The Guardsman, Vol. 171, Issue 5, City College of San Francisco

KNOW HER NAME

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LEGEND LIVES ON

LADY RAMS BASKETBALL

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Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 – Apr 6, 2021 | City College of San Francisco | Since 1935 | FREE | www.theguardsman.com

By Garrett Leahy On March 12, roughly 200 City College faculty, union workers from SEIU Local 87, which represents cus‐ todians and janitors, and faculty from the College of San Mateo and Univer‐ sity of San Francisco gathered in soli‐ darity to oppose City College faculty cuts.

Responding to cuts approved by the City College Board of Trustees ear‐ lier this month, those gathered called on the San Francisco Board of Super‐ visors to help save programs and fac‐ ulty which could be lost come May 15 when cuts are finalized.

As it stands now, no layoffs have actually been carried out, as the City College faculty union, AFT2121, en‐ ters negotiations with the college ad‐ ministration ahead of the May 15

effective date of the layoffs. The union hopes to reduce the total number of layoffs and maintain certain programs which are under threat by drastic cuts, including Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS) and English as a Second Language (ESL) depart‐ ments, slated to be reduced by 40 and 20 percent, respectively.

A large portion of these cuts do not appear on the report issued by the college’s administration, which only lists pink slips issued to full-time faculty and does not in‐ clude the layoffs of many of the part-time faculty from those de‐ partments, according to Malaika Finkelstein, a part-time instructor in the DSPS department and pres‐ ident of AFT2121.

“The full-time layoffs are more

splashy because they have to issue legal layoff notices. Part-timers like me, they don’t have to issue a notice, they just do it,” he added.

“The numbers are even more ex‐ treme with part-timers, we’re talk‐ ing something like 500 part-timers laid off.”

Although there is no formal record which lists all part-lime lay‐ offs at this time, Finkelstein esti‐ mated that a total of 60% of all college faculty will face cuts at the end of this semester based on Fall 2021 budget allocations for all de‐ partments at City College.

Rosie Zepeda, Director of Media Relations at City College, said that the claim that City Col‐ lege’s administration were effec‐ tively laying off 60% percent of faculty was “misinformation”,

saying that it is currently unknown how many part-time faculty would be laid off. Zepeda said that City College plans to maintain all exist‐ ing programs, and if more fulltime faculty are laid off, then less part-time faculty will be laid off so as to maintain staffing for pro‐ grams, and vice versa. Zepeda added that the number of fulltime faculty who will in fact be laid off come May 15 is still also un‐ known, because that depends on the outcome of the negotiations happening between the union and the administration.

“There’s misinformation say‐ ing that we’re cutting 60%, but with the pool of part-timers, we don’t know...whatever the final number [of full-timers facing cuts] is in May, that’s going to have an

effect on [the number] of parttimers. There may be some de‐ partments that might lose parttimers and there might be some departments that lose full-timers, that number of [part-timers] may have to be increased to maintain the program,” said Zepeda.

As of now, negotiations have only just begun, with the first ne‐ gotiations open to all AFT 2121 members held on March 5 and the second on March 16 — a prelimi‐ nary outline was the only apparent result; no proposals have been made. What the union is eager to see, however, is a proposal cen‐ tered around boosting enrollment based on the use of funds from the Higher Education Emergency Re‐ lief Fund (HEERF), established by the Biden administration’s $1.9

Protesters hold up a sign expressing their disdain for recent faculty cuts during a rally outside San Francisco City Hall on March 12, 2021 due to the cuts that CCSF's Board of Trustees passed on February 26, 2021. (Photo by Garrett Leahy/The Guardsman)

Local union continues on page 2

Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 - Apr 6, 2021

By Erin Blackwell

eb.guardsman@outlook.com

Art department Chair Anna Asabedo retires at the end of spring semester, and Amy Diaz-Infante was poised to run the Ocean Campus print‐ making shop — until March 3, when along with two other 2018 department hires, she got a pink slip.

As a woman of color with a BA from Yale and an MFA specializing in printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design, Diaz-Infante brings exper‐ tise and diversity to the art Department.

She is one of 163 full-time City College faculty being laid off to avert a projected shortfall of $33 million at the end of the next school year.

“We have paid for faculty and ad‐ ministrators to sustain a non-support‐ able class schedule,” said Interim Chan‐ cellor Rajen Vurdien in a March 9 press release. “In order for this institution to be able to serve the community and fu‐ ture generations, we must reduce salary expenditures.”

To achieve this goal, full time equiv‐ alent faculty (FTEF) will be “discontin‐ ued or reduced” on the basis of “least senior,” in “specific disciplines,” ac‐ cording to the press release citing a Feb. 25 Board of Trustees resolution.

Not everyone appreciates the solu‐ tion promoted by Vurdien. Business in‐ structor Michael Needham identified the structural bias of the administra‐ tion’s business plan, and explained it in an informative video. Rebuild City

teachers, Diaz-Infante is frus‐ trated by the administration’s failure to communicate. “It feels like this creation of chaos and panic is a way of carrying out these cuts and reductions without saying, ‘We’re just trying to shrink the college,’” she said. “Instead they’re saying, ‘No, we want the college to grow, but we don’t have the money for it.’”

“That’s the disconnect. That’s what’s frustrating. It feels like we’re not being honest with what’s happening here, in these conversations,” Diaz-In‐ fante said.

Access to Education Diaz-Infante worries the proposed cuts will negatively impact hard-won diversity. Because the administration is laying off teachers quantitatively, based on seniority, the diverse group

College has proposed alternative ways to meet the shortfall that would retain the essential breadwinners, the faculty.

Creation of Chaos and Panic City College’s art department, Pink Slip continues popular for its motivational instruc‐ tion of traditional media, has been struggling to preserve its full comple‐ ment of disciplines. Last fall they were at a “skeletal” 13 full-time-equivalent faculty (FTEF), according to DiazInfante.

