The Guardsman, Vol. 171, Issue 2, City College of San Francisco

500 VACCINATED

PURA NETA, AMOR

ROAD TO THE NFL

Page 3

Page 6

Page 9

Vol. 171, Issue 2 | Feb. 9 – Feb. 23 | City College of San Francisco | Since 1935 | FREE | www.theguardsman.com

A Many-Faceted Financial Fiasco

Illustration by Erin Blackwell/The Guardsman. Instagram: @blackwelldrawingfool

By Annette Mullaney

benefits such as healthcare. The College the Multi-Year Budget and Enrollment also borrowed from the fund for fiscal year Plan approved at the Nov. 12 Board of 2019 – 20, using $21 million of the $28 Trustees meeting.

City College continues to face a structural million in the fund, which it has 21 years These cuts are necessary for the College’s budget deficit due to declining enrollment, to pay back. financial solvency, proponents argued, changes in funding, and financial mismanBusiness Department Faculty Carol which is needed to keep accreditation. In agement, and plans to drastically cut classes Meagher said, “It’s not a bad idea in the September, the Accrediting Commission for and staff in the coming years. short term, but it’s not sustainable.”

Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) To help make ends meet this year, the For the longer term, the current admin- placed City College under enhanced moniCollege is borrowing $10 million from its istration is planning substantial reductions toring due to its financial instability, requiring Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) to classes, faculty, administrators, and staff, a response by early December. The multifund, monies the College is required by law including at least 600 course sections cut year plan was cited in the College’s response. to set aside as a guarantee for future retiree for fiscal year 2021 – 22, as outlined in “We have a structural budget deficit,” annette.mullaney@gmail.com

said Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration John al-Amin. “This didn’t occur in 2020. This occurred over a series of years.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the College’s financial woes, with decreased tax revenues and delayed funding from the state, but it is not the genesis of the problem.

American Federation of Teachers 2121 President Malaika Finkelstein said, “We’re in the context of chronic underfunding of public schools all over the country.”

Fiasco continues on page 3

Administration to Acknowledge Unceded Ramaytush Ohlone Land

By Loretta Bonifacio datubonifacio@gmail.com

City College is expected to finalize a formal Land Acknowledgement Initiative to recognize the college’s occupancy on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land by June. The Ramaytush Ohlone are the original peoples of the San Francisco Peninsula.

According to the initiative’s resolution, a land acknowledgement will be “offered with respect and purpose at all City College of San Francisco public meetings and gatherings, including sports and cultural events.”

Once the constituents of the Participatory Governance Council grant their approval, the resolution will move to the chancellor. With

the chancellor’s recommendation, of the initiative, a designated task by anthropologists to identify the Board of Trustees (BoT) can force of Indigenous leaders can the ‘tribe’ who lived in the area vote on the initiative. produce versions of the statement currently known as San Francisco As it stands, the Administrators for campus groups to use at gather- County. They were an indepenAssociation and the Department ings. The task force will also clarify dent tribe of the Ramaytush Chair Council will review the Land vows groups can take to protect Ohlone peoples.”

Acknowledgment Initiative during Yelamu land.

Accordingly, San Francisco can a Feb. 11 meeting. Thereafter, the Founder and Chair of the be referred to as Yelamu territory Classified Senate will discuss the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone or Yelamu. The contemporary use initiative at a March meeting.

(ARO) Dr. Jonathan Cordero of Yelamu designates it as both a If the trustees vote in favor said, “Yelamu is the name used people and a place, Cordero said.

Oholone continues on page 2

2 | NEWS

Vol. 171, Issue 2 | Feb. 9 - Feb. 23, 2021

Ohlone continued from page 1 The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, a grassroots action network, defines land acknowledgement as “a public statement of the name of the traditional Native inhabitants of a place” by honoring “their historic relationship with the land.”

Aside from offering recognition and respect to local Indigenous peoples, land acknowledgements dismantle the gross inaccuracies of the doctrine of discovery and highlight “the true story of the people who were already here.”

But how exactly did the Land Acknowledgement Initiative begin? Like the Frida Kahlo Way Initiative, which successfully renamed Phelan Avenue to honor the artist, a queer person of color, the Land Acknowledgement Initiative’s origins take root in Interdisciplinary Studies (IDST) 3: Introduction to Museum Studies. The course was co-taught by Simon and City College instructor Ann Wettrich, who placed a “strong focus on decolonizing and indigenizing museums,” Simon said.

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

While the practice is fairly new to City College, land acknowledgements are anything but — Indigenous communities have been doing them ceremonially for centuries. Typically, an Indigenous elder or community leader will offer the land acknowledgement. Countries like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand have embraced similar statements for decades.

Former City College student Helen Pinto and Interdisciplinary Studies instructor Leslie Simon co-authored the Land Acknowledgement Initiative’s resolution in Spring 2019. The resolution is a living document that will continue to be developed in consultation with Cordero, various Indigenous scholars, Dr. David Palaita of the Interdisciplinary Studies Department, a BoT task force, and City College staff.

Simon noticed how various museums that “have a lot to account for regarding their stolen objects and racist hiring practices were instituting land acknowledgement statements and policies.”

Pinto, who was enrolled in IDST 3, became committed to ensuring that City College would adopt a land acknowledgement. Using the $500 award from her Avotcja Jiltonilro Diversity and Social Justice Scholarship, Pinto researched how other institutions have published land acknowledgments.

Pinto first experienced a land acknowledgement delivered at a San Francisco History Days event in March 2019. “I remember hearing a quote from [activist] Kanyon Sayers-Roods that really inspired me: ‘There’s nothing about us without us.’”

