Volume 137, Issue 8
News
BOOMING BIOTECH: City College expands program with $1.1 million grant to meet growing demand
BY
GITANJALI BHUSHAN
Staff Writer
SARAH THEISS / GUARDSMAN
Jeff Henise, graduate student at UCSF works in the Genentech research lab.
With help from a $1.1 million grant, City College plans to expand two key programs that are becoming national models for training and placing students in the developing field of biotechnology.
The On Ramp and the Bridge to Biotech programs were created in 2002 to prepare students with little or no background in math and science for new careers as lab technicians and research assistants, according to Dr. Veronica Hunnicutt, dean of the Southeast Campus, where both programs are offered.
“Biotechnology is a growing field, and for every Ph.D. in biotechnology, you need seven to nine specialized, highly trained technicians to support the work,” said Phyllis McGuire, associate vice chancellor of workforce and economic development.
With this growing demand in the 1990s, City College created one-year and two-year certificate programs, to prepare students for jobs at UCSF, Genentech, Chiron, and other companies where they can earn up to $50,000 per year, according to Dr. Edie Leonhardt and Philip Jardim, co-directors of the bio-technology department.
“Originally, our certificate programs brought in people that already had degrees in biology or chemistry,” McGuire said.
“Frances Lee, vice chancellor at that time, pointed out that we were not really serving our students that are already here.”
In response, Lee and Jardim, with Dr. Wing Tsao, dean of math and sciences, and Dr. Elaine Johnson, then-chair of the biology department, created the Bridge to Biotech program, consisting of three classes: a practical laboratory class, combined with math and language classes geared towards the biotech industry.
At the same time, the On Ramp program, a partnership between City College and nonprofit work force development organization SF Works, was created to help students who weren’t ready for the Bridge to Biotech program, which requires a 9th-grade math level. “Our dean said, ‘Maybe we need an on ramp to the Bridge,’” said Jardim.
The Bridge to Biotech program, currently offered to be-tween 20 and 24 students on the Southeast and Mission campuses, received $498,875 on June 15, 2004 from the National Science Foundation.
The money is for “refining and testing the Bridge to Biotech program in partnership with Austin Community College in Texas and Santa Ana College in southern California,” Hunnicutt said.
Funds will also be used to “expand course offerings at the Mission campus, and to develop vocational English as a Second Language classes,” McGuire said.
The National Science Foun-dation also awarded $599,996 on Oct. 15, 2004 to “expand the On Ramp program, currently offered only at the Southeast campus, to the Mission, Chinatown and Visitacion Valley campuses in San Francisco, as well as to Contra Costa and Solano
community colleges,” Hunnicutt said.
The nine-week On Ramp program offers its 14 students an introductory biology lab, customized math and professional development classes including resume writing and mock interviews, according to Lori Lind-berg, vice president of SF Works, who coordinates the program.
Students in the Bridge to Biotech program are 30 percent black, 30 percent Asian, 20 percent Hispanic and 10 percent Pacific Islander, many from the city’s economically disadvantaged southeast neighborhoods, according to Hunnicutt.
The On Ramp program serves many people who have been out of the work force, like single mother Samantha Koehler, who is raising a 10-year-old boy.
After completing the On Ramp and Bridge to Biotech programs, Koehler now works part time at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Albany, Calif., while completing her certificate at Ocean campus.
Koehler, who grew up in and around the projects, said the programs turned her life around. “Not only did they give me the opportunity to get in school, but all the tools I needed to stay motivated, and focused, the all-around package,” she said.
e-mail: gbhushan@theguardsman.com
HAZARDOUS PATHWAY CLOSED DUE TO LIABILITY
BY
SUSAN BARNES
Staff Writer
On any given school day, as few as three or as many as two dozen students at a time gather informally on Ocean campus’s undeveloped northern hillside to enjoy the shade, natural setting and good company offered in a small, leafy recess created by the horticulture department more than 30 years ago.
