The Guardsman, Vol. 160, Issue 2. City College of San Francisco

THE GUARDSMAN VOL. 160, ISSUE 2, SEPT. 9 - SEPT. 22, 2015 | CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO | SINCE 1935 | WWW.THEGUARDSMAN.COM | @THEGUARDSMAN | #THEGUARDSMAN | FREE

INTERIM CHANCELLOR

Susan Lamb Steps Up

ACCJC UPDATE

A Closer Look at City Colleges New Chancellor

By Marco Siler-Gonzales mgonzales@theguardsman.com NEWS EDITOR

Susan Lamb had one foot out the door of City College when she announced her plans to resign as vice chancellor of academic affairs last February, but that was before State Chancellor Brice Harris offered her the opportunity to take over as interim chancellor of the college.

“Ms. Lamb has been serving as vice chancellor of academic affairs since 2013 and her knowledge of the college and of accreditation makes her an excellent leader for the next phase of development of the college,” Harris and Special Trustee Guy Lease wrote in a joint letter to the college in June.

Since the Board of Trustees granted her two-year contract in July, Lamb has been working with City College constituents preparing the school to meet standards set by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges by November 2017. Reaffirmation of City College’s accreditation by the commission is vital to keeping the school open.

“We have a lot of confidence in Susan and her ability to get us to the finish line,” Board of Trustees President Rafael Mandelman said. “We want to give her time to work with enrollment, accreditation issues and the all-around stability of the college.”

As an administrator, Lamb has experienced firsthand the survival mode City College is now in.

As the former vice president of instruction at Diablo Valley College, Lamb worked through the same process to reaffirm the school’s accreditation after it was placed on “show cause” status by the accredit-

Demographics

ing commission in 2008.

Lamb became City College’s vice chancellor of academic affairs on Nov. 1, 2013, just as the accrediting commission terminated the school’s accreditation. The restoration process for the school had not yet been implemented.

Race for Equity Services

In the final stage to restore accreditation, Lamb must push the school toward certain administrative and financial standards, including the improvement of student equity.

Lamb said plans to upgrade equitable student services had not made much progress by the time she took over as chancellor.

“ We have a lot of confidence in Susan and her ability to get us to the finish line.”

In August, Lamb created E.A.S.E (Equal Access to Success Emergency task force), comprised of students, faculty and administration to develop a plan to improve student equity services. Lamb aims to work with unions and constituency groups to refine student service plans in September and October, and implement the changes by next fall.

Lamb said her idea is to prepare, refine and evaluate these changes to student services before the accrediting commission’s restoration team visits for their evaluation next year.

Contract Negotiations

Other than the chancellor and vice chancellor, faculty and administrative salaries are now 3.5 percent below what they were in 2007.

Lamb Continued on page 2

Illustration By Serina Mercado

City College Vindecated by State New Rulings Released

By Audrey Garces agarces@theguardsman.com STAFF WRITER

The future of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges remains uncertain after a state task force deemed the commission unfit to oversee California community colleges, reinforcing criticism surrounding the sanctions it has imposed on the majority of these schools.

The panel has advised State Chancellor Brice Harris to replace the accrediting commission with a new accrediting agency.

City College is still sanctioned under “show cause” by the commission until fall of next year, in which the school must show the agency they have reached financial and administrative standards in order to remain accredited. If accreditation is revoked at that point, City College will lose public funding and will have to shut down.

Task Force Raises Concerns

The state appointed a 10-member task force of City College leaders and faculty members to evaluate the accrediting commission after hearing concerns from college faculty, the California Federation of Teachers, politicians and the chancellor’s office, to name a few.

“We know City College is critically important to our city’s future.”

“Like most people, I too have lost confidence in the ACCJC to do its job holding colleges accountable,” Board of Trustees member Amy Bacharach said. “Although I am a strong advocate for accrediting systems, and believe that institutions of higher education must be held to high standards, it was clear that the ACCJC did not

operate in the best interests of the institutions it was supposed to be overseeing.”

In a 270-page report, the task force indicated the accrediting commission placed sanctions on 53 percent of California’s community colleges in 2005. In comparison, accreditation agencies serving other regions sanctioned only 12 percent on average.

The report also stated that the ideal accrediting commission would help to improve colleges, rather than strictly scrutinizing and threatening to revoke their accreditation.

“One of the main questions about ACCJC and the accreditation process is whether it is a collegial process intended to assist colleges in continuous improvement – or whether it is a punitive process run by an organization which regards itself as judge and jury,” ESL Department Chair Gregory Keech said.

ACCJC Continued on page 2

City College Enrollment Stabilizes Amid Demographic Shift

By Marco Siler-Gonzales

mgonzales@theguardsman.com NEWS EDITOR

Fall semester has begun, and the hemorrhaging of City College’s enrollment finally seems to have tapered, though concerns for many remain on the decreasing demographic of minority students.