“For Fall 2021, it went down to 10 [FTEF],” Diaz-Infante said during a two-hour interview. “Now, on top of that, we’re receiving these pink slips, and this notification that they’re rec‐ ommending a further reduction of three.” This would leave the art de‐ partment with seven FTEF, about half the previous year’s allotment.

Numbers are only part of the story. Diaz-Infante ran the spacious Fort Mason print shop until the Board of Trustees voted to close it last sum‐ mer after 40 fecund years. “All that history, all that space,” she sighs. Now there’s only the cramped Ocean Cam‐ pus shop, idle since COVID-19 hit campuses a year ago.

Department chairs claim they were not informed of the proposed cuts to full-time faculty, according to Stephanie MacAller of Rebuild City College. The latest last-minute layoffs Illustration by Daina Medveder Koziot/The Guardsman. Instagram: @dmkoziot are eerily reminiscent of then-Chan‐ cellor Mark Rocha’s so-called

By Annette Mullaney amullan4@mail.ccsf.edu

Despite Interim Chancellor Rajen Vurdien’s and City College administrators’ repeated prom‐ ises that faculty layoffs and course cuts will not result in any academic programs being discontin‐ ued, many faculty members claim they will.

The cuts, part of the five-year budget plan passed by the board in November, will reduce credit and noncredit course offerings next year by 20% and 24% respectively, measured in full-time equivalent faculty (FTEF), a standardized mea‐ sure of instructor workload.

Up to 163 full-time faculty and hundreds of part-time faculty, according to faculty union AFT2121, have received notices of potential lay‐ offs as part of the plan to address City College’s structural budget deficit.

Despite the precipitous cuts, Vurdien has promised on numerous occasions that no pro‐ grams will be eliminated. At the November board meeting he went further, saying “there will be enough sections so that not a single one of the courses that we offer on a regular basis will be eliminated.”

Faculty Advisor Juan Gonzales

“midnight massacre” of 350 class cuts on the eve of regis‐ tration for Spring 2020.

“The unilateral cuts were not in consultation with de‐ partment chairs. It was a uni‐ lateral rather than a collabo‐ rative process,” said City Col‐ lege Professor Leslie Simon.

As a member of the Aca‐ demic Senate executive coun‐ cil, an elected body of 29

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At the contentious Feb. 25 board meeting where the full-time faculty layoff notices were approved by a 5-2 vote, Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Tom Boegel presented the preservation of degree and certificate pro‐ grams as the administration’s guiding principle.

“We started our planning for next year based on a simple assertion: that we would preserve each of the certificate and degree programs,” he said.

Yet in numerous forums — public com‐ ments at board meetings, online teach-ins, a rally held at City Hall March 12, conversations among faculty representative bodies and on social media — faculty have disputed this claim, speaking instead of broad and devastat‐ ing programmatic impacts.

“We have a couple of programs that are primarily taught by part-timers, which are real estate and entrepreneurship — those are going to be gone just because we cut the part-timers,” said business department faculty member Car‐ ole Meagher.

According to information gathered by the Department Chairperson Council (DCC) sev‐ eral departments claim that they will not be YouTube theguardsmanonline

able to offer specific certificates or degrees. The aircraft maintenance technology department “will have no faculty left at all” if the layoffs go through, as reported by the DCC; the earth sciences, horticulture, LGBT studies, music, physical education, and visual media design departments all believe there are specific de‐ grees and certificates that they won’t be able to offer next year.

In addition, several departments have expressed concern about the impact the course cuts and layoffs will have on their accreditation standing with outside bodies, including regis‐ tered nursing, radiology, and child develop‐ ment & family studies.

Citing these losses of degrees and certifi‐ cates, the Academic Senate passed a resolution on March 10 stating that the administration and Board of Trustees are out of compliance with their own policies and state regulations.

Specifically, they point to policies that require a collaborative process to discontinue a pro‐ gram, which the Academic Senate says has not been present, and a lack of plans for current students in eliminated programs to finish.

In response to calls for more data

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transparency, including from trustees at the Feb. 25 board meet‐ ing, Boegel presented a more indepth description of the process and data guiding cuts at the board’s March 11 student success and policy meeting.

Boegel did not directly ad‐ dress the disconnect between fac‐ ulty and the administration on whether programs will be elimi‐ nated. He did point out that the majority of degrees and certifi‐ cates were awarded to fewer than 10 students in 2019-20. “It's im‐ portant to consider the expected number of completions that we're going to have in each of these pro‐ grams,” he said.

In addition to preserving pro‐ grams, he said they focused on the full-time equivalent student to faculty (FTES/FTEF) ratio — es‐ sentially, the number of students each faculty member instructs. In calendar year 2019, the college averaged 14.4 students per in‐ structor (13.8 for credit classes, 16.9 for noncredit), with depart‐ ments ranging between 3.9 for noncredit licensed vocational nursing to 34.4 for noncredit learning assistance. With the cuts, the college aims to have 13.8

Layoffs continues on page 4

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Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 - Apr 6, 2021

Layoffs continued from page 3

BRIEF

BRIEF

Teachers Face Heightened Stress During Pandemic

DecisionMaking Behind the Curtain: Board Defends Closed Sessions

Recent surveys indicate an increased rate of retirement of teaching faculty

By Casey Michie

cmichie1@mail.ccsf.edu

By Casey Michie

cmichie1@mail.ccsf.edu

Illustration by Serena Sacharoff/The Guardsman

students per faculty in 2021-22.

Despite the focus on student-to-faculty ratios, many departments complain of cuts to full classes. According to the DCC infor‐ mation, one cinema class with sections on the block “has had 50 people show up on the first day hoping to add.”

