The Guardsman, Vol. 172, Issue 3, City College of San Francisco

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Vol. 172, Issue 3 | Sep. 13 –  Sep. 22 | City College of San Francisco | Since 1935 | FREE | www.theguardsman.com

Autumn Moon Festival Entices Crowds Back to Chinatown By Emily Margaretten margarettene@gmail.com After a year’s hiatus, the Autumn Moon Festival in Chinatown brought out crowds of people to Grant Avenue during the weekend of Sept. 11-12, offering hope to local businesses and performers who have struggled to rebound from the economic losses of the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival, which is sponsored by the San Francisco Chinatown Merchant Association, took on particular significance this year as dignitaries like Mayor

London Breed, Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safai, and Assembly member David Chiu used the occasion to highlight the festival’s cultural traditions while underscoring the realities of the pandemic, which has made the past 16 months especially difficult for Chinatown’s community. Breed addressed these struggles in her opening remarks at the festival, noting that “Chinatown bore the brunt of the challenges of the pandemic,” referring not only to economic hardships but also to the heightened xenophobia

and violence that people of Asian closely shared living quarters, and Pacific Islander descent have “Chinatown,” Peskin proudly experienced during the pandemic. announced, “had the lowest transmission rate in the county and city. It’s the cleanest, safest, and health“Chinatown bore the iest place,” he continued, “that’s the bounty.” brunt of the challenges While dignitaries described Chinatown as the heart of San of the pandemic.” Francisco’s economic recovery, local business owners offered a more cautious outlook. When Peskin meanwhile drew atten- asked if he was the owner of the tion to the resiliency of Chinatown legendary Eastern Bakery, which and its successes mitigating was the first bakery to open in the COVID-19 crisis. Despite Chinatown in 1924, Orlando Kuhn

wryly replied, “Unfortunately, yes, although maybe not for long.” The pandemic, he explained, scared people away, and his business had not fully recovered. Similarly, Kevin Chan, 52, owner of the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, noted that sales were low because international visitors had not returned with the easing of pandemic restrictions. He pointed to the store’s entryway where footprints were impressed in the concrete from 59 years of constant use. He wondered when Autumn Moon continues on pg 6

Autumn Moon continues on page 4

Youth Performers at the Autumn Moon Festival in San Francisco's Chinatown on Sept. 11. Photograph by Onyx Hunter/The Guardsman.

Surge of Fake Applications Creates Headache for Community Colleges By Julie Zigoris jzigoris@mail.ccsf.edu A surge of suspicious applications has flooded the California Community College system, with up to 65,000 fraudulent applications statewide from 77 countries, according to a Board of Trustees presentation at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton.

The extent of the fraud suggests that City College may be vulnerable, though administrators did not respond to numerous requests about the problem. The issue has overwhelmed instructors and administrators and, in some cases, kept real-life students from being able to enroll in courses. For Tara Cuslidge-

Staiano, a journalism professor at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, the situation was overwhelming. Her “Writing for Digital Media” course inflated to 85 students — then went down to just 14 after rooting out the bots. Cuslidge-Staiano first became suspicious when she noticed a surge in registration all

at once. “Typically enrollment is a random pattern,” she noted, but this summer she had a wave of students register at once, with the highest number on August 11. “We constantly monitor our rosters,” she said. Other suspicious activity included students with all-capitalized names,no course history, and

Lowriders Celebrate Forty Years

Rams Dominate 45-0

Culture - pg 5

Sports - pg 8

who enrolled in classes that didn’t align with a guided pathway. Unlike at other campuses, the “ghost students” in Cuslidge-Staiano’s courses participated in course discussions, albeit with bizarre statements like “I’m doing this for my distant near future self.” Her colleague Adriana Brogger noticed Surge of Fake continues on pg 3


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