Compared to the end of August last year, early enrollment figures from the Office of Admissions and Records indicate the total number of students who signed up for credit

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College Briefs, keeping you up to date

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classes this year is presently greater than last year’s figures, if only by a few students.

While the total number of sections offered continues to decline, the number of students taking credit classes this fall seems to have held steady at just over 24,000, the same as last year.

Whether enrollment has held steady or not since last year’s tabulation of roughly 66,000 will become known once enrollment figures for non-credit students become known.

These figures show enrollment

numbers as a stabilization of a downturn that has cost City College some 18 percent of its student body, a loss of roughly 14,000 students and as much as $32 million in state funding.

At roughly $5,000 for each full-time student, the loss of 400 full-time students will cost the school as much as $2 million in state funding.

City College’s budget is currently cushioned against any enrollment drops by the extension of a stabilization fund passed by Sen. Mark Leno

in early 2014.

The stability fund (SB 965) provides three additional years of stabilized funding equal to about $20 million, until the 2017-18 school year.

Unity Illustration, CCSF serves San Francisco for 80 years

Visit 3rd floor of Rosenberg Library to see exhibit

Opinion piece on the cost of education for students

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5

Serving the Majority

In 2014, The U.S. Census Bureau published a report stating the Hispanic demographic in California officially surpassed the caucasian population. Interim Chancellor Susan Lamb said City College has managed to maintain

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incoming Latino enrollment, and looks to push the school to become a Latino-serving institute.

Lamb said a bigger challenge of recruiting students comes down to jurisdiction. City College has seen a significant down turn of Filipino students, a population heavily concentrated just over the San Mateo County line in Daly City.

Demographic Continued on page 3

Last minute call gives Ram’s first win of the season

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2 | THE GUARDSMAN & THEGUARDSMAN.COM | VOL. 160, ISSUE 2, SEPT. 9 - SEPT. 22, 2015

news

Lamb Continued from page 1 contract negotiations won’t be easy.

For herself, Lamb requested an eight percent salary reduction from the previous chancellor’s pay rate.

Those earnings were equal to the chancellor’s salary in 2008.

The Future of ACCJC

Editor-in-Chief Calindra Revier

News Editor

Marco Siler-Gonzales

Photo Editor

Natasha Dangond

Copy Editor

Madeline Collins Michaela Payne Patrick Tamayo

Sports Editor Khaled Sayed

Opinion Editor Patrick Tamayo

Design Director James Fanucchi

Online News Director Ekevara Kitpowsong

Advertising Manager Cara Stucker

Design and Layout Yingbo Qiao

Illustrators

Serina Mercado

Susan Lamb (Photo by Alysia Thompson)

and 2008, Lamb said. With new contract negotiations underway, faculty hopes to recover those wages.

The decrease in pay ultimately reflects the college’s sudden plummet in enrollment, Lamb said, and a loss of about 9,000 full-time students since the accreditation crisis began in 2013.

With fewer students, the state cuts public funding.

In 2014, Sen. Mark Leno passed a stability fund for City College in order to save it from a total budget crash. If the enrollment stays the same, the stability fund will allow City College to lower its budget in manageable increments.

While full-time faculty are working harder to keep classrooms running, and the school is facing substantial budget losses, Lamb said

Multimedia Director Yessica Prado

Social Media Director Patrick Fitzgerald Mayra Sanchez

Staff Writers

Audrey Garces Otto Pippenger Patrick Cochran Cassie Ordonio Margaret Weir Shannon Cole

Staff Photographers Franchon Smith Alysia Thompson Brigid Skiba

Contributor

Patrick Fitzgerald Steven Ho

Faculty Advisor Juan Gonzales

Social Media

@theguardsman #theguardsman facebook.com/theguardsman theguardsmanonline

Online

news@theguardsman.com www.theguardsman.com

Mail:

50 Phelan Ave Box V-67 San Francisco, CA 94112 Bugalow 615

Phone:

(415) 239-3446

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Mural Vandalism Strikes Mission District San Francisco police are on the hunt for the person behind several racially offensive graffiti markings in the Mission district. The term “White Power” has been written or etched upon the face of businesses and murals with latino themes.

At least eight business or murals have been defaced by the slogans.

The vandalized murals add to a string of recent public defacement of prominent minority paintings in the city. An LGBT mural outside the Galeria de La Raza Cultural center was vandalized on three separate occasions in June. The third vandalism resulted in an arson attack.

“This is extremely dangerous, this is beyond just vandalism now, this is putting people’s lives in danger,” Officer Albie Esparza told the Examiner.

