The Guardsman, Vol. 171, Issue 1 City College of San Francisco by The Guardsman

RIVERA MURAL CONSERVATION

WARRIORS’ NEW HOST

SPORTS RETURN

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ESL Department Works to Increase Program Enrollment Amidst Steep Budget Cuts By Seamus Geoghegan geogheganspg@gmail.com Collaborator to The Guardsman

After budget cuts were announced in the Spring 2020 semester, the English as a Second Language (ESL) department continues to fight for increased funding and awareness of their program at City College. Chair of the ESL Department Gregory Keech has been working with the College for 30 years, and during that time hasn’t seen cuts such as the ones non-credit ESL classes have experienced. A 20 percent cut from the Spring 2020 semester resulted in programs disappearing and teachers losing jobs. “It hit the program very hard, and it hit people’s livelihoods very hard,” Keech said. “For many of our newer and wonderful instructors, they’re not working here now.” The Board of Trustees stated during their November board meeting that cuts were the result of under-enrolled programs, but Keech said he never got an explanation, “I mean, I have some guesses but I don’t think I ever really got an explanation other than that other programs are more important because they fit into the [California state] funding formula better.” While under-enrollment may be a factor, Keech argues that the college could do better to get the word out about the ESL program. “We’ve been saying that there are over 100,000 people in San Francisco that describe

themselves as limited English proficiency, and we’ve got 8,000 of them,” Keech said. COVID-19 also had a noticeable impact on registration. Non-credit ESL has lost 50 percent of its enrollment over the course of the pandemic, which Keech credited partly to lack of outreach. “We made an effort to circle back and contact students that had been enrolled in Spring-20 and we weren’t seeing them on the class list for Fall-20,” Keech said. “And many said, ‘Are you open? You mean you’re open?’” City College is making some steps to reach out to that demographic. “Chancellor Vurdien as part of his response came to an ESL town hall in the beginning of the semester and he said [he would] set aside some funding for [ESL] to have these faculty advisors and … some money for radio spots,” Keech said. “In the fall we ran radio advertisements in Spanish and Chinese. So that’s the right direction.” Keech also talked about ESL’s move to expand their social media presence, starting with Facebook. The City College ESL department Facebook page highlights spots where in-person registration is available, along with other information for people interested in the program. “One of the things that we find is that we can create community online,” Keech says. “It’s a different way of learning, but we have found that we can build community in the remote environment.” Illustration by Erin Blackwell/The Guardsman. Instagram: @blackwelldrawingfool

Pandemic Adds Ripples to Turbulent Transfer Tides By Deena Sabra deenasabra@gmail.com Collaborator to The Guardsman

The number of community college students transferring to four-year universities continues to decline, despite recent data that shows a slight increase during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. The decline has been experienced locally at City College and has been declining steadily in the last five years, according to City College Banner and National Student Clearinghouse. The data shows that there were 2,138 transfers in the 2014 – 15 school year, declining to 1,888 in the 2015 – 16 school year, and down again to 1,681 during 2016 – 17. The numbers Illustration Serena Sacharoff/The Guardsman

stayed approximately the same, in 2017 – 18 with 1,606, but dropped in the 2018 – 19 school year to 1,595. Despite their best intentions, many of California’s two million community college students aren’t able to take or pass enough courses to make headway. Roughly 900,000 students fell into this category between 2010 and 2015. However, according to the Research and Planning Group, a surprising number of California’s community college students, about 300,000 during this period, had met the requirements for transfer or were just a course away from doing so and still didn’t end up transferring. The RP Group surveyed 800 California community college

students and interviewed others in depth to understand why some students managed to transfer and others didn’t. Some of the reasons cited for this were lack of money and knowledge of available financial aid, balancing family with school schedules, meeting requirements and following procedure, the complicated transfer process itself, and a lack of support from a caring adult or support network. Remedial classes and math anxiety were additional transfer setbacks noted by the Hechinger Report. Nationally, there has also been a general drop in transfer rates from two-year community colleges to four-year universities, particularly in the last 10 years. According to Pandemic continues on page 2

