 |
Commencement Ceremony to
Feature Famed Author Campus
Keen on Compost College Seeks to Compress Academic
Calendar College Caught
in Budget Crunch
|
 Etc. Magazine on Newstands Now! Mission Workshop in Jeopardy of Losing Big Funds San Francisco's Mission Science Workshop (MSW), the acclaimed hands-on educational program that last year landed a multi-million dollar grant to establish similar sites nationwide, is in jeopardy. Its primary sponsor, The Silver Giving Foundation, is considering cutting back funding. story Noted Instructor, Author George Moss Retires from City College story Who's Retiring from |
College Seeks to Compress Academic
Calendar
Proposed alternative calendar would shorten spring and fall classes
By Ryan Jensen
Guardsman Staff Writer
Officials at City College have been looking to change the school semester calendar into a compressed or alternative semester calendar.
California Community Colleges operate under certain guidelines and regulations from State Chancellor Thomas J. Nussbaum. According to these guidelines, school administrators must report their schedule to the state that funds the system. City College of San Francisco currently operates on a 175-day schedule, or standard semester calendar.
The standard semester calendar is roughly 17 and a half-week semester, with six- to- eight-week summer classes. This system is not to be confused with a quarter system, which is a school year split into fourths.
According to the En-hanced Self Study Recom-mendation, written in April 2001 and put together by City College Chancellor Dr. Philip Day, the alternative calendar would shorten spring and fall classes from 17 or 18 weeks to 15 or 16.
A winter session would be created along with a summer session ranging from 4 to 10 weeks, depending on the course. The spring and fall daily class schedule would be revised to include 60-minute Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes and 90-minute Tuesday-Thursday classes.
City College's current schedule consists of 45-50 minute classes on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and 1 hour and 20 minutes to 90-minute classes on Tuesday-Thursday.
The traditional 17\18 week semesters, or standard semester calendar, although well known and conservative in a time of financial uncertainty, has been known to produce a high drop-out rate, due to overwhelming collegiate instruction.
But with the alternative calendar, the fall semester would start Aug. 28, and end Dec. 20 (73 teaching days). The summer break would be shorter, since the spring semester would end June 14. There would also be a winter session (extra pay assignment) from Jan. 2 to Feb. 9.
According to the alternative calendar progress report, written in April 2000 by the Educational Policies Committee, faculty and administrators have ex-pressed curiosity about these calendars, especially since two colleges, Riverside College and Santa Monica College, have switched to such schedules with an extremely positive outcome, such as an increase in student attendance and a higher ratio of passing students.
The progress report also claims that due to California's changing demographics, alternative calendars can accommodate students affected by changes in the welfare law, technology, workplace demands and career changes made by corporate downsizing.
With these positive statistics in mind, members of the American Federation Of Teachers (A.F.T) gathered to organize a meeting on Oct. 15, 2001, in California.
Twenty-one people, consisting of faculty, department chairs, counselors and administrators attended this meeting with the goal of "looking into" alternative calendars. No students were present at this meeting, and no official decision was made.
A second meeting took place on Nov. 13 of this year; 24 people attended, as well as one student, Amy Yau, a member of Associated Students (A.S.).
However, both these meetings did not inform enough about alternative calendars, so co-chairs Terry Hall (City College Dean of Instruction) and Maria Ma, Vice President of the Classified Union (made up of City College employees who are not teachers), were appointed to gather information on compressed calendars.
With a majority of Southern California Com-munity Colleges converting to compressed calendars, such as Pierce Community College in Los Angeles, and more recently, Evergreen Community College of San Jose, which has experimented with the alternative calendar for the past three semesters, Hall and Ma decided to see for themselves how the alternative calendar works.
Accompanied by Assoc-iated Students representa-tives Marlon Reynolds and Amy Lau, Hall and Ma visited Evergreen on Friday, Apr. 12, 2002.
"City College is not converting to a compressed calendar, just looking into it," said Hall.
He said Evergreen Col-lege gave a very "informative assembly, but no official decision has been made (by City College) to even consider the alternative."