This year when students returned to fall classes, though, they found the brick, stone and concrete path and steps that had marked the steep and uneven route to this refuge were gone. They had been torn out by the Facilities and Maintenance department, leaving slick dirt, loose rocks and gouged earth in their place.
According to the college’s legal counsel Ron Lee, two individuals have threatened to sue City College in the past couple of years about two different incidents that occurred along this mulch-strewn trail between the Horticulture and Visual Arts Buildings.
Although neither case proved greatly damaging to the school, administrators realized that, by seeming to maintain a steep, unplanned, poorly engineered trail haphazardly created by decades of horticulture students, they were vulnerable to future lawsuits. In addition, due to costs and the specific request of neighboring residents, the path is entirely unlit.
e-mail: sbarnes@theguardsman.com
CAMPUS POLICE CALLED TO SQUELCH DISTURBANCE: Noise outside Creative Arts draws complaints
BY MARLON LUMANG
Staff Writer
|
HALIE JOHNSON / GUARDSMAN |
Since the beginning of the semester, several faculty mem-bers have complained about the amount of noise that filters into the classrooms of the Creative Arts building from students congregating outside.
At least three faculty members reported that students were having difficulty concentrating during their classes in the Creative Arts building, due to distractions from outside noises.
The noise comes from students who gather outside the Creative Arts building entrance usually between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., not realizing they are disturbing classes. Generally it is a combination of loud voices along with boom box and car radio noises.
The first complaint was filed by English professor Jessica Brown on Oct. 4. Brown has two classes in the building and wanted the campus police to be aware of her concern.
She said that when the officer came to the incident, he was unreceptive to the problem.
“When the officer who was dispatched arrived at the scene, he went straight to the lunch wagon instead of looking into the disturbance,” Brown said.
“When I spoke with campus security Chief Carl Koehler, we both agreed that students should have the freedom and places to congregate and socialize with each other on campus,” said Bruce M. Smith, liberal arts dean.
“In fact, I feel very strongly about this, since research shows that the more involved in the campus a student is, the more likely he or she is to stay in school and succeed,” he said.
On Oct. 20, Brown logged obscenities she had overheard while her classes took their midterms.
“There have been complaints and we are looking into it,” Koehler said.
“If the problem is not resolved immediately, I will be forced to ask the administration to move my classes,” Brown said.
e-mail: mlumang@theguardsman.com
FOUNDATION IS VEHICLE FOR DONOR PHILANTHROPY: Lick-Wilmerding donates $3 million toward access to Wellness Center
BY NATHAN WEYLAND
Staff Writer
The Foundation of City College, a private financial institution, will have control of over $3 million donated by Lick-Wilmerding high school in exchange for access to the new Community Wellness Center, which will be built on Ocean campus by 2007.
Founded in 1967, the purpose of the Foun-dation is “to assist the college in raising money for student scholarships, capital improvements, and general welfare of the college,” Kath-leen Alioto, executive dir-ector of the Foundation, said.
The Foundation, located in Science Hall, will serve as the financial vehicle in the proposed partnership between Lick-Wilmerding and City College. The proposal, which Chancellor Philip R. Day, Jr. expects will come to a vote in either the Nov. 18 or Dec. 16 Board of Trustees meeting, would allow the private high school to utilize the Wellness Center, which will be built with public funds. In return, Lick-Wilmerding will make two separate payments of $1.5 million to the foundation. The interest generated from the donations will be used for upkeep and maintenance of the facility, according to Day.
Alioto serves on the Board of Directors, which oversees the affairs of the Foundation. Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration Peter Goldstein, music department chair Madeline Mueller and Chancellor Day are also on the 24-member board.
Trustees Julio Ramos, Milton Marks III and Johnnie Carter acknowledge a feeling that there was a lack of administrative oversight from the college. “We should be meeting twice a year to discuss how we could work together, how we could advance the efforts of the foundation, [and] how we can together go out and raise money,” Marks said.