Many have also complained that the cuts don’t take into account the differing costs and revenues between classes.

The Rebuild City College campaign claims that by cutting Disabled Student Pro‐ grams and Services (DSPS) courses, facing 40% cuts, the college is “leaving money on the table,” since the college receives money from a separate state fund for each student and class. Moreover, funding for disabled stu‐ dents and accommodations increased such

that this year DSPS is serving 100 fewer stu‐ dents but received over $200,000 more from the state, according to department chair Muriel Parenteau.

Deputy Chancellor Dianna Gonzales said this characterization is not quite accu‐ rate. “Almost all of the classes being cut are funded out of the unrestricted fund,” she said, as opposed to directly from the state.

In response to a question about differing profitability between classes, Boegel said the enrollment management committee has cre‐ ated a data subcommittee that is looking into it. “Our work ahead in the next couple of years has to be for us to look at the relative proportions of the different kinds of classes that we’re running here at the college,” Boegel said.

Pink Slip continued from page 3 of 2018 hires will be the first to be laid off. This is inconsis‐ tent with the administration’s stated commitment to equity, according to Diaz-Infante, who said, “Equity is about understanding the inherent disadvantages and discrimi‐ nation that exist in the system we live in, so there can really be an even playing field.”

Diaz-Infante was born in Salinas, CA to Mexican Amer‐ ican parents. “I was a firstgeneration college student. I was lucky to get a scholarship to a four-year college.” Al‐ though Yale University ini‐ tially said her application would not be accepted with‐ out the application fee, in‐ stead they surprised her with a scholarship.

“I understand a lot of the barriers our students are fac‐ ing — being first-generation college students, coming from immigrant families, be‐ ing students of color, not be‐ ing represented in the class‐ room,” she said. “Even

though I did not go to com‐ munity college, my mother raised five kids and worked full-time and took, like, one class a semester for a decade, to get her degree.”

Diaz-Infante sees past her personal pink slip to the big picture. “Is there some‐ one here who doesn’t want a City College? That doesn’t want free education? Is the focus just churning out de‐ grees? And certainly, getting degrees and certificates is part of our mission. Also part of our mission has been to provide education for life‐ long learning.”

The passionate print‐ maker’s questions concern the future of San Francisco and by extension other towns whose community colleges are vulnerable to cuts.

“CCSF is the poster child for community colleges, not just in California, but nation‐ wide,” said Chris Weiden‐ bach, English Department Chair at Laney College in

Oakland. “They have been targeted by privatizers and austerity advocates, the way large, exotic animals are tar‐ geted by big-game poachers.”

The Donahoe Education Act of 1960 proclaimed the mission of community col‐ leges to “advance Califor‐ nia's economic growth and global competitiveness through education, training, and ser‐ vices that contribute to con‐ tinuous workforce improvement.”

Diaz-Infante feels these goals are today more relevant than ever. “Why do we not want to have an educated public?

Why would we not want peo‐ ple to pursue a career change, or personal develop‐ ment, or growing their per‐ sonal knowledge? It feels like there’s a bigger conservative push to tamp down access to education. And who can ac‐ cess education.”

The pandemic’s disruption of higher education has prompted a national trend of teachers and staff considering career changes or retirement, with new national and state surveys indicating alarming numbers of faculty considering leaving their posts.

A recent study released by the Chronicle of Higher Education, consisting of 1,122 online survey respondents, found that 55% of U.S. higher education faculty were considering an early retirement or career change since the onset of the pandemic. The findings point to decreased career satisfaction and a higher emotional toll over the last year as significant motivating factors.

A similar study conducted by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System found that in the second half of 2020, retirements among California teaching staff increased by 26% compared to previous years, the largest such increase since the Great Recession in 2010. The survey, which was completed by 3,202 teachers across the state, reported that 56% of those planning an early retirement cited the challenge of teaching during the pandemic as a contributing factor.

While data has yet to be released for City College, if current national and state trends are an indicator, at least a quarter of employed staff at City College have considered a career change or retirement. This data coupled with the added stress of recent pink slips adds to the grim picture City College staff and students have been, and will be, faced with during the Spring semester of 2021 and beyond.

As the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees navigate decisive matters, the use of closed sessions play an essential role in the advancement of key issues.

From March 2020 to the writing of this article, the board has engaged in 52 public meetings, 25 of which have included closed sessions. This number of closed sessions is on par with the previous year of a similar timeframe where 16 of the 33 meetings included closed sessions.

Of the past year’s 25 closed sessions, six included reports of actionable items, including declaring a state of emergency for the school due to the pandemic,thereleaseof Chancellor Mark Rocha, an access easement agreement between the city and college, and actions taken in regard to the appointment of interim chancellors.

Alan Wong, a newly elected member of the board, said the closed sessions “are used to discuss confidential matters that require [the board] to work together to find solutions.”

According to Wong, recent closed sessions in 2021 have been used to address topics of hiring new personnel, lawsuits, and collective bargaining.

Asked about transparency regarding closed sessions, Wong said, “If people have questions, [the Board of Trustees has] a duty to uphold trust with the public. We encourage [the public] to bring any concern they may have to us, so we can address the issues on a case-by-case basis publicly.”

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Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 - Apr 6, 2021

Local union continued from page 1 trillion COVID-19 relief package.

“It’s very preliminary, we just need to know where the budget is exactly … we don’t have all the information yet. That’s really where we’re at right now,” Finkel‐ stein said.

In addition to entering negotiations with the college’s administration, faculty called on members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to support the col‐ lege, namely by securing more funding from San Francisco’s annual budget to be directed towards City College. For the 2020-21 fiscal year, the College received $88,031,470 from local local sales, prop‐ erty, and parcel taxes, and $88,950,176 from the state, according to City College’s 2020-2021 budget.

