Volume 137, Issue 8
News
MONEY MATTERS: Academic year 2005-2006 scholarships still up for grabs
BY
DAN VEREL
Editor
The recent enrollment fees applied to City College last semester along with the high cost of textbooks will force many students to seek financial help this semester. Most students look to the financial aid office and student loans for help, but there is another source available: the scholarship office.
PHOTOS BY ANTONELLA FABIANI
During the 2003-2004 academic year, the scholarship office doled out 478 scholarships, which amounted to over $291,000. The scholarships stem from a variety of community groups, school departments and individuals who reward academic excellence. Of those 478 scholarships, 134 were received from outside contributors whose diversity is as abundant as the student makeup of City College.
The outside contributions are typically comprised of memorial funds to commemorate a prolific individual from the community, or independent community org-anizations.
Virtually every student at City College, in some form or another, qualifies for an award. Radiation therapy student Joe Hopkins said, “I’ve never applied for one, but I’m always interested in free money. Now that I’m working less, it’s definitely a potential.” The requirements pertain to students of all ethnic backgrounds, ages and sexual orientation.
The awards vary in standards and qualifications, but there are many opportunities for all students, ranging from academic excellence to community in-volvement.
There are more traditional scholarships like the City College Academic Award, which recognizes students with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher with three $300 awards distributed each semester. Others, like the Stoupe Endowed, gives $5,000 each sem-ester to one student who maintains a 3.0 GPA and is enrolled in a program that leads to a bachelor’s degree from an accredited baccalaureate institution.
Students may apply for as many scholarships as they qualify for. Karen Grant, senior manager assistant of the scholarship office, pointed out that one student received seven awards in one semester. “If they put forth the effort, there are alternative ways to pay for education,” she said.
Not a single scholarship went unrewarded this past year. “If the school funds it, someone gets it,” Grant said. Scholarships like the Bergin Memorial awards a one-time $500 award to a woman who wishes to pursue a career in physical education.
Dean of Financial Aid Jorge Bell explained that although “most student’s needs are met, we’ve made tremendous efforts to inform students about scholarships and financial aid.”
Approximately 30 percent of students currently receive financial aid and they can also apply for scholarships. “We try to reach as many students as possible. We don’t want any financial barriers for students,” Bell added.
The scholarship office will conduct a workshop in early February to help students find a scholarship appropriate to their needs. They offer alternative methods of funding education so that the diverse collection of students may find help from an equally diverse source within the scholarship office. “If I need the money, there is definitely a possibility,” Hopkins said.
e-mail: sports@theguardsman.com
CSU and UC Fees Keep Climbing: Tuition rates will rise 8 percent to 10 percent each year
BY
ZURI BERRY
Contributing Writer
City College students who plan to transfer to the University of California or California State University systems next fall will face an 8 percent tuition increase at these schools, an increase which will steadily continue to rise 8 to 10 percent each year through 2010.
The fee increase comes after two years of consistent budget cuts as part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s compact for higher education, which is designed to provide funding for annual enroll-ment growth, salary increases for faculty and maintenance of the facilities.
“Raising fees is a very difficult decision for all of us,” said Murray L. Galinson, chair of the CSU Board of Trustees. “This is one of many actions we are forced to take as a result of the budget cuts experienced over the previous three years.”
The increase will generate $101.2 million for the CSU system after losing $500 million in cuts over the past four years. Salary increases have been halted during the budget cuts and al-though enrollment has increased in both the UC and CSU systems there has been no additional funding for the growth.
Twenty-five percent of the new revenue will be placed towards financial aid where usually the CSU and UC system had regularly given at least 33 percent of its revenue. “It saddens me that it would appear that another phase of the door of opportunity is closing for students who may not be able to afford to go to college,” City College Chancellor Philip R. Day, Jr. said.
Jack Sparks, of the continuing student counseling department, agreed that this is bad news for students. “It’s going to get to where even with financial aid a lot of people are going to get shut out of higher education,” he said. “Eight to 10 percent every year … I don’t think is right. It’s just going to get too outrageous, too expensive for the average student to go.”