2 | NEWS

Pandemic continued from page 1 the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, only 13% of the students who start at community college manage to get a bachelor’s degree six years later. One part of the problem is that only 30% of community college students succeed in transferring to a four-year institution. One issue causing the logjam is the red tape involved in transferring. Lost college credits continue to derail hundreds of thousands of transfer students nationally, especially for the disproportionately low-income, first generation, and racial and ethnic minority students who begin their education at community colleges. Students who transfer lose 43% of the credits they’ve earned, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Even when the credits are accepted, they don’t often count towards a major. In California, steps are being taken that help community college students avoid momentum-killing remedial courses by taking into account other measures of academic readiness. This could increase the number of students qualified to transfer to four-year universities by as much as 50%, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. California has begun leveraging its Cal Grants financial aid program to pressure private colleges to take community college credits in the same way public institutions do. In August, San Francisco State University (SFSU) and City College announced a new partnership to foster transfer pathways by leveraging existing California State University policies regarding lower-division transfers that expand transfer opportunities to include freshman and sophomore students from the California Community College system. This will allow community college students to transfer to SFSU earlier in their educational careers, which is shown to greatly increase educational outcomes. City College alumnus Amanda Dial, has just successfully transferred to a four-year university. Dial has attended City College for the last three years having transferred colleges several times before, once from the University of San Francisco (USF), where she spent a year and a half with the goal of pursuing a nursing career, and then from Laney College. Although Dial says she did not experience many obstacles at City College, her experience with the transfer process was not without its issues. While taking a career development class, Dial spoke with a counseling professor who discovered she had more credits than she had reported. While at USF, Dial had taken Biology and Science classes towards her nursing goal. However, after changing her major to English, she felt these credits weren’t necessary to report because they were not relevant to her newly chosen major. She also did not want her past to ruin her current 4.0 grade point average (GPA). Her counselor helped Dial realize that, not only were these credits not going to negatively affect her GPA because colleges would be looking at her most recent grades, but that with those previously unreported credits, she was only a semester away from having the units she needed for transfer. Without those unreported credits, she could have potentially spent several more semesters and more money before transferring, not to mention potentially being in trouble for not reporting those courses. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused confusion and created unique new obstacles for those looking to transfer due to mandated stay-at-home orders, newly implemented remote learning and closed campuses. In Dial’s case, Spring 2020 was supposed to be her last semester at City College and she had planned to transfer to San Francisco State University in the Fall. Because of COVID-19 and shutdowns, “... I lost a bit of momentum,” Dial said. She said she had less motivation from the lack of structure and inertia this year has brought, and that the lack of physical classes didn’t not help. “It did make it a bit more difficult.” Dial also changed her destination plans due to COVID19. Instead of transferring to San Francisco State University, she decided to go to City College. Though COVID-19 did delay her by a semester, Dial successfully completed her transfer requirements the following Fall semester and will begin Spring 2021 at California State University Long Beach.

Staff Co-Editors-in-Chief Eleni Balakrishnan Alexa Bautista News Editor JohnTaylor Wildfeuer

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

Vol. 171, Issue 1 | Jan. 26 - Feb. 9, 2021

Amid Budget Austerity, City College Hires New Director of Media

Illustration by Daina Medveder Koziot/The Guardsman. Instagram: @dmkoziot

By Carmen Marin

and diversity consulting, ahead of the game back in 2013. Since then, she’s worked in analytics and digital coaching for Google, In November, City College integrated better strategies with hired Bay Area local, long-time technology and customer service social justice advocate, and for the Diocese of San Jose, and public relations expert Rosie advocated for Hispanic businesses Zepeda as the new Director in the Bay Area. of Media, Governmental In her new position, Zepeda is Relations, and Marketing, filling expected to create, manage, and a previously outsourced and implement strategies to strengthen over-budgeted position. relations with the community, local “Rosie brings more than 20 businesses, media, and of course years of experience in marketing, government stakeholders. She will communications, and public be the main liaison with the city, relations to CCSF, including state, and federal offices, and will most recently for the Yosemite represent City College in related Community College District,” meetings and report back with new wrote Interim Chancellor Rajen policies and changes. This includes Vurdien in the Nov. 9 weekly what regulations City College will email blast. have to adhere to with the ongoing Zepeda was born in San Jose to COVID-19 pandemic. working-class parents. In 2016 she Zepeda’s approved salary range was included on a list of Women is $109,709.54 to $186,158.86. of Influence by the Silicon Valley This includes the costs of liaising Business Journal, and ran in 2018 with the government, and for San Jose City Council. according to the Board of Trustees Once known as “Rosie the is in the midrange of the average Closer,” she founded the company for a position such as this in Compelling Conversations to the Bay Area. help businesses and individuals This is about half of what was with communication training allocated to the previous director, mscarmina@gmail.com Collaborator to The Guardsman

