Volume 141, Issue #6
News
SAN FRANCISCO'S ALLURE MARKETED IN MOVIE THEATERS NATIONWIDE TO ATTRACT STUDENTS
BY
TOMMY HOLMES
Staff Writer
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION / GUARDSMAN |
The Office of Marketing and Public Information at City College has found a way to raise additional revenue for the school.
City College ran a series of 15-second digital ads in movie theaters throughout the United States advertising San Francisco and City College to potential students.
The commercials included shots of Rosenberg Library, along with famous San Francisco landmarks, sunshine and palm trees.
“San Francisco is a beautiful city and we wanted to highlight that in these ads,” said Martha Lucey, dean of marketing and public information.
The commercials ran twice last March on 147 movie screens in 11 cities. In November 2005 they ran again, this time on 231 screens in 15 cities, in an effort to promote the spring and fall semesters. The commercials were shown before every movie.
“This is an effort that proved very productive,” Lucey said.
The commercials targeted the northeastern United States during winter.
“Having the digital advertisements shown in these cities during the dead of winter makes San Francisco that much more appealing. San Francisco is a beautiful city anyway, but we wanted to market City College at the right time,” Lucey said.
The commercials cost City College $26,000. According to Lucey, this was money well spent. Out-of-state tuition is $144 plus a $26 enrollment fee per semester unit. California students pay $26 per unit. In other words, 13 full-time out-of-state students cover the cost of the ads.
In the fall semester of 2005, the number of out-of state-students doubled. In the spring semester of 2006, the number went from 490 to 870.
“Of course some of the income can be attributed to the commercials,” Lucey said.
International students pay $153 plus a $26 enrollment fee per semester unit.
However, immigration restraints imposed after Sept. 11 has caused a drop in international students.
In order for an international undergraduate to become a City College student, he must obtain a student visa (F-1). City College must then issue the student an I-20 document that certifies him as a student.
“The problem is obtaining an F-1 visa, because they [the students] are either getting denied or it is taking far too long,” said Joanne Low, dean of international education and ESL.
Marketing City College to out-of-state students is helping to fill the hole that the lack of international students has created.
e-mail: tholmes@theguardsman.com
RECRUITERS GIVEN STUDENT RECORDS
BY
CHRIS ALBON
Staff Writer
SASHA KHOSHKHOU / GUARDSMAN |
A new Supreme Court ruling on March 6 reaffirmed that colleges receiving federal funding must allow military recruiters’ access to campuses. The decision did not change City College’s policy.
The court voted to uphold the Solomon Amendment, a federal law passed in 1996 that allows the Secretary of Defense to deny federal funding to colleges which ban recruiters’ access to their campuses or student records.
Despite the court’s re-assertion of the military’s right, recruiters are yet to show a public presence at City College. Instead they have chosen to quietly collect students’ personal information.
“The phone calls get ridiculous,” said student Daniel Crittendon, annoyed by the insistent recruitment calls he receives from the Army.
Associated Dean of Student Activities Skip Fotch said a sergeant from the U.S. Army Recruiting Center made an appointment to meet with him on March 14. Fotch’s office is in charge of registering all groups that wish to distribute information on Ocean campus. He said the recruiter wanted the enrollment and contact information of City College students.
Fotch said he directed the recruiter to the admissions office. The office confirmed that the recruiter was given students’ enrollment and contact information. The office also said students could fill out a “Request to Withhold Directory Information Form,” in order to keep their information confidential.
As far as other recruiting methods, Fotch said, military recruiters are not allowed to pursue students on campus. Recruiters are allowed to distribute information, but they have to go through the same process as all other solicitors.
City College could choose not to allow recruiters on campus, but it would put the college at risk of losing all federal funding including federal financial aid.
“The school shouldn’t even think twice about not letting recruiters come up here,” Student Randall Bacon said. “I think we need more money in our community college, not having the Army Recruiters up here is putting us at risk of losing that money.”
e-mail: calbon@theguardsman.com
PROTECTING STUDENT RUN NEWSPAPERS
BY JENNIFER LOPEZ
Staff Writer
JACK KARP / GUARDSMAN |
The student press has a few allies in California Assembly members Joe Nation and Leland Yee, who hope to pass a bill prohibiting censorship of student newspapers and prevent college administrators from exercising prior restraint on California’s college press corps.
