The Guardsman, Vol. 170, Issue 7, City College of San Francisco by The Guardsman

EVENTS SERIES

CITY DREAM

STRATEGY FOR OPPONENTS

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City College Postpones Aeronautics Move to Evans By Tobin Jones tobinjones@protonmail.com

Facing opposition from faculty and suspicion from community members, City College announced on Thursday, Nov. 12, that it would be postponing plans to relocate the Aeronautics and Aircraft Maintenance Technology Programs from their longtime home at the San Francisco International (SFO) Airport Campus to the college's Evans campus on the edge of the Bayview neighborhood. City College had initially wanted to complete the move in time to offer courses from the program at Evans Campus Spring 2021 Semester. But the plan provoked an almost immediate protest from faculty and their representatives when it was first publicized in March of this year. Staff from the Aeronautics department decried the classrooms allocated to them at Evans as too small to accommodate the needs of the program and fretted that these deficiencies would jeopardize the program's certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Illustration by Manon Cadenaule/ The Guardsman. Instagram: @Cadenaulem.

Aeronautics continues on page 3

CNIT Cybersecurity Team Wins 1st Place at Western Regional CPTC

ESL Department Rises to Remote Learning Challenges, Eyes Outreach in Future

Hannah Asuncion

By Sadie Peckens

hasunci1@mail.ccsf.edu

speckens@mail.ccsf.edu

of higher technology. The participants could apply for better positions in Cybersecurity and we will get more students enrolled who realize that there The Computer Networking and Information is a local college providing nationally recognized Technology(CNIT) Cybersecurity Team, led education in Cybersecurity.” by instructors Sam Bowne and Elizabeth Aside from Cybersecurity and Network Security, Biddlecome won the Western Regional there are multiple programs that lead to other areas Collegiate PenTesting in employment like Competition during Cloud Administration, the weekend of Oct. Web Development, 24-25. They competed CISCO Technology, against teams from Microsoft Support, major universities like and Technical Support. Stanford, Cal Poly, UC Students can Riverside, and UC San also attend the basic Diego. networking classes The CNIT Cyberor at least have equivsecurity Team has been alent experience then competing in multiple proceed to take one of competitions, which these classes. All these were also against major classes have programs, colleges and universities. wh i ch p rov i d e In the past they have options to receive placed, but this year is either a Certificate their first time coming of Achievement in first. or an Associate of According to the Science Degree. Department Chair of “We used to have Computer Networking meetings on campus; and Infor mation now that we are Technology Richard all remote due to Taha, the departthe pandemic, we ment provides various must do things a bit courses for all types of differently. Students students. It varies from Computer Networking and Information Technology typically join the high school graduates Department (CNIT) Instructor, Elizabeth Biddlecome team Discord to chat to students who decide checks City College's network while on campus. with existing members to change their careers San Francisco, CA. Nov. 14, 2020. Photo by Melvin and find events that to older adults who Wong/The Guardsman. interest them. This either have been laid may change in the off or are thinking of leaving their dead-end jobs. future,” said Biddlecome. Most team practices Taha talks about the CPTC award and how are open to anyone who is interested, but due to “Like most awards, these awards help the individu- the pandemic, all the practice sessions are held als directly first. The second area of help is that it online. “Practicing along with the team is a great establishes our reputation as a premier institution Cybersecurity continues on page 3

While City College operates remotely to slow the spread of COVID-19, students and faculty have had varied experiences with remote circumstances. English as a second language (ESL) department faculty and students have faced challenges and found silver linings. Overall, faculty emphasize a need for outreach and marketing to connect with students lost in the transition, and recruit potential students. INSTRUCTION ESL Instructor and Ocean Campus Coordinator Nicki Trahan equates remote instruction to an emergency room. Different than on-line courses, which are carefully planned over time, remote instruction is an emergency measure. Overall, Trahan said, “I won’t prefer this model of remote because it is missing the personal component. I think the students feel that…they can all see me so they feel connected to me, but it’s harder for me. I like seeing their faces. I like knowing who they are.” Technical challenges have also been a factor for instructors and students. ESL Instructor Jessica Buchsbaum said that transitioning material from a textbook to an on-line format took a lot of time and technical skill from each instructor. In addition, she noted, while some things are similar on Zoom, other things are much harder to replicate. ESl continues on page 2

Drastic Cuts Across the Board to Address College’s “Dire Fiscal Emergency” in Approved Multi-Year Budget, Enrollment Plan By Annette Mullaney