Photo Editor Emily Trinh

Social Media Editor Annette Mullaney

Design Director Chiara Di Martino

Copy Editors Tobin Jones Sadie Peckens Tim Hill

Online Editor Fran Smith

Rachel Howard, who was an outside contractor of BergDavis Public Affairs. As seen in the minutes from the Board of Trustees on Nov. 14, 2019, they approved a continuation of the contract with BergDavis that would have maximum payments of “$240,000 per fiscal year through the end of this agreement on June 30, 2021.” With continual public discourse about the ballooning budgets of City College’s administration staff alongside departmental budget cuts for the faculty and students, this could possibly be one of the courses of action that the Board of Trustees is using to fix their finances. Zepeda’s work history includes a stint at Modesto Junior College, where she helped to consult on budget and staffing issues. While she’s been unavailable for comments, she was hired at the tail end of the Fall 2020 semester and being the liaison between the government and the school when it comes to new COVID-19 procedures, Zepeda has her work cut out for her.

Illustrators Manon Cadenaule Serena Sacharoff Erin Blackwell Daina Medveder Koziot

Staff Writers Colton Webster Ava Cohen Angela Greco Erin Duncan Photographers Melvin Wong Kevin Kelleher

NEWS | 3

Vol. 171, Issue 1 | Jan. 26 - Feb. 9, 2021

in memoriam:

BRIEF

Dr Henry Augustine and Lyudmila Karapetyan By JohnTaylor Wildfeuer

three daughters, eight grandchildren, six great grandchildren, his brother and sister and his colleague, Dr. Kim A. WiseGastinel, along with countless nieces, nephews, cousins, and At the close of a universally heart-rending year, City extended family. College has lost two prominent and beloved faculty members. Dr. Augustine also leaves behind a decades long legacy of Dr. Henry Augustine, 82, and Lyudmila Karapetyan, 75, each community advocacy and scores of former students whose in their own way, knit themselves tightly into the City College minds he helped to mold. community, now threadbare and grieving. A virtual celebration of life was held for Dr. Henry Augustine on Jan. 8 on Facebook Live. jt.wildfeuer@gmail.com

DR. HENRY AUGUSTINE

LYUDMILA KARAPETYAN

Dr. Augustine, who served as dean of both the Evans and Southeast Campuses and spent a 34-year career dedicated to the City College community, died on Dec. 29. Dr. Henry Augustine has been a part of the City College community since his initial employment at the Mission Community College Center and Southeast Campus in 1977. Since that time he was incredibly active in the community, serving for several years as Special Assistant to the Chancellor and spearheading the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Transfer Program, the Summer Bridge Program, the Peer Mentoring Program, and the African American Retention Program, now the African American Scholastic Programs (AASP).

City College and Lowell High School instructor Lyudmila Karapetyan, a beloved mathematics instructor of over 30 years, died on Dec. 27. A refugee of formerly Soviet Azerbaijan, Karapetyan escaped the ripple effects of the crumbling USSR first to Moscow, and then to the United States. Within a year, while sharing a home with her older sister and niece, Karapetyan had learned English and been hired as an Instructor for City College. From that day until her last, and throughout the past five years during which she battled Stage IV cancer, she remained a committed Instructor at both City College and Lowell High School.

Dr. Henry Augustine Photo Courtesy of Kim Wise

Lyudmila Karapetyan Photo Courtesy of Lowell High School

The Scholastic Programs offer resources to underrepresented students, for whom he was passionate in his commitments, to aid them in acquiring a high school diploma and an Associates degree, transferring to universities, finding career opportunities, and developing an abiding love of lifelong learning. “Doc will be greatly missed but his legacy lives on through, not only his family, but also through thousands of lives he impacted while serving at CCSF,” reads his biography, written with contributions from family members and colleagues. City College Instructor in the African American department Studies Kim Wise, who was counseled by Dr. Augustine as a City College Student and has worked with him through the intervening years recalls that, “he had an 800- line in his home where if students needed to get in touch with him away from the city they would call directly to him.”“His legacy is more than just what he started at the college,” says Wise, “It has impacted the Bay Area drastically.” He is survived by his

Lowell High School Principal, Dacotah Swett, says Karapetyan was known for her “good humor, patience and acceptance of difficult challenges,” and described her as a, “selfless teacher who continued to show her caring and commitment to her students both at Lowell and at City College.” Karapetyan will be missed by her students, and by those with whom she worked. "Lyudmila was a long-time member of our family,” says Mathematics department Chair Katia Fuchs, “and always a pleasure to work with." Lyudmila Karapetyan is survived by her sisters, a nephew, two nieces, and a grand niece who her family says “was in essence her deeply loved granddaughter.” A funeral was held for Lyudmila Karapetyan on Jan. 12 at Skyline Memorial Park in Daly City.

