Volume 136, Issue 6
Homeland
Security Program Proposed
Getting students ready for the next attack
by
Gennady Sheyner
Guardsman Staff Writer
City College of San Francisco's Administration of Justice Department is tentatively planning to launch a Homeland Security and disaster preparedness certification program that will train students in emergency response.
 Photo illustration by James Adamson |
The 15-unit program would cover preparation for various kinds of crises, ranging from natural disasters to terrorism. Similar programs are offered at Caldwell Community College in North Carolina, St. Petersburg College in Florida and Lamar Institute of Technology in Texas.
"The idea is to professionalize the field of emergency management so that in case of emergency it won't be just a conglomeration of random people trying to deal with it, but a group that has been trained," said Suzanne Korey, the coordinator of the California Resource Center, a branch of City College that provides services for creating education programs.
It is uncertain if and when the program will be up and running due to a lack of funding. Thus far school officials have not found a federal grant to finance such a program, but one potential source is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which deals with crisis management. FEMA's Higher Education Project supports the dissemination of disaster management information in colleges across the country.
"FEMA is encouraging terrorism-related classes," Korey said, "but it takes money to build programs. Since the government hasn't really released the necessary funds, it's hard to say when the program will begin."
"Probably the earliest (the program could start) would be spring 2005," said Charles Hoenisch, the chair of the Administration of Justice Department. As a longtime police captain and law enforcement instructor, Hoenisch understands the need for classes dealing with disaster preparedness. He points to the destruction caused by terrorist threats and the wildfires in Southern California as evidence that more people need training to deal with emergencies.
"I've been to many symposiums dealing with homeland security and they all stress that terrorism is here to say," Hoenisch said. "It's not a question of if, it's a matter of when the next attack will be."
According to Hoenisch, terrorism will be just one of many subjects covered in the program. Although it would not be as extensive as Santa Monica College's Emergency Management program, which features eleven classes ranging from "The Social Dimensions of Disaster" to "The Emergency Management of Terrorism," it would offer courses taught by veterans of police and fire departments who would provide valuable insights to students.
Those completing the program would receive an emergency management certificate, which Korey said, "would be useful in times of huge fires and other big emergencies that are apart from homeland security."
Emperor Hirohito Guilty in Mock Trial
by
Lucy Kennedy
Guest Writer
Babies tossed in the air for bayonet practice. Men hanged by their tongues, skinned alive, then eaten. Women raped multiple times.
A hushed crowd listened as author Iris Chang described some of the cruelty perpetrated during the six weeks following the fall of Nanking to the Japanese Imperial Army in December 1937.
"We all know about Nazi Germany and Hiroshima. They are seared in our consciousness of World War II, but not the atrocities in Asia," Chang said.
Chang was speaking as part of a panel discussion at a youth conference co-sponsored by City College and the Rape of Nanking Redress Coalition.
The Redress Coalition seeks to educate people about the atrocities committed in Nanking, and to convince the Japanese parliament to formally apologize and pay reparations to the victims and their families.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing, who was born in Shanghai in 1942, only learned the details of the Nanking massacre after reading Chang's book, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.
"My parents didn't want to talk about it. A lot of parents didn't want to talk about it, because victims internalize the shame," Sing said.
But young people are determined to become educated, and have their voices heard.
Students from City College and their peers from other Bay Area colleges and high schools performed a mock grand jury of Emperor Hirohito.
"As the younger generation we should speak out, " said Yung-Yee Chen, a sophomore at Bellarmine high school in San Jose, who particippated in the grand jury along with her brother Yung-Jae Chen.
Yung-Jae played a Japanese soldier who testified that "after killing so many Chinese civilians we began to feel like we were slaughtering pigs."
Another witness testified that she was raped by 10 to 30 men daily. One day she was shaking so much that a soldier kicked her to the floor, which resulted in her having a miscarriage.
The eyewitness testimony performed by the students for the mock grand jury was all taken from documented historical records.
"The enthusiasm for this event was generated from the kids themselves," said Daro Inouye, a public defender who directed the mock grand jury. "The kids had to really research the issues as well as performing."
The audience was the designated jury with the job of deciding if Emperor Hirohito of Japan should be indicted for crimes against humanity. The verdict returned was a resounding "yes".
"This issue needs to be resolved and put to rest," Ut Nguyen, a City College student among those who voted to indict Hirohito said, "we can't let history repeat itself."
However, at the time of Hirohito's death in 1989 he was seen by many in the U.S. as a champion of Japanese democracy. Former President H.W. Bush traveled to Japan to attend his funeral.
This is the third conference put on by the Redress Coalition, but only their first youth conference.
Judge Julie Tang of the San Francisco Superior Court is co-chair of the Redress Coalition and a former trustee and three-time president of the San Francisco City College Board.
"If there's enough enthusiasm and interest, we'll present all sides and put Emperor Hirohito on trial," Tang said.