Colleges (ACCJC) placed City College under enhanced monitoring, requiring a response by early December. In addition, the College faces a financial cliff in Substantial cuts are on the horizon to address City 2024 – 25, when it is projected to lose $8 million in state College’s “dire fiscal emergency” in the Multi-Year Budget funding. Currently, City College receives State fundand Enrollment (MYBE) Plan adopted unanimously by ing regardless of enrollment due to a “hold harmless” the Board of Supervisors Nov. 12 despite vocal opposition. measure intended to help community colleges transi“City College is faced with an existential crisis,” said tion to the new formula based on enrollment and certain Administrators Association Co-Chair Jill Yee at the board success measures. meeting. “We must set a sustainable course which reflects the The MYBE, which sets out revenue expectations and realities of declining enrollment and decreasing revenues.” spending guidelines through 2024 – 25, will reduce spending That declining enrollment, plus years of deficit spend- on personnel across all categories. Part-time faculty will be ing, depleted reserves, and delayed state funding because particularly hard hit: using 2020 – 21 as a baseline, there of the pandemic have put the college in danger of becom- will be a 27% decrease in spending from unrestricted funds ing insolvent, threatening its accreditation. In September, in 2021 – 22, and 44.3% by 2024 – 25. Overall spending on Illustration by Daina Medveder Koziot/Special to The the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Multi-Year continues on page 2 Guardsman. Instagram: @Dmkoziot. Collaborator to The Guardsman

2 | NEWS

ESL continued from page 1 For instance, instructors cannot observe students’ work during class, to see how the work is going. Despite the challenges, there have been some positives for students and teachers when it comes to instruction. ESL Instructor Denise Selleck emphasized that the instruction challenges outweighed the benefits, but she did pick up one technique. She learned a new tech-based note-taking method from another instructor, which she plans to use even when in-person classes resume. Buchsbaum also found a silver lining, saying “I don’t want to be Pollyannaish because it’s been really challenging, but the good part of it is that it’s motivated a lot of our students to figure out how those [technical] tools work…and now they have a lot more technological skills that they didn’t have before,” Buchsbaum said. ESL student Anastassiya Zaikina likes remote instruction. She said it is easier for her to take classes this way because it eliminates the time and cost of transit. In terms of learning, Zaikina said she isn’t experiencing a big difference, since she can still contact her instructor. “My experience with Nicki [Trahan] is she is really helpful, if you have any questions you can contact her any time,” Zaikina said. Each students’ experience is unique. To pursue remote instruction, students and instructors first need access to the tools and information remote instruction requires. Access varies for students and instructors.

Drastic Cuts continued from page 1

ACCESS ESL Instructor, and Downtown Campus and Evans Campus Coordinator Christa Lewis explained that in order to use Canvas and/or Zoom, students need access to the internet and a computer, and need the literacy skills Canvas requires. Not all students have all three. Lewis said, “students not having resources is an equity concern…I was raised by a community college educator so I kind of have this idea that we should be all things to all people, and we’re really not that if we’re not providing people with resources that they can access.” ESL student America Osorio was initially concerned about remote classes because of an access problem. Her laptop was not working, so she used her cell phone, which she described as extremely difficult. Now that her laptop is fixed, Osorio likes remote learning because she is saving time on transit from the East Bay and she still feels connected to classmates. “If I need help we have many ways to collaborate. For example, we have Remind, we have Canvas, we have WhatsApp. So it is working,” Osorio said. Osorio plans to take even more classes than usual next semester since City College will be remote again. OUTREACH

Looking ahead, the ESL department is discussing increased marketing and outreach, to achieve two goals. One, to bring students back who were lost during the registration challenges of going remote and two, to recruit new students. Sources said credit registration remained positive, but non-credit registration was significantly disrupted when going remote, partly because the typical process relied on instructors completing paper forms for each student, which were sent to registration for processing. Due to remote status, the paper forms, a necessary part of the process due to Illustration by Burcu Ozdemir/The Guardsman. Instagram: @Ozdemrbrcu. FERPA regulations, were not able to be

used. This and other factors led to a significant dip in non-credit enrollment. To get students back, instructors and volunteers contacted students individually, which increased initial numbers, but overall, more outreach could bring more students back. ESL Department Chair Gregory Keech said outreach could also bring in new students, citing a statistic from a budget meeting. A draft City College multi-year budget and enrollment plan, available in the documents of a Nov. 3 budget meeting, cites a US Census Bureau American Community Survey, which states that in 2018 there were around 147,026 people in San Francisco who identified as speaking English “less than very well.” The document points out that this is a decline from 2011 when the grand total was 170,245 people. Currently, according to Keech, there are around 9,062 enrollments (not individual students) in ESL credit and non-credit courses combined. Keech points out “There’s a huge portion of San Francisco that we’re not reaching. Maybe some of them don’t need ESL, we don’t know what their needs are. But we aren’t doing enough marketing to make sure that we're offering them the service of learning English.” Steps are being taken to develop outreach. For example, a group in which each non-credit campus is represented has been formed, and Keech is anxious to meet with the new Director Media, Governmental Relations & Marketing, Rosie Zepeda, when she starts. Instructors shared ideas for outreach, often noting the potential of the student network. Buchsbaum said “I think the key thing right now is that our college needs to do a much, much better job of reaching out to students because a lot of our students are connected. A lot of our students use social media and use messaging apps…so I’m convinced that there’s a way to reach students… but we have to do it in a way that works for students.”