Faculty Advisor Juan Gonzales

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Learning Assistance Center Takes Student Support Online By Vince Bazarini vbazarin@mail.ccsf.edu Collaborator to The Guardsman

The Learning Assistance Department has helped students reach their goals for many years now, and with campus closed is reworking its services for remote learning. From their physical location in Ocean Campus’s Rosenberg library, the department provides tutoring, a computer lab, college success courses, and support services. Students who take advantage of their services statistically “have a higher course completion and success rate,” according to their webpage. Now that campus is closed, the Learning Assistance tutoring services have migrated to the Department’s Canvas page. The page aims to keep tutoring information in a centralized location, making the services more accessible to students. Sessions with City College tutors are scheduled for every day of the week, organized on an easy-toaccess Google Calendar. Through the Canvas page students can access online tutoring services such as NetTutor, STAR-CA, and Pisces, which cover for gaps in City College tutor availability. Moreover the Canvas page offers tutoring for subjects not covered by City College tutors. Despite having different names, these online platforms are designed by the same parent company which in which students will find similar. “Once a student is comfortable in this platform they’ll be comfortable working in NetTutor and they’ll be comfortable working in STAR-CA,” said Equity Tutorial Services Coordinator Dawn Mokuau. “It’s the same feel.” Remote tutoring had been part of the department’s plan for a while, and when the pandemic hit, it was implemented immediately. “We really had to act quickly,” said department Chair Elaine Avrus. “What you see is an imperfect system that we’ve learned so many things from.” Before the pandemic, online students couldn’t access any tutoring from Learning Assistance, and many in-person students requested online tutoring as well. Though the Learning Assistance Center will reopen eventually, online tutoring is “something that’s going to continue,” Avrus said. Going into the Spring semester, remote tutoring looks to improve, as the department now has a staff of tutors in place to build off. “We’ll already have their schedules that first week of the semester,” Avrus said. The department is guided by a goal of allowing all City College students to succeed equally. Their services have changed over time to get closer to this goal, guided by data shared with the Office of Research & Planning. Another goal is to change students’ perceptions of academic support. “Part of being a successful student is getting help along the way,” Avrus said. “It’s a learned behavior that helps us succeed.” “Learning is about making connections, learning is about understanding and having dialogue and engaging and experience … tutoring and learning assistance is just part of that,” Avrus said. Visit the Learning Assistance Department’s webpage for more information on their services.

Mailing Address 50 Frida Kahlo Way, Box V-67 San Francisco, CA 94112 Bungalow 615

4 | CULTURE

Vol. 171, Issue 1 | Jan. 26 - Feb. 9, 2021

Diego Rivera Mural Awaits its New Home

Photo Courtesy of the Dec. 11, 2017 SFMOMA Newsletter

By River Bradley

Schroer said. They used a high resolution camera with two different lenses, a 50mm lens to capture the detail, and a 24mm Lifelike images of Diego lens to capture the geometry of Rivera’s “Pan American Unity” the surface. mural will be freely accessible The mural is a fresco, which thanks to a National Endowment means it was painted on wet plaster, for the Humanities grant, as Maynez explained. The surface stated by Cultural Heritage of the plaster “actually has a lot Imaging Founder and Director, of texture that follows the design Carla Schroer. of the mural,” Schroer said. In Mural caretaker and City the summer of 2019, SFMOMA College alumnus Will Maynez said, gathered a conservation team “What we’re trying to do now is to assess the state of the mural leave a ... highly detailed record of in preparation for the move the state of the mural at 80 years and preservation. of age.” “The big surprise” was when Nov. 2020 marked 80 years CHI arrived in June 2020 to since the mural’s first public complete the photoimaging. “They showing. Cultural Heritage said, ‘Oh my God it’s so much Imaging (CHI), a non-profit brighter,’ because the conservators organization that develops digital cleaned the entire mural, revealing tools to preserve cultural artifacts, the vibrant colors underneath received a six-month, $47,000 years of dust and grime,” CARES Act grant to complete Maynez said. documentation of the mural before According to Schroer instead its temporary move to the San of photographing the edges and a Francisco Museum of Modern Art few other spots as planned, CHI (SFMOMA), according to Schroer. reimaged the entire artwork with Originally painted for a world the 50mm lens to capture the fair on Treasure Island in 1940 as revitalized artwork. the main attraction of the “Art in Part of the conservation work Action” exhibit, the 22-foot-high, was mapping “giornata lines.” 74-foot-long mural went into Giornata is an Italian word that storage until City College gave it means “one day’s work,” referring a permanent home in 1961. to the amount of painting that is Diego Rivera said about this done in a single day on a fresco, mural, “My mural will picture the Maynez said. “You can imagine it, fusion between the great past of the mural's made up like a jigsaw the Latin American lands, as it is puzzle, all these odd shaped pieces deeply rooted in the soil, and the that are dove-tailed together.” highly mechanical developments Stanford Digital Library of the United States.” Systems, a group within the In the second half of 2020, Stanford Libraries system, “will experts at CHI finished what they digitally house the mural finished started in 2015. The new grant data, and make it publicly accessifunded “additional imaging, digital ble through their Mirador viewer,” public access to the images, and Schroer said. Once complete, the integration with recently acquired work can be viewed in layers — conservation data,” Schroer said. from the surface to the plaster, To document the mural, including the giornata lines. CHI used a technique called SFMOMA planned the move photogrammetry to “create a for an anniversary celebration of 3D digital surface that replicates Rivera’s work in San Francisco surface shape and color” using for October 2020. However, the archival quality photographs, COVID-19 pandemic has pushed riverbradleyca@gmail.com Collaborator to The Guardsman

