San Jose State Associated Students’ first meeting of the semester was filled with pleas for justice as civil rights advocates demanded action from SJSU in a remote board meeting Wednesday.
The civil rights case over the death of Sigma Chi fraternity member Gregory Johnson Jr. in 2008 was brought up by Johnson’s mother Denise in the forum where she addressed the allegation that the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner and the University Police Department are allegedly covering up a homicide.
In the autopsy report, Johnson’s death was ruled a suicide but Gregory Johnson’s mother addressed the details of her son’s death and demanded justice.
“I will never, never forget what they did to him down there,” Johnson said. “My nerves are shot. I have no more nerves.”
Students and other meeting attendees accused SJSU of mishandling the Gregory Johnson Jr. case, calling the university’s silence on the case “embarrassing” and “disgusting.”
Freshman Aliya Gatihi spoke during the last public opening in the forum to reiterate the need for justice.
“I think it’s outrageous that Sigma Chi is still left intact after what they did,” she said. Gatihi added that the case should be considered a hate crime because an old fraternity photo showing members holding up Trump flags raised enough concern for the fraternity's disbandment.
An Instagram page called Justice for Gregory Johnson posted the 2019 Sigma Chi photo June 16 stating that the photo exposes the fraternity’s racism.
After Denise Johnson spoke, many attendees shared supportive messages in the Zoom chat and the A.S. Director of Sustainability, Jocelyn Jones-Trammell, instituted a moment of silence for Johnson.
Director of Intercultural Affairs Cristopher Acosta touched on the call for justice by discussing his experiences at the recent CSUnity virtual event with members from other California State University campus student governments.
“A lot of our racial issues at San Jose State are shared amongst the CSU, so they’re more or less issues that affect other campuses,” said Acosta. “That was a big takeaway of mine.”
Anti-Terror Law
Students in the national Filipino youth organization, Kabataan Alliance, also spoke during the meeting to appeal the denouncement of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s Anti-Terror law and other human rights violations.
The Anti-Terror Bill was passed into law on July 3 to “stamp out terrorism” and many Filipinos have been murdered or silenced in the name of fighting terrorism, according to a 2019 ABS-CBN News article.
“Our tax dollars, whether we want them to or not, go toward funding these human rights violations through military aid,” software engineering senior Matthew Dumanig said.
Graphic design senior Tyrell Keon Malonzo also emphasized the dangers of speaking out against the Philippine leader, in which families at home could be punished by jail or death, and urged the board of directors to take some type of action.
Enrollment
Sonja Daniels, associate vice president of Campus Life, took some time during the meeting to share some positive news for the university’s enrollment.
Daniels added that this is especially good news since other CSU campuses have seen drops in enrollment.
“Our enrollment came in really strong for fall,” Daniels said. “Enrollment has a huge impact on our budget being maintained.”