Board of Trustees Prioritize Increasing Enrollment, Cutting Costs by 2025 Loretta Bonifacio lbonifa2@mail.ccsf.edu

The Board of Trustees unanimously approved a draft of their strategic multi-year budget and enrollment plan spanning the fiscal years of 2021 – 2022 through 2024 – 2025 during a meeting on Nov. 12. For City College to achieve “fiscal sustainability, long-term sustainability, and stabilized enrollment,” the plan proposes that programs be restructured and the reserve budget increase from 5.3 percent to 8.2 percent. The other nine Bay Area community college districts have reserve budgets hovering between 10 and 20 percent

of their revenue. The plan comes at a unique time, where City College is subject to “enhanced monitoring” by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). By Dec. 4, the College must submit their plan to the ACCJC for review. The Trustees agreed that the inherent complexities that accompany forecasting the future will warrant frequent review of the plan. Chancellor Rajen Vurdien emphasized the singular vision of the senior administrators who drafted the plan. “We will never sacrifice the future of all the people of

Staff Co-Editors-in-Chief Jennifer Yin Meyer Gorelick News Editor Matheus Maynard

this county and this city who need instruction, who need an education, who need to transfer, who need to learn ESL, who need to learn a trade, who need to take noncredit classes,” Vurdien said. The College receives funding from the state for a maximum of 22,000 enrolled students. The 18,600 students currently enrolled for the Fall semester marks a subsequent loss of 20 million dollars. In 2012 – 2013, 32,600 full-time students were enrolled. The Trustees considered different factors leading to declining enrollment. Some factors discussed were the mass exodus of residents from San Francisco due to COVID19, the general nationwide

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Opinion Editor Andy Damian-Correa Photo Editor Emily Trinh

Vol. 170, Issue 7 | Nov. 19 - Dec. 2, 2020

decline of students enrolling at community colleges, and the lingering effects of poor publicity from the accreditation crisis of 2012. Alternative methods for outreaching and recruiting students will continue to be explored, as current efforts have yielded subpar results. Vice President Tom Temprano facilitated the meeting in the absence of President Shanell Williams. Williams and Temprano recently won reelection to the Community College Board on Nov. 3. They will be joined by incoming Trustees, Aliya Chisti and Alan Wong. The next Board of Trustees meeting is scheduled for Dec. 10.

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Online Editor Fran Smith Social Media Editor

Diana Guzman Illustrators Manon Cadenaule Burcu Ozdemir Staff Writers Eleni Balakrishnan An Pham

