Volume 138, Issue #1
News
IT'S A CRANE... IT'S YOUR NEW PARKING LOT
BY
SUSAN BARNES
Staff Writer
PHOTOS BY COLLEEN CUMMINGS / GUARDSMAN |
Parking and traffic changes are so extreme at City College this semester that James Blomquist, Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning and Maintenance, joined Chancellor Phillip R. Day, Jr. and Chief of Police Carl Koehler on the first day of classes to personally direct peak-hour traffic.
“We do what we need to do to make it work,” Blomquist said.
He’s referring to the massive reservoir parking lot renovation taking place on Phelan Avenue between the fire house and Archbishop Riordan High School at City College’s Ocean Avenue Campus. Huge backhoes and other earth-moving equipment dominate the skyline there, and traffic crawls by while ongoing construction reshapes the massive parking pit.
Over the summer, trucks hauled away more than 3,000 loads—almost 85,000 yards of debris left from the destruction of the middle berm that formerly separated the north and south reservoir parking lots.
This $1.6 million project that was two years in the planning will ultimately create about 400 new parking spaces and bring total reservoir parking cap-acity up to about 2,200 spaces according to Blomquist.
Among City College faculty, the best feature of the new parking design will likely be the 150 new spaces stretching at street level from Archbishop Riordan High School to the campus bookstore that should be completed in about a week. These spaces will be reserved for faculty, staff and accessible parking.
“It’s a big plus,” Greg Johnson, a counselor at the career center in Science Hall, said.
Edgar Torres, a Latin American and Latino Studies professor, is more pessimistic. “We’re getting a hundred spaces, but we’re going to be losing the parking that’s adjacent to the library … so you gain and you lose,” he said.
By the start of fall classes though, cars could only park in the reservoir on a dirt surface in designated spots that were not immediately under construction. There was a single point of access for vehicles that boasted just one lane of traffic in each direction.
“I’m irritated,” said Terri, a freshman, who didn’t want to give her last name. “It takes about thirty minutes to get out of the parking lot - one time it took me forty minutes. It’s ridiculous.”
“We haven’t had any complaints. Everybody seems to be happy with it. They understand when they see this going on that it’s leading to something better,” Blomquist said, despite formidable traffic buildup in the reservoir lot and on Phelan Avenue.
“Right now, there’s only one entry and access, so it’s not really convenient,” sophomore Bin Zhou said. “But it’s getting bigger, and I think it will be great in the future.”
Removal of the middle berm also made possible one of the most applauded improvements to reservoir parking: a new entrance situated directly across from the Science Hall stairs. It offers two vehicular traffic lanes in each direction as well as a pedestrian walkway.
“I like the access right here,” sophomore Rudy Silva said, pointing to the dirt grade that would form the bed of the finished central roadway. “You can walk right up. It’s not bad at all.”
|
City College officials are not certain about whether they will maintain a second vehicular access to reservoir parking. “We’re still debating whether to keep the entrance up by Riordan,” Blomquist said. “We’re going to wait and see how traffic flows, and then make that decision.”
A signal light, to be installed by the City and County of San Francisco, will control traffic at the new central access point.
“There will be crosswalks designed to make the pedestrian passage safer and make access to and from the lot that much quicker and easier,” Blomquist said.
In the past, the reservoir parking lots were the site of repeated vandalism, car break ins, collisions, hit-and-run accidents, thefts, robberies, and road rage. Reservoir parking incidents accounted for a hefty percentage of all crime and accidents at City College campuses, according to campus police records.
Blomquist says other reservoir renovations will improve safety and accessibility for both cars and pedestrians.
“We’ll be adding a uniform level of lighting throughout the lot,” Blomquist said. “In the past, there were dark spots and shadows. I think we’ll have 57 light poles with fixtures at a pedestrian friendly level that will give us a uniform lighted surface.”
As part of the construction project, builders have carved a new pedestrian access into the southwest corner of the reservoir lot. The fence next to the bookstore was removed to make way for this path.
For additional safety, City College will install more call boxes in the reservoir lot.
Some traffic patterns have changed too. Late last spring, a new “no left hand turn” sign was installed at the Cloud Circle exit to Phelan Avenue.
“That’s helped,” Blomquist said. “It’s frustrated some people I think who were used to a certain habit, but it’s helped make the traffic safer out of campus.”
There is also a campaign this year to inhibit students from driving on Cloud Circle.
“We’re trying to discourage student travel on Cloud Circle, because we found that it was mostly cruising,” Blomquist said.
