The Guardsman, Vol. 153 Issue 8

G

By Joe FitzgeraldTHE GUARDSMAN / @FITZTHEREPORTER / [email protected]

By Peter HernandezTHE GUARDSMAN / @MILESOF / [email protected]

INSIDE:Pg. 2

Shared Governance not sharing public docs

Pg. 3CCSF Speech and Debate

team fires up

Pg. 10Escape from City College:

the final column

Pg. 12Track Star shatters

running records

Pg. 14Memorial for Howth st.

murder victims

Pg. 15Secret to the success of OCCUPY movement: rock-inspired posters

A Bug in the System: Part 3 Is the college’s data truly safe?

Why was Alice sent to “Siberia?”

Vice Chancellor demoted, blamed for mishandling cuts

A Bug in the System is a multi-part article chronicling an alleged major virus attack on City College’s computer systems. “Part One” ran in the Jan. 25 issue of The Guardsman. You can read the article on TheGuards-man.com.

First reported at a City College board meeting in Janu-ary, the allegations of viruses and security breaches at City College have spawned countless ques-tions and accusations within City College’s Information Technol-ogy department and the school administration.

The ultimate question being this: is your personal data at City College safe?

The answer relies on whether or not you believe a report filed by external “digital forensics” auditor USDN, inc., is accurate.

The reality painted by USDN’s report describes the entire school’s network’s infra-structure as vulnerable to attack by a host of malware and viruses, such as the high-profile “Ghost-clicker,” and that there are defi-nite steps the college needs to make to tighten its security.

Their report has come under fire from the college commu-nity as wildly inaccurate and based on methods that amount to guesswork and charlatanism. The college community alleges many things about the auditor, alleg-

ing that the $78,000 spent on the company’s consultation findings was money wasted.

GETTING PERSONALTo understand the allegations

against USDN, you have to go back a ways into the technology department’s history with their relatively new Chief Technol-ogy Officer, Dr. David Hotchkiss. As previously reported by The Guardsman, the college commu-nity has launched a witch hunt for the CTO.

Many of their misgivings with him began when he started reorganizing the department, causing grievances with many employees who attested to The Guardsman that they had their

feathers ruffled. But as the Hotch-kiss continued his work, it was clear that the friction between him and his staff of more than 70 was beginning to sully his reputa-tion at the college.

The Guardsman spoke with more than ten employees who described working under Hotch-kiss as an exercise in distrust and fear.

Recently one employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, revealed a detailed log of griev-ances, including that Hotchkiss issued disciplinary action against an employee who “embarrassed him,” and frequently took credit on his City College-hosted blog

Dr. Alice Murillo, dean of Evans Campus, sifts through marked-up budget reports and highlighted low-enrollment course documents in her office, saying she doesn’t know why she’s there, or why she was demoted.

Not only are students being hurt by budget cuts, but City College administrator Murillo is also feeling the backlash for what some have called the “misman-agement” of a delicate budget.

Former Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Murillo can only speculate on the causes of her demotion — and all of them seem to be the fault of individuals

“INJUSTICE!”New Placement Plus One policy draws fire from student

advocacy group Students Making A Change– aka SMAC.But what’s best for City College?

By Sara BloombergTHE GUARDSMAN / @BLOOMREPORTS / [email protected]

Formed at City College in 2010 by Lena Carew, a former student at the college, Students Making a Change has been involved in advocacy campaigns this semester from placement tests to free muni passes for students.

But alongside the victories, the group has been followed by a cloud of controversy.

Members of SMAC spoke passionately at the April 26 Board of Trustees meeting, when a controversial resolution on a new placement testing policy was up for a vote — and eventually passed.

“Some of the students are being paid to speak here,” accused Student Trustee Jeffrey Fang. “I think their voice is still valuable … but we need to take that under advisement.”

Chelsea Boilard, the direc-tor of programming for Coleman Advocates for Children & Youth, a community organization in San Francisco, confirmed there are eight student leaders at City College that are paid by the orga-nization but declined to comment on the specifics of their employ-ment.

Veronica Garcia, a City College student and Coleman

Advocates’ SMAC Basebuilding Club Leader, said she gets paid $10 per hour.

According to the Rappaport Family Foundation’s website, they have given SMAC a $40,000 grant, through Coleman Advo-cates, for “organizing and advo-cacy campaigns at City College of San Francisco.”

One of the many private funders behind the controver-sial Student Success Task Force, the Rappaport Family Founda-tion seeks to encourage student activism and civic engagement at community colleges in Califor-nia, according to their website.

Carew, Coleman Advocates’ SMAC Coordinator, who wrote the grant says that future funding is uncertain.

As a group, the students in SMAC tend to speak uniformly on issues when in public — like politicians-in-training — and two members, Marjory Ruiz and Juan Segundo, are designated as media representatives.

However, the group was unusually candid at their May 9 meeting.

At a SMAC student lead-er meeting held in the Ocean

THE GUARDSMANCity College of San Francisco’s Newspaper Since 1935

Volume 153, Issue 8, May 16- May 29, 2012 TheGuardsman.com

Political Science instructor Sue Homer, members of SMAC and English instructors argue in the hall about placement tests after the Institutional Effectiveness Committee meeting on April 12 at 33 Gough St. SARA BLOOMBERG / THE GUARDSMAN

Photo of Alice Murillo cour-tesy of City College.

ALICE Page 7

PLACEMENT TESTS Page 8-9

BUG Page 5

THE GUARDSMANCity College of San Francisco’s Newspaper Since 1935

COLLEGE BUDGET CUT STAT TRACKER*:-113 CCSF CLASSES CUT FROM CCSF IN 2012-$17.5 MILLION CUT FROM CCSF BY CALIFORNIA IN 2012-$25 MILLION POSSIBLE CUTS NEXT YEAR-300,000 STUDENTS DENIED COMMUNITY COLLEGE CLASSES STATEWIDE SINCE 2009

*STATISTICS BY STATE CHANCELLOR’S OFFICE AND CITY COLLEGE ADMINISTATION

2 | May 16-May 29, 2012 | The Guardsman & TheGuardsman.com

>

NEWS

Subcommittees and commit-tees under City College’s system of shared governance have not been strictly adhering to their own policies regarding the public’s access to agendas and minutes of their public meetings.

Adopted by the San Francis-co Community College District Board of Trustees in September 1993, the shared governance system is, according to the offi-cial board resolution, the “funda-mental policy of the college.” The resolution also states in that, “all committees shall have timely published agendas and printed, available, approved minutes.” Additionally the August 2011 Shared Governance Handbook says that, “minutes are required for both committees and subcom-mittees.”

However minutes and agen-das have not been posted by many committees for several years, judging by a perusal of the Office of Shared Governance’s Commit-tees and Subcomittees Index website. Some subcommittees such as Registration Enrollment have no minutes posted at all.

Within the shared governance system there are 36 committees and subcommittees. Membership is comprised of the four constitu-ent groups: students, faculty, classified staff and administra-tors. The meetings of committees and subcommittees are open to the public, yet without postings of agendas, and direct links to necessary information on City College’s website, the general population is not aware of these meetings.

Student Trustee Jeffrey Fang indicates that the College Advi-sory Council and Planning and Budgeting committees oper-ate under the city’s Sunshine Ordinance, enacted by the City and County of San Francisco through Chapter 67 of the admin-istrative code. Coupled with the Sunshine Ordinance is also the city’s Sunshine Taskforce, whose members “protect the public’s interest in open government.”

Any new college policy deci-sions must be considered by the College Advisory Council and Planning and Budgeting commit-tees, then passed upward to the

chancellor, then finally to the Board of Trustees in order to be passed.

Examining the web archives of these two committees produces a detailed set of minutes spanning the past nine years, as well as up-to-date agendas and postings of meetings.

However, the Registra-tion Enrollment subcommittee under the College and Advisory committee has no minutes, meet-ings or agendas posted at all.

According to Attila Gabor, the Shared Governance Coordinator at City College, there are multiple factors that explain why these minutes aren’t being posted and that “we can’t just focus on one factor.” For example, if a group meets up but has only half of its members or fewer in attendance then they do not meet quorum, and therefore no minutes can be recorded.

Gabor emphasized strongly, “if you [the committees/subcom-mittees] can’t give me the minutes, I cannot post them. You don’t give me the minutes and I don’t know what’s going on.”

He also said this applies to the agendas as well, which have been posted online as rarely as the minutes. If the agendas are not posted, then the public doesn’t know where and when they can attend these meetings.

Another factor contributing to the lack of posted minutes is the fact that it’s often hard to find someone who will record them. The committees and subcom-mittees are composed of strictly volunteers only, and it is hard to find someone who has the time to record the minutes, and who can do it efficiently.

According to Gabor, “it’s not that people don’t want to do it, it’s just so hectic,” he said referring to the impacted daily schedules of the volunteers, whether they be administrator, staff, faculty or student.

“That’s a multiple-layer issue and a thorny problem,” said student trustee Fang, an active member of multiple subcommit-tees.

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College’s Shared Governance docs not open to public

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By James Fanucchi, reporting by Emma_WinklesCONTRIBUTORS / @SFBREAKINGNEWS / [email protected]

The Guardsman & TheGuardsman.com | May 16-May 29, 2012 | 3News

Editor-in-ChiefJoe Fitzgerald

News EditorSara Bloomberg

Culture EditorLulu Orozco

Opinion EditorKevin Brown

Multimedia EditorClarivel Fong

Photo EditorBeth LaBerge

Copy ChiefSusan Boeckmann

Calendar EditorCatherine Lee

Social Media EditorPeter Hernandez

Advertising EditorPeter Ho

Online EditorAugustine Wittkower

Production InternsEinar SevillaOz LitvacThomas Figg-HoblynBeth LaBerge

Staff WritersPeter HernandezCatherine LeeBecca HoekstraLance KramerThomas Figg-HoblynLucas Pontes de AlmeidaOz LitvacAlex SchmausDavid PanAnthony J. FusaroTyler Brown

Staff PhotographersClarivel FongValerie SantibanezShane MenezVincent PalmierBroadus ParkerDonovan YiRocio Alarcon

IllustratorsEmma WinklesJessica Kwan

MultimediaSergio BarrenoAugustine Wittkower

CopyKevin Brown

Faculty AdvisorJuan Gonzales

Mail:50 Phelan Ave Box V-67San Francisco, CA 94112Phone:(415) 239-3446Email: [email protected]: [email protected]:TheGuardsman.com

[email protected] Newspaper Publisher’s Association

Journalism Association of Community Colleges

How does the SF Chronicle view City College?

Award-winning debate team shows off talent

Budget cuts and scandals dominated local news reports on City College activity over the past two years, possibly affecting the public view of our campus.

The Guardsman began sift-ing through City College based news articles from the last two years, on and off line, to see how it is represented. Research was done through archives of The Chronicle, SFGate.com, The Examiner, and KTVU.com.

A near 3-1 ratio of bad news to good news was found over 25 stories appearing in local news outlets.

A lack of stories with a neutral implication was apparent.

Beginning with the Saga of City College’s Porta Potti Bill, written by Stephanie Rice for The Chronicle in May of 2010, one could read about a bill from Unit-ed Site Services that was ignored and unpaid by City College offi-cials.

Within that story, an earlier scandal was referenced, regard-ing former chancellor Philip Day and two aids in alleged financial abuses.

Further details on the topic of Day and the ex-officials sprang up again, following the story from a guilty plea to issued probation in 2011 all reported by Rice in San Francisco’s largest circulating

news publication.Other negative topics includ-

ed evacuation after a bomb-threat, the viruses transmitting City College data to Russia and China, as well as Trustees skip-ping board meetings while still collecting their stipends.

Amid all of the scandal, posi-tive stories about CCSF do exist.

News of City College’s support for veterans and fight against the deportation of student Steve Li made it into the paper and online.

The Examiner’s David Liep-man brought good word of the success the Rams’ had in the fall of 2011.

Alicia Avila reported to SFGate’s Mission Loc@l section about granted access to paid internships for undocumented and low-income students through an approved new budget.

However, the negative press, particularly in the Chronicle dominates the columns, and it can also be noted that the new trend is negative press addressing the budget problems the school is experiencing. Recent reports from The Chronicle detail a cafe-teria in need of funding to stay afloat, and summer school enroll-ment being slashed.