Witnesses described the arsonist to Police as a man with a cloth over his face, black pants, black sweatshirt and white shoes. The arsonist reportedly ran southbound on Bryant st toward 25th street after setting the mural on fire.

On the corner of 24th and Bryant, the mural depicts gay, lesbian and transgender Latinos. the mural had elicited homophobic responses on social media when it was unveiled in early June.

The Mission is not the only place Racially charged vandalism has appeared in the past month.

Vandals broke into St Paul’s Tabernacle church on Oakdale ave in August, spray painting racial slurs and bleaching the pews.

The intruders reportedly

A state task force has now insisted another accreditor replace the current accrediting commission, but Lamb does not see this as a sure fix.

For Lamb, all accreditors have standards, and a school hinges upon the college’s and accreditors’ ability to work together in a “collegiate fashion.”

What Lamb wishes to see in the next few years is an accreditor who will work with the school effectively, whether that’s the current commission or another accrediting agency.

Lamb’s Future

Lamb’s interim contract ends June 5, 2017. She is interested in the chancellor position.

Her candidacy rests on whether she and Board of Trustees feels she has been effective chancellor after filling the role for two years.

“I truly love this college. I don’t say that lightly,” Lamb said. “City College has made a profound impact on me. I want to do right by it and see it be the best that it can be.”

ACCJC Continued from page 1 A Brief History

The current accrediting commission has greatly criticized City College, but the commission itself has been facing backlash over the last couple years.

In 2014, the California State Auditor’s Office released a statement that outlined the commission’s lack of transparency, an inconsistent treatment of colleges and an unusually high sanction rate.

“Community college students throughout the state should not have to suffer the same uncertainty our own City College students had to endure for more than two years,” Mayor Ed Lee said.

In the People v. ACCJC earlier this year, Judge Karnow of the San Francisco Superior Court found the accrediting commission exhibited “significant unlawful practices” and broke four laws in its pursuit to dis-

credit City College.

“San Franciscans deserve nothing less than a fully accredited and thriving City College – so our residents have access to critical education and workforce training to compete and succeed in the 21st century economy,” Board of Trustees member Alex Randolph said. “It is time to put our students first.”

Possibilities on the Horizon

The task force recommends replacing the accrediting commission with the WASC Senior College and University Commission, which oversees accreditation for four-year universities in California. However, this turnover could take years for the U.S. Department of Education to sort out, leaving City College vulnerable to losing accreditation next fall.

“Community college students throughout the state should not have to suffer the same uncertainty our own City College students had to endure for more than two years,” Mayor Ed Lee said in an official statement on Aug. 28. “We know City College is critically important to our City’s future.”

@mijo_marco

College Briefs scrawled “666” along the enclosed windows, and shattered two large mirrors. Since nothing was stolen, church deacon Marvin Osborne believes the intrusion was a hate crime.

Contest Targets College Students

NBCUniversal and Comcast XFINITY are teaming up this fall to make give one College a guest lecture from Saturday Night Live veteran cast member, Kenan

Thompson.

City College students can complete a simple online form to vote for Thompson to come to the school. Students can vote now until September 28. The winning school will be announced on the 28.

Students who vote on the site can also participate in other tasks such as an online quiz or short video.

For every task completed, students will earn additional entries to attend the guest lecture. The school with the most votes will have Thompson

perform in their college town.

Thompson is returning to his 13th season of Saturday Night Live, and has starred in movies such as “Fat Albert”, “Good Burger” and “Heavyweights”. Thompson got his start on the Nickelodeon sketch series, “Kenan and Kel” If interested, go to http://www. xfinityprofessors.com/ and help City College win a guest performance by Kenan Thompson.

THE GUARDSMAN & THEGUARDSMAN.COM | VOL. 160, ISSUE 2, SEPT. 9 - SEPT. 22, 2015 | 3

Demographic Continued from page 1 Although it is a convenient commute from Daly City to City College, Lamb said the school is not allowed to advertise enrollment opportunity across district lines.

Who’s Missing

In a demographics report from the California Chancellor’s Office, City College enrollment for Latino students decreased by 14 percent , Asian-Americans are down 21 percent, Africans-Americans are down 21 percent, Pacific Islanders are down 32 percent and Filipinos are down 34 percent from 2009 to 2014.

“We’re working on partnerships with San Francisco Unified, and we are trying to find new ways to bring people from diverse communities to the college, but this is a really hard time for the college to be dealing with this problem.”

In the City College Colloquy at April 24, Director of Research Rick Fillman presented data examining new arrivals (student’s first time at City College) of credit students by ethnicity from 2000-2015.

Data shows that white and Asian students make up the biggest drop for new arrivals, while newly arrived Latino students have stabilized in the past year.

A Few Corrections:

Fillman’s data (from 20122014) reveals the decreasing number of students from the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) attending City College after high school almost parallels the rising percentage of students not enrolling in school at all.