Pinto and Simon collaborated with SayersRoods when they first drafted the initiative’s resolution.

Fortunately, Pinto and Simon were not the only people on campus seeking change. In Aug. 2020, the student-led CCSF Collective urged the Board of Trustees to address 34 community demands — one of which called for the creation of a land acknowledgement.

Trustee Alex Randolph responded but did not follow up after requesting a meeting with the Black Student Union (BSU) and the collective.

Later, the collective circulated a petition requesting a public response by the board’s Aug. 27 meeting, but did not receive one.

As outlined on their official website, the collective demanded the trustees to “center the BIPOC [Black; Indigenous; People of Color] CCSF Community. Be proactively anti-racist, fulfill BSU’s [Black Student Union] demands, and revitalize the AFAM [African American] Studies department and Ethnic Studies & Social Justice Collaborative.

Increase student support, and do a Ramaytush Ohlone land acknowledgment.”

The collective’s founder and City College student Eira Kien said, “land acknowledgement is always necessary and oftentimes the ‘first step’ in addressing how we are on stolen land.”

Student Trustee Vick Chung, fully backed the collective. Chung envisioned that the demands would eventually be enacted as goals for the board.

Regarding the college’s adoption of a formal land acknowledgement, Chung understood that deep introspection accompanies delayed societal change. “In ritualistically reflecting on the fact that we are not natives to this land, over time, I believe we will program ourselves to become less tolerant of xenophobia and nativism,” Chung said.

City College’s Queer Resource Center (QRC) led the way during their T-House online event series in Nov. 2020. QRC Student Lab Aide and event host, Charlie Garcia-Spiegel, encouraged participants to view a published land acknowledgement on the T-House website.

In solidarity, the acknowledgement reads: “This space, while virtual, was organized by staff and student workers residing and working on stolen Ramaytush Ohlone land in Yelamu, colonially known as San Francisco, and on stolen Lisjan Ohlone land in Huchiun, colonially known as Oakland.”

The QRC’s call to action is an invitation “to reflect on where you are logging in from, and to form meaningful relationships with the Indigenous communities of your area” by contributing to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and Shuumi Land Tax. The college faculty took a similar measure.

AFT 2121, City College’s faculty union, officially adopted the Land Acknowledgement Initiative and its resolution on Dec. 22, 2020. 89% of City College faculty are AFT 2121 members.

AFT 2121 President Malaika Finklestein supported the initiative because land acknowledgements help “raise awareness of peoples and cultures that are too often invisible.”

Finklestein added that the AFT 2121 “values social justice and wants to see those values reflected in our college community. The resolution is in alignment with those values.”

Cordero is optimistic of the potentially positive results land acknowledgements can generate. “The land acknowledgement 'movement,' so to speak, has gained traction in the past few years, and we hope it will lead to some significant change for Indigenous peoples,” he said.

This change Cordero references would be action-oriented: the return of land, effective public assistance programs, and disbursement of resources.

But once the Land Acknowledgement Initiative is passed, what happens next?

Cordero recommends that organizations and government agencies prioritize building and sustaining relationships with Indigenous peoples. “The development of relationships are foundational to getting other needs met,” Cordero said.

The next step would be to implement changes in education, which can be monumental. “At educational institutions, develop curriculum at the 4th grade level and beyond,” Cordero said. “Bring in local people to speak to supplement the content around indigeneity in general — this is a benefit of building relationships.”

“Institutions like CCSF, SFSU, and UCSF have the opportunity to raise the visibility of local Indigenous peoples,” Cordero added.

Some U.S. colleges have embraced this by establishing memorandums of understanding with local tribes.

To learn about and support the Ramaytush Ohlone, visit their official website at Ramaytush.com

Indigenous Peoples of the Bay Area: A History of Survival

By Tobin Jones tobinjones@protonmail.com

While the term “Ohlone” is today the name most commonly used to refer to the family of peoples indigenous to what is now known as the San Francisco Bay Area, the widespread adoption of the term dates back no further than the early 20th century.

Given the massive diversity in languages, family groups, customs, and cultures, the native people of the northern and central California coasts likely would not have seen themselves as belonging to any single common group prior to the arrival of the Spanish.

To some degree, this persists today, with many local Indigenous people self-identifying primarily as members of

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

one or more of approximately 58 distinct regional cultures that are grouped under the umbrella-term “Ohlone.” These include the Ramaytush of Yelamu, or San Francisco, and the Chochenyo, of Huichun, or Oakland, and much of the greater East Bay. The Ohlone history of colonization differs significantly from that of more well-known plains nations such as the Lakota or Comanche. They share with many other California Natives an experience of invasion and oppression dating back to arrival of the Spanish in the 18th century.

The Indigenous people across California were forced to labor on behalf of the Franciscans, the religious order which oversaw the Catholic missions. Native language, culture, and customs were suppressed, and malnutrition, violence, and disease resulted in a staggering mortality rate. The labor

Culture Editor Hannah Patricia Asuncion

Opinion Editor Tim Hill Sports Editor Kaiyo Funaki

performed by Indigenous “converts” in the areas of ranching, farming, and wine production created considerable wealth for the Franciscans.

Following Spain's 1821 defeat in the Mexican War of Independence, control of Alta California passed to newly independent Mexico, which instituted a secularization policy designed to curb the power of the Church.

The Indigenous people under missionary rule were to be emancipated from Franciscan control and become eligible for Mexican citizenship. The mission system’s extensive land holdings were to be expropriated and redistributed, with half designated for newly freed Natives.