City College officials have positioned a large sign squarely in one lane of the Phelan Avenue entrance to Cloud Circle to discourage student drivers from turning into the circle.
“During high traffic periods, we post an officer there to kind of help people read the sign,” Blomquist said.
STICKER SHOCK HITS: CITY COLLEGE REACTS TO 40% TUITION INCREASE
BY
HALIE JOHNSON
Editor
COLLEEN CUMMINGS / GUARDSMAN |
City College students were greeted this fall with the news that on Aug. 11, exactly one week before the first day of classes, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had signed Bill 1108, raising college tuition for California residents to $26 per unit.
Twelve busloads of students traveled to the steps of the State Capitol last March to protest the proposed increases, but were met with disappointment.
Full-time students were shocked to get a bill for $312 or more from a college system reputed for its accessibility regardless of one’s financial standing.
“I don’t think the $26 has persuaded anybody to drop out or say they can’t afford it,” Dean of Admissions and Records Robert Balestreri said, “Classes are jammed right now.”
Balestreri stated that more students had already dropped out at this time last year. He predicts that by the time enrollment closes, there will be 33,800 students this year at the Ocean Avenue campus compared to 31,694 last year.
“I always oppose any fee increase that would deny a student access to college,” Bal-estreri said. “If they are having difficulty, we have financial aid.”
“My staff is on high alert right now,” Dean of Financial Aid Jorge Bell said. “Financial aid is being impacted … I can see a real increase in students applying.”
“The financial aid office is especially proactive this year” about informing students of their options, Bell said. 400,000 flyers were mailed out to encourage students to apply. There are also ongoing workshops called “Coll-ege! Make It Happen” which teach students about available assistance and in some cases award scholarships to attendees.
Despite such positive efforts, a study conducted by the Calif-ornia Community College Chan-cellor’s Office last spring showed that approximately 175,000 students may have been discouraged from attending college due to fee increases.
Dean of Government Re-lations Leslie Smith is a member of the Missing Students Project, which involved the installation of 120 life-size fiberglass statues representing the students who supposedly won’t have access to college because of the cost.
When tuition was free in 1983 and 1984, “African-American men and women were at the highest rate of any other ethnic or gender group,” Smith said. Once the fees were in place, “we lost 50% of that population. We haven’t recovered,” Smith said.
Smith sees a return to the California State Department of Education’s “Master Plan for Higher Education” as the best solution. The “Master Plan” dates back to 1932, and is a regularly updated model of how community colleges, state colleges and the University of California should be governed and coordinated. It specified that all junior, state, and University of California colleges should be tuition-free for Calif-ornia residents.
“Financial aid doesn’t tend to work for all students,” she said, referring to some students’ hesitancy to apply.
Balestreri remembered a time when tuition was $50 per unit for bachelor-holding students and $11 for everyone else. “Com-pared to the rest of the nation, California is still the best deal for what you’re getting,” he said.
Oregon Community college students pay from $50-$60 per unit. Full-time students at Dutchess Community College in New York pay $1250 each semester.
Associated Students (A.S.) President Marlene Dugyawi noted that the Book Loan program, an assistance program for students having difficulty buying textbooks, had received far less requests this year than in the past. “It gave me the impression that many students aren’t going to school,” she said.
“I think tuition will still increase and the Council and the students won’t get tired of fighting against it,” Dugyawi said.
Student Views
Hynn Lee-Bible
“Education should be available to everyone. The increase is going against the goal that everyone has an equal chance.”
James Word
“My opinion is that it is bad because it disenfranchises people. Education should be free.”
Javier Abanto
“When they raised the tuition, I think people had to drop classes because they couldn’t afford to take them all. I’m just putting myself in the position of students who have to pay.”
Casey Fernandez
“I was shocked when I got an e-mail about the increase. I planned on getting financial aid when I found out about the $26.“
COMMENCEMENT EMBARRASSMENT AVERTED
BY ADAM BRODY
Staff Writer
Initial concerns stemming from a miscommunication between City College Chancellor Philip R. Day, Jr. and Peninsula Congressman Tom Lantos erupted at the college’s Board of Trustees meeting late last May.
Several students and faculty members at the meeting voiced their disapproval over Lantos’ impending appearance at City College’s commencement ceremony at the Nob Hill Masonic Center on May 29.
“I’m offended by Lantos’ record on foreign policy,” said Allan Fisher, who teaches English as a Second Language at the Mission campus. Explaining the reason for some faculty members’ opposition to Lantos planned appearance at City College’s commencement ceremony, Fisher said, “Our consciences wouldn’t let us.”