One department that faces severe cuts is City College’s Phillippine studies depart‐ ment, whose only full-time employee, chair of the department Lily Ann Vil‐ lareza, has received a pink slip. According to Villareza, the department could be se‐ verely hamstrung, teaching only a handful of classes after the cuts take effect in midMay. “Our department would be able to offer two to three classes a semester, if that,” Villareza said during an interview held over Zoom.

According to Villareza, cuts to the Phillippine studies department come at the worst time possible. Seeing the recent surge in Asian American violence in the Bay Area, Villareza said that classes which teach perspective and understanding about Asian cultures are needed more than ever.

“Several of the last attacks have actu‐ ally been on Filipinos in San Francisco … what we offer as a department is a space for people to grow their understanding of these communities, but also strengthen their resolve of themselves if they are Fil‐ ipino,” said Villareza. “We’re not just an academic department; our faculty, myself and the two other part-timers, we’re en‐ gaged with the community.”

District 9 Supervisor Hilary Ronen,

Roughly 200 CCSF faculty and students rally outside of San Francisco City Hall on March 12, 2021, decrying recently approved cuts of hundreds of faculty. (Photo by Garrett Leahy/The Guardsman)

who serves the Mission District and Bernal Heights, spoke dur‐ ing a press conference the morn‐ ing before the rally, affirming her solidarity with City College, and praising the institution as a key‐ stone in economic mobility for lower-income San Franciscans, one that is crucial to the city’s post-COVID recovery.

“It is not okay, at the time we need city College the most to lay off faculty … [we] cannot let this stand,” Ronen said. “I am com‐ mitted from the Board of Super‐ visors to work hand in hand with you to make sure that we protect all of the faculty and students at City College.”

She added: “Not only be‐ cause it's the right thing to do,

but because … if we don’t have a strong City College, then we won’t have what we need to in order to come out of this pan‐ demic and rebuild.”

Ronen was unavailable for comment, but her legislative aide, Paul Monge, who works with Ronen on educational pol‐ icy issues, said in a phone inter‐ view that Ronen has called for a hearing to consider revenuegenerating proposals for City College, and would involve both AFT2121 members as well as City College administration in coming before the board. The hearing is tentatively scheduled for April 9.

District 5 Supervisor Gor‐ don Mar, whose district includes

the Sunset District, said in a phone interview that he trying to expand funding to the Workforce Education and Recovery Fund, a pool of funds drawn from the city’s general budget to be used to bolster the college’s post-COVID economic recovery and will launch in this fall.

The fund was created by an ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors in October, and cur‐ rently has $500,000 allocated to it, with $100,000 earmarked as money which must be spent on workforce and professional devel‐ opment programs such as nursing and ESL. Mar originally in‐ tended the fund to have $20 mil‐ lion allocated to it, but targets were reduced to garner support from other supervisors. Now, Mar seeks to increase funding. “[The Workforce Education and Recovery Fund] creates a mechanism for the city to invest in City College,” Mar said, adding, “I’m hoping to get a much more significant funding allocation through the city’s bud‐ get process over the next three months.”

Mar said that he is uncertain how much larger he wants the allocation to be, but said that the new funding amount, should his proposal to increase succeed, would be effective in July at the start of San Francisco’s next fiscal year.

District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, whose district includes the Richmond District and who has worked for City College in the past as its director of media, also spoke during the March 12 press conference, saying that she is grateful for City College, espe‐ cially for its ESL program, which her mother, who immigrated Malaika Finkelstein, resident of AFT2121 — the union representing City College's faculty — speaks during a from Hong Kong to the US when rally outside of San Francisco City Hall on March 12, 2021, decrying recently approved cuts of hundreds of Chan was 13, took to learn

English. Chan’s partner, who is a firefighter for the San Francisco Fire Department, also attended City College for fire science and paramedic classes.

“City College is more than a junior college, it is a community college … my mom, when she came here, didn’t speak a word of English, she took ESL,” Chan said. “City College has meant so much to me and my family.”

Chan had not just praise for City College. Chan also said that she was disappointed with the years-long budgetary crisis that the school is still experiencing, criticizing the state’s funding model which calculates funding allocations based primarily on new enrollment of recent high school graduates and students who transfer to four-year univer‐ sities, rather than those who en‐ roll in programs aimed at acquir‐ ing technical skills, such as voca‐ tional training or language classes. Chan also said that the Board of Supervisors should ad‐ vocate for the college at the state level, specifically around reform‐ ing the state’s funding model for community colleges.

“While I really look to the Board of Trustees to guide City College through this hard time …

I’m hoping to see how we can ad‐ vocate for the City College of San Francisco on a state level. I intend to reach out to our state delegates … I do question the existing funding formula,” Chan said.

“How can we make sure, espe‐ cially during this pandemic, how can we channel support to those at community college who re‐ cently lost jobs who need to retool their skill sets to find new jobs in emerging industries? The current funding model may not work to fund that support.”

faculty. (Photo by Garrett Leahy/The Guardsman)

Staff Editors-in-Chief Eleni Balakrishnan Alexa Bautista News Editor John Taylor Wildfeuer

Culture Editor Hannah Asuncion Opinion Editor Tim Hill Sports Editor Kaiyo Funaki

Photo Editor Carmen Marin Copy Editors Tobin Jones Sadie Peckens Design Director Manon Cadenaule

Social Media Editor Annette Mullaney Staff Writers Colton Webster Ava Cohen Angela Greco Garrett Leahy

Shayna Gee Casey Michie Samya Brohmi Illustrators Daina Medveder Koziot Erin Blackwell

Serena Sacharoff Photographer Melvin Wong

Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 - Apr 6, 2021

Dulce Garcia and author Chanel Miller having a good time during their Zoom conversation hosted by City College's Women and Gender Studies department. (Photo by Ava Cohen/The Guardsman)

By Ava Cohen

avaocohen@gmail.com

Bay Area native, artist, and sexual assault survivor, Chanel Miller, discussed her memoir, Know My Name, and the impor‐ tance of community support for survivors at two book readings, one of which over 1,600 people attended on Zoom through San Francisco Public Library’s One City One Book program.