These promises of land and freedom proved to be worth little more than the paper they were written on. The majority

Design Director Chiara Di Martino

Copy Editors Tobin Jones Sadie Peckens Tim Hill

Social Media Editor Annette Mullaney

Illustrators Manon Cadenaule Serena Sacharoff

Online Editor Fran Smith

Survival continues on page 3 Erin Blackwell Daina Medveder Koziot

Garrett Leahy Shayna Gee Casey Michie

Staff Writers Colton Webster Ava Cohen Angela Greco

Photographers Melvin Wong

NEWS | 3

Vol. 171, Issue 2 | Feb. 9 - Feb. 23, 2021

Survival continued from page 2 of mission land would go to wealthy and politically influential Californio families, who used it to create enormous ranches and farms. Landless and destitute Natives were employed as laborers on the very land that had been promised to them.

Owners purposefully created systems of debt designed to trap workers in peonage, and conditions were often as bad as or worse than those the Indigenous had suffered under the Franciscans.

However, arguably the darkest period in the history of California's Indigenous peoples began in 1848, when the territory was transferred to the United States, and gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill.

Enticed by the lure of easy riches, white settlers poured into the territory. Seeing natives as an obstacle to full exploitation of the land, white Californians resolved upon a course of extermination.

What followed is believed by many scholars to be the worst instance of genocide against Indigenous people in US history. State sponsored death squads, as well as individual whites, committed widespread and indiscriminate violence against Natives throughout the state.

Fearing for their survival, Indigenous groups agreed to treaties which ceded the majority of their traditional lands in exchange for guaranteed reservations.

However, due to pressure from California settlers, Congress never ratified these agreements, and many of California's Indigenous peoples continue to be unrecognized by the United States government.

Today, Ohlone struggles continue to center on land and cultural survival. One noteworthy example was a 2011 spiritual encampment and blockade at Glen Cove, Vallejo, where a coalition of Ohlone activists and allies successfully prevented the destruction of the Karkin Ohlone Sogorea Te’ burial and ceremonial grounds.

Fiasco continued from page 1 She added that the state, which provides 56% of the College’s budget in fiscal year 2020-21, is explicitly moving away from serving nontraditional and noncredit students.

The Student Centered Funding Formula (SCFF) bases more funding on students’ attainment of certificates, degrees, and job placements.

“The state does not have the same priorities as San Francisco,” said Enrollment Management Committee Co-Chair Wynd Kaufman.

“They are not funding us as a community college.”

Finkelstein said that AFT 2121 is currently talking with the state-wide union about lobbying for changes in the funding formula. “The formula has changed many times; it’s going to change again.” She added that the union is currently looking at going alone, as “our own administration has flat-out refused to discuss [lobbying].”

Deputy Chancellor Diana Gonzales and Director of Media Rosie Zepeda did not respond to requests for interviews for this article.

There is some hope for more funding from the City of San Francisco. On Nov. 25 Mayor London Breed approved the creation of a Workforce Education and Recovery Fund, which will provide $200,000 for the spring semester.

Proposed by Supervisor Gordan Mar in March, this fund was originally to provide $20 million per year, but was scaled back during the pandemic.

According to Finkelstein, more money could go into this fund as the City’s revenues recover.

City College also has to make any funding stretch further than most schools.

State funding is primarily based on the number of students, and is the same across the state, without accounting for differences in cost of living.

“It’s a San Francisco cost of living on a Sacramento salary,” said Meagher.

The college has further been hit by a massive decline in enrollment, larger than that experienced by community colleges across the state.

While classes have been cut significantly, over 800 since Fall 2018, the college has a lot of fixed costs that do not scale with decreased enrollment.

Furthermore, many believe that cuts have not been sufficiently targeted. According to Business Department Instructor Michael Needham, there has been a shift away from departments that do not result in student success metrics under the state’s new funding formula, even if they have good productivity. He also pointed out that the success metrics only account for 1.9% of total revenues.

The shift in focus has particularly hurt programs for older adults and ESL, which according to Finkelstein is a “cash cow” for the college.

Some faculty feel that the cuts are made without sufficient analysis of the associated costs and revenues. “They don’t

have a very sophisticated way that they are doing enrollment numbers,” Kaufman said.

These cuts further depress enrollment, necessitating more cuts, in what Finkelstein described as a “spiral.”

These challenges have been exacerbated by what Needham called “years of fiscal mismanagement.” He said that while administrators are well-intentioned, “this [administrative] entity is completely unable to plan from a finance perspective.”

Needham added that the difficulty of long-term planning has been compounded by high leadership turnover. “It’s been eight years with a revolving door administration.”

“There were mistakes made by past administrations,” said John Rizzo, veteran member of the Board of Trustees. He pointed to last year, when the board passed a balanced budget in September, only for then-Chancellor Mark Rocha to announce a $13 million deficit in November, leading to the “Midnight Massacre” when 345 classes were cut the day before Spring 2020 registration.

“That was some kind of error,” Rizzo said. “We’re still not sure what happened.”

“We’ve put balanced budgets together every year and barely start, and we’re in a hole,” said SEIU Local 1021 President Athena Steff.

Many have pointed to a lack of financial monitoring.

At the Budget Committee meeting Dec. 8, Al-Amin said, “I’ve noticed that at least for

the budget group, you haven’t been presented with monthly or quarterly financial reports.”

He promised that his office will prepare “routine, regular monthly reports that the [Budget Committee] can review, question, and more importantly, see where the expenditures are.”

Al-Amin, who began Nov. 10, is one of two administrators recently hired to help improve financial management. David James began Dec. 1 as executive internal auditor and controller.