Some of the anti-Lantos students in attendance protested the fact that Lantos’ suggested app-earance at the ceremony had not been approved by the graduation committee.
The miscommunication bet-ween Day and Lantos began when they met in Washington, D.C., Day was lobbying for more funding. Day extended an invitation to Lantos to attend the City College commencement ceremony.
Somehow, the lines got cross-ed and Lantos called with the impression that he was to give the commencement address. Unfortu-nately, that honor had already been bestowed upon Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Wanting to find an amicable solution, Day arranged for Lantos to receive a “Friend of City College” medal and an opportunity to say a few words.
The morning after the uproar at the board meeting Day, urged by trustees, called Lantos to warn him of the possible fiasco. Lantos’ staff told Day they had pulled out of the commencement to avoid detracting from the ceremony.
After all was said and done, the commencement ceremony went on without a hitch. “Newsom gave a great speech,” Day said.
DEFERMENT SEE-SAW SETTLES FOR UC, CSU: Funding uncertainty: some decline offer, students change college plans
BY GITANJALI BHUSHAN
Staff Writer
Despite dire warnings issued earlier this year that students would be diverted to the community college system from the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU), the final budget, passed by the California State Legis-lature on July 31, restored funding to admit all qualified freshman candidates.
Although the restoration of funding is good news, the proc-ess was frustrating to the affected students who “got jammed… in a kind of no-person’s land,” City College Chancellor Philip R. Day, Jr., said.
“If I were in their shoes, I think I would basically point fingers at the state and be very frustrated, be very angry, and be critical of the fact that the students were held hostage over the course of the summer, in terms of their future, “ Day said. “And sadly, these are students who, from beginning to end, did all the right things.”
The potential UC students, many of whom had also been accepted to prestigious colleges and universities both in and out of state, were forced to make decisions about their futures after receiving letters informing them that they would not be admitted as freshmen to the UC system, but instead would be offered a Guaranteed Transfer Option (GTO).
As reported in the Guardsman and the San Francisco Chronicle, the GTO would have offered students who were otherwise qualified for admission to UC or CSU the chance to transfer to the university of their choice, provided they successfully completed two years at a community college.
Anticipating severe budget cuts, UC sent out letters to 7,641 eligible freshmen guaranteeing them admission to a specific UC campus as juniors through the GTO program, according to a press release from the UC Office of the President.
The UC system decided to send out the letters before the budget was finalized, in order to comply with the May 1 U.S. Na-tional Date of Statement of Intent to Register, according to Barbara Hoblitzell, principal policy analyst at the Transfer Enrollment and Undergraduate Outreach Program of the UC System. “We needed to have a plan in place,” Hoblitzell said.
The letters were sent out in April, with a deadline of June 1 to declare intent to participate in the GTO program. The CSU system did not send out GTO letters. They preferred to wait rather than “taking action based on speculations,” Suzanne Dmy-trenko said, registrar of San Francisco State University.
In figures cited by a UC press release and the San Francisco Chronicle, of those students who received GTO letters, only 1,357 accepted the offer. Others de-clined, and, according to the press release, “presumably acc-epted offers of admission from other colleges and universities.”
This finding was backed up by articles in the San Francisco Chronicle, which interviewed students who had enrolled in private universities rather than wait for deferred admission to UC.
According to Chancellor Day, the actual number of students who would have attended City College through the GTO program was only about 70, but Day believes that many students may have enrolled on their own, independent of the GTO “deal.”
SYSTEM FAILURE: FACULTY LOSES IMPORTANT E-MAIL DATE IN PROGRAM MELTDOWN
BY ADAM BRODY
Staff Writer
Chancellor Philip R. Day, Jr. ordered technicians to “spare no effort” in the recovery of data after the faculty e-mail system experienced a critical malfunction this past May.
Day sent a notice to faculty on May 18 stating that Group-wise, the college’s e-mail program, “experienced a critical failure in the server component that processes e-mail for those whose addresses begin with the letters A through J.”
After a Groupwise technical support vendor unsuccessfully retrieved the files, Doug Re of Information Technology Services (ITS), called Alex Kennedy of NBH Solutions.
“He has extensive experience in the product and is knowledgeable regarding the college’s information system,” Day said.
Kennedy spent four days re-creating the e-mail server environment. After extensive testing, the system is now up and running.