The bill, AB 2581, will amend education codes in the University of California, California State University and California Community College systems to ensure students the ability to print stories without administrative consent.
Nation of Sacramento, and Yee of San Francisco, drafted the bill in response to a memo sent to CSU presidents by Christine Helwick, general counsel for the UC system. The memo listed recent court decisions involving cases that have been brought against student newspapers throughout the country.
In Hosty v. Carter, three students at Governors State University in Illinois published articles in the paper that were critical of the school’s administration. The dean of student affairs, in response to the articles, required students submit articles for approval prior to printing. The U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the students. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the decision, ruling that the same rules applied to high schools can be applied to colleges and universities.
The memo reads: “…If a subsidized student newspaper is a ‘designated public forum’ then censorship is not permissible. But if supervision and review of content for pedagogical [or teaching] purposes is regularized, then censorship is appropriate. This signals that CSU campuses may have more latitude than previously believed to censor the content of subsidized student newspapers.”
California high schools are not directly affected because education codes grant students’ freedom of speech. However, university and college students do not have the same protection. Education codes 76120 and 66301 protect speech activities, but lack wording that specifically prohibits censorship and prior restraint.
“Any attempt to look at stories beyond the advisor is censorship,” said Juan Gonzales, City College journalism chair and Guardsman adviser. “Allowing officials to make decisions on what to cover and what not to cover is political, not pedagogical.”
City College Chancellor Philip R. Day Jr. is an advocate of First Amendment rights, and administrators at the college say he would not consider impeding students’ rights.
“In fact, at every school where he has been CEO, he has insisted the student newspaper be run in this manner. And in one instance at Daytona, Fla, where the student newspaper had been discontinued, he re-established a new student newspaper with First Amendment rights.” said Leslie Smith, dean of governmental relations.
Mark Ludwig, adviser of CSU Sacramento’s newspaper, The State Hornet, had similar thoughts to Gonzales’s, but added, “Although our student paper is a public forum as described in the Hosty case, the proper pedagogical tool is post-publication critique and review.”
Journalism students at City College agreed freedom of speech and press should be equally applied on campus as it is off campus.
“Censorship discourages students from getting involved or presenting certain story ideas for fear they might not be published,” Guardsman staff writer Ankit Goyal said.
AB 2581 is unopposed and awaits approval.
e-mail: jlopez@theguardsman.com
BY ANGELA HART
Staff Writer
SAPASORN RIDHIKERD / GUARDSMAN |
Main thoroughfares to City College like Nineteenth Avenue and Laguna Honda are not equipped with bike lanes, but a plan to change that will come together in the next couple months, according to Andy Thornley, program director for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
The San Francisco Municipal Agency and the Bicycle Coalition proposed the plan. The master plan will be submitted to the City College Review Committee on April 25.
City College board of trustees voted last June in favor of adding bicycle lanes on Ocean and Phelan avenues and adding more secure bicycle parking.
“It’s important to look at the proportion of cyclists to motorists,” said Sunny Clark, department chair for the Student Health Center and a member of the review committee. “There isn’t enough room for bike lanes, it would be a nightmare and put student’s safety at risk.”
“I’m all for adding bike lanes, it would promote exercise and limit the smog in city,” student Karalyn Perez said. “Students could also ride their bikes more comfortably.”
In addition, the coalition is planning an un-interrupted route for bicyclists from Civic Center directly to City College.
This is one of three cross-town bike routes planned for the coalition’s annual Bike-to-Work Day on May 18. The other routes include Bay Street to Sunset Beach and Golden Gate Bridge to Heron’s Head Park in Bayview.
The coalition will be working with city planners from the Municipal Transportation Agency, Department of Public Works, and they’ve asked for the mayor’s help, Thornley said.