faculty salaries will fall by 15% in 2021 – 22 and 23.9% by 2024-45. The plan also targets cutting at least 600 class sections in 2021 – 22, a decrease of 11%. Many faculty opposed the cuts, saying the plan did not provide specifics or priorities guiding cuts. “Instead of actually figuring it out and coming up with an analysis and a plan, we just keep cutting,” said Enrollment Management Committee Co-Chair Wynd Kaufman, adding “There’s no analysis of where these cuts would be.” “Robust full classes are being cut with these sort of top-down slash and burn cuts,” said English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher Alison Datz, one of many ESL teachers and students, as well as Ethnic Studies instructors, who spoke in opposition to the plan, believing that cuts to part-time faculty will affect their programs disproportionately. Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs Tom Boegel did confirm at a Nov. 5 Participatory Governance Council meeting that the majority of those 600 section reductions will come from cutting part-time instructors. Many faculty pointed to what they called disproportionate cuts to faculty, particularly compared to administrators. “Isn’t the purpose of a college to provide classes for students?” said Rick Baum, member of Higher Education Action Heat (HEAT) and part-time professor. “It’s not the administrators who teach them.” Administrators and classified (i.e. service and support) staff spending will also be cut about 11% in 2021 – 22 and 17% by 2024 – 25, with 2020 – 21 as a baseline. However, 2020 – 21 budgets themselves reflect previous cuts to classes and faculty, including the elimination of 250 part-time faculty this summer, and the cut to 300 course sections last year. Datz said the College has been in a “downward spiral” of cutting classes and concomitant enrollment declines, predicting these cuts would only exacerbate the decline. City College’s enrollment declined precipitously in the past decade, outpacing the general downward trend for community colleges in California and the Bay Area. While statewide enrollment declined 18.6% since 2008 – 09, City College’s decreased by 34.6%. The pandemic hasn’t helped; enrollment for Fall 2020 is down 18% from last year. According to Academic Senate President Simon Hanson, part of this spiral is due to the “hold harmless” funding formula, which disconnected state revenues from enrollment. “There’s no incentive to get more students,” he said. “[Hold harmless] allowed for cutting. Before, we had to adjust.” The MYBE aims to stabilize enrollment despite cuts, though does not outline how. Chancellor Rajen Vurdien did say at the meeting that current classes have a fill rate of 70%, so even with cuts “there will be enough sections so that not a single one of the courses that we offer on a regular basis will be eliminated.” Many faculty were disappointed that previous goals to increase enrollment have been abandoned. “Do we imagine that enrollment can’t increase?” said American Federation of Teachers 2121 President Malaika Finkelstein. “Maybe it’s a hammer to hold over our heads as we go into contract negotiations.” “There’s an assumption that these students are gone and that we can’t attract new students… I think that’s a false assumption” said Teacher Preparation Coordinator Kathleen White. “We’re going to have to be positively innovative, self-reflective, set realistic goals, market to our community, and not make changes every year in the schedule and registration process.” “We had two years of overspending to try to grow enrollment and it didn’t happen,” said Senior Vice Chancellor of Administrative and Student Affairs Dianna Gonzales. Student Trustee Vick Van Chung is still hopeful about growing enrollment. “How can we capitalize on the fact that we’re in one of the wealthiest cities in the world?” she said. In lieu of budgetary support,“we’re going to have to get creative. We’re going to have to pull some serious grassroots organizing.” Tim Hill Starr Wilson Hannah Patricia Asuncion

Elizabeth Lopez Tobin Jones Sadie Peckens

John Taylor Schneider Kaiyo Funaki Rachael Scarborough Photographers Jennifer Hsu Kevin Kelleher Melvin Wong

NEWS | 3

Vol. 170, Issue 7 | Nov. 19 - Dec. 2, 2020

Cybersecurity continued from page 1 way to get involved and learn more about participating Cybersecurity Team mentioned how their primary focus in various competitions.” as a team was to improve their communication and Usually, there are 6-8 students per team which are coordination skills beyond their technical skills. They typically selected before each registration for compe- made sure that the whole team was on the same page titions. They are selected “based on several criteria, during the entire competition. including technical and non-technical skills, good The team was very surprised at their first-place sportspersonship, ability to collaborate well, eligibility victory since there were “such incredible teams” in the based on enrollment, and availability.” Western Region like Stanford, who was this year’s host “The team has won awards at CPTC and other for the competition. competitions in the past. This is the first time CCSF “The whole community has always been so supportive has won first place at regionals (we have previously come and we're very lucky to be able to take part in it. The in second and third at past CPTC regionals, and won team is incredibly excited to move on to nationals this an IEEE-sponsored prize at nationals). This is the first year and are ready to take what we have learned to the time any team has ever beaten Stanford!” next level! We've been refining our process and plan on Dante Alabastro Co-Captain of the CNIT performing even stronger at nationals,” Alabastro said.

Computer Networking and Information Technology (CNIT) instructor Elizabeth Biddlecome makes her way through City College Ocean campus after not having set foot in the area since the beginning of the pandemic. San Francisco, CA. Nov. 14, 2020. Photo by Melvin Wong/The Guardsman.

Computer Networking and Information Technology (CNIT) Cybersecurity Team Co-Captain, Dante Alabastro regales the story of his team's recent first place victory at the Western Regional Collegiate PenTesting Competition. San Francisco, CA. Nov. 14, 2020. Photo by Melvin Wong/The Guardsman.

Aeronautics continued from page 1 Those already teaching classes at Evans worried that the program would displace them from their classrooms, forcing them to compete for space with other courses. Others expressed concern over the potential environmental and noise impacts on the surrounding neighborhood.

number of locations on Treasure Island. “There’s lots of other areas to look at,” he said. “And I really don't feel that that college has made an effort.”

PROGRAM'S SEARCH FOR A NEW HOME

At a hastily convened town hall meeting on November the 12th to discuss the future of Evans Campus, dozens of faculty and community members gave voice to the anger many feel about how the process has been conducted. Alyssa Jones-Garner, a Bayview resident and former Associated Student Council member, voiced frustration at what she said was a lack of transparency by the administration regarding the potential environmental impacts on the historically African-American Bayview neighborhood, which has often been used as a dumping ground for San Francisco's most hazardous and toxic industries. “Everything that the city does not want to have to deal with like the water treatment plant, the power plant, industrial waste, radioactive waste, has always been dumped in this community and now it sounds like you want to add another harmful element into an embattled community,” she told the Chancellor. “Have you discussed the potential health impacts? Have you done any noise abatement studies? Have you done any environmental studies? Because you haven’t cited one. You haven't even referred to one that's been done about the potential environmental impacts of bringing this program into a largely residential area with the largest population of children in the entire city.” “I would like to hear some comment about the lead in the gasoline that is going to be used for these (jet) engines,” said Andrew Saunders, who teaches motorcycle repair and maintenance at Evans. “Because if they have to run on the campus, they're going to be putting lead into the air.” He also raised concerns about the potential loss of the program’s FAA accreditation.