On March 16, Miller did an interview with community con‐ nector Robynn Takayama on Zoom, with over 1,600 people in attendance. In the interview, Miller spoke candidly about her path to fame, and the global out‐ pouring of support she received after sharing her story of sexual assault.

Although Miller’s first sen‐ tence in her memoir is about her being shy, she says that “you can activate shy people by creating the right environment.” When Miller took the stand to testify against her assailant, Brock Turner, his defense attorney prodded and poked her with doubtful questions, contributing to an unsafe environment where she couldn’t really come out of her shell.

But when Miller started to share her story with the public and do readings, she says she could feel the energy; the eager‐ ness to listen and support her, the love people were emanating for her.

Women, and particularly sex‐ ual assault survivors, “carry shame and guilt so readily, so con‐ stantly,” said Miller. That made it easier for those in the court‐ room to feed off her own self doubt and self hatred, she said.

But with this realization, she was able to recognize how impor‐ tant it was for her to give love to

herself. “When I wrote my book, I was literally building the ground beneath me that I needed to walk on,” said Miller.

Miller’s second Zoom inter‐ view with Dulce Garcia, an advo‐ cate for survivors of sexual vio‐ lence, was emotionally tumul‐ tuous in the best way possible, ranging from the “ugly” feelings of sexual assault to the power that comes with sharing your story.

Miller described her artistic ability as her secret weapon in the courtroom, one that the offi‐ cials and her assailant and his de‐ fendants didn’t know about, which helped her heal and share her story in solidarity with other sexual assault survivors. Remem‐ bering her art during her trials was seemingly cathartic, it was one of the “things that I forgot about me, and that was really painful,” said Miller.

In reference to those “ugly” feelings that come with sexual as‐ sault, Miller said she felt like she had been “completely stripped of agency.” She was angry, but she reflected that allowing herself to feel that rage was important.

While writing her book and reading the court transcripts, “There were times I lit my papers on fire,” Miller said.

Miller recounted a Chinese American woman who was tried before her, one whose second language was English.

She remembered how the woman had symbolically worn the shirt she was beaten in, and that she stumbled over her words, trying to recall the right ones.

The judge held his hand up in dismissal multiple times, urging her to wrap up her story.

“I think about her all the

time,” Miller said. “There are so many stories that never reach the surface.” As she recounted the woman’s story, Miller started to shed tears (and I won’t lie, so did I).

“The only reason that I am here, and that I have anything at all, is because people found me,” she said.

Miller stressed that this was a privilege not available to all sur‐ vivors, and that some people have to fight fiercely for “a chance to be humanized, for a chance to be heard.”

Miller expressed how grate‐ ful she was to be able to have the gift of language and to have grown up with a mother who en‐ couraged that so substantially. She reminisced on the copious amounts of support she received, instantly, in sharing her story. “All of how it’s received is up to the public,” Miller said. She repeatedly em‐ phasized how thankful she was for her community, for the chance for her story to be told.

Aside from her book, Miller also has an art exhibit on display at the Asian Art Museum, enti‐ tled “I was, I am, I will be.” The exhibit along with two other fe‐ male artists’ exhibits, can be pub‐ licly viewed on the Hyde Street Bay Area native, artist, and author Chanel Miller is San Francisco Public side of the building Library's author of the month, sharing her memoir, "Know My Name," for When asked by Takayama their One City One Book program. (Photo Courtesy of Mariah Tiffany) how it feels for her art to be on display alongside that of two other Asian American women, into the spotlight by myself, there are always people in the wings,” cheering Miller said she was never emerging her on and supporting her.

Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 - Apr 6, 2021

Illustration by Serena Sacharoff/The Guardsman

By Shayna Gee

sgee23@mail.ccsf.edu

This year’s Women’s History Month theme is “We Keep Each Other Safe.” The programming offers a series of 13 free remote events including multiple healthy relationship workshops with Project SURVIVE. The Women’s and Gender Studies department, Women’s Resource Center, Queer Resource Center, and Associated Students have also organized events.

Beginning February through April, the events embody what it means to keep each other safe. The series included a book event with author and artist Chanel Miller, an AntiImperialist Feminist Leadership event with combat veteran and activist Brittany DeBar‐ ros, a Workplace Rights Workshop with Tra‐ bajadores Unidos Workers United, and many more.

Project SURVIVE is City College’s sexual violence prevention and healthy relationship promotion program that has been operating for more than 25 years. They train and pay peer educators on multi-layered topics.

In a recent event on healthy relationships, peer educators Hold, Diamund White, and Michael Rosenthal facilitated a Zoom work‐ shop. The presenters jotted down community answers describing what healthy relationships look like surrounding a graphic of a heart with the text “Healthy Relationships'' in the center.

The presenters also role-played a date sce‐ nario between two people who had differing power dynamics. The moderator took time to debrief the role-play, asking the presenters how they felt playing their character roles and addressing autonomy and accountability.

Overall, the scenario taught what a healthy interaction includes.

Part of Project SURVIVE’s philoso‐ phy states that, “We can learn and share strategies to keep ourselves and each other safer, but rape is never a victim’s fault.”

After the roleplay scenario, presenters and the audience brainstormed risk reduc‐ tion strategies that can be used before and during a date. Project SURVIVE provided many resources for the audience including a healthy relationship handbook and a handout titled “Protect Yourself and Your Friends.” In addition, they have a club that meets every Monday where students can drop in, build community, and share space.