City College employed Interact last spring, a marketing company contracted to advertise student enrollment over the summer and into the fall semester. The marketing team found that most of the public, due to misleading commercial press, thought City College was already in the process of closing down when the accreditation crisis first began.

Due partly to misinformation of the school’s accreditation status, the Diversity Collaborative believes the pattern of decreasing enrollment of high school students at City College, and the increasing numbers of high school graduates who don’t enroll in college at all, are low income and public transportation-dependent.

They conclude many of the least mobile students are shut out.

“At the moment in the college’s history we are confronted with multiple challenges,” Board of Trustees President Rafael Mandelman said.

“We’re working on partnerships with San Francisco Unified, and we are trying to find new ways to bring people from diverse communities to the college, but this is a really hard time for the college to be dealing with this problem.”

The official enrollment numbers for the fall 2015 semester have not yet been released. The research department told The Guardsman these figures should be available next week.

news

1. The mural story on page 6, of issue 1 volume 160, it was stated that the mural in the Mission District of San Francisco was for Juan Gonzales, it in fact was created to pay tribute to many community leaders.

2. The headline titled ‘Inmates Learn from Behind Bars’ was not meant as a threat and due to an upset student (refer to letter to the editor on Opinion page 7) we will be changing the title on our website Theguardsman.com.

3. Due to a layout oversight Marco Silver-Gonzales and Patrick Fitzgerald were both labled as ‘The Opinion Editor’, this is incorrect. Patrick Tamayo is the Opinion Editor, Patrick Fitzgerald is one of our Social Media Directors and Marco Silver-Gonzales is our News Editor.

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SFUSD

SEPT. 9 - SEPT. 22 Mon-Fri/Until Sept. 12 Barbie Photography Exhibit The photography exhibit “Barbie” by Suzanne Notario will be on display at Gallery Obscura, located in the Visual Arts Building until September 12.

Sun/Sept. 13 Off the Grid Picnic Join Off the Grid at the Main Post Lawn for food trucks and a picnic. The event features free bocce ball, as well as children’s and adult’s yoga. There will be a multitude of vendors, and entry is free. Open 11-4.

Tues/Sept. 15 Congressperson Jackie Speier Speaks From 4-7 p.m. in room 140 of the MU building Jackie Speier will discuss disability claims and how people deal with and handle them. She will be accompanied by several of her aides.

WANT YOUR NEXT EVENT IN THE CALENDAR? EMAIL THE NAME, DATE, TIME, LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION

Thurs/Sept. 17- Oct. 19 Faces of Hope Exhibition Jessica Lifland brings her pictures to the Front Page Gallery, in bungalow 615 below the Ram’s Stadium. The opening reception will be from 6:30-9:30. 100% of the net proceeds from each sale will be donated to the CCSF journalism department.

Sat/Sept. 19 SF Public Library Big Book Sale CCSF students are encouraged to volunteer at this event.

Volunteers will receive gift cards, free drinks, and snacks during the sale, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2:30 at the Herbst Pavilion, Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd.

Fri/Sept. 25 FSP Fourth Friday Forum Discuss the US Supreme Court lawsuit Friedrichs v. California in a public forum at 747 Folk St. Doors open at 6:30, and it’s $3 to get in and $6 for a snack plate. If you

OF YOUR EVENT TO CREVIER@THEGUARDSMAN.COM

need childcare services, please call 415-864-1278 two days in advance.

Wed/Oct. 8 CCSF 28th Annual College Fair Representatives from colleges and universities will be in the Smith Hall Cafeteria on Ocean Campus. 9 AM to 1 PM.

Fri/Sept. 25 FSP Fourth Friday Forum Discuss the US Supreme Court lawsuit Friedrichs v. California in a public forum at 747 Folk St. Doors open at 6:30, and it’s $3 to get in and $6 for a snack plate. If you need childcare services, please call 415-864-1278 two days in advance.

4 | THE GUARDSMAN & THEGUARDSMAN.COM |VOL. 160, ISSUE 2, SEPT. 9 - SEPT. 22, 2015

culture

THE GUARDSMAN & THEGUARDSMAN.COM | VOL. 160, ISSUE 2, SEPT. 9 - SEPT. 22, 2015 | 5

culture

Happy 80th Anniversary Guardsman CELEBRATION

By Mary Strope mstrope@theguardsman.com CONTRIBUTOR

Running through February 2016, a new exhibit at City College’s Rosenberg Library commemorates the school and its stories as told through award-winning newspaper The Guardsman.

“Celebrating 80 Years: City College is Still Your College” features narratives and ephemera from the Guardsman archives - starting in 1935, the year it was founded.