By Tim JohnsonCONTRIBUTOR / @SFBREAKINGNEWS / [email protected]

The award winning City College Forensics Debate Team held an afternoon “Speech Slam” May 9 to an audience of roughly 100 students.

The speech and debate team held a parliamentary debate one room, while in a nearby room, six students gave speeches in four basic categories of impromptu, interpretation, limited prepara-tion, a speech to entertain, as well as other speeches and prose. The audience was encouraged to vote for their favorite speakers of the afternoon.

Hosting the event was Nathan Steel, who has been with the class for two years and is now the co-director of the foren-sics debate team, with about 25 students enrolled this semester.

“We do really different things on the speech and debate team,” Steel said.

“If I try to simplify and talk about how it’s all connected, I would say it’s like argument, in

debate, argument is obvious.”“In limited preparation, you

have a thesis statement where you’re making an argument, and then you’re supporting that,” Steel explains. “In impromptu you are doing it with whatever information is in your head.

“In interpretation, we’re taking literature, or often we have to abridge it and cut it down to ten minutes and that might mean eliminating characters, or elimi-nating some plot, but in that intro-duction we’re always making an argument for ‘here’s what the value is’, or ‘the purpose of this performance is’, and ‘here’s what we want the audience to learn from it.’”

Debate Team member Sergio Suhett recently won a bronze medal at the California State Championships this spring for impromptu speaking, an event sponsored by the California Community College Forensics Association.

Suhett has been on the speech and debate team for four semes-ters at City College and in that time has made great improve-ments to his public speaking while learning english as a second language.

“I’m from Brazil,” Suhett said. “Originally, my language is Portuguese, and that coupled with the fear of public speaking was a big, big challenge for me, but I really found that the speech and debate activities gave me an edge above a lot of other students through competition.”

City College student Kevin Dickens gave a dramatic inter-pretation speech and he said he performs mainly for personal enjoyment, not competition. He was inspired to join the team after last semesters big showdown at the Diego Rivera Theatre on the topic of the Student Success Task Force.

“After I saw it, I was like, this is something I can possibly do, and that inspired me to join,” Dickens said.

Cameron Burroughs, a member of the speech and debate team gave a very comedic speech to entertain the audience about “Memorial Diamonds,” which he described as a scientific process for creating diamonds from extreme high pressurization of a loved one’s ashes, creating a diamond one could wear for vani-ty and accessory.

“I really appreciate the incred-ible diversity that we have at City College and how that often pours over into our team,” Steel said.

“We’ve got students from the Second Chance Program, who are on parole. We’ve got students of all different races, ethnicities, and sexuality.”

The Forensics Debate Team will hold another “Speech Slam” on May 16, from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. in Rosenberg Library.

“I think that there is some-thing for everybody,” Steel said. “Whether you’re totally scared of public speaking, the practice and the experience will help you get through that.”

Katie Linlsay wraps up the May 9 forensic debate discussing the topic of why the FDA should or should not ban additives and fillers in beef. VALERIE SANTIBANEZ / THE GUARDSMAN

By Lance KramerTHEGUARDSMAN / @SFBREAKINGNEWS / [email protected]


Break-in at the bungalows foiled by news editors armed with clarinet

The Guardsman office and math lab at City College’s Ocean campus were targeted by possible burglary early in the morning of May 1, though their plans were thwarted when two of the news-papers’ editors prevented the break-in and alerted authorities.

Editors Joe Fitzgerald and Sara Bloomberg were working a late night in Bungalow 615 when a crashing sound came from two of The Guardsman windows, as well as a window to the Math Lab in Bungalow 602, all simultane-ously. This led editors and police to believe there were three people involved.

“It was a late night at The Guardsman — we publish on Wednesdays, and that means our newspaper has to be done by Tuesday morning,” Fitzgerald

said. “Sara and I were working way into the night, it was three in the morning and I was knee-deep in an article about the new interim chancellor. [Sara’s] half asleep, I’m in the middle of an article, and all of the sudden, out of nowhere, crash...crash...crash.

“We didn’t know what was happening at first, so I ran out into the middle of the hallway and I yell ‘Get the F*** OUT OF HERE’ as loud as I could, and just started screaming at the top of my lungs,” he said. “I armed myself somehow...at first I grabbed my clarinet, then I thought, ‘Oh no. I don’t want to break my clarinet,’ so I grabbed some other blunt object.”

After searching the different offices located in Bungalow 615 to assess the damage, Fitzgerald

and Bloomberg called the San Francisco Police Department to investigate. The Ingleside police officers who responded said that the broken windows were prob-ably only an act of vandalism.

“We called 911, we were freaking out, we were like, oh God, are they still outside? Because we didn’t hear footsteps, are they still there? Are they just hiding? Are they waiting for another opportunity to get in?” Fitzgerald said.

City College police officer Hadi arrived later that morning and conducted a search of the area. “Nothing was stolen, … (the vandals) were startled by the employees that were inside,” he said.

“When Officer Zaid Hadi came by he said, ‘Oh yeah, they hit the Math Bungalow, too. Did you notice that?’ said Fitzgerald.

Hadi surmised that there were three separate people because of the three windows being broken simultaneously.

“Well, logically it must follow that there were three people and they also got scared off at once by us being there,” Fitzgerald said.

Math Lab coordinator Charles Hutchins discovered the damage to Bungalow 602 when he arrived for work at eight that morning.

“You know, it’s funny...I walked into the Math Lab...turned on the lights, turned on the computers, doing all my regular morning routine and after I had been walking around for about five or ten minutes, I realized that a window had been broken out,” Hutchins said. “There was a pile of glass on one of the desks...and there was a hole about the size of a football I’d say, in one of the windows.”

Other than this occurrence, the Math Lab hasn’t been prey to burglary. Although, there is the occasional “opportunity theft” that occurs within the lab.

“We have PCs that are like,

ten years old and you know, they’re worthless,” Hutchins said. “We’ve had some minor thefts, one in particular that I can remember...one time one of the staff members here had their iPod stolen but they had left it on a desk in really plain sight. It was sort of a crime of opportunity...but that was maybe, three years ago.”

According to the San Francis-co Community College District Police Department crime log there were a total of 19 reported incidents of theft in April, 13 inci-dents in March, and a whopping 24 in February. Most of the thefts occurred at the Wellness Center, with the majority of incidents involving thefts from lockers.

City College Police Sergeant Jason Wendt said theft has been a problem at City College, but would not get specific about the details because the investigations are ongoing.

The SFCCD Police Depart-ment can be reached at (415) 239-3200 and always call 911 for emergencies.

By Oz LitvacTHE GUARDSMAN / @SFBREAKINGNEWS/ [email protected]

By Lance KramerTHE GUARDSMAN / @SFBREAKINGNEWS / [email protected]

Students teaching students program gets funding– for now

At the Associated Students meeting on May 9 a motion to approve funding for Each One Teach One was carried and approved, for now.

A funding proposal for 2012-2013 was passed around and included a recent progress report, projected growth and a budget proposal.

After no motion was carried in the last AS meeting on May 2, organizers and supporters of the program worried that E1T1 would not be approved for funds.

The existence of the program depends on various factors like an optional $5 per student fee that funds student activities. Some students opt out of paying when they enroll because they are not aware that the funds go to resource centers which create such programs as E1T1.

Although the funding is there, since E1T1 was initially funded with leftover money from other programs, the decision of wheth-er the program will continue in semesters to come depends on the next council chosen, and is based on prior council recommenda-tions as well.

“It was valuable for me and actually made me realize I want to teach,” said Shanell Williams, AS president-elect and E1T1 facilita-tor. “It opened up a door for me that I didn’t know existed.”

Associated Students VP of Finance Cuong Tang said, “We are running negatively on money right now.” He continued to clar-ify he does not discourage the council from voting on E1T1 but doesn’t think it’s a good idea to add new programs while borrow-ing to stay afloat.

“Once we agree, the proposal will still be flexible,” said sena-tor Tiffany Louie, as Khin Soe pitched the E1T1 proposal.

There is no telling whether there will be sufficient numbers of student facilitators or appropri-

ate content for future workshops in order to justify a need for fund-ing to members of the council.

Dean Samuel Santos asked everybody to “ask for support from faculty and advisors.” However, he insists the funding

for E1T1 is not “secured”.Now that the motion has been

approved, the financial situa-tion of E1T1 can be discussed in detail, at least until the funding is voted on again.

Each One Teach One representative Khin Soe and Oz Litvac talk during the Associated Stu-dents meeting at the Ocean Campus on May 9. SHANE MENEZ / THE GUARDSMAN

The aftermath of an attempted break-in at The Guardsman office in the early morning hours on May 1 at the Ocean Campus. JOE FITZGERALD / THE GUARDSMAN

Bungalow 602 at the Ocean Campus on May 10 over a week after the attempted break-in. BROADUS PARKER / THE GUARDSMAN

News

The Guardsman & TheGuardsman.com May 16-May 29, 2012 | 5BUG from front

for work that others performed.The log cites Hotchkiss as

changing meeting minutes to protect himself against actions by the Service Employees Inter-national Union, which represents his staff. Most importantly, many say the CTO speaks to few, if any employees, and is only open to people who attain a certain level of status in the administrative hierarchy.

Basically, they say, he only speaks to you if you “matter.”

Not all people in the college hold the same opinion, howev-er. In an interview in February, Computer Science department Chair Craig Persiko said that he felt most of the friction has revolved around Hotchkiss’ focus on security, versus the aims of the college to support uninhibited academic freedom.

Benton Chan, information systems engineer assistant, chalks it up to a difference of cultures.

“He’s from a military back-ground,” Chan said. “He was unprepared for the college’s political institution.”

And Hotchkiss agrees.“You have to understand my

background as a military guy. The colonel reports to general... it’s defined,” Hotchkiss said. “The academic senate doesn’t have any control over my career. I will always go to my boss, and my boss’s boss.”

The reason this has any bear-ing on the virus situation at all is this: when the security breach of City College’s network was first reported, Hotchkiss had zero credibility with his staff or the college community.

No one believed him.WITCH HUNT

When Hotchkiss first presented the reality of the security breach at the FIT committee in January, it did not go nearly the way he thought it would.

Hotchkiss said that Trust-ee John Rizzo called him up two days before the meeting to tell Hotchkiss that he put his report on the agenda. The CTO’s presentation turned up in an SF Chronicle news article that gave the college a media relations black eye.

Hotchkiss claims that Rizzo “threw him under the bus,” and set him up to present his argu-ments to the meeting in a way that would alert the Chronicle.

Rizzo denies the allega-tion. “That’s utter nonsense,” Rizzo said. They had settled on the agenda presentation weeks before, he said.

Who actually contacted the Chronicle may never be known. What is known, however, is what happened next.

The data that Hotchkiss used to present at the meeting was demanded up, down, left and right for weeks. Faculty and IT staff made public comments against Hotchkiss at board meet-ings. The SEIU formally present-ed the college board a petition with over 500 signatures against the CTO. IT staff filed public records requests, demanding the CTO hand over the data proving his assertions.

Hotchkiss didn’t provide

the initial data to any IT staff, and amidst this cloud of distrust USDN went to work gather-ing further evidence of security breaches in City College servers.

In a packet of documents he sent to the Board of Trustees, Hotchkiss said, “my silence is standard industry practice for this type of incident. The taking of any personal information... is a serious event, a cybercrime. I do not discuss such things.”

Seeing USDN as an extension of Hotchkiss, the College Advi-sory Council and then-Chan-cellor Don Q. Griffin requested that Peter Goldstein disconnect USDN from the college’s server just as they were collecting the last of the evidence on the secu-rity breach.

This halted USDN’s ability to collect forensic data they say the FBI is waiting to see. Moreover, the device that was collecting the data was not properly disconnect-ed, filling its “cache” or memory with loads of useless and redun-dant data, Tony Castillo, USDN’s CEO, said in an interview with The Guardsman.

According to the packet that

Hotchkiss sent the board, this was a willful destruction of evidence of a crime. Hotchkiss’ claims don’t end there.