In a White House brief on March 17, the House of Representatives passed the expired reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a law that protects domestic abuse and sexual vio‐ lence victims, with a bipartisan vote of 244-172. The reauthorization of VAWA can aid funding for campus programs such as Project SURVIVE. Project SURVIVE’s commitment to social justice is united to Women’s History Month, which celebrates all women, in which many historical as well as current movements have been led by women of color.

Women’s History Month program‐ ming kicked off with an event honoring Marsha P. Johnson. Johnson was a promi‐ nent figure of the 1969 Stonewall riot which birthed the Gay Liberation Front against police and state repression. John‐ son’s activism and radical love for trans liberation and justice for people of color revolutionized the movement for the LGBTQ+ community.

The #MeToo movement was created

by Tarana Burke, a Black woman in 2006 who wanted to empower marginalized women to reveal the magnitude of sexual harassment and assult. Although the movement has been popularized by white women and has since changed meanings, Burke’s Myspace post opened dialogue for sexual assault survivors around the world.

Labor leader, civil rights activists, and co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) union, Dolores Huerta, organized for workers’ contracts while directing the first national boycott, the 1965 Delano grape strike.

Huerta attended the University of Pa‐ cific’s San Joaquin Delta College, where she received an associate degree. Through the Dolores Huerta Foundation, Huerta continues to be a defining leader for immi‐ grants, workers, and the womens’ rights movement. Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi are radical Black orga‐ nizers who created #BlackLivesMatter.

The project started in 2013 after Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman was set free. Their project now has a global network that centers women, queer and trans people in leadership.

These women and their contributions have laid forth the continual strategic or‐ ganizing we see today. Importantly, women around the world are leading the workforce as frontline workers during the pandemic. This March 2021 marks one year since San Francisco and the nation went into shelter-in-place.

The once invisible narrative of ‘essen‐ tial workers’ has brought to light how im‐ portant food, agriculture, health care, jan‐ itorial, and many more essential service

workers are to maintaining our everyday operations and care.

According to the national report from the Center of Economic and Policy Re‐ search, from 2014 to 2018, Women make up approximately 64% of frontline work‐ ers, despite making up half of all workers.

In other reports including the Economic Policy Institute, this percent increased after 2018.

According to the Economic Policy In‐ stitute, women make up approxiately 76% of essential healthcare workers. The Mer‐ cury News reported a key finding from the National Nurses United, “A third of regis‐ tered nurses who have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. are Filipino, despite Filipino nurses only making up 4% of the nursing population nationwide.”

In addition, when examining intersect‐ ing identities, “Immigrants are overrepre‐ sented in Building Cleaning Services and in many frontline occupations…about one-in-six frontline workers, 17.3% are im‐ migrants,” the report said.

Many people are still home, enduring new challenges with heightened social and political uprisings, mostly through digital screens. Women, particularly immigrant women of color have always been and con‐ tinue working on the frontlines of this pan‐ demic. From cashiers to health care to so‐ cial service workers, what does protection look like for women and marginalized communities and how can we keep each other safe?

For more information and the list of full events on Women’s History Month, visit tinyurl.com/WHMccsf.

Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 - Apr 6, 2021

North Beach has lost a major icon in Lawrence Ferlinghetti

By Andy Damián-Correa acorrea@theguardsman.com

Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti standing in front of his landmark store, City Lights Books, in San Francisco's North Beach district. (Photo courtesy of City Lights Books/Stacey Lewis)

By Angela Greco

a_greco511@yahoo.com

The impromptu evening gathering at Jack Ker‐ ouac Alley felt evocative of the fabled Beat events of yore: strangers, friends, and fellow poets congre‐ gated for readings, writings, conversation, and toasts.

This particular occasion was in remembrance of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet, artist, founder, and owner of City Lights Booksellers and Publishing. On Feb. 22, he passed away at 101 years old; an age equally impressive as his legacy in the city.

Upon opening his landmark City Lights Book‐ store in North Beach in 1953, he headed a literary movement along with other names like Neal Cassidy, Allen Ginsberg, and Herbert Huncke. Because of his active presence, the literary community and the world of arts and activism will forever be changed.

Ferlinghetti’s CV was legendary. Aside from opening the country’s first paperback bookstore, he won numerous literary awards and was once named Poet Laureate of San Francisco. He wrote more than 30 books of poetry, eight plays, and three novels, including his latest, Little Boy, which was released on his 100th birthday. The street formerly known as Price Row was renamed Via Ferlinghetti in 1994, and the City of San Francisco declared his birthday an official holiday in 2019.

While recognized internationally, he is locally known as one of the first to stir a “literary renais‐ sance” into the streets of the city while breathing life into many writers’ publishing careers. He was fa‐ mously the first to publish Allen Ginsberg’s book, Howl and Other Poems, a provocative representa‐ tion of an experimental lifestyle.

Like Ginsberg’s novel, City Lights represents an experience. It represents Ferlinghetti’s idea of com‐ munity. Whether growing up in the city or relocat‐ ing, the period of beat poetry was a time represen‐ tative of change, of a non-traditional lifestyle, exper‐ imentation, alternate routes to communicate a polit‐ ical viewpoint. City Lights was a safe space to ex‐ press those beliefs.

Having Ferlinghetti in the San Francisco com‐ munity was unique. He used his voice to help keep the city humble. He believed in artists, small corner-

store owners, mom and pop restaurant owners.

Director of Publicity and Marketing Stacey Lewis is grateful to have such a rewarding career with the book‐ store. “That’s what’s so cool about City Lights - just its place in the larger scheme of American culture. And it’s really significant, whether it be literary, politically, socially.”