“Since [the Foundation] is going to have a more prominent role, we have to make sure there are appropriate safeguards ... so we make sure it’s maximizing its ability to help the school,” Ramos said.
“There is no conflict,” said Alioto. “Donors don’t want the Foundation to become a politically controlled entity.”
“This Foundation is a place where [donors] can prudently give money,” Mueller said. “If you put [donations] back in the general fund, they end up in Sacramento. The State owns us.”
The Board of Directors is subject to the rules of shared governance, which means it cannot make decisions without input and discussion with the faculty and administration.
The Foundation invests donated funds and uses the earned interest for scholarships and capital improvements, de-pending upon the will of the donors and the needs of the college.
“I can’t remember one in-stance, literally, where the board decided how to spend money,” Goldstein said.
Of the $12.1 million in net assets reported in the 2003 yearly audit, $7.4 million are temporarily restricted, and are subject to stipulations imposed by the donor, which will be responded to in some way by the Foundation. $4.6 million are permanently restricted assets, which must be maintained by the foundation per the request of the donor.
“It just depends on the individual passion of each donor,”
Alioto said.
e-mail: nweyland@theguardsman.com
THE STRATEGY BEHIND BOND POLITICS: City College makes progress one bond measure at a time
BY DANIEL POWELL
Contributing Writer
NATHAN WEYLAND / GUARDSMAN |
Madeline Mueller, chair of the music department at City College, has been waiting for a new concert auditorium since she was first hired back in 1965. Forty-five years later, in 2010, she will finally get her wish when the new Arts Center is completed.
The construction of the Arts Center, which was originally to be funded with money from a $195 million bond measure pass-ed in 2001, was delayed when an-ticipated state matching funds failed to materialize.
The 2001 bond measure, Proposition A, originally called for $250 million for construction of the Arts Cent-er and other pro-jects, including the Community Wellness Center to replace the North and South Gyms.
Chancellor Philip R. Day, Jr. said that the amount was lowered to $195 million after former Mayor Willie Brown and other city leaders voiced concerns that too many competing bond measures on the ballot would make people reluctant to vote for any of them.
City College agreed to lower their bond amount with the stipulation that the mayor’s office and other city leaders would support a second bond initiative in 2006. “It was always our intention to go out for two bonds,” said Day, acknowledging the shortfall in funds.
With less money than originally planned, the new bond proposal earmarked $25 million apiece for the Arts Center and the Wellness Center.
The proposal stated that matching funds from the state would be needed to complete both projects. “$25 million would never have built anybody anything,” Mueller said.
Aware of the possibility that the state funds would not come through, the authors of the bond specified in the proposal’s summary that “if state and private funds are not available to complete the Community Arts Center, the College will redirect the amounts designated for that project into the Community Health and Wellness Center.”
When state matching funds failed to appear, the Board of Trustees voted in favor of reallocating the funds into the Well-ness Center. “The board reserves the right to reallocate funds through an open process,” said Mil-ton Marks III, vice president of the board.
Madeline Mueller sees the lack of funding and construction delays as a blessing in disguise. “Position -wise, I couldn’t be happier. Our planning has gotten so much better,” she said, explaining that making the Arts Center as economically sound as possible also means making it environmentally friendly. “Life gives you lemons, and you make lemonade. This turns out to be really neat lemonade.”
e-mail: metronewseditor@theguardsman.com
DINOSAURS MAKE A MOVE ON CITY COLLEGE: Science Hall becomes mini-museum for fossils and model of the solar system
BY MARCO GUTIERREZ
Contributing Writer
ERIC CHAVEZ / GUARDSMAN |
City College has acquired a dinosaur exhibit as part of a long-term loan from the California Academy of Sciences (CAS), which is undergoing a total renovation at its Golden Gate Park site.
City College has developed a partnership with the CAS to create a mini-museum exhibition that will include dinosaur fossils, a model solar system and other exhibits. This project took off last spring. The dinosaur displays are planned to be located in the basement of the Science Hall and will go throughout the entire building.