Hall continued, "Even if City College did consider the compressed calendar, it would be a lengthy process to see if it would even pass through shared governance," who must be involved in any decision involving the college.
"It would have to involve administration, faculty, the dean, and especially the students," Hall said.
"Perhaps we could pass out packets to students describing what alternative calendars are, the advantages and disadvantages, or eventually hold an assembly with a tutorial to get the alternative out there."
'Ocean' Campus to Avoid Waves with Name Change
Main campus is in process of retiring unpopular Phelan name
By Deeann Mathews
Guardsman Staff Writer
Being true to its forward-looking stance, City College is in the process of changing the common name of its main campus from Phelan Campus to Ocean Avenue Campus.
Some City College official correspondence and documents already refer to the main campus by "Ocean" or "Ocean Avenue. But renaming the campus is not a formal process, according to Ronald Lee, general council for City College. Lee said the main campus was never officially named Phelan; the name was associated with its address at 50 Phelan Avenue.
One reason why City College is dropping the name of "Phelan" from its main campus is the unpopular legacy of James Duval Phelan, mayor of San Francisco from 1897-1903. Phelan is credited by American Heritage (Nov-ember-December 2001 edition) as having purged San Francisco of its notorious graft problems, and the Museum of San Francisco website mentions that Phelan was instrumental in convincing investors to return to San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. However, Phelan is most remembered locally for his anti-Asian views. He was strongly in favor of federal laws banning immigration of Asians into California, explaining his views to the June 16, 1907 Boston Sunday Herald: "California is white man's country."
Rodel E. Rodis, president of City College's Board of Trustees, charges Phelan of having used his influence to secure the passage of the Asian Exclusion Act of 1926. It was not until 1965, according to American Heritage, that the United States changed its immigration policy toward East Asians.
Rodis was also passionately involved in a proposal to rename the portion of Phelan Avenue along City College after Violeta Marasigan, a Filipino American civil rights activist. He fervently expressed the need for City College to disassociate itself from the legacy of Phelan.
"Continuously referring to a campus that has a minority majority by Phelan's name is an insult," said Rodis, pointing out that calling a campus with a large Asian Pacific Islander population after Phelan was akin to the idea of naming an African American College "Simon Legree University."
Rodis said naming the main campus after Ocean Avenue would connect City College more with the community along the avenue.
He also pointed out the metaphorical connection between the diversity of City College and the broad, inclusive grandeur of the Pacific Ocean.
Chancellor Philip R. Day, Jr. cites the connection to the Ocean Avenue Community as a primary benefit of changing the main campus's name, a benefit that will allow City College to move past its old image of being "the campus on the hill."
"There's a perception that we've turned our back on the Ocean Avenue community," he said, explaining that the future of City College was vitally linked to the "redevelopment and revitalization of Ocean Avenue." He also mentioned the new rail lines that will link the avenue to the rest of the city, and the re-landscaping of the avenue itself.
"We're going to have major facilities which will have frontage on Ocean Avenue," Day said. He mentioned the Community Health and Wellness Center, the Joint Use Performing Arts Center and a new entrance to the campus, all along Ocean Avenue.
"We're the one area of the city where you can see the Pacific and the bay," said the chancellor, adding that naming the campus "Ocean Avenue" linked City College with that grand perspective of the city.
City College is gradually making the name change on official documents and letterheads, referring to the main campus as "Ocean" or "Ocean Avenue". Moreover, the college is attempting to obtain an Ocean Avenue address. Toni Lee, assistant to the vice chancellor of Administration and Finance, said that the San Francisco Bureau of Permits is slow to provide the necessary permit because the main campus has no Ocean Avenue entrance.
But the college is continuing to work with the bureau toward a solution.
College Caught in Budget Crunch
By Alton Atkinson
Guardsman Staff Writer
City College is beginning to feel the repercussions of California's state wide budget crisis, now estimated by Governor Gray Davis to be approaching nearly $22 billion.
Enrollment at City College is up, which is fairly common during times of economic downturn. When the economy is slow or slumping, many people return to school in order to retrain or refine their training to enhance their eligibility for different or better jobs. However, when the state is facing an economic deficit, it often is unable to subsidize the school for the many students enlisted. "We're not getting paid for existing students," said Academic Senate Member Darlene Alioto.