She explained how Ferlinghetti wanted the store to represent a “literary meeting place.” There were fliers if someone was looking for a ride, for a room, an apartment, for help with something. People used to receive their mail there.

She added that “it was building community. Some‐ times you don’t talk about it, you do it. Actions speak louder than words.”

Being that North Beach has always been a popular tourist destination, it is no surprise that the bookstore, like so many other small businesses, has taken a hit during the pandemic. Yet, the underlying idea behind Ferlinghetti’s business model was built on a foundation of community and local support. As Lewis reminds me, “now more than ever we need the support of other people and other businesses.”

The bookstore has continued to serve as a safe place for those mourning the loss of Ferlinghetti, even as the ongoing pandemic has forced it to institute new measures to ensure the safety of its customers and staff. The adja‐ cent Vesuvio Cafe, the historic Beat Generation watering hole, has partnered with Bulgara’s Rotisserie & Grill, making it easy for guests to stop into the bookstore before enjoying a drink and bite of food at a table in Jack Ker‐ ouac Alley.

I myself still vividly remember the first time I stepped into City Lights. There was a remarkably special feeling of being in the historical presence of so many others before me. Upstairs, I lost time admiring the shelves of Beatnik poets. I read the literary quotes underfoot in the adjacent alley before stopping into Vesuvio; both added bonuses to visiting the bookstore on Columbus Avenue.

Ferlinghetti was only an imaginary presence to me then, as he will continue to be nowadays as a San Fran‐ cisco legend. Yet, his voice was very much alive to me on the pages of his poetry.

Like the bookstore he left behind, his work will un‐ doubtedly continue to serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration for future generations.

City Lights is open every day from noon to 8 p.m.

The country has been given a fresh breath of hope, and Latinos who had been attacked from our na‐ tion's highest office today have recovered the Ameri‐ can dream.

The world watched 46th President of the United States Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inaugural ad‐ dress, where Latino pride was acknowledged, thus sending a clear message of unity and diversity at the Capitol, two weeks after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.

As a diverse country, where artists like Jennifer Lopez repeated a message to the country: "One na‐ tion, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Through this message, we see reflected values that engage us as a nation, so we inspire the world to under‐ stand how differentopinions and thoughts arepartof democracy.

America has always been excellent; however, we have to be precise. The Hispanic community demands com‐ prehensive immigration re‐ form that the two parties have been divided on for decades, resulting in little progress. None of them have done enough.

All Latinos have seen past administrations such as the George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and the cruelest Donald Trump administration, make immigration reform just a talking point to launch their platforms and seek the Latino vote. Without mak‐ ing substantial contributions to solve this issue, many Latinos are now left in dire circumstances.

Biden has to deliver.

There's no more time to waste. We've waited for decades.

His executive actions on the first day such as revising immigration enforcement policies, coordinating a gov‐ ernment-wide COVID-19 response, and rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change in his office reflect the significant challenges this new administration will have.

During a global pan‐ demic, which puts the US at the center of the crisis, Biden has inherited a di‐ vided and racist country with an economy on the brink of collapse.

There are so many vital issues, ranging from health care, police brutality, guar‐ anteed paid sick leave, and climate change, to gun vio‐ lence, immigration, fair pay, reproductive justice, educa‐ tion, student debt, voting rights, and the 2020 census.

The list goes on.

Biden faces one of the most significant challenges of his political career and his term in office will define present and future generations.

The future is uncer‐ tain; we know that COVID19 continues to kill many Americans and that the vac‐ cine has not yet reached ev‐ eryone. Biden, with his pas‐ sionate belief in unity, will represent and act as leader of our nation; he will be president for all.

This election, the Latino power sent a clear message: people of color are this coun‐ try's future, and both parties will need the Latino vote to win or keep power in the future.

Isabel Guzman assumed office as the 27th Administrator of the Small Business Administration on March 17, 2021. (Photo courtesy of US Small Business Administration, Public domain/ Wikimedia Commons)

Xavier Becerra speaking to the California Democratic Party State Convention in 2019. (Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)

Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 - Apr 6, 2021

Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 - Apr 6, 2021

Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 - Apr 6, 2021

By Loretta Bonifacio datubonifacio@gmail.com

The beginning of spring marks a welcome transition, albeit a delayed one for City College’s women’s basket‐ ball team. The Lady Rams officially returned to Ocean Campus during the first week of February, eager to strengthen their bodies and minds.

Prior to February, the team hadn’t formally stepped onto the court in nearly a year. For the 2019-20 season, the team’s 21-8 record showed prom‐ ise. A consistently impressive run cul‐ minated on March 7 in the third round of the California Community College Athletic Association(CCCAA) State Playoffs after a 77-63 loss to the Diablo Valley College Vikings. On March 17, San Francisco enforced a strict lockdown to combat COVID19.

But with the guidance of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), the team is back to conditioning three times a week. The campus return is divided into three phases: working out outside, returning to the gym, and playing scrimmages.

The team is currently in phase two.

Women’s basketball head coach Derek Lau detailed the precision of this mo‐ ment. “Athletes and coaches are tested once a week. After negative tests are returned, we’re all 12 feet apart in a pod,” Lau said. Time in the gym is capped at 90 minutes, leaving 30 min‐ utes in between uses for deep sanita‐ tion of the facilities.

“A year is a long time for an ath‐ lete,” Lau said. “It’ll take them four or five months to get their senses back.”

Lau aims to have two scrimmage games before the end of the semester

in May, should SFDPH approve.

The long-term goal is to spend the summer in the gym to prepare for the fall 2021-22 season, which is guaranteed to be competitive around the Coast Conference. Ten players are returning to train for the scrimmages. As of now, it’s too early in the year to tell which re‐ cruits will tentatively join the program.

The time spent apart for the last year was used wisely. Lau and his staff exhausted all options for team-building activities, from study halls to bingo nights. “Doing things together was important be‐ cause not meeting in person was devastating to the team,” Lau said.