“Once the fossil gallery is done, everything also will start kicking off,” said Professor Katryn Wiese of the earth science department.
Displays will be open to the public. Footprints placed on the floor will guide guests through the entire exhibition. Most of the CAS materials have already been delivered. Some fossils are already on display at the South Basement lobby in cases while others are still being prepared for showing.
“We hope to have it completed by the end of the school year,” said Professor Wiese.
The CAS’s permanent Golden Gate Park site is scheduled to reopen in 2008.
City College at Large
Call or e-mail Adam Brody with campus wide news at
(415) 239-3446 or associatenews@theguardsman.com
Castro/Valencia Campus
Two non-credit computer classes are being offered this spring at the Castro/Valencia campus’s annex site – the Charles M. Holmes Center at 1800 Market. The Center offers a computer lab with 20 computers and a projector where students can learn PhotoShop or FlashMX through COMP 9902, Graphics for Business.
Chinatown Campus
The 30th Annual Holiday Exhibition and Sale will be-gin with a faculty art exhibition from Nov. 22 through Jan. 25. A preview reception will open to the public on Friday, Dec. 3 from 6–9 p.m. at the Fort Mason Center. Sales will continue on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 4 and 5 from 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
The art exhibition and sale will feature ceramics, drawing, mixed-medium, painting, jewelry, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, watercolor and weaving.
John Adams Campus
Students interested in enrolling in the Licensed Vocational Nursing and the Registered Nursing programs will be selected using a lottery. “Hundreds of students have applied for next semester,” Linda Squires Grohe, dean of the John Adams campus, said.
Of the qualified applicants hoping to get into the impacted programs, 60 will be selected for the LVN program and 48 for the RN program. The lotteries will be held on Nov. 18 in the John Adams Auditorium (for LVN) and Nov. 23 in the Diego Rivera Theater on Ocean campus (for RN).
Evans Campus
For Bay Area residents considering attending one of the region’s many community colleges, an online survey was designed to offer assistance in deciding where to go. “There’s nothing else out there like it,” Vocational Ed Coordinator Andrea Sperew said.
The Web site www.sfbaycareermap.org is the program she and Career Development and Placement Center Counselor Greg Johnson developed with mini-grant money from California Community College regional grant money. “We’re currently developing high school curriculum,” she said. Teachers could implement this curriculum in their classrooms.
Short Cuts
Spring Class Schedule Now Available
The Spring Schedule of classes is available in print starting Monday, Nov. 15.
Students enrolling for spring semester classes can find their registration date online: www.ccsf.edu, click on Admissions/Reg-istration, then on the “registration date” link.
City College Professor Dies of Cancer
The Asian-American studies department, students, friends and family lost City College professor Helen Toribio to cancer in late October. She began teaching at City College in 1995.
Toribio recently published “The Forbidden Book,” examining the history of the Philippine-American War.
“Nobody else had chronicled the stereotypes of Filipinos during the Philip-pine-American war as they were portrayed in the Amer-ican press like she and her partner had,” Angie Fa, chair of the Asian-American studies department, said.
She also authored several articles on the anti-martial law movement in the U.S. and the history of the Union of Democratic Fili-pinos, as well as an anthology of the Filipino-American experience, “Seven Man-angs Wild.”
“She completed several lifetimes worth of work in her life,” Fa said.
Toribio is survived by Abe Ignacio, her partner of 25 years.
A memorial service is planned for Saturday, Nov. 20 at 1 p.m in the lower level of the Student Union.
Habitat Restoration Program Seeks Interns
The Center for Habitat Restoration (CHR), a student-driven wildlife preservation program at City College, needs interns to keep the program alive and able to provide hands-on courses in environmental education.
Crima Pogge, the CHR director and biology professor, said only five interns participated this semester compared with 19 last spring. This represents a record low since the program began in 1998.