s is the Global Technology Initiative, a two-week, all-expenses-paid study tour to Asia every year that immerses about two dozen students in the workplace and culture of engineers in India, China and Taiwan. Since 2004, more than 140 students have gained international perspectives by participating in the popular program, which is financed by industry donors. After the trip, they deliver presentations to other SJSU engineering students based on what they learned about their overseas collaborators and competitors. And before students ever set foot on Asian soil, they complete a for-credit, semester-long course in the politics, customs and history of the regions they will visit in order to better grasp the context of their experiences.

“The trip is not a vacation,” Wei says.

While broadening her students’ horizons, Wei has diversified the enrollment. Despite the scarcity of Latino and Black engineering majors nationally, she has increased the representation of Latinos from 11 percent in 2003 to 15 percent by 2008 and that of Blacks from 3 to 4 percent during that period, making the presence of both racial groups on par with that of the rest of the university. Wei credits this to increased SJSU outreach and recruiting at local high schools as well as activism by the college chapters of the Society of Latino Engineers and Scientists and the Black Alliance of Scientists and Engineers. She also established the Silicon Valley Engineering Scholarship, which provides up to $5,000 a year in merit-based awards, renewable annually, to selected undergraduates. This year, 29 percent of the 59 recipients are either Black or Latino.

The changes at SJSU, the largest provider of engineers to Silicon Valley, have been noticed by outsiders, their checkbooks in hand. Under Wei’s tenure, which began in 2003, grants to the engineering college have doubled to nearly $5 million annually and its endowment has blossomed from $7 million to $35 million.

Last year, she was re-appointed to a second, six-year term as dean. Dr. Gerry Selter, SJSU provost, says Wei’s “persistence, perseverance and leadership have earned the college of engineering an outstanding reputation and international recognition.”

Wei, who holds a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, worked for two years for a California aerospace firm before joining SJSU. Her expertise is in very large-scale integration and sensor networks.

Did you know that San Jose State is one of the few universities to collect historic pianos? We meet with Professor of Keyboard Studies Gwendolyn Mok to talk about these historic pianos and the history behind their charming music. Read more http://bit.ly/sjsu-historicpianos.

Learn more about SJSU’s School of Music & Dance
http://www.music.sjsu.edu/music

Contact: Pat Lopes Harris, 408-656-6999

SAN JOSE, Calif., — At an evening event Oct. 21, Interim President Don W. Kassing launched “Acceleration: The Campaign for San Jose State University” by announcing The Valley Foundation has made a $5 million gift commitment to the School of Nursing. In gratitude for this gift and over $3.5 million in past donations, the school will be named the San Jose State University Valley Foundation School of Nursing, pending approval from the California State University Board of Trustees in November. The dinner, for over 300 SJSU supporters at the Event Center, opened the public phase of SJSU’s first-ever comprehensive campaign with a $200 million goal by 2014. SJSU raised over $129 million during the private phase, beginning in 2006.

“Our nursing program is a perfect example of San Jose State University’s direct impact on our community’s quality of life,” Interim President Kassing said. “The Valley Foundation appreciates the critical role our corporate and community partners must play when it comes to providing students with access to the very best academic and professional programs. This gift, and our entire comprehensive fundraising campaign, is about securing a better future not just for our students and our university, but our community and our region.”

The gift will be used for two purposes: to invest in an endowment providing long-term support for the nursing school, and to provide current support for a state-of-the-art nursing simulation lab. In a broader sense, the gift will also allow San Jose State to take a more prominent role in addressing our nation’s nursing shortage. The United States faces a shortfall of up to one million nurses over the next decade. California’s share will be more than 40,000 full-time-equivalent nurses. The Valley Foundation, based in Los Gatos, serves Santa Clara County by funding non-profits in the health care and medical services fields, including educational institutions.

“When most aspiring students from our community set out to earn a bachelor’s or master’s degree in nursing, there is just one place to go and that is San Jose State,” said The Valley Foundation Chairman Phillip R. Boyce, who graduated from SJSU in 1966 with a business degree. “The Valley Foundation is proud to support these students and the university because we know our gift will impact the quality of care in doctor’s offices, hospitals, and health care facilities of all kinds in our region and beyond.”

Founded in 1955, the SJSU School of Nursing is the only public institution granting bachelor’s and master’s nursing degrees in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties. Current enrollment exceeds 1,400 nursing and pre-nursing students, instructed by over 50 faculty members. The clinical simulation lab features hi-fidelity mannequins including adult, child, toddler, infant, and birthing mother units. Programmed scenarios expose students to common and uncommon treatment decisions, team and family-member communication practice, and the debriefing and reflection that follow.