As a result of the economic slump, City College has implemented a stoppage of all new hiring to faculty and general staff, and will not be moving forward with any new costly programs.
For students and staff alike, there will be no cuts to either existing staff or programs. This is possible because of a reserve set aside by the college for just this sort of situation. At any given time, City College sets aside money into a savings account of sorts to provide itself with the means to survive and maintain itself in times of hardship.
Because of this foresight, City College should be able to withstand the next fiscal period without any major setbacks.
"We're simply going to have to tighten our belts," said Alioto.
Aeronautics Failing to Take Flight
Troubled airline industry has hurt the faltering program
By Janna Shackeroff
Guardsman Staff Writer
City College's Depart-ment of Aeronautics, once the school's most sought-after program, is desperate for new enrollees. Massive layoffs, near bankruptcies in the airline industry, and the national recession since Sep. 11 have weakened the already faltering department.
The 220-person program--a two-year, Federal Aviation Administration-regulated preparatory course for airplane technicians--currently has 118 students. Thirty of these students are on indefinite leave, department administrators report.
Enrollment in the vocational program traditionally matched the booms and busts of the airline industry, according to instructors in the department. Students came in throngs when the job market was good, the industry was profitable, and wages were high.
"When airlines were laying off, we had poor enrollment," said Freddy Palma, a United Airlines mechanic and professor of aeronautics. "When they were hiring, we had many more students enroll."
Instructors do not find it surprising that few want to join the department these days. The terrorist attacks on Sep. 11 kept millions of air travelers on the ground, cost the industry $7 billion in 2001, and forced over 140,000 airline lay-offs, according to CNN news reports. The travel industry is still reeling: the Air Transport Association re-ported Mar. 12 that airlines would not be profitable again until 2003.
"Right now, if you try to find a job as an aeronautical mechanic, you're not going to get one." Palma said. "But prospects for employment one year from now look very, very good."
Longevity in the Aero-nautics department may depend upon the airline industry's ability and willingness to pull itself--and its vocational feeder schools--out of the current slump. Historically, this has been the case. In the late 1980s the department boasted a two-year waiting list. Extensive job openings in the airline industry drew many to the waxy-halled mosaic of classrooms, hangers, and gutted airplanes next to San Francisco Airport (SFO).
"If you could breathe, and you could pass a background check, you were qualified (and hired)," Professor of Aeronautics Chuck Emanuel said. Enrollment in aeronautics peaked in that era, when Emanuel himself was a student in the program.
Trapped in a steady decline, enrollment vacillated around 150 students throughout the 1990s and dropped to present numbers a few years ago, according to Department Administrator Jorge Diaz. With classrooms half full and discouraging industry statistics, rumors are flying among students about the fate of the program.
"The teachers keep telling us that the program is close to shutting down," said second-year student John Vafeas. "Not enough students know about us. (City College) doesn't push the program enough."
The students may have reason to worry. Fifteen years ago, the department's avionics tract was terminated due to low enrollment, Palma said. But Diaz and Emanuel quickly denied the rumors, saying the students were overreacting. Despite dire enrollment numbers and a tight job market, most affiliated with the program remain optimistic about both the department's future and the demand for airplane mechanics.
The greatest stimulus to the Department of Aeronautics will be the retirement of more than 10,000 middle-aged mechanics, Emanuel said. Several administrators said the $200 billion contract awarded to Lockheed Martin, one of the world's largest defense contractors and the second largest recruiter on campus, foreshadows a boom in aerospace jobs.
In addition, nearly all airlines except for United have recalled their mechanics this year. Administrator Jorge Diaz said the time to enroll in the Department of Aeronautics is now.
"The time you want to be here (in school) is when they are not hiring. You want to finish here with a certification in your pocket when (the airlines) are hiring," said Diaz, a retired Air Force Captain.