Larry Damato of City College’s Transfer Center said, “We’re going to forever have this budget; however, most people realize that when they compare CSU and UC with other states, we’re still a bargain,” Damato said.
NURSING LOTTERY STIRS CONTROVERSY: Surprises some; outrages others
BY SUSAN BARNES
Staff Writer
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It was a shock then when more than two weeks later after reading a story in The Guardsman, her father told her the next LVN class had been chosen by lottery on Nov. 18. Upon calling the nursing department office, she learned further that she was not among those selected.
“They told us at the orientation and on the paper that came with the application that the first 50 qualified applicants would be accepted,” Ruiz said. “It didn’t say anything about a lottery.”
“I got there the day before [applications would be accepted] at about 1 o’clock in the afternoon,” Ruiz explained. “At about 9 o’clock at night a lady came out… and handed us numbers. She said, ‘Just staple them to your application, and bring them in tomorrow. It doesn’t matter what time.’”
At 8 o’clock the next morning, Ruiz turned in her application. She was number 16 according to her card and the paper she signed.
“There were about 50 people there, and we were all happy,” Ruiz recalled. “It was like, ‘Yeah, we’re already in, because they said first-come, first-serve.’”
Linda Squires-Grohe, dean of the school of health and physical education, was the person who first handed out numbers to waiting applicants, and who, with City College Chancellor Philip R. Day, Jr. and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Don Griffin, made the ultimate decision to switch the applicant-acceptance procedure to a lottery.
“Traditionally, we have used a first-come, first-serve [policy] and that wasn’t a problem, because we didn’t have as many applicants as we’re now getting,” Squires-Grohe said.
There were 139 qualified applicants to the program this year. Squires-Grohe said she got a call from Chancellor Day the evening before applications were due, letting her know “there was this huge line of 79 folks at about 9 o’clock at night.”
Squires-Grohe rushed over to the campus, and gave numbers to the assembled students. At the same time, she arranged for campus police to extend their shifts and work through the night in order to hand out numbers to any new applicants who might show up before morning.
Communications broke down, however, and the 3 a.m. relief officer didn’t show up until 6:30 a.m., by which time another 90 applicants had lined up, thinking they were among the first to arrive.
“I had two groups of folks, who all felt they were there [first], and they should be admitted,” Squires-Grohe said. “I had some very angry students, and I can certainly empathize.”
But faced with this dilemma, Squires-Grohe says she, Chancellor Day and Vice Chancellor Griff in decided “the fairest way to decide it was randomly and by chance, and that would be with a lottery.”
In an effort to defray the damage done to applicants by their misinformation, the nursing department added 10 slots for new LVN students to bring the total up to 60.
“Of course the truth of the matter is, we should have anticipated this,” Squires-Grohe said. “The demand for health care programs over the last couple of semesters has just escalated.”
She points to the RN program, where during the last recruitment 379 qualified candidates applied for just 48 slots. In that intake, al-so, the department informed applicants they would be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis, but after noting the response, switch-ed the procedure to a lottery.
e-mail: sbarnes@theguardsman.com
OUTSMARTING VIRUSES: Computers receive dual protection
BY DAVIDE GUALANDI
Contributing Writer
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In the last two and a half years City College spent $25,000 for antivirus software licenses to protect 5,000 campus computers from virus attacks, a necessity that increased Information Tech- nology Services (ITS) responsibilities and put all students on alert.
“Over the last two and a half years we installed McAfee anti-virus software on every computer that City College owns,” said Douglas Re, director of ITS and its Systems and Operations Unit.
“Effectively, we have most of our machines going to the Mc-Afee Web site to download new antivirus updates on a daily basis, since there are a hundred new viruses released on the Web everyday,” added Re, emphasizing modern internet security issues.
Today, it’s not only a matter of junk mail and small macroviruses (usually associated with Microsoft Word files) like it used to be. A number of virus developers are now serving fraudulent companies that aim to gain profit from people’s “Web naivete.”