His packet of information also alleges that Vice Chancellor Peter Goldstein used “unqualified personnel to evaluate a scientific report, delayed and interfered with the cyber incident investiga-tions,” and “ordered a violation of statements made to the Depart-ment of Education and Accredita-tion Team.”

He also accuses Network Administrator Tim Ryan of simi-lar acts, as well as points a finger at Griffin, essentially saying that Griffin intentionally delayed USDN’s ability to create their report because he feared the results would go public.

Goldstein hadn’t read the packet before press time but said, “If those are the allegations, they are completely wrong, and very reckless.”

Ryan also denied the allega-tions, and added, “our chancellor

is very ill and very respect-ed, I don’t think [Hotch-kiss] should be making allega-tions.”THE FINDINGS

Ultimately, USDN came to the conclu-sion that the college did not have enough technology in place to protect itself from the types of malware that are attacking the college. One of the school’s two firewalls, called “Palo Alto,” meant to guard the school against incoming malicious attacks, is currently being overstretched and overused, Castillo said. An email from the college’s firewall vendor, Dataway, confirmed this.

The college’s response was to immediately refute the findings of USDN’s report, the “Executive Report of Network Incident Find-ings,” which details 81 instances of personal information being sent out in digital transmissions from the college.

Castillo wasn’t surprised by the reaction. “Breaking news

flash! The audit target doesn’t agree with the findings,” he said.

But when it comes to the basis of his report, he said that the basic assertions made of the IT department’s lax way of handling internet security is seconded in an independent report made by Dataway three years ago, as well as an inter-nal audit of the IT department performed by college employee Ric Jazaie.

“They’ve had four audits. Not one, not two, but four,” Castillo said. The fourth audit, performed by Semantic, couldn’t be verified by press time. Jazaie agreed with the assessment that his audit of the IT department was in agree-ment with the Dataway report, but hadn’t seen USDN’s findings.

When long time IT employ-ee Shirley Barger had a look at USDN’s report, she found much to argue with.

Barger said the report is based on incorrect assumptions, failing to take into account the fact that one of the servers sending out the alleged personal information is a spam filter, whose job is to

spit transmissions back out where they came from.

Castillo said that server, known as Name Service 7, was taken into account and not included in the USDN report of personal information leaked from the college.

The problems, Castillo said, with NS7 and other servers at the college have international impli-cations.

FBI NOTIFIES CCSFThe FBI contacted City

College in a letter dated Janu-ary 27, 2012, concerning what Castillo said is one of the school’s many malicious attackers – ”Ghost-clicker.” The FBI notified the college that they were one of 4.2 million infected computers worldwide.

The virus is more officially known as a “DNS changer,” which essentially directs the infected computer to conduct ad-hijacking and click fraud. It redirects the user to alternate advertisements that are on a webpage to generate millions of dollars for the hackers.

The problem, Castillo said, isn’t just that City College students are clicking to gener-ate money for these hackers. It’s that City College is almost like a Ghost-clicker hornet’s nest that sends out copies of the virus to other computers across the coun-try.

An FBI supplied website shown to The Guardsman by an ITS employee showed how easy it is to verify if a computer has Ghost-clicker. The employee said thousands of college computers are now clean.

This reaction-based method of solving security problems is part of the problem, Castillo said.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE“The problem isnt the PII

in of itself, its just a symptom. Everyone has PII breaches,” Castillo said. PII stands for Personally Identifiable Informa-

tion, like social security numbers or driver’s licenses.

“The problem is the way they’re dealing with it, the poli-cies and the responses to the incidents. They refuse to accept these incidents are occurring. If you never recognize the system you’ll never ever, discover the root cause,” he said.

Denying the problem seems to be something the college is intentionally planning to do. A draft letter titled “The ITS Depart-ment is on Top of Security” has recently surfaced. The letter acknowledges a security breach in February 2007. However, the letter goes on to say, “There was a concern that some of our serv-ers... had been compromised....Fortunately, it all turned out to be a false alarm.”

The letter then cites instruc-tor Sam Bowne, who says “The CCSF-network is well-main-tained and much cleaner than comparable networks at other organizations.”

Internal City College docu-ments show Sam Bowne has been under investigation for cyber bullying, as well as inciting a leak of a City College instructor’s personal information.

In a Tweet, Bowne wrote, “I ran all those tests, nothing malicious found. If it’s evil, it’s smarter than me, but i’m a n00b at malware analysis.” “N00b” is internet slang for newbie, mean-ing an amateur.

THE BUG IN THE SYSTEMThe witch hunt for Hotch-

kiss, no matter how warranted, may be distracting the IT depart-ment and the various technology committees, such as the Informa-tion Technology Policy Commit-tee, from carrying out any further meaningful changes in network security policy in the school.

Amidst all the finger pointing, bad blood, shouting matches and allegations of federal offenses, the one person who is respect-ed by every party involved is Information Systems Engineer Benton Chan. Chan wears many hats and is one of the tech folks most involved with security at the college.

In Chan’s opinion, the real culprit, responsible for more breaches than any amount of external attacks, are the computer users of City College.

Focusing on technologi-cal processes is fruitless, Chan said. It would be better to simply educate users on how to behave better while using technology.

Chan raised his finger up, pointed it straight ahead and said with certainty that the real crux of the matter is “policy, not process.”

In other words, the “bug in the system” is us.

Top: This map shows worldwide attacks on City College’s network. Bottom left: The amount of viruses shown attacking the college in the image by virus; each category may contain thousands of copies of the virus. For instance, 108 spamming hosts may actually represent thousands of spammers.

Top: One of the college’s tech experts Sam Bowne admits to lack of knowledge. Bottom right: An excerpt of the letter City College recieved from the FBI concerning “Ghost-clicker.” Behind: This document is a “brute force attack,” an attempt to break in to the college’s servers by generating thousands of passwords to “guess” a login.

Is the college’s data safe?News

6 | May 16-May 29, 2012 | The Guardsman & TheGuardsman.com News

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Alice Murillo works at her Evans Campus office on May 14. BETH LABERGE / THE GUARDSMAN

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Did City College miscalculate class cuts?

““Our hearts were in the right place, but the numbers were so off.” - Alice Murillo

beside herself. Though many members of City College facul-ty gossip on the matter, none can present evidence to justify her demotion.

She was removed from her position as Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs last Octo-ber and sent “to Siberia” — or the desolate Evans Campus — after a $1.75 million short-fall in expenses when a robust fall 2011 semester schedule followed close on the heels of a hefty summer semester that had depleted funds for the rest of the year.

Former Chancellor Don Griffin ordered Muril-lo to transition her Academic Affairs proj-ects to other administrators and to move to the Evans Campus in November of 2011.

Fall courses, carried over from the previous year’s sched-ule without consideration for the depreciating budget, and non-credit courses expanding in numbers despite shrinking student attendance are among a few factors that led to the shortfall. Other factors were an unexpected bill for $1.1 million in unemployment tax, the Board of Trustees’ commitments to the Ocean Campus Police Acade-my, and an additional $300,000 promised to core courses like English and math.

“They should have cut an extra 50 classes,” said Murillo, perusing a listing of non-credit courses from the Fall 2010 semester. Department

chairs had failed to report their low-enrolled classes. Murillo thinks that they had anticipated their students would return the following week, after the enroll-ment census deadline — but many never returned, costing the college thousands of dollars in payroll for teachers whose classes should have been cut.

Griffin made direct orders not to layoff faculty, but rather allow faculty to leave City College without a replacement.

“Our hearts were in the right place, but the numbers were

so off,” said Murillo.

Murillo, who consid-ers herself fiscally conser-vative, has butted heads with even the chancellor over a budget that has been based for the

past four years on assumptions, with little certainty about future financial growth.

Further taxing City College’s budget, is the fact that it is one of the only community colleges in the state to resist state directives to reduce cate-gorical expenses, like librar-ians and counselors. Instead the college, in order to stay afloat financially, was forced to cut 113 classes from the spring 2012 semester.

In her personal office over-looking quiet Evans Avenue, Murillo laments her demotion.

“I was working under the instruction of the Chancellor,” she said. “I did everything he told me to do with integrity.”

Check out our YouTube channel for our exclusive video coverage and interviews.youtube.com/user/TheGuardsmanOnline


The Faculty ask, ‘what about us?’

SMAC says, “These are our lives!”

By Thomas Figg-HolynTHE GUARDSMAN / @JOURNALISTFIGG / [email protected]

Many City College faculty members feel like they have been verbally abused and disrespect-ed by both Trustee Steve Ngo and the student political activist organization Students Making a Change.

Dozens of faculty are calling Ngo out for his conduct during the April 26 Board of Trustees meeting, saying that he treated them in a hostile and scathing manner that bordered upon politi-cal grandstanding.

Faculty members, fed up with Ngo’s disrespect and open contempt, have rushed to sign a petition demanding that Steve Ngo change his ways or leave the board. They are also calling for a new candidate to replace Ngo during the citywide Board of Trustees election to be held next November.

Penned by Craig Kleinman, English teacher, and posted on the website iPetitions.com, the peti-tion requests that the City College Board of Trustees acknowledge that Ngo has engaged in divisive, bullying language and tactics toward faculty, and that Ngo is failing to fulfill his obligation to treat community members with courtesy, respect and civility as directed by the board’s code of ethics and responsibilities.

The iPetitions website allows all signers to post a comment along with their name.

English department chair Jessica Brown wrote in her comment that the “bullying and the political posturing has got to stop. It is creating a hostile work

environment.”Kleinman wrote that “Ngo has

abused his position as a trustee and has abused too many facul-ty in the process. Claiming that one is for ‘justice’ does not give that person license to overstep bounds, intrude upon academic operations, make gross general-izations about the curriculum, and manipulate a very loud student minority in order to further his political career.”

A student, Mae White, who signed the petition wrote, “I watched the video of the board meeting for extra credit in my political science class, and Ngo and his supporters committed just about every logical fallacy we learned this semester in my philosophy class.”

Another student, who signed the petition anonymously wrote, “Ngo should quit fighting profes-sors and fix summer school instead.”

According to the petition, in addition to belittling the faculty, Ngo has chosen to represent a select few rather than a broad-er cross-section of the college community.

The “select few” refers to Students Making a Change, a student organization led by an outside nonprofit, Coleman Advocates, which trains SMAC leaders in recruitment. SMAC is also financially supported by a grant from the Rappaport Family Foundation.

During the board meeting Student Trustee Jeffery Fang, brought up the point that SMAC

City College Board resolution on student equity passed

SB 1143 (Carol Liu) Student Success and Completion Act: Set the groundwork for the Student Success Task Force

Bridge to Success: a partnership formed between City College, San Francisco Uni�ed School District and the mayor’s o�ce to bene�t SF high school graduates

We Can Do Better: English department report examining course sequences and placement tests

Chancellor’s Task Force on Student Equity

Students Making a Change formed at the end of Spring semester

2010

Infographic by Sara Bloomberg / The Guardsman

Seymor-Cambell Matriculation Act of 1986: mandates multiple measures be used for academic assessments; a single placement test can not be used to deter-mine a student’s academic pro�cieny and placement test scores can not be used to deny any student admission to a community college

1986

Assembly Bill 1725, signed by Governor George Deukmejian in September.

States that faculty are the experts on academic matters and have primacy on decisions regarding related policies

1988

Committee to Implement Place-ment Testing

2004

Pre-Collegiate Accontability Report

April:

January:

Student Equity Hear-ings: City College Board of Trustees held hearings on issues concerning the acheivement gap, covering topics includ-ing English, Math, �nancial aid and the student hiring process...

2009

City College Student Equity Plan report- required by the California Board of Governor’s

2005

Student Success Task Force meets over the course of the year to research and discuss student achievement, increasing community college completion and transfer rates. Many of the recom-mendations are controversial

2011

January:Student Success Task Force Recommenda-tions endorsed by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors

April 12:Institutional E�ectiveness Committee meeting. Placement tests and implementation are discussed

April 3:Student Success and Prep Committee meet-ing. Resolution passed to support multiple mea-sures and the new placement test proposals

April 26Board of Trustees adopts resolution to implement new place-ment testing programs, including the English department’s Place-ment Plus OneApril 18:

Academic Senate special meeting on placement testing. Resolution passed supporting implementing a place-ment test pilot in fall 2012 or spring 2013

April 5:College Advisory Council, a shared governance committee, meets. New placement test programs discussed

May 14: Hearing scheduled in the state legislature regarding SB1456, also known as the Commu-nity Colleges: Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 20122012

Back to the Future: Placement Tests and Student Equity at City College, 1986-2012

Campus Multi-Cultural Resource Center, the group talked about their summer plans and future goals, including increasing member-ship in the fall, networking with students at Peralta Community College and finding time to have fun.