Completion of the two-year FAA-regulated program qualifies graduates to take the powerplant and airframe mechanics licensing exams. Powerplant technicians fix airplane engines, and airframe mechanics work on the rest of the plane--everything from the seatbelts to the hydraulic systems.
Budding aeronautical mechanics take courses such as Turbine Engines, Assembly and Rigging, and Pneumatics. They must log hundreds of workshop hours and master more than 100 knowledge areas to qualify for their FAA certification.
Less tangibly, professors instill students with a sense of responsibility for the air-bound public. Second-year student John Vafeas put it simply: "You have a beer, you go to work, and 300 people are dead because you forgot to put a bolt in."
Voicing optimism in spite of program struggles, Chuck Emanuel mused, "9/11 made this department a little stronger. It gave students more reason to go out and do what they want to do."
Commencement Ceremony to
Feature Famed Author
Organizers for 2002 ceremony expect nearly 500 students to participate
By John Davis
Guardsman Staff Writer
Organizers for the City College 2002 commencement ceremony anticipate a great turnout for its featured speaker of academic fame. Educator, author and activist Jonathan Kozol will headline the ceremony at Davies Symphony Hall May 24.
 Jonathan Kozol, widely known for his book Death at an Early Age, will be the featured speaker for the City College 2002 commencement. |
Kozol is widely recognized for his book Death at an Early Age, which sold more than two million copies and won the National Book Award in 1968. The work describes his first year as a teacher.
Kozol began his career as a fourth grade teacher in the Boston public schools in the 1960s, and has devoted more than three decades to issues of education and social justice in America. He graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude in English Literature and won a Rhodes Scholarship. Kozol is described by the Chicago Sun Times as "today's" most eloquent spokesman for the disenfranchised."
Kathy Hochstraser, assistant manager of the City College Bookstore, expects approximately 500 students and more than 100 faculty members to participate in the commencement ceremony.
Hochstraser said organizers recently changed the venue from the Masonic Auditorium to the 2,743-seat Davies Hall to accommodate a better view for everyone.
"There are no bad seats (at Davies)," she said. "Everyone will have the chance to see the ceremony. At Masonic, many people had difficulty seeing from the "wings" where the visibility was poor." Hochstraser also added that parking is far more plentiful near the Civic Center area compared to the Masonic Auditorium.
Hochstraser encourages all graduating students to participate in the commencement ceremony.
"There are no strict deadlines," she said. "We'll try to accommodate any student as long as we have a cap and gown (that fits)."
The City College 2002 commencement ceremony will be held at 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 24, at Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave. Davies Hall is located next to the War Memorial Opera House in the Civic Center.
Campus Keen on Compost
City College makes environmental investments
By Sierra Gellhorn
Guardsman Staff Writer
About three and a half years ago, two huge green plastic tubs, paid for with a $20,000 grant from the city, were set up in the Horticul-ture Department to process fruit and vegetable waste from the cafeteria and restaurant on campus and transform it into compost that enriches the soil.
 Dave Bahl (left) and James McCormick (right) show how City College is using compost to reduce waste and create a renewable and valuable resource. |
"We need to put thought into how materials will be recycled, from cars to computers, to green waste" said Ed Dierauf, who taught engineering and physics at City College from 1967 to 1995 and now provides the glue that holds the composting program together.
A typical 40-60 gallon load of Chinese cabbage, onions and celery, basically anything but meat, cheese and coffee grounds, is emptied into the four-cubic-yard tubs, every day. Wood chips, a carbon source that absorbs the moisture and helps process the nitrogen of the leftovers, are recycled from tree trimming agencies and added to the mixture. This mixture is turned everyday using combination of a motor and three handheld levers. After about six weeks in the tubs and six weeks in bins covered with a tarp, the compost is ready to use.
As well as reducing waste and creating a renewable and valuable resource, the education this program provides participants is very important, pointed out Dierauf.
"The idea of an institution being sustainable," Dierauf says, " and that waste usually put in landfills can be transformed into a product that can be used on site," is crucial knowledge for this time we live in.
The tubs are a "combo of high and low technology," echoed Dierauf and Malcom Hillan, who teaches environmental horticulture, from plant identification to pest control, here at Ocean Campus.