“I love the way the college is constantly being reinvented by the students, faculty and staff,” reference librarian Kate Connell, who curates many of the Rosenberg’s exhibitions, said. “Looking back over its history, I’m intrigued by all the mechanisms to make the college more inclusive.”

Originally titled Emanon, “no name” spelled backwards, the paper switched to The Guardsman after only a few issues.

Early editions focused on campus life including dances, sports, elections and community events and the never-ending campus cigarette smoking debate.

But the paper’s history also reflects City College’s unique niché as an urban community college located in one of the country’s most diverse cities.

Ruth Kay, whose family fled Nazi Germany during World War II, shares her story, while a headline from the same page ruminates on “The superiority of Negro street car conductors” under a cartoon of Adolph Hitler.

The push for a centralized campus for the “trolley car college” became a major theme in the paper’s

early days before the construction of the landmark science building in 1940.

“We got plenty of nothing,” complains a 1937 article on the farflung City College locations of the time.

The school’s mission of inclusivity and job training are echoed throughout its pages.

Post World War II, married veterans lived in on-campus Quonset huts built under the GI Bill.

“The Guardsman is really the prime source of reporting for the college, both on student matters and on governance. Without it there would be little narrative of the college past, certainly not with the level and breadth of coverage that The Guardsman has given us,” Kox said.

“The opportunities that the GI Bill brought slightly obscure smaller steps to ensure access for women and minorities, or the importance of the college in broader society,” Christopher Kox said, who serves as interim associate dean in the library department and runs the archives.

Retired Guardsman title letter press metal stamp in The Guardsman Newspaper archives at Rosenberg Library building on Ocean Campus. Monday, April 20, 2015. (Photo by Otto Pippenger/ The Guardsman)

“You will see that, in reading between the lines of the paper, and in the remarkable cast of characters studying or employed at City College of the decade following the war,” Kox said.

One 1977 headline proclaims “Transexuality is a reality.” The article profiles a transgender sex worker and City College student, and includes quotes from a registrar assuring students that sex had no bearing on admissions.

In 1968, The Associated Students Council founded an alternative paper, The Free Critic.

Pages of the student-run weekly featured news articles, poems, photography and art ruminating on war, labor and racism. From La Raza Unida to the Women’s Resource Center to the Black Student’s Union, the Critic featured groups that still play major roles at City College.

Hua Sheng, or China Voice, was a feature written in Chinese and published weekly in The Free Critic under the name Han for English speakers.

The handwritten section was Connell’s favorite find when researching for the exhibit.

“It was the first publication sponsored and supported by the Chinese Students of the Bay Area,” library technician Dana Kwan, paraphrasing a Han article said. “Despite initial opposition to printing a feature in Chinese, it was published thanks to the support of the Associated Students and Chinese students at CCSF.” Today, The Guardsman has expanded its scope under journalism department chair Juan Gonzales, publisher of the Mission District’s long-running neighborhood newspaper El Tecolote, to include community issues, a website, social media and color photos.

When it comes to issues like the fight for City College’s accreditation, The Guardsman provides in-depth coverage and has been long before major papers like The San Francisco Chronicle did.

“The Guardsman is really the prime source of reporting for the college, both on student matters and on governance. Without it, there would be little narrative of the college past, certainly not with the level and breadth of coverage that The

Guardsman has given us,” Kox said.

The newspaper continually takes top honors at the Journalism Association of Community Colleges regional and state conventions, and regularly wins general excellence honors each semester.

After 80 years, and many shifts in the media world, The Guardsman still tells the story of a changing institution.

“The last 50 years have been about transition in media -- radio, TV, internet, “ Kox said. “But at the end of the day, it’s all about the story.”

“Celebrating 80 Years: City College is Still Your College” will run on the 3rd floor of CCSF’s Rosenberg Library through Feb 4, 2016.

For more on the exhibition, see the library’s exhibit blog at www.ccsfexhib.wordpress.com For more information on The Guardsman and the CCSF journalism department. Contact Juan Gonzales at (415) 239-3447 or learn more at facebook.com/citycollegeofsanfranciscojournalism

An exhibit celebrating 80 years of City College, curated by the CCSF Journalism Dept. and the CCSF Library Archives, is currently up on display in the City College Ocean Campus library, May 28, 2015. (Photo by Natasha Dangond)

6 | THE GUARDSMAN & THEGUARDSMAN.COM | VOL. 160, ISSUE 2, SEPT. 9 - SEPT. 22, 2015

opinion

Is Getting a College Education a Right or a Privilege?

College is becoming more expensive for students

By Audrey Garces agarces@theguardsman.com STAFF WRITER

In recent years, the question of college education being a right or a privilege has risen to the surface as one of America’s predominant hot button issues.

