Letters to the Editor

Congressman Tom Lantos

Paulette Bleam’s article “Censorship at City College?” is replete with inaccuracies and unfounded charges.

Bleam claims that Congressman Tom Lantos “did nothing wrong, the poor guy,” and that “he would have been there [at the graduation] to congratulate the graduates — not to preach about the war in Iraq.”

Lantos was to receive a prestigious award, the “Friend of City College” med-al, at the graduation ceremony. Lantos has done plenty wrong. He is no friend to youth or education.

Lantos is the only Bay Area Con-gressperson who gave Bush the auth-orization to invade Iraq. He has voted re-peatedly for more military spending. He is an ardent advocate of the anti-democratic Patriot Act.

Lantos, moreover, had just returned from Israel, where he praised Ariel Sharon just days after his government’s heinous massacre of youth in the Palestinian town of Rafah, an action chastised by the European Union as a “reckless disregard for human life.” A top Israeli cabinet member equated this attack with the massacre of his own family members during the World War II Holocaust.

Bleam claims “there is a time and a place” for freedom of speech.

But do students not have the right to voice their opinion when it comes to their own graduation?

One Associated Students’ leader said he was on the student planning committee but did not hear about the Lantos award until three days before graduation. The students had no input in the decision to honor Lantos.

A broad spectrum of student groups and faculty came before the City College Board to urge them not to honor a war activist who has consistently taken money away from education by lobbying for increased spending on war. This was their right and their duty as responsible members of the City College community.

Bleam then accuses us of “advocating dictatorship and tyrannical rule on home soil!”

Our appeal to the Board and our contingency plan for a student protest of Lantos is a democratic tradition. It has nothing to do with dictatorship or tyrannical rule. We demand an apology for this outrageous claim.

Bleam then suggests we promoted “censorship,” adding that “censorship could more negatively affect the average citizen over time than a relatively small conflict in a foreign country.”

The faculty and students who went before the Board did not have the power to censor anyone. They simply urged our governing body to represent us, its people.

And is this a “relatively small conflict?” More than 1,000 U.S. soldiers and 10,000 Iraqis have died in this war. It has cost billions of dollars, diverted from education, health care, workers’ pensions, social security.

A true friend of City College, in our view, is a person who opposes war, who fights for human rights, who upholds the right of peoples to self-determination, who cares for the youth and their rights and who contributes to better education for all — everywhere.

We support Bleam’s right to disagree with us, but we are outraged by her scandalous claims and accusations.


Sincerely,

Krista Husar, Ben Eckstein, Marcio Gamba, Jed Purses (Revolution Youth)
Allan Fisher, Roger Scott (Past Presidents, AFT 2121)
Darren Villegas, Former President, Treasurer of La Raza Unida, Vice President of Inter Club Council
Nancy Hernandez, Education In Action
Leslie Simon, Chair of the Women's Studies Department

Clarification
In the Sept. 22 edition of The Guardsman we ran a story on page 6 entitled “Sun Doesn’t Shine On The Board” by Tracy Held that paraphrases and quotes Dr. Alexandra Nickliss as saying that “groups are not being open and are making it difficult to get information.” This statement and others were taken out of context and were based on notes taken at the end of the spring semester. We also regret a typographical error in which her name was hyphenated. We are sorry for any inconvenience or any hardships this may have caused Dr. Nickliss.

The Guardsman welcomes letters from our readers. Please keep submissions to 200 words or less. E-mail: opinionseditor@theguardsman.com

Four-Year Degree: It's Time

BY KATHLEEN DONOVAN
Contributing Writer

SARAH THEISS / GUARDSMAN

California’s colleges are in a crisis; this much we know. Budget cuts have forced all areas of higher education into dramatic action such as major tuition hikes and the cutting of valuable programs. Many schools are impacted in at least some majors and the University of California claims too many students are eligible to attend, resulting in an admissions crush.

The question of what to do about these problems remains hotly contested. Many are looking away from traditional solutions, such as those aforementioned, to more structural changes, like allowing junior colleges to expand into colleges that offer four year Bachelor degrees, to help alleviate the predicament. California needs new places for prospective students to receive four-year degrees. One place should be City College.

The idea of junior colleges offering four-year degrees at first seems overly ambitious, especially in a time of financial sluggishness. To many, the time may seem wrong to expand the junior college system because of all the aforementioned factors.

Yet, it was during the Great Depression of the 1930s that a teacher’s college, only offering a one-year degree program, expanded into a four-year liberal arts college to answer the need of California’s growing student population. San Francisco State Normal School became San Francisco State Teacher’s College, and eventually San Francisco State University.

By offering more education, California creates future generations of skilled and educated workers that will contribute to the economic success of the state. Perhaps that is a long-term view but education is a long-term investment that always returns profitably. To say that education, progress and expansion must stop because we cannot afford the cost is wrong. We cannot afford to delay the expansion of education progress.

The question of progress, particularly when it comes to education, cannot be mollified with poor timing and budget concerns. City College should be able to offer some four-year degrees. City College should help California retain its reputation as a state where affordable higher education for everyone is a fact, and not just an ideal.

COMING IN

Faculty Poll

Is your workload excessive to the point you are facing burnout?

Yes: 1 out of 10

No: 9 out of 10

“I teach five clesses, plus I'm the coordinator for the Humanities department, and I am handling my workload fine."
William A. McGuire, Humanities

“No, but ask me again next year!"
Hannah Asebedo, Art

“Right now, no, but when I teach part-time at three different colleges, sometimes I do."
Etsuko Wright, Foreign Language

ON THE RECORD

Should City College award four year degrees?

Jessica Jones

"No, I don't think so because I think City College is designed for people to use as a springboard to go somewhere else."

Kathryn Wilocaing

“No, because I think that it is a better idea to do two years at a community college and then go on to a four year college."

Katherine Codina

“Yes, I think it is a good idea because it gives a lot of people an opportunity to go to school than can go to a four year university."

Julie Walcer

“I think that having a four-year degree awarded at a community college is a fine idea as long as it does not come out of the budget for the CSU or UC system.”

Belinda Calderan

“Yes, I do think that City College should have that four-year program because then everybody has the economic means for a further education."

Mark Nagayo

“The associate's degree is not that far from a bachelor's and it should be possible to do it all here at City College. It would be a lot cheaper.