“Their mental health was affected, but they knew how to support each other.”

“We’ve learned a lot about what they can do and what they’re capable of,” Lau added. “They’re stronger than ever.” Because all team workouts and meetings have been over Zoom and not in the gym, the team inched towards a slow, steady rebuild. “The goal is to get stronger and reach a level where they’re used to perform‐ ing,” Lau said.

Coach Lau’s holistic approach to strength and conditioning pays considerable attention to perfect‐ ing shooting form and footwork, along with strengthening arm and leg muscles. Over 75% of the team has lost muscle mass and is easing back into weight lifting.

Tactfully relearning the fundamentals is crucial to injury prevention. ACL tears are preva‐ lent among female athletes and are

challenging to overcome. “During agility drills, I’m constantly telling them to slow it down,” Lau said.

“But some of them will push it.”

The love of the game and the desire to compete motivates play‐ ers to train at a high level; ask for‐ ward Becca Tasi and power for‐ ward Talo’au’au Li-Uperesa. LiUperesa said that the team’s chemistry was the same upon re‐ turning and that “it just took a couple of days for people to break the ice with the freshmen.”

“We also had to push each other to want to come and adjust to how things are now,” LiUperesa said. “Now we’re con‐ stantly encouraging and pushing each other throughout drills.”

For Li-Uperesa, training is a restorative practice. “Basketball and being around my team is my way of taking care of my mental health because it’s my break and time away from everything.”

The lack of structure posed during the “pandemic challenged us all as individuals and it either broke you or made you push harder to stay focused on your goal,” Tasi said.

Trust and communication have gone a long way on and off the court. “We trust each other and don’t hesitate to open up to one another when we need advice or just to talk to someone,” Tasi said.

Tasi contemplates what a full season will look like. Like her other teammates, she thrives on familial support. But because fans may not be allowed in the gym yet, games will be radically different.

CCSF's Women's Basketball team warming up again in the gym, readying for a short 2021 season. (Photo courtesy of Derek Lau/ CCSF Women's Basketball)

Still, Tasi understands there’s so much to look forward to.

“This is my last year at City. This is my chance to put my whole heart into it. Basketball was almost taken away from me and now that I have it back, I’m giving 120% every time.”

CCSF Women's Basketball guard Jayden Benitez, facing off against Los Posita's forward Melanie Heigold, as they defend their home court during the 2019-20 season. (Photo courtesy of Derek Lau/CCSF Women's Basketball)

Vol. 171, Issue 5 | Mar 24 - Apr 6, 2021

CCSF Women's Water Polo facing off Sacrament during their 2019 season. (Photo courtesy of Eric Sun)

By Kaiyo Funaki

kaiyo.funaki@gmail.com

CCSF Men's Soccer Lionel Rodriguez intercepting the ball during the 2019 season.

(Photo courtesy of Eric Sun)

Three of City College’s teams are finally able to compete against other colleges after months of speculation and uncertainty over the progression of the Spring I season.

The men’s and women’s soccer team and women’s water polo team have each cobbled together a schedule just one month before the conclusion of the early spring session. This de‐ velopment came as a minor surprise to women’s soccer head coach Jeff Wilson, who did not an‐ ticipate a schedule to materialize in time.

“There had been talks of something hap‐ pening for a while, but nothing had really come about,” he said. “When we got approved… it just came down to each individual school and whether they had protocols in place.”

City College student-athletes have been practicing since February in preparation for competitions, but with colleges from other counties struggling to come to a common ground with their respective local health de‐ partments, simply finding opponents to play against became a difficult task.

“The vast majority of the teams in our con‐ ference opted out.” men’s soccer head coach Adam Lucarelli said. “Our Spring I season ends April 17… so it was quite a challenge to put things together.”

As it stands, the men’s soccer team will play three games, with their first game at Las Positas College.

Then, they will play back-to-back home games against Cabrillo and Las Positas to finish their spring campaign.

The women’s soccer team has a two-game set with Las Positas and a home game against Cabrillo, as well as a road game at West Valley College. Both the men’s and women’s soccer teams competed in their only scrimmage of the season last week at Cabrillo.

The women’s water polo team will have a single intersquad scrimmage to prepare, before traveling to Cabrillo for their first game. They will also have a home game against West Valley

and an away game at Las Positas.

Because this abbreviated season has zero playoff ramifications, coaches will utilize this opportunity to “build momentum and get ready for fall,” Wilson said. “I view it as an extended training camp.”

And though all three coaches interviewed reiterated the importance of working towards the future, they also mentioned how vital it was to restore a semblance of order and structure for their players right now.

“I think for my guys, they’re passionate about their sport, and to not be able to play it for over a year, it’s kind of devastating for their psyche, their mental well-being, their physical well-being. Being a college athlete… it's a large part of their identity,” Lucarelli said.

Women’s water polo head coach Phong Pham shared a similar perspective as his col‐ league. “This is a chance for team members to get back some normalcy in their lives, and it gives us something to work toward, having a goal to compete for,” he said.

These games will have a little extra mean‐ ing for some student-athletes, though, as it might be the last time they will ever play for City College.

Fernanda Ramirez, a sophomore on the women’s soccer team, is transferring after this semester and was convinced that she would never step foot onto the pitch as a Ram ever again. “I thought that I was not going to be able to play my last year at City College,” she said.

Other student-athletes, like Samantha McEvoy of the water polo team, are waiving their year of eligibility to return next semester.

However, McEvoy did not take for granted the opportunity to compete alongside their teammates. “This has been a really hard year.

A lot of us have struggled and had a diffi‐ cult time coping,” they said. “This is such a great and healthy outlet, as we really need that support that we have for each other.”