California’s UC school system has pushed their tuition hikes back to 2018 after student protests shut down classes, meanwhile President Obama has faced backlash from members of both party lines after proposing an initiative for two free years of community college for students, called America’s College Promise.

As a student, the repercussions of the rising cost to attend college can be seen through numerous friends who fear facing crippling debt post graduation, or who can not rake up enough money to attend the college of their dreams, even though they received the acceptance letter.

While many continue to ask if a college education is a right or a privilege, it remains unbeknownst to them that this is a question that has already been answered for American students.

As of right now, the cost of obtaining a postsecondary education causes college to be a privilege

in this country, but should indefinitely and morally be granted as a right.

The question remains: should getting a college education be a right or a privilege?

By investigating the clear facts of average tuition costs as well as the proliferating student debt crisis, the logical response is that a country should invest in its students’ education as an investment in the future of their workforce and society as a whole.

“The statistics show the negative relationship between rising tuition costs and a stagnant federal minimum wage.”

Thirty­-six years ago, a student would need to work 182 hours at minimum wage to pay off a year’s worth of in­-state tuition at a fouryear university. In 2013, a student would need to work 991 hours at minimum wage in order to do the same, according to the National

Center for Education Statistics.

These statistics show the negative relationship between rising tuition costs and a stagnant federal minimum wage.

The National Center for Education Statistics also found that the average cost to attend a fouryear college in 2013-­2014 totaled $29,408 per year.

Unless a student is fortunate enough that their family can pay out of pocket, they will inevitably face enormous debt and added financial stress to their life, when they should be able to solely focus on their education rather than worrying about how they will pay it off.

A student simply working their way through college is now unheard of, as tuition has gotten 12 times more expensive in just this last generation.

Students who want a postsecondary education but cannot afford to pay for one are highly disadvantaged and are forced to consider less expensive options, such as community college or entering the workforce straight out of high school.

As a country, we must ask ourselves if we feel the financial pressure that is put on our students is morally acceptable.

Rather than simply examining the current state of college education being a privilege on an

economic basis, Americans should morally consider the direct opposition this system operates against the idea of the “American Dream.”

The fact of the matter is, there are students who work hard in high school, achieve good grades and test scores, yet can not afford to attend a four-year university.

PennAHEAD and the Pell Institute found that students from rich families (who make $108,650 or more per year) are eight times more likely to graduate college than a student from a poor family (who makes less than $34,160 per year).

Those who believe education should remain a privilege argue that students from less financially fortunate families can take out loans or choose a less expensive postsecondary school.

But is it fair that a student from a poor family be given less of an opportunity than someone else with the same GPA and test scores whom happens to be born into a wealthier family?

The negative consequences of the price of postsecondary education will assuredly affect the future of our workforce, government, technological advances and increasing incarceration rates by not allowing the same educational opportunities to anyone who is willing to apply themselves in school, no matter

what their financial status is.

Luckily, recent news headlines shine a glimmer of hope upon the path of college education becoming a right to students in America. President Obama’s proposed initiative America’s College Promise would make obtaining two years of college free and universal to students, as long as they maintain a 2.5 GPA. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been pitching his College For All solution at rallies, which would use a small tax applied to Wall Street transactions to allow four-year public universities to be free for students.

Sanders has surged in popularity, especially among students, and is gaining on­, or in several cases, outright ahead of ­Democratic front­-runner Hillary Clinton in national polls.

Students and families alike have spoken out: college education in America is treated as a privilege, but should be considered a right. A hardworking and eager student should not be setback or discouraged because of their family’s financial status, and politicians and our educational system need to work together in order to fix this issue for the sake of America’s future.

THE GUARDSMAN & THEGUARDSMAN.COM | VOL. 160, ISSUE 2, SEPT. 9 - SEPT. 22, 2015 | 7

Column

A Grain of Salt...

The Point of No Return

By Patrick Tamayo ptamayo@theguardsman.com OPINION EDITOR

We’ve become an offended society. Everything offends us. It makes little difference what it is, but the one thing that is certain is that someone will be offended by it.

We’re setting ourselves up for failure as we continue to be outraged by whatever the mainstream news decides to shove down our throats this week.

It was just a few weeks ago when all the lions were saved after the killing of a lion in Africa. Who cares that animals, not only lions, are killed every single day?

It makes little difference that illegal poaching is an epidemic, but one lion with a person’s name is killed and out of nowhere, suddenly everyone has time to put down their pumpkin lattes to be outraged by the killing.

No one is outraged when a kid is caught in the crossfire of gangbangers, but are quick to get up in arms in the death of an animal halfway across the world. With all the problems in Africa, this is the one we choose to be offended by.

We’ve reached the point of no return.

You could post a picture of a flowerbed and someone will be offended that you planted daffodils instead of sunflowers.