The Aeronautics and Aircraft Maintenance Technology Program's history at the airport location dates back to 1977 when City College signed a 40-year lease with San Francisco International Airport for the rent of $1 a year. According to college officials, when the lease expired in 2017, they were told by SFO representatives that it would not be renewed. With help from the Mayor's office, the college was able to negotiate an extension until the end of 2020, giving them time to locate another space at the airport. Interim-Chancellor Rajen Vurdein says that he and his predecessors had tried to work with SFO to locate a new site, but that they were unable to come to an agreement that was both practical and affordable. All of the proposed locations, he said, were either too expensive or unavailable. In Spring 2020, he said, they made a last-ditch effort to reach out to SFO’s Chief Operating Officer and were told that proposed sites were now all required for the planned expansion of the airport. Despite Chancellor Vurdien’s insistence that City College had exhausted every possible avenue, some faculty expressed skepticism. One instructor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic, which has crippled the aviation industry worldwide, has resulted in the temporary cancellation of SFO's planned expansion, potentially giving the college much more leeway to negotiate. Stephen Brady, the faculty union AFT 2121 site representative for the Evans Campus, said that there were numerous alternative sites that the college had not looked into, such as the warehouses at Fort Mason, the former Exploratorium building at the Palace of Fine Arts, and a Faculty Advisor Juan Gonzales

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Students and faculty of the Aeronautics and Aircraft Maintenance Technology programs seemed pessimistic if resigned to the inevitability of the move. The department’s chairman, Kenny Verbeckmoes asked that community members and those in departments that stand to be displaced by the move not take it out on the program. “We’re not the villains here...We're just trying to survive.” David Luo, a student in the Aircraft Maintenance Technology Program, told the Guardsman that he is worried about space issues at the new site. “We’ll have to share the same small campus with other courses,” he said, and said that ideally, the program would move to a “Bigger campus... where we can put all the engines and airplanes without the need to share the same workshop.” College officials had initially insisted that, while the move was not ideal, many of the fears expressed by members of the college community and Evans neighbors were overblown. Facilities Dean Torrance Bynum said that jet engines would be run no more than once a semester and that this process would occur off-site, potentially at SFO, though nowhere has yet been secured. He also said that City College was working with the FAA to ensure accreditation. However, just over a week after giving these assurances, Chancellor Vurdien announced the postponement of the move, citing delays in required environmental studies and the FAA certification process. The program will still vacate its current location at SFO, but its equipment will be placed in storage until it can be moved to Evans. City College spokeswoman Rosie Zepeda admitted that the college had not anticipated some of the difficulties of the processes of environmental review and FAA approval, but said that she believed the delay could be a positive development. “It gives us a lot more time to engage with the community, and for the community to be informed, and part of the process.” The college will hold additional public town hall meetings on the future of the program via Zoom on Nov. 18, and Dec. 2, 9, and 16.

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4 | CULTURE

Vol. 170, Issue 7 | Nov. 19 - Dec. 2, 2020

Charlie and the T-House Events Series An Pham apham34@mail.ccsf.edu

Illustration by Daina Medveder Koziot/Special to The Guardsman. Instagram: @Dmkoziot.

The pandemic has limited chances for many students to find resources that they need for studying, and meeting up with friends is even harder, but City College’s Queer Resource Center has been hosting a series of events called The T-House which could fulfill both for their students. The Queer Resource Center announced that they will be hosting an event series for transmasculine and masculine of center communities called the T-House, and more importantly, the event series are completely online for the safety of people. Student Lab Aide for Queer Resource Center who is also host for the event series Charlie Garcia-Spiegel said the he had the idea about this type of event since 2017 when he was studying in the east coast. According to The T-House’ website, “The T-House is a community gathering space and event series for transmasculine and masculine of center individuals… and also include anyone who feels included by the phrase ‘transmasculine and masculine of center people’ regardless of specific gender identity or affectional orientation.” T-House has already hosted four events since the end of October counting to the closest one was about Navigating Trans Healthcare, held on Nov 12. The focusing activities were sharing skills within the community to navigate the medical world as a transmasculine or masculine of center person. Garcia-Spiegel said that the internet have always been a great help for non-binary communities to conect with each other since before the pandemic. And when the pandemic did hit, going online became necessary more