The Academic Senate, the Full-Time Caucus, and members of the Board of Trustees have been among those requesting an independent auditor for years. “I’m hoping he’ll keep track of spending as it’s going on during the school year,” Rizzo said. “It’s been a chronic issue.”

James’ first two tasks will be determining the total cost of administrators and consultants, with reports expected sometime in February. A 100% overspend on consultants in the first three months of the fiscal year were one of the reasons cited by the Full-Time Caucus in their Jan. 15, 2020 open letter to the Board of Trustees requesting an auditor.

James said the approval of his hiring at the last board meeting was encouraging. “They took the time to specifically discuss the position, how they supported it, how they thought it was needed in this time of fiscal crisis.”

Meet City College’s New Trustees

By Colton Webster cwebster1963@gmail.com

City College’s newest Trustees Alan Wong and Aliya Chisti were sworn into office this January. The two go over their goals for what they’d like to see for their first year and beyond.

Both have a career history of public service, with Wong in as a First Lieutenant and 11 year veteran in the National Guard, and Chisti as a senior analyst at the Free City Program. They each cited the budget as one of their highest priorities.

Aliya Chisti (left) and Alan Wong (right) speak on their campaign runs for the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees on election night Nov. 3rd, 2020. San Francisco, CA. (Photo by Melvin Wong/The Guardsman)

Faculty Advisor Juan Gonzales

Follow us theguardsman.com

ccsfjournalism.com Twitter @theguardsman Instagram @theguardsman

Facebook @theguardsman

YouTube theguardsmanonline

Contact Us

advertise@ theguardsman.com

info@theguardsman.com (415) 239-3446

TRUSTEE ALAN WONG Wong wants to require mandatory monthly budget updates at every board meeting. The board is already adding this into the agenda but Wong wants to cement it, with a “standalone item on the agenda where we get updated at every single meeting, so we aren’t caught by surprise like with the 300 classes that got cut,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s fair to anybody if we find out all of a sudden that there’s a 13 million dollar hole New Trustees continues on page 4

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

4 |NEWS

Vol. 171, Issue 2 | Feb. 9 - Feb. 23, 2021

New Trustees continued from page 3 because we weren’t monitoring it closely enough,” Wong added.

City College has had to cut courses due to a budget deficit, leading the college to draft a new multi-year budget plan.

Wong said that City College has hired an auditor for the budget, a move that happened shortly after the election cycle and with which he credits ex-board members Ivy Lee and Alex Randolph.

“Going forward we need to always be looking into what’s long term and sustainable for the college. I’m committed as part of the budget committee to push for that,” Wong said.

The multi-year budget plan that the Board of Trustees drafted before the election is a good plan, but one that needs improvement, Wong said. “It’s not perfect and it’s a work in progress.”

Wong also has ideas to increase the job pipelines, by promoting partnership with employers and workforce nonprofits to make City College a “one stop shop for enrollment education and employment of students.”

He is looking into “whether we can rent out existing City College space that is underutilized so we’re generating some revenue” and suggested allowing workforce development nonprofits to occupy the space to help students find employment.

Wong said another of his goals is closing the achievement gap.He intends to increase partnerships with the San Francisco Unified School District by making high school dual

enrollment programs more widely available to students in the district.

Doing so would give students at underperforming schools the same opportunity to pursue higher education as students at statistically higher performing schools..

Dual enrollment, or concurrent, programs offer courses that high school students can take to earn credit at City College and their respective high schools.

Some of the current dual enrollment courses include calculus, American Sign Language, college success, and ethnic studies for students attending Lincoln High School.

Wong believes that dual enrollment programs, by providing students with college credit without the fees and standardized testing of AP classes, “can build a pipeline for future high school students into City College.”

TRUSTEE ALIYA CHISTI The most pressing short term goal for Trustee Aliya Chisti, and the board as a whole is identifying the next permanent chancellor, while making sure that the board is “engaging the community” during the selection process, she said.

The board plans to create a committee that will include members of the community, students, and teachers to get input for the upcoming chancellor.

After her first month in office, Chisti’s main goal is to just listen and learn as much as she can. “I want to ultimately shape policy,

Alan Wong, a newly-elected City College board member, stands for a portrait in front of the Science Building on campus. San Francisco, CA. Sept. 20, 2020. (Photo by Kevin Kelleher/Special to The Guardsman)

but I think it’s important to understand the lay of the land [by] engaging with different constituency groups and getting acquainted,” she said.

Chisti has also expressed interest in growing the City College Foundation, whose goal is to “provide financial support for the students and programs of City College.”

She proposed “identifying dollars through philanthropy so that those funds can be used to ultimately support students’ basic needs.” She said that this money could be used to provide gift cards and emergency grants for students once the pandemic subsides.

The foundation is not currently “as robust as it should be,” Chisti said. “I think it’s something that needs greater focus and attention.”

Another of Chisti's goals is bolstering the college’s workforce development program, specifically the CityBuild program in partnership with San Francisco’s Office of Workforce Development.

“The key is going to be really partnering with the city around their workforce Aliya Chisti, a newly-elected City College board member, sits for a portrait before going out canvassing in Bernal Heights. San Francisco, CA. Oct. 5, 2020. (Photo by Emily Trinh/Special to The Guardsman)

development strategy as we get into recovery efforts [from the pandemic] and I think that City College is going to play a big role,” she said. CityBuild is a vocational program that provides individuals with training and a job in a local union.

Chisti said that she wants to be a part of “Fostering a more cohesive environment ... students, teachers, administrators, the board, in making sure that we’re all advocating for our college.”

Chisti said that she wants to see greater discussion around racial equity at the college, including more frequent reporting and data.