“Acceleration” marks the first time in SJSU’s 153-year history that the university will launch a highly organized, resourced and targeted effort to raise millions of dollars. The campaign encompasses all seven colleges, the University Library, Student Affairs and Intercollegiate Athletics. SJSU will seek gifts from private individuals, corporations and foundations in support of four areas: Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship ($75 million), An Investment in Students ($67 million), The Gateway to Silicon Valley and Beyond ($24 million), and Support for Existing Programs ($34 million).

Learn more about “Acceleration: The Campaign for San Jose State University.”
http://www.campaign.sjsu.edu

Learn more about the SJSU School of Nursing.
http://www.sjsu.edu/nursing/

Learn more about The Valley Foundation.
http://www.valley.org/

San Jose State — Silicon Valley’s largest institution of higher learning with 29,000 students and 3,190 employees — is part of the California State University system. SJSU’s 154-acre downtown campus anchors the nation’s 10th largest city.

After more than three years of effort, San Jose filmmaker Burt Takeuchi is screening his documentary “Valor With Honor” around Northern California and beyond.

The tribute to the Nisei of the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team who served in Europe during World War II has been well received by veterans and other community members in Auburn, San Francisco and San Jose. More screenings are planned for Stockton, Los Angeles and Hawaii.

A native of Los Angeles, Takeuchi was partly raised in San Jose and received his bachelor’s degree in biology from San Jose State University in 1995. He has studied the history of the 442nd and the larger role of Asian Americans in the military for about 15 years. “Valor With Honor” is his first feature-length documentary. He plans to produce more film projects in the near future through his company, Torasan Films.

Takeuchi, who has interviewed more than 35 Nisei veterans over the past few years, said, “My motivation to make the film was to record these great stories into a feature documentary film, although my original plan was a shorter film with a handful of 442nd vets giving detailed interviews. I wanted to produce a low-budget feature dramatic film on the 442nd but did not have all the tools to create one at that time.

“The fact that the vets are passing away made this documentary a priority over all other film and art projects. I did not want to be years down the road telling these stories second-hand without proof or documentation. So ‘Valor with Honor’ was born.”

Some of the interviewees passed away before the film was completed:

Henry Arao (1920-2005) of Santa Cruz, a retired strawberry farmer and recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross;

Tom Kizuka (1923-2008) of Watsonville, a pharmacist, former Poston internee and L Company veteran;

Robert Kashiwagi (1919-2008), a K Company veteran who later worked for the State Division of Highways.

Asked if anyone in his family served in the 442nd, he replied, “A relative on my mother’s side, Tatsumi Iwate, was one of the cadre for the 442nd at Camp Shelby, Miss. His section volunteered as stretcher-bearers in the Lost Battalion rescue. He ran through a barrage during a firefight near Biffontaine, France to carry one his wounded soldiers to safety. He was wounded in the head when a tree burst exploded in front of him. He continued to lead his section unit until he was too badly wounded to continue.

“His section transported dozens of wounded soldiers to the aid stations. Sgt. Iwate was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star (posthumous), and Purple Heart. Iwate later worked at Landor in San Francisco as a graphic artist.”

Although other documentaries have been made about the 442nd, Takeuchi said that his film has much to offer even for those who are familiar with the unit’s history: ” ‘Valor With Honor’ focuses on more about the veterans themselves — how they felt looking back at World War II — racism, internment, the war, and the return home to America. The interviews are more detailed, painful, colorful, and humorous. The film structure is almost like a dramatic film, with arcs for several of the vets telling their experiences in the 442nd. You follow these aging vets through boot camp, Italy, the Lost Battalion rescue, Dachau, and their bittersweet return home.

“There is no narration in the film. The vets describe all the battles and daily situations they faced themselves — something that is rarely done in books or films. So this is a special film. Not just about Japanese Americans or Asian Americans but about World War II and what America was like in the 1930s and ’40s.”

Takeuchi tracked down veterans of the Texas 141st Infantry Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division, the “Lost Battalion” that was surrounded by German troops in France’s Vosges Mountains and rescued by the 442nd in October 1944. He also interviewed a Holocaust survivor who was rescued by the 522nd Field Artillery, which was part of the 442nd.

To supplement 1940s footage of Nisei soldiers, Takeuchi filmed re-enactments at Sequoia Paint Ball Park in Santa Cruz County with actors (including himself) in full battle gear. Due to fire regulations, they were not able to shoot their weapons.

A screening of the film in Auburn last June raised over $10,000 for a monument to Placer County 442nd veterans. That same month, the film had its San Francisco premiere at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California.

“The vets in S.F. thought the film was great and gave me the highest praises,” Takeuchi reported. “Many of the families of the vets that were interviewed attended. They were also very happy with the film.