In a solemn moment, Ruiz began to tear up as she discussed her plans for transferring to a four-year university in the fall.

She was accepted both UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz, she said, but alluded to family obliga-tions that will prevent her from leaving San Francisco.

Carew encouraged the group

to celebrate their victories, even amidst a contentious climate.

“It’s easy to get lost in these emotionally-charged conversa-tions,” Carew said, but there is still much to be proud of, including the board’s vote to adopt the new placement testing programs.

One member wasn’t so sure.The state already mandates that

community colleges use multiple measures to assess students, Ruiz said. “Why am I celebrating a policy to enforce a policy that’s already there?”

The group voiced interest in meeting with English faculty over the summer to discuss imple-

mentation of the new Placement Plus One testing program, despite hard feelings that remain between SMAC and faculty after the April 26 board meeting.

During that meeting several SMAC members spoke passion-ately about the harmful effects of the placement tests used by the college and demanded that the new testing programs be implemented immediately.

“We cannot allow another generation of students go by and sit complacently … (watching the faculty) say, no, we’re gonna work on this until it’s perfect,” Marjory Ruiz said, referring to English

faculty requests for more time. “Guess what? The system already is not perfect. It’s not working. We need to change this as quickly as possible.”

Faculty present at the meet-ing objected to being told work over the summer, as their contracts don’t include summer session.

Academic Senate President Karen Saginor and English depart-ment chair Jessica Brown both agreed to an amended resolution, which called for full implementa-tion by Spring 2013, giving faculty and matriculation officers an extra semester to prepare.

Emotions remained high,

even after the amended resolution passed.

Students from SMAC, as well as representatives from both Coleman Advocates and Bridge to Success, a program which promotes college success for underrepresented students, were visibly upset — even livid.

SMAC members, accompanied by Pecolia Manigo, the education justice/education policy campaign organizer for Coleman Advo-cates, confronted Student Trustee Fang about his comment that the students were paid to attend the meeting.

Fang told The Guardsman

activists are paid, and may not necessarily represent the voice of the student body.

Chelsea Boilard of Cole-man Advocates said that eight members of SMAC are paid by the organization.

The Rappaport Family Foun-dation financially supports SMAC and, according to their website, has provided $40,000 to support their organizing and advocacy at City College.

The student club is guided by Sue Homer of the social scienc-es department. She is often seen teaching SMAC members on campus and is present at all meet-ings where they demonstrate.

According to the Coleman Advocacy website, Homer was the SMAC faculty advisor.

The Board v. FacultyThe contentious April 26

Board of Trustee meeting was one of many skirmishes in a long-running struggle between faculty and board members regarding who has authority to make chang-

es to academic curriculum, place-ment and testing.

The feud began in early 2010.In response to a Feb. 25, 2010

draft resolution, “Recommenda-tions on the Achievement Gap and Equity,” co-sponsored by Trust-ees Jackson, Marks, and Ngo, the Academic Senate approved a resolution at their March 23, 2010 special meeting, chiding the board for making academic recommendations out of the scope of their administrative role and for not going through shared governance.

The Academic Senate reso-lution cited Assembly Bill 1725, signed by Governor George Deukmejian in September of 1988, and the state education code, which states that commu-nity college faculty have primacy in academic and professional matters and that they alone have the professional qualifications, expertise, and experience to establish and implement initia-tives.

Faculty requested the trustees strike all references to academic issues from the board’s achieve-ment gap and equity resolution, including placement test changes, and instead focus on the admin-istrative aspects of of the resolu-tion.

The two groups have been at odds ever since.

English teacher Carol Fregly said the trustees, primarily Steve Ngo, had attacked faculty during a 2010 Board of Trustees meet-ing, accusing them of being racist.

“I suspect that Ngo and

Homer worked with SMAC to reintroduce and secure footing for the Board of Trustee’s plans, including placement test chang-es,” Fregly said.

SMAC students seem to have their hearts in the right place as they work to empower the minor-ity student body and make educa-tion more accessible for minori-ties, and to improve the success of minority students.

But faculty and Academic Senate members know all too well that SMAC members can be intimidating. They boo and hiss towards faculty, and recite their rehearsed political statements loudly during public meetings, sometimes using strong words like liar and racist.

The Bigger PictureClasses have been drastically

cut, funding has been cut more than any time in history, teach-ers are overworked and under-paid, and the SFUSD recently announced that it needs to cut teachers’ salaries and benefits by $30 million.

One may ask why Coleman Advocates, the mayor’s office and the San Francisco Unified School District, who were all present in support of SMAC at the April 26 board meeting, are spending so much effort to focus on one item — college placement testing — when the public education system as a whole is in shambles.

PLACEMENT TESTfrom front

“INJUSTICE!”

“Faculty have primacy in academic and profession-al matters.” -AB1725 (1988)

Trustee Steve Ngo takes a standBy Joe FitzgeraldTHE GUARDSMAN / @FITZTHEREPORTER / [email protected]

If SMAC is the wedge pushing through the new “Placement Plus One” program at City College, then Board of Trustees member Steve Ngo is the hammer.

Ngo’s push for the program was integral to its passage. Ngo was one of a block of three trust-ees who often, though not always, vote in lockstep with one another: Milton Marks, Chris Jackson, and himself.

Board President John Rizzo was the wild card, and with only Natalie Berg and Anita Grier opposing, the decision was already three to two before the vote was even taken.

NATURAL ALLIESNgo’s part in the passage of

the program goes past his role in the boardroom. He often meets with members of SMAC after board meetings to debrief with them.

“SMAC and I are natural allies. I was them. My wife was them. My wife was a City College student,” he said in a recent tele-phone interview. He repeated the sentiment at the recent conten-tious board meeting where the placement test policy passed.

There is no doubt that Ngo feels strongly about student equi-ty. But empathy may not be his only motivation in allying with SMAC.

The Guardsman asked if it was improper to have a select group of students who consistently speak behalf of policies he backs at board meetings. Ngo replied that in the board split, Berg has her own allies in the Academic

Senate, and that the same group of faculty would rebut him time and time again. “They all have allies, on the board,” he said.

Building allies and political allegiances is the name of the game in politics. But in this scenario, students are being coached and recruit-ed by respected profes-sionals who they trust in the classroom, who lead SMAC.

SMAC advocates for many policies that would benefit students, but oper-ate in a shroud of secrecy. They frequently rebuff reporters with canned phrases such as “we need time to process this information,” and “I cannot speak for the group, you’ll have to ask the group.”

When Guardsman reporters, who are students, stopped in to observe a SMAC meeting in order to speak with the group, we were told to leave by the club leader Lena Carew (who is no longer a City College student, but attends CAL), and that the meeting was private and were told to leave. The Guardsman reporters then cited Inter-Club Council code

City College Board resolution on student equity passed

SB 1143 (Carol Liu) Student Success and Completion Act: Set the groundwork for the Student Success Task Force

Bridge to Success: a partnership formed between City College, San Francisco Uni�ed School District and the mayor’s o�ce to bene�t SF high school graduates

We Can Do Better: English department report examining course sequences and placement tests

Chancellor’s Task Force on Student Equity

Students Making a Change formed at the end of Spring semester

2010

Infographic by Sara Bloomberg / The Guardsman

Seymor-Cambell Matriculation Act of 1986: mandates multiple measures be used for academic assessments; a single placement test can not be used to deter-mine a student’s academic pro�cieny and placement test scores can not be used to deny any student admission to a community college

1986

Assembly Bill 1725, signed by Governor George Deukmejian in September.

States that faculty are the experts on academic matters and have primacy on decisions regarding related policies

1988

Committee to Implement Place-ment Testing

2004

Pre-Collegiate Accontability Report

April:

January:

Student Equity Hear-ings: City College Board of Trustees held hearings on issues concerning the acheivement gap, covering topics includ-ing English, Math, �nancial aid and the student hiring process...

2009

City College Student Equity Plan report- required by the California Board of Governor’s

2005

Student Success Task Force meets over the course of the year to research and discuss student achievement, increasing community college completion and transfer rates. Many of the recom-mendations are controversial

2011

January:Student Success Task Force Recommenda-tions endorsed by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors

April 12:Institutional E�ectiveness Committee meeting. Placement tests and implementation are discussed

April 3:Student Success and Prep Committee meet-ing. Resolution passed to support multiple mea-sures and the new placement test proposals

April 26Board of Trustees adopts resolution to implement new place-ment testing programs, including the English department’s Place-ment Plus OneApril 18:

Academic Senate special meeting on placement testing. Resolution passed supporting implementing a place-ment test pilot in fall 2012 or spring 2013

April 5:College Advisory Council, a shared governance committee, meets. New placement test programs discussed

May 14: Hearing scheduled in the state legislature regarding SB1456, also known as the Commu-nity Colleges: Seymour-Campbell Student Success Act of 20122012

Back to the Future: Placement Tests and Student Equity at City College, 1986-2012

Trustee Steve Ngo reacts to a committee’s criticism of the Board of Trustees during a meeting at the San Francisco Community College District Administration Office on Jan 24, 2011. BRYCE YUKIO ADOLPHSON / THE GUARDSMAN

The Guardsman & TheGuardsman.com May 16-May 29, 2012 | 9

that recognized club meetings as open to all students, rules point-ed out to us by Dean of Student Activities Samuel Santos.

SMAC is also funded by a private non-profit advocacy group, Coleman Advocates.

Dean Santos said that there are no City College rules that

prohibit student clubs from receiving funds from outside groups but said it is highly unusual; he is currently investi-gating the ramifica-tions of the dual funding.

Ngo sees no problem with their dual funding. He argued that faculty and staff have ample time to learn how to navigate school politics, allowing themselves to be forceful advocates on their own behalf. If students are being paid to advocate, it helps free up their time to become better at the political game by learning the ins and outs of the system, he said.

It was that system that seemed to agitate Steve Ngo the night of the vote on Placement Plus One.

ROLE MODELSSMAC students gave impas-

sioned speeches during public

comment on April 26. Ngo followed suit. He ripped into English department faculty, who were requesting implementation in spring 2013 instead of fall 2012.

Ngo’s statements began kind-ly enough, as he responded to the multitudes of people that came up to speak during public comment. .

“The problem with our discourse is it’s very toxic, very partisan and very political. I’ll take some ownership of that,” he said.

Then he started to get person-al.

“It’s easy to say to a student that they can wait. It’s not your life, it’s their life. The stakes are just higher for them, than they are for you. It’s a fact,” he said, and his voice started to raise. “You have a job, you will grade papers, you will lecture, and in the mean-

time, these students will wait another year to endure a policy you know is failing. Why are they sacrificial?”

“Shame on you,” shouted Paolo Sapienza, a matriculation officer, interrupting Ngo. “This is board discussion, don’t talk to us that way.”

Ngo stopped speaking, and SMAC students started shouting “shame on you” right back. One student shouted, “this is my life,” as the SMAC students all began to shout down Sapienza.

Trustee Ngo is currently running in the November election to retain his seat on the Board of Trustees.

“INJUSTICE!” A three piece analysis investigating the battle on placement tests at City College

that Manigo said to him that he “should have talked to SMAC first, instead of speaking in front of the microphone.”

And according to a press release dated April 27 on Cole-man Advocates’ website, “While students were testifying at last night’s hearing, there were teach-ers in the audience who actu-ally told them to ‘sit down,’ in an effort to undermine their voices and their experiences.”

However in a telephone inter-view with The Guardsman on May 1, SMAC’s media represen-tatives said that they didn’t feel disrespected at that meeting.

Juan Segundo was asked to sit down after he tried to address the Board for a second time during public comment. Board President John Rizzo explained that each speaker is only one allowed one two-minute comment period.

