San Diego State University - Notable Events and Popular Culture

Notable Events and Popular Culture

Film and television
  • The two main characters from the 2004 Academy Award-winning comedy/drama film Sideways were roommates during their college days at SDSU.
  • The SDSU campus is the setting of Hearst College, the fictional university in The CW television network show Veronica Mars.
  • The exterior shots of Rancho Carne High School in the movie Bring it On were mainly filmed at San Diego State University
  • Portions of The Real World: San Diego were filmed around the SDSU campus
  • SDSU is mentioned by Bart Simpson in The Simpsons episode "The President Wore Pearls" (Season 15, 2003). Lisa becomes president of Springfield Elementary and unknowingly strips the school of all of its recreational activities, leading Bart to say, "Lisa, you made this school even worse. And it wasn't exactly San Diego State to begin with."
1996 campus shooting

The San Diego State University shooting occurred on August 15, 1996. A 36-year-old graduate engineering student, while apparently defending his thesis, shot and killed his three professors, Constantinos Lyrintzis, Cheng Liang, and D. Preston Lowrey III, at San Diego State University. The shooter, who was suffering from certain mental problems, was convicted on July 19, 1997, and was sentenced to life in prison. As a memorial, tables with a plaque with information about each victim have been placed adjacent to the College of Engineering building.

2008 student drug arrests

On May 6, 2008, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced the arrest of 96 individuals, of whom 33 were San Diego State University students, on a variety of drug charges in a narcotics sting operation dubbed Operation Sudden Fall. It was originally reported that 75 of the arrested were students, but the inflated number included students who had been arrested months earlier, in some cases for simple possession. The bust, which was the largest in the history of San Diego County, drew a mixed reaction from the community. In addition, Associated Students President, James Poet was arrested on October 17, 2008, for driving under the influence and possession of marijuana. Poet expressed full support for the actions of Operation Sudden Fall and the Zero Tolerance Policy.

Read more about this topic:  San Diego State University

Famous quotes containing the words notable, events, popular and/or culture:

    a notable prince that was called King John;
    And he ruled England with main and with might,
    For he did great wrong, and maintained little right.
    —Unknown. King John and the Abbot of Canterbury (l. 2–4)

    Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!
    Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)

    Parents’ ability to survive a child’s unabating needs, wants, and demands...varies enormously. Some people can give and give....Whether children are good or bad, brilliant or just about normal, enormously popular or born loners, they keep their cool and say just the right thing at all times...even when they are miserable themselves, inexhaustible springs of emotional energy, reserved just for children, keep flowing unabated.
    Stella Chess (20th century)

    Whatever offices of life are performed by women of culture and refinement are thenceforth elevated; they cease to be mere servile toils, and become expressions of the ideas of superior beings.
    Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)