“The Auburn show was also very well received with over 200 people in attendance. I must have shook 25-30 hands at each show. Many people cried at the end of the screenings. ‘Valor With Honor’ turned out to be a powerful film.”

Q&A With the Filmmaker

The Sept. 26 screening at Yu-Ai Kai in San Jose Japantown, sponsored by Nihonmachi Outreach Committee, included a Q&A session with Takeuchi and a photo display by the Japanese American Museum of San Jose.

Do the Nisei vets suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as today’s Iraq and Afghanistan vets do? “There was no name for it … I don’t think people were very sophisticated about those kinds of things,” Takeuchi said. “You had anything that was psychological, you were done. The Army didn’t want you … There was depression, alcoholism was high, some drug abuse, spousal abuse. Things like this happened even back then. It’s just that it wasn’t talked about, it wasn’t dealt with.”

To illustrate the attitude prevalent at the time, he cited an incident in which Gen. George Patton visited a military hospital and met a soldier who had no visible injuries but appeared to have had a nervous breakdown. The general’s response was to slap the soldier and call him a coward.

As for Nisei who suffered from PTSD, “most of them, I guess they just stayed home for a while,” Takeuchi said. “Maybe they convalesced for about half a year … If you just stopped doing things for a while and stopped stressing out, then eventually you’ll come around. I think that happens for many people. One guy said that he had one (breakdown) but it went away. He got over it eventually.

“But others, they’re still having problems today, in their 80s. They still have nightmares, flashbacks, seeing things that are not there in the corner of their eye, because fighting was so intense. Any minute a guy would come rushing out with a bayonet to try to kill you. You had to defend yourself. Artillery attacks nonstop —  it wasn’t pretty … Most of us never get that scared. If you’re a police officer, you get scared a little bit, but you don’t have to be scared like nine days straight.”

Takeuchi credited war hero and movie star Audie Murphy with helping to bring the issue out of the closet. “He won the most decorations for any soldier in the history of the U.S. military, and he had post-traumatic stress … knives under his pillow, guns loaded in his house, he just thought that someone was going to come and get him any minute … He spoke out about it, he said this thing exists in society.”

Asked if talking about their experiences was helpful to the vets, Takeuchi recalled, “One guy said he didn’t have as many nightmares. He called me once in a while … ‘Man, I feel really nervous today’ … We’d talk on his cell phone for a while … ‘You all right now?’ ‘Yeah, I can’t remember what I was calling about.’ So guess I did sort of help him.”

Talking to former internees led Takeuchi to speculate about the camp experience leading to a form of PTSD. “Being a kid on a farm, all of a sudden you’re behind barbed wire at gunpoint. That’s difficult to explain to a kid, ‘Don’t go near that fence, they’re going to blow your head off.’ I kind of wonder about that too. I wonder if the Japanese American population here on the West Coast that went to camp. How were they affected over time, how did it affect their personality, how they look at themselves and the rest of the world?”

Regarding segregation in the Army, Takeuchi said that the Nisei accepted it as a fact of life. “This was pre-civil rights, pre-affirmative action. There was none of that. … That’s something that they had to get through, that’s something that that generation had to go through. They had to try to find jobs they could do, excel at it, show that they could do it and move on. That’s what the Army did, gave them a chance to prove that it’s not the color of your skin that makes you an American.”

He noted that African Americans also served in segregated units such as the 92nd Infantry Division and were able to prove themselves. “They had a very difficult time. But the 442nd was attached to them when they broke the Gothic Line … That’s what allowed the rest of the division to pour in … The Germans were running … They saved a lot of lives.”

A surprising fact Takeuchi discovered is that the Nisei vets received generous benefits, better than what is available today. “Back then it was full benefits. You got to go to college, get training. There was rehab for wounded veterans. It was pretty extensive. The Truman Administration actually extended that, and they did a pretty good job.”

One of the beneficiaries was interviewee Susumu Ito, who served with the 522nd. “He was raised on a farm in Stockton. It’s kind of ironic. He fell so behind in school. He spoke Japanese at home. There was no bilingual education for Japanese Americans … At the time, his teachers were telling him, ‘You’ll never make it through high school.’ He got through high school and he went to trade school for a while, then he went to college and he eventually wound up as a professor at Harvard.”

Some interviews were easier than others, Takeuchi noted. “One gentleman was wounded so badly he didn’t want to talk about it. Others were very open. Others I had to kind of really tug at them to try to get them to talk.”