Veronica Garcia also approached the podium after public comment was closed and Rizzo reminded her she could not address the board at that time.

Someone from the the audi-ence said, “Sit down, it’s okay,” and Garcia returned to her seat.

Later in the meeting an outburst from a faculty member in the audience triggered angry

reactions from members of SMAC.After Trustee Ngo began to rant

about his disgust with requests by English faculty to delay implemen-tation, Paolo Sapienza, a matricula-tion officer, said, “Shame on you. This is (time for) board discussion. Don’t talk to us.”

Students responded to Sapienza with “Shame on you” and “you’re racist” but the exchange quickly ended when Rizzo called for order.

English faculty members then left the room and students applaud-ed as Ngo waited to continue his speech.

In a seeming contradiction, on previous occasions Ngo has condemned what he describes as highly political and emotional rhet-oric that hinders productive conver-

sations. In the parking lot members of

SMAC, accompanied by Hal Hunts-man, a math instructor, and Sue Homer, a political science instruc-tor and SMAC’s faculty advisor, got into a heated argument with several English faculty members about placement test policies and the process of shared governance.

Trustee Fang stood on the side-lines.

At the end of the discussion, Fang suggested that he mediate between the two sides, at a later time, to “clear up any miscommu-nication.”

They all half-heartedly agreed.“We agreed, we shaked on it,”

Fang said, but the meeting never happened.

As nearly everyone at the meet-ing that night left, SMAC members remained in the hall along with Huntsman and Homer. Eventually, they were joined by Trustee Ngo.

Fang was nearby, and while he could not see the group, he told The Guardsman he was shocked by their conversation.

The group discussed the proceedings at the meeting, Fang said, making fun of anyone that they considered opposition, includ-ing calling English chair Jessica Brown a liar and mocking English instructor Jeffrey Liss for defend-ing Brown while holding her purse.

Fang said that Homer respond-ed to the students and said, “This is what we do at City College. We lie.”

“It’s easy to say to a student that they can wait. It’s not your life, it’s their life. The stakes are just higher for them” -Trustee Steve Ngo


OPINIONS

It wasn’t supposed to get this personal: it was supposed to be a bi-weekly column discussing issues in education with a title that doesn’t quite make sense.

But it’s boiled down to a very difficult, rather important ques-tion: is college worth it? (With “it” being a rather abstract notion based in the ability to think criti-cally and be financially success-ful.)

I’ve witnessed the fall of critical thinking and the rise of standardized testing. I’m aware of the cavernous pit of student debt waiting to swallow anyone who’s confident enough to sign the dotted line. I see the value of a degree and recognize that soon a bachelor’s will be required to bag groceries. I’ve been taught the definition of success is not very broad. I’m not sure if I’m too smart, or just too pessimistic, for a college education.

A very intelligent individu-al, Ariel Armelino, told me she wasn’t proud that she completed her undergrad. To her, it was a “waste of time hurdle” and she doesn’t “feel much smarter or much more prepared than [she] did four years ago”.

She’s continuing to pursue her

Ph.D. in psychology, and says, “I don't think that the meaningful classes make up for the waste of time, but because I am such an academic I keep pursuing them in hope that someone, somewhere will teach me something a text-book and multiple-choice exam cannot.”

Of course, there are others (notably more in the sciences, though even some from the humanities) who agree that their education was “completely worth it” — though a few admitted that a large part of their education could have been skipped, and that if classes were more focused on understanding than fact learning, they would have been much more meaningful.

Most say that only the later part of their education challenged and educated them. All agree on the fact that good teachers matter; however instructors that emphasize correlation and criti-cal thought over memorization and regurgitation seem to be the exception, not the rule.

So is college worth it? It depends on the school, on the teachers, on the area of study, but mostly it depends on you.

June 1st, 2010, the day I start-ed wearing the title of "Student Trustee" of CCSF. Now after two terms as the representative of 100,000 students to the Board of Trustees, I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the chance to serve the students. It has been an absolute honor and I will always cherish the memory as well as appreciate the experi-ence.

Coming into the job during a time of political division result-ing from certain aspects of the Student Equity Hearing conduct-ed by select members of the Board, I decided right away the central focus of my tenure should be practical solutions without divisive identity politics, as well as getting the various factions within the college to work togeth-er to weather the overall budget crisis.

I worked with Trustee Ngo to continue the Equity Hear-ings during my first semester as Student Trustee in a much more effective and collegial manner.

I also traveled to Sacramento to advocate for sorely needed funding for the College (includ-ing March in March).

Additionally, I have also pushed for a Parcel Tax when our Board of Trustees hesitated. To

that end, I hope I have accom-plished enough for the student body and the college.

As a student, academics always comes first but the last two years of drastic and short sighted budget cuts have jolted overall student life into a constant state of uncertainty much akin to a badly designed roller coaster ride.

The frustrating reality is that when funding dissipates due to economic downturn, demands for classes to retrain the workforce skyrockets. Surprisingly, an even more difficult task is to convince the many legislators that high-er education should never be a partisan issue because it serves to maintain a large middle class in the long run. At this point, it suffices to say we have faced the challenges as a college but still face an uphill battle to restore the minimum necessary to serve our community effectively.

And after pounding the pave-ment for two years advocating across the state, the one thing every student and community leader statewide finds surprising is the fact that City College of San Francisco is 100,000 strong, with ten campuses and nine Asso-ciated Student Councils. We are, as matter of fact, the Sleeping Giant among the 112 California

Community Colleges. Confident in my knowledge of the potential CCSF possess, here is my parting message to all of us:

We, the student leaders, need to assume responsibility of effec-tive communication to the overall student body because we have been in too long of a slumber and must wake up to do our part to protect not only our beloved school but also the fate of the California Community College System!

Lastly, one of the duties as Student Trustee is to have regu-lar publication in the Guardsman.Unfortunately, it has taken me till the last month of my second term to finally get it going. Yet one of the things I have always firmly believed is the continu-ity of leadership and I am happy to know Student Trustee-elect William Walker will now have this platform to communicate with students in the future.

Jeffry Fang will continue his term until June of 2012. The new student trustee, Will Walker, has a candidate state-ment you can watch on the Shared Governance website at CCSF.edu.

By Jeffrey FangTHE GUARDSMAN / @SFBREAKINGNEWS/ [email protected]

An insider’s view on College Governance

Is CCSF worth it?

The Guardsman & TheGuardsman.com | May 16-May 29, 2012 | 11Opinions

An apology, and new opportunity for vets

By Alex SchmausTHE GUARDSMAN / @SFBREAKINGNEWS/ [email protected]

A ghost is haunting global capitalism - the ghost of social-ism.

The more boastful supporters of our current economic system declare capitalism guarantees freedom, democracy and oppor-tunity, but the falseness of their claims is becoming increasingly obvious.

The global recession that began in 2007 affected a signifi-cant reduction in most people’s standard of living - even in the world’s wealthiest country.

According to a Sentier Research report, real median annual household income in the United States declined by 9.8% during the period from December 2007 to June 2011.

“We’re now living in a world of zombie economic poli-cies - policies that should have been killed by the evidence that all of their premises are wrong, but which keep shambling

along nonetheless,” Nobel-Prize winning economist Paul Krug-man said last month in the New York Times.

Krugman argues that relent-less budget cuts to public educa-tion and social services in a depressed economy are “self-defeating; by shrinking the econ-omy and hurting long-term reve-nue, austerity . . . makes the debt outlook worse.”

A “global perfect storm” looms for 2013 in which the U.S. economy could fall back into recession and the euro area will begin to break up, economist Nouriel Roubini said to CNBC last week.

Roubini, who has worked for the Federal Reserve, the Inter-national Monetary Fund and the World Bank, was compelled in August to admit that Karl Marx had it right.

“At some point, capitalism can destroy itself,” Roubini said

to the Wall Street Journal. “You cannot keep shifting income from labor to capital without having an excess capacity and a lack of aggregate demand. That’s what has happened. We thought that markets worked. They’re not working. The individual can be rational. The firm, to survive and thrive, can push labor costs more and more down, but labor costs are someone else’s income and consumption. That’s why it’s a self-destructive process.”

But Roubini is no revolution-ary, he aims to use Marx’s ideas to save the system from itself.

Marx, however, thought that an alternative to capitalism could only begin to be built through a revolution that overthrew the oppressor class and opened up space for the working class and its allies to reconstruct democ-racy.

Such ideas also have deep roots in the United States.

During his life Martin Luther King Jr. was received by the oppressor class with the most furious hatred and an unscrupu-lous campaign of lies and slander.

But after his death, attempts were made to convert King into a harmless icon, to canonize him, to hallow his name, while omit-ting, obscuring and distorting the

revolutionary edge of his words and his revolutionary soul.

King understood that racism, war and exploitation were natu-ral to American capitalism. In his 1967 “Where do we go from here” speech, he addresses capi-talism by saying that in order to free ourselves “the whole struc-ture must be changed . . . Ameri-ca must be born again!”

Changing the whole structure of a global society dominated by American capitalism is a huge undertaking, but one made urgent by eminent threats of further financial crises that will only get

worse.Occupy Wall Street pushed

the problems of inequality and class toward the center of politi-cal debate and highlighted the possibility of an alternative to society based on exploitation and oppression.

But the organized forces of the international revolutionary left are numerically insignifi-cant and largely inexperienced in struggle, so we have to work hard at reconstructing working class movements and organizations.

If you think an alternative to capitalism is possible and want to get involved in the struggle to unite the workers of the world, please contact the International Socialist Organization: [email protected]

City College was an extreme-ly rewarding, albeit challeng-ing experience. I made it in two years, earning my associates degree and transferring to San Francisco State.

I had a great counselor, Lisa Romano, who guided me the whole time, and my financial aid was smooth and painless.

And most of all, my teachers were awesome.

It has been quite a while since I was last in school, so there were

some serious holes in my educa-tion, particularly in math.

I tested in to basic math and English 96, which I was ok with, considering the last time I took an English class was when I was 15, and I basically taught myself how to write from a lifetime of read-ing.

I put in a tremendous number of hours and learned a tremen-dous amount of knowledge.

The instruction at City College was exceptional. You

hear all the time that it’s the teachers at City College that make the difference - and they do. You get a lot of one-on-one attention, and if you show respect and work hard, they will give you what you need.

My English teachers were incomparable, including Francine Foltz in 96, John Fielding in 1A and Erwin Barron in 1B.

My journalism advisors were top-notch, and I have prob-ably learned more about journal-

ism and reporting here at City College than what they teach at the university level.

Math instructor Can Celik was able to successfully teach me algebra, geometry and trigo-nometry over several semesters, and I am forever grateful to his patience and wisdom.

And Marco Mojica taught me a different perspective in Latin American Studies, particu-larly regarding how most of us are manipulated by the wealthy

and elite, whether we know it or not. What you think is a good cause, may be someone else’s master plan.

But my favorite teacher will always be Art History Instructor Dr. Maria Cheremeteff, for her brilliance, spirit and elegance.

My City College education is priceless, and now that I have it, along with my life’s experience, the world is my oyster.

See ya!

I apologize for publishing the claims against the Veteran’s Alliance in The Guardsman. The Guardsman is a journalis-tic endeavor that requires source citations which are difficult to get when dealing with veteran’s interpersonal issues. However, I feel that the issues I raised not only have merit, but also consid-erable weight and I will respond personally and publicly to them on the pages of my blog; www.ccsfvets.com

In the last issue, Miles Foltz, the president of the City College Veteran’s Alliance, wrote a response to the issues I had raised. These issues, brought to my attention by multiple members of the Veteran’s Alliance, includ-ed transparency of the current

administration, validity of past and upcoming elections and even concerns about student intimida-tion and harassment (bullying).

At Foltz’s first opportunity to address the concerns I had raised, he decided instead to attack me and my character. Furthermore, I have never and will never launch any attacks on the student veteran community. I think it is cowardly that Foltz tries to spin it as such. From the beginning I had stated that my concerns regarded only 2 or 3 individuals.

Looking ForwardIn each issue of Veteran’s

Corner this semester I have spread awareness of problems veterans face while attending school, so that every veteran can have an easier time. I wanted to do some-

thing and I wanted to get more involved. I grew more concerned at the constant challenges that I and many other veterans faced.