“Are students of color graduating? Are they having difficulty navigating student resources? Do they have spaces on campus?”

Chisti asked. She said she would like more frequent reports with disaggregated data for students, to help address these questions.

Additionally, she would like to see reports regarding Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act money and also the dissemination of laptops and food cards, specifically data involving race and ethnicity of those that received that aid.

NEWS | 5

Vol. 171, Issue 2 | Feb. 9 - Feb. 23, 2021

BRIEF

BRIEF

500 Vaccinated at City College, San Francisco’s First Mass Vaccination Site

By Annette Mullaney annette.mullaney@gmail.com

Five hundred people received Moderna vaccinations against COVID-19 at the opening of San Francisco’s first mass vaccination site Friday, Jan.22 on City College’s Ocean Campus.

The site, operated by UCSF and the San Francisco Department of Public Health, is the first of three planned mass vaccination sites, an integral part of Mayor London Breed’s plan to vaccinate all residents by June 30. The second, at Moscone Center in SoMa, opened Feb. 5, with another in the Bayview set to open in the coming weeks.

When fully operational, the site will deliver 3,000 vaccines a day. While vaccine availability is the current limiter, COO of Ambulatory Services at UCSF David Morgan said it could be staff in the future with hospitals so inundated.

Sixty people operated eight lanes to deliver 500 vaccines on opening day. “My biggest worry is in three weeks, will I have enough vaccine and enough staff?”

But on opening day, the mood was ebullient.

“We’ve had a couple people cry out of joy,” said

a city representative checking people in. “It’s a great way to spend a Friday, even in the rain.”

Vaccine recipient Bridget Bryne, 73, beamed, "I didn't feel a thing!"

Her daughter, Siofra Byrne, who drove her, joked she was “100% jealous,” adding, “I’m really relieved that she’s gonna be protected.”

“Walkups,” that is, pedestrians, were turned away, as the site is currently only open to patients in cars. Plans are underway to accommodate those arriving on foot, important in a city where 30% of households don’t own automobiles.

Morgan said there are limited vaccines for those over 65 without appointments, depending on the number of no-shows. Opening day, he estimated no-shows at under 1%. Even if they can’t get the vaccine then, they can add themselves to the site’s waitlist, for any leftover vaccines at the end of the day. “The goal is to get shots in arms,” Morgan said.

Ann Vivit, 72, and her partner drove up without an appointment and had no problem getting vaccinated. She expressed frustration at the many ways she had tried to get an appointment unsuccessfully, adding “It’s to be expected when rolling out something big like this.”

BECOME AN AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST

AND SERVE THE LATINX COMMUNITY! Contact El Tecolote at editor@eltecolote.org

Faculty Union Criticizes Moves Towards Layoffs

By Tobin Jones tobinjones@protonmail.com

Interim-Chancellor Vurdien announced that City College intends to issue pink slips to a yet undisclosed number of employees. Vurdien said that the plan was “in keeping with our promise to become a fiscally solvent institution,” referencing official statistics showing a 26% decline in enrollment at City College, as well as a projected seven billion dollar state budget shortfall during the coming fiscal year.

Representatives for the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121 reacted with alarm and dismay to the statement. Malaika Finklestein, the local's president, stated faculty had been blindsided by the news during their first week back after winter break, saying, “On Friday we received a note from our chancellor saying, 'Welcome back, maybe we'll lay you off.

Here's a seniority list to check...Now go focus on your students.'”

Finkelstein dismissed arguments that the Board of Trustees and college administrators have no choice but to lay off staff to solve the budget crisis, suggesting instead that they lobby state and city officials, as well as consider putting additional tax increases and bond proposals to voters, to raise the needed funds. “Throwing up your hands is not acceptable. You know there are solutions,” she said.

BRIEF

CCSF Alumnus attended Capitol Riot

By Garrett_Leahy garretteleahy@gmail.com

Among the crowd of Trump supporters who violently stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 was City College alumnus and San Francisco resident Daniel Goodwyn, who attended in 2014 to attain a certificate in mobile app development.

The attack resulted in five deaths, including one Capitol police officer, as several hundred supporters of then-President Donald Trump sought to prevent the electoral college ballot count confirming the presidential election’s outcome, normally a routine formality. Capitol police officer Brian Sicknik died Jan. 7 after being hospitalized for injuries incurred by protesters, who hit him in the head with a fire extinguisher and beat him. Protester and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by Capitol police after attempting to clamber in through a window leading into the Speaker’s Lobby, which had been smashed by protesters. The other three protesters — Kevin Greeson, Roseanne Boyland, and Benjamin Phillips — died from medical emergencies on Jan. 6.

Goodwyn, a web designer and brand ambassador for right-wing group Stophate.org, which has hosted “free speech” rallies in San Francisco and Washington D.C., was sued by the FBI on Jan. 15 for violent entry and trespassing during the Capitol riot after his “associate” reported him.

Goodwyn made incriminating posts to his Instagram account during the riot, including live-streaming himself entering the building and posting, “I didn’t break or take anything but I went inside for a couple of minutes” shortly after being removed by police, according to the FBI complaint.

While Goodwyn is not being charged with assault or vandalism, several rioters smashed windows, vandalized congressional offices, and attacked Capitol police with metal pipes. The FBI also said on Jan. 29 that two pipe bombs discovered outside the DNC and RNC headquarters on Jan. 6 were placed the night before.