the museum’s plans to Spring 2021. University of Mexico’s (UNAM) graduate mechanical engineering department has done the majority of the engineering and analysis of the mural. They even built replica panels, as reported by Maynez. Maynez said the challenge of the move to SFMOMA is preserving the lobby wall in the Diego Rivera Theatre because it was “installed permanently without the understanding that it could last centuries, which would require a future move.” “Luckily, the team moving the mural is world-class, and is CCSF's best-case opportunity to implement the required move,” Maynez said. While the move to SFMOMA is delayed, but definitely still scheduled, in November 2020 City College ended its work with the original Design Build Team or Design Build Entity (DBE) hired to complete the mural's new home.

According to Rosie Zepeda, City College’s director of media, governmental relations, and marketing, SFMOMA will keep it until Fall of 2022, when it will move to the newly-built Performing Arts & Education Center. Board Trustee and Board Facilities Committee Chair, John Rizzo, explained the former DBE costs were higher than market rate, according to City College’s project management consultants. “We’re trying to have a synchronicity between when SFMOMA is contractually done with [the mural], and when we have a place to move it in so [it] doesn’t have to go to storage again,” Maynez said. The district established a construction budget with a cap of $81 million, and even with the industry standard of $1,400 per square foot, the board’s requirement of a 70,000-square-foot building puts the project over budget, according to Music Department

Chair Madeline Mueller. According to Zepeda, the college has to follow the MultiYear Budget and Enrollment Plan. City College is currently looking for another DBE, and even though they can’t pay market rate, Zepeda is confident the college will find one because construction companies have lost contracts during the pandemic. When asked what happens if the new theater isn’t finished in time, Zepeda said, “I don't deal with what ifs.” She said the mural is a “huge responsibility, and we want it to be here for another 100 years.” The images of the mural will be free to view, but not downloadable due to copyright and licensing restrictions, Schroer said. CHI has to have the images ready by the end of January, and Schroer is hoping they’ll be available to the public shortly thereafter.

Diego Rivera’s mural, Marriage of the Artistic Expression of the North and of the South on this Continent, located inside the Diego Rivera Theatre. (Photo by Natasha Dangond/The Guardsman)

Vol. 171, Issue 1 | Jan. 26 - Feb. 9, 2021

CULTURE | 5

City College Alumni Becomes New Host of the Warriors Pre/Postgame Live for NBC Sports Bay Area By Annette Mullaney