I felt like something needed to be done to make being a student veteran as simple as possible. We needed an organization for student veterans linking them to each other, to their community and to the considerable resources and benefits they have at their disposal. But also student veter-ans needed more options setting them up, not just for success, but for life. And this is how the new organization, Vets SF, began.

This idea to create an orga-nization connect-ing student veterans in the San Francisco Bay Area was born out of the frustration at the lack of infrastructure. I envision a place where every-one is welcome and equal. We all have a voice, and not only do we all deserve to be heard, but I will make sure everyone will be heard. Most importantly this is an organization for student veter-ans by student veterans. We have

to take charge of our own future and be responsible for it; we can’t rely on others to take action on our behalf.

Vets SF is not for political gain, and anyone who wishes to contribute in any way is always free to do so. We will not take credit for your work, and credit will be given when and where credit is due. Nobody will be bullied and nobody will be shunned and pushed out. I’m not alone in my endeavor; there are many talented individuals who have come forth with me to found Vets SF, individuals who care

about veterans and who intimate-ly know the challenges student veterans face in the Bay Area.

Lee Burnette, a founding member of Vets SF, served five years in the U.S. Navy before continuing his education at City College. While in the Navy, Lee was the lead search and rescue swimmer for three ships protect-

ing over 1,000 sailors. His life was put on the line numerous times, “So Others May Live.” He brings his talents in knowledge of financial systems and busi-ness savvy to the team. You could even say he is the Business Head of Vets SF.

“Today there are unlimited organizations and individuals that ‘Support the Troops,’” says Burnette. “But how? Many Veter-ans benefits are unadvertised and unknown by most of the Veter-ans Community. I would like to pool together resources and benefits available to share with

all Veterans. This would be mutually bene-ficial to both Veteran and companies. And honestly, who doesn’t want to get hooked up? What company

doesn’t want to have customers talking about how great they are and what all they offer? This is a win-win.”

As the saying goes, “You served us, now let us serve you.”

By Thomas Figg-HoblynTHE GUARDSMAN / @SFBREAKINGNEWS/ [email protected]

Socialism : a cure for capitalistic sickness

City College : a challenging but rewarding experience


SPORTS

Women’s swim finishes year on strong note

City College Women’s swim-ming finished their third season showing improvement and know-ing they reached their goals – to perform better at the Coast Conference Championship and qualify more swimmers to the State Championship held April 26-28 at East L.A College with two swimmers making to state.

The women’s swim team placed second at the Coast Conference Championship held at College of San Mateo April

19-21. The Rams’ finish was the best ever for City College at the Coast Conference Championship and an improve-ment from last year’s fifth-place result.

Swimmers Carrie Guilfoyle and Roselin Sret-pisalsilp were two new stars who performed well both at the Coast Confer-ence Champion-ship and at the State Champion-ship.

In the Coast Confer-ence, Guilfoyle finished with a final time of

1:00.63 in the women’s 100 butterfly, which secured her an individual Coast Conference Championship in that event.

In the State Championship Guilfoyle competed in three indi-vidual events. Her best result was in the 100 butterfly placing in 14th with final time of 1:01.53, 17th in the 50 butterfly with preliminary time of 27.70 and 18th in the 100 medley with preliminary time of 1:04.60.

Guilfoyle analyzed the past two seasons swimming for the Rams as a positive one, not only

individually, but she congratu-lates the team effort as well.

“First of all it’s been very fun to say the least. I started swim-ming last year competitively for the first time in like close to 12, 13 years and I had to relearn a lot of swimming techniques,” Guil-foyle said. “It took me the whole season last year to develop myself as a swimmer and it was really this second season where I could finally move up to my potential as a swimmer and I was able to set goals for myself and I exceeded all those which was really fun.”

She added: “In terms of the team, I think having co-captains and leadership that make to state is a really good example for swimmers who are very commit-ted for them the following years to say, ‘I can do that too.’ Because last year seeing Alyssa (Stember) go (to the state championship), I was so excited for her and I kind of followed her own line. So this year I put my mind to it, I focused, I ate right, I did every-thing I could to make to state and I was able to do that... and now I can see the swimmers who swam their first year looking up to me and Roselin saying, ‘If they can do it, I can do it too.’”

Guilfoyle also shared her successful season with Alyssa Stember who was the assistant coach alongside Pham this season and the first star of the swimming program placing 7th in the State Championship last season in the 50 backstroke and also receiving All-American Honor both break-

ing school records and academi-cally with a 3.69 GPA.

Not to mention that Stember was severely injured throughout last year’s season and on many occasions had to be pulled out of the water due to Thoracic outlet syndrome in her right shoulder but still proudly writing her name on City College swim team histo-ry.

According to the U.S. Nation-al Library of Medicine, Thoracic outlet syndrome is rare condition that involves pain in the neck and shoulder, numbness and tingling of the fingers, and a weak grip. The thoracic outlet is the area between the rib cage and collar bone.

The second star and co-captain this season, Stetpisalsilp, won multiple individual Coast Confer-ence Championships finishing first in both the 50 backstroke and the 100 backstroke with times of 28.60 and 1:01.08, respectively.

Stetpisalsilp also competed on three individual events in the State Championship with her best result in the 50 backstroke plac-ing in 8th with final time of 28.77, 11th in the 100 butterfly 1:01.60 and 19th in the 200 medley with preliminary time of 2:22.08.

For Stetpisalsilp, better tech-nique and commitment were crucial for improving hers and the team’s result this season.

“We had better technique this year, we worked on a lot of drills and things to help us focus,” Stet-pisalsilp said.

Assessing the season she said

everyone was close which helped everyone push each other do their best.

Now with the season over and remarkable goals achieved, Head coach Phong D Pham is accomplished with the effort and commitment the swim team showed this season.

“I saw improvement not just at their times (swimming results) but also the number of swim-mers that came down for the team and the numbers of swim-mers that competed and finished the season,” Pham said. “We had 24 swimmers finish the season and that’s the largest number in the last three years. They were committed to be on the team and work hard. That’s definitely great and we’re moving on the right direction.”

Pham said this year the team focused a lot on stroke tech-niques, kicking, starts and turns and visualization that helped time improvement and better results in the Coast conference champion-ship and qualifying more athletes to the State Championship.

Even though the swimming program is getting better each new season, Pham said he knows he will need to work more on better recruiting to get talented student-athletes since he is losing two of his starts, Guilfoyle and Stetpisalsilp. For next season he has his eyes on few remaining swimmers with good potential, he said. Mara Allen is breaststroke swimmer and Haylei Plageman’s best event is freestyle.

City College’s track and field team has set a goal of reaching All-American status this season. Their athletes are performing at high levels and breaking school records on their way to the state championships.

With their performance at the NorCal finals last weekend, the Track & Field team drew one step closer to their goal by having a handful of athletes moving on to State Championships.

Collegiate athletes reach All-America status when they place in the top four in a particular event at the State Championships.

Sprints coach Doug Owyang said, “to be NorCal Champion is our goal, to make it to the state meet, and to vie for All-American status... and I think we have indi-viduals in relays that can possibly do it.”

“We’ve established that we are some of the tops in the events we are (competing) in for the NorCal Finals,” he said.

Owyang said that there are many top-level athletes on the team this season, and that Erica Williams has demonstrated that she is among the elite competitors in the state.

Williams broke a 20-year-old

City College of San Francisco record by 100 points with her performance in the heptathlon at the NorCal Community College Championships in April.

She went on to break another school record with her 38.25 foot Triple Jump at the NorCal Finals on May 11 and 12.

“I worked about ten times harder this season then I ever had my entire life and it definitely showed,” Williams said.

The track portion of the team has been more successful than the field portion because of a lack of representation in field competi-tions. Williams has succeeded in both as a multi-event competitor Field Coach Greg Bianci said.

“On the men’s side, we’re pretty dominant in the sprints,” Owyang said. “We had the fast-est time in the NorCal trials in the 4x4 (relay).”

The 4x4 relay team, comprised of all freshmen, will also be competing in the State Championship after qualifying at the NorCal Finals with a time of 3:13.

City College’s men’s team ranked fifth at the Coast Confer-ence Championships, while the women’s team ranked fourth.

“For the first time we actually had a solid girl’s squad instead of it just being me and another girl like last season,” Williams said.

First year students Alex Foster and Jarrett Moore have proven very valuable in the team’s preliminary competi-tions, and have helped lead City

College on the road to the state championships.

Foster placed second in the 800 meter event, and Moore placed fifth in the 1500 meter event at NorCal Finals. Both will compete in State Championships.

“The treatment you get here coaching-wise, and academically,

is nothing compared to any other junior college,” Williams said.

Both Athletes and coaches athletes have worked hard all season to make it to State Cham-pionships which will be held May 18 and 19 at Cerritos College in Los Angeles.

Records shatteredBy Einar SevillaTHE GUARDSMAN / @EINARSEVILLA / [email protected]

By Lucas AlmeidaTHE GUARDSMAN / @LPA_SFREPORTER / [email protected]

Erica Williams trains with her coach Greg Bianchi at a track and field practice at the Ocean Campus on May 14. Williams broke a 20-year-old heptathlon record by 100 points at the Nor Cal Community College Championships in April. VINCENT PALMIER / THE GUARDSMAN

Assistant Coach Alyssa Stember and state qualifiers Roselin Strepisalsilp and Carrie Guilfoyle during a swim practice on May 8. SHANE MENEZ / THE GUARDSMAN

CULTUREThere is a buzz on the inter-

net radio waves at City College’s KCSF station as the student DJs go live through a new smart phone app.

This semester KCSF has tapped into the new outlet of app radio through a free program called TuneIn, which means that ‘your community, your radio’ can be heard anytime, anywhere.

The station continues to stream live online, while this app puts KCSF on the map with other local stations and makes indepen-dent radio more accessible.

“What college radio does especially is give freedom and access to DJs to play music or to play artists that aren’t otherwise known to the public,” Program Director and City College student Matias Godinez said.

College and independent

radio stations have long been a club for music aficionados, expos-ing up-and-coming bands as well as being a voice for their commu-nity. As AM and FM terrestrial mainstream radio stations empty of personality, and independent stations decline, internet, satellite and smart phones bring a world of stations to your fingertips.

“There are a few shows out there on KCSF that provide that outlet and actually bring in under-ground artists,” Godinez said.

The TuneIn app has taken almost all of the digital online stations including college radio, commercial (other than CBS and ClearChannel), non-commercial, and community freeform and put them together with one click.

“They’re giving college radio stations a chance to access their library and put people on the air,”

Godinez said.While there may be a contin-

ued market for AM/FM radio, the way of expanding throughout not only the country, but the world, is through internet radio and smart phone apps.

“We have people call in [to the station], some people call from Europe,” said Dr. Cecil Hale, General Manager of the station since 1986.

Since Hale took over as General Manager, coming from a background of radio experi-ence as a radio DJ and Capitol Records executive, he has seen many changes at the station, from records to digital and now apps.

“We’ve changed in terms of equipment. When I first came here we had very old equipment. Some of the stuff we used years ago was newer than the stuff they had here. We finally became a digital station about 10 years ago.

College radio app brings more music to your fingertipsBy Beth LaBergeTHE GUARDSMAN / @BETHLABERGE / [email protected]

By Emma WinklesCONTRIBUTOR / @SFBREAKINGNEWS / [email protected]

The Guardsman & TheGuardsman.com | May 16-May 29, 2012 | 13

KCSF DJ Frank Spencer, The Headiest Host from Coast to Coast, goes on air with an im-promptu broadcast on May 9 at the Ocean Campus. His regular broadcast is a pschedelic program entitled You Enjoy My Station. BETH LABERGE / THE GUARDSMAN

On April 20, the Marley documentary directed by Kevin MacDonald was released, show-ing footage of Marley, his family, the people he grew up with in Jamaica and other musicians who helped mold his ideas and music.

In a world filled with preju-dice due to the color of our skin and cultural differences, one man who felt this oppression turned that negativity around into a lyri-cal beat that touched the hearts of people worldwide and united them with the power of his words, known to many as Bob Marley.