“We encourage students to ride bikes, and of course it’s healthier. But safety for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists comes first,” Clark said. “Students need to be protected, that’s what we’re worried about.”
e-mail: ahart@theguardsman.com
BY ANKIT GOYAL
Staff Writer
Confusingly, upon completing my first column a few people have asked me if I will give advice about love. Hmm... Let’s think about this for a second.
“Sure honey it would be great if you came over, I just made popcorn and the show should start soon,” I said excitedly to an ex-girlfriend of mine. She promptly came over with chocolate ice cream and a mini-skirt, but we were to venture in a different show. It was beyond anything that could be captured by cinematic ingenuity.
Getting the pedestrian conversation out of the way, we settled into our usual position. She hovered over me complaining of my every minute flaw, and I tacitly gazing into her eyes wondering what a gem I have (especially as her voice ascended and the windows in the apartment shimmered). Oh, what significance glass and noise were to have.
Patiently awaiting this usual interaction to subside, I started daydreaming of muscatel grapes being fed to me by a beautiful Brazilian woman. She quickly discerned my distraction and took the verbal onslaught to a new level. No member of my family, friends, or way of being was sacred.
And then I made the fatal mistake of saying “enough.” The tiger-like look in her eyes made it clear – something was going to happen.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, she rushed, grabbed my swank 13-inch TV and charged the window at the other end of the apartment. Pleading with her not to do it, I saw my TV soaring through the gentle New York night down three stories, leaving shattered glass and wires everywhere.
To close, all are welcome to seek advice from a person who is as qualified about love as President Bush is about peace and immigration.
e-mail: agoyal@theguardsman.com
City College at Large
Call or e-mail Steve Mowles with campus-wide news at: (415) 239-3446 or metronews@theguardsman.com
Downtown Campus
Learn to use Adobe Photoshop in a four-session workshop, Tuesday and Wednesday nights April 18-26, at the Downtown campus in room 422. Create images for print, multi-media and the web. Learn to enhance, alter and touch up photographs, create composite images and use special effects that may be applied to digital images. Knowledge of basic computer skills is necessary. The cost is $210.
John Adams Campus
A show called Color on Campus: Art faculty Show [OFF!] will run through May 12. The show features quilting, surface design by Patricia Bruvry, DSPS arts by Carole Fitzgerald, weaving by Peggy Osterkamp and weaving by Janice Sullivan. The show is on the second floor of the campus library at 1860 Hayes St. Show hours are Monday and Thursday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information call (415) 561-1946.
Southeast Campus
Dr. Helen Dilworth’s singers will present an “Open Mike” on Thursday May 4 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Alex Pitcher Room. The campus is located at 1800 Oakdale at Phelps Street. There is no charge and the public is invited to attend. Please bring your own music if you plan to participate. For more information call (415) 239-3485.
Fort Mason Campus
There will be a workshop titled “Introduction to Installation Art” starting on April 19 in Building B, Room 205. The workshop will include a lecture and presentation of artists who have used this art form in their own work. Students will develop and present their own installation by the end of the workshop. Classes are from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Cost is $85 plus a $5 materials fee.
Short Cuts
Drinking-Related Problems
According to a recent Harvard study, on college campuses where 70 percent or more of the student body binge drinks, 87 percent of all students have experienced one or more problems such as physical assault, sexual harassment and impaired sleep and study time as a result of their peers’ drinking.
Expensive College Education
Student debt has risen by more than 50 percent over the last decade. The average debt load upon college graduation is more than $19,000; a quarter of graduates carry more than $25,000 in loans. The interest rate on federal loans rises to 6.8 percent July 1. This will cause loan payments that are 20 percent higher, and doubles the interest students will pay over the life of the loan.
Summer Classes Beginning
Online registration for continuing students at City College of San Francisco begins April 21 and ends June 7, 2006; Registration for new and readmitted students is from May 10 to June 7. Mail-in and in-person applications must be received on or before May 22, and online applications must be received on or before June 5 for processing and to allow students time to complete the matriculation steps to pre-register.