When asked if there had been any problems with the system so far Dierauf replied, "I can't believe it, but it runs like a piece of cake." Both Dierauf and Hillan seemed very proud of their fairly new system and were happy to show how it works.
The smell was not bad, surprisingly enough, considering right there were hundreds of gallons of decomposing food and that the temperatures in the tubs get as high as 160F. A pipe attached to each of the tubs filters out the odorous gases from the tubs into a closed box full of wood chips, which absorb the smell.
Our campus is environmentally aware; an organic herb garden on the top of the restaurant is being built, and a greenhouse on top of Science Hall is already in place.
As far as community colleges go, City College may very well be in the lead with their "high-low tech" composting contraption, as neither Hillan nor Dierauf were aware of any other colleges with such a program. "Hopefully," Dierauf smiled, the department will continue to be awarded a $5,000 grant each year from San Francisco Waste Manage-ment to support the program and the eight student-aid workers involved.
More than 1,000 restaurants and institutions in San Francisco, from taquerias to health food restaurants, are now separating out their green waste and giving it to companies such as Sunset Scavenger, who take all the waste, process it into compost and sell it.
Recycling Rate at City College Barely Meets Requirement
By Jennifer Bromme
Guardsman Staff Writer
Although there are color-coded containers in black, blue and gray provided for regular garbage, cans, bottles, and paper all over the campus, the recycling rate for all City College campuses is at a mere 27.9 percent of overall waste, according to Carlita Martinez, recycling coordinator at City College.
This figure fails in comparison to the 46 percent rate for the county of San Francisco, according to a fact sheet by Norcal Waste Systems, the parent company of Sunset Scavengers, who is responsible for waste disposal on campus.
While City College is meeting the 25 percent-by-2002 recycling requirement by law, walking around the main campus and inspecting regular garbage cans shows that at least half of the refuse is paper. Furthermore, the receptacles that are provided for glass, bottles and paper are contaminated with other waste.
"I hate to say that people don't care, but that is what it looks like," said Martinez. She admits that there is a "need for improvement" both on the consumer end and on the end of the recycling company and the college working together to create incentives for recycling. She is planning a campaign with posters made up by the Graphic Department at City College. Martinez hopes to raise awareness with the students and the staff to make the easy task of separating the refuse into recyclables and non-recyclables a habit. Martinez also points out that saving the environment we live in starts with reduction of usage, as in handling more paperwork over the Internet and closing the recycling loop by buying recycled paper.
Martinez is also open for suggestions from anyone who has an idea on how to get students and staff to recycle more. She can be reached Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 239-3337.
Mission Workshop in Jeopardy
of Losing Big Funds
Administrators scramble to locate new funding for Mission program.
By Justin Jaffe
Guardsman Staff Writer
San Francisco's Mission Science Workshop (MSW), the acclaimed hands-on educational program that last year landed a multi-million dollar grant to establish similar sites nationwide, is in jeopardy. Its primary sponsor, The Silver Giving Foundation, is considering cutting back funding.
 The Mission Science Workshop, a hands-on educational program, is at risk of losing a substantial amount of funding from its primary sponsor, The Silver Giving Foundaton. |
The Silver Giving Foundation (SGF), a San Francisco-based organization that gave the MSW $160,000 over the past two years, is reportedly considering slashing its contribution next year by 75 percent. Such a cut would cost the Workshop $50,000, a fifth of its annual budget.
"We are not giving as much as we used to," said Kendra Cummings, program administrator for the SGF. "Our overall budget is down about 50 percent."
Dan Sudran, the MSW's founder and chief fundraiser, said that other local enrichment programs are facing similar cutbacks as corporate and private donors reevaluate the extent of their financial support in the wake of the economic downturn.
"There is a crisis right now," said Sudran, although he maintained that the workshop was not in immediate danger of closing.
The MSW, housed at City College's Mission campus, educates more than 600 Mission District students every week, most of whom are economically disadvantaged, according to Sudran.
Founded in 1991, the MSW follows the hands-on format of San Francisco's Exploratorium, infusing lessons in biology, chemistry and physics with an interactive, arts-and-crafts sensibility.