The 144 minute documentary emphasized Marley’s extremely hard work ethic and competitive-ness, although it took some time for people to start recognizing the beauty and reflectiveness of Marley’s lyrics, he was willing to make his message heard through the power of his music.

Marley wanted to make it known that his motives weren’t to make money, but to spread a message.

Eventually when he started to reel in the dough, a journalist in the documentary asked him about his wealth to which he responded,

“does possession make you rich? My rich is life.”

Marley may have worked hard, but he also knew how to play hard. He was well known for his every day intake of the ganja.

Kevin Brown a student who is presi-dent of the City College cannabis club called Students for Marijuana Access and Reschedul-ing Today (SMART) said, “There are sever-al different strains with unique qualities and effects.”

Marley, for exam-ple, used it as inspiration and a way to relax his mind - similar to those who enjoy a beer or two at the end of a long day.

“It’s not unhealthy, like government propaganda makes it out to be,” Brown said, yet we seem to have been socialized to believe otherwise.

Marley was identified so much with marijuana that the documentary flaunted how his

reputation was tied in perfect-ly well with his fans. During a concert in Africa his fans yelled the words “ganja” in association to his name.

“It shouldn’t be a main focus cuz there’s way too much other shit for the authorities to focus on,” said full time City College student Amani Johnson during an interview on campus.

Jazz Howard, City College student and friend of Johnson

agreed and said, “just don’t smoke and drive.”

31 years after his death, Marley’s message of love and unity reigns, and his music continues to move the souls of the masses.

“To me personally, Bob Marley being an icon in reggae music, and reggae music itself, unifies all people- it’s inclusive to me,” Johnson said. Her family attends the Sierra Nevada reggae

festival every year because of their deep love for reggae music.

The documentary also touched into Marley’s many love affairs. It wasn’t hard to believe that Marley was such a ladies man.

With the amount of passion and striking musical lyrics about life and work, it was impossible for women not to fall for him.

The richness of his life and his passion to live and learn lead him to identify himself as a Rastafarian, a religion devel-oped in Jamaica in the 1930’s that worships God and his reincarnate self, Haile Selassie I, who was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974.

“This is my identity,” Marley said, referring to his dreadlocks which is a fundamental part of being a Rastafari.

Clips from the documentary showed Marley dancing aggres-sively, fearless and completely lost in the music, tossing and shaking his dreadlocks as if to release all the animosity he ever felt so that all that was left was joy.

And the station has been growing technologically ever since,” Hale said.

In the age of internet and app radio technology, KCSF’s 90.9 terrestrial station may seem out-of-date. It can still be heard on the FM dial, but only as far as the Ocean Campus parking lot.

Inside the KCSF stationThe sparsely decorated,

windowless and decidedly unpre-tentious radio station on the Ocean Campus is a broadcast of love for its students and produces entertainment that is anything but bland.

The passionate DJs take their listeners on a musical expedition filled with independent bands, mash-up mixes and hyper local news.

This band of laid back radio broadcasters produce their programs in a station roughly 6 x 8 ft, filled only with the essen-tials--mixing board, automation computer system, microphones, and speakers. While their sister location at the Mission Campus houses new radio broadcasting equipment that sits unused.

The delay in operation is caused by a lack of funding to buy equipment used to establish a link between the two campuses. Once that link is in place, broad-casting can rotate between the two stations offering diversity of locales and more space for the students.

“It is my intent to make this a fully functionally adjunct of KCSF. The biggest problem has been finances. As you’ve heard over and over and over again, we are broke. We are getting there

bit by bit. I’m hoping sometime in the next year we’ll make that happen,” Hale said.

Despite the setback KSCF produces a variety of programs that change with every semes-ter, and the inventory of music keeps growing. This semester they host Mash-Up Mondays, Working Man Wednesdays, and World Music Fridays, as well as continuing live sports coverage of football and men’s and women’s basketball home games.

KCSF runs live from 9am to 9pm, if no one misses their shift. The system runs on automation in the downtime, and throughout the night and weekends so there is never dead air.

“We can set an entire years worth of radio programming in a couple days and lock this door and walk away and the station would run and make it sound like there’s somebody in here being live on the air. We could do that, but we don’t. We like to be live on the air,” said third semester radio student Frank Spencer, aka “The Headiest Host from Coast to Coast” who runs a psychedelic program entitled You Enjoy My Station which runs every Mon, Wed and Fri from 9am to 10am.

They will be running all summer and will be live again next semester with new shows, sports coverage and promotional giveaways in an effort to promote TuneIn and to convince City College students of the impor-tance of college radio.

Live stream of the station can can be found at KCSFRadio.com and the app can be downloaded at TuneIn.com, search KCSF.

Illustration of Bob Marley by Emma Winkles / The Guardsman

A new documentary reveals the musical soul of Rastafari Bob Marley


By Catherine Lee / The Guardsman / @SFBREAKINGNEWS / [email protected]

CCSF Events Calendar

On May 5 a panel discussion was held at the Latino Comics Expo, covering topics such as Mexico and Latin American Mythology throughout the comic world, featuring City College of San Francisco alumni Isis Rodri-guez and several other artists.

“What Alfi Lopez and I have tried to do is create a comic book that represents authentic mexican conscience,” Rodriguez said during the panel discussion. Speaking of the collaboration project, NInaji, a comic illustrat-ed by Rodriguez and written by Alfi Lopez.

The comic is based on a Oaxacan legend about a princess who was assassinated because of a broken treaty between Mixtecs and Zapotecs tribes in the 1500’s.

Workshops and lectures were held throughout the two days of the exhibit, local and bay area artist were in attendance and were able to meet and greet their fans. Kids and adults indulged in the many aspects of the comic world and even collected the new BATICALACA posters given out by one of the co-founders of the

LCE, Javier Hernandez.On May 4 a reception was

held where people ate peanuts and drank bad wine in the words of artist Mario Hernandez. Mario along with his two broth-ers Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez created the comic series LOVE & ROCKETS.

The Expo also featured short sessions such as Making Zines with Locals, including Bay Area Cartoonists discussing how personal experience influence their work.

Xeric-Award winner Rafael Navarro, and Michael Aushenker creator of El Gato: Crime Mangler series were there. Navarro won the award for his series known as Sonambulo.

Attendees also included Bay Area natives, creative team Mario T. Lanao & Christian Garcia known for “Reluctant Zero”, a comic revolving around an illegal immigrant from Guate-mala named Guillermo “memo” Morales who dreams of support-ing his family with a t-shirt company starring his sketches.

Grasiela Rodriguez author of “Lunatic Fringe” and “Sprada” and Michael Aushenker author of the “El Gato, Crime Man-gler” series speak with attendees at La Raza Comica: Latino-American comic arts exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum on May 5. Aushenker also wrote the current issue of Matt Groening’s “Bart Simpson” comic #70. Photos by SHANE MENEZ / THE GUARDSMAN

THU/MAY 17

“City Shorts” Student Film Festival – 6 to 8 p.m. @ Diego Rivera Theater, Ocean campus: The annual festival of films made at City College always offers an exciting array of fictional narra-tive, documentary and experimental short films. All the films have been made at City College by students from countries all over the world. The festival itself is the final project of a cinema class whose mission is to make and present a film festival. The festival usually receives over 100 entries which are curated into a compre-hensive festival by professional filmmakers who volunteer as a jury panel. A combination of ardent film lovers, high production values, award-winning instructors and a wildly diverse student body makes this film festival one of the best in the Bay Area, and certainly the cheapest at $2. Reception at 6 p.m., show at 7 p.m.

SAT/MAY 19

Memorial for Family of “Chantel” Chia Huei Chu - Tree planting 9 to 11 a.m. and ceremony at 11 a.m. @ Phelan Garden (corner Phelan and Ocean across from Ocean campus): In March a family was brutally murdered in their house across the street from the City College Ocean campus and Lick Wilmerding High School on Howth Street. Two of the victims were City College students at one time, and “Chan-tel” Chia Huei Chu was currently taking ESL classes and was beloved by her classmates. To bring the school community, the neighborhood, local students at Lick Wilmerding and family members together to “unite the neighborhood and start the healing process,” local community groups are holding a service for the five victims. They will prepare and plant five trees to memo-rialize the family and a public service is planned from 11 a.m. onward. Everyone in the commu-nity is welcome to attend and no RSVPs are required. To donate or get involved contact Alex Mullaney at [email protected].

State Conference to Organize Student Activists and Supporters for California Community Colleges – time TBD; proposed 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. @ Santa Monica Community College: In a follow up to the conference hosted at City College of San Francisco on May 12, the southern California students are hosting a day of community organizing. The proposed discussions will include how to form a commu-nity college student union which will represent all 112 colleges and form a political block to support affordable and accessible adult educa-tion for Californians. Students may physi-cally participate with carpools and homestays being coordinated from San Francisco – contact for info Associated Student Council President Shanell Williams at [email protected]. All supporters are encouraged to submit propos-als and ideas to create a community college student union at

[email protected] and those proposals will be discussed and documented at the conference. To get involved in the new student movement to “Put the Community Back in Community Colleges” contact the CCSF Associated Student Council or Everic Dupuy at

[email protected].

Swing Dance Soiree - 8pm to 11pm @ Well-ness Center Room 307 at the Ocean Campus: The Swing City Dancers student club will be hosting their final event for Spring semester on Saturday, May 19th. It will be a West Coast Swing dance party DJ-ed by Steve Cismowski and Thurman Spriggs. They will be spinning their best West Coast, Lindy and East Coast tunes. The evening begins at 7 pm with a begin-ning West Coast Swing lesson (taught by CCSF dance faculty member, and club advisor, Steve Rockwell). Admission $5.

SUN/MAY 20

Annual Spring Fashion Show - 6:00 p.m. reception and raffle and 7:00 p.m. fashion show @ Ruby Skye Club (Mason Street): The fash-ion department proposes to treat fashionistas to an “Ethereal Night” to present the senior collections by student designers presented in high style at a swank downtown nightclub. The event features four style categories which promise to showcase the diversity of the student body: ladylike, tribal, athletica, and art deco. All eyes will be swimming with great colors and concepts as the one hour promises 30 models and 60 ensembles. All ages and the public is welcome. No host bar, non-alcholhic, small bites and mocktails will be served. Tickets at the campus bookstores (Ocean, Downtown, Mission), the Fashion Department in Batmale Hall room 210, and at the club door at 5:30 p.m. Students $10 and others $15. Information 415-239-3588 and http://www.ccsf.edu/Depart-ments/Fashion/show2012.html.

THU/MAY 24

Free Chorus Concert – 7 p.m. @ Ocean campus Creative Arts room A133: The Labor Heritage and Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus pres-ent their semester end concert, open to the public. The joint forces of City College and Laney College swells for a rockin labor chorus concert. No reservations required.

SAT/MAY 26

Graduation Ceremonies – 10 a.m. @ Ocean campus Ram Stadium: Clap, whoot and cheer the academic wonder of your colleagues’ achievement when they graduate from City College.

Summer time is here, so the calendar will only be updated online - but keep us posted about City College organizing to support Cali-fornia Community Colleges & fundraisers!

Community groups will gather on March 19 at Phelan Garden at Ocean and Phelan to plant five trees as a memorial to the family who was murdered on March 23 on Howth Street, across from City College.

As previously reported in the April 4 issue of The Guardsman, five people were murdered in their home and two of the victims had connections to City College – “Chantel” Chia Huei Chu was a current student and her husband Vincent Yuanji Lei was registered but not currently enrolled in

classes.The tree planting will provide a public

ceremony for the community to come together where all the student colleagues, family, friends and the general commu-nity can unite with the neighborhood and start the healing process, according to the newsletter of the neighborhood non-profit Geneva Car Barn and Powerhouse, who are co-sponsoring the event.

“This is a wound in the neighborhood. We’re trying to do something nice,” said

Alexander Mulaney, editor and publisher of the neighborhood newspaper Ingleside Light, another event co-sponsor.

The other murdered members of the family were husband and wife Hua Shun Lei, Wan Yi Wu and their daughter Ying Xue Lei. Vincent Lei was their son, whose wife was “Chantel.” A suspect is in custo-dy.

In an “Ingleside Light” editorial about the difficulty of dealing with the brutal-ity of the murders and the impact on the

community, Mulaney wrote, “The best way to cope is to come together, work together and be together.”