Today many major security hijacks are associated with “Web spoofing,” the act of secretly tricking the web browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla, etc.) into talking to a different web server than it intends. After the browser has been fooled, the spoofed web server can send fake web pages attempting to gain personal information such as a login ID, password or even credit card or bank account numbers.
“Web phishing” is also very common nowadays. This is the act of falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft and fraud.
An announcement by ITS, posted on the City College Web site last March, revealed that 70 percent of all the e-mail that arrives at the college is identified as spam and blocked out before it reaches staff and student e-mail accounts.
“On Nov. 1 we put a new anti-spam and antivirus appliance on our e-mail server, so all incoming e-mails are checked for viral contents,” said Re. “We’re trying to have a multilayered approach, protecting our information at different points … first on the server and then on the local computer. If we’d limit ourselves to a single protection, someone would figure out a way around it.”
Re fears many school computers may be easy targets. “Colleges are probably the most attacked by hackers and fraudulent organizations, since their network needs to be accessible to the students,” he said. “We have the attitude of sharing, offering several online services to our students and leaving our networks wide open. Corporations, of course, tend to act in more
secrecy.”
When asked about problems caused by staff members and the improper use of computers by students — like the use of instant messengers and peer-to-peer software clients — Re said that the issue is relatively insignificant. “We monitor what software is out there and we’re pretty much able to shut down those type of
applications,” he said.
ITS staff also provided “locked desktops” to the computers in most of the labs around campus, blocking the option to load new software on the system. In other labs, staff installed Deep Freeze, a program that prevents permanent changes to the system configuration and restores workstations back to the default configuration, undoing anything the user may have changed.
“[During the fall] semester we only had individual machines infected, nothing more than that, but we had to unfortunately expand staff time, which could have been better used for other things,” Re said.
TSUNAMI IMPACT STILL UNCERTAIN
BY PAULETTE BLEAM
Editor
Amid the chaos associated with the start of spring semester, the City College administration has been busy sending e-mails to many international students who may have been involved in the tsunami that struck Asia on Dec. 26, 2004. So far, no fatalities or injuries have been reported.
Joanne Low, dean of the Chinatown campus, sent e-mails to 130 international students from the affected countries, but there were very few responses. “We haven’t heard anything,” Low said. “I heard back only from two to know that they’re fine.”
Michele Zimmerman of the Institute for International Stud- ents said most of City College’s international students are not from Southeast Asia. Out of the College’s 1,377 foreign students, Zimmerman said the majority are from Korea or Japan.
Although few students have responded, Chancellor Philip R. Day, Jr. stated that “no faculty, staff or students have been
affected directly by the tsunami.”
The Administrator’s Asso ciation donated $500 to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and Chancellor Day has encouraged faculty and administration to donate on a private level.
If anyone is aware of a student, faculty or staff member who has been involved, please contact the Guardsman office at 239-3446, as we want to hear about their story.
e-mail: citynewseditor@theguardsman.com
Lines of students extending beyond infinity; a reservoir running over with cars, not water; students scurrying about, making paths like a colony of ants. All these things can only lead to one conclusion: the student horde has returned to reclaim the Ocean campus from the ravens, its perennial stewards.
I see the same faces, the same bicycles locked to handrails, the same guy giving me my change at the lunch truck. Nothing ever seems to change. I’m still here.
And yet, evolution grinds ahead. Things have changed since the beginning of the last semester:
A huge disembodied head stares at us from a blithely colored, orange and blue courtyard.
A new crosswalk (with ac-companying traffic lights) has finally been installed on Phelan, so that we hapless students no longer have to play Russian Roulette with cars while trying to cross the street, wondering if the drivers will feel like stopping.
Blue recycling bins now litter the campus, vying with the bike racks for the Best-Way-To-Uglify-The-Campus Award.
To those winged guardians of the campus, the ravens, I’m sure none of this will make any difference. Blue bins here, a giant head there, all just targets in their particular kind of avian war.
I will leave you with the sage words of the yet-to-be-updated AS Council message board in Ram Plaza: “HAPPY HOLIDAYS. GOOD LUCK WITH FINALS. THE END.”