The Capitol riot was the culmination of Trump’s refusal to accept losing the election, fomenting distrust in the electoral process among his supporters. Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results failed, however, and Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20, issuing a salvo of executive orders aimed at dismantling core tenets of Trump’s presidential legacy, including rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, ending Trump’s travel ban from several majority-Muslim countries, and most recently, directing agencies to re-examine healthcare policies which reduce protections for those with preexisting conditions.

6 | CULTURE

Vol. 171, Issue 2 | Feb. 9 - Feb. 23, 2021

Benjamin Bac Sierra on the Reality of Fiction

By Ava Cohen

Through Cartoon, Bac Sierra communicates his struggles with school, and how institutions want Pura Neta, City College him to use their formalities and Instructor Benjamin Bac Sierra’s education as a tool, but he realsequel to his first book Barrio izes that it’s all “spider symbols.”

Bushido, is a compilation of prose A spoken idea is never as powerful and poetry about growing up in the as a feeling.

Mission District of San Francisco Using amor as an example; we and combating the police brutality, may say it as many times as we’d racism, and gentrification that the like, but it will never equate to the neighborhood faces. real feeling of love. Referring to his The book primarily follows Lil characters, Bac Sierra said, “they Cartoon, a character who has been all realize, there’s a limitation with banished from his varrio by his this language, but this language is mentors, Lobo and Toro, in order what we got.” for him to gain more experience to Pura Neta means “pure truth,” bring back to his community. which Bac Sierra said is a paradox, His story is almost ballad-like; because the book is fiction. “What a traveller communicating mostly I’m proposing here, through the through surreal stanzas that writing, is that fiction is truth … address no one in particular and fiction can actually be more honest yet everyone at the same time. But than so-called reality,” he said.

Bac Sierra wanted to make it clear, “In reality, we put up all these “Cartoon is not a savior.” fronts.” He emphasized his point, Cartoon is a culmination of exclaiming, “The most real thing figures and experiences that Bac we believe here, on planet Earth, Sierra has known throughout his is this idea of death, yet we don’t life, and through his journey he even know what it is, homes!” discovers that true intelligence lies And yet, through works of not in knowledge and academia, fiction we are able to apply a narrabut through experience. tive to help us mourn, to imagine avaocohen@gmail.com

friends’ experiences in their last moments of life and after it, as Bac Sierra does in Pura Neta.

Pura Neta, as a whole, seems to be based on love. In the book, Cartoon realizes what really motivates him to write his poetry is amor; amor for his community, amor for his homeys, amor for all the people he meets along his journey.

“I know that human beings, we need love, man, we need love. And we need to feel that, and that helps us,” said Bac Sierra. “There is no solution to this thing, you know, just the little bit of love we can get helps us get through every single day, man.”

Of course, while we can certainly help others and cope with issues through love, love can’t necessarily solve things like gentrification and mass incarceration. The system may need more fixing beyond amor.

“The characters are conscious, and technology has come to the hood, and claimed itself as their savior. They’re tryna pull the same thing that they pulled on the natives,” said Bac Sierra on

Benjamin Bac Sierra, author of Pura Neta and City College instructor, holds up his novel and stands on the sidewalk of Frida Kahlo Way on Ocean campus. Sierra argues in the book that words are merely “… spider symbols. They are not true….Once you whisper a word, it is not truth anymore. Why? Because it is a symbol, it is a representation [of the truth].” San Francisco, CA. Jan. 29, 2021. (Photo by Melvin Wong/ The Guardsman)

the gentrification in the Mission that Cartoon comes back to after his journey.

“Holding up his copy of Pura Neta at the Forum Magazine’s reading of his book, Bac Sierra said, “I would hope that someone can look at this and be able to enrich themselves. And you

know, maybe for Chicanos, Latinos, that they’ll be able to see this, and maybe build on their identity, of what it means to be, especially if you’re from an urban varrio, and especially from a vida loca, a crazy life kind of background.”

Pets Ease the Stress of Sheltering-In-Place

By Liz Lopez elopez32@mail.ccsf.edu

Pets have increasingly become a reliable source of companionship in the daily lives of Americans.

With 67% of households owning a pet, it’s no wonder that people turned to their “fur babies” for emotional support at the onset of COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders.

The affection of a nurturing animal can help during difficult times. Pets provide both physical and emotional benefits: decreased stress, decreased blood pressure, reduced cholesterol levels, and reduced feelings of loneliness to name a few.

The Mayo Clinic reported that a major increase in the number of U.S. adults reporting symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression during the pandemic, compared with surveys before the pandemic. Meanwhile, pet adoptions spiked this year and shelter euthanasia is down 43% from last year because of decreased intake, expanded fostering, and an increase in the percentage of pets finding homes, reports Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today.

City College student Nick Reed said, “Early this past summer, I had fallen into a deep depression. After a bad breakup and then news that I was being furloughed due to the shelter-in-place, I was at an all-time low. But this little dude [Nick’s cat, Anton] woke me up every single morning with licks to my face and forced me to get out of bed when all I wanted to do was sleep. Sure, he’s a ‘chonker’ who just wanted to be fed. But at least he gave me a reason to get up each day.”

Whether a “cat person” or a “dog person,” pet owners appreciate the endearing qualities and quirks that are unique to each animal. Pets come to anticipate their human’s routine, and learn to understand their cues and language.

“We have the strongest bond that I’ve ever experienced with a pet and his unwavering irreverence towards current events has inspired me to take life in stride,” Reed said. “The only thing he requires is good snuggles and lots of food. I wish more people were like Anton.”

These beloved companions enrich our lives and find their way into our hearts and if you listen closely enough, they might even teach you a few tricks — about how to live your best and fullest life.

Gina Vitanza’s cat, Gandalf the Gray, at home.