than ever before. “Isolation is something we all struggle with, and the internet has been a blessing, that's kind of a way that we have built our communities.” Garcia-Spiegel said, “I've brought the agenda for all of them but it all went a different way, but that's kind of a great thing about this kind meeting because it’s the wants and the needs of the communities that's important.” Garcia-Spiegel also dropped a message to everyone living in the Bay Area at the end of The T-House’ website to remind us of Indigenous people and their land. “There’s a lot of things we owe to them, and that's a way that I usually do as a land acknowledgement to remind everyone that not all is given to us freely.” “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 website ends with an essential message, “We invite you to reflect on where you are logging in from, and to form meaningful relationships with the Indigenous communities of your area.” The T-House next event will be hosted on Nov 19, and the topic is “Trans Resilience and Community Care” and there’s only two other events that will follow to wrap up the semester. Registration for the event will be on their website. City College has a wide variety of courses for gender studies and social justice studies, and the school also offers Women Resource Center and Queer Resource Center which offers a lot of programs and events, such as “The T-House event series,” to support their diverse students in many diferent ways, especially during this pandemic.

Tending Florists and Horticulturists in Harsh Seasons JohnTaylor Wildfeuer jt.wildfeuer@gmail.com

Planting and tending, trimming and arranging, it would be hard to imagine wanting a career working with nature without a love of working with one’s hands, but seeding the skills needed without time in the soil is a thorny endeavor. In backyards, balconies, and window boxes across the Bay Area an increased interest in greening one’s thumb has brought color and a sense of consistency to budding home gardeners. As a result, orchid specialist Tom Perlite is teaching his first course this semester to a class of students for whom, “This seems to be their first foray into horticulture.” With restaurants and cafes cautiously reopening, the city may see a return to the often lavish and opulent bouquets local patrons had grown accustomed to before surviving the COVID-19 pandemic became all-consuming. In light of this, the resurgent and ongoing need for florists and horticulturists seems inevitable, and so too the need for quality education on the subjects. Within City College’s Environmental Horticulture and Floristry department there is no debate as to the importance of hands-on experience, of learning literally in the field, or in the greenhouse as the case may be.

Steven Brown, department chair, is determined to once again offer firsthand, tangible engagement, one of the first of many sacrifices to COVID-19 safety protocols. “We are not really able to do a good job of training people to work in our industries without an in person learning experience,” Brown laments, noting that even when these offerings are once again permitted they “likely cannot be a part of consideration for one's grade” due to the current inaccessibility of City College greenhouses to students.

“We are not really able to do a good job of training people to work in our industries without an in person learning experience.” — Steven Brown, City College’s Environmental Horticulture and Floristry Department chair

Perlite adds, “the hands on experience is not there, which is a drag.” This time of year students in the greenhouse production class would typically be rooted in a greenhouse designated for the annual crop of one thousand Poinsettias, planting and pinching over their ten-to-twelve week growing period. Tom Perlite, who volunteered in the department for four years before becoming a City College instructor and has worked in the Orchid industry for ten times that length, mourns the loss of the tradition this fall. Perlite explains, “If you're growing them for production or sale, you basically plant the cuttings at the end of August, and then they are harvested or sold right after Thanksgiving. So it's perfect for the fall class.” Thomas Wang, a fellow instructor in the department, feels similarly, and, with collaboration from others in the department, has made a herculean effort to meet students not only halfway, but the entire way if necessary to ensure that they have what they need to prepare themselves for work in the field. “Throughout the semester we have had plant giveaways, plant drop-offs, outdoor consults, and walkabout gardening sessions in public spaces,” Wang recalls. Florists and Horticulturists continues on page 5

CULTURE | 5

Vol. 170, Issue 7 | Nov. 19 - Dec. 2, 2020

City DREAM is Here to Help Undocumented Students Eleni Balakrishnan ebalakri@mail.ccsf.edu