There is no turning back, we’ve become an offended world and thanks to the Internet we all now have a platform to prove how outraged we are.

Gay Marriage

Why we’re still debating gay marriage is beyond me.

The fact that two people of the same sex are still being hassled over wanting to be together forever is mind numbing.

It shows the archaic way of thinking that exists around us.

Feel however you want about gay marriage, but when the reasoning behind your feelings is that an invisible entity that lives in the sky says it’s wrong your argument is invalid.

Pointing out that a book with fictitious tales also says gay marriage is wrong does little to sway your argument.

As of press time, a county clerk in Kentucky is still in jail for contempt of court after refusing to sign off on gay marriage licenses.

Her reasoning, yeah you guessed it, her religious beliefs.

People were quick to be offended that the clerk was incarcerated for

her point of view, but in hindsight she’s in jail for refusing to follow a court order, not because her God tells her same sex marriage is bad.

Who cares about the whole separation of church and state, but when a person’s beliefs, mythical or not, start to intrude on the lives of others, something definitely needs to be addressed.

On top of all of the jailed clerk’s rhetoric, she is now refusing to be incarcerated in an all-female prison in the event she is transferred due to the women’s prisons being “filled with clans of dangerous lesbians who engage in lesbian sex all day long.”

Surely, that doesn’t go on all day long.

It’s one thing to believe in whatever you want, but once it affects the lives of others is when things get sketchy.

opinion

Letter to the Editor: Hello to our City College of San Francisco community, please write us and let us know what you think. Have story ideas? Want to express an opinion? Please contact us! We encourage it and want to hear from you!

Email us at crevier@theguardsman.com

Why Care Now?

Over the past week we’ve been bombarded by photographs of a child who allegedly drowned after a boat he was on capsized while fleeing war-torn Syria.

Of course, a dead child is an awful thing. But why does anyone care now? Why does the media choose this tragedy to report on?

If we’re now in the business of showing graphic photos of dead kids, why not show the photographs of the kids that are killed during friendly drone strikes?

The world is filled with war, and lives are being lost daily.

Hundreds of thousands are displaced worldwide because of war but we aren’t showing those pictures and they’re barely, if at all, reported on.

Have a mediocre entertainer say he’s running for president, though, and every news outlet will be reporting on it for weeks.

The dead child in question, however, just happens to coincide with the company line that Syria is bad and maybe, just maybe, they should be “liberated.”

In Conclusion

Believe what you want, that is our right, but when your beliefs impose on the lives of others be prepared to be called on your nonsense.

With all the misery, tragedy and despair around us don’t let the media determine what you get offended by.

In a culture that awards participation trophies, we will never have a shortage of things to be offended by.

@Patrick Tamayo3

Letter to the Editor: Dear Marco Siler-Gonzales

I am a returning student to CCSF. I have just recently been aware that there is a school newspaper. The most recent article you wrote for The Guardsman caught my attention. I noticed the title is written out in bold, “Inmates Learn From Behind Bars.” Though I have only skimmed the article, I understand that there are a few students who might read this as well and find a bit of humor from it. However, my voice is not in reciprocating the humor, but rather to bring to your attention that there are also a great deal of students who might find this article offensive.

By using these words alone in your title, I was not only unable to complete the article, but had also felt no need to continue reading the paper all together. I am one of many students. Your title alone will adjust the initiative of curiosity to turn from your paper. Perhaps if you had fulfilled these words less as dramatically, if these words were never used under the context of humor amongst those who find authority challenging. Maybe, had you known to think that sensibly this article sounds more like a threat by its title. Let me speak clearly, the word “inmate” seems already dramatic enough. “Learn” can imply many kinds of ways one might interpret or define education or even discipline, which in a traumatic sense could lead some people to think of violent discipline. By combining the words inmate and learn in a title that is meant to convey the initiative of education in a prison or jail setting, you have rather denominated the ornate idea of such a principle to become understood. As a student who notices her peers, I advise you to retract the title to this article, “Inmates Learn From Behind Bars.”

Thank you.

Holly B. Montgomery

8 | THE GUARDSMAN & THEGUARDSMAN.COM | VOL. 160, ISSUE 2, SEPT. 9 - SEPT. 22, 2015

sports

Football

Bold Call Gives Collins First Victory as Rams Head Coach Rams Defeat Sierra College

By Patrick Cochran

pcochran@theguardsman.com STAFF WRITER

sports calendar FOOTBALL

Sept. 19, 6 p.m. vs. Fresno College @ Fresno College Sept. 26, 1 p.m. vs. American River College @ CCSF

MENS SOCCER

Sept. 13, 1 p.m vs. Cosumnes River College @ Cosumnes River College Sept. 18, 4 p.m. vs. Santa Rosa College @ Santa Rosa College Sept. 22, 4 p.m. vs. Contra Costa College @ CCSF

WOMENS SOCCER

Sept. 15, 4 p.m. vs. Cosumnes River College @ CCSF Sept. 22, 4 p.m. vs. Canada College @ Canada College Sept. 25, 4 p.m. vs. Monterey @ CCSF

It was the gutsiest of calls. Rams quarterback Anthony Gordon had just capped off a 67-yard drive with a 9-yard touchdown pass to stellar wide receiver Easop Winston.