San Francisco, CA. 2019. (Photo by Gina Vitanza) Don Keller and his cat Eldrige. “I have been alone for months and he keeps me sane with his affection. I grew a beard and he thinks it's cool. He pokes at it and uses it as a pillow.”

Castro Valley, CA. Sept. 4, 2020. (Photo by Donald Keller)

“My cat, Ari, always fell asleep in the least convenient of places, like on important documents. He was the toughest, most courageous, and kindest little being I’ve ever met.”

San Francisco, CA. Feb. 25, 2018. (Photo by Liz Lopez/The Guardsman)

Lito, family pet of City College student Bryan Thompson. “He’s a 10 year old that thinks he’s 2.

He’s full of explosive energy and will lick your face until he finally passes out. On the beach he will run up to the waves and run away when they get close.”

At Ocean Beach in San Francisco, CA. (Undated photo by Bryan Thompson)

Nick Reed with his cat Anton.

San Francisco, CA. May 2020. (Photo by Tim Wong)

OPINION | 7

Vol. 171, Issue 2 | Feb. 9 - Feb. 23, 2020

San Francisco Reopens, SFUSD Lawsuit Looming

By Shayna Gee sgee23@mail.ccsf.edu

population of San Francisco’s private and charters.

In early December, Coleman Advocates introduced Equity Framework for Reopening San Francisco Public Schools, an action letter to tackle the racial and educational gaps experienced by the hardest hit communities. “Black and Brown families in the southeast of San Francisco almost universally are struggling to have their basic needs met...,” the framework states, urging leaders and the Board of Education to implement their plan for bridging these gaps.

On January 28, San Francisco moved to reopen some activities, an announcement made shortly after Governor Newsom lifted a stay-at-home order, which had been in effect for two months in an attempt to curb holiday surges of COVID-19.

“Today marks an important turning point that I hope we can continue to build upon,” said Mayor London Breed.

The reopening takes place while the majority of counties, including San Francisco, are in the state’s purple tier, indicating “widespread” levels of COVID-19. The city’s reopening allows outdoor gatherings to resume including dining, personal care services, zoos, and more.

As school districts grapple with reopening, the educational equity gap is widening.

The School Reopening Data Map, from the San Francisco Covid-19 Response, shows that 72 San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) schools submitted letters of interests to the city, one out of the 7 steps required for approval towards reopening school doors. While no SFUSD schools have been approved yet, the same data map shows that 113 private and charter schools in San Francisco were granted approval, with many resuming Illustration Serena Sacharoff/The Guardsman classes indoors.

Out of more than 15,800 private and charter school students, only five cases of COVID-19 have Similarly, The California Teachers Association provided been reported thus far, gleaming hope to city officials. their stance in a letter to the state legislature requesting that The debate between reopening public versus private schools not be open or reopen at purple tier levels. Their schools comes at different costs, with the latter having letter acknowledges that schools are paramount in fostering more adequate access to health, economic, and academic community for marginalized students. However, they write, resources. Smaller classrooms in private education allow “Safety… should not be a relative or subjective term up to for easier compliance with social distance guidelines when regional or political interpretation.” compared to SFUSD, who has almost four times the student With no requirement for teachers and students to get

vaccines prior to teaching and COVID-19 cases at an alltime high, SFUSD labor unions have been pushing for safety standards from the school board.

On Dec. 15, labor unions shared new safety criterias for school district reopenings, derailing the district's initial timeline of reopening on Jan. 25. The criteria requires the City and County to return in-person learning at orange tier, indicating “moderate” levels of COVID-19 for at least two weeks.

The labor unions’ short notice requests demanded far greater safety levels required by the Department of Public Health.

The failed deal between SFUSD and its labor union halted the reopening plan, drawing the attention of the mayor.

The day before Mayor Breed officiated the city’s reopening, SFUSD’s weekly Wednesday digest stated that in-person learning for most middle and high school students is unlikely.

Mayor Breed criticized the school district for prioritizing school name changes when there were no updates of a clear plan for getting students back into classrooms and the resources they need to catch up as a result of nearly 11 months of distance learning.

On Wednesday, Feb. 3, City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a lawsuit against SFUSD and the Board of Education in an urge to reopen. Herrera’s lawsuit claims the school district has not adopted a clear COVID-19 plan of reopening when possible, which is a violation of state law.

Instead of aiding SFUSD and the Board of Education, the city has decided to utilize force to get the school district to come out with a clear plan of bringing students into their classrooms with the support of Mayor Breed.

As several counties reopen their schools, San Francisco is feeling additional pressure to do the same, pursuing legal actions in their own public education system.

Coyotes Make A Bold Appearance on Campus

By Tim Hill

and other rodent attractants out in the open, coyotes have more of a variety of food items to choose from.

The front steps of City College’s main With San Francisco and the rest of the campus approaching the Science build- world on lockdown for nearly a year now, ing were host to an unusual visitor, at least coyotes are making their presence more during daylight hours. On Saturday, Jan. known. In addition, coyotes are also becom16, a coyote was spotted climbing the front ing bolder around people. Citizens have stairs of campus facing Frida Kahlo Way. reported an increase in confrontational and Although San Francisco has long been intimidating behavior from the wild canids a haven for coyotes, they are generally while walking their domestic ones. Any dog nocturnal animals and tend to stay within under, say, 50 pounds would be easy prey the confines of parks and beaches within for a coyote.

San Francisco.