City College’s resource center for undocumented students and those facing immigration issues, City DREAM, is working to ensure its target community knows it’s still here to help, even from a distance. Between Oct. 19 and 23, City DREAM held a series of virtual events and workshops in solidarity with its undocumented student population, for the Community College League of California’s fourth annual Undocumented Student Action Week. Around 500 undocumented students attend City College, estimated Jacqueline Yañez Martinez, City DREAM’s coordinator. During a ‘Know Your Rights’ workshop on Oct. 22, two legal representatives from the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area (IIBA) advised the City College community on the free legal services and case consultations they provide through a 2019 partnership with the school. IIBA is a local nonprofit, with a 102-year history providing immigrationrelated legal services and civic engagement opportunities to the Bay Area. During the workshop, Leslie Hernandez, a paralegal with IIBA explained how everyone, regardless of immigration status, has constitutional rights while within US borders. She and Justin Skinner, an immigration attorney with IIBA, also explained how to prepare for interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and police. “Even though it is sometimes unknown and scary times,” Hernandez said, she hopes the session helped people understand “they don't have to be fearful, and know that they can live securely in this country.” With that understanding, she hopes more people keep going to school, regardless of their immigration status. According to Hernandez, IIBA typically serves 10,000 clients a year in the Bay Area. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, IIBA currently provides phone, mail, and email consultations

to students in lieu of meeting on college campuses. “Even through remote [meetings], we have been able to help a handful of people,” Hernandez said, though she was uncertain how their numbers would change this year with all seven IIBA offices closed. City DREAM, only founded in the fall 2019 semester, had difficulty reaching students at first, Martinez said. “We were located in front of the bookstore, so that wasn’t a proper space for undocumented students — it was open glass, and there was no confidentiality when students came in.” In March, when City DREAM found a safer space, the campus closed and all City DREAM services were relegated to Zoom. The move online meant plans had to change, Martinez Kofi Q, an artist from Ghana, Africa holds up art by Thaddeus Coates in protest said. Now, there is a virtual help against systemic racism at the George Floyd Solidarity Protest and March in the desk where anyone can enter and city's Mission District. June 3, 2020. San Francisco, CA. Photo by Kevin Kelleher/ ask questions of an academic Special to The Guardsman. counselor or a financial aid specialist, but she said most interactions with students now take services are available only to students at Ocean Campus. place over email. “We also have to bring out the word that [City DREAM] is Likewise, Martinez said the virtual events for the state- open to all students,” she said. wide week of action were also a bit different. “This year, the Other events in the Week of Action included webinars state focused more on staff, faculty, and administrators on on paying for college and professional development, a viewhow they can support undocumented students,” she said. ing of the documentary ‘Documented,’ and a presentation City DREAM also does outreach to instructors on how to called ‘We Are More Than Tragic Stories’ by an undocusupport undocumented students, phonebanking to students, mented poet, Yosimar Reyes. Martinez said Reyes spoke and is now expanding its services to other campuses. Through to empower undocumented students to use their voice as the expansion, Martinez hopes to dispel misconceptions that students and immigrants.

Florists and Horticulturists continues from page 4 Perlite and Wang, resolved to help students approximate the full and varied experience the department has provided in the past, set up at the Botanical Gardens with plants for students, and even “delivered a number of the plants to a number of students that were unable to meet,” says Perlite. This, naturally, serves the students and the expressed need for tactile practice, but it is also a sort of adoption program for some of the many plants left to be tended by the department’s skeleton crew. Brown matter-of-factly states, “We have no one to assist with the maintenance of the department. Most faculty are working from home, no lab-aid, no volunteers, just me and our nursery specialist and we are trying to keep our hours to a minimum.” City College’s nursery specialist, Sungmun Ryu, manages the college’s lath house and three greenhouses as well as just about every living thing in and around them save orchids, from scores of donated plants to crops in the outdoor growing space. “She’s remarkable,” Perlite notes, “she does a great job.” These outdoor spaces and others could make for a safe space in which to learn and grow, “when the education system is okay with us teaching small cohorts of maybe 8 people at a time in an outdoor setting,” Wang proposes. “We have suggested this numerous times,” he continues, “but still no go.”

“We have no one to assist with the maintenance of the department. Most faculty are working from home, no lab-aid, no volunteers, just me and our nursery specialist and we are trying to keep our hours to a minimum.” — Steven Brown, City College’s Environmental Horticulture and Floristry Departmentt chair Illustration by Manon Cadenaule/The Guardsman. Instagram: @Cadenaulem.