Although Kennedy’s efforts corrected the problem, the extent of data corruption forced the damaged hard drives to be sent to an outside company that specializes in data recovery. So far, thousands of files have been recovered since the damaged drives were sent out.
After the malfunction, the college has taken preventative steps which have a two-pronged effect, Re said. First, the introduction of a constant real-time backup system would guarantee that files are not lost. “The second [step] is the actual re-designing of hardware,” Re said.
Although the current system is operational and properly back-ed up, Day recommends faculty to take additional precautions by manually saving their e-mail to their computer desktops.
ONLINE CLASSES HONORED: EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT WINS VIRTUAL CAMPUS AWARD
BY SEYLA MARTINEZ
Staff Writer
|
PHOTO COURTESY LARRY FERRARAThe Education Technology Department of City College was recognized again this summer with the California Virtual Campus Award. Two courses, Digital Media and Music Appreciation, received the award.
Instructors Donna Eyestone and Larry Ferrara of the Technology Mediated Instruction staff received their awards on July 12. The recipients were judged based upon their instructional design/layout, educational content and interactivity.
Other qualities that the award recognized were a sense of community and accessibility, especially by students with disabilities. “It’s an honor to receive the award,” Eyestone said. She took first place for her Digital Media course. “The fact that City College has two courses that won this year, speaks highly of the college’s support for using technology in education,” Eyestone said. Ferrara took second place for his online Music Appreciation Course. “The award is very helpful towards building a future in online teaching and learning,” Ferrara said. Inspired by this recognition, Ferrara is considering a guitar course with video lessons. Patricia Delich, Senior Trainer/Instructional Designer, and the rest of the staff in the department are pleased. City College has won a total of four CVC Awards in the past two years.”
Consistently, I have gotten great student feedback on the course,” Eyestone said. She plans on making the course more vital each semester.
Eyestone and Ferrara share the award with Coordinator of the Office of Technology-Mediated Instruction Janet Willet, WebCT Administrator Jose Gil, Tech Support Violet Hanada, and the many student aides who have been of assistance. Working as a team, they have been a great help to the burgeoning endeavor of online education.
City College at Large
Call or e-mail Steve Mowles with campus-wide news at: (415) 239-3446 or metronews@theguardsman.com
John Adams Campus
“We have so many students in our health classes,” Linda Squires-Grohe, Dean of the John Adams campus, said. “We are screaming. We are over-subscribed and bust-ling.”
Mission Campus
The campus will delay a previously planned move to the new 17th and Alabama facility until the semester break. To prevent chaos, Chancellor Day decided to postpone moving plans until the end of the Fall semester.
The Southeast Campus
Two entry-level biotech classes are being offered along with the Gateway Entrepreneurship Program. Two teachers from the San Francisco Small Business Development Center, will be showing students how to “get into and stay in” business.
The Castro / Valencia Campus
A new class, titled “Supporting LGBT Families in Early Childhood Education” is available this semester.
Last Spring, the Guardsman received a memo from Dean Veronica Hunnicutt of the Southeast campus, noting that the Southeast campus had not received coverage comparable to the Ocean campus. We are working to change that. Alert us to campus-wide news at: (415) 239-3446.
Short Cuts
New Police Chief
Carl Koehler, a formerly retired law enforcement officer of the San Francisco Sheriffs Department, is the newly appointed Chief of Police at City College. Koehler worked in the department for 29 years. “I am the new kid on the block,” Koehler said. “I want to get to know a lot of things before I make a huge change.”
Guardsman Honored
The Guardsman received honorable mention in the California College Media Competition (CCMA) for Best Overall Design in the 2004 competition this past spring. “It was truly an honor. It shows that students can pick up the needed skills that can prepare them for professional work,” Journalism Depart-ment Chair Juan Gonzales said.
New Dean
The Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Mark Robinson the new interim Associate Dean of Student Affairs on June 10. Robinson was previously a Physical Education Counselor at City College. “The transition is good,” Robinson said. “There is more work, but it is fun and it keeps me busy all day.”
Teen College
The College for Teens program allows high school students to take classes at City College to fulfill their graduation requirements. Classes are offered this fall in Behavioral Sciences, English, Math and Science at the Ocean, Down-town and Southwest campuses.
Guardsman Moves
In late June, the Guardsman staff moved out of Bungalow 209, which is scheduled to be demolished. The move was necessitated by the upcoming construction of a new Student Health Center. The Journalism Dept. is now located in Bungalow 214, which is adjacent to the Diego Rivera Theater.