It isn’t clear as to what specific prey One would normally expect to see the items are driving coyotes to frequent a majestic canids, which are the region’s de particular area. On campus, rodents are facto apex predator, amongst the more more prevalent, as well as raccoons, all of urban realms of the Bay Area, in the early which are possible candidates for a coyote morning or at dusk. I would often see them dinner. Campus is generally desolate and around 6 a.m. while riding the 5-Fulton bus quiet these days, so perhaps the coyotes have past Golden Gate Park on my way down- gotten braver because they have not associtown, usually travelling in pairs. Although ated human activity as a threat. already common throughout the majority To my knowledge, this has been the of the continental United States as well as first documented sighting of a coyote on Illustration by Manon Cadenaule/ The Guardsman. Instagram:@cadenaulem Canada, Mexico, and Central America, they campus, and what an entrance it has made! continue to successfully inhabit urban areas Its ascent up the front steps toward the that would not be suitable for most other science building was the canine version of predators.

Rocky. If this continues to be a recurring A 2017 San Francisco Chronicle article neighborhood, which is very close to City Over the last few years, coyotes have been sighting, the probability of people becoming by Peter Fimrite detailed the bloody demise College. Let this be a warning to pet owners: seen more frequently inside San Francisco concerned and calling Animal Control may of Bella, a shih tzu that was snatched in front keep your pets inside and supervised! city limits. As people leave garbage, pet food, be more likely. of its owner’s eyes in the Balboa Terrace uilleanner@gmail.com

8 | COMMUNITY

Vol. 171, Issue 2 | Feb. 9 - Feb. 23, 2021

Vol. 171, Issue 2 | Feb. 9 - Feb. 23, 2021

COMMUNITY | 9

SPORTS | 10

Vol. 171, Issue 2 | Feb. 9 - Feb. 23, 2021

From the Surf to the Turf:

Anthony Gordon’s Road to the NFL

By Angela Greco a_greco511@yahoo.com

Former starting quarterback Anthony Gordon has recently signed a futures contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, and those who witnessed his outstanding freshman campaign at City College were not all that surprised either.

His success can be traced to his recordbreaking days at Terra Nova High School in his native surf town of Pacifica, where he first discovered the ease and camaraderie of playing quarterback.

His success can also be traced to the fact that he excelled at baseball, his first love. He was even drafted by the New York Mets in 2015, an opportunity he passed up in order to follow his passion for football.

His athleticism seems to run in his family like a genetic trait; the twilight of his childhood spent admiring the perseverance and success of his Uncle Greg, his role model, who held an eminent pitching career in the major league scene.

Head Coach Jim Collins said, “Everyone wants to point at a variety of reasons why.” Collins had first-hand knowledge of Gordon's stellar level of talent from coaching him during the 2015 season when they earned their record seventh CCCAA title.

“The reality is he’s just a very talented guy who instinctively has a great feel for the game.”

Offensive coordinator and quarterback coach Dan Hayes recalled watching Gordon play during that memorable season. “He was just amazingly accurate for every kind of throw,” he reflected. “He’s special. I wasn’t at all surprised.”

Hayes also coached Gordon’s father, Ryan, in the mid 1990s, who also excelled at quarterback. Because Gordon had fond memories of being raised around his dad’s teammates and was respectfully familiar with the coaching staff, it made his choice to pursue football with the Rams fairly easy.

“They kinda turned me into the player I am today,” Gordon acknowledged. “A lot of it is talent and your own dedication, but they’ve provided a platform and an opportunity for me to pursue ultimately what I wanted to do, which was play Pac-12 football.”

Looking at Gordon’s past, Collins said he “had a really good foundation with great instinct. His natural accuracy and quick delivery kinda blew up the ranks. Just the kind of things you can’t coach. You can talk about it, you can preach it, you can maybe get better at it. But you kinda have it or you don’t.”

Against Saddleback College in the 2015 State Championship game, then freshman quarterback Anthony Gordon grips the pigskin and scans the field. San Francisco, CA. Dec. 12, 2015. (Photo by Eric Sun)

Hayes echoed a similar sentiment. Along with his level of talent, Gordon demonstrated an unteachable attribute, crucial to quarterbacking - his ability to stay relaxed and in control.

“I don’t have coaching drills for that,” Hayes said. “You can talk about it, which we do, but it’s a quality that is just God-given and he’s got it.”

Within one impressive year with the Rams, Gordon had proved his worth, helping the team claim the state championship while snagging offensive player of the game.

Teammate and friend Robert Taylor said, “I don’t think we’d have had that championship if it wasn’t for him. He’s the best quarterback I’ve ever played with.”

Gordon and Taylor’s friendship on and off the field continued when they attended Washington State together. Gordon’s decision to join the team proved to be the best move. Collins noted that former Cougars head coach Mike Leach may have just been the best coach at the time to harness Gordon’s strengths.

Then freshman quarterback Anthony Gordon receives the "Most Outstanding Offensive Player" award in the State Championship victory game against Saddleback College.

San Francisco, CA. Dec. 12, 2015. (Photo by Eric Sun)

In just one season in Leach’s Air Raid offense, Gordon rewrote Pac-12 record books, setting single-season records for passing yards, passing touchdowns, completions, and total offense.

During a turbulent 2020, Gordon signed a free-agent deal with the Seattle Seahawks but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was not able to absorb any play time and parted ways with the team.

Taking it all in stride, Gordon humbly reflected on his experience. “I got to spend time with Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson in Seattle, and then I got the chance to work with Coach Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. Two really good coaching quarterback combinations in a row, so [in this new contract] I’ll be sure to soak up as much information as I can.”

Gordon has humbly continued riding his wave of opportunity. “My plan was to play as long as I could until someone told me, ‘look, you just aren’t good enough anymore.’”

2021 appears to be perfect conditions for catching the big one.