The Guardsman captured 26 awards at the annual Journalism Association of Community Colleges' Nor-Cal Conference held Oct. 25 at San Francisco State University.
Guardsman staffers took top honors in Photo Ill-ustration, Investigative Ne-ws Story, Sports Game Sto-ry, and for its Online Pub-lication.
The annual conference attracted 260 students representing 23 community colleges in Northern Cal-ifornia. The conference featured on-the- spot contests, bring-in competition, workshops and awards for published works in Spring 2003 and Fall 2003.
A delegation of 12 City College journalism students and faculty adviser Juan Gonzales attended this year's conference.
"Once again, our students fared very well," said Gon-zales. "They particularly ex-celled in the on-the-spot c-ompetitions. I am very proud of their efforts."
The awards earned are:
Online General Excellence The Guardsman
Bring-In Team Feature 3rd Lubna/Coleen Mackin
Bring-In Photo 4th Coleen Mackin HM Carol DiBenedetto
On-The-Spot Copy Editing 2nd Jim Powell
On-the-Spot Headline Writing 2nd Coleen Mackin
On-The-Spot News Story Lubna Takruri
On-The-Spot Layout/Tabloid 3rd Daniel Jenkins
Mail-In Informational Graphic HM Brad Wall HM James Adamson
Mail-In News Photo HM Joen Madona
Mail-In Photo Illustration 1st Jim Gessner 3rd Kevin Hitchock 4th James Adamson
Mail-In Photo Story/Essay HM Joen Madonna
Mail-In Sports Feature Photo 2nd Mauricio Matusiak
Mail-In Column Writing 3rd Brad Wall HM Jim Gessner HM Clare Huston
Mail-In Investigative News Story 1st Brad Wall
Mail-In Opinion Story 2nd Clare Huston
Mail-In Inside Page Layout HM Jonathan Villar
Mail-In News Feature Story 1st Chris Ulbrich
Mail-In Sports Game Story 1st Brad Wall HM Brad Wall HM Mauricio Matuisak
City College Seeks Solution for Shortage of Parking
by
Jonathan Farrell
Guest Writer
Complaints about the lack of available parking on City College's Ocean campus by student's and administrators alike have not been ignored.
Chancellor Phillip Day, Jr., confirmed that plans are underway to provide more parking spaces.
 Photo by Lana Citowsky The search for parking is a neverending story each day in the Reservoirs parking lot. |
"We have an agreement with the Public Utilities Commission to remove the middle berm in the parking reservoir," the Chancellor said.
Director of the Office of Facilities and Planning David Liggett said, "Re-moval of the berm will begin this June of '04." Sum-ertime is viewed by Liggett as the best time for construction. Parking will still be available at the reservoir while the berm is being removed.
Complaints Increase
The expansion of the parking reservoir could not have come at a better time as complaints from faculty and students have inc-reased.
Instructor Tom Graham referred to the situation of parking as a "game of cat and mouse." As one of many instructors who commute, there's little time to spare. "Students do park in faculty spots," he said.
On September 11 the Department Chairperson C-ouncil held an extensive meeting to discuss the difficulties of faculty parking.
"It poses a major problem," said DCC President, Darlene Alioto. "If an ins-tructor cannot get to class on time, students leave and there is simply is no class."
Procedures to enforce pa-rking policy have been set in place and will continue. Alioto affirmed that there are guards at the entrance to at least some of the faculty parking lots. "I encounter one [a parking guard] each morning on Cloud Circle," said Alioto.
The chancellor has red-uced the grace period of allowing students to park in staff permit spots from three weeks to two.
"There has been a long-standing policy of a grace period since I got here five and half years ago," Day said. As he would much rat-her see a new student spend money to pay for enrolling in another class than pay a parking fine.
Budget to Blame?
Alioto said the parking crunch is due to the budget. "With the 4 percent cut in classes across all departments, decisions were made to condense class schedules to prime time."
Morning and early afternoon hours are considered prime time for students. "As a result for this semester there is more faculty looking for parking places at the same time," Alioto said.
Muriel Parenteau, the newly appointed chair to the Parking and Transportation Subcommittee of the Facili-ties Review Committee, is actively addressing the iss-ue of parking. Parenteau thinks everyone should consider public transit as a reliable form of transportation.
In addition to trying to persuade MUNI to endorse a Fast Pass discount for students, Parenteau and the subcommittee are promoting a "ride share" program that allows students to login to a website (www.511.org) and find a match for people who live in the same area and can carpool.
Parenteau sees the larger picture as she said, "City College is among the most uniquely diverse campuses in the nation with over 35,000 students on the main campus alone," she said.
With such a large number of students "that does not leave us with a lot of space," she said.
When asked how many spaces would be lost during the ongoing construction, Liggett had no definite number. However when the middle berm is removed "that will add 200 to 300 spaces," he said.