6 | OPINION

Vol. 170, Issue 7 | Nov. 19 - Dec. 2, 2020

Strategy for Opponents By Jay Sea

the presidency is one step, the more significant work is our recruitment issue. An election splits a nation, and it has always As campaigning finally comes to a close and been up to the incumbent to gather back the this year’s election nears its end after a record- people after the split the campaign causes and breaking voter turnout, Donald Trump still fuse the public back together again. That will refuses to concede to Joe Biden and Kamala not happen after this election as Trump is deterHarris president and vice president-elect. A mined to drag out his losing process as long as bitter divide splits the nation. 72 million of our possible at our expense. As sad as it is, the work fellow Americans voted for Trump, earning 7 nonetheless remains, and again, we will not wait million more votes than in 2016. If we are to for politicians to heal our communities or our celebrate this victory for progressive action for relationships. the next four years, how will these executives Poor folks, disabled people, undocumented or their administration actually accomplish people, incarcerated people, people of color, reunification? and marginalized folks have never waited for What this election and the last four years has the “right candidate” to show up to get them indeed taught us, I believe, is: there are so many what they need to survive. more folks still not getting their human needs A strategy called Mutual Aid, championed met (pre/post-pandemic). Folks like women, by the work of Dean Spade and long employed immigrants, and LGBT, and folks like rural since Hurricane Sandy when people spontapoor people and non-college-educated white neously deployed to serve their own and total folks have also not felt their human needs being strangers’ needs horizontally without a topmet by the current structure. down hierarchy orchestrating the effort. Folks Even our opponents have human needs. banded together over their commonly shared Belonging, dignity, safety, every person needs human needs and collaborated, even if they these, and to put anyone over the other leads to didn’t share 100% of their ideals. trauma. For example, compromising dignity to For example, an opponent is anti-immigrant. feel safe leads to trauma. Perpetuating violence But you later learn this person also shares antilike toxic masculinity to feel proud or a part police brutality views. Maybe they were abused of the group generates trauma. Unfortunately, by police at some point and need authority to many of our opponents have found their human stop brutalizing them. If our peers supported needs met in coercive hate groups. Our oppo- us, could we not possibly meet an opponent on nents will not simply disappear just because we a shared need and work through that and see can block them from our feed. And our oppo- how their needs and other marginalized folks' nents have human needs that our government needs are shared and that we can help those is also not providing. If we can use this moment who share our needs. Do we not need to develop as an opportunity to realize that while winning this skill for our survival? jcontere@mail.ccsf.edu

Revelers take to the streets in droves, many with celebratory signs, immediately following the announcement of President-Elect Joe Biden's win on November 7, 2020. San Francisco, CA. Photo by Kevin Kelleher/Special to The Guardsman.

A crowd celebrates President elect, Joseph Biden and Vice-President elect, Kamala Harris presidential election victory on Castro St. San Francisco, CA. Nov. 7, 2020. Photo by Emily Trinh/The Guardsman.

Vol. 170, Issue 7 | Nov. 19 - Dec. 2, 2020

OPINION | 7

Will the BOT Continue its Path to Destroy CCSF? By Starr A. Wilson

hands, fingers, and necks? The music and videos that they play on swilson3@mail.ccsf.edu their phones? The clothes that they The Board of Trustees wear? The janitors cleaning the acquired two new members halls? The plants in their offices? through the recent election Where do you think the people where Shanell Williams and Tom who made these things got trained? Temprano remained on the board. These are the precise classes that The 2018-2025 Institutional are being cut. Goals of the Board of Trustees are Many teachers have made it a to improve the student experience, career to teach at City College and institutionalize equity, improve are passionate about our commucommunication, strengthen nity. City College includes the credit and noncredit programs, non-English speakers learning to improve the operation of the speak English, the unskilled learncollege, strengthen community, ing skills to work, the first-time education, and industry partner- in-the-family college students, the ships, maintain, improve, and life-long learners, and the elders. build facilities; and expand and They are taking classes to preserve encourage opportunities for their memories and enhance professional development. their abilities. In September, the Accreditation Yes, BOT, we need you to serve Commission for Community and City College. If the budget cuts Junior Colleges put City College keep happening, City College will on “enhanced monitoring” due to be no more. You will no longer budget concerns and high turnover have to worry about building new in its leadership. buildings because there will be no Students, instructors, classi- students in the seats, no teachers, Illustration by Daina Medveder Koziot/Special to The Guardsman. Instagram: @Dmkoziot. fied staff, and contractors have and no classified personnel. Just had to deal with delays to access an empty, silent campus where the campus labs, equipment, and pigeons crap on the sidewalks. Is back against the chronic under- Ph.D., the present Interim classified staff, and community. software because of SFDPH that what you want? funding of education in this state Chancellor, $340,000 plus $10,000 Step up to the plate. Listen to us. safety regulations. In a statement to the SF and country.” for moving costs, when the average Meet our needs. Your credentials The OLAD and noncredit Examiner Oct. 28, Tom Temprano So if you are concerned salary for the campus as of 2018 and past accomplishments say you programs have been cut. Has the stated, “We are going to continue about chronic underfunding, why was $65,000? cared about us in the past. You BOT not looked at their offices? to have to make tough, unpopu- have you paid chancellor Diana The BOT needs to honor need to do what is right. Because Do they not see the paintings on lar choices at City College the Gonzales $285,000, Mark Rocha, their institutional goals to speak if you don’t, we all lose. All the the walls? The jewelry on their next four years. We need to fight $354,509 and Rajen Vurdien, on behalf of the students, faculty, seats will be empty, including yours.