In association with the Friends of the Urban Forest, Lick Wilmerding High School and others, the tree planting will be held from 9 to 11 a.m., with a public cere-mony at 11 a.m. The public is encouraged to donate and get involved by contacting the Geneva Car Barn and Powerhouse.

Supervisor John Avalos is also sched-uled to attend the ceremony.

By Oz LitvacTHE GUARDSMAN / @OLITVAC / [email protected]

Community gathers for Howth Street memorialBy Catherine LeeTHE GUARDSMAN / @SFBREAKINGNEWS / [email protected]

Latino American experience celebrated through comics

The Guardsman & TheGuardsman.com | May 16-May 29, 2012 | 15

A group of famous Bay Area poster artists made a rock-ing contribution to people in the Occupy movement by designing and donating thousands of large color posters at demonstrations.

At the Nov. 2 General Strike in Oakland, the artists, printers and others gave away about 6000 “Occupy Oakland” posters in the downtown area and at the West Oakland BART station.

The poster artists made three designs for the General Strike. They added seven more designs for the West Coast Port Shutdown in December and as of February 2012 are now up to eight posters with 13 designs. Five of the eight posters have different designs on each side and the other three post-ers have the same design on both sides.

Alexandra Fischer, who designed four of the posters, said, “There is a certain person-ality attracted to being a poster artist which makes the jump from rock poster art to Occupy art pretty easy. (Poster artists) are not necessarily anti-establishment, but they’re definitely people who are ready to express an opinion and they often have strong politi-cal views.”

Between the seven post-er artists, they have designed hundreds of Fillmore and Warf-ield concert posters, and posters for concerts by eminent artists like the Black Keys, Bob Dylan, Public Enemy, Primus, Oasis, Jewel, the Dead Kennedys, the Grateful Dead, and Eric Clapton. They have made posters for the Summer of Love Anniversary, the California State Fair music exhibition, and album and t-shirt art for bands like Green Day and Santana.

For many of the artists, making politically-charged prints, ‘zines, and paintings is as personally essential to their body of work as is their rock art. Chris Shaw jokes that in that political arena, “We’re professional shin-kickers.”

Shaw said that he and Fischer were watching the Occupy move-ment unfold they realized that “there seemed to be a lack of a single defining message in the Occupy Wall Street movement. And we realize that the ‘many-message 99 percent’ is one of its strengths, but we still felt we needed something to mark an event and do it in a mass way. Posters could help do this.”

After witnessing the Oct. 25 events in Oakland when the streets

were filled with flying objects and teargas, Shaw knew he had to make a poster in response. He has lived and worked in Oakland for over 20 years and has been making political and rock art for just as long.

Shaw’s experience painting giant concert sets and familiar-ity with enormous entertainment events led him to try a new set of specs for the Occupy posters.

“Some essential design elements were… the poster had to be big enough to be seen in a sea of protesters and posters, the text had to be legible from far away, and they had to be visual enough that a photograph would carry the message,” he said.

Shaw’s instincts were right: even mediocre cell phone photog-raphy could spread the posters’ messages. The posters are easily identified in the Occupy footage taken from television broadcasts and posted on YouTube.

“We’re coming from rock posters: we know how to strip down text to an essential message,” said Fischer.

“People always give you a lot more text than is comfortable and part of our design is to compress and rework wording so it fits, but you still have a strong image so the whole message is clear.”

Occupy Poster ArtAccording to Fischer, today’s

rock and political posters are the offspring of two generations of Bay Area poster traditions: the

illustrative intensity of the 1960s psychedelic posters and the taut syntax of punk-rock handbills.

The Occupy posters have the superlative design from the rock poster tradition supercharged with instantly recognized words and images: General Strike, Our City, Bulls**t, the clenched fist of solidarity and Rosie the Riveter.

From the punk-rock tradition, the messages can be inflammatory with phrases like “The 1% is harvesting our future.”

The designs have evolved over time, gaining message complexity. The final poster from the Janu-ary 20 “Occupy the Banks” day is a visual sound bite about bank foreclo-sures that moves beyond the vague concept of

“subprime mortgages” to the real-life plight of neighbors being evicted from their homes.

The physical poster prints are an innovation: double-sided printing. Shaw realized that, “The poster needed to be printed on front and back because of the cameras who are shooting both sides of the poster, often from the back of the crowd.”

Winston Smith, who created one poster with two designs, wrote in an email, “Chris (Shaw’s) idea of printing on both sides of the protest poster doubles the chance(s) that our message will get across.”

Smith is known for his artwork done for the seminal punk rock band the Dead Kenne-dys. He has been making rock and political art since the 1970s.

Bay Area Poster TraditionShaw’s lead in organizing

the Occupy posters is influenced by his unique role in the printed

poster microculture.He is the poster art director

for the band Moonalice, which plays about 100 concerts a year, and whose love of gig posters is unique in the live music world. The band is legendary among rock poster lovers because they make a unique poster for every show and give them away as free-bies.

Shaw has a roster of 18 to 20 poster artists who are part of the Moonalice poster crew. In addition to supporting the poster artists, Moonalice is covering the printing cost of the Occupy post-ers. When activists ask if they can donate money to the poster effort, Shaw and friends are able to say thanks, but give your money to the movement.

Because of the support given to the art director and the partici-pating artists by Moonalice, the posters are known as the Moon-alice Occupy posters, although the band doesn’t have any visible impact on the posters.

Shaw’s political poster design and organizing builds on the work of another politically-active artist who taught him screenprinting and poster making at Oakland’s CCAC in the 1980s.

“We had a great teacher, Malaquias Montoya, who taught us how to keep it smart – (he) helped us make our work not so punk-rock,” said Shaw.

OCCUPY!...this poster.

How the Occupy movement was moved with inspiring art.Story by Catherine Lee

[email protected]

Poster by Ron Donovan Poster by Ron Donovan Poster by Winston Smith

Poster by Chuck Sperry

Poster by Chris ShawPoster by Winston SmithPoster by Carolyn Ferris

Poster by Alexandra Fischer


There’s no doubt the Jean Paul Gault-ier exhibit was made for San Francisco. Entitled ‘The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk’, the De Young hosted a collec-tion of 140 pieces which runs until August 19.

In addition to clothing, the exhibit also features sketches, televisions looping runway shows, and few pieces of furniture and photography.

A beautiful and well-curated represen-tation of Gaultier’s remarkable 35 year career is gracefully displayed, from the absurd, subtle, to the sophisticated.

Upon entering the exhibit, a sincere hand written note is displayed on the wall simply stating “For San Francisco with love, Jean Paul.” A mannequin with Gault-ier’s projected face personally welcomes visitors with warm hospitality and grati-tude. What follows is a psychedelic and awe inspiring time line of Gaultier’s creations.

His personal philosophy of “Equality, Diversity, and Perversity” is categorized into several themes, ranging from “The Boudoir”, which displays the actual cone-bra corset Madonna donned in her “Truth or Dare” movie.

Skin Deep”, was a collection inspired by his love of the human body, and “Urban Jungle”, inspired by his hometown of Paris. Other exhibits on display included “Punk Can Can”, an homage to the punk culture he encountered in London, and “Metropolis”, a collection of more recent pieces and movie costumes.

As part of the unofficial welcome wagon for the exhibit from the De Young, was a combination drag and runway show titled ‘Beautiful Rebels: A Celebration of

the World of Gaultier’. The event was held on April 6, and was hosted by San Fran-cisco cult icon and drag favorite, Peaches Christ. The crowd was a healthy blend of the fashion obsessed to the anxious and curious.

The runway show was a cacophony of glitter, sequins, neon and lace. Showcas-ing some of the best and most diverse of San Francisco’s underground fashion. The designers featured included Mister David, who dazzled with sequins, Tria, who showcased glitter and lace, and Mrs. Vera, who dazzled with a distinct “Burning Man chic” aesthetic.

Cafeteria Fashion showApplying the same unique sensibility

and characteristics of Gaultier, the Fashion department at City College held a cafeteria fashion show titled ‘Belle Fleur’ on May first.

Shira Peleg, Cristina Castellanos, Abigail Andrade, Angela Tse & Heather Carnes were among those who developed the fashion show. Along with their fellow group mates, the team of seven created 30 looks which were modeled on a t-shaped, slightly raised runway cutting through the front of the runway and ending in a chang-ing space covered by a lattice fence. From the style report, they combined floral prints and color blocking as their main focuses of their runway show.

Borrowing clothes from local boutiques, thrift stores and designers, the models proudly pranced the runway. Contributing evening gowns from her job at Altitude Showroom, Heather Carnes commented with a smile, “Honestly, if I didn’t work there, I don’t think they would have let me borrow the clothes.”

When producing these fashion shows, the students are instructed to create outfits inspired by the season’s trend report. “It’s like the fashion bible,” head of the fash-ion department and mentor to the students, Dianne Green said.

Housing the forth fashion show of the semester, the cafeteria was filled with a combination of onlookers enjoying their food, friends, family, and curious students. Roughly 30 people made up the friends and family present, while the marginally filled cafeteria created the rest of the audi-ence.

The atmosphere was very casual, as if an extension of a class. The music, much like the clothing had a sweet, approachable, girlie charm to it. Those sitting around the runway remained cemented to their seats, while those enjoying their lunch remained just as transfixed and many stayed for the duration of the show.

Translated into “pretty flower”, this fashion shows recurring theme was a combination of color blocking and floral prints. A weekly occurrence, the fashion shows are a way for students of the fashion

department to display what they’ve learned.

What goes on behind the scenes is an entire circus of chaos. What people fail to recognize is how much work is actually going into creating one of these shows.

“They have to borrow clothing, create outfits, gain publicity, select the music, and get models.” Green said.

The models themselves are a collection of borrowed friends, some students, and if possible, working models. “The most important thing is that they select people who look like working models,” Green said.

“Fashion is business and all of the students show the dedication and drive,” Dorothy Dominique, fashion student and assistant to Green, said. “I’ve noticed that in the science department, people fall asleep in class, here, the students are espe-cially dedicated and hardworking. It’s a competitive field and the students under-stand this.”

“Belle Fleur” was held nearly a month after the Beautiful Rebels show and with remarkable similarities, there is a feeling of self sustainability and uniqueness that makes fashion look irresistible.

“People in this city wear their emotions,” Dominique said. “They keep it real here,” she added. A mantra which is pure Gaultier.

Something that San Franciscans do better than anyone else when it comes to fashion, simply put, “We’re real with it,” Dominique said. “We’re not trying to out do each other. Fashion here is based on emotions. San Franciscans like to wear their emotions.”

Usually scheduled to run for 30 minutes, this particular fashion show ran for 45 minutes. The reaction from the crowd was sorted, the most applause being garnered by both men participating in the show.

Although there were a few stumbles and slip ups, it was nothing the models couldn’t handle. With a simple smile of acknowledgment, they were back to work-ing their stuff on the runway.

In addition to three more scheduled cafeteria fashion shows, Ethereal night is the next big production for the Fashion Department. Held at Ruby Sky on May 20, this fashion show will display the clothing created by students in the fashion construction classes.

On the runway, Gaultier to CCSFBy Marilyn FernandoTHE GUARDSMAN / @SFBREAKINGNEWS / [email protected]

Peaches Christ performs during the event Beautiful Rebels: A Celebration of the World of Gaultier, that she also hosted and curated, at the De Young Museum on Apr. 6. MARILYN FER-NANDO / THE GUARDSMAN

Performers in colors spanning the rainbow at the De Young Museum’s event Beautiful Rebels: A Celebration of the World of Gaultier on Apr. 6 hosted and curated by Peaches Christ. MARILYN FERNANDO / THE GUARDSMAN

Clockwise from top right: Model Sarah Baraka poses with a floral dress in a fashion de-partment cafeteria fashion show called Belle Fleur where clothes were borrowed from local design-ers and thrift stores and styled by students, on May 1. Marta Fernandez sports a lacey mini-dress. David Varela works it on the runway. Tristina James beams in a halter top and skirt. VINCENT PALMIER / THE GUARDSMAN

The Guardsman, Vol. 153 Issue 8

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Transcript of The Guardsman, Vol. 153 Issue 8