An extra point would tie the game against Sierra at 24 and send it into overtime, and at first that seemed to be new head coach Jimmy Collins’ plan. The special teams unit was at the line, ready to snap the ball, when opportunity presented itself.

Flustered by the count, Sierra College went offside, flags flew and the Rams were awarded half the distance to the goal line. Now with his team less than two yards from the end zone, Collins knew what he had to do.

To the pleasure of the crowd, the Rams went for two. The pressure was immense, and Sierra only upped the ante when they called a timeout. Given the chance to change his mind and try to tie the game with a kick, Collins stuck to his instincts.

The Rams lined up with sophomore running back Elijah Dale in the backfield, and snapped the ball.

Gordon handed it off to Dale, who dived toward the right side of his offensive line.

Blowing past the line of scrimmage, Dale was hit by a Sierra defender a half yard in front of the goal line. A battle ensued, with the defender putting all his might to try to wrestle Dale down, but that wasn’t going to happen.

Furiously chopping his feet and driving his shoulder into the defender, making him stand up, Dale forced his way into the end zone. The refs signaled that the twopoint conversion was good, and the Rams and their fans went wild.

With only 35 seconds left, Sierra didn’t have enough time to march down the field for a field goal or touchdown, giving the Rams an exciting 25-24 win for their season opener on a hot, sweaty day in the Central Valley.

“Give it to the best (junior college) running back in the country, Elijah Dale, behind three All-American linemen — it was a no brainer,” a jubilant coach Collins said after the game. “I am still at a loss of words. As a team we battled through adversity and early season mistakes, but we stuck together and won this game.”

Turnovers, penalties and an anemic offense plagued the Rams for the first 55 minutes. Fumbles on both kick and punt returns enabled Sierra to lead almost the entire game, and an offense that seemed reminiscent of the Alex Smith-led 49ers, with almost no downfield passing game, but in the last five minutes all of that changed.

“We made mistakes, but we kept fighting,” sophomore wideout Antoine Porter said.

Starting in his first game at quarterback for the Rams, freshman Gordon could not get into a rhythm for most of the game. The

Quarterback Anthony Gordon setting up for a forward pass. Sierra College, Sept 5. (Photo by Peter Wong)

only passes he seemed to complete were short ones, with no luck on deep passes.

With five minutes left, things finally clicked for Gordon, who led his team on a seven-play, 85 yard drive, capped off with a home run deep pass to standout wide receiver Winston.

“They are a tough team, and always give us a good game,” Collins said. “But we showed today we can battle adversity and our team will be ready.”

Torching the cornerback covering him, Winston flew down the field catching Gordon’s ball to take it to the end zone. A two-point conversion put the Rams within in one touchdown of tying the game.

The Rams immediately followed with an onside kick, but Sierra recovered it. All Sierra had to do was hold on to the ball, get a couple first downs and let the clock run out, but the Rams’ defense stepped up and forced Sierra to punt.

With the ball at their own 33-yard line with a 1:44 left on the clock, Gordon and the rest of the offense stepped up their game and drove down the field, getting the touchdown and the two-point conversion for the win.

“We were so confident on the two points,” Porter said. “At halftime we had called it, and we knew we could do it.”

Gordon certainly proved his worth with the late-game heroics, and despite the slow start had a good day passing the ball with 306 yards, three touchdowns and only one interception.

“In the beginning I got hit a couple times hard, but got my feet wet and learned what it’s like to get hit at the college level,” Gordon said.

“We were playing from behind and had nothing to lose, so we went balls to the wall and it paid off. The offen-

sive line kept me on my feet. They got us into the end zone on that two-point conversion. The defense played great even after being on the field all day long.”

The star of the game, though, was freshman wideout Winston.

Dominating the Sierra secondary all afternoon, Winston ended the game with 12 catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns, both of which came in the last five minutes. If Gordon and Winston can continue playing together the way they did in the last minutes of the game, the Rams will have an explosive passing offense.

The Rams hope that the exciting finish carries over to the next game against cross-bay rival Laney College of Oakland on Sept. 12.

“They are a tough team, and always give us a good game,” Collins said. “But we showed today we can battle adversity, and our team will be ready.”

@SerPatofPortola

Coach Jimmy Collins addressing the team. Sierra College, Sept 5. (Photo by Peter Wong)