Hill talked to coaches at City College, striking up relationships between Guardsman writers and the teams. “It’s For City College alumnus and San Francisco native always good when you get a writer who has Bonta Hill, becoming the new host of the Warriors Pre/ a good comradery with the folks that he’s Postgame Live for NBC Sports Bay Area is “beyond a covering,” said Gonzales. dream come true.” That amiability has served him well The shows, which air before and after the network’s in his career. “He’s sincere. He’s the same exclusive broadcast of Warriors games, are Hill’s first Bonta on air that he is off air,” Johnson said major move into television. He will continue to host “The of his former cohost. Morning Roast with Bonta, Kate & Joe” on 95.7 The Game, “He connects with these players,” his latest in a series of increasingly prime time radio slots. Nahigian said. “They know that they can The appointment “shows you how respected he is in trust him.” this market,” said Matt Nahigian, program director at 95.7. While at City College, Hill also served as “This is a big deal - the fourth largest market, the Golden PA announcer for the basketball team, and State Warriors,” said Daryle “Guru” Johnson, Hill’s former covered high school sports for SanFranPreps cohost at 95.7. “There weren’t enough words for me to and the San Francisco Examiner. express how proud I was.” The hustle did not let up after transferring “I never envisioned doing the things I am,” Hill said. to San Francisco State. He interned at radio He’s always been a “sports geek,” known in high school for station KNBR, and co-hosted “Three Man always carrying the sport page, though he didn’t consider Weave” on San Francisco State University’s it for a career. KSFS Radio, his first foray into sports talk Sports were the constant through a difficult upbringing radio. Professor of Media Arts Jeff Jacoby that included foster care from ages 10 to 17. “Dad was in said Hill exhibited all qualities necessary for jail, Mom, she was dealing with drugs,” he said, adding success in this field: “Eagerness, enthusiasm, that his mother has been sober for 20 years. seriousness of purpose, leadership…those He first entered sports journalism at the age of 25, qualities define Bonta Hill.” quitting a stable job as a supervisor at UPS to study at “He always took critique graciously and City College. I would see that reflected in the show… by Four months into his first semester, Hill attended a the time they were done they were doing a community college journalism conference and won professional-level show,” Jacboy added. honorable mention for an on-the-spot game story, After graduation Hill worked at KNBR catching the eye of Journalism Department Chair Juan as a board operator while working myriad Gonzales. Gonzales offered Hill the sports editorship at side jobs to make ends meet. He checked The Guardsman. IDs at the Bubble Lounge, drove Uber, “I have no idea what I’m doing,” was his thought at the sold flowers, and even was a pallbearer at time, followed by, “sure, why not?” a mortuary, all while writing and reporting CCSF alumni Bonta Hill stands for a portrait at Oracle Park on Jan. “He blossomed,” said Gonzales of Hill’s tenure as editor. for the Chronicle, the Examiner, Bleacher 21, 2021. San Francisco, CA. Photo by Kevin Kelleher/Special to “He had a knack for writing.” As the semester progressed, Report, and Yardbarker. The Guardsman “with more writing, more assignments, he became better and “Never say no to an opportunity,” said better … We just kind of steered him in the right direction, Hill. “Be willing to sacrifice your social life.” gave him some training, and gave him opportunity. He took He added, “Get the byline no matter what, get the clips, but there wasn’t pretension … It was like talking to a friend.” it and worked hard.” stack ‘em up.” Within a few months, sportscaster Greg Papa called, “The Guardsman was a great platform for me to have a Hill was working on the KNBR Giants postgame show looking for a partner for his midday show on 95.7. In 2019, direction for what I wanted to do,” said Hill. “That paper when host Marty Lurie invited him to speak on air. “He was Papa left the station, and Hill joined Johnson and Matt really changed my life.” really fun to talk to,” Lurie said. “He really knew baseball Steinmetz for “Bonta, Steiny & Guru” a midday show that lasted through October 2020, when Bonta moved to his current gig at the morning show. “What really defines Bonta is his work ethic,” said Nahigian. “Not only is he speaking his mind, but he’s speaking from his knowledge of going to these games. He really does his homework and talks to a lot of people off the air.” “When they hire him, they know they are getting someone who will be ready when the red light goes on, and that’s why he’s advanced so quickly,” said Lurie. “Bonta’s a worker,” said Matt Steinmetz, adding “He loves it 24/7… [work] doesn’t really seem like it’s work for him.” Embracing the grind forms the core of Hill’s advice to anyone looking to break into sports journalism. “Do it for the passion, do it because you love it. The money will come if you grind and work hard,” he said. “There’s a lot of people I’ve seen quit and they were more naturally talented than me.” While he can point to plenty of sacrifices to get here, he admits that it often doesn’t feel like work now. “I get to do something I would every day with my boys, and I get to do it for a living… it doesn’t feel like a job, it feels like a blessing.” As for the future, Hill laughed and said “Right now I’m good where I’m at. I take it day by day and have fun with it.” He hopes to stay in the Bay Area for the foreseeable future. Hill’s first turn at hosting was Dec. 22, for a game against the Brooklyn Nets. That wasn’t the only recent debut in the Hill family, as he and his girlfriend welcomed CCSF alumni Bonta Hill stands for a portrait at Oracle Park on Jan. 21, 2021. San Francisco, CA. Photo by Kevin Kelleher/Special to The Guardsman a baby daughter earlier that month. annette.mullaney@gmail.com