Besides bolstering 12 Mission school science programs with curriculum-based workshops, the MSW's eight staff members maintain a widely attended after-school program and offer a summer program.
While the MSW faces the prospect of layoffs and scaled-down programs, a federally funded effort to expand workshops to other cities is in full gear.
Awarded a $3 million dollar grant by the National Science Foundation in 2001, the Community Science Workshop program, an offshoot of the MSW, is working to set up similar operations in economically blighted neighborhoods in eight U.S. cities.
Due to a technicality in the grant, however, the money can be used only to fund additional workshops-- not to support the handful of existing sites in California.
"The NSF gives only developmental--not operational--grants," said Sudran. "It's the nature of the beast."
Administrators, including Sudran, while scrambling to locate new funding for the Mission program, are simultaneously scouting sites for new workshops in Houston, New Orleans, Miami, Jersey City, and Bernillo, NM.
In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian has partnered with a Latin American Youth Center in Columbia Heights to open the first official satellite workshop outside of California.
Meanwhile, the Mission Workshop is looking to reconfigure its funding formula. The best solution, according to Sudran, is to have the workshop's funding written directly into the city budget.
"Rightfully, this program should be publicly supported," he said.
To that end, the MSW recently applied for a grant from the San Francisco Department for Children, Youth and Their Families.
Sudran is optimistic.
"These are growing pains," he said. "It's the nature of these projects. You always have to be out there, trying to keep it afloat."
Noted Instructor, Author Retires from
City College
Dynamic lectures and enthusiasm for history kept students captivated
for 34 years
By Daniel Jenkins
Guardsman Staff Writer
Popular American History teacher George Donelson Moss is retiring after 34 years at City College.
Moss, who has written several textbooks on the subject of American history, is often praised by students for the organized structure of his class that is largely based on his book History in the Twentieth Century.
Moss has written several books on the subject, including The Rise of Modern America: A History of the American People, 1890-1945, Moving On: The American People Since 1945, and his best-selling book Vietnam, An American Ordeal. All are published by the Prentice Hall publishing company of Upper Saddle River, N.J.
He earned a M.A from the University of Los Angeles where he went to school on a Navy ROTC scholarship. He earned a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.
Like many students, he entered college unsure of his direction. He decided to pursue history after experiencing a class where the professor was a dynamic lecturer who made history seem exciting.
Moss began to have his writing published after an agent for Prentice Hall visited City College and received a manuscript he had written on American history. The publisher was seeking new educational text on history and was thrilled with Moss' manuscript.
Most students have found Mr. Moss' history class to be a refreshing change of pace. He earned a 3.08 G.P.A. from student reviews on the website TeacherReview.com where students repeatedly refer to him as "a great guy and very approachable."
Moss' style of teaching makes it easy for those willing to do the reading and study. He has the class down to a system: regular class lectures, occasional videos, and a test covering two chapters every two weeks. A study-sheet is handed out well in advance so the student has no excuse not to prepare.
If some students should find his style of free-form lecture and discussion boring or a waste of time, most should appreciate his deep passion for the subject at hand and his casual attitude toward attendance.
His love of history can be so strong that class often runs over the hour because he's so willing to engage in theory with students. It is common to find students staying after class to engage Moss in further dialogue. Moss enjoys working to get his students interested in his class topics, as well as the subject of history itself.
Who's Retiring from City College
This is a partial list of faculty members retiring from City College at the end of the Spring 2002 semester:
Yvonne D. Brown
Raymond Berard
Donald T. Cate
Gennaro A. DeVito
Judith Eben
Vester Flanagan
Ronald Gonzalez
Philip Greene
Theresa E. Harris
Myrna Holden
Rosemary Johnson
Rosalind W. Kwok
Sidney Lewin
Chelcie Liu
Alan C. Marion
Jill W. McCaughna
Margaret L. McCurdy
W. Stuart Millar
Robert Charles Nelson
Kathryn Lynn Savage
Frank Robert Smith
Marlene Stoner
Thomas Tragardh
Helen Y. Yang