To keep the film at a reasonable length, he had to leave out a lot. “It started out at six hours … rough cut. Nobody’s going to sit and watch this. So that was the next logical step, to narrow the film down, narrow it to about two hours … I wanted to make it shorter, but you cut too much out, it looks really chopped up, it doesn’t look like anything.”

Takeuchi emphasized the importance of including the stories of the Hawaiian Nisei. “You’ve got to remember the 100th Battalion went in first … They did so well in war games that they sent them over first. So their record at Monte Cassino, Anzio, Livorno, and almost taking Rome, breaking into Rome by themselves, the last obstacle so the 10th Army could get through … nobody could say anything about their record there. (So the Army said) ‘Okay, let’s bring the other battalions over and we’ll make it one regiment. So that’s what they did. That’s the 442nd.”

He noted that Hawaiian and mainland soldiers initially didn’t get along, in part because “they didn’t speak a common language.” One of the interviewees, B Company veteran Leighton Sumida, spoke pidgin and joked about the subject. “He says, ‘You think they’re going to use subtitles for me?’ I said, ‘That’s a possibility’ … He’s a funny guy.”

Having grown up seeing negative depictions of Asian men in Hollywood productions, Takeuchi felt compelled to present a “masculine kind of image” and “a male role model.” He remembered that “Go for Broke,” a 1951 movie about the 442nd, was one of the few movies of that era that gave Japanese American kids “some sense of pride.”

He added, “Things have probably changed since then. We have anime now. I think kids look at their Asian American background a little differently now. They can be the heroes … the good guys. It’s not all bad.”

Takeuchi recently had an opportunity to meet one of his heroes, Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. The Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, the longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate, took part in the Lost Battalion rescue and lost an arm in Italy after the battle of Mount Fogarito, in which the Nisei climbed up a nearly vertical precipice by night and took a heavily fortified German position.

“He’s a neat guy,” Takeuchi said. “He told me, ‘Whatever you do, don’t stop moving. Don’t get on the couch and watch TV, because after that you’re done.’ ”

Takeuchi felt his film’s title was appropriate because the veterans he met are “very honorable men … very modest. You don’t see them out bragging about their accomplishments. They don’t wear their medals in public very often, maybe a little emblem of their unit …

“It’s nice to share this with people … I didn’t want to let their families down. I think they had some hope in me to try to finish this thing … It’s for their legacy.”

For information on upcoming screenings, visit www.valorwithhonor.com.

During 2009-2010, SJSU hosted more than 2,600 students from abroad. This figure includes all regularly enrolled, degree seeking students on student visas; exchange students at SJSU for one semester or year; and post-graduate students engaged in hands-on, practical training in their fields of study.

Read more from “Open Doors 2010.”
http://www.iie.org

Learn more about SJSU’s International and Extended Studies programs.
http://ies.sjsu.edu/

Contact: Pat Lopes Harris, 408-656-6999

SAN JOSE, Calif., — San Jose State University will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion and renovation of its Student Union building at noon Nov. 17 on El Paseo de Cesar E. Chavez (the Seventh Street Plaza). This event is free and open to the public. When completed in 2013, the 235,000-square-foot structure will span from the Seventh Street Plaza to the Ninth Street Plaza. Design and construction costs will total $90 million.

“The Student Union expansion and renovation will greatly enhance our efforts to support our students and foster a sense of community, both of which are essential for success inside and outside the classroom,” Interim President Don W. Kassing said. “This project will bring vibrancy to the university’s core, building on the tremendous impact of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and Campus Village.”

King Library, a $177.5 million high-rise completed in 2003, and Campus Village, a $244 million residential complex completed in 2005, anchor two corners of campus. The new Student Union will centralize many student organizations and services, and feature a food court, coffee house, print shop, and computer center. An existing amphitheater will be converted into an indoor theater and lecture hall.

The project will begin with construction of a new wing on the site of the old cafeteria, and conclude with the earthquake retrofit and renovation of the existing structure, a 144,000-square-foot building completed in 1969. The architect is Perkins + Will.” The general contractor is Lathrop Construction Associates. SJSU will seek LEED Gold certification for the building.

The new Student Union will be financed with bonds, repaid with revenue from various sources including Student Union events, space rentals, and annual student fees. The project will not use funds that could otherwise be spent for academic purposes. Beginning this project during an economic downturn will mean saving money on construction costs, given the drop in demand for such services.

View the Student Union expansion and renovation website.
http://bit.ly/sjsu-morecampuslife

Download a high-resolution rendering.
http://www.sjsu.edu/features/pics/new-studentunion.jpg
San Jose State — Silicon Valley’s largest institution of higher learning with 29,000 students and 3,190 employees — is part of the California State University system. SJSU’s 154-acre downtown campus anchors the nation’s 10th largest city.