6 | OPINION

Vol. 171, Issue 1 | Jan. 26 - Feb. 9, 2021

Instructors Work Overtime in Online Transition, but Students All Over the World Find New Educational Opportunities By Oxana Filichkina

where students work with the audio editing program Pro Tools via remote access to the college computers (Splashtop). Everyone uses their own headphones and students study the audio equipment via pictures from the internet. Overall, assertive students are getting through and will get strong Remote instruction has created positive and negative theoretical knowledge at the exit. views amongst City College students and professors. You might ask why it is different from self-study using I share some of their concerns about less personal good online resources like Udemy, Edx.com, or Linda? contact and less physical activity in general. We need to Or just reading books and watching YouTube videos? For admit remote learning is the best gift of the pandemic-era many people the difference is enormous. You have been from the perspective of students. It teaches each student assigned to a real teacher who is an expert and available for personal responsibility for their progress. No sugar-coating, you anytime, without a line like it was during on-campus just plain facts: now you are going to have a flexible schedule days. Professors guide us through millions and millions of and no commute time. No need to spend dollars on picking sources of information and made available online. During up lunch on the way, getting a Clipper card, or acquirany course of City College in one semester, with the guiding the parking permit with long hours buzzing around in ance of a professor, a student accomplishes a few individual attempts to find a spot. It makes education available all over projects. For your tasks with weekly deadlines, you have the world! In addition, remote instruction makes education grades and personal feedback from the professor. Based an option for students of all professions and backgrounds: on the grades for the assignments, there is a transparworking people, feeding moms, young parents, retired people, ent system of evaluation of knowledge. In the end, you disabled, etc. can earn a professional certificate or a degree to transfer Personally, being seven months pregnant and having to a university. a nomadic life since we are in Online and remote the process of buying and instruction gives more time to repairing a new home, I contemplate the new inforwould never ever have mation, some students feel made it through 16 they digest it deeper. units in City College if Remote instruction not for remote studies. has challenged City During remote College professors to instruction students put the course online don’t have to focus in the digital format on learning someof Canvas. Also for thing by heart, the majority of Zoom instead, they pracsessions, students are tice implementing muted most of the the knowledge time and stopped on real projects. showing their faces. Students have Psychologically, it been doing many can be uncomfortcreative tasks able, especially if and completing the professors are projects on their used to visualizing own while wasting the progress students no time chatting are making during randomly with other their class. students. Yes, there is Like any new cool a trade-off, students tool or device, it takes will not find as many time to adjust to the friends from remote new normal way of semesters as they would learning and socialhave gained offline. However, izing via Zoom. It is someone with personal important to arrange obstacles like taking care gadget detox breaks of kids wouldn’t be able in your schedto do anything offline. ule, the more In comparison, they frequently the gain from remote better. If you instruction. are a typical On Canvas, the American and students get recomare watching mendations and links TV or surfing to the most relevant the Internet in videos and sources all your spare time, over the world instead you might acquire of just professors’ Illustration by Manon Cadenaule/The Guardsman. Instagram: @Cadenaulem headaches from lectures plus one to two too much screen recommended textbooks. time. The best idea Still, one gets a lot of is to go for a short walk personal touch from the break time. group and the instructors, written Another essential piece of advice I feedback for most tasks, and Zoom-meetings can give is to not to get defeated fast by a hard task, twice per week. on the court when it’s possible. instead, try to reach out to groupmates via Pronto or your Isn’t that awesome? Some courses like the video production with hands- professor by a message in Canvas or in-person meeting From my personal perspective as a student who has taken 1.5 semesters offline and 2.5 semesters online since on professional equipment (i.e. DSLR cameras) will not during his/her office hours. We are just at the beginning of that journey, and it the beginning of the stay-at-home order in March 2020, let a student experience something like buzzing around the Ocean campus shooting each one’s video project in a promises a few new overwhelming horizons... there are many advantages to studying online. From the perspective of a middle-aged student, possibly mini-group. Now, in the spring, there exist some alternaa career changer or a person trying to study while having tives to that. One example is an audio production course filichkina.o@gmail.com Collaborator to The Guardsman

other duties and obligations like part-time work, parental duties, etc. to study online or remote in CCSF could be a life-time opportunity. Study time is much more concentrated now: most of the materials are amazingly located in one place in Canvas. Don’t seek to make a printout or find the link for a recommended resource. Assignments and grades are transparent on Canvas as well. Fourth, get to work in a more independent way. Plan when and how to manage the assignments. Feel free to skip some parts of the modules or to study extra on the more interesting topics. Make priorities on how to distribute the available time. Students would lack the social and even entertaining parts of college life which might be crucial for students in their 20s. Communications with group mates are limited, with fewer chances to make good friends. Students don’t get to the collegial sports teams or excellent sports facilities including the swimming pool or tennis courts. However, students can still get remote tennis instruction and a chance to improve basic theoretical knowledge which will help students progress much faster