City College at Large
Call or e-mail Adam Brody with campus wide news at
(415) 239-3446 or associatenews@theguardsman.com
John
Adams Campus
All health care programs at the John Adams campus are currently impacted, with more students interested than can be accommodated. The campus will offer new classes on computer optimization and real estate this semester. A class for older adults called “Understanding Changing Times” will be offered as well as a concurrent enrollment class with San Francisco Unified Schools geared toward students who need to make up a class in order to receive their high school diploma.
Chinatown/North Beach Campus
The Chinatown/North Beach campus is still accepting applications for their Vocational Office Train-ing Program that prepares students for entry-level clerical employment. Open-ings are available in Mic-rocomputer Applications (MABS 30), offered on Sat-urdays from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. An English for Workers Rights class is also being offered on Saturday afternoons, and a Construction Workers English Class will be taught on Tuesdays and Fridays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Southeast Campus
The Southeast campus will be offering a lecture and book signing with Pamela M. Johnson author of “From a Hard Rock to a Gem” and “I’ll Cry To-morrow” on Feb. 9 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Al-ex Pitcher Community Room. For more information, call 415-550-4353.
Downtown
Campus
The Downtown campus continues renovations including the building of a new restaurant on the first floor and a new library on the second floor. The campus will offer a new class called “The Music of East Asia.”
The speaker series “Trading with Vietnam” begins its second year on Jan. 27, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Room 821. Admission is free.
The campus will offer a Business Ethics class under the Office of Continuing Education. The class meets for seven consecutive weeks on Wednesday nights from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. starting Feb. 9. Its focus is on helping people learn ethical thinking, what tools to use when solving a moral dilemma and how to conduct themselves ethically in the real world.
Short Cuts
The Darwin Debate
The Europa Research Information Centre reported that a recent Gallup poll of 1,000 Americans showed that 45 percent believe Darwin was wrong. Just 35 percent of people surveyed believe the theory is well supported by evidence, and 29 percent said they didn’t know enough to say. Educational levels played a large role in the results, with 65 percent of those who believe Darwin possessing a post-graduate education, and 52 percent having graduated college.
Parking Permits Now Available in Conlan Hall
Campus parking will be enforced until the end of finals. Semester parking permits may be purchased in E-104. Those without semester permits may purchase day permits from ticket vending machines for $1. Night school students with valid semester or day permits may park in any lot except Lot E, Cloud Circle, Marston Rd., and Science Circle.
San Francisco’s High Risk Potential
San Francisco has the dubious honor of having the second largest damage potential from natural disasters, reported Bloomberg. According to a natural hazard risk index developed by Munich Re, the world’s largest re-insurer, San Francisco scored 167 points, well behind first place winner Tokyo, whose score of 710 was due to its dense population and high seismic, storm, volcanic, and tsunami risks. Los Angeles came in third.
New Study Reveals Dangers of Ritalin Use
A new study shows that the drug Ritalin, prescribed to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, may have long-term effects on the brain. The study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health and McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, showed that rats ex-posed to twice-daily doses of Ritalin during the time period corresponding to 4-12 years old in humans showed evidence of dysfunctional brain reward systems and depressive-like behaviors in adulthood.
Campus Crime Log
January 18, 9:15 a.m. Ocean Campus
Officers responded to a call of a couple fighting in the parking lot. One student had minor injuries.
January 18, 10:55 a.m. Ocean Campus
A citizen flagged down an officer and identified a person who had vandalized a bus with graffiti. The person was detained and admitted vandalizing the bus and other items.
January 19, 7:40 p.m. Ocean Campus
Officers responded to a report of a person acting in a bizarre manner in Rosenberg Library. The person was not a student, and had outstanding warrants for his arrest. Drug paraphernalia was found, leading to additional charges.
January 20, 9:39 a.m. Ocean Campus
Officers were dispatched to the EOPS building in response to a person causing a disruption. The person refused to leave or be identified. The suspect resisted officers and was arrested.
January 20, 11:28 a.m. Ocean Campus
A student reported that his wallet was stolen while in the cafeteria.
The Crime Log was compiled with the cooperation of the City College Police Department.