Al
Franken Not Lying About Liars: Bush, Fox, Limbaugh
A fair and balanced look at the conservative right by former Saturday
Night Live comedian and author
By
Rob Cruz
Guardsman Staff Writer
Amongst the antique candelabras and classically high ceilings of the Fairmont Hotel's Gold Room, Al Fra-nken presented an axiom as timeless as the decor: Republicans lie.
 Photo by Carol DiBenedetto Al Franken autographs copies of his latest for his faithful followers at The San Francisco Common Wealth Club. |
Speaking to a capacity crowd of about 400-500 loyal Frankeneers on Friday, the political satirist used str-aight man humor to skewer right wing icons everywhere. His comments were often followed by riotous laughter and thick applause.
"As a child I was a Republican," Franken said, talking from a podium, the state and national flags hanging behind him on either side, "but when I grew up, I gave up childish things and became a Democrat."
Franken appeared at the Fairmont as part of a promotion for his latest book, "Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right."
As the title of his new book suggests, Franken is very comfortable with exposing what he believes to be the blatant faults of conservative politicians like Pre-sident Bush.
Citing that during the two Bush presidential terms in office, not one new job had been created, Franken said, "If the Bushes had run this country from its very inception to the present day, not one American would have ever worked."
On the current Bush's perceived lack of smarts, Franken said, "There's more to being President than being articulate, intelligent, and knowledgeable."
Franken became the most passionate speaking about Iraq and the ongoing fear of terrorism.
The crowd erupted in applause when Franken remarked, "It's one thing to lie about your sex life, it's another to lie about why we're sending our men and women into harms way."
He also jabbed at Ame-rica's terror alert scale, calling our current Orange Alert, "the highest level at which you're still encouraged to go to the mall."
Other subjects of Fra-nken's barbs were Bill O'Reilly and the Fox News Channel, the latter of which sued Franken, alleging he violated their trademark slogan, "Fair and Balanced". The lawsuit was laughed out of court, the presiding judge calling it wholly without merit.
"The more you watch Fox, the stupider you get," Fra-nken said.
After speaking for about 40 minutes, Franken an-swered written questions from the audience, read to him by Phil Bronstein, editor of the San Francisco Chron-icle.
When asked about Cal-ifornia's historic recall election, Franken called it "the most contentless campaign I have ever seen in my life," and that it was "not a license to grope Maria Shriver."
Pointing out Rush Lim-baugh's hard-line stance against convicted drug off-enders, Franken said the right wing talk show host, who is currently in rehab for an admitted addiction to painkillers, should, "turn himself in and ask for the maximum sentence in the most violent prison."
The pithy satirist had little to say, however, when asked about higher education in America, describing it as, "the least of his worries. "
Franken, a former "Sat-urday Night Live" cast member and writer, has also written three other books, inc-luding 1999's "Rush Lim-baugh is a Big, Fat Idiot and Other Observations."
Franken, who will soon be going on his fourth U.S.O. tour, this time to Afgha-nistan and Iraq, added, "Don't let anyone tell you that liberals don't love our country."
Outlist Brings Visibility to City College LGBT Community
by
Ronitte Libedinsky
Guest Writer
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Issues Sub-committee of the Diversity Commi-ttee published for the first time an Out List, a public listing of faculty and staff at City College of San Francisco who are LGBT.
The list was printed in the October 6th issue of City Currents and was timed to coincide with National Coming Out Day, an annual event occurring on October 11th intended to show the public that LGBT people are part of our everyday lives.
Both UC Berkeley and UC San Diego have also published Out Lists.
"Gays are a hidden minority because you can't tell if someone is gay just by looking at them," said Rick Kappra, Chair of the LGBT Issues Subcommittee. Listing these names will bring visibility and a sense of security to the LGBT community at CCSF.
The role of the list, which contains about 75 names, is two-fold, said Linda Bacon, a member of the LGBT subcommittee. The first is to encourage faculty and staff in the LGBT community to make connections amongst themselves.
The second function is to serve the students by providing respected LGBT role models. Students who are LGBT will hopefully feel like they're not alone, and they have a support group of faculty and staff that are willing to help and to listen.
It is also important for straight students to realize that some of the real people they see everyday are LGBT and that it is not something to be scared of, Bacon said.
Some members of the faculty and staff who are LGBT did not want to be included in the list. Bacon said that a portion of these did not feel a personal need to be on the list while others were afraid of discrimination and even violence against them.
Kappra explained that even though San Francisco is often seen as a Mecca for the LGBT community, CCSF has not reflected the tolerance and acceptance that is traditional to the city.
He is concerned for those LGBT students who do not know where to go for help when they encounter discrimination or abuse. Some students have described feeling like they are in a nightmare because they do not know who to turn to, he said.
The Out List is hopefully one step toward promoting tolerance and improving the quality of life for the LGBT community on campus. The O-ut List is updated year round and- can be found at http://www.ccsf.edu/Departments/Gay_Lesbian_Bisexual_Studies. Anyone who wants to add his or her name to the list should contact Linda Bacon at lbacon@ccsf.edu.