Vol. 171, Issue 1 | Jan. 26 - Feb. 9, 2021

COMMUNITY | 7

8 | COMMUNITY

Vol. 171, Issue 1 | Jan. 26 - Feb. 9, 2021

SPORTS | 9

Vol. 171, Issue 1 | Jan. 26 - Feb. 9, 2021

CCSF Sports to Resume Practice By Colton Webster cwebster1963@gmail.com

Sports teams at City College have resumed training virtually with the possibility of playing games later in the semester. “On Friday, Jan. 15, the San Francisco Department of Public Health approved the college’s plan for in-person collegiate athletics, including practices and competitions,” Interim Chancellor Rajen Vurdien said in a memo. According to a release given to players, the rollout to playing a normal season consists of several phases starting at phase zero. Phase zero consists of all athletes meeting remotely on Zoom to complete virtual

workouts, providing education on COVID-19, and ensuring all students are tested. Phase one is outdoor conditioning in groups of 10 athletes and two coaches with high-risk students and staff able to return to in-person meetings with a doctor’s note. Then, phase two is contact practices with shared equipment, using testing to ensure that players are following guidelines. Lastly, phase three is the resumption of full practice and competition with no live audience. Freshman Rams pitcher, Sean Mueller, said that his team has a “close to zero percent chance that we’re going to have a season and if we do, it’ll be from the end of April to the beginning of June.” Mueller added, “The entire

season would be a month and a half, but I don’t know how many games we’d try to fit in, how other schools, since they’re in different counties, how it would play. It’s honestly a mess, but we’ll get more information in two weeks.” Phases take place in two-week intervals of play, meaning a competition would resume six weeks after the start of the semester. All of this is performed at the discretion of San Francisco County, with the possibility to “halt or regress” their progress in the phases at any time. Men’s Athletic Director Harold Brown gave more information regarding City College’s plan for the semester. “There’s going to be a limited

Jimmy Collins, HC for the CCSF Rams, stands for a portrait on the 50-yard line of the George M. Rush Stadium amidst the global pandemic. San Francisco, California. Nov. 19, 2020. Photo by Emily Trinh/Special to The Guardsman)

Men's athletic director Harold Brown sits inside Brad Duggan Court, City College Ocean Campus. San Francisco, CA. Aug. 19, 2020. Photo by Kevin Kelleher/Special to The Guardsman

Student athlete Melanie Beavan-Szabo (right) competes in a water polo match back in the Fall 2019 season. Beavan-Szabo plans to rejoin the team for the Spring 2021 season. Nov. 2, 2019. Photo by Eric Sun

amount of competition, there’s still the CCCAA working out how many games [will be played]. It’s changed from the initial competition structure... that should hopefully come out in the next couple of weeks.” The CCCAA will also determine if “they’re just going to be scrimmages instead of games,” Brown added. “The spring semesters competition is going to be divided into two semesters, Spring One and Spring Two. Sports like basketball, football, soccer, they’re Spring One. The other ones go [to] Spring Two.” Brown said. Since the pandemic began last year, teams went virtual with games and championships alike brought to a halt. Women’s water polo and swim coach Phong Pham said he has noticed a drop off in new athletes since City College went online. “We have been fortunate to

retain most of our water polo players and swimmers from last year, but not being on campus has had an impact on bringing in new student-athletes ... Due to the pandemic, and with CCSF being online during the past 10 months, we are also not able to connect with potential new players or swimmers on campus. Without being able to host those, the same level of exposure has unfortunately been missing,” Pham said in an email. Sophomore swim and water polo player Melanie Beavan-Szabo said as well as having to be tested before every practice, players must “visit a doctor, fill out a bunch of paperwork, and we really do have to commit to social distancing in our own personal lives.” As a substitute for not being able to swim at practice, “sometimes independently we’ll be going to the ocean or setting up an appointment to go swimming at a different pool if possible,” Beavan-Szabo added.

Women's water polo and swimming coach Phong Pham poses for a Zoom portrait with a picture of the City College pool as his background image. The water polo team is facing difficulties in recruitment this season. Matches require seven players in the water, but Pham hopes to have at least ten to twelve members on his roster. San Francisco, CA. Jan. 22, 2021. Photo by